Author InterviewsNPR interviews with top authors and the NPR Book Tour, a weekly feature and podcast where leading authors read and discuss their writing. Subscribe to the RSS feed.
When Shohini Ghose was studying physics as a kid, she heard certain names repeated over and over. "Einstein, Newton, Schrodinger ... they're all men." Shohini wanted to change that — so she decided to write a book about some of the women scientists missing from her grade school physics textbooks. It's called Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe. This episode, she talks to Short Wave host Regina G. Barber about uncovering the women physicists she admires — and how their stories have led her to reflect on her own.
This Women's History Month, how physics connects two Bengali women born decades apart
Left: Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden in 2020, Right: Former President Barack Obama
Photo by Brendan Smialowski and JIM WATSON / AFP. ; by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Photo by Brendan Smialowski and JIM WATSON / AFP. ; by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Rod Nordland looks at the Istanbul old city from Galata Tower on Nov. 20, 2016. Nordland was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer, in 2019.
Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
A farmer works at an avocado plantation at the Los Cerritos avocado group ranch in Ciudad Guzman, state of Jalisco, Mexico.
Ulises Ruiz/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
According to the United Nations, about ten percent of the world is undernourished. It's a daunting statistic — unless your name is Hannah Ritchie. She's the data scientist behind the new book Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet. It's a seriously big thought experiment: How do we feed everyone on Earth sustainably? And because it's just as much an economically pressing question as it is a scientific one, Darian Woods of The Indicator from Planet Money joins us. With Hannah's help, Darian unpacks how to meet the needs of billions of people without destroying the planet.
This data scientist has a plan for how to feed the world sustainably
Cognitive neuroscientist Charan Ranganath says the human brain isn't programmed to remember everything. Rather, it's designed to "carry what we need and to deploy it rapidly when we need it."
Bulat Silvia/iStock / Getty Images Plus
hide caption
Lucy Sante, shown here in January 2024, says, "I am lucky to have survived my own repression. I think a lot of people in my position have not."
Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for The Guardian
hide caption
In her new book Get the Picture, journalist Bianca Bosker explores why connecting with art sometimes feels harder than it has to be. Above, a visitor takes in paintings at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London in 2010.
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
hide caption
Mark Daley is the founder of The Foster Parent, a national platform to connect interested families with foster organizations.
Mark Daugherty/Simon & Schuster
hide caption
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy sings the national anthem during a visit to the city of Izium, in the Kharkiv, Sept. 14, 2022.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
hide caption
"The act of choosing a piece of culture to consume is a really powerful one," says writer Kyle Chayka. He's the author of Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture.
Getty Images
hide caption