What is the Muslim view of world history and how does it differ from what we learn in the West? We’ll talk this hour with Tamim Ansary, director of the San Francisco Writers Workshop and author of the new book “Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes” (Public Affairs, 2009).
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What is the future of the world’s nuclear arsenal? This hour we’ll examine the massive arms race of the 20th Century and how it continues even today with journalist Stephanie Cooke. Her new book is “In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age” (Bloomsbury, 2009).
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What has happened to the bees and what will become of those who care for them? We’ll explore the complexities of the hive and the future of the honeybee with beekeeper Susan Brackney whose new book is “Plan Bee: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Hardest-Working Creatures on the Planet” (Perigree, 2009).
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How are things changing in Washington D.C. and how will the Obama Administration handle an upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court along with its other pressing responsibilities? We’ll spend this hour with John Harwood, chief Washington correspondent for CNBC, political writer for the New York Times and co-author of “Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power: Making Washington Work Again” (Random House, 2009) which is now out in paperback.
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How have politics and the rapid digitalization of society changed language? We’ll talk this hour with regular Fresh Air contributor Geoffrey Nunberg, whose new collection of essays and articles deconstructs the buzzwords, stock phrases and metaphors of the last few years. It’s called “The Years of Talking Dangerously” (Public Affairs, 2009).
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Is it even possible to live a perfect life? We’ll talk with Lee Woodruff, life and family contributor for ABC’s Good Morning America and author of the new book “Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress” (Random House, 2009).
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What makes an out-of-date corporate instructional video or a thrift store-purchased family home movie featuring strangers so funny? We’ll find out this hour with Joe Pickett, co-founder of the Found Footage Festival which appears at the Lakewood Theater in Dallas tomorrow night.
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Does the modern world continually surprise you? If so, you’re not alone. We’ll talk this hour with former Time Magazine editor and current geostrategic advisor Joshua Cooper Ramo, whose new book is “The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It” (Little, Brown, 2009).
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How have the roles of American women changed in the last ten years? How about the last hundred years? We’ll talk this hour with renowned political commentator Cokie Roberts. Her #1 New York Times Bestseller “We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters” is now out in an updated 10th anniversary edition (William Morrow, 2009).
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How did the American Jewish community memorialize those who died in the Holocaust after World War II? We’ll spend this hour with Hasia R. Diner, the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History and Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History at NYU. Her new book is “We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945-1962” (NYU Press, 2009).
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Who really “discovered” America? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz will appear at Arts and Letters Live at the Dallas Museum of Art next week to discuss his book “A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World” (Henry Holt, paperback, 2009). We talked to him last year when the book was first published.
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What happened to British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the legendary Amazonian Lost City of Z? We talked with New Yorker staff writer David Grann earlier this year about his book “The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon” (Doubleday, 2009). Grann will appear at Arts and Letters Live at the Dallas Museum of Art next week.
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