What compels someone to commit acts of terror? Anthropologist Scott Atran has spent a decade talking with jailed suicide bombers and jihadist leaders. He says they're motivated by core human values: brotherhood, loyalty and the dream of a better world.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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Biologist Steven Austad is so confident human beings will soon live to be 150 years old that he’s bet on it with a colleague: Jay Olshansky, who says we’re already living way past our expiration date!
Warren MacDonald lost both of his legs above the knee in a climbing accident. He refused to be defeated by the news and devoted himself to designing new prosthetic devices.
The idea of a universal basic income is getting serious consideration these days from governments -- in Switzerland, Finland, even Kenya. Could it get traction in the U.S.? Absolutely, says journalist Rutger Bregman.
Susan Friedman tells Anne Strainchamps about her friendship, initiated and maintained via e-mail over the internet, with a young woman scholar in Iraq.
Frank Schaeffer grew up in a Swiss Evangelical commune, the son of a fundamentalist theologian. He and his father helped found the Religious Right and were part of its power structure for many years, Then Schaeffer recanted. Today he's a liberal democrat who describes himself as "an atheist who believes in God." He outlines his disenchantment with Evangelical politics.
Since her creation in 1941, Wonder Woman has become one of the most popular superheroes of all time, as well as an beloved icon of second-wave feminism. It also turns out she has a fascinating origin story that intersects with the Women's movement of the early 20th century, the lie detector, and even involves the founders of Planned Parenthood. Historian Jill Lepore tells Steve Paulson about these connections, and talks about Wonder Woman's eccentric creator.
Seymour Hersh broke the My Lai massacre story during the Vietnam War and he was among the first to document the extent of the abuses and the cover-up at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
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