Think from KERA

A month after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, a group of activists gathered on the National Mall for six weeks to live in a shantytown settlement called Resurrection City. The camp is the subject of a new exhibition at the National Museum of American History, and guest host Courtney Collins talks about how the live-in demonstration changed how people peacefully protest with Allison Keyes, who writes about it for Smithsonian magazine.

For four years, Francisco Cantú kept watch over the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas working for the U.S. Border Patrol. He joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about how his time spent along the border forced him to consider the violence inflicted on those who live along it. His new book is called “The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border” (Riverhead Books). He speaks tonight at Interabang Books in Dallas. And he’ll be back in Dallas April 8 for an appearance at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Over the last 30 years, about 350 inmates have had their convictions overturned thanks to DNA analysis. Barbara Bradley Hagerty joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about options for wrongfully convicted prisoners who don’t have access to DNA evidence. Her story “Can You Prove Your Innocence Without DNA?” appears in The Atlantic.

At the end of the U.S-Mexico War, America gained hundreds of miles of new territory, including Texas. This acquisition of land created a new population of Mexican Americans who didn’t quite fit into the country’s existing racial hierarchy. UCLA professor Laura E. Gómez joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about the role Mexican Americans have played in U.S. racial history – and about how they have long held what Gómez refers to as an “off white” status. Her book is called “Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race” (New York University Press).

The stories of transgender Americans have gone largely untold in part because so many of them have felt compelled to hide their identities. Susan Stryker, associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Arizona, joins guest host Courtney Collins to walk through the last half-century of progress made by transgender Americans. Her book is called “Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution” (Seal Press).

Decreased brain function is a fact of aging that many of us will deal with. New research shows, though, that some of our cognitive function can be extended. Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, chief director of UT-Dallas’ Center for BrainHealth, joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about new training strategies that can make our brains more energy efficient and better able to cope with aging.

Each day, social workers must decide whether or not the children they visit should be removed from their parents’ homes. And that decision often changes the courses of those kids’ lives. Naomi Schaefer Riley, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about how we can better harness statistical information to help make these decisions. Her story “Can Big Data Help Save Abused Kids?” appears in Reason magazine.

As a magician, Nate Staniforth’s job is to amaze audiences through slight-of-hand. And after years onstage, he felt there wasn’t much wonder to life when you know how the tricks are performed. He joins guest host Courtney Collins to talk about his journey to rediscover awe in everyday life, which he writes about in “Here Is Real Magic: A Magician’s Search for Wonder in the Modern World” (Bloomsbury Publishing).

Only 3,000 people call Norwich home. And yet the tiny Vermont town has sent an athlete to nearly every Winter Olympics for the last 30 years. New York Times reporter Karen Crouse joins us to talk about the town’s formula for creating world-class athletes, which she writes about “Norwich: One Tiny Vermont Town’s Secret to Happiness and Excellence” (Simon & Schuster).

Throughout American history, black and Latino Americans have often found common ground in the struggle for civil rights. University of Florida associate history professor Paul Ortiz joins us to talk about their achievements – and about efforts to keep them apart in order to hinder their progress. His book is called “An African American and LatinX History of the United States” (Beacon Press). Paul Ortiz speaks at TCU on Feb. 15.