One Battle After Another is the 11th feature film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is written and produced by Anderson and inspired by the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, and more. It is the widest release, the widest opening, and the highest-grossing opening of Anderson’s career. One Battle After Another is currently the No. 1 movie in the world.

And: The Lowdown is the second television series created by Sterlin Harjo. It is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the same fictional universe as the first Harjo-created TV series, Reservation Dogs. It stars Ethan Hawke and Keith David.

GUESTS:

• James Hanley: Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College
• Rich Hollant: Founder and principal of CO:LAB, a hall of fame designer, and a co-partner at CENTER
• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Fantasy Filmball podcast
• Irene Papoulis: Wrote a short textbook called The Essays Only You Can Write

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Numbers are so fundamental to our understanding of the world around us that we maybe tend to think of them as an intrinsic part of the world around us. But they aren’t. Humans invented numbers just as much as we invented all of language.

This hour, we look at the anthropological, psychological, and linguistical ramifications of the concept of numbers.

And we look at one philosophical question too: Are numbers even real in the first place?

GUESTS:

• Brian Clegg: Author of Are Numbers Real? The Uncanny Relationship of Mathematics and the Physical World
• Caleb Everett: Author of Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures

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Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired October 12, 2017.

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The 2025 winner of The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in a few weeks. President Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants it.

This hour we look at the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and its status in our world. We learn about past winners, how winners are selected, and ask about its relevance.

GUESTS:

• Jay Nordlinger: A political journalist and music critic. He is a Senior Resident Fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative, the music critic of The New Criterion, and his Substack is called Onward and Upward. He is the author of Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World, among other books
• Julie Mennella: Faculty member at the Monell Center. She is a winner of the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize in Pediatrics

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.