Think from KERA

American hospitals are bracing for an influx of Covid-19 patients. And shortages of everything from masks to ventilators is cause for worry. Dr. Robert J. Hancock, president-elect of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how hospitals are planning ahead.

Sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll is the well-worn ethos that’s guided many a musician. Music historian Ted Gioia joins us to talk about how that’s not only true for Elvis, but also for Beethoven and even the Benedictine monks. His new book is about how outsiders are often the ones who push music forward. It’s called “Music: A Subversive History.”

We like to think in America that if you fall behind, you can just “pull yourself up from your bootstraps.” But a fresh start isn’t possible when you’ve never been able to enter the race. New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof and author Sheryl WuDunn join guest host Courtney Collins to talk about the burdens that 10 million working class Americans face every day and why the rest of society doesn’t seem to notice. Their book new book is “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope.”

Before the popular genre of true crime, there was, actually and quite literally, true crime. UT-Austin journalism teacher Kate Winkler Dawson joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about an early criminologist who developed the forensic science we still use today: blood splatter evidence and fingerprinting, among other techniques. Her new book is called “American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI.”

Grocery stores are running out of hand sanitizer, schools are closing, and we’re being urged to perform “social distancing.” The coronavirus pandemic is hitting us at home, exactly where we want to feel safest. Dr. Ahmad Raza, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern’s O’Donnell Brain Institute, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about COVID-19 anxiety and how we can both calm ourselves and care for others.

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.”