Humankind on Public Radio
In times of fast-paced change and challenge, how do we hold onto our humanity? Each week, the Humankind on Public Radio podcast presents stories of doers and dreamers who strive to make our planet a more humane and livable place. From our award-winning public radio series, the podcast features David Freudberg’s moving documentaries and dialogues. Hear new and evergreen episodes.
Homeless Students
The story of a bright inner city high school student from Boston, who has launched a series of citywide clothing drives inspired by the needs of fellow students who are homeless or displaced.
To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.
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The story of a bright inner city high school student from Boston, who has launched a series of citywide clothing drives inspired by the needs [...]
September 11, 2025
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The power of a patient’s self-reflection as a tool for coping with illness is explored by a nurse scientist who has studied meditation as a [...]
September 4, 2025
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We consider the plight of tens of millions of Americans in families and relationships with alcoholics. How does the destabilizing influence of active addiction affect [...]
August 28, 2025
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Author Eileen Flanagan discusses her powerful essay on the lessons about life that can be derived from parenting—patience, unconditional love, and how to handle “a [...]
August 21, 2025
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We explore the duties and challenges of military chaplains from two nations: Britain and Canada. Ian Wheatley, recorded at the Defence Ministry in Westminster, London, [...]
August 14, 2025
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How exactly can we build a future based on understanding and connection among people of diverse backgrounds — rather than prejudice, misinformation and suspicion that [...]
August 7, 2025
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The human survival instinct prods us to outlast afflictions and, if circumstances permit, to reach old age. Nothing, of course, could be more quintessentially natural [...]
July 31, 2025
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New research suggests that people who actively cultivate gratitude in their lives become both more content and physically healthier, but Oakland, California writer Catherine Price [...]
July 24, 2025
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Bill Siemering, NPR’s first program director and the author of its inspiring mission statement, recounts the network’s early goal of honoring diversity by including a [...]
July 21, 2025
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Renewable energy (including low-carbon sources like solar and wind) is rapidly shifting to a higher profile sector of the way Americans derive electricity to power [...]
July 17, 2025
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In these special Humankind documentaries, ‘Beyond War’ takes a look back at the last time the U.S. military had major involvement in the Middle East. [...]
July 14, 2025
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At the end of life, when most people need medical care and emotional comfort from family and friends, some turn also to chaplains for spiritual [...]
July 10, 2025
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In these special Humankind documentaries, ‘Beyond War’ takes a look back at the last time the U.S. military had major involvement in the Middle East. [...]
July 7, 2025
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America’s founders recognized that without a king, their fledgling nation would require knowledgeable citizens. But now in the digital age, this essential need is ever-more [...]
July 2, 2025
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In these special Humankind documentaries, ‘Beyond War’ takes a look back at the last time the U.S. military had major involvement in the Middle East. [...]
June 30, 2025
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Emboldened by a U.S. Justice Dept. estimate that ten percent of prisoners serving time are actually innocent, journalist Rob Warden describes his Chicago-based efforts to [...]
June 26, 2025
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In these special Humankind documentaries, ‘Beyond War’ takes a look back at the last time the U.S. military had major involvement in the Middle East. [...]
June 24, 2025
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An elderly physician and Nobel Peace Prize-winner, Bernard Lown, pleads for a revolution in health care that would place greater emphasis on personal interaction between [...]
June 19, 2025
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It’s been said that we’ve learned how to speak but not necessarily how to communicate. Rarely are we taught the art of deep listening or [...]
July 25, 2024
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In this documentary we explore how federal courts enforced fugitive slave laws. Historians, actors and legal scholars re-create the famous case of a young escaped [...]
February 21, 2024
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In the second half of our documentary on the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, we examine the AA recovery principles that have promoted sobriety for millions [...]
December 7, 2023
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Herbal remedies: Do they work? Are they safe? In The Medicine Garden, a special series drawn from our archives, you’ll take a fascinating tour of this [...]
January 2, 2023
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In this episode, we hear from physician Ralph Snyderman, MD, a proponent of preventive medicine, who believes that our health care system should place greater [...]
December 8, 2022
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Have we entered an age of unrelenting chaos? As we grope for a “new normal”, has humanity reached a kind of turning point? In this [...]
July 21, 2022
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Take a trip to a pristine spot in Maine for an afternoon spent with Palestinian and Israeli youth as they come together to play, connect, [...]
July 21, 2022
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As we grope for a “new normal”, has humanity reached a kind of turning point? It feels that way — in the wake of the [...]
June 23, 2022
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After war, our veterans face a new battle: emotional and spiritual conflict that is normal to human beings who’ve experienced intense brutality. In this documentary, [...]
June 23, 2022
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The Prisoners Literature Project, an all-volunteer service based in Berkeley, California, packages and ships books to people who are incarcerated, as a humanitarian gesture and [...]
June 9, 2022
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In the wake of shocking violence at abortion clinics, two apparent enemies — women representing pro-choice and pro-life factions in the Boston area, where shootings [...]
May 30, 2022
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Christal Presley, an English teacher in Virginia who experienced “secondary trauma” in response to the extreme behavior of her father, a Vietnam-era veteran with PTSD, [...]
December 16, 2021
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Today over two million people partake of the storytelling, the good humor, the words of wisdom and the gallons and gallons of free coffee made [...]
November 25, 2021
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Alcoholics Anonymous marks its beginning when one hopelessly addicted drunk realized that connecting with a fellow-sufferer would create a safe zone in which both could [...]
November 18, 2021
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“At the end of the day,” says Jonathan Star about his English translation of Tao te Ching from the original Chinese, “it’s not about attaining [...]
November 11, 2021
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Jonathan Star took twelve years to master the nuances of ancient Chinese in his quest to produce a remarkably lucid and evocative English translation of [...]
November 4, 2021
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When we nurse grudges, the person clinging to a resentment often pays a high price in anxiety, hostility, perhaps depression. What follows from that for [...]
October 28, 2021
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Within a decade, America will be looking different. In addition to other demographic changes, 70 million Baby Boomers are now entering their retirement years. For [...]
October 28, 2021
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Author and prison therapist Robin Casarjian reframes the act of forgiveness not to condone hurtful behavior, but as a shift in perception that allows us [...]
October 21, 2021
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Within a decade, America will be looking different. In addition to other demographic changes, 70 million Baby Boomers are now entering their retirement years. For [...]
October 21, 2021
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The Constitution specifies that once federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, they can hold their office “during good behavior,” [...]
February 4, 2021
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The Republican party has not won the majority of votes in six of the last seven presidential elections. And yet vacancies on the Supreme Court [...]
January 28, 2021
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Have our courts – intended by America’s founders to be an independent arbiter of justice – turned into another political battlefield? Are today’s judges mere [...]
August 20, 2020
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Have our courts – intended by America’s founders to be an independent arbiter of justice – turned into another political battlefield? Are today’s judges mere [...]
August 13, 2020
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Bay Area physician and Univ. of California medical professor Martin Rossman, author of “The Worry Solution”, describes ways to distinguish between what we can change [...]
March 12, 2020
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This episode of ‘Humankind on Public Radio’ is part of a special series, ‘The Spiritual Care Podcast’. For more episodes exploring the role of spiritual [...]
June 19, 2018
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This episode of ‘Humankind on Public Radio’ is part of a special series, ‘The Spiritual Care Podcast’. For more episodes exploring the role of spiritual [...]
June 12, 2018
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This episode of ‘Humankind on Public Radio’ is part of a special series, ‘The Spiritual Care Podcast’. For more episodes exploring the role of spiritual [...]
June 5, 2018
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This episode of ‘Humankind on Public Radio’ is part of a special series, ‘The Spiritual Care Podcast’. For more episodes exploring the role of spiritual [...]
May 29, 2018
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David Freudberg, host of Humankind public radio, announces a new podcast on the fascinating practice of “spiritual care”: stories of caregivers (chaplains, nurses, social workers, [...]
January 26, 2018
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A 15-minute stress reduction session to calm the body and mind. [...]
December 20, 2016
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Gas taxes you pay at the pump go into a huge pool of federal transportation funds. How should the money be divided up? Plus high-speed [...]
December 13, 2016
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What is the global warming footprint of cars vs. public transit? Story of a family seeking a low-carbon lifestyle. Also, hear the views of transportation [...]
December 6, 2016
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Business people and environmentalists come together: improved public transportation helps to grow the economy, for lots of reasons. Bankers and the Sierra Club on the [...]
November 29, 2016
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The story of a Virginia man who accepted his county’s “challenge” to go car-free for a month; plus voices of motorists filling up at the [...]
November 22, 2016
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Professors of medicine and nursing describe ways to treat the whole patient. And a look at medical use of acupuncture and meditation, for which evidence [...]
November 15, 2016
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With diet a factor in ailments from diabetes to obesity, medical students at the country’s third largest campus attend cooking classes to learn how to [...]
November 8, 2016
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The problem of rushed medical visits, now standard nationwide, can strain both doctors and patients. The story of a Calif. woman who was misdiagnosed with [...]
November 1, 2016
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This look at the emergence of “integrative medicine” begins with a visit to America’s busiest trauma center, in Baltimore, where patients receive both emergency care [...]
October 25, 2016
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A lively profile of “Granny D,” (Mrs. Doris Haddock of Dublin, New Hampshire) famous for her 14-month walk across the United States to promote campaign [...]
October 18, 2016
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A lively profile of “Granny D,” (Mrs. Doris Haddock of Dublin, New Hampshire) famous for her 14-month walk across the United States to promote campaign [...]
October 11, 2016
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Hear a diversity of voices and views on today’s debates over whether voters should be required to show ID at the polls. Some Americans believe [...]
September 30, 2016
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A fascinating history of the much-contested right to vote in America: from slaves freed after the Civil War, to women’s suffrage, to the civil rights [...]
September 30, 2016
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We hear from veterans who wrestle with healing from “moral injury” which occurs after a violation of conscience, based on events they witnessed or participated [...]
September 22, 2016
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We hear profiles of American soldiers who, after military duty, returned home to face another battle—the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). [...]
September 21, 2016
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When we’re in a disagreement, it’s sometimes hard simply to listen to the other person. But skillful listening is a core practice of conflict resolution [...]
September 20, 2016
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A return visit to the Seeds of Peace summer camp, when teenagers from opposing sides of conflict regions, including the Middle East, arrive for amazing [...]
September 13, 2016
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How can we avoid reacting furiously when someone provokes us? Hear a fascinating array of answers from theologian Frank Rogers, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rev. Betty [...]
February 4, 2016
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In a world given to so much brutality, it would be easy to underestimate the impact of basic human compassion in actually resolving strife, yet [...]
January 28, 2016
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We hear stories of peacemakers who draw from their diverse lives and religious traditions as a basis for breaking down barriers and promoting conflict resolution. [...]
January 21, 2016
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We look back on the stunning display of forgiveness and nonviolence by the grieving families and congregants of Mother Emanuel church, where a gunman murdered [...]
January 14, 2016
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In this episode of Humankind, hear nuclear experts pro and con, an emergency room physician, and a variety of voices telling the story of a [...]
April 9, 2015
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This episode explores the very human level at which some nurses interact with patients at their most vulnerable moments. What spiritual questions about life and [...]
March 14, 2015
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How do nurses, who are exposed to continual suffering by patients, manage to keep their hearts open and maintain compassion? Nurses describe the centrality of [...]
March 13, 2015
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Inspiring stories of how active nurses use self-care techniques that help them manage, and transcend, the stresses of their essential work life, both on the [...]
March 12, 2015
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A no-holds-barred look at the stressful conditions in which many nurses work: the long hours, the emotional toll, the rapid pace, and the way that [...]
March 5, 2015
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