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
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Episode Archives
Original Air Date:
July 28, 2018
Previous Airdates:
July 28, 2018
May 18, 2019
July 18, 2020
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
Original Air Date:
September 29, 2018
Previous Airdates:
September 29, 2018
May 11, 2019
February 01, 2020
November 21, 2020
"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
Original Air Date:
February 17, 2018
Previous Airdates:
February 17, 2018
September 22, 2018
May 11, 2019
October 03, 2020
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
Original Air Date:
April 23, 2017
Previous Airdates:
April 23, 2017
November 04, 2017
August 11, 2018
May 04, 2019
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
Original Air Date:
May 04, 2019
Previous Airdates:
May 04, 2019
February 01, 2020
February 06, 2021
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
Original Air Date:
December 09, 2017
Previous Airdates:
December 09, 2017
August 04, 2018
April 27, 2019
February 22, 2020
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
Original Air Date:
April 27, 2019
Previous Airdates:
April 27, 2019
January 25, 2020
January 30, 2021
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
Original Air Date:
April 20, 2019
Previous Airdates:
April 20, 2019
January 18, 2020
January 23, 2021
Do scientists see the world in a different way? Not really. Just be curious.Read more
Original Air Date:
April 16, 2017
Previous Airdates:
April 16, 2017
September 30, 2017
June 30, 2018
April 20, 2019
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
Original Air Date:
May 05, 2018
Previous Airdates:
May 05, 2018
April 13, 2019
April 18, 2020
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
Original Air Date:
January 15, 2017
Previous Airdates:
January 15, 2017
November 11, 2017
July 07, 2018
April 13, 2019
November 07, 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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