Code Switch

Humans need food, sleep, safety, love, purpose. Psychologist Abraham Maslow ordered our needs into a hierarchy. This week, TED speakers explore that spectrum of need, from primal to profound. Guests include psychologist Margie Lachman, neuroscientist Russell Foster, computer security expert Bruce Schneier, journalist Sebastian Junger, activist Caroline Casey, and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. (Original broadcast date: April 17, 2015)

With 40 percent of its students at risk of failing, one radical new high school in Washington, D.C. wrestles with whether to lower its own high expectations.

We're living in a time of intense ideological division, and it often feels impossible to bridge the gap. But can we afford not to? This hour, TED speakers explore how to communicate across the divide. Guests include social media activist Megan Phelps-Roper, social psychologist Robb Willer, former Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, public radio host Celeste Headlee, and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

In a radical new high school in Washington, D.C., the push for academic success sometimes clashes with providing young men the love and support they need to thrive.

Does something serious happen when we play? In this episode, TED speakers describe how all forms of amusement — tossing a ball to video games — can make us smarter, saner and more collaborative. Guests include psychologist Jeffrey Mogil, comedian Charlie Todd, psychiatrist Stuart Brown, primatologist Isabel Behncke Izquierdo and game designer Jane McGonigal. (Original broadcast date: March 27, 2015)

Too many young, black men struggle in America's education system. Washington D.C. is trying to do something about it with a new, boys-only high school. NPR's Cory Turner and Education Week's Kavitha Cardoza spent hundreds of hours there, reporting on the birth of a school built on one word: Love.

We think we're the ones who control what we see, read, think — and remember. But is that true? Who decides? And who should decide? This hour, TED speakers reveal just how easily we can be manipulated. Guests include design ethicist Tristan Harris, MSNBC host Ali Velshi, psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, and neuroscientist Steve Ramirez.

When a school shuts down, students lose more than a place of learning; they lose friends, mentors and a community. This is an experience that disproportionately affects black students in the U.S. Shereen Marisol Meraji looks at what it's like when a predominantly black suburb outside Pittsburgh loses its only public high school.

Even the most seemingly chaotic systems have some order to them. This episode, TED speakers explore the inner architecture of living systems, from ant colonies to corporations to social movements. Guests include biology professor Deborah Gordon, community organizer Morgan O'Neill, professor Zeynep Tufekci, business leader Ricardo Semler, and author Bruce Feiler. (Original broadcast date: April 24, 2015)

The haphazard response to Hurricane Maria has underscored the tricky, in-between space that Puerto Ricans occupy. They're U.S. citizens — although nearly half of the country doesn't know that. But those who live in Puerto Rico don't enjoy many of the same privileges as citizens on the mainland. In this week's episode, Shereen travels to one of the most Puerto Rican enclaves in the country to explore the fraught relationship Puerto Ricans have with their American-ness.