Humankind on Public Radio
Weekly podcast from public radio’s award-winning program Humankind
Episodes
November 27, 2025 • 29 mins
Haley House was established in 1966 to shelter and serve unhoused people in Boston. Co-founder Kathy McKenna reflects on the line between helping people in need and becoming an “enabler” of people who don’t want to improve. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and […]
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November 20, 2025 • 28 mins
Helen Keller—subject of this audio biography—surmounted both deafness and blindness by learning to communicate with great eloquence, and became an unlikely world superstar. 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.
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November 13, 2025 • 29 mins
Aiming to “transform the pain of grief into the elixir of hope,” a group called The Compassionate Friends, with more than 600 U.S. chapters, brings together parents who’ve suffered the loss of a child, to help them sort through complicated emotions among kindred spirits. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind […]
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November 6, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode we visit William J Ostiguy High School. It is a learning facility designed to help kids with a history of substance abuse—who support each other in their quest to remain clean and sober. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, […]
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October 30, 2025 • 29 mins
Harvard Medical School Professor Herbert Benson, MD pioneering work on the Relaxation Response has helped millions of people learn a simple meditative technique to reduce the harmful effects of stress. 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.
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October 27, 2025 • 31 mins
We profile Raphael Warnock, US senator from Georgia and also the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta — the congregation once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. What sustains your faith in “shaky times”? To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR and PRX member-stations, […]
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October 23, 2025 • 22 mins
Progressive voices of conscience have long arisen in faith communities. This Humankind documentary explores the spiritual impulse for social change. 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.
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October 16, 2025 • 29 mins
George Mumford teaches top athletes the “superpowers” of mindfulness, concentration, insight, right effort and trust as techniques to strengthen performance and avoid the trap of spiritual demise. 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.
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October 9, 2025 • 22 mins
For the first time in our history, there will be more older adults than children. This huge societal change will affect how families provide eldercare, how older Americans access transportation, and whether people can age in their own homes among neighbors they know — and avoid nursing facilities, where about 30% of Covid-19 deaths occurred. […]
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October 2, 2025 • 31 mins
70 million Baby Boomers are now entering their retirement years. For the first time in history, there will be more older adults than children. On this special project from Humankind public radio, you’ll hear stories of transition and dignity — and meet people who are showing the way. To see additional resources and out other […]
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September 25, 2025 • 29 mins
A look at the problem of gun violence as a public health crisis, impacting not just emergency rooms but also long-term needs for healing from exposure to trauma. 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.
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September 18, 2025 • 29 mins
When a gifted artist and media producer near Los Angeles is stricken with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), a community of friends comes together to support him as he develops ingenious ways to continue creating his art work, even without the use of his limbs. To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind […]
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September 11, 2025 • 29 mins
The story of a bright inner city high school student from Boston, who has launched a series of citywide clothing drives inspired by the needs of fellow students who are homeless or displaced. 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 […]
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September 4, 2025 • 29 mins
The power of a patient’s self-reflection as a tool for coping with illness is explored by a nurse scientist who has studied meditation as a health technique, and by a cancer survivor who teaches other patients about the value of therapeutic writing in expressing their inward feelings. To see additional resources and our other programs, […]
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August 28, 2025 • 29 mins
We consider the plight of tens of millions of Americans in families and relationships with alcoholics. How does the destabilizing influence of active addiction affect family systems? What emotional and life challenges are faced by people raised around alcoholism? To see additional resources and our other programs, please visit humanmedia.org . Humankind specials are heard on NPR […]
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July 21, 2025 • 28 mins
Bill Siemering, NPR’s first program director and the author of its inspiring mission statement, recounts the network’s early goal of honoring diversity by including a variety of American voices. 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.
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July 7, 2025 • 29 mins
In these special Humankind documentaries, ‘Beyond War’ takes a look back at the last time the U.S. military had major involvement in the Middle East. We examine the true human costs of organized violence (for both soldiers and civilians). And what happens when citizens protest against war? How fully do we exhaust peaceful options before […]
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July 25, 2024 • 29 mins
It’s been said that we’ve learned how to speak but not necessarily how to communicate. Rarely are we taught the art of deep listening or how to respond to someone without accusation or blame or the ability to articulate our own needs without putting others on the defensive. To see additional resources and our other […]
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February 21, 2024 • 29 mins
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 […]
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December 7, 2023 • 29 mins
In the second half of our documentary on the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, we examine the AA recovery principles that have promoted sobriety for millions of recovering alcoholics and have created a template to help people worldwide who struggle with many forms of addiction. To view additional resources for this episode please visit our website at humanmedia.org. […]
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