Writer Stephen Kuusisto is blind and he says that among the many advantages —he gets eavesdrop on the rest of us, because most of the time, we don’t even notice he’s listening.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Tyler Cowen tells Jim Fleming he has no problem with movie stars recommending political candidates, and that many celebrities use their clout to support charities or advance social causes.
Stephen Greenblatt tells Steve Paulson he thinks Shakespeare’s father was a drunk, leaving Will with complex feelings about alcohol.
Why do we have such an appetite for adventure? And why do many artists seem to spend so much time on the road? Those questions inspired philosopher Alain de Botton's book called "The Art of Travel."
Celebrated jazz pianist Vijay Iyer has a Ph.D in music cognition and a penchant for asking big questions - like, what is music? And what does it do for us? Steve Paulson caught up with Vijay backstage before a recent concert, where they talked about improvisation and the parallels between jazz and basketball.
There may be as many opinions about selfies as there are Twitter handles. Are they self-empowerment, or narcissism? Are they just personal branding? Or can they be art? Writer and critic Sarah Nicole Prickett came in to give us a primer.
According to self-described "space dork" Andy Weir, he was just sitting around at home one day imagining a manned Mars mission — not with any goal in mind, but just as a thought experiment. Soon, he realized this would be a pretty good premise for a story. And boy was he right. His novel "The Martian" started as a series of blog posts and has become a blockbuster motion picture. In this interview, he reads excerpts from the novel and discusses the balance between pure fantasty and scientific accuracy in science fiction.
Rosalind Wiseman and Rachael Simmons say that girls’ popularity with other girls is influenced by the politics of the social pecking order and that the effects of being ostracized can be devastating.
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