The Shipping News
Ian Kumekawa tells the story of the global economy in one barge
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, May 9, 2025
Coming Home
Craig Thompson digs up memories of farm labor and the history of ginseng
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, April 25, 2025
Muscle Memory
Michael Joseph Gross on the importance of strength, past and present
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, April 11, 2025
The Most Famous Unknown Artist
David Sheff puts Yoko Ono in the spotlight
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, March 28, 2025
The Root Cause
Padraic X. Scanlan tells the real history of the Irish Potato Famine
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, March 14, 2025
Something New in the West
Kurt Beals on translating All Quiet on the Western Front
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, February 28, 2025
Family/History
David Levering Lewis digs into his own origin story
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, February 14, 2025
The Epic Viking Saga of the Everyday
Eleanor Barraclough on the ordinary people of Norse history
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 31, 2025
Keepers of the Old Ways
Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 17, 2025
The Snow Maiden
Our final episode of 2018 is a send-off to the solstice
By Stephanie Bastek Monday, December 30, 2024
Going for Gold
Joshua Prager on a forgotten Olympic gymnast whose 1904 record still hasn’t been beaten
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, August 9, 2024
Paradise Reclaimed
Olivia Laing on the dark histories and utopian dreams of the flower bed
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, July 26, 2024
Bathing Badasses
Vicki Valosik gets submerged in the history of synchronized swimming
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, July 12, 2024
Turning the World to Powder
Jay Owens on the tiny particles that float through our lives
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, June 28, 2024
Indiana Absurd
Tiffany Tsao on translating a beguiling Indonesian short-story collection
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, May 17, 2024
American Modernism’s Lost Boy-King
The late, great Paul Auster on Stephen Crane
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, May 3, 2024
Let Us Compare Mythologies
Exploding the Canon, Episode 4
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, April 26, 2024
Interlude: The Idea of “The West”
A brief look at a grand narrative
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, April 19, 2024
