Erika Alexander, who found fame as Maxine Shaw on the classic sitcom Living Single, details what it was really like to rise to fame with the Cosby Show in the 80s, ride the crest of the Golden Era of Black TV in the 90s, and navigate Hollywood as a Black actress after that Black entertainment boom went bust in the 2000s.
New threats of heightened tariffs may further complicate efforts to resolving trade relations with China. Dan Ikenson discusses what that means for Americans.
New threats of heightened tariffs may further complicate efforts to resolving trade relations with China. Dan Ikenson discusses what that means for Americans.
The President coddles Putin on future election sabotage, the White House says they’re killing it on the economy, Nancy Pelosi believes Democrats need to own the center-left, and the electability debate rages in America and Westeros. Then digital strategist Tara McGowan talks to Tommy about which candidates are spending most on digital ads and why that’s so important.
*Spoiler-free for Avengers: Endgame* At the end of Avengers: Infinity War film the villain, Thanos, snapped his fingers in the magical infinity gauntlet and disintegrated half of all life across the universe. The Avengers want to reverse the snap but would it better for mankind to live in a world with a population of less than 4 billion? Tim Harford investigates the economics of Thanos with anthropologist Professor Sharon DeWitte and fictionomics blogger Zachary Feinstein PHD.
Image: The Avengers Endgame film poster
Credit: ?Marvel Studios 2019
This month the Rollercade celebrates its 60th birthday. The skating rink is a local institution and generations of San Antonians have skated across its smooth wood floor. In this chapter of the "San Antonio Storybook," we’ll tell the story of how the Rollercade came to be built and the family responsible for keeping the Alamo City rolling.
Chaucer is renowned as the father of English literature. But in a new biography Marion Turner argues he is a far more cosmopolitan writer and thinker than we might assume. She tells Andrew Marr how the 14th-century author of The Canterbury Tales moved from the commercial wharves of London to the chapels of Florence, and from a spell as a prisoner of war in France to the role of diplomat in Milan.
The academic Emma Smith challenges audiences to look with fresh eyes at the plays of Shakespeare. In a series of essays she reveals how his plays have as much to say about PTSD, intersectionality and #MeToo as they do about Ovid, marriage and the divine right of kings.
When Charles Dickens started his writing career, his ambition was global: to speak to ‘every nation upon earth’. And he succeeded. His stories reached Russia, China, Australia, even Antarctica, and he was mobbed in the street when he visited America. Juliet John, co-curator of the exhibition Global Dickens, examines how Dickens’s work could travel so far, when the settings of his novels were much closer to home.
Chaucer is renowned as the father of English literature. But in a new biography Marion Turner argues he is a far more cosmopolitan writer and thinker than we might assume. She tells Andrew Marr how the 14th-century author of The Canterbury Tales moved from the commercial wharves of London to the chapels of Florence, and from a spell as a prisoner of war in France to the role of diplomat in Milan.
The academic Emma Smith challenges audiences to look with fresh eyes at the plays of Shakespeare. In a series of essays she reveals how his plays have as much to say about PTSD, intersectionality and #MeToo as they do about Ovid, marriage and the divine right of kings.
When Charles Dickens started his writing career, his ambition was global: to speak to ‘every nation upon earth’. And he succeeded. His stories reached Russia, China, Australia, even Antarctica, and he was mobbed in the street when he visited America. Juliet John, co-curator of the exhibition Global Dickens, examines how Dickens’s work could travel so far, when the settings of his novels were much closer to home.
We're starting our fifth anniversary celebration week with a look back at the past. Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad was a guest on the first episode of The Gist so he’s back to reflect on the last five years, how podcasting has changed, and the impact of the medium.
In the Spiel, podcasts aren’t perfect, but they are progress.