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When not interrupted by family and travel, the writer begins his work early, keeps at it for hours at a time, and does it every day.

The underwhelming results of the Copenhagen Accord during last month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Denmark sent me searching my mental files for examples of how art has documented […]

On this day 46 years ago the Time Lord (aka Doctor Who) hit television screens, sparking several generations of hick British science fiction.

Extracts from Sarah Palin’s ghost writer’s diary detailing her dealings with the former governor have been published in Salon.

For even our best writers, penning that final sentence can be a difficult and tortuous affair. For John Irving, who never begins a novel without knowing its concluding words, this […]

Tough guys don’t cry. But during what’s been called the “he-cession,” they have plenty of reason to. As writer/journalist Reihan Salam explained to Big Think in an interview today, not only […]

The writer explains why he idolizes ideas, not people.

Between America’s bullying sense of patriotism and its increasingly divided populace, it’s difficult for a writer to call the land home. Yet, insists John Irving, if he’s going to “pick […]

While flipping through a copy of the New Yorker magazine earlier today, I came across an article written by Burkhard Bilger titled “Hearth Surgery”, which took a look at the […]

Former governor Sarah Palin has gone after the Associated Press accusing them of “opposition research” for fact checking her forthcoming book.

Textbooks–and perhaps, uniquely, economics textbooks–are not known for their literary brilliance. Why should they be? Does math need metaphor? In college when we think about numbers we think about things […]

What happens if America and other rich nations like Japan and Britain default on their massive debts and end up bankrupt?

Paul Auster is associated with two things, both in constant flux: the novel and New York City. The author of “The New York Trilogy,” “The Brooklyn Follies,” and the new […]

Google has announced that it will work to help companies, such as news producers like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, to limit the access that general readers and data aggregators such […]

The esteemed writer only loses sleep when the Yankees play on the west coast.

I joined a panel yesterday on BBC Radio’s “World Have Your Say” that included former Nobel Peace prize winner Jody Williamson to talk about President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Speech. […]

The usually cynical comedy writer Josh Lieb gets sentimental about love.

Daily Show writer Josh Lieb’s literary heroes include Charles Dickens and Danny Pinkwater.

TV writer Josh Lieb’s biggest mistake was burning out when his star was on the rise; he never knew how quickly he would lose Hollywood momentum.

We may all want to be the next drug and booze fueled literary outlaw like Hunter Thompson, but Josh Lieb explains that alcohol leads to early flameouts and difficult lives. […]

Today’s interviews with Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Richard Shelby mark the final installment of What Went Wrong?, Big Think’s series on the financial crisis. Over the past few months, we sat […]

When you hear the name Leonardo da Vinci you automatically think “Genius” with a capital “G.” Such Genius that he seemingly came from nowhere to walk among us. Science fiction […]

In these ‘lean times’ media agencies are angered by journalist’s living it large all-expenses-paid.

Author Gay Talese came by Big Think this afternoon and spoke to us about marriage, the subject of his next  book.  He is writing about his own half-century-long (and still […]

Kay Jamison explains her willingness to discuss her husband’s last years, and how she was helped through her own grief by the work of other writers.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been so baffled by Afghanistan or because I’m allergic to the hyperbolic use of “never” and “always” and “nothing.” Whatever the cause, I cringed when I […]

Big Think interviews the legendary journalist and author of, most recently, “A Writer’s Life.”

Since growing up in his parents’ tailoring and dressmaking shop in New Jersey, the writer has maintained a taste for family craftsmanship.

When Josh Lieb set out to write a book about a 12-year-old billionaire from Nebraska, the comedy writer and producer of The Daily Show, didn’t incorporate too many details from […]

Has any other American artist been as overanalyzed as Thomas Eakins?  Pollock, Hopper, Rothko, and others have all been called to the critics’ psychological couch, but only Eakins has gotten […]