Arts

Jonathan Franzen is also the author of Freedom and the essay collection How To Be Alone.

Books
Arts

Jonathan Franzen On Writing: It's An 'Escape From Everything'

5:44pm September 01, 2015

The author of The Corrections and the new novel Purity likens writing to losing himself in a dream. "When it's really going well ... you're in a fantasy land and feeling no pain," he says.

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On Canadian tasseomancer Amy Taylor's vintage tea-leaf reading cups, your reading is determined by where your leaves fall on the preprinted symbols on the cups.

Arts

For Centuries, People Have Searched For Answers In The Bottom Of A Tea Cup

4:51pm September 01, 2015

by Laurel Dalrymple

The practice of reading tea leaves had its heyday during Victorian times, when fascination with the occult and self-analysis thrived. It was safer than other forms of divination and persists today.

Arts

For Penn & Teller's Magical Partnership, The Trick Is Telling The Truth

10:59am September 01, 2015

by NPR Staff

The duo are are back on Broadway. They both talk — yes, even Teller — with NPR's Scott Simon about magic, danger and the remarkable endurance of their 40-year partnership.

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Debra Messing, Eric McCormack and Sean Hayes in a scene from Will & Grace.

How Shows Like 'Will & Grace' And 'Black-ish' Can Change Your Brain

8:16am September 01, 2015

by Maanvi Singh

Go ahead, use this article to justify binge-watching Orange Is the New Black all weekend.

Oliver Sacks was an author, physician and a professor of neurology at the New York University School of Medicine.

Oliver Sacks: A Neurologist At The 'Intersection Of Fact And Fable'

7:52am September 01, 2015

The neurologist, who died Sunday, saw "infinitely moving, dramatic, romantic situations" during his decades studying the human brain. Fresh Air remembers Sacks with two interviews from 1985 and 2012.

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Books
Arts

Truth Is Strange And Fiction Is Charming In 'Girl Waits With Gun'

7:04am September 01, 2015

by Genevieve Valentine

Amy Stewart's new novel is inspired by the real-life tale of the Kopp sisters, three women who faced down a cruel factory owner after he crashed into their buggy and refused to pay restitution.

Books
Arts

Ursula K. Le Guin Steers Her Craft Into A New Century

7:55pm August 31, 2015

by NPR Staff

The famed novelist says that at 85 she no longer has the energy to write another book, but she's just released a revised and updated edition of her manual for aspiring writers, Steering the Craft.

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Patty Wagstaff is a fixture at air shows. She became the first woman to win the U.S. National Aerobatic Championship in 1991, and her winning plane (not pictured) is on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Arts

An Aerobatics Pilot Spins (And Rolls, And Loops) A Career From A Crash

7:29pm August 31, 2015

by Daniel Hajek

Award-winning aviator Patty Wagstaff tackles the extreme, but she was inspired by a simple takeoff gone wrong. Crawling out of the plane, she looked at her pilot and thought, "I can do a lot better."

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Wayne Dyer attends the premiere of the film Ambition to Meaning: Finding Your Life's Purpose at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles in 20

Self-Help Author And Speaker Wayne Dyer Dies At 75

6:48pm August 31, 2015

by Bill Chappell

Many of his fans saw Dyer's own life story — he grew up an orphan in Detroit — as proof of the power of his ideas.

German director Wim Wenders poses with his Honorary Golden Bear Award for lifetime achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

Arts

German Filmmaker Wim Wenders Sums Up His Work In One Word

2:03pm August 31, 2015

by NPR Staff

That word is "searchers." Wenders says, "If you look at the history of filmmaking, most great filmmakers actually were working on one story for all their lives."

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