Author Mark Lilla is professor of humanities at Columbia University specializing in intellectual history. His new book, Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know, examines the tendencies for willful ignorance in human nature and the correlations of those tendencies to education castes. In today's episode, Lilla speaks to NPR's Asma Khalid about curiosity and the role social media plays in choosing to engage with information and facts.
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
In the early 20th century, the Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the largest brewery in the world.
However, by 1980, the company had fallen on hard times and was purchased by a competitor in a hostile takeover. The company was so bad that it eventually killed the company that bought them.
However, the demise of Schlitz wasn’t one of changing tastes or bad luck. It was a series of self-inflicted wounds.
Learn more about the Schlitz Mistake and how a series of bad decisions killed the world’s largest brewery 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!
In the first and second centuries, a Christian sect found a wide following throughout the Roman world.
They weren’t your normal run-of-the-mill Christians. They had beliefs that were nothing like those of any Christian sect today, and they drew the ire of many Christian leaders at the time.
What we knew about them was limited to the writings of their critics until a stunning find in the mid-20th century shed new light on them.
Learn more about Gnosticism and the Gnostics, their beliefs, and the reaction to them 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!
Two novels explore the way that violence and loss can ripple across a village, town – or even entire countries. First, in Karina Sainz Borgo's No Place to Bury the Dead, a plague that causes amnesia runs rampant across an unnamed Latin American country. One mother's flight brings her to a border-town cemetery that operates on disputed land. In today's episode, Borgo joins NPR's Elissa Nadworny for a conversation that touches on the importance of death rituals, the myth of Antigone, and a real-life cemetery that exists along the border between Venezuela and Colombia. Then, Tana French has described her novels The Searcher and its sequel, The Hunter, as her take on the American Western. The novels follow Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago police officer who moves to rural Ireland. In The Hunter, the life Cal has built in Ardnakelty is complicated by an unexpected arrival. In today's episode, French speaks with Here & Now's Chris Bentley about her interest in writing from an outsider's perspective, the tension between blood and chosen family, and the particular experience of life in a small town.
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
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a problem that stumped even the best minds in physics.
Eventually, one man, Max Planck, solved the problem, but his solution was one that was out of left field. While the math worked, he didn’t actually believe that the mathematics explained reality.
It turned out his discovery was more true than he realized and it ushed in a revolution in the world of physics that completely changed our view of nature and reality.
Learn more about the ultraviolet catastrophe and the birth of quantum mechanics 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!
We've moved past the shortest day of the year – Dec. 21 – and, now, the days are getting longer. For more than 40 years, people have read and performed Susan Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day" to commemorate the winter solstice. In 2019, that poem was turned into a children's book, illustrated by Carson Ellis. In their collaboration, the two hoped to convey a story about light's triumph over darkness year after year. In today's episode, Cooper and Ellis join NPR's Scott Simon for a conversation about how the project came together, including the inspiration they took from their communication via letters – and from Pieter Brugel's paintings.
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
Some of the most beautiful things in the world of mathematics are fractals.
Fractals are unique geometric objects that are both easy to comprehend and have complicated mathematics.
Moreover, fractals are not just a theoretical mathematical construction. Fractals can be found everywhere in nature, including trees, beaches, and even your own body.
Learn more about fractals, what they are, and how they work in 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!