Got World Cup fever? Here's Roger Kittleson on how Brazilian politics, culture and passion is wrapped up in soccer.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
If there’s one writer who’s identified with the Mississippi River, it’s Mark Twain. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri — on the river’s edge — and as a young man, he worked as a steamboat pilot. And then he wrote the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the novel that turned the Mississippi into myth. But it also created one of the most enduring controversies in American literary history: how to depict race relations in America's past. In this interview, Andrew Levy says that "Huckleberry Finn" is actually anti-racist — and when it was first published, the big controversy was about Twain’s depiction of wild children.
How do modern societies compare to hunter gatherer cultures? In "The World Until Yesterday," Jared Diamond, explores our radically different values - on everything from childrearing to what we think about strangers. Here's Steve's EXTENDED interview with Diamond.
John Elder Robison, whose younger brother is the writer Augusten Burroughs, did not get his diagnosis of Asperger's until he was in his 40s.
For centuries, the oddities of nature - like two-headed cats and conjoined twins - fascinated people. Science historian Lorraine Daston says a history of wonders is to some degree a history of pre-modern science.
Jim Fleming talks with Mairin Ui Cheide, a sean-nos singer. Sean-nos is old-style traditional singing where songs usually tell a story.
Ballet is performed all over the world, but in Russia ballet is the route to stardom.
Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake may wield more power over the economy than anyone else, even though he was never elected. Washington Post journalist Neil Irwin takes us inside the elite club of the world's leading central bankers.
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