Delving In with Stuart Kelter | Podcast Guru

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Knowledge-seeker and psychologist Stuart Kelter shares his joy of learning and “delving in.” Ready? Let’s delve... Join Chris Churchill on the possible reasons why the search for intelligent life in the universe is coming up empty. Let’s hear from Israeli psychiatrist Pesach Lichtenberg about a promising approach to schizophrenia—going mainstream in Israel—that uses minimal drugs and maximal support through the crisis, rejecting the presumption of life-long disability. Find out what Pulitzer Prize winning historian, David Kertzer learned from recently opened Vatican records about Pius XII, the Pope During WWII. We explore the fascinating and intriguing... What did journalist Eve Fairbanks learn about race relations in post-Apartheid South Africa? Did you realize there were dozens and dozens of early women scientists? Let’s find out about them through a sampling of poems with poet Jessy Randall. How shall we grapple with the complexities of the placebo effect in drug development and medical practice? Harvard researcher Kathryn Hall confirms just how complicated it really is! But beware: increasing one’s knowledge leads to more and more questions. If that appeals to you, join us on “Delving In”! The interviews of the Delving In podcast were first broadcast on KTAL-LP, the community radio station of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The full archive of well over 100 interviews can be found at https://www.lccommunityradio.org/archives/category/delving-in. Please send questions and comments to [email protected].

Recent Episodes

#203. How a Quartet of Musicians Outwitted the KGB and Helped Secure the Freedom of Soviet Jews

Merryl Goldberg and Vince Houghton are the co-authors of Notes of Deception: How a Quartet of Musicians Outwitted the KGB, which chronicles a mission in 1985 by Merryl and three other members of the Klezmer Conservatory Band to smuggle information to and from Soviet Refusniks – we’ll explain that term in a moment – by encoding it in their music, all while being monitored, followed, and interrogated by the KGB. Merryl was a saxophonist for the first thirteen years of Boston’s Klezmer Conservatory, founded in 1980 by Hankus Netsky, who also made the trip along with mandolinist Jeff Warschauer and vocalist Rosalie Gerut. Merryl is a professor in the School of Arts at California State University San Marcos. She is the Executive Director of Center ARTES, which is dedicated to restoring the arts to education. and has written books on that theme. Vince Houghton is an American historian specializing in diplomatic and military history, with a focus on intelligence studies. He is the curator of the National Security Agency’s National Cryptologic Museum and formerly served as chief historian and curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. When Vince heard the Klezmer Conservatory Band’s trip to Russia, he couldn’t believe that the Klezmer Conservatory Band, the KCB, had outwitted the KGB. He reached out to Merryl and wound up becoming a co-author of Notes of Deception. Recorded 10/14/26.

58 MIN

#202. New Religious Movements (a.k.a. "Cults")

Joseph Laycock is an associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University, with a focus on the sociology of religion, among other topics, He has written several books on new religious movements and on American religious history, including the recently published second edition of New Religious Movements: The Basics. He is also a co-editor for the journal Nova Religio. He currently serves on the Programming Committee for the American Academy of Religion. Recorded 9/22/26.

57 MIN

#201. Conceptual Difficulties in Psychiatric Diagnosis and Practice

Awais Aftab. is a psychiatrist in Cleveland, OH and a professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University. He is a member of the executive council of Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry and has been actively involved in initiatives to educate psychiatrists and trainees on the intersection of philosophy and psychiatry. His is the author of Conversations in Critical Psychiatry, an edited volume of interviews published in 2024 and the Psychiatry at the Margins Substack newsletter, which explores critical, philosophical, and scientific debates in psychology and in psychiatric practice. Recorded 9/14/26.

54 MIN

#200. Escaping the Life of a Taliban Fighter

Maiwand Banayee grew up in the 1980s and 90s in war-torn Afghanistan during the war against the Soviets and the civil war that followed. He left for the UK at 22 years old in the opening years of the U.S. war on the Taliban. His recently published memoir, Delusions of Paradise: Escaping the Life of a Taliban Fighter recalls these harrowing years, as well as the next couple of decades after his emigration to the UK and Ireland. In crystal clear, direct and forthright, English prose, not his native language, the book poignantly explores the complicated, interwoven themes of gender, religion, trauma, immigration, and more. Currently, Maiwand works as a physiotherapist and diabetes-remission coach in the UK. Recorded 9/7/26.

57 MIN

#199. The Legal and Cultural History of Hate Speech

Samantha Barbas is a legal and cultural historian and the author of several books on media history and legal history topics, with a focus on journalism, privacy, defamation, and the First Amendment. A Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, she is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award. Samantha was previously on Delving In three years ago to discuss her book, Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan, about the landmark case that reaffirmed freedom of the press by establishing a high bar for libel suits against journalists. Today’s interview will focus on her latest book, Hate Speech: The Legal and Cultural History of an American Dilemma, due to be published on September 15, 2026. Recorded 9/2/26.

53 MIN