Jason Goodwin won the Edgar Award for "The Janissary Tree," his first novel featuring Yashim Togalu, a eunuch who lives in 19th century Istanbul. Yashim is back in "The Snake Stone."
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
The Olympic Games in Russia are on our minds. In particular, the growing political protests against Russia’s recent anti-gay legislation. Which has us remembering the most famous political protest in Olympics history.
Maryanne Wolf thinks the dyslexia brain ought to be considered a gift that characterized some of history's leading figures.
Jeremy Campbell tells Steve Paulson about the ways Mother Nature uses deception to fool predators, and talks about Bill Clinton and the balance of the public good and personal morality.
Laurence Gonzales tells Jim Fleming about "Lucy," in which a mysterious 15 year old girl is discovered in the Congo.
Michael Dirda won the Pulitzer Prize for his literary criticism in the Washington Post Book World. Among his collections of essays is Classics for Pleasure.
Novelist Margaret Atwood talks about her latest book, "The Year of the Flood," with Steve Paulson. The book posits a new religion formed after most life on Earth has been obliterated.
Karen Armstrong is one of the world's best-known writers on religion, but her own spiritual path hasn't been easy. She tells us why she joined a convent and then left - and how she later came to appreciate religious texts.
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