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, 10/03

Hour 1:  What’s it really like behind the scenes at one of the world’s leading newspapers? We’ll get the story this hour with former Wall Street Journal publisher and Dow Jones CEO Warren Phillips. He tells the story of his career and the American newspaper business in his new book “Newspaperman: Inside the News Business at The Wall Street Journal” (McGraw-Hill, 2011).

Hour 2:  What makes teenagers so moody, impulsive and maddening to adults and especially their parents? We’ll find out this hour with National Geographic contributor David Dobbs. His piece on teen development, “Beautiful Brains,” appears in the October issue of National Geographic Magazine.

Tuesday, 10/04

Hour 1:  Is the American justice system failing juvenile offenders? We’ll talk this hour with Bart Lubow, director of the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Foundation’s new report on the effectiveness of the system becomes public today.

Hour 2:  What is required for an actor to successfully transform themselves into a character, over and over again? We’ll spend this hour with Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee Hal Holbrook, who will speak at Highland Park United Methodist Church this evening. His new memoir is “Harold: The Boy Who Became Mark Twain” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011).

Wednesday, 10/05

Hour 1:  Will the Big Three American auto makers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, manage to emerge from the economic downturn intact? And what will the future hold for Detroit? We’ll talk this hour with veteran business and automotive reporter and New York Times Detroit bureau chief Bill Vlasic. His new book is “Once Upon a Car: The Fall and Resurrection of America’s Big Three Auto Makers–GM, Ford, and Chrysler” (William Morrow, 2011).

Hour 2:  How did a “Father of the Constitution” also play a pivotal role in creating the American system of politics? We’ll talk this hour with National Review senior editor and eminent biographer Richard Brookhiser. His new book is “James Madison” (Basic Books, 2011).

Thursday, 10/06

Hour 1:  You may be already driving less, recycling and using your own grocery bags, but what bigger-picture actions will it take to save our planet? We’ll find out this hour with Gernot Wagner, economist at the Environmental Defense Fund and author of the new book “But Will the Planet Notice?: How Smart Economics Can Save the World” (Hill and Wang, 2011).

Hour 2:  What will it take for Mexico to regain control of its lawless border regions and begin to stop the flow of illicit drugs? We’ll spend this hour with Vanda Felbab-Brown, a fellow in the Foreign Policy Program and a member of the 21^st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. She is also the author of “Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs” (Brookings Institution Press, 2009). Felbab-Brown will speak at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture this evening.