Nicholas Ostler talks to Jim Fleming about how languages spread and the similarities and differences between Chinese and English.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Have you had culture shock? Did it hit when you were travelling or when you were at home?
Writer Josh Swiller says, as a young man, he often felt outside his home culture.
He decided to leave the U.S. altogether and found a whole new world of challenging inter-cultural communication.
Julie Norem is the author of “The Power of Negative Thinking.” She tells Jim Fleming about her strategy of “defensive pessimism,” and explains the good it can do.
M.J. Ryan wants to revive the custom of saying grace before meals. She tells Jim Fleming how she became a collector of mealtime blessings.
Michael Shapiro, author of “The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together” tells Jim Fleming why baseball in Brooklyn was special.
In one of his most personal books, Sacks recalls his childhood in wartime London and the important role chemistry played in his life. He explains how he was comforted by the rigor and orderliness of science.
Jim Tucker is a child psychiatrist and director of the University of Virginia's project on children's memories of previous lives.
Peter Hillary and Jamling Norgay are the sons of the first men to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Both men are climbers and have made a documentary film called “Surviving Everest” for National Geographic which details their own expedition up the mountain.
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