State Of The Human

What ideas exist behind material objects? In this episode, we’re going to look at stuff—things we can see or hear or touch—to try to understand the intangible, like memory, history, and bias. Producers: Adesuwa Agbonile, Jett Hayward, Yue Li, Jenny March, Isabella Tilley, Melina Walling, Val Gamao

In this episode, we’re going to think about death. All things must come to an end, but that does not mean death is all ending. We ask -- what can death teach us about life? Featuring special reflections on death at the beginning and end of the show by Lazarre and Simone Elias, aged 6 and 9. Producers: Aparna Verma, Isabella Tilley, Will Shan, Lena Lee, Regina Kong, Alessandra Wollner Show Music: Téki (with Les Gauchers Orchestra), Lee Maddeford, Instrumentals kate bush, johnny_ripper, epilogue.

In this episode, we search for myths in the modern world. We ask-- where are monsters hiding, and who created them? What do the myths we circulate say about ourselves? Producers: Claudia Heymach, Morgan Canaan, Sophie McNulty, Ben Schwartz, Jett Hayward, Michaela Elias, Christy Hartman, Jake Warga, Jenny March Music:

Stories about being alone, wanting to be alone, or feeling alone. What is that place we go to to protect ourselves? How and why achieve seclusion? Producers: Yue Li, Sofia Sanchez-Luege, Jett Hayward, Stephanie Niu, Sienna White and Adesuwa Agbonile. http://storytelling.stanford.edu

Description: In this episode we ride the radio waves. We listen closely, digging deep in the static to hear stories of people following radio waves, of bouncing radio waves, but mainly stories of people listening to the voices. Producers: Cathy Wong ,Cameron Tenner, Victoria Yuan, Yue Li, Neel Thaker, Christopher LeBoa, Jackson Roach

We name people, places, and things out of necessity, but the labels we choose take on the weight of history, culture, and identity. In this episode, we talk about the names we use, and why they matter.

Sometimes you have to keep your head down to stay alive. This is a show about playing the cello in the darkest hour, and returning to the site of the fire, and keeping your head down to stay alive. This is a show about what happens when the sun goes down, and when you get lost in the mall, and when you pick up the phone because you have nowhere left to turn. This is a show about the terrible and the beautiful. This is a show about survival. Producers: Jett Hayward, Bella Lazzareschi, Elisabeth Dee, Stephanie Niu, Cathy Wong, Dylan Cunningham, Hannah Nguyen, Jackson Roach, Melina Walling, Alec Glassford, Christy Hartman, Jake Warga, Sam Greenspan, and Jonah Willinghanz.

What can we know about the future? And where do we look? We plan ahead by speculating. We can’t imagine not imagining the next hour, the next day, the next email. In this show we look at the nature of guessing, of predicting, and what that can tell us about the future. And the past. Host: Yue Li Producers: Chris Leboa, Cameron Tenner, Yue Li, Claudia Heymach, Noelle Chow, Sam Kargilis, Risa Cromer, Sam Greenspan Featuring: Corrie Dekkar, Julie Parsonnet, Julie Fogarty, Jeff Lindner, Jim Blackburn, Mark Beauregard, Kyla Schuller Story 1: Miner Threat Meet the last Bitcoin miners of Stanford. Producer: Sam Kargilis Music (from Free Music Archive): Curves, Jhhhzzr Story 2: Vanquishing Vaccines During the 2017-2018 flu season over 60 million Americans were infected with influenza and an estimated 50,000 died. Why has there been so much sickness when a vaccine does exist? Producer Chris LeBoa investigates the process and guesswork that goes into creating the flu shot each year and what is being done to take g

How do we take care of the past after it turns to ash? We visit with families digging through the rubble of their homes in Sonoma after the fires as they sift for memories. This episode asks how we care for people, and what to do if there's no obvious path to healing. Along the way, we meet a midwife, some worms, and a daughter caring for her mother and herself. Host: Claudia Heymach Producers: Claudia Heymach, Crystal Escolero, Emma Heath, Bella Lazzareschi, Helvia Taina, Sarah Jiang, Eileen Williams Featuring: Roshni Thachil, Ronnie Falcoa, Claire Mollard, Josh Weil Show music: "The Flight of the Lulu" by Possimiste Story 1: Midwife Crisis We don’t always think of caretaking in a professional terms, but for a homebirth midwife, the emotional and physical wellbeing of others is the whole job. Producer: Emma Heath Featuring: Ronnie Falcoa Story 2: From the Ashes We went to Sonoma County after the fires to help residents dig through the rubble of their homes. Along the way, we asked about what they took

We hear a lot about immigrants. In this episode, we hear from immigrants – not as statistics, but as individual human beings crossing borders. Oscar gets deported and tries to return home. Maddie comes to terms with her family relationships. And Nisrin enters the U.S. from Sudan after the first travel ban takes effect. In this episode, stories of crossing. This is part one of a two part series. Host: Noelle Chow Producers:​​ ​Carissa​ ​Cirelli,​ ​Noelle​ ​Chow,​ ​Jett​ ​Hayward,​ ​An-Li​ ​Herring,​ ​Julia​ ​Ingram,​ ​Louis​ ​Lafair,​ ​Rosie LaPuma,​ ​Yue​ ​Li,​ ​Jenny​ ​March,​ ​Kate​ ​Nelson,​ ​Jackson​ ​Roach,​ ​Helvia​ ​Taina,​ ​Melina​ ​Walling,​ ​Jake​ ​Warga, Eileen​ ​Williams,​ ​Cathy​ ​Wong Show​ ​Music:​​ ​​johnny_ripper (Links to this show's music and sound sources can be found at https://storytelling.stanford.edu) Story 1: Oscar Oscar gets deported. He’s determined to come back, no matter what. Producers: Kate Nelson, Carissa Cirelli, and Jackson Roach 
Featuring: Oscar
 Music: "Delican't" b

Immigrating is a conversation that happens across borders, generations, and versions of oneself. Grace and Justin talk across political differences. Unknown workers who forged the Transcontinental Railroad receive a new voice. Solmaz writes poetry to orient herself in the world. And Frankie and Francisco reflect on growing up in a new place. This is part two of a two-part series. Host: Cathy Wong Producers:​​ ​Carissa​ ​Cirelli,​ ​Noelle​ ​Chow,​ ​Jett​ ​Hayward,​ ​An-Li​ ​Herring,​ ​Julia​ ​Ingram,​ ​Louis​ ​Lafair,​ ​Rosie LaPuma,​ ​Yue​ ​Li,​ ​Jenny​ ​March,​ ​Kate​ ​Nelson,​ ​Jackson​ ​Roach,​ ​Helvia​ ​Taina,​ ​Melina​ ​Walling,​ ​Jake​ ​Warga, Eileen​ ​Williams,​ ​Cathy​ ​Wong Show​ ​Music:​​ ​​johnny_ripper (Links to this show's music and sound sources can be found at https://storytelling.stanford.edu) Story 4: Grace and Justin Grace and Justin send each other letters. Producers: Cathy Wong and Kate Nelson
 Featuring: Justin Hsuan and Grace
 Music: "When in the West," "Sage the Hunter," and "Dron

Sometimes, marching steadily through the steps of life—we crash right into something entirely unexpected. In one instant, the entire world changes, without even a word of warning. When a crash comes, that collision can destroy everything. But it can wake us up to what we truly need; we must decide what to raze and what to rebuild. How do humans move forward before the smoke is cleared? What happens after the crash? Host: Eileen Williams Producers: Eileen Williams, Claudia Heymach, Jackson Roach, Megan Calfas, Alex Cheng, Noelle Li Syn Chow, Jake Warga Featuring: Eddie Mazon, Michael Peskin, Miles Traer, Dr. David Radler, Dan Klein, Dehan Glanz Show music: "Darger's strawberry" by Exteenager, "opening credits" by Johnny Ripper (Links to this show's music and sound sources can be found at storytelling.stanford.edu) 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

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, Me

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,

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.

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 Wi

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,

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, Poding

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 Súill

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