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Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a man living in someone else's dream. The 1998 movie The Truman Show asks us to look at experience and reality with fresh eyes. Melinda Sue Gordon/The Kobal Collection/Paramount hide caption

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Melinda Sue Gordon/The Kobal Collection/Paramount

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

The Limits Of Simulation

February 28, 2014 • Could it be that we are living in a giant, convincing simulation? If so, we've got a lot to be mad about, says commentator Alva Noë.

Double Take 'Toons: Tombstoned In Arizona?

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Ed Hall

NPR Double Take

Double Take 'Toons: Tombstoned In Arizona?

February 28, 2014 • Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that could have allowed anti-gay discrimination. Dave Granlund thinks it wasn't a painless task, while Ed Hall argues it was fraught with unintended consequences.

A Cowboy Stunt Double Who Made The Stars Look Good

Dean Smith, doubling as Maureen O'Hara, with stuntman Lee McLaughlin on the set of McClintock! Courtesy of the Smith Family hide caption

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Courtesy of the Smith Family

The 86th Annual Academy Awards

A Cowboy Stunt Double Who Made The Stars Look Good

February 28, 2014 • For decades, Dean Smith doubled for Gene Autry, John Wayne and other Hollywood stars in some of America's most iconic Westerns. Those days are behind him, but Smith is still a cowboy at heart.

A Cowboy Stunt Double Who Made The Stars Look Good

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Two white-headed capuchin monkeys (also known as the white-faced capuchin or white-throated capuchin) on Gorgona island, off Colombia's Pacific coast. AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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AFP/Getty Images

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Feeling Down? Watching This Will Help

February 27, 2014 • It can be exasperating, when life throws a little unfairness your way. When that happens to commentator Barbara J. King, she watches this video featuring an experiment with two monkeys. It helps.

politicalcartoons.com Nate Beeler hide caption

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Nate Beeler

NPR Double Take

Double Take 'Toons: A Tankless Task?

February 27, 2014 • Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is proposing substantial reductions to the U.S. military's budget. Dave Granlund thinks the cuts go too far, while Nate Beeler imagines a second Battle of Pork Chop Hill.

Is Freedom Just An Illusion? Maybe We Don't Want To Know

A computer designed by hobbyists to look like a brain on display at a Berlin fair in 2012. What happens when we go from crude models to complete working simulations of this all-important organ? Britta Pedersen/DPA/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Britta Pedersen/DPA/AFP/Getty Images

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Is Freedom Just An Illusion? Maybe We Don't Want To Know

February 26, 2014 • As we learn more about the brain, we should ask whether learning too much might, ultimately, compromise our freedom. Simulating reality could be a threat to reality, warns commentator Marcelo Gleiser.

Fat Tuesday: The Many Different Doughnuts Of Mardi Gras

Emily Hilliard for NPR

Kitchen Window

Fat Tuesday: The Many Different Doughnuts Of Mardi Gras

February 26, 2014 • On the day of indulgence before the austere season of Lent, celebrate as you're meant to: with a hearty helping of dough and fat.

Double Take 'Toons: Get Over The Rainbow?

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Joep Bertrams

NPR Double Take

Double Take 'Toons: Get Over The Rainbow?

February 26, 2014 • Ugandan President Yoweri Musaveni signed a law that would punish homosexual acts with life in prison. Joep Bertrams sees dark days ahead, while Pat Bagley thinks some Americans have a twin mindset.

Imagine how much livelier baseball would be with a 14-inch home plate. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

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Alex Brandon/AP

Sweetness And Light

It's Time To Shrink Home Plate

February 26, 2014 • Commentator Frank Deford has a modest proposal to make baseball more interesting: cut an inch and a half off each side of home plate. It'd lead to a better game to both play and watch, he says.

It's Time To Shrink Home Plate

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For our Cabin Fever playlist, we asked for songs that get your blood pumping and body moving, despite weeks of cold, gray days. iStockphoto hide caption

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