Think from KERA

Bryan Cranston’s mantel is home to four Emmys for playing Walter White, plus a Tony for portraying President Lyndon Johnson. This hour, we’ll talk with him about “Breaking Bad” and “All the Way” – and about his funnier roles on “Seinfeld and “Malcolm in the Middle.” He writes about all of them in his new memoir, “A Life in Parts” (Scribner).

Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will made their cases to voters in the third and final presidential debate. This hour, we’ll recap the night – and talk about the strategies for each candidate through Nov. 8 – with presidential historian Jon Meacham. He’s the author of biographies on Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, and he’ll be in town Sunday to talk about his latest effort, “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush” at Highland Park United Methodist Church.

“Colorism” is a “cousin to racism” according to Lori. L. Tharps. And as a mother of three mixed-race children – with three distinct skin colors – she’s seen firsthand the many ways that people are judged based on the lightness or darkness of their skin. This hour, we’ll talk with Tharps, an associate professor at Temple University, about her book “Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America’s Diverse Families” (Beacon Press).

This month, a series of women have accused Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of inappropriately touching or kissing them without their consent. This hour, we’ll talk about consent, what constitutes sexual harassment and assault and what people should do if they feel they’ve been assaulted. We’ll be joined by Amy Jones, senior director of programs and client services with Genesis Women’s Shelter;  Heather Snow, dean of students and associate vice president for student affairs at UT-Arlington; and Monica Urbaniak, clinical director for Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center. We’ll also speak with Sophia Dembling, a Dallas writer who tells her story of being sexually assaulted as a 19-year-old.

Given enough distance from a tragedy, some comedians will try to add levity to the situation. This hour, we’ll talk about if it will ever not be “too soon” to crack a joke about the Holocaust with Ferne Pearlstein. She explores one of comedy’s most taboo topics with Mel Brooks, Louis C.K., Chris Rock and other comedians in her documentary “The Last Laugh,” which screens Thursday as part of Videofest.

After terrorist attacks in Belgium and France this year, Europe is a key battleground in the fight against ISIS. This hour, we’ll talk about what top security officials on the continent are doing to ward off future attacks with Sebastian Rotella. His reporting appears in the Frontline documentary “Terror in Europe,” which airs Tuesday on KERA-TV.

In the 1930s, Noel Field was an Ivy League-educated American working for the U.S. State Department. This hour, we’ll talk about how Field betrayed his country to become one of Joseph Stalin’s top spies – only to have the tables turned on him by the KGB. We’ll be joined by Kati Marton, who tells the story in “True Believer: Stalin’s Last American Spy” (Simon & Schuster). Marton will be in town Nov. 3 to talk about her book at a World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth event.

What if everyone in the world spoke a common language? That was Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof’s dream when he set out to create a universal language near the end of the 19th Century. This hour, we’ll talk about the invention – and ultimate failure – of Esperanto with Princeton professor Esther Schor, author of “Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language” (Metropolitan Books).

Children of modest means often have a tough choice to make: pursue a college education and its requisite debt or join the workforce. This hour, we’ll talk about that decision through the story of one young man who had to make it. We’ll be joined by Daniel Connolly, who tells the story of Isaias Ramos in his book “The Book of Isaias: A Child of Hispanic Immigrants Seeks His Own America” (St. Martin’s Press).

Each year, about 680,000 immigrants become naturalized U.S. citizens. This hour, as part of a national coordinated conversation organized by NPR, we’ll talk about what it means to be an American with a panel of Americans who began life as citizens of other countries.