In today’s pay-to-play political environment, and with almost no rules, is the pardon ripe for abuse? In effect, it’s a “get out of jail free” card, as in the Monopoly board game.  Donald Trump says, “It’s the most powerful thing a president has.”  We hear legal experts, an investigative reporter, as well as archival audio from some of these dramatic events in part two of our documentary.

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.

The Constitution allows the president to grant pardons – originally intended as a way to show mercy. But is the pardon ripe for abuse? Hear the history, from the pardoning of Nixon, to the Bidens, to the Jan. 6 rioters.

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.

Hear Bill Siemering, the visionary who helped to found NPR and wrote its initial mission statement, articulate the important role public broadcasting plays in our democracy.

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.

The stories of people in recovery from alcoholism, who had to work through denial and sometimes harsh consequences on the road to sobriety, which can present its own ongoing emotional challenges.

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.

Daniel Goleman is a former New York Times science reporter specializing in how brain function affects the way we feel and perceive life, particularly how people develop different levels of empathy.

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.

The 2023 film ‘Oppenheimer’ reminds us of our unfinished business in the nuclear age. Hear Ira Helfand, an emergency room physician, describe the main barrier to addressing this problem: our denial that nuclear arms could cause the gravest emergency of all.

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.

We travel to a Detroit program for pediatric cancer patients founded by a rabbi whose daughter died of cancer. He teaches martial arts to young patients, helping them find inner strength.

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.

What is the role of a patient’s attitude in facing a serious illness? Are the benefits that many people derive from faith also available to cancer patients who feel uncomfortable with religion? What are the connections between a person’s beliefs and their ability to attain physical healing?

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.

A community service organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts rescues food that would be routinely discarded by grocers, produce companies and others and delivers it to those in need including pantries and elderly meal sites.

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.

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 “politicians in robes”? This public radio documentary series looks at crucial flashpoints in recent decades. Will rulings follow the predictable blocs of liberal and conservative justices, strongly associated with the party of the president who appointed them?

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.