Carroll Ballard directing Anna Paquin in Fly Away Home and the geese imprinted by Anna's voice recordings .

Human imagination and creativity generate such a wondrous range of marvels for humanity.  How is it done?  Sometimes it's magic, sometimes it's brain massage, sometimes it's logic, sometimes it remains a mystery.

CARROLL BALLARD -- Director, Cinematographer -- Dumas, Never Cry Wolf, The Black Stallion - How his quiet work as a director led to such beautiful films.  It's not always magic.  Certainly, what he talks about resonated with my own experiences making and getting Kepler's Dream into the world.

LYNNE TRUSS -- The British radio comedy writer became a grammar goddess with Eats Shoots and Leaves.  We hear hour our language was shaped by royal degreee, rogue commas, and the equitable colon.

HENRY PETROSKI -- The engineer who writes on success, failure, the beauty of design.  I first interviewed him when guest-hosted Fresh Air for his book The Pencil.  Today he talks about The Toothpick and the beauty of bridges.  

JONATHAN COULTON -- The singer-songwriter created a website as a venue for his songs and committed to one a week for a year.  How did he do that?  The game creator and Joco Cruise founder regales us with story and song. 

Sedge's flâneur files.  With Mike Greensill, piano.

Lastly, a dear radio colleague from my shows Breakfast Jam and West Coast Weekend, Bruce Walker Bellingham, died this past week.  He was a comedian, author, columnist, and a singer-songwriter who loved playing his 12-string guitar. He saw himself and lived as a native San Franciscan, though he claimed he was only visiting New Jersey when he was born and raised there as a boy.