Author of "Waiting for Snow in Havana" started to worry about death as a child, growing up in Cuba during an era of public executions ...
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor says we're now living in "a secular age," but we're still trying to figure out what a post-religious world looks like, and how we can find meaning in a culture without any over-arching purpose.
David Leavitt is the author of a novel called "The Indian Clerk" which tells the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the uneducated Indian who amazed Cambridge University with his mathematical discoveries.
And what of those of us who have died, and come back to life?
Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander had a near death experience in 2008.
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.
Sarah Bakewell recommends "The Pillow Book" by Sei Shonagon (translated by Ivan Morris).
Bernd Heinrich tells Steve Paulson about frogs that survive being frozen solid and bears that convert nitrogen into protein while they hibernate sleep.
Producer Sara Nics on the story behind this show... how she's tried to come to terms with our narrative selves.
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