We continue our series on “The End” all week. Wade Davis, explorer in residence for the National Geographic society joined the show. He talked about the importance of  preserving cultures and the happens when languages disappear, “A language is not just vocabulary or grammar, it’s a flash of the human spirit,” he said.

We asked listeners to share which of your cultural traditions are worth preserving.

Listeners weighed in via text message:

From Denver, Colo.: Oral traditions as an African American. Traditions passed from one generation to the next; recipes, how to raise children and home remedies!

From Pontiac, MI: Telling "useful lies", parables if you will. A story doesn't have to have happened to be "true."

From Key West, Fla.: Food! My Hungarian grandmother just passed and most of her recipes have inaccurate measurements with lots of "to taste" as amount to use.

From Jersey City, NJ: The tradition of celebrating both Chanukah and Christmas because it's important to celebrate the season with all family and friends, regardless of what religion they are or if they're religious as all.

And commented on our website:

Rachel:

I'm Jewish, so I was raised with the idea that knowledge and traditions are supposed to be handed down. At the Passover Seder, we are reminded in multiple places that we were slaves in Egypt and must teach our children that this is their story.

As for my own family, we have Passover melodies that we have never heard anywhere else. I think they're probably Lithuanian (based on our Yiddish pronunciations), and I wish I could find other people who knew them, or people who wanted to learn them.

Jeff Smoalne from Newark, DE:

I would want to preserve, among other things the idea of a judicial system. Where arguments can be decided on by a fair and impartial arbitrator instead of relying on violence, war or destruction.I would be very happy on the other hand to see ideas like Christian Science left behind since they are based on religious prestidigitation and have no reason to exist anyway and doesn't offer one bit of worthwhile to the world.

DHBuettner from Boston, Mass.:

The one tradition that I would hand down from generation to generation is Christian Science. The beliefs and knowledge collected from people's healings and the articles written offer insight to how God heals. There is the History of the Holy Bible, Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, the Hymnals, Sentinels, Journals, Harolds, Monitors, and back issues in bound volumes and electronic format. Besides Christian Science there are other religions that I would be interested in handing down as well. This is slowly going away and needs some rejuvenation to keep it alive in modern society in case society needs to know about intelligent transparent or invisible entities or God like beings that have existed for millions of years.

Johnny Mervell from Athens, Greece:

Which of them would I save?? All of them, obviously. If we keep letting nations, like those in North America, suppress other cultures on the planet into one blob of neutral cultureless robots like them, there won't be anything left.

Carl from Washington called 877 8 MYTAKE to say:

I believe it is noble to attempt to preserve cultures but at the same time we need to keep in mind one of the teachings of the Buddha that is everything changes, nothing is permanent. Everything changes, nothing is permanent.

We're continuing this conversation all week. So weigh in! Add your comments on The Takeaway website, call in to 877-8-MYTAKE, check out our Facebook page, and follow us on Twitter.