Tom Shippey, author of “Tolkien: Author of the Century,” talks with Steve Paulson about the great fantasy writer’s life, the origins of hobbits, and Tolkien’s motivation for writing fantasy.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
What compels someone to commit acts of terror? Anthropologist Scott Atran has spent a decade talking with jailed suicide bombers and jihadist leaders. He says they're motivated by core human values: brotherhood, loyalty and the dream of a better world.
Biologist Steven Austad is so confident human beings will soon live to be 150 years old that he’s bet on it with a colleague: Jay Olshansky, who says we’re already living way past our expiration date!
The idea of a universal basic income is getting serious consideration these days from governments -- in Switzerland, Finland, even Kenya. Could it get traction in the U.S.? Absolutely, says journalist Rutger Bregman.
Reinhold Messner is arguably the world’s greatest living mountaineer. He’s climbed 14 of the world’s tallest peaks, and if that isn’t impressive enough, he was the first to climb Mt. Everest alone and without supplemental oxygen. He recounts some of these adventures in a new book called “Reinhold Messner: My Life at the Limit.” Steve Paulson caught up with him and asked how he got hooked on climbing.
William Christenberry never intended to cross the path of the pain of others with his photos. He takes photos of simple buildings, mostly in Hale County, Alabama.
Susan Friedman tells Anne Strainchamps about her friendship, initiated and maintained via e-mail over the internet, with a young woman scholar in Iraq.
Best-selling author Steve Berry tells Jim Fleming he works on three books at once to keep a best-seller in the pipeline.
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