Rainer Lohmann on His Research on Toxic Chemicals in Our Environment and Our Future With Them

Persistent Organic Pollutants: you don’t need a Ph.D. in chemistry to recognize realize they are dangerous.  But Dr. Rainer Lohmann has been studying POPs for some time and their danger to the environment and human beings. Lohmann’s research combines marine organic geochemistry and environmental c…

The 2023 Story of the Year: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence with Evelyn Farkas

The year began with chaos in the U.S. House of Representatives and ended much the same.  Along the way, we saw technology demonstrate its potential to reshape human productivity and creativity; we have seen wars and violence; and we have worried aloud about the health of American Democracy. Dr. Eve…

Navigating the Currents of Global Affairs and Domestic Politics with Tom Nichols

From the violence in the Middle East to the dysfunction in Congress, the world feels increasingly untethered. Tom Nichols spent his early career analyzing threats to American security and now is unapologetic in his warnings about the threats to American democracy.    Nichols is an author and a sta…

Unraveling the Violence of Jim Crow South with Tananarive Due

The elements of a scary story might be exotic, super-natural, or even mundane. Tananarive Due weaves all of those things together in an ethereal world of her creation to explore the violence of the Jim Crow South.    Due is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at the U…

Navigating the Future: The Global Landscape in 2076 with Thomas Barnett

Globalization is often portrayed as the bogeyman in American politics. Thomas Barnett credits it with making the world better, more peaceful, and even more equitable. In the future, he argues, it will continue to drive even more profound shifts in the way the world operates—with real challenges for…

Trauma and the Science of Resilience with Jonathan DePierro

Everyone faces challenges in life, but when those challenges are born of trauma, the challenge to persevere becomes more daunting. Dr. Jonathan DePierro discusses the science of resilience and how we can all thrive in the wake of adversity.    DePierro is the Associate Director of the Center for S…

Navigating Identity and Race Childhood to Adulthood with Nyani Nkrumah

The transition from childhood to adulthood ushers in a wide variety of difficult questions like who actually loves us, and why. Nyani Nkrumah explores those coming-of-age themes, as well as issues of race, identity, trauma, and who is responsible for the person we actually are.    Nkrumah was born…

American History Through the Perspective of its Indigenous Inhabitants with Ned Blackhawk

For too long, the history we’ve considered “America’s” has really just been the history of European conquest. Ned Blackhawk argues that there is no American history without its first, indigenous inhabitants.  Blackhawk is a Professor of History and American Studies at Yale. He is the author of “Vi…

Creating Change for Girls Across the World with Dale Hanson Bourke

All over the world, girls face challenges—and outcomes—far worse than boys—a fact borne out by research on different continents and in different societies. But Dale Bourke says that the challenges facing girls shouldn’t overwhelm us; they should inspire us.     Bourke is an award-winning writer an…

Discovering Longevity With Bill Kole: How Does Living Longer Impact Society?

One constant human wish is for the longevity of the people we love.  Bill Kole explores the coming era of “super-aging,” where more and more of us will live more than a century, with dramatic consequences for retirement, finances, relationships, and even the politics of the next century.    Kole, …