Listen in: Work Pray Code March 25, 2022 We all want our jobs to be meaningful and fulfilling. Work Pray Code reveals what can happen when work becomes religion, and when the workplace becomes the institution that shapes our souls. Read More
Listen in: Rescuing Socrates January 19, 2022 What is the value of a liberal education? Traditionally characterized by a rigorous engagement with the classics of Western thought and literature, this approach to education is all but extinct in American universities, replaced by flexible distribution requirements and ever-narrower academic specialization. Read More
Listen in: Now Comes Good Sailing December 03, 2021 The world is never done catching up with Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), the author of Walden, “Civil Disobedience,” and other classics. A prophet of environmentalism and vegetarianism, an abolitionist, and a critic of materialism and technology, Thoreau even seems to have anticipated a world of social distancing in his famous experiment at Walden Pond. Read More
Listen in: American Afterlives November 22, 2021 Death in the United States is undergoing a quiet revolution. You can have your body frozen, dissected, composted, dissolved, or tanned. Read More
Listen in: Running Out November 15, 2021 The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. Read More
Listen in: Career and Family November 05, 2021 A century ago, it was a given that a woman with a college degree had to choose between having a career and a family. Today, there are more female college graduates than ever before, and more women want to have a career and family, yet challenges persist at work and at home. Read More
Listen in: After One Hundred Winters November 01, 2021 After One Hundred Winters confronts the harsh truth that the United States was founded on the violent dispossession of Indigenous people and asks what reconciliation might mean in light of this haunted history. Read More
Listen in: When the Sahara Was Green October 28, 2021 The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, equal in size to China or the United States. Yet, this arid expanse was once a verdant, pleasant land, fed by rivers and lakes. Read More
Listen in: Ice Rivers October 05, 2021 The ice sheets and glaciers that cover one-tenth of Earth’s land surface are in grave peril. High in the Alps, Andes, and Himalaya, once-indomitable glaciers are retreating, even dying. Read More
Listen in: Twelve Caesars September 24, 2021 What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? Read More
Listen in: The Genetic Lottery September 22, 2021 In The Genetic Lottery, Kathryn Paige Harden introduces readers to the latest genetic science, dismantling dangerous ideas about racial superiority and challenging us to grapple with what equality really means in a world where people are born different. Read More
Listen in: Renewal September 07, 2021 Written and narrated by Anne-Marie Slaughter, Renewal is a story of crisis and change that can help us find renewed honesty and purpose in our personal and political lives. Read More
Listen in: The Secret Body August 24, 2021 Imagine knowing years in advance whether you are likely to get cancer or having a personalized understanding of your individual genes, organs, and cells. Imagine being able to monitor your body’s well-being, or have a diet tailored to your microbiome. Read More
Listen in: The Profit Paradox August 12, 2021 In an era of technological progress and easy communication, it might seem reasonable to assume that the world’s working people have never had it so good. Read More
Listen in: The Great Guide July 19, 2021 David Hume (1711–1776) is perhaps best known for his ideas about cause and effect and his criticisms of religion, but he is rarely thought of as a philosopher with practical wisdom to offer. Read More