Nicholas Shakespeare tells Steve Paulson that Chatwin was a man of mystery and paradox who was willing to toy with the strictly factual to preserve an emotional truth. We also hear travel writer Paul Theroux comment on Chatwin, a long-time friend.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Milwaukee computer programmer Mohan Embar describes competing for -- and winning -- the 2012 Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence. His chat bot, Chip Vivant, was the most "human computer" of the year. But it still couldn't pass the Turing Test.
British novelist Jim Crace is an atheist. He doesn't believe in an afterlife, and tells Jim Fleming that he intended his novel "Being Dead" to be a comfort to readers.
Oscar Robertson is one of the all-time great basketball players. He talks with Steve Paulson about his constant struggle against racism during his playing years.
Author John D'Agata and fact-checker Jim Fingal talk about the boundaries of literary nonfiction as chronicled in their book, "The Lifespan of a Fact."
Robert Laughlin says that the internet is full of information, but it may not be anything you want.
Naturalist and environmental activist Janisse Ray talks with Jim Fleming about her memoir, "Ecology of A Cracker Childhood." Ray now devotes herself to long leaf pine restoration.
Sales of George Orwell’s 1984 went through the roof after the latest news about the NSA’s surveillance of Americans’ communications. What would defying state control look like these days? Writer and digital activist Cory Doctorow considered the question in his novel, “Little Brother.”
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