The Corps of Engineers vs. the environment

If opioids treat pain like a hammer, what medical researchers are looking for is something more like a delicate scalpel. Rivka Galchen holds a medical degree in addition to being a staff writer for The New Yorker, and she joins guest host Courtney Collins to discuss progress on developing alternative painkillers and why pain is so hard to manage in the first place. Her article is “The Radical Development of an Entirely New Painkiller.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

To conquer the deserts of Africa or ice of Greenland, the U.S. military needed to get pretty crafty. Northeastern University history professor Gretchen Heefner joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how modern warfare has shaped the way the Army Corps of Engineers approaches the challenges of extreme environments, the havoc those efforts have brought to those communities, and the outlandish ideas that failed along the way. Her book is “Sand, Snow, and Stardust: How US Military Engineers Conquered Extreme Environments.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

What is DOGE now without Elon Musk? New Yorker Benjamin Wallace-Wells joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the agencies gutted by Musk’s attempts at cost cutting and how they’re managing to stay afloat, the people in charge now that he exited in dramatic fashion, and what government employees want the public to know about how they really detect fraud and abuse. His article is “Move Fast and Break Things.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The United Nations is a storied institution, but it lacks teeth to actually make a difference. Journalist Amanda Chicago Lewis joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why U.N. resolutions are easily ignored, how red tape keeps workers from forwarding policy recommendations, and why the culture inside the agency belies the peaceful exterior it tries to project. Her article “Wishful Thinking” was published in Harper’s. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

While the Trump administration enacts hefty tariffs on other nations, U.S. businesses are worried about how these taxes might affect them, too. Emily Kilcrease is a senior fellow and director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the state of limbo U.S. business owners find themselves in, why global trade policy did, in fact, need an overhaul, and who absorbs the cost of international trade wars. Her article “Tell Me How This Trade War Ends” was published in Foreign Affairs. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

There is a growing number of people who think studying ghosts or alien abductions should be serious science. Journalist Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling joins host Krys Boyd to discuss a pushback against the scientific establishment, what our affinity for storytelling has to do with our long-held beliefs, and why the paranormal might need to be taken seriously in the future. His book is “The Ghost Lab: How Bigfoot Hunters, Mediums, and Alien Enthusiasts Are Wrecking Science.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Working as a chef, José Andrés fed restaurants full of diners, but his dream was to take that mission to a wider world. The chef, Emmy Award-winning television personality, author, educator, and founder of World Central Kitchen joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the hope and nourishment food brings to those in desperate need, how he built his humanitarian mission, and the types of people he surrounds himself with to make the world a better place. His book is “Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Cracking Some Eggs.”This episode originally aired May 1st, 2025. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Ed Helms is known as a comedian, actor and writer—and also as an investigator of history’s biggest gaffes. The host of the podcast SNAFU joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the cats that were trained for the CIA, a plan to nuke the moon, and other bad ideas that never saw fruition (thankfully). His book is called “SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups.”This episode originally aired, May 2nd 2025. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Feminist author Roxane Gay has put together a compendium of notable feminist works, but even she says it’s not the last word. The contributing opinion writer for The New York Times joins host Krys Boyd to talk about editing a new collection that looks at hundreds of years of feminist writers and why the ideas around women’s rights are always evolving. She’s the editor of “The Portable Feminist Reader.”This episode originally aired April 11th, 2025. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Coincidences may seem like random occurrences to many of us – but not to a mathematician. Sarah Hart is professor of geometry at Gresham College and professor emerita of mathematics at Birkbeck, University of London. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why we so often look for coincidences in our lives — and why that’s a mathematically futile endeavor — why the blind luck behind lottery wins might not be so blind after all, and why revealing this magic with numbers makes the phenomenon all the more interesting. Her article, “The surprising maths that explains why coincidences are so common,” was published in New Scientist.This episode originally aired January 15th, 2025. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices