Think from KERA

The world just isn’t slowing down and today everything from global conflicts and terrorist actions, to hackers and even individual Twitter users can impact our lives and organizations like never before. Amy B. Zegart, senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution joins us to discuss these perils and her new book – co-written with former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. It’s called “Political Risk: How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity” (Twelve).

Woodrow Wilson faced many challenges as the 28th President of the United States – including the terrors of World War I in Europe and growing dissent and social pressures at home. Presidential biographer Patricia O’Toole joins us to discuss the Wilson presidency and her new book “The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made” (Simon & Schuster).

Big changes are underway in China and the country is reworking its image in the wider world as well. China expert Elizabeth C. Economy joins us to talk about what a global China might mean for the future. Her new book is “The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State” (Oxford Press).

Good teeth are important for everything from eating healthy to being able to smile confidently when you’re happy. The high cost of insurance though and lack of access to basic dental care in many rural, minority and poor communities is creating haves and have-nots when it comes to teeth in America. Journalist Mary Otto joins us to discuss this growing dental divide. Her piece “The Class Politics of Teeth” appears in the current issue of Dissent Magazine.

French director Jean-Luc Godard famously said that “cinema is truth 24 frames-per-second.” Video editing is bringing that idea into question, though. Franklin Foer joins us to talk about how manipulation of digital video is chipping away what we consider to be real. His story “The Era of Fake Video Begins”appears in The Atlantic.

America’s war on crime began in the 1970s and was strongly supported by black leaders in some of the country’s largest cities. Former public defender James Forman Jr. joins us to talk about how policies from that era lead to an overrepresentation of people of color in American prisons. Forman won the Pulitzer Prize for his book on the topic, “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

When running down the list of great American songwriters, it doesn’t take long to get to Paul Simon. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer collaborated with music critic Robert Hilburnon a definitive biography, and Hilburn joins us to talk about the book,“Paul Simon: The Life”(Simon & Schuster).

Stephen Karam’splay“The Humans”won the 2016 Tony Award for best play and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A production of the show visits theWinspear Opera HouseMay 8-20, and its star,Richard Thomas, joins us to talk about its story of aging parents growing apart from their adult children.

In 2015, a spacecraft calledNew Horizonsflew by Pluto at 32,000 miles per hour, taking pictures all along the way.Alan Sternled the planning of the mission for NASA, and he joins us to talk about the years of work that went into sending the New Horizon more than 3 billion miles from Earth. His new book, written with astrobiologistDavid Grinspoon, is called“Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto”(Picador).

Lisa Ko was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for fiction for her debut novel, “The Leavers” (Algonquin Books). She joins us to talk about her story of a young boy adopted by a pair of white professors after his Chinese immigrant mother mysteriously disappears. Ko speaks tonight at Interabang Books in Dallas.