With the Carolina Panthers facing off against the Denver Broncos in Superbowl 50, football is on our minds this week. And for many of the millions of fans who tune in every Sunday to watch their favorite teams compete, football is little more than a weekly ritual. For English professor Mark Edmundson, the football field is a staging ground for some of life's most important lessons. In his book "Why Football Matters," Edmundson looks back to his own high school years playing the sport and reflects on how it taught him courage, resilience, determination, and other values he'd draw on as an adult.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Toni Morrison may be a Nobel Laureate, but she still gets labeled a “Black woman writer.” She talks about her childhood and how the Civil Rights Movement magnified class differences.
Salman Rushdie lives in New York. The day before the terrorist attack, he talked with Steve Paulson about his new book, “Fury.”
Yale Strom talks with Steve Paulson about the klezmer revival, particularly in Poland, and what it means when this culture is re-created by non-Jews.
Reporter Scott Wallace joined Brazilian explorer Sidney Posseulo on an expedition deep into the Amazon in search of one of the last uncontacted tribes, the Arrow People.
What does the growing popularity of podcasts mean for public radio? Are they competition? Inspiration? For insight, we turned to one content director who's also launched a few podcasts.
In her new novella, "Sleep Donation," Karen Russell mentions a documentary called "Is Sleep Going Extinct?" That got us wondering what this fictional documentary would sound like. Chances are it would NOT sound anything like this.
Before the Internet, a good memory wasn't just useful; it was prized as a sign of intelligence. And there were memory geniuses who developed mental tricks for storing information. Philosopher and novelist Simon Critchley delves into the fascinating history of the memory palace, which once promised almost God-like wisdom.
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