Skip Navigation

KERA Think Rundown – Week of 4/23/12

General, KERA Radio, News Releases 82

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, 4/23

Hour 1:  Which social behaviors and human customs are actually holdovers from our evolutionary predecessors and closest genetic relatives? We’ll find out this hour with Dario Maestripieri, professor of comparative human development, evolutionary biology, neurobiology, and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago. His new book is “Games Primates Play: An Undercover Investigation of the Evolution and Economics of Human Relationships” (Basic Books, 2012).

Hour 2:  Is a productive economy possible without the use of coal, oil, and nuclear energy to drive it? We’ll spend this hour with Michael Potts, president and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute which has just published “Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era” (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011). Potts will address the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture tonight.

Tuesday, 4/24

Hour 1:  How has the practice of law influenced our society and advanced the greater good? We’ll spend this hour with Talmage Boston, trial lawyer, shareholder at Winstead PC, and author of the new book “Raising the Bar: The Crucial Role of the Lawyer in Society” (State Bar of Texas, 2012).

Hour 2:  What happens to the approximate 102 tons of trash that the average American generates in a lifetime and where does it all go? We’ll talk this hour with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Edward Humes. His new book is “Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash” (Avery, 2012).

Wednesday, 4/25

Hour 1:  How do our political personas develop and can we heal the religious and political divisions that threaten our country? We’ll talk this hour with Jonathan Haidt, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and visiting professor of business ethics at the NYU-Stern School of Business. His piece “Born This Way?” appears in the current issue of Reason magazine and his new book is “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion” (Pantheon, 2012).

Hour 2:  Just how much rest do teenagers and young adults need to learn and develop normally and what are effective strategies for ensuring that they get it? We’ll spend this hour with family therapist Dr. Teresa Masdon. She’ll speak at Mental Health America’s 2012 Adolescent Symposium which will be held tomorrow at the Garland Special Events Center.

Thursday, 4/26

Hour 1:  Most of us live, work, commute, eat, and sleep in the built environment, but how many of us routinely discuss that environment and how it affects our lives and culture? We’ll explore the realm of architectural criticism this hour with Brooklyn-based critic, journalist and architectural historian Alexandra Lange and Kate Holliday, assistant professor in the School of Architecture at UTA and director of the newly established David Dillon Center for Texas Architecture. They’ll both participate in the inaugural David Dillon Symposium today and tomorrow at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Hour 2:  How do universities and academics fit into our current politically charged social atmosphere? Should they play a role at all? We’ll talk this hour with Stanley Fish, the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law at Florida International University. His book “Save the World on Your Own Time” (Oxford University Press, 2012) has just been reissued in paperback.

###