Steven Pinker On Bad And Good Writing

The Economist in conversation with psychologist and word-usage expert Steven Pinker. He has produced a new style guide with cognitive sensibilities called "The Sense of Style".

World Ballet Day Live

Welcome to World Ballet Day Live – a continuous live-streaming event including The Australian Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, and San Francisco Ballet. We’re celebrating ballet by giving dance fans around the globe unprecedented access to our artists in behind-the-scenes studio rehearsals, interviews, and Company classes. The broadcast begins in Australia on Tuesday, September 30 and travels around the world ending with SF Ballet Wednesday, October 1 at 11am PDT. 

Mac Barnett: Why a good book is a secret door

Childhood is surreal. Why shouldn't children's books be? In this whimsical talk, award-winning author Mac Barnett speaks about writing that escapes the page, art as a doorway to wonder — and what real kids say to a fictional whale.

Is Technology Making Us Better Storytellers?

Technology has changed way we tell stories, but has it changed the quality of storytelling? At this year's Aspen Ideas Festival, a group of writers, artists, and producers weighed in. "We're revisiting the same explorations of the soul that have been going on for hundreds of generations," says House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon. Other panelists include Michael Eisner, Catherine Burns, Jay Allison, Paula Kerger, Jon Lovett, Yoni Bloch, Pete McBride, and Hari Kondabolu.

Understanding Randomness

On the Inquiring Minds podcast they talk about randomness with science writer William Poundstone, author of the new book Rock Breaks Scissors.

Poundstone explains why we’re so terrible at trying to come up with random sequences ourselves—and how understanding these pitfalls can actually help you predict, with accuracy above chance, what someone else is going to do even when he or she is trying, purposefully, to act randomly.