The New Yorker Radio Hour

As scientists learn more about how genes affect everything from hair color to sexual orientation and mental health, we’re faced with moral and political questions about how we allow science to intervene in the genetic code. In this episode, Siddhartha Mukherjee, the author of the new book “The Gene: An Intimate History,” talks with David Remnick about the intimate and global implications of modern genetic science, and speaks frankly about his own family history of mental illness. Plus, we visit the studio of a leading sound-effects artist, and a virtual-reality team struggles to make a V.R. experience that lives up to the hype.

On shows as varied as “Jessica Jones,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and “Game of Thrones,” characters are confronting sexual violence in ways never shown before on television. Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic, thinks this is probably a good thing. Also, the jazz pianist Robert Glasper explains why sometimes there’s no need to take a solo; and a troubled man takes to the water for a series of adventures, like something out of Mark Twain. Originally aired December 15, 2015

A former prison counsellor discusses the abuse and torture of mentally ill inmates she suspected inside a Florida correctional institution—and the emotional price she paid for staying silent. Plus, Anohni, the former lead singer of Antony and the Johnsons, discusses her recent turn to pop music; Annie Dillard talks with David Remnick about a new collection of essays; and William Finnegan takes us surfing.

In this week’s episode, the activist Ai-jen Poo envisions a happier, more affordable alternative to nursing homes, and we meet a home health aide who’s formed a remarkable bond of friendship with her client. David Remnick talks with a rising star of the Democratic Party who is rumored to be a potential Vice-Presidential candidate; and, finally, the ugly truth about picture-perfect weddings.

On this week’s show, Ben Taub shares his reporting on a group that’s gathering top-secret documents tying Bashar al-Assad’s regime to mass torture and killings, and David Remnick talks with a war-crimes expert about how to run a fair tribunal. Plus, Patricia Marx goes foraging in Central Park, and Kathryn Schulz explains her love of country music—it’s the stories, man.

This week, we look into the lives and careers of two giants of soul—Aretha Franklin and the late James Brown. From the campaign trail, Michael Friedman’s musical ode to a South Carolinian Trump supporter, and Jesse Eisenberg, along with his sister Hallie, performs the humor piece “Why I Broke Up with the Little Mermaid.”

This week, three highlights from The New Yorker Festival: Larry David explains why he envies his sociopathic alter ego on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Amy Poehler describes the joys of doing comedy while nine months pregnant, and Randy Newman on why he still can’t understand why some people bridled at his song “Short People.”

This week: Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger talks about how Instagram took over the world; the New Yorker’s cartoon editor, Bob Mankoff, shares his three favorite jokes; and George Packer reports from Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, where democratic governance has led to an upsurge in jihadism.

This week: Three great political minds talk to David Remnick about the 2016 election, Roz Chast is visited by a young cartoonist who is following in her footsteps, and Hilton Als sits down with Cynthia Erivo, the English actress who stars in “The Color Purple” on Broadway. Take our WNYC Studios audience survey!

This week: Julia Louis-Dreyfus says that, in light of the 2016 Presidential race, “Veep” is now like a “sombre” documentary; Malcolm Gladwell looks at the subculture behind post-Columbine school shootings; and we explore the rumor that Alexander Hamilton’s ghost resides in an old house in Manhattan.