Janelle Monáe's Afrofuturistic pop album 'Dirty Computer' was nominated for a Grammy in 2019. Now, Monáe brings the sci-fi world into literature through her latest collection of short stories The Memory Librarian. In an interview with Ayesha Rascoe on Weekend Edition Sunday, Monáe spoke about the nightmare that sparked this idea and how it prompted her to reclaim her full identity as a Black, queer woman. In a radical approach to love and community, Monáe hopes to help people feel free to be themselves, especially those whose stories are often marginalized or erased.
After more than a dozen novels and collections of short stories, Irish writer ColmTóibín recently published his first book of poetry. His new collection, Vinegar Hill, examines a wide range of subjects: from mortality, religion, and the current political climate, to the power of poetry in life's most important moments. To celebrate Poetry Month, Tóibín read some of his poems to Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday, and said that he wanted to write without the usual adornments of poetry. In a way, he hopes the simplicity of his writing will have more expression and power.
August Wilhelm Iffland was one of the finest German actors in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
That fact alone would probably not make him worthy of a podcast episode. What does make him worthy of a podcast episode is a ring that bears his name which has been passed down from actor to actor for over 200 years.
It is a tradition that is still ongoing today.
Learn more about the Iffland Ring and the very odd tradition surrounding it, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Thousands of years ago, enormous furry elephants roamed the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and North America.
While these animals are now extinct, they were actually around much more recently than most people realize, and because of where and when they existed, we know a shocking amount about them.
Learn more about Mammuthus primigenius, aka the wooly mammoth, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Prior to the 19th century, capturing images required the talent of an artist and a whole lot of time.
The transition from capturing images as an art to that of a science took multiple innovations and discoveries. Those innovations never really stopped as images went from being captured physically to being captured digitally.
Learn more about the history and evolution of cameras and photography, and how went from the first cameras to the camera in your smartphone, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Today is Earth Day, a good occasion as any to reflect on the emergencies the planet currently faces. First, Harriet A. Washington, author of A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind, talks to NPR's Sarah McCammon about the long-term damage environmental issues can have on brain development—particularly for people of color. Next, the author David Wallace-Wells talks to NPR's Rachel Martin about his book The Uninhabitable Earth, which is a lot more hopeful than the title might suggest. He runs through the worst-case scenarios climate change could wreak, and why every effort we make against further global warming matters.
Millions of people are evicted each year, often because they can't pay rent. That causes a cascade of problems and makes it harder for many to get back on their feet. The KQED podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing In Americahas produced a special series on evictions in the Bay Area. Today we present an excerpt of their work that looks at the history, promise and drawbacks of the biggest rental assistance subsidy available to low-income people -- Section 8.
Reported by Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Sebastian Miño-Bucheli and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Erika Kelly, Kyana Moghadam, Jessica Placzek, Jen Chien, Natalia Aldana, Carly Severn, Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Jenny Pritchett.
