The Connection with Marty Moss-Coane

We humans are the ultimate invasive species, transforming the planet in dramatic and surprising ways. In his work as a Princeton University biologist and host of the PBS series “Human Footprint,” Shane Campbell-Staton explores the biological impact humans have on the Earth and how nature is forced to adapt. He joins us to talk about the ways we are changing the world’s ecosystems, our inextricable connection to the plants and animals around us, and what this tells us about our own species.

Paula Marantz Cohen comes from a family of loud and opinionated talkers. She said her mother was the “maestro of the dinner table” because of her ability to regale her family with colorful stories about her life.

Cohen believes in the importance of meaningful conversation because it gives us joy, surprise and insight, and engages us with others. In her new book Talking Cure, Cohen says that the art of conversation is under threat from partisanship, social media, conformity and censorship.

Honest conversation, Cohen says, is not about scoring points or even winning arguments. It’s about being vulnerable, honest, curious and authentic. It’s good for our mental health and good for civic engagement. Paula Marantz Cohen is an English Professor at Drexel University and joins us to talk about talking.

Hiking through a spectacular mountain valley, singing in a church choir, or gazing at a masterpiece…all experiences that can elicit awe. What sparks that feeling of joy or wonder is different for everyone, but psychology professor Dacher Keltner says the emotion is universal.

His new book, Awe, explores how this emotion has propelled our evolution as a species and is beneficial to our mental and physical health. It can heal grief, it can build communal bonds, it taps into our childhood sense of wonder, it humbles us and makes us feel part of something larger than ourselves. He invites us to take “awe walks” by seeing the familiar with new and fresh eyes.

Keltner joins us this hour, along with Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Yumi Kendall, who shares how she experiences awe through music.

The New York Times, How a Bit of Awe Can Improve Your Health “In his book, Dr. Keltner writes that awe is critical to our well-being — just like joy, contentment‌ and love.”

Princeton University sociologists Kathryn Edin and Timothy Nelson have spent years trying to understand poverty and why families, generation after generation, can’t escape it. Their new book, The Injustice of Place. is about the country’s most disadvantaged communities, which are not in big cities. They are in Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the deep South and in Southern Texas.

Edin, Nelson and their co-author Luke Schaefer explore how these “internal colonies” have been exploited and abandoned by powerful industries. Left in their wake are hollowed-out towns struggling with violence, unemployment, addiction, and a loss of person-to-person connection. Edin and Nelson join us to talk about the importance of libraries, community and religious centers, bookstores, bowling alleys and places where people congregate to help reduce the destructive psychological impacts of deep poverty.

We’ll also talk with education advocate Tamala Boyd Shaw, who founded a charter school in Greenwood, Mississippi to give students an enriched learning environment, something she didn’t have growing up in Greenwood.

Author James McBride‘s new novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, starts with the discovery of a long-ago murder—a skeleton and mezuzah at the bottom of a well in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The story follows a Jewish woman, Chona Ludlow, who runs a grocery store in the 1930s neighborhood of Chicken Hill, where Jewish, Black and white immigrants live side by side. Some residents band together to protect one member of their community, a Black orphaned boy who is deaf.

McBride says the inspiration for the book came from the difficult life of his Orthodox Jewish grandmother, who he never knew.  His other award-winning titles include Deacon King Kong, The Good Lord Bird, and The Color of Water, his memoir recounting his childhood as the son of a Black father and white Jewish mother. Today, he joins us to talk about the power of community and love.

Conspiratorial thinking has always been a part of American political thought, but in recent years, fringe beliefs seem to be moving more into the mainstream. People who push disproven conspiracies like the 2020 election fraud lie and the Obama birther myth or rile support for radical groups like QAnon hold major political offices, sit in Congress, and even formerly occupied the White House.

Why do people believe far-out ideas that have been repeatedly debunked? Skeptic Magazine founder Michael Shermer walks us through the psychology of conspiracy theories, their appeal and the methods we need to detect them. Shermer’s new book is, Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational.

It’s hard not to be a little bit worried about AI and what future it brings when even leaders in the AI industry warn it’s dangerous. Writer Jeanette Winterson imagines possible futures in a recent collection of essays, 12 Bytes: How Artificial Intelligence Will Change How We Live and Love. She writes about how this new tech will alter our relationships, our sex lives, our religion, even how we think about death.

Winterson is the author of other acclaimed books, including the novels Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Frankisstein and the memoir Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? and she joins us on The Connection talk about AI and the possibility of a post-human future.

Parenting doesn’t stop once children reach adulthood, but it certainly changes. One of the big questions parents wrestle with is — how much should I be involved in my adult child’s life….when they are in college, starting their careers, finding romantic partners, and needing financial support? We talk with Temple University psychology professor Laurence Steinberg, who has written a guide to parenting twenty and thirty-somethings called, You and Your Adult Child.

Sports are certainly not real life, but award-winning sportswriter Sally Jenkins believes there are a lot of lessons to learn from playing games. Over her 40 year career, she’s talked with hundreds of elite athletes and coaches and found a lot of wisdom comes from the intense competition, practice, discipline and even failure. Jenkins shares insights gleaned from athletics in her new book, The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life.

All the bad news and stories of bad, even horrific, human behavior can overwhelm us, leading to a very pessimistic outlook on humanity. It overshadows the examples of people doing the right thing, acting generously, with kindness and empathy.

Social scientist and physician Nicholas Christakis says its actually our tendency toward goodness that has been a big driver in our evolution. Christakis runs the Human Nature Lab at Yale and was once a hospice physician, work that has informed his research.

He says our need for human connection is one of our most defining characteristics and he’s seen it expressed at the bedside of people at the end of life, holding onto loved ones in their final moments. Christakis joins us to talk about our social evolution, why friendship and love are vital to our species’ survival, and how he maintains his optimism for humankind.