Humankind on Public Radio
Weekly podcast from public radio’s award-winning program Humankind
77 episodes
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http://www.humankindpodcast.org/pc/feed/podcast/
Episodes
Reading the feed…
Weekly podcast from public radio’s award-winning program Humankind
Reading the feed…
Hear Bill Siemering, the visionary who helped to found NPR and wrote its initial mission statement, articulate the important role public broadcasting plays in our democracy. 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 stories of people in recovery from alcoholism, who had to work through denial and sometimes harsh consequences on the road to sobriety, which can present its own ongoing emotional challenges. 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.
Daniel Goleman is a former New York Times science reporter specializing in how brain function affects the way we feel and perceive life, particularly how people develop different levels of empathy. 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 2023 film ‘Oppenheimer’ reminds us of our unfinished business in the nuclear age. Hear Ira Helfand, an emergency room physician, describe the main barrier to addressing this problem: our denial that nuclear arms could cause the gravest emergency of all. 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 travel to a Detroit program for pediatric cancer patients founded by a rabbi whose daughter died of cancer. He teaches martial arts to young patients, helping them find inner strength. 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 is the role of a patient’s attitude in facing a serious illness? Are the benefits that many people derive from faith also available to cancer patients who feel uncomfortable with religion? What are the connections between a person’s beliefs and their ability to attain physical healing? 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 community service organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts rescues food that would be routinely discarded by grocers, produce companies and others and delivers it to those in need including pantries and elderly meal sites. 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.
Have our courts – intended by America’s founders to be an independent arbiter of justice – turned into another political battlefield? Are today’s judges mere “politicians in robes”? This public radio documentary series looks at crucial flashpoints in recent decades. Will rulings follow the predictable blocs of liberal and conservative justices, strongly associated with the party of the president who appointed them? 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.
Have our courts – intended by America’s founders to be an independent arbiter of justice – turned into another political battlefield? Are today’s judges mere “politicians in robes”? This public radio documentary series looks at crucial flashpoints in recent decades. Because federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed the U.S. Senate, inevitably the process is somewhat politicized. But as hyper-partisanship has corrosively swept across American life, we’ll explore whether our judiciary has been infected. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia
We explore the significant benefits of home-cooked meals, including improved family dynamics, greater likelihood of healthy ingredients, lower costs, reduced carbon footprint and taking time together to appreciate the food we receive. 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 dramatic increase in income inequality—now at levels that preceded the Great Depression—and how this wealth gap relates to a host of conditions, from personal illness to incarceration. 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 examine current trends in charitable giving by individuals and foundations with Stacy Palmer, long-time editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and one of America’s most knowledgeable journalists about the nation’s $316 billion charitable sector. 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 hear the story of Mary Gillespie, a woman born with normal hearing and vision, but who developed several illnesses starting at age ten. Gradually, she became deaf-blind. Now living in Los Angeles, Mary is a regular volunteer at the Braille Institute, where we recorded this remarkable episode of Humankind. 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.
Nearly 5 million direct care workers assist America’s older adults. They perform their duties in private homes, residential care settings and nursing facilities. Often paid low wages, many rely on some form of public assistance to make ends meet. A surprising number are homeless. Yet the labor can be arduous, helping sometimes disabled people with dressing, toilet care, mobility challenges, transferring in and out of bed. And sometimes the clients they serve are angry, even abusive. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard o
In this documentary we enter a rich dialogue with Joel Bauman, a remarkably gifted physician, trained in care for the elderly. He describes the special needs of palliative care for hospice patients, who have shifted from seeking a cure (which may no longer be realistic) to relief of symptoms and distress, as life draws to a close. 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.
George Mumford teaches top athletes the “superpowers” of mindfulness, concentration, insight, right effort and trust as techniques to strengthen performance and avoid the trap of spiritual demise. 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
We dive into a rich dialogue with Joel Bauman, a remarkably gifted physician, trained in care for the elderly. He describes the special needs of palliative care for hospice patients, who have shifted from seeking a cure (which may no longer be realistic) to relief of symptoms and distress, as life draws to a close.
