Harvard Law’s Randall Kennedy (who is African American) is the author of the notoriously titled “Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word.” He talks with Steve Paulson about how the N-word has been used historically in America.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
For several days, Robert Olen Butler had a video camera trained on his desk and invited people to watch him write on-line. Butler says the Internet will create new art forms.
Julia Alvarez talks about her novel for young adults, and how it mirrors her own experience reconciling a native Dominican background with the culture of her adopted home: a small town in rural Vermont.
Michael Benson is a film-maker who’s compiled an extraordinary book of still photographs. Lawrence Weschler wrote the book’s Afterward.
Americans spend billions of dollars a year on over-the-counter pain relievers. In fact, all over the world, easing pain is big business. And Aspirin’s one of the top sellers. Why? Charles Mann, author of “The Aspirin Wars”, tells Steve Paulson what happened when a German company called Bayer came to America:
Journalist Kevin Krajick's book tells the story of geologists Chuck Fipke and Stew Blusson, a couple of small-time prospectors who went looking for diamonds in the Canadian tundra.
Travel writer Tony Perrotet has spent his career traveling all over the globe, but he skipped the Mediterranean tour, choosing Tierra del Fuego or the Amazon over Rome. But the discovery of an ancient guide book launched him on his most exotic journey yet, in the footsteps of the Ancients.
The Honorable Richard A. Posner is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh District. He's also a prolific author.
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