"Independent People" by Halldór Laxness reviewed by author David Mitchell ("Cloud Atlas")
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
David Gessner wants to change the way people write about nature. Instead of the traditional stories about wild animals in pristine landscapes, he calls for a style of nature writing that's messy, even raucous.
According to Cesar Millan, dogs need exercise, discipline and affection, in that order.
Last summer's sleeper hit was a book by David Wroblewski called "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." Wroblewski reads from his novel and talks with Jim Fleming about his life in Wisconsin as the child of a family who raised dogs.
Chris Kilham tells Jim Fleming why deep, dark, bittersweet chocolate is a health food. It has more anti-oxidants than Vitamin C!
According to historian Thomas Laqueur, neither sanitation nor the soul fully explain the rang of rituals we've developed for caring for dead bodies. For him, there is a deeper anthropological truth at work: caring for the dead marks the human transition from nature into culture.
I dunno, but it seems kind of extreme, not to mention risky, to bio-engineer a mass mosquito die-off. So Steve Paulson tracked down the world’s greatest living entomologist to see what he has to say. E. O Wilson is sometimes called “the ant man” – that’s the insect he studied most – but he’s best known as the evolutionary biologist and a champion of biodiversity. He’s 86 years old now, and has just finished what is probably his last book – called “Half Earth”. It’s a passionate plea to save humanity by dedicating half the planet to nature. You’d assume that Wilson would be happy to let mosquitos live in that half… but that’s not what he told Steve.
NPR's Eric Nuzum reveals his lifelong fear of ghosts in a haunting new memoir, “Giving Up The Ghost” – the story of his troubled teenage years, suicidal fantasies and conviction that he was being stalked by the ghost of a little girl. In this EXTENDED interview, he talks with Anne Strainchamps about depression, friendship, and what it means to be haunted.
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