Think from KERA

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Why America isn’t walkable Feb 17, 2026

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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.”

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The historic sentence that still defines America Feb 16, 2026

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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

You might be paying Amazon’s power bill Feb 13, 2026

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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.”

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Would you go to an A.I. doctor? Feb 12, 2026

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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?”

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A.I. is writing obits now Feb 11, 2026

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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.”

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How A.I. is getting in the way of real learning Feb 10, 2026

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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.“

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When will A.I. want to kill us? Feb 09, 2026

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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.

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Why we haven’t fixed the racial wealth gap Feb 06, 2026

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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.”

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Resisting the post-truth society Feb 05, 2026

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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.”

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One more reason we can’t talk to strangers Feb 04, 2026

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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.”

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