Some marriages don’t end with a blowup or betrayal. Instead, partners slowly become emotionally disconnected – more like roommates than lovers. It’s a phenomenon that’s been dubbed a “quiet divorce.” We talk with psychologists Thema Bryant and Eli Finkel about why relationships quietly come undone, how to rebuild connection and when it may be time to let go. Guests: Eli Finkel, professor of psychology, Northwestern University; host, “Love Factually” podcast; author, “The All-or-Nothing Marriage: How the Bes Marriages Work” Dr. Thema Bryant, psychologist and author, “Matters of the Heart” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In his new book, “Natural Intelligence and the Logic of Consciousness,” pioneering neuroscientist Antonio Damasio synthesizes his decades of research in neurobiology and philosophy of mind into a central idea: we are conscious because we feel. “It is traditionally said that we are able to feel our feelings because we are conscious,” he writes, but instead, “we must be able to feel in order to become conscious.” We talk to Damasio about his lifetime of research into the mind and his thoughts on the possibility of conscious AI. Guests: Antonio Damasio, psychology, philosophy and neurology professor and director of the Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California; author, “Natural Intelligence and the Logic of Consciousness” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 1991, China scholar and journalist Orville Schell teamed up with CBS News’ 60 Minutes for a perilous undercover investigation into China’s laogai—a vast network of forced labor camps secretly exporting goods into American markets. Fearing severe retaliation against his family and friends in China, Schell shelved his written account for three decades. In his new book, “Inside China’s Secret Prisons: An Undercover Exposé and Its Lasting Legacy,” Schell reveals how that clandestine operation played out and shares why forced labor persists in China today. Guest: Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society and author of the new book “Inside China’s Secret Prisons: An Undercover Exposé and Its Lasting Legacy” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
California voters will decide this fall whether the state should impose a one-time 5 percent tax on billionaires, with much of the revenue going toward health care amid federal funding cuts. Supporters say Proposition 40 could raise tens of billions of dollars while also helping to address the growing wealth inequality in the state. Opponents argue the tax could drive billionaires out of California, shrinking the state’s income tax base and ultimately costing more than it raises. We talk to two leading economists: Gabriel Zucman, who helped develop the measure, and Joshua Rauh, one of its most vocal critics, about whether the billionaire tax would help California’s economy – or hurt it. Guest: Gabriel Zucman, professor of economics, UC Berkeley; Paris School of Economics – author of “We Need to Tax Billionaires”; helped develop Prop 40 Joshua Rauh, economist and professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business – senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; opposes CA Prop 40 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Joan Baez’s iconic voice has matured over the decades, but the way she’s used it has remained consistent. As a rising folk music star in the 1960s, she performed at the March on Washington alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and founded the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence in California’s Carmel Valley. Now, she’s outspoken about the Trump administration. A musician, poet, author and activist, Baez is known for being idiosyncratic: Her latest act? Joining a circus in Alameda. We speak with Baez about the evolution of her voice and what she sees as artists’ role in activism. Guests: Joan Baez, legendary singer, activist, author and cultural icon. Her honors include eight gold albums, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Kennedy Center Honor, as well as numerous awards for her civil rights work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices