Wanna make it in America, a good education gets you a long way, right?. That’s especially true if you’re not a white kid from a high income family. Parents and filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson have just released an astounding documentary about their son's journey through an elite New York prep school.
You can also hear our uncut conversation with them.
Andy Behrman describes some of the excesses of his manic state and talks about the course of electric shock therapy that finally got his illness under control.
In the fourth episode of the story of Dan Pierotti's death, friends and family stay with Dan's body in the days before the funeral. Dan's wife Judy talks about her experience of the funeral and burial.
"Then it's final," Judy says. "There's no coming back from any of it. But just the first shovel full of dirt that hits that coffin... that's very hard to hear, very hard to experience."
What have the recent leaks about the NSA's surveillance program have revealed? Computer scientist and independent scholar Susan Landau gives us her perspective, and weighs in on the questions of inquiries, and checks and balances.
You can also hear our extended conversation with Landau.
What's the perfect drug for a culture of distraction? Adderall. Sales of the prescription drug have increased exponentially and not always legally, especially to young adults. Casey Schwartz spent her twenties gulping down prescription stimulants to help her get through school and start her career. She wrote about her experience in a story for "The New York Times Magazine" called "Generation Adderall."
Ali Allawi is a visiting fellow at Harvard and the former Minister of Defense and Minister of Finance in Iraq. He talks with Steve Paulson about Islam and modernism.
Writer Andre Aciman says a good memoir can capture emotional truth even when certain historical details are fictionalized. He describes the art of the memoir.
American writer Amanda Henry is married to a Frenchman. She provides a commentary on how differently they perceive things due to their national origins.
