The World's Oldest Novel

Guest: Melissa McCormick, Professor, Japanese Art and Culture, Harvard, and author, "The Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion," and curator of the exhibition on "The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated" at The Met

"The Tale of Genji" is arguably the oldest novel in the world, and some scholars say it is as central to Japanese art and culture as the Bible is in the West. The voluminous, complicated work was written by a woman scholar from the Imperial court. 

 

Virginia Woolf

Guest: Jarica Watts, Assistant Professor, English, Brigham Young University

Virginia Woolf is famous for her writings about women. Think "A Room of One's Own" and "Mrs. Dalloway." But she's not famous for her tender portraits of mothers, though those can be found throughout her writing. Prof. Watts is exploring those relationships in a new book about Virginia Woolf. 

 

How Biocrust Holds It All Together

Guest: Sasha Reed, Research Ecologist, United States Geological Survey

Our skin is the largest organ of the human body, and the Earth has her own skin too--and it’s a living, breathing, and surprisingly vital part of the environment called the biocrust. Sasha Reed explains exactly how important this “organ” is and why we should pay attention to the soil beneath our feet.

 

Life Under the Earth, an Investigation

Guest: Ben Abbott, Professor, Ecosystem Ecology, Brigham Young University

Recent studies have found that life can flourish underneath the earth. Through a complex network of fractures within the earth, oxygen can make its way deeper through these cracks, facilitating the growth of microbial hotpots. These microbes are pushing life to its limits. What does this discovery mean for ecosystems here on the surface? What can we learn from the life beneath our feet?

 

Holocaust Memory

Guest: Jeff Jacoby, columnist, "The Boston Globe"

Jeff Jacoby’s father, Mark Jacoby, is a Holocaust survivor. More than that, though, he is a father, a husband, a practicing Jew, and a happy man.  This is the story of the triumph of faith and the human spirit. On the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we revisit our conversation with him.