Program Alert: April 1, 2011

Think airs Monday to Thursday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m. on KERA-FM and at 7:00 p.m. every Friday except the last Friday of the month on KERA-TV. Podcasts and streamed video are available online at www.kera.org/think.

KERA Think Rundown – Week of 4/04/11

Monday, 4/04

Noon:  Where can you find the spirit and soul of 20^th Century America? Our guest this hour might argue that you need look no further than the plays and screenplays of Texas’ own Horton Foote. In recognition of Dallas’ on-going Horton Foote Festival, we’ll spend this hour with New York-based critic and biographer Wilborn Hampton, author of “Horton Foote: America’s Storyteller” (Free Press, 2009). Hampton will speak at the Dallas Museum of Art’s Arts & Letters Live event this evening.

1pm:  Can one writer’s experiences with her Attention Deficit Disorder-afflicted son teach us all about coping with our fast-paced and frantic modern culture? We’ll talk this hour with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Katherine Ellison. Her new book is “Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention” (Voice, 2010).

Tuesday, 4/05

Noon: What if you’d spent nearly 40 years wondering about your brother’s fate in the jungles of post-war Vietnam and then someone told you they may have spotted him alive on the street? We’ll spend this hour with documentarian Henry Corra whose film “The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan” is screening this week at the Dallas International Film Festival.

1pm:  What might be the extremely long-term effects of climate change on our planet? We’ll examine a lot more than the immediate changes that face the next few generations this hour with Curt Stager, researcher at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute and author of the new book “Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth” (Thomas Dunne Books, 2011).

Wednesday, 4/06

Noon:  What’s it really like on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan? We’ll get a candid look at the war-zone lives of journalists, soldiers, politicians, expats and more this hour with Kim Barker. Currently a New York-based reporter for ProPublica, Barker was the Chicago Tribune’s South Asia bureau chief from 2004 to 2009. Her new memoir is “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan” (Doubleday, 2011).

1pm:  Ever wonder what it’s like to walk in space? We’ll discuss the experience of space flight, the future of America’s space program and more this hour with Astronaut Mike Massimino who made two space walks during STS-109 to repair the Hubble Telescope in 2002 and flew on the final Hubble servicing mission (STS-125) in 2009. Massimino will deliver a lecture at UTD this afternoon presented by the university’s Astrophysics, Cosmology, and Relativity Group and Physics Department.

Thursday, 4/07

Noon:  What can we learn from the incredibly numerous and diverse, but largely unseen world of insects? We’ll talk this hour with Hugh Raffles, who teaches anthropology at The New School and has just published the new book “Insectopedia” (Vintage, 2011).

1pm:  Considering a new car? The Dallas Auto Show runs this weekend at the Dallas Convention Center. We’ll discuss some of the hundreds of cars and trucks at the show and get a round-up of what’s new, what’s hot and what’s not this hour with automotive writer David Boldt.

Friday, 4/08

Television

7pm:  What stories could Dallas’ White Rock Lake tell us of its first 100 years? We’ll commemorate the lake’s centennial with Sally Rodriguez, historian for the Dallas Park and Recreation Department and author of “White Rock Lake” (Arcadia Publishing, 2010).

In the Art&Seek segment, we’ll talk with Theatre Three’s executive producer and director Jac Alder about the theatre’s remarkable past, what’s ahead for the future, and preparations to celebrate its 50^th anniversary.

ABOUT Think

Think is a topic-driven interview program hosted by Krys Boyd covering a wide variety of subjects ranging from history, politics, current events, science, technology and trends to food and wine, travel, adventure, and entertainment. Think airs Monday to Thursday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m. on KERA-FM and at 7:30 p.m. every Friday except the last Friday of the month on KERA-TV. Podcasts and streamed video are available online at www.kera.org/think.

ABOUT KERA

KERA is a not-for-profit public media organization that serves the people of North Texas. The station broadcasts to the fourth-largest population area in the United States. KERA produces original multimedia content, carries the best in national and international public television and radio programs, and provides online resources at www.kera.org. The station’s extensive coverage of the arts can be found at www.artandseek.org. KERA-TV broadcasts on Channel 13.1. KERA WORLD broadcasts on 13.2. KERA-FM broadcasts on 90.1 in Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton, 88.3 in Wichita Falls, 100.1 in Tyler and 99.3 in Sherman. KXT 91.7 FM, KERA’s new music station, KXT 91.7, is streamed online at www.kxt.org.

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CONTACT:

Christopher Wagley

Director, Marketing & Communications

KERA, KXT and Art&Seek

cwagley@kera.org

214-740-9377