Think from KERA

Drawing is one of the first artistic experiences that many children will have. Arts educator Marilyn JS Goodman joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how drawing evolves as kids develop mentally and physically, which she writes about in“Children Draw: A Guide to Why, When and How Children Make Art”(University of Chicago Press).

When Jodie Patterson began to understand that the child she named Penelope actually identified as a boy, she was forced to rethink everything she thought she knew about gender and identity. She joins host Krys Boyd to talk about what it took for her family to evolve to understand Penelope’s place in it, which she writes about in“The Bold World: A Memoir of Family and Transformation”(Ballantine Books).

Beginning in World War I, the American military began sending young women overseas to boost the morale of personnel on the frontlines. Kara Dixon Vuic, professor of war, conflict and society in 20th Century America at TCU, joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about the roles these women served through the Vietnam War and beyond. Her new book is called“The Girls Next Door: Bringing the Home Front to the Front Lines”(Harvard University Press).

For more than 20 years, Judy Woodruff has anchored PBS Newshour, public television’s signature news program. She joins host Krys Boyd to talk about her more than 40 years in the business – and about Newshour’s place in an increasingly fractured media landscape.

African Americans have been an economic force for 400 years – first working on plantations and later as part of the paid workforce. Joe William Trotter, Jr., director of the Center forAfricanamerican Urban Studies and the Economyat Carnegie Mellon University, joins host Krys Boyd to trace the history of black employment, which he writes about in“Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America”(University of California Press).

More than 130 million votes were cast in the 2016 election – a number so large that some Americans feel their individual vote doesn’t really matter. George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin studies voter participation, and he joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the danger of willful voter ignorance and how it plays into elections.

In 2012, ISIS began capturing journalists and aid workers in Syria. The governments of Germany, Denmark, France and Italy negotiated to free their hostages. The U.S. and U.K. did not, and theirs were executed. Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about working through dozens of these impossible cases. His new book is called“We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages and Ransom”(Columbia Global Reports).

From Aunt Jemima to Bugs Bunny in blackface, Americans have been exposed to racist depictions of African Americans since the advent of popular culture. Chico Colvard joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the physical embodiments of these stereotypes, the subject of his Independent Lens documentary“Black Memorabilia,”which airs tonight on public television stations.

One of the trickiest elements of learning – the thing no one wants to confront – is the realization that sometimes what we think we know is actually incorrect. Brian Resnick joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how stubbornness stands in the way of scientific advancements. His essay “Intellectual Humility: The Importance of Knowing You Might be Wrong”appears on Vox.

When he was 50 years old, Tommy Tomlinson weighed 460 pounds, putting him at risk for heart disease, diabetes and plenty of other ailments. He joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his lifelong battle with weight – and about what it’s like to move through the world constantly aware of your size, which he writes about in“The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America”(Simon & Schuster).