Jen Poyant

Author and Rolling Stone contributing editor David Lipsky won a National Magazine Award for writing about the late author David Foster Wallace last year. We talk to Lipsky about his recent book, "Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace," and his travels with the author. We also hear from Wallace's sister, Amy Wallace-Havens, on her brother's legacy.

John Hockenberry: David Lipsky, this is kind of a dream come true. In a way you’re sitting down with a writer who you obviously admire, you’re spending time with him, is it also a way of vanishing into his work by sitting down with him?

David Lipsky: Well, yeah, cause one of the great things about, both about being with him and then reading the book afterwards is it’s like being in an essay he’s doing live, it’s like being in his great narrative voice as he’s gong into a restaurant, as he’s going through an airport, as he’s going through the mall of America.  So it was as if you woke up inside one of David’s paragraphs.

John Hockenberry: And were you comfortable on this trip with him?

David Lipsky: In the beginning, he doesn’t - I have the impression he doesn’t like me, and I get that impression because he turns to me in a pizza restaurant and says “I’m not sure if you are a very nice man or not.”  But, yeah, then afterwards as we started driving around more, yeah. 

John Hockenberry: There was a sense of, in some of the recordings you made, and to hear David Foster Wallace’s voice right now is… y’know quite extraordinary, here’s him talking with you, on this road trip back in 1996, with every bit of the whimsy you would find on the page.

[AUDIO David Foster Wallace: I have this… here’s this thing where it’s going to sound sappy to you, I have this unbelievably, like, 5-year old’s belief that art is just absolutely magic, and that good art can do things that nothing else in the solar system can do. END AUDIO]

Hockenberry: Can you see his face, when he was saying that to you?

In our DIY Checkup series we've been talking about simple strategies to help take control of our health. Last week we spoke about setting long term health priorities with Dr. Andrea Price, who said that it is important to get to the doctor for your regular checkups. But for many, just making an appointment can be challenging.

Takeaway listener Hugh Appet responded on our website:

"One of the doctors mentioned as an example, someone who has not been to a doctor in five years. How about 20? Why don't insurance companies make it mandatory? The big thing, for me, is phobia. I tried making an appointment with my forcibly chosen primary care doctor under my health plan. The phone receptionist was so brusk that I couldn't get out what I needed to. So no appointment.

This week, we talk with Newsweek health reporter Kate Dailey and Dr. Pauline Chen about how to navigate the chaotic health system to find the right doctor and how to build a trusting relationship with your doctor once you make it to the office.

All summer long we'll be asking thinkers, artists and musicians about what makes the quintessential summer song. This week, SNL's Fred Armisen gives us his idea of the ultimate summer playlist. (You've probably seen Armisen play President Obama in SNL sketches, though you might not know he is also the former drummer for the punk band 'Trenchmouth.')

Scenes of fear, pain, and trust between doctors and patients give viewers an intimate look at what happens at the hospital in "Boston Med," a new documentary series on ABC. The show is neither "reality TV" nor the fictionalized medical fantasy land that we see on "Grey's Anatomy" and "House." In fact, it's a very real documentary that provides an unflinching look at the relationships between doctors and patients. We talk to the show's executive producer and one of the featured doctors about gaining access and building trust, and why they made this documentary.

Planning a summer vacation? We’re making a summer reading list to help you pick some really good books to delve into during your free time. Last week we spoke to Hilary Thayer Hamman, the author of "Anthropology of an American Girl." We also asked you about what’s on your reading list for this summer. Calypso, from Oklahoma, wrote in to our website with his suggestion: A romance/mystery novel called "Paper Towns" by John Greene. A good thriller always delivers, too, and author Justin Cronin’s new book "The Passage," is getting a lot of attention for its apocalyptic twist on the vampire theme.

Hilary Thayer Hamann earned a cult following after she self-published her debut novel, "Anthropology of an American Girl," in 2003. The book did so well that she submitted it to editors in the mainstream publishing world four years later. Speigel & Grau significantly edited and re-published the 600-page book this spring and the book has been getting rave reviews ever since.

What does "healthy" mean in America today? From trendy diets to calorie-burning shoes, we get so many confusing messages about what we need to do to be healthy that we lose sight of the goal. Maybe it's time to reconsider how we define health.

What does healthy mean to you? When it comes to maintaining your health, what works for you?

This weekend marks one year since last summer's massive protests in Iran following contested election results. In the midst of the protests, aspiring musician Neda Agha Soltan was shot and killed. Her death was captured on video and went viral on the internet. The family of the 26-year-old victim is speaking out in a new documentary, "For Neda," which will air on HBO next week. (HBO released the documentary online; it's embedded after the jump.)

We all know Joan Rivers as a comedian, talk show host, red carpet personality, writer, and season 2 Celebrity Apprentice winner. But now, the woman famous for asking “Can We Talk?” is adding the job title “documentary subject” to her resume, as well.

It's been over ten years since The New Yorker published its "20 Under 40" list of promising writers. The last edition featured stories by David Foster Wallace, Michael Chabon, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jhumpa Lahiri and 16 others, many of whom continue to write acclaimed fiction. After a long selection process, the new issue hits newsstands today, full of prose and promise.

How do you raise a child who's going to grow up to be wildly successful? (And maybe even a centibillionaire?) That's a version of the question every parent asks themselves. Every parent wants their kids to be successful, to be wise, to be decent people. Very few, when their children are born, think, “I want my kid to be the world’s first centibillionaire.”

You probably have watched comedian Samantha Bee as a correspondent on "The Daily Show" for several years now, but did you know that she was an only child of divorced parents? That she's a Canadian with two children and another on the way? That she was introduced to sex at the tender age of 7? Oh, and she once worked in a penis clinic too.  

That unorthodox childhood and life certainly inform Bee's comedy, and has now served as material for her new memoir, I Know I Am, But What Are You?.

President Obama recently admitted that he was wrong to rely heavily on the emergency plans of oil executives in the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It's an admission that presidents don't utter very often, but why? 

CNN turns 30 today, but the anniversary is bittersweet for the Cable News Network. Its ratings are in a slump and the competition for a constant stream of news seems to be getting even more fierce as the internet attracts viewers away from TV to the screens of smart phones and computers.  

Craig Robinson is best known as Michelle Obama's big brother and it's a role he says he's more than happy to play. After all, when they were growing up, Michelle was always known as Craig Robinson's little sister.

Everyone knows that looks matter. But should the law be involved when it comes to discrimination on the basis of appearance? Stanford law professor Deborah Rhode thinks it should. She explains why in a new book about how much we're affected by how people look, "The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law." What do you think? Should the law protect people who aren't attractive?

A little over a year ago, the Obama administration and Congress doled out $100 billion in education money via the stimulus package. However, that money is running out, and slowly school districts across the country are having to cut funding and lay off teachers.

How long has summer been the time for TV networks to just kick up their feet, hit play on the reruns and maybe stage some low budget, easy-to-produce reality TV shows? Looking at the upcoming program schedules, it's clear: this summer you’re going to have more to watch than reruns of "The Simpsons" and "30 Rock" as the networks take a lesson from cable channels like the USA Network and HBO. 

Facebook executives are preparing for a ‘privacy summit’ to discuss the site’s controversial new default privacy settings (which do little to protect users’ privacy). But in a world of over-sharing online, does privacy even matter anymore? And have our notions of public and private changed so dramatically that we couldn’t reverse things if we wanted to?

Talk to someone sharing their information. Take part in our "TMI" experiment!