The most popular baby names in the US last year were Noah and Emma. We know that because 20 years ago, Michael Shackleford wrote a computer program to track the annual popularity of baby names. Expectant parents everywhere should thank him.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
The first stories in "Thousand and One Nights" were written down in the ninth century. They’ve been added to over the years. In some ways, it’s not so much a book as a living river of stories. Some of the most recent additions come from the celebrated novelist Salman Rushdie.
You can also hear many more interviews with Rushdie.
Stephen Asma teaches philosophy at Columbia College in Chicago. He talks to Anne Strainchamps about his book "On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears."
William Gibson talks about his first collection of nonfiction, "Distrust That Particular Flavor."
Steve Paulson produced this essay/report on the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges.
Athlete and fashion model Aimee Mullins, owner of more than a dozen pairs of the most fabulous prosthetic legs you can imagine. Her superpowers.
For photos of Aimee Mullins CLICK HERE.
Novelist T. Coraghessan Boyle talks with Jim Fleming about his latest. “Drop City” is set in a California commune in the 1970s, and concerns the activities at one of America’s many private little Utopias.
Are political beliefs predetermined at birth? Encoded in our genes? Political scientist John Hibbing does fMRI studies of liberal and conserative brains and says there are significant biological differences. His message: stop yelling at the other party. They can't help what they think.
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