Think from KERA

As the 2016 election season reaches a crescendo, you might be wondering if this year’s campaign antics are just the beginning of a wild political future for the United States. Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is wondering too. We’ll talk with him this hour about his recent piece in The Atlantic, “How American Politics Went Insane.”

Humans think of animals as many things – beasts of burden, wild and free creatures of beauty, companions, trophies and food. But what are the animals thinking? We’ll discuss non-human joy, grief, anger, love and other emotions this hour with conservationist, scientist and writer Carl Safina. His latest book, “Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel,” is now out in paperback (Picador).

Werner Herzog is the rare director who’s known as much for making documentaries as he is for his narrative films. This hour, we’ll talk with the prolific German filmmaker about “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” “Fitzcarraldo,” “Grizzly Man” – and his newest effort, “Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World.” Herzog speaks tonight at the Winspear Opera House.

For decades, college has been touted as the best path to economic success for young Americans. But according to our guest this hour, this push toward a four-year degree and a lack of vocational training has left millions of important “middle-skilled” positions – jobs that don’t require a Bachelor’s Degree – unfilled. We’ll talk with Katherine Newman, provost and professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She’s the co-author of the new book “Reskilling America: Learning to Labor in the Twenty-First Century” (Metropolitan Books).

Since the turn of the century, we’ve seen an alarming rise in the number of hate groups operating in America – 892 at last count. This hour, we’ll talk about why these organizations form, what they hope to accomplish and how they’re being monitored with Mark Potok of the Sothern Poverty Law Center, which recently published its Hate Map.

The U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia is a well-known and established cornerstone of our country’s foreign policy efforts in the Middle East. Less well-known are the details of America’s arms sales to the Saudi monarchy and the war-fighting capabilities they enable. This hour, as part of a NPR’s “A Nation Engaged,” we’ll discuss those multi-billion-dollar deals and the recent U.S.-backed Saudi intervention in Yemen this hour with Andrew Cockburn. His article “Acceptable Losses” appears in the current issue of Harper’s Magazine.

If you think this year’s presidential campaigns seem more divisive and acrimonious than ever before, you’re not alone. And the political rhetoric is making waves – not just here at home but abroad as well. This hour, as part of a NPR’s “A Nation Engaged” conversation project, we’ll talk about how the election and the next president will affect America’s role in the world. Our guests are writer Ben Fountain, who’s been reporting on the election for The Guardian and Jeffrey Engel, who directs the Center for Presidential History at SMU.

As scientists continue to discover technological solutions for when our natural bodies fail, future generations will be faced with new ethical challenges. This hour, we’ll talk about the how society might handle people living to be hundreds of years old – and how life-extending breakthroughs can be evenly shared – with Eve Herold, author of “Beyond Human: How Cutting-Edge Science Is Extending Our Lives” (Thomas Dunne Books).

This summer has been one filled with racial violence – from Minnesota to Louisiana, from Milwaukee to Dallas. And kids have watched it all unfold on television during their breaks from school. This hour, as part of KERA’s American Graduate initiative, we’ll talk about how we can help young people process the many issues that contribute to these violent acts with Betsy Kennard, a clinical psychologist at UT Southwestern and Summer Rose, a  licensed psychologist for the Momentous Institute.

Most of us steer clear of venomous snakes, insects and other poisonous creatures. This hour, we’ll talk about the scientists who risk their lives studying venom – and how their research is helping to produce live-saving drugs for humans. We’ll be joined by science journalist Christie Wilcox, author of “Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).