Zach Williams' collection of short stories, Beautiful Days, has earned high praise for the unsettling way it examines mundane, everyday life. In today's episode, Williams tells NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer how becoming a dad inspired the anxiety and wonder of parenthood that shows up throughout Beautiful Days, and the two get to talking about why he chose to focus on the "quickness and musicality" of short stories over writing a novel.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Is what happened to Donald Trump last night in Pennsylvania the beginning of a new period of American instability of the sort that gripped the country and the world in the wake of the JFK assassination—or is it the culmination of two decades of wildly irresponsible rhetoric? Or is it both? Give a listen.
In the early 1960s, the United States was always a step behind the Soviet Union in the space race.
By the mid-1960s, the Americans had caught up. They didn’t have many glamorous firsts, but they were doing increasingly difficult things in space.
All of that came crashing to a halt on January 27, 1967, when three astronauts died in what was a seemingly routine training exercise.
Learn more about the Apollo 1 Disaster, how it happened, and how it influenced the future of the Apollo program on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
In the mid-18th century, excavations in the ancient town of Herculaneum, just outside the city of Pompeii and destroyed by the same volcano, discovered something….interesting.
They found a villa that contained 1800 ancient scrolls. Unfortunately, the volcano's heat carbonized them, making them illegible and incredibly fragile. Still, for over 250 years, scholars have hoped that techniques would eventually be developed to allow these scrolls to be read.
That day may have finally arrived.
Learn more about the Herculaneum Papyri and the attempts to read and preserve their ancient knowledge on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
It's hard to get a handle on the breadth of protections handed to current and future presidents in Trump v. United States. Cato's Walter Olson says much of the immunity from prosecution handed to these heads of state is wholly invented by SCOTUS.
How can tennis star Roger Federer have won only 54% of the points he played, but been the best player in the world?
Jeff Sackmann, the tennis stats brain behind tennisabstract.com, explains to Tim Harford how probability works in the sport.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Debbie Richford
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Mix: Nigel Appleton
Editor: Richard Vadon
On Indicators of the Week, we cover the numbers in the news that you should know about. This week, we cover an encouraging trend for global wealth, closing Mexico's tariff loophole and the European nation bucking the trend of shorter work weeks.
Related episodes: Why tariffs are SO back (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.