Tooth and Claw: Wolves
We look at wolves and the programme is a little different, because the predator we’re talking about is very much a predator of our imaginations. Wolves are the spirit of…
Robot history: everything you wanted to know
When did automatons first emerge? Which science-fiction depiction of robots is the most accurate? And why did so many people fall for a hoax machine called the "Mechanical Turk"? In…
Nick Cave Is Serving You Everything
One of seven brothers, Nick Cave grew up watching his family create magic out of scraps. His aunts would cut paper bags into patterns, and in just one day, make…
Why kids can’t read (and what we can do about it), with Kate Crist – Grammar Girl Episode 1062
1062. Did you know that 21% of U.S. adults struggle with basic literacy? In this eye-opening episode, literacy specialist Kate Crist talks about the literacy crisis in America, how reading…
A Beetle By Any Other Name
A tiny, unremarkable beetle hiding in the caves of Slovenia has an infamously unfortunate name—one that has sparked heated debates in the scientific world.
Poison and Poisonability
When we think of serial killers, we tend to think of men—Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jack the Ripper. But in the 1800s, the deadliest killers often wore corsets. In fact,…
Pokémon and The Art of Dubbing Anime
This week’s episode comes from our Patreon podcast Between Imaginary Worlds. It’s a more casual chat show that appears between ad-free episodes of Imaginary Worlds for listeners who support the…
Frieda Belinfante
When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940, 36-year-old conductor Frieda Belinfante disbanded her orchestra and dedicated herself to helping others. She forged IDs to save Jews from deportation and…
The Brutalists
A film about a struggling architect, a style the world loves to hate—The Brutalist and Brutalism itself share more than just a name. Is it bold vision or concrete failure?