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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Why The Civil War Was Bloodiest At Its End
S.C. Gwynne joins us to talk about how an increase in violence in the war’s final year actually helped bring it to a close.
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Where Did Music Come From?
Music historian Ted Gioia joins us to talk about the outsiders that pushed music forward, throughout history.
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The Man Who Invented CSI
UT-Austin journalism teacher Kate Winkler Dawson joins us to talk about an early criminologist who developed the forensic science we still use today: blood splatter evidence and fingerprinting, among other techniques.
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