To make real strides in conservation, you’ve got to follow the money. Journalist Emma Marris joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how preserving nature requires businesses and conservationists to better understand one another’s needs. The National Geographic September cover story is “America the Beautiful: New Ideas for Protecting Land, Water, and Wildlife.”

From over-the-top birthday parties to daily coffee breaks, rituals transcend cultures. Dimitris Xygalatas is an anthropologist and cognitive scientist who runs the Experimental Anthropology Lab at the University of Connecticut. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how both very small and very elaborate customs connect human behavior across centuries. His book is “Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living.”

Fractions can be confusing – and that’s not great news for communicators. James C. Zimring, Thomas W. Tillack Professor of Experimental Pathology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss percentages, probabilities, and the other data that can confound and even deceive us – and how to not fall into familiar, time-worn traps. His book is “Partial Truths: How Fractions Distort Our Thinking.”

This episode originally aired on July 19, 2022.

With our noses buried in screens and texts, it’s easier than ever to miss important social cues. Psychotherapist David J. Lieberman joins host Krys Boyd to discuss his ideas for how to pick up on subtext in spoken and written words, how to sniff out lies, and where to find the devil in the details. His book is “Mindreader: The New Science of Deciphering What People Really Think, What They Really Want, and Who They Really Are.”

This episode originally aired on August 11, 2022.

African and Jewish cooking are each the results of two cultures with histories of migration. Michael Twitty is a culinary and cultural historian and the creator of Afroculinaria, the first blog devoted to African American historic foodways and their legacies. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the ways Black food and Jewish food have influenced each other, and explores ways they impact identity. His book is called “Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew.”

When U.S. schools closed due to Covid, children were cut off from support networks. Education journalist Anya Kamenetz joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what happened during the pandemic when schools could no longer offer safety net programs and the lives of people across the country who were affected. Her book is called “The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children’s Lives, and Where We Go Now.”

We’ve all experienced a broken heart – and it might make you feel better that there is science that explains why. Journalist Florence Williams joins host Krys Boyd to discuss her painful divorce and how that led her to uncover the latest research on loneliness and its connection to health. Plus, we’ll hear about how she battled through sadness to find peace again. Her book is “Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey.”

This episode originally aired on January 31, 2022.

Is our current era of racial reckoning in America a third Reconstruction? Peniel Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Political Values and Ethics at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas at Austin. He joins host Krys Boyd to assess the current push for racial equality – from the election of Barack Obama to Black Lives Matter to the January 6th insurrection. His book is called “The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century.”

After Covid shut down the office, returning to a cubicle is a hard sell. Rani Molla, senior data reporter for Recode, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why some people don’t want to upend their work-from-home routine, some workers are put off by empty offices and absent coworkers, and how corporate America might move forward. Her article is “Why the return to the office isn’t working.”

This episode originally aired on June 28, 2022.

A fictional teen’s need to be recognized by her peers leads down a path of unintended catfishing on social media. Author Crystal Maldonado joins guest host Courtney Collins to discuss her YA novel that follows a high-school teen chasing Instagram likes, which leads to some bad decisions and hard lessons ahead. Her book is called “No Filter and Other Lies.”