The Dinner Party Download featuring Errol Morris

Icebreaker: Ransom Riggs

Best-selling author Ransom Riggs tries to prove that chaise lounges are, in fact, Celtic.

Small Talk: Reyhan Harmanci

Reyhan Harmanci, culture editor at San Francisco's The Bay Citizen, tells us about the monkey business that ensued after a primate shutterbug took some brilliant self-portraits.

A History Lesson with Booze: The Mammoth Cheese and the "Local Motive"

This week back in 1801, the Baptists of Cheshire, Mass. celebrated Thomas Jefferson's presidency by making him a strange gift of congratulations — a 1,200-pound cheese. Hear about the "mammoth cheese" and then wash it down with the "Local Motive," a custom cocktail from Nancy Thomas at Massachusetts' Mezze Bistro & Bar.

Guest of Honor: Errol Morris

Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris has made films that probe at the complex truths behind Vietnam ("The Fog Of War"), the death penalty ("Dr. Death") and wrongful criminal convictions ("The Thin Blue Line"). But he's not averse to having fun — as evidenced by his new movie "Tabloid," which gleefully (and thoughtfully) explores a twisty sex scandal that was the talk of 1970s UK. Errol tells Rico about truth, his most difficult interview, and his distaste for dinner parties.

To hear more from Errol Morris — and a chat about millennias of food writing with Harper's editor emeritus Lewis Lapham — listen to our full show at www.dinnerpartydownload.org.

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