Jonathan Lethem's new novel is "Chronic City." The book has been described as a cross between the famous borough-centric New Yorker cartoon and the darkest episode of "Seinfeld."
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Michael Pollan tells Judith Strasser where the American front lawn came from, and what it has come to symbolize.
John Portmann contributed to and edited the collection of essays, “In Defense of Sin.” He tells Steve Paulson why, as a child, he loved going to confession.
Would you prefer to die in your sleep? Turns out, more people who weighed in on our three deaths question chose that option. Many of the people who shared their choices also took the time to write about why they were making their choice. You can read a selection of their responses here, and get some analysis of who wrote and - perhaps - why.
Julian Barnes' novel "The Sense of an Ending" won the 2011 Man Booker Prize. Barnes talks with Steve Paulson about the complications of memory, aging and moral reckoning.
Feminist film critic Molly Haskell talks about how Hollywood has treated the subject of writer’s block, and we hear clips from “Adaptation” and “Barton Fink.”
What would make Christianity more vital in the 21st century? Theologian Hal Taussig says one answer is "A New New Testament," which combines Gnostic gospels with the traditional New Testament scriptures - all within the same book.
Nobody writes a dystopia quite the way Margaret Atwood does. In this EXTENDED conversation about MaddAddam - and a whole lot more - Atwood talks about utopia and dystopia, and the inherent optimism of all authors.
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