Thursday, September 6, 2018, 6:00am
The anthropologist David Graeber says there is an epidemic of meaningless jobs, especially in middle management.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 11:15am
Alissa Quart spent the last few years traveling around the United States talking with all kinds of people about work. What she found is a lot of people with jobs that look good on paper but who feel — in a word — squeezed.
Friday, August 10, 2018, 2:05pm
This week marks the one-year anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, VA. Christian Picciolini knows that world intimately. He joined America’s first neo-Nazi skinhead group when he was 14 years old. He rose through the ranks of what would become the Hammerskin Nation, one of the most violent white-power groups in the world. Then he had a baby and a change of heart.
Friday, August 10, 2018, 1:50pm
Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant is the first socialist to win an election in Seattle in almost a century. Her platform included fighting for — and winning — a $15 minimum wage, and a tax on the wealthy.
Thursday, August 2, 2018, 3:05pm
Heather Swan, who teaches environmental literature and writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has combined her love of bees, writing and art in the book, "Where Honeybees Thrive: Stories From the Field."
Friday, July 6, 2018, 1:25am
Michael Twitty can trace his family’s food history back to the slave cabins and Antebellum kitchens of the South. Honoring his diasporicheritage — he’s both black and Jewish — lead Twitty to the practice of identity cooking. He calls it Kosher/Soul.
Friday, July 6, 2018, 1:15am
For years, David Roberts climbed some of Alaska’s biggest mountains, and made a number of first ascents. His new book is an examination of why some climbers feel compelled to push the edge of what’s possible.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 10:10am
Feeling regret about committing a crime matters in criminal sentencing. But if emotion isn't supposed to have a place in the law, should it matter? Speaking to Steve Paulson for "To The Best of Our Knowledge," Susan Bandes tells us how judges and juries evaluate remorse, and why.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 10:00am
Young people seem to be feeling the pressure to be perfect more than anyone else. Social psychologist Tom Curran tells us how neoliberalism and the digital age created a generation that feels guilty about falling short of flawlessness.
Monday, June 25, 2018, 2:40pm
Circe, the all-powerful goddess from Homer’s "The Odyssey," is known for turning men into swine, and for her mastery of potions. The artwork "Circe," imagined by Romare Bearden, is a black woman surrounded by mystical animals and a skull, wearing West African garb with a calm but defiant look on her face.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018, 2:15pm
Writer, classicist, and stand-up comic Natalie Haynes makes a strong case for reading ancient Greek and Roman literature in the modern age.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 11:00am
A hip hop super-producer and pioneering beat-maker, J Dilla died at just 32 years old. He worked right up until the end, and his mother was there for every bit of it.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 3:20pm
Dan Pink has written several books about motivation, work and behavior. His most recent, called “When,” is all about timing. He says people facing an ending seems to push people in new directions.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018, 12:30pm
TPakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid sets his newest novel, "Exit West," in a world of permanent mass migration, in a city ripped apart by civil war. He told Steve Paulson he modeled it on his own city — Lahore, Pakistan.
Tuesday, May 1, 2018, 11:55am
You wouldn’t think a novel about trees would become a major literary event. But Richard Powers' "The Overstory" is overturning a lot of conventional thinking. It’s been called "visionary" and "monumental." And though human characters shape the plot of this 500-page epic, the real heroes are trees.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 2:55pm
"Poetry helps me clear out that clutter that's doing nothing but rattling around and making noise." says Tyler Knott Gregson, who has been composing new poems by typewriter daily for years and posting them on Instagram.
Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 1:30pm
Author Angie Thomas poured her emotions into her debut young adult novel. "The Hate U Give" has become a best-selling novel, nominated for a national book award and soon to be a film. Thomas talks about how writing the book has changed her, and how teenagers give her hope.
Thursday, March 1, 2018, 4:15pm
When they weren’t committing mass murder, many of the noteworthy authoritarian leaders of the 20th century wrote books. Terrible books. Journalist Daniel Kalder read all of them.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018, 1:55pm
Astrology, the Myers-Briggs test, and even Buzzfeed place you into the same archetype as thousands of other people. So why turn to them? It comes down to crafting a personal narrative using archetypes.
Monday, February 19, 2018, 4:25pm
Chloe Benjamin is superstitious. So when her second novel, "The Immortalists," debuted at No. 7 on The New York Times bestseller list, she was thrilled for the typical reasons, but also enamored with the luck, mystery and religious overtones of becoming "Number Seven."
