Physicist Geoffrey West is trying to uncover the fundamental, physical principles that shape cities. In this UNCUT interview with Steve Paulson, he talks about how cities are - and are not - like organisms.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Seth Kane Kwei launched a revolution in Ghanaian funeral practices in the early 1950s, when he redesigned a chief's traditional palaquin into a coffin. His grandson, Eric Adjetey Anang, is now carrying on his grandfather's work, making coffins that reflect the trades, accomplishments and dreams of the deceased.
For his book "Evicted: Poverty And Profit In the American City," Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond spent more than a year living in some of Milwaukee's poorest black and white neighborhoods. He says evictions lock entire families into an endless cycle of poverty, and are far more common than they used to be.
Helen Benedict talks with Anne Strainchamps about the sexual harassment and sexual abuse endured by female soldiers in Iraq which often begins before they leave the United States.
A Prairie Home Companion's Garrison Keillor talks with Steve Paulson about being a mid-Western writer and moving to New York City.
George Dyson grew up in the backyard of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where some of the most brilliant engineers and mathematicians in the world (including his parents) were building one of the first computers. His new book, "Turing's Cathedral", is the story of their quest to build a working computer.
So maybe there are some changing ideas about gender in parts of North America. But around the globe, it’s pretty much still just male and female, right? Not so, says Evelyn Blackwood. Turns out, some cultures have an array of gender categories.
Charles Duhigg, a reporter for the New York Times, has been researching the scientific and social history of habits for his new book, The Power of Habit. In it, he discusses the unique ways that habits shape our lives, both neurologically and practically. He learned that habits are powerfully hardwired into your brain — and stored separately from your memories — making them rather easy to develop and very difficult to change.
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