Shakespeare biographer Stephen Greenblatt isn't persuaded by rumors that question William Shakespeare's work. He insists Shakespeare's genius is that he was not a nobleman
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Standup, prat falls, punch lines. Performing comedy's one thing, writing it's another.
Ian Frazier has been writing comedy for the New Yorker for decades. Catch him talking about the rewards of writing humor, and telling jokes in Russian.
When blogger Jenny Lawson recently tweeted about an awkward exchange she had with a cashier at an airport, she couldn't have imagined the flood of responses she'd get from fans recounting their own mortifying moments. The tweet went viral and within a few days she'd received thousands of messages from fans recounting their own awkward stories. The whole affair was proof of something Jenny had long suspected -- that awkwardness can help bring people together.
Scott Weidensaul talks with Jim Fleming about several animals that have turned up after their species was thought to be extinct.
Ted Steinberg tells Jim Fleming that Americans love perfect mono-cultures and are willing to over-water and freely use chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides to achieve them.
Simon Montefiore is the author of “Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar.” He says Stalin was more complex than we thought, but still a monster.
Art critic, novelist and editor Wendy Lesser reads excerpts from her essay "Hitchcock's Vertigo."
Jill Fredston has rowed more than 20,000 miles of Arctic water, along the coastlines of Alaska and Greenland and alongside whales and polar bears.
Pages
