Monday, we’re talking about a homegrown American success: coyotes. The country has been at war with the iconic species since white settlers first reached the heartland plains. But coyotes, according to biologist Dan Flores, not only survived our assault on them, they simultaneously expanded their range across the continent and into our cities. Flores joins us to explore the coyote’s fascinating story of resilience and adaptability and how it parallels our own version of Manifest Destiny.

In the fall of 1843, Charles Dickens was in something of a mid-life crisis. His marriage was troubled, his career tottering, his finances on the verge of collapse. He even considered giving up writing. He didn’t, of course. Instead, he wrote his most famous work, A Christmas Carol , in just six weeks, and then self-published it. As the historian and writer Les Standiford notes, Dickens’ famous Christmas tale didn’t just change his life, it reinvented the way we celebrate the holiday. We’ll talk

What should the future look like? That’s the question posed by ambitious, sometimes delusional Americans in the early 1800s who dedicated themselves to creating new ways of living. You had Mother Ann Lee’s Shakers; the Oneida community in New York; New Harmony, Indiana; intentional communities inspired by French socialist Charles Fourier; and the roots of a communist paradise in Texas. Thursday, the writer Chris Jennings joins us to explore the idealism and the lasting impact of these five

When it set sail from New York on May 1, 1915, the Lusitania bore a full manifest of passengers and the ingenuity and hubris of its era. It was immense and luxurious, the fastest civilian ship in service. It was also under threat. The Germans declared that British ships sailed “at their own risk,” a risk the Lusitania’s operators perilously defied. They claimed theirs was the safest ship at sea. Wednesday, the writer Erik Larson joins us to recount the disastrous tale of the Lusitania’s last

David Brower is widely regarded as the father of the modern environmentalism movement. He served two decades as executive director of the Sierra Club and fought fiercely to defend wilderness and rivers in the American West. Supporters admired his passion, vision, and unyielding efforts, while his opponents found him polarizing and reckless. In his book, the journalist Robert Wyss explores Brower’s complicated personal life and his fearless stewardship of the environmental movement. (Rebroadcast)

Journalist Adam Cohen has said if you want to learn about an institution, you look at where it’s gone wrong. For Cohen, Buck v Bell is a moment when the US Supreme Court went terribly wrong. Its 1927 decision upheld eugenics laws, and led to the forced sterilization of Carrie Buck and some 70,000 “undesirables” declared “feebleminded.” Monday, Cohen joins us to explain how Americans - and some of our most revered legal minds - succumbed to racism and classism in the name of “uplifting” the human

Charles Foster wanted to know what it was like to be a beast. What it was really like. So he tried it out. He slept in a dirt hole and ate earthworms like a badger. He chased shrimp like an otter. He spent hours rooting in trash cans like an urban fox. A passionate naturalist, Foster came to realize that every creature creates a different world in its brain and lives in that world. He joins us to talk about his experiment and the values of wildness, both outside us and within us. (Rebroadcast)

If you’re worried that the word “literally” now means “figuratively,” or if you fret that acronyms are replacing actual words, today’s show will do one of two things: make you pull out your hair, or it’ll change your mind. The linguist John McWhorter says that changes to the English language are nothing new. Language, he says, isn’t some static thing that just is , “it’s actually something always becoming .” McWhorter will join us to discuss how languages evolve and why we should embrace the

NPR music critic Bob Boilen says 2016 was a year of surprises—good and bad. It started in January with the unexpected release of a new David Bowie album. Two days later, Bowie was dead. That loss, and many others, was bookended by a terrific new record by Leonard Cohen, who then also passed away. Both are in Boilen’s list of the top 10 albums of 2016, which includes debutants, hidden gems, and another elder statesman. Boilen joins us Wednesday to talk about his picks for the best music of the

Tuesday, we’re telling the story of the unconventional relationship that deeply influenced Eleanor Roosevelt. When FDR entered the White House in 1932, Eleanor feared her independent life would take a back seat to the ceremonial role of first lady. But on the campaign trail she had met Lorena Hickok, a feisty reporter who would become her advisor, confidante, and lover. Biographer Susan Quinn joins Doug to explain how Eleanor and “Hick” used their bond to better depression-ravaged America.