Pope Francis has been recently hospitalized with respiratory problems, and now Catholics worldwide watch for news from the Vatican. Christopher White is the Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Register, and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the current pontiff’s health and history – and what being the first pope from Latin America means for his legacy and the church going forward.

Americans were once encouraged to “Go West, young man.” Now, people are increasingly sticking to their own, familiar neighborhoods. Yoni Applebaum is deputy executive editor of The Atlantic and author of “Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity.” He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how a decline in geographic mobility has reshaped the last 50 years – and his theory that it’s affecting our nation’s ingenuity and prosperity. His Atlantic companion piece is “Stuck in Place.”

“By Jove, I think I’ve got it!” A-ha moments can feel electrifying, but where do these bursts of insight come from? John Kounios is professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and director of the Creativity Research Lab at Drexel University. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what scientists understand about how the brain solves problems – and how we might tap into this phenomenon more often. His article “The Brain Science of Elusive ‘Aha! Moments’” was published in Scientific American.

If you’ve achieved a managerial position at work, that also means you’ve unlocked a whole new world of dealing with interpersonal conflict. Jim Guinn is president of the Resolution Resource Group, a training and development company. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how managers spend the equivalent of one full workday a week managing team problems and his plan for identifying stressors before they get out of hand. His book, written with co-author John Eliot, is “How to Get Along with Anyone: The Playbook for Predicting and Preventing Conflict at Work and at Home.”

Life-saving advancements have come a long way, but engineering artificial blood has been a challenge. Nicola Twilley is a New Yorker contributor and co-host of the podcast Gastropod. She talks to Krys Boyd about the breakthroughs — and setbacks — in the quest for artificial blood, why it’s needed more than ever, and why eyes are on Big Pharma to finance it. Her article is “The Long Quest for Artificial Blood.” 

President Trump has focused much of his first two months in office on slashing the federal bureaucracy – an effort that has already been met with lawsuits and protests. Andrew Cockburn is Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine, and he joins us to talk about why reigning in federal agencies has been a challenge for previous administrations – and if the Department of Government Efficiency has figured out how to do it.

The brain operates all of our thoughts, feelings and movements — and it also helps us adjust to a rapidly changing environment. This hour, host Krys Boyd is joined by three guests who will explain how we can regain our ability to focus and tame our overactive minds – plus we’ll learn all about the growing research into the many ways listening to music benefits our brains.

Gun violence reduction programs are often run by men and targeted to men. Meanwhile, Black women who are victims of domestic violence often are ignored. Abené Clayton is a reporter for the Guardian’s Guns and Lies in America project. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why Black women are especially vulnerable to gun violence and community violence, why root causes aren’t being addressed, and why the outreach programs that do exist are ineffective. Her article is “Two women make sense of a lifetime of abuse and gun violence: ‘How did I get here?’” 

Traditionally, men paid for dinner on dates and women just said, “thank you.” Today, however, lots more ladies are flush with cash and ready to spend. Certified clinical sexologist and dating coach Myisha Battle joins host Krys Boyd to discuss courtship in the modern world: who pays for what and why – and how the rise in women’s paychecks is upending dating norms. Her Time magazine article is “The Dating Wealth Gap Is Getting Wider.”

Journalist and author Alexander Clapp joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the countries that take our trash — and the ones that don’t — how much of what’s deemed recyclable actually gets made into something new and how we’re actually producing less trash today than a few decades ago.