A phrase no one wants to hear these days is: “Things will get worse before they get better.” George Friedman, geopolitical forecaster and chairman of Geopolitical Futures, joins host Krys Boyd to give us a bird’s-eye view of global politics, why the current political vitriol has long-lasting effects, and his predictions for how diplomacy moves forward in a divisive age. His book is called “The Storm Before the Calm: America’s Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond.”

The current outbreak of COVID-19 is affecting everything from health policy to military strategy. Frank M. Snowden, the Andrew Downey Orrick Professor Emeritus of History and History of Medicine at Yale University, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how infectious outbreaks — both terrifying and romanticized — have shaped our world, which he writes about in “Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present.”

If you own a car, a house, and have two children (preferably a boy and a girl), you are assumed to be the perfect American family. But that, David Brooks argues, is built on a house of cards. The New York Times columnist joins host Krys Boyd to talk about why depending on a small, concentrated support network is not only ahistorical but also reserved for the “financially fortunate.” His story “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake” appears in The Atlantic.

The World Health Organization declared coronavirus a pandemic, and now the world economy is in serious peril. David Wilcox, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, joins host Krys Boyd for a conversation about the alarming dive to a bear market and how the nation might weather this growing storm.

Sept. 7, 1940 in Britain began as a perfectly pleasant day. By 5 p.m., the German bombing started, which continued for 57 consecutive nights. Life changed in an instant and citizens looked to their leader, “The Bulldog,” for guidance. Author Erik Larson joins host Krys Boyd to talk about Winston Churchill’s bold leadership style that willed his nation back from the brink. Larson’s new book is called “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz.”

The relief after a prison release is often followed by a hard landing: no job, no home, no safety net and a system too overloaded to help parolees from going back to jail. Jason Hardy was once a probation and parole officer and is now a special agent for the FBI, and he joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the often-ignored world of post-incarceration and his ideas for true system reform. His book is “The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison.”

The phrase “in one ear and out the other” originated well before the advent of the smart phone. Now there’s doubt about that one ear. Reporter Kate Murphy joins host Krys Boyd to talk about why listening—even to gossip—is good for our brains and human connection. Her book is “You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters.”

In the late 1600s, it was thought the heart was made of “the stuff of souls.” It’s easy to see why: they break with love and are sometimes said to be made of gold. Even now we take for granted that they power our lives. Gabriel Brownstein joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his complicated relationship with his own heart, which he writes about in “The Open Heart Club: A Story About Birth and Death and Cardiac Surgery.”

By now you’ve got the message about coronavirus protocol: wash your hands, don’t touch your face, masks won’t protect you. Still, an estimated 40- to 70-percent of people worldwide will catch it — though most will barely notice. Dr. James Hamblin is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a lecturer at Yale School of Public, and he joins host Krys Boyd to talk about preparing for coronavirus on a national and individual level.

If you hear a sudden yelp from your spouse in the next room, chances are you’re about to be called to squash a bug. But what if, instead, you made a moral case for cohabitating with creepy crawlers? John Hainze, an entomologist and ethicist with Seattle University Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability,joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his evolution from pesticide designer to insect advocate. His new book is “Nature Underfoot: Living with Beetles, Crabgrass, Fruit Flies, and Tiny Life All Around Us.”