Wonder Cabinet

Reading books isn't always the best way to learn. Some things you need to learn from your elders, and their wisdom has often been passed down through the generations. We celebrate traditional ways of knowing - from the Potawatomi knowledge of the plant world to the Norwegian folk wisdom of how to chop and burn wood. Also, a plea for Africans to reclaim their local knowledge. How to Chop, Stack and Burn Wood; Hmong Knives; Talking to Plants; BookMark: Philip Glass Recommends "The Wayfinders" by Wade Davis; The Eternal Moment; Reclaiming Africa.

In this hour, we explore our attention economy. How does it feel to be subjected to an endless onslaught of information, clickbait and ads competing for our attention? And how does it feel to know that the commodity everyone wants is inside your skull? Addicted to Adderall; The Attention Merchants are Getting Inside Your Head; We're Short-Circuiting Our Attentiveness; Why Wasting Time on the Internet is Time Well Spent; The Secret History of the World's Most Popular Video Game.

 After one of the ugliest and most divisive presidential races in history -- can America heal? Weeks of vitriolic campaign rhetoric have taken a toll on friends and families. A majority of voters are disgusted with politics and don’t believe the next president will be able to unite the country. So where do we go from here? This hour, a look at reconciliation -- how to recover personal and political harmony. Unfriended Over Politics; How the Founding Feuds Shaped the Nation; Liberal and Conservative Till Death Do Us Part; Esperanza Spalding on Jazz and Reconciliation; Artists and Frenemies; Thomas Kunkel on 'Here Is New York'; Jacqueline Woodson's 'Another Brooklyn'.

Walk long enough and far enough, and you will never be the same.  This week, stories of people who transformed their lives by picking up their feet, blazing trails, and going off-road. "Walking Saved My Life" - Cheryl Strayed; What Makes Werner Walk?; Grandma Gatewood's Walk; Walking England's Coast; BookMark: Michel Faber on Kurt Vonnegut's "God Bless You Mr. Rosewater"; This Year's Funniest Autobiography - John Cleese's New Memoir.

Americans head to the polls amid mounting political rhetoric, from both sides, about vote rigging and voter supression. Maybe it's time to rethink the way we do elections. In this episode, we surface some ingenious, off-the-wall, and counter-intuitive ideas about how to make voting fairer, better and more fun. You've Been Micro-Targeted; Are Americans Smart Enough To Vote? (The Answer is No); US Elections Rank Worst Among Western Democracies ; Pay To Vote? How Markets Could Fix Democracy; Should We Let Babies Vote?; How To Make Elections Fun Again.

H.P. Lovecraft's weird tales of cosmic horror loom large 125 years after his birth. His literary tentatcles have oozed their way into movies, books, games and graphic novels. We explore Lovecraft's life, work and legacy.  Was he a literary master or a monster? The Magickal Realism and Continuing Influence of H.P. Lovecraft; The Ecology of Noise in Lovecraft's Fiction; Eugene Thacker Goes "From Beyond"; H.P. Lovecraft's Racism; The Call of Cthulhu (for Beginning Readers); Going Beyond Lovecraft: Thomas Ligotti.

Are we living in a Golden Age of Narcissism? The Narcissist Next Door - Jeffrey Kluger; The Americanization of Narcissism - Elizabeth Lunbeck; Unworthy: How to Stop Hating Yourself - Anneli Rufus; Dangerous Idea: We Matter; On Our Minds: Sam Harris.

Eric Liu is on a campaign to make voting fun again and to restore the power of the people

Who Owns Water? Water is for Fighting Over; A Basketball Star Heads to Standing Rock; What Is Water?; Terry Tempest Williams on the novel Tracks by Louise Erdrich; The Massacre at Wounded Knee - 10 Years Later; An Anishinaabe Poem and Creation Story.

Why not better-abled? Superpowers - Aimee Mullins; Asking for Help - Haddayr Copley-Woods; Touching Sound - Evelyn Glennie; The Problem With Men's Locker Rooms and Women's Restrooms.