The astounding mad scientist life of Nikola Tesla. Just who was this pioneer of radio, radar, and wireless communication? We discover his legacy in the work of today’s scientists and artists. Samantha Hunt’s novel The Invention of Everything Else is a fictional portrait of Tesla. Monologist Mike Daisey tells us ...

David Byrne tells Kurt Andersen about starting a pop revolution in the early days of Talking Heads. We reveal a bold new graphic design for teachers that takes them out of the little one-room school house and launches them into the 21st century. And despite international accolades, Iran’s filmmakers have ...

This week, 77 years after its debut, Porgy and Bess returns to Broadway, but this isn't just another revival. The playwright Suzan-Lori Parks tells Kurt Andersen about how she turned the Gershwin’s landmark 1935 opera into a musical. We get ghostwriters to reveal the tricks of their trade. And what’s ...

Kurt Andersen talks with Angelina Jolie about the challenges of making In the Land of Blood and Honey, her directorial debut, in Serbo-Croatian. We tell the story of lost audio recordings that predate Thomas Edison’s phonograph. And we announce the winner of our 420-character story contest.