National Book Award winner Andrea Barrett writes some of the most beautiful fiction we know about scientists. The stories in her new collection, "Archangel" explore the history of knowledge through five linked characters. After reading it, we're awfully glad she gave up biology to write fiction.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Bernd Heinrich tells Steve Paulson about frogs that survive being frozen solid and bears that convert nitrogen into protein while they hibernate sleep.
Rapper Baba Brinkman tells Anne Strainchamps that Geoffrey Chaucer’s work has a lot in common with the language of hip hop music.
How accurate is Barack Obama’s memoir Dreams from My Father? In this UNCUT interview, Steve Paulson talks with acclaimed biographer David Maraniss about Obama’s real coming-of-age story, his struggle with racial identity and his early political ambitions.
According to historian Thomas Laqueur, neither sanitation nor the soul fully explain the rang of rituals we've developed for caring for dead bodies. For him, there is a deeper anthropological truth at work: caring for the dead marks the human transition from nature into culture.
Christopher Caldwell talks with Steve Paulson about the European discomfort with the rising tide of Muslim immigration.
Bon Iver's Justin Vernon has created a nearly perfect summer music festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin -- his hometown. 25,000 people spent two days camping by a river, throwing frisbees and listening to indie bands. Festival narrator and local writer Michael Perry shares the story behind the town, the festival, and the musical legend.
Deborah Madison talks with Anne Strainchamps about the growing popularity of farmers’ markets.
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