British novelist Jim Crace is an atheist. He doesn't believe in an afterlife, and tells Jim Fleming that he intended his novel "Being Dead" to be a comfort to readers.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Raphael Kadushin is a senior travel writer for Conde Nast magazines, and author of "Big Trips: More Good Gay Travel Writing."
Neuroscientist Sam Harris is on our minds this week. Harris is best known as one of the guys who helpd lauch the New Atheist movement. So it comes as a surprise to see the title of his new book -- "Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion."
Mark Rectanus tells Steve Paulson that corporate sponsorship can create conflicts of interest for museum curators and can turn art exhibits into “tarted-up trade shows.”
Naturalist and environmental activist Janisse Ray talks with Jim Fleming about her memoir, "Ecology of A Cracker Childhood." Ray now devotes herself to long leaf pine restoration.
Author John D'Agata and fact-checker Jim Fingal talk about the boundaries of literary nonfiction as chronicled in their book, "The Lifespan of a Fact."
Neuroscientist Richard Davidson is a leading expert on the science of mindfulness. He's teamed up with the Dalai Lama to put Buddhist monks in brain scanners, and he's developing a new scientific model for studying emotion.
You can also listen to the EXTENDED interview, and read the extended transcript.
Michelle Paver has had a lifelong fascination with the Stone Age. She's studied anthropology, and she's lived with the Inuit in Alaska and the Sami in Lapland. She used these experiences to write her series of novels, Chronicles of Ancient Darkness.
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