This episode features two different books by one author: Salman Rushdie. And while the two stories differ, recurrent themes of magical realism and the supernatural accompany them both. First, Rushdie, in a discussion of his book The Golden House, tells Ari Shapiro how escaping your past can lead to disillusionment And then, in an interview with Scott Simon about the fantasy elements in Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, he says that to combine magic and realism, you need the ability to think and to dream.
Several thousand years ago, astronomers in the Middle East studying the night sky divided it into 12 equal regions. Each region was given a name, was associated with an animal and a constellation.
These divisions became the basis for the nascent disciplines of astronomy and astrology.
Today, the system created by those ancient astronomers can still be found in the pseudoscience of horoscopes and the very much science of astronomy.
Learn more about the zodiac and the signs of the zodiac, where they came from, and how they spread around the world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
In Electable: Why America Hasn't Put a Woman in the White House... Yet, author Ali Vitali explores why the glass ceiling separating women from the highest office is still intact. Vitali and Juana Summers talk about why it wasn't possible to elect a woman in 2020 – and the importance of female representation in politics for America's future.
Growing up, one listener heard tales about how an engineer was hidden inside Chicago’s Buckingham Fountain in order to make sure the water spouts out each day. This week we go inside the innards of the fountain to see how it works and learn the history behind it. Plus, we get the answer to the question: Why does Chicago have so many alleys?
Since humans began to adopt writing systems, they also created systems for passing along written messages.
For thousands of years, it would have been possible to get messages to distant parts of whatever empire or kingdom you happened to live in, provided you found the right courier and had enough money.
Today, the entire globe is integrated into a connected postal system, allowing physical messages to be sent between almost any two people.
Learn more about mail and how our modern system has ancient roots on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Author Emma Donoghue "seem to enjoy the stimulus of going to an entirely new place." That's precisely what she does in her new book 'Haven'; it's about three Irish monks in the middle ages who choose to live a life of isolation on a rocky island. In an interview with Ari Shapiro, Donoghue explains why she has recurrent themes of isolation and faith in her stories.
Author Anya Kamenetzwas covering education for NPR when the pandemic started spreading in the U.S. She says she saw how political affiliation, divisions and distrust prevented leaders from putting kids first. Kamenetz sits down with Steve Inskeep to discuss her new book, The Stolen Year, and how the pandemic "magnified the inequality" that already existed among school children.
In Abdulrazak Gurnah's Afterlives, the characters centered in the novel offer different perspectives of ordinary people under German colonization in East Africa. In an interview with NPR's Scott Simon, the author goes into detail about how the "power and attraction of the victor" can lead to the conquered joining the conqueror and the impact it has on one's identity
