Short Run

Populism is a defining force in American politics, and around the world. But what exactly is populism? Where does it come from, and where does it take us? In the first episode of On Point's five part series 'The power of populism', host Meghna Chakrabarti discusses the origins of the word and concept of populism, and exactly what makes a leader a populist.

We want to share a first listen of a new podcast we're working on at WBUR. Violation tells the story of two families bound together by an unthinkable crime. It explores America's opaque parole system and asks: How much time in prison is enough? Who gets to decide? And, when someone commits a terrible crime, what does redemption look like? Listen to the trailer and if you like what you hear, head o...

All of a sudden, it’s less clear if Nixon’s wager is paying off. After years of collaboration and mutual economic benefit, relations between China and the U.S. are at a low point. What does the start of this important relationship reveal about its next chapter? In the fifth part of Here & Now's "The Great Wager," host Jane Perlez considers how Nixon's actions are reverberating today.

The relationship between China and the U.S. is off and running — and now the two countries are collaborating on secret, sensitive intelligence. The fourth part of Here & Now's "The Great Wager" includes exclusive information about how Chinese and American intelligence officials agreed to work together against their common rival of many years. 

The news of Nixon’s trip to China is public, and he’s getting credit for pulling off such a historic event. Now, he and his advisers have to work with the Chinese to forge a relationship between two very different countries. In the third part of Here & Now's "The Great Wager," host Jane Perlez revisits when Nixon met Mao.

Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger make contact with China. But in the midst of the Cold War, they don’t want anyone to know. How will Kissinger get to Beijing without alerting anyone — and what’s Frank Sinatra got to do with it? In the second part of Here & Now's "The Great Wager," host Jane Perlez digs into how Kissinger pulled off a secret trip to China. 

President Richard Nixon has a plan: He wants to go to China. The only problem? The U.S. and China have had zero contact since the Communist Party took over China two decades before. In the first part of Here & Now's "The Great Wager," host Jane Perlez digs into the beginning of Nixon’s improbable diplomatic mission.

In the final episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell visit Google, the frontier of AI, to see just how close the field is to creating bots with minds of their own.

In the fifth episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Nora Saks dive into the ways artificial intelligence is changing modern love and online dating. Trying to find love (or even lock in one date) on dating apps is no easy task, especially with the onslaught of fake accounts and catfishing scams. But what if you had a digital dating coach installed rig...

In the fourth episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Quincy Walters share a cautionary tale about Tay, a Microsoft AI chatbot that has lived on in infamy. Tay was originally modeled to be the bot-girl-next-door. But after only 16 hours on Twitter, Tay was shut down for regurgitating white supremacist, racist and sexist talking points online. Tay's sh...

In the third episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson explore a growing field of artificial intelligence: immortalizing the dead through predictive AI text. They talk with two individuals who used this tech in different ways, and discuss how these bots can help us improve our understanding of grief.

In the second episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson consider the possibilities of bots being used in governments around the world. How can bots increase transparency and shine a light on corruption, such as insider trading, among our elected officials? Will bots be put on the ballot in the near future?

In the first episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson delve into the history of ELIZA, the world's first chatbot therapist. Why did this computer's creator have a lot of complicated feelings about the development of AI? Can AI help us cope with mental health issues?

Trust — in our institutions, our leaders, in each other — can erode away. But trust can also be rebuilt, even after devastating events. How can humans rebuild trust?

Trust is essential for survival, for relationships, for a civilized society. But trust needs an unexpected ally: skepticism. But what happens when your skepticism turns into cynicism, or outright disbelief? In the fourth episode of On Point's series Essential trust, we discuss the need for healthy skepticism.

Brazilians don't trust each other. Some studies find that more than 60% of Brazilians don't trust the people in their own communities. In the third episode of On Point's series Essential trust, we look for lessons from Brazil as trust in the United States erodes. 

What happens in our brains when we trust someone? In the second episode of On Point's series Essential trust, neuroscientists explain how our brains process trust, and why it's worth the risk.

Jane Goodall formed incredible bonds with chimpanzees in the wild. "First they were afraid. Then they became belligerent. And then when I wouldn't go away, ‘Well, I guess she's okay.’ They came to trust," Goodall said. But were those bonds similar to what we humans experience as trust? In the first episode of On Point's series Essential trust, hear all about how the ability to trust strangers may...

The final episode of On Point's series Smarter health gets up close with the people working and developing AI technology, and the patients receiving AI care. How can this technology thrive in our complex and broken health care system?

Health care is heavily regulated. But can the FDA effectively regulate AI in health care? It's episode three of On Point's series “Smarter health."

There is a sophisticated computer model that can estimate a patient's chance of dying in the next year. It's being used at a Stanford hospital to encourage important end of life care conversations and decisions. But would you want to know if an algorithm predicted when you might die? Ethics and AI. It's episode II of On Point's special series Smarter health.

American health care is complex. Expensive. Hard to access. Could artificial intelligence change that? In the first episode of On Point's series Smarter health, hear all about the potential of AI in health care — from predicting patient risk, to diagnostics, to just helping physicians make better decisions.