Think from KERA

Today, open-heart surgery, pacemakers and even heart transplants feel fairly routine. Dr. Sandeep Jauhar joins us to take us back to a time when pioneering physicians risked their careers – and sometimes patients’ lives – to develop these lifesaving innovations. And he’ll talk about life as a cardiologist who suffers from heart disease. His new book is called “Heart: A History” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

More than 200 million Americans live in the “border zone,” defined by the Justice Department as the area within 100 air miles of any land or coastal boundary. And in that border zone, Congress has granted U.S. Customs and Border Protection broad powers. Melissa del Bosque joins us to talk about if that power needs to be reconsidered, which she writes about for Harper’s magazine.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Jose Antonio Vargas has been called “the most famous undocumented immigrant in America.” He joins us to talk about what it’s like to live a life of uncertainty, always feeling as if you’re hiding in plain sight. His new book is called “Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen” (Dey St.).

Sometimes a little distance is helpful in trying to understand something. That was Suzy Hansen’s experience years after leaving America to live in Istanbul. She joins us to talk about witnessing American power and influence from an outsider’s perspective, which she writes about in “Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down elements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, angering those already worried about voter disenfranchisement. Carol Anderson, chair of African American Studies at Emory University, joins us to talk about how photo ID laws, gerrymandering and poll closures discriminate against people of color, which she writes about in “One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy” (Bloomsbury).

Texas’ Rio Grande Valley is experiencing a population boom. And those additional people are putting a strain on the area’s natural resources – particularly water. Naveena Sadasivam joined *Think *at the studios of KUT in Austin to talk about how drought and heat waves are threatening the futures of the 6 million people who live in the valley, which she writes about for the Texas Observer.

Casey Gerald grew up gay, black and poor in Dallas, the grandson of an evangelical pastor. And when he received a scholarship to play football at Yale, his world was opened to parts of American society he never knew existed. He joins us to talk about entering elite circles – and feeling conflicted by how they keep people from his background down – which he writes about in his memoir “There Will Be No Miracles Here” (Riverhead Books).

Jodi Picoult is the best-selling author of “Nineteen Minutes,” “Handle with Care, “House Rules” and many other novels. She joins us to talk about her latest effort,“A Spark of Light”(Random House), which tells the story of a police negotiator who rushes to a women’s clinic when a gunman bursts through the door and takes everyone inside hostage.

Humans have been drinking milk since the domestication of mammals more than 10,000 years ago. Mark Kurlansky joins us to talk about our complicated history with milk – from the gene mutation that lead to lactose intolerance to milk-borne illnesses that were a leading cause of death in the 19th Century. Kurlansky’s new book is called“Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas”(Bloomsbury).

In Marcia McNutt’s distinguished scientific career, she’s lead the

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the United States Geological

Survey and taught at Stanford. She joins us to talk about encouraging

young women to pursue STEM careers – and about her current role as the

first woman to lead the National Academy of Sciences.