Trees talk to each other, and even form alliances with other trees or other species. Some are incredibly old — the root mass of aspens might live 100,000 years. In this hour, we explore the science and history of trees.Read more
Exploring the Deeper End of Ideas
Show Archives
- June 09, 2018
- January 19, 2019
- November 09, 2019
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
- November 02, 2019
Scientists and explorers have found a whole new world under our feet. It's an exciting place, and it's changing what we know about the planet and ourselves.Read more
- May 19, 2018
- November 02, 2019
We’re living through a period of mass human migration, with people on the move all over the planet. What does it take to take an unfamiliar place and make it yours?Read more
- October 27, 2018
- October 26, 2019
Did you know that the U.S. military has a long history of working with psychics to try to discover enemy secrets? We examine this history and take a deep dive into the paranormal.Read more
- March 16, 2019
- October 19, 2019
Whether you know it or not, your closets are filled with personal information. Do you think about what are you saying with your clothes?Read more
- January 27, 2018
- February 02, 2019
- October 19, 2019
While their domesticated cousins sleep on our beds, Congress debates wild wolves’ survival. This hour, we’ll explore our complicated relationship with our canine cousins, and the feelings they evoke – fear, hatred, and also love. Read more
- October 12, 2019
What if the most unselfish thing you could do was to pursue pleasure and joy? We make the case for the transformative power of joy, pleasure and delight.Read more
- May 19, 2018
- January 05, 2019
- October 12, 2019
If life is a play, what happens during the last act? What’s it like to live knowing you have a limited amount of time left?Read more
- February 23, 2019
- October 05, 2019
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
- January 20, 2018
- October 27, 2018
- October 05, 2019
How can someone be a monster — a brutal dictator, a mass murderer, a serial killer — and up close seem like a decent, caring person? What happens when you find yourself liking someone who’s done terrible things?Read more
- September 28, 2019
The line between free speech and hate speech isn't always clear. When does sensitivity become censorship?Read more
- May 12, 2018
- November 03, 2018
- September 28, 2019
All over the world, nation states are splintering. Separatism is on the rise. What causes nation states to erode? And what happens when they do?Read more
- February 09, 2019
- September 21, 2019
Where does creativity come from? And what exactly is going on in your brain when the Muse descends?Read more
- September 15, 2018
- September 21, 2019
When you’re hurt and the only way out of toxic bitterness and resentment is to let go, how do you summon the resolve to reach out to the person who hurt you most?Read more
- September 14, 2019
As monocropping and agribusiness continue to dominate modern farming, we speak to farmers, botanists and indigenous people about how they are reclaiming our seeds.Read more
- January 26, 2019
- September 07, 2019
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
- June 23, 2018
- September 07, 2019
You score a royal flush in poker! Do you credit your skill? Or luck? We talk with a poker champion, a game designer, an investment banker and a choreographer about how to untangle skill from luck.Read more
- September 01, 2018
- August 31, 2019
It's not easy in America today to find work that matters, that’s meaningful, and that pays enough to live on. Which is the one thing we don’t talk about. What’s wrong with work — and how do we fix it?Read more
- February 10, 2018
- November 24, 2018
- August 31, 2019
“The climate crisis is a crisis of culture and thus of imagination,” says writer Amitav Ghosh. So what changes in our conversation about global warming when we tap into the imaginative worlds of novelists and artists?Read more
- December 22, 2018
- August 24, 2019
You're thinking about hitting “delete” on all of it — Facebook, Twitter. But is that the answer, or should we resolve to stick around and make things better?Read more
- November 17, 2018
- August 24, 2019
The virtues of transgressive, subversive, rule-breaking art, both as an aesthetic and as a way of life. Read more
- August 17, 2019
Millions of people are caring for someone with severe memory loss, trying to find ways to connect. One of the best ways anyone has found is music.Read more
- March 24, 2018
- November 17, 2018
- August 17, 2019
Modern anti-depressants have saved a lot of minds. And lives. But what have they done to our bodies? And how do we navigate that trade-off between body and mind?Read more
- August 10, 2019
What makes someone want to walk into a ring and hit someone? Choose to take a punch? Why men — and women — fight. And why so many of us like to watch.Read more
- February 24, 2018
- December 01, 2018
- August 10, 2019
We delve into the new science of revulsion.Read more
- December 01, 2018
- August 03, 2019
We’ve been taught to ignore, stifle, or just get over anger for many years — but what if we embraced it?Read more
- August 18, 2018
- August 03, 2019
From our narrow vantage point on Earth, how can we see what's out there, beyond our skies?