thoughtful, timely conversations
Radio Cafe
A program of in-depth conversations with activists, scientists, authors, artists, and other deep thinkers. Our newest shows, ScienceRadioCafe and RadioActivism, are about how the world works, and about how to respond to the big issues of our time — threats to democracy; assaults on land, water, and climate; crazy inequality. Not that we have magical solutions, but we can shine a light on what’s going on and perhaps even find ways that each of us can do our part.
We welcome questions, comments, and ideas!
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Recent Programs
We are the cause of our own…plagues.
That’s right, seven of them–from HIV/AIDS to resistant strains of bacteria, viruses, flus, and lyme disease. Dr. Mark Jerome Walters talks about the human role in causing and aggravating those diseases by our poor handling of ecosystems.
Hunting, farming, and surviving between worlds…
Anthropologist Paul Hooper has lived with the Tsimane people of Bolivia and reports on their extraordinary health and athleticism, and their way of life which includes entirely home-grown beer and barbecue.
The lives of animals before they’re food
Anthropologist Barbara King looks at the range of food animals–insects, octopuses, chickens, and various mammals–not to get you to stop eating them, but to open a discussion about about what constitutes a good life and what animal cruelty looks like in the industrial food system.
What makes a democracy healthy…
… and what undermines it? Money, corruption, inadequate laws, lack of enforcement of good laws … and the sense of despair that there are no solutions. But there are good, bipartisan solutions, according to Meredith McGehee of IssueOne.org.
My language, my soul…
Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky makes the case that the language–or languages–we speak deeply affect who we are and how we engage with the world.
Take me to the limit…
… of science, of understanding, of language, of mathematics… a philosophical conversation about science with David Krakauer, President of the Santa Fe Institute.