Episode summary: The British singer, songwriter and guitarist talks about his formative years, and about pioneering a new musical genre that blended rock with traditional music of the British isles. Thompson’s new memoir is Beeswing.

Episode summary: Every year in the spring, small towns throughout New England host their annual town meeting. Town meetings take place in high school gyms or town halls, and anyone can come.

Episode summary: Hitler and Goebbels read Walter Benjamin in the bunker, Orson Wells discovers the magic of the fake crowd. Plus, a profile of artist Lynn Hershman Leeson.

Episode summary: Have you ever looked at a numerical claim and thought ‘what on earth does that mean?’ Complex numbers are often badly communicated, making it difficult for the public to appreciate what they signify - but dial things down too much and you’re at risk of oversimplifying important issu...

Episode summary: The right kind of expert, at the right time, can change everything.

Episode summary: When Shigeru Yabu was 9 years old, he and his family were incarcerated at Heart Mountain Internment Camp, along with thousands of other Japanese and Japanese American families. One day, Shigeru discovered a baby magpie that had fallen out of its nest. He named her Maggie. “That bird...

Episode summary: While urban parks are safe havens for birds, parks are often surrounded by condos and hotels and office buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows. And these all-glass building facades are the absolute worst for migrating birds. Because unlike people, birds don’t really understand glas...

Episode summary: History is the story of those making a future that never came to pass.

Episode summary: Could an explosion in tea-drinking explain a decline in deaths in England during the industrial revolution? Professor Francisca Antman, an economist at the University of Colorado Boulder believes it might. Tim Harford discovers that dusting down the data from tea shipments and local...

Episode summary: Why can’t we see the experts right in front of us, even when they’re saving our lives?