Kera's Think

As the nation nears its 250th anniversary, it’s a fitting time to consider the very best – and very worst – of our foreign policy decisions. James M. Lindsay, Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the strategies that expanded U.S. reach and influence, the ones that plunged us into war and conflict, and why some of the least well-known strategies became the most consequential. The Council on Foreign Relations paper is called “The 10 Best and 10 Worst U.S. Foreign Policy Decisions.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Coretta Scott King fought to end the Vietnam War because of its outsized impact on the Black community. Matthew L. Demont, Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College, joins guest host John McCaa to discuss how the lives of King and a Medal of Honor recipient intersected, the fight Black military personnel faced to gain civil rights at home, and what patriotism looked like for Black Americans fighting at home and abroad. His book is “Until the Last Gun is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America’s Soul.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The benefits of maintaining a neighborhood garden go well beyond the dinner plate. Kate Brown is distinguished professor in the history of science at MIT, and she joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how community gardens often turned impoverished neighborhoods into thriving city centers, why they can yield sometimes more than professional farms and how they continue to build community even today. Her book is “Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present, and Future of the Self-Provisioning City.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A plan to end pedestrian deaths worked in Europe – why has it failed here? Rachel Weiner, local transportation reporter for The Washington Post, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why foot traffic on American streets is dangerous and why – despite an effort to curb that called Vision Zero – it’s gotten worse. Her article is “America’s plan to protect pedestrians failed. A young woman’s death reveals why.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Walter Isaacson joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how one sentence in the Declaration of Independence set out a promise of America. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Big tech pretty much runs our lives; will these companies one day own power grids, too? Karen Weise, technology correspondent for The New York Times, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how tech is driving up electricity costs for everyone, why municipalities are scrambling to upgrade their grids, and the prospects for selling power to cities that need it most. Her article is “Big Tech’s A.I. Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills for Everyone.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Your doctor might take weeks to diagnose a complicated set of symptoms when A.I. can do it in seconds. Dhruv Khullar is a physician and contributing writer at The New Yorker, and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the use of A.I. in medicine, whether doctors will lose the skills to properly diagnose, and how accurate these new computer-aided diagnoses actually are. His article is “If A.I. Can Diagnose Patients, What Are Doctors For?” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When a loved one passes away, it can be difficult to find the right words. Enter A.I. Drew Harwell is a technology reporter for The Washington Post, and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the rise of obituary-writing artificial intelligence, how funeral homes are eager to embrace it – and if a computer can find the right words to truly capture a human life. His article is “The rise of AI tools that write about you when you die.”  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

College students sometimes get in trouble for using A.I. to complete assignments, but is there a way to use it as a teaching tool? Clay Shirky, vice provost for A.I. and technology in education at New York University, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how professors are using A.I. in the classroom and whether or not the technology gets in the way of critical thinking. His article “Is AI Enhancing Education or Replacing It?” was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.“ Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A.I. is becoming smarter without much help from humans, and that should worry us all. Nate Soares, president of Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what happens when A.I. brain power surpasses what humans are capable of, why we don’t have the technology yet to understand what we’re building, and why everything will be just fine … until it isn’t. His book, co-written with Eliezer Yudkowsky, is “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All.”This week, we're revisiting episodes that are all about A.I. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Much of America’s racial wealth gap can be traced to economic policies dating back decades and even centuries. Mehrsa Baradaran is professor of law at the University of California, Irvine. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the history of the wealth gap, why she believes politics keeps that gap alive for Black Americans and solutions that could alleviate the disparity. Her book is “The Racial Wealth Gap: A Brief History.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We may live in a post-truth society, but facts can still be verified. Michael Shermer is publisher of Skeptic magazine, the executive director of the Skeptics Society and the host of the podcast The Michael Shermer Show. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss misinformation and how to spot it, why we’re vulnerable to believing falsehoods and why it’s essential we reject the idea that nothing can be verified as truth. His book is “Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

There was a time when people gathered around the watercooler to gab about the hottest show, but these days it might be tough to find a coworker who’s watching the same thing as you are. Ben Fritz, entertainment industry reporter for The Wall Street Journal, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the end of an era in which Americans tuned into the same TV, movies and music and why hyper-individualized content is coming at the expense of culture. His article is “The Rise and Fall of the American Monoculture.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For some kids, homeschooling provides them with the one-on-one attention they need. For others, though, it can feel isolating. Author Stefan Merrill Block joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why his mother, adoring but complicated, thought public school would kill his creativity, how his daily curriculum was left up to him as a small boy to craft, and how he thinks of homeschooling today. His book is “Homeschooled: A Memoir.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The balance of powers among the three branches of government is fading away, facilitated by the judicial branch. Duncan Hosie is a fellow at Stanford Law School, and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how the Supreme Court is stripping Congress of its influence, what we lose when we allow unelected judges to be the sole interpreters of the Constitution, and which branch is most powerful now. His article “How the Supreme Court Broke Congress” was published in The Atlantic. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The U.S. has always told the world it is a protector of peace — even if that meant through violence. Michael O’Hanlon, Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy at the Brookings Institution, joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the evolution of how the nation approaches defense – from fledgling republic to global superpower. His book is “To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel sent shockwaves across the TV landscape — but there are many other ways the FCC is using pressure to shape the media. Jim Rutenberg, writer at large for The New York Times Magazine, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the role of the FCC during President Trump’s time in office, the degree to which the agency is able to regulate programming it deems too partisan, and why local stations face the brunt of the punishment. His article is “The MAGA Plan to Take Over TV Is Just Beginning.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For decades, treaties meant war could be avoided if everyone just followed the law. Oona A. Hathaway teaches law and political science at Yale and is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the president-elect of the American Society of International Law. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why a golden age of treaties seems to be tarnishing, how the legal basis for entering conflicts is being conflated and reinterpreted, and how aggressive U.S. tactics are upsetting the world order – even among allies. Her op-ed in The New York Times is “The Great Unraveling Has Begun.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As the federal government deploys thousands of ICE agents across the country, activists are finding ways to push back. Molly Hennessy-Fiske, national reporter for The Washington Post, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how the killing of Renée Good has put new focus on the tactics protestors use, how tactics like tailing unmarked cars used by agents has put activists in murky legal territory, and what legal experts say about charges that could be brought against protestors. Her article is “They say they’re monitoring ICE arrests. Feds say they’re breaking the law.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When was the last time you actually opened a dictionary and flipped through the pages to find the definition of a word? Journalist and author Stefan Fatsis joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how A.I. is changing the traditional dictionary, why dictionaries are more complicated and controversial than you might think, and how you might be able to get a word added to the record. His book is “Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices