ThoughtCast®

At the Modern Art Foundry in Astoria Queens, workers restore the Neptune Fountain, which was missing its hands, an arm and a foot.

The Blacksmith House Poetry Series at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education has been bringing established and emerging poets to Harvard Square since its founding by Gail Mazur in 1973. The series is named after the Blacksmith House at 56 Brattle Street, site of the village smithy and the spreading chestnut tree of Longfellow's 1839 poem "The Village Blacksmith." Earlier this week, series director Andrea Cohen introduced the poets -- Carl Phillips and Penelope Pelizzon -- who read from their new collections. Carl read from Scattered Snows, to the North, and Penelope read from A Gaze Hound That Hunteth By the Eye. Next week, on December 9, 2024, two more writers will be featured. David Semanki will read from his debut collection of poems, Ghost Camera, and Jason Schneiderman will read from his latest collection: Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire. Click here: to listen.

Note: Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, who writes the New York Times column, "The Ethicist", has just won (in the summer of 2024) the Library of Congress' Kluge Prize. A high honor. This program was broadcast on WCAI, an affiliate of WGBH, Boston. In this interview from 2004, New York University Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah discusses cosmopolitanism on ThoughtCast! Born in England and raised in Ghana, Appiah is half English and half African. And perhaps because of this, he's fascinated with the concept of identity, and the power it wields over people. But rather than wage identity politics, Appiah encourages us instead to be good global citizens, interested in and accepting of each other. In short, cosmopolitan. But also, at least a little bit "contaminated"... Appiah's written a book on the subject: it's called Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. Click here: to listen. (42 minutes)

Note: This interview was broadcast on KUT-FM, an NPR station based in Austin, Texas. In 1861 in Clonmany, on the Inishowen peninsula in the far north of County Donegal Ireland, Charles McGlinchy was born.  His was a windblown, rough world, wracked with beauty and hardship. A weaver by trade, and a bachelor, in his old age he realized he was the last of the McGlinchys, the last of his name. Night after night, he told his tale to an old neighbor, the schoolmaster Patrick Kavanagh, who wrote it all down. Patrick's son Desmond found these copybooks after his father's death, and offered them to Brian Friel, the renowned Irish playwright, who then edited the manuscript into a book called The Last of the Name. This same book is what Desmond Kenny, of Kenny's Bookshop in Galway, chose to discuss in our interview. When asked to pick a piece of writing that's had a tremendous impact on him, he wandered the rich shelves of the shop, musing over all the books he's known and loved, until he lighted upon this one, and knew it was the right choice. We spoke after hours in the family run book shop, which recently celebrated its 70th anniversary. Click here: to listen to this ThoughtCast interview (18 minutes).

Behind the Scenes at Law and Order! Watch the shooting of the episode “Blood Libel” from its 6th season.

Note: This interview was broadcast on the WGBH sister stations WCAI/WNAN, Prairie Public Radio, WABE in Atlanta and on KUT in Austin, Texas. When Helen Vendler was only 13, the future poetry critic and Harvard professor memorized several of Emily Dickinson's more famous poems. They've stayed with her over the years, and today, she talks with ThoughtCast's Jenny Attiyeh about one poem in particular that's haunted her all this time. It's called I cannot live with You- According to Vendler, who has written the authoritative Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries, it's a heartbreaking poem of an unresolvable dilemma and ensuing despair. Click here (18 minutes) to listen! This interview is the first in a new ThoughtCast series which examines a specific piece of writing -- be it a poem, play, novel, short story, work of non-fiction or scrap of papyrus -- that's had a significant influence on the interviewee, that's shaped and moved them. Up next - esteemed novelist and short story writer Tom Perrotta discusses Good Country People,  a short story by Flannery O'Connor that's particularly meaningful to him.

Behind the scenes at Law and Order: watch the shooting of the episode "Blood Libel" from its 6th season.

Note: This interview was broadcast on KUT-FM, an NPR station based in Austin,Texas. James Joyce was born and raised in Dublin, and it was from Dublin he fled as a young man, to Trieste, in order to write Ulysses, perhaps the key novel of the early 20th century. But before he left, he began to write A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which, as most of us will remember, is a rite of passage not only for its main character, the sensitive, acute Stephen Dedalus (the alter ego for Joyce himself), but also for the impressed and impressionable reader. When I asked the scholar, bookseller and editor Maurice Earls to pick a piece of writing to discuss that's had a tremendous impact on him, it was this novel that he chose. Himself a Dubliner, Earls is joint editor of the Dublin Review of Books. Of special interest to ThoughtCast listeners, he's also penned an essay on Helen Vendler's Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries. Just hours before an author event was to take place in his small, singular independent bookstore Books Upstairs, ThoughtCast spoke with Earls about "A Portrait" at length. The conversation brought me back to my own strong feelings about this book, which had a tremendous impact on me as well, many years ago. Click here (24 minutes) to listen!

Note: This interview was broadcast on KUT-FM, an NPR station based in Austin,Texas. James Joyce was born and raised in Dublin, and it was from Dublin he fled as a young man, to Trieste, in order to write Ulysses, perhaps the key novel of the early 20th century. But before he left, he began to write A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which, as most of us will remember, is a rite of passage not only for its main character, the sensitive, acute Stephen Dedalus (the alter ego for Joyce himself), but also for the impressed and impressionable reader. When I asked the scholar, bookseller and editor Maurice Earls to pick a piece of writing to discuss that's had a tremendous impact on him, it was this novel that he chose. Himself a Dubliner, Earls is joint editor of the Dublin Review of Books. Of special interest to ThoughtCast listeners, he's also penned an essay on Helen Vendler's Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries. Just hours before an author event was to take place in his small, singular independent bookstore Books Upstairs, ThoughtCast spoke with Earls about "A Portrait" at length. The conversation brought me back to my own strong feelings about this book, which had a tremendous impact on me as well, many years ago. Click here (24 minutes) to listen!

Sadly, since this interview was recorded, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic has died at the age of 84. Note: This interview was broadcast on KUT-FM, an NPR station based in Austin, Texas. Kate Rosenberger is one of those rare people who collects independent book stores in San Francisco the way the rest of us collect antique door stops, or unusual African masks. Her most recent acquisition is Alley Cat Books, but she also owns Phoenix and Red Hill Books, and we met at Dog Eared Books, her fourth store, in the Mission district. When asked to discuss a piece of writing that's had a profound impact on her, Kate chose Charles Simic's poem Gray-Headed Schoolchildren. Born in Serbia, Simic came to the US as a teenager, but went on to write his poems in English, win the Pulitzer prize, and become the U.S. Poet Laureate. His poetry is often stark, perhaps reflecting his formative years, spent surviving World War II. Note: This interview is the sixth in a ThoughtCast series which examines a specific piece of writing — be it a poem, play, novel, short story, work of non-fiction or scrap of papyrus — that's had a significant influence on the interviewee, that's shaped and moved them. Prior interviewees include author Tom Perrotta, poetry critic Helen Vendler, and other independent bookstore owners - from Ireland! Click here to listen (11 minutes.)

Note: an audio version of this interview was broadcast by the WGBH affiliate WCAI, the Cape and Islands NPR station, and by KPIP in Missouri. The forests of New England are, remarkably, a success story. They've recovered from attack after attack. The early settlers hacked them down, by hand, for houses, fences and firewood. Later […] The post The history and future of the New England Forest appeared first on https://thoughtcast.org.

Note: an audio version of this interview was broadcast by the WGBH affiliate WCAI, the Cape and Islands NPR station, and by KPIP in Missouri. The forests of New England are, remarkably, a success story. They've recovered from attack after attack. The early settlers hacked them down, by hand, for houses, fences and firewood. Later on, the insatiable sawmills of a more industrial age ate up the lumber needed for our expansion. Today, the forests contend with acid rain, invasive plants and exotic beetle infestations -- evidence of our ever more global economy. And the future of these forests? Going forward, that's a story that's largely ours to shape, and narrate. If only these trees could talk ... Well, we have the next best thing - Donald Pfister, the Dean of Harvard Summer School, curator of the Farlow Library and Herbarium, a fungologist (the more erudite word is mycologist), and the Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany at Harvard University. In this Faculty Insight interview, produced in partnership with ThoughtCast and Harvard Extension School, he tells the tale of the New England forest from as far back as the glacial Pleistocene era. To help illustrate this tale, we've made grateful use of high resolution images of some dramatic landscape dioramas, which are on display at Harvard's Fisher Museum, in Petersham, Massachusetts. And finally, for an audio version of this story, click here: to listen (9:47 mins).

The End of Our Universe with astrophysicist Alex Vilenkin. On ThoughtCast! The post The End of Our Universe among other timely topics… appeared first on https://thoughtcast.org.

International News Coverage in America and the public's attention span The post International news and the American attention span appeared first on https://thoughtcast.org.

NOTE: Caroline Elkins is in the news again, with a new book called Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. In it she continues her searing research into first world abuse and torture of numberless Africans under their colonial control. How does history get rewritten? How do victimizers become victims, and the valiant […] The post The Mau Mau rebellion — a revisionist history appeared first on https://thoughtcast.org.

NOTE: Caroline Elkins is in the news again, with a new book called Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. In it she continues her searing research into first world abuse and torture of numberless Africans under their colonial control. How does history get rewritten? How do victimizers become victims, and the valiant turn into villains? As Harvard history professor Caroline Elkins has learned, this process can be a hazardous one. The Pulitzer prize-winning author of Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya devoted many years to the study of the Mau Mau uprising in the early 1950s, and the British response,  a model of counter-insurgency technique -- or so she thought. The Mau Mau were a group of native Kenyans who turned to violence and terror to drive out their colonial British masters, but as Elkins discovered, they weren't the only ones to use such tactics.  Now a court case will decide where the truth actually lies, as you will hear in this Faculty Insight interview, produced in partnership with ThoughtCast and  Harvard Extension School. For an audio version of this story, click here: to listen. (6:50 mins).

Ron Brown works with his dance company Evidence. The post Dancer, Choreographer Ron Brown appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Note: This interview was broadcast on WGBH radio, Boston's NPR station for news and culture, on April 17, 2011! The endangered North Atlantic Right Whale is probably our closest cetacean neighbor. There are only about 350 of them in total, and they live precariously near to shore, along the Eastern seaboard, in a horrendously busy […] The post The North Atlantic Right Whale: Endangered Leviathan appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Note: This interview was broadcast on WGBH radio, Boston's NPR station for news and culture, on April 17, 2011! Photo: courtesy US Marine Mammal Commission The endangered North Atlantic Right Whale is probably our closest cetacean neighbor. There are only about 350 of them in total, and they live precariously near to shore, along the Eastern seaboard, in a horrendously busy commercial shipping corridor that stretches from Nova Scotia to Florida.  Scott Kraus, the vice president for research at Boston's New England Aquarium, and the head of its right whale research project, has studied these whales for decades, and the aquarium's efforts on their behalf have led to dramatic improvements in right whale habitat. Courtesy Rosalind Rolland/New England Aquarium But they remain nonetheless threatened -- primarily by us humans.  ThoughtCast's Jenny Attiyeh met with Kraus at the New England Aquarium recently, to discuss his latest book, which he co-edited with his colleague Rosalind Rolland, called The Urban Whale. Click here (4 minutes) to hear Scott Kraus read a poignant passage he wrote (about a baby whale) from The Urban Whale. Click here (20 minutes) to listen! And click here (4 minutes) to hear Scott Kraus read a poignant passage he wrote (about a baby whale) from The Urban Whale.

Division of Labor: Women's Work was an exhibition at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 1995 The post Women's Work at the Bronx Museum of the Arts appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

ThoughtCast spoke to author and academic Rebecca Goldstein about her novel "36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction".

The Dan Flavin Art Institute, overseen by Dia Center for the Arts, is filled with the florescent tubes that made Flavin famous. The post The Dan Flavin Art Institute appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

ThoughtCast spoke to author and academic Rebecca Goldstein about her novel "36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction". The post Rebecca Goldstein: the atheist with a soul appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

The three Peabody sisters, Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia, were key players in the founding of the Transcendentalist movement in the 19th century. The post The Peabody Sisters – with biographer Megan Marshall appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

The dinosaurs return to the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. The post Dinosaurs on Thoughtcast appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Note: The WGBH sister stations WCAI and WNAN broadcast this interview, and it also received a 5 star review on PRX! Former poet laureate Robert Pinsky tackles King David of the Bible – the shepherd, poet, warrior and adulterer – in his “Life of David.” Is David a legend? A real, flesh and blood warrior […] The post Poet Robert Pinsky takes on King David appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

What does the word rock mean? Simple enough question. But how did the term originate? Where -- and why? Find out the answer on ThoughtCast. The post Words @ Work: The Origins of “Rock” appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

What does the word rock mean? Simple enough question. But how did the term originate? Where -- and why? Find out the answer on ThoughtCast.

Buffalo Dance From the secret Kiva past collapse they stomp and sing the story The post Buffalo Dance: A Poem for NPR’s Poetry Month appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

On a beautiful spring day in the mid 1990s, I meandered the streets of Red Hook, when it was still a rundown Brooklyn neighborhood. I met its first art gallery owner, and the two longshoremen who ventured inside. The post Red Hook, Brooklyn, before the Gentrification appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Tom Perrotta, author of the novels Mrs. Fletcher, Little Children, Election, The Abstinence Teacher and The Leftovers, speaks with ThoughtCast about a writer who fascinates, irritates and inspires him: Flannery O'Connor.

Tom Perrotta, author of the novels Mrs. Fletcher, Little Children, Election, The Abstinence Teacher and The Leftovers, speaks with ThoughtCast about a writer who fascinates, irritates and inspires him: Flannery O'Connor. The post Tom Perrotta on Flannery O’Connor — a literary affinity appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Dershowitz is back in the spotlight, but he's been here before, on ThoughtCast! The post Alan Dershowitz on Preemption and the Hezbollah appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

In his book "Why Does the World Exist?" science writer Jim Holt takes us on a jaunty tour of being and nothingness, existence and emptiness, quantum tunneling and the uncertainty principle - on ThoughtCast!

In his book "Why Does the World Exist?" science writer Jim Holt takes us on a jaunty tour of being and nothingness, existence and emptiness, quantum tunneling and the uncertainty principle - on ThoughtCast! The post “Why Does the World Exist?” with Jim Holt appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

KCRW's Michael Silverblatt, the host of the literary talk show Bookworm, speaks with Jenny Attiyeh at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Silverblatt is the real thing -- an authentic, genuinely interested interviewer who reads not only the latest book his guest has come to discuss, but the writer's entire body of work. The post KCRW’s Michael Silverblatt at the LA Times Book Festival appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Watch Chanticleer, the celebrated all male vocal ensemble, backstage, on ThoughtCast! The post Chanticleer Backstage on ThoughtCast! appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

ThoughtCast Reflects on the Legacy of John McCain. His performance in the January 2000 New Hampshire Presidential Primary Debate, just weeks before he defeated George W. Bush in that state’s primary – the first in the nation – is worth reviewing. The post ThoughtCast Reflects on the Legacy of John McCain appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

John McCain, the maverick Republican Senator from Arizona, was diagnosed with brain cancer a year ago now, so there’s not much time left for this remarkably resilient politician to take a final stand. Will McCain live long enough to vote for — or against — Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee? He did vote […] The post John McCain’s Last Stand – on ThoughtCast! appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

This documentary, broadcast on WNYC TV, charts the creation of "Les Enfants Terribles", a dance opera by the composer Philip Glass and the choreographer Susan Marshall. The post Philip Glass creates an opera – on ThoughtCast! appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Lydia Ratcliff: Vermont Farmer, Stubborn Survivor, on ThoughtCast

Lydia Ratcliff: Vermont Farmer, Stubborn Survivor, on ThoughtCast The post Lydia Ratcliff: Vermont Farmer, Stubborn Survivor appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

The remarkable rise of Donald Trump, fueled in large part by his determination to keep immigrants out of his Greatening America, has caused many to re-examine the key concerns of the controversial political scientist Samuel Huntington. The post Samuel Huntington — on Immigration and the American Identity appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

The press barely noticed former New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith's bid for the presidency in 2000, so entranced were they over the newly candid Arizona Senator John McCain as he crisscrossed Bob Smith's state in the "Straight Talk Express." The post Lessons from a Former Failed Bid for the Presidency? appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Now that we're faced with Al Gore's Inconvenient Sequel, it is tempting to ask, again: What if he had actually won the Presidential election back in 2000? I had the chance to interview the Vice President for NHPTV in the autumn of 1999, prior to the New Hampshire Presidential Primary. The post Al Gore, Reconsidered appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Art therapy: a place for self-expression while in pain. The post Art Therapy: A Place for Self-Expression while in Pain appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

The mercurial Tom Hoving, former director of the Met Museum, discusses art forgeries, and how to spot them, on ThoughtCast! The post The Hunt for Art Fakes with Tom Hoving appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Note: this interview has been picked up by the public radio station WGBH, in Boston, and its sister stations WCAI and WNAN. Sadly, Bob died in March of 2017. This interview was quoted in The New York Times obituary. The venerable New York Review of Books was launched amidst a newspaper strike in the winter of 1963, and has continued unabated ever since. Devoted to intensive and nuanced coverage of politics, the arts, literature, science (and now movies and the Internet!), the paper, as it's called, is considered to be the premiere journal of the American intellectual elite. Robert Silvers, its longtime editor, who shared the post with Barbara Epstein until her death in 2006, spoke with ThoughtCast in the WNYC studios in New York. Click here: to listen (40 minutes). Note: Scott McLemee, who writes the Intellectual Affairs column each week at Inside Higher Ed, contributed an excellent question to the interview - thanks!

Note: this interview has been picked up by the public radio station WGBH, in Boston, and its sister stations WCAI and WNAN. The venerable New York Review of Books was launched amidst a newspaper strike in the winter of 1963, and has continued unabated ever since. Devoted to intensive and nuanced coverage of politics, the […] The post Revered New York Review editor Robert Silvers, R.I.P. appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Taos artist Paul Pascarella lives in a spectacular spot, one many famous painters have discovered in the past - Agnes Martin, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keefe, Marsden Hartley, Rebecca James, Andrew Dasburg. The post Paul Pascarella – An Artist of the Mesa and the Mountain appeared first on ThoughtCast®.

Andres Serrano: Works 1983-93 opened at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in Soho in early 1995. It was a mid-career retrospective, and I went there to interview the controversial artist for the PBS station WNYC TV. His infamous “Piss Christ”, among other ecclesiastical subjects, was prominently featured, as well as images of Ku Klux […] The post Andres Serrano @ The New Museum of Contemporary Art appeared first on ThoughtCast®.