Arts & Life

"I think some people do know how to do it! I wasn't one of those people." — Julia Sweeney

Arts

When It Comes Time For 'The Talk,' Are All Parents Amateurs?

9:48am August 14, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

Actor and writer Julia Sweeney says parenting has always made her feel like an amateur — but especially when her 8-year-old started asking some smart questions about animal reproduction.

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"When you tell someone your goal and they acknowledge it ... the mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it's already done." — Derek Sivers

Arts

What's The Best Way To Achieve A New Goal?

9:48am August 14, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

After setting a new personal goal, often your first instinct is to tell someone. But entrepreneur Derek Sivers says you're better off keeping it to yourself.

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"My agenda is very transparent and very simple: I want to save my kid, and will not let this disease take him without a fight." — Nancy Frates

How Did A Simple Challenge Become A Worldwide Phenomenon?

9:48am August 14, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

The 2014 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was one of the fastest fundraising efforts in history. Nancy Frates recounts how her love for her son Pete plunged her into leading a worldwide awareness campaign.

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"Physics tells you what you can and can't do. If you know the physics anything else is possible." — Taylor Wilson

What Does It Take To Produce Nuclear Fusion — In Your Garage?

9:48am August 14, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

Taylor Wilson is a self-taught nuclear physicist who sees every obstacle as a challenge. He describes how — at age 14 — he built a working nuclear fusion reactor in his garage.

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Author Walter Mosley in front of his childhood home in the LA neighborhood of Watts. He's standing with his father.

Walter Mosley: Watts Riots 'Paved The Way For A Lot Of Change'

9:44am August 14, 2015

by NPR Staff

The author, whose "Easy Rawlins" mystery novels are largely set in Watts, looks back 50 years ago to the night when the neighborhood first went up in flames.

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Bel Powley stars as Minnie Goetze in The Diary of a Teenage Girl. Directed by Marielle Heller, the film is based on a semi-autobiographical graphic novel by Phoebe Gloeckner.

Arts

A 'Diary' Unlocked: A Teenage Coming-Of-Age Story Put On Film

8:59am August 14, 2015

When she was 15, Phoebe Gloeckner lost her virginity to her mother's boyfriend. Gloeckner wrote about the experience in The Diary of a Teenage Girl, which Marielle Heller adapted into a film.

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Arts

'Sesame Street' To Air Next 5 Seasons On HBO

6:14am August 14, 2015

by Eric Deggans

After the first nine months of airing new episodes exclusively on HBO, Sesame Street will also be available on PBS for free. NPR takes a look at the agreement and its possible consequences.

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In Twitter Rant, Tinder Blasts 'Vanity Fair' Article On New York Dating Culture

6:55pm August 13, 2015

In an outburst on Twitter, the dating app Tinder criticized a recent Vanity Fair article describing the hookup culture in New York City. Tinder said it was unfairly portrayed in the article, and reporter Nancy Jo Sales failed to seek the company's comment for the story.

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Poet Richard Blanco On U.S., Cuba: 'We All Belong To The Sea Between Us'

6:55pm August 13, 2015

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Blanco, who was born to a Cuban exile family and read at President Obama's second inauguration, about the poem he will read at the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.

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Books
Arts

Kafka Would Love 'The Beautiful Bureaucrat'

6:05pm August 13, 2015

by Michael Schaub

Helen Phillips' surreal, dark, funny new novel follows a young woman named Josephine, who gets a job at a mysterious agency. Critic Michael Schaub says the book works as both love story and thriller.