The KMUW lineup will be changing next week: Think will be joining the station's schedule weekday mornings at 11. KMUW's Jonathan Huber recently spoke with Think host, Krys Boyd, who shared what you can expect when you tune in.
Krys Boyd: Think is a show about ideas and about challenging what we already thought we knew about things. So I am particularly drawn to subjects that make me realize that I haven't learned everything there is to know about something, especially, you know, topics of conventional wisdom. This is one reason we like to do science shows so much because our knowledge about science is always changing and the scientific process means that we inevitably are going to discover we might have been wrong about things before, have new questions that occur. This is the way that I like to approach our conversations on the show.
Jonathan Huber: The program comes from Dallas and I think here at KMUW, nearly all of our news and talk programming comes from hosts that are based on the coasts. So how does being based in the central third of the country affect how you approach a topic?
Well, this may be something you're familiar with, in Wichita, there are very smart people in the center of the country. We understand the nuances of what is happening. We don't necessarily only need voices that come from the coasts, although those are important ideas. I really think that a show based in Dallas that sort of reflects the sensibilities of the heartland of America is a great reminder that not all the important thinking, not all the curiosity, not all of what makes us American, comes from these giant mega cities that are the top media producers in the country.
Who are some of the most interesting guests you've had? Or you talk about science. What about the subjects that you've covered?
Well, we talk to many interesting guests. We have had Neil deGrasse Tyson on the show. We've had a couple of former secretaries of state. We had the late Madeleine Albright. We've had John Kerry. We also talk with people that you may not have heard of who are experts in their fields, whether that is philosophy, you know, we talked to Peter Singer recently, or whether they are someone who has studied sociology or psychology and the way that our brains work the, the topic and the subject matter is as interesting to me as any kind of celebrity guest.
Have you received any answers that, that have surprised you?
Oh, absolutely. All the time. You know, I love to go into a program not thinking that all my preparation has told me what's going to happen on that program. I love to be surprised. So sure. Occasionally someone will answer something. More than anything, I'm surprised by the things that very smart, well qualified people are still wondering about. Right? The things they haven't been able to answer despite devoting their careers to a particular field of study. Those, those animating questions for them are very exciting to hear about and they keep me curious.
It's kind of fun to try to stump the interview or the, the person you're interviewing, isn't it?
It can be. I mean, I don't necessarily wanna stump them, but I do want to make sure that they're not just giving us boilerplate answers. I think you can hear those in a lot of different places. I love it when the show succeeds at causing our interview subject to have to really deeply consider what we're talking about.
You know, it's been a divided world for how many years now? How does your program connect people?
You know, I really think on the show I will talk to people who have lots of different views. They may or may not reflect my personal take on the world or my personal opinions, but I think talking to people and respecting their process and just wanting to learn how they arrived at their ideas is a great step forward. We don't have to solve every problem in a one hour conversation, and we will also consider different views over different programs. So we might very well do a show with someone who has one take on some controversial issue this week, and then three weeks later talk to someone who has a very different view on it. We're not saying person A was correct and person B is wrong or vice versa. We're just saying, look, intelligent people need to understand how other intelligent people have come to very different viewpoints. And I think over time as we recognize that there are people trying hard to get things right who may still understand things differently than we do, I think that builds respect and it builds a climate of curiosity and openness. And fortunately, public radio listeners are particularly able to accept information that may not jive with what they want to be true and recognize that sometimes what is true isn't what we wish for.
Can you offer some insight into what the show's gonna cover in the coming year? Especially, you know, we're leading up to the election and there are so many issues related to that.
Absolutely. We do cover politics, but I think what we really do best is to step a couple steps back from, you know, who's got which percentage of the vote and where we are in the primary. And we like to look at the issues. So we recently did a show about the debt ceiling and what we did was not say Republicans are right, Democrats are wrong or vice versa. What we did was talk to someone who said there are ways to solve the debt ceiling crisis without necessarily coming to a default. It was just a different way of looking at things. And we also talked about, you know, got some context what will happen if we do default on the debt ceiling. I would rather have that conversation than talk about what the politicians are up to on any given day. You can get that reporting elsewhere. It is important, but I also think it's great to get context and history and go back and understand how we got to now on any given issue.
Is there anything else that you'd like our listeners to know?
Oh, I'm so excited to have you on board. We are really thrilled to know that folks in Wichita are, you know, have curious minds and Think listeners by and large are people who are comfortable challenging their own understanding of things. And I love that our audiences are always willing to go with us into a show topic that might not initially seem like anything interesting. And I love hearing from people that, you know, they thought that a show about, you know, what it takes to form a layer of topsoil would not be interesting. And then they found themselves unable to leave the car or get up from whatever they were doing because they wanted to hear the end of it.
That's great. Krys Boyd is the host of Think. It's a new addition to the KMUW lineup. Weekdays at 11:00 a.m. Krys, thanks so much for your time.
Pleasure talking with you. Thank you.
