Inquiring Minds

We team up with Stephanie Lepp from the Reckonings podcast and talk to sociologist Arlie Hochschild about whether or not this election is causing more people than usual to change their minds about politics. We then hear from two voters who did in fact make some kind of transformation during this election season—one young voter who was voting in his second presidential election and one long-time voter and political insider who has been voting for 40 years.

We talk to ecologist, conservationist and wildlife photographer Merlin Tuttle about his book The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals.

We talk to science writer Abigail Tucker about her new book The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World.

We talk to Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Professor at the University of California Davis MIND Institute, Director of the NIH-funded UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center, and co-founder of Project TENDR, a collaborative effort of scientists, clinicians, policy-makers and advocates that aims to decrease the incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders by reducing neurotoxicant exposures that contribute to them.

We talk to Stuart Firestein, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, about his latest book Failure: Why Science Is So Successful.

We talk to exoplanetary astronomer Sarah Ballard and congresswoman Jackie Speier about sexual harassment within the scientific community.

We talk to science journalist Judith Schwartz about her new book Water in Plain Sight: Hope for a Thirsty World.

We talk to science journalist Dave Levitan about his new book Not a Scientist: How Politicians Mistake, Misrepresent, and Utterly Mangle Science.

We talk to former Senior killer-whale trainer for SeaWorld and supervisor of Killer Whale Training for Marineland in the South of France about his book Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish.

We talk to biologist Carin Bondar about her new book Wild Sex: The Science Behind Mating in the Animal Kingdom.

We talk to award-winning British science writer Ed Yong about his recent book I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life.

We talk about the significance of collection museums with Emily Grasile, Chief Curiosity Correspondent at the Field Museum; Shannon Bennett, Chief of Science at the California Academy of Sciences; and Jack Dumbacher, chairman and curator of the California Academy of Science’s Department of Ornithology and Mammalogy.

We talk to Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University’s School of Medicine about his new book The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction.

We talk to Marek Glezerman, professor emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynecology and currently chairman of the Ethics Committee at the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University about his book Gender Medicine: The Groundbreaking New Science of Gender- and Sex-Based Diagnosis and Treatment.

We talk to Janna Levin, professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College and author of Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space.