Legendary showman P.T. Barnum once owned a slave named Joice Heth. Barnum claimed she was 161 years old and a former nanny to George Washington. Benjamin Reiss tells the story in his book "The Showman and the Slave: Race, Death, and Memory in Barnum's America."
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Everyone thinks The Arabian Nights is a collection of stories and folktales from the Middle East. In fact, some of the most famous were written by Europeans, who fell in love with the tradition and wanted more.
Stephen Thompson is an editor at The Onion newspaper, and editor of “The Onion A.V. Club: The Tenacity of the Cockroach.”
Walker Smith tells Steve Paulson about the six different flavors of baby boomers and why they'll have an impact into the future.
The firey debate over schooling has flared up again. The newest dialogue? Astra Taylor’s "Unschooling” essay in n+1, and Dana Goldstein’s response in Slate. In this NEW and UNCUT interview, Taylor and Goldstein join Steve Paulson for their first joint interview on schools.
Hold on. What is wonder?
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt found that there's not much research on awe. And when he took on the task, he discovered that they're not easy emotions to study.
Award-winning novelist Jane Hamilton's new novel has a setting that's close to home. "The Excellent Lombards" is a story of generational tension set on a family apple farm. Steve Paulson talks about writing, farming and apples with Jane while walking through her own family orchard.
A true story of 26 Mexican men who tried to cross the Sonoran desert into the US in 2001. Only 12 of them survived. The others are known today as the “Yuma 14.”
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