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Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions, from our intuitions to our morality to our “groupishness.” In The Righteous Mind he investigates Why our political leaders can’t seem to work together to deal with threats and problems and why people so readily assume the worst about their fellow citizens.

In 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested in their own home, in the middle of the night, for the crime of miscegenation. When the Supreme Court declared miscegenation laws illegal in 1967, 16 states still had such laws on the books. A new poll released this week by the Pew Research Center shows just how far we’ve come in the five decades since the Lovings’ arrest. 15 percent of new marriages in 2010 crossed racial or ethnic lines, double the rate from 1980. And a great majority of Americans say they would readily accept an interracial marriage in their family.

Eric Klinenberg, NYU sociologist and author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, discusses why living alone is on the rise--and why it is so appealing.

LISTENERS: Do you live alone? What do you find surprisingly appealing about living solo? Do you feel more plugged-in to the city or not? Tell us the pros and cons of living alone. Call us or comment here!

If you've got a copy of the Dictionary of Regional English, you know that "hotdish" is a casserole-style meal popular throughout Minnesota. A "quahog" is common word for "clam" in New England. And "Euchre" is a card game beloved by Midwesterners of all stripes. Next month the final volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, or DARE, will be released by the Harvard University Press.

 Katherine Newman, professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University and the author of The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition, studies adult children in 6 countries living with their parents for economic reasons.

According to the U.S. Census figures from 2010, one in four African-Americans live in poverty. Less than one in five has a college degree. The question of how to help the community be upwardly mobile has been debated for decades, and it was on the mind of commentator Gene Marks when he wrote a recent commentary for Forbes called "If I Were a Poor Black Kid." "If I was a poor black kid I would get technical. I would learn software," Marks wrote. "I would learn how to write code. I would seek out courses in my high school that teaches these skills or figure out where to learn more online. I would study on my own. I would make sure my writing and communication skills stay polished." Gene Marks is neither black, nor poor, and some people wondered why he would be giving advice to those who are.

A Pew Research Center report released Wednesday shows 51 percent of all adults in the United States are now married — a record low. In 2010, a survey also conducted by Pew found that four in ten Americans thought marriage had become obsolete, but found that most people who had never married (61 percent) would like to do so someday.

Sociologist Amy Schalet was born in the United States, but she grew up in the Netherlands. When she returned to U.S. for college, she was surprised to learn that most of her American-reared peers had never discussed sex with their parents. Most of her Dutch friends had open, long-running discussions with their parents on the topic. This discovery shaped Professor Schalet's research through graduate school and beyond. She's published her findings in a new book, "Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens and the Culture of Sex."  

Later this morning, The Takeaway will speak with sociologist Amy Schalet about her new book, "Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex." Schalet compares American and Dutch families, and their attitudes about teenage sex. Beth Brotz, a parent in California, was thrilled to learn about Schalet's work. She talks about how she and her husband handled her teenage daughter's confession that she was sexually active with her boyfriend, and how their openness made them closer as a family.

Mary Romero, professor of Justice Studies and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University and author of The Maid's Daughter: Living Inside and Outside the American Dream, tells the story of Olivia, who comes to the U.S. to live with her mother, and encounters the difficulty of growing up around privilege she doesn't share.  

Common sense seems simple enough, but it can be more complicated and less helpful that you would expect. Duncan J. Watts, sociologist and Yahoo! Principal Researcher, explains the benefits and limitations of common sense and looks closely at how common-sense reasoning can be misleading. His book Everything You Know Is Obvious once You Know the Answer draws on the latest scientific research and real-life examples to show how common sense attempts to predict, manage, and manipulate social and economic systems often fail, and looks at the implications in politics, business and everyday life.

If you have a question about common sense, or some examples of when it works and when it fails, call us at 646-829-3985, or leave a comment.

Thomas Vander Ven, associate professor of Sociology and Anthroplogy at Ohio University, talks about his new book on the college culture, Getting Wasted: Why College Students Drink Too Much and Party So Hard.

Urban bike messengers are a devoted bunch with their own subculture. Jeffrey L. Kidder, assistant professor of sociology at Northern Illinois University and a former bike messenger, discusses his new book Urban Flow: Bike Messengers and the City. 

Babies start to smile at around five weeks old; an ability that can influence many things they'll do for the rest of their lives. Social psychology research finds that the way we smile seriously affects how we're perceived by others. Jurors are more likely to believe smiling defendants. Smiling waiters get more tips. And parents are likely to pay more attention to smiling children.

Hirokazu Yoshikawa, professor of education in Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, talks about the nearly four million children born in this country to undocumented immigrant parents, and looks at how the circumstances they are being raised in adversely influence their development. Immigrants Raising Citizens is based on data from a three-year study of infants from undocumented immigrant families, and includes important implications his findings have for immigration policy, labor law enforcement, and the structure of community services for immigrant families.

Tina Rosenberg explains the positive force of peer pressure. Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World shows how peer pressure has reduced teen smoking in the United States, made villages in India healthier and more prosperous, helped minority students get top grades in college calculus, and even led to the fall of Slobodan Milosevic.

Edward Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and the author of Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier, looks at cities around the world and throughout history to show that they are the pinnacle of human achievement.

Eugene Robinson, politics and culture columnist and associate editor at The Washington Post, and author of Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America, explains how he sees African Americans split into distinct sociological groups.

Social scientist Scott Atran traces terrorism's root causes in human evolution and history. In Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists he touches on the nature of faith, the origins of society, the limits of reason, and the power of moral values. He interviews and investigates Al Qaeda associates and acolytes, and other non-Qaeda groups, such as Hamas and the Taliban, and the communities they live in: from the jungles of Southeast Asia to New York, London, and Madrid.

Forty five years ago, Daniel Patrick Moynihan introduced the idea of a “culture of poverty.” The idea has since been derided for describing the urban black family as caught in a “tangle of pathology.” But it never lost its appeal to conservative thinkers.

And with one in seven Americans living in poverty today, scholars are revisiting the idea.