Author Interviews

Are Cyborgs In Our Future? 'Homo Deus' Author Thinks So

5:00pm February 21, 2017

by NPR Staff

Yuval Noah Harari expects we'll soon engineer our bodies in the same way we design products. "I think in general medicine ... will switch from healing the sick to upgrading the healthy," he says.

Queue Listen Now

Gary Cooper plays the sheriff in the 1952 film High Noon. Author Glenn Frankel says the film can be viewed as a parable for the Hollywood blacklist era.

Books
Arts

What A Classic '50s Western Can Teach Us About The Hollywood Blacklist

2:58pm February 21, 2017

Author Glenn Frankel says the 1952 film High Noon was inspired by the toxic political climate of the time. "People ... felt they want to get their country back," Frankel says.

Queue Listen Now

'#Republic' Author Describes How Social Media Hurts Democracy

7:03pm February 20, 2017

NPR's Kelly McEvers speaks to Cass Sunstein about his new book, #Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media. He says democracy needs people to come across a variety of viewpoints, and much of social media limits that exposure.

Queue Listen Now

In 'Captured,' Democratic Senator Decries Money's Role In Politics

4:43pm February 20, 2017

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island about his new book, Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy.

Uncovering Presidential Secrets, From Washington To Trump

1:57pm February 20, 2017

Author Mary Graham discusses the confidences that presidents keep. When it comes to President Trump, she says: "I think we're seeing that it's not possible to keep policies secret in the digital age."

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

An Irish Immigrant Fights On The Great Plains In 'Days Without End'

1:57pm February 20, 2017

The protagonist of Sebastian Barry's new novel is conscripted right off the boat as the price of American citizenship. Eventually he finds love and companionship with one of his fellow soldiers.

Queue Listen Now

Books

Imagining The Present As The Future Of The 1950s

7:58am February 19, 2017

Elan Mastai grew up fascinated by the 1950s sci-fi books. He talks with Lulu Garcia-Navarro about his novel All Our Wrong Todays that imagines a world with jet packs and flying cars.

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez

In 'Things We Lost,' Argentina's Haunted History Gets A Supernatural Twist

7:58am February 19, 2017

by NPR Staff

The country's military dictatorship ended decades ago, but author Mariana Enriquez says there's still "a ghostly quality to everyday life" there.

Books
Arts

'Shining City' Is Packed With Timely Thrills

7:24am February 18, 2017

by NPR Staff

Tom Rosenstiel — head of the American Press Institute — has written a novel about a political fixer who gets the biggest job of his career: Sanitizing a controversial Supreme Court nominee.

An early draft of Card III in Hermann Rorschach's psychological test.

How Hermann Rorschach's 'Inkblots' Took On A Life Of Their Own

6:46pm February 17, 2017

by NPR Staff

These days, you're more likely to come across the concept of a Rorschach test in a cultural context than a clinical one. In a new book, author Damion Searls traces the history of the famous inkblots.

Queue Listen Now