James Bennett II joins us to talk about why beer is often conflated today with a rich, white world and why something as simple as the backyard BBQ is essential to understanding how America chooses to drink.
Read more
Rights Shouldn’t Be A Zero-Sum Game
Columbia Law professor Jamal Greene joins us to talk about why courts have an outsized role in determining what Americans fight for and against, a method he says is out of line with what the framers of the Constitution envisioned.
Read more
When Kids Carry Their Identities In Their Lunchboxes
Jaya Saxena is a staff writer at Eater, and she joins us to talk about what it’s like to feel like an outsider simply because of what your well-meaning parents packed you for lunch.
Read more
How A Girl Becomes A Woman
Melissa Febos joins us to talk about the flawed ways we ask children to shape their identities from puberty and her own coming-of-age story as she worked to find her voice and set boundaries.
Read more
The Rich Skip The Line While The Rest Of Us Wait
New York Times business reporter Nelson Schwartz joins us to talk about how easy for some it is to buy convenience – and about how corporations have shifted strategies to cater to the wealthy in order to increase the bottom line.
Read more
When Mom Left, Thank God For Grandma
Danielle Henderson, TV writer and cohost of the film podcast “I Saw What You Did,” joins us to discuss her experience being raised by her grandmother after her mother abandoned her – and about how her love of horror movies taught her to have faith in herself.
Read more
A Plan For Piecing America Back Together
George Packer, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins us to discuss what he sees as four separate narratives dividing the country, and what each story says about the health of our nation as a whole.
Read more
New To America? Here’s Where To Start
Roya Hakakian joins us to talk about her instruction manual for newcomers to this country, acting as tour operator for all the wonder of American sights and sounds.
Read more
McDonald’s and Black America
Marcia Chatelain, an associate professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown, joins us to talk about the relationship between McDonalds and black business owners.
Read more
Your Personality Isn’t Set In Stone
Christian Jarrett, a cognitive neuroscientist and deputy editor of Psyche, joins us to talk about the five types of personalities and how we can become a better version of our current selves.
Read more
The Unintended Consequences Of Vaping
Health and science journalist Laura Beil joins us to talk about how a pair of graduate students created the Juul vape pen in hopes to end smoking. Instead, they created another health hazard more attractive to teenagers than the one they were trying to end.
Read more
Imagine If Every Weekend Was A Three-Day Weekend
Joe Pinsker, staff writer for The Atlantic, joins us to discuss why productivity needn’t rely on a traditional five days of work — and how some companies have cut office hours and found a boost in output and morale.
Read more