Curated playlist
American humanists
- Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein once spent his days examining patents for gravel sorters.
- Nikola TeslaNikola Tesla spent his last decades claiming he had built a death beam. He said it could stop an army 200 miles away.
- John SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck once stole bacon from a produce market to survive. He later won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature.
- Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden by hiding in an underground meat locker.
- Roger EbertRoger Ebert typed his last blog post two days before he died. He signed off with "I'll see you at the movies."
- Salman RushdieA fatwa ordering Salman Rushdie's execution was broadcast on Radio Tehran on Valentine's Day 1989.
- Carl SaganCarl Sagan once asked a librarian for a book on stars and got one about movie stars.
- Lewis GordonPhilosopher Lewis Gordon argues that racists are not irrational but hyper-rational.
- Ann DunhamStanley Ann Dunham grew up answering to a name that other children found funny. She kept using it through high school, "apologizing for it each time she introduced herself in a new town." By the time she reached college, she was going by…
- Frank ZappaAs a boy, Frank Zappa spread mercury across his bedroom floor with a hammer. His father brought it home from work.
- Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov coined the word "robotics" in a 1941 story, thinking it was just a natural term.
- Jonas SalkJonas Salk, the American virologist who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines, was once asked a simple question by the television personality Ed Murrow: who owns the patent? Salk answered, "Well, the people I would say.…
- Joss WhedonJoss Whedon earned more from a web musical than from directing The Avengers.
- Erich FrommErich Fromm argued that falling in love is not love at all. His 1956 book The Art of Loving became a bestseller.
- Anthony FauciAnthony Fauci, pronounced FOW-chee, once summed up his working life in a single sentence. In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, he said, "My career and my identity has really been defined by HIV." That is a striking claim from a man whose…
- Linus PaulingLinus Pauling left high school without a diploma. He later won two unshared Nobel Prizes, a first in history.