Colum McCann's novel "Let the Great World Spin" takes place on the day of tight-rope artist Philipe Petit's trip across the World Trade Centers.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Reihan Salam critiqued the movie "Gandhi" for Slate Magazine in an article called "Meet the Hindustani Malcolm X."
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.
A New York Times film critic talks about the role of film criticism in contemporary society.
Nicholas Basbanes tells Steve Paulson that people destroy books to annihilate the culture of their enemies and remembers some of the heroes who fought to save books from the Nazis and in Bosnia.
How painting radium on watches and instrument dials killed more than 50 young women working in Ottawa, Illinois.
Richard Powers reads an excerpt from his novel, "Orfeo," inspired by the music of Mahler and set to Mahler's "Kindertotenlieder."
Poet and writer Kenneth Goldsmith talks about his "Uncreative Writing" course in which students are penalized for showing any originality and creativity. Goldsmith is the author of "Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age."
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