For decades, urbanists have been thinking about cities as organisms. They take in resources, eject waste, spread and grow. Theoretical physicist Geoffrey West decided to put the idea through the mathematical ringer. So, are cities like organisms? Yes. And no.
You can also hear the uncut interview with West.
According to historian Thomas Laqueur, neither sanitation nor the soul fully explain the rang of rituals we've developed for caring for dead bodies. For him, there is a deeper anthropological truth at work: caring for the dead marks the human transition from nature into culture.
Brian Palmer has been a staff writer at Fortune magazine, Beijing bureau chief for US News and World Report and a correspondent for CNN. He tells Anne Strainchamps that none of that prepared him for Iraq where he was embedded with the First Battalion/Second Marines.
Aubrey Ralph explains his enthusiasm for the Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA.
Harvey Kaye's Dangerous Idea? Re-discovering the true meaning of American Exceptionalism.
I dunno, but it seems kind of extreme, not to mention risky, to bio-engineer a mass mosquito die-off. So Steve Paulson tracked down the world’s greatest living entomologist to see what he has to say. E. O Wilson is sometimes called “the ant man” – that’s the insect he studied most – but he’s best known as the evolutionary biologist and a champion of biodiversity. He’s 86 years old now, and has just finished what is probably his last book – called “Half Earth”. It’s a passionate plea to save humanity by dedicating half the planet to nature. You’d assume that Wilson would be happy to let mosquitos live in that half… but that’s not what he told Steve.
Ben Kilham raises orphan bear cubs and then releases them into the wild. Steve Paulson visits Kilham at his home in New Hampshire.
Richard Yates’ debut novel was “Revolutionary Road,” which Kurt Vonnegut hailed as “The Great Gatsby” of its time...
