By Airdate

week of May 20, 2012

Image:cocoabiscuit Via:Flickr Creative Commons

Minding Mortality

Are you deadline driven?  Are you most productive, most focused as “zero hour” approaches?  Well, what about the ultimate end, the true end of the time frame. 

Deadline, indeed. 

How does knowing that you’re going to die affect your life?  In this hour, we’re minding mortality.

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Travels in Siberia

Made in Russia

Siberia is the name for a place we tend to think of as a metaphor as much as a destination on the map. Writer Ian Frazier indulged what he calls his dread Russia love with travels through Siberia...

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Week of May 13, 2012

American Invention

American Invention

What’s your billion dollar idea? You know, the one that’s going to change the world?  America’s the land of invention, right? And it’s that can-do spirit that makes this country great. But America’s no longer the global innovation giant it once was.

Where have you gone, Thomas Edison?

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The Most Human Human

Brainpower

The Turing Test is an annual event in which the most advanced computer programs try to fool a panel of judges into mistaking them for real people.    And real people compete to try to win the coveted "Most Human Human Award."

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Week of May 6, 2012

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Why is Henry David Thoreau still an American icon 150 years after he died?  Yes, he was a brilliant writer, but above all, he asked us to "front only the essential facts of life."

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Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

Airports

"I suspect that the airport will be the true city of the next century."

 -- J.G. Ballard

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Week of April 29, 2012

Bamboo -- by Stuck in Customs via Flickr Creative Commons

Into the Woods

Lace up the hiking boots and grab the bug spray!   Spring is here and we're heading Into The Woods.  Learn how to read a forest.   Unlock the meanings hidden in leaf and bole, twig and soil.  And celebrate the woods in fairytale, myth, story and song.

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Back to the Land, Again

The Back to the Land spirit of the 60s lives on today, in the proliferation of farmer's markets, increased interest in sustainability and growing our own food.  This hour, what the Back to the Land spirit looks like today.

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Week of April 22, 2012

The Wise Man's Fear

Other Worlds

Past, present, future, and the imaginary - other worlds are everywhere.

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Mindfield

Memory, Mind and The Self

New York Times columnist David Brooks is best known for his political writing, but he's also fascinated by recent findings in psychology and neuroscience...

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Week of April 15, 2012

Brainstorm

We explore the frontiers of brain science, from the neurobiology of emotions to recent discoveries about autism.  Also, the story of one marriage saved by a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome.

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Bad Mother

Mother Issues

It seems everyone has something to say about motherhood.  A lot of people have advice.  Others just have... issues.

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Week of April 8, 2012

Snakeoil Image:David McCandless Via:http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/

TMI?

Your smartphone’s buzzing, your radio’s blaring, your email’s binging, the television’s glaring. Welcome to the digital age.

There’s information everywhere but do we know any more than we did twenty years ago? 

And for all that info... where's knowledge?

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All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost

Creative Pairs

The idea of creative collaboration is a relatively new one.  But two is the magic number.

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Week of April 1, 2012

Imagination

Have you ever heard of an “Uncreative Writing” course?  In this class, students are penalized for showing any kind of originality.  Instead, they’re rewarded for plagiarism, plundering and stealing. We’ll meet the man behind “Uncreative
 Writing” – poet Kenneth Goldsmith.  Also, Jonah Lehrer on how creativity works. 

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Winnebago Man

Pushing the Limits in Film

Some films have transgressed the boundaries of good taste.  We ask,  are we really pushing the limits in film?

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Week of March 25, 2012

Fun Inc.

Gaming

A lot of people love video games, but what can they teach us? Imagine a world in which whatever you want to know you can learn from a game.

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Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer

New Music

Why do people embrace the experimental visual art of Mark Rothko but avoid the experimental music of Karlheinz Stockhausen?

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Week of March 18, 2012

Atheists, Believers and the Secular

Atheists, Believers & The Secular

Some atheists are denouncing religion, while others still crave a sense of the sacred even though they don’t believe in God.  Do atheists have something to learn from religion? 

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Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat

Animals and Us

The way we think about animals often defies logic.

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