COVER STORY
Cute!
This week in Studio 360, Kurt Andersen and his guest, historian Gary Cross, discuss our love-hate relationship with cuteness, and how biology and culture conspire to make us say "awwww..."

Big Eyes
We love big eyes on anything -- babies, puppies, cartoon characters, Christina Ricci. But our fondness for big eyes is the work of nature, not Disney. Studio 360's Eric Molinsky found out how evolutionary psychology butts into pop culture.
Visit the MIT website on Kismet
Buy God In The Machine: What Robots Teach Us About Humanity And God by Anne Foerst
Buy The Human Face: A Natural History by Daniel McNeill

Murakami
Teenagers and young adults in this country are embracing Japanese art and pop culture like never before. An exhibition at the Japan Society in New York has filled the museum with colorful toys, strange dolls and paintings of schoolgirls. It's all very cute, but it doesn't take long to sense some dark undercurrents below all the wackiness. The exhibit is curated by Takashi Murakami, the successful artist-designer and Andy Warhol-like impresario of hip Japanese culture. Sarah Lilley went to figure out what Murakami and his show are all about.
Go to the Japan Society's page on "Little Boy"
Go to the Public Art Fund's page on "Little Boy"
Go to the Official Site of Murakami's organization Kaikai Kiki
Go to Public Art Fund's page on Chinatsu Ban
Go to Anne Allison's page at Duke University
Go to Thomas Looser's page at New York University

Hate Cute?
Cute is supposed to appeal universally, but some people just don't get it. Tamar Brott has some thoughts to share about being cute-averse in a too-cute world.

SPECIAL GUESTS
Gary Cross
Gary Cross is the author of The Cute and the Cool, a study of how and why adults project cuteness onto their children - and how our children are constantly rebelling against it. His other books include Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood. He is a Distinguished Professor of Modern History at Pennsylvania State University.
Buy The Cute and the Cool
Buy Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood

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How Art Works: Beatboxing
You may not recognize the lingo, but chances are you've heard their guttural rumbling before. Human beatboxers first appeared in the early eighties, when freestyle rappers often relied on them as mobile percussionists. They took their name from the drum machine—or beat box—that DJs used for their pre-programmed rhythm tracks. After falling off the map for a few years, human beatboxing is back in full force. Produced by Derek John.
Learn more about Beatboxing
Visit Ready Rock C's Homepage
Visit Open Though Productions

Aha! Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! is the hardest book you’re likely to find on a high-school reading list. In the novel, different people in a Mississippi town recall the legacy of a mysterious plantation owner in dense, convoluted prose. Vanessa Baish, who teaches composition to college students, told us how a head-on collision with the book changed what reading meant to her. Produced by Brad Tytel.
Buy William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom

Commentary
Elderly Rock-Pop
Every year these days, Rolling Stone magazine publishes its so called "Money Report," which is a tally of which rock and pop performers the previous year took in the most money from selling records and touring and merchandising. And when I saw the latest list -- acts that earned between $31 and $57 million dollars apiece -- I was struck by the singers and bands who dominate the top ten – they were mostly old, some really old, and their music is mostly... pretty soft.
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