This week on Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam looks at what we find funny and what, well, crosses the line. Comedian Bill Burr joins us to talk about why race, gender and Caitlin Jenner can be so funny.
This year, short stories and fragmented intense memoirs — along with the incredible true story of a short-haired dog — dominate Maureen Corrigan's best books list.
For as long as humans have eaten, they've entertained grand visions of the future of food. But the shiny objects of food futurism rarely pan out in the way the visionaries intended.
Lee's new film, Chiraq, draws on an ancient idea to deal with the present-day crisis of gun violence in Chicago. Natalie Moore of member station WBEZ explains how.
Rick Moody discusses his new novel,which istold solely in the form of online hotel reviews. The narrator of Hotels Of North America is increasingly down on his luck — and may even be homeless.
Through powerful monologues, Anna Deavere Smith has tackled race riots, integration and health care. In Notes from the Field, she's using her characters to explore the school-to-prison pipeline.
Pindar Van Arman is a painter — and a software designer. His latest project? A portrait-painting robot. Its paintings "dance on the edge" between creations by humans and machines, he says.
The century-old Khalidi library holds the largest private manuscript collection in Jerusalem. It closed shortly after the Six-Day War. Now the Khalidis have decided it's time to reopen.