One of the enduring ideas – and an everyday saying – is that it’s possible to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” Of course, it’s physically impossible, but producer Sara Nics thought there had to be a way to do it with some engineering know-how and well-built boots.
Betsy Israel tells Jim Fleming our society has always been suspicious of unmarried women and talks about examples from Louisa Mat Alcott to Ally McBeal.
Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor says we're now living in "a secular age," but we're still trying to figure out what a post-religious world looks like, and how we can find meaning in a culture without any over-arching purpose.
David Leavitt is the author of a novel called "The Indian Clerk" which tells the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the uneducated Indian who amazed Cambridge University with his mathematical discoveries.
Caitlin Matthews is a Celtic scholar and storyteller. She talks with Anne Strainchamps about the various myths of a lost paradise and how we can find it within ourselves.
"Independent People" by Halldór Laxness reviewed by author David Mitchell ("Cloud Atlas")
And what of those of us who have died, and come back to life?
Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander had a near death experience in 2008.
Christine Wicker tells Anne Strainchamps about the time she spent with people who practice Hoodoo and other forms of magic.
