KERA's Think KERA

Without nails and other simple inventions, we wouldn’t have bustling megacities of today. Roma Agrawal is an engineer, author and broadcaster best known for working on the design of The Shard, Western Europe’s tallest tower. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss simple inventions such as the rivet and string that we don’t think of as particularly revolutionary but which carry all the innovations of today on their shoulders. Her book is “Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way).”This episode was originally aired, December 4th, 2023

Originalism is a legal argument that we should follow the Constitution to the letter; living that out is quite a conundrum. Author and journalist A.J. Jacobs joins host Krys Boyd to discuss his year of following the Constitution as closely as possible in his quest to understand what “American values” really mean in the 21st Century. His book is “The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning.”

It wasn’t uncommon for previous generations to hide away family with disabilities in institutions. Jennifer Senior is a staff writer at The Atlantic, and she joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the story of her aunt Adele, who was sent away at age 6 because of intellectual disabilities. Adele’s existence was hidden from Senior’s mother for years – a loss for each sister that advanced approaches to treatment often prevent today. Her article is “The Ones We Sent Away.”

 We all could use tips on how to stop scrolling and pay better attention to the world around us. Jeff Karp is a biomedical engineering professor at Harvard Medical School and MIT, a Distinguished Chair at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss his strategies for lengthening attention span coming from his experience with significant ADHD, and offers advice on how to put down our devices. His book is “LIT: Life Ignition Tools: Use Nature’s Playbook to Energize Your Brain, Spark Ideas, and Ignite Action.”

It wasn’t that long ago that life in prison actually lead to early release, and it was considered part of the tradition. Reiko Hillyer is associate professor of history at Lewis & Clark College, and she joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the history of prison furloughs in this nation – where life on the outside was a way of integrating inmates back into their communities – and how tough-on-crime laws of the 1980s and ’90s changed the way we look at offenders today. Her book is “A Wall Is Just a Wall: The Permeability of the Prison in the Twentieth-Century United States.”

Some people tune into the sports; for others, the Westminster Dog Show is all the Super Bowl they need. Tommy Tomlinson is host of the podcast SouthBound and teaches magazine writing at Wake Forest University. He joins guest host Courtney Collins to discuss the world of competitive dog shows, where the lives of dogs take on a new level of attention to detail. His book is called “Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show."