Think from KERA

College campuses have traditionally welcomed the free exchange of ideas – even controversial ones. But is that tradition still alive and well? Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his approach to civil discourse and toning down heated rhetoric to get to the heart of important issues, which he writes about in “Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses.”

You’ve seen the house hunting TV shows featuring people who want an upscale vacation home right on the water. These buyers can obviously afford beachfront property, so why is it that when a massive hurricane hits, taxpayers are on the hook for a rebuild? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gilbert M. Gaul joins host Krys Boyd to talk about major flaws in the government’s approach to flood insurance that have turned into safety nets for developers, which he writes about in “The Geography of Risk: Epic Storms, Rising Seas, and the Cost of America’s Coasts.”

W. Kamau Bell is a comedian – but he doesn’t tell one-liners. The host and executive producer of the Emmy-winning CNN series “United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell” inserts himself in awkward situations – meeting with a chapter of the KKK, for example – then real-life absurdity takes it from there. Bell joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his relentless search for social justice among the many viewpoints of everyday Americans.

When a medical emergency lands someone in the hospital, insult is often added to injury by bills that can put families tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Dr. Marty Makary, a surgeon and professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins University, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the medical debt that consumes one in five Americans, which he writes about in “The Price We Pay: What Broke American Healthcare – And How to Fix It.”

Last week, President Trump canceled peace talks with the Taliban but remained committed to pulling U.S. troops out of America’s longest-running war. Farhat Popal and Chris Walsh of theGeorge W. Bush Institutejoin host Krys Boyd to make the case that the U.S. should remain in Afghanistan in order to preserve fledgling democratic rights, which they write about in a new policy paper,“Afghanistan: What’s at Stake?”

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the island was devastated. But the destruction of the its economy via U.S. policies began long before 2017. Ed Morales, lecturer Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the difficult past and uncertain future of Puerto Rico, which he writes about in his book,“Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico.”

These days, when we order from Amazon, we expect a certain standard: it will be cheap and it will arrive fast—sometimes same day. Buzzfeed News reporter Caroline O’Donahue joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the safety, labor, and human costs that are very much a part of our consumer demands, which she writes about in her article,“Amazon’s Next-Day Delivery Has Brought Chaos And Carnage To America’s Streets — But The World’s Biggest Retailer Has A System To Escape The Blame.”

The Syrian Civil War reduced that country to rubble. Ancient cities once full of life, are now empty shells; citizens live in the shadows of obliterated schools, hospitals, and homes. Journalist Mike Thompson joins host Krys Boyd to talk about one bright spot: near Damascus, a secret world of books that offered normality and refuge, which he writes about in his book,“Syria’s Secret Library: Reading and Redemption in a Town Under Siege.”

We willingly and gratefully invite healthcare workers into our home to care for our loved ones in their most vulnerable moments, but who is looking out for them? Reporter Alexia Fernández Campbell joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the harsh realities of a job asked to provide comfort when supplying very little of its own. Her article, “Home health aides care for the elderly. Who will care for them? One of the fastest-growing jobs in America is also one of the hardest” is published on Vox.

There was a time when school children were taught that civilizations were “primitive,” the people, “savages.” That is, until the father of modern anthropology changed the narrative. Charles King, Georgetown University Professor of International Affairs and Government, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how he and his peers set about rethinking our humanity, which he writes about in“Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century.”