The Fresh Air radio show from Tuesday, April 10, 2001: a remarkable interview with the author of a new biography of Timothy McVeigh.Their book is significant to history, given Mr. McVeigh’s shyness with the press, and yet the authors, both journalists, come across as mild-mannered to a fault. Until I had heard an exerpt on the radio, I had not realized that McVeigh had confessed to the crime.Their book is called American Terrorist and looks to be worth a read.

William Gibson, in the new film No Maps For These Territories, describes seeing footage of the Murrah Building on CNN as a pivotal moment. The bar for science fiction had been raised, as the modern world made another leap of incomprehensibility.