Childhood

Listen to full interviews with Chuck Close, Richard Ford, Mira Nair, and Richard Serra. This week, Kurt talks with Julie Burstein, the show’s long-time executive producer, about a subject that’s meat and potatoes in the interview biz: childhood. We hear about Chuck Close painting from a nude model at age eight, ‘which made me the […]

Children with imaginary friends can be more empathetic and social, but does that mean they’re more creative than other kids?

President Barack Obama will touch down in Hanoi on Sunday. He’s just the third US president to visit since the end of the Vietnam War. This woman escaped that war — and found out that it’s never too late to heal.

Danielle and Alexander Meitive of Silver Spring, Maryland, think their kids should be allowed to play in their neighborhood without being constantly watched. But the state of Maryland disagrees, and has threatened to take their children away — a threat that may be far more damaging than just the risks of playing alone.

A new biography shows a family cramped into a tight bungalow, pinching pennies, enduring slights and slurs. “It was very disciplined,” Michelle Obama recalls. Her big brother says he didn’t realize they were poor until he went to college.