Think airs Monday to Thursday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m. on KERA 90.1 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, 6/04

Hour 1:  What motivates researchers and scientists in their never-ending quest for knowledge? This hour’s guest might surprise you with his answer to that question. We’ll talk with Stuart Firestein, Chairman of the Department of Biology at Columbia University and author of “Ignorance: How It Drives Science” (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Hour 2:  How can an athlete perform incredible feats of endurance, setting records all over the world eating only a plant-based diet? We’ll find out this hour with Scott Jurek, seven-time consecutive winner of the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run and numerous other races. His new memoir is “Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).

Tuesday, 6/05

Hour 1:  What does it take to serve as a Central Intelligence Agency operative? We’ll spend this hour with Henry A. Crumpton, a twenty-four year veteran of the CIA and author of the new book “The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service” (The Penguin Press, 2012). Crumpton will address the World Affairs Council of Dallas Fort Worth this evening.

Hour 2:  What are the rules of the road for the growing number of bicycle commuters and will there ever be a solution to ongoing cyclist-motorist conflict? We’ll talk this hour with Bike Snob NYC (a.k.a. Eben Weiss). His new book is “The Enlightened Cyclist: Commuter Angst, Dangerous Drivers, and Other Obstacles on the Path to Two-Wheeled Transcendence” (Chronicle Books, 2012).

Wednesday, 6/06

Hour 1:  How did a thousand-year-old copy of the Hebrew Bible end up at the center of international espionage and subterfuge? We’ll find out this hour with journalist Matti Friedman who tells the story in his new book “The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible” (Algonquin Books, 2012).

Hour 2:  What are the true roles that fitness, genetics, and diet play in determining our overall health and where can we find honest reliable health advice? We’ll spend this hour with health law and policy researcher Timothy Caulfield, author of “The Cure For Everything: Untangling Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness, and Happiness” (Beacon Press, 2012).

Thursday, 6/07

Hour 1:  What are the hallowed documents, speeches, literature, songs, and letters of America and how do they characterize our country? We’ll talk this hour with Stephen Prothero, Boston University Professor of Religion and senior fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. He’s collected and examined the crucial texts of our country’s history in his new book “The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation” (HarperOne, 2012).

Hour 2:  Why did Alexis de Tocqueville travel the United States in the early 1830s and how have different generations interpreted his resulting work on equality, democracy, and liberty? We’ll find out this hour with James T. Schleifer, Emeritus Dean of the Library and Professor of History at the College of New Rochelle. His new book is “The Chicago Companion to Tocqueville’s Democracy in America” (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

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