Stephanie Tam joins us to tell the story of one man’s quest for a lingua franca that would bridge communication and why it was blocked by colonial ideas of English superiority.
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How We Got To BIPOC
Christopher MacDonald-Dennis is chief diversity officer at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and he joins us to talk about the evolution of BIPOC and similar terms – and why some people embrace them while others don’t.
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Growing Up Racially Black … But Not Culturally Black In America
Louis Chude-Sokei, director of the African American studies program at Boston University, joins us to talk about his journey to understand his place in the Black diaspora.
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The Limits Of Identity Politics
University of Manchester sociology professor Gary Younge joins us to talk about how societies operate based on assumptions and privileges granted to people based on their identities.
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The Genesis Of The Bible
Kristin Swenson is an associate professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, and she joins us to talk about approaching the Bible anew with a sense of wonder and context.
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You’re Lying To Yourself – And That’s A Good Thing
Shankar Vedantam, host of NPR’s “Hidden Brain,” joins us to talk about the myriad ways we lie to ourselves on a daily basis and how that might actually help lead to a much happier life.
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The Scammers On The Other End Of The Line
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee is a contributing writer at National Geographic, and he joins us to talk about his journey into the world of telemarketers and their phone mills selling dubious products.
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A Mom, A Daughter And The Ocean In-Between
Author Elizabeth Miki Brina joins host us to talk about her efforts to reframe her life’s experiences through her mother’s eyes, and her attempts to understand the pain and loneliness of what it was like for her to leave her homeland behind.
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How Pocahontas Kept The Peace
Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Silver Professor of History Emerita at New York University, joins us to talk about how Pocahontas collaborated with a trio of English boys to keep communication flowing between the colonists and their Indian neighbors.
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Why Kendrick Lamar Is A Genius
Music journalist Marcus J. Moore joins us to talk about how this one-of-a-kind artist manages to push musical boundaries while remaining a top-selling pop culture icon.
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Is Appropriation In Art Always Wrong?
Paisley Rekdal, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Utah and the state’s poet laureate, joins us to discuss the places where identity intersects with politics, and why it’s important to confront the language we use when defining cultures.
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You’re Being Judged By How You Talk
Katherine Kinzler, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, joins us to talk about the biased ways we view dialects and accents.
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