Have you not listened to Radiolab? Given your other NPR picks, it would seem to be right your your alley. Also, may I suggest one of my favorites, "How To Do Everything"?

My understanding is you only need to rise in hot (read: boiling) water if the tea has inclusions that are not tea such as fruit or is a fermented tea such as Pu'erh. This is not the case for sun tea which encourages bacteria growth.

If you want to be amazed by things again, you need to surround yourself with interesting things. One thing I've found that helps me find amazement and awe at the world around me is the podcast Radiolab. They can take any topic, even mundane ones, and make realize you've never really noticed those things before. Amazing!

I agree with that. We desperately need public spaces for ideas on the internet and the censorship was profoundly sad even if I didn't like the speech. I know the anger is justified, but perhaps the ugliness was not.

look at Reddit right now vs Digg

I think one big difference is the size and reach of the two communities. Digg was huge for its time, but I'm guessing Reddit is far larger than Digg ever was. Further Reddit has a larger presence in the mainstream media. Both of these differences are mostly due to Digg's and Reddit's respective places in time. Since Reddit is larger than Digg was, the angry percentage of users seems so much louder.

I also think the structure of Reddit, its greater reliance on the users to craft the experience of Reddit, lends to well-meaning, passionate people who just want to feel like the business side of Reddit values and respects them. Unfortunately, passion is easy to twist into anger.