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Can a book of elegies rise above maudlin morbidity? Author Stewart O'Nan says yes — and he recommends a great one by Christie Hodgen. It's a book that will break your heart, and warm your soul.

In Intel Wars, historian Matthew Aid details how bureaucratic policies and a glut of raw data have weakened the intelligence community in its war against would-be terrorists.

Gil Scott-Heron's posthumously published memoir, The Last Holiday, is a triumphant and moving account of a life dedicated to art and activism.

Last month, the illustrator-turned-author Lou Beach released a book of extremely short stories — each just 420 characters long. Kurt Andersen challenged our listeners to write their own 420-characters stories. Hundreds poured in; you can read them all here. Lou Beach judged the contest ...

In New York Diaries, editor Teresa Carpenter presents 400 years of diary excerpts written by people who've lived in or just passed through one of the greatest cities in the world.

As society makes astonishing technological advances, some think our future looks brighter than ever. But author Drew Magary isn't getting his hopes up. He has three books that set the bar pretty low for what the next generations will experience.

These character-driven novels featuring fracturing families, intrepid scientists and one very plucky early American heroine will spark lively debate on everything from the unreliability of memory to scientific ethics.

As it turns out, Raymond Chandler isn't the only writer who can channel the dark charisma of deceptively sunny California. Author Hector Tobar recommends John Fante's Ask the Dust, a novel that captures the grit and glamor of Los Angeles' past.

Society has a fascination with crime — we can't seem to look away from the yellow police tape. Author Duane Swierczynski recommends three thrilling crime stories told in graphic-novel form.

This is what Kurt Andersen considers a holiday tale ... melting ice caps and extraterrestrial spies? Kurt's story, "Human Intelligence," was produced for radio by Jonathan Mitchell, and stars Melanie Hoopes, John Ottavino, and Ed Herbstman. The unabridged version was ...

Robert Downey Jr., who stars in the new movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, is the latest actor to take on this iconic role. Guy Ritchie, the film's director, says Holmes' persona is an even divide between enigma and accessibility. WNYC's Sarah Montague traces ...

Forty-eight years ago, Donald J. Sobol put sneakers on Sherlock Holmes and set him in small-town America. Produced by Studio 360's Derek John ...

Where would you expect to find the world's largest Sherlock Holmes archive? Try nine stories below Minneapolis, in the rare book collection at the University of Minnesota. Sarah Lemanczyk descends for a visit ...

Julie Bosman, New York Times reporter who covers the book publishing industry, discusses how e-book sales compare to physical book sales this holiday season - and if giving an e-book has the same impact as giving a physical one. 

Last week, Kurt Andersen talked with Lou Beach, an illustrator who turned his Facebook updates into super-short stories, each 420 characters long.  They are collected in the new book 420 Characters. We asked for your 420-character stories and they’ve poured in ...

Enter Studio 360's 420-Character Story Contest

Christopher Hitchens, the author and essayist who died on Thursday, was known for his assertive atheism. From scathing books about Mother Teresa and God, to the way his final days played out as a debate over the harm or benefit of prayer, his most lasting legacy may be his duel with religion.

Patrick Winston is Principal Investigator at MIT's Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab. He believes that creating better artificial intelligence is not a matter of more powerful processing: we have to teach computers how to think more like humans. “We are a symbolic species,” he ...

Computers have taken over an astonishing array of tasks humans used to do. They fly our planes, give us directions, recommend books, set us up on dates.  But can they tell us a good story? Meet Brutus, a computer programmed to write fiction.  Through a series of mathematical equations, its ...

Bonus Track: “Self-Betrayal,” written by Brutus

Harvard physicist Lisa Randall is at the forefront of the search for new theories about how the universe works.  She’s especially interested in dark matter and is involved in work at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.  And although her work requires complex math and work on the theoretical ...