Mansoor Adayfi was held at Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp for more than 14 years without charges, and he joins us to tell his personal story of being kidnapped at age 18 by warlords in Afghanistan and sold to the U.S. after 9/11.
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They Had No Contact With Al Qaeda But Were Tried Like Terrorists
Filmmaker Dan Reed joins us to discuss the trial of the “Liberty City Seven,” accused of conspiring with al Qaeda to blow up U.S. buildings despite the fact that they didn’t have weapons or communicate with the organization.
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The Evolution Of Heaven
Catherine Wolff joins us to discuss the concept of heaven, how it’s been framed in art, literature and religion through the ages, and how that has changed with modern beliefs.
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Quarantines Aren’t Going Anywhere
Journalist Nicola Twilley joins us to talk about how and why quarantines have been used throughout history – and about how the technique has been updated to fight modern threats.
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For Democracy To Work, We Have To Participate
James Fishkin is a political scientist and director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford, and he joins us to explain the process of deliberative democracy – and demonstrate successes it’s already produced around the world.
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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.
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The Tension Between Public Health and Individual Liberty
Ed Yong received a Pulitzer Prize for his Covid coverage in The Atlantic, and he joins us to talk about how the pandemic is forcing the CDC to rethink its mission as it struggles to protect the greater good in an era of unchecked individualism.
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American Racism, As Viewed From Abroad
Brenda Gayle Plummer is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she joins us to talk about the deeply rooted tradition of fighting anti-Black racism by appealing to other countries, and what the global protest movement means for our democracy.
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How Political Myths Derail Progress
Nesrine Malik is a columnist and features writer for the Guardian, and she joins us to talk about how “wokeness,” “political correctness,” “free speech,” “cancel culture” and other shorthand terms are used to both drive and tamp down social justice movements.
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What’s The Longest You Can Possibly Live?
Steven Johnson is host of the PBS/BBC series “How We Got to Now,” and the “American Innovations” podcast. He joins us to talk about societal change that has pushed us to live older, fuller lives and why that’s dependent on the greater good.
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How The White House Is Courting Our Friends And Foes
Jonathan Tepperman is a former editor-at-large at Foreign Policy magazine, and he joins us to talk about how the Biden administration might strengthen the relationship with American allies – and about the growing threat from Russia, China and other adversaries.
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The Biology Of Trust
David Napier is professor of medical anthropology at University College London, director of the university’s Centre for Applied Global Citizenship, and director of its Science, Medicine, and Society Network. He joins us to discuss group dynamics and why public policy that values the collective good over individual interests is ultimately beneficial to everyone.
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