Botanist Robin Kimmerer describes her field experiments as like interviewing a plant. As both a Ph.D biologist and a member of the Potawatomi Nation, she's trying to reconcile modern science with the wisdom of her Native elders.More
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Science and Technology
Africa needs to reclaim its history and its technology, says Clapperton Mavhunga, a native of Zimbabwe who's a professor in MIT's Program in Science, Technology and Society. He says the traditional hunt is a great example of how Africans have passed on generations of knowledge.More
Elena Passarello created “Koko” from the one-thousand word vocabulary of a gorilla who uses sign language. Her book is "Animals Strike Curious Poses."More
Finding the horns of a saola — a large ox-like mammal on the Laos-Vietnam border — was one of the great biological discoveries of the...More
What's it like to be a badger? British naturalist Charles Foster wanted to know, so he dug a burrow and lived in the darkness, eating worms. Yup, it was kind of disgusting, but he says the experience brought him closer to the wildness within himself.More
Novelist Hari Kunzru talks about listening through the scratch and hiss of old 78’s for the voice of the past.More
In her memoir “Blue Dreams,” Lauren Slater reflects on the 30 years she has spent on Prozac, since the drug was brand new. Anne and Lauren compare notes on the relief antidepressants can bring, along with the downsides.More
The dream of SSRIs was based on an idea that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. And that you could fix it, with a pill. But psychiatrist Charles Raison believes it’s a mistake to separate the mind from the body.More
It can be difficult for those who've never experienced a manic episode to know what it feels like. What can set one off. For Jaime Lowe, it was a fire that triggered a manic episode so severe completely lost touch with reality.More
Steve presents a profile of Edward Abbey, whose book "Desert Solitaire" changed the way people thought about the desert. Abbey inspired many of today's environmental activists. We hear excerpts from Abbey's work and his admirers.More
Bruno Latour straddles disciplines, from sociology to philosophy, and for the last four decades has been a formidable intellectual presence around the world. His new book digs deeply into debates about nature, culture, and the Anthropocene.More
For three decades, MIT professor Sherry Turkle's been looking at the ways we interact with machines. She believes our digital devices are taking a toll on our personal relationships.More
In 2018, we have a lot more to be anxious about than just nuclear weapons.More
We all think about time but probably not as deeply as the groundbreaking theoretical physicist Lee Smolin. Smolin has created a radical new view of the nature of time and the cosmos. He lays it out in a book called "Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe."More
Unlike their canine relatives, coyotes have thrived in the U.S. Despite having been hunted just as intensely as wolves, coyotes have survived. Somehow, coyotes just spread, everywhere. Dan Flores told Steve Paulson how. More
The personal devices we live with and depend on — our computers, tablets, smartphones and more— all share information about us. Randolph Lewis tells more stories about how we’re being watched in a book called “Under Surveillance.”More
Do you ever get the feeling that your digital devices are eavesdropping on you?
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In a world filled with devices that could be used to listen in on our daily lives, how do you take back control of your privacy? Steve Paulson asked security reporter Lily Hay Newman.More