Think from KERA

On Saturday, Charlottesville, Va., became the epicenter of America’s racial unrest as white nationalists sparred with counter-protesters in a scene reminiscent of the darkest days of the Civil Rights era. We’ll get an update from the scene from the Charlottesville bureau chief for WVTF radio, Sandy Hausman. And later in the hour, Carol Anderson, chair of the African American Studies department at Emory University, joins us to dissect the events of the weekend and to talk about how we got to here. Her book “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide” (Bloomsbury) was released in 2016.

On game days, some stadiums can pack in 100,000 people or more – often dwarfing the populations of the towns that surround them. Sports writer Rafi Kohan talks with host Krys Boyd about the effect these venues have on the cities that build them – and about the communal experience that takes place inside them. His new book is called “The Arena: Inside the Tailgating, Ticket-Scalping, Mascot-Racing, Dubiously Funded, and Possibly Haunted Monuments of American Sport” (Liveright).

The big screen adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle,” hits theaters today. It stars Oscar-winner Brie Larson as the author during her time growing up in a dysfunctional family. Walls talks to host Krys Boyd about revealing the truth of her upbringing to friends – and about her feelings once the book wound up on a banned book list.

The documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” led many Americans to consider climate change for the first time and won an Oscar along the way. Now, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” looks at the topic 10 years on. Directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk join us to talk about what they learned while making the film.

Tom Perrotta is known for his best-selling novels “The Leftovers” and “Little Children” – both have made it to television and movie screens. He joins us to talk about his latest effort, “Mrs. Fletcher” (Scribner), focuses on a fortysomething divorcee rediscovering her sexuality in suburbia.

In many countries, skin color can influence who is afforded the most opportunities within a society. Yaba Blay, a political science professor at North Carolina Central University, talks to host Krys Boyd about the social hierarchies associated with skin tone – and how skin bleaching, hair relaxing and other treatments are used by men and women facing discrimination.

College students with ambitious career plans usually gravitate to business schools, law schools, maybe medicine. George Anders joins us to talk about taking a different approach – seeking a broad education that will be more dynamic in the long run. He writes about the idea in “You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Education” (Little, Brown and Co.).

In 1964, the second most powerful earthquake in recorded history struck Alaska, leveling the city of Valdez and destroying an island village. Henry Fountain joins us to tell the story of the geologist who studied the quake’s aftermath and redefined our understanding of plate tectonics. His new book is called “The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet” (Crown).

Native American students drop out of school at a rate that’s twice the national average. Rebecca Clarren joins us to talk about how cultural insensitivity, declining federal funding and other factors have led to an educational crisis among American Indians. Her story “How America Is Failing Native American Students” appears in The Nation.

The first six months of the Trump administration has featured cabinet shakeups, investigations into secret meetings and plenty of tweeting. David A. Graham joins us to try to separate the gossip from the governing with a conversation about the actual policies the president has pushed through concerning border security, climate change and deregulation. He writes about politics and global news for The Atlantic.