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KERA Think Rundown – Week of 11/21/11

General, KERA Radio, News Releases 54

Think airs Monday to Thursday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m. on KERA FM. Encore airings of Think can be heard Monday to Thursday nights on KERA FM beginning at 9:00 p.m. Podcasts and streamed video are available online at www.kera.org/think.

Monday, 11/21

Hour 1:  What is the real state of American race relations and African American politics? We’ll talk this hour with Michael C. Dawson, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago. His new book is “Not in Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics” (University Of Chicago Press, 2011).

Hour 2:   What happens to a family when the father is accused and convicted of a stunning series of betrayals and crimes? We’ll find out this hour with journalist Laurie Sandell, author of the new book “Truth and Consequences: Life Inside the Madoff Family” (Little, Brown and Company, 2011).

Tuesday, 11/22

Hour 1:  What is known about how the human mind really works? We’ll talk this hour with Daniel Kahneman, one of the only non-economists to win a Nobel Prize in Economics. Currently the Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School and the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University, Kahneman has distilled decades of observations and research into his new book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011).

Hour 2:  Developing.

Wednesday, 11/23

Hour 1:  Did they really try to climb it just because it was there? We’ll examine the lives and times of some of the most adventurous early 20th Century explorers this hour with Wade Davis, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and author of the new book “Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest” (Knopf, 2011).

Hour 2:  What environment spawned one of the greatest orchestral compositions in history? We’ll find out this hour with music historian and New York Philharmonic Leonard Bernstein Scholar-In-Residence Harvey Sachs. His latest book is “The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824” (Random House, Paperback, 2011).

Thursday, 11/24

Hour 1:  Think is on holiday today. We hope you’ll enjoy “A Thanksgiving Celebration with Garrison Keillor” this hour. Described as a broadcast of “Gratitude, Gravy & Garrison,” this one-hour celebration features music by celebrated choir VocalEssence, along with celebration of all things Thanksgiving.  Keillor performs his witty and reflective Thanksgiving monologues and contributes humorous new lyrics to familiar songs and hymns.

Hour 2:  Think is on holiday today. We hope you’ll enjoy “The Promised Land: Think Like a Bee” this hour. A third of the food on our plates is made possible by bees, whose numbers are being decimated by disease and colony collapse disorder. But the bees have a champion in Marla Spivak, a University of Minnesota researcher and MacArthur “Genius” who thinks like a bee. Her intuitive approach — combined with scientific method — has given the world tremendous insight into these fascinating insects. Marla will show host Majora Carter (no newbie herself — Majora is an urban beekeeper) the secrets she’s beginning to uncover about the lives of bees. Marla’s work explores how bees can help themselves become more resistant to modern-day threats — and how bees can help us humans to be more resilient and to build healthier communities.