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George Saunders is an American great, a writer who continues to astound, evolve and get deeper. His new book, “Liberation Day,” is his first collection of stories since his National Book Award finalist “Tenth of December” was published eight years ago.

On this episode of The Bet of Our Knowledge: College campuses are reimagining student housing.

Lifelong friends Lynn Nottage and Jonathan Lethem grew up on the same block. Lethem’s latest book is “Brooklyn Crime Novel;” and last season Nottage was the most-produced playwright in America.

Grab those binoculars you haven’t used in years and check out the Pleiades through them. Suddenly the six stars you saw with just the naked eye explode into dozens, and now you see why it’s so famous. These are newborn Suns whose life is measured in mere millions of years, not the billions of our sun and most stars.

(Airs 10/20/23 @ 3 p.m. & 10/22/23 @ 6 p.m.) The Media Project is an inside look at media coverage of current events with former Times Union Editor, current Upstate American, Substack columnist Rex Smith, Judy Patrick, former Editor of the Daily Gazette and Vice President for Editorial Development for the New York Press Association, Barbara Lombardo, former Editor of the Saratogian and Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany, and WAMC News Director Ian Pickus. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara and Ian talk about the power of puzzles and games for the media, a local media company in a controversy over transphobic remarks, sports coverage and what’s on or off the record in the locker room, and much more.

Elizabeth Rush’s new book, “The Quickening,” recounts an Antarctic expedition to Thwaites Glacier, which contains enough ice to raise sea levels three feet. “It’s this powerful otherworldly being that has the power to shape us,” she says. But she urges: please avoid its nickname, “Doomsday Glacier.”

Nathan Hill’s new novel “Wellness” is a poignant and witty novel about marriage, the often-baffling pursuit of health and happiness, and the stories that bind us together. The book brings us from the gritty '90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home-renovation hysteria.

Saturn never gets dazzlingly bright like Venus and Jupiter and even Mars , but there’s no planet that beats it when it comes to making people gasp with amazement. But that knock-you-over view requires a telescope. Any telescope. Even an inexpensive one, using just 60 magnification. Tune in this week to learn how to locate Saturn in the sky.

Playlist as aired on October 21, 2023

Poet and president of the Mellon foundation Elizabeth Alexander quotes her great hero June Jordan on the question artists and activists should ask: "Where is the love? What are we moving towards, not just what are we fighting against?" We’ll also hear about Watts Towers and home-cooked lasagna.