State of the Human

After years of discipline and structure, Adesuwa takes a day off from productivity to remember how to have fun.

 

Producer: Adesuwa Agbonile

Host: Jacob Matlof

As a pediatric neuro-oncologist, Dr. Paul Fisher works with children fighting brain cancer. In this episode, he shares how invisible skills like empathy and human connection are central to his medical practice. 

Producer: Alex Strong

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In today’s episode, Sarah Lewis reads “Willies on West 79th,” a strangely moving tale about love, body dysmorphia, and why a rat ballet company might be the most honest place in New York.

 

Producers

Arun Chhetri

Sarah Lewis

Alex Strong

 

Story by: Sarah Lewis

 

Music by: Blue Dot Sessions

In today’s episode, Wallace Stegner Fellow Zach Williams reads his surreal story “Mousetraps,” where a simple errand spirals into a disorienting interrogation of masculinity, guilt, and moral performance.

 

Producers

Arun Chhetri

Zach Williams

Isabelle Edgar

 

Story by: Zach Williams

 

Music by: Blue Dot Sessions

As an added bonus to our Invisibility series, we’re including conversations with the creators who made them to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the craft of audio storytelling. In this episode, Alex Strong talks with Langston Buddenhagen, the creator of New Flowers, the first story in our Invisibility series.

Langston Buddenhagen takes us to Ethiopia's capital city of Addis Ababa in order to explore how neighborhoods change and what that change means. In the process, Langston explores how his mixed racial identity dovetails into these same issues, and how is own hometown - Oakland, California - is changing too. 

We all know what it's like to sense something unspoken in a conversation—the hesitation, the sharpness, the softness. It's not the words, but how they're said. This episode, we explore the invisible language of emotional prosody—the tone, rhythm, and subtle cues in our voices that reveal how we feel, often without us realizing it.

Alana Esposito and Alex Strong to discuss the process behind how A Foot in Both Worlds came to be. 

Producers: Alana Esposito, Alex Strong

Paul Calvo has always been ambitious, but he hasn't always been on the right side of the tracks. This is his story.

Producer: Alex Strong.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Sounds by Free Sounds.

Paul Calvo has always been ambitious, but he hasn't always been on the right side of the tracks. This is his story.

Producer: Alex Strong.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Sounds by Free Sounds.

A group of Stanford alumni recall their time in undergrad climbing buildings on campus – and the way it permanently altered their lives.

Producer: Alana Esposito Music from Blue Dot Sessions

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What would you do for the sake of a story? In this live story, recorded at the 2024 Senior Story Slam, Alina Wilson shares the story that spawned this series on Nakedness for State of the Human.

Growing up with Indian immigrant parents in a Wyoming college town, Aru was used to the tension of what her parents expected her to be and the person she was actually becoming. In this story, recorded at First Person Story in April of 2024, Aru takes the risk of emotional nakedness with her mom–even though it may leave her feeling exposed. www.firstpersonstory.org www.storytelling.stanford.edu

Being naked–or seeing others naked–can evoke a firestorm of emotions . . . everything from freedom to vulnerability to sensuality to shame. In three stories pulled from the Storytelling Project archives (created in 2012) we explore the glory and grit of stripping down.

Destiny Cunningham learned shame early. The comments that teachers, church leaders, and other kids made about her body led her to wear clothes like armor, hiding herself from others so she wouldn't be noticed. Years later, Destiny and her friends decide to visit a nudist retreat in the hopes that she'll learn how to become naked without feeling exposed.

“Back to the Garden” tells the story of an organic farming couple, Jose and Rich, who are committed to sustaining the environment . . . and who don't believe in climate change. This episode explores how that dissonance might be possible, the power of language, and whether or not the term "climate change" will help save the planet. Produced by Anna McNulty, Shameeka Wilson, and Laura Joyce Davis.

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