Bonfire of the Vernacular

Author Tom Wolfe, who has called himself “the social secretary of neuroscience,” discusses the use of language and narrative with cognitive scientist Steven Pinker (Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University). Pinker’s most recent book is The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. Wolfe is the author of such epoch-defining novels as The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full. His new novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, is now available in paperback from Picador.
Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Until 2003, he taught in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time, and Slate, and is the author of seven books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, The Blank Slate, and most recently, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature.