Open Source with Christopher Lydon

Recent Episodes

Our Postmodern Myth: “Star Wars” is Back

Posted January 7, 2016 • 00:50:01

There's a big old *spoiler alert* hanging over this whole radio show. You've been warned! We’re beginning 2016 by confronting what is already its...

An American Classic: “Fat City”

Posted December 22, 2015 • 00:23:20

An Open Source experiment here: Chris Lydon kindly handed off the hosting reins to me for a day, for an interview with Leonard Gardner, author of the...

The Art of Wildness

Posted December 16, 2015 • 00:50:04

The quote, from Henry David Thoreau, often goes: "In wilderness is the preservation of the world." Turns out Thoreau had been misheard. The real line...

Prohibition, Then and Now

Posted December 11, 2015 • 00:50:04

What do we remember about America's thirteen-year war on alcohol at the end of the First World War? Hollywood reminds us of the glamor of both rum-runners...

The New Nativism

Posted December 3, 2015 • 00:50:05

It's been a half century since John F. Kennedy declared this "a nation of immigrants," since his successor Lyndon Johnson threw open the doors to a...