Think from KERA

Cybercrime has traditionally involved hackers stealing credit card numbers and billing information to generate fake credit cards overseas. This hour, we’ll talk about a shift in that business model that has the bad guys stealing our data and holding it ransom. We’ll be joined by Josephine Wolff, whose story “The New Economics of Cybercrime” appears in The Atlantic.

Anyone who makes it into old age will have a brain that shows some signs of Alzheimer’s disease. The question is: Why do some people suffer symptoms when others do not? This hour, we’ll talk about new research into how we can keep our minds sharp and avoid dementia with David A. Bennett. He’s director of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago and writes about his research in the July/August issue of Scientific American Mind.

Young people in America have more freedom to find a religion that suits them than ever before. At the same time, more than one-third of people in their 20s and 30s identify as not being religious. This hour, we’ll talk about how millennials navigate their spiritual lives with Emma Green, who writes about religion for The Atlantic. She contributes to the multimedia project “Choosing My Religion” at theatlantic.com

It’s easy to assume that a woman might agree to a mail-order marriage as an act of desperation. That’s certainly true in some cases, though history is littered with examples of women actually improving their lives through this unusual system of matchmaking. This hour, we’ll talk about the practice with University of South Carolina associate law professor Marcia A. Zug, author of “Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail-Order Matches” (NYU Press).

Half of all medical school graduates are women, but there’s one field they rarely go into. Only 12 percent of cardiologists in the U.S. are women. This hour, we’ll talk about why there are so few female heart doctors, how that affects patient care and what can be done to even out the numbers with a panel of women who are part of that 12 percent: Dr. Cara East of Baylor University Medical Center and Dr. Nina Asrani of Texas Health Fort Worth.

The Supreme Court announced today two decisions with Texas ties – one upholding a race-conscious admissions program at the University of Texas and another blocking an Obama administration plan to allow the undocumented parents of American citizens to avoid deportation. This hour, we’ll discuss the decisions with SMU professor of law Lackland Bloom. And later in the show, we’ll preview the court’s upcoming decision concerning restrictive abortion laws in Texas with SMU associate professor of law Jessica Dixon Weaver.

Crime scene DNA has traditionally been used to link a victim to a criminal. With a new process known as phenotyping, though, investigators are using that DNA to reverse engineer a profile of what the perpetrator might look like. This hour, we’ll talk about phenotyping – and a host of other CSI innovations – with National Geographic online science editor Erika Engelhaupt. The story “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” appears in the July issue of the magazine.

Dennis Prager is a Jewish talk-show host who broadcasts to a largely conservative Christian audience. Both the host and his listeners support a strong partnership between the U.S. and Israel, and so Prager decided to lead a tour of the Middle Eastern country as a sign of solidarity. This hour, we’ll talk about what turned out to be a rather strange trip with Tom Bissell, who tagged along and writes about the experience in the July issue of Harper’s.

If you’ve ever witnessed another person – or even a pet – acting strangely, there could be a logical reason: A parasite is controlling their brains. Yes, really. This hour, we’ll talk about how microscopic creatures can infest the minds of much larger beings – and how they can affect their personalities – with Kathleen McAuliffe. She’s the author of “This is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

In May, the Dallas Commission on Homelessness was created by Mayor Mike Rawlings to address the city’s problem. The commission is taking input from residents at public meetings this week, and this hour on Think, we’ll talk about the issue with members of the commission. We’ll be joined by Blake Fetterman, executive director of the Salvation Army’s Carr. P Collins Social Service Center; Dallas City Councilman Mark Clayton; and Ikenna Mogbo, housing outpatient operations manager for MetroCare Services.