Think from KERA

Prosthetics are feats of engineering that some people opt for to live fuller lives. So what if we put that same know-how into adapting our physical world to better serve all people? Sara Hendren teaches design for disability at Olin College of Engineering, and she joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the idea that disability isn’t about a person, so much as the way a person must navigate an unhelpful world. Her new book is “What Can a Body Do: How We Meet the Built World.”

Cancel culture has been around for a lot longer than Twitter: from the Mesopotamians to the Puritans, shaming someone into submission is an age-old tactic. Peter N. Stearns, University Professor of History at George Mason University, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about using this emotional disciplining tool. His article “Why We Dislike Shame — and Can’t Get Enough of It” appears in The American Prospect.

After the Civil War, the battle for birthright citizenship, equality before the law, Black men’s suffrage and other rights began in earnest. Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how the blueprint for our modern America was drawn during Reconstruction. His book “The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution” is now out in paperback.

Intelligence says the Kremlin is pushing for a second term for President Trump, while China is backing Joe Biden. Should Americans be confident the upcoming election will be legitimate? Laura Rosenberger is the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy and a senior fellow at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, and she joins host Krys Boyd to talk about foreign interference and the security of the 2020 presidential election.

President Trump’s crusade against voting by mail looks to some like voter suppression. Gilda R. Daniels served as a voting expert in the Justice Department of both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and is now associate professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She joins host Krys Boyd to talk about protecting the voting rights of Americans, which she writes about in “Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America.”

It’s an old Hollywood trope: the hero with heart always wins. In fact, science says that sense of duty to others is the whole reason the human race exists at all. Brian Hare, a professor of evolutionary anthropology, psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how sharing and caring led early humans to evolve past their rivals. His article “Survival of the Friendliest,” co-written with Vanessa Woods, appears in Scientific American.

As school districts announce plans to begin the year online, many working parents are wondering how they’ll make that work. Washington Post parenting columnist Meghan Leahy and University of Houston associate professor Samuel Brower join guest host Courtney Collins to talk about the pressures of pandemic parenting and about how we can make sure young students don’t fall behind.

When the economy plummeted in mid-March, unemployment claims flooded into the system — disproportionately from women. Chabeli Carrazana, economy reporter for The 19th News, joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about how women’s meager workplace gains since the 1970s are being wiped out by the pandemic – and how they’ll be tough to regain. Her recent article is headlined “America’s First Female Recession.”

After a motorcycle accident and the surgeries that followed, Travis Rieder became addicted to pain medications. Rieder is the director of the Master of Bioethics degree program at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, and he joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about the agonizing process of weaning himself off the drugs – and about what the experience taught him about how we should address the current opioid crisis. His new book is called “In Pain: A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle With Opioids” (Harper).

When the time came for early feminists to demand the right to vote, Black women were pushed to the side. Writer and diversity consultant Mikki Kendall joins guest host Courtney Collins to explain how the feminist movement continues to marginalize women of color. Her book is called “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot.”