In each chapter of her book "Animals Strike Curious Poses," Elena Passarello tells a different true story about an animal that made its mark on history. In the audio above, she reads from a chapter called "Vogel Staar" co-starring a young Mozart... and a musically inclined starling.
Our topic for Chattering Class this week: Psychology's infamous Rorschach test. And our teacher is author Damion Searls. His new book, "The Inkblots," is all about Hermann Rorschach, an artistically-inclined Swiss psychiatrist who in the 1910s learned he could diagnose patients just by asking them to describe what they saw in abstract blots on paper. He talks with Rico about Hermann's history and what made the Rorschach's blots so effective and unique.
Viet Thanh Nguyen's first novel "The Sympathizer" won a raft of awards -- including the Pulitzer Prize. He's just published his second book to great acclaim. It's a collection of short stories called, "The Refugees." He tells us the true story that inspired his new collection and shares a few thoughts on why refugees can make Americans uncomfortable.
Each week you send in your questions about how to behave, and here to answer them this time is author George Saunders. He is a bonafide MacArthur genius, and he has won international acclaim for his work in almost every prose form from hilarious satire to short stories. His newest work is his first novel, called "Lincoln in the Bardo." George explains what inspired him to the tale, before channeling his inner nun to solve our listeners' book club conundrums and more.
Each week you send in your questions about how to behave and usually we post them to a randomly chosen celebrity but here to answer them this week is an actual expert in the field, our friend Daniel Post Senning. He offers up a few tips to help us avoid faux pas for the most romantic holiday of the year before solving a few of our listeners' car pool problems and more.
Listen as the 2008 Man Booker Prize-winning author shares an excerpt from his latest book and introduces us to a man who's maybe a little too into the sport of cricket.
Back in the '70s, Steve Jones and his band, Sex Pistols, lasted all of three years and put out a single album, but they helped turn punk from a fringe musical movement to a snarling, international phenomena and gave misfits everywhere anthems like, "Anarchy in the U.K." Before telling our audience how to behave in mosh pits, the musician stopped by to talk about why writing his autobiography felt like torture and explains his stance on the disputed origins of punk.
Steve Jones, the founding member of the seminal U.K. punk band Sex Pistols, first talked to us about his new autobiography, "Lonely Boy," and explained why he thought writing would feel like a scene right out of "A Clockwork Orange." Now, he's ready to tell our audience about some mosh pit manners.
Each week you send in your questions about how to behave, and sometimes we ask them to wildly unqualified celebrities, but this time, we are joined by the veritable "Post-er" guy and gal of etiquette (see what we did there?) Lizzie Post and Daniel Post Senning. Our resident etiquette diplomats try to solve our listeners' holiday present problems, invitation time snafus, and more.
This week's party-worthy topic: New Orleans cartoonist George Herriman. Find out how his early 20th century cartoon influenced some of the greatest comic strips of all time and learn about Herriman's complicated racial identity, which he kept secret all his life.