We re-examine the myth of Robert Johnson. The most famous blues singer of them all died at the age of 27 after recording only 29 songs. Today he's idolized, but Elijah Wald says that may be for the wrong reasons.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Bruce Watson tells Steve Paulson why Erector Sets were so huge. They reflected the spirit of America’s Industrial Age, and A.C. Gilbert marketed them directly to boys.
Carrie Rickey is the film critic for "The Philadelphia Inquirer." She talks to Steve Paulson about how Marshall McLuhan's ideas influenced David Cronenberg's 1983 sci-fi/horror film, as chronicled in her essay, "Videodrome; Make Mine Cronenberg."
Entomologist Deborah Gordon tells Steve Paulson that ant colonies run with no one in charge. She’s spent years figuring out how they do it.
Could the Internet feel happy or depressed? That's a distinct possibility, according to Christof Koch. In this EXTENDED interview, he talks about computer consciousness, God, and just what it means that our brains have a hundred billion neurons and trillions of synapses. Koch wonders whether all matter might have consciousness.
Ernie Cline talks to Anne Strainchamps about his novel, "Ready Player One," which revolves around a massively multi-player online game and '80s pop culture.
This is Charles. This interview was recorded near the end of the presidential race when everyone and their brother was trying to figure out what was happening in the minds of poor, white voters. I grew up in poverty under the shadows of Northeast Ohio steel mills. And it struck me that many of the insight everyone was looking for was right there in the music of where I grew up. In my opinion, the best example of that voice in 2016 was country music singer-songwriter Brandy Clark. Her album, "Big Day in a Small Town," had the answers, if anyone dared to listen.
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