Adam Sisman and novelist Beryl Bainbridge talk with Steve Paulson about Boswell and Johnson and Boswell’s immortal biography of the brilliant 18th century man of letters.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Ali Allawi tells Steve Paulson why the in-fighting of the transitional government in Iraq forced him to resign and why he feels the American efforts there were doomed.
Not all architecture in the Arab world glitters like a golden dome. Some are being shelled to dust by war. Such is the horrifying story of Homs, Syria. Once a cosmopolitan and tolerant city of more than one million, Homs has hosted clashes between rebel groups and President Bashar Assad’s forces since 2011. Those clashes have mortared and shelled the city into an oblivion. Thousands of residents have been killed. Most of the remaining have fled. But not all.
Marwa al-Sabouni and her family have stayed. Marwa al-Sabouni has her PhD. in Islamic architecture and wrote a compelling memoir about architecture and destruction in Homs called “The Battle for Home.”
Marwa al-Sabouni spoke with Anne Strainchamps via Skype from her apartment in Homs, Syria.
Poet Anna Rabinowitz found a shoe box full of old letters and photos of family and friends killed in the Holocaust. She wrote the poem "Darkling" to feature their voices. We also hear excerpts from the opera "Darkling."
Alain de Botton tells Steve Paulson how modern readers can derive comfort from philosophy, and sees no conflict between talking about serious ideas and entertaining the reader.
Allen Long is a former dope-smuggler and the subject of Robert Sabbag’s book “Loaded: A Misadventure on the Marijuana Trail.” Anne Strainchamps interviewed them a week apart.
Anne Lamott is famous for her intensely personal and very funny style of writing. Her latest book is "Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith."
Screenwriter and novelist Andrew Davies talks about why Jane Austen is hot again, what he had to do to the “Bridget Jones’s Diary” script, and how he felt when someone else adapted and filmed one of his novels
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