Joan Didion, who died last week at the age of 87, helped shape a highly personal brand of nonfiction that came to be known as the New Journalism. Her early essay collections "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (1968) and "The White Album" (1979) influenced generations of writers. Her later memoirs, "The Year of Magical Thinking" and "Blue Nights," chronicled the deaths of her husband and daughter. In 2011 Didion talked with Steve Paulson about illness and growing old in the wake of the death of her daughter, Quintana.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Food is certainly the most palatable expression of culture, and the most easily shared.
LA Times food critic Jonathan Gold has spent his career seeking out the best plates of authentic – or reinterpreted - culture. In this UNCUT interview, he talks with Anne Strainchamps about food in translation.
It'll get your stomach growling, so have some snacks handy!
Celtic historian John Matthews tells Steve Paulson that Merlin probably was a real person and that wizards are related to our ancient shamans.
Linda Gray Sexton describes in vivid detail her own, lifelong battle against depression and suicide.
Judy Pascoe tells Steve Paulson about her novel “Our Father Who Art in a Tree.” A young girl’s father dies unexpectedly, but she finds his spirit lives in the backyard tree.
Louise Barnett, author of tells Jim Fleming about the case of Captain Andrew Geddes, who was tried and convicted of slandering a fellow officer, even though the man was clearly guilty of sexually abusing his daughter.
Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard discusses his six-volume autobiographical novel, "My Struggle."
You could also listen to an extended interview with Karl Ove Knausgaard.
Pages
