Modern Notion

This hour we talk to Joe Navarro, author of Dangerous Personalities: An FBI Profiler Shows How to Identify and Protect Yourself from Harmful People (Rodale Books, October 2014). Navarro takes us through the four personality types we should watch out for—and assuages any fears that the Modern Notion staff is riddled with narcissists. Contributing editor…

We talk with filmmaker Linda Matchan about her new documentary from Northern Light Productions, Circus without Borders, which tells the true story of two circuses from remote corners of the world—an Inuit village in Canada, and Guinea in West Africa. We also hear about the side of historical presidential assassinations that doesn’t get talked about: what happened to the first wives?…

This hour we’ll about two vastly differently, but equally fierce groups of warriors: the Nepalese Gurkhas and the women pilots of World War II. We’ll also hear from Freedom Riders and learn about the man who’s credited with the successful invasion of Normandy—and we’re not talking about Eisenhower. Finally, we’ll hop into the present with Marnie…

Today we have a little bit of a different show for you. We talked to author Tom Burgis about his new book The Looting Machine, and because it was just so complex and speaks to a lot of current issues, we decided to do a whole show that centers on it. So make sure your…

This hour, host Kristen Majewski talks to Dr. Daniel Rubens, a pediatric anesthesiologist at Seattle Children’s and cofounder of the SIDS Research Guild, about his groundbreaking research on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. He thinks SIDS is in some way connected with inner ear damage, and he and his team are researching the cause, mechanism, and…

This hour we talk to Josh Lambert, author of Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture (NYU Press, 2013). Lambert says that there have been many studies of obscenity in America, but almost no scholarship explores how it relates to Jewishness—even though many of the prominent figures were Jewish. Producer Eleanor Stanford sends us an…

We talk to Dr. John Launer, author of Sex vs. Survival: The Life and Ideas of Sabina Spielrein (Overlook Press, February 2015). Launer wants to bring Spielrein’s contributions to psychoanalysis to light, rather than dwelling on her brief erotic relationship with Carl Jung. We present our latest “People Are Strange”: Washington Irving Bishop, the mentalist…

Deborah Cadbury talks about her book, Princes at War (Public Affairs, April 2015), a deep exploration of the four British royal brothers before, during, and after World War II. She fills in the details of Wallis Simpson’s connection to the Nazis and shows how the three younger brothers stepped up in wartime, in a way…

This hour we talk to Amir Aczel, author of Why Science Does Not Disprove God (William Morrow, April 2015 paperback), a response to the New Atheist claim that God was not necessary for creation. Aczel uses the history of science and religion to, in his words, defend the integrity of science. We also hear the…

On the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s assassination, we talk to Terry Alford about Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth. Alford wrote the definitive biography of Booth, out today from Oxford University Press. We also learn about the daughter of Marie Curie, who was a Nobel Prize winner herself, and we hear the curious origins of…

This hour we talk to author Zoe Cormier about her book, Sex, Drugs, + Rock and Roll: The Science of Hedonism and the Hedonism of Science. She tells us why humans are special in the ways we have sex, do drugs, and derive pleasure from music. We’re also in the studio with Modern Notion contributor…

We talk with Harriet Brown, author of How Science, History, and Culture Drive Our Obsession with Weight–and What We Can Do About It (Da Capo Press, March 2015). Brown argues that focusing on weight as a measure of health is misguided and dangerous. Mark Hay, contributing editor to Modern Notion, joins us in the studio…

We talk with author and retired anthropology professor Pat Shipman about her book, The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction (Harvard University Press, March 2015). Shipman theorizes that the combination of early humans and wolf-dogs was an unstoppable force. We hear about the Cardiff Giant hoax in central New York and…

This hour host Dara Katz talks to Will Storr, author of The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science (Overlook Books, March 2015). Storr spent time with creationists, past life regression analysts, and Holocaust deniers to find out why they believe what they do, despite all evidence to the contrary. We sit down with Erin…

We talk with Blaine Harden about his book The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom. We also hear how never-before-seen Mary Pickford films were uncovered in a New Hampshire barn, and we talk with Mark…

We talk with Carl Hoffman about his book, Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art. We also learn about the checkered past of the cyclotron, or proton accelerator, and we have the latest installment of People Are Strange.