wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this show
Michael Frayn: The Human Touch
photo

By Tom Ashbrook

British playwright Michael Frayn made a huge splash on Broadway with his show “Copenhagen,” a mind-gripping drama about a World War II meeting between physicists Niels Bohr and Nazi atomic chief Werner Heisenberg. Now, the actor who played Heisenberg on screen, Daniel Craig, is off playing James Bond. And Michael Frayn is on the trail of even bigger game than nuclear physics and the atom bomb.

The novelist and playwright is also a sometime philosopher. And he’s asking the maybe the biggest question of all… Does the universe itself exist if we — humans — do not?

Guests:

Michael Frayn, playwright and novelist. His new book is “The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of the Universe”

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly

 
 

Comments are closed.

Recent Shows
The Future of Aging
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

A surge of new strategies to “manage” aging — from diets to testosterone. We’ll get the story.

Comments [31]
 
Climate, Congress & Copenhagen
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

The Copenhagen climate conference is one month away. US climate action is going nowhere in Congress. We’ll look at the global implications of America’s domestic climate politics.

Comments [73]
On Point Blog
California, here we come! And we need your questions!

On Point is headed west!
No, no. Not for good. Only for one show. But it’s a very special show!  The NPR station in Thousand Oaks, California – KCLU – is celebrating their 15th anniversary. We’re lucky to have been on their airwaves for nearly seven years, and they invited us out west to host a live [...]

More » | Comments [7]
 
For Love of Science – or Money?

A new study supports the idea that U.S. dominance in engineering and science is threatened — but not for lack of training and education. It has more to do with a lack of social and economic incentives.

More » | Comments [5]
 
Matthew Hoh’s Resignation Letter

Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain, became the first foreign service official to publicly resign in protest over the war in Afghanistan. The move has generated a lot of reaction. You can read Hoh’s resignation letter, posted by The Washington Post, which reported on it here.
It’s a topic for our news roundtable today. What [...]

More » | Comments [4]