Think from KERA

The conversation around income inequality typically focuses on the 1 percent vs. the rest of us. Brookings Institution economist Richard Reeves joins us to talk about why the division is really between the top 20 percent of earners – the upper middle class – and everyone else. His new book is called “Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That is a Problem, and What to Do About It” (Brookings).

When Stephen Hinshaw was growing up, his father mysteriously left the family for months at a time. And it wasn’t until he was an adult that he learned the truth. Hinshaw – now a psychology professor – joins us to talk about the dangers of keeping mental illness a secret, which he writes about in “Another Kind of Madness: A Journey Through the Stigma and Hope of Mental Illness” (St. Martin’s Press).

Human advancement – whether in the arts, the sciences or even in our relationships with one another – hinge on one quality: creativity. Columbia College Chicago professor Stephen Asma joins us to talk about how creativity works in the brain – and about how we can visualize a reality that doesn’t yet exist. His new book is called “The Evolution of Imagination” (University of Chicago Press).

More than 330 million people visited a national park last year. And many more are headed to one this summer. Environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams joins us to talk about how we can better care for these natural wonders, which she writes about in “The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks” (Picador). She speaks tonight at 7:30 as part of DMA Arts and Letters Live! at the Dallas Museum of Art.

As Republicans in Congress debate the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, one of the ongoing conversations about health care centers on how we provide it for those who struggle to pay. Dr. Rachel Pearson joins us to talk about learning to practice medicine on poor patients visiting a free clinic in Galveston – and about what the experience taught her about inequality in the healthcare system. Her memoir is called “No Apparent Distress: A Doctor’s Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine” (W.W. Norton and Co.).

Our curiosity is what drives us to innovate and make connections with others. Astrophysicist Mario Livio joins us to talk about our urge to know what we don’t and how our brains are wired to want to learn. His new book is called “Why: What Makes Us Curious” (Simon & Schuster).

For nearly a decade, Tracey Helton Mitchell lived on the streets of San Francisco addicted to heroin. She joins us to talk about how she eventually became a stable mother of three after getting clean – and about how our rehab system can be improved. Mitchell is the author of “The Big Fix: Hope After Heroin” (DaCapo).

Even if we retire at 65, that means for more than 40 years of our lives we’ll get up and go to work five days a week. We’ll talk this hour about the time we spend in the office with a Wall Street Journal reporter, a researcher who focuses on office humor and the author of a book about the changing relationship between companies and their employees.

In the 1991 movie “Thelma & Louise,” Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon leave their uninspired domestic lives behind for a crime spree out on the open road. Becky Aikman joins us to talk about the film’s unlikely path from script to screen – and about why more than 25 years later Hollywood is still gun shy when it comes to female-led casts. Her new book is called “Off the Cliff: How the Making of Thelma & Louise Drove Hollywood to the Edge” (Penguin). She speaks tonight as part of Authors Live at Highland Park United Methodist Church.

A nuclear missile launched from North Korea would take about half an hour to reach Los Angeles. And making sure that never happens is one of the top priorities of the Trump administration. Mark Bowden joins us to walk through four strategic options for dealing with Kim Jong Un. His story “The Worst Problem on Earth” appears in The Atlantic.