Episode summary: A Good Circle

Episode summary: Proximity founder Ryan Coogler talks all about podcasts with Roman Mars

Episode summary: In an old country town high school library there is a glass case that displays something highly unusual and, for some, confronting. Inside that glass case is a mummified head and according to its plaque, it was donated to Grafton High School in 1915. Now, over 100 years later, quest...

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Episode summary: In 1934, a man collecting driftwood along the Lake Erie shore found a human torso on the beach. No one could figure out what had happened. Over the next several years, more bodies were discovered. Eventually, a coroner assembled something he called the “Torso Clinic” to work on the...

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Episode summary: In 1661 the 23 year-old French king Louis the XIV had been on the throne for 18 years when his chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin, died. Louis is reported to have said to his ministers, “It is now time that I govern my affairs myself. You will assist me with your counsels when I ask f...

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Episode summary: This week David talks to science writer Meehan Crist about Thomas Malthus and the perennial question of overpopulation. Malthus wrote 225 years ago and was wrong about almost everything, yet his ideas still have a powerful hold on our imaginations and our fears. How many people is t...

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Episode summary: Feeling A Bit Attacked with Maria Konnikova

Episode summary: At 94, why does Noam Chomsky still answer every email?

Episode summary: We’re always told algorithms are going to change our world. And they do, but it always seems to be for the worse. Do we have any alternative to simply breaking the machines that have run afoul of our values and needs? We’re thrilled to welcome Ben Tarnoff back on the show to talk hi...

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Episode summary: Many consider Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s Frankfurt Kitchen to be nothing less than the first modern kitchen.

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