Wonder Cabinet

the best of 2016 Best of 2016: Building a Mosque in America; Best of 2016: Elif Şafak on the Pain of Living in a Polarized Culture; Best of 2016: Terry Tempest Williams on the Importance of National Parks; Best of 2016: Country Singer Brandy Clark on a Big Day in a Small Town; Best of 2016: Chuck Klosterman Thinks About the Present As If It Were the Past.

On the centennial of Shirley Jackson's birth, we explore her life and her stories and novels, which continue to resonate in our culture. A Rather Haunted Life; The Daemon Lover; My Mother, Shirley Jackson; Making My Grandmother's Story Graphic; Under the Influence of Jackson.

Are you afraid of getting old? Most people are, but studies show we're usually happier in our 60s and 70s. Aging often brings wisdom and resilience - and a new creative spark. We celebrate the fine art of aging - and hear about some artists who remade their careers late in life. Aging Artfully; Literary Genius After 60; Why People Get Happier in Old Age; It's Never Too Late to Dance; Dangerous Idea: Why We Need Outsider Writers; Daring to Offend.

You get the sense that Freeman Dyson has seen everything. He's a legendary physicist who's been friends and colleagues with the giants of 20th century physics, from Wolfgang Pauli to Richard Feynman. Now in his mid-90s, he's had a front row seat on scientific breakthroughs for the past century. He's also not shy about making sweeping pronouncements - whether on the archaic rules for getting a PhD or the pitfalls of Big Science. In this extended interview, Dyson tells Steve Paulson about his own remarkable life in science.

Fifty to ninety percent of the world's languages are predicted to disappear in the next century.  And because language is the DNA of culture, a lost language is a lost culture.  Today, a look at efforts to save endangered languages before they go extinct. Language Warriors - David Harrison; Yung Yiddish - Danna Harman; The Word Exchange - Alena Graedon; The Hippie Doctor.

Today, Larry Brilliant is a doctor and global health expert. But back in the Sixties, he was a hippie doctor who joined Wavy Gravy's traveling bus caravan and then landed in an Indian ashram in the Himalayas, where his guru told him his destiny was to help cure smallpox. Miraculously, his U.N. team of doctors eradicated the world's remaining cases of this terrible disease. In this extended interview, he tells Steve Paulson about a remarkable moment in history when anything seemed possible.

There's a new kind of music packing nightclubs with young fans. It's jazz - but not the sound of your grandparents' supper club. Infused with hip hop and other popular musical forms, jazz is being remade. We talk with some of today's biggest and most innovative jazz stars, including Esperanza Spalding and Vijay Iyer, and explore the magic of improvisation. Ecstatic Rhythm; Leroi Jones' "Blues People"; Esperanza Spalding's "Good Lava"; Tord Gustavsen Recommends a Norwegian Jazz Classic; What Is Music?.

Our planet is facing a mass extinction crisis. By the end of the century, we could lose up to half of all living species. But people are working hard to save endangered species and habitats, and a few scientists are even trying to bring lost species - like passenger pigeons and woolly mammoths - back to life. How To Clone a Mammoth - Beth Shapiro; Are You Ready for the Next Mass Extinction?; Recording America's Rarest Bird; From the Sabertooth to the Grizzly; Dangerous Idea: Tax Water Use; Writing the American West.

the hip hop future For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood; Hip Hop as Diplomacy. Hip Hop as Journalism.; We Gon' Be Alright; Winner of the 2016 National Book Award.

There's a lot of handwringing these days about the American Empire. Is it doomed to come crashing down the way the Roman Empire did? We'll find some unexpected lessons from Ancient Rome and even earlier, the collapse of Bronze Age civilization. We also celebrate the wisdom of the ancient classics, and hear how one philosopher teaches Plato to Palestinian students. "Every Empire Eventually Falls"; Dangerous Idea: Latin Can Save Your Life; When Civilization Collapsed; Reclaiming Ancient Virtues; Plato in Palestine.