In the mid-1930's, Alan Turing made the revolutionary discovery that launched the digital age. He proved that information can be translated and communicated using nothing but a series of ones and zeroes. And that was just the first of Turing's intellectual achievements. Biographer Andrew Hodges explained Turing's genius to Jim Flemming in 2012.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Abram de Swaan is a Dutch sociologist who studies the politics of language. He tells Steve Paulson that English is the worldwide language of business and diplomacy, though many wish it weren’t.
Alex Stone is a magician with a degree in physics. He performs a magic trick over the radio and explains how it works.
To hear one of Alex Stone's favorite bar tricks, listen here.
Karyn Bosnak is the author of “Save Karyn: One Shopaholic’s Journey to Debt and Back.” Bosnak tells Anne Strainchamps how she got herself into thousands of dollars of credit card debt, and how she got out.
Frances Moore Lappé has working toward sustainability and biodiversity for more than 40 years. But one day, in the middle of a conference about climate change, she started to wonder if people were telling the story all wrong.
You can also listen to our interview with Wangari Maathai about reforesting Africa.
Amy Gorman is the author of "Aging Artfully," a book with 12 profiles of visual and performing women artists between the ages of 85 and 105.
Ahmed Rashid worked as an advisor to Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy to the Pakistani region and says the U.S. was never really interested in the Afghanistan's real problems when we rush in.
Alison Bechdel calls her comic book memoir Are You My Mother? “a comic drama.” The New York Times Book Review calls it “as complicated, brainy, inventive and satisfying as the finest prose memoirs.” Here’s Steve Paulson’s NEW and UNCUT interview with Bechdel.
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