In 1928 the Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovered the fungus from which penicillin is derived. Fleming made the discovery while trying an unusual experiment: painting with strains of bacteria. Lindsay Patterson talked with a team that’s taking bacterial painting to a new level.

For our American Icons series this fall, we've looked at nine different great works, but we've also been asking listeners to suggest what our tenth should be. Laura Detre, a listener in Pittsburgh, suggested the television show "Dallas.”

A century after his death, Mark Twain has finally published his autobiography. It's not a cradle-to-grave memoir, but a kind of window into Twain's mind, full of memories and thoughts randomly strung together. Kurt talks with Robert Hirst, an editor of the volume, who explains why ...

The band They Might Be Giants kicks off our live show at the 2009 Aspen Ideas Festival with this song that recalls the pre-crash mentality.

"Set the sails; I feel the winds a'stirring." So begins the song, "Charlie Darwin," by the rock band The Low Anthem. Frontman Ben Knox Miller describes how the band came up with the tune and its darker message, "Who could heed the ...

David Ellis Dickerson cut his teeth as a greeting card writer at Hallmark HQ. Now he specializes in custom greeting cards for difficult situations, such as a September 11th birthday and an apology for breaking a friend's toilet at a party. Produced by Studio 360's Sarah ...

With the rough weather this winter, writer Henry Alford has been cooped up inside more than he’d like. He’s been listening to the radiator clanging, banging, and hissing so long that it sounds like music. So he created his own composition for radiators, and he got a professional ...

Until recently - under the name "Final Fantasy" - Owen Pallett created a lush symphonic sound by layering his solo violin many times over with looping pedals. Pallet performs live in the studio and tells Kurt why he wanted to feature an actual full symphony orchestra on his ...

Last fall, Dallas unveiled a world-class performing arts campus to rival New York's Lincoln Center. At the same time, a new Dallas Cowboys stadium opened up that that showcases giant sculptures by some of the world's greatest artists. We sent Michael May to check ...

What is essentially Japanese in design? One designer compares it to tofu. Architects Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Shigeru Ban, designer Reiko Sudo, and poet Shuntaro Tanikawa show Kurt how Japan brings tradition and innovation together. His search takes him through the streets of ...

Our extended cut of Kurt's conversation with Patti Smith, including three things you didn’t know about the rock legend: 1) mother turned her on to poetry; 2) writes detective stories; 3) enthusiastic golfer.

Paul Bartlett was slogging through a PhD in animal behavior when he decided he would rather be painting. Bartlett finished his studies, left behind the zebra finches in his research lab, and now depicts razorbills, puffins, and other shore life in his native Scotland. Produced by

Every year the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress selects 25 recordings to be preserved for all-time. This year's picks include John Lee Hooker's breakthrough song "Boogie Chillen". Blues veteran Charlie Musselwhite and writer Peter Guralnick explain how Hooker's 1948 ...

Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated and the upcoming non-fiction work Eating Animals, explains how boxes by the artist Joseph Cornell inspired his own creative process.

From Snow White to Hannah Montana, the Disney company knows how to use music to capture the hearts (and cash) of generations of kids. And those songs lead to theme park rides and Broadway shows. Studio 360's Eric Molinsky looks into ...

When she was 18, Rosanne Cash's father Johnny gave her a list of "100 Essential Country Songs" she had to learn. Now decades after she was handed that sheet of yellow legal paper from the man in black, those tunes are the basis for her new album, ...

The members of They Might Be Giants have started keeping a list of meaningless phrases that prevent real communication. “It is what it is” – what does that mean, anyway?

Imagine it's somewhere in the middle of the 21st century and we've finally found a solution to our energy problems: mining the moon. This is the premise of the new movie "Moon," starring Sam Rockwell. Director Duncan Jones, who happens to be the son of ...

The fall of the investment bank Bear Stearns can tell us a lot about how we ended up in the current recession. Writer and former banker William Cohan gives Kurt his take on the narrative of the new economy. Cohan's new book is House of ...

The tea ceremony is a 400-year-old ritual for serving green tea. But in Japan's techno-centric society (increasingly fueled by coffee) can the tea ceremony survive? Studio 360’s Jenny Lawton talked with tea masters, old and young.