The Stuff of Life

By iHeartPodcasts and HowStuffWorks

Society & Culture

What's The Stuff of Life about?

Eavesdrop on experts and researchers as they ponder what makes our world so maddening, so strange and so achingly beautiful. Not to mention ridiculous. Join Julie Douglas for this week’s episode of The Stuff of Life, a podcast by HowStuffWorks.com.

4.0

112112 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

The Stuff of Life episodes:

05.19.2017
Wired: As Above, So Below
America, the home of rugged individualist. Or not. Each of us is connected to each other, relies on one another, gives and takes, consciously or unconsciously weaving the web of support that it takes to make a society. Let’s face...
05.12.2017
Haunted
In this episode we look at how we manufacture fear in the mind with a trip back in history to a psyops mission, a visit to to a haunted attraction, and a peek into the political house of horror, “Doomocracy.”
05.05.2017
Studies in Desperation
1963 was a year of chaos and social upheaval. Sound familiar? Time, it would seem, is circular, something the American Survey of Fears proves out.
04.28.2017
The Nostalgia Factory
Ah, the “good ol days.” If America had its own brochure it would depict rocking chairs on front porches, pristine farms and tidy downtowns. But did this America ever exist? And is thinking it did doing us some serious psychological...
04.21.2017
Teen Dream
Adolescence: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
04.19.2017
Special Announcement: It's All Odin's Fault
The Stuff of Life is packing up its bags and moving to Fridays. Find out why.
04.12.2017
Men Dancing
Some men dance, many don’t. What are the unspoken rules that govern the ways we move our body, and what does it say about our society and how we treat each other?
04.05.2017
The Empathy Wall
The antidote to being a jerk is empathy. And thankfully it appears to be hard-wired in the human brain. And yet … we’re increasingly casting off the ability to walk a mile in another person's shoes.
03.29.2017
The Great Escape
We all want to hit the eject button on reality and look for a different way to live our lives at one point or another. How about through transforming yourself into another species, meditating on your existence, or just laughing...
03.22.2017
The Big Hurt: Hate & Anger
‘Anger in its time and place,’ wrote the essayist Charles Lamb, ‘May assume a kind of grace.’ We look at how anger can be clarifying, even helpful, and we find out how it can morph into its more dangerous and...
03.15.2017
Broken
No matter where you fall on the political spectrum we can all agree that more than ever, the world feels broken. In this episode, we take a trip to Washington DC on the day of the inauguration and the eve...
03.30.2016
Life the Game
In this episode we look at the idea that life is just a game.
03.23.2016
The First Songs
Nature gave us the first songs -- the patterns and melodies that we replicate in instruments, and our own voices. We take a visit to the exhibit, "Wild Music," to look at our deep connection to nature and music.
03.16.2016
Under the Weather
The Earth is wrapped in an atmosphere that weighs 5.5 quadrillion tons. And inside this atmosphere the weather creates a crazy quilt of conditions. To say that the weather is unpredictable is to sum up our entire existence. And...
03.09.2016
Map of Self
Finding our way in the world is one of the most fundamental things we humans do, and maps map it possible. But on some level, these maps are a thing of fiction.
03.02.2016
Mourner for Hire
In this episode we’ll look at how, as the bereaved, we find solace in ritual – everything from providing comfort food to hiring professional mourners.
02.25.2016
Life at the Death Café
In this episode we put out a pot of tea, a plate of cucumber sandwiches, and we take a seat with death. What is a “good death,” how do we achieve it and how might our dreams help?
02.17.2016
An Object Lesson
In some ways our stuff is ourselves – it tells a story about who we are. But why do some of us develop pathological attachments to objects?
02.10.2016
Building Eternity
In one way or another we’re all trying to transcend death, whether it’s through an “I was here” graffiti scrawl or an e-epic-length autobiography. In this episode we look at our attempts to achieve immortality – through objects that...
02.03.2016
Glossophobia: The Fear of Public Speaking
One of the top American fears, alongside walking alone at night and personal injury, is public speaking. Find out why it can be so terrifying to step into the spotlight.
01.27.2016
The Power of Fear
Cat’s out the bag: We’re not making it out alive. So how do we deal with the ultimate fear – that death is right around the corner? And when the survival chips are down, how can we increase our chances?...
01.25.2016
The Stuff of Life: Episode Zero
Eavesdrop on experts and researchers as they ponder what makes our world so maddening, so strange and so achingly beautiful. Not to mention ridiculous. Join Julie Douglas for The Stuff of Life, a new immersive podcast by HowStuffWorks.com.
01.14.2016
The Stuff of Life: Trailer
The Stuff of Life podcast teases apart the tales we tell — because when we crack open a story and look inside, we see the seeds of what make our world so maddening, so strange and so achingly beautiful.