Wanna make it in America, a good education gets you a long way, right?. That’s especially true if you’re not a white kid from a high income family. Parents and filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson have just released an astounding documentary about their son's journey through an elite New York prep school.
You can also hear our uncut conversation with them.
Andy Behrman describes some of the excesses of his manic state and talks about the course of electric shock therapy that finally got his illness under control.
French film-maker Agnes Varda has made a documentary called “The Gleaners and I.” The film is a portrait of people who make their living picking over stuff other people have thrown away.
In 2011, as Hurricane Irene made landfall in New York City, poet Edward Hirsch learned that his 22-year old son Gabriel had died from a bad drug reaction and subsequent seizure. Later, Hirsch composed “Gabriel,” a book-length elegy poem about his relationship with his son, and his loss.
Over the next 70 years, sociologists estimate that the number of people living in cities will double. Chris Anderson, curator of the TED conference, introduces our urban future.
Anne Akiko Meyers tells us about the difference between playing traditional western music and Japanese or other Asian music.
A. J. Jacobs decided to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. He tells Steve Paulson why and some of the peculiar facts he picked up along the way.
Los Angeles comic and humor columnist Alan Olifson reads an essay on the dangers of enjoying irony.
