Jai Uttal leads kirtans around the world. Kirtan is the Indian practice of ecstatic chant that combines music and devotion.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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So-called "outsider art" has been hot for a while now. What the art crowd calls it has changed, from l'art brut to self-taught art to vernacular art.
Whatever you call it, the work of some these artists will join the cream of the contemporary art crop at the Venice Biennale this summer.
One of the largest collections of vernacular art is right here in Wisconsin. Producer Sara Nics talks with the woman who helped create the collection: Ruth Kohler.
In Israel, writer D.A. Mishani is breaking new ground by writing crime fiction. Why are there so few detective novels written in Hebrew? Mishani explains.
Journalist Ian Johnson is the author of “Wild Grass: Three Portraits of Change in Modern China.” He talks with Anne Strainchamps about one of them.
James McManus writes for Harpers. With an advance from the magazine, he entered the world series of poker. McManus talks about playing with professionals and muses on the balance of luck and skill required for tournament play.
For much of her early life, rock critic Jessica Hopper was an ardent fan of punk rock. But despite her passion, she never felt like she quite fit in. That began to change once she started seeing female fronted bands performing onstage. She says the experience convinced her that there was a place for her in music. The discovery set her on a quest to uncover the countless other ways women are excluded from music, which she writes about in her book, "The First Collection of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic." She spoke to producer Craig Eley about the various forms of sexism she encountered in her decades-long career as a music journalist.
How did the rich get richer while the American middle class got poorer? Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker outlines the political policies that led to historic levels of income inequality.
Ingrid Betancourt was abducted by Marxist rebels and held captive in the jungle for 6 years. She tells the story of her ordeal in a book called "Even Silence Has an End."
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