State of the Human

Crashing - Story 2: Computer Crash

Miles accidentally crashed the Stanford server, but as an earth scientist there’s a lot more at risk. Myth and science have been separated in the real world, but in fantasy and fiction they dance together to tell stories.
Producer: Eileen WilliamsFeaturing: Miles Traer
Music: Soundtrack to “Game of Thrones”

Crashing - Story 1: SLACing off

Dr. Michael Peskin works in the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, home of the world’s longest linear accelerator. At SLAC, researchers crash X rays and particles, and a huge variety of things together, but not for destruction or for fun-- but for learning.
Producer: Claudia HeymachFeaturing: Michael Peskin
Music: Original viola by Rosie LaPuma

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

Navigating - Story 5: If There Were a Manual

"May I please have a manual for life?" Louis Lafair reads an original poem.
 
Producer: Alec GlassfordFeaturing: Louis Lafair
Image via Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/30976576@N07/4113330094

Navigating - 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.”
Featuring: Chris Leboa, Deborah Gordon, Julie Sweetkind-Singer, Glen McLaughlin, Saptarshi Majumdar, Jennifer Johnson, and Louis Lafair
Music: Weaves of K

Navigating - 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 HanFeaturing: Saptarshi Majumdar and Aparna Verma
Music: "Hex (Instrumental)" by Forget the Whale, "We'll Get Ourselves in TV-News" by Break the Bans

Navigating - Story 2: In Transit - Greyhound

“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.
 
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
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

Navigating - 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 DrummondFeaturing: Glen McLaughlin, Julie Sweetkind-SingerSpecial 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

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

Breathing - 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 MarchFeaturing: Paul FisherMusic: "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