Our guests on Thinking Aloud today are two food and nutrition scientists who have researched the ways in which crickets are actually a terrific source of protein.  It turns out that crickets are easy to grow, much cheaper to raise than cows, produce far less environmental waste, and, this is the kicker, contain protein that is of the same nutritional quality as beef. 

Tonight on Thinking Aloud, host Marcus Smith will visit with acclaimed science writer Dava Sobel about her new book, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. Learn about how these incredible women took astronomy by storm on tonight's Thinking Aloud.

Marcus Smith visits with Leo Braudy, exploring the history of monsters like witches, vampires, and zombies and trying to understand what these monsters have to say about the fears of the culture who created them.

Classicist Kyle Harper joins the show to discuss his new book, "The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire," which introduces two new characters in the narrative of Rome's decline: climate change and infectious disease.

Trebbe Johnson, writer and founder of Radical Joy for Hard Times, discusses our fractured relationship with the environment and how to find joy and connection in damaged places.

Daniel Bender discusses his book The Animal Game: Searching for Wildness at the American Zoo and examines the role zoos have played in shaping our relationship with faraway places and people.

Langston Hughes is often erroneously accused of being an opponent of religion, but an understanding of the religious culture of Hughes's Harlem and his religious poetry shows otherwise. Wallace Best, author of "Langston's Salvation: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem," joins the show. 

Kori Schake discusses why the transition from British toAmerican hegemony was so peaceful, and why we probably can't expect thenext transition to follow that example.

We rarely think about how every man-made objects, from our cars to our phones to our clothing, is colored with a pigment that had to be invented or manipulated by someone at some point. Color is made.

We’re joined by Kassia St Clair, author of "The Secret Lives of Color." St Clair’s surveys 75 shades that range all over the color wheel, unlocking their unique histories and stories.

Marcus Smith visits with an expert in Judaism about new Jewish communities sprouting up around the world in places like Cameroon, Ghana and India.