In countries all over the world, rates of loneliness are skyrocketing. How did it become a condition of modern life?Read more
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Episode Archives
Original Air Date:
April 10, 2021
Previous Airdates:
April 10, 2021
November 13, 2021
May 21, 2022
The board games we play tell us so much more about ourselves than we think — our history, our politics and our inner psychology.Read more
Original Air Date:
November 30, 2019
Previous Airdates:
November 30, 2019
June 13, 2020
February 20, 2021
October 02, 2021
May 21, 2022
From Africa to England, to a kamikaze cockpit, and to realms of fantasy. Books aren’t just books. They’re passports.Read more
Original Air Date:
March 14, 2020
Previous Airdates:
March 14, 2020
December 05, 2020
September 04, 2021
May 14, 2022
Between masks and vaccinations, COVID-19 has added even more to the ethical baggage we carry with us when we travel. As we get back out there into the world, we revisit a show from 2019 about the ethical dilemmas travel poses.Read more
Original Air Date:
May 25, 2019
Previous Airdates:
May 25, 2019
May 14, 2022
We talk with poets and novelists about how they deeply notice the historical time we live in — through their words and voice.Read more
Original Air Date:
May 07, 2022
Previous Airdates:
May 07, 2022
Every so often, a new literary movement coalesces. A new generation of writers finds a voice. This time they’re young, gifted, and Native American.Read more
Original Air Date:
January 26, 2019
Previous Airdates:
January 26, 2019
September 07, 2019
May 23, 2020
February 27, 2021
April 30, 2022
Not everyone has a big yard to stretch out in while sheltering in place. But maybe all you need is a virtual space to call your own.Read more
Original Air Date:
May 16, 2020
Previous Airdates:
May 16, 2020
January 09, 2021
August 28, 2021
April 30, 2022
Is there a book you can’t forget? A book that left a mark on you? We celebrate books and reading with an eclectic cast of writers from around the country.Read more
Original Air Date:
November 16, 2019
Previous Airdates:
November 16, 2019
September 12, 2020
June 26, 2021
April 23, 2022
Why do people turn to poetry during troubled times? We saw it after 9/11 and we're seeing it now. When the world seems broken, poetry is often the one kind of language that helps.Read more
Original Air Date:
April 04, 2020
Previous Airdates:
April 04, 2020
November 21, 2020
April 23, 2022
How can we, individually and collectively, find meaning in the experience of the coronavirus pandemic?Read more
Original Air Date:
May 23, 2020
Previous Airdates:
May 23, 2020
December 26, 2020
September 25, 2021
April 16, 2022
If plants are intelligent beings, how should we relate to them? Do they have a place in our moral universe? Should they have rights?Read more
Original Air Date:
December 19, 2020
Previous Airdates:
December 19, 2020
August 21, 2021
April 16, 2022
As our world gets more and more virtual, traditional skills like blacksmithing and woodworking are starting to look better and better to a lot of people.Read more
Original Air Date:
April 09, 2022
Previous Airdates:
April 09, 2022
We owe our past and future existence on Earth to fungi. Some can heal you, some can kill you, and some can change you forever.Read more
Original Air Date:
June 08, 2019
Previous Airdates:
June 08, 2019
May 02, 2020
May 08, 2021
April 09, 2022
Floods, wildfires, winds and extreme temperatures. We talk with the people who are writing the story of climate change as we are living it.Read more
Original Air Date:
August 14, 2021
Previous Airdates:
August 14, 2021
April 02, 2022
We all miss touching things — groceries, door knobs, hands, faces. And most of all, skin. The living tissue that simultaneously protects us from the world, and lets us feel it. In this episode, the politics, biology, and inner life of your skin.Read more
Original Air Date:
April 18, 2020
Previous Airdates:
April 18, 2020
December 12, 2020
August 07, 2021
April 02, 2022
Africans are moving into cities in unprecedented numbers. Lagos, Nigeria, is on track to have 100 million people. So how and why do cities thrive?Read more
Original Air Date:
December 14, 2019
Previous Airdates:
December 14, 2019
September 26, 2020
July 17, 2021
March 26, 2022
What might seem like fleeting chart-topping fodder is actually a powerful vehicle for bringing people together, and music fans can teach us about community and hope.
Read more
Original Air Date:
March 26, 2022
Previous Airdates:
March 26, 2022
Sometimes, we take our body for granted. But even the everyday things it can do – keep our heart beating, fight off illness – are pretty extraordinary. Do you know what your body can do?Read more
Original Air Date:
February 23, 2019
Previous Airdates:
February 23, 2019
October 05, 2019
June 20, 2020
March 13, 2021
March 19, 2022
We explore the ancient, obscure, occult science and art of alchemy — it turns out to be a lot more relevant to our lives than you’d believe.Read more
Original Air Date:
September 19, 2020
Previous Airdates:
September 19, 2020
June 05, 2021
March 19, 2022
Science tells us mountains are giant piles of rock, formed millions of years ago. But that's not all they are — there was a time when mountains were gods.Read more
Original Air Date:
July 24, 2021
Previous Airdates:
July 24, 2021
March 12, 2022
Where do you go to find models of powerful women? The ancient world was full of them, real and mythic, but today we barely know their names. Why? This week we rediscover the women of ancient myths and legends.Read more
Original Air Date:
June 09, 2018
Previous Airdates:
June 09, 2018
January 19, 2019
November 09, 2019
June 06, 2020
March 27, 2021
March 12, 2022
Ghosts from the past stalk Europe again today in the wake of Russian tanks and missiles. To find a path forward, we might need to look back.Read more
Original Air Date:
March 05, 2022
Previous Airdates:
March 05, 2022
Jazz wasn't just born in America. There's an alternative history — a story of colonial empires, grassroots revolutions and the global migration of sound.Read more
Original Air Date:
July 04, 2020
Previous Airdates:
July 04, 2020
March 06, 2021
October 09, 2021
March 05, 2022
A new generation of Black farmers are working to reclaim land, hoping to grow justice along with vegetables and plants.Read more
Original Air Date:
August 22, 2020
Previous Airdates:
August 22, 2020
May 15, 2021
February 26, 2022
The pandemic, the protests, the arguments on social media — everything is exhausting. But maybe it doesn’t have to be?Read more
Original Air Date:
October 24, 2020
Previous Airdates:
October 24, 2020
July 10, 2021
February 26, 2022
For centuries, mathematicians have been looking for the deep design, the mathematical code to explain everything from microorganisms to spacetime. But it’s a dangerous quest.Read more
Original Air Date:
October 07, 2017
Previous Airdates:
October 07, 2017
May 05, 2018
March 02, 2019
November 14, 2020
September 11, 2021
February 19, 2022
Do chimpanzees have spiritual experiences? A remarkable discovery in West Africa suggests they might.Read more
Original Air Date:
May 14, 2017
Previous Airdates:
May 14, 2017
November 25, 2017
July 14, 2018
June 22, 2019
October 17, 2020
February 19, 2022
Do the old dreams of true love and happiness ever after fit our new lives and new identities?Read more
Original Air Date:
February 13, 2021
Previous Airdates:
February 13, 2021
February 12, 2022
Hope means believing there’s a future. But can hope co-exist with cataclysmic realities like climate change, or disruptive technological advances like artificial intelligence? Read more
Original Air Date:
May 04, 2019
Previous Airdates:
May 04, 2019
February 01, 2020
February 06, 2021
February 12, 2022
This hour we talk with people who’ve turned that around and made hope real, whether it’s through political activism, faith, music, or reading a life-changing novel.Read more
Original Air Date:
April 27, 2019
Previous Airdates:
April 27, 2019
January 25, 2020
January 30, 2021
February 05, 2022
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