Podcasts are great. In the beginning, at least in my experience, they were a way to listen to specific NPR shows that I didn't otherwise have time to sit and listen to. These days they tend to be more just random awesome people talking about fascinating cool things, but there's still one radio ep I recommend to everyone: Buttons Not Buttons, from Radiolab.

I don't want to spoil it, so I'll say only that it deals, partially, with taking responsibility for the decisions we make. I'll preface it only by saying:

If I stab you, it takes effort and intent. I need to take that knife and shove, hard. I need to want it. I need to try. Effort- high. And maybe I kill you, but with standard medical intervention your odds are actually pretty high, even if I hit something somewhat vital. I also, of course, can only stab one person at a time. So harm done- low.

It's about the ratio, effort:harm. In this case, effort is high and harm is low. Thus, acceptable; or as acceptable as this sort of thing gets. Compare to a gun, where all I have to do is move my little finger. Low effort, that can easily kill you and, depending on circumstances, everyone around you. By accident. High harm. Or let's say medium, anyway, to save room for the next level. In any event the ratio is getting worse.

I lived in Japan for over two years, back in the early 2000s. In the last week before I left, I took an overnight bus with my friend D to Hiroshima. The bus left at 7pm and arrived at 7am, and we sat in the back and drank the worst red wine I've ever had, that we bought at a 7-11 because you can do that in Japan, playing Drink While You Think. Hiroshima is, these days, a very nice, modern city. I don't remember much of what we did there. Played around in those sticker photo booths that were all the rage at the time? Ate okonomiyaki? (Every town in Japan has the one food they're famous for, and if you go there you have to eat it or you will never hear the end of it.) But I remember the museum.

I think at some point I had the idea that dropping the bomb(s) was a terrible but necessary act. That may be true. It's not like the rest of the war, the standard war, was horror-free. Maybe the bomb saved lives. Maybe, at any rate, it saved American lives. It was also an atrocity. People melted. It caused a level of harm (that lasted for years, and can still be felt) far beyond what any human should be able to inflict on another. It may have been necessary, but it should never have been conceivable.

And these days there wouldn't even be men in a plane. There would be a drone, or just a launch. Someone somewhere would push a button. Effort- low. Harm- catastrophic and inhuman. Not a ratio I'm okay with. So that's where Buttons Not Buttons comes in, with an idea about how to go a little way, anyway, toward redressing that imbalance.

(If you're looking for other podcasts, over the years I've listened to This American Life, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, 99% Invisible, You Must Remember This, Bon Appetit, and most recently,Harry Potter & the Sacred Text.

RECIPE: Harissa & Maple Roasted Carrots, because once you've roasted carrots you will never go back.