'Of White Ashes' follows a Japanese-American ...

R.F. Kuang’s fantasy novel Katabasis, first published in 2025, is out in paperback. The book is about two rival doctoral students studying magic at Cambridge University. Together, they travel to hell to rescue their recently deceased thesis advisor. Last year, Kuang joined NPR’s ...  Show more

A few years ago, Theo Baker – then a student at Stanford University – joined the school newspaper and broke a story that forced the university president to resign. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, he uncovered, had overseen several labs in which researchers had falsified results. His new bo ...  Show more

Today we’re talking about the 1930s and 40s in Japan—fascism, World War Two, and the American Occupation.In particular, how did 20 years of censorship shape Japanese literature?We're also taking a look at the life and work of Akiyuki Nosaka, whose novella, "Grave of the Fireflies ...  Show more

The remarkable life of history's first foreign-born samurai and his astonishing journey from Northern Africa to the heights of Japanese society. When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, and trained into ...  Show more

During the reign of Empress Kogyoku in 7th century Japan, two clans — the Soga clan and the Nakatomi clan — were rivals for power. But the Nakatomi clan would ally with the Empress's son, Naka no Oe, and together they would plot one of the most influential assassinations in Ja ...

They say love is eternal. What about heartbreak? This Valentine’s Day, we bring you some of Japanese theater’s most popular tales of scorned lovers seeking vengeance from beyond the grave — with a burning passion.

Guests: 
Frank Feltens, Curator of ...