Name a problem and Washington seems unable to solve it. Poverty. Climate change. Unemployment. Immigration. Education. Enter the mayor.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
The 18th century was not only the Age of Enlightenment. It was also the age when many cities conquered darkness by installing public lighting. Dartmouth historian Darrin McMahon says it's no accident that cities lit up at the same time as the Enlightenment values of rationality and progress flourished.
What separates your mind from an animal's? It's a question we've all asked, but renowned primatologist Frans de Waal says there's no point trying to rank who's smarter or dumber in the animal world. In fact, he believes there's no clear dividing line between humans and the rest of the animal world.
Jack El-Hai talks about Walter Freeman, the man who invented and promoted the surgical technique called the lobotomy.
James Watson, one of the discoverers of DNA's double-helix structure, talks with Steve Paulson about making the discovery and what sort of environment produces scientific breakthroughs.
Siberia is enormous, but Ian Frazier has crossed it all, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, in a barely functioning van.
James Gleick's biography of the man who invented gravity, calculus and celestial mechanics, also reveals that Newton was the pre-eminent alchemist of his age.
Chuck Lakin is a home funeral educator. As a woodworker, he's designed wooden coffins, including some that can be used as furniture until they're needed. Here, he shares some of his favorite resources with information about funeral and burial options.
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