State of the Human

Navigating (full episode)

Ants navigate to and from food using pheromone trails; the stronger the pheromone trail, the more ants following it, like some kind of highway map. Humans use similar mapping strategies as we navigate through life, but how do we know that the paths we’re on will lead us to where we want to be? Today’s show is about navigating, with four stories and a poem about various ways that humans are moving through the world, with unique answers to these questions: How do we navigate through life without any instructions, or with instructions that might be wrong? How do we know which way to go to get whatever we’re going for? And how do we decide when to stop moving?
Host: Connie Xiao
Producers: Will Rogers, Alec Glassford, Rosie La Puma, Yue Li, Cathy Wong, Virginia Drummond, Katie Wolfteich, Aparna Verma, Jenny Han, An-Li Herring, and Connie Xiao
Featuring: Chris Leboa, Deborah Gordon, Julie Sweetkind-Singer, Glen McLaughlin, Saptarshi Majumdar, Jennifer Johnson, and Louis Lafair
Show Music: Noelle Li Syn Chow, Melina Walling, Sarah Jiang, Gillicuddy, Doctor Turtle, Podington Bear, Polyrhythmics
(Links to this show's music and sound sources can be found at storytelling.stanford.edu)
Image via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisinplymouth/3601032456
Story 1: California as an Island
When the Spanish explorers set out to discover the Americas, they came to find wealth and a new start. In this story, we hear about how the Spanish explorers navigated through these unfamiliar territory and how a myth turned into a reality that passed around for centuries.
Producers: Yue Li, Virginia Drummond
Featuring: Glen McLaughlin, Julie Sweetkind-Singer
Special thanks: G. Salim Mohammed, of the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford
Music and sound: Original music by Latifah Hamzah, "Rain Stops to Play" by Ketsa, "mutanterrante remix" by toiletrolltube, additional sounds from freesound.org
Story 2: In Transit
“Once you decide something, you kinda have to destroy everything else right? Your other options? You gotta let em go.” We spend an entire day at the Oakland Greyhound station and ask people where they are going. Mark Mendoza chases a cameraman. Cathy Wong learns when not to own a skeleton key. Hollie Kool talks to a Japanese pizza lover. Mimes are involved.
Producer: Cathy Wong, Hollie Kool, and Mark Mendoza
Featuring: Cathy Wong, Hollie Kool, and Mark Mendoza
Music: "Night Owl" by Broke For Free, "Freak Mode" by Fleslit, "Dollar Theatre" by Jalen Warshawsky, "Unknown Variables" by Jalen Warshawsky, "El Fuego" by Polyrhythmics, "Cold Feet" and "I'll Miss You" and "Looking For That Moment When Time Stands Still" by Will Bangs
Story 3: It's not a Sap Story
Live the life of a savage adventurer. It’s a motto that Saptarshi Majumdar lives by as he travels across the globe, whether it’s from one continent to another or one coast to another. Sap’s journeys are wild and crazy, and the stories that he picks up even crazier. Why not sit back and enjoy the ride?
Producers: Aparna Verma and Jenny Han
Featuring: Saptarshi Majumdar and Aparna Verma
Music: "Hex (Instrumental)" by Forget the Whale, "We'll Get Ourselves in TV-News" by Break the Bans
Story 4: A Speck in the Ocean
When she was 25, Jennifer Johnson sailed out of a Japanese harbor on a 27-foot boat with sights set on Hawaii. Sit in the cockpit with her as she charts her way through storms, fish colonies, and nearly capsized boats with only her partner for company, and re-experience the newness and stillness of land. “Adventure? Oh, I don’t know, adventure has too many positive connotations to say it was an adventure.”
Producers: Katie Wolfteich
Featuring: Jennifer Johnson
Music: Weaves of K
Story 5: If There Were a Manual
"May I please have a manual for life?" Louis Lafair reads an original poem.
Producer: Alec Glassford
Featuring: Louis Lafair

Breathing (full episode)

Breath and spirit have been closely related in human thought—for millennia. In a lot of human languages, we use the same word to mean both things. Yet it’s easy to take breathing for granted, in spite of the fact it is maybe the most common human experience. In this episode, we’re going to think about every inhale and every exhale, and speak to people who have to think about breathing in a lot of interesting ways: a biathlete, a beatboxer, a dancer. We’ll dive deep underwater to a dark and dangerous cave in the Bahamas, travel to China to think about collective breathing, and reflect on the role artificial breathing plays in the perception of what constitutes life and what constitutes death.
Host: Jackson Roach
Producers: Kate Nelson, Carissa Cirelli, Jenny March, Jake Warga, Jackson Roach, Melina Walling, Katie Lan, Jett Hayward, Claudia Heymach, Netta Wang, Jonah Willihnganz
Featuring: Brad Ross, Joanne Reid, Tom Johnson, Jace Casey, Janice Ross, Andrew Todhunter, Paul Fisher
Show Music: johnny_ripper, Breakmaster Cylinder
(Links to this show's music and sound sources can be found at storytelling.stanford.edu)
Image via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaellawton/15618435499/
Intro Story: Beat Breathing
Brad Ross shares how he learned how to harness the rhythm behind the rhythm—the rhythm of the breath—and what he’s discovered from “using [his] lungs to make art.”
Producers: Kate Nelson, Carissa Cirelli, Jenny March, Jake Warga
Featuring: Brad Ross
Music: Brad’s sick beats
Story 1: Shot Breathe Shot Breathe Shot Breathe
After much trial and tribulation and many failed shots, Joanne Reid, biathlete of the U.S national team, learned that it’s all about the breath.
Producers: Kate Nelson, Carissa Cirelli, Jenny March, Jake Warga
Featuring: Joanne Reid
Music and Sound: "Epiphany" by Podington Bear, “Women 15 km Individual Race 2017 Biathlon IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen HD” by HQ Sport
Story 2: Running out of Breath
This is a recorded performance about breath, exhaustion, and struggle, written by a choreographer named Tom Johnson in the 1970s.
Writer: Tom Johnson
Producers: Jackson Roach and Jenny March
Featuring: Jace Casey, Janice Ross
Story 3: Stargate
Andrew Todhunter, a writer for National Geographic, explores the underwater cave of Stargate in the Bahamas.
Producers: Jackson Roach, Melina Walling
Featuring: Andrew Todhunter
Music and sound: "Oceans Between Us" by Maritime, "Falling" by Kamikaze Deadboy, "waiting (in the wet alley" by lost-radio, "Moon Morning" by Aymeric de Tapol, "A Million Worlds" by Andrew Odd, additional sound effects from Freesound.org and Archive.org
Story 4: Breathing to Resist
What if breathing could be used as a collective tool of resistance? Citizens in China show us just how they used qi gong, a healing form of breathing to empower themselves during an era of uncertainty.
Writers: Katie Lan and Jenny March
Producers: Katie Lan, Jenny March, Jake Warga, and Jackson Roach
Featuring: Nancy Chen
Story 5: Still Breathing
Doctor Paul Fisher reflects on the role that breathing plays in the perception what constitutes life and death.
Producers: Jett Hayward, Kate Nelson, and Jenny March
Featuring: Paul Fisher
Music: "Stay" by Igor Khabarov, "Three kites circling" by Axletree, "Dead Waters" by Rest You Sleeping Giant, "Harbor" by Kai Engel, "Stanford Doctor to Examine Jahi McMath" by KRON 4, "Hospital Ventilator Sound Effect | Sfx |HD" by n Beats Sound Effects

Inheritance (full episode)

In this episode, we explore inheritances’ many forms and unexpected outcomes. “You’ll hear the forgotten tales of hand-me down clothing, stories of family exploits that keep ancestors alive, how your genetic inheritance can define you...for better and for worse, and how even our values can get passed down from one generation to the next.”
Host: Rosie La Puma
Producers: Rosie La Puma, Luke Soon-Shiong, Hadley Reid, Jake Warga, Claudia Heymach, Christy Hartman, Annina Hanlon, Benjamin Philip Suliteanu, Jonah Willihnganz, Ethan Chua
Featuring: Rosie La Puma, Deborah Wicks-La Puma, Deanna Wicks, Luke Soon-Shiong, Brooke McEver, Claudia Heymach, Marisa Heymach, Sierra Freeman, Matthew Porteus, Devon Cajuste, Amalia Saladrigas, McGregor Joyner, Emma Rothenberg
Show Music: Proliferate by Podington Bear
Image courtesy of Rosie La Puma
Intro Story: Alice
She’s over a century old, but still the size of a toddler. Meet Alice, the inherited family member that has been handed down for five generations of daughters.
Producer: Rosie La Puma
Featuring: Rosie La Puma, Deborah Wicks-La Puma, and Deanna Wicks
Music: Proliferate by Podington Bear
Story 1: The Stories We Wear
An MFA art project reveals the hidden stories of inherited clothing.
Producers: Luke Soon-Shiong with help from Hadley Reid and Jake Warga
Featuring: Luke Soon-Shiong, Brooke McEver
Music: Bensound.com
Story 2: Abuelita
A college student hears her late great-grandmother’s voice for the first time.
Producer: Claudia Heymach
Featuring: Claudia Heymach, Marisa Heymach, Rosie La Puma
Music and Sound: Afterglow by Podington Bear, gunfight sound effect from Freesound (links at storytelling.stanford.edu)
Story 3: We're All Okay
Two siblings, one gene and a question that lasts a lifetime.
Writer: Sierra Freeman
Producers: Claudia Heymach, Christy Hartman, and Rosie La Puma
Featuring: Sierra Freeman
Music: Jackson Roach on mandolin
Story 4: CRISPR-Cas9
Editing out the diseases in our genes.
Producers: Claudia Heymach with help from Annina Hanlon and Rosie La Puma
Featuring: Claudia Heymach and Matthew Porteus
Music: Dark Waters by Podington Bear
Story 5: Father to Son
Stanford Football Receiver Devon Cajuste reflects on the family values passed from father to son.
Producer: Rosie La Puma
Featuring: Devon Cajuste
Story 6: Call Me by My Old Familiar Name
Three undergrads explore how loss of their fathers turned into inheritance.
Producer: Benjamin Philip Suliteanu
Featuring: Amalia Saladrigas, McGregor Joyner, Emma Rothenberg
Music: Original scoring by McGregor Joyner

Burying (full episode)

As a society, we still maintain many ancient traditions and practices relating to the care of our dead. We invest tremendous resources and energy in maintaining cemeteries and sacred ground for the bodies of our beloved. In the face of death, we dig and scrape through dirt, mixing our emotions in with the earth. We create a grave--a hallowed space carved out for sadness and pain, but also for warmth and joy. We lay down what we carry from the person we’ve lost--the good and the bad. It doesn’t matter what we bury--a body, a feeling, or an object--we expect it to stay buried. We put it aside, and bid it farewell. And yet, when so much has changed, why do we still rely on this physical process? How can digging a hole--metaphorically or literally--help us to make sense of our loss? And what happens when things go awry? We may not like to admit it, but sometimes the grave is not a final resting place. In today’s episode, we’ll be investigating why we bury--and what happens when our attempts fail.
Host: Eileen Williams
Producers: Eileen Williams with help from Noelle Li Syn Chow, Kate Nelson, Yue Li, Jackson Roach, Nicole Bennett-Fite, Cathy Wong, Katie Lan, Reade Levinson, Christy Hartman, Jake Warga, Jenny March, Jonah Willihnganz
Featuring: Naveen Kassamali, Xochitl Raine Rhodes Longstaff, Janet Voight, Barbad Golshiri, Magellan Pfluke, and the staff of Pet’s Rest Cemetery. Thanks also to Sofi Filipa, Charlie Gibson, Ben Cady, Ivy Sanders Schneider, Jackie Langelier, Kim McElwee, Marlon Antunez, Skye Mooney, Tudi Roche, Chris Gerben, Caroline Spears, Stephen Aman, Adnan Khan, Jim Yount, Milan Mosse Phil C’de Baca, Teresa Hernandez, Carlos Yuen, Ganbat Namjilsangarav, Christine Murphy, Tsogbadrakh Banzragch, Tuya Banzragch, and Keith Bildstein
Show Music: Podington Bear
Image via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Copps_Hill_Burying_Ground_Headstones_Leaning.jpg
Intro Story: Unburying
Producers: Noelle Chow and Kate Nelson
Featuring: Magellan Pfluke
Special thanks: Xochitl Raine Rhodes Longstaff
Music: Response Data, Standing Like a Tree - Part II, Doomflaffsonoria (Whale Mix by Eisenlager)
Story 1: Vanishing Remains
Producer: Reade Levinson
Featuring: Ganbat Namjilsangarav, Christine Murphy, Tsogbadrakh and Tuya Banzragch, and Dr. Keith Bildstein
Special Thanks: Christy Hartman, Jake Warga, and Generation Anthropocene
Music: All ambient recorded by Reade Levinson, sound effects downloaded from FreeSound.
Story 2: Pet Cemetery
Producers: Yue Li, with help from Jackson Roach
Featuring: Lackie Langelier, Ben Cady, Skye Mooney, Sofi Filipa, Milan Mosse (voice over for Ben Cady), Phil C’de Baca, Teresa Hernandez, Carlos Yuen
Music: Alex Finch Seeking Clarity Pt. II, Ketsa Far From Home, Ketsa Clear and Present, Podington Bear Lonesome, Podington Bear Pink Gradient
Story 3: The Cryonicist's Wager
Producers: Nicole Bennett-Fite, Jake Warga, and Eileen Williams
Featuring: Jim Yount, Acting President of the American Cryonics Society
Music: Karma Ron (https://www.freesound.org/people/Karma-Ron/sounds/240624/)
Story 4: Anger Box
Producers: Cathy Wong, Jenny March, Jake Warga
Featuring: Naveen Kassamali, Adnan Khan
Music: Thread of Clouds - Blue Dot Sessions, Migration (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Migration/Thread_of_Clouds)
Story 5: Unburying Iran
Producers: Katie Lan, recorded with the help of Jackson Roach
Featuring: Barbad Golshiri
Music: Dropped Ticket by Podington Bear, Isolate by Moby
Story 6: Through the Deep
Producer: Kate Nelson
Featuring: Dr. Janet Voight
Music: Chris Zabriskie (We Were Never Meant to Live Here, Remember Trees?, The Oceans Continue to Rise), Podington Bear
Story 7: Time Capsule
Producers: Yue Li and Reade Levinson
Featuring: Leslie Winnick and voices of Stanford's class of 2016
Music: Trellis , Golden Era, Dryness (by Podington Bear)
Listen to the individual stories here: https://soundcloud.com/stateofthehuman/sets/burying

Imagining (full episode)

The mind’s ability to envision more than what is physically present in the world is an astounding fact of life. We’re always imagining, thinking, and living in our heads. Our thoughts and our imaginations shape how we see the world, they shape our words and our actions. This is nothing new. We’ve been doing this for all our lives. as far as we can remember. But that’s why we take a closer look and ask the question: how do our imagined lives shape our reality? What happens day to day at the frontier between the worlds we imagine and the worlds we inhabit.
Host: Justine Beed
Producers: Justine Beed and Natacha Ruck with help from Louis Lafair, Amabel Stokes, Alec Glassford, Tamu Adumer, Joshua Hoyt, Austin Meyer, Claire Schoen, Christy Hartman, Will Rogers, Albert Gehami, Jonah Willihnganz, and Jake Warga
Featuring: John Rick, Tamu Adumer, Louis Lafair, Terry Root, Louie Psihoyos, WonGi Jung, Austin Meyer, Amabel Stokes, Alec Glassford, Max Whitmeyer, Nina Donaldson, Maria Doerr, Liam Bhajan, Jeffrey Abidor, Emma Fisher, Natacha Ruck, and Jackson Roach
Music and Sounds: See storytelling.stanford.edu for full list of music and sounds used in this episode
Image via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kainkalju/5894855297
Story 1: Birth of Imagination
Description: What happened the first time humans used imagination to shape the world?
Producers: Tamu Adumer and Natacha Ruck
Featuring: Professor John Rick
Image via Wikimedia: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bifa…o_(Madrid).png
Story 2: One Quinoa Burger At A Time
Description: Can imagination help one student tackle one of the biggest problems of our time?
Producer: Louis Lafair
Featuring: Terry Root and Louie Psihoyos
Music: "T-Shirt Weather," "Little Dipper," "Pure Swell," "Funk," and "Boop" by Podington Bear
Photo via the Stanford Review: stanfordreview.org/article/is-stan…conserve-water/
Story 3: My Imaginary Girlfriend
Description: How hard can it be to break up with an imaginary girlfriend?
Producer: WonGi Jung with help from Justine Beed
Featuring: WonGi Jung
Image via StoryNight
Story 4: Double Banded Dream
Description: In this story, we venture into the land of dreams and investigate how imagination can endanger reality.
Producers: Austin Meyer and Joshua Hoyt
Featuring: Austin Meyer
Music: "Nothing Lasts" by Alexandre Desplat and "Gnossienne No. 2: Avec étonnement" and “Gynopédie No. 1”by Erik Satie
Image via Wikimedia: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wedding_rings.jpg
Story 5: The Periphery
Description: In this story we dive deep into the head of a coffee shop vigilante and listen to her thoughts as she tries to save the day.
Producers: Amabel Stokes, Justine Beed
Writer: Amabel Stokes
Featuring: Amabel Stokes, Alec Glassford, Max Whitmeyer, Nina Donaldson, Maria Doerr, Justine Beed, Liam Bhajan, Jeffrey Abidor, Emma Fisher, and Jackson Roach
Music and Sounds: See storytelling.stanford.edu for full list of music and sounds used in this piece
Image via Unsplash: unsplash.com/photos/k_RYBedEvDw

Teaching (full episode)

Teaching seems pretty straightforward: one person knows something better than someone else and teaches it to them. But there’s something important that happens to the teacher themselves. In this episode, a 3-year-old teaches his parents what he’s made of, a student defies expectations and becomes a teacher himself, teachers are surprised to learn what makes them tick, prehistoric people have to teach one of life’s hardest lessons (hint: there are llamas involved), a professor regrets a missed opportunity, and the cover of a Ghanaian newspaper does a whole lot of teaching. This week, we’re exploring how teaching shapes the teacher.
Host: Kate Nelson and Hadley Reid
Producers: Kate Nelson, Hadley Reid, Christy Hartman with help from Jake Warga, Will Rogers, Nina Foushee, Claire Schoen, Natacha Ruck, Joshua Hoyt, and Jonah Willihnganz
Featuring: Chris Andrews, Andrew Nelson, Gabe Lomeli, Madonna Riesenmy, John Kleiman, John Rick, Linda Paulson, and Emily Polk.
Music used during transitions: Nick Jaina, Podington Bear, Broke for Free, Alex Fitch, Gillicuddy
Image via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gracewong/141384577
Story 1: Training Wheels
Description: When Kate’s parents set out to teach her and her brother how to ride bikes, they expected to take it step by step, using every precaution: helmets, kneepads, training wheels. What they didn’t expect was a lesson of their own.
Producer: Kate Nelson
Featuring: Chris Andrews and Andrew Nelson
Music: Podington Bear (Ice Cream Sandwich, Bit Rio); Alex Fitch
Story 2: See Me After Class
Description: Gabriel Lomeli didn’t look like your typical A+ student. Problem was, he was getting A+’s. In this story, we follow Gabe as he reconciles others’ expectations with his own ambitions and achievements.
Producer: Eileen Williams and Emmerich Anklam
Featuring: Gabriel Francisco Lomeli, Junior
Sounds: 76288__timbre__dramatic-violin-stab-long-decay
Music: Kai Engel; Broke for Free (Golden Hour, Heart Ache, Something Old, And And, Something Elated)
Story 3: The Power of Teaching
Description: Professor Madonna Riesenmy was curious about what motivates teachers and decided to investigate. But other teachers weren’t too happy to hear about her findings. To be honest, we’re not quite sure how we feel about them, either.
Producer: Emma Heath with help from Christy Hartman and Hadley Reid
Featuring: Jonathan Kleiman, Madonna Riesenmy
Music: Podington Bear (Caravan, Jettisoned), The Losers
Story 4: Expulsion of the Yearlings
Description: Stanford Anthropologist John Rick takes us to the highlands of Peru to discuss the impact of teaching at it’s most fundamental level.
Producer: Jacob Wolf with help from Hadley Reid
Featuring: John Rick
Sounds: blouhond, 15050_Francois, kurono01, damiananache, felix.blume, JohnsonBrandEditing, sardan1972
Music: Original Scoring by Christina Galisatus
Story 5: Tales from the RF Apartment
Description: Linda Paulson is a Stanford faculty member who lives with eighty-eight teenagers in a freshman dorm. A late night knock at her door takes on new meaning years later.
Producer: Vanna Tran with help from Kate Nelson
Featuring: Linda Paulson
Music: Alex Fitch (We Call this Home, Secret Place); Chris Zabriskie (Cylinder Six, It’s Always Too Late to Start Over); Broke for Free (Love is Not)
Story 6: Just a Little Bit of Sweat
Description: Emily Polk went to Buduburam refugee camp to teach journalism. But one newspaper photo ended up teaching the most memorable lesson of all.
Producer: Hadley Reid
Featuring: Emily Polk
Music: Gillicuddy (Fudge, A Garden and a Rose ) Martin R, Original music by Man of Suit (Breathing Rhythm, Diagnosis)

Losing (full episode)

When you lose something, there’s an emptiness, a hole, where that something used to be. And you have to figure out a way to keep living your life with that loss. Even though the emptiness will always be there, what can be gained from trying to fill it? What can be gained from losing? This episode has four stories about people who lose something, and then look for new things to fill the emptiness. A lifelong dream gets derailed by a butterfly knife, an athlete’s passion for her sport crumbles after an injury, a girl searches for something she isn’t really sure she wants to find, and a woman slowly loses her ability to hear.
Host: Jackson Roach
Producers: Jackson Roach, with help from Jonathan Kleiman, Will Rogers, Nina Foushee, Jake Warga, Christy Hartman, Claire Schoen and Jonah Willihnganz
Featuring: Owen O Súilleabháin, Gabriel Lomeli, Amabel Stokes, Julia Berkson, Mitch Berkson, Olivia Berkson, Claire Richards, Daniela Roop, Jody Louise
Music: All music in this episode originally composed by Owen Ó Súilleabháin
Story 1: Hole-Hearted
Description: When a policeman stopped Gabe Lomeli on the street, he thought he had nothing to hide, but that one interaction would shift the course of his dreams.
Producer: Maddie Chang with help from Will Rogers
Featuring: Gabriel Lomeli
Story 2: Getting Off Track
Description: As a successful track athlete, Amabel Stokes has crossed many finish lines. In this story, she learns to move beyond the red tape.
Producer: Justine Beed
Featuring: Amabel Stokes
Story 3: An Eventful Brunch
Description: A lovely meal in a small mountain villa is interrupted by a stumbling man with his hand tight against his stomach. Everyone spends the rest of the morning frantically searching for something they’re not sure they want to find.
Produced by: Maddy Berkson with help from Nina Foushee, Jackson Roach, and Jonathan Kleiman.
Featuring: Julia Berkson, Mitch Berkson, Olivia Berkson, Claire Richards, Daniela Roop
Story 4: Forgiveness
Description: Dr. Fred Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, shares his story of loss, and how he learned to move forward.
Producer: Jake Warga, Emma Heath, Jon Kleiman
Featuring: Dr. Fred Luskin
Story 5: Sound by Sound
Description: In her twenties, Jody Louise started to lose her hearing, and her doctors couldn’t figure out why.
Producer: Jackson Roach with help from Maya Lorey
Featuring: Jody Louise

Secret-Keeping (full episode)

Nearly three decades ago, Psychologist James Pennebaker discovered a shocking correlation between secrets and health outcomes - that people who kept more secrets were dealing with more health issues. Today, secrets are generally considered bad. But in today’s episode, we’re going to discuss creative secret keepers. These people use secrets to form relationships, to explore worlds they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access, even to build new lives for themselves until - well - the secret’s out. Today we’ll explore what opportunities open up when someone keeps a secret, and what happens when that secret is revealed.
Host: Chelsea Davis
Producers: Rosie La Puma, Eileen Williams, Will Rogers, Claire Schoen, and Jonah Willihnganz
Featuring: James Pennebaker, Jackie Chan and Justin Krasner-Karpen. Thanks also to Preet Kaur, Natacha Ruck, Joshua Hoyt, Tess McCarthy, Alexander Muscat, Lilly Gill, Shara Tonn, Dustin Dienhart, Christy Hartman, Jake Warga.
Music used during transitions: Podington Bear, Revolution Void
Image via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mharrsch/3292777771/

Healing (full episode)

We’ve come to think of healing in mechanical terms, as repairing something broken, like fixing a flat tire. But for most of human history healing has meant more than repairing the body. Healing has meant restoring a sense of wholeness to a person—or even a relationship or community. In today’s show we’ll hear two stories that explore this older sense of healing. First, a Bay Area woman diagnosed with breast cancer finds healing through a complementary medicine modality at Stanford Hospital called Healing Touch. Second, a Stanford student living with an incurable disease finds healing in an encounter with the ocean and one of its creatures. How do we heal when our bodies are irrevocably changed?
Host: Preet Kaur
Producers: Bonnie Swift, Christy Hartman, Taylor Shoolery, Preet Kaur, Alka Nath, Will Rogers, Julie Morrison, Mallory Smith, Natacha Ruck, Claire Schoen, Jonah Willihnganz
Featuring: Preet Kaur, Carolyn Helmke, Catherine Palter, Melissa Anderson, Rosa Fuerte, Marilyn Getas-Byrne, Anne Proctor, Laura Pexton, Margot Baker, David Wolf, Maggie Burgett, Maria Cacho, Katie Talamantez, Elizabeth Helms, Diane Wardell, Sue Kegal, Jim Batterson, Margaret Schink, and Mallory Smith
Image via The Archeological Museum of Piraeus

Believing (full episode)

In this show, we are talking about a very special kind of belief—belief in something. Often considered a defining human characteristic, like language, belief shapes our lives. We put our confidence in something that is unseen; we understand the world in terms of a bigger, unknowable framework. This ability may not be unique to humans, but it does appear to be a very special talent. Today, we want to find out what this specific type of believing means for our lives. How are we changed by belief? What does it do to us? Spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically: what can believing do?
Host: Eileen Williams
Producers: Eileen Williams, Rosie La Puma, Will Rogers, Claire Schoen, and Jonah Willihnganz
Featuring: Beth Duff-Brown, Krista Tippett, and Carol Dweck. Thanks also to Lora Kelley, Louis Lafair, Sonia Gonzalez, Natacha Ruck, Madeleine Chang, and Lisa Hicks.
Music used during transitions: Broke for Free (XXV, A Beautiful Life)
Image via Wikimedia: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Airplane_Window_View_6_2013-04-01.jpg