People who like baseball call it "the thinking person’s game," but for the first 100 years, baseball was governed by a surprisingly limited range of critical thinking. Decisions were made by insiders, the current and former players who spent a lifetime around the diamond, and did things mostly one way: the way they've always been done. But in the last 3 or 4 years, that storehouse of common knowledge—much of which was kept guarded in a true "old boy's club"—has been cracked wide open. Now the game isn't driven by intuition, it's driven by data. And the math nerds who rode the bench in Little League—if they played at all—are now telling pro ballplayers what to do. Journalist Travis Sawchik tells Steve Paulson the story.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Producer Cynthia Woodland invited Anthony Cooper and his sons (Akheem and Anthony Junior) into our studio, to talk about what it’s like, raising black teenagers in America.
Filmmaker Werner Herzog is obsessive about many things, including walking. Listen to find out why Werner walks.
The 1967 Ice Bowl is one of football's legendary showdowns, when the wind chill dipped to 50 below zero. Commentator Bill Povletich remembers this historic game.
Seduction seems like a dirty word these days. In our era of frankness, hook-ups and FWBs, why bother seducing someone?
Betsy Prioleau says charm is an endangered, misunderstood and useful art.
Sara Nelson tells Anne Strainchamps what publishers can do to make a book a best-seller and why the actual number of copies sold is a state secret.
Roberta Gregory writes and draws the comic strip featuring the mis-adventures of Midge McCracken, AKA "Bitchy Bitch."
William Irwin tells Steve Paulson how philosophical questions echo throughout popular culture with several examples from Seinfeld and The Simpsons.
Pages
