Winner of the
64th Annual
Peabody Award
for Radio
Programming!
SCIENCE AND MEANING:
FIVE QUESTIONS
WEB EXTRAS
(for all excerpts: right-click on PC or control-click
on Mac and choose "save link as" to download")
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Individual Interview from the
Series
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| Craig Venter | (from What is Life) |
| Kevin Kelly | |
| Ruth Padell | (from What Does Evolution Want) |
| John Haught | |
| Marilynne Robinson | (from Does the Soul Still Matter) |
| Parker Palmer | |
| Nidhal Guessoum | (from Can Islam and Science Coexist) |
| Coleman Barks | |
| Steve's round-up on sacred science | (from Can Science Be Sacred) |
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| ELECTRONS TO ENLIGHTENMENT |
A Five Part Series on Science and Religion that
aired in 2006
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LIFE AND EVOLUTION
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James Watson, one of the discoverers of DNA's double-helix structure, talks with Steve Paulson about making the discovery and what sort of environment produces scientific breakthroughs. Watson's new memoir is called "Genes, Girls and Gamow." (left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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Sean Carroll is the author of "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution." He tells Steve Paulson about new discoveries in evolutionary history, including the existence and purpose of fossil genes. Carroll is an evolutionary biologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and at the University of Wisconsin. (left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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| Henrietta Lacks was a poor, African
American woman who died of cervical cancer at the age of 31. One of
her doctors at Johns Hopkins University Hospital harvested cells from
her which became the basis for an immortal line of cells used in medical
research labs. Rebecca Skloot has tracked
down the story of these so-called HeLa cells and told it in a book
called "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Skloot talks
with Jim Fleming.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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SOUL AND CONSCIOUSNESS
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(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
Steve Paulson prepared this report on the state of thinking about consciousness. We hear from Artificial Intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky, physicist Roger Penrose, philosopher Daniel Dennett, New Age guru Deepak Chopra, and many more. |
| Alan Wallace
is an ex-Buddhist monk who runs the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness
Studies, and is the author of "Contemplative Science." He
tells Steve Paulson that the long tradition of rigorous investigation
of the mind undertaken by Buddhism has a lot to teach Western science.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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Daniel Tammet
is an autistic savant and the author of "Born on a Blue
Day." He loves numbers, can do calculations in his head into
the millions, and can recite pi to more than 22,000 digits. But he
has trouble telling right from left and looking people in the eye.
Tennet talks with Anne Strainchamps about life on the autistic spectrum
and how he sees numbers.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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| Harvard trained brain scientist
Jill Bolte Taylor found an unusual path to growth. She describes
her stroke, the weird euphoria it caused and her long process of recovery
in her book, "My Stroke of Insight," and in this conversation
with Anne Strainchamps.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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We re-visit an old interview with the
late Francis Crick where he lays out
his "astonishing hypothesis," which is now the standard
scientific view of consciousness. Then, Steve Paulson talks with philosopher
Alva Noe, author of "Out of Our
Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology
of Consciousness." And we wind up stuck in "Bladerunner."
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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ISLAM AND MODERNITY
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| Hollywood screenwriter
Kamran Pasha has written a novel called "Mother of Believers."
It's the story of Muhammad's third wife, Aisha, whom he married when
she was very young. Pasha tells Jim Fleming why he wanted to tell
this story in novel form, despite the potential controversy. And we
hear him read a passage from the book.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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Senegalese pop star Youssou
N'Dour is the top-selling African musician of all time. His
album "Egypt" moved away from the raucous sounds of pop
and was devoted to his faith. N'Dour is a devout Sufi Muslim. Film-maker
Chai Vasarhelyi followed Youssou N'Dour
and his band after the album came out and produced a documentary called
"I Bring What I Love." Anne Strainchamps talks with the
film-maker and musician right after the film opened in New York. "Egypt"
won a Grammy in 2005. We hear clips from "Egypt" and from
the film.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
| Salman Ahmad
is a Pakistani rock star. His group is Junoon, and they're the most
popular rock group in South Asia. Ahmad talks with Anne Strainchamps
about being a Muslim rock star. His memoir is called "Rock &
Roll Jihad." And we hear lots of his music.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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Tariq Ramadan
is a Swiss-born philosopher who travels throughout the Islamic world
trying to build bridges between European Muslim and conservative clerics.
He's the author of "In the Footsteps of the Prophet" and
tells Steve Paulson that Muhammed's life offers many lessons for today's
Muslims.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
| Azhar Usman
is a Muslim stand-up comic and part of the "Allah Made Me Funny"
Comedy Troupe. He tells Jim Fleming that he sees himself as belonging
to a long tradition of socially conscious comedians. And we hear excerpts
from his comedy routine.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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Ayaan Hirsi
Ali is a famous critic of Islam. Born in Somalia, Hirsi Ali
emigrated to the Netherlands where she served in the Dutch Parliament.
She and Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh made a film called "Submission"
which so offended some Muslims that a fanatic killed Van Gogh and
called for the death of Hirsi Ali, who now lives in the United States.
She talks with Steve Paulson about why she believes Islam is inherently
incompatible with Western values.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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SACRED SCIENCE
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| Steve Paulson speaks with several scientists, religious scholars and atheists about Albert Einstein's religious beliefs. We hear from Richard Dawkins, Elaine Pagels, and Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson who debate what Einstein meant by "god." |
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
| Jungian analyst David
Lindorff is the author of "Pauli and Jung: The Meeting
of Two Great Minds." He tells Anne Strainchamps about Pauli's
therapy with Jung which focused on Pauli's dreams, and led the physicist
to an interest in mysticism and alchemy.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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David Leavitt
is the author of a novel called "The Indian Clerk" which
tells the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the uneducated Indian who
amazed Cambridge University with his mathematical discoveries. Leavitt
tells Jim Fleming how Ramanujan became friends with mathematician
G.H. Hardy.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
| Renowned biologist
E.O. Wilson talks with Steve Paulson about the difficulty of
reconciling science and religion. Wilson calls himself a provisional
deist but is a vocal critic of Intelligent Design. Wilson's books
include "Sociobiology" and "Consilience" and he's
just edited a collection of Charles Darwin's books called "From
So Simple a Beginning."
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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Rebecca Stott
lives in Cambridge, England, and made it the setting of her novel,
"Ghostwalk." The book is an intellectual thriller set partly
in Isaac Newton's time and concerning his interest in alchemy. Stott
reads an excerpt for Anne Strainchamps and talks with her about aspects
of the quantum world and its possible effects on ours.
(left-click to listen or right-click & choose "save link as" to download as mp3) |
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