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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Fear and Loathing in Mosquito-Land

We hate mosquitoes.

But why?  I mean, yes --- West Nile, dengue, malaria, Zika…not to mention ruined picnics, sleepless nights, and bites you scratch until they bleed … Those are logical reasons to dislike mosquitoes.  But admit it – they also just creep you out.

Jeffrey Lockwood gets at the psychology in his book “The Infested Mind.” He’s an entomologist who once had a truly horrific encounter with a swarm of grasshoppers.   He was left traumatized. Afterwards he wondered why we all fear and loathe insects so much.

Lockwood told Rehman Tungekar the answer is deep deep in our psyches.

 

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Cecil Brown on "Stagolee Shot Billy"

Cecil Brown has researched the true story that gave rise to the Stagolee myth, and explains what the song has meant to various groups, especially within the African-American community.

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Colin Thubron on "Shadow of the Silk Road"

The Silk Road was once the great meeting place between the East and the West - a network of ancient trading routes winding through China and India, across Central Asia and Iran to the Mediterranean.

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Beverly Lapp on "The Star Spangled Banner"

Essayist Beverly Lapp explains what "The Star Spangled Banner" means to her as a Mennonite.

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Cynthia Woodland on her son Tyler

Cynthia Woodland’s tattoo has a story. It’s about being a young single mom. It’s about faith. It’s about Tyler.

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Deborah Treisman and George Saunders on The New Yorker

Deborah Treisman is fiction editor of The New Yorker magazine. George Saunders is one of her star writers. Treisman and Saunders join Steve Paulson to talk about writing and publishing short stories.

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Darold Treffert Uncut

Psychiatrist Darold Treffert is one of the world's authorities on savant syndrome. In this EXTENDED interview, he calls savants "islands of genius" and says we won't understand consciousness until we figure out what's happening in the minds of savants.

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BookMark: "My Struggle" by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Author and physician Atul Gawande recommends "My Struggle" by Karl Ove Knausgaard.

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