#317 Johnnie Clark - Surviving One of the Deadliest Jobs During the Vietnam War

NPR News: 07-14-2026 1AM EDT · Jul 14, 2026 Arts

Sam Neill, the beloved New Zealand actor who made paleontologist Alan Grant a household name in Jurassic Park, has died at 78. His career spanned five decades and crossed every genre — from art-house cinema to prestige TV, including Peaky Blinders. Expand

It started with a mix · Jul 10, 2026 Arts

Harry Hill's adult children dressed as characters from his live show and appeared on stage at Shepherd's Bush. When his daughter took his hand inside a Gary costume, he knew it was her just by the feel — a moment he describes as 'really affecting and sweet'. Expand

It started with a mix · Jul 10, 2026 Arts

Tom Davis's stand-up tour is called Spudgun — a nickname he got on building sites, named after the bumbling character from the sitcom Bottom. But a colleague then informed him the term actually means something rather different about watery sperm, which Tom says he covers at length in the show. Expand

It started with a mix · Jul 10, 2026 Arts

Lauren Laverne had planned to be a historian like her academic father. Instead she fell into TV via Never Mind the Buzzcocks, then into radio because it was 'showing off in private'. She now has the office full of books and records she always wanted — just arrived by a very different route. Expand

NPR News: 07-09-2026 11PM EDT · Jul 10, 2026 Arts

Bonnie Tyler, the British singer behind 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and 'Holding Out for a Hero,' died at 75. Her fifty-year career peaked in the 1980s with producer Jim Steinman, whose maximalist sound turned Tyler's gravelly, over-the-top belting into an era-defining signature. Expand

Why You Feel Overwhelmed All The Time (and how to fix it) -… · Jul 9, 2026 Arts

Every major artistic revolution follows the same two-step formula identified by psychologist Patricia Stokes: first, ban the familiar thing (preclude constraint), then commit to a specific replacement (promote constraint). Monet banned black so thoroughly that friends removed a black shroud from his coffin at his funeral. That's how Impressionism was born. Expand

Why You Feel Overwhelmed All The Time (and how to fix it) -… · Jul 9, 2026 Arts

Isabel Allende has started every new book on January 8th since age 40. When she gave herself an artificially short deadline and finished a novel months early, she emailed her biographer in distress: 'I have total freedom. This freedom is lethal.' Eighty million copies sold is the product of ruthless self-constraint, not inspiration. Expand

Why You Feel Overwhelmed All The Time (and how to fix it) -… · Jul 9, 2026 Arts

Atlas Comics' entire business model was volume — a fire hose of titles. When rival DC became their distributor and limited them to 8 titles a month, Stan Lee had no choice but to invent characters people would follow long-term. Superheroes with anger problems and teen angst weren't a creative vision — they were a response to a constraint. Expand