Wonder Cabinet

This hour, we explore the bullying epidemic, including cyberbullying and a novelist's forty-year search for his childhood bully. Finding a Bully After Forty Years; The Power of Empathy; Once a Bully, Now a Friend; Bullying: Made in America?; Julian Barnes on The Noise of Time.

Quan Barry is writing a new poem each week in response to current events.  And she’s invited other poets to join in. 

Wherever you turn, it seems like someone’s angry -- on Facebook and cable news, in street marches and congressional town halls. It would seem that we’ve entered a new era of increased hostility. But how did we, as a nation, get here? Is it possible we’re addicted to outrage? This hour, we explore the advantages and perils of getting mad as hell. A Lovely Day For A Tea Party; Want To Be More Understanding? Get Angry; How 18th Century Philosophers Created Our Age of Anger; The Fury And The Calm of Harvey Milk’s Memory; Addicted to Indignation; Michael Eric Dyson's Message to White America: Get Angry.

It used to be easy to get lost in a good book, but now lots of people say reading is boring. Scientists say all that skimming and surfing on electronic screens is actually rewiring our brains. So we examine the new science of reading, and meet celebrated New Yorker book critic James Wood. Also, Jordanian scientist Rana Dajani tells the remarkable story of how she started a reading program for kids at her local mosque, which has spread to hundreds of libraries across the Middle East. And Princeton historian Tony Grafton uncovers the history of reading by looking in the margins of books. Why it's Hard to Read in the Electronic Age; What Makes a Good Book Critic?; Teaching Kids to Love Books in the Middle East; Reading History from the Margins; BookMark: Sarah Bakewell Recommends "The Pillow Book"; Mixing India and America.

Every time this medical student gets harassed online, she writes a new Wikipedia bio of a female scientist.

As the Zika virus continues to make headlines, consensus is slowly growing among scientists that it’s showdown time for the mosquito.  Time to marshal the technology to wipe them off the face of the earth.  Which seems pretty extreme.  Doesn’t it? So, should we bio-engineer mosquitoes out of existence?   Remember, it’s not just about making picnics more pleasant… it’s about Zika, malaria, dengue – human lives. Mosquitoes.  Should they live, or die? Kill 'em All! ; E.O. Wilson Argues for Certain Mosquito Species Destruction; Playing Music with Mosquitoes; Mosquitoes and Poverty; Fear and Loathing in Mosquito-Land.

We talk to two experts —Chuck Pezeshski and Indi Young— who think about the role empathy can play in tackling massive design and engineering problems.

When suicide bombers blow up crowded marketplaces, or a lone shooter attacks a nightclub, one question we’re always left with is why. What ideology or belief or loyalty would compel someone to do something so horrific? This hour, a look at the underlying psychology of political violence. The Reformed Radical; The Psychology of Terrorism; What Can Americans Learn from a Norwegian Massacre?; Let's Change the Way We Think About Thinking; The Buddhist Master Who Went On A Four Year Wandering Retreat.

In this hour, we rethink work -- from the four-hour workweek to why our economy values growth at the expense of prosperity. How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity; The Six-Hour Workday; Starting Over at a Start-Up; Dangerous Idea: Universal Basic Income; The Case for a Universal Basic Income; A Hotel Built on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs .