The board games we play tell us so much more about ourselves than we think — our history, our politics and our inner psychology.Read more
A Kaleidoscope of Ideas
Episode Archives
Original Air Date:
January 31, 2016
Reading books isn't always the best way to learn. Some things you need to learn from your elders, and their wisdom has often been passed down through the generations. Read more
Original Air Date:
June 21, 2018
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 25, 2017
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:
November 16, 2019
Is there a book you can’t forget? A book that left a mark on you? We celebrate books and reading with an eclectic cast of writers from around the country.Read more
Original Air Date:
April 07, 2018
Can we ever get inside the mind of an animal? Can we really know how an octopus or a parrot thinks? Also, the fascinating story of Charles Foster's attempt to act like a badger, when he lived in a hole in the ground and ate worms.Read more
Original Air Date:
April 28, 2018
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
Original Air Date:
June 09, 2018
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:
December 04, 2016
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
Original Air Date:
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
Original Air Date:
October 28, 2017
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
Original Air Date:
October 26, 2019
What if experiencing dread — the horror of it all — is good for you?Read more
Original Air Date:
January 27, 2018
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:
March 16, 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
Original Air Date:
May 19, 2018
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:
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
Original Air Date:
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:
January 20, 2018
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
Original Air Date:
May 12, 2018
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
Original Air Date:
September 28, 2019
The line between free speech and hate speech isn't always clear. When does sensitivity become censorship?Read more
Original Air Date:
February 09, 2019
Where does creativity come from? And what exactly is going on in your brain when the Muse descends?Read more
Original Air Date:
May 21, 2017
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
Original Air Date:
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
Original Air Date:
February 14, 2016
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
Original Air Date:
January 26, 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:
September 01, 2018
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
Original Air Date:
August 12, 2017
“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
Original Air Date:
December 22, 2018
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
Original Air Date:
June 04, 2017
The virtues of transgressive, subversive, rule-breaking art, both as an aesthetic and as a way of life. Read more