This is an encore of a program originally broadcast in May of 2025. Ross Gay is a writer with a mission: to help readers explore the beautiful complexities of joy, gratitude, and delight.&nbs...
The iconic activist and philosopher Angela Davis has been a major influence in global politics for more than 50 years. Davis first gained fame in the 1960s and 70s through her work within second-wa...
This week, we’re celebrating the life of architect Frank Gehry, with a conversation recorded in 2015. Widely regarded as one of the most influential designers of the last century, the Canadian...
Our guest is Rachel Kushner. Her writing includes novels like The Mars Room and The Flamethrowers, and essays on everything from prison abolition to art theory and motorcycle racing. Her fourth nov...
Why do people cooperate with one another when they have no (selfish) motivation to do so? Why do we hold onto possessions of little value? And why is the winner of an auction so often disappointed?...
This week, our guest is Padma Lakshmi. As host of shows like Taste the Nation and Top Chef, Lakshmi champions cooks and eaters from across cultures. She’s the author of several cookbooks – in...
This week, our guest is Salman Rushdie. Over the course of six decades, Rushdie has made a profound impact on literature and free speech. He is the author of fifteen novels, including Midnight’s Ch...
This week, our guest is Richard Misrach — one of the most influential voices in contemporary photography. His work appears in major museum collections around the world, and his innovative approach ...
This week, an encore of our 2023 conversation with legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog. He’s made over 70 movies – most of them documentaries like Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and G...
This week, our guest is Susan Orlean, the author of The Orchid Thief, The Library Book, and On Animals. Whether exploring the eccentric world of orchid collectors, untangling the mystery of a devas...
This week, our guest is Andrew Ross Sorkin, a financial news reporter at The New York Times, and co-anchor of Squawk Box on CNBC. His new book is 1929: The Inside Story of the Greatest Crash in Wal...
This week, our guest is Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia Journalism School and one of today’s most important public intellectuals. As a staff writer for The New Yorker, Cobb brings his dee...
Daniel Handler’s sardonic sense of humor and deep pathos have engaged readers across genres for over twenty-five years. Handler’s best known for his series of children’s books A Series of Unfortuna...
Author and cultural critic Jeff Chang's new book is “Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America”. The world’s most celebrated martial artist and one of the best-known action...
This week, the story behind one of the country’s premier dining destinations, Russ & Daughters. What began as a pushcart in 1904 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side is now an internationally-r...
Arundhati Roy’s internationally best-selling novels include The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Her nonfiction works engage elegantly and passionately with class and...
Our guest today is Bill McKibben, an activist and author at the forefront of the movement to address the climate crisis, even as far back as 1989, in his book “The End of Nature.” A legendary leade...
Our guest today is Samin Nosrat, chef, cookbook author, and television host. Along with her immense technical know-how, Nosrat is known for her nurturing and humorous approach to making food. Her f...
Our guest today is Mary Roach, a science writer who’s often drawn to taboo, or simply squeamish subjects, like sex, cadavers, or the digestive process. In books like Stiff, Bonk, Gulp, and Packing ...
We’re going back into the archives for a conversation with theoretical physicist Brian Greene, recorded in 2017. Greene is widely recognized for his groundbreaking discoveries in the field of super...
