This week in Watch This! we talk about "Salinger" and "Shakespeare Uncovered."
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
For our 2008 hour on plagiarism and intellectual propriety, we remixed our interview on sampling and remixes with DJ Spooky.
American Wendy Doniger holds two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard and Oxford. She’s the author of numerous books on Hinduism and has translated several Sanskrit texts. She’s widely considered one of the most important scholars on Indian religion in the world. So it might surprise you that there is one country in the world she can’t visit: India.
Doniger’s books have been targeted by Hindu Nationalists and by India’s ruling right-wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Her latest, “The Hindus: An Alternative History,” was the subject of a major lawsuit in India, and its publisher, Penguin Books India, not only pulled the book from circulation but destroyed all remaining copies. Since then, Doniger has received many death threats inside of India and no longer feels safe visiting there. But as she told Steve Paulson, her writing about Hinduism hasn’t changed in over 40 years. What has changed is India.
Studs Terkel tells Steve Paulson why his friend Nelson Algren is one of America's great literary secrets. Among Terkel's latest books is "Hope Dies Last."
Tom Bollestorff is an anthropologist at UC Irvine and author of "Coming of Age in Second Life."
Why is it that certain people bounce back after a relationship ends, whereas for others it takes years to recover? Graduate researcher Lauren Howe says it has to do with the stories we tell ourselves.
T.C. Boyle's new novel features a face-off between an animals rights activist and a biologist.
From The Sopranos and Friday Night Lights to The Wire and Breaking Bad, we're living through a TV revolution. TV critic Alan Sepinwall gives the backstory of this explosion of great shows.
To read Alan Sepinwall's blog, click here.
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