The best-selling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak was put on trial ten years ago for "insulting Turkishness". She says the political climate in Turkey is more polarized than ever today, and even riskier for writers. She also believes fiction can help heal divided cultures.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Don Gurnett has been working with NASA, recording audio from space for years. He plays some of his favorite space sounds for Jim Fleming and explains where they come from.
China Miéville´s new novel is called "Embassytown." It features aliens that speak a strange language in a strange way -- with two voices simultaneously. Miéville spoke with Anne Strainchamps about "Embassytown."
Peter Edelman's Dangerous Idea? Putting people to work doing things we need done.
Angie da Silva is a historian of black cultural life in the United States, going back to the Civil War. She collects stories, both through oral history and archival research. But she's not merely a writer. She brings these stories to life through historical reenactment, often as a slave character she's created named Lila. She says that the stories she hears and tells are too often left out of our history books.
In this interview, she talks about her work and tells the story of Mary Meachum, a free black abolitionist who worked on the Mississippi in St. Louis.
Erin McKean talks with Anne Strainchamps about the pleasures of strange words like “squintefego” and “limiculous.”
Jessica Disu (FM Supreme) talks about using hiphop as a positive force to deliver messages of peace and non-violence.
David Schmader thinks "Showgirls" is the most brilliant bad movie ever made. He did a commentary for the new DVD edition and tells Steve Paulson why it's so hilarious.
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