Alan Lee’s illustrations for an early edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” landed him a job as a conceptual artist on the Peter Jackson film production crew.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Here's an Anishinaabe poem and creation story by Kimberly Blaeser, the Poet Laureate of Wisconsin. It's the story of the lowly muskrat, and it reminds us that we are constantly building new worlds - and have been doing so since before the beginning of time.
Annie Leonard tells Steve Paulson what happens to most of the plastic bottles consumers carefully washout and recycle.
Jon Stravers — also known as "Hawk" — is an ornithologist, a musician, and a Vietnam veteran. To say that he's obsessed with birds might be putting it mildly. Since he came back from Vietnam he's spent most of his springs and summers along the Mississippi keeping an eye and ear out for birds. His latest obsession is the Cerulean Warbler, a species once thought to be in decline in the Upper Mississippi.
Popular advice columnist, NPR contributer and Freeville, NY-born author Amy Dickinson joins Michael on stage!
What's the perfect drug for a culture of distraction? Adderall. Sales of the prescription drug have increased exponentially and not always legally, especially to young adults. Casey Schwartz spent her twenties gulping down prescription stimulants to help her get through school and start her career. She wrote about her experience in a story for "The New York Times Magazine" called "Generation Adderall."
Rose O’Neale Greenhow, a Southerner by birth and conviction, became a social power in Washington and ran a successful spy ring for the Confederacy.
Ali Allawi is a visiting fellow at Harvard and the former Minister of Defense and Minister of Finance in Iraq. He talks with Steve Paulson about Islam and modernism.
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