Bettye Kearse joins us to talk about tracing her own heredity, which lead her to an enslaved woman and a head of state.
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What Our Clothes Reveal About Us
Shahidha Bari, professor of fashion cultures and histories at the London College of Fashion, joins us to talk about what we’re telling the world when we put on a ballgown – or a pair of worn-out jeans.
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A Nine Letter Word For Diversion: Crossword
Adrienne Raphel joins us to talk about how these newspaper throw-ins became a fixture of daily life.
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MLK and Malcolm X Were More Alike Than You Realize
Peniel E. Joseph, founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas at Austin, joins us to talk about the relationship between the most recognized leaders of the Civil Rights era.
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When Science Misses The Forest For The Trees
Lulu Miller, co-founder of NPR’s “Invisibilia,” joins us to talk about her study of the first president of Stanford University, a taxonomist obsessed with fish, and how his discoveries — and ultimately his intellectual myopia — helped her to make sense of her own world.
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An Astronaut’s Guide To Sheltering In Place
Mike Massimino, a NASA astronaut, joins us to talk about how he learned to adapt to a confined space while in space.
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Our 100-Year Battle With Pandemics
Medical historian Mark Honigsbaum joins us to talk about why bacterial and viral disasters continue to take us by surprise.
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Art Makes Money, While Artists Don’t
Music historian Ted Gioia joins us to talk about how we value art.
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In a Crisis, Listen to Your Elders
Dr. Karl Pillemer, professor of gerontology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, joins us to look at our current crisis through the eyes of people who can say from experience that “this, too, shall pass.”
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Who’s Still Listening To America?
Graham Allison joins us to talk about how this tricky balance of power is maintained – and about what happens when one superpower steps into another’s turf.
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An Astrophysicist Searches The Cosmos For Meaning
Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics and director of Columbia University’s Center for Theoretical Physics, joins us to talk about the many ways we contemplate our existence.
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Why Do We Still Have The Electoral College?
Jesse Wegman, a member of the New York Times editorial board, joins us to talk about how the power behind millions of individual votes can disappear with the decision of a single elector.
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