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Author Interviews
3:49 pm
Sat January 14, 2012

Alan Bennett Defies Expectations With 'Smut'

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Credit Alex Bailey / History Boys Limited
Alan Bennett is an author, actor and playwright whose works have been staged at the Royal National Theatre.
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Originally published on Sat January 14, 2012 6:14 pm

Alan Bennett, author of The History Boys and The Madness of King George, among countless other books, plays and memoirs, is a grand old man of British letters.

"I'm getting on now, and I'm thought of in England as being rather cozy and genteel — certainly in the stories that I write," he tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

So Bennett decided to give his readers a little rattle with a new book of two short stories called Smut.

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Author Interviews
2:13 pm
Sat January 14, 2012

The Inquisition: Alive And Well After 800 Years

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Credit Gasper Tringale / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Cullen Murphy is the editor-at-large for Vanity Fair and previously served as managing editor at The Atlantic Monthly.
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When we talk of inquisition it is usually prefaced with a definite article — as in, The Inquisition. But, as Vanity Fair editor Cullen Murphy points out in his new book, God's Jury, the Inquisition wasn't a single event but rather a decentralized, centuries-long process.

Murphy says the "inquisitorial impulse" is alive and well today — despite its humble origins with the Cathars in France, where it was initially designed to deal with Christian heretics.

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World
2:00 pm
Sat January 14, 2012

'Titanic' Chaos After Italian Cruise Ship Grounds

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Transcript

GUY RAZ, HOST:

The captain of the Italian cruise ship which ran aground off the coast of Tuscany last night has been arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter. The majority of the ship's 4,000 passengers reached land by lifeboat, but three people are confirmed dead. About 30 are reportedly injured and some 50 are still unaccounted for. It is still unclear what caused the ship to come so close to the rocky shore.

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Science
2:00 pm
Sat January 14, 2012

Mega Mirror To Power Massive New Telescope

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One upon a time, the largest glass telescope mirror was 100 inches in diameter. Today, scientists are casting a mirror 27 feet in diameter that will be part of one of the most powerful telescopes on Earth. NPR's Joe Palca speaks with weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz from the mirror laboratory, located under the football stadium at the University of Arizona.

Analysis
2:00 pm
Sat January 14, 2012

Week In News: Corporate Money And The Campaigns

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The Citizens United Supreme Court decision has made for a sea change in American politics, but not the change most observers expected. Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz and The Atlantic's James Fallows discuss how corporate money has kept more candidates in the presidential race.

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