What and Why with Max Roth

Jason Hanson was a CIA officer from 2003 to 2009. Now he runs a security firm and has written Agent of Influence: How to Use Spy Skills to Persuade …

In this week's What and Why, a conversation about violence aimed at people because of their beliefs. This was a television discussion I hosted with a …

"Snared: Lair of the Beast" is the second book in the "Snared" series by Adam Jay Epstein. These are books for middle readers, meaning they are officially intended for readers up to age 14 or so. Unofficially it means …

One of Germany's greatest scholars risked his life and lost his job standing up for Jews as the Nazis took power, protected minorities as a German …

This is a funny book. There are quirky pictures, goofy lists, familiar scenarios, and odd observations all about anxiety. Jordan Reid is a blogger (see ramshackleglam.com), an actress, a mom, and a good sport as I …

Does gratitude ever feel like a burden? It does to me. I think I should just naturally feel grateful, but I don't. In this weeks episode, bestselling …

Ugh. Computer stolen, which I realized as I prepared to upload the episode on GRATITUDE. Hey, could be worse. I'm grateful that you listen and the …

WHY!!?? That's the question that comes to my mind when I hear about 100 mile runs. Any running race longer than a marathon (26.2 miles) is considered …

Tequila has been through a lot of transformation...not so much the drink itself, whose distillers pride themselves on consistent quality through the …

What exactly is Sumo? Why do people participate?

This week four American Sumo wrestlers sit down to talk about why they chose a sport most of us think of as a curiosity from Japan. Trent Sabo has won silver and bronze …

Brothels, paparazzi, Cinnabon big wigs and felons...What do they all have in common? They all provide excellent examples of people dealing with risk to varying degrees of success. Allison Schrager is an economist who …

You've felt the pang...you believe strongly that recycling is important to cut down on resource extraction, but with no bin at work, it's just too …

Jonathan Metzl looks at the outcomes of politics based on a backlash against perceived outsiders. The theory sounds provocative, but the book is …

Barbara Brown Taylor wrote Holy Envy, Finding God in the Faith of Others as a memoir of her time teaching Religion 101 to students at Piedmont …

Sociologist Tony Campolo has preached to tens of thousands of people, he's taught in the Ivy League, he's counseled a President of the United States …

How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs and Behaviors, is the Subtitle to Matthew O. Jackson's new book, The Human Network. That's a lot to promise in a few words, but Jackson has the intellectual chops …

On a regular basis, do you Tweet? Instagram? Facebook? Snapchat? If you do...your way of understanding people and politics is radically different …

It might seem like we humans are violent, but we really aren't compared to other creatures. Really, how many times have you been in a knock-down drag …

The whole interview with Richard Wrangham, biological anthropologist and author of The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and …

What we do: We fall in love. We neglect the person we love. We don't really talk about what's important. Why? John Gottman and Julie Schwartz Gottman …

Coming soon, a look at what we do and why we do it. The "we" is us. You and me. Each week we'll hear from people who have thought about some aspect …