Scott A. Lukas is a cultural anthropologist and a former trainer at Six Flags Astroworld in Houston. He's also the author of "Theme Park," which chronicles the evolution of the theme park.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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With the Carolina Panthers facing off against the Denver Broncos in Superbowl 50, football is on our minds this week. And for many of the millions of fans who tune in every Sunday to watch their favorite teams compete, football is little more than a weekly ritual. For English professor Mark Edmundson, the football field is a staging ground for some of life's most important lessons. In his book "Why Football Matters," Edmundson looks back to his own high school years playing the sport and reflects on how it taught him courage, resilience, determination, and other values he'd draw on as an adult.
Theseus killed the Minotaur in the maze in Crete thousands of years ago. Well, according to Steven Sherrill, the Minotaur is now a short- order cook in the American South.
“How To Lose Friends and Alienate People” is the title of Toby Young’s memoir of his experience working for “Vanity Fair” magazine. The book was so successful, Young turned it into a play.
Paul Koudounaris has spent the past decade traveling around the world, climbing into church crypts and bone chambers and taking photos at over 250 burial sites in 30 countries. He's discovered chapels decorared with skeletons and underground caves filled with skulls—among other things. In this interview, he tells us how he began his obsession with displays of death.
Electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani talks about her electronic music and sound work.
Steve Paulson reports on the new genre of Scandinavian crime fiction and we hear a reading from Karin Fossum's "He Who Fears the Wolf."
Plenty of men are obsessed with body image, too. Eric Chaline traces the cult of the male body beautiful back to ancient Greece, in "The Temple of Perfection" -- his new history of the gym.
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