Think from KERA

A question on everyone’s minds these days is: When will life get back to normal? Atlantic staff writer Ed Yong joins host Krys Boyd to explain why that’s the wrong thing to be asking – and why what we should instead focus our energies on incremental steps to a more livable future. His story “Our Pandemic Summer” appears on The Atlantic’s website.

How does a kid with over-protective parents go from being a nice French horn player to shooting adult films to earning industry renown as a successful director of big-budget films? Barry Sonnenfeld joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his winding road to success that eventually led to making the “Men in Black” franchise and other blockbusters. His new book is called “Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker.”

Beauty, style, fashion – influence in all its forms has jumped from the runway into the palm of our hand thanks to Instagram. Bloomberg News technology reporter Sarah Frier joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the fierce Silicon Valley competition to create a dominant social media platform and the ways Instagram has changed our lives in unexpected ways. Her book is called “No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram.”

When famine ravaged India in 1966, the nation turned to one man: a small-town Iowan obsessed with wheat. Rob Rapley joins host Krys Boyd to talk about Norman E. Borlaug, who won praise for his work on disease resistance crops – which also came with unintended consequences. His American Experience film “The Man Who Tried to Feed The World” airs tonight on PBS stations.

Doctors and nurses are rightly celebrated as frontline workers. Also included in that category, though, are many low-wage workers: the people who bag our groceries, deliver our packages and clean our buildings. Bama Athreya, senior specialist for labor and employment rights at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute and a Fellow at Open Society Foundations, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about laborers who don’t have the luxury of working from home – and about how the pandemic has severely affected the gig economy. Her article “A Pandemic is No Time for Precarious Work” was published on Medium.

From Patient Zero in Washington State to now more than 30,000 deaths and counting, how can we piece together a clearer picture of how the pandemic unfolded across America? Miles O’Brien joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his coast-to-coast reporting on the people affected by the coronavirus – and about how inaction by elected officials contributed to the outbreak. His Frontline documentary “Coronavirus Pandemic”airs Tuesday night on PBS stations.

Now that human activity above ground has been curtailed, how has life under the sea been affected? Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how aquariums foster ocean life and contribute to a healthy environment.

As an astronaut with two NASA missions under his belt,Mike Massimino knows what it’s like to live for long periods of time in cramped quarters. Sound familiar? He joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how he learned to adapt to a confined space while in space. His latest book, newly adapted for young readers, is “Spaceman: The True Story of a Young Boy’s Journey to Becoming an Astronaut.”

As scientists try to better understand the coronavirus, it’s worth remembering that the global scientific community has now been studying outbreaks fairly continuously for more than a century. Medical historian Mark Honigsbaumjoins host Krys Boyd to talk about why bacterial and viral disasters continue to take us by surprise. His book is called “The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris.”

When a budding musician takes to social media to offer a new song to the world, do we consider it simply an expression of creativity or a commodity that needs reimbursement? Music historian Ted GioiajoinshostKrys Boyd to talk about how we value art. His essay “Gratuity: Who Gets Paid When Art Is Free,” was published in Image Journal.