There's an entire sector of the economy run by people who are working diligently to get inside your head and harvest your attention? Does that creep you out? They're called the Attention Merchants. And their business model consists of attracting your attention and then reselling it for profit. They're ad-based TV channels, clickbait producers and the big social media producers. Law professor Tim Wu is the author of "The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads."
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Singer-songwriter-community organizer Si Kahn tells Steve Paulson the hallmarks of a good political song, and talks about the role music has played in various social causes, including the Civil Rights movement.
Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" was the rare book that changed how we think. On its 50th anniversary, historian of science Tom Broman talks about Kuhn's legacy and we hear excerpts from Kuhn's book.
Tom Szaky tells Jim Fleming how his company turns candy wrappers and juice bottles into pencil cases and backpacks.
What is water? When Anne Strainchamps asked Wisconsin's Poet Laureate, Kimberly Blaeser called up the story and myth of the Anishinaabe. Blaeser says growing up on the White Earth Reservation, surrounded by lakes, made her who she is today.
Humorist Roy Blount Junior believes New Orleans is the cradle of American culture.
Sandy Tolan tells Jim Fleming that he became a fan of Hank Aaron’s as a boy in Milwaukee, and was thrilled when “The Hammer” threatened to eclipse Babe Ruth’s home run record.
For Robert Farris Thompson, the most beautiful, intimate and passionate of dances is Argentine tango.
Pages
