Podcast PAGE – Humankind on Public Radio: Recent Episodes
David Freudberg
For the first time in our history, there will be more older adults than children. This huge societal change will affect how families provide eldercare, how older Americans access transportation, and whether people can age in their own homes among neighbors they know — and avoid nursing facilities, where about 30% of Covid-19 deaths occurred. These shifts will accelerate a trend that began three decades ago with passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act: local communities are attempting to become more age-friendly. What changes will this mean for how families relate, how our streets and sidewalks are designed, how we use technology? On Aging in Community, a special project from Humankind public radio, you’ll hear stories of transition and dignity — and meet people who are showing the way.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
70 million Baby Boomers are now entering their retirement years. For the first time in history, there will be more older adults than children. On this special project from Humankind public radio, you’ll hear stories of transition and dignity — and meet people who are showing the way.
To see additional resources and out other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with WGBH Boston
A look at the problem of gun violence as a public health crisis, impacting not just emergency rooms but also long-term needs for healing from exposure to trauma.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
When a gifted artist and media producer near Los Angeles is stricken with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), a community of friends comes together to support him as he develops ingenious ways to continue creating his art work, even without the use of his limbs.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
The story of a bright inner city high school student from Boston, who has launched a series of citywide clothing drives inspired by the needs of fellow students who are homeless or displaced.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
The power of a patient’s self-reflection as a tool for coping with illness is explored by a nurse scientist who has studied meditation as a health technique, and by a cancer survivor who teaches other patients about the value of therapeutic writing in expressing their inward feelings.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member stations, in association with GBH Boston.
We consider the plight of tens of millions of Americans in families and relationships with alcoholics. How does the destabilizing influence of active addiction affect family systems? What emotional and life challenges are faced by people raised around alcoholism?
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Author Eileen Flanagan discusses her powerful essay on the lessons about life that can be derived from parenting—patience, unconditional love, and how to handle “a child who decorated the white carpet with pink sidewalk chalk.”
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
We explore the duties and challenges of military chaplains from two nations: Britain and Canada. Ian Wheatley, recorded at the Defence Ministry in Westminster, London, serves as Chaplain of the Fleet of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Next, we visit with Padre Guy Chapdelaine, a soft-spoken Canadian who currently serves as Chaplain General of the Canadian Armed Forces, directing about 400 chaplains from diverse denominations.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
How exactly can we build a future based on understanding and connection among people of diverse backgrounds — rather than prejudice, misinformation and suspicion that are the fuel for violence?
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
The human survival instinct prods us to outlast afflictions and, if circumstances permit, to reach old age. Nothing, of course, could be more quintessentially natural than aging. Physician Andrew Weil gives his views on healthy longevity in which older people come to accept the challenges and discover the rewards of aging, plus a look at Okinawa home to the highest percentage on earth of people who live to be 100.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
New research suggests that people who actively cultivate gratitude in their lives become both more content and physically healthier, but Oakland, California writer Catherine Price wanted to find out for herself.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Bill Siemering, NPR’s first program director and the author of its inspiring mission statement, recounts the network’s early goal of honoring diversity by including a variety of American voices.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Renewable energy (including low-carbon sources like solar and wind) is rapidly shifting to a higher profile sector of the way Americans derive electricity to power homes and workplaces.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
In these special Humankind documentaries, ‘Beyond War’ takes a look back at the last time the U.S. military had major involvement in the Middle East. We examine the true human costs of organized violence (for both soldiers and civilians). And what happens when citizens protest against war?
How fully do we exhaust peaceful options before resorting to military action? When has nonviolence been effective and when has it been dangerous? What constitutes a just war “just”—or do no ends justify large-scale killing of human beings? What are the social, moral and spiritual values held by pacifists and conscientious objectors?
Hear accounts from Yugoslavia to South Africa—of non-violent movements that ousted unjust leaders.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Bay Area physician and Univ. of California medical professor Martin Rossman, author of “The Worry Solution”, describes ways to distinguish between what we can change and what we must learn to accept.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Making light of our stress-inducing, 24/7 society, author and humorist Loretta LaRoche brings her one-of-a-kind perspective on living an optimistic and resilient life that re-connects with what really matters.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Pultizer Prize-winning historian Gordon Wood discusses how the founders of America intended to thwart the ascendance of demagogues, who could provoke mobs, in the fledgling democracy they were building.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
This program explores one of the most basic questions facing our democracy: who may participate?
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Although being teased and picked on are typical challenges for kids growing up, the effects can be traumatizing when a child is relentlessly bullied. The most common targets of bullying are young people who are perceived as gay, or who are disabled or overweight. But any kid who is singled out for harassment may feel overwhelmed, sometimes resorting to self-destructive behaviour.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
William Ury, the coauthor of “Getting to Yes,” a classic on negotiation, maintains that conflict is inevitable—and sometimes desirable—but that violent confrontation can be much more easily prevented than is commonly believed.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
In the second half of this Humankind documentary, we listen to nurses in the Twin Cities who are drawn to their profession by compassion for patients. Providers reveal the difficulties of remaining emotionally “present” in a high-stress medical setting, and several patients tell what it’s like to be treated unkindly or to feel undervalued. We consider the primary importance of listening to patients as a way of conveying respect.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Patients often complain about rushed doctor visits and, of course, the cost of medical services. But a number of studies in recent years highlight a different concern: whether as a patient you actually experience kindness when receiving health care. In this Humankind documentary, we examine that challenge, from the perspective of both health care professionals – often serving in a stressful environment – and patients who come for help.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the renowned Stress Reduction Clinic at the Univ. of Massachusetts Medical School, discusses how the technique of “mindfulness” can be physically and mentally therapeutic.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
In a country as wealthy as the United States, “working poor” should be a contradiction in terms. But tens of millions of Americans fall into that category, affecting a growing population of children.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
In this provocative profile of David Allen, we hear the sounds of communications technology coming at us, and later we stroll through the peaceful garden in Ojai, California where for him “time disappears.” We also hear how he brilliantly defines the widespread problem of “overwhelm” along with very practical solutions that can increase relaxation for everyone.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
How can we deal with the modern sense of feeling overloaded? It is emerging as a broad social problem that takes its toll on both work and home life—and can impinge on our ability to function with personal clarity. Best-selling author David Allen discusses new ways we all can learn to focus—in an age of ever-multiplying inputs of information. And he raises the question of what we are focusing on, from routine daily tasks to the big picture of life’s meaning.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Christal Presley, an English teacher in Virginia who experienced “secondary trauma” in response to the extreme behavior of her father, a Vietnam-era veteran with PTSD, tells how the family began a journey of recovery.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Because laughter is surely good medicine, we visit with professional comedians who are also cancer survivors, as well as a top surgeon at New York’s renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, to understand the role of humor and a positive attitude in surviving the disease.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
A Harvard medical professor tells the story of how he united with a Soviet cardiologist to launch a physicians movement to end nuclear war that recruited 150,000 doctors worldwide and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
It’s been said that we’ve learned how to speak but not necessarily how to communicate. Rarely are we taught the art of deep listening or how to respond to someone without accusation or blame or the ability to articulate our own needs without putting others on the defensive.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Geoffrey Canada designated a crime-ridden 24-block area of New York as the Harlem Children’s Zone and works tirelessly to provide a healthier community for kids who are otherwise vulnerable to developmental and social ills.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Tracy Gary, Pillsbury heiress and noted philanthropist, calls charity the “new American dream” because it is uniquely able to create change in our world. A founder of over a dozen charities herself, Gary has given nearly all of her inheritance away.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
“The Meaning of America”. Filmmaker Ken Burns, philsopher Jacob Needleman and others take us on a journey through the ideas and beliefs of America’s founders to understand their social and spiritual vision for the United States. Includes historic readings and the sounds of Independence Hall, Monticello and elsewhere.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
On this special two-part episode of Humankind, we explore the basic American right of citizens to follow the dictates of their conscience in their own personal pursuit of happiness. Hear PBS Filmmaker Ken Burns (top), philosopher/historian Jacob Needleman, and the words of America’s founders, as we try to uncover the true meaning of America.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
The integration of the man-made and the natural environments constitutes a green infrastructure we should restore and preserve for the sake of more livable communities, and as an act of social justice in the interest of low-income people unable to take expensive vacations in distant rural locales.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Amid medical bureaucracy, the patient’s humanity can get lost. What are the obstacles? How is information and support conveyed to the patient? We look at some solutions. We also learn about the fascinating health benefits of common integrative techniques such as acupuncture, meditation and stress management.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
In this segment, we visit medical students at the third largest U.S. college campus, Ohio State University in Columbus, who are committed to a greater focus on wellness. We hear their vision of health care in the future. Medical education is in transition—but not rapidly enough, according to several other reformers we’ll hear.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
The practice of integrative medicine has achieved high success with heart patients and is now covered by Medicare. We hear from Doctors, patients and other experts about how this practice fits into today’s healthcare landscape.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
More than three-fourths of U.S. medical costs are attributed to largely-preventable illnesses related to our lifestyle behaviors – what we eat, whether we exercise, how we manage stress, if we smoke.
Yet in most health care today, visits to the doctor are often too brief to get a handle on these complicated challenges. The focus is usually on disease treatment (with a heavy reliance on drugs, high-tech procedures and tests) rather than disease prevention.
To get to the root of this all, our special public radio project, The Search for Well-Being examines a fascinating new model of health care: integrative medicine.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Can the rule of law can help to limit the worst horrors of war — and hold transgressors accountable? This question may soon face Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, for whom the Hague prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for war crimes. We also hear about the indictment of Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Step inside the garden of Cathrine Sneed, a prison social worker, who has found that when inmates leave their cells and connect with nature their rate of recidivism drops.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Perhaps more than any other trait in a spiritual caregiver, recipients of care yearn for the attention of an open-hearted person who can bear witness to their challenges. But what does it mean to bring that presence into an encounter with someone who may be up against adversity?Spiritual caregiving can offer deep personal rewards to practitioners, who are drawn to helping people undergoing distress in a wide range of settings. But by its nature, this kind of work can be emotionally and physically draining. So taking care of oneself also becomes an essential requirement of doing this work.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
In the second part of this Humankind documentary, we visit two venues where leaders are taking strides toward an enlightened educational experience for young people – and for faculty. The stories you will hear in each part are truly inspiring. But in the first case, it has meant coming to terms with, then gradually working past a national tragedy.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Faced with the deep divisions roiling America, can education that is “pro-social” provide an alternative path for healing and understanding? And can schools cultivate students’ skills for social awareness and self-reflection?
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Several chaplains reflect in-depth on the experience of connecting with people who are facing challenges related to mental health, addiction and homelessness. We hear from a social worker, Larry Clum, who explores what it means to companion homeless people without an intent to “fix” their problem.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Sharon Salzberg, an author and teacher of Buddhist meditation, describes the technique of “lovingkindness,” a way of seeing others and relating to oneself that allows the practitioner to get past resentments and have a clearer view of reality.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
What was the carbon footprint of your dinner last night? Physician Walter Willett, who served as the long-time Nutrition Dept. chair at Harvard, describes the benefits of eco-friendly eating to your health and to the environment. And you’ll meet Olivia Calkins, Liam Reardon and Genesis Butler, youth activists for a “thriving planet”.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Agriculture is a huge emitter of greenhouse gases associated with climate change. This is an important emerging topic as Americans grapple with record-breaking heatwaves, drenching rains, coastal flooding, prolonged droughts, sprawling wildfires and other weather extremes as “the face of global warming”.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Rev. Chris Antal, a Unitarian Universalist minister, was drawn to service in response to the attacks of 9/11. He entered military chaplaincy partially as a way to help soldiers who are prone to harming themselves in the wake of war. In this profile, Rev. Antal also explores how he was drawn to faith-based engagement with indigenous religious leaders, where he was stationed at Kandahar Air Base.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Austrian-born author and Benedictine Brother David Steindl-Rast, recorded at his monastery near Corning, NY, believes that acquiring an attitude of “gratefulness” can calm the mind and give life a simple joy.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
This documentary explores the transition of a young mother from addiction treatment to a clean and sober life, with the help of a family mentoring program known as “shared family care.”
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Rev. Sally Bingham of San Francisco, lay organizer Steve MacAusland of Boston and members of a concerned church discuss the movement for a religious response to climate change that has spread to more than 4,000 U.S. congregations.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
Nationwide, even with more people covered through the Affordable Care Act, nearly 28 million Americans remain without medical coverage.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
In this documentary, we ask why it is that the wealthiest Americans live as many as fifteen years longer than the poorest. It’s a troubling question at a time when income inequality has reached levels not seen since the run up to the Great Depression.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
The author of “Taking Back Childhood,” education professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige, examines the impact on kids of media violence, overly structured school days and a culture that preaches rampant consumerism.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
In this documentary we explore how federal courts enforced fugitive slave laws. Historians, actors and legal scholars re-create the famous case of a young escaped slave who was sent back by a Boston judge, provoking America’s largest abolitionist protest.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
After a court declared his murder conviction a miscarriage of justice, Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter has been a tireless advocate for other wrongly-convicted inmates who face an uphill battle behind bars, in a nation that imprisons more people than any other.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
As dramatized in a Bob Dylan song and ‘The Hurricane’ starring Denzel Washington, ex-prize fighter Rubin Carter tells how he was wrongly convicted of a triple homicide and ultimately exonerated by a federal judge, and trained his mind in prison to transcend hatred.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
The moving tale of the late Mae Bertha Carter, a sharecropper who raised thirteen children and also stood firm—against harassment—in her quest to integrate public schools in Sunflower County, Mississippi.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
In the second half of our documentary on the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, we examine the AA recovery principles that have promoted sobriety for millions of recovering alcoholics and have created a template to help people worldwide who struggle with many forms of addiction.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit our website at humanmedia.org.Human Media produces public broadcasting productions and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR, and PRX.
Overworking has become a cultural norm in Rabbi Arthur Waskow’s opinion. Waskow’s coalition “Free Time/Free People” is spearheaded by members of various faiths, and insists that a workable culture must actually work less, and a functional population functions best when there’s less to do. . A timely and persuasive philosophy, Waskow and his associates urge people to consider how life incorporates true meaning and whether we are doing our best to find meaning in the time we have on Earth.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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At the typical nursing station of today’s hospitals, it can sometimes seem like high-tech medical machinery supersedes a personal connection between the patient and nurse or other health care professional. But for many caregivers, that one-to-one relationship is the essence of their service.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/
Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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What does it mean to set aside one’s own agenda and truly focus on another person, perhaps someone who is suffering?
There’s a kind of mystery in sitting calmly, patiently, attentively and tuning into someone else’s personal story and life journey. In this special program, you’ll hear the reflective insights of people who listen for a living: physicians, counselors and clergy.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/
Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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Although many people crave the break from daily work they receive upon retirement, in some cases the experience of an “endless vacation” eventually causes individuals to feel purposeless. Marc Freedman has been tracking the trend of seniors returning to the workforce to give something back to society in areas such as education, health care, and the environment.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/
Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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This program recounts how American and Soviet physicians joined together on a mission to educate their governments and their peoples about the medical effects of nuclear war beginning in the early 1960s. Calculating the medical consequences of a nuclear war eventually led to the founding of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the first global medical movement dedicated to disseminating factual information on the human costs of that nightmare scenario.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/
Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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Parenting today is performed in the face of an almost impossible arsenal of influences. Such influences can cloud, distract, and even displace the parent from his or her greatest responsibility: guidance. The Kabat-Zinns, a couple from Lexington, MA, authors, and parents, reach out to their fellow parents in this thoughtful and clarifying episode of Humankind.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/
Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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We consider the moral implications of scientific research, especially when the aim is to develop military arms. Are the scientists involved morally responsible for the use of these weapons on civilians? Author and historian Robert Neer recounts the top-secret research conducted at Harvard in the early 1940s, which yielded the weapon napalm. We also hear from Harvard science historian Everett Mendelsohn, who signed an anti-napalm petition in 1967, and who studied and taught about the gap between weapons research and a deep awareness of how weapons development can lead to great human suffering.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/
Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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This is the second part of our special on the revered journalist and ‘Catholic Worker’ founder Dorothy Day. Recalling the words of her grandmother, Kate Hennessy recalls, “She always said they did not intend to start a soup line. They did not intend to open up houses of hospitality. That this just happened because of what they were writing about. People started showing up at their door saying, “We need help.” And so my grandmother was like, “Well, sit down. We have—we have more soup on the stove,” and then, you know, had to find apartments to put people up. And it just grew, and grew, and grew.”
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/
Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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When Pope Francis addressed Congress in 2015, he cited four great Americans: President Abraham Lincoln, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., theologian Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day, the famous writer and activist. Day, who died in 1980 at age 83, was a remarkable 20th century figure: journalist and founder of the “Catholic Worker” movement, which established soup kitchens and “houses of hospitality” in the Great Depression. More than 200 Catholic worker facilities remain in operation today. In this profile, we hear excerpts of a talk by Dorothy Day, along with recollections by her youngest grandchild, Kate Hennessy, a Vermont native and author of The World will be Saved by Beauty, an intimate portrait of her grandmother.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/
Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
humankindradio #humankind
The United States incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world. Some in this diverse population are dangerous and apparently don’t seek rehabilitation to a more productive life. For many others, though, incarceration is a forced opportunity for self-examination and positive change – a process that can be supported and stimulated by spiritual care providers. In this segment, we explore in-depth the experiences of two chaplains and two prisoners about their faith journeys while behind bars.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/
Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
humankindradio #humankind
America’s founders recognized that without a king, the fledgling nation would need an informed citizenry—or their bold experiment in democracy would fail. So in early America, the government subsidized newspapers, established the postal system to facilitate information flow and drew up plans for public education. But now in the digital age, does the demise of newspapers threaten citizens’ access to quality journalistic information? Does remarkably low civic knowledge by average Americans weaken the fabric of democracy?
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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The second part of our documentary on the brother of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski who reminds us that, “We’ve got to take back the ideal of justice, we’ve got to take back this principle of human dignity. We’ve got to take it back from vengeance, from hatred, we’ve got to say: look, we’re all in this together. We are human beings.”
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Actress Joanne Hamlin looks at the role of outstanding women in America’s spiritual history. Among other women of strong faith, Hamlin re-creates the life and philosophy of Christian Science founder, Mary Baker Eddy.
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In a remarkable contrast within one family, we meet social worker David Kaczynski, who in early 1996 had a “dark night of the soul” when he realized that his older brother Ted was the “Unabomber,” a serial murderer. Supported by his wife, and later by his mother, David felt compelled to notify federal authorities, leading to his brother’s arrest. The prosecutor later called him a “true American hero.” Deeply thoughtful and idealistic, David today devotes most of his time working to eliminate capital punishment (his brother was spared the death penalty in a plea agreement).
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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Our system of public defenders—who provide legal representation to indigent clients—is widely regarded as malnourished due to inadequate funding. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that affirmed the right to a fair trial as guaranteed by the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment, Eric Holder, then U.S. Attorney General, pronounced the system to be in […]
We hear diverse voices of Quakerism, known as The Society of Friends, a rich American tradition dating to before the United States was founded. The Friends have long been a vocal presence in expressing concerns about warfare, inequality, and prejudice. To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK Follow “Humankind on Public Radio” at: https://www.humanmedia.org/podcast/ […]
Because laughter is surely good medicine, we visit with professional comedians who are also cancer survivors, as well as a top surgeon at New York’s renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, to understand the role of humor and a positive attitude in surviving the disease. To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK Follow “Humankind […]
Most of us hold misconceptions about who is struggling to get by on low income, and whether the social safety net — intended to prevent vulnerable people from falling through the cracks — is actually adequate. The number of folks using these services has noticeably increased as the Covid-19 crisis has tapered off. At the same time, emergency benefits for many families have been scaled back.
This public radio documentary explores the practice of nonviolence in the quest for justice and equality. You’ll hear archival sound from the U.S. civil rights movement, including interviews with associates of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Dr. Vincent Harding, a King speechwriter and first director of the King Center in Atlanta; Dorothy Cotton, who served as Education Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and Rev. John Cartwright, a theology classmate of King.
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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Over a third of Americans lack sufficient savings to handle a $400 emergency. In this revealing public radio documentary, we consider the plight of tens of millions of Americans living on the edge of poverty. They may be among your family members or neighbors.
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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Dr. Arun Gandhi, as a troubled youth was tutored for an hour each day by his famous grandfather Mahatma Gandhi. The experience transformed Dr. Gandhi’s life. He was interviewed at the University of Rochester, where he led the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. In May 2023 Arun Gandhi passed away at age 89.
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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A core principle of David Allen’s approach to “getting things done”—his remarkable and hugely popular system for stress-free productivity—is to keep focused on the process of working through the items in our personal list of unfinished business. But Allen says taking care of business can’t be relentless. Human beings are constructed to need breaks, time to get refreshed and rejuvenated. Ways to re-charge, from personal journaling to quiet meditation, are considered.
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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More than two decades have elapsed since the historic creation in 2002 of the UN’s International Criminal Court (ICC), headquartered in The Hague. The Court was intended to investigate allegations of the worst human rights crimes (including genocide and war crimes) and to be a forum where victims can tell their truths and obtain justice.
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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From firefighters to police officers to the Red Cross and many others, First Responders play an essential role in protecting public safety and helping people cope with emergencies. In this documentary, we consider the work of providers of disaster spiritual care. These folks look after both survivors of tragedies and the responders, who are sometimes reeling in the wake of calamity.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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To faithfully carry the meaning of Tao te Ching by Lao Tsu, Jonathan Star devoted 12 years to learning the ancient dialect in which the original Chinese text was written. The fruits of his labors have yielded perhaps the greatest-ever English version of a spiritual treasure.
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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Tao te Ching by Lao Tsu is the masterwork of Chinese philosophy. Its reflections on maintaining life’s delicate balance are as relevant today as when first written some 2,000 years ago. Next to the Bible, no other book has been more widely translated. Yet the Taoist wisdom ideas and sayings are often subtle and hard to convey. To carry the meaning faithfully, Jonathan Star devoted 12 years to learning the ancient dialect in which the original Chinese text was written.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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Robin Casarjian tells of the deep trauma she experienced earlier in life, and how she was forced to work through what it means to let go. She explains that the origin of the word “resent” is to have a repeated feeling, and that resentment of a bitter event causes us to experience it over and over. Forgiveness, in contrast, allows us to become free of it.
To view additional resources for this episode please visit: humanmedia.org/EPISODEPAGELINK
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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Most people regard forgiveness of others to be a virtue worth striving for, even as many of us struggle to forgive, especially when we’ve been deeply hurt. In this remarkable program, we examine misconceptions about forgiveness (that it is a form of excusing bad behavior) and explore how forgiving someone for misconduct can release us from the effects of the other person’s confusion.
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Human Media performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR and PRX.
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Why does God allow suffering? This age-old question is considered by Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” who arrived at some soothing answers after facing his young son’s death.
Here we consider the constant imperative of distinguishing fact from falsehood online. How can we tell whether information is reliable? We’ll hear from the CEO who leads Wikipedia, which tests for valid information in the 50 million articles they’ve published online; a librarian who wrote the American Library Association poster, “How to Protect Yourself from Fake News”; and the Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America.
In this segment, we examine the importance of early literacy, starting with the simple act of reading aloud to a very young child. Librarians, pediatricians and others weigh in on how these bonding experiences demonstrate for children that reading can be a source of pleasure (just ask a toddler who requests to be read the same story over and over). But it also enhances crucial brain development in the first years.
Sociologist Eric Klinenberg treats libraries as hallowed spaces. “We are sitting here today in an incredible public library solely because you and I have inherited from the generations that came before us an institution born of a principled commitment to advance the public good…because everyone should be able to make something better of themselves.”
Dr. Rees Cosgrove, a gifted brain surgeon who has performed thousands of high-stakes operations, conducts operations on a variety of patients, including children. In this dialogue, he describes what it’s like to conduct such a procedure and what he has learned about that which skilled doctors can and cannot control. Find out more.
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Why do our hearts sometimes harden and impede the flow of compassion? Getting a handle on this question requires deep awareness of the underlying impulses that drive our shifting moods. Compassion teacher Frank Rogers suggests that our fears, obsessions, angry attitudes and stress reactions are often an expression of “some deep need that is aching to be tended,” some old, open wound.
In 2019, Americans visited the library more often than they went to a movie theater or attended a sporting event. In fact, Gallup found that going to the library was – by far – the most frequent cultural activity in the United States. A Pew survey reports that over ninety percent of Americans view libraries as “welcoming and friendly places.”
In a world afflicted with so much violence, it would be easy to underestimate the impact of basic human compassion in actually solving conflict. Yet time and again, people are transformed—sometimes profoundly—by gentle acts of caring.
We hear stories of peacemakers who draw from their lives and traditions as a basis for breaking down barriers and promoting conflict resolution.
Many of our ancestors were far more in tune with the rhythms of nature, and family customs for using these healing plants were passed down through the generations. Now this understanding, updated by modern science, is again available to health care consumers.
History proves over and over that violence breeds more violence. Victims are traumatized by brutality — as are perpetrators, and the cycle is uninterrupted. The Power of Nonviolence from Humankind, seeks deep solutions to this vexing problem. We turn to wisdom teachings across our great spiritual traditions for guidance — and inspiration — on how the lasting wounds can be healed.
David Kaczynski was hailed as “a true American hero” by a federal prosecutor, after notifying authorities in 1996 that he’d come to suspect his estranged older brother Ted was the domestic terrorist known as The Unabomber.
We learn about the intriguing history of plant medicine — in some cases records date back many thousands of years. Much of this knowledge originated in ancient China. The Middle East was also a center of botanical learning. And in the west, we have Native Americans to thank for teaching us various effective herbal cures.
At the Wellness Community, a free program with centers located in more than twenty U.S. cities, cancer patients find a powerful connection in supportive dialogues with other patients who “understand.” Identification with others who share your experience is profoundly liberating. We hear how people face — and counter — the natural fears associated with a diagnosis that is potentially life-threatening.
We explore the bitter legacy of racial division left over from the Civil War and how it’s still affecting American life today.
We visit the herbal remedies section of a local store, as well as a garden where these healing plants are grown. We also travel to Leicester, England for a fascinating conversation with a second-generation practitioner of herbal medicine. And we hear from physician and botanist Andrew Weil about tensions between this ancient form of health care and modern western medicine.
Herbal remedies: Do they work? Are they safe? In The Medicine Garden, a special series drawn from our archives, you’ll take a fascinating tour of this relatively low-cost form of health care. It’s an approach to healing that has become enormously popular among Americans dissatisfied with conventional medicine.
In this episode, we hear from physician Ralph Snyderman, MD, a proponent of preventive medicine, who believes that our health care system should place greater emphasis on preventive practices (such as healthy diet and stress management), because it is more humane to avoid disease than to cope with it, and because it is a far cheaper mode of health care.
Have we entered an age of unrelenting chaos? As we grope for a “new normal”, has humanity reached a kind of turning point? In this timely audio documentary, you’ll hear inspiring stories of survivors. We also listen to health care providers, clergy and others who offer specific guidance to help people navigate these choppy waters. […]
Health care chaplaincy has increasingly been a subject of evidence-based research. In this episode of the podcast, we review findings of some recent studies by the American Cancer Society, the Mayo Clinic, Pew and other sources. Two leading researchers offer their perspectives.
In a country as wealthy as the United States, “working poor” should be a contradiction in terms. But tens of millions of Americans fall into that category — affecting a growing population of children.
The heir to the Oscar Mayer fortune, Chuck Collins, examines income inequality, sustainable local economies and his personal journey in a provocative new book, “Born on Third Base.”
From firefighters to police officers to the Red Cross and many others, First Responders play an essential role in protecting public safety and helping people cope with emergencies. In this segment, we consider the work of providers of disaster spiritual care. These folks look after both survivors of tragedies and the responders, who are sometimes reeling […]
Journalist, mentor, gardener, camp counselor and community activist Katie Davis has undertaken a one-woman campaign to save kids in her inner city neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Youth leader Tajae Gaynor of the Bronx has dedicated his life to conflict resolution and school mediation activities after he witnessed the senseless stabbing of a friend.
Take a trip to a pristine spot in Maine for an afternoon spent with Palestinian and Israeli youth as they come together to play, connect, and discuss the imperiled region they struggle in eleven months out of the year. Despite the hardened conditions in which they were raised, the teenagers here reveal an innocence and […]
After war, our veterans face a new battle: emotional and spiritual conflict that is normal to human beings who’ve experienced intense brutality. In this documentary, we examine the effects of military violence and how people begin the journey of healing from it. We hear deeply moving stories of veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and […]
The Prisoners Literature Project, an all-volunteer service based in Berkeley, California, packages and ships books to people who are incarcerated, as a humanitarian gesture and one that helps inmates prepare for re-entry into society.
In the wake of shocking violence at abortion clinics, two apparent enemies — women representing pro-choice and pro-life factions in the Boston area, where shootings had occurred — were forced to communicate, for the sake of everyone’s safety. What unfolded over many months was one of the most mysterious and moving conversations among people of […]
Christal Presley, an English teacher in Virginia who experienced “secondary trauma” in response to the extreme behavior of her father, a Vietnam-era veteran with PTSD, tells how the family began a journey of recovery.
Following incarceration in New Jersey for a multiple homicide he did not commit, Rubin Carter managed to emerge from prison in 1985 with an astounding attitude about life. A famous prize-fighter on the outside, Carter suffered great deprivation behind bars: Not only more than nineteen years of his life had been taken, he also lost […]
As dramatized in a Bob Dylan song and ‘The Hurricane’ starring Denzel Washington, ex-prize fighter Rubin Carter tells how he was wrongly convicted of a triple homicide and ultimately exonerated by a federal judge, and trained his mind in prison to transcend hatred. After a court declared his murder conviction a miscarriage of justice, Rubin […]
Today over two million people partake of the storytelling, the good humor, the words of wisdom and the gallons and gallons of free coffee made available to attenders of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. AA’s basic text has been translated into more than 60 languages and has sold over 35 million English copies. We consider the history […]
Alcoholics Anonymous marks its beginning when one hopelessly addicted drunk realized that connecting with a fellow-sufferer would create a safe zone in which both could stop their downward spiral. In the second half, we examine the AA recovery principles that have promoted sobriety for millions of recovering alcoholics and have created a template to help […]
“At the end of the day,” says Jonathan Star about his English translation of Tao te Ching from the original Chinese, “it’s not about attaining anything. The Tao keeps saying ‘it’s everywhere!’ It’s to notice another part of yourself that’s just overlooked. You know, we see what the mind shows us, but there’s another dimension […]
Jonathan Star took twelve years to master the nuances of ancient Chinese in his quest to produce a remarkably lucid and evocative English translation of Lao Tsu’s brilliant masterpiece of wisdom. Guidance in the subtle art of attaining mental and emotional balance pervades Star’s brilliant translation of Lao Tsu’s timeless poetic volume of Taoist philosophy […]
When we nurse grudges, the person clinging to a resentment often pays a high price in anxiety, hostility, perhaps depression. What follows from that for many people, says Robin Casarjian of the Lionheart Foundation, are health-related symptoms. “And it stops you,” she says, ‘from really being able to be fully present to yourself, and to […]
Author and prison therapist Robin Casarjian reframes the act of forgiveness not to condone hurtful behavior, but as a shift in perception that allows us not to take someone’s else’s misconduct so personally. Casarjian has spent decades teaching forgiveness. Drawing on her own experience of having been abused — and learning how to move on […]