Ever since the Cold War ended, we've largely forgotten about the threat of nuclear war. Ron Rosenbaum says that's a huge mistake. In fact, the threat is very real in today's world.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Stephen Asma teaches philosophy at Columbia College in Chicago. He talks to Anne Strainchamps about his book "On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears."
Syd Straw is an indie singer-songwriter best-known for her work with other musicians. She's just released her first new album in 12 years.
The first stories in "Thousand and One Nights" were written down in the ninth century. They’ve been added to over the years. In some ways, it’s not so much a book as a living river of stories. Some of the most recent additions come from the celebrated novelist Salman Rushdie.
You can also hear many more interviews with Rushdie.
The legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog talks about his career, truth in documentaries, and his constant quest for "the ecstatic truth."
Chilean-born artist Alfredo Jaar has spent much of his career regarding the pain of others. He delves into issues like war or globalization with giant installations and photos. But his work does not take use a grand scale, instead, he drills down to one individual. His most famous work is 6-year project on the Rwandan Genocide called “The Rwanda Project.”
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."
Scott Westerfeld writes wildly popular post-apocalyptic and dystopian science fiction for teenagers. He's the author of the "Peeps" series about parasite-positive vampires, as well as "Uglies" and "Pretties," who live in a world where plastic surgery is compulsory.
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