James Lipton sometimes seems to know more about his famous guests than they do. How does he prepare for each interview?

The Actors Studio dean once wrote the definitive text on group nouns (“An Exaltation of Larks”). So what is a group of actors called?

The same thing that drove Hamlet to distraction: “Words, words, words.”

As a thespian, he was taught by Stella Adler. As a TV host, he’s interviewed such luminaries as Paul Newman and Alan Alda. Which acting insights has James Lipton found […]

How James Lipton narrowly avoided becoming a “stolid, bourgeois lawyer” and instead pursued the arts—including acting, ballet, and epic poetry.

A conversation with the creator and host of “Inside the Actors Studio.”

Every year, David Gelernter’s students at Yale “are less and less able to express themselves in writing.” Unless that trend changes, old media may wither.

The concept that David Gelernter defined in the 1990s is fast becoming universal.

The Yale computer science expert believes books “are among the most beautiful things we have.” To replace them all with digital texts would be a serious blow to learning.

The information technology expert believes rich communication between computers and humans is the wave of the future.

The “Heroes” creator is most fascinated by technology that allows us to immerse ourselves in narrative worlds—and make our own world a better place.

Obstacles to software unification should have been surmounted already. When they are, David Gelernter will be a happy man.

A conversation with the professor of computer science at Yale University.

It’s about live, streamed, Twitter-style content, says the Entertainment Weekly creator.

Innovation on the mobile platform has been held back by carriers—until now. The new possibilities have the Wikipedia founder excited.

Dan Zanes headed an 80’s rock band out of Boston, got some breaks, toured, but then left and eventually became a renowned children’s musician. Does he miss it?

Dan Zanes, a happy and successful family musician, was solicited and wound up with a role in the recent movie “A Wonderful World,” about a grim and failed children’s musician—how […]

What happens when you leave an 80s rock band? Go Solo? Self Produce? Make family music? Dan Zanes outlines the path toward redefinition.

As the monoliths of the music industry slowly fade into obsolescence, a new framework, in which one escapes the odd predicament of not owning a word of what one has […]

The Grammy-winning composer explains why the most important element in songwriting is imagining it as a party.

The folk legend has a curiously inspiring legacy—partly due to his unique ability to render almost anything into music and also because many aren’t entirely sure just how he played […]

A conversation with the family musician

The Vanderbilt anthropologist claims that the Internet and sites like Second Life have taken the romance out of love.

Ted Fischer talks about how people act financially and how they behave romantically and how those two behaviors are opposed to each other, often needlessly.

The Vanderbilt anthropologist describes what we look for in a mate.

As the anthropologist explains, women are hardwired to crave a steady, monogamous relationship, whereas it makes much more evolutionary sense for men to always have a few extra options on […]

The Vanderbilt anthropologist describes how ultimately chemistry might fade. But when that happens, compromises can keep a relationship going.

How lovers show affection differs from one culture to another. And even the notion of romantic love itself is not confined to a man and a woman.

In New Guinea and the Amazon, it is common and culturally acceptable for men to have sex with men.

Vanderbilt anthropologist Ted Fischer describes the evolutionary reasons for falling in love and how modernity has urged it along.