Audio

Can animals like chimpanzees, elephants or dogs have a kind of moral intelligence?

Inquiry
DAVE JAMIESON: MINT CONDITION: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession

Baseball Cards!

Inquiry
Ian Stewart: Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures Part Two

Inquiry welcomes back IAN STEWART, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Digital Media Fellow at the University of Warwick. We continue our conversation about Professor Stewart’s latest book PROFESSOR STEWART’S HOARD OF MATHEMATICAL TREASURES. Tonight we discuss who invented the zero and why having something that represents nothing is essential for doing higher mathematics. Then: what are the great unsolved problems of math?

Inquiry
Jim Baggott: THE FIRST WAR OF PHYSICS: The Secret History of the Atom Bomb

The Atomic Bomb and it’s progeny remain the most destructive and feared weapons humankind has ever developed. But why were they created in the first place?

Inquiry
George Michelsen Foy: ZERO DECIBELS: THE QUEST FOR ABSOLUTE SILENCE

An ear-splitting encounter in the New York City subway system sets writer and reporter GEORGE MICHELSEN FOY on a grail-like quest for total and absolute silence. Along the way he learned that absolute silence is a very subjective and elusive thing. His relentless search took him to sensory deprivation tanks, to conversations with astronauts and deaf scientists, and ultimately to the Orfield Labs anechoic chamber, declared the quietest place on earth by Guiness Records.

Inquiry
Sam Wasson: FIFTH AVENUE, 5 A.M. AUDREY HEPBURN, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

Breakfast At Tiffany’s is a film that is an undisputed classic picture, deeply loved by many for a wide variety of reasons. But this sprightly film is vastly different from the dark and complex novel written by Truman Capote. Was there an actual Holly Golightly that inspired Capote?  Who wrote the screenplay for the book and how did they navigate the many concerns of the studio censors?

Inquiry
Pete Dunne: BAYSHORE SUMMER: FINDING EDEN IN A MOST UNLIKELY PLACE

Inquiry welcomes back PETE DUNNE, prolific writer, natural historian, hardcore birder, vice president of New Jersey Audubon Society and Director of its Cape May Bird Observatory. Tonight Pete talks about his latest book BAYSHORE SUMMER: FINDING EDEN IN A MOST UNLIKELY PLACE. This is a wonderful paean to where Pete Dunne lives: the Delaware Bay section of New Jersey.

This Sunday on the Business Beat, host Steve D'Agostino chats with Damien Jacob of Worcester Sign Company about Worcester’s controversial outdoor-sign ordinance.

Inquiry
JARRETT J. KROSOCZKA: LUNCH LADY AND THE SUMMER CAMP SHAKEDOWN

Critically acclaimed children’s book author and illustrator (and friend) JARRETT J. KROSOCZKA returns to Inquiry to talk about the latest installment of his “who done it” graphic novel series LUNCH LADY AND THE SUMMER CAMP SHAKEDOWN. Tune in and learn about the challenges of creating a series for young readers, the secret origins of the Lunch Lady and much much more.

Jarrett J. Krosoczka: LUNCH LADY AND THE SUMMER CAMP SHAKEDOWN