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You’ve seen it in your science classroom, and there was probably a copy of it on the inside cover of your chemistry book. Maybe if you are a real nerd, you might even have your own personal copy.
Yet its very creation was a revolutionary breakthrough that helped scientists and generations of students understand the very things that make up our world.
Learn more about the Periodic Table of the Elements and how it helped explain the natural world, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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In 2022, the author Salman Rushdie was onstage at a public event when a man ran up and stabbed him. His new memoir, Knife, delves into that moment when Rushdie thought he was going to die — and everything that's come after, as he's healed from the attack. In today's episode, he speaks at length with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about how the miracles found in his fiction might've manifested themselves in his real life, how his wife – poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths – has helped him move forward, and how writing about that experience became a way for him to fight back.
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January is the first month of the year in the Gregorian calendar. Its name derives from Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions. Janus symbolizes new opportunities and looks both forward and backward.
It is often associated with new resolutions, fresh starts, and winter in the Northern Hemisphere, while it marks the peak of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
January also represents something else…..questions and answers.
Stay tuned as I answer your questions on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order!
ButcherBox
New users that sign up for ButcherBox will receive 2 lbs of grass-fed ground beef in every box for the lifetime of their subscription + $20 off your first box when you use code daily at checkout!
Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order!
ButcherBox
New users that sign up for ButcherBox will receive 2 lbs of grass-fed ground beef in every box for the lifetime of their subscription + $20 off your first box when you use code daily at checkout!
Halfway through today's episode, author Kaveh Akbar tells NPR's Scott Simon that his life is a summation of "private joys amidst collective grief and private grief amidst collective joy." It's a contrast that contextualizes his emotionally dark yet deeply funny debut novel, Martyr!, about an Iranian-American poet grappling with addiction, loss, displacement and art. Akbar, who is also poetry editor at The Nation, explains why his protagonist is so obsessed with the concept of martyrdom, and how it relates to his own personal journey with sobriety.
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
Tokyo, Japan, is currently the largest city in the world, with a total metropolitan population of over 37 million people.
However, it wasn’t always the case.
In fact, unlike many great cities of the world, Tokyo’s roots do not go back to ancient times. Its importance as a city is relatively recent, historically speaking.
During the war, it was almost completely destroyed yet has come back to be a major center of technology, culture, and finance.
Learn more about Tokyo and how it became the most populous city in the world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order!
ButcherBox
New users that sign up for ButcherBox will receive 2 lbs of grass-fed ground beef in every box for the lifetime of their subscription + $20 off your first box when you use code daily at checkout!
Percival Everett is a prolific author – his 2001 book Erasure was recently adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction. But his latest book, James, expands on a story readers around the world already know: Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. In today's episode, Everett speaks with NPR's Andrew Limbong about why he wanted to reframe the classic novel from the perspective of the enslaved titular character, why he doesn't think of his new work as a direct response to Twain, and why he doesn't buy into the controversy surrounding the original.
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Former president Jimmy Carter has died. He was 100 years old. In today's episode, two books examine Carter's career in the White House and beyond. First, NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with historian Kai Bird about The Outlier, a biography that argues that Carter's deregulation of several industries, his social legislation and his foreign policy made his one-term presidency exceptionally productive. Then, a conversation from the vault between NPR's Eric Westervelt and Carter himself about his memoir, A Full Life.
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