An algorithm might not be able to spit out a chart-topping song —at least not yet—but it might be able to help you write a best-selling novel.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Historian Elizabeth Abbot talks with Judith Strasser about the history of celibacy — from the ancient Greek goddess Athena to boxing superstar Mohammed Ali.
Steve here. 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of America’s beloved National Park system. I could think of no one better to reflect on the importance of national parks than one of my favorite writers, Terry Tempest Williams.
David Margolick is the author of “Strange Fruit,” a history of the revolutionary Billie Holiday song. Margolick tells Jim Fleming who wrote the song, what happened the first time Holiday sang it, and what it’s lasting impact has been.
Etgar Keret tells Steve Paulson how his writing career began after a traumatic event.
Angie da Silva is a historian of black cultural life in the United States, going back to the Civil War. She collects stories, both through oral history and archival research. But she's not merely a writer. She brings these stories to life through historical reenactment, often as a slave character she's created named Lila. She says that the stories she hears and tells are too often left out of our history books.
In this interview, she talks about her work and tells the story of Mary Meachum, a free black abolitionist who worked on the Mississippi in St. Louis.
Writer Brendan Koerner reviews Yukio Mishima's classic novel, "Confessions of a Mask".
Writer and journalist Christopher Hitchens tells Steve Paulson that Orwell got it right about imperialism, fascism and communism.
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