Brooke Gladstone

Comedian Myq Kaplan faces off against a robot in a duel for comedic superiority.

Paper burns. Bits rot. CDs decay. But DNA can last tens of thousands of years. That's why researchers in England have developed a way to code digital data into the code of life. 

Novelist Margaret Atwood recently handed in a new manuscript, Scribbler Moon, to the Future Library -- which means we'll have to wait until 2114 to read it.

Could a solar flare cause a digital meltdown? Brooke speaks with Lucianne Walkowicz, astronomer at Chicago's Adler Planetarium, about the sun's power to affect our electrical grid.

Middle Eastern cartoonist Khalid Albaih believes that cartoons can deliver vital political truths in a way that bypass restrictions on expression.

Brooke traces the historical legacy of racially-motivated hate crimes in the wake of this week's shootings in Charleston.

Humza Arshad, a British-Pakistani comedian and YouTube star, makes teens laugh -- and steers them away from religious extremism and ISIS recruitment.

Governments get hacked - it's almost inevitable. The bigger the hack - the more acute the subsequent panic. Here's a breaking news consumer's handbook to help you make sense of a hack.

Brooke speaks with journalist Loren Ghiglione, who believes he might have found some answers about the future of journalism in the science fiction of the past.

As another disturbing video of police action goes viral, we provide a handbook for filming police encounters and bearing witness.

Most of us are familiar with Facebook or Apple products, but don't really understand the code that animates them. Programmer Paul Ford wants to change that.  

This week, the Supreme Court made its first ruling on a case about the nebulous world of violent online speech. 

Once called the "library provision," Section 215 of the Patriot Act forced libraries to become headliners in the battle waged to protect American freedoms. 

Two newspapers have published databases attempting to count everyone killed by police in 2015. Brooke speaks to the reporters behind the investigations.

Research shows the media disproportionately portray African-Americans as criminals. Brooke speaks with Nazgol Ghandnoosh of The Sentencing Project about racial bias in news coverage.

Ultimately, our assumption that the Patriot Act is at the center of our nation's struggle between privacy and security...may not be true. 

A mere six weeks after 9/11, the USA PATRIOT Act was passed. Brooke and Bob relive the act's conception amid a climate of fear, confusion, and deceit.

The current Patriot Act debate suggests that mass surveillance comes primarily from Section 215. But other, less-known programs actually account for most of the metadata collected.

 Three provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire this weekend, unless a gridlocked Congress manages to find a last minute solution.