Think from KERA

[2016-03-23 12:00:00] Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that it’s illegal to discriminate “because of sex.” This hour, we’ll talk about how that simple phrase has armed American women in court as they’ve fought for their rights with Gillian Thomas, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. Her book is called “Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women’s Lives at Work” (St. Martin’s Press).

[2016-03-22 13:00:00] The novel “A Little Life” tracks four college classmates after they leave campus for the bright lights of New York City. This hour, we’ll talk with Hanya Yanagihara, the book’s author, about her story of how these friends turned their close relationship into something resembling a family. Yanagihara speaks tonight at Arts & Letters Live.

[2016-03-22 12:00:00] At the heart of so many political issues being discussed this election season is a simple question: How do we balance a person’s rights with the good of the whole? This hour, we’ll explore the question with Colin Woodard, author of “American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good” (Viking).

[2016-03-21 12:00:00] Countries around the world all have prison systems – and they don’t all operate in the same way. This hour, we’ll talk about strategies that prisons on other continents are using to rehabilitate inmates with Baz Dreisinger, founder of the Prison-to-College Pipeline Program. She traveled to prisons across the globe and writes about them in “Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World” (Other Press).

[2016-03-21 13:00:00] When Olivia Laing moved to New York City, she found herself in one of the most densely populated places on Earth. How could she possibly be lonely? This hour, we’ll talk with Laing about how we connect with other people and the walls we put up to keep others out, the subject of her memoir “The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone” (Picador).

[2016-03-16 13:00:00] With chains of gentleman’s clubs, pole dancing classes and plenty of pop songs, stripping has become a part of mainstream culture. This hour, we’ll talk about the corporatization of what was once an underground industry with Yale University dance instructor Jessica Berson, author of “The Naked Result: How Exotic Dance Became Big Business” (Oxford University Press).

[2016-03-16 12:00:00] It’s been nearly three months since the Dec. 26 tornadoes rolled through North Texas, completely upending the lives of people who lived in their path. This hour, as part of the KERA series “One Crisis Away: Rebuilding a Life,” we’ll talk about how to recover from trauma with Jeff Quan, a counselor at Eastfield College, and Dr. Ann Marie Warren, staff psychologist at Baylor University Medical Center.

[2016-03-15 13:00:00] This week, the NCAA basketball tournament tips off, producing a sizeable portion of the estimated $13 billion that college sports generates annually. This hour, we’ll talk about the level that college athletes should share in the money they help to generate with “New York Times” columnist Joe Nocera. His new book is called “Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA” (Portfolio).

[2016-03-15 12:00:00] Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth is participating in a trial program to see if a compound found in marijuana can be used to treat children with epilepsy. This hour, we’ll talk about the potential outcomes of the trial – and what they could mean for the future of medical marijuana in Texas – with Dr. Scott Perry, who’s heading the study at Cook Children’s.

[2016-03-14 13:00:00] As a chief film critic for “The New York Times,” A.O. Scott helps to set the national conversation we have about movies. This hour, we’ll talk with him about his approach to writing reviews – and about criticism’s role in fostering creativity – which he writes about in “Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth” (Penguin Press).