Think from KERA

How you say “park the car at Harvard yard” is a pretty good indicator of where and how you grew up –- one little sentence with a lifetime of prejudices baked in. Katherine Kinzler, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the biased ways we view dialects and accents. Her book is “How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do—And What It Says About You.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed that his kids “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” And in the years that followed, it seems Hollywood didn’t quite get the message. Justin Gomer is an assistant professor of American studies at California State University, Long Beach, and he joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the films of the 1970s and 80s and how the portrayal of race worked against gains of the Civil Rights movement. His book is called “White Balance: How Hollywood Shaped Colorblind Ideology and Undermined Civil Rights.”

Tembi Locke wasn’t expecting to find a husband on a vacation to Italy. And she also couldn’t have known she was setting herself up for tragedy. The actor and author talks to host Krys Boyd about love and loss: from finding her soulmate in Florence to his death from cancer, to the decision to travel back to her husband’s Sicilian hometown to find herself — and her family — again. Her book is called “From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home.”

From colonial times to the Civil War, policing meant oversight of slave societies. Those racist policies of the past have moved through time, codified in many ways into the present. Josie Duffy Rice is a journalist and president of The Appeal, a news publication that covers the criminal justice system. She joins host Krys Boyd to talk about why the idea of policing as we know it must be upended because it views “Black safety” as fundamentally separate from “white safety.” Her article in Vanity Fair is called “Abolition’s Promise.”

You are what you eat. It’s time you heard that not just from your general physician but from your therapist as well. Dr. Uma Naidoo is founder and director of the Nutritional Psychiatry Service at Massachusetts General Hospital and on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. She joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how science shows foods like blueberries –-and sadly, not cookies — are keys to mental health and cogitative function. Her new book is called “This is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and More.”

For 85-years, the American Legion has run a mock government boot camp, teaching young men to campaign and win faux elections. And along the way, participants learn how far closely-held convictions will bend before they break. Filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine join host Krys Boyd to talk about a national program for high school students to learn the nuts and bolts of U.S. government by creating it themselves, which they capture in their documentary “Boys State,” airing on Apple TV +.

The nation has found itself up against what we hope is a massive, once-in-a-century public health emergency. And compared to other developed nations, we’ve failed on several fronts. Tom Frieden directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2009-2017 and began his tenure facing the H1N1 pandemic. He talks with host Krys Boyd about the current response to COVID-19 and what America needs to do to prepare for future global outbreaks. This conversation is part of this year’s virtual Texas Tribune Festival.

Inside our individual worlds we’re asking, “when will this all end?” The answer, at least when it comes to the actual universe, is give or take a couple billion years. North Carolina State University theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the math, science and mystery that allows space to predict our demise back here on Earth. Her book is “The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking).”

To chart the seasons, look to tree leaves. To understand the past, look inside to the tree’s rings. Valerie Trouet, associate professor in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about what we can learn by looking inside tree trunks – everything from the science of climate change to momentous occasions in human history. Her book is called “Tree Story: The History of the World Written in Rings.”

In the work from home, shelter-in-place era, why would anyone put on a pair of heels or knot a tie? Dana Thomas joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how the pandemic is reshaping our shopping habits and forcing the fashion industry to figure out how to survive on selling baggy tees. Her book “Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes” is newly out in paperback.