Almost 1000 people have won Nobel Prizes. But only 300 have won IG Nobel Prizes! That’s the award honoring achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.

In this episode, meet the creator of the prize, and three people who’ve won it!

Mark your calendar: The next Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen on September 15, 2022!

GUESTS: 

• Marc Abrahams: Founder of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony in 1991, celebrating achievements that “make you laugh and then think”. He is also the co-founder and editor of the magazine, Annals of Improbable Research
• Kees Moeliker: Dutch biologist, ornithologist, and director of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. He won an Ig Nobel Prize in Biology for his study of homosexual necrophilia in male mallards in 2003. He is also the founder of Dead Duck Day, which is held annually on June 5th
• Pavlo Blavatskyy: Professor of economics at Montpellier Business School. He won an Ig Nobel Prize for Economics in 2021 for his study correlating the perceived corruption of politicians and their body weight
• Patricia Yang: A two-time Ig Nobel Prize winner in Physics. The first was in 2015 for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds). She won again in 2019 for studying how wombats make cubed poo

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Think about your BFF (that’s Best Friend For Life).

Now, imagine if that “for life” part was a deliberate, co-creative commitment.

You’re free to date other people if you’re into that kinda thing, but you put each other down as your emergency contact, you live together, you may even raise kids together.

On this episode, you’ll meet people who are in what’s called Platonic Life Partnerships, or PLP’s.

GUESTS: 

• Rhaina Cohen: producer and editor for NPR’s Enterprise Storytelling Unit. She talked about it in her Atlantic article from October of 2020, “What If Friendship, Not Marriage, Was at the Center of Life?”
• April Lee and Renee Wong: PLPs living in Los Angeles, CA
• John Carroll and Joe Rivera: PLPs living in Austin, TX

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What’s it like to be a child prodigy?

In this episode, you’ll meet a boy who became a chess master at the age of ten, a pair of siblings who started college at seven years old, and one of the youngest members of the high-IQ society, Mensa, who joined it when she was two.

GUESTS: 

• Tanitoluwa Adewumi: an 11-year-old Nigerian-American chess prodigy and chess master, who co-wrote My Name Is Tani . . . and I Believe in Miracles: The Amazing True Story of One Boy’s Journey from Refugee to Chess Champion
• Tanishq Abraham: began community college at 7, and got his BS in biomedical engineering at 14 years old. He is now an 18-year-old PhD candidate in biomedical engineering at the University of California, Davis
• Tiara Abraham: began community college at 7, and is now a 16-year-old graduate at the University of California, Davis with a Bachelor’s in Vocal Performance
• Kashe Quest: became the youngest member of Mensa at the age of 2. She just turned 4 
• Sukhjit Athwal: Kashe’s mom, and Founder of The Modern Schoolhouse in Los Angeles

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How do auctioneers do what they do?

Meet some of the best in the business, including a 102 year-old auctioneer - America’s oldest.

Plus, hear what it was like for the guy who auctioned off that $28 million seat on the rocket ship, New Shepard.

And find out what happens when a lead charity auctioneer for Christie’s teams up with Bruce Springsteen.

Finally, find out how Chion did when she tried her hand at auctioneering for the first time!

GUESTS:

• Steve Little has been an auctioneer for 31 years, most notably as the man with the gavel for the $28 million auction for a seat on “New Shepard”, the space shuttle created by Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin
• Lydia Fenet is an auctioneer and International Director of Strategic Partnerships at Christie’s. She’s also the author of The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is YOU
• Bertram Boyum, 102 of Rushford, MN, is the oldest active auctioneer in America
• Ralph Labazzo of Golden Gavel Auctions in East Windsor, CT, has been an auctioneer and appraiser for over 20 years

Photo: Rafiq Maqbool/AP

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TikTok is full of… well, everything, so the Audacious team scoured the app to find people who use TikTok to spread kindness.

Like a woman who researches and then cleans gravestones, another woman who cleans - at no charge - the houses of people who are going through tough times, and the CEO of a company whose employees post videos of drive-by compliments.

GUESTS: 

• Auri Kananen, a.k.a. Auri Katariina, a.k.a. “Queen of Cleaning”: handles extreme cleaning situations for free to those who find themselves in tough situations
• Alicia Williams, a.k.a. Lady Taphos a.k.a. “The OG Grave Cleaning Lady”: researches gravestones and posts time lapse videos of their cleaning on Tik Tok
• Francois Reihani: CEO of La La Land Kind Cafe, which posts TikTok videos of employees doing random acts of "drive-by kindness"

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Here are a few things we often get wrong about anorexia:

That it always has something to do with body image.

That men don’t really get it.

That it’s insurmountable.

Hear from an eating disorder specialist, and two people - including one who is in recovery - talking about their lives with anorexia.

GUESTS: 

• Mary Dobson: a certified eating disorder specialist, author and community organizer based in Fairfield County, CT. She is also the founder of LIFT Wellness Group
• Agata Gawron: woman from Saskatchewan, Canada, who has been living with anorexia and bulimia for over 30 years
• Ken Capobianco: author of the novel Call Me Anorexic: The Ballad of a Thin Man, inspired by his three decades of living with anorexia. He now considers himself recovered

Photo: Getty Images

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When you hear the words, “cuddle party”, what do you picture? Something playful? Something salacious? Something… else?

When your culture equates affection with attraction, how does it feel to challenge that connection? And to what degree can affection be healing when it isn't necessarily connected with sex?

Join Chion as she ponders all this during her experience one-on-one with a professional cuddlist, and then as she attends a 25-person-strong cuddle party.

GUESTS: 

• Amanda Ananda: Professional cuddlist and cuddle party facilitator
• Isaac Paulman: Cuddle party facilitator-in-training 

Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today by visiting ctpublic.org/donate.

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You may be familiar with Joan of Arc, who cut her hair, wore men’s clothing and, well, led the French army in a momentous victory in 1429…

But what about all the other women who dressed like the men of their times and cultures to get stuff done?

You’ll hear all about them in this conversation with Tracy Dawson, author of Let Me Be Frank: A book about women who dressed like men to do shit they weren’t supposed to do.

Photo: Kathleen Munroe

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Humans of New York is a photo-slash-storytelling-slash-fundraising powerhouse with 30 million followers on social media.

You read narratives about overcoming adversity, personal revelations, or just flat-out great stories.

Just that combination alone - the photos and their captions - have been enough to launch Humans of New York into worldwide popularity. But its creator, Brandon Stanton, has taken it one step further.

When a subject of his tells a story about a specific need, he shares their GoFundMe page, and it explodes with contributions from HONY fans.

On today’s show, you’ll hear my conversation with Brandon at The Connecticut Forum recently, as he talks about his process, overcoming rejection, and the new era of Humans of New York as a philanthropic powerhouse.

Photo: Nick Caito Photo

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Medical aid in dying offers what some may call “a good death”. But how will the increased use of it change our relationship with dying?

Meet a hospice and palliative care consultant who has been present for over 1,500 deaths, and hear his concerns about the effect of so-called “designer deaths” on the human species.

Then, hear from a woman living with terminal cancer who is an enthusiastic advocate for passing Medical Aid-In-Dying legislation in Connecticut.

GUESTS: 

• Stephen Jenkinson: An author, activist and palliative and hospice care consultant. He is the author of Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, and he is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School.
• Lynda Bluestein: A Bridgeport resident who has terminal cancer. She’s actively working to get “Medical Aid in dying” legislation passed in Connecticut.

Photo: Getty Images

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