Think from KERA

If there was a flood of immigration at the turn of the century, with the 1924 Immigration Act, it became little more than a trickle. Jia Lynn Yang, deputy national editor at the New York Times, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the lawmakers at the forefront of the push to change the law and the immigrants at the center of the fight for equality. Her book is “One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration 1924-1965.”

When the 2019 college admissions scandal broke, it reaffirmed what education scholars already knew: there are severe inequities among who and who is not admitted to colleges and universities. Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, talks to host Krys Boyd about how our higher education system contributes to inequality. His book, co-written with Peter Schmidt and Jeff Strohl, is “The Merit Myth: How Our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America.”

In addition to law enforcement, our police forces are tasked with plenty of responsibilities that have fallen through the bureaucratic cracks. Patrick Sharkey, professor of sociology and public affairs at New York University and founder of AmericanViolence.org, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about strategies for offloading elements of the job that stand in the way of effective policing.

Only two in five Americans can name the three branches of government. Does that correlate with the approximately 80 percent that doesn’t trust the government at all? Rebecca Winthrop, co-director of the Center for Universal Education and a senior fellow of Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution, joins host Krys Boyd to argue that, without teaching the fundamentals of how our government works, we’ll never convince people to get out the vote. Her brief for Policy 2020 Brookings is “The Need for Civic Education in 21st-century schools.”

Before kids were glued to their phones, they were glued to the TV. And many of them were watching programs about multiculturalism, literacy, and lessons in kindness — often given by a giant yellow bird. David Kamp joins host Krys Boyd to talk about what he calls “the Age of Enlightenment Jr.” His book is “Sunny Days: The Children’s Television Revolution That Changed America.”

Driverless cars are here — they’re being tested right now in cities across America. The irony is: Even with no one in the driver’s seat, we’re about to encounter more twists and turns in the road than we might be ready for. Anthony M. Townsend joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the down-the-line changes that will come with autonomous vehicles – everything from privatized roads to mobility monopolies. His new book is called “Ghost Road: Beyond the Driverless Car.”

In Act 3 of “Romeo and Juliet,” Mercutio delivers the line “a plague on both your houses.” And while it’s a cutting insult, living with the constant dread of illness was, in those days, a part of daily life. Stephen Greenblatt, John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how an epidemic influenced the Bard’s “words, words, words.” His article in The New Yorker is “What Shakespeare Actually Wrote About the Plague.”)

Texans are familiar with the heroics and larger-than-life characters of the Texas Rangers, but behind all that shine is a tarnish to be reckoned with. Doug J. Swanson, writing teacher at the University of Pittsburgh, member of Texas Institute of Letters and previous finalist for Pulitzer Prize, talks to host Krys Boyd about separating legend from fact when it comes to the Rangers. His book is called “Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers.”

What makes someone a “patriot” and another an “agitator”? Oftentimes, the distinction relies heavily on the color of one’s skin. Davin Phoenix, associate professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine, talks to host Krys Boyd about who gets to be angry and whose anger actually affects change. He’s the author of“The Anger Gap: How Race Shapes Emotion in Politics,”and his recent New York Times opinion piece is“Anger Benefits Some Americans Much More Than Others.”

If you have problems with our current system of government, it’s probably of little comfort to know we tweaked it over many decades to work this way. David Litt, a speechwriter for President Obama, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how we became so disenfranchised and polarized – and about how we can address these issues. His book is“Democracy In One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think.”