Do chimpanzees have spiritual experiences? A remarkable discovery in West Africa suggests they might.Read more
Exploring the Deeper End of Ideas
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More than 38 million Americans knit or crochet. Not because they crave mittens and afghans, but because they like the way knitting feels. Handwork turns out be a powerful antidote for digital overload. Read more
The first birth is when you arrive here, as a wet, wiggling newborn. But there may be other transitions in your life that feel just as difficult and profound. Some people actually call those passages re-birth. Read more
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
DNA tests are uncovering mixed bloodlines. For African Americans, this can be emotionally-charged. What do you do when you find out one of your direct ancestors was a slave owner? Does it open the door to new conversations about racial justice?Read more
Why do we have schools? To build a workforce? To create democratic citizens? Read more
Even with all the music available today, most of us still listen primarily to just a few comfy genres. But there’s so much more out there — and so much of it defies neat, algorithm-friendly categorization.Read more
Over-tourism is ruining some of our favorite places on earth. Maybe it’s time to think more carefully about where and why we go places.Read more
It doesn't matter whether you grew up going to Coney Island, Six Flags, or Pacific Park — to a kid, all amusement parks are magical. This hour we take a trip to the land of funnel cake, freak shows and fast rides.Read more
Bees are endangered, but all over the world, people are stepping up to save them — in backyards, science labs, and the abandoned lots of urban Detroit.Read more
For the first time since World War II, far-right and neo-fascist groups are winning converts and votes — all over Europe and also here at home. Why is it happening, and can it be stopped?Read more
Cities can be cacophonous and loud, a chaos of sonic discord. If, that is, you don't really focus your listening. People who’ve trained their ears to hear urban soundscapes in new ways hear something different.Read more
"Magical thinking" gets a bad rap these days. It suggests losing your grip on reality or being so gullible that you'll believe anything - from ghosts to miracles. But what if magic isn't pure fantasy? Maybe it's the gateway to wonder. Read more
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
Whether it’s nail biting or handwashing, most of us have a compulsion we can’t give up. Maybe that’s a good thing?Read more
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
Do you ever crave silence? Maybe some can’t stand to hear themselves thinking, but others go to great lengths to find respite from a blaringly loud world.Read more
Do scientists see the world in a different way? Not really. Just be curious.Read more
Is hope something we’re innately born with, or something we can choose to have? We talk with people who tell us where they think hope lives in ourselves and our communities.Read more
Computer scientists are closing in on the next frontier in artificial intelligence — machines that can create. Make art. Write stories. Compose music. The dream is to open the door to a whole new kind of creativity. Read more
Milwaukee is a city on water, right on the shore of Lake Michigan, split by the historic Milwaukee River. How did it shape the city's history, politics, culture, and people? We find out in this live broadcast from Turner Hall in Milwaukee.Read more
Look around the political landscape and you see something we haven’t seen for decades — politicians proudly identifying as socialists. Has their moment arrived?Read more
Amidst economic devastation, producer Charles Monroe-Kane asks what it takes to survive in the Rust Belt.Read more
There's a lot of hand-wringing these days about the American Empire. Is it doomed to come crashing down the way the Roman Empire did?Read more
They say "don't feed the trolls" — but why should sexist and racist trolls get to own the web? Was it built for them, or for all of us?Read more
Who really runs the world? Presidents and prime ministers, or CEOs and bankers? And who’s responsible when everything falls apart?Read more
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
There's a new kind of music packing nightclubs with young fans. It's jazz — but not the sound of your grandparents' supper club. Infused with hip hop and other popular musical forms, jazz is being remade.Read more
Hip hop created a sound that changed music, art, fashion, and politics. What's next? Diplomacy? Journalism? Education? Philosophy?Read more