Architect Lisa Mahar is the author of “American Signs: Form and Meaning on Route 66.” She says that the signs started out plain, but became grandiose neon monuments by the 1950s.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Steve Paulson talks with Judith Jones, legendary editor at Knopf, about discovering French cooking herself and her long friendship and partnership with Julia Child.
Mukoma Wa Ngugi is a poet and English professor who writes crime novels set in his native Kenya. He says the crime genre lets him write truthfully about race, class and violence in cities like Nairobi.
Luke Rhinehart published a novel in the 70s that became a cult classic. “The Dice Man” involves a psychiatrist who opens his life to new possibilities by basing his actions on a throw of the diced
Feminist Naomi Wolf tells Anne Strainchamps that common obstetrical practices make things easier for the hospital, not the mother and baby, and she explains why many post-feminist women are shocked by the demands of early motherhood.
Foreign policy analyst Robert Kagan tells Steve Paulson that Europeans and Americans have very different ideas about the value of military power. He says the Europeans’ reservations about invading Iraq are entirely legitimate.
Nicholson Baker talks about his new novel, "House of Holes: A Book of Raunch," which is set in a sexual theme park.
Nicholson Baker's "House of Holes" page on Simon and Schuster's website
David Galenson teaches Economics at the University of Chicago, and he's the author of a book called "Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity." His theory is that most artists are either old masters like Cezanne or young geniuses like Picasso.
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