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
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Episode Archives
Original Air Date:
January 15, 2017
Previous Airdates:
January 15, 2017
November 11, 2017
July 07, 2018
April 13, 2019
November 07, 2020
Some people talk to God and some think God talks to them. Read more
Original Air Date:
December 27, 2015
Previous Airdates:
December 27, 2015
September 04, 2016
April 21, 2018
April 06, 2019
December 05, 2020
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
Original Air Date:
April 06, 2019
Previous Airdates:
April 06, 2019
Amidst economic devastation, producer Charles Monroe-Kane asks what it takes to survive in the Rust Belt.Read more
Original Air Date:
June 02, 2018
Previous Airdates:
April 30, 2016
October 14, 2017
June 02, 2018
March 30, 2019
September 26, 2020
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
Original Air Date:
February 21, 2016
Previous Airdates:
February 21, 2016
November 20, 2016
December 23, 2017
March 30, 2019
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
Original Air Date:
March 23, 2019
Previous Airdates:
March 23, 2019
February 22, 2020
July 04, 2020
Who really runs the world? Presidents and prime ministers, or CEOs and bankers? And who’s responsible when everything falls apart?Read more
Original Air Date:
December 23, 2017
Previous Airdates:
December 23, 2017
July 28, 2018
March 23, 2019
May 02, 2020
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
Original Air Date:
March 16, 2019
Previous Airdates:
March 16, 2019
October 19, 2019
May 30, 2020
January 09, 2021
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
Original Air Date:
November 27, 2016
Previous Airdates:
November 11, 2017
June 16, 2018
March 16, 2019
January 25, 2020
Hip hop created a sound that changed music, art, fashion, and politics. What's next? Diplomacy? Journalism? Education? Philosophy?Read more
Original Air Date:
November 20, 2016
Previous Airdates:
November 20, 2016
April 14, 2018
March 09, 2019
February 29, 2020
Why is the world so damn cynical? Rather than surrendering to corrosive, hopeless snark, we look to some unexpected sources to make the case for sincerity.Read more
Original Air Date:
August 11, 2018
Previous Airdates:
August 11, 2018
March 09, 2019
January 11, 2020
October 24, 2020
Today, borders are a political flashpoint. But in a highly connected world, does the idea of a national border even make sense anymore?Read more
Original Air Date:
March 02, 2019
Previous Airdates:
March 02, 2019
January 18, 2020
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
Maybe it’s nostalgia. Maybe it’s something more. But analog is back in style.Read more
Original Air Date:
April 09, 2017
Previous Airdates:
September 23, 2017
April 09, 2017
March 24, 2018
February 23, 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
Original Air Date:
February 23, 2019
Previous Airdates:
February 23, 2019
October 05, 2019
June 20, 2020
It creeps into everything: guilt that we're not good enough, fit enough, smart enough. As we peruse Instagram, all we see is the perfection of others reflecting our own failures back at us. Why do we spend so much time feeling guilty? Should we?Read more
Original Air Date:
June 21, 2018
Previous Airdates:
June 23, 2018
February 16, 2019
November 23, 2019
August 08, 2020
Across professions, half of Americans surveyed say they’re exhausted from work. More and more of us feel scrambled, tired and drained. Are we facing daily lives more prone to burnout? And what can we do about it?Read more
Original Air Date:
June 09, 2018
Previous Airdates:
November 18, 2017
June 09, 2018
February 16, 2019
Where does creativity come from? And what exactly is going on in your brain when the Muse descends?Read more
Original Air Date:
February 09, 2019
Previous Airdates:
February 09, 2019
September 21, 2019
May 09, 2020
January 16, 2021
What can science reveal about lust, romance, and compassion?Read more
Original Air Date:
February 26, 2017
Previous Airdates:
February 26, 2017
February 10, 2018
February 09, 2019
February 15, 2020
What if the guiding principle we used in cooking, eating and growing food was love? From an Iranian-American kitchen to the chocolate forests of Ecuador, we explore new ways to express deep flavors and personal identity through food and cooking.Read more
Original Air Date:
June 30, 2018
Previous Airdates:
June 30, 2018
February 02, 2019
December 28, 2019
August 08, 2020
August 22, 2020
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
Original Air Date:
January 27, 2018
Previous Airdates:
August 06, 2017
January 27, 2018
February 02, 2019
October 19, 2019
September 19, 2020
Remember virtual reality? Back in the 1990’s, it was going to be the technology of the future. Today, it’s here. But we're still figuring out what to do with it.Read more
Original Air Date:
October 26, 2017
Previous Airdates:
October 26, 2017
January 30, 2019
Low temperatures don't have to get you down — stay indoors and celebrate our collective triumphs over frigid conditions with this collection of conversations about embracing the cold.Read more
Original Air Date:
January 29, 2019
Previous Airdates:
January 29, 2019
Home entertainment options have never been richer, but public places like movie theaters and performance spaces are suffering. What do we lose when everyone stays home?Read more
Original Air Date:
October 21, 2017
Previous Airdates:
October 21, 2017
March 31, 2018
January 26, 2019
December 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
Original Air Date:
January 26, 2019
Previous Airdates:
January 26, 2019
September 07, 2019
May 23, 2020
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
Most of us will never know what really happens behind bars. Prisons are generally off limits to the public and press, but several new investigations are drawing attention to the conditions in many of our nation's jails. This hour, what should a prison be?Read more
Original Air Date:
June 25, 2017
Previous Airdates:
June 24, 2017
April 28, 2018
January 19, 2019
November 23, 2019
October 10, 2020
A chorus of hope is coming from an unexpected group — teenagers. They have superpowers — innocence, idealism, and Instagram — and they aren't waiting for permission to use them to shape the world.Read more
Original Air Date:
March 17, 2018
Previous Airdates:
January 04, 2020
January 12, 2019
March 17, 2018
Procrastination can be an occasional bad habit, but it can also be a lot worse. It can lead to depression, low self-esteem, anxiety. Today, we try to answer the question, Why do we put things off and how can we stop?
...Read more
Original Air Date:
January 03, 2016
Previous Airdates:
January 03, 2016
December 30, 2017
January 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
Original Air Date:
May 19, 2018
Previous Airdates:
May 19, 2018
January 05, 2019
October 12, 2019