CHARLIE ROSE: Sebastian Junger is here. He’s the author of the
bestselling books "The Perfect Storm" and "A Death in Belmont." A
contributing editor to "Vanity Fair" magazine, he has spent a lot of time
reporting in Afghanistan both before and after the U.S.-led invasion.
His new book is called simply "War." It is about a platoon of American
soldiers stationed in the isolated Korengal valley of eastern Afghanistan.
Welcome back.
SEBASTIAN JUNGER: Thank you.
CHARLIE ROSE: So there was a big story, and I brought in up with
Petraeus and other people, about Korengal valley. It was sacred land and
they did not want to leave it because?
Read the full and complete transcript here. Watch the full interview here. See also:
Fire
,
A Death in Belmont (P.S.)
,
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
CHARLIE ROSE: During his lifetime, Stieg Larsson built a reputation
in his native Sweden as a crusading journalist dedicated to denouncing the
activities of extremist groups. He was also a novelist. Not long before
his death of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 50, he had turned in
three crime novel manuscripts to his publisher.
Those books, known as the "Millennium Trilogy," have since become a
global publishing phenomenon, selling more than 40 million copies
worldwide. "The Washington Post" says the trilogy ranks among those novels
that expand the horizons of popular picture.
The third and final book of this series, "The Girl who Kicked the
Hornets’ Nest," will be published in the United States on May 25. Joining
me to talk about this extraordinary phenomenon of Stieg Larsson, his life
and his work, Eva Gedin, Larsson’s editor and publisher at Norstedts in
Sweden, and Sonny Mehta, editor in chief of Larsson’s U.S. publisher Knopf
and chairman of the Knopf-Doubleday publishing group.
I am pleased to have them here to talk about this remarkable kind of
publishing event. Have you seen anything like this before?
SONNY MEHTA: Well, I’ve seen it with "Harry Potter," Stephanie Meyer,
maybe. I haven’t participated in this to the best of my recollection.
It’s an amazing feeling for us.
CHARLIE ROSE: Take us to the heart of this. What is going on?
Read the full transcript of the interview here. Watch the full Charlie Rose episode here. See also:
The Girl Who Played with Fire. Stieg Larsson (Millennium Trilogy)
,
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy)
,
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Millennium Trilogy, 3)
,
Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Deluxe Boxed Set: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Plus On Stieg Larsson
CHARLIE ROSE: Jules Feiffer is here. He is a Pulitzer Prize winning
cartoonist, a playwright, he is an author. His self-titled comic strip ran
in the "Village Voice" for 41 years. Now he’s written a memoir about his
life and his art. It is called "Backing into Forward."
I am pleased to have Jules Feiffer at this table. Welcome. Great to
have you here.
JULES FEIFFER: I’m delighted to be here, Charlie.
CHARLIE ROSE: So why did you finally decide to do this memoir?
JULES FEIFFER: I didn’t decide. I backed into it. I was nagged by
friends.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
JULES FEIFFER: I would tell these stories over the years, usually a
drink or two and my tongue would unroll, and somebody would say "You’ve got
to write that down." And I would say "I don’t want to write down anything I
already know."
What I loved in my work in doing it was that I could start out not
knowing what I was going to do and tell the story. And I wouldn’t know how
it would come out anywhere more than the reader or the audience would
eventually know.
Read the full transcript of the show here, or watch the full episode here. See also:
Explainers: The Complete Village Voice Strips (1956-1966)
,
A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears
CHARLIE ROSE: Joel Kotkin is here. He is a distinguished
presidential fellow in urban futures at Capp University in California.
His new book is called "The Next 100 Million -- America in 2050." This
book imagines what is America will look like 40 years from now when the
population will grow from 300 to 400 million.
I am pleased to have Joel Kotkin at this table. Welcome.
JOEL KOTKIN: Great to be here.
CHARLIE ROSE: So tell me how you came to write this? What does a
geographer do?
JOEL KOTKIN: Well, geography is one of those skills that`s
declined, like history, over time. You try to understand how people fit
in with space, with place, with this particular location.
And the reason I came to the book was one thing. One is that after
we had 300 million I asked a demographer friend, well, when we do we get
to 400 hundred million. He said about 2050. I said, well, somebody
ought to be writing about this.
CHARLIE ROSE: It was a nice sort of timeline.
JOEL KOTKIN: It`s a milestone like 300 million was. And, you
never know, we never thought we could support 300 million people, and in
many ways the country`s better than it was when it was 200 million.
And the other thing was I felt like the -- and I have to say this
as a boomer myself. I think we boomers left -- are leaving leave our
Read the full transcript here, or you can view the full interview and conversation here. See also:
The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050
,
The City: A Global History (Modern Library Chronicles)
,
Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy
,
The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution Is Reshaping the American Landscape
CHARLIE ROSE: Joel Kotkin is here. He is a distinguished
presidential fellow in urban futures at Capp University in California.
His new book is called "The Next 100 Million -- America in 2050." This
book imagines what is America will look like 40 years from now when the
population will grow from 300 to 400 million.
I am pleased to have Joel Kotkin at this table. Welcome.
JOEL KOTKIN: Great to be here.
CHARLIE ROSE: So tell me how you came to write this? What does a
geographer do?
JOEL KOTKIN: Well, geography is one of those skills that`s
declined, like history, over time. You try to understand how people fit
in with space, with place, with this particular location.
And the reason I came to the book was one thing. One is that after
we had 300 million I asked a demographer friend, well, when we do we get
to 400 hundred million. He said about 2050. I said, well, somebody
ought to be writing about this.
CHARLIE ROSE: It was a nice sort of timeline.
JOEL KOTKIN: It`s a milestone like 300 million was. And, you
never know, we never thought we could support 300 million people, and in
many ways the country`s better than it was when it was 200 million.
See:
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11018. See also:
The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050,
The City: A Global History (Modern Library Chronicles),
Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy,
The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution Is Reshaping the American Landscape,
The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050
CHARLIE ROSE: Bill McKibben is here. Twenty years ago he wrote "The End of Nature," one
of the first books on global warming for a general audience. Since that
time, he argues the issue of climate change has become even more urgent.
His new book is called "Eaarth -- Making a Life on a tough new Planet." I
am pleased to have him back at this table. Welcome.
BILL MCKIBBEN: It’s very good to be here.
CHARLIE ROSE: So tell me where we are in terms of climate change at
this moment.
BILL MCKIBBEN: We learned today from NASA and others that January,
February, March, were the warmest January, February, March on record. NASA
said it’s now virtually certain this will be the hottest year we know
about.
What’s going on, the point of this strange title --
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes, look at this strange title.
BILL MCKIBBEN: "E" with two "a’s," you have to channel your inner
Schwarzenegger to pronounce it -- "Eaarth." The point is we’re already
living on a different planet. We’re all used to world we live in and
anything that’s going to change it in any significant way is hard.
B, because fossil fuel is the most profitable industry ever known to
man. And ExxonMobil made more money each of the last three years than any
company in the history of money. In our system that buys a lot of power to
delay, to deflect.
See:
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11016. See also:
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
,
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
,
The End of Nature
,
American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (Library of America)
The new book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things looks at the nature of hoarders, and the reasons why some people hoard. Co-author and professor of psychology Randy Frost describes his work, and explains why changing a hoarder's behavior is difficult.
Listen to the podcast here. Download the podcast here.
Rebecca Skloot discusses the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. Her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of the Lacks family, the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the what we are made of.
Listen to the WNYC podcast here, or download the show here.
CHARLIE ROSE: Norris Church Mailer is here. For 27 years she was
married to one of this country’s great writers, Norman Mailer. When she
first met him at a party in Arkansas she was a high school art teacher
named Barbara Jean David and she wanted her book signed. A relationship
ensued, and she followed him to New York City for the rest of his life.
In addition to a career in acting and modeling and painting, she is
also a writer. She recently published her third book, a memoir titled "A
Ticket to the Circus." I’m pleased to have my friend Norris Church Mailer
toe this program. Welcome.
NORRIS CHURCH MAILER, AUTHOR: Thank you, Charlie.
CHARLIE ROSE: When you first met him what did you think?
NORRIS CHURCH MAILER: Well, when I first saw him I was expecting this
old guy because I knew he was as old as my father, anyway, since he’d been
in the war.
And I had walked into this party which I finagled to invite myself to
because it was for the English faculty of the college and I was teaching at
the high school. I heard he was going to be there and I really wanted to
get my book signed because I had aspirations to be a writer. I subscribed
to the "New Yorker" and I thought I was an intellectual in Russellville,
Arkansas.
So I was allowed to come to the party and walked to the door, and he
was sitting in front of the window. And I was wearing blue jeans, and I
thought I’m not going to change clothes for this. I’ll be very casual.
And everybody was dressed hundred their suits and ties and English faculty
You can view the full interview here, or you can read the transcript here. See also:
A Ticket to the Circus: A Memoir
,
Charlie Rose - British elections / Nouriel Roubini / Norris Church Mailer (May 11, 2010)
,
Cheap Diamonds: A Novel
After we released our show about Stochasticity, we received a lot of comments about the idea humans can be just as predictable as coins. In that show, Jonah Lehrer was telling us about a study on the 82-83 76ers, and he was saying that even when a basketball player is supposedly hot – really on a streak – he is no more likely to make his next shot that any other time. Basketball players are slaves to their averages. Well, it turns out this isn’t the whole story.
Read the
full Radio Lab episode and post are here.
The search for Immortality has fascinated humanity for ages. Dan Skinner talks with Greg Critser about his book Eternity Soup: Inside The Quest to End Aging. Critser is a science and medical journalist who has written for the LA Times, the Times of London and the New York Times. In his latest book, he examines the sociological impact of a growing elderly population and reviews current research on aging including work being done at the Barshop Institute in San Antonio. Comments from Dr. Steven Austad about research at the Institute are also featured in the interview.
Listen to the show here, or download the podcast here.
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