Steve Paulson

Is there a special mountain in your life? David Hinton, who lives in Vermont, told us about the one he knows best — Hunger Mountain - which he's climbed 300 times. His thinking about mountains has been shaped by his study of ancient Chinese poetry.

Do chimpanzees have spiritual experiences? A remarkable discovery in West Africa suggests they might. Do Chimpanzees Have Spiritual Experiences?; How “Big Gods” Transformed Human History; An Evolutionary Biologist Searches for God; What Bliss Looks…

If you want to cancel a famous writer because of his retrograde politics, Rudyard Kipling — author of "The White Man's Burden" — is an obvious choice. So should we still read Kipling? We ask novelist Salman Rushdie and literary scholar Chris Benfey.

Wolf biologist Rick McIntyre took a moment from his own wolf watching to explain the lives of Yellowstone wolves, one he's observed first hand almost every day for 22 years.

Makenna Goodman is a modern-day homesteader and novelist in rural Vermont. She was inspired by Scott and Helen Nearing, who were back-to-the-land pioneers. But she says their philosophy of "the good life" reeks of class privilege.

Novelist Siri Hustvedt knows how the creative process feels. Neuroscientist Heather Berlin knows what it looks like in the brain. Together with Steve, they explore the emerging science of creativity.

When Steve was handed the assignment of interviewing Jorge Luis Borges — but with less than 24 hours to prepare — the opportunity felt like more of a curse than a blessing.

As Steve says in this 2005 profile, part of the magic of Nobel Prize-winning short story author Alice Munro was the way she condensed the essence of a life into a short space. Munro passed away on May 13, 2024. She was 92.

Andreas Weber is a German biologist and philosopher with a highly unconventional way of describing the natural world, one in which "love" is a foundational principle of biology.

Stephen Alvarez — a National Geographic photographer and founder of the Ancient Art Archive — has spent years documenting ancient rock art around the world. He takes Steve Paulson on a long hike in the Cumberland Plateau, where they find an "unnamed

"Museum of Everyday Life" founder and curator Clare Dolan calls it "an ongoing, revolutionary experiment" — a celebration of "the mysterious delight embedded in the banal but beloved objects we touch everyday.

In 1848 Phineas Gage suffered a gruesome accident. BIasting through rock to build a new railroad in Vermont, an explosion sent a 3-foot, 13-pound iron rod straight through his skull. Remarkably, Gage lived, but brain science changed forever.

Camus said there's only one truly serious philosophical question, and that's suicide. 35 years ago, that idea sparked the single most terrifying moment of Steve Paulson's life. Steve tells the story.

There's no better way to get a feel for the origins of the human mind than to go and see ancient cave art. Anthropologist Christine Desdemaines-Hugon took Steve and Anne to two French caves with paintings dating back more than 10,000 years.

Steve Paulson from Wisconsin Public Radio reports on the wrathful talent wielded by New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani. She bestows praise on the works she loves, and rips apart those she does not. Not surprisingly, authors' opinions of Kakutani vary widely.

The Thousand and One Nights have been told and re-told for centuries, censored and banned in the Middle East, and made into cheesy Disney movies for kids. But have you ever read them? Here's the backstory with Steve Paulson.

The hot new thing in crime fiction comes from countries with cooler climes. Nordic crime stories are selling, and the biggest name is Henning Mankell, who may be the most famous Swedish writer since Strindberg. He has a huge global following.

Some of the biggest names in science fiction right now — like The Martian author Andy Weir — are writing what's called hard sci-fi, based on real-world science and a vision of hope for the future.

Steve Paulson prepared this report on Saint Francis of Assisi and his continuing influence in the modern world.

Critic Dale Peck has built a reputation on harsh reviews of contemporary authors. His new collection — Hatchet Jobs: Cutting Through Contemporary Literature — has elicited a less-than-supportive reaction from the literary world. Steve Paulson reports.