Benjamin Percy's new novel"The Dead Lands" is a wilderness thriller set in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The descendants of Lewis and Clark reprise their ancestors' epic cross-country journey in search of a new beginning.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Roger Ebert won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 and is probably the most famous movie critic in America. He talks with Steve Paulson about the movie genre known as film noir.
Ruth Padel is an acclaimed British poet and a direct descendent of Charles Darwin. She’s now written “Darwin: A Life in Poems,” having grown up hearing stories about her famous ancestor.
The common wisdom is that we’re getting more violent all the time. Witness the genocides and world wars of the last century. But cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says we have it all wrong. And in his 800 page book “The Better Angels of Ourselves” he makes the case for how violence has declined.
What does your name say about you? Psychoanalyst Mavis Himes helps clients uncover the invisible family legacies hidden in names. She talks about what it means to truly own and inhabit your name.
Have you got a nose for the new? Do you make fast decisions, based on incomplete information? Do you lose your temper quickly? Are you bored a lot? Do you thrive in chaotic situations? You might be a born seeker… what Winifred Gallagher calls a neophiliac.
Take the quiz. Are you a neophiliac?
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/the-well-quiz-how-adventurous-are-you/
Satish Kumar, a former Jain monk and follower of Ghandi, tells Steve Paulson that the secret to a stress-free life is to take it at a walking pace.
Susannah Cahalan talks about her book, "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness."
Pages
