The Measure of Everyday Life

Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

“The Measure of Everyday Life” is a weekly public radio program featuring researchers, practitioners, and professionals discussing their work to improve the human condition. Independent Weekly has called the show ‘unexpected’ and ‘diverse’ and notes that the show ‘brings big questions to radio.'

Episodes air Sunday nights at 6:30 PM EST in the Raleigh-Durham, NC, media market (and also are streamed internationally through WNCU) and are available online the Wednesday following the original airing. WNCU produces the show with major underwriting from the nonprofit RTI International.

Have thoughts on what we are doing? Let your voice be heard by rating us and joining the conversation on Twitter by following @MeasureRadio or find us on Facebook and Instagram. For more information, see measureradio.net.

[Photo: J. Bowman]

Declining Life Expectancy in the United States

Dec 10, 2025

How should we think about death and how it happens? Americans now die more often than our peers in other wealthy countries. What does that shortened mortality say about our lives? On this episode, we talk with Elizabeth Wrigley-Field of the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Population Center.

How to Think about Fear

Dec 3, 2025

Emotion, including fear, is an important part of us. What we fear and how we react can be shaped and influenced, though. On this episode, we talk with Ruth DeFoster of the University of Minnesota, co-author, with Natashia Swalve, of The Fear Knot: How Science, History, and Culture Shape Our Fears and How to Get...