America has a thing for Japanese culture. And since the U.S. and its allies occupied Japan after WWII, some Japanese have had a thing for American culture, music in particular.
James Nolan is a poet, writer and fifth generation New Orleans native. He went through Katrina inside his French Quarter apartment.
Candi Cann studies death and how people remember the dead. Her latest book is "Virtual Afterlives: Grieving the Dead in the Twenty-First Century." Here, she shares some resources on how to craft a digital legacy.
Hugh Masakela is a dreamer who longed for personal artistic expression and freedom for his people.
Ishmael Beah was 12 when the army of Sierra Leone gave him an AK-47 and a lot of drugs and turned him into a killing machine. Beah's been rehabilitated and lives in the USA.
James McManus writes for Harpers. With an advance from the magazine, he entered the world series of poker.
If you really want to get a feel for Isaac Newton - perhaps history's greatest scientist - the best way is to see his original manuscripts at Cambridge University Library. But they're so valuable, it's hard to get permission to look at them. They did let Steve Paulson in, but only in the company of 4 archivists, plus Newton historian Sarah Dry.
Jade Simmons is a classical pianist who's equally happy to play music by Samuel Barber or hip hop master DBR.
