While filming American Bear, Sarah and Greg interviewed professors around the country about the dynamics of interacting with strangers. How do we develop trust? What happens in the brain when we meet someone for the first time? What are the sociopolitical challenges Americans face and how can we work through them together?

Each episode features a professor exploring the themes of American Bear through their expertise: neuroscience, gender studies, race relations, sociology, and more. BEAR Bones offers fans, viewers, and students an educational look at kindness, strangers, and American culture.

BEAR Bones: Lakesia Johnson on Gender Roles and Crying Men

BEAR Bones: Tony Cortese on National Identity and Human Rights

BEAR Bones: Anne Lincoln on Kindness, Home, and Homogeneity

BEAR Bones: George Holden on Life Experiences and Strangers

BEAR Bones: Lakesia Johnson on Intersectionality, Identity, and Iowa

BEAR Bones: Tony Cortese on Who Deserves Kindness

BEAR Bones: Amy Pinkham and the Impact of Facial Hair

BEAR Bones: Kesho Scott on What It Means to be American

BEAR Bones: Amy Pinkham and the Neuroscience of First Impressions

BEAR Bones: Amy Pinkham and The Neuroscience of First Impressions

“In BEAR Bones, scholars examine the kindness of strangers through the lenses of our respective disciplines to explore social justice, trust, the limits of kindness and who is deemed deserving of assistance.”

— Dr. Tony Cortese, Professor of Sociology, Southern Methodist University