Think from KERA

Regulations on the food industry are designed to keep us safe. This hour, we’ll talk about why some of these regulations may have unintended consequences – and about how we can more efficiently feed the country – with food lawyer Baylen J. Linnekin. He’s the author of “Biting the Hands That Feed Us: How Fewer, Smarter Laws Would Make Our Food System More Sustainable” (Island Press).

When the Marquis de Lafayette returned to the U.S. in 1824, more than 75 percent of New Yorkers turned out to greet him. This hour, we’ll talk about the integral role the Frenchman played in the American Revolution – and about his close friendship with George Washington – with Sarah Vowell. She’s the author of “Lafayette in the Somewhat United States” (Riverhead Books).

It will likely take a miracle for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein to become our next president. And yet, each candidate has amassed a small – and loyal – band of supporters. This hour, we’ll talk about the many reasons these voters have for sticking by candidates who have little chance of winning with Emma Roller. Her opinion piece “Third-Party Voters Know What They Want” appeared recently in The New York Times.

In 2010, Sarah Gray received the news expectant mothers fear most – one of the twin sons she was carrying wasn’t going to live. In her tragedy, though, she saw opportunity for others and arranged for Thomas’ organs to be donated to medical research. This hour, we’ll talk with her about visiting labs at Harvard, Duke and elsewhere to witness the potentially lifesaving studies Thomas’ body was a part of. She writes about the experience in, “A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Story of One Boy’s Gift to Medical Science” (HarperOne).

Sunday night, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton squared off in the second presidential debate. This hour, we’ll talk about what they talked about with a panel of political scientists: UTA political science professor Rebecca Deen and Matthew Wilson, associate professor of political science at SMU.

Humans rely primarily on sight and sound to navigate the world. Our canine friends, though, prefer sniffing to seeing and hearing. This hour, we’ll talk about the incredible amount of information dogs collect through their noses with Alexandra Horowitz, author of “Being a Dog: Following the Dog Into a World of Smell” (Scribner).

Anyone who’s spent five minutes with a toddler knows that kids can be a grimy bunch. This hour, we’ll talk about how exposure to some germs is actually good for a child’s health with Brett Finlay, a microbiologist specializing in bacterial infections at the University of British Columbia. He writes about the idea in “Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World” (Algonquin Books).

Pride is an unusual emotion in that everyone should have some of it but having too much can be dangerous. This hour, we’ll explore how pride can push us to great achievements – and make us do terrible things in the process – with University of British Columbia psychology professor Jessica Tracy. She writes about the pluses and minuses of pride in “Take Pride: Why the Deadliest Sin Holds the Secret to Human Success” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

The Black Panther Party was founded 50 years ago this month. This hour, we’ll talk about what the organization was able to accomplish – and about its relevance in the age of Black Lives Matter – with Yohuru Williams, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University. He’s co-editor of “The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution” (Nation Books).

Lawrence Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2005 book “The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.” This hour, we’ll talk with the New Yorker staff writer about shifts in power in the Middle East over the last decade, the subject of his new book, “The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State” (Knopf).