7204: William Wordsworth — From French Revolutionary to England's Poet Laureate | pplpod
William Wordsworth crossed the English Channel as a young man, fell in love with the French Revolution and a French woman, fathered a child, and returned to England a radical. By the time he became Po...
16 Jun 20min
7203: Carl Lewis — Why the World Booed the Greatest Track Athlete of His Era | pplpod
Carl Lewis won nine Olympic gold medals and set world records that stood for years. He was also booed at the 1984 Olympics by his own home crowd. The greatest track athlete of his generation was also ...
16 Jun 14min
7202: Gioachino Rossini — Why Opera's Greatest Talent Walked Away at Thirty-Seven | pplpod
Gioachino Rossini wrote thirty-nine operas by age thirty-seven, including The Barber of Seville and William Tell. Then he stopped. He lived another thirty-nine years, became a celebrated gourmet, host...
16 Jun 21min
7201: Gene Wilder — The Comedy Genius Who Hid His Final Illness from the World | pplpod
Gene Wilder was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2013 and told almost no one. He could not bear the thought of a child seeing Willy Wonka and learning the actor was ill. He chose to disappear qui...
16 Jun 19min
7200: Edvard Grieg — Why Norway's Greatest Composer Hated His Own Masterpiece | pplpod
Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor is one of the most beloved pieces in classical music. Grieg himself grew to despise it, calling it dated and wishing he could rewrite it from scratch. The tens...
16 Jun 20min
7199: Thelonious Monk — The Brilliant Wrong Notes That Changed Jazz Forever | pplpod
Thelonious Monk played notes that sounded wrong to everyone except Thelonious Monk. His angular melodies, dissonant chords, and unpredictable silences baffled critics and audiences for years before th...
16 Jun 25min
7198: Satyajit Ray — The Uncompromising Eye of Indian Cinema | pplpod
Satyajit Ray had no film training when he began shooting Pather Panchali. He pawned his wife's jewelry to fund it, shot on weekends over three years, and produced a film that Akira Kurosawa said made ...
16 Jun 24min
7197: D.H. Lawrence — Banned Books, Scandal, and the Fire of English Literature | pplpod
D.H. Lawrence wrote novels so frank about sexuality that they were banned, burned, and prosecuted for obscenity. The 1960 trial over Lady Chatterley's Lover became a landmark case for free expression....
16 Jun 21min
