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, 4/16

Hour 1:  How does the government spend your income tax dollars and how are budgetary decisions made at the federal level anyway? We’ll find out this hour with Mattea Kramer, senior research analyst for the National Priorities Project which breaks down the budget process and where your tax dollars go just in time for tomorrow’s tax deadline.

Hour 2:  What caused the sun to finally set on decades of British global dominance and how are Britain’s colonial maneuvers still reverberating today? We’ll talk this hour with Kwasi Kwarteng, author of “Ghosts of Empire: Britain’s Legacies in the Modern World” (PublicAffairs, 2012). Kwarteng is also currently a Conservative Member of the British Parliament for Spelthorne in Surrey.

Tuesday, 4/17

Hour 1:  Who was the real JFK? This hour we’ll examine the life of the legendary leader who became the 35^th President of the United States with Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball and NBC’s The Chris Matthews Show. His latest book is “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero” (Simon & Schuster, 2011).

Hour 2:  What can humans learn about resilience and adaptability by simply observing the natural world? We’ll talk this hour with Rafe Sagarin, marine ecologist and environmental policy analyst at the University of Arizona. His new book is “Learning From the Octopus: How Secrets from Nature Can Help Us Fight Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters, and Disease” (Basic Books, 2012).

Wednesday, 4/18

Hour 1:  Should African American and Latino civil rights organizations be working together to achieve advances in building equality in today’s America? We’ll spend this hour with Neil Foley, Associate Professor of History and American Studies at the University of Texas and author of “Quest for Equality: The Failed Promise of Black-Brown Solidarity” (Harvard University Press, 2010). Foley will deliver the Center for Mexican American Studies Distinguished Lecture at UT Arlington this evening.

Hour 2:  What’s driving adult children back into their parents’ homes across the developed world and what are their future prospects for economic independence? We’ll talk this hour with Katherine S. Newman, the James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University. She writes about the phenomenon and its effects in her new book “The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition” (Beacon Press, 2012).

Thursday, 4/19

Hour 1:  What makes a children’s book a classic and how is literature for young people changing today? We’ll spend this hour with one of the greats of children’s literature, Judy Blume, whose book “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year. Blume will speak to the Dallas Museum of Art’s Arts & Letters Live this evening at the First United Methodist Church in Dallas.

Hour 2:  What should we be eating and how are food manufacturers, diet promoters, federal policies, and corporations exerting influence over what ends up on your plate? We’ll talk this hour with Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University. She’s also the co-author of the new book “Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics” (University of California Press, 2012).

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