Think from KERA

Wealthy Americans are applauded for their ability to make money passively – letting their money do the work for them. At the same time, poor Americans are often forced to justify that they are working enough to receive basic support. Bryce Covert joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the disconnect in how the American work ethic applies to workers based on the tax bracket they occupy, which she writes about in her Longreads article “The American Work Ethic.”

Prosecutors bring charges against defendants, set bail and determine plea bargains. And proponents of criminal justice reform argue that they have an outsized effect on how the court system works. Emily Bazelon joins host Krys Boyd to talk about ways to level the playing field for defendants, which she writes about in“Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration”(Random House).

Recent studies have shown that senior citizens are more likely to consume and share fake news online than younger Americans. And with people 65 and older soon to make up the single largest age group in the U.S., that’s a concern. Craig Silverman joins host Krys Boyd to talk about a new push for online literacy for older Americans. His story“Old, Online, And Fed On Lies: How An Aging Population Will Reshape The Internet”appears on BuzzFeed News.

Brown v. Board of Education formally ended school segregation in 1954 – though informal re-segregation has been a trend in recent decades. Rucker C. Johnson, associate professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, joins host Krys Boyd to explain why students attending integrated schools have historically benefited from learning alongside children from other backgrounds. His new book is called “Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works” (Basic Books).

More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Monica L. Smith, professor of anthropology at UCLA, joins host Krys Boyd to explain how the development of cities – from Mesopotamia to the present – is strongly linked to the prosperity of humankind as a whole. Her new book is called “Cities: The First 6,000 Years” (Viking).

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 after he was convicted of killing his three children by arson at his family’s home in Corsicana. A new film about the case highlights the controversial suppression of evidence that could’ve proved Willingham’s innocence. It’s called “Trial By Fire,” and its director, Edward Zwick, joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about why the story still has people talking more than a decade after Willingham’s execution.

Dustin Lance Black won an Oscar for his screenplay for“Milk,”starring Sean Penn as the politician Harvey Milk. Black joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about his formative years in a Mormon household near San Antonio – and how he left that life behind to become an LGBTQ activist and sought-after screenwriter. He tells his story in his new memoir“Mama’s Boy: A Story from Our Americas”(Knopf).

Society tells us that if we can just find the right person and fall in love, our lives will henceforth be filled with meaning. Laurie Essig, professor and director of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Middlebury College, joins guest host Courtney Collins to explain why we retreat into these private relationships and how they can overshadow our contribution to the greater good. Her new book is called“Love, Inc.: Dating Apps, the Big White Wedding, and Chasing the Happily Neverafter”(University of California Press).

Filmmaker Ben Masters and his team spent two and a half months tracing the U.S.–Mexico border – from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico – making the trip on horses, mountain bikes, canoes and their own two feet. He joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about documenting this area of Texas wilderness that could one day be cut in two by the border wall. His new documentary is called“The River and the Wall.”

The power of the #MeToo movement comes from the thousands upon thousands of women who have spoken out to share their stories. Cheryl Allison is the director of the documentary “Shatter the Silence,” and she joins guest host Courtney Collins to profile North Texas women who have led the fight against sexual harassment – including former Texas Senator Wendy Davis, who also joins the conversation.