Is the Risk of Photojournalism Worth It?
This week all of us – public radio listeners and producers -- were shocked and saddened by the death of NPR photojournalist David Gilkey. He and his translator, Zabihullah "Zabi" Tamann, were killed...
View ArticleJames Nachtwey on Covering Conflicts on the Ground
Great war photographers bring a tremendous sense of mission to their work. Most of them believe the right image seen by enough people at the right time can change the world. Maybe not right away –...
View ArticleCapturing Manufactured Landscapes
Anyone who works in news will tell you that photographs drive attention. That a great photograph can propel a story or an issue from the sidelines to the center of a public conversation. Large-scale...
View ArticleThe Aesthetic Beauty of War Photography
There are moral and ethical issues that come up around war photography. Writer David Shields charged the New York Times with glamorizing war in photographs. Shields analyzed 100’s of pictures...
View ArticleRevisiting Susan Sontag On the Pain of Others
Taking pictures of war is complicated. The late philosopher Susan Sontag thought a lot about the moral implications of taking and looking at photos of human conflict. She wrote a classic book on the...
View ArticleKip Winger Goes Classical
In the mid-80's the metal band Winger topped the charts with hits like "Seventeen." Then Grunge came along and left bands like Winger in the dust. Now, Kip Winger is back on top with a new CD that...
View ArticleArt and Music in Rothko Chapel
Houston's Rothko Chapel is a shrine to the transformative power of art. Abstract artist Mark Rothko created 14 enormous paintings for this sacred space. Pianist Sarah Rothenberg tells us the history...
View ArticleThinking About the Present As If It Were the Past
Cultural critic Chuck Klosterman takes thinking about the future to a whole new level with his new book, "But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past." In the book, he...
View ArticleRodney Ascher Recommends "Patty Hearst"
Film director Rodney Ascher recommends Paul Schrader's 1988 movie, "Patty Hearst."
View ArticleReliving Groundhog Day
Do you ever have the feeling that you're stuck in a time loop? That you're on auto pilot doing the same things day after day after day? You probably know the feeling but hopefully, you've never...
View ArticleArtists and Frenemies
Most people think of conflict as something to be avoided, but there's another way to view it -- as creative and generative. In his book "The Art of Rivalry," Boston Globe art critic Sebastian Smee...
View ArticleEsperanza Spalding on Jazz and Reconciliation
Jazz performer Esperanza Spalding shares what a lifetime of improvising has taught her about reconciliation.
View ArticleThe Secret History of the World's Most Popular Video Game
If you've spent any time playing Tetris, you've probably spent a lot of time playing it. Tetris is simple yet addictive. Your job is to fit falling geometric blocks together so that there are no...
View ArticleWe Gon' Be Alright
“We gon’ be alright.” That line from Kendrik Lamar hit song, “Alright” became the rallying cry, an anthem, for the Black Lives Matter movement. Those lines are also the title of Jeff Chang’s new book....
View ArticleMaking My Grandmother's Story Graphic
Miles Hyman is Shirley Jackson's grandson. He's an artist who specializes in graphic novels and adaptations of classic literature. His latest book has a lot of personal meaning for him. It's a graphic...
View ArticleBehind the Mask of the “American Male”
This six minute short film sets a typical frat house scene with heightened visual intensity: beer pong, drunk girls, guys with their shirts off doing shots, hazing rituals, fights. The twist is that...
View ArticleMachine Music Theory 101
Doug Eck directs Google’s new “Magenta” project, an experiment in teaching machines to make art, leveraging advances in machine learning like neural networks to enable computers to do things like...
View ArticleWhat Sartre Meant by “Hell is Other People”
Philosopher Gregory Sadler has a fascinating take on the famous line from French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre’s 1944 play, “No Exit.”
View ArticleThe Secret History of Twin Peaks
In collaboration with David Lynch, Mark Frost co-created one of the most enduring fictional universes of all time — Twin Peaks. Now Frost has written an innovative novel that takes a deep dive into the...
View ArticleAn Inside Look at Hollywood's Death-Defying Stuntwomen
It’s no secret that Hollywood has a diversity problem. Take for instance the fact that women only hold about 1 in 6 leadership roles in the film industry. And despite facing greater dangers, female...
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