The History of Being Human

For this episode I call an audible based on information I came across researching other topics. From 1581 to 1593 the city and surrounding villages of Trier, Germany were the scene of the greatest, wo...

25 Jun 201954min

Beth Caruso, author of "One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging" tells us the stories of Alse Young and Lydia Gilbert, two of the first known victims of Witch Mania in The Co...

5 Jun 201936min

Today we stare into the hooked nose of a most troubling historical evidence of our capacity for hysteria: the witch craze. How did witches go from being village wise women and cunning folk to enemy nu...

23 Mai 201945min

Today we introduce our series on Mob Madness and Mass Delusions. I speak to Rob Henderson, PhD student in psychology and Gates scholar studying moral psychology (not his own) at Cambridge University. ...

14 Mai 201930min

The bones of our ancient relatives and prehistoric ancestors bear the puncture wounds, scrapings, and bite marks that tell a horrifying tale of predation. Who and what we are has been shaped by what w...

3 Mai 201950min

In this episode we learn that we are tough to kill and hard to keep alive. Within our sphere we are durable and resilient, but that sphere is very narrow indeed. We survive catastrophes, searing heat,...

16 Apr 201940min

Our relationship with microorganisms is *ahem* complicated...mostly symbiotic, but often combative and, yes, fatal. In this episode I speak with a physician on the front lines of the battle to the dea...

25 Mar 201940min

The Adapt or Die Series goes Viral... Egyptians, Hittites, Athenians, Romans -- outbreak after outbreak Variola major has been a pox on our house from time immemorial. No other disease has weakened an...

18 Mar 201954min