These principals of the architectural firm WORKac found it challenging to design their own home. The psychological complexity of domestic life? The culmination of years of thought? “The hardest thing about designing our house was that we just haven’t designed a lot of houses.” Produced with the Center for Architecture. Photo: Harry Willks.
The artistic director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company summarizes his aesthetic: “The curtain goes up, twenty minutes happen, the curtain comes down, and it is transformative.” Easy to say, brilliant to achieve. And they do.
“Even when they won, they somehow inexplicably managed to lose,” he says of an outfit he’s supported all his life. Not the Democratic Party, the Boston Red Sox. Losing can teach relience and effort, he asserts, lessons he applies as head of the Anti-Defamation League. A conversation at JCC Manhattan about pursuing social justice in challenging … Continue reading »
Are some religions more upbeat than others? Zarin Hainsworth works for the rights of women around the world as did her mother, a true optimist. “Of course she was, because she was a Baha’i.” says Zarin, who also attributes her own optimism to her Baha’i beliefs. I find her outlook baffling but her accomplishments … Continue reading »
Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah elegantly summarizes the problem of human knowledge: “There’s nothing that you must know, and there’s too much that’s worth knowing.” So how do you decide what to read next? Or should you just grab a six-pack and head for the beach? A conversation at the Princeton Public Library, with songs … Continue reading »
Poet Sonia Sanchez and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates each love Howard University, but it’s a complicated relationship. “Howard didn’t really want me to teach there,” she says. And for him: “I was never a great student at Howard University, but I was a great student of Howard University.” Love: it’s never simple. Two writers, two … Continue reading »
Born in America, the daughter of immigrants, writer Gish Jen recalls that, “When we were growing up, people would often say: your father is very Chinese.” Not just a little Chinese – very Chinese. What did they mean by that? She answers astutely, with reference to her father’s unlikely memoir, the Tianamen Square tank … Continue reading »
This Lakota musician is a universalist, alert to the commonalities among religions, nations, people. In our conversation at the New York Baha’i Center, he notes that nearly every culture has some kind of flute and some form of fasting. Is the latter a protest against the former? Certainly not. He himself is a flute player … Continue reading »
A past president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, she has a chilling awareness of the harm that can be done by nincompoops in power, and yet she is surprisingly optimistic. We spoke at Planthouse Gallery about Rachel Carson, climate change, and the terrifying, if unlikely, prospect of being on a spaceship with Peter … Continue reading »
The brilliant editor Maxwell Perkins carved Thomas Wolfe’s crate of pages – 333,000 words! – into Look Homeward, Angel. George Vecsey, much admired former sports columnist for the Times, thinks Perkins cut too much, by 100,000 words. Most readers side with Perkins. (And by “most readers,” I mean me.) Plus, he describes the men’s … Continue reading »
We spoke a few years ago for one of our first episodes, when she was a correspondent for The Daily Show, before she created her own show, Full Frontal, and before we could even imagine a President Trump, who makes us so desperately need Full Frontal and powerful mind-numbing drugs. Smart, funny, and humane, she … Continue reading »
Before Freakonomics, before he set out as a journalist, Stephen Dubner abandoned a promising career as a musician because, “I didn’t want to be doing something that I felt required adoration to give me validation.” But surely every writer wants readers who value his work, so what’s the difference? An artist’s relationship with his … Continue reading »
Our friends provide kindness, but we are also drawn to harsher souls with “big personalities” and small social skills whose rigor makes us better people. And by “we,” I mean playwright David Ives. A conversation at Classic Stage Company about tenderness and severity with the author of Venus in Fur and CSC’s current production, … Continue reading »
Can local government protect us from the enormities perpetrated by the White House? Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer is not entirely comforting, but it is encouraging to hear a public official who is competent, honorable, knowledgeable, respected by (and respectful of) her constituents – qualities not conspicuous around the Oval Office. It’s also nice … Continue reading »