Each week, public radio's award-winning Humankind podcast presents stories of hope and humanity.
07/17/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Renewables
Scientists define renewable energy as sources that are easily replenished—like the sunlight that will reliably appear tomorrow at dawn (even if temporarily hidden behind clouds) or the wind that will resume blowing soon enough. Or even biomass like wood, which is commonly used to heat stoves in poorer nations. Or geothermal energy, a source of intense heat buried beneath the earth’s surface. But fossil fuels—like oil, coal and natural gas—come literally from fossils, which may have taken hundreds of millions of years to develop and cannot be replaced anytime soon. Experts in climate change advocate greater use of renewables because their global-warming carbon emissions are dramatically lower than fossil fuels. Nuclear energy has a lower carbon footprint but comes at a high economic cost and considerable dangers to public safety. In this episode of Humankind, we examine the massive shift to greater use of climate-friendly, low-carbon renewable energy, which has gained considerable momentum in recent years. Bill Moomaw, one of the world’s top climate scientists, explains dramatic trends in adoption of renewables; Green Mountain Power CEO Mary Powell tells how an electricity provider in Vermont is trying to facilitate this change; and John Dillon, Vermont Public Radio news director, describes that state’s approach to promoting greater use of renewables, including the limitations of doing so. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
07/11/2025
Podcast Episode: Beyond War, Waging Peace Pt 1
How fully do we exhaust peaceful options before resorting to military action? When has nonviolence been effective and when has it been dangerous? What makes a just war “just”—or do no ends justify large-scale killing of human beings? What are the social, moral and spiritual values held by pacifists and conscientious objectors? Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
07/10/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Caring for People at the End of Life
At the end of life, when most people need medical care and emotional comfort, some turn also to chaplains for spiritual support. This episode includes the stories of two chaplains located in Massachusetts: Nancy Small, a Catholic oblate near Worcester; and Rev. Beth Loomis, Director of Pastoral Care and a United Church of Christ minister, based at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. These two chaplains tell their experiences of comforting people as they try to make sense of the kaleidoscope of their life experiences, including joys and regrets. Listeners also hear the candid reflections of a dying patient, Brian Noone, recorded with his devoted wife Rosalie by his side. We also listen to a beautiful rendition of "Blessed Quietness", a hymn sung by the Hallowell Singers, a Vermont-based chorus that performs in the rooms where hospice patients stay. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
07/03/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: An Informed Republic Pt 1
America’s founders recognized that without a king, the fledgling nation would need an informed citizenry—or their bold experiment in democracy would fail. So in early America, the government subsidized newspapers, established the postal system to facilitate information flow and drew up plans for public education. But now in the digital age, does the demise of newspapers threaten citizens’ access to quality journalistic information? Does remarkably low civic knowledge by average Americans weaken the fabric of democracy? Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
07/01/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Wrongful Convictions
Imagine that you have been convicted of a heinous crime that you did not commit and that you are in prison with a life sentence. Your own freedom has been taken away. Then imagine that your conviction is overturned and you are set free. In this clip, hear journalist Rob Warden, director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, speak of his mentality in regard to cases where he helped to set people free. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
06/26/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Freeing the Innocent with Rob Warden
Imagine that you have been convicted of a heinous crime that you did not commit and that you are in prison with a life sentence. Your own freedom has been taken away. Then imagine that your conviction is overturned and you are set free. Journalist Rob Warden, director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, speaks of cases where he helped to set people free. Warden reveals the drama, intrigue, and oftentimes corruption that lie behind a wrongful conviction. Hear from Freddie Pitts, wrongfully convicted of murder, who was set free after the real perpetrator confessed. Listen to Sonia Jacobs, who was also wrongfully convicted of murder, released after a filmmaker identified enough holes in the case to overturn her conviction. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
06/24/2025
Podcast Episode: The Lost Art of Healing with Bernard Lown
In this stirring episode of Humankind, Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Bernard Lown expounds on the state of medicine in America. Deploring the paths that mainstream medicine has taken in both patient care and professionalism, Lown offers his vision of the art of doctoring and what constitutes a physician‘s responsibility to heal. The dramatic accounts of real-life people and problems throughout his 50-year career will move you and his wisdom will stimulate reflection. Don't miss this important conversation with a profound individual. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
06/19/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: The Lost Art of Healing with Bernard Lown
In this stirring episode of Humankind, Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Bernard Lown expounds on the state of medicine in America. Deploring the paths that mainstream medicine has taken in both patient care and professionalism, Lown offers his vision of the art of doctoring and what constitutes a physician‘s responsibility to heal. The dramatic accounts of real-life people and problems throughout his 50-year career will move you and his wisdom will stimulate reflection. Don't miss this important conversation with a profound individual. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
06/17/2025
Podcast Episode: Steps to Recovery Pt 2
AA members gather at an estimated 65,000 meetings in North America each week to tell their stories and offer hope. It creates a safe zone that helps them get better. Founded in Akron, Ohio, it has spread to 180 countries – all free of charge. This two-part audio documentary explores the history of AA’s founding, including excerpts from films and a play reconstructing the events. In this clip, hear from an anonymous AA member about their journey. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
06/13/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Steps to Recovery Pt 1
4 in 10 American adults have a family member who wrestles with alcohol problems. It all started when two broken drunkards, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, "hit bottom" in the Great Depression, just as the nation did. Their solution has helped millions of fellow-sufferers. As AA turns 90, hear Professor Keith Humphreys discuss the power of AA. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
06/13/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Steps to Recovery Pt 2
In the middle of the Great Depression two broken men, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith—both “raging alcoholics”—met at a time of great personal crisis for each. Bill had maintained a fragile abstinence from drinking for a few months but felt suddenly at risk of relapse while on a disappointing business trip. His “epiphany” was that only by reaching out to help another alcoholic could he safeguard his own sobriety. The man he contacted (through a concerned friend), Dr. Bob, was, at that moment, drunk and had passed out under the dining room table. Their actual first meeting, the following day, would give birth to Alcoholics Anonymous, a remarkable service organization that has helped the lives of tens of millions of alcoholics. AA’s basic text, known informally as “The Big Book”, has sold more 35 million copies in English alone. This two-part audio documentary from the public radio series Humankind explores the history of AA’s founding, including excerpts from films and a play reconstructing the events. We cover the development of the Twelve Steps of recovery, which laid out how people trapped in addiction can find a way out. And we chronicle the astounding growth of AA into a worldwide fellowship. Bill Wilson passed away in 1971. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
06/10/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Steps to Recovery Pt 1
In the middle of the Great Depression two broken men, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith—both “raging alcoholics”—met at a time of great personal crisis for each. Bill had maintained a fragile abstinence from drinking for a few months but felt suddenly at risk of relapse while on a disappointing business trip. His “epiphany” was that only by reaching out to help another alcoholic could he safeguard his own sobriety. The man he contacted (through a concerned friend), Dr. Bob, was, at that moment, drunk and had passed out under the dining room table. Their actual first meeting, the following day, would give birth to Alcoholics Anonymous, a remarkable service organization that has helped the lives of tens of millions of alcoholics. AA’s basic text, known informally as “The Big Book”, has sold more 35 million copies in English alone. This two-part audio documentary from the public radio series Humankind explores the history of AA’s founding, including excerpts from films and a play reconstructing the events. We cover the development of the Twelve Steps of recovery, which laid out how people trapped in addiction can find a way out. And we chronicle the astounding growth of AA into a worldwide fellowship. Bill Wilson passed away in 1971. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
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Human Media views the exciting, evolving apparatus of mass communications as an unprecedented opportunity for public service that can help to build a more cohesive sense of community. Our vision of community is based on personal ideals and values, such as compassion, service, generosity, equality and civility. We aim to serve the large and growing audience of people who seek a positive alternative to media negativity and exploitation. Human Media attempts to address — and call forth — the highest part of people. We strive to shed light on solutions, not just problems. And we celebrate the human voice, in all its wonderfully diverse forms — a birthright unique to each person.
There are now many forces bent on thwarting efforts to enlighten and to reveal our essential human inter-connectedness. Those forces will eventually fail, if we stay true to this vision; for in the end, the forces of good always outweigh the others.
Below are a couple of quotes I find inspiring about about mass media. The first is a translation from Latin of an inscription in the foyer of the British Broadcasting House in London:
“This Temple of the Arts and Muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors of Broadcasting in the year 1931, Sir John Barth being Director General. It is their prayer that good seed sown may bring forth a good harvest, that all things hostile to peace or purity may be banished from this house, and that the people, inclining their ear to whatsoever things are beautiful and honest and of good report, may tread the path of wisdom and uprightness.”
Then, there is this comment by visionary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in a speech, delivered in 1958, about the promise of television:
“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it’s nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.”
The same is true of public radio, and now of podcasting and other emerging media. For all the dazzling capacity and reach of technology, its ultimate effect will be determined by the human beings who use these media for good or ill.
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The Humankind series and our other public radio and podcast projects are produced by Human Media of Belmont, Massachusetts (outside Boston). David Freudberg, Executive Producer.
Special thanks to: David Cruz, Ken Rogers, Miles Blackwood Robinson, Associate Producers; Brian K. Johnson, Webmaster; Cathy Graham and Tony Buck, editorial support; Antonio Oliart, Doug Shugarts, Noel Flatt and Steve Colby, recording engineers.
Human Media (Far Reaching Communications Inc.) is a small, independent production house which performs public broadcasting production and distribution activities in association with WGBH/Boston, NPR, the BTS Center, and Connie Goldman Productions.
Our nonprofit affiliate, Documentary Educational Resources, is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization based in Watertown, Massachusetts. Founded in 1968, DER has a distinguished history of film production and distribution, and has recently expanded to encompass public radio and podcasting.
