Notebook On Cities And Culture

A conversation about what's wrong with literary studies and a possible way forward with Jonathan Gottschall, English instructor at Washington and Jefferson College and author of Science, Literature and a New Humanities.

A conversation with physicist and University of Utah adjunct professor of anthropology Gregory Cochran, co-author with Henry Harpending of The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution.

A conversation about the organic basis of decisionmaking with Jonah Lehrer, editor-at-large at Seed magazine and author of How We Decide.

A conversation about what gardens say about human nature, what's missing from mainstream radio and the place of the humanities with Robert Harrison, Rosina Pierotti Professor of Italian Literature at Stanford University and host of KZSU's Entitled Opinions. His latest book is Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition.

A conversation about the genesis of probability theory with mathematician Keith Devlin, author of The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern.

A conversation about having fun with poetry, providing an alternative to academia and hosting television programs from one's own home with writer and "cultural polymath" Clive James, author of Opal Sunset: Selected Poems 1958-2008. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about knowledge, commerce and the Western canon with novelist and journalist Alex Beam, author of A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books.

A conversation about the greatest British philosopher of all time with Simon Blackburn, professor of philosophy at Cambridge University and the University of North Carolina and author of How to Read Hume. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about Margaret Thatcher, the most controversial British Prime Minister of the 20th century, with Claire Berlinski, author of There is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about intellectual rigor and intellectual confusion with New York University physicist Alan Sokal, the man behind the "Sokal Hoax" and author of Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about art markets with Don Thompson, professor emeritus of marketing at York University's Schulich School of Business and author of The $12 Million Dollar Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about what's next for humanity with David Friedman, professor of law at Santa Clara University and author of the classic work of 20th-century political philosophy The Machinery of Freedom. In his new book, Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World, Friedman explores the law, the economics and the very sensory experience of a host of possible futures through the technologies likely to shape them, including universal surveillance, e-cash, designer kids, advanced encryption and nanotechnology. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about technology, philosophy and a beloved American motorcycle journey with Mark Richardson, auto and motorcycle editor of the Toronto Star and author of Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about demographics, punditry and American voting with Andrew Gelman, professor of statistics at Columbia University and author of Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State. [download] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about the red tape of viticulture, huge followings in Japan and Cabernet uprisings in the streets of Indianapolis with wine educator and blogger Tyler Colman, known in the blogosphere as "Dr. Vino", author of Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists and Mobsters Influence the Wines We Drink. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about the workings of the novel, the world between journalism and academia and literary versus religious belief with James Wood, book critic for the New Yorker and author of How Fiction Works. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about what's wrong with American education's priorities and how to fix them with the American Enterprise Institute's Charles Murray, author of Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about econophysics, generating genuine randomness and the rise of blogs with mathematical journalist and blogger Brian Hayes, author of Group Theory in the Bedroom. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about the dictionary-reader's ultimate challenge, all 21,730 pages of the Oxford English Dictionary, with Ammon Shea, author of Reading the OED. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]

A conversation about one man, one son, and one D.I.Y. film school with novelist and former CBC film critic David Gilmour, author of The Film Club: A Memoir. [download show] [MOI home] [MOI archive]