Soundings

The human brain was built to predict the future. If you can't see what's coming, you can't survive. Tea leaves, entrails, and complicated algorithms are just a few of the ways humans have tried to divine the future for personal gain. Today on our show we have three stories about various attempts to look into the future. A Berkeley undergraduate tries to beat the racetrack, economists attempt to predict recessions, and a software that can listen to a song and predict whether it's going to be a hit. Guess which one is the most successful, and who forgot about a couple very important variables.

Producers: Charlie Mintz, Daniel MacDougall, Bonnie Swift Jonah Willihnganz

Host: Charlie Mintz

Featuring: Sarah Rizk, Sam Alemayehu, Paul David, Howard Schwartz, Mike McCready, Jadena, Koji Gardiner, Eleanor Safridge Fields, Kasiana McLenaghan, Robert Mintz

Music: Koji Gardiner, Ian Burrell, Andy Seymour, Jeff Striker, Pascel, Boomsnake

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-2/153-episode-209.html

There all sorts of ways to send a messages: composing an email, writing a text message, pasting up fliers, or literally writing on the wall. In this show, we explore the various ways people communicate: digital and analog, private and public, even legal and illegal. The surprising origins of online social networks, the world of graffiti art, and bathroom stall vandalism.

Producers: Dan Hirsch, Will Rogers,

Host: Dan Hirsch

Featuring: Fred Turner, Molly Butcher, Lyndsey Garlock, Lexi Tsien-Shiang, Mitchell Wilcox,

Music: Johnny Hwin, Lauchlan Casey, Ill-Conditioned

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-2/99-episode-210.html

Why are we drawn to stories of escape? How do we know when we've escaped or when we’ve been captured? Today’s show features stories of narrow escapes, written and read by the winners of our first story contest. The dangers of professional panty sniffing, a maybe catastrophic encounter with abandoned tires, and a short story recalling a scary chapter in Stanford's past.

Producers: Lee Konstantinou and Charlie Mintz

Host: Lee Konstantinou

Featuring: Amanda Glasser, Erika Harrell, Mandy MacCalla

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-2/133-episode-211.html

Sometimes our rites of passage are marked by large ceremonies, like graduations or weddings. But often the transformative moments of our lives come not on stage, but when we quietly face the challenges we are presented with. The strange importance of the unicycle in a young man’s life, Texas debutantes, and a 22-year-old trying to make it as a reporter in the real world.

Producers: Micah Cratty, Matt Larson, Will Rogers

Host: Micah Cratty

Featuring: Jon Ho

Music: Volunteer Pioneer, Kissing Johnny, Noah Burbank

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-2/129-episode-212.html

What is it to be a toy or a tool? What is the difference between work and play, or is there a difference at all? Seriously playful stories from an archaeologist, a designer of toys for disabled children, and circuit-bending musicians. Who is influencing who in the process of design, creation, and the use of toys and tools?

Producers: Hannah Krakauer, Liz Bradfield, Daniel Hirsch

Host: Hannah Krakauer

Featuring: Michael Shanks, Jessica Zarin Kessin, Reed Ghazala, Sridharan Devarajan, Mike Rosenthall, Mike Mellenthin, Heather Roberts

Music: Kissing Johnny, Dubious Ranger, Nimbleweed

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-2/117-episode-214.html

Although superheroes may seem like two dimensional relics of our childhoods, they can have a significant impact on our lives. Stories of superheroes battling in academia, superheroes living among us, and fictional superheroes fighting real-world battles.

Producers: Micah Cratty, Lee Konstantinou and Matt Larson

Host: Micah Cratty

Featuring: Professor Scott Bukatman and Robert Walker

Music: Kissing Johnny and Noah Burbank

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-2/161-episode-215.html

We attempt to come to better terms with our impending doom. This is such a mind-blowing episode that it is in a record eight parts: one short story, one excerpt from a novel, two poems, one interview, one story-booth vignette, one ballad, and a correspondence with our friend Pete, on the other side.

Producers: Jonah Willihnganz, Bonnie Swift, Dan Hirsch, Micah Cratty, Lee Konstantinou, Killeen Hanson, Elizabeth Bradfield, Hannah Krakauer, Jack Wang

Host: Bonnie Swift

Featuring: Daniel Steinbock, Adrienne Chung

Music: Nataly Dawn

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-2/163-episode-216.html

Animals play strange roles in our lives. Often, critters captivate those of us in the of the so-called dominant species. Our debut show includes four stories and a poem. Students search for salamanders in Stanford's Lake Lagunita. A scientist hatches a plan to "Re-wild" North America with endangered predators from Africa. Cats and Dogs inflict drama on couples who try to co-own them. Elephants may or may not have rescued tourists in Thailand, and Fireflies illuminate the soul in a poem by Troy Jollimore. Will animals captivate you this week?

Host: Bonnie SwiftProducers: Bonnie Swift and Jonah Willihnganz

Featuring: Rebecca Jacobs and Kalani Leifer, Kate Youngman and Tom James, Tracy Shepard, Hilton Obenzinger, Troy Jollimore.

Music: Hunt Alcott, Ambika, Cem Durouz

URL's: Hilton Obenzinger, Troy Jollimore.

Featuring: Hilton Obenzinger

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-1/155-episode-101.html

More stories about the ways that animals shape our lives. A tour of Stanford's Animal Research Facility, and a short story about one father's strange relationship with the family dog.

Producers: Steven Tagle and James Madson

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-1/111-episode-102.html

How do different groups approach Africa? Stories about media coverage of Africa, a student who taught poetry at a Zambian refugee camp, and how Ghana influenced Martin Luther King Jr.

Host: Micah Cratty

Producers: Micah Cratty and Jonah Willihnganz

Featuring: Chrissie Coxon, Stefanie Garcia, William Loel Von Hoene, Clayborne Carson

Music: Grant Newsome, Kissing Johnny

Producer: Micah Cratty

Featuring: William Loel Von Hoene

More info at:http://web.stanford.edu/group/storytelling/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php/shows/season-1/143-episode-103.html