History - Think

The many ironies of the 1990s

February 10, 2022 Culture, History

Author Chuck Klosterman talks about his examination of a decade or so defined by burgeoning tech and 9/11, plus Seinfeld and Oprah.

Is it time to move on from the Beatles and Stones?

February 1, 2022 Culture, Economics, History

Music historian Ted Gioia talks about why 70 percent of music demand today is for old songs, with publishing companies investing in vintage catalogs while ignoring new, emerging talent.

Ladies who lift: Women, exercise and power

January 27, 2022 Health, History

Danielle Friedman talks about how getting in shape morphed from simply being a beauty tool to a force for physical and emotional well-being, and what that says about feminism.

For historians, the past Is written in pencil

January 24, 2022 Culture, Current Events, History, Politics

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.

Pharaohs wrote the playbook for today’s dictators

January 17, 2022 Global Issues, History, Politics

UCLA Egyptologist Kara Cooney discusses her research into the Egyptian pharaohs and why their system of rule and religious beliefs can help us to understand why the many still so often give power to the few.

Beyond Biology: Rethinking What Makes A Family

November 24, 2021 Culture, History, Race/Identity, Science and Technology

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at the University of Cambridge and a professional fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge, joins us to talk about the outdated ideas we have about creating a happy home and the variety of parents out there who are thriving.

They served the U.S. – and are now being deported

November 16, 2021 Current Events, History, Politics, Think

Filmmaker John Valadez joins us to tell the story of Vietnam veterans who were served with deportation papers for misdemeanor offenses.

A statue of Harriet Tubman and some of the people she helped.

Black history is not just for Black people

November 8, 2021 Current Events, History, Race/Identity

Leonard Moore has taught Black history for more than 25 years, and he joins us to talk about asking students to consider uncomfortable questions about racism to move beyond words toward paths of reckoning and reconciliation.

When birth mothers were shamed into adoption

October 29, 2021 Culture, Health, History, Race/Identity

Gabrielle Glaser joins us to tell the story of how a system of closed adoptions across the nation operated on shifty moral ground and separated mother from child in the name of a wholesome environment.

Can someone else own your DNA?

October 28, 2021 History, Race/Identity, Science and Technology, Think

Law professor Jorge L. Contreras joins us to discuss a landmark case brought when the U.S. government issued patents to biotech companies to use human genes, and the field of human genetics law it created.

A Black scholar’s contrarian take on antiracism

October 27, 2021 History, Race/Identity, Think

Columbia University’s John McWhorter joins us to make the case that people of color are sometimes harmed by well-meaning antiracists who sometimes lose sight of the thing they are fighting against.

An illustration of a dark-haired woman dreaming of space

The science of your dreams

October 25, 2021 History, Mental Health, Science and Technology, Think

Neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro joins us to discuss how dreams are connected to how we learn and even how we understand our existence.