How does the human mind really work? Our guest this hour is Gary Marcus, professor of Psychology at New York University, who argues that the mind is not the elegant machine it imagines itself to be. His book is “Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind” (Houghton Mifflin, 2008).
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Will genocide ever become a thing of the past? We’ll discuss the horrors of both historical and current genocide this hour with photojournalist and activist Lane H. Montgomery, author of “Never Again, Again, Again…Genocide: Armenia, The Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Darfur” (Ruder Finn Press, 2008).
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Is cancer becoming contagious? We’ll spend this hour with journalist David Quammen, whose current Harper’s Magazine cover story, “Contagious Cancer: The Evolution of a Killer,” examines the on-going advancement of the disease.
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What do we really know about sex? Science writer Mary Roach is back with her latest book “Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex” (Norton, 2008). Roach will join us for the hour.
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Should elections be less competitive? We’ll talk this evening with UTD Associate Professor of Political Science, Thomas L. Brunell, Ph. D.. His new book is “Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections are Bad for America” (Routledge, 2008).
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How do blogs influence the political landscape and what impact will bloggers have on Election 2008? We’ll spend this hour with David D. Perlmutter, professor and associate dean for graduate studies and research at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. His new book is “Blogwars: The New Political Battleground” (Oxford University Press, 2008).
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Can the United States regain a position of global leadership, in spite of the liberal-conservative political divide within our country? Former Clinton Administration Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott thinks so. Now president of the Brookings Institution, Talbott will join us this hour to discuss his new book “The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation” (Simon and Schuster, 2008).
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We often hear of the divide between the superpowers and the developing world, but what about the countries that occupy that divide – countries like Brazil, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan – and the power they wield? We’ll talk this hour with Parag Khanna, author of the new book “The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order” (Random House, 2008).
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How has energy development in the Southwestern United States affected the indigenous populations of the region? SMU’s Clements Center for Southwest Studies will examine this question from many angles with a symposium – “Indians and Energy: Exploitation and Opportunity in the American Southwest” this Saturday, April 12th. We’ll talk with symposium participant, Professor Brian Frehner, of Oklahoma State University this hour.
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Can we turn our environmental record around? We’ll talk this hour with James Gustave Speth, co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council and author of the new book “The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability” (Yale, 2008).
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Where is Osama bin Laden? We’ll discuss the question and ponder potential answers this hour with filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. His new film is appropriately titled “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?”
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What made Fort Worth great? Before you argue that cattle put Cowtown on the map, consider the importance of Art in the city’s 20th Century rise to prominence. We’ll do just that this evening with Dave Hickey, Fort Worth native, art critic, and Schaeffer Professor of Modern Letters at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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