Latest Stories

a silent walking figure
Audio

John Francis, the "planetwalker," walked all over the country in silence for nearly 20 years. Steve and Anne met John a few years ago at the Geography of Hope Conference in Point Reyes, California – back where his journey began.
 

Length: 
12:47
An African imagination of the future.
Articles

Given the chance, how do Africans tell stories about their own imagined future? And how might the story be different? To get a sense of where African science fiction is heading, we talked with Nnedi Okorafor and Ainehi Edoro.

Length: 
19:20
"You're not ok, that's ok" yard sign
Articles

During the height of the pandemic, producer Charles Monroe-Kane made a yard sign — 300 of them, in fact. They read "You're not ok. That's ok." He put a few in his yard and the rest on his porch. Soon they were gone.

Length: 
19:49
water
Articles

David Foster Wallace gave the commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005. It was popular enough to eventually be published in a thin little book called “This Is Water.”

Length: 
3:23
David Foster Wallace
Audio

Over the years, we did several interviews with Wallace himself. The last was in 2004, about his collection of short stories — "Oblivion." It’s an interview that’s been collected in two Wallace anthologies.

Length: 
11:34
Cruises suck
Audio

David Foster Wallace's essays have their own unique cult following. There’s one, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” which is a hilarious diatribe about cruise ships, which convinced many of us we should never, ever go on a cruise.

Tennis in the Sierpinski triangle
Audio

The most famous thing David Foster Wallace wrote is "Infinite Jest," his huge, sprawling novel set in a dystopian near future. It’s a little eerie how well he predicted our world today.

Length: 
3:40
a woman waiting for a job interview
Audio

Andrea Dobynes Wagner is legally, but not obviously, blind. Every time she sits down for a job interview, Andrea weighs the pros and cons of disclosure. Will telling people she has a disability help or hurt her chances?

Length: 
14:50
Gul Dolen
Articles

Gül Dölen is a pioneering neuroscientist who's investigating the “critical periods” of psychedelics, including studies where she's given MDMA — also known as “Molly” — to octopuses.

Length: 
50:54
A house in orange
Audio

There are small, novel, concrete and grassroots ways to provide aid to the unhoused. Actress Annabelle Gurwitch was part of an experiment, a home-stay program, where individuals share their houses with people who need a place to live.

Length: 
08:15
Still of Wendell Barry from "Wait and See"
Photo Gallery

Aside from acting and woodworking, Nick Offerman has another obsession — the Kentucky writer Wendell Berry. Offerman told Steve Paulson that his admiration of Berry is rooted in their shared belief in the enduring value of craftsmanship and hard work.

Sara working in her shop.
Articles

Sara Dahmen is a professional coppersmith – one of the only women in the country practicing the trade. She makes pots and pans – simple basic timeless cookware – out of copper, iron and tin.

Length: 
19:11
Monroe with Dick’s bunkbed ladder and sawbuck. Photo by Elan Robinson.
Photo Gallery

Naturalist Dick Proenneke led a legendary life alone in the Alaskan wilderness. After Proenneke's death in 2003, master craftsman Monroe Robinson painstakingly reproduced everything Dick made to preserve a piece of that life for future generations.

Length: 
17:33
Britney Spears and the #FreeBritney movement
Audio

When the "Free Britney" movement started, it was initially treated as a joke. But the fan movement has drawn attention to exploitative conservatorship arrangements that celebrities like Britney Spears have been subjected to. Filmmaker Samantha Stark tells us the story of how the fans saved Britney's life.

Length: 
11:31
A five year vertical of Bourbon County Brand Stout.
Photo Gallery

Back in 1995, Goose Island created one of the most iconic craft beers of all time — Bourbon County Stout. Which — as Chicago Tribune beer writer Josh Noel explains — was why it was such a shock when they sold the brewery to Anheuser-Busch.

Length: 
12:29
Michael Twitty
Articles

Michael Twitty can trace his family’s food history back to the slave cabins and Antebellum kitchens of the South. Honoring his diasporic heritage — he’s both black and Jewish — lead Twitty to the practice of identity cooking. He calls it Kosher/Soul.

Length: 
16:04
Salt, fat, acid, heat
Articles

Chef, author, and Netflix star Samin Nosrat developed her own philosophy of cooking, based on a few universal principles: salt, fat, acid and heat. She says it allows us to cook by following our taste buds, rather than a recipe book.

Length: 
12:43
David Nutt
Audio

David Nutt believes psychedelics will revolutionize the treatment of mental disorders. A neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London, he says psychedelic therapy can help people resolve their buried traumas.

Length: 
7:16
Umbrellas as art
Sonic Sidebar

Celebrated curator Hans Ulrich Obrist has a vision: get art out of galleries and into the real world.

Length: 
8:02
Making music online and off
Audio

If you’re a music-loving teen in a tiny town with no music scene, Bandcamp is a lifesaver. JJ Skolnik, senior editor of the Bandcamp Daily, weighs the pros and cons of online music communities.

Length: 
9:17
Uptown Theatre
Photo Gallery

Photographer Matt Lambros takes us inside America’s abandoned movie palaces.

Length: 
7:35
cover of "The Negro Travelers' Green Book"
Audio

Lawrence Ross delved into the "Green Book," a 1957 handbook to help black motorists find safe stops along the highway, and used it to shape a contemporary road trip that celebrated black history, culture, and business.

Big trucks
Audio

Finn Murphy talks about his career as a long-haul driver who moves people's possessions across the country.

"The Elephant's Journey" by Julie Schumacher
Bookmarks

"Dear Committee Members" author Julie Schumacher recommends Portuguese Nobel Laureate José Saramago's retelling of a true tale.

Manal al-Sharif
Audio

Manal al-Sharif on how the most transgressive thing a Saudi woman could do was learn to drive.

Length: 
9:56
Galactic kidneys
Articles

Missy Makinia donated her kidney to whoever might need it. Her transplant surgeon — Josh Mezrich — invited Shannon into his operating room to see firsthand what it takes to remove and transport a human kidney.

Length: 
26:01
The amazing brain, without a horn.
Articles

Gavin Francis is fascinated by the complexity and beauty of the human body, which is so finely engineered that it can seem almost miraculous.

Length: 
13:37
Broken body
Audio

Porochista Khakpour has been fighting a mystery illness for as long as she can remember. Eventually, she got a diagnosis — late-stage Lyme disease — but a diagnosis hasn't given her much resolution.

Length: 
8:56
crocodile eye
Audio

The feminist eco-philosopher Val Plumwood was one of the few people to survive a crocodile's death roll. The attack reoriented her thinking about life, death, and what it means to be human.

Length: 
8:20
eyes
Articles

Squirrels and pigeons share our sidewalks and park benches. Crows pick through our trash, rabbits munch on our lawns. They watch us; we ignore them. What would change if we actually met their eyes? 

Pages