Author Interviews

The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search For Human Happiness, by Paula Poundstone

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Arts

Paula Poundstone's 'Totally Unscientific' Search For The Secret Of Happiness

8:16am May 07, 2017

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Paula Poundstone had a great idea: Try fun stuff and get a publishing company to pay for it in the name of science. The result? The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness.

Books

Joshua Ferris On The 'Lack Of Self-Awareness' Of His Characters

7:48am May 06, 2017

by Lynn Neary

Joshua Ferris is best known for his book Then We Came To An End, a satirical depiction of office life. In The Dinner Party, he turns to short stories that take aim at the inner lives of clueless guys.

The Purple Swamp Hen, by Penelope Lively

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Arts

Penelope Lively Ponders Pompeii — And Other Stories — In 'The Purple Swamp Hen'

7:48am May 06, 2017

by Scott Simon

Award-winning novelist Penelope Lively hasn't written short stories in decades, but, she says, the form suddenly came back to her, for a collection that ranges from Pompeii to the modern day.

Star-Lord/Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Drax (Dave Bautista) in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2.

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Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2' And W. Kamau Bell

10:03am May 05, 2017

by Linda Holmes

This week's show combines our discussion of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 with a discussion we recently had in Chicago with comedian, host, and writer W. Kamau Bell.

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Remastering The Mythos: Questions For Ruthanna Emrys

10:00am May 04, 2017

by Petra Mayer

When Ruthanna Emrys first read H.P. Lovecraft's classic tale "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," her sympathies were squarely with the monsters — and that sympathy was the seed of her new book, Winter Tide.

Federal housing policies created after the Depression ensured that African-Americans and other people of color were left out of the new suburban communities — and pushed instead into urban housing projects, such as Detroit's Brewster-Douglass towers.

A 'Forgotten History' Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America

9:28am May 04, 2017

by Terry Gross

Author Richard Rothstein says the housing programs begun under the New Deal were tantamount to a "state-sponsored system of segregation," in which people of color were purposely excluded from suburbs.

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Hala Alyan is the author of three poetry collections. Salt Houses is her first novel.

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'I Belonged Nowhere': A Story Of Displacement, From A Novelist Who Knows

5:05am May 04, 2017

by Steve Inskeep

Salt Houses traces several generations of a displaced Palestinian family. Author Hala Alyan says she experienced firsthand the "intergenerational trauma that went along with losing a homeland."

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Arts

For Richard Ford, Memoir Is A Chance To 'Tell The Unthinkable'

1:29pm May 02, 2017

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist revisits the lives and deaths of his parents in his new memoir, Between Them. "As much as they loved me, an only child, they loved each other more," he says.

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Former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush greet evangelist Billy Graham in 2010.

Why White Evangelicals Are 'Splintering' Politically

11:47am May 02, 2017

by Danielle Kurtzleben

A new book traces the history of white evangelicals in the U.S., from the group's rebellious 19th century roots to its role as political force. We asked the author about where the movement is headed.

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Arts

A Dangerous Trip Into The 'Spill Zone:' Questions For Scott Westerfeld

10:00am May 02, 2017

by Petra Mayer

Scott Westerfeld's new graphic novel was inspired by photos of Chernobyl; it's the story of two sisters living on the outskirts of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. after a mysterious incident destroys the city.