KERA's Think

One woman’s failed abortion attempts turned into a positive for another woman, illustrating some of the real-life effects of new reproductive laws. Amber Ferguson of The Washington Post joins host Krys Boyd to discuss two women, one who didn’t want to give birth and another who couldn’t, and how the fall of Roe changed their lives. Her article is “After abortion attempts, two women now bound by child.”

Wildfire and hurricane seasons are growing more severe, forcing some Americans to rethink where they live. Abrahm Lustgarten is an investigative reporter writing about climate change at ProPublica and for The New York Times. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss where people might eventually resettle and the cities that could capitalize on that forced migration. His book is “On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America.”

We celebrate the birth of a child, but so often the quietness of a death is left as an unceremonious moment. Alua Arthur, founder of Going with Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how she’s devoted her career ushering individuals and families through the process of death, why she believes it’s a sacred moment, and how she encourages people to plan for plan for end of life with dignity. Her book is “Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End.”

On a planet with 8 billion people, what’s the argument for an individual doing the right thing if it’s barely a drop in the bucket? Travis Rieder, faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, where he directs the Master of Bioethics degree program. He holds secondary appointments in the departments of Philosophy and Health Policy and Management, as well as the Center for Public Health Advocacy and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss our everyday challenges and the moral quandaries they put us in, and how to do the decent thing in a global and complex world. His book is “Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices.”

Only 2-percent of Black women are physicians, which leaves millions without doctors that look like them. Uché Blackstock MD is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss her family, her mother who was also a Harvard-trained doctor, as well as her sister, and how she’s devoted her career to understanding and addressing health inequities of different races. Her book is “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine.”

Scientists are using the secrets of biology to unlock living well past current human life spans. Venki Ramakrishnan shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for uncovering the structure of the ribosome. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Venki runs a research group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the quest to live forever, if that’s even ethical, and what it looks like to alter our physiology. His book is “Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality.”

As the 2024 election approaches, plenty of voters are asking why isn’t there a third option? Jeffrey Engle, Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the history of third-party candidates, from Teddy Roosevelt to Ross Perot, and how they’ve impacted – or not – presidential elections.

Vincent Schiraldi, founder of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and the Justice Policy Institute, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss parole and probation, which he calls a “recidivism trap,” and make the case that these practices should be abolished.

In our quest to head off childhood mental illness at its source, are the means outweighing the good? Author and journalist Abigail Shrier joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why, even as more adolescents are receiving mental health care than ever before, the numbers for those suffering continues to rise, and why our contemporary parenting styles and approaches to therapy might be part of the problem. Her book is “Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up.”

Modern medicine has a problem: the idea that men have bigger, and therefore better, bodies persists, even today. Dr. Elizabeth Comen is a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the history of sexism in medicine and why lingering stereotypes still affect women’s medical care – even as women make up the majority of medical students. Her book is “All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today.”

After a childhood of homelessness and foster care, a vision for how to advocate for those in poverty emerged. David Ambroz, Head of Community Engagement (West) for Amazon, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the challenges of his upbringing from hunger to abuse, and why he’s made it his life’s work to fight for child welfare. His book is “A Place Called Home: A Memoir.”

On the day of the total solar eclipse, we’ll explore the mysteries of the universe. Harry Cliff is a particle physicist based at the University of Cambridge and conducts research with CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the anomalies that cannot be explained by current scientific theories, and the reasons we only understand about five percent of what makes up the vast reaches of outer space. His book is “Space Oddities: The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe.”

On April 8, a total solar eclipse will stretch across the United States from south Texas to the northern tip of Maine, blotting out the sun for about four minutes within its 115-mile-wide path. In this special edition of Think, host Krys Boyd will prime listeners to have their best viewing experience and talk through the science of what’s actually happening 223,000 miles above our heads. To hear even more ways to navigate viewing the eclipse read: 8 things to know about the April 8 eclipse

The dream to retire and live comfortably at age 65 is becoming more of a fantasy to millions of Americans. Teresa Ghilarducci is professor of economics and policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York City where she serves as the director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and the New School’s Retirement Equity Lab (ReLab). She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why our golden years only look rosy for the wealthiest among us, why social security can’t keep up — even if we work longer — and why going back to work is the only option for so many. Her book is “Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy.”

The argument for allowing children to change their sex goes far beyond avoiding the harms of body dysmorphia. Andrea Long Chu, book critic for New York magazine, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why she believes it is an inalienable right to choose one’s sex, why children need to have agency in their own lives, and why the political left and right have their arguments for and against it wrong. Her article is “Why Trans Kids Have the Right to Change Their Biological Sex.”

Not every POTUS is a leader for the ages, but the handful that are offer illuminating lessons on life for the rest of us. Historian Talmage Boston joins host Krys Boyd to discuss his dive into the lives and leadership styles of eight presidents, from Washington to Reagan, and the ways they shaped American society. His book is “How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons From Our Top Presidents.”

There’s a myth that rural America is dying when, in fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Elizabeth Currid-Halkett is the James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning and professor of public policy at the University of Southern California. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the small towns in the middle of the country that are thriving and, by many metrics, outperforming much larger urban centers. Her book is “The Overlooked Americans: The Resilience of Our Rural Towns and What It Means for Our Country.”

YouTube is filled with adorable videos of animals at play, and studying that play is helping uncover mysteries of evolutionary behavior. University of Massachusetts, Amherst professor David Toomey joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why piglets flop, dogs slide and octopuses play, and what that tells us about animal cognition and biology. Plus, we’ll dive deeper into the world of cephalopods. Toomey’s book is “Kingdom of Play: What Ball-bouncing Octopuses, Belly-flopping Monkeys, and Mud-sliding Elephants Reveal about Life Itself.”

One year ago, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was imprisoned by Russian authorities and charged with espionage. Wall Street Journal assistant editor Paul Beckett joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what is known about Gershkovich’s condition in prison, the efforts to free him, and what journalism looks like in Putin’s Russia now.

In this new Ozempic era, food cravings are going away, and scientists are searching for the reasons why. Brian Resnick is science correspondent at Vox and co-creator of the podcast “Unexplainable.” He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why new GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy seem to target appetite but actually work with brain chemistry, and what effect this might have on people struggling with addictions. His article is “Can you change what you crave?“