Big Picture Science for May 5, 2025: The Wrong Stuff

Big Picture Science: The Wrong Stuff

REPEAT
By one estimate the average American home has 300,000 objects. Yet our ancient ancestors had no more than what they could carry with them. How did we go from being self-sufficient primates to nonstop shoppers? We examine the evolutionary history of stuff through the lens of archeology beginning with the ancestor who first picked up a palm-sized rock and made it into a tool. 
 
Guest:

• Chip Colwell - archeologist and former Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, editor-in-chief of the digital magazine Sapiens, and author of “So Much Stuff: How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything.”

This repeat podcast originally aired on February 5, 2024

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/the-wrong-stuff

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/

Get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Big Picture Science for Monday 22 June 2015 - Skeptic Check: Evolutionary Arms Race

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Evolutionary Arms Race

ENCORE: It’s hard to imagine the twists and turns of evolution that gave rise to Homo Sapiens. After all, it required geologic time, and the existence of many long-gone species that were once close relatives. That may be one reason why – according to a recent poll – one-third of all Americans reject the theory of evolution. They prefer to believe that humans and other living organisms have existed in their current form since the beginning of time.

But if you’ve ever been sick, you’ve been the victim of evolution on a very observable time scale. Nasty viruses and bacteria take full advantage of evolutionary forces to adapt to new hosts. And they can do it quickly.

Discover how comparing the deadly 1918 flu virus with variants today may help us prevent the next pandemic. Also, while antibiotic resistance is threatening to become a major health crisis, better understanding of how bacteria evolve their defenses against our drugs may help us out.

And the geneticist who sequenced the Neanderthal genome says yes, our hirsute neighbors co-mingled with humans.

It’s Skeptic Check … but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

• Svante Pääbo – Evolutionary geneticist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, author of Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes
• Ann Reid – – Molecular biologist, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, Oakland, California
• Martin Blaser – Microbiologist, New York University School of Medicine, member of the National Academy of Sciences, author of Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues
• Gautam Dantas – Pathologist, immunologist, Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, Washington University, Saint Louis

This encore podcast was first released on March 31, 2014.

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_Evolutionary_Arms_Race

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for Monday 11 May 2015 - A Fundy Thing Happened

Big Picture Science - A Fundy Thing Happened

Get ready for déjà vu as you listen to some of our favorite interviews from the past year. It’s our annual fundraising podcast. Come for the great interviews, stay for the great interviews. Lend us your support along the way.

What’s for dinner? Maybe Soylent. Made by … people! We do a taste test. Then meet your gut microbes. They control your health and even your mood.

Get tips on how to talk to aliens, why you should keep an eye on government surveillance, and the future of 3D printing human tissue. Also, why extraordinary beliefs persist – including Holocaust denial – despite the persistence of evidence to the contrary.

And, global perspective: why Ebola won’t be the next big pandemic but sea level rise could wipe out coasts along Florida and Thailand.

Plus, we imagine life hundreds of years ago for the renegades on the rough seas, and what the world would be like had the dinosaurs not gone extinct.

All this and more on a special Big Picture Science podcast!

Guests:

• Bill Miller – Physician and author of The Microcosm Within: Evolution and Extinction in the Hologenome
• Rob Rhinehart – CEO and founder of Soylent
• Brian Fagan – Emeritus professor of anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels
• David Quammen – Science journalist, contributing writer for National Geographic Magazine, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. His Op Ed article about Ebola appeared in the New York Times.
• Shari Wells-Jensen – Professor of English, Bowling Green State University
• Susan Landau – Mathematician and engineer who works on cybersecurity, privacy and public policy at the Worchester Polytechnic Institute, author most recently of Surveillance or Security?: The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies
• Will Storr – Journalist, author of The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science
• Ali Khademhosseini – Bioengineer, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Woman’s Hospital

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/A_Fundy_Thing_Happened

Big Picture Science for Monday 23 February 2015 - Surviving the Anthropocene

Big Picture Science - Surviving the Anthropocene

The world is hot, and getting hotter. But higher temperatures aren’t the only impact our species is having on mother Earth. Urbanization, deforestation, and dumping millions of tons of plastic into the oceans … these are all ways in which humans are leaving their mark.

So are we still in the Holocene, the geological epoch that started a mere 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age? Some say we’ve moved on to the age of man – the Anthropocene.

It’s the dawn of an era, but can we survive this new phase in the history of our planet?

Guests:

• Pat Porter – Relative
• Jonathan Amos – Science writer for the BBC in London
• Gaia Vince – Writer, broadcaster, former editor for New Scientist, news editor of Nature, and author of Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made
• David Grinspoon – Astrobiologist, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona
• Francisco Valero – Emeritus physicist and research scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Surviving_the_Anthropocene
You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for Monday 09 February 2015 - Skeptic Check: Your Inner Lab Coat

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Your Inner Lab Coat

Sherlock Holmes doesn’t have a science degree, yet he thinks rationally – like a scientist. You can too! Learn the secrets of being irritatingly logical from the most famous sleuth on Baker Street. Plus, discover why animal trackers 100,000 years ago may have been the first scientists, and what we can learn from about deductive reasoning from today’s African trackers.

Also, the author of a book on teaching physics to your dog provides tips for unleashing your inner scientist, even if you hated science in school.

And newly-minted scientists imagine classes they wish were available to them as grad students, such as “You Can’t Save the World 101.”

Guests:

• Louis Liebenberg – Co-founder and Executive Director of Cybertracker Conservation, associate of human evolutionary biology, Harvard University
• Maria Konnikova – Psychologist, journalist and author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. Her weekly blog on psychology is at newyorker.com.
• Chad Orzel – Physicist and astronomer at Union College, and author of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog and Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist
• And newly-minted scientists Michael Kemp, Toni Lyn Morelli, Ilona Kotlewska, and Yonatan Lipsitz

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_Your_Inner_Lab_Coat

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for Monday 02 February 2015 - Digging Our Past

Big Picture Science - Digging Our Past

ENCORE: What’s past is prologue. For centuries, researchers have studied buried evidence – bones, teeth, or artifacts – to learn about murky human history, or even to investigate vanished species. But today’s hi-tech forensics allow us to analyze samples dug from the ground faster and at a far more sophisticated level.

First, the discovery of an unknown species of dinosaur that changes our understanding of the bizarre beasts that once roamed North America.

And then some history that’s more recent: two projects that use the tools of modern chemistry and anthropology to deepen our understanding of the slave trade.

Plus, an anthropologist on an evolutionary habit that is strange to some, but nonetheless common all over the world: the urge to eat dirt.

Guests:

• Scott Sampson – Paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and author of Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life
• Fatimah Jackson – Biologist, anthropologist, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, director of the Cobb Lab at Howard University, and advisor to EUROTAST
• Joseph Jones – Biological anthropologist, visiting assistant professor at the College of William and Mary, researcher on the African Burial Ground Project
• Sera Young – Research scientist, division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, and author of Craving Earth: Understanding Pica—the Urge to Eat Clay, Starch, Ice, and Chalk

This encore podcast was first released on August 12, 2013

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Digging_Our_Past

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for Monday 25 January 2015 - Skeptic Check: Mummy Dearest

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Mummy Dearest

ENCORE: Shh …mummy’s the word! We don’t want to provoke the curse of King Tut. Except that there are many curses associated with this fossilized pharaoh – from evil spirits to alien malevolence. So it’s hard to know which one we’d face.

We’ll unravel secrets about the famous young pharaoh, including the bizarre events that transpired after the discovery of his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and learn what modern imaging reveals about life 3,000 years ago.

Plus, we dispel myths about how to make a mummy, while learning the origin of that notorious mummy curse. Also, discover why superstitions have survival value.

Guests:

• Jo Marchant – Author of The Shadow King: The Bizarre Afterlife of King Tut’s Mummy
• Andrew Wade – Physical anthropologist, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
• Salima Ikram – Professor of Egyptology, American University, Cairo
• Stuart Vyse – Professor of psychology, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition
• F. DeWolfe Miller – Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

This encore podcast was first released on June 24, 2013

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_Mummy_Dearest

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for Monday 17 November 2014 - Surfeit of the Vitalest

Big Picture Science - Surfeit of the Vitalest

In the century and a half since Charles Darwin wrote his seminal On the Origin of the Species, our understanding of evolution has changed quite a bit. For one, we have not only identified the inheritance molecule DNA, but have determined its sequence in many animals and planets.

Evolution has evolved, and we take a look at some of the recent developments.

A biologist describes the escalating horn-to-horn and tusk-to-tusk arms race between animals, and a paleoanthropologist explains why the lineage from chimp to human is no longer thought to be a straight line but, instead, a bush. Also, New York Times science writer Carl Zimmer on the diversity of bacteria living on you, and which evolutionary concepts he finds the trickiest to explain to the public.

Guests:

• Douglas Emlen – Biologist, University of Montana and author of Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle
• Bernard Wood – Paleoanthropologist, George Washington University
• Carl Zimmer – Columnist for the New York Times

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Surfeit_of_the_Vitalest

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 06/09/14 - Apt to Adapt

Big Picture Science - Apt to Adapt

If you move with the times, you might stick around long enough to pass on your genes. And that is adaptation and evolution, in a nutshell.

But humans are changing their environment faster than their genes can keep pace. This has led to a slew of diseases – from backache to diabetes – according to one evolutionary biologist. And our technology may not get us out of the climate mess we’ve created. So just how good are we at adapting to the world around us?

Find out as you also discover why you should run barefoot … the history of rising tides … why one dedicated environmentalist has thrown in the towel … and an answer to the mystery of why Hawaiian crickets suddenly stopped chirping.

Guests:

• Daniel Lieberman – Professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, author of The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease
• Brian Fagan – Emeritus professor of anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels
• Paul Kingsnorth – Environmental journalist and author of Real England: The Battle Against the Bland and The Wake. The profile of his retreat from environmentalism appeared in the “New York Times Magazine”.
• Marlene Zuk – Evolutionary biologist, University of Minnesota

Permalink: http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/Apt_to_Adapt

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 03/31/14 - Skeptic Check: Evolutionary Arms Race

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Evolutionary Arms Race

It’s hard to imagine the twists and turns of evolution that gave rise to Homo Sapiens. After all, it required geologic time, and the existence of many long-gone species that were once close relatives. That may be one reason why – according to a recent poll – one-third of all Americans reject the theory of evolution. They prefer to believe that humans and other living organisms have existed in their current form since the beginning of time.

But if you’ve ever been sick, you’ve been the victim of evolution on a very observable time scale. Nasty viruses and bacteria take full advantage of evolutionary forces to adapt to new hosts. And they can do it quickly.

Discover how comparing the deadly 1918 flu virus with variants today may help us prevent the next pandemic. Also, while antibiotic resistance is threatening to become a major health crisis, better understanding of how bacteria evolve their defenses against our drugs may help us out.

And the geneticist who sequenced the Neanderthal genome says yes, our hirsute neighbors co-mingled with humans.

It’s Skeptic Check … but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

• Svante Pääbo – Evolutionary geneticist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, author of Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes
• Ann Reid – – Molecular biologist, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, Oakland, California
• Martin Blaser – Microbiologist, New York University School of Medicine, member of the National Academy of Sciences, author of Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues
• Gautam Dantas – Pathologist, immunologist, Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, Washington University, Saint Louis

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_Evolutionary_Arms_Race

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 08/12/13 - Digging Our Past

Big Picture Science - Digging Our Past

What’s past is prologue. For centuries, researchers have studied buried evidence – bones, teeth, or artifacts – to learn about murky human history, or even to investigate vanished species. But today’s hi-tech forensics allows us to analyze samples dug from the ground faster and at a far more sophisticated level.

First, the discovery of an unknown species of dinosaur that changes our understanding of the bizarre beasts that once roamed North America.

And then some history that’s more recent: two projects that use the tools of modern chemistry and anthropology to deepen our understanding of the slave trade.

Plus, an anthropologist on an evolutionary habit that is strange to some, but nonetheless common all over the world: the urge to eat dirt.

Guests:

• Scott Sampson – Paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and author of Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life
• Fatimah Jackson – Biologist, anthropologist, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, director of the Cobb Lab at Howard University, and advisor to EUROTAST
• Joseph Jones – Biological anthropologist, visiting assistant professor at the College of William and Mary, researcher on the African Burial Ground Project
• Sera Young – Research scientist, division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, and author of Craving Earth: Understanding Pica—the Urge to Eat Clay, Starch, Ice, and Chalk

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Digging_Our_Past
You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 06/24/13 - Skeptic Check: Mummy Dearest

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Mummy Dearest

Shh …mummy’s the word! We don’t want to provoke the curse of King Tut. Except that there are many curses associated with this fossilized pharaoh – from evil spirits to alien malevolence. So it’s hard to keep know which one we’d face.

We’ll unravel secrets about the famous young pharaoh, including the bizarre events that transpired after the discovery of his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and learn what modern imaging reveals about life 3,000 years ago.

Plus, we dispel myths about how to make a mummy, while learning the origin of that notorious mummy curse. Also, discover why superstitions have survival value.

Guests:

• Jo Marchant – Author of The Shadow King: The Bizarre Afterlife of King Tut’s Mummy
• Andrew Wade – Physical anthropologist, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
• Salim Ikram – Professor of Egyptology, American University, Cairo
• Stuart Vyse – Professor of psychology, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition
• F. DeWolfe Miller – Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_Mummy_Dearest

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 07/23/12 - Olympics for the Rest of Us

Big Picture Science - Olympics for the Rest of Us

Let the games begin! The mad dash to the phone … the sudden spring out of bed … the frantic juggling of car keys, grocery bags and a cell phone! Olympic athletes may have remarkable speed and strength, but it’s easy praise the extraordinary. Here’s to the extreme averageness of the rest of us. From beer bellies to aching backs, we’re all winners in the Darwinian Olympics just by virtue of being here.

Identify the one physical trait that you share with all Olympians – your head – and why it’s a remarkable human evolutionary achievement. Plus, the role of genes in putting on the pounds … and what event Spiderman would enter to win the gold.

Guests:

• Daniel Lieberman – Professor of human evolutionary biology, Harvard University, author of The Evolution of the Human Head
• Callum Ross – Professor of organismal biology and anatomy, University of Chicago
• Kelly Brownell – Psychologist, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University
• Robert Peaslee – Assistant professor, College of Media and Communications, Texas Tech University and author of Web-Spinning Heroics: Critical Essays on the History and Meaning of Spider-Man

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Olympics_for_the_Rest_of_Us

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for 04/23/12 - Early Adapters

Big Picture Science - Early Adapters

ENCORE The times are a’changing – rising temperatures, growing population, and new technology coming at us faster than a greased cheetah.

So how will humans respond? Find out about future farming in the city – your vegetables might be grown in downtown, hi-rise greenhouses. Also, a population expert tells us how our planet can cope with billions more people, and the man who invented the term ‘cyberspace’ describes what the future might hold for the techno-savvy.

Darwinian evolution takes a long time to accommodate to new environments. But Homo sapiens can beat that rap by wielding the right technology – and becoming early adapters.

Guests:

• Dickson Despommier – Emeritus professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia University, author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century
• William Gibson – Author, most recently, of Zero History
• Joel Cohen – Mathematician and biologist at Rockefeller University
• David DeGusta – Paleoanthropologist at the Paleoanthropology Institute in California

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Early_Adapters

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

First aired December 6, 2010

Big Picture Science for 08/29/11 - Into the Unknown

Big Picture Science - Into the Unknown

During the great age of exploration men risked their lives to set foot upon unknown lands, whether in the humid jungles of Peru or on the barren ice cap of the South Pole. We’ll hear those dramatic tales…

… but also where modern exploration is taking us. Could it be to the deepest, darkest part of the sea?

Or to space? Discover how to build a space suit that will let you move like an athlete on Mars. Also, why some say that the ultimate frontier requires no packing and no travel: voyages into the human brain.

Guests:

• Dava Newman – Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering Systems, MIT
• David Eagleman – Neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine and author of Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
• Mark Adams – Author of An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science
• Edward Larson – Author of An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science
• Liz Taylor – President, Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Alameda, CA

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Into_the_Unknown

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Are We Alone for 12/06/10 - Early Adapters

Are We Alone - Early Adapters

You are one-of-a-kind, unique and indispensible. Oh, wait … never mind! It seems that computer over there can do what you do … only faster and with greater accuracy.

Yes, it’s silicon vs. carbon as intelligent, interactive machines out-perform humans in tasks beyond data-crunching. We’re not only building our successors, we’re developing emotional relationships with them. Find out why humans are hard-wired to be attached to androids.

Also, the handful of areas where humans still rule… as pilots, doctors, and journalists. Scratch that! Journalism is automated too – tune in for a news story written solely by a machine.

Guests:

• Dickson Despommier – Emeritus professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia University, author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century
• William Gibson – Author, most recently, of Zero History
• Joel Cohen – Mathematician and biologist at Rockefeller University
• David DeGusta – Paleoanthropologist at the Paleoanthropology Institute in California

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Early_Adapters

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Are We Alone for 10/25/10 - Off to the Traces

Are We Alone - Off to the Traces

If a tree fell on another planet, would we be able to detect it? Not quite yet – but we might be able to tell if the planet was habitable. A living-planet is the promise of newly-discovered Gliese 581g. But does the planet exist at all?

Discover how we learn a planet’s geology and chemistry from afar. Also, what we learn about a civilization from what it discards, beginning with our own sloppy habits.

Plus, the hunt for derelict alien spaceships… and a man who sketches alien creatures for a living – based on real science.

Guests:

• Lisa Kaltenegger – Astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
• Brad Bebout – Biologist, NASA Ames Research Center
• Robin Nagle – Anthropologist, New York University
• Robin Hanson – Economist, George Mason University
• Joel Hagen – Computer graphics instructor, Modesto Junior College

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Off_to_the_Traces

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

And be sure to check out the Are We Alone iPhone/iPad app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/are-we-alone-make-contact/id374968004?mt=8

Are We Alone for 04/06/09 - Life of Brain

Are We Alone - Life of Brain
We should award frequent travel miles to your brain. After all, it’s evolved a long way from the days of guiding brachiation from tree-to-tree to become the three pounds of web-surfing, Sudoku-playing powerhouse it is today. But a suite of technologies may expand human brains further still.

From smart pills to nano-wires: discover the potential – and peril – of neuro-engineering to repair and enhance our cognitive function.

Also, how our brains got so big in the first place: a defense of the modern diet.

Guests

• Bill Leonard - department chairman and professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University
• Michael Gazzaniga - neuroscientist and director of the University of California – Santa Barbara’s SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. Author of Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique
• Ian Pearson - futurologist at Futurizon
• Steven Rose - biologist and director of the Brain and Behavior Research Group at the Open University in London. Author of The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow's Neuroscience

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.