The bond we share with dogs runs deep. The satisfaction of gentle head scratches or a round of playing fetch is simple and pure, but in other ways, the connection we have is truly unknowable. How do dogs make our lives better? How do they think? And how do we give them the lives they deserve?

Original Air Date: February 05, 2022

Interviews In This Hour:

Adventure, goofiness and trail snacks: Stories from the dog musher's journal — Getting inside the mind of a dog — Nothing makes losing a dog easy. But a bridge dog can help. — Joy and peace, high up on Dog Mountain

Guests:

Blair Braverman, Quince Mountain, Donna Haraway, Sarah Miller

Further Reading:

Pet Loss Resource Center: Resources for animal loss and grief

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Today we're bringing you a conversation from "Kelly Corrigan Wonders." As a podcaster, Kelly is a kindred spirit – curious, genuine, caring — and this conversation is from a series about one of TTBOOK’s own core values – intellectual humility.  It’s about the magic that happens when we stop trying to be right all the time.

In this episode, Kelly talks with researcher and academic Daryl Van Tongeren about how we come to conclusions and what, if anything, can interrupt the creation of overconfident, under-researched, ironclad, and divisive by nature convictions.

Daryl teaches at Hope College in Michigan and researches the social motivation for meaning and its relation to virtues and morals.

In the world of internet influencers and YouTube stars, it’s not enough to be ordinary anymore. You need to be special. But where did this craze for personal branding come from? Why are we so obsessed with ourselves? To understand this cult of the self, we need to go back to 19th century spiritual movements and the rise of the huckster — and also the myth of rugged individualism. But if we’re always shouting “Me me me,” what are we losing? What has it cost us?

Original Air Date: February 03, 2024

Interviews In This Hour:

If nobody sees you online, do you exist? — How personal branding became an American religion — Why rugged individualism is a dangerous myth — The philosophers who invented the modern self

Guests:

Angelo Bautista, Tara Isabella Burton, Alissa Quart, Andrea Wulf

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We all need a good fantasy world to retreat to sometimes – whether it's Hogwarts or Middle Earth, Westeros or Wakanda. But magical thinking can be dangerous too. And escapism isn't always innocent. So where do you draw the line between fantasy and reality?

Original Air Date: September 17, 2022

Interviews In This Hour:

Why not escape into fantasy? A tale of Disney adults — The magical thinkers, the dreamers, and the hucksters of America's fantasyland — Neil Gaiman on where dreams — and nightmares — come from

Guests:

Sarah Rachul, Marianne Eloise, Kurt Andersen, Neil Gaiman

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2019 was an important year throughout the African diaspora — the 400th year since enslaved Africans first arrived in the United States. In Ghana — once the center of the European slave trade — 2019 was declared "the year of return" and the start of a campaign to encourage descendants of enslaved Africans to re-connect with the land of their ancestors. Thousands of African-Americans made the trip to Ghana — and many have decided to stay. They're fed up with police brutality and systemic racism in the US, ready to build new lives in Africa — and their number is growing.

Original Air Date: September 03, 2022

Interviews In This Hour:

‘This is where I should be’: 1,500 Black Americans make Ghana their new home — The land of your ancestors — Should Africans move to America? — A Black friendship

Guests:

Robert Hanserd, Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman, Prince Marfo, Ato Quayson, Emmanuel Kofi Apraku Bempong

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Rooted in reality, written with a keen observer’s eye, and shaped with a sense of song, documentary poetry tells the truth in an artist’s voice. For generations, through wars, crisis, and political upheaval, documentary poets have helped make sense of some of our most difficult moments – by expressing what might otherwise be impossible to say. So what are they writing about today?

This episode was produced in partnership with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Original Air Date: January 13, 2024

Interviews In This Hour:

The gospel of Suncere Ali Shakur — This is how I drew you — The poetry that bears witness to the everyday

Guests:

Philip Metres, Suncere Ali Shakur, Kaia Sand, Camille Dungy

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When you’re on the clock, you’re always running out of time – because in our culture, time is money. The relentless countdown is making us and the planet sick. But clock time isn’t the only kind. There are older, deeper rhythms of time that sustain life. What would it be like to live more in tune with nature’s clocks?

Original Air Date: June 03, 2023

Interviews In This Hour:

How time came to rule our lives — and how we might free ourselves — The past and future of keeping time

Guests:

Jenny Odell, David Rooney

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Categories:

You're not even out of bed and you're already worrying. So let's talk about it: How anxious we are, how we got that way, and what to do about it.

Original Air Date: March 25, 2023

Interviews In This Hour:

Patricia Pearson on A History of Anxiety — To Waste Time Is To Deepen Life — Treating Anxiety With Horror Films — Natalie Merchant on 'Leave Your Sleep' — Robert Rand on Healing Through Zydeco

Guests:

Patricia Pearson, Richard Polt, Eliza Smith, Natalie Merchant, Robert Rand

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Do you ever feel like there’s something missing in your life? You don’t know exactly what it is. And there’s never enough time to really think about it. You might get a glimpse of it if you slow down, or look deeply at something (or someone), or remember some childhood joy. What if that thing you’re missing is a sense of wonder?

Original Air Date: March 18, 2023

Interviews In This Hour:

A sense of wonder through the eyes — and ears — of a child — What goosebumps, tears and grief can teach us about being awestruck — Finding sacred meaning through poetry

Guests:

Lulu Miller, Dacher Keltner, Jennifer Michael Hecht

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For all the talk about how psychedelics might transform psychiatric care, there's still a fascinating question at the heart of psychedelic science. Is it the mind-blowing experience that fundamentally changes a person’s outlook on life? Or is it the powerful molecules that rewire the brain?

Check out the full series: ttbook.org/luminous

Original Air Date: December 16, 2023

Interviews In This Hour:

Does psychedelic therapy need the trip? — Will psychedelics replace antidepressants? — Spiritual warriors in the psychedelic underground

Guests:

David Olson, Charles Raison, Rachel Harris

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