Arts

"To compete well means to take risks that are normally constrained by fear," Po Bronson tells NPR's Michel Martin.

Following their best-selling book, NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, Bronson and Ashley Merryman teamed up again for Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing.

Bronson says "risk-taking is a crucial quality of competitiveness." Science shows that "if you focus on the odds, you tend not to take the risk," he says.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now, we turn to a giant in the arts world. You probably know the name, Anna Deavere Smith. You might know her from her role on "The West Wing" or as the no-nonsense old school hospital administrator, Gloria Akalitus, on the Showtime series, "Nurse Jackie."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SERIES, "NURSE JACKIE")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: How do you sleep at night putting someone out of a job?

From First Lady Michelle Obama handing out the Best Picture award to Best Actress winner Jennifer Lawrence taking a tumble, the 85th Academy Awards was full of surprises. Host Michel Martin recaps the evening with People magazine's movie critic, Alynda Wheat.

The movies Argo and Life of Pi and actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence were among the winners at Sunday's Academy Awards. But no one movie swept the show.

NPR's Sam Sanders and Mandalit del Barco were backstage at the Oscars on Sunday, covering the awards show. They sat in the press room, where winners go for interviews during and after the show. Here's a roundup of what they saw that you didn't see, in senior superlative form.

Most Likely To Stand By Her Man Until The End Of All Natural Time: Jennifer Garner

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

• A group of prominent Canadian authors are stripping down for a (mostly) nude calendar. Proceeds from the Bare It For Books project will go to PEN Canada, an organization that promotes freedom of expression. The (actually kind of hunky) Life of Pi author Yann Martel will be Mr. December.

Fiction and nonfiction releases from Peter Cameron, Mohammed Hanif, Kathryn Harrison, James Fallows and Stephen Dau.

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