It is clear that our children are inheriting a world very different from the one we older generations came of age in. And while it’s easy to dwell on the serious problems that we’ve handed them, our children fortunately have the benefit of growing up in a richer, more diverse global culture that we could ever have imagined. That gift, however, comes with an inherited set of challenges of its own.

In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi and a handful of supporters marched some 240 miles to the sea to “make salt.” That is to say, they gathered up and thereby claimed that life-sustaining mineral as their birth right, not a commodity controlled exclusively by their British colonizers. For that act of civil disobedience, those Indian Salt Marchers--and the tens of thousands who soon joined them--were arrested en masse.

When Allan Johnson asked his dying father where he wanted his ashes to be placed, his father replied--without hesitation--that it made no difference to him at all. Ultimately troubled by this response, Johnson set off on a 2,000 mile journey across the Upper Midwest to find the place where his father’s ashes belonged. But along the way, Allan came to question where it is that he belongs. In this encore presentation, Allan joins Peter to discuss his journey--the questions it posed and the answers it yielded. Allan is a sociologist, nonfiction author and novelist best known for his work on issues of privilege and oppression. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, the memoir that is the basis of our conversation, Not from Here.

Few Supreme Court decisions in recent memory have so captured the attention of the American public as Citizens United. To help me explore the road to Citizens United, as well as consider the potential paths leading beyond it, is Timothy Kuhner, associate professor at Georgia State University College of Law. Professor Kuhner’s scholarship has been cited in the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, and the American Journal of Comparative Law, and he is most recently the author of Capitalism v. Democracy: Money in Politics and the Free Market Constitution.

Joining Peter to discuss such questions is Les Leopold, co-founder and director of the Labor Institute, a nonprofit educational organization that designs programs on occupational health and safety, the environment and economics for unions and community groups. He is also the author of four books, most recently Runaway Inequality: An Activist’s Guide to Economic Justice.

Between the 1960s and the 1990s, the incarceration rate in this country skyrocketed some 400%, far outpacing any other industrialized democracy. And for some time since, scholars have so thought they understood why that happened it has become almost an unquestioned truth. But are truths always true? Turns out to be something of a whodunnit, actually, with the principal detective being my guest today.

Viewers of almost any age are likely familiar with Charlie Brown and one of his standard refrains: “Good grief!” When I first heard it as a young boy, it’s contradictory quality didn’t strike me. But today, even though I’ve searched its etymology and know better, I ponder it: ‘good grief.’ As in, grief that’s good? That serves a purpose? That might lead us to live more fully for having experienced it?

The Black Lives Matter movement, one of the most engaging in recent decades, is nonetheless dogged by a persistent if seemingly innocuous rebuttal: All lives matter. And of course they do. But the experience of African-Americans in this country has been and continues to be so markedly different than that of their white counterparts that we need to put a spotlight on that unique history--to provide a context that can make sense of the often senseless.

In 2014, over one and a half million Americans with life-limiting illnesses, and their families, were served by hospice. Although a relatively new concept, the word “hospice” dates back to medieval times when it referred to a place of shelter and rest for weary or ill travelers on a long journey. In that same spirit, we offer this conversation about hospice.

One hundred and forty-eight years ago--with the Civil War just ended--the first Memorial Day was observed in the national cemetery after which Arlington is named. Graves were adorned with flowers. Flags were displayed. Speeches praising valor, country and sacrifice were made. And while much has changed in the interim, this remains the same: we still salute valor, stand as our nation’s flag is raised...and bury our war dead. Which begs the question: for all we’ve learned and for all the advances we’ve made, what have we missed, what lessons await our understanding?