Think from KERA

Have you ever wondered why you like the things you like? Tom Vanderbilt joins us to talk about how we develop our personal preferences – and about the many outside forces that guide us to these favorites. His new book is called “You May Also Like: Taste in an Age of Endless Choice” (Knopf). He speaks Tuesday night at DMA Arts and Letters Live.

Work by some of the biggest names in the history of Mexican art is on display at the Dallas Museum of Art. New DMA director Agustín Arteaga gives us a tour of “México 1900–1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, and the Avant-Garde” and then joins us in studio to talk about the lasting importance of the artists included in the show.

The Great Barrier Reef is currently under duress due to a widespread underwater heat wave. In the documentary “Chasing Coral,” a team of divers sets out to study reefs around the world to find out how we can take better care of them. Producer Larissa Rhodes joins us to talk about what the divers discovered. “Chasing Coral” screens tonight and Saturday at the Music Hall at Fair Park as part of EARTHxFilm 2017.

From Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter, we’re living in the age of grassroots protests. Eric Liu is a former adviser to President Clinton who has studied these movements through the years. He joins us to talk about what makes a movement effective, which he writes about in “You’re More Powerful than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen” (PublicAffairs).

Since assuming power in 2011, Kim Jong-un has ramped up North Korea’s nuclear weapons program – including a missile test earlier this month. We’ll talk about how the Trump administration should address this growing threat with Amanda Schnetzer, director of the Bush Institute’s Global Initiative, and Lindsay Lloyd, deputy director of the Human Freedom Initiative.

Abortion, gun control, the death penalty, gay rights – the list of issues that divide Americans feels never ending. And Mugambi Jouet of Stanford University says these issues combine to make the U.S. the most polarized nation in the Western world. He joins us to talk about the cultural factors unique to our country that have paved the way for our disharmony, which he writes about in “Exceptional America: What Divides Americans from the World and from Each Other” (University of California Press).

Aside from the president himself, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is arguably the most powerful person in the White House. Chris Whipple joins us to talk about the many roles these presidential assistants play – from pushing out their bosses’ agendas to negotiating with Congress. His new book is called “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency” (Crown).

The futures of Social Security, Medicare and other government programs are all in danger. And Bruce Cannon Gibney says Baby Boomers are to blame. The venture capitalist and author joins us to talk about why he thinks younger generations will soon pay the price for selfish decisions made by the boomers, which he writes about in “A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America” (Hachette).

By talking about her autism, Temple Grandin has helped people around the world live better lives with the condition. She joins us to talk about her path to becoming an advocate – and about how we can better understand autistic people we know in our own lives.

Ever wonder why some people are cool as a cucumber when others fly off the handle at the slightest provocation? University of Michigan psychology professor Daniel Keating joins us to talk about how experiencing trauma at an early age can set us up for a stressful life. He writes about the idea in “Born Anxious: The Lifelong Impact of Early Life Adversity – and How to Break the Cycle” (St. Martin’s Press).