Sam Harris says religious certainty is not only irrational, it's dangerous. He says believing in Allah or Jesus or the God of Abraham makes no more sense than believing in Zeus.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
A big cat biologist goes on a blind date. It doesn't go well. Writer Ben Hoffman reads from a work in progress.
Tom Shippey, author of “Tolkien: Author of the Century,” talks with Steve Paulson about the great fantasy writer’s life, the origins of hobbits, and Tolkien’s motivation for writing fantasy.
South African singer/songwriter Vusi Mahlasela talks with Steve Paulson about his experiences singing political music during the time of Apartheid.
Steven Biel talks about Grant Woods' iconic American painting: who the models were; how the painting's been received and why it's so often parodied.
According to self-described "space dork" Andy Weir, he was just sitting around at home one day imagining a manned Mars mission — not with any goal in mind, but just as a thought experiment. Soon, he realized this would be a pretty good premise for a story. And boy was he right. His novel "The Martian" started as a series of blog posts and has become a blockbuster motion picture. In this interview, he reads excerpts from the novel and discusses the balance between pure fantasty and scientific accuracy in science fiction.
There may be as many opinions about selfies as there are Twitter handles. Are they self-empowerment, or narcissism? Are they just personal branding? Or can they be art? Writer and critic Sarah Nicole Prickett came in to give us a primer.
In a small studio in Brooklyn, one artist is reimagining selfies. Erin Riley finds online self-portraits and transforms them into larger-than-life tapestries. The woven women don’t have faces… but they do have stories.
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