Before the airplane was invented, ballooning was all the rage, and many people thought this was the future of air travel. Cultural historian Richard Holmes describes the remarkable history of the hot air balloon.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
The first stories in "Thousand and One Nights" were written down in the ninth century. They’ve been added to over the years. In some ways, it’s not so much a book as a living river of stories. Some of the most recent additions come from the celebrated novelist Salman Rushdie.
You can also hear many more interviews with Rushdie.
Tom Matthews' first novel, “Like We Care,” tells what happens when some teenagers simply stop spending money on all the stuff that’s marketed to them.
Thomas Hine is the author of “I Want THAT: How We All Became Shoppers.” He tells Anne Strainchamps how our culture grooms men and women to behave differently as shoppers and exploits the traits of both sexes.
Steve Paulson produced this essay/report on the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges.
Vikram Chandra writes in English, the language of the colonizer, and faces accusations that he's not really an Indian writer.
The demographics of the United States are changing: how does the latest wave of immigration fit into the historical pattern?
Temple Grandin worries about pets in our modern society; critiques Cesar Millan's techniques as being appropriate only for large unrelated packs of dogs; and opposes the breeding of so-called criminal dogs.
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