RadioWest

Journalist Lesley Hazleton says that if you want to understand headlines from the Middle East today, you have to understand the story of Islam’s first civil war. When the prophet Muhammad died, factions in the young faith became embroiled in a succession crisis. The power grabs, violence, and political machinations resulted in the schism between Sunni and Shia. Hazleton joins Doug to tell the story of Islam’s sectarian divide and to explain how that history influences current events.

Where does genius come from? Some people say geniuses are born, or that they’re made by thousands of hours of work. But what if genius is actually grown, like a plant? Travel writer Eric Weiner has scanned the globe and come to exactly that conclusion. He says genius arises in clumps at particular places and times when certain ingredients are present. Think Ancient Greece, 14th-century Florence, or modern-day Silicon Valley. Weiner joins us Tuesday to explain his theory of the geography of

In a new book, legal scholar Mehrsa Baradaran argues that America has two systems for personal banking. The rich have personal bank accounts at brick-and-mortar businesses, while the poor either don’t bank at all or rely on payday lenders and check cashers that charge exorbitant rates and fees. The result, Baradaran says, is a sadly ironic situation where “the less money you have, the more you pay to use it.” She joins us Monday to explain how we got into this mess, and how we might get out of

Around 360 BC, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote about a marvelous city that disappeared millennia earlier. Atlantis is one of the world’s great unsolved mysteries, despite the efforts of scholars, amateur sleuths, psychics, and conspiracy theorists. The journalist Mark Adams went on his own quest - not to find Atlantis itself, but to understand the people searching for it. Friday, he joins us to talk about the sunken city and the place it holds in our imagination. [Rebroadcast]

Did you know that in the 1850s some Mormons argued that Jesus was married and had children? Or that even today, there’s LDS theology around Jesus Christ that leads Evangelicals to say The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t really Christian? Thursday, scholar John Turner is Doug’s guest. He’s written a book called The Mormon Jesus and he joins us to discuss how the LDS concept of Jesus Christ has changed over time, and what it reveals about Mormonism in American religious life.

For years, Daniel Kunitz lived the life of the mind. His body though “became a trash depot.” Then he started running, which led to swimming, weightlifting, and eventually CrossFit. His health and his life steadily improved. Kunitz’s personal quest got him wondering how fitness culture has changed through the years. Why were the Greeks so buff? Why do guys do dumbbell curls? How have women changed exercise as we know it? Kunitz joins us to share what he’s learned about the evolution of fitness.

In 1996, New Yorker staff writer Mark Singer was assigned a profile of Manhattan businessman Donald Trump, and it wasn’t long before Singer realized this was no ordinary subject. The piece has been called one of the best pre-campaign portraits of Trump there is, but Trump wasn’t impressed. He wrote Singer a note to call him A TOTAL LOSER whose WRITING SUCKS! Well, Singer’s at it again with a book that revisits his deeply reported, psychological portrait, and he joins us Tuesday to talk about it.

Monday, we’re telling the story of what author Richard Zacks calls Mark Twain’s “raucous and redemptive round-the-world comedy tour.” Twain was once America’s highest paid writer, but he was also a remarkably bad businessman. In 1895, with his career on the rocks and with what today would be millions in debt, Twain embarked on a 5-continent speaking tour he hoped would save him. Zacks joins Doug to talk about Twain’s wildly popular humor, his missteps, and what drove his quest for redemption.

Historian Pamela Haag says there’s a mythology around American gun culture. The conventional wisdom is that since the Revolutionary War we’ve had some primal bond with our firearms. But Haag argues that our guns were once just another tool of everyday life, and that the gun industry convinced us we needed to be armed. In a new book, she follows the rise of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and the marketing campaign she says created our gun culture. Haag joins us Friday to tell the story.

Thursday, biographer Kate Clifford Larson is with us to talk about the life of Rosemary Kennedy. She was a sister of John F. Kennedy, a vivacious beauty, and also intellectually challenged. As the Kennedy family’s power grew, her parents were anxious to keep her from the public eye. So at 23, she was lobotomized and institutionalized. Larson joins us to explain what Rosemary’s story reveals about the way we once dealt with disabilities, and how her life eventually inspired the Kennedys’ activism

The Creation Museum in Kentucky aims to scientifically prove a literal reading of the Bible. There’s a replica of the Garden of Eden, a Natural Selection Room that argues against evolution, and this week, they’re opening a life-sized Noah’s Ark. But the scholars Susan and William Trollinger say it’s a big mistake to dismiss this as wacky or irrelevant. Wednesday, they join Doug to explain what The Creation Museum teaches us about American fundamentalism and why we should be paying attention.

For the latest installment in our Through the Lens series, we’re trying something different and talking about an in-the-works documentary. Director Ellen Goosenberg-Kent is working on a film called Don’t Make Me Over about the life and career of famed singer Dionne Warwick. Recognized at an early age for her vocal talent, Warwick was one the greatest female voices of her generation and an outspoken advocate for social and political change. Warwick and others will join us to talk about her

Monday, writer Nathaniel Philbrick joins us to talk about George Washington and his buddy Benedict Arnold. Arnold has long been regarded as the archetypal American traitor. But before he betrayed his country, he was actually one of Washington’s favorite and most trusted generals. In a new book, Philbrick examines the complicated relationship between the two men. Ultimately, he says, it’s about their different reactions to a dysfunctional Congress that was driven by self-righteous opportunism.

For years, science has told us that intelligence originates in the brain and that the body is just a vehicle to be controlled and piloted. But what if we’ve got it wrong? The cognitive scientist Guy Claxton thinks we do. The mind, he says, is more like a chat room, where the body’s systems share information and debate the best actions. So it’s the really the body, not the mind, that constitutes the core of our intelligent life. Claxton joins us to explore the intelligence in our flesh.

The journalist Sebastian Junger has noticed that for many veterans, and even some civilians, war feels better than peace, and he has a theory about why that might be. War, he says, compels us to band together and support one another in pursuit of a clear goal. But under the normal conditions of modern culture, we lose those connections, and we feel lonely and lost. Thursday, Junger joins us to discuss why we’re stronger when we come together and what tribal societies can teach us about leading