Showing results by author "Jim Fleming" in All Categories

In this hour we'll hear the latest science on brain plasticity. First, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher Norman Doidge (The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science). Next, author Daniel Pinchbeck (2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl), and more.

In this hour, we ask what exactly Einstein concluded about religion. First, a discussion with Richard Dawkins, Elaine Pagels, and Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson (Einstein: His Life and Universe). Next, Jungian analyst David Lindorff (Pauli and Jung: the Meeting of Two Great Minds). Then, author David Leavitt, (The Indian Clerk). Finally, mystic Father Thomas Keating.

A little laugh goes a long way. This week, we’re taking a crash course in how to be funny. From Chicago’s famous Second City, to a humor research lab, this hour's a laugh riot. We also talk with a laughter coach, Canadian comic Mary Walsh, and longtime New Yorker humorist Ian Frazier. Giggle on!

Have you ever thought about disappearing? Wiping out your old identity and starting fresh, with a new name, a new life… a new self? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, how to disappear completely. Join us for a crash course! You too can vanish without a trace. And we have the founder of the Federal Witness Protection Program to tell us how the professionals do it.

Religion was supposed to be dying. But God is making a comeback in countries around the world, from Russia to China to Turkey. In this hour, we'll get the story behind this global revival of faith. And tell you the remarkable saga of a group of Christian and Muslim women in Liberia who banded together to bring down their corrupt and violent President.

The Dalai Lama's birthday is July 6th, 1935. For decades, he's served as the spiritual leader of Tibet, urging them forward on the path of non-violence in the face of Chinese occupation. But as the Dalai Lama ages, and the Chinese consolidate their power in Tibet, rumbles of discontent are growing as Tibetan dissidents grapple with new alternatives for resistance. In this hour, the intersection of ancient spiritual tradition with twenty-first century politics and modernity.

Bright young men and women used to graduate and head for Wall Street or a top corporate law firm. Today – more and more of them are heading back to the land. After all, which would you rather do – wear a suit and slave in a cubicle – or spend your days on your own land, growing food for yourselves and your neighbors. In this hour, America's small farm renaissance. The lure of the pastoral life and the vision of a new agrarian culture.

Today most of what we read is on a screen. So here's the question: Is there something different -- something better -- about reading a physical book? Or does it matter? We explore slow reading, e-reading, bibliotherapy and a novel that unfolds within another novel.

When’s the last time you were wonderstruck? Would your life be richer for more wonder? What wonder is, how to make it, where to find it and what it does for us... we all get gently awed in this hour.

This book offers an innovative, research-based approach to one of the toughest challenges businesses face today: how to drive success by effectively managing the moments when employees interact with customers. Based on research spanning 10 million employees and 10 million customers around the globe, the Human Sigma approach combines a proven method for assessing the health of the employee-customer encounter with a disciplined process for improving it.

Science fiction offers us visions of histories we don't know -- histories of the future and the past. Today, legendary science fiction writers talk about science, utopia, and the imagination. Plus, the winners of our 3 Minute Futures fiction contest!

We explore the frontiers of brain science, from the neurobiology of emotions to recent discoveries about autism. Renowned neuroscientists Richard Davidson and V.S. Ramachandran reveal new insights into the brain, and we'll hear the story of one marriage saved by a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome.

Certain brain disorders can lead to remarkable insights....even genius. We'll peer into the world of autistic savants and dyslexics, and contemplate our cyborg future, when our brains merge with tiny, embedded computers.

When did "fat" become a four-letter word? Leaders of the body acceptance movement say it's time to stop shaming fat people. In this hour, curvy girls and plus-size women talk about the emotional and physical costs of America's toxic obsession with weight and body image.

Andre Agassi says he always hated tennis, even though it's what made him rich and famous. But maybe that's not surprising, considering how his father used to browbeat him into hitting 25-hundred balls a day when he was seven years old, and later sent him off to a tennis academy, which Agassi calls a "glorified prison camp." In this hour, we'll talk with Andre Agassi about the fine line between love and hate.

Tribute albums, reunion tours and mash-ups. If pop culture’s all about the new, why is there so much wallowing in our immediate past? Simon Reynolds joins us to talk about his book, Retromania. Is this retromania a death knell for our own originality?

Atheists are finally coming out of the closet, and in some cases denouncing religion. Others still crave a sense of the sacred even though they don’t believe in God. Do atheists have something to learn from religion? Why do so many people call themselves "spiritual but not religious"? And why did bestselling novelist Anne Rice split very publicly with the Catholic Church?

Buried scrolls, clay tablets, priceless artifacts and expensive forgeries – this week, we bring you stories from the strange and amazing world of biblical archeology.

Everything you know about Indians is wrong. That's the starting point for Paul Chaat Smith, who says it's time to hit the reset button and re-think everything we know about Native American culture. In this hour, Comedian Howie Miller says that's what he does as a stand-up comic bringing out the stereotypes about Native Americans from the back of the closet and making audiences acknowledge them and...laugh. Also, who killed Crazy Horse, and why.

There’s no English translation for the Dutch word “Gezellig." Are there things that can never be understood, expressed or experienced outside their home culture? We’re wandering the unmarked maps of cultural translation!