Welcome to ThoughtCast, a podcast and public radio interview program on authors, academics and intellectuals. I’m Jenny Attiyeh. ThoughtCast offers something that is glaringly absent from the media today: a bridge between the publications and pursuits of the intellectual world and a curious, informed, mainstream audience.

By providing detailed, unhurried and personal conversation with current writers and thinkers, ThoughtCast is that rare hybrid: a show that is both informative and entertaining – a synergy between mass media and the ivory tower. Think of it as “Terry Gross comes to Harvard.”

Examples of upcoming guests are: Princeton philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, literary critic James Wood, former poet laureate Robert Pinsky and Lisa Randall, an influential physicist at Harvard who has recently written “Warped Passages,” a book that argues for the existence of extra dimensions.