Thinking Aloud

Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia maintains that religious people and groups, rather than retreat from the world or hide, should engage. For instance, rather than spurn political parties, Christians should work for positive change in such institutions from within. He’s here to talk with us in practical and thoughtful terms about the engagement of Christian believers in the realm of politics. 

Though oral narrative has existed for at least tens of thousands of years in Africa, it continues to play an important role up to the present.  Today's guest is a scholar of Zambia who has spent four decades travelling to that country to record and study its rich storytelling tradition.

On the whole, Native American culture and populations are as strong today as they have been in centuries. Today's guest on Thinking Aloud is a leading native writer and thinker. LeAnne Howe is here to talk about native literature, culture, history, and earth sculpture.

Today’s Thinking Aloud is about a myriad of different ways that we can combine to make a significant difference in the environment. Our guest, Brigham Daniels, hopes to nudge you to do your part in the gradual improvement of our planet. 

Businesses in the 21st century have produced not only a wide array of new products from iPhones to hoverboards, but they have also invented new ways of doing business.  Organizational psychologist David Burkus examines the best of these new workplace ideas in his  new book Under New Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual.  He’s here to discuss these with host Marcus Smith.

You may not know this, but your life is immensely affected by that ubiquitous, ordinary, but immensely important substance called dust.  Agriculture, global health and warming, even the length of the ski season are determined in large part by the production, global circulation, and subtle but powerful influence of dust.  Today on Thinking Aloud, scientist Richard Gill explains its central role in today's earth ecologies.

It may come as a surprise to most people in Provo, Utah whence we broadcast, but there are remains of ancient Fremont Indians all over the place here. You have to know where and how to look (hint: high tech helps), but stick a shovel in the right place and one foot down you'll find the remains of a house filled with pottery, game pieces, dolls, silverware, clothing--even corpses. Right under our own feet we can be reminded that we are not the first people by any means to call this place home--and the same goes for almost any place in America. Today's Thinking Aloud features a BYU archeologist who has been leading teams in uncovering this rich local heritage.

Today on Thinking Aloud, the Ambassador of Thailand to the United States, Pisan Manawapat, is here to explain one major reason for this half-century of relative prosperity and peace: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.  ASEAN is a political and economic organization that includes Thailand and nine other Southeast Asian nations. 

In Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti-and-the-Dominican Republic, and many other islands, drastic deforestation (among other damage) put in motion by earlier colonial powers has led to a plethora of ecological ills that continue to haunt the Caribbean today.  The history of this environmental destruction and how we might think about it going forward is the topic of today’s Thinking Aloud.

John Donvan and Caren Zucker are veteran journalists who have recently turned their attention to reporting on autism.  Their acclaimed new book In a Different Key: The Story of Autism tells the story of autism diagnoses, personal stories of how the condition affects families, and suggests some ways for communities to accomodate it.