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, 12/03

Hour 1:  What first inspired humans to travel all the way around the earth and how does the history of such exploration still inspire us as today? We’ll talk this hour with Joyce Chaplin, the James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University and author of the new book “Round About the Earth: Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit” (Simon & Schuster, 2012).

Hour 2:  How is it possible that hard-working people with steady jobs are still barely getting by and what can be done improve their opportunities and lives? We’ll talk this hour with David K. Shipler, Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of “The Working Poor: Invisible in America” (Vintage, Paperback, 2005). Shipler will be in town to address the Community Financial Stability Summit, sponsored by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas this week.

Tuesday, 12/04

Hour 1:  How will we transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy and is such a move even possible? We’ll spend this hour with filmmaker Harry Lynch who examines the opportunities and the challenges in his new film “Switch,” which screens this evening at the Landmark Magnolia Theater in Dallas.

Hour 2:  How did a small group of slaves destined for a brutal life of servitude in 1839 re-gain their freedom? We’ll find out this hour with Marcus Rediker, Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh and author of the new book “The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom” (Viking, 2012).

Wednesday, 12/05

Hour 1:  Why would an Eagle Scout father decide not to enroll his own son in the organization he loved as a young man? We’ll talk this hour with Brian D. Sweany, a senior executive editor at Texas Monthly magazine. His “Behind the Lines” op-ed, “Scout’s Dishonor,” appears in the current issue of the magazine.

Hour 2:  How can introverts survive the clamoring world in which we live? We’ll spend this hour with writer and journalist Sophia Dembling who has a few ideas – especially as we enter the busy holiday season. Dembling writes The Introvert’s Corner blog for Psychology Today and her new book is “The Introvert’s Way” (Perigree, 2012).

Thursday, 12/06

Hour 1:  How do the different ways we cook around the world define our separate traditions and cultures while also drawing us together as people? We’ll talk this hour with James Oseland, editor-in-chief of SAVEUR and author of the new book “The Way We Cook: Portraits of Home Cooks Around the World” (Weldon Owen, 2012).

Hour 2:  What can we learn about Victorian life and history from an evening at the theater or a contemporaneous work of fiction and what goes into staging such a production? We’ll discuss Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” this hour with Joel Ferrell, Associate Artistic Director at the Dallas Theater Center and Director of the play and Beth Newman, Associate Professor of English at SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities & Sciences. “A Christmas Carol” runs at the Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas through December 23rd.

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