Wonder Cabinet

Whether it’s nail biting or handwashing, most of us have a compulsion we can’t give up. Maybe that’s a good thing? The Psychology of Why You Can’t Stop Checking Your Phone; Tracing the Patterns of an Obsessive Mind; When Obsessive Thoughts Take Control Of Your Life; How Obsession and Compulsion Powered American Genius.

Poet Nick Lantz has been thinking about political spin and how his poems can play off the language of politics. 

Noah Hawley talks about turning the Coen Brothers' film, "Fargo," into a critically-acclaimed TV series

Do scientists see the world in a different way? Not really, as long as you have insatiable curiosity and a passion to experiment. The World Is Your Lab; Could a 50 Cent Microscope Change the World?; Cooking With Neil deGrasse Tyson; Freeman Dyson, at 93, Looks Back on a Legendary Career in Science.

Disgust is such a powerful emotion, and so easily evoked. A single disgusting word or image can make most anyone feel queasy, but it also turns out to be a powerful driver of human behavior, influencing everything from who you love to who you'll vote for. This hour, we're delving into the new science of revulsion. Digging Into The New Science of Revulsion; The Morality of Disgust; Fierce Food From Around the World; The Buzz Behind Edible Insects; The Case For Embracing Horror; Adventures With a Bat Biologist.

In his new poem, Fady Joudah explores questions about exile, suffering and the language of nation states.

Maybe it’s nostalgia. Maybe it’s something more. But analog is back in style. The Analog and The Digital, A Harmonious Double Life; The Unmistakable Pop and Hiss of a Good Record; The World Isn’t Perfect, And The One In Our Ears Shouldn’t Be Either; Recovering the Lossiness of “Tom’s Diner”; Could the Internet Be The World’s Greatest Piece of Collaborative Art?.

This hour, a look at the natural, artificial, and symbolic light that colors our history -- and our future.  The Heaviness of Light; Let There Be Light…On Your Brain; How the 18th Century Conquered Darkness; The New Physics of Photons; Nicholas Carr on the Art of Navigation; Art and Music in Rothko Chapel.

The former “Parks and Recreation” star has an unlikely hero: the Kentucky writer and champion of rural culture.

In this hour, we see how poetry can show us new ways to think about place and personal identity. In a “Post-Truth” Era, Should You Get Your News From Poems?; American Poetry Has Never Been So Diverse; A Young Artist Reclaims Ojibwe Language Through Hip-Hop; Setting Sandburg’s City of Broad Shoulders to Music.