September 12, 2008
The new computer game “Spore” lets users create single-celled microbes and, as the game progresses, they “evolve” into complex creatures and highly developed civilizations. The game’s creator, Will Wright, who also invented “The Sims,” weighs in on the intelligent design debate, and gives Kurt pointers on how to create his very own species.
Every year at summer’s end, a ragtag community of free spirits gathers in the Nevada desert for Burning Man, a massive art project with a fiery finish. Intrepid correspondent “Fiona Chutney” (a character played by actress and writer Iris Bahr) hopped a ride to the festival in an RV full of creative anarchists, and found herself in an epic dust storm.
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 music of the people who gave us the word “music.”
From costume dramas to postmodern classics, the actor doesn’t worry too much about being typecast. Malkovich tells Kurt about the delight of finally playing a character more pretentious than himself in the Coen Brothers' new comedy “Burn After Reading.”
Early humans hollowed out gourds to carry their water. Today we drink melted icebergs housed in crystal-studded bottles. Is this progress? Elizabeth Royte tracks the evolution of the water bottle. Produced by Catherine Epstein.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and
DK Eyewitness Travel. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
