Historian Benjamin Madley joins us to tell the chilling story of the government-sanctioned genocide of California's Indians in the nineteenth century.

Marcus Smith speaks with Smithsonian naturalist Darrin Lunde about Theodore Roosevelt's lesser-known passion for the science of naturalism.

Mountains breed legends, folklore, meanings and memories. They draw geologists and naturalists, poets and tourists, photographers and hikers, scouts and scholars. Our guest today on Thinking Aloud inhabits a fairly new field of academic study—a discipline called Mountain Studies. Jeff Nichols, a social and cultural historian, is director of the Institute for Mountain Research at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. How have mountains played a part in your life? Join host Marcus Smith as he thinks back on his own "mountain stories."

Almost everything you think you know about how to become really good at something is mostly wrong.  That, in part, is the message of today’s guest on Thinking Aloud--Anders Ericsson, the world expert in how to become an expert … in just about anything. 

Norman Wirzba is a philosopher, environmentalist, and theologian whose ideas are much read and cited.  He talks to host Marcus Smith today about what we can gain by becoming more aware of the land--including even the dirt itself--that gives us sustenance and life.

Tonight on Thinking Aloud, host Marcus Smith talks with Professor Randall B. Smith about the issue of adjunct faculty, the hard-working, underpaid teachers who now teach the majority of undergraduate classes at U.S. universities. How American higher education came to gradually embrace this problematic, unethical state of affairs is the topic of today's discussion.

Today’s guest on Thinking Aloud, Johan Norberg, is an optimist. He has the unique ability to read past gloomy headlines, equipped with what he deems to be more than enough reason and data for hope. Humankind has actually made extraordinary progress, he maintains, on multiple fronts and in countless domains--progress by leaps and bounds in healthcare, the eradication of poverty, literacy, social justice, and technology.  In spite of all those foreboding headlines, things just aren’t as bad as you’d think.

Historian Michael Neiberg joins us to discuss the historical circumstances, successes and failures, and legacy of the Treaty of Versailles.

Our guest tonight on Thinking Aloud is Lisa Barrett. Her recent book "How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain" presents a new theory of how the brain constructs emotions could possibly revolutionize psychology, health care, the legal system, and our understanding of the human mind. in a nutshell, she argues that emotions are not universal: emotions as we know them but are cultural concepts we all learn and conform to--so it's society that makes them real, not our brains.

The iconic Jewish deli is famous for serving pastrami sandwiches, cheesecake, and other delicacies.  The deli also, however, played a crucial role in helping Jewish immigrants establish close community bonds and eventually become part of the American mainstream.  Ted Merwin discusses on today's show the deli and its important role in Jewish history in America.