WAMU 88.5 : The Kojo Nnamdi Show

Kurt Andersen: "True Believers"

How does the 21st century so far compare with the 1960s? What values are still recognizable? And what couldn't be more different? Join Kojo to explore these questions and answers -- all of which form the backdrop to a new novel by a very popular public radio personality.

From The Studio

Kurt Andersen, novelist, journalist and co-founder of Spy magazine, talked about the tendency of people who grew up in the 1960s to romanticize their youth. He said that radicals of that era blamed their youthful indiscretions on authority figures. The Internet and social media have made it more difficult for today's generation to leave behind their follies of youth. "There was something about getting away with it that really characterizes that generation," Andersen said.

Related Video

Author Kurt Andersen discusses his book “True Believers” and the influence of the 1960s on our current modern society and discourse. Video courtesy NBC News:

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Read An Excerpt

Excerpted from True Believers by Kurt Andersen. Copyright © 2012 by Kurt Andersen. Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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