Six Questions

Six Questions — May 24, 2013, 8:00 am

The World Is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village

Anna Badkhen on life in rural Afghanistan and the friction between violence and beauty

Anna Badkhen. Photo by Mari Bastashevski

Six Questions — May 9, 2013, 9:00 am

Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere

Lucas Mann on hope and change in a minor-league-baseball city

Lucas Mann (thumb)

Six Questions — April 18, 2013, 12:35 pm

A History of Future Cities

Daniel Brook on the lessons of four great Eastern cities that sought to imitate the West

A History of Future Cities (detail)

No Comment, Six Questions — March 18, 2013, 9:00 am

Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East

Rashid Khalidi on how the United States sustains the failure of the Israel–Palestine peace process

Rashid Khalidi

Six Questions — March 15, 2013, 6:50 pm

Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party

Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin Jr. on the rise of the Black Panther Party, revolution, and the glory of guns

Black Against Empire (cover detail)

Six Questions — February 27, 2013, 9:00 am

My Pain Is Worse Than Your Pain— The Film Adaptation

Filmmaker Adam Hall on capturing the dark magic of a T. C. Boyle short story

Adam Hall

Six Questions — February 20, 2013, 9:00 am

This Is Running for Your Life: Essays

Michelle Orange on the art of the personal essay, navigating cultural overload, and the distance that separates two human heads

Michelle Orange

No Comment, Six Questions — February 4, 2013, 9:00 am

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

Alex Gibney on his documentary investigating the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of child sex-abuse cases

Alex Gibney (thumb)

Six Questions — January 24, 2013, 1:04 pm

Three Poets: “The Halls of Aspartame”

Timothy Donnelly on writing challenging verse, the cultural faith bred by 30 Rock, and the poet’s need to reach for the eternities

Timothy Donnelly (thumb)

Six Questions — January 18, 2013, 12:49 pm

Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure

Christopher S. Stewart on his epic hunt for Honduras’s lost White City

Christopher S. Stewart (thumb)

No Comment, Six Questions — December 3, 2012, 2:23 pm

D For Deception

Tina Rosenberg on the British spy novelist who hoodwinked Hitler

Tina Rosenberg (stream)

Six Questions — November 14, 2012, 9:30 am

Unruly Voices: Essays On Democracy, Civility and the Human Imagination

Mark Kingwell on fugitive democracy, the cultural role of philosophers, and hockey-borne Canadian anti-intellectualism

Mark Kingwell

Six Questions — November 8, 2012, 3:31 pm

Let Me Clear My Throat

Elena Passarello on the animal appeal of the human voice and the art of the lyrical essay

Let Me Clear My Throat (detail)

Six Questions — October 20, 2012, 9:53 am

Bet the Farm

Frederick Kaufman on how food stopped being food

Frederick Kaufman

Six Questions — October 5, 2012, 1:31 pm

Am I a Jew?: Six Questions for Theodore Ross

Theodore Ross discusses the history and evolution of American Judaism and recounts his attempt to reconcile with his childhood alienation from his Jewish heritage.

tedross150

No Comment, Six Questions — September 3, 2012, 10:07 am

Boss Rove: Six Questions for Craig Unger

After four years in the political penalty box, Karl Rove has returned as the undeniable mastermind of the G.O.P.’s electoral effort. Vanity Fair contributing editor Craig Unger has just published a new book, Boss Rove: Inside Karl Rove’s Secret Kingdom of Power, that focuses on Rove’s fall from grace during the Bush years and his remarkable political resurrection. It shows how Rove’s tactics are remaking the nation’s political landscape and explains why, win or lose in 2012, he is likely to be a dominant force in Republican politics for some time. I put six questions to Unger about his new …

Six Questions — August 31, 2012, 12:42 pm

Four New Messages: Six Questions for Joshua Cohen

Joshua Cohen’s new story collection, Four New Messages, was published on August 7 to wide and deserved acclaim. The book’s four independent but stylistically and thematically harmonious stories are an extraordinary blend of the familiar and the cutting-edge, addressing ancient human preoccupations in an animated, elastic style that captures the distracted and alienated character of our time. The week after its release, I sat down with Cohen at his apartment in Manhattan to discuss writing, the horror and splendors of the Internet Age, and whether the codex, privacy, and the human imagination are doomed. “I’m more interested in good writing …

No Comment, Six Questions — August 22, 2012, 10:59 am

Privacy: Six Questions for Garret Keizer

We live in a world in which the private space we are afforded seems to be constantly shrinking. Travelers are subjected to ever-mounting indignities at airports, and those who turn to the seeming anonymity of cyberspace soon learn that someone is keeping careful track of their habits and preferences, and may be putting the information to commercial or other purposes. Now Harper’s Magazine contributing editor Garret Keizer has written Privacy, a close look at an essential social and moral value. I put six questions to him about his new book: 1. You tell us that, “America is a pluralistic society …

No Comment, Six Questions — August 3, 2012, 11:06 am

Great Games, Local Rules: Six Questions for Alex Cooley

Alex Cooley Through much of modern history, Central Asia has been a borderland between great empires that vied for influence within it. This came to an end with the Soviet period, which plunged the region into isolation. Now, Barnard College professor Alex Cooley has taken a deep look at the post-Soviet era. In Great Games, Local Rules: The New Great Power Contest in Central Asia, he finds a sometimes hostile, sometimes friendly rivalry, focused on security issues, between the United States, Russia, and China for influence in the region. I put six questions to Cooley about his new book: 1. …

No Comment, Six Questions — July 20, 2012, 12:00 pm

Private Empire: Six Questions for Steve Coll

Measured by revenue, ExxonMobil is the largest corporation on earth. Its operations span the globe, and it behaves like a powerful sovereign, exercising immense influence over the governments of the United States and many other nations in which it has operations. Now two-time Pulitzer Prize–winner Steve Coll has written Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power, an in-depth study of the company under its past two CEOs, focusing on how it effectively pursues its own foreign policy and deflects demands for fiscal and environmental accountability. I put six questions to Coll about his book: 1. Ida Tarbell published The History of …

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