Writer John Schu and illustrator Veronica Miller Jamison are out with a new picture book that asks the question what exactly is school...for? Test prep? Socialization? This Is A School makes the case that it's a place for community and trying new things. Schu and Miller Jamison told NPR's Ailsa Chang that their own elementary school experiences were not like the ones in their book, but they hope kids today get to have diverse experiences.
What did the first Chinese Emperor Qin, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Gengis Kahn, the Queen of Sheba, and all their contemporaries who lived when they did have in common?
None of them ever ate a potato.
The potato is a rather new addition to the diets of the old world, and one which revolutionized civilization.
Learn more about the potato and how changed world history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
In 1696, the mathematician Johann Bernoulli posited a very simple question. Assuming no friction, what was the fastest shape for an object to slide down to go from point A to point B?
That simple question stumped some of the world’s greatest mathematicians.
The answer to that question isn’t what you think it might be, and it has some very interesting implications.
Learn more about the Brachistochrone problem, and what exactly a Brachistochrone is, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Today's first interview is with author Peng Shepherd on her new mystery. A father and daughter, both cartographers, haven't spoken in seven years. But when the father is found dead his daughter must use their shared skill to solve the mystery of his death. Shepherd told NPR's Elissa Nadworny that obsession can be a stand-in for the person lost. Next, Anne Tyler on her new book which follows a family in Baltimore across several generations. Tyler told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that she likes to write about families because they sort of have to love each other even when they annoy each other.
