This week, Grammar Girl has a very special interview with Randall Munroe, author of the language themed xkcd comics and several books. A bit about Randall: He has a degree in physics. Before starting xkcd, he worked on robots at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia. He started drawing stick figure comics, that you've probably seen, in his school notebooks and eventually scanned them and put the digital versions on a website that took off around 2006 to 2007.
Since then, Randall has written multiple books, including the bestsellers "What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions," "How To," which uses math and science to find the worst possible solutions to everyday problems, "Thing Explainer" that only uses the thousand most common words to explain different scientific devices, and now "What If? 2" just in time for the holidays.
The interview covers a wide range of topics, from grammar and comic writing to strange laws around bees. To listen to the full episode, click here. To read a transcript, click here.
A provocative history of men who were worshipped as gods that illuminates the connection between power and religion and the role of divinity in a secular age.
At once deeply learned and delightfully antic, Accidental Gods offers an unusual keyhole through which to observe the creation of our modern world. It is that rare thing: a lyrical, entertaining work of ideas, one that marks the debut of a remarkable literary career.
