Tagged: Books

A new book by a Dartmouth professor explores the changing world of advances in technology, medicine, and marketing and the greater role that developing nations are playing. More and more, innovations are occurring in poorer countries, then exported to wealthy nations, turning traditional patterns on their head. We’ll hear some examples, and why our guest says this could benefit everyone.

Guest

Moving back in time for a moment to 1976 when The Band released The Last Waltz, Martin Scorcese’s film of that final show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.  The film is often held up as the greatest rock movie ever and almost universally loved, except by Levon Helm…the musician,  actor, composer and original member of The Band who died a year ago this week. But then, Levon Helm was a drummer who marched to a different drummer, Helm ’s creative struggles,  crippling personal losses, and musical renaissance after battling cancer are at the heart of a new documentary film,and a new book by the writer, editor and spy magazine alum Jamie Malanowski.

Kevin Smokler is setting out to resurrect America’s long-ago encounters. Works such as The Great Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451 and Bartleby: The Scrivener, skimmed and discarded by 15 year-old high school hands in days of yore, are being taken off the shelf, dusted off, and re-explored by the same pair of older, more experienced eyes. By compiling a list of fifty high school “classics”, Kevin spent ten months re-reading the stories that have become distant, unquestionable deities in the eyes of many middle-aged Americans. What he found was profound; and in some ways, unexpected. Kevin, now 39, amassed his thoughts and findings in his new book Practical Classics: Fifty Reasons to Reread Fifty Books You Haven’t Touched Since High School.

Many of us have good intentions when it comes to reducing household waste – but too often those canvas totes get left in the closet, food scraps avoid the compost pile, and product packaging fills the trash-bag.  One head of household has found the motivation and creativity needed to take home-waste reduction to a whole other level.  Bea  Johnson is the blogger behind Zero-Waste Home, and now author of a book by the same name. She and her family produce only one quart of garbage per year.

America is no stranger to North Korea in the headlines; South Korea's army is on alert today after a suspected cyberattack by their northern neighbors. The eniamatic empire is still living under the cloud of its departed dictator, Kim Jong Il. Now celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice is setting his sights on an “unauthorized autobiography” based on late North Korean leader. The late public figure and his country isn’t often associated with comedy these days, but Malice seeks to use humor to elicit understanding amidst a strong cultural divide.