Thinking Aloud

The western U.S. is home to a treasure trove of ancient Native American petroglyphs that are up to several thousand years old. Tonight on Thinking Aloud, we discuss the preservation of these cultural treasures with Bradley Parker and Nathan Thomas, two archeologists working to research and preserve them.

Dorceta Taylor's new book The Rise of the American Conservation Movement has a few surprises for us: first, that the U.S. conservation movement began in American cities and not "out in nature"; second, that it was a movement that progressed via the contributions of all of America's diverse groups: women as well as men, racial minorities as well as the white majority, and the lower classes in addition to an educated upper class.  She's here to tell more of this fascinating story on today's Thinking Aloud.

Anne La Berge and David Dramm are avant-garde composers who are married and have been living and working in Amsterdam for several decades.  Along with BYU Professor of Music and fellow composer Steve Ricks, host Marcus Smith talks to them about modern music, creativity, and their own distinctive work--several extended clips of which we'll hear during the show.

Most Americans would be surprised to discover this, but in many parts of Africa, a higher percentage of Africans use cellphones than Americans or Europeans do. In Ghana, cellphone coverage is so widespread that you can hardly find a square foot in the whole country not within reach of a cell tower--even far out in the jungle or bush.

So how and why did so much of Africa make the leap straight from no phone to cellphone in the last two decades? And what are the profound societal, political, and economic ramifications of that amazing change? Dr. Daniel Nielson of the BYU Political Science Dept is here to discuss these issues with producer Mark Burns on today's Thinking Aloud.

After the Spanish conquered the Aztec Empire in the 1500s, the hard work of governing that vast empire began.  In the far northwest reaches of their territory in what is now Mexico, the Spanish colonizers and the native Yaqui culture eventually negotiated what came to be a complex, fascinating relationship. The story of this diplomatic dance is the focus of today's program.

On today’s episode of Thinking Aloud, host Marcus Smith speaks with Clayborne Carson, a leading scholar of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his work. Carson came to the Brigham Young University campus in February 2017 to give a university-wide Forum address as part of the school’s Black History Month celebrations.

Today's guest is the co-author of a fun, creative new book about business ethics, an in which he is a national specialist.  Written and bound like a camping guide, his new book walks us through the thirteen kinds of ethical dilemmas inevitably faced by those who do business in the 21st century.  Each presents hard but right choices businesswomen and men will have opportunities to make.

Thinking Aloud tonight is an interview with Stanford's Dr. Clayborne Carson, one of the leading scholars of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, work, and writing. Carson came to campus as part of Brigham Young University's 2017 Black History Month celebrations and talks to host Marcus Smith about King's life and global legacy.

Today, guest host Dr. Matthew Wickman, the director of the BYU Humanities Center, interviews the distinguished scholar Dr. Rita Felski  Her most recent book "The Limits of Critique" deals with the ways in which the modern mode of critique, though an extremely useful tool for analyzing cultural works, is not the only way to approach a book or a painting. The interview shows how two specialists in literary studies can continue to find new ways to talk about their field of study.

Even in our modern age, religious believers routinely face ostracism, social injustice, and in many cases martyrdom. There’s a broad spectrum of religious intolerance, from seemingly benign forms to the barbaric devastations wrought by bloodthirsty militant groups in the name of religion. Last night on Thinking Aloud, we were joined by Mary Eberstadt, a guest of the Wheatley Institution on BYU campus. She recently authored the book It's Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies. Just where is the “free world” today when it comes to religious freedom? In what has been described as a secular world, what can or should a religious believer expect from our modern society in the way of protections from religious discrimination?