KERA's Think

[2013-02-25 12:00:00] From the Archive – How is the geopolitical dynamic in the Middle East changing and what might the future hold for Syria, Iran, and their neighbors? We spent an hour last fall with Roxane Farmanfarmaian, Affiliated Lecturer in International Relations of the Middle East and North Africa at the University of Cambridge and Middle East Fellow at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at University of Utah.

[2013-02-21 13:00:00] How did stories about World War II inspire a young Australian to become a writer? We’ll find out this hour with Markus Zusak, bestselling author of “The Book Thief” and “I am the Messenger.” He’s in town to address the Highland Park Literary Festival this evening.

[2013-02-21 12:00:00] Who will win big at Sunday night’s Academy Awards? We’ll get your favorite picks and discuss it all this hour with Stephen Becker of KERA’s Art&Seek, Chris Vognar of The Dallas Morning News, and Christopher Kelly who writes for Texas Monthly.

[2013-02-20 13:00:00] How did the sculptor Bernini choose his subjects and what do we know of his relationships with the people he immortalized in marble and clay? We’ll talk this hour with Sarah McPhee, the Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Art History at Emory University and author of the new book “Bernini’s Beloved: A Portrait of Costanza Piccolomini” (Yale University Press, 2012). The exhibit Bernini: Sculpting in Clay is on view at the Kimbell Art Museum through April 14th.

[2013-02-20 12:00:00] What is still needed for our economy to fully recover from recent financial woes? We’ll talk this hour with Alan Blinder, Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman, professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and author of “After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead” (The Penguin Press, 2013).

[2013-02-14 13:00:00] What will it take to preserve the remaining few pristine marine ecosystems on the planet? We’ll talk this hour with Gregory Stone, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief ocean scientist of Conservation International and senior vice president of exploration and conservation at the New England Aquarium. His new book, co-written with David Obura, is “Underwater Eden: Saving the Last Coral Wilderness on Earth” (University Of Chicago Press, 2012).

[2013-02-14 12:00:00] What drives a writer to tell important stories and do the hard work to tell them well? We’ll talk this hour with Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Tracy Kidder. His new book, co-written with Richard Todd, is “Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction” (Random House, 2013).

[2013-02-13 13:00:00] How did the War of 1812 impact the future of slavery and the roles African Americans would play in the U.S. Military and in future conflicts? We’ll spend this hour with Gene Allen Smith, history professor and director of the Center for Texas Studies at TCU, curator of History at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, and author of “The Slaves’ Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812″ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

[2013-02-13 12:00:00] What can we learn from 140-year-old photographs of a place and way of life that just doesn’t exist anymore? This hour, we’ll explore “China: Through the Lens of John Thomson 1868 – 1872″ with Betty Yao, MBE of Credential International Arts Management in London and Amy Hofland, Executive Director at the Crow Collection of Asian Art. The exhibit opens this weekend at the Crow Collection.

[2013-02-12 13:00:00] How do you see Dallas and Fort Worth? Long lumped together as DFW, we’ll examine the similarities, identities, and insecurities of the two distinctly different towns this hour with Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Sarah Hepola of Salon.com, and Tim Rogers of D Magazine. They’ve all contributed to the current 40th Anniversary Special Edition of Texas Monthly Magazine.

[2013-02-12 12:00:00] Could our democracy work better if we viewed the Constitution as merely a set of guidelines rather than the supreme law of the land? We’ll talk this hour with Louis Michael Seidman, the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University and author of the new book “On Constitutional Disobedience” (Oxford University Press, 2013).

[2013-02-11 13:00:00] What makes a character actor good at his or her job and what’s it like to play ordinary people in the movies? We’ll find out this hour with screen veteran Stephen Tobolowsky, whose new memoir is “The Dangerous Animals Club” (Simon & Schuster, 2012). He’ll read tonight as part of Arts & Letters Live’s Texas Bound at the Dallas Museum of Art.

[2013-02-11 12:00:00] How did our particular branch of the human family tree manage to last this long when many others didn’t? We’ll talk this hour with journalist Chip Walter, whose new book is “Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived” (Walker & Company, 2013).

[2013-02-07 13:00:00] Do you dream of seeing the world, but wonder how to make it happen? We’ll talk this hour with traveler and blogger “Nomadic Matt” Kepnes who shows how it’s done in his new book “How to Travel the World on $50 a Day: Travel Cheaper, Longer, Smarter” (Perigee Trade, 2013).

[2013-02-07 12:00:00] How would you cope with a life-changing injury that forced you to relearn how to do virtually everything? We’ll talk this hour with Ashok Rajamani, author of the new memoir “The Day My Brain Exploded: A True Story” (Algonquin Books, 2013).