Stephen Greenblatt, John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, joins us to talk about how an epidemic influenced Shakespeare.
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Lessons On Kindness From NPR’s Scott Simon
The Weekend Edition host talks about his new YA novel about accepting others when, sometimes, their gifts are hidden.
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Susan Choi On Her Nation Book Award Winner
Susan Choi joins us to talk about her book, “Trust Exercise: A Novel,” which was a runaway hit last year, delighting readers and critics all the way to a National Book Award.
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Lawrence Wright Predicted This Would Happen
Lawrence Wright joins us to talk about his fiction focused on a pandemic upending the world, written months and months before our current crisis.
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When Science Misses The Forest For The Trees
Lulu Miller, co-founder of NPR’s “Invisibilia,” joins us to talk about her study of the first president of Stanford University, a taxonomist obsessed with fish, and how his discoveries — and ultimately his intellectual myopia — helped her to make sense of her own world.
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Ireland Split In Two: A History Of The Troubles
New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe talks to us about assessing this recent dark period of Irish history through the lens of this mysterious disappearance.
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When Bombs Tried to Kill Them, Books Kept Their Souls Alive
Journalist Mike Thompson joins us to talk about one bright spot in the Syrian Civil War: a secret world of books that offered normality and refuge.
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‘Undone’: The Story Behind Amazon’s Coolest Series
Kate Purdy, co-creator, producer and writer of “Undone,” joins us to talk about her drama, which uses Rotoscope animation to bridge the worlds of the living and the dead.
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When Lincoln Died, The Drama Began
The co-creators of a dramatic podcast about the days following Lincoln’s assassination join us to talk about crafting a compelling modern drama from the annals of history.
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Margaret Atwood Tells The Rest Of The Story
Novelist Margaret Atwood joins us to talk about her new book,“The Testaments.”
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When Fans Write The Story
Michael Schulman joins us to talk about the rise of superfans and the power they command.
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How Pop Culture Demonizes Powerful Women
Feminist author Sady Doyle joins us to talk about how the violent woman trope affects the conversation about equality.
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