The Human Adventure

"A university’s job is to learn. To learn the nature of things, so that you and all mankind may benefit from its knowledge."

One of the most important centers of learning in the world is the University of Chicago. The University was incorporated in 1890 thanks to a donation from oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, the wealthiest man in history. Located in "the City with Big Shoulders", the University has a strong footing in subjects involving commercial utility and applied sciences, but also emphasizes theoretical and perennial issues.

The Human Adventure program was a collaboration between the Columbia Broadcasting System and the University of Chicago. The program differed from its contemporary series, The NBC University of the Air, in that it made no pretense of being an audio classroom. Both were informative and thought provoking, as well as being good entertainment. Part of the premise of University of the Air was that various schools would use the broadcasts as part of their course work. Essentially, students received college credits for listening to the radio.

NBC University of the Air programming was highly entertaining, even for listeners who were not taking the class. After all a great story from the world of literature is still a great story! The Human Adventure was directed towards the layman rather than the student. Topics included history, archeology, medical science, technology, social science and more. Each episode was informative and entertaining, usually using a drama along with a classroom lecture format to introduce the week’s subject.

Typical was the June 29, 1940, episode, "The Story Of The Birth Of A Baby". The show began predictably enough with a young wife informing her busy husband that she was expecting, and then moved into the history of modern obstetrics. By the end of the program, the listener was by no means qualified to perform a medical procedure, but he would have a better understanding of what medical science is doing for the health of his family. It may even have the effect of inspiring a young listener to enter a university and eventually make their own contributions.

Like University of the Air, The Human Adventure was sustained by the network, and after the 1940 season the "Tiffany Network" no longer had a place in its lineup for the educational broadcast. The University of Chicago still felt there was a good deal of value in the program, and managed to bring it back on the air from the studios of WGN who sent it out over the Mutual Network. Although scheduling was less consistent on Mutual, the scope of the program became even grander. In one episode, Bela Lugosi was featured playing a researcher exploring the Amazon jungle for new medicines, a scientist for good rather than the evil scientists he often portrayed on the screen. In another addition, Clifton Fadiman and Colonel Stoopnagle collaborate in an attempt to explain Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in a single 30-minute broadcast.