Religious historian Karen Armstrong doesn’t like the either/or, good/evil dichotomy. She believes we are hard-wired to be both selfish and kind.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun have been photographing life in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for 30 years. They talk about the conditions in the prison - nicknamed Angola, for the plantation that was formerly on the site - and how they've changed over time. When they see the inmates working in the fields, they say, it looks a lot like slavery.
Kendall Taylor is the author of the most complete account yet of the marriage of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Taylor tells Steve Paulson that the marriage was volatile from the beginning.
So, what is gender anyhow? Philosopher Judith Butler has been unpacking our notions of "he," "she" and "we" for the past 20 years. She stopped in to help us take stock of the state of gender in the North America.
Stanford English professor Jay Fliegelman loves to collect books that have a history. He tells Jim Fleming why he loves the marginalia and battered pages of his books.
Mary Karr tells Steve Paulson that this volume begins at the time of her sexual awakening and that most female writers skip over those awkward adolescent years.
John Vaillant's book, "The Tiger", is about a rare Amur tiger who starts killing people in a remote corner of Siberia where there is a huge trade in tiger poaching because of demand in nearby China.
How will we react, the day we hear the news that scientists have found life on another planet? Science fiction writer Orson Scott Card has dreamed up many first contact scenarios. His classic science fiction novel, "Ender's Game" is all about the consequences of a first contact gone badly wrong. He's just published a long-awaited sequel.
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