On Paper

Look around you: whether you're in the car, at your desk, or at home, chances are that somewhere in your peripheral vision, you can spot something made of paper. A map perhaps, a book, a notepad, a Kleenex tissue.

Paper has been used for everything from recording history, keeping households clean, and conducting business. According to our next guest, it has shaped human culture more than any other substance on the planet.

Nicholas Basbanes, author of "On Paper: The Everything Of Its Two-Thousand-Year History".