Curated playlist

Harvard University faculty

Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden by hiding in an underground meat locker.
Alvin HansenEconomist Alvin Hansen doubted Keynes at first, then embraced him. By December 1938 he was a full convert.
Bernie SandersBernie Sanders delivered a speech in the United States Senate on the 10th of December 2010 that lasted 8 hours and 34 minutes. His target was a tax bill that would extend the Bush-era rates, which he argued favored the wealthiest…
Carl SaganCarl Sagan once asked a librarian for a book on stars and got one about movie stars.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowLongfellow used his own body to smother the flames on his wife's burning dress. He wore a beard from then on.
James Wood (critic)Harold Bloom praised critic James Wood in 1999, then said in 2008 that Wood simply does not exist.
Henry KissingerHenry Kissinger made a secret trip to China in July 1971. It helped end 23 years of diplomatic isolation.
Herbert MarcuseHerbert Marcuse analyzed Nazi ideology for American spies before students made him a hero.
Jaan PuhvelAt twelve, Jaan Puhvel fled Estonia with his family in April 1944.
David LandesBefore he taught at Harvard, David Landes decoded Japanese messages.
Janet YellenJanet Yellen is the only person to have led the Fed, the White House economic advisers and the Treasury.
James WatsonJames Watson put his name to a scientific paper that fills just two pages of the journal Nature, pages 737 and 738 of volume 171. Watson, an American molecular biologist, wrote it with Francis Crick in 1953. Its subject was DNA, and its…
Walter BurkertWhy did the Greeks kill animals at the altar? Scholar Walter Burkert spent his life on that question.
Joseph SchumpeterJoseph Schumpeter did not coin "creative destruction", the phrase he made famous. He borrowed it from Werner Sombart.
Oliver Hart (economist)Economist Oliver Hart was called as a government expert witness in two tax cases.
George SartonGeorge Sarton buried his Civil Guard coat and manuscripts in a Belgian garden in 1914.
Avi LoebIn 2024, Avi Loeb stood before an audience and declared his view that the Messiah will be an alien arriving from outer space. Loeb is an Israeli-American theoretical physicist whose formal name is Abraham Loeb. He was born on the 26th of…
Edwin MuirEdwin Muir moved from an Orkney farm to Glasgow at fourteen and called it a move from Eden to Hell.
Joseph WeizenbaumJoseph Weizenbaum's secretary asked him to leave so she could keep chatting with his program. She knew it was a machine.
Olivier BlanchardOlivier Blanchard became the IMF's chief economist two weeks before Lehman Brothers collapsed.
Joseph HenrichJoseph Henrich started out as an aerospace engineer at a defense contractor.
Stephen GreenblattStephen Greenblatt was stunned when universities sought experts in "New Historicism," a phrase he coined.
Gerald HoltonGerald Holton was labeled an "Enemy Alien" in America, yet Harvard hired him. He taught naval officers to use radar.
Elliot ForbesElliot Forbes, known to those around him as "El", was an American conductor and musicologist who lived from the 20th of August 1917 to the 9th of January 2006. Late in life, he made a habit of turning up at undergraduate performances.…
Alfred North WhiteheadAlfred North Whitehead walked into his Gifford lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1927 and lost his audience within a week. The astronomer Arthur Eddington had given the series the year before, and he had held a crowd of 600 people…
Robert ReichRobert Reich stands 4 feet 11 inches tall, and he has spent his working life arguing with people who hold far more power than he does. Born on the 24th of June 1946, he became an American lawyer, professor, author and political…
Annemarie SchimmelAnnemarie Schimmel earned a doctorate at 19 in Nazi-era Germany. Examiners rated her thesis magna cum laude.
Cynthia DworkA technique built to make junk email costly later helped make bitcoin possible. Cynthia Dwork co-created it.
Melissa DellMelissa Dell compared Peruvian communities on either side of an old forced-labor boundary. Gaps lasted centuries.
Paul HindemithJoseph Goebbels publicly called composer Paul Hindemith an "atonal noisemaker" in December 1934.
Daniel Patrick MoynihanDaniel Patrick Moynihan once shined shoes in Penn Station, which now has a train hall named for him.
Erwin PanofskyIn 1934, Erwin Panofsky argued a famous Flemish painting was really a legal contract.
Frank KermodeIn 1996, city refuse collectors carted off critic Frank Kermode's boxes of valuable books. He sued for £20,000.
George SteinerGeorge Steiner was born Francis George Steiner on the 23rd of April 1929. He was a literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator, and he is described as both French and American. Harriet Harvey-Wood, a former literature…
Charles RosenPianist Charles Rosen wrote his first book because a record sleeve note embarrassed him. It won a National Book Award.
Jeffrey SachsIn 1993, the New York Times called Jeffrey Sachs "probably the most important economist in the world." That reputation has carried him a long way. Sachs is an American economist and public policy analyst. He has advised governments from…