When we’re talking about data, we’re really talking about code—the languages that structure every aspect of our digital lives. But can code itself be interesting? Or even beautiful? Vikram Chandra grew up in India and always wanted to be a novelist, but when he came to the United States, he discovered computers—going from a weekend tinkerer to a consultant who paid his way through grad school. He spoke with Steve Paulson on what makes good writing, and what makes good code.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Neurologist Alice Flaherty talks about the science behind writer’s block, and recounts her own experiences with hypergraphia.
Amy Wilensky has both Tourette’s Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She tells Jim Fleming how she finally found some relief through a combination of medication and cognitive therapy.
It's shot entirely on an iPhone 4 and distributed not through theaters, but via an app. It's Goldlocks.
Anne Strainchamps talks with Anne Fadiman about her book “Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love.”
The Thousand and One Nights have been told and re-told for centuries, censored and banned in the Middle East, and made into cheesy Disney movies for kids. But have you ever read them? Here's the backstory with Steve Paulson.
A.C. Grayling talks about the western Allies’ use of carpet bombing against civilian populations in both the European and Pacific theaters during WWII.
He tells Steve Paulson that the long tradition of rigorous investigation of the mind undertaken by Buddhism has a lot to teach Western science.
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