At Home with Writer Joyce Carol Oates
Last summer, we traveled to Princeton, New Jersey to sit with legendary writer Joyce Carol Oates. The talk begins with her daily routine, from writing to revision (6:34), the real-life…
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Chelsea Fagan, Money whiz who rebounded from shitty credit
Once upon a time, Chelsea Fagan was a financial mess. She had a credit score of around 450, debt that went to collections, and so many unpaid traffic tickets that…
Welcome to McCartney: A Life in Lyrics
Welcome to “McCartney: A Life in Lyrics.” This podcast will take you into the mind of one of the greatest songwriters of all time: Paul McCartney. The result is a combination…
Paul Simon
Paul Simon is one of the greatest living songwriters. Since debuting with Art Garfunkel in 1957, Paul Simon has written countless songs quintessential to the American psyche. This year, at…
Acting Out
In the 1930s, at a women’s reformatory in upstate New York, an upstart social scientist made a study that launched the field of social network analysis. It was revolutionary, but…
When Parakeets Plundered New York
Cautionary Conversation: An invasive parakeet species began spreading in New York City – and the government decided to kill every last bird. Tim Harford is joined by Ben Naddaff-Hafrey, host…
A Visit to Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap Factory
The history of Dr. Bronner’s soap is even crazier than the famously crazy writing on the side of a Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle. The company was founded by a man…
‘I woke up in an Ambulance Stuck in Traffic.’ : A Listener’s Story of Recovery
Rebecca Kaduru was driving home… then woke up in an ambulance. She’d been in involved in an accident and her face was smashed. Living in Uganda, she struggled to receive…
11. Writing on the Wall
After prison, Miki is a changed man . . . kind of. He knows better than to break the law again. So he finds other ways to make money. He…
10. Aging Boy of Summer
After getting busted in France in 1981, Miki finally surrenders himself to the FBI. Agents have spent years interviewing denizens of the surf world, gathering dirt on Miki. His criminal…
The Summer of Our Discontent with Reporter Astead Herndon (The New York Times)
With the closing of the latest season of The Run-Up, political reporter Astead Herndon (The New York Times) returns to the show. At the top, we discuss the recent impactful…
Phillip Persson, Rock Salesman
Can you put yourself through college by selling rocks on eBay? Philip Persson did! He’s a geologist and mineral dealer who’s been obsessed with digging things out of the ground…