KERA's Think

[2013-05-15 12:00:00] Has American diplomacy lost its way? We’ll talk this hour with Vali Nasr, Dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and former U.S. State Department advisor. His new book is “The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat” (Random House, 2013).

[2013-05-14 13:00:00] What are the underlying genetic causes of cancer and who found them? We’ll find out this hour with journalist Jessica Wapner, who tells the story of the 1959 discovery in her new book “The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level” (The Experiment, 2013).

[2013-05-14 12:00:00] How did two Americans recover important art works by Donatello, Michelangelo, and others from Nazi looters? We’ll talk this hour with Robert Edsel, who takes us back to 1944 to retrace the steps of artist Deana Keller and scholar Fred Hartt in his book “Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis” (W. W. Norton & Company, 2013).

[2013-05-13 13:00:00] Why does violent sexual assault continue to be a growing issue in the U.S. military? We’ll talk this hour with documentarian Kirby Dick, who tells the stories of women and men betrayed by their comrades and the institution they serve in the “The Invisible War.” The film airs tonight on PBS and KERA Channel 13.

[2013-05-13 12:00:00] What are the best ways to help those in need in our community? We’ll talk this hour with Larry James, president and CEO of CitySquare and author of the new book “The Wealth of The Poor” (Abilene Christian University Press, 2013).

[2013-05-09 13:00:00] What roles did women play in the top-secret Manhattan Project? We’ll talk this hour with journalist Denise Kiernan, author of the new book “The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II” (Touchstone, 2013).

[2013-05-09 12:00:00] What are the latest developments in our understanding of autism? We’ll talk this hour with Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University and author of the new book “The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). She’ll speak to the Dallas Museum of Art’s Arts & Letters Live series tomorrow evening.

[2013-05-07 13:00:00] How did a love of literature and a passion for weightlifting help one young man overcome Tourette Syndrome? We’ll find out this hour with Josh Hanagarne, author of “The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family” (Gotham, 2013).

[2013-05-07 12:00:00] Are our images and presentations of ourselves changing in the age of social media and do these changes reflect trends in the art world? We’ll talk this hour with Gabriel Ritter, curator at the Dallas Museum of Art which is currently exhibiting the career retrospective Cindy Sherman. We’ll also be joined by Erin K. Freeman, who studies narcissism and peer assessment at the University of Dallas and Jordan Frith who focuses on social media and location and image-based apps like Instagram at the University of North Texas. Ritter speaks at the DMA Thursday at 7:30 about the genre of self-portraiture and contemporary non-Western artists.

[2013-05-07 13:00:00] How has the American way of war-fighting evolved over the last dozen years of nearly constant conflict? We’ll find out this hour with Mark Mazzetti, Pulitzer Prize winner, national security correspondent for The New York Times, and author of the new book “The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth” (The Penguin Press, 2013).

[2013-05-07 12:00:00] What are the best ways to support friends or loved ones suffering from illness? We’ll talk this hour with journalist Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author of “How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick” (PublicAffairs, 2013).

[2013-05-06 13:00:00] Have humans always been divided over issues like religion, gender, nationalism, and race? We’ll talk this hour with Sir David Cannadine, the Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University and author of the new book, “The Undivided Past: Humanity Beyond Our Differences” (Knopf, 2013).

[2013-05-06 12:00:00] What’s being done to safeguard Texas children from abuse and to promote healthy, safe, and productive families? We’ll talk this hour with Madeline McClure, executive director of The Texas Association for the Protection of Children.

[2013-05-02 13:00:00] Is revenge necessarily a bad thing and can it point to virtues like loyalty and justice? We’ll explore the merits of vengefulness this hour with Thane Rosenbaum, the John Whelan Distinguished Lecturer in Law at Fordham Law School, and author of “Payback: The Case for Revenge” (University Of Chicago Press, 2013).

[2013-05-02 12:00:00] What is cooking’s value in family life and our society as a whole? We’ll talk this hour with veteran food writer Michael Pollan whose new book is “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation” (The Penguin Press, 2013).