Each week, public radio's award-winning Humankind podcast presents stories of hope and humanity.
09/03/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Unintended Consequences
The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence estimates that in the United States more than half of all adults have a family history of alcoholism or problem drinking, and over seven million children live in a household where at least one parent has abused alcohol. These ‘children of alcoholism’ frequently bear emotional scars. The imprint of a drunk parent—sometimes angry, sometimes neglectful—can run deep. And that childhood pain often gets played out later in adult relationships. In this episode, we hear powerful stories from four people in their teens and twenties, who were raised by alcoholics. Support groups for individuals affected by the drinking of others have operated in many communities for more than sixty years. Attendance is free at Al-Anon (for adults, it was established by a woman known as Lois W., whose husband founded AA), and at Alateen, its program for teenagers who’ve been raised in a home where alcoholism is present. Participants share their struggles, gain support from the experience and wisdom of others, and learn time-tested principles for how to handle this common problem. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org #
09/03/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Parenting as a Path
With her social worker husband Tom, author Eileen Flanagan has raised two healthy, energized teenagers at their home in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. And for Eileen, bringing up a family has offered her a rich fount of life lessons about patience, knowing when to let go, and just appreciating the wonder and mystery of children. As a Quaker, she looks for the role of a divine higher power in orchestrating these experiences and providing endless opportunities to learn and develop her own spiritual journey. She wrote a powerful essay about the lessons entitled God Raising Us. In this episode, Eileen discusses her perceptions of the spirituality of parenting as well as reflections on the Serenity Prayer, on which she wrote the book, The Wisdom to Know the Difference. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
08/22/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Pastoral Services to Members of the Military
In this episode, we explore the duties and challenges of military chaplains from two nations: Britain and Canada. This clip features Ian Wheatley, recorded at the Defence Ministry in Westminster, London, who served as Chaplain of the Fleet of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Sailors bring to chaplains concerns regarding family back home, as well as moral questions about warfare. We hear how seamen and women have wrestled with humanitarian problems like the Middle Eastern migrant crisis that spilled into Europe, sometimes with tragic results. In such circumstances, understandable questions about truth and God often arise. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
08/21/2025
Podcast Episode: Seeds of Peace
In this episode, hear about the Seeds of Peace summer camp on a glistening lake in Otisfield, Maine. Since the camp was launched in 1993, more than 6,000 teenagers from conflict regions around the globe have come for about a month of refuge. In this clip, hear one of the counselors discuss the power of the camp. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
08/12/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Seeds of Peace
In this episode, hear about the Seeds of Peace summer camp on a glistening lake in Otisfield, Maine. Since the camp was launched in 1993, more than 6,000 teenagers from conflict regions around the globe have come for about a month of refuge. Their homes are in places like the Middle East and South Asia. Usually it’s their first encounter with someone from “the other side” of bitter religious, ethnic, or national discord. Here they meet, talk, eat, play sports, and sing together, living in integrated bunks. They discover that people who've been demonized are not monsters — just other kids trying to make their way in a confusing world. We hear the diverse voices and accents of campers, who are known as the Seeds. They are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Christian, agnostic, etc. and are invited into interfaith dialogue. They are disturbed by violence, especially when claimed to be perpetrated on “religious” grounds. They feel they are up against a wall of misinformation disseminated by media in one country against the people of another. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
08/05/2025
Podcast Episode: Public Radio in Democracy
Public radio visionary Bill Siemering wrote the original NPR mission statement in 1970 and became its first director of programming. He discusses the ideals of democracy for which public radio strives. We hear archival audio of NPR’s first day on the air. Bill also talks about his more recent activities of developing community radio services in developing nations as a way to give people a voice and to heal conflict. His work in Burundi, Kosovo, Mongolia, and Sierra Leone has helped develop a degree of understanding among warring factions. These groups now have an opportunity to gain insight and abolish prejudice by hearing different perspectives on the same issues. His knowledge gained from founding NPR has helped Bill to facilitate citizen participation and the spread of valuable information to some of the most rural and impoverished areas of the world. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
08/05/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: Aging Gracefully
How does one’s diet today affect potential illness in old age? What is the secret behind the remarkable longevity of residents of Okinawan, Japan? What are the health-giving benefits of social connectedness? What are the components of a healthy attitude for people to develop around aging? The human survival instinct prods us to outlast afflictions and, if circumstances permit, to reach old age. Nothing, of course, could be more quintessentially natural than aging. Physician Andrew Weil gives his views on healthy longevity in which older people come to accept the challenges and discover the rewards of aging. We also take a look at Okinawa — home to the highest percentage on Earth of people who live to be 100. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
08/01/2025
Podcast Episode: The Science of Gratitude
In this clip, hear author Catherine Price, who has battled her own cynicism to find gratitude. Although it is often a spontaneous impulse, feeling grateful is also a complex phenomenon that plays a critical role in human happiness. But it can require a conscious choice, for which positive psychologists have devised concrete exercises, such as maintaining a gratitude journal and stopping to savor wonderful things in everyday life. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
07/25/2025
Podcast Episode: Renewables
We examine the massive shift to greater use of climate-friendly, low-carbon renewable energy, which has gained considerable momentum in recent years. In this clip, hear Bill Moomaw, one of the world’s top climate scientists, explain dramatic trends in adoption of renewables. Listen now at humankindpodcast.org
07/24/2025
🎙️ New Podcast Episode: The Science of Gratitude
Gratitude has been called “the most pleasant of virtues and the most virtuous of pleasures.” As the blinders of pessimism are lifted, new possibilities come into view. Now, psychologists are uncovering many benefits from the systematic cultivation of gratitude, from emotional well-being to enhanced physical health. This program features author Catherine Price, who has battled her own cynicism to find gratitude, and Prof. Robert Emmons, a Univ. of California Davis, professor of positive psychology and author of “Thanks.” Although it is often a spontaneous impulse, feeling grateful is also a complex phenomenon that plays a critical role in human happiness. But it can require a conscious choice, for which positive psychologists have devised concrete exercises, such as maintaining a gratitude journal and stopping to savor wonderful things in everyday life. 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.
