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
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Episode Archives
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
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
February 27, 2021
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
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
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
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
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
Ah, January. Season of diets and fasts and cleanses, of "Drynuary" and "Veganuary." Why does being virtuous always seem to mean giving up pleasure?Read more
Original Air Date:
January 06, 2018
Previous Airdates:
January 04, 2015
January 17, 2016
January 01, 2017
January 04, 2018
January 05, 2019
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 07, 2018
Previous Airdates:
April 07, 2018
December 29, 2018
November 16, 2019
We don’t handle endings well, in general. So this hour, let’s learn about how to make a good ending — whether leaving a lover, quitting a job, or getting ready for the end of life itself.Read more
Original Air Date:
December 30, 2017
Previous Airdates:
December 30, 2017
December 29, 2018
December 28, 2019
December 26, 2020
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:
December 22, 2018
Previous Airdates:
December 22, 2018
August 24, 2019
August 15, 2020
Psychologists say telling a good life story can make you happier. But do we also create an inauthentic version of ourselves if we turn everything into a narrative?Read more
Original Air Date:
October 23, 2016
Previous Airdates:
October 23, 2016
July 29, 2017
January 13, 2018
December 22, 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:
April 28, 2018
Previous Airdates:
April 28, 2018
December 15, 2018
November 09, 2019
August 29, 2020
Yosemite is climbing’s mecca. It’s where Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell stunned the world with their dazzling climbs.Read more
Original Air Date:
June 18, 2017
Previous Airdates:
June 18, 2017
December 16, 2017
December 15, 2018
As terrible as it sounds, most of us will go through something traumatic at some point in our lives. The experience can be deeply isolating and crushing, but it doesn't have to be. Read more
Original Air Date:
July 05, 2015
Previous Airdates:
July 05, 2015
September 09, 2017
March 31, 2018
December 08, 2018
Even the most welcome gift can spark guilt, resentment, obligation or vulnerability. This hour, unwrapping the tangled emotions behind giving — and getting.Read more
Original Air Date:
December 08, 2018
Previous Airdates:
December 08, 2018
December 07, 2019
We delve into the new science of revulsion.Read more
Original Air Date:
August 28, 2016
Previous Airdates:
August 28, 2016
February 24, 2018
December 01, 2018
August 10, 2019
We’ve been taught to ignore, stifle, or just get over anger for many years — but what if we embraced it?Read more
Original Air Date:
December 01, 2018
Previous Airdates:
December 01, 2018
August 03, 2019
What's the essence of religion? God? Scripture? Moral codes? Or is it really about something more unexplainable — primal spiritual experiences?Read more
Original Air Date:
November 24, 2018
Previous Airdates:
November 24, 2018
July 06, 2019
July 18, 2020
“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:
August 12, 2017
Previous Airdates:
August 12, 2017
February 10, 2018
November 24, 2018
August 31, 2019
The virtues of transgressive, subversive, rule-breaking art, both as an aesthetic and as a way of life. Read more
Original Air Date:
June 04, 2017
Previous Airdates:
June 04, 2017
November 17, 2018
August 24, 2019
August 01, 2020
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
Original Air Date:
March 24, 2018
Previous Airdates:
March 24, 2018
November 17, 2018
August 17, 2019
April 25, 2020
It's a long walk from the truth to the whole truth. A biographer, a poet, a memoirist and a filmmaker describe the moral struggle and personal cost involved.Read more
Original Air Date:
November 10, 2018
Previous Airdates:
November 10, 2018
July 20, 2019
April 11, 2020
November 28, 2020
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:
May 12, 2018
Previous Airdates:
May 12, 2018
November 03, 2018
September 28, 2019
September 12, 2020
How do we put the fairness and the fun back in American elections? In this hour, we present a few simple ideas for how to remake the electoral process.Read more
Original Air Date:
October 30, 2016
Previous Airdates:
October 30, 2016
August 26, 2017
November 03, 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:
January 20, 2018
Previous Airdates:
July 30, 2017
January 20, 2018
October 27, 2018
October 05, 2019