University of Connecticut philosophy professor Michael Patrick Lynch joins us to talk about how people come to believe what they think they know, and why shared foundations of knowledge are crucial to the health of a democracy.
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Your Ancestors Were Not Helicopter Parents
Michaeleen Doucleff, correspondent for NPR’s Science Desk, joins us to discuss her journeys with her daughter, from the Arctic to the Yucatan, to understand parenting best practices around the world and why American parents may be getting it all wrong.
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What It Means To Be Asexual
Journalist and writer Angela Chen joins us to discuss her book – part-reporting, part-memoir – on the spectrum of human sexuality and the categories that often go ignored.
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Making Sense Of The World As A Black Queer Kid
Hari Ziyad, the editor-in-chief of the website RaceBaitr and a 2021 Lambda Literary Fellow, joins us to discuss their personal history of a queer and Black childhood, and about breaking down structures of institutionalized racism and violence.
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A Case For Rebuilding The Voting Rights Act
Vann R. Newkirk II, senior editor at The Atlantic and the host of the podcast Floodlines, joins us to talk about how the bill was originally perceived and passed, and what might happen if it again lands at the Supreme Court’s door.
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Why Is It Taking So Long To Get Your Covid Shot?
Kaiser Health News correspondent Rachana Pradhan joins us to explain the very complicated process of producing these vaccines – a process money or even executive orders can only do so much to speed up.
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How The Medical Research System Gets Around Informed Consent
Harriet A. Washington, a lecturer in bioethics at Columbia University, joins us to talk about her research into a patient’s right to decline a procedure and the ethics of forcing experiments or new treatments in the name of research.
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A Post-Mortem On Texas’s Colossal Energy Failure
University of Houston energy fellow Ed Hirs and Texas Water Resources Institute associate director Wendy Jepson join us to explain why one of the toughest weeks in Texas history was likely preventable – and what the state needs to do to make sure an energy disaster doesn’t strike again.
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Rethinking Russia’s Place On The International Stage
Kathryn E. Stoner is the deputy director of Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and she joins us to explain how Vladimir Putin has used his iron grip on domestic power to rachet up his country’s influence on international affairs.
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Economic Growth Isn’t The Answer To Inequality
Stephen J. Macekura of Indiana University joins us to make the case that an ever-increasing GDP isn’t the answer to inequality and other social issues.
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From Black Pain, Black Heroism
Jerald Walker, professor of creative writing at Emerson College, joins us to talk about his book of bracing – and often funny – essays.
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What Is Appalachia Without Coal Mining?
Jeff Young is managing editor of Ohio Valley ReSource, a regional journalism collaborative reporting on economic and social change in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. He joins us to discuss his investigations into the struggles of the people and businesses there, and why they don’t bode well for the future of the nation.
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