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History & Society
Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.
35mins
Kmele talked with a planetary scientist, a physicist, and a futurist, to understand how visionaries across disciplines are thinking about the future of our planet and humankind.
On December 9, 2023, Halley's Comet reached aphelion: its farthest point from the Sun. As it returns, here are 10 facts you should know.
Looking back on our planet's early history offers a new (and less crazy) meaning for the idea of a "flat Earth."
From Æthelred the Unready to Halfdan the Bad Entertainer, these strange epithets colored the legacy of four rather unlucky historical figures.
For generations, physicists have been searching for a quantum theory of gravity. But what if gravity isn't actually quantum at all?
31mins
Filmmaker Godfrey Reggio, rock icon Steve Albini, and comedian Fred Armisen told Kmele how they make sense of the world — and leave their mark on it.
The first elements in the Universe formed just minutes after the Big Bang, but it took hundreds of thousands of years before atoms formed.
Today, the F-word is enjoying a renaissance the likes of which it hasn’t seen since, well, the Renaissance.
Each December, the Geminid meteor shower puts on a show for skywatchers across Earth. With a new Moon at 2023's peak, it'll be outstanding!
The volcano’s historic eruption preserved an ancient library, but rendered its content illegible. A public competition aims to change that.
43mins
Consciousness isn’t just a problem for philosophers. On this episode of Dispatches, Kmele sat down with scientists, a mathematician, a spiritual leader, and an entrepreneur, all trying to get to the heart of “the feeling of life itself.”
6mins
MakeLoveNotPorn founder Cindy Gallop says women need to stop giving a damn what people think.
Unlikely Collaborators
Nearly half of all stars are born in binary systems, with the most massive ones dying the fastest. It's not pretty for the "second" star.
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring Starship's second test flight, a new "dark mysteries" telescope, and more.
Lockdowns moved the burden of COVID from the at-risk elderly to the less-at-risk young. Does this sacrifice merit compensation?
8mins
Fraud is a $5 trillion “industry.” But not all its perpetrators look alike. Kelly Richmond Pope, a professor of accounting, breaks down who commits fraud — and why.