Each week, public radio's award-winning Humankind podcast presents stories of hope and humanity.
04/03/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Resilient Nurses Pt 3
Part 3 asks how nurses, who are exposed to continual suffering by patients, manage to keep their hearts open and maintain compassion. Nurses describe the centrality of communication with patients and the skills of “active listening.” Nurses are regenerated by the bond of caring they build with patients in need. In a health care setting, where serious illness may be on the line, what does it mean for a provider to listen attentively? We examine this core nursing practice in several venues. First, the itinerant life of visiting nurses. They may see six patients per day—not in a hectic clinic but in the patient’s home. These nurses might spend up to an hour one-on-one, hearing out the patient, diagnosing and treating medical symptoms, learning about family relations. Host David Freudberg accompanies Amy Munankarmi, of Home Health VNA on Massachusetts’ North Shore, on a routine visit to an elderly patient. In a roundtable afterward, Amy and colleagues weigh in on active listening and the delicate role of supporting someone in their final weeks of life. Then, we travel to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where two nurse practitioners in the breast care center, Sherry Goldman and Sylvia Estrada, have become close friends and confidants. They discuss the sensitive task of helping patients get through the early days of a challenging diagnosis. Sometimes, the most human response is to cry with the patient initially—so they know they are not alone. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
03/13/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Remembering Anthony de Mello
The late Anthony de Mello touched millions with a spiritual message that blended a philosophy of mindfulness often associated with Buddhism, his Catholic faith in God, and cultural influences absorbed from his native India. Always with humor, he offered a bold explanation of the ways we deceive ourselves; and provided a healthy approach to finding a deeply satisfying life instead. De Mello became a Jesuit priest in his twenties, received a degree in pastoral counseling from Loyola University in Chicago, and served as director of the Sadhana Institute of Pastoral Counseling in India until his sudden death of a heart attack at age 55 in 1987. He believed we spend most of our lives sleepwalking and exhorted listeners at his highly popular retreats to “Wake up!” He is author of the spiritual classic The Way to Love among other books. In this episode of the public radio series Humankind, we present the colorful de Mello recorded at one retreat, at Fordham University in New York, shortly before his death. Also heard are comments of University of London theologian Michael Barnes, who has studied de Mello’s teaching. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
03/06/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Giving Circle
Named for the Greek Goddess of the Hearth, The Hestia Fund is an informal giving circle in Boston, where forty women members get together each month to debate where to give their charitable donations. Formed in 2000, the group explores and visits organizations that share their focus. The women commit for three years, and each gives $5,000 per year. Hear what motivated founder Susan Priem to start the fund, how the other women view their roles, and how they hope to promote social justice through fostering and supporting after-school programs–the current focus of the fund. We'll also go on a site visit to an organization they support known as MYTOWN, Multicultural Youth Tour Of What's Now. Founded in 1995, MYTOWN enables inner-city youth to conduct tours of local historical sites. This episode of Humankind offers a model for small-scale charitable giving that makes a difference. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
02/27/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Modern Wisdom
Who was Lao-Tsu and what can we learn from his philosophy? How can Lao-Tsu’s Taoist teachings help us to understand the forces at work in our lives? This episode of the public radio series Humankind ventures into the spiritual text of the Tao Te Ching, an ancient Chinese wisdom book by Lao-Tsu that has guided philosophers, poets, and legions of ordinary people since its publication some 2,500 years ago. The rich advice on leading a simpler life with greater meaning will prove to be a cool, restful drink in our frenzied and thirsting world. Stop for a minute, curl up on a chair or sofa, and meditate on this wonderfully calming and catalyzing episode of the public radio series Humankind. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
02/24/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Ida B. Wells Pt 2
Born to enslaved parents on a Mississippi plantation during the Civil War, Ida B. Wells emerged as a powerful investigative journalist. She overcame death threats and went on to publish widely in her quest to document the domestic terrorism against African Americans that came to be known as lynching. Ida Wells published the first major study of that crime, whose victims eventually numbered in the thousands. A close associate of Frederick Douglass, she helped to found the NAACP and advocated the right to vote for women and Black Americans. Hear her amazing life story in this episode of the public radio series Humankind. Among those heard: New York Times correspondent Nikole Hannah-Jones, who led the 1619 Project on the history of enslaved peoples in America; Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, which in 2018 established the first national memorial to victims of lynching; Smith College Prof. Paula Giddings, principal biographer of Ida B. Wells; David Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom and Yale historian. Includes readings from Ida B. Wells and Frederick Douglass. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
02/20/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Ida B. Wells Pt 1
Born to enslaved parents on a Mississippi plantation during the Civil War, Ida B. Wells emerged as a powerful investigative journalist. She overcame death threats and went on to publish widely in her quest to document the domestic terrorism against African Americans that came to be known as lynching. Ida Wells published the first major study of that crime, whose victims eventually numbered in the thousands. A close associate of Frederick Douglass, she helped to found the NAACP and advocated the right to vote for women and Black Americans. Hear her amazing life story in this episode of the public radio series Humankind. Among those heard: New York Times correspondent Nikole Hannah-Jones, who led the 1619 Project on the history of enslaved peoples in America; Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, which in 2018 established the first national memorial to victims of lynching; Smith College Prof. Paula Giddings, principal biographer of Ida B. Wells; David Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom and Yale historian. Includes readings from Ida B. Wells and Frederick Douglass. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
02/13/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Room to Read
On vacation in the mountains of Nepal at age thirty-five, successful Microsoft executive John Wood happened to encounter a local schoolmaster. The impoverished conditions Wood witnessed motivated him to leave his profitable career for a life of nonprofit service. He then founded Room to Read. Its goal is to establish public libraries and schools in developing nations in Asia and Africa. His book "Leaving Microsoft to Save the World" tells the inspiring story of how Wood built the group from a germ of a good idea to a viable resource that has touched — and uplifted—the lives of millions of children.
Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
02/06/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: The Green Economy
As environmental visionaries see it, the future of energy is not in greenhouse gas-emitting fuels like oil and coal—whose supply is running out—but in sustainable, non-global warming sources like wind and sun and waves from the ocean and in the enormous storehouse of heat that naturally occurs deep underground. In the coming green economy, utilizing this energy will generate a surge of new employment, while combating climate change and providing additional energy independence for the United States. This program offers a brief history of American environmental concerns and features the voices of several leading lights in the current effort to protect the planet by relying on sustainable sources of energy.
Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
02/04/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Waking Up in Jail
Nearly half of criminals released from prison are arrested again within three years. Through that revolving door, they return to a correctional system that is often overcrowded and ridden with violence. Polls show that the vast majority of citizens now favor rehabilitation services for inmates as opposed to a punishment-only system. And yet, as our prison population has swollen, rehabilitation programs have in many communities been cut back. In this dark and frightening tunnel, one beam of light emanates from Robin Casarjian, a counselor and educator based near Boston who goes into prisons to help people heal. To help break the cycle of crime and recidivism, Robin drew on her experience as a therapist. In 1988 she began volunteering with incarcerated men and women, a project that evolved into the Lionheart Foundation in Boston. Her aim is to teach troubled prisoners what she calls “emotional literacy”, the ability to read, understand and manage their feelings in a mature way. More than 50,000 copies of her book, “Houses of Healing” have been donated to inmates at 200 prisons and jails throughout the United States.
Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
01/23/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: The Lost Cause Part 2
Are we still living with the racial divide left over from the Civil War? This provocative audio documentary from the public radio series Humankind explores the history of a conflict that nearly tore America apart. Has it resurfaced in the rise of white supremacism, election denialism, the attack on Critical Race Theory, and the Confederate flags brought into the Capitol during the January 6, 2021 insurrection? You'll hear historians and a former US senator from Alabama explain the ideology that came to be known as the Lost Cause. Over a third of all white families in the South actually owned human beings. And their four million African American captives had a monetary value estimated at $126 billion in 2022 money. We learn the history of this myth and explore related media portrayals, including the film, Gone with the Wind as well as The Battle Hymn of the Republic. And we learn of recent efforts to change the names of American military bases from officers of the Confederacy to a more inclusive group of Americans who protected the United States against insurrection. And we find out how it resurfaced in response to the presidential election campaigns of 2020 and 2024. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
01/20/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: The Lost Cause Part 1
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. Has it resurfaced today in the rise of white supremacism, anti-immigrant sentiment, the attack on diversity policies, as well as the Confederate battle flags brought into the Capitol during the January 6, 2021 insurrection? You’ll hear distinguished historians and a former US senator from Alabama explain the ideology that came to be known as the Lost Cause. Over a third of all white families in the South actually owned human beings. And their four million African American captives had a monetary value estimated at $126 billion in today’s money. So the Confederacy and its hero Robert E. Lee were defending the largest financial asset in the American economy, second only to real estate. In effect, they formed a new country — although it was never recognized. In later decades, some of the Lost Cause was romanticized in popular films like Gone with the Wind and Confederate statues. But the reality was brutal. The death toll from the Civil War is now estimated at 750,000 — the equivalent today of more than 7 million soldiers lying lifeless. We listen to a stirring rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, written by the abolitionist Julia Ward Howe. And we learn how the Reconstruction amendments to the US Constitution, which briefly protected the rights of the freed people, were undone in the following years by the spread of Jim Crow segregation, as upheld by a conservative Supreme Court. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
01/16/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Bob Massie's Survival Story
Some people are so devastated by illness that they become withdrawn and even bitter. But for others, like Bob Massie, the challenge of physical ailments produces a ripening of compassion, a deep, first-hand awareness of suffering and of the need to be of service to others who suffer. Massie was born with hemophilia, a very painful disease that impairs the body’s ability to stop bleeding. A succession of blood transfusions also exposed him to HIV and hepatitis. Yet he managed to succeed academically (attending Yale Divinity School, becoming an Episcopal priest, and later earning a doctorate from Harvard Business School). In this episode, Massie tells the story of how his long battle with various illnesses sensitized him to human distress and deepened his commitment to helping people and protecting the environment we all depend upon. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
12/26/2024
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Jolie Goschalk
Take a journey with David Freudberg as he follows Julie Goschalk’s path from the child of Holocaust survivors who endured the Auschwitz concentration camp to facilitator of conversations between Jewish children of survivors and the children of N**i perpetrators. A controversial and moving tribute to the human need for reconciliation, understanding, and peace, this episode of Humankind will stir your mind and challenge your preconceptions. Many assume that some boundaries can never be crossed. But in these dialogues it became clear that people on both sides were innocent bystanders. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
12/19/2024
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Hospitality
Intensely strained by ominous prognoses or debilitating conditions, family members of the sick still must face finding affordable lodging while they maintain a bedside vigil at hospitals around the country. The Hospitality Program in Boston, MA, aims to alleviate the prohibitive costs of hotels and the impersonal glare of waiting rooms by opening up the homes of volunteers. A true example of generosity and neighborliness, this half-hour of Humankind talks to the families that have offered shelter to the struggling and a hand to those often holding on by thin threads. This episode will give you hope and optimism for the rich goodness of the stranger. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
12/12/2024
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Most people go through life internally reciting words and thoughts, frequently over and over. The vast majority of these thoughts are negative, according to studies, and this can set us up for anxiety and an unrealistic perspective. The surprising power of visualizing affirmative outcomes in life is explored by New York Times best-selling author David Allen, who finds that when people vividly picture the solutions to problems, they can reset their nervous system and remove self-imposed blockages. This program examines how concentrating on positive outcomes can dramatically alter our landscape of possibilities. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
12/05/2024
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Protecting the Public, Pt. 1
In the wake of the George Floyd murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, some law enforcement agencies are making efforts to improve their responsiveness to the local community. This is the intriguing story of how, in some venues, public safety is being expanded to include not just police and fire services but also social workers and other professionals. In this episode, we’ll ride along with unarmed “crisis responders”, a new form of public safety professional. We’ll listen to a physician who is also a part-time police officer. We’ll also meet a couple at the center of this trend in a major city — Eric Barden, the deputy police chief of Seattle and his wife Amy Barden, who leads the city’s new CARE department, which works in tandem with police. You’ll also learn how law enforcement professionals are affected by their own high-stress jobs. And we tour a 9-1-1 call center, where the staff fields nearly 900,000 emergency calls per year. What’s it like to be continuously on the receiving end of calls from people in crisis? Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
11/28/2024
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Oral Lee Brown
How does one woman pay for 23 children to go to college on a $45,000-a-year salary? What prompted her to do so? Is her extraordinary pledge to those children enough to motivate them to succeed? She calls them “my babies”—public school students she informally adopts in the roughest section of Oakland, CA. They call her “Ma,”—Mrs. Oral Lee Brown, a most remarkable community activist who, starting in 1987, promised twenty-three children (an entire first-grade class): if they study hard and graduate high school, she'll somehow scrape together the money to put them all through college. And she’s been true to her word. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
09/19/2024
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Health Care with Kindness Part 1
We visit a remarkable community health center, Northern Nevada Hopes, which takes care of 12,000 patients in Reno, many who are low-income. The CEO, Sharon Chamberlain, tells her unusual story of being formerly homeless and learning first-hand the pain that comes with being “invisible”. We include moving accounts of patients who’ve come to view the clinic as a supportive sanctuary as their lives are on the mend. You’ll also hear from health care professionals about how they prioritize kindness in interactions both with patients and with colleagues. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
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Videos
The quest for more stuff during the holidays.
Excerpt from "Reclaiming the Holidays" out now wherever you get podcasts.
#humankind #podcast
A wholesome and free alternative to expensive consumer products, give the gift of time to your loved ones this holiday season.
"Reclaiming the Holidays" out now wherever you get podcasts.
#podcast #holidays #giftideas
CLIP1.mp4
Consumerism during the holidays. Excerpt from "Reclaiming the Holidays" out now on the Humankind on Public Radio podcast.
#podcast #holidays #consumer #publicradio #npr
Self-work in prison. Hear the stories of ex-prisoners who’ve begun to heal, through the inspired work of Robin Casarjian on "Helping Prisoners to Heal", out now on the Humankind on Public Radio podcast.
Listen now wherever you get podcasts.
#humankindpod
AA’s basic text, known informally as “The Big Book”, has sold more 35 million copies in English alone. This documentary 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.
Listen now at the Humankind on Public Radio podcast!
#humankindradio #aa #alcholicsanonymous
More than a million Americans are locked in jails and prisons. Helping them recover from earlier trauma can safeguard society. Hear the stories of ex-prisoners who’ve begun to heal, through the inspired work of Robin Casarjian.
Listen now wherever you get podcasts.
#humankindpod
More than a million Americans are locked in jails and prisons. Helping them recover from earlier trauma can safeguard society. Hear the stories of ex-prisoners who’ve begun to heal, through the inspired work of Robin Casarjian.
Listen now wherever you get podcasts.
#humankindpod
In the 1980’s JoBeth Walt jumped into the water after realizing she was on fire from a boating accident. Now at a summer camp and at a hospital, she assists children who have been severely burned to come to terms with their accidents, the trauma of healing, and the self-acceptance they must find in a world that often judges by appearances. Her journey is a transformative one, and you will be as well after hearing about her recovery, her internal fight to remain faithful, and how the simple act of charity made her life so much more meaningful. This episode of Humankind is a personal look at what we do when tragedy strikes and how we can flourish in spite of it.
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.
Find "Equal Ground" wherever you get podcasts.
#humankindpod
Join us as we explore the power of attentive, compassionate listening with experts who make it their life's work. Hear stories from trauma survivors, understand the neuroscience behind connection, and learn how to truly be present in conversations.
Listeners Part 1 is out now. #humankindpod #listening
Although many people crave the break from daily work they receive upon retirement, in some cases the experience of an “endless vacation” eventually causes individuals to feel purposeless. Marc Freedman has been tracking the trend of seniors returning to the workforce to give something back to society in areas such as education, health care, and the environment.
#humankindpod
Although many people crave the break from daily work they receive upon retirement, in some cases the experience of an “endless vacation” eventually causes individuals to feel purposeless. Marc Freedman has been tracking the trend of seniors returning to the workforce to give something back to society in areas such as education, health care, and the environment.
#humankindpod
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.
☙
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.
