We re-examine the myth of Robert Johnson. The most famous blues singer of them all died at the age of 27 after recording only 29 songs. Today he's idolized, but Elijah Wald says that may be for the wrong reasons.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Billie Whitelaw was Samuel Beckett’s favorite actress and appeared in his plays for over twenty years. She tells Steve Paulson she never understood the plays but thinks Beckett’s a genius.
Ralph Nader's Dangerous Idea? Drafting the children and grandchildren of elected representatives.
If you’re old enough, you’ll remember the Monkees, the pop group with a hit TV show. Michael Nesmith wore the green stocking cap. Since then, he’s reinvented his career several times over. He (sort of) invented country rock. And the music video.
Ernie Cline talks to Anne Strainchamps about his novel, "Ready Player One," which revolves around a massively multi-player online game and '80s pop culture.
Carole Angier is the author of “”The Double Bond: Primo Levi, A Biography.” Levi was a brilliant chemist who mined the world of chemistry for metaphors to help him process his experiences as a Holocaust survivor
Tom Lutz talks about his book, "Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America."
Comic novelist David Lodge takes on the old battle between science and the humanities in his latest book, “Thinks.”
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