The Poet Laureate of Rock ’n’ Roll: A look at Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan turned 85 years old in May. His first album, 1962’s Bob Dylan, is in its 65th year on record store shelves. We’re at a point where, for most of us, there has simply never been a popular culture in which Dylan wasn’t a towering figure whose influence seems to touch, well, everything. Thi…

Fleshing out the truth about fruit, from sweetness and seasonality to the apple in Eden

This hour, we explore the history and economy of fruits, from the strange to the inedible. Plus, we interrogate what it means for fruits to be seasonal, and why the berries in the supermarket your supermarket aisle might be tasteless! Additionally: why do we think of the Forbidden Fruit as an appl…

All calls: This is not your great-great-great grandfather’s Thucydides Trap

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to the war with Iran, President Trump’s July 16 primetime speech, President Trump and FIFA …

What’s done is done ... or is it? We make the case for undoing

Cmd + Z! What kinds of things can we undo and when should we? This hour, we discuss stories of undoing: domestic and global politics in the Trump-era, a project that transformed a river’s ecology, and whether Pluto really deserved that demotion. GUESTS: Bill Curry: Lawyer and politician who has b…

The Nose looks at ‘The Invite’ and ‘The Featherweight’

The Invite is the third movie directed by Olivia Wilde, her followup to Don’t Worry Darling. It’s a relationship comedy set almost entirely in a single apartment, and it stars Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton, Seth Rogen, and Wilde. It is the fifth international remake of the 2020 Spanish movie The Peo…

Singer-songwriter Nicole Zuraitis and the modern songbook movement

Irving Berlin. Cole Porter. Rodgers and Hart. Rodgers and Hammerstein. George and Ira Gershwin. We love all those songs. There’s a reason they’ve become standards. And a fresh, exciting, new version of, for instance, “Blue Skies” can be fresh and exciting. But what about fresh, exciting, new stand…

Everybody loves an underdog. Should we?

We all love an underdog story. But why? This hour, we take a look at underdogs from David and Goliath to Rocky to The World Cup. GUESTS: A.J. Jacobs: Author of The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning. His previous books include Drop…

Shedding light on the mystery of Mary

Biblical scholar James Tabor says that Mary–the mother of Jesus–is “the best known, least known woman in history.” This hour, we’ll get to know Mary a little better and talk about why some people are obsessed with preserving her purity at the expense of her humanity. And, we talk with (The Reverend…

All calls: This whole thing is a screwjob

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to ticks, the electoral college, nursing, bird doulas, and ambidextrous presidencies … Anyt…

‘Love’s in need of love today’: A look at Stevie Wonder

In 2025, Stevie Wonder turned 75, and our friend the jazz pianist Noah Baerman put out an album of covers of Wonder’s “message music.” This hour, a look at Stevie Wonder as musical icon, as important civil rights figure, as utterly timeless songsmith. Plus: some in-studio performances of Stevie W…