The investigative journalist and culinary historian talk about how the pleasures of eating have been affected not just by packaging and mass production, but also by the fanciful tastes of television chefs. They discuss with Studs their book, The Taste of America.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

The American author of fiction and nonfiction talks about her memoir, Minor Characters, and the time that she spent with Jack Kerouac and the other artists that made up the Beat Generation. The program includes clips from an earlier conversation with Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Peter Orlovsky.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

The English writer discusses her semi-autobiographical novel, The Long Way Home (Keepers of the House), loosely based on some of her life experiences, having been married to a Venezuelan man and having lived and worked on a farm.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

The British poet takes on the 1981 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas as the setting for his book, The Biggest Game in Town. He and Studs talk about the many people that inhabit Las Vegas at any given time - the tourists, the gamblers, the professional poker players, and everyone else.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

The history professor shares some of the voices that are collected in his book, Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the Forgotten Man. Included in the program are clips from interviews with working mother Jane Yoder, Chicagoan Clifford Burke, Appalachian resident Peggy Terry, and Virginia Durr of Montgomery, Alabama.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

Studs has a spirited discussion with Jonathan Kozol who shares his adventures and learnings in Cuba that formed the basis of his book "Children of the Revolution: A Yankee Teacher in the Cuban Schools." Kozol explains the ambitious Cuban Literacy Campaign begun in the 1960s that aimed to educate the entire population, tells of children teaching adults in remote villages by lantern light, and the unity and national pride that resulted. He and Studs explore the idea of generative words in literacy education and contemplate Kozol's hope to adapt a similar approach to American education.

The author and professor discusses her biography - Josephine Herbst: The Story She Could Never Tell - about the journalist and novelist who covered the Great Depression and The Spanish Civil War, and wrote proletarian novels on life in the 1920s and 1930s.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

Jonathan Miller discusses Shakespeare. Includes Feste's song "Hey, ho, the Wind and Rain" sung by Alfred Deller. Includes a clip from Jonathan Miller as Bertrand Russell.

Dr. Eugene Mindel, child psychologist and author, discusses his book, "They Grow in Silence: The Deaf Child and His Family,". Dr. Mindel and Studs talk about deaf children and how they learn to communicate without the ability to hear or speak. Studs reads an excerpt from the book about a deaf person feeling locked into themselves. Studs and Dr. Mindel talk about the the book "In this sign" by Joanne Greenberg a novel that portrays the isolation and loneliness of the deaf couple and the struggle of their hearing daughter.