Historian Deborah Harkness has transmuted her expertise in early alchemy and Elizabethan magic into a pair of best-selling novels, A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night. We talk with her about the connections between magic and science.
To hear an EXTENDED interview with Deborah Harkness, LISTEN HERE.
Ariel Glucklich tells Jim Fleming about ritual self-punishment in various religions and how the experience of self-inflicted pain can seem liberating.
Elizabeth Gilbert's early mid-life crisis (including a messy divorce) brought her to India to follow in the footsteps of generations of spiritual seekers from the West.
This is Charles. This interview was recorded near the end of the presidential race when everyone and their brother was trying to figure out what was happening in the minds of poor, white voters. I grew up in poverty under the shadows of Northeast Ohio steel mills. And it struck me that many of the insight everyone was looking for was right there in the music of where I grew up. In my opinion, the best example of that voice in 2016 was country music singer-songwriter Brandy Clark. Her album, "Big Day in a Small Town," had the answers, if anyone dared to listen.
The 13th century Sufi mystic is one of America’s bestselling poets, thanks largely to the translations of Coleman Barks. A Muslim born in Afghanistan, he celebrated the underlying unity of all religions
Gabe Hudson was a Marine Reservist whose unit served in the Gulf War. Hudson himself didn’t see combat, but based on his friends’ war stories, Hudson has written a book of surreal short stories.
Ethan Watters is the author of “Urban Tribes.” Watters says that the TV show “Friends” is a good example of the kind of social group he’s talking about.
Brad Hirschfield was once a religious fanatic. He was one of a small number of Jewish settlers living in Hebron, in the middle of thousands of Palestinians.
