Anne Strainchamps sat down with the great Turkish writer Elif Shafak. Her latest novel, “The Architect’s Apprentice,” is an epic tale set in the height of the Ottoman Empire. It has bloodshed. It was palace intrigue. It has romance. And, yes, it has architecture.
Shafak’s tale centers around a 16th century mosque architect named Mimar Sinan. Though a character in her novel, Sinan was also a real person – considered to be the greatest architect in the Islamic World.
Steve Almond tells Steve Paulson how his evolution as a writer began with a teenage obsession with Kurt Vonnegut. Though he hid that passion for years, he revealed it recently in his book "Not That You Asked."
Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi explores one of the Cold War's most controversial figures in her book "The Worlds of Herman Kahn: The Intuitive science of Thermonuclear War."
One of the many utopian groups that started during the late 19th century and early 20th century was the House of David—perhaps the first cult to become a pop culture sensation. Their compound in Benton Harbon, Michigan had an amusement park and a zoo; they had a baseball team that once played an exhibition game against Babe Ruth and the Yankees, and they had bands—highly regarded, touring bands. Here's Henry Sapoznik—the director of the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture here at the University of Wisconsin—on the mythology and music of the House of David.
Polar science becomes art in the hands of novelist Lucy Jane Bledsoe ("Big Bang Symphony") and musician Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky). Here are some of their impressions of the continent they can't forget.
Filmmaker Werner Herzog is obsessive about many things, including walking. Listen to find out why Werner walks.
First Amendment lawyer Ron Collins talks with Steve Paulson about the renegade comedian and junkie Lenny Bruce who was repeatedly arrested for obscenity.
Tariq Ali is a historian, activist and writer. He talks with Steve Paulson about the history of the Ottoman empire, and the Islamic clergy’s rejection of modernism.
