Jan 14th, 2010 · Issue 67 of the magazine Oxford American is a big deal. It's a concise look at the best and brightest in Southern music over the years, particularly in Arkansas. Editor Marc Smirnoff takes World Cafe host David Dye through the numerous musical treasures he's found.
Jan 10th, 2010 · Guy Raz interviews Mark Smirnoff on his 11th annual Southern Music Issue of the Oxford American. Smirnoff discusses issues of race and sex in the music industry in the south, while unearthing some of Arkansas' most hidden treasures.
Dec 31st, 2009 · British columnist Lynn Barber's memoir, An Education, is about her affair, while she was still in high school, with an older con man. She spent weekdays prepping for Oxford and weekends flying off to European cities with her lover. Barber, who was happy with the movie adaptation of the memoir, says by the time she saw the film it no longer felt like her story.
Dec 12th, 2009 · Second City is what amounts to the Oxford and Cambridge of American comedy. The Chicago improv theater began in an old Chinese laundry but now spans several full-time theaters, training centers, and touring ensembles. This weekend, it's having an all-star blowout for its 50th anniversary. Host Scott Simon talks to alum and comedian Jeff Garlin.
Nov 23rd, 2009 · Charles Darwin's revolutionary book On the Origin of Species turns 150 on Tuesday. It's the book where Darwin introduced the theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest. To mark the publishing milestone, Christie's will be auctioning a recently discovered treasure: a rare first edition. It had been on a shelf in the guest bathroom of a family in Oxford, England.
Jun 30th, 2009 · The type of upper-class Englishmen people tended to sneer at during the Thatcher years are back with a vengeance in politics. Many members of the front bench of the opposition Conservative Party in recent years attended Eton and Oxford. But that doesn't seem to bother working-class people on the streets of London.
Jun 24th, 2009 · In this stimulating book, Oxford professor Margaret MacMillan exposes politicized manipulations of history and argues for the necessity of accurate understandings of the past.
Apr 14th, 2009 · Parts of Britain's economy are hugely successful. The country's arts are world class. And it's a great place to visit. But underneath, beyond the London, the Oxford, the Canterbury that visitors see, there is undoubtedly a malaise, and complaints about immigration are pervasive.