Think from KERA

With income inequality, rising racism and deep division on gun control and other issues, it can feel like a dire time in America. Jon Meacham joins us to provide historical evidence that we’ve made it through tough times before – and about why those previous triumphs offer hope that we’ll make it through the present day. His new book is called “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels” (Random House).

As a native of South Texas, Stephanie Elizondo Griest has witnessed the struggles of undocumented immigrants crossing the border from Mexico. And when she moved near the Canadian border, she noticed similarities in how the U.S. has treated Native Americans in the region. She joins us to talk about how borders affect the people who live near them, which she writes about in “All the Agents and Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands” (University of North Carolina Press).

Mark and Jay Duplass seemingly have the Midas touch in Hollywood. As actors, writers and producers, they’ve been involved in “Transparent,” “The Mindy Project,” “Togetherness,” “Wild Wild Country” and many, many other projects. The siblings join us to talk about their childhood making movies with a clunky video camera in New Orleans – and about how having a creative partner you’re related to can sometimes be a little too cozy. Their new memoir is called “Like Brothers” (Random House)

For nearly 60 years, young girls have brushed Barbie’s hair, taken her for a spin in her convertible and wondered what it would be like to live in that Dream House. Andrea Nevins joins us to talk about the profound effect this 11.5 inch-tall doll has had on how kids view women – and about how toymaker Mattel has tried to evolve Barbie to keep up with the times. Nevins is the director of the documentary “Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie,” available on Hulu.

For many mentally ill people, prison is a more likely landing spot than a hospital. Alisa Roth joins us to talk about how the criminal justice system is unprepared to treat these people – and about how the courts might rethink our prosecution of the mentally ill. Her new book is called “Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness” (Basic Books).

Marcia Gay Harden’s mother, Beverly, loved arranging flowers – a skill she learned while living in Asia. It’s through that lens that the Oscar-winning Texan tells Beverly’s story of love, loss and eventual struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Her new book is called “The Seasons of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers” (Atria Books), which she’ll talk about more tonight as part of DMA Arts and Letters Live.

The National Rifle Association opens its annual convention today in Dallas. Juliana Menasce Horowitz of the Pew Research Center joins us to talk about America’s complex relationship with guns, the subject of a study she lead.

As a teenager, Christian Picciolini joined a neo-Nazi group and charted a path for a life of violence and racism. He joins us to talk about how a moment of racial violence shook him out of his ways, which he writes about in “White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement – and How I Got Out” (Hachette Books). He speaks tonight at the Communities Foundation of Texas as part of the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance’s Upstander Speaker Series.

Drifters maintain a constant state of motion, crisscrossing the country untethered to a physical address. TCU sociologist Jeff Ferrell joins us to talk about what he learned by spending time in these ephemeral communities, which he writes about in “Drift: Illicit Mobility and Uncertain Knowledge” (University of California Press).

Ronan Farrow won the Pulitzer Prize this year for his reporting on sexual misconduct in Hollywood. Before he was a journalist, though, he worked in the state department. As newly minted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo takes over the department, Farrow joins us to talk about why U.S. foreign policy is too heavily weighted to military force over negotiation. His new book is called “War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of America” (W.W. Norton and Co.).