Richard Paul

Richard Paul appears in the following:

The Forgotten History of Conservative Folk Music

Thursday, February 23, 2017

1960s folk music is usually synonymous with leftist politics. But musicians on the right took up the guitar and fiddle as well.

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Shakespeare in Space

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Even astronomers have a romantic side: the story behind why Uranus’s moons are named after Shakespearean characters.

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Shakespeare in Blackface

Thursday, November 24, 2016

The history of Shakespeare in America is deeply entwined with racial conflicts.

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The Science of Singing

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Professional singers have many rituals to take care of their voices. But when they need surgery to restore their instrument, they call the voice doctor.

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Shakespeare in Blackface

Thursday, April 14, 2016

The history of Shakespeare in America is deeply entwined with racial conflicts.

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Boldly Going Where No TV Prop Has Gone Before

Thursday, April 07, 2016

The Starship Enterprise is about to take its rightful place — right up there with the Apollo capsule and the Wright brothers’ plane — at the National Air and Space Museum.

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Are You Ready for Some Football Music?

Thursday, September 24, 2015

When the NFL wanted to make their games more like movies, they turned to composers, who borrowed from the bag of tricks that classical music has used for centuries.

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Have Two Psychologists Found a Long-Lost Play by Shakespeare?

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Researchers in Texas believe their computer program can analyze an author’s psychology — and for their first act, they’ve found a new play by Shakespeare.

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Rediscovering the Hidden Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Thursday, April 02, 2015

A huge cache of potent protest music from the Civil Rights Movement has been hiding for decades.

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How Alan Lomax Segregated Music

Thursday, February 05, 2015

Musicologist Alan Lomax had a specific idea of what African-American music should sound like — an idea that reinforced stereotypes instead of breaking them down.

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Enough with the Shakespeare? 8 Playwrights You Ought to Know About

Friday, April 04, 2014

It’s curious to note how few plays are ever performed that date between Shakespeare’s death and 1879, when Ibsen’s A Doll’s House premiered. Is there some alternative canon of classi...

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This Play from Iran Is an Actor’s Nightmare

Friday, February 07, 2014

Actors face stage fright all the time. But consider this scenario: you show up to perform a one-person show, and you’ve never seen the script. You don’t know what it’s about because...

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Curtain Call: Industrial Strength Musicals

Friday, January 10, 2014

In the 1950, 60s, and 70s, a subgenre of musical theater entertained thousands. It had showstoppers composed by some of the brightest talent in the business. But instead of selling ...

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Music in Space

Friday, September 11, 2009

When NASA launches the space shuttle, mission control wakes up the astronauts every morning with a song. But that’s not the only music heard in outer space. The astronauts often bring instruments with them to play. We asked Richard Paul to find out what it’s like to rock ...

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Conservative Folk

Friday, October 03, 2008

1960s protest music wasn’t only for championing left-wing causes. A segment of the folk movement came out in praise of Barry Goldwater and warned against the evils of communism. Richard Paul investigates the right side of folk music.

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Greek Revival

Friday, September 12, 2008

What did the music of ancient Greece sound like? Pottery shards and scraps of papyrus are the only clues we have. As Richard Paul discovered, there’s a passionate group of classics scholars and musicians trying to fill in the blanks and revive the ...

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Jingle All the Way

Friday, January 04, 2008

Advertising jingles used to be all over radio and television, but they seem to have gone into hiding lately. Richard Paul has created a celebration -- and an explanation -- of the nearly-lost art of writing a song to sell a product.

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Music in Space

Friday, October 26, 2007

When NASA launches the space shuttle, mission control wakes up the astronauts every morning with a song. But that’s not the only music heard in outer space. The astronauts often bring instruments with them to play. We asked Richard Paul to find out what it’s like to ...

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Get Your Kicks on Sputnik

Friday, October 05, 2007

There was instant global awe for the Soviet satellite, just under 2 feet in diameter, which circled the earth every 96 minutes. It was the beginning of the space age, but it wasn’t just a technological marvel: it had a lasting impact on American culture, language, and design.

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The Color of Shakespeare

Friday, March 30, 2007

It wasn't long ago that minstrel shows featuring white actors in blackface were all the rage in America. They were hokey, slapdash, and completely offensive -- but some of them were...

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