Robert Caro's been studying Lyndon Johnson for decades. The fourth volume of his "Years of Lyndon Johnson" is out, and when Caro stopped by the studio, Jim asked just what makes LBJ so interesting... Listen in on the UNCUT interview here!
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
One of this summer's hot new reads is Dean Bakopoulos' new novel, "Summerlong." It's the story of Claire and Don Lowry. They've been married for a long time. And they're now back in the college town where they met -- Grinnell, Iowa. Claire wanted to be a writer but wound up a stay-at-home mom, while Don is a real estate agent. When we meet them, they're deeply in debt and unbeknownst to Claire, they're also behind on their mortgage. And then everything begins to fall apart.
Lawrence Osborne tells Anne Strainchamps he set out to teach himself what a wine critic knows. He thinks he did, but isn’t sure we need critics at all.
Historian Michael Kammen tells Anne Strainchamps that the social distinctions between high-brow and low-brow culture are not as important as they once were.
Joan Didion, who died last week at the age of 87, helped shape a highly personal brand of nonfiction that came to be known as the New Journalism. Her early essay collections "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (1968) and "The White Album" (1979) influenced generations of writers. Her later memoirs, "The Year of Magical Thinking" and "Blue Nights," chronicled the deaths of her husband and daughter. In 2011 Didion talked with Steve Paulson about illness and growing old in the wake of the death of her daughter, Quintana.
Philosopher Judith Butler took a rigorous look at gender in her 1990 book, “Gender Trouble.” In this EXTENDED conversation, Steve asks her - with transexual and gender queer people more visible than ever - what can we say about the state of gender in North America?
Storyteller Lorraine Johnson Coleman tells Anne Strainchamps about the various cultural traditions behind the breads found in Southern kitchens, and in her book.
The World Cup is on our minds this week so we revisit Steve Paulson's conversation with Franklin Foer re. his book, "How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization."
Pages
