Cathy Horyn, critic-at-large for The Cut at New York Magazine, joins us to discuss the aesthetics of the nation.
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How to lie with maps
New York Times editorial board member Greg Bensinger joins us to discuss the gaps between what maps represent and real-life knowledge.
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How Reggaeton Conquered Pop Music
Katelina Eccleston is a producer of the Spotify podcast “Loud,” and she joins us to tell the story of reggaeton’s humble origins and how it spread from Panama to Puerto Rico, Jamaica and now the U.S.
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Cat Moms And Granddogs: Your Multi-Species Family
SMU sociologist Andrea Laurent-Simpson joins us to talk about how our pets became our “fur babies” and what that tells us about the dynamics of what it is to be a modern family.
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How A Food Writer’s Dream Job Became A Nightmare
Essayist Wyatt Williams joins us to discuss his journey to Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, to join a community’s traditions of eating whale, and what it signifies for food culture for the rest of us.
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50 Seasons Of ‘Texas Country Reporter’
Bob Phillips joins us to talk about 50 seasons of the beloved Texas travel show and highlight some of the places and people that have made their mark on the state over the years.
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The Essential Jobs No One Wants
Eyal Press joins us to talk about everyone from drone pilots to workers on slaughterhouse floors and how we’re all complicit in jobs we wouldn’t want to hold ourselves.
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Meet The Creatures Living Above And Below Us
Two pioneering female scientists speak with us: one who describes life in the tops of trees as an eighth continent, and an oceanographer who studies bioluminescent marine animals that light up the ocean floor.
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Why People Obsess Over Pakistani Mangoes
Food writer Ahmed Ali Akbar joins us to discuss the backchannels of importing fruit, the lengths people will go to, and the customs bureaucracy that keeps foods from reaching American shores.
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The Science of Mind Control
Joel E. Dimsdale, distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, joins us to talk about mind control in the realms of religion, politics and society.
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The Gender Politics Of Contraception
Krystale E. Littlejohn, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, joins us to discuss why cis-gendered women are expected to prevent pregnancies, and how that reality underscores the gendered role of labor in America.
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How Sandra Day O’Connor Shaped The Supreme Court
Filmmaker Michelle Ferrari joins us to discuss the life and career of Sandra Day O’Connor, a nominee of President Ronald Reagan who became a critical swing vote on historic issues of race, gender and reproductive rights.
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