Think from KERA

How does the world react to those of mixed race? Are they outsiders, floating in between cultures? Or are they seen in some ways as heroes for blurring lines and moving the conversation forward? Indonesian-British poet Will Harris joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his personal observations, which he writes about in “Mixed Race Superman: Keanu, Obama, and Multiracial Experience.”

Mental illnesses can easily fall through the cracks – even when someone sees a doctor. UT Southwestern’s Dr. Madhukar Trivedi joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how primary care physicians can be an effective front-line resource in detecting mental illness –the topic of a study he recently conducted. Also joining the conversation is Dr. Namrata Babaria, who works in a low-income clinic and is now onboard with the study’s suggestions after initial apprehension.

When football player Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem, some argued it was his right of free speech. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled pregnancy crisis centers couldn’t be legally compelled to provide abortion pamphlets—another argument about violating free speech. So, howisthe First Amendment defined? P.E. Moskowitz joins host Krys Boyd to talk about, “The Case Against Free Speech,” which examines the flashpoints around the debate.

In 1959, when three rock ‘n’ roll greats died in a plane crash, it was called “the day the music died.” In 1990, it was the blues world mourning when guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan perished in a helicopter accident. The Dallas native rose to fame in the 1980s, the era of arena rock, but his music was a fiery about-face from that pop sound and helped to reawaken the blues genre. Alan Paul joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the life and times of SRV, which he writes about in “Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan.”

Each year approximately 125,000 rapes are reported across the nation, yet city after city has boxes of critical evidence gathering dust inside police warehouses: backlogs of unprocessed rape kits. Barbara Bradley Hagerty joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the many reasons why rapes aren’t investigated with the same vigor as other serious crimes. Her story “An Epidemic of Disbelief” appears in The Atlantic.

The famous quote attributed to P.T. Barnum is “there’s a sucker born every minute.” But Barnum biographer Robert Wilson says the man could never have said such a thing. Barnum was the eternal optimist, a lover of audience imagination, and a genius marketer that knew what a crowd would pay for. Wilson talks with host Krys Boyd about Barnum’s still larger-than-life legacy, captured in his book, “Barnum: An American Life.”

For better or worse, so much of our identity is built around race. So when Sarah Valentine found out at age 27 she is not, in fact, white, that she is mixed-race with a black father, she found it very hard to reconcile what she knew about herself to what the world reflects about being black. She talks with host Krys Boyd to talk about her path to rediscovering herself, which she writes about in “When I Was White.”

Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Dallas church, is one of President Trump’s most reliable supporters. He told Fox News host Lou Dobbs that the president has a “God-given task of protecting this nation.” But how did the religious leader become such an ardent advocate for this administration, and what formed Jeffress to be the man he is today? Michael J. Mooney joins host Krys Boyd to talk about what he learned about Jeffress from the months he spent talking with him, which Mooney writes about in the current issue of Texas Monthly.

Teens take quizzes hoping to reveal what they like, adults take personality tests to find what career to pursue. The unending quest to unveil our best selves is not waning — but what does the science say about our efforts? Indiana University School of Medicine professor Bill Sullivan joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how our genetic information combines with outside forces to determine who we become, which he writes about in “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are.”

Beyond the phrase “a case of the Mondays” there’s probably not another office joke on the planet that doesn’t somehow include coffee. No matter how you take it, coffee arguably sustains and connects us. Mark Pendergrast joins host Krys Boyd to talk about our obsession with all things coffee, which he writes about in, “Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed our World,” the second-edition of his bestselling book.