The quest to replace the sugar in our diets has led to a long list of artificial sweeteners, none of which tastes very close to the real thing. Journalist Nicola Twilley joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the food science that focused not on sugar replacements but instead on actually making sugar better. Her article “The Race to Redesign Sugar” appears in The New Yorker.

(This show originally aired December 8, 2020.)

Whether it’s the left side of the aisle or the right, people are entrenched in their views — and it’s getting us nowhere. Peter T. Coleman is a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University, and he joins host Krys Boyd to talk about applying methods of conflict resolution to work through our differences. His book is called “The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization.”

For decades, gay bars have created safe spaces for individuals to gather and be fully accepted as themselves. KERA’s Miguel Perez talks with host Krys Boyd about the significance of gay bars to LGBTQ life, in North Texas, the focus of a recent collaborative project between KERA and The Dallas Morning News. And later in the hour, Oberlin College sociologist Greggor Mattson talks about what the closure of so many of these spaces during the pandemic has meant to the communities they serve.

On this week’s episode: the unspoken challenges of paying your way through college and the underlying inequities students of color encounter on and off the campus.

The best advice must be utterly sincere, but it doesn’t hurt to add some humor to the mix. John Paul Brammer is an author, illustrator and advice columnist of “¡Hola Papi!” on Substack. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss being gay, bi-racial, finding his footing with family and relationships, and all the wisdom he’s tried to impart to eager followers of his work. His new book is “Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons.”

Egalitarianism in institutions of higher learning has always been a myth — inequality was built in from the beginning. Adam Harris, a staff writer at The Atlantic, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why Black students have always been an afterthought in higher education, the legacy that has created, and the road toward reckoning with this discrimination. His new book is “The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal — and How to Set Them Right.”

When the lights went out in Texas during the winter storm, more than 200 died and millions are left wondering what happened? Mose Buchele, a reporter and host at Austin public radio station KUT, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the worst blackout in the state’s history and how our drive to operate on a grid separate from the rest of the country contributed to the problem. His KUT podcast is called “The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout.”

The best public health campaigns are invisible by design. Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician, public health professor at George Washington University and former Baltimore health commissioner. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss her work in the area of public health on everything from opioid addiction to disease outbreaks to infant mortality. Her book is called “Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health.”

Mike Lindell made a fortune with My Pillow, but he’s better known these days for his obsessive quest to prove fraud in the 2020 election. Should that be keeping the rest of us up at night? Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a fellow at SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. She joins host Krys Boyd to talk about spending time with Lindell to talk through his claims – and about how his constant presence in the media helps to legitimize those claims with many Americans. Her recent article in The Atlantic is headlined “The MyPillow Guy Really Could Destroy Democracy.”

The FBI’s role in counterterrorism changed after 9/11. Did it go too far? Filmmaker Dan Reed joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the trial of the “Liberty City Seven,” accused of conspiring with al Qaeda to blow up U.S. buildings despite the fact that they didn’t have weapons or communicate with the organization. His Frontline documentary “In The Shadow of 9/11” premieres tonight on PBS stations.