Showing results by author "Jim Fleming" in All Categories

“The medium is the message.” “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” Those are just a few of Marshall McLuhan’s famous quotes. McLuhan is one of the most influential media thinkers of all time, yet he’s also one of the most misunderstood. In this hour, we’ll explore Marshall McLuhan’s big ideas as we salute the centenary of his birth.

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.

New York Times columnist David Brooks is best known for his political writing, but he's also fascinated by recent findings in psychology and neuroscience. In fact he says many of our public policies fail because we're not actually the rational decision makers we think we are. In this hour, we'll talk with David Brooks, also, rising jazz star Vijay Iyer on the neuroscience of music.

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.

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.

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.

When we’ve had enough of reality, we often seek escape in a movie. But we don’t have to shut off our brains when we visit the cinema. Some films actually encourage us to use our minds. This hour, we explore philosophy through the lens of film.

Does death gives life meaning? You might think so, looking at the prominence of death and the afterlife in so many religions. For millennia, people have dreamed about immortality, and now transhumanists are trying to extend life by merging our selves with machines.

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!

DEVO co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh talks about his visual art exhibition, "Myopia," and Joshua Wolf Shenk lays waste to the myth of the lone genius as we explore the creative...

There's a word for the grief and anger people feel when their environment is ravaged – solastalgia. It's what Gulf Coast residents may be feeling right now, as they watch oil wash up onto their beaches. In this hour, the psychology of our attachment to the places we love. Why we suffer when forests are cut down, air is polluted, rivers and oceans fouled – the link between the environment and human happiness.

Your name is a collection of sounds and syllables that identify you. It's your tag, handle, label, second skin. It's written on your birth certificate and it'll be inscribed on your grave. But what does it actually mean? Names carry family dreams, expectations and legacies. In this episode, stories about the power and politics of names - how they shape us and how we shape them. What does your name say about you?

Hear that? It's the soothing sound of silence. We'll have much more, including Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking; one man's quest for absolute silence; and John Cage's 4'33.

There are nearly 250 million migrants across the world right now. Some will be escaping war or oppression, others will be seeking out freedom or economic prosperity, but whatever the reason, the kind of life they're looking for lies across a border that's policed and restricted. What if it didn't have to be that way? This hour, we explore a world without borders.

It's now the most common mental health problem in the world. Anxiety. And the United States is the country with the highest level of anxiety, according to a World Mental Health Survey conducted in 18 countries in 2002. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, award-winning journalist, Patricia Pearson, talks about her personal struggles with anxiety. And psychiatrist Daniel Carlat tells us about the trouble with psychiatry.

Many of us first met Islam on 9/11 with planes slamming into the World Trade Center - not a very good first impression. In this hour, a proper introduction, as we talk with Muslims and Westerners who are redefining our relationship. From a Danish cartoonist with a fatwa over his head to the founder of the Muslim Punk movement. Meeting each other again, next time.

"Everyone is on the Internet but they're not all talking with each other. There are groups upon groups out there, but they don't talk to one another. So while the Internet brings everyone into a share space, it does not necessarily bring them together." -- David Lynch

Political animosity between the right and the left is off the charts. Social scientists say we're living in one of the most polarized periods in history and that conservatives and liberals don't just disagree anymore. They hate everything about each other. It's time to de-polarize! Let's figure out how.

Welcome to the next generation of African writers. They're young, multi-lingual, and breaking out of all the old literary boxes. This hour, why Africa has one of the most exciting literary scenes on the planet.

If you think about it, every day we receive countless services from complete strangers - the newspaper delivered to your door, the trash picked up at the crack of dawn, the fresh fruit for sale at the supermarket. There's a whole army of invisible workers powering our economy who we rarely get to hear about. From the warehouse workers who fill out our online orders, to the migrant laborers who pick our food, even down to the unpaid office intern, this hour we're talking about the hidden workers who make it all happen.