Arts & Life

Jesse Walker is a senior editor at Reason magazine.

Books
Arts

Suspicious? In 'United States Of Paranoia,' It's Not Just You

1:01pm September 07, 2013

by NPR Staff

Author Jesse Walker argues that believing in shadowy cabals and ominous secrets isn't just for people on the margins — it's as American as apple pie. He says that our nation's paranoia stretches back to the colonial era, and that some conspiracy theories are believed by a majority of Americans.

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Goldkamp also keeps an index card file of choice words to integrate into his poem when he has trouble finding the right words.

Forget Twitter. In St. Louis, Bare Your Soul Via Typewriter

8:10pm September 05, 2013

by Erin Williams

With more than 300,000 residents, St. Louis has a lot on its mind. Local poet Henry Goldkamp hopes to find out just what makes the city tick with his new public art project. He's installed 37 typewriters citywide, asking for answers to the question, "What The Hell Is St. Louis Thinking?"

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Daniel Woodrell's novel Winter's Bone -- a dark family saga set in the Ozarks — was adapted into a film in 2010. Woodrell returned to his hometown of West Plains, Mo., about 20 years ago and has been writing there ever since.

Books
Arts

'Winter's Bone' Author Revisits A Tragedy In His Ozarks Hometown

6:42pm September 05, 2013

by Lynn Neary

For nearly a century, Daniel Woodrell's hometown of West Plains, Mo., has been haunted by a dance-hall explosion that killed dozens of the town's young people in 1928. Woodrell explores the disaster — and his Ozarks roots — in his new novel The Maid's Version.

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Arts

Seth Meyers' Prime-Time Political Parody

10:36am September 05, 2013

For Fresh Air's Late Night week, we listen back to a 2008 interview with Seth Meyers, head writer at Saturday Night Live, and the co-anchor of Weekend Update. Meyers will be taking over from Jimmy Fallon on Late Night, now that Fallon is moving to The Tonight Show. A longer version of this interview was originally broadcast on Oct. 29, 2008.

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The main character of Alice McDermott's Someone grew up in 1920s and '30s New York.

Books
Arts

From McDermott, An Extraordinary Story Of An Ordinary 'Someone'

3:27pm September 04, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Alice McDermott's characters can often be described as average, and Marie, the heroine of her latest novel, is no exception. But critic Maureen Corrigan says the power of McDermott's writing is that she can make even Marie's run-of-the-mill life one for the record books.

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Tlacoyos can be filled with beans, potatoes, mushrooms or cheese and are often topped with grilled cactus, onions, cilantro, and salsa.

Tlacoyos: A Mexican Grilled Snack That Tempted The Conquistadors

2:10pm September 04, 2013

by Carrie Kahn

Tlacoyos are a doughy corn tortilla of sorts that's cooked on a grill. Whether enjoyed on a plastic plate as street food or fine china in a high-end restaurant, it's been a favorite snack for centuries.

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Zelda Sayre and F. Scott Fitzgerald pose for a photo at the Sayre home in Montgomery, Ala., in 1919, the year before they married.

Books
Arts

For F. Scott And Zelda Fitzgerald, A Dark Chapter In Asheville, N.C.

3:30pm September 03, 2013

by Susan Stamberg

The Golden 1920s couple didn't fare as well in the 1930s, and the North Carolina mountain town was host to a particularly sad time. NPR's Susan Stamberg discovered a little-known story of the Jazz Age darlings and their devastating connections to Asheville.

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American composer Irving Berlin sings his song "God Bless America" in front of Boy Scouts troop members and spectators gathered at a tent in Monticello, New York in 1940. Instead of collecting royalties from "God Bless America," Berlin created a fund that

From Peace To Patriotism: The Shifting Identity Of 'God Bless America'

10:47am September 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

In the new book God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song, author Sheryl Kaskowitz explores the lyrical evolution of Irving Berlin's enduring song and explains how its early popularity reflected the anxiety of the pre-war period and sparked a surprising anti-Semitic and xenophobic backlash.

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Welcome to Night Vale is the number one most downloaded podcast on iTunes.

Arts

Welcome To 'Night Vale' — Watch Out For The Tarantulas

10:06am September 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

The popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast imagines a creepy desert town where conspiracies are real. From the hooded figures lurking in the closed-up dog park to the mysterious lights above the Arby's, Night Vale is a standard small American town that's just not quite right.

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Books
Arts

Shacochis Spans Generations In 'The Woman Who Lost Her Soul'

10:06am September 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

In his new book, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, Bob Shacochis returns to Haiti, but also takes the reader across continents and generations. The 700-page book has been compared to the work of Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene and Norman Mailer.

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