State of the Human

This week on State of the Human, we're hearing stories about people whose vision changed, first throwing them in the dark, then revealing something new. When the lights go out, at first we can’t see anything, but eventually our eyes adjust. We slowly begin to see again, but the world looks a little bit different than it did before. This week, we’ve got four stories about people who learn to see in a new way after finding themselves in different kinds of darkness. A young kid has a superpower to see things no one else can see, but then he loses that ability. A mythologist embarks on a retreat in darkness on a mountain in Wales. An art student learns to see the human body in a new way. And an Oxford University student finds himself, unexpectedly, in darkness. Host: Xandra Clark - Producers: Xandra Clark and Sophia Paliza, with help from Rachel Hamburg, Darlene Franklin, Lemiece Zarka, John Hollywood, Natacha Ruck, Christy Hartman, Charlie Mintz, Victoria Hurst, Josh Hoyt, Heidi Thorsen, Nina Foushee, and Jonah Willihnganz.

We've got four stories of people battling unwanted thoughts. A philosopher who is disgusted at the sight of food, battles his fears with the help of an obsession. A new father is obsessed with the thought that he's not feeling enough. An essayist finds that unwanted thoughts manifest in surprising ways. And Stanford athletes remind us that obsession helps you win at sports. Host/Producer: Charlie Mintz Featuring: Professor Elias Aboujaoude, Maria Hummel, Jon Kleiman, Nick DiBella, Kristian Ipsen, and Helena Scutt

When is wildness on our side, and when does it have to be eliminated? We’re not be talking about wilderness but wildness. We examine wildness as both a place of terror and a place to find meaning. We’ll hear a story about what happens when you venture into nature for the first time. We’ll hear from a graduate student who holds some nontraditional ideas about his clothing and is a modern day outlaw because of it. We’ll introduce you to someone who studied Muay Tai in a gritty gym in Oakland. He has to be wild, right? We meet a wilderness rites of passage guide who tells us what happens when we don’t have elders, and finally, we’ll meet Tea. She may or may not raise wolves. Hosts/Producers: Christy Hartman and Joshua Hoyt | Featured: Andrew Forsthoefel, Dr. Richard White, Andrew Todhunter, Osvaldo Murro, Mason Alford, "Jordan," Annalise Lockhart, Liam Purvis, Darlene Franklin, Martin Shaw, Melina Lopez, Teresa Yammamoto, Joshua Hoyt

One's voice can escapes and ventures into the world with what seems like a mind of its own. Others hear it, and the results can be life-changing - for the better and for the worse. In our first story, we find out what really happens when you open your heart and break into song for the girl who may (or may not) be the one. In our second story, we explore what it takes to lend your voice to others, and break into song for them, whatever the consequences may be. In our third story, we go to France, to find out what happens when two lifelong enemies break into song together. Host: Victoria Hurst. Producers: Natacha Ruck and Victoria Hurst. Featuring: Lecturer Wendy Goldberg, Danny Smith, Chris Worth, Andi Harrington, Jared Muirhead and Natacha Ruck

To find out just what listening can do to us, we eavesdrop with a cochlear implant, learn what crying babies teach us about music, find out how silence can be full, how God enters our thoughts, and ask what a single moment of being listened to can achieve. We're finding out what happens when we listen to sounds we never expected to, when we take our listening where it's never been. Host/Producer: Charlie Mintz Featuring: Professor Tanya Luhrmann, Professor Jonathan Berger, Musikilu Mojeed , Rachel Kolb, Eoin Callery, D'or Seifer, Daniel Steinbock

While hitchhiking in Germany, Bobby Holley befriends a stranger who makes an unusual request. Produced by Rachel Hamburg and Bobby Holley; written by Bobby Holley; music by Axel Linstädt for Improved Sound Limited, James Blackshaw, and Phil Reavis

We leave the comforts and routines of ordinary life in search of a light that hovers just beyond the horizon. In the old days, it was a better trade route, a new world, the holy grail. It's much the same today. But what is it about the quest that makes it so different from merely reaching for a goal? And what makes it worth leaving everything else behind? In this episode, a girl named Rachel searches the world in a quest for her holy grail. Accompanying her is an academic all-star named Bobby, who is questing for certain kind of community. In our last piece, a film editor named Giusepi goes on a quest around America for a better way to serve people. Producers: Rachel Hamburg and Sophia Paliza Host: Rachel Hamburg Featuring: Bobby Holley, Daniela Bize, Guisepi the Tea Guy

What is it like to be a student who has fought in a war? In this episode, six Stanford students and recent alumni, all veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tell their stories. With thoughtfulness, humor, and stone cold honesty, they share with us their decision to join, their experiences in boot camp, living and fighting in Iraq, and their eventual return home to civilian and student life. This is your chance to listen. Featuring: Dustin Barfield, Chris Clark, Josh Francis, Annie Hsieh, Heidi Toll, Russ Toll, and William Treseder. Original music by: Eoin Callery. Hosts: Natacha Ruck and Xandra Clark

We're embracing the unseen in this hour: how things we can't see nonetheless press upon us, affect our choices, our actions, and sometimes even our beliefs. In our first story, we'll be talking about the ghosts that inhabit California's highways; the second story is about a spirit who is very hungry; the third is about the ghosts of our past selves that persist inside each of us, and finally, we'll bring you a fictional story of a young man haunted by a country. Producers: Rachel Hamburg and Christy Hartman. Host: Christy Hartman. Featuring: Dr. Nicholas Jenkins, Dong-Nghi Huynh, Dr. Joshua Landy, Nina Foushee. Music: California Ramblers, Neuroleptic Trio, Coda, Sunhiilow, Dan Friel, Broken Gadget, Zoe Lidstrom, Carnivorous Snowflake, Gist, Jason Marey,Owen Callery and Silvio Rodriguez. Note: The Proust passages from In Search of Lost Time were translated by Enright, Kilmartin, Mayor, and Moncrieff.

In college maybe more than anywhere else, you're stuck between two worlds. This week on our show, the story of the Chi Theta Chi co-op, one of the most unusual houses at Stanford, and its residents' fight to preserve their independence from the university. Plus a story of animals being trained to act, a near death experience, and other tales of liminality. Everything we see, we see from two vantage points: from between our two eyes. This is what gives the world depth. So we at State of the Human wondered what else seeing between two points could do. Today's show is all about people living in between. You'll hear the story of a boy who ventures off into the forest with some friends and gets caught between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The experience teaches him something he could only learn in a space just on the other side of life. Then it's the story of a high school girl who is best friends with a 100 year old woman, her great aunt Mary. The girl learns how to survive high school, but she also learns a bigger lesson, about unfairness, and about moving on. Our third story tells the tale of a Stanford co-op called Chi Theta Chi. For generations the house was a world apart from Stanford, but then Stanford tried to change that, and the students living there got caught between who they were, and who Stanford wanted them to be. Last, it's a story about yearning to bridge the space between human and animal. It's about traveling the space between your mind, and a horse's. Featuring: Logan Hehn, Abel Allison, Elif Tasar, Gerad Hanono, Adam Pearson, Nathaniel Nelson, Deborah Golder, and Sam Corrao Clanon. Producers: Irys Clayter, Sophia Paliza, Rachel Hamburg, Austin Meyer, Christy Hartman, and Joshua Hoyt. Lead Producer: Charlie Mintz

When asked what trait they want to instill in their children, most parents answer "honesty". But in truth, learning to lie is a crucial part of childhood. This week, we take a deep look at how and why we learn to lie, and what lying does to you. Our first story investigates the most common lie of the western world and how it ushers us into the world of lies. Our second story is about the irrepressible urge to tell the truth, and our third and final story is about lying as a form of love. Featuring Joshua Hoyt, Victoria Hurst, Poncie Rutsch, Christy Hartman, Dana Kletter, Dr. Gail Heyman, Dr. Karl Rosengren, Anish Mitra, Ian Girard, Rebekah Morreale, and Ashley Artmann. Lead Producer: Natacha Ruck

First, it's a story about a charity fundraiser, and the woman who comes to question why fundraisers even exist. Then it's the story of a t-shirt entrepreneur's attempt to send one million shirts to Africa. Third, it's two interviews with people who had to decide if they were willing to donate bone marrow. Last, the story of Odyssey Works, a group of artists that create works of art for a single person. Featuring Rachel Hamburg, Jason Sadler, Saundra Schimmelpfennig, Teddy Ruge, Nick Hartley, and Mandeep Gill. Produced and hosted by Charlie Mintz

Since the days of Narcissus and the looking pool, we've known there's a danger in seeing ourselves. There's a possibility of caring too much, or seeing something we don't want to see. But that hasn't stopped humans from trying to see more and more. A woman views her genetic profile, and learns why her tendency towards depression might be an asset. A true mirror--one that doesn't reverse your image--is deployed on Stanford students. A personality test called the Meyers Briggs profile is taken to the max. And a girl explains her point system that lets her keep track of exactly how people feel about her. Featuring Daniel Steinbock, Lone Frank, Colleen Caleshu, Hank Greely, John Nantz, and Iris Clayter. Produced by Jonah Willihnganz, Xandra Clark, Rachel Hamburg, Raj Bhandari, Christy Hartman, and Alexzandra Scully. Hosted by Xandra Clark

Story 1: When I put on this suit, I don my true nature; Story 2: Just a "Yes" waiting to take shape; Story 3: What will you want to have gotten from this? Story 4: The storm rolling through me; Story 5: A "No" every day. Featuring: True Story podcast, Jessica Talbert, Jordan Raymond, Michelle Powers, Adina Glickman, Michael Zeligs, Jane Reynolds. Hosted by Jonah Willihnganz

Firsthand, empirical knowledge is a way of knowing we modern humans have gotten away from. The atomic number of carbon, the height of Mt. Kilimanjaro, how ant colonies work--these are things most of us never figure out ourselves. And fortunately, we don't have to. Yet, on that tricky matter of how to be a human, how to live well, what to do with ourselves, we are left all alone. There's no blueprint, no roadmap. We have to figure it out ourselves. Today on our show, three stories of people doing just that--making mistakes to learn how to live. First, a graduate student comes to a professor with a problem involving men. How does she solve it? Trial and error. Next, it's a story about a drastic case of trial and error, trepanation, the drilling of a hole in the skull. Last, the story of one man who spent fifteen years trying to believe something he just didn't know if he could believe. Who succeeds? Who fails? And was it worth it? Listen to find out. Featuring: Professor John Krumboltz. Hosted by Charlie Mintz