Can journalism be a humanitarian art? New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has learned that reportage can deaden rather than awaken the consciousness, much less the hearts, of his readers. He shares his wide ethical lens he’s gained on human life in our time — both personal and global.

Krista Tippett’s unedited interview with Tiya Miles, Chair and Professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She spoke with her on November 16, 2011 from the studios of APM in St. Paul, MN. Tiya Miles was in studio at Michigan Radio at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This interview is included in the show “Toward Living Memory.” Download the produced show at onbeing.org.

For Black History Month: a MacArthur “genius” who’s unearthing an especially painful chapter of the American experience — the intersecting history of African-Americans and Native Americans, and the little-known narratives that Cherokee landowners held black slaves. Even with history this difficult, Tiya Miles shows us the possibility of stretching the canvas of the past wide enough to hold both hard truths and healing.

What happens when people transcend violence while living in it? John Paul Lederach has spent three decades mediating peace and change in 25 countries — from Nepal to Colombia and Sierra Leone.. He shifts the language and lens of the very notion of conflict resolution. He says, for example, that enduring progress takes root not with large numbers of people, but with relationships between unlikely people. John Paul Lederach is Professor of International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Krista Tippett spoke with him on June 22, 2010 from the studios of APM in Saint Paul, Minnesota. John Paul Lederach was in the studios of KGNU in Boulder, Colorado. This interview is included in our show “John Paul Lederach on The Art of Peace.” See more at onbeing.org/program/art-peace/182

What happens when people transcend violence while living in it? John Paul Lederach has spent three decades mediating peace and change in 25 countries — from Nepal to Colombia and Sierra Leone. He shifts the language and lens of the very notion of conflict resolution. He says, for example, that enduring progress takes root not with large numbers of people, but with relationships between unlikely people.

Scott-Martin Kosofsky is a book composer, typographer, and author of “The Book of Customs.” Krista Tippett spoke with him on November 2, 2004 from the studios of APM in Saint Paul, Minnesota; Mr. Kosofsky was in a studio of WGBH in Boston. This interview is included in our show “Legends To Live By.” Download the mp3 of the produced show at onbeing.org.

Could a Yiddish text from the Middle Ages serve as a guide to living now? Book composer and typographer Scott-Martin Kosofsky revives unlikely sources of “customs” for leading a modern life and marking sacred time. For Hanukkah and all the seasons upon us.

Diane Winston is the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the Annenberg School for Communication + Journalism at the University of Southern California. Krista Tippett spoke with her on November 2, 2011 from the studios of APM in Saint Paul, Minnesota; Diane Winston was in a studio at NPR West in Culver City, California. This interview is included in our show “Monsters We Love: TV’s Pop Culture Theodicy.” Download the mp3 of the produced show at onbeing.org.

Amoral zombies. Loving vampires. Righteous serial killers. And lots of God. That’s all in the new TV season — a place where great writers and actors are telling the story of our time — playfully, violently, soulfully.

More and more people in our time are disconnected from religious institutions, at least for part of their lives. Others are religious and find themselves creating a family with a spouse from another tradition or no tradition at all. And the experience of parenting tends to raise spiritual questions anew. We sense that there is a spiritual aspect to our children’s natures and wonder how to support and nurture that. The spiritual life, our guest says, begins not in abstractions, but in concrete everyday experiences. And children need our questions as much as our answers. Ellen Davis is the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at the Duke University Divinity School. Krista Tippett spoke with her on May 15, 2010 from the studios of APM in Saint Paul, Minnesota; Ellen Davis was in a studio at Duke University in Durham, NC. This interview is included in our show “Ellen Davis on The Poetry of Creatures.” See more at onbeing.org/program/poetry-creatures/117