KERA's Think

[2012-07-23 13:00:00] How does our country’s nearly eleven-year war in Afghanistan compare to the first time America was involved in the region over 30 years ago? We’ll spend this hour with Rajiv Chandrasekaran who examines the history of the American-Afghan relationship and the current state of the war in his new book “Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan” (Knopf, 2012).

[2012-07-23 12:00:00] What personality and character traits lead a person to run for the highest office in the land and how does the human persona of a president differ from the political persona? We’ll talk this hour with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss whose new biography is “Barack Obama: The Story” (Simon & Schuster, 2012).

[2012-07-19 13:00:00] How did a story assignment on the history of drug use lead to one journalist’s serious addiction? We’ll find out this hour with Steven Martin, author of the new memoir “Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave to a 19th Century Addiction” (Villard, 2012).

[2012-07-19 12:00:00] How did the British government and society react to the U.S. Civil War and what did both Union and Confederate powers expect from America’s former colonial master as the war heated up? We’ll talk this hour with historian Amanda Foreman, whose book “A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War” (Random House, 2012) is now out in paperback.

[2012-07-18 13:00:00] Who exactly is behind the global hacker collectives like Anonymous and what will the upcoming trial of several purported leaders of the movement mean for the future of on-line security? We’ll talk this hour with Parmy Olson, Forbes London bureau chief and author of the new book “We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency” (Little, Brown and Company, 2012).

[2012-07-18 12:00:00] Could a delayed and perhaps well-considered response to a pressing issue be of more benefit than the quick decision that our fast-paced world often demands? We’ll talk this hour with Frank Partnoy, founding director of the Center for Corporate and Securities Law at the University of San Diego and author of the new book “Wait: The Art and Science of Delay” (PublicAffairs, 2012).

[2012-07-17 13:00:00] How did an orphaned Ethiopian boy who was raised in Sweden become a rising star of the New York and international culinary scene? We’ll find out this hour with the man who did all that and more. His name is Marcus Samuelsson and he’s the owner of Red Rooster in Harlem and author of the new book “Yes, Chef: A Memoir” (Random House, 2012).

[2012-07-17 12:00:00] What does human society lose when a language disappears forever? We’ll talk this hour with Russ Rymer, whose piece “Vanishing Voices” appears in the July, 2012 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

[2012-07-16 13:00:00] How do the ways we depart from places, positions, and relationships inform and affect the other aspects of our lives? We’ll talk this hour with Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, the Emily Hargroves Professor of Education at Harvard University. She examines the topic in her new book “Exit: The Endings That Set Us Free” (Sarah Crichton Books, 2012).

[2012-07-16 12:00:00] Has the American dream become tarnished in the 21st Century and what can be done to renew and rethink the way our society defines and rewards success? We’ll talk this hour with MSNBC host Chris Hayes, author of the new book “Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy” (Crown, 2012).

[2012-07-12 13:00:00] From the archives - Why is our society divided and how do politics and our self-interests conspire to further fragment our culture? We talked last winter with Richard Sennett, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge and author of the new book "Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation" (Yale University Press, 2012).

[2012-07-12 12:00:00] From the archives - Everyone's got a love story. What's yours? In February we explored StoryCorps' most compelling narratives on love, courtship, sorrow, and commitment with StoryCorps founder and MacArthur "genius" grant recipient Dave Isay, whose new book is "All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps" (The Penguin Press, 2012).

[2012-07-11 13:00:00] From the archives – With thousands dead in the country’s drug war, Mexico is going through seriously tough times. But why is the country facing these challenges and what should the U.S. be doing to help its southern neighbor? We talked in January with Roderic Ai Camp, Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and author of “Mexico: What Everyone Needs to Know” (Oxford University Press, USA, 2011).

[2012-07-11 12:00:00] From the archives – Is health care one of the final frontiers for equality in America? We talked last year with Dr. Augustus A. White III, Professor of Medical Education and Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School. His recent book is “Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care” (Harvard University Press, 2011).

[2012-07-10 13:00:00] From the archives – Where did our law-related words and phrases originate and how did they become a common part of our everyday language? We found out last December with Elizabeth Thornburg, Professor of Law at SMU’s Dedman School of Law and co-author of “Lawtalk: The Unknown Stories Behind Familiar Legal Expressions” (Yale University Press, 2011).