Saul Williams has been hailed as hip hop's poet laureate. He talks with Anne Strainchamps, and we hear some of his work.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Sharon Salzberg tells Steve Paulson that you don’t have to believe in God to have faith and that it should be about trust, not obedience.
Michael Paterniti travels to the highlands of Spain to track down one of the world's greatest cheesemakers.
There's a short story about a guy who's so afraid of other people reading his mind that he wears a tin foil hat to protect his thoughts. The tin foil part is crazy, but protecting your mind is maybe not such a bad idea. Academic psychologist Rob Brotherton says there are certain psychological traits that predispose people to believe in conspiracy theories. For example, there's an experiment done by a group of psychologists in Amsterdam. It involves a group of subjects and a messy desk.
FIND OUT HOW LIKELY YOU ARE TO BELIEVE IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES BY TAKING ROB'S QUIZ.
One place that new music’s finding audiences is in galleries and museum. One piece in particular has won the hearts of people across the world. It’s called Forty Part Motet. Sound artist Janet Cardiff uses 40 speakers to play "Spem in Allium," a 40-part Renaissance motet written by Thomas Tallis. Think of it as Renaissance surround-sound.
Terry Tempest Williams reads from her book, "Red," and talks about the desert with Steve Paulson.
In this EXTENDED interview, Steve Paulson talks about his stacks of books, hunger for knowledge. He also explores the difference between data, information, knowledge and... wisdom!
American Wendy Doniger holds two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard and Oxford. She’s the author of numerous books on Hinduism and has translated several Sanskrit texts. She’s widely considered one of the most important scholars on Indian religion in the world. So it might surprise you that there is one country in the world she can’t visit: India.
Doniger’s books have been targeted by Hindu Nationalists and by India’s ruling right-wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Her latest, “The Hindus: An Alternative History,” was the subject of a major lawsuit in India, and its publisher, Penguin Books India, not only pulled the book from circulation but destroyed all remaining copies. Since then, Doniger has received many death threats inside of India and no longer feels safe visiting there. But as she told Steve Paulson, her writing about Hinduism hasn’t changed in over 40 years. What has changed is India.
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