Several chaplains reflect in-depth on the experience of connecting with people who are facing challenges related to mental health, addiction and homelessness. We hear from a social worker, Larry Clum, who explores what it means to companion homeless people without an intent to “fix” their problem. To see additional resources and our other programs, please […]

Sharon Salzberg, an author and teacher of Buddhist meditation, describes the technique of “lovingkindness,” a way of seeing others and relating to oneself that allows the practitioner to get past resentments and have a clearer view of reality. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and […]

What was the carbon footprint of your dinner last night? Physician Walter Willett, who served as the long-time Nutrition Dept. chair at Harvard, describes the benefits of eco-friendly eating to your health and to the environment. And you’ll meet Olivia Calkins, Liam Reardon and Genesis Butler, youth activists for a “thriving planet”. To see additional resources and our other programs, […]

Agriculture is a huge emitter of greenhouse gases associated with climate change. This is an important emerging topic as Americans grapple with record-breaking heatwaves, drenching rains, coastal flooding, prolonged droughts, sprawling wildfires and other weather extremes as “the face of global warming”. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are […]

Rev. Chris Antal, a Unitarian Universalist minister, was drawn to service in response to the attacks of 9/11. He entered military chaplaincy partially as a way to help soldiers who are prone to harming themselves in the wake of war. In this profile, Rev. Antal also explores how he was drawn to faith-based engagement with […]

Austrian-born author and Benedictine Brother David Steindl-Rast, recorded at his monastery near Corning, NY, believes that acquiring an attitude of “gratefulness” can calm the mind and give life a simple joy. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

This documentary explores the transition of a young mother from addiction treatment to a clean and sober life, with the help of a family mentoring program known as “shared family care.” To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

Rev. Sally Bingham of San Francisco, lay organizer Steve MacAusland of Boston and members of a concerned church discuss the movement for a religious response to climate change that has spread to more than 4,000 U.S. congregations. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX […]

Nationwide, even with more people covered through the Affordable Care Act, nearly 28 million Americans remain without medical coverage. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

In this documentary, we ask why it is that the wealthiest Americans live as many as fifteen years longer than the poorest. It’s a troubling question at a time when income inequality has reached levels not seen since the run up to the Great Depression. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . […]

The author of “Taking Back Childhood,” education professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige, examines the impact on kids of media violence, overly structured school days and a culture that preaches rampant consumerism. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

In this documentary we explore how federal courts enforced fugitive slave laws. Historians, actors and legal scholars re-create the famous case of a young escaped slave who was sent back by a Boston judge, provoking America’s largest abolitionist protest. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR […]

After a court declared his murder conviction a miscarriage of justice, Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter has been a tireless advocate for other wrongly-convicted inmates who face an uphill battle behind bars, in a nation that imprisons more people than any other. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on […]

As dramatized in a Bob Dylan song and ‘The Hurricane’ starring Denzel Washington, ex-prize fighter Rubin Carter tells how he was wrongly convicted of a triple homicide and ultimately exonerated by a federal judge, and trained his mind in prison to transcend hatred. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials […]

The moving tale of the late Mae Bertha Carter, a sharecropper who raised thirteen children and also stood firm—against harassment—in her quest to integrate public schools in Sunflower County, Mississippi. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

We remember Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hahn, a best-selling author, Zen master and peacemaker, who taught part-time in the U.S. In this interview, he described lessons he learned about peacemaking that resulted from the Vietnam war. Hanh died in 2022 at age 95. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials […]

We explore the bitter legacy of racial division left over from the Civil War and how it’s still affecting American life today. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

Bay Area author and psychiatrist Jean Shinoda Bolen explores the connection between a person’s emotional state affects their physical health, and how “moments of truth” may be revealed when facing dire illness. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH […]

Are we still living with the racial divide left over from the Civil War? This provocative audio documentary explores the history of a conflict that nearly tore America apart. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

Announced as a winner of the prestigious MacArthur “genius” awards, colorful Rueben Martinez launched a literacy campaign from his small barber shop outside Los Angeles. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

A conversation with Bradley University Prof. Robert Fuller who has studied a large sector of Americans who regard themselves as spiritually inclined, but who do not affiliate with organized religion. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

Listen to these extraordinary excerpts from Humankind: how victims overcome hatred, the triumph of a child with disabilities, how a fractured family experienced healing, and more. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

Over a century later, we recall the remarkable Christmas Truce that spontaneously occurred — contrary to orders — among opposing troops in the frozen WWI battlefield of Flanders, Belgium. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are  heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, in association with GBH Boston.

To the astonishment of publishers, Jalaluddin Rumi has become the best-selling poet in America. Rumi’s sensational popularity is notable not only because of its content—an intoxicated, rapturous love letter to the divine—but also because his mystical poems were written in Persian in the 13th century. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . […]