The Connection with Marty Moss-Coane

PBS NewsHour co-host Amna Nawaz joined Marty last week before a live audience for a conversation about her life, career and being a journalist in contentious times. From her time at the University of Pennsylvania, to working beside Ted Koppel, covering the Afghanistan war and now co-hosting the NewsHour. She also shares thoughts on the role of journalism when facts are being contested and how she juggles work and family life.

We are often told to forgive and forget but philosopher Myisha Cherry says forgiveness isn’t always the answer. She joins us to talk about how we misuse forgiveness, its limitations and a better path for personal and societal healing. Her new book is, Failures of Forgiveness.

Many workplaces have instituted diversity, equity and inclusion training for their employees to help create a welcoming environment for everyone. These DEI programs have come under fire recently from some claiming they enforce liberal orthodoxies, including “wokeness.” They have also been criticized by researchers who question whether they are doing more harm than good or whether we even know whether they are effective or not? What is the best way to build cohesion in a diverse workforce and address bias on the job? Our guest is Harvard psychologist Robert Livingston who works as a diversity consultant and is the author of The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth about Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations. He says that stories are more powerful than data to foster understanding and build bridges across divides.

Ross Gay gave himself an assignment: notice something that gave him delight, write about it quickly and in longhand, every day for a year. His new book, The Book of (More) Delights is about paying attention to the world around him and being attuned to joy and gratitude. It’s a sequel to his bestselling The Book of Delights. Ross Gay joins us to talk about the connection between joy and sorrow, which he compares to the underground fungal networks of the forest. Gay teaches writing at Indiana University and grew up in Bucks County, a diehard fan of the 76ers. So we’ll also talk about his book length poem, Be Holding, an ode to Dr. J’s gravity-defying layup.

Showtime’s documentary series, Couples Therapy, flings open the doors to the therapeutic process, allowing us to watch couples as they struggle with their relationships. It’s raw, intimate and revealing. The program is hosted by psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik, who guides couples through their conflicts with her probing questions, laser focus, patience and well-timed insights. Orna Guralnik joins us tomorrow to talk about what we want from our partners, where most couples get stuck, how they can get unstuck and why coupledom is undergoing a profound transformation.

We humans are the ultimate invasive species, transforming the planet in dramatic and surprising ways. In his work as a Princeton University biologist and host of the PBS series “Human Footprint,” Shane Campbell-Staton explores the biological impact humans have on the Earth and how nature is forced to adapt. He joins us to talk about the ways we are changing the world’s ecosystems, our inextricable connection to the plants and animals around us, and what this tells us about our own species.

Paula Marantz Cohen comes from a family of loud and opinionated talkers. She said her mother was the “maestro of the dinner table” because of her ability to regale her family with colorful stories about her life. Cohen believes in the importance of meaningful conversation because it gives us joy, surprise and insight, and engages us with others. In her new book Talking Cure, Cohen says that the art of conversation is under threat from partisanship, social media, conformity and censorship. Honest conversation, Cohen says, is not about scoring points or even winning arguments. It’s about being vulnerable, honest, curious and authentic. It’s good for our mental health and good for civic engagement. Paula Marantz Cohen is an English Professor at Drexel University and joins us to talk about talking.

Hiking through a spectacular mountain valley, singing in a church choir, or gazing at a masterpiece…all experiences that can elicit awe. What sparks that feeling of joy or wonder is different for everyone, but psychology professor Dacher Keltner says the emotion is universal. His new book, Awe, explores how this emotion has propelled our evolution as a species and is beneficial to our mental and physical health. It can heal grief, it can build communal bonds, it taps into our childhood sense of wonder, it humbles us and makes us feel part of something larger than ourselves. He invites us to take “awe walks” by seeing the familiar with new and fresh eyes. Keltner joins us this hour, along with Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Yumi Kendall, who shares how she experiences awe through music. The New York Times, How a Bit of Awe Can Improve Your Health “In his book, Dr. Keltner writes that awe is critical to our well-being — just like joy, contentment‌ and love.”

Princeton University sociologists Kathryn Edin and Timothy Nelson have spent years trying to understand poverty and why families, generation after generation, can’t escape it. Their new book, The Injustice of Place. is about the country’s most disadvantaged communities, which are not in big cities. They are in Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the deep South and in Southern Texas. Edin, Nelson and their co-author Luke Schaefer explore how these “internal colonies” have been exploited and abandoned by powerful industries. Left in their wake are hollowed-out towns struggling with violence, unemployment, addiction, and a loss of person-to-person connection. Edin and Nelson join us to talk about the importance of libraries, community and religious centers, bookstores, bowling alleys and places where people congregate to help reduce the destructive psychological impacts of deep poverty. We’ll also talk with education advocate Tamala Boyd Shaw, who founded a charter school in Greenwood, Mississippi to give students an enriched learning environment, something she didn’t have growing up in Greenwood.

Author James McBride‘s new novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, starts with the discovery of a long-ago murder—a skeleton and mezuzah at the bottom of a well in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The story follows a Jewish woman, Chona Ludlow, who runs a grocery store in the 1930s neighborhood of Chicken Hill, where Jewish, Black and white immigrants live side by side. Some residents band together to protect one member of their community, a Black orphaned boy who is deaf. McBride says the inspiration for the book came from the difficult life of his Orthodox Jewish grandmother, who he never knew.  His other award-winning titles include Deacon King Kong, The Good Lord Bird, and The Color of Water, his memoir recounting his childhood as the son of a Black father and white Jewish mother. Today, he joins us to talk about the power of community and love.