WPR: To the Best of our Knowledge - Culture

The Redemption of General Butt Naked

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Are there – should there be – limits to the kind of sins that can be redeemed? What about mass murder?

Helen DeWitt on "Lightning Rods"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Helen DeWitt tells Anne Strainchamps about her novel, "Lightning Rods," which focuses on a bizarre solution to sexual harrassment in the workplace.

Alison Bechdel on Are You My Mother?

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Alison Bechdel calls her comic book memoir Are You My Mother? “a comic drama.” The New York Times Book Review calls it “as complicated, brainy, inventive and satisfying as the finest prose memoirs.” Here’s Steve Paulson’s NEW and UNCUT interview with Bechdel.

Life in Death, Death in Life

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Every spring in Japan, people crowd under blooming cherry trees. They're signs of spring, and remembrances of life's transience.Master gardener Sadafumi Uchiyama says the blossoms are the quintessential representation of the Japanese principle of mono no aware... beauty in the intertwining of life and death.

Close-up Death

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

We tend not to talk about death much in North America. Maybe we just don’t have the words to contain something so visceral. Maybe images are a better way to explore or express our mortality, and our feelings about it.In a recent body of work, photographer Sarah Sudhoff helps us take a close look at death. In the NEW and EXTENDED interview, Anne Strainchamps talks with Sarah Sudhoff about ‘At the Hour of Our Death’.

Nathan Myhrvold on Modernist Cuisine

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Myhrvold talks about inventing and his six-volume, 2400-page, 52 pound cookbook called Modernist Cuisine.

Terry Tempest Williams on "When Women Were Birds"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 6 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Terry Tempest Williams has spent much of her life trying to understand her mother - both a private woman and a trickster. Her memoir is also an exploration of silence and finding one's voice.

Christopher Schaberg on "The Textual Life of Airports"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 6 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Christopher Schaberg talks about looking at the airport through the lens of literature.

Alain de Botton on "A Week at the Airport"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 6 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Alain de Botton talks about "A Week at the Airport."

Terry Tempest Williams on Walking in the Woods

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Noted nature writer Terry Tempest Williams knows that the woods can be frightening, if you go walking in them with the wrong person. She tells the story of how she narrowly escaped a brutal attack while hiking.

Marina Warner on Enchanted Forests

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

For thousands of years, people have been telling stories about magical woods and enchanted forests. Writer and mythographer Marina Warner talks about the forest in human memory and imagination.

William Powers on the Art of Living Small

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

William Powers had returned home from abroad, in shock at the excess of American culture. Then he found a woman he calls Dr. Jackie Benton, living sustainabily in a 12 x 12 house in rural North Carolina. He tells her story in the book "Twelve by Twelve."

Jeremy Seifert on Food Waste in America

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Jeremy Seifert fed his family on pickings from the local dumpsters in Los Angeles California. The adventure awakened him to the immense waste of food going on in America every day. The result is his documentary "Dive!" which tackles food waste in our throw-away culture.

Melissa Coleman on a Childhood Spent Back to the Land

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Melissa Coleman spent the formative years of her chilldhood roaming the lands of her family's farn in rural Maine. Melissa, her sister Heidi, and their parents, Eliot and Sue Coleman, lived off the grid, and became media darlings when the Wall Street Journal ran an article about her father. Coleman writes about that time in her memoir "This Life is in Your Hands."

Aleph Molinari on the Knowledge Divide

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Mon, 2 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Aleph Molinari says approximately 70 percent of the global population does not have access to digital technology. And that digital divide means billions of people are being left out of education, employment, and global dialogues.

Kenneth Goldsmith on "Uncreative Writing"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 1 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Poet and writer Kenneth Goldsmith talks about his "Uncreative Writing" course in which students are penalized for showing any originality and creativity. Goldsmith is the author of "Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age."

Austin Kleon on "Steal Like an Artist"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 1 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Austin Kleon talks about his book, "Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative."

Jonah Lehrer on "Imagine: How Creativity Works"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 1 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Jonah Lehrer talks about his new book, "Imagine: How Creativity Works."

Elizabeth Mahon on Women Scoundrels

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Where are the female scalawags? The lady rogue? Well, Anne Strainchamps set out to find out. She called up Elizabeth Mahon, author of the blog and the book of the same name: “Scandalous Women.”

James Hessler on "Sickles at Gettysburg"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0600

We might not have the perfect definition of the word “scoundrel” but we can certainly agree on one thing – Civil War General and US Congressman Daniel Sickles was the epitome of a scoundrel.