James M. Banner, Jr. is founder of the National History Center of the American Historical Association, and he joins us to talk about why history is never really set in stone.
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The life-changing prospects of prom night
Author Navdeep Singh Dhillon discusses his YA novel set at a high school prom, where a young Sikh boy wants to radically change his identity.
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A YA Novelist Takes On Fatphobia
Author Crystal Maldonado joins us to discuss her YA novel about a young woman dealing with the typical subjects of boys and friends, but also a deepening understanding of how she’s viewed by the outside world.
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For Racial Justice, We Have To Get Past Our Shame
Shakil Choudhury is a consultant with 25 years of experience in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion training, and he joins us to talk about addressing racism with the science of psychology.
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Meet the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
Sarah Hepola discusses the organization from the inside out, from the glitz and glamour, to body image, sexualization and how the cheerleaders fit into #metoo today.
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The art of attention span
Kyle Chayka talks about nine works of art that challenge, cajole and actually still manage to hold our attention.
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What it’s like to grow up undocumented
Author Qian Julie Wang joins us to tell the story of her childhood in an undocumented family, how the experience shaped her life, and how she now views the American Dream.
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Why we find pleasure in pain
Paul Bloom joins us to discuss why we sometimes seek out pain — in everything from scary movies to marathons.
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How bad ideas spread
We’ll be joined by a journalist who writes about the changing media landscape, a linguist who explains how cults use very specific language to recruit new members, and a researcher who says bad ideas are parasites that infect our brains.
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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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Beyond Biology: Rethinking What Makes A Family
Susan Golombok, director of the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge and a professional fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge, joins us to talk about the outdated ideas we have about creating a happy home and the variety of parents out there who are thriving.
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The words we need that don’t exist
John Koenig joins us to discuss his work coining new words and phrases that he hopes will perfectly capture the nuance and beauty of specific moments in our lives when the words we have at our disposal fail.
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