In an attempt to heal a bitterly divided country after the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln preached moderation and forgiveness. John Avlon, senior political analyst and anchor at CNN, joins guest host John McCaa to discuss Lincoln as peacemaker, his approach of reason over brute strength, and how that was derailed after his assassination. His book is “Lincoln and the Fight for Peace.”

Often, when we fall, it helps to simply look up and find hope in what’s above us. Hakeem Oluseyi is professor of physics and space sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology and has served at Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his early life, when he struggled with inequality, poverty and addiction, and how he found his way out by studying the stars. His book, co-authored with Joshua Horwitz, is “A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars.”

This episode originally aired July 1, 2021.

Sometimes the hardest story to tell is your own. Melissa Febos teaches in the nonfiction writing program at the University of Iowa, and she joins host Krys Boyd to discuss writing her memoir, walking the line between vulnerability and over divulgence, and to offer guidance to other aspiring writers on how to begin their journey. Her book is called “Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative.”

This episode originally aired on Mar 17, 2022.

The glass ceiling may be broken, but the aspersions cast against mothers in the workplace remain. Lara Bazelon is a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss her argument that pursuing career goals is central to raising healthy, happy children – and that aspiration is part of the work-life balance. Her book is called “Ambitious Like a Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career is Good for Your Kids.”

Powerful oil companies have known about the deleterious effects of climate change for decades. Filmmaker Dan Edge joins host Krys Boyd to discuss his new Frontline documentary, which looks into what scientists, politicians, lobbyists and the public knew about climate change and how oil companies cast doubt on global warming to influence policy to their benefit. The three-part series is called “The Power of Big Oil.”

As our understanding of gender evolves, it might be helpful to think about the topic by expanding beyond humans to include all primates. Frans de Waal is professor emeritus of primate behavior at Emory University and the former director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss challenges to what’s understood about masculinity and femininity and the limitations of gender binary thinking. His book is “Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist.”

The neuroscience of love is as complex as human nature. Stephanie Cacioppo is a neuroscientist who studies social connections and the neurobiology of romantic love and loneliness. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss her story of love and loss, and what she’s learned about what makes us fall in love and what breaks our hearts. Her book is called “Wired for Love: A Neuroscientist’s Journey Through Romance, Loss, & the Essence of Human Connection.”

We rely on artificial intelligence to choose our movies, our music, even our dates. At this point, are we blindly following where it leads us? Three experts join us to talk about algorithms in our lives and the consequences of turning over so much power to them. Journalist Chris Jones talks about re-learning how to think for ourselves; Greg Beringer of The New York Times discusses the geopolitical influences of our digital maps; and Karen Hao of MIT Technology Review talks about Facebook’s “machine learning” algorithms.

A growing number of activists are prepping for the fall of Roe v Wade. Journalist Jessica Bruder joins host Krys Boyd to discuss networks of “community providers” – those who perform abortions outside the medical establishment for women who cannot access care for themselves. Her article, published in The Atlantic, is called “The Abortion Underground.”

You can exercise free will… unless a predictive algorithm gets there first. Carissa Véliz of Wired magazine joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the increasingly ever-present A.I. in our lives, from putting us into categories to predicting the language of our texts, and what that means for human agency now and far into the future. Her article is called “If AI is predicting your future, are you still free?”