We’ll talk about the current state of microbial research with Rob DeSalle, curator of entomology in the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
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A Mammoth Discovery
This hour, we’ll talk about the painstaking process of putting a mammoth back together again with Anthony Fiorillo, the Perot Museum’s chief curator; and Ron Tykoski, its fossil preparator.
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DNA Testing’s Down Side
We’ll talk about the flaws in DNA testing with NYU Law professor Erin Murphy. She writes about the topic in “Inside the Cell: The Dark Side of Forensic DNA.”
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How Animals Learned To Fly
This hour, we’ll talk about how these animals developed this incredible ability with David Alexander, author of “On the Wing: Insects, Pterosaurs, Birds, Bats and the Evolution of Animal Flight.”
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Redesigning Humanity
This hour, we’ll talk about the ethics of changing who we are – and about how these technologies could redefine what it is to be human – with Vanderbilt history professor Michael Bess, author of “Our Grandchildren Redesigned: Life in the Bioengineered Society of the Near Future.”
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Your Brain On Technology
We’ll talk about how computers and smartphone actually diminish our ability to think clearly with UCLA professor Shlomo Benartzi, author of “The Smarter Screen.”
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Our Robot Future
This hour, we’ll talk about how close we are to a Jetsons-like existence with Pulitzer Prize-winning technology writer John Markoff, author of “Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots” (Ecco).
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Homo Naledi: A New Human Species
This hour, we’ll talk about how the discovery affects our understanding of our evolution with Lee Berger, the paleoanthropologist who led the excavation, as well as Marina Elliott and Hanna Morris, who were also on the team.
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Technological Intuition
This hour, we’ll talk about creating a world in which computers are able to predict our needs before we’ve even thought of them with Pedro Domingos, author of “The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World.”
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How Humans Took Over The World
We’ll talk about how we beat out all other animals to become the planet’s dominant species with Curtis W. Marean, associate director of Arizona State’s Institute of Human Origins.
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Forensic Anthropology And Fictional Adventures
This hour, we’ll talk to Kathy Reichs about injecting her experience as a forensic anthropologist into her most popular fictional character, Temperance Brennan.
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The Future Of Jobs
As more and more jobs are becoming automated, some workers are becoming obsolete. This hour, we’ll talk about what that means for the future of our workforce with Derek Thompson, whose story “A World Without Work” appears in The Atlantic.
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