Top of Mind with Julie Rose: Recent Episodes
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Feel the power of thinking again with conversations that dig deep on both sides of an issue. Hosted by award-winning journalist Julie Rose, Top of Mind is a production of BYUradio.
Top of Mind Season 4 is focused on Assessing Assumptions. We tend to assume the best way to do things is the way it's always been done. But is that true when it comes to healthcare, child welfare, public safety or schools? On Top of Mind, we're out to become better citizens, kinder neighbors and more effective advocates by assuming less. Season 4 starts Aug. 4 anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Season 3 of Top of Mind is "Finding Fairness." From health and immigration to prisons and pot, how do we get more peace and prosperity for all? Who deserves what in American society? How do we decide who thrives and who doesn't? What do we owe one another? Each week, Top of Mind tackles one tough topic in a way that will challenge you, help you feel more empathy, and empower you to become a better citizen, a kinder neighbor, and a more effective advocate. Join Top of Mind with Julie Rose for a new season focused on "Finding Fairness" starting March 6, 2023 anywhere you get podcasts.
We're hard at work on a new season of Top of Mind and won't have a new episode on the podcast feed for a few weeks. So, it's a great time to listen back to episodes you may have missed. And keep your Stick With It stories coming to topofmind@byu.edu.
Our “Stick With It” series on the Top of Mind podcast continues with an all too familiar story of a social media post provoking an unexpected, angry reaction. For Allie, posting about her Christian faith on Instagram felt innocuous and empowering. But a dear friend was hurt by the post. Allie was hurt too, but chose to validate her friend’s perspective and be vulnerable about her own. Sticking with that discomfort deepened the relationship and gave Allie insight on a better approach to posting about her spiritual convictions online.Top of Mind would love to hear your Stick With It story. Can you think of a time when you felt your perspective or worldview challenged and, instead of getting defensive, you chose to lean into the discomfort – and you’re glad you did? Email your story to topofmind@byu.edu.
Our “Stick With It” series on the Top of Mind podcast continues with a story about a children’s librarian feeling upset and attacked by the nationwide debate over book banning. But instead of dismissing her concerns about book censorship, she chose to try listening more closely to what parents and citizens were saying. After watching countless videos of confrontational school board meetings from around the country, she began to find some common ground with people demanding that certain books be banned from schools and libraries. She still opposes book banning, but she has dramatically changed her approach to concerns about the books in her library collection.Top of Mind would love to hear your Stick With It story. Can you think of a time when you felt your perspective or worldview challenged and, instead of getting defensive, you chose to lean into the discomfort – and you’re glad you did? Email your story to topofmind@byu.edu.
The freedom to believe—and express those religious beliefs—is embedded in America’s founding documents. But being obviously religious—like wearing a hijab, turban or yarmulke—doesn’t always bring a friendly response. If everyone knew, just by looking at you, that you are a person of faith, would you act differently? In this episode, we’re thinking more deeply about how much we—as individuals and as a society—really value religious diversity and public expressions of faith.
Guests:
Simran Jeet Singh, Executive Director for the Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program and author of The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life.
Justin McClain, Catholic educator and author of Called to Teach, Alleluia to Amen, and Called to Pray.
Asma Uddin, attorney, visiting law professor at Catholic University of America, author of “When Islam Is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom”
Diana Eck, founder of The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
(photo credit: Simran Jeet Singh by John Noltner)
The word “activist” tends to scare off a lot of people. But working for change is more than protests and marches. In this episode we look to the example of Rosa Parks who did so much more than refuse to give up her seat on a segregated bus. And we consider why viral hashtags on social media rarely lead to big, lasting change. Plus, a new definition of activism that could motivate more of us to work on making the world a better place.
Guests:
HH Leonards, founder of The O Street Museum and Mansion in Washington, DC and author of “Rosa Parks Beyond the Bus: Life, Lessons and Leadership”
Gal Beckerman, senior editor for books at The Atlantic, author of “The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideals.”
Emma Petty Adams and Jennifer Walker Thomas, co-executive directors of MWEG (Mormon Women for Ethical Government)
Karen Walrond, author of "The Lightmaker's Manifesto: How to Work for Change Without Losing Your Joy"
A major side effect of being such a grief-averse culture is the sheer panic many of us feel when confronted with someone who’s suffered a devastating loss. What can you possibly say or do that will help? In this bonus episode you’ll hear Julie’s full conversation with grief specialist Lisa Athan. It’s packed full of practical tips and uplifting insight.
Guest:
Lisa Athan, founder of Grief Speaks
What is it about grief that makes us so uncomfortable? American rituals are designed to keep mourning quiet and private. We mutter clichés that offer little comfort and expect grieving to be like getting the flu – you feel really bad and then you get better. We make even less space for grieving pets, or pregnancy loss. In today’s episode we consider what might be different if we allowed for grief to be bigger, longer and more public?
Guests:
Jaqueline Dooley, writer, essayist - https://jacquelinedooley.medium.com/
Brandy Schillace, author of “Death's Summer Coat: Our Strange, Unsettled History of Mourning”
E.B. Bartels, author of "Good Grief: On Loving Pets Here and Hereafter"
Katie C. Reilly, writer, attorney
Lisa Athan, founder of Grief Speaks
What if you sent a hand-written, two-page letter to every single one of your Facebook friends? What if you struck up conversations with strangers more often? What if you mended a fracture in your family? In this episode, we explore how widening our circles and tending to relationships more mindfully could be good for us - and society.
Guests:
Amy Weinland Daughters, sports columnist and author of “Dear Dana: That Time I Went Crazy and Wrote All 580 of My Facebook Friends a Handwritten Letter”
Joe Keohane, journalist and author of “The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World”
Karl Pillemer, professor of human development and geriatrics at Cornell University, author of “Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them.”
Genealogy is compelling to so many, but why do we want to learn about people we don’t know? Simple answer, the stories we find by tracing our roots can inspire us and become family legends. But what happens when we discover something dark in our family history? How do we reconcile our heroes with their frailties, or even evil deeds? Is it worth it to keep digging? In this episode, we explore how family history can open new doors, build resiliency within families, and why you should look to dig a little deeper.
Guests:
Christopher Jones, BYU History Professor
Libby Copeland, author of “The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are”
Edward Di Gangi, author of “The Gift Best Given: A Memoir”
Gaynell Brady, owner of Our Mammy’s
People with synesthesia perceive the world very differently from the rest of us. Their senses merge so that sounds might also have tastes. The days of the week may be different colors. Numbers and letters might correspond to musical notes. This final installment in our summer series of archive interviews is especially meaningful to Julie because it drives home how two people can look at the same thing and see it very differently. What can the science of synesthesia teach us about navigating divisive issues we feel strongly about?
Guest:
Richard Cytowic, Clinical Professor of Neurology at George Washington University, author of "Wednesday is Indigo Blue" and "The Man Who Tasted Shapes"
Caregiving for a loved one can be difficult and confusing. Julie and her siblings are among the more than 20 million Americans who currently care for an aging parent- so this week's pick from the Top of Mind live radio archive hits close to home. In 2020, Julie spoke with Zachary White and Donna Thomson who combine their personal and professional experience into a "how to" handbook for the rest of us called “The Unexpected Journey of Caring."
Guests:
Donna Thomson, author, caregiver, activist, author of "The Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I've Learned from a Life of Caregiving"
Zachary White, professor of communication, Queens University of Charlotte, co-author (with Thomson) of "The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation from Loved One to Caregiver"
Sarah Valentine grew up believing she was the white daughter of her white parents. As an adult she learned her parents had been lying to her. She’s actually half Black. That truth completely unraveled Valentine’s sense of identity, which she writes about in her memoir “When I Was White.” Top of Mind host Julie Rose says she thinks often about this interview from our daily radio show archive because it really led her question her assumptions about race and racism. Top of Mind is a BYUradio podcast.
Guest:
Sarah Valentine, author of "When I Was White: A Memoir"
Netflix star Samin Nosrat shares the one amazing meal that inspired her to become a professional chef. Her cookbook “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” is a guide to the essential elements of successful cooking. In another of Julie’s favorite conversations from the Top of Mind live radio show archives, Nosrat explains how to make delicious food whether you’re a conscientious recipe-follower or a free-wheeling experimenter (like Julie). Top of Mind is a BYUradio podcast.
Guest:
Samin Nosrat, chef and author of "Salt, Fat, Acid Heat" (which is also a Netflix documentary series)
A professional magician teaches magic tricks to inmates, and it is changing their whole prison experience.
The American Chestnut tree is nearly gone for good. These people are working hard to bring it back.
A special type of wall creates a radiating cooling effect. Here's how it works.
This week, Julie shares a conversation from Top of Mind’s live radio show archive that changed her life. In 2017 she spoke with Dan Brule, who is one of the world’s leading experts on breathwork. He recommends taking time daily to practice breathing. The techniques he shared have become Julie’s best tool for coping with stress and anxiety.
Guest:
Dan Brule, author of “Just Breathe: Mastering Breathwork for Success in Life, Love, Business and Beyond"
The humanitarian needs in the world right now are enormous. Helping out seems straightforward – you just send money or show up. But if you’re not careful, your time and money may do no good. Worse, it might end up hurting those you’re hoping to help. In this episode, we consider how best to respond in a humanitarian crisis, why doing a “service trip” to a distant village isn’t necessarily helpful and ways to boost the impact of your charitable gifts.
Guests:
Svitlana Miller, founder, ToUkraineWithLove.org
Meg Sattler, director, Ground Truth Solutions
Bocchit Edmond, Haiti’s Ambassador to the United States
Pippa Biddle, author of “Ours to Explore: Privilege, Power and the Paradox of Voluntourism”
Kat Rosqueta, founding executive director, Center for High Impact Philanthropy (impact.upenn.edu) at the University of Pennsylvania
The question of going to college - and where - is on the minds of most American families and young adults. We want college to be a character-building, mind-expanding experience, but we also want it to help graduates get good jobs. In this episode, we explore the ways that our conflicting expectations of American higher education play out—and how to make the best decisions for your family.
Guests:
Alexis Ayala, Business Development Representative at Okta
Anthony Carnevale, Director of the Georgetown Center for Education and the Workforce
Ron Lieber, New York Times Finance Columnist, Author of “The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make”
Ken Rusk, Entrepreneur, Author of “Blue Collar Cash: Love Your Work, Secure Your Future, and Find Happiness for Life”
Clues to Beethoven's inner life are all throughout his music.
Developing a less expensive portable MRI machine.
Desensitization treatment works well for food allergies. Why do so many people still suffer?
Aging brings inevitable changes to our bodies, abilities and lifestyle. But it’s not all bad. Surveys show time and again that people in their 80s are happier than young adults and people in middle age. Yet we all dread the prospect of growing older. In today’s episode, we explore what aging is really like in America right now and how the experience might be better if we stopped fearing it.
Guests:
Katherine Esty, therapist and author of Eighty somethings: A Practical Guide to Letting Go, Aging Well, and Finding Unexpected Happiness
Bill Rodgers, decorated marathon runner and Olympian
Marc Agronin, geriatric psychiatrist at Miami Jewish Health and author of The End of Old Age: Living a Longer, More Purposeful Life
Ashton Applewhite, activist and author of The Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism
Donna Butts, Executive Director of Generations United
In this bonus episode from the Top of Mind archive: "The Other Talk." Most kids of color in America grow up talking about racism at home, but most white children don't. They should, though, says author Brendan Kiely. His new book is a guide for starting the conversation about race at home. Then, a short, inspiring chat with a doctor who collects flower arrangements and delivers them to patients in the hospital where she works.
We're featuring another one of our great BYUradio podcasts on Top of Mind. The Lisa Show discusses how we can navigate life and parenting. And in this episode, host Lisa Valentine Clark seeks advice on how to be a good parent when the internet and technology are ever-changing.
Once a child is placed in foster care, they’re reuniting with their parent or guardian less than half of the time. But many child welfare agencies say reuniting families is a top priority. Is it possible to have a system that both protects children and prioritizes families?
Guests:
Aby, a Mother who reunited with her child
Dalton Shump, Permanency Case Worker, KVC
Molly Tierney, Managing Director, North American Public Sector at Accenture, Former Director of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services
Lynn Price, Founder, Camp to Belong
The US Supreme Court has repeatedly held that some amount of race-based discrimination is okay in college admissions, if the goal is to create a more diverse campus. But, no one wants to be rejected because of something they can’t control – like their race, or their parents’ income. In this episode, we’ll explore the effects of affirmative action and consider other ways schools might create diversity if the Supreme Court bans race-based admissions decisions.
Guests:
Zachariah Chou, author of USA Today op-ed "My race may have played a factor in my college rejections, but I support affirmative action"
Wenyuan Wu, Executive Director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation
Monica O'Neal, psychologist in Boston and faculty at Harvard Medical School
Rick Sander, economist and law professor at UCLA
Audrey Dow, Senior Vice President of The Campaign for College Opportunity
One out of every 95 people on Earth has fled their home because of conflict or persecution. What is the experience of leaving – when you’d rather stay – and resettling in a place where everything is foreign? In this episode, people who came to America as refugees share their stories of heartbreak, healing, and new friendships. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Guests:
Warda Mohamed Abdullahi, Somalian refugee, author of "Warda: My Journey from the Horn of Africa to a College Education"
Luma Mufleh, founder of Fugees Family, author of "Learning America: One Woman's Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children"
Liz Jevtic-Somlai, Associate Director at Their Story is Our Story
Aden Batar, Services Director at Catholic Community Services of Utah
18 years. That’s how long Anthony Graves spent in prison for a crime he never committed. Unfortunately, his story is not uncommon in this country. Can we stop wrongful convictions, or are they just the price we pay to keep communities safe? In this episode, we look at how such big mistakes are made in the American justice system and efforts to prevent wrongful convictions.
Guests:
Anthony Graves, exoneree, author “Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement, and 12 Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul.”
David Rudolf- author, “American Injustice: Inside Stories from the Underbelly of the Criminal Justice System”
Emily Galvin-Almanza, co-founder of Partners for Justice
Walter McNeil, sheriff of Leon County, Florida
Before we were a weekly podcast, Top of Mind was a daily radio show. We were on the air – live - for two hours every weekday. And we did that for seven years. This means there’s a ton of great material in our archive. So, today we’re giving you a taste of that archive. First, we take a deep dive into the history of organ transplant surgery – and its darker side. You’ll hear how the TV world of Star Trek has influenced real science. We’ll be back with a new episode of the podcast on Monday, May 23rd.
Division is nothing new in America, but something about this moment feels different. Why are we so angry, fearful, and ever more deeply entrenched in our safe little bubbles of like-minded people? More importantly, how do we get out? In this episode, the root causes of toxic polarization in America today, practical advice on bridging our differences, and the story of one man trying to change the narrative one difficult conversation at a time.
Guests:
Dylan Marron, author, “Conversations with People Who Hate Me.”
Amy Chua, Yale Law School professor, author, “Political Tribes,” and “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”
Peter Coleman, social psychologist, Columbia University, author, “The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization.”
The way we think about mental illness from a Western medicine perspective doesn’t fit everyone. More and more people are taking antidepressants, but rates of depression aren’t declining. Meanwhile, some unconventional methods, like indigenous practices and psychedelics, are helping people cope with symptoms. In today’s episode, we show the power of thinking differently about mental illness.
Guests:
Sam, mental health patient
Terrie Moffitt, clinical psychologist, professor, Duke University
Joseph Gone, cultural clinical psychologist, professor, Harvard University
Reid Robison, chief medical officer, Novamind
Long Description – Millions of Americans move each year in search of a better house, neighborhood, job, or quality of life. Is leaving the only way to live some place better? What would it take for an imperfect place to become your perfect match? Today we crisscross the country and check in with Top of Mind listeners about what makes a city great.
Guests:
Majora Carter – Author of “Reclaiming your Community”
Jim and Deb Fallows – Co-authors of “Our Town: A Journey into the Heart of America”
Melody Warnick – Author of “This Is Where You Belong” and “If You Could Live Anywhere”
Lynn Kreutz, Hayley Trotter, Reed Wolfley, Erika Layland, Jenny Van Stone, Kim Parati – Top of Mind Listeners
Whether we work in an office, a construction site, or even a radio station, we've all complained about being overworked. Americans spend more time working than people in other wealthy nations. Why do we feel the need to work so much? In this episode, we take a deep dive into American work culture and how working less could actually be good for employers and employees.
Top of Mind is giving listeners a sneak peek at one of the other podcasts here at BYU Radio. Constant Wonder is all about exploring the hidden marvels of our world. In this episode, the amazing tale of how an orphaned baby orca found its way home.
Living with autism can be difficult, and in the past, the prevailing attitude was to find ways to fix or cure autism. But that idea is changing. “For too long, we have been forced to navigate a world where all the road signs are written in another language,” writes author and journalist Eric Garcia. Garcia has autism. In this episode, we talk with current autism advocates who argue that the way to make life better for autistic people is not to force them to fit into the world but to help the world fit them.
Guests:
Emily Grodin and Valerie Gilpeer, co-authors of “I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust.”
Eric Garcia, journalist, author of ‘We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation.”
Monique Botha, community psychologist, and researcher at the University of Stirling
Sarah and Larry Nannery, co-authors of “What to Say Next: Successful Communication in Work, Life and Love with Autism Spectrum Disorder.”
People who experience poverty are constantly riding a rollercoaster of highs and lows as they struggle to better their situation. In desperation, they’re asking, “Is there any way out?” While a growing number of people agree that ending poverty is achievable, there’s plenty of debate on the specifics. Advocates leading the fight against poverty are finding that the answer will start with a change in perspective. We’re learning that poverty isn’t an individual’s problem—It’s a community problem.
Guests:
Alicia, Circles Participant
Chris Robinson, Circles Participant
Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation
Dr. H. Luke Schaefer, Professor, University of Michigan, Co-author of “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America."
LaMont Hampton, Program Coordinator, Circles Davis County
Paul Born, Founder, Tamarack Institute
Citizenship is a prerequisite for voting in most of the world. But New York City plans on allowing non-citizens to vote in city elections. How does being given or denied the right to vote affect somebody’s sense of belonging in a community? In this episode, we look at the history of voting rights and restrictions in America and see how voting by non-citizens plays out in places where it is allowed.
Guests:
Woojung Diana Park, Immigrant Justice Organizer, Minkwon Center in New York City
Chaewon Jessica Park, Immigrant Justice Organizer, Minkwon Center in New York City
Howard Husock, Senior Fellow of Domestic Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Ron Hayduk, Professor of Political Science, San Francisco State University
Kate Stewart, Mayor of Takoma Park, Maryland
Maia Szalavitz was introduced to the concept of harm reduction while using illegal drugs in her 20s. A friendly woman advised her to clean the needles with bleach. She claims that kind gesture saved her life even though it was a few years before she kicked the drug habit. Harm reduction has evolved in the last 40 years. New York City just opened the first government-sanctioned supervised injection sites in the country. Can you accept somebody as they are without enabling their harmful behavior to continue? Are they mutually exclusive?
Guests:
Maia Szalavitz - author of Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction
Dr. Leslie Suen - addiction medicine specialist, UCSF
Darwin Fisher – Program Manager, Insite
Keith Humphreys - addiction researcher, professor, Stanford University School of Medicine
David Murray - co-director for the Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research, Hudson Institute
Brendan Cox - Director of Policing Strategies, LEAD National Support Bureau
If you stood a thin person next to someone who is, well, not so thin, and were asked to pick who you thought was healthier, you’re more than likely going to choose the skinny person, right? We’ve been programmed to think that body weight is the best indicator of a person’s health and fitness. But this mindset isn’t always true. The disconnect between body weight and health is more common than you think, and we may be making ourselves more unhealthy by not believing it.
Mirna Valerio, ultramarathoner, founder of Fat Girl Running
Kathryn Hively, Founder of Just BE Parenting
Glenn Gaesser, Professor of Exercise Physiology, Arizona State University
Corinne Hannan, Psychologist and Assistant Clinical Professor, Brigham Young University
When we think of race, we might naturally think of one's skin color. But someone who is black can have white skin. So what is race? Two researchers say we are getting it all wrong and that biological race is a myth. But they say socially-defined race and racism are alive and continue to this day.
Guests:
Natalie Devora, Author of "Black Girl White Skin: A Life In Stories"
Dr. Joseph L. Graves Jr, Professor of biological sciences at North Carolina A&T State University, co-author of “Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions”
Dr. Alan Goodman, Professor of biological anthropology at Hampshire College, co-author of “Racism, Not Race”
Terry and Michele Wright, Co-Founders, National Organization of African Americans with Cystic Fibrosis
Lauren Michele, Black blogger with Cystic Fibrosis
Jasmine Reed has lived with a chronic illness since she was 15. After years of seeing doctors and trying different treatments, she doesn’t feel much better. Reed wishes others would believe she is in pain even though she doesn’t look sick. Chronic pain doesn’t necessarily come from a specific external cause, so it’s hard to treat and hard to prove to others. But that doesn’t mean it’s not real. In this episode, we talk to chronic pain experts about treatments and chronic pain’s connection to the opioid epidemic. We also talk to neuroscientists about pain patterns in the brain and how we can help to heal ourselves.
Guests:
Jasmine Reed, person with a chronic illness.
Daniel Clauw, Director, Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, University of Michigan.
Tor Wager, Professor of Neuroscience, Dartmouth College.
Hundreds of parents volunteered their children as participants in the COVID-19 vaccine trials. To some of us, that seems like a crazy risk. But to those parents, it didn’t feel risky at all. The way that we think about risk is complex. It changes based on the situation, and it’s more arbitrary than we might want to admit. In this episode, we examine how people gauge risk, whether it’s in an everyday parenting situation or a death-defying rock climb, and we look at ways to bring more rationality into our risk-taking.
Guests:
Jamie Davis Smith - Parent, attorney, and disability advocate
Seema Lakdawalla - Parent and virologist at the University of Michigan
Lenore Skenazy - Author and founder of the non-profit Let Grow
Jane Joseph - Neuroscientist at the Medical University of South Carolina
Alex Honnold - Professional rock climber
Paul Slovic - Professor of psychology at the University of Oregon
Feel the power of thinking again with conversations that dig deep on both sides of an issue. Hosted by award-winning journalist Julie Rose, Top of Mind is a production of BYUradio.
Bobby Love’s story is amazing. Love escaped prison, raised a family, and lived trouble-free for over 40 years. But he probably wouldn’t have been able to do that so well, if he hadn't completely changed his identity after the escape. He had no parole requirements to trip him up, no criminal record shaping where he could live or work. In this episode, we consider how the US justice system makes it difficult for people convicted of crimes to rebuild their lives after prison. And we'll explore some solutions.
Guests:
Bobby and Cheryl Love – Co-Authors of “The Redemption of Bobby Love.”
Nathan Sterling – Formerly incarcerated individual
Karl Daniels – Former incarcerated individual
Reuben Jonathan Miller – Professor, University of Chicago. Author of “Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration.”
Sue Mason – Executive Director, What’s Next Washington
Krista Gulbransen – Executive Director, Berkeley Property Owners Association
Penny Jennings – Vice-President of Strategic Programs, Greyston Bakery
Leroy Bailey – Employee, Greyston Foundation
Nicolas Debray – President, The Body Shop Americas
Ted Castle – Owner, Rhino Foods
Antibiotic overuse in hospitals may be fueling the problem with drug-resistant infections. A faked satellite image could be used to spread false stories or create a hoax about a natural disaster. Americans with a fear of needles can now get their shots through a small patch instead.
Alzheimer's continues to prove difficult to treat, but scientists are making progress. The more we subscribe to stereotypes that aging will affect us physically and mentally, the more likely those issues will develop - how?
Over the decades, Sesame Street has used internal research to adapt their content for new generations. Teens who spend a lot of time on social media end up with poor mental health.
How one indigenous man connected to his culture to break free from a cycle of homelessness and addiction. Some scientists make incredible progress in conserving extinct species after cloning a ferret from frozen DNA. Enterprising underserved populations have a new opportunity to forego expensive investment costs and run their very own restaurant franchise.
As incidents of gun violence continue to occur publicly, people are asking what kind of psychological effects this pressure will have on kids. A nonprofit is testing what happens if they give unhoused people money. And understanding brown fat could help us better understand a child's cold resistance.
Medina Tenour Whiteman challenges expectations of what a Muslim looks like. Then, youth in juvenile detention fall behind educational benchmarks despite required classes.
Despite NASCAR being a sport based in the American South and dominated by white men and white fans, Bill Lester was the first Black driver in twenty years to get all the way to NASCAR's elite series in the early 2000s. Even now there's only one Black driver at NASCAR's top level, but things are changing quickly in the sport. Bill Lester has a new memoir out called “Winning in Reverse.”
Science is better equipped to explain near-death experiences than it used to be, but there are still gaps in scientific understanding. A father learned how to sew to make matching outfits for himself and his daughter, and now he has over 24k followers on Instagram. A new underwater lab, Proteus, is developing to be an ocean-equivalent version of the international space station.
Lithium batteries needed for environmentally-friendly machines and cars come at an underlying environmental cost. Travelers can take themselves through civil rights history with a new guidebook. Bitcoin is growing in price and popularity, surprising the public and economists.
Cary Grant went from a working-class family to the upper echelons of Hollywood society. Ethics professors are on the case vetting the military's new methods for technologically enhancing their soldiers' abilities.
Pregnancy and giving birth set off a cascade of changes in a woman’s body and brain that – in some cases – last a lifetime. And, a Philadelphia woman who delivers free period supplies to women and girls who can’t afford them.
An implanted electrode can treat immune disorders better than drugs can. Now is the time to prepare for the next financial crisis. And a Dutch start-up company is harnessing the electric abilities of plants.
The lunar ark is like Noah’s Ark–with samples of DNA and seeds from plants and animals on Earth–but stored in frozen capsules on the moon for safekeeping. What does the Yiddish language mean for Jewish culture? And a simple screening that could stop seizures in sickle cell patients, but many don’t know it exists.
How guns from America end up arming gangs and cartels in major US cities and across Latin America. And how scientists are making chicken nuggets from chicken cells. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
How does someone win the Grammy for Best Album Notes? We find out from a winner. Why nurses are so much more likely to commit suicide than other career groups. And how donating to thrift stores fuels clothing waste.
How one worker bee in the 1990s managed to clone herself into an army that’s still collapsing healthy bee colonies in South Africa. The science behind bowling balls and finding the right one at your bowling alley. And, why robots need a dancer’s eye and choreography to become less threatening.
Reincorporating food cast-offs into new dishes reduces food waste. A chef who lost her sight relearned how to cook and is teaching others how to do the same. The agricultural sector is trying to lessen the amount of nitrous oxide they release in their work.
Monuments and museums that are remnants of slavery in the U.S. teach the nation's history inconsistently - how? An online campaign draws attention to the mental health issues veterinarians face. Doulas for people transitioning out of life offer education and comfort.
The holidays can improve a person’s cognitive abilities for people with dementia. What do ghosts have to do with Christmas? And, the reason why Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has become a holiday classic.
The National Park Service can't save every plant or animal due to climate change, so how do park officials decide which changes to resist and which to accept? Doctored satellite video imagery poses a myriad of problems. Researchers are trying to find out why we can hear in stereo but don't get the same sensation with smell.
With the aid of artificial intelligence, scientists have finally finished the symphony Beethoven didn’t manage to complete before he died. A journalist worked at a helpline for perpetrators of abuse and came to some interesting conclusions. The long-term damages of infant malnutrition could be addressed with a new nutty nutrition supplement.
Harriet Tubman, Martha Coffin Wright and Frances Seward worked together to advocate for abolition and women's rights. The book "The Agitators" tells their story. Then, GPS conveniently guides us in real-time, but we're also at risk of weakening our memory skills because of it the older we become.
Tiny swimming robots might solve plastic pollution in the ocean. Some social scientists believe we should ditch the labels baby boomer, Gen X, millennial, and Gen Z. And, more exercise might help those with cancer.
It’s become more common in America for people to cut off ties with a family member. Everyone needs a hug. And, most people understand certain sounds, even if they speak different languages or whether they can read or write.
Lead pollution could have poisoned some people's personalities. Girls and boys internalize healthy ideas from Moana, Elsa, and other Disney Princesses. And the new trend of female pop stars baring their bodies and their souls. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for Disney Consumer Products/AP Images)
Many Americans stand firm in the belief that they have the right to choose their medical treatment—but do they actually? The past year in Haiti was rife with natural and political disasters . . . what will the country's future look like? And is it safe to release radioactive water into the ocean? Also on today's show: how something mundane ends up unused in the closet for months and months while you wait for just the right moment to use it and why African American pitmasters have been pushed to the margins of the barbecue scene.
Health experts hope that the end of the pandemic will also see the end of over-sanitizing our hands and homes. Building a city that is both functional AND sustainable can be complex. A scholar of Jewish history says antisemitism is an American tradition. Also on today’s show: how islanders are saving an endangered palm tree; the potential to tackle loneliness as a public health problem; genetic engineering makes chickpeas more drought-tolerant.
Organs developed in monkeys or pigs could be the future of organ donation, but the process carries ethical concerns. What exactly is your smart voice assistant listening for when it sits in your home? American middle-aged people are physically and mentally more unhealthy than past generations, and it has ties to stress. Also, on today's show: innovations in urban farming as the fields move indoors and upwards; people who declare themselves and their land independent of their country can make things difficult for the host nation; small, safe doses of electricity could power your smartwatch throughout the day so you can still wear it at night to track sleep patterns.
3% of people can’t conjure up a picture with their "mind's eye." A new campaign is aiming to list the position of "mother" on resumes. Congress is putting unemployed writers to work documenting life during the pandemic—an initiative very similar to a program during the Great Depression. Also on today’s show: the size of one’s pupil correlates with one’s intelligence and Americans are consuming more meat than ever.
Scientists are trying to mitigate climate change's effects on the weather through artificial manipulation. Why Americans could show a growing interest in pilgrimages. Blue Latitudes is transforming empty oil rigs into artificial reefs. Also, on today's show: why the Snake River is one of America's most endangered rivers; how meteorites and space dust are raining down all around us; a novel brings to life the resistance against Nazi occupation on two British islands.
There are over ten million people in prison worldwide, and the experiences of those prisoners differ drastically from prison to prison and from country to country. The pay gap between men and women has shrunk a lot since the 1970s, but progress has stalled. NASA’s developed a plan to clean up orbit. Also on today’s show: Alaskan middle schoolers endure an unusual final exam; robot designers borrow a trick from the human body.
If you need therapy and love watching movies, YouTube channel Cinema Therapy is for you. TIME picked a kid of the year for the first time. A program that helps low-income kids cope emotionally and socially keeps benefitting them years later. Also on today’s show: a replay of our Thanksgiving special canvasses the history of Thanksgiving on the celebration of its 400th anniversary, the British celebration of the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock, and preparing and tasting different foods are a great way to introduce kids to making healthy, varied choices.
Since COVID-19 suppressed the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Thanksgiving, Americans celebrate the anniversary this year. Across the pond, Brits celebrate the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock. A nonprofit helps kids enjoy and make the foods on their dinner plates. Also, on today’s show: the US’s dietary guidelines come under fire; nearly all apps today seem to be playing games with users; British citizens turned up over 47,000 artifacts in their backyards.
Smell is, according to the majority of millennials, the most expendable sense. A world memory champion explains how he got to where he is. Letting your mind wander might take you to new, fantastical places in reality just as much as it does in imagination. Also on today's show: a new initiatives gets stories by and about Black families published; debate rages over the fate of American wild horses; TV is teaching tweens and teens, who spend hours on screens every day, some perhaps questionable values.
Diseases are evolving to survive medicine—and some think that doctors are actually to blame. Pronouncing a name correctly is a huge indicator of respect. Girls on the autism spectrum manifest symptoms differently than boys do . . . and this often affects how they’re treated. Also on today’s show: it might be time for a third party to break into American politics; research suggests that doomsday might be a little further than it appears; bacteria in the belly shapes processes in the brain.
Just being nice isn’t always enough - we need deep kindness. DNA analysis unfolds the mysterious origins of Polynesian Islanders. How a mother’s letter led Tennessee to ratify the 19th Amendment and give women the vote nationwide. Also, on today's show: meet the US State Department's first-ever ambassador of hip-hop; why spirituality and religious beliefs are typically ignored when treating serious mental illness; an upcoming exhibit will feature aquatic creatures that normally lurk thousands of feet below the ocean.
Today on Top of Mind: the importance of discerning fact from fiction when searching health information online. Empty buildings in the suburbs are being turned into community centers and libraries. Why does a meme go viral? Also, the threats facing California's coastal kelp forests. The importance of the voice inside your head.
Today on Top of Mind: the Bush family has unique experiences with politicians in the home. Indigenous tribes in Brazil are making their voices and stories heard through a new documentary. A viral community-created musical version of Ratatouille turned into a fully-produced Broadway concert. Also, the educational game 5 STA-Z engages students in a Ugandan refugee camp in a new way. And, blind classical singers learn pronunciation and diction in a different way than singers who can see. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Why homelessness is becoming a more visible problem along the West Coast. The Associated Press is making waves in media industry standards. From North Korea to Norway, a journalist travels the outline of the world’s largest country in search of the answer to one question: what is it like to be Russia's neighbor? Also, on today’s show: rest is an important part of learning; how to encourage curiosity in children without going nuts fielding their endless questions.
Could personal choice stop gun-related deaths by suicide? How a non-profit is connecting prisoners to their families without paying a lot of money for each phone call. What can parents do to improve their child's body image? Also, on today's show: what's being done to unearth the work of forgotten female Renaissance artists; using pink lights inside of greenhouses.
Lewy-body dementia is a common type of dementia but is harder to diagnose. Why is that? A sanctuary in Austin rescues animals from abuse and neglect and unites them with kids who have experienced similar trauma. A mysterious, virtually unexplored ecosystem deep in the ocean is now at risk. Also, on today’s show: technology is trying to learn to smell as well as dogs can; the strange sleeping habits of octopuses; the truth behind cute, purebred little dogs.
Scientists craft very tiny computers to give to very tiny animals. The radio drama returns in the form of podcasting. Talking to strangers powerfully affects your mood and capabilities. Also on today's show: sharks are vanishing from oceans they once ruled; computers compose and compete; scientists tickle rats, and you, too, might be able to get in on the action.
A neurologist who studied memory disease all his life shares his own struggle with Alzheimer’s. An education researcher sums up Common Core in a new book. Tests prove that helping others really does make us happier. Also on today’s show: a portrait of the real Daniel Boone.
Railroads not only changed America's landscape, but also created the first big business. Why Pan Am flight attendants were more than just a pretty face. How artificial intelligence is helping to track down lead water pipes. And why scientists decided to strap 3D glasses on cuttlefish.
How Black farmers received over a billion dollars in compensation in a discrimination case versus the US Department of Agriculture. Squirrels are inspiring researchers to learn from them in improving human and robotic agility. Also, on today's show: not translating information during evacuations can have devastating effects on migrants; we can change the way we see everyday moments to see the lines and shapes to connect everything.
The prison system ruptures families and relationships in a way that makes it harder for offenders to rehabilitate. Newly declassified documents show how the FBI tried to discredit Martin Luther King, Jr. at the time of his death. Food stamps don’t make people healthier. Also, on today’s show: unlocking letterlocking; the remarkable staying power of Lord of the Rings; how crabs can protect endangered reefs. (AP Photo/File)
Climate change poses a greater threat to American security than China, Russia, and Iran. A Chicago mentorship and therapy program is helping young men stay in school and out of trouble. Childcare workers are exiting en masse from their jobs, meaning a big shift for the families that rely on the industry. Also, on today’s show: a psychologist says we're failing to prevent suicide because we misunderstand why suicide happens; how a unique kind of fabric deters mosquitos from biting through it.
We take a closer look at a very big week for the US Supreme Court. Then, a new housing program in California specifically for women who’ve spent years in prison for killing their abuser. Plus, how artificial intelligence has now helped to finish the symphony Beethoven didn’t manage to finish before he died. Also, on today's show: why you should not listen to personal financial advice from people on social media; a helpline for perpetrators of abuse; a nutty nutrition supplement for babies that can prevent malnutrition from doing irreversible harm.
911 dispatchers need to be trained better to respond to calls involving mental illness and substance abuse. Afghan women are fighting Taliban restrictions with social media campaigns. A zombie plague is slowly consuming crops. Also, on today’s show: an imagined illness can be contagious; a new movie helps us address the role of technology in our lives; a scientist discovers a better treatment for Lyme disease.
Why do churchgoing Americans trust their religious leaders’ advice on COVID-19 more than they trust that of politicians and officials? You might want to think twice before killing a spider. And what if we designed cities around the needs of children? Also, on today’s show: a nationwide chicken conspiracy; the massive legacy of Star Trek; how society can do a better job supporting women who suffer a miscarriage.
A paranormal investigator tracks down ghosts using science. An artist set up a free hotline for people to call and just scream. Godzilla is the longest-running film franchise in the world—what’s the giant lizard’s secret? Also, on today’s show: the mission to save a rare palm tree; a popular chef shares her bizarre secret ingredients; how the harp became hip.
Why are TSAs around the country no longer asking to see boarding passes? How to take back some of the control you’ve handed over to big tech companies like Facebook and Apple. How a nonprofit is pushing states to prioritize kinship when placing children in foster care.
Also, on today's show: people who stir up contention and anger online have a certain personality profile; how some media outlets are actively trying to regain your trust.
How you and I helped create the problems with the global supply chain. A major new vaccine has finally been approved for a very old disease – malaria. What took so long? How the US government’s efforts to bolster the housing market after the 2008 crash helped create the current crisis of affordable housing. Also, on today's show: why the youngest employees in a company are at high risk for age-based discrimination; the reason urban legends have a way of becoming our spookiest stories; what Adele’s new hit song and the COVID virus have in common. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)
If kids don’t usually contract severe COVID-19, why do they still need the vaccine? Tiny swimming robots might solve plastic pollution in the ocean. Some social scientists believe we should ditch the labels baby boomer, Gen X, millennial, and Gen Z. Also, on today’s show: a sponge that sops up oil could reduce oil spill damage; technology can make it easier for the elderly to live independently; more exercise might help those with cancer.
How listening to a refugee’s story can change everything for that person – and maybe you as well. One of the four civilians who were part of SpaceX’s historic all-civilian mission talks about how he ended up on the crew. Using virtual reality to treat extreme fear of something - like spiders. Also, on today's show: what the Nobel Prizes get wrong about how science works, and who does the work; how airlines and the public can help with unruly passengers on airlines; why some people care about what celebrities think about masks or the COVID vaccine. (Barbara Davidson/Pool Photo via AP)
Theft of LEGOs is on the rise—that’s right, the little brick toy. A significant herd of Montana bison is now officially back under the care of the Native Americans whose land they’re on. When you put a therapist and a filmmaker in the same room and give them a movie to watch, you get cinema therapy. Also, on today’s show: why a surprising number of people say the best years are their 30s; how it’s possible to solve the murder of an MI-6 agent without access to any secret intelligence; how the opera can remedy some COVID-19 symptoms.
A generation of Americans with autism say that acceptance and support are what they need and not cures. Then, an immigrant who built a multi-million-dollar company out of her basement shares her story. Also, on today's show: a virtual reality theater makes it possible for performers and audiences to connect even when they are far apart; Southern diets get an unfairly bad rap for being unhealthy.
The tug of war between consumption and economic recession. Then, what’s happening to the outdoorsy towns that are being flooded by young people working remotely by day and recreating outdoors after hours? And, a classic game becomes the favorite of a whole new generation. Also, on today’s show: what people who spent 40 days underground learned about the passage of time; the answers to why women haven’t evolved larger pelvic bones so that babies could be born more easily.
Smart, informative, unflinching conversations that go beyond mere headlines and soundbites.
Weekdays at 4pm ET/1pm PT.
First on Top of Mind, what journalism has to do with democracy and peace. Then, how zombie story origins have evolved from black magic to viruses. And, for some people, audiobooks are more than just entertaining; they’re life-changing. Next, how smartwatches could help prevent the next pandemic. Also, why people who are anxious about or tend to avoid relationships often end up more attached to fictional TV characters instead. Finally, the number of kids experiencing serious depression and anxiety has been increasing. We’ll meet a therapist who’s designed a card game to teach coping techniques.
A woman who survived the Bosnian genocide shares her story. Lots of us love bees, but we should love wasps too! Compared to democratically elected leaders, dictators have a certain “look” that’s easy to pick up on. Also, on today’s show: the strange, darkly colored fish that live at the bottom of the sea; the modern benefits of the ancient practice of fish farming; the awkwardness inherent to conversations.
Why Facebook is having, what some are calling, a “Big Tobacco” moment. Then, a 3D printer that prints food and cooks it with lasers as it prints. And, an astronaut shares the lessons she learned while up in space. Also, on today’s show: some potential reasons why over four million Americans quit their jobs in August; animals are evolving rapidly to keep up with the demands of climate change.
Is China on the verge of war with Taiwan? Then, what happens when you let anyone – be that people living on the street or with a serious addiction – create and record music for free. And, a cartoon book that tries to demystify the US healthcare system. Also, on today's show: a social studies course for 9th graders that boosted their school success for the rest of high school; a walking path that traces the “origin story” of the Middle East; why so many species have been declared extinct. (Military News Agency via AP)
What you need to know about the new pill for treating COVID-19. Then, how conservatives seem to be finding their voice in late-night TV and political satire comedy. And, a voice actress pranks scam callers with impressive impersonations. Also, on today's show: Pop It! toys are suddenly popping up everywhere; why product placement is exploding on streaming shows, and whether it works; why men are at higher risk for suicide than are women.
Europe and Asia are facing a critical shortage of natural gas—why isn’t the US? Then, restaurants are so desperate for workers that some are making a radical change in how they pay their workers. And, a Nobel Peace Prize winner talks about how Facebook threatens democracy. Also, on today's show: the little helicopter-seedpods we played with as kids inspired engineers to create a microchip that floats in the same way; climate change and social media are making things worse for cheetahs; the pandemic has got a lot of people falling out of love with their job.
Why are the rich and powerful of the world stashing their money in South Dakota? Then, people who witness sexual harassment don’t often report it. And, celebrating babies born on planes. Also, on today’s show: humans live twice as long as they did just 100 years ago; why the lautenwerck, a once-popular instrument, faded out of use and memory.
The US Supreme Court is tackling some of the most divisive issues in American politics right now. Then, TikTok is speeding up trendy slang words. And, many Americans stand firm in the belief that they have the right to choose their medical treatment—but the Constitution doesn’t guarantee that right. Also, on today’s show: pretty, white, young women who go missing tend to attract more attention from the media; how something mundane ends up unused in the closet for months and months while you wait for just the right moment to use it. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)
How did the US military mistake an Afghan aid worker for a terrorist in a deadly drone strike? Then, meet the chef who helped cook up the world’s most expensive French fries—they’ll set you back $200. And, why Facebook is in such hot water right now with Congress. Also, on today's show: why China might want to build a spaceship that’s half-mile long; mythological stories about the change of seasons; a 96-year old woman German woman faces murder charges in regards to a Nazi concentration camp.
President Biden says America’s mistake in Afghanistan was trying to “nation-build - what does that mean? Then, the pipeline that brings stuff from Asia into US stores is seriously clogged. And, why menopause is so poorly understood and hardly ever discussed openly. Also, on today’s show: large-scale kelp farms could address the carbon problem in the atmosphere; climate change in Alaska transforms native Alaskan communities; why schools are a top target for ransomware hackers. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A woman shares her progression from poverty to the presidency of a major university. Then, why privacy advocates are so worried about Apple’s plan to look for child pornography in the photos on people’s iPhones. And, it’s become more common in America for people to cut off ties with a family member. Also, on today’s show: zoos and art are vital to making people care about wildlife conservation; everyone needs a hug; most people understand certain sounds, even if they speak different languages or whether they can read or write.
Depression and anxiety are increasing among us, and a large percentage of people get no lasting relief from standard treatment, either medication or therapy. What if the answer is in our brains? Psychologist Lisa Miller has come to believe that spirituality is the brain’s natural shield against depression and anxiety, and she’s got the scientific evidence to back that up. Miller is a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University and director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Columbia Teachers College. Her new book is “The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life.”
A woman with autism finds her voice and releases her poetry at the age of 25. Then, a food writer comes up with an entirely new shape of pasta. And, insurance companies have stopped footing the bill for COVID-19 tests and treatments. Also, on today's show: why families develop words or phrases that mean something special to them; donating to thrift stores doesn’t do much good; a bestselling author revisits the agony of 8th grade.
The son of Martin Luther King Jr. discusses voting rights and a community built on respect and dignity. Then, a civil rights group uses New York’s Fashion Week to make a big statement about surviving sexual assault. And, A new book teaches white kids about racism. Also, on today’s show: how potential students taking a nontraditional path to medical school can get help; how paper can cool buildings down from dangerous temperatures.
Why a nuclear submarine deal between Australia, America, and the UK has France upset. Then, some word-of-mouth COVID-19 remedies aren’t just wrong—they’re downright dangerous. And, why El Salvador recognized bitcoin as legal tender. Also, on today’s show: technology might help eliminate drunk driving; one woman fights for vitiligo empowerment; how low turnout in local elections makes it possible for fringe groups to flex more power in city policies. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
How Germany’s long-time leader, Angela Merkel, shaped the European Union. Then, a new understanding of dopamine’s effect on the brain has us rethinking addiction treatment. And, the founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes explains why recognizing silly scientific research is serious business. Also, on today's show: why the fertility industry has relatively little regulation; why girls and women outperform boys and men at all levels of education; a type of co-parenting that helps maintain stability for children while a couple divorces. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
The reason why tens of thousands of migrants from Haiti arrived at the US/Mexico border. Then, a look at the risks and opportunities in Tesla’s plans to create a human-like robot. And, is it good for science that many of the most impressive dinosaur discoveries end up on the auction block? Also on today’s show: how scientists are trying to grow meat from animals cells; dancing can help children cope with trauma; NASA is preparing to launch an enormous new telescope into space and everything has to go just right. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
Today on Top of Mind: First, how a salute used by characters in The Hunger Games novels became a real-life symbol of revolution. Then, police reform negotiations fell apart in Congress this week over the topic of qualified immunity; we’ll find out what that is. And, training plants to detect soil contamination and send word to the lab. Next, the real history of how McDonald’s became so ubiquitous in Black neighborhoods across America. Also, only Congress can declare war. But that’s not how things have worked in America for decades. Finally, a solution to the overflowing outhouses plaguing remote corners of state and national parks. (AP Phioto/Sakchai Lalit)
We get to the bottom of all this news about COVID vaccine booster shots. Then, how a weird internet joke made ‘80s pop legend Rick Astley a legend. And, the CDC is now funding research for gun violence and insists the goal is not to restrict gun access. Also, on today’s show: a new book studies the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II; at-home tests for COVID-19 could help to end the pandemic, but first they need to be cost-effective. (Photo courtesy of KnowYourMeme.com)
What the recent recall election in California tells us about the current political climate in America. Then, the latest developments in treating food allergies. And, the gray wolf may be back on the decline not long after being removed from the endangered species list. Also, on today's show: making the MRI machine mobile; fuzzy puppets may be useful in therapy for children with autism; the story behind the first all-black high school rowing team in the country. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Who are the Taliban officials now leading Afghanistan’s government, and what do their appointments signal for the country’s women? Then, will America’s prisons be able to keep up with their aging population and age-related illnesses? And, how some states are trying to hold companies that make products responsible for dealing with the packaging waste those products create. Also, on today’s show: how approval voting works and why some grassroots activists say it can help with America’s political polarization; movies where Cinderella gets a say in her own life; how tourist sites commemorating tragedy can be adapted for kids’ understanding. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Is it possible for a judge to set aside their political and religious beliefs when they’re ruling on issues like abortion or gun rights? Then, why relaxing isn’t a waste of time. And, “Little Women,” by Louisa May Alcott, gets reimagined. Also, on today's show: some human rights are so fundamental they’re wired into our brains; why infectious disease researchers are releasing more mosquitoes into communities already suffering from Dengue fever; how the pandemic transformed our relationship with celebrities.
Salt is becoming a serious pollution problem. Then, a newly invented bracelet can help women subtly escape dangerous situations. And, the heart really does affect our emotions. Also, on today’s show: scientists help a songbird remember its tune; the little-known story of resisters who survived years of Nazi occupation; a debate over the building of a peace monument in Washington, DC.
Why is abortion the source of the most heated debate in American politics? Then, the trouble with how police handle hate crimes. And, that annoying song stuck in your head might be messing with your sleep. Also, on today’s show: the rise of hyper education in America; the benefits of eating together as a family.
What’s the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket—and why does it matter? Then, how—and why—scientists tickle lab rats. And, talking to strangers could make us happier, smarter, and more interesting. Also, on today's show: why people don’t often report sexual harassment; how your personality affects your ability to wake up early or stay up late; radio dramas are making a comeback.
Tests and treatment for COVID-19 are more expensive now than they were a year ago. Then, lots of people left their jobs in the spring, so what led to "The Great Resignation?" And, A bestselling author has a memoir that makes adults cringe and teens cheer. Also, on today’s show: the right to repair movement is gaining momentum; the pros and cons of ranked-choice voting; how to enjoy the company of your own thoughts.
Why experts on trauma and PTSD had to rethink everything they thought they knew after the terror attacks of 9/11. Then, revisiting the recommendation for how much vitamin C you need to consume. And, the science behind Sesame Street's success. Also, on today's show: the unexpected power of making a simple compliment to someone; the hoodie of the future could be made out of plastic bags. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)
How older workers can get their careers back on track. Then, an effort to understand the mysterious ghost sharks of the sea. And, we mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 by looking back at the wars it sparked. Also, on today's show: reviving casual relationships after the pandemic; the workplace culture problem that's got lots of people quitting their jobs, rather than return to the office. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)
Why 9/11 school lessons have led to teasing and cruelty towards Muslim students. Then, couples planning weddings can’t catch a break from the pandemic. And, the scientific evidence that every human is born with the brain circuitry required for spirituality. Also, on today’s show: the author of the "I Survived" series for young readers didn’t want to write one about 9/11, but kids insisted; why chemotherapy drugs designed to kill cancer cells are sometimes used to treat autoimmune diseases like lupus. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Why the new abortion law in Texas has so far managed to avoid being shut down by the courts. Then, a different way to calculate age that’s a more accurate way to assess a person’s health. And, teamwork is an inevitable part of life, so how can you turn a dysfunctional team into a success? Also, on today's show: why an alpaca is at the center of the bovine tuberculosis crisis in the UK; the trouble with lionfish and how the Roomba inspired a design for a lionfish-catching robot. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
How colleges are coping with the COVID-19 surge. Then, a gloomy climate change report from the UN recently included a glimmer of hope. And, why hip hop music should be incorporated into school learning. Also, on today’s show: eliminating clutter at home and work can improve your mental health; connection is the key if you’re feeling overwhelmed during the pandemic; Canadian dads parent very differently than their counterparts from the US.
Labor Day celebrates a historical American victory against horrible work conditions and long hours—but today, people are back to working long hours. Then, Thanks to the pandemic, some workers are going digital in search of a more “nomadic” lifestyle. And, artificial intelligence and their human teams compete in a music-making competition. Also, on today’s show: why labor unions embrace undocumented workers, even though they used to see them as job threats; tiny computers reveal the secrets of tiny animals; sharks used to swim our oceans in vast numbers, but they’ve disappearing now.
A traveler guides us to the places and people that shaped the American civil rights movement. Then, homework doesn’t need to be plentiful to be effective. And, a closer look at the program in Eugene, Oregon that’s inspired cities all around the country to start sending crisis workers instead of armed police officers for some 9-1-1 calls. Also, on today’s show: how skipping a grade or graduating early might help and hurt students; why wild horses are being injected with birth control; meet a man who went below the thick ice sheets covering Greenland.
Why was there such a chaotic rush to get American civilians out of Afghanistan before the end of August? Then, the reason it’s so easy for otherwise polite people to join an online mob harassing someone they disagree with. And, college tuition is more negotiable than you think. Also, on today’s show: why there isn't a federal law protecting outdoor workers from the heat; mosquito-proof clothing might replace bug spray in the near future.
Why did the levees in New Orleans withstand the water and wind of Hurricane Ida? Then, the problem of superweeds – they’re quickly becoming resistant to the most potent herbicides and could soon be causing massive crop losses in the US each year. And, a guy who started digging ditches has got a message for parents panicked over a child who doesn't want to go to college. Also, on today's show: how researchers genetically engineered mosquitoes to be unable to see humans; the unusual path to stardom for a band that blends slam poetry and whimsy; how chess became a powerful Cold War symbol. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Why did President Biden receive so much bipartisan support for his infrastructure bill? Then, eating fermented foods like kimchi and kombucha may do more for your gut than a high-fiber diet. And, knowing how much your coworker makes might not help you leverage your own pay raise. Also, on today's show: researchers find that white adults perceive black kids as angry even when they’re really not; the complicated process of farming sea scallops and why Maine fishermen are giving it a go; smartphones might not be so hard on our mental health as we’ve heard.
Now that the Pfizer vaccine has been fully approved, will the pandemic finally end? Then, pet goldfish are hijacking entire ecosystems. And, does the latest TikTok trend of reality shifting reall y work? Also, on today’s show: traffic fatalities shot up in the last year, especially for Black Americans; more preschool kids get suspended than K-12 students; scientists just discovered soil that is completely devoid of life. (Photo: City of Burnsville via AP)
Just being nice isn’t always enough - we also need deep kindness. And, a former White House protocol officer lays out rules for being civil when the stakes are high. Plus, an actor with a lower leg amputation explains Hollywood’s double standard for disabled actors. Also, on today's show: Polynesians are genetically linked to South Americans; the bond between mother and son accomplished the deciding vote for the 19th Amendment; new restaurants are reliable precursors to gentrification in neighborhoods.
How processed foods are intentionally engineered to light up our brains in ways that make them addictive. Plus, a hip-hop professor got his rap album peer-reviewed and published in a university press. Also on today’s show: the classic conflict over what’s mine, what’s yours, and what ownership means in America; teaching children how to learn a balance between ownership and sharing.
How are Haitians doing after suffering a massive earthquake? Then, how artificial intelligence could never replace a lawyer but could help to decrease attorneys fees. Plus, a certain restaurant breaks all the unwritten rules about franchises. Also, on today’s show: why national scenic hiking trails should be a priority; one woman unsatisfied with children’s literature started her own publishing company; Hollywood’s forgotten war. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Peanuts creator Charles Schulz intentionally tried to avoid controversial topics in his comic strip, but the biggest debates of the day were all there in Charlie Brown’s America. Then, disparities in healthcare coverage in America are everyone’s problem. And, vegetables don’t actually exist. Also, on today’s show: a certain type of ant has discovered the fountain of youth.
The latest Census makes clear that America’s future is less white and more multiracial. Then, how to make sure the non-verbal cues in your emails and texts are saying what you want to say. And, the attempt to solve a historical mystery about a confrontation between Black soldiers and white military police in Louisiana during World War II. Also, on today’s show: caffeine can’t make up for a lack of sleep; attraction depends on more than looks alone; swimming is an effective “fountain of youth” for the brain.
The magic of fireflies and why they’re disappearing. Then, the secret to using humor at work is to think funny, but not be funny. And, did leeches are still being used for medical treatment. Also, on today’s show: jury selections often exclude women and African Americans; Alaskan beavers are contributing to climate change; Super Bowl champion Malcolm Mitchell is prouder of his reading accomplishments than his football skills.
How will the events in Afghanistan shape President Biden’s political legacy? And, why do most criminal cases—even innocent ones—plead guilty? Then, how black farmers sued the federal government for discrimination for over a billion dollars and won. Also, on today's show: how coworkers can support minorities at the workplace; why scientists are studying squirrels to help robots and humans become more agile.
How did the Taliban take over Afghanistan so quickly even the Taliban was surprised? Then, music marks the anniversary of the 19th Amendment. And, a woman with autism finally gets to share her story with the world. Also on today's show: alcoholism is soaring, and most addicts aren’t getting treatment; US workers believe their companies don’t show enough empathy for them; teachers can motivate students by telling personal stories. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
While the public obsesses over mask mandates in schools, teachers are worried about how they’re going to catch students up from the lost pandemic year. Plus, why the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan is probably very bad news for women. And, the watermaster of the most prestigious water tasting competition in the world will tell us where to find the best tasting tap water in America. Also, on today’s show: the risky trade-off we make when you give Apple or Amazon your fingerprint or facial profile; the pandemic has seen us all becoming a little more socially awkward; the police should change up their approach when dealing with teenagers. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)
Why CEOs made even more money in America last year – during a global pandemic. Then, how does the US care for the thousands of migrant children arriving at the southern border without a parent or legal guardian? And, how the government of Ecuador reduced its murder rate by legalizing the country’s most notorious gangs. Also, on today’s show: an international effort to stop zoonotic spillover; why robots need a dancer’s eye and choreography; giant, smoky thunderclouds are now forming more often over massive wildfires. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
The US Forest Service’s fire-fighting efforts have had the long-term effect of making wildfires bigger and harder to put out. The founder of Brooklyn Boy Knits teaches that it’s cool for men to knit. Humans are pushing the evolution of living species into overdrive. Also on today’s show: how toxic chemicals lower kids’ IQs and why nurses in the US are at especially high risk for suicide. (U.S. Forest Service via AP,File)
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How extreme heat can affect the economy. And, the problem of burnout among doctors, especially female physicians. Plus, neurons in our brain give us that "hangry" feeling. Also, on today’s show: why Walmart is offering free college tuition to its employees; deaf people in poorer countries can’t access up-to-date cochlear implants; taking a closer look at the “school-to-prison pipeline.”
The historical significance of MacKenzie Scott’s big donations to black colleges and universities. Then, professional investors are very good at knowing when to buy stocks but not so good at knowing when to sell. Plus, a look at the emerging industry of upcycled food. Also, on today’s show: domestic violence incidents increased in severity during the pandemic; why it took public health experts some time to recognize that COVID-19 travelled through the air; what you need to know about cybersickness. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Republicans and Democrats alike agree that China poses a serious threat to our national security. Then, a deadly spider could actually save heart attack victims’ lives. And, communities are packing their bags and relocating as climate change turns them into disaster zones. Also, on today’s show: an acclaimed author provides a snapshot into the lives of Black boys in the 1940s; a paramedic explains why opioid overdose deaths were at an all-time high in the US last year; why minimum-wage workers are required to sign noncompete agreements. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
The effort to preserve the Cherokee language with conversation clubs on college campuses. Then, praising children can have a dark side. Plus, what wording you use can foretell if you’re going to break up with your partner—months before you actually decide to. Also, on today’s show: rent control laws backfire on renters; genetic cloning could save species from extinction; a better way to help college students get treatment for eating disorders.
After the condo collapse in Surfside, FL, should volunteer boards of condo owners really be responsible for ensuring the structural safety of buildings they live in? Then, many people with autism don't want to get rid of the disorder but to change the world to make it a more inclusive place. And, why Southern food’s reputation of being bad for your heart isn’t really fair. Also, on today’s show: a virtual reality game lets middle schoolers practice saying “no” to vaping; why the pandemic also created a scamdemic. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
If the COVID-19 vaccine is so effective, why are people who’ve had the shots being told to wear masks in public again? Then, artificial voices are becoming so natural-sounding they’re prompting all kinds of ethical questions. Plus, whistling as you’ve never heard it before. Also, on today's show: how chemists are designing an opioid that works for pain, but without the addictive side effects; how one worker bee in the 1990s managed to clone herself into an army that’s still taking over – and collapsing – healthy bee colonies in South Africa today; compelling Olympics stories date back to the ancient origins of the games. (Matt O’Brien/AP Photo)
Now that American troops are leaving Iraq and Afghanistan, should the detention center at Guantanamo Bay close? Then, The mental health of athletes is a hot topic after Simone Biles withdrew from the majority of the gymnastics events at the Tokyo Olympics. Plus, girls and boys actually internalize healthy ideas from Moana, Elsa, and other Disney Princesses. Also, on today's show: how caffeine helps bumblebees focus on a very particular job; lead pollution could have poisoned some people's personalities; the new trend of female pop stars baring their bodies and their souls. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
What the January 6th attack on the US Capitol was like for the police officers who were there that day. Then, laughing gas doesn’t usually make people laugh. It’s a sedative. But surprisingly, it does have the ability to make depressed people happier.
Is it better to read from a screen or the page? Then, not all people like a drug that can treat dwarfism in children. And, the true history of a World War II-era fashion model, spy, and countess. Also, on today’s show: a chef embraces his Jewish heritage through traditional food; a scientist tries to gauge the effects of wildfire smoke on air quality.
President Biden's big plans for increasing competition in the US economy. Then, a historian's report from inside the Olympic bubble in Tokyo. And, what’s happening to the outdoorsy towns that are being flooded by young people working remotely by day and recreating outdoors after hours? Also, on today's show: a look back at the Apollo 15 mission that accomplished a lot of firsts; the tug of war between consumption and economic recession. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Tunisia’s democracy is in crisis. Then, spelling bees provide a fascinating insight into Generation Z. Plus, musicians aren’t worried about artificially intelligent computers replacing them. Also, on today's show: why photojournalists should document the horrors of war; computers small enough to ride on a snail’s shell; how an ecologist gathered and sorted tiny fossils of shark scales to gauge the health of shark populations thousands of years ago.
What becomes of the Afghan civilians who worked alongside American troops during the 20-year war there? Then, the Great Salt Lake in Utah is drying up - what happens if it disappears? Plus, the strange phenomenon of micronations and why most countries don’t take them too seriously. Also, on today’s show: how an artist helped a small town rediscover itself; middle-aged Americans have worse mental and physical health than previous generations; the possibility of recharging a smartwatch using your skin.
Britney Spears has everyone talking about conservatorships, so we'll explain how they work. Then, how can the US prevent domestic terrorism without trampling on the Free Speech and Gun rights of American citizens? And, does having more Airbnb rentals in a neighborhood lead to more crime? Also, on today’s show: why we could see an increase in deaths due to high heat and humidity; Disney’s most interesting characters aren’t always nice; how bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan could be leading to an increase in female migration. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Green LED light can assuage the pain for people with chronic migraines. Then, a rapping molecular biologist works to make science not just more diverse but also more effective. And, telehealth is becoming the go-to for many doctors and their patients. Also, on today’s show: lithium batteries have a painful cost for us and our environment; fences shape ecosystems; the Yellowstone supervolcano might not erupt as soon as we once thought.
Why are billionaires and private companies so invested in the idea of commercial space flight? Then, the high-tech way conservators at the National Gallery of Art are peeling back the layers of paint on famous masterpieces. And, a military historian says America’s failures in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it clear that our military cannot solve the world’s problems. Also, on today's show: artificial skin that can feel pain; how the lack of spectators at the Olympic Games could affect the competition.
Vice President Kamala Harris takes the lead on two controversial political topics, so what will that mean for her political ambitions? Then, doulas are common companions during childbirth, and now they’re becoming more common for the dying, too. And, who's responsibility is it to clean up space junk in Earth's orbit? Also on today’s show: the story of human's obsession with aliens; eating disorders can modify brain circuits; why universities often come up short in making space for students with disabilities in science and technology programs. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
How will the pandemic end—and how will we know it? Plus, it turns out the Earth has a pulse, just like a beating heart. And, why African American pitmasters have been pushed to the margins of the food world’s barbecue obsession. Also, on today's show: how the TV show "Friends" helps students learn English; scientists have learned how to rebuild an immune system; the safety of releasing radioactive water into the ocean.
What led to the historic protests in Cuba? Then, another "Shark Week" just wrapped up on the Discovery Channel, but the publicity sharks receive may not be helping the fish. And, why Instagram's big feature change may not help the people who need it most. Also, on today's show: A former gymnastics world champion makes a comeback; how much schools could surveil students; there’s some promising new research in search of treatment for type 2 diabetes.
Turning the universe into sound can help researchers discover new things about outer space. Then, is it fair for prisoners to receive pell grants. And, how a moth's antenna can help detect chemicals. Also, on today's show: how one teen sparked a new line of Nike shoes for people with disabilities; the world’s first racing series for flying electric cars is rapidly coming our way; you could have dust from an asteroid on your clothes right now.
Why are so many states revising their voting laws right now? Then, a campaign to raise awareness of the high suicide risk among veterinarians. And, there really isn't such a thing as a vegetable, at least that's what botanists would say. Also, on today’s show: removing wisdom teeth out might improve your sense of taste; disparities in healthcare coverage in America are everyone’s problem.
How the United States helped lay the groundwork for Haiti’s current political and economic crisis. Then, a fake hand could help treat people with OCD. And, what exactly is Shariah law? Also on today’s show: the Vietnamese ambassador to the US reflects on the Vietnam War and its similarities to the current conflict in Afghanistan; the secret to Mississippi schools improving their reading scores; why poorer neighborhoods have fewer trees than wealthier neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)
Why are gas prices are so high this summer? Then, court rulings and public opinion are pushing the NCAA to allow more compensation for college athletes. And, will political polarization lead to the creation of a new 3rd political party? Also on today’s show: stress is linked with gray hair and could be reversible; the so-called Doomsday Glacier may not be so scary after all; the bacteria of a baby’s belly shapes the baby’s reaction to scary situations. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
What’s driving a surge in violent crime across the country, and how do Americans want it to be solved? Then, nearly every older adult in America has been prescribed a medication that increases the risk of falling, and most don’t realize it. Plus, an expert epidemiologist discusses how to prevent a pandemic before it can start. Also on today’s show: a simple device guaranteed to cure your hiccups; how living near a superfund site can shorten your lifespan; Major League Baseball is finally cracking down on cheating pitchers. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Most of us have an inner voice yammering away—so how can we harness it? Plus, what was it like to get letters from Mr. Rogers? And, how a 2014 hashtag paved the way for Nigeria’s modern kidnapping crisis. Also, on today's show: an expert explains Bitcoin, and a school starts a club for kids with family members in prison. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
What you need to know about the Delta variant of COVID-19. Plus, the story of American slavery, reclaimed from the distortions of time and bias. Then, Congress is putting unemployed writers to work documenting life during the pandemic—an initiative very similar to a program during the Great Depression. Also on today’s show: new beetles with unusual names; why an increase in fish and chicken consumption is not leading to a decrease in eating beef. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
What does Iran’s new leader mean for relations with America—and a new nuclear deal? Then, a trained chef relearns how to cook after losing her eyesight. And, why one scholar of Jewish history says antisemitism is an American tradition. Additionally, on today's show: building a city that is both functional and sustainable can be complex; older people might want to start playing video games to improve memory; genetic engineering makes chickpeas more drought-tolerant.
What is the state of American healthcare after the US Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act? Then, plants turn out to be a great source of electricity. And, 3% of people can’t conjure a picture in their "mind's eye." Also, on today's show: how indigenous ways of managing water could help dry places cope with an even drier future; a campaign to list the position of "mother" on resumes; the size of one’s pupil correlates with one’s intelligence.
Why do we drape ourselves and our homes in red, white, and blue for Independence Day? Then, US Senator Tammy Duckworth has a new memoir out about her life and military service. Also, how Americans have used the Constitution to justify their own vision of what America stands for. Additionally, on today's show: the truth about legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone; a psychologist shares that when you are helping you are truly happy.
How being fathers affected the way America’s founding fathers decided what kind of government to form. Also, what it’s like to jump from a plane into a remote forest that’s on fire. Then, a YouTuber explains how his cooking show managed to take off in the middle of a global pandemic. Additionally, on today's show: specializing in one skill might be counterintuitive to excelling in that skill; why being an American citizen was a right reserved for only a select few when the nation was founded; a woman makes a living cleaning her own house and posting videos of it on YouTube.
We examine the conflict in Ethiopia and look at the state of democracy in countries across Africa. Then, America’s getting a second Statue of Liberty just in time for Independence Day. Also, service dogs are not allowed in laboratories that do experiments on live animals, which is a barrier to getting more people with disabilities into scientific fields. Additionally, on today's show: a conflict resolution expert offers tips to help Americans during this polarizing time; a mother-daughter duo tackles “period poverty” in a very creative way. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
An expert delivers some good news for people who hate robocalls. Then, the Biden Administration is trying to make some guns less “ghostly.” Also, it’s still legal in a lot of states for a schoolteacher to spank or slap a misbehaving child. Additionally, on today’s show: natural disaster season is coming, and it’s best to be prepared; tweens who have friends of higher social and income status end up doing better in schools; a new book has come out on bad days in history; it makes one happier and healthier to stay optimistic through tragedy. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)
Revelations about Trump administration policies are raising new questions about politics in the Department of Justice. Also, a type of wildfire that's hard to detect and even harder to put out. And, a new drug for Alzheimer’s is sparking controversy. Additionally, on today's show: what America could look like if it were to shift away from nursing homes for certain older people; the military’s changing its approach to acts of sexual assaults; and researchers dropped several thousand dollars, no strings attached, on homeless people to get them back on their feet.
The pandemic’s got a third of Americans house-hunting right now, but many hunters may never be able to own a home. Then, why is there such a cultural obsession around sneakers right now? And, school nurses are vital to community health but are being overburdened. Also on today's show: why men who’ve experienced traumatic events in their childhood are often worse fathers, teens find it hard to differentiate fact and fiction on the Internet, and a new type of drug needle is tiny and totally painless.
The high price of the fast fashion industry–for the planet, economies, and human rights. Also, sand is used in all sorts of ways–like in our buildings and technology–but the world is running out of it. Then, why so many American kids learn to play those plastic recorders in elementary school. Also today: the graduate student whose crossword puzzle got in the New York Times, how the portrayal of smoking on TV affects teens, and how cannabis affects people with ADHD.
A quarter of Americans who had COVID-19 are developing new health problems. Then, what makes cognitive decline so difficult to treat? And, pressure prevents us from really being creative, but there are a few tried-and-true methods for overcoming “creative anxiety.” Also on today's show: a simple screening that could stop seizures in sickle cell patients, but many don’t know it exists, and Native Americans are experiencing health problems driven by the unhealthy food delivered to them by the US government. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Young conservative Americans are taking a stand for the climate. Then, Blaseball is a hit with online gamers. And, a wildlife expert shares tips to keep you safe from hungry bears. Also on today's show: a journalist elaborates on the fraud that originally linked autism with vaccines, and a librarian teaches how we can help kids with autism learn how to read.
Why did the Supreme Court opt for such a narrow ruling of its big religious freedom case this term? Then, how engineers turned a tube of plastic fabric filled with air into a powerful robot. Plus, what sea snot is, and is not. Also, on today’s show the unintended consequences of widespread pesticide use in agriculture, how to encourage more people to get the COVID-19 vaccine, if cities would be better off banning left turns, and how stereotypes about aging can cause people to decline more quickly as they age. (AP Photo/Kemal Aslan)
We take a look at the immigration situation in the UK post-Brexit. Then, is the world ready for the next disease pandemic in plants? And, many Americans are rewriting the book on burials due to a lack of space at cemeteries. Additionally, on today's show: why your pillow might be causing you back and neck trouble, the link between aggression and narcissism, and family-friendly films to bolster your confidence to break out that swimsuit and enjoy yourself this summer.
A father shares his perspective of the all-too-common loss of a child due to premature birth. Then, Juneteenth has now been declared a national holiday, but what is it? And, a dad taught himself to sew, and now he and his daughter are taking Instagram by storm. Additionally, on today's show: researchers share what they learned about teens and social media after a years-long study, and genetic science could be the key to bringing back the American chestnut tree. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
Why did some of Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest allies join forces with opponents to remove him from the office of Israeli prime minister? Then, a poet writes out her appreciation for the music of Beethoven. Plus, The Mo Salah effect has Liverpool soccer fans chanting about converting to Islam. Additionally, on today's show: a math professor breaks down the geometry of everything around us, and a researcher reveals the dangers of not translating emergency warnings into other languages. (Paul Ellis/Pool via AP)
How did the meeting between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin stack up to other Presidential summits? Plus, the science behind bowling balls and finding the right one at your bowling alley. Then, the rise and fall of e-cigarette maker JUUL. Also, on today's show: chemists figuring out how to detect mislabeled meat, why so many inmates in the US have intellectual and developmental disabilities, and storyteller Sam Payne shares his favorite stories from pop culture dads. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer, File)
What can be done to prevent international ransomware attacks after hackers took down a major oil pipeline and one of the world’s largest meat producers? Plus, a podcaster goes on a three-year quest to create the perfect pasta. And, an expert in child development says Facebook isn’t the company to make a kid’s social media app. Also, on today's show: an artificially intelligent app that can help people when they feel down, a Black author’s bestselling book was inspired by a strange encounter she had with another Black woman in a restroom, and a professor of landscape architecture discusses alternatives to yards full of green grass.
What makes America’s stars and stripes so special? Plus, sewer water is key to solving the shortage of drinking water in El Paso, Texas. Then, after people get one of those DNA ancestry tests, they’re more likely to call themselves “multiracial," and that worries researchers who study race and discrimination. Additionally, on today's show: domestic abuse starts with little acts of isolation called “coercive control,” dogs help scientists understand the secret lives of box turtles, and indigenous practices can improve Native American health.
Sackler/Purdue, Disappearing Highways, Pandemic Housing Boom, Charlie Brown’s America, Ant Parasite,
UFOs, Nitrous Oxide, We Need Darkness, Stereo Smell, Chronic Pain, Mental Health for Athletes,
Athletes and Press, Familylect, Troubled Teens, What to Save, Havana Syndrome, HIV/AIDS Vaccine
Vaccine Privacy, Sorting Plastic, Chronic Pain, Negative News, Bioelectronic Medicine, Lunar Ark
Antisemitism, Cases Overturned for Racial Bias, Underpaid Teachers, Immigrant Entrepreneur, Future Stages
COVID-19 Origins, Pesticide Pollution, Immunity and Sodium, WWII Storytelling, 30 by 30, Palm Oil
Supreme Court, Love the Wasp, No-Excuse Charters, Deep Time Experiment, Evolution in Childbirth, Oregon Trail
Memorial Stories, Veterans of the War on Terror, Peace Memorial, Child Health, The 5 STA-Z
Hip-Hop Ambassador, Spiritual Health, Deep Sea Aquarium, Bear Spray, Crazy Ants, Reverse Boomerang
Critical Race Theory, Parental Leave, Deepfake Geography, Star Wars, Brain Sex Differences, The Psychology of Color
Impact of Floyd's Murder, Youth Climate Activist, Labor Predictions, IBS Therapy, Canal Solar Panels, Pandemic Dreams
Belarus and Press Freedom, Education Loss, Octopuses Dreaming, Holocaust Survivor, Educational Apps, Cicada Invasion,
Housing and Urban Heat, Alcohol Cancer, Boy Bands, Civility Rules, Disabled Casting, Food and Gentrification
Drought and Fire, Socially Awkward, Chlorine Shortage, Iron Empires, Cuttlefish in 3D Glasses
Israel/Palestine Conflict, Humanized Pigs, Family Meals and Mental Health, 142-Year-Old Experiment, Unnecessary MRIs, Herd Immunity
Border Update, Established Adulthood, Aphasia Games, Minglephobia, WPA Mural, Living Underwater
Deep Kindness, Native Americans and Polynesians, Harry Burn, Beyond Broadway, Chessboxing
Pipeline Cyberattack, Yarn Bombing, Thrift Reselling, Women in UFC, The Kraken, Financial Decisions During Crisis
Infrastructure, Austen and Race, Today’s Entrepreneurs, Heartfelt Science, Swimming, Parent Previews
Fact-Checking Presidents, Nutrition Security, Dictator Faces, Women of Pan-Am, Lead in Pipes
Biden's Domestic Agenda, Secret Ingredient, Childhood Adversity, Mom Stories, Post-COVID Bodies, Autism at Work
Census Apportionment, Why Zoom Fatigue, Super Soldier Ethics, Chimera Embryos, Vertical Farming, Voice Profiling Problems
India’s Pandemic, Internet Access, Stories Behind the Stars, COVID Microbes, Rare Palm, Pandemic Loneliness
American Faith and COVID, Hiring, Braille Bricks, Green Lights for Migraines, Black in Science, Lithium Mining
Climate Policy, RBG Songs, Property Taxes, Locust Tech, Regent Honeyeater, Food Waste Jet Fuel
Russia, Spiderweb Music, Theatre for One, Superbugs, Name Pronunciation, Girls on the Autism Spectrum
Afghanistan; Tactile Textiles; Ghost Forests; Senator Tammy Duckworth; Lautenwerck; Tree Methane
How to Breathe; Overdue Credit; Pregnancy & Pain Meds; Fence Effects; Telehealth; Yellowstone Hotspot
Searching for Health; Kelp vs. Urchins; Suburban Retrofitting; The Agitators, Leader Longevity
Police Misconduct; Nurse Depression; Regenerative Farming; Earth Stories; Anthropogenic Salt; Women in White Coats
Chip Shortage; Video Game Diplomacy; Press Criticism; Stress Before Birth; Gender Diversity in Workplaces; Whales
Vaccine Safety; DNAir; Casual Friendships; Watercress; Parent Previews; Colleges Cutting Sports
Corporate Taxes; Offshore Wind; Emergency Child Mental Health; Rural Hospitals; Libraries
Opioid Epidemic; Union Avoidance Firms; Grasshoppers in Vegas; Pharma Consolidation; Beverly Clearly; Lego Theft
Global Vaccine Inequality; COVID Stress Syndrome; Equitable Cancer Treatment; Cloud Seeding; Endangered Rivers Report; Pilgrimage Tradition
Vaccine Dos and Don'ts; Silk Leather; Near-Death Experiences; College Admissions; Fossil Fuel Pollution; Pollen & COVID-19
Children Under Fire; Backyard Wildlife; Decolonizing Paleontology; Origin Stories; Godzilla; Bayeux Tapestry
American Guns; Lightning & Phosphorus; Carbon Fishing Trawling; Dominican Baseball; Narwhal Tusk
Vaccine Passports; Black Farmers; Women's Sports Coverage; Memory Ed; TV Values Research; Mind Wandering
Kid of the Year; Researchers with Autism; Gee's Bend; Cosmic Queries; Koji; Homemade Roller Coaster
Brazil Pandemic; Whale Culture; Rapid Apple Decline; Jew-ish Food; Yiddish Stories; Disabilities & Poverty
Negative News; Bioelectronic Medicine; Lunar Ark; Police Data Scraping; COVID-19 & Reparations; ChopValue
Prosecuting Hate Crimes; Gas Prices; Tragic Optimism; Suez Canal; Airplane Baby; History Textbooks
Perception of Time; Spinosaurus; First Millennial Saint; Bee Extinction; Seed Vault; Spirituals
Kidnappings in Nigeria; Flare Bracelet; Prosecuting Ex-Presidents; First Responders; Teaching Trust
Afghanistan Peace; Healthcare & Climate Change; Crumple Theory; Hooked; Peer Review Rap Album
Biden's First 60 Days; Menstrual Hub; First Ladies Gallery; Best Album Notes; Open Source Journalism; New ID Algorithm
Migrant Surge; Women in Economics; COVID Opera; Immigration FEMA; A Most Beautiful Thing; Nowruz
eBook Fight; Future Midwestern Crops; Uncoordinated Conversations; Stories Help Us Grieve; Arctic Refuge; Halfway Home
Myanmar; Documentaries to Watch; NFTs; Space Hotel; LBGTQ+ Seniors; New Civic Education
Child Welfare; Meghan & Harry; Wood Banks; New National Parks; Violence Against Asian Americans; Breakup Science
Russia; Landslides; Pandemic Deforestation; Muslim Stories; Evolution & Depression; Go FlyEaze
Voting Rights Act; Miscarriages; MLK/FBI; Recovering America's Wildlife Act; Afrofuturism; Three-Fingered Salute
Housing Scams; Lucid Dreaming; Sinking Cities; Bendable Concrete; Ocean Noise; Memory Proteins
Saudi Arabia & Syria; Ocean Noise Pollution; Cattle Face Recognition; Women of Pan Am; Lead in Pipes
Infrastructure Report Card; Cosmic Queries; Spoons Across America; The Apple Seed; Reopening Stories; Adoption in America
Bankruptcy; Arsenic in Baby Food; Healthcare & Prison Return; STAR Denver; African Lookbook; Stereotype Threat
Women Cartel Leaders; Natural Antifreeze; Women in Blue; Cosmic Dust; Channel Islands Occupation; Repurposing Oil Rigs
Fast Fashion; Puzzle Purveyor; TV, Teens, & Tobacco; Sand Shortage; Recorder Lessons; AHDH & Cannabis
Indian Farmers Protest; Founding Fathers' Families; Unpaid Internships; 4-Day Work Week; Mars Rover; Cloned Ferret
Future of Republican Party; Pandemic Inequality; Teen Social Media Use; Facebook & Fake News; Human Testing; ADHD Testing
Biden Immigration; Made-Up Money; Food Timeline; Peace Memorials; Congress Foreign Policy; Rosa Parks
Mars Helicopter; Reading Scrolls; Prop Master; Harriet Tubman; Global Worming; Library Fines
Pandemic Update; Homeless to Professor; Immigrant Stories; Apple Seed; McDonald's and Black America; Exercised
Bassem Youssef; Music of Spheres; Youth Poet Laureate; End of Life; Online Sobriety; Losing the Sharks
Black Opera; Meritocracy Trap; Wikipedia; The Real Book Spy; Disabled Mountain Bike; Chemistry Bottleneck
Terrorist Designation; Parent Previews; Tech 2021; First Lady of Baseball; Worlds Awaiting
Flint Charges; Ice Bacteria; Bison; Class Humor; Plant Nanobionics; Clearview AI Update
Myanmar; Dyslexia & Emotion; Food Allergies; Smell & Memory; Black Stories in Print; Wild Horses & Habitats
Filibuster; Money to Homeless; TikTok Child Stars; Apple Seed; Women with Migraines; Waste
American Faith & COVID; Medical Tourism; Internet Carbon Footprint; Singing Tool for Blind; Tribes on the Edge; Ratatouille Tik Tok Musical
Domestic Terrorism; Aquatic Robot; Lithium Mining; COVID PTSD; Civil Right Trail; Parent Previews
Opposition to Authoritarians; Crazy Ants; Researchers with Autism; Compassion; Educating for Democracy; Mars Rover
Shell Company Ban; Health Care Costs; Color Me PhD; Advancing Women Artists; Pink Lights; Family & Body Image
Keystone XL Pipeline; ChopValue; Doctors on Social Media; Fake Pictures; Apple Seed; Coming Back
COVID-19 Vaccine & Race; Melting Moulins; Wild Horse Fertility; Helpful Resolutions; Artificial Skin; Electronic Waste
Hacking the US; Public Health Poetry; Alternate Reality Games; Privilege & Punishment; Talking About Insurrection
Hong Kong; Reef Goats; Making Authentic Friendships; New Dietary Guidelines; For the Win; Archaeological Gardening
COVID-19 Update; English Learners & Disabilities; Pandemic Language; Hearing Aid Deregulation; SCOTUS Sketches; Disaster Prep
Skijoring: Horse-drawn adrenaline (00:34)
The international skijor season is underway, and you can see skiers race over jumps, collect rings and whip around gates all while being pulled by a horse–or, as the Norwegian tradition that has gained traction lately requires, a reindeer. Loren Zhimanskova is the founder of Skijor USA and Skijor International. (Originally aired Feb 26, 2020).
Iconic Penguins in Antarctica Declining More Than Previously Thought (12:42)
The cute penguins that look like they’re wearing tuxedos and bowties are a species called “chinstrap.” They were once considered the most numerous in Antarctica, but the most recent headcount suggests otherwise. Stony Brook University of New York ecology professor Heather Lynch organized the penguin-counting expedition. (Originally aired Feb 25, 2020).
Musicians Miss Playing Together... Can They Make Music Virtually? (31:12)
Trying to sing or play music together over Facetime or Zoom is really difficult. But Jazz pianist and composer Dan Tepfer and percussionist Clarence Penn have done just that when performing live during quarantine. Dan Tepfer shares how they were able to play in sync. (Originally aired Jul 22, 2020).
The Divers Who Watch Over the Underwater Resources at National Parks (52:19)
The National Park Service has a team dedicated to caring for resources that are underwater–kelp forests, coral reefs, sunken ships like the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor. That team is led by underwater archeologist Dave Conlin. (Originally aired Jun 2, 2020).
Fine Art is Still Very Much a Man’s World, Even As Museums Claim Otherwise (1:12:12)
The art industry remains a man's world, even with US museums and galleries making a big show of trying to close the gap in recent decades. Why? Julia Halperin is Executive Editor at ArtNet News. (Originally aired Jan 7, 2020).
Some People Consistently Buy Products That Fail (1:28:05)
Have you ever found a treat that you love, but when you try to find it in the store again, you were told it was discontinued because of how unpopular it was? Marketing researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management have a name for people who consistently pick losing products–“harbingers of failure”–and Duncan Simester is one of those researchers. (Originally aired Mar 4, 2020).
Skijoring; Penguin Population; Music from a Distance; Underwater Parks; Women's Art; Harbingers of Failure
Democrats Capture Senate Majority and Congress Affirms Biden’s Win, Despite Trump-Backed Riots (0:30)
When the dust settles on this very unusual–and frankly unsettling–period of presidential transition, the Democrats will control the White House, House of Representatives, and US Senate. James Curry talks about the future of Congress and blames the President for Wednesday's violent protests. Curry is a political science professor at the University of Utah and a former Congressional staffer.
Looking in Mud For Answers About What The World Used To Look Like (24:05)
Lots of important foods grow out of midwestern fields, but climate change is making for an uncertain future there. How can we really know what’s in store? Northeastern Environmental sciences professor Samuel Muñoz is finding answers in the Midwest’s mud.
How Discarded Christmas Trees Can Help Restore Eroding Beaches (40:02)
In some coastal communities, discarded Christmas trees can take on a second life. Juliana Barrett says they can act as skeletons for new sand dunes, which can help communities vulnerable to flooding. Barrett is a Coastal Habitat Specialist and ecologist with the Connecticut Sea Grant Program.
Why We Fall For Medical Myths (52:19)
Misinformation and even outright conspiracy theories about COVID-19 are rampant and really difficult to dispel. Seema Yasmin used to track the spread of disease, but now she tracks the spread of misinformation about diseases. She’s a physician and director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative with a new book called “Viral B.S.”
Non-alcoholic Hand Sanitizer is Effective Against SARS-CoV-2 (1:30:51)
We’re all using alcohol-based sanitizers because that’s what the CDC recommends for the pandemic. But a study just published in the “Journal of Hospital Infection” found the non-alcohol hand sanitizers work just as well against the COVID virus Brad Berges also says they’re a lot easier on the skin. Berges led the study and is a professor of microbiology and molecular biology at Brigham Young University.
Congress 2021; Mud Molecules; Christmas Trees & the Coast; Medical Myths; Hand Sanitizer
Employers Requiring Vaccines; Male Friendships; Prison Pell Grant; Apple Seed; Proxy Weddings; Historic Evil
Can Employers Require Workers to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine? (0:31)
When the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more widely available, will employers be able to demand their workers get one? Let’s ask employment law expert Jonathan Segal, a partner at the law firm Duane Morris.
How the Pandemic is Affecting Relationships—Especially Male Friendships (17:23)
The pandemic has strained friendships, but men, in particular, report finding their friendships adrift, more so even than women. Why would that be? Geoffrey Greif wrote a book on male friendships called, “Buddy System.” Greif is a professor of social work at the University of Maryland.
Behind Bars But No Longer Behind in School (35:16)
For the first time in 25 years, prison inmates can receive government Pell Grant to cover the cost of taking college courses behind bars. Is that a good use of taxpayer dollars? Andrea Cantora is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Baltimore, and she directs the university’s college program at maximum security prison in Maryland.
How Will You Remember 2020? (52:21)
A conversation with Sam Payne, the host of BYUradio's the Apple Seed.
Why More People Are Opting to Get Married by Proxy (1:03:13)
Double proxy weddings–where the couple aren't in the same place–are only legal in Montana, but the pandemic has made these kinds of marriages vital for some couples. April and Chris Coen are stand-ins for these proxy marriages through a company they co-own called A Big Sky Event.
Slavery, Apartheid, Nazism: A Look at How Nations Deal with Past Sins (1:17:12)
How does a nation deal with evil in its past - evil that the country endorsed at its highest levels? Legal scholar Justin Collings says that post-slavery United States can learn from the examples of post-Nazi Germany and post-apartheid South Africa. Collings is a professor at Brigham Young University’s law school and author of the new book, “Scales of Memory: Constitutional Justice and Historical Evil.”
Brexit; Doctor Trust; Pandemic Journaling Project; Ghost Sharks; Smellicopter; Parent Previews
The Brexit Divorce is Finally Final (0:31)
The Brexit negotiations between Britain and the European Union didn’t seem to go anywhere until the last minute, but a deal was struck and the UK is finally on its own. Simon Usherwood felt the process could have gone better. Usherwood is a professor of politics at the University of Surrey.
Few Americans Have a Regular Doctor They Can Trust. That’s Bad News for the Pandemic. (17:34)
A trusted family doctor might help convince the nearly quarter of reluctant Americans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. But fewer Americans have that kind of family doctor these days. Healthcare systems expert Timothy Hoff has written about the decline in trust between patients and primary care doctors, and he’s a professor of management and health policy at Northeastern University.
Preserving All Perspectives Through the Pandemic Journaling Project (35:41)
To try to preserve what it's like living through a pandemic, some of us have turned to journaling. University of Connecticut anthropology professor Sarah Willen started The Pandemic Journaling Project to help people do just that: record their experiences and make sure all perspectives get preserved.
Mysterious Ghost Sharks May Disappear Before We Can Study Them (52:20)
Scientists think some species of the mysterious "ghost shark" may be at risk of extinction, but they don’t know for sure because they don’t know much about ghost sharks in general. We find out more about this mysterious shark from David Ebert who is one of the world’s leading experts on these fish. He’s the Director of the Pacific Shark Research Center in Monterey, California.
Smellicopter: A Drone that Uses a Real Moth Antenna to Smell (1:04:56)
Researchers at the University of Washington are developing a drone that will harness real moth antennas to sniff out chemicals. Melanie Anderson is one of the doctoral students currently working on the device they call the “Smellicopter.”
Best and Worst Family Movies of 2020 (1:21:44)
The pandemic pressed pause on many of the big movies that would have come out in 2020. But Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com thinks a few that were released were real gems for family viewing–and there were also duds.
President’s Pardon Power is Extensive (0:31)
President Trump has given pardons to many of his political allies. But what about pre-emptive pardons for himself and others? We get the answer from David Schultz who is a professor of political science and law at Hamline University.
The Lab That Raises Fruit Flies for Science (16:32)
The Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center is responsible for cultivating fruit flies with specific gene variations that scientists the world over will use for their research. But Cale Whitworth says farming flies is not that easy. Whitworth is a Research Scientist at the Stock Center at Indiana University.
Mandatory Rehab and Biden’s “Kinder, Gentler” War on Drugs (37:41)
It may sound compassionate to send people with an addiction to drugs to treatment rather than jail. But Leo Beletsky says it's not a helpful approach to dealing with drug problems in America. Beletsky is a Professor of Law and Health Sciences and Director of the Health in Justice Action Lab at Northeastern University.
Love Movies? Need Therapy? Cinema Therapy on YouTube is for You (52:21)
In 2020, there were documented increases in both movie watching and therapy–which perhaps explains why a free YouTube channel called Cinema Therapy took off this year. Licensed family therapist Jonathan Decker and his filmmaker friend Alan Seawright work together to produce the YouTube hit.
TIME’s First-Ever Kid of the Year (1:11:21)
TIME Magazine has named a person of the year for nearly a century, but in 2020, we also got the first-ever Time Kid of the Year. Gitanjali Rao has accomplished a lot for a 15-year-old. Not only is she TIME's 2020 Kid of the Year, but also the author of "A Young Innovator's Guide to STEM: 5 Steps to Problem Solving for Students, Educators, and Parents."
A Step Above Traditional Preschools for Low-income Students (1:27:55)
A program that teaches low-income preschoolers social and emotional coping skills still pays off for those kids years later when they’re in high school. Karen Bierman is the lead researcher on this project, and she’s a professor of Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University.
Presidential Pardons; Fruit Flies; Drug Courts; Cinema Therapy; Kid of the Year; REDI Program
Voices from the March; Black Women and Police Violence; What Whites Need to Know; RBG Legacy; Reservation Voting; Swing States
Voices from the March on Washington 2020 (0:38)
After George Floyd's death, around fifty thousand people rallied in the nation's capital. It came 57-years to the date after Martin Luther King, Jr’s March on Washington. Julie went to the March on Washington 2020 and spoke with several participants including Carl Crawford, Lisa Mitley, and Julie Reed. (Originally aired Aug 31, 2020).
Black Women in the US Are More Vulnerable to Police Violence (17:22)
Breonna Taylor was lying in her bed in Louisville, Kentucky when she was killed in a hail of gunfire from police officers. Why weren't more charges brought against the officers? Do Black women die more at the hands of police officers? We talk with University of Florida Law professor Michelle S. Jacobs. (Originally aired Sep 29, 2020).
How to Be Helpful in the Fight for Racial Equality (34:50)
This was the year where racial justice was at the forefront of the nation's mind with many whites joining blacks to voice their displeasure with police violence. Why? Debby Irving is the author of "Waking Up White", which is part-memoir and part-Racism 101 for white people. (Originally aired Jun 4, 2020).
From Consensus Builder to Famous Dissenter, a Look at RBG’s Legacy (52:55)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death was a major moment for American politics and the partisan makeup of the US Supreme Court. How did Justice Ginsburg become the “Notorious RBG” of her final years? Bloomberg Law reporter Kimberly Robinson discusses Justice Ginsburg’s evolution–and impact–on the high court. (Originally aired Sep 23, 2020).
Native Americans Face Huge Obstacles to Cast a Ballot (1:10:13)
Although voting by mail makes casting a ballot much easier for a lot of Americans, that is not the case for many Native Americans living on reservations. A Native American voting rights advocacy group called Four Directions has been working to help people living on tribal lands register to vote and cast a ballot. OJ Semans joined the show and is the co-executive director of Four Directions. (Originally aired Oct 21, 2020).
How Swing States Came to Be and Why They Decide the President of the United States (1:27:07)
We didn’t know the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election until a couple of states–namely Pennsylvania and Georgia–were finally able to get all their ballots counted–and recounted. Understanding why swing states matter is crucially important for understanding American presidential elections. Hamline University political science professor David Schultz is co-editor of the book "Presidential Swing States." (Originally aired Nov 3, 2020).
The Stunning Scope of Hong Kong’s New “National Security Law” (0:30)
The new national security law that the Chinese Communist government implemented in July, which threatened life in prison for protestors and criticizers of the Chinese government, had sweeping effects on the Hong Kong protests. Hong Kong legal expert Alvin Y.H. Cheung voiced his concerns about this new law. He’s a non-resident affiliate at New York University’s US-Asia Law Institute and previously worked as an attorney in Hong Kong. (Originally aired Jul 6, 2020).
Iran’s Catastrophic Downing of Ukrainian Airliner Creates a Surprising Turn of Fortune (19:50)
Before the global pandemic captured headlines, one of the biggest news stories of 2020 was the assassination of Iran’s top military leader Quassem Soleimani by a US drone strike in January. Aaron David Miller joined us to talk about whether the US should take any responsibility for the downed airliner. Miller is currently a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment. Max Abrahms then joined us to talk about whether killing Soleimani made the world a safer place. Abrahms is a terrorism expert and political science professor at Northeastern University. (Originally aired Jan 13, 2020).
Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Transforms From Museum to Mosque (39:41)
Turkey’s nationalist president had an important symbolic win for conservative Islam in 2020. In July, President Erdogan–backed by a Turkish court ruling–converted Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a working mosque. When the switch was about to happen, many European countries and scholars objected. University of Pittsburgh anthropologist Tugba Tanyeri Erdemir was among them. (Originally aired Jul 9, 2020).
Why Are So Many White, Uneducated Americans Dying Deaths of Despair? (52:53)
Life expectancy is falling in America. That’s not supposed to happen in a developed country like ours – and it wasn’t happening until about twenty years ago. But not all Americans are dying younger. Mainly it’s middle-aged white people dying of what Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton have dubbed “deaths of despair.” Case and Deaton are authors of the book “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.” (Originally aired Mar 25, 2020).
How a Single Spray can Save a Suicide (1:08:55)
A fast-acting nasal spray can ease depressive symptoms in people contemplating suicide. You can't buy it over the counter and it's only for emergencies. The FDA approved this spray just this past summer. Psychiatrist Gerard Sanacora participated in the research that led to this drug’s approval, and he’s a professor at Yale University’s school of medicine. (Originally aired Sept 8, 2020).
Breathing for Health–It’s All About the Nose (1:22:52)
Unless you are stuffed up due to a cold or the flu, you probably don’t think about breathing that much. But James Nestor says it would serve you well if you do concentrate on it a bit more, especially if you are doing it through your mouth or your nose. Nestor is the author of the book “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art.” (Originally aired Jun 17, 2020).
Hong Kong; Iran; Hagia Sophia Controversy; Deaths of Despair; Nasal Suicide Spray; Breath
Pandemic Voices; NBA Playoff Sound; Oberammergau; Fred Rogers; Artificial Glaciers; Magic in Prison
Global Perspectives on the Beginning of the Pandemic (0:39)
Think back to when the pandemic first took hold of the world, when we were all in lockdown. Remember the anxiety? The fear? It’s strange to think that almost all of humanity was going through the same thing, experiencing the same emotions. We listen back to interviews with Teresa Merogniu Settineri in Italy, Jose Galdos in Peru, Michael Barteling in the Netherlands. (Originally aired Apr 13, 2020).
How Crowd Noise DJs Made the NBA Playoffs “Sound” Normal (16:31)
The pandemic changed a lot of things, including sound. During NBA games this past postseason, the crowd noise was manufactured. The NBA hired a special event firm called Firehouse Productions to make the crowd noise happen. Firehouse VP Mark Dittmar explained how this worked. (Originally aired Sep 21, 2020).
Of Plays and Plagues: Oberammergau Canceled (34:28)
Many important events were canceled because of the pandemic, including the Oberammergau Passion Play. The German religious play that began in response to a pandemic was scratched because of another one. Frederik Mayet is a spokesperson for the Passion Play organization and was slated to perform the role of Jesus this past year. (Originally aired Apr 13, 2020).
The Letters sent from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood (52:58)
Who better to bring us a dose of optimism this hour than Mister Rogers? His friendliness wasn’t just an act. Off-camera, he was the most amazing pen pal, responding personally to every fan letter. Journalist Court Mann was stunned to learn about the scale of Mister Roger’s letter writing, so he spent a year tracking down the story for the Deseret News. (Originally aired Nov 3, 2020).
Manmade Ice Pyramids Compensate for Disappearing Glaciers in the Himalayas (1:10:25)
Although people who live high in the Himalayas of northern India–in a region called Ladakh–have reason to be worried about climate change, melting glaciers is their water supply. But a Ladakhi engineer named Sonam Wangchuk has invented a solution, called "Ice Stupas", that’s both beautiful and inspiring. (Originally aired Apr 6, 2020).
Community of Prisoners Turn to Magic (1:29:55)
Nearly 20 years ago, professional magician Joshua Jay started receiving letters from prisoners asking for tips and tricks. Now, a community of magician inmates has formed, and they teach other magic through the mail. (Originally aired Aug 26, 2020).
2020 Was Something, Eh? (0:33)
The year 2020 will need a chapter all to itself in future history books, don’t you think? Well, the first draft of that chapter has been written by the team that puts together the annual World Almanac and Book of Facts. Sarah Janssen is the editor. (Originally aired Dec 8, 2020).
Lessons from Suffragists on How to Change the World (15:24)
The campaign for women’s suffrage was one of the largest and longest movements in American history, spanning more than 70 years. Despite stretches of failure and disappointment, the change was momentous—and it was permanent. “The Suffragist Playbook” is a pocket-guide to the movement’s winning strategies. Lucinda Robb and Rebecca Roberts are the book’s authors. (Originally aired Dec 1, 2020).
One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America (33:34)
Losing weight is one of the most common resolutions people make for a New Year. More than half of Americans are overweight, but journalist Tommy Tomlinson was on the extreme end of the scale. In Tomlinson’s memoir, called "The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America", he talks about how after trying every diet out there, there was emotional work to be done. (Originally aired February 27, 2019).
From Heartsick Socialite to Intrepid Explorer: Olive MacLeod Goes to Africa (52:51)
There is a forgotten story of a Scottish aristocrat who broke all kinds of rules on a wild trek across Africa. Olive Macleod was 30 and more of a party girl than an outdoorswoman. How she ended up meeting African warlords, discovering elusive waterfalls and adopting two lion cubs as pets is quite the tale. Brad Ricca, English Professor at Case Western Reserve University, tells it in his new book, “Olive the Lionheart”. (Originally aired Sept 3, 2020).
Grey Reef Sharks Form Long-Term Social Bonds (1:33:28)
Although sharks don't live in communities, scientists have found something like social ties between sharks that lasted for years. Yannis Papastamatiou, professor of biological sciences at Florida International University, was co-author of the study. (Originally aired Sept 3, 2020).
Most Statin Side-Effects People Complain of Also Happen with Placebo Pills (0:32)
Guest: Matthew Shun-Shin, Clinical Lecturer, Cardiology, Imperial College London
Statins for lowering cholesterol are among the most widely-prescribed drugs in America. But a lot of patients at risk for heart attack or stroke skip doses–or stop taking statins altogether–because of unpleasant side effects. Suppose it’s not the drug causing the side-effects, though? Researchers at Imperial CollegeLondon did a clinical trial where they swapped the statins people were taking with just plain old placebo pills–and those people still reported the unpleasant side-effects. (Originally aired Nov 24, 2020).
The Nocebo/Placebo Effect–Is it All in Your Head? (7:23)
Guest: John Kelley, Deputy Director, Program in Placebo Studies and Therapeutic Interactions, Harvard Medical School, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Endicott College
People who take statins for high cholesterol often complain of side effects like fatigue, muscle aches, and nausea. But when patients participating in a clinical trial had their statins swapped out for placebo pills, they still complained of side effects. So was it all in their head? (Originally aired Nov 24, 2020).
Connecting with Scientists from Your Own Home (22:31)
Guest: Sarah McAnulty, Executive Director, Skype a Scientist
A couple of times a week, scientists from all sorts of fields are doing live streams and taking questions on YouTube. Sarah McAnulty is the founder of Skype a Scientist–which is a nonprofit that started off matching up scientists with school classes to do question and answer sessions. Since the pandemic, they’ve expanded to public sessions on YouTube, as well. (Originally aired Nov 24, 2020).
The Future of Hydrogen Fuel (39:59)
Guest: Jack Brouwer, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Director, National Fuel Cell Research Center, University of California, Irvine
You might think the future of cars is electric, but there’s another green alternative that was the alternative everyone was talking about a few decades ago. It’s hydrogen. A car can go three-hundred miles or more on a tank of hydrogen gas and only water vapor comes out the tailpipe. There are already hydrogen-powered buses and trucks on the road today, so why hasn’t the technology taken off more broadly? (Originally aired Nov 24, 2020).
Let’s Talk: How English Conversation Works (52:20)
Guest: David Crystal, Writer, Editor, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Bangor, Author of “Let’s Talk: How English Conversation Works”
Sometimes a conversation is so easy and engaging, you wish it didn’t have to end. Sometimes it’s so awkward or difficult that you’re desperately looking for an out after just a few minutes. What’s the difference between good conversation and bad? Also, are you good at conversation or not? (Originally aired Nov 5, 2020).
New Way to Stop Cow Predators: Paint Eyes on Cow Rumps (1:32:40)
Guest: Cameron Radford, Ph.D. Candidate, Conservation Biologist, University of New South Wales Sydney
Around the world, when predators like lions and leopards attack livestock, some farmers will hunt down the big cat and kill it. And that’s a major factor in what’s driving these animals to extinction in certain places. So a couple of conservation biologists came up with an idea: what if they painted eyes on the rear ends of cows in Botswana? (Originally aired Nov 5, 2020).
LEGOS; Santa Claus, IN; Food Banks; Holiday Spices; Christmas Songs; Pandemic Movies; Homemade Roller Coaster
LEGOS (0:35)
Star Wars, AFOLs and the Secret to LEGO’s Enduring Popularity
LEGO sets are always a top request for Santa, but the toys are not just for kids. Joe Meno is one of the most prominent AFOL’s–Adult Fans of Legos–and founder of a top fan magazine called BrickJournal. He’s also co-author of “The Cult of LEGO." (Originally aired Dec 3, 2020).
Santa Claus, Indiana (13:03)
An American Town Where It's Christmas All Year Round
There’s a place in the US where it’s Christmas all the time–a town called Santa Claus, Indiana, and they call themselves America’s Christmas Hometown. Melissa Arnold is executive director of media for the town.
Food Banks (24:27)
When Food Banks Fill Stomachs, but Harm Health
While food banks may fill stomachs, they also seem to contribute to poorer health among food bank recipients. University of Connecticut professor Kristen Cooksey Stowers has been researching this problem. (Originally aired Nov 9, 2020).
Holiday Spices (37:32)
New Ways to Spice Up Your Holiday Treats
Certain spices evoke this time of year–nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves. But expert spice blender Lior Lev Sercarz wants you to use them all year long. Lior Lev Sercarz is owner of La Boite spice and cookie shop in New York City. His book, "The Spice Companion" is an all-you-need-to-know resource for spicing up your holidays. (Originally aired Dec 7, 2018).
Christmas Songs (52:55)
How Mariah Carey Became A Christmas Classic
Nobody but Mariah Carey and her classic "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has managed to get a new song into that classic Christmas cannon in the last twenty years. How did she do it? Musicologist Nate Sloanis breaks this down for us. He’s a professor at the University of Southern California and co-host of the Vox Media podcast "Switched on Pop." (Originally aried Dec 15, 2020).
Pandemic Movies & TV (1:14:29)
Get Ready for More Movies and TV Shows about COVID-19
The pandemic has seeped into every part of our lives–including TV. Screenwriter and producer Bobette Buster predicts we’ll see a lot of movies and shows tackling the pandemic. She even believes COVID-19 will lead to a golden age of storytelling in film. Professor Buster teaches digital storytelling at Northeastern University, author of "Do Story: How To Tell Your Story so the World Listens", and worked on the documentary "Making Waves." (Originally aried Dec 15, 2020).
Homemade Roller Coaster (1:30:47)
How A California Family Built a Homemade Rollercoaster
A family of tinkerers in California missed going to Disneyland so much this year, they built their own Matterhorn rollercoaster, with room for one rider and even an animatronic Yeti. Sean LaRochelle is a grad student studying architecture at Clemson University. He’s from Napa, California, which is where he and his family built the backyard coaster. (Originally aried Dec 15, 2020).
Why California is Getting into the Drug Manufacturing Business (0:29)
Guest: Geoffrey Joyce, Chair, Department of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics, University of Southern California
California is about to become the first state to develop and sell its own line of generic drugs. The state’s legislature and the governor signed the measure into law last week, as an effort to improve the quality of generic drugs and bring down prices. It’s a very unusual move that other states will be watching. (Originally aired Oct 5, 2020).
New Cooling System Would Cut AC Emissions in Half (16:49)
Guest: Eric Teitelbaum, PhD Graduate, School of Architecture and Materials Science, Princeton University
As the world gets hotter, air conditioning is ever more in-demand. But traditional AC requires a lot of energy and is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, globally. So, the world needs more efficient ways to cool off. Let’s hear about one solution put to the test in hot, humid Singapore this summer. (Originally aired Oct 5, 2020).
Photographing California’s Worst Wildfire Season Yet (34:23)
Guest: Jeff Frost, Artist, and Photographer
It’s been another record-breaking wildfire season for California. More than four million acres have burned, state officials said over the weekend. That’s more than double the acreage that burned in the last record-setting year, which was 2018. A key difference is that while fires have burned bigger this year, they’ve been far less deadly or damaging to property than the 2018 wildfire season. Artist Jeff Frost has been documenting the escalating fire situation in California for many years now. He uses time-lapse photography and created a 30-minute documentary not long ago called “California on Fire.” (Originally aired Oct 5, 2020).
Defeat Mental Health Demons through Dungeons & Dragons (52:55)
Guest: Megan Connell, Psychologist, Therapeutic Dungeon Master, Co-Creator of Geeks Like Us
The roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons has gained popularity lately–perhaps partially because it entered the mainstream media through the TV show Stranger Things. But it’s not just a nerdy 80s game, it’s also good for mental health. In fact, licensed psychologist Megan Connell uses it as a therapy technique for anxiety, PTSD, and autism. (Originally aired Oct 5, 2020).
Can Smaller Reactors Revive Nuclear Power? (1:11:30)
Guest: Jacopo Buongiorno, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Without a big turnaround in the coming decade, nuclear power in the United States is headed for extinction. Nuclear plants all across the country are nearing the end of life and power companies are opting to shut them down rather than build new ones. A group of nuclear power proponents hope a radical redesign of the traditional nuclear reactor will revive the industry. US regulators recently approved the design for a “small modular reactor” as it’s called–though actually building one in the US is will require additional regulatory approval and nobody’s applied for that yet. (Originally aired Oct 5, 2020).
Pollen Sense (1:31:06)
Guest: Landon Bunderson, CEO, Pollen Sense
Pollen is still counted manually to give allergy sufferers 24-hour averages if you can believe it. But that means the data is from the day before, which isn't helpful if someone wants to avoid going outside on a day that will be bad for their specific allergies. New technology could change all that - it gives real-time data on what pollen is in the air. (Originally aired Oct 5, 2020).
California Drugs; Cold Tube; Wildfire Photographer; D&D Therapy; Small Nuclear Reactors; Pollen Sense
What It’s Like to Transition into the White House During a National Crisis (0:31)
President-elect Joe Biden is taking office as America faces its worst health crisis in a century, similar to twelve years ago when he entered the White House as Vice President during an economic crisis. Melody Barnes knows what it was like. Barnes was on the Obama transition team in 2009. She is also a professor of practice and the co-director for policy and public affairs of the Democracy Institute at University of Virginia.
Watch Melody Barnes’ 2020 BYU Forum Address.
Why The 6-Foot Distancing Rule is Too Simplistic (18:57)
The six feet distancing rule has been drilled into us, but the science of how far we need to stay from one another is more complicated. We get the details from Lydia Bourouiba, who is the director of the Dynamics of Disease Transmission Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Training Bomb Sniffing Dogs to Detect COVID-19 Infections (35:11)
Researchers at the US Army have been working on a solution to sniff out individuals infected with COVID but who aren't showing symptoms–they’re training bomb-sniffing dogs to identify COVID-19. Guests Michele Maughan and Patricia Buckley explain how it's done. Maughn is a research scientist and Patricia Buckley is a supervisory biologist, both with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center.
Using Mold to Enhance Your Cooking (52:19)
Usually if you find mold on something in your kitchen, it goes straight in the trash, but there is a mold called koji that actually make food taste better. Jeremy Umansky says it's just not used a lot in western culture. Umansky is co-chef and co-owner of Larder Delicatessen and Bakery in Cleveland, OH. He is also the co-author of "Koji Alchemy: Rediscovering the Magic of Mold-Based Fermentation.”
Who do We Blame for Loss of Life After a Volcanic Eruption? (1:11:35)
The New Zealand government is bringing criminal charges against some of the parties involved in the death of 22 tourists after a volcano eruption, but can we blame anyone when a natural disaster strikes and kills people? Our guest is Shane Cronin who is a volcanologist and professor of earth science at the University of Auckland.
The World’s Toughest Substance Can Now Be Made in a Lab at Room-Temperature (1:28:35)
Although humans have known for at least 50 years how to make diamonds in a laboratory, scientists at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia have figured out how to make diamonds at room temperature in minutes. Dougal McCulloch, a physics professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, explains how it happens.
Transition in Crisis; 6-Foot Rule; COVID Dog Sniffer; Koji; Volcano Guilt; Room-Temperature Diamonds
How the Salvation Army’s Red Kettles Became a Christmas Icon (0:36)
The Salvation Army bell-ringers are still out this year, ringing away with their red aprons and kettles. How did they became an American Christmas icon? We get the answer from Diane Winston. She's an associate professor and Knight Center Chair in media & religion at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. (Originally aired Dec 11, 2019).
Pet Recovery Specialist on How to Find Lost Dogs (14:32)
When your pet disappears, launching into panic mode, canvassing the neighborhood and calling out for your pup is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. Pet recovery specialist Babs Fry talks about what you should do. She is the founder of A Way Home for Animals. (Originally aired Jan 15, 2020).
Deepwater Horizon Spill 10 Years Ago Is Still Affecting the Gulf Ecosystem (35:58)
2020 marked ten years since the destructive Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But scientists, like Steven Murawski, are still trying to figure what effect the spill had on marine life in the Gulf. Murawski is a marine ecologist at the University of South Florida and director of the Center for Integrated Analysis and Modeling of Gulf Systems (C-IMAGE). (Originally aired May 12, 2020).
Family Stories Are Powerful. Make Time to Tell Some This Holiday. (52:24)
Our family stories shape our ideas of what it means to be a part of a particular family–who we are, what we care about. Robyn Fivush's Family Narratives Lab has actually measured the power of this kind of family storytelling. Fivush is a professor of psychology and director of Emory University's Institute for Liberal Arts. (Originally aired Dec 18, 2019).
Grieving Woman Finds Solace in Epic Solitude of the Iditarod (1:05:42)
After losing her husband, Katherine Keith found solace in isolation by taking up Iditarod racing–where solo dog sledders trek across 1,000 miles of Alaskan wilderness. Keith is the author of "Epic Solitude: A Story of Survival and a Quest for Meaning in the Far North." (Originally aired Mar 2, 2020).
Jane Austen’s Unfinished Novel Hits The Small Screen (1:21:47)
Jane Austen's unfinished novel–with an unusual setting and her only black character–has been adapted as a series on PBS Masterpiece. Brigham Young University comparative arts and letters professor Jane Hinckley gives her thoughts on this sometimes steamy show. (Originally aired Jan 29, 2020).
US Economy is Worsening During the Pandemic as Extra Benefits Run Out (0:32)
The number of Americans falling below the poverty line has risen swiftly in the last couple of months with 26 million workers–that’s one out of every six people in the American workforce–unemployed or experiencing a drop in hours and pay. Elise Gould joins us to talk about the current state of the economy. Gouls is a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
The Secret to Homo Sapiens' Survival? Friendly Cooperation (11:03)
What if it wasn’t "survival of the fittest"–like ferocity and stamina–that made humans successful, but rather our ability to cooperate? Duke University Anthropology professor Brian Hare states his theory in the book "Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity."
Christmas Movies to Stream with the Family (32:13)
It's a brave new world for holiday movies as studios scale back their releases this year and new movies are being released directly to streaming platforms. So Kirsten Hawkes from ParentPreviews.com reviews some of the most popular holiday films to stream with your family.
White, Muslim and Searching for Home (52:18)
A white woman, born and raised as Muslim, struggles with her identity. Medina Tenour Whiteman's memoir is a story of searching for a place that feels like home. Tenour Whiteman's book is "The Invisible Muslim: Journeys Through Whiteness and Islam."
On-the-Go Literature (1:32:01)
One company is trying to help us remember a time before smart phones by installing short story dispensers around the country where people can select different types of stories for the machine to print out. Short Story Dispenser editor Lane Proctor gives us a taste of some of these short stories.
Pandemic Economy; Survival of the Friendliest; Parent Previews; Invisible Muslim; Short Story Machine
Israel & Arab Countries Normalization; 2020 Christmas Star; Soundwalks; The Apple Seed; Toilet Tech; The Unexpected Spy
Why Are Arab Countries Warming to Israel? (0:31)
Israel has announced deals to “normalize” relations with four Arab countries in recent months–Bahrain, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and–as of last week–Morocco. So what does each country get from this agreement? Quinn Mecham explains why the Trump administration got involved. Mecham is a professor of political science at Brigham Young University.
Rare "Christmas Star" Sighting (22:45)
On December 21st, we’ll see a phenomenon some are calling a “Christmas Star,” but it’s not a star–it’s actually two planets close together. Rice University astronomy professor Patrick Hartigan explains the occurence and the best way to see it.
A Choose-Your-Own Soundtrack to a Walk in Central Park (35:28)
Pulitzer Prize winning composer Ellen Reid utilized GPS to create a choose-your-own musical experience for people walking around New York’s Central Park. And it's all done through an app that Reid created. Reid shares where she received her inspiration for the various pieces of music.
Celebrating Nontraditional Holiday Traditions. (52:19)
BYU Radio's Sam Payne stops by to talk about the nontraditional Christmas traditions around the world .
Solving the Human Waste Problem in the Most Remote Places (58:36)
The influx of visitors to the US backcountry has created the unique problem of dealing with their bodily waste. But Geoff Hill has a potential solution. Hill is a PhD in human waste management and is the founder of the company Toilet Tech.
A Young Woman’s Extraordinary Career at the CIA and FBI (1:16:43)
A Southern California sorority girl with a fascination for politics ended up tracking and interrogating terrorists for the CIA after 9-11. But the stress of the job kept Tracy Walder up at night. Now Walder is a teacher and the author of "The Unexpected Spy."
Ever Wonder How Many Hot Dogs A Human Could Eat? Science Has the Answer (1:38:19)
Competitive hot dog eaters swallow a huge number of hot dogs in a very short amount of time. But is there a limit in which a human can't down any more franks? High Point University exercise scientist James Smoliga thinks he’s found the answer.
Civilian DoD; Wind Farm Weather; Christmas Tree Science; Christmas Songs; Pandemic Movies & TV; Homemade Roller Coaster
Civilian DoD (0:31)
Why Is It So Controversial for a Military General to Head the Department of Defense?
Secretaries of Defense are required to be out of active duty seven years before serving in the position, so President-elect Joe Biden's pick, General Lloyd Austin, will need a special waiver from Congress to be considered for the position because he only retired from the military four years ago. Why does this rule even exist? Guest: Eric Jensen, a professor of international law at Brigham Young University.
Wind Farm Weather (23:51)
Can Wind Farms Change the Weather?
Oceans are the engine of Earth’s weather system, circulating moisture and sending storms inland—but what happens to those storms if they encounter a massive farm of wind turbines on their way to shore? Guest: Christina Archer is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Delaware.
Christmas Tree Science (35:46)
The Science Behind Growing the Perfect Christmas Tree
In the quest to grow the perfect Christmas tree, pinecones are a big problem. Guest: Bert Cregg is a professor of tree physiology and horticulture at the University of Michigan.
Christmas Songs (52:21)
How Mariah Carey Became A Christmas Classic
Nobody but Mariah Carey and her classic "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has managed to get a new song into that classic Christmas cannon in the last twenty years. How did she do it? Guest: Nate Sloan is a professor at the University of Southern California and the co-host of the Vox Media podcast "Switched On Pop."
Pandemic Movies & TV (1:13:57)
Get Ready for More Movies and TV Shows about COVID-19
The pandemic could lead to a golden era in TV and film. Guest: Bobette Buster is a professor of the practice of digital storytelling at Northeastern University, author of "Do Story: How to Tell Your Story So the World Listens", and award-winning writer/documentary producer of "Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound."
Homemade Roller Coaster (1:30:15)
How A California Family Built a Homemade Rollercoaster
A family of tinkerers in California missed going to Disneyland so much this year, they built their own Matterhorn rollercoaster, with room for one rider and even an animatronic Yeti. Guest: Sean LaRochelle is the creator of Matterhorn: Alpine Escape and an Architecture Master's student at Clemson University.
Trump Administration’s Federal Execution Spree in 2020 (0:30)
Guest: Robert Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center
The U.S. government carried out back-to-back executions on Thursday and Friday last week. The Trump Administration has executed ten federal prisoners on death row this year and plans to conduct three more before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
Why Don’t More People Know that Alcohol Causes Cancer? (20:20)
Guest: Nigel Brockton, Vice President of Research, American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR)
Smoking causes cancer–most people know that. It’s been on cigarette packages in the US for decades–and those warning labels are about to get even more explicit about the risks. But alcohol causes cancer, too, and most Americans do not know that. A coalition of public health and cancer-prevention organizations are petitioning the US government to put cancer warning labels on alcohol. Would that even make a difference?
Conducting Ethical Research in the Digital Age (34:40)
Guest: Rose McDermott, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Brown University
The ethical guidelines social scientists follow when they study humans haven’t been updated since the 1970s. That was before the internet made it possible for scientists to study our online behavior without us even realizing it. And that was also before it became common for sociologists and psychologists and political scientists to do real-world experiments with lots and lots of people. Some such experiments–online and in-real-life–have stoked racial animosity and even influenced election outcomes. Do the rules need an update, or do social scientists just need a talking to?
More Visibility for Women in Elite Chess, Thanks to Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit (52:20)
Guest: Anastasiya Karlovich, Chess Grandmaster, Private Chess Coach and Chess Photographer/Journalist
The latest runaway hit on Netflix is a show about a chess prodigy working her way up the elite ranks of the game. The Queen’s Gambit has become Netflix’s most-streamed scripted limited series. And while the story is fictional, it has inspired lots of people–especially women and girls–to take up chess in real life. Companies that make chess boards and websites that let you play online report sales and membership have more than tripled since the show debuted in late October. Ukrainian chess grandmaster Anastasiya Karlovich has seen the effects of The Queen’s Gambit in her chess-coaching business, too.
How a 2000-year-old Tradition Could Make Hawaii More Self-sustainable (1:10:42)
Guest: Rae DeCoito, Executive Director, Malama Loko Ea Fishpond
Every tourist to Hawaii knows about the notoriously expensive groceries there–especially things like milk, eggs and beef. The higher prices are because of transportation costs–90% of what Hawaiians eat arrives on the islands by ship or boat from the mainland or elsewhere in the world. Thousands of years ago, Native Hawaiians had a method of sustainable fish farming that some today are trying to resurrect.
Potential Landslide and Tsunami in Alaska (1:29:02)
Guest: Bretwood Higman, Geologist, Ground Truth Alaska
A landslide in Greenland a few years ago triggered a tsunami that killed four people. Researchers say there is a landslide waiting to happen in Alaska could be about eight times larger and create waves hundreds of feet high. With climate change, researchers are worried that landslide tsunamis could become more common.
Federal Executions; Alcohol Cancer; Research Ethics; The Queen's Gambit; Hawaiian Fish Ponds; Landslide Fjord
DNA Helps Identify Service Members Missing In Action from WWII to Today (0:34)
Guest: Timothy McMahon, Director, DNA Operations, Department of Defense
This week marked the 79th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The remains of hundreds of service members who died that day remained unidentified for decades. But a DNA analysis project at the Department of Defense has now been able to identify 281 unaccounted-for service members from Pearl Harbor and return those individuals to their families. Providing closure for families is, after all, the primary goal of the project. (Originally aired Jan 16, 2020).
Sobriety in a Society Filled With Booze (12:44)
Guest: Laura McKowen, Speaker, Podcaster, Author of “We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life”
In the 100 years since the US tried–and failed–to outlaw alcohol, it’s become a normal, accepted part of everyday American life. It’s for celebrating and coming of age and commiserating and coping. Even though alcohol is the most commonly abused substance in the country and the third leading preventable cause of death, most of American society doesn’t think of it like that–not like cocaine or opioids, or even tobacco. And that makes it all the more difficult for people who do struggle with alcohol to stop. (Originally aired Jan 16, 2020).
Do Our Dogs Love Us? (34:30)
Guest: Clive Wynne, Professor of Psychology, Director, Canine Science Collaboratory, Arizona State University, Author of “Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You”
It seems like dogs have taken an even more prominent role in the well-being of pet owners during the pandemic. Some have even added a new dog to the household because of the pandemic. But how do dogs feel about their people? Is that eagerness and adoration you sense in your pup’s eyes when you come home affection or just a hungry, bored dog doing what he knows will get him food and entertainment? (Originally aired Feb 18, 2020).
Why Jews Are So Funny, and When It’s Okay for Non-Jews to Laugh (52:24)
Guest: Bob Mankoff, Former Cartoon Editor for The New Yorker, Creator of CartoonCollections.com, Author of “Have I Got a Cartoon for You!”
It’s been fascinating to see how comedy has responded to the pandemic–the lip-syncing genius of breakout pandemic star Sarah Cooper, say, or the scathing jokes and viral outrage from show hosts like Samantha Bee and Trevor Noah. Last year I spoke with cartoonist Bob Mankoff about how trauma can breed humor. He thinks it’s actually a big reason why so many comedians are Jewish. (Originally aired Sept 23, 2019).
Teaching Diplomacy to Kids Through Model UN (1:10:42)
Guest: Cory Leonard, Associate Director, David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, Brigham Young University
College students around the country and even in other parts of the world are now starting to prepare for the upcoming national Model United Nations competition to be held in New York City in the Spring. Due to the pandemic, it may end up being on zoom. Simulating diplomacy started in the 1920s before the UN even existed. But how necessary is it today? (Originally aired Nov 12, 2019).
How Humans Ate Their Favorite Foods to Extinction (1:24:20)
Guest: Lenore Newman, Canada Research Chair, Food Security and the Environment, Associate Professor of Geography and the Environment, University of the Fraser Valley, Author of “Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food”
A little over a hundred years ago, the ultimate American comfort food was pigeon pot pie. Not chicken pot pie. Passenger pigeon pie. The bird was all over restaurant menus too. And then Americans ate the passenger pigeon right out of existence. It was not the first time–nor will it be the last–that humans loved a food so much they drove it to extinction. (Originally aired Mar 18, 2020).
America is Having Record Infections and COVID-19 Deaths Right Now. What About the Rest of the World? (0:32)
Guest: Elizabeth J. King, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, co-author of “Coronavirus Politics” (forthcoming in 2021)
On Wednesday in the United States, more than 3,000 people died of COVID-19. That’s a record high for us, but compared to other countries–and if you take America’s size into account –is the pandemic really worse here?
Historical Landmarks Threatened by Climate Change (18:08)
Guest: Erin Seekamp, Professor of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, North Carolina State University
All across the US, major tourist attractions and historic sites are at risk from changing climate patterns: California’s great sequoias are burning in wildfires; the East Coast’s famous lighthouses are threatened by rising sea levels and intensifying hurricanes. Even the Statue of Liberty is in danger. The US is not alone. Famous and important heritage sites all around the world are in danger from flooding, drought, and wildfires. How should we deal with that? Let the chips fall and repair as much damage as possible? Move historic structures to higher ground? Build barriers to keep the elements at bay?
Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World’s Smells (28:45)
Guest: Harold McGee, Author of “Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World’s Smells”
Inhale through your nose with me for a moment. What do you smell? Deodorant? Dust? The leather seats in your car? The air freshener plugged into a wall nearby? Maybe there’s a whiff of dog or sweaty feet, or the toasty scent of fresh bread from a nearby bakery? On a subconscious level, we navigate the world as much through smell as through sight or sound. Our noses help us decide where to go, where not to go, when to wash, what to eat.
A Father’s Story of Premature Birth and Child Loss (52:18)
Guest: Ted Yang, Entrepreneur, Father of Prematurely-Born Triplets, Author of “Table for Five: A Father’s Story of Life, Love and Loss”
Premature births are extremely common in the United States–one baby out of ten is born early enough to face serious troubles with breathing, feeding and basic organ function. It’s far less common is to hear a father’s perspective on the trauma of premature birth and the death of a child.
Reading Over Winter Break (1:31:27)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, Brigham Young University
In what’s been an exhausting year for parents of school-aged children, the coming holiday break offers a bit of relief from keeping on your kids to get their homework done, log into Zoom school sessions and complete their daily reading assignments. It’s okay to just let the 20-minutes-a-day thing slide when you’re on holiday, right?
International Pandemic Responses; Climate Heritage Sites; Nose Dive; Fatherhood & Loss; Children Reading Over the Break
Poverty & Health; Pretty Food, Healthy Food; Black Pete; How Not to Diet Cookbook; New CDC Exposure Guidelines; Car Sculptor
Why Being Broke is a Medical Condition (0:30)
Guest: Michael Stein, Professor of Health Law, Policy and Management, Boston University, Author of “Broke: Patients Talk About Money with Their Doctor”
Dozens of federal stimulus programs that are helping millions of Americans cover basic expenses and avoid eviction during the pandemic are set to expire in the coming weeks. People living in poverty have experienced higher rates of COVID-19 in the United states. The pandemic has laid bare what public health experts have long known–being poor is bad for a person’s health. But typically, the doctors caring for patients with money trouble don’t go there. It’s their job to care for bodies, not budgets.
Just Because it Looks Good, it Doesn’t Mean it’s Good for You (21:29)
Guest: Linda Hagen, Professor of Marketing, University of Southern California
If you’ve ever tried to take a good-looking picture of your dinner plate to post on Instagram, you know it’s not easy. There’s an art to styling food so it looks good. But here’s astrange thing–when we see food that looks pretty, we automatically think it’s healthier.
Protests Over the Dutch Christmas Tradition of Black Pete (34:15)
Guests: Ayanna Thompson, Regents Professor of English, Arizona State University; Coen Heijes, Professor of Culture and Communition,University of Groningen, Netherlands
The Netherlands has a St. Nicholas and a Santa Claus. St. Nick already came and delivered gifts this past weekend to the Dutch. And instead of elves, St. Nicholas has a helper named Black Pete. Every December 5th, people dress up as Black Pete with black face paint and an afro wig. But as the Black Lives Matter movement’s influence has spread across the globe, this tradition is increasingly coming under scrutiny–protests have even broken out over it. However, many Dutch say it isn’t racist and just part of their cultural heritage.
How Not to Diet–The Cookbook (52:23)
Guest: Michael Greger, Founder, NutritionFacts.org, Author of “How Not to Diet” and the “How Not to Diet Cookbook”
This time of year for cycles of indulging and restricting with holiday treats. Now might not seem like the right time to start a new diet–that’s what New Year’s Resolutions are for. But now is maybe a good time to think about some of our food habits and how we might adapt them for a healthier 2021.
CDC Allows Shorter Quarantine for COVID-19 Exposure (1:12:46)
Guest: Saskia Popescu, Assistant Professor, Biodefense Program, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
Last week, the CDC revised its guideline for how long you have to quarantine if you’re exposed to COVID-19. There’s now an option for less time, which is nice. But did they change it because the science has changed? Or just because they knew that two weeks was longer than many people were willing to isolate when they aren’t sick?
How Sculptors Use Clay and Computers to Create the Cars of the Future (1:25:47)
Guest: Matt Mantz, Senior Design Modeler, General Motors
In a world of 3D printing and computer-generated everything, it seems unbelievable that the automotive industry would depend on sculptors to design their cars–but they do. As major car manufacturers around the world prepare to unveil their new car models for the next year, the truth is that every one of those new cars at one point was sculpted in warm clay by an "automotive clay modeler."
America’s Months-Long Transition to a New President (0:31)
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
We’ve just hit an archaic milestone in US election law called the “safe harbor deadline,” which means state election results are final and all that remains is for the Electoral College to meet next week and finalize the Presidential election winner. Well, and then Congress has to certify that result in early January. And then, a few more weeks will pass and then the US will have a new president. From Election Day to Inauguration there’s a two-and-a-half-month gap. Why so long?
The Bipartisan Plan to Subvert the Electoral College (19:23)
Guest: Saul Anuzis, Senior Advisor at the National Popular Vote Compact, Former Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, President of 60 Plus - the American Association of Senior Citizens
Next Monday, the Electoral College will meet to elect Joe Biden the next President of the United States. More than half of Americans would rather do away with the Electoral College and just have the winner of the presidential election be whichever candidate gets the most popular votes nationwide. In the case of this year’s election, the outcome would be the same–Joe Biden won the most popular votes and he won the Electoral College. But last time around, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and Donald Trump won the Electoral College, so he became president, not her. Let’s hear about a movement to sideline the Electoral College in the next presidential election.
Demand for Non-Profit Services is Up in the Pandemic, But Funding is Down (37:30)
Guest: Erica Mills Barnhart, Associate Teaching Professor of Public Policy and Governance, Director of the Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits & Philanthropy, University of Washington
Non-profit organizations are caught between a rock and a hard place during the pandemic – demand for their services has gone up, but funding has gone down. Some non-profits will be forced to shut down, and that could ripple through the economy and our communities.
How Fences Dynamically Change the Natural World Around Them (52:22)
Guest: Alex McInturff, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Barbara
You may not notice, but there are fences everywhere in cities. And also in rural areas. And there are parts of the West so remote there are no roads or buildings–no cell service even–but there are fences crisscrossing the land. As common as fences are–and have been for millennia–scientists know very little about their ecological effects.
Michael Gardner Uses Sewing and Fashion to Bond with Daughter (1:10:20)
Guest: Michael Gardner, Creator, “Daddy Dressed Me by Michael Gardner”
Michael Gardner’s Instagram feed is nearly all pictures of him and his nine-year-old daughter Ava sporting matching outfits and–get this–Michael makes all the clothing. He actually taught himself to sew just so he could create special things for Ava to model. His Instagram is DaddyDressedMebyMG
2020 Was Something, Eh? (1:26:19)
Guest: Sarah Janssen, Senior Editor, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2021
The year 2020 will need a chapter all to itself in future history books, don’t you think? Well, the first draft of that chapter has been written by the team that puts together the annual World Almanac and Book of Facts.
Transfer of Power; Popular Vote Compact; Non-profits; Fences; Daddy Dressed Me; World Almanac
Girls Education; Gig Work Misclassification; Wikipedia; Black Newborn Death; Pennies; TV & Shopping Stress
How Malala’s Father Planted the Seeds of Her Activism for Girls’ Education (0:31)
Guest: Ziauddin Yousafzai, Educator, Human Rights Campaigner, Co-Founder of the Malala Fund, Author of “Let Her Fly”
Worldwide, 130 million girls were out of school before the pandemic. The Malala Fund warns that millions more, who were in school before, may not return once the pandemic is over. That will be a major setback for those girls and their communities.
Misclassifying Employees as Independent Contractors Hurts Workers (18:09)
Guest: Shannon Liss-Riordan, Labor Lawyer, Lichten & Liss-Riordan, Boston, MA
When you call someplace like Amazon to get some help, you talk to a customer service representative. You would assume that person is on Amazon’s payroll, but many of these agents are actually independent contractors working for acompany called Arise Virtual Solutions. And in order to join, they have to buy all their own equipment to take calls from home and don’t get paid for training. And yet, Arise dictates what they do. Some say this is a serious problem that could upend the labor market.
Wikipedia After Twenty Years (35:49)
Guest: Joseph Reagle, Professor of Communication Studies, Northeastern University, Co-Editor of “Wikipedia @ 20: Stories of an Incomplete Revolution”
Wikipedia is about to turn 20. When it first launched, nobody thought it would last this long. And yet here it is–one of the most visited sites on the web, reliable enough that even teachers and academics generally respect it. How did Wikipedia beat the odds?
Increasing the Number of Black Doctors Could Save The Lives of Black Babies (52:20)
Guest: Rachel Hardeman, Professor of Health and Racial Equity, Public Health School, University of Minnesota
Newborn babies who are Black are more than twice as likely to die within their first year as white newborns. To find out why, a group of researchers combed through nearly two million births in Florida and discovered that the doctor’s race plays a key role in the survival of Black infants.
How Much Is A Penny Really Worth? (1:10:01)
Guest: Robert Whaples, Economic Professor, Wake Forest University
Do you keep pennies or discard them? Some people keep and use them–there's something satisfying about giving exact change for a purchase. But a lot of people think pennies are a pain. And the US government actually loses money every year printing pennies. Should we get rid of them?
How Your Child’s Screen Time Might Be Causing You Stress (1:25:03)
Guest: Matthew Lapierre, Professor of Communication, University of Arizona
The holiday retail push is in full gear–are your kids driving you nuts with their requests for that thing they’ve seen advertised? The more kids watch TV, the more they make these kinds of demands–and the more likely they are to argue about those demands. But there are some communication strategies that can help reduce the friction over this.
The Case for Making Washington, DC a State (0:33)
Guest: Bo Shuff, Executive Director, DC Vote
For the first time ever, the US House of Representatives has passed a measure to make Washington, DC a state. The vote happened earlier this year and was entirely along party lines–no Republicans supported it. That means that for the time being, it has no chance of getting through the Republican controlled Senate. But why now–after decades of activism–has this movement to make DC a state suddenly gained steam? (Originally aired Jul 8, 2020).
Symbiotic Relationship That Could Help Black Rhinos (22:01)
Guest: Roan Plotz, Lecturer of Environmental Science, Victoria University, Melbourne, AU
Black rhinos are critically endangered, largely due to poaching. These rhinos have terrible eyesight, so they have a hard time seeing human predators before it’s too late. But there may be a surprising solution: the red-billed oxpecker. Pair this bird up with a rhino, and everybody wins. Well, except the poachers. (Originally aired May 28, 2020).
Music Festivals are Moving to Minecraft (39:02)
Guest: Max Schramp, Marketing Lead, Open Pit
A band called American Football had an unconventional concert this summer. The whole concert did not happen in real life, because social distancing. It was in Minecraft–the video game. Thousands of people attended and the concert raised a bunch of money for COVID-19 charities. (Originally aired May 14, 2020).
Acclaimed Book About Race in America “Remixed” for Young People (52:20)
Guests: Jason Reynolds, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature; Ibram X.Kendi, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Founding Director of the Center for Antiracist Research, Boston University; Co-Authors of “Stamped: Racism Antiracism and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning”
The death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests around the country over the summer propelled books about race and racism to the top of best-seller lists. One called “Stamped” has spent nine months and counting among the New York Times best-selling young adult books in hard cover. (Originally aired Apr 23, 2020).
Plant Hunter Looking to Patent a Newly-Discovered Wildflower (1:27:20)
Guest: Mikel Stevens, Professor of Plant & Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University
Did you know that new varieties of plants are being discovered all the time? And then they get patented. Who knew it was even possible to patent a plant? A BYU botany professor and plant hunter recently discovered a new flower he’s hoping to patent. (Originally aired Apr 28, 2020).
Ethiopia’s Internal War and Why it Matters (0:33)
Guest: William Davison, Senior Analyst on Ethiopia, International Crisis Group
Ethiopia’s prime minister has declared victory in a month-long fight with a regional government in the North of the country. The UN this week says the Ethiopian government has agreed to allow humanitarian aid into the Tigray region as hunger grows and hospitals run out of basic supplies.
Evidence Suggests Women Hunted in Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Societies (18:07)
Guest: Randy Haas, Archaeologist, Professor of Anthropology, University of California Davis
Before ancient humans turned to farming, they were hunter-gatherers. Anthropologists have long believed that work was divided down gender lines: the men hunted, and the women gathered. But a 9000-year-old skeleton of a young woman found in Peru is changing that narrative.
Far-reaching Impacts of Biased School Discipline (35:52)
Guest: Charles Bell, Professor, Department of Criminal Justice Sciences, Illinois State University
Black students are twice as likely to be suspended from school as their white peers. Illinois State University Criminal Justice professor Charles Bell has concluded from his research that often Black students are expelled because of misunderstandings. And that suspending a student doesn’t actually do much to encourage better behavior, but it is very likely to harm the student’s educational opportunities and may even push the student to transfer to another school.
An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (52:20)
Guest: Sandy Tolan, Professor of Journalism, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Author of “The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East”
The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians seems intractable. “Locked in a dangerous paralysis” is how one top UN official described the state of things. The deep disillusionment and distrust on both sides of the conflict make the story of Dalia and Bashir as stunning today as it was in 1998, when it was first told. Dalia is an Israeli Jew. Bashir is a Palestinian. Both claim the same house as their home. And that house–with a lemon tree in the yard–brought them together in unlikely friendship more than 50 years ago.
Star Wars, AFOLs and the Secret to LEGO’s Enduring Popularity (1:31:25)
Guest: Joe Meno, Founder of BrickJournal, Co-Author of “The Cult of LEGO”
The hottest toys this holiday season are classics–Hot Wheels, Barbies, Care Bears, LEGOs. The pandemic seems to have a lot of us feeling nostalgic. LEGOs are always a top request to Santa, though. How has the company managed to stay popular for so long? Probably because they’re not just for kids.
Biden Signals a Return to Tradition in Foreign Policy, National Security (0:31)
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director, Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
Starting this week, President Trump gave the go-ahead for President-elect Joe Biden to receive daily intelligence briefings that will give Biden a broader look at national security threats facing the United States. The President-elect’s cabinet nominations are already giving us an inkling how Biden will approach those threats.
Why Are Students of Color Disproportionately Enrolled in Special Education? (15:06)
Guest: Laura Schifter, Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Students of color are far more likely to be placed in special education classes in US public schools than their white peers. Is that because more black and brown children have disabilities that need special attention? Or is racial discrimination at play? The answer to that has been difficult for experts to tease out because of how data about special education is collected.
The High Price of Fast Fashion (32:04)
Guest: Dana Thomas, Fashion Journalist, Author of “Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes”
Look at what you’re wearing. How long before it fades to the back of your closet and new clothes take its place? The average American buys 68 pieces of new clothing every year–that’s five times more than what people bought in the 80s. Trendy clothes are now produced so quickly and cheaply, and available at a click of a button. But fast fashion comes with a huge cost for the planet, economies, and human rights. And while the pandemic has people buying fewer clothes, that’s only exacerbated the problem in the world’s poorest countries.
How Storytellers Feel Like They Are in Space During COVID-19 (52:16)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYU Radio
How Bear Hibernation Might Work for Humans (1:04:07)
Guest: Heiko Jansen, Professor of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, Washington State University in Pullman
Imagine if humans hibernated like bears? Science fiction has toyed with this idea for a long time–putting astronauts into hibernation could help them weather a years-long trip into space more easily. And they’d need less food and oxygen. Even if it wasn’t full hibernation, but just a way to slow some of the body’s systems down, that could be really useful intreating diseases like diabetes or cancer. (Originally aired on Jan 22, 2020).
Helping Others With Depression: Words to Say, Things to Do (1:21:23)
Guest: Susan Noonan, Certified Peer Specialist and Consultant, Massachusetts General Hospitaland McLean Hospital, Author of “Helping Others with Depression: Words to Say, Things to Do”
More than 17 million adults in the US have had at least one major depressive episode in life. What’s the best way to help someone in that situation? Often it can feel like there’s nothing you can do for a depressed loved one. And whatever you do try may feel like exactly the wrong thing.
Biden National Security; Race and Special Education; Fast Fashion; The Apple Seed; Human Hibernation; Helping Depression
Suffragist Playbook; Safe in Austin; BLM Leadership; Mutating Vaccines; Comic Constitution; Christmas Presents
Lessons from Suffragists on How to Change the World (0:31)
Guests: Lucinda Robb and Rebecca Roberts, Co-Authors of “The Suffragist Playbook: Your Guide to Changing the World”
This year marked the 100th anniversary of the right to vote for women in America. The campaign for women’s suffrage was one of the largest and longest movements in American history, spanning more than 70 years, with long stretches of failure and disappointment. But in the end the change was momentous—and it was permanent. “The Suffragist Playbook” is a pocket-guide to the movement’s winning strategies.
Saving Pets and People in Austin (21:21)
Guest: Jamie Wallace Griner, Founder, Safe in Austin Rescue Ranch
Service animals get lots of specialized training to meet a person’s needs. But at the Safe in Austin Rescue Ranch in Texas, animals help just by being themselves. The sanctuary has chickens, dogs, horses, pigs, goats, cats, bunnies and tortoises—all rescued from severe abuse or neglect. The animals provide healing to children who come from similar backgrounds of abuse, neglect or special needs.
The Leaderless and Leader-full Black Lives Matter Movement (35:38)
Guest: Ashley Cole, Doctoral Researcher, Birmingham City University
The protests may have died down, but the Black Lives Matter movement is far from over, and it’s spread around the world. But who’s leading? When we look back at the Civil Rights movement, there’s an easy answer: Martin Luther King Jr. But there isn't one main person leading Black Lives Matter. That’s actually by design. But how can an organization get anything done without someone calling the shots?
A Vaccine That Mutates and Spreads (52:22)
Guest: Leor Weinberger, Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California San Francisco, Director, Gladstone Institute
The vaccines being developed to prevent COVID-19 will probably have to be tweaked in future years to continue to work against the coronavirus as it mutates. Virologist Leor Weinberger says man-made drugs and vaccines are always playing catch up to the constant evolution of viruses. But his laboratory at UC San Francisco has come up with a way to create a medication that mutates alongside the virus it targets—in this case HIV.
Why the US Constitution Gets a C Grade and How to Improve It (1:13:08)
Guest: Cynthia Levinson, Author of "The Youngest Marcher" and "Watch out for Flying Kids"; Sanford Levinson, Professor, Department of Government, Law School, University of Texas at Austin
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union...” That’s how the pre-amble to the US Constitution starts—you probably memorized it in school. We’re generally taught to reverence the Constitution and think it’s better than any other Constitution, to be amended sparingly. That’s not how the men who wrote the Constitution thought of it, though. If they were here today, how well would they say the Constitution is holding up to the goals they set out: “establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty”?
What Should You Get Your Kids for Christmas? (1:31:46)
Guest: Lan Chaplin, Professor of Marketing, University of Illinois at Chicago
Is it better to give kids gifts or experiences for Christmas? Which will bring a child more pleasure—assuming you can find an experience to give during the pandemic? The answer depends a lot on how old the child is.
COVID-19 Vaccine Ahead of Schedule, But Likely Spring Before All American Adults Can Get One (0:29)
Guest: William A. Petri, Jr., Wade Hampton Frost Professor of Epidemiology, Professor of Medicine, Pathology, Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer Biology, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Virginia School of Medicine
The first doses of a vaccine for COVID-19 could be available to the public in a matter of weeks. What does this mean?
Vanishing Sounds of Nature (17:57)
Guest: Bernie Krause, Soundscape Ecologist, Wild Sanctuary
When listening to the sounds of nature, we might not be able to get much. The wind, some water, a couple of animals. But to Brian Krause it can be so much more. From a soundscape, he can determine the health of an ecosystem and just how much of an impact climate change has had. He says that picture is worth a thousand words, but a soundscape is worth a thousand pictures.
Why Gifted Youth May Not Want to Skip Out on Grade-Skipping (35:07)
Guest: David Lubinski, Professor of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University
If a child is really smart and learns quickly, they could take advanced classes, skip a grade, and/or graduate early. But should they? There’s been a lot of question if academic acceleration like that could have negative psychological effects on the student. So a research team followed some people for more than 35 years and found no evidence of harm from moving ahead in school.
The Addiction Treatment That Offers Prizes for Clean Drug Tests (52:17)
Guest: Dominick DePhilippis, Clinical Psychologist, National Coordinator for Implementation of Contingency Management, Philadelphia Center of Excellence in Substance Addiction Treatment and Education (CESATE), Department of Veterans Affairs
The nation’s early warning system for detecting trends in drug abuse is picking up a strong signal right now from cocaine and methamphetamine. Increasing numbers of overdose deaths involve those stimulants, often in combination with opioids. But unlike with opioids, where methadone and suboxone have proven very effective at treating addiction, there is no medicine that can treat addiction to cocaine and methamphetamine. The most effective treatment we know of right now is a bit controversial, but it’s widely used in health clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Billions of Dollars of Delinquent Power Bills—Who Will Pay? (1:11:44)
Guest: Ted Kury, Director of Energy Studies, Public Ultility Research Center, University of Florida
Since the pandemic, many states have implemented a moratorium on disconnecting utilities. That’s kept the lights on and water running for millions of people unable to pay their utility bills. But those moratoria are expiring and already unpaid electric and gas bills total more than $10 billion nationwide. How are those debts going to be paid?
Knitting the Pandemic Away (1:25:10)
Guest: Perri Klass, Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics, New York University, Author “A Good Time to Be Born: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future”
Home arts and handicrafts have been booming this year. Bread making, canning, knitting. Perri Klass isn’t surprised at all that knitting is having a moment. She’s been writing about its benefits for years–often in the health column she writes for the New York Times. See, Perri Klass is a pediatrician and a knitter. The two have always been compatible for her.
Vaccine Status; Vanishing Sounds of Nature; Grade-Skipping; Addiction Treatment; Delinquent Power Bills; Knitting
What We Learned From the Crack Crisis in America (0:35)
Guest: David Farber, Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of History, University of Kansas, Author of “Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed”
Many states are reporting a jump in opioid overdose deaths since the pandemic started. Health experts say extra stress may be driving increased drug use. Also, COVID-19 restrictions are making it harder to see addiction treatment. The latest overdose numbers are a grim reminder that America is still in the midst of a drug crisis. Before the opioid epidemic, there was the crack epidemic. But America responded very differently to that drug crisis. Historian David Farber says the comparison is worth looking into, for what it tells us about race, poverty and our “collective inability to treat each other with decency and mercy.” (Originally aired Nov 21, 2019).
The Future Is Peat (35:43)
Guest: Jonathan E Nichols, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
Let’s talk about peat. It’s a strange, miraculous thing. Bodies buried in peat bogs end up so well-preserved their faces and clothing are completely intact. Google “Bog Bodies” and you’ll see what I mean. It’s wild stuff. But peatlands are more than just ancient burial grounds. They’re also a really important part of the Earth’s system for keeping carbon dioxide levels in balance. In fact, they’re way more important than previously thought, based on calculations published recently in the journal Nature. (Originally aired Nov 14, 2019).
US Immigration Policy Is Outdated. Here’s a New Perspective (52:31)
Guest: Justin Gest, Professor of Policy and Government, George Mason University, Author of "Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change”
The US immigration system is unusual among developed countries. Since the 1950s, America has prioritized family connections in deciding who gets a visa. By contrast, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and the UK all use a points system to determine who gets a visa. Immigrants get points based on things like skills, education or income level. President Trump has proposed something similar in the US. The question is just how points will be allotted to immigrants hoping for a US visa. (Originally aired Dec 5, 2019).
Measles Erases the Immune System’s Memory (1:10:24)
Guest: Michael Mina, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
One positive side-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is there have been far fewer cases of measles. Last year, when we weren’t all quarantined and school was still in session, the US had its highest number of measles cases in decades. Most of the people who caught it were unvaccinated children and, gratefully, none of them died. So that fuels a perception among vaccine-hesitant parents that measles really isn’t that serious. (Originally aired Nov 11, 2019).
Precrastination Is the Opposite of Procrastination (1:27:21)
Guest: David A. Rosenbaum, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California Riverside
Many of us are guilty of procrastination or putting things off until the last minute, but what about precrastination? That’s when you get something done the moment it occurs to you—which doesn’t sound like a problem at all. But precrastination (which is a word he invented) can actually lead to wasted effort and wear a person down. (Originally aired Nov 13, 2019).
What are Native Land Acknowledgements About? (0:36)
Guest: Christine McRae, Executive Director, Native Land Digital
Recently, I’ve started to noticing speakers at public events say something along the lines of: “We are gathered today in native space and on the traditional lands of the Massachusett tribe," or “Before I begin this morning, I’d like to recognize the Algonquin nation on whose traditional territory we are gathering. We acknowledge them as the past, present and future caretakers of this land.” In one of the more high-profile examples, actor and director Taika Waititi acknowledged native land at this year’s Oscars. “The academy would like to acknowledge that tonight we have gathered on the ancestral lands of the Tongva, the Tataviam, and the Chumash.” Hearing these acknowledgments, two questions have come to mind—what’s the value of this? And, if I wanted to do it, how would I figure out whose traditional territory I’m on?
This Thanksgiving, Rediscover How America’s Indigenous People Ate Before the Colonists Came (17:29)
Guest: Sean Sherman, Founder, CEO, The Sioux Chef, Author of “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen”
You may be interested in adding some traditional indigenous flavors to your Thanksgiving feasting. Chef Sean Shermanhas some ideas. He’s Lakota Sioux and his cookbook, called “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen” includes recipes from every region in North America, with an eye toward what people here were eating before the colonists arrived.
Everything You Know About Thanksgiving is Wrong (33:09)
Guest: Bruce Forbes, Retired Chair of the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department, Morningside College, Author of "America's Favorite Holidays"
The story goes that the first Thanksgiving happened in November of 1621 when the Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest in the New World and invited some of their Native American friends to join them in a feast. And every year since then, grateful Americans have come together in feasting and thanks on the fourth Thursday of the month. Well, none of that is quite true.
Gratitude in Life, Science, and Business (52:48)
Guests: Kristi Nelson, Author of “Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted,” Executive Director, A Network for Grateful Living; Jo-Ann Tsang, Professor of Psychology, Baylor University; Tina Seelig, Professor of Practice in Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Author of “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20"
For many American families, it’s a Thanksgiving tradition to go around the dinner table and have everyone say one thing they’re thankful for. But once the pie and turkey leftovers are gone, we often forget to be grateful. So what’s the best way to practice it? And does it actually do us any good?
Railroad Tycoons and the Creation of Big Business in America (1:12:04)
Guest: Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, Los Angeles Times, Author of “Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads and the Making of Modern America”
The completion of the transcontinental railroad 150 years ago changed America’s culture and economy. But the rail industry was also a pretty big disaster in those first couple of decades—deeply in debt, poorly maintained and rife with corruption. There were hundreds of shorter lines crisscrossing the country that were in cutthroat competition with each other. It was chaotic and terrible for rail travelers, as well as for the US economy. But then, somehow, they coalesced into America’s first mega corporation. The railway tycoons of the early 1900s created the big business playbook still used today—especially by tech leaders like Jeff Bezos at Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. (Originally aired Oct 1, 2020).
PBS at 50 Years Old (1:33:09)
Guest: Paula Kerger, President and CEO, PBS
PBS turns 50 this year. It gave us Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, Julia Child and Ken Burns. But with Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon and Apple all flooding us with new viewing options, not to mention the traditional network and cable channels that have been at it forever, what exactly is the value of PBS in 2020? (Originally aired Oct 1, 2020).
Turkeys in 2020; Loneliness; Dust Bowl Conditions; Carbon Collection; Landslides; Koala Tracker Dogs
Turkeys Have Gotten Bigger Over the Decades, But This Year Small Is Preferred (0:30)
Guest: Jayson Lusk, Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University
Smaller Thanksgiving gatherings call for smaller turkeys. But if you're a turkey farmer, that's a decision you needed to make months and months ago—long before we knew the pandemic would affect the holiday like it is. What will they do with all their too-big-turkeys?
Loneliness Peaks for People in Their 20s (17:16)
Guest: Ellen Lee, Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego
Most people tend to experience loneliness in peaks and valleys throughout their lives—with some of the highest levels when they’re in their 20s. Often there’s another lonely peak in middle age and then towards the end of life. What drives loneliness up at such different periods of life?
Scientists Worry About the Return of 1930s Dust Bowl Conditions in the Great Plains (38:52)
Guest: Gannet Hallar, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah
A month ago, a storm on the plains in Eastern Colorado kicked up a huge wall of dust that blew three hundred miles through Nebraska, Kansas and into Texas. It was so big, weather satellites spotted it from space. There’s reason to believe that dust storms will be more and more common across the Great Plains. We may even see a return to the devastating Dust Bowl conditions during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Can Carbon Collection Fix Climate Change? (52:18)
Guest: Holly Buck, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Buffalo
Some of the world’s biggest oil companies—including Shell and BP—recently announced plans to capture the emissions coming out of two big industrial centers in the UK and pump that CO2 into the sea floor off the coast of England. Bizarre as that might sound, the idea of capturing carbon dioxide before it gets into the atmosphere, and locking it away somewhere, is an active area of research, but hasn’t been done successfully on a large scale yet.
How to Survive a Landslide (1:09:37)
Guest: Joseph Wartman, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington
In an earthquake you stand in a doorway. In a hurricane, get away from windows. In a flood, move to higher ground. But what do you do if a wave of mud and rocks is sliding toward you? Landslides kill up to 50 people each year in the United States. Back in 2014, the deadliest landslide in the nation’s history engulfed an entire neighborhood in rural Washington, killing 43 people. So, the question is, what do you do in a landslide to increase your chances of survival?
How Are Koalas Doing Almost a Year After the Australian Bushfires? (1:27:30)
Guest: Romane Cristescu, Ecologist, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Founding Member of Detection Dogs for Conservation, University of Sunshine Coast, Australia
Millions of koalas used to live in Australia—now there are only tens of thousands. And then the devastating bushfires hit at the beginning of the year and killed an estimated 5,000. Today, koalas are struggling to adapt with much of their habitat destroyed. The Detection Dogs for Conservation project at the University of Sunshine Coast in Australia, uses rescue dogs to track down koalas.
Most Statin Side-Effects People Complain of Also Happen with Placebo Pills (0:31)
Guest: Matthew Shun-Shin, Clinical Lecturer, Cardiology, Imperial College London
Statins for lowering cholesterol are among the most widely-prescribed drugs in America. But a lot of patients at risk for heart attack or stroke skip doses—or stop taking statins altogether—because of unpleasant side effects. Suppose it’s not the drug causing the side-effects, though? Researchers at Imperial College London did a clinical trial where they swapped the statins people were taking with just plain old placebo pills—and those people still reported the unpleasant side-effects.
The Nocebo/Placebo Effect—Is it All in Your Head? (7:23)
Guest: John Kelley, Deputy Director, Program in Placebo Studies and Therapeutic Interactions, Harvard Medical School, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Endicott College
People who take statins for high cholesterol often complain of side effects like fatigue, muscle aches, and nausea. But when patients participating in a clinical trial had their statins swapped out for placebo pills, they still complained of side effects. So was it all in their head?
Connecting with Scientists from Your Own Home (22:31)
Guest: Sarah McAnulty, Executive Director, Skype a Scientist
A couple of times a week, scientists from all sorts of fields are doing live streams and taking questions on YouTube. Sarah McAnulty is the founder of Skype a Scientist—which is a nonprofit that started off matching up scientists with school classes to do question and answer sessions. Since the pandemic, they’ve expanded to public sessions on YouTube, as well.
The Future of Hydrogen Fuel (39:59)
Guest: Jack Brouwer, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Director, National Fuel Cell Research Center, University of California, Irvine
You might think the future of cars is electric, but there’s another green alternative that was the alternative everyone was talking about a few decades ago. It’s hydrogen. A car can go three-hundred miles or more on a tank of hydrogen gas and only water vapor comes out the tailpipe. There are already hydrogen-powered buses and trucks on the road today, so why hasn’t the technology taken off more broadly?
Learning to Forgive Each Another (52:19)
Guest: Fred Luskin, Lecturer, Stanford School of Medicine, Director of Stanford Forgiveness Projects, Author of “Forgive for Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness”
Between the pandemic and the presidential election, there’s an awful lot of opportunity for disagreement and conflict in our lives. We thought that heading into the holidays would be a good time for some insight on how to let go of anger or hurt we might be holding on to.
The Pilgrims Were Immigrants, So Here Are Some Films About Immigration for Your Thanksgiving Viewing (1:07:30)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
The Pilgrims were immigrants to this continent, just the first of many wavescoming to America. So that’s the theme of today’s list of film recommendations from Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com.
Avalon (1990, PG)
Brooklyn (2015, PG-13)
Under the Same Moon (2007, PG-13)
The Infiltrators (2019, Unrated)
Using Greek Tragedies to Help Frontline Healthcare Workers (1:28:30)
Guest: Bryan Doerries, Artistic Director, Theater of War Productions
One of the painful ironies of the pandemic is that we’re not able to gather to process and grieve, to find support from knowing that we’re not alone in our fear or suffering. That’s one of the roles theater has played in society dating all the way back to ancient Greece. A nonprofit called Theater of War Productions has been using Greek tragedies to help war veterans and trauma survivors explore their experiences. Now the group has turned its attention to frontline healthworkers in the pandemic. The live Zoom performances feature award-winning actors like Frances McDormand. After the live performances, doctors, nurses, EMTs, technicians and cleaning aides talk things over—kind of a theater-assisted group therapy Zoom session.
Nocebos; Skype a Scientist; Hydrogen Fuel; Learning Forgiveness; Immigration Films; Using Greek Tragedies for Therapy
Trump Presidency; Smokejumpers; Movember; Praising Kids; Holiday Plans; Community College Students
Is There Really a Way for Trump to Keep the Presidency At This Point? (0:31)
Guest: Jason Roberts, Associate Chair/Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina
President Trump’s options for challenging–let alone overturning–the election are nearly exhausted. Judges have rejected his campaign’s lawsuits seeking to invalidate Joe Biden’s win in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. But watching this process unfold reminds us that an election outcome isn’t final when the media calls it. Nor is it final when all the votes are counted. Or recounted. There’s still canvassing and certifying to be done. And then there’s the electoral college. And Congress has a role, too.
Smokejumpers: Elite Firefighters Fighting A Growing Wildfire Crisis (24:11)
Guest: Jason Ramos, Firefighter, Author of "Smokejumper"
2020 was the most active wildfire season on record for the West Coast. Tens of thousands of firefighters worked to put out the flames, protect communities and rescue people. Jason Ramos has been a wildland firefighter for 27 years. He’s part of an elite unit that parachutes out of airplanes to fight fires. A few years ago, he wrote a book about his experiences called "Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America’s Most Select Airborne Firefighters."
Mustaches for Men’s Health (40:21)
Guest: Robert Huffman, Development Manager, Movember Foundation
November is Movember. Men grow mustaches. It's not just an excuse to skip shaving–it’s actually a fundraising effort focused on men’s health. The Movember Foundation is currently funding more than a thousand projects in 20 countries targeted at prostate and testicular cancer research and prevention, as well as suicide prevention and mental health.
How to Praise Your Kids (50:50)
Guest: Eddie Brummelman, Professor of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Editor of “Psychological Perspectives on Praise”
Good job! I’m so proud of you! What a fantastic drawing–I love it! Anyone raising a child has undoubtedly uttered those–and many other words of praise. Kids need praise. Or so we’ve been told. But really, praise can make some kids narcissistic and can undermine the self-esteem of others. When is praise harmful–and why?
How to Plan for the Holidays this Year (1:08:09)
Guest: Melissa Hawkins, Epidemilogist, Professor, American University
The thought of not gathering to share holiday meals together as friends and family this season is heartbreaking. But COVID-19 spreads through the air. Eating means taking our masks off. And cases of COVID are surging across the country. Is it possible to gather and feast safely right now?
A Program to Help Community College Students Stay Enrolled (1:27:11)
Guest: Kelly Hallberg, Scientific Director, Poverty Lab, University of Chicago
Community colleges in America may not be as prestigious as their four-year university peers, but they’re still a really important way for people to rise out of poverty. Unfortunately, only about a third of students who enroll full-time in community college for the first time actually end up graduating. What’s going wrong? The Poverty Lab at the University of Chicago has been studying intervention programs designed to improve graduation rates in community college.
US Presidents Weren’t Supposed to Have Cabinets, But They All Do. Here’s Why. (0:33)
Guest: Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Historian, White House Historical Association, Author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution”
President-elect Joe Biden will have a lot to deal with when he becomes president–tackling the pandemic and restoring the economy. Presidents need advisers they can trust in a crisis. So, perhaps it will surprise you to learn that the US Constitution doesn’t actually provide for a Presidential cabinet. In fact, the idea that a president would consult with a small group of advisers was really upsetting to many of the founding fathers. And yet, every US president since Washington has had one. (Originally aired April 2, 2020).
Carl Butz Saves Local Newspaper (36:56)
Carl Butz, retired computer programmer, owner of The Mountain Messenger
Publishing a local newspaper is always a challenge, but for The Mountain Messenger, it’s basically a miracle. It’s the oldest weekly newspaper in California, but in mid-January, the paper was set to fold. Then retired computer programmer Carl Butz decided he couldn’t let that happen, so he stepped in with money he’d been saving to go on vacation and is now the proud owner of a small-town paper in an industry that’s dying nationwide. (Originally aired February 20, 2020).
Nonprofit Teaches Kids to Write and Produce Music in Exchange for Good Grades (52:21)
Guest: Brandon Steppe, Founder and Executive Director at The David’s Harp Foundation
There was a point about 15 years ago when Brandon Steppe set out to become a rapper and music producer. He even built a recording studio in his garage. And then a visit from a neighbor kid, changed everything. Today, Steppe runs a nonprofit called the David’s Harp Foundation in San Diego. He mentors disadvantaged young people and gives them free access to his recording studio. But to earn studio time, kids have to get good grades. (Originally aired November 26, 2019).
How Ageism is Defining the Work Experience for All Generations (1:09:31)
Guest: Robert McCann, Professor of Management Communications, Anderson School of Management, University of California Los Angeles
Look around the typical office in America and you’re likely to see a wide range of ages. The oldest Gen Z-ers are now starting out in the workplace. The oldest Millennials are about to turn 40. Gen-Xers are filling out a lot of the management and executive suites alongside Baby Boomers who are delaying retirement in significant numbers. It’s a situation ripe for miscommunication and age-discrimination. (Originally aired December 10, 2019).
Learn to Make Sourdough From a Starter and Help Solve a Scientific Mystery (1:26:50)
Guest: Rob Dunn, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, Director, The Public Science Lab, North Carolina State University, Founder, Wild Sourdough Project
The pandemic has spawned a new fascination with bread making. But many would-be-bakers found themselves in a bind–yeast sold out in stores right along with toilet paper and hand sanitizer. So that spawned a sourdough craze that’s still bubbling in some homes. See, you don’t need yeast to make bread rise. You just need flour, water and patience. The Public Science Lab at North Carolina State University is hoping this new excitement for sourdough will help them finally solve the mystery of just how it works. They’re asking people to document their sourdough starters and submit the data to the Wild Sourdough project.(Originally aired April 21, 2020).
What Do Rideshare Drivers Really Want? (0:30)
Guest: Chris Gerace, Rideshare Driver, Creator of YouTube Channel “Real RideShare Stories”
Tension has been building for years about what rights and protections people have when they drive for an app like Uber or Lyft. The companies say drivers are just freelancers. The state of California tried to force Uber and Lyft to treat drivers as employees with access to health benefits, paid sick days and unemployment insurance. It all came to a head in the recent election with a measure called Prop 22 in California. The rideshare companies won that fight. Now they’re looking to do the same thing in other states. But what do drivers for these apps think?
Juvenile Detainees Losing Ground and Academic Credits in the System (22:56)
Guest: Nadia Mozzafar, Senior Lawyer, Juvenile Law Center, Co-Writer, National Report "Credit Overdue"
The US has a different justice system for children who commit crimes. They’re locked up separately from adult offenders and typically face different punishment. The underlying idea being that kids are still developing–their brains, their behaviors, and the hope would be that after detention, a teen could turn his or her life around. Education is foundational to that theory–so kids in the juvenile justice system spend a lot of their time taking classes so they don’t fall behind. But too often, that time studying behind bars turns out to be wasted for youth in the juvenile justice system.
The Impact Lack of Diversity Has on the TV & Film Industry (35:41)
Guests: Gerald Higginbotham, Social Psychology Doctoral Student, University of California, Los Angeles; Darnell Hunt, Professor and Dean of Social Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
The film industry has struggled with diversity–remember the #OscarsSoWhite controversy? And #OscarsSoMale? Well, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently announced that starting in 2024, any movie hoping to win an Oscar for Best Picture will have to meet a minimum threshold of actors and crew from an underrepresented group, including women, people of color, people with disabilities and LGBTQ individuals. But movie studios also have a cash incentive–big-budget films that are more diverse make more money.
Cary Grant: Symbol of the 20th Century, Icon of Hollywood’s Golden Era (52:16)
Guest: Mark Glancy, Professor of Film History, Queen Mary University of London, Author of “Cary Grant, the Making of a Hollywood Legend”
Cary Grant is an iconic actor from the Golden Age of Hollywood. He's possibly the most debonair film star ever. And entirely self-made. He was born Archie Leach–a sad, neglected, working-class boy from a troubled family in Bristol, England. How did he become something so completely opposite–and do it so successfully on screen for thirty years?
Books for Teaching the True History of Thanksgiving (1:31:40)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, Brigham Young University
Rideshare Drivers; Juvenile Justice System; Hollywood Diversity; Cary Grant; Thanksgiving
Georgia Flips; Virtual Nature; Bird Forensics; The Apple Seed; Social Media Data; Genetic Scissors
How Georgia Went Blue (0:31)
Guest: Angie Maxwell, Diane D. Blair Endowed Chair in Southern Studies, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Arkansas, Co-Author of “The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics”
All eyes are on Georgia, where election officials are recounting every vote in the Presidential election by hand, and two Congressional races are going to a runoff in January that will determine whether Republican keep control of the U.S. Senate. The recount of votes is not expected to eliminate Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow presidential victory in Georgia. The last time a Democrat for President won in Georgia, it was Bill Clinton in 1992–a Southerner, by the way. And before that, it was Jimmy Carter who is from Georgia, so that makes sense. But why would Joe Biden of Delaware make Georgia a swing state, suddenly?
Virtual Nature—As Good As the Real Thing? (23:15)
Guest: Matthew Browning, Professor of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Director of the Virtual Reality and Nature Lab, Clemson University
With shorter days and colder temperatures setting in, it gets harder to get yard work done, let alone spend time relaxing outdoors. There’s a lot research being done right now into a virtual alternative, where you strap on a headset and explore a coral reef or rain forest that looks so real, it can trick your brain. Could virtual nature experiences be just as good for you as the real thing?
Bird Forensics Investigator (36:59)
Guest: Pepper Trail, Senior Forensic Scientist and Ornithologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
You can’t just kill a hummingbird and turn it into a good luck charm–which is something people do. You can’t leave an oil slick open for birds to get trapped in–which is something companies do. You can’t serve wild woodcock to diners–which is something a restaurant did. You can’t possess the feather of a bald eagle–you probably knew that. The point is, there’s a lot of crime being committed in violation of laws that protect migratory and endangered birds in the US. And those crimes need forensic scientists to solve them.
The Apple Seed (52:15)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, BYUradio's The Apple Seed
Sam drops by to talk about Thanksgiving stories.
Looking to Social Media to Figure Out How Happy People Are (1:05:42)
Guest: Munmun DeChoudhury, Professor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech University
This has been a really rough year. It’s probably safe to say that a lot of people aren’t doing great. But how can we actually get a pulse on the general mental health of Americans during this time? Well, how about Twitter? You can learn a lot about a person based on what they write on social media, and that information could be used in efforts to prepare for how future pandemics will affect mental health.
The Potential of CRISPR/Cas9, Nobel-Winning “Genetic Scissors” (1:21:52)
Guest: Kevin Davies, Author of "Editing Humanity", Executive Editor of The CRISPR Journal
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year went to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for “discovering one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors.” The scissors can target a specific piece of genetic code, snip it out and replace it with something else. The new book “Editing Humanity” charts that discovery and the controversy that continues to swirl around it.
Biden Promises a Climate-Centered Presidency (0:30)
Guest: Brigham Daniels, Professor of Law, Brigham Young University
President-elect Joe Biden has promised to put the US back in the Paris Climate Agreement on his first day in office. But meeting the requirements of that agreement will require a major reduction in carbon emissions from all aspects of America’s economy, and Biden may not have the votes in Congress to get big climate change laws passed. There’s a lot the President can do without Congress, though–and President-elect Biden’s approach to climate change is shaping up to be even more aggressive than his former boss President Obama.
Why the World Loves Dolly Parton (and Really Needs Her Now) (21:15)
Guest: Sarah Smarsh, Author of New York Times Bestselling Memoir “Heartland” and “She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs”
There’s a petition–with tens of thousands of signatures–calling on the state of Tennessee to take down all of its Confederate monuments and replace them with a “true Tennessee hero, Dolly Parton.” Not so long ago, Dolly Parton was best known to many people as the punchline of jokes about her body. Today she’s regarded as a living saint in her home region of Appalachia. Young music stars clamor to collaborate with her. Back in 2016, Dolly packed arenas on her latest world tour. It was at one of those shows that author Sarah Smarsh looked around the audience and decided she needed to take a closer look at why Dolly is so popular right now.
How Humans Are Altering Life on Earth (52:21)
Guest: Helen Pilcher, Science and Comedy Writer, Author of “Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth”
We just can’t help ourselves, really. Humans are pushing the evolution of living species into overdrive. Some of it is deliberate–like domesticating animals and modifying the genetics of plants. Some of it is accidental–like how our presence and pollution are prompting species to mate that wouldn’t have normally. Ever seen a Pizzly Bear? It’s a hybrid Polar/Grizzly. Not all of our influence on nature is bad, though. Humans are starting to use this power to bring species back from the brink of extinction. (Originally aired on June 25, 2020).
Studying Cockroaches and Snakes to Help Robots (1:31:13)
Guest: Chen Li, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Principal Investigator of the Terradynamics Lab, Johns Hopkins University
Robots can do a lot of amazing things, but unfortunately, they’re pretty limited in movement. Your robot vacuum can’t climb up the couch to clean it, and a self-driving car can’t move over rubble to assist in a search and rescue operation. To make that happen someday, a team at Johns Hopkins University is studying cockroaches and snakes. (Originally aired June 25, 2020).
Big First Amendment Cases on Supreme Court’s Calendar (0:30)
Guest: RonNell Andersen Jones, Lee E. Teitelbaum Endowed Professor of Law, SJ Quinney College Of Law, University of Utah
Do pandemic restrictions that limit the size of church gatherings violate religious freedom? The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has filed an emergency request with the US Supreme Court asking that it overrule the New York Governor’s strict limits on religious meetings as COVID-19 cases rise. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the question in the next week or so.
How COVID-19 is Changing Lines (23:53)
Guest: Richard Larson, Professor of Data, Systems, and Society, Massacusets Institute of Technology
We all hate waiting in line. But during a pandemic, lines are also a public health hazard. Do they have to exist at all? There’s a whole science to why lines happen and how–with the right planning and technology–they don’t have to be so long. And they definitely don’t have to be so annoying. The pandemic may just be the thing that ends the line as we know it.
Bridging Ideological Divides with College Students (41:20)
Guest: Mary Ellen Giess, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Interfaith Youth Core
The election exposed just how deeply divided America is–politically, socially, racially, religiously. Demonstrations for and against President Trump in Washington, DC on Saturday ended in fist fights. And troublingly, reports of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes are up in the United States–including on college campuses. Given that state of affairs, is there any way for religious differences to be a unifier, rather than a divider? The Interfaith Youth Core thinks so. All year, the nonprofit has been sponsoring collaboration and dialogue between universities that are very different–a religious school paired with a secular, liberal arts college.
Better Algorithms Are Also Worse Algorithms (52:22)
Guest: James Zou, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University
We’re constantly influenced by computer algorithms–that’s how you get movie recommendations tailored to you on Netflix or articles about things you’re interested in on your Facebook feed. But new research shows that as algorithms get better at making predictions for what one group of people will like, other groups get left in the digital dust. That might be innocent when it comes to movie recommendations, but algorithms also sometimes decide who should get a bank loan or interview for a job.
Bringing Seagrass Meadows Back to Virginia, One Seed at a Time (1:08:39)
Guest: Robert Orth, Professor, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary
A story now of humans successfully restoring a marine habitat. Off the coast of Virginia, seagrass had been entirely absent since the 1930s. Then Robert Orth and his colleagues at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William and Mary started planting seagrass by hand along the coast. Twenty years later, it’s a real success story and–as the researchers write in the journal “Science Advances”–it’s part of a growing movement of “ocean optimism” when so much of the news about human impact on the environment is bleak.
Childhood Behaviors Predict Partnership Patterns in Adulthood (1:28:50)
Guest: Francis Vergunst, Postdoctoral Fellow, Developmental Public Health, University of Montreal
Whether a child is anxious, aggressive or hyperactive around age 10 is a pretty good predictor of future relationship success. A study of thousands of Canadian children that followed them from kindergarten into adulthood found that people who remained single were more likely to have been anxious children. And those who partnered but split up early in adulthood were more likely to have been aggressive or disobedient as kids. So there are some important insights here for parents and teachers.
SCOTUS; Lines and COVID-19; Bridging Divides; Algorithms; Seagrass; Childhood Behaviors Predict Patterns
Wonder Woman as an Awkward Teenaged Refugee Confronting Injustice in America (0:33)
Guest: Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times Best-Selling Author of “Speak” and “Chains,” Author of “Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed”
Wonder Woman has become edgier and more empowered on screen over the years. The latest iteration of Wonder Woman’s story from DC Comics rolls the clock back to her teenage years–when she was just Diana Prince. She’s awkward, uprooted from home, living as a refugee in New York City. The new graphic novel is called “Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed." (Originally aired on June 22, 2020).
Capturing The Sound of Religion (24:55)
Guests: Isaac Weiner, Professor of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University, Co-Director, American Religious Sounds Project; Amy DeRogatis, Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State, Co-Director, ARSP
During the isolation of this pandemic, religious experience has looked different. Felt different. Sounded different. For instance, Catholics in Milwaukee banged their pots and pans along with the ringing of church bells on Easter Sunday. Audio from that day is part of the American Religious Sounds Project which has been tracking the sound of religion during the pandemic. (Originally aired May 27, 2020).
Preserving the History of Ice Harvesting (41:14)
Guest: Kenneth Lincoln, President of the Thompson Ice House Preservation Corporation
Winter is coming on, and that means lakes and ponds are going to start freezing over across the country. Back in the day, people relied on that happening to provide the blocks of ice that would go into iceboxes–they were literally boxes with ice in them-to keep things cool. Then came electric refrigerators and ice harvesting went out of business. That was a century ago. But there’s a small town in Maine keeping the tradition alive with an annual ice harvest on a local pond. (Originally aired March 11, 2020).
“The Mountains Sing”: Trauma, Resilience and the Legacy of War in Vietnam (52:52)
Guest: Nguyen Phan Que Mai, Author of “The Mountains Sing”
With Veterans Day this past week, we were reminded, once again, just how large the Vietnam War looms over America’s psyche. Six million American men and women who fought in the Vietnam War are still alive today–they’re the largest surviving group of veterans from a single conflict and far outnumber the veterans who’ve fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, it’s really no wonder that most of the books and movies about the Vietnam War that we’re familiar with are from the perspective of those veterans–from the perspective of America and its allies. Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s new novel is the rare exception. It tracks the effects of war on four generations of one Vietnamese family. The novel, which is called, “The Mountains Sing,” draws from the real experiences of Que Mai’s family. (Originally aired March 7, 2020).
An App That’s Designed to Be Your BFF (1:30:44)
Guest: Eugenia Kuyda, Co-Founder and CEO, Replika
A lot of things during this pandemic have moved online–including work, therapy, and routine doctor’s appointments. Many of our relationships have moved online, too. Three years ago, Eugenia Kuyda created an artificially intelligent bot that can take the place of a friend in some cases. It’ll talk or text with you about your day, offer support or insight and, because it’s artificially intelligent, it learns from your conversations over time. It’s like a warm fuzzy Siri or Alexa. The app is called Replika. (Originally aired April 16, 2020).
Afternoon Doctor Appointments (0:30)
Guest: Mara Gordon, Family Physician and Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, Cooper Medical School, Rowan University
The next time you schedule a doctor’s appointment, you might want to make it for the morning. Turns out that if you go see a physician in the afternoon, you could get worse healthcare. (Originally aired June 2, 2020).
The Divers Who Watch Over the Underwater Resources at National Parks (17:15)
Guest: Dave Conlin, Chief of the Submerged Resources Center, National Park Service
The most iconic images of America’s National Parks – the ones on the posters and license plates - are aboveground. Well, okay, there are some caves in the mix. But the National Park Service also has a team dedicated to caring for resources that are underwater – kelp forests, coral reefs, sunken ships like the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor. (Originally aired June 2, 2020).
Measuring the Effect of Social Media on Body Image (37:33)
Guest: Sophia Choukas-Bradley, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh
It's tricky to take a flattering selfie. You have to get the right angle, lighting, facial expression. But some women online – young women especially – look great in every picture. Is it because they’ve basically been posting photos to social media all of their lives? Or that they just put a lot more effort into making sure they look good in those photos? (Originally aired June 2, 2020).
Microplastics Are Airborne, Come Down in Our Rain, and Are Virtually Everywhere (52:54)
Guest: Janice Brahney, Professor of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University
We’ve got a problem with plastic in our oceans. But now it’s in our wind and rain, too. New research shows that air and water deposit more than 1000 tons of plastic every year in US protected lands – and that’s just in the Western part of the country. (Originally aired June 29, 2020).
New Recommendation for Anxiety Screening in Women & Girls (1:08:41)
Guest: Heidi Nelson, MD, MPH, Professor of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University
Women are twice as likely as men to have anxiety. Nearly half of American women will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. So a coalition of women’s health professionals say screening for anxiety should be a regular part of routine check-ups for all women and teenaged girls. (Originally aired June 29, 2020).
The Glass Cliff (1:26:26)
Guest: Alexis Smith Washington, Associate Professor in the Management Department, Oklahoma State University
Most of these companies making public statements of support for Black Lives Matter and their commitment to do better on issues of race, have a lot of work to do when it comes to hiring and promoting people of color. There are currently only five black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. None is a black woman. But, there’s a real risk that companies in a rush to address their lack of diversity right now will end up promoting minority workers to positions where failure is likely because we’re in a recession. It’s a phenomenon known as the glass cliff. (Originally aired June 29, 2020).
Afternoon Doctor Appointments; National Park Service Dive Team; Social Media and Body Image; Airborne Plastics; Anxiety Screening; Glass Cliff
A Veteran’s View on Why He Served (0:30)
Guest: Captain Frank “Gus” Biggio, Former US Marine, Author of “The Wolves of Helmand: A View from Inside the Den of Modern War”
Millions of American men and women have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 20 years. Most have seen the gains they fought for–whether it’s territory, or peace and stability for a region-lost as those conflicts drag on. How do veterans square that? Was the time away, the injuries, the trauma, the death of their comrades, worth it?
Restaurants Setting the Table for Gentrification (35:30)
Guest: Joshua Sbicca, Associate Professor of Sociology, Colorado State University
If you want to know which rough neighborhood in a city is about to become the next hipster enclave, look where a new coffee shop opens upselling organic brews and smoothies. An upscale restaurant is bound to follow. And maybe a pop-up farmer’s market on the weekend. And before long you’ve got new condos and art spaces moving in, along with wealthier–and often whiter–residents. Why is a thriving food scene such a reliable precursor to gentrification?
With Redistricting Power at Stake, Republicans Win Big in States (52:53)
Guest: Wendy Underhill, Director of Elections and Redistricting, National Conference of State Legislatures
While Democrats celebrate their victory in the Presidential Election, the picture on the state level is quite different. Republicans maintained control of all the state legislatures they held before the election, plus picked up New Hampshire. And because this is a Census year, that puts Republicans in charge of redrawing voting district boundaries in the majority of states.
App Gives Greater Access to Eating Disorder Treatment (1:09:45)
Guest: Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, Professor of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis
Eating disorders are common on college campuses and extremely debilitating for students. In fact, almost all first-time cases of an eating disorder happen before age 25. Problem is, most college students with an eating disorder don’t get help. So a research team came up with an easier way for these students to get treatment through a phone app. And it’s working.
Disabled Actors Face Double-Standard in Casting (1:27:11)
Guest: Kurt Yaeger, Actor, Producer and Activist for Disabled Performers
It’s become politically incorrect for a white actor to play a character of a different ethnicity on screen. But those casting rules don’t apply to playing characters with disabilities. The vast majority of characters with disabilities in film and television are portrayed by actors who do not have the same disability. And not only is that considered acceptable, those actors often get all kinds of Oscar buzz for portraying the disability so convincingly. Actors with disabilities say they constantly battle a double-standard, where they only ever get cast to play characters with disabilities.
Veterans; Food & Gentrification; GOP State Legislatures; Treating Eating Disorders; Disabled Actors
Status of Trump Campaign Lawsuits Challenging Election Outcome (0:31)
Guest: Douglas Spencer, Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of Connecticut
President Trump has not conceded the election to Joe Biden and his campaign continues to allege problems in how ballots were counted in several states. The Trump Campaign and Republican allies have filed a number of lawsuits to that effect.
How Deaths are Investigated in the US (18:20)
Guest: Gregory Davis, Forensic Pathologist, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Chief Medical Examiner, Jefferson County, Alabama
Autopsies are a critical tool for public health officials tracking the COVID-19 pandemic–how far it’s spread, how deadly it is, how it harms the body. But the system of doing death investigations differs from state to state. In fact, in some places, the coroner responsible for declaring a patient’s cause of death isn’t required to have any medical training at all. In some places, coroners are elected, so politics and public opinion can influence their decisions–say if there’s pressure to downplay the deadliness of the virus.
Rapping for STEM Representation (33:24)
Guest: Raven Baxter, Founder, STEMbassy, PhD Student, Science Education, University of Buffalo, Fortune Magazine’s 2020 40 Under 40 List
Microbiologist Raven Baxter–AKA Raven the Science Maven–has had quite the year. Fortune Magazine named her one of their 40 under 40. A video she made of a COVID-19 rap went viral. So did a post about her experience as a Black woman in science and academia under the hashtag #BlackintheIvory. Baxter’s got deals for a children’s book and a TV show in the works, now, too. Her whole mission is changing the culture of science so that it’s more inclusive and real.
Tombstone and the Frontier’s Last Gasp of Lawlessness (51:01)
Guest: Tom Clavin, Author of “Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday and the Vendetta Ride from Hell”
Even if you don’t know the details, you’ve heard of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. It happened in Tombstone, Arizona–a morbidly perfect name for the site of the legendary shootout. October 1881. It made Wyatt Earp famous. Beyond that, does it matter? Or was it just another example of violence in a violent frontier town? (Originally aired June 11, 2020).
Taking Risks, Facing Anxiety (1:28:18)
Guest: Anne Marie Albano, Professor of Medical Psychology, Columbia University Medical Center, Director, Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disordrs, Columbia University
American children are very anxious. Pandemics, natural disasters and political upheaval are stacked atop already stressful scenarios like making friends, achieving in school and being on social media. If you have one of these anxious kids, you might actually be making the problem worse. (Originally aired June 11, 2020).
Election Lawsuits; Death Investigations; Rapping for STEM; Tombstone, AZ; Facing Anxiety
Biden's International Policy; Extremism in France; FDA Warnings; Food Banks; Bats; Recycling
How Will Biden’s Approach to Foreign Policy Differ From Trump’s? (0:30)
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
President-elect Joe Biden has already signaled a very different approach to America’s international presence when he takes office in January. The Biden transition team is preparing a host of executive orders to reverse President Trump’s positions on climate change, immigration, refugee resettlement and the World Health Organization.
France’s Struggle with Extremism (19:32)
Guest: Greg Jackson, Professor of Integrated Studies, Assistant Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University, Host of Podcast “History That Doesn’t Suck”
Muslim men have carried out three stabbing attacks in France in the last month and government officials say they're confronting a “new generation” of Islamist extremists. To understand the cultural and political divide over Islam in France, you need to understand the colonial history of France in Algeria.
FDA Warns, Pregnancy and Some Over-the-Counter Meds Shouldn’t Mix (38:28)
Guest: C. Michael White, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut
Most drugs seem to be off-the-table for pregnant women because they’re potentially harmful to the baby. Add the most common pain relievers to that list, now. The FDA has just warned that taking NSAIDs like ibuprofen or aspirin after 20 weeks of pregnancy can be dangerous to both mother and fetus.
When Food Banks Fill Stomachs, but Harm Health (52:48)
Guest: Kristen Cooksey Stowers, Assistant Professor of Health Disparities, Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut
Food banks rely on the extra giving spirit people have this time of year stock their shelves. Food insecurity has doubled in America during the pandemic and food pantries play a crucial role in filling gaps for families in need. But while food banks may fill stomachs, they also seem to contribute to poorer health among food bank recipients.
There’s A Lot We Still Don’t Know About Bats (1:07:33)
Guest: Amy T. Gilbert, Disease Ecologist, National Wildlife Research Center
The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 came from a bat. So did the viruses that have caused Ebola, SARS, MERS and rabies outbreaks. There must be something about bats that makes them such good carriers of viruses that jump to humans. But the truth is, scientists don’t really know.
Tunnel Vision on Recycling is Actually Harming the Environment (1:20:32)
Guest: David Allaway, Senior Policy Analyst, Department of Environmental Quality, Oregon State
Recycling is not working very well. Not only is the system super confusing, but a lot of plastic ends up in landfill anyway. Part of the blame lies with major plastic companies. A recent NPR and PBS Frontline investigation found that these businesses spent millions pushing the idea of recycling onto consumers—even though they knew that recycling would be extremely difficult to get right and probably wouldn’t work. So now what? David Allaway says first, we need to get over our recycling obsession.
Healthy Masculinity; Teacher Burnout; 2010s Technology; Forensic Pathology; Noise Pollution; Butterflies
Helping Players Develop Healthy Masculinity (0:35)
Guest: Kip Ioane, Head Coach, Men's Basketball, Willamette University
College basketball teams are getting set for the start of the season at the end of November, though the pandemic may throw a wrench in that. Back in April, we heard about the unusual viewing schedule of the Willamette University men’s basketball team. In addition to watching film of themselves and their opponents playing, they watch documentaries about masculinity. There's a Netflix documentary called “The Mask You Live In” that is one of the films Willamette University basketball coach Kip Ioane shows his players as part of a program he calls, “Teams of Men.” Other NCAA teams have started implementing the program, too. (Originally aired April 27, 2020).
Teacher Burnout (20:00)
Guest: Steve Hydon, Clinical Professor in Field Education, University of Southern California
More than half of American kids have experienced some kind of trauma. Teachers have to deal with the repercussions of that every day with many anxious, depressed, and withdrawn students. It’s exhausting some teachers to the point that they’re start showing the same symptoms. It’s like second-hand smoking, but for trauma. And this was a problem long before the pandemic hit. (Originally aired March 24, 2020).
The Tech That Changed the World in the 2010’s and What to Expect from the 2020’s (34:44)
Guest: Jason Perlow, Senior Technology Editor, ZDNet
Ten years ago–the dawn of the 2010s–the world was about to get its first glimpse of the iPad. Now we all have tablets–or phones and laptops that can act like tablets if we want. Think of all the other technology the 2010s gave us: smart watches, smart speakers, smart-everything, really, including home appliances, lights and locks. The 2010s also brought our first real taste of just how much companies like Google, Apple and Facebook know about us–how easily that data can be misused. What technology advances might the next decade bring? (Originally aired January 7, 2020).
The Body Never Lies: A Day in the Life of a Forensic Pathologist (52:58)
Guest: Judy Melinek, Forensic Pathologist, Co-Author of “Working Stiff” and “First Cut”
Even on TV, being a forensic pathologist is not glamorous. The CSI investigators suit up and collect evidence at the scene, but the forensic pathologist is the one who has to cut open the body and weigh the organs and deal with all the gore of an autopsy. Why does someone go for a job like that? (Originally aired December 11, 2019).
The Unseen Danger of Noise Pollution (1:10:07)
Guest: Erica Walker, Founder of Noise and the City, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Public Health, Boston University
The noise on a big city street can be overwhelming, but you get used to it after a while. That’s probably why it was so eerie when everything went quiet during the pandemic lockdown. The Noise and the City project out of Boston University’s School of Public Health is working to understand how noise affects us–and how having less of it might be better for our health. (Originally aired January 7, 2020).
Citizen Scientists Can Help Save the Butterflies (1:24:21)
Guest: Mary Ellen Hannibal, Journalist, Author, and Researcher
Most of America isn’t doing much travelling right now, but Monarch butterflies sure have been. Right now, they’re arriving at their winter homes in Mexico. During butterfly migration from California to Mexico and vice versa, researchers need your help to track the migration. Sightings from everyday citizens have helped to document the decline in butterfly populations around the world, including the Monarch. (Originally aired April 14, 2020).
What the 2020 Election Tells Us About the State of America (0:33)
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
The outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election remains contested in several key states where vote counting continues and the Trump Campaign is filing legal challenges.
Training Robots Like You Train Dogs (23:42)
Guest: Andrew Hundt, PhD Candidate, Computational Interaction and Robotics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University
Can techniques used to train dogs work for teaching robots new skills? Robotics engineer Andrew Hundt has had some success. Hundt calls the robot he’s training “SPOT.”
Fishing Conflict in Nova Scotia (34:39)
Guest: Douglas Sanderson, Professor of Aborigional Law, University of Toronto
There’s a lobster war going on in Nova Scotia. Tensions between commercial and Indigenous fishers have risen to the point of sabotage. Commercial fishers recently ransacked two lobster pounds, barricading some indigenous fishers inside and dumping their lobster into the ocean. One of the pounds was burned down shortly after–it’s being investigated as arson. Commercial fishers argue that indigenous people are threatening their livelihoods with fishing practices outside of federal regulation, while the indigenous fishers say they’re only operating within their centuries-old rights.
Let’s Talk: How English Conversation Works (52:50)
Guest: David Crystal, Writer, Editor, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Bangor, Author of “Let’s Talk: How English Conversation Works”
Sometimes a conversation is so easy and engaging, you wish it didn’t have to end. Sometimes it’s so awkward or difficult that you’re desperately looking for an out after just a few minutes. What’s the difference between good conversation and bad? Also, are you good at conversation or not?
New Way to Stop Cow Predators: Paint Eyes on Cow Rumps (1:33:10)
Guest: Cameron Radford, PhD Candidate, Conservation Biologist, University of New South Wales Sydney
Around the world, when predators like lions and leopards attack livestock, some farmers will hunt down the big cat and kill it. And that’s a major factor in what’s driving these animals to extinction in certain places. So a couple conservation biologists came up with an idea: what if they painted eyes on the rear ends of cows in Botswana?
Yes, COVID-19 Cases Are Surging. But What Does That Really Mean? (0:31)
Guest: Syra Madad, Epidemiologist, Senior Director, System-wide Special Pathogens Program Office, NYC Health + Hospitals
COVID-19 cases are surging across the United States. Is this the wave we were expecting to arrive with flu season? Are there more cases because we’re doing more testing? Or are these high rates of infection being driven by something else we ought to be worried about? Let’s set politics aside and get some facts about the state of the pandemic.
Guidance as You Care for a Parent, Spouse or Aging Relative (20:54)
Guets: Aaron Blight, Caregiving Kinetics, Author of "When Caregiving Calls: Guidance as You Care for a Parent, Spouse, or Aging Relative"
One in six Americans is caring for an aging loved one–a spouse, a parent, a grandparent. An increasing percentage of that caregiving is being done under the same roof, where the aging loved one lives with the caregiver.
Does it Pay to Schmooze With Coworkers? (38:55)
Guest: Sanford DeVoe, Professor of Management and Organizations, University of California, Los Angeles
On workplace TV comedies, people are always going out for drinks or dinner with co-workers after hours. UCLA management professor Sanford DeVoe thinks the reason many people schmooze with colleagues after work is tied to how they’re paid when they’re on-the-clock.
The Apple Seed (52:50)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, BYUradio's The Apple Seed
Sam's reflects on the most recent general election and his short lived political career.
A Rise in Citizen Science Participation During the Pandemic (1:05:27)
Guest: Caren Cooper, Associate Professor of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Author of “Citizen Science: How Ordinary People are Changing the Face of Discovery”
Citizen science apps like iNaturalist have seen a huge increase in users sharing their observations during the pandemic. It’s something fun to do for people stuck at home–but it also provide valuable data to scientists who can’t do their field research right now.
How the World Champion Dodgers Stole Their Home in Los Angeles (1:21:52)
Guest: Eric Nusbaum, Author of "Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between"
The Los Angeles Dodgers won their first World Series in 32 years last week. Even though the team wasn’t playing at the stadium because of the pandemic, fans gathered in the parking lot for camaraderie–and because Dodger Stadium is beloved in baseball. It’s an historic facility with amazing views. But it’s rooted in tragedy.
Pandemic Status; Caring For Aging Loved Ones; Coworkers; The Apple Seed; Citizen Science; Stealing Home
Two-Party System; Mr. Rogers Neighborhood; Speed Limits; Swing States; Gratitude; Working From Home
Having Two Dominant Political Parties Is Not Good for America (0:29)
Guest: Lee Drutman, Senior Fellow, Political Reform Program, New America, Author of “Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America”
America’s system of government was not designed to work well under the current conditions–where two dominant political parties with nothing in common are locked in one election battle after another to clobber the other side and take control of the White House and Congress. The Founding Fathers had something very different in mind. In fact, what we’re experiencing now is pretty much their worst fear for American government.
The Letters Sent from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood (20:41)
Guest: Court Mann, Utah Journalist, Reporter for the Article "The many, many, many letters of Fred Rogers"
For more than 30 years, Mister Rogers looked out from TV screens and connected with children. It wasn’t just an act for Fred Rogers. Off camera, he was the most amazing pen pal, responding personally to every fan letter. And he was a dedicated pen pal to friends, family and acquaintances. But the story of these letters isn’t well known.
Drivers are Largely Responsible for Raised Speed Limits—Should They Continue To Be? (38:22)
Guest: Brian Taylor, Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy, Director of Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Why is the speed limit on your street what it is? How do cities and states decide what’s the safest speed for a given road? Believe it or not, much of the time it’s based on how fast people are driving. Many cities and states use a guideline called “the 85th percentile rule.”
How Swing States Came to Be and Why They Decide the President of the United States (52:50)
Guest: David Schultzis, Professor of Political Science, Hamline University, Co-Editor of "Presidential Swing States: Why Only Ten Matter"
The number of battleground states for presidential elections has been slowly declining over the years. So now this year’s election is pretty much over except for in several states where the vote could easily swing republican or democrat. Is the fate of the country really only in the hands of a fraction of the population? And what makes these “swing states” so unique?
Gratitude in the Face of Difficulty (1:11:54)
Guests: Kristi Nelson, Author of “Wake Up Grateful: the Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted,” Executive Director of A Network for Grateful Living
With a big election going on and a global pandemic and wildfires in the west... a lot of us are stressed and anxious right now. Gratitude may be the furthest thing from your mind, but Kristi Nelson says it can change your life. She's a stage four cancer survivor. Because of that experience, Kristi has made it a life mission to help other people discover the power of gratitude.
The Physical Pain of Working From Home (1:28:45)
Guest: Ronald Tolchin, Medical Director, Spine Center, Miami Neuroscience Institute
When the pandemic started back in the Spring, lots of people transitioned to working from home, hunched over laptops at the kitchen table or lounging on the couch. It was kind of novel at first, but nearly eight months in, the situation is taking a toll on our bodies. Chiropractors and spine doctors report a surge in complaints of back and neck pain.
Youth in democracy; raising children in isolation; barriers to the ballot box; confidence is attractive; #EndSARS; virus evolution.
If You Don’t Participate, You Can’t Complain (0:27)
Guest: Jeff Foster, AP Government Teacher, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida, Author of “For Which We Stand: How Our Government Works and Why It Matters”
Early voting and poll data suggest young voters are on track to cast ballots in record numbers this election. Consider the first-time youth voter in 2020: born just before the 9/11 terror attacks, grew up during the 2008 Great Recession, spent high school during President Trump’s intensely divisive first term and then, a global pandemic derails their senior year. That could certainly mobilize a young person to get engaged. Or it could turn them off politics completely.
Raising Children in Isolation (17:43)
Guest: Stephanie Coontz, Professor of History and Family Studies, The Evergreen State College, Director of Research and Public Education, Council on Contemporary Families, Author of “The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap”
The exhausted parent memes going around on social media seem to have a more desperate edge than usual. What is it about parenting during the pandemic that makes this moment so difficult? Historian Stephanie Coontz says it’s more than just being stuck at home with kids while trying to get work done. There’s an isolation to parenting during the pandemic that’s unprecedented.
Barriers to the Ballot Box (34:28)
Guest: Matt Vasilogambros, Staff Writer, Stateline, Co-Leader, “Barriers to the Ballot Box” Project
A record number of voters have cast a ballot early–either in-person or by mail–in this week’s general election. There’s been a flurry of lawsuits and last-minute court hearings over pandemic-driven changes to the voting process in several key states.
Why Confidence is Attractive (52:48)
Guest: Norman Li, Professor of Psychology, Singapore Management University
Confident men get further in life. Look at corporate board rooms. Look at the movies. Look at dating apps. Why are people–and especially women–attracted to confidence in men as mates and leaders? And, if confidence is such a key ingredient for success, can it be taught? Or does a man just have to be born with it?
World Pressures Nigeria on #EndSARS (1:08:55)
Guest: Carl LeVan, Professor, School of International Service, American University, Author of "Contemporary Nigerian Politics: Competition in a Time of Transition and Terror”
Three weeks of protests against police corruption and brutality in Nigeria has attracted the support of American celebrities and politicians posting about #EndSARS on social media. Nigeria’s president says at least 69 people–mostly civilians–have been killed in the protests. In one instance, the Nigerian army is accused of firing on a group of protesters, killing 12.
What Viruses Leave Behind in Our Bodies (1:27:26)
Guest: Nels Elde, Evolutionary Geneticist, University of Utah
After you’ve won the fight over an infectious virus like the coronavirus, the flu or hepatitis, do those pathogens leave anything behind? Is your body changed in some permanent way as a result of the battle you’ve fought? If so, might that change get passed down to your kids or grandkids?
Charlotte-Rose Millar of Univ of Queensland on her book "Witchcraft, the Devil and Emotions in Early Modern England". Nicholas Bellantoni of Univ of Connecticut on colonial vampires. Evan Ward of Brigham Young Univ on Day of the Dead. Brett Herbst on corn mazes. Kaeli Swift of Univ of Washington on crows. Gene Ahlborn of Brigham Young Univ on Halloween candy.
Witches Through the Ages (0:33)
Guest: Charlotte-Rose Millar, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland, Author of "Witchcraft, the Devil and Emotions in Early Modern England"
Halloween witches are a fun holiday oddity with their pointy hats and bubbling cauldrons. But their history is very dark. Thousands of people were executed for the crime of witchcraft in Renaissance Europe. We had the Salem Witch trials in the US. How did witches become more silly, than scary in pop culture? (Originally aired Oct. 30, 2018).
The Discovery, Investigation, and Identification of the Colonial Vampire (16:43)
Guest: Nicholas Bellantoni, Emeritus State Archaeologist, Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, Adjunct Associate Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut
In the 1800s, people in New England were so afraid of vampires they would dig up the graves of family members to protect themselves from the undead. University of Connecticut archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni found one of these corpses in 1990, but only succeeded in identifying it last October. (Originally aired Oct. 31, 2019).
Parties in the Graveyard: Day of the Dead vs. Halloween (35:13)
Guest: Evan Ward, Associate Professor of History, Brigham Young University
Halloween coincides with another holiday called “Day of the Dead,” or Dia de los Muertos. At first glance, they seem quite similar-skulls, graveyards, death, candy. But don’t let the decorations fool you. (Originally aired Oct. 30, 2018).
Corn Maze Economics (52:54)
Guest: Brett Herbst, owner and founder of The MAiZE, founder of Cornbelly’s Corn Maze
Every Halloween, tens of thousands of people across the country drive to a corn field and buy a ticket to get lost in a maze carved through the tall stalks. Corn mazes are relatively new as a cultural phenomenon, and in some cases, an important revenue source for farmers. (Originally aired Oct. 31, 2017).
Why are we so Fascinated by Crows? (1:16:37)
Guest: Kaeli Swift, Professor of Philosophy, University of Washington
Imagine a huge flock of crows decide to camp in the large trees on your street. They turn the trees black, and with the cawing all day long, it would be terrifying. No kids would want play outside and even the adults would afraid, because of that Hitchcock movie, “The Birds.” But would there be anything to be afraid of? (Originally aired Jan. 28, 2020).
What’s in that Halloween Candy (1:29:37)
Guest: Gene Ahlborn, Professor of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science, Brigham Young University
Halloween looks different for a lot of families this year because of the pandemic. But there’s still the candy. Lots and lots of it. (Originally aired Oct. 31, 2019).
Quinn Mecham of Brigham Young Univ on an ethiopian dam. Hayley Stevens on being a ghost detective. Graig Chow of Univ of California Berkeley on mental health stigmas against athletes. Elizabeth Mitchell on her book "Lincoln's Lie." Rachel Wadham of BYUradio's Worlds Awaiting on books about democracy.
Giant Contested Dam on the Nile Has Global Political Implications (0:31)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Ethiopia has built a gigantic dam on the Nile River, and it’s got Egypt and Sudan very upset. Both of those countries are downriver from Ethiopia and rely on the Nile for water. In the last month, President Trump waded into the conflict, siding with Egypt and pulling aid funding from Ethiopia. Talks between the three countries involved in the dispute started up again this week, but the dam is already built and Ethiopia has already started filling it.
Busting Ghosts in Real Life (21:44)
Guest: Hayley Stevens, Paranormal Researcher, Writer of the Blog “Hayley is a Ghost"
We’ve all heard creepy stories of the supernatural. A house with unexplained noises. Pictures with ghostly figures in the background. Hayley Stevens investigates these strange occurrences–she’s a paranormal investigator in the UK, kind of like the Sherlock Holmes of ghosts. After years of finding rational explanations for these occurrences, Stevens doesn’t believe in the supernatural anymore. She documents all her work on her blog “Hayley is a ghost.”
How Mental Health Stigma Impacts Student Athletes (41:20)
Guest: Graig Chow, Director, High Performance and Well-Being, The University of California, Berkeley
Some college sports are on, some are off. Athletes who chart their college careers around playing seasons have had a lot of uncertainty to deal with. And the result is significantly more stress, anxiety and depression, according to a survey by the NCAA. While about half of college athletes surveyed said they know how to get mental health support, the question is, will they?
A Different Side of Lincoln: Tech-Obsessed Media Manipulator Doing Battle with Fake News (52:49)
Guest: Elizabeth Mitchell, Former Executive Editor of George, Author of “Lincoln’s Lie: A True Civil War Caper Through Fake News, Wall Street, and the White House”
President Trump often compares himself to Abraham Lincoln. If Lincoln were alive today, he’d probably be just as active on Twitter as President Trump-and just as critical of the media, too.
Books for Teaching Kids About Democracy (1:34:05)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, BYUradio's Worlds Awaiting, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, Brigham Young University
I bet your kids are asking a lot of questions about the election. The barrage of news and tensions surrounding next week is hard to miss. So we asked children’s librarian Rachel Wadham to recommend a website and some books that are good for teaching kids about democracy.
ICivics
When I Grow Up To Vote
You Call This Democracy?
Drawing The Vote
Joel Selway of Brigham Young Univ on Thai protests. Jay Johnson of Lake Region State College on being a wind energy technician. Jordan Richard of Univ of Wisconsin-Madison on a mussel virus. Marine mammal vet Claire Simeone on sea lion surgery. Tracy Drake of Reed College on being a Black archivist. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com on mystery movies.
Democracy Protests in Thailand Appear Headed for Another Coup (0:30)
Guest: Joel Selway, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
In Thailand, you can be jailed for openly criticizing the king, but that’s what scores of protesters have been doing for weeks in the streets of Thai cities. They say they’ve been living under a dictatorship since a military coup in 2014. They want a new prime minister. They want the king investigated. They’re getting advice from pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
Emerging Field of Wind Energy Technicians (17:32)
Guest: Jay Johnson, Professor of Wind Energy, Director of Wind Energy Technician Program, Lake Region State College
Oil and gas extracting jobs have fallen off significantly this year–partly because of the pandemic, but especially because big oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia have driven oil prices so low. Some of the thousands of oil and gas workers now out of a job are jumping to the renewable energy sector and learning to become windmill technicians.
Tracking a Mass Murderer of Mussels (34:12)
Guest: Jordan Richard, Biologist, US Fish and Wildlife Service, PhD Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison
What is killing America’s freshwater mussels? Periodically, their carcasses are found floating in stretches of river from Virginia to Oregon. These are mass die-offs affecting thousands of mussels at a time. The cause is a mystery ecologists are anxious to solve because freshwater mussels are really important to rivers and water quality. A collaboration of scientists calling themselves the Unionid Mussel Strike Force has recently identified a virus that could be the mass murderer of mussels.
Toxic Algae is Making Sea Lions Sick (52:42)
Guest: Claire Simeone, Marine Mammal Veterinarian, Founder, Sea Change Health
Every year, hundreds of marine mammals along the West Coast–including sea lions and otters-get sick from ingesting toxins in algae blooms that are becoming more common due to climate change. The poison can cause brain damage and severe epilepsy. Earlier this month a sea lion named Cronutt got an experimental surgery to treat epilepsy that involved implanting brain cells from embryonic pigs in Cronutt’s brain. It’s still too early to know if the surgery worked, but his veterinarian is hopeful.
Archiving the Black Lives Matter Movement (1:10:28)
Guest: Tracy Drake, Archivist, Reed College
Decades from now, how will the stories of this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests be told? A group of Black archivists are consulting with protesters across the country about how to preserve the artifacts of the movement... posters, street art, ticket stubs, Twitter posts. Archivists in the group call themselves the Blackivists.
Mysteries for Your Family Halloween Movie Night (1:23:26)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Halloween will look different for a lot of us this year. The CDC has recommended people steer clear of trick-or-treating and indoor costume parties, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Maybe a family movie night is in order?
True or False? A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Identifying Fake News (0:33)
Guest: Cindy Otis, Former Intelligence Analyst at the CIA, Author of “True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News”
In this final week before the election, Twitter and Facebook are taking extra precautions to prevent misinformation from spreading on their sites. When the stakes are high, fake news flourishes online. And despite the efforts Twitter and Facebook might make, it really comes down to you and me doing our part to think critically about what we’re reading and watching online.
How Homework Can Help or Harm (23:42)
Guest: Denise Pope, Founder, Challenge Success and Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University
The boundary between school and home is blurred for so many families right now, and so is the line between classwork and homework, when kids don’t spend all day in a physical classroom with their teacher. How are your kids coping? Stanford’s Challenge Success program has long been studying the effects of homework on students–when it’s helpful and when it actually harms kids. That's right, homework can actually hurt.
Horror Movie Fans Are Coping Better During the Pandemic (39:16)
Guest: Coltan Scrivner, PhD Candidate, Department of Comparative Human Development, Fellow at the Institute for Mind & Biology, University of Chicago
Horror films are hot right now. But who wants to watch a movie about a global pandemic in the middle of a global pandemic? Why would anyone living in a stressful moment like this want to spend a couple of hours watching invincible–and infectious–zombies take over the world? But apparently, people who are drawn to horror films are faring a little better psychologically right now. It’s like watching the world fall apart on screen prepared them for real-world chaos.
The First Professional Disabled Golfer to Play in the European Tour (52:49)
Guest: Brendan Lawlor, Professional Disabled Golfer
This year, for the first time ever, a golfer with a disability competed in a professional European Tour. Brendan Lawlor is 22-years-old and 4’11” tall, but he competed well on the Tour against fully able-bodied golfers. He’s ranked fourth in the world among disabled golfers, and he hopes to pave the way for other people with disabilities to get into the sport.
Impact of Sexual Violence Normalization in College (1:09:28)
Guest: Laura Sinko, PhD Prepared Mental Health Nurse, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, National Clinician Scholars Program, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Stereotypes and social norms are barriers for college-aged women trying to heal from the trauma of sexual assault. There’s even evidence that how parents talk to their young daughters about consent and sexuality can make it harder for healing to happen as adults.
Electromagnetic Diabetic Treatment (1:27:16)
Guests: Calvin Carter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Neurology and Pediatrics, University of Iowa; Sunny Huang, PhD-MD Student, Molecular Medicine, University of Iowa
It’s estimated that half of people with Type 2 Diabetes are not managing their blood sugar levels effectively. That’s partly because it’s hard. There’s medicine, exercise, diet–and sometimes insulin shots–to keep track of. So a hands-off approach to treating Type 2 diabetes would be a huge boon for public health. Some researchers at the University of Iowa have found a way to control insulin and blood sugar levels remotely using electricity. Now, they’ve only done it in mice, but the science behind this is promising.
Cindy Otis, formerly of the CIA, on her book "True or False." Denise Pope of Stanford Univ on homework. Colton Scrivner of Univ of Chicago on horror films. Brendan Lawlor on being a professional disabled golfer. Laura Sinko of Univ of Pennsylvania on sexual violence normalization. Calvin Carter and Sunny Huang, both of Univ of Iowa, on a new electromagnet diabetic treatment.
Why Technology is Failing Schools When They Need It Most (0:30)
Guest: Justin Reich, Mistui Career Development Professor of Comparative Media Studies, Director of the Teaching Systems Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Author of “Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education”
Many very smart people believed that by now, most schooling in America would be happening online. That prediction was wrong–until the pandemic hit. Now students and teachers at all grade levels are learning the disappointing limits of technology.
Cannabis Poses Special Risks for the ADHD Brain (19:43)
Guest: Roberto Olivardia, Clinical Psychologist, Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Member of the Professional Advisory Board for Children and Adults with ADHD (CHADD)
Young people with ADHD are more likely to use cannabis–and more likely to become addicted to it.
Civility Rules! Creating a Purposeful Practice of Civility. (34:53)
Guest: Shelby Scarbrough, Author of "Civility Rules", Speaker, Entrepreneur, Protocol Expert
It's difficult to behave civilly when we get riled up. But it seems like angry outbursts, personal attacks and name calling are just the norm in American public life these days. If you watch cable news–or the Presidential Debates-you know exactly what I’m talking about. While swimming in a sea of hostility, how are we supposed talk respectfully about sensitive, but important topics?
A Fresh Take on an Alphabet Book (52:48)
Guests: Chris Harris, TV Comedy Writer and Author; Dan Santat, Illustrator and Author, “The Alphabet’s Alphabet”
My six-year-old niece is learning the alphabet right now and it’s all about trying to differentiate between the letters. No, that’s a capital B, not a D. See how it has two bumps instead of one? This is the letter A, not an H. See how the two long sides close together on top? There's a new picture book that leans in to the idea of shapes of letters in the silliest way. It’s called, “The Alphabet’s Alphabet.”
Scientists Found a New Way to Measure Ocean Temperature by Using Earthquakes (1:12:03)
Guest: Joern Callies, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, California Institute of Technology
The sea is a giant energy sponge. More than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed in the oceans – so, if we’re going to understand how the planet is warming, we need a way to accurately take the temperature of ocean water.
Animal Brains in Captivity (1:29:36)
Guest: Bob Jacobs, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Colorado College
During the pandemic lockdown, animals in many zoos acted differently. Some primates went looking for visitors, wondering where they went. Some keepers had to step in and have lunch dates with social birds. But how does captivity affect animals even when there are people around? Bob Jacobs argues that it’s extremely detrimental for the brain health of large mammals.
Justin Reich of the Massachusets Institute of Technology on his book "Failure to Disrupt." Roberto Olivardia of Harvard Medical School on ADHD and cannabis. Shelby Scarbrough on her book "Civility Rules." Comedy writer Chris Harris and illustrator Dan Santat on their new book "The Alphabet’s Alphabet." Bob Jacobs of Colorado College on animal brains in captivity.
Antarctica Was Once a Rainforest (0:36)
Guest: Johann Klages, Marine Geologist, Alfred Wegener Institutein Bremerhaven, Germany
This year is the 200th anniversary of explorers first clapping eyes on Antarctica. The frozen, barren continent is the coldest place on earth. But that wasn’t always the case. Believe it or not, it was once a rainforest with trees and swamplands. (Originally aired Jun 3, 2020).
Challenges Facing Black Americans in Mental Health Care (16:38)
Guest: Altha Stewart, Senior Associate Dean for Community Health Engagement, Psychiatry Professor, Director of the Center for Health in Justice Involved Youth, University of Tennessee
Nearly one in five adults in the US have a mental illness. But many health professionals say that access to and quality of mental healthcare is not equal among all Americans. A lot of Black people struggle to find the right treatment and can be easily misdiagnosed. (Originally aired Jul 20, 2020).
Lessons from a School Shooting Survivor (34:31)
Guest: Missy Jenkins Smith, Author of “Lessons from a School Shooting Survivor” and “I Choose to Be Happy”
When Missy Jenkins Smith was 15, she learned that she was permanently paralyzed from the chest down. The day before, she’d been shot by a fellow student at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky. Three of Missy’s classmates died in the shooting. This was 1997. Three months later, shooters would kill four students and a teacher at a middle school near Jonesboro,Arkansas. A year and a half later...Columbine. We didn’t know it then, but it was the beginning of an era in which fatal school shootings would become common in America. Since the day a school shooting changed her life, Missy Jenkins Smith became a counselor for at-risk youth, a motivational speaker and an author. (Originally aired Nov 25, 2019).
What will Save the Spirit Bears? (52:55)
Guests: Douglass Neasloss, Chief Councillor and Resource Stewardship Director, Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation; Christina Service, Executive Director, Spirit Bear Research Foundation
There’s a rare kind of bear that roams the Great Bear rainforest in British Columbia. It holds special significance for the Kitasoo/Xai-xais First Nation people there–they call them Spirit Bears. What makes these bears so unique? They’re white. No, they’re not polar bears, and they’re not albino. But recent research has identified what causes these black bears to turn white and how they need to be protected. (Originally aired Jul 23, 2020).
Dissolving Forever Chemicals (1:10:51)
Guest: Michael Wong, Professor of Chemistry, Rice University
Have you ever heard of a forever chemical? Probably not, but do you own water-proof clothing? That’s made of forever chemicals. How about cook with a non-stick frying pan? Those are made of forever chemicals, too. They’re called that because they don’t break down on their own. And now they’ve been found in the blood of most Americans. But scientists at Rice University have stumbled on a way to break these chemicals down. (Originally aired Jul 23, 2020).
Is This Cake? Hyperrealistic Cake Artists Are Making Cake Look Like Anything (1:27:27)
Guest: Natalie Sideserf, Cake Artist, Host of Food Network's "Texas Cake House", and Owner of Sideserf Cake Studio
Have you seen the videos of people cutting into what look like ordinary objects-like a Kleenex box or ahead of lettuce-to reveal that they’re actually made entirely out of cake? Natalie Sideserfis responsible for some of the most stunningly realistic cakes. If you’ve seen the filet-o-fish sandwich or the pickle or the onion–those are all her cakes. (Originally aired Jul 21, 2020).
Johann Klages of Alfred Wegener Institute on ancient antarctic forest. Altha Stewart of Univ of Tennessee on mental health among Black Americans. Missy Jenkins Smith, author of "Lessons from a School Shooting Survivor" and "I Choose to be Happy", on being a school shooting survivor. Douglass Neasloss of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation and Christina Service of Spirit Bear Research Foundation. Natalie Sideserf of "Texas Cake House" and Sideserf Cake Studio on hyperrealistic cakes.
Why is the Government Going After Google? (0:31)
Guest: Paul Stancil, Law Professor, Brigham Young University
When you want to find something out, you Google it. It’s so ubiquitous that it’s now the word we use for search. Is that just because Google’s so great we’ve all chosen it? The US Department of Justice says it’s because Google has illegally protected its monopoly on internet search.
Why Do We Love Boy Bands? (21:31)
Guest: Maria Sherman, Author of “Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands from NKOTB to BTS”
Serious music fans love to hate on boy bands for the floppy hair and cheesy dance moves and–maybe most of all–the hysterical fan girls. But let’s take a quick walk back through the history of boy bands in America and tell me you haven’t tapped your foot along to a hit from at least one of these groups. Right now, the biggest boyband in the world is the K-Pop group BTS. Before there was BTS, there was One Direction, and the Jonas Brothers. O-Town and NSYNC, of course gave us Justin Timberlake. And NSYNC’s big rivals The Backstreet Boys. Hanson came MMM-Bopping along in there, too. And Boys II Men, which you might argue is not a boy band, but stay tuned. New Kids on the Block. Maybe you thought that was the original boy band? Nope. There was a boy band called New Edition, billed as a “new edition” of . . . The Jackson Five. And before them . .. The Beatles. They’re a boy band. So, turns out you are a fan? Well you’re in good company.
How Do You Motivate People to Innovate? (41:46)
Guest: Luciano Kay, Research Associate, Institute for Social, Behavioral and Economic Research at the University of California Santa Barbara
If you want to get people to do something, offer a cash prize, right? Just yesterday our company offered $20 for anyone who could recite the mission and vision statements of the organization by heart at the next staff meeting. People are all over that, believe me. But when you want to encourage big stuff–like inventing a toilet to solve the world’s hygiene problems, or a robotic car that can drive 150 miles without human intervention, or a faster, more accurate COVID-19 test–do cash prizes work?
Barnstorming Ohio to Understand America (52:48)
Guest: David Giffels, Author of “Barnstorming Ohio to Understand America,” Professor of English, University of Akron
The chances are very good that whoever takes Ohio in the upcoming election will be our next president. Ohio, more than any other state, has a track record of picking the winner in presidential races. Why?
What are Native Land Acknowledgements About? (1:33:26)
Guest: Christine McRae, Executive Director, Native Land Digital
Recently, I’ve started noticing speakers at public events acknowledging that they are ancestral lands of Native Americans. In one of the more high-profile examples, actor and director Taika Waititi acknowledged native land at this year’s Oscars. “The academy would like to acknowledge that tonight we have gathered on the ancestral lands of the Tongva, the Tataviam, and the Chumash.” Hearing these acknowledgments, two questions have come to mind–what’s the value of this? And, if I wanted to do it, how would I figure out whose traditional territory I’m on?
Paul Stancil of Brigham Young Univ on google antitrust lawsuit. Maria Sherman, author of "Larger Than Life" on boy bands. Luciano Kay of Univ of California Santa Barbara on innovation prizes. David Giffels on Univ of Akron on his book "Barnstorming Ohio to Understand America". Christine McRae on native land acknowledgements.
Oliver Semans of Four Directions on voting on a Native American reservation. Lisa Yaszek of Georgia Tech Univ on Mary Shelley. David Vine of American Univ on costs of war. Sam Payne of BYUradio's Apple Seed. Edward Miguel of Univ of California, Berkeley on deworming in Kenya. Stephanie Plamondon Bair of Brigham Young Univ Law School on patent gap.
Native Americans Face Huge Obstacles to Cast a Ballot (0:33)
Oliver “OJ” Semans, co-executive director, Four Directions
More Americans will likely vote by mail this election than ever before due to the pandemic. That’s more convenient for a lot of us, but what if mail carriers don’t deliver to your house? What if you’re a hundred miles from the nearest post office to drop off your ballot? That’s the reality for many Native Americans living on reservations. And in some places, like Arizona, tribal members are numerous enough to swing a close election.
How Mary Shelley Brought Science Fiction to Life (19:53)
Lisa Yaszek, Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies, Georgia Tech
Frankenstein is one of the most enduring Halloween monsters – though technically Frankenstein was the name of the doctor who created the monster. It’s not just the monster of Frankenstein that endures in our culture. The story itself – published by Mary Shelley more than 200 years ago when she was just a teenager – is considered the first science fiction novel.
Adding Displaced Persons to the Tally of “Costs” Associated with America’s Ongoing War on Terror (32:35)
David Vine, Professor of Political Anthropology, American University, author of “The United States of War”
America has been fighting the “War on Terror” for going on 20 years now with a price tag of six and a half trillion dollars. That’s just the financial cost. There’s the loss of life, too - some 7,000 US troops dead and 8,000 military contractors. More than 330,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other countries where the War on Terror has stretched. The independent Costs of War project at Brown University has now added another data point to the mix – some 37 million people have fled their homes because of US fighting in the War on Terror.
The Apple Seed (51:20)
Sam Payne, Host
Sam discusses scary stories that are really not scary and seemingly always end in a laugh.
Inexpensive Treatment of Widespread Parasitic Infection Results in Economy-Wide Benefits (1:03:13)
Edward Miguel, PhD, the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics in the Department of Economics at University of California, Berkeley
Roughly 20% of the world’s population is infected with parasitic worms. The problem is particularly acute parts of Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, but infections have also occurred in the rural US South. It’s cheap and easy to treat these infections, but governments aren’t always committed to doing so.
How Psychopaths Can Still Succeed in Society (1:14:15)
Emily Lasko, Doctoral Student, Virginia Commonwealth University
Psychopathy is a serious mental illness that makes people antisocial and often causes them to commit crimes. But not all psychopaths are murderers. In fact, some can overcome their darker impulses and are able to function normally in society: hold a job, get married, be successful.
The Gendered Patent Gap (1:26:48)
Stephanie Plamondon Bair, Professor of Law, Brigham Young University Law School
Of all the patents awarded to inventors in America last year, fewer than 13 percent went to women. This gender gap has been a persistent problem for decades. Is it just that there are fewer women inventing things in America?
Ryan Vogel of Utah Valley Univ on domestic terrorism. Marianne Cooper of Stanford Univ on women, the workplace, and COVID-19. Beth Milliard of York Regional Police on mental health crisis among police officers. Deborah A. Cory-Slechta of Univ of Rochester on air pollution and brain health. Mohab Ibrahim of Univ of Arizona on green lights for migraines. Elizabeth Derryberry of Univ of Tennessee Knoxville on birdsong and noise pollution.
Understanding the Domestic Terror Threat in America (0:32)
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director, Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
Over the weekend, federal officials in Utah indicted nearly two dozen members of “white supremacist gangs” for drugs and weapons trafficking. The week prior, federal officials charged a dozen men affiliated with anti-government militia groups for plotting to kidnap Michigan’s governor over her pandemic shutdown orders. Both are examples of “domestic terrorism,” which the Department of Homeland Security recently singled out as a “persistent and lethal” threat on the rise in the US.
Women in the Workplace Report (19:17)
Guest: Marianne Cooper, Sociologist, VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab, Affiliate at the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, Stanford University
Working mothers have always battled a stigma that in the US. They’re more likely to be penalized for juggling home and work responsibilities or asking for flexibility to attend to their children’s needs. But the pandemic has amplified those disadvantages in a way that could derail careers and erase the significant gains employers have made in women’s representation.
Tackling the Mental Health Crisis Among Police Officers (36:10)
Guest: Beth Milliard, Sergeant, York Regional Police, Ontario, Canada
In the United States, police officers are far more likely to die by suicide than they are to be killed in the line of duty. Federal officials and nonprofits that support police officers have all declared suicide a pressing health risk for people in law enforcement. What’s driving the problem and what might help?
Air Pollution Has Been Linked to Brain Disorders–But Why? (51:18)
Guest: Deborah A. Cory-Slechta, Professor of Environmental Medicine, Pediatrics, and Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester
Air pollution is obviously bad for the lungs. It’s become increasingly clear that air pollution hurts the brain, too. May even be linked to dementia, Alzheimer’s and autism. But why?
Treating Chronic Migraines with Green Light (1:07:10)
Guest: Mohab Ibrahim, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Director, Chronic Pain Management Clinic, University of Arizona's Banner-University Medical Center
Chronic migraines are debilitating and can be very difficult to treat. But, sitting in front of a green LED light for at least an hour a day, proved surprisingly effective for people who get lots of migraines.
Birds Sang Softer, Sexier During the Sudden Quiet of Pandemic Shutdown (1:25:17)
Guest: Elizabeth Derryberry, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Remember how strangely quiet it was when the streets emptied during the shutdown back in the Spring? We’re all hoping to avoid going back to that as the pandemic rages on. But songbirds wouldn’t mind. Back in the spring, they were able to sing softer and sexier when they didn’t have to compete with cars and garbage trucks and all the other noise of a city. Scientists studied exactly how much softer and sexier white-crowned sparrow sang near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco back in April, when traffic practically stopped.
What We Learned About Amy Coney Barrett at the Confirmation Hearings (0:30)
Guest: Rebecca Gill, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination on Thursday. The vote is expected to go in her favor there, and in the Senate. Senator Lindsey Graham predicted that in his opening speech, before we ever even heard from Judge Barrett. So if the hearings aren’t for senators to figure out how they want to vote, then what are they for?
Video Games That Teach Healthy Masculinity (23:00)
Guest: Amy Green, Associate English Professor-In-Residence, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Author of "A Cure for Toxic Masculinity: Male Bonding and Friendship in Final Fantasy XV"
There’s a lot of questions about what impact video games have on people. But there’s a positive new trend: some video games are starting to portray deep and vulnerable male friendships. In the video game Final Fantasy XV there is a lot of emotional connection between characters. You wouldn’t expect that kind of emotional friendship from a video game, right?
The InvestEGGator: Using Decoy Turtle Eggs to Track Trafficking (37:58)
Guest: Sarah Otterstrom, Executive Director, Paso Pacifico
Almost all species of sea turtle are endangered, some of them critically. Poachers play a key role in that–they steal sea turtle eggs from the beach nests and sell them on the black market. So a group of scientists came up with a creative solution to track the movement of stolen eggs: GPS eggs. They look just like the real thing, except they have a tracking device inside.
Flying Race Cars Are Coming in 2021 (52:50)
Guest: Matt Pearson, CEO and Founder, Airspeeder
We’re finally going to get some flying cars next year. No, they won’t be for people like you and me to drive to work–they’re for racing, and they’ll only have room for one person.
The Software Tracking Every River In The World (1:10:34)
Guest: Jim Nelson, professor of hydrology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at Brigham Young University
Landslides and floods in Nepal killed 130 people back in July, but it could have been much worse. A computer program predicted the flood and gave Nepali officials advanced notice. This new technology can model the rise and fall of every river in the world.
Housing Struggles for College Students with Kids (1:27:18)
Guest: Autumn Green, Research Scientist, Wellesley Centers for Women
One in five college students are also parents. That’s according to estimates out of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Balancing school, work, and kids would be hard enough, but many also have to worry about basics like having a place to live and food to eat.
Rebecca Hill of Univ of Nevada, Las Vegas on confirmation hearings. Amy Green, author of "A Cure of Toxic Masculinity", on video games and masculinity. Sarah Otterstrom of Paso Pacifico on GPS eggs. Matt Pearson, CEO and Founder, on his company Airspeeder. E. James Nelson of Brigham Young Univ on river tracking software. Autumn Green of Wellesley College Center for Women on parents in college.
Ryan Jenkins of California Polytechnic State Univ on drone defense. Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen of Univ of Buffalo on food deserets. Jeff Reitz on going to Disneyland everyday. Camilla Baasch Andersen of Univ of Western Australia on comic book contracts. Toby McMartney on his company Plastic Roads. Ken Perenyi on his book "Caveat Emptor".
Drone Defense Ethics (0:34)
Guest: Ryan Jenkins, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, California Polytechnic State University, Director of Ethics and Policy, WhiteFox Defense Technologies
A New Jersey man was arrested this week on charges of trying to smuggle contraband into a prison using a drone. These aircrafts can cause all sorts of problems in the wrong hands: at times, they’ve made fire-fighting more difficult, interfered with law enforcement, invaded privacy. While the government is still figuring out the best way to regulate drones, new companies are cropping up with technology to defend against the aircrafts. (Originally aired Feb 25, 2019).
Why Grocery Stores Don’t Help Communities in Food Deserts to Stay Healthy (19:16)
Guest: Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, PhD Candidate, University at Buffalo, Graduate Research Assistant, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Many low-income communities don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. That can cause all kinds of health problems, and the seemingly obvious solution is to build grocery stores in those areas. That does make fruits and vegetables available to these people, only problem is that most still don’t buy them. (Originally aired Nov 5, 2019).
2,995 Days of Disney (33:01)
Guest: Jeff Reitz
Disneyland officials say they’reready to open back up–whenever the governor of California will let them. And the latest from Governor Newsom is that there is no plan to allow theme parks to reopen anytime soon. The pandemic shut down Disneyland in March, and with it, a pretty remarkable run for Jeff Reitz. He’d been to Disneyland every single day for eight years. The night the park closed was Reitz’s 2,995th consecutive day at Disneyland. Can you even imagine? (Originally aired Mar 25, 2020).
Turning Complicated Contracts into Comic Books (52:55)
Guest: Camilla Baasch Andersen, Professor, University of Western Australia Law School
With all the terms and conditions, agreements, and contracts I’ve mindlessly accepted or signed, I may have given away my first-born child without even knowing it. You know how it goes–long sentences, lots of complex legalise–who’s gonna read all that? Or better yet, understand it? That’s why attorney Camilla Andersenis turning contracts into comics. (Originally aired Feb 11, 2020).
Plastic Roads Provide a New Solution to Handling Waste (1:09:50)
Guest: Toby McCartney, Founder and CEO of MacRebur, The Plastic Roads Company
We’re in a plastic crisis. Not only is plastic ending up everywhere–in the ocean, in our food–but when we recycle in the US, it doesn’t always make a difference. A lot of recycling ends up in landfill. Toby McCartney has a novel idea that could help–reusing plastic to make roads. (Originally aired Mar 30, 2020).
Former Art Forger Now Sells His Fakes as Reproductions—But Misses the Thrill of Tricking the Experts (1:25:42)
Guest: Ken Perenyi, Art Forger, Author of “Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger”
For decades, until about 1998, American painter Ken Perenyi copied famous artists and passed his fakes off as the real thing. Some even ended up in fine art auction catalogs at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. They’re undoubtedly still hanging on the walls of galleries and art collectors around the world. But after the FBI came knocking, Perenyi decided to go legit. He still paints fakes, but he sells them as fakes–doesn’t try to pass them off as real. Which begs the question, why would anyone knowingly buy a fake? (Originally aired Jun 1, 2020).
The Pandemic is Really Bad For Your Teeth. Here’s Why. (0:32)
Guest: Tammy Chen, Central Park Dental Aesthetics, Midtown Manhattan
The pandemic appears to be causing a spike in dental problems. Manhattan dentist Tammy Chen says she’s seen “more tooth fractures in the last six weeks than in the previous six years.” She wrote about this in the New York Times recently. What is going on with our teeth? (Originally aired Sept 14, 2020).
What Love and Relationships Look Like During COVID-19 (17:48)
Guest: Daniel Jones, Editor, Modern Love, New York Times
Just like everything over the past six months, relationships have changed. Some of us are finding ourselves closer than ever to the people in our lives. Others are finding ourselves more isolated. (Originally aired Sept 14, 2020).
What Do We Do with Old Solar Panels? (36:45)
Guest: Garvin Heath, Senior Scientist, Resources and Sustainability Group, Strategic Energy Analysis Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Solar energy has taken off in America the last 20 years. It’s normal in most communities now to see homes with their own rooftop panels harvesting sunlight. But the US has not yet prepared for what’s about to happen with solar energy. All those panels were only designed to last 25 or 30 years. That means in the next decade, there will be millions of them heading to landfills. (Originally aired Sept 14, 2020).
Can’t Breathe While Exercising? You May Have EILO—Not Asthma. (52:53)
Guest: J. Tod Olin, Pulmonologist, Director, Exercise and Performance Breathing Center, National Jewish Health Hospital
If someone has trouble breathing when they exercise hard, they must have exercise-induced asthma, right? Well, it could also be something called exercise induced laryngeal obstruction or EILO. It’s not very well known, but pulmonologist Tod Olin estimates that one-third of people who are diagnosed with asthma actually have EILO or both asthma and this condition. (Originally aired Sept 14, 2020).
New Colonies of Emperor Penguins Found on Antarctica (1:10:42)
Guest: Peter Fretwell, Geographic Information Officer, British Antarctic Survey
A bit of good news for you today: scientists just found thousands of penguins. These emperor penguins weren’t lost, we just didn’t know they existed. This is a big deal because these colonies in Antarctica are particularly vulnerable to climate change. (Originally aired Sept 14, 2020).
The Campaign to Save Parasites (1:24:40)
Guest: Chelsea Wood, Professor of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington
All the talk about saving endangered species has never once mentioned the need to keep parasites from going extinct. Why then have a bunch of biologists from all over the world, signed onto a global call to “save the parasites”? Can you imagine walking around with a T-shirt that says that–and maybe a picture of an icky tapeworm? (Originally aired Sept 14, 2020).
Tammy Chen of Central Park Dental Aesthetics on dental problems during the pandemic. Daniel Jones of New York Times on modern love. Garvin Heath of National Renewable Energy Laboratory on solar panel disposal. J. Tod Olin of National Jewish Health on asthma-like condition Exercise-Induced Laryngeal Obstruction or EILO. Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey on Emperor Penguins. Chelsea Wood of Univ of Washington on the campaign to save the parasites.
Benjamin Collier of Temple Univ on disaster insurance. Elizabeth Hair of Truth Institute on TV, teens, and tobacco. Jonny Kingslake of Columbia Univ on hydrofracturing. Blogger Amber O'Neal Johnston on diverse homeschooling. Houston Kraft on his book "Deep Kindness". Mark Elliott, wetland ecologist with the Devon Wildlife Trust in England, on British beavers.
Intensifying Natural Disasters Causing Insurance Crisis for Homeowners (0:30)
Guest: Benjamin Collier, Assistant Professor of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management, Fox School of Business, Temple University
As wildfires get bigger and more damaging to communities in the West, insurance companies are increasingly reluctant to cover homes where fire risk is high. Similar trouble is emerging for homeowners in areas prone to flooding and hurricanes–which are also getting more intense with climate change. California’s Insurance Commissioner has called the problem of insurance companies refusing to cover homes in fire-prone areas a “crisis” for the state and issued a moratorium on insurance companies refusing to renew policies of existing customers. That moratorium is about to expire. (Originally aired Sept 10, 2020).
TV’s Effect on Teen Smoking and Vaping (19:56)
Guest: Elizabeth Hair, Senior Vice President, Overseer of Health Communication Research, Truth Initiative
Smoking and tobacco use appear to be on the rise in some of the TV shows most popular with young people–including Stranger Things on Netflix. The anti-tobacco group Truth Initiative’s latest report also found that young people who see those images on TV are not more likely to start smoking–which is good news. But they are more likely to start vaping. (Originally aired Sept 10, 2020).
Why Antarctica’s Ice Shelves Matter (36:48)
Guest: Jonny Kingslake, Professor of Glaciology, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Columbia University
You’ve heard that the massive ice sheet covering Antarctica is melting and causing sea levels to rise. The estimates of how quickly that ice is melting have failed to consider what’s happening to Antarctica’s ice shelves. The news there is not good.
Breaking The Homeschooling Stereotype (52:51)
Guest: Amber O’Neal Johnston, Homeschool Parent, Consultant, Heritage Mom blog and Instagram
Two big movements have been front and center in America these last few months–race relations and homeschooling. Amber O’Neal Johnston has found herself as a sought-after voice on both. She’s a homeschool mom in Georgia with a big following on her Heritage Mom blog and Instagram feed. She’s also black and has become a leading organizer of homeschool groups and resources for families of color. Lately, she’s also been asked to help homeschool families of all backgrounds find the best resources to teach children about racism. (Originally aired Sept 28, 2020).
It’s Not Enough to Be Nice. Let’s Work on Being Deeply Kind. (1:10:14)
Guest: Houston Kraft, Co-Founder of CharacterStrong, Author of "Deep Kindness: A Revolutionary Guide for the Way We Think, Talk, and Act in Kindness"
Are you a nice person? When was the last time that you did something intentionally kind, something that required you to step outside of your comfort zone or summon an uncomfortable amount of forgiveness and compassion? It’s not enough to be nice, says Houston Kraft. The world needs Deep Kindness. (Originally aired Sept 28, 2020).
First Community of British Wild Beavers in Centuries Allowed to Stay (1:29:31)
Guest: Mark Elliott, Wetland Ecologist, Devon Wildlife Trust in England
Beavers were driven to extinction more than four centuries ago in England. But then one day, a family of wild beavers just showed up in a river. That was seven years ago, and scientists have been studying their progression and effects on the ecosystem the whole time. There are now 15 families of beavers there, and the British government recently ruled they can stay permanently. (Originally aired Sept 28, 2020).
The IRS Disproportionately Audits Lower-Income Families (0:30)
Guest: Paul Kiel, Business and Consumer Finance Reporter, ProPublica
The IRS does tax audits on the working poor at about the same rate as it does the wealthiest 1%. Mostly everyone else in the middle gets ignored. Why do lower-income families come under such scrutiny? Well, it’s just easier for the IRS–those audits take significantly less time and fewer resources. IRS officials have directly acknowledged this but say they can’t do anything about it due to budget constraints. Their budget has fallen by nearly 15% in the last decade.
Why Is The Recorder Taught in School? (18:22)
Guest: Nina Stern, Recorder Player and Classical Clarinetist, Recorder Teacher, Juilliard, Founder of S’Cool Sounds
Most Americans are familiar with the sound of a bunch of first and second graders playing the recorder. A lot of American kids learned–and still learn–the recorder in elementary school. But why? What’s so special about the plastic instrument? It’s not by accident that the recorder is so commonplace, according to professional recorder player Nina Stern.
Aquarium's Grand Plan To Show Deep Sea Creatures (37:33)
Guest: Beth Redmond-Jones, Vice President of Exhibitions, Monterey Bay Aquarium
The deep sea is full of strange, other-worldy creatures, but most of us will only be able to see these animals through photo and video. Monterey Bay Aquarium is hoping to change that. They are currently working on an exhibit where guests will be able to get up close and personal with some of these bizarre aquatic animals. This is the first time this has ever been attempted. But how can creatures that are used to thousands of pounds of pressure and no light live that close to us?
The GOP's Generational Divide on Climate Change (52:48)
Guest: Kiera O’Brien, Founder and President, Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends, Incoming Graduate Student, Columbia University
It’s extremely difficult to get Republicans and Democrats to agree on environmental policy. Many conservatives prioritize the economy and worry about the government becoming too heavy-handed in regulating emissions. But yet, there are now climate change activists who are Republican. That’s because there is a growing generational divide–a recent poll out of the Pew Research Center found that younger Republicans are twice more likely to agree that “humans have a large role in climate change [and] that the federal government is doing too little on climate.”
The Pandemic Spawns a New Online Game: Blaseball (1:08:57)
Guest: Sam Rosenthal, Video Game Developer, The Game Band, Co-Creator, Blaseball
Looks like a great day for blaseball. Yeah, I said blaseball with an “L.” It’s an online version of baseball where anything can happen–it might start raining peanuts or a player might be brought back from the dead. It’s all up to the whims of the fans. Sounds ridiculous, but it’s become pretty popular–some people have even started sports blogs based on the fake teams. Sam Rosenthal created Blaseball when the pandemic hit–he wanted a way for people to stay connected.
What You Need to Know About Bear Spray (1:25:25)
Guest: Tom S. Smith, PhD, Professor of Wildlife Sciences, Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation Program at Brigham Young University
People hiking in the mountains may carry bear spray just in case they come across the furry omnivores. But for those people who own bear spray, when was the last time they checked the expiration date? There are a number of different factors that could mess with how effective your bear spray is, and that’s not the kind of thing you want to find out after you meet an angry bear.
Consumer finance reporter Paul Kiel of ProPublica on IRS audits of the poor. Nina Stern of Juilliard on recorder lessons in school. Beth Redmond-Jones of Monterey Bay Aquarium on a deep sea aquarium. Kiera O'Brien of Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends on young conservatives and the climate. Video game developer Sam Rosenthal on a new online baseball game called Blaseball. Tom S. Smith of Brigham Young Univ on bear spray.
Some Hospitals Are Struggling to Report COVID-19 and Flu Numbers (0:29)
Guest: Eric Toner, Senior Scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
The US government is now going to crack down on hospitals that aren’t reporting COVID-19 and flu case numbers daily. This comes after a mandate was put into place last month. If hospitals don’t comply, the Department of Health and Human Services has threatened to cut off Medicaid and Medicare funding—which has officials at the American Hospital Association extremely concerned.
Nice Guys Don’t Always Finish Last—At Least In Business (19:43)
Guest: Cameron Anderson, Professor of Management of Organizations, University of California Berkeley
You know how the saying goes, “nice guys finish last.” Well turns out that just isn’t true, in business. It might seem like jerks always win because they’ll do anything to get ahead, but they don’t actually have any advantage. Don’t get me wrong, mean people do attain positions of power, they just don’t do it any faster than nice people.
Students Are Zoning Out While Learning Online (36:19)
Guest: Han Zhang, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
College students already struggle to pay attention in class sometimes, and now online learning is only making it worse. A research team at the University of Michigan tracked eye movements during video lectures, and, you guessed it, they discovered a lot of zoning out.
What are Grade School Kids Learning about Black History? (52:49)
Guest:LaGarrett King, Professor of Social Studies Education, University of Missouri, Founding Director, Carter Center for K-12 Black History Education
What do you remember being taught about black history in grade school? I don’t remember a whole lot, but there was obviously slavery, the civil war, and then it jumped to the action of the civil rights movement. And from there it was mostly the positive aspects–Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. and their triumphs. But history isn’t that simple and those are only fragments of Black history.
Not Many Voters are Coaxed By Political Ads (1:12:50)
Guest: Seth Hill, Professor of Political Science, University of California San Diego
Politicians spend enormous amounts of money on advertising. Spending on 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns is expected to hit a record-breaking 10.8 billion dollars. But when it comes to TV ads, that money doesn’t do much at all to persuade voters.
New Growth Drug Is Controversial Among People with Dwarfism (1:27:53)
Guest: Erin Pritchard, Lecturer in Disability and Education, Liverpool Hope University
Achondroplasia is the genetic condition that causes dwarfism. The only treatment out there for it is a limb lengthening surgery that’s a long, painful, and invasive procedure. But now there’s a new drug that can make children with achondroplasia grow faster–almost as fast as kids without the condition. They still won’t reach average height, but the hope is that it will mitigate some of the negative health effects that come from dwarfism. It’s still being tested, but a study was just published with these promising results. Sounds like it would be a good thing, but a lot of little people find the treatment offensive.
Eric Toner of Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security on the hospital COVID-19 and flu reporting mandate. Cameron Anderson of Univ of California Berkeley on jerks not getting ahead. Han Zhang of University of Michigan on online learning and focus. LaGarrett King of Univ of Missouri of race and history education. Seth Hill of Univ of California San Diego on political ads. Erin Pritchard of Liverpool Hope Univ on new growth drug controversy.
Journalist Eric Eyre on his book "Death in Mud Lick" and tracking opioids. Ofir Turel of Cal State Fullerton on like counts on social media. Michele Gelfand of Univ of Maryland on political of fear. Margret Aldrich on Little Free Libraries. James D. Ivory of Virginia Tech Univ on video games and violence.
Tracking the Pill Shipments that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic (0:33)
Guest: Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize-winning Reporter, Author of “Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic”
Opioids continue to cause the majority of drug overdose deaths in America. For much of the last 15 years, prescription pain pills were the main culprit in those deaths and West Virginia was the epicenter of the problem. Several of its rural counties had the highest overdose death rates in the nation. No coincidence, they were also being flooded with pills. One small pharmacy in a tiny town called Kermit, West Virginia distributed 12 million pills in three years. The town has a population of just 358 people. And something similar was happening in counties all across America. Why did drug makers and distributors keep sending the pills? Where were the pharmacy oversight boards, the local police, the federal drug authorities? (Originally aired on April 16, 2020).
Is Hiding the Popularity of Instagram Posts Going to Make Us Less Depressed? (36:15)
Guest: Ofir Turel, Associate Professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences, Cal State Fullerton
People have been spending more time on social media during the pandemic–which makes total sense since so many of our in-person interactions are curtailed. One downside to life on social media is how easy it is to get obsessed with the number of “likes” your post gets. Instagram has experimented with hiding that running total of likes from the public, so only the person who made the post would know how many likes it had. Instagram’s CEO said the idea would be to “create a less-pressurized environment” where people can focus on “expressing themselves.” (Originally aired January 23, 2020).
How Perceived Threat Shapes Countries (52:55)
Guest: Michele Gelfand, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Author of “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World”
It’s unusual for one threat to affect every single country in the world like COVID-19 is right now. Typically, threats are more specific to one country or region–like a hurricane or a civil war. Psychologist Michele Gelfand says the level of threat a country experiences affects its laws and culture. Fewer threats make for a more open, permissive society. Places with a lot of pressing hazards tend to have stricter laws and enforcement. We’ve certainly seen that play out in how different countries have responded to the threat of COVID-19. (Originally aired on October 24, 2019).
Little Free Libraries Bring Free Books to Neighborhoods Near You (1:10:03)
Guest: Margret Aldrich, Media and Programming Manager, Little Free Library, Author of "The Little Free Library Book"
You may have come across a birdhouse-shaped box with books inside and a sign that says, “Little Free Libraries.” There are 100,000 of them in 108 countries. Take a book, leave a book. During the pandemic, some have been converted into pantries offering food and other basics. (Originally aired October 3, 2019).
Video Games and the Relation to Teen Violence: Is the Blame Justified? (1:26:04)
Guest: James D. Ivory, Professor and Research Director, Department of Communication, Virginia Tech
Politicians of both parties have, for years, blamed violent video games for contributing to real-world gun violence. The debate intensifies after a school shooting takes place. A number of perpetrators over the years have been known to play video games. Logically, it makes sense that spending hours shooting people indiscriminately in a virtual world might translate into real world behavior. (Originally aired September 5, 2019).
Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen, of Brigham Young Univ, on the presidential election. Itai Cohen of Cornell Univ on microscopic robots. Bob Hendrikx of Loop on Mycelium coffins. Journalist Brian Deer on his book "The Doctor Who Fooled the World". Rachel Wadham of BYUradio's Worlds Awaiting on autism and literacy.
Are We There Yet? Assessing the Final Weeks of the Presidential Election (0:31)
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
Mike Pence and Kamala Harris met Wednesday night in the first and only vice presidential debate of the election. The next Presidential debate is scheduled for next week, but as of Thursday afternoon President Trump says he will not participate because organizers are planning for it to be done virtually. President Trump is still recovering from COVID-19. Election Day is less than a month away.
A Little Computer Chip With Legs–Oh the Possibilities (23:16)
Guest: Itai Cohen, Professor of Physics, Cornell University
Researchers at Cornell have figured out how to put little legs on microscopic computer chips so they can move around. But what could scientists do with these small robots.
Living Coffins Made Out of Mushroom Roots (37:05)
Guest: Bob Hendrikx, Founder, Loop
Environmental sustainability does not often cross the mind of someone making funeral arrangements. But there are some “green burial” companies out there anticipating that at some point more people will be thinking about what impact their final rest will have on the planet. You can buy coffins made from biodegradable materials like wood or wicker. In some cultures, it’s customary to be buried in a simple shroud. My next guest thinks a coffin made of mushrooms is the best idea.
The Journalist Who Uncovered the “Elaborate Fraud” Linking Vaccines and Autism (52:49)
Guest: Brian Deer, Investigative Journalist at the Sunday Times of London, Author of “The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Science, Deception, and the War on Vaccines”
In 1998,The Lancet – a leading medical journal – published evidence of a link between autism and a common vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella. Twelve years later, The Lancet was forced to completely retract that study. Courts and government agencies in the US and the UK found its claims unreliable. A decade-long investigation by British journalist Brian Deer proved the study wasn’t just sloppy research, it was outright deception. Evidence in the study had been fabricated. The lead author had conflicts of interest that undermined his findings. British authorities revoked his medical license. But the consequences of that debunked study persist. The World Health Organization says vaccine hesitancy is a global health threat. Measles is resurging in the US and many other countries.
Helping Children With Autism Learn to Read (1:33:04)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
While the cause of autism is still unknown, the reality of it is present in homes and classrooms across the country. The current US statistic is that about 1 in 54 has an autism spectrum disorder. Let's talk about how to help children with autism learn to read.
Understanding the Escalating Conflict Between Armenia and Azerbaijan (0:31)
Guest: Carey Cavanaugh, Former US Ambassador for Eurasian Conflicts, OSCE’s Minsk Group, Professor of Diplomacy, University of Kentucky
A long-simmering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is quickly escalating toward war. The two countries are former Soviet Republics that have long been at odds. In the last week, nearly 400 people have been killed in a region called Nagorno-Karabakh, which belongs to Azerbaijan under international law, but is populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians.
The Internet Loves Fat Bears. Here’s Why They’re So Roly-Poly. (19:10)
Guest: Michael Saxton, PhD Candidate, Bear Center, Washington State University, Seasonal Ranger at Katmai National Park
Fat Bear Week is a worldwide sensation for Katmai National Park in Alaska. There are calendars of the roly-poly bears, before-and-after shots go viral on Instagram. The park does an online voting bracket to crown a champion of Fat Bear Week–more than 100,000 people cast votes this year and Bear 747 nabbed the win, cause he’s big like a jumbo jet. Why do the bears at Katmai get so fat this time of year?
What It’s Like to Actually Run Away With the Carnival (32:57)
Guest: Tessa Fontaine, Author of “The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts”, Professor of Creative Writing, Warren Wilson College
Who among us hasn’t daydreamed, at some point, about dropping everything to go do something dramatic like travel the world or downsize to an camper van or try your hand at doing your hobby professionally. There’s the old saying about “running away to join the circus.” That’s basically what Tessa Fontaine did for five months in 2013. Not the circus really, but the country’s last traveling sideshow. She told them she could eat fire and charm snakes, so they hired her. Then she had to learn to eat fire and charm snakes.
The Apple Seed (52:38)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, BYUradio's The Apple Seed
You might Sam Payne singing around his home during the COVID-19 pandemic, but you won't find him dancing. That doesn't mean that you can't find joy in dancing around your home.
The Godfather of the Thriller Genre (1:02:39)
Guest: Ryan Steck, Book Critic and Editor, therealbookspy.com
In the world of thriller and spy novel publishing, one self-made book reviewer has become a kingmaker in the genre. His name is Ryan Steck and his website is www.therealbookspy.com. It’s nothing fancy, but authors clamor for his star of approval. Readers take his recommendations seriously. But instead of pitting authors against each other, Ryan Steck has focused on turning the genre into a community where authors cheer each other on.
MS-13: The Making of America’s Most Notorious Gang (1:23:41)
Guest: Steven Dudley, Co-Director and Co-Founder of InSight Crime, Senior Fellow, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University, Author of “MS-13: The Making of America’s Most Notorious Gang”
MS-13 is America’s most notorious gang and is famously brutal. It’s also really misunderstood by American politicians and the public, says journalist Steven Dudley.
Carey Cavanaugh of Univ of Kentucky on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Michael Saxton of Washington State Univ's Bear Center on fat bear week. Tessa Fontaine of Warren Wilson College on her book "The Electric Woman". Sam Payne of BYUradio's The Apple Seed. Ryan Steck on his book reviewer site. Steven Dudley of American Univ on his book "MS-13".
Leslie Francis of Univ of Utah on the status of the Affordable Care Act. Melissa Artmstrong of Univ of Florida School of Medicine on Lewy Body Dementia. Trevor Buckner of Yale Univ on robotic fabric. Avian behavior specialist Jesse James on parrot training. Gretchen Daily of Stanford Univ on natural capital. Scott Bea of Cleveland Clinic Main Campus on seasonal affective disorder during a pandemic.
The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) Is Back at the Supreme Court. Here’s What’s at Stake. (0:32)
Guest: Leslie Francis, Professor of Law and Philosophy, Director of the Center for Law and Biomedical Sciences, University of Utah
The US Supreme Court returned to work this week and one of the most anticipated cases on its schedule is about the Affordable Care Act–or Obamacare. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns have made the status of Obamacare a major talking point. And you may be asking yourself–wait, we're still fighting over this? It’s been ten years since the healthcare law passed. The Supreme Court has already ruled on it twice. What more is there to fight about?
Robin Williams and Tom Seaver Had It—What is Lewy Body Dementia? (19:01)
Guest: Melissa Armstrong, Professor of Neurology, Director of the Mangurian Clinical-Research Headquarters for Lewy Body Dementia, University of Florida School of Medicine
A disease called Lewy Body Dementia is a leading cause of dementia, but it’s not as well known as Alzheimer’s. Some high-profile deaths are changing that–both comedian Robin Williams and Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver had Lewy Body Dementia. What is it?
Robotic Fabric with a “Mind” of Its Own (40:53)
Guest: Trevor Buckner, Graduate Research Assistant, Yale University
Some clothes seem to have a mind of their own–that one zipper that insists on sneaking down or shirttail that rides up no matter how tightly you tuck it in. The Faboratory at Yale University is developing fabric with a mind of its own in the more literal sense. It’s robotic fabric that can stiffen, tighten or unfurl on cue.
Why Are Parrots So Good at Swearing? (52:51)
Guest: Jesse James, Avian Behavior Specialist, birdwhisperer.com
A zoo in England had to separate five of its African gray parrots last week because of foul language. Literally. One parrot would swear and the other birds would react–along with the people visiting the exhibit–so the parrot would do it again and so on. The zookeeper told the BBC he hopes separating the potty-mouthed parrots into different colonies at the zoo will help them learn better manners. But “if they teach the others bad language and I end up with 250 swearing birds, I don’t know what we’ll do.”
What is the Value of Nature? (1:11:42)
Guest: Gretchen Daily, Professor of Environmental Science, Faculty Director of Natural Capital Project, Stanford University
You might describe nature as “priceless”, but some scientists actually want to put a price tag on nature. Their hope is that by calculating a numerical value for the environment, companies and governments will better understand the impact their decisions make–not just for nature, but for people, too.
Seasonal Affective Disorder in 2020 (1:28:37)
Guest: Scott Bea, Psychologist, Cleveland Clinic Main Campus
The days are getting darker and colder in North America. Now comes the onset of seasonal affective disorder–or “winter depression”–while we’re still enduring the loss and isolation of the pandemic. What can you–or someone you love–do to better cope with S.A.D. this winter?
Geoffrey Joyce of Univ of Southern California on drugs developed by California. Eric Teitelbaum of Princeton Univ on an alternative system to AC. Photographer Jeff Frost on wildfire photography. Psychologist Megan Connell of Geeks Like Us on Dungeons & Dragons therapy. Jacopo Buongiorno of Massachusetts Institute of Technology on small nuclear reactors. Landon Bunderson, CEO of Pollen Sense, on counting pollen.
Why California is Getting into the Drug Manufacturing Business (0:29)
Guest: Geoffrey Joyce, Chair, Department of Pharmaceutical and Health Economics, University of Southern California
California is about to become the first state to develop and sell its own line of generic drugs. The state’s legislature and governor signed the measure into law last week, as an effort to improve the quality of generic drugs and bring down prices. It’s a very unusual move that other states will be watching.
New Cooling System Would Cut AC Emissions in Half (16:50)
Guest: Eric Teitelbaum, PhD Graduate, School of Architecture and Materials Science, Princeton University
As the world gets hotter, air conditioning is ever more in-demand. But traditional AC requires a lot of energy and is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, globally. So, the world needs more efficient ways to cool off. Let’s hear about one solution put to the test in hot, humid Singapore this summer.
Photographing California’s Worst Wildfire Season Yet (34:24)
Guest: Jeff Frost, Artist and Photographer
It’s been another record-breaking wildfire season for California. More than four million acres have burned, state officials said over the weekend. That’s more than double the acreage that burned in the last record-setting year, which was 2018. A key difference is that while fires have burned bigger this year, they’ve been far less deadly or damaging to property than the 2018 wildfire season. Artist Jeff Frost has been documenting the escalating fire situation in California for many years now. He uses time-lapse photography and created a 30-minute documentary not long ago called “California on Fire.”
Defeat Mental Health Demons through Dungeons & Dragons (52:50)
Guest: Megan Connell, Psychologist, Therapeutic Dungeon Master, Co-Creator of Geeks Like Us
The roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons has gained popularity lately–perhaps partially because it entered the mainstream media through the TV show Stranger Things. But it’s not just a nerdy 80s game, it’s also good for mental health. In fact, licensed psychologist Megan Connell uses it as a therapy technique for anxiety, PTSD, and autism.
Can Smaller Reactors Revive Nuclear Power? (1:11:26)
Guest: Jacopo Buongiorno, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Without a big turnaround in the coming decade, nuclear power in the United States is headed for extinction. Nuclear plants all across the country are nearing the end of life and power companies are opting to shut them down rather than build new ones. A group of nuclear power proponents hope a radical redesign of the traditional nuclear reactor will revive the industry. US regulators recently approved the design for a “small modular reactor” as it’s called–though actually building one in the US is will require additional regulatory approval and nobody’s applied for that yet.
New Tech Gives Allergy Sufferers Real-Time Data (1:31:01)
Guest: Landon Bunderson, CEO, Pollen Sense
Pollen is still counted manually to give allergy sufferers 24-hour averages, if you can believe it. But that means the data is from the day before, which isn't helpful if someone wants to avoid going outside on a day that will be bad for their specific allergies. New technology could change all that - it gives real-time data on what pollen is in the air.
Aria Campbell-Danesh and Seth Gilihan, clinical psychologists, on their book "A Mindful Year: 365 Ways to Find Connection and the Sacred in Everyday Life".
Courtney Wiley, Sue Brown, Rachael Theis, Carl Crawford, Lisa Smitley, Julie Reed on the March on Washington 2020. National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore on his project Photo Ark. Brad Story of Univ of Arizona on throat singing. Actor Brian Baumgartner on The Office. RayMartell Moore on being a hand model. William Kelly of California State Univ, Bakersfield on the purpose of our nightmares.
Voices from the March on Washington 2020 (0:34)
Guests: March on Washington 2020 participants Courtney Wiley, Sue Brown, Rachael Theis, Carl Crawford, Lisa Smitley, Julie Reed
2020 has been marked by protests against racism in cities across the country. Two months ago was the March on Washington. Conversations about race in America are really hard, so listen to some march participants as they share their perspectives on thinking more deeply about what it means to stand against racism.
Photographer’s Intimate Portraits of 10,000 Species and Counting (23:35)
Guest: Joel Sartore, Creator of The Photo Ark, National Geographic Photographer
Many of the most threatened creatures on the planet–those on a path to extinction–are found only in the care of humans. They’re in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries and number about 15,000 species in all. National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore is on a mission to photograph every single one of them portrait-style. He’s just hit 10,000. That’s a lot of photoshoots with wild animals and insects.
The Science Behind Tuvan Throat Singing (39:39)
Guest: Brad Story, Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Arizona
The throat singers of Tuva and Mongolia have long puzzled scientists. When these throat singers sing, there’s a low grumble with a whistling melody on top. Where is that whistling sound coming from? It’s a real puzzle. But some clever scientists solved the puzzle by putting a Tuvan throat singer into an MRI and recording a video of what’s going on inside his mouth and throat as he sings.
Why Is “The Office” Still So Popular? (52:53)
Guest: Brian Baumgartner, Actor, "The Office", Podcaster, "An Oral History of The Office"
Fifteen years ago, The Office premiered on American TV and it was not a hit. But it somehow got picked up for a second season and became a huge phenomenon, changing television comedy, making its unknown stars famous. Today, The Office is arguably even more successful than during its nine seasons on the air. It’s a runaway hit on Netflix. Teens and tweens are crazy for it. What is going on?
A Day in the Life of Hand Model (1:15:42)
Guest: RayMartell Moore, Hand Model
Hand modeling. Can’t be so hard, right? After all, George Costanza from the TV show Seinfeld got offered a hand modeling job. What does make someone’s hands commercial-worthy?
What’s the Purpose of Nightmares? (1:33:19)
Guest: William Kelly, Associate Professor of Psychology, California State University, Bakersfield
Our nightmares are often a response to daytime stress. But suppose nightmares aren’t just a reflection of daytime anxiety. What if nightmares are the mind’s way of teaching itself new skills like a sort of twisted exercise routine?
William A. Petri, Jr. of Univ of Virginia School of Medicine on the status of a COVID-19 vaccine. Amra Sabic-El-Rayess of Teacher's College at Columbia Univ and author of "The Cat I Never Named" on surviving genocide. Will Maxson of the Federal Trade Commission on robocalls. Journalist Michael Hiltzik on his book "Iron Empires". Paula Kerger of PBS on the organization's 50th anniversary.
When Will We Have a COVID-19 Vaccine and How Will We Know It’s Safe? (0:33)
Guest: William A. Petri, Jr., Wade Hampton Frost Professor of Epidemiology, Professor of Medicine, Pathology, Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer Biology, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Virginia School of Medicine
During the debate on Tuesday night, President Trump said a vaccine is weeks away. That’s very good news and certainly attention-grabbing. Here is the latest update on the status of a COVID-19 vaccine.
A Teenaged Memoir of Surviving Genocide and the Dangers of Hate (20:12)
Guest: Amra Sabic-El-Rayess, Associate Professor of Practice, Teacher's College, Columbia University, Author of “The Cat I Never Named”
For three years as a teenager, Amra Sabic-El-Rayess lived under the constant threat of bombs, sniper fire and starvation. This was in the early 1990s. Her hometown in Bosnia and Herzegovina was under siege by Serbs intent on wiping out Bosnian Muslims like her. Amra Sabic-El-Rayess survived, in part thanks to a stray cat that attached itself to her family at the start of the conflict. “The Cat I Never Named” is the title of Amra Sabic-El-Rayess new memoir for young adults about her life during the Bosnian War.
Robocalls During the Pandemic (38:56)
Guest: Will Maxson, Assistant Director, Division of Marketing, Federal Trade Commission
Here’s a small silver lining to the pandemic: robocalls dropped off dramatically in the first several months of global lockdowns. They’re starting to tick back up again, though.
Railroad Tycoons and the Creation of Big Business in America (52:48)
Guest: Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist, Los Angeles Times, Author of “Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads and the Making of Modern America”
The completion of the transcontinental railroad 150 years ago changed America’s culture and economy. But the rail industry was also a pretty big disaster in those first couple of decades–deeply in debt, poorly maintained and rife with corruption. There were hundreds of shorter lines crisscrossing the country that were in cutthroat competition with each other. It was chaotic and terrible for rail travelers, as well as for the US economy. But then, somehow, they coalesced into America’s first mega corporation. The railway tycoons of the early 1900s created the big business playbook still used today–especially by tech leaders like Jeff Bezos at Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook.
PBS at 50 Years Old (1:33:08)
Guest: Paula Kerger, President and CEO, PBS
PBS turns 50 this year. It gave us Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, Julia Child and Ken Burns. But with Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon and Apple all flooding us with new viewing options, not to mention the traditional network and cable channels that have been at it forever, what exactly is the value of PBS in 2020?
Eric Jensen of Brigham Young Univ on the United Nations. Kammie-Dominique Tavares of Univ of Hawaii at Manoa on Hawaii beaches disappearing. Barry Rudin on being a ticket reseller. Sara Dahmen, author of "Copper, Iron, and Clay", on being a coppersmith. C Scott Baker of Oregon State Univ on beached whales. Carolyn Barnes of Duke Univ and author of "State of Empowerment" on afterschool programs.
Mixed Verdict on the United Nations as it Turns 75 (0:30)
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
The United Nations is celebrating its 75th anniversary. What’s there to celebrate?
Hawaii’s Beaches are Disappearing. Here’s Why. (22:44)
Guest: Kammie-Dominique Tavares, Graduate Researcher, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Doesn't a vacation to a beach somewhere just to relax sound nice? Hawaii’s always a good choice–when there’s not a pandemic restricting travel, of course. But Hawaii’s beaches are disappearing at an alarming rate because of rising sea levels and something called “shoreline hardening.” If both continue as they are right now, O’ahu could lose 40 percent of its beaches over the next thirty years.
Ticket Resales Business (34:18)
Guest: Barry Rudin, Owner of Barry’s Ticket Service, Southern California
This would have been a lucrative 24 hours for ticket re-seller Barry Rudin. He's based in Los Angeles where the Dodgers are playing at home and the Lakers are in the NBA finals. But alas, no fans are allowed inside, so there's no business for Rudin.
Meet the (Quite Possibly) Only Female Coppersmith in the US (52:49)
Guest: Sara Dahmen, Coppersmith at House Copper & Cookware, Author of "Copper, Iron, and Clay: A Smith's Journey."
Sara Dahmen was a wedding planner when one day she decided to give it up and become a coppersmith. She now makes cookware out of her garage with techniques from hundreds of years ago, and she’s probably the only female coppersmith in the entire country. But then, there just aren’t very many coppersmiths anymore, male or female. Metal crafting is a dwindling art, and as the experts die, their knowledge is dying with them. Could women save metal crafts?
The Mystery of Mass Whale Strandings (1:12:23)
Guest: Scott Baker, Professor of Fisheries and Wildlife, Associate Director of the Marine Mammal Institute, Oregon State University
Wildlife officials in Australia have just completed a week-long effort to rescue 470 whales that got stranded on a sandbank off the coast of Tasmania. They were able to save about 100 of them. Whales periodically get stranded on beaches around the world. This was the largest mass whale beaching in Australia’s history. What marine scientists aren’t sure of, is why this happens.
How Afterschool Programs Can Better Help Parents (1:27:37)
Guest: Carolyn Barnes, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Author of "State of Empowerment: Low-Income Families and the New Welfare State"
Nearly one out of four low-income schoolchildren in the country participate in an after-school program funded by the federal government. The kids get tutoring, homework help and basic supervision. Their parents get some peace of mind knowing their kids are in good hands during that window between the end of school and the end of the work day.
What Does Justice for Breonna Taylor Look Like? (0:31)
Guest: Shawnte West, Adjunct Instructor of Social Work, University of Louisville
Activists who spent months chanting the name Breonna Taylor in the streets of Louisville, Kentucky are angry and upset that a grand jury has declined to charge any of the police officers who shot Taylor in her apartment during a late-night drug raid in March. The raid was targeting an ex-boyfriend of Taylor who was not there. Why has this case been such a focus for the Black Lives Matter movement?
Building Mountain Bikes for the Physically Impaired (19:35)
Guest: Christian Bagg, Designer and Founder, Bowhead Corp
A snowboarding accident left Christian Bagg paralyzed from the waist down when he was 20 years old. A quest to find ways he could still go outdoor adventuring led him to create a motorized mountain bike for people with physical impairments.
Role of Ventilation in the Fight Against COVID-19 (36:35)
Guest: Jeffrey Siegel, Professor of Civil and Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto
The coronavirus has caused 200,000 deaths in America and cases are rising in communities around the country. What will happen when the cold weather hits and people start spending more time indoors? Let’s talk ventilation.
How Living in the Mountain West Changes Your Personality (52:48)
Guest: Friedrich Götz, PhD Candidate in Psychology, University of Cambridge
Where you live in the United States might mean more than just different sales tax and different weather. According to research from a group of international scientists, geography can also influence personality. If you live in a mountain area in the west, you’re more likely to have traits of the cowboys and mountain men of days gone by.
Black Women in the US Are More Vulnerable to Police Violence (1:08:20)
Guest: Michelle S. Jacobs, Professor of Law, Levin College of Law, University of Florida
Kentucky’s Attorney General says he’ll release a recording of the grand jury proceeding that resulted in no charges for Louisville police officers who killed Breonna Taylor in her apartment during a late-night raid. Police were targeting a former boyfriend of Taylor’s, but he was not there that night. The grand jury did charge one former Louisville police officer for “wanton endangerment” because he fired bullets into a neighboring apartment. No one was charged with firing the bullets that killed Breonna Taylor. Grand jury proceedings are typically kept secret, but a judge has ordered them released in this case. What is the broader context of Breonna Taylor's death?
Conservation Efforts Have Saved Up to 48 Animal Species Since 1993 (1:27:12)
Guest: Friederike Bolam, Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Modelling, Evidence and Policy Group, Newcastle University
After a global convention in 1993, the world came together to try and save animals that were going extinct. And it’s working. A study that just came out shows that dozens of animal species have been saved since that convention.
Shawnte West of Univ of Louisville on Breonna Taylor's case. Christian Bagg of Bowhead Corp on mountain bikes for the physically impaired. Jeffrey Siegel of Univ of Toronto on ventilation and COVID-19. Friedrich Götz of Univ of Cambridge on topography personalities. Michelle S. Jacobs of Univ of Florida on Black women and police violence. Friederike Bolam of Newcastle Univ on conservation successes.
James Curry of Univ of Utah on the SCOTUS confirmation process. Mark Smith of Univ of South Carolina on sensory history. Stephanie Barclay of Notre Dame Univ on Pres Trump's SCOTUS nominee. Blogger Amber O'Neal Johnston on diverse homeschooling. Houston Kraft on his book "Deep Kindness". Mark Elliott, wetland ecologist with the Devon Wildlife Trust in England, on British beavers.
The Race to Confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee (0:30)
Guest: James Curry, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
President Trump has nominated federal judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Four years ago, Senate Republicans refused to consider President Obama’s nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia because the vacancy happened in a Presidential Election year. And here we’re less than two months from the election, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised that Republicans will confirm President Trump’s nominee anyway. Confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin in two weeks.
Exploring Sensory History (19:38)
Guest: Mark Smith, Professor of History, University of South Carolina
In ten or twenty years, when you talk about the year 2020, will there be certain smells or tastes or sounds that come flooding back? Maybe the smell of hand sanitizer. Or the way the streets were so eerily quiet in the early days of pandemic quarantine. History books will cover the who, what and when of 2020. Sensory historians like Mark Smith want to make sure the smells, tastes and sounds are remembered, too.
A Look at President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett (36:59)
Guest: Stephanie Barclay, Associate Professor of Law, Notre DameUniversity
President Trump’s pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the US Supreme Court is Amy Coney Barrett. She’s a judge on the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago with a conservative track record who clerked for conservative Supreme Court icon Justice Antonin Scalia. Judge Barrett’s addition to the Supreme Court will give conservatives a solid 6-3 majority and Judge Barrett is 48 years old, so she’s likely to serve a very long time in this lifetime appointment.
Breaking The Homeschooling Stereotype (52:48)
Guest: Amber O’Neal Johnston, Homeschool Parent, Consultant, Heritage Mom blog and Instagram
Two big movements have been front and center in America these last few months–race relations and homeschooling. Amber O’Neal Johnston has found herself as a sought-after voice on both. She’s a homeschool mom in Georgia with a big following on her Heritage Mom blog and Instagram feed. She’s also black and has become a leading organizer of homeschool groups and resources for families of color. Lately, she’s also been asked to help homeschool families of all backgrounds find the best resources to teach children about racism.
It’s Not Enough to Be Nice. Let’s Work on Being Deeply Kind. (1:10:11)
Guest: Houston Kraft, Co-Founder of CharacterStrong, Author of "Deep Kindness: A Revolutionary Guide for the Way We Think, Talk, and Act in Kindness"
Are you a nice person? When was the last time that you did something intentionally kind, something that required you to step outside of your comfort zone or summon an uncomfortable amount of forgiveness and compassion? It’s not enough to be nice, says Houston Kraft. The world needs Deep Kindness.
First Community of British Wild Beavers in Centuries Allowed to Stay (1:29:28)
Guest: Mark Elliott, Wetland Ecologist, Devon Wildlife Trust in England
Beavers were driven to extinction more than four centuries ago in England. But then one day, a family of wild beavers just showed up in a river. That was seven years ago, and scientists have been studying their progression and effects on the ecosystem the whole time. There are now 15 families of beavers there, and the British government recently ruled they can stay permanently.
How the Legal System Relies on Justice and Forgiveness (0:34)
Guest: Martha Minow, Professor of Law, Harvard University, Author "When Should Law Forgive?"
The right to remain silent. The right to an attorney. The right to... forgiveness? Harvard Law professor Martha Minow says the US legal system needs to take a hard look at where forgiveness fits. A more merciful, forgiving system would also be a more just system, she argues. (Originally aired April 28, 2020).
Bringing Stories of Women to Life (17:50)
Guest: Alison Booth, Professor of English, University of Virginia
Women are underrepresented in biographies and other historical works. Part of the problem is that thousands of accounts of women have simply been forgotten. Alison Booth has been tracking them down to bring these stories to light and make them accessible. It’s called the Collective Biographies of Women Project. (Originally aired October 28, 2019).
Dr. Asperger and the Nazi Origins of Autism (34:07)
Guest: Edith Sheffer, Senior Fellow, Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Author of “Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna”
More awareness of autism has led to much higher rates of diagnosis over the last 30 years. As many as one in 68 children in the US has autism, according to the CDC. There’s also a lot more awareness of the range of symptoms that might come with an autism disorder. For many years, children with a milder form of autism were referred to as having “Asperger’s Syndrome.” It’s named after an Austrian pediatrician whose dark history we’re only now learning. In fact, his story is so dark, historian Edith Sheffer would like to see us stop using the term Asperger’s. (Originally aired December 16, 2019).
Navigating the Unexpected Journey From Loved One to Caregiver (52:56)
Guest: Donna Thomson, Caregiver, Activist, Author of “The Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I’ve Learned From a Life of Caregiving”; Zachary White, Assistant Professor of Communication, Queens University of Charlotte. Co-authors of “The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation from Loved One to Caregiver”
Some forty-million Americans have been the caregiver for an adult in the last year. Many of them are sandwiched between caring for their own children and an aging parent. And anyone who’s done it–even temporarily–knows how jarring caregiving is, how unprepared most of us feel for the physical and emotional toll of it. (Originally aired January 23, 2020).
New Discovery Shows That Neanderthals Used Rope (1:31:05)
Guest: Bruce Hardy, Professor of Anthropology, Kenyon College
From Barney Rubble to the dimwitted cavemen of The Far Side cartoons, Neanderthals have a reputation for being not-so-smart. But that may simply be because the best evidence of their smarts hasn’t survived for us to inspect and appreciate. For example, an excavation of a famous Neanderthal encampment in France has turned up a tiny shred of rope. Making and using rope is pretty advanced. If cavemen could actually do that, we’ll have to rethink the stereotype of stupidity. (Originally aired April 20, 2020).
Martha Minow of Harvard Univ and author of "When Should Law Forgive" on law and forgiveness. Alison Booth of Univ of Virgina on women in history. Edith Sheffer of Univ of California Berkeley on her book "Asperger's Children". Donna Thomson, author of "The Four Walls of My Freedom", and Zachary White, of Queens Univ of Charlotte, on their book "The Unexpected Journey of Caring". Bruce Hardy of Kenyon College on Neanderthals and rope.
Freelance reporter Franziska Grillmeier on refugees in Greece. Anne Marie Crinnion of Univ of Connecticut on creating crossword puzzles. Lauren Hablitz of Univ of Rochester on the dangers of napping. Chip Jones on his book "The Organ Thieves". Tom Robinson of Brigham Young Univ on the effect of Disney princesses on young girls.
Moria Refugee Camp Fire in Greece Prompts Renewed Efforts to Resolve Migration in Europe (0:32)
Guest: Franziska Grillmeier, Freelance Reporter, Based in Lesbos, Greece
Europe’s largest refugee camp burned to the ground two weeks ago, leaving more than 10,000 migrants without even the most basic shelter or access to clean water. The camp was called Moria–it was on the island of Lesbos in Greece. The fire prompted leaders of the European Union this week to propose a mandatory system of migrant resettlement. For years, European countries have been unable to agree on how to deal with migrants, which has meant that large numbers of asylum seekers are stuck in camps in Greece, Italy and Turkey.
UConn Graduate Student Gets Her Crossword Puzzle Published in the New York Times (21:19)
Guest: Anne Marie Crinnion, Doctoral Student, University of Connecticut
There’s a whole industry out there of people making crossword puzzles and selling them to newspapers and magazines. It’s very competitive and getting one published in the New York Times is like winning the gold medal for amateur puzzlemakers, and University of Connecticut grad student Anne Marie Crinnion just pulled it off.
Can Naps Hurt Your Brain? (36:06)
Guest: Lauren Hablitz, Research Assistant and Professor of Neurosurgery, Center for Translational Neuromedicine, University of Rochester
More than a third of American adults are not getting enough sleep. So maybe that means the occasional daytime nap to make up for it? You may wake up feeling refreshed, but sleeping during the day doesn’t give your brain the same benefits as nighttime sleep. In fact, if you’re doing a lot of day sleeping you may be at higher risk for developing neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s.
The Tragedy of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South (52:48)
Guest: Chip Jones, Author of “The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South”
25,000 organ transplants have been happened in the United States so far this year. The fact that they’ve happened despite the pandemic speaks to how urgent transplants are–the person in need of a new heart, or kidney or lung has no time to spare. Once a donor dies, there’s only so much time before his or her organs start to degrade. So the process has to happen quickly. In the early days of transplant science, the need for speed could have tragic results.
The Effect of Disney Princesses on Girls (1:30:38)
Guest: Tom Robinson, Professor and Associate Director for Graduate Studies, Brigham Young University
A lot of girls grow up on a steady diet of Disney princesses. A lot of research says these movies aren’t healthy for young girls since many of these princesses have perfect bodies and unrealistic romantic relationships, and often get rescued to then live in luxury. But a new study out of BYU asked little girls themselves what they thought, and there may be some positive things that come from watching princess movies.
From Consensus Builder to Famous Dissenter, a Look at RBG’s Legacy (0:31)
Guest: Kimberly Robinson, Supreme Court Reporter, Bloomberg Law
The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is lying in repose at the Supreme Court. On Friday, she will be the first woman in history to lie in state at the US Capitol. During the final years of her life, Justice Ginsburg became a pop culture icon, a liberal justice famous for her powerful dissents. How did Justice Ginsburg become the “Notorious RBG” of her final years?
The Ranger of the Lost National Park Posters (17:37)
Guest: Doug Leen, "Ranger of the Lost Art", Founder of Ranger Doug Enterprises
You know those vintage National Park posters you find at park visitor centers? They’ve got old-timey block print and drawings of iconic vistas in retro color combinations. These posters date back to the 1930s and if you’ve got one hanging on a wall, it’s probably thanks to Doug Leen.
Historic Housing Practices Have a Warming Effect on Modern Neighborhoods (34:33)
Guest: Jeremy Hoffman, Chief Scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia, Affiliate Faculty in Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University
More than floods, fires, hurricanes or earthquakes, extreme heat is the weather disaster that’s caused the most deaths in the US in the last few decades. Within cities, heat can vary by several degrees. The hottest areas also often match up to areas that were once targeted by racially-discriminatory housing policies.
The Secret Life of Movie Props (52:51)
Guest: Scott Reeder, Prop Master for Film and Television
There’s a guy on TikTok who’s got all these viral videos of him smashing stuff on his head, like a beer bottle. But the catch is that Scott Reeder makes props for movies. And all the stuff he’s smashing on his head only looks real. You’ll start seeing movies and TV shows differently, once you’ve seen Scott Reeder’s behind-the-scenes TikTok videos.
A Century of Putting Out Fires Helped Create Today’s Wildfire Problem in America (1:13:12)
Guest: Tom Harbour, Former Fire Chief at the US Forest Service, Owner of Wildfire Consulting Firm HarbourFire
When it comes to wildfires in America, what we’re doing is not working. Federal agencies responsible for fighting fire–like the US Forest Service–have known that for decades, but changing course requires turning away from the ideas about fire that the Forest Service was basically founded on.
Can Technology Solve India’s Toilet Problem? (1:29:38)
Guest: Ben Fox Rubin, Senior Reporter, CNET News
In India, having access to a toilet is not a given: one in four Indians lack regular access to a toilet. As a result, public defecation is a major public health concern for the government of India–and for a host of nonprofits and startups trying to come up with solutions.
Kimberly Robinson, reporter for Bloomberg Law, on Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Doug Leen of Ranger Doug Enterprises on national parks posters. Jeremy Hoffman of Science Museum of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth Univ on housing and urban heat. Scott Reeder on being a prop master. Tom Harbour of HarbourFire on fire management. Ben Fox Rubin of CNET News on India's toilet problem.
J. J. Huggins of Patagonia and Time to Vote and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf of New York Univ's Brennan Center for Justice on corporate voter outreach. Shane Tews of Logan Circle Strategies on the TikTok deal. Luke Montrose of Boise State Univ on wildfire smoke. Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations on theatres reopening. Kirsten Hawkes of Parent Previews on hopeful Millennial and GenZ movies. Author and illustrator Kelley Donner on pandemic picture books.
US Corps Join Push to Vote, Give Employees Paid Time Off on Election Day (0:31)
Guests: J.J. Huggins, PR and Communications for Patagonia; Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Vice President for Development and Women & Democracy Fellow, New York University Law’s Brennan Center for Justice
If you’ve been on social media today, you’ve see a lot of messages about making sure you register to vote. The 4th Tuesday of September is National Register to Vote Day. And this year–more than in the past–companies from Facebook to Starbucks are making an active push to encourage voting by their customers and employees. More than a thousand companies have signed on with the Time to Vote coalition, pledging to give their employees paid time off to vote–and in some cases volunteer at polling locations–on Election Day.
TikTok in America and China’s Technology Ambitions (17:11)
Guest: Shane Tews, President of Logan Circle Strategies, Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
TikTok was about to be banned from app stores in the US over the weekend, but a last-minute deal satisfied the Trump Administration’s concerns enough to put the ban on hold. 100 million Americans use TikTok to share silly lip sync and dance videos. President Trump is concerned that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, which could give the Chinese government access to lots of data from those 100 million Americans.
Wildfire Smoke Harms Our Lungs and Makes COVID-19 Symptoms Worse (37:00)
Guest: Luke Montrose, Professor of Environmental Toxicology, Department of Community and Environmental Health, Boise State University
From Portland to San Diego–and in pockets throughout the Mountain West–communities are under air quality advisories because of wildfire smoke. In some areas closest to active fires, the air poses a severe threat to human health. There’s also evidence that exposure to wildfire smoke can increase a person’s chance of getting COVID-19 and make symptoms of the illness worse.
Movie Studios and Theater Chains Struggle to Cope With Lack of Customers (52:46)
Guest: Jeff Bock, Media Analyst, Exhibitor Relations in Los Angeles, CA
Christopher Nolan’s suspense thriller Tenet is the first significant film to risk releasing in theaters during the pandemic. And it’s not doing well. Part of the problem is that while two-thirds of movie theaters are open again, they’re still closed in New York and LA. Also, in places where theaters are open, people aren’t returning in large numbers. Where does Hollywood go from here?
Movies To Make You Hopeful About Millennials and GenZ (1:07:42)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Young people have been taking a lot of heat for ignoring health precautions and fueling COVID-19 outbreaksin college towns. They’re also often dismissed as too naïve to understand the real world. Kirsten Hawkes of Parent Previews.com thinks Millennials and GenZ deserve more credit than that.
Writing Pandemic Books for Children (1:28:22)
Guest: Kelley Donner, Author and Illustrator, “The Day the Lines Changed”
The pandemic is a difficult topic for little kids to grasp. To remedy that, there’s a whole new branch of children’s literature: picture books about COVID-19. Here are just a few titles: Ron and Rona fight the Corona. Masked Ninja. If you can’t bear hug, air hug. They’re colorful and empowering for youngsters during these uncertain times.
Eating Out, Grocery Shopping, At the Gym. Where Are You Most Likely to Catch COVID? (0:30)
Guest: Saskia Popescu, Assistant Professor, Biodefense Program, Schar Schoolof Policy and Government, George Mason University
Scientists at the CDC recently looked at COVID-19 patient numbers from 11 different hospitals around the country to see what people who got the disease had in common. One thing stood out them –people with COVID were twice as likely to have eaten in a restaurant recently. So that got us wondering, how to gauge the risk of all the different activities we’re doing on a daily basis. Is cheering your kid from the sidelines at a soccer game more or less risky than going to the movies? Or grocery shopping? Here’s an easy chart from Dr. Popescu to help you gauge the risk of various activities during the pandemic.
Making the NBA Playoffs “Sound” Normal (20:24)
Guest: Mark Dittmar, Vice President, Firehouse Productions
The NBA playoffs continue to play out inside a fan-free bubble. But it sounds like there’s a crowd in the arena. During every one of these NBA games, there’s a team of what are basically crowd noise DJs firing off various sounds to make it feel to the players and the TV viewers like the seats are packed with fans. The NBA hired a special event firm called Firehouse Productions to make the crowd noise happen.
Earthworms Are Welcome in Gardens, but Potentially Bad for the Arctic (38:58)
Guest: Jonatan Klaminder, Professor of Environmental Science, Umea University in Sweden
Gardeners generally like earthworms: they aerate the soil, they help decompose dead material, they improve plant growth. But those same things make earthworms unwelcome in some ecosystems –like the Arctic.
The Feed Problem That’s Holding Fish Farms Back (52:51)
Guest: Kevin Fitzsimmons, Professor of Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Team Leader, Myanmar Sustainable Aquaculture Project in Yangon, Myanmar
More than half of the seafood available for sale globally comes from fish farms, which lets wild fish populations off the hook. The trouble is that fish raised on farms still have to be fed. And what do they eat? Smaller fish that’s been harvested from the oceans. Now those fish populations are at risk. So can we grow the fish to feed other fish in farms too? Or find a fish-free feed option?
A Family Opens Their Own Bookstore After Having a Hard Time Finding Children’s Books with Black Characters (1:12:25)
Guest: Victoria Scott-Miller, Owner, Liberation Station Bookstore
Right now, half of the ten best-selling picture books on the New York Times list are written by Black authors and feature Black main characters. Books by and about African Americans have been prominent on best-seller lists all summer. Victoria Scott-Miller was ahead of the trend with her Liberation Station Bookstore, which stocks only children’s books with Black characters, authors and illustrators. The store is online and at some pop-up locations.
Wildfires Pose a Threat to Local Water Supplies (1:29:45)
Guest: Andrew J Whelton, Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Ecological Engineering, Purdue University
If you live in the West, you know how the wildfires are affecting air quality. If you don’t, you’ve seen the photos. Many of the effects of massive wildfires are visible–the smoke, ash and burned acres. The effects on drinking water in fire areas are notvisible–and often not something residents or local officials are prepared to deal with. In some cases, they don’t even realize there’s a problem.
Saskia Popescu of George Mason Univ on COVID-19 risk. Mark Dittmar of Firehouse Productions on the sounds of the NBA playoffs. Jonatan Klaminder of Umea University in Sweden on Earthworms in the Arctic. Kevin Fitzsimmons of Univ of Arizona on aquaculture. Victoria Scott-Miller on her business Liberation Station Bookstore. Andrew Whelton of Purdue Univ on wildfire threats to water supplies.
Documentary filmaker Loki Mulholland on voting rights. Tim Kovar, founder of Tree Climbing Planet, on climbing trees. Gene Luen Yang, a cartoonist and graphic novelist, on his book "Dragon Hoops". Michael Rogers of Univ of Florida on Florida oranges. Howard Conyers of NASA Stennis Space Center on whole hog BBQ. Erica Frakenberg of Pennsylvania State Univ on school segregation.
Civil Rights Filmmaker Takes on Voter Suppression in “After Selma” (0:32)
Guest: Loki Mulholland, Emmy-winning Documentary Filmmaker of “After Selma,” Executive Director of The Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation
With the presidential election coming up very quickly–let's look to a past interview about voting. Because many of us take that right of citizenship for granted. But it took a series of constitutional amendments to extend voting rights to all Americans. First was the 15th Amendment passed after the Civil War, giving black men the vote. It wasn’t until 1920 that women got the vote. But racial discrimination in the South kept many black men and women from voting until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. A new documentary about voter suppression in America today is called “After Selma.” (Originally aired January 9, 2020).
Connecting with Nature through Professional Tree Climbing (21:36)
Guest: Tim Kovar, Founder, Tree Climbing Planet
Most of us stopped climbing trees a long time ago. But Tim Kovar never stopped, and now spends his time coaxing adults back into the branches. (Originally aired October 14, 2019).
Award-Winning Cartoonist on Stepping Into the Unknown With Young Readers (33:33)
Guest: Gene Luen Yang, MacArthur Genius Grant Recipient, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Cartoonist and Graphic Novelist, “Dragon Hoops”
Gene Luen Yang’s first graphic novel drew from his own experiences growing up Asian in America. It was called “American Born Chinese” and won him all kinds of praise, including being the first graphic novel ever nominated for a National Book Award. Yang’s latest graphic novel for teens also draws from real life–but it’s about basketball, which is something much less familiar to him. In fact, the very first line in the book, “Dragon Hoops” is Yang telling us, “I hated sports ever since I was a little kid. Especially basketball.” So why write a whole book on it? (Originally aired April 6, 2020).
Florida Oranges Are Being Decimated By Disease (52:49)
Guest: Michael Rogers, Director of the Citrus Research and Education Center, Professor of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida
A bacterial disease is driving Florida’s citrus growers out of business. Thousands of farmers have quit in the decade since the disease arrived in America. Two-thirds of the factories that processed juice have shut down. The University of Florida’s Citrus Research and Education Center is racing to find a solution that can save Florida oranges. (Originally aired on December 11, 2019).
Whole Hog BBQ with a Rocket Scientist (1:09:04)
Guest: Howard Conyers, Whole Hog Pitmaster, Engineer, NASA Stennis Space Center
As any barbecue aficionado knows, Texas barbecue is not the same as North Carolina barbecue is not the same as Kansas barbecue. The meats, sauces and cooking methods all vary. Howard Conyers’ technique is among the rarest: he smokes a whole hog in a pit, the way indigenous and enslaved people in America were cooking barbecue long before white celebrity chefs were crowned the “kings of barbecue.”
When School Districts Splinter, Segregation Rises (1:25:07)
Guest: Erica Frankenberg, Professor, Education and Demography, Pennsylvania State University
Sixty-six years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that public schools cannot be segregated by race. Court-ordered desegregation programs, such as mandatory busing, led schools across the country to be far more racially mixed over the next few decades. But beginning in the early 90s, public schools have been steadily re-segregating by race. Some of that has to do with housing segregation. But school district secession is also part of it. There’s a growing trend nationwide of “splinter” districts that are mostly white and wealthy breaking off from larger school districts.
How Humans Are Making Wildfire Season Worse in the West (0:30)
Guest: Jennifer Balch, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder
As of yesterday, wildfires have burned 3.2 million acres in California, and that’s nearly double the previous record set in 2018. Parts of Oregon that haven’t burned in years went up in flames this year. Whole swaths of the western United States are choking from smoke in the air. Is this just a bad year, or a sign of things to come?
Teaching Kids to Navigate the Visual World (21:40)
Guest: Diarmuid Verrier, PhD, senior lecturer in psychology, Sheffield Hallam University
Reading text is a critical skill for navigating the modern world. So is the ability to interpret visual images. And not just being able to identify what an image is – but what it’s trying to accomplish. Why does that picture or video that pops up in your social media feed make you laugh or angry or motivated to do something? How do we teach this skill to children so they’re equipped to process all the visuals they’re bombarded with?
The Effect of the Pandemic on People with Eating Disorders (35:49)
Guest: Christine M. Peat, Director, National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Many people who struggle with eating disorders say their symptoms have been worse during the pandemic.
Compton and Beverly Hills: A Portrait of Boys in LA the Year Before College (52:47)
Guests: Jeff Hobbs, Author of “Show Them You’re Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before College”; Tio, APB High School graduate and UC Riverside Senior studying engineering; Jonah, Beverly Hills High School graduate and UCLA senior studying pre-law
Senior year of high school in America is a potent mix of pressure and possibilities. Some may feel torn between savoring the end of an important life chapter while also feeling super-stressed about “what comes next?”. Standardized tests, college applications, scholarship applications. It’s a lot for any 17-year-old to deal with. Best-selling author Jeff Hobbs spent a year following about a dozen high-achieving seniors at two high schools in Los Angeles – one in Compton, one in Beverly Hills. The result is his new book, “Show Them You’re Good.”
Scientists Discover Stinky Gas on Venus—Potentially Indicating Life on the Planet (1:33:09)
Guest: Sukrit Ranjan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Northwestern University
The hunt for life beyond Earth has long focused on Mars. But this week, scientists reported signs of life on another of our planetary neighbors that hasn’t really been on their radar–Venus. They’ve picked up the signature of a gas called phosphine from clouds in the super-hot, toxic atmosphere surrounding Venus.
Jennifer Balch of Univ of Colorado Boulder on western wildfires. Diarmuid Verrier, PhD, senior lecturer in psychology at Sheffield Hallam University on visual learning. Christine M. Peat of Univ of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on disordered eating during the pandemic. Jeff Hobbs, author of "Show Them You're Good"; Tio, UC Riverside engineering senior; Jonah of UCLA pre-law senior on boys and college. Sukrit Ranjan of Massachusetts Institute of Technology on life on Venus.
When Does the American Public Have a Right to Know the True Scope of a Threat? (0:33)
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director, Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
As early as February, President Trump knew that the novel coronavirus was a serious threat. Bob Woodward revealed that information while releasing portions of interviews with Mr. Trump as publicity for his new book. The interviews happened throughout the spring of this year. On the tapes, President Trump repeatedly talks about how dangerous and deadly COVID-19 is, but publicly he was downplaying the threat, tweeting that the virus will soon disappear and criticizing states for overreacting with lockdown and face mask orders. When is a President obligated to tell it straight to the American people? When is it ethical for a President to downplay a threat for the sake of calm and national security?
Why Gender Reveal Stunts Are Getting Riskier (19:01)
Guest: Jenna Drenten, Associate Professor, Marketing, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago
One of the wildfires currently burning in California was started by a gender reveal stunt gone wrong. A smoke bomb was supposed to puff pink if the baby is a girl, blue if it’s a boy. But it also sparked a blaze that’s burned nearly 18,000 acres and forced thousands of people to evacuate. Most wacky stunts to reveal the gender of an expected baby don’t end in disaster–just popped balloons filled with colored chalk or glitter. Frosted cakes with blue or pink inside is a popular one. But that’s hardly flashy enough for our social-media-obsessed world. One Instagram-famous couple learned the gender of their baby recently by watching the world’s tallest building–it’s in Dubai–light up in blue. There's a video of a guy place a melon between the snapping jaws of an alligator–an actual alligator. The melon exploded and splashed colored jello. Hasn’t this gender-reveal thing gotten a little out of hand?
This Election Will Be Different. Let’s Adjust Our Expectations Now. (33:17)
Guest: Douglas Spencer, Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of Connecticut, 2020-2021 Distinguished Faculty Fellow at The Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law, University of Colorado, Boulder
We’re still a month and a half from Election Day, but early and absentee voting has already begun in some states. This presidential election is expected to break all records for the number of ballots cast early and by mail. That means the entire process will likely play out differently from what we’re used to–and we best start adjusting our expectations now.
Apple Seed (52:45)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, BYUradio's Apple Seed
People might have a go-to comfort food, but what about a comfort story?
Restless Nights Around the Globe During COVID-19 (1:04:24)
Guest: Dr. Rebecca Robbins, Postdoctoral Fellow, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Sleep has been a mixed bag for people during the pandemic. Some are getting lots of it. Others ought to be getting lots of it–since social activities are cancelled and working from home saves commute time–but are struggling to fall asleep and feel rested come morning.
B-Corps and Building Values in Business (1:24:07)
Guest: Christopher Marquis, Professor of Sustainable Global Enterprise, Cornell University, Author of "Better Business"
Lots of businesses tout their social or environmental responsibility, but how sincere are they about it? There is a way for businesses to prove they’re concerned about more than just profits. They can get certified as a “B Corp.”
Ryan Vogel of Utah Valley Univ on transparency versus national security. Jenna Drenten of Loyola Univ Chicago on gender reveal disasters. Douglas Spencer of Univ of Connecticut on adjusting election expectations. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed. Rebecca Robbins of Harvard Medical School on sleep during the pandemic. Christopher Marquis of Cornell on his book "Better Business".
Quinn Mecham of Brigham Young Univ on Belarus. William Powell of State Univ of New York on bringing back the American Chestnut. Robert Bossenecker of College of Carleston on ancient dolphins. Emily Knudsen of Pleasnt Grove Pizza Farm in Waseca, MN on pizza farming. Don L. Hankins of California State Univ on indigenous fire management. Georgia Lee Hussey of Modernist Financial on the reverse boomerang effect.
What You Need to Know About Protests in Belarus (0:33)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Citizens in Belarus continue large street protests calling for their long-time leader, Alexander Lukashenko, to resign. The public protests have been ongoing since mid-August when President Lukashenko won re-election. Demonstrators say the election was rigged.
Bringing Back the American Chestnut (24:05)
Guest: William Powell, Professor and Director, Council on Biotechnology in Forestry, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York
The American Chestnut used to be one of the most common trees in North America. Today, it’s basically extinct because of a fungus. Scientists have created a genetically modified version of the American Chestnut that resists the deadly fungus that's in the process of getting approval from the US government to be released into the wild.
An Ancient Dolphin You Would Not Want to Swim With (43:33)
Guest: Robert Bossenecker, Paleontologist, College of Charleston
25 million years ago “swimming with the dolphins” would not have been a smart vacation choice. The dolphin of that era was 15-feet long, had really sharp teeth and was the top predator of its ecosystem. So, more like a killer whale than Flipper.
Pizzas Don’t Grow On Trees—But Pizza Farms Have Been a Pandemic Commodity (52:52)
Guest: Emily Knudsen, Founder, Pleasant Grove Pizza Farm
Restaurants have struggled during the pandemic, but one food niche that has done surprisingly well in the current climate is pizza farms. Especially in the Midwest, business has been booming.
Native American “Good Fire” Could Reduce Catastrophic Wildfire in the West (1:06:35)
Guest: Don L. Hankins, Professor of Geography and Planning, California State University, Chico, Member of Plains Miwok Tribe
In California on Monday, President Trump blamed catastrophic wildfires in the west on states failing to sufficiently manage their forests. California Governor Gavin Newsom acknowledged in a meeting with the President on Monday the state must do more to manage vegetation that fuels wildfires. But he also blames climate change, which President Trump denied is a problem. Let’s take a closer look at this idea of forest management–and how traditional fire management practices of indigenous people may hold some answers.
A New Trend: Parents Moving in with Their Adult Children (1:26:03)
Guest: Georgia Lee Hussey, Financial Planner, Founder, Modernist Financial
A lot of millennials are finding themselves stuck with their parents and having to factor them into their life financial plan. More and more people have little to no retirement, so they have to move in with their adult children. The number has doubled since the 90s, and it’s only expected to get worse.
The Pandemic is Really Bad For Your Teeth. Here’s Why. (0:32)
Guest: Tammy Chen, Central Park Dental Aesthetics, Midtown Manhattan
The pandemic appears to be causing a spike in dental problems. Manhattan dentist Tammy Chen says she’s seen “more tooth fractures in the last six weeks than in the previous six years.” She wrote about this in the New York Times recently. What is going on with our teeth?
What Love and Relationships Look Like During COVID-19 (17:48)
Guest: Daniel Jones, Editor, Modern Love, New York Times
Just like everything over the past six months, relationships have changed. Some of us are finding ourselves closer than ever to the people in our lives. Others are finding ourselves more isolated.
What Do We Do with Old Solar Panels? (36:46)
Guest: Garvin Heath, Senior Scientist, Resources and Sustainability Group, Strategic Energy Analysis Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Solar energy has taken off in America the last 20 years. It’s normal in most communities now to see homes with their own rooftop panels harvesting sunlight. But the US has not yet prepared for what’s about to happen with solar energy. All those panels were only designed to last 25 or 30 years. That means in the next decade, there will be millions of them heading to landfills.
Can’t Breathe While Exercising? You May Have EILO—Not Asthma. (52:52)
Guest: J. Tod Olin, Pulmonologist, Director, Exercise Breathing Center, National Jewish Health
If someone has trouble breathing when they exercise hard, they must have exercise-induced asthma, right? Well, it could also be something called exercise induced laryngeal obstruction or EILO. It’s not very well known, but pulmonologist Tod Olin estimates that one-third of people who are diagnosed with asthma actually have EILO or both asthma and this condition.
New Colonies of Emperor Penguins Found on Antarctica (1:10:40)
Guest: Peter Fretwell, Geographic Information Officer, British Antarctic Survey
A bit of good news for you today: Scientists just found thousands of penguins. These emperor penguins weren’t lost, we just didn’t know they existed. This is a big deal because these colonies in Antarctica are particularly vulnerable to climate change.
The Campaign to Save Parasites (1:24:38)
Guest: Chelsea Wood, Professor of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington
All the talk about saving endangered species has never once mentioned the need to keep parasites from going extinct. Why then have a bunch of biologists from all over the world, signed onto a global call to “save the parasites”? Can you imagine walking around with a T-shirt that says that–and maybe a picture of an icky tapeworm?
Tammy Chen of Central Park Dental Aesthetics on dental problems during the pandemic. Daniel Jones of New York Times on modern love. Garvin Heath of National Renewable Energy Laboratory on solar panel disposal. J. Tod Olin of National Jewish Health on asthma-like condition Exercise-Induced Laryngeal Obstruction or EILO. Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey on Emperor Penguins. Chelsea Wood of Univ of Washington on the campaign to save the parasites.
Kenneth Feinberg, author of "What Is Life Worth" and "Who Gets What?", on being 9-11 mediator. Fernand de Varennes, UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, on statelessness. Bill Groner of SSAM Alternative Dispute Resolution on his book, "9/12: The Epic Battle of the Ground Zero Responders". Tom Smith of Brigham Young Univ on polar bears. Staci Gruber of Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital on medical cannabis.
Kenneth Feinberg on Deciding What a Life is Worth (0:32)
Guest: Kenneth Feinberg, Former Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Author of “What Is Life Worth?” and “Who Gets What?
2,977 people died when terrorists hijacked commercial airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. More than 6,000 others were injured. Just eleven days after the attacks, Congress created a $7 billion fund to compensate those victims and their families. The man tasked with deciding who would get what–how much each life was worth in dollars and cents–was Kenneth Feinberg. Since then, he’s overseen victim compensation funds for mass shootings in Aurora, Newtown, Orlando and Las Vegas and for the Boston Marathon Bombing. BP hired him to award compensation to victims of the Gulf Oil spill. He’s now handling compensation for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and for the families of people who died in the Boeing 737 Max plane crashes.
Why Statelessness Is On the Rise Globally (34:24)
Guest: Fernand de Varennes, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues
Around the world there are at least 10 million people who are “stateless,” according to the United Nations. Which means, they belong nowhere. They’re not simply refugees or individuals living without citizenship status in a country. These stateless individuals have no “home” to go back to, even if they wanted to.
The Battle to Compensate Ground Zero First Responders (52:53)
Guest: Bill Groner, Founder & CEO, SSAM Alternative Dispute Resolution, Co-Author “9/12: The Epic Battle of the Ground Zero Responders”
When the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers fell to terroristson September 11, 2001, an army of first responders rushed to Ground Zero. First it was a rescue effort. But for months and months after that–well into the following year–thousands of people worked in and around Ground Zero and at the landfill where debris was dumped and sorted. Construction workers, coroners, fire and police officers. All breathing dust that we now know contained toxic chemicals. In the years that followed, many would develop serious lung illnesses–and even cancers.
Will Oil Drilling in ANWR Further Threaten Polar Bears? (1:11:07)
Guest: Tom Smith, Wildlife Biologist, Brigham Young University
The Trump Administration approved a plan to sell leases for the right to drill in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a few weeks ago. Fifteen states are suingo ver the move. One concern, among wildlife biologists, is that more and more polar bear mothers are giving birth to their cubs in the coastal plain of the Arctic Ocean.
How Much Do We Actually Know About Medical Marijuana? (1:27:13)
Guest: Staci Gruber, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Marijuana Investigations, Neuroscientific Discovery Program, McLean Hospital
Marijuana use for medicinal purposes is now the norm in America–all but a few states allow it. And in 11 states, it’s legal for adults to use marijuana recreationally–no doctor’s note required. But we still know very little about how cannabis affects the body and brain. This is a case of policy outpacing science
Intensifying Natural Disasters Causing Insurance Crisis for Homeowners (0:30)
Guest: Benjamin Collier, Assistant Professor of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management, Fox School of Business, Temple University
As wildfires get bigger and more damaging to communities in the West, insurance companies are increasingly reluctant to cover homes where fire risk is high. Similar trouble is emerging for homeowners in areas prone to flooding and hurricanes–which are also getting more intense with climate change. California’s Insurance Commissioner has called the problem of insurance companies refusing to cover homes in fire-prone areas a “crisis” for the state and issued a moratorium on insurance companies refusing to renew policies of existing customers. That moratorium is about to expire.
TV’s Effect on Teen Smoking and Vaping (19:57)
Guest: Elizabeth Hair, Senior Vice President, Overseer of Health Communication Research, Truth Initiative
Smoking and tobacco use appear to be on the rise in some of the TV shows most popular with young people–including Stranger Things on Netflix. The anti-tobacco group Truth Initiative’s latest report also found that young people who see those images on TV are not more likely to start smoking–which is good news. But they are more likely to start vaping.
Why Antarctica’s Ice Shelves Matter (36:48)
Guest: Jonny Kingslake, Professor of Glaciology, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Columbia University
You’ve heard that the massive ice sheet covering Antarctica is melting and causing sea levels to rise. The estimates of how quickly that ice is melting have failed to consider what’s happening to Antarctica’s ice shelves. The news there is not good.
Recapturing Traditional Practices Brings Physical and Mental Health to American Indian Tribes (52:50)
Guests: Sanjay Rawal, James Beard Award-winning Documentary Filmmaker, Director of Gather; Samuel Gensaw, Member of the Yurok Nation, Founder of the Ancestral Guard
In the new documentary film GATHER, we see a young man named Sammy Gensaw cooking a fresh-caught salmon over a campfire on a beach along the Klamath River. He makes a sobering prediction: “I know that I’ll probably die from health-related issues, due to the fact that I was raised in a generation when there was no food. We had to live out the gas station,” says Gensaw, a member of the Yurok Tribe in Northern California. “We live in a food desert. There’s no grocery store here. If you’re youth, you have a better shot of buying drugs in your local community than you have of buying healthy, affordable foods.” Gensaw’s efforts to reclaim the native food practices of his ancestors is featured in GATHER, which is now available on iTunes and Amazon.
Volunteers Combine Resources to Protect Native Elders During Pandemic (1:16:10)
Guest: Ani Begay Auld, Co-Director of ProtectNativeElders.org
COVID-19 rates among American Indians and Alaska Natives are more than three times that for whites in the United States, according to CDC data. As it became clear that native communities would suffer disproportionately in the pandemic, a group of volunteers created Protect Native Elders to collect donations and deliver essential medical and safety supplies to tribes around the country.
Matching Books to Readers (1:30:58)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, Brigham Young Univ
What’s on the reading list for your kids this school year? Are you struggling to get them motivated for the daily “reading” time their teachers are assigning during remote learning?
Benjamin Collier of Temple Univ on disaster insurance. Elizabeth Hair of Truth Institute on TV, teens, and tobacco. Jonny Kingslake of Columbia Univ on hydrofracturing. Director Sanjay Rawal and Samuel Gensaw of The Ancestral Guard on their new documentary film GATHER. Ani Begay Auld on protecting native elders. Rachel Wadham of BYUradio's Worlds Awaiting on matching books to readers.
Ian Pepper of Univ of Arizona on wastewater COVID-19 monitoring. Kevin Carey of New America on public college funding. Zach St. George, author of "The Journey of Trees" on migrating forests. Nancy Wang Yuen of Biola Univ and author of "Reel Inequality" on the new Mulan movie. David Maimon of Georgia State Univ on the COVID-19 black market. Irah King of McGill Univ on disease tolerance.
Testing Sewer Water to Detect COVID-19 Before an Outbreak (0:29)
Guest: Ian Pepper, Professor of Environmental Science, Director of the Waterand Energy Sustainable Technology Center, University of Arizona
The first week students returned to campus at the University of Arizona, officials were able to prevent a possible outbreak of COVID-19 by monitoring the waste flowing out of dormitory sewage pipes. Campuses across the country are doing something similar, and so are many communities.
Public Colleges are in Danger of Privatization (17:42)
Guest: Kevin Carey, Vice President for Education Policy, New America
Colleges and universities around the country are scrambling to deal with outbreaks of COVID-19 on their campuses. Some have opted to put large swaths of students in quarantine, while others, like James Madison University, have given up and sent everyone home. Many leaders at higher education institutions hoped that opening up–even with the pandemic still going on–would entice more students to come back for fall. Because enrollment is down. And colleges and universities were already in financial crisis. So now what?
Forests Migrate—But Very Slowly (34:07)
Guest: Zach St. George, Science Writer, Author of “The Journeys of Trees: A Story About Forests, People, and the Future”
With summer over, it’s migration season for birds of all sorts. Monarch butterflies are heading to their windier habitats, too, and so are some whales. Did you know that forests also migrate?
Did Disney Finally Do Right By ‘Mulan?’ (52:49)
Guest: Nancy Wang Yuen, Associate Professor of Sociology, Biola University, Author of "Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism"
Disney finally released its live-action remake of Mulan after being delayed by the pandemic. In a major departure from tradition, the film is debuting online only through Disney+ with an extra $29.99 fee. It’s also a major departure from the original animated Mulan–there’s no singing and no wise-cracking dragon sidekick. Mulan remains Disney’s only Asian princess.
The Darkweb and COVID-19 Products: A Dangerous Combination (1:10:56)
Guest: David Maimon, Director, Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group, Georgia State University
The pandemic has prompted one wave after another of shortages–toilet paper, hand sanitizer, face masks, canning supplies. Shortages in the market always lead to price gouging. The pandemic has also been a boon for people who sell on shadier marketplaces that traffic in illegal drugs and counterfeit money.
Some People May Just Tolerate COVID-19 and Other Diseases Better (1:25:31)
Guest: Irah King, Professor of Immunology, McGill University
If two people get COVID-19, but one of them gets really sick and the other feels fine the entire time, what’s going on? Could be that some people's immune systems just do a better job fighting the virus. Or it may be that some bodies cope with the symptoms of COVID-19 so well the person doesn't even notice. That’s called “disease tolerance” and it’s different than immunity. It’s also a pretty new idea when it comes to humans and disease.
Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen of Brigham Young Univ on voting in 2020. Catherine Sabiston of Univ of Toronto on sports without fans. Gerald Sanacora of Yale Univ on a nasal suicide prevention spray. Rapper Toni Blackman on being a hip-hop ambassador. Ecologists Rebecca Means and Ryan Means on Project Remote. Byron Adams of Brigham Young Univ on ghost creatures in Antarctica.
Why is How We Vote Such an Issue in 2020 Election? (0:31)
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
A week ago, President Trump quipped that people who vote by mail in November should also go vote in-person on Election Day, just to be sure. That’s illegal. The White House says President Trump was only encouraging people to verify their mailed ballots are counted. Why has the way we vote become such a central part of the 2020 Election story?
Does that Fake Crowd Noise Make a Difference for Pros Playing During the Pandemic? (22:19)
Guest: Catherine Sabiston, Professor, Research Chair, Physical Activity and Mental Health, University of Toronto
If you’re just flipping channels and happen to catch a glimpse of an NBA playoff game right now, you might not notice that the arena is completely empty of fans. The crowd chanting “DEFENSE!” is just a recording. Professional baseball, soccer and hockey leagues are also using canned crowd audio–kind of like the laugh track in old-fashioned TV sitcoms. Why not just skip the charade? Does hearing fans cheer and jeer affect the way athletes play–even if it’s just a recording?
How a Single Spray Can Stop a Suicide (38:03)
Guest: Gerard Sanacora, Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University
Medication to treat depression takes weeks to start working in a patient. That wait time can be agonizing–if not deadly–for a person in crisis. The FDA has just approved a fast-acting emergency treatment for people at high risk of suicide. The drug is a nasal spray that’s been shown to ease depressive symptoms within 24 hours.
The First Hip-Hop Ambassador for the US State Department (52:50)
Guest: Toni Blackman, Rapper and Writer, First Hip-Hop Ambassador for the US State Department
Did you know that the US State Department has an official hip-hop ambassador to the world? The US actually has representatives from all different music genres: jazz, gospel, bluegrass. They perform and do workshops around the world as part of their diplomacy efforts. Toni Blackman was the first hip-hop ambassador for our country.
Searching for the Most Remote Places in America (1:14:01)
Guests: Rebecca Means, Wildlife Ecologist and Co-Creator of Project Remote; Ryan Means, Conservation Ecologist and Co-Creator of Project Remote
It’s tough to find places that are totally remote in the United States today. There is trash on even the least traveled hiking trails and some form of road to almost anywhere you would like to go. A couple of scientists and their young daughter have spent the last decade trying to find the most isolated place in every single state and the go visit it.
Antarctic Insects Tell the Future of Climate Change (1:29:05)
Guest: Byron Adams, Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University
Scientists have been trying for decades to piece together the history of the ice sheets in Antarctica. The patterns of melting and freezing are vital for us to understand the future of climate change. Problem is, researchers haven’t been able to confirm just how accurate the history they’ve put together is. Now there’s a tiny ghost creature that can corroborate–it’s lived through more than 30 ice ages.
How Women Drove Activism in Appalachia (0:32)
Guest: Jessica Wilkerson, Professor of History and Southern Studies, University of Mississippi, Author of “To Live Here, You Have to Fight”
A group of women in Appalachia defied stereotypes to get better living conditions for their families and working conditions for their coal miner husbands. They picketed and wrote famous protest songs and demanded that they get credit for all the caregiving they did that mde the coal companies profitable.
Preserving the Story of 9/11 (53:08)
Guest: Mitchell Zuckoff, Professor of Journalism, Boston University, Author of “Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11” and “13 Hours”
September 11, 2001. Over two hours, four hijacked passenger planes crash–one into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. One into the South Tower. Another hijacked plane crashes into the Pentagon and then, back in New York, Peter Jennings has taken over the live coverage for ABC and is having trouble getting his head around what he’s seeing on the screen as the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses. Minutes later, a fourth hijacked plane crashes in an empty field in rural Pennsylvania. Half an hour later–at 10:28 a.m. Eastern Time, the North Tower of the World Trade Center crumbles.
Jessica Wilkerson of the University of Mississippi and Author of "To Live Here, You Have to Fight" on how women drove activism in Appalachia. Mitchell Zuckoff, author of “Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11” and “13 Hours” on preserving the story of 9/11.
Eitan Hersh of Tufts Univ and author of "Politics is for Power" on political hobbism. Charlie Dorison of Harvard Univ on drugs and emotion. Dr. Michael Greger on his book "How Not to Diet". Magda and Nathaniel Newman on their book "Normal". Stephen Kelly of Duke Univ on Machias Island.
Obsessing About Political News Is Not Good for Us or the Country (0:40)
Guest: Eitan Hersh, Associate Professor of Political Science, Tufts University, Author of “Politics is for Power”
The political news these days just won’t quit. So much drama between the upcoming presidential election, the pandemic, and the protests. All three are driving the majority of Americans to spend more time on social media. How can we not? Isn’t it kind of a patriotic duty to stay current? And to share and post and comment? (Originally Aired 2/4/20)
Sadness is Major Driver of Tobacco Use (20:11)
Guest: Charlie Dorison, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
Cigarette use has steadily declined in America since the smoke-filled days of the 1950s and 60s. But smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in this country. Why do people smoke? Harvard survey work suggests feeling sad is a major trigger of tobacco use. (Originally Aired 1/27/20)
The Facts About Healthy Eating and How Not to Diet (33:46)
Guest: Michael Greger, MD, Author of “How Not to Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy Permanent Weight Loss,” nutritionfacts.org
Our schedules are all discombobulated with work and school happening differently and the threat of quarantine always hanging over us. That’s a recipe for weight gain. But looking to recalibrate things is tricky–there’s so much information out there about the best diet for health and weight loss. (Originally Aired 1/19/20)
Real Life “Wonder” Boy and His Mother Redefine “Normal” in New Memoir (52:53)
Guests: Magda and Nathaniel Newman, Authors of “Normal: A Mother and Her Beautiful Son”
The book for young readers called “Wonder” by RJ Palacio–and the movie based on it–gave people a better understanding of Treacher Collins syndrome. It’s a genetic condition that causes severe facial deformities like Auggie has in Wonder. Nathaniel Newman is sometimes called “the real life Auggie,” because he has Treacher Collins, too, but that’s pretty much where the similarities stop. Nathaniel and his mother Magda are now telling their story in a memoir called “Normal.” It’s been published in two versions–one for young readers and one for adults. (Originally Aired 1/30/20)
The Last US/Canada Border Dispute (1:32:23)
Guest: Stephen Kelly, Former Diplomat and Research Scholar, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
You know Puffins? They look like a cross between a penguin and a toucan? One of the very best places for puffin watching in America is a smallish mound of rock off the coast of Maine. It’s called Machias Seal Island and America has claimed it since the late 1700s. But Canada says the island has been its territory since the mid-1600s and believe it or not, this dispute has never been settled. For a long time, it seemed like it didn’t really matter, since neither the US nor Canada are willing to come to blows over a little island that’s really only valuable as a spot for tourists to birdwatch. But the dispute also extends to Atlantic Ocean waters around the island, which have become a source of more heated dispute recently because there are lobsters in that water. (Originally Aired 10/17/19)
Scott Crowe of CenterSquare Investment Management on the survival of malls. Regina Smyth of Indiana Univ Bloomington on a Russian political rebel. Journalist Denise Hruby on alpine cow attacks. Brad Ricca of Case Western Reserve Univ on his book "Olive the Lionheart". Yannis Papastamatiou of Florida International Univ on shark friends.
Desperate Measures to Save America’s Shopping Malls (0:31)
Guest: Scott Crowe, Chief Investment Strategist, CenterSquare Investment Management
Have you been inside a mall lately? The pandemic has been devastating for them. But, let’s be honest, malls were hurting before that. It’s gotten so bad that Simon Property Group–which is the largest mall owner in America-has been buying stores out of bankruptcy, so it’ll still have something to draw shoppers to the mall. Brooks Brothers, Forever 21, Lucky Brand are three stores Simon Property Group has bailed out. It’s trying to buy JC Penney, too. And, in another strange development, the Wall Street Journal reported last month that Simon was in talks with Amazon to turn some of its empty Sears and JC Penney stores into Amazon distribution hubs. Isn’t that a little like letting your conqueror move into your house?
How One Political Rebel Changed the Face of Russian Politics (20:01)
Guest: Regina Smyth, Professor of Political Science, Indiana University Bloomington
One of Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics–a man named Alexei Navalny–is in critical condition in a hospital in Berlin, and German officials have determined he was poisoned by a nerve agent that’s been used before to assassinate Putin’s opponents. The Russian government denies this. Navalny has been jailed for his activism before–and he’s been instrumental in mobilizing large protests against the Russian government.
Cow Attacks in the Alps (31:58)
Guest: Denise Hruby, Freelance Journalist, Environmental and Social Issues, Austria
Listening to the Sound of Music brings to mind a picture Julie Andrews frolicking in a green meadow full of yellow wildflowers with white-capped mountains in the background. Well she wouldn’t have had that Alpine meadow to sing in without Austrian cows. They help create those beautiful pastures. But problem is, more and more hikers in the Alps are being attacked and some killed–by these cows.
From Heartsick Socialite to Intrepid Explorer: Olive MacLeod Goes to Africa (52:47)
Guest: Brad Ricca, Author of “Olive the Lionheart,” “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes” and “Super Boys,” English Professor, Case Western Reserve University
We’ve been marking the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage this year with stories of remarkable women fighting for change. But for the next hour we’re going to rewind the clock to 110 years ago and the forgotten story of a Scottish aristocrat who broke all kinds of rules on a wild trek across Africa. Olive Macleod was 30 and more of a party girl than an outdoorswoman. How she ended up meeting African warlords, discovering elusive waterfalls and adopting two lion cubs as pets is quite the tale.
Grey Reef Sharks Form Long-Term Social Bonds (1:33:25)
Guest: Yannis Papastamatiou, Professor of Biological Science, Florida International University
Lots of animals travel in groups, live in communities and form close relationships. Sharks don’t. Although, when researchers put trackers on a bunch of grey reef sharks in the Pacific Ocean, they found something like social ties that lasted for years. Sharks don’t have BFFs, necessarily, but they do seem to prefer the company of certain sharks and occasionally hang out.
Michael Serazio of Boston College on sports activism. Titan Alon of Univ of California San Diego on women and unemployment. Kate Herndon and Greg Stilson, of American Printing House for the Blind on braille bricks. Sam Payne from BYUradio's Apple Seed. Yazmín García Trejo of US Census Bureau on census women. James Smoliga, High Point Univ, on hot dog eating limits. Aria Campbell-Danesh and Seth Gillihan, clinical psychologists and authors of "A Mindful Year," on being mindful.
Will Current Support for Pro Athlete Activism Last? (0:29)
Guest: Michael Serazio, Associate Professor of Communication, Boston College, Author of “The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture”
NBA teams, inside their pandemic bubble in Orlando, are heading into the second round of playoff games. For two days last week, the whole thing ground to a sudden halt. First the Milwaukee Bucks decided not to take the court in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. Within hours, hundreds of athletes in professional men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and soccer had joined the walkout.
Pandemic Recession is Worse for Women in the Workforce (18:11)
Guest: Titan Alon, Professor of Economics, University of California San Diego
The last couple of economic recessions in America have been harder on men in the workforce than women–mainly because of the kinds of jobs men and women tend to do. But this pandemic recession is the opposite–women are hurting far more and, as a result, are likely to see their wages slip further behind men in America.
LEGO Bricks in Braille (34:44)
Guests: Kate Herndon, Senior Director of Product Operations and Analytics, LEGO Braille Bricks Project Leader, American Printing House for the Blind; Greg Stilson, Senior Director of Global Innovation, American Printing House for the Blind
Think of your standard LEGO brick: A little rectangle with eight raised bumps on it, right? Well it turns out that braille is based on a set of raised dots arranged just like LEGOs, except with six dots instead of eight. So, LEGO has made some custom bricks specifically to help blind children learn braille through play. The LEGO Braille Bricks are just launching in the US in partnership with the American Printing House for the Blind. They’re sending send hundreds of free sets out to schools and students around the country.
Apple Seed (52:46)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, BYUradio's Apple Seed
What's professional storytelling like during a pandemic?
The Census Might Be Missing out on Women (1:04:01)
Guest: Yazmín García Trejo, Social Science Researcher, U.S. Census Bureau
Americans have just one month left to fill out the 2020 Census. Eight-three percent of all households have been counted, according to the US Census Bureau’s latest tally. But that still leaves more than 20 million households that have yet to fill out the short survey. Heading into the massive undertaking, Census Bureau research suggested women, in particular, were less intent on completing the 2020 Census.
Ever Wonder How Many Hot Dogs a Human Could Eat? Science Has the Answer (1:13:15)
Guest: James Smoliga, Professor of Exercise Science, High Point University
Competitive hot dog eaters swallow a huge number of hot dogs in a very short amount of time. The current record is 75 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Is there a limit at which a human just can’t down any more dog?
Mindfulness Might Help You and Your Family Regain Your Footing in These Turbulent Times (1:18:18)
Guests: Aria Campbell-Danesh and Seth Gillihan, Clinical Psychologists, Authors of “A Mindful Year: 365 Ways to Find Connection and the Sacred in Everyday Life”
There’s a lot to be anxious about right now. Might now be a good time to introduce some mindfulness practice into your life–maybe even as a family activity?
US and UK Clash Over Prosecution of British ISIS Members and the Death Penalty (0:32)
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
The US military is currently detaining two ISIS fighters believed to have been involved in beheading Americans. Horrific video of those murders prompted the United States to enter the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Now, with two men in custody for those killings, the US attorney general has pledged not to seek the death penalty. It’s a controversial move.
A Vision of Travel That Leaves the Destination Better Than You Found It (26:12)
Guest: Jonathon Day, Associate Professor, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Purdue University
International tourism has been at a standstill during the COVID-19 pandemic. When it restarts, it’ll probably be different—like everything else. Might it change for the better? There’s a movement toward something called “regenerative travel” which is a more mindful form of tourism than “sustainable travel” which has been the buzz word for awhile.
Childhood Trauma Leads to More Rapid Aging (38:19)
Guest: Natalie Colich, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Stress & Development Lab, Harvard University
Trauma in childhood can have major psychological consequences, but what about biological? New research shows that trauma impacts the body by making kids age faster, which can cause a whole host of health problems.
Netflix is Booming During the Pandemic—When Will it Be Profitable? (52:46)
Guest: Peter Kafka, Podcast Host, “Land of Giants”, Vox Media
Netflix has been doing very well during the pandemic; subscriptions have been way up with so many people stuck at home. But did you know Netflix still isn’t profitable? How can the company that killed Blockbuster and outsmarted Hollywood in streaming not be raking in profits hand over fist?
New Technique to Diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease Using a Blood Test (1:15:01)
Guest: Sebastian Palmqvist, Associate Professor, Clinical Memory Research, Lund University in Sweden
Doctors can almost definitively diagnose Alzheimer’s disease by looking at the brain or spinal fluid. But these methods can be invasive and expensive, so most patients forego them and just go off of symptoms. Now researchers are one step closer to making an Alzheimer’s diagnosis as easy as a blood test.
In a Pandemic, Every Restaurant’s a Ghost Kitchen. Is the Trend Here to Stay? (1:23:04)
Guest: Christopher Muller, Former Dean and Retired Professor, School of Hospitality Administration, Boston University
Many restaurants will not survive the pandemic. And when this is all over, it may still be a while before we’re comfortable eating in crowded restaurants again. Is food-to-go the future of restaurants? If the answer is yes, ghost kitchens are likely to be part of the solution.
Eric Jensen of Brigham Young Univ on prosecuting ISIS terrorists. Jonathon Day of Purdue Univ on regenerative travel. Natalie Colich of Harvard Univ on trauma and aging. Peter Kafka of "Land of Giants" podcast on Netflix. Sebastian Palmqvist of Lund University on a Alzheimer's Disease blood test. Christopher Muller of Boston Univ on ghost restaurants.
March on Washington 2020 participants Courtney Wiley, Sue Brown, Rachael Theis, Carl Crawford, Lisa Smitley, Julie Reed on the march. Aaron Karp of Small Arms Survey on Americans guns smuggled into Britain. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt Univ on flu season and COVID19. RayMartell Moore on being a hand model. Matthew Leonard of Univ of California, San Francisco on learning language faster by stimulating nerves. Ken Tape of Univ of Alaska Fairbanks on beavers and climate change.
Voices from the March on Washington 2020 (0:31)
Guests: March on Washington 2020 participants Courtney Wiley, Sue Brown, Rachael Theis, Carl Crawford, Lisa Smitley, Julie Reed
An estimated 50,000 people rallied for racial justice in Washington, DC on Friday, marking the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s 1963 March on Washington. Top of Mind’s Julie Rose was at the 2020 March on Friday. In this special report, we meet veteran activists and people attending a civil rights march for the very first time. What makes this march different from the one Martin Luther King, Jr. led 57 years ago? What change do they hope for?
American Guns Smuggled into UK Aid British Crime (23:08)
Guest: Aaron Karp, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Old Dominion University, Senior Consultantat with the Small Arms Survey, Geneva
The United Kingdom has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world–private ownership of handguns has been almost completely banned since 1996. But there’s been a recent surge in illegal firearms there. Gun seizures by Britain’s National Crime Agency more than doubled in the last year. And experts are worried that gun smuggling out of the US to the UK will accelerate after Brexit.
Flu Season and COVID-19 (33:08)
Guest: William Schaffner, Professor, Preventive Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Fall is just around the corner, which means the flu season is, too. But we’re still in a pandemic, so now experts are worried about COVID-19 and a severe influenza raging across the country. They’re calling the possibility a “twindemic.”
A Day in the Life of Hand Model (52:48)
Guest: RayMartell Moore, Hand Model
Hand modeling. Can’t be so hard, right? After all, George Costanza from the TV show Seinfeld got offered a hand modeling job. What does make someone’s hands commercial-worthy? A professional hand model fills us in.
Learning a Language Faster By Stimulating a Nerve (1:10:12)
Guest: Matthew Leonard, Professor of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco
Learning a new language as an adult is hard. Apps and computer programs can only do so much when our brains just aren’t as flexible. So what if we ditch the Duolingo and go straight to stimulating a nerve instead? A special earpiece is making that possible. It’s non-invasive, and it helped participants in a study learn some Mandarin Chinese more quickly.
Are Beavers Contributing to Climate Change? (1:27:33)
Guest: Ken Tape, Ecologist, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Many beavers have left the forest in the past couple decades to live in the arctic tundra of Alaska. And they’ve been very busy. The rodents created 56 new lakes in just five years with all the dams they’re building. That’s a big problem because researchers think it’s contributing to climate change.
Joe Borgia of the National Basketball Association on referees. Caroline Criado Perez on her book "Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men". Andrew Simpson, animal trainer, on being a wolf whisperer. Gregory Clark of Univ of Utah and Keven Walgamott on a new prosthetic arm that can move and feel the same as a human arm. Brenda Bowen of Univ of Utah on the Salt Flats. Aaron Carroll of Indiana Univ on research bias.
What It’s Like to be a Professional Ref and Inside the NBA Replay Center (0:36)
Guest: Joe Borgia, Senior Vice President, Referee Operations, National Basketball Association
No matter the call in sports, someone is always mad at the referee. But NBA refs have an out–no matter what stadium they’re in, they can signal a team in New Jersey to review the call. There, they have nearly 100 TV screens to analyze the play from every possible angle and break it down to 1/60th of a second. It seems pretty hard to dispute that. (Originally aired 11/21/2019).
Invisible Women (17:02)
Guest: Caroline Criado Perez, Activist, Author of "Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men"
The typical safety features in a car are not designed with the typical woman in mind. Did you know that? Up until about 8 years ago all the crash test dummies used in safety tests were based on man’s body. Engineers have found that makes women a lot more likely to be injured in an accident. And it’s not just cars. Cell phones, musical instruments–even voice recognition software –are optimized for men. (Originally aired 06/05/2019).
How “The Wolf Whisperer” Trains Wolves for the Big Screen (37:45)
Guest: Andrew Simpson, Animal Trainer, Instinct for Film
It's a dark, winter-filled wood. A lone woman huddles by a fire. Her horse is skittish. Something's in the air. Something foreboding. She draws her sword and suddenly she’s surrounded . . . by a pack of snarling wolves-white, black, grey. Fangs bared. And the giant leader of the pack steps up. The woman is doomed. Or is she? That’s a scene from the HBO series Game of Thrones. It may seem like those wolves would be some greeen screen magic, but it turns out they’re real and they belong to Andrew Simpson. (Originally aired 12/19/2019).
Biomedical Engineers Pave Way for Prosthetic Arm That Can Move and Feel the Same as a Human Arm (52:50)
Guests: Gregory Clark, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Univ of Utah; Keven Walgamott, Participant of the Study and Real Estate Agent from West Valley City
In the Star Wars universe, it’s no problem if your hand gets chopped off by a light saber. You can get a fake one that can do everything a real hand could. But in our world, we’ve never been close to that. Until now. University of Utah engineers have created a prosthetic arm that can feel, touch, and move with your thoughts. They nicknamed it the Luke arm after the famous Skywalker who lost his hand in a fight with Darth Vader. (Originally aired 08/28/2019).
Are the Salt Flats Disappearing? (1:05:21)
Guest: Brenda Bowen, Professor of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah
Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats are known as one of the best places in the world for car racing. Records have been set there for more than 100 years. But now the Flats are facing a shortage of the most important ingredient: Salt. There’s a lot of finger pointing going on over who’s to blame–some believe it’s the racers fault, others say the salt miners, while some pin it on the government. Or is it just a natural cycle and no one’s to blame? (Originally aired 10/30/2019).
How Bias is Baked Into Scientific Research (1:22:31)
Guest: Aaron Carroll, Associate Dean for Research Mentoring, Indiana University School of Medicine
Everyday there’s some new study touting the latest healthy thing to eat or drink or ask your doctor about. Savvy consumers know to ask who funded the research? Because if the pomegranate juice folks paid for the study that says pomegranate is a super-food, well there might be a conflict there, right? But conflicts in research go so much deeper than dollar signs. (Originally aired 03/25/2019).
William P. Jones of Univ of Minnesota on March on Washington. Christopher Palmer of Massachusetts Institue of Technology on rent control. Phillip Phan of Johns Hopkins Univ on telehealth. Katherine Kinzler of Univ of Chicago on her book "How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do and What It Says About You". Farzan Sasangohar of Texas A&M Univ on how architecture can help with PTSD.
March on Washington Expects to Draw 50,000 Protesters on Historic Anniversary (0:30)
Guest: William P. Jones, Professor of History, University of Minnesota, Author of “The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights”
A protest march happening in D.C. on Friday is expected to draw tens of thousands of people from around the country. It’s being spearheaded by Reverend Al Sharpton, who announced the march–spontaneously–at the funeral of George Floyd–the black man killed by police in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
Why A Lot of Experts Oppose Rent Control (19:12)
Guest: Christopher Palmer, Professor of Finance, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
With racial disparities and rising housing costs, a handful of states have enacted some kind of rent control law. Californians will vote on a ballot initiative this November that would expand rent control in their state. Rent control gives the government the power to put a cap on how much landlords can charge for rent. The theory is that it will decrease inequality and make housing more affordable. But a lot of experts say it just doesn’t work.
The Pros and Cons of Telehealth (36:58)
Guest: Phillip Phan, Professor, Carey Business School, Department of Medicine, Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Johns Hopkins University
Telemedicine has been around for a while, but before the pandemic, you may have not known that was a thing or wouldn’t have even considered meeting with a doctor over Zoom as a viable option. It may now become widely adopted. But would that be a good thing?
How You Talk and What That Says About You (52:49)
Guest: Katherine Kinzler, Professor of Psychology, University of Chicago, Author of “How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do and What It Says About You”
Every time you open your mouth, you’re being judged for how you speak. You may think you have no accent, but you do. We all do. And we all gravitate–innately–toward other people who sound like us. Discriminating against someone for having a foreign accent is one of the few forms of discrimination still socially acceptable in America.
Can Architecture Help People with PTSD? (1:29:20)
Guest: Farzan Sasangohar, Director, Applied Cognitive Ergonomics Lab, Texas A&M University
Our environment–the building we’re in and the things that surround us–can impact our mental health. So researchers decided to look at how architecture could be harnessed to help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. They identified several things that could mitigate symptoms of PTSD.
What Exactly is QAnon? (0:30)
Guest: Travis View, Co-host, “QAnon Anonymous” Podcast
Facebook removed hundreds of accounts related to the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon last week, following the example of other social media platforms. The FBI listed QAnon as a potential domestic terror threat last year. And yet, the movement has been gaining a lot of traction recently. More than a dozen Congressional candidates have openly supported QAnon. An adjunct professor at a community college in Arizona even promoted the movement in class. QAnon shirts and hoodies are sold on Amazon and worn by all kinds of Trump supporters at rallies. If it has so many followers, but is also a domestic terror threat, what’s going on?
Community of Prisoners Turn to Magic (22:28)
Guest: Joshua Jay, Magician, Co-Owner of Vanishing Inc. Magic
Some prison inmates use their time to get a GED, bulk up, or read. Others do magic. Nearly 20 years ago, professional magician Joshua Jay started receiving letters from prisoners asking for tips and tricks. A community of magician inmates has formed, and they teach other magic through mail.
Proposed Dam Near Grand Canyon Would Flood Sacred Tribal Land (36:52)
Guest: Sarana Riggs, Grand Canyon Program Manager, Grand Canyon Trust
Developers want to build a series of dams near the Grand Canyon that could be financially beneficial to the Navajo Nation. The company has submitted a preliminary permit application, but has faced a huge backlash from environmentalists and the Native American community. The project would flood Big Canyon, which is part of sacred Navajo land and connects to animal habitats in the Little Colorado River.
Exercise Makes You Smarter (52:49)
Guest: Charles Hillman, Professor of Psychology, Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive and Brain Health, Northeastern University
It's strange that the stereotype for athletes is “dumb jock” because they exercise a lot, and a growing body of research shows that working outmakes you smarter. Our brains function better after exercise.
IQ Loss from Pesticides and Flame Retardants (1:06:47)
Guest: Leonardo Trasande, Professor of Pediatrics, Environmental Medicine and Population Health, New York University
Good news: new research shows that crackdowns on toxic chemicals in the last couple decades are paying off. Childhood brain damage numbers are down. But the bad news is that researchers are now worried about which chemicals are still causing IQ loss. It used to be primarily lead and mercury, but now it’s flame retardants and pesticides, which aren’t as strictly regulated.
Why We’re Obsessed with Avocados (1:25:05)
Guest: Jeffrey Miller, Author of “Avocado: A Global History,” Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Colorado State University
We’re in an avocado craze right now. From guacamole to sandwiches and salads, we love it. And now the green fruit has become a sarcastic joke about millennials: apparently we all love avocado toast. But why is the avocado so popular? Without the help of ancient animals and some clever marketing, it could have very easily turned out differently. You wouldn’t have ever tasted an avocado or even heard of it.
Travis View, podcaster, on QAnon. Magician Joshua Jay on prisoners learning magic. Sarana Riggs of Grand Canyon Trust on a proposed dam project near the Grand Canyon. Charles Hillman of Northeastern Univ on exercise making people smarter. Leonardo Trasande of New York Univ on IQ Loss from toxic chemicals. Jeffrey Miller of Colorado State Univ on his book "Avocado: A Global History".
With Europe’s Doors Shut to Americans, Rick Steves Embraces Virtual Travel (0:32)
Guest: Rick Steves, Travel Guide, PBS-TV Host, Author of “For the Love of Europe”
Because of COVID-19, tourists from the US are not allowed into Europe and it’s unclear how long that restriction will last. So what do you do if you’re America’s leading expert on traveling in Europe?
Yes, the Advice on Masks Has Changed. Here’s Why Everyone Should Wear One Now. (18:15)
Guest: Ben Abbott, Professor of Environmental Science, Brigham Young University
First we were told specifically not to wear masks. Then we were told they wouldn’t do much good, but go ahead and wear one if it makes you feel better. Now we’re being told to wear them whenever we’re in public. Why has the advice from public health experts been all over the place on masks? And is there any reason we ought to trust them now?
How Dark Are These Deep-Sea Fish? (36:08)
Guest: Alexander Davis, PhD student, Duke University
Some of the darkest-skinned creatures on the planet live on the bottom of the sea. Which, when you think of it, is strange because there’s no sunlight down there, so why would fish need skin so black it absorbs nearly all light in encounters?
The Untold Story of the Pioneering Suffragists in the American West (52:48)
Guest: Neylan McBaine, CEO, Better Days 2020, Author of “Pioneering the Vote: The Untold Story of the Suffragists in Utah and the West”
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. But women had voted in the US before–a number of Western states and territories were the first to putequal suffrage laws in their constitutions. The first woman in the nation to cast a vote under an equal suffrage law was a young school teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah named Seraph Young. It was February 1870, a full fifty years before the US Constitution would be amended to guarantee that right to all women. Why did Western territories lead the way in women’s suffrage? And why Utah, of all places, for such a milestone?
Did I Do That Thing, or Did I Just Think About Doing It? (1:30:27)
Guest: Dolores Albarracin, Professor of Psychology and Marketing, The University of Illinois, Director of the Social Action Lab
Does this ever happen to you? You get an email or a text. You think of the response that you want to send. And a few hours–or days later–you're sure you responded to that message? But you didn’t. How does that work?
Rick Steves, travel guide and author, on international travel. Ben Abbott of Brigham Young Univ on face masks. Alexander Davis of Duke Univ on ultra dark deep-sea fish. Neylan McBaine on "Pioneering the Vote: The Untold Story of Suffragists in Utah and the West". Dolores Albarracin of the Univ of Illinois on intention and memory.
Postal Service Under Political Pressure (0:30)
Guest: Richard Geddes, Professor in the Department of Policy Analysis & Management at Cornell University, Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Author of “Saving the Mail”
The head of the US Postal Service spent Friday and Monday being grilled by members of Congress. Democrats are concerned that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is intentionally hobbling mail delivery to undermine voting by mail in November. President Trump does not want to see wide-spread voting by mail this election and has opposed stimulus funds for the Postal Service. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has promised to prioritize ballot delivery, but still plans an overhaul of the system after the election. Is the controversy purely political? Or does the US Postal Service really need fixing?
Methane Leaking from Under Sea Floor in Antarctica (22:05)
Guest: Andrew Thurber, Professor of Microbiology, Oregon State University
Scientists have discovered methane leaking from the sea floor in Antarctica. Gas bubbles up from the ocean all the time–but this is the first active methane leak ever discovered in Antarctica, and it’s given researchers to answer some questions about what’s known as the “methane cycle.”
The Trouble with Diagnosing a Mental Illness (36:48)
Guest: Terrie Moffitt, Professor of Psychology, Duke University
Diagnosing a mental illness is not an exact science, despite the very detailed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders psychiatrists use as a guide. A patient could visit three different psychiatrists and get three different diagnoses. And new research tracking psychiatric patients for forty years found their diagnoses changed over time, too.
1963 March on Washington Unified a Movement. Can 2020 March Do the Same? (52:47)
Guest: Clayborne Carson, Centennial Professor of History, Stanford University, Founding Director of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
On Friday in Washington, DC, civil rights leaders, labor unions and the families of black men and women killed by police will lead a protest march. It’ll be the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic March on Washington, where he delivered the iconic “I Have a Dream Speech.” In the months after hundreds of thousands gathered for that march, Congress passed laws prohibiting racial discrimination. Organizers of the march on happening this Friday are calling for criminal justice reform and police accountability.
Automating the Scientific Method (1:09:42)
Guest: Ross King, Professor of Machine Intelligence, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
There’s a global quest underway to create a robot capable of winning a Nobel Prize. 2050 is the target date for that. But why would scientists want to make themselves obsolete by inventing robots that can do their jobs better?
Natural Disaster Fit for 2020: Fire Tornadoes (1:28:40)
Guest: Ben Gelber, Meteorologist, NBC4, Columbus, Ohio
Firefighters in California are currently battling two of the largest wildfires the state has ever seen. Hot dry wind and lightning are making the fight harder. Last week, the National Weather Service even issued a rare warning of fire tornados in the region. Meteorologist Ben Gelber couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw them pop up on the doppler radar measuring velocity: What new horror will 2020 cook up next?
Richard Geddes of Cornell Univ on the USPS. Andrew Thurber of Oregon State Univ on an Antarctic methane leak. Terrie Moffitt of Duke Univ on mental health diagnosis. Clayborne Carson of Stanford Univ on the March on Washington. Ross King of Chalmers Univ of Technology on scientist robots. Meteoroloist Ben Gelber on fire tornadoes.
Millions of Americans Lack Access to Clean Water and Indoor Plumbing (0:35)
Guest: George McGraw, Chief Executive Officer, DigDeep
You don’t think about it when you flush the toilet or turn on the sink, but access to clean, reliable running water and safe sanitation are a real privilege. And right now, in the America, more than two million people lack that privilege. A person’s race is the strongest predictor of whether they’ll have access to clean water and sanitation. (Originally aired 11/20/2019).
Combatting Extremism: Use Peer Pressure, Not Logic or Fear (17:05)
Guest: Nafees Hamid, PhD Candidate, Department of Security and Crime Science, University College London
When someone commits unthinkable violence for the sake of an extreme belief –whether it’s strapping on a suicide vest in the name of jihad or posting a racist manifesto and gunning down immigrants in a parking lot –surely that person is a psychopath. But that’s not what researchers found when they scanned the brains of people who support a radical Islamist terror group. Their insights are important to the discussion going on in the US right now about how to combat extreme white nationalism. (Originally aired 08/09/2019).
The Man Collecting One Million War Letters (36:49)
Guest: Andrew Carroll, Director of the Center for American War Letters at Chapman University
Historian Andrew Carroll is on a mission to collect a million letters from soldiers during wartime. He’s already collected tens of thousands, and they span 250 years of American conflicts from the Revolutionary war to the present day. One of them was even written on Hitler’s own stationary. (Originally aired 11/20/2019).
Behind the Scenes of the Sound Design for Hollywood’s Hits (52:50)
Guest: Richard King, Supervising Sound Editor and Designer
Movies area visual medium, obviously. Color and camera angles matter enormously to the experience you have in the theater. But so does sound. In fact, it’s maybe sound most of all that pulls you into a film. Makes you feel the wind and sea spray like you’re one of the rescued soldiers huddled on a small boat at the end of the World War II movie Dunkirk. As an enemy plane bears down, it’s the sound of it that makes your heart race. And the spray of bullets that makes you wince and momentarily shut your eyes. (Originally aired 08/14/2019).
Our Obsession With Natural Products (1:14:12)
Guest: Alan Levinovitz, Associate Professor of Religion, James Madison University, Author of "Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science"
We’re told–and a lot of us agree–that natural is always better, whether it’s food, flavors and fibers or skin care and supplements. But did you know that the FDA doesn’t even define what “natural” means on a food label? It’s basically just a marketing ploy to catch your attention –and it works. Lifestyle brands like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop have made obsessing about all things natural into a lucrative business. Setting aside the often dubious health and wellness claims attached to anything “natural,” why do we place so much value in the idea of it? (Oringally aired 01/30/2020).
A Book Designed to Help You Feel for Honeybees (1:27:55)
Guest: Candace Fleming, Author; Eric Rohmann, Illustrator of “Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera”
Bees pollinate a lot of our food. And they’re in decline for a lot of reasons. So we’re supposed to be nice to bees. But when one comes buzzing around you or your kid, how are you supposed to fight that panicky urge to swat – or squash? Maybe start by taking in a gorgeous new picture book called “Honeybee.” (Originally aired 03/04/2020).
George McGraw from DigDeep on water inequality. Nafees Hamid of the University College London on radicalization. Andrew Carroll, Center for American War Letters at Chapman University, on collecting one million war letters. Supervising sound editor and designer Richard King on sound design. Alan Levinovitz, James Madison Univ, on natural products. Author Candace Fleming and Illustrator Eric Rohmann on “Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera”.
Political Upheaval in Belarus (0:31)
Guest: Matthew Schmidt, PhD, Associate Professor of National Security and Political Science, University of New Haven
The European Union has dismissed the results of a recent presidential election in Belarus as fraudulent and sanctioned members of President Alexander Lukashenko’s government. Protests against the election outcome have been ongoing for 12 straight days. Lukashenko has sometimes been called Europe’s last dictator. Is his 26-year rule near an end?
Do Your Genetics Impact Your Relationship? (21:20)
Guest: Jennifer Bartz, Professor of Psychology, McGill University
To what degree is your DNA responsible for the quality of your relationships? A pair of just-published studies suggest genes are very much involved in the way we behave with and respond to a romantic partner.
Conspiracy Theories During the Pandemic (37:55)
Guest: Joseph Uscinski, Professor of Political Science, University of Miami
Do you tend to believe that the people who really run the country are not known to voters? That there’s a secret group of powerful elites pulling the strings in government–and that in many cases they have it out for President Trump? Do you suspect that the threat of coronavirus has been exaggerated by political groups who want to damage President Trump? Answering “yes” to one of those questions is very common in America. But the pandemic has made minds even more fertile ground for conspiracy thinking.
You’re Doing It Wrong! Mom-Shaming in America (52:44)
Guest: Margaret Quinlan, Professor of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Bethany Johnson, Medical Historian, PhD Candidate at the University of South Carolina, Co-Authors of “You’re Doing it Wrong! Mothering, Media and Medical Expertise”
As if conception, childbirth and mothering a newborn weren’t hard enough, American society reserves a special level of scrutiny for women in those phases of life. Everywhere she turns, she’s bombarded with unsolicited advice–even from other women who’ve experienced the same judgment.
Teens Are Waiting to Drive (1:33:00)
Guest: Federico Vaca, Emergency Physician, Professor, Yale School of Medicine
American teenagers used to rush to the DMV on their 16th birthday to get adriver license, but more and more these days are putting it off. Sometimes for years.
Matthew Schmidt of Univ of New Haven on Belarus protests. Jennifer Bartz of McGill Univ on how genes impact relationships. Joseph Uscinski of Univ of Miami on conspiracy theories. Margaret Quinlan, Univ of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Bethany Johnson, Univ of South Carolina, on mom-shaming. Federico Vaca of Yale's School of Med on teens waiting to drive.
Paul Offit of Univ of Pennsylvania on COVID19 vaccines. Erik Arneson on board games. David Rothwell of Oregon State Univ on continued unemployment. Sam Payne of BYUradio's Apple Seed. Nicholas Morley of Air Force Research Laboratory on laser weapons. Brian Baumgartner, actor, on the legacy of The Office.
A Vaccine for COVID-19 - What's the Status? (0:29)
Guest: Paul Offit, Director of The Vaccine Education Center, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Member of the FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Committee
Russia announced last week that it’s registered the world’s first vaccine for COVID-19. Dozens of potential vaccines under development in the US and Europe are still many months from approval–only a few have entered the all-important phase of testing where the vaccine is given to humans who are monitored to see how well they do if they catch COVID-19.
Playing Board Games During the Pandemic (20:18)
Guest: Erik Arneson, Board Game Enthusiast, Author, “How to Host a Game Night”
Sales of board games have surged during the pandemic. Erik Arneson has been writing about board games for 20 years – and playing them a lot longer than that.
How Long Can Americans Go Unemployed? (38:50)
Guest: David Rothwell, Professor of Human Development, Oregon State University
Just how tenuous is the financial situation of America’s poorest households? Oregon State University research says the majority of low-to-moderate-income Americans don’t have enough cash to last three months. That’s certainly worrisome as the pandemic closures stretch on.
Apple Seed (52:48)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, BYUradio's Apple Seed
Sci-fi Laser Weapons Are Closer than You Think (1:03:24)
Guest: Nicholas Morley, Senior Scientist for High Power Photonics, Air Force Research Laboratory
Ray guns are a staple of science fiction. Turning lasers into weapons has proven much harder in real life. The Air Force is close, though.
Why Is "The Office" Still So Popular? (1:21:03)
Guest: Brian Baumgartner, Actor, "The Office", Podcaster, "An Oral History of The Office"
Fifteen years ago, The Office premiered on American TV and it was not a hit. But it somehow got picked up for a second season and became a huge phenomenon, changing television comedy, making its unknown stars famous. Today, The Office is arguably even more successful than during its nine seasons on the air. It’s a runaway hit on Netflix. Teens and tweens are crazy for it. What is going on?
Tennessee’s Unlikely Role in Ratifying the 19th Amendment (0:30)
Guest: Carole Stanford Bucy, Professor of History, Volunteer State Community College; Davidson County Historian
August 18, 1920–exactly 100 years ago–Tennessee became the final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote nationwide. That a Southern state would play that part is surprising. The vote was so close it came down to one young lawmaker and a letter he’d just received from his mother urging him to change his mind and vote for suffrage.
The Tennessee Mother’s Letter That Pushed the 19th Amendment Over the Finish Line (19:01)
Guest: Tyler Boyd, Great Grand-Nephew of Harry T. Burn, Author of “Tennessee Statesman Harry T. Burn: Woman Suffrage, Free Elections and a Life of Service”
As we mark the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women across the country the right to vote, let’s hear about the Tennessee lawmaker who cast the vote that pushed the 19th Amendment to victory. Harry T. Burn is his name.
WhyIDidntReport (34:51)
Guest: Jason Whiting, Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy, Brigham Young University
College students are returning to campuses across the country at the same time new federal guidelines take effect regarding how universities handle allegations of sexual assault and harassment. The US Department of Education says the changes are necessary to “restore due process” and protect students from false accusations. Opponents say the rules will discourage victims from reporting sexual assault.
Teachers Switching to Online During Pandemic Risk Copyright Pitfalls (52:46)
Guest: Peter Midgely, Director of the Copyright Licensing Office, Brigham Young University
Teachers at all grade levels are in new territory going back to school during a pandemic. As they juggle both in-person and remote class activities, teachers may be unwittingly breaking copyright law. But really, who’s going to sue a teacher for copyright infringement during an emergency like this? Don’t be so sure.
What to Do with Dead Trees in a Tree Epidemic (1:10:11)
Guest: Sasa Zivkovic, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Cornell University
Ash trees around the country are decaying. An insect has killed hundreds of millions of these trees in the last couple of decades. But while scientists try to figure out how to slow or stop the spread of the infection, something has to be done with all the dead trees. A team of architects at Cornell University have come up with a creative way to use these infested trees to make buildings.
The Little-Known Truth About Japan’s Mistreatment of POWs in WWII (1:27:36)
Guest: Sarah Kovner, Senior Research Scholar, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, Author of “Prisoners of the Empire: Inside Japanese POW Camps”
75 years ago, the US had just dropped two atomic bombs–the first and only ever deployed against a country in war–and Japan was weeks away from surrendering to end World War II. By then the horrors suffered by allied troops on Japan’s Prisoner of War camps were already well-known. Famous accounts like the best-selling book Unbroken and movies like The Bridge on the River Kwai have memorialized the systematic humiliation and abuse Japanese guards visited on prisoners. But historian Sarah Kovner says “there was no overarching policy or plan by Japan to make POWs suffer, or starve them or work them to death.” So why were Americans and other allied troops treated so terribly in Japanese prison camps?
Carole Stanford Bucy of Volunteer State Community College Tennessee suffrage. Tyler Boyd on his great, grand-uncle Harry Burn's role in Tennessee suffrage. Jason Whiting of Brigham Young Univ on new Title IX rules. Peter Midgely of Brigham Young Univ on copyright pitfalls of online teaching. Sasa Zivkovic of Cornell Univ on ashen cabins. Sarah Kovner of Columbia Univ on Japanese POWs.
Implications of Israel and UAE Normalizing Relations (0:29)
Guest: Aaron David Miller, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment, Former US State Department Middle East Advisor and Negotiator
The Associated Press confirmed on Sunday that direct phone calls between Israel and the United Arab Emirates are now ringing through for the first time in nearly 50 years. It’s concrete evidence of the agreement Israel and the Emirates made in the last week to establish full diplomatic relations.
Why Is The USDA So Worried About Mystery Seeds? (16:54)
Guest: Laura Meyerson, Professor of Invasion Biology, University of Rhode Island
Don’t plant the seeds! That’s the message from the US Department of Agriculture regarding thousands of mysterious packets of unmarked seeds people across the country have been receiving in the mail. The packages seem to come from China. In addition to not planting the seeds, the USDA doesn’t even want people to throw them away. Why?
Is Milk Healthy? (36:40)
Guest: Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
Every five years the USDA updates its dietary guidelines for Americans and it’s about to do another one of those updates. The Scientific Advisory Committee for those guidelines suggests that the USDA encourage people to get three or more cups of dairy a day, which is on the higher end of the current recommendation. Harvard nutrition expert Walter Willett says the research does not support consuming that much milk, yogurt and cheese.
Racial Divide in Views on Police Growing in America (49:45)
Guest: Howard Henderson, Director of the Center for Justice Research, Texas Southern University
For nearly 30 years, Gallup polls have asked Americans how much confidence they have in the police. The latest figure is the lowest it’s ever been–just 48 percent of Americans say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in police. The disconnect between how whites and Blacks answer that question is the largest Gallup has ever seen–56 percent of white adults have confidence in the police. Only 19 percent of Blacks do.
Mind-Reading Technology is Nearly Here—The Ethical Boundaries Are Not (1:05:53)
Guest: R. Douglas Fields, PhD, Neuroscientist, Author of "Electric Brain: How the New Science of Brainwaves Reads Minds, Tells Us How We Learn, and Helps us Change for the Better"
In the not-too-distant-future, doctors will be able to do a diagnostic scan of our brains to detect the markers of neurological conditions or mental illness. Manipulating the brain through electrical stimulation may eventually become standard treatmentfor many of those conditions, too.
Disasters and the Domino Effect (1:24:11)
Guest: Jeff Schlegelmilch, Researcher and Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia University’s Earth Institute, Author of "Rethinking Readiness: A Brief Guide to Twenty First Century Megadisasters"
The COVID-19 pandemic will teach many of us to add hand sanitizer, face masks and more toilet paper to our emergency kits. Every big disaster results in some new guidance to prepare for the next one. That approach is too reactionary, says Jeff Schlegelmilch.
Aaron David Miller of Carnegie Endowment on United Arab Emirates and Israel. Laura Meyerson of Univ of Rhode Island on the mysteriously mailed seeds. Walter Willett of Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health on how healthy milk is. Howard Henderson of Texas Southern Univ on police and race. Douglas Fields on his new book "Electric Brain". Jeff Schlegelmilch of Columbia Univ on his new book "Rethinking Readiness: A Brief Guide to Twenty-First-Century Megadisasters".
Phil Keith and Tom Clavin, co-authors of “All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard –Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy.” Jeff Dill of the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance on firefighter suicide prevention. Author Marty Glick on his book “The Soledad Children: The Fight to End Discriminatory IQ Tests.” Jake Baum of Imperial College London on soups that can fight off Malaria. Jaimie Krems of Oklahoma State University on judging women's clothes.
Boxer, Pilot, Night Club Impresario, Soldier, Spy: The Incredible Life of Eugene Bullard (0:31)
Guests: Phil Keith and Tom Clavin, Co-Authors of “All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard –Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy”
He was the first African American fighter pilot in history. He was also a boxer, a jazz drummer, a Paris nightclub owner. He hung out with Josephine Baker, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He fought in both world wars and spied for the French Resistance. One man did all of that–his name was Eugene Bullard. And while he was a national hero and a celebrity on the streets of France, he was a nobody in America. When he came back to the states after World War II, he ended up as an elevator operator at Rockefeller Square. Just a chatty, older African American with a slight French accent wearing a couple of military-looking medals on his jacket. That’s where a host for The Today Show discovered his story and Eugene Bullard finally got his fifteen minutes of fame in America on live TV. From start to finish, the life of Eugene Bullard seems like one long tall tale. (Originally aired 12/19/2019).
Firefighter’s Are at Risk for Suicide, But There’s Help Available (35:13)
Guest: Jeff Dill, CEO and Founder, Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance
When others run from danger, first responders run towards it. Our firefighters, policemen, and EMT’s put their lives on the line every day. But while they’re watching out for us, who’s watching out for them? According to the Ruderman Family Foundation, first responders are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. And for firefighters, the numbers are particularly staggering because the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance estimates that only 40% of firefighter suicides are actually reported. (Originally aired 10/29/2019).
Landmark Cases That Changed Bilingual and Special Education in America (52:51)
Guest: Marty Glick, Litigator, Arnold & Porter, Co-Author, “The Soledad Children: The Fight to End Discriminatory IQ Tests”
A child’s race and income level are strong indicators of the quality of education that child will get in a US public school. Inequality often arises in education today because of how segregated our communities have become –with poor and minority students clustered in schools with fewer resources. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the reason poor and minority students got sub-par education was because of overt racism. This was the era of court-ordered desegregation and countless lawsuits brought by civil rights lawyers on behalf of black and brown students. In the late 1960s, a case involving children of Mexican farmworkers became a landmark case against the California State Board of Education that shaped the future of bilingual and special education in America. (Originally aired 11/21/2019).
There’s Wisdom in Tradition: Some Soups Can Help Fight off Malaria (1:16:02)
Guest: Jake Baum, Professor of Cell Biology and Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London
There’s that saying about feeding a fever and starving a cold. Or maybe it’s the other way around? For some reason lots of cultures have some sort of hot brothy soup that’s fed to sick people. It was mainly just for comfort, I thought. But what if there is something medicinal in that traditional chicken noodle or miso or matzo ball or pho? (Originally aired 12/10/2019).
Woman vs Woman-Dress Psychology (1:31:43)
Guest: Jaimie Krems, Professor of Psychology, Oklahoma State University
I’m guessing these mass quarantine measures have a lot of people wearing pajamas or workout clothes all day –what’s the point of dressing up when you’re not leaving the house? Deciding what to wear can be exhausting –at least for women, it is. There’s the basic question of what’s appropriate attire for the occasion. But there’s also the fact that what a woman wears affects how both men and women treat her. (Originally aired 03/19/2020).
Mitt Romney, Republican US Senator from Utah, on government pandemic relief. Chaz Nelson of Utopia Fiber on catching wildfires. Kyle Dawnson of the Univ of Utah on mapping the universe. Nicholas Dujmovic of Catholic Univ of America on recruiting diversity in the CIA. Jacquelyn Dowd Hall of Univ of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on "Sisters and Rebels". Cindy Chestek of Univ of Michigan on mind-controlled prosthetics.
Partisanship Stalls Pandemic Relief (0:32)
Guest: Mitt Romney, Republican US Senator from Utah
Attempts to negotiate another pandemic relief package have fallen apart in Washington and states are struggling to figure out how to implement the orders President Trump issued extending unemployment insurance.
Catching Wildfires Cold in Their Tracks (12:49)
Guest: Chaz Nelson, Smart City Engineer, Utopia Fiber
For much of the Western United States, it’s wildfire season. As wildfires get bigger and hotter, they’re harder to fight. Catching them early is key. A team of engineers at Brigham Young University has developed an early warning system to spot fire before anyone even notices the smoke.
Mapping Out The Universe (20:33)
Guest: Kyle Dawson, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah
A map of the universe. Captain Kirk and his Starship Enterprise surely had one. But in real-life, the map’s been a long-time coming. Scientists have just released the most complete one yet–it’s 3-D, which is cool. But let’s be clear, it’s just a tiny, tiny sliver of all the space out there. Still, this new map is an important milestone for cosmologists trying to understand the origins of the universe.
CIA Turns to TV to Find New Recruits (36:09)
Guest: Nicholas Dujmovic, Professor of Politics, The Catholic University of America, Former Intelligence Officer at the CIA
The last thing you’d expect from a secret spy agency is an ad splashed across streaming TV sites. The CIA aired its first-ever advertisement made for television. It’s got dramatic music and cryptic comments and even a covert handoff between spies in the field. Why is the CIA recruiting on TV?
What the Lumpkin Sisters Can Teach Us About America (52:54)
Guest: Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Emerita Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Author of “Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America”
The current debate in America over whether it’s appropriate to fly the Confederate flag or keep a monument to Confederate soldiers on public property has prompted many of us to learn, for the first time, the history of those symbols and how they came to be so prominent in Southern culture. This hour we’re going to explore that history through the story of three sisters born to a former slave-holding family in the South, who came of age in the early 1900s, just as nostalgia for the pre-Civil War days reached a high point. These three sisters took radically different paths. One remained devoted her entire life to white supremacy. One wrote an autobiography of the racism embedded in her family story that shocked the community. Another became a leading author of radical, left-wing novels about race and women’s rights. And all of this happened against the backdrop of two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Red Scare and the Civil Rights movement.
Intuitive Prosthetics Controlled by the Brain (1:28:30)
Guest: Cindy Chestek, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan
Prosthetic hands for people who’ve had an arm amputation have gotten pretty sophisticated. They can do all kinds of grasping and lifting moves, but typically it takes a lot of work for a person wearing the prosthetic to figure out how to make it move on command. There's a new kind of prosthetic that allows a person with an amputation to move a prosthetic hand, just by thinking about it.
Lebanon’s Crises: Economic Collapse, COVID-19, Beirut Blast (0:31)
Guest: Randa Slim, Senior Fellow and Director of the Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues Program, Middle East Institute, Non-Resident Fellow, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced and International Studies (SAIS) Foreign Policy Institute
Lebanon is in political and economic crisis–and not just because of the massive explosion that ripped through Beirut a week ago, killing more than 170 people, wounding thousands and destroying nearly half the city. Since the blast, angry protesters have clashed with police outside government buildings in Beirut. The Prime Minister of Lebanon and his government stepped down on Monday.
A Pirate Radio Station Run by Retirees (18:56)
Guest: Mitch Bennet, Chief Creative Officerfor LUCKIE and Radio Recliner; Mary Fiser, also known as DJ Miz Sassy Grits
To counter the isolation of the pandemic for seniors in assisted living centers, a marketing agency came up with a way to connect residents through music. Radio Recliner is streaming radio station where seniors call in from around the world to make music requests. Some of the big requesters actually become DJs, curating their own episodes for the station complete with narration and nostalgia.
The Serious Scientific Search for UFOs (35:40)
Guest: Steve McDaniel, Founder, SkyHub.org
The US Department of Defense earlier this year confirmed the legitimacy of several videos circulating online that show unidentified aerial phenomena. Notice I did not say UFO. The Defense Department doesn’t use that term. They’ve simply said the strangely-moving blobs of light captured on camera by Navy pilots are unidentified–could be some crazy drone a hobbyist built or a stealth spy plane from a foreign country. It could also be aliens, I suppose. An open source project called SkyHub is working to get more clarity on these unidentified aerial phenomena, scientifically.
Adopt-A-Research-Rat at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay (52:53)
Guest: Richard Hein, Professor of Biology, University of Wisconsin Green Bay
Rats are an essential component of scientific research understanding diseases and discovering new treatments. After the study is complete, unfortunately, most rats are euthanized. But there’s a movement to see those rats – and other laboratory animals – adopted as pets instead. The FDA last year announced it’s now allowing lab animals involved in its research to be adopted.
A Look at the Americans with Disability Act 30 Years After Its Passage (1:07:53)
Guest: Stephanie Woodward, Lawyer, Organizer, Disability Details, National ADAPT
The Americans with Disabilities Act is 30 years old this summer. It’s shaped nearly all of Stephanie Woodward’s life. She’s a disability rights lawyer and organizer for the national grassroots disability rights group ADAPT. Woodward was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. What has the ADA meant for people with disabilities – and what more it could do?
How to Adapt a Children’s Classic for the Screen (1:22:05)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
A new film adaptation of The Secret Garden was supposed to be released over Easter – it’s got British period-drama superstars Colin Firth and Julie Walters. But the pandemic forced the release to be delayed, so now it’s streaming.
Randa Slim of Johns Hopkins Univ on Beirut. Mitch Bennet and Mary Fiser, AKA DJ Miz Sassy Grits, on Radio Recliner, a radio station run by retirees. Steve McDaniel of SkuHub.org on UFO searches. Richard Hein of Univ of Wisconsin Green Bay on adopting a research rat. Stephanie Woodward of Disability Details and National ADAPT on the Americans with Disability Act. Kirsten Hawkes of Parent Previews on adapting children's classics to the screen.
Ryan Vogel of Utah Valley Univ on election meddling. Lyric Thompson of International Center for Research on women on feminist foreign policy. Maria Tatar of Harvard Univ on Snow White tales. Lars Howlett on labyrinths. Amr Al-Azm of Shawnee State Univ on ISIS looting on Facebook. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting.
China and Russia Meddling in 2020 Election (0:30)
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
The top US intelligence official in charge of election security says Russia and China are both actively involved in trying to influence the 2020 Election. China prefers that President Trump not win re-election. Russia, on the other hand, appears primarily focused on undermining former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign–which could mean that Russia wants President Trump to stay in office another four years.
What is “Feminist Foreign Policy”? (21:54)
Guest: Lyric Thompson, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, International Center for Research on Women
What does it mean for a country to have a “feminist foreign policy?” The International Center for Research on Women just released a road map for what that would look like in the United States.
Universal Tales of Vanity and Jealous Mothers (38:10)
Guest: Maria Tatar, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
Disney gets the credit for making Snow White a classic tale. In 1937, it was the first animated feature film ever made. The story of Snow White exists in countless other cultures–though she’s not called by that name. Why does a story of the most beautiful woman and the jealous stepmother resonate so widely?
Labyrinths (Different than Mazes!) Have Benefits for the Mind and Soul (51:19)
Guest: Lars Howlett, Professional Labyrinth Designer & Master Labyrinth Builder, Discover Labyrinths
An interesting industry is getting a boost as a result of the pandemic—labyrinth-making. Now, a labyrinth is maybe not what you think it is. It’s not a maze for getting lost. It’s more of a meditative pathway experience and there are only a handful of Master Labyrinth Builders in the world.
Artifact Smuggling Funds ISIS...And Most of it Happens Over Facebook (1:11:17)
Guest: Amr Al-Azm, Professor of Middle East History and Anthropology, Shawnee State University
Looters are using private Facebook groups to sell antiquities plundered from cultural and historic sites in Syria. The terror group ISIS has developed a sophisticated online network to profit from the illegal sales. Facebook last month banned the sale of historic artifacts on its platform, but some experts fear the ban doesn’t do enough.
Worlds Awaiting (1:31:07)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, Brigham Young University
What you need to know before you register your child for online school this fall.
D'Vera Cohn of Pew Research Center on census updates. Nathan Connolly of Johns Hopkins Univ on his Storytime Youtube series. Darrick Hamilton of The Ohio State Univ on baby bonds. Andy Green of Univ of Manchester on fish eggs spread by ducks. Tom Robson of Millikin Univ on Hamilton and live theater. Elizabeth Mumford of Univ of Chicago on toxic teen relationships.
Census (0:30)
Guest: D’Vera Cohn, Senior Writer/Editor, Immigration and Demographics, Pew Research Center
So far a third of US households have not completed the 2020 Census and the government says it’s going to stop counting at the end of September. What if people get left out? And what happens if President Trump gets his wish to see undocumented immigrants cut from the totals that determine how many seats in Congress each state gets?
Connolly Family Cooks Up a “Reading Rainbow” for Today’s Youth (17:59)
Guest: Nathan Connolly, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
What do you get when there are two professors of history and Africana studies cooped up at home for months under quarantine with their three energetic kids? Mix in a long-time love of the show “Reading Rainbow” and you get storytime.
Baby Bonds Could Bring Balance to the Force (34:52)
Guest: Darrick Hamilton, Executive Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Professor of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University
The typical white family in America has about $170,00 in wealth–that includes savings accounts and equity in a home. By contrast, the typical black family has just $17,000 in wealth–effectively 10-cents for every dollar a white family has. One idea to close this racial wealth gap is giving every baby in the US an investment account at birth. All babies would get one–regardless of race.
Fish Eggs Spread Far and Wide by Waterfowl (52:49)
Guest: Andy Green, Professor, Estacion Biologica de Donana, Spain, and University of Manchester, UK
How do fish end up in remote, isolated crater lakes or desert lakes or wetland ponds that pop up temporarily in farm fields during the rainy season? These bodies of water are totally landlocked–fish should not be there and that’s long baffled biologists. One thing we can say for sure-the fish aren’t flying to there. Except, maybe they are. Though not on their own steam. They may be hitching a ride in the poop of waterfowl.
The Show Must Go On-line! (1:11:25)
Guest: Tom Robson, Professor of Theatre and Dance, Millikin University
The Broadway musical Hamilton has set records for the most expensive tickets–over $1000 for a premium seat during the holidays. And for resale? Sometimes thousands of dollars. So up until a month ago, you either had to have a large chunk of change to spare or be really lucky to see the production. But now, you can watch Lin-Manuel Miranda perform whenever you want on Disney+. With a Broadway hit now available to the masses and so many theatres closed due to the pandemic, the theatre industry is undergoing a big change.
How to Help Teens Avoid Toxic Relationships (1:29:17)
Guest: Elizabeth Mumford, Principal Research, NORC at the University of Chicago
Nearly half of US teens have been stalked or harassed by someone they’re dating. Almost as many teens say they’ve been the one doing the stalking or harassing.
Christopher Uggen of Univ of Minnesota on felons disenfranchisement. Paul Adams of Brigham Young Univ on vanishing voices. James Beasley of Univ of Georgia on Chernobyl. Tony McAleer on his book "The Cure for Hate". Joe Roman of the Gund Institute on whaling.
Should Felons be Allowed to Vote? (0:35)
Guest: Christopher Uggen, Professor of Sociology and Law, University of Minnesota
More than six million Americans won’t be able to vote in the presidential election this year. These are people who have been convicted of a felony–they’re either in prison or out on parole or probation. But some felons are banned from voting for life. It’s all up to the states, and only two states in the country allow all prisoners to vote. (Originally aired 02/19/2020).
Photography Project is Capturing the Faces of the Last Remaining Speakers of Indigenous Languages (16:30)
Guest: Paul Adams, Head of Photography, Brigham Young University
Marie Wilcox just turned 86 and she’s the last person left on the planet who can speak fluently the Wukchumni language, a Native American tribe in Central California. Thousands of languages like Wukchumni are on the verge of extinction as the last speakers pass away. A project called “Vanishing Voices” is all about capturing taking portraits of these final speakers, including Marie. One of the photographs from this project was accepted into the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. (Originally aired 11/25/2019).
An Unlikely Wildlife Sanctuary in Chernobyl (33:15)
Guest: James Beasley, Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management, University of Georgia
The Chernobyl Nuclear Plant meltdown in 1986 is the worst nuclear disaster in history. Everyone within a 19-mile radius of the plant was evacuated and today that area remains off-limits to human inhabitants. But non-human inhabitants are welcome. And in fact, they seem to be thriving. (Originally aired 12/09/2019).
A White Supremacist’s Journey Out of Hate (52:45)
Guest: Tony McAleer, Author, “The Cure for Hate: A Former White Supremacist’s Journey from Violent Extremism to Radical Compassion”
Major cities in the US have seen a surge in hate crimes targeting Jews in recent months, including a stabbing in the home of a rabbi in New York during Hanukkah, in which five people were killed. The FBI says violence by white-supremacist extremists is the primary domestic terror threat in the US. And so Tony McAleer’s story is worth considering. As a young man, he joined a gang of white supremacists, shaved his head, spewed anti-immigrant rhetoric and attacked minorities, publicly denied the Holocaust, and created an automated phone messaging system to spread his hate more widely-before the internet made it even easier. Today Tony McAleer has left that hate behind and is co-founder of a nonprofit called “Life After Hate” which helps people leave extremist groups. (Originally aired 01/09/2020).
Dead or Alive, Whales Give as Much as They Take from their Ocean Environments (1:30:10)
Guest: Joe Roman, Conservation Biologist, Fellow, Gund Institute
For centuries whaling was such big business that whale populations worldwide shrank by as much as 90 percent. Since 1986, though, when most of the world banned whale hunting, the giants of the sea have begun to reboundand scientists are starting to understand just how different the oceans might have been when whales were plentiful. (Originally aired 02/06/2020).
Congress and White House Agree Another COVID Relief Package is Important. But That’s All They Agree On. (0:35)
Guest: James Curry, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
For 20 straight weeks, more than a million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits–but the $600 extra emergency unemployment payments that have helped many families stay afloat during the pandemic expired last week. So did the moratorium on evicting people who can’t pay their rent because of the pandemic. But Republicans and Democrats in Congress have not been able to agree on a plan for another round of emergency relief. President Trump says he’s preparing to do something by executive action instead of waiting for Congress.
The Results From a Guaranteed Income Pilot Program in Stockton, CA (20:08)
Guest: Sukhi Samra, Director, Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) Program
A year and a half ago, the city of Stockton, California started handing out $500 a month in cash to about 100 low-income residents. The money came with no strings attached. It was a pilot project for a concept called “universal basic income,” which has been gaining some national traction. Stockton’s experiment was supposed to end this summer, but it’s been extended because of the pandemic.
Turning Farms Vertical in the City (36:37)
Guest: Dickson Despommier, Emeritus Professor of Public Health, Columbia University
Most of the food we eat in the US is grown somewhere many miles from where we live. Big cities have to bring food in on trucks because there’s just not enough open space to farm the amount of food people in those cities needs. But there’s a solution some crowded cities in Asia are experimenting with where food is grown inside high-rise buildings. It’s called vertical farming.
The Untold Story of the Pioneering Suffragists in the American West (52:49)
Guest: Neylan McBaine, CEO, Better Days 2020, Author of “Pioneering the Vote: The Untold Story of the Suffragists in Utah and the West”
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. But women had voted in the US before–a number of Western states and territories were the first to put equal suffrage laws in their constitutions. The first woman in the nation to cast a vote under an equal suffrage law was a young school teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah named Seraph Young. It was February 1870, a full fifty years before the US Constitution would be amended to guarantee that right to all women. Why did Western territories lead the way in women’s suffrage? And why Utah, of all places, for such a milestone?
Did I Do That Thing, or Did I Just Think About Doing It? (1:30:29)
Guest: Dolores Albarracin, Rrofessor of Psychology and Marketing, The University of Illinois, Director, Social Action Lab
Here’s a thing that happens to me all the time. I get an email or a text. I think of the response that I want to send. And a few hours–or days later–I’m sure I responded to that message. But I didn’t. How does that work?
James Curry of the Univ of Utah on pandemic relief. Sukhi Samra on the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED). Emeritus Prof. Dickson Despommier on vertical farming. Neylan McBaine, author and Better Days 2020, on pioneer suffragists. Dolores Albarracin of Univ of Illinois on intention and memory.
Laura E. Gomez of UCLA on anti-Latino racism. Karen Sueda of VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital on clingy pets. Dorian Bond of Bond Investigations on private investigators for home employees. Sam Payne of BYUradio's The Appleseed on summer songs. Douglas Jerolmack of Univ of Pennsylvania on a theory of earth made of cubes. Thomas Cooper of Emerson College on doing the right thing.
Latinos and Racism in the US (0:32)
Guest: Laura E. Gomez, Professor of Law, Sociology and Chicana/Chicano studies, University of California Los Angeles, author of “Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism”
This week marks one year since a Texas man opened fire on a Walmart near the US/Mexico border in El Paso, killing 23 people. A manifesto attributed to the shooter said he was responding “to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” The murders were condemned as xenophobic and Hispanophobic. Could they also just be called racist? Is Latino a race or an ethnic group? And does that even matter?
Clingy Pets Might Cause Problems as Pandemic Lockdowns Relax (26:16)
Guest: Karen Sueda, Animal Behavior Specialist, VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital
Pets have been getting a lot more time with their owners during the pandemic. When people start going back to work, how will pets respond? There’s the potential for separation anxiety and acting up when humans in the household are suddenly no longer around all day like they have been.
Private Investigators Surveilling Work-From-Home Employees (41:51)
Guest: Dorian Bond, Private Investigator and Owner, Bond Investigations
Apparently with so many people working from home–and that remote work likely to continue indefinitely in some cases–private investigators have been getting more calls by companies to check up on employees they think might be slacking off. There’s also been a jump in demand for software that tracks employee activity online during the workday.
Appleseed (51:17)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, BYUradio's The Apple Seed
Certain songs bring back great summer memories. Sam and I discuss some of our favorites.
Plato was Right! The Earth is Made of Cubes (1:05:47)
Guest: Douglas Jerolmack, Geophysicist, University of Pennsylvania
Perfect cubes are rarely found in nature–when was the last time you picked up a rock with exactly six equal sides? That’d really be something. But some geologists and physicists did a bunch oftheoretical modelling and decided that, in fact, the Earth is entirely made up of cubes. Which makes no sense to me, because then we’d be walking around in a game of Minecraft.
What Does it Take to Do the Right Thing? (1:22:09)
Guest: Thomas Cooper, Professor of Ethics, Emerson College, Author of "Doing the Right Thing: Twelve Portraits in Moral Courage"
What do you do when you’re faced with a decision that’s not a clear matter of good and bad? Maybe it’s two bad choices. Or maybe it’s unclear whether your options or good or bad–they’re just uncertain. Personally, I’m not always sure I can trust my gut when faced with an ethical dilemma like that.
Will Teachers Strike if They’re Forced Back to Class During Pandemic? (0:33)
Guest: Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers
What’s happening with the schools? It’s the thing everyone with kids is talking about. Worrying about. Will they reopen? Is it safe? Teachers are the lynchpin in this whole conversation and last week, the nation’s second largest teachers union announced that “nothing is off the table” including strikes if the safety demands of teachers are not met as schools open.
The Genetic Link between Polynesians and Native South Americans (20:31)
Guest: Alexander Ioannidis, Researcher, Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University; Keolu Fox, Anthropology Professor, Genome Scientist, Dir. of Indigenous Futures Lab, University of California at San Diego
How did the tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean become populated? There’ve been debates among scientists about this for centuries. DNA analysis is providing new, more conclusive evidence of ancient people traveling back and forth across the Pacific Ocean–from Asia, to the Polynesian Islands, to South America and back. It’s pretty remarkable to think how they pulled that off in canoes and no modern navigational equipment to guide them.
Airline Travel in a Pandemic World (37:55)
Guest: Henry Harteveldt, President, Atmosphere Research Group
The airline industry is not doing well. The pandemic has so many travel restrictions in pace that often you can’t fly where you might want to go. And even if you can, do you want to get in a closed space with hundreds of other people for hours on end right now?
The Wolves of Yellowstone (52:48)
Guest: Jim Halfpenny, President of a Naturalist's World, Author "Charting Yellowstone Wolves: The 25th Anniversary Edition"
It’s been 25 years since wolves returned to Yellowstone National Park. Those first wolves that were reintroduced to the park have given birth to a sprawling genealogy you can now trace on Ancestry.com. I know, Ancestry is for people. But the Yellowstone Wolves have their own family tree on there, too, complete with photos and personal histories that are pretty dramatic in some cases.
What Killed 300 Elephants in Botswana This Spring? (1:11:49)
Guest: Chris Thouless, Head of Research, Save the Elephants
As the world came under the grips of COVID-19, a mysterious illness swept through an otherwise healthy population of African elephants in Botswana. Conservationists captured images of nearly 300 elephants slumped on their bellies, indicating a “fast and sudden death”. Were they poisoned by humans? That seems unlikely, since the dead elephants all had their tusks, so it wouldn’t have been poachers.
How 800 Million Children Around the World Are Suffering From Lead Poisoning (1:28:27)
Guest: Richard Fuller, President, Pure Earth
A new report from UNICEF, that’s the United Nations Children Fund, has determined that 1 in 3 children around the globe are poisoned by lead which can cause crippling defects in their development. Children in Africa and South Asia are particularly affected by this lead poisoning.
Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers on teachers and COVID. Alexander Ioannidis, Stanford Univ and Keolu Fox, UC San Diego on a genetic link between Native Americans and Polynesians. Henry Hartevelt, Atmosphere Research Group, on airlines coping with the pandemic. Jim Halfpenny of A Naturalist's World on Yellowstone wolves on ancestry.com. Chris Thouless of Save the Elephants on an emerging elephant disease. Richard Fuller of Pure Earth on lead poisoning in children.
Motherhood, Female Anger and Activism in America (0:30)
Guest: Soraya Chemaly, Media Critic, Activist, Author of “Rage Becomes Her”
A month and a half into nightly anti-racism protests in Portland, Oregon, a group of women in bright yellow shirts linked arms and lined up in front of the police barrier. “The Wall of Moms” captured national attention and immediately spawned chapters in cities around the country. The Portland group is also facing accusations of being anti-Black and distracting from the message of the protests. Would they have garnered as much media attention had the “moms” not been primarily white? Or if they’d just called themselves “Wall of Women” or “Wall of People”?
Urban Green Spaces and Their Effect on Our Health (18:49)
Guest: Viniece Jennings, Professor of Public Health, Agnes Scott College, Author of “Urban Green Spaces–Public Health and Sustainability in the United States”
A lot of city-dwellers have a new appreciation for green space after all these months of quarantining and social distancing. Physical and mental health improve when people have access to a park or trail.
TikTok's China Problem (33:41)
Guest: Zak Doffmann, CEO of Digital Barriers, Contributor at Forbes
TikTok-the wildly popular lip sync and dance video app–is in trouble from the Trump Administration. Congress has already prohibited the app’s use on government-issued phones. The President is considering adding TikTok to a blacklist that would effectively ban it in the United States, because its parent company is Chinese. Is China spying on you through TikTok?
The 40 Year Struggle to End Quotas for Immigrants in the US (52:50)
Guest: Jia Lynn Yang, deputy national editor for the New York Times and author, “One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965”
President Trump talks frequently of wanting to end “chain migration.” Another word for it is family reunification and it’s been a central focus of US immigration policy since the 1960's. The irony is, that it was created as a policy to appease nativist members of Congress who hoped to see white Europeans make up the majority of future immigrants to America. But the plan backfired on them and helped to fuel streams of immigrants over the years from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America. It’s what made it possible for Jia Lynn Yang to be born in the US.
Antibiotics by the Ton (1:12:30)
Guests: Robert Reeder, Senior Plant Pathologist; Dr. Philip Taylor, Center for Agricultural Biosciences International
We know it’s not good for humans to use too many antibiotics because bacteria can develop a resistance. But what about plants? Yes, plants use antibiotics, too. Farmers around the world spray drugs onto their crops in vast quantities. And we still don’t know what the consequences could be for human health.
Bumblebees Can Make Plants Bloom with Their Bite (1:27:07)
Mark Mescher, Professor of Biological Communication, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Nothing good comes of a bee sting. But what about a bee bite? Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich noticed bumblebees they study have a habit of biting the leaves of plants. Why?
Soraya Chemaly, activist and author of "Rage Becomes Her", on mothers and activism. Viniece Jennings of Agnes Scott College on urban green spaces. Zak Doffmann of Digital Barriers on the TikTok ban. Jia Lynn Yang, author, “One Mighty and Irresistible Tide" on American Immigration from 1924-1965. Robert Reeder and Philip Taylor of Center for Agricultural Biosciences International on plant antibiotics. Mark Mescher of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich on bee bites.
What We Learned From the Crack Crisis in America (0:36)
Guest: David Farber, Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of History, University of Kansas, Author of “Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed”
Many states are reporting a jump in opioid overdose deaths since the pandemic started. Health experts say extra stress may be driving increased drug use. Also, COVID-19 restrictions are making it harder to see addiction treatment. The latest overdose numbers are a grim reminder that America is still in the midst of a drug crisis. Before the opioid epidemic, there was the crack epidemic. But America responded very differently to that drug crisis. Historian David Farber says the comparison is worth looking into, for what it tells us about race, poverty and our “collective inability to treat each other with decency and mercy.” (Originally aired 11/21/19)
The Future Is Peat (35:43)
Guest: Jonathan E Nichols, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University
Let’s talk about peat. It’s a strange, miraculous thing. Bodies buried in peat bogs end up so well-preserved their faces and clothing are completely intact. Google “Bog Bodies” and you’ll see what I mean. It’s wild stuff. But peatlands are more than just ancient burial grounds. They’re also a really important part of the Earth’s system for keeping carbon dioxide levels in balance. In fact, they’re way more important than previously thought, based on calculations published recently in the journal Nature. (Originally aired 11/14/2019)
US Immigration Policy Is Outdated. Here’s a New Perspective (52:58)
Guest: Justin Gest, PhD, Professor of Policy and Government, George Mason University, Author of "Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change”
The US immigration system is unusual among developed countries. Since the 1950s, America has prioritized family connections in deciding who gets a visa. By contrast, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and the UK all use a points system to determine who gets a visa. Immigrants get points based on things like skills, education or income level. President Trump has proposed something similar in the US. The question is just how points will be allotted to immigrants hoping for a US visa. (Originally aired 12/5/19)
Measles Erases the Immune System’s Memory (1:10:50)
Guest: Michael Mina, MD, PhD an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
One positive side-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is there have been far fewer cases of measles. Last year, when we weren’t all quarantined and school was still in session, the US had its highest number of measles cases in decades. Most of the people who caught it were unvaccinated children and, gratefully, none of them died. So that fuels a perception among vaccine-hesitant parents that measles really isn’t that serious. (Originally aired 11/11/19)
Precrastination Is the Opposite of Procrastination (1:27:47)
Guest: David A. Rosenbaum, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at University of California Riverside
Many of us are guilty of procrastination or putting things off until the last minute, but what about precrastination? That’s when you get something done the moment it occurs to you – which doesn’t sound like a problem at all. But precrastination (which is a word he invented) can actually lead to wasted effort and wear a person down. (Originally aired 11/13/2019)
David Farber of the Univ of Kansas on “Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed.” Jonathan Nichols of Columbia Univ on peat. Justin Gest of George Mason Univ on immigration policy. Michael Mina of Harvard Univ on measles memory. David A. Rosenbaum of the Univ of California on precrastination.
Paul Stancil of Brigham Young Univ on antitrust tech. Amy Mainzer, Univ of Arizona, on the comet NEOWISE project. Craig Garthwaite of Northwestern Univ on a coronavirus drug. David Skarbek of Brown Univ on “The Puzzle of Prison Order." Sue Auriemma of KidsandCars.org on the dangers of kids, cars, and COVID-19.
The Antitrust Woes of America’s Tech Titans (0:32)
Guest: Paul Stancil, Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, BYU
It was an unusual spectacle in Washington, DC on Wednesday. The titans of American technology squared off against Congress. You had Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who is no stranger to the hot seat at Congressional hearings, but it was Amazon’s Jeff Bezo's first time. Apple CEO Tim Cook was also there, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Congress has been investigating these four companies for the last year, looking into antitrust concerns. Recommendations on what to do about those concerns are expected form the House committee on antitrust in the coming weeks.
What’s So Exciting About Comet NEOWISE? (23:59)
Guest: Amy Mainzer, Astronomer, Professor at University of Arizona, Principal Investigator on the NEOWISE Project.
You’ve seen the pictures of a bright star with a fuzzy tail on the horizon at sunset all over social media. It’s not too late to catch a glimpse of the buzzy comet for yourself, but you’ll need to move fast. Comet NEOWISE will only be visible for a few more weeks. Where’s it headed and why are people so excited about it?
Pricing a COVID-19 Drug During a Pandemic (40:03)
Guest: Craig Garthwaite, Herman R. Smith Research Professor in Hospital and Health Services Management and Director of Healthcare at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
The only drug that’s been so far proven to help patients with COVID-19, and has emergency approval in the US and Europe, is called Remdesivir. It’s made by Gilead Sciences, which is charging American patients with private insurance roughly $3,000 for a five-day course of the drug. That’s not as expensive as investors in Gilead would like to see the drug cost. They want to make money, of course. But it’s more expensive than some politicians and patient advocates think is appropriate. What is the right balance between profit and public good in a pandemic?
Why Life Behind Bars Differs Dramatically From Prison to Prison, Country to Country (52:55)
Guest: David Skarbek, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brown University, Author “The Puzzle of Prison Order”
Worldwide there are more than 10 million people in prison. Almost a quarter of those inmates are in US prisons, because America incarcerates people at a higher rate than any other country. And the vast majority of people locked up in the United States will eventually go home, bringing with them whatever experiences they had in prison. So it’s worth considering what those experiences are. You might think all prisons are the same – rows of cells filled with violent men ruled by officials with an iron fist and powerful prison gangs. But life behind bars varies dramatically from country to country and even right here in the US.
The Pandemic’s Effect on Kids in Cars (1:32:10)
Guest: Sue Auriemma, Vice President, KidsandCars.org
An important message now for anyone with small children around. Since the start of the pandemic, there’s been a spike in children climbing into a parked car on their own, getting trapped and dying of heat exposure.
With Europe’s Doors Shut to Americans, Rick Steves Embraces Virtual Travel (0:32)
Guest: Rick Steves, Travel Guide, PBS-TV Host, Author of “For the Love of Europe”
Because of COVID-19, tourists from the US are not allowed into Europe and it’s unclear how long that restriction will last. So what do you do if you’re America’s leading expert on traveling in Europe?
The Masks We Should Wear (18:15)
Guest: Ben Abbott, Professor of Ecosystem Ecology, Brigham Young University
First we were told specifically not to wear masks. Then we were told they wouldn’t do much good, but go ahead and wear one if it makes you feel better. Now we’re being told to wear them whenever we’re in public. Why has the advice from public health experts been all over the place on masks? And is there any reason we ought to trust them now? BYU ecology professor Ben Abbott and his colleagues read more than 100 different scientific studies on COVID-19 to get a grasp on exactly what we know about the value of wearing a face covering.
How Dark Are These Deep-Sea Fish? (36:08)
Guest: Alexander Davis, PhD Student in Biology at Duke University
Some of the darkest-skinned creatures on the planet live on the bottom of the sea. Which, when you think of it, is strange because there’s no sunlight down there, so why would fish need skin so black it absorbs nearly all light in encounters?
The First Millennial Saint (52:51)
Guest: Mathew Schmalz, PhD, Religious Studies Professor, College of the Holy Cross
An Italian teenager who died in 2006 is under consideration to become the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint. That, plus the fact that Carlo Acutis was just 15 when he died of leukemia, would make him unusual in the canon of Catholic saints.
Workplace Harassment (1:13:48)
Guest: Rachael Dailey Goodwin, Ph.D. Candidate in Management at the University of Utah, Harvard Research Fellow
If you’re in a meeting or at a gathering and you see someone being sexually harassed, you’d say something right? Most of us think that we would. But the reality is – not that.
Most of the Industrialized World Has High Speed Rail. Why Doesn’t the US? (1:28:11)
Guest: Rick Harnish, Executive Director, High Speed Rail Alliance
If you want to go from LA to Vegas, you can make the four-and-a-half-hour drive or spend a couple hundred dollars on a flight. Now, if this were Europe, Japan or China, you’d also have an option to take a bullet train that could get you there in two hours. Why doesn’t the US have high-speed rail when it’s so common in other developed countries?
Rick Steves, author of “For the Love of Europe”, on international travel. Ben Abbott of Brigham Young Univ on COVID-19 course corrections. Alexander Davis of Duke Univ on an ultra-dark fish. Mathew Schmalz, College of the Holy Cross, on the first Millennial saint. Rachael Goodwin, Univ of Utah on workplace harassment. Rick Harnish of the High Speed Rail Alliance.
John Muffler of National Judicial College on judicial threats. Kate O’Neill of the University of California, Berkeley, on single use plastics bouncing back. Patrick Eddington of the Cato Institute on CPB agents actions in Portland, OR. Ben Miller of the Univ of East Anglia on optogenetics. Falko Ernst of the International Crisis Group for Mexico on avocados and cartels. Sarah Fortune of Harvard Univ on superspreaders. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on speech to text technology.
Protecting Judges Protects Justice (0:33)
Guest: John Muffler, Retired US Marshal, Faculty at National Judicial College
The man who showed up at the home of federal judge Esther Salas a week ago and killed her son on the doorstep had a hit list that included several other judges. Judge Salas was not injured in the attack, but her husband was seriously wounded and her 20-year-old son was murdered. The killer was apparently unhappy with a ruling by Judge Salas. The US Marshals Service has noted a three-fold increase in threats and inappropriate communications to judges since 2012.
COVID-19’s Effect on the Plastic Waste Problem (20:46)
Guest: Kate O’Neill, Professor of Global Environmental Politics, University of California Berkeley
As soon as the pandemic became widespread in the US, grocery stores stopped allowing customers to bring re-useable bags, coffee shops and gas stations banned refillable cups and mugs. Will this return to using and discarding plastic bags, cups and utensils be permanent?
Portland Protests and Border Patrol (36:35)
Guest: Patrick G. Eddington, Research Fellow in Homeland Security and Civil Liberties, The Cato Institute.
The Trump Administration is sending more federal agents – including US Customs and Border Patrol officers – to Portland where protests have continued nightly for two straight months. The Department of Homeland Security says the federal agents are there to protect the federal courthouse in Portland, which has been targeted by protesters with sledgehammers, fireworks and slingshots. Federal officers have also been injured by what Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf calls “violent anarchists.” State and local officials in Portland say the federal response has only escalated the tensions. What authority does the federal government have to send in law enforcement officers against the wishes of local authorities in a community?
Controlling Plants With Colored Light (52:50)
Guest: Ben Miller, Research Fellow in Synthetic Biology at the University of East Anglia
Researchers have developed a way to turn certain genes in genetically modified plants on and off using colored lights instead of chemicals. The new method has a lot of potential, both for plant scientists and farmers.
How Avocados Fund Mexico’s Deadliest Cartel (1:03:31)
Guest: Falko Ernst, Senior Analyst for the International Crisis Group for Mexico
Since the notorious drug lord El Chapo was incarcerated in 2016, the fall of his Mexican empire left room for a new cartel to take his place: The Jalisco New Generation cartel. Mexico has now seen record highs for homicides – analysts believe these numbers to be directly linked to this cartel. They also believe they control a third of the drugs in the US and have expanded their operations to Europe. Where does this cartel receive some of its funding? Avocados.
The Role of Super Spreaders in Pandemic (1:17:53)
Guest: Sarah Fortune, Professor, Chair, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Most people who get COVID-19 will not pass it on to someone else. That may seem crazy with how quickly the virus has spread. But there’s a small number of people who are “superspreaders” – most infections stem out from them.
Using Speech-To-Text Technology With Kids (1:32:51)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Becky Lomax on the state of National Parks. Victor Thompson, Univ of Georgia, on sustainable oysters. Brandy Colbert on “The Voting Booth." Dan McCloskey, Univ of New York, on naked mole rats and seizures. Jason Nance of Univ of Florida on resource officers in schools. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com on diverse superheroes.
Smart, informative, unflinching conversations that go beyond mere headlines and sound bites. Weekdays at 4pm ET/1pm PT.
Lincoln Larson of North Carolina State Univ on parks and safety. Haider Warraich, Harvard Univ, on heart disease. Elena Patel of Univ of Utah on family leave. Alexandra Horowitz of Columbia Univ on “Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond.” Elizabeth Loftus of the Univ of California, Irvine on fake memories.
The Complicated Relationship Between City Parks and Crime Rates
Guest: Lincoln Larson, Assistant Professor of Human Dimensions, Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, North Carolina State University
If you have the choice between a park and an empty lot in your neighborhood, you’d choose a park, wouldn’t you? And if the choice was between a park or a business of some sort – you’d probably also choose the park. But somewhere in the back of your mind, would you be just a tiny bit worried that the park would become a magnet for drugs or homeless camping? A park can be a blessing or a curse for a neighborhood – depending on how well it’s designed and maintained. (Originally aired 8/7/2019)
Despite an Incredible History, the Future of Heart Disease Treatment Will Require Serious Work
Guest: Haider Warraich, MD, Cardiologist and Clinical Researcher, Harvard University, Author of “State of the Heart”
Just a generation ago, having a heart attack was an automatic death sentence. Today, open heart surgery, pacemakers, stents and artificial valves make it possible for people with weak or damaged hearts to live long lives. Statins to prevent heart disease from cholesterol build-up are the most-prescribed medication in the country. And yet, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the US. And that’s true for both men and women. (Originally aired 9/9/2019)
Why Paid Family Leave Doesn’t Increase Gender Equality in the Workplace
Guest: Professor Elena Patel, PhD
Some lawmakers and activists argue that paid family leave is a way to fix gender inequality in the work place because working mothers are able to spend time with their child and keep their job. But one study found that the opposite may be true. Paid family leave may actually increase the gender wage gap. (Originally aired 11/6/2019)
Who We Are With Dogs Is Who We Are as People
Guest: Alexandra Horowitz, Senior Research Fellow, Dog Cognition Lab, Barnard College, Columbia University; Author of “Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond”
Euthanasia of dogs and cats has declined dramatically in the US over the last 40 years. That’s partly because better veterinary care is available and it’s become trendy to “rescue” a dog from a shelter. When the pandemic lockdown rules hit, many US shelters were emptied of dogs and cat because people wanted a companion in quarantine. You can bet that most of those new pets will get “fixed.” That’s another reason euthanasia is less common today. But dog researcher Alexandra Horowitz says there are some uncomfortable truths embedded in our willingness to make spay-neuter the default for pets. Horowitz directs the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College and wrote the New York Times best-seller “Inside of a Dog.” Her latest is “Our Dogs, Ourselves.” (Originally aired 9/5/2019)
Fake News Isn’t Just Misleading. It Can Create False Memories.
Guest: Elizabeth F. Loftus, PhD, Is a Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science, Criminology, Law and Society; Cognitive Science; And Law at the University of California, Irvine
It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not anymore. Anything online can be faked to look legit. The pandemic and the protests against racial inequality are both great examples – misinformation is all over social media. And here’s a troubling fact – these fake news stories aren’t just misleading. They also have the potential to rewire your memory. (Originally aired 1/21/20)
Vanessa Jackson, a UN Representative, on humanitarian aid to Syria. Michael Wong of Rice Univ on eradicating forever chemicals. Kevin Gaines of Univ of Virginia on statues. David Paul Kuhn, author, on his book "The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution". Douglass Neasloss of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation and Christina Service of Spirit Bear Research Foundation.
More Than a Million Syrians Blocked from Humanitarian Aid (0:29)
Guest: Vanessa Jackson, UN Representative, CARE International
Syrians still desperately need humanitarian aid, but the United Nations Security Council just passed a resolution that will shut down one of the two border crossings that allow aid shipments into the war-torn country. That means more than a million people could be without essential food and medicine.
Dissolving Forever Chemicals (20:17)
Guest: Michael Wong, Chemistry Professor, Rice University
Have you ever heard of a forever chemical? Probably not, but do you own water-proof clothing? That’s made of forever chemicals. What about cook with a non-stick frying pan? Those are made of forever chemicals, too. They’re called forever chemicals because they don’t break down on their own. Problem is, they’ve been found in the blood of most Americans. But scientists at Rice University have stumbled on a way to break them down.
The Statue Debate: Topple or Save? (36:44)
Guest: Kevin Gaines, Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice, University of Virginia
Offensive statues have been toppled across the country. But what should be done with them once they come down? Civil rights and social justice professor Kevin Gaines is worried about us “sanitizing” history if we just throw them awayand move on. So then what do we do with offensive statues?
Why America’s White Working Class Quit the Democrats (52:48)
Guest: David Paul Kuhn, journalist and political analyst, author of “The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution”
If President Trump is to win re-election in November, he will need solid support from white working-class voters. They’re the factory workers and coal miners and steel workers he’s so often talked about. They got a shout-out in the President’s inaugural address, “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer!” The “Silent Majority” is another name Trump and past presidents have used to describe this group of voters that’s become more reliably Republican over the decades. But that’s only been in the last 50 years. And only because of some political missteps on the part of the Democrats.
What is a Spirit Bear? A Black Bear with a Special Coat (1:25:24)
Guest: Douglass Neasloss, Chief Councillor and Resource Stewardship Director, Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation; Christina Service, Executive Director, Spirit Bear Research Foundation
There’s a rare kind of bear that roams the Great Bear rainforest in British Columbia. It holds special significance for the Kitasoo/Xai-xais First Nation people–they call them Spirit Bears. What makes them so unique? They’re white. No, they’re not polar bears, and they’re not albino. But recent research has identified what causes these black bears to turn white and how they need to be protected.
Brigham Daniels of Brigham Young Univ and Matt Letourneau of the US Chamber of Commerce on the changes to NEPA. Bill Maurer of Univ of California Irvine on a cashless society. Jessica Preece of Brigham Young Univ on women being silenced at work. Dan Tepfer on performing music from a distance. Lumen Mulligan of Univ of Kansas on qualified immunity. Jason Chambers of Univ of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on racist marketing.
Rollback or Update? A Look at Changes to a Key Environmental Law (0:32)
Guests: Brigham Daniels, Professor of Environmental Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, BYU; Matt Letourneau, Managing Director of Communications, Global Energy Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
President Trump, in the last two weeks,a ccomplished something he says he’s wanted to do from day one. It’s the biggest move yet in his ongoing overhaul of environmental regulations. In this case, it’s a 50-year-old law called the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. The changes President Trump is making are controversial, in part because everything he does is controversial, but also because environmentalists consider NEPA to be one of the nation’s bedrock conservation laws.
Is it Time to Ditch Cash? (23:34)
Guest: Bill Maurer, Professor of Anthropology and Law, University of California, Irvine
Could you manage without using cash? With many businesses across the country temporarily going cashless to help slow the spread of COVID-19, some wonder, why not just make this the moment we transition to a cashless society? No more bills and coins. Just debit cards and payment apps.
How Women are Unintentionally Silenced at Work (34:58)
Guest: Jessica Preece, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
There are significantly less women than men in leadership positions at companies and institutions. Despite the efforts of many different organizations to get more women in power, getting them a seat at the table might not be enough. New research out of Brigham Young University shows that her voice still might not be heard. Being outnumbered by men in the group can also be silencing.
Musicians Miss Playing Together... Can They Make Music Virtually? (52:48)
Guest: Dan Tepfer, Pianist and Composer
Jazz pianist and composer Dan Tepfer has not been able to improvise in the same room with other musicians for months because of the pandemic. He’s posted some solo performances on Twitter like many other musical artists. As many of us have learned, trying to sing or play music together over Facetime or Zoom just doesn’t work. There’s too much lag. You can’t stay on the same beat. But some musicians make it work. So how do they play in sync with few problems?
Is Qualified Immunity Qualified? (1:14:35)
Guest: Lumen Mulligan, Professor of Civil Litigation and Jurisdiction, University of Kansas
A look now at an aspect of policing in the United States that’s come under increased scrutiny since the killing of George Floyd. It’s called qualified immunity and critics say it too often allows police to avoid accountability when they mistreat someone. But law enforcement agencies say qualified immunity gives officers critical protection to make split-second decisions in a tense situation.
Companies Changing Racist Advertisements (1:29:38)
Guest: Jason Chambers, Professor of Advertising, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Aunt Jemima. Uncle Ben. Cream of Wheat. Mrs. Butterworth’s. All of those brands are getting a re-do right now in response to long-running criticism that they promote racist stereotypes.
Quinn Mecham of Brigham Young Univ on Hong Kong. Philip Gable of Univ of Delaware on how humans perceive time. Cody Reeves of Brigham Young Univ on virtual leadership. Martha Nelson of National Institutes of Health on a new pig flu. Jason Del Gandio of Temple Univ on online petitions. Natalie Sideserf of "Texas Cake House" and Sideserf Cake Studio on hyperrealistic cakes.
Where Does Hong Kong Go From Here? (0:31)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Britain suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong this week in protest of the new National Security Law China has imposed on Hong Kong. So why does this matter?
Why Do Humans Perceive Time Differently? (21:18)
Guest: Philip Gable, Professor of Psychology, University of Delaware
Have the last few months dragged for you? Does it seem like your pre-pandemic life was years ago, rather than months? There’s a fascinating explanation for why time seems to fly for some people and not for others in the same situation.
Virtual Leadership: A Revolution (35:51)
Guest: Cody Reeves, Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources, Brigham Young University
The type of leader who thrives in a face-to-face business world is not the same kind of leader who excels in this new remote working reality. Some research of virtual vs. in-person collaboration suggests the pandemic is giving rise to a new kind of business leader who might not have risen as quickly before. So, what is that kind of leader?
Potential Pig Pandemic 2.0 (52:49)
Guest: Martha Nelson, Staff Scientist, National Institutes of Health
Scientists in China have identified a new virus in pigs that may have pandemic potential. They found that pigs there are being infected more and more frequently with a strain of influenza. The CDC announced that it’s taking action to prepare for this swine flu. Another pandemic is the last thing we need, but should we even be worried?
How Effective Are Online Petitions? (1:09:40)
Guest: Jason Del Gandio, Professor of Communication and Social Influence, Temple University
Where there’s an issue, there’s an online petition somewhere in support of it. They’re everywhere and have been for years. Do they make any difference? Here are some current examples: A 15-year old started a petition to get “Justice for George Floyd” in Minneapolis has become the largest in Change.org’s history, with more 19-million signatures and counting. The officers involved in Floyd’s death have been arrested and charged, but will they be convicted? Another petition calling for “Justice for Breonna Taylor” has more than 10-million signatures but the officers who shot her in her home have not been arrested. Then there’s the online petition urging Disney to change the theme of Splash Mountain. After 20,000 signatures, Disney announced it would change the ride.
Is This Cake? Hyperrealistic Cake Artists Are Making Cake Look Like Anything (1:26:23)
Guest: Natalie Sideserf, Cake Artist, Host of Food Network's "Texas Cake House", and owner of Sideserf Cake Studio
Have you seen the videos of people cutting into what look like ordinary objects-like a Kleenex box or ahead of lettuce-to reveal that they’re actually made entirely out of cake? Natalie Sideserf is responsible for some of the most stunningly realistic cakes. If you’ve seen the filet-o-fish sandwich or the pickle or the onion–those are all her cakes. Sideserf hosts "Texas Cake House" on the Food Network and posts how-to videos on her Youtube channel Sideserf Cake Studio.
Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen of Brigham Young Univ on the upcoming election. Samuel Moyn of Yale Univ on cancel culture. Kristjen Lundberg of Univ of Richmond on wealth and political views. A 2016 interview with the late John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell on their graphic novel "March". Altha Stewart of University of Tennessee Health Science Center on Black mental health. Rob Blair of Brown Univ on the government of Liberia's response to Ebola in 2014.
Seeking Election to the White House in Times of Crisis (0:31)
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
The 2020 Presidential Election will be surely be remembered as the pandemic election. At least I’ll remember it that way. Historians probably will, too. How have past Presidential Elections played out amid a crisis–whether caused by disease, economic depression or war?
Understanding the Cancel Culture Debate (23:30)
Guest: Samuel Moyn, Law Professor, Yale University
What does it mean to get “cancelled”? In recent years, it’s come to mean being publicly shamed on social media and maybe even losing your job. A few weeks ago, more than a hundred prominent journalists and authors published an open letter in Harper’s Magazine warning that this rush to call out and ostracize viewpoints threatens both freedom of speech and a free press. The letter was met with calls to cancel many of the people who signed it. That’s the irony of cancel culture. And let me point out that it’s alive and well across the ideological spectrum.
Social Status Plays a Role in Viewing Own Beliefs as Objectively True (40:35)
Guest: Kristjen Lundberg, Assistant Professor of Social Psychology, University of Richmond
Do you know someone who is just so sure of themselves that they think anyone who disagrees must be either stupid or biased? I find this quality seems particularly common right now when you’re talking about politics. But we’re seeing a fair amount of it in the US related to views about the pandemic response. New research tries to figure out who is most prone to think down on people who disagree with them.
Congressman John Lewis About “Good Trouble” and his Graphic Novel Memoir “March” (52:53)
Guest: Georgia Congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis, Author Andrew Aydin and Artist Nate Powell, “March”
Georgia Congressman John Lewis died over the weekend. He was a central figure in the Civil Rights movement, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a participant in lunch counter sit-ins and freedom rides. He was bloodied in the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights and spoke alongside Martin Luther King Junior at the March on Washington. In 2016, Congressman Lewis published a memoir of his Civil Rights work in the form of a graphic novel trilogy called “March.” That year it became the first-ever comic book to win the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. During that same summer in 2016, Congressman Lewis, his co-author Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell came on the show when they were at ComicCon launching the final book of the March trilogy. In remembrance of the late Congressman John Lewis, here’s that interview. (Originally aired 08/01/2016).
Challenges Facing Black Americans in Mental Health Care
Challenges Facing Black Americans in Mental Health Care
Challenges Facing Black Americans in Mental Health Care (1:10:12)
Guest: Altha Stewart, Psychiatry Professor, Director, Center for Health in Justice Involved Youth, University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Nearly one in five adults in the US have a mental illness. But many health professionals say that access to and quality of mental healthcare is not equal among all Americans. Many Black people really need help right now, but struggle to find the right treatment and can be easily misdiagnosed.
What the US Can Learn from Liberia’s Experience Overcoming Public Mistrust During the Ebola Outbreak (1:28:04)
Guest: Rob Blair, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Brown University.
With COVID-19 cases continuing to surge in the US and public health officials unanimously encouraging people to wear facemasks in public, there’s still resistance to making face-coverings mandatory. Why aren’t Americans following the advice of health experts, state and local officials who encourage masks, if not outright require them? In order for a nation to cope with an outbreak of infectious disease, people need to trust the government’s response–and in America, trust in the government is a problem. Back in 2014, the nation of Liberia had a similar problem with public trust during the Ebola outbreak. How the government of Liberia solved that problem could offer some lessons for the United States.
Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th Century New York (0:38)
Guest: Stacy Horn, Author of “Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th-Century New York”
Nellie Bly is heading back to the site of her most famous exploit. As an investigative journalist in the late 1800s, Bly went undercover to get herself committed to the notorious insane asylum on an island in New York’s East River. Her expose shocked the world and drew attention to the dreadful treatment of those with mental illness. Today Roosevelt Island is a trendy residential neighborhood, but its residents want to make sure the island’s difficult past is remembered. Hence the Nellie Bly statue they’re planning for the spot where the insane asylum once stood. (Originally aired 7/25/2019).
Romantic Love Is One of the Most Addictive Substances on Earth (37:07)
Guest: Helen Fisher, Biological Anthropologist, Senior Research Fellow, The Kinsey Institute, Indiana University. Chief Scientific Advisor for Match.com. Author of “Anatomy of Love” and “Why We Love.”
After scanning the brains of people falling in and out of love and surveying tens of thousands of people on a dating site, Helen Fisher has concluded that romantic love is among the most addictive substances on Earth. We’re not talking about lust or sex drive. She says the desire–to fall in love, be loved romantically by someone–is entirely separate and even more powerful. (Originally aired 01/07/2020).
How Effective is Sign Language Interpreted Performance for Deaf Audiences? (52:52)
Guest: Michael Richardson, PhD, Author of the Study: “Playing Bilingual: Interweaving Deaf and Hearing Cultural Practices to Achieve Equality of Participation in Theatrical Performance Processes”
Attendance at live theater performances by deaf people is low. And for good reason. The costumes, makeup, set, and lights, are all part of the full sensory experience of theater. But that’s lost on those who have to watch an interpreter off to the side the entire time. Is it possible for a deaf person to have an equal theater experience as someone who isn’t deaf? (Originally aired 10/28/2019).
Screen Time Doesn’t Account for the Rises in Depression and Anxiety in Teenagers (1:10:07)
Guest: Sarah Coyne, Professor of Family Life, Brigham Young University
You may have heard that spending so much time on social media is making teenagers anxious and depressed. If you’re the parent of a “screenager” addicted to a smart phone, I’m sure you’ve worried about this. Well, maybe worry a bit less. An eight-year study of teenagers finds no evidence that time spent on social media is “destroying a generation.” (Originally aired 11/12/2019).
Historically Black Colleges and Universities Are Struggling to Survive (1:22:06)
Guest: Delece Smith-Barrow, Senior Editor for Higher Education, The Hechinger Report
Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Spike Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson, Chadwick Boseman–aka Black Panther. That’s just a partial list of prominent African Americans who graduated from an HBCU, which stands for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. There are more than a hundred HBCUs around the country–Howard, Tuskegee, Spelman, Shaw, Fisk, Morehouse–are some names you might recognize. If you saw Beyonce’s Coachella performance in 2018–or the Netflix documentary about it-that whole thing was an ode to HBCUs. She had marching bands and step dancers. Beyonce’s HBCU tribute was well-timed, because many of these schools are in crisis. Enrollment is down. Government funding is down. More than a dozen HBCUs have closed. (Originally aired 11/05/2019).
Stacy Horn, author, on Rossevelt Island. Helen Fisher of Indiana Univ on the science of love. Michael Richardson, PhD and author, on deaf theater. Sarah Coyne of Brigham Young Univ on social media. Delece Smith-Barrow of The Hechinger Report on historically Black colleges.
What Do We Know for Sure about the COVID-19 Virus at This Point? (0:32)
Guest: Sankar Swaminathan, MD, Chief of Infectious Diseases Division, University of Utah Health
All of the decisions governments, schools and businesses are making right now about how to proceed with COVID-19 cases on the rise, depend on having good information about how the virus spreads. And that information has been in flux. Does the novel coronavirus spread through droplets only? Can you get infected by touching a surface that has the virus on it? Why do some people get really sick and some don’t even have symptoms? How accurate are the tests for COVID-19?
Microaggressions and the Harm They Inflict (20:50)
Guest: Ronald E. Hall, Professor of Social Work, Michigan State University
You’re not a racist. Of course you’re not. And you’d never do something like call an African American the “n-word.” But there are many little ways to be racist-or sexist. They’re are called “microaggressions” and you may not even realize you’re doing them. You probably mean no harm. But they can be harmful.
The Widening Racial Gap of Home Ownership (36:33)
Guest: Jacob Rugh, Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University
Eighteen years after the housing crisis hit the US, homeownership rates have rebounded for every racial group except Black Americans. Right now, while only 41% of Black Americans own homes compared to 75 percent of Whites. Latino homeownership has climbed to just under 50%. Why does this disparity exist? What are its implications for the 2020 election?
Migration is Natural & Inevitable; Trying to Prevent It Only a Distraction From Real Solutions (52:52)
Guest: Sonia Shah, Science Journalist, Author of “The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move”
In the natural world, migration is an ingenious survival adaptation. Birds and butterflies do it–of course. Did you know even forests can migrate? So why does society consider it a problem when people do it?
More than 200 Offensive Words are Getting Banned From Competitive Scrabble (1:32:08)
Guest: Josephine Flowers, Competitive Scrabble Player, Tournament and Club Director
The North American Scrabble Players Association–which hosts competitive Scrabble events for people who take the word game very, very seriously–has announced it will ban the use of hundreds of offensive words, including racial slurs. The decision was very controversial among competitive Scrabble players.
Sankar Swaminathan of University of Utah Health with coronavirus updates. Ronald E. Hall of Michigan State Univ on microaggressions. Jacob Rugh of Brigham Young Univ on racial gap in home ownership. Sonia Shah, science journalist, on migration. Josephine Flowers on the ban of offensive slurs from competitive Scrabble competitions.
Universities are Faced with Mounting Challenges for This Fall (0:29)
Guest: Robert Kelchen, Professor of Higher Education, Seton Hall University
The Trump Administration is backtracking on its plan to deport international students who attend universities that are offering courses only online this fall. Harvard, MIT and seventeen states sued to stop the rule, which had universities scrambling to adjust their fall plans. Nearly half of campuses across the country are planning to offer limited, if any, face-to-face options for Fall semester.
Canada’s Most Popular Bird Song (18:49)
Guest: Ken Otter, Professor of Biology, University of Northern British Columbia
A new song has swept across North America in record time. In fact, a new catchy song from a white-throated sparrow. It's song, though, has changed from two longer notes at the end to three quick ones all throughout the sparrow world.
Internet of Elephants Makes Games to Promote Conservation (33:25)
Guest: Gautam Shah, Founder, Internet of Elephants
When you think of wildlife conservation, you may think of protection of land or animals. You may not think of video games. But a company from Kenya called Internet of Elephants is working to promote conservation through gaming.
Apple Seed (52:44)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, Apple Seed, BYUradio
How will we look back on and remember the first half of 2020?
Nearly 6 Million More Homes at Risk for Flooding than Official Estimates (1:03:45)
Guest: Jeremy Porter, PhD, Director of Research and Development, First Street Foundation
Do you live in a flood zone that requires you to have flood insurance? Across the US about 9 million homes fit the bill, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But the real number of homes at high risk of catastrophic flooding is nearly twice that, based on new analysis by an independent group of hydrologists and data scientists.
Washington’s NFL Team Will Finally Retire its Native American Name (1:23:13)
Guest: Stephanie Fryberg, University Professor of Diversity and Social Transformation, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
After decades of criticism, the owner of the NFL team in Washington, DC has agreed to drop the name “Redskins.” Not so long ago, the team’s owners said they’d never cave to the pressure to change the name. What’s changed? And more importantly, why does it matter?
Robert Kelchen of Seton Hall Univ on the challenges facing higher education. Ken Otter, Univ of Northern British Columbia, on a viral bird song. Gautam Shah on Internet of Elephants. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed. Jeremy Porter of First Street Foundation on new-found flood risk across the US. Stephanie Fryberg, Univ of Michigan, on Washington's NFL team name change.
Stacy Cowley of the New York Times on PPP loans. Mimi Aung, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Mars helicopter. Sarah Webb of Univ of Illinois Springfield on skin lightening. Jeremy Gregory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology on stiffening roads. Yasir Qadhi of The Islamic Seminary of America on the cancellation of the Hajj. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on teaching kids conversational skills.
Who Got PPP Loans and What Good It Did (0:33)
Guest: Stacy Cowley, Business Reporter, New York Times
A return to pandemic shutdown is looming over states including Florida, Texas and California, as COVID-19 cases spike. We’re learning more now about how the first wave of relief loans to small businesses worked out. The Paycheck Protection Program–or PPP–handed out $520 billion in loans, but there’s still more than $130 billion available in the program and the deadline to apply has been extended to August 8.
The First Powered Flight on Another Planet (17:35)
Guest: Mimi Aung, Project Manager, Mars Helicopter Project, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
On July 30, NASA will launch its next Mars Rover, Perserverance. And when it gets there, the red planet is going to hear a new sound. That sound will be the rotating blades of a helicopter specially built for Mars called Ingenuity. And it’s going to take the first powered flight on another planet.
Colorism and Skin Lightening’s Toll on Communities (35:47)
Guest: Sarah Webb, Professor, University of Illinois Springfield, Founder, Colorism Healing
A handful of the largest skin care and beauty companies in the world are discontinuing products that promise to lighten skin, or changing the names to downplay promises of “lighter skin.” They have names like “Fair & Lovely,” and aren’t typically for sale in the US, but make companies like Johnson & Johnson, Unilever and Loreal a lot of money in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Stiffening Our Roads Could Lead to Lower Vehicle Emissions (52:50)
Guest: Jeremy Gregory, Civil & Environmental Engineering Researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A hidden problem with America’s roads is draining our gas tanks and causing every mile to emit more CO2 in the atmosphere. The fix, according to MIT scientists, is to make our roads out of stiffer material.
The Widespread Problem of Weight Stigma Among Pregnant and Post-Partum Women (1:01:13)
Guest: Angela Incollingo Rodriguez, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
The stigma around weight in American culture is deeply engrained and problematic. But you’d think that at least pregnant women would be free from that stigma. She’s growing another human inside her, for goodness sake? But two-thirds of pregnant and postpartum women recently surveyed reported experiencing some form of weight stigma. Two-thirds!
Pilgrimage to Mecca Cancelled Due to COVID-19 (1:13:57)
Guest: Yasir Qadhi, Dean of Academic Affairs, The Islamic Seminary of America
The annual pilgrimage to Mecca has been effectively cancelled this summer, because of the pandemic. It’s a first in modern history and a deep disappointment to the millions of Muslims from around the world who’d planned to make the holy trip. Many save and plan their entire lives to do the pilgrimage once before they die, as Islam requires.
Teaching Conversation Skills to Kids (1:31:25)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy of Stetson Univ on Pres Trump's tax returns. Roger Colton of Fisher Sheehan & Colton on rising water bills. Jennifer Harris, Univ of Connecticut on soda ads. Thomas Knott of University of Leicester, UK on the Yellowstone hotspot. Darren Byler of the Univ of Colorado, Boulder on the tracking of the Uighur People. Lindsey Lavaysse, Washington State University Vancouver, on pregnancy stereotypes.
The President’s Tax Returns Stay Private, For Now (0:31)
Guest: Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Professor of Law, Stetson University, Brennan Center fellow, author of “Political Brands” and “Corporate Citizen?”
Both President Trump and his critics are claiming victory in the US Supreme Court’s ruling on whether or not he can be compelled to release his tax returns.
Water Bills Around the Country Have Dramatically Risen in Recent Decades (20:36)
Guest: Roger Colton, Public Utilities Economics Consultant, Fisher Sheehan & Colton
How’s your water bill these days? On average, water bills in US cities have jumped a lot in the last decade. So much, so, that America is verging on a water affordability crisis. Is it because we’re running out of water? Or because of something else?
Soda Ads Skyrocket (36:42)
Guest: Jennifer Harris, Senior Research Advisor, University of Connecticut's Rudd Center
Soda consumption has been steadily declining in the US for over a decade now. But teens, minority and low-income youth are a different story. The Rudd Center’s latest “Sugary Drink Facts” report finds that young people consume sugary drinks in the US at a disproportionate level. And that parallels large increases in advertising aimed at youth overall, and Black and Brown youth in particular.
The Volcano under Yellowstone Might Be Chilling Out (52:53)
Guest: Thomas Knott, Geochemist at the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, UK.
2020 has definitely felt a bit apocalyptic. What with the fires in Australia, a pandemic, locusts, and killer hornets. It seems like the only thing that could make it worse would the eruption of the supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park. But here’s some good news: a new geological survey of Yellowstone shows that the next major eruption might be much, much further away than previously thought.
Tracking the Uighur People of China (1:10:34)
Guest: Darren Byler, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder
The US last week imposed strict sanctions on three senior officials of the Chinese Communist party over alleged human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslim community in western China. The Chinese government is promising “reciprocal measures” against the US. Chinese leaders view the Uighur Muslims as a security threat and up to a million of them have been detained in prisons and internment camps. An American digital security company called Lookout recently released a report showing the Chinese government’s extensive use of malware on smartphones to track Uyghurs in China and other countries.
How do Workplace Stereotypes Impact Pregnant Women? (1:29:19)
Guest: Lindsey Lavaysse, Recent Doctoral Graduate, Washington State University Vancouver
Across the US workforce, only two percent of employees are pregnant, so being one of those women can be pretty isolating. Survey research by Lindsey Lavaysse at Washington State University found that it’s common for pregnant women to work extra hard–even risking injury–for fear of confirming stereotypes about pregnant women being incompetent or weak.
Kerry Soper of Brigham Young Univ on “Gary Larson and The Far Side." Marcus Lashley, Univ of Florida, on wild pigs. Anne Minden of Minden and Associates, LLC, on tree poaching. Shilpa Davé of the Univ of Virginia on Disney's problematic animated films. Thomas Curran of the London School of Economics and Political Science on perfectionism. Ming Hsu of the Univ of California, Berkeley, on craving information.
The Far Side’s Enduring Popularity (0:35)
Guest: Kerry Soper, Professor in the Department of Comparative Arts and Letters, Brigham Young University, Author of “Gary Larson and the Far Side”
Cows, cavemen, lumpy not-so-smart humans and animals always outsmarting them. Gary Larson’s strange, but smart, humor made The Far Side a hit. And now, the cartoonist is publishing new comics for the first time in 25 years. They’re on his website, thefarside.com. (Originally aired 3/18/2019)
Feral Pigs Are Destroying Wildlife (22:26)
Guest: Marcus Lashley, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, University of Florida
There are just under 7 million feral pigs running free around the US – that’s triple what there were back in the 1980s. And even if you are a bacon-lover, this is not good news. Wild pigs can destroy ecosystems, and they’re not native to the US, which makes their effect even worse. (Originally aired 9/18/2019)
How to Catch a Tree Thief: Timber Poaching in the Pacific Northwest (37:37)
Guest: Anne Minden, Former Special Agent at the US Forest Service, President of Minden and Associates, LLC
Animal poaching is a problem you’re familiar with. But did you know that people also poach trees? Timber thieves will take chainsaws onto Forest Service land, bring down a Douglas fir or a bigleaf maple and make hundreds of dollars selling the wood to a sawmill or a furniture manufacturer. Anne Minden is one of the handful of people who track down tree-robbers. (Originally aired 10/21/2019)
This Content May Contain Outdated Cultural Depictions (52:49)
Guest: Shilpa Davé, Assistant Professor of Media Studies and American Studies, University of Virginia
Disneyland’s famous Imagineers recently announced that Splash Mountain will be completely reimagined as a new ride based on “The Princess and the Frog.” Meaning, it will no longer be based on one of the most problematic films in Disney’s archive – “Song of the South.”Many of Disney’s classic animated films are so problematic they currently carry the following warning on Disney+: “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.” Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp and Dumbo are all on that list. Think of that. I loved those films as a kid. We had a Disney sing-a-long record that I wore out dancing along to catchy tunes. So, is it enough for Disney to put a warning label on these films today? Would it be better to edit out the offensive stuff? Or keep them off Disney+ entirely? (Originally aired 11/20/2019)
Can Perfectionism Be Toxic? (1:10:47)
Guest: Thomas Curran, Professor of Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science
Job interviewers will often ask a candidate “What’s your greatest weakness?” And savvy job seekers might answer with something like, “Oh, I’m too much of a perfectionist.” It’s a clever way to twist the question in your favor, but psychologist Thomas Curran says that this characteristic is dangerous and not something to be proud of. He’s found that it’s on the rise in young people, and that could be why cases of depression and anxiety are also going up. (Originally aired 10/15/2020)
How Much Is Too Much? When Curiosity Kills the Cat (1:26:10)
Guest: Ming Hsu, Associate Professor, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
The instant gratification of having the internet at your fingertips is often irresistible, isn’t it? I’ll be watching TV and suddenly need to know right now what else the show’s creator has done, what else the main actor has been in, how old they are, how tall they are. . . it’s an endless rabbit hole of curiosity for useless information. And meanwhile, I end up missing key plot points because I can’t put the phone down. Neuroscientist Ming Hsu has found – through scanning people’s brains – that we crave useless information for the same reasons we crave junk food. (Originally aired 7/31/2020)
US Supreme Court on “Faithless Electors” and The Electoral College (0:31)
Guest: Jessica Levinson, Clinical Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Host of “Passing Judgment” Podcast
When Americans vote in the Presidential Election four months from now, our votes will not directly elect the winner. Instead, votes get tallied on a state-by-state basis, then states appoint presidential electors based on those tallies and send those electors to cast a vote in the electoral college, which ultimately elects the President. The US Supreme Court this week ruled that states can punish presidential electors who fail to vote for the candidate they have pledged to support.
States Collaborating to Side-Step Power of Electoral College (15:27)
Guest: John Koza, Founder, National Popular Vote
There’s a long-running movement in the country to just get rid of the electoral college all together. That would require a Constitutional Amendment. But there’s another way, says John Koza.
Bright Idea: Bathe Public Spaces in UV Light to Prevent Spread of COVID-19 (24:58)
Guest: David Brenner, Director, Center for Radiological Research, Columbia University Medical Center
The coronavirus spreads through respiratory droplets: an infected person coughs or sneezes – or just speaks – and the virus goes airborne, where it can be inhaled by others – especially indoors. That’s why we’re all encouraged to wear facemasks. Researchers are working on a way to continuously disinfect the air in public places like hospitals or elevators using ultraviolet light.
Can Schools Safely Reopen This Fall? (38:22)
Guest: Elliot Haspel, Program Officer, Robins Foundation
"SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!" Tweeted President Trump this week. Many parents, students and teachers agree. The question is how to do so safely while COVID-19 spreads in our communities.
Olympic Women (52:15)
Guest: Elise Hooper, Author “Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team”
The world’s fastest runners were supposed to be converging on Tokyo for the Olympic Games right now. Alas, we’re going to content ourselves with considering the first women ever to run track and field for the United States at the Olympics. This was the late 1920s and early 1930s. Running was not considered ladylike. You start the story with Betty Robinson boarding a ship in New York City, headed for the Olympics in Amsterdam. It’s 1928. Betty’s just 16. Little does she – or anyone else – suspect she’s about to become a gold-medal sprinter. How’d she end up on the Olympic team?
Mosque or Monument: The Fate of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia (1:31:27)
Guest: Tugba Tanyeri Erdemir, Research Associate in Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh
The most-visited tourist attraction in Istanbul, Turkey is the Hagia Sophia. It’s a truly stunning Greek Orthodox cathedral – one of the oldest in the world, with immense domes and glittering mosaics. During Ottoman rule, it was converted into a Mosque and the mosaics were plastered over. For the last 80 years, the Hagia Sophia has been a museum – the mosaics depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist are now visible alongside ornate Islamic inscriptions. It’s a powerful symbol of Christianity and Islam co-existing in peace. That may change. Turkey’s President wants to convert the Hagia Sophia back into a working mosque. Greece and several other European countries have objected.
Jessica Levinson of Loyola Law School on the Electoral College. John Koza on National Popular Vote. David Brenner of Columbia Univ Medical Center on UV disinfection. Elliot Haspel of The Robins Foundation on reopening schools. Elise Hooper on “Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team.” Tugba Erdemir, Univ of Pittsburgh on the Hagia Sophia controversy.
What’s Happening With Brexit? (0:31)
Guest: Simon Usherwood, Professor of Politics, University of Surrey
It may feel like 2020 has already lasted an eternity, but it’s only half over. For the UK, that means just six months left to finalize its departure from the European Union. But wait, didn’t Brexit happen already? Well, before a divorce, there’s generally a separation period and that’s what this year is for Britain and the EU. The deadline to extend the separation period just passed, so what exactly happens come January 1, 2021?
City Sends CAHOOTS Crisis Workers Instead of Police to Non-Violent Situations (18:48)
Guest: Benjamin Brubaker, Clinic Co-Coordinator White Bird Clinic
In just about every conversation right now about defunding or reforming police departments, the city of Eugene, Oregon comes up. For more than 30 years, Eugene has had a program that sends crisis workers out, instead of police, to deal with non-violent situations like a potential overdose or checking on someone who may be suicidal.
The Power of a Name (37:09)
Guest: Adrienne Dixson, Professor of Critical Race Theory and Education, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Part of the anxiety over talking about race in America is knowing what words to use. Is it African American? Or Black American? Or People of Color? They’re not interchangeable, though sometimes I find myself using them that way, hoping I won’t accidentally offend the person I’m talking to while I wait to see what word they use and then follow their lead. This isn’t just a question of semantics. Words matter. Labels can cause harm.
The Brain’s Ability to Quickly Adapt to Sudden Disability (52:19)
Guest: Dillan Newbold, MD/PHD Student in the Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine
What’s going on in the brain when you break your arm and have to wear a cast for a few months? During all that time that your arm is immobilized, does the brain forget about it? And what happens when the cast comes off and you try to bring that arm back on line? Some neurologists at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis got the answers by putting the healthy arms of a few of their colleagues into full casts and then scanning their brains every day for a few weeks.
The Case for Making Washington, DC a State (1:06:15)
Guest: Bo Shuff, Executive Director, DC Vote
For the first time ever, the US House of Representatives has passed a measure to make Washington, DC its own state. The vote was entirely along party lines – no Republicans supported it. That means that for the time being it has no chance of getting through the Republican controlled Senate. But why now – after decades of activism – has this movement to make DC a state suddenly gained steam?
CORRECTION: During this live interview Julie referred to US Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) as a member of the US House. He is a Senator. His comments were made on the floor of the US Senate on June 25, 2020, the day before the DC Statehood bill was passed by the US House. The US Senate - and Senator Tom Cotton - have not yet voted on H.R. 51.
Southwest Drought Could Turn Into a Megadrought (1:27:51)
Guest: Kasey Bolles, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
The American Southwest has been in a drought for the past two decades, but it might not end anytime soon. It could turn into a megadrought. Researchers figured this out by looking at tree rings from the past 1,200 years.
Simon Usherwood, Univ of Surrey, on Brexit. Benjamin Brubaker of the White Bird Clinic on CAHOOTS. Adrienne Dixson of the Univ of Illinois on "The Power of a Name." Dillan Newbold of Washington Univ School of Medicine on adapting to disability. Bo Shuff of DC Vote on DC statehood. Kasey Bolles of Columbia Univ on the drought in the southwest.
Russia’s Alleged Bounty Program Targeting US Soldiers and Why It Matters (:32)
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
The C.I.A. and top US counterterrorism officials have concluded that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants who kill American and coalition troops in Afghanistan. President Trump says he was not briefed on the matter and has even called it a hoax. The Trump Administration says there’s some disagreement among intelligence officials over whether the bounty program exists, or if any US service members died as a result of it.
The City of Tenino Is Printing Its Own Money on Wood (18:26)
Guest: Wayne Fournier, Mayor of Tenino
The small town of Tenino, Washington has found a creative way to help its citizens financially during the pandemic. It’s printing its own currency on thin pieces of wood. Tenino has a long history of this kind of thing, in fact.
Climate Change Puts Pregnant American Women and Their Babies at Risk (37:06)
Guest: Bruce Bekkar, Gynecologist, Board Member of the Climate Action Campaign.
An unusually large swath of the United States is in the grips of a sweltering heat wave this week. Most of the lower 48 will see temperatures topping 90 degrees with 40 million people living in areas that will see temperatures over 100, according to the National Weather Service. Phew! As things get hotter around the globe, pregnant women and their babies are at greater risk.
Legal Loophole Makes a Part of Yellowstone the Perfect Place to Commit a Crime. Will Congress Fix It? (53:13)
Guest: Brian Kalt, Professor of Law & The Harold Norris Faculty Scholar, Michigan State University, Author of “Constitutional Cliffhangers: A Legal Guide for Presidents and Their Enemies”
There’s a 50-square mile section of Yellowstone National Park that’s in a legal no-man’s land. It could actually be the perfect place to commit a crime and get away with it. Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt realized the existence of this “Zone of Death” as it’s been called and wrote about it more than 15 years ago. He’s been trying to get Congress or the courts to close the loophole since, but to no avail.
Low-Cost, Battery-Powered Ventilator Gets Emergency Approval for Pandemic Use (1:11:58)
Guest: Erica Palmer, Co-Founder of NeoNatal Rescue
Ventilators that breathe for a seriously ill patient typically cost as much as a car – and they’re in high demand right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A ventilator that costs a fraction of that – and is portable, because it’s battery-powered - has just received emergency approval from the FDA. It’s an update of a design initially built by students at BYU to help premature infants.
The History of Copaganda (1:26:53)
Guest: Carol Stabile, Professor of Media Studies, University of Oregon
Americans have become increasingly critical of what is often referred to as “copaganda”--shows that portray cops as the infallible good guys. In fact, last month Paramount announced it would be canceling the famous reality show “Cops,” which was originally slated to run it’s 33rd season this summer. But “copaganda”isn’t anything new; throughout history the FBI in particular has used TV and movies to influence their public image.
Ryan Vogel of Utah Valley Univ on Russian bounties. Wayne Fournier, Mayor of Tenino, Washington, on wooden money. Bruce Bekkar, the Climate Action Campaign, on climate change & pregnancy. Brian Kalt of Michigan State Univ on the 6th amendment and the perfect crime. Erica Palmer of NeoNatal Rescue on a low cost ventilator. Carol Stabile of the Univ of Oregon on copaganda.
The Stunning Scope of Hong Kong’s New “National Security Law” (0:32)
Guest: Alvin Y.H. Cheung, Non-Resident Affiliate, US-Asia Law Institute, New York University
Democracy in Hong Kong has been dealt a blow in the last week. China implemented a sweeping national security law that threatens life in prison for people who protest against or criticize the government. Popular protest chants such as “liberate Hong Kong” could now land a person in jail.
How to Cook Like the Ancient Romans (21:05)
Guest: Max Miller, Creator of Tasting History
If you’re tired of baking banana bread, it may be time to look at some new recipes. Or maybe some old recipes. Very old. Max Miller has been using historical cookbooks, some almost 2000 years old, to re-create dishes and ingredients from days long gone. Since early this year he’s been documenting his project on YouTube on his channel called “Tasting History.”
Women Who “Camouflage” Autistic Traits Are Likely to Be Misdiagnosed, Leading to Serious Mental Health Concerns (40:07)
Guest: Rebecca A. Lundwall, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Psychology Department and Neuroscience Center, Brigham Young University
Women are less likely to be diagnosed with autism than men, partially because women tend to “mask” or “camouflage” the traits that would lead to a proper diagnosis. Researchers at Brigham Young University have found that when women do this, they’re more likely to develop serious mental health problems, like depression.
Movies About Voting in America (52:46)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
A number of US states are shifting to mail-in voting this November, with the expectation that the COVID-19 pandemic may still make it difficult – or even dangerous – for people to line up at the polls on election day. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in America. So, Kirsten Hawkes has put together a list of films about voting to inspire you. And maybe also open your eyes a bit.
Why Fewer Men Go to College (1:14:20)
Guest: David C. Geary, Professor at University of Missouri
More women go to college than men – it’s been that way since the 1990s. Why? New research shows that it may be due to boys’ lower reading levels.
Volcanic Eruption Affected Roman Society in 1st Century BCE (1:30:12)
Guest: Joseph Manning, professor of history, Yale University
Here’s a case now of climate scientists helping to rewrite history: close analysis of ice samples from the Arctic suggest that a huge volcanic eruption in Alaska helped to trigger the political and social unrest that led to the fall of the Roman Republic on the other side of the globe two-thousand years ago.
Alvin Cheung of New York Univ on Hong Kong. Max Miller of Tasting History on recreating recipes from ancient cookbooks. Rebecca Lundwall of Brigham Young Univ on women masking autism. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com on movies about voting. David Geary of the Univ of Missouri on why fewer men go to college. Joseph Manning of Yale Univ on climate & politics.
How a Man Named Nathan Built a Hot Dog Empire
Guest: Lloyd Handwerker, Author of “Famous Nathan: A Family Saga of Coney Island, the American Dream, and the Search for the Perfect Hot Dog,” Director of “Famous Nathan”
At least one Fourth of July Tradition is happening undeterred by the pandemic this year: Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog-Eating Competition will happen this year in a private location without the massive crowd, but still broadcast live on ESPN. Nathan’s Famous has been synonymous with hot dogs for more than 100 years, and the annual July 4th contest is part of its fame. But more than anything Nathan’s is famous for the iconic yellow and green sign at the corner of Surf and Stillwell on Coney Island where Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker opened a small counter and started selling hot dogs for a nickel in 1916. How that simple food stand became a multi-million-dollar business is a quintessential American story. (Originally aired: Sept. 23, 2016)
The Uncomfortable Truth About Race in America
Guests: Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, Civil Rights Activist and Author; Loki Mulholland, Documentary Filmmaker, "The Uncomfortable Truth"
This moment of anti-racism protests in America has many people turning to books and films that can help them better understand why race matters. One independent documentary from 2017 has now started trending – with close to half a million views – on Amazon Prime since it’s been featured in the Black Lives Matter Channel. The film is called, “The Uncomfortable Truth” and it’s about filmmaker Loki Mulholland’s journey to understand just how being white has benefited his family across generations. Mulholland’s story is particularly intriguing because his mother descends from a line of slaveholders in the South, but she made her name as a civil rights activist jailed for her participation in the Freedom Rides and targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. (Originally aired: Oct. 27, 2017)
Lloyd Handwerker, author of “Famous Nathan: A Family Saga of Coney Island, the American Dream, and the Search for the Perfect Hot Dog," on his grandfather fulfilling the American Dream. Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, civil right activist and author and documentary filmmaker Loki Mulholland talk about white privilege and the documentary "The Uncomfortable Truth."
What Legal Right Does a Band Have to Demand the Trump Campaign Stop Playing Their Song? (0:32)
Guest: John Tehranian, Founding Partner, One LLP Intellectual Property Law Firm, Paul W. Wildman Chair and Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School
The Rolling Stones are threatening to sue the Trump Campaign if it doesn’t stop playing the band’s music at political rallies. Tom Petty, Neil Young, Elton John, R.E.M., Queen, Rihanna, Adele and lots of other artists have objected to their music playing at Trump Campaign events. What does the law say about that?
Trump Campaign Music: You Can't Always Get What You Want; I Won't Back Down (10:30)
Guest: Eric T. Kasper, PhD, JD, Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Co-editor of “You Shook Me All Campaign Long: Music in the 2016 Presidential Election and Beyond”
Why is the Trump Campaign using a song at its rallies with a hook that says, "You can't always get what you want. But sometimes you get what you need."? Political scientist Eric Kasper says the song is an unorthodox choice, but makes sense for Trump as a candidate. We look at the power and politics of musical selections in presidential elections.
How Safe is Tear Gas as Used by Police to Control Crowds? (21:17)
Guest: Sven Eric Jordt, Professor of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Duke University
Anti-racism protests continue on a near-daily basis in cities around the country. They’re largely peaceful and generally without incident. In the first few weeks of the protests, thought, when tensions between police and demonstrators were particularly high, at least 100 law enforcement agencies used some form of tear gas on crowds, according to a New York Times count. That has prompted alarm among health experts who study the effects of tear gas.
How Facial Recognition Technology Discriminates Against Minorities (37:27)
Guest: Deborah Raji, Tech Fellow, AI Now Institute, New York University
In the last few weeks, the biggest players in facial recognition technology have tapped the brakes. IBM said it’s abandoning the effort. Amazon announced a one-year moratorium on police departments using its system to identify suspects.
Deborah Raji is one of the researchers who’s been calling for this moment for a long time because of how frequently facial recognition technology misidentifies people of color.
From 1776-2020, Citizenship Has Always Been a Heated Debate in America (52:19)
Guest: Douglas Bradburn, PhD, President & CEO, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Author of “The Citizenship Revolution”
Independence Day in America. A day when many wave flags and sing anthems in celebration of their status as Americans. But if you’re a woman or a person of color and this was 1776, you couldn’t really call yourself American. You couldn’t vote, didn’t have many – if any – rights of citizenship.
The Ongoing Struggle of Black Women to Claim Their Rights as Americans (1:08:17)
Guests: Daina Ramey Berry, PhD, Oliver H. Radkey Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin; Kali Nicole Gross, PhD, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of History, Rutgers University, Authors of “A Black Women’s History of the United States”
For much of American history, black women were excluded based on the double hurdles of race and gender. But the new book, “A Black Women’s History of the United States” makes clear, they used everything at their disposal to fight for the rights denied them.
Immigration Law and the Definition of “White” (1:27:53)
Guest: David-James (DJ) Gonzales, PhD, assistant professor of history, Brigham Young University
Who gets to call themselves “American” has been a matter of dispute since the nation’s founding – and remains so today with debates over immigration law. The Trump Administration has implemented a number of policies aimed at restricting who can come to the United States legally and who can become a citizen once here.
John Tehranian, Southwestern Law, on bands’ rights at political rallies. Eric Kasper, Univ of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, explains the Trump campaign music strategy. Sven Jordt, Duke Univ, on the dangers of tear gas. Deborah Raji, New York Univ, on facial recognition tech discrimination. Douglas Bradburn, on his book "The Citizenship Revolution." Daina Berry and Kali Gross on their book, "A Black Women's History of the United States." DJ Gonzales, BYU, on who gets to call themselves American.
Steve Coman of RES Pyro on how fireworks work. Stephen Burg of New America explains the need for more scholarships for poor students. Lisa Cook, Michigan State Univ, on how black people have been denied patents. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story. William Luther, Florida Atlantic Univ, explains the coin shortage. Phillip Goodrich, author of "Somersett," on what sparked the American Revolution.
How Fireworks Work – and How the Pandemic Has Them on Ice (0:32)
Guest: Steve Coman, CEO, RES Pyro
The pandemic has forced cancellation of many of America’s favorite Fourth of July festivities. But fireworks can still happen – and are, in many cities, including my own. With the caveat that nobody can congregate in public places to watch them. Our city promises to launch them high enough in the sky that people should be able to see them from home. So let’s talk about the science of that. After all these years marveling at the color and flash of fireworks, do you actually know how they work?
Merit-Aids Arms Race Hurts Low-Income Students (18:27)
Guest: Stephen Burd, Senior Writer & Editor, Education Policy Program, New America
State funding for public universities has been steadily declining for decades. Those cuts sped up during the Great Recession, and probably will with the current recession, too. So, what can state colleges and universities do to fill the gaps? Raise tuition is an obvious one – and they’ve done that. Here’s one that’s counterintuitive: a lot of public universities have begun offering more scholarships to smart, wealthy students. Why would that make sense for a university? And where does it leave poorer students who need financial aid in order to attend college?
The History Between Patents and Hate Crimes (35:19)
Guest: Lisa Cook, Professor of Economics, Michigan State University
Modern traffic light. The gas mask. Elevator doors that open and close automatically. The electric curling iron. A process for making coconut oil. All of those things were invented by African Americans in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It’s just a partial list, but Michigan State University economist Lisa Cook wonders what’s not on that list. Her research shows periods of extreme violence and hatred against Blacks in America also coincide with a plunge in patents being awarded to African Americans.
Apple Seed (52:46)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne shares stories about Independence Day.
Coins: The Latest Shortage to Hit Americans (1:04:33)
Guest: William J. Luther, Assistant Professor of Economics at Florida Atlantic University, Director of the American Institute for Economic Research’s Sound Money Project, Adjunct Scholar with the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives
I was in the drive-thru at the bank a few days ago when some guy pulled up in the lane next to me and asked for some rolls of quarters. I heard the bank teller say they weren’t distributing coins because of the pandemic and the guy drove away empty-handed. At the time I thought maybe bank wasn’t handing out coins for fear they could spread the virus. But now I realize the teller probably mean the bank had no coins to give. Apparently, there’s a nationwide coin shortage right now. Where’d all the quarters and dimes go?
What Sparked the American Revolution? (1:17:16)
Guest: Phillip Goodrich, Author of “Somersett: Or Why and How Benjamin Franklin Orchestrated the American Revolution”
Among the most famous founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin is kind of an outlier. Everybody knows his name, but he doesn’t even get a part in Hamilton, the Musical. Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton all cut dashing figures in that show. What was old “early to bed, early to rise” lightning-rod-kite Ben Franklin up to during the Revolutionary period? A lot more than you think, according to a new book by Phillip Goodrich.
Supreme Court’s Unusual Term Winds Down With Disappointment for Conservatives (0:30)
Guest: Kimberly Robinson, Supreme Court Reporter, Bloomberg Law
The US Supreme Court struck down a restrictive abortion law in Louisiana this week, despite the fact that conservative justices outnumber liberals. The swing vote in this case was Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed by George W. Bush, but in three of the Supreme Court’s most consequential cases this session, has voted with the court’s liberals.
Virus Detection Network (17:11)
Guest: Pardis Sabeti, PhD, Professor at the Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the Harvard School of Public Health.
COVID-19 infections continue to rise rapidly in the US, prompting many states, including Arizona, Florida, Texas and California, to step back from reopening as they try to slow spread of the virus. Widespread testing and tracking for COVID-19 has proven crucial to the reopening process in other countries that have more successfully managed the pandemic.
Rebuilding Trust in American Democracy (34:00)
Guest: Danielle Allen, Director, Harvard University's Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics
There’s not much trust to go around these days in American society. Public trust in the federal government is stuck at historic lows. Americans are less trusting than they used to be of businesses, the news media and even religious institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a deep lack of trust in one another to do the right thing. Where do we go from here? A committee of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences held listening sessions with people across the country to get a sense for what might restore our faith in each other and in American democracy.
A Giant Saharan Dust Cloud is Coming (52:54)
Guest: Thomas Gill, Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso
A giant cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa spent most of last week moving over the Southern United States. It’s now headed back out to sea, but another dust cloud is on its heels. Apparently this is normal for this time of year – who knew? But the latest African dust cloud was much bigger than usual.
It’s Getting Hot in Here (1:06:21)
Guest: Radley Horton, Lamont Associate Research Professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
The world is getting hot… and sometimes this heat can peak beyond what humans are capable of surviving. The right combination of heat and humidity could mean that even a healthy adult with unlimited access to water in the shade would die after a couple hours out in the heat. These “superheat events” weren’t supposed to happen until later in the century, but a new study has shown they’re happening now, and have doubled since the 1970s.
Chemistry Classes Might Be Responsible for Disparities in STEM Majors (1:20:06)
Guest: Scott Freeman, Principal Lecturer Emeritus of Biology, University of Washington
At the start of college, students from all different backgrounds express an equal interest in majoring in a STEM field – like biology or engineering or pre-med. But by the end of college, it’s a different picture. Women, first-generation college students, low-income college students and certain racial minority groups are much less likely to have stuck with the STEM major. What happens along the way to derail them?
There’s Gold in Them Trees: Leaves Show Where to Mine for Gold (1:31:52)
Guest: Melvyn Lintern, Geochemist, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Portable PPB, Former Scientist CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency
Money might actually grow on trees after all. Researchers in Australia found trace amounts of gold in the leaves of eucalyptus trees. A hundred feet below ground, under layers of dirt and clay and sand, they found – you guessed it – gold. So instead of drilling randomly to find new sources of the precious metal, could companies prospect for gold by examining tree leaves instead?
Kimberly Robinson of Bloomberg Law on the SCOTUS rulings. Pardis Sabeti of Harvard Univ on a virus detection network. Danielle Allen of Harvard Univ on American democracy in the 21st century. Thomas Gill of the Univ of Texas at El Paso on the Saharan dust cloud. Radley Horton of Columbia Univ on superheat events. Scott Freeman of the Univ of Washington on chemistry bottleneck.
The One-Day Police Training Program That Worked in Chicago (0:31)
Guest: Caroline Sarnoff, Executive Director, The Justice Collaboratory, Yale Law School
A repeated refrain in the conversation about policing in America is that officers need more training. Or different training. They need to learn how to de-escalate tense situations. How to recognize when their actions are being driven by hidden biases they harbor. How to use less lethal forms of force. But for all the millions of dollars being spent on police training, people still die unnecessarily in police custody. Is there any form of training that could actually make a difference?
NASA’s Plan to Be the Maytag Man for Satellites in Orbit (20:29)
Guest: Ben Reed, Chief of the Satellite Servicing Projects Division, NASA
There’s a lot of space in Earth’s orbit, but it’s getting more crowded by the day. SpaceX is in the process of launching a fleet of small satellites that will ultimately number in the thousands in hopes of bringing fast internet to every corner of the planet. Amazon plans to do something similar. The more satellite traffic in Earth’s orbit, the higher the chance of collisions. NASA has a division dedicated to developing ways to repair, refuel and even decommission satellites in orbit using robots.
Nursing Home Accountability (37:12)
Guest: Charlene Harrington, Professor of Social Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco
Half of all COVID-19 deaths in the US are estimated to have been in long-term care facilities, like nursing homes. The pandemic has brought to light long-standing problems in the nursing care system.
Microplastics Are Airborne, Come Down in Our Rain, and Are Virtually Everywhere (52:53)
Guest: Janice Brahney, Professor of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University
We’ve got a problem with plastic in our oceans. But now it’s in our wind and rain, too. New research shows that air and water deposit more than 1000 tons of plastic every year in US protected lands – and that’s just in the Western part of the country.
New Recommendation for Anxiety Screening in Women & Girls (1:08:40)
Guest: Heidi Nelson, MD, MPH, Professor of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University
Women are twice as likely as men to have anxiety. Nearly half of American women will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. So a coalition of women’s health professionals say screening for anxiety should be a regular part of routine check-ups for all women and teenaged girls.
The Glass Cliff (1:26:24)
Guest: Alexis Smith Washington, Associate Professor in the Management Department, Oklahoma State University
Most of these companies making public statements of support for Black Lives Matter and their commitment to do better on issues of race, have a lot of work to do when it comes to hiring and promoting people of color. There are currently only five black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. None is a black woman. But, there’s a real risk that companies in a rush to address their lack of diversity right now will end up promoting minority workers to positions where failure is likely because we’re in a recession. It’s a phenomenon known as the glass cliff.
Caroline Sarnoff of Yale Law School on police training. Ben Reed of NASA on satellite crowding. Charlene Harrington of the Univ of California, San Francisco on nursing homes. Janice Brahney of Utah State Univ on airbone plastics. Heidi Nelson of Oregon Health & Science Univ on women & anxiety. Alexis Washington of Oklahoma State Univ on the glass cliff.
Can Brands Be True Advocates for Social Issues? (0:35)
Guest: Kim Sheehan, PhD, Professor of Advertising and Brand Responsibility, University of Oregon
Lately, a lot of companies have put out ads or changed their logo in support of Black Lives Matter or to encourage people to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. There’s a long tradition of for-profit companies taking a stance on a political or social issue when it suits their needs. (Originally aired 12/11/19)
How We’re Saving the California Condor (16:09)
Guest: Tim Hauck, Condor Program Manager at the Peregrine Fund
Condor 1000 was recently spotted and tagged as a healthy bird in Zion National Park. This particular condor is special because it was the 1000th born since conservation efforts began in 1982. And it was the first to successfully fledge in Zion National Park. It’s now survived an entire year in the wild, which is another major feat. Condors are the world’s largest flying land bird, but they’re also at great danger in the wild. (Originally aired 11/25/2019)
How Bear Hibernation Might Work for Humans (34:29)
Guest: Heiko Jansen, PhD, Professor of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience at Washington State University in Pullman
Imagine if humans hibernated like bears? Science fiction has toyed with this idea for a long time – putting astronauts into hibernation could help them weather a years-long trip into space more easily. And they’d need less food and oxygen. Even if it wasn’t full hibernation, but just a way to slow some of the body’s systems down, that could be really useful in treating diseases like diabetes or cancer. (Originally aired 1/22/2020)
Teaching Slavery in the American Classroom (52:50)
Guest: Anthony Brown, Professor of Curriculum & Instruction in Social Studies Education at the University of Texas at Austin, Project Lead “Teaching Texas Slavery”
How come I never learned about Juneteenth in school? I saw so many people asking that question this last week as the nation paid closer attention to the June 19 holiday celebrating the end of slavery in America. It’s a common oversight in the curriculum, but also underscores how ill-equipped many teachers are to cover the history of slavery with their students.It’s not uncommon for well-meaning teachers who want to engage their students in the lesson to end up organizing role-playing activities like mock slave auctions or Monopoly-type games where winning means escaping slavery. But these simulations can be traumatic for students and are shown to be ineffective in helping children learn about slavery. (Originally aired 12/18/2019)
The London Mansion Where British Spies Eavesdropped on Nazi German Generals (1:11:54)
Guest: Jerome M. O’Connor, Historian, Journalist, Author of “The Hidden Places of World War II.”
During WWII, a luxurious three-story mansion on the outskirts of London was used to house dozens of high-ranking German generals captured in combat. Why should they be given such luxurious accommodations given the way they were treating Allied prisoners of war – not to mention the atrocities of the death camps? Well it wasn’t about pampering the generals. It was about spying on them. Everything in the mansion was wired to listen in on the generals. (Originally aired 1/14/20)
Is Your Online Reputation Worth Defending? (1:24:02)
Guest: Rich Matta, CEO of ReputationDefender
Have you Googled yourself lately? That first page of search results could affect your next job hunt. Public figures, like politicians, have a lot riding on what pops up when voters search them online. And corporations have whole teams dedicated to burnishing their image online. ReputationDefender is one of the leading tech companies in a growing industry that helps people and businesses manage their digital footprint. (Originally aired 02/25/20)
Kim Sheehan of the Univ of Oregon on woke washing. Tim Hauck of the Peregrine Fund on Operation Condor. Heiko Jansen of Washington State Univ in Pullman on hibernation. Anthony Brown of the University of Texas at Austin on teaching slavery. Jerome M. O’Connor, author of “The Hidden Places of World War II,” on spying on Germans. Rich Matta on ReputationDefender.
Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies on new skilled immigrant restrictions. Bryan Hancock, McKinsey & Company, on learning gaps. Helen Genova of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School on autism and mindfulness. Helen Pilcher on “Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth." Chen Li of Johns Hopkins University on robotic movement.
Here’s the Explanation – And Justification – For Trump’s Latest Immigration Restrictions (0:30)
Guest: Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies
With the unemployment rate in America higher than we’ve seen since the Great Depression, President Trump issued an order this week halting several temporary visa programs that bring foreign workers to the US. The Trump Administration says that will free up some 500,000 jobs for American citizens. But the US Chamber of Commerce and leaders in the tech industry say it’ll be harder for them to recover from the recession if they can’t hire foreign workers for certain highly-skilled jobs.
Low Income Students Have Struggled to Learn During COVID-19 Pandemic (22:39)
Guest: Bryan Hancock, Partner, McKinsey & Company
The end of the school year was a welcome relief for most parents I know who quickly grew weary of the pandemic homeschooling routine. Now researchers are trying to gauge the effects of those months of uneven remote learning on US children.
Mindfulness Training Shows Promise for Children With Autism (34:54)
Guest: Helen Genova, PhD, Research Assistant Professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Director of the Social Cognition and Neuroscience Laboratory at Kessler Foundation.
Children with autism often have extra trouble controlling their impulses and staying focused on a task. Mindful meditation and breathing exercises have been shown to improve both of those things. Can they help children with autism?
How Humans Are Altering Life on Earth (52:48)
Guest: Helen Pilcher, Science and Comedy Writer, Author of “Life Changing: How Humans Are Altering Life on Earth”
We just can’t help ourselves, really. Humans are pushing the evolution of living species into overdrive. Some of it is deliberate – like domesticating animals and modifying the genetics of plants. Some of it is accidental – like how our presence and pollution are prompting species to mate that wouldn’t have normally. Ever seen a Pizzly Bear? It’s a hybrid Polar/Grizzly. Not all of our influence on nature is bad, though. Humans are starting to use this power to bring species back from the brink of extinction.
Studying Cockroaches and Snakes to Help Robots (1:31:40)
Guest: Chen Li, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Principal Investigator of the Terradynamics Lab, Johns Hopkins University
Robots can do a lot of amazing things, but unfortunately, they’re pretty limited in movement. Your robot vacuum can’t climb up the couch to clean it, and a self-driving car can’t move over rubble to assist in a search and rescue operation. To make that happen someday, a team at Johns Hopkins University is studying cockroaches and snakes.
Eric Jensen of Brigham Young Univ on international criminal court. Brady Meixell of the Urban Institute on opportunity zones. Michael Springer of Harvard Medical School on object origins. David Meyer of the Univ of California-Irvine on TikTok activism. John Scott-Railton of Citizen Lab on dark basin. Roger Macfarlane of Brigham Young Univ on the herculaneum papyrus project.
Trump Administration Threatens International Criminal Court (0:32)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
President Trump, last week, issued an executive order threatening to sanction any people or organizations that cooperate with the International Criminal Court. If the President follows through with the threat, it could mean financial and legal trouble for Americans who work for – or with – the International Criminal Court. It could also be problem for the court’s own finances.
What Are Trump’s Opportunity Zones? (21:29)
Guest: Brady Meixell, Research Analyst, The Urban Institute
As the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matters protests draw the nation’s attention to inequalities facing black Americans, the Trump Administration is looking to extend a program it created to lure investment into impoverished minority neighborhoods that previous Presidents might have called “the ghetto.” Today, they’re dubbed Opportunity Zones and the 2017 tax reform created incentives to attract new investment.
A DNA Barcode on a Head of Lettuce? New Advances in Tracking Foodborne Illnesses (37:05)
Guest: Michael Springer, Associate Professor of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
Foodborne illnesses like E. Coli and Salmonella make 43 million Americans sick every year and kill thousands of people. When a cluster of infections pops up, pathologists race to track down the source and stop distribution of the contaminated food. But sometimes it takes a while to pinpoint the culprit, so we end up with a situation like we had in 2018 where all romaine lettuce was pulled from stores and restaurants until the experts could figure out exactly where the E. Coli was coming from that made hundreds of people sick. Researchers at Harvard are working on a way to put DNA “barcodes” on fresh produce so a contaminated item could be quickly traced right back to the processing plant or farm it came from.
Tik Tok Activism (52:41)
Guest: David Meyer, Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, University of California-Irvine
Thousands teenaged TikTok users and Korean pop fans claim to have reserved tickets to President Trump’s rally in Tulsa last weekend with no intention of attending. That may have contributed to a much smaller turnout than the Trump campaign hoped. Campaign staff had bragged more than a million people had RSVPed. In the end only 6,000 people showed up, driving days of media reports about how President Trump may be losing his base. The campaign, in turn, blamed the media for depressing turnout at the rally. But here’s the question we’re interested in – is this TikTok mobilization the birth of new form of political activism for young people – many of whom aren’t even old enough to vote?
Inside Hacking-For-Hire: An Illegal Industry on the Rise (1:08:50)
Guest: John Scott-Railton, Senior Researcher, Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School
There’s new evidence of a growing hacker-for-hire industry. Are you a company looking to silence critics? Hire a hacker to find embarrassing information on those critics. Do you need some dirt to defeat a political opponent? Same could work if you’re a spouse looking for an edge in messy divorce proceedings. A cybersecurity watchdog group based at the University of Toronto just published an extensive report about one company based in India suspected to be a massive hack-for-hire operation.
How to Read an Ancient Scroll Turned to Charcoal by a Volcano (1:29:59)
Guest: Roger Macfarlane, Professor of Classical Studies, Brigham Young University
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 79 AD, it buried Pompeii in hot gas and ash – you’ve heard of that Italian village, I’m sure. But the volcano also entombed a seaside village nearby that held a huge collection of papyrus scrolls. The scrolls carbonized instantly in their rolled-up form. How do you read an ancient scroll that’s been turned into a solid piece of charcoal?
Boundary Dispute Between India and China Escalates to Violence (0:33)
Guest: Eric Hyer, Associate Professor, Political Science, Brigham Young University, Author of “The Pragmatic Dragon: China’s Grand Strategy and Boundary Settlements”
China and India – the world’s two most populous countries, both of them with nuclear weapons – are in a tense standoff along the border they share. A week ago, fighting broke out between Chinese and Indian soldiers. This was reportedly hand-to-hand combat with rocks, metal rods and wooden clubs. Twenty Indian soldiers died. China has not said how many casualties it suffered. This is the first time their border dispute has turned deadly in forty years.
The Pandemic Compromises Workers’ Safety, but Democratizing Work Could Protect Them (16:12)
Guest: Hélène Landemore, Associate Professor of Political Science, Yale University, Author of “Open Democracy”
Throughout the pandemic, “essential workers,” including nurses, grocery clerks and delivery drivers, have had little choice but to keep working, regardless the risk. Some have received bonuses. Some have lost their jobs because they weren’t willing to endanger their own – or their family’s – health. What if those workers were actually in the room making decisions about working conditions, hazard pay and how a company should operate in a crisis? Might things have played out differently? The idea is known as “democratized work” and though it’s pretty radical from an American capitalist point of view, it’s worked in some other countries.
Why Does the US Government Have Its Own Global News Agency? (31:30)
Guest: Nina Jankowicz, Wilson Center Disinformation Fellow, Author of “How to Lose the Disinformation War”
Did you know that the United States government runs a news network that broadcasts on TV, radio and online? You probably won’t find it on your local cable listing, because it’s not really for American audiences. Voice of America is mainly for people in other countries and most of its content isn’t even in English. The Trump Administration has complained that Voice of America’s coverage is too critical of US policy and too favorable toward authoritarian regimes. And now President Trump has appointed a new CEO for the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and several other organizations with similar missions. The heads of those organizations all subsequently resigned or were dismissed. So, there’s concern the Trump Administration is planning to turn Voice of America into a propaganda arm of the government.
Food Crisis Because of COVID19 & World Food Program’s Response (52:45)
Guest: David Austin Is the Director of Strategic Partnerships, UN World Food Programme
COVID-19 has disrupted life as we know it across the globe, and its effects have been devastating. But in many places, the chances of getting sick from the virus are just the start. The UN World Food Programme estimates 130 million people worldwide could go hungry in 2020 because of the pandemic. That’s on top of 130 million people who were already facing acute food shortages.
Processing a Pandemic (1:11:22)
Guest: Susan Whitbourne, PhD, ABPP, Professor Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
We just heard about the pandemic’s effect on hunger globally. What about mental health? Will the stress of this all leave have a long-term effect especially on our brains?
No Slipping and Sliding with New Shoe Technology (1:24:39)
Guest: Sahab Babaee, MIT Research Scientist
Anyone who lives in a climate that gets much rain or snow knows sneakers are a risky option on a slippery day. Sahab Babaee has developed a coating that can stick to a shoe sole for better grip. It’s inspired by a kind of Japanese paper-cutting art.
Cultivating a Child’s Natural Observation Skills (1:31:35)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Eric Hyer of Brigham Young Univ on India and China. Hélène Landemore of Yale Univ on democratizing work. Nina Jankowicz of the Wilson Center Disinformation Fellow on Voice of America. David Austin, UN World Food Programme on the food crisis. Susan Whitbourne of the Univ of Massachusetts Amherst on processing a pandemic. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on natural observation skills.
What the US Supreme Court Did - and Did Not - Say About DACA (0:30)
Guest: Michael Olivas, Wm B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law (Retired), University of Houston Law Center, Author of “Perchance to Dream: A Legal and Political History of the DREAM Act and DACA”
Some 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, can continue to study and work without fear of deportation – for now. That’s the upshot of the Supreme Court’s ruling last week – a defeat for the Trump Administration. But the “sword of Damocles is still hanging over” recipients of DACA – the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The Palestinian Authority Plays a Game of Chicken (19:31)
Guest: Khaled Elgindy, Senior Fellow, Director of Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs at the Middle East Institute, Author of “Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, From Balfour to Trump”
Israel’s leaders appear to be moving ahead with a controversial plan to annex portions of the West Bank in the coming weeks. The Palestinians say the land is theirs, based on previous international agreements, and it's land they have counted on for an independent country they hope to establish. But Israel has the bigger army and the backing of President Trump. So the Palestinian Authority is hoping to stop the annexation by threatening to basically step aside and let Israel manage the West Bank on its own. It’s a game of chicken.
New Survey Identifies a Group of Women Swing Voters (39:00)
Guest: Lauren Leader Is the CEO of All in Together
A look now at a voting bloc that could prove key in the 2020 presidential election. “Guardian Women” is the name they’ve been given by the non-partisan research organization All In Together, which did a poll of American women in early May.
Wonder Woman as an Awkward Teenaged Refugee Confronting Injustice in America (52:49)
Guest: Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times Best-Selling Author of “Speak” and “Chains,” Author of “Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed”
Wonder Woman has become edgier and more empowered on screen over the years. The latest iteration of her story from DC Comics rolls the clock back to her teenage years –when she was just Diana Prince. She’s awkward, uprooted from home, living as a refugee in New York City. The new graphic novel is called “Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed” and it’s written by Laurie Halse Anderson –the best-selling author of young adult novels including “Speak” and “Chains.”
Can Cone Snail Insulin Treat Diabetes? (1:17:13)
Guest: Danny Chou, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Utah
Researchers at the University of Utah are currently developing a promising new type of insulin, one that will treat type 1 diabetes more quickly and effectively. The source of this new insulin? Cone snails.
Barriers to Science at the US/Mexico Border (1:30:13)
Guest: Myles Traphagen, Borderlands Program Coordinator at Wildlands Network
The US/Mexico border is a hot spot for geologists, biologists, archaeologists, and even social scientists to conduct research. But that work has become harder because of dangerous drug cartels and increasing militarization of the border. Myles Traphagen works for Wildlands Network in Tucson, Arizona where he coordinates their borderlands program. He co-authored some research recently surveying scientists about the challenges of doing work at the border.
Michael Olivas of Univ of Houston Law Center on the DACA ruling. Khaled Elgindy of the Middle East Institute on the Palestinian Authority's strategy. Lauren Leader of All In Together on guardian women. Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times best-selling author, on “Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed.” Danny Chou of Univ of Utah on snail insulin. Myles Traphagen of the Wildlands Network on science at the U.S./Mexico border.
Erica Armstrong Dunbar of Rutgers Univ on “Never Caught: The Washington’s Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave Ona Judge." William Darity of Duke Univ on reparations. Zack Wigal on Gamer's Outreach. Nicholas Rajkovich of University at Buffalo on hot cities.
Ona Judge: The Runaway Slave George Washington Pursued Til His Death (:00)
Guest: Erica Armstrong Dunbar, PhD, Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History, Rutgers University, Author of “Never Caught: The Washington’s Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge”
It’s Juneteenth, marking the end of slavery in America. So we’re listening back to a conversation about slavery and America’s first president – George Washington. He and Martha had an enslaved woman in their household named Ona Judge who slipped away from the Presidential mansion in Philadelphia one Saturday afternoon during dinner, never to return. George Washington pursued Ona Judge until the end of his life. But she died a free woman. (Originally aired 3/24/17)
Reparations for Slavery Becomes a 2020 Campaign Issue (52:47)
Guest: William Darity, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, Duke University
Many Americans are, for the first time, aware of Juneteenth. It commemorates the end of slavery in America and there’s a growing movement to make it a national holiday. We’re in a moment of increased attention on racism and racial inequality in the United States. Two thirds of American adults support the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. So what do we do about it? There are proposals to address systemic racism in policing, education, housing and banking. What about making reparations for slavery? That could mean cash payments to the descendants of enslaved people. Or it might mean specific housing, healthcare, scholarship or loan programs for black Americans. (Originally aired 4/28/19)
Bringing Games to Sick Kids (1:16:53)
Guest: Zack Wigal – Founder, Gamers Outreach
Children receiving treatment for serious medical conditions will sometimes spend extended periods in the hospital, which can be hard on their morale and their friendships. Playing video games can help. Zack Wigal is a gamer who runs a nonprofit that provides video game consoles to children’s hospitals. It’s called Gamers Outreach. (Originally aired 3/17/20)
Why Heat Waves Are Even Worse in Big Cities (1:28:48)
Guest: Nicholas Rajkovich, Assistant Professor of Architecture, University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning
It will officially be summer this weekend. But when the weather app on your phone says it’s 96 degrees, that may not be exactly true where you’re standing. If you’re under a tree in a park it’ll quite a bit cooler than standing in the middle of a parking lot at a strip mall. And cities, in general, tend to be several degrees hotter than outlying rural areas. As global temperatures get rise, some cities are rethinking how they deal with heat, including better design. (Originally aired 8/7/2019)
Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen of Brigham Young Univ on the 2020 Presidential election. Dominic Bedford of NASA on the Roman telescope. Fanny Pereire, Fine Art Coordinator, on art in movies. Ronald Levant on “The Tough Standard: The Hard Truths About Masculinity and Violence” Anthony Greenwald, Univ of Washington, on implicit bias.
What’s President Trump Got to Run On? (0:34)
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
The US Supreme Court ruled today that the Trump Administration cannot end DACA – the program that grants temporary status to undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. That makes twice this week alone that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has failed to deliver wins to President Trump. What will that mean for his re-election prospects in November?
NASA Names New Telescope After Dr. Nancy Grace Roman (21:58)
Guest: Dominic Bedford, Program Scientist for the Nancy Roman Telescope Project, NASA
NASA is preparing to send another high-powered telescope into space where it can peer deep into the universe without the distraction of light and gas from Earth’s atmosphere. You’ve probably heard of the Hubble telescope, which just celebrated 30 years up in orbit sending back some of the best images humans have ever seen of deep space. Well, this new telescope will be even more powerful and it has just been renamed in honor of the woman credited with making the Hubble telescope happen.
Who Decides What Art Goes in a Movie? (38:14)
Guest: Fanny Pereire, Fine Art Coordinator
Let’s take the 2018 heist film Ocean’s 8. Sandra Bullock plays the lead. They’re going to rob a set of diamonds from the neck of an attendee at the famous Metropolitan Art Museum’s annual gala. In addition to diamonds, there is fine art all over the place in this movie. On the walls of the Met, of course. And also the lavish loft of the lead thief’s ex-boyfriend, who is a shady art dealer named Claude who ends up in the middle of the investigation. That scene wouldn’t have worked without Fanny Pereire.
The Tough Standard of Masculinity (52:47)
Guest: Ronald Levant, Co-Author of “The Tough Standard: The Hard Truths About Masculinity and Violence”
To be a man, you’ve got to man up. Hide your emotion and rub some dirt in it. Show toughness and don’t do any sissy stuff. Psychologist Ronald Levant says American society has set an unrealistic – and frankly unhealthy – standard for men and boys. His new book explains where these ideas come from and how we can change them.
You’re Probably Biased (1:33:52)
Guest: Anthony Greenwald, Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington
All of us – whether we’re aware or not – are biased to some degree. What we’re biased against or towards and how intense that bias is comes from the way we were raised, our culture, experiences, and plenty of other sources. Combatting that bias could lead to a more racially equitable society. In fact, some police departments and companies have undergone implicit bias reduction training… but there’s some doubt as to how well these trainings actually work.
Clifford Rosky of the Univ of Utah on the LGBT ruling. RonNell Andersen Jones, Univ of Utah, on the Supreme Court. Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum on dinosaur diet. Michael Roe of NC State Univ on volcanic glass spray. Sam Payne of The Apple Seed. Noliwe Rooks of Cornell Univ on Juneteenth. James Nestor on “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art."
Landmark Supreme Court Ruling for LGBT Rights (0:32)
Guest: Clifford Rosky, Professor of Law, University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law
The US Supreme Court ruled this week that employers cannot fire a worker for being gay or transgender. Two conservatives - Justice Neil Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts – joined the court’s liberal minority to find that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBT individuals from workplace discrimination. First, what the ruling means for LGBT rights.
What Happened to the Supreme Court’s Conservative Majority? (11:04)
Guest: RonNell Andersen Jones, Professor of Law, SJ Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
Let’s look now at the politics of this Supreme Court decision. Why would a two conservative justices decide to vote in favor of gay and transgender worker rights?
Discovering a Dino’s Last Meal (28:14)
Guest: Caleb Brown, Paleontologist at Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada
What did dinosaurs eat? For the most part, we can only guess, based on the shape of a dinosaur fossil’s teeth and jaw, or traces of meals found in fossilized dinosaur poop. (Until preparing for this conversation, I did not know fossilized dino poop existed.) Paleontologists in Canada have found something even better – an entire preserved stomach of a dinosaur with its last inside.
A Volcanic Solution to a Blood-Sucking Problem (40:23)
Guest: Michael Roe, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Insect Toxicology and Physiological Genomics, NC State University
What would you guess is the deadliest animal in the world? It’s the mosquito. More than one million people die every year from mosquito-borne infection and disease – mainly malaria. But in sub-Saharan Africa where malaria is particularly rampant, mosquitoes are becoming resistant to pesticides. In a rather strange twist, researchers have found tiny shards of volcanic glass do the trick even better.
The Apple Seed (52:48)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam reflects on how much his father means to him as we approach Father's Day.
Juneteenth (1:03:28)
Guest: Noliwe Rooks, Professor of Africana Studies, Cornell University; Author of "Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education."
Target, Twitter, Best Buy, US Bank and Nike are all giving their employees this Friday off in celebration of Juneteenth. Target stores will stay open, but employees will receive time and a half for working the holiday.
Breathing for Health – It’s All About the Nose (1:18:48)
Guest: James Nestor, Journalist, Author of “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art”
It’s the kind of thing you take for granted until it’s gone. Today you will do it about 25,000 times and won’t give it a moment’s thought – unless you have a condition like asthma, in which case you probably think about breathing a lot. The rest of us would do well to spend more time thinking about it, because a lot of us are doing it wrong and suffering consequences without even realizing it. The breath you just took – was it through your mouth, or your nose?
Quinn Mecham of Brigham Young Univ on the Libyan civil war. Alejandro Soto-Gutiérrez, Univ of Pittsburgh, on mini-livers. Betsy Zorio of Save The Children on the 2020 Childhood Report. Steve Rubin on the WAVES Project. Shelley Warlow, Univ of California, San Diego, on addicted to hurt. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com on fantasy films.
A Crucial Moment in Libya’s Decade-Long War (0:31)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Libya has been embroiled in civil war for nearly a decade now – since the US and United Nations helped topple Libya’s long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Some recent developments have brought the conflict to a crucial moment.
Scientists Grow Mini Human Livers and Transplant Into Rats (23:50)
Guest: Alejandro Soto-Gutiérrez, Associate Professor of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh.
Organ transplants are tricky. For one thing, most are only possible when a registered donor has died and the waiting list to get one of those donations is very long. The ability to grow an organ in a lab – out of human cells – is the holy grail of transplant research. A team recently made a major step in that direction – they made a miniature human liver in a test tube and implanted it successfully in a rat.
It Takes a County to Raise a Child (37:04)
Guest: Betsy Zorio, VP of U.S. Programs and Advocacy, Save the Children
Where a child lives in America can be a matter of life or death. The nonprofit Save The Children has just released a ranking of every county in the country based on how well children thrive there. The disparities are enormous. A child growing up in Madison Parish, Louisiana is seven times more likely to die before the age of 18 than a child growing up in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Even within states, there’s a huge difference in life expectancy and other measures of child wellbeing from county to county.
The WAVES Project Helps Veterans With PTSD Through SCUBA-Diving (52:46)
Guest: Steve Rubin, President, WAVES Project
There are dozens of programs for wounded veterans that offer rehabilitation through outdoor recreation – skiing, rock climbing, horseback riding. A nonprofit we heard about recently called WAVES takes veterans underwater. SCUBA diving apparently has some therapeutic properties for both physical and psychological injuries.
The Brain’s Role in Wanting Something That Hurts (1:08:55)
Guest: Shelley Warlow, Postdoctoral Researcher of Neurosciences at University of California, San Diego
Many things people become addicted to are not always pleasant and may actually be painful. Why does that happen? Why would the brain drive you to want something that hurts? University of Michigan researchers have some new insight into this.
Artemis Fowl and (Much Better) Fantasy Films (1:24:14)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
A new fantasy film from Disney was supposed to have opened in theaters last August, but got delayed, mysteriously, which is never a good sign. And then it was to open in May, but the pandemic dashed those plans. So now it’s out on Disney+ and the reviews are not good. The film is Artemis Fowl.
Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute with an update on the economy. Allison Arieff of the San Francisco Bay Area Planning & Urban Research Association on tactical urbanization. Monica Bond of the University of Zürich on a giraffe social network. Nathan Lewis of Caltech on the artificial leaf. Alexander Lee of Rochester Univ on gender quotas in India. Ian Shoemaker of Virginia Tech on ANITA and parallel universes.
We’re Officially in a Recession. How Bad Will It Get? (0:30)
Guest: Josh Bivens, Director of Research, Economic Policy Institute
The US economy has lost nearly 20 million jobs just since February. We’ve been officially in a recession since then. But at the end of May the federal government announced a surprisingly positive sign – employers added 2.5 million jobs. That coincides with the incremental efforts to re-open in many states. So, what are the chances the economy will be back to pre-pandemic levels as quickly as it dropped off?
The Rise of Tactical Urbanization in Light of COVID-19 (19:45)
Guest: Allison Arieff, Urbanist and Editorial Director of San Francisco Bay Area Planning & Urban Research Association
Because of the pandemic, there are fewer cars on our streets. And some cities are even turning whole stretches of road completely over to pedestrians – at least temporarily. Oakland, California has closed more than seventy miles of streets to make safer access for cyclists and pedestrians. Will any of this stick when the pandemic is over?
Giraffe’s Social Network Shrinks When Coming in Contact With Humans (37:44)
Guest: Monica Bond, Research Associate at the University of Zürich, Wildlife Biologist, Biodiversity Activist & Principal Scientist for Wild Nature Institute
Humans the world over are keeping their distance from one another because of the coronavirus. Giraffes that live near humans also appear to be keeping their distance from each other – but not because of the virus. University of Zurich research associate Monica Bond is working to gauge the effect human contact has on the social networks of giraffes in Tanzania.
Creating Fuel From an Artificial Leaf (51:22)
Guest: Nathan Lewis, Professor of Chemistry, Caltech
Plants capture incoming sunlight and convert it into energy through photosynthesis. But they actually aren’t terribly efficient at it – plants only use 1% of the sunlight that hits them. What if humans could do it better? Take a lot more than 1% and and convert it into fuel to power our cars and planes? That idea has scientists racing to create the “artificial leaf.”
What Does a Gender Quota in India Tell Us About Equality Legislation? (1:08:25)
Guest: Alexander Lee, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Rochester
Gender quotas are sometimes implemented by various groups and governments as a means to have equal representation of both men and women in all parts of society. Research done in India however has provided surprising results into the impacts of these requirements on ethnic and socioeconomic groups.
Sorry, Parallel Universe, Antarctica’s Neutrinos Probably Have Another Explanation (1:25:03)
Guest: Ian Shoemaker, Theoretical Physicist, Center for Neutrino Physics, Virginia Tech
NASA scientists have discovered the existence of a parallel universe that’s backwards and upside down from our own. That’s what the viral headlines on social media claimed a few weeks back. But it was more a case of science fiction wishful thinking. The existence of a parallel universe is one of many theories scientists have put forward to explain a strange phenomenon documented by a NASA program studying cosmic rays in the Antarctic.
Proving Einstein Right: The Daring Expeditions That Changed How We Look at the Universe. (0:36)
Guest: S. James Gates, Jr., Theoretical Physicist, Brown Theoretical Physics Center Director, Co-Author of Proving Einstein Right: The Daring Expeditions That Changed How We Look at the Universe.
Scientists have just proven that Einstein’s theory of relativityy works, even for massive objects like stars. But a century ago, before Einstein was famous, he was just an academic with some intriguing ideas about gravity. Some adventurous astronomers thought he was on to something, though, so they set out to test his theory. To do it, they needed to take pictures of the stars during total solar eclipses. And to do that, they had to travel to Russia on the brink of war and deep into the Brazil’s Amazon jungles. Finally, in 1919, after eight years of failed attempts, astronomers captured the evidence they needed to prove Einstein was right. (Originally aired 10/16/2020)
Scientists Lured Fish Back to Dying Coral Reefs With Loudspeakers. (27:37)
Guest: Tim Gordon, Marine Biologist, PhD Student, University of Exeter
The world’s coral reefs are in dire straits. Extreme heat killed off half the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 and 2017. Those damaged areas of coral become like a ghost town. But if fish could be drawn back to the reef, their very presence could trigger other parts of the coral ecosystem to come back, too. Marine biologist Tim Gordon has struck on an ingenious strategy to lure fish to patches of dead coral. Playing recordings of what a healthy coral reef sounds like. Apparently fish dig it. (Originally aired 1/9/2020)
Your Kid Might Have a Good Reason to Whine (39:22)
Guest: Rose Sokol-Chang, PhD, Journal Publisher at the American Psychological Association
“How do I stop my kids from whining?” is one of the top questions parenting experts get. But Rose Sokol-Chang studied whining at Clark University and she says it’s actually an important part of a child’s social development. That it’s even a sign of love and affection parents should pay close attention to. (Originally aired 10/22/2019)
Return Ancestral Lands to Native Americans. Eureka, California Leads Out. (52:58)
Guest: Cutcha Risling Baldy - Assistant Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies, Humboldt State University
Statues of Christopher Columbus are among the monuments protesters have toppled around the US in the last few weeks. On Wednesday night, Native American activists brought down a statue of Columbus at the Minnesota State Capitol. What is the best process to address legacies of violence and racism in American history? (Originally aired 12/18/19)
Taking Beach Lifeguards for Granted (1:10:30)
Guest: B. Chris Brewster, President, Americas Region of the International Life Saving Federation
Hitting the beach this summer could be hit or miss depending on where you live and what the status of COVID-19 is in your community. The lifeguards keeping watch over your summer water fun are facing new challenges, too, as they train to save lives while also minimizing the risk they’ll catch the virus. Don’t worry, if you’re drowning, they’ll still come for you. That wasn’t always the case though. Beach lifeguarding’s only been a thing for the last 100 years or so. Who came running if you got caught in a riptide before that? (Originally aired 6/4/2019)
50th Anniversary of Apollo 12 (1:25:34)
Guest: Mike Joner, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University
The first astronauts ever to launch into orbit aboard a privately-built spacecraft are settling into the international space station. NASA says the SpaceX crew mission ushers in a “new era of spaceflight,” fundamental to plans for returning to the moon and then heading on to Mars. But not every mission to space marks a new era, not every astronaut gets to be the first to do something. So today, we’re going to pay tribute to the contributions of Apollo 12. They weren’t the first to walk on the moon. They were the 3rd and 4th. (Originally aired 11/18/2019)
S. James Gates of Brown Theoretical Physics Center on "Proving Einstein Right: The Daring Expeditions that Changed How We Look at the Universe." Tim Gordon of the Univ of Exeter on reef noise. Rose Sokol-Chang of the American Psychological Association on why kids whine. Cutcha Risling Baldy of Humboldt State Univ on native lands. B. Chris Brewster of the International Life Saving Federation on lifeguards. Mike Joner of Brigham Young Univ on Apollo 12.
Alex Vitale of Brooklyn College, on “The End of Policing.” Shervin Assari, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, on racism and health. Raffi Garcia of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on localized pay. Tom Clavin on “Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday and the Vendetta Ride from Hell.” Anne Marie Albano of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders on childhood anxiety.
Who Comes in an Emergency if a City Defunds Its Police (0:30)
Guest: Alex S. Vitale, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project, Brooklyn College, Author of “The End of Policing”
Protesters these last two weeks have, at times, chanted “Abolish the Police” or “Defund the Police.” The Minneapolis City Council has committed to dismantling the city’s police force. Politicians in other cities are now taking note of what’s long been considered a radical, unrealistic idea. Without police, who will respond in an emergency? You can’t just have no police and be safe, can you?
How Racism Contributes to a Shorter Life Expectancy (21:06)
Guest: Shervin Assari, MD, Associate Professor of Family Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
Lots of different health conditions can contribute to a shorter life expectancy. But what about racism? Black men and women don’t live as long as white people, and psychiatrist Shervin Assari’s research shows that is has everything to do with skin color.
More Remote Work Could Mean More Pay Adjusted for Where You Live, Not What You Do (35;48)
Guest: Raffi Garcia, Professor of Financing and Accounting, Lally School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Some tech companies – notably Facebook – have decided to let their employees keep working from home into the new year, to slow the spread of COVID-19. Remote work has turned out to be just fine for lots of people. But the catch with Facebook workers is that if they move out of Silicon Valley, their pay will be adjusted to reflect the cost of living in their new city. And since the Bay Area is among the priciest in the country, any move is like to result in lower pay. If this becomes a standard practice for companies with remote workers, what consequences might it have?
Tombstone and the Frontier’s Last Gasp of Lawlessness (52:50)
Guest: Tom Clavin, Author of “Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday and the Vendetta Ride From Hell”
Even if you don’t know the details, you’ve heard of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. It happened in Tombstone, Arizona – a morbidly perfect name for the site of the legendary shootout. October 1881. It made Wyatt Earp famous. Beyond that, does it matter? Or was it just another example of violence in a violent frontier town? Tom Clavin investigates in his new book, “Tombstone” – which is the third in a trilogy of best-sellers about famous frontier lawmen that also includes Wild Bill and Dodge City.
Taking Risks, Facing Anxiety (1:30:05)
Guest: Anne Marie Albano, PhD, ABPP, Professor of Medical Psychology, Director, Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders
American children are very anxious. Pandemics, natural disasters and political upheaval are stacked atop already stressful scenarios like making friends, achieving in school and being on social media. If you have one of these anxious kids, you might actually be making the problem worse.
During this reopening period of the pandemic, suddenly we all have to make a lot of difficult and new decisions. Should I let my kids hang out with their friends or play sports? When is it safe to go back to church? The gym? So many of the details have been left up to us as individuals to decide what’s safe and what’s not - that's causing conflict in communities, workplaces, and families.
Listener Story: Uncertain About When to Return to Church
Listener Story: Bringing Employees Back to Work Safely
Mediating Pandemic Conflict In Your Own Life
Guest: Emily DeSchweinitz Taylor, Mediator, Assistant Director of the Center for Peace & Conflict Resolution, BYU Law School, Author of Raising Mediators: How Smart Parents Use Mediation to Transform Sibling Conflict and Empower Their Children
Listener Story: Should We Finally Have a Wedding Reception?
Listener Story: A Profession Based in Touch
How are you working through the difficult decisions and conflicts that arise as communities reopen? Stories from listeners and advice from a professional conflict mediator.
Drew A. Harris of Thomas Jefferson Univ on what happens after flattening the curve. Eric Day of Virginia Tech on cicadas emerging. Dorian Lynskey, author of "The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984," on the 71st anniversary of 1984. Reopening stories. Darryl Seligman, Univ of Chicago, on a hydrogen iceberg in space. Kathleen Carley of Carnegie Mellon University on Twitter bots.
We Flattened the Curve (Or Did We?) So Now What? (0:30)
Guest: Drew A. Harris, DPM, MPH, Assistant Professor of Population Health, Thomas Jefferson University
As states have begun to reopen from pandemic restrictions over the last two weeks, a third of them have seen a rise in new COVID-19 cases. The rest have had their cases of COVID-19 remain steady or decline. What’s making the difference? Drew Harris is a pandemic and population health researcher at Thomas Jefferson University.
The Return of the Cicadas (22:14)
Guest: Eric Day, Entomologist at Virginia Tech
Soon, this will be the sound people hear if their windows at night in parts of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. It’ll be so loud they’ll have trouble hearing the TV. It’s the mating call of male cicadas. Hordes of them emerging from the ground all at once every dcade and a half or so. This summer happens to be the lucky year for a population of cicadas on a 17-year cycle.
Historical Context for George Orwell’s 1984 (36:01)
Guest: Dorian Lynskey, Journalist, Author of "The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984"
Big Brother, doublethink, 2+2=5. These are all terms that came from George Orwell’s novel 1984. Even if you’ve never read the book, you’ve probably heard some of this terminology in mainstream speech. That’s how much of an impact the story has had. It’s a little eerie how the plot reflects the surveillance, paranoia, and spread of misinformation that’s happening today. How did Orwell come up with this story when it was published 71 years ago?
Special Series: Navigating Disagreements as Communities Reopen (52:18)
Today we wrap up a series of conversations with listeners about how they’re making tough decisions during this uncertain reopening period of the pandemic. Things like, how often should I wear a mask? Should I let my kids play sports and hang out with friends? A lot of it has been left up to us, and that’s causing conflict in communities, families, and workplaces.
Listener Story: Should We Finally Have a Wedding Reception? (53:30)
Listener Story: A Profession Based on Touch. (1:05:26)
New Theory on Mysterious Space Object From 2017 (1:16:01)
Guest: Darryl Seligman, TC Chamberlin Fellow, Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago
A couple of years ago, astronomers caught a glimpse of a giant, cigar-shaped thing from outer space that jaywalking through our solar system. It was the first interstellar object ever seen passing through our own solar system. Some speculated it was an alien spaceship. Astrophysicist Darryl Seligman has developed a more plausible theory.
Twitter Bots Are Responsible for Most Tweets About COVID-19 (1:32:29)
Guest: Kathleen Carley, Professor of Societal Computing at Carnegie Mellon University, Director of the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems and Center for Informed Democracy & Social - Cybersecurity.
Of all the information floating around on social media since January about the COVID-19 pandemic, how much of it came from actual humans – that could be companies, news outlets, political campaigns or just your Aunt Lois? Probably all of it, right? What other choice is there – robots? Actually, yes, automated social media accounts – called bots - are very common on Twitter, especially. And get this – half of all the Twitter accounts discussing the COVID-19 pandemic appear to be bots.
How to Resolve Personal Conflicts During Uncertain Re-Opening (0:31)
Guest: Emily DeSchweinitz Taylor, Mediator, Assistant Director of the Center for Peace & Conflict Resolution, BYU Law School, Author of "Raising Mediators: How Smart Parents Use Mediation to Transform Sibling Conflict and Empower Their Children"
This week we’re speaking with listeners about conflicts they’re working through in this uncertain re-opening period of pandemic life. We spoke to an HR manager wondering at what point her company will have to insist workers return to the office. We heard about a church congregation divided over whether it’s safe to sing and worship together again without wearing masks – and whether people who don’t come back just yet are showing less faith. We have more conversations coming this week, but today we’re getting some practical tips on how to work through these conflicts.
Is Video Game Addiction as Common as We Think? (18:45)
Guest: Sarah Coyne, Professor of Human Development, Brigham Young University
How do video games affect kids? This question has long been debated and a source of anxiety for parents, but we’re one step closer to an answer. A team of researchers just completed a six-year study on video game addiction – the longest ever done of its kind.
New York’s Massive Project to Turn a Notorious Landfill Into a Nature Park (33:53)
Guest: Eloise Hirsh, Administrator of Freshkills Park in New York
For 50 years, Staten Island was the dumping ground for New York City’s trash. Today, that garbage dump is a nature park in the making. It’s called Freshkills Park and when it’s finished in another 15 years, it’ll be nearly three times the size of Central Park. How exactly do you turn a landfill full of rotting trash into a place people want to visit?
The Future of Work in America Is On-Demand, Work-From-Anywhere, Always-On (52:50)
Guest: Jeff Wald, Founder of WorkMarket, Author of “The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations
When the pandemic is over, will businesses bring employees back to the office or just keep them working at home. Will they rehire all the workers they laid off or bring them on as freelancers to do the same work? There are a lot of advantages for a company in having people work remotely and on-demand, rather than as permanent, full-time, in-office employees.
Can We 3-D Print a Nuclear Reactor Core? (1:10:24)
Guest: Kurt Terrani, Senior Staff Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
3-D printing is not just for hobbyists making plastic gadgets. It can be used to manufacture extremely durable, precisely designed parts of machines. At the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, researchers are using 3-D printing to create a more efficient nuclear reactor.
Reading From the Coretta Scott King Book Awards List (1:31:20)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Emily Taylor of BYU Law School on conflict resolution. Sarah Coyne of Brigham Young Univ on video game addiction. Eloise Hirsh on Freshkills Park. Jeff Wald of WorkMarket on “The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations." Kurt Terrani of Oak Ridge National Laboratory on a 3-D printed nuclear reactor. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting.
Joe Cohn of Foundation for Individual Rights in Education on Title IX changes. Shiwali Patel of the National Women’s Law Center on Title IX changes. Omar Wasow of Princeton Univ on protests. Margret Aldrich of Little Free Library on libraries becoming pantries. Reopening Stories. Frankie Urquhart of Schoenbar Middle School on wilderness survival exam. Ben Golliver of the Washington Post on NBA Disney World.
New Federal Rules on School Handling Sexual Misconduct - The Argument For (0:32)
Guest: Joe Cohn, Legislative & Policy Director, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
The US Department of Education recently issued new rules for how schools must investigate and discipline cases of sexual harassment and assault. This responsibility, that schools of all levels have, falls under a law called Title IX which prohibits sex discrimination. How that law applies to assault and harassment has been under a lot of scrutiny in recent years. The Obama Administration advised schools to ramp up investigations of sexual misconduct and threatened to withdraw federal funds from schools that failed to. The Trump Administration rescinded that advice and has now issued new rules that take effect in August.
New Rules on School Handling of Sexual Misconduct – The Argument Against (13:34)
Guest: Shiwali Patel, Senior Counsel and Director of Justice for Student Survivors, National Women’s Law Center
Let’s get an opposing view now on these new rules issued by the Trump Administration about how schools should handle claims of sexual assault or harassment. The national Women's Law Center is challenging the new rules in court.
Nonviolent Protests Are Historically More Efficient Than Violent Ones (26:40)
Guest: Omar Wasow, Professor of Politics, Princeton University.
Nonviolent protest – does it work? Understand what change comes of protests like this...ongoing. Largely peaceful. Moved beyond the violence. Protests have been sweeping the country following a string of deaths of black people, most recently the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN. These recent protests have stark similarity to those during the height of the Civil Rights movement in the late 1960s. But do these protests make any political change? What about protests that turn violent? The answer has a lot to do with media coverage.
Little Free Libraries Become Little Free Pantries During the Pandemic (43:21)
Guest: Margret Aldrich, Director of Communications at Little Free Library, Author of the Little Free Library Book
Little Free Library is the world-wide movement where people build book sharing boxes in their yards – they look like oversized birdhouses and there are thousands of them worldwide. Right now, many of those have converted into pantries offering free food and supplies instead of books.
Reopening Stories (52:14)
Today we begin a series of conversations throughout the week about how our listeners are navigating the conflicts that arise during the uncertain reopening period of the pandemic. So many of the details have been left up to us as individual to decide what’s safe and what’s not for ourselves and our families.
Listener Story: Uncertain About Returning to Church (53:27)
Listener Story: Bringing Employees Back to Work Safely (1:03:36)
Middle Schoolers in Alaska Take a Camping Trip Instead of a Final Exam (1:13:17)
Guest: Frankie Urquhart, Science Teacher, Schoenbar Middle School
For more than 40 years, 8th grade students at Schoenbar Middle School in Alaska have taken a different kind of end-of-year exam—a test of survival. The Coast Guard drops them off on an uninhabited island for two days with just a tarp, a sleeping bag and whatever basics they can fit into a 12-ounce metal coffee can. The youngsters eat what they can forage on the beach.
NBA at Disney (1:28:50)
Guest: Ben Golliver, NBA Writer for the Washington Post
Disney World in Florida will reopen in July to the public, and also, to professional basketball. The NBA has made a deal to have its top teams convene in a “bubble” at Disney World this summer to complete the season and crown a league champion. There will be no audience in the stands. NBA players, coaches and staff will all live on site.
The Complicated Relationship Between City Parks and Crime Rates (0:34)
Guest: Lincoln Larson, Assistant Professor of Human Dimensions, Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, North Carolina State University
If you have the choice between a park and an empty lot in your neighborhood, you’d choose a park, wouldn’t you? And if the choice was between a park or a business of some sort – you’d probably also choose the park. But somewhere in the back of your mind, would you be just a tiny bit worried that the park would become a magnet for drugs or homeless camping? A park can be a blessing or a curse for a neighborhood – depending on how well it’s designed and maintained. (Originally aired 8/7/2019)
Despite an Incredible History, the Future of Heart Disease Treatment Will Require Serious Work (16:55)
Guest: Haider Warraich, MD, Cardiologist and Clinical Researcher, Harvard University, Author of “State of the Heart”
Just a generation ago, having a heart attack was an automatic death sentence. Today, open heart surgery, pacemakers, stents and artificial valves make it possible for people with weak or damaged hearts to live long lives. Statins to prevent heart disease from cholesterol build-up are the most-prescribed medication in the country. And yet, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the US. And that’s true for both men and women. (Originally aired 9/9/2019)
Why Paid Family Leave Doesn’t Increase Gender Equality in the Workplace (35:51)
Guest: Professor Elena Patel, PhD
Some lawmakers and activists argue that paid family leave is a way to fix gender inequality in the work place because working mothers are able to spend time with their child and keep their job. But one study found that the opposite may be true. Paid family leave may actually increase the gender wage gap. (Originally aired 11/6/2019)
Who We Are With Dogs Is Who We Are as People (52:55)
Guest: Alexandra Horowitz, Senior Research Fellow, Dog Cognition Lab, Barnard College, Columbia University; Author of “Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond”
Euthanasia of dogs and cats has declined dramatically in the US over the last 40 years. That’s partly because better veterinary care is available and it’s become trendy to “rescue” a dog from a shelter. When the pandemic lockdown rules hit, many US shelters were emptied of dogs and cat because people wanted a companion in quarantine. You can bet that most of those new pets will get “fixed.” That’s another reason euthanasia is less common today. But dog researcher Alexandra Horowitz says there are some uncomfortable truths embedded in our willingness to make spay-neuter the default for pets. Horowitz directs the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College and wrote the New York Times best-seller “Inside of a Dog.” Her latest is “Our Dogs, Ourselves.” (Originally aired 9/5/2019)
Fake News Isn’t Just Misleading. It Can Create False Memories. (1:30:12)
Guest: Elizabeth F. Loftus, PhD, Is a Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science, Criminology, Law and Society; Cognitive Science; And Law at the University of California, Irvine
It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not anymore. Anything online can be faked to look legit. The pandemic and the protests against racial inequality are both great examples – misinformation is all over social media. And here’s a troubling fact – these fake news stories aren’t just misleading. They also have the potential to rewire your memory. (Originally aired 1/21/20)
Lincoln Larson of North Carolina State Univ on parks and safety. Haider Warraich, Harvard Univ, on heart disease. Elena Patel of Univ of Utah on family leave. Alexandra Horowitz of Columbia Univ on “Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond.” Elizabeth Loftus of the Univ of California, Irvine on fake memories.
Debby Irving, author of “Waking Up White,” on what whites need to know about racial equality. Ashley Harrington, Center for Responsible Lending on minority-owned businesses. Gillian Sandstrom, Univ of Essex, on missing strangers. Stacy Wolf of Princeton Univ on “Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America.” Kristen Wenz, global expert on human rights and development, on birth certificates.
How to Be Helpful in the Fight for Racial Equality (0:30)
Guest: Debby Irving, Racial Justice Educator, Author of “Waking Up White”
All four Minneapolis police officers on the scene when George Floyd was suffocated have now been arrested and charged with murder or aiding in the murder. Protests against racial inequality and police violence continue to fill streets across the country, with no sign of ending. We’re going to spend the next few minutes talking exploring how the color of your skin may be affecting your view on the protests.
Minority-Owned Businesses Do Not Receive as Much Aid Amid COVID19 Crisis (20:55)
Guest: Ashley Harrington, Federal Advocacy Director, Senior Counsel, Center for Responsible Lending
As part of the coronavirus relief package, the US government has been giving out special loans to help small businesses stay afloat and keep their employees. It’s called the Payment Protection Program. Lenders are supposed to give priority to underserved markets, including businesses owned by minorities, but new evidence shows that hasn’t happened.
The Benefits of Interacting With Strangers (35:58)
Guest: Gillian Sandstrom Professor of Psychology at the University of Essex in the UK
You know that moment of uncomfortable silence when it’s just you and one other person you don’t know? Like in the elevator or waiting for the dentist? Many of us will pull out our cell phone and pretend to do something rather than strike up a conversation with a stranger. But psychologist Gillian Sandstrom says we’re missing out when we do that – talking to new people actually makes us happier. And now with a pandemic going on, there are even fewer opportunities to do this.
America’s Enduring Love of Musical Theater, Explained (52:48)
Guest: Stacy Wolf, Professor in the Program in Theater in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, Author of “Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America”
This weekend was to be Broadway’s annual celebration of itself. But the 74th Annual Tony Awards were postponed indefinitely. Broadway has been shuttered for months because of the pandemic. The stay-at-home orders hit just as high schoolers around the country were about to go on stage with their spring musicals, as Broadway star Laura Benanti lamented on social media. She got a lot of response. Young performers posted their taped rehearsals. And their bedroom solos. Around the country, some community theaters have switched to streaming entire performances online. Because, the show must go on. Why are Americans so enamored of musical theater?
Lack of Birth Certificates Is a Global Human Rights Problem (1:31:42)
Guest: Kristen Wenz, Global Expert on Human Rights and Development. Watch Her TED Talk.
There are one billion people in the world who cannot prove their identity. They don’t have a driver license or an government issued ID card like you probably have. And they can’t get one because they don’t have any way to prove they are who they are because they have no birth certificate. There’s no official record of their existence or right to access any of the services a country might offer. What’s worse, most of the people in this bind are children.
Michael Sierra-Arévalo of Univ of Texas at Austin on police's use of force. Mark Mescher of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich on bee bites. Johann Klages of Alfred Wegener Institute on an ancient Antarctica forest. Sam Payne of The Apple Seed. Lewis Ziska of Columbia Univ on climate change and allergies. Michael Cooperson of UCLA on "Impostures: Fifty Rogues Tales Translated Fifty Ways.”
How Racism Pervades US Policing and What to Do About It (0:30)
Guest: Michael Sierra-Arévalo, Incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin
Curfews are in effect in cities across the country, hoping to quell the violence that has accompanied protests. People are in the streets demanding reform to how police use force and are held accountable when they kill unarmed black people. President Trump says governors and law enforcement need to “dominate” the protesters. Videos of police officers using tear gas, rubber bullets and batons on peaceful protesters have only inflamed tension.
Bumblebees Can Make Plants Bloom With Their Bite (20:47)
Guest: Mark Mescher, Professor of Biological Communication, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Nothing good comes of a bee sting. But what about a bee bite? Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich noticed bumblebees they study have a habit of biting the leaves of plants. Why? They wondered.
Antarctica Was Once a Rainforest (35:18)
Guest: Johann Klages, Marine Geologist, Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany
200 years ago this year, explorers first clapped eyes on Antarctica. The frozen, barren continent is the coldest place on earth. But that wasn’t always the case. Believe it or not, it was once a rainforest with trees and swamplands.
The Apple Seed (52:47)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne shares a story.
Climate Change Will Make Allergies Worse (1:04:22)
Guest: Lewis Ziska, PhD, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University
How’ve the seasonal allergies been in your family recently? If it seems like they’ve been worse – or gone on longer – than usual, you’re not imagining things. Climate change appears to be making the pollen problem worse.
Puns, Word Play and Slang Mark This Translation of Famous Arabic Stories (1:16:28)
Guest: Michael Cooperson, PhD, Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, UCLA, Translator of “Impostures: Fifty Rogues Tales Translated Fifty Ways”
Have you ever read a cartoon or watched a film that’s translated into English from another language and just didn’t get it? Humor, puns and other word play are notoriously tough to translate. An Arabic scholar at UCLA named Michael Cooperson is just out with a translation of a famously un-translatable collection of stories. The fifty stories were originally written in Arabic by an Iraqi poet who lived a thousand years ago and was legendary for his word tricks – like writing an essay that works if you read it forward and also if you read it backward.
Joel Selway of Brigham Young Univ on some democracies thriving during COVID-19. Deborah Himes of Brigham Young Univ on breast cancer communication. Evan Wiig, Community Alliance Family With Farmers on community supported agriculture. Mara Gordon of Cooper Medical School, Rowan Univ, on afternoon doctor visits. Dave Conlin of the National Park Service on their dive team. Sophia Choukas-Bradley, Univ of Pittsburgh, on social looks.
Why Some Well-Off Democracies Have Done Better Than Others in Pandemic Response (0:31)
Guest: Joel Selway, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University, Author of “Coalitions of the Wellbeing: How Electoral Rules and Ethnic Politics Shape Health Policy”
Why have some well-off democracies like the United States, the UK, France had much higher per-capita cases of COVID-19 and higher rates of death among people infected, compared to other well-off democracies like South Korea, Germany and New Zealand?
Better Understanding Cancer Risk Could Save Lives (19:48)
Guest: Deborah Himes, Professor of Nursing, Brigham Young University
Early detection has been the watchword in cancer prevention for decades, which is why mammograms, prostate exams and colonoscopies are a regular part of healthcare in middle age. Genetic testing offers an even more targeted way to detect cancer risk – and not just for the patient getting the test. If a member of your family has had genetic screening for a specific cancer, it’d be good for you to know the results because cancer runs in the genes of some families. That information is not often communicated though – so family members and their doctors don’t benefit from the results of a relative’s genetic test.
Community Supported Agriculture (38:56)
Guest: Evan Wiig, Director of Communications at the Community Alliance with Family Farmers
Americans are doing a lot less dining out because of the pandemic. As a result, farmers that normally sold their produce to restaurants have had to scramble for new customers. Some hope farmer’s markets can bridge the gap, but with social distancing and smaller crowds, that’s a risk. Others have turned to community support agriculture arrangements, or CSAs. An organization in California called the Community Alliance with Family Farmers has been helping farmers connect with new customers and set up CSAs to stay afloat during the pandemic.
Afternoon Doctor Appointments (52:48)
Guest: Dr. Mara Gordon, Family Physician and Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, Cooper Medical School, Rowan University
The next time you schedule a doctor’s appointment, you might want to make it for the morning. Turns out that if you go see a physician in the afternoon, you could get worse healthcare.
The Divers Who Watch Over the Underwater Resources at National Parks (1:09:32)
Guest: Dave Conlin, Chief of the Submerged Resources Center, National Park Service
The most iconic images of America’s National Parks – the ones on the posters and license plates - are aboveground. Well, okay, there are some caves in the mix. But the National Park Service also has a team dedicated to caring for resources that are underwater – kelp forests, coral reefs, sunken ships like the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor.
Measuring the Effect of Social Media on Body Image (1:29:50)
Guest: Sophia Choukas-Bradley, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Delaware
I cannot take a flattering selfie. Whatever the tricks are to get the right angle, lighting, facial expression, they escape me. But I see these other women online – young women especially – who look great in every picture. I wonder, is it because they’ve basically been posting photos to social media all of their lives? Or that they just put a lot more effort into making sure they look good in those photos?
President Trump Takes Aim at Social Media (0:33)
Guest: Kate Klonick, Assistant Professor of Law, St. John’s University School of Law
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” President Trump tweeted that ominous line on Friday morning in reference to protests turning violent in Minneapolis. He’s since said he didn’t know it was a phrase used by white supremacists during the Civil Rights movement. Regardless, Twitter determined that the President’s words violated its rules against “glorifying violence” and placed a warning on it. It was the first time Twitter’s done that on a tweet from President Trump. And days earlier, Twitter had placed a fact-checking notice on some of the President’s tweets about voting by mail. That too, was a first. So, on Friday, President Trump issued an executive order intending to punish social media sites he says unfairly target his free speech and other Republican voices.
New Method of Dehydrating Blood to Improve Shelf Life (19:49)
Guest: Jonathan Kopechek, Professor of Bioengineering, University of Louisville School of Engineering
If you’ve ever given blood, you’re probably now on the email distribution list for the organization you donated through and get frequent requests to come in and give again. That’s because a pint of blood expires after about six weeks in a refrigerator and so far there’s no alternative to donated human blood for treating a very sick person in need of a transfusion. If only freeze-drying were possible. Then blood could be stored at room temperature for much longer – just think how that could be helpful for war zones and even astronauts in space.
Former Art Forger Now Sells His Fakes as Reproductions (34:25)
Guest: Ken Perenyi, Art Forger, Author of “Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger”
For decades, until about 1998, American painter Ken Perenyi copied famous artists and passed his fakes off as the real thing. Some even ended up in fine art auction catalogs at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. They’re undoubtedly still hanging on the walls of galleries and art collectors around the world. But after the FBI came knocking, Perenyi decided to go legit. He still paints fakes, but he sells them as fakes – doesn’t try to pass them off as real. Which begs the question, why would anyone knowingly buy a fake?
Rewriting the Timeline of Indigenous History in America (52:48)
Guest: Sturt Manning, Professor of Archaeology, Cornell University
Pretty much everything we know about what was going on in North America before the British colonies were founded comes from the travelogues of European explorers like Christopher Columbus, Ponce De Leon, Jacques Cartier. Historians and archaeologists have used the reports of those explorers to piece together the history of indigenous people who were already in North America in the 1500 and 1600s. So, the problem here is that we’ve written the history of indigenous people through the lens of the colonizers. And now more scientific techniques – like carbon dating – are revealing just how wrong that history is.
Human Challenge Trials for the COVID-19 Vaccine (1:07:37)
Guest: Matthew Memoli, MD, Director of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases Clinical Studies Unit, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Would you be willing to get intentionally infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 if it would speed up development of a vaccine? An initiative called “1 Day Sooner” has already found 25,000 people willing to get sick for science. And crazy as it sounds, it’s not entirely unusual for healthy humans to be voluntarily infected with a virus in vaccine research. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has been doing it with influenza virus for about ten years.
Parent Previews (1:22:03)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Kirsten talks about movies that celebrate families.
Kate Klonick of St. John’s Univ School of Law on Twitter, Trump and Free Speech. Jonathan Kopechek of Univ of Louisville School of Engineering on dehydrating blood. Ken Perenyi on 30 years of being an art forger. Sturt Manning of Cornell Univ on indigenous timelines. Matthew Memoli of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on possible COVID-19 human testing. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com.
Penelope Phillips-Howard of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Khadija Osman of Live Right Ghana, Kofi Nyanteng and Darmin Mutenda of CouldYou? Cup on menstruation stigmitization. Kevin Maillard of Syracuse Univ on “Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story.” Bethanee Bemis of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History on Disneyfication. Susan Neiman of the Einstein Forum on “Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil.”
Menstrual Hygiene Remains a Major Health Concern in Africa. The Cup Is Helping. (0:34)
Guest: Penelope Phillips-Howard, Public Health Epidemiologist, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; Khadija Osman, Founder of Live Right Ghana; Kofi Nyanteng, Monitoring and Evaluating Specialist, CouldYou? Cup in Ghana; Darmin Mutenda, Menstrual Cup Educator, CouldYou? Cup in Mozambique
Every year at the end of May, global health organizations celebrate International Menstrual Hygiene Day. Now, I know menstruation isn’t something you’re supposed to talk about in polite company. But it literally affects half the people on the planet. One of the goals of Menstrual Hygiene Day is to end the stigma around periods by 2030. That stigma is part of what makes it hard for women and girls all over the world to manage their periods in a safe, effective way. In Africa, for example, the UN estimates one in ten girls miss school during menstruation. Programs simply haven’t found a way to get disposable pads and tampons into the hands of every woman and girl who needs them every single month. (Originally aired 2/27/2020)
The Story of Fry Bread Is the Story of American Indians (31:48)
Guest: Kevin Noble Maillard, Professor of Law, Syracuse University, Author of “Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story”
The steep toll COVID-19 has taken on the Navajo Nation highlights the long-standing inequities that continue to affect tribal communities. Many Navajos who live on the reservation lack access to indoor plumbing and safe drinking water. Higher rates of disease among Native Americans reflect centuries of being displaced from their ancestral lands, placed into government boarding schools, fed government issue foods. But “we’re still here” is the message of a book for children by native author Kevin Noble Maillard. (Originally aired 8/24/2019)
Walt Disney’s Shaping of American Ideals (50:48)
Guest: Bethanee Bemis, Museum Specialist in Political and Military History, Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Disney World will reopen in July, if Florida’s Governor gives the okay. But visitors will have to wear face masks and there will be no parades, fireworks or meet-and-greets with Mickey and his pals. Even so, Disney World is confident it can still be “the happiest place on earth” – perhaps the very thing pandemic-weary people need right now? (Originally aired 10/14/2019)
What America Can Learn From Germany’s Response to the Holocaust (1:12:33)
Guest: Susan Neiman, Director of the Einstein Forum and Author of “Learning From the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil.”
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody this week and ongoing protests – some of which have turned violent – clearly expose the racial fault lines in our country. Protesters say they’re fed up with empty promises as yet another unarmed black man is killed by a white police officer. And their critics ask why every incident involving a “bad apple” police officer is an excuse for bad behavior on the part of protesters? President Trump has called the protesters “thugs.” The truth is that America has not reckoned with its racist past of slavery, lynching, segregation, and discrimination. So what would it mean to “reckon” with that past? Philosopher Susan Neiman believes America could benefit from studying the way Germans have wrestled with the crimes of the Holocaust. (Originally aired 11/6/2019)
China Tightens Grip on Hong Kong (0:30)
Guest: Robert Daly, Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Wilson Center
China officially tightened its grip on Hong Kong. The country’s legislature just approved a plan that will give it the power to suppress any act that Chinese authorities deem a threat to national security. Throngs of Hong Kong citizens are taking to the streets – more than 360 protestors were arrested on Wednesday. This plan is a major shift from what Hong Kong was promised when China took it over from Britain in 1997. Is this the end of “one country, two systems”?
Symbiotic Relationship That Could Help Black Rhinos (19:16)
Guest: Roan Plotzm, Lecturer of Environmental Science, Victoria University in Melbourne
Black rhinos are critically endangered, largely due to poaching. Problem is, these rhinos have terrible eyesight, so they have a hard time seeing human predators before it’s too late. But there may be a surprising solution: the red-billed oxpecker. Pair this bird up with a rhino, and everybody wins. Well, except the poachers.
Jon the Robot Comedian (36:06)
Guest: Naomi Fitter, Assistant Professor of Robotics at Oregon State University
There’s a new and noteworthy stand-up comedian on the West Coast. His name is Jon the Robot. Yes, he’s a real robot. And he just finished a 32-show tour. But it’s not just for laughs – the robot comedian is part of an official Oregon State University study on human/computer interaction.
Using Film to Start the Conversations We Need to Have About Race (50:40)
Guest: Greg Garrett, PhD, Theologian, Professor of English, Baylor University, Author of “A Long, Long Way: Hollywood’s Unfinished Journey From Racism to Reconciliation”
Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. Both unarmed black men killed by white men. Both incidents came under scrutiny only after cellphone video was made public. Ahmaud Arbery was jogging in a Georgia neighborhood when he was shot dead by a retired law enforcement officer and his son, who have now been charged with murder. George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody this week. Bystander video of the arrest shows Floyd on the ground, struggling to breathe as a white police officer kneels on Floyd’s neck for several minutes. The officers involved have been fired and the FBI is investigating. Video is a powerful tool to prompt scrutiny, spark outrage and, hopefully, bring change. Baylor University theologian and film scholar Greg Garrett has spent the last several years using film of a different sort to prompt scrutiny, outrage and, hopefully – change – to the way white Americans think about race.
Using Math to Describe Beethoven’s Cultural Influence (1:28:32)
Guest: Juyong Park, Associate Professor of Culture Technology at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. The composer was such a powerhouse that many musicians claim Beethoven is one of the most influential classical composers. But there’s no way to actually say for sure that he was the most influential. Until now. A computer has given Beethoven that very title. Well, at least, when it comes to piano compositions.
Robert Daly of the Kissinger Institute on China and Hong Kong. Roan Plotz, Victoria Univ in Melbourne, on Rhinos and Oxpeckers. Naomi Fitter of Oregon State Univ on Jon the Robot. Greg Garrett of Baylor Univ, author of “A Long, Long Way: Hollywood’s Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation.” Juyong Park of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology on Beethoven, math, & music.
Martin VanTrieste of Civica RX on generic drugs. Isaac Weiner of The Ohio State Univ and Amy DeRogatis of Michigan State on the American Religious Sounds Project. Vince Beiser on "The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization." Heide Lukosch of the Univ of Canterbury on games and disasters. Andy Davis of Univ of Georgia on monarch butterflies in captivity. Cheedy Jaja of the Univ of South Carolina on trauma and healthcare workers.
Pandemic Spurs Push to Solve Generic Drug Shortages (0:30)
Guest: Martin VanTrieste, President and CEO, Civica RX
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated a problem that US hospitals have been facing for years: periodically, they run out of basic injectable drugs for treating critically-ill patients, things like sedatives and antibiotics. And when they run out, they run out. There’s none to be had and nowhere to get them because the drugs are generic and the key components are almost all made in other countries, like India. If the one plant that makes the drug’s active ingredient goes down for some reason, poof, there goes the global supply of that drug. So last week, the US Department of Health and Human services made a huge – historically huge – grant to a group of companies and nonprofits to start manufacturing those critical generic drugs here in the US.
Capturing the Sound of Religion (17:47)
Guest: Isaac Weiner, Associate Professor of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University and Co-Director of the American Religious Sounds Project; Amy DeRogatis, Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State and Co-Director of ARSP.
Churches are beginning to reopen around the country. But what will that worship be like, if masks and social distancing are required? What about the hugs and handshakes and congregational singing that are so much a part of church? During the isolation of this pandemic, religious experience has looked different. Felt different. Sounded different. Catholics in Milwaukee banged pots and pans along with the ringing of church bells on Easter Sunday. The American Religious Sounds Project has been tracking the sound of religion during the pandemic.
Sand Is an Important Resource and We Are Running Out of It (34:11)
Guest: Vince Beiser, Journalist and Author of "The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization"
Sand isn’t just a nuisance in your sandals and swimsuit. It’s a critical ingredient in your life. Just take a look around you. Roads, sidewalks, buildings, windows – all require sand. So does your phone and computer. So that’s surprising to realize. But an even bigger surprise, for me, is the fact that the world is running out of sand. How can that be possible?
How Video Games Can Help Prepare for and Respond to Disasters (50:39)
Guest: Heide Lukosch, PhD, Associate Professor of Applied Immersive Gaming, University of Canterbury
100,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the United States and that number is projected to exceed 110,000 by mid-June. That forecast is based on statistical models using lots of different data like past infection rates and demographics. But fundamentally, those models can only guess how humans will behave in a pandemic – will they stay home? Will they social distance? Video games could help take out some of the guesswork.
Releasing Captive-Born Monarch Butterflies Could Be Really Bad (1:06:25)
Guest: Andy Davis, Assistant Research Scientist, Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia
Monarch butterflies are struggling – fewer and fewer are making it to the end of their yearly migration. And it’s really worrying conservationists. Many enthusiasts have rallied to save the beautiful orange and black butterfly by breeding their own and releasing them into the wild. This may sound like a great way to help boost population numbers, but it could actually be more harmful than helpful. Ecology professor Andy Davis has found that monarchs raised in captivity fare worse than those born in the wild.
How Do We Care for Healthcare Workers? (1:24:25)
Guest: Cheedy Jaja, PhD, Associate Professor, College of Nursing, University of South Carolina
The doctors, nurses and EMTs on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic are among those most at-risk for catching the virus. They’re also at high risk of psychological trauma, says nurse and psychiatric care provider Cheedy Jaja. He’s a professor of nursing at the University of South Carolina and a former frontline healthcare worker during the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
Eric Jensen of Brigham Young Univ on space race. Bonnie Tsui on "Why We Swim." Tim Jackson, Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, on ecological economies. Wendy Greene of Drexel Univ and the Washington and Lee Univ School of Law on hair discrimination. Brenda Barnette of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services on pet panic. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on books with military families.
First Astronauts to Launch From US Soil in a Decade (0:30)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
If weather cooperates, American astronauts will launch into space from US soil on Wednesday afternoon. The last time that happened was nearly ten years ago with the final space shuttle launch. The same astronaut who piloted that shuttle mission, Doug Hurley, is also scheduled to command Wednesday’s flight to the International Space Station.
Humans Don’t Swim by Instinct, So Why Are We Drawn to the Water? (19:33)
Guest: Bonnie Tsui, Journalist, Swimmer, Author of "Why We Swim"
Where I’m from, Memorial Day is the official start of swimming season and around the country public pools are opening, with extra precautions to cope with COVID-19, of course. Unlike most land mammals, humans are not born knowing how to swim. We have to be taught. Whereas elephants, dogs, cats - even bats – swim instinctively. So why, then, are humans so drawn to the water?
Rethinking Constant Growth Economic Model (33:06)
Guest: Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development, University of Surry, Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity and Author of "Prosperity Without Growth"
We’ve seen a dramatic decrease in carbon emissions since the pandemic hit. But it’s come at a steep price – a crashing economy. So is that what it comes down to? We have to choose between the planet and the economy? Sustainable development professor Tim Jackson says there’s a third choice: an economy that doesn’t grow.
The Movement to Ban Hair Discrimination (50:42)
Guest: Wendy Greene, Professor of Law at Drexel University, Francis Lewis Scholar in Residence at Washington and Lee University School of Law.
Many black women and men across the country face a difficult choice: change their hair, or lose out on the job. Or a spot on the sports team. Or the chance to walk at graduation. But the movement to make this kind of discrimination illegal is quickly gaining traction. In the last couple months alone, four states have banned hair discrimination. That brings the total to seven, and it’s all been in the last year.
Animal Adoptions Are Way Up Because of COVID-19. That’s Good and Bad (1:12:04)
Guest: Brenda Barnette, General Manager of the Los Angeles City Department of Animal Services
Animal shelters across the country have experienced a surge in people fostering and adopting pets during the pandemic. But what happens when those new pet owners go back to work or school? Shelters are bracing for the possibility that many of those animals will be returned – which would be a tragic outcome for the pets and their people.
Books Featuring Military Families (1:27:46)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Rachel Wadham shares some books that about military families.
Col. Karen Lloyd of Veteran’s History Project on preserving Veterans' memories. Timothy McMahon of DNA Operations, Department of Defense, on identifying service members. Kenneth Foote of Univ of Connecticut on memorializing violence and tragedy. Magdalena and Nathaniel Newman on "Normal: A Mother and Her Beautiful Son." Mozziyar Etemadi of Northwestern Medicine on breast cancer detection.
Preserving Veterans’ Memories
Guest: Col. Karen D. Lloyd, Retired US Army, Director of Veteran’s History Project
Earlier this month marked the 75th anniversary of V-E Day, when Nazi Germany surrendered, and World War II effectively ended in Europe. US Navy Commander Ed Godwin remembers going ashore in Liverpool, England when the announcement was made that the war in Europe had ended. Commander Godwin’s story is archived in the Veterans History Project at the United States Library of Congress. Families, schools and nonprofits can submit audio and written recordings of veterans from all of America’s conflicts, past and present. (Originally aired 11/12/2018)
DNA Helps Identify Service Members Missing in Action from WWII to Today
Guest: Timothy McMahon, Director of DNA Operations, Department of Defense
Americans are gathering at gravesites to honor those who died in military service to the country. But some servicemembers who made that ultimate sacrifice have never come home to be properly buried and mourned by their families. The Department of Defense has an entire office dedicated to bringing that closure to families using DNA analysis. The office has identified the remains of servicemembers missing in action all the way back to World War II. (Originally aired 1/16/2020)
Should We Memorialize Violence?
Guest: Kenneth Foote, PhD, Professor of Historical Geography, University of Connecticut, Author of “Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy”
Why is it that, after a tragedy, we build a memorial at the site? Maybe it starts as a makeshift monument – a pile of flowers, cards, stuffed animals and candles. Sometimes it evolves into something more formal where a community chooses to permanently memorialize a traumatic event like a mass shooting or terrorist attack. In the aftermath of a tragedy, there is always a tension between wanting to remember and wanting to forget. (Originally aired 11/13/2017)
"I’m Not Normal and Neither Are You." Life With Treacher Collins Syndrome
Guest: Magdalena and Nathaniel Newman, Authors of "Normal: A Mother and Her Beautiful Son"
The book for young readers called Wonder by RJ Palacio–and the movie based on it –gave people a better understanding of Treacher Collins syndrome. It’s a genetic condition that causes severe facial deformities like Auggie has in Wonder. Nathaniel Newman is sometimes called “the real life Auggie,” because he has Treacher Collins, too, but that’s pretty much where the similarities stop. Nathaniel and his mother Magda tell their story in a memoir called Normal: A Mother and Her Beautiful Son. (Originally aired 1/30/2020)
Using A.I. to Improve Breast Cancer Detection
Guest: Mozziyar Etemadi, MD, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Northwestern University, Physician at Northwestern Medicine
Tens of millions of women in the US get a mammogram each year, because it remains the best way we have to catch breast cancer early. But it’s far from fool-proof. The American Cancer Society says mammograms miss one out of every five breast cancers. And on the flip side, half of women getting a yearly mammogram will end up with a false alarm diagnosis over a 10-year period. Could artificially intelligent software do a better job than human doctors analyzing mammograms? (Originally aired 1/30/2020)
Bill Sullivan of Indiana Univ School of Medicine on “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are.” Dr. Mary Prunicki of Stanford Univ on wildfires and children's health.docx. Eti Ben-Simon of Univ of California on sleep and anxiety. Adam Berinsky of MIT Political Experiments Research Lab on media bias. Peter Carlson, author of “Junius and Albert’s Adventures in the Confederacy,” on slave auctions.
Genes, Germs and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are (0:36)
Guest: Bill Sullivan, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Author of “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are.”
Almost everything we think we know about ourselves is wrong, says Bill Sullivan. “All of us like to think that we march to the beat of our own drum. But science has revealed that the rhythm is played by percussionists we can’t see with the naked eye. We march through life believing that we’re the drummer – but the shocking evidence reveals this is an illusion. The truth is that there are hidden forces orchestrating our each and every move.” (Originally aired 8/1/19)
New Study Shows Impact of Wildfire Smoke on Children’s Immune Systems (35:06)
Guest: Mary Prunicki, PhD, MD., Asthma and Pollution Expert, Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, Stanford University
We’re entering wildfire season. National fire officials predict the Pacific Northwest could have be hit worse this year because of unusually warm, dry conditions. While we can’t control if it rains, we can set off intentional fires to prevent larger, more intense fires from igniting. The idea is to reduce the amount of burnable “fuel” that builds up in a forest so future fires won’t be so damaging. “Prescribed burns” are controversial, though, because they sometimes get out of control. And because, where there’s fire, there’s smoke, which is dangerous to breathe. (Originally aired 8/13/2019)
Feeling Anxious? Get More Deep Sleep. (50:42)
Guest: Eti Ben-Simon, Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Center for Human Sleep Science, University of California, Berkeley
Have you felt anxious today? How well did you sleep last night? The two are so connected that when researchers at the Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley took 18 perfectly healthy adults and forced them to stay awake all night, the next day, half of the poor souls registered anxiety levels high enough they’d normally trigger a clinical diagnoses of anxiety disorder. (Originally aired 1/7/20)
How Partisan News Sways the Public (1:02:02)
Guest: Adam Berinsky, MIT Professor of Political Science, Director of MIT Political Experiments Research Lab
We’re living in a very politically polarized time in America – Democrats are more firmly Democrat and Republicans are more firmly Republican. And often the news media gets some of the blame for that: cable TV and the internet make it possible to get your news only from sources that align with your political views. So which comes first? Do people choose a biased news outlet because they like its slant? Or is the news media making us more politically polarized? (Originally aired 9/17/2019)
Historic Slave Auction Infiltrated by Northern Reporter (1:19:36)
Guest: Peter Carlson, Author of “Junius and Albert’s Adventures in the Confederacy”
One hundred and sixty-one years ago – in March of 1859 – a wealthy planter who’d squandered his fortune planned an auction to sell all of the enslaved people on his Georgia plantation. This was two years before the Civil War broke out. A newspaper reporter from the North got wind of the auction and made the risky decision to go undercover as a buyer. The story he came back with outraged the world. (Originally aired 3/19/19)
Renee Knake Jefferson of University of Houston Law Center on “Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court." Ken Goddard of the US Fish and Wildlife Services on coral reef forensics. Jerry Chow of IBM on quantum computers. Danielle Ofri of Bellevue Hospital on “When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error.” Karalyn Joseph, C.A.S.T. founder on Neurodiverse Theater. Clinton Wright of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke on stroke awareness.
Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court (0:31)
Guest: Renee Jefferson, JD, Professor of Law and Joanne and Larry Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics, University of Houston Law Center, Coauthor of “Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court”
One third of America’s Supreme Court justices are women - and if you only saw that number, you might be impressed. But look back over the court’s entire history: there have been 114 justices in all, and only four have been women: Justices Ginsburg, Kagan and Sotomayor who are currently on the bench, and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who retired in 2006. She was the first woman ever nominated to the US Supreme Court – that was in 1981 by President Reagan. Why didn’t any president nominate a woman before then? Would it have made any difference, in the scheme of things?
Coral Reef CSI (22:16)
Guest: Ken Goddard, Founder and Director, National Forensics Laboratory, US Fish and Wildlife Services
What’s a forensic scientist to do with an underwater crime scene? Crime scene tape won’t work. Placing those little markers on the ground to identify clues. Yeah, good luck. Can you even lift fingerprints off of something that’s been underwater? I don’t know. But there’s a whole field of forensic science developing around these questions to help protect endangered habitats in the ocean – like coral reefs.
Computing in the Quantum Realm (32:38)
Guest: Jerry Chow, Senior Manager, Quantum Systems Technology, IBM
The computer in your pocket (I’m talking about your smartphone) is well beyond what computers were capable of a few decades ago and getting more powerful. Maybe you’ve heard of supercomputers that harness the processing power of lots and lots of computers to be able to crunch huge amounts of data faster? Well, beyond that, are quantum computers that could go millions of times faster than traditional computers. IBM, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Amazon and a bunch of startup companies are all in the race to develop quantum computers.
A Doctor Confronts the Problem of Medical Errors in America (50:36)
Guest: Danielle Ofri, MD, Primary Care Physician at Bellevue Hospital, Clinical Professor of Medicine at NYU, Author of “When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error”
By some estimates, medical errors are so common in the US that they kill the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of people every day. Just imagine a passenger plane crashing every single day in America. The outcry and investigations would be enormous. Lots of us would probably never fly. So how can that many people be dying of medical errors right under our noses?
Community Theater for Neurodiverse Performers and Audiences (1:17:35)
Guest: Karalyn Joseph, Harvard University Student, Founder and Director of the Community of Actors Sharing in Theatre (C.A.S.T.).
As a high school junior, Karalyn Joseph started a community theater program for people with disabilities. Today, Jospeh is a junior at Harvard, studying theater and neuroscience and she continues to direct the C.A.S.T. Theatre group in her Pennsylvania hometown.
Stroke Risk During COVID-19 Pandemic (1:27:42)
Guest: Clinton B. Wright, M.D., M.S., Director of the Division of Clinical Research, NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
During the COVID -19 pandemic, many hospitals have reported seeing fewer stroke patients. That’s alarming because it suggests people may be not going to the hospital out of fear of catching the coronavirus. But getting help fast is crucial to increasing chances of survival from stroke. Furthermore, doctors are also reporting stroke-related complications in young COVID-19 patients.
Another Inspector General Gets the Boot (0:31)
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
In the last six weeks, President Trump has removed the inspectors general of the Intelligence Community, the Defense Department, Health and Human Services and, most recently, the State Department. In each case, the independent watchdogs had either been critical of the President and his allies or were caught in political crossfire.
US Military v. COVID-19 (20:36)
Guest: Chuck Hagel, Former Secretary of Defense, Former US Senator from Nebraska Senator
According to the Pentagon, more than 7,000 active duty and civilian members of the US military have been diagnosed with COVID-19 during the pandemic. How might that affect the military’s ability to respond to an attack? Should we be worried that our adversaries will take advantage of the pandemic to strike while we’re down?
Chessboxing is the Ultimate Brain vs. Brawn Sport (37:22)
Guest: Matt Thomas, Founder of @BrawlforaCause, Former Chessboxing World Champion, Captain of Team USA
I can’t think of two past-times more different than boxing and playing chess. But somehow, they’re combined in the aptly named chessboxing.
The Apple Seed (50:42)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne salutes the 2020 high school graduates.
New Fossil of Spinosaurus Tail Tells a Tale (1:02:00)
Guest: Nizar Ibrahim, Palentologist, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Detroit Mercy
In the age of dinosaurs, most were land-dwellers. A few were airborne and their descendants are still with us today in the form of birds. But it’s long been thought that none of the dinosaurs were aquatic. Now paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim at the University of Detroit Mercy has uncovered evidence that at least one dinosaur was actually a very good swimmer.
Mossville: A Lost to Industrial Pollution (1:17:25)
Guest: Erica Jackson, Former Mossville Resident; Destinee Jones, Former Mossville Resident; Alex Glustrom, Filmmaker, “Mossville: When Great Trees Fall”
Many communities in America have an industrial plant nearby. Few have as many, per capita, as tiny Mossville, Louisiana. “The first time I visited Mossville, I cried,” says Monique Harden, an environmental justice attorney featured in the new documentary Mossville: When Great Trees Fall. “You’ve got 14 industrial facilities where there’s tons of leaks, lots of fugitive emissions and tremendous potential for releases every day. The facilities are operating as though it was not a community, as though there weren’t children, as though there weren’t homes where people slept. In parts of the country that are tucked away, this is what industrialization looks like.” Mossville has all but disappeared in recent years as chemical plants have expanded. The documentary about it is screening virtually with independent movie theaters and will air on PBS at the end of May.
Ryan Vogel of Utah Valley Univ on IGs and Flynn. Chuck Hagel, Former Nebraska Senator (R), on military v coronavirus. Matt Thomas, Chessboxing World Champion, on the sport of chessboxing. Sam Payne of The Apple Seed. Nizar Ibrahim of the Univ of Detroit Mercy on the aquatic Spinosaurus. Erica Jackson and Destinee Jones, former Mossville residents and Alex Glustrom, filmmaker, on “Mossville: When Great Trees Fall.”
Damian Roland of University of Leicester on kids and COVID-19. Joel Sartore, National Geographic photographer, on Photo Ark. Jayne Fonash of the National Association for College Admission Counseling on standardized testing. Jeffery Janis of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center on medicinal leeches. Scott Snyder of The Council on Foreign Relations on South Korea and COVID-19. Thomas Kim and Vanesscia Cresci of the California Rural Indian Health Board on COVID-19 in native communities.
What We Know – And What We Still Don’t – About Kids and COVID-19 (0:31)
Guest: Damian Roland, Pediatric Emergency Physician, Honorary Associate Professor at University of Leicester, Contributor to dontforgetthebubbles.com
What do we know at this point about how COVID-19 affects kids? The vast majority of serious cases worldwide have been adults, though maybe you’ve heard the reports of a mysterious illness doctors are seeing in children that maybe be linked to the coronavirus.
Photographer’s Intimate Portraits of 10,000 Species and Counting (17:16)
Guest: Joel Sartore, Creator of the Photo Ark, National Geographic Photographer.
Many of the most threatened creatures on the planet – those on a path to extinction – are found only in the care of humans. They’re in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries and number about 15,000 species in all. National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore is on a mission to photograph every single one of them portrait-style. He’s just hit 10,000. That’s a lot of photoshoots with wild animals and insects. How do you even make a grasshopper or a frog or a bison stand still for a closeup?
Will We Have Standardized Tests After COVID-19? (33:28)
Guest: Jayne Caflin Fonash, President of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
The pandemic has cheated the Class of 2020 out of their high school graduation ceremony, but the Class of 2021 is getting a little pandemic bonus: many schools – including Harvard, Cornell and all California state universities - are waiving the requirement that next year’s applicants have to take the SAT or ACT. Even before the pandemic, more than a thousand colleges had made the standardized tests optional for applicants. And now the largest membership organizations of college admissions professionals in the country says this is a good time to reassess whether the ACT and SAT still make sense.
Leeches Are Still Used in Modern Hospitals (50:41)
Guest: Jeffery Janis, Reconstructive Surgeon at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
Imagine you’ve just had reconstructive surgery to reattach a finger or graft some skin onto a badly burned part of your body, and in comes a nurse with a medical device to help your wound heal. You look at the tray and it’s a vial of greenish, black leeches. That’s right, blood-sucking worms are officially-sanctioned for medical treatment by the Food and Drug Administration.
How South Korea Stopped COVID-19 (1:08:41)
Guest: Scott Snyder, Senior Fellow for Korea Studies and Director of the Program on US-Korea Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The United States and South Korea both had their first case of COVID-19 the week of January 20th. But the two countries took very different approaches to the pandemic, leading to a much, much higher infection and death rate from COVID-19 in the United States. What did South Korea do differently?
COVID19 Is Heavily Affecting Native Communities (1:26:54)
Guest: Thomas J. Kim, Internal Medicine Physician and Medical Director for the California Rural Indian Health Board; Vanesscia Cresci, Director of Research and Public Health, California Rural Indian Health Board.
The Navajo Nation now has the highest per-capita coronavirus infection rate in the country – even more than New York and New Jersey. More than 4,000 members of the Navajo Nation have tested positive for COVID-19 and 160 have died. California’s tribal communities, by contrast, have fared far better, with just 85 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Why the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Not Good Business for Hospitals (0:31)
Guest: Vivian Ho, PhD, Professor of Economics at Rice University, Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine
If there’s such a thing as a boom time for hospitals and doctors, you’d think a global health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic would be it. And yet, the American Hospital Association says hospitals are losing an estimated $50 billion a month right now. More than 100,000 hospital employees lost their jobs last month in the US.
Preserving the Iñapari Language (18:07)
Guest: Chris Rogers, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Brigham Young University
The most spoken language in the world is English. Next comes Mandarin Chinese. Then Hindi. One of the least-spoken languages in the world? Iñapari. It’s from Peru. One of literally thousands of languages on the verge of disappearing. Chris Rogers captured that audio. He’s a professor of linguistics at BYU who went to Peru to document and preserve the Iñapari language.
The Sony PlayStation 3: The World’s Cheapest Supercomputer (31:48)
Guest: Gaurav Khanna, Professor of Physics, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
With one Playstation, you can play some video games. But with hundreds of Playstations, you can look inside a blackhole. That’s what Gaurav Khanna did. He’s a professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Back in the early 2000s, Professor Khanna didn’t have the funding for blackhole research, so he turned to a cheaper option: connecting Playstation 3's to create his own supercomputer. And it’s still being used today.
Why Men Are Starting to Knit (50:38)
Guest: Louis Boria, Knitwear Designer, Brooklyn Boy Knits
My grandma was a great knitter and tried to teach me, but I didn’t have the patience for it. I always figured I’d take up a hobby like that when I’m old. That’s the stereotype, of course. Louis Boria has upended that with his Brooklyn-based knitting business and advocacy efforts, which include men’s knitting circles.
Bees Practice Social Distancing When Infected With Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (1:07:00)
Guest: Adam Dolezal, Professor of Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The best way to prevent from getting infected by a virus is to keep your distance. We’ve all been getting an education in that during the pandemic. Meanwhile, scientists have discovered that honeybees know about social distancing, too, and use it to prevent viruses from spreading in their hives.
Invasive “Murder Hornets” Spread North America—Should We Be Worried? (1:24:37)
Guest: Chris Looney, Ph.D., Entomologist, Washington State Department of Agriculture
We just heard about honeybees social distancing to prevent the spread of a virus in the hive. But now America’s bee population faces a new threat. A giant hornet native to Asia has been discovered in the Pacific Northwest. It’s been nicknamed the “murder hornet.” How scared should you be?
Vivian Ho of Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine on struggling hospitals. Chris Rogers of Brigham Young Univ on saving Iñapari. Gaurav Khanna of Univ of Massachusetts, Dartmouth on Playstation supercomputers. Louis Boria of Brooklyn Boy Knits on men who knit. Adam Dolezal, Univ of Illinois on bees & social distancing. Chris Looney of Washington State Department of Agriculture on the murder hornet.
UTS: Faith to Fight Gang Violence (0:36)
Guest: Rev. Eugene F. Rivers, III, Activist, Co-Founder of the Boston TenPoint Coalition.
Boston has experienced an increase in shootings during the coronavirus pandemic. A week ago, a coalition of ministers joined Boston’s police commissioner in an urgent call to double down on the city’s long-running anti-violence programs that target young people at risk of gang activity. The pandemic is exacerbating chronic economic and social issues linked to historic racial inequities. Reverend Eugene Rivers was at that press conference and was one of the original architects of the “TenPoint Plan to Combat Black-on-Black Violence” in Boston, which was implemented by religious leaders in the 1990s and led to such a big drop in murders that it’s been called “The Boston Miracle.” The plan is still in effect today. (Originally aired 7/9/2018)
Diss on Millennial Coworkers All You Want, but Don’t “Okay Boomer” to a Boomer (18:38)
Guest: Elizabeth Tippett, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Oregon
If you’ve been tempted, during yet another Zoom conference call, to wisecrack about that one older colleague who just can’t figure out how to mute him or herself at the right time, well it’s a good thing you held your tongue. A strange quirk of the law that means a younger employee who teases an older coworker with something like “OK Boomer” could face an age discrimination charge, but an older worker is free to diss on younger workers without legal consequences. (Originally aired 12/4/19)
After 16 Years in Prison, Sean Pica Reformed His Life and Now Helps Others Do the Same (30:38)
Guest: Sean Pica, Executive Director of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison
When Sean Pica was 16, he murdered a man and went to prison. He spent the next 16 years behind bars – including New York’s notorious Sing Sing Prison. Along the way, he earned a college degree. And he says that is the reason he’s free today, when the majority of people in prison end up back behind bars after their release. (Originally aired 10/1/2019)
How the Fight Against ISIS Changed Warfare (51:34)
Guest: Dana Pittard, Retired U.S. Army Major General; Wes Bryant, Retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant, Co-Authors of “Hunting the Caliphate: America’s War on ISIS and the Dawn of the Strike Cell”
Military and intelligence officials in the US and Europe have expressed concern that the COVID-19 pandemic will give ISIS an opportunity for resurgence in the Middle East. While the terror group no longer controls any physical territory, it continues to actively recruit followers and endorse violent attacks. Today the Islamic State – or ISIS – is a violent band of extremists plotting terror attacks and stoking fears in Iraq and Syria. But five years ago, it was a surprisingly powerful army that seemed to come out of nowhere to capture huge swaths of territory, including major Iraqi cities. US Army Major General Dana Pittard and US Air Force Master Sergeant Wes Bryant were key figures in the US-led effort to recapture that territory. But success required rethinking how America fights. (Originally aired 8/15/19)
When Play Is Serious Business (1:29:02)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
For all the parents out there who’ve been feeling guilty – or maybe just concerned – about their kids’ play-to-work ratio during these forced months of homeschool, this conversation is for you. Children’s librarian and development expert Rachel Wadham says play the best kind of learning. (Originally aired 11/13/19)
Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, Boston TenPoint Coalition, on Boston Violence. Elizabeth Tippett of Univ of Oregon on the use of "OK Boomer". Sean Pica of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison on prison rehab. Dana Pittard, retired U.S. Army Major General and Wes Bryant, retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant, on “Hunting the Caliphate: America’s War on ISIS and the Dawn of the Strike Cell." Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio on playtime.
Live-Streamed Supreme Court Arguments Offers Clues to a Long-Running Mystery (0:31)
Guest: RonNell Andersen Jones, Lee E. Teitelbaum Endowed Professor of Law, University of Utah
The US Supreme Court wrapped up two weeks of live-streamed arguments on Wednesday. Justices and lawyers all dialed in to speak by phone. Anyone who wanted could listen to the audio live. Both are firsts for the nation’s highest court and led to some surprising moments. Like when a toilet could be heard flushing. Was it one of the Supreme Court justices? We’ll probably never know. On a more serious note, the notoriously silent Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been positively chatty throughout these phone conference sessions. What’s up with that?
Pulitzers Posthumously Honor Groundbreaking Investigative Reporter Ida B. Wells (19:50)
Guest: Michelle Duster, Author, Speaker, Professor, Columbia College Chicago
Nearly a century after her death, Ida B Wells has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation “for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching.”
Music Festivals Are Moving to Minecraft (37:12)
Guest: Max Schramp, Marketing Lead, Open Pit
The band American Football had a concert about a month ago. . . but not in real life, because of social distancing. It was in Minecraft – the video game. Thousands of people attended and the concert raised a bunch of money for COVID-19 charities.
The Hilarious World of Depression: Come for the Laughs, Stay for Honest Insight (50:37)
Guest: John Moe, Host and Creator of "The Hilarious World of Depression" Podcast and Book
A person with depression talking to other depressed people about depression does not sound like the kind of podcast that would find an audience. But if some of the people talking about their depression on the podcast are either famous or really funny – preferably both – you’ve got a hit.
Free Family Dinner With Homework Help From Teachers. It’s the Homework Diner. (1:28:44)
Guest: Deanna Creighton Cook Organizer of the Homework Diner Program in Albuquerque, NM.
Were these normal times and schools in session, there would be free family dinners happening in middle school cafeterias around the country, billed as “Homework Diners.” Parents come with their kids. Teachers sit alongside offering homework help. Volunteers serve a hot meal. Deanna Creighton Cook developed the Homework Diner concept for own kids’ school in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
RonNell Andersen Jones of Univ of Utah on the Supreme Court working remotely. Michelle Duster of Columbia College Chicago on the legacy of Ida B Wells. Max Schramp of Open Pit on Minecraft music festivals. John Moe on "The Hilarious World of Depression." Deanna Creighton Cook of the Homework Diner program.
Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen of Brigham Young Univ on pandemic freedom. William Kelly of California State Univ on ego and nightmares. Barbara Andraka-Christou, Univ of Central Florida on the coronavirus and the opioid crisis. Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli of Northeastern Univ on predicting mood disorders. Daniel Markovits of Yale Univ on the meritocracy trap. Sharon Doty, Univ of Washington on superfund plants.
How the Pandemic Is Testing American Ideas of Freedom and Individuality (0:29)
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
State capitols and city government buildings across the country have become the site of protests against pandemic stay-at-home and mask-wearing orders. Some of the protests have resulted in physical confrontation. Others have featured protesters armed with guns. A month ago, President Trump egged on the protests with his Twitter feed.
What’s the Purpose of Nightmares? (21:13)
Guest: William Kelly, Associate Professor of Psychology, California State University, Bakersfield
I’m lucky to not have nightmares too often, but when I do, they’re a pretty obvious response to a daytime stress I’m having. Like the recurring one where I’m supposed to be doing this show, but I can’t get the microphone to work and I have no idea what the interview is about and I can’t stop stumbling over my words. Typical work-stress nightmare. But suppose nightmares aren’t just a reflection of daytime anxiety. What if nightmares are the mind’s way of teaching itself new skills like a sort of twisted exercise routine?
COVID-19 Pandemic’s Small Silver Lining for People Seeking Treatment for Opioid Addiction (32:15)
Guest: Barbara Andraka-Christou, Assistant Professor of Health Management and Informatics, University of Central Florida, Author of "The Opioid Fix"
The pandemic has offered a surprise silver-lining for people in need of treatment for opioid addiction. Social distancing rules have prompted the Trump Administration to relax some of the rules around when and how a patient can receive Suboxone and Methadone in what’s known as “medication assisted treatment” for opioid use disorder. Advocates say this kind of treatment is the nation’s best hope for ending the epidemic of opioid overdose in America. These new pandemic-related rules could be the breakthrough advocates have been hoping for.
Patterns in the Brain That Can Predict Mental Illness (50:43)
Guest: Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, Professor of Psychology, Northeastern University
Mental health disorders are taking a serious toll on young people. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among US teenagers. Northeastern University psychology researcher Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli has found a way to help doctors and parents predict the path of a mood disorder long before a child becomes a teenager in crisis.
How “The American Dream” Traps Both Winners and Losers (1:07:22)
Guest: Daniel Markovits, Professor of Law, Yale University, Author of “The Meritocracy Trap”
Who wouldn’t want to live in a society where anyone can succeed in life if they have the talent and hard work to make it happen? That’s the essence of The American Dream and generations of Americans did rise up on their own merits – as opposed to how wealthy or connected their parents were. But the opportunities to succeed through hard work have narrowed significantly in America of late. And those who do find their way to elite status often find themselves locked in a grinding work schedule that makes them wonder if was all worth it.
Using Plants to Clean Up Superfund Sites (1:24:58)
Guest: Sharon Doty, Professor in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington
There are more than a thousand locations around the country that are highly polluted with hazardous waste. They’re called superfund sites, and they pose a dangerous threat to human health if they contaminate surrounding water or agricultural areas. But these sites are really difficult and expensive to clean up. That’s where Sharon Doty steps in. She’s a professor of environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington, and she’s found an unconventional way to cleanse contaminated areas: poplar trees.
Elizabeth McNichol, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, on state funding in the pandemic. Gregory Chamitoff of Texas A&M Univ, on astronaut isolation. Steven Murawski of Univ of South Florida on Deepwater Horizon. Carney Nasser of Michigan State University on captive tigers. Erika Rickard of The Pew Charitable Trusts on debt collection and courts. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio on STEM-themed books.
State Revenues Have Fallen Off a Cliff, Massive Budget Cuts Loom Without Federal Help (0:31)
Guest: Elizabeth McNichol, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Democrats in the US House of Representatives are pressing for another pandemic relief package that would include as much as $700 billion for states, cities and towns facing budget crises. But Senate Republican leaders and President Trump say the proposal is a ploy to bail out states led by Democrats that spent too much before the pandemic. The National Governors Association – which consists of both Democrats and Republicans – has urged Congress to send assistance to states, regardless of politics.
What Tips Do Astronauts Have for Self-Isolating? (15:20)
Guest: Gregory Chamitoff, Former NASA Astronaut, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M University
If any profession is familiar with isolation and social distancing, it’s astronauts who spend months in confined quarters on the International Space Station. We wanted to know what that’s like and if it compares at all to the isolation so many people are enduring on Earth right now.
Deepwater Horizon Spill 10 Years Ago Is Still Affecting the Gulf Ecosystem (34:25)
Guest: Steven Murawski, Marine Ecologist, University of South Florida, Director of the Center for Integrated Analysis and Modeling of Gulf Ecosystems
Ten years ago, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers, injuring 17 and triggering a well blowout that gushed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, nonstop for nearly three months. Scientists are still trying to figure what effect that had on marine life. What effect it’s still having, a decade on.
The US Loopholes That Allows Captive Tigers to Proliferate in America (50:42)
Guest: Carney Anne Nasser, Director, Animal Welfare Clinic, Michigan State University College of Law
Roy Horn, who was one-half of America’s most famous tiger magic act Siegfried and Roy, died of coronavirus over the weekend. In 2003, Horn was nearly mauled to death on stage by one of the duo’s famed Royal White Tigers. Their Las Vegas act helped to perpetuate the myth that white tigers are an exotic subspecies, when, in fact, all the result of in-breeding in captivity. They and other captive tigers are so plentiful in the United States, they now far outnumber tigers actually found in the wild, all because two loopholes in US law that allowed people to breed and sell tigers with very little oversight for nearly 20 years.
How Debt Collectors Are Transforming the Business of State Courts (1:11:04)
Guest: Erika Rickard, Project Director, Civil Legal System Modernization Initiative, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Lawsuits going after consumers for outstanding debt have come to dominate state civil courts in recent years. Part of that is because Americans keep going further into debt. But it’s also because of the rise of the “debt-buying” industry and the fact that state courts are not designed to deal with the realities of debt claims.
How to Steer Your Kids Toward Science Books They’ll Love (1:28:02)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Rachel talks about STEM-themed books.
Quinn Mecham of Brigham Young Univ on climate change migration. Sara Berman of AccessLex Institute Center for Legal Education Excellence on lowering the bar for lawyers. Joseph Silk of Johns Hopkins University on a curved universe. Nguyen Phan Que Mai, author of “The Mountains Sing,” on the Vietnam War. James Tabery, Univ of Utah, on triage ethics.
Climate Change Likely to Spur Mass Migration in Coming Decades (0:32)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
One of the reasons disease outbreaks like the current coronavirus are becoming more common and more dangerous is climate change. Here’s the connection: animals and insects that carry these diseases are sensitive to changes in temperature and climate – if their typical habitat gets too hot or dry, they’ll move elsewhere in search of food, which brings new opportunity to encounter – and infect – humans. Well, it also turns out humans are sensitive to temperature, too. A report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week suggests that billions of people will be on the move in search of more habitable climate as temperatures continue to rise over the coming decades.
Lowering the Bar for Lawyers? (21:13)
Guest: Sara Berman, Director of Programs for Academic and Bar Success, AccessLex Institute Center for Legal Education Excellence
Passing the bar exam is the final hurdle between a law school graduate and a new career. It’s a notoriously difficult test that takes months of preparation and many people don’t pass on the first try. But the class of 2020 will not have a chance to take the bar exam this summer, because of the pandemic. Some states are postponing the test. Utah recently became the first to completely waive the bar exam requirement for this year’s grads, which some previous graduates say is unfair: “If they had to suffer, everyone should suffer.” Others say this just proves the bar exam is draconian and ought to be eliminated permanently. All of which has us wondering – what is the point of the bar exam? And why is the industry so worried about one class of law school graduates not being able to start practicing right away? It’s not like they’re nurses heading to the front lines of the pandemic.
The Shape of the Universe (35:15)
Guest: Joseph Silk, Homewood Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University
I’m going to be honest, thinking about the universe too much kind of freaks me out. It’s dark, cold, and goes on forever in all directions. But my understanding of the universe could be totally wrong. Just like how we realized the earth wasn’t flat, some researchers are now thinking the same thing about the universe. It could be curved. Yeah, try to wrap your mind around that one.
“The Mountains Sing”: Trauma, Resilience and the Legacy of War in Vietnam (50:41)
Guest: Nguyen Phan Que Mai, Author of “The Mountains Sing”
The Vietnam War ended 45 years ago. At that time, American troops had already withdrawn from Vietnam, but April 30, 1975 was the day Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese. American civilians, diplomats and South Vietnamese who’d supported the US in the war scrambled to evacuate on one of the helicopters leaving the embassy compound. Most of the books and movies about the Vietnam War we’re familiar with, tell the story of the war from the perspective of America and its allies. Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s new novel is the rare exception. It tracks the effects of war on four generations of a family in North Vietnam, where the conflict was called “the Resistance War against America to Save the Nation.” The novel, which is called, “The Mountains Sing,” draws from the real experiences of Que Mai’s family.
How to Decide Who to Treat During a Pandemic (1:29:49)
Guest: Jim Tabery, PhD, Associate Professor in the University of Utah Department of Philosophy and the University of Utah School of Medicine’s Program in Medical Ethics and Humanities.
Hospitals faced with a crush of COVID-19 and a limited supply of ventilators to treat the sickest patients have been forced to make difficult decisions about who gets one and who doesn’t, which could be interpreted as hospitals deciding who lives and who dies.
Chuck Hoskin, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, on tribes suing for COVID-19 funds. Farina King of Northeastern State Univ on the Navajo nation during the pandemic. Simone Policano on Invisible Hands Deliver. Bradley Rickard of Cornell University on wasted produce. Sam Payne from The Apple Seed. Kharis Templeman of Stanford Univ on mask diplomacy. Anna Fifield of The Washington Post on Kim Jong Un.
Cherokee Nation and Other Tribes Sue for Pandemic Relief Funds (0:33)
Guest: Chuck Hoskin, Jr. Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
The pandemic has been particularly devastating for Native American tribes that were already struggling economically and now have some of the highest infection rates in the country. Congress allocated $8 billion in aid for tribal governments, but that money has been stalled because of a dispute over whether some for-profit businesses that serve tribal villages in Alaska should receive any of the funds. On Tuesday, the US treasury Department said it will start distributing some of the pandemic relief money to tribes will a lawsuit over the Alaska Native corporations plays out.
Navajo Nation’s Pandemic Suffering Underscores Lingering Harms of Colonialism (11:01)
Guest: Farina King, PhD, Citizen of Navajo Nation, Assistant Professor of History and Affiliate of Cherokee and Indigenous Studies, Northeastern State University, Oklahoma
The Navajo Nation which includes portions of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 infection in the country.
“Invisible Hands” Bring Groceries to At-Risk People in New York (25:21)
Guest: Simone Policano, Actor, Film Producer, Co-Founder of Invisible Hands
New York City has been under some of the strictest quarantine rules in the country, allowing people to leave their homes only for essentials like medicine, groceries and occasional exercise. But people at high risk for COVID-19 are urged not to leave home at all. Enter Invisible Hands – a brand new nonprofit that recruits volunteers to grocery shop for housebound people.
Why Are Farmers Throwing Out Their Crops? (36:11)
Guest: Bradley Rickard, Professor of Food and Agriculture Economics at Cornell University
There’s a frustrating disconnect in America’s food system right now – food banks are struggling to meet demand, while farmers are forced to dump their produce and milk for lack of a place to sell it. The US Department of Agriculture is trying to get a program up and running to compensate farmers for their pandemic-related losses and purchase some of the excess food so it can be distributed to people in need. Why did it take the federal government to step in and bridge that gap?
The Apple Seed (50:42)
Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam talks about a kid who took his parents car to go and buy a Lamborghini in California.
Taiwan’s Mask Diplomacy (1:01:09)
Guest: Kharis Templeman, Advisor to the Newly-Launched Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific at The Hoover Institution, Former Program Manager of the Taiwan Democracy and Security Project, Stanford University.
Taiwan is being admired for its quick and effective response to COVID-19. With a population of 23-million, the island has had only 439 cases of the disease and just six deaths. That’s pretty incredible – especially considering Taiwan’s proximity to mainland China. So, Taiwan is taking advantage of international admiration to boost its status on the global stage – even donating millions of masks to hard-hit countries and circulating the hashtag “TaiwanCanHelp.”But China is not happy about Taiwan’s “mask diplomacy.”
Who Would Replace North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in the Event of His Untimely Death? (1:16:42)
Guest: Anna Fifield, Beijing Bureau Chief, the Washington Post, Author of “The Great Successor
Kim Jong Un is not dead. The North Korean dictator had recently missed an important national holiday and been absent from the public eye for several weeks, prompting rampant speculation that he’d died. But North Korean state media put those rumors to rest with video evidence of Kim Jong Un presiding over the opening of a fertilizer factory on Saturday. Rumors about North Korea’s leader fly easily, in part because the regime is so secretive. But also because there’s no clear successor in line to replace him.
Carrie Lukas of Independent Women’s Forum on Childcare during COVID-19. Lyle Fearnley, Singapore University of Technology and Design, on wet markets. Ulrich Mayr of the University of Oregon on generous elders. Joyce Ong of Rutgers University on atom bombs and whale sharks. Greg Phillips, University of California, San Diego, on criminals vs. COVID-19. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com on escape movies.
The US Economy Can’t Restart Without More Child Care Options (0:31)
Guest: Carrie Lukas, President, Independent Women’s Forum
State and local officials across the country are eager to get people back to work, to get the economy up and running. But most schools will not reopen until at least next fall. How will parents go back to work if their kids aren’t in school? Or if the summer camps and daycare programs they rely on are slow to open and have to admit fewer children because of social distancing requirements?
Why Closing Wet Markets Could Be a Big Mistake (17:08)
Guest: Lyle Fearnley, Anthropology Professor, Singapore University of Technology and Design
Scientists believe COVID-19 may have originated from bats sold in a Chinese wet market. It’s still uncertain, but many have called for the closure of these markets, including prominent US coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci. But other experts like Lyle Fearnley say closing wet markets would not only be extremely difficult, but also a mistake with far-reaching consequences.
Why Are So Many Elderly People Generous? (32:28)
Guest: Ulrich Mayr, Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon.
Most of the Americans who’ve died from COVID-19 were over the age of 65. We’ve known for months that this disease is especially deadly to older Americans, and that’s prompted some interesting debate about how much the US economy ought to suffer in order to save the lives of senior citizens. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick – who is 70 years old – fanned the flames of this debate with an appearance on Fox News in late March. Whether or not it’s moral to ask older Americans to risk death for the sake of the economy, the fact is that older people are more generous in general.
Studying Whale Sharks With Help From Atomic Bomb Fallout (50:40)
Guest: Joyce Ong, Fish Biologist, Postdoctoral Researcher, Rutgers University
The whale shark is the largest fish in the sea – it can grow to be nearly as long as a semi-trailer. And they’re endangered, but scientists aren’t entirely sure how to help, because, until now, we haven’t known how long whale sharks live.
Criminals vs. The Corona Virus (1:04:40)
Guest: Greg Phillips, PhD Candidate, San Diego and Herb York Dissertation Fellow With the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California
Criminal gangs in Brazil, El Salvador and Mexico have been enforcing pandemic curfews. The Taliban, Hezbollah and al Qaeda affiliates are behaving like public health agencies in areas they control – providing COVID-19 testing, educating people about handwashing, distributing food. What kind of upside-down world is this where the bad guys are acting like the good guys?
Movies to Cope With Cabin Fever (1:20:15)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
So many spring breaks and vacation plans cancelled because of the pandemic. So many of us feeling cooped up. To save us from cabin fever, Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com offers a list of movies great for a mental escape: Muppet Treasure Island; Up; The Man from Snowy River; Ford v. Ferrari.
Punishing China for the Pandemic
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
President Trump doubled down on blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic during a televised townhall on Fox News Sunday night. The President and his allies want to punish China for alleged failures.
Video Conferencing Is Taking a Toll on Us
Guest: Andrew Franklin, Professor of Psychology, Norfolk State University
Are you tired of having meetings and social gatherings over video chat? I never imagined I’d say this, but lately, I’d actually prefer a phone call to a Zoom meeting. Video chat somehow feels more exhausting than face-to-face meetings, and I don’t know why. People have taken to calling it “Zoom fatigue” but, of course, it applies to Skype, Facetime and Microsoft Teams.
Why Mixed-Citizenship Families Aren’t Getting COVID-19 Stimulus Checks
Guest: Jane Lopez, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University.
Millions families in the US qualify for pandemic stimulus checks, but aren’t getting them because someone who files taxes in the household is an unauthorized immigrant. That's what happened to Jane Lilly Lopez's family.
Microlending Has Backfired for Women in Jordan
Guest: Rana Sweis, Freelance Journalist, Founder and Managing Director of WishBox Media
Microfinancing was seen as a revolutionary way for poor women to start a business that can lift their families out of poverty. And for many, it has worked. But a huge number of low-income women in Jordan now find themselves trapped in a cycle of debt where microloans have basically become payday loans. And to make matters worse, they are being sent to prison because defaulting on a loan is a crime in Jordan.
When Buildings Stand Empty, Water Quality Suffers
Guest: Andrew J Whelton, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Purdue University
While many of us have spent the last month staying home to help slow the spread of coronavirus, the water in our now underused or vacant schools and offices has been sitting stagnant in pipes. Researchers at Purdue University got an emergency grant from the National Science Foundation to find out what dangers lurk in that water and how to make sure it’s safe as we begin slowly returning to work.
There’s an Antarctica Accent. No, Really
Guest: Jonathan Harrington, Professor of Phonetics and Digital Speech Processing and Director of the IPS, University of Munich.
We all know what various accents sound like, British, Irish, Australian, and so on. But how about Antarctican? You heard me right. People who’ve spent months living isolated together in Antarctica have started to develop their own accent.
Eric Jensen of Brigham Young Univ on punishing China. Andrew Franklin, Norfolk State University, on Zoom fatigue. Jane Lopez of Brigham Young Univ on mixed-status families. Rana Sweis of WishBox Media on women microfinancing in Jordan. Andrew Whelton of Purdue Univ on building vacancy. Jonathan Harrington, Univ of Munich, on the Antarctican accent.
James Lowenthal of Smith College on Starlink. Bill Bernstein of the American Society for Yad Vashem on Anti-Semitism. Kelly Greenwood of Mind Share Partners on mental health. Peter Jakab of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on collecting history. Channing Mavrellis of Global Financial Integrity on money laundering. Thomas Saltsman of University at Buffalo on choice overload.
SpaceX’s Massive Satellite Launch Plans Could Ruin Astronomy (0:35)
Guest: James Lowenthal, Professor of Astronomy at Smith College
Within a few years, SpaceX plans to have thousands and thousands of communications satellites orbiting Earth, providing high speed internet service to even the most remote locations. Cool idea a lot of people support. But as soon as SpaceX launched the first few of batches of satellites for its Starlink program, astronomers started complaining they were ruining thee view of other objects out in space. This week, SpaceX promised at a press conference to fix the problem. (Originally aired 12/11/19)
Why Is Antisemitism on the Rise and What Can Be Done About It? (16:23)
Guest: Bill Bernstein, West Coast Director, American Society for Yad Vashem
It’s Jewish American Heritage Month. In a proclamation this week, President Trump said “We must vigorously confront anti-Semitic discrimination and violence against members of the Jewish community. ”Anti-semitic attacks have risen worldwide, particularly in Western democracies like the US, France, Britain, and Germany. Most of those were cases of vandalism or threats of violence. But 2018 also saw the deadliest attack ever against Jews on US soil, when a gunman stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 worshippers. Why is this happening? (Originally aired 11/4/2019)
Mental Health in the Workplace (36:40)
Guest: Kelly Greenwood, Founder and CEO of Mind Share Partners.
Stay home if you’re sick. That’s a message employees will be asked to take a lot more seriously after this pandemic, I suspect. But what if you don’t have a fever or cough? Suppose you’re having a panic attack? A really bad day with your depression? Or an extreme bout of insomnia that kept you up all night? In a case like that, it’s easier just to fudge the details and tell your boss you’ve got a stomachache. Physical ailments seem more legitimate. (Originally aired 11/17/2019)
Collecting Scientific History (50:39)
Guest: Peter L. Jakab, Chief Curator of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon 50 years ago, they had a camera mounted to the lunar lander, capturing everything and beaming those images back to earth. The original videotape recordings NASA made of that momentous event sold at auction for $1.8 million to an anonymous buyer. Luckily, we’ve got the digital versions everyone can watch online. But what will become of those original tapes? Who knows? A surprising amount of the world’s science and technology history is held by private collectors. Moon landing artifacts. Nobel Prize statues. Einstein’s handwritten notes. (Originally aired 7/31/2019)
How to Fight Dirty Money (1:10:04)
Guest: Channing Mavrellis, Director of Global Financial Integrity’s Transnational Crime Program
Around the world, there are countries - sometimes called “developing” or “emerging” - that receive millions of dollars in foreign aid and investment every year. The hope is that at some point the country will grow to the point that it no longer needs foreign aid to sustain a thriving economy. But many countries seem stalled. Why isn’t that money making a difference? Because all this time, even more money has been flowing out of those same countries through crime, corruption and tax evasion. (Originally aired 10/9/2019)
Are More Choices Better... Or Worse? (1:25:30)
Guest: Thomas Saltsman, Senior Lab Director, Social Psychophysiology Laboratory, University at Buffalo, the State University of New York
The last few evenings I’ve spent more time browsing for something to watch on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon than I actually spent watching something. With so many choices, finding something should be a cinch. And yet, even when I do finally pick something, I’ll get ten minutes in and start regretting the choice, hit the menu button and it’s back to square one. Same thing happens to me with a long menu at a restaurant. And apparently it’s common enough psychologists have a name for it: “choice overload.” (Originally aired 10/15/19)
Why the USPS Is in Trouble (0:33)
Guest: Devin Leonard, Investigative Reporter, Bloomberg Businessweek, Author of “Neither Snow Nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service”
The US Postal Service says it may not survive the summer without a bailout from the federal government. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress want to offer that relief, but President Trump does not, so the only thing his administration has allowed so far in the pandemic stimulus bills is access to a loan that comes with a lot of strings attached. And even then, it’s too small to save the post.
You’d Think the Internet Would Have Crashed With All the Pandemic Traffic. Here’s Why It Hasn’t. (18:22)
Guest: Vint Cerf, Father of the Internet, Chief Internet Evangelist and Vice President of Google
Where would we be without the internet right now? No Zoom. No Netflix. No social media or email or working from home. No online shopping or podcasts or streaming music. With all that happening over the internet right now, you might wonder how the system has held up. Why haven’t there been nationwide – or even worldwide – internet outages like sometimes happen with cell networks or electric power? Well, it’s because the internet was created from the start to work well during the toughest conditions. Vint Cerf was there at the beginning – he’s considered one of the “fathers of the internet."
Movie Theater Showdown (37:09)
Guest: Jeff Bock, Senior Box Office Analyst, Exhibitor Relations
With movie theaters shutdown for who knows how long, studios have pushed back the release dates of blockbusters like Mulan and James Bond. But some movies are going straight to online rental. Trolls World Tour did so well online this month that NBCUniversal says it’ll start releasing films both in theaters and online at the same time when this is all over. Companies that own movie theaters say that will ruin them. AMC and Regal Cinemas are threatening to ban any Universal movies from their theaters. Grab the popcorn, cause there’s drama folks.
The Power of Social Norms to Make Us Behave Badly (50:36)
Guest: Catherine Sanderson, PhD, Professor of Psychology Amherst College, Author of Why We Act: Turning Bystanders Into Moral Rebels
The pandemic is forcing us all to rely on each other to do the right thing – to absolutely stay isolated if you’re feeling sick, to wear a mask in public and keep six feet of distance. A lot of this is awkward and unnatural, especially when it feels like you’re the only one at the grocery store trying to follow the rules. Psychologist Catherine Sanderson studies the power of social norms to make us do things we wouldn’t normally do. Her new book is called, “Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels.”
Quarantined in a Ghost Town (1:25:43)
Guest: Brent Underwood, Marketer, Owner of Cerro Gordo
I know this sounds like a movie plot, but it’s Brent Underwood’s real life at the moment. He’s been stuck for weeks in an abandoned mining town called Cerro Gordo up in the California mountains. Well, all alone unless you count the ghosts that are said to haunt the town.
Devin Leonard, author of “Neither Snow Nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service,” on the struggling US Postal Service. Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist and Vice President of Google, on the resilient internet. Jeff Bock, Senior Box Office Analyst at Exhibitor Relations, on the movie theater showdown. Catherine Sanderson of Amherst College on "Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels." Brent Underwood, Owner of Cerro Gordo on being self-isolated in a ghost town.
Unemployment Claims Are Mindboggling. Where Will the Money Come From? (0:31)
Guest: Heidi Shierholz, Director of Policy, Economic Policy Institute, Former Chief Economist, US Department of Labor
More than 24 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March. That’s 20 times the number of people who were applying for unemployment before the pandemic hit. If every man, woman and child living in the state of Florida filed for unemployment over the last month, you still wouldn’t reach that 24 million number. And it’s getting bigger. Where is all the money to pay those unemployment benefits coming from – and how long will it last?
When the Messenger Matters More Than the Message (16:22)
Guest: Cindy Kam, Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University
When you read the news or scroll through your social media, how does the source of the information shape what you think about it? Cindy Kam has found that in some cases, the messenger matters even more than the message itself.
Why Some Aren’t Surprised by COVID-19 (30:19)
Guest: David Quammen, a Science Writer and Author of "Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic."
For some people, the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to come out of nowhere. But with the increasing number of viruses starting in animals and moving to humans, other people saw this pandemic coming. David Quammen, and the scientists he interviewed, predicted a pandemic like this in his 2012 book called, “Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic.”
There’s Gold in Them Trees: Leaves Show Where to Mine for Gold (50:40)
Guest: Melvyn Lintern, Geochemist, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Portable PPB, Former Scientist CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency
Money might actually grow on trees after all. Researchers in Australia found trace amounts of gold in the leaves of eucalyptus trees. A hundred feet below ground, under layers of dirt and clay and sand, they found – you guessed it – gold. So instead of drilling randomly to find new sources of the precious metal, could companies prospect for gold by examining tree leaves instead?
Ramadan Is Often a Time of Outreach. During a Pandemic That Takes Creativity. (1:03:01)
Guest: Mansoor Shams, U.S. Marine Veteran, Founder of MuslimMarine.org, Member on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
The first Muslim prayer service I ever attended was during Ramadan many years ago. As you may know, Ramadan is a holy month of fasting from sunrise to sunset. It’s also a month of celebration and Muslim congregations across America often hold large feasts and handicraft markets when they gather to break their daily fast. Many communities also use these Ramadan celebrations as an opportunity to invite non-Muslim friends and dignitaries as a way of building bridges.
Wall Street-To-Farm, Farm-To-Table (1:23:22)
Guest: John Ubaldo, Owner, John Boys Farms
COVID-19 outbreaks have forced numerous meat plants to shut and caused a drop-off in pork and beef supplies. Hoping to head off a meat shortage, President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday night declaring meat plants “essential infrastructure” and requiring them to stay open. Here again, the pandemic has revealed a weakness in the US economy – that so much of our food supply relies on large agribusiness to function smoothly. But John Boys Farm in upstate New York has plenty of pork, beef and chicken for its customers, because farmer John Ubaldo has insisted on staying small and staying local. He won’t even buy feed for his livestock from a commercial manufacturer like most farmers do. He makes it himself and teaches other small farmers how to function in a system that favors big.
Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute and US Department of Labor, on unemployment during this pandemic. Cindy Kam of Vanderbilt Univ on partisan messengers. David Quammen on "Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic." Melvyn Lintern of Portable PPB on tree gold. Mansoor Shams of MuslimMarine.org, on Ramadan during COVID-19. John Ubaldo of John Boy farms on leaving behind a life on Wall St. to become a farmer.
What the President’s Executive Order Halting Legal Immigration Means (0:29)
Guest: Carolina Núñez, Associate Dean for Faculty and Curriculum and Professor of Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Since the start of the pandemic, President Trump has restricted travel into the US, halted immigration at the southern US border and stopped refugee flights into the country. Last week, he widened immigration restrictions even further. “In order to protect our great American workers, I've just signed an executive order temporarily suspending immigration into the United States. This will ensure that unemployed Americans of all backgrounds will be first in line for jobs as our economy reopens," Trump said. Carolina Núñez helps us understand what these restrictions mean for Americans and those trying to come to the United States.
Plant Hunter Looking to Patent a Newly-Discovered Wildflower (16:23)
Guest: Mikel Stevens Professor of Plant & Wildlife Sciences at BYU
It’s planting season for gardeners across the country. I’m planning a cut flower garden this year and have been on the lookout for plants with beautiful blooms that do well in hot, dry weather. New varieties of plants are being discovered – and patented – all the time. Did you know it was even possible to patent a plant?
How the Legal System Relies on Justice and Forgiveness (32:18)
Guest: Martha Minow, Professor of Law, Harvard University, Author When Should Law Forgive?
The right to remain silent. The right to an attorney. The right to...forgiveness? Harvard Law professor Martha Minow says the US legal system needs to take a hard look at where forgiveness fits. A more merciful, forgiving system would also be a more just justice system, she argues.
What’s Troubling the Bees (50:35)
Guest: Samuel Ramsey, Entomologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture
I’ve been in my yard a lot lately pulling up dandelions before they take over my lawn. But now I’ve learned that I should leave the dandelions there because they’re good for bees. And bees need all the help they can get right now. I hadn’t actually realized bees were still in trouble because we’re not hearing about the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder as much as we were several years ago.
Ozone Hole as Environmental Success Story (1:10:20)
Guest: Sean Davis Is an Atmospheric Climate Scientist at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
Some good news now regarding the environment: A hole in the Earth’s ozone layer that was first discovered in the 1980s is steadily shrinking thanks to an international agreement countries made 30 years ago.
NYC Muslims Work To Main Connection During Ramadan in Lockdown (1:25:21)
Guest: Imam Khalid Latif, University Chaplain, Executive Director of the Islamic Center, NYU
The holy month of Ramadan is underway for Muslims worldwide. Adherents fast from all food and drink sun-up to sundown and then, traditionally, will gather to break the fast, pray and celebrate late into the night. But, because of the pandemic, the gathering part of Ramadan is not possible for Muslims in many communities, including New York City, which has been hit so hard by COVID-19.
Carolina Núñez of Brigham Young Univ on immigration. Mikel Stevens of Brigham Young Univ on a newly discovered wildflower. Martha Minow of Harvard Univ on the law and forgiveness. Samuel Ramsey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on bee extinction. Sean Davis, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, on ozone hole shrinking. Imam Khalid Latif, the Islamic Center, on Ramadan in New York City.
Michael Barber of Brigham Young Univ on pandemic politics. Levi Hanssen of Visit Faroe Islands on virtual tourism. Dan Thompson of Stanford Univ on vote by mail. Patrick Wardle of Jamf and Objective-See on Zoom. Michele Hlavsa of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on pool pathogens.Kip Ioane of Willamette Univ’s Men’s basketball team on healthy masculinity.
COVID-19 Affects People Regardless of Their Politics. So Why Is the Pandemic Response to Politicized? (0:35)
Guest: Michael Barber, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
It’s an election year. And Americans were already polarized politically before the pandemic, so I guess it’s not surprising that politics affects how people are reacting to the pandemic. But still. The virus affects people regardless of how they vote. Why do I feel like wearing a face covering in public is being perceived as a political statement?
Take a Virtual Trip to the Faroe Islands (20:26)
Guest: Levi Hanssen, Content & Communications Manager at Visit Faroe Islands
With no tourists coming in due to COVID-19, a lot of places have really taken a financial hit. But the Faroe Islands have come up with a unique way for people to still visit – virtual tourism. It’s basically a real-life video game – you get to control the movements of an actual human in the Faroe Islands from your computer. You can even ask the tour guide to run and go inside buildings.
When People Vote by Mail, Who Wins? (36:00)
Guest: Dan Thompson, PhD Candidate, Political Science, Stanford University
The pandemic is prompting states to take a hard look at voting by mail for their primaries – and even possibly for the general election in November. President Trump is not a fan. Voting by mail “does not work out well for Republicans,” says President Trump. He’s not the only one to think so. And it’s true that Democrats tend to be a lot more supportive of states shifting to mail-in voting. So, are they right? Do Democrats do better when voters have the option to mail in a ballot rather than showing up to the polls on Election Day?
The Great Zoom Debacle (50:39)
Guest: Patrick Wardle, Principal Security Researcher at Jamf and Founder of Objective-See
If someone had told you just months ago that Zoom would soon become a household name, you probably would have said, “What? The video conferencing app?” Or you may not have known what it was at all. But with social distancing, the company gained 190 million new users from January to March. However, the increased traffic carries some serious security risks – even the FBI has put out a warning.
Everyone Knows Poop in the Pool Is Bad. But Pee Is Too. Here’s Why. (1:07:45)
Guest: Michele Hlavsa, Chief of the Healthy Swimming Program Division, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Will public swimming pools be able to open this summer? Or water parks? Chlorine kills everything so, maybe pools won’t be a casualty of the pandemic? Right?
Helping Players Develop Healthy Masculinity (1:20:00)
Guest: Kip Ioane, Head Coach of Willamette University’s Men’s Basketball Team.
College athletes watch a lot of film, but it’s usually video of past games and upcoming opponents so they can improve their play. The viewing schedule for the men’s basketball team at Willamette University also includes documentaries about masculinity – which is, unusual. Other NCAA teams have started implementing the program, too.
Jordana Lebowitz, advocate for Holocaust remembrance, and Kathy Kacer, author of “To Look a Nazi in the Eye," on a Nazi trial. Erika Nelson of World’s Largest Things on roadside attractions. James Gaskin of Brigham Young Univ on Thanks Alexa. Damon Korb, M.D., on "Raising an Organized Child."
A Teenager’s Story of Holocaust Reckoning (0:00)
Guest: Jordana Lebowitz, Advocate for Holocaust Remembrance, Kathy Kacer, Author, “To Look a Nazi in the Eye: A Teen’s Account of a War Criminal Trial”
The US marked Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day - this week, honoring the victims of the Nazi regime and recommitting never to let such evil happen again. Among the last Nazis to face trial for crimes committed during the Holocaust was Oskar Groening. He was known as “The Bookkeeper of Auschwitz” and in 2015 he was sentenced to four years in prison for “aiding and abetting” the murder of more than 300,000 Jews in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp. Before Groening could serve any time in prison, he died at the age of 96. But Groening's trial was the subject of a book of one teens experience in the German courtroom. (Originally aired 7/27/18)
Why World’s Largest Things Dot American Roadsides. (50:44)
Guest: Erika Nelson, One of America’s Foremost Experts and Speakers on the World’s Largest Things
After being cooped up at home during the pandemic, I’m guessing a lot of people will be hitting the open road when this is all over, itching for a change of scenery. Plus, gas prices are going to be really cheap for a while. You can get a head start on your road trip plans at worldslargesthings.com. It’s a catalog of America’s quirkiest road-side attractions. World’s largest egg. World’s largest penny. Erika Nelson runs the website and has visited everything on the list, if you can believe it. Furthermore, after each visit, she makes a miniature version for her museum, which is called – are you ready? – “The World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things. (Originally aired 5/9/2020)
There’s No Need to Thank Your Digital Assistant, for Now (1:07:53)
Guest: James Gaskin, PhD, Associate Professor of Information Systems, BYU Marriott School of Business
We’re awfully bossy with our digital assistants, especially now that they’re a constant companion in quarantine. Every once in a while, I catch myself almost saying thanks after making a demand. It feels a little wrong to just bark orders. Alexa doesn’t seem to mind either way. But there’s been some handwringing of late about how interacting with Alexa and Google and Siri is making us forget our manners. (Originally aired 8/29/2019)
Raising an Organized Child (1:22:44)
Guest: Damon Korb, M.D., Author of Raising an Organized Child, Board Certified Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrician
As adults, it can be hard to understand kids. Why can’t they just keep their room clean? Why can’t they stop themselves from having a meltdown when they don’t get what they want? Why can’t they remember to turn in that homework assignment? Developmental and behavioral pediatrician Damon Korb says it’s because they aren’t organized. But not in a physical way – their brains aren’t organized. He’s written a book about all about it called “Raising an Organized Child.” (Originally aired 11/11/2019)
The Other Kind of Test That’s Crucial to Controlling the COVID-19 Pandemic (0:30)
Guest: Fatima Amanat, PhD Candidate, Biomedical Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
For months we’ve been hearing about the need for more COVID-19 testing, so we can know who is infected right now. But there’s another kind of test that’s also critical to control the pandemic. It looks at whether someone had the virus and has recovered. The World Health Organization is warning that many of these “antibody tests” people are ordering online don’t work and shouldn’t be trusted.
Inside the Struggle for Japanese American Reparations (15:27)
Guest: John Tateishi, Author of “Redress: The Inside Story of the Successful Campaign for Japanese American Reparations”
How does a government make up for something terrible it does to its own people? Usually it doesn’t. But, sometimes there’ll be a formal apology. Occasionally, the victims will be compensated. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was a rare instance of both. It’s the law that acknowledged the US government was wrong to imprison more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry – most of them American citizens – in detention camps during World War II. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 also issued $20,000 checks to 82,000 Japanese Americans who’d been in the camps.
Stoicism and Patience in the Face of Adversity (38:42)
Guest: Anthony Long, Professor of the Graduate School and Chancellor's Professor Emeritus of Classics and Irving G. Stone Professor Emeritus of Literature; Affiliated Professor of Philosophy and Rhetoric, UC-Berkeley
How are you keeping your spirits up right now? Are you just doing your best to hang on until we can all leave our homes and get back to normal life? Or are you one of those people who can accept things as they are and find the good in every situation? Yeah, that’s not my forte. But perhaps there’s lesson for us all right now in the ancient Greek philosophy of stoicism and one of its famous followers, US Navy fighter pilot James Stockdale. Stockdale got shot down and spent seven and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam – four of those years in complete isolation. He claimed that stoicism saved his life.
Acclaimed Book About Race in America “Remixed” for Young People (50:31)
Guest: Jason Reynolds, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature; Ibram X. Kendi, PhD, Professor of History and International Relations and the Founding Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, Co-Authors “Stamped: Racism Antiracism and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning Stamped From the Beginning”
Everyone is capable of racist thinking. That’s one of the central arguments in “Stamped from the Beginning,” which won the National Book Award in 2016. It’s a history of racist ideas in America and, if you’ve heard the word “antiracist,” it’s probably because of Ibram X. Kendi, who wrote Stamped from the Beginning and founded the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. Now Professor Kendi has collaborated with award-winning author Jason Reynolds on an adaptation of the book for teens and young adult readers.
Ramen Has Become the Currency of Prison (1:25:26)
Guest: Michael Gibson-Light, Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver.
Ramen is a staple for college students. It’s easy to make, cheap, and can taste pretty decent if made right. Turns out, college isn’t the only place where Ramen is found in abundance. It’s also a staple in the prison community as well.
Fatima Amanat of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai on antibody tests. John Tateishi on “Redress: The Inside Story of the Successful Campaign for Japanese American Reparations." Anthony Long of UC-Berkeley on stoic COVID. Ibram X. Kendi of American University and Jason Reynolds on “Stamped: Racism Antiracism and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning.” Michael Gibson-Light, Univ of Denver, on prison ramen.
Andrew Manshel, Urban Space Public Developer on public spaces. Erica Gaddis of the Utah Division of Water Quality on wastewater and COVID-19. Ari Berkowitz of Univ of Oklahoma on the human genome project. David Blackmon of Shale Magazine on oil plunges. Adam Haar Horowitz, MIT’s Media Lab on dream lab. Matt Brown of the Nature Conservancy on COVID-19'S negative effect on some wild animals.
Reimagining Our Public Spaces After the Pandemic (0:32)
Guest: Andrew Manshel, Urban Space Public Developer, Author of “Learning From Bryant Park: Revitalizing Cities, Towns, and Public Spaces"
It’s bad enough that the pandemic has forced us to keep our distance from one another. But having to stay inside is like rubbing salt in the wound. Americans are itching to get back into their parks and public squares when this is all over. That’ll be happening just as cities and counties face budget shortfalls from the pressures of the pandemic and economic recession. Urban planner Andrew Manshel says the best way to make public spaces work for a community is to focus on operating them well, not changing their design and adding expensive new structures.
Could We Use Wastewater to Test for COVID-19? (20:22)
Guest: Erica Gaddis, Director of the Utah Division of Water Quality.
California officials have confirmed two deaths from COVID-19 took place in that state in mid-February, weeks before what we thought was the first documented US death. That means the coronavirus was circulating in the country earlier and wider than previously thought. And, the CDC director is warning that a second wave of COVID-19 next winter could be worse than the current one. Communities will need a way to detect new outbreaks as quickly as possible. And instead of testing everyone for COVID-19 every few weeks (which would be impossible), maybe they can just monitor what’s being flushed down sinks and toilets for traces of the virus?
What Ever Happened to the Human Genome Project? (35:12)
Guest: Ari Berkowitz, Professor of Biology, University of Oklahoma
The Human Genome Project was supposed to transform modern medicine. Bill Clinton was president at the time, and he claimed it would “revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most, if not all, human diseases.” One journalist even imagined that in 2020 we would all carry around personalized DNA cards so doctors could examine your genome to treat you. But the project was completed in 2003, and none of that has come to fruition. What happened?
Oil Plunge (50:35)
Guest: David Blackmon, Energy Industry Analyst, Editor of Shale Magazine, Contributor to Forbes.com
The price of US oil plunged below zero dollars a barrel this week. That’s never happened before and it meant that some traders were actually paying people to take oil off their hands.
An MIT Lab Hopes to Alter Our Dreams (1:08:00)
Guest: Adam Haar Horowitz, PhD Student and Dream Lab Researcher at MIT’s Media Lab
You know that drifting-off-to-sleep stage, where you’re still kind of awake but your subconscious mind is starting to take over? It’s in that moment that occasionally I’ll have a creative idea or solve a problem that’s been nagging at me. I’ve often wished I could tap into that more regularly.
Consider the Rhino (1:25:55)
Guest: Matt Brown, Africa Regional Managing Director of the Nature Conservancy
A world without people might sound like a haven for wild animals, and there have been reports of coyotes and raccoons making themselves at home in deserted streets and parks during the pandemic. But in Africa, endangered animals like rhinos are suddenly at higher risk because of the pandemic.
James Curry of Univ of Utah on Congress in the pandemic. Evy Poumpouras, former Secret Service Agent, on "Becoming Bulletproof." Alixandra Barasch of New York Univ on the Instagram effect. David Hagmann of Harvard Univ on truth or ignorance. Rob Dunn of NC State Univ on sourdough mystery. Josh Kantor, Boston Red Sox Organist, on 7th inning concerts.
What’s at Stake for Congress During the Pandemic (0:31)
Guest: James Curry, PhD, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
Congress is trying to pass another stimulus bill this week allocating more money for loans to small businesses suffering in the pandemic. But both the House and Senate are operating with a skeleton crew in Washington. Most members of Congress are back in their home districts trying to keep constituents happy and preparing their re-election campaigns.
Lessons From a Former Secret Service Agent (16:56)
Guest: Evy Poumpouras, Former Secret Service Agent and Author of Becoming Bulletproof
Anywhere the president goes, they go. You see them standing stone-faced in dark suits and ties, sometimes talking into their sleeve cuffs. The US Secret Service are iconic. They’re also mostly male. But Evy Poumpouras had the job for 12 years. She protected President Clinton, both Presidents Bush and President Obama, plus members of their families. She also worked as an interrogator for the intelligence arm of the Secret Service. Her new book is part-memoir, part-instruction manual. It’s called “Becoming Bulletproof.”
Taking Pictures for Social Media Makes an Experience Less Enjoyable (38:06)
Guest: Alixandra Barasch, Professor of Marketing, New York University
In these days when museums and national parks and travel destinations are closed, social media feeds are filled with images that are closer to home. Why are snapping that pic of your pet, your kid, your dinner? Is it to share with a loved one? Or because it’ll look great on your Instagram feed? Or just because you want to remember the moment?
Why Sometimes We Just Don’t Want to Know the Truth (50:39)
Guest: David Hagmann, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
This last month, I have intentionally avoided looking at how my retirement funds are doing. If I don’t look, I don’t have to feel bummed out by the big losses, even though knowing the truth might help me make better investment decisions. “Active ignorance” is what Harvard researcher David Hagmann calls this. And it’s pretty common – though what kinds of information we choose to avoid differs from person to person.
Learn to Make Sourdough From a Starter and Help Solve a Scientific Mystery (1:03:35)
Guest: Rob Dunn, Professor of Ecology and Evolution and Director of the Public Science Lab, NC State University; Co-Founder of the Wild Sourdough Project
The pandemic has spawned a new fascination with bread making – maybe because bakeries are closed? Or because people are stuck at home with time on their hands? At any rate, yeast sold out in stores right along with toilet paper and Purell. But you don’t need to buy yeast. With flour, water and patience, you can cultivate the microbes that cause bread to rise. It’s called a sourdough starter and exactly how is works is a scientific mystery that the Public Science Lab at North Carolina State University is trying to solve. They’re asking people to document their sourdough starters and submit the data to the Wild Sourdough project.
7th Inning Stretch Continues Without Baseball (1:19:58)
Guest: Josh Kantor, Boston Red Sox Organist
Today the Boston Red Sox were supposed to be hosting the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park and Josh Kantor was supposed to be at the stadium organ, where he’s been for every Red Sox game since 2003. But none of that is happening right now because of the pandemic. So Kantor has started hosting daily concerts from his home, live on Facebook: taking requests from fans on Twitter as he’s done for years.
Leslie Francis of Univ of Utah on privacy and pandemics. Kevin Smith of the Univ of Kansas on the National Emergency Library. Bruce Hardy of Kenyon College on neanderthals and rope. Damien Sneed on “We Shall Overcome.” Paola Cerrito of New York Univ on tooth rings. Jennifer Miller of Yale School of Medicine on big tech medical.
To End Pandemic Closures, Americans May Have to Give Up Privacy. (0:32)
Guest: Leslie Francis, Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Utah, Director of the Center for Law and Biomedical Sciences, Co-Author “Privacy: What Everyone Needs to Know”
It’ll be at least a year before a vaccine for COVID-19 is widely available. Meantime, how do we resume normal life, if anywhere you turn, someone who doesn’t even have symptoms could be spreading the virus? Public health officials will have to get very good – very quickly – at something called “contact tracing” where they track down anyone who came into contact with someone that’s been diagnosed with COVID-19 and test those people for the virus, too. Dozens of countries are now monitoring the movement of their people and exposure to COVID-19 through their cell phones. Will the pandemic force Americans to give up their privacy?
Is the Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library Legal? (19:52)
Guest: Kevin Smith, Dean of Libraries, University of Kansas
Across the country, libraries are closed and, I don’t know if you’ve checked your local library’s website, but the waiting lists to borrow an e-book can be very long. Which is why the nonprofit that runs the Internet Archive has launched the National Emergency Library and removed all borrowing restrictions from its vast collection of digital books through the end of June. So, no wait lists and anyone can set up a free account with the library. Many readers and librarians are thrilled. Many authors and book publishers are not. They’re also struggling right now with bookstores closed and book tours cancelled. Authors would much prefer you buy their e-books, obviously.
New Discovery Shows That Neanderthals Used Rope (37:11)
Guest: Bruce Hardy, Professor of Anthropology, Kenyon College
From Barney Rubble to the dimwitted cavemen of The Far Side cartoons, neanderthals have a reputation for being not-so-smart. But that may simply be because the best evidence of their smarts hasn’t survived for us to inspect and appreciate. For example, an excavation of a famous Neanderthal encampment in France has turned up a tiny shred of rope. Making and using rope is pretty advanced. If cavemen could actually do that, we’ll have to rethink the stereotype of stupidity.
Gospel, Soul and Classical Musical Savant Finds Strength in Faith (50:34)
Guest: Damien Sneed, Pianist, Organist, Composer, Conductor, Vocalist and Creator of “We Shall Overcome”
Damien Sneed was such a musical prodigy that at the age of 8 he was hired to be the music director for the senior choir at his church. So, here’s this 8-year-old piano whiz working with 80-year-olds. They put me with the senior choir because it was a good mentorship experience to learn the classic gospel hymns from the oldest members of the congregation, explains Sneed. Sneed has gone on to great acclaim recording and composing in a range of musical genres from jazz to classical to gospel opera. His current project is an album and concert series called We Shall Overcome. It’s a tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Junior and features songs of struggle and freedom and faith.
How Teeth Keep a Record of Our Lives (1:06:34)
Guest: Paola Cerrito, Doctoral Candidate in New York University’s Department of Anthropology and College of Dentistry.
Just like a tree forms new rings each year, your teeth have lines that mark the passage of your life. Now, you might be thinking – “I’ve got all my adult teeth and they stopped growing a long time ago.” Thank goodness for that, right? There’d be no room in your mouth if your teeth grew a little more each year like a tree. But scientists recently found a part of the tooth that is still growing in adults and keeps a record of major life events, like pregnancy, serious illness and even time spent in prison.
Will Apple Become Your “iDoctor”? (1:25:53)
Guest: Jennifer Miller, Assistant Professor in Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Good Pharma Scorecard Initiative
Big tech companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google have entered so many parts of our everyday lives: phones, smart speakers, streaming services, shopping, the list goes on. The next big thing they have their eye on? Healthcare. Some of these tech giants could already be using your electronic medical records. Their work could advance public health, but do the benefits outweigh the costs?
Adam Winkler of UCLA on "Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America." Scott Bryan of Queensland Univ of Technology on pumice island. Martha Boudreau of AARP on senior ads. Eric Jensen of Brigham Young Univ on coronavirus and the WHO. Jean-Pierre Isbouts of Fielding Graduate Univ and Christopher Brown of Brown Discoveries on “The Da Vinci Legacy: How an Elusive 16th Century Artist Became a Global Pop Icon”
Stores Like Wal-Mart Are Entering the Gun Control Debate (0:38)
Guest: Adam Winkler, J.D., Professor of Law, UCLA. Author of Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America
As the coronavirus began to spread widely in the US last month, sales of guns and ammunition made a big jump. People appeared to be stocking up for fear the pandemic would lead to civil unrest. Typically, we see sales skyrocket like this when gun owners are worried about new laws being passed. There was a similar bump after President Obama got elected and another after the Sandy Hook shooting. But the reality is that it’s been 25 years since Congress passed laws that limit the spread and use of guns. In the meantime, we’ve seen private companies taking up the cause - Walmart, Target, Starbucks, Chipotle, and Costco have all discouraged customers from openly carrying guns in their stores. (Originally aired 9/24/2019)
Pumice Rafts Allow Corals and Other Marine Life to Hitch a Ride (17:55)
Guest: Scott Bryan, Associate Professor of Geology and Geochemistry at Queensland University of Technology
You know pumice – that rock with the little holes in it? People use it to smooth off callouses on feet. Well last fall, a giant clump of it was discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean. It was bigger than the island of Manhattan, made up of pumice stones ranging from marble to basketball size. Really bad news for boats that came upon it, but great news for marine life, apparently. (Originally aired 9/18/2019)
Better Representing Seniors in Media (34:51)
Guest: Martha Boudreau, Executive Vice President & Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at AARP
Think of the last time you saw a person older than 50 in an advertisement. Most likely it was for some sort of medication or they were sitting on a park bench alone. Research from the AARP shows that older people are usually depicted in the media as dependent and disconnected. And that just doesn’t line up with the facts. (Originally aired 10/29/19)
What You Need to Know About the WHO (50:39)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
President Trump is so unhappy with how the World Health Organization has handled the COVID-19 pandemic that this week, we stopped US funding for it. Many have criticized the WHO for not pushing harder for fast, accurate information about the virus as it emerged in China. The WHO also did not recommend global travel restrictions as quickly as might have been appropriate in hindsight. (Originally aired 4/6/2020)
500 Years After Leonardo Da Vinci’s Death, New Book Considers His Legacy. (1:02:42)
Guest: Jean-Pierre Isbouts, PhD, Art Historian and Doctoral Professor at Fielding Graduate University. Christopher Brown, DDS, Director of Brown Discoveries, LLC, Co-Authors of “The Da Vinci Legacy: How an Elusive 16th Century Artist Became a Global Pop Icon”
It’s been more than 500 years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci. The Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, his incredibly detailed human anatomy sketches and his early invention of the bicycle and the parachute make him perhaps the most celebrated artist of all time. But when he died in the summer of 1519, he was not famous. In fact, he was something of a failure by Italian Renaissance standards and was living in exile in France. His burial site went forgotten for centuries. So why is he so famous today? (Originally aired 8/5/2019)
Interviews with people around the world about their experience with the coronavirus pandemic.
We’re All in This Together: Voices From Around the World During a Pandemic
It’s strange to think that even isolated in our homes and offices during this pandemic, that almost all of humanity is going through the same thing, experiencing the same emotions. We wanted to know how people around the world are coping. How they’re relieving stress. What they’re looking forward to doing again when this is all over. We’re getting some insight into the daily realities of people all over the world right now as we cope with the global pandemic.
Cynthia and David Nanto in Japan
Addo Samuel in Ghana
Teresa Marongiu Settineri in Italy
Cherry Leung in China
Jean-Luc Butel in Singapore
Maryn Tan in France
Jose Galdos in Peru
Erin Hale in Turkey
Juan Mateo in the Dominican Republic
Anna Olivas in Spain
Ricardo Vanoli in Italy
Maryam Naushad in Vietnam
Michael Barteling in the Netherlands
Melissa Dalton Bradford in Germany
Arturas Ratkus in Lithuania
Erika Charles in Haiti
Ryan Vogel of Utah Valley Univ on COVID-19 and national security. Scott Sanders of Brigham Young Univ on US population growth. Pandemic Voices part IV. Eric Eyre on “Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic.” Eugenia Kuyda on Replika.
Pandemics Are a Different Kind of National Security Threat (0:32)
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
President Trump this week halted US funding to the World Health Organization, which he blames for being slow to call for widespread travel restrictions and failing to press China on inconsistent and inaccurate information as COVID-19 emerged. Time and again, President Trump has praised his own decision to limit travel from China and restrict movement at the southern US border. The President’s frequent focus on travel restrictions and border control during the pandemic highlights the ways in which this is both a public health crisis and an issue of national security.
US Population Is Growing at Its Slowest Rate in Over a Century (15:58)
Guest: Scott Sanders, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University
Because of COVID-19, America’s death rate this year will be unusually high. But even before the coronavirus began spreading, the US population growth rate was stagnating. Last year, half of all counties in the country had more deaths than births.
Pandemic Voices: The Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, Haiti (27:02)
All week, we’ve been hearing from everyday people on almost every continent - about their struggles during the coronavirus pandemic and their hopes for the future. We’re wrapping up the series today with four final conversation.
Michael Barteling in the Netherlands
Melissa Dalton Bradford in Germany
Arturas Ratkus in Lithuania
Erika Charles in Haiti
Tracking the Pill Shipments That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic (50:38)
Guest: Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Reporter, Author of “Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic”
Opioids continue to cause the majority of drug overdose deaths in America. For much of the last 15 years, prescription pain pills were the main culprit in those deaths and West Virginia was the epicenter of the problem. Several of its rural counties had the highest overdose death rates in the nation. No coincidence, they were also being flooded with pills. One small pharmacy in a tiny town called Kermit, West Virginia distributed 12 million pills in three years. The town has a population of just 382 people. That’s insane. And something similar was happening in counties all across America. Why did drug makers and distributors keep sending the pills? Where were the pharmacy oversight boards, the local police, the federal drug authorities?
An App That’s Designed to Be Your BFF (1:27:03)
Guest: Eugenia Kuyda, Co-Founder and CEO at Replika
During this pandemic school and work have moved online. So have therapy and routine doctor’s appointments. Many of our relationships have moved online, too. Three years ago, Eugenia Kuyda created an artificially intelligent bot that can take the place of a friend in some cases. It’ll talk or text with you about your day, offer support or insight and, because it’s artificially intelligent, it learns from your conversations over time. It’s like a warm fuzzy Siri or Alexa. Which sounds weird, but I tried it out and there was something oddly comforting about discussing my anxiety with it.
Pandemic Voices: The Dominican Republic, Spain, Italy, and Vietnam (0:33)
All week on Top of Mind, we’ve been hearing from people around the world about how they’re coping with the isolation and anxiety of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve spoken to people in China, Japan, Turkey, Ghana, Italy and Peru. It’s been striking to hear similarities in what people are worried about right now and what they long to do when this is all over.
Juan Mateo in the Dominican Republic
Anna Olivas in Spain
Ricardo Vanoli in Italy
Maryam Naushad in Vietnam
Progress Toward Gender Equality in the Workplace Is Slowing; Why? (23:03)
Guest: Paula England, Professor of Sociology, New York University
We just passed what’s known as “Equal Pay Day” in America. Because women earn, on average, $ 0.82 cents for every dollar a man earns, Equal Pay Day symbolizes how far into a new year, women must work to make what men were paid in the previous year. Since the 1970s, the pay gap between men and women has shrunk considerably, but recently that progress has stalled.
Helping African Forest Elephants Requires Lots of Listening (35:03)
Guest: Peter Wrege, PhD, Director of the Elephant Listening Project, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University.
If you click on the link above and you will hear a private conversation between two female elephants in an African rainforest. They’re family and haven’t seen each other in a while, so this is a kind of “greeting ceremony.” The recording was made by the Elephant Listening Project. How – and why – they’re capturing these elephant recordings is a cool story.
The Apple Seed (50:41)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne shares some stories of how to connect with family - and objects - during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why Is the Rate of Maternal Mortality Higher for Black Women in the U.S.? (1:02:08)
Guest: Dr. Neel Shah, OB-GYN, Professor, Harvard Medical School.
The United States is a scary place to give birth. The rate of maternal deaths in America is the highest among wealthy countries. Black women in America are two to three time more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white and Hispanic women. And most of these deaths are preventable. What is wrong with maternal care in America?
Movies to Help Parents Deal With Pandemic Fears (1:18:55)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Parents are doing a lot of work to help their kids cope with the uncertainty of the pandemic – and a few weeks ago we had some movie recommendations from Parent Previews that could be useful in helping kids understand how they’re feeling. Today we’ve got movies to help grownups process our own fear or sadness.
Pandemic voices part III. Paula England of New York Univ on slowing equality. Peter Wrege of Cornell Univ on the Elephant Listening Project. Sam Payne of The Apple Seed shares a story. Dr. Neel Shah, Harvard Medical School, on maternal mortality. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com on pandemic movies.
Pandemic Stimulus for Business (0:30)
Guest: Romina Boccia, Director, Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, The Heritage Foundation
Pandemic stimulus checks of up to $1,200 are beginning to arrive this week in the bank accounts of taxpayers. Record numbers of people are also filing for enhanced unemployment benefits. The two-trillion-dollar pandemic relief package Congress passed a few weeks ago includes loans for businesses that pledge to keep employees on the payroll, even if they don’t have enough work for them right now. So far, the Small Business Administration says more than 587,000 applications have been approved worth over $151 billion in relief. That’s half the total Congress allocated for low-cost loans to companies with fewer than 500 employees.
Pandemic Crisis Got You Planting a Garden? Join the Club. (18:23)
Guest: Rose Hayden-Smith, PhD, Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow, Emeritus Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources for the University of California, Author of "Sowing the Seeds of Victory: American Gardening Programs of WWI"
The pandemic has sparked a moment of “crisis gardening” among Americans. It’s not much different from the Victory Gardens that sprung up in yards around the country during World War I, and then again in World War II.
We’re All in This Together: Voices From Around the World During a Pandemic Part II (28:26)
No matter where you live on the planet, you’ve been affected by the pandemic. It’d be nice to reach out to people around the world and hear how they’re doing. How are they coping? We’ve spoken with people in 15 different countries, and we’re playing those conversations for you all week here on Top of Mind. They’ve helped us feel more connected and inspired. We hope they do the same for you.
Jean-Luc Butel in Singapore
Maryn Tan in France
Jose Galdos in Peru
Erin Hale in Turkey
Citizen Scientists Can Help Save the Butterflies (51:36)
Guest: Mary Ellen Hannibal, Journalist, Author of "Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction."
Most of America is staying put, but Monarch butterflies are on the move. As the butterflies head North from their overwintering spots in Mexico and California, researchers need your help to track the migration. Sightings from everyday citizens have helped to document the decline in butterfly populations around the world, including the Monarch.
Shipworm (1:10:58)
Guest: Dan Distel, Director of the Ocean Genome Legacy Center, Northeastern University
When Hurricane Ivan ripped through the Gulf of Mexico 16 years ago, it scooped a bunch of sand from the sea floor and unearthed an ancient forest. The underwater grove of cypress trees off the Alabama coast is now home to lots of sea creatures, including shipworms that are feeding on the ancient wood. A shipworm’s ability to digest wood could unlock new medicines for humans.
Teaching Kids Digital Literacy (1:29:41)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
We’re all hungry for information about the pandemic in our local communities, so we can make the best decisions for ourselves and our families. Unfortunately, inaccurate information – and even outright lies – abound on the internet.
Romina Boccia of The Heritage Foundation on the pandemic stimulus for businesses. Rose Hayden-Smith of the Univ of California on victory gardens. Pandemic voices part II. Mary Ellen Hannibal, journalist, on saving the butterflies. Dan Distel of Northeastern Univ on underwater forest. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on digital literacy.
Cynthia and David Nanto, Addo Samuel, Teresa Settineri, and Cherry Leungon, on voices in a pandemic. Leah Brooks of George Washington Univ on infrastructure costs. Russell Jeung of San Francisco State Univ on tracking COVID-19 racism. Anindya Dutta, Univ of Virginia, on the effect of genes on cancer treatment. Frederik Mayet on the cancellation of the Oberammergau Passion Play.
We’re All in This Together: Voices From Around the World During a Pandemic (0:31)
Guest: Cynthia and David Nanto in Japan, Addo Samuel in Ghana, Teresa Marongiu Settineri in Italy, Cherry Leung in China
It’s strange to think that even isolated in our homes and offices during this pandemic, that almost all of humanity is going through the same thing, experiencing the same emotions. We wanted to know how people around the world are coping. How they’re relieving stress. What they’re looking forward to doing again when this is all over. We’re getting some insight into the daily realities of people all over the world right now as we cope with the global pandemic.
Rising Building Costs (35:15)
Guest: Leah Brooks, Professor of Political Economy at George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Affairs
The US government spends $400 billion per year on infrastructure. And yet, both President Trump and Joe Biden agree that it needs major help – a trillion dollar infrastructure overhaul plan is part of both of their campaigns. So why in the world does building cost so much? It didn’t used to be so expensive – we’re not getting the same bang for our buck today as we did decades ago. And that’s left researchers puzzled as to what’s changed.
Tracking Racism During COVID-19 (50:35)
Guest: Russell Jeung, Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University
Since the pandemic started, people of Asian descent in the US have reported a spike in xenophobic attacks against them online and in person. More than a thousand incidents have been reported to a new tracking project.
Tumor DNA May Explain Why Some People Respond Better to Cancer Treatment (1:07:56)
Guest: Anindya Dutta, PhD, Professor, Chair, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia
It’s common for people with the exact same cancer at the exact same stage to respond very differently to the exact same treatment. And doctors don’t really know why. Maybe they missed something in the diagnosis? Or maybe there’s something going on at the genetic level in the patient’s cancer cells that can explain the difference?
Of Plays and Plagues: Oberammergau Cancelled (1:20:46)
Guest: Frederik Mayet, Spokesperson the Oberammergau Passion Play, and Actor Playing the Role of Jesus Christ
In the 1600s, a village in the German alps made a vow to God that if he would spare their village from the bubonic plague, they would perform a play every 10 years, honoring the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To this day, the Oberammergau Passion Play is one of the oldest theater traditions in the world and this year – 2020 was to be its 42nd production. But it has been postponed because of COVID-19. So a play that began in response to a pandemic has been canceled because of one.
Chris Whatley of HALO USA on landmines. Brook Kennedy of Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s School of Architecture + Design on fog harvesting. Tommy Avallone on “The Bill Murray Stories." Ali Smith of the Holistic Life Foundation on meditation detention. Sarah Valentine on “When I Was White.”
Removing Landmines and Empowering Communities at the HALO Trust (0:34)
Guest: Chris Whatley, Executive Director, HALO USA
This last week the United Nations marked International Mine Awareness Day. Anywhere there’s been a protracted war, leftover landmines are a problem. The HALO Trust is a leading nonprofit working on this issue across Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East. (Originally aired 10/23/2019)
In Arid Regions, the Fog Harp Gets Water From Thin Air (16:41)
Guest: Brook Kennedy, Industrial Designer and Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s School of Architecture + Design
More than one billion people around the world live where water is scarce. Another billion face water shortages because their country doesn’t have the proper infrastructure to collect and distribute it. The United Nations predicts water will only become more scarce in the coming years. Brook Kennedy has figured out how to harvest water from fog. (Originally aired 11/6/2019)
The Bill Murray Stories (33:34)
Guest: Tommy Avallone, Director of the Film “The Bill Murray Stories”
I’ve noticed Groundhog Day and a bunch of other Bill Murray films on people’s top list of films to help you feel better while you’re stuck at home. I can’t disagree. Bill Murray is delightful. (Originally aired 3/4/2019)
The Holistic Life Foundation Teaches Schools to Replace Detention With Meditation (50:41)
Guest: Ali Smith, Executive Director of the Holistic Life Foundation
I’ve been doing a little more mindful meditation than usual to cope with the stress of things right now. I imagine I’m not the only one. Last November, we learned about an unusual use of meditation in schools. Rather than getting sent to detention for misbehavior, students in some Baltimore schools get sent to meditation rooms instead. (Originally aired 11/12/19)
When I Was White: A Complicated Personal Journey Across Race (1:05:13)
Guest: Sarah Valentine, Author of “When I Was White”
Sarah Valentine grew up the white daughter of white parents in suburban Pittsburgh. But not everyone seemed to agree she was white. A high school guidance counselor suggested she apply for academic scholarships for minority students. “I don’t qualify for those,” was Valentine’s reply. One time her boyfriend’s black friend asked her point blank if she was black. She said “No.” It wasn’t until Sarah Valentine was 27 and in graduate school that she learned the truth about her identity. She grew up the white daughter of white parents in suburban Pittsburgh, but she always knew there was something about her heritage her parents weren’t telling her. When she was in grad school, Sarah finally got the courage to ask. (Originally aired 9/12/19)
After COVID-19, America Will Never Be the Same (0:30)
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
The COVID-19 pandemic clearly feels like a turning point for the United States. History books will probably refer to life before the 2020 coronavirus outbreak and after. I know I will. In what ways will our lives, our politics, our perceptions be permanently changed?
Should Congress Meet Online? (19:28)
Guest: Marci Harris, Former Congressional Staffer, Co-Founder and CEO of PopVox
Let’s consider now how the pandemic might change the way Congress operates. At least five members of the House and Senate have contracted COVID-19 and many others have self-quarantined because of contact with an infected individual. Is it safe for members of Congress to be traveling back and forth between their districts and the Capitol every few weeks during a pandemic? Is there a way for Congress to do its business remotely during a crisis? So far House and Senate leadership have resisted the idea of going virtual. But there are others in Congress clamoring for it.
Belarus May Be Next on Russia’s “To Annex” List. (36:01)
Guest: Matthew Schmidt, Associate Professor of National Security and Political Science at the University of New Haven.
Belarus is a former Soviet bloc country landlocked and sandwiched between Russia and the European Union. Russian President Vladimir Putin could make it his – just like he annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. In some ways Belarus and Russia make a good fit. They’ve been closed economically and culturally for years. And Belarus’ leader is often called “Europe’s last dictator.” Belarus has continued to be even more of a Soviet-style country than Russia has.
Congressman Ben McAdams on His Encounter With COVID-19 (50:35)
Guest: Ben McAdams, United States Representative for Utah’s 4th Congressional District
Close to a half dozen members of US Congress have come down with COVID-19. Utah Democrat Ben McAdams was among the first and his battle with the virus included a week in the hospital.
Why Women Are Genetically Superior (1:00:52)
Guest: Sharon Moalem, MD, PhD, Author Of, THE BETTER HALF: On the Genetic Superiority of Women
Around the world, COVID-19 is killing more men than women. Dr. Sharon Moalem explains why.
Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen of Brigham Young Univ on America after COVID-19. Marci Harris of PopVox on if Congress could work remotely. Matthew Schmidt of The Univ of New Haven on Belarus and Russia. Ben McAdams, United States Representative for Utah’s 4th Congressional District on COVID-19. Sharon Moalem on "The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women'
Sonni Waknin UCLA Voting Rights Project on voting by mail. W. Kip Viscusi of Vanderbilt Univ. Law School on the price of lives. Justin Kaspe, Univ of Michigan, on solar flares. Ruha Benjamin of Princeton Univ on race after technology. Robert Eckel of Univ of Colorado on obesity stigma consensus statement. Debra Wada, former Congresswoman, on women in the draft.
COVID-19 Will Likely Mean More People Voting by Mail in November (0:32)
Guest: Sonni Waknin, Legal Fellow, UCLA Voting Rights Project
The coronavirus pandemic did not stop Wisconsin from holding its primary election this week. Voters donned masks and tried to stay six feet apart. Some poll workers wore hazmat suits. Imagine the challenges we’ll face keeping voters and poll workers safe if the coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing in November? How many people might just opt not to vote because they’re concerned about the close quarters and shared surfaces of their polling location? One solution is to let anyone who chooses, vote by mail instead of in person. President Trump is not a fan. He tweeted earlier today, “Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans.”
How Do You Calculate the Cost of Life? (19:33)
Guest: W. Kip Viscusi, Professor of Law, Economics, and Management, Vanderbilt University Law School, Author of “Pricing Lives: Guideposts for a Safer Society”
At some point in the coming weeks, countries will have to decide if the economic toll of pandemic closures and isolation has become more of a problem than the disease itself. To put it bluntly, the decision will be: Here’s how many lives we can save if we keep everything closed. Are those lives worth it? Awful as that calculation sounds, insurance companies and policy makers do something like it all the time.
Dangers Posed by Solar Flares (34:03)
Guest: Justin Kasper, PhD, Space and Planetary Physicist, Professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan
Periodically, the sun burps out giant bursts of radiation, and sometimes they hit the earth dead on. The last time a really big one happened like that, compasses went on the fritz and telegraph communications was out for days. But that was in the 1800s. Today we rely on so much more technology that a major solar flare could be catastrophic.
Society’s Prejudice Are Embedded in Automated Systems – From Algorithms to Sensors (49:44)
Guest: Ruha Benjamin, PhD, Associate Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University, Author of “Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code.”
A few years ago, this video went viral of two men trying to get soap out of an automatic dispenser in a public restroom. First a white man puts his hand under the dispenser and out comes the soap. Then a black man tries. No soap. He moves his hand up and down, waves it around under the dispenser. Nothing. Then he takes a white paper towel and puts that under the soap dispenser. Yep. It works. He tries just his bare black hand again. Nothing. “The soap dispenser is racist,” laugh the men making the video. Automated systems were supposed to be less biased than humans, but the opposite has happened, says Ruha Benjamin.
Obesity Stigma Consensus (1:08:18)
Guest: Robert H. Eckel, MD, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, Division of Cardiology, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Colorado
The stigma surrounding obesity is so pervasive that it affects how doctors treat patients and it even affects how people with obesity think about themselves. Recently more than 100 medical and health organizations signed an international pledge to end the stigma of obesity. To understand what that pledge entails, we’ve got one of the co-authors of the statement, which was published in Nature Medicine.
Uncle Sam Wants You (Women Included) (1:21:56)
Guest: Debra Wada, Former Congressinal Staffer, CEO of Senshi Ame Advisors LLC
Women may soon have to join the military draft, if Congress listens to a commission that recently presented. The commission’s research covered several years of surveys and concluded that women should have to sign up, too.
Timothy Ihrig of Crossroads Hospice and Palliative Care on advanced directives. MK Backstrom, author of “Mom Babble: The Messy Truth About Motherhood,” on mommy blogging during COVID-19. Ann Eisenberg of Univ of South Carolina on Batson challenge. Sonya Shah, California Institute of Integral Studies, on restorative justice. Jay Olson of McGill Univ on psychedelic placebos. Eli Lebowitz, Yale Univ, on parent anxiety.
Why Making End-Of-Life Plans Right Now Is Important, and Empowering (0:30)
Guest: Timothy G. Ihrig, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Crossroads Hospice and Palliative Care
As hospitals across the country scramble to find the space and ventilators to treat the most seriously ill COVID 19 patients, there is something you and I can do right now (besides staying home and staying safe). Doctors say this is a crucial time for you and your loved ones to document your end-of-life wishes in the form of an advanced directive.
Mothering Young Kids Under Stress in Quarantine – How MK Backstrom Keeps Her Cool (16:38)
Guest: MK Backstrom, Blogger and Author “Mom Babble: The Messy Truth About Motherhood.”
We’re all stressed right now. Florida mom MK Backstrom is maybe a little more stressed than many, because she’s got two young kids at home. MK Backstrom’s got a large and devoted following on her “MomBabble” Facebook and Instagram pages. She’s known for her humor and her kids’ hijinx. Lately her live videos have taken a more serious turn given her husband’s role treating COVID-19 patients. But in the middle of it all, Backstrom is out with her first book of funny essays called, “Mom Babble: The Messy Truth About Motherhood.”
The Sneaky Bias That Keeps Women and African Americans Off Juries. (35:53)
Guest: Ann Eisenberg, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina
The US Constitution guarantees you the right to a jury trial in criminal cases, and the Supreme Court has said that ought to be a jury of your peers. But if you’ve watched any legal drama on TV, you know that juries are not assigned at random based on the community they’re drawn from. If you’re black, there’s no guarantee there will be any people of color on your jury because lawyers on the case have a lot of power to pick and choose. They’re technically not supposed to kick people off a jury because of race or gender. But University of South Carolina law professor Ann Eisenberg has evidence that women and African Americans are disproportionately removed from death penalty cases in her state.
What if Justice Meant Something Other Than Punishment? (50:37)
Guest: Sonya Shah, Executive Director of the Ahimsa Collective, Associate Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies
If you were seriously wronged by someone – say they hurt you or someone you love in a really terrible way – would you want to see that person punished? Here in America, justice equals punishment. Someone commits a crime, we lock them up. That helps explain why the US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. But many indigenous communities – and even a few countries like Norway – don’t think about justice as punishment. Instead, they do “restorative justice.”
The Enormous Power of Placebos, Paired With Persuasion (1:09:52)
Guest: Jay Olson, PhD Candidate, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
A bunch of college students at McGill University in Canada thought they were participating in a research experiment where they’d take a drug similar to magic mushrooms and see how it affected their creativity. More than half of them reported a psychedelic experience during the four hours of the study. So, imagine their surprise when they were told that little pink pill they’d been given was just a placebo. How did so many of them feel like they were on a drug when they weren’t really? The answer has some interesting – and important – implications for the way drugs are used to treat all kinds of conditions.
Treat the Parent to Treat the Child With Anxiety (1:24:41)
Guest: Eli Lebowitz, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of the Program for Anxiety, Child Study Center, Yale University
Treatment for anxiety in children only works about half the time. But what if we treated the parent instead of the child? New research shows that putting parents in counseling actually works because their efforts to help their anxious kid are often hurting more than helping.
COVID-19 Disinformation (0:30)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
The United States currently leads the world in COVID-19 cases, followed by Spain, Italy, Germany, France and then China. But US intelligence officials say China’s numbers are probably much higher and the country’s just not reporting them. Same thing may also be true about pandemic information coming out of Iran, Russia and other repressive regimes. How can the world respond to a global health crisis like this if we can’t trust each other to tell the truth about how bad it is?
Museum of the Bible’s Dead Sea Scrolls Are Fakes (19:08)
Guest: Jeffrey Kloha, Chief Curatorial Officer at the Museum of the Bible
The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the oldest biblical texts ever found – dating back 2,000 years. Bedouin herders found them in caves in the 1940s and most of them today are in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. But a few priceless fragments are held in private collections and other museums around the world. So it was a big, big deal for the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC to secure a half dozen Dead Sea Scroll fragments in the last decade. Now, the Museum has learned its fragments are fakes. Really, really good fakes.
Family Farmers Are Disappearing. Does America Really Need Them? (35:39)
Guest: Eric Sannerud, Farmer, Entrepreneur, and Business Owner
Family farming was at its peak in America 85 years ago and it’s been in steady decline since then. Sure, there’s still a lot of farming happening in the country, it’s just being done by fewer people with much bigger farms. The shift toward giant farming operations is making it harder and harder for small-time farmers who do it because they love it to stay afloat – and when they’re too old to keep it up, their kids and grandkids are often not interested in taking over. Eric Sannerud is an exception. He’s under 30 and growing hops on the Minnesota farm that’s been in his family for four generations. Sannerud is part of a nationwide effort to save family farming in America.
Manmade Ice Pyramids Compensate for Disappearing Glaciers in Himalayas (50:38)
Guest: Sonam Wangchuk, Engineer, Director of the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh
The region of Ladakh, high in the Himalayas of northern India, doesn’t get much rain, so the people there have long relied on melting glaciers for water to drink and grow their crops. But the glaciers are disappearing. So the people of Ladakh are making their own mountains of ice – they look like ice castles – to store water for the spring and summer. They’re called “Ice Stupas.”
I Live Simply Movement: https://www.ilivesimply.org/
Teens Who Play Sports Have More Resilience (1:10:34)
Guest: Paul Caldarella, Professor of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, Brigham Young University.
We’re all in need of resilience right now, with the stress of the pandemic weighing on our families and communities. Playing sports turns out to be a great way to teach resilience to kids.
Award-Winning Cartoonist on Stepping Into the Unknown With Young Readers (1:20:49)
Guest: Gene Luen Yang, MacArthur Genius Grant Recipient, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Cartoonist and Graphic Novelist, “Dragon Hoops”
Gene Luen Yang’s first graphic novel drew from his own experiences growing up Asian in America. It was called “American Born Chinese” and won him all kinds of praise, including being the first graphic novel ever nominated for a National Book Award. Yang’s latest graphic novel for teens also draws from real life – but it’s about basketball, which is something much less familiar to him. In fact, the very first line in the book, “Dragon Hoops” is Yang telling us, “I hated sports ever since I was a little kid. Especially basketball.” So why write a whole book on it?
Eric Jensen of Brigham Young Univ on COVID-19 disinformation. Jeffrey Kloha of The Museum of the Bible on Dead Sea Scroll fakes. Eric Sannerud, farmer and entrepreneur, on the rising generation of US farmers. Sonam Wangchuk of The Himalayan Institute of Alternatives on artificial glaciers. Paul Caldarella of Brigham Young Univ on resilience from sports. Gene Luen Yang, cartoonist and graphic novelist, on “Dragon Hoops."
Musician Damien Sneed on his concert tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr, "We Shall Overcome." Beekeeper Meredith May on her book "The Honey Bus" and how she learned about community and resilience from bees.
Gospel, Soul and Classical Musical Savant Finds Strength in Faith (:32)
Guest: Damien Sneed, Pianist, Organist, Composer, Conductor, Vocalist and Creator of “We Shall Overcome”
Damien Sneed was such a musical prodigy that at the age of 8 he was hired to be the music director for the senior choir at his church. So, here’s this 8-year-old piano whiz working with 80-year-olds. Sneed has gone on to great acclaim recording and composing in a range of musical genres from jazz to classical to gospel opera. His current project is an album and concert series called We Shall Overcome. It’s a tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Junior and features songs of struggle and freedom and faith.
Lessons from a Beehive on How to Be Part of a Community (16:08)
Guest: Meredith May, Pulitzer-Prize Nominated Journalist, Author of “The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees”
That’s Meredith May. She’s a beekeeper and author of “The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved By Bees.” When she was five, May’s parents divorced and virtually disappeared from her life. She was sent to live with her grandparents in Big Sur, California. Her grandpa kept bees, and it was from him and the hives that May says she learned the most important lessons of her life – about hard work, resilience and community.
George Takei, actor, on his book, “They Called Us Enemy.” Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University School of Law on emoji law. Alexander Chesler of the National Institutes of Health on our sixth sense, proprioception. Whitney Jenkins of AKQA on Speedgate, a game invented by AI. Kerry Murphy of The Fabricant on digital clothing. Amy Padnani of The New York Times on Overlooked, a project to write tributes for significant women in history.
Actor George Takei’s Firsthand Account of His Childhood in an Internment Camp for Japanese Americans (0:32)
Guest: George Takei, Actor/Activist/Author of “They Called Us Enemy”
George Takei shot to fame aboard the Starship Enterprise – even taking the captain’s chair on occasion. Before Takei was Star Trek’s Sulu, he was a child, imprisoned with his family because of their Japanese heritage. By the time Takei left the World War II internment camps, he was 9 years old and had spent nearly half his life behind barbed-wire. Takei’s story was the basis of a hit Broadway musical in which he co-starred with Lea Salonga called Allegiance. Now Takei has written a memoir about his childhood in the “relocation camps.” It’s a graphic novel titled “They Called Us Enemy.” (Originally aired 7/16/19)
How Emojis Are Impacting the Law (20:23)
Guest: Eric Goldman Is a Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law, Co-Director, High Tech Law Institute
Now that we’re all using emojis as a regular part of communication, they’re starting to pop up lawsuits. A judge or jury might have to decide if somebody’s thumbs-up emoji at the end of a text exchange was a firm commitment or just a way to end the conversation. If you give a thumbs up emoji is that the same as signing your name to a document? (Originally aired 11/4/2019)
Proprioception: Our Sixth Sense (32:31)
Guest: Alexander Chesler, Principal Investigator at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIH
Try this: Close your eyes and touch your finger to your nose. Pretty easy, right? You just engaged your sixth sense. It’s called proprioception and it’s what makes it possible for professional ice skaters to do triple axels, helps basketball players dunk a ball, and helps us all maintain that six-foot distance between each other right now. Surprisingly, researchers have only recently started to understand how it works. (Originally aired 1/16/20 at 2:40 PM)
Speedgate: New Sport Created by AI (50:43)
Guest: Whitney Jenkins, Creative Director, AKQA
Artificial intelligence created a new sport called "Speedgate," and it's catching on around the world. The game is a mix between rugby, croquet, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. The sport's motto? "Face the ball to be the ball to be above the ball" - definitely sounds like something written by a computer. (Originally aired 9/9/19)
Fashion That Is Always Digital, Never Physical (1:09:21)
Guest: Kerry Murphy, Founder and CEO of the Fabricant
With so many people working from home, there’s debate about what kind of attire is appropriate for video conference meetings. There’s a Dutch digital design firm called The Fabricant that practically anticipated this conundrum months ago. They’re developing clothes that exist only in the digital world. You’ll one day be able to buy a custom suit or designer gown. It’s just a digital file, so you can’t wear it in real life. But who cares when you get credit for looking great on Instagram or Zoom, while still wearing your sweats. (Originally aired 1/13/20)
Remembering the Overlooked Figures in History Through Obituaries (1:23:44)
Guest: Amy Padnani Is an Editor on the Obituaries Desk at the New York Time and the Creator of Overlooked
Notable deaths due to the coronavirus dominate the obituary page of the New York Times right now. Now, normally the cause of death wouldn’t be so important in getting an obit in the Times. Mainly you’d just need to be a white man who did something interesting. When Amy Padnani became an obituaries editor at the New York Times she looked through the archives and wondered, “Where are all the women?” Then she launched a new project called “Overlooked” to set the record straight. For two years, the obituaries staff has been writing tributes to people the paper missed: Computer programmer Ada Lovelace. Journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells. Poet Sylvia Plath. “Jane Eyre” author Charlotte Bronte. Plus, lots of names you wouldn’t recognize but should. (Originally aired 11/6/2019)
City-Sized Swarms of Locusts Are Annihilating Crops in East Africa and Middle East (0:32)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
While the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic, a plague of locusts is swarming across East Africa and the Middle East. The locusts are devouring crops and their numbers are multiplying rapidly. It really is like the book of Exodus come to life – but it’s not landing on the front pages of newspapers in America.
When Invasive Species Stand in for Extinct Animals in an Ecosystem (18:17)
Guest: Erick Lundgren, PhD Student, Centre for Compassionate Conservation, University of Technology Sydney
Hippos are native to Africa. But there’s a thriving population of the lumbering plant-eaters in Colombia on the former estate of drug lord Pablo Escobar. The hippos were part of his private zoo and after Escobar’s death in 1993, they were left to fend for themselves. Now they’ve moved into Colombia’s main river and may number around 100. This is the classic example of an invasive species setting up shop in a place it doesn’t belong – and usually it’s bad news. Just look at Florida’s python problem. But these hippos might be a case of helping the ecosystem because they behave a little like some of the ancient creatures that used to roam this part of Colombia.
Should I Be Wearing a Mask When I Go Outside? (33:59)
Guest: Arnold Monto MD, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health.
For weeks, US health officials have been telling us not to wear masks in public unless you’re already infected with COVID-19. But now both the CDC is considering changing that recommendation to say that a basic face mask is a good idea for everyone – even if it’s just a bandana tied around your face, since masks are nearly impossible to find in stores now. Some Asian countries have encouraged face masks throughout the pandemic. Have we been putting ourselves at risk this whole time?
US Presidents Weren’t Supposed to Have Cabinets, But They All Do. Here’s Why. (50:40)
Guest: Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Historian, White House Historical Association, Author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution”
During the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump has relied on a close group of advisors to guide the response. We’ve seen them standing beside him during daily briefings: the Vice President; Treasury Secretary; Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Surgeon General and the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. We also know that behind-the-scenes, President Trump has reached out to a range of friends, business leaders, media personalities and celebrities for advice. Presidents need advisers they can trust in a crisis. So, perhaps it will surprise you to learn that the US Constitution doesn’t actually provide for a Presidential cabinet. In fact, the idea that a president would consult with a small group of advisers was really upsetting to many of the founding fathers. And yet, every US president since Washington has had one.
The Physics of a Bird’s Nests (1:27:49)
Guest: Dr Hunter King, Assistant Professor, Department of Polymer Science, University of Akron
I have short curly hair and when I wake up in the morning it looks like birds have nested on my head. Except that birds’ nests aren’t just tangled and haphazard. They’re actually an impressive feat of engineering that physicist Hunter King is trying to figure out so we can create new materials and building techniques.
Quinn Mecham of Brigham Young Univ on the locust plague in East Africa. Erick Lundgren of Univ of Technology Sydney on extinct niches. Arnold Monto?, Univ of Michigan School of Public Health on mask task. Lindsay Chervinsky, author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American institution,” on the presidential cabinet. Hunter King of Univ of Akron on birds' nests& biomimicry.
Uncertainty Over Cost and Access to Future COVID-19 Exposes Flaws in US Drug System (0:30)
Guest: Robin Feldman, Arthur J. Goldberg Distinguished Professor of Law, Director of the Center for Innovation at University of California Hastings, Author of "Drugs, Money, & Secret Handshakes: The Unstoppable Growth of Prescription Drug Prices"
A vaccine for COVID-19 is currently being tested on humans in Seattle, but it’ll be at least a year before it’s available publicly. Even then, it’s unclear who will be able to afford it. That all depends on how much the drug company that develops the vaccine decides to charge for it and how much of that cost health insurers will cover. You would think that a vaccine like this would be somehow made available to everyone regardless of cost – but that’s not how our system works, says Robin Feldman.
Emotionally Intelligent Bosses (22:38)
Guest: Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Research Scientist for the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
If you’re working from home now, tensions might be high between you, your boss, and other coworkers. Remote working sure makes it easy for miscommunications to happen. But a new study out of Yale University shows that if supervisors recognize and acknowledge high emotions, employees are happier and more creative. And not just when we’re all in crisis.
Community Theater for Neurodiverse Performers and Audiences (39:26)
Guest: Karalyn Joseph, Student at Harvard University, Founder and Director of the Community of Actors Sharing in Theatre (C.A.S.T.).
As a high school junior, Karalyn Joseph started a community theater program for people with disabilities. Today, Joseph is a junior at Harvard, studying theater and neuroscience and she continues to direct the C.A.S.T. Theatre group in her Pennsylvania hometown.
Apple Seed (50:40)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne waxes nostalgic on one of the best tricks on April Fool's Day.
Prosecutors Are Using Rap Lyrics as Evidence in Court (1:03:05)
Guest: Erik Nielson, Associate Professor of Liberal Arts, University of Richmond
Gangsta rap is notoriously violent and vulgar, bragging about killing cops, shooting rivals, assaulting women, and selling drugs. It’s perhaps not surprising then, that lyrics like that have been used as evidence in hundreds of court cases charging rappers with crimes. But that’s not what happens to other types of artists – Johnny Cash didn’t get charged with murder for singing, “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.” Nobody called Francis Ford Coppola a mobster because he made “The Godfather” movies. Erik Nielson says using a rapper’s lyrics against them in trial is a violation of Free Speech – and it’s also racist.
Why the Ultra-Rich Are Putting Their Money Into South Dakota (1:20:36)
Guest: Oliver Bullough, Contributor to the Guardian, Author of “Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back”
Time was, the world’s super-rich would park their billions in a place like Panama, Switzerland or the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes. Today, they’re just as likely to send their money to the United States, and South Dakota is leading the way.
Robin Feldman, Univ of California Hastings, on a COVID-19 vaccine. Zorana Pringle of The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence on emotional intelligence. Karalyn Joseph, student at Harvard Univ, on neurodiverse theater. Sam Payne from the Apple Seed on April Fool's Day. Erik Nielson, Univ of Richmond, on using rap lyrics in court. Oliver Bullough, author of “Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back” on South Dakota trusts.
Richard Evans of Univ of Chicago on coronavirus and the economy. Staci Gruber of Harvard Medical School on cannabis. Gioia Massa of NASA on space lettuce. Sadiqa Kendi of Children’s National Hospital on medicine safety. Alice Knoedler of the Univ of Virginia School of Medicine on immune system myths. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com on children's movies that can help kids talk about pandemic fears.
How the $2 Trillion in Pandemic Relief Is Supposed to Help the Economy (0:31)
Guest: Richard Evans, PhD, Associate Director and Senior Lecturer, Master’s Program in Computational Social Science, University of Chicago
Congress has so far approved a little more than $2-trillion in stimulus and relief to deal with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but will it be enough?
How Much Do We Actually Know About Medical Marijuana? (18:02)
Guest: Staci Gruber, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery Program at McLean Hospital.
Marijuana use for medicinal purposes is now the norm in America – all but a few states allow it. And in 11 states, it’s legal for adults to use marijuana recreationally – no doctor’s note required. But we still know very little about how cannabis affects the body and brain. This is a case of policy outpacing science.
Growing Lettuce (And Other Food) in Space (34:51)
Guest: Gioia Massa, PhD, Plant Scientist, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Veggie Project Lead
NASA is working on sending humans back to the moon and then onto Mars in the next decade. Gioia Massa is working on making sure the astronauts who go on those long space missions have fresh produce in their diet.
How to Protect Your Children From Accidental Poisoning (50:39)
Guest: Sadiqa Kendi MD, Medical Director, Safe Kids DC and Children’s National Safety Center at Children’s National Hospital
Parents working at home all day with little kids underfoot is a tricky situation. It’s impossible to keep a close eye on them at every moment. So these pandemic quarantines may boost the risk of kids getting into medicines. During normal times, a kid with accidental medicine poisoning shows up in an emergency room somewhere in America every ten minutes.
Immune Booster Myths (1:06:54)
Guest: Alice Knoedler, M.D., Fellow in the Division of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, University of Virginia School of Medicine
We’re all trying to stay healthy right now. Is there anything that can boost the immune system’s ability to fight off infection? Quick fixes abound on the internet.
Movies to Help Kids Talk About Pandemic Fears (1:19:26)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
How’s the stress level in your home right now? Movies can be a great way for families to spark a conversation about feelings and coping with scary stuff, so Kirsten Hawkes of Parent Previews.com has a few recommendations for you today.
David Wallechinsky, International Society of Olympic Historians on the Olympics being postponed. Trish Newport of Doctors Without Borders on the end of Ebola. Michael Donovan, Penn State Univ, on evidence to impact. Suresh Kuchipudi of Penn State Univ on the origins of pandemics. Toby McCartney of MacRebur, on plastic roads. Cary Fowler, author of “Seeds on Ice: Svalbard and the Global Seed Vault.” on seed vaults.
Olympics to Happen Next Summer in Tokyo (0:29)
Guest: David Wallechinsky, President of the International Society of Olympic Historians
There will be no 16 days of glory this summer in Tokyo. For the first time in modern Olympic history, the games have been postponed to next summer. Three other times the Olympics were canceled – and it took a world war for that to happen.
Ebola Epidemic Is Almost Over, but That Doesn’t Mean We Should Celebrate (19:49)
Guest: Trish Newport, Emergency Coordinator for the Ebola response in DRC, Doctors Without Borders
The Ebola epidemic may be almost over – the last patient with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was recently released. This outbreak has been going on since August 2018, with more than 3,000 cases and 2,000 deaths. Trish Newport’s not so sure we should celebrate – she says Ebola may be ending not because of international humanitarian efforts, but despite them.
Evidence to Impact (36:52)
Guest: Michael Donovan, Director of Policy and Outreach, Administrative Data Accelerator, Penn State University
The coronavirus pandemic is giving us a real-world look at the importance of academics and policymakers working together. Researchers at universities around the world are studying the virus and data of its spread. Government officials are making the decisions about what to shut down and where to send resources. Often there’s a disconnect between policymakers and academics, though.
Why Do Most New Virus Outbreaks Start in Asia and Africa? (50:38)
Guest: Suresh Kuchipudi, Professor of Virology, Penn State University
The virus that causes COVID-19 first emerged in China. Scientists believe it jumped from a bat to some other animal that was for sale in a live animal market, where it jumped into a human and began its global spread. That this virus emerged in Asia is not surprising. SARS, MERS, and Ebola all emerged in Asia and Africa.
Plastic Roads Provide a New Solution to Handling Waste (1:09:29)
Guest: Toby McCartney, Founder and CEO of MacRebur, The Plastic Roads Company
We’re in a plastic crisis. Not only is plastic ending up everywhere – in the ocean, in our food – but when we recycle in the US, it doesn’t always make a difference. A lot of recycling ends up in a landfill. Toby McCartney has a novel idea that could help – reusing plastic to make roads.
“Doomsday” Vault to Protect the Earth’s Food Supply (1:25:09)
Guest: Cary Fowler, Ph.D., Founder of the Svalbard Seed Vault and Author of the Book “Seeds on Ice: Svalbard and the Global Seed Vault.”
I’m thinking a lot about contingency plans right now – as I’m sure you are. Times of crisis tend to steer our thoughts in that direction. More than a decade ago, plant scientist Cary Fowler came up with a contingency plan for the world’s crop diversity. The result is an underground vault on a Norwegian island not far from the North Pole. Inside are hundreds of millions of frozen seeds.
Behind Movie Sound Effects (0:34)
Guest: Marko Costanzo, Emmy Award-Winning Foley Artist
We know there’s a lot of movie watching going on right now with everyone cooped up at home, so here’s a conversation about the really surprising origin of the sounds you hear when you watch a film. Marko Costanzo’s done sound effects for a bunch of hit movies and TV shows, including The Irishman, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and Mary Poppins Returns. (Originally aired 2/6/19)
In the Surprisingly Organized World of Kidnapping for Ransom, Insurance Companies Are Key (25:35)
Guest: Anja Shortland, Professor in Political Economy, King’s College London, Author of “Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business”
A lot of people are probably kicking themselves for not buying travel insurance for trips they had to cancel due to the pandemic. But no one could have foreseen that happening. There’s another kind of insurance you will probably never need: kidnap insurance. There’s a surprisingly organized industry built around kidnapping people for ransom globally. The companies that provide insurance against the possibility that you’ll get kidnapped for ransom play a strange and important role, according to the research of Anja Shortland. (Originally aired 9/25/2019)
First It Burned Them, Then It Froze Them. How an Asteroid Killed the Dinosaurs. (50:41)
Guest: Sean Gulick, Research Professor, University of Texas at Austin
You’ve heard that a massive asteroid caused the dinosaurs to go extinct. But how exactly? I’ve never understood why a giant rock crashing to Earth would kill all the dinosaurs. One asteroid couldn’t smash them all. What about the dinos on the other side of the planet – how does an asteroid kill them? Geologist Sean Gulick at the University of Texas at Austin is part of a team that’s pieced together the most detailed timeline yet of just how the extinction happened. (Originally aired 9/26/2019)
Human Trafficking Is More Prevalent Than Previously Thought, Know the Signs (1:07:14)
Guest: Amy Farrell, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University
Human trafficking still happens right here in the United States. And it’s happening more often than the official data suggest. Police departments often don’t have a category for “human trafficking” when recording crimes in state and federal databases. Criminologist Amy Farrell at Northeastern University says that – coupled with insufficient training of police officers – has led to a “massive undercount” of human trafficking cases in the US. (Originally aired 10/7/2019)
Processing Processed Food Guilt (1:24:23)
Guest: Ruth MacDonald, Department Chair / CALS Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University
When people rushed to stock up on food at the start of pandemic quarantines, the cereal and pasta shelves emptied – but there was still plenty of fresh produce at my grocery store. Which makes sense, because if you don’t know how long you’ll be stuck at home, you want stuff that won’t go bad as quickly. And there’s the rub of processed food – it lasts longer and is often easier to cook. But it’s also not good for us, right? (Originally 10/14/2019)
Marko Costanzo on Foley artists. Anja Shortland of King’s College London on kidnapping insurance. Sean Gulick,Univ of Texas at Austin, on dinosaur extinction. Amy Farrell of Northeastern Univ on human trafficking. Ruth MacDonald of Iowa State Univ on processed foods.
Yes, the Government Can Shut Businesses Down and Force You to Stay Inside (0:29)
Guest: Nicholas Duston, Partner, Norris McLaughlin
The last few weeks of government orders to stay at home have been bewildering for Americans used to personal freedoms. Just how far can the government go in a situation like this? Could it get to a point where people are fined for violating a shelter-in-place order? Could the government mandate that everyone be vaccinated – when a vaccine for COVID-19 is finally available? And what about private businesses? Apparently, the government can decide which shut down and which stay open in a crisis – and the businesses just have to do as ordered?
Gender Imbalance in Animal Testing (13:40)
Guest: Rebecca Shansky, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience Researcher, Northeastern University
Until the 1990s, it was really common for new drugs to be tested only on men in clinical trials. And then we were all just supposed to assume that however the drug worked on men, it’ll work that way on women, too. Which seems crazy in retrospect, so it’s lucky that today women account for roughly half of all participants in clinical research supported by the National Institutes of Health. But it’s still really common for scientists to use only male rats and mice in the earlier stages of their research.
How Abusers Use Spyware to Stalk and Harass (33:03)
Guest: Eva Galperin, Director of Cybersecurity, Electronic Frontier Foundation
During economic downturns and natural disasters, domestic violence spikes. The extreme stress of the current pandemic and shelter-in-place rules could make things even more dangerous for abuse victims. The National Domestic Violence Hotline and shelters around the country remain open. That number is 1-800-799-SAFE. But there’s an insidious tool abusers have begun using to secretly keep tabs on their victims’ calls, texts and movements.
So You’re a Homeschool Parent Now. Here Are Some Tips From an Expert (50:07)
Guest: Jayme Metzgar, Homeschool Parent and Senior Contributor, The Federalist
Before we get to the history of homeschooling in America – and it is a really fascinating history - let’s get some practical tips for all the parents out there who suddenly find themselves homeschooling kids. Jayme Metzgar’s been at this for 13 years.
From Normal to Weird to No Big Deal. A Look at the History of Homeschool in America. (1:05:33)
Guest: Milton Gaither, PhD, Professor of Education, Messiah College, Author of “Homeschool: An American History”
With parents all over the country lamenting how they’re suddenly forced to homeschool their kids, we started wondering about the history of homeschooling itself. Those of us who were school-age in the 70s and 80s might remember just controversial homeschooling was – how weird people thought it was that parents would presume to educate their kids at home. But today it’s a lot more mainstream. Lots of elite athletes and famous musicians have been homeschooled. School districts practically bend over backward to accommodate homeschoolers. How did that happen?
Nicholas Duston of Norris McLaughlin on government emergency powers. Rebecca Shansky, Northeastern Univ, on female mice. Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation on stalkerware. Jayme Metzgar of The Federalist on homeschool parent tips. Milton Gaither of Messiah College on the history homeschooling in America.
Patrick Michels of Reveal from the Center of Investigative Reporting on COVID-19 and how its affecting detainees. Rodney Smith Jr. of Raising Men Lawn Care Service on mowing lawns during a pandemic. Anne Case and Angus Deaton of Princeton Univ on “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.” Jeff Reitz on 2995 days at Disneyland. Victor Tsai of Brown Univ on earthquake science. Bill Gray of The Planetary Society on the mini-moon.
How COVID-19 is affecting Immigration Detainees (0:30)
Guest: Patrick Michels, Immigration Investigative Reporter, Reveal - From the Center for Investigative Reporting
Across the country, more than 37,000 immigrants are being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in conditions that are sometimes crowded and prime for the spread of disease. On Tuesday, ICE announced the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in a detainee. Immigrant rights advocates are filing a flurry of lawsuits demanding that migrants be released on humanitarian grounds.
Good Neighboring in the Time of COVID-19 (20:41)
Guest: Rodney Smith Jr., Founder of Raising Men Lawn Care Service
Even in the middle of a global pandemic, Rodney Smith, Jr. is on a crusade to do good. He’s been at it for four years, actually, traveling the country mowing lawns – for free – for veterans, single mothers, people with disabilities, the elderly or sick. With the quarantines, Smith is sticking to mowing lawns in Huntsville, Alabama where he lives, rather than traveling to other states. But through his nonprofit called “Raising Men Lawn Care Service” he’s got an army of kids doing the same for people all over the world.
Why Are So Many White, Uneducated Americans Dying Deaths of Despair? (32:36)
Guest: Anne Case, PhD, Professor of Economics, Princeton University; Angus Deaton, PhD, Nobel Prize Winning Professor of Economics, Princeton University, Co-Authors of “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism”
Life expectancy is falling in America. That’s not supposed to happen in a developed country like ours – and it wasn’t happening until about ten years ago. But not all Americans are dying younger. Mainly it’s middle-aged white people dying of what Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton have dubbed “deaths of despair.”
2,995 Days of Disneyland (50:24)
Guest: Jeff Reitz, Instagram: @disney366_
The coronavirus pandemic shutdown Disneyland and with it pretty remarkable run for Jeff Reitz. He’d been to Disneyland every single day for eight years. The night the park closed, a week and a half ago, was Reitz’s 2,995th consecutive day at Disneyland. Can you even imagine?
Shaking Earthquake Science (1:09:41)
Guest: Victor Tsai, Associate Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University
There was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake in Utah last week – the strongest we’ve head in decades so it caused quite a bit of anxiety, though not much damage. An earthquake of similar magnitude struck the capital of Croatia on Sunday and caused, significant damage. But in California, there was a 5.3 earthquake near Eureka last week that barely made the news, since quakes of that size happen dozens of times a year in the state. Why are some earthquakes of the same magnitudes more destructive than others?
Earth’s Car-Sized Second Moon Was Only Visiting (1:24:51)
Guest: Bill Gray, Creator of Guide Astrometry Software
Earth just lost a moon. Not the moon - a second, much smaller one, about the size of a Toyota Prius. Astronomers only discovered it orbiting our planet a month ago. Now it’s gone. Where did it go? Where did it come from? And could we get another moon someday?
Joel Goldstein of Saint Louis Univ on VPs running for President. Brad Story of Univ of Arizona on throat singing. Kristin Bässe of Reporters Without Borders Germany on the Uncensored Library. Peter McGraw of Univ of Colorado Boulder and the Humor Research Lab on funny business. Steve Hydon, Clinical Professor in Field Education, on teacher burnout. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on emotional-self-regulation.
When VPs Run for America’s Top Office (0:35)
Guest: Joel K. Goldstein, Professor of Law, Saint Louis University, Author of “The Modern American Vice Presidency: The Transformation of a Political Institution” and “The White House Vice Presidency: The Path to Significance, Mondale to Biden”
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is still in the 2020 presidential race, but former Vice President Joe Biden is winning in the primaries and looks likely to be the Democratic nominee. It’s not unusual for vice presidents to run for the top job. It is unusual for them to do it after being out of office for a while. In fact, only one other former vice president has successfully run for president after taking a break from office.
The Science Behind Tuvan Throat Singing (22:02)
Guest: Brad Story, Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Arizona
The throat singers of Tuva and Mongolia have long puzzled scientists. But some clever scientists solved the puzzle by putting a Tuvan throat singer into an MRI and recording a video of what’s going on inside his mouth and throat as he sings.
The Uncensored Library Lets Journalists Escape Censorship In…Minecraft? (34:30)
Guest: Guest: Kristin Bässe, Media and Public Relations Officer, Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
The video game Minecraft is proving popular – and useful – during the pandemic. Poland launched a public server so kids can hang out and build things with their friends in a virtual space – while keep at a safe social distance. Some Japanese elementary students missing out on their graduation, held one for themselves in Minecraft. The company that makes Minecraft is extending its educational options for teachers and students to use during the pandemic, too. On a very serious note, the international nonprofit Reporters Without Borders has just launched a public library inside Minecraft where people can go to read the work of journalists who’ve been censored, persecuted and, and in the case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, killed for speaking against repressive regimes.
Thinking Funny Can Help You Be More Creative at Work. But Don’t Try to BE Funny. (50:41)
Guest: Peter McGraw, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Econ, University of Colorado Boulder, Director of the HuRL (Humor Research Lab)
We’re all looking for a bit of relief in these confusing and chaotic times. But humor is tricky because it can come off as tone deaf. Somebody’s bound to be offended by whatever light you try to make of a tough situation. Word of advice – do not be that person in your office right now cracking wise. In fact, trying to be funny is a terrible business strategy, says Peter McGraw.
Teacher Burnout (1:14:26)
Guest: Steve Hydon, Clinical Professor in Field Education Focused on Child Welfare, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Social Work Practice in Schools.
Teachers are exhausted. And it started even before COVID-19. Some fo it More than half of Americans say they experienced some kind of trauma in childhood. Teaching is a stressful job—there’s no doubt about that. But what happens when the stress goes beyond lesson plans and grading? Secondary Traumatic Stress is defined by the National Child Trauma Stress Network as “the emotional duress that results when an individual hears about the firsthand trauma experiences of another," and as it turns out, teachers are particularly susceptible.
Helping Kids With Emotional Self-Regulation (1:30:08)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Marissa Baker of Univ of Washington on COVID-19 and low-income workers. Alex Mahadevan of Poynter Institute on MediaWise. Naomi Andre of the Seattle Opera and Univ of Michigan, on her book “Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement.” Thad Domina, Univ of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on COVID-19 and education. Susan Seager of Univ of California, Irvine on SLAPP suits. Isaac Wright Jr, Executive Producer of “For Life” on ABC Television on the true story behind "For Life."
Workers Most at Risk for Catching, Spreading Coronavirus (0:31)
Guest: Marissa Baker, Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington
Congress is wrangling over how best to prop up the US economy as coronavirus shutdowns drive businesses and individuals into dangerous financial territory. The $2 trillion proposal currently being debated would send $1,200 checks to most adults and $500 to most children. Hundreds of billions of dollars would be available to help small businesses meet payroll costs. Low income workers with low-wage jobs are at particular risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus right now.
How to Spot Misinformation Online (16:25)
Guest: Alex Mahadevan, Senior Multimedia Reporter, MediaWise, Poynter Institute
Bad information about the novel coronavirus is all over the internet - Facebook has been working hard to take down misinformation. But we’re not that great at spotting bad information online even when we’re not in crisis. Half of Americans admit they’ve shared made-up news, but didn’t know it was fake at the time. That’s where MediaWise steps in – it’s a group at the Poynter Institute dedicated to helping teenagers be more media literate.
How Blackness Is Portrayed on the Opera Stage (32:12)
Guest: Naomi Andre, Scholar in Residence at the Seattle Opera, Professor at the University of Michigan, and Author of the 2018 Book “Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement.”
It was barely five years ago, that America’s most prestigious opera company – the Met in New York – stopped putting blackface makeup on tenors performing the lead role in Verdi’s Otello. Until then, few of opera’s fans or participants raised any concern about the idea of a white man darkening his face to play the famous Shakespeare’s character. The performance of white South African tenor Johan Botha as Othello, wearing blackface in the Met’s 2012 production of the opera, launched musicologist Naomi Andre into the research that became her 2018 book, “Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement.”
The Effects of School Closure Due to Coronavirus (50:39)
Guest: Thad Domina, Professor of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Hundreds of thousands of kids are at home now with school closures across the country and many Americans being asked not to leave their homes. Some students may think it’s a fun, unexpected vacation, but not having kids in a school building negatively affects students from lower income families.
SLAPP Suits (1:06:21)
Guest: Susan Seager Is a Media Defense Lawyer, and Lecturer and Head of The Press Freedom and Transparency Practice at University of California, Irvine.
In the last month, President Trump’s campaign has filed lawsuits against both the New York Times and the Washington Post over opinion columns that the Trump campaign says are defamatory. Legal experts say there’s little chance the President will win in court because he’s a public figure and the articles he’s complaining about were opinion pieces that get a lot of protection under the First Amendment. But winning is not usually the point when it comes to lawsuits like this. People and companies with money to spare can do a lot to silence critics by slapping them with lawsuits that are expensive and time consuming to fight in court. These kinds of suits even have a name – SLAPP, which stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
Emotional Expression Database (1:17:40)
Suzy Scherf, PhD, associate professor of psychology, principal investigator of the Laboratory of Developmental Neuroscience, Pennsylvania State University
I work with the toddler class at my church on Sundays and we sing that song about turning a frown upside down. Even before kids can speak fluently, they somehow become fluent in facial expressions – at least the basics like happy and sad. Researchers at Penn State University have created a database of what more complex expressions like jealous or flirtatious look like to help scientists study them, too.
The True Story Behind ABC’s "For Life" (1:27:13)
Guest: Isaac Wright Jr, Attorney, Executive Producer of “For Life” on ABC Television
The new ABC drama "For Life" is about a wrongfully convicted man who studies law in prison and represents fellow-inmates while bringing down the corrupt prosecutor who put him behind bars. The TV show is loosely based on Isaac Wright Junior, the first person to ever be sentenced to life in prison, secure his own release and exoneration, and then be granted a license to practice law in the same court where he was convicted. It’s a pretty amazing story.
Does It Really Matter if Political Ads Are Allowed on Social Media? (0:36)
Guest: Adam Durfee, Managing Director of YDigital Agency, Brigham Young University
Facebook has been fighting hard to remove misinformation about COVID-19 from the site. What it won’t take down? Political ads. CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees Facebook as a public square where the ability to speak freely matters, including through paid political advertising. Heading into this presidential election, Twitter took the opposite stance by banning on all political advertising from its platform. Campaigns should earn their exposure on Twitter, says CEO Jack Dorsey. They shouldn’t just be allowed to reach a bunch of people by paying for it. (Originally aired 11/14/19)
Why Some People Get Their Blood Sucked More Than Others (17:50)
Guest: Jonathan Day, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology, University of Florida
Winter is officially over. But enjoying the sunshine again means soon we’ll be enjoying mosquito bites. Have you ever noticed that the pesky bugs seem to like some people more than others? (Originally aired 10/2/2019)
What’s Artificial Intelligence’s Role in Religion? (33:35)
Guest: Ilia Delio, PhD, Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC, Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology, Villanova University.
Lots of churches have gone digital to avoid coronavirus spread. Is technology a help or hindrance to sincere spirituality? What if the pastor or priest leading service or hearing confession on the other end of your internet connection were an artificially intelligence computer instead of a human? There are already Buddhist priest robots in Japan that will conduct funeral services and in Europe there’s a robot that will quote comforting scripture to elderly patients in nursing homes. Would you seek spiritual counsel from an artificially intelligent machine? (Originally aired 23/11/2019)
Excelsior! Remembering Stan Lee (50:43)
Guest: Joseph Darowski, English Professor, Brigham Young University
The last surviving cartoonist to work on the original Captain America comics died this week. His name was Allen Bellman, and he did a lot of freelance work for Stan Lee, the Marvel Comics icon who helped create Spider-Man, the X-Men, Black Panther, Iron Man and many more. As the original artists behind the most beloved superheroes pass away, their creations are enjoying blockbuster success on screen. Stan Lee died in 2018 and we took the opportunity to consider his legacy. (Originally aired 11/14/2018)
Finding Fake Volcanoes and Dealing With the Real Ones. (1:20:57)
Guest: Janine Krippner, PhD., Volcanologist at the Smithsonian Institute
There are fewer volcanoes today than there were just last year thanks to people like volcanologist Janine Krippner. She works at the Smithsonian and one of her jobs is to sniff out imposters on the official list of volcanoes. Yes, there’s an official list. And best beware if you’re a volcano-wannabe, cause Krippner has no qualms killing your dream. (Originally aired 9/11/2019)
Adam Durfee of Brigham Young Univ on political ads. Jonathan Day of Univ of Florida on mosquito bites. Ilia Delio, Villanova Univ, on AI and religion. Joseph Darowski of Brigham Young Univ on Stan Lee. Janine Krippner of the Smithsonian Institute on how to kill a volcano.
Global Pandemic Response Illustrates Consequences of America’s Tunnel-Vision War on Terror (0:32)
Guest: David Kilcullen, Former Advisor to the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, Professor of Practice in Global Security, Arizona State University, Author of “The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West”
One of the clearest lessons of this pandemic, so far, is that we are all in this together. We’re so connected as a global community that a virus in one country will travel to another. The economic pains of the pandemic will not be isolated to just one part of the planet. So why haven’t the world’s nations done a better job coordinating our response to the coronavirus? In previous decades, the United States would have taken the lead in a global crisis like this – like the US did during the financial crisis that swept around the world in 2008. What’s different now?
Woman vs Woman - Dress Psychology (28:07)
Guest: Jaimie Krems, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Co-Founder of the Oklahoma Center of Evolutionary Analysis
I’m guessing these mass quarantine measures have a lot of people wearing pajamas or workout clothes all day – what’s the point of dressing up when you’re not leaving the house? Deciding what to wear can be exhausting – at least for women, it is. There’s the basic question of what’s appropriate attire for the occasion. But there’s also the fact that what a woman wears affects how both men and women treat her.
PG-13 Movie Violence Reinforces Troubling Messages for Kids (39:57)
Guest: Dan Romer, Research Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center
Is a lot of movie watching happening in your quarantined house? Over the last several decades, the amount of gun violence has doubled in PG-13 films. These are movies aimed at kids. And the gun violence they’re seeing outpaces what’s shown in R-rated movies. How’s that affecting the way kids think about guns and violence? Researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center have been studying this for a long time and lately they’ve discovered that a particular type of violence in movies has an especially powerful effect on teen brains.
The Fight for Equal Pay, Rights, & Opportunities in Sport (50:31)
Guest: Joan Steidinger, PhD, Sports and Clinical Psychologist, Author of “Stand Up and Shout Out: Women’s Fight for Equal Pay, Equal Rights, and Equal Opportunities in Sport”
The head of the US Soccer Federation abruptly resigned last week amid a storm of criticism over its handling of a lawsuit from the Women’s National Team. In a court filing, US Soccer argued that players on the men’s team are stronger and faster and have more skill, so their higher pay is justified. The filing prompted immediate condemnation from fans and sponsors - and the quick resignation of US Soccer’s president. But the organization is continuing to challenge the lawsuit from the Women’s National Team, whose players argue that their lower levels of compensation are a violation of the federal Equal Pay Act, which guarantees the same pay for the same work, regardless of gender. It’s been nearly fifty years since Title IX opened sports to women at all levels. Why do gender inequities in pay and access continue?
Title IX Opened the Doors for Women in Sports, but They Needed This First. (1:09:10)
Guest: Lisa Z. Lindahl, Inventor of Jogbra, Author of “Unleash the Girls: The Untold Story of the Invention of the Sports Bra and How It Changed the World (And Me)”
When Title IX became law in 1972, athletics programs for young women in high school and college exploded across the country, but discomfort and self-consciousness kept many women and girls off the playing field. Then, five years later, in 1977, a 28-year-old woman named Lisa Lindahl decided to do something about the problem. She invented the sports bra. And if you think that’s not a big deal, just ask the curators at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where this history and the first prototype of the sports bra are preserved, because for many women, it literally made sports possible. Lisa Lindahl says it not only changed the world – it changed her.
David Kilcullen, Arizona State Univ, on “The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West." Jaimie Krems of Oklahoma State Univ on women's dress patterns. Dan Romer, Annenberg Public Policy Center, on media violence. Joan Steidinger, author of “Stand Up and Shout Out” on equality in sports. Lisa Lindahl, author of “Unleash the Girls: The Untold Story of the Invention of the Sports Bra and How It Changed the World (And Me),” on the jogbra.
Drew Harris of Thomas Jefferson Univ on flattening the curve. Jim Collins of MIT on AI antibiotics. Lenore Newman of the Univ of the Fraser Valley and author of “Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food” on extinct foods. Sam Payne from the Apple Seed. Phil Schuman of Indiana Univ on credit card debt. Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries.
As Hospitals Brace for COVID-19, Americans Work to “Flatten the Curve” (0:35)
Guest: Drew A. Harris, DPM, MPH, Assistant Professor of Population Health, Thomas Jefferson University
Today, the US government urged all hospitals to cancel elective medical or dental surgeries so they can be ready for a wave of seriously-ill COVID-19 patients. New analysis guiding the Trump Administration’s policies on the pandemic, suggest between 100,000 and more than two-million Americans could die of coronavirus, depending on how aggressive we are about limiting the spread. Do hospitals even have enough staff, supplies and space to treat everyone likely to come down with COVID-19 in the coming weeks? This is why you’ve heard the phrase “flatten the curve” so much lately.
Hey Siri, Build Me a New Antibiotic. (17:27)
Guest: Jim Collins, Termeer Professor of Bioengineering in the Department of Biological Engineering and Institute for Medical Engineering &Amp Science MIT
Every year, thousands of Americans die from bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics. It’s a problem that’s been building up for decades because we can’t just churn out a new antibiotic every time a germ becomes resistant to an old antibiotic. They’re really hard to create – it takes a lot of time and money. But a team at MIT has come up with a possible solution using artificial intelligence. They’ve already discovered a new antibiotic, and they hope to create more.
How Humans Ate Their Favorite Foods to Extinction (31:04)
Guest: Lenore Newman, Canada Research Chair in Food Security and the Environment, Associate Professor of Geography and the Environment, University of the Fraser Valley, Author of “Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food.”
A little over a hundred years ago, the ultimate American comfort food was pigeon pot pie. Not chicken pot pie. Passenger pigeon pie. The bird was all over restaurant menus, too. And then Americans ate the passenger pigeon right out of existence. It was not the first time – nor will it be the last – that humans loved a food so much they drove it to extinction.
Apple Seed (50:45)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Storyteller Sam Payne on how people who make a living telling tales to large groups are adapting to social distancing rules.
Americans Are $14 Trillion in Debt (1:01:10)
Guest: Phil Schuman, Exec. Director of Financial Wellness, Indiana University
A recent Federal Reserve report shows, household debt hit an all-time high in 2019. Americans owe $14-trillion. The part of that figure that’s credit card debt is also at an all time high. Meanwhile, and this is a little strange, credit scores hit an all time high last year, too. Which must mean that even though we’ve got a lot of debt, we’re being responsible about it?
Homeboy Industries – The Power of Compassion (1:16:22)
Guest: Greg Boyle, American Roman Catholic Priest of the Jesuit Order, Founder and Director of Homeboy Industries
There’s a nonprofit in Los Angeles that hires gang members looking to get their lives on track. Rival gang members find themselves working side by side recycling electronics or baking pastries or serving café diners. Homeboy Industries was founded by Father Gregory Boyle – a Jesuit priest – in the late 80’s and today it’s the largest gang intervention and re-entry program in the world.
D’Vera Cohn, Pew Research Center, on the 2020 census. Zack Wigal of Gamers Outreach on bringing games to hospitals. John Feinstein on "The Back Roads of March: The Unsung, Unheralded and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season.” David Blackmon of Shale Magazine on oil chaos. Forrest Fleischman of Univ of Minnesota on planting trees. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com on movies about people feeling called to Christianity.
2020 Census Underway Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic (0:31)
Guest: D’Vera Cohn, Senior Writer/Editor Focusing on Immigration and Demographics, Pew Research Center, @AllThingsCensus
Every ten years the US counts every person living in the country. That count is underway right now, but it’s unusual for a number of reasons: it’s the first time everyone participating will be able to complete the short list of 2020 Census questions online. You may have already received the notice in the mail to hop online and do that. I did. Another big difference is that the Census is happening in the middle of nationwide quarantines due to coronavirus. How might that affect the accuracy of the count?
Bringing Games to Sick Kids (20:24)
Guest: Zack Wigal, Founder, Gamers Outreach
Children receiving treatment for serious medical conditions will sometimes spend extended periods in the hospital, which can be hard on their morale and their friendships. Playing video games can help. Zack Wigal is a gamer who runs a nonprofit that provides video game consoles to children’s hospitals.
Lamenting the Loss of March Madness and the Cinderella Stories It Promised (32:13)
Guest: John Feinstein, Author of the "Back Roads of March: The Unsung, Unheralded and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season”
Today would have been the start of March Madness, when college basketball teams from around the nation compete in the NCAA Tournament to find out who the best team is in the US. The tournament is off because of coronavirus. So that means no Cinderella sports story to capture our hearts – that unranked, unknown team that comes from nowhere and upsets a powerhouse. Veteran sportswriter John Feinstein says those are the stories that make March Madness so great.
Oil Prices Have Tanked and Not Just Because of Coronavirus Panic (50:37)
Guest: David Blackmon, Energy Industry Analyst, Editor of Shale Magazine, Contributor to Forbes.com
The price of oil has fallen off a cliff over the last week and it’s not just because of coronavirus panic.
Global Efforts to Plant a Trillion Trees Can’t Work Unless They Address Reasons Why the Trees Were Cut Down in the First Place (1:05:41)
Guest: Forrest Fleischman, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota Department of Forest Resources
The world’s most powerful business leaders have now joined conservation groups and political officials in committing to the “trillion tree” movement. President Trump announced his support in Davos in January. Exactly where should these trees be planted – and what good might they do?
Movies Exploring Faith and the Call to Serve God (1:19:33)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
These weeks before Easter are a time of reflection and repentance for Christians, so Kirsten Hawkes of Parent Previews.com has assembled a list of films about faith and devotion for us.
Nina Shapiro of UCLA on quarantine tips. Kelly McMahon from the Motion Picture Association on movie ratings. Stephen Kinzer on “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.” Jing Wang, Univ of Michigan, on a new toilet coating. Alejandro Frid on his book "Changing Tides: An Ecologist's Journey to Make Peace with the Anthropocene." Yoram Bauman, standup economist and co-author of “Cartoon Introduction to Economics” and “Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change.”
Coronavirus Quarantine Tips (0:33)
Nina Shapiro, MD, professor, UCLA, author of “Hype: A Doctor’s Guide to Medical Myths”
So school is canceled, meetings of more than 50 people are canceled and you’re working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic. But you feel fine and so do your kids. As far as you know you haven’t come into contact with anyone who has the virus. Do you and your family really need to stay locked down?
The CIA’s Failed Quest to Develop Mind Control (11:55)
Guest: Stephen Kinzer, Author of “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control”
The CIA has developed the ability to reprogram minds and wipe away inconvenient memories. At least in the movies, it can. That’s what the CIA did to assassin Jason Bourne once they were finished with him. And that’s where the Men in Black got their flashing pen-like “neutralizer” to erase knowledge of aliens from ordinary folks. So that’s all fun and fiction, but for 10 years during the Cold War, the CIA really did have a secret mind control project. Instead of flashing pens, they were experimenting with LSD. And instead of a little harmless amnesia about aliens, the CIA was wreaking havoc on the minds of prisoners, children, sex workers and even some of their own government employees. (Originally aired 11/7/2019)
Why It’s Not all Doom and Gloom When it Comes to Climate Change (49:30)
Guest: Alejandro Frid, Ecologist and Science Coordinator, Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance, Author of “Changing Tides: An Ecologist's Journey to Make Peace with the Anthropocene”
Humans are ruining the planet. That’s the key message you might take away from the steady warnings about climate change and carbon emissions. The atmosphere and oceans are warming. Droughts, wildfires and storms are getting more intense. Species are going rapidly extinct. Pollution threatens our drinking water. And basically, it’s too late to reverse course. We’re headed for a climate apocalypse unless the whole planet ditches fossil fuels and stops eating meat right now. I wish I were exaggerating here, but honestly, that’s how dire and hopeless the situation feels. Still, marine ecologist Alejandro Frid thinks there is room for optimism. (Originally aired 12/5/2019)
You Know You’re a Standup Economist if...You’re Yoram Bauman (1:25:41)
Guest: Yoram Bauman, Standup Economist, Co-Author “Cartoon Introduction to Economics” and “Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change”
Yoram Bauman travels the country trying to make people laugh at college gatherings and corporate events. He introduces himself as the “world’s first and only standup economist.” Jokes about economics can be tricky, but if you get the right crowd, Bauman kills. And there’s enough demand for economist jokes that this has been Bauman’s full-time gig for a decade. (Originally aired 12/5/2019)
Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute on the economic effect of COVID-19. Lisa Gualtieri of Tufts Univ School of Medicine on her nonprofit RecycleHealth. Richard Wolff of Univ of Massachusetts, Amherst on socialism in America. Sarah Milov, Univ of Virginia and author of “The Cigarette: A Political History,” on cigarettes. Sally Greenberg of the National Consumer League on unregulated CBD.
Will the Coronavirus Pandemic Spark a Global Recession? (0:31)
Guest: Josh Bivens, Director of Research, Economic Policy Institute
The economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic are expanding hourly, as more countries restrict travel, businesses and universities close or urge people to work from home and large gatherings get cancelled – the NBA, NHL have even suspended their seasons. A week ago, economist Josh Bivens warned that if COVID-19 prompts a recession, it’ll happen fast. Are we there now?
RecycleHealth Sends Unused Health Devices to Underserved Communities for Free (21:00)
Guest: Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Founder Of RecycleHealth
Fitness trackers are so common, you probably have one on your wrist right now, or else it’s gathering dust in a drawer somewhere because you lost interest after a few months. That happens so often that a Tufts University public health researcher created a nonprofit to gather abandoned Fitbits and smart watches and give them new homes.
Why Is Socialism No Longer Such a Bad Word in American Society? (32:42)
Guest: Professor Richard D. Wolff, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Author of "Understanding Socialism"
The most famous socialist in America is staying in the presidential race for now – even though Bernie Sanders is trailing Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. Technically, Bernie Sanders says he’s a “Democratic Socialist.” What does that actually mean, and why do his policies seem to resonate so well with young voters, when “socialism” has been a bad word in America for so long?
How Grassroots Activists Turned America Against Smoking (50:45)
Guest: Sarah Milov, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, University of Virginia, Author of “The Cigarette: A Political History”
If you look at smoking trends in America starting in the 1960s, the line goes steadily downward. In 1964, nearly half of Americans smoked. Today only 14 percent of adults do. What changed? Now it’d be easy to assume that after a historic declaration by the US Surgeon General, the whole US government got busy discouraging smoking. But actually, the opposite is true. For the next 40 years, the federal government continued to subsidize tobacco production and offer little help at all to the non-smoking movement. As historian Sarah Milov argues in her new book, “The Cigarette,” the only reason smoking today is banned in public places and considered socially unacceptable is because grassroots activists organized for it – against the most powerful political forces in the nation.
Consumer Group Warns CBD Products Are Largely Unregulated (1:26:28)
Guest: Sally Greenberg, Executive Director, National Consumer League
A component of marijuana called cannabidiol – or CBD – can be legally sold in nearly every state, but the Food and Drug Administration has admitted it’s a little behind here in terms of deciding how it should be regulate CBD – is it a drug or a supplement? In a recent report to Congress, the FDA expressed concerns about the potential safety risks posed by all of the creams, soaps, supplements and foods containing CBD that are currently for sale. The National Consumer League is urging the FDA to get more involved with the testing, labeling and researching CBD products.
US Withdrawing Troops in Peace Deal With Afghanistan (0:30)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
The US this week began withdrawing troops from Afghanistan to fulfill its part of a peace deal signed with the Taliban on February 29. By the summer, America has committed to bringing home a third of its 13,000 current troops in Afghanistan. But what happens when America has left Afghanistan is still an open question.
Fido or Foe? (22:56)
Guest: Deni Elliott, Eleanor Poynter Jamison Chair in Media Ethics and Press Policy Department of Journalism and Digital Communication at USF
Everyone’s seen a Service Animal in action at some point or another. Maybe its task is more obvious, or maybe you’re left wondering exactly what service they provide. Either way, these animals are clearly professionals and usually have vests to identify them. But what about the animals you’re not so sure about? The yapping dog on the airplane or restaurant are sometimes allowed because they are emotional support animals. More and more often, people are blurring the line between pet and service animal, leading to some big problems.
The History and Influence of Slave Songs in America (33:51)
Guest: Kathy Bullock, PhD, Professor of African American and African Music, Berea College
For enslaved Africans, folk songs were more than just a way to entertain themselves or pass the time. Spirituals were a source of hope and a way to bond in the face of extreme adversity. They were also acts of rebellion, used to organize secret meetings on the Underground Railroad or just cast shade on their White slaveholders. Kathy Bullock is an expert in the roots of African American music and a professor at Berea College in Kentucky. She’s also an incredible musician.
Hunting Is on the Decline in America, Conservation and Wildlife Will Suffer (50:39)
Guest: Samantha Pedder, Director of Operations, Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports
Fewer people are hunting in America these days, which you might think is a good thing for wildlife. But the irony is that for the last hundred years, fees from hunting licenses and taxes on hunting equipment have been the primary source of funding to wildlife protection and restoration. The need for funds to protect endangered species and restore waterways is growing, thanks to pollution, climate change and development, but revenue from hunting and fishing is declining. How to fill the gap? One way is to recruit a new generation of hunters, which is what the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports is working on.
What a Plant Song Sounds Like (1:06:09)
Guest: Joe Patitucci – Founder of Data Garden, Creator of PlantWave
Some people swear that playing music for houseplants helps them grow. What do you suppose a plant would sound like if it could join the music? A gadget called PlantWave is giving voice to the plant.
Preserving the History of Ice Harvesting (1:28:36)
Guest: Kenneth Lincoln, President of the Thompson Ice House Preservation Corporation
On a daily basis, I take the power of refrigeration for granted. My lunch stays fresh until I’m ready to eat it. That soda can I crack open to wash it down is perfectly chilled and stays cold in the glass thanks to plentiful ice from the freezer. Electric refrigeration put ice harvesting out of business a century ago – you used to need a big block of ice in a literal icebox to keep anything cool. But there’s a small town in Maine keeping the tradition alive with an annual ice harvest on a local pond.
Eric Jensen of Brigham Young Univ on 200311 peace in Afghanistan. Deni Elliott of Univ of San Francisco on fido or foe. Kathy Bullock of Berea College on slave songs. Samantha Pedder of the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports on hunting decline and conservation. Joe Patitucci of Data Garden and PlantWave on plant music. Kenneth Lincoln of the Thompson Ice House Preservation Corporation on Maine ice preservation.
McKay Coppins of The Atlantic on election disinformation. Jonathan Richardson, Univ of Richmond on pest control's evolutionary dangers. Tom Menighan of the American Pharmacists Association on pharmacists' struggles. Brian Earp of Yale Univ on “Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships." Ben Gibbs and Thomas Murillo of Brigham Young University on first-generation students. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on singing to babies.
It’s Not Just Russia. US Political Campaigns Are Also Weaponizing Disinformation. (0:31)
Guest: McKay Coppins, Staff Writer, the Atlantic
US intelligence officials have warned that Russia is again meddling in the Presidential election, spreading false information online and inflaming divisions between Americans. But it’s not just the Russians. As McKay Coppins reports in the March issue of The Atlantic, the Trump Campaign has a sophisticated disinformation strategy underway online and Democrats are using some of the same techniques, to a lesser degree.
Long Term Effects of Pest Control (18:39)
Guest: Jonathan Richardson Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Richmond
If you’ve got a rat problem in your yard or neighborhood or city, this next conversation will not bring you much comfort. There’s some evidence that using rat poison to wipe out the pests sometimes leads to a breed of super-rats that are immune to poison. Talk about the worst kind of unintended consequence.
Systemic Issues Facing Pharmacists (37:49)
Guest: Tom E. Menighan, Executive Vice-President and CEO of American Pharmacists Association.
The majority of prescriptions in America get filled at a large chain like CVS, Walgreens or Walmart. According to an investigation by the New York Times, pharmacists at those chains are increasingly concerned about the risk that they’ll make a serious mistake in filling a prescription. They say they’re overworked and forced to spend time on tasks that increase profits for the pharmacy, but don’t help patients. Needless to say, giving a patient the wrong medicine or the wrong dose could be fatal. When the New York Times published its investigation recently, Thomas Menighan wrote a letter to the editor saying the problems in the report “keep him up at night.”
The Potential of “Love Drugs” to Improve Relationships (50:39)
Guest: Brian Earp, Associate Director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy at Yale University, Co-Author of “Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships”
“Love Potion Number 9”How many fairytales, songs or stories imagine a potion to make someone fall in love? It’s a fascinating idea, and it’s not an entirely outrageous. There are drugs currently out there that do work a little like love potions – they’re just not legal.
First Generation College Students Face Unique Challenges, but Colleges Can Help (1:10:44)
Guest: Ben Gibbs, Associate Professor of Sociology, BYU; Thomas Murillo, Sociology Major, BYU
If your parents went to college and their parents went to college, you have a real advantage when it comes time for you to go to college. Your family knows how to speak the language of admissions and applications, scholarships and loans. Your parents know what “finals week” is and how it feels to carry a heavy load of credits. They know the process of choosing a major. They know the common pitfalls that can delay graduation. But today a third of American college students are the very first in their family to go to college. They’re at higher risk of dropping out before they graduate. So, many universities are developing programs intended to help first generation students succeed.
Teaching Babies Through Song (1:31:35)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
When It Comes to Coronavirus Info, Who Can You Trust? (0:31)
Guest: Scott C. Ratzan MD, MPA, Distinguished Lecturer, Graduate School of Public Health, City University of New York
Should you cancel your travel plans because of coronavirus? Keep your kids home from school? Stop going to church and other gatherings? It’s really hard to know with the steady drumbeat of new COVID-19 cases and deaths around the country. A group of leading public health experts have published an “urgent call” for a coordinated effort to tell Americans what they need to know about coronavirus.
Why Hundreds of Scientific Studies Get Retracted Every Year (20:16)
Guest: Ivan Oransky, Co-Founder of RetractionWatch.com, Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University’s Carter Journalism Institute
Since the start of this year, more than 200 studies published in scientific journals have been retracted because of mistakes – or in some cases, outright fraud by the scientists who did them. A lot of these studies got tons of hoopla when they were first published, including breathless headlines in the press. And then, a year later, five years later – in a few cases more than a decade later – the journal that published the study says, “Oops! We shouldn’t have published that.” But at that point, isn’t the damage already done? A retraction rarely gets the same publicity that the original study had.
Treating Gun Violence Like a Public Health Epidemic (37:14)
Guest: Megan Ranney, MD, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Brown University, Chief Research Officer for the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction
For the first time in 20 years, the US government is offering grants to researchers looking into gun violence. Since 1996, there’s been a moratorium on any federal funding for firearm safety research for fear results of that research might be used to restrict gun access in the US. So what’s changed? Emergency room physician Megan Ranney has been researching firearm injuries for years, despite the federal moratorium.
New Treatment for Child Anxiety (50:50)
Guest: Wendy Silverman, Alfred A. Messer Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, Director of the Yale Child Study Center Program for Anxiety Disorders, Yale University
Anxiety disorders in children are common, but also really hard to treat. Only half of kids with anxiety respond to standard therapy treatment and medication. So researchers at Yale University have just come up with a novel approach that’s working – show anxious youth happy faces and sad faces over and over again.
What Will It Take for Women to Be Taken Seriously in Autoracing? (1:07:37)
Guest: Jackie Heinricher, Principal owner of Heinricher racing, Race Car Driver and Leader of the First Full-Season All-Female Team of Drivers to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
You know those long-distance relays where a team takes turns running stretches of the race over a 24-hour period? There’s an endurance event like that in auto racing – maybe you saw it featured in the new film “Ford vs. Ferrari”? 24 Hours of Le Mans is the premier event in endurance car racing. In North America, there’s a series of similar races and last year, for the first time in history, an all-female team of drivers competed in the full season. They even placed in the top 10. But now that team is disbanded and founder Jackie Heinricher is trying to figure out just what it will take for women to be taken seriously her sport.
Is the Ocean Turning Into Vinaigrette? Ocean Acidification, Explained. (1:27:43)
Guest: Scott Doney, PhD, Oceanographer and Environmental Scientist, University of Virginia
Twenty years from now, scientists say virtually all of the planet’s coral reefs will be gone, because ocean water will be too warm and too acidic for coral.
Scott Ratzan of CUNY on coronavirus communications. Ivan Oransky of RetractionWatch.com on study retraction. Megan Ranney of Brown Univ on firearm research. Wendy Silverman of Yale Univ on anxiety. Jackie Heinricher, Racecar Driver, on the first female race team. Scott Doney of Univ of Virginia on ocean acidification.
Donald Stinson, author of “Downstairs at the White House,” on working at the White House. Dan Liljenquist of Intermountain Healthcare and Civica Rx on generic drugs. Douglas Eck, Google, on A.I. Music. Ivonne Roman of the Women’s Leadership Academy on policewomen. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger of Oxford Univ on forgetting digital memories.
Downstairs at the White House (0:38)
Guest: Donald Stinson, Author, “Downstairs at the White House”
Media outlets these days have entire teams dedicated to sniffing out the intrigue going on inside the White House: Who’s meeting with whom. Who’s feuding with whom. And every one who leaves a job inside the eventually writes a tell-all memoir, but I’ve never read one quite like Donald Stinson’s. In 1973, when he was 17 years old, Stinson talked his way into a series of low-level jobs making copies and delivering mail in the White House. He wasn’t important, but he met lots of important people – often by loitering outside the Oval Office, which did not amuse the Secret Service. In the end, Don Stinson got himself a front row seat to the most momentous political events of the time, including the resignation of President Nixon. (Originally aired: 4/16/2018)
A New Way to Counter the Generic Drug Shortage (27:39)
Guest: Dan Liljenquist, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Intermountain Healthcare, Board Chair of Civica Rx
While the coronavirus dominates public health concerns in America right now, there are patients all across the country with serious conditions that are not new or mysterious who are struggling to get the medicine they need. Virtually every hospital in the US has had to delay surgery or come up with a treatment workaround because of chronic drug shortages. Most of the time these are generic drugs, so, you’d think they’d be plentiful and cheap. A group of about 750 hospitals decided they’d had enough of those shortages and formed a nonprofit drug manufacturer to be their supplier. (Originally aired 8/21/19)
Artificial Music and Google Magenta (50:40)
Guest: Douglas Eck, PhD, Principal Scientist, Google, Creator of the Google Magenta Project
Could a computer listen to so much music that it learns how to compose its own – and do it even better than humans? Google has a research project called Magenta that’s been working on this for years. (Originally aired 10/30/2018)
Getting More Women on the Force (1:08:28)
Guest: Ivonne Roman, Police Captain, Newark, New Jersey, National Institute of Justice LEADS Scholar, Cofounder of the Women’s Leadership Academy
There’s a nationwide push to add more women to the ranks of law enforcement. Currently they make up less than 13 percent of police officers in the US and an even smaller percentage of law enforcement leadership. It’s not that women are less capable of policing. Study after study has shown policewomen are actually better at communicating and defusing potentially violent confrontations. So why aren’t there more women on the force? The problem starts with police academy, says Ivonne Roman. She’s been a cop in New Jersey for 25 years. And she’s co-founder of the Women’s Leadership Academy to close the gender gap in policing. (Originally aired 9/4/2019)
What if All Our Digital Data Had Expiration Dates? The Case for More Forgetting (1:23:48)
Guest: Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation, Oxford University, Author of “Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age”
When was the last time you wished your memory was worse? I don’t think that’s even a thing. Mainly we’re just trying to keep a handle on the stuff we do need to remember. But Viktor Mayer-Schonberger thinks we’d be better off if we did forget more. Specifically, he argues that our digital memory needs a purge. (Originally aired 9/9/2019)
Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen of Brigham Young Univ for an election update after the primaries. Robert Walker, Univ of Florida, on Amazon. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, Pacific Lutheran Univ on Mount Everest. Anne Schlafly Cori of The Eagle Forum on the legacy of Phyllis Schlafly and the ERA. Martha Davis of Northeastern Univ on the ERA and the law. Suzy Scherf of Pennsylvania State Univ on an expression database.
It’s Down to Just Two: Biden and Bernie (0:30)
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
The Democratic field for President has narrowed to Senator Bernie Sanders and Vice President Joe Biden. Elizabeth Warren has just dropped out, but hasn’t endorsed either of the frontrunners. Michael Bloomberg dropped out after a poor showing on Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden. Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg dropped out the night before Super Tuesday and also endorsed Biden. The dramatic reconfiguration feels rather sudden.
Brazil’s President Aims to Open Indigenous Land in the Amazon to Mining and Farming (22:10)
Guest: Robert T. Walker, Professor of Latin American Studies and Geography, University of Florida
The Amazon rainforest is rich in gold, diamonds and rare earth minerals. It’s also a coveted resource for logging and land for farming – once you cut down the trees, that is. Getting access to those resources was a major campaign promise of Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and now he’s followed through with a measure in the country’s Congress. The catch is, the land he’d like to open for farming and mining in the Amazon is indigenous territory, and the tribes on that land are generally not interested in the development Bolsonaro proposes.
The Mounting Risks of Summiting Mount Everest (35:52)
Guest: Dr. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, Nepalese Anthropologist, Expert on the Sherpa People and Mount Everest, Pacific Lutheran University
The peak season for climbing Mount Everest is about to start, and there’s a lot of concern about how safe it will be. Last year, was among the deadliest on record: 11 people died and shocking photos circulated of crowds backed up dangerously near the summit. The government of Nepal has proposed limiting the number of Everest climbing permits it offers and restricting them to people who can prove they have the skills and money to attempt the climb safely. The lucrative climbing industry on Everest could not exist without Sherpas who live and work on the mountain, guiding climbers, carrying supplies. They’re increasingly upset about conditions on the mountain – and their own unfair treatment by the industry.
How Phyllis Schlafly Turned Americans Against the ERA (50:38)
Guest: Anne Schlafly Cori, Chairperson, The Eagle Forum
Historians agree that Phyllis Schlafly was key to stopping the ERA’s momentum. She was so effective, that even when Congress extended the deadline for states to ratify the amendment, it still came up three states short. Schlafly opposed all efforts to revive the Equal Rights Amendment until her death in 2016. Her daughter Anne Schlafly Cori is continuing that legacy with the current push to ratify the ERA.
The ERA Is a Relic of the 70s. Why Are Women Still Trying to Pass It? (1:12:24)
Guest: Martha Davis, Professor of Law, Northeastern University
The deadline to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment expired almost 40 years ago. So why are we talking about it now? Because about a month ago, Virginia’s state legislature became the 38th state to ratify it – that’s the threshold Phyllis Schlafly and her “STOP ERA” campaign managed to prevent in the 1970s. But again, there was a deadline to meet the threshold...which is why, just a few weeks ago, the US House passed a resolution to remove that deadline. So, maybe it’s not too late to add it to the Constitution?
Happy, Sad, Flirtatious, Jealous. Here’s How Scientists Study Expressions. (1:28:37)
Guest: Suzy Scherf, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Developmental Neuroscience, The Pennsylvania State University
I work with the toddler class at my church on Sundays and we sing that song about turning a frown upside down. Even before kids can speak fluently, they somehow become fluent in facial expressions – at least the basics like happy and sad. Researchers at Penn State University have created a database of what more complex expressions like jealous or flirtatious look like to help scientists study them, too.
Aatish Taseer of Al Jazeera on violence in India. Candace Fleming, Author, Eric Rohmann, Illustrator “Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera”, author of “Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home,” on the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. Sam Payne of The Apple Seed. Duncan Simester, MIT, on harbingers of failure. Benjamin Park of Sam Houston State Univ, on “Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier.”
Violence Between India’s Hindus and Muslims Is Escalating, But It’s Not New (0:32)
Guest: Aatish Taseer, Reporter, “In Search of India’s Soul” on Al Jazeera, Author of “Twice Born,” “The Way Things Were,” “Stranger to History”
While President Trump was dining with India’s Prime Minister in New Delhi last week, violence between Muslims and Hindus turned into three days of riots on the streets of India’s capital. Homes, businesses and cars were set on fire. More than 40 people died and hundreds were injured. Police are accused of aiding the rioters who were targeting Muslims, or looking the other way. It was the deadliest such violence Delhi has seen in decades, but just the latest in a worrisome escalation of religious tension in India.
Making Bees Family Friendly (20:58)
Candace Fleming, Author, Eric Rohmann, Illustrator “Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera”
Bees pollinate a lot of our food. And they’re in decline for a lot of reasons. So we’re supposed to be nice to bees. But when one comes buzzing around you or your kid, how are you supposed to fight that panicky urge to swat – or squash? Maybe start by taking in a gorgeous new picture book called “Honeybee.”
After More Than a Century, Congress Makes Lynching a Federal Crime (37:06)
Guest: Tameka Bradley Hobbs, Ph.D., Professor of History at Florida Memorial University, Author of “Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home”
A measure to making lynching a federal crime has finally passed Congress, after more than a century of failed attempts. President Trump is expected to sign the law and advocates say it’s an important symbolic step toward justice for the more than 4,000 victims of lynching – most of them African Americans. The vast majority of those murders went unpunished. And they weren’t all in the South.
The Apple Seed (50:38)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
The power of storytelling, and how this weekend's Daylight Savings promted a story from Sam's childhood.
Some People Consistently Buy Products That Fail (59:44)
Guest: Duncan Simester Is a Professor of Marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Where He Holds the NTU Chair in Management Science. His Recent 2019 Study Is Titled “The Surprising Breadth of Harbingers of Failure.”
There’s this frustrating thing that keeps happening to me at Trader Joe’s: I’ll discover a treat I really like and then one day I can’t find it on the shelf and I ask the clerk when it’ll be back in stock and the answer is – “Oh, that was discontinued. Nobody liked it.” One time it was these dried mangos covered in spicy chili powder and dipped in dark chocolate. They were so good, but a little weird, so I get maybe they weren’t a huge seller. But another time it was potato chips dipped in chocolate – I mean who doesn’t like salty, crunchy and chocolatey? Marketing researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management have come up with a name for people like me who systematically pick losing products – “harbingers of failure.”
When Democracy Failed to Protect Religious Minorities in the 1830's, the Mormons Hatched a Dramatic Plan (1:14:57)
Guest: Benjamin Park, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, Sam Houston State University, Author of “Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier”
Americans are so divided today over politics and culture and race and religion, that you’ll sometimes hear comparisons to the Civil War era. That’s an exaggeration. Yes, our disagreements run deep, but Americans today are not seriously discussing our democratic system as a “failed experiment” or arguing that we should scrap the Constitution. Roll back the clock a century and a half, and there were widespread, serious doubts about whether the Founding Fathers had got it right.
Coronavirus Is Here and Spreading. Now We Should Focus on Slowing It Down. (0:30)
Guest: Michael Mina, MD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Immunology, Harvard University
After weeks of travel restrictions and quarantines, the coronavirus is still spreading. In fact, experts now think the virus has been circulating in Washington State for weeks – but we’re only now realizing it, after seven people in that state have died. At least a dozen states have now reported cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Why did the plan to contain coronavirus fail? And just how worried should you and I be?
Meth Is Staging a Comeback in the US (20:14)
Guest: Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, Philanthropy, and Medical Humanities and Health Studies at Indiana University.
Coronavirus is commanding the attention of public health officials right now, but drug overdose deaths also remain a pressing concern. Opioid fatalities have begun to level off, nationwide, but deaths from methamphetamine use are now rising rapidly in many states. Wasn’t meth a problem of the 90s? Why is it making a comeback?
Using Brainwaves to Prescribe Antidepressants (34:06)
Guest: Dr. Amit Etkin, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences, Stanford University
One in eight Americans are currently taking an antidepressant, so they can relate to the trial-and-error process of getting that prescription. Treating depression and anxiety involves a lot of guesswork – you start with one medicine, try it for six weeks and see how it works, then try another if it’s not doing the trick. The process is agonizing for everyone involved. Stanford University psychiatry researcher Amit Etkin is hoping a simple scan of a patient’s brain might offer a shortcut to pinpointing the right antidepressant.
Death of the Department Store? (50:44)
Guest: Barbara Kahn, Professor of Marketing, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Author of “The Shopping Revolution: How Successful Retailers Win Customers in an Era of Endless Disruption”
Department store Macy’s recently announced a pretty big nail in the coffin. It will be closing a fifth of its stores over the next three years and laying off about 2,000 corporate employees. This comes as no surprise – the whole department store industry is struggling to stay afloat. And these big stores are anchors for shopping malls, so if they die, will they drag malls down with them, too?
State of Court Rulings Place Trump Asylum Policies in Turmoil (1:03:44)
Guest: Kari Hong, Associate Professor, Boston College Law School
A series of court rulings in the last several days have shaken up US asylum policy. A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that people seeking asylum in the US cannot be sent back to Mexico to wait for their hearing. But then those judges pressed pause on their ruling to let the Trump Administration challenge it. The same court on Friday also ruled that people who get caught sneaking across the US border must still be allowed to request asylum.
After Slavery Was Abolished in America, It Continued Under a Different Name: Convict Leasing (1:20:42)
Guest: Talitha LeFlouria, PhD, Associate Professor, African and African-American Studies, University of Virginia, Author Of “Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South”
Slavery was abolished in the United States with the ratification of the 13th Amendment some 155 years ago. But it’s a myth that slavery actually ended then, says Talitha LeFlouria. “Chained in Silence” recounts the history of a form of slavery that continued into the 1900s in America under a system known as “convict leasing.”
Michael Mina of Harvard Univ on containing the coronavirus. Richard Gunderman, Indiana Univ, on meth overdoses. Amit Etkin, Stanford Univ, on brainwaves and antidepressants. Barbara Kahn of Univ of Pennsylvania and author of “The Shopping Revolution” on Macy's closures. Kari Hong, Boston College Law School, on asylum and immigration lawsuits. Talitha LeFlouria of Univ of Virginia and author of “Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South” on convict labor.
Quinn Mecham of Brigham Young Univ on Egypt and Hosni Mubarak. Matthew Liebmann, Harvard Univ, on collaborative archaeology. Katherine Keith, author of “Epic Solitude: A Story of Survival and a Quest for Meaning in the Far North,” on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race . Patrick Ammerman of Univ of Pennsylvania on Venezuelans in Colombia. Ken Seidelmann of Univ of Virginia on the leap second. Yolanda Álvarez of Álvarez Legal on cockfighting in Puerto Rico
Hosni Mubarak’s Legacy in Modern Egypt (0:30)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Modern Egypt’s longest-serving leader Hosni Mubarak died last week at age 91. For 30 years he ran Egypt, growing the economy, establishing strong ties with the US and keeping peace with Israel. But his people came to see him as a dictator and ousted him during the Arab Uprising in 2011. Mubarak’s complicated legacy is important in understanding Egypt’s role in the Middle East and US foreign policy.
Archaeologists and Native Americans Collaborate to Understand and Protect Historic Sites (19:09)
Guest: Matthew Liebmann, Professor of Archaeology, Harvard University
Archaeologists have developed a reputation over the centuries of being pretty disrespectful of indigenous cultures, doing things like excavating sacred Native American burial grounds and taking bones and artifacts away to be studied and displayed in museums without any input from the tribe. Harvard University archaeologist Matthew Liebmann has spent his career trying to not do that.
Epic Solitude (33:50)
Guest: Katherine Keith, Author, “Epic Solitude: A Story of Survival and a Quest for Meaning in the Far North”
Katherine Keith had the dream life – she lived in a log cabin in the Alaskan backcountry, miles from any road, with her husband and infant daughter. That may not sound idyllic for most people, but it was to her. But then her husband died suddenly, and she was left alone with her infant daughter. That’s when Keith turned to the Iditarod trail for solace and healing – that’s dog sled race that travels across 1,000 miles of Alaskan wilderness.
Desperate for More International Help, Colombia Struggles to Meet Needs of Venezuelan Refugees (50:38)
Guest: Patrick Ammerman, Master’s Student in Social Work, University of Pennsylvania, Grant Recipient, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting
Venezuela is on the verge of outpacing Syria as the largest refugee crisis in the world. More than four million Venezuelans fled their collapsed economy in search of food, medicine and other basic needs. Neighboring Colombia has received the largest group of Venezuelan refugees and continues to keep its borders open, while other countries in the region have not. Colombia’s president is pleading for more support from the international community to provide for the displaced Venezuelans. So far international aid amounts to $125 per Venezuelan refugee, while countries have sent $1,500 per refugee from Syria, according to the Brookings Institution. That disparity is contributing to a worsening humanitarian crisis at the Venezuela/Colombia border.
Leap Second (1:09:13)
Guest: Ken Seidelmann, Research Professor of Astronomy, University of Virginia
Well leap day has come and gone, but we’re not done leaping in leap year yet. We’re most likely going to have another one later this year, but this time, it will be a leap second instead of a whole day.
Puerto Rico Chafes Against New Cockfighting Ban Imposed by Congress (1:23:24)
Guest: Yolanda Álvarez, Founder of Álvarez Legal, Former Director of the Humane Society of Puerto Rico
Cockfighting has been illegal in the US for a while, but was only banned in US territories, including Puerto Rico, at the start of this year. Puerto Rican government officials and people involved in the cockfighting industry on the island are challenging the ban in court. They say cockfighting is an important part of their culture and employs some 20,000 people on the island – jobs the struggling Puerto Rican economy can’t afford to lose.
Leap Day Babies (0:32)
Guest: Raenell Dawn, Cofounder of the Honor Society of Leap Year Babies, Editor and Producer of leapyearday.com
This weekend is that once-every-four-years quirk of the calendar when February gets an extra day. Leap Day accounts for the fact Earth’s complete trip around the sun takes 365 days … and 6 hours. We’ve had a Leap Day on the calendar every four years since Julius Caesar decreed it back in 46 B.C. So, you’d think we’d be used to it by now. But it still feels rare enough that people born on Leap Day are a novelty and some organizations won’t even recognize it as a valid birthday. (Originally aired 2/29/16)
Easter Island Statues Degrading From Weather and Tourists (11:16)
Guest: Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Director, Easter Island Statue Project, Cotsen Rock Art Archive at UCLA
The Night at the Museum movie is what first exposed many people to the large stone-faced statues of Easter Island. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has a plaster cast of one with a deeply-furrowed brow that comes to life in the movie. That movie made the American Museum of Natural History’s Easter Island plaster cast a popular exhibit. The statues themselves – on Easter Island – have also become so popular with tourists over the last few decades they’re in danger. (Originally aired 7/1/2019)
Art Restoration Vital for Paintings and Murals Worldwide (29:20)
Guest: Scott Haskins, Director and Chief Conservator, Fine Art Conservation Laboratories
Famous street graffiti artist Banksy’s latest piece of street art is a little girl firing a slingshot on a wall in Bristol, England. Banksy is so famous that his art is really valuable, but that doesn’t stop other graffiti artists from adding their own twist. His latest slingshot girl was vandalized within just two days. And that reminded us of a conversation we had with Scott Haskins over the summer – he’s the guy cities call when graffiti, pollution or weather damage an street mural they want restored. Recently Haskins has been working on a series of murals along Los Angeles freeways that all but disappeared beneath graffiti. (Originally aired 7/31/19)
A College Acceptance Letter Is Not a Guarantee (50:31)
Guest: Anna Ivey, Founder of Ivey Consulting, Former Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago’s Law School, Co-Author of "How to Prepare a Standout College Application."
Your kid gets accepted to the college of his choice. But then some bad behavior surfaces from his past. The college gets wind and rescinds the acceptance. By all accounts this kind of thing is rare, but a high-profile case last year involving Parkland Shooting survivor and conservative activist, Kyle Kashuv, got us thinking about how colleges make these decisions – and how they decide who is a good fit in the first place. In Kashuv's case, he was accepted to Harvard, but then it became public that he'd made racist comments in text messages and a private online document shared with some classmates when he was 16. Kashuv apologized, but that didn’t change Harvard’s decision to rescind his acceptance. (Originally aired 7/17/2019)
Making Brass Cool (1:05:49)
Guest: Chuck Daellenbach (Tuba) Founder of Canadian Brass; Jeff Nelsen (French Horn) Canadian Brass
Five brass instruments together on stage is already kind of a surprising experience for concert goers – a tuba, French horn, two trumpets and a trombone make a lot of noise. And honestly, we expect to hear these instruments blending into a symphony – not acting like an a cappella group doing renditions of pop songs from the likes of Lady Gaga. The group has been redefining what brass instruments can do for more than 40 years. (Originally aired 3/19/2019)
World Chase Tag Is Your Favorite Childhood Game, Taken to the Next Level (1:25:38)
Guest: Damien Devaux, Co-Creator of World Chase Tag
The last time I played a really serious game of tag I was 14. All the kids in the neighborhood, inside and outside of the house, were dodging furniture, leaping off the porch. A babysitter was in charge and we were really into it – until my brother ran through the glass part of the screen door and nearly cut his arm off. 911, an ambulance and so many stitches that he’s still got a gnarly scar all the way up his arm. A couple of brothers from England have turned tag into a serious sport they’re hoping to make professional. It’s called “World Chase Tag” and they host tournaments all over the world. (Originally aired 9/30/2019)
Raenell Dawn of the Honor Society of Leap Year Babies on leap year. Jo Anne Van Tilburg of the Easter Island Statue Project on Easter Island. Scott Haskins of the Fine Art Conservation Laboratories on art restoration. Anna Ivey, author of "How to Prepare a Standout College Application," on the university standard. Chuck Daellenbach and Jeff Nelsen, musicians, on Canadian brass. Damien Devaux of World Chase Tag on professional tag.
Improving menstrual hygiene globally. Guests are: Penelope Phillips-Howard, Public Health Epidemiologist, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; Khadija Osman, Founder of Live Right Ghana; Kofi Nyanteng, Monitoring and Evaluating Specialist, CouldYou? Cup in Ghana; Darmin Mutenda, Menstrual Cup Educator, CouldYou? Cup in Mozambique
Guests: Penelope Phillips-Howard, Public Health Epidemiologist, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine;
Khadija Osman, Founder of Live Right Ghana;
Kofi Nyanteng, Monitoring and Evaluating Specialist, CouldYou? Cup in Ghana;
Darmin Mutenda, Menstrual Cup Educator, CouldYou? Cup in Mozambique
Women spend, on average 65 days a year dealing with menstrual blood flow. That the equivalent of two months each year for the majority of her adolescence and adult life. Now, I know menstruation isn’t something you’re supposed to talk about in polite company. But it literally affects half the population on the planet. And the stigma and silence surrounding it only makes it harder for women and girls to manage their periods in a safe, effective way. In Africa, for example, the UN estimates one in ten girls miss school during menstruation. Researchers and menstrual hygiene educators across Africa say menstrual cups could be the solution.
Bill Siegel of Coveware on ransomware. Keith Corl of Brown Univ on Doctors facing ethical dilemmas. Abby Adams and Sammy Gabbai, co-creators of the Instagram page, “Why I Wear My Star,” on Jewish youth who wear the Star of David. Penelope Phillips-Howard of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Khadija Osman of Live Right Ghana, and Kofi Nyanteng and Darmin Mutenda of CouldYou? Cup on menstrual health and cups. Bill Barry of NASA on NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson.
Ransomware Attacks Are Growing (0:33)
Guest: Bill Siegel, CEO, Coveware
Ransomware attacks are getting more serious and more expensive around the world, according to data from the cybersecurity firm Coveware. These are attacks where hackers infiltrate a personal or company network, lock down files on those computers and then demand a ransom to unlock the files. The average ransom paid in situations like this is now more than $80,000, which is double what it was just six months ago, according to Coveware. Why are hackers getting so bold?
How “Efficient” Hospital Systems Sometimes Put Doctors in an Ethical Bind (21:09)
Guest: Keith A. Corl, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brown University
As hospitals try to walk the line between making money and making patients happy, they’re implementing policies that, on the surface seem helpful. Like, how many emergency rooms now send a doctor or nurse out into the waiting room to do a quick assessment of a patient and order any tests or blood work right then, so the next doctor who will treat the patient has a head start when it’s the patient’s turn to head back to the exam room. That’s one example of a system that emergency room physician Keith Corl says puts doctors in a bind where they’re not able to do what’s best for their patients.
High Schoolers Turn to Instagram to Combat Anti-Semitism (38:37)
Guest: Abby Adams and Sammy Gabbai, Co-Creators of “Why I Wear My Star”
Acts of anti-Semitism – ranging from vandalism to violent attacks and shootings – have risen in America recently. So why would young Jewish people around the country be eager to don a Star of David and talk openly about why they wear it?
Menstrual Hygiene Remains a Major Health Concern in Africa. The Cup Is Helping. (50:10)
Guest: Penelope Phillips-Howard, Public Health Epidemiologist, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; Khadija Osman, Founder of Live Right Ghana; Kofi Nyanteng, Monitoring and Evaluating Specialist, CouldYou? Cup in Ghana; Darmin Mutenda, Menstrual Cup Educator, CouldYou? Cup in Mozambique
Women spend, on average 65 days a year dealing with menstrual blood flow. That the equivalent of two months each year for the majority of her adolescence and adult life. Now, I know menstruation isn’t something you’re supposed to talk about in polite company. But it literally affects half the population on the planet. And the stigma and silence surrounding it only makes it harder for women and girls to manage their periods in a safe, effective way. In Africa, for example, the UN estimates one in ten girls miss school during menstruation.
Remembering NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson (1:21:32)
Guest: Bill Barry, NASA Chief Historian
NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson died this week at the age of 101. As an African American woman, she broke both color and gender barriers at NASA. Her calculations helped put the first Americans in space and her career featured in the book and movie "Hidden Figures."
When Tech Workers Form a Union (0:30)
Guest: Marcus Courtney, Tech Labor Activist, Principal, Courtney Public Affairs
Employees of the crowd-funding website Kickstarter formed a union last week. It’s a first for the tech industry, to have a bunch of white-collar, full-time workers unionize. And it’s a bit of a head-scratcher, because labor unions are traditionally how blue-collar workers fight for better pay and benefits. Salaried tech workers typically have generous benefits, including things like catered meals and paid parental leave. So why do they need a union?
The Lake Never Gives Up Her Dead: Shipwreck Hunting in the Great Lakes (18:07)
Guest: Ken Merryman, Past President, Founding Member, Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society
The Great Lakes are so enormous they’ve got their own weather systems, making them more like inland seas. And where there are seas, there are shipwrecks. As many as 6,000 of them lie on the bottom of the Great Lakes. For several decades an avid group of amateur shipwreck hunters has been finding and protecting them.
Fireflies Going Dark (36:57)
Guest: Sara Lewis, PhD, Professor of Evolutionary and Behavioral Ecology, Tufts University
Biologists worldwide have noted a decline in fireflies, which feels a little like magic is disappearing from the universe, one blink at a time. Fireflies are among the most fantastical insects – if you’ve ever been out in the woods and suddenly seen them blinking on at dusk, you can’t forget that sight. What’s killing the fireflies?
FDA Approval Rates Increase as Vigor for Acceptance Decreases (50:37)
Guest: Jonathan Darrow, Lawyer, Harvard Medical School
More prescription drugs are getting approved more quickly by the US Food and Drug Administration – which is hopefully a good thing for very sick people desperate for a new treatment option. And hopefully, it’s good news for prescription drug prices, in general, because more drugs on the market means more competition and lower prices. Unfortunately, the prescription drug landscape in America isn’t that straightforward.
Is Your Online Reputation Worth Defending? (1:06:46)
Guest: Rich Matta, CEO, ReputationDefender
Have you Googled yourself lately? That first page of search results could affect your next job hunt. Public figures, like politicians, have a lot riding on what pops up when voters search them online. And corporations have whole teams dedicated to burnishing their image online. ReputationDefender is one of the leading tech companies in a growing industry that helps people and businesses manage their digital footprint.
Skijoring: Horse-Drawn Adrenaline (1:26:44)
Guest: Loren Zhimanskova, Founder of Skijor USA and Skijor International
If you head to Yellowstone this weekend, you’ll see skiers race to go off jumps, collect rings, and ski around gates, all while being pulled by a horse. Or, sometimes, a reindeer. It’s called skijoring, and the competition in Yellowstone is just one of five happening in the country this weekend. The quirky sport isn’t new to the US – it’s been here for about a century – but it’s gained a lot of traction in the last several years.
Marcus Courtney of Courtney Public Affairs on a Kickstarter union. Ken Merryman of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society on shipwreck diving. Sara Lewis, Tufts Univ, on fireflies. Jonathan Darrow of Harvard Medical School on FDA approval rates. Rich Matta of ReputationDefender on online privacy and the right to be forgotten. Loren Zhimanskova of Skijoring USA on Skijoring.
Molly Knight, TheAthletic.com, Houston Astros and Cheating. Tom Smith of Brigham Young Univ on polar bears and oil exploration. David Blanchflower of Dartmouth on midlife crises. Sarah Deer, author of “The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America,” on native women and assault. Heather J Lynch of Stony Brook Univ of New York on penguins. Rachel Wadham of World's Awaiting on Alexa literacy.
The Astros Are Cheats. Is the MLB Partly to Blame? (0:36)
Guest: Molly Knight, Journalist, TheAthletic.com, Author of “The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers' Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse”
Major League Baseball teams are in spring training, playing against each other in pre-season games. And everyone’s got an ear out for the sound of someone in the Houston Astro’s dugout banging on a trash can to illegally notify the batter of what pitch is coming. The Astros have now admitted to cheating in 2017–but they have not been stripped of the World Series title they won that year. The scandal has so far consumed Spring Training and spurred a lot of conversations about what it means to play fair in a world when technology makes it so, so easy to cheat. And, as we so often hear in elite sports, everyone’s doing it.
Will Oil Drilling in ANWR Further Threaten Polar Bears? (19:46)
Guest: Tom Smith, Wildlife Biologist From BYU
Soon, the Trump Administration plans to begin selling leases for the right to drill in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The concern, among wildlife biologists, is that more and more polar bear mothers are giving birth to their cubs in that same area. Polar bears are a threatened species, so oil and gas drilling isn’t supposed to happen in areas that will harm the bear populations. But a study published this week in the journal PLOS One and coauthored by BYU wildlife biologist Tom Smith found that the standard way of scanning an area for polar bear dens to avoid is only less than half the time.
Is the Midlife Crisis Real and It Happens Everywhere, but America’s Bad at Dealing With It (35:32)
Guest: David Blanchflower, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College
The stereotypical “midlife crisis” has justified many a motorcycle and sports car purchase by men of a certain age. How common is it, though, for people experience a real, measurable emotional or psychological slump in middle age?
Violence Against Native American Women and a Lack of Tribal Sovereignty (50:36)
Guest: Sarah Deer, J.D. Professor at the University of Kansas, Citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, Author of “The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America”
More than 4 in 5 Native American women experience violence in their lifetime, according to the US Department of Justice. That’s a stunningly high rate of victimization that tribal governments are struggling to address.
Iconic Penguins in Antarctica Declining More Than Previously Thought (1:08:03)
Guest: Heather J Lynch, Professor of Ecology, Stony Brook University of New York
The penguins that look like they’re wearing tuxedos and bowties are a species called “chinstrap” – and in addition to being easy to spot, they’re also among the most numerous in Antarctica. Chinstrap penguins have been considered lucky, too, because they’re in pretty good shape, population-wise. A new headcount suggests otherwise.
How Kids Can Actually Learn Literacy From Alexa (1:26:31)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
David Leavitt, Utah County District Attorney, on criminal reform. Giovanni Traverso of Harvard Univ's Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Allen Chambers on allergens in medicines. Julie Parsonnet of Stanford Univ on body temperature. Nadia Oweidat, Kansas State Univ and Univ of Oxford on Islam and social media. Katie McInnis, a policy counsel for Consumer Reports, on dark patterns. Brian Iverson and Mike Alder of Brigham Young Univ on oral cancer detection.
Why We Should Be Sending Fewer People to Jail (0:30)
Guest: David Leavitt, Utah County District Attorney
America locks up more people, per capita, than any other country–including China and Russia. The consequence of that is that, across the nation, jails are overcrowded, prosecutors are overburdened and people who can’t afford bail spend months and months in jail waiting for their court date. Suppose communities just charged fewer people with crimes? That would surely make for fewer people in jail, but would we be safer?
Allergic Reactions to Medications (20:09)
Guest: Allen Chambers; Giovanni Traverso, MD, Gastroenterologist at Harvard University’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
When Allen Chambers had sinus surgery several years ago, his Celiac Disease wasn’t on his mind – at first. He was given a pain pill after the procedure and immediately started going into spasms. Turns out, the medication had gluten in it. Researchers don’t know yet just how common this type of reaction is, but one study looked at thousands of oral medications and found that 93% had some type of allergen in them.
Is It Just Me, or Is It Getting Cold? (36:31)
Guest: Julie Parsonnet, MD, George Deforest Barnett Professor in Medicine, Professor of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University
If you or your child is sick and you’re wondering how serious it is, you’ll probably check for a fever. Any reading over 98.6 degrees on the thermometer is high because that’s the temperature of a healthy human body. However, it seems that’s no longer true. Healthy humans today are closer to 97.5 degrees on average – a whole degree lower. What? How did that happen?
Censoring Criticism of Islam on Social Media May Do More Harm Than Good (50:36)
Guest: Nadia Oweidat, Professor of History, Kansas State University, Senior Member of St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford
Social media sites like Facebook are in a tight spot when it comes to policing posts about Islam. On the one hand, extremists use social media posts to recruit people to their jihadist views. You’d want that to be blocked from Facebook, right? But on the other hand, what to do about a post that criticizes an Islamic teaching or cultural practice, like honor killings? You could interpret that criticism as Islamophobic speech. Should it be censored?
Should Websites Designed to Trick You Be Legal? (1:08:44)
Guest: Katie McInnis, JD, Policy Counsel for Consumer Reports
You’re shopping online and a message pops up that supplies of a particular item are running low. You rush to put in your cart. Then a countdown clock pops up telling you the item will disappear in 10 minutes. This common scenario is an example of ‘dark patterns’ that companies use to nudge us toward spending more money or giving up more personal information. Should that kind of thing be legal?
Better Oral Cancer Detection (1:21:54)
Guest: Brian Iverson, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BYU; Mike Alder, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Oral cancer often goes unnoticed in its early stages when it doesn’t cause any pain or visible symptoms, so doctors may catch it only once it’s metastasized to another part of the body like the lymph nodes. BYU scientists have invented a sensor that can detect oral cancer early on from a simple saliva sample.
Tiffany Jenkins, author of "Keeping Their Marbles: How the Treasures of the Past Ended Up in Museums…and Why They Should Stay There," on museums. Naomi Hirahara and Heather C. Lindquist, co-authors of “Life After Manzanar," on WWII internment camps. Cristel Russell, Pepperdine Univ, on alcohol and drinking on TV. Sarah Courchesne of Northern Essex Community College on the positive qualities of seagulls. Andrew Subica, Univ of California, on overweight children.
Museums Are Returning Artifacts to Their Countries of Origin. But Maybe They Shouldn’t Be. (0:37)
Guest: Tiffany Jenkins, Author of “Keeping Their Marbles: How the Treasures of the Past Ended Up in Museums…and Why They Should Stay There”
In the wake of Brexit, Britain is working out a free trade deal with the European Union. But Greece is refusing to sign on unless there’s a clause in the agreement that forces Britain to give back some marble statues taken from the Parthenon two hundred years ago. The Elgin Marbles are on display in London’s British Museum, but they’re only the most prominent example of antiquities in museums all over the world that were taken as spoils of war or plundered from palaces during colonial times. There’s a growing debate in the museum world about whether those items should be sent back to their countries of origin. (Originally aired 5/15/2019)
UTS: California Apologizes for Helping With WWII Internment of Japanese Americans (21:55)
Guest: Naomi Hirahara and Heather C. Lindquist, Co-Authors of “Life After Manzanar”
California lawmakers this week unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for the state’s role in the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. About 120,000 people – mostly US citizens – were rounded up after the attack on Pearl Harbor and imprisoned for the rest of the war. But their troubles didn’t end when they were released. Those stories are told in the book “Life After Manzanar” – Manzanar was one of two WWII internment camps in California. (Originally aired 5/9/2018)
How Underage Drinking on TV Influences Teenagers (50:43)
Guest: Cristel Russell, Professor of Marketing, Pepperdine University
All the teenagers on TV are drinking, have you noticed? In all these soapy dramas and comedies teens like, occasionally, you’ll see a character get drunk and do something they regret. Mostly, though, it’s just what the cool kids do. And in some cases, alcohol manufacturers are paying to have their products featured in those shows. (Originally aired 8/12/19)
Seagulls Have Some Redeeming Qualities (1:05:49)
Guest: Sarah J. Courchesne, Associate Professor of Natural Science, Northern Essex Community College
Ocean City, New Jersey has a seagull problem on its boardwalk and last summer it settled on a surprising solution. The city hired falconers to bring their hawks to the beach to scare off the seagulls so the seagulls would stop scaring off the tourists with all the squawking and pooping and food stealing. The hawks worked so well Ocean City plans to do the same thing this summer. But maybe it’s time we stop hating seagulls so much. (Originally aired 9/3/2019)
If Diet Apps Aren’t the Answer to Childhood Obesity, What Is? (1:22:43)
Guest: Andrew Subica, Assistant Professor of Social Medicine, Population, and Public Health, Riverside School of Medicine, University of California
One in five children and teens in the United States have obesity. That rate has tripled since the 1970s. So we clearly need young people to be eating better and exercising more. But Weight Watchers – now known as WW – took a lot of heat when they released an app aimed at kids. If a food-tracking app isn’t the way to go, what is? (Originally aired 9/4/2019)
What it means to be white in America and how celebrating whiteness is problematic, no matter how you look at it. Panelists are BYU history prof David-James Gonzales and multicultural education prof Eric Ruiz Bybee. Students Grace Soelberg and Don Izekor also join us.
Guests: David-James Gonzales, Assistant Professor of History, BYU; Eric Ruiz Bybee, Assistant Professor of Multicultural Education, BYU; Grace Soelberg, History Major at BYU; Don Izekor, Pre-Law Major at BYU
February is Black History Month. Why don’t we celebrate White History Month? That question was asked at a panel discussion at BYU recently – and honestly, it’s something many white people might wonder. Why don’t we, in America, celebrate the culture and contributions of white citizens in the same way we dedicate space to celebrate African Americans or Latinos or American Indians? Aren’t whites just as entitled to be proud of their culture and heritage? In this panel discussion, we explore what it means to celebrate "whiteness" in America.
Ryan Vogel of Utah Valley Univ on the DOJ, politics, and Trump. Robert Shepherd of Cornell Univ on sweaty robots. Carl Butz, The Mountain Messenger on reviving a dying local newspaper. David-James Gonzales, Eric Ruiz Bybee, Grace Soelberg, and Don Izekor of Brigham Young Univ on whiteness in America. Gabriel Filippelli of Indiana Univ-Purdue Univ Indianapolis on a proposed EPA transparency rule.
Pres. Trump, Roger Stone and the Politics of Justice in Washington (0:31)
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
President Trump’s friend and political ally Roger Stone was sentenced today to a little over three years in prison for lying to Congress and threatening a witness during the Mueller investigation. President Trump has called the whole thing unfair repeatedly on Twitter. One of those tweets came just before US Attorney General William Barr stepped in and overruled the recommendation from prosecutors in his department who said 7-9 years in prison would be the right sentence for Roger Stone. Then, the Attorney General came under fire for bowing to the political whims of President Trump. But he is, after all, an appointee of the President, so how is he supposed to handle requests from the person who can fire him at will?
Robots That Sweat Just Like Us (15:46)
Guest: Robert Shepherd, PhD, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University and Runs the Organic Robotics Lab at Cornell
As robots do more and more of the heavy lifting for us, how will they deal with the problem of overheating? Fans can help cool them down. But what about the way humans do it – by sweating? Yeah, no way. A robot sweating? That’s just too weird. But engineers at Cornell University have made a robot that sweats and they think it’s a pretty promising idea.
Carl Butz Saves Local Newspaper (33:54)
Guest: Carl Butz, Retired Computer Programmer, Owner of the Mountain Messenger
The latest issue of California’s oldest weekly newspaper is on stands today – hot off the presses. Publishing a local newspaper is always a challenge, but for The Mountain Messenger, it’s basically a miracle. In mid-January, the paper was set to fold. Then retired computer programmer Carl Butz decided he couldn’t let that happen, so he stepped in with money he’d been saving to go on vacation and is now the proud owner of a small-town paper in an industry that’s dying nationwide.
What It Means to Celebrate Whiteness in America (50:38)
Guest: David-James Gonzales, Assistant Professor of History, BYU; Eric Ruiz Bybee, Assistant Professor of Multicultural Education, BYU; Grace Soelberg, History Major at BYU; Don Izekor, Pre-Law Major at BYU
February is Black History Month. Why don’t we celebrate White History Month? That question was asked at a panel discussion at BYU recently – and honestly, it’s something many white people might wonder. Why don’t we, in America, celebrate the culture and contributions of white citizens in the same way we dedicate space to celebrate African Americans or Latinos or American Indians? Aren’t whites just as entitled to be proud of their culture and heritage?
Some Scientists don't like EPA's Proposed Transparency Rule (1:26:18)
Guest: Gabriel Filippelli, PhD, Professor, Director, Center for Urban Health, Department of Earth Sciences, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Usually, science is all about transparency. We want to know more about the world around us, and we want to know that the information we’re getting is fact, not fiction. An Environmental Protection Agency proposed policy change would improve transparency, but it also has scientists and physicians raising some concerns.
Natalie Kitroeff of The New York Times on Boeing. Alan Butler, Electronic Privacy Information Center, on Off-Facebook Activity. Christopher Uggen, Univ of Minnesota, on felony disenfranchisement. Sam Payne of The Apple Seed on car chases. Mary Melton of Mary Melton Media on LA's obsession with car chases. Richard Paisley of Univ of British Columbia on Ethiopia's Nile Dam.
Boeing’s Year-Long Struggle to Get 737 Max Back in the Air May Soon Be Over (0:33)
Guest: Natalie Kitroeff, Reporter, New York Times
It’s been nearly a year since Boeing grounded its 737 Max because of two crashes that happened within 5 months and killed 346 people. Since then, a Congressional investigation surfaced internal Boeing emails that showed disdain for federal regulators and efforts to avoid some requirements to certify the 737 Max as safe for flight.
Should Felons Be Allowed to Vote? (18:02)
Guest: Christopher Uggen, Professor, Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight Professor of Sociology and Law, University of Minnesota, Fellow of the American Society of Criminology
More than six-million Americans won’t be able to vote in the presidential election this year. These are people who have been convicted of a felony – they’re either in prison or out on parole or probation. But some felons are banned from voting for life. It’s all up to the states, and only two states in the country allow all prisoners to vote.
Facebook Has So Much More Info About You Than You Think (34:10)
Guest: Alan Butler, General Counsel, Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington D.C.
Have you noticed that ads on your Facebook feed are perfectly tailored to other stuff you’ve been doing online? Julie gets that Facebook knows what she is posting and liking on Facebook. How on earth would it know what she recently bought on Amazon? Or what podcast she listened to on the TuneIn app? Or movies she looked at on RottenTomatoes.com? I learned all this recently – and you can too – from a new feature Facebook just debuted on their site that lets you see all the information it’s collecting about you when you’re off the Facebook page or app. It’s a shocking amount of info.
The Apple Seed (50:39)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam talks about car chases and when he was involved with one in college.
Why Can’t Los Angeles Stop Watching Car Chases? (1:00:49)
Guest: Mary Melton, Editor and Writer, Principal, Mary Melton Media
Car chases have become so common and entertaining in LA that it’s almost become a spectator sport. Friends will tell each other to turn on the TV when the news helicopter is following an intense chase. There’s even a Facebook group solely dedicated to posting aboutlive pursuits. But these aren’t car chases in movies –these are real people in real danger. And some may be gunning it just because they know they’ll get on TV. So should car chases be televised at all?
Ethiopia Is Building a Dam That Could Have Dramatic Political Repercussions (1:19:29)
Guest: Richard Kyle Paisley, Director, International Waters Governance Initiative IAR, University of British Columbia
This summer, Ethiopia will begin filling a new reservoir on the Nile River that will ultimately be the size of London. They’ve built a giant dam on the river that can generate enough electricity to bring its country into the modern era, plus extra to sell to neighboring countries. But there are nearly a dozen countries along the Nile River and many – including Egypt – get virtually all their water from it. Egypt and Ethiopia are right now at such odds over the dam that the US has been involved trying to help the countries settle their dispute without coming to arms.
Steven Lobell of Univ of Utah on Israel. Marc Brackett, Yale Univ on being tired at school. Clive Wynne of Arizona State Univ, author of “Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You” on dogs' love. Jason Forman of Univ of Virginia on crash safety and dummies. Angelou Ezeilo, CEO of the Greening Youth Foundation and author of “Engage, Connect, Protect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders” on diversity and environmentalism. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com on #MeToo.
Israel’s Political Turmoil and the Trump Peace Plan (0:32)
Guest: Steven Lobell, PhD, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to go on trial for corruption a month from now. That’ll be right after Netanyahu and his conservative political party hope to secure a more decisive election victory. The last two Israeli elections were so close that neither leading party was able to form a coalition government. And into all of this comes what President Trump has called is “Ultimate Deal” for peace in the Middle East.
Sleepy, Stressed, and Sapped: High School Students Aren’t Having a Good Time (20:53)
Guest: Marc Brackett, Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Professor at the Yale School of Medicine, Yale University.
Ask high school students how they’re feeling at any given moment and the most likely answer is “tired,” “stressed” or “bored.” Might all three of those be connected to sleep deprivation? The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Most schools in the US start before then. California last year became the first state to mandate that schools start later.
Do Our Dogs Love Us? (33:26)
Guest: Clive D. L. Wynne, PhD, FLS, Professor, Department of Psychology, Director, Canine Science Collaboratory, Arizona State University, Author of “Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You”
Humans love their dogs. Over 60-million American households have one. And how do dogs feel about their people? Is that eagerness and adoration you sense in your pup’s eyes when you come home at the end of the day affection or just a hungry, bored dog doing what he knows will get him food and entertainment?
Women Are More Likely to Be Injured in Car Crashes (50:40)
Guest: Jason Forman, PhD, Center for Applied Biomechanics, University of Virginia
A woman wearing a seatbelt who gets into a head-on collision is 73% more likely to be seriously injured than a man in that same situation. That’s according to analysis of nearly two decades of car crash data in the US. Is there a problem with the way cars are designed that makes crashes more harmful to a woman’s body?
Addressing the Environmental Movement’s Diversity Problem (1:06:03)
Guest: Angelou Ezeilo, Founder and CEO, Greening Youth Foundation, Author of “Engage, Connect, Protect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders”
I don’t like to perpetuate stereotypes, but if you think of the typical environmentalist in America, who is that person? Probably white. Probably upper-middle-class. Someone who has the time and money to worry about eating organic, driving an electric vehicle or participating in a climate change march.
Movies to Start a Conversation With Your Teens About Consent (1:21:04)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
A jury is now deliberating in the sexual assault trial of former movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Prosecutors say Weinstein abused his power to coerce and assault women. Weinstein claims the encounters were consensual. The #MeToo movement has pushed us all to take a closer look at what consent means – and talk about it with our kids. Movies can help open that discussion.
The Pediatrician Who Promotes Public Health Awareness Through Writing for TV Shows (0:34)
Guest: Neal Baer, Pediatrician and Writer for TV Shows, ER, Law & Order: SUV, and Designated Survivor.
Both Law & Order : SVU and ER were shows written and produced for a long time by Neal Baer who also ran Designated Survivor on Netflix. But here’s what’s especially interesting about Dr. Baer – yes, doctor. He’s a pediatrician who makes a point of weaving important public health messages into the shows he works on whenever he can. (Originally aired 7/18/2019)
Seniors Are at Higher Risk for Suicide. Watch for the Five Ds (18:25)
Guest: Yeates Conwell, MD, Director of Geriatric Psychiatry, Co-Director, Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, University of Rochester
As Baby Boomers reach their golden years, the risk of suicide among seniors is a growing concern. Americans 85 years and older have one of the highest suicides rates of any age group. (Originally aired 9/3/19)
About Fresh Puts Grocery Stores on Wheels to Fight Food Deserts (35:14)
Guest: Annika Morgan Is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of About Fresh
There’s a nonprofit in Boston that loads up school buses with fresh produce and sells it at a discount in neighborhoods that lack grocery stores. Doctors in the community even hand out gift cards for the fruits-and-veggies-school-bus to patients who need a healthier diet. They’re literally prescribing food as medicine. (Originally aired 10/1/2019)
True Color – Where Do Colors Come From Naturally? (50:43)
Guest: Keith Recker, Editor and Founder of HAND/EYE Magazine, Author of “True Colors: World Masters of Natural Dyes and Pigment”
If a piece of clothing is made with natural colors and fibers, it’s probably brown right? Or maybe rust-colored? Natural colors just aren’t anywhere near as vibrant as the yellow and pinks and reds and blue dyes made by scientists in laboratories. That’s certainly what Keith Recker thought as an executive at Saks Fifth Avenue. When a natural dye expert told him she could make any color he could want for the store’s luxurious racks from completely natural sources, Recker says he nodded politely and changed the subject. Then the natural dyer proved him wrong. (Originally aired 8/14/2019)
The Science Behind Artificial and Natural Flavoring (1:08:59)
Guest: Gene Ahlborn, Professor of Food Science, Toxicology, and Flavor Chemistry, Brigham Young University
When I see “all natural flavors” on a food label, I imagine that means the thing is flavored only by its main ingredients. So if it's apple juice, then it’s flavored by actual apples. But that’s not how flavoring works in the processed food industry. In fact, the difference between “natural” and “artificial” is not nearly as big as you’d think. (Originally aired 9/4/2019)
Ads Can Make Us Mad—Which Is Sometimes the Point (1:22:30)
Guest: Mark Bartholomew, Professor of Law, University of Buffalo
IHOP or the International House of Pancakes caused a big stir about two years ago when it changed its name to IHOB - the International House of Burgers. Pancake fans went a little nuts at the betrayal. But it was just a marketing stunt. IHOP wanted to make people mad. This is a growing trend in advertising. (Originally Aired 8/6/2019)
Neal Baer pediatrician and writer for TV shows, ER, Law & Order: SUV, and Designated Survivor on health and storytelling.Yeates Conwell, Univ of Rochester, on senior suicide. Annika Morgan of About Fresh on bringing produce to underserved neighborhoods. Keith Recker, author of “True Colors: World Masters of Natural Dyes and Pigment” on true color. Gene Ahlborn, Brigham Young Univ, on natural flavors. Mark Bartholomew of Univ of Buffalo on ads that made us mad.
Tune your record player back to the big hits of the 1960s and 70s. From Ray Charles to Glen Campbell to The Beach Boys – they all owe a debt to one woman and her bass. Carol Kaye was the studio musician every producer wanted on bass when it came to recording albums, TV show theme songs, even movie scores. I mean really she is everywhere in the sound of those decades. Carol Kaye is sometimes called The First Lady of Bass, but she never referred to herself as a “woman bass player. “Men don’t say, ‘I’m a man bass player,’” she says. “You either play or you don’t.” But she was a trailblazer and she’s inspired generations of bass players.
Carol Kaye recorded over 10,000 record dates and film calls. From 1964-1973 she was the top requested electric bass player for studio recordings.
Martha Davis of Northeastern Univ on the Equal Rights Amendment. Graham Stinnett, author of "There & Back Again: A Hobo's Tale," on hobos. Corey Olsen of Signum Univ on JRR Tolkien's Legacy. Bass player Carol Kaye on making 1960's hit records as a leading studio musician.
Equal Rights Amendment 40 Years Too Late? (0:33)
Guest: Martha Davis, Professor of Law, Northeastern University
It takes 38 states to ratify a change to the US Constitution and as of last month, 38 states have now ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Virginia’s state legislature pushed the ERA over the threshold. The trouble is the deadline to reach that milestone expired 38 years ago. But the US House of Representatives is about to pass a resolution removing that deadline. The US Senate is less likely to get on board with it. Why are we still talking about the Equal Rights Amendment, anyway? Haven’t men and women gained equal protection under the law and Supreme Court rulings?
There & Back Again: A Hobo’s Tale (19:07)
Guest: Graham Stinnett, Archivist, University of Connecticut Library
If you were a hobo 150 years ago, that didn’t mean you were in poverty. It meant you were a wanderer. Hopping from train to train, homeless by choice. One famous hobo warned others with this: “Do not jump on moving trains or streetcars, even if only to ride to the next street crossing, because this might arouse the ‘wanderlust,’ besides endangering needlessly your life and limbs.”
The Tolkien Heir and His Legacy (35:23)
Guest: Corey Olsen, President, Signum University
JRR Tolkien’s epic stories of hobbits and elves and great battles between good and evil made fantasy the literary genre it is today. The Lord of the Rings was published more than 60 years ago. The Hobbit came out 30 years before that. And Tolkien himself died in 1973. How have his stories of Middle Earth continued to captivate so many new generations? Christopher Tolkien gets the credit for that. He was J.R.R. Tolkien’s third and youngest son and just recently passed at the age of 95.
Carol Kaye – Music’s Hit-Making Bass Player of the 1960s (50:05)
Guest: Carol Kaye, Guitar and Bass Player, Top Studio Recording Musician
Tune your record player back to the big hits of the 1960s and 70s. From Ray Charles to Glen Campbell to The Beach Boys – they all owe a debt to one woman and her bass. Carol Kaye was the studio musician every producer wanted on bass when it came to recording albums, TV show theme songs, even movie scores. I mean really she is everywhere in the sound of those decades. Carol Kaye is sometimes called The First Lady of Bass, but she never referred to herself as a “woman bass player. “Men don’t say, ‘I’m a man bass player,’” she says. “You either play or you don’t.” But she was a trailblazer and she’s inspired generations of bass players.
How Global Laws Try to Contain Coronavirus (0:30)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
COVID-19. That’s the official name the World Health Organization announced for the disease caused by the new coronavirus that has spread to 24 countries and killed more than a thousand people. The vast majority of infections and deaths have been in China, where the outbreak remains a serious emergency. Other countries have shutdown travel from China and quaranted travelers from the country. Let’s take a look at the laws in place to manage a global health emergency like this.
The Carrot Is Mightier Than the Stick (19:15)
Guest: Paul Caldarella, Professor of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, Brigham Young University.
There’s a guideline for teachers that their praise for students should outnumber reprimands at least 3-to-1. It’s a nice idea, but really hard to pull off when you’re wrangling 30 third-graders in a classroom all day. The other thing is that there’s really not been much research to back up the 3:1 ratio.
Why Is a Chilean Dog the Face of NYC Subway Protests? (34:51)
Guest: Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, University of California San Diego
If you ride the subway in New York City, you may find a stray sticker of a black dog with a red bandana left over from protests in November. The dog’s name is Negro Matapacos, and he was face of the movement protesting excessive police force in subway stations. But he’s not from around here – the black dog is Chilean. So how did drawings of him end up plastered in the New York City subway?
Dopamine Fasting, Explained (50:39)
Guest: Cameron Sepah, PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor, University of California San Francisco Medical School
Intermittent fasting is the dieting trend du jour. And now there’s dopamine fasting, where people abstain from things that bring pleasure – including food, social interaction and the internet. The idea is to recalibrate reward pathways in the brain that have grown out of whack from constant stimulation. But the Silicon Valley psychologist who helped popularize dopamine fasting says it’s gone too far.
Creating a Sustainable Food Future for the World’s Growing Population (1:09:36)
Guest: Richard Waite Is an Associate With the World Resources Institute and Author of the World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future.
In another 20 or so years, the planet will have an estimated two billion more mouths to feed. And so, we’ll just grow more crops, right? But the catch is that farming more land means clearing that land of forest or grassland to make room for crops. Globally, we’ve already cleared an area roughly the size of South America to grow food. For raising livestock, we’ve taken over an area roughly the size of Africa. And we’re running out of water to keep up with all that agricultural demand. So how do we feed a growing population without ruining the planet? Primarily by changing what we eat and getting more out of the fields we're already farming.
What Are the Health Risks of 5G? (1:26:22)
Guest: Christopher Collins, PhD, Professor of Radiology at New York University.
A federal judge this week ruled that Sprint and T-Mobile can go ahead with their merger. It won’t hurt customers in terms of prices or products, the judge says. But there are people out there – a lot of people around the world – who are more worried about the physical harm cell phones may do to use when they’re connected to super-fast wireless 5G networks. (Getting up to that speed is a big reason Sprint and T-Mobile want to merge.) 5G uses higher-frequency electromagnetic waves. What will all that radiation mean for our brains and bodies?
Eric Jensen of Brigham Young Univ on coronavirus and international law. Paul Caldarella of Brigham Young Univ on praise vs. reprimand in the classroom. Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond of Univ of California San Diego on the Chilean dog who became a symbol of NYC metro protests. Cameron Sepah, Univ of California, San Francisco, on dopamine fasting. Richard Waite, World Resources Institute on the future of sustainable food. Christopher Collins of New York Univ on 5G.
Michael Singh, National Security Council, on Syria. Camilla Andersen of Univ of Western Australia Law School on comic contracts. Benjamin Frey of Univ of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the Cherokee language. Annise Dobson of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies on "global worming." Amilcar Antonio Barreto of Northeastern Univ on Puerto Rico. Elizabeth Nelson, Univ of Nevada, on the history of Valentine's Day.
Turkey and Syria Poised for War (0:34)
Guest: Michael Singh, Lane-Swig Senior Fellow, Managing Director, the Washington Institute; Former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs, National Security Council
The war in Syria has taken another worrisome turn in the last week. Forces loyal to Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad are making a final push to capture Idlib, which is the last stronghold of rebel forces who oppose the Assad regime. Russia is backing the Syrian government’s attack and hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled the city and surrounding areas. Now Turkey is sending forces to try and hold back Assad and the Russians, which prompted retaliatory strikes that killed 13 Turkish soldiers.
Turning Complicated Contracts Into Comic Books (15:46)
Guest: Camilla Baasch Andersen, PhD, Professor, University of Western Australia Law School
With all the terms and conditions, agreements, and contracts people have mindlessly accepted or signed, they may have given away their first-born child without even knowing it. You know how it goes – long sentences, lots of complex legalese – who’s gonna read all that? Or better yet, understand it? Well Camilla Andersen is an attorney who gets it, so she’s disrupting the legal profession by turning contracts into comics to get people to read them.
Will the Cherokee Language Survive? (33:19)
Guest: Benjamin Frey, Professor of Linguistics and Cherokee Language, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
There are three federally recognized tribes of Cherokee people in America and last summer they declared a joint state of emergency for their language. An estimated 2,000 fluent speakers of Cherokee are alive today – which is better than many other endangered Native American languages – but the tribes say Cherokee speakers are dying faster than new speakers are being developed.
Jumping Worms Are Invading North American Forests (50:38)
Guest: Annise Dobson, Postdoctoral Researcher, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
When Julie turns over some soil in my garden and find a wriggling pink earthworm, she gags, but fights the urge to smash it, because she knows that worms are good for soil. They break down organic matter and soften dirt so plants can grow better. Well, anyway, that’s what most of most people think. But actually, earthworms in large numbers can be problematic for plants. Plus, there’s a type of invasive earthworm making its way across North America that’s really, really bad for plants and especially for forests.
Triple Traumas for Puerto Rico: Financial Crisis, Hurricane Maria, Earthquakes (1:09:40)
Guest: Amilcar Antonio Barreto, Professor of Global Studies at Northeastern University
Over a span of a few weeks at the start of this year, hundreds of earthquakes shook the southern part of Puerto Rico, collapsing homes and severely damaging a major power plant for the island. Keep in mind, many parts of Puerto Rico are still struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Maria two years ago.
The True History of Valentine’s Day (1:26:09)
Guest: Elizabeth Nelson, PhD, Pop Culture Expert and Author, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Parents across the country are in Valentine’s Day scramble-mode, rounding up enough treats and cards for all their kids’ classmates. Holidays are such work for parents. And expensive too–the National Retail Federation says Americans who celebrate Valentine’s this year plan to spend nearly $200 on average. That includes gifts for a special someone, but also kids, friends, family members, co-workers and pets. Valentine’s Day, above all, is a triumph of marketing.
McKay Coppins, Author of “The Wilderness,” on Mitt Romney's vote to convict President Trump. Willoughby Britton of Brown Univ on some negative effects of meditation. Christopher Robertson, Univ of Arizona, on prosecutor bias. Jennifer Temple of Univ at Buffalo on caffeine and kids. Mark Loewen of the University of Utah on a new dinosaur. Robin Kowalski, Clemson Univ, on when complaining is good for you.
Where Does Mitt Romney’s Revolt Leave Him With the Republican Party? (0:30)
Guest: McKay Coppins, Staff Writer, The Atlantic, Author of “The Wilderness”
It’s a Mitt moment. Again. The former Republican Presidential candidate is now the first senator in US history to vote to remove a president of his own party from office. Before Utah Senator Mitt Romney cast his vote to convict President Trump of abusing his power, he arranged a series of interviews with reporters to explain why.
For Some, Meditation Has Negative Side Effects (18:50)
Guest: Willoughby Britton, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Director of the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Brown University
It’s become so easy to dabble in meditation that the percentage of American adults who’ve given it a try has more than tripled in recent years. All you need is a smartphone app or a YouTube video. It’s a cheap way to improve your state of mind, and scientific experiments show it can actually rewire your brain in helpful ways. Which begs the question, is it safe? If it’s changing your body and mind, is this the kind of thing people ought to be doing unsupervised?
Does Racial Bias Drive Prosecutors to Punish Blacks More Harshly? (35:56)
Guest: Christopher Robertson, Professor of Law, University of Arizona
In America’s justice system, blacks are imprisoned at almost four times the rate of whites and receive longer prison sentences. How much of that disparity is a result of biased prosecutors deciding to more harshly punish people of color?
Is Caffeine Bad for Your Kids? (50:34)
Guest: Jennifer L. Temple, Director of the Nutrition and Health Research Laboratory, University at Buffalo
What’s the story with kids and caffeine? Does it really stunt growth? Should you worry if your teen likes energy drinks? How guilty should you feel when you occasionally cave to your 10-year old’s pleas and let him have a Dr. Pepper?
Now Introducing…the Allosaurus Jimmadseni (1:05:16)
Guest: Mark Loewen, Paleontologist, University of Utah
More than 150 million years ago, the Allosaurus walked the earth. It’s one of the biggest predatory dinosaurs that existed, and also one of the most plentiful fossils out there, making it uniquely useful for study. All these specimens have helped paleontologists from the Utah Museum of Natural History identify a new species of allosaur, called the Allosaurus Jimmadseni.
When Complaining Is Good for You (1:25:39)
Guest: Robin Kowalski, Professor of Psychology, Clemson University
“No complaining.” That was the one hard-and-fast rule for all outings in Julie's family. Nobody likes a complainer. But we all do it - maybe not in the high-pitched whine of a toddler, but think about the venting you do with someone you’re close to, or the dissatisfaction you lodge with a business that disappoints you. If complaining is so common, it can’t be all bad, can it?
Deborah Blum, MIT, author of "The Poison Squad" on chemistry and food safety. Barbara Lipska, author of "The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind," on neuroscience and experiencing brain cancer. Olga Stoddard, Brigham Young Univ, on workplace diversity. Roshan Khatri, Headwaters Relief Organization, on fighting human trafficking after disasters. Darryl Brown of Univ of Virginia Law School on life sentences.
The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety (0:35)
Guest: Deborah Blum, Author of "The Poison Squad", Director of the Knight Science Journalism Program, MIT,
In the 1880s if you walked into a grocery store and bought milk, bread and butter, it was “buyer beware.” The milk was likely diluted, quite possibly with dirty water, and then thickened with chalk. The bread might have sawdust in it and the butter might be preserved with borax, which is a poison, of course. It wasn’t until 1906 that the US finally got the Pure Food and Drug Act, which led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, and the expectation that our food should be safe to eat. The battle to get to there was both grisly and exhausting. (Originally aired 12/5/2018)
The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind (24:01)
Guest: Barbara Lipska, PhD, Director of the Human Brain Collection Core, National Institute of Mental Health, Author of "The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind"
Neuroscientist Barbara Lipska spent her career studying mental illness, and then she lived it. Tumors in her brain brought on all the confusion, irrationality and anger common in people with schizophrenia, which is the exact disease Lipska specializes in studying. Luckily, cutting-edge treatment saved Lipska’s life and restored her mind. She now considers her brain cancer a “priceless gift,” because suffering through mental illness taught her more about how the brain works than dissecting one in a lab ever could. (Originally aired 5/2/2018)
Diversity in the Workplace May Be Easier to Solve Than You Think (50:43)
Guest: Olga Stoddard, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University
IBM chief Ginni Rometty just announced that she’s stepping down, which leaves one less female CEO of a Fortune 500. There will not be just 34. Even fewer are people of color – male or female. Corporate America talks a lot about increasing diversity within its ranks, but still struggles to deliver. A team of economists has come up with a cheap, simple solution that doubled the number of racial minority applicants in hiring experiment. (Originally aired 9/4/2019)
Fighting Human Trafficking After Natural Disasters (1:06:09)
Guest: Roshan Khatri, Chief Medical Director, Headwaters Relief Organization.
The last decade brought some of the costliest natural disasters on record for many countries, including the US, Japan, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Brazil. Costs range from property damage to business disruptions. But there’s also a hidden human cost: disaster areas are a prime target for human traffickers to lure desperate people into prostitution and slavery. The Headwaters Relief Organization is a non-profit focused on natural disasters, and they’re fighting human trafficking. (Originally aired 9/17/2019)
Why Criminals in the U.S. Are Sentenced to Prison for Longer Than Life (1:21:51)
Guest: Darryl Brown, Professor of Law at University of Virginia Law School
Convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff is asking to be released from prison so he can die at home. He’s serving a 150-year sentence, but his attorneys question the value of such an impossible-long punishment for an old, sick man. Back in the fall we called up University of Virginia law professor Darryl Brown for some explanation about the seemingly arbitrary nature of sentencing in America’s justice system. Two cases had captured our attention at the time – the Neo Nazi who killed a protester at the Charlottesville rally got life plus 419 years in prison. And actress Felicity Huffman had just been sentenced to two weeks in prison for paying someone to correct her daughter’s SAT college entrance exam. There was outrage online about how much harsher the sentence would likely have been if Huffman weren’t white and famous. (Originally aired 9/16/2019)
Grant Madsen and Jeremy Pope of Brigham Young Univ on the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. Kenneth Dodge, Duke Univ, on helping children succeed early on. Joe Roman of the Gund Institute on whaling. Jill Tietjen and Barbara Bridges, co-authors of “Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies,” on women in film. Keith Herman of Univ of Missouri on stressed teachers.
Iowa, New Hampshire and the Weird Way Americans Choose a President (0:32)
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, Associate Professor of History, BYU; Jeremy Pope, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU
Democrats Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are in a virtual tie after the first contest of the 2020 President Election – the Iowa Caucuses. That Joe Biden did so poorly in Iowa, coming in fourth, is maybe the bigger news, given his front-runner status. But let’s be real, the biggest news was just how badly the logistics went in Iowa. And now the candidates are off to New Hampshire for the next presidential primary, which happens Tuesday. Now why does Iowa and New Hampshire – of all states – have such a big say in who parties nominate for President?
Helping Children Succeed (20:49)
Guest: Kenneth Dodge, PhD, Pritzker Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University
Next to healthcare, the most debated issue among Democratic candidates for president is probably student debt. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders want to erase student loans and make college free for all. Pete Buttigieg says those things should be limited to the poor and middle class. Joe Biden supports making two years of community college free. But what families could really use – what would likely make an even bigger difference for Americans – is directing that money toward the earliest years of a child’s life – before they’ve even started school.
Dead or Alive, Whales Give as Much as They Take From Their Ocean Environments (36:34)
Guest: Joe Roman, Conservation Biologist, Author, Fellow at the Gund Institute
For centuries, whaling was such big business that whale populations worldwide shrank by as much as 90 percent. Since 1986, though, when most of the world banned whale hunting, the giants of the sea have begun to rebound and scientists are starting to understand just how different the oceans might have been when whales were plentiful. Iceland is one of three countries in the world that still allow whale hunting. The other two are Norway and Japan.
Hollywood: Her Story (50:44)
Guest: Jill Tietjen, Historian and Author; Barbara Bridges, Founder of Women+Film Festival; Co-Authors of “Hollywood: Her Story, an Illustrated History of Women and the Movies”
Here’s something we know for sure: The Oscar winner for Best Director will not be a woman. None of the women who directed successful and critically acclaimed films in 2019 - like Greta Gerwig for “Little Women” or Lulu Wang for “The Farewell” – were nominated. That’s not a big surprise since the Academy has only ever nominated five women for “best director” and only one has actually won it. But here’s something I bet will surprise you - back in the earliest days of Hollywood, the highest-paid director in the industry was a woman. In fact, women pretty much ran showbiz in the silent film era. What changed?
Why Are Middle School Teachers So Stressed? (1:28:43)
Guest: Keith Herman, Professor of School & Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri; Co-Director, Missouri Prevention Science Institute
Let’s list the most stressful jobs we can think of – emergency surgeon, firefighter, EMT, air traffic controller – what else? You know what would be such a stressful job I don’t think I could actually do it? Middle school teacher. No joke. University of Missouri researchers have found that nearly all middle school teachers experience high levels of stress.
Eitan Hersh of Tufts Univ, Author of “Politics is for Power,” on political hobbyism. Nicholas Lardy, Peterson Institute for International Economics, on coronavirus and the global economy. Angela Rodriguez of Worcester Polytechnic Institute on pregnant women and fat-shaming. Katherina Rosqueta, Center of High Impact Philanthropy, on philanthropy. Catherine Panter-Brick of Yale Univ on refugee trauma.Tish O’Dell, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, on Lake Erie and rights of nature laws.
Obsessing About Political News Is Not Good for Us or the Country (0:31)
Guest: Eitan Hersh, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Tufts University, Author of “Politics Is for Power”
The political news these days just won’t quit. So much drama at the President’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday – did you see Speaker Pelosi tear up her copy of the President’s speech?! The Senate acquitted President Trump in the impeachment trial. And the all-important Iowa Caucus was a giant bungle for Democrats just as the Presidential race kicks into high gear. It’s not easy to keep up on it all, but for a lot of us, it kind of feels like a patriotic duty. Information is power, right?
Coronavirus Outbreak in China Is Having Global Economic Impact (19:58)
Guest: Nicholas R. Lardy, Anthony M. Solomon Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
As the scale of the coronavirus outbreak grows rapidly, America and other countries are evacuating their citizens from China. Major airlines have cancelled flights to China. Large retailers like Apple have closed their stores in China and carmaker Hyundai just announced it’s suspending production at its manufacturing plants in South Korea because it can’t get the parts it needs from factories in China that are closed.
The Widespread Problem of Weight Stigma Among Pregnant and Post-Partum Women (36:31)
Guest: Angela Incollingo Rodriguez, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
The stigma around weight in American culture is deeply engrained and problematic. But you’d think that at least pregnant women would be free from that stigma. She’s growing another human inside her, for goodness sake? But two-thirds of pregnant and postpartum women recently surveyed reported experiencing some form of weight stigma. Two-thirds!
Can Philanthropy Change Democracy (50:33)
Guest: Katherina Rosqueta, Founding Executive Director at the Center of High Impact Philanthropy, Adjunct Faculty at the School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania
We’re seeing historic lows of American trust in the US government, according to the Pew Research Center. Not only do very few people believe that Washington will do the right thing, but we also aren’t very trusting of each other when it comes to politics. So what’s the solution? One group believes they’ve found the answer – philanthropy.
Poverty of Refugee Life Is More Disruptive to a Child’s Cognition Than War-Related Trauma (1:06:29)
Guest: Catherine Panter-Brick, Professor of Anthropology, Yale University
Child refugees uprooted by war have seen a lot of violence and experienced a lot of traumatic loss. But the constant stress of being poor is what seems to be most harmful to child refugee’s cognitive development – to his or her ability to focus, remember things and filter out distractions.
Should Nature Have Rights? Lake Erie’s Got a Bill of Rights (1:24:37)
Guest: Tish O’Dell, Ohio Organizer at the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, President of the Ohio Community Rights Network
If corporations have individual rights under US law – like freedom of speech - why not a grant a lake or forest or river the same status? New Zealand recognizes the legal rights of the Te Urewera forest. India considers the Ganges River a legal person. The first attempt at this in the US came last year when the citizens of Toledo, Ohio voted to give Lake Erie rights normally reserved for a person. The move is being challenged in court.
Race to Develop a Vaccine for Coronavirus (0:29)
Guest: Maria Elena Bottazzi, PhD, Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Research
The threat of coronavirus in the US remains very low, with only 11 confirmed cases and no deaths. But globally, it has already sickened more than 21,000 people and killed more than 420. Most of those cases are in China, where the outbreak started and is now more deadly than SARS was 18 years ago. Researchers at the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development have a vaccine for SARS they think could be useful against this new coronavirus, too. So why isn’t it already available?
Trump Administration Expands Immigration Ban to Major African Countries (19:50)
Guest: Charles Kuck, Managing Partner of Kuck | Baxter Immigration Partners, Past National President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
The Trump Administration on Friday added six more countries to the so-called “travel ban” – but in this case, the restrictions don’t actually apply to travelers coming to the US for a visit. It’s really more of an “immigration ban” on citizens from Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan looking to live or work in the United States. People from two other countries – Tanzania and Sudan – will be banned from applying for visas through the “diversity lottery” which issues tens of thousands of visas every year to countries with historically low numbers of immigrants coming to the US.
The Skills College Students Need to Be More Mentally Resilient in Stressful Times (37:59)
Guest: Marty Swanbrow Becker, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Florida State University
College brings so many new experiences and demands, it’s normal for students to feel overwhelmed. But the American College Health Association’s latest annual survey found more than half of college students around the country have felt hopeless, very sad or overwhelmed with anxiety in the last year. Almost half of all college students in the survey say they’ve felt so depressed it was difficult to function. Counseling centers on college campuses simply can’t keep up with demand from students in crisis.
Putin’s Code and Russia’s Future (50:42)
Guest: Brian Taylor, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, Syracuse University, Author of “The Code of Putinism”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has four years yet in office before term limits will force him to leave the role. But he’s already begun maneuvering to rewrite the rules so he can remain Russia’s most powerful leader. A commission looking into changes Putin has proposed is even toying with the idea of giving him the position of “Supreme Ruler.” “The Code of Putinism” attempts to explain why the Russian leader behaves as he does and what that’s meant for Russia during his 20 years in power.
Teaching Social Skills After School (1:09:49)
Guest: Bridget Durkan Laird, CEO of Wings for Kids
Kids learn all kinds of great things in school, but it may be hard to find a unit on emotional intelligence in a teacher's curriculum. Bridget Laird things that's an oversight - so she helped start Wings for Kids, a non-profit based in Charleston, SC that teaches kids social-emotional skills in an afterschool program.
The Study on Cuttlefish Vision Using 3D Glasses (1:26:12)
Guest: Trevor Wardill, Assistant Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota
Cuttlefish are pretty weird looking sea creatures. They’ve got eight tentacles coming out of their face, like a squid, but their body is a little more flat and flowy. And they’ve got two big eyes on their head, which work together, like our eyes do, to see the world in 3D. That last part is something scientists only recently discovered by velcroing 3D glasses onto the faces of cuttlefish and showing the movies. No, not the latest Marvel movie.
Maria Bottazzi, Baylor College of Medicine, on a coronavirus vaccine. Charles Kuck of Kuck | Baxter Immigration Partners on countries banned from immigration to the US. Martin Becker, Florida State Univ, on mental resilience in college. Brian Taylor of Syracuse Univ, Author of “The Code of Putinism," on Putin and Russia's future. Bridget Durkan Laird, CEO of Wings for Kids on teaching social skills afer school. Trevor Wardill of Univ of Minnesota on cuttlefish that wear 3D glasses.
Wade Jacoby and Joel Selway of Brigham Young Univ on Brexit. Sabine Hildebrandt, Harvard Medical School, on Nazi Medical Research. Karsten Von Hoesslin, Remote Operations Agency, on piracy in Southeast Asia and the case of Keith Davis. Mathilde Mukantabana, Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the United States, on genocide. Kelly Shue, Yale Univ, on women in housing. Howard Conyers of NASA on how to barbecue a whole hog.
Brexit Has Happened. Sort Of. (0:30)
Guest: Wade Jacoby, PhD, professor of political science, BYU; Joel Selway, PhD, associate professor of political science, BYU
Well, Britain finally left the European Union. But actually, the curtain hasn’t quite yet gone up on an independent UK. It’s more like dress rehearsals have begun and opening night is still almost a year away.
Is It Ethical to Use Nazi Medical Research to Save Lives? (20:14)
Guest: Sabine Hildebrant, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School.
One of the most respected anatomy books ever published has a troubling history doctors still wrestle with today. It’s called Pernkopf’s Atlas and its colorful paintings of the body are so meticulous and beautifully detailed, it’s considered a masterpiece surgeons still refer to. But Pernkopf was a Nazi and the drawings in his atlas were likely based on victims of the Nazi regime. Should doctors be using the atlas to guide them in saving lives? How much does the origin of a thing matter?
Crime is Tough to Catch on the High Seas (37:04)
Guest: Karsten von Hoesslin, Head Detective, Remote Operations Agency
The world’s hunger for fish is depleting ocean fisheries, so countries and international organizations try to set and enforce limits on how much companies can fish out of the sea. But the incentive to cheat is so strong, that regulators can’t just trust fishing boats to be honest about what they’re up to. That’s where fishery observers come in. One man or woman from an independent organization gets assigned to go out on a ship – often for months at a time – to monitor and report anything illegal. The job is dangerous, and several fishery observers have disappeared in recent years under mysterious circumstances.
Genocide Can Happen Anywhere (50:43)
Guest: Mathilde Mukantabana, Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the United States
For 100 days in 1994, the people of Rwanda turned against each other in ethnic violence. A million people died in the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda’s ambassador to the United States, Mathilde Mukantabana, lost her family – parents, siblings, aunts, uncles – who were members of the Tutsi group, which was targeted by Hutus in the genocide.
Women Are at a Disadvantage in the Housing Market (1:08:19)
Guest: Dr. Kelly Shue, Professor of Finance, Yale School of Management
If you’re a single woman in the housing market, I’ve got some bad news for you. A new study looked at 50 million house transactions across the US and found that single women often don’t do as well as single men – women buy homes for more and sell for less.
Whole Hog BBQ With a Rocket Scientist (1:23:10)
Guest: Howard Conyers, PhD, Whole Hog Pitmaster, Engineer at NASA Stennis Space Center
Texas barbecue is not the same as North Carolina barbecue is not the same as Kansas barbecue, as any barbecue aficionado knows. The meats, sauces and cooking methods all vary. Howard Conyers’s technique is among the rarest: he smokes a whole hog in a pit, the way indigenous and enslaved people in America were cooking barbecue long before white celebrity chefs were crowned the “kings of barbecue.”
Tackling Mental Health, Finding Hope on Social Media (0:36)
Guest: Caroline Kaufman @poeticpoison, Author of “When The World Didn’t End”
Caroline Kaufman started posting raw, personal poetry on Instagram when she was a freshman in high school. At first, she did it anonymously under the handle @poeticpoison. Then her poems went viral and her following grew to over a 100,000. Teenagers, in particular, connected with her short, powerful poems about struggling with mental illness, thoughts of suicide, learning to cope with heart break and how to be kinder to herself. Six years later, Caroline Kaufman is attending Harvard and publishing her second poetry collection –the first came out in 2018, last year it was called “Light Filters In.” Her latest is “When the World Didn’t End." (Orignally Aired 8/28/2019)
What Do Superhero Movies Need a Science Advisor For? (20:28)
Guest: Jennifer Ouellette, Senior Reporter, Ars Technican; Sean Carroll, Theoretical Physicist, California Institute of Technology
When you’re trying to tell a good story for the silver screen, you can’t get bogged down in the scientific details. You could argue we watch TV and go to the movie theater to escape reality. But many Hollywood producers and directors do care about getting at least some of the science right. The National Academy of Sciences even has a program to put the entertainment industry in touch with top scientists and engineers to advise them. (Originally aired 1/30/2019)
Singing Builds Community (50:41)
Guest: Eiluned Pearce, PhD, Research Fellow, University College London
Whether it’s at church, or a big game or just in the car with friends, we've all spent time singing with other people. Even if you’re the type who would rather die than be caught singing a solo, it’s still hard to deny that a bit of group singing in the right context is kinda nice. Why is that? (Originally aired 8/8/2019)
Sharing Funny Posts on the Internet Could Be a Copyright Violation (1:05:38)
Guest: Ruth Carter, Attorney, Carter Law Firm, Author of “The Legal Side of Blogging: How Not to get Sued, Fired, Arrested, or Killed”
When something doesn’t seem fair, it really irks Julie. Always has. So she's irritated when she sees a funny video or cleverly-captioned photo pop up on my social media feed and it’s gone massively viral. And I want to “like” or “share it.” But the person who made the video or photo isn’t actually the person getting the viral credit for it. Somebody else with a bigger following snagged the content and posted it to their feed and they’re getting all the traffic –and probably even making a buck off it. Shouldn’t there be a law that prevents this kind of rampant ripping off of other people’s property? (Originally Aired 9/10/2019)
In School, It’s the Mindset That Matters (1:22:59)
Guest: David Yeager, Associate Professor of Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin
What if one hour at the start of freshman year could set your child up for more success in high school? It’s an online program in two thirty-minute sessions, and when researchers tested it on more than 12,000 students it seemed to help both the struggling students and the high-achievers. (Originally Aired 9/24/2019)
Caroline Kaufman, author of "When the World Didn't End" on Instapoets and hope on social media. Jennifer Ouellette of CalTech on science in Hollywood. Eiluned Pearce, Univ College London on group singing. Ruth Carter of Carter Law Firm and author of “The Legal Side of Blogging: How Not to get Sued, Fired, Arrested, or Killed," on internet copyright law. David Yeager, Univ of Texas at Austin, on student success.
Impeachment Trial Moves Toward Key Votes
Guest: James Curry, PhD, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah; Robert Adler, JD, Distinguished Professor, SJ Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
The process of impeaching President Donald J. Trump is winding down. Last week, House Democrats voted to impeach, the US Senate convened a trial and that’s what’s been playing out this last week. First House Democrats got 24 hours to make the case that President Trump abused his power and obstructed justice –two counts the Democrats say warrant impeaching and removing the president from office. Then the President’s legal team had 24 hours to present their defense. And now the trial is in question and answer phase.
Our Obsession With Natural Products
Guest: Alan Levinovitz, Associate Professor of Religion, James Madison University, Author of Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science
We’re told–and a lot of us agree–that natural is always better, whether it’s food, flavors and fibers or skin care and supplements. But did you know that the FDA doesn’t even define what “natural” means on a food label? It’s basically just a marketing ploy to catch your attention –and it works. Lifestyle brands like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop have made obsessing about all things natural into a lucrative business. Setting aside the often dubious health and wellness claims attached to anything “natural,” why do we place so much value in the idea of it?
Auditioning to Become Indiana Jones’ Sidekick
Guest: Nobu Adilman, Documentary Filmmaker of Short Round Up, Musician and Artist
Short Round is maybe the most memorable character in an Indiana Jones movie next to Indy himself. Jonathan Ke Quan played the spunky sidekick in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. But thousands of other kids auditioned for the role, including Nobu Adilman. He made a short documentary called Short Round Up in which he tracks down some of the other aspiring actors who also auditioned for the role.
I’m Not Normal and Neither Are You. Nathaniel and Magda Newman on Life With Treacher Collins Syndrome
Guest: Magda and Nathaniel Newman, Authors of Normal: A Mother and Her Beautiful Son
The book for young readers called Wonder by RJ Palacio–and the movie based on it –gave people a better understanding of Treacher Collins syndrome. It’s a genetic condition that causes severe facial deformities like Auggie has in Wonder. Nathaniel Newman is sometimes called “the real life Auggie,” because he has Treacher Collins, too, but that’s pretty much where the similarities stop. Nathaniel and his mother Magda are now telling their story in a memoir called Normal: A Mother and Her Beautiful Son. It’s just been published in two versions–one for young readers and one for adults.
Using A.I. to Improve Breast Cancer Detection
Guest: Mozziyar Etemadi, MD, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Northwestern University, Physician at Northwestern Medicine
Tens of millions of women in the US get a mammogram each year, because it remains the best way we have to catch breast cancer early. But it’s far from fool-proof. The American Cancer Society says mammograms miss one out of every five breast cancers. And on the flip side, half of women getting a yearly mammogram will end up with a false alarm diagnosis over a 10-year period. Could artificially intelligent software do a better job than human doctors analyzing mammograms?
Jim Curry and Robert Adler, both of Univ of Utah, on the impeachment trial. Alan Levinovitz, James Madison Univ, on Goop. Nobu Adilman, filmmaker and artist, on tracking down the people who auditioned to be Short Round for Indiana Jones. Magda and Nathaniel Newman, authors of “Normal: A Mother and Her Beautiful Son." Mozziyar Etemadi of Northwestern Univ on AI Mammograms.
Alan Stern of NASA on the New Horizons mission to Pluto. Scott Hamilton, Director of the Leeham Company on Boeing crashes. Eric Goldman of Santa Clara Univ on Clearview AI. Apple Seed host Sam Payne. Jane Hinckley, Brigham Young Univ, on Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sandition. Paul Florsheim, Univ of Wisconsin and coauthor of "Lost and Found: Young Fathers In the Age of Unwed Parenthood" on young fathers.
Why Pluto Matters, According to the Scientist Who Got Us Closest to the Dwarf Planet (0:30)
Guest: Alan Stern, Principal Investigator, New Horizons Mission, NASA
The solar system you learned in grade school got a major shakeup in the late 1990s. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are all still there. But Pluto was always the odd planet out. So distant and small and not like the little rocky planets near the sun or gas giants, either. But then, high-powered telescopes revealed in the 1990s that tiny Pluto was just one of a whole class of dwarf planets way out there that far outnumber the planets we all memorized in school. So NASA said, “We gotta go explore that place.” And planetary scientist Alan Stern said, “I’m your man.”
737 Max Crisis Fuels Major Losses for Boeing in 2019 (21:18)
Guest: Scott Hamilton, Managing Director of the Leeham Company
Boeing said today it lost half a billion dollars in 2019 –that’s the first annual loss for the company in more than two decades and there’s one reason for it: the 737 Max.
Should We Be Scared of Facial Recognition Technology? (35:39)
Guest: Eric Goldman, Law Professor, Santa Clara University
A privacy advocacy group and 40 other organizations wrote a letter to the government this week, calling for a ban on facial recognition technology. The letter was prompted by a recent New York Times expose on a company called Clearview AI. It’s all really speculative right now, but the article claims that Clearview is pulling images from social media sites to create a facial recognition program and that more than 600 law enforcement agencies have used it to solve crimes.
The Apple Seed (50:39)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam tells the story of how the Grammys came to be and some of the surprise winners of those first awards.
Jane Austen’s Unfinished Novel Hits The Small Screen (58:44)
Guest: Jane Hinckley, Professor of Comparative Arts & Letters, Brigham Young University
When Jane Austen died of illness at the age of 41, she was working on another novel, but she only finished 11 chapters. It’s got an unusual setting for an Austen story and it features her only black character. What did she have in mind for this novel? A writer known for adapting Jane Austen for film and television has taken a stab at finishing it for a series airing now on PBS Masterpiece. It’s called Sanditon.
Lost and Found: Young Fathers in a New Age (1:20:31)
Guest: Paul Florsheim, PhD, "Coauthor of Lost and Found: Young Fathers In the Age of Unwed Parenthood," Professor of Community and Behavioral Health Promotion, University of Wisconsin
The rate of teenage pregnancy in America has declined drastically over the last 20 years –which is good news. But over that same period, we’ve seen a steady rise in unwed parenthood –especially among young parents under the age of 25, and the kids end up being raised by a very young –often very poor-single mother. What about the young fathers? What could help them be more involved in the lives of their children?
The Difference Between Consent and Compliance is Key in Weinstein Trial (0:34)
Guest: Vanessa K. Bohns, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior, Cornell University
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein is currently on trial in New York. Numerous women have accused him of sexually assaulting them. Weinstein pleaded not guilty and says the encounters were consensual.But what does consent mean in cases like this? Prosecutors have no physical evidence of the assaults, so the case will turn on whether jurors believe the women’s testimony. Weinstein’s defense attorneys are trying to cast doubt on that testimony so jurors may find themselves wondering why the women didn’t resist more. “If she knew he had a reputation with women, why did she agree to meet him in his hotel room?” “If Weinstein really did rape her, why did she continue to email or text him?” But consent and compliance are not the same thing.
When Adults Are Required to Report Suspected Abuse, It Can Be Hard for Kids to Know Who to Trust (19:11)
Guest: Max A. Greenberg, Lecturer of Sociology, Boston University
People who work in some professions –like teachers, doctors and social workers –are required by law to report child abuse when they suspect it. These “mandatory reporting” laws are meant to protect kids. But sometimes they can leave a young person unsure who to trust, so they might just keep quiet about the abuse. Do mandatory reporting laws do more harm than good?
Messy, Mixed-Up English (29:07)
Guest: David Eddington, PhD, Spanish Philology and Linguistics, Brigham Young University.
English doesn’t even crack the top 10 list of most difficult languages to learn. It has its quirks, though, making it hard for non-English speakers to master. But there is a really good reason why English has so many strange spellings. (Originally aired 10/10/2018)
How Effective is Outrage Online? (38:32)
Guest: William Brady, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow in psychology, Yale University
There is a lot of outrage on social media, I’m sure you’ve noticed. Maybe you’ve participated. It can be cathartic to vent online or share someone else’s indignant post. Why does outrage flourish online–and is it doing us any good?
Why Are We so Fascinated by Crows? (50:43)
Guest: Kaeli Swift, Lecturer, University Of Washington.
One winter when I was a kid, this was what our neighborhood sounded like. A huge flock of crows decided to camp in the large trees on our street. They turned the trees black, there were so many of them, and with the cawing all day long, it was terrifying. None of us kids would play outside and even the adults were afraid, because they’d seen that Hitchcock movie, “The Birds.” Was there anything to be afraid of?
When Robots Take Our Jobs, Humans Might Become Less Prejudiced Toward Others (1:11:21)
Guest: Joshua Conrad Jackson, PhD student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
In industrial nations around the world–like the US and UK–immigrants are often blamed for stealing the low-wage jobs from native-born citizens. That’s been the refrain for much of the last century. In this next 100 years, though, it’ll be robots taking our jobs. Will having a common robotic enemy make us less inclined to discriminate against people we used to see our main threat? That’s one vision of the future, at least.
Caldecott and Newbery Winners Announced (1:24:50)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
Vanessa Bohns of Cornell Univ on consent vs. compliance and the Weinstein trial. Max Greenberg, Boston Univ, on mandated reporting. William Brady, Yale Univ, on getting outraged online. David Eddington, Brigham Young Univ, on weird English spellings. Kaeli Swift of Univ of Washington on crows. Joshua Conrad Jackson of UNC Chapel Hill on how robots could reduce prejudice among people. Worlds Awaiting host Rachel Wadham on recently announced winners of the Caldecott and Newbery awards.
Dr. Andrew Pavia, Univ of Utah Health, on the coronavirus outbreak. Ron Mallett, Univ of Connecticut, on time travel. David Schmerler, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey on finding nuclear secrets. Michael Greger, author of “How Not to Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy Permanent Weight Loss," on dieting. Charlie Dorison, Harvard Univ, on drugs and emotion. Scott Steffensen and Mike Alder of Brigham Young Univ on dopamine and addiction.
Coronavirus Not Yet a Major Threat in the US. Meanwhile, Don’t Ignore the Flu (0:31)
Guest: Andrew Pavia, MD, Chief, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Utah Health
Five cases of corona virus have been confirmed in the United States. Officials say all of the patients had previously traveled to Wuhan, China, which remains at the center of the disease outbreak. Travel is restricted for tens of millions of people in China as the government tries to stem the spread of the virus, which has so far killed at least 80 people and sickened thousands.
Is Time Travel Possible? (14:21)
Guest: Ron Mallett, PhD, Retired Professor Emeritus and Research Professor, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut
If you could travel back in time, is there one person or moment you’d choose to visit? The answer to that question has fueled Ron Mallett’s entire career as a theoretical physicist –but until he got tenure at the University of Connecticut, he had to keep his time travel aspirations a bit under wraps. Mallett has recently retired from teaching and is trying to raise money to test his theories about time travel.
Publicly-Available Satellite Data Helps Regular Citizens Monitor Secret Nuclear Development in Iran and NK (35:15)
Guest: David Schmerler, Senior Research Associate, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
North Korea and Iran have both recently said they plan to renew their efforts at developing nuclear weapons. Understanding just where those countries currently stand with nuclear capability has traditionally required skills and sources only a government agency would have access to. But these days anyone can go on Google Earth and see virtually any spot on the planet in reasonable detail. Researchers at the Middlebury Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies have developed an impressive reputation for sleuthing nuclear secrets using satellite images and other publicly-available information.
The Facts About Healthy Eating and How Not to Diet (50:37)
Guest: Michael Greger, MD, Author of “How Not to Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy Permanent Weight Loss”
A 500-page diet book written by a doctor who hates diet books. Just what the world needs, right? But the things is, most of us do worry –or at least wonder–what the best diet for optimal weight and health is. And we’re swimming in advice that’s contradictory and confusing. He’s made it as fact-based and comprehensive as possible, so it’s hefty enough you might actually build a little muscle holding it while you read.
Sadness is Major Driver of Tobacco Use (1:09:04)
Guest: Charlie Dorison, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
Cigarette use has steadily declined in America since the smoke-filled days of the 1950s and 60s. But smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in this country. Why do people smoke? Harvard survey work suggests feeling sad is a major trigger of tobacco use.
Assessing Dopamine Levels to Treat Addiction (1:23:13)
Guests: Scott Steffensen, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Technology Transfer Office, Brigham Young University
More than 20 million Americans are experiencing addiction to alcohol or illicit drugs,including marijuana and opioids. The intense physical and psychological pain of withdrawal keeps many people from overcoming substance use disorder. The brain chemical dopamine plays a crucial role in that process and BYU addiction research Scott Steffensen is working to understand it better. He’s lately developed a potential avenue for quickly measuring dopamine levels in the brain in order to tailor addiction treatment for a patient.
Luke Goodrich, author of "Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America," on religious freedom and LGBT rights. Joshua Douglas, Univ of Kentucky, on preventing gerrymandering. Andrew Hales of Univ of Virginia on ostracism and extremism. Judy Stone, MD and author of "Resilience: One Family's Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil," on family stories of the Holocaust. Randy Ploetz, Univ of Florida, on banana fungus.
Religious Freedom and LGBT Rights Back at the US Supreme Court
Guest: Luke Goodrich, Vice President and Senior Counsel, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, author of “Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America”
The US Supreme Court heard arguments this week in what could settling a long-running dispute in America over whether using taxpayer dollars for tuition at religious schools violates the separation of church and state. Last fall, we talked about the significance of that case on the Supreme Court’s docket with Luke Goodrich, Deputy General Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. At the time of our conversation, the Supreme Court had just heard a case that strikes at the heart of the conflict between religious freedom and LGBT rights. That’s the case we talked about first. The Supreme Court has yet to issue a ruling on either. (Originally aired 10/23/19)
U.S. Supreme Court Leaves Gerrymandering Prevention to the States
Guest: Joshua Douglas, Professor of Law, University of Kentucky
New Jersey’s governor just signed a bill into law this week that will make the state’s district voting maps easily available online. The hope is that if the public has better access to these maps, it will discourage lawmakers from excessive gerrymandering –that’s when politicians draw district boundaries to favor their own party. It’s legal, but public outcry and a series of court rulings in recent years have begun to demand the lines be drawn in a less self-serving way. A series of court rulings in recent years have drawing voting maps in favor of Democrats or Republicans. (Originally aired 9/24/2019)
Research Shows How Ostracism Can Lead People to Extremism
Guest: Andrew Hales, postdoctoral researcher, University of Virginia
Being excluded never feels good. It didn’t feel good as a kid on the playground and, it doesn’t feel good when you get left out of a lunch with coworkers or old friends. The question is, so what? Does being ostracized lead people to behave in worrisome ways? Sure, parents, teachers and bosses care about the answer. But, so do leaders of nations where whole groups of people are ostracized because of their race, religion or immigrant status. (Originally aired 9/25/2019)
Holocaust Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil
Guest: Judy Stone, Judy Stone, MD, author of “Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil”
Judy Stone grew up knowing any questions about the war were off-limits to her parents, aunts and uncles--all Hungarian Jews who lived through the Holocaust. It was only near the end of her mother’s life, that Judy Stone began to hear the stories of suffering and survival in her family. She spent the next decade interviewing relatives and tracking down genealogical records. The result is a book called, “Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil.” (Originally aired 10/17/2019)
How One Fungus Could Wipe Out the Banana As We Know It
Guest: Randy Ploetz, Professor of Plant Pathology, University of Florida in Homestead
Members of the global fruit and agriculture industries met this week in Germany to come up with a plan to fight a banana crisis. A fungus has been wiping out banana plantations in Asia, Australia, and Latin America. If something doesn’t change soon, the bananas we’re most familiar with may eventually disappear from grocery stores. Back in the fall, the Colombian government declared a national emergency over the banana crisis. (Originally aired 9/3/2019)
Charles Hankla, Georgia State Univ, on labor strikes in France. Ofir Turel of Cal State Univ Fullerton on like counts. Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, on art by women and people of color. Donna Thomson and Zachary White, authors of “The Unexpected Journey of Caring," on caregivers. Dan Collier, Western Michigan Univ, on food insecurity at colleges.
French Transportation Strikes, Explained (0:31)
Guest: Charles Hankla, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University
This is the first week in more than a month and a half that metros and trains are running normally in Paris. French transportation workers have been on strike since December 5th and are promising to “completely block” transport again on Friday. It’s the longest strike France has seen in decades and a major challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership.
Will Hiding the Popularity of Instagram Posts Make Us Less Depressed? (18:04)
Guest: Ofir Turel, PhD, Professor of Information Systems, Cal State Fullerton
On Instagram, everyone can see how popular a post is by the number of “likes” it’s received and so far singer Billie Eilish is winning 2020. Her Hawaii vacation pictures from a few weeks ago have already racked up more than 12 million “likes.” But Instagram is experimenting with removing that running tally of “likes” on people’s posts. You’ll know how many people have liked your posts, but you won’t be able to see how many likes other people have scored for their posts. The hope, according to Instagram’s CEO, is to “create a less-pressurized environment” where people can focus on “expressing themselves.” Will it make Instagram less addictive or anxiety-provoking?
Baltimore Museum of Art’s Plan to Get More Art By Women, People of Color on its Walls (34:20)
Guest: Christopher Bedford, Director, Baltimore Museum of Art
Recently on Top of Mind, we heard how art made by white men continues to dominate museum collections in the US, as well as new art acquired by major museums. The Baltimore Museum of Art has taken a dramatic stance toward addressing the gender gap in its collection: All of its acquisitions in 2020 will be from female artists and its exhibitions throughout the year will focus on women, too.
Navigating the Unexpected Journey From Loved One to Caregiver (50:40)
Guest: Donna Thomson, caregiver, activist, author of “The Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I’ve Learned From a Life of Caregiving” and Zachary White, PhD, Associate Professor of Communication, Queens University of Charlotte.
Some 40-million Americans have been the caregiver for an adult in the last year. Many of them are sandwiched between caring for their own children and an aging parent. And anyone who’s done it–even temporarily–knows how jarring caregiving is, how unprepared most of us feel for the physical and emotional toll of it. Zachary White felt that way when his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and he became her caregiver. Donna Thomson became a lifelong caregiver the day her son–who’s now an adult–was born with cerebral palsy. Thomson and White have co-authored a new book called, “The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation from Loved One to Caregiver.”
Being Hungry in College is Bad for Student Motivation and Grades. Here’s What Colleges Can Do to Help. (1:29:38)
Guest: Dan Collier, Researcher, WE Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
Eating ramen noodles on a tight budget is just a part of college life, isn’t it? National surveys find that nearly half of college students have reported some degree of food insecurity –which could mean not knowing where their next meal will come from; or could just mean they can’t afford the nutrients they need. Ramen isn’t exactly packed with vitamins.
Big Wireless Awaits Big Decision on T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Plan (0:34)
Guest: John Kwoka, PhD, Neal F. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Economics, Northeastern University
AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint are the four main wireless carriers across the country. Two of them, T-Mobile and Sprint, are hoping to merge. But a dozen states filed a lawsuit to block the merger because they say it’ll result in higher prices for wireless customers. That trial wrapped up a week ago, and we’re now waiting for the judge’s ruling.
10 Years After Citizens United (16:05)
Guest: Michael Morley, JD, Assistant Professor of Law, Florida State University
10 years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions have a First Amendment right to express themselves through unlimited spending on campaign advertising, so long as they aren’t directly donating to or coordinating with a candidate or party.
In the very next Presidential election in 2012, spending by groups not directly linked to a candidate or party skyrocketed to $1 billion – three times what had been spent by so called “outside” groups in the 2008 presidential election, before Citizens United. And then in 2016, outside spending climbed to nearly one and a half billion dollars. The sky’s the limit for 2020. So, was the Citizens United ruling a mistake?
Henry ‘Box’ Brown: The Man Who Mailed Himself Out of Slavery (39:35)
Guest: Martha J. Cutter, PhD, Professor of English and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut
Throughout the practice of slavery in the United States, there were countless desperate attempts to escape. But few were as unique as Henry Brown who mailed himself to freedom in a box. The story became a core part of his identity and professional success as an entertainer. “Box” became his nickname.
Why We Don’t Have a Female World Chess Champion (50:43)
Guest: Alexey Root, Professor of Education, University of Texas at Dallas
We’re on the final stretch of a 12-game match of Chess between two women - one will be named best female chess player in the world on Thursday. What’s odd is that there’s no title for male world champion – they only compete in the world championship for both genders. Confusing, I know. So why do women have their own tournament while men don’t? Women do have an inherent physical disadvantage when it comes to sports, so it makes sense that we would compete separately in that arena. But in chess? It’s only a battle of wits.
How Bear Hibernation Might Work for Humans (1:06:12)
Guest: Heiko Jansen, PhD, Professor of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, Washington State University
Imagine if humans hibernated like bears. Science fiction has toyed with this idea for a long time – putting astronauts into hibernation could help them weather a years-long trip into space more easily. And they’d need less food and oxygen. Even if it wasn’t full hibernation, but just a way to slow some of the body’s systems down, that could be really useful in treating diseases like diabetes or cancer.
Living Concrete: Scientists Create Bacteria-Based Buildings that Grow Themselves (1:23:35)
Guest: Chelsea Heveran, Assistant Professor of Engineering, Montana State University
Smart homes are all the rage these days, but what if your house were alive? Not haunted, but alive in the sense that the building materials in the walls and floors contained living organisms that could regrow and repair themselves? Chelsea Heveran was part of a team developing a kind of living concrete made of sand and bacteria and some other special ingredients.
John Kwoka, Northeastern Univ, on the T-Mobile and Sprint merger. Michael Morley of Florida State Univ on 10 years after the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling. Martha Cutter, Univ of Connecticut, on the true story of Henry Brown, an enslaved man who mailed himself to freedom. Alexey Root, Univ of Texas at Dallas, on women's chess. Heiko Jansen of Washington State Univ on human hibernation. Chelsea Heveran, Montana State Univ, on concrete that can heal itself.
Fears of Recession in 2020 Ease Thanks to China Trade Deal (0:31)
Guest: Randy Charles Epping, International Financial Consultant, Author of “The New World Economy: A Beginner’s Guide”
Right now, the United States is enjoying the longest economic expansion in our history. It’s lasted 11 years, so, many experts warned we were bound for a recession in 2020. Now that risk appears to have faded. On Monday the International Monetary Fund predicted growth for the US and global economies in 2020, thanks in large part to a deal President Trump signed last week easing his trade war with China.
Who Decided That Chocolate, Yogurt and Salad Are Women’s Food? (20:12)
Guest: Paul Freedman, PhD, Chester D. Tripp Professor of History, Yale University, Author of “American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way”
Yogurt, chocolate, salad. All are women’s food. Which sounds silly, I know. But when was the last time you saw a yogurt commercial targeting men? And everybody knows women can’t resist chocolate, right? Or how about this - a man and woman go out to dinner, which of them is more likely to order a salad as an entrée? It’s weird how some foods are considered manly in America and some feminine. But it wasn’t always so.
The James Bond Effect (34:48)
Guest: Calder Walton, PhD, Assistant Director of the Applied History Project, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
“No Time to Die” is the latest James Bond film, with Daniel Craig in the role that has shaped how the world thinks about espionage. Those films have given us entirely the wrong impression, says Calder Walton, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Walton studies the history of spycraft and is editor of the forthcoming “Cambridge History of Espionage and Intelligence.”
Why People Are Turning to a Black Market for Prescription Drugs (50:39)
Guest: Michelle Litchman, Assistant Professor, College of Nursing, University of Utah
When you think of the black market, you probably imagine shady deals for stuff that’s counterfeit or illegal. But right now in America, there are a significant number of people with diabetes trading and donating their insulin and other medical supplies.
Fake News Isn’t Just Misleading – It Can Create False Memories (1:02:01)
Guest: Elizabeth Loftus, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine
It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not anymore. Anything online can be faked to look legit. Facebook and Twitter are still struggling to find a way to prevent outright falsehoods from going viral and influencing voters in the 2020 election. Fake news stories aren’t just misleading, they also have the potential to rewire your memory.
Just Mercy and Other Movies About Capital Punishment (1:15:20)
Guest: Kristen Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
More than 2,500 people are currently on death row in prisons across the country. 22 of them were executed in the last year. Also last year, New Hampshire became the 21st state to abolish the death penalty. We are, right now, locked in a debate over whether it’s right for a civilized society to execute people for crimes, especially when we can’t be sure that the person on death row is actually guilty. That’s the problem a new film called Just Mercy illustrates. It’s based on the true story of attorney Bryan Stevenson and his client Walter McMillian who was wrongfully convicted of murder.
Randy Epping, author of "The New World Economy," on global economy in 2020. Paul Freedman of Yale Univ on masculine and feminine foods. Calder Walton, Harvard Univ, on what it really means to be a spy. Michelle Litchman, Univ of Utah, on black market insulin and other drugs. Elizabeth Loftus of the Univ of California, Irvine on how fake news creates false memories. Parent Previews' Kristen Hawkes on movies about capital punishment.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy (:30)
Guest: David Garrow, Pulitzer-prize Winning Author of “Bearing the Cross”
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior is often remembered for the soaring optimism of his “I Have a Dream” speech in the march on Washington. By the time he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, it had been five years since that march. Did Dr. King feel his dream had been accomplished? (Originally aired 4/5/18)
How White Kids Learn About Race and Privilege (19:25)
Guest: Margaret Hagerman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Author of “White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America”
How should parents teach their kids about race and why it matters? In September of 2018, we spoke with Sociologist Margaret Hagerman, who embedded with a couple dozen wealthy white families in the Midwest for her book, “White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America.” She spent two years in the community, developing a rapport with parents so they and their children would open up to her about such a touchy topic. (Originally aired 9/7/18)
Jackie Robinson’s Daughter On Her Civil Rights Awakening in 1963 (37:16)
Guest: Sharon Robinson, Author of “Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963”
1963 was a pivotal year for the Civil Rights movement in America. The historic March on Washington happened that summer. In the months before that march, the nation watched in horror as TV news cameras showed Alabama police using firehoses and dogs on African American youth marching in what’s known as the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. And in September of 1963, four African American girls were murdered in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. 1963 was also a pivotal year for Sharon Robinson, the daughter of Jackie Robinson. (Originally aired 9/26/19)
History of the Race Beat (51:16)
Guest: E.R. Shipp, Pulitzer Prize-winning Columnist, Professor of Journalism at Morgan State University, Columnist for The Baltimore Sun
The press has always played a part in shaping racial stereotypes and racism in America. Over the years, that role has changed. In September 2018, we took a look at how the media is currently tackling these issues with E.R. Shipp, a Pulitzer-prize winning columnist for the Baltimore Sun and professor of journalism at Morgan State University. (Originally aired 4/4/18)
Race in Sports (70:47)
Guests: William Mitchell, Retired College Football Coach, USAF Pilot; Cameron McCoy, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University; Mikaela Dufur, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University
Whether it’s on the court, field, or track, race is always present in sports, coloring how athletes are perceived. (Originally aired 2/9/18)
"Bearing the Cross" author David Garrow on Martin Luther King, Jr's legacy. Margaret Hagerman on her book, "White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America." Sharon Robinson, author of "Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963," on her civil rights awakening. Baltimore Sun columnist E.R. Shipp on the race beat. Race in sports discussion with retired football coach William Mitchell, BYU's Cameron McCoy, and BYU's Mikaela Dufur.
Sabrina Strings of the Univ of California, Irvine on her book "Fearing the Black Body." Jay Stanley, ACLU, on an iPhone app that allows you to record police encounters. John Hollway, Univ of Pennsylvania, on wrongful convictions. "University of Nike" author Joshua Hunt on corporate sponsorship of universities. Ecologist Brian Amman on tracking down diseases with the CDC.
The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (0:35)
Guest: Sabrina Strings, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, Author of “Fearing the Black Body”
By 2030 – ten years from now – half of US adults will be obese, according to a prediction published in the New England Journal of Medicine in the last month. On the surface, health is the crux of the concern over America’s “obesity epidemic.” But if you pull the threads of that concern back a few centuries, the reasons why we’re so convinced that fat is bad, have a lot more to do with race than with health. (Originally aired 6/6/19)
iPhone Shortcut Allows Your Phone to Automatically Start Recording When Pulled Over by Police (18:34)
Guest: Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst at the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project
There are smart phone apps – and even an iPhone shortcut – that make it easy to record a police encounter. The ACLU’s Mobile Justice app automatically sends the video to your local ACLU branch when you stop recording, just in case a police officer tries to confiscate your phone. The iPhone shortcut will start video recording when you say, “Siri, I’m being pulled over.” Should you install one of these apps? Are they even legal? (Originally aired 7/9/19)
Autopsy of a Wrongful Conviction (34:26)
Guest: John Hollway, Associate Dean and Executive Director, Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, University of Pennsylvania Law School
In the last 30 years more than 2,500 people have been exonerated of crimes they didn’t commit. Those innocent people spent an average of 8 years in prison before gaining their freedom. How do mistakes like that happen? Cities around the country are setting up task forces to answer that question. (Originally aired 9/3/19)
University of Nike (50:38)
Guest: Joshua Hunt, Author of “University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education”
If you watched the Oregon Ducks win the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, you saw that prominent bright yellow “swoosh” right in their jersey’s. The close relationship between the University of Oregon and Nike was first established in the 1990s and has been the model for other public universities looking to boost their funding through partnership with big corporations and wealthy donors. (Originally aired 2/13/19)
The CDC’s Sherlock Holmes (1:13:36)
Guest: Brian Amman, Ecologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been going on now for a year and a half. More than half of the 3,400 people who’ve contracted the virus there have died. Among the international experts working to end the outbreak are disease detectives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They go into outbreak areas looking for the source of an infection. (Originally aired 3/13/19)
Trial Phase of Impeachment Gets Underway (0:35)
Guest: James Curry, Associate Professor, Political Science Department, University of Utah
House Democrats have officially passed the impeachment hot potato to the US Senate where a trial on whether to remove President Donald Trump from office is expected to start, in earnest, next week.
DNA Helps Identify Service Members Missing in Action from WWII to Today (20:32)
Guest: Timothy McMahon, Director of DNA Operations, Department of Defense
The Department of Defense has an entire office dedicated to DNA analysis that regularly brings closure to families of servicemembers missing in action all the way back to World War II. One project focused on the attack on Pearl Harbor has been able to identify 250 unaccounted-for service members from remains that were collected from sunken American warships.
Proprioception: Our Sixth Sense (32:41)
Guest: Alexander Chesler, Principal Investigator, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIH
Try this: Close your eyes and touch your finger to your nose. Pretty easy, right? You just engaged your sixth sense. It’s called proprioception and it’s what makes it possible for professional ice skaters to do triple axels and helps basketball players dunk a ball. Surprisingly, researchers have only recently started to understand how it works.
Doomed From the Start: Prohibition at 100 (50:39)
Guest: Daniel Okrent, Historian, Author of “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition”
100 years ago – on January 16, 1920 – intoxicating liquors became illegal to make, sell or transport in the United States. Prohibition had arrived. The unintended consequences began almost immediately, according to historian Daniel Okrent. His book, “Last Call” charts the rise and fall of Prohibition – the only Constitutional Amendment to later be repealed by another Constitutional Amendment. Over the span of just 13 years, the nation turned against the “dry cause” and the consequences of that whiplash linger today.
Sobriety in a Society Filled With Booze (78:06)
Guest: Laura McKowen, Speaker, Podcaster, Author of “We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life”
In the 100 years since the US tried – and failed – to outlaw alcohol, it’s become a normal, accepted part of everyday American life. It’s for celebrating and coming of age and commiserating and coping. Even though alcohol is the most commonly abused substance in the country and the third leading preventable cause of death, most of American society doesn’t think of it like that - not like cocaine or opioids, or even tobacco. And that makes it all the more difficult for people who do struggle with alcohol to stop.
James Curry, Univ of Utah, on impeachment politics. Timothy McMahon, Department of Defense, on identifying the remains of service members through DNA. Alexander Chesler, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, on the sixth sense proprioception. Daniel Okrent, author of “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition," on prohibition 100 years later. Laura McKowen, author of “We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of Sober Life,” on her journey to sobriety.
What America’s Energy Security Means for Gas Prices and Global Stability (0:31)
Guest: David Blackmon, Energy Industry Analyst, Editor of Shale Magazine, Contributor to Forbes.com
Not that long ago, a big flare-up of tension in the Middle East like we’ve seen in the last two weeks would have caused a spike in gas prices here in the US. But America’s targeted killing of a top Iranian general and Iran’s retaliatory strikes had little effect on pump prices. President Trump says that’s because America is now “energy independent.”
Harry and Meghan Step Back from the Royal Life (17:29)
Guest: Kristen Meinzer, Royals Expert, Co-host of the Podcast “When Meghan Met Harry”
The British press and public have, for the last week, been obsessing about something other than Brexit, though it’s still an “exit” of sorts. “Megxit” is what some have dubbed it. Prince Charles’ youngest son Harry and his American wife Meghan Markle are stepping back from duties as “senior royals” and plan to split their time between Britain and Canada.
The Unexpected History of Presidential Debates (36:47)
Guest: Michael Socolow, Professor of Communication and Journalism, University of Maine
The Washington Post and other outlets reported that Democratic candidates “clashed” in their Tuesday night debate – the last before the Iowa caucuses. Politico, though, says the candidates did not clash, so it seems the drama of the debate was in the eye of the beholder. Which is how debates usually go, isn’t it? Some find them gripping, others find them dull. Rarely are they very enlightening for voters. So why do we keep using the same debate format again and again? The answer will probably surprise you.
The Apple Seed (50:38)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Why all stories – even tall tales – are good for us.
What Happened in 20 years of Putin? (59:29)
Guest: Paul Kolbe, Director of the Intelligence Project, Belfer Center, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Russian President Vladimir Putin just hit 20 years in power and today’s there a major shakeup in the government that seems designed to extend his tenure significantly. Already, Putin has run the country longer than any modern Russian leader except Josef Stalin. That’s all the more remarkable considering Putin was widely seen as just a placeholder when he was first appointed by Boris Yelstin who abruptly resigned in 1999. So let’s have a look at Putin’s rise to power and what it’s meant for Russia.
Pet Recovery Specialist on How to Find Lost Dogs (1:18:24)
Guest: Babs Fry, Pet Recovery Specialist, Founder of A Way Home For Animals
It’s a pet owner’s nightmare, but it happens to millions of people every year. Your dog or cat slips through an open door or gap in the fence or darts away from the sitter and suddenly you’re in panic mode, canvassing the neighborhood, calling out for your pet. And that’s exactly the opposite of what you should be doing.
Independent oil and gas analyst David Blackmon on why gas prices haven't gone up with Iran tension. Royal family expert and podcaster Kristen Meinzer on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's exit. Michael Socolow, Univ of Maine, on why debates are boring. The Apple Seed host Sam Payne on tall tales. Paul Kolbe, Harvard Univ, on 20 years of Putin. Pet detective Babs Fry on how to find your lost pet.
Manu Saunders, Univ of New England, Australia, on the Australia wildfires' impact on animals. Jerome O'Connor, author of "The Hidden Places of WWII", on the British spying on German generals. Charles White, Univ of Connecticut, on the risks of generic drugs. Tom Ginsburg, Univ of Chicago, on international impeachment. Emilie Blevins, Xerces Society, on mussels dying off. World Awaiting host Rachel Wadham on the link between access to books and literary achievement.
The Land Down-Under in Flames (00:02)
Guest: Manu Saunders, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Ecology, University of New England, Australia
The wildfires in Australia are on a scale that’s hard to comprehend. The land that’s burned is many times larger than the worst wildfire seasons in North America. At least 28 people have been killed, including four firefighters. Thousands of homes have burned. But the ecological impact is even more extreme – an estimated one billion animals have died in the fires.
The London Mansion Where British Spies Eavesdropped on Nazi German Generals (15:28)
Guest: Jerome M. O’Connor, Historian, Journalist, Author of “The Hidden Places of World War II”
During WWII, a luxurious three-story mansion on the outskirts of London was used to house dozens of high-ranking German generals captured in combat. Why should they be given such luxurious accommodations given the way they were treating Allied prisoners of war – not to mention the atrocities of the death camps?
Well it wasn’t about pampering the generals. It was about spying on them. Everything in the mansion was wired to listen in on the generals.
Lots of Generic of Drugs are Made Overseas– But Foreign Manufacturers Aren’t Regulated the Same as Those in the U.S. (27:48)
Guest: C. Michael White, PharmD, Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut
The vast majority of medicines prescribed by doctors in the US are generic drugs. I know I’m always glad when there’s a generic option, because it’s so much cheaper. But generic drugs – or their components - are also very likely to have been made in overseas factories not held to the same standards as US manufacturers.
Impeachment is a “Hard Reset” Button in Other Countries, but not the USA (50:37)
Guest: Tom Ginsburg, Professor of International Law, University of Chicago
After a month’s delay, the public gears of impeachment are turning again Washington. The US House will vote Wednesday to send its arguments in favor of impeaching President Trump over to the Senate for trial. The Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to remove President Trump from office.
America is not the only country that allows for impeachment of a President, but the way it works here is fairly unusual – and maybe not ideal.
Freshwater Mussels Are Dying Off and Scientists Aren’t Sure Why (1:09:07)
Guest: Emilie Blevins, Senior Conservation Biologist, Xerces Society
If you’re a shellfish fan, you’ve probably ordered mussels. The ones people eat from the ocean. But there are freshwater mussels, too. They thrive in North America’s rivers – or at least they have. Now they’re dying off in huge numbers. Researchers will show up to monitor their health at places along the Clinch River in Virginia only to find the riverbed carpeted with rotting mussel carcasses. Rivers in Wisconsin, Michigan and the Pacific Northwest have seen similar die-offs.
Link Between Access to Books and Literary Achievement (1:29:48)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
Iran’s Catastrophic Downing of Ukrainian Airliner Creates a Surprising Turn of Fortune (0:32)
Guest: Aaron David Miller, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment, Former US State Department Middle East Advisor and Negotiator
Iranians are protesting in the streets again today, demanding accountability from their government. After three days of denial, the Iranian military admitted it fired the missiles that brought down a Ukrainian passenger jet last week, killing all 176 passengers. Most of the dead are Iranians. Iran’s foreign minister blamed the tragic mistake on “the crisis caused by US adventurism,” which refers to America’s killing of top Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani ten days ago.
Is the World Safer with Soleimani Dead? (9:31)
Guest: Max Abrahms, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Northeastern University, Author of “Rules for Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History”
The Trump Administration spent the weekend defending its decision to kill Iran’s top military general Qassem Soleimani. President Trump told Fox News Soleimani was planning “imminent attacks” on four US embassies. But Defense Secretary Mark Esper and other top national security officials say they saw no evidence of those attacks. Still, they say Soleimani was a bad guy and thus, his killing was justified.
Fashion that is Always Digital, Never Physical (22:07)
Guest: Kerry Murphy, founder and CEO of The Fabricant
Your video-game-playing kids have probably begged you at some point to buy them “skins.” In virtual worlds like Fortnite, players take on a persona – a skin – and it’s a status symbol to have a particularly rare one. But even if you don’t play video games, most of us have a digital persona. What if you could buy an amazing digital outfit – say a designer suit or gown - to wear on Instagram? It’s just a digital file. You never actual wear it in real life. Would you pay for digital only clothing?
Bringing Religion and Spirituality Into Psychiatric Treatment (34:17)
Guest: David Rosmarin, PhD, Director of the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
Treatment for people experiencing severe mental distress in hospitals typically ignores a patient’s spiritual or religious beliefs. Sigmund Freud viewed religion as a type of neurosis. But for many people religious beliefs are a source of strength in coping with emotional distress. For others, those beliefs exacerbate the problem. Either way, ignoring spirituality all-together doesn’t make a lot of sense, says psychologist David Rosmarin. He’s developed program called SPIRIT that’s been tested with patients at McLean Psychiatric Hospital. The results are encouraging.
When It Comes to Defending Against Hurricanes, Nature Knows Best (50:36)
Guest: Steven Scyphers, Assistant Professor of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Northeastern University
2019 was the fourth straight year of above-average hurricanes on the Atlantic Coast. Warming sea temperatures are expected to cause more intense storms. As that happens, the seawalls and barriers coastal cities have built to protect them from storm surge and flooding are falling short. Way short. As it happens, nature may have a better way to protect against storms.
Schools Struggle to Get Title IX Sexual Misconduct Investigations Right (1:06:25)
Guest: Adrienne Lyles, Associate Director of Equal Opportunity and Senior Deputy Title IX Coordinator, Iowa State University
There are more than 1,300 cases of sex discrimination under investigation at school districts and universities across the country – they’re happening in virtually ever state. A quarter of those cases involve sexual violence on campus. Under the federal law known as Title IX, schools are required to investigate all reports of sexual assault and harassment. But colleges continue to struggle with that responsibility. Who should do the investigating? How should they be trained? Why not just have the police investigate an alleged rape? And what if the investigation also reveals that the victim of the assault was breaking the university’s code of conduct? Should the Title IX investigator report that to administrators?
It’s a thorny – but important – job. And unfortunately, staff tasked with doing it are not as well-trained as we’d hope.
Supporting African Women Rebuilding Their Communities After War (1:24:39)
Guest: Linda Cole, Co-founder, African Women Rising
Uganda in central Africa, is surrounded by countries long plagued by violent conflict, including South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The women in these countries bear a disproportionate burden in rebuilding after war. But often, the international aid that comes to their communities is out of reach to the women who need it most. A nonprofit called African Women Rising has focused for the last 15 years on empowering women after war in Northern Uganda.
Aaron David Miller, Carnegie Endowment, and Max Abrahms, Northeastern Univ, on Iran. The Fabricant CEO Kerry Murphy on digital clothing. David Rosmarin of McLean Psychiatric Hospital on using spirituality in therapy. Steven Scyphers of Northeastern Univ on mitigating hurricane damage. Adrienne Lyes, Iowa State Univ, on Title IX investigations. Linda Cole on founding African Women Rising to help African women rebuild after war.
Fraidy Reiss of Unchained At Last on child brides and marriage in the US. Eyal Aharoni, Georgia State Univ, on the insanity defense in court using brain scans. Daniel Lim of Pennsylvania State Univ on compassion fatigue. Lindsey Feldman, Univ of Memphis, on using inmates as firefighters. John Rennie Short of the Univ of Maryland, Baltimore County on the dangers of bikes and cars sharing the road. NASA's Lynn Rothschild on using mushrooms as building material on Mars.
Underage Marriage is More Common in America Than You Realize. Why? (0:31)
Guest: Fraidy Reiss, Founder and Director, Unchained at Last
Over the last ten years, US Immigration and State Department officials says more than five thousand girls under the age of 18 have been brought to the US to marry an older man. Sometimes 20 or 30 years older. Immigration officials have also approved thousands of applications from underage girls living in the US to bring an older spouse to America. And it’s all perfectly legal under US immigration law and marriage laws in nearly every state. You probably thought child marriage only happens in far off places, didn’t you? (Originally aired 4/2/19)
Brain Scans Often Misinterpreted in Criminal Justice System (21:36)
Guest: Eyal Aharoni, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, & Neuroscience, Georgia State University
If someone commits a crime and, afterward, doctors discover the person has a brain tumor, should the punishment be different? That’s the whole point behind the “insanity” defense – hoping for a lighter sentence by showing that on some level, a person’s brain caused the crime. No surprise, then, that it’s becoming more and more common for defense attorneys to present brain evidence in court – sometimes even MRI or CAT scans of the defendant. How much weight should judges give this evidence? (Originally aired 7/25/19)
Staying Compassionate in the Face of Mass Suffering (37:11)
Guest: Daniel Lim, PhD, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Empathy and Moral Psychology Lab, Pennsylvania State University
With wildfires fires in Australia, earthquakes in Puerto Rico, and the devastating plane crash in Iran, we are bombarded with stories of suffering in the news and on our social media feeds right now. Researchers have noticed something strange about our ability to feel compassion for others: Compassion does not generally grow as the number of people suffering increases. Rather, we’re subject to something called “compassion fatigue.”
Psychologist Daniel Lim’s research has identified some possible solutions to this – ways to help us feel more compassion for more people. (Originally aired 9/12/19)
Prison Inmates as Firefighters (50:38)
Guest: Lindsey Feldman, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Memphis
Australian officials in one of the regions hardest hit by wildfires are considering training inmates from minimum security prisons to help fight the fires. They’re looking to the example of Arizona and California – both of which have used inmate labor because it saves money. Prisoners make about a dollar an hour, while professional wildfire fighters get closer to $30. That’s led some to criticize the system as exploitation. But inmates often welcome the work and skills they acquire. (Originally aired 8/20/19)
Cyclist and Pedestrian Fatalities Rise as Cities Seek Automobile Alternatives (1:07:32)
Guest: John Rennie Short, Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
As more and more American cities look to encourage walking and cycling, a troubling trend has emerged: Pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities have increased significantly over the last decade. So, cities are getting healthier – but also more dangerous for people who opt not to drive a car. What’s the fix? (Originally aired 8/26/19)
Mars Buildings Made Out of Mushrooms (1:24:16)
Guest: Lynn Rothschild, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Bio and Bio-Inspired Technologies, NASA Ames Research Center
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine just introduced the latest class of astronauts to join the agency: “These astronauts could one day, in fact, walk on the moon, as a part of the Artemis program. And perhaps one of them could be among the first humans to walk on Mars.”
When they do get to Mars, they’ll need shelter. But it’s a long trip to the Red Planet and lugging building materials like lumber and steel all the way out there is unrealistic. So there’s a team at NASA working on solutions – including buildings made out of mushrooms. (Originally aired 8/20/19)
Filmmaker Loki Mulholland on his documentary "After Selma" and voter suppression in the US today. Tim Gord, Univ of Exeter, on restoring reefs through sound. Meredith Clark, Univ of Virginia, on a decade of Black Twitter. Former white supremacist Tony McAleer on his new book "The Cure for Hate." Simon Haeder, Pennsylvania State Univ, on the hospital crisis for rural communities.
Civil Rights Filmmaker Takes on Voter Suppression in “After Selma” (0:29)
Guest: Loki Mulholland, Emmy-winning Documentary Filmmaker of “After Selma,” Executive Director of The Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation
Voting is a right of citizenship in the United States – one it’s easy for many of us to take for granted. But it took a series of constitutional amendments to extend voting rights to all Americans. First was the 15th Amendment passed after the Civil War, giving black men the vote. It wasn’t until 1920 that women got the vote – we’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of that. But racial discrimination in the South kept many black men and women from voting until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. And so today, it looks like it’s working. But a new documentary about voter suppression in America today called “After Selma” shows that it’s not.
Scientists Lured Fish Back to Dying Coral Reefs with Loudspeakers (21:58)
Guest: Tim Gordon, Marine Biologist, PhD Student, University of Exeter
The world’s coral reefs are in dire straits. Extreme heat killed off half the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 and 2017. Those damaged areas of coral became like a ghost town. But if fish could be drawn back to the reef, their very presence could trigger other parts of the coral ecosystem to come back, too. Marine biologist Tim Gordon has struck on an ingenious strategy to lure fish to patches of dead coral – sound.
The Power of Black Twitter (33:29)
Guest: Meredith Clark, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia
There’s a subset of Twitter that’s come to be known in recent years as “Black Twitter.” University of Virginia media studies professor Meredith Clark is writing a book about what it is and why it matters.
A White Supremacist’s Journey Out of Hate (50:36)
Guest: Tony McAleer, Author, “The Cure for Hate: A Former White Supremacist’s Journey from Violent Extremism to Radical Compassion”
Major cities in the US have seen a surge in hate crimes targeting Jews in recent months, including a stabbing in the home of a rabbi in New York during Hanukkah, in which five people were killed. The FBI says violence by white-supremacist extremists is the primary domestic terror threat in the US.
And so Tony McAleer’s story is worth considering. As a young man, he joined a gang of white supremacists, shaved his head, spewed anti-immigrant rhetoric and attacked minorities, publicly denied the Holocaust, and created an automated phone messaging system to spread his hate more widely - before the internet made it even easier.
Today Tony McAleer has left that hate behind and is co-founder of a nonprofit called “Life After Hate” which helps people leave extremist groups. His new memoir is called, “The Cure for Hate.”
Rural Communities Face Growing Health Care Disparities as Hospitals Continue to Close (1:28:07)
Guest: Simon F. Haeder, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Pennsylvania State University
Rural America is facing a healthcare crisis. Since 2010, more than 100 rural hospitals have closed, which means long drives or expensive ambulance rides in an emergency for people living in those areas. But hospital closures are only the start of the problem for rural communities. Cost-cutting measures by insurance companies are also making it harder for people to see a doctor.
Dan Reidenberg of SAVE on the 9-8-8 suicide prevention hotline number. Anthony Brown, Univ of Texas at Austin, on how to teach about slavery in schools. Yorman Bauman of Clean Darn Air on a carbon tax. Wonder Hoodies founder Vy Tran on bulletproof hoodies. Richard Axelbaum, Washington Univ in St. Louis, on space fire. Peter Cappelli of the Univ of Pennsylvania on the problem with the hiring process.
Saving Lives with New Suicide Hotline Number (0:33)
Guest: Dan Reidenberg, PsyD, Executive Director, Suicide Awareness Voices of Education
We’ve all been trained from childhood to dial 9-1-1 in an emergency. But what if it’s a mental health emergency? A lot of people still call 9-1-1 when the better number would be the National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255. But who’s going to remember that number in a crisis? Soon you may only have to remember 9-8-8. The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of creating that national phone shortcut. The ultimate goal is saving lives.
Teaching About Slavery in the Classroom (14:50)
Guest: Anthony Brown, Professor of Curriculum & Instruction in Social Studies Education at the University of Texas at Austin, Project Lead “Teaching Texas Slavery”
Well-meaning teachers around the country organize role-playing activities to teach about slavery to kids – mock slave auctions, slave ship re-enactments, Monopoly-like games where winning means escaping slavery. But these simulations can be traumatic for students and are shown to be ineffective in helping children learn about slavery.
Carbon Taxes Appeal to Economists, but Do They Work? (34:06)
Guest: Yoram Bauman, PhD, environmental economist, co-founder of Clean the Darn Air, Standup Comedian
The latest climate change report from the UN is bleak. Without drastic, immediate – and frankly unprecedented - cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures will rise as much as 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. Six degrees doesn’t sound like much when you’re thinking about your thermostat at home. But for the planet, it means the oceans become too acidic for coral to survive. Fish die off. Coastal cities flood constantly. Heatwaves become unbearable. Storms become more intense. And Yoram Bauman thinks economics is the answer.
Bulletproof Clothing for the Rest of Us (50:27)
Guest: Vy Tran, Founder, Wonder Hoodie
There were more mass killings in America last year than any other year dating back to at least the 1970s. That’s according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. They counted only mass killings where more than four people died, not including the perpetrator. There were 41 such mass killings in 2019 in which more than 210 people died. Most of those were mass shootings.
And so, today it’s common for schools and churches to have armed guards and do “mass shooter drills.” Vy Tran is taking personal preparation a step further with bullet-proof hoodies and denim jackets meant to be worn by everyday people on the street.
Don’t Light a Fire on the International Space Station…Unless it’s for Science (1:03:06)
Guest: Richard Axelbaum, Professor of Environmental Engineering Science, Washington University in St. Louis
To make a fire, you need fuel, heat and oxygen. Since all three are easy to find on Earth, fire is common. But in space, there’s no oxygen, so no fire. Except on the International Space Station where astronauts are deliberately setting fires. Why? For science, of course.
Companies Have Never Spent So Much on Hiring and They are Doing it All Wrong (1:23:33)
Guest: Peter Cappelli, Professor of Management, The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania
With the US unemployment rate as low as it’s been in decades, companies have to work harder than ever to hire the best talent. On average, the Society for Human Resource Management says the hiring process for each new employee costs around $4,000. And human resources expert Peter Cappelli says a lot of that is money down the train, because companies are doing hiring all wrong.
What 2020 May Hold for Global Politics (0:32)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Regular Top of Mind contributor Quinn Mecham gives his predictions for what he thinks we might see in world political events in 2020. But first, a look back at 2019.
Feeling Anxious? Get More Deep Sleep. (23:30)
Guest: Eti Ben-Simon, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Center for Human Sleep Science, University of California, Berkeley
Have you felt anxious today? How well did you sleep last night? The two are so connected that when researchers at the Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley took 18 perfectly healthy adults and forced them to stay awake all night, the next day, half of the poor souls registered anxiety levels high enough they’d normally trigger a clinical diagnoses of anxiety disorder.
Romantic Love is One of The Most Addictive Substances on Earth (34:56)
Guest: Helen Fisher, PhD, Biological Anthropologist, Senior Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, Chief Scientific Advisor for Match.com, Author of “Anatomy of Love” and “Why We Love”
After scanning the brains of people falling in and out of love and surveying tens of thousands of people on a dating site, Helen Fisher has concluded that romantic love is among the most addictive substances on Earth. We’re not talking about lust or sex drive. She says the desire – to fall in love, be loved romantically by someone – is entirely separate and even more powerful.
The Tech That Changed the World in the 2010's and What to Expect From the 2020's (50:37)
Guest: Jason Perlow, Senior Technology Editor, ZDNet
Ten years ago – the dawn of the 2010s – the world was about to get its first glimpse of the iPad. It changed us. Now we all have tablets – or phones and laptops that can act like tablets if we want. Think of all the other technology the 2010s gave us: smart watches, smart speakers, smart-everything, really, including home appliances, lights and locks. The 2010's also brought our first real taste of just how much companies like Google, Apple and Facebook know about us – how easily that data can be misused.
Fine Art is Still Very Much a Man’s World, Even as Museums Claim Otherwise (1:07:39)
Guest: Julia Halperin, Executive Editor, artnet News
Over the last decade, America’s most prominent art museums acquired nearly 300,000 new pieces for their permanent collections. Barely 10% of those works were done by female artists. At auction, the gap between what art by men and women brings in is even bigger. Why is art still such a man’s world when, for the last decade US museums and galleries have made a big show of trying to close the gap, including special exhibitions of art by women?
The Unseen Danger of Noise Pollution (1:25:43)
Guest: Erica Walker, ScD, Founder of Noise and the City, Postdoctoral Researcher at Boston University School of Public Health
The noise on a big city street can be overwhelming. It can also be harmful to your health. The Noise and the City project out of Boston University’s School of Public Health is working to understand how noise affects us – and how we can have less of it in our lives.
Quinn Mecham of BYU with his predictions on world politics in 2020. Eti Ben-Simon, Univ of California, on the link between sleep and anxiety. Helen Fisher of Indiana Univ on the neurochemistry of love. Jason Perlow, ZDNet, reviews a decade of new tech. Julie Halperin of artnet News on museums and women. Erica Walker of Boston Univ on noise pollution and health.
Eric Jensen of BYU on the escalating conflict with Iran and killing of Soleimani. Sandro Galea of Boston Univ on public health in 2020. Elisa Celis of Yale Univ on ethics in big data and algorithms. Michael Chase, author of "How to Become a Federal Criminal", on strange laws. Heidi Boisvert of futurePerfect lab on how technology is changing our brains. Tawfiq Ammari, Univ of Michigan, on dads finding community online.
Is the US Now at War With Iran? (0:30)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
Is the US now at war with Iran? President Donald Trump says the purpose of killing Iran’s top military commander three days ago in a drone strike was the opposite: “We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.”
Iran has vowed revenge. Critics of President Trump say the strike was illegal and that his threat to bomb Iranian cultural sites would be a war crime. Iraq’s parliament wants all American troops to leave.
America’s Health in 2020 (21:25)
Guest: Sandro Galea, MD, Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, Author of “Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health”
Opioid overdose, suicide, measles, vaping and gun violence were all major public health concerns that dominated headlines in 2019. What will be the biggest challenges facing public health in America in 2020?
Artificially-Intelligent Systems Should Be Free of Bias, But They Aren’t (36:25)
Guest: Elisa Celis, Assistant Professor of Statistics and Data Science, Yale University
Artificial intelligence decides the ads you see, news you read, jobs you get considered for, and in some cases, whether or not you’ll go to jail. Ideally, an artificially intelligent recommendation system is less biased than human decision-makers.
Except that it’s not. And in a lot of cases, these systems are making some forms of discrimination even more entrenched in the real world.
You’re Probably a Federal Criminal and Don’t Know It (50:07)
Guest: Michael Chase, JD, Author of “How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring Offender.”
So you think you’re generally a law-abiding citizen? Well . . . if you’ve ever put a note without a stamp in your neighbor’s mailbox, clogged a toilet at a National Park, mutilated a dollar bill or moved a picnic table on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, you are a federal criminal. Criminal defense lawyer Mike Chase has made a hobby of documenting the strange laws on America’s books. He posts them daily on Twitter under the handle @CrimeADay and he’s got a new book called, “How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring Offender.”
Web, Mobile Devices and Virtual Reality Are Rescripting Our Brains (1:08:33)
Guest: Heidi Boisvert, PhD, CEO and Creative Director of the futurePerfect lab, Assistant Professor of Emerging Media Technologies at New York City University of Technology
Watching TV, playing video games, surfing the web . . . all of it is re-scripting the nervous system, mostly in bad ways. But media researcher Heidi Boisvert is trying to harness that power for good though, so it could be a form of digital medicine.
Reddit is the Preferred Advice and Support Spot for Millennial Dads (1:22:57)
Guest: Tawfiq Ammari, PhD Candidate, School of Information, University of Michigan
Boomer parents had Dr. Spock’s “Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” to guide them. Millennial moms and dads are more likely to turn to social media, where they can crowdsource solutions to their parenting problems. “What is this?” a mom might post with a picture of her baby’s rash on Facebook. Or a new father might anonymously post on Reddit about his struggle to empathize with his wife’s postpartum depression.
David Downs of Leafly on THC vaping. Peter Hotez of Baylor College on the measles outbreak. Christopher France of Ohio Univ on the fear of donating blood. Charles Hughes of Rhodes College on Old Town Road, Lil Nas X, and country music. Composer Winifred Phillips on creating music for video games. Byrd McDaniel of Northeastern Univ on the history of air guitar.
Illicit Vaping Products Are Making People Sick – Here’s Where They Come From (0:32)
Guest: David Downs, California Bureau Chief, Leafly
The Trump Administration this week formalized a ban on the sale of sweet and fruit-flavored e-cigarette pods that are especially popular with teenagers. A rapid rise in youth vaping is behind the decision. But it’s also fueled by the nationwide outbreak of vaping-related lung injuries that killed 55 people and sent more than 2,500 people to the hospital in 2019. CDC officials now say those injuries are related to vape products that contain THC – the psychoactive component of marijuana.
A team of investigative journalists at the cannabis publication Leafly was among the first to identify THC vape cartridges contaminated with Vitamin E oil as the cause of the illness. (Originally aired: 10/2/19)
Pacific Northwest Just One of a Dozen “Hotspots” Where Measles Outbreak Likely (22:12)
Guest: Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, Author of “Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism”
2019 started with measles outbreaks in the Pacific Northwest and ended with hundreds of cases in New York. Last year was the worst for measles in America in 20 years.
Thousands of students in Seattle, Washington are right now under a deadline to get vaccinated or be prohibited from attending school in the new year. Why are some communities more susceptible than others? (Originally aired 1/29/19)
Why are we so Afraid of Donating Blood? (36:32)
Guest: Christopher France, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Ohio University
It’s fear that keeps many of us from donating blood. It turns out that feeling faint is the most common negative side effect of donating blood. But it’s also very very rare. People hardly ever experience any negative side-effects from donating blood, yet the fear keeps lots of people from even trying. (Originally aired 1/22/19)
What Makes a Song “Country” – or Not? (50:37)
Guest: Charles Hughes, Director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College, Author of “Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South”
“Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X was THE song of 2019 – it spent a record-breaking 19 weeks at Number 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles. It’s one of the top 10 Hot Singles of the entire decade.
But not one of the top Country songs of the year or decade, because Billboard decided Old Town Road wasn’t country music, even though the song’s most popular remix features Billy Ray Cyrus. Did the decision have anything to do with the fact that Lil Nas X is African American? (Originally aired: 8/22/19)
Composing Music for Video Games (1:06:28)
Guest: Winifred Phillips, Video Game Music Composer, Author of “A Composer’s Guide to Game Music”
Composers of movie scores win Oscars for their brilliance. But if you want to know the truth, it’s a lot harder to compose the score to a video game, because it’s like a choose-your-own-soundtrack that responds to what the player does, while still setting the mood and sounding great.
Winifred Phillips is one of the best composers in the business. In addition to Assassin’s Creed, she’s composed for Little Big Planet, The Sims, Speed Race, God of War and lots more. (Originally aired: 7/2/19)
How Air Guitar Became a Worldwide Phenomenon (1:22:17)
Guest: Byrd McDaniel, Professor of Ethnomusicology, Northeastern University
There is a whole group of people out there proud to be seen strumming an imaginary guitar on stage. They compete all around the world and meet up in Finland every year for the Air Guitar World Championships. (Originally aired: 7/29/19)
Author Anna Fifield on her book, “The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un.” Author Angela Stent, “Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest,” on Russian protests. Sean R. Roberts, George Washington University, on China's mass incarceration of Muslim Uyghurs. Michael Platt from Michael's Desserts on baking your own happiness. Mike Brady, Greyston Bakery, on open hiring. Sandi Harding, general manager of the last Blockbuster on earth.
Inside the Life and Power of Kim Jong Un (0:32)
Guest: Anna Fifield, Beijing Bureau Chief, Washington Post, Author of “The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended 2019 with a threat to resume nuclear weapons and long-range missile testing. That’s bad news for negotiations to end North Korea’s nuclear program entirely. But President Trump says he’s optimistic a deal could still happen. Two unprecedented summits between President Trump and Chairman Kim in 2019, heightened interest in just who the secretive leader of North Korea is and how he came to power at such a young age. Washington Post Beijing bureau chief Anna Fifield spent a decade tracking down the answers for her book, “The Great Successor.” It came out last year and led to one of our favorite interviews of 2019. The day I spoke with Fifield, news had broken that Kim Jong Un’s older half-brother was a CIA informant before his assassination. (Originally aired June 14, 2019).
Pro-Democracy Protests Rock Moscow, but Putin Remains Unshaken (24:04)
Guest: Angela Stent, Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Author “Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest”
While America obsessed over the threat Russia poses to our politics and democracy, Russian President Vladimir Putin faced threats to his own power in 2019. Over the summer, there were large scale protests in Russia, particularly over the decision of Putin’s political party to disqualify some opposition candidates from city council elections in Moscow. Even with that suppression, Putin’s political allies went on to suffer embarrassing defeat in the Moscow elections. (Originally aired August 28, 2019).
China’s Mass Incarceration of Muslim Uyghurs May Be a New Form of Ethnic Cleansing (37:27)
Guest: Sean R. Roberts, Ph.D., Director and Associate Professor, International Development Studies Program, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
In 2019, the world learned of a massive campaign of suppression and imprisonment in Western China. The Chinese Communist Government views a Muslim ethnic group called Uyghurs(Wee-gores) as a terrorist threat. The Uyghurs claim a portion of Western China as their indigenous homeland. The Chinese government disagrees and has placed millions of people in that region under intense surveillance. Up to a million Muslim Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in the so-called “re-education camps” outside scholars have compared to the boarding schools where Native American youth were sent to be “re-educated.” (Originally aired July 5, 2019).
Baking Your Own Happiness (50:44)
Guest: Michael Platt, Head Baker, and Spokesperson for Michaels Desserts and Danita Platt, Michael’s Mother
“People underestimate the power of kids in general, and they certainly underestimate our power to do something about big problems.” That’s a clip from a TEDx talk Michael gave not long after we spoke on Top of Mind. The big problem he’s decided to tackle? Hunger. He started his bakery Michaels Desserts two years ago–when he was 11. For every cupcake or cookie, he sells, he donates one to someone in need. (Originally aired August 13, 2019).
Hiring with No Questions Asked (1:06:42)
Guest: Mike Brady, President, and CEO, Greyston Bakery
For people who have served time behind bars, it can be very difficult to get a job. But there’s a commercial bakery in New York that opts simply not to ask any questions about the background of people who apply. They call it “open hiring.” Greyston Bakery is known for its brownies –you’ve had them on Delta flights and in Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. (Originally aired January 7, 2019).
What Has Become of the Last Blockbuster on Earth (1:23:52)
Guest: Sandi Harding, General Manager
The world’s last Blockbuster video store is in Bend, Oregon. Your kids have no idea what life was like before Netflix and Disney+, do they? Browsing the DVDs on a Friday night, looking for something to watch. You’re probably wondering what Blockbuster has to do with people doing good. But the store has become a delightful blast of nostalgia for tourists, and manager Sandi Mann believes it’s important for maintaining human connection. (Originally aired March 20, 2019).
George McGraw from DigDeep on water inequality. Andrew Carroll, Center for American War Letters at Chapman University, on collecting one million war letters. Shilpa Davé, University of Virginia, on Disney plus. Author David Farber, University of Kansas, on book “Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed.” Cory Leonard from BYU on Model UN.
Millions of Americans Lack Access to Clean Water and Indoor Plumbing (0:42)
Guest: George McGraw, Chief Executive Officer, DigDeep
You don’t think about it when you flush the toilet or turn on the sink, but access to clean, reliable running water and safe sanitation are a real privilege. And right now, in the America, more than two million people lack that privilege. A person’s race is the strongest predictor of whether they’ll have access to clean water and sanitation. (Originally aired November 20, 2019)
The Man Collecting One Million War Letters (17:04)
Guest: Andrew Carroll, Director of the Center for American War Letters at Chapman University
Historian Andrew Carroll is on a mission to collect a million letters from soldiers during wartime. He’s already collected tens of thousands, and they span 250 years of American conflicts from the Revolutionary war to the present day. One of them was even written on Hitler’s own stationary. (Originally aired November 20, 2019)
This Content May Contain Outdated Cultural Depictions (32:14)
Guest: Shilpa Davé, Assistant Professor of Media Studies and American Studies at the University of Virginia
Some of the classic animated films of our parents’ childhood –the ones they showed to you as kids with such nostalgia -are now available for endless streaming on the newly-launched Disney+. Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Dumbo” and a number of other films now available on Disney+ come with a disclaimer that reads: “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.” Is that enough, though? Would it be better for Disney just to edit out the offensive stuff? Or keep them off Disney+ entirely? Disney’s not the only studio in this boat. Lots of films and TV shows made in previous decades wouldn’t fly today. (Originally aired November 20, 2019)
What We Learned from the Crack Crisis in America (51:10)
Guest: David Farber, Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of History, University of Kansas, Author of “Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed”
America, as you know, is in the midst of a drug crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people have overdosed on opioids in the last decade. The companies that make prescription pain killers, the pharmacies that sell them and doctors that prescribe them are being prosecuted. Local governments are clamoring for cash to make treatment available to more people with opioid addiction. Before the opioid epidemic, there was the crack epidemic. But America responded very differently to that drug crisis. Historian David Farber says the comparison is worth looking into, for what it tells us about race, poverty and our “collective inability to treat each other with decency and mercy.” (Originally aired November 21, 2019)
Teaching Diplomacy to Kids Through Model UN (1:26:29)
Guest: Cory Leonard, Associate Director at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at BYU
Model United Nations is a program for kids to pretend they’re a representative of a country and debate global issues. Simulating diplomacy like this started in the 1920s before the UN even existed. But what’s the point of having students run around pretending to be the Peruvian or Russian delegate if none of it is real? (Originally aired November 21, 2019)
Water Sommelier Martin Riese, on professional water tasting. Sophy Charlton, University of York, on how humans drank milk 6,000 years ago. Amy Farrell of Northeastern University on the undercount of human trafficking. Michael Richardson on making theater more enjoyable for deaf audiences. Devin Kearns, University of Connecticut, on identifying dyslexia. Alison Booth from the University of Virginia on women biographies.
Water Sommelier Martin Riese Stays Hydrated Professionally (0:47)
Guest: Martin Riese, Water Tasting Educator, Water Sommelier at Petit Ermitage Hotel in West Hollywood
When you go on vacation, can you taste the difference in the tap water? It might be subtle, but I can. And Martin Riese definitely can. He’s a professional water taster –a water sommelier, even. At the Petit Ermitage Hotel in West Hollywood he oversees a menu of waters and recommends pairings for diners. Which, I know, sounds so LA. (Originally aired October 7, 2019).
Humans Drank Milk 6,000 Years Ago (20:21)
Guest: Sophy Charlton, Researcher of Biomolecular Archaeology, University of York
The average American consumes more than 600 pounds of dairy products per year. But it definitely didn’t used to be that way –humans couldn’t always drink milk. Ancient adults were lactose intolerant, and it’s still a mystery why so many humans aren’t anymore. That’s why it was a big surprise when researchers from the University of York examined teeth from people who lived 6,000 years ago and discovered that they consumed dairy. (Originally aired October 7, 2019).
Human Trafficking (33:34)
Guest: Amy Farrell, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University
Human trafficking still happens right here in the United States. And it’s happening more often than the official data suggest. Police departments often don’t have a category for “human trafficking” when recording crimes in state and federal databases. Criminologist Amy Farrell at Northeastern University says that – coupled with insufficient training of police officers – has led to a “massive undercount” of human trafficking cases in the US. (Originally aired October 7, 2019).
How Effective is Sign Language Interpreted Performance for Deaf Audiences? (50:42)
Guest: Michael Richardson, PhD, Author of the Study: “Playing Bilingual: Interweaving Deaf and Hearing Cultural Practices to Achieve Equality of Participation in Theatrical Performance Processes”
COMPLETE TRANSCIPT FOR THIS INTERVIEW IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
Attendance at live theater performances by deaf people is low. And for good reason. The costumes, makeup, set, and lights, are all part of the full sensory experience of theater. But that’s lost on those who have to watch an interpreter off to the side the entire time. Is it possible for a deaf person to have an equal theater experience as someone who isn’t deaf? (Orignally aired October 28, 2019).
App to Identify Dyslexia Earlier (1:07:56)
Guest: Devin Kearns, PhD, Associate Professor of Special Education at University of Connecticut and one of the Lead Scientists for the Apprise Project
It gets harder and harder to treat dyslexia in children with every year that passes after preschool. Problem is, most kids don’t get diagnosed until they’re around 8 years old. Dyslexia particularly hard to detect in English-speakers, and teachers usually only recognize it once a child fails. That’s why researchers from three universities got together to make an app that will help teachers detect dyslexia in kids at an earlier age. (Orignally aired October 28, 2019).
Bringing Stories of Women to Life (1:23:28)
Guest: Alison Booth, Professor of English at the University of Virginia
Women are underrepresented in biographies and other historical works. But part of the problem is that thousands of accounts of women have simply been forgotten. Alison Booth has been tracking them down to bring these stories to light and make them accessible. It’s called the Collective Biographies of Women Project. (Orignally aired October 28, 2019).
TRANSCRIPT: How Effective is Sign Language Interpreted Performance for Deaf Audiences?
Ciara Hulet: You're listening to Top of Mind, I'm Ciara Hulet. Attendance at live theater performances by deaf people is low and for good reason. The costumes, makeup, set, and lights are all part of the full sensory experience of theater. But that's lost on those who have to watch an interpreter off to the side the entire time. Is it possible for a deaf person to have an equal theater experience as someone who isn't deaf? Michael Richardson just completed his doctoral research in how to make theatre more accessible for the deaf community. He joins me on the line now from Malta. Welcome.
Dr. Michael Richardson: Hello. Nice to be here.
CH: Can you describe for us the experience at a live theater performance for a deaf person?
MR: In the context we're talking about, with an interpreter who's off to the side of the stage, it's kind of like watching tennis. Trying to focus on two players, but needing to watch them both at the same time. Because essentially most of what the interpreter can do is translate the spoken language into sign language. But of course when you go to see a show, as you say, there's so much more information coming from the stage. Costumes, physical action, that all adds to the plot. And for a deaf person that means they need to try and focus on both those things at the same time, which is clearly not possible.
CH: Yeah that seems like it'd be so hard to be looking at the stage and then back to the interpreter, then back to the stage, back to the interpreter. It seems like it wouldn't be enjoyable at all.
MR: Yeah and in the research I did one of my participants said that you just have to guess which is the most useful to be watching at any given time. And that he estimated that he probably overall got 50% of the information and then he had to fill in the gaps by guesswork.
CH: Do deaf people have to come in knowing the story? Have to come in prepared to have a good experience?
MR: Well, this is one of the things that they said, that for deaf audiences the more they know in advance the better it is. And I also interviewed some hearing people and they said the less they knew in advance the better it would be because they'd have that sense of suspense. But then there's an additional problem there, that if the show they go to see is based on a written language script, they might not have particularly good skills in reading that language. So then it's quite hard to prepare.
CH: And these interpreters off to the side, are they in costume? Are they actors or are they just signing the words?
MR: What you said last. Certainly in the UK, the manner in which interpreters are chosen to do the job doesn't match the way actors are cast in any way. So usually there's a small pool of interpreters and they just volunteer if they're free to work on that evening. In comparison to the director casting the actors with auditions and all the rest of it. And they typically wear what they would wear for a conference or a community interpreting assignment, which is all black. So the attempt to match what's going on the stage is really limited.
CH: So they don't even rehearse with the cast then?
MR: Not at all, no. Usually the typical model is that they would see the show once or twice, and then obviously preparation in their own time. And then in their own little space off to the side they would deliver this, what is essentially a translation of just the words.
CH: This experience for the deaf person with watching an interpreter off to the side and then, like you said, kind of having to fill in the gaps, would you still call that theater?
MR: Not really. It's a kind of administrative process for providing something that theaters think offers access. But usually the people who work in the theater don't use sign language, so they are not in a position to assess it.
CH: When did you first realize this was a problem?
MR: I was running a big youth theater organization and a residential deaf school relocated to where I was working. And deaf teenagers started to come to our workshops and then take part in performances and we tried to work out. Well, the first thing we did was we did some performances with the interpreting in this traditional model that we're talking about now. And it was really obvious it didn't work. So then we started to think about other ways of doing it.
CH: And what are those other ways that you've been researching to make this a better experience for the deaf community?
MR: Well, if you stick with interpreters, then you really need to move the interpreter into the overall frame of what's happening on the stage.
CH: Up on the stage? You'd put the interpreters there?
MR: Yeah, deaf people have said to me that the interpreters don't need to be right next to the actors, although that is one way of doing it. The problem when the interpreter is way off to the side is you have to move your head and that completely takes your attention away from what's on the stage. So what they said was if the interpreter is close enough that you only have to flick your eyes back and forwards, then that's much easier to follow everything.
CH: Do you think though, that the audience that isn't deaf would be annoyed at that? Do you think it would ever happen?
MR: This is a really interesting one. The general feeling from hearing people when they sat down to discuss it was that if the interpreter was on the stage, it would be less distracting because it's in the same space. And what happens when you're watching something that has lots going on, it's that you're your brain chooses which things you want to take information from. There's a really good clip online, I think it's on YouTube, of a basketball game. And it asks you, I'm going to ruin this now for anybody who wants to watch it, but it asks you to count how many baskets are scored, if that's the correct expression. So you're really focusing on the ball and you don't notice that somebody in a gorilla costume walks across the basketball courts.
CH: Yes I have seen this.
MR: You've seen that? So that principle leads you to stop watching the interpreter.
CH: They just kind of evade into the background, you forget they're there.
MR: If you don't need them, you don't pay them any attention.
CH: Do you think it would ever be a
Author Jessica Trounstine on book “Segregation by Design.” Thomas Saltsman, the State University of New York, on choice overload. Thomas Curran, London School of Economics and Political Science, on toxic perfectionism. Michael Mina, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, on measles and your immune system. Elena Patel, University of Utah, on paid parental leave. Tyler Black from the BC Children's Hospital on suicide prevention.
How Local Governments Reinforce Segregation in Favor of White Homeowners (0:39)
Guest: Jessica Trounstine, PhD, Professor of Political Science, University of California–Merced, Author of “Segregation by Design”
Is the neighbor who lives next door the same race as you? How about the people living on the next block? Or a mile away, in your same town? Chances are pretty good that you live in a community where most everyone is your same race. Despite decades of anti-discrimination laws and policies, America remains deeply segregated. Is it that deep down, we’re all impossibly racist? No, political scientist Jessica Trounstine says our city and county governments have played an important role in shaping these patterns. (Originally aired October 15, 2019).
Are More Choices Better... Or Worse? (20:39)
Guest: Thomas Saltsman, Senior Lab Director, Social Psychophysiology Laboratory, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
You’re studying the menu at a new restaurant you’ve heard great things about. The menu is long. But everything looks really good. So your mouth is watering and you keep telling the server to give you a few more minutes to decide. And now you’re starting to feel a little anxious because the rest of your group is ready to order but you can’t decide. So you just pick something. And you’ve got high hopes for what you’ve ordered. But the moment it arrives, you’re regretting your choice. This happens to me every time I go to a new restaurant. And apparently it’s common enough psychologists have a name for it: ““choice overload.” It also happens when people are faced with an endless array of options on streaming TV sites or dating apps. (Originally aired October 15, 2019).
Can Perfectionism Be Toxic? (34:49)
Guest: Thomas Curran, Professor of Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science
A common job interview question is “What’s your greatest weakness?” A common, clever answer is perfectionism. It may seem like the perfect response to twist the question in your favor, but psychologist Thomas Curran says that this characteristic is dangerous and not something to be proud of. He’s found that it’s on the rise in young people, and that could be why cases of depression and anxiety are also going up. (Originally aired October 15, 2019).
Measles Erases the Immune System’s Memory (50:41)
Guest: Michael Mina,MD, PhD an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
This has been a record year for measles outbreaks in the US. Public health officials say most of the people who got sick had not been vaccinated. But also, nobody has died from the measles this year –out of more than 1,000cases. So, there’s this thread of thought among vaccine-hesitant parents that measles really isn’t that serious. What if the trouble for your kid isn’t just the measles itself, though? After the rash and fever are gone, the body is more prone to other infections.
Why Paid Family Leave Doesn’t Increase Gender Equality in the Workplace (1:07:25)
Guest: Elena Patel, Professor of Finance at the University of Utah
Many mothers in California can get partial pay from the government to take off work when they have a baby. Some lawmakers and activists argue that paid family leave is a way to fix gender inequality in the work place because working mothers are able to spend time with their child and keep their job. However, a new study found that the opposite may be true. Paid Family Leave may actually increase the gender wage gap.
Mental Illness Is Not the Only Risk Factor for Suicide (1:21:54)
Guest: Tyler Black, MD, FRCPC, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Medical Director CAPE Unit at BC Children's Hospital
There is a growing problem of suicide in the world and access to mental health treatment is an important part of the solution. But psychiatrist Tyler Black says we also need to change how we think about suicide and its causes. If you or anyone you know is struggling, please reach out. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is always available at 1-800-273-8255.
Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, University at Buffalo, on food deserts. Delece Smith-Barrow from The Hechinger Report on historically black colleges and universities. Francis Pearman, Stanford University, on the discipline gap. Mary Cox, Oxford University, on hunger in WWI. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story. Author Alexandra Lange, “The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids”, on the evolution of playground design.
Why Grocery Stores Don’t Help Communities in Food Deserts to Stay Healthy (0:38)
Guest: Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, PhD Candidate at the University at Buffalo and Graduate Research Assistant at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
In places sometimes referred to as “food deserts” healthy food options are farther and more expensive than normal. The obvious answer would be to just put up another supermarket. But researchers at the University at Buffalo found that new grocery stores actually lead to a decrease in people eating their fruits and veggies. (Originally aired November 5, 2019).
Historically Black Colleges and Universities are Struggling to Survive (14:21)
Guest: Delece Smith-Barrow is Senior Editor for Higher Education at The Hechinger Report
Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Spike Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson, Chadwick Boseman –aka Black Panther. That’s just a partial list of prominent African Americans who graduated from an HBCU, which stands for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. There are more than a hundred HBCUs around the country –Howard, Tuskegee, Spelman, Shaw, Fisk, Morehouse –are some names you might recognize. If you saw Beyonce’s Coachella performance last year –or the Netflix documentary about it -that whole thing was an ode to HBCUs. She had marching bands and step dancers. Beyonce’s HBCU tribute was well-timed, because many of these schools are in crisis. Enrollment is down. Government funding is down. More than a dozen HBCUs have closed. (Originally aired November 5, 2019).
Racial Discipline and Achievement Gaps Are Related (36:05)
Guest: Francis Pearman, Assistant Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University
In schools across the US, discipline doesn’t get handed out evenly. Black high school students are twice as likely to be suspended as white or Hispanic students. Black students also lag behind white students on standardized test scores. Are these two gaps –the discipline gap and the achievement gap –linked, somehow? (Originally aired November 5, 2019).
How Hunger Impacted German Civilians During and After WWI (50:01)
Guest: Mary Cox, William Golding Junior Research Fellow in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Brasenose College, Oxford University
The First World War was among the deadliest in history. Tens of millions of soldiers and civilians died. Millions more were maimed or emotionally scarred by the brutal fighting in the trenches and use of chemical weapons. Lingering effects of the Great War were also evident in the bodies of German children, who were malnourished throughout the conflict because of a very effective Allied blockade that kept food, fertilizer and military supplies out of Germany. (Originally aired September 18, 2019).
Apple Seed (1:08:30)
Guest: Sam Payne of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares about the importance of storytelling in the world. (Originally aired September 18, 2019).
The Evolution of Playground Design and its Effect on Children (1:22:42)
Guest: Alexandra Lange, is a Design and Architecture Critic and Author of “The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids”
I miss merry go rounds. You hardly find them on playgrounds anymore. On the one hand playgrounds are much cooler than they were when I was a kid. But they also feel less risky. I’ve wondered if the design of playgrounds affects how kids develop. (Originally aired September 18, 2019).
Authors Tehema Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith on Black Lives Matter. Expert Erika Nelson on roadside attractions. Anastacia Morrone of Indiana University on digital textbooks. Author Alexandra Horowitz on bonds with dogs. Scott Haskins from the Fine Art Conservation Lab on preserving treasures.
Smart, informative conversations and interviews that go beyond mere headlines and sound bites.
James Farmer, Indiana University, on the decline of Christmas tree farms. Victoria Glasier and Erika Becker-Medina, U.S. Census Bureau, on the 2020 census. Gregory A. Huber, Yale University, on the effect of immigration on voting demographic. Lara Aknin of Simon Fraser University and Cindy Chan of University of Toronto Scarborough on why we give and how to give the best gifts.
Christmas Tree Farms are Slowly Going Away, but Demand is Consistent (0:45)
Guest: James Farmer, Professor, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
Are you a cut-your-own Christmas tree at the farm kind of family? Or do you run to the Home Depot on Christmas Eve just hoping to find something decent you can decorate before Santa arrives? Unless something changes, we may all soon be stuck buying trees from a tree lot or big box store. Christmas tree farms are in decline, for a variety of reasons that James Farmer has studied. (Originally aired December 9, 2019).
For the First Time Ever, You’ll Be Able to Fill Out the U.S. Census Online (15:20)
Guest: Victoria Glasier, Chief of the Statistics in Schools Program, U.S. 2020 Census Bureau; Erika Becker-Medina, Chief of the Decennial Communications Coordination Office, U.S. Census Bureau
2020 is nearly here, can you believe it? And since it’s the start of a decade, 2020 also means another U.S. Census, where the government tries to count every person in the country. With more than 300 million of us, it’s a mammoth task. And for the first time ever, we’ll be able to fill out the Census questionnaire online. Welcome to the 21st Century, eh? (Originally aired December 9, 2019).
Understanding Immigration’s Impact on Support for Trump in 2016 (29:37)
Guest: Gregory A. Huber, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Yale University
From the first speech of his Presidential campaign, Donald Trump invoked the threat of immigration as a key message. Candidate Trump kept up with that rhetoric right through the campaign –and into his first term as President. How much did hostility toward immigrants drive President Trump’s support among voters? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, UC-San Diego and Yale University wondered if the clearest evidence of this might be found in neighborhoods that have had the largest influxes of migrants in the last decade. Were those voters more likely to respond to the Trump campaign’s immigration rhetoric? (Originally aired December 9, 2019).
Why We Give and How to Give the Best Gifts (49:58)
Guests: Lara Aknin, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Director of the Helping and Happiness Lab, Simon Fraser University; Cindy Chan, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Toronto Scarborough
It’s the season of giving, which can also make it the season of stress – all that time and money and that nagging suspicion that most of what you give will be eventually forgotten anyway. But some gifts we do remember forever. We put a call out for gift-related stories and heard some really memorable ones we’ll share with you this hour. Plus, we’ve got expert insight on how to give presents that will be cherished and strengthen your relationships. But first, a look at why we do it in the first place. Is there some evolutionary reason for gift giving? Do we mainly do it because that’s what’s expected? (Originally aired December 14, 2018).
Author Ace Collins on his book "Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas." Geoff MacDonald, University of Toronto, on romantic types. Marek Wyszynski from the Feldenkrais Institute of New York on the Feldenkrais method. Author Emily deSchweinitz Taylor on her book "Raising Mediators." Author Elizabeth Partridge, “Boots on the Ground,” on the Vietnam war.
Hi Aimee. Feel free to change the titles of segments, I just wanted to get the links in.
Thanks..Cole.
Christmas Traditions (0:35)
Guest:
Content.
Romantic Types (20:57)
Guest:
Content.
idk how to spell this method...(31:03)
Guest:
Content.
Family Confrontations (51:14)
Guest:
Content.
Vietnam Teens (1:13:40)
Guest:
Content.
The House Impeached President Trump, but It’s Up to the Senate to Remove Him from Office (0:42)
Guest: Bob Adler, Distinguished Professor of Law and former Dean, University of Utah SJ Quinney College of Law; Michael Barber, Assistant Professor of Political Science, BYU
President Donald Trump has been impeached by the US House of Representatives. While the vote was happening along party lines Wednesday night, the President was holding a campaign rally in Michigan where he said the Democrats: “Are declaring their deep hatred and disdain for the American voter. This lawless partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democrat party. Have you seen my polls for the last four weeks?” So, what next?
There’s Wisdom in Tradition: Some Soups Can Help Fight off Malaria (22:59)
Guest: Jake Baum, Professor of Cell Biology and Infectious Diseases at the Imperial College London
There’s that saying about feeding a fever and starving a cold. Or maybe it’s the other way around? For some reason lots of cultures have some sort of hot brothy soup that’s fed to sick people. It was mainly just for comfort, I thought. But what if there is something medicinal in that traditional chicken noodle or miso or matzo ball or pho?
New Instagram Page Increasing Racial Representation for Medical Diagnoses (38:39)
Guest: Ellen Weiss, Creator, “Brown Skin Matters” Instagram Account
If your kid came to you with an unusual rash, you would probably google it first to see how serious it is before seeing a doctor. But if you’re a parent of a child of color, the search results may be disappointing. Most images online show skin conditions only on white patients. Problem is that skin conditions can look very different from one race to another, so parents and doctors may not to recognize a serious problem. Ellen Weiss is a mom who’s changing that –she started an Instagram account called Brown Skin Matters to that features skin conditions of all shades.
Boxer, Pilot, Night Club Impresario, Soldier, Spy: The Incredible Life of Eugene Bullard (50:41)
Guest: Phil Keith and Tom Clavin, Co-Authors of “All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard –Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy”
He was the first African-American fighter pilot in history. He was also a boxer, a jazz drummer, and a Paris nightclub owner. He hung out with Josephine Baker, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He fought in both world wars and spied for the French Resistance. One man did all of that –his name was Eugene Bullard. And while he was a national hero and a celebrity on the streets of France, he was a nobody in America. When he came back to the states after World War II, he ended up as an elevator operator at Rockefeller Square. Just a chatty, older African American with a slight French accent wearing a couple of military-looking medals on his jacket. That’s where a host for The Today Show discovered his story and Eugene Bullard finally got his fifteen minutes of fame in America on live TV. From start to finish, the life of Eugene Bullard seems like one long tall tale.
How “The Wolf Whisperer” Trains Wolves for the Big Screen (1:25:40)
Guest: Andrew Simpson, animal trainer, Instinct: Animals for Film
It's a dark, winter-filled wood. A lone woman huddles by a fire. Her horse is skittish. Something's in the air. Something foreboding. She draws her sword and suddenly she’s surrounded . . . by a pack of snarling wolves -white, black, grey. Fangs bared. And the giant leader of the pack steps up. The woman is doomed. Or is she? That’s a scene from the HBO series Game of Thrones. And watching the clip the first time, I was sure the wolves for CGI. It’s all some green screen film magic. But it turns out they’re real and they belong to Andrew Simpson.
Robert Adler, University of Utah, and Michael Barber, BYU, on impeachment. Jake Baum, Imperial College London, on soups that can fight off malaria. Ellen Weiss, creator of “Brown Skin Matters,” on racial representation for medical diagnoses. Phil Keith and Tom Clavin, co-authors of “All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard –Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy.” Andrew Simpson, animal trainer, on training animals for movies.
Martin Sandler, historian, Emmy-winning TV writer, on his book “1919: The Year That Changed America." Yaroslav Trofimov, Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal, on the siege of Mecca. Sam Payne from The Apple Seed shares a story. Cutcha Risling Baldy, Humboldt State University, on returning native lands. Robyn Fivush, Emory University, on family narratives. Kristen Chenoweth, Tony and Emmy-winning actress and singer; and Pain Specialist Mandy Francis on chronic pain.
What 1919 (The Year That Changed America) Tells Us About 2019 (0:36)
Guest: Martin Sandler, historian, Emmy-winning TV writer, author of “1919: The Year That Changed America” (2019 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature)
As 2019 winds down, maybe you’re feeling a little winded. A lot has happened –is happening –in America. At moments like these, a little perspective is useful. A hundred years ago, America was turning the page on a year that changed the nation in fundamental ways. Some have called 1919 “the year our world began.” Historian Martin Sandler’s book about the parallels between 1919 and 2019 just won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.
How the Siege of Mecca Shaped America’s Complicated Relationship with Saudi Arabia (30:36)
Guest: Yaroslav Trofimov, Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal and Author of “The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam’s Holiest Shrine and the Birth of Al Qaeda”
The exact motive behind a shooting at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida two weeks ago is still unclear. But officials are treating it as an act of terror. The shooter was a member of the Saudi Air Force receiving flight training from the US military. He killed three people and injured eight others. There’s some evidence he held extremist views. If you’re surprised that a Saudi pilot would be in the US for military training, there are actually hundreds of such students here right now. Saudi Arabia has been a close military ally of the United States in the global war on terror. But it’s a tricky relationship, because Al Qaeda and ISIS can both trace the inspiration for their extreme views back to Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the nineteen 9-11 hi-jackers were Saudi. These terrorists trace their inspiration, in particular, to a siege that happened 40 years ago in the Holy City of Mecca.
The Apple Seed (50:38)
Guest: Sam Payne, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne from The Apple Seed looks back at Y2K.
Return Ancestral Lands to Native Americans. Eureka, California Leads Out. (59:28)
Guest: Cutcha Risling Baldy-Assistant Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies at Humboldt State University
Through centuries of America’s history, indigenous people were murdered and forced off their ancestral land with the approval of federal, state and local governments. How do we right those wrongs? Perhaps a formal apology like California Governor Gavin Newsom gave this year. What about giving back the land that was taken? That’s what the city of Eureka in Northern California just did. Tuluwat Island, in Humboldt Bay, once again belongs to the Wiyat people, who consider it the spiritual and physical center of the universe. It’s a highly unusual move and one Cutcha Risling Baldy hopes to see more of.
Family Stories Are Powerful. Make Time to Tell Some This Holiday. (1:16:58)
Guest: Robyn Fivush, Professor of Psychology and Director of Emory University’s Institute for Liberal Arts
When the feasting is done, does your family linger around the table and reminisce? Eavesdropping on the stories my parents and grandparents shared after holiday meals is where I learned that my grandpa barely missed getting sent into combat during World War II. And where I learned my grandma had on a pink sweater that caught grandpa’s eye the day they met. I also heard stories about some of the childhood experiences that shaped my mom. In turn, those stories shaped my idea of what it means to be a part of this particular family –who we are, what we care about. The Family Narratives Lab at Emory University has actually measured the power of this kind of family storytelling.
Kristen Chenoweth Urges Suffers of Chronic Pain (Like Her) to Speak Out (1:30:41)
Guest: Kristen Chenoweth, Tony and Emmy-winning actress and singer; Mandy Francis, DNP, Pain Specialist
In her Tony winning stage performances and Emmy-winning screen performances Kristen Chenoweth is known for that voice and magnetic energy. Few fans would suspect that Chenoweth lives with chronic pain. She’s a spokesperson for a new campaign to dispel the stigma around pain.
Quinn Mecham, BYU, on protests around the world. Author Kathleen Stassen Berger, Bronx Community College, on her book “Grandmothering: Building Strong Ties with Every Generation.” Founder of Extreme Motus, Adam Beesley, and Christine Durst, a mother whose son uses an all-terrain wheelchair. Aisha White, University of Pittsburgh, on Mr. Roger's legacy. Chris Byrne, creator of The Toy Guy, on 2019's hottest toys. Kirsten Hawkes from ParentPreviews.com on movies about kindness.
Protests Play Out Worldwide (0:30)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
There’s more going on in the world than the impeachment of President Trump. So let’s shift our attention beyond US borders for a few minutes.
How Families Can Help Grandmothers Step into their Role (21:14)
Guest: Kathleen Stassen Berger, Senior Professor of Psychology, Bronx Community College, City College of New York, Author of “Grandmothering: Building Strong Ties with Every Generation”
The holidays are peak grandmother season if you’re lucky enough to have one or be one. Mine weren’t the traditional cookie-baking type. But my Grandma Jan always sent a crisp $20 in the mail for each of us grandkids at Christmas and boy did we look forward to that! My Grandma Lola would send me a book from her personal collection that she thought I’d like. She was always right. We need grandmas today more than ever, says developmental psychologist Kathleen Stassen Berger. But society keeps trying to sideline them.
All-Terrain Wheelchair Fit for Hiking (37:59)
Guest: Adam Beesley, Founder of Extreme Motus, and Christine Durst, Mother Whose Son Uses an Off-Terrain Wheelchair
Outdoor lovers from all over the world descend on Utah every year to view the natural wonder known as Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. But to see it, you have to hike in. No motorized vehicles are allowed on the trails. Up until now, that’s meant Sam Durst, who is 36 and has cerebral palsy, had to wait in the parking lot when his outdoor-loving family made the hike. But recently, they discovered a wheelchair that made the hike possible and for the first time, were all able to enjoy the spectacular arch, up close, together.
The Enduring Appeal of Mister Rogers (50:37)
Guest: Aisha White, PhD, Director of the Positive Racial Identity Development in Early Education, Office of Child Development, University of Pittsburgh
Mr. Rogers –and any movie about him –feels like a soothing balm in these turbulent times, doesn’t it?I loved the documentary about him last year. There’s a lot of Mr. Rogers warm-fuzziness going on in Pittsburgh right now with this latest film. That’s where Fred Rogers lived. He filmed all 30-plus years of his show lived at WQED Studio just blocks from the University of Pittsburgh where one of his main mentors in child development was a professor. Over the years, lots of Pitt students and faculty worked with Mr. Rogers on his program, including Aisha White.
2019’s Hottest Toys with The Toy Guy (1:06:33)
Guest: Chris Byrne, toy industry consultant and creator of The Toy Guy
Just in case Santa needs a little help, we’ve got Chris Byrne, aka The Toy Guy, on the line with some hints. Byrne has been marketing toys and analyzing the industry for decades. He was part of the original team that made Pictionary a hit.
Mister Rogers and Movies About Kindness (1:20:24)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
This is Top of Mind and it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers in the new film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Kirsten Hawkes of Parent Previews.com is on the line with some thoughts about this and other movies about kindness.
Joel Selway, BYU, on the British elections and Brexit. Robert Thompson from Syracuse University on the appeal of Hallmark Christmas movies. Stephanie Plamondon Bair, BYU, on companies owning words. Edith Sheffer from the University of California on her book, “Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna.” Amy Steigerwalt, Georgia State University, on the American Bar Association. Mike Jones,and Mike Alder, BYU; Korey Hocker, CEO of SignGlasses, on sign glasses.
Does Big Win for Boris Johnson and Conservatives Make Brexit a Sure Thing? (0:33)
Guest: Joel Selway, PhD, professor of political science, BYU
Britain’s parliament returned to work today with a new balance of power. The Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson just captured its biggest majority since the Margaret Thatcher era of 1980's. It’s a stunning election outcome after more than three years of political gridlock over Brexit. So what's next?
Why People Love Cheesy Hallmark Christmas Movies Year After Year (18:06)
Guest: Robert Thompson, Director of the Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture at Syracuse University
By the time the holidays are over more than 80-million people will have watched a Hallmark Christmas movie. They’re so sappy and so predictable. Why are these formulaic romances such a hit for Hallmark at Christmas?
What Happens When Companies Own Words? (37:32)
Guest: Stephanie Plamondon Bair, Associate Professor of Law at BYU Law School
Beyonce and Jay-Z have trademarked the names of their kids –Blue Ivy, Rumi and Sir. The NFL owns the trademark for the term “Super Bowl.” And boxing announcer Michael Buffer trademarked his catchphrase "Let's get ready to rumble." Trademarking a name or phrase is one way to lock down competitive advantage in the US. The first thing a new company does is trademark its own name. But what happens when the name is an everyday word –like “Backcountry.” Outdoor retailer Backcountry.com recently had a customer boycott on its hands when it started going after other companies for using the word “backcountry.”
Dr. Asperger and the Nazi Origins of Autism (50:36)
Guest: Edith Sheffer, PhD, Senior Fellow at the Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, author of “Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna”
More awareness of autism has led to much higher rates of diagnosis over the last 30 years. As many as one in 68 children in the US has autism, according to the CDC. There’s also a lot more awareness of the range of symptoms that might come with an autism disorder. For many years, children with a milder form of autism were referred to as having “Asperger’s Syndrome.” It’s named after an Austrian pediatrician whose dark history we’re only now learning. In fact, his story is so dark, historian Edith Sheffer would like to see us stop using the term Asperger’s.
Does Political-Bias Influence Which Judicial Nominees Get Good Marks from the American Bar Association? (1:07:59)
Guest: Amy Steigerwalt, Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University
The US Supreme Court gets a lot of attention for its rulings because it’s the highest court in the land. But it only hears a fraction of cases on hot button issues that Americans care about. Most of the time, it’s the appeals court, one step lower than the Supreme Court, that has the final say on a case. Those judges are also nominated by the President and appointed for life. We just don’t hear about them as much. To that point, did you know that President Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate have been on a judge-appointing-frenzy these last few years? That’s prompted concern from Democrats that the judges being appointed are politically biased and unqualified. Republicans say the nominees are plenty qualified, it’s the report card given to them that’s biased.
A Game-Changer for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing College Students (1:28:36)
Guest: Mike Jones, Professor of Computer Science, BYU; Korey Hocker, CEO of SignGlasses, Mike Alder, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Right now across the country there are tens of thousands of college students wrapping up the semester who are deaf or hard of hearing. Think about the challenge that would mean in a classroom setting. A student might have a sign language interpreter sitting with them. So that means keeping one eye on the interpreter and one eye on what the professor is writing on the board and one eye on your own notes. That’s three eyes. Impossible? A startup called SignGlasses is working on a solution.
Christopher Oscarson, Brigham Young University, on St. Lucia. Tommy Noonan, founder of ReviewMeta, on fake reviews. Nick Seaver from Tufts University on the value and price of our attention. Leslee Thorne-Murphy, BYU, on a spooky Christmas. Tina Seelig is a Professor at Stanford University and author of “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.”
Sweden’s Child of Light (0:36)
Guest: Christopher Oscarson, Professor of Scandinavian History and Swedish Literature at Brigham Young University
December 13th is Saint Lucia Day which is especially big in Sweden. And it’s a little ironic because this song about Saint Lucia and the saint herself both come from warm, sunny Sicily. Now, it’s biggest devotees are in the dark, cold north. How did that happen? (Originally aired 12/13/18).
Don’t Get Suckered By Bogus Reviews When Shopping Online (10:11)
Guest: Tommy Noonan, Founder of ReviewMeta
In the rush to get last-minute gifts on Amazon, it’s easy to get duped by a fake or poor-quality product. By the time it arrives, it’ll be too late to find a replacement before Christmas. So maybe you just stick to products with loads of five-star reviews? Well watch out for that. Lots of them are bogus and some sellers actually pay people to write good reviews. (Originally aired 11/11/19).
The Value & Price of our Attention (27:36)
Guest: Nick Seaver, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Tufts University
We’ll be spending time with friends and family over the next few weeks. And we bet you’ll notice occasionally how often everyone is on their phones. We check them something like 100 times a day on average –even when we don’t really need or want to be on them. It’s frustrating, but phone and app makers have specifically designed their products to compel us to check as often as possible. The more time we spend on them, the more money they make. So why, then, are these same companies now offering features to help us limit the amount of time we while away on our phones? (Originally aired 9/19/19).
Have a Merry Spooky Christmas (51:08)
Guest: Leslee Thorne-Murphy, PhD, Professor and Associate Dean, English Department, BYU
Does Andy Williams really sing “There’ll be scary ghost stories” in one of our most beloved Christmas songs? Yep! But those spooky tales have no place next to jolly Santa and the babe in the manger, do they? Well, not in America and not today. But ghosts were very much part of the holiday once upon a time in Victorian England. So, when Charles Dickens had ghosts visit Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve, he didn’t invent the idea out of thin air, so to speak. He was giving families across Britain just what they wanted –a good spine tingle. (Originally aired 12/20/18).
How to Be More Lucky (1:03:52)
Guest: Tina Seelig, Professor of Practice in Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University, Faculty Co-Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), Author of “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20”
When Tina Seelig’s son turned 20, she published a book for him. “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20” became a bestseller. Getting the book published was a stroke of luck. But not the kind of “lightning strike” luck you might be thinking. Seelig used the strategies she teaches her entrepreneurship students at Stanford to increase her chances of lucking into a publisher who would make her a best-selling author. Ten years later, she’s got an updated version of “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.” It’s a “crash course on making your place in the world,” and whether you’re worried about your kid who’s off to college, or feeling stuck in a holiday rut yourself, Seelig’s ideas might help. (Originally aired 7/18/19).
Eric Jensen, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School, on the war in Afghanistan. Frank Infurna, Arizona State University, on adversity growth. Horace Dediu from the Micromobility and Critical Path podcasts on the future of micromobility. Author Gareth Russell on his book “The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era.” Kristen Serumgard, commander of the International Ice Patrol, on Ice Patrol's creation.
A Stark Look at America’s Dysfunction in Afghanistan (0:33)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
The war in Afghanistan is America’s longest. Eighteen years it’s been going on. The Trump administration is negotiating with the Taliban to end the war and bring home the 13,000 US troops still in Afghanistan. That would seem an acknowledgment that we lost. What went wrong? The Washington Post this week published a confidential trove of government documents that show senior US officials have not been straight with the American public –or each other –about just how poorly things were going in Afghanistan over the years.
Do We Actually Grow from Adversity? Is it ok not to? (20:40)
Guest: Frank Infurna, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University, Co-Project Leader, Pathways to Character
Friedrich Nietzsche first said "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." It's now so cliche that even Kelly Clarkson had a hit about it. About 15 years ago, scientists coined a term for it–“post-traumatic growth.” But Arizona State University associate psychology professor Frank Infurna says it’s far from clear that adversity really does make us stronger. Infurna co-leads a research initiative called “Pathways to Character” that is trying to get to the bottom of this.
E-Scooters Are Just the Beginning. Here’s the Future of Micromobility. (34:00)
Guest: Horace Dediu, Industry Analyst, Co-Host of the Micromobility and Critical Path Podcasts
Are these electric scooters for rent on streets all over the world just a fad? Right now,it’s mostly men who use them. . . People with good balance –and in some cases, a death wish. Those things can be dangerous! Industry analyst Horace Dediu thinks e-scooters are just the start of a trend he calls “micromobility” that may one day include smart scooters that can find their own charging stations. Maybe with three wheels so they’re more stable. Maybe they’ll be self-driving. Maybe they’ll be enclosed somehow to protect the rider from the elements. At that point, wouldn’t it just drive your car or take the bus?
The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era (50:44)
Guest: Gareth Russell, Author “The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era”
Twenty-two years ago this holiday season, James Cameron’s Titanic was on its way to becoming one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were suddenly huge stars. And Celine Dion was stuck in our heads. It’s all such high drama. No wonder the Titanic is the most famous ship –and shipwreck –in history–the subject of so, so many movies and books. Nevertheless, Irish historian Gareth Russell thought there was more to tell. His new book, “The Ship of Dreams” looks at how the Titanic and its passengers reflected shifts happening at that moment in Britain and the US. The sinking of the Titanic was the end of an era.
After the Titanic Sank, the International Ice Patrol Was Created (1:27:55)
Guest: Kristen Serumgard, Commander of the International Ice Patrol
After the sinking of the Titanic, the nations of the world created the International Ice Patrol. For a little more about how it works –and how the work has evolved since 1912, I spoke with Kristen Serumgard she’s commander of the International Ice Patrol, which is a part of the US Coast Guard. We had this conversation last year.
When Opioid Overdose is Treated as Murder, Who Gets Punished? (0:32)
Guest: Morgan Godvin, Activist, Author of “My friend and I both took heroin. He overdosed. Why was I charged with his death?”
Across the country, more and more opioid overdoses are being treated as murder. States are passing “homicide-by-overdose” laws and prosecutors are going after the people who supplied the drugs in the overdose death. So far, there’s little evidence the approach is working to reduce overdose deaths. What it is doing is locking up people like Morgan Godvin, who was herself addicted to heroin when she sold her best friend some of her personal stash. Godvin’s friend overdosed and she was sentenced to 5 years in prison for her role in his death.
SpaceX’s Massive Satellite Launch Plans Could Ruin Astronomy (19:17)
Guest: James Lowenthal, Professor of Astronomy at Smith College
Within a few years, SpaceX plans to have thousands and thousands of communications satellites orbiting Earth, providing high speed internet service to even the most remote locations. Cool idea a lot of people support. But as SpaceX has begun launching the first big batches of those satellites, an unexpected problem has emerged. They’re starting to mess up the work of astronomers like James Lowenthal at Smith College.
How the Salvation Army’s Red Kettles Became a Christmas Icon (34:44)
Guest: Diane Winston, Associate Professor and Knight Center Chair in Media & Religion, University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism
The Salvation Army bell-ringers are out in force with their red kettles, collecting donations for charity. Did you know the Salvation Army started out as a British evangelical church? So how did its bell-ringers become such an iconic, primarily American, Christmas-time tradition? Diane Winston wrote a book about it called “Red-Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of the Salvation Army.”
Can Brands Be True Advocates for Social Issues? (49:06)
Guest: Kim Sheehan, PhD, Professor of Advertising and Brand Responsibility, University of Oregon
When Dove soap touts body positivity, or Gillette makes a viral ad about toxic masculinity, or Burger King does a social media campaign about depression, what’s your response? Maybe you doubt their sincerity because they are, after all, companies out to make a profit. Or, perhaps you’re even more loyal when a brand embraces an issue you care about?
Florida’s Orange Plague (1:04:45)
Guest: Michael Rogers, PhD, Director of the Citrus Research and Education Center, Professor of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida
For as long as most of us can remember, Florida has been synonymous with oranges. But a bacterial disease is driving Florida’s citrus growers out of business. Thousands of farmers have quit in the decade since the disease arrived in America. Two-thirds of the factories that processed juice have shut down. The University of Florida’s Citrus Research and Education Center is racing to find a solution that can save Florida oranges.
The Body Never Lies: A Day in the Life of a Forensic Pathologist (1:21:15)
Guest: Dr. Judy Melinek, Forensic Pathologist and Co-Author of “Working Stiff” and “First Cut”
Even on TV, being a forensic pathologist is not glamorous. The CSI investigators suit up and collect evidence at the scene, but the forensic pathologist is the one who has to cut open the body and weigh the organs and deal with all the gore of an autopsy. Why does someone go for a job like that? Judy Melinek wrote a memoir about switching from surgery to forensic pathology. It’s called “Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies and the Making of a Medical Examiner.”
Author and activist Morgan Godvin on homicide-by-overdose prosecutions. James Lowenthal from Smith College on SpaceX’s satellite plans. Diane Winston, University of Southern California, on The Salvation Army’s red kettles. Kim Sheehan, University of Oregon, on brands advocating for social issues. Michael Rogers, University of Florida, on Florida's orange plague. Forensic Pathologist Dr. Judy Melinek.
Joon-yong Park from the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea on the politics of the Korean Peninsula. Robert McCann, UCLA, on ageism in the workplace. Karin Hoskin, Cohousing Association of the US, on modern communal living. Randy Jirtle, North Carolina State University on how trauma is passed through generations. Robbie Bagley, the creator behind the channel “Working With Lemons,” on YouTube COPPA. Rachel Wadham from Worlds Awaiting on advocating for your child’s literacy needs.
South Korea’s Hopes for Unification Hinge on North Korea’s Nukes (0:31)
Guest: Joon-yong Park, Consul General, Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco
Negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons have been at a standstill for months. Meanwhile, North Korea has done a series of missile launches and threatened to resume nuclear weapons tests if the US doesn’t come back to the negotiating table by the end of the year.
How Ageism is Defining the Work Experience for All Generations (16:12)
Guest: Robert McCann, Ph.D., Professor of Management Communications, UCLA Anderson School of Management
Look around the typical office in America and you’re likely to see a wide range of ages. The oldest Gen Z-ers now starting out in the workplace. The oldest Millennials are about to turn 40. Gen-Xers are filling out a lot of the management and executive suites alongside Baby Boomers who are delaying retirement in significant numbers. It’s a situation ripe for miscommunication and age-discrimination.
Co-Housing: Modern-Day Communal Living (34:00)
Guest: Karin Hoskin, Executive Director of the Cohousing Association of the US and Resident of Wild Sage, a Co-Housing Community
Neighbors are a mixed bag for most people. We love ‘em, but man they can get on our nerves when they let their yard get messy or keep their dog outside all night barking. At least you can always put up a fence. We’re good at that in America. But some people do the opposite. They create co-housing communities where everyone shares common indoor and outdoor spaces, like kitchens and gardens.
Trauma of the Parents (53:42)
Guest: Randy Jirtle, Professor of Biology, North Carolina State University
Did you know that life experiences of your parents and grandparents may be embedded in your genes? For example, a recent study of Civil War and US Census data found that the sons of soldiers held in particularly harsh prison camps during the war had shorter lives. We’re talking about the sons of the soldiers – sons who weren’t even alive during the war. How can that be that a father might pass his own emotional or physical trauma down to a child through his genes? (Orginally aired 10/24/19)
YouTube and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (1:10:23)
Guest: Robbie Bagley, Creator Behind the Channel “Working with Lemons”
Kids love YouTube. Everybody knows that –including YouTube, which has spent years telling advertisers it’s the go-to site for reaching youngsters. And that’s exactly what landed YouTube in deep trouble with federal regulators. There are laws about what kinds of information you can collect on kids under the age of 13 without parental permission. YouTube has not been doing a good job following those laws. So, in September, the company settled with the Federal Trade Commission and New York State for $170 million and promised to change the way it makes money off content targeted at kids. Those changes are causing a big stir among YouTubers who make those videos. Some say their ad revenue will just dry up completely and they’ll stop creating content. Is this the end of Kids YouTube? No more videos of people unboxing toys? Or playing with dolls? Or playing Minecraft? Or re-enacting scenes from Disney cartoons?
Advocating for Your Child’s Literacy Needs (1:28:21)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
No Political Bias, But Mistakes Were Made, in FBI’s Initiation of Russia Probe (0:33)
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
The Trump Administration has maintained for some time that all of the investigations into the President and his campaign have been politically motivated –starting with the FBI investigation into possible collusion with Russia, which morphed into the Mueller Investigation. So, the Department of Justice had its independent inspector general look into how that all went down and whether it was driven by anti-Trump bias within the bureau. Today, that report is out, and it finds that no, the FBI’s investigation was not driven by some deep state conspiracy against President Trump. But the inspector general’s report also criticizes the FBI of omissions, inaccuracies and sloppiness in the way it gathered information and obtained a warrant to monitor a former Trump campaign adviser.
An Unlikely Wildlife Sanctuary in Chernobyl (18:21)
Guest: James Beasley, PhD, Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management, University of Georgia
The Chernobyl Nuclear Plant meltdown in 1986 is the worst nuclear disaster in history. Everyone within a 19-mile radius of the plant was evacuated and today that area remains off-limits to human inhabitants. But non-human inhabitants are welcome. And in fact, they seem to be thriving. University of Georgia wildlife ecologist James Beasley tracks animal populations inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and has found even a few endangered species are doing well there.
Paying Gang Members in Boston to Stay in School (36:49)
Guest: Mark Culliton, Founder and CEO of College Bound Dorchester
In Boston, a small group of youth –less than one percent of the total population –is responsible for the majority of shootings –more than 75 percent. So a nonprofit program called Boston Uncornered is taking a laser-like approach to getting those young people off street corners and into school. Most are gang members. Boston Uncornered pays them cash to turn their lives around. The program is run by a nonprofit called “College Bound Dorchester.”
Christmas Tree Farms are Slowly Going Away, but Demand is Consistent (50:42)
Guest: James Farmer, Professor, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
Are you a cut-your-own Christmas tree at the farm kind of family? Or do you run to the Home Depot on Christmas Eve just hoping to find something decent you can decorate before Santa arrives? Unless something changes, we may all soon be stuck buying trees from a tree lot or big box store. Christmas tree farms are in decline, for a variety of reasons that James Farmer has studied.
For the First Time Ever, You’ll Be Able to Fill Out the U.S. Census Online (1:05:17)
Guest: Victoria Glasier, Chief of the Statistics in Schools Program, U.S. 2020 Census Bureau; Erika Becker-Medina, Chief of the Decennial Communications Coordination Office, U.S. Census Bureau
2020 is nearly here, can you believe it? And since it’s the start of a decade, 2020 also means another U.S. Census, where the government tries to count every person in the country. With more than 300 million of us, it’s a mammoth task. And for the first time ever, we’ll be able to fill out the Census questionnaire online. Welcome to the 21st Century, eh?
Understanding Immigration’s Impact on Support for Trump in 2016 (1:19:33)
Guest: Gregory A. Huber, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Yale University
From the first speech of his Presidential campaign, Donald Trump invoked the threat of immigration as a key message. Candidate Trump kept up with that rhetoric right through the campaign –and into his first term as President. How much did hostility toward immigrants drive President Trump’s support among voters? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, UC-San Diego and Yale University wondered if the clearest evidence of this might be found in neighborhoods that have had the largest influxes of migrants in the last decade. Were those voters more likely to respond to the Trump campaign’s immigration rhetoric?
Ryan Vogel, Utah Valley University, on national security. James Beasley from the University of Georgia on wildlife in Chernobyl. Mark Culliton, Founder of College Bound Dorchester, a nonprofit that pays gang members in Boston to stay in school. James Farmer, Indiana University, on the decline of Christmas tree farms. Victoria Glasier and Erika Becker-Medina, U.S. Census Bureau, on the 2020 census. Gregory A. Huber, Yale University, on the effect of immigration on voting demographic.
Sandra Matz, Columbia Business School, on personalized ads. Kristyn Vitale from Oregon State University’s Human/Animal Interaction Lab on cat training. William Chopik, Michigan State University, on prejudice towards people with disabilities. Andres Resendez from the University of California on the history of Native American enslavement. Author Helen Wilkes on her book ‘The Aging of Aquarius, Igniting Passion and Purpose as an Elder’ and ‘Letters from the Lost.’
Your Personality Could Determine the Ads You See Online (0:34)
Guest: Sandra Matz is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior at Columbia Business School
Everywhere we click online right now, we’re being bombarded with holiday ads. What if, just based on your public movements on social media and other websites, a company could figure out if you’re an introvert or extrovert? And then, serve up ads that have been fined-tuned to appeal to your personality? Our wallets are doomed. (Originally aired June 10, 2019).
Your Cat Might Actually Love You Back (20:58)
Guest: Kristyn Vitale, PhD, Researcher at Oregon State University’s Human/Animal Interaction Lab
Dogs have a reputation for being social and smart and helpful. Cats, on the other hand, are aloof and only interested in humans as a source of food. But research being done by Kristyn Vitale at Oregon State University’s Human/Animal Interaction Lab suggests those stereotypes are wrong. Cats are social. Many seek out interaction with humans. And –get this –they can be trained. (Originally aired December 13, 2018).
Prejudice Toward People with Disabilities (36:25)
Guest: William Chopik, Assistant Professor of Social/Personality Psychology, Michigan State University
It’s been almost 30 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act became law, and a lot has changed in that time. Most public places have handicapped parking and wheelchair accessibility. Schools and jobs are more accommodating. But have our attitudes changed? Recent research suggests we may have actually taken a step backward in that area. (Originally aired August 12, 2019).
History of Native American Enslavement (51:17)
Guest: Andres Resendez, PhD, Professor of History, University of California, Davis
The story of African slavery in America is well known. Less told in the history books –and often not at all in school classrooms –is the story of Native American enslavement. Usually we learn that diseases brought over by European explorers and colonists are to blame for nearly wiping out indigenous communities. But the enslavement of Native Americans played an equal role, according to historian Andres Resendez. His book, “The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America” won the Bancroft Prize for History in 2017. Resendez is a professor at the University of California, Davis and he joined us in studio last year. (Originally aired October 25, 2018).
Finding Passion and Purpose after Retirement (1:16:13)
Guest: Helen Wilkes, Author, ‘The Aging of Aquarius, Igniting Passion and Purpose as an Elder’ and ‘Letters from the Lost’
They used to call it the golden years, but retirement was never really that simple. Saving enough money is not easy and staying healthy is a challenge. Then there is the question of what do you do with yourself? Helen Wilkes is an “energized octogenarian” as she calls herself. (Originally aired October 3, 2018).
Sean Ehrlich, Florida State University, on trade politics. Jing Wang from the University of Michigan on a new toilet coating. Author Justin Gest, "Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change,” on immigration. Ecologist Alejandro Frid on his book "Changing Tides: An Ecologist's Journey to Make Peace with the Anthropocene." Yoram Bauman, standup economist and co-author of “Cartoon Introduction to Economics” and “Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change.”
The Shifting Politics of Trade (0:30)
Guest: Sean Ehrlich, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Florida State University, Author of “The Politics of Fair Trade”
President Trump hinted this week that the trade war with China may not be resolved until after the 2020 election next year. Meanwhile in Washington, Democrats in Congress are trying to decide if they’ll approve the new trade deal President Trump negotiated with Canada and Mexico. The thing is that the deal has a lot of stuff Democrats like. But do they want to give President Trump any victory heading into the 2020 election?
US Immigration Policy is Outdated. Here’s a New Perspective (19:30)
Guest: Justin Gest, PhD, Professor of Policy and Government, George Mason University, Author of “Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change”
The US immigration system is unusual among developed countries. Since the 1950s, America has prioritized family connections in deciding who gets to immigrate here. By contrast, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and the UK all use a points system to determine who gets a visa. Immigrants get points based on things like skills, education or income level. President Trump has proposed something similar in the US. The question is just how points will be allotted to immigrants hoping for a US visa.
Slick Spray-On Coating Makes Toilets Streak-free, Low-Water (37:40)
Guest: Jing Wang, Postdoctoral Fellow, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan
How much water do you suppose it takes to flush a toilet? If it’s an old toilet from before 1994, it could be more than 3 gallons. Per flush. Newer toilets still use a gallon or more per flush. And let’s be honest, we sometimes flush more than once to get everything down the drain. What if the toilet bowl was so slick that nothing would stick? Imagine how much water we could save globally?
Why It’s Not all Doom and Gloom When it Comes to Climate Change (50:11)
Guest: Alejandro Frid, Ecologist and Science Coordinator, Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance, Author of “Changing Tides: An Ecologist's Journey to Make Peace with the Anthropocene”
Humans are ruining the planet. That’s the key message you might take away from the steady warnings about climate change and carbon emissions. The atmosphere and oceans are warming. Droughts, wildfires and storms are getting more intense. Species are going rapidly extinct. Pollution threatens our drinking water. And basically, it’s too late to reverse course. We’re headed for a climate apocalypse unless the whole planet ditches fossil fuels and stops eating meat right now. I wish I were exaggerating here, but honestly, that’s how dire and hopeless the situation feels. Still, marine ecologist Alejandro Frid thinks there is room for optimism.
You Know You’re a Standup Economist if...You’re Yoram Bauman (1:26:22)
Guest: Yoram Bauman, Standup Economist, Co-Author “Cartoon Introduction to Economics” and “Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change”
Yoram Bauman travels the country trying to make people laugh at college gatherings and corporate events. He introduces himself as the “world’s first and only standup economist.” Jokes about economics can be tricky, but if you get the right crowd, Bauman kills. And there’s enough demand for economist jokes that this has been Bauman’s full-time gig for a decade.
NATO is 70. Does the World Still Need It? (0:31)
Guest: Greg Jackson, Assistant Professor of Integrated Studies & Assistant Director of National Security Studies, host of the podcast “History That Doesn’t Suck”
World leaders are in London marking the 70th anniversary of NATO. It’s not been a complete lovefest. There’s been some sniping and backbiting. President Trump called Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “two-faced” and said French President Emmanuel Macron’s earlier comments about NATO experiencing “brain death” were “nasty.” President Trump has been publicly critical of NATO, too, but seems to be warming to it. What exactly is there to celebrate as NATO turns 70?
Is it Ethical to Cast Deceased Actors by Using CGI? (18:33)
Guest: Scott Stroud, PhD, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at University of Texas at Austin and the founding Director of the Media Ethics Initiative
James Dean is slated to co-star in a movie about the Vietnam War coming out next year. Except that James Dean has been dead since 1955, shortly after starring in “Rebel Without a Cause”. The studio behind this new movie has acquired the rights to use James Dean’s likeness and they plan to use a combination of real footage, CGI and voice actors to bring him to life in this new role. It’s not totally unheard of. Both Star Wars and the Fast and Furious franchise have done it. But it raises all sorts of ethical questions.
The Real Cost of Cheap Clothes (35:07)
Guest: Shawn Bhimani, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor at Northeastern University, Supply Chain Management Expert
When you’re shopping for clothes on Amazon or Walmart’s online marketplace –or even in a store like TJ Maxx or Ross-you may end up buying something that was made in a Bangladesh factory with collapsing walls, blocked exits and doors that lock from the outside to keep workers in until their shift ends. Conditions like that led to a disastrous factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people. After that, some of America’s biggest clothing retailers –including Walmart and Target –voluntarily joined a coalition to police the safety of factories that make their products. But Amazon didn’t join. A Wall Street Journal investigation found dozens of items for sale on Amazon that were made in dangerous Bangladeshi factories. Is there anything we can do as shoppers to know where our clothes were made?
The Apple Seed (51:10)
Guest: Sam Payne, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne from The Apple Seed shares a story about Christmas.
Landmark Cases That Changed Bilingual and Special Education in America (1:02:24)
Guest: Marty Glick, litigator, Arnold & Porter, Co-Author, “The Soledad Children: The Fight to End Discriminatory IQ Tests”
A child’s race and income level are strong indicators of the quality of education that child will get in a US public school. Inequality often arises in education today because of how segregated our communities have become –with poor and minority students clustered in schools with fewer resources. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the reason poor and minority students got sub-par education was because of overt racism. This was the era of court-ordered desegregation and countless lawsuits brought by civil rights lawyers on behalf of black and brown students. Marty Glick was one of those attorneys. While working for California Rural Legal Assistance in the late 1960s he represented the children of Mexican farmworkers in a landmark case against the California State Board of Education that shaped the future of bilingual and special education in America.
Diss on Millennial Coworkers All You Want, but Don’t “Okay Boomer” a Boomer (1:26:07)
Guest: Elizabeth Tippett, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Oregon
Videos set to this song are all over TikTok right now. “OK Boomer” is the putdown of choice for youngsters dismissing the outdated views of someone older. Doesn’t even have to be a Baby Boomer. Anyone who’s not cool or “woke” could get Okay Boomer’ed. But watch out, because if you say it to a Baby Boomer at work –even in jest –you could end up with an age discrimination charge on your hands. Feel free to diss on Millennials and Gen-Z’ers all you want, though, cause they’re not protected by the age discrimination laws. How’s that fair?
Greg Jackson, Utah Valley University, and host of the podcast “History That Doesn’t Suck” on NATO. Scott Stroud, University of Texas, on the ethics of using CGI to cast deceased actors. Shawn Bhimani from Northeastern University on the real cost of cheap clothes. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story. Author Marty Glick on his book “The Soledad Children: The Fight to End Discriminatory IQ Tests.” Elizabeth Tippett from the University of Oregon on "Okay Boomer" diss.
Author Paul Richter on his book “The Ambassadors: America’s Diplomats on the Front Lines.” Kevin Reeve, founder of onPoint Tactical Tracking School, on training people to escape from kidnappers and avoid capture. Matthew Gardner from the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy on corporate taxes. Stephen Cordner, Monash University, on how humanitarian forensic scientists identify the dead after disasters. Justin Gest, George Mason University, on immigration.
The Politics of Being America’s Professional Diplomats (0:28)
Guest: Paul Richter, Former State Department Correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Author of “The Ambassadors: America’s Diplomats on the Front Lines”
Some of the most damaging testimony against President Trump in the impeachment inquiry has come from people who’ve made their careers working as diplomats for the US government. They’re not political appointees, so they often stay on the job even when they disagree with the President. Rarely do those differences burst into the spotlight as dramatically as they are right now. Let’s take a closer look at the politics of America’s Foreign Service.
This Guy Trains People to Escape from Kidnappers and Avoid Capture (40:03)
Guest: Kevin Reeve, Founder, onPoint Tactical Tracking School
Unless you’re a foreign correspondent, aid worker or defense contractor, the chances that you’ll be kidnapped for ransom or forced on the run trying to evade capture are very slim. But apparently a fair number of ordinary folks fantasize about escaping a hostage situation like one of those tough characters Liam Neeson plays in movies. Kevin Reeve is their guy. He does kidnap and evasion simulations and teaches participants things like how to manipulate your captor and break free of duct tape or zip ties. Reeve has also consulted on movies and with the military.
How Corporations Avoid Paying Federal Income Tax (51:12)
Guest: Matthew Gardner, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy
You’ve maybe heard that some of America’s biggest corporations managed to pay nothing in federal income taxes last year. Netflix, Amazon, Chevron, Delta Airlines, Eli Lilly, General Motors, IBM, US Steel–that’s a partial list. And these companies were profitable in 2018. So the fact that they paid no income tax sounds like cheating. They’re very touchy about being called tax cheats. When the New York Times did a front-page story on FedEx’s zero taxes for 2018 a few weeks ago, the CEO of FedEx called it an “outrageous distortion” and challenged the publisher of the New York Times to a duel. Okay, not a duel. A debate about taxes. But it had a sort of Hamilton/Burr feel to it. So, what’s going on here? How do profitable companies pay no income tax on those profits?
Humanitarian Forensic Scientists Identify the Dead after Disasters (1:06:21)
Guest: Stephen Cordner, Professor of Forensic Pathology at Monash University and Head of the International Programmes at Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
In any humanitarian response –whether it’s for a natural disaster or a war –the focus is primarily on the survivors. Unfortunately, there are usually also the dead to attend to. Fifteen years ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross recognized the need to formalize that part of the humanitarian response and created something known as “humanitarian forensics.”
Humans Drank Milk 6,000 Years Ago (1:19:52)
Guest: Sophy Charlton, Researcher of Biomolecular Archaeology at the University of York
Theaverage American consumes more than 600 pounds of dairy products per year. But it definitely didn’t used to be that way –humans couldn’t always drink milk. Ancient adults were lactose intolerant, and it’s still a mystery why so many humans aren’t anymore.That’s why it was a big surprise when researchers from the University of York examined teeth from people who lived 6,000 years ago and discovered that they consumed dairy.
Midwest farmer Jerry Jackson looks back on a rough year. Todd May of Clemson is a philosophical adviser for The Good Place. We talk Mexican cartel violence with David Shirk of University of San Diego. Copenhagen Economics' Anna Moller Boivie explains why it's cheaper to have something shipped from China than from a neighboring state. Chicago Public Library commissioner Andrea Telli talks overdue fines. Amber McReynolds of Vote at Home Institute on the trend toward voting by mail.
2019 Can’t Be Over Soon Enough for America’s Corn Belt (0:32)
Guest: Jerry Jackson, Jackson Farms, Illinois
“2019 can’t be over soon enough,” wrote farmer Jerry Jackson in a recent Tweet. Jackson grows corn, soybeans, and wheat in Illinois. It’s been the wettest year on record for the lower 48. Spring floods and incessant rains delayed crop planting for Midwest farmers like Jerry Jackson. And then autumn rains made harvesting those late crops a mad dash.
Philosophical Adviser to The Good Place (13:38)
Guest: Todd May, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, Clemson University, Author of “A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us
he twistiest show on TV right now has got to be The Good Place on NBC. At first, we thought it was a comedy about the afterlife. Ted Danson plays the architect Michael who’s built a paradise –The Good Place –for all the best humans who’ve died. And Kristen Bell plays Eleanor who ends up there. But pretty quickly, we learn that there’s been a case of mistaken identity. Eleanor did not do all the wonderful things that supposedly landed her in the Good Place. And then at the end of Season 1, there’s a giant twist. Nothing is what we thought it was. From there, every single episode seems to turn the tables just a bit. But the wildest part, if you ask me, is that the real premise of the show is to explore the biggest questions humans can have. What’s the purpose of life? What does it mean to be good? Can bad people change for the better? The creator of the show, Michael Schur, is an avowed philosophy nerd. And so, The Good Place is maybe the only network comedy ever to employ philosophical advisers
Gun Smuggling Across the US-Mexico Border is Out of Control (30:59)
Guest: David Shirk, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of San Diego, Director of Justice in Mexico
A shootout between drug cartel gunmen and police killed 21 people in northern Mexico over the weekend, including four police officers. Also over the weekend, Mexican authorities said they arrested several more suspects in the attack that killed nine women and children with dual US/Mexico citizenship in November. President Trump says he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups, which would create stiffer penalties for banks and businesses in the US that are found to facilitate cartel efforts in any way.
Why Having Stuff Shipped from China is So Cheap –and How That’s About to Change (51:08)
Guest: Anna Möller Boivie, Managing Director of Copenhagen Economics in Stockholm
Savvy online Christmas shoppers may have noticed that postage-wise, it’s cheaper to order a gift from China and have it sent directly to your relative in a neighboring state than it is to buy that same thing at a store in town and mail it yourself. It makes no sense that having something shipped from China would be cheaper than shipping it to another state unless you understand the workings of a group called the Universal Postal Union. Just before this holiday season got underway, the US government went to that international group demanded some big changes –which they mostly got. So starting next summer, the postage for stuff you buy online from overseas will go up. But you’re good for the holiday season.
What Happens When Libraries Remove Late Fines (1:07:08)
Guest: Andrea Telli, Chicago Public Library
The Guinness world record for the largest library fine ever paid is $345.14 cents. That book was 47 years overdue. But a lot of people just never pay their late fees and get banned from checking out books. That’s why the Chicago Public Library got rid of fines and forgave all outstanding debt last month –they want to make sure that everyone has equal access to the library.
Voting by Mail is On the Rise in the US, but is it Secure? (1:21:15)
Guest: Amber McReynolds, Executive Director of the National Vote at Home Institute
In the 2020 election, five states will hold voting entirely by mail –Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah, and Hawaii. Voters in almost half of all states can request a ballot by mail without needing any excuse as to why they can’t visit a polling station on Election Day. With so much concern about election security, though, is it really smart to have a large swath of Americans voting at home and mailing in their ballots?
Jordan Wilkerson of Harvard on the permafrost releasing greenhouse gases as it thaws. Ryan Martin of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay on healthy anger. John Kahan of Microsoft on a solution to sudden infant death. James S. Gordon, Georgetown Medical School, and author of “The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma” on overcoming the effects of trauma. Author Sharon Robinson, daughter of Jackie Robinson, on her civil rights awakening.
Musician and songwriter Jonathan Mann on a new song every day for 10 years. Historian and Author Keith Lowe on why the West is obsessed with WWII. Pamela Weathers of Worcester Polytechnic Institute on a new cost-efficient cure for malaria. Gordon Chang of Stanford University on Chinese railroad. Robert Niles of Theme Park Insider on the adventure of a theme park journalist. Robert Stern of Boston University on a new research allowing diagnosis of concussions in living people.
Paul Dawson, Clemson Univ, busts the five-second rule food myth. Ken Alder on America's obsession with lie detectors. BYU's Ben Abbott calls for an update to the water cycle. Stephen Badylak, Univ of Pittsburgh, is unlocking the secrets to regrowing limbs. Univ of South Carolina's Birgitta Johnson pays tribute to Aretha Franklin. Anthony St. Leger, Univ of Pittsburgh, discovers the eye microbiome.
Permafrost Releasing Greenhouse Gases as it Thaws (0:41)
Guest: Jordan Wilkerson, PhD Student in Atmospheric Chemistry, Harvard
We’ve got a feedback loop going on in the Arctic where, as the atmosphere warms, the permanently frozen ground there is thawing. As it thaws, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (AKA laughing gas) escape into the atmosphere, where they cause further warming, which thaws more permafrost, which releases more greenhouse gas and round and round. Only now are researchers getting a grasp on how fast that cycle is going. An atmospheric chemistry lab at Harvard just published some data showing there’s a lot more nitrous oxide escaping the permafrost than previously thought.
Anger Can Actually Be a Good Thing (14:19)
Guest: Ryan Martin, Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
We often think of anger as a bad thing – it can make us mean and reckless and lead us to believe that the idiot cutting us off in traffic is a monster. And it’s even worse on the internet. But anger expert Ryan Martin says we’re overlooking the emotion's power for good.
Sudden Infant Death Claims the Lives of 3,500 Babies Each Year, But New Research May Be the Answer to Ending It (31:39)
Guest: John Kahan, President of the Aaron Matthews SIDS Research Guild at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Chief Data Analytics Officer at Microsoft
Thousands of infants in the US every year die suddenly, for no apparent medical reason. There’s no warning. No way to know if an infant is at risk. The rate of these Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths has remained steady since the mid-1990s. Efforts to prevent SIDS by putting babies to sleep on their backs and eliminating smoking in the household have reduced, but not eliminated these deaths. Why, with our advanced medical technology and economic wealth, haven’t we solved SIDS yet?
Breathing and Shaking Toward Recovery from Trauma (50:51)
Guest: James S. Gordon, MD, professor of psychiatry and family medicine, Georgetown Medical School, author of “The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing after Trauma”
Overcoming the effects of a serious trauma might include medication and therapy. If you’re being treated by psychiatrist James Gordon, it will include deep breathing and frenzied full-body shaking. Dr. Gordon’s techniques sound strange, but they’ve worked for teachers and students affected by the Parkland shooting and for people in Puerto Rico, Houston, Haiti and New Orleans devastated by natural disasters. The techniques have also helped Syrian refugees in Jordan, Palestinian children in Gaza and a range of veterans and victims of war suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jackie Robinson’s Daughter on Her Civil Rights Awakening in 1963 (1:28:29)
Guest: Sharon Robinson, Author “Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963”
1963 was a pivotal year for the Civil Rights movement in America. The historic March on Washington happened that summer. In the months before that march, the nation watched in horror as TV news cameras showed Alabama police using firehoses and dogs on African American youth marching in what’s known as the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. And in September of 1963, four African American girls were murdered in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. 1963 was also a pivotal year in the life of Sharon Robinson, the middle child and only daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson.
A New Song Every Day For 10 Years (0:45)
Guest: Jonathan Mann, Musician and Songwriter
For more than 10 years, Jonathan Mann has written a new song every day. Every single day. Originally this was just going to be a one-month. It was just a whim. But after he wrote a new song every day in the month of January 2009, he just wasn’t finished. So, he kept going. Thousands of songs later, he’s still going. Along the way he’s learned a lot about the process of creativity.
Why the West is Obsessed with WWII (22:40)
Guest: Keith Lowe, WWII Historian, Author of “The Fear and the Freedom: How the Second World War Changed Us”
Of all the conflicts America has been involved in, World War II seems to get the most attention from authors, academics, politicians and Hollywood. “The Greatest Generation” as American WWII veterans are known, is quickly shrinking as the 75 anniversary of the end of World War II approaches. What is it about that war and those veterans that captures the imagination and stokes such admiration?
Biologist Pamela Weathers Has Discovered a New, Cost-Efficient Cure for Malaria (36:32)
Guest: Pamela Weathers, Professor of Biology and Biotechnology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Efforts to fight malaria have stalled out in recent years, according to the World Health Organization, and one of the reasons is drug resistance. The parasite that causes malaria is developing defenses against the best medicines currently available to treat the illness. The expense of those medicines is another challenge facing the global malaria response. Both of the cost and drug resistant problems might be solved by a plant. Biologist Pamela Weathers has found evidence that drying and grinding the leaves of a certain plant may treat malaria better than current drugs.
The Chinese Workers Who Built America’s Railroad (49:09)
Guest: Gordon H. Chang, Professor of American History, Stanford University, Author of “Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad”
The Transcontinental railroad was a triumph of American grit and ingenuity when it was completed 150 years ago. But the work was done largely by immigrant workers –and the most technically difficult stretches of rail through the Sierra Nevada mountains were laid by workers from China. Those workers, however, were almost invisible at the grand Golden Spike ceremony commemorating the railroad’s completion in 1869.
Adventures of a Theme Park Journalist (1:09:47)
Guest: Robert Niles, Editor of ThemeParkInsider.com and Contributing Columnist for the Orange County Register
Theme parks can be magical with that thrill of anticipation when you’re about to drop on a rollercoaster, spending time with family, and, of course, the nostalgia. But theme parks can also be a nightmare with the hordes of people, crying children, and overpriced food.
New Research May Allow Diagnosis of CTE in Living People (1:21:54)
Guest: Robert Stern, Co-Founder and Director of Clinical Research, Boston University CTE Center
Repeated head trauma ranging from full-blown concussions to the constant rattling of the brain inside the skull that can happen during impact sports, is believed to be the culprit in a disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy–or CTE. It was first diagnosed in a former NFL player 17 years ago and over 100 athletes, military veterans and victims of abuse have been diagnosed with it since. But the problem is, doctors can only diagnose CTE by cutting open a person’s brain after they’ve died.
National Debt is the Impending Crisis America Doesn’t Want to Talk About (0:30)
Guest: Mark Sanford, former Republican Congressman and South Carolina Governor
In the last year, the US Government spent nearly one trillion dollars more than it brought it. That’s what’s known as the federal deficit, and it’s been growing steadily for the last four years, even though the economy has been doing well. Normally, you’d expect to go deeper into debt during hard economic times. But the US Government is doing the opposite and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell recently warned the financial path we’re on as a country is unsustainable. Mark Sanford calls it “the most predictable financial crisis in the history of man.” He’s a Republican, a former Congressman and Governor from South Carolina. And he just ended what turned out to be a pretty short bid to challenge President Trump.
Retail Stores Aren’t Dead, They’re Just Different Now (21:04)
Guest: Barbara Kahn, professor of marketing, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, author of “The Shopping Revolution: How Successful Retailers Win Customers in an Era of Endless Disruption”
The biggest shopping season of the year is upon us. Will you battle the crowds on Black Friday or be at your computer early Monday snagging cyber-deals? Probably both because we shop in all the places now - websites, apps, stores. Catalogs are even making a comeback, which you know if your kids have been poring over the toy catalog Amazon sent out this year. An honest-to-goodness, glossy-paged magazine of toys for sale on Amazon. What will they think of next? Wharton School marketing professor Barbara Kahn has some ideas. She’s author of The Shopping Revolution: How Successful Retailers Win Customers in an Era of Endless Disruption.
Ask An Expert: Preparing a Great Thanksgiving Feast (35:47)
Guest: Chef Todd Leonard, Associate Professor -- Culinary Arts, Utah Valley University
Our listeners have all sorts of Thanksgiving Dinner questions. Chef Leonard's answers provide some great ideas to help you create a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner and still have a great time making it.
Nonprofit Teaches Kids to Write and Produce Music in Exchange for Good Grades (51:11)
Guest: Brandon Steppe, Founder and Executive Director at The David’s Harp Foundation
There was a point about 15 years ago when Brandon Steppe set out to become a rapper and music producer. He even built a recording studio in his garage. And then a visit from a neighbor kid, changed everything. Today, Steppe runs a nonprofit called the David’s Harp Foundation in San Diego. He mentors disadvantaged young people and gives them free access to his recording studio. But to earn studio time, kids have to get good grades.
This Thanksgiving, Rediscover How America’s Indigenous People Ate Before the Colonists Came (1:10:38)
Guest: Sean Sherman, Founder, CEO, The Sioux Chef, author of “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen”
Thanksgiving is a fraught holiday for many Native Americans. In Massachusetts at the site of the alleged First Thanksgiving, descendants of the indigenous people who were murdered and displaced by the Colonists mark the fourth Thursday of November as a “National Day of Mourning.” Many find the warm-fuzzy Pilgrims and Indians school pageants deeply offensive for perpetuating stereotypes and giving the impression that America’s native inhabitants were treated well by European colonists. They were not. Is there a better way to think about Thanksgiving? Lakota Sioux Chef Sean Sherman has some ideas.
How Do Alternative Approaches to Grading Affect Learning? (1:27:35)
Guest: Jesse Stommel, PhD, Senior Lecturer of digital studies and digital learning fellow at the University of Mary Washington
Students across the country are barreling toward final exams before the holiday break, hoping for As and Bs. In Jesse Stommel’s courses at the University of Mary Washington, the students will be grading themselves. Stommel doesn’t believe in giving letter grades and he’s managed to avoid doing it the 20 years he’s been a college professor. More high school and college professors are joining him, of late. Hear why Stommel is so committed to “ungrading.”
Mark Sanford, former Gov. of South Carolina on federal deficit. Barbara Kahn from University of Pennsylvania on what retail stores are doing to lure customers. Chef Leonard from Utah Valley University with Thanksgiving cooking strategies. Brandon Steppe from David's Harp Foundation and helping at risk youth with music. Sean Sherman, the Sioux Chef on Native American cuisine. Jesse Stommel, University of Mary Washington on "ungrading".
Missy Jenkins Smith, author and school shooting survivor. Tim Hauck from the Peregrine Fund on saving California Condors. Diana Eck, Founder of the Pluralism Project on engaging between religions. John Rosenberg from BYU moving the remains of Francisco Franco. Paul Adams, Photography professor from BYU on vanishing voices. Rachel Wadham, BYU librarian, matching students to instruction and reading.
School Shooting Survivor (0:30)
Guest: Missy Jenkins Smith, author of “Lessons from a School Shooting Survivor” and “I Choose to Be Happy”
Exactly twenty-two years ago, Missy Jenkins Smith was in a hospital bed learning that she was permanently paralyzed from the chest down. She was 15. The day before, she’d been shot by a fellow student at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky. Three of Missy’s classmates died in the shooting. This was 1997. Three months later shooters would kill four students and a teacher at a middle school near Jonesboro, Arkansas. A year and a half later… Columbine. We didn’t know it then, but it was the beginning of an era in which fatal school shootings would become common in America. Since the day a school shooting changed her life, Missy Jenkins Smith became a counselor for at-risk youth, a motivational speaker and author. Her latest book is: “Lessons from a School Shooting Survivor: How to Find the Good in Others and Live a Life of Love and Peace.”
How We’re Saving the California Condor (17:54)
Guest: Tim Hauck, Condor Program Manager, The Peregrine Fund
A baby California Condor has flown its nest in Zion National Park. “Condor 1000” is the bird’s name because it’s the 1000th condo born in the wild since conservation efforts began in 1982. Only a handful of those wild-born chicks have survived to successfully leave their nests. Condors are the world’s largest flying land bird. Why’s it so dangerous for them out in the wild?
As America Becomes More Religiously Diverse, Tolerance of Other Faiths Isn’t Enough (36:05)
Guest: Diana Eck, Founder of the Pluralism Project, and Professor of Comparative Religions at Harvard University
America’s religious landscape is changing. Fewer and fewer people identify as Christian each year the Pew Research Center surveys Americans. The ranks of people who say they don’t affiliate with any religion are swelling. Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who identify as something other than Christian has risen a bit in the last decade. All of which means that we’re less religious as a country, but also more religiously diverse than we have been. How do we make sure our religious differences don’t drive us apart?
Why a Spanish Dictator’s Remains were Removed from his Grave and Reburied (51:12)
Guest: John Rosenberg, Associate Academic Vice Principal, Brigham Young University
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s remains were laid to rest in a special building called the Valley of the Fallen for almost fifty years. Until October, when the Spanish government moved them to a private grave. Franco ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975 and was buried with victims of the Spanish civil war, but critics said that gave him too much respect for what he did.
Photography Project is Capturing the Faces of the Last Remaining Speakers of Indigenous Languages (1:07:24)
Guest: Paul Adams, Head of Photography, Brigham Young University
Thousands of languages are on the verge of extinction as the last speakers pass away. BYU photography professor Paul Adams is traveling the country capturing taking portraits of these final speakers, including Marie. The project is called “Vanishing Voices” and one of the photographs from it has just been accepted into the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
How Teachers Tailor Reading Instruction (1:24:40)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Rachel brings topics relating to children's literacy to Top of Mind a couple times a month. Today she discusses how teachers can manage classrooms with kids of varying learning abilities.
Music Industry Lawyer, Erin Jacobson , on music ownership. Tim Rademacher, Harvard University, on the tweeting tree. Winifred Phillips, composer of music for video games, and author of "A Composer’s Guide to Game Music." Author Marc Nobleman, “Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman,” on feature in Hulu’s “Batman and Bill.” Henry T. Greely from Stanford University on the gene-edited CRISPR baby.
How Can a Megastar like Taylor Swift Not Own the Recordings to Her Hits? (0:34)
Guest: Erin Jacobson, The Music Industry Lawyer
For a bit there it looked like Taylor Swift –one of the most powerful women in music –wouldn’t be allowed to perform some of her biggest hits at the American Music Awards on Sunday night. Swift’s enormous power does not, it turns out, extend to ownership of the songs that made her famous. The master recordings of those and dozens of other hits from the first decade of Taylor Swift’s career are owned by her former music label Big Machine Records, with whom Swift has some bad blood. A week ago, she posted on Twitter that Big Machine was refusing to let her perform a medley of her hits at the AMAs unless she promised not to rerecord all of her earlier music so she can have a copy that she owns. Swift’s legions of fans came to her defense online and Big Machine gave its permission for the performance. (Originally aired August 28, 2019).
Tree That Tweets About Climate Change (19:39)
Guest: Tim Rademacher, Harvard Forest Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Trees don’t speak, but there’s one in Harvard University’s forest that tweets. It’s a 100-year-old Red Oak tree sending regular updates with the handle @AWitnessTree on Twitter about how it’s holding up. A few days ago, the tree had a series of tweets about how much rain was falling. It’ll even answer if you tweet at it. (Originally aired September 23, 2019).
Music Composition and Video Game Design (32:09)
Guest: Winifred Phillips, Composer of Music for Video Games, Author of A Composer’s Guide to Game Music
Composers of movie scores win Oscars for their brilliance. But if you want to know the truth, it’s a lot harder to compose the score to a video game, because it’s like a choose-your-own-soundtrack that responds to what the player does, while still setting the mood and sounding great. We’re hearing the main theme for the video game Assassin’s Creed Liberation, composed by Winifred Phillips. It’s currently being performed around the world by an 80-piece orchestra and choir as part of the Assassin’s Creed Symphony Tour. Winifred Phillips is one of the best in the business. In addition to Assassin’s Creed, she’s composed for Little Big Planet, The Sims, Speed Race, God of War and lots more. (Originally aired July 2, 2019).
The Secret Co-Creator of Batman (51:07)
Guest: Marc Nobleman, Author, “Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman,” Featured in Hulu’s “Batman and Bill”
Batman is getting another reboot –this time starring Twilight vampire Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader. From vampire to bat, that makes some sense, I guess. The movie credits will list Bob Kane, which super fans will recognize as the man who got rich and famous as the creator of Batman. The sole creator, he insisted. But you’ll also see another name listed as co-creator: Bill Finger. The reason he’ll be credited is because of author Marc Nobelman. He spent years trying to get justice for Bill. He wrote a book called, “Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.” And he starred in a Hulu documentary called “Batman and Bill.” (Originally aired February 20, 2019).
World’s First Gene-edited Babies Are Causing an Uproar (1:17:09)
Guest: Henry T. Greely (JD) Professor of Law, Director for Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University
A year ago this week, the scientific world was in an uproar at news that a Chinese researcher had edited the genomes of two human embryos that had been born as healthy twin girls. The scientist He Jainkui said he edited the DNA to help make the girls resistant to HIV infection. But he was widely condemned by other geneticists for having done such a risky, unnecessary procedure on human beings. A year later, the experiment is still causing angst in the genetics community. (Originally aired December 10, 2018).
Chris Karpowitz and Fred Gedicks, BYU, with an impeachment update. Joe Borgia from the National Basketball Association on the NBA's Replay Center. Michele Kuruc, World Wildlife Fund, on illegal fishing. Author David Farber, University of Kansas, on book “Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed.” Cory Leonard from BYU on Model UN.
A Tale of Two Impeachment Narratives (0:30)
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, professor of political science, BYU; Fred Gedicks, JD, professor of constitutional law, BYU
We’ve now had five full days of televised testimony from witnesses in the into the possible impeachment of President Donald Trump. Democrat Adam Schiff, who heads the house committee that’s been holding these hearings, signaled at the start of Thursday’s session that a conclusion is imminent. As all of this has played out on live television –with Republicans and Democrats questioning the witnesses –it’s been fascinating to see the two parties interpreting the situation very differently. Here’s Devin Nunes –the ranking Republican on the intelligence committee kicking off his comments on Thursday –just after Congressman Schiff foreshadowed an impeachment decision. Which side is winning –if there is any winning when impeachment is on the line?
What It’s Like to be a Professional Ref and Inside the NBA Replay Center (21:09)
Guest: Joe Borgia, Senior Vice President, Referee Operations at the National Basketball Association
No matter the call in sports, someone is always mad at the referee. But NBA refs have an out –no matter what stadium they’re in, they can signal a team in New Jersey to review the call. There, they have nearly 100 TV screens to analyze the play from every possible angle and break it down to 1/60thof a second. It seems pretty hard to dispute that.
That Fish You’re Eating Might Be Illegal (37:39)
Guest: Michele Kuruc, Vice President of Ocean Policy at the World Wildlife Fund -- United States
One of the largest, best-paying criminal industries in the world is fishing. The illegal fishing industry can bring in between 10 and 23 billion dollars a year. It can irreparably harm marine life and it also fuels modern-day slavery.
What We Learned from the Crack Crisis in America (51:08)
Guest: David Farber, Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of History, University of Kansas, Author of “Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed”
America, as you know, is in the midst of a drug crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people have overdosed on opioids in the last decade. The companies that make prescription pain killers, the pharmacies that sell them and doctors that prescribe them are being prosecuted. Local governments are clamoring for cash to make treatment available to more people with opioid addiction. Before the opioid epidemic, there was the crack epidemic. But America responded very differently to that drug crisis. Historian David Farber says the comparison is worth looking into, for what it tells us about race, poverty and our “collective inability to treat each other with decency and mercy.”
Teaching Diplomacy to Kids Through Model UN (1:26:27)
Guest: Cory Leonard, Associate Director at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at BYU
Model United Nations is a program for kids to pretend they’re a representative of a country and debate global issues. Simulating diplomacy like this started in the 1920sbefore the UN even existed. But what’s the point of having students run around pretending to be the Peruvian or Russian delegate if none of it is real?
George McGraw from DigDeep on water inequality. Andrew Carroll, Center for American War Letters at Chapman University, on collecting one million war letters. Shilpa Davé, University of Virginia, on Disney plus. Sam Payne from the Apple Seed shares a story. Cresa Pugh, Harvard University, on crimes against Rohingya Muslims. Author James W.Quinn on book "Don't Be Afraid to Win: How Free Agency Changed the Business of Pro Sports."
Millions of Americans Lack Access to Clean Water and Indoor Plumbing (0:34)
Guest: George McGraw, Chief Executive Officer, DigDeep
You don’t think about it when you flush the toilet or turn on the sink, but access to clean, reliable running water and safe sanitation are a real privilege. And right now, in the America, more than two million people lack that privilege. A person’s race is the strongest predictor of whether they’ll have access to clean water and sanitation.
The Man Collecting One Million War Letters (16:56)
Guest: Andrew Carroll, Director of the Center for American War Letters at Chapman University
Historian Andrew Carroll is on a mission to collect a million letters from soldiers during wartime. He’s already collected tens of thousands, and they span 250 years of American conflicts from the Revolutionary war to the present day. One of them was even written on Hitler’s own stationary.
This Content May Contain Outdated Cultural Depictions (32:06)
Guest: Shilpa Davé, Assistant Professor of Media Studies and American Studies at the University of Virginia
Some of the classic animated films of our parents’ childhood –the ones they showed to you as kids with such nostalgia -are now available for endless streaming on the newly-launched Disney+. Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Dumbo” and a number of other films now available on Disney+ come with a disclaimer that reads: “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.” Is that enough, though? Would it be better for Disney just to edit out the offensive stuff? Or keep them off Disney+ entirely? Disney’s not the only studio in this boat. Lots of films and TV shows made in previous decades wouldn’t fly today.
The Apple Seed (51:08)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne from The Apple Seed shares a story about Thanksgiving.
Crimes Against Rohingya Muslims Under Investigation (1:01:03)
Guest: Cresa Pugh, doctoral student in sociology, Harvard University
The International Criminal Court has authorized an investigation into whether the treatment of Rohingya in Myanmar constitutes crimes against humanity. The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group. Since 2012 more than a million of them have fled their homes. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are now living in refugee camps just across the border in Bangladesh. Others are living in camps for internally-displaced people in Myanmar where they’re under strict surveillance.
Sports Wars: How Free Agency Changed the Business of Pro Sports (1:14:51)
Guest: James W. Quinn, Sports Lawyer, Author of “Don’t Be Afraid to Win: How Free Agency Chagne the Business of Pro Sports”
Male professional athletes in America are making more money than ever. Forbes says the highest earners of 2019 are NFL quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers who both have salaries just north of $80-million. Next on the list are NBA stars Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant who all have salaries in the $30-40 million range but make at least as much in endorsements. Fifty years ago, all five of those star athletes probably would have needed a side job to make ends meet during the off-season. What changed?
President Trump Wants the Supreme Court to Protect His Tax Returns (0:32)
Guest: Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Professor of Law, Stetson University College of Law, Author of “Political Brands” and “Corporate Citizen?”
President Donald Trump is now turning to the highest court in the country to protect his tax returns from becoming public. Appeals courts have given approval for Democrats in Congress and the District Attorney in Manhattan to subpoena the President’s tax filings from his accounting firm. Last week, President Trump’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to make the final call on this dispute. We’re waiting to see now whether the Supreme Court will take up the issue. Meantime, the President’s tax details will stay under wraps. Does the President have a right to privacy? Do his political opponents have a right to cut through that privacy? What about the American public?
50th Anniversary of First Women at the South Pole (18:08)
Guest: Terry Tickhill Terrel
Terry Tickhill Terrel was a19-year-old undergraduate student when she decided she wanted to go to Antarctica. Only problem, this was 1969. The US didn’t allow women to go Antarctica back then. But as luck would have it, that was about to change. That year she became part of the first all-female research team in Antarctica and the first women to reach the South Pole. The team arrived 50 years ago.
NASA and NOAA’s FIREX-AQ Project Sends Scientists to the Sky to Study Wildfire Smoke (37:53)
Guest: Carsten Warneke, Mission Scientist and Primary Mission Contact at NOAA’s FIREX-AQ Project
As wildfires burn bigger and hotter across the US, what’s happening to air quality? When the massive Camp Fire was burning last year in California, people across the whole northern part of the state experienced dangerous breathing conditions because of the smoke. This year, a team of scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA flew planes right into wildfire smoke plumes to get a better handle on this growing form of air pollution.
Prayer and Church Attendance Are Good for the Aging Brain (51:10)
Guest: Zarina Kraal, Doctoral Candidate in Psychology at the University of Michigan
Keeping the mind sharp is a challenge for all adults as they age. You can do crosswords or read books or take community classes to learn a new skill. Or, you can just go to church regularly. Something about attending church and praying privately seems to be linked with better memory and cognition for older adults.
Don’t Get Suckered By Bogus Reviews When Shopping Online (1:02:35)
Guest: Tommy Noonan the Founder of ReviewMeta.com
With so many fake and poor-quality products for sale on Amazon, customer reviews are even more important. But can you trust them? Some sellers actually pay people to write bogus five-star reviews for them. I know we’re just talking about online shopping here. But this time of year, the stakes feel a little higher with all the money people are spending on holiday gifts. Plus if you get suckered by fake reviews and order something that turns out to be trash, it could be too late to find a replacement before Christmas.
Harriet and Other Great Movies About Abolition of Slavery (1:19:55)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
It’s a rare instance when Hollywood brings us the story of an abolitionist who was a slave herself. Often the stories about ending slavery center on the white men and women who worked against it –in the US and the UK. But not Harriet –the new film about Harriet Tubman who escaped slavery and became a legendary “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Stetson University College of Law, on Trump's tax returns. Terry Tickhill Terrell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, on the first female fesearchers in Antarctica. Carsten Warneke from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on testing smoke. Zarina Kraal, University of Michigan, on religious health. Tommy Noonan of ReviewMeta on detecting fake reviews when shopping online. Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com, on movies about abolition.
Griffin Hardy, Sister Helen Prejean’s Ministry Against the Death Penalty, on Rodney Reed. Cameron Browne, Maastricht University, on AI recreating ancient games. Mike Joner, BYU, on Apollo 12. Marsha Levick from the Juvenile Law Center on juvenile sentencing. Melody Jackson from Georgia Tech’s College of Computing on talking dogs. Alonzo Cook, Rex Cates, and Mike Alder of BYU on a new cold sore treatment.
A Rare Reprieve for Texas Death Row Inmate Rodney Reed (0:33)
Guest: Griffin Hardy, Communications Manager for Sister Helen Prejean’s Ministry Against the Death Penalty
Rodney Reed had been scheduled for execution in Texas this week for the rape and murder of a Texas woman in 1996. But a nationwide campaign to save Reed’s life, that included Republican politicians and celebrities Kim Kardashian West and Rihanna, succeeded. On Friday night, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals suspended Reed’s death sentence indefinitely and ordered the court that originally tried Reed to consider new evidence in the case. This kind of last-minute reprieve is very unusual in Texas, which leads the nation in executions.
Ancient Origins of Modern Board Games (16:22)
Guest: Cameron Browne, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Maastricht University
Some of my favorite childhood memories are of playing a new board games as a family. My brother-in-law ran a board game rating website, so we tested lots of them. But long before you could look up a game online and see how many stars it got, people passed down games orally or wrote instructions that have long since been lost. In fact, the rules for some of your favorite games may date back centuries.
50th Anniversary of Apollo 12 (32:11)
Guest: Mike Joner, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University
You couldn’t miss the 50thanniversary celebrations of Apollo 11 over the summer. Everybody knows Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first to walk on the moon. You ever heard of Pete Conrad and Alan Bean? They landed on the moon just four months later. At this very moment 50 years ago, the crew of Apollo 12 was about to touch down on the lunar surface. So, we’re going to pay a little tribute to the men who were 3rdand 4thon the moon.
The DC Sniper and Questions of Youth in the Justice System (51:10)
Guest: Marsha Levick, Chief Counsel and Founder of Juvenile Law Center
When a teenager commits murder, should he face the death penalty? Not according to the US Supreme Court, which, a decade ago, abolished the death penalty for offenders under 18. So, what should happen to that teenager? Is life in prison without the chance of a parole a reasonable sentence? Over the last several years the US Supreme Court has been steadily restricting that sentence for juvenile offenders, too. The latest case to come before the justices involves a particularly high-profile inmate –Lee Boyd Malvo, better known as one of the DC snipers who killed 10 people in a shooting spree back in 2002. Malvo was 17 at the time.
The FIDO Project Gives Dogs A Voice (1:10:08)
Guest: Melody Jackson, Director, Center for BioInterface Research and Professor at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing
If you've never dreamed of talking to your dog, you're probably lying to yourself. Now, new technology is making that dream a reality. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are creating new tech that allows dogs to contact humans in case of emergencies their owners face (such as with a chronic illness, an injury, or even an allergic reaction) and speak in ways we can actually understand. For example, a new dog vest is one of several emerging technologies that is programmed with a few phrases that the dog initiates with a tap of their nose. "My owner needs your attention!” and “Please follow me!” are the working messages currently. However the project is still underway and they are excited to continue improving fido's speech.
A New Antiviral for Herpes Virus (1:22:49)
Guest: Alonzo Cook, PhD, Professor of Chemical Engineering, BYU; Rex Cates, PhD, Retired Professor of Biology, BYU; Mike Alder, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Two-thirds of all the people on the planet are infected by the Herpes Simplex Virus 1 –that’s the one that causes periodic outbreaks of cold sores. It’s incredibly common and, as yet, without a cure or a vaccine. BYU researchers are developing a treatment that comes from a tropical succulent.
The Little Girl Who Became the Face of School Integration (0:34)
Guest: Ruby Bridges, Civil Rights Activist
Thursday marked the 59th anniversary of the day Ruby Bridges became a Civil Rights icon. That was her first day of first grade as one of the first African American children to integrate an all-white school in the South. Norman Rockwell turned that moment into an iconic painting –you know the one. There’s tiny Ruby Bridges in a white dress, sneakers and bow in her braid. She’s flanked by federal marshals in suits. And she looks so calm and resolute, even though the wall she’s walking by is marred with a racial slur and the red splatter of tomatoes. (Originally aired November 19, 2015).
The Unsung Hero of the Battle of Midway (16:27)
Guest: David Rigby, Author of “Wade McClusky and the Battle of Midway”
With Veterans Day fresh on our minds, lets revisit the story of US Navy pilot Wade McClusky. Six months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the US dealt a devastating blow to Japan’s naval fleetin what’s known as the Battle of Midway. Historians consider it a turning point of World War II in the Pacific. But it almost wasn’t. The bombers sent to sneak-attack Japan’s aircraft carriers got bad information: the ships weren’t where they were supposed to be, and the American planes were running low on fuel. So, Wade McClusky followed his gut and, I know this sounds dramatic, but he literally made history. Historian David Rigby is the first to publish the story in full. (Originally aired June 20, 2019).
More than a Musical, a Look Behind the Scenes of Alexander Hamilton (35:36)
Guest: Joanne Freeman is a Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University
Four years since it opened on Broadway, Hamilton: An American Musical is still one of the hottest tickets in town. But just how accurate is its portrayal of Alexander Hamilton? Earlier this year we got the answer from historian Joanne Freeman –she’s a professor at Yale University. She worked with Lin Manuel Miranda and others from the Hamilton musical team to create an interactive exhibit about the founding father and war veteran. It was open during the Spring and Summer in Chicago. (Originally aired July 1, 2019).
Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution (51:13)
Guest: Beth Gardiner, Environmental Journalist, Author, “Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution”
The air in Delhi, India is famously polluted, but this week it got so bad that the government was forced to close schools. For the second time in two weeks. The concentration of noxious stuff in the air is right now 10-times higher than what’s considered safe. India isn’t the only one. Globally, hundreds of thousands of people die prematurely each year from poor air. Scientists are discovering air pollution is linked to heart attacks, heart attacks, strokes, birth defects, cancer, dementia, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Environmental journalist Beth Gardiner’s book “Choked” examines the consequences of air pollution around the world. (Originally aired August 8, 2019).
Where Do Pets Go During Natural Disasters? (1:25:41)
Guest: Sarah E. DeYoung, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice and the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, Investigator for the Pets and Evacuation Research Project
In emergency situations like a wildfire or hurricane, people are obviously the number one priority. But what about pets? Many view their dog or cat as another family member, yet most people –and their communities –have little, if any evacuation plan for pets. (Originally aired July 31, 2019).
Ruby Bridges, Civil Rights activist. Author David Rigby, “Wade McClusky and the Battle of Midway,” on the Battle of Midway. Joanne Freeman, Yale University, on Alexander Hamilton. Author Beth Gardiner on book “Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution.” Sarah E. DeYoung, an investigator for the Pets and Evacuation Research Project, on pet evacuation.
Rui Zhong, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center, on Hong Kong. Adam Durfee from YDigital on social media political advertising. Jonathan E. Nichols of Columbia University on the uses of peat. Author Nina Willner, "Forty Autumns," on the story of her family's lives on both sides of the Berlin Wall. Sherri Melrose, professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, Athabasca University, on listener's questions about seasonal depression.
Hong Kong Protests –and Police Response -Turn More Violent as They Drag On (0:32)
Guest: Rui Zhong, Program Associate, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center
The protests in Hong Kong have taken a violent turn in the last week. One student protester has died. Another was shot at point blank by a police officer and is in critical condition. Some protesters set a man on fire who was allegedly pro-Beijing and criticizing the protests. By all reports, whole aspects of life in Hong Kong are disrupted. Universities are cancelling classes for the rest of the semester. Storefronts along protest routes are closed indefinitely. Protesters are occupying major roads, bridges and train tracks, cutting off commerce and commuting.
Does it Really Matter if Political Ads Are Allowed on Social Media? (16:36)
Guest: Adam Durfee, Managing Director of YDigital Agency, Brigham Young University
Heading into this presidential election, Twitter has decided to ban political advertising from its platform. Campaigns should earn their exposure on Twitter, says CEO Jack Dorsey. They shouldn’t just be allowed to reach a bunch of people by paying for it. Facebook is making the exact opposite argument. CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees his site as a public square where the ability to speak freely matters, including through paid political advertising which Facebook plans to continue selling.
The Future Is Peat (33:48)
Guest: Jonathan E Nichols, Associate Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University
Let’s talk about peat. That’s P-E-A-T. It’s a strange, miraculous thing. Bodies buried in peat bogs end up so well-preserved their faces and clothing are completely intact. Something about the chemistry of the peat stops body tissue from decomposing in corpses. Google “Bog Bodies” and you’ll see what I mean. It’s wild stuff. But peatlands are more than just ancient burial grounds. They’re also a really important part of the Earth’s system for keeping carbon dioxide levels in balance. In fact, they’re way more important than previously thought, based on calculations published recently in the journal Nature.
Memoir Reflects on Family Divided By the Berlin Wall (51:09)
Guest: Nina Willner, Author of “Forty Autumns: A Family’s Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall”
The Berlin Wall came down 30 years go and within a year, East and West Germany were officially reunited. Families were reunited when the wall came down, too. We’re going to hear about one of them now. The Willners. After World War II, the Willners find themselves stuck behind the Iron Curtain. Oldest daughter Hanna makes a harrowing escape to freedom at age 20, but the rest of the family remains trapped in East Germany. Eventually Hanna ends up in America and has a daughter named Nina, who grows up to become a US Army Intelligence Officer running surveillance missions behind the Berlin Wall at the height of the Cold War. Nina Willner’s book about her family is called “Forty Autumns: A Family’s Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall.”
Seasonal Depression (1:26:55)
Guest: Sherri Melrose, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, Athabasca University
Winter is closing in. For some, that means seasonal depression. So we asked what questions you have about the mood disorder, and Sherri Melrose is on the line to answer them.
Kirk Hawkins, BYU, on the upheaval in Latin America. David A. Rosenbaum, University of California Riverside, on precrastination. Lisa Elliott, El Paso Community College, on the Mormon colonies in Mexico. Soraya Chemaly from the Women’s Media Center Speech Project on women's anger. Tyler Lyson from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science on asteroid fossils. Rachel Wadham from Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio.
Protest and Upheaval Spreads Across Latin America (0:30)
Guest: Kirk Hawkins, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
The long-time president of Bolivia has stepped down and fled the country. Weeks of sometimes violent protests in Chile have spurred the President to promise a new Constitution will be written. Peru’s president dissolved the country’s Congress a month ago, so Congress turned around and suspended him, sparking a Constitutional crisis over who is in charge of Peru’s government. For several weeks in October, violent protests swept the streets of Ecuador. And Venezuela’s political and humanitarian crisis grows deeper every month.
Pre-Crastination is the Opposite of Procrastination (16:55)
Guest: David A. Rosenbaum, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at University of California Riverside
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Is procrastination sometimes a good thing? While there seem to be obvious benefits to getting things done in a timely manner, new research is revealing that there are definite drawbacks to pre-crastinating akin to the drawbacks of procrastinating. They conclude that this habit does not just reflect simple haste or the pursuit of instant gratification; it also reduces demand on mental resources--meaning that we are just trying to make our lives a little bit easier. In doing so, however, you actually increase your own anxiety levels and feed into a vicious cycle of intense compulsions to act fast.
Mormons in the US-Mexico Borderlands (32:58)
Guest: Lisa Elliott, Associate Professor of Mass Communication, El Paso Community College, NEH Grant Recipient
The FBI has joined the investigation into the murder of three women and six children in Northern Mexico last week by suspected cartel gunmen. The victims were dual US-Mexico citizens from a community that identifies as “Mormon” but is not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Last week on Top of Mind, we spoke with an expert on the independent –or fundamentalist –Mormon communities in Mexico –some who practice polygamy, some who don’t. There’s also a community of Mormons who are actively affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have been rooted for generations on both sides of the US-Mexico border. They are a fascinating example of the way many people living at border see it as a fluid boundary, not at all clear-cut.
Why Society is Still Uncomfortable with Women’s Anger and How to Bring About Change (51:08)
Guest: Soraya Chemaly, Director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project and Author of “Rage Becomes Her”
“I am angry and I own it,” wrote Democratic Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren in an email to supporters over the weekend. She was responding to attacks from her white male political rivals on the campaign trail –Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, in particular –who criticized Warren’s “angry” “my way or the highway” approach. Our society does not consider anger an attractive emotion. But there’s a double standard, as media critic and author Soraya Chemaly points out passionately in her recent TED Talk and book called “Rage Becomes Her.” White men can get away with showing anger a lot easier than women or people of color in America.
Life after the Asteroid: Fossils Show How Mammals Thrived after the Extinction of the Dinosaurs (1:11:55)
Guest: Tyler Lyson, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula and caused a catastrophic mass extinction. It wiped out the dinosaurs, but not much was known about what happened to the survivors of the impact until recently. A team of paleontologists have discovered a treasure trove of fossil remains allowing them to piece together a vivid picture of life’s recovery after the dinosaurs.
When Play is Serious Business (1:30:12)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Rachel is the education and juvenile collections librarian at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting here on BYUradio talking about serious play.
Eric Jensen, BYU, on 2020 election cybersecurity. Kristen Brengel from the National Parks Conservation Association on e-bike in national parks. Sarah Coyne, BYU, on social media screen time. Ali Smith, Holistic Life Foundation, on meditation detention. Jennifer Livingston, University at Buffalo, on loving mothers. Cory Leonard, BYU, on teaching diplomacy to kids.
2020 Election Cybersecurity (0:33)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
A year from now, President Trump will be celebrating a second term, or someone else will have been elected to replace him. Will Russia attempt to meddle in the 2020 election like it did in 2016? How secure will our electronic voting machines be?
E-bikes in National Parks (20:50)
Guest: Kristen Brengel, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association
The fastest growing bicycle type in the US right now is the electric bicycle. I actually didn’t know this was a widespread thing, but apparently Boomers, in particular, are buying them at a fast clip. E-bikes are not scooters or motorcycles. Usually you have to pedal to engage the motor, which gives you a boost so you can go further or tackle trails that’d be impossible for you, otherwise. And speaking of trails, e-bikes are officially allowed in National Parks wherever regular bikes are. That’s a new change in the last few months, as a result of an order from the Secretary of the Interior. Conservation groups have come concerns.
Screen Time Doesn’t Account for the Rises in Depression and Anxiety in Teenagers (38:08)
Guest: Sarah Coyne, Professor of Family Life at Brigham Young University
You may have heard that spending so much time on social media is making teenagers anxious and depressed. If you’re the parent of a “screenager” addicted to a smart phone, I’m sure you’ve worried about this. Well, maybe worry a bit less. An eight-year study of teenagers led by BYU family life professor Sarah Coyne finds no evidence that time spent on social media is “destroying a generation.”
The Holistic Life Foundation Teaches Schools to Replace Detention with Meditation (51:09)
Guest: Ali Smith, Executive Director of the Holistic Life Foundation
Students who disrupt class or get into fights are usually sent to detention, but some schools in Baltimore are using a different technique--meditation. They’ve teamed up with a non-profit called the Holistic Life Foundation that runs mindfulness programs to help bring calmness into the classroom. And it seems to be working—these schools have lower suspensions and higher grades.
Caring Moms May Prevent Teen Dating Abuse (1:05:32)
Guest: Jennifer Livingston, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Nursing at the University at Buffalo
There’s a cycle of conflict that’s pretty well documented –if a teenager grows up in a house where parents fight a lot, that teen is more likely to experience abuse in their own dating relationships. But some young people manage to break the cycle. How? University at Buffalo researcher Jennifer Livingston has found that the relationship a teenager has with his or her mom is a particularly important buffer against household conflict.
Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Dreamers on DACA Program (0:30)
Guest: RonNell Andersen Jones, Lee E. Teitelbaum Endowed Professor of Law, SJ Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
The US Supreme Court this week will hear arguments in a case that will decide the fate of nearly a million people known as “Dreamers” who were brought to the country illegally or overstayed a visa as children. When Congress failed to pass a law allowing Dreamers to live and work legally in the US, the Obama Administration implemented a fix called “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” or DACA. The Trump Administration wants to end the program. The Supreme Court will decide if that’s legal.
Raising an Organized Child (20:02)
Guest: Damon Korb, M.D., Author of Raising an Organized Child, Board Certified Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrician
Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard for your child to see the bigger picture? Why can’t they just turn in that homework assignment or not have a meltdown when they don’t get what they want? Developmental and behavioral pediatrician Damon Korb says it’s because their brain isn’t organized –they can’t think in an orderly way.
Putting Ethics at the Center of College Admissions (36:34)
Guest: Richard Weissbourd, Faculty Director of Making Caring Common Project and Senior Lecturer at Harvard University
Most parents of college-bound kids won’t go so far as to bribe an admissions officer at an elite school or pay someone to take the SAT for their kid. But there are many ways parents can behave unethically, or encourage unethical behavior in their kids, during the admissions process. Harvard’s Graduate School of Education has project focused on putting “young people’s character and well-being at the center of a healthier, more sane college admissions process.”
Measles Erases the Immune System’s Memory (51:08)
Guest: Michael Mina,MD, PhD an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
This has been a record year for measles outbreaks in the US. Public health officials say most of the people who got sick had not been vaccinated. But also, nobody has died from the measles this year –out of more than 1,000cases. So, there’s this thread of thought among vaccine-hesitant parents that measles really isn’t that serious. What if the trouble for your kid isn’t just the measles itself, though? After the rash and fever are gone, the body is more prone to other infections.
Why Paid Family Leave Doesn’t Increase Gender Equality in the Workplace (1:07:53)
Guest: Elena Patel, Professor of Finance at the University of Utah
Many mothers in California can get partial pay from the government to take off work when they have a baby. Some lawmakers and activists argue that paid family leave is a way to fix gender inequality in the work place because working mothers are able to spend time with their child and keep their job. However, a new study found that the opposite may be true. Paid Family Leave may actually increase the gender wage gap.
Mental Illness Is Not the Only Risk Factor for Suicide (1:22:21)
Guest: Tyler Black, MD, FRCPC, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Medical Director CAPE Unit at BC Children's Hospital
There is a growing problem of suicide in the world and access to mental health treatment is an important part of the solution. But psychiatrist Tyler Black says we also need to change how we think about suicide and its causes. If you or anyone you know is struggling, please reach out. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is always available at 1-800-273-8255.
RonNell Andersen Jones, University of Utah, on DACA at the Supreme Court. Author Damon Korb on book "Raising an Organized Child." Richard Weissbourd, Harvard University, on college admissions. Michael Mina, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, on measles and your immune system. Elena Patel, University of Utah, on paid parental leave. Tyler Black from the BC Children's Hospital on suicide prevention.
Allen Sanderson, University of Chicago, on college athletes. John Kauwe, Brigham Young University, on height genes. Eric Jentsch from the National Museum of American History on future Bob Ross exhibit. Wendy Troxel from the RAND Corporation on sleepy teenagers. Professional Licensed Auctioneer Jeff Stokes of Stokes Auction Group on auctioneering.
Are College Athletes Getting a Raw Financial Deal? (0:33)
Guest: Allen Sanderson, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Chicago
After decades of insisting college athletes not be paid, the NCAA just changed its rules to allow players to cut their own celebrity endorsement deals. The move was probably inevitable, as University of Chicago sports economist Allen Sanderson explained to us a month ago. Why? Because California had just passed a law allowing athletes at its state-run universities to make sponsorship and endorsement deals. California basically forced the NCAA’s hand –and has now cracked the door to a long-running argument about whether college athletes should be paid like the pros. (Originally aired October 2, 2019)
One of the World’s Tallest Men (20:34)
Guest: John Kauwe, PhD, Professor and Department Chair of Biology at Brigham Young University
The average basketball player in the NBA 6’ 7”, which is almost a foot taller than the average man. And then there are the few NBA players who tower over their own teammates. At 7 feet 6 inches Shawn Bradley is tied for the third tallest player the NBA’s ever had. And it turns out that he’s always wondered why he’s so tall. (Originally aired September 19, 2019)
Future Smithsonian Museum Exhibit Will Feature Bob Ross Paintings (38:12)
Guest: Eric Jentsch, the Entertainment and Sports Curator for the National Museum of American History
You can paint along with Bob Ross on public television almost any day of the week. He was on the air for 31 seasons over nine years and in constant reruns ever since. Where did all those paintings of happy accidents and friendly trees and mountains go? It’s next to impossible to buy one. But New York Times reporters found them –stacked in a warehouse in Virginia. A few months ago we spoke with Eric Jentsch about all of this. He’s a curator for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, which has acquired some original Bob Ross landscapes for its collection. (Originally aired September 16, 2019)
Teenage Sleep Deprivation Leads to Bad Decisions (51:09)
Guest: Wendy Troxel, Ph.D. Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist, RAND Corporation
The one good thing about switching off Daylight Savings Time, like most Americans did last weekend, is that it’s a little lighter in the morning when kids head off to school. And lots of American teenagers are heading off to school very, very early –with start times even before 8 a.m.! Meanwhile, only one in ten American teens are getting a full 8 hours of sleep on a regular basis. That leads to higher risk for lots of physical and mental health problems –also, and parents hate to hear this –sleep-deprive kids are more likely to make risky decisions. (Originally aired July 15, 2019)
Want to Be the Fastest of Fast-Talkers? Go to Auctioneer School. (1:12:24)
Guest: Jeff Stokes, Professional Licensed Auctioneer, Co-founder of Stokes Auction Group, Instructor, Western College of Auctioneering
How do auctioneers talk so, so fast? Do they go to auctioneer school? Actually, yes. Jeff Stokes is a sought-after instructor at the Western College of Auctioneering and a world champion auctioneer. (Originally aired January 16, 2019)
History of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico Hit by Brutal Violence This Week (0:31)
Guest: Cristina Rosetti, PhD, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside
Funerals are being held now for the nine American women and children murdered in northern Mexico by cartel gunmen. They are part of a fundamentalist Mormon community with a long history in the region. More than a century ago, former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fled to Mexico when the church and US laws banned polygamy. Many of their descendants ranch and farm the region today with dual citizenship in the US and Mexico.
Harriet Tubman, Abolition Super Hero (17:00)
Guest: Kellie Carter Jackson, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Africana Studies at Wellesley College, Author of “Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence”
Someday Harriet Tubman might be on the $20 bill –the plan for that switch is stalled. But for now, people are handing over their $20s to see Harriet on screen. The new film depicts Harriet Tubman as a gun toting action hero. Which Kellie Carter Jackson says is true-to-life.
After 51 Years Are Movie Ratings Still Relevant? (34:58)
Guest: Kelly McMahon is the Senior Vice President and Chair of the Classification and Rating Administration for the Motion Picture Association
Have you ever gone to a movie with your kids and have been surprised at the amount of violence or profanity you saw? Or an unexpected sexual moment? But are parents actually using the ratings? And do they understand what they mean?
The CIA’s Failed Quest to Develop Mind Control (51:08)
Guest: Stephen Kinzer, Author of “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control”
The CIA has developed the ability to reprogram minds and wipe away inconvenient memories. At least in the movies, it can. That’s what the CIA did to assassin Jason Bourne once they were finished with him. And that’s where the Men in Black got their flashing pen-like “neutralizer” to erase knowledge of aliens from ordinary folks. So that’s all fun and fiction, but for 10 years during the Cold War, the CIA really did have a secret mind control project. Instead of flashing pens, they were experimenting with LSD. And instead of a little harmless amnesia about aliens, the CIA was wreaking havoc on the minds of prisoners, children, sex workers and even some of their own government employees.
13-Year-Old’s Study Shows Hand Dryers Hurt Kids’ Ears (1:28:15)
Guest: Nora Keegan, Thirteen-Year-Old Scientist
When kids cry about things like their ice cream melting or their water being too wet, it can be hard for parents to gauge how serious their children’s concerns really are. But a new study shows that when kids complain about hand dryers in bathrooms are hurting their ears, it’s real. Nora Keegan has spent the last four years researching the negative impacts hand dryers on kids’ hearing, and her study was recently published in the official journal of the Canadian Pediatric Society. And get this, she’s only 13-years-old.
Cristina Rosetti, University of California Riverside, on Mormons in Mexico. Author Kellie Carter, “Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence,” on Harriet Tubman. Kelly McMahon from the Motion Picture Association on movie ratings. Author Stephen Kinzer on book, “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.” Nora Keegan, a thirteen-year-old scientist, on hand dryers.
Legacy of the Berlin Wall’s Collapse (0:32)
Guest: Peter Fritzsche, PhD, Professor of History, University of Illinois, author of “Hitler’s First Hundred Days”
This week marks 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall between communist East Germany and capitalist West Germany. Less than a month later, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George HW Bush sat side by side and declared the Cold War was ending. Two years later, the Soviet Union itself would collapse. So let’s take a look at the legacy of November 9, 1989 –the day the wall came down.
In Arid Regions, the Fog Harp Gets Water from Thin Air (18:17)
Guest: Brook Kennedy, Industrial Designer and Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s School of Architecture + Design
More than one billion people around the world live where water is scarce. Another billion face water shortage because their country doesn’t have the proper infrastructure for water gathering. And the United Nations predicts it’s only going to get much worse in the coming years. That means we have to find new sources of H2O. So how about using fog? A couple researchers figured out how to more effectively harvest that eerie mist for drinkable water.
Remembering the Overlooked Figures in History Through Obituaries (35:12)
Guest: Amy Padnani is an Editor on the Obituaries Desk at the New York Time and the Creator of Overlooked
They say history is written by the winners. But Amy Padnani believes it’s up to us to decide who should be remembered. After becoming an editor of obituaries at the New York Times, Amy Padnani asked herself “Where are all the dead women?” Very few people get the privilege of an obituary in the Times, but surely not all of the people of note dying are white men. So Padnani hatched a project called “Overlooked.” For the last year and a half, they’ve been publishing obituaries the New York Times missed. Computer programmer Ada Lovelace. Journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells. Poet Sylvia Plath. “Jane Eyre” author Charlotte Bronte. Plus, lots of names you wouldn’t recognize but should.
The Apple Seed (51:07)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of the Apple Seed on BYUradio
Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story.
HR Handling of Sexual Harassment Needs Improvement (1:02:36)
Guest: Laurie Ruettimann, HR Consultant, Host of Let’s Fix Workpodcast, Author of “Let’s Fix Work”
Two years ago, a series of female Hollywood stars went public with their experiences of sexual assault and harassment using #MeToo on social media. It sparked a movement that demanded accountability from powerful men in Hollywood and other industries. Since then, reports of workplace sexual harassment filed with the Equality Employment Opportunity Commission have increased 13 percent. But what’s happening after those reports are made? HR consultant Laurie Ruettimann says too often nothing happens. Or worse, the woman who reports the harassment ends up facing retaliation at work.
What America Can Learn from Germany’s Response to the Holocaust (1:14:04)
Guest: Susan Neiman, Director of the Einstein Forum and Author of “Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil”
The Civil War ended and slavery was abolished more than 150 years ago. How well do you think we’ve moved on from that as a nation? Not just moved on, but reckoned with –repented of, even –the wrongs done by men and women, who laid the foundation for our freedoms and prosperity? Whether its debate over reparations for slavery or fierce disagreement about whether the Confederate Flag is appropriate to fly in public, I think it’s pretty clear we’ve got some unresolved business there. Philosopher Susan Neiman is a Jew who was born and raised in Georgia and has spent most of her adult life living in Germany. She’s come to believe America could benefit from studying the way Germans have wrestled with the crimes of the Holocaust.
Peter Fritzsche, University of Illinois, on the legacy of the Berlin Wall. Brook Kennedy from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s School of Architecture and Design on fog harvesting Amy Padnani from the New York Times on remembering the overlooked figures in history. Sam Payne from the Apple Seed shares a story. Author Laurie Ruettimann, “Let’s Fix Work," on HR improvement. Author Susan Neiman, on book “Learning of the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil.”
365 Days until Election 2020. Here’s a Preview. (0:30)
Guest: Kelly Patterson, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Adam Dynes, Phd, Professor of Political Science, BYU
We’re exactly one year out from the 2020 Presidential Election, so we’ve got BYU political scientists Kelly Patterson and Adam Dynes in studio to talk about what’s ahead.
Why is Britain’s Parliament so Unruly? (18:22)
Guest: Joel Selway, Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University
One thing Americans have learned from the Brexit drama in Britain is just how different the British Parliament is from our Congress. We’re hearing members of the opposition Labour Party shouting down Prime Minister Boris Johnson a few months ago during one of his regular appearances in the British House of Commons. The closest thing we get to that in America is when the President delivers his state of the union address and members of the opposing party refuse to clap or stand. Why is Britain’s Parliament so rowdy? And more importantly, how exactly does it work?
Mental Health in the Workplace (38:06)
Guest: Kelly Greenwood, Founder and CEO of Mind Share Partners
When you have the flu, you call in sick and your boss is probably glad you do. But what happens if you have a panic attack? A really bad day with your depression? An extreme bout of insomnia that keeps you up all night? Most of us still aren’t sure how to talk to mental health challenges with our bosses. We’re more likely to fudge the details and say we need to take a day because we’ve got a stomachache or a headache. Physical ailments seem more legitimate.
Why Grocery Stores Don’t Help Communities in Food Deserts to Stay Healthy (51:05)
Guest: Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, PhD Candidate at the University at Buffalo and Graduate Research Assistant at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
In places sometimes referred to as “food deserts” healthy food options are farther and more expensive than normal. The obvious answer would be to just put up another supermarket. But researchers at the University at Buffalo found that new grocery stores actually lead to a decrease in people eating their fruits and veggies.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities are Struggling to Survive (1:04:49)
Guest: Delece Smith-Barrow is Senior Editor for Higher Education at The Hechinger Report
Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Spike Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson, Chadwick Boseman –aka Black Panther. That’s just a partial list of prominent African Americans who graduated from an HBCU, which stands for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. There are more than a hundred HBCUs around the country –Howard, Tuskegee, Spelman, Shaw, Fisk, Morehouse –are some names you might recognize. If you saw Beyonce’s Coachella performance last year –or the Netflix documentary about it -that whole thing was an ode to HBCUs. She had marching bands and step dancers. Beyonce’s HBCU tribute was well-timed, because many of these schools are in crisis. Enrollment is down. Government funding is down. More than a dozen HBCUs have closed.
Racial Discipline and Achievement Gaps Are Related (1:26:32)
Guest: Francis Pearman, Assistant Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University
In schools across the US, discipline doesn’t get handed out evenly. Black high school students are twice as likely to be suspended as white or Hispanic students. Black students also lag behind white students on standardized test scores. Are these two gaps –the discipline gap and the achievement gap –linked, somehow?
Kelly Patterson and Adam Dynes from BYU with a preview of the 2020 election. Joel Selway, BYU, on the British Parliament. Kelly Greenwood of Mind Share Partners on mental health in the workplace. Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, University at Buffalo, on food deserts. Delece Smith-Barrow from The Hechinger Report on historically black colleges and universities. Francis Pearman, Stanford University, on the discipline gap.
John Macfarlane, Utah Valley University, on ISIS. Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University, on emoji law. Bill Bernstein from the American Society for Yad Vashem on Antisemitism. Skye Augustine, Parks Canada, on clam gardens. Emily M. Broad Leib from the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic on food labels. Cara Santa Maria, Quizmaster for National Geographic’s Almanac 2020, on National Geographic trivia.
Islamic State Has a New Leader after ISIS Founder al-Baghdadi Killed in US Raid (0:31)
Guest: John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of History & Political Science, Utah Valley University
The Islamic State terror group has named a new leader to replace the group’s founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who died in a US military strike a week ago. President Trump said in that announcement that “capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority “of his administration. And ISIS, in announcing Baghdadi’s successor has pledged to make America pay for the assassination.
How Emojis are Impacting the Law (18:25)
Guest: Eric Goldman is a Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law, Co-Director of High Tech Law Institute
There are two emojis I use a lot in texts: the winking face and the thumbs up icon. I know what I mean when I use them. I have no idea how the people I’m texting are interpreting those emojis. Usually that’s not a big deal. But what if our text thread ends up as evidence in court and now a judge or jury has to decide exactly what my thumbs-up emoji meant? Was it a firm commitment to do something? Was it just a passive aggressive way of ending the conversation? I’ve used to both ways, to be honest.
Why is Antisemitism on the Rise and What Can Be Done About It? (30:40)
Guest: Bill Bernstein, West Coast Director, American Society for Yad Vashem
Anti-Semitic attacks worldwide rose last year, particularly in major Western democracies like the US, France, Britain and Germany. Most of those were cases of vandalism or threats of violence. But 2018 also saw the deadliest attack ever against Jews on US soil, when a gunman stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last October, killing 11 worshippers. And in New York City, right now, police say anti-Semitic hate crimes are up 63% compared to last year. Those include Orthodox Jewish men being violently attacked in the street. Why is this happening?
Clam Gardens Provide Stable Food and Unite Generations for Indigenous Groups in Pacific Northwest (51:10)
Guest: Skye Augustine, Clam Garden Project Coordinator at Parks Canada
Thousands of years ago, indigenous people living in the Pacific Northwest had an ingenious way of cultivating clams for food diet. As America was colonized and tribes were displaced, those farming techniques were abandoned. But clam populations along the West Coast are suffering today, so there’s an effort underway to help indigenous groups reclaim the “clam gardens” their ancestors built along the shoreline. Skye Augustine is heading up one such project for the national parks system in Canada.
What Do Food Date Labels Mean? (1:08:30)
Guest: Emily M. Broad Leib, J.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic
When you go to the grocery store, everything has a date. The milk may say “best used by next week,” while a box of crackers might say you have a year. But what do those dates really mean? Confusion over date labels can lead to perfectly good food being thrown out. It is estimated that in American, between 30-40% of available food is wasted.
BYUradio Hosts Tackle Trivia from National Geographic (1:19:31)
Guest: Cara Santa Maria, Science Journalist, Host of Talk Nerdy podcast and Quizmaster for National Geographic’s Almanac 2020; BYUradio Hosts Sam Payne, Steven Kapp Perry, Lisa Valentine Clark, Cole Wissinger, Marcus Smith
I’m a sucker for a surprising factoid. Though, I am terrible at trivia –definitely not a Jeopardy contender here –but National Geographic’s Almanac 2020 recently landed on my desk and I loved their take on this. It’s packed full of cool facts about the natural world –each section starts with trivia questions curated by science journalist and podcast host Cara Santa Maria.
Gabriel Filippelli from the 360 Dust Analysis project on deadly dust. Justin Giboney, AND Campaign, on empowering people to promote change in their party. Matthew Avery of Thatcham Research on autonomous cars. Nicolai Kuminoff, Arizona State University on pollution and dementia. Author Sarah Ruhl on book “Letters from Max: A Book of Friendship.”
Empowering Religious Voters to Ask for Change within Their Political Party (0:36)
Guest: Justin Giboney, Founder and President of AND Campaign
Democrats are in full political shopping mode right now, looking for the right candidate to take on President Trump in 2020. The likely choices –Biden, Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg -present a quandry for primary voters who are more conservative on social issues, but also don’t see their values represented in President Trump. (Originally aired July 15, 2019)
Dust is Deadlier than You Might Think (16:13)
Guest: Gabriel Filippelli, Professor of Earth Sciences and Founding Director of the Center for Urban Health at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Director, 360 Dust Analysis Project for the U.S. and Canada
There’s a smell I always associate with this time of year –it’s not pumpkin spice or mulled cider. It’s the smell of hot dust coming from my vents as I crank the heater back on for winter. Dust is all around us –inside and outside the home. But we know surprisingly little about what it’s actually made of. An international collaboration of scientists is collecting samples to get at the truth about dust. NOTE -- They have a new website where you can send you samples: https://www.360dustanalysis.com/ (Originally aired July 9, 2019)
Autopilot Really Does Not Mean You Can Take a Nap in Your Tesla (33:19)
Guest: Matthew Avery, Director of Research, Thatcham Research
The price to get the “full self-driving” feature on a new Tesla just went up a thousand bucks. But here’s the thing: There’s no such thing as self-driving car on the market today. Even though Tesla’s marketing its Autopilot system and Cadillac has Super Cruise and Audi has Traffic Jam Pilot. So if these aren’t self-driving cars, what are they, exactly? (Originally aired July 9, 2019)
Pollution & Dementia (51:12)
Guest: Nicolai Kuminoff, Associate Professor of Economics, Arizona State University
There’s a kind of pollution called PM2.5, tiny particles in the air, just a fraction the width of a human hair. Their tiny size allows them to sneak past the body’s natural defenses and they’ve long been known to cause respiratory problems. But a new study now links these tiny particles with increased risk of dementia. (Originally aired Septemer 24, 2018)
A Story of Friendship, Letters and Loss (1:07:19)
Guest: Sarah Ruhl, Playwright, Professor at the Yale School of Drama, Co-author of “Letters from Max: A Book of Friendship”
“When we find the right friend at the right time in our life, or the right teacher, or the right student, our lives are changed forever.” That’s a line from a New York Times essay by playwright Sara Ruhl. For her, that friend was Max Ritvo. Together they’ve published a series of letters and poems exchanged during the short four years they were acquainted. In 2016, Max died of bone cancer. He was 25. (Originally aired January 18, 2019)
Author Michele Gelfand,“Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World," on the politics of fear. Nicholas Bellantoni from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut on vampire DNA. Gene Ahlborn, BYU, on artificial coloring and flavoring in candy. Carl Sederholm fom BYU; Author Margee Kerr, “Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear”; and Rob Dunfield of The Fear Factory on why people liked to be scared.
How Perceived Threat Shapes Countries (0:32)
Guest: Michele Gelfand, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Author of “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World”
What do you fear? Natural disasters? War? Where you live makes a big difference on how you answer that question. It also changes how your country is run and how strict the laws are there. Many politicians are masters of knowing what people perceive as a threat and then capitalizing on that. But is using fear in politics always a bad thing?
The Discovery, Investigation, and Identification of the Colonial Vampire (17:24)
Guest: Nicholas Bellantoni, Emeritus State Archaeologist with the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and is Adjunct Associate Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut
Vampires today are cheesy Halloween costumes or heartthrobs in teen romance novels. But back in the 1800s, people in New England were genuinely afraid of vampires—so much so that they dug up the graves of their family members in order to protect themselves from the undead. When archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni found one of these corpses in 1990, he went on to study it for 30 years and only just discovered who this colonial vampire was.
What’s in that Halloween Candy (36:14)
Guest: Gene Ahlborn, Professor of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science, Brigham Young University
Your kids are probably going to stuff handfuls of candy and chocolate in their mouths tonight after trick or treating. Unless you eat it all first. We asked what questions you have about what’s in that stuff. BYU Food Science professor Gene Ahlborn is here to answer what you’ve been wondering about artificial flavors and colors.
Like to Be Scared? Here’s Why (50:38)
Guest: Carl Sederholm, PhD, Professor of Comparative Arts and Letters, Brigham Young University; Margee Kerr, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh, Author of “Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear”; Rob Dunfield, Owner The Fear Factory in Salt Lake City
Why do we like to be scared out of our wits by films and roller coasters and actors dressed in nightmarish costumes chasing us through dark hallways? We do we pay for this stuff?
Is Brexit Ever Actually Going to Happen? (0:30)
Guest: Wade Jacoby, BYU Political Science
Today was supposed to be the last day that the UK was part of the European Union. Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised it would happen “do or die.” But here we are, and Brexit has been pushed back. Again. The government was even so confident this time that it had coins made with October 31stprinted on them to commemorate the date. After three years of delays, is Brexit ever actually going to happen?
How Psychopaths Can Still Succeed in Society (23:16)
Guest: Emily Lasko, Doctoral Student, Virginia Commonwealth University
Psychopathy is a serious mental illness that makes people antisocial and often causes them to commit crimes. But not all psychopaths are murderers. In fact, some can overcome their darker impulses and are able to function normally in society: hold a job, get married, be successful.
The problems Women Face in The Workplace as They Age (36:03)
Guest: Women often make less money than men with the exact job and have a harder time rising up through a company. Now add in age, and research shows that women in the workplace are also judged more harshly as they age than men. So working women face a double-whammy: sexism and ageism.
Feminism and Finances (50:41)
Guest: Jeff Hill, PhD, Professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University
Money is a huge life stressor, and it can often drive couples apart. Research shows that wives and husbands who manage finances together and have joint bank accounts have happier and healthier relationships. You might think that’s because working together on it would encourage open discussion and honesty and teamwork. But a new study shows that it actually has everything to do with power and equality in the relationship.
The Story of Fry Bread is the Story of American Indians (1:06:08)
Guest: Kevin Noble Maillard, Professor of Law, Syracuse University, Author of “Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story”
“Fry bread is food.” Those are the first words of a picture book about how to make the deep fried dough and how to eat it. But in this book, fry bread is also a metaphor for the diversity and resilience of Native Americans
Are the Salt Flats Disappearing? (1:22:42)
Guest: Brenda Bowen, Geologist at the University of Utah
Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats are known as one of the best places in the world for car racing. Records have been set there for more than 100 years. But now the Flats are facing a shortage of the most important ingredient: Salt. There’s a lot of finger pointing going on over who’s to blame –some believe it’s the racers fault, others say the salt miners, while some pin it on the government. Or is it just a natural cycle and no one’s to blame?
Wade Jacoby, BYU, on Brexit. Emily Lasko, Virginia Commonwealth University, on psychopaths. Author Bonnie Marcus, “The Politics of Promotion,” on aging women at work. Jeff Hill, BYU, on joint financial decisions. Author Kevin Noble Maillard on book “Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story.” Brenda Bowen from the University of Utah on the Salt Flats.
How to Know if Your Child Has a Learning Disability (0:30)
Guest: Dana Stahl, Author of “The ABCs of Learning Issues: A Practical Guide for Parents”
With the school year well under way, you’ve probably already dealt with your fair share of kid stress over homework and tests. Or maybe it’s a constant fight because your child couldn’t care less. But how do you know when it’s gone past the realm of normal and there’s a learning or behavioral issue there?
Firefighter’s Are at Risk for Suicide, But There’s Help Available (19:34)
Guest: Jeff Dill, CEO and Founder of the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance
When others run from danger, first responders run towards it. Our firefighters, policemen, and EMT’s put their lives on the line every day. But while they’re watching out for us, who’s watching out for them? According to the Ruderman Family Foundation, first responders are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. And for firefighters, the numbers are particularly staggering because the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance estimates that only 40% of firefighter suicides are actually reported.
Stormquakes (36:06)
Guest: Wenyuan Fan, an Assistant Professor of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Florida State University
You’ve heard of earthquakes. You’ve heard of storms. Now how about a “stormquake”? Sounds like a cheesy superhero name, but it’s actually a real geological phenomenon. Researchers just discovered last year that stormquakes exist. They occur when a hurricane and the ocean combine to create seismic activity. Don’t worry, stormquakes won’t be causing the apocalypse anytime soon, but they are shaking up what scientists thought they knew about Earth.
Soil Causing Lead Poisoning in Children (51:08)
Guest: Howard Mielke, Research Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Tulane University School of Medicine
Gasoline with lead in it was phased out of the US by1996. But after decades of burning leaded fuels, all that lead didn’t just disappear. Now it’s settled into our soil and still impacting children’s health across the country.
Anxiety Lingers After the Hawaii False Missile Alert is Resolved (1:09:01)
Guest: Nickolas Jones, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University
For 38 terrifying minutes, Hawaii residents thought a missile was headed their way on January 18th last year. They were told it was not a drill, only to find out a half an hour later that it had all been a mistake. There was no missile threat. But a new study shows that the fear and anxiety lasted much longer than 38 minutes. Some people even refused to believe that there really wasn’t a threat, no matter what officials said.
Better Representing Seniors in Media (1:25:18)
Guest: Martha Boudreau, Executive Vice President & Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at AARP
Think of the last time you saw a person older than 50 in an advertisement. Most likely it was for some sort of medication or they were sitting on a park bench alone. Or you may not be able remember a recent advertisement with a senior in it at all. New research from the AARP shows that older people in media are usually depicted as dependent, disconnected, or sick. And that just doesn’t line up with the facts.
Author Dana Stahl on book “The ABCs of Learning Issues: A Practical Guide for Parents.” Jeff Dill of the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance on firefighter suicide prevention. Wenyuan Fan, Florida State University, on stormquakes. Howard Mielke, Tulane University School of Medicine, on soil causing lead poisoning in children. Nickolas Jones, Princeton University, on anxiety after the Hawaiian missile alert. Martha Boudreau from the AARP on senior representation in the media.
Smart, informative conversations and interviews that go beyond mere headlines and sound bites.
Ryan Vogel, Utah Valley University, on foreign diplomacy. Dr. Robert Speel, Penn State University, on the electoral college. Dr. Cande V. Ananth of Rutgers University on blood pressure in pregnant mothers. Michael Richardson on making theater more enjoyable for deaf audiences. Devin Kearns, University of Connecticut, on identifying dyslexia. Alison Booth from the University of Virginia on women biographies.
Rachael Bale from National Geographic’s animals desk on pangolin trafficking. Emile Bruneau, University of Pennsylvania, on dehumanization. Author Sarah Barker, “50 Things to See in the Sky,” on stargazing. Michael J. Boivin from Michigan State University on HIV impairment. Rick Aster, Colorado State University, on California earthquakes. Ryan Martin, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, on healthy anger.
Pangolins Are One of the Most Trafficked Animals Worldwide (0:36)
Guest: Rachael Bale, Executive Editor of National Geographic’s animals desk
One of the world’s most highly trafficked animals is one you may have never even heard of. It’s a small, weird-looking mammal covered in scales called a pangolin. It lives in parts of Asia and Africa and is endangered. Earlier this year, authorities in Singapore seized 28 tons of pangolin scales. Pangolin poaching is increasing, and it’s alarming experts. (Originally aired June 18, 2019)
Dehumantization (14:41)
Guest: Emile Bruneau, PhD, Director of the Peace and Conflict Neuroscience Lab in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
Throughout history humans have justified atrocities against entire groups of people by defining their victims as less-than-human. We saw this at work in the extermination of American Indians and enslavement of African Americans in US history. Leading up to the Holocaust, Jews and the Roma were collectively referred to as “subhumans.” Emile Bruneau’s research is dedicated to understanding how this kind of hate happens and how it might be prevented. (Originally aired July 30, 2019)
Expert Advice for Brilliant Stargazing Adventures (34:03)
Guest: Sarah Barker, Astrophysicist, Author of“50 Things to See in the Sky.”
With our smartphones, laptops, and tablets, we’re constantlylooking down at lights. So much so that we often forget to look at the lights above us. Astrophysicist Sarah Barker says we’re losing something by ignoring the stars. Her new book, “50 Things to See in the Sky” gives stargazing tips, and you don’t even have to leave the city or own fancy equipment to rediscover the heavens. (Originally aired July 3, 2019)
Computer Games May Rehabilitate Neurocognitive Damage in African children (51:13)
Guest: Michael J. Boivin, Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Ophthalmology at Michigan State University
Children with malaria or HIV aren’t just affected physically with things like fever and fatigue –these two illnesses can also cause significant brain damage. And when those kids live in sub-Saharan Africa, cognitive impairments are rarely addressed. (Originally aired June 17, 2019)
Why the Big Earthquakes in California Recently Were Not “The Big One” (1:07:49)
Guest: Rick Aster, Professor and Department Head of the Geosciences Department at Colorado State University
This year has been a shaky one for California. The two earthquakes on the Fourth of July were the biggest the state’s seen in decades. They clocked in at 6.4 and 7.1on the Richter scale and have been followed by hundreds of smaller quakes in the region. And yet seismologists say “the big one” is still coming for California. (Originally aired July 18, 2019)
Anger Can Actually Be Healthy (1:22:32)
Guest: Ryan Martin, Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
We often think of anger as a bad thing –it can make us mean and reckless and lead us to believe that the idiot cutting us off in traffic is a monster. And it’s even worse on the internet. But anger expert Ryan Martin says we’re overlooking the emotion’s power for good. (Originally aired July 10, 2019)
David Downs from Leafly on vaping products that contain THC. Jonathan Day, University of Florida, on mosquito bites. Kirby Grines, Founder of 43Twenty, on the streaming wars. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story. Author Jennifer Lynn Stoever, “The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening", on how we listen to race. Allen Sanderson, University of Chicago, on collegiate sports.
Illicit Vaping Products Are Making People Sick. Here’s Where They Come From (0:30)
Guest: David Downs, California Bureau Chief, Leafly
The CDC’s latest update on the mysterious vaping illness sweeping the country says more than 800 people have been injured and 12 have died. The precise cause of the lung injuries is still under investigation, but the CDC says most of the patients report using black market vaping products that contain THC –which is the psychoactive component of marijuana. A team of reporters with the cannabis publication Leafly tracked THC vaping products available on the street back to their source for some insight into what’s causing so many people to get sick.
Why Some People Get Their Blood Sucked More Than Others (24:01)
Guest: Jonathan Day, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology, University of Florida
My legs are covered in itchy, red welts right now because I just got back from a trip to the Grand Canyon and got eaten alive by mosquitos. But annoyingly, no one else in my group did. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, so as soon as I got cell service, I googled it and discovered that it’s not just bad luck –there are actual genetic factors that make one person more likely to get their blood sucked than another.
TV Shifts from Cable to Streaming Services, the Latest on “The Streaming Wars” (40:01)
Guest: Kirby Grines, Founder of 43Twenty
The best shows on television right now are not on TV at all, at least according to the recent Emmy Awards. What I mean is they’re not on network television. And beyond that, most aren’t even on cable. To watch them, you’ll need a fast internet connection and a subscription to Netflix or Amazon or Hulu. And soon you’ll also need a subscription to Disney+ and Apple TV and YouTube TV and HBO Go. And if you’ve been watching your favorite new –or old –network TV shows like The Office or The Good Place on a streaming site like Netflix or Hulu, that’s changing, too. CBS already requires a subscription to its own service to stream its shows and NBC will soon be doing the same with a service called “The Peacock.” Anyway, it’s all very confusing. And for those of us who abandoned cable because paying for a few streaming sites was a lot cheaper –well it was good while it lasted.
Apple Seed (51:08)
Guest: Sam Payne, the Apple Seed
Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story about space travel.
How We Listen to Race (1:02:05)
Guest: Jennifer Lynn Stoever, PhD, Associate Professor at Binghamton University, author of “The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening”
The argument that we may someday live in a “color blind society” rests on the idea that racism is just a visual practice. But maybe we also hear race. W.E.B.DuBois said that the color line, or the way in which people are segregated against in society, was “the problem of the 20thcentury.” Drawing from that ideaand theorists, Jennifer Lynn Stoever, Associate Professor at Binghamton University, has looked at the way that racism also works through listening or the “sonic color line.
Are College Athletes Getting a Raw Financial Deal? (1:19:54)
Guest: Allen Sanderson, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Chicago
The state of California passed a law this week that has the whole college athletics world spinning. Starting in 2023, athletes at California’s state-run universities will be allowed to make their own sponsorship and endorsement deals. That’s completely against the rules of the NCAA. And the NCAA says California going rogue like this is going to cause all sorts of problems for collegiate athletics. So there will of course be lawsuits and ongoing attention to this question of whether or not college athletes are getting a raw deal and maybe ought to just get paid like the pros.
More Opioid Lawsuits Moving Toward Settlement (0:33)
Guest: Jennifer Oliva, Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law
It’s been a big couple of days for lawsuits related to the opioid crisis. Just as the first federal trialabout opioids was set to get underway on Monday against four companies, a settlement was reached to end the lawsuit. But that deals involves just two counties in Ohio which will get $260 million dollars in the settlement. Then a few hours later, a bipartisan group of state attorneys general announced they’d reached a tentative $48 billion opioid settlement that would apply nationwide. That deal still needs sign off from a lot of other states and cities, though –and coming to any kind of nationwide agreement on how much opioid makers and distributors should pay has been tricky to this point.
The Importance of Play (21:54)
Guest: Charlie Todd, Founder of Improv Everywhere
Imagine you’re on lunch break in a public place when all of a sudden you hear this. Soon several people around you break out into song and dance, including the security guard. Would you think it was funny? Would you just want to eat in peace? A group called Improv Everywhere did this flash mob musical you’re hearing in the Trump Tower. They’ve been doing all kinds of pranks in public places for a decade -you’ve probably seen one of their viral videos. Charlie Todd is the founder, and he believes that what they do isn’t just fun, but also important and meaningful.
Removing Landmines and Empowering Communities at the HALO Trust (34:01)
Guest: Chris Whatley, Executive Director, HALO USA
Imagine if a field near your house was littered with hidden landmines and unexploded ordnance from a war that’s over, but nobody cleaned up after. So every day, you worry that your kidsmight stray off the safe path, stumble on a landmine and end up injured, or worse. That’s a reality parents live with in dozens of countries around the world, including Angola, which Britain’s Prince Harry recently visited. Landmines are an unhealed scar of war. By clearing the landmines, we can help this community find peace and with peace some opportunity.” Prince Harry was following in the footsteps of his mother, Princess Diana, who helped spark global action on landmine removal with her advocacy. The HALO Trust is a leading nonprofit working on this issue across Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East. Anywhere there’s been a protracted war, leftover landmines are a problem.
Religious Freedom and LGBT Rights Back at the US Supreme Court (51:10)
Guest: Luke Goodrich, Vice President and Senior Counsel, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Author of “Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America”
The US Supreme Court is back in session and one of its most consequential cases goes straight to the heart of the divide between religious freedom and LGBT rights. The justices are being asked to decide if the federal law that prohibits workplace discrimination because of race, religion or sex, also protects gay and transgender workers. Religious organizations that represent tens of millions of Americans –including the National Association of Evangelicals, American Islamic Congress and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints –have filed a brief asking the Supreme Court not to expand the definition of “sex” in Civil Rights law.
Combining Walking, Therapy, and Nature (1:09:54)
Guest: Jennifer Udler, Clinical Social Worker and founder of “Positive Strides”
When I meet with my therapist, I sit on a couch and she sits opposite me in an office. That’s pretty standard. But social worker Jennifer Udler never meets with her clients in an office. Their therapy sessions are always outdoors, while walking.
Museum Learning (1:26:31)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Jennifer Oliva, Seton Hall University School of Law, on opioid lawsuits. Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere, on play. Chris Whatley, executive director of the HALO Trust on landmines. Author Luke Goodrich, “Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America,” on religious freedom. Jennifer Udler, founder of “Positive Strides,” on walking therapy. Rachel Wadham from Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio on museum learning.
Jose R. Cabanas, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to the United States. John Protzko from the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences on the truthfulness of fast answers. Author Sarah Fine on book “In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School." Timothy Beach, University of Texas at Austin, on Mayan irrigation. Rose Sokol-Chang of the American Psychological Association on why kids whine. Kirsten Hawkes from ParentPreviews.com on movies about female villains.
Cuba’s Ambassador on the Escalating US Sanctions (0:31)
Guest: Jose R. Cabanas, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to the United States
Since President Donald Trump took office he has steadily re-imposed sanctions and travel restrictions on Cuba that Obama Administration had lifted. Recently, the Trump Administration has imposed additional sanctions because of Cuba’s support for the Maduro government in Venezuela. Cuba, Russia and China continue to back Nicolas Maduro, while the US, European Union and most Latin American countries recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president and want Maduro to step down.
Fast Answers to Questions Aren’t Necessarily More Truthful (12:33)
Guest: John Protzko is a Cognitive Scientist in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara
If you ask someone a question and they answer quickly, that must mean they’re telling the truth, right? Because they don’t have time to come up with a lie? Well, not necessarily. Turns out that people can -and will -lie when under pressure.
How American High Schools can Promote Greater Learning (22:25)
Guest: Sarah Fine, Co-Author of “In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School”, Program Director at High Tech High Graduate School of Education
Think back to high school for a moment, if you can bear it. Where did you do your most engaged learning? Was it in particular subject, or with a particular teacher? Maybe it wasn’t even in class, but during extracurricular activity. That’s how it was for me. I worked on the school newspaper. No surprise there, I guess. Education researcher Sarah Fine spent hundreds of hours shadowing high school students in some of the nation’s best schools to figure out the special ingredients for what she calls “deeper learning.”
I Can Do Science (39:30)
Guest:
Maya Swamps and Irrigation May Have Supported a Much Bigger Population (50:38)
Guest: Timothy Beach, Ph.D., Geoarchaeologist, Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin
Just how large were the ancient Mayan cities of Latin America, and how advanced were their farming practices? The two are connected because a civilization can only be as large as it has food to sustain itself –either by growing it or importing it. So that’s why geoarchaeologist Timothy Beach spends so much time puzzling over the Maya farming question. Recently he and his team used airplanes equipped with radar to make some startling discoveries about the scale of Maya agriculture a thousand years ago.
Your Kid Might Have a Good Reason to Whine (1:04:39)
Guest: Rose Sokol-Chang, PhD, Journal Publisher at the American Psychological Association
“How do I stop my kids from whining?” is one of the top questions parenting experts get. But Rose Sokol-Chang studied whining at Clark University and she says it’s actually an important part of a child’s social development. That it’s even a sign of love and affection and parents should pay attention to.
Movies about Female Villains (1:17:53)
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Why is it that Disney’s princesses are nearly always up against a female villain? A villainess if you will. The Evil Queen, Ursula the Sea Witch, the Wicked Stepmother. . . Maleficient. With the second Maleficient film out in theaters, Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com has been giving some thought to the phenomenon of the female villain. What motivates them? Which are the most villainous –and why?
Anne Minden, Former Special Agent with the US Forest Service, on timber poaching. Pat Shea, former Deputy Assistant of Secretary of Interior for Lands and Minerals, on fire rehabilitation. Erica Frankenberg, Pennsylvania State University, on district splits. Erika Boeckeler and Laura Packard from Northeastern University on the Dragon Prayer Book. Anton Bowden, BYU, on back pain.
Schools Move Towards a Four Day Class Week (0:32)
Guest: Paul T. Hill is Founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Research Professor at the University of Washington Bothell
School districts across America are strapped for cash. One solution that’s been gaining popularity over the last decade is to shorten the school week: four slightly longer days in class, followed by a three-day weekend. More than 500 school districts in 25 states have gone that route, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. How’s it working out?
For Better Wildfire Prevention, Look at What Happens to Land That’s Already Burned (17:22)
Guest: Pat Shea, Attorney, Director of the Bureau of Land Management 1997-1999 and Deputy Assistant of Secretary of Interior for Lands and Minerals 1999-2000.
The amount of money the federal government is spending to fight wildfires each year is roughly seven times what it was 20 years ago. More than $3 billion is the typical annual price tag to beat back blazes on forest service and BLM land. As a result, there’s been less and less money dedicated to rehabilitating the scorched land after the flames are out. But that has the perverse consequence of feeding the fire cycle.
How to Catch a Tree Thief: Timber Poaching in the Pacific Northwest (36:37)
Guest: Anne Minden, Retired Special Agent with the US Forest Service, President of Minden and Associates, LLC
Animal poaching is a problem you’re familiar with. But did you know that people also poach trees? Timber thieves will take chainsaws onto forest service land, bring down a Douglas fir or a big leaf maple and make hundreds of dollars selling the wood to a sawmill or a furniture manufacturer. Anne Minden is one of the handful of people who track down tree-robbers.
When School Districts Splinter, Segregation Rises (51:08)
Guest: Erica Frankenberg, PhD, professor of Education and Demography, Pennsylvania State University
Sixty-five years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that public schools cannot be segregated by race. Court-ordered desegregation programs, such as mandatory busing, led schools across the country to be far more racially mixed over the next few decades. But beginning in the early 90s, public schools have been steadily re-segregating by race. Some of that has to do with housing segregation. But school district secession is also part of it. There’s a growing trend nationwide of “splinter” districts that are mostly white and wealthy breaking off from larger school districts.
Ancient Book Discovered at Northeastern Reveals What Life was Like for 15th Century Nuns (1:09:12)
Guest: Erika Boeckeler is an Associate Professor of English at Northeastern University and Laura Packard is the Lead Student on the Dragon Prayer Book project
For years, no one knew the Dragon Prayer book was gathering dust on a university library shelf. Not even the librarian had any idea the 500-year-old book was there. But then English professor Erika Boeckeler joined the Northeastern faculty and asked for all the ancient books they had. When the librarian handed her the medieval manuscript, she quickly got to work and discovered that it gives a look into the life of German nuns.
A New Way of Diagnosing Back Pain (1:25:27)
Guest: Anton Bowden, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BYU and Ulrike Mitchell, Associate Professor of Exercise Sciences, BYU
Back pain is among the top reasons people miss work or visit a doctor. More than half of regular opioid users report back pain. But opioids don’t seem to work well on back pain. And so, addressing the opioid overuse problem in America requires finding better ways to diagnose and treat back pain. To that end, the National Institutes of Health have awarded two-million dollars grant out of its opioid crisis fund to help a team of BYU researchers with their work on low-back pain.
Richard Binzel from MIT on deadly asteroids. Author and Doctor, Anne Kenny, on book “Making Tough Decisions about End-of-Life Care in Dementia.” Matthew E. Taylor, Washington State University, on teaching robots. Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart and Former Takoma Park Youth Council Chairperson Kiran Kochar McCabe on teens voting. Charles Chiu, University of California, on DNA sequencing. Graham Pruss from the Critical Narratives Team and Homeless Research Initiative on vehicle residency.
NASA Practicing Techniques for Countering Deadly Asteroids (0:40)
Guest: Richard Binzel, PhD, Professor of Planetary Science, MIT
In early August, NASA put out a startling press release announcing that an asteroid the size of a football field had just barely missed colliding with Earth. All of NASA’s monitoring systems had failed to notice the asteroid was coming. If it had hit us, it would have obliterated everything within 50 miles of the impact, says NASA. Coincidentally, NASA held a Planetary Defense Conference a few months earlier to plan for just that kind of scenario. They ran a simulation in which scientists launched six imaginary spacecraft at the imaginary asteroid, hoping to knock it off course. But instead, a chunk split off the asteroid and ended up destroying half of Manhattan. MIT planetary scientist Richard Binzel participated in the practice run of NASA’s plan to protect us from an asteroid strike. (Originally aired June 18, 2019)
Dealing with Dementia (16:19)
Guest: Anne Kenny, MD, Professor Emerita, University of Connecticut Health Center. Author of “Making Tough Decisions about End-of-Life Care in Dementia”
Dementia diagnoses hit 500,000 Americans a year –but that number is only the beginning. There are usually several family members who suffer alongside the dementia patient, and it is no easy task for them to get through the experience with their sanity and relationships intact. Anyone embarking on that journey could use a guide. (Originally aired November 21, 2018)
Training Robots Just Like We Train (39:29)
Guest: Matthew E. Taylor, assistant professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University
In the not-too-distant future, when robots are cooking our meals and cleaning our houses, how do you suppose we’ll train them to do things the way we like them? To add that extra dash of spices right at the end? Or tuck the bed sheet corners in the way we like them? Goodness knows I’ve struggled to get my smart phone set up just the way I like it. . . I can only imagine what challenge a robot maid might present. This is the riddle Matthew Taylor is tackling at Washington State University’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, where he’s a professor. He thinks maybe training a robot will be similar to training a dog. (Originally aired June 21, 2016)
Are 16-year-olds Mature Enough to Vote? (51:10)
Guest: Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart & Former Takoma Park Youth Council Chairperson Kiran Kochar McCabe
Many of the young activists who’ve been joining immigration and climate protests over the last few years will still be too young to vote come the 2020 election. The national voting age is 18. But states can let younger people vote in statewide elections. City governments can do the same thing for citywide elections. Takoma Park, Maryland, which is a suburb of Washington, DC, six years ago became the first city to lower its local election voting age to 16, despite concerns that kids that young aren’t mature enough to cast an informed vote. (Originally aired August 13, 2018)
New DNA Sequencing Technique Diagnoses Diseases Better (1:10:59)
Guest: Charles Chiu, MD, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of California at San Francisco
There’s a fair amount of guesswork and trial-and-error in treating a patient with a mysterious infectious disease. Even when you’ve got what looks like a common cold or flu virus, a test can take days to come back with enough specifics to guide your doctor on which medicine to prescribe. In critically ill patients, where the infection is moving fast and time is short, doctors need better options. (Originally aired July 8, 2019)
The Forgotten Homeless (1:25:31)
Guest: Graham Pruss, Researcher, University of Washington's Interdisciplinary Critical Narratives Team and Homeless Research Initiative
Big cities with expensive housing across the country are seeing a rise in the number of people living in their cars. Oakland, California this week announced its car and RV dwelling population has doubled over the past two years. This is a tough population for cities to help because, technically car campers are homeless, but they don't usually consider themselves homeless and they’re not interested in staying at a homeless shelter or accessing homeless services. So they fall through the cracks –and become a nuisance for neighborhoods who don’t want overstuffed cars parked perpetually on their streets. (Originally aired July 25, 2019)
Political Science Professor Chris Karpowitz, BYU, and Constitutional Law Professor Fred Gedicks, BYU, on impeachment. Author Wendy Pearlman, “We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled," on Syria. Stephen Kelly, School of Public Policy at Duke University, on Machias Island. Doctor and Author, Judy Stone, on book “Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil.” Phil Windley, BYU, on smarthome cybersecurity.
What is the Legal, Constitutional Way to Do Impeachment, and Are Democrats Doing It? (0:35)
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Frederick Gedicks, JD, Professor of Law, BYU
President Trump has called the impeachment inquiry currently underway by House Democrats “illegal, invalid, unconstitutional” and another word we can’t say on the air. He, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Vice President Mike Pence have all announced they will not respond to subpoenas from the House for information or testimony. One of their key complaints is that the House of Representatives has not held a vote on initiating the impeachment inquiry.
Assad Has Won the Syrian War. But “The Revolution is an Idea and Ideas Don’t Die.” (21:03)
Guest: Wendy Pearlman, PhD, Professor of Middle East Politics, Northwestern University, Author “We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled”
As US troops withdraw from Northeastern Syria this week, Turkish are attacking Kurdish forces there and hundreds of thousands of civilians are once again on the run from violence. Without US support, the Kurds have turned to Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad’s military for support fighting Turkey, and so, the Assad regime has scored another major victory in regaining virtually all of the territory it lost over eight years of Civil War. What now for the Syrians who protested in the streets eight years ago and took up arms to oust Bashar Al-Assad? Political scientist Wendy Pearlman has spent the last 8 years speaking with Syrians at length about their motivation for protesting, their hopes and regrets and the war drags on. In 2017, she published excerpts of those interviews in a book called “We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled.”
The Last US/Canada Border Dispute (38:48)
Guest: Stephen Kelly, Former Diplomat and Research Scholar at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University
You know Puffins? They look like a cross between a penguin and a toucan? One of the very best places for puffin watching in America is a smallish mound of rock off the coast of Maine. It’s called Machias Seal Island and America has claimed it since the late 1700s. But Canada says the island has been its territory since the mid-1600s and believe it or not, this dispute has never been settled. For a long time, it seemed like it didn’t really matter, since neither the US or Canada are willing to come to blows over a little island that’s really only valuable as a spot for tourists to birdwatch. But the dispute also extends to Atlantic Ocean waters around the island, which have become a source of more heated dispute recently because there are lobsters in that water.
Holocaust Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph over Evil (51:11)
Guest: Judy Stone, MD, Infectious Disease Physician, Author of “Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil”
Most families have some stories that aren’t to be discussed at gatherings. If not necessarily skeletons in the closet, they’re uncomfortable episodes or tragedies best left out of those after-dinner conversations when the kids go off to play and the adults linger at the table to reminisce. Judy Stone grew up knowing that any discussion about the World War II years was off-limits in her family. Stones parents, aunts and uncles were all Hungarian Holocaust survivors. It was only near the end of her mother’s life, that Judy Stone began to hear the stories of suffering and survival in her family. She spent the next decade interviewing relatives and tracking down genealogical records. The result is a new book called, “Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil.”
Smarthome Cybersecurity (1:27:40)
Guest: Phil Windley, Professor of Computer Science, Brigham Young University
These days everything seems to be smart: lightbulbs, fridges, speakers, tvs... the list goes on and on. But when you make your home smart, what risks are you taking for the convenience? We asked for your questions, and we have a cybersecurity expert here in studio to answer them.
Stanley Rosen from the University of Southern California, on China censorship. Kate Kavanaugh of Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe on more sustainable meat-eating. Andrew Day from the British Columbia Parks Foundation on buying the park Princess Louisa Inlet. Sam Payne from the Apple Seed shares a story. Lauren Zolkiewicz on increasing recess time. Author S. James Gates, Jr., on book "Proving Einstein Right: The Daring Expeditions that Changed How We Look at the Universe."
To Be Big in China Requires Playing by China’s Censorship Rules (0:32)
Guest: Stanley Rosen, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of Southern California
Fresh back from a couple of exhibition games in China this week, NBA star LeBron James set off a fire storm with his reaction to a tweet that had set off an earlier firestorm. “You know when you’re misinformed or you’re not educated about something –and I’m just talking about the tweet itself –you never know the ramifications that can happen. And you know we all seen what that did.” The tweet was fairly short and quickly deleted. It was posted by the general manager of the Houston Rockets and it read “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” China’s communist government immediately condemned the tweet –it sees the Hong Kong protests as a violent separatist movement. The timing was bad, because LeBron’s LA Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets were just about to head off to China for some pre-season games and a bunch of publicity to gin up support for the NBA in China–which is a really lucrative market for the league. Chinese companies pulled sponsorship from the NBA and team appearances were cancelled. Chinese TV networks refused to broadcast the games. The NBA apologized to China, but that’s tricky because here in America we believe in free speech and furthermore, what the Houston Rocket’s executive tweeted about supporting Hong Kong protesters is a pretty mainstream view in the West. And so, American media and entertainment companies are in a tough spot. The Chinese market is a gold mine, but reaping those profits means cooperating with China’s communist censors.
Butchers Aim for More Sustainable Meat Eating (20:45)
Guest: Kate Kavanaugh, Cofounder and CEO of Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe
A former vegetarian is the last person I’d expect to see behind the counter at a butcher shop carving steaks off a carcass. But that’s Kate Kavanaugh’s story. She’s part of a movement the New York Times recently called “ethical butchering.” Kavanaugh says “sustainable” might be a better word.
Crowdfunding Saves a Stretch of Pristine Wilderness in British Columbia (37:28)
Guest: Andrew Day, CEO of the British Columbia Parks Foundation
Up north of Vancouver, along Canada’s Pacific coast, glaciers have carved narrow, finger-like fjords that are spectacular. One of them is sometimes called the “Yosemite of the North” because of its high cliffs and waterfalls. Princess Louisa Inlet is its actual name and recently a stretch of its shoreline went up for sale. Logging companies were eyeing it, until the British Columbia Parks Foundation stepped in with a bold plan. They were going to crowdfund $3 million to buy the land for preservation as a public park. With just three months to round up the cash, they did it.
The Apple Seed (51:10)
Guest: Sam Payne, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne from The Apple Seed shares a spooky story in honor of October.
Increasing Recess Time (1:01:47)
Guest: Lauren Zolkiewicz
In many school districts pressure to have kids perform well on exams has led to cutting time from other programs and activities –including recess. But some say that’s a big mistake.In one of the largest school districts in the country one parent, who is also a high school teacher, has worked tirelessly to make a difference for her child and thousands of other children in one way: longer recess. Lauren Zolkiewicz is a mother and high school teacher who is passionate about free, unstructured play being built into the elementary school curriculum. Through her movement “More Recess MCPS”, she has begun a pilot program that has doubled recess time in six of her district’s schools.
Proving Einstein Right: The Daring Expeditions that Changed How We Look at the Universe (1:12:21)
Guest: Sylvester James Gates, Jr., Theoretical Physicist, Brown Theoretical Physics Center Director, Co-Author of "Proving Einstein Right: The Daring Expeditions that Changed How We Look at the Universe"
100 years ago, a total solar eclipse changed our understanding of the universe and made Albert Einstein famous. Up till then, Einstein was just an academic with some intriguing ideas about gravity. But a group of adventurous astronomers set out to test Einstein’s theory of relativity. To do that, they needed to take pictures of the stars during total solar eclipses. And to do that, they had to travel to Russia on the brink of war and deep into the Brazil’s Amazon jungles. Finally, on May 29, 1919, after eight years of failed attempts, astronomers captured the evidence they needed to prove Einstein was right.
How Local Governments Reinforce Segregation in Favor of White Homeowners (0:31)
Guest: Jessica Trounstine, PhD, Professor of Political Science, University of California–Merced, Author of “Segregation by Design”
Is the neighbor who lives next door the same race as you? How about the people living on the next block? Or a mile away, in your same town? Chances are pretty good that you live in a community where most everyone is your same race. Despite decades of anti-discrimination laws and policies, America remains deeply segregated. Is it that deep down, we’re all impossibly racist? No, political scientist Jessica Trounstine says our city and county governments have played an important role in shaping these patterns.
Are More Choices Better... Or Worse? (20:30)
Guest: Thomas Saltsman, Senior Lab Director, Social Psychophysiology Laboratory, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
You’re studying the menu at a new restaurant you’ve heard great things about. The menu is long. But everything looks really good. So your mouth is watering and you keep telling the server to give you a few more minutes to decide. And now you’re starting to feel a little anxious because the rest of your group is ready to order but you can’t decide. So you just pick something. And you’ve got high hopes for what you’ve ordered. But the moment it arrives, you’re regretting your choice. This happens to me every time I go to a new restaurant. And apparently it’s common enough psychologists have a name for it: ““choice overload.” It also happens when people are faced with an endless array of options on streaming TV sites or dating apps.
How Psychopaths Can Still Succeed in Society (34:40)
Guest: Emily Lasko, Doctoral Student, Virginia Commonwealth University
Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Albert Fish are probably the most common names associated with psychopathy. However, some people with dark psychopathic tendencies are able to adequately function in society: hold a job, get married, and be successful. Essentially they’re able to overcome their natural tendencies.
How to Avoid Political Burnout from Stress (51:07)
Guest: Lynn Bufka, PhD, Psychologist and Associate Executive Director of Practice, Research, and Policy at the American Psychological Association
We’re one year and one month away from the 2020 presidential election, so politics will be virtually impossible to avoid in the coming months. Even when we’re not in an election year, it bombards us on cable TV and social media. And that’s taking a toll on our mental health, it seems. The 2018 Stress in America survey, from the American Psychological Association, found that 62% of American adults reported that the current political climate was a significant source of stress for them. Is it possible to be engaged in politics –as a voter and an informed citizen –without having it overwhelm us or harm our relationships?
A Better Way to Prevent Wildfires (1:08:07)
Guest: Eric Appel, PhD, Assistant Professor of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University; faculty fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
California’s largest utility company –PG&E –deliberately shut off power to millions of residents in the state last week hoping to prevent its electricity lines and transmitters from accidentally causing a wildfire during high winds. The strategy seems to have worked in Northern California, but a number of wildfires did break out over the weekend in Southern California, killing four people. Stanford University engineering professor Eric Appel has developed a solution that might let land managers be more proactive in preventing wildfires.
Your Great-Grandparents Had a Greater Impact on your Health than You May Have Thought (1:23:26)
Guest: Dr. B. Paige Lawrence, Professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine
If you’re one of those people who never gets the flu or seems able to shake it fairly quickly while other people end up in bed for two weeks, you might have your grandmother to thank. Immunology expert B. Paige Lawrence at the University of Rochester’s School of Medicine has found evidence that when a female is exposed to certain toxins while she’s pregnant, that exposure affects the immune systems of her children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.
Author Jessica Trounstine on book “Segregation by Design.” Thomas Saltsman, the State University of New York, on choice overload. Emily Lasko, Virginia Commonwealth University, on the biological factors of psychopaths. Lynn Bufka from the American Psychological Association on stress and politics. Eric Appel, Stanford University, on fire resistant gel. Dr. B. Paige Lawrence, University of Rochester School of Medicine, on how your great-grandparents affected your immune system.
Quinn Mecham, BYU, on minorities at risk around the world. Ruth MacDonald, Iowa State University, on processed food. Tim Kovar, founder of Tree Climbing Planet, on connecting with nature through tree climbing. Colombia’s Ambassador to the US, Francisco Santos Calderon, on Venezuelan refugees. William Schaffner from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center on flu facts. Bethanee Bemis of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History on Disney's America.
Minorities at Risk around the World
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
The weekend brought some dramatic developments along Syria’s border with Turkey. Turkish forces invaded towns held by Syrian Kurds, who had been key allies of the US in the fight against ISIS. President Donald Trump has ordered US forces to withdraw from the area. And so, the Kurds have turned to the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad for support in fighting the Turks.
Processing Processed Food Guilt
Guest: Ruth MacDonald, Department Chair / CALS Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University
Processed food is making us overweight and destroying our gut microbiome. I’ve heard so many versions of that, I feel a bit guilty whenever I eat something that comes in a package. Especially if it’s a snack food. But what exactly is it about processed foods that’s so bad?
Connecting with Nature through Professional Tree Climbing
Guest: Tim Kovar, Founder of Tree Climbing Planet
Most of us stopped climbing trees a long time ago. I was never good at it as a kid, either, honestly. But Tim Kovar never stopped, and now spends his time coaxing adults back into the branches. He’s a master tree climbing instructor and founder of Tree Climbing Planet.
Colombia Remains Open to Venezuelan Refugees, But the Cost is Steep
Guest: Francisco Santos Calderon, Colombia’s Ambassador to the US, Former Vice President of Colombia
More than 3.5 million Venezuelans have fled the country’s collapsed economy, government repression and violence over the last three years. Most are living as refugees in neighboring countries –Brazil, Peru, Ecuador. Colombia has welcomed almost half of the displaced Venezuelans and has remained relatively open to new refugees from the crisis as the other countries I mentioned have started imposing restrictions.
Update on This Year’s Flu and How It Spreads
Guest: William Schaffner, M.D., Professor of Preventive Medicine, Health Policy, and Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Why is the flu such a big deal? Is it really that contagious? Dr. Schaffner is an expert on flu and provides some surprising information about how it spreads and why we should protect ourselves. And, for those who at a higher risk to be seriously harmed by the flu, there are medications that can help.
Walt Disney’s Shaping of American Ideals
Guest: Bethanee Bemis, Museum Specialist in Political and Military History, Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Mickey Mouse and his Disney pals embody joy and magic and childlike wonder. For a century, they’ve also been ambassadors of American culture around the world. Here in the US, Smithsonian Museum curator Bethanee Bemis says, Disney cartoons and theme parks have “played a dominant role in shaping our collective memory of American history.”
Making A True-Crime Podcast (0:34)
Guest: Dave Cawley, investigative reporter and host of the COLD podcast for KSL News
The creators of the true-crime podcast COLD revealed new information this week. The viral podcast is about the unsolved 2009 disappearance of Susan Powell. (Originally aired March 7, 2019)
Have You Heard the Hum? Several Theories Try to Explain This Mysterious Noise (16:37)
Guest: Glen MacPherson, Director of the World Hum Map and Database Project
All around the world, people claim to hear a persistent low humming noise that’s sometimes known as the World Hum. Not everyone can hear it. Just some people. The noise usually follows them wherever they go. Glen Macpherson built a steel box to see if he could block out the humming. But even inside of it, the noise was there. MacPherson is not a conspiracy theorist –though there are plenty of those chasing down the world hum. MacPherson’s take is more scientific. He’s a high school science and math teacher and director of the World Hum Map and Database Project which is trying to solve the mystery of the Hum. (Originally aired June 4, 2019)
Rock-Eating River Worms (36:02)
Guest: Dan Distel, Research Professor of Marine Science and Director Of The Ocean Genome Legacy Center at Northeastern University
There’s a worm-like clam that’s recently made a come-back to Brooklyn piers and is causing millions of dollars of damage. The shipworm bores into and digests wood, making little tunnels that permanently weaken the structure. (Originally aired July 16, 2019)
The Deadliest Flu Pandemic in Living Memory Happened 100 Years Ago. Could it Happen Again? (51:10)
Guest: Richard Gunderman, MD, Ph.D., Chancellor's Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, Philanthropy, and Medical Humanities and Health Studies, Indiana University
Some physicians are worried this flu season could be particularly bad. Australia just went through one of its worst flu seasons, and that can sometimes inform what our flu season in the US will be like. But nothing comes close to the flu pandemic a century ago that killed 50 million people worldwide. Could a pandemic like that happen again? (Originally aired November 28, 2018)
War Games Play Pivotal Role in Military Strategy and International Relations (1:13:06)
Guest: David Shlapak, Senior Defense Researcher at the RAND Corporation
Before a country launches an actual military strike, it will often conduct military exercises –war games, they’re sometimes called –as a form of sabre rattling to warn an enemy. Iran is doing that right now on its border with Turkey –an apparent response to Turkey’s airstrikes inside Syria. At the start of the summer, the US military participated in a military practice exercise in the Arctic Circle –in full view of Russia. (Originally aired June 17, 2019)
Driverless Cars to Overtake Planes (1:27:47)
Guest: Scott Winter, assistant professor of Graduate Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
In the near future, you may have the option to hop in a self-driving car or get on a plane. Which would you choose? Being able to skip airport security and having room to lean back and sleep does sound really appealing. So appealing in fact, that airlines might be in trouble. (Originally aired July 30, 2019)
Dave Cawley, host of the COLD podcast for KSL News on making a true-crime podcast. Glen MacPherson, director of the World Hum Map, on the worldwide hum. Dan Distel, Northeastern University, on rock-eating river worms. David Shlapak, senior defense researcher at the RAND Corporation, on war games. Richard Gunderman, MD, Indiana University, on the Spanish flu. Scott Winter, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on the future of the airline industry.
Bruce Cain, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, on power outages in California and wildfire risk. Channing Mavrellis from the Global Financial Integrity on money laundering. Argentina's ambassador to the U.S., Fernando Oris de Roa. Author Kit Chapman on book “Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table.” Doctor Nina Shapiro on cold and flu remedies.
What Deliberate Power Outages in California Have to Do With Wildfire Risk
Guest: Bruce Cain, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
There’s a high risk of wildfire in Northern California right now because of strong winds and dry conditions. So PG&E –California’s largest utility –has deliberately cut power to as many has 800,000 customers over the last two days, spanning 21 counties including parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Equipment owned and maintained by PG&E has sparked many of California’s major wildfires recently, including the state’s deadliest and destructive blaze –the Camp Fire which destroyed the town of Paradise last year and killed 86 people.
How to Fight Dirty Money
Guest: Channing Mavrellis, Director of Global Financial Integrity’s Transnational Crime Program
Around the world, there are countries-sometimes called “developing” or “emerging” -that receive millions of dollars in foreign aid and investment every year. The hope is that at some point the country will grow to the point that it no longer needs foreign aid to sustain a thriving economy. But many countries seem stalled. Why isn’t that money making a difference? Because all this time, even more money has been flowing out of those same countries through crime, corruption and tax evasion.
Argentina’s Ambassador to the U.S.
Guest: His Excellency Fernando Oris de Roa, Ambassador of Argentina to the United States
Relations between the US and Argentina have grown stronger in the four years since Argentina’s current president Mauricio Macri was elected. But President Macri lost the first round of his re-election effort and a significant chance he and his more centrist political party will be out come the general election on Oct. 27.
Making and Breaking the Periodic Table
Guest: Kit Chapman, Science Journalist, Author of “Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table”
The periodic table hanging on the wall in every science classroom turns 150 this year. The elements on it –from hydrogen to helium –are the building blocks of everything on Earth. But not all 118 of them are found in nature. Twenty-six elements on the periodic table today are entirely man-made –and some of those have never actually been seen by scientists. So how do we know they exist? And what’s the point of making them if we can’t do anything with them? The stories of these mysterious elements at the far reaches of the periodic table are the focus of journalist Kit Chapman’s new book called Superheavy.
Listener Questions about Cold and Flu Remedies
Guest: Nina Shapiro, Doctor and Author of “Hype: A Doctor’s Guide to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims, and Bad Advice –How to Tell What’s Real and What’s Not.”
Lots of Our Assumptions about America’s Healthcare System Are Wrong
Guest: Arthur Garson, MD, Director, Health Policy Institute, Texas Medical Center, Co-Author of “Exposing the 20 Medical Myths: Why Everything You Know About Health Care is Wrong and How to Make it Right.”
Twenty-five cents out of every dollar Americans spend on healthcare is wasted, according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That wasted money isn’t making us any healthier. It’s not improving the quality of the care we receive. It’s just down the drain. How can the richest, most developed country in the world be so wasteful when it comes to the thing that matters most to us? Well, for one thing, pediatric cardiologist Arthur Garson says we’re holding on to a lot of misconceptions about how health care works in America.
Veterans Hunt Invasive Florida Pythons
Guest: Tom Rahill, Founder of Swamp Apes
Florida’s Everglades are crawling with thousands of Burmese Pythons, and they’re destroying the ecosystem. It’s such a huge problem that the state government has turned to bounty hunters to track down pythons and kill them. Tom Rahill is an IT guy by day and a snake hunter by night. But for him, it’s about more than the money or saving the Everglades-its therapy. Rahill believes python hunting especially helps veterans and runs a non-profit called Swamp Apes to bring them along.
Overcoming A Key Hurdle Toward a Future of 3D Printed Organs
Guest: Mark Skylar-Scott, PhD, Research Associate, Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering
All over the world, scientists are trying to figure out how to make a human organ. Just imagine if instead of waiting for a heart transplant, a patient’s own cells could be coaxed to grow a new heart. There have been some amazing breakthroughs along those lines, but one of the main problems is how to make sure that all the newly-grown cells coming together in the shape of a heart get the blood and oxygen they need to thrive. They don’t just automatically leave room for blood vessels as they grow, it turns out. And so inevitably, the inside cells die off as the new tissue gets thicker. Researchers at Harvard have figured out how to make artificial blood vessels in lab-grown tissues using a strange kind of 3D printing.
Hmong Stories: “We Had to Use Our Words Like Money, to Make Our Place in the World”
Guest: Kao Kalia Yang, Activist, Teacher, Author of “The Latehomecomer,” “The Song Poet,” and “A Map Into the World”
Kao Kalia Yang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and came to the United States when she was 6 years old. In Laos, her home country, people like her were the target of genocide because many of the men had helped America fight communists during the Vietnam War. Today Kao Kalia Yang is a leading voice for the stories of her people –the Hmong. She’s written several acclaimed memoirs, including “The Latehomecomer” and “The Song Poet.” In October, she’ll publish her first picture book, “A Map Into the World.”
How Aquarium Hobbyists Are Saving Fish Species
Guest: Kapil Mandrekar, PhD Student at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
The world’s freshwater lakes, rivers and streams are under tremendous pressure from pollution and thirsty people and crops. As a result, the fish in those freshwater habitats are also under serious threat. It’s time for an all-hands-on-deck approach to saving them, says fish ecologist Kapil Mandrekar. And that means scientists need to work more closely with fish fans who have home aquariums as a hobby.
Self-Efficacy and Literacy
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Arthur Garson, MD, Texas Medical Center, on healthcare myths. Tom Rahill, Founder of Swamp Apes, on hunting invasive Florida pythons. Mark Skylar-Scott, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on 3D printed blood vessels. Author Kao Kalia Yang, “The Latehomecomer,” on Hmong Stories. Kapil Mandrekar, State University of New York College, on saving fish species. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on self-efficacy and literacy.
Fernand de Varennes, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, on statelessness. Margaret Roberts, University of California, on China censorship. Kyle Rand, Co-Founder and CEO of Rendever, on virtual reality for seniors. Author Geoffrey Cameron on book “Send Them Here: Religion and the Politics of Refugee Resettlement." Andrea Douglas from the Jefferson School African American Heritage on confederate monuments. J. Marshall Shepherd, University of Georgia, on weather apps.
Why Statelessness Is On the Rise Globally
Guest: Fernand de Varennes, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues
Around the world there are at least 10 million people who are “stateless,” according to the United Nations. Which means, they belong nowhere. They’re not simply refugees or individuals living without citizenship status in a country. These stateless individuals have no “home” to go back to, even if they wanted to.
How the Chinese Government Controls Information
Guest: Margaret (Molly) Roberts, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego
The ongoing –and increasingly violent –pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong are testing China’s ability to censor information within its borders. Outside of China it’s easy to find social media posts and news articles that depict the Hong Kong protestors as young people exercising their democratic right to demand more freedom. Inside China, the government controls the media and censors the internet, so people are more likely to encounter the Chinese government’s official take on the Hong Kong protestors –which is that they’re terrorists provoked by the West.
Fighting Loneliness in Seniors with Virtual Reality
Guest: Kyle Rand, Cofounder and CEO of Rendever
Many elderly people have lost mobility and the strength to travel, and that can leave them feeling isolated and depressed. Moving into a care facility can also make some feel like they’ve lost their freedom. But a virtual reality program is giving seniors new life and inspiration. All they have to do is strap on a pair of goggles, and they can do things they normally couldn’t like going scuba diving, visiting their childhood home, or seeing the Eiffel Tower.
Canada Now Leads the World in Refugee Resettlement. America Used to Hold That Title. What’s Changed?
Guest: Geoffrey Cameron, Research Associate, Global Migration Lab at the University of Toronto and author of the forthcoming book, “Send Them Here: Religion and the Politics of Refugee Resettlement”
Since President Trump took office, the United States has steadily taken in fewer refugees. Last week, the Trump Administration announced a limit of 18,000 who will be allowed to resettled in America next year. That’s down from a cap of 110,000 two years ago. What that means is that for the first time in 30 years, the United States no longer leads the world in refugee resettlement. Canada now takes in more refugees than we do.
Why Isn’t There a National Weather Service App?
Guest: J. Marshall Shepherd, professor of geography and atmospheric sciences at the University of Georgia
One of the first things I do in the morning is check the weather app on my phone to see what I should wear that day. Like me, more and more people are getting weather information from apps, and there are plenty to choose from. That is, unless you’re looking for one directly from the US National Weather Service–the weather information source paid for by our taxes. Unlike some other countries, our weather service doesn’t have an app.
What Do We Do with Confederate Monuments?
Guest: Andrea Douglas, PhD, Executive Director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center
City officials in Charlottesville, Virginia would like to remove two prominent statutes in public parks –one of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the other of Stonewall Jackson. When white supremacists marched in Charlottesville two years ago and murdered a counter-protester, they said they were defending the General Lee monument. Why can’t the city just take them down? Because Virginia, like many southern states, has a law that prohibits removal of war memorials and a judge says these monuments are covered by that law.
Van C. Tran, The Graduate Center, on the Harvard affirmative action lawsuit. Author Margret Aldrich, "The Little Free Library Book," on free little libraries. Emilie Johnsen from 4Ocean LLC on plastic recycling. Water Sommelier Martin Riese, on professional water tasting. Sophy Charlton, University of York, on how humans drank milk 6,000 years ago. Amy Farrell of Northeastern University on the undercount of human trafficking.
Asian Americans Divided On Affirmative Action
Guest: Van C. Tran, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology at The Graduate Center, CUNY
Last week, Harvard won the lawsuit brought against it by a group of Asian Americans challenging the school’s admissions policies. The students claim Harvard requires Asian applicants to clear a higher bar than applicants of other races. Having lost this first round, the students are appealing in hopes of eventually landing at the US Supreme Court. What makes this case unusual is that typically affirmative action policies are challenged by white people. Here, it’s Asian Americans making the claim that affirmative action is harming them –and that’s controversial within the Asian American community.
Little Free Libraries Bring Free Books to Neighborhoods Near You
Guest: Margret Aldrich, Media and Programming Manager at Little Free Library and author of The Little Free Library Book
You may have come across a birdhouse-shaped box with books inside and a sign that says, “Little Free Libraries.” There are 90,000 of them in 91 countries. Take a book, leave a book. This year marks ten years since the project started as a way for a book-lover to honor his schoolteacher mother. What surprises me is that this whole project has flourished in the digital age when, you’ve got endless reading material on the phone in your pocket. Who wants to pick from a handful of random books available in a box on someone’s lawn?
Non-Profit that Cleans Oceans Offers Recycling Tips
Guest: Emilie Johnsen, Education Supervisor at 4ocean LLC, M.S. in Marine Biology from Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center, B.S. in Marine Biology from University of South Florida
Around the world, there’s plastic in the ocean, on the beaches, even in our food. It’s safe to say that we have a major plastics problem. The answer is to recycle more, right? Well, how you recycle may be hurting more than it’s helping.
Water Sommelier Martin Riese stays hydrated professionally
Guest: Martin Riese is a Water Tasting Educator, Water Sommelier at Petit Ermitage Hotel in West Hollywood
When you go on vacation, can you taste the difference in the tap water? It might be subtle, but I can. And Martin Riese definitely can. He’s a professional water taster –a water sommelier, even. At the Petit Ermitage Hotel in West Hollywood he oversees a menu of waters and recommends pairings for diners. Which, I know, sounds so LA
Humans Drank Milk 6,000 Years Ago
Guest: Sophy Charlton, Researcher of Biomolecular Archaeology at the University of York
The average American consumes more than 600 pounds of dairy products per year. But it definitely didn’t used to be that way –humans couldn’t always drink milk. Ancient adults were lactose intolerant, and it’s still a mystery why so many humans aren’t anymore. That’s why it was a big surprise when researchers from the University of York examined teeth from people who lived 6,000 years ago and discovered that they consumed dairy.
Human Trafficking
Guest: Amy Farrell, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University
Human trafficking still happens right here in the United States. And it’s happening more often than the official data suggest. Police departments often don’t have a category for “human trafficking” when recording crimes in state and federal databases. Criminologist Amy Farrell at Northeastern University says that – coupled with insufficient training of police officers – has led to a “massive undercount” of human trafficking cases in the US.
Seeking Heroes: A Study of Rwanda Rescuers – (Originally aired November 20, 2018)
Guest: Nicole Fox, PhD, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at California State University, Sacramento
In the capital city of Rwanda this week, residents discovered a grave site containing 100 corpses. They’re believed to be victims of the genocide25 years ago. Over the span of just three months in 1994, more than a million people were murdered in Rwanda. Local leaders and live radio broadcasts were calling for all members of the Hutu ethnic group to kill rival Tutsis. But there were Hutu who risked their lives to rescue and shelter Tutsis. Interviews with some of those rescuers shed valuable light on the dynamics of heroism.
Water Quality - (Originally aired June 10, 2019)
The WhoDunIt Mystery of the Hamburger’s True Origins – (Originally aired May 16, 2019)
Guest: Christopher Carosa, Author of “Hamburger Dreams: How Classic Crime Solving Techniques Helped Crack the Case of America’s Greatest Culinary Mystery” and President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
Fast food is getting slower. We’re waiting an average of 20 seconds longer in the drive-thru window, according to a study out this week from the restaurant industry. That’s all kinds of food –not just burgers. But it’s the hamburger that made fast food the multi-billion-dollar money maker it is today. So claiming to have been the first means big bragging rights. There are actually four different turn-of-the-century food sellers who claim to have invented the burger. Journalist Christopher Carosa pieced together the true story in his book, “Hamburger Dreams” and joined us over the summer.
How Parents Can Help Their Young Adult Succeed – (Originally aired June 5, 2019)
Guest: Larry Nelson, Professor of Family Life at Brigham Young University
When do you take the training wheels off and let your kids find their own way in the world? When they turn 18? When they graduate college? The decision is never easy for parents –but it’s even more complicated when there are so many young adults living at home in the US. The transition to adulthood is taking longer and is more fraught with perils than it was for you or your parents. That’s according to Larry Nelson –a professor of family life at BYU.
Making Super-Plants – (Originally aired January 22, 2019)
Guest: Amanda Cavanagh, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Illinois, and Don Ort, Professor of Plan Biology and Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois
If you’re breathing a sigh of relief that an out-of-control zucchini or tomato vine is finally retiring for the season, this next story might straight you as strange. Scientists at the University of Illinois think plants could grow a lot bigger and faster if only photosynthesis were more efficient. So they’re trying to hack the process and at the start of this year I spoke with two of them. Amanda Cavanagh is a post-doc and Don Ort is a professor of plant biology. Their project is called Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency -or RIPE.
Bird-eating Sharks – (Originally aired July 11, 2019)
Guest: Marcus Drymon, Professor of Fisheries Science at Mississippi State University
Nature is full of fascinating mysteries. Here’s one: how do common backyard birds like doves, swallows and sparrows, end up in the bellies of baby tiger sharks. Do sharks have some sort of high jumping ability we don’t know about?
Nicole Fox, California State University, Sacramento, on Rwanda heroes. Author Christopher Carosa, "Hamburger Dreams", on the origin of the hamburger. Larry Nelson, BYU, on how parents can help their young adult children succeed. Amanda Cavanagh and Don Ort, University of Illinois, on making super-plants. Marcus Drymon of Mississippi State University on bird-eating sharks.
Why is Ukraine Caught Up in So Much Trump Administration Controversy?
Guest: Celeste Beesley, PhD, Political Science Professor, BYU
Ukraine has a population just a little smaller than the state of California. It’s not a global political or economic leader. Sowhy does it keep popping up in scandals related to President Trump? Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is in prison for fraud related to his work with a Ukrainian president. The President’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has visited Ukraine numerous times in the last few years–and has apparently also consulted with Manafort in prison about Ukraine. And of course, there’s the call President Trump had with Ukraine’s president over the summer in which he asked for help investigating political rival Joe Biden. That call is at the center of the impeachment inquiry Democrats have begun.
Mysterious Undersea World and the People Exploring It
Guest: Joel Llopiz, Associate Scientist and Member of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
There is a vast, virtually unexplored ecosystem lurking beneath the surface of the ocean. Scientists call it the Twilight Zone because it gets hardly any light. The fish down there are squishy and transparent and have big fangs and can glow on demand. The Twilight Zone is deep enough that it hasn’t really been affected by humans yet. But commercial fishing companies are eyeing it now, so scientists who study the Twilight Zone are urging the UN to establish some rules for it soon.
Watch the Camera. How TV Debates Shape Opinions
Guest: Patrick Stewart, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Arkansas
The next Democratic presidential debate will be on October 15 and it will be the biggest in history. Twelve candidates will stand on the same stage. That’s the most political historians can ever recall. And it’ll likely make the debate pretty chaotic for viewers –not to mention the moderators and camera operators trying to keep track of who’s saying what, who’s interrupting and who’s got a great facial reaction worth capturing. University of Arkansas political scientist Patrick Stewart’s research suggests camera angles are way more important than you might think when it comes to shaping how you perceive the winners and losers in a debate.
The Private Company That Conquered India and Paved the Way for Today’s Corporate Giants
Guest: William Dalrymple, Scottish historian of India, author of “The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire”
Corporations run the world. They own our data and control our consumption and shape how we think. Google, Amazon, Apple, Walmart, AT&T, Chevron, Exxon Mobil are all among the top 30 largest public companies in the world. But most of the names that list are banks so big and powerful that, when crisis strikes, countries must bail them out or risk having their economies go under. Powerful international companies like this can trace their roots directly back to the rise of the East India Company in the 1700s. It was the first of their kind, though, today’s corporate giants are “tame beasts” by comparison, says Scottish historian William Dalrymple. In his new book, “The Anarchy,” Dalrymple explores how the East India Company–a private company -conquered all of India with its own military twice the size of the British army.
Something’s Toxic at Work and Companies Are Paying the Price
Guest: Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., President & CEO, SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management
A quarter of Americans dread going to work each day. That’s different from wishing you could be off doing something else. Dread implies something’s rotten at work. The Society for Human Resource Management –SHRM–is just out with a new survey of American workers that suggests lots of businesses are struggling with how to deal with a “toxic culture” that alienates employees.
Celeste Beesley, BYU, on Ukraine. Joel Llopiz of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on the Twilight Zone. Patrick Stewart, University of Arkansas, on TV cameras and debates. Author William Dalrymple on book “The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire." Johnny C. Taylor from the Society for Human Resource Management on toxic workplaces.
David Downs from Leafly on vaping products that contain THC. Jonathan Day, University of Florida, on mosquito bites. Kirby Grines, Founder of 43Twenty, on the streaming wars. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story. Author Jennifer Lynn Stoever, “The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening", on how we listen to race. Allen Sanderson, University of Chicago, on collegiate sports.
Illicit Vaping Products Are Making People Sick. Here’s Where They Come From
Guest: David Downs, California Bureau Chief, Leafly
The CDC’s latest update on the mysterious vaping illness sweeping the country says more than 800 people have been injured and 12 have died. The precise cause of the lung injuries is still under investigation, but the CDC says most of the patients report using black market vaping products that contain THC –which is the psychoactive component of marijuana. A team of reporters with the cannabis publication Leafly tracked THC vaping products available on the street back to their source for some insight into what’s causing so many people to get sick.
Why Some People Get Their Blood Sucked More Than Others
Guest: Jonathan Day, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology, University of Florida
My legs are covered in itchy, red welts right now because I just got back from a trip to the Grand Canyon and got eaten alive by mosquitos. But annoyingly, no one else in my group did. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, so as soon as I got cell service, I googled it and discovered that it’s not just bad luck –there are actual genetic factors that make one person more likely to get their blood sucked than another.
TV Shifts from Cable to Streaming Services, the Latest on “The Streaming Wars”
Guest: Kirby Grines, Founder of 43Twenty
The best shows on television right now are not on TV at all, at least according to the recent Emmy Awards. What I mean is they’re not on network television. And beyond that, most aren’t even on cable. To watch them, you’ll need a fast internet connection and a subscription to Netflix or Amazon or Hulu. And soon you’ll also need a subscription to Disney+ and Apple TV and YouTube TV and HBO Go. And if you’ve been watching your favorite new –or old –network TV shows like The Office or The Good Place on a streaming site like Netflix or Hulu, that’s changing, too. CBS already requires a subscription to its own service to stream its shows and NBC will soon be doing the same with a service called “The Peacock.” Anyway, it’s all very confusing. And for those of us who abandoned cable because paying for a few streaming sites was a lot cheaper –well it was good while it lasted.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, the Apple Seed
Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story about space travel.
How We Listen to Race
Guest: Jennifer Lynn Stoever, PhD, Associate Professor at Binghamton University, author of “The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening”
The argument that we may someday live in a “color blind society” rests on the idea that racism is just a visual practice. But maybe we also hear race. W.E.B.DuBois said that the color line, or the way in which people are segregated against in society, was “the problem of the 20thcentury.” Drawing from that ideaand theorists, Jennifer Lynn Stoever, Associate Professor at Binghamton University, has looked at the way that racism also works through listening or the “sonic color line.”
Are College Athletes Getting a Raw Financial Deal?
Guest: Allen Sanderson, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Chicago
The state of California passed a law this week that has the whole college athletics world spinning. Starting in 2023, athletes at California’s state-run universities will be allowed to make their own sponsorship and endorsement deals. That’s completely against the rules of the NCAA. And the NCAA says California going rogue like this is going to cause all sorts of problems for collegiate athletics. So there will of course be lawsuits and ongoing attention to this question of whether or not college athletes are getting a raw deal and maybe ought to just get paid like the pros.
Communist Party Celebrates 70 Years of Power in China
Guest: Rui Zhong, Program Associate, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center
China celebrated 70 years of Communist Party control today with an enormous parade of performers, soldiers and military vehicles. Meanwhile, protesters pressing for more democratic freedoms in Hong Kong clashed violently with police. One demonstrator was shot by police with a live round. That’s a first and marks a major escalation since the weekly marches began in June.
Community Interaction Increases Trust in Police
Guest: Michael Sierra-Arevalo, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice, Rutgers University –Newark
Most of the encounters that happen in America between police and the public are related to enforcement like a traffic stop or responding to a crime report. That can lead to a less-than-trusting, or in some cases outright hostile, relationship. High-profile cases of police brutality against people of color have only fueled that mistrust.
Bird Populations on the Decline
Guest: Ken Rosenberg, Ph.D., Applied Conservation Scientist, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy
Backyard birdfeeders around the US and Canada are quieter than they were in the 1970s. Overall bird populations in North America have declined by thirty percent. Typical backyard birds like blackbirds, finches, larks, warblers and sparrows saw some of the steepest declines.
How Fear of Death Affects Us Day to Day
Guest: Sheldon Solomon, Professor of Psychology, Skidmore College
What makes us human? Is it our wisdom? How about our ability to makes tools or tell stories? Psychologist Sheldon Solomon believes the answer is our mortality–more specifically, our ability to comprehend that we will die. That creates a fear of death that affects how we treat each other, election outcomes, and even the environment.
After 16 Years in Prison, Sean Pica Reformed His Life and Now Helps Others Do the Same
Guest: Sean Pica, Executive Director of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison
When Sean Pica was 16, he murdered a man and went to prison. He spent the next 16 years behind bars –including New York’s notorious Sing Sing Prison. Along the way, he earned a college degree. And he says that is the reason he’s free today, when the majority of people in prison end up back behind bars after their release.
About Fresh puts grocery stores on wheels to fight food deserts
Guest: Annika Morgan, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of About Fresh
There’s a nonprofit in Boston that loads up school buses with fresh produce and sells it at a discount in neighborhoods that lack grocery stores. Doctors in the community even hand out gift cards for the fruits-and-veggies-school-bus to patients who need a healthier diet. They’re literally prescribing food as medicine. Annika Morgan is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of the nonprofit, called About Fresh
Rui Zhong, Wilson Center, on 70 years of communism in China. Michael Sierra, Rutgers University, on how community interaction increases trust in police. Ken Rosenberg, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy, on the decline of bird populations. Sheldon Solomon, Skidmore College, on the fear of death. Sean Pica of the Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison on prison rehabilitation. Annika Morgan from About Fresh on providing fresh produce to communities in food deserts.
Jake Rugh, BYU, on Hispanic homeowners foreclosures. Ashima Krishna of University at Buffalo on the preservation of church buildings. Ali Crandall, BYU, on how positive interactions can counteract childhood trauma. DamienDevaux, co-creator of World Chase Tag, on professional tag. Jeff Bednar, BYU Marriott School of Business, on impostor syndrome. Duane Hamacher and Simon Cropper of the University of Melbourne on what we can learn from indigenous people's interpretations of constellations.
Hispanic Homeowner Foreclosures Helped Trump Win the White House in 2016
Guest: Jacob Rugh, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, BYU
President Donald Trump has so far focused a fair amount of his re-election effort on Florida. It’s where he kicked off the campaign over the summer and where he spends a lot of his time away from the White House. Florida was key to the Trump Campaign’s victory in 2016 –Florida went Republican that year after two election cycles of supporting Democrat Barack Obama. BYU sociologist Jake Rugh has discovered that foreclosures among Latino homeowners in Florida helped turn the state red for Trump in 2016. The findings offer some insight for2020 President candidates.
When a Church Changes Religions
Guest: Ashima Krishna, Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo
When a church’s people abandon the building, what happens to it? In some instances, it gets sold to the highest bidder to be converted into office space and apartments. But in the poor parts of town where business isn’t doing well, boarded up churches sit deserted, neglected, and eventually fall into ruin or get demolished. Yet, architect and historic preservation planner Ashima Krishna recently noticed a trend in Buffalo, New York that could save these old buildings.
Positive Childhood Experiences Can Counteract Childhood Trauma
Guest: Ali Crandall, Assistant Professor of Public Health in the College of Life Sciences at Brigham Young University
Traumatic childhood experiences, such as abuse or losing a parent, puts a kid at a higher risk of having poor health as an adult. But research at Brigham Young University shows that positive childhood experiences can counteract the negative ones in a more powerful way than previously thought.
World Chase Tag is your favorite childhood game, taken to the next level
Guest: Damien Devaux, Co-Creator of World Chase Tag
The last time I played a really serious game of tag I was 14. All the kids in the neighborhood, inside and outside our house, dodging furniture, leaping off the porch. Mom and dad were gone. Babysitter was in charge. We were really into it –until my brother ran through the glass part of the screen door and nearly cut his arm off. 911, an ambulance and so many stitches that he’s still got a gnarly scar all the way up his arm. A couple of brothers from England have turned tag into a serious sport they’re hoping to make professional. They host tournaments all over the world. You have to be really nimble and fast to play at the level of World Chase Tag –that’s what they call it.
Coping With Impostor Syndrome
Guest: Jeff Bednar, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources, BYU Marriott School of Business
Apparently, a lot of people are walking around suffering from something called “impostor syndrome.” That’s what the experts say. But, honestly, I think imposter syndrome is just a fancy term for the way most of us feel when we start a new job or become a parent or get a new assignment at church. You fake that you know what you’re doing until you really do know what you’re doing.
What We Can Learn from the Way Indigenous People Understood the Night Sky
Guest: Duane Hamacher, Associate Professor of Indigenous Astronomy & Science at the University of Melbourne; Simon Cropper, Senior Lecturer at Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne
The constellations we’re familiar with in the Northern Hemisphere were identified by the ancient Greeks based on their own mythology –Orion the god-like hunter and Scorpio the scorpion that slew him, Leo the Lion conquered by Hercules, Taurus the Bull, which is a form the god Zeus was said to have taken. What did other ancient cultures, on different continents, in different millennia, see in the night sky? Surprisingly, many of the same images and similar stories. How can that be?
Eradicating the Last of Jim Crow Laws
Guest: Thomas Aiello, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Valdosta State University. Author of the book, Jim Crow’s Last Stand: Nonunanimous Criminal Jury Verdicts in Louisiana
When the US Supreme Court convenes next month, it will consider whether it’s legal for states to convict someone of a serious crime when the jury in the trial is not unanimous. I know, we have this idea that to be found guilty of a felony like murder, you need all 12 jury members to say “guilty.” That’s true in federal crimes because the Constitution requires it. But do state courts have to follow the same rules? That’s what the Supreme Court will decide. At the moment, there’s just one state in the whole country that allows a partial jury to convict a criminal –it’s Oregon. Louisiana was in the same boat until just a year ago when voters changed the process in a referendum. Thomas Aiello has looked at the history of this practice and says a lot of it comes down to racism.
The Global Unit of Mass in the Metric System Just Changed
Guest: Wolfgang Ketterle, Ph.D., Professor of Physics at MIT
When you step on a scale or put some apples on the little one at the grocery store, how does the scale know exactly what a pound is? If you can believe, there’s actually a chunk of platinum in a vault in France that is the official kilo against which every scale in the world is calibrated. But this is 2019 and the world’s scientists have decided they can define the precise weight of a kilogram in a way that’s more high-tech (and hard for regular folks to understand). We’re going to try, though.
How Animals Physically Adapt to Their Environment
Guest: Ted Stankowich, Professor of Biology at Cal State, Long Beach
We know that animals adapt and evolve to survive as their environments change. So what kind of an environment causes an animal to develop quills, spikes or noxious spray, while other animals living in the same environment have no such protection? Biology professor Ted Stankowich at Cal State, Long Beach things is has something to do with what he calls “danger zones.”
Countering New Threats to Asian Elephants
Guest: Peter Leimgruber, Center Head and Conservation Biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
Ivory poachers have long been a serious threat to African elephants, because both male and female African elephants can grow large tusks. Asian Elephants have escaped some of that poaching pressure, because only their males have tusks and they’re often smaller. But a new type of poaching has emerged in the last several years that has conservationists very worried about Asian elephant populations. Males, females and even juveniles are being killed for their skin.
How Poetry Brought Society Together After WWI
Guest: Jarica Watts, PhD, Professor of English, BYU
World War I changed perceptions of war among a generation of young men who went off dreaming of glory and returned traumatized by the horrors of trench warfare. Their trauma reflected in the literature of the day, too. Especially in the poetry written by soldiers at the front.
Controlling Your Dreams
Guest: Deirdre Barrett, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard
My nighttime dreams are often influenced by what I’m doing or thinking or worrying about during the day. But that’s a far cry from actually being able to manipulate my dreams in the moment. When I’m dreaming, my subconscious is firmly at the wheel and I’m just along for the ride. There is a way to shape your dreams to help you solve problems in the awake world.
Author Thomas Aiello, Valdosta State University, on a unanimous jury. Wolfgang Ketterle, MIT, on the kilo change. Ted Stankowich, Cal State, on animal adaptation. Peter Leimgruber, Conservation Biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology, on saving Asian elephants. Jarica Watts, BYU, on poetry during WWI. Deirdre Barrett, Harvard University, on lucid dreaming.
Kari Hong, Boston College Law School, on asylum policies. Sean Gulick of the University of Texas at Austin on dinosaur extinction. E?adaoin Harney, Harvard University, on archaeological site Skeleton Lake. James S. Gordon, Georgetown Medical School, and author of “The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma” on overcoming the effects of trauma. Author Sharon Robinson, daughter of Jackie Robinson, on her civil rights awakening.
Seeking Asylum at the US Border Is Getting More Difficult By the Day
Guest: Kari Hong, PhD, Associate Professor, Boston College Law School
As of Wednesday, the Trump Administration has agreements with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala aimed at making it harder for migrants to request asylum at the southern US border. These agreements require migrants who pass through another country on their way to the US to first apply for asylum in that other country. People traveling on foot from Central America will be most affected by these policies.
First It Burned Them, Then It Froze them. How an Asteroid Killed the Dinosaurs.
Guest: Sean Gulick, Research Professor at the University of Texas at Austin
You’ve heard that a massive asteroid caused the dinosaurs to go extinct. But how exactly? I’ve never understood why a giant rock crashing to Earth would kill all the dinosaurs. One asteroid couldn’t smash them all. What about the dinos on the other side of the planet –how does an asteroid kill them?
Mystery of “Skeleton Lake” in the Himalayas Deepens After DNA Analysis
Guest: Éadaoin Harney, PhD candidate in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University
There is a mysteriously creepy lake high in the Himalayas of India that has long puzzled archaeologists. The lake and its shore are frozen and snow-covered most of the time, but when they thaw, hundreds of bones surface. Hence the nickname “Skeleton Lake.” Who are these people? Is this a burial ground? Or was there some horrible massacre at the lake? New DNA analysis has offered some clues –but also deepened the mystery.
Breathing and Shaking Toward Recovery from Trauma
Guest: James S. Gordon, MD, professor of psychiatry and family medicine, Georgetown Medical School, author of “The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing after Trauma”
Overcoming the effects of a serious trauma might include medication and therapy. If you’re being treated by psychiatrist James Gordon, it will include deep breathing and frenzied full-body shaking. Dr. Gordon’s techniques sound strange, but they’ve worked for teachers and students affected by the Parkland shooting and for people in Puerto Rico, Houston, Haiti and New Orleans devastated by natural disasters. The techniques have also helped Syrian refugees in Jordan, Palestinian children in Gaza and a range of veterans and victims of war suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jackie Robinson’s Daughter on Her Civil Rights Awakening in 1963
Guest: Sharon Robinson, Author “Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963”
1963 was a pivotal year for the Civil Rights movement in America. The historic March on Washington happened that summer. In the months before that march, the nation watched in horror as TV news cameras showed Alabama police using firehoses and dogs on African American youth marching in what’s known as the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. And in September of 1963, four African American girls were murdered in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16thStreet Baptist Church. 1963 was also a pivotal year in the life of Sharon Robinson, the middle child and only daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson.
President Trump, Ukraine, a Whistleblower and Impeachment
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
House Democrats have begun a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, stemming from a phone call the president had with the newly elected president of Ukraine on July 25th. The White House has released a rough transcript of the call. It shows President Trump asking Ukraine’s president to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and offering the US Attorney General’s help in that. It’s illegal for a US politician to solicit campaign support from a foreign country. That seems to be the reason a whistleblower raised the alarm about this phone call with Ukraine’s president.
Research Shows How Ostracism Can Lead People to Extremism
Guest: Andrew Hales, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia
Being excluded and left out never feels good. It didn’t feel good as a kid on the playground and, it doesn’t feel good when you get left out of a lunch with coworkers or old friends. The question is, so what? Does being ostracized lead people to behave in worrisome ways? Sure, parents, teachers and bosses care about the answer. But, so do leaders of nations where whole groups of people are ostracized because of their race, religion or immigrant status.
Adapting to Life as an Empty Nester
Guest: Jeffrey Arnett, Research Professor of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and Co-Author of “Getting to 30: A Parent’s Guide to the 20-Something Years”
A lot of parents dropped off their 18-year-old kidat college in the past few weeks. Sending off that child is a moment of excitement and pride, but it can also be really sad for parents who don’t have any children left at home anymore. Some of those “empty nesters” now face loneliness and a bad marriage, but for others, it means freedom with their spouse.
In the Surprisingly Organized World of Kidnapping for Ransom, Insurance Companies are Key
Guest: Anja Shortland, Professor in Political Economy, King’s College London, and Author of “Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business”
You’ve probably got a bunch of insurance –for your house, your car, your health, maybe even your life. Ever heard of kidnap insurance? There’s a surprisingly organized industry built around kidnapping people for ransom globally. The companies that provide insurance against the possibility that you’ll get kidnapped for ransom play a strange and important role, according to research of Anja Shortland.
Students with Schitzophrenia
Guest: Cecilia McGough, CEO and founder of Students with Schizophrenia
The first indication of schizophrenia often appears in young adulthood. That’s also when many are experiencing the stresses of college life. The combination can be lethal. It nearly was for Cecilia McGough who attempted suicide her freshman year in college. She was finally able to get a diagnosis and treatment for her schizophrenia. And then she turned to helping other young people overcome the stigma. Cecilia McGough is founder of the nonprofit advocacy group Students with Schizophrenia.
Why Kids from Homes with Lots of Books Do Better in School
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
In a recent research report, written by sociologists, the phrase, Family Scholarly Culture, was used to describe the quality of life inside homes where books regularly serve as levers for inserting new ideas and experiences into the ongoing family conversation. This research was conducted in 27countries (of every economic level and every political persuasion) over a 20 year period. These scientists made comparisons of families using a range of criteria and then statistically matched those up with the records of school success of the family’s children. As it turns out, the single best predictor of school success was the number of books in the home. The authors however, divined that the presence of books altered the kind of conversation that goes on in the home.
Ryan Vogel, Utah Valley University on whistleblowing on the President and impeachment. Andrew Hales, University of Virginia, on how ostracism can lead to extremism. Psychologist Jeffrey Arnett on adapting to empty nester life. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on how books in the home can determine student success. Author Anja Shortland, “Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business”, on kidnap insurance. Water sommelier, Martin Riese, on professional water tasting.
Former Russian Foreign Minister, Andrei Kozyrev, on Russia's failed transition to democracy. Annette Rivero, member of Gig Workers Rising, on new California law restricting independent contractors like Uber and Lyft drivers. David Yeager, University of Texas, on student success. Jeffrey Arnett of Clark University on adapting to life as an empty nester. Constitutional law specialist, Adam Winkler, on guns in grocery stores. Joshua Douglas, University of Kentucky, on gerrymandering.
Behind-the-Scenes Look at Russia’s Failed Transition to Democracy
Guest: Andrei Kozyrev, former Russian Foreign Minister, Author of “The Fire Bird: The Elusive Fate of Russian Democracy”
It’s hard to believe just how promising relations were between the US and Russia in the early 1990s. Presidents George H.W. Bush and Boris Yelstin actually signed an agreement at the time declaring that “from now on, the relationship will be characterized by friendship and partnership.” So how did we end up in what Andrei Kozyrev calls a “renewed Cold War”? Kozyrev explains in his new memoir called “The Fire Bird.” He was a chief advocate for democracy in Russia and better relations with the West. For several years Kozyrev served as foreign minister to Yelstin, who was Russia’s first publicly-elected president.
California Passes Law That Affects Contract Workers
Guest: Annette Rivero, an Organizer of Gig Workers Rising and Driver for Uber and Lyft
What happens in California often spreads to the rest of the country, which is why a new law signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom last week is of such interest nationally. It aims to restrict when companies can classify a worker as an independent contractor and void paying minimum wage or benefits. Uber and Lyft were particular targets of the California law and both companies are now working to get a referendum on the ballot in that would overturn it.
U.S. Supreme Court Leaves Gerrymandering Prevention to the States
Guest: Joshua Douglas, Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky
North Carolina lawmakers just redrew their state’s district maps after a North Carolina court rules that the maps had been created to favor Republicans –a process called gerrymandering. The state judges made it clear their ruling was based in the state’s constitution and not politics. But can voting maps ever not be based in politics when politicians are the ones who drawn them?
Indonesian Capital is Sinking, Where is it Going to Go?
Guest: Luca Tacconi
Stores Like Wal-Mart are Entering the Gun Control Debate
Guest: Adam Winkler, J.D., Specialist in American Constitutional Law, the Supreme Court, and Gun Policy at UCLA. Author of “We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights” and “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America”
After the mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart last month, the company became the latest –and largest–retailer in the country to discourage its customers from openly carrying guns in its stores. Over the years, Target, Starbucks, Chipotle and Costco have implemented similar policies. And this month, Walgreens, CVS, Kroger and some other grocery chains joined the list. Is it even legal for a company to as its customers to leave their guns home when the 2ndAmendment protects the right to bear arms?
In School, It’s the Mindset That Matters
Guest: David Yeager, Associate Professor of Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin
What if one hour at the start of freshman year could set your child up for more success in high school? It’s an online program in two thirty-minute sessions, and when researchers tested it on more than 12,000 students it seemed to help both the struggling students and the high-achievers.
Matthew Memmott, BYU, on Three Mile Island closing. Nicole Hause from the National Skateboarding Team on women in skateboarding. Ilia Delio, Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC, and Josephine C. Connelly of Villanova University on artificial intelligence's role in religion. Bob Mankoff, cartoonist, on Jewish humor. Nick Fitz, CEO of Momentum, on phone addiction. Tim Rademacher, Harvard University, on a tree’s witness of climate change.
Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant Shuts Down for Good
Guest: Matthew Memmott, PhD, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, BYU
The nuclear power plant at the Three Mile Island, infamous for a partial meltdown 40 years ago, shutdown for good over the weekend. The power company that operates the nuclear reactor there says it no longer makes financial sense to keep it running. So let’s take a look at what that means –and how the Three Mile Island meltdown in 1979 changed nuclear power.
Female Skateboarders Prepare for Olympic Debut
Guest: Nicole Hause, Member of the United States National Skateboarding Team
When the Olympics arrive in Tokyo next summer, a bunch of skateboarders will be there. Nicole Hause hopes to be among them. She’s a member of the first-ever US National Skateboarding team that was just created in preparation for the first-time skateboarding will be an official Olympic sport. So legit for so an anti-establishment sport, right?
What’s Artificial Intelligence’s Role in Religion?
Guest: Ilia Delio, PhD, Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC, Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University.
Very smart computer programs can predict the weather, tell you the best driving route to your destination and recommend the next TV show you should stream. We’re pretty used to the idea of artificial intelligence influencing our consumer behavior. What about our spiritual lives? In Japan, you can hire a robot to conduct a Buddhist funeral for a lot less money than a human priest. A European engineer has designed a robot that offers comforting sayings from Catholic scripture. He intends it to offer spiritual succor to elderly people isolated from their faith communities. Would you seek spiritual counsel from an artificially intelligent machine?
Why Jews Are So Funny, and When It’s Okay for Non-Jews to Laugh
Guest: Bob Mankoff, Cartoonist, Former Cartoon Editor for The New Yorker, “Have I Got a Cartoon for You!”
I planned to start this conversation listing off the most famous Jewish comedians. But the list is too long. Rodney Dangerfield, Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, Jerry Lewis, John Stewart, Don Rickles, Gilda Radner, Joan Rivers, Adam Sandler, Larry David, Billy Crystal. I really could go on and on. What’s with being Jewish and being funny? Bob Mankoff has some ideas.
“Notifications” are Keeping You Distracted. Scheduling Them in Batches Can Help.
Guest: Nick Fitz, CEO of Momentum and Former Behavioral Researcher at Duke University
If you want –and even if you don’t –you can get notifications all day long from the apps on your phone. App developers love to push stuff so that it pops up on your “lock screen” and buzzes or dings in your pocket. Have you ever managed to resist checking when that happens? It’s really really hard.
Tree That Tweets About Climate Change
Guest: Tim Rademacher, Harvard Forest and Northern Arizona University Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Trees obviously can’t talk, but there’s one in Massachusetts that can tweet. You heard me right, there’s a 100-year-old Red Oak tree on Twitter that sends out updates about how it’s holding up. You can even ask the tree a question and it will respond.
Carl Saab of Brown University on measuring pain. Markus Meister, California Institute of Technology, on blind navigation. Kelly Ditmar from the Center for American Women and Politics on political moms. Aerospace Historian, Peter Merlin on the history of Area 51. David Pride, University of California San Diego, on good bacteria and viruses. Nicholas Bowman of Texas Tech University on Pokémon.
EEG Test Provides More Effective Way to Measure Pain -- (Originally aired December 10, 2018)
Guest: Carl Saab, Professor of Neurosurgery at Brown University and the director of the Pain & Neural Circuits Center research lab at Rhode Island Hospital
Pain is notoriously difficult to gauge and treat because it’s so subjective. That’s one of the reasons opioids became so popular in the US. All doctors can really do is ask a patient to rate their pain on a scale form 1-10. But now researchers at Brown University are using brain scans to make pain objectively measurable -more like taking your temperature.
Augmented Reality for the Blind -- (Originally aired February 4, 2019)
Guest: Markus Meister is a Professor of Biological Sciences and Executive Officer for Neurobiology at the California Institute of Technology
Blind people have two options for navigation: a cane or a guide dog. Augmented reality may soon be a third choice. At CalTech, they’ve developed software guides a blind person by layering sound on the space around them.
The evolution of motherhood in political campaigns -- (Originally aired June 4, 2019)
Guest: Kelly Dittmaris an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University–Camden and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics, author of Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns
In the last presidential democratic debate, Senator Elizabeth Warren talked about how losing her job as a teacher after having a baby taught her resilience. Senator Amy Klobuchar told a story about how her daughter got really sick after birth inspired her to advocate for hospital reforms and go into public service. Motherhood used to be considered a liability in politics, but more women are highlighting the ways that being a mother qualifies them to lead.
Why Storming Area 51 Is Unlikely to Yield Alien Secrets -- (Originally aired August 6, 2019)
Guest: Peter W. Merlin, Aerospace Historian, Founding Member of the X-Hunters Aerospace Archeology Team, Author of “Images of Aviation: Area 51”
So apparently it was a college kid’s joke, but the Facebook page calling for a mass invasion of the secretive government site Area 51 went viral. Before the owner took it down recently, more than a million people signed on to “Storm Area 51” on September 20th. “They can’t stop all of us!” “Let’s see them aliens” the page quipped. And while it’s been taken down, others have popped up in its place. Just in case people are serious, the military has warned that “Area 51 is an opening training range . . . and the US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”
Your Body Hosts Trillions of Viruses, and That’s OK -- (Originally aired December 20, 2018)
Guest: David Pride, MD, Director of Molecular Microbiology, University of California San Diego
It’s the time of year when we start thinking of viruses and bacteria as particularly nefarious –flu and cold season. But our bodies, are in fact, teeming with viruses we wouldn’t want to be without. Just like there are “good bacteria,” we’re also learning there are “good viruses.” And you’ve got a lot.
Pokémon: Childhood Fad or Enduring Adult Franchise? -- (Originally aired June 4, 2019)
Guest: Nicholas Bowman, Professor of Communication Studies, Texas Tech University
Ash Ketchum finally became a Pokémon master this week after 22 years. I admit that means nothing to me, but fans of the Pokemon anime cartoon series have watch the show’s hero –Ash –come up short in every major competition for 22 years. Then he wins and fans are ecstatic –all over social media calling the victory historic and inspirational. Not being a Pokemon fan, I honestly don’t get how it’s still so popular after all these years.
Purdue Prepares to Pay the Piper for Role in Opioid Epidemic
Guest: Jennifer Oliva, Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall University
Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, filed for bankruptcy this week as part of a settlement over the billions of dollars it made aggressively marketing addictive opioids. The company and its owners are facing thousands of lawsuits from states, counties, cities and Native American tribes.
Can You Hear the Stars Tonight? –Astronomy for the Blind
Guest: Allyson Bieryla, Manager of the Astronomy Lab and Clay Telescope in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard
The stars have been a source of wonder and guidance for centuries--but only to those with the eyes to see them. Harvard’s astronomy lab is creating interactive ways for the people with visual impairments to experience the night sky through touch and sound
John Lunn, Composer for Downton Abbey score
Guest: John Lunn
The Crawleys of Downton Abbey are back: That music alone is enough to send a shiver of anticipation down the spine of Downton Abbey fan like me. Luxurious estates, extravagant costumes –and so much drama for both the Crawleys and their servants! None of it would be as good without the lush musical background composed by John Lunn. He won two Emmys for the TV series and composed the music for Downton Abbey the movie, which is now in theaters
An Evangelical in the Trump Era
Guest: Richard Mouw, Professor of Faith and Public Life at Fuller Theological Seminary, Author “Restless Faith”
White evangelicals were important to President Trump’s election in 2016 and will be again in 2020. As a result, we’ve seen a number of prominent evangelicals publicly distance themselves from the label. They’re unhappy that being “evangelical” in America today equates with supporting a politician whose behavior, rhetoric and policies run contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But Richard Mouw is sticking with the label “evangelical” –though he clearly wrestles with it in his new book, “Restless Faith.”
America Is Failing to Protect All Religions Equally
Guest: Asma Uddin, Religious Liberty Lawyer, Author “When Islam Is Not a Religion”
Let’s turn now to the experience of being Muslim in America today. Asma Uddin is a legal scholar and author of the new book, “When Islam is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom.” Asma Uddin, welcome back to Top of Mind.
Faking Out the Deep Fake Detectors
Guest: Christye Sisson, Professor of Photographic Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology
It’s now possible for someone to doctor a photo of a video so professionally that even an expert eye can be fooled into thinking it’s real. The Department of Defense is concerned enough about the potential for this kind of “deepfake” technology to spark violence, influence elections and spread misinformation that it’s got a whole deepfake detection research project that includes paying scientists to make the most convincing fakes they can.
Jennifer Oliva, Seton Hall University, on the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy. Allyson Bieryla of Harvard University on astronomy for the blind. John Lunn, composer for Downton Abbey score on the new movie. Author Richard Mouw, “Restless Faith”, on evangelicals in the Trump era. Author Asma Uddin, “When Islam Is Not a Religion”, on religious freedom. Christye Sisson from the Rochester Institute of Technology on deepfakes.
Aaron David Miller, former US State Department Middle East Advisor, on Iranian tensions. Marcus Lashley of the University of Florida on feral pigs. Scott Bryan, Queensland University of Technology, on pumice rafts. Mary Cox, Oxford University, on hunger in WWI. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story. Author Alexandra Lange, “The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes IndependentKids”, on the evolution of playground design.
Iranian Tensions and Israeli Elections
Guest: Aaron David Miller, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment, former US State Department Middle East Advisor and Negotiator
The Trump Administration says an attack that knocked out more than half of Saudi Arabia’s oil capacity over the weekend was Iran’s handiwork. Because Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the United States, there’s the possibility that we’ll be involved in retaliating for the strike. President Trump tweeted today that he’s ordered a substantial increase in sanctions on Iran.
Feral Pigs Harm Wildlife and Biodiversity as Well as Crops
Guest: Marcus Lashley, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation at University of Florida
Feral pigs are roaming the United States. These are animals that were once domesticated but are now living in the wild. And they are doing tremendous damage.
Pumice Rafts Allow Corals and Other Marine Life to Hitch a Ride
Guest: Scott Bryan, Associate Professor of Geology and Geochemistry at Queensland University of Technology
You know pumice –that rock with the little holes in it? People use it to smooth off callouses on feet? Well there’s a giant clump of it floating in the Pacific Ocean right now. It’s bigger than the island of Manhattan, made up of pumice stones ranging from marble to basketball size. Really bad news for boats who come upon it. But the strange phenomenon is great news for marine life, apparently.
How Hunger Impacted German Civilians During and After WWI
Guest: Mary Cox, William Golding Junior Research Fellow in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Brasenose College, Oxford University
The First World War was among the deadliest in history. Tens of millions of soldiers and civilians died. Millions more were maimed or emotionally scarred by the brutal fighting in the trenches and use of chemical weapons. Lingering effects of the Great War were also evident in the bodies of German children, who were malnourished throughout the conflict because of a very effective Allied blockade that kept food, fertilizer and military supplies out of Germany.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares about the importance of storytelling in the world.
The Evolution of Playground Design and its Effect on Children
Guest: Alexandra Lange, is a Design and Architecture Critic and Author of “The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids”
I miss merry go rounds. You hardly find them on playgrounds anymore. On the one hand playgrounds are much cooler than they were when I was a kid. But they also feel less risky. I’ve wondered if the design of playgrounds affects how kids develop.
Chris Karpowitz, BYU, on American families and political parties. Dr. Rebecca Thomley of the Headwaters Relief Organization on human trafficking after a natural disaster. Karak Miakol, founder of Diar Foundation on empowering women in South Sudan. Adam Berinksy, MIT, on media bias. Dr. Tonya McDonald, founder of Radiance Pediatrics, on avoiding doctor burnout. Kirsten Hawkes from ParentPreviews.com on British dramas.
Checking in on America’s Families During Turbulent Times
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU
The last five years have brought big changes to American culture –from the rise of #FakeNews and the election of President Trump, to the #MeToo movement and national legalization of gay marriage. We’ve also seen growing income inequality and national protests about racial inequality. In the midst of all of this, how are American families faring? Answering that question is the aim of the American Family Survey from BYU’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.
Fighting Human Trafficking After Natural Disasters
Guest: Roshan Khatri is the Chief Medical Director at the Headwaters Relief Organization
One thousand three hundred people are still missing in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian. Amid the scramble to find the missing is also the pressing need to get survivors food, water, and shelter. The US pledged another four million dollars last week to help, but natural disasters also carry a hidden cost: areas hit by one area prime target for human traffickers to come in and force people into prostitution and slavery. The Headwaters Relief Organization is a non-profit focused on natural disasters, and they’re fighting human trafficking.
Empowering Women in South Sudan
Guest: Karak Miakol, Founder of Diar Foundation
South Sudan became an independent nation in 2011, ending Africa’s longest running civil war. But almost immediately, a new civil war broke out within South Sudan fueled by political and ethnic divisions. Karak Miakol fled South Sudan in 2014 when her life was threatened because of the outreach work she was doing with women in refugee camps. Hundreds of thousands of women and children have been displaced by the civil war. They are targeted by both sides, says Miakol. Which is different from the civil war prior to South Sudan’s independence. Karak Miakol now lives in Colorado and from afar, manages a program she started in South Sudan to empower women. It’s called Diar Foundation –Diar means women in her native Dinka language. Miakol was recently honored as BYU’s 2019 Center for Conflict Resolution Peacemaker.
How Partisan News Sways the Public
Guest: Adam Berinksy, MIT Professor of Political Science, Director of MIT Political Experiments Research Lab
We’re living in a very politically polarized time in America–Democrats are more firmly Democrat and Republicans are more firmly Republican. And often the news media gets some of the blame for that: cable TV and the internet make it possible to get your news only from sources that align with your political views. So which comes first? Do people choose a biased news outlet because they like its slant? Or is the news media making us more politically polarized?
Avoiding Doctor Burnout by Going to the Patient
Guest: Dr. Tonya McDonald, Founder and Pediatrician, Radiance Pediatrics in Dallas, Texas
Doctors have the highest rate of suicide compared to other professions in the US. Physicians often see an overwhelming amount of patients and paperwork, which can lead to burnout. Dr. Tonya McDonald felt that, and to turn things around, she’s brought back a way of practicing medicine that’s nearly unheard of these days. She’s now one of those doctors you’ve probably only seen in movies –the kind with the black bag who will go to the patient to provide care, at any time of day or night.
Movies for Fans of Downton Abbey
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Downton Abbey is back. The movie comes out this Thursday. Fans of the PBS series have waited nearly four years for this. Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com reviews Downton Abbey and recommends several other British period dramas for fans of the genre.
FDA Looks to Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes
Guest: Michael Siegel, MD, Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health
The Trump Administration plans to ban the sale of e-cigarettes that come in any flavor other than tobacco. So that means fruit, mint, menthol –all of which are especially popular with teenagers. A quarter of high school students have used e-cigarettes in the last month. A quarter. That’s the main reason the FDA says it’s looking to ban flavored e-cigarettes. There’s also the current outbreak of a serious lung illness linked to vaping that has killed six people and sickened nearly 400 people.
Why Criminals in the U.S. are Sentenced to Prison for Longer Than Life
Guest: Darryl Brown, Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School
Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced last week to 14 days in prison for paying someone to correct her daughter’s SAT college entrance exam. There was outrage across social media that Huffman would get so little time when many other less famous or wealthy people serve much longer sentences for crimes that seem comparable, or less serious. On the other end of the spectrum, did you know there are some people in American prisons right now serving sentences so long they’re humanly impossible? How does someone even serve a sentence of life plus 419 years, which is what that Neo-Nazi got this summer for killing a protester at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
Future Smithsonian Museum Exhibit will Feature Bob Ross paintings
Guest: Eric Jentsch, the Entertainment and Sports Curator for the National Museum of American History
You can paint along with Bob Ross on public television almost any day of the week. He was on the air for 31 seasons over nine years and in constant reruns ever since. Somehow, Bob Ross is even more of an American pop icon today than ever –with his brown curly hair, soothing voice and encouraging words. What happened to all those happy accidents and friendly trees and mountains? It’s next to impossible to buy a Bob Ross painting today, even though he painted thousands of them during the TV series. Well, New York Times reporters tracked them down in Virginia and Eric Jentsch has been there to see them in person.
The US Government Could be Threatening Due Process
Guest: Cassandra Burke Robertson, Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve
When someone becomes a US citizen, it signals the end of a long and difficult process. There’s a sense of finality, relief, and safety. End of the story, right? Well under US law, the government can revoke citizenship. Traditionally, that process, called “denaturalization” has been rare and reserved for those who committed war crimes. Now, advances in technology have made it more common in old cases of fraud.
India Moon Landing Fails. What makes going back to the moon so difficult?
Guest: Ryan J. Kobrick Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Spaceflight Operations at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
India had hoped to have a remote-controlled lander trundling toward the Moon’s south pole right now. But just before the lander touched down on the moon’s surface a few weeks ago, it lost contact with India’s space agency and now it’s laying on its side up there, not responding to communication from Earth. Earlier this year Israel had a similar experience when their spacecraft failed at the last minute
A Better Touchscreen Keyboard
Guest: Eric Schofield, Computer Science Student BYU; Dave Brown, BYU Technology Transfer Office
I miss my old Blackberry phone. It had an actual keyboard with buttons –not a touchscreen. I was so fast and accurate typing with that phone! But everything is touchscreen today and even with autocorrect, I’m constantly sending texts and emails with mistakes and it drives me nuts. BYU computer science grad student Eric Schofield has developed what he says is a better keyboard for touch-screens –and it just does away entirely with the QWERTY keyboard we’re used to.
Michael Siegel, Boston University, on possible e-cigarette ban. Darryl Brown of the University of Virginia Law School on criminal sentences that are longer than life. Eric Jentsch from the Smithsonian on future Bob Ross exhibit. Cassandra Burke Robertson, Case Western Reserve, on denaturalization. Ryan Kobrick of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on the India moon landing fails. Eric Schofield, BYU, on a better touchscreen keyboard.
David Blankenhorn, president of Better Angels on bringing Democrats and Republicans together. Christopher Depner, University of Colorado, on making up lost sleep. Paolo Sassone-Corsi of the University of California on fasting. Harley Feldman on catching killers using DNA. Tom Wolfe from The Fairmont on America's first concierge. Author Ester Wojcicki on raising successful people.
What Happens When Rs and Ds Talk With Each Other, Rather than At or About?
Guest: David Blankenhorn, President, and Co-founder of Better Angels
How upset would you be if your child married an ardent Trump supporter? Or ardent Clinton supporter? Back in the 60s, hardly any parents said they’d be unhappy if their son or daughter married someone from the other party. Today half of Americans –both Republicans and Democrats –told YouGov’s survey-takers they’d be uncomfortable or upset by a cross-party marriage in the family. A nonprofit group called “Better Angels” has spent the last two years bringing together ardent Democrats and Republicans in hopes of fostering civil dialogue
Making Up Lost Sleep Won’t Make You Any Healthier
Guest: Christopher Depner, Assistant Research Professor of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado, Boulder
Getting enough sleep is hard! It’s tempting to skimp during the week and catch up with a good long sleep over the weekend.
Fasting Slows Aging
Guest: Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Director, Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, University of California, Irvine
Most religions the world over have fasting rituals. And you’ll find fasting touted all over the health and beauty magazine rack right now, too.
Catching Killers with Their Family’s DNA
Guest: Harley Feldman
DNA solves serious crimes on TV all the time. In real life, it’s less common, but a couple of big serial killer cases have been solved using a technique that’s gaining traction in police departments. It’s called familial DNA –and it’s where police track down a suspect not in the database by finding a close relative who is. Only about a dozen states currently allow police to do this kind of DNA search. Critics say it’s a potential violation of privacy a new tool for racial profiling. But Harley Feldman is a major proponent of police using familial DNA because it’s what allowed Arizona police to finally arrest a suspect in the murder of his daughter Allison.
Tom Wolfe, American’s First Concierge
Guest: Tom Wolfe, Chief Concierge, The Fairmont
The concierge is a fixture in luxury hotels, discreetly recommending a great place to eat or snagging you a seat to the sold-out show. But it wasn’t until 1974 that concierges even existed in America. That was the year Tom Wolfe opened a concierge desk at The Fairmont in San Francisco modeled on what he’d seen in Europe.
How to Raise Successful People
Guest: Esther Wojcicki, Journalist, Educator, Author of “How to Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results”
The CEO of YouTube and the CEO of 23andMe are sisters. Their other sister is a pediatrician and professor at UC-San Francisco. Can you just imagine the questions their mom gets at dinner parties? What’s your secret? How did you raise such successful kids? Now the world can read her secrets. Her name is Esther Wojcicki. She’s a journalist and long-time teacher at Palo Alto High School where she founded a media arts program based on learning through collaboration. Wojcicki’s book is “How to Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results.”
Christopher Jones of BYU on the history of slavery in the Bahamas. David Sischo from Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources on snail extinction. Daniel Lim of Pennsylvania State University on compassion fade. Belgian Ambassador Dirk Wouters on Brexit. Author Sarah Valentine on a personal journey across race.
Why the History of Colonialism and Slavery in the Bahamas Matters to Hurricane Recovery
Guest: Christopher Jones, PhD, Assistant Professor of history, BYU
The official death toll of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas is 50, but that number will likely be much higher as responders sift through the wreckage of communities on Grand Bahama Island and the Abaco Islands. More than 2,000people are missing. Food, water and electricity supplies have been disrupted. Thousands of people are in need of evacuation and shelter. International aid organizations, the US Coast Guard and even the cruise ship industry are helping with the relief effort. As we’ve seen after natural disasters in Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the history of a place has affects its ability to recover.
David Sischo fights to Save Hawaiian Snails from Extinction
Guest: David Sischo, Snail Extinction Prevention Program (SEP) Coordinator with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
One is the loneliest number. And if you’re the last one of you’re the last of your kind, you’re not just lonely, you’re on the verge of extinction. That was the sorry fate of George –a Hawaiian tree snail, the last known member of his species. He died in January after spending all 14 years of his life in a captive breeding facility that was trying to save his species.
Staying Compassionate in the Face of Mass Suffering
Guest: Daniel Lim, PhD, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Empathy and Moral Psychology Lab, Pennsylvania State University
We are bombarded with stories of suffering in the news and on our social media feeds –and even in our personal circles. Researchers have noticed something strange about our ability to feel compassion for others: Compassion does not generally grow as the number of people suffering increases. Rather, we’re subject to something called “compassion fatigue” as the scale of suffering grows. Psychologist Daniel Lim’s research has identified some possible solutions to this –ways to help us feel more compassion for more people.
A View of Brexit from the Heart of the EU
Guest: Dirk Wouters, Ambassador of Belgium to the United States
Britain is set to leave the European Union on October 31, with or without a deal. The UK’s own government analysis says leaving without a deal could be extremely disruptive. So, a majority of Britain’s parliament has passed a law that forces Prime Minister Boris Johnson to go back to the EU and ask for another extension so they can work out a Brexit deal. The Prime Minister said he’d “rather be dead in a ditch” than do that. If he does go through with the ask, the rest of European Union will have to be unanimous in giving another extension. They’ve already done it twice. But there’s also some evidence EU members are getting weary of the Brexit drama. Why drag it out?
When I Was White: A Complicated Personal Journey Across Race
Guest: Sarah Valentine, Author of “When I Was White”
Sarah Valentine grew up the white daughter of white parents in suburban Pittsburgh. But not everyone seemed to agree she was white. A high school guidance counselor suggested she apply for academic scholarships for minority students. “I don’t qualify for those,” was Valentine’s reply. One time her boyfriend’s black friend asked her point blank if she was black. “No,” was the reply. It wasn’t until Sarah Valentine was 27 and in graduate school that she learned the truth about her identity.
The Battle to Compensate Ground Zero First Responders
Guest: Bill Groner, founder &CEO, SSAM Alternative Dispute Resolution, co-author “9/12: The Epic Battle of the Ground Zero Responders”
When the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers fell to terrorists on September 11, 2001, an army of first responders rushed to Ground Zero. First it was a rescue effort. But for months and months after that –well into the following year –thousands of people worked in and around Ground Zero and at the landfill where debris was dumped and sorted. Construction workers, coroners, fire and police officers. All breathing dust that we now know contained toxic chemicals. In the years that followed, many would develop serious lung illnesses –and even cancers.
Finding fake volcanoes and dealing with the real ones
Guest: Janine Krippner, PhD., Volcanologist at the Smithsonian Institute Volvanologist Program and host of the Popular Volcanics podcast
There are fewer volcanoes today than there were just a few weeks ago thanks to people like volcanologist Janine Krippner. She works at the Smithsonian and one of her jobs is to sniff out imposters on the official list of volcanoes. Yes, there’s an official list. And best beware if you’re a volcano-wannabe, cause Krippner has no qualms killing your dream.
Is Compassionate Release an Option for Aging Prison Populations?
Guest: Tina Maschi, PhD, Associate Professor at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service in New York City
The number of elderly prisoners in the US is going up, and fast. Some projections estimate that by 2030, one third of prisoners will be age 55 and up. As those inmates get older, many will get sick and some will die in prison. Not only does that mean more taxpayer dollars to take care of them, but it also creates a moral dilemma: do you let someone die alone behind bars?
President Trump Says Deal with Taliban is Dead. What Next?
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia, Wilson Center in Washington, DC
It’s been 18 years since Al Qaeda’s terrorist attacks on US soil. And 18 years since the US struck back in Afghanistan, where the Taliban was giving safe haven to Al Qaeda. That’s now America’s longest war. But a peace deal between the US and the Taliban had been close at hand. Imminent, we were told. And American troops would be coming home soon. But now? “(The talks) are dead, as far as I’m concerned they’re dead,” said President Trump on Monday. “(The Taliban) thought they had to kill people in order to put themselves in a little better negotiating position. When they did that they killed 12 people. One happened to be a great American soldier.”
Kenneth Feinberg on Deciding What a Life is Worth
Guest: Kenneth Feinberg, Former Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Author of “What Is Life Worth?” And “Who Gets What?”
2,977 people died when terrorists hijacked commercial airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. More than 6,000 others were injured. Just eleven days after the attacks, Congress created a $7 billion fund to compensate those victims and their families. The man tasked with deciding who would get what –how much each life was worth in dollars and cents –was Kenneth Feinberg. Since then, he’s overseen victim compensation funds for mass shootings in Aurora, Newtown, Orlando and Las Vegas and for the Boston Marathon Bombing. BP hired him to award compensation to victims of the Gulf Oil spill. He’s now handling compensation for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and for the families of people who died in the Boeing 737 plane crashes.
Attorney Bill Groner on getting compensation for 9/11 first responders. Volcanologist Janine Krippner of the Smithsonian. Tina Maschi from Fordham University on compassionate release. Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center on Afghanistan peace. 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund Special Master Ken Feinberg on what a life is worth.
Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. of Cherokee Nation on sending a delegate to Congress. Author Kurt Repanshek on bison in the West. Doniece Sandoval from Lava Mae on mobile hygiene. James Ivory of Virginia Tech on video game violence. Lawyer Ruth Carter on internet copyright. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on educational technology.
Cherokee Nation Sends Its First Delegate to Congress
Guest: Chuck Hoskin, Jr. Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
For the first time in US history, a Native American tribe is sending a delegate to Congress. Now, there are already a handful of Native Americans serving in Congress from a number of states. But the Cherokee Nation is sending a delegate to represent their own sovereign Native American government.
The Effort to Bring Bison Back to the West
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder & Editor-In-Chief of Nationalparkstraveler.org; Author “Re-Bisoning the West: Restoring An American Icon To The Landscape”
“Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play.” Have you ever wondered “Home on the Range” –the “unofficial anthem” of the American West -starts with buffalo roaming? I’ve eaten buffalo burger, but I’ve never seen buffalo roaming wild and I’m from the West. There are only about half a million buffalo in America today –most of those are being farmed for meat. And yet, the buffalo –or bison, same thing –is at the center of the Department of Interior’s official seal and on the National Park Service emblem and, just a few years ago Congress made it the official mammal of the United States. Why are we so enamored of bison?
Lava Mae and Mobile Hygiene
Guest: Doniece Sandoval, Founder and CEO of Lava Mae
After a hard workout or a long day at work, a shower just feels so good. It’s nice to be clean. But what if you didn’t ever have access to a shower? How would it affect your confidence and social life? Or your ability to get a job? Most homeless people don’t have access to a shower. Lava Mae is a nonprofit that has provided thousands of free showers for the homeless through buses converted into shower units. Since we talked to CEO Doniece Sandoval a few years ago, her idea has turned into a movement.
Video Games and the Relation to Teen Violence: Is the Blame Justified?
Guest: James D. Ivory, Professor and Research Director, Department of Communication, Virginia Tech
Why do violent video games always come up in the days after another mass shooting in America? Politicians of both parties have, for years, called out video games for promoting violence. And it makes sense that spending hours shooting people indiscriminately in a virtual world might translate over to the real world.
Sharing Funny Posts on the Internet Could Be a Copyright Violation
Guest: Ruth Carter, Attorney, Carter Law Firm, Author of “The Legal Side of Blogging: How Not to Get Sued, Fired, Arrested, or Killed”
When something doesn’t seem fair, it really irks me. Always has. So I’m irritated when I see a funny video or cleverly-captioned photo pop up on my social media feed and it’s gone massively viral. And I want to “like” or “share it.” But –and here’s the fairness part –the person who made the video or photo isn’t actually the person getting the viral credit for it. Somebody else with a bigger following snagged the content and posted it to their feed and they’re getting all the traffic –and probably even making a buck off it. So then, I’m thinking, “Well I don’t want to help this cheater. I want to go like the original post and give credit to the person who created it.” But I can’t find the original online –it’s hard to track those things down. And really, shouldn’t there be a law that prevents this kind of rampant ripping off of other people’s property?
Educational Technology from Film Strips to Virtual Reality
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Eric Hyer of BYU on Hong Kong protests. Author Dr. Haider Warraich on heart disease. Kristin Poinar from State University of New York on glacial lakes. Whitney Jenkins of AKQA on Speedgate. Author Viktor Mayer-Schönberger on digital memories. Ed DesRosier from Sun Tours on tribal National Parks.
Protesters Call on U.S. to “Liberate” Hong Kong
Guest: Eric Hyer, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
There were more protests and clashes with police in Hong Kong over the weekend. These demonstrations have been going on since mid-June and they’re continuing, even though Hong Kong’s leader has withdrawn the extradition bill that sparked the protests in the first place. On Sunday, thousands protested outside the US Consulate in Hong Kong urging President Trump to “liberate” Hong Kong from Chinese control.
Despite an Incredible History, The Future of Heart Disease Treatment Will Require Serious Work
Guest: Dr. Haider Warraich, MD, Cardiologist and Clinical Researcher, Harvard University, Author of “State of the Heart”
Just a generation ago, having a heart attack was an automatic death sentence. Today open heart surgery, pacemakers, stents and artificial valves make it possible for people with weak or damaged hearts to live long lives. Statins to prevent heart disease from cholesterol build-up are the most-prescribed medication in the country. And yet, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the US. And that’s true for both men and women.
The hidden waterways beneath Greenland’s ice
Guest: Kristin Poinar, Assistant Professor of Geophysics at the State University of New York At Buffalo
Greenland is the world’s largest island –and it’s an autonomous territory of Denmark, which I only learned recently when President Trump started talking about wanting to buy it. But there’s some very serious news out of Greenland on the scientific front, related to how quickly the ice sheet that covers it is melting.
Speedgate: New Sport Created by AI
Guest: Whitney Jenkins, Creative Director, AKQA
What If All Our Digital Data Had Expiration Dates? The Case for More Forgetting
Guest: Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation, Oxford University, author of “Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age”
When was the last time you wished your memory was worse? I don’t think that’s even a thing. Mainly we’re just trying to keep a handle on the stuff we do need to remember. But Viktor Mayer-Schonberger thinks we’d be better off if we forgot more. Specifically, he argues that our digital memory needs a purge.
Bringing Indigenous People’s Perspectives to National Parks
Guest: Ed DesRosier, Founder of Sun Tours and Native Business Top 50 Entrepreneurs Honoree
Glacier National Park in Montana is one of the few places in the country where you can take a bus tour with the stories and perspectives of indigenous people for whom the park has always been “home.” Glacier National Park is the ancestral home of the Blackfeet Nation. Huge swaths of it were once part of the tribe’s reservation, which shares a long border with the park. But the Blackfeet Nation has struggled to capitalize on the tourism dollars the park brings in. Ed DesRosiers was an early pioneer in that effort. He’s an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation and fought a long court battle to become one of the few indigenous people in the country licensed to operate a tour business in a national park.
Robert Stern of Boston University CTE Center on CTE diagnosis. Author James Lawrence on Iron Mans. William Howe from the University of Oklahoma on veteran cultural shock. Paul George of Brown University on teaching opioids. Jonas Dahl of Randers Regional Hospital on free healthcare. Kim Gorgens from the University of Denver on criminal brain injuries.
New research may allow diagnosis of CTE in living people
Guest: Robert Stern, MD, Co-Founder and Director Of Clinical Research, Boston University CTE Center
Football is back. Along with the growing unease many fans and players have about the damage being done to players’ brains. The State of New York just passed a law requiring youth tackle football programs to distribute information about concussions to player’s parents. The repeated head trauma that happens in impacts sports is believed to cause Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy–or CTE. But at the moment, doctors can only diagnose CTE by cutting open a person’s brain after they’ve died. Boston University’s CTE Center is at the forefront of research to diagnose CTE in living patients.
50 Iron Mans in 50 States in 50 Days
Guest: James Lawrence, Motivational Speaker, Triathlete, Author of “Iron Cowboy: Redefine Impossible
When you reach a point in life where you just aren’t sure you can go a step further, what do you do? If it’s a physical challenge, maybe you stop and catch your breath. If it’s a mental or emotional challenge, well that’s what sleep, chocolate and Netflix are for, right? Well, when James Lawrence hit a personal rough patch in 2015, he decided to push his body beyond what anyone thought was possible. He did 50 Ironman triathlons and 50 consecutive days. And then he wrote a book about it called “Iron Cowboy: Redefine Impossible.”
Why Veterans Experience Culture Shock When Transitioning to College
Guest: William Howe Jr is a Doctoral Candidate Studying Communications at The University of Oklahoma
When someone enters the US military, they spend two to three months in boot camp, where the civilian culture they’ve known gets replaced by military culture –the physical and mental changes are major. But when someone leaves the military, there’s no transition. It’s just – “Thank you for your service. Good luck with civilian life!” US Army Veteran William Howe Jr says that’s irresponsible.
Brown University is Seeking to Teach Its Medical Students a Better Way to Treat Opioid Addiction
Guest: Paul George, MD, Associate Dean for Medical Education at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
One distinct aspect of the opioid epidemic in America is that it often starts and ends in a doctor’s office. Over-prescription of pain killers like Oxycontin fuels the epidemic. And on the other end of the spectrum, the most effective treatment for opioid addiction is with prescription medication that dulls craving and prevents withdrawal symptoms. So medical schools have a big job in making sure new doctors are equipped to treat opioid addiction without contributing to the problem. Brown University has pioneered a program to make sure its medical students enter the field fully trained –and even licensed by the state –to treat opioid addiction.
What Happens When Healthcare is 100% Free
Guest: Jonas Dahl, Former Member of Danish Parliament, CEO of Randers Regional Hospital
Healthcare is one of the top voting issues in the 2020 election, and there is a fundamental disagreement in this country about how involved the government should be in providing healthcare. But there’s widespread agreement that the system we’ve got right now is broken. Drug prices, hospital expenses and insurance premiums are all too high and rising too quickly. As a result, America spends twice as much per-person on health as other wealthy countries do, on average. Places likes the UK, Germany or Denmark.
Treating Traumatic Brain Injuries in the Criminal Justice System
Guest: Dr. Kim Gorgens, Professor of Psychophysiology, Clinical Neuropsychology and Psychology of Criminal Behavior, University of Denver
Among the millions of people currently incarcerated in America, mental illness and substance use disorders are common. So, too, are traumatic brain injuries, it turns out.
The Reality of Racism in America
Guest: Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, PhD, Assistant Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University; Candis Watts Smith, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies, Pennsylvania State University; Co-Authors of “Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Lives Matter"
This year marks the 400thanniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It’s been more than 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery. And yet, according to the Pew Research Center, most adults in the US say the legacy of slavery continues to have an impact on the position of black people in American society. So, why is it so controversial when the New York Times decides to dedicate an entire issue of its magazine to slavery’s legacy? Or when people protest police violence under the banner “Black Lives Matter”?
Why World’s Largest Things Dot American Roadsides
Guest: Erika Nelson, One of America’s Foremost Experts and Speakers On the World’s Largest Things
If you’re driving past Winlock, Washington, you might catch a glimpse of the world’s largest egg. Or if you’re on your way through Woodruff, Wisconsin, you can stop to get a picture in front of the world’s largest penny. Large versions of normal things having been popping up all across the United States for decades, bringing curious road-trippers and inspiring other large things in other, usually smaller, cities.
Digital Textbooks Are the Future for College Students
Guest: Anastacia Morrone, Professor of Educational Psychology, Associate Vice President for Learning Technologies, Dean of Information Technology at Indiana University
The pockets of college students –and their parents –are a little light right now thanks to tuition, fees and textbooks. Students spend more than $1,000 a year on books and supplies alone. Will it be cheaper when everything has transitioned to digital? We’re about to find out. This summer Pearson, one of the biggest textbook companies in the world announced it will focus primarily on digital courseware.
Who We Are with Dogs is Who We Are as People
Guest: Alexandra Horowitz, Senior Research Fellow, Dog Cognition Lab, Barnard College, Columbia University; Author of “Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond”
Euthanasia of dogs and cats has declined dramatically in the US over the last 40 years. That’s partly because better veterinary care is available and it’s become trendy to “rescue” a dog from a shelter. And it’s also because today virtually everyone gets their dogs and cats “fixed.”
Preserving and Protecting Your Treasures
Guest: Scott Haskins, Director and Chief Conservator at the Fine Art Conservation Lab
Wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods are getting more intense and unpredictable in the United States. What’s your plan to protect your valuables if disaster strikes? Mine’s pretty much just to grab my phone and wallet and hope the rest of my stuff is still there when I come back. It not a good plan, I admit. Scott Haskins helps people protect their valuables and he’s got a free eBook called “Save Your Stuff” which you can download at www.collectioncaretips.com.
Authors Tehema Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith on Black Lives Matter. Expert Erika Nelson on roadside attractions. Anastacia Morrone of Indiana University on digital textbooks. Author Alexandra Horowitz on bonds with dogs. Scott Haskins from the Fine Art Conservation Lab on preserving treasures.
Quinn Mecham from BYU on UK politics. Police Captain Ivonne Roman on police women. Gene Ahlborn of BYU on the science behind artificial and natural flavoring. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story. Olga Stoddard of BYU on workplace diversity. Andrew Subica of the University of California on overweight children.
Showdown Over Brexit in British Parliament
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is struggling to keep his Brexit plans on track. He’s vowed to see Britain leave the European Union on October 31, no matter what. But members of Parliament are blocking his attempts –and that includes a number of his own conservative party members who’ve jumped ship.
Getting More Women on the Force
Guest: Ivonne Roman, Police Captain, Newark, New Jersey, National institute of Justice LEADS Scholar, Cofounder of the Women’s Leadership Organization
There’s a nationwide push to add more women to the ranks of law enforcement. Currently they make up less than 13 percent of police officers in the US and an even smaller percentage of law enforcement leadership. It’s not that women are less capable of policing. Study after study has shown policewomen are actually better at communicating and defusing potentially violent confrontations. So why aren’t there more women on the force?
The Science Behind Artificial and Natural Flavoring
Guest: Gene Ahlborn, Professor of food science, toxicology, and flavor chemistry at Brigham Young University
When I see “all-natural flavors” on a food label, I imagine that means the thing is flavored only by its main ingredients. So, if it’s apple juice, then it’s flavored by actual apples. But that’s not how flavoring works in the processed food industry. In fact, the difference between “natural” and “artificial” is not nearly as big as you’d think.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares a story about Labor Day.
Diversity in the Workplace may be Easier to Solve than You Think
Guest: Olga Stoddard, Assistant Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University
Fortune 500 companies have more female CEOs this year than ever before -33. That’s still under 7 percent, and Hispanic and black CEOs barely even make a percentage. Many companies have made promises to increase diversity among all their employees, but they’re still struggling to make it happen. A team of economists has come up with a strikingly simple and cost-effective solution that doubled the number of racial minority applicants in their experiment.
If Diet Apps Aren’t the Answer to Childhood Obesity, What Is?
Guest: Andrew Subica, assistant professor of social medicine, population, and public health at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
One in five children and teens in the United States have obesity. That rate has tripled since the 1970s. So, we clearly need young people to be eating better and exercising more. But Weight Watchers –now known as WW –is taking all kinds of heat for its new app aimed at kids. If a food-tracking app isn’t the way to go, what is?
Rural America and the 2020 Election
Guest: Sarah Smarsh, Author of “Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth”
Rural America helped Donald Trump win the presidency and could give him another four years in office. Kansas author Sarah Smarsh says the prevailing story of what rural America is –who the people are, what they want, why they voted for Donald Trump –is largely wrong.
Autopsy of a Wrongful Conviction
Guest: John Hollway, Associate Dean and Executive Director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
2,482. That’s how many people over the last 30 years have spent time in prison–an average of 8 years –and then been exonerated of the crime because it turned out they were innocent. 2,482 people. How do mistakes like that happen? Or maybe it’s not mistakes –it’s outright misconduct on the part of cops or prosecutors? Increasingly, cities around the country are setting up task forces to uncover wrongful convictions –and in a few cases, when they do, another task force comes into figure out what went wrong.
Seniors Are at Higher Risk for Suicide
Guest: Yeates Conwell, MD, Director of Geriatric Psychiatry, Co-Director, Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, University of Rochester
As Baby Boomers reach their golden years, the risk of suicide among seniors is a growing concern. Americans 85 years and older have one of the highest suicides rates of any age group.National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Seagulls Have Some Redeeming Qualities
Guest: Sarah J. Courchesne, Associate Professor of Natural Science at Northern Essex Community College, Co-Coordinator for the Gulls of Appledore Project with the Shoals Marine Laboratory
Seagulls can be really annoying. They steal your French fries. Poop on your beach towel. Harass your kids. The pesky birds have become such a problem in a New Jersey city that officials spent thousands of dollars this month on hawks, owls, and falcons to scare away the gulls. But maybe it’s time we stop hating on them so much - Sarah Courchesne has been studying seagulls for the past 11 years, and she says we’re missing how amazing these creatures are.
How One Fungus Could Wipe Out the Banana as We Know It
Guest: Randy Ploetz, Professor of Plant Pathology at the Tropical Research & Education Center, University of Florida in Homestead
fungus that has been wiping out banana plantations in Asia and Australia has finally crossed the ocean to Latin America –where we get most of our bananas. The Colombian government has declared a national emergency. And scientists are scrambling to figure out how to protect the world’s bananas.
Tackling Mental Health, Finding Hope on Social Media
Guest: Caroline Kaufman @poeticpoison, Author of “When the World Didn’t End”
Caroline Kaufman started posting raw, personal poetry on Instagram when she was a freshman in high school. At first, she did it anonymously under the handle @poeticpoison. Then her poems went viral and her following grew to over a hundred thousand. Teenagers, in particular, connected with her short, powerful poems about struggling with mental illness and thoughts of suicide, learning to cope with heartbreak and be kinder to herself. Six years later, Caroline Kaufman is attending Harvard and publishing her second poetry collection –the first came out last year was called “Light Filters In.” Her latest is “When the World Didn’t End.”
Author Sarah Smarsh on rural America and the 2020 election. John Hollway of the Quattrone Center on the autopsy of a wrongful conviction. Yeates Conwell of the University of Rochester on senior suicides. Sarah Courchesne of Northern Essex Community College on seagulls. Randy Ploetz of the University of Florida on banana fungus. Author Caroline Kaufman on tackling mental health and finding hope on social media.
Why We Don’t Use the Metric System (Originally aired May 22, 2019)
Guest: John Bemelmans Marciano, Author of “Whatever Happened to the Metric System? How America Kept Its Feet”
If you take a drive on Interstate 19 in Southern Arizona you’ll be in for surprise. It is the only stretch of highway in the United States with road signs that show only in kilometers. Turns out Interstate 19 is a leftover from the 70s when the country was preparing to go metric. So, what happened? Today, the United States, Myanmar, and Liberia are the only countries left in the world that don’t use the metric system.
Gender-Specific Toys Can Limit Opportunities for Children to Learn and Grow (Originally aired May 21, 2019)
Guest: Lisa M. Dinella, Principal Investigator of the Gender Development Laboratory at Monmouth
When you walk down the toy aisle at any store, you’ll usually find the aisle divided into pink and blue: on the pink side there are Barbies, tea sets, and princesses. On the blue side you’ll see cars, superheroes, and nerf guns.
Meme Creators are Unionizing. Why? (Originally aired July 30, 2019)
Guest: Aiden Arata, Meme Union Member
Okay so, memes. That’s what they call those weird, viral images that pop up on your social media feed –maybe it’s a screenshot of a TV show and someone’s put some funny captions on it. And then someone else goes in and writes their own captions for it and shares that. There are whole Instagram accounts devoted to sharing memes and gets tons of traffic –which is brilliant for Instagram because it’s making money off all this viral content people are making for free. But now the makers of memes are organizing to demand more control over how their work is used and who benefits from it.
Adventures of a Theme Park Journalist (Originally aired May 22, 2019)
Guest: Robert Niles, Founder and Editor, ThemeParkInsider.com
Theme parks can be magical with that thrill of anticipation when you’re about to drop on a rollercoaster, spending time with family, and, of course, the nostalgia. But theme parks can also be a nightmare with the hordes of people, crying children, and overpriced food.
Concerts for The Deaf (Originally aired May 13, 2019)
Guest: Amber Galloway Gallego, Owner of Amber G. Productions, An Organization that Interprets Musical Performances into American Sign Language
American Sign Language interpreters at music concerts traditionally have been pretty reserved, just signing the words. But now, some interpreters are taking it to the next level to help the deaf seethe music. They’re not just signing the words, they’re also signing the sounds and tones of the instruments. One of those interpreters that specializes in music is Amber Galloway Gallego, and she’s signed for Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, and Billy Joel, as well as many other famous artists.
Writing the Book on Racial Literacy (Originally aired June 5, 2019)
Guest: Priya Vulchiand and Winona Guo, Co-authors of “Tell Me Who You Are,” Co-founders/Co-presidents of CHOOSE
How has race impacted your life? Race is embedded in American society–it’s affected us all in some way. It’s just that most of us lack the tools to understand and navigate a world structured by racial division. Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi came to that realization near the end of high school in Princeton, New Jersey. They’ve since spent a year traveling around the country asking people that question –How has race impacted your life? The stories they collected are available in a book called, “Tell Me Who You Are.” It’s meant as a classroom guide for teaching racial literacy.
Author John Bemelmans Marciano on the metric system. Aiden Arata of Meme Union on memes. Lisa Dinella of the Gender Development Laboratory at Monmouth on gender-specific toys limiting opportunities for children to learn and grow. Amber Gallego of Amber G. Production on concerts for the deaf. Robert Niles of Theme Park Insider on being a theme park journalist. Priya Vulchiand and Winona Guo of CHOOSE on writing a book on racial literacy.
Mysterious Lung Illness Linked to Vaping
Guest: Scott Aberegg, Pulmonologist and Critical Care Specialist, University of Utah Hospital
Nearly 200 cases of a severe lung illness have been reported in 22 states over the last two months. Otherwise young, healthy people suddenly fall deathly ill. One person has died. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t identified the cause of the illness, but all the patients have reported vaping e-cigarettes.
Burning the Amazon Has Serious Consequences for Climate Change
Guest: Adriane Esquivel Muelbert, Forest Ecologist, University of Birmingham
The Amazon Rainforest is burning at an alarming rate. So far this month, there have been more than 27,400 fires detected in the Amazon. These fires are actually a yearly occurrence as farmers set them to clear land for crops and cattle grazing. But something is different this year.
Bucket-list Trips to National Parks Worth Planning Today
Guest: Becky Lomax, Author of “USA National Parks: The complete Guide to All 59 National Parks”
Summer is high season for most National Parks and as is comes to a close, most hikers and campers will be putting away their gear. But nothing should stop you from starting to plan your next big trip.
Poetry of Witness
Guest: Carolyn Forché, Poet, Activist, Author of “What You Have Heard Is True”
Immigrants from El Salvador make up the second-largest Latin American group in the United States, after Mexico. The reason there are so many Salvadorans here –and many more attempting to migrate –dates back to a bloody civil war in the 1970sand 80s. A war in which the United States backed the Salvadoran government and its brutal military tactics. Just as that war was brewing a young American poet accepted an invitation from a stranger to go and see for herself. Carolyn Forche was 27. The poems she would write about what she saw in El Salvador would make her a best-seller and change the course of her career.
The Purpose of the Fish Tube
Guest: Michael Messina, Director of Market Development and Business Affairs at Whooshh Innovations
This last month, a video of the Salmon Cannon went viral. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the video shows Fish being loaded into a giant, rubber-looking tube, zipping through the tube at an unbelievable speed, and then being spit out back into water. It looks a bit like a pneumatic tube delivery system you might see at a bank or pharmacy, except this one is fish-friendly. The fish tube was created by Whooshh Innovations.
Scott Aberegg of the University of Utah Hospital on the mysterious lung illness linked to vaping. Adriane Esquivel Muelbert of the University of Birmingham on the Amazon fires. Author Becky Lomax on a bucket-list for national parks. Poet and activist Carolyn Forché on poetry of witness. Michael Messina of Whooshh Innovations on the purpose of the fish tube.
How Can a Megastar like Taylor Swift Not Own the Recordings to Her Hits?
Guest: Erin Jacobson, The Music Industry Lawyer, IndieArtistResource.com
Say what you will about Taylor Swift -she is one of the most powerful women in music. This is the hit single off her album Lover, which just came out last week but is already the biggest-seller of 2019 in the US. But Taylor Swift’s enormous power does not, it turns out, extend to ownership of the songs that made her famous. Swift owns none of the master recordings form her first six albums. Again, Taylor Swift –one of the biggest pop stars in the world does not own the master recordings for any of her hits. They belonged to her former music label, Big Machine Records, which just sold them to talent manager Scooter Braun for $300 million. And Taylor Swift is really not happy about that. Braun is her nemesis apparently? So last week she announced she’s going to rerecord all of her earlier music so she can have a copy that she owns. Which is all so confusing. How can she not own her music?
There’s No Need to Thank Your Digital Assistant, for Now
Guest: James Gaskin, PhD, Associate Professor of Information Systems, BYU Marriott School of Business
We’re awfully bossy with our digital assistants. Every once in a while I catch myself almost saying thanks. It feels a little wrong to just bark orders. Alexa doesn’t seem to mind either way. But there’s been some handwringing of late about how interacting with Alexa and Google and Siri is making us forget our manners.
Back to School Tips for Parents
Guest: Denise Pope, Senior Lecturer in Education, Stanford University, Founder of Challenge Success, Co-author of “Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids”
A new school year can be a chance at a fresh start for your family. A chance to try some new strategies for managing the homework battles and helping your child cope better with the stress of school.
Baking Your Own Happiness
Guests: Michael Platt, Head Baker and Spokesperson for Michaels Desserts; Danita Platt, Michael’s Mother
Michael Platt started his bakery “Michaels Desserts” when he was 11. That was two years ago. For every cupcake or cookie he sells, he donates one to someone in need. “A cupcake won’t end hunger,” Michael admits on his website. But “a tasty treat, when times are tough, can make life sweeter.” I couldn’t agree more.
In the Wake of Mass Shootings, How Should the Government Police Online Hate Speech?
Guest: David Kaye, Clinical Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine, UN Special Rapporteur, Author of “Speech Police”
At the G7 summit over the weekend, French president Emmanuel Macron tried to muster support for a pledge to fight online hate speech. He’d hoped to get all the G7 countries, plus Facebook, Snapchat and Google to sign on. But the US wouldn’t sign on for “legal reasons,” according to a report from Reuters. The pledge Macron hoped to have signed builds on something called the Christchurch Call –which is a commitment by governments and tech companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. It came about after the mass shootings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier this year. The US is, also, not a signer of the Christchurch Call.
Biomedical Engineers Pave Way for Prosthetic Arm that Can Move and Feel the Same as a Human Arm
Guests: Gregory Clark, Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor; Keven Walgamott, Participant of the Study and Real Estate Agent from West Valley City
If you want to change the radio station in your car, your hand will move somewhat unconsciously and change the channel. Your brain sends it a signal to move and it does—almost immediately. And the reality is, we usually take that for granted. But for amputees, it’s not something to take lightly. These signals are the difference between a human hand and a prosthetic hand. Until recently. University of Utah biomedical engineers have figured out how to make a computer relay those messages from your brain—to a prosthetic limb. The “LUKE” arm as its been nicknamed, due to its similarities to Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic limb in Star Wars, allows for amputees to have a prosthetic arm that feels touch and responds to brain signals just as a human hand would.
Music Industry Lawyer Erin Jacobson on music masters. James Gaskin of BYU on being polite with your digital assistant. Denise Pope of Stanford University on back to school tips for parents. Michael Platt and Danita Platt of Michaels Desserts on baking your own happiness. David Kaye of the University of California on internet hate speech. Gregory Clark of the University of Utah and Keven Walgamott on a new prosthetic arm that can move and feel the same as a human arm.
Why Treatment of Women Is Crucial in War and Peace
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
A peace deal in Afghanistan appears imminent. The deal between the United States and the Taliban centers on withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan in exchange for a promise that the Taliban will prevent international terrorist groups from plotting on Afghan soil. And where does that leave the people of Afghanistan? In particular, the women who have enrolled in school and university and joined the workforce by the hundreds of thousands since the Taliban was forced out of Kabul in 2001? All of that was prohibited under Taliban rule. And today, women hold a larger share of seats in Afghanistan’s National Assembly than they do in the US Congress
Maryland Truth Commission
Guest: Joseline Pena-Melnyk, (Democrat), Member of the Maryland House of Delegates, Representing District 21
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, more than 4,000 African Americans were murdered by lynch mobs across the US. Most of the killings were never prosecuted. And most happened in the South. But Maryland recently became the first state to create a statewide commission to investigate lynching. It’s called the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
New Study Claims Majority of Antibiotics Prescribed from Dentists Are Unnecessary
Guest: Katie Suda, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago
Many people are afraid of the dentist, and for good reason –having someone else’s hands in your mouth and having drilling done on your jaw is never a good time. But researchers are discovering that maybe we should be less afraid of what happens in the dentist chair and more afraid of the little slip of paper we often walk out with –an antibiotic prescription.
Pro-Democracy Protests Rock Moscow, but Putin Remains Unshaken
Guest: Angela Stent, Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and Professor of Government and Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Author “Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest”
Since mid-July, people have been protesting in the streets of Moscow. Two weeks ago, as many as 50,000 people rallied calling for fair local elections. Protest organizers hope an even larger group will gather this weekend. They’re focused on Moscow city elections schedule for September 9th. Vladimir Putin’s powerful political party has blocked opposition candidates from appearing on the ballot.
A New Life-saving Treatment for Ebola
Guest: Steven Hatch, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, University of Massachusetts Medical School
The World Health Organization has announced an important breakthrough in the ongoing Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Researchers say they’ve found a treatment –some are event calling it a cure. Everyone with Ebola in the current outbreak will now be offered the new drugs.
Worlds Awaiting: Reading eBooks Out Loud
Guest: Rachel Wadham, host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Eric Jensen of BYU on gender equality and peace. Joseline Pena-Melnyk of the Maryland House of Delegates on truth commission. Katie Suda of of the University of Illinois on over prescribing. Angela Stent of Georgetown University on Russian protests. Steven Hatch of the University of Massachusetts on the Ebola cure. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on reading eBooks out loud.
Ben Lewis and Chad Carlos of BYU on corporate priorities. Christopher Muller of Boston University on ghost restaurants. Timothy Hoff of Northeastern University on retail health clinics. John Rennie Short of the University of Maryland on sharing the road. Rick Swan of the International Association of Fire Fighters on wildland fire gear. Robert Tai of the University of Virginia on homework.
Customers, Employees, Shareholders. Who Should Be a Company’s Top Priority?
Guests: Ben Lewis, Professor of Strategy, BYU Marriott School of Business; Chad Carlos, Professor of Entrepreneurship, BYU Marriott School of Business
There's that saying, “The customer is king.” But really, the shareholder is king. A corporation exists to maximize profits for its owners. At least that’s been the prevailing idea among American companies for decades. But a group of the nation’s most powerful CEOs now say that’s the wrong. They say they’re committed to leading their companies for the benefit of all their stakeholders –customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders. More than 150 CEOs signed their name to the statement, issued by the Business Roundtable.
Delivery Apps Create Opening for “Ghost Restaurants” That Only Exist Online
Guest: Christopher Muller, Professor of the Practice, Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration
There are bunch of apps that let you order food for delivery to your door in 30 minutes or less. DoorDash, UberEats, GrubHub. You pick a meal from a long list of restaurants –from fast-food to sit-down dining –and the app will bring it to you. It’s like pizza delivery but for anything thing you could want to eat. But now these apps are starting to shift how they operate –and the results could be really bad for traditional restaurants.
The Dependability of Retail Health Clinics
Guest: Timothy Hoff, Professor of Management, Healthcare Systems, and Health Policy, Northeastern University, Author of “Next in Line: Lowered Care Expectations in the Age of Retail-and Value-based Health”
If you’ve got health insurance –or cash in your pocket –there’s a range of options for getting your sore throat tested for strep. You could make an appointment with your doctor. Or go to urgent care. Or go to the emergency room. Or, you could head over to your local pharmacy. CVS announced this summer it will add 1,500 new Minute Clinics to its retail stores around the country over the next few years. There’s a big push by lots of retailers –including Amazon and WalMart –to get into the health clinic business. Is that a good thing?
Cyclist and Pedestrian Fatalities Rise as Cities Seek Automobile Alternatives
Guest: John Rennie Short, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
As more and more American cities look to encourage walking and cycling, a troubling trend has emerged: Pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities have increased significantly over the last decade. So, cities are getting healthier –but also more dangerous for people who opt not to drive a car. What’s the fix?
Wildland Firefighters Need More Than Bandanas
Guest: Rick Swan, Director of Wildland Fire Fighting Safety & Response, International Association of Fire Fighters
Firefighters battling wildland fires often leave their homes for weeks at a time and work 16 hour days. They hike without trails and carry really heavy packs in 100-plus-degree weather in thick smoke. And what do they have to protect themselves from that smoke? A bandana. That's it.
How Much Homework is too Much?
Guest: Robert Tai, Associate Professor of Education, University of Virginia
Has the homework set in for your school kids yet? There’s usually about a week of back-to-class honeymoon and then home come worksheets, writing assignments, practice sets. And the household battles over getting that homework done. Would you rather your kids not get homework from their teachers? You might be right. There’s a fair amount of research being done that suggests homework is less helpful than teachers might think.
The True Story of Yasuke, the African Samurai (Originally aired May 7, 2019)
Guest: Thomas Lockley, Assistant Professor, Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo, Co-author of “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan”
Chadwick Boseman –best known as the Black Panther –(Wakanda forever)is rumored to be the pick to play another heroic figure -Yasuke, the African Samurai. It’s a fascinating true story of an African boy kidnapped and enslaved in the 1500s who rose to become a samurai for Japan’s most powerful leader.
The Debate Over Statistical Significance (Originally aired May 2, 2019)
Guest: William Christensen, Professor of Statistics, BYU
One of the most respected scientific journals in the world -The New England Journal of Medicine –has just announced that it will no longer rely so heavily on something called a “P value” when deciding which studies are worth paying attention to. This is a topic of hot debate –a schism even –in the statistics world. And it boils down to a difference of opinion over what constitutes a “positive” result. The P-value –which we’re going to explain in a moment –has been the bright line scientists have used to determine when to make hay about the results of a study: “We hit this threshold, everybody listen up!” But more and more researchers are beginning to think that line is bogus and science needs to stop relying on it so much. The New England Journal of Medicine has now come out on that side of the fight.
An Adventurer Who Inspired Generations of Dinosaur Hunters (Originally aired May 6, 2019)
Guest: Clive Coy, Chief Technician at the Laboratory for Vertebrae Paleontology, University of Alberta, Member of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society
A fearless explorer who hates snakes, trekking across the Gobi desert with a caravan of cars and camels. Nope, not Indiana Jones. Let’s meet Roy Chapman Andrews –a real-life adventurer who made ground-breaking dinosaur fossil discoveries, led the American Museum of Natural History in New York and published a bunch of books for kids about dinosaurs that inspired a whole generation of paleontologists.
How the Kochs Influence American Politics (Originally aired August 10, 2018)
Guest: Kenneth Vogel, Reporter, New York Times, Author of “Big Money”
Billionaire industrialist, philanthropist and political activist David Koch has died. He and his brother Charle sare credited with moving the Republican party further to the right over the last two decades. They founded Americans for Prosperity which helped give rise to the Tea Party Movement in the mid-2000s. In the 2016 election, the Koch network spent nearly as much on candidates and advertising as the Republican Party itself. But they’ve also publicly disagreed with President Trump’s version of the Republican Party.
The Importance of Vacation Time (Originally aired May 13, 2019)
Guest: Joe Robinson, Founder of Work to Live, Stress Management and Work-life Balance Trainer, Speaker, Author of “Work to Live” and “Don’t Miss Your Life”
Summer is just about over –did you get in enough vacation time? More than half of Americans don’t use all of their paid time off. Work-life balance expert Joe Robinson believes you should be using all of that PTO and then some. He’s the founder of Work to Live and coaches companies on how to get more out of their employees by taking more time off.
Lights Are Causing Problems for Sea Turtle Hatchlings (Originally aired May 16, 2019)
Guest: David Godfrey, Executive Director of Sea Turtle Conservancy
Several environmental groups filed a lawsuit this week against the Trump Administration over changes to the Endangered Species Act. Sea turtles are on the list of species that could get less protection if the changes go forward. Right now, up and down Florida’s coast, it’s turtle nesting season. Little hatchlings are emerging from the warm sand and making a dangerous scramble toward water. Tens of thousands of them will be waylaid by misleading lights along the shoreline. The Sea Turtle Conservancy has an all-out plan to dim the lights on Florida’s coast, so the hatchlings don’t end up disoriented in swimming pools, on porches or smushed under cars.
Thomas Lockley of Nihon University on the true story of Yasuke, the African Samourai. William Christensen of BYU on the debate over statistical significance. Clive Coy of the University of Alberta on Indiana Jones. Keneth Vogel of the New York Times on how the Kochs influence American politics. Joe Robinson of Work to Live on the importance of vacation time. David Godfrey of the Sea Turtle Conservancy on lights causing problems for sea turtle hatchlings.
Robert Keiter of the University of Utah on the changes to the endangered species act. Jean Tsao of Michigan State University on tracking ticks across the country. Nicholas Horbaczewski of Drone Racing League on high-speed drone racing. Author David Chudwin on reporting on the Moon launch as a teenager. Matt Seaholm of the American Progressive Bag Alliance on plastic bag bans.
Changes to the Endangered Species Act
Guest: Robert Keiter, Director and Professor, Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment, University of Utah, SJ Quinney College of Law
Environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and Humane Society, filed a lawsuit this week against major changes the Trump Administration is making to the Endangered Species Act. Ever since the Act became law in 1973, it’s been the subject of lawsuits and heated political debate –all the while both sides contend they are committed to “conserving and recovering species.”
Tracking Ticks Across the Country
Guest: Jean Tsao, Associate Professor, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Michigan State University
Globally, mosquitoes area major killer. But in the United States, ticks are the bigger problem. They’re to blame for the vast majority of insect-borne illnesses reported every year –Lyme Disease being chief among them. And the really bad news is that in the last decade, ticks have been on the move –their populations growing and expanding into new areas that never used to have a tick problem.
America’s Newest Sport Is High-Speed Drone Racing, and Yes, It Is as Cool as It Sounds
Guest: Nicholas Horbaczewski, Founder and CEO, The Drone Racing League
When the drone racing competition live-streamed on Twitter a few weeks ago people who stumbled on it lost their minds. It looks like a video game: Little drones lit in fluorescent colors zooming through dark hallways at 90 miles per hour, squeezing through gates, trying to not to crash. And there’s play-by-play from excited commentators. But it’s not a video game. It’s happening live in a dark stadium. A bunch of guys with gamer nicknames are controlling the drones from cockpits wearing virtual reality goggles. The Drone Racing League is suddenly a huge phenomenon. Six million people watched that three-and-a-half-hour broadcast on Twitter, plus it was also on NBC.
Reporting on the Moon Launch as Teenager
Guest: David Chudwin, Author, “I Was a Teenage Space Reporter: From Apollo 11 to Our Future in Space”
The Apollo 11 moon launch 50 years ago was the story of the summer. More than three-thousand reporters from all over the world showed up at Cape Canaveral in Florida to cover it. David Chudwin was among them –the only college reporter NASA gave press credentials to for the launch. He was 19. A rising sophomore at the University of Michigan who’d grown up with the space program, dreaming of being an astronaut. So, the summer of 1969, Chudwin and his buddy Marv hatch a plan to go Florida to watch the Apollo 11 crew launch for the moon. He’d spent his freshman year at the University of Michigan writing for the independent campus paper–The Daily -where he was the only person on staff with an interest in the space program. Chudwin decides he’ll just shoot the moon, so to speak, and see if he could see the moon launch as a reporter, instead of just a civilian fan. He just released a memoir of that amazing experience. It’s called “I Was a Teenage Space Reporter.”
Plastic Bag Bans Are Spreading Across the Country, Plus Bans on Those Bans
Guest: Matt Seaholm, Executive Director, American Progressive Bag Alliance
Eight states have banned the carry-out plastic bags you get at the grocery store –California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont–and dozens of cities done so, too. They cite the problem of flimsy plastic bags ending up in rivers, lakes and the ocean. Wildlife eat them or get tangled in them. Plus, many coastal cities just get tired of cleaning up the bags from beaches and parks. But at least a dozen states have passed laws preventing cities from banning plastic bags. Those states have bag ban bans.
Nicholas Kulish of the New York Times on the anti-immigration movement. Ameya Kulkarni of Mid Atlantic Permanente Medical Group on loneliness hurting doctors. Michael Osacky of Baseball in the Attic on baseball card collections. Sam Payne of the Apple Seed shares a story. Dan Lijenquist of Intermountain Healthcare on a new way to counter generic drug shortage. Charles Hughes of Rhodes College on the origins of music genre.
The Money That Helped Sow the Seeds of President Trump’s Immigration Agenda
Guest: Nicholas Kulish, Investigative Reporter, New York Times, “The New Nativists” Series
Restricting both legal and illegal immigration to the United States has become a hallmark of the Trump Administration’s policies–and will be central to the President’s re-election campaign. In a New York Times series called “The New Nativists” reporter Nicholas Kulish is investigating the links between a handful of nonprofit organizations and wealthy donors who have helped sow the seeds of President Trump’s immigration agenda.
Loneliness Is Hurting Doctors, But Social Interaction Can Help
Guest: Ameya Kulkarni MD, Cardiologist with Mid Atlantic Permanente Medical Group
Reliance on technology is cutting short the amount of face-to-face time doctors spend with patients and with peers. While the technology can save time and money for patients, the lack of social interaction can leave many doctors feeling lonely, dissatisfied with their jobs, and burned out.
Baseball Card Collection is America’s Profitable Pastime
Guest: Michael Osacky, President of Baseball in the Attic
They’re still making baseball cards in 2019. That kind of surprises me, actually. But here’s a bit of news from the last few weeks that’s even more surprising –a signed baseball card for a White Sox prospect named Luis Robert sold at auction for $51,000. What makes this so incredible is that Robert doesn’t even play for the White Sox yet, instead he’s a 22-year-old recruit who hasn’t even batted in a major league game. Many people wonder about why baseball cards sell for so much money if they’re just a piece of paper with a picture on it and maybe an autograph. More importantly, if that card sold for $51,000, who’s to say that your grandparents’ box of Cracker Jack Cards won’t sell for more?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares a back to school story.
A New Way to Counter the Generic Drug Shortage
Guest: Dan Liljenquist, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Intermountain Healthcare and Board Chair of Civica Rx
Could there be anything more terrifying than to have a loved one in the hospital with a serious condition and the doctor says they don’t have the medicine required to save your loved one’s life? This is not just a problem in developing countries. Here in the US, virtually every hospital has had to delay surgery or come up with a treatment workaround because of chronic drug shortages–most of the time these are generic drugs, too. So, you’d think they’d be plentiful and cheap. A group of about 750 hospitals decided they’d had enough of those shortages and formed a nonprofit drug manufacturer to be their supplier. The nonprofit is called Civica Rx.
The Origins of Music Genre
Guest: Charles Hughes, Director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center, Rhodes College, Author of “Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South”
Old Town Road by Lil Nas X–an African American musician. The song broke the record for the longest time in the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles. Note that I didn’t say Hot Country Songs. There’s been a whole to-do over that. Billboard says Old Town Road doesn’t qualify as country, even though Billy Ray Cyrus sings on this popular remix. It’s just not country enough, says Billboard. But maybe it’s that Lil Nas X himself isn’t country enough?
Ather Zia of the University of Northern Colorado Greeley on a Kashimiri perspective on disputed region. Lynn Rothschild of NASA on mushrooms in space. Yonat Zwebner of IDC Herzliya on name recognition. Meredith Gore of Michigan State University on wildlife trafficking. Lindsey Feldman of the University of Memphis on inmate firefighters. Kirsten Hawkes of Parent Previews on music movies.
Kashimiri Perspective on Disputed Region
Guest: Ather Zia, Assistant Professor, Anthropology and Gender Studies, University of Northern Colorado Greeley, Author of "Resisting Disappearance: Military Occupation and Women's Activism in Kashmir"
Phone lines and internet connection are mostly down in Kashmir – which is a disputed region between Pakistan and India. The population is majority Muslim and a few weeks ago, India stripped Kashmir of its autonomy and statehood. The clampdown is unprecedented and has drawn condemnation from Pakistan and other countries. But India maintains this is a domestic issue and the rest of the world should butt out.
Mars Buildings Made Out of Mushrooms
Guest: Lynn Rothschild, Research Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley
We'll soon be able to land humans on Mars, but what about all the things earthlings will need once we're up there? Mars is a wasteland with no Home Depot, so the planet isn't going to provide us building materials. And we can't take everything with us in the spaceship. A team at NASA has come up with a potential solution: buildings made out of mushrooms. Listen to her TEDx talk here.
We Really Do Look Like Our Names
Guest: Yonat Zwebner, Professor of Marketing, IDC Herzliya, Israel
You can learn a lot about a person just from their name. Emmas are cute and sweet and Gregs are smart. Jakes are bros and Roxys are sassy. At least, those are the stereotypes. But research shows that we really do look like our names.
Environmental Crimes Are a Leading Cause of Conflict
Guest: Meredith Gore, Associate Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University
Wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, dumping hazardous waste–they're all bad for the environment, obviously. But they're also terrible for the global economy. They stunt development in vulnerable places. They pad the pockets of organized crime. They fuel violent conflict.
Why Prison Inmates Fight Wildfires
Guest: Lindsey Feldman, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Memphis
There are currently 45 large wildfires scorching millions of acres from Alaska to Texas. In several Western states, prison inmates are helping fight these fires. Arizona and California use inmate labor because it saves money –prisoners make about a dollar an hour, while professional wildfire fighters get closer to $30.
Parent Previews: Music Movies
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
During the Golden Age of Hollywood, the box-office smashes every studio wanted to release were not Marvel superhero movies –they were musicals. Singing in the Rain, Top Hat, Meet Me in St. Louis. Over the years, stage musicals have done well on the screen too –West Side Story, South Pacific, Cabaret.
Hong Kong Protests Reach Pivotal Point
Guest: Robert Daly, Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Wilson Center
Organizers says more than a million people jammed Hong Kong streets in a downpour on Sunday. The protests have been ongoing for more than ten weeks. They're largest on the weekends and mostly peaceful. But China's Communist Party has begun staging military troops near the border with Hong Kong as a clear warning that using force to quell the protests is not out of the question.
Carnival Rides Aren't Very Safe
Guest: Ken Martin, Amusement Ride Safety Analyst, Inspector, and Consultant at KRM Consulting
State and county fairs are in full swing right now, but should you let your kids get on that Ferris wheel or tilt-a-whirl? Carnival rides get taken down and put back up over and over again in different cities. How safe are they?
Meeting Someone with a Vaccine-Preventable Disease Changes the Minds of Vaccine-Hesitant Individuals
Guest: Brian Poole, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Brigham Young University
People being reluctant –or downright resistant –to getting vaccines is one of the top global threats to health right now, according to the World Health Organization. Here in the US, more than a thousand cases of measles have been reported since January –the most we've seen since measles was declared eliminated from the country two decades ago. CDC officials admit they are struggling to effectively counter misinformation about vaccines online. Throwing data and scientific research at anti-vaxxers rarely seems to work. But meeting someone who's had a vaccine preventable disease might.
Art Restoration Vital for Paintings and Murals Worldwide
Guest: Scott Haskins, Director and Chief Conservator, Fine Art Conservation Laboratories
Colorful street art seems to have taken on new life thanks to Instagram. Tourists will make a special pilgrimage to an out-of-the-way spot just to get that perfect photo in front of an artsy mural. Scott Haskins is the guy cities call when graffiti, pollution or weather damage an iconic street mural. Recently his team has been restoring famous art along Los Angeles free ways that have all but disappeared beneath graffiti.
Social Workers Need Help Too
Guest: Tara Powell, Social Work Professor, University of Illinois
Fourteen years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. Levees broke, inundating New Orleans. Nearly 1,000 Louisiana residents died. More than a million people were displaced from their homes. Tara Powell was a school social worker in New Orleans at the time –helping students cope with the trauma of Katrina while dealing with the loss of her own home. That experience led Powell to create a workshop to help caregivers in that situation. When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast several years later, Powell tested her workshop out on social workers caught in that disaster.
A Plant-Based Compound to Revitalize Skin, Hair
Guest: Edwin Lephart, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology, BYU
Humans just really don't like to age. Billions of dollars we spend every year on creams and potions to make our faces and skin and hair look more youthful. BYU physiology professor Edwin Lephart's hoping to capitalize with a plant-based compound called "Equol."
Robert Daly of the Wilson Center Kissinger Institute on Hong Kong protests. Ken Martin of KRM Consulting on carnival ride safety. Brian Poole of BYU on vaccines. Scott Haskins of Fine Art Conservation Laboratories on mural restoration. Tara Powell of the University of Illinois on social workers. Edwin Lephart of BYU on a plant-based compound revitalizing skin and hair.
Author Janet Hibbs on how to help your child navigate the stresses of college. Pamela Weathers of Worcester Polytechnic Institute on a new cure for malaria. Peter Davidson of the University of California San Diego on the debate over supervised injection sites. Author David Shlaes on the uncertain future of antibiotics. May Berenbaum of the University of Illinois on the bug apocalypse. Author and journalist Clive Thompson on the coding culture.
How to Help Your Child Navigate the Stresses Of College (Originally aired May 1, 2019)
Guest: B. Janet Hibbs, Psychologist and Family Therapist, Author of "The Stressed Years of Their Lives Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years"
Parents around the country are packing their kids up for college. Sending a freshman off for the first time is stressful for both parents and their kids. More and more college students are being treated for anxiety and depression. B. Janet Hibbs was confident that she had prepared her son for life on his own when she sent him off to college. So, when he had a mental health crisis, Hibbs was shocked and decided that there must be more that parents can do to prepare their children for the emotional demands of school. She co-authored a book for parents with the psychiatrist who treated her son. It's called, "The Stressed Years of Their Lives."
A New (Old) Cure for Malaria (Originally aired April 29, 2019)
Guest: Pamela Weathers, Professor of Biology and Biotechnology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
More than 1,800 people have died of malaria in the African nation of Burundi this year. While it may not make headlines, malaria continues to be a life-threatening disease for many, and treatment is complicated by both drug resistance and cost. The answer might be a new plant, rather than a new medicine.
The Debate over Supervised Injection Sites (Originally aired May 1, 2019)
Guest: Peter Davidson, PhD, Associate Adjunct Professor of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of California San Diego Medical School
Philadelphia nonprofit is suing the federal government for permission to open the first supervised injection site in the country. A dozen mayors and attorneys general from other states have thrown their legal support behind the effort –hoping to have another tool for combatting the opioid overdose death crisis. "Supervised injection sites" are places where people can inject heroin under the supervision of medical staff trained to reverse an overdose. They're illegal in the US but have been operating for years in Canada and Australia.
The Uncertain Future of Antibiotics (Originally aired June 3, 2019)
Guest: David Shlaes, member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership. Author of "Antibiotics, The Perfect Storm" and "The Drug Makers"
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new antibiotic for treating tuberculosis this week. Doesn't sound like much, but it's a big deal because more and more bacteria are becoming resistant to existing drugs –and yet there aren't many companies interested in developing new antibiotics. Apparently, there's not much money in these drugs, even though millions of people die around the world every year from bacterial infections. This new one for treating tuberculosis was developed by a nonprofit, rather than a corporation.
What to Beelieve (Originally aired May 8, 2019)
Guest: May Berenbaum, PhD. The Department Head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Species all over planet Earth are going extinct at an historic –and alarming –rate according to reports from a UN panel of experts. More than 40 percent of all amphibian species are at risk of extinction, 33 percent of corals and around 10 percent of insects. It's for sure a bummer if the beautiful coral or the cute frogs disappear. But insects? Hey, I'm happy to have a few less mosquitos to worry about this time of year.
How Coders Shape the World (Originally aired April 17, 2019)
Guest: Clive Thompson, Science and Technology Journalist, Author, "CODERS: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World"
If it's really true that our world runs on software, then the people who build that software are enormously powerful. Who are they? What do they want? If they took us to their leader, would it be a guy in a dark room pounding energy drinks and wearing yesterday's clothes? If that's who is running our world, that's a bit terrifying.
Matthew O'Brien of FAIR and Brittney Nystrom of ACLU of Utah on immigration laws. Richard Harris of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on relocating goats. Keith Recker of HAND/EYE Magazine on where colors come from. Retired U.S. Army Major General Dana Pittard and retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Wes Bryant on fighting ISIS. Iain Hunter of BYU on running shoes.
New Trump Administration Rules Emphasize Immigrants' Ability to "Stand on Their Own Two Feet"
Guest: Matthew O'Brien, Director of Research, Federation for American Immigration Reform; Brittney Nystrom, Executive Director ACLU of Utah
A change to immigration law announced by the Trump Administration this week will make it harder for people to immigrate US legally if they seem likely to need government support from programs like food stamps or Medicaid. The rule also applies to immigrants living in the US who could be denied a green card or citizenship status if they've relied on public benefit programs during the last three years.
Here's how Ken Cuccinelli, head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services summarized the changes on Tuesday when asked by NPR host Rachel Martin if the words 'give me your tired, your poor,' remain "part of the American ethos." "They certainly are," said Cuccinelli on Morning Edition. "Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and will not become a public charge. That plaque was put on the Statue of Liberty at almost the same time as the first public charge law was passed. Very interesting timing."
Mountain Goats Evicted by Helicopter from Olympic National Park
Guest: Richard Harris, Game Division Section Manager at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Visitors to Olympic National Park in Washington this summer, might catch strange sight: sedated mountain goats dangling from helicopters in slings. The park is in its second year of relocating to the goats because they're not native to Olympic and they've started causing problems.
True Color –Where do Colors Come from Naturally?
Guest: Keith Recker, editor and founder of HAND/EYE magazine, author of "True Colors: World Masters of Natural Dyes and Pigment"
Natural colors and fibers conjure in your mind a palette of muted browns, oranges, tans and reds –maybe a little indigo or green mixed in, right? For the truly vibrant color of a favor scarf or sweater, the source must be synthetic. The natural world just can't compete with modern science. That's certainly what Keith Recker thought as an executive at Saks Fifth Avenue. When a natural dye expert told him she could make any color he could want for the store's luxurious racks, Recker says he nodded politely and changed the subject. Then the natural dyer proved him wrong.
How the Fight Against ISIS Changed Warfare
Guest: Dana Pittard, retired U.S. Army Major General; Wes Bryant, retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant, co-authors of "Hunting the Caliphate: America's War on ISIS and the Dawn of the Strike Cell"
The Pentagon last week warned that ISIS is resurging in Iraq and Syria. The terror group may have lost its territory, thanks to US support. But it is still recruiting fighters, carrying out attacks and working to rebuild its capabilities. Meanwhile, President Trump is eager to declare the fight against ISIS won and get the US military out of it.
Can Special Shoes Really Make You Run Faster?
Guest: Iain Hunter, Professor of exercise science, Brigham Young University
BYU Professor of Exercise science Iain Hunter and his team recently conducted a study checking out Nike's Vaporfly claim that it can improve running economy by 4%. What about human anatomy or shoes can lead to someone running faster? It's really all about oxygen uptake, how much you use when you're running. Even small cuts in that amount can add up over the length of marathon, meaning minutes off your total running time. The design, weight, and amount of foam in the shoe are all factors that change how it interacts with our bodies and how it can help us run better.
Gun rights advocate Clark Aposhian on universal background checks. Kevin Noertker of Ampaire on the race for electric aviation. Kelly Pritchett of Central Washington University on the truth behind electrolytes in sports drinks. SaraEllen Strongman of the University of Michigan on the legacy of Toni Morrison. Supervising sound editor and designer Richard King on sound design. Rachel Paine of Drake University on why US presidential campaigns last so long.
Universal Background Checks
Guest: Clark Aposhian, Chair of the Utah Sports Shooting Council
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says background checks for gun sales will lead the discussion when Congress returns to work in September. The Democratically-controlled House has already passed a measure that expands mandatory background checks to include private gun sales between individuals.
The Race for Electric Aviation
Guest: Kevin Noertker, Co-founder and CEO of Ampaire
Airplanes spew a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If you add it all up, aviation emits as much greenhouse gas in a year as the UK and Australia combined. If cars are transitioning to electricity so they pollute less, could commercial flights be electric one day, too?
The Truth Behind Electrolytes in Sports Drinks
Guest: Kelly Pritchett, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Exercise Science, Central Washington University
We're in the middle of the hottest part of the year, and that means a lot of sweat. Kids are playing outside more and a lot of adults are doing5Ks and half marathons. That means losing electrolytes. We hear all the time that electrolytes are important, but you may not need to be drinking sports drinks as often as Gatorade commercials may lead you to believe.
The Legacy of Toni Morrison
Guest: SaraEllen Strongman, LSA Collegiate Fellow, Department of Afro-American and African Studies, University of Michigan
Since the passing of novelist and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison last week, I've read dozens of tributes to her by African American writers –especially women. Roxane Gay wrote in the New York Times that Morrison "taught me and an entire generation of black writers to recognize that we are rich places to write from."
Behind the Scenes of the Sound Design for Hollywood's Hits
Guest: Richard King, Supervising Sound Editor and Designer
Movies area visual medium, obviously. Color and camera angles matter enormously to the experience you have in the theater. But so does sound. In fact, it's maybe sound most of all that pulls you into a film. Makes you feel the wind and sea spray like you're one of the rescued soldiers huddled on a small boat at the end of the World War II movie Dunkirk. As an enemy plane bears down, it's the sound of it that makes your heart race. And the spray of bullets that makes you wince and momentarily shut your eyes.
Why US Presidential Campaigns Last So Long
Guest: Rachel Paine Caufield, Professor of Political Science, Drake University, Director of the Iowa Caucus Project
Democrats hoping to be the next President of the United States are at the Iowa State Fair eating fried food-on-a-stick and taking carnival rides and drumming up votes for the all-important Iowa caucuses in February. That's still six months away. The general election is more than a year out. And it already feels like this presidential race has been going forever. A lot of other countries –most really –have much shorter presidential election campaigns. Meanwhile candidates are announcing their intent to run earlier and earlier in the US. Why do we punish ourselves like this?
Tackling Domestic Terrorism
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
The mass shootings in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton are all being investigated as acts of domestic terrorism. And last month, FBI director Christopher Wray told a senate committee his agency had arrested almost as many domestic terrorists as foreign terrorists so far this year. But comparatively speaking, far more government resources are going toward the international terror threat posed by Al Qaeda and ISIS. Why?
Why Songs Get Stuck In Our Heads
Guests: Kelly Jakubowski (PhD), Music Psychologist and post-doctoral research associate at Durham University, UK.
Do you have a song that's stuck in your head? It's most likely not even a complete song, but just a snippet that keeps repeating for maybe even days. What do these "earworms" have in common? And how do they inhabit our brains?
New Study Shows Impact of Wildfire Smoke on Children's Immune Systems
Guest: Mary Prunicki, Author of The Study, Asthma and Pollution Expert at the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, Stanford University
An irony about wildfires is that setting intentional fires can be a really effective way to prevent larger, more intense fires from igniting. The idea is to reduce the amount of burnable "fuel" that builds up in a forest so future fires won't be so damaging. "Prescribed burns" are controversial, though, because they sometimes get out of control. And because, where there's fire, there's smoke, which is dangerous to breathe.
Economics of Pell Grants
Guest: Jeff Denning, Assistant Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University
The federal government gave $28 billion in grants to some seven million college students for the 2017-2018 school year. These are grants, not loans. They don't have to be paid back. So basically,$28billion in free money to students whose families are poor enough to qualify for the Pell Grant Program. And are taxpayers getting their money's worth?
The Political Implications of the Dalai Lama's Succession
Guest: Jose Cabezón, Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
The current Dalai Lama turned 84 years old on July 6th, 2019. He has recently started talking about his successor, and has even gone so far to say that the next Dalai Lama might be a woman! However, a lot has changed politically during the lifetime of the current Dalai Lama (the 14th overall). China invaded Tibet during the 1950s and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee and live in exile. The Dalai Lama retained his status as the political leader of Tibet until 2011 when he abdicated temporal authority, establishing a new precedent. China has claimed that they will be choosing the new Dalai Lama to serve as the spiritual leader of Tibet upon the death of the current leader, which has sparked immense controversy and criticism.
Worlds Awaiting: Educational Media
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Ryan Vogel of Utah Valley University on tackling domestic terrorism. Kelly Jakubowski, a music psychologist on why some songs get stuck in our heads. Mary Prunicki of Stanford University on a new study showing the impact of wildfire smoke on children's immune systems. Jeff Denning of BYU on economics of Pell Grants. Jose Cabezon of the University of California on the political implications of the Dalai Lama's succession. Rachel Wadham of Worlds Awaiting on education media.
Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program Is Not Working
Guest: Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
It's back to school for students around the country. Many –if not most –of their teachers are still paying off the loans they took out to get the college degree that qualified them to be in the classroom. A decade ago, Congress created a program to encourage people to work in public service jobs like teaching, nursing or law enforcement. The promise was that if you worked for ten years in a qualifying profession and kept up on your monthly payments, the government would forgive the rest of your student loans at the 10-year mark. The trouble is that hardly anyone –less than 1 percent of the estimated 32 million people who qualify for the program –has actually had their student debt erased. So the American Federation of Teachers is suing the US Department of Education for mismanaging and sabotaging the debt forgiveness program.
The Mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator
Guest: Timothy Winegard, Instructor of History, Men’s Hockey Head Coach, Colorado Mesa University
Mosquitoes have a way of shaping outdoor summer plans. Camping trips cut short. Patio dinners moved indoors. The pesky blood-suckers have even more influence than that. The course of human history has been shaped by mosquitoes and the deadly diseases they spread. Wars have been won and lost because of mosquitoes. Economies have risen and fallen.
Free Tuition Programs Are Not Solution to Higher Education Costs
Guest: Robert Kelchen, Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Seton Hall University, Author of “Higher Education Accountability”
Wiping out student debt, free college for all -the most progressive Democratic candidates for president are making big promises they hope will win them support from young voters. And some states –Texas most recently –are expanding their scholarship and grant programs to reduce the crushing burden of student debt. The trouble is, a program like that will be hard to keep up if tuition prices keep rising like they have. They’re up more than 25%, on average, over the last decade. If we don’t address what’s causing college to get more expensive, we’re just putting band-aids on the problem, says scholar Robert Kelchen.
Combatting Extremism: Use Peer Pressure, Not Logic or Fear
Guest: Nafees Hamid, PhD Candidate, Department of Security and Crime Science, University College London
When someone commits unthinkable violence for the sake of an extreme belief –whether it’s strapping on a suicide vest in the name of jihad or posting a racist manifesto and gunning down immigrants in a parking lot –surely that person is a psychopath. But that’s not what researchers found when they scanned the brains of people who support a radical Islamist terror group. Their insights are important to the discussion going on in the US right now about how to combat extreme white nationalism.
How Underage Drinking on TV Influences Teenagers
Guest: Cristel Russell, Professor of Marketing, Pepperdine University
All the teenagers on TV are drinking. In most of the soapy dramas and comedies popular with teens, alcohol is just part of on-screen life. Occasionally you’ll see a character get drunk and do something they regret. Mostly it’s just what the cool kids do. And in some cases, alcohol manufacturers are paying to have their products featured in those shows.
Disability Bias
Guest: William Chopik, Assistant Professor of Social/Personality Psychology, Michigan State University
It’s been almost 30 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act became law, and a lot has changed in that time. Most public places have handicapped parking and wheelchair accessibility now, and schools are more accommodating. But have our attitudes changed? Recent research suggests that in the last decade we might have actually taken a step backward.
Shipwrecks and Sunken Cities: The Work of Underwater Archaeology (Originally aired April 10, 2019)
Guest: Peter B. Campbell, Archaeological Director for the Albanian Center for Marine Research, Underwater Archaeologist for the Cave Archaeology Investigation & Research Network, Research Associate with RPM Nautical Foundation
Divers recently discovered an Egyptian temple under water, along with boats filled with treasure. This sunken city used to be a bustling metropolis –Cleopatra was even crowned there. Now it’s covered in water, and it’s up to marine archaeologists to drain the city of its secrets. That’s a job Indiana Jones might be envious of.
Pregnant in Prison (Originally aired April 25, 2019)
Guest: Carolyn Sufrin, Assistant Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Women are the fastest growing segment of America’s prison population. And sometimes they’re pregnant while behind bars. We don’t know exactly how common that is because the federal government keeps track of deaths that happen in prisons, but not births. We do know that sometimes incarcerated women are shackled to a bed during labor as a guard stands watch. Carolyn Sufrin delivered a baby for a prisoner in that situation years ago and it launched her research to understand the scope of problem in America.
Diabetes Crisis Growing Among World’s Refugees (Originally aired April 29, 2019)
Guest: Sylvia Kehlenbrink, Instructor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Endocrinologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Contagious diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis get a lot of focus from the international health community during a humanitarian crisis. An outbreak of a disease that spreads fast like that can be devastating in a refugee camp or a village that’s suffered a natural disaster. Chronic diseases that aren’t contagious –like diabetes -get less attention. In fact, endocrinologist Sylvia Kehlenbrink has found that humanitarian aid workers are more likely to have antibiotics on hand than insulin. She’s seen refugees with diabetes die as a result of that.
Human Looking Robots May Not Be Ideal (Originally aired April 4, 2019)
Guest: Kerstin Haring, Assistant Professor, University of Denver, Former Researcher for the U.S. Air Force
Cartoons are full of friendly robots –Disney’s especially good at that: Big Hero Six, Wall-E, the whole crew in the Robots movie. Big eyes, soft, rounded features. You just want to take ‘em home and love ‘em. But in I ROBOT, they’re human-size with human-like faces; they’re supposed to be trustworthy, but Will Smith’s character is not having it. When robots become a central part of our lives in the not-too-distant future, should they look like humans or not?
Designing a Bench to Deter Sitting (Originally aired March 29, 2019)
Guest: Dean Harvey, co-founder of Factory Furniture
In the San Francisco Bay Area, a new addition to public transit stations is getting a lot of criticism on social media. The gates where you swipe your ticket and then squeeze through between the barriers that momentarily retract to let you through –you know what I’m talking about, right? Lots of transit stations have them –well the Bay Area Rapid Transit has installed metal plates that pop up from inside those plastic barriers things and make it harder to jump the gate and cheat. People are appalled at this latest example of what’s sometimes called “hostile design” where cities make things to deter certain activities.
Keeping the Jazz Age Alive with Handmade Custom Instruments (Originally aired April 17, 2019)
Guest: Mike Corrigan, Owner of the Best American Craftsman (BAC)
When I think of old school jazz, Louis Armstrong comes to mind. Back in the 30s and 40s, it wasn’t just the performer or the music that was important, but also the craftsmanship of the instrument. A trumpet used to be as much a work of art as the jazz it played. Most horns were handmade by master craftsman before mass production came along. Today, there are still a few companies left that will build you a one-of-a-kind instrument. One of these is Best American Craftsman in Kansas City.
Impossible Burger
Guest: Scott Weathers, Senior Policy Specialist, Good Food Institute
There used to be no mistaking a veggie burger from a beef patty. No one has ever bitten into a black bean burger and thought –oh, this is some good meat. But the Impossible Whopper might fool you. It’s made of plants but bleeds like real meat and today Burger King is rolling them out in all its stores.
The Rise in Allergies and Asthma Might Be Our Fault
Guest: Cosby Stone Jr., Instructor in Allergy/Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University
Everyone I know has some kind of allergy to a food or medicine or fiber or plant or chemical. And you wonder if we’re all just a lot more allergic than people used to be, or if doctors are just better at diagnosing allergies.
An Astronomer’s View on Mauna Kea
Guest Lucianne Walkowicz, Astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago
Protests continue against plans to build a massive new telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea volcano. The international consortium behind the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, has received approval from the Hawaiian government to start the project, but many Native Hawaiians believe the mountain is sacred and are in their fourth week of blocking access to the summit.
Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution
Guest: Beth Gardiner, Environmental Journalist, author, “Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution”
America has some of the cleanest air in the world. And yet even here, more than 100,000 people die prematurely each year from poor air. It’s not just asthma or bronchitis scientists worry about. They’re discovering air pollution is linked to heart attacks, strokes, birth defects, cancer, dementia, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
Singing Builds Community
Guest: Eiluned Pearce, Research Fellow, University College London
Whether it’s at church, or a big game or just in the car with friends, we've all spent time singing with other people. Even if you’re the type who would rather die than be caught singing a solo, it’s still hard to deny that a bit of group singing in the right context is kinda nice. Why is that?
Seeking a Way Forward on Gun Violence
Guest: Peter Ambler, Executive Director, Giffords
“Mentally-ill monsters” is how President Donald Trump described mass shooters in his address to the nation Monday. In comments to the reporters before boarding Air Force One to visit El Paso and Dayton on Wednesday, he reiterated that this is a problem of mental illness and that he supports background checks to prevent “mentally unstable people or people with rage or hate” from getting guns. The President also said he thinks there’s “very strong appetite” to get a background check law passed. That’s one of the measures backed by Giffords, a non-profit focused on preventing gun violence.
Why Heat Waves Are Even Worse in Big Cities
Guest: Nicholas Rajkovich, Assistant Professor of Architecture, University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning
When the weather app on your phone says it’s 96 degrees, that may not be exactly true where you’re standing. If you’re under a tree in a park it’ll quite a bit cooler than standing in the middle of a parking lot at a strip mall. And cities, in general, tend to be several degrees hotter than outlying rural areas. As temperatures get hotter, some cities are rethinking how they deal with heat, including better design.
The Complicated Relationship Between City Parks and Crime Rates
Guest: Lincoln Larson, Assistant Professor of Human Dimensions in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, North Carolina State University
If you have the choice between a park and an empty lot in your neighborhood, you’d choose a park, wouldn’t you? And if the choice was between a park or a business of some sort –you’d probably also choose the park. But somewhere in the back of your mind, would you be just a tiny bit worried that the park would become a magnet for drugs or homeless camping? A park can be a blessing or a curse for a neighborhood –depending on how well it’s designed and maintained.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam brings his guitar and tells a summertime story from his family's past.
Is Climate Change Causing Fires? The Answer Is Complicated
Guest: Marc Abrams, Professor of Forest Ecology and Physiology, Penn State University
Wildfires have already burned three and a half million acres in the US so far this year. That’s better than where we were at this time last year, but that’s still a lot of destroyed land. And the severity of the rest of the fire season depends on Autumn winds and rains.
Scientists Create a Thread to Detect Harmful Gases
Guest: Sameer Sonkusale, Professor of Engineering and director of the NanoLab, Tufts University
Dangerous gases –like carbon monoxide –are sneaky threats. They’re invisible, for one. Often odorless, too. I forget about my carbon monoxide monitor for months and then I’ll suddenly have a moment of panic –wait, is it still working? Are the batteries dead? How would I even know before it’s too late? Imagine if you had woven blanket or a wall-hanging that would change color when it sensed carbon monoxide. You’d have a quick visual warning that something’s wrong. That’d be cool.
States Turn to Rent Control to Address Affordable Housing Concerns
Guest: Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, Professor of Real Estate and Finance, Columbia University's Graduate School of Business
In most states, property owners can raise the rent as often as they like, so long as there are people willing to pay that rent. But a handful of places–most recently Oregon and New York –are moving in the opposite direction: they’re passing laws to limit how much landlords can raise the rent each year. “Rent control” was popular in some big cities during the 1970s, but largely fell out of favor. Why is it making a comeback?
The Trump Administration Wants to Ease Restrictions on Automakers. Ford, Honda, VW & BMW Say “No Thanks”
Guest: Kenneth Gillingham, Associate Professor of Economics, Yale University
The Trump Administration is in the process of relaxing gas-mileage standards for cars and trucks. Which you’d think automakers would welcome. So why did four of them –Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW of North America –just cut a deal with the state of California to stick with the stricter rules?
Why Storming Area 51 Is Unlikely to Yield Alien Secrets
Guest: Peter W. Merlin, Aerospace Historian, Founding Member of the X-Hunters Aerospace Archeology Team, Author of “Images of Aviation: Area 51”
So apparently it was a college kid’s joke, but the Facebook page calling for a mass invasion of the secretive government site Area 51 went viral. Before the owner took it down recently, more than a million people signed on to “Storm Area 51” on September 20th. “They can’t stop all of us!” “Let’s see them aliens” the page quipped. And while it’s been taken down, others have popped up in its place. Just in case people are serious, the military has warned that “Area 51 is an opening training range . . . and the US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”
Romantic Types Are Real, And It’s Better That We Know
Guest: Geoff MacDonald, Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto
When a relationship ends badly, it’s pretty common for the partners to swear they’ll never partner with someone like that again. But easier said than done. A study of hundreds of people, and the people they’ve been in relationships with, found we really do gravitate toward a type. So, is there every any hope for turning a new leaf in love?
Ads Can Make Us Mad—Which is Sometimes the Point
Guest: Mark Bartholomew, Professor of Law, University of Buffalo
IHOP or the International House of Pancakes changed their name last year to IHOB, the international house of burgers. At least that’s what they advertised. But IHOP didn’t actually change its name –it was just a stunt the company pulled to get a rise out of people. This is part of a growing trend of advertisements that are purposefully trying to make viewers angry, but aren’t ads supposed to make us feel all warm and fuzzy toward the brand?
Nematodes are everywhere –57 billion for every human on Earth
Guest: Byron J. Adams, PhD, professor of Biology, Brigham Young University
The most abundant animal on Earth is not a type of fish or bird or even an insect. It’s a tiny, wormy creature called a nematode. For every human on the planet there are 57 billion nematodes. Which is enough to make my spine crawl a bit –and also, if there are so many of them, why I haven’t I ever seen one?
Eye Bacteria—Not as Gross as it Sounds
Guest: Anthony St. Leger, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Immunology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Your kid gets pink eye. You keep him home from school and alert the parents of his friends to be on the lookout. And you get antibiotic drops from the doctor to clear up the infection. That’s the standard treatment. But most pink eye cases are viral, so antibiotics won’t help. Worse, they may be wiping out “good bacteria” on the eye.
Tradegies in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio
There were two mass shootings in the span of 13 hours over the weekend. On Saturday morning a gunman in El Paso killed 21 people and wounded dozens of others. Early Sunday morning, another gunman killed nine people and injured more in Dayton. We discss the latest information as of air time.
China’s Mass Incarceration of Muslim Uyghurs May Be a New Form of Ethnic Cleansing
Guest: Sean R. Roberts, Director and Associate Professor, International Development Studies Program, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
Facing international condemnation, China says it has released all of the people detained in so-called re-education camps in western China. Up to a million Muslim Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in the camps. Experts who’ve watched China’s escalating mistreatment of the minority ethnic group over the last decade are skeptical the camps have actually been emptied.
Decoding the Secret Messages of Firefly Flashes
Guest: Clyde Sorenson, Professor of Entomology, North Carolina State University
If you happen to live in a part of the country where fireflies are abundant this time of year, I’m so envious. They’re magical to watch –and though their flashing lights can seem random, different species have their own unique rhythm.
A Walk Through the Two Newest US National Parks
Guest: Becky Lomax, Author of “USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 59 Parks”
The US has designated two more places as national parks in the past couple of years. One of them –Indiana Dunes –received the official title just a few months ago. The park features sand dunes that run along Lake Michigan. The other new one is called Gateway Arch, and unlike its sisters, the central feature of this park is something totally man-made.
500 Years after Leonardo Da Vinci’s Death, New Book Considers his Legacy
Guests: Jean-Pierre Isbouts, Art Historian and Doctoral Professor, Fielding Graduate University; Christopher Brown, DDS, Director of Brown Discoveries, LLC, Co-authors of “The Da Vinci Legacy: How an Elusive 16thCentury Artist Became a Global Pop Icon”
This year marks 500 years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci. The Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, his incredibly detailed human anatomy sketches and his early invention of the bicycle and the parachute make him perhaps the most celebrated artist of all time. But when he died in the summer of 1519, he was not famous. In fact, he was something of a failure by Italian Renaissance standards and was living in exile in France. His burial site went forgotten for centuries. So why is he so famous today?
Inbred Cows
Guest: Chad DeChow, Associate Professor of Dairy Cattle Genetics, Penn State University
A happy Holstein cow in 1950 could produce a little more than 600 gallons of milk in a year. Today, that cow would be a slacker. Now that same cow would be expected to produce over 2,600 gallons of milk. How did this increase happen? Turns out a cow’s ability to produce much more milk is the result of a highly tuned selective breeding process. So selective that researchers have discovered nearly every Holstein in America can be linked back to a couple of bulls from the 1960s. But the downside of this is inbreeding and a lack of genetic diversity.
Healing the Harm in American Health Care (Originally aired September 24, 2019)
Guest: Joseph Q. Jarvis, Author, “The Purple World: Healing the Harm in American Health Care”
How to improve America’s expensive healthcare system is a crucial issue for the 24 Democrats hoping to become president. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren lead the contingency hoping to abolish private insurance and have everyone covered by a national system like Medicare. Kamala Harris wants a version of Medicare-for-all, but with a role for private insurance companies to play. Joe Biden wants to build on Obamacare by adding a “public option.” If your eyes glaze over at the details of this debate, you’re not alone.
A Call for Girls to Be Brave, Not Perfect (Originally aired April 2, 2019)
Guest: Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code; author of “Brave, Not Perfect,” “Girls Who Code,” and “Women Who Don’t Wait in Line”
A record number of women are taking the biggest political risk possible and running for president. That’s just the kind of thing girls need to see more of, says Reshma Saujani. In her book, “Brave, Not Perfect,” Saujani argues that women are so programmed by society to avoid failure, they avoid taking chances that would lead to great things.
How to Not Let Stereotypes Undermine Your Performance (Originally aired March 6, 2019)
Guest: Russell McClain, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, University of Maryland, Carey School of Law
Given what we’ve seen on social media in the last week, it’s not a big surprise to me that more than half of Americans think race relations are bad-and getting worse. That same recent Pew survey shows most Americans believe being Black, Hispanic hurts a person’s ability to get ahead in society today. Stereotypes play an important role in that. They affect how people are treated, yes. But they can also become sort of self-fulfilling prophecies where people behave as the stereotype expects them to.
The Hunt for the USS Wasp (Originally aired April 3, 2019)
Guest: Rear Admiral Samuel J. Cox, U.S. Navy (Retired) and Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command and Curator of the Navy
A wooden sailing vessel from the days when Christopher Columbus was discovering the New World was discovered at the bottom of the icy Baltic Sea. A company looking to lay a natural gas pipeline on the seafloor stumbled on the wreckage and scientists last week released incredible footage from robotic cameras showing the remarkably well-preserved 500-year-old ship. The world’s oceans are virtually littered with wreckage of historic importance.
How Political Parties Have Fueled Racial Angst in America
Guest: Angie Maxwell, Diane D. Blair Endowed Chair in Souther studies and associate professor of political science, University of Arkansas, co-author of “THE LONG SOUTHERN STRATEGY: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics”
In the last two weeks, President Trump has told four Congresswomen of color to “go back” to where “they came from.” And he called the Baltimore district of black Congressman Elijah Cummings “a disgusting rat and rodent infested mess.” The President and his allies maintain he's just being patriotic and stating facts. They argue that the people calling President Trump racist are the ones being racist. But there is a long history in America of political leaders and their parties stoking racial tension to win votes.
Puerto Rican Governor Resigns
Guest: Pedro Cabán, Professor and Chair of Department of Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies, University at Albany SUNY.
Puerto Rico’s governor –Ricardo Rossello –will step down on Friday, after weeks of large public protests. Puerto Ricans are frustrated with government corruption, mismanagement and outraged by a group text conversation that leaked to the public in which Rossello and other men in government made fun of women, gay people and victims of Hurricane Maria. Typically, the secretary of state would replace Governor Rossello when he leaves office, but that post was held by a politician who has also stepped down for his participation in that obscene group chat. The man Governor Rossello has nominated to fill that spot in time to take over as Governor on Friday is facing opposition from the Puerto Rican senate which must approve his choice.
To Ban or Not to Ban e-Cigarettes?
Guest: Steve Schroedera, Professor of Health and Health Care, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, UCSF
E-cigarettes have become so popular among teenagers that the city of San Francisco has just banned them outright. Nobody –young or old –will be able to buy them in the city limits come January. The ban is a first nationwide. And it’s controversial, as you might expect.
Genes, Germs and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are
Guest: Bill Sullivan, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Author of “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are”
Almost everything we think we know about ourselves is wrong, says Bill Sullivan. “All of us like to think that we march to the beat of our own drum. But science has revealed that the rhythm is played by percussionists we can’t see with the naked eye. We march through life believing that we’re the drummer –but the shocking evidence reveals this is an illusion. The truth is that there are hidden forces orchestrating our each and every move.” (excerpt from “Pleased to Meet Me”)
National Weather Service Forecast Model Gets First Update in 40 Years
Guest: Brian Gross, Director of the Environmental Modeling Center at the National Weather Service
Did you know that the7-day weather forecast on your phone or the evening news pretty much comes from the same source? The National Weather Service has a complicated forecasting model it’s been using for decades and local meteorologists around the country use it as the foundation for the predictions you use to decide if you’ll need your umbrella today. In the last month, that national weather forecasting system got a new engine –the first major overhaul in 40 years.
Trump Administration Revives Executions on Federal Death Row
Guest: John Blume, Samuel F. Leibowitz Professor of Trial Techniques, Cornell Law School and Director, Cornell Death Penalty Project
Twenty-five people were executed by states around the country last year. That’s a record low. Nearly half of states have outlawed capital punishment all together. There’s also a death row for the federal government –but it’s been more than a decade since any of the inmates there have been executed. That’s about to change. US Attorney General William Barr has ordered five executions to take place in December of January.
Where Do Pets Go During Natural Disasters?
Guest: Sarah E. DeYoung, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology &Criminal Justice and the Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware
In emergency situations like a hurricane, people are obviously the number one priority. But what about pets? Many view their dog or cat as another family member, yet for most people and places, evacuation plans for animals are minimal at best. That can put pets and their owners in serious danger.
Collecting Scientific History
Guest: Peter L. Jakab, Chief Curator of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon 50 years ago, they had a camera mounted to the lunar lander, capturing everything and beaming those images back to earth. The original videotape recordings NASA made of that momentous event just sold at auction for $1.8 million to an anonymous buyer. Luckily, we’ve got the digital versions everyone can watch online. But what will become of those original tapes? Who knows? A surprising amount of the world’s science and technology history is held by private collectors. Moon landing artifacts. Nobel Prize statues. Einstein’s handwritten notes.
How Much is Too Much? When Curiosity Kills the Cat
Guest: Ming Hsu, Associate Professor, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
The instant gratification of having the internet at your fingertips is often irresistible, isn’t it? I’ll be watching TV and suddenly need to know right now what else the show’s creator has done, what else the main actor has been in, who that star is married to, how old they are, how tall they are. . . it’s an endless rabbit hole of curiosity for useless information. And meanwhile, I end up missing key plot points because I can’t put the phone down.
The Challenges of Finding a Universally Healthy Diet
Guest: Andrew Chan, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Gastroenterologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
In theory, dieting should be straight forward. Stick to the calorie and nutrient limits of the plan and you’ll see results. Except it doesn’t always work because –and this will come as no surprise to anyone who’s tried –diets are not one-size fits all. In fact, it may be that each of us has our own unique ideal diet for optimal health.
Thirteen Reasons Why Announced the Removal of a Graphic Suicide Scene from Season One
Guest: Dan Reidenberg, Executive Director, Suicide Awareness Voices of Education
The controversial Netflix show 13 Reasons Why has removed a graphic scene of the teenaged main character’s death by suicide. The scene was part of the show’s first season and Netflix had defended it for two years, saying it was meant to deter people from suicide by showing how disturbing and painful it is. But now, with the show’s third season arriving, Netflix has deleted the scene on the “advice of medical experts.” Back in 2017, before the show began airing, Netflix asked psychologist Dan Reidenberg for his thoughts on the depiction of suicide. Reidenberg, who heads the suicide prevention organization SAVE, told Netflix not to release the show at all.
UK’s New PM Vows Brexit on Oct 31 “No Ifs or Buts”
Guest: Simon Usherwood, Deputy Director, The UK in a Changing Europe, Professor of Politics, University of Surrey
Britain’s new conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in his first public speech last week that the “doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters” are wrong about Brexit. In more than two years of negotiations, Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May failed to negotiate a deal with the European Union that the British parliament would approve. What might Prime Minister Johnson do differently?
Production Studios Threaten Boycott of Georgia if Abortion Bill Remains Intact
Guest: Paul Hardart, Professor of Marketing, New York University, Director of the Entertainment, Media and Technology Program
The highest grossing film of all time –Avengers Endgame –was not filmed in Hollywood. It was filmed in the Hollywood of the South. If you’ve watched any hit movies or TV shows in the last decade, you’ve seen something filmed in Georgia. But, now studios are threatening to pull their productions out of Georgia –some have even followed-through on the threats. Not because of money. Because Georgia’s legislature passed a so-called “heartbeat” bill that essentially bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Is it curtains for Georgia’s movie business?
Autopilot Really Does Not Mean You Can Take a Nap in Your Tesla
Guest: Matthew Avery, Director of Research, Thatcham Research
For those of you in the market for a new car, is a self-driving vehicle on your list? That’s a trick question. You can’t buy a self-driving car today. But surveys show half of Americans don’t know that. Can you blame us, though? Tesla is touting its Autopilot system. Cadillac has Super Cruise. Audi has Traffic Jam Pilot. If these aren’t self-driving cars, what are they, exactly?
Colorado River Drought
Guest: Brad Udall, Senior Water & Climate Research Scientist, Colorado Water Institute, Colorado State University
The Colorado River is mighty as it rushes down from the Rocky Mountains. But by the time it reaches the Pacific Ocean in Mexico, it’s a mere trickle. Along the way, seven US states and two in Mexico drain, dam and divert the Colorado River’s waters. And there’s just not enough to go around as populations grow and temperatures rise.
Driverless Cars to Overtake Plane
Guest: Scott Winter, Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
On a really long trip, would you rather ride in a self-driving car or fly in an airplane? I don’t mind flying but skipping airport security and being able to lean back and sleep sounds really appealing. So, appealing in fact, that airlines might be in trouble.
Looking Back at 75 Years of Smokey Bear
Guest: Wendy Melillo, Associate Professor of Journalism and Public Communication, American University, Author of “How McGruffand the Crying Indian Changed America”
Smokey Bear turns 75 this year. As ad campaigns go, Smokey’s message been incredibly consistent over the decades. Like, for example, that wildfires are burning bigger and hotter –and most are still started by people. Has Smokey Bear been a misfire all these years?
The Complicated Story of Racial Bias and Fatal Police Shootings
Guest: David Johnson, Post-doctoral Researcher in the Lab for Applied Social Science Research, University of Maryland
As Gilroy, California reels from a mass shooting that killed three and injured at least a dozen at a community festival yesterday, we’re going to focus on another aspect of gun violence in America–fatal shootings of civilians by police officers. A black person in America is more than twice as likely to be fatally shot by a police officer as a white person is. That troubling discrepancy helped give rise to the Black Lives Matter movement and has prompted police departments across the country to hire more officers of color and require racial bias training.
New Discovery Could Prevent Cancer from Spreading
Guest: Andre Levchenko, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. But what typically makes cancer so deadly isn’t the initial tumor. It’s when the tumor cells spread throughout the body. If scientists could figure out how to stop that spread, it’d be a game-changer for cancer treatment.
Protests and Telescopes on Mauna Kea
Guest: Noenoe Silva, Professor of Political Science, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Author, “Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism”
A massive new telescope is planned for the top of Hawaii’s highest peak –the Maunakea volcano. The conditions atop the mountain are so good –and the planned telescope so big –that astronomers believe it will unlock mysteries of the universe and provide views of space even better than the Hubble telescope which is up in space. But Maunakea is sacred land to Native Hawaiians. Thousands have spent the last week blocking the access to the site where construction is set to begin.
Brain Scans Often Misinterpreted in Criminal Justice System
Guest: Eyal Aharoni, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, & Neuroscience, Georgia State University
If someone commits a crime and, afterward, doctors discover the person has a brain tumor, should the punishment be different? That’s the whole point behind the “insanity” defense –hoping for a lighter sentence by showing that on some level, a person’s brain caused the crime. No surprise, then, that it’s becoming more and more common for defense attorneys to present brain evidence in court –sometimes even MRI or CAT scans of the defendant. How much weight should judges give this evidence?
DNA Tests: Facts vs. Fiction
Guest: Wendy Roth, Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
“Journey,” “story,” and “discovery” are buzz words for DNA companies like Ancestry and 23andMe. Some ads even show customers doing things like buying a kilt when they find out they have Scottish ancestry. But DNA tests aren’t totally accurate, and they’re leading us to create potentially harmful ideas about race and history.
The History of Air Guitar
Guest: Byrd McDaniel, Professor of Ethnomusicology, Northeastern University
The country’s best air guitarists are gathering in Nashville this weekend for the US Air Guitar National Championships. The winner will represent America at the Air Guitar World Championships in Finland. Yes, there are people who actually do this in public.
Living Together Before Marriage Should Make for Better Marriages. So Why Doesn’t It? (Originally aired February 7, 2019)
Guest: Scott Stanley, Research Professor and Co-director of the University of Denver’s Center for Marital and Family Studies
One of the most striking trends in America over the last forty years has been the rise of cohabitation. Unmarried couples of all age groups are living together in greater numbers. Among 18-24 year olds, it’s now more common to cohabitate than to actually be married. And the justification is often that living together is a way to test the waters before marriage. But it generally does not lead to better odds that a marriage will succeed. Why?
Turning Ordinary Objects into Touch Screens (Originally aired February 26, 2019)
Guest: Chris Harrison, Assistant Professor of Human-computer Interaction, Director of the Human Interfaces Group, Carnegie Mellon University
I think we can all agree touch screens are amazing, but we’ve still got the problem of big thumbs and tiny keyboard buttons or links. So what if everything around us was a touch screen? Your couch could sense when the cat scratches and shoo it away. The reminder you scribble on a Post-It would be automatically uploaded to your computer.
Coral is the New Black: Exploring the Impact of Color (Originally aired April 2, 2019)
Guest: Jill Pilaroscia, Founder of Colour Studio
Have you ever thought about how most fast food restaurants have the same colors? McDonald’s: red and yellow. Wendy’s: red and yellow. Burger King: red and yellow. It’s probably not a coincidence -certain colors evoke universal biological responses. Red, for instance, makes your heart rate speed up a bit.
How Liberia’s Women Overthrew Male Domination to Elect Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Originally aired March 6, 2019)
Guest: Helene Cooper, Pentagon Correspondent, New York Times, Author of “Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf”
Six of the 26 people currently running for president in 2020 are women. What will it take for America to elect a female president? A decade before Hillary Clinton’s “Pantsuit Nation” came up short, the women of Liberia staged what New York Times reporter Helene Cooper calls a master-class in how to do it. That’s when Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first democratically-elected female president in Africa.
What Do Beards Tell us about Politics, Culture and Religion? (Originally aired March 28, 2019)
Guest: Christopher Oldstone-Moore, Senior Lecturer Assistant to the Chair for Graduate Studies, Wright State University, Ohio
Some of the most famous beards in the world are celebrating their 50th anniversary with a new documentary. That long, long beard is even nicknamed The ZZ Top after the long-running rock group. What is so interesting about beards? Why does the internet explode when a movie star or politician pops up with facial hair?
How Stories Create a Safe Space to Explore Relationship Problems (Originally aired April 3, 2019)
Guest: Nathan Silver, Doctoral Student in Communication, Ohio State University
Do you or your kids sometimes get really, really invested in a TV relationship? I binge-watched the 90’s TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer a few months ago and found myself thinking about Buffy and her star-crossed Vampire love Angel all the time. I’d be sitting at my desk getting ready for Top of Mind and find myself brainstorming ways they might somehow manage to be together even though he’s a vampire and she’s a vampire slayer. It’s silly. But we do this. And apparently some of us do it more than others.
How US Courts Endorse Deception in Personal Relationships
Guest: Jill Elaine Hasday, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and the Centennial Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School, Author of “Intimate Lies and the Law”
If you lie or defraud someone in business, you can end up in jail or –at the very least -forced to compensate the person you deceived. But you can cause the same level of financial harm to a family member or romantic partner and there’s a very good chance the court will let you off without even a slap on the wrist.
Conspiracy Without the Theory
Guest: Russell Muirhead, Chair of the Department of Government and Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College, Co-Director of the Political Economy Project; Nancy L. Rosenblum, Senator Joseph Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government Emerita at Harvard University
Often in American politics today it feels like we’re living in separate realities. Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony in Congress Wednesday is a perfect example. Democrats zeroed in on the details they hoped would convince the public that President Trump is guilty of something worthy of impeachment. Republicans spent their time picking at the integrity of the investigation itself, hoping to show it for the partisan “witch hunt” they –and President Trump –insist it was. And today, both sides are declaring victory.
The Forgotten Homeless
Guest: Graham Pruss, Researcher, University of Washington's Interdisciplinary Critical Narratives Team and Homeless Research Initiative
Big cities with expensive housing have seen an increase in people living out of cars, trailers and RVs. Technically, “car campers” are homeless, but they don’t usually consider themselves homeless and they’re not interested in staying at a homeless shelter or accessing homeless services. So they fall through the cracks –and become a nuisance for neighborhoods who don’t want overstuffed cars parked perpetually on their streets.
Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th Century New York
Guest: Stacy Horn, Author of “Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th-Century New York”
Nellie Bly is heading back to the site of her most famous exploit. As an investigative journalist in the late 1800s, Bly went undercover to get herself committed to the notorious insane asylum on an island in New York’s East River. Her expose shocked the world and drew attention to the dreadful treatment of those with mental illness. Today, Roosevelt Island is a trendy residential neighborhood, but its residents want to make sure the island’s difficult past is remembered. Hence the Nellie Bly statue they’re planning for the spot where the insane asylum once stood.
Summer Learning Loss Worries Many Parents
Guest: Abel Koury, Senior Research Associate at the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, Ohio State University
One of parents' and teachers' greatest fears is that young students will leave for summer break with their heads stuffed with knowledge from the last year and return having lost all of it. This phenomenon, known as summer learning loss, is a common enough belief that it is driving policy changes like shorter breaks or year-round options. But data on the topic are mixed, indicating that summer loss is not as big of a problem as many parents fear.
India is Running Out of Water
Guest: Upmanu Lall, Director, Columbia Water Center, Chair of the Department of Earth & Environmental Engineering, Columbia University
India is in the midst of an historic water crisis. Chennai –the sixth largest city in the country -is already relying on trucks and trains to deliver water to its 10million residents. A government report estimates 21 major Indian cities, including Delhi and Bangalore, will completely exhaust their groundwater by next year. India is not alone. Last year, Cape Town, South Africa was days away from becoming the first major city on the planet to run entirely dry. Massive cuts to water use kept the city going until the rains came. Mexico City, Miami, Cairo, Sao Paolo, Tokyo, London, Los Angeles are all at risk of running out of water in the coming decade or two because of population growth, pollution and changing weather patterns. What lessons does the water crisis in India offer?
The Income Gap’s Effect on Health
Guest: Frederick Zimmerman, Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate your overall health? How many healthy days have you had in the last month? More than five million people have answered those questions on surveys from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the last 25 years. The trend is not encouraging. Wealthy Americans are pretty stagnant, health wise. Among the poor, health is declining.
Limited Regulation in Service Dog Industry Makes People Susceptible to Fraud
Guest: David Favre, Law Professor, Michigan State University, Editor of Animal Legal and Historical Center Website
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, service animals must be trained to help a person with a disability, and can go pretty much anywhere with them. But service dogs aren’t required to be registered and don’t have to wear any special vest or anything to identify them as a service animal. They do have to be trained, but not by a professional.
Your Scream is Special
Guest: Harold Gouzoules, Professor of Psychology, Emory College
You know how at a neighborhood party, every mom knows immediately if the kid screaming from the other room is hers? And she can usually tell right away if it’s a scream of pain or anger or excitement, right? It’s uncanny. But also, apparently, second nature. Humans turn out to be really good at reading screams.
Fighting Fires with Science!
Guest: Albert Simeoni, Department Head of Fire Protection Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
The next month will be critical for wildfires in the West. Late spring rains gave grasses a big boost, which now become fuel in hot, dry, windy weather. California has already given power companies permission to shut off electricity when things get really hot and windy, hoping to avoid another massive burn like the Camp Fire last year. It was caused by aging power lines. While California braces to burn, Alaska has borne the brunt of the fire season so far.
Motivating Your Kids to Read in the Last Days of Summer
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
What El Chapo’s Imprisonment Means for the Drug War
Guest: Gladys McCormick, Associate Professor of History/Jay and Debe Moskowitz Chair in Mexico-US Relations, Syracuse University
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman–the notorious Mexican drug lord–was sentenced, last week, to spend the rest of his life in an American supermax prison. He’s also expected to forfeit more than $12 billion to the US government –which is roughly the value of the cocaine, marijuana and heroin Guzman trafficked into the US during his violent, decades long career as head of the Sinaloa cartel.
Dungeons and Dragons Continues to Shape Popular Culture After 40 Years
Guest: Michael Witwer, Author of “Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and Dragons”
At the start of Stranger Things on Netflix, the nerdy kid stars get their thrills going on imaginary quests in the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. When a real monster comes to town, they name it the Demogorgon –from the game. Stranger Things is set in the 80s –peak days for Dungeons and Dragons. Fast forward to 2019, Dungeons and Dragons is as popular as ever –which is weird when you consider how amazing video games have become. When you can adventure as a magical warrior in a virtual reality world, why would anyone choose to sit around a table and do it on paper?
We Forgot How to Design Houses to Be Cool in Summer
Guest: Lloyd Alter, Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Design, Ryerson University, Design Editor Tree Hugger Magazine
Much of the country has been sweltering under a heat wave. Air-conditioners are working overtime. We’re dreading what that’ll mean on the utility bill this month, but it’s not like turning the AC off is an option when it’s 100-plus outside. Is it? It might be. With the right house design, that is.
How Music Improves the Brain Just by Listening
Guest: Psyche Loui, Assistant Professor of Creativity and Creative Practice, Northeastern University
You’ve probably heard that learning a musical instrument can have positive, long-term effects on the brain. But turns out that you don’t need to go pick up the guitar or saxophone to get some of those benefits. Just listening to music can make your brain work more efficiently in the short-term.
How to Better Understand People with Accents
Guest: Melissa Baese-Berk, Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Oregon
We see these reports on occasion where someone complains about people around them speaking a foreign language in public. Maybe it’s even an employee at a store whose English is heavily accented, and the customer gets frustrated. Linguist Melissa Baese-Berk studies why English spoken with a foreign accent is difficult for native speakers to understand. Communication is a two-way street, after all. And Baese-Berk says there’s a lot that you can do to get better at understanding what people are saying –whether English is their native language or not.
Improving Body Image
Guest: Virginia Ramseyer Winter, Founding Director, Center for Body Image Research & Policy, University of Missouri
The childhood and adolescent years are formative for deciding how you feel about your body. And some studies estimate that half of teen girls aren’t satisfied with their body. As a parent, it may be hard to know what to do to help your kid develop a positive body image. But new research shows painting and mealtimes may help. 3D modeling can help improve animation, product design, architecture, and now, surprisingly, perhaps even our body image. Researchers at the University of Missouri’s Center for Body Image Research & Policy used 3D modeling to develop an intervention they call 3D Body Image Mapping where participants are 3D scanned and then asked to virtually paint parts of their body that they appreciate for various reasons.
He Wants to Be A Cyborg, Do You? (Originally aired February 4, 2019)
Guest: Kevin Warwick, Emeritus Professor of Cybernetics, Coventry University and University of Reading
Elon Musk –the guy behind Tesla and SpaceX -unveiled some details about his latest big idea this week. His company Neuralink is developing tiny threads that can be inserted deep in the brain and connect it to a computer. Testing on humans could start as early as next year. Sounds crazy, but people have been experimenting with merging the human body and computers for a while now. Engineer Kevin Warwick turned himself into a cyborg once. He and his students at Coventry University and the University of Reading in England did some pretty wild experiments implanting electrodes and magnets in themselves.
Before and After Loss (Originally aired December 11, 2018)
Guest: Lisa Shulman, Professor of Neurology, University of Maryland
We live in an age when we expect everything to be measurable. Even physical pain –which is notoriously personal and subjective –is now yielding its secrets to neurologists through brain scans. But what about emotional pain? Does trauma or grief leave a physical imprint on the brain that can be measured?
How to Have a Better Speaking Voice (Originally aired April 24, 2019)
Guest: Laura Verdun, Speech-language Pathologist, Co-founder of Voicetrainer LLC
When you hear someone speak and you think, “Wow, I really like that voice.” What makes it so special? Why do voices differ so dramatically and, if you want to have a more pleasing one, is it possible to learn?
The Chicago Defender and Ethel Payne, “First Lady of the Black Press” (Originally aired April 16, 2019)
Guest: James McGrath Morris, Author of “Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press”
The Chicago Defender published its last print edition this month. From here on out, the legendary black newspaper will be online only. For more than a century, The Defender has been a chronicle of black life in America, born of a time when other papers refused to publish news written by or about African Americans. The black press played acritical role in countering stereotypes and reporting the African American perspective of the Civil Rights Movement. Among The Defender’s biggest stars was Ethel Payne whose reporting during the turbulent 50s and 60s earned her a spot in the East Room of the White House, visible on camera as President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Ethel Payne broke race and gender barriers during her lengthy career as a journalist. A biography of her life came out in 2015, called “Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, First Lady of the Black Press” and it’s written by New York Times best-selling author James McGrath Morris.
An Eye-Witness Account of Conditions at the Southern Border
Guest: Michael Breen, President and CEO, Human Rights First
A new immigration policy in effect at the southern US border this week, requires people seeking asylum to first apply –and be rejected –for asylum in one of the other countries they’ve passed through on their way to the United States. Trump Administration says the policy is necessary to ease the strain on US immigration system and give priority to people with the most pressing needs for protection. The ACLU is challenging the rule.
Cellular Communication Methods Provide Same Therapy as Stem Cells
Guest: Kshitiz, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut Dental School
The cells in your body are constantly talking to each other, but the precise language they’re using is unclear. A team at the University of Connecticut has made an important step toward deciphering cell communication.
Why the Big Earthquakes in California Recently Were Not “The Big One”
Guest: Rick Aster, Professor and Department Head of the Geosciences Department, Colorado State University
The last two weeks have been very shaky for California. Those two big earthquakes of the Fourth of July holiday emanated from the desert about three hours northeast of Los Angeles were the biggest the state’s seen in decades. They clocked in at 6.4 and 7.1on the Richter scale and have been followed by hundreds of smaller quakes in the region.
How to Be More Lucky
Guest: Tina Seelig, Professor of Practice in Management Science & Engineering, Stanford University, Faculty Co-director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), Author of “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20”
When Tina Seelig’s son turned 20, she published a book for him. “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20” became a bestseller. Getting the book published was a stroke of luck. But not the kind of “lightning strike” luck you might think. Seelig used the strategies she teaches her entrepreneurship students at Stanford to increase her chances of lucking into a publisher who would make her a best-selling author. Ten year's later, she's got an updated version of "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20." It's a "crash course on making your place in the world," and whether you're worried about your kid who's off to college or feeling stuck in a rut yourself, Seelig's ideas may help.
Data from Self-Tracking Technology Has Serious Limitations
Guest: Joseph Reagle, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Northeastern University, Author of “Hacking Life: Systematized Living and Its Discontents”
How much better could your life be if your every movement was optimized for peak performance? With health trackers and spreadsheets, it’s possible to crunch the data on everything from the precise number of minutes you sleep, to the most efficient way to empty the dishwasher. Life optimizing is a thing. On the basic level it’s everyday “life hacks.” But there’s also the “Quantified Self” movement whose motto is “self-knowledge through numbers.” Joseph Reagle has written a book about it, “Hacking Life: Systematized Living and Its Discontents.”
Even 50 Years On, the Moon Landing of Apollo 11 Feels Extraordinary
Guest: Mike Joner, Research Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, BYU
50 years ago, at this very moment, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins were speeding toward the moon aboard Apollo 11. In fact, as we speak on the afternoon of July 17, the spacecraft was 126,000 miles from Earth. Just past halfway to the moon where, if all went according to plan, Armstrong and Aldrin would become the first humans to set foot on the moon. We’re all familiar with the big moment that came on July 20, 1969. That incredible feat was by no means a guarantee when Apollo 11 got underway. So many things had to go exactly right. So many things nearly didn’t.
A College Acceptance Letter is Not a Guarantee
Guest: Anna Ivey, Founder of Ivey Consulting, Former Dean of Admissions, University of Chicago’s Law School, and Co-author of “How to Prepare a Standout College Application”
Your kid gets accepted to the college of his choice. He’s got the letter in hand. But then some bad behavior surfaces from his past. The college gets wind and rescinds the acceptance. By all accounts this kind of thing is rare, but a high-profile case last month involving Parkland Shooting survivor and conservative activist, Kyle Kashuv, got us thinking about how colleges make these decisions –and how they decide who is a good fit in the first place. For Kashuv, the college was Harvard and the bad behavior involved racist comments made in text messages and a private online document shared with some classmates when he was 16. Kashuv apologized, but that didn’t change Harvard’s decision to rescind his acceptance.
The Way We Talk about Science Influences Students’ Interest and Confidence in Becoming a Scientist
Guest: Marjorie Rhodes, Associate Professor of Psychology, New York University
There was a time in my childhood when I thought I was going to be a scientist. But at some point, I became less confident that I could actually do that –not related to any specific skills really. Just that I saw wacky Bill Nye and his kid science helpers on TV and didn’t really see myself as that. This happens a lot –especially with girls and minority students –according to research by New York University psychology professor Marjorie Rhodes. How we talk about science with kids can make a difference. (Check out the Princeton and NYU Discoveries In Action lab.)
Apple Seed: Connecting Incredible Accomplishments Through Time
Guest: Sam Payne of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares a story connection between the transcontinental railroad and the moon landing, both celebrating monumental anniversaries this summer.
Ebola Outbreak Is Now an International Emergency
Guest: Chiara Altare, Assistant Scientist in the Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins
The World Health Organization has just declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a public health emergency of international concern. So far there have been 2500 cases, and more than half of them have died.
What to Know About Shark Attacks
Guest: Greg Skomal, Shark Biologist, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
A yearly ritual of summer TV is nearly upon us. Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week (starting July 28) carries on along tradition that began with Jaws in 1975. While that movie made a lot of people wary of the beach, Greg Skomal says it’s what convinced him to study sharks. A lot of what you think you know about sharks is probably wrong.
Hurricane Barry Was the Season's First. What Else is in Store for the Atlantic?
Guest: Phil Klotzbach, Research Scientist, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University
The first Hurricane of the season –Barry –didn’t cause as much damage as expected when it hit Louisiana as a category 1 storm over the weekend. Shortly after landing, it lessened to a tropical storm, bringing rain and some flooding, but not the widespread destruction originally feared. Barry was the first of six hurricanes Colorado State University researchers predict will make landfall this hurricane season –which ends in October.
Did You Just Eat That?
Guest: Paul Dawson, Professor of Food Science, Clemson University, Co-author of “Did You Just Eat That?”
You’ve got a delicious cookie in your hand when you accidentally drop it on the ground. Are you the person that yells, “Five second rule!”, picks it up, dusts it off, and eats it anyway? Or do you think that is disgusting? I’ll admit that I’ve used this rule before. If you haven’t heard of it, the five-second rule is the theory that bacteria on the ground won’t stick to food if you grab it within seconds. Well, some researchers at Clemson University put the rule to the test.
Rock-eating Shipworms
Guest: Dan Distel, Research Professor of Marine Science and Director of the Ocean Genome Legacy Center, Northeastern University
There’s a kind of worm-like clam that has plagued wooden ships and wharves for centuries. The shipworm bores into and digests wood, making little tunnels that permanently weaken the structure. The burrowing methods of the shipworm even inspired the first successful attempt to tunnel under a major river in the 1800s. Dan Distel is an expert in how shipworms operate. But recently he and his team at Northeastern University made a truly surprising shipworm discovery: they found one that burrows in –and maybe even eats –rock, instead of wood.
The Complicated Truth About Forest Restoration
Guest: Robin Chazdon, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut
Nature has its own method for keeping carbon dioxide levels in check. Plants absorb it for fuel. It’s just that the Earth’s forests aren’t keeping with all the CO2 we’re putting into the atmosphere. So there are a lot of global plans in place to restore the planet’s forests in hopes of slowing climate change. But it’s not as simple as just planting trees anywhere they’ll fit.
Actor George Takei’s Firsthand Account of His Childhood in an Internment Camp for Japanese Americans
Guest: George Takei, Actor, Activist and Author of “They Called Us Enemy”
George Takei shot to fame aboard the starship Enterprise –even taking the captain’s chair on occasion. But before Takei was Star Trek’s Sulu, he was a child, imprisoned with his family because of their Japanese heritage. By the time Takei left the World War II internment camps, he was 9 years old and had spent nearly half his life behind barbed-wire. Takei’s story was the basis of a hit Broadway musical in which he co-starred with Lea Salonga called Allegiance. “They Called Us Enemy” is the title of George Takei’s new memoir about his childhood in the “relocation camps.” It’s a graphic novel, illustrated by Harmony Becker and co-authored by Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott.
Kid Adventure Movies Parents Won’t Hate
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Is there an adventure movie out for kids, about kids, that adults can watch without lapsing into a boredom coma? That’s the challenge Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com set out for herself.
The Growing Problem of Work Suicides
Guest: Sarah Waters, Professor of French Studies, University of Leeds, Author of “Suicide Voices: Labor Trauma in France” (forthcoming in 2020)
A large company is bleeding money, so the executives decide to cut thousands of jobs. But the law won’t let them lay off that many people, so they set out to make life so unbearable the workers will just quit on their own. Dozens of those workers end up dying by suicide. It sounds like something out of a grim Victorian novel, but it happened in the late 2000s at the telecommunication giant France Telecom. And now those executives could go to prison. The two-month trial just wrapped up in France. What is a company’s responsibility to look after the well-being of its employees –while also focusing on profits? And to what extent was the situation at France Telecom a result of labor laws that made many of the company’s workers un-fireable?
Teenage Sleep Deprivation Leads to Bad Decisions
Guest: Wendy Troxel, Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist, RAND Corporation
Only one in ten American teens is getting enough sleep. The rest –those getting less than 8 hours a night on a regular basis –are at higher risk for lots of physical and mental health problems. They’re also more likely to make risky decisions.
Parents, It’s Ok to Hover –Just Maybe Fly a Little Higher
Guest: Laura Padilla-Walker, Professor of Human Development, School of Family Life, Brigham Young University
Helicopter parenting is a polarizing concept. It’s either the truest way to show your kid you love him. Or the surest way to ruin his life. Neither is really true, according to research coming out of BYU’s Flourishing Families Project, which has been following 500 families for a decade as their children age from pre-teens to young adults.
Empowering Religious Voters to Ask for Change Within Their Political Party
Guest: Justin Giboney, Founder and President of AND Campaign
Have you ever felt too progressive for conservatives, but yet too conservative for liberals? The AND Campaign is trying to make sure those of us who feel a little out of place in either political party don’t just drop out of the process entirely. Specifically, the AND Campaign targets Christians who feel pressured to set aside some of what they believe, in order to fit into one or the other political party.
The Changing Styles in Movie Poster Art
Guest: Kevin Burke, Film Director and Editor, Directed “24x36: A Movie about Movie Posters”
Choosing a movie based on the poster for it is like judging a book by its cover. You’re not supposed to do it. But I do –all the time, when I’m scrolling through thumbnail images on Netflix trying to pick something to watch. Even when I’m heading into the movie theater –a poster will catch my eye and I’ll say “Ooh, that looks cool. Let’s be sure to see that.” There’s a renaissance happening right now in hand-illustrated movie posters and collectors willing to pay big money to own them.
Helping Tenants Communicate to Avoid Eviction
Guest: Kimball Parker, Director of Law, BYU Law School, President of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s SixFifty; Mike Alder, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Princeton’s Eviction Lab estimates more than 2 million renters are evicted in the US every year. Which equates to more than six-thousand people evicted everyday –many of them children. The legal design labs at BYU and the University of Arizona have just launched a free online tool to help tenants communicate with their landlord before an eviction happens –maybe even avoid the eviction all together. It’s called HelloLandlord.org and we’re joined in studio by Kimball Parker who heads the LawX lab at BYU. Welcome back, Professor Parker.
Can Politicians Block Followers on Social Media? (Originally aired September 7, 2017)
Guest: Lyrissa Lidsky, JD, Dean, University of Missouri School of Law
President Trump has been known to block critics from his @realdonaldtrump Twitter account, but he has to stop. A federal appeal court this week ruled that it’s a violation of the First Amendment when public officials using social media for official government business exclude people for views they disagree with. The President’s attorney has tried to argue that @realdonaldtrump is a personal account, but the court says Trump clearly uses the it for making public announcements as President.
Healing Power of Mindfulness (Originally aired January 3, 2019)
Guest: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Author of “The Healing Power of Mindfulness,” Professor of Medicine Emeritus and Founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic, University of Massachusetts
Mindfulness is so buzzy that some company just launched a personal finance app meant to help you “take a deep breath and approach your finances in a calmer and more mindful emotional state.” I don’t know that mindfulness is proven to improve your money situation. But earlier this year I spoke with the molecular biologist who pioneered the study of mindfulness as medicine. Jon Kabat Zinn was getting a PhD at MIT when he got interested in meditation and yoga. His research led him to create the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts, and today more than 700 medical centers and clinics around the world use his mindfulness framework to help patients improve their health.
Scooby Doo (Originally aired February 26, 2019)
Guest: Kevin Sandler, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Arizona State University, Author of the Upcoming Book “Scooby Doo”
Scooby Doo is 50 this year. It was a staple of my childhood, and I hear people in their 30s and 40s are passing the Scooby love down to their kids, too. Would you believe the idea for the show was inspired, partly, by Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night”? A TV executive in 1969 heard Sinatra crooning “dooby dooby doo” at the end of the song and thought it’d be a great name for a mystery cartoon centered around a fraidy-cat dog. How has the show managed to stay so popular for so long? You can still catch it in reruns on TV and yet another reboot is on the way.
How to Grill Everything Right (Originally aired July 10, 2015)
Guests: David Joachim and Andrew Schloss, Authors of "Mastering the Grill," "Fire It Up," and "Williams Sonoma Grill School"
We’re in peak grilling season right now. Food just tastes better when it’s cooked over a flame. There’s a whole science behind why that is –and how to do it well.
How Well Did School Busing Work?
Guest: Richard Rothstein, Distinguished Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, Author of “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America”
A school desegregation policy that’s been over for decades is suddenly showing up in the national media because of this moment at the Democratic presidential debate two weeks ago. Courts stopped requiring districts bus black students into segregated white schools almost 20 years go. But the debate over school “busing” is more relevant today than you might expect.
We’re Losing Our Humanity. Here’s How to Get It Back
Guest: Adam Waytz, Social Psychologist, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, Author of “The Power of Human”
The internet has made it possible for us to be more connected and less in touch at the same time. Think about Facebook or Instagram –I’m connected on there with friends I’ve known for decades. I “Like” photos of their kids and updates on their family milestones and, in my head, we’re in touch. In reality, I’ve not spoken to those friends in ages, let alone seen them in person. So we’re in this weird connected, but unengaged space. And the consequences are serious.
Rethinking the Bike Helmet
Guest: Jordan Klein, Co-Founder of Park & Diamond
Okay, raise your hand if you’ve ever ridden a bicycle without wearing your helmet. Yeah, I know. We make our kids strap them on, but when you’re just riding around the neighborhood or to the store, the helmet is ugly. It messes up your hair and makes your head sweat. Plus, what do you do with it when you get to your destination? It’s so bulky to carry around.
The Animals That Clothe Us
Guest: Melissa Kwasny, Author “Putting on the Dog: The Animal Origins of What We Wear”
Years ago, a friend gave me a leather coat with an unbelievably soft fur collar that came from her late mother’s closet. It’s very retro-chic, but I’ve only once worn it in public because I worry about how people might react. How have we come to draw the line in consuming stuff that comes from animals? Leather’s okay, fur’s not. Goose down is great, but goose liver pate is inhumane. Just like we prefer our meat trimmed and wrapped in plastic, we keep our distance from the animal sources of our clothing. The luxurious smell of new leather shoes is a long, long ways from the putrid stench of the tannery.
Bird-eating Sharks
Guest: Marcus Drymon, Professor of Fisheries Science at Mississippi State University
Nature is full of fascinating mysteries. Here’s one: how do common backyard birds like doves, swallows and sparrows, end up in the bellies of baby tiger sharks. Do sharks have some sort of high jumping ability we don’t know about?
British Politics, Afghan Peace and the Risk of Miscommunication Leading to War with Iran
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Britain’s ambassador to the US has resigned after several days of criticism from President Trump. The Ambassador, Kim Darroch, came under fire from the Trump administration when secret diplomatic cables leaked to a British tabloid over the weekend. In the memos, Ambassador Darroch describes President Trump as “insecure” and his administration as “inept.” President Trump shot back on Twitter, calling the ambassador a “pompous fool” and saying the White House would no longer work with him. This comes at a particularly tricky time for the British government where Prime Minister Theresa May is on her way out and Brexit remains stalled.
Travel Guru Rick Steves on Climate-Responsible Vacationing
Guest: Rick Steves, Travel Guide, TV/Radio host, Owner of Rick Steves’ Europe
That epic trip to Europe that you’ve been dreaming of –or maybe already booked (lucky you!) –has a financial cost, obviously. What about the environmental cost? One round-trip flight to Europe emits roughly as much carbon dioxide, per passenger, as six months of driving your car. If we’re concerned about our carbon emissions fueling climate change, maybe we ought to stick to staycations?
Why Transitioning from Elementary to Middle School is so Difficult for Students
Guest: Heidi Gazelle, PhD, Associate Professor of Family and Child Science, Florida State University
Don’t look now, but the new school year is coming fast. It’ll be time to shop for supplies and clothes before you know it. Remember how exciting it was anticipating a new teacher and grade in elementary school? And how terrifying it was to transition out of that safety into the chaos and hormones of middle school?
Permafrost Releasing Greenhouse Gases as it Thaws
Guest: Jordan Wilkerson, PhD Student in Atmospheric Chemistry, Harvard
We’ve got a feedback loop going on in the Arctic where, as the atmosphere warms, the permanently frozen ground there is thawing. As it thaws, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (AKA laughing gas) escape into the atmosphere, where they cause further warming, which thaws more permafrost, which releases more greenhouse gas and round and round. Only now are researchers getting a grasp on how fast that cycle is going. An atmospheric chemistry lab at Harvard just published some data showing there’s a lot more nitrous oxide escaping the permafrost than previously thought.
Anger Can Actually Be a Good Thing
Guest: Ryan Martin, Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
We often think of anger as a bad thing – it can make us mean and reckless and lead us to believe that the idiot cutting us off in traffic is a monster. And it’s even worse on the internet. But anger expert Ryan Martin says we’re overlooking the emotion's power for good.
Sudden Infant Death Claims the Lives of 3,500 Babies Each Year, But New Research May Be the Answer to Ending It
Guest: John Kahan, President of the Aaron Matthews SIDS Research Guild at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Chief Data Analytics Officer at Microsoft
Thousands of infants in the US every year die suddenly, for no apparent medical reason. There’s no warning. No way to know if an infant is at risk. The rate of these Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths has remained steady since the mid-1990s. Efforts to prevent SIDS by putting babies to sleep on their backs and eliminating smoking in the household have reduced, but not eliminated these deaths. Why, with our advanced medical technology and economic wealth, haven’t we solved SIDS yet?
Ebola Outbreak in DRC is Relatively Small, But Potentially Harder to Stop than West African Outbreak in 2015
Guest: Steven Hatch, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, University of Massachusetts Medical School
An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sickened 2,400 people –more than half of them have died. And now the disease has spread to neighboring Uganda. But the World Health Organization has so far declined to declare the outbreak a global health emergency. 2,400 cases is much smaller than the 28,000 cases of Ebola we saw several years ago in West Africa. But infectious disease experts say the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is still worrisome and will likely be much harder to stop.
The Unsung Hero of the Battle of Midway
Guest: David Rigby, Author, “Wade McClusky and the Battle of Midway”
Six months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the US dealt a devastating blow to Japan’s naval fleet in what’s know as the Battle of Midway. Historians consider it a turning point of World War II in the Pacific. But it almost wasn’t. The bombers sent to sneak-attack Japan’s aircraft carriers got bad information: the ships weren’t where they were supposed to be and the American planes were running low on fuel. So one man named Wade McClusky followed his gut and made history.
iPhone Shortcut Allows your Phone to Automatically Start Recording when Pulled Over by Police
Guest: Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project
There are smart phone apps – and even an iPhone shortcut – that make it easy to record a police encounter. The ACLU’s Mobile Justice app automatically sends the video to your local ACLU branch when you stop recording, just in case a police officer tries to confiscate your phone. The iPhone shortcut will start video recording when you say, “Siri, I’m being pulled over.” Should you install one of these apps? Are they even legal?
Diversity in State Courts
Guest: Robert Christensen, Professor of Public Service and Ethics, Romney Institute of Public Management in the Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University
States have Supreme Courts that interpret state laws and constitutions in the same way the US Supreme Court does for federal laws and the US Constitution. And just like the US Supreme Court, state supreme courts are the court of last resort for someone hoping to get a ruling in their favor.
Dust Is Deadlier Than You Might Think
Guest: Gabriel Filippelli, Professor of Earth Sciences and Founding Director of the Center for Urban Health, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Director of the 360 Dust Analysis Project for the U.S. and Canada
My vacuum has one of those clear canisters so I can see exactly how much stuff it’s removing. And even though this is the time of year when dust really piles up because I have my windows open a lot, I’m still shocked every time I empty the vacuum. Where is all that stuff coming from? An international collaboration of scientists is looking for the answers. We know surprisingly little about dust and what it’s made of, apparently.
What’s Going on in YA Literature?
Guest: Jessica Day George, Young Adult Author, "Princess of the Midnight Ball" and "Dragon Slippers"
The best-selling novel “The Hunger Games” is getting a prequel. It doesn’t even have a name yet, but its already going to be made into a movie. Dystopian stories like that have been big in young adult in fiction for the last decade. But before that it was paranormal romance like Twilight, and before that, fantasy like Harry Potter. What’s next?
A Look at the 2020 Election Landscape
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU; Grant Madsen, Professor of History, BYU
Let’s have a look at the state of the presidential election –we won’t vote for a year and a half, but the fundraising and campaigning is now well underway. Twenty-five Democrats are vying to be the party’s nominee to try and unseat President Trump. A second Democratic debate will happen at the end of the month. The last one revealed some key divisions among Democrats hoping to win the White House.
New DNA Sequencing Technique Diagnoses Diseases Better
Guest: Charles Chiu, MD, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Infectious Diseases, University of California, San Francisco
There’s a fair amount of guesswork and trial-and-error in treating a patient with a mysterious infectious disease. Even when you’ve got what looks like a common cold or flu virus, a blood test takes days to come back with enough specifics to guide your doctor on which medicine to prescribe. In critically ill patients, where the infection is moving fast and time is short, doctors need better options for pinpointing the pathogen that’s causing the sickness.
Dangerous Dust Is Keeping Humans Off Mars
Guest: Daniel Austin, Professor of Chemistry, Brigham Young University
Mars has a dust problem. The red planet has dust storms that can last for months and cover almost its entire surface, but the sand is constantly blowing around even when there isn’t a storm. If humans are ever to explore Mars or live there, researchers have to figure out how to deal with the dust. Right now, those particles make it too dangerous for humans.
The Hidden Stories Behind Our Largest Structures
Guest: Roma Agrawal, Structural Engineer, Author of “Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures”
Wherever you are at this moment –in your car, your office, your home, on the sidewalk –you’ve got a structural engineer to thank. The build the structures all around us. They harness the forces of nature to suspend bridges through the air, construct towers into the sky.
Worlds Awaiting: Appreciation for Children’s Author Jason Chin
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian at BYU
Possible Unintended Effects of Published Healthcare Costs
Guest: Matthew Grennan, Assistant Professor of Healthcare Management, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
When you go to the hospital, there’s no knowing how much anything will cost. But President Trump’s new executive order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to create a policy requiring hospitals to be open and transparent about pricing and quality. The Trump administration’s hope is that consumers will be able to shop around for the best deal and healthcare costs will go down. Will it work?
Robots Are Stealing our Jobs – or Are They?
Guest: Eric Dahlin, Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University
Soon, your Uber driver will be a robot, your mechanic will be a robot, your restaurant server will be a robot, until almost all jobs are taken over by robots. At least, that’s the fear. But Brigham Young University sociology professor Eric Dahlin has found that we don’t need to be so scared of a robo-pocolypse. In fact, robots could be good for the job market in same areas.
Expert Advice for Brilliant Stargazing Adventures
Guest: Sarah Barker, Astrophysicist, Author of “50 Things to See in the Sky”
With our smartphones, laptops, and tablets, we’re constantly looking down at lights. So much so that we often forget to look at the lights above us. Astrophysicist Sarah Barker says we’re losing something by ignoring the stars. Her forthcoming book, “50 Things to See in the Sky” gives stargazing tips, and you don’t even have to leave the city or own fancy equipment to rediscover the heavens.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares a story related to Independence Day and the Statue of Liberty.
Addressing Mid-Youth Crises with Alternative Care
Guest: Michael Fendrich, Associate Dean of Research at the School of Social Work, University of Connecticut
Visits to the emergency department have considerably escalated for youth with a mental health crisis. One study shows that type of ER visit has gone up by more than 40% in the past decade. But emergency departments often can’t give kids and teens the help they need when it comes to mental health –that’s not what the ER has traditionally been for. That’s where Mobile Crisis Intervention Services steps in. These programs are giving youth in distress another place to turn.
National Parks in the Southwest
Guest: Becky Lomax, Author of “USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 59 Parks”
There are some national parks in the US that are so breathtaking, you just can’t miss them. But that also means that they’re super crowded. Today we’ll be exploring parks in the southwest, which includes the second and fourth most visited parks: The Grand Canyon and Zion. Becky Lomax is on the line to help us have the best trip even in super busy parks.
Iran, North Korea and Nuclear Weapons
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Iran has now exceeded the nuclear material limit set in the 2015 nuclear agreement –but the country says it’s only done so because the US broke the agreement to begin with. And a week and a half ago, President Trump called off a military strike on Iran at the last minute.
Across America On A 100-Year-Old Motorcycle
Guest: Mark Hunnibell, Author of “Across America by Motor-Cycle: Fully Annotated Centennial Edition” (https://acrossamericabymotorcycle.com/)
In 1919, a British World War One officer, Captain C.K. Shepherd, set out to explore America on his motorcycle named Lizzie. He drove from New York all the way over to California over the course of a couple months. Now a century later, another man is attempting the same journey. And I say when I “the same,” I mean the exact same. C.K. Shepherd rode a Hendersen motorcycle built in 1919, and so will Mark Hunnibel when he begins his voyage tomorrow.
Brown University Is Seeking to Teach its Medical Students a Better Way to Treat Opioid Addiction
Guest: Paul George, Associate Dean for Medical Education at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
One distinct aspect of the opioid epidemic in America is that it often starts and ends in a doctor’s office. Over-prescription of pain killers like Oxycontin fuels the epidemic. And on the other end of the spectrum, the most effective treatment for opioid addiction is with prescription medication that dulls craving and prevents withdrawal symptoms. So medical schools have a big job in making sure new doctors are equipped to treat opioid addiction without contributing to the problem.
Good or Bad? Researchers Join Together to Shift Public Perception of Genetically Modified Foods
Guest: Stacey Stearns, GMO Project Coordinator, University of Connecticut
About half of Americans say they avoid eating food that’s been genetically modified. But what that really means is that they don’t realize what they’re eating. Virtually everything on the grocery store shelf contains genetically modified ingredients. Corn oil, corn syrup, soy protein –all comes from crops with DNA engineered to grow better or resist certain pests. The fact that so many people think they’re steering clear of GMOS when they’re not, underscores how poorly the public understands the facts about genetic modification and food.
Why your Dog May Be Anxious
Guest: Michael Shikashio, Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, One of Less than 200 Certified Dog Behavior Consultants in the World
The Fourth of July isn’t so fun for furry friends. Most dog owners I know dread the way fireworks displays freak out their pets. I’m not a big fan of all that booming and crackling either, so I totally get it. Plus, summer can be generally kind of stressful for pets, what with the heat and the long family vacations that leave them home alone or boarding with strangers.
Music Composition and Video Game Design
Guest: Winifred Phillips, Composer of Music for Video Games, Author of “A Composer’s Guide to Game Music”
Composers of movie scores win Oscars for their brilliance. But if you want to know the truth, it’s a lot harder to compose the score to a video game, because it’s like a choose-your-own-soundtrack that responds to what the player does, while still setting the mood and sounding great.
Supreme Court Wraps Term
Guest: Kimberly Robinson, Supreme Court Reporter, Bloomberg Law
The US Supreme Court has wrapped its term –the first with Justice Brett Kavanaugh sitting on the bench. We take a look at a the major rulings, including a decision against the Trump Administration's efforts to put a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. Chief Justice John Roberts ruled with the liberal wing of the bench in that case. Is he the Court's new swing vote? Plus, a look at what the Supreme Court is planning to consider next term.
Easter Island Statues Degrading from Weather and Tourists
Guest: Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Director of the Easter Island Statue Project and Director of the Cotsen Rock Art Archive, UCLA
The Night at the Museum movie is what first exposed many people to the large stone-faced statues of Easter Island. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has a plaster cast of one with a deeply-furrowed brow that comes to life in the movie. That movie made the American Museum of Natural History’s Easter Island plaster cast a popular exhibit. The statues themselves –on Easter Island –have also become so popular with tourists over the last few decades they’re in danger.
Study Says Immigrant Students Improve Everyone’s Performance
Guest: Mikaela Dufur, Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University
Immigration brings more than one million people to the United States every year. Most come legally. Many come with children who enroll in public schools. People who’d like to limit immigration will often argue that newcomers drain resources from those born in the US –that, they’re bringing down student test scores, for example.
Moon Rush: The New Space Race
Guest: Leonard David, Journalist, Author of “Moon Rush: The New Space Race”
Fifty years ago, the first human set foot on the moon.“ That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” were Neil Armstrong’s famous words. After Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, NASA sent a flurry of astronauts to the moon in the space of three years. Twelve men in total –all Americans. Gene Cernan was the last. It was 1973. Here were his final words before stepping back into the landing capsule. “We leave as we came, and -God-willing-as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”
More than a Musical, a Look Behind the Scenes of Alexander Hamilton
Guest: Joanne Freeman, Professor of History and American Studies, Yale University
Four years since it opened on Broadway, Hamilton is still one of the hottest tickets in town –and in cities around the country now seeing a traveling production of the musical. The show is groundbreaking for its musical style and racially diverse casting and also for having its own interactive museum experience, which opened earlier this year in an airplane hangar in Chicago. Lin Manuel Miranda and others from the Hamilton musical team developed –and narrate –the exhibit. They had an actual historian on the team to help get things accurate, too. Her name is Joanne Freeman
The Stress of Home Cooking
Guest: Joslyn Brenton, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Ithaca College, Co-Author of “Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won't Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do”
Every mother I know frets about the food she feeds her family: that it’s not homemade enough. Or nutritious enough. That it’s not as beautiful as what other moms are serving up on Instagram. And when she does pull together something homemade, fresh and good for her family, they’re not into it and leftovers go to waste. A trio of researchers spent months interviewing mothers, tagging along to the grocery store, sitting in their kitchens during meal prep to understand what they’re going through when it’s time for dinner. The result is a book called “Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About it.”
The Effect of Tragic Images on Viewers and the Photographers Who Capture Them (Originally aired July 14, 2015)
Guest: James Hill, Photojournalist, Author of “Somewhere Between War and Peace”
The tragedy of what’s happening at the US-Mexico border came into stark relief this week with the publication of a heartbreaking photo: Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his not-quite-two-year-old daughter Valeria drowned in the Rio Grande River. The family from El Salvador was attempting to swim across the river to request asylum in the United States. On the one hand, there are people horrified that the media would publish such an upsetting photo. And on the other, devastating images like these have a way of moving politicians and the public to act.
The Race to Find our Hidden Planet (Originally aired March 6, 2019)
Mike Brown, Professor of Planetary Astronomy, California Institute of Technology
Let’s turn now to the search for a 9thplanet in the solar system –13 years ago, astronomer Mike Brown led the charge to get Pluto demoted from the list because it’s just one of many small icy planets orbiting in the same neighborhood out there. Brown’s Twitter handle is literally @PlutoKiller. But now he’s is now leading the charge to add a ninth planet back to the list. He and other astronomers believe there’s some giant planet nobody’s ever seen before way out past Neptune orbiting the sun on a really weird path.
Dragonfly, Mission to Saturn’s Moon (Originally aired February 15, 2018)
Jani Radebaugh, Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Science, BYU
NASA has just chosen the winner of its billion-dollar competition to be the next space mission. Dragonfly is a helicopter-like drone. BYU planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh is on the team that proposed Dragonfly –and will now get to work on the mission of a lifetime.
Wizards Unite (Originally aired July 31, 2018)
Guest: Neil Randall, Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo
The company that made Pokemon Go a viral hit has a new game that’s similar but based in the world of Harry Potter. Wizards Unite is the name of the app. Instead of capturing Pokemon, you’re a wizard, searching for lost magical items to return to their proper place before any muggles notice something wrong.
Milk from Genetically-Modified “Spider-Goats” Is Source of Valuable Silk (Originally aired February 7, 2019)
Guest: Justin Jones, Assistant Professor of Biology, Utah State University
Spider silk is stronger than steel, super lightweight and surprisingly elastic. But you already knew that. With the new Spiderman movie hitting theaters, we wanted to revisit a crazy conversation we had earlier this year with a scientist at Utah State University who is genetically modifying goats to produce spider silk.
America’s Stealth War on the Mexico Border
Guest: John Carlos Frey, Investigative Journalist and Filmmaker, Author of “Sand and Blood: America’s Stealth War on the Mexico Border”
Some –but not all -of the 350migrant children held for weeks in squalid conditions in a Border Patrol facility in Texas have reportedly been moved to a safer location. Customs and Border Patrol officials say they are not equipped to handle the deluge of migrants arriving at the southern border –more than half a million people since October. The Department of Health and Human Services says next week it will run out of money to care for unaccompanied migrant children and has requested nearly $3 billion in emergency funds from Congress. But some Democrats are reluctant to approve the funding because they oppose the Trump Administration’s underlying immigration policies.
The Global Unit of Mass in the Metric System Just Changed
Guest: Wolfgang Ketterle, Professor of Physics, MIT
When you step on a scale or put some apples on the little one at the grocery store, how does the scale know exactly what a pound is? If you can believe, there’s actually a chunk of platinum in a vault in France that is the official kilo against which every scale in the world is calibrated. But this is 2019 and the world’s scientists have decided they can define the precise weight of a kilogram in a way that’s more high-tech (and hard for regular folks to understand).
Seaweed Is Attacking Florida’s Beaches
Guest: Stephen Leatherman, Professor of Geomorphology, Florida International University
Giant rafts of slimy brown seaweed are piling up on beaches from Cancun to Florida. Some popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean have declared a “state of emergency” over the issue. Even with tractors, they’re are having trouble keeping the beaches clear. And the seaweed takes on the stench of rotten eggs as it rots. It’s just a real mess and it’s been getting worse for the last five years or so.
The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia
Guest: Sabrina Strings, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, Author of “Fearing the Black Body”
America is in the grips of an obesity epidemic, according to the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. Health is the reason for our concern. Excess weight leads to a whole host of problems, we’re told. But if you pull the threads of that concern back a few centuries, the reasons why we’re so convinced that fat is bad, have a lot more to do with race than with health.
Will Tariffs Put a Damper on Future 4th Of July Celebrations?
Guest: Julie L. Heckman, Executive Director of the American Pyrotechnics Association (APA)
It’s that time of year again when communities light the sky with patriotic displays and families try not to set their shrubs on fire with store bought displays. Did you know that virtually all the fireworks you buy at the grocery store or street stand are made in China and most of the big ones for professional displays, are too?
Worlds Awaiting: Milestones for Social
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Education and Juvenile Literature Librarian
College Athletics as the Door to More LGBT Inclusivity at Faith-Based Schools
Guest: Amy Wilson, Managing Director of Inclusion, NCAA
Sports is one of the few areas in American life where segregation is still the name of the game. Men compete against men and women against women. That makes issues of gender identity and sexual orientation particularly thorny in athletics –especially on the campuses of faith-based universities. In 2014, the NCAA decided to tackle the discomfort head-on in a series of workshops called Common Ground.
Research Shows Bats Demonstrate Surprising Longevity
Guest: Gerald Wilkinson, Professor of Biology at the University of Maryland
For most mammals, the larger they are the longer they live. Larger mammals have slower metabolisms and longer lifespans as a result. That's why most pet owners are around longer than their animals. The notable exception to this rule is the bat, which lives much longer than other mammals of comparable size. In fact, researchers recently published that "Nineteen species of mammals live longer than humans, given their body size, of which 18 are bats." Scientists have made some remarkable discoveries as to why bats live so long. Part of it stems from body temperature fluctuation, hibernation, and differing sizes between males and females.
Cold office temperatures harm women’s productivity, study finds
Guest: Tom Chang, Associate Professor of Finance and Business Economics, USC Marshall School of Business
Summer is sweater-season for women who work in office buildings. I’ll sometimes get into my sweltering car after work and just revel in the heat for a moment after being in the chilly office all day. Most buildings are set to the ideal temperature for the metabolism of a typical male, which different from a typical female. But it’s not just a matter of comfort. Economist Tom Chang at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business found, in some recently-published work, that women perform better when they’re not shivering at their desks.
Paid Maternity Leave May Finally Come to America
Guest: Adrienne Schweer, the leader of the Paid Family Leave Task Force for the Bipartisan Policy Center and founder of the nonprofit, Family Leave Works.
Most Americans think working mothers should receive paid maternity leave, and politicians across the ideological spectrum think so, too. So why is America the only developed country in the world that does not require employers to offer it?
Location Affects Where You Go to School, Thanks to “Education Deserts”
Guest: Nicholas Hillman, PhD, Associate Professor of Educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
For a lot of teenagers, the main appeal of college is that it’s not home. Their parents probably feel the same way. However, about half of all college freshmen in America go to a school within 50 miles of home. Maybe they’re lucky enough to have a great school right in their backyard. Or, maybe finances and family responsibilities force them to stay close to home. And what if there’s not a school nearby?
Jupiter's Shrinking Storm
Guest: Glenn Orton, Senior Research Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jupiter’s distinctive red eye is disappearing. For centuries it’s been the giant planet’s most prominent feature. But within 20 years, solar system diagrams in classrooms the world over will need a revision to erase it. So, that’s a little sad. The really fascinating thing though, is why that spot has stuck around so long, considering it’s just a storm. Can you imagine if a storm system hovered for centuries over one spot on Earth?
Behind the Keys of the Red Sox Organist (Originally aired February 11, 2019)
Guest: Josh Kantor, Organist for the Boston Red Sox
Our first cut today comes from the classic summertime activity in America -a night at the ballpark. And if you’re lucky, it’s Fenway Park, where Boston Red Sox Organist Josh Kantor is taking requests on Twitter and giving fans a chuckle with his sly humor–like, when he played Prince’s Purple Rain during a rain delay.
Do School Suspensions Reduce School Violence? (Originally aired February 27, 2019)
Guest: Charles Bell, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Sciences, Illinois State University
Millions of kids get suspended from public schools around the US every year, and a new study from the ACLU found that schools that suspend the most are all in Hawaii. Suspension is a way to punish a student for seriously bad behavior, alert the parents that the school means business and keep the other students at the school safe. But kicking a kid out of school for a few days or weeks may not do any of those things.
The Real Paleo Diet (Originally aired March 11, 2019)
Guest: Herman Pontzer, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University
The whole idea behind the paleo -“caveman”-diet is that if we go back to eating like our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we won’t have all the obesity and diabetes and heart disease our modern lifestyle has brought. Makes total sense when you look at the few hunter-gatherer societies left on the planet today: They are in excellent health.
Kossula’s Story of Enslavement, Published 87 Years After It Was Written (Originally aired July 20, 2018)
Guest: Deborah G. Plant, Literary Critic and Editor of “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” Written by Zora Neale Hurston
The last ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States came after the Atlantic Slave trade had already been banned. So the owners of the Clotilde unloaded their illicit cargo secretly and then sank the ship to hide their crime. The remains of the Clotilde were found last month in Alabama’s Mobile River. It’s a major historical discovery that makes this next conversation worth another listen. One of the enslaved men aboard the Clotilde was Cudjo Lewis. In 1927, when he was 86 years old, he told his story to ethnographer and novelist Zora Neale Hurston, but she couldn’t get it published. That changed last year, when it was published posthumously and became a bestseller. It’s called “Barracoon.”
Paid to Play with LEGO (Originally aired February 19, 2019)
Guest: Noel Straatsma, LEGO Master Model Builder, LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Toronto
The great thing about summer, for so many kids, is the long hours of uninterrupted play: riding bikes until the sun sets; devouring a new book from cover to cover (that was me); or undertaking an ambitious LEGO project without any distractions. Back in February, as the latest LEGO Movie came out, we met a man who turned his childhood hours building LEGO into a profession. He’s an honest-to-goodness Master Builder for LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in Toronto.
Childproof Your Ride (Originally aired March 26, 2019)
Guest: Amber Rollins and Whitney Rodden from KidsandCars.org
It’s the scary time of year when temperatures soar and the risk of a child dying in a hot car rises along with the thermometer. Vehicle-related injuries are a top killer of children, including hot car tragedies and rollover accidents. Earlier this year we spoke with safety advocate Whitney Rodden and KidsandCars.org director Amber Rollins about how to “Childproof Your Ride.”
Talking Our Way to Common Ground Between Religious Freedom and LGBT Rights
Guest: Robin Fretwell Wilson, Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law and Founder of Tolerance Means Dialogues; Shannon Minter, Legal Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights; Cicily Bennion & Alexis Watson, BYU students and #ToleranceMeans Essay
The US House of Representatives passed a law last month called the Equality Act. It prohibits discrimination against LGBT individuals in a wide variety of areas including education, employment and housing. If the Senate approves the measure, President Trump is unlikely to sign it. Opponents –including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints –say the Equality Act threatens the “right of religious organizations and schools to establish faith-based employment and admissions standards and preserve the religious nature of their activities and properties.” Does this have to be an either-or situation? Either we protect LGBT rights or we protect religious freedom and a win for one is a loss for the other?
Muslim, NYPD Chaplain, Advocate
Guest: Imam Khalid Latif, University Chaplain for New York University and Executive Director of the Islamic Center at New York University
In the last decade or so, Khalid Latif has travelled the world on behalf of the US State Department, shared a podium with the Pope and the Dalai Lama, advised the Obama Administration on Muslim affairs, and served as the New York Police Department’s youngest chaplain. Latif is a Muslim imam and director of the Islamic Center at New York University. All of that makes him one of the most prominent, well-connected Muslim leaders in the country. But that hasn’t protected him from being tracked by the FBI or repeatedly targeted by airport security.
A Gutenberg Bible and the Eccentric Woman Who Made It Her Own (Originally aired March 29, 2019)
Guest: Margaret Leslie Davis, author of “The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred Year Odyssey”
Fewer than 50 of them exist in the world. For rare book collectors, a Bible printed by Johann Gutenberg before the summer of 1456 is the Holy Grail of acquisitions. Throughout history only one Gutenberg Bible has been owned by a woman collector – an American named Estelle Doheny.
US “Maximum Pressure” Campaign Against Iran Drives Tensions Higher
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
Iran says it’s on the verge of boosting its stockpile of enriched uranium beyond the limit set in the 2015 nuclear agreement, unless it gets serious relief from sanctions imposed by the United States. Last year, the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and has been waging a campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran, including an attempt to drive Iran’s oil revenue to zero. The US also accuses Iran of attacks on two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf region last week, which Iran denies. But, America’s European allies are skeptical that Iran’s been up to as much mischief as the US claims. There’s international concern this could all escalate into a war.
Pangolins Are the Most Trafficked Animal Worldwide
Guest: Rachael Bale, Senior Editor of National Geographic’s Animals Desk
One of the world’s most highly trafficked animals is one you may have never even heard of. It’s a small, weird-looking mammal covered in scales called a pangolin. It lives in parts of Asia and Africa and is endangered. Just a couple months ago, authorities in Singapore seized 28 tons of pangolin scales. Pangolin poaching is increasing, and it’s alarming experts.
Neal Baer Is a Pediatrician Who Promotes Public Health Awareness Through Writing For TV Shows
Guest: Neal Baer, Pediatrician and Writer for TV Shows, ER, Law & Order: SUV, and Designated Survivor
Have you ever watched a medical drama and wondered how much of it is true? Well it might be more real than you think. Dr. Neal Baer, is a pediatrician, adjunct professor at UCLA, and writer for the TV shows ER, Law & Order: SUV, and Designated Survivor where he uses his medical expertise to shed light on health issues.
Why So Many Candidates Are Running for President In 2020?
Guest: Hans Hassell, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Florida State University, Author of “The Party's Primary: Control of Congressional Nominations”
The first debate of the 2020 presidential election is set for next week in Miami –twenty Democrats vying for their party’s nomination will debate in two separate groups. They gotta split them up because one debate between 20 people would just be too unwieldy –and that’s already leaving out four others who didn’t meet the Democratic party’s criteria to participate in the debate.
NASA Practicing Techniques for Countering Deadly Asteroids
Guest: Richard Binzel, Professor of Planetary Science, MIT
An asteroid the size of a city-block is hurtling towards Earth, and scientists scramble to respond. They launch six spacecraft to slam into the asteroid and knock it off course –but, instead, a chunk splits off and makes a beeline for Central Park in New York City and destroys the lower half of Manhattan. That’s how a simulation went at NASA’s recent Planetary Defense Conference.
Marriage Movies
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Inside the Life and Power of Kim Jong Un
Guest: Anna Fifield, Beijing Bureau Chief, Washington Post, Author of “The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un”
We’ve just passed the one-year anniversary of the very first meeting between leaders of North Korea and the United States. Negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program have since fallen apart but President Donald Trump continues to speak highly of the North Korean dictator he’s met twice, in-person.
War Games Play Pivotal Role in Military Strategy and International Relations
Guest: David Shlapak, Senior Defense Researcher at the RAND Corporation
Militaries the world over devote lots of time and money to practicing for battle. Sometimes it’s tabletop exercises like an amped-up version of Risk. Other times, it’s full-fledged rehearsal. We wanted to know a bit more about how these rehearsals work –and whether they’re really worth the money.
Rethinking Our Water Cycle Diagrams
Guest: Ben Abbott, Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Ecology, Brigham Young University
It’s been 17 years since The Banana Slug String Band first released their song, and the basics haven’t changed. But some important details have –and BYU Ecology professor Ben Abbott says the standard textbook diagrams kids are using to study the water cycle today need updating.
Computer Games May Rehabilitate Neurocognitive Damage in African Children
Guest: Michael J. Boivin, Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Ophthalmology, Michigan State University
Children with malaria or HIV aren’t just affected physically with things like fever and fatigue –they can also cause significant brain damage. And when those kids live in sub-Saharan Africa, cognitive impairments are rarely addressed.
Anti-Plagiarism Software Uncovers New Info for Shakespeare’s Iconic Works
Guest: Dennis McCarthy, Independent Shakespeare Scholar, Co-Author of “A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels by George North”
It’s the season of free outdoor Shakespeare performances, which started in New York’s Central Park in the 1960s and have spread to cities across the country. I love how you can see people of all ages and backgrounds at these performances. With all the “where tos” and “forthwiths” it’s easy to forget that Shakespeare wrote his plays for a wide audience. And he didn’t just invent plots and characters out of thin air. Shakespeare scholars have identified many of the Bard’s influences, but one of the biggest was only discovered in the last year or so, with the help of anti-plagiarism software.
Making Plants More Tolerant of Salty Soil
Guests: Brent Nielsen, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, BYU; Dave Brown, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Too much salt can ruin a meal. Too much salt can also ruin the crops that meal is made from. Salty soil is a growing problem in parts of the world. BYU microbiology and molecular biology professor Brent Nielsen is working on a way to make crops more salt-tolerant.
Hiring with No Questions Asked (Originally aired January 7, 2019)
Guest: Mike Brady, President and CEO, Greyston Bakery
Job openings are near a record high right now, but that doesn’t matter if no one will hire you. Such is often the case for the millions of Americans with a criminal record. Many employers want that kind of thing disclosed on job applications. But earlier this year we spoke to the CEO of a commercial bakery in New York that not only doesn’t ask about criminal history . . . they don’t ask any questions about an applicant’s background. It’s called “open hiring.” Greyston Bakery is known for its brownies –you’ve had them on Delta flights and in Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
Teaching Kids to Building Bridges Between Faiths (Originally aired February 5, 2019)
Guest: Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core, Author of “Out of Many Faiths Religious Diversity and the American Promise”
People who are active in religious congregations tend to be happier and more civically engaged, according to research by the Pew Research Center. So, religious parents have good reason to want to instill faithful devotion in their kids. But how can we raise kids to believe deeply in their own faith while still respecting the religious beliefs of others?
Some Food for Thought on Food Preferences (Originally aired January 30, 2019)
Guest: Paul Rozin, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
I bet there’s a food you hated as a kid but like to eat now. The first time I encountered pickled beets at a neighborhood picnic, I thought they were the worst-tasting thing ever. Now, I make a point of putting them on my plate if they’re offered at a salad bar. I also used to really hate vinegar-based salad dressings. Now I prefer them over the creamy ones. As a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Paul Rozin has spent more than 40 years studying how food preferences develop and how they differ from person to person and culture to culture.
Fake Internet Videos (Originally February 12, 2019)
Guest: Hany Farid, Professor (I School and EECS), UC Berkley (former professor of Computer Science, Dartmouth College)
Congress held a hearing Thursday on the problem of “deep fakes.” These are super-convincing doctored videos that basically anyone can make with the right software. There’s one circulating online of Mark Zuckerberg right now bragging about how much of our data he controls. And a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi edited to make her appear drunk went viral last month. Congress is worried how deep fakes might affect the 2020 presidential election.
The Ethics of Medical Crowdfunding (Originally aired January 14, 2019)
Guest: Jeremy Snyder, Professor of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
All over the internet, you’ll find people asking for help paying for medical care. People donate hundreds of millions of dollars each year to medical causes on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. And despite the warm fuzzies of it all, there are some ethical concerns you may not have considered.
Symbiotic Farming with Aquaponics (Originally aired January 31, 2019)
Guest: Paul Venturelli, Assistant Professor of Fisheries, Ball State University
A lot of the fish we eat has been farmed –not caught in the wild. You probably knew that. Did you know that you can grow plants in water? Not just lilies and water cress, but lettuce and tomatoes and other edible stuff. Now here’s the really cool thing: there is a way to both farm fish and grow plants in water all in the same system. It’s called aquaponics, and on a small scale it’s kinda fun to do in your kitchen. On a larger scale, some experts think it might be a farming solution for places that are short on water and land.
Obstacles for Absentee Fathers
Guest: Anthony Parnell, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Fatherhood Support Network
Nearly one in four children in the US live without their father, according to the Census Bureau. Kids raised without a dad are more likely to end up in poverty and to have substance use and mental health problems. But not all absentee fathers want to be absent. That’s where the Fatherhood Support Network steps in –their program is designed to inspire and empower dads to be actively involved in the lives of their children.
Muslim Marine strives to change American misunderstandings towards Islam
Guest: Mansoor Shams, Muslim U.S. Marine Veteran, Founder of MuslimMarine.org
Mansoor Shams has visited 25 states with a handwritten sign that says, “I’m a Muslim and a US Marine. Ask Me Anything.” Apparently, a lot of people are surprised those two things can go together. Since the 9/11 terror attacks, American Muslims have struggled to overcome stereotypes about Islam. Mansoor Shams founded his nonprofit MuslimMarine.org to improve understanding and promote dialogue –like how he stands on a street corner and invites people to ask him tough questions.
There’s a Science Behind Happiness and How to Incorporate it in your Own Life
Guest: Sonja Lyubomirsky, Author of “The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want,” “The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, but Doesn’t, What Shouldn’t Make You Happy, but Does,” Professor of Psychology, University of California, Riverside
Bobby McFerrin’s hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” always annoyed me. You can’t just “be happy” –it’s more complicated than that. But psychologist and UC-Riverside professor Sonja Lyubomirsky’s research suggests there are things you can do right now to be happy. Lyubomirsky’s books include “The How of Happiness” and “The Myths of Happiness.”
How Bigotry and Eugenics Fueled America’s Early Immigration Laws
Guest: Daniel Okrent, Author of “The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America”
Among those who believe too many immigrants are coming to America –legally or otherwise –the questions are: How many is the right amount? And who do we want coming here? Should it be based on who they already know in America –or on what they can offer our economy? President Trump would prefer a focus on skills and he’d like all immigrants to learn English and pass a civics test before admission. He’s also talked about banning immigrants from certain countries.
None of this is new to America. A hundred years ago, advocates for restricting immigration spent decades trying to get a literacy test passed in Congress. When they finally did, it was closely followed by the harshest immigration law in US history –a law that kept two generations of Jews, Italians and other European immigrants out of America. The lessons from that law are worth closer inspection.
Drowning is a Leading Cause of Accidental Death for Children
Guest: Ann Marie Buerkle, Acting Chairman, US Consumer Product Safety Commission
A reminder, as summer swim season arrives, drowning is a leading cause of accidental death among children under the age of 14.
Voting for Felons – Is It a Right or a Privilege?
Guest: Douglas Spencer, Visiting Professor, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago
Should people in prison be allowed to vote on Election Day? What about after they’ve served their time? Most states prohibit convicted felons from voting while they’re behind bars and –in some cases –while they’re on probation. In some states, felons can lose voting rights permanently, depending on their crime. Democrats in the US House would like to see more states allow felons to vote. Florida voters last year amended the state’s constitution to let felons vote after they’ve completed their sentence. Nevada lawmakers just passed a law that does similarly.
Napping Pilots Could Lead to Safer Flights
Guest: Scott Winter, Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies, College of Aviation, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
I always hope for a good nap when I take a long airplane flight. But the last thing I want is for the pilot of the plane to be taking a nap, too. Then again, I also don’t want a pilot up in the cockpit suffering from severe fatigue and prone to making mistakes. In Europe, Canada and Australia, pilots are encouraged to take short naps when fatigue sets in. The US does not allow that. Should we?
The Power of Presence and Knowing Your Personal Brand
Guest: Charlotte Harrison, Principal Lecturer at University of Portsmouth with research interests in sustainable graduate employability
You know yourself better than anyone, and yet when someone says “Tell me about yourself?” do you freeze a bit like I do? Whether it’s a social setting or a job interview, the answer will shape how you’re perceived –maybe even what future opportunities you get. In the University of Portsmouth’s law school in the UK, students are coached on creating a short statement to summarize their personal brand.
The Best National Parks in the Rocky Mountains
Guest: Becky Lomax, Author of “USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 59 Parks”
We’re continuing our exploration of national parks across the country today with the Rocky Mountains. This region includes tons of wildlife and some of the most popular and famous parks –including the first national park in the US, Yellowstone.
Most Popular Job for Ex-Congress members is Lobbyist
Guest: Alan Zibel, Research Director at Public Citizen
When members of Congress retire or get voted out of office, they don’t necessarily leave Washington Hill. The most popular next step for them is to become a lobbyist. Sixty percent of Senators and Representatives who left office last year, and got a new job, landed at lobbying firm, where the pay is significantly higher and their inside knowledge of how Congress works pays off for their clients. That’s the analysis from liberal advocacy group Public Citizen, which tracks this stuff and would like to see the “revolving door” between Capitol Hill and K Street closed.
Balancing Time and Energy When Caring for Kids and Parents at the Same Time
Guest: Tom Golightly, Assistant Director, Counselling and Psychological Services, Brigham Young University
Americans are living longer and they’re having children later in life. Put the two together and you get the Sandwich Generation –people caring for aging parents and their own children at the same time.
Protests in Hong Kong and Sudan
Guest: Quinn Mecham, professor of political science, BYU
Large protests are underway in Hong Kong over a proposed law that would allow people to be sent to China for trial.
The Standards by which Educational Disabilities Are Judged Can Vary Between Schools
Guest: Dara Shifrer, Sociology, Portland State University
The likelihood that a student in a US public school will be diagnosed with a learning disability and enrolled in special ed depends a lot on the school that kids attends. Wait, why would the school matter? Shouldn’t a student’s needs be the same, regardless of where he’s enrolled?
Trials of Teens with Cancer Go Beyond Health
Guest: Amanda Garbatini, Adolescent/Young Adult Program Coordinator for Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital
Being a teenager is tough enough without having to deal with a cancer diagnosis. Treatment wreaks havoc on a changing body. Frequent hospital visits make it tough to maintain a social life. Plus, at that age, they’re too old for the cartoon characters and stuffed animals of the children’s hospital, but not quite comfortable in the adult oncology wing, either. Amanda Garbatini knows all about that. She’s had numerous bouts of cancer starting at age 11. Now, 20 years later she’s heading up a new center for teens with cancer at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.
Communities Benefit from Local News, but Journalism Is on a Decline
Guest: John Temple, Associate Adjunct Professor and Director of the Investigative Reporting Program, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
The Great Recession ten years ago accelerated a trend that the internet had set in motion a decade earlier –the decline of local newspapers. Those that made their money off classifieds withered thanks to Craigslist. Then advertisers shifted to the web. There are more than a thousand communities around the country that have lost all local media coverage during this shift, but the majority Americans –according to a Pew Research survey –think local media is doing just fine.
Have You Heard the Hum? Several Theories Try to Explain this Mysterious Noise
Guest: Glen MacPherson, Director of the World Hum Map and Database Project
All around the world, people claim to hear a persistent low humming noise that’s sometimes known as the World Hum. Not everyone can hear it. Just some people. The noise usually follows them wherever they go. Often it’s worse at night. Glen Macpherson built a steel box to see if he could block out the humming. But even inside of it, the noise was there.
Worlds Awaiting: College Readiness
Guest: Rachel Wadham, host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Are the Internet Giants too Big for Our Good?
Guest: Paul Stancil, Professor of Law, BYU
There aren’t a lot of things in Washington that get support from both Republicans and Democrats. But investigations into the enormous power of Google, Amazon and Facebook do have bipartisan backing. Are the internet giants squashing competitors illegally? Are their actions hurting us, the customers?
The Flu Struck Not Once, But Twice This Season
Guest: Patricia Foster, Professor Emerita of Biology, Indiana University
The flu came in two waves for the US this year –spiking first in December and then again in late March. They were two different flu viruses, though, and the vaccine most people got in October worked pretty well for the first one, but not the second. Even if the vaccine had been a good match for the second flu virus, it probably wouldn’t have helped much because apparently the power of the vaccine drops off pretty quickly after a few months.
Smaller Public Water Systems in US Struggle to Meet EPA Standards
Guest: Joan Rose, Professor of Microbiology, Michigan State University
Drinking water in the United States is very, very safe. But it’s not 100% safe. Google “boil water advisory” any given day and you’ll see dozens of alerts around the country where drinking water has temporarily become contaminated by sewage or chemicals. The EPA’s own estimate is that about 8% of drinking water around the country does not meet safety standards. Are those safety standards high enough, though?
Can Anyone Be a Runner?
Guest: Yitka Winn, Runner, Contributing Editor, Trail Runner Magazine, REI
The longer days may be tempting you to add some more ambitious running to your exercise routine. Or maybe you’re like me and just dusting off your shoes for a jog would be a step in a new direction. Simple as it is to do –just get out there and move your legs faster than you normally would –there are still a lot of decisions to make. What route? How far? When to turn back? On the road or off?
Your Personality Could Determine the Ads You See Online
Guest: Sandra Matz, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior, Columbia Business School
What if, just based on your public Facebook activity, a company could figure out if you’re an introvert or extrovert? And then, the company could fine-tune an advertisement to tap into that aspect of your personality and get you to buy their stuff? And what if a company could do that all automatically, using smart algorithms that get smarter as they go? Our wallets are doomed.
Mental Health Concerns for Moms Working Multiple Jobs
Guest: Angela Bruns, Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan
Low-income mothers working more than one job have higher rates of depression. Maybe the depression is linked to the poverty. Or the chaotic schedules and sleep deprivation. Or all of the above.
Oysters with a Mission (Originally aired February 5, 2019)
Guest: Pete Malinowski, Executive Director of the Billion Oyster Project
This week, a whale was sighted at Rockaway Beach. A live one. That’s a big deal because that harbor has been horribly polluted by a hundred years of industrial waste and raw sewage. The whale sighting is a sign that clean-up efforts are working. Those efforts included the Billion Oyster Project –it’s a nonprofit trying to restore the oyster colonies in New York Harbor. Oysters naturally filter pollution from water. And New York was once the oyster capital of the world.
The Truth is Out There, But Most of Us Can’t Find it Online (Originally aired February 28, 2019)
Guest: Sam Wineburg, Margaret Jacks Professor of Education and of History Stanford University, Executive Director of the Stanford History Education Group, Author of “Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone)”
Before the world of the internet, getting the facts meant traveling to the library, searching through books, using a card catalog... but today we have all this information at our fingertips so finding answers isn’t the problem. It’s knowing which answer to trust. And Sam Wineburg says most of us are pretty bad at that.
Suffering in Silence: Depression’s Toll (Originally aired February 6,2019)
Guest: Jane Clayson Johnson, Author, “Silent Souls Weeping: Sharing Stories, Finding Hope”
Most people around the world who experience depression do not seek treatment. They may not have access to help. Or they’re ashamed. Or maybe they don’t realize they’re experiencing depression. In the depths of her first major depressive episode, journalist Jane Clayson Johnson blamed herself for being weak, ungrateful, unfaithful –how could she be so depressed when she was so blessed?
How to Turn Bugs into Weapons (Originally aired October 11, 2018)
Guest: Jeffrey Lockwood, Professor of Natural Sciences and Humanities, University of Wyoming
Scientists have modified a fungus to produce spider venom that’s deadly to mosquitoes. So they’ve basically weaponized one insect –spiders –to target another –mosquitoes –in hopes of stopping the spread of malaria. There’s actually a long history of using insects as weapons –not just to fight disease, but also to fight people. During the Cold War, America had a program to use yellow-fever-infected mosquitoes against our enemies.
Finding Your Doppelgänger (Originally aired January 29, 2019)
Guest: Niamh Geaney, spokesperson, TwinStrangers.com
Did you ever have “twin day” –where you and your best friend wore the same clothes and called yourselves twins? Most of us may have thought that it would be cool to have a lookalike. The chances are good that somewhere in the world, there is someone who looks just like you. In fact, there’s a website to help you find your doppelganger –it’s called TwinStrangers.com.
The Experiential Fun of Escape Rooms (Originally aired January 30, 2019)
Guest: David Spira, Co-Founder, Room Escape Artist
A new study suggests that escape rooms are beneficial for radiology residents –it teaches them how to analyze under pressure and communicate effectively. But they’re not just for people in the medical field –escape rooms are popular for family fun nights, group dates, and team bonding exercises. Believe it or not, just five years ago, there were only 22 escape room companies in the US. Now there are thousands. And it’s caught on globally.
D-Day Hastened the End of WWII, But Deepened Cold War Tension
Guest: Grant Madsen, Professor of History, BYU, Author of “Sovereign Soldiers: How the U.S. Military Transformed the Global Economy After World War II”
The Invasion of Normandy –D-Day –happened 75 years ago. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history and laid the foundation for Allied victory in World War II.
Break it, You Buy it: Right to Repair Laws Push to Make DIY Product Repair Cheaper and Easier
Guest: Nathan Proctor, Director, Campaign for the Right to Repair at the United States Public Interest Research Group
When you go to a phone store, you’ll see iPhones, Samsung Galaxies, and phone cases lining the walls. What you won’t see available for purchase are parts to fix phones. No screens, no circuit boards, no fix-it-yourself manuals. The Right to Repair Campaign at the US Public Interest Research Group says that picture is wrong.
Tobacco Companies Use Social Media Platforms to Advertise
Guest: Robert Kozinets, Professor of Marketing and Public Relations, University of Southern California Annenberg School
Tobacco companies in the US and many other countries are not allowed to target teenagers with their advertising. But social media has opened up new ways to skirt that restriction. A two-year investigation by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids uncovered global campaigns by Philip Morris and other leading tobacco companies to get their cigarettes trending in the Instagram feeds of young people.
No Visible Bruises
Guest: Rachel Louise Snyder, Associate Professor of Literature, American University, Author of “No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us”
If it was so bad that she knew he might kill her, why didn’t she just leave? That may be the most common question people ask about cases of domestic violence. And journalist Rachel Louise Snyder says it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what the World Health Organization calls a “global health problem of epidemic proportions.” Here in the US, one in four women experience domestic violence. Nearly half of all women killed in America over the last decade were murdered by a current or former husband or boyfriend.
Reading at Home Can Make the Difference of a Million Words
Guest: Jessica Logan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies, Ohio State University
Story time is great for bonding with your kid. It’s also a key building block for reading skills. Children who are not read to during the first five years of life, show up to kindergarten with a huge gap in the vocabulary words they’ve been exposed to.
Cult of Everest Fuels Danger on the World’s Highest Peak
Guest: Michael Kodas, Journalist, Author of "High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed” and "Megafire: The Race to Extinguish a Deadly Epidemic of Flame".
Eleven people died climbing Mt. Everest during the last month–making this the fourth-deadliest season on the world’s highest mountain. Delays caused by overcrowding near the summit contributed to several of the deaths. So, the obvious response would be fewer people to receive permits to summit the mountain next season. But the problem is deeper than that, says Michael Kodas. It’s really about the cult-like appeal Everest has acquired.
Invisible Women: How Engineering of Products and Safety Ignores Women
Guest: Caroline Criado Perez, Author of “Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.”
The typical safety features in a car are not designed with the typical woman in mind. Did you know that? Up until about 8 years ago all the crash test dummies used in safety tests were based on man’s body. Engineers have found that makes women a lot more likely to be injured in an accident. And it’s not just cars. Cell phones, musical instruments–even voice recognition software –are optimized for men.
Apple Seed: Stories Served With Food
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne attends a community known for its story festival. While there he discovers some of the best stories are in the family owned restaurants he visits.
How Parents Can Help their Young Adult Succeed
Guest: Larry Nelson, Professor of Family Life, Brigham Young University
When do you take the training wheels off and let your kids their own way in the world? When they turn 18? When they graduate college? The decision is never easy for parents –but it’s even more complicated when there are so many young adults living at home in the US. The transition to adulthood is taking longer and more fraught with perils than it was for you or your parents.
Neurodiversity in the Workplace
Guest: Rajesh Anandan Co-Founder of ULTRA Testing
Millions of people in America have autism spectrum disorder. The majority of them are unemployed or underemployed, meaning they have a job that doesn’t make full use of their skills. So, what would a job that takes full use of a person’s skills look like if that person has autism or Asperger’s?
Writing the Book on Racial Literacy
Guests: Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo, Co-Authors of “Tell Me Who You Are,” Co-Founders/Co-Presidents of CHOOSE.
How has race impacted your life? If you’d asked me that question as a teenager, I’d have been really confused. “Race? Me? I’m a white girl in a white community. Race hasn’t impacted my life.” But of course, it has. Race is embedded in American society. It’s just that most of us lack the tools to understand and navigate a world structured by racial division.
30 Years After Tiananmen Massacre
Guest: Stanley Rosen, Professor of Political Science, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California
Thirty years ago–June 4, 1989 -the Chinese government used tanks and guns to end a six-week-long protest for democracy in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Hundreds –maybe thousands –of people were killed. Chinese politics and culture expert Stanley Rosen says the bloody crackdown continues to influence the thinking of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.
The Historical Importance of Bikes
Guest: David Ortiz, Professor of History, University of Arizona
100 years ago, today, Congress approved a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. It would be another year before the amendment would be ratified by a majority of states. In their campaigning for the vote, the women’s suffrage movement found a surprising tool –and powerful symbol –in the bicycle.
The Evolution of Motherhood in Political Campaigns
Guest: Kelly Dittmar, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University, Camden and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Author of “Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns”
100 years after Congress agreed to give women the vote, there are now a record number of women running for a major party’s presidential nomination. What’s more, many of these Democrats–including Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand –are talking openly on the campaign trail about their experiences birthing and raising children. Motherhood used to be considered a liability in politics, but these women are highlighting the ways that being a mother qualifies them to lead.
The Teacher Shortage—More than Just Shortcomings with Pay
Guest: Emma Garcia, Economist, Economic Policy Institute
Classrooms are dark for the summer and families are focused on vacation. But school districts around the country are in hiring mode for Fall. Reports over the years have warned of a looming teacher shortage in the US, but some have questioned whether the problem is really that big. Certain states and certain subjects –such as special education and math –do consistently struggle to find qualified teachers. But economists at the Economic Policy Institute–which has close ties to labor unions -say the problem is very real and worse than we thought
Professional Domino Artist
Guest: Lily Hevesh, Professional Domino Artist
There is something so satisfying about knocking down a line of dominos. Now imagine setting up thousands of dominos and watching them topple for minutes. Huge domino spectacles are what Lily Hevesh does for a living. She’s the top domino artist on YouTube and has set up dominos for movies, TV, and commercials.
There Haven’t Always Been Beach Lifeguards Ready to Save You
Guest: Chris Brewster, Americas Region President of the International Life Saving Federation, Former San Diego Lifeguard Chief
From the TV show Baywatch, many of us learned and bought into the stereotype that a beach lifeguard is attractive, untouchable, stoic, and usually not working all that hard. But I was just at the beach last week, and the lifeguard there was good-looking, but extremely intense. He was prowling up and down the beach and giving people orders. I thought it was a little excessive, that is, until he saved a couple of girls from the riptide. Twice. We often take beach lifeguards for granted–I know I did–but they’ve only been around for the last 100 years.
Pokémon: Childhood Fad or Enduring Adult Franchise?
Guest: Nicholas Bowman, Professor of Communication Studies, Texas Tech University
Why is this new Pokémon movie such a hit? To make 400-million dollars at the box-office (and counting) there are obviously a lot of adults seeing this film. I admit I don’t see the appeal. I once had an 8-year-old try to explain the Pokémon cards and I was completely lost. How is this game still popular 20 years after it debuted?
#NoPlant19: Rain, Floods Set Midwest Farmers Back
Guest: Jerry Jackson, Jackson Farms, Illinois
#NoPlant19 is circulating on Twitter along with pictures and videos of soggy fields still not planted with crops. Typically at this point in the year, pretty much all the nation’s corn – and most of its soybeans would be in the ground. But this year, because of incessant rain and serious flooding, the US Department of Agriculture says planting across the Midwest is way behind. And for many farmers, it will soon be too late. On top of that, there’s the trade war with China, which has American farmers scrambling to find other places to sell their crops.
Australia is Killing Off Two Million Feral Cats in an Attempt To Save Native Species
Guest: Katherine Moseby, Research Fellow at the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales, Founder of the Wildlife Sanctuary Arid Recovery Reserve
In Australia, nearly two dozen small mammals have gone extinct because of one ferocious predator – the cat. Not cougars or lions. These are domesticated cats, now feral and roaming the outback, obliterating small marsupials and rodents native to Australia. So, several years ago, the Australian government set a goal to exterminate two million feral cats by 2020. That caused an outcry among cat lovers. Ecologist Katherine Moseby has been looking for other, non-lethal ways to deal with the problem.
Religious Rights of Death Row Inmates
Guest: Elizabeth Clark, JD, Associate Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Brigham Young University
Do death row inmates in America have the right to a minister of their own faith standing at their side at the moment of execution? States have different policies on this and the US Supreme Court has issued conflicting rulings on it in recent months. A new lawsuit filed by a Muslim inmate awaiting execution in Alabama may finally settle the issue.
Why the US Doesn't Use the Metric System
Guest: John Bemelmans Marciano, Author, "Whatever Happened to the Metric System?: How America Kept Its Feet"
If you take a drive on Interstate 19 in Southern Arizona you’ll be in for surprise. It is the only stretch of highway in the United States with road signs that show only in kilometers. Turns out Interstate 19 is a leftover from the 70s when the country was preparing to go metric. So, what happened? Today, the United States, Myanmar, and Liberia are the only countries left in the world that don’t use the metric system. Will the United States ever convert to metric?
Education Could Be Worth A Lot More Than We Thought
Guest: Patrick Krueger, Professor of Health and Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado Denver
Congratulations to all the parents of high school grads who are breathing a sigh of relief. On those rough days when your kid seemed like he or she maybe wasn’t going to get that diploma, did you threaten them? Or talk about how they’d never be able to make a decent living without a high school degree? You could have just told them that their lives depended on it. University of Colorado, Denver demographer Patrick Krueger has found that people with a high school diploma live healthier, longer lives.
The Uncertain Future of Antibiotics
Guest: David Shlaes, Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership, Author of "Antibiotics, The Perfect Storm" and "The Drug Makers"
An alarming new report from the UN says that in another 30 years, there could be 10 million people around the world dying every year from bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics. In other words, we’re in desperate need of new antibiotics to fight bacteria that have adapted to outsmart the current crop of drugs. So you’d think companies would see dollar signs in that and be racing to discover new ones. But they’re not, because the market for antibiotics is broken.
Preserving the Story of 9/11
Guest: Mitchell Zuckoff, Professor of Journalism, Boston University, Author of “Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11” and “13 Hours”
September 11, 2001. Over two hours, four hijacked passenger planes crash –one into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. One into the South Tower. Another hijacked plane crashes into the Pentagon and then, back in New York, Peter Jennings has taken over the live coverage for ABC and is having trouble getting his head around what he’s seeing on the screen as the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses. Minutes later, a fourth hijacked plane crashes in an empty field in rural Pennsylvania. Half an hour later –at 10:28 a.m. Eastern Time, the North Tower of the World Trade Center crumbles.
Life on an Irish Farm
Guest: John Connell, Author “The Farmer’s Son: Calving Season on a Family Farm”
Sheep and cows and rolling green hills. Before Ireland became a member of the European Union its economy was almost totally dependent on farming. Today that’s not so much the case, but Ireland remains dotted with small family farms that are threatened by climate change, rising energy costs, the uncertainty of Brexit and the simple fact that Irish young people today aren’t too keen to carry on the tradition from their parents.
Success of New Brexit Party Has Britain’s Establishment Looking Over Its Shoulder
Guest: John Longworth, UK Member of the European Parliament for The Brexit Party, Former Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce
A brand new political party, only in existence for six weeks, swept elections for European Parliament in England over the weekend. The Brexit Party now has at least 28 of its candidates headed to Brussels to represent the UK in the European Union’s governing body.
Gender-Specific Toys Can Limit Opportunities for Children to Learn and Grow
Guest: Lisa M. Dinella, Principal Investigator of the Gender Development Laboratory, Monmouth University
When you walk down the toy aisle at any store, you’ll usually find the aisle divided into pink and blue: on the pink side there are Barbies, tea sets, and princesses. On the blue side you’ll see cars, superheroes, and nerf guns.
A Check-In with Common Core Standards Ten Years Later
Guest: Tom Loveless, Former Senior Fellow and Director of the Brown Center on Education Policy, Brookings Institution
It’s been nearly 10 years since the main wave of US states adopted a new set of academic standards known as the Common Core. One of the main goals was to make sure schools are teaching students the skills they need to be competitive in a global economy. So, is it working?
The Broiler Chicken: A Symbol of Our Time (Originally aired January 16, 2019)
Guest: Richard Thomas, Professor of Archaeology, University of Leicester
Thousands of years from now, what do you suppose archaeologists will consider the symbol of our time? Like the Bronze Age or Iron Age, maybe we’ll be the iPhone Age? Actually, we may end up being remembered as the Chicken Age. Global food preferences have made the broiler chicken the most common terrestrial vertebrate on the planet. More than 65 billion are slaughtered each year. And they’ve been bred for lots of juicy meat, so they’ve got weird, warped bones that may baffle future scientists uncovering piles and piles of them in our landfills.
Brain Remodeling (Originally aired February 19, 2019)
Guest: Michael Merzenich, Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, Author of “Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life”
A lot of us have watched a loved one start to lose memory and brain power as they age. It can feel inevitable –and for a long time scientists agreed that once the brains stops developing in childhood, it’s basically all downhill from there. But today, researchers believe your brain can improve at any age.
Full or Forgot? (Originally aired January 29, 2019)
Guest: Marise Parent, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology and Associate Director of the Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University
Do you remember everything you ate for breakfast or lunch? I am a notoriously distracted eater. I’m either eating on the go or while watching TV or scrolling on my phone or reading a book or engrossed in conversation. Quite often I’ll be craving something sweet after dinner and think, “Hey, I haven’t had a treat all day, so I’m fine to have this cookie.” When in fact, I had a candy bar earlier in the day, but was doing something else while I ate it and just completely forgot.
Marriage and Religion
Guest: Jason Carroll, Professor of Marriage and Family Studies, BYU
More and more adults in wealthy countries the world-over are skipping marriage or putting it off until they’re older. In the United States, this shift coincides with a move away from religion and more Americans say they do not affiliate with any religious tradition. Are those two things related? Religion typically encourages marriage, but it can also fuel conflict and inequality within couples. A global survey of marital satisfaction found –perhaps surprisingly to many –that highly religious couples enjoy higher-quality relationships and more sexual satisfaction, compared to couples who are not religious or those where one partner is less religious than the other.
The Wettest 12 Months in Recorded U.S. History
Guest: J. Marshall Shepherd, Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Georgia
The United States is right now in the midst of the wettest 12-month stretch on record. All across the Midwest, South and East, states have experienced above-average rainfall. Communities along the Mississippi River are under extended flooding because of relentless spring rainfall. Even dry Western states are largely flush with H2O. What’s going on?
Burnout Isn’t Caused by Working too Much
Guest: Josh Cohen, Psychoanalyst and Professor of Modern Literary Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London, Author of “Not Working: Why We Have to Stop”
“I need a vacation. I am burned out.” A lot of us have said a version of that at some point. The implication is burnout comes from working too much. So then, you take that vacation, wrangling kids and luggage through airports, racing through your packed itinerary while keeping one eye on your phone for crises back home. And when you get back to the work of your daily life –whether it’s at home or on the job –that same feeling of running in place, never getting ahead but unable to jump off the treadmill is still there and the burnout embers are ready to flare.
Why Do People Fall for False Stories? Emotions
Guest: Erik Nisbet, Professor of Communication, Ohio State University
Social media companies like Facebook are trying to keep false information from spreading like wildfire. They’ve got algorithms to catch –and kill -fake stories before they go viral. And they periodically shutdown “bot” accounts that exist to spread misinformation. But that’s a little like trying to save us from ourselves. The fact is that people decide to click and share this stuff, when they ought to know better. Why are we so gullible?
Determine if Your Online Shopping Is Becoming Compulsive
Guest: April Benson, Psychologist, Author of “To Buy or Not To Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop”
Amazon Prime has made it so easy to shop for stuff, I sometimes forget what I bought until it arrives on the doorstep and then it feels like Christmas. As someone who hates driving all over town looking for that one thing I need, online shopping is a gift. But is it also making us shopaholics?
The Wildest Ballgame Ever
Guest: Kevin Cook, Author of “Ten Innings at Wrigley: The Wildest Ballgame Ever, With Baseball on the Brink”
On a windy day in Chicago’s Wrigley Field forty years ago, fans, announcers and the players on the field were all shaking their heads in disbelief. 23 to 22 was the final score –the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs. It remains one of the highest scoring games in major league history. It’s certainly one of the wildest. The Cubs were down 12 at one point and then came back to tie it up, before losing with a whimper.
FDA and Sunscreen
Guest: Kerry Hanson, Research Chemist, University of California, Riverside
Memorial Day weekend is when outdoor pools open in places around the country where pools close during the winter. That makes it the official start of summer for a lot of us. This year it also coincides with the end of a public comment period on new sunscreen regulations being considered by the US Food and Drug Administration. The proposal says that only two of the active ingredients often used in over-the-counter sunscreen are “generally recognized as safe and effective.” Only two. So, what to do about sunscreen this summer?
The Book-to-Movie Hollywood Pipeline
Guest: Matthew Janzen, Senior VP of Production and Development at Lionsgate
The Hunger Games lit a fire in Hollywood’s heart. Suddenly theaters were flooded with movies based on young adult novels about dark futures where teenagers band together to fight the forces of evil (usually adults). There were the four Hunger Games films (based on only three books). And The Divergent series. And The Maze Runner series. And Hollywood even dredged up Orson Scott Card’s old bestseller Ender’s Game for a theatrical run.
Where You Live Affects your Health
Guest: Richard G. “Bugs” Stevens, Professor of Community Medicine and Healthcare, University of Connecticut
Time zones drawn on a map of the US look like four vertical stripes running from North to South. The stripes are pretty wide, though: Amarillo, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee are both in the Central time zone, but they’re nearly 1000 miles apart. That means on many days, people in Amarillo are waking up while it’s still dark outside, but further east over in Nashville, the sun’s already up when the alarm goes off. Now that might just seem like a quirk of the time zone system. But more and more studies are finding that situations like that can have serious health consequences.
The Shadow of Chernobyl
Guest: Kate Brown, Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Author of “Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future”
The explosion and subsequent meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 is often called the single worst technological disaster in human history. The world actually didn’t learn of the explosion until a few days after it happened, when scientists in Scandinavia detected unusual levels of radiation in the atmosphere. That initial coverup, followed by months –years, even –of bungled response to the disaster, has been the focus of Kate Brown’s research for a decade.
Worlds Awaiting: Predicting in Reading
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Are Measles Really that Big a Deal? (Originallay aired May 1, 2019)
Guest: Sankar Swaminathan, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Utah School of Medicine
2019 isn’t even halfway over and already this is the worst year for measles cases in 25 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says so far 704 people have been infected –most of them were not vaccinated. There have been no deaths reported yet from measles this year, though. So, is it really that serious? Back before the vaccine was widely available, the whole Brady Bunch came down with measles and it didn’t seem so bad. The Brady kids got to skip school and play monopoly all day. I know that’s just a 1960s TV show, but it’s been circulating online as evidence that all this concern about the measles today is overblown.
Lessons in Inuit Parenting (Originallay aired May 1, 2019)
Guest: Michaeleen Doucleff, Global Health Correspondent, NPR
It can be so, so hard not raise your voice when your kids are misbehaving. NPR reporter Michaeleen Doucleff travelled to the northern reaches of Canada for some parenting lessons from the Inuit, who know a thing or two about keeping their cool. Puns aside, anthropologists have marveled that Inuit parents never seem to yell or get hopping mad at their young kids.
The Debate over Supervised Injection Sites (Originallay aired May 1, 2019)
Guest: Peter Davidson, Associate Professor of Public Health, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego
A controversial technique for reducing overdose deaths is edging its way into the conversation about America’s opioid crisis. “Supervised injection sites” are places where people can inject heroin under the supervision of medical staff trained to reverse an overdose. These sites have been operating in Canada and Australia for years. Now some cities in the US are considering them.
Soda Taxes Reducing Consumption (Originallay aired March 4, 2019)
Guest: Kristine Madsen, Faculty Director, Berkeley Food Institute, University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health
Almost half of adults in America have diabetes or are on the verge of getting it if they don’t make some changes. Maybe we could use a nudge? That’s where the soda tax comes in. Nearly 40 countries have them and seven US cities. Berkeley, California was the first to take the plunge. Five years later, there’s some evidence the tax is working.
Unexpected Discovery Illuminates Women’s Role in Creating Medieval Manuscripts (Originallay aired March 4, 2019)
Guest: Alison Beach, Professor of Medieval History, Ohio State University
In Medieval times, before the printing press was invented, books were produced by hand. Monks with outstanding penmanship would spend their lives making painstaking copies. The fanciest books were embellished with colorful designs, and usually the scribe would get no credit for his artistry because his work was done anonymously. I say, “his” because we tend to assume only men did the job in the Middle Ages.
Wood on the Rise (Originallay aired March 4, 2019)
Guest: Michael Ramage, Professor of Architecture and Engineering, Cambridge University, Director of Cambridge Center for Natural Material Innovation
Wood makes a cozy house or cabin, but no way could you build a skyscraper out of wood, could you? It’d collapse under the weight! And what about fire? Or rain or rot? There’s a reason the world’s tallest buildings are made of steel and concrete. But don’t discount timber. Some tall buildings are starting to pop up around the world made of high-tech plywood –they’re sometimes called “plyscrapers.”
When Rules Ruled Society and Mrs. Astor Was Queen (Originally aired March 8, 2019)
Guest: Cecelia Tichi, Professor of English and American Studies, Vanderbilt University, Author of “What Would Mrs. Astor Do?”
Mark Twain called it the “Gilded Age,” a time when strict rules ruled, and manners really mattered. From 1870 to 1900, the US population doubled, industry expanded, and wealth exploded. New York City was the center of it all and Caroline Astor was its queen.
How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty (Originally aired March 22, 2019)
Guests: Karen Dillon, Former Editor of Harvard Business Review; Efosa Ojomo, Director of Global Prosperity Practice at Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, Co-authors of “The Prosperity Paradox”
Since 1990, global efforts have lifted a billion people out of poverty. That’s a lot of people no longer desperately poor. But look more closely at the data and it turns out most of that improvement has been in China. In other places, like sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people in poverty has actually increased. And that’s despite, trillions of dollars spent on development projects globally. Why aren’t those efforts making more of a difference?
Soft Skills and Nigeria’s Unemployment Problem (Originally aired March 22, 2019)
Guest: Misan Rewane, Co-Founder and CEO, West Africa Vocational Education (WAVE)
One of the biggest challenges facing Nigeria today is a huge population of unemployed young people. Many of them are high school - even college - graduates. And yet, the businesses who desperately need workers find young people lacking skills in things like teamwork and communication. West Africa Vocational Education is tackling the challenge of teaching "soft skills" to Nigeria's youth.
PM Modi’s Hindu Nationalist Wins Re-election in India
Guest: Charles Nuckolls, PhD, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, BYU
The voting took six weeks –India is the world’s largest democracy. And last night the results of the nationwide parliamentary election were announced: incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP Hindu Nationalist party won big.
Life Matters. Talk About Death (Originally aired January 23, 2019)
Guest: Michelle Acciavatti, End of Life Specialist at Ending Well
When the time finally comes, most Americans prefer to die at home. But less than a quarter actually do. The majority die in hospitals or nursing homes surrounded by tubes and needles and monitors. Is that part of what makes so many of us afraid of death? Or maybe it’s the other way around –we allow all the intervention because we’re afraid to die? Either way, dying more naturally is difficult to accomplish in America.
Determining Your Emotional Signature (Originally aired January 30, 2019)
Guest: Hillary Anger Elfenbein, Business Professor, Washington University in St. Louis
What effect do you have on people around you? Do you bring energy into a room? Do tensions rise when you show up? Everyone has an emotional signature, according to research by Hillary Anger Elfenbein and Noah Eisenkraft.
China’s Booming Middle Class is Only Part of the Economic Story (Originally aired November 11, 2018)
Guest: Dorothy Solinger, PhD, Professor Emerita of Political Science, UC Irvine, Editor of “Polarized Cities: Portraits of Rich and Poor in Urban China”
While the trade war continues between the US and China, let’s take a closer look at how China became such an economic powerhouse. Political scientist Dorothy Solinger has documented a widening wealth gap in China. Despite having the fastest growing middle class and the highest number of new millionaires in the world, millions of China’s city dwellers are trapped in poverty.
Population Decline (Originally aired February 19, 2019)
Guest: John Ibbitson, Journalist, Co-Author of “Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline”
America’s birthrate in 2018 hit its lowest point in 32 years –something that surprised demographers who thought the booming US economy might encourage couples to have more kids. But Canadian journalist John Ibbitson’s book “Empty Planet” shows how couples around the world opt to have fewer children when their financial and educational situations improve. So, rather a global crisis of too much population growth, Ibbitson and his co-author say all evidence now points to a population decline as countries like India modernize. And that’s not necessarily better news.
First Ever Planetary Defense Mission (Originally aired January 15, 2019)
Guest: Andy Rivkin, DART Investigation Team Lead Planetary Astronomer, Johns Hopkins University
NASA recently released some more details about its plan to test its first planetary defense mission. It’s not aliens, NASA’s worried about, but asteroids. If one comes barreling towards Earth, could we launch a craft into it like a battering ram and steer it away from us? We’ll find out in the summer of 2021 when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will propel the defensive spacecraft into space for a test impact, which scientists will monitor to see how well the battering ram approach works.
Wave of Abortion Restrictions Sweeping States May Signal New Strategy to Overturn Roe v. Wade
Guest: Mary Ziegler, Professor of Law, Florida State University College of Law, Author of the forthcoming book “Abortion in America: A Legal History, Roe v. Wade to the Present”
At least eight states have passed new restrictions on abortion this year and many more state legislatures are debating them. Alabama’s has received a lot of attention for banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy –that’s the earliest in the country and there’s no exception for a victim of rape or incest. What’s driving this wave of state laws and how likely are they to result in another Supreme Court ruling on abortion?
Meme Creators are Unionizing. Why?
Guest: Aiden Arata, Meme Union Member
Okay so, memes. That’s what they call those weird, viral images that pop up on your social media feed –maybe it’s a screenshot of a TV show and someone’s put some funny captions on it. And then someone else goes in and writes their own captions for it and shares that. There are whole Instagram accounts devoted to sharing memes and gets tons of traffic –which is brilliant for Instagram because it’s making money off all this viral content people are making for free. But now the makers of memes are organizing to demand more control over how their work is used and who benefits from it.
Why Veterans Experience Culture Shock When Transitioning to College
Guest: William Howe Jr, Doctoral Candidate Studying Communications, University of Oklahoma
When someone enters the US military, they spend two to three months in bootcamp, where the civilian culture they’ve known gets replaced by military culture –the physical and mental changes are major. But when someone leaves the military, there’s no transition. It’s just –“Thank you for your service. Good luck with civilian life!” US Army Veteran William Howe Jr says that’s irresponsible. He’s studying the culture shock veterans experience –particularly when they jump from combat to college.
The Chinese Workers Who Built America’s Railroad
Guest: Gordon H. Chang, Professor of American History, Stanford University, Author of “Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad”
The Transcontinental railroad was a triumph of American grit and ingenuity when it was completed 150 years ago. But the work was done largely by immigrant workers –and the most technically difficult stretches of rail through the Sierra Nevada mountains were laid by workers from China. Those workers, however, were almost invisible at the grand Golden Spike ceremony commemorating the railroad’s completion in 1869.
Adventures of a Theme Park Journalist
Guest: Robert Niles, Editor of ThemeParkInsider.com and Contributing Columnist for the Orange County Register
Theme parks can be magical with that thrill of anticipation when you’re about to drop on a rollercoaster, spending time with family, and, of course, the nostalgia. But theme parks can also be a nightmare with the hordes of people, crying children, and overpriced food.
New Research May Allow Diagnosis of CTE in Living People
Guest: Robert Stern, Co-Founder and Director of Clinical Research, Boston University CTE Center
Repeated head trauma ranging from full-blown concussions to the constant rattling of the brain inside the skull that can happen during impact sports, is believed to be the culprit in a disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy–or CTE. It was first diagnosed in a former NFL player 17 years ago and over 100 athletes, military veterans and victims of abuse have been diagnosed with it since. But the problem is, doctors can only diagnose CTE by cutting open a person’s brain after they’ve died.
Immigrating on Merits Rather than Family Ties
Guest: Kevin Johnson, Dean, Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies, UC Davis School of Law
President Donald Trump unveiled the outlines of his plan last week. It includes more funding and more inspections to better secure the nation’s southern border. The big change President Trump is proposing, though, focuses on who can immigrate legally to the United States. The Trump Administration would like to see green cards awarded based on the skills an immigrant has to offer the US economy. Right now, the majority of green cards are awarded based on random lottery or family ties the person has in the US.
A Major Extinction of Frogs and Other Amphibians Is Causing Alarm
Guest: Brian Gratwicke, Conservation Biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
A nasty fungus is wiping out frogs and salamanders globally. Recently-published analysis indicates this one fungus is the most destructive pathogen ever described by science.
The Best National Parks to Visit on the West Coast
Guest: Becky Lomax, Author of “USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All59 Parks”
Summer is the most popular time to visit National Parks. The West Coast of the United States offers many different options for families, from hiking in the Redwoods to the legendary rock climbing in Yosemite. With so many different parks available, it is useful for families to know just what each one has to offer.
New Technology Helps Resettle US Refugees to Find Better Employment Opportunities
Guest: Karen Monken, Director of the Reception and Placement Program at HIAS
Those of us born in the United States are incredibly lucky. Around the world, people forced from their countries by war and poverty cling to the hope that they’ll somehow manage to be one of the roughly 25,000 refugees chosen to relocate in America each year. Just getting here is the dream. Often, they have no choice in wherein the United States, they’ll be sent. Those decisions are made by the handful of nonprofits in the US tasked with resettling refugees. One of them called HIAS has lately been experimenting with making those decisions using intelligent software.
How to Raise Successful People
Guest: Esther Wojcicki, Journalist, Educator, Author of “How to Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results”
The CEO of YouTube and the CEO of 23andMe are sisters. Their other sister is a pediatrician and professor at UC-San Francisco. Can you just imagine the questions their mom gets at dinner parties? What’s your secret? How did you raise such successful kids? Now, the world can read her secrets.
Hollywood and the Con Film
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson team up as con-artists in the new movie “The Hustle.” When I first saw that trailer I thought–wait, is this Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but with women in the lead roles? And yep, that’s what it is.
Could Sabre-Rattling Escalate to War with Iran?
Guest: Aaron David Miller, Distinguished Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Former State Department Middle East Advisor and Negotiator
President Trump yesterday announced the first phase of his administration’s plan to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians. It will start with an economic workshop next month in Bahrain to recruit investment in Palestinian businesses and infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has lately been moving toward a more aggressive stance with Iran. President Trump tweeted yesterday: “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran.” To which Iran’s foreign minister retorted –also on Twitter –“#Economic Terrorism and genocidal taunts won’t ‘end Iran.’”
The Race to Develop 5G Wireless is On
Guest: Jessica Rosenworcel, Member of the Federal Communications Commission
5G is all the talk in wireless right now. President Trump mentioned at the White House press conference in April that we’re racing South Korea and China to be the first with a nationwide 5G network. Here in the US, wireless companies are racing each other to be the first to build it.
Mickey Mouse -- An Enduring American Icon
Guest: Garry Apgar, Art Historian, Author of “Mickey Mouse: Emblem of the American Spirit, and A Mickey Mouse Reader”
For more than 90 years, youngsters have known exactly what those two round ears symbolize. Joy, optimism, adventure, belonging. Weird how a cartoon character can make people feel warm-fuzzy, isn’t it?
Treating Traumatic Brain Injuries in the Criminal Justice System
Guest: Kim Gorgens, Professor of Psychophysiology, Clinical Neuropsychology and Psychology of Criminal Behavior, University of Denver
Among the millions of people currently incarcerated in America, mental illness and substance use disorders are common. So, too, are traumatic brain injuries, it turns out. Research conducted by neuropsychologist Kim Gorgens at the University of Denver suggests up to 80 percent of all inmates and people on probation have suffered a traumatic brain injury. Gorgens believes the “revolving door” in our prisons and jails is driven, in part, by the prevalence of brain injuries among offenders.
The Story Behind the 3-D Recreation of a Giant Sloth Skeleton
Guests: Polly Root Sturgeon, Outreach Coordinator, Indiana Geological and Water Survey; Gary Motz Assistant Director for Information Services, Indiana Geological and Water Survey
Walking into a museum or science classroom, skeletons are often a centerpiece for learning. But ancient bones haven’t always been so appreciated –a giant sloth from the ice age was tossed out like garbage at Indiana University back in 40s. Now researchers are bringing that skeleton back to life to show the impact of natural history collections and make them more accessible.
Messy, Mixed-Up English
Guest: David Eddington PhD, Spanish Philology and Linguistics, Brigham Young University
English doesn’t even crack the top ten list of most difficult languages to learn. But it has quirks that make it hard for non-English speakers to master. Why does the word wrong start with a w? And the word knight – like “knight in shining armor” – has three silent letters. There’s actually a really good reason why English has so many strange spellings. We’ve got BYU linguistics professor Dave Eddington in studio to fill us in.
Best Kitchen Strainer Ever
Guests: David Morgan, Professor of Industrial Design, BYU; Spencer Rogers, BYU Technology Transfer Office
If you’ve had a small kitchen with limited storage space, you know there are some tools you absolutely need and some you can live without. A kitchen strainer fits into the “must have” category for me. Which is annoying, because it’s bulky and doesn’t stack well with other bowls. But trying to drain pasta or steamed veggies by just holding the lid of the pot a little askew over the sink just never works well. The steam burns your hand, pasta sneaks out with the water and it’s still too runny once you’ve drained it.
Addiction Capitalism: How Bad Habits Became Big Business
Guest: David Courtwright, History Professor, University of North Florida, Author of “Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business”
Gambling and pornography. Alcohol and tobacco. Pain pills and juicy burgers. That irresistible urge to check your social media feed again and again and again. What they all have in common is the how they ping your brain in the spot where pleasure happens. Another thing they all have in common? Big money.
The Girl Who Was Saved by Bees
Guest: Meredith May, Pulitzer-Prize Nominated Journalist, Author of “The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees”
Really, we’ve all been saved by bees. They pollinate the majority of food we eat. But five-year-old Meredith May was saved by bees in a more personal way. When her parents virtually disappeared from her life after a tumultuous divorce, she found solace studying the hives her grandfather kept in Big Sur, California. From grandpa and his bees, Meredith May learned about hard work and resilience and family. In her new memoir, she writes, “The more I discovered about the inner world of honeybees, the more sense I was able to make of the outer world of people.” The book is called “the Honey Bus,”
Effects of School Shootings on Victims
Guest: W. Carson Byrd, Professor of Sociology, University of Louisville
At least eight have happened in the US so far this year. Two of the deadliest were in the last two and a half weeks at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and at a high school near Denver, Colorado. Four young people died and 12 were injured in those shootings. The Washington Post estimates that more than 200,000 youth have been affected by school shootings since the Columbine High massacre 20 years ago.
Lights Are Causing Problems for Sea Turtle Hatchlings
Guest: David Godfrey, Executive Director of Sea Turtle Conservancy
Nesting season is underway for sea turtles on Florida’s coast. Soon the little hatchlings will emerge from the warm sand where they’ve been incubating and make a dangerous scramble toward water. Tens of thousands of them will be waylaid by misleading lights along the shoreline. The Sea Turtle Conservancy has an all-out plan to dim the lights on Florida’s coast so the hatchlings don’t end up disoriented in swimming pools, on porches or smushed under cars.
The WhoDunIt Mystery of the Hamburger’s True Origins
Guest: Christopher Carosa, Author of “Hamburger Dreams: How Classic Crime Solving Techniques Helped Crack the Case Of America’s Greatest Culinary Mystery,” President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists
The hamburger is a multi-billion-dollar money maker. It’s quintessentially American. And its origins are mired in controversy. Four different turn-of-the-century food sellers claim to have invented the burger.
Why are we so Afraid of Donating Blood? (Originally aired January 22, 2019)
Guest: Christopher France, Professor of Psychology, Ohio University
Up until quite recently, I refused to donate blood. I did it once or twice in college and nearly fainted both times. So I spent the next 20 years convinced I just couldn’t donate. But it turns out I can give blood, if I master the panic that rises in my gut when the needle goes into my arm and I see my own blood start flowing out. I’ve donated successfully a few times recently –so I know it’s possible. Fainting –or feeling faint –is the most common negative side effect of donating blood, but it’s actually very rare. Yet, many of us think it’s common, and it’s a reason people steer clear of donating.
Using Nerve Transplants to Battle Paralysis (Originally aired December 6, 2018)
Guest: Amy Moore, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Millions of Americans are living with some form of paralysis –most often due to a spinal cord injury, stroke or other illness that damages the nervous system. While doctors haven’t yet discovered how to return full mobility in extreme cases of paralysis, they are making major strides in a technique called nerve transfer –which basically means taking a healthy nerve from one part of the body and plugging it in to the paralyzed area.
Sumo Wrestling in the United States (Originally aired December 17, 2018)
Guest: Andrew Freund, Founder, Director, US Sumo Open
When you hear Sumo you think of big, really BIG, Japanese guys trying to wrestle each other out of a circular ring. But did you know Sumo has a following in the US? The US Sumo Open is in fact the largest annual Sumo competition in the world outside of Japan. It takes place in Los Angeles and the 2019 US Sumo Open attracted thousands of fans who watched wrestlers from around the world. This year Ukraine was the big winner... only one gold medal went to Japan.
President Trump’s Approach to Trade is Unusual for America
Guest: Charles Hankla, Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University
Instead of signing a final deal last week, the US and China have escalated their trade war. On Friday, President Trump doubled tariffs on $200 billion-worth of Chinese products coming into the US. China retaliated with plansto tax $60 billion worth of American stuff –especially agricultural products. So now the Trump Administration is considering another bailout to soften the blow for American farmers struggling to sell their soybeans and such. And, President Trump has also begun the process of expanding US tariffs to cover everything that comes into the US from China.
The Importance of Travel Vaccine
Guest: Gary Brunette, Epidemiologist, Chief of the Travelers’ Health Branch, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
There are now more than 800 measles cases in 23USstates, so if you’ve got an unvaccinated child and you’re planning to do any summer travel, that’s something to think seriously about. The CDC recommends kids get one dose of the measles vaccine when they’re around one-year old and another when they’re four or five. If you’re traveling abroad with your kids, vaccinations are especially important –for you too.
Why Con Artists are so Successful
Guest: Maria Konnikova, Author of “The Confidence Game”
I wonder if one of the reasons we like movies about con artists and grifters so much is that we’re sure we would never fall for a con. So, it’s fun and safe to watch charming Danny Ocean or Frank Abagnale dupe people. Well, psychologist Maria Konnikova has some bad news: You are not immune to being conned –and more importantly, you wouldn’t want to be immune. Konnikova spent three years studying con artists and then wrote a book called, “The Confidence Game.” And then she put that research to work becoming a professional poker player
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares a story about the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike.
Treating and Preventing Motion Sickness
Guest: James Ellzy, Practicing Family Physician in Washington, D.C., Director of the American Academy of Family Physicians
For a lot of us, motion sickness is the major drawback to traveling. Boats are especially bad for me. But planes and cars can do it too, if there’s not enough air flow or I can’t see out the window. What tricks do you have for beating motion sickness?
Museums Are Returning Artifacts to their Countries of Origin. But Maybe They Shouldn’t Be.
Guest: Tiffany Jenkins, Author of “Keeping Their Marbles: how the treasures of the past ended up in museums...and why they should stay there.”
Stroll through the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and you’ll see the history of many other cultures and countries on display. Many of these antiquities were acquired as spoils of war or plundered from palaces during colonial times or removed from ancient burial sites. Today there’s a movement to return those items to the places they came from.
Congress and White House in Stand-Off Over Investigations
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU; Grant Madsen, Professor of History, BYU
Democrats who control the House of Representatives want to see the full, unredacted Mueller Report and documents that support the report’s conclusions. They’re threatening to hold US Attorney General William Barr in contempt if he fails to provide it. The Trump Administration is also resisting Congressional subpoenas for President Trump’s tax returns and other documents related to his businesses. Democrats in Congress say the White House is stonewalling their duty to conduct oversight of the administration. President Trump says it’s “presidential harassment” and an effort to distract from the good work he’s doing for the economy.
The End of Recycling
Guest: David Biderman CEO and Executive Director of SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America)
Now that recycling is ubiquitous and practically second nature for Americans, the system is falling apart. Cities used to be able to sell the paper, plastic and aluminum from our recycle bins and even turn a profit, occasionally. But now they’re more likely to have to pay someone to take it off their hands –which explains why many cities are resorting to just dumping recyclables in the landfill or burning them for electricity.
When Cecilia Mcgough Was Diagnosed with Schizophrenia, She Sought to Help Others and Change the Perception of the Mental Illness
Guest: Cecilia McGough, CEO and Founder of Students with Schizophrenia
The first indication of schizophrenia often appears in young adulthood. That’s also when many are experiencing the stresses of college life. The combination can be lethal. It nearly was for Cecilia McGough who attempted suicide her freshman year in college. She was finally able to get a diagnosis and treatment for her schizophrenia. And then she turned to helping other young people overcome the stigma.
Charity Empowers Foster Youth by Teaching Filmmaking Skills
Guest: Martin Johnson, Program Director at Kids in the Spotlight
More than 440,000 children are currently in the US foster care system–and that number keeps going up every year. Foster kids have no stability, and are less likely to go to college, but a California non-profit program called Kids in the Spotlight hopes to build their confidence and success by teaching them filmmaking.
Whistling Is More Than You Think
Guest: Carole Anne Kaufmann –The Whistling Diva, Two-Time World Champion Musical Whistler
Some people are into rock music. Others dig jazz. Some like classical. And other people whistle. Throughout the 20th century whistling was the skill to have -it was used in all sorts of music and there was even a school founded in San Francisco called the "Agnes Woodward School of Whistling." The art has since died away, but whistling activists have worked to keep it alive.
Worlds Awaiting: Thick and Thin Conversations
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Education and Juvenile Literature Librarian at the BYU Library, Host of Worlds Awaiting
Uber, Lyft and the Meaning of "Employee" in the Gig Economy
Guest: Keith Cunningham-Parmeter, Professor of Law, Willamette University College of Law
Uber had one of the most anticipated IPOs of the season on Friday, following in the footsteps of its main competitor Lyft. Uber’s investors, founders and corporate employees will all benefit from going public. The drivers who fuel the app will not, because they’re not employees of the company. They’re independent contractors. A host of lawsuits are underway right now challenging the lengths to which “gig economy” platforms like Uber and Lyft can go to employ people without technically employing them.
The Importance of Vacation Time
Guest: Joe Robinson, Stress Management and Work-Life Balance Trainer, Speaker, Author of “Work to Live” and “Don’t Miss Your Life”
Are you going to use all your paid vacation this year? More than half of Americans don’t. And the really sad thing is we only get an average of 10 vacation days a year. That’s nothing compared to the 25 or more days of paid vacation companies in many European countries are required to offer.
Concerts for The Deaf
Guest: Amber Galloway Gallego, Owner of Amber G. Productions
American Sign Language interpreters at music concerts traditionally have been pretty reserved, just signing the words. But now, some interpreters are taking it to the next level to help the deaf seethe music. They’re not just signing the words, they’re also signing the sounds and tones of the instruments. One of those interpreters that specializes in music is Amber Galloway Gallego, and she’s signed for Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, and Billy Joel, as well as many other famous artists.
China Exporting Surveillance Technology Worldwide
Guest: Steven Feldstein, Associate Professor of Public Affairs, Boise State University
We know Amazon, Google and Facebook have a lot of information about us. But the government does, too. China appears to be leading the world in technology to monitor its citizens by connecting the dots between surveillance cameras on streets, phone location, medical records, bank account information and online activity. Chinese officials are alleged to be using this information to intimidate and imprison political dissidents. And, perhaps even more worrisome, China is exporting its surveillance technology to dozens of other countries with unstable democracies.
How the Opioid Crisis Is Turning Doctors into Law Enforcers
Guest: Liz Chiarello, Professor of Sociology, Saint Louis University
The opioid crisis in America has put pressure on doctors to more carefully monitor what prescriptions their patients are taking. Some doctors have even been convicted of contributing to the opioid overdose deaths of their patients. Most states have created online databases that track pain medication and flag possible opioid abuse. In the coming years, doctors will be required to check that database before prescribing medicine.
New Movement Proposes Separate Voting for President and Vice President of the United States
Guest: David Blake, Co-Founder of vice.run
The Vice President of the United States is just a heartbeat away from being leader of the free world. But so long as the President is alive and well, the VP’s job isn’t a great one. At least that’s how a lot of past vice presidents have viewed it. “Now worth a bucket of warm spit,” said FDR’s vice president. “About as useful as a cow’s fifth teat,” said Harry Truman –who was a VP before he became President. More recently, vice presidents have described the job as “awkward” and “uncomfortable. There’s a new movement collecting signatures to have vice presidents elected separately in the US.
Capturing America’s Imagination with the Railroad
Guest: Ashlee Whitaker, Curator, BYU Museum of Art, “After Promontory”
50 years ago, today, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met in the Utah desert to drive the final spike on the country’s first transcontinental line. “It transformed America,” says Ashlee Whitaker, a curator of the BYU Museum of Art’s current photography exhibit ‘After Promontory. “Some scholars have compared (the transcontinental railroad) to the internet. It changed how people traveled. It unified American from East to West. It changed communication and commerce and it because it enabled people to come West, it began to dramatically shape the Western landscape.”
How the Railroad Changed the West
Guests: Jay Buckley, PhD, Professor of History, BYU, Director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies; Brenden Rensink, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
Today we’re marking the 150th anniversary of the completion of America’s first railroad spanning the entire continent. The final spike was driven into the rail out in the desert – about an hour’s drive northwest of Salt Lake City.
Zotshi -Powerful Mothering in a Turbulent Time
Guests: Leslie Hadfield, PhD, Professor of History, BYU; Zotshi Mcako, Nurse, Mother, Mayor
We’re meeting one particular mother who nurtured so many women and children in her poor South African township that they elected her mayor. A black woman mayor leading her town during the tumultuous final years of apartheid. Being a mother figure –and a community nurse –wasn’t a disadvantage in her career. It was the reason she succeeded in her career. People trusted her, whereas other elected officials in the town were seen as “sell outs,” puppets for the white supremacist national government.
What’s Next for ISIS
Guest: John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Utah Valley University
The terror group recently released a video that claims to show their leader –a man who hasn’t been seen in five years. ISIS stands for the “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,” but they lost their last foothold in Syria last month. So, if they no longer hold any territory in either of those two countries, what now?
Microplastic Pollution Spreads Worldwide
Guest: John Meeker, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan
You’ve probably seen morbid pictures of marine animals like sea turtles trapped with a plastic bag around their mouth or caught in 6-pack rings. But that’s just the plastic we can see-what about the plastic waste we can’t see? Scientists are discovering tiny pieces of plastic everywhere from the arctic to tap water –and that could cause serious damage to animal and human health.
We’re Dealing with Low Back Pain All Wrong (Originally aired April 12, 2018)
Guest: Judith Turner, Clinical Psychologist, University of Washington Medical center
Low back pain is always bad news –and it’s increasingly common in the US and everywhere else in the world. But the really bad news is that the typical treatment for it –painkillers, “taking it easy,” and even shots or surgery –are not scientifically proven to be that helpful. In fact, they’re not even the first line of treatment recommended by expert groups such as the American Pain Society.
Navigating with Sonar Like a Bat Frees the Blind to Move Independently (Originally aired January 14, 2019)
Guest: Daniel Kish, President, World Access for the Blind
Daniel Kish went blind as a 13-month-old baby. Since then he has taught himself to see like a bat by using echolocation. Today, Kish has taught the technique to hundreds of others. Where he once encountered skepticism, a number of scientific studies have validated his technique called “Flash Sonar.”
Too Cute to Handle (Originally aired January 9, 2019)
Guest: Oriana Aragón, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Clemson University
Have you ever seen something so cute like a kitten or puppy that you just wanted to squeeze it? Or have you heard someone tell a baby, “You’re so cute, I could just eat you up” or “I want to smother you in kisses.” These aggressive responses to cute things are kind of weird when you think about it, but research shows they actually serve a purpose.
Nunchucks Are Legal in New York After 45 Year Ban Overturned (Originally aired January 25, 2019)
Guest: James M. Maloney, Maritime and Constitutional Lawyer
Depending on what state you live in it may be illegal for you to own nunchucks but some people are hoping that will change. Arizona is waiting to see if their governor will sign a bill to make them legal. Back in December, a New York lawyer nicknamed “Professor Nunchucks” by comedian Stephen Colbert, succeeded in getting the ban overturned. The ruling was that it violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms and state officials let the deadline to appeal the ruling expire. So nunchucks are back in New York
Policing the Border Between Male and Female in Elite Sports
Guest: Mikaela Dufur, Professor of Sociology, BYU
Men and women compete separately in elite athletics, because it just wouldn’t be fair to make them compete against each other. But the case of two-time Olympic gold medal runner Caster Semenya illustrates how tricky it can be to police the line between male and female. Semenya is a female competitor whose body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone than most women. An international court has just ruled that Semenya will have to take medicine to suppress her testosterone level in order to compete against other women in the next Olympics.
What to Beelieve
Guest: May Berenbaum, Head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Species all over planet Earth are going extinct at an historic –and alarming –rate according to a report out this week from a UN panel of experts. More than 40 percent of all amphibian species are at risk of extinction, 33 percent of corals and around 10percent of insects, the report says.
Finding New Uses for Iconic Industrial Buildings
Guest: Megan Torza, Architect and Partner at DTAH
In many US cities today, the hippest places to live and work are old factories or textile mills that have been repurposed into lofts and offices. Often it’d be easier and cheaper just to tear down the old building –and plenty of cities do that, too.
Behind the Scenes of Plane Crash Investigations
Guest: Daniel Kwaisi Adjekum, Assistant Professor, Aviation, University of North Dakota
A clearer picture of what caused two Boeing 737 Max planes to crash in the last six months is emerging through preliminary reports of the investigators piecing together the puzzle. Another team of investigators is just beginning its work on the fiery crash of a Russian commercial jet that made an emergency landing in Moscow on Sunday, killing 41 people.
Does it (dark) matter?
Guest: Shany Danieli, Physics PhD Student at Yale
There’s a lot about the universe we don’t know. The current belief is everything we can see–all those stars and galaxies –are only a tiny fraction of the matter that’s out there. So what’s the rest of the universe made of? Scientists are becoming more and more convinced there’s a mysterious material called “dark matter.” A team of astronomers at Yale University are unlocking some of its secrets and one of their latest discoveries is a galaxy without any dark matter at all. That wasn’t supposed to be possible.
Pyt: Denmark's Happiness Vocabulary
Guest: Marie Helweg-Larsen, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Dickinson College
Denmark consistently ranks near the top in the World Happiness Report. The Danish concept of hygge -- which means intentional intimacy -- has caught on worldwide.
Internet Providers Have to Enforce Copyright Laws, and They Don’t Like It
Guest: Peter Midgley, Director of the BYU Copyright and Licensing Office
Do you know what your kids are downloading on the internet in your house? If there are pirated movies or music moving over your household internet, you could find your connection cut off. Copyright laws basically compel internet providers like Comcast, Cox or Google to boot customers off their systems if they’re illegally downloading too much stuff. Internet service providers and sites like YouTube are not thrilled about having to enforce copyright laws, though. The US Copyright Office is considering making changes to the law in light of those concerns.
British Voters Signal Frustration with Both Major Parties in UK Over Brexit
Guest: Simon Usherwood, Deputy Director, The UK in a Changing Europe, Professor of Politics, University of Surrey
Both of Britain’s main political parties lost seats in local elections across England last week. It seems British voters are fed-up with how the Conservative and Labour Parties are handling Brexit. Or rather, failing to handle it. The original deadline to leave the European Union has come and gone. The British Parliament is locked in a stalemate. At the end of May, British voters will go to the polls again –this time to elect people to represent them in the European Parliament. The plan was to have been long gone by now, so that’s awkward.
The True Story of Yasuke, the African Samurai
Guest: Thomas Lockley, Assistant Professor, Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo, Co-Author of “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan”
A story, now, of rising above the hand you’ve been dealt and making your way in a land far from home. Millions of refugees from the Middle East and Africa are attempting to do that today. They might draw some inspiration from an African boy, kidnapped and enslaved in the 1500s. This boy travelled throughout Asia, rising to become a samurai for Japan’s most powerful leader. The new book, “African Samurai” tells the “True story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan.”
Nuclear Waste Is Piling Up and America Is Running Out Room for It
Guest: Edwin Lyman, Acting Director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Author of “Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster”
About 20 percent of America’s energy comes from nuclear power plants. The waste that’s leftover from making that electricity radioactive for a long, long time. And right now, America still has no long-term plan for where to keep that waste permanently. So the power plants that create the waste have to store it onsite –either in pools of water or special storage containers above ground. These storage facilities are getting crowded.
What’s in a Scientific Name? Rights to Name New Species Are Sold at Auctions to Promote Conservation
Guest: Douglas Yanega, Entomologist, University of California, Riverside, Assistant Editor-in Chief of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
With enough money, you can get a sports stadium, or a university building named after you. If you eat at a local deli every day, you might get a sandwich named in your honor. How would you like to have a new insect with your name on it? Usually the naming rights go to the person who discovers the bug, but lately museums and conservation groups have been putting those rights up for auction to raise money.
Scientists Create a Thread to Detect Harmful Gases
Guest: Sameer Sonkusale, Professor of Engineering and director of the NanoLab, Tufts University
Dangerous gases –like carbon monoxide –are sneaky threats. They’re invisible, for one. Often odorless, too. I forget about my carbon monoxide monitor for months and then I’ll suddenly have a moment of panic –wait, is it still working? Are the batteries dead? How would I even know before it’s too late? Imagine if you had woven blanket or a wall-hanging that would change color when it sensed carbon monoxide. You’d have a quick visual warning that something’s wrong. That’d be cool.
A Japanese American Boy Imprisoned During WWII Who Became a Prominent US Statesman
Guest: Andrew Warren, Author of “Enemy Child: The Story of Norman Mineta, a Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II”
One of the most prominent Asian American politicians in the country spent several years as a child imprisoned with his family in a World War II internment camp. The US government forced more than 100,000 Japanese Americans into detention after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. At least a third of those prisoners were children like Norman Mineta, who would go on to become a ten-term member of Congress, a US Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of Transportation. Mineta’s has, for the first time, allowed his story to be published as a book –and it’s geared toward children.
Why the Federal Reserve Board Matters
Guest: Kathleen Day, Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business, Author “Broken Bargain: Bankers, Bailouts and the Struggle to Tame Wall Street”
“No interest rate hike” was the news out of the Federal Reserve board’s meeting last week. Also, Stephen Moore –President Trump’s nominee to fill one of two vacancies on the Fed’s board –withdrew from the running in controversy over past statements he’d made about women, race and sports. Another of President Trump’s choices to sit on the Federal Reserve’s governing board –pizza mogul Herman Cain –also withdrew his nomination recently.
A Healthy Diet Means More Than Cutting Out Unhealthy Foods
Guest: Ashkan Afshin, Assistant Professor of Health Metrics Sciences, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington
Sugary soda and red meat top the list of foods we’re told to cut back on. But they rank near the bottom of diet choices linked to death. A global study published in The Lancet found far more people die from eating too much sodium and not enough fruits and whole grains.
Japan’s New Emperor and the End of an Era
Guests: Aaron Skabelund, Professor of Japanese History at BYU; Jack Stoneman, Professor of Japanese at BYU
British Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have a new baby boy. As modern monarchies go, England’s is the most famous. But there are dozens of countries worldwide with kings or queens. Many of them are in Asia. In the last week two of those have coronated new kings –Thailand and Japan.
The Man Who Inspired Indiana Jones
Guest: Clive Coy, Chief Technician of Dinosaur Research, University of Alberta, Member of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society
A fearless explorer who hates snakes, trekking across the Gobi Desert with a caravan of cars and camels. Nope, not Indiana Jones. Let’s meet Roy Chapman Andrews –a real-life adventurer who made ground-breaking dinosaur fossil discoveries, led the American Museum of Natural History in New York and published a bunch of books for kids about dinosaurs that inspired a whole generation of paleontologists.
Dangers of Corruptible Artificial Intelligence in the Medical Field
Guest: Sam Finlayson, MD-PhD Candidate, Harvard Medical School and M.I.T.
If you’ve had a medical scan lately, there’s a chance the results were first read by a really smart computer program that’s learned to diagnose problems. And a smart computer program was almost certainly involved in the decision your insurance company made about what it would cover of that scan and what you’d be left to pay. Artificial intelligence promises to make our healthcare system more efficient –and maybe more accurate –but it comes with risks.
Time-Restricted Feeding
Guest: Kate Early, Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology & Health Sciences, Columbus State University
Eating only during certain times of the day is trending as a weight-loss strategy. I’ve heard a lot of conflicting things –like, you should stop eating at 3pm or that you should start eating until the afternoon. But when comes down to it, does changing what time you eat really do your body any good?
Health is More than Healthcare
Guest: Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, Dean of Boston University School of Public Health, Author of “Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health”
What does the word,"health” call to mind? Diet and exercise? Or maybe doctor’s offices and medicine? The political conversation almost always links “health” with “care”– talking about insurance coverage and drug prices and pre-existing conditions. Health is much more than just healthcare or lifestyle choices. There's a lot more we should be talking about when we talk about health.
Assault, Consent and Adolescence: Award-Winning YA Author Laurie Halse Anderson
Guest: Laurie Halse Anderson, Author of “Speak” and “SHOUT”
The messages from readers began flooding in immediately after Laurie Halse Anderson published her young adult novel “Speak” in 1999. It’s about a teenaged girl struggling with the trauma of being raped by a classmate. “Speak” was a finalist for the National Book Award and other prestigious prizes, but the way the book impacted readers –that’s what moved Laurie Halse Anderson. Because, while “Speak” was fiction, the story was real. That girl was her. And 20 years later, she's written that story - her story - in a memoir called "SHOUT."
Deposed Leaders and America's Confusing Policy Toward Democracy
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
An attempt to depose President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela appears to have floundered, but opposition leader Juan Guaido is still working to secure the support he'll need from top military generals to try again. Political scientist Quinn Mecham says Guaido could look to the recent ouster of presidents in Algeria and Sudan for lessons on why military support is so important - and how the ouster of an autocrat is only the first step. Both Algeria and Sudan are now faced with big decisions about who will lead the country and what role the military should play. Mecham notes the United States is loudly supporting Guaido and the cause of democracy in Venezuela, but entirely silent on Sudan's transition. And in Libya, the US has come out in support of a military warlord who is trying to overthrow the UN-recognized government. Mecham also notes the unusual step taken by the Trump Administration to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran's elite military force as terrorist groups.
Predicting Diabetes with Genetic Testing: Fantasy or Fiction?
Guest: Jason Vassy, MD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
A third of all American adults have pre-diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So that’s 84 million people on track to develop full-blown Type 2 diabetes unless they make some serious lifestyle changes. For people who might want an even earlier indication of their risk, DNA testing company 23 and Me recently added Type 2 diabetes to the list of disease it will screen for if you send in a vial of your spit and $170.
The Debate Over Statistical Significance
Guest: William Christensen, Professor of Statistics, BYU
If you heard about a scientific study that said, “Eating kale for breakfast everyday might help you lose weight, or, it might not,” would you rush out and stock up on kale? Not me. I want to see clear, confident results from a study before I take it seriously. And scientists feel the same way. So, over the years, they’ve developed a way to draw a bright line that says, “This is a result that’s “significant” and this one’s not.” The “statistically significant” results get funded and published and reported in the news. The rest don’t. But recently there’s been a schism in the scientific community –an uprising, if you will –of researchers saying –that bright line we’ve been using all this time? It’s bogus. It’s a crutch. Everybody should stop using it. And everybody’s taking sides!
The Dangers of Eating Cookie Dough (Originally aired January 23, 2019)
Guest: Brian Zikmund-Fisher, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School Public Health
Don’t eat raw dough. We’ve always kinda known it, right? But for the last several years, the Food and Drug Administration has made it an explicit public health recommendation. Is raw cookie dough really that dangerous, though? I eat it every time I make cookies and I’m still here.
Weight Bias in the Doctor’s Office (Originally aired December 3, 2018)
Guest: Kimberly Gudzune, Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
One of the consequences of labeling obesity an epidemic in America is pervasive stigma in our society. Overweight people are often judged as lazy or otherwise lacking character. Even their doctors are prone to unconsciously slip into biased thinking about their obese patients.
Why Imagining Phobias May Help You Conquer Them (Originally aired January 8, 2019)
Guest: Tor Wager, Professor of Cognitive Psychology and director of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Colorado Boulder
My dad was a therapist and he had a Far Side comic stuck on the filing cabinet next to his desk that he just got such a kick out of. It shows a panicked guy dangling high above the street in a dark box full of snakes. The caption reads: “Professor Gallagher and his controversial technique of simultaneously confronting the fear of heights, snakes and the dark.” “Exposure therapy” is a real thing that’s been common since the 1950s where people confront the thing they’re afraid of until the fear goes away. But what, rather than experiencing the scary thing, you could just imagine it and still overcome the fear?
Are Measles Really that Big a Deal?
Guest: Sankar Swaminathan, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Utah School of Medicine
2019 isn’t even halfway over and already this is the worst year for measles cases in 25 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says so far 704 people have been infected –most of them were not vaccinated. There have been no deaths reported yet from measles this year, though. So, is it really that serious? Back before the vaccine was widely available, the whole Brady Bunch came down with measles and it didn’t seem so bad. The Brady kids got to skip school and play monopoly all day. I know that’s just a 1960s TV show, but it’s been circulating online as evidence that all this concern about the measles today is overblown.
Lessons in Inuit Parenting
Guest: Michaeleen Doucleff, Global Health Correspondent, NPR
It can be so, so hard not raise your voice when your kids are misbehaving. NPR reporter Michaeleen Doucleff travelled to the northern reaches of Canada for some parenting lessons from the Inuit, who know a thing or two about keeping their cool. Puns aside, anthropologists have marveled that Inuit parents never seem to yell or get hopping mad at their young kids.
The Debate over Supervised Injection Sites
Guest: Peter Davidson, Associate Professor of Public Health, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego
A controversial technique for reducing overdose deaths is edging its way into the conversation about America’s opioid crisis. “Supervised injection sites” are places where people can inject heroin under the supervision of medical staff trained to reverse an overdose. These sites have been operating in Canada and Australia for years. Now some cities in the US are considering them.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares a story about the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike.
How Building a Healthy Workplace Culture Makes Companies a Better Place to Work
Guest: Randy Grieser, Founder and CEO of Achieve Center for Leadership & Workplace Performance and the Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute, Author of "The Ordinary Leader" and co-author of "The Culture Question"
I don’t know about you, but when I think about what would make me a very happy employee, I think of big tech companies that have free sushi, lap pools, massages, and ice cream all day. But researchers say perks and privileges aren’t what make satisfied workers. It’s the culture.
How to Help Your Child Navigate the Stresses of College
Guest: Janet Hibbs, Psychologist and Family Therapist, Author of “The Stressed Years of Their Lives Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years”
Every parent I know says that sending a child off to college is both thrilling and terrifying. Have you prepared them well? Can they handle the stress? Will you be able to tell through their texts, calls and social media posts how things are really going or if they are in a crisis? Anxiety tops the list of mental health disorders among college students. It’s probably fair to say that’s also true of college students’ parents.
No War Crimes Prosecution for US Soldiers in Afghanistan
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
The International Criminal Court has decided not to investigate or prosecute alleged war crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan. President Trump called the decision a major international victory.
Chewing, Chomping and Slurping Cause Intense Discomfort to Those with Misophonia
Guest: Jeffrey Gould, Director/Producer of “Quiet Please”
Eating noises are gross. I would try to beat my siblings to breakfast growing up because I couldn’t stand the sound of chomping and slurping cold cereal. I’d hurry and eat quickly –making my own slurping noises I’m sure –so I wouldn’t have to hear my brother and sisters making their noises.
How Statistics Have Changed Baseball
Guest: Edwin Amenta, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine
Major League Baseball scouts used to choose players based on their intuition. That all changed in 2002 when the Oakland A’s decided to use statistics instead. It turns out you can put together a successful team with help from a computer, and it revolutionized how the game is played throughout the entire major league. But MLB game attendance is at a 15-year low.
The Need for More Information on Educational Interventions
Guest: Hugo Lortie-Forgues, University of York, UK
There's something comforting about the phrase "a scientific study found". Like when your kid comes home with some strange new math cirriculum and the teacher's note says, "A scientific study found these weird-looking worksheets hellp kids learn math better," you'll be less skeptical of it, right? So that explains why more and more large scientificc studies are being done on education interventions. Unfortunately they're not as helpful as we might hope.
Coaching A Dance Team to Victory
Guest: Jodi Maxfield, Coach of BYU’s Cougarettes Dance Team
The best college hip hop dance team in the country –and second best in the world –is at BYU. They’re the Cougarettes and maybe you’ve seen one of their viral dance videos. There’s a strong argument to be made that the women dancing and cheering in sync on the sidelines and during half-time are every bit as athletic as the players on the court.
Childproofing Your Ride
Guest: Amber Rollins and Whitney Rodden from KidsandCars.org
Cars are the number one cause of death and injury for children in the United States. Traffic accidents account for many of these but what is surprising is how many tragedies occur when the car is simply parked or leaving a driveway. Parents are trained to think about child-proofing their homes with young kids around, but what about child-proofing your car?
Worlds Awaiting: Getting The Most of Reading Aloud
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Reparations for Slavery Becomes a 2020 Campaign Issue
Guest: William Darity, Professor of Public Policy, Duke University
Several of the Democratic party’s top presidential hopefuls have said they support –or are at least open to –the US government making some sort of reparations to African Americans impacted by slavery. That could mean cash payments to descendants of slaves. Or it could mean specific housing, healthcare, scholarship or loan programs for black Americans. Reparations have been discussed periodically since slavery was abolished more than 150 years ago, but it’s striking in this particular moment to see so many politicians openly supporting it.
Diabetes Crisis Growing Among World’s Refugees
Guest: Sylvia Kehlenbrink, Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Endocrinologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Contagious diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis get a lot of focus from the international health community during a humanitarian crisis. An outbreak of a disease that spreads fast like that can be devastating in a refugee camp or a village that’s suffered a natural disaster. Chronic diseases that aren’t contagious –like diabetes-get less attention. In fact, endocrinologist Sylvia Kehlenbrink has found that humanitarian aid workers are more likely to have antibiotics on hand than insulin. She’s seen refugees with diabetes die as a result of that.
Mayo Clinic Guide: How to Raise a Healthy Child
Guest: Angela C. Mattke, Pediatrician, Mayo Clinic Children’s Center
That joke about kids not coming with instruction manuals is technically true, but there are lots and lots and lots of manuals out there for parents. Back in the day it was Doctor Spock. And there must be a million different versions of the “What to Expect” books out there. The Mayo Clinic has just released a new book in its child care series that offers parents a “Guide to Raising a Healthy Child.”
A New Song Every Day For 10 Years
Guest: Jonathan Mann, Musician and Songwriter
For more than 10 years, Jonathan Mann has written a new song every day. Every single day. Originally this was just going to be a one-month. It was just a whim. But after he wrote a new song every day in the month of January 2009, he just wasn’t finished. So, he kept going. Thousands of songs later, he’s still going. Along the way he’s learned a lot about the process of creativity.
Why the West is Obsessed with WWII
Guest: Keith Lowe, WWII Historian, Author of “The Fear and the Freedom: How the Second World War Changed Us”
Of all the conflicts America has been involved in, World War II seems to get the most attention from authors, academics, politicians and Hollywood. “The Greatest Generation” as American WWII veterans are known, is quickly shrinking as the 75 anniversary of the end of World War II approaches. What is it about that war and those veterans that captures the imagination and stokes such admiration?
Biologist Pamela Weathers Has Discovered a New, Cost-Efficient Cure for Malaria
Guest: Pamela Weathers, Professor of Biology and Biotechnology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Efforts to fight malaria have stalled out in recent years, according to the World Health Organization, and one of the reasons is drug resistance. The parasite that causes malaria is developing defenses against the best medicines currently available to treat the illness. The expense of those medicines is another challenge facing the global malaria response. Both of the cost and drug resistant problems might be solved by a plant. Biologist Pamela Weathers has found evidence that drying and grinding the leaves of a certain plant may treat malaria better than current drugs.
Sports is More than Just a Game in America. Much More.
Guest: Michael Serazio, Journalist, Associate Professor of Communication, Boston College, Author of “The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture”
Watching them is one of the few things millions of Americans still do together at the same time, whether in stadiums or living rooms. For many, sports are the basis of their relationships and personal identity. They rival religion in America. And most of all, they’re an escape from real life. Well, they’re supposed to be. But what if the whole “sports are an escape” idea is just a fantasy? Serazio's new book argues that sports are all about real life. They show what we value. They reflect our political and social divisions. They indoctrinate us about what it means to be successful, to be American, to be a man.
The Paper Airplane Guy
Guest: John Collins, Guinness World Record Holder “Farthest Flight by a Paper Aircraft”
As a kid, you start with the most basic form messing around in church and school: the paper airplane. But there are artists who can make incredibly life-like designs using only a single sheet of paper. Science and medicine are also using the same techniques for more precise and lightweight equipment.
Creating Complex Origami with Math
Guest: Robert Lang, Origami Artist and Consultant
Once you’ve learned to make a paper airplane, the next step is something a little more complicated –like a crane, or a frog that hops when you flick it. But Robert Lang’s origami frogs have individual toes. His cranes have feathers. He makes everything from scorpions to unicorns –often out of a single sheet of paper.
Origami in Space and Medicine
Guest: Spencer Magleby, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Brigham Young University
We were just talking with origami artist Robert Lang about how an understanding of math makes it possible for him to create more complex designs with paper. A team of scientists at BYU is using principles of origami to make surgical instruments and light-weight equipment for space exploration.
Sri Lanka Does Not Have a History of Islamist Extremism. How Did the Easter Sunday Attacks Happen?
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia, Wilson Center in Washington, DC
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombings at churches and hotels on Easter Sunday that killed about 250 people. Sri Lankan police say they’ve arrested more than 70 suspects they believe may have been involved. Terror experts say the attacks are a wake-up call about the reach of ISIS into Asia.
Pregnant in Prison
Guest: Carolyn Sufrin, Assistant Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Women are the fastest growing segment of America’s prison population. And sometimes they’re pregnant while in behind bars. We don’t know exactly how common that is because the federal government keeps track of deaths that happen in prisons, but not births. We do know that sometimes incarcerated women are shackled to a bed during labor as a guard stands watch. Carolyn Sufrin delivered a baby for a prisoner in that situation years ago and it launched her research to understand the scope of problem in America. She’s just published her results.
The Great American National Parks
Guest: Becky Lomax, Author of “USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 59 National Parks”
There are 59 national parks in the US, and that makes it really hard to choose just one to visit next. Becky Lomax wrote a book covering all of them –her number one, must-do experience out of all the parks? See the ice crash into the water at Glacier Bay. Number two for her is seeing Old Faithful blow in Yellowstone. But number three really surprised us: wander through the wildflowers of Death Valley.
Mountain Unicycling (Originally aired November 27, 2018)
Guest: Kris Holm, Early Pioneer of Mountain Unicycling and Founder of Kris Holm Unicycles
Kris Holm has climbed the highest mountain in Central America –and the3rd highest in North America. He’s also traversed the trade-routes across the Himalayas in Bhutan, traveled the Great Wall of China, and climbed a dormant volcano in Bolivia that’s nearly 20,000 feet high. And he did it all on one wheel.
Synesthesia Mixes Senses (Originally aired December 20, 2018)
Guest: Richard E. Cytowic, Clinical Professor of Neurology, George Washington University
What does the sound of my voice smell like to you? Are Monday and Tuesday different colors? Does chocolate taste like a circle or a square? If those questions do not sound too strange, you might have synesthesia –or at least you’ve heard of it. Synesthesia is a mixing of two or more senses –and about four percent of people have it.
Why More Deer Must Die (Originally aired January 7, 2019)
Guest: Don Waller, Professor of Botany and Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
A generation of American children learned that deer hunters are villains to Disney’s Bambi. However, the amount of hunting being done in the US is at its lowest level in 25 years, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Which is great for Bambi, but bad for ecosystems increasingly overrun with deer.
Ukraine’s New President Played One on TV
Guest: Celeste Beesley, Professor of Political Science, BYU
A TV Star elected President is Top of Mind today. Sure, America did it in 2016. But the people of Ukraine just went one further. They’ve elected a comedian famous for starring in a hit sitcom as a school teacher who unexpectedly becomes president. So now we’ll see whether “playing a President on TV” is enough experience to cope with Ukraine’s flagging economy, government corruption and simmering conflict with Russia.
Long Before New York, There Was Mannahatta
Guest: Eric Sanderson, Senior Conservation Ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society
t’s hard to picture New York City as anything other than a bustling metropolis. But hundreds of years ago, Manhattan island was actually smaller and covered in trees and animals instead of asphalt and skyscrapers. The native people called it Mannahatta, meaning “Island of Many Hills.” What might the natural history of the island tell us about how a city should grow?
Vocal Training and the Speaking Voice
Guest: Laura Verdun, Speech Pathologist at Voicetrainer LLC
When you hear someone speak and you think, “Wow, I really like that voice.” Why do voices differ so dramatically and, if you want to have a more pleasing one, is it possible to learn?
What Happens When Healthcare is 100% Free?
Guest: Jonas Dahl, Former Member of Danish Parliament, CEO of Randers Regional Hospital
There is a fundamental disagreement in this country about how involved the government should be in providing healthcare. But there’s widespread agreement that the system we’ve got right now is broken. Drug prices, hospital expenses and insurance premiums are all too high and rising too quickly. As a result, America spends twice as much per-person on health as other wealthy countries do, on average. Places likes the UK, Germany or Denmark. How do those countries do it?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares a story by Willy Claflin.
Reading the Bones and What Stories They Tell
Guest: David J. Johnson, PhD, Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Anthropology, BYU
Do you ever think about your skeleton? You can’t see it (except your teeth in a mirror), but your bones do a lot more than you might think. You can flex your muscles against them to move. And thanks to three tiny bones in your ears, you can hear my voice. You might think that we all look basically the same under an X-ray, but your skeleton is a unique record of your life that will endure long after you leave it.
Citizenship Census Question at US Supreme Court
Guest: Kimberly Robinson, Legal Reporter, Bloomberg Law
US Supreme Court justices heard arguments about whether the Census survey sent to every American household next year should include a question asking about citizenship status of people in the home.
Restaurants Are Trying to Fix a Broken System by Banning Tips
Guest: Saru Jayaraman, Co-Founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), Director of the Food Labor Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, Author of “Forked: A New Standard for American Dining”
Here in the US, diners are expected to tip their server at a sit-down restaurant. But if you’ve travelled abroad, you know that’s not really true in most other places. And there’s a movement here in America to get rid of tipping, too. Some say it’s unfair to other workers at the restaurant, or that it encourages discrimination or that it’s just antiquated.
Perfectly Human: Finding Joy in Sorrow
Guest: Sarah Williams, Professor in the History of Christianity, Regent College, Author of “Perfectly Human: Nine Months with Cerian”
Pregnancy and childbirth are not easy, but I know so many mothers who say the beauty of having a new baby is worth all the pain and discomfort. And that’s what makes Sarah Williams’ story so unusual. Even when she learned her daughter would not survive after childbirth, she opted to carry the baby to term. The experience taught her about God’s love and about sacrifice and about what it means to be human.
Having Multiple Creative and Career Pursuits May Be Very Beneficial
Guest: Emilie Wapnick, Founder of Puttylike.com, Author of “HOW TO BE EVERYTHING: A Guide for Those Who (Still)Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up”
When your kid is six and she says she’s going to be a doctor and a ballerina and a school teacher when she grows up, it’s cute. But if she’s still talking like that her junior year in college, you’ll probably be a little annoyed. Pick a path and commit, right? That’s how adulthood works. Well, Emilie Wapnick says there’s no need to worry because some people just have lots of interests and the world needs those people, too.
The First Picture of a Black Hole
Guest: Geoff Crew, Event Horizon Telescope Scientist and Research Scientist, MIT Haystack Observatory
Physicists have known for more than 100 years that black holes exist in space, but nobody’s ever taken to take a picture of one, until now. Why did it take so long?
Family Movies to mark Earth Day
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Two movies are arriving in theaters this week to coincide with Earth Day. The highest-profile of the two is DisneyNature’s Penguins. The other is Mia and the White Lion. But Kirsten Hawkes has some additional recommendations from the DVD library that might interest your family this week.
Mueller Report
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
What to do with the report is the question Democrats who control the US House are grappling with now. The redacted 448-page report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller has more nuance than many Democrats were probably hoping for. The contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians in 2016 didn’t amount to “collusion” or “conspiracy,” which is the legal term Mueller uses. But the report also does not completely exonerate President Trump of attempting to obstruct the investigation.
Superintelligence Still Doesn’t Equate Wisdom
Guest: Moran Cerf, Professor of Neuroscience and Business, Northwestern University
The worry with robots and artificial intelligence is usually that they’ll replace us at work. But what if they become us, instead? We could one day be walking around with smart chips in our brains that give us superhuman intelligence.
Shining a Light on Tech Algorithms
Guest: Christo Wilson, Associate Professor, Director of the BS in Cybersecurity Program, Northeastern University
I love it when Netflix, Amazon or Google recommend just the thing I’m looking for -it’s like having an information and entertainment concierge who can read my mind. But does that computerized concierge really have my best interests at heart?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Guest: Frankie Vanaria, PhD Candidate in The Department of American and New England Studies, Boston University
Another big Marvel movie is coming this weekend in which the Avengers are out to, well, avenge the deaths of their superhero friends and a whole lot of regular folks. These films are pure popcorn fun for lots of movie goers. But they’re also increasingly sprinkled with political and social commentary. Black Panther had some very overt themes of racial justice and colonial history. Gender equality and female empowerment run through Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel.
How Local Newspapers Influence Voters
Guest: Matthew Hitt, Professor of Political Science, Colorado State University
It used to be pretty common in America for voters to split their ticket between candidates of different parties. But over the last twenty years, we’ve grown more and more entrenched in our political identities: Democrats are even more Democrat. Republicans are even more staunchly Republican. One reason may be the local paper on your doorstep. Or rather, missing from your doorstep. When a local newspaper folds, voters in that community get more polarized
Revolutionizing the Music Industry with Technology
Guest: Tom Mitchell, Associate Professor of Creative Technologies, UWE Bristol
If you could create music with your hands, what would it sound like? What you’re hearing is singer-songwriter Imogen Heap piece together a song using gloves. You heard me right –she’s using special gloves to create all of these instrumental sounds along with her voice. Sounds bizarre, but even pop star Ariana Grande has used them in concert.
Lessons from a Hobbit on How to Be a Hero
Guest: Tim Slover, Professor of Theater Studies and Dramatic Literature, University of Utah
Heroes in the most popular movies of the day require super powers, super-powerful weapons and super friends. (Looking at you, Avengers.) But what about us normal, not-super people. Who can we look to for a hero lesson? Maybe a hobbit? Yes, The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien offers a is a guide to heroism for everyday folks.
The New Yorker’s Comma Queen and Her Greek Obsession
Guest: Mary Norris, Former Copy Editor, The New Yorker, Author of “Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen”
Mary Norris is The New Yorker’s Comma Queen -a stickler for grammar who spent decades working her way up through the copy-editing ranks of the magazine to become the person who checked every page before it went to print. All the while, Norris nursed a passion for Greek –first modern Greek because she just really wanted to travel in Greece. But then she fell in love with ancient Greek, which -ironically for a woman known as the Comma Queen –has no punctuation at all. Learning Greek made her better at English, says Norris–and also at living.
The Media’s Mueller Obsession
Guest: Matthew Jordan, Professor of Media Studies, Penn State University
The Mueller Report is out. Have you heard? Yeah, of course you have. It’s all over the news. Has been for nearly two years. And there are enough juicy tidbits in the 448-page redacted version to keep the story in the news for quite a bit longer. By way of summary, Special Counsel Robert Mueller found Russia wanted to help President Trump get elected and the Trump Campaign was willing to accept that help. The investigation did “not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” So, no collusion. On the question of whether President Trump tried to obstruct the investigation, Mueller and his team say they couldn’t say one way or the other and left it to the Attorney General to decide.
Wild Bill: The True Story of the American Frontier’s First Gunfighter
Guest: Tom Clavin, Best-Selling Author, Author of “Wild Bill: The True Story of the American Frontier’s First Gunfighter”
Even if you only know a few names of Wild West legends, you know Bill Hickok –better known as Wild Bill. Not to be confused with Buffalo Bill Cody, though they were good friends. Wild Bill Hickock was an American legend by the age of thirty, but was he really as Wild as the stories tell? Best-selling author Tom Clavin’s new book sorts truth from tall tale. It’s called, “Wild Bill: The True Story of the American Frontier’s First Gunfighter.”
The Death and Resurrection of Notre Dame de Paris
Guest: Daryl Lee, PhD, Professor of French Languages and Culture, Brigham Young University
Why does the world care so much about Notre Dame in Paris? Why, since the cathedral’s roof and spire collapsed in a fire on Monday, have people the world over expressed such grief? Notre Dame is clearly more than an historic building or a place of religious worship.
Some Americans Can’t Worship Without Fear (Originally aired December 3, 2018)
Guest: Christopher Scheitle, Assistant Professor of Sociology, West Virginia University
French police believe the fire that destroyed the roof of Notre Dame in Paris was accidental. But police in Louisiana say fires that burned three historically black churches there were set intentionally. It’s not unusual, unfortunately, for places of worship to be the target of vandalism and violence. Just a month ago, a shooter killed 50 worshipers in two New Zealand mosques. How safe are we in our places of worship?
The Sobering Truth about the Effects of Pediatric Trauma (Originally aired January 24, 2019)
Guest: Charles Nelson, Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School
Scoring an ace in tennis, or “acing” a test, are both good things. But to neuroscientists who study the effect of trauma on the developing brain, ACE has an entirely different meaning. It stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences, and in recent years, researchers have found that these adverse events, or ACEs, increase the risk of developmental delays and health problems as the child grows.
World’s Largest Democratic Election is Underway – It Lasts Six Weeks
Guest: Charles Nuckolls, PhD, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, BYU
In India right now, a national election has already been underway for a week and it’ll last five more before votes will be tallied on May 23. Can you imagine election day lasting for six weeks? Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls it “a festival of democracy.” Let’s take a closer look at what’s at stake. Charles Nuckolls joins me in studio. He’s a professor of anthropology and South Asian Studies here at BYU. Welcome.
Who Makes Movie Trailers?
Guest: Nick Temple, Founder and Creative Director, Wild Card
The latest movie trailer everyone’s talking about is Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker. Star Wars fans are on fire with speculation: Is Luke Skywalker coming back? And Emperor Palpatine? A good trailer teases, and that one’s done its job. Making these tantalizing bites of filmispure seduction.
The Scottish Fire Festival Beltane
Guest: Brad Macarthur, Member of the Beltane Fire Society Board of Trustees
Twice a year in Edinburgh, Scotland, hundreds of volunteers perform a pageant with drums and fire and body paint and elaborate costumes. The two “fire festivals”mark the turning of the seasons –one at the end of October and the other coming up at the end of April. They’re a major attraction and dateback to the Iron Age.Brad MacArthurison the board of the volunteer organization that puts on the Edinburgh festivals. It’s called the Beltane Fire Society and he’s with me now by phone.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam brings a baseball classic to the microphone: "Casey At The Bat."
Keeping the Jazz Age Alive with Handmade Custom Instruments
Guest: Mike Corrigan, Owner, Best American Craftsman
Back in the 30s and 40s, it wasn’t just the performer or the music that was important, but also the craftsmanship of the instrument. A trumpet used to be as much a work of art as the jazz it played. Most horns were handmade by master craftsman before mass production came along. Yet there are still a few companies left that will build you a one-of-a-kind instrument. One of these is Best American Craftsman in Kansas City.
How Coders Shape the World
Guest: Clive Thompson, Science and Technology Journalist, Author of "CODERS: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World"
If it’s really true that our world runs on software, then the people who build that software are enormously powerful. Who are they? What do they want? If they took us to their leader, would it be a guy in a dark room pounding energy drinks and wearing yesterday’s clotheslike we see on TV? It’s that’s who is running our world, that’s a bit terrifying.
Julian Assange, Wikileaks and Press Freedom
Guest: Ed Carter, Professor of Media Law, BYU
You may have seen the video footage of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being dragged out of Ecuador’s embassy in London last week. London police say they arrested Assange on behalf of United States authorities for charges related to the massive leak of classified military documents and diplomatic cables Wikileaks published in 2010. Human Rights Watch says prosecuting Julian Assange sets a dangerous precedent and could encourage other countries to crack down on investigative journalists exposing government abuse. On the other hand, the Washington Post’s editorial board and other major news outlets say Julian Assange is not a journalist or hero of the free press.
Revisiting the Wells Fargo Scandal
Guest: Kenneth H. Thomas, President of Community Development Fund Advisors in Miami
The CEOs of America’s biggest banks were in Washington last week trying to convince skeptical lawmakers that they learned their lessons from the global recession bailout fiasco and can truly be trusted to act responsibly a decade on. Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America were all at the hearing. Wells Fargo –the fourth largest bank in the country –was notably absent, because it’s CEO Tim Sloan had just resigned. Sloan had only been in charge for two years –after taking the reins from another CEO who was forced to step down after revelations of widespread fraud at the bank. At this point, Wells Fargo may need more than a fresh face in the corner office to repair its reputation.
And Action! Life as a Movie Extra
Guest: Daniel Watts, Top of Mind Student Producer and Researcher
It’s ironic that for all the glitz and glamor in Hollywood, most of the jobs aren’t really that glamorous. Being an “extra” on a film or TV show fits that category. But lots of people think that’s the gateway to stardom. First, you’re a faceless member of a crowd scene. Then you get to walk in front of the camera and your face is visible. Then you’ll get speaking line or two and presto! –you’re getting cast for big roles. But what if being an extra is exactly the wrong way to get famous? And actually, makes you less likely to get the starring role you dream of?
How America Got Hooked on Sugar
Guest: Cristin Kearns, Assistant Professor, University of California, School of Dentistry, San Francisco
Do you know how much of the packaged food we eat has sugar added? Seventy-four percent! Even if you cut all candy and soda out of your diet, you’ll still be getting a lot of added sugar in stuff you’d never suspect. This is partly because Americans are conditioned to love the taste of it, but also because the companies that manufacture sugar have been very, very savvy over the last 50 years at promoting their product as natural and not bad for you.
The Nile Project Brings Countries Together With Music
Guest: Mina Girgis, Co-Founder and CEO of the Nile Project
The Nile is the longest river in the world and it’s also the most complicated water conflict in the world. There are 11 countries that depend on the Nile stretching from the lush equatorial center of Africa up to the arid Northern Coast. Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania are just a few of the countries locked in a decades-long disagreement over the Nile’s flow. And the conflict is complicated by the fact that these 11 countries have very different cultures, languages and economies.
A Refugee’s Story
Guest: Sohail Wahedi, PhD Candidate in Law, Erasmus School of Law in University Rotterdam
Forty years ago, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, sparking the first big wave of refugees leaving the country. After that war came a civil war and then the US invasion against the Taliban and throughout that time, millions of Afghans have been forced to flee their homes. They are the second largest refugee population in the world, after Syria.
The Limits of Public Health Law to Prevent Measles Outbreaks
Guest: Katherine Drabiak, Assistant Professor, College of Public Health, University of South Florida
2019 is shaping up to be a record for measles cases in the US since the disease was officially eradicated here 20 years ago. New York City’s mayor declared a public health emergency last week in Brooklyn where hundreds of measles cases have been reported. People who fail to get vaccinated in those neighborhoods could face a $1,000 fine. In another measles hotspot in upstate New York, public officials tried to ban unvaccinated kids from public places, but a judge put that on hold. Just how far can –or should –the government go for the sake of public health?
The Wild World of a Hollywood Stunt Driving
Guest: Jeremy Fry, Professional Stunt Driver
There’s a really cool car chase in the Black Panther movie where he’s riding on top of a car that’s being driven remotely by his sister Shuri back at her high-tech lab in Wakanda. So, there’s T’Challa crouched on the car’s roof flying through the streets of Seoul, South Korea and we can clearly see that the driver’s seat is empty. They come up on an intersection with cars blocking the way. Black Panther hangs off the side of the car, dragging his fingers on the ground to tip the car up on its side and swing it in a tight turn through the intersection. It’s a really cool shot. And that car really did have someone behind the wheel. His name is Jeremy Fry and he’s done stunt driving for lots of TV episodes you’ve seen plus big action films with famous car chase scenes including John Wick and Baby Driver.
Memorizing Sanskrit Enlarges Memory Parts of Brain
Guest: James Hartzell, Postdoctoral Researcher, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, in Spain
For millennia, Hindu scholars have been memorizing and reciting sacred text in Sanskrit. But this isn’t just a few verses of scripture. Most of these texts are longer than the book of Genesis. The longest of them takes six hours to recite. It takes years of intensive study to become a Sanskrit pandit –as these scholars are called. And the payoff is more than spiritual. Their brains actually grow in ways that could prove helpful in preventing or treating diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Slang
Guest: Michael Adams, Provost Professor of English Language and Literature, Indiana University at Bloomington
I had to explain to my parents this week what “bae” means. No, not the ocean bay. B-A-E. It stands for “before anyone else.” My parents just rolled their eyes at me. If you’ve had a similar reaction when your kids call you “salty” or yell “YOLO,” this conversation’s for you.
Making the Most of Story Time
Guest: Tiffany Munzer, Pediatrician and Fellow Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, University of Michigan
Everything is going digital –including storybooks for kids. And they’re really cool, too, with sound effects embedded in the images on the screen you can activate with a touch of the finger. Is the interaction between a parent and child reading an electronic book as good –or better –than when they read one in print?
A Sleeping Mat for All Sizes and Situations
Guests: John Salmon, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BYU; Spencer Rogers, BYU Technology Transfer Office
The thing about camping is that after the hiking and campfire and stargazing, you have to sleep on the ground with little help from that flimsy mat or air mattress that slowly leaks all night. BYU mechanical engineering professor John Salmon can relate. So he and his students have designed a better sleeping mat.
Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour
Guest: Sunita Puri, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine; Medical Director for Palliative Care, Keck Medical Center of USC, Author of “That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour”
Modern medicine makes it possible to go on living much longer than people would have dreamed even a century ago. If you become very sick, doctors can hook you up to machines that will breathe for you, eat for you, clean your blood for you –it’s miraculous, really. But that also means thatdying often comes with difficult choices most of us are unprepared to make: When do we stop medical intervention? Why wouldn’t we want to do everything possible to save a loved one? What does a good death look like?
History of Baseball in Ten Pitches
Guest: Tyler Kepner, National Baseball Writer, The New York Times, Author of “K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches”
Baseball pitches, to be precise. They are the DNA of the game, writes New York Times national baseball reporter Tyler Kepner. His new book charts the history of baseball in ten pitches with iconic names –slider, fastball, curveball, knuckleball, splitter, screwball, sinker, changeup, spitball and cutter. And the stories behind them are really fun. even for someone like me who can’t tell a strike from a ball until the ump makes the call.
Daily Life in Venezuela: Power Outages, Water Shortages and Uncertainty
Guest: Laura Gamboa-Gutierrez, Professor of Political Science, Utah State University
With periodic power outages, and very little food, water, or medicine, there’s a mass exodus from the country. About three million Venezuelans have left in the past four years. We'll ask one man currently living Caracas, Venezula why he hasn't left yet. And we'll get an update on the politcial future of embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
How to Forget Something Unpleasant
Guest: Jarrod Lewis-Peacock, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin
Passwords, appointments, where you left the keys...we all have a long list of things we’re trying desperately to remember. But then there are things we don’t want to remember –like an embarrassing moment or a traumatic event. Wiping those from your memory can be really hard.
50 Ironmans in 50 States in 50 Days
Guest: James Lawrence, Motivational Speaker, Triathlete, Author of “Iron Cowboy: Redefine Impossible”
When you reach a point in life where you just aren’t sure you can go a step further, what do you do? If it’s a physical challenge, maybe you stop and catch your breath. If it’s a mental or emotional challenge, well that’s what sleep, chocolate and Netflix are for, right? Well, when James Lawrence hit a personal rough patch in 2015, he decided to push his body beyond what anyone thought was possible. He did 50 Ironman triathlons and 50 consecutive days. He did it. And then he wrote a book about it called “Iron Cowboy: Redefine Impossible”
The Mystery of Wombat Poop (Originally aired December 3, 2018)
Guest: David Hu, Professor of Fluid Mechanics at Georgia Tech University
Cubes occur very rarely in nature. There are some minerals –like iron pyrite, aka fool’s gold –that naturally form in cubic crystals. Another notable exception is the Australian marsupial called a wombat –it’s shaped like a fuzzy, overstuffed football, but its droppings have flat edges. Wombats poop cubes. And until recently, nobody really knew why.
Hunting Ancient Life Frozen in Burmese Amber (Originally aired August 1, 2018)
Guest: Paul Selden, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Invertebrate Paleontology, Director of the Paleontological Institute, University of Kansas
In a remote corner of Myanmar –also known as Burma -gem collectors and paleontologists sift through golden dollops of fossilized tree sap. Some of the amber is rough, uncut lumps. Some is polished and set into pendants or bracelets. The most prized pieces have bits of the ancient world trapped inside: insects, plants, even birds and reptiles dating back to the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Throwing Axes for Fun (Originally aired November 28, 2018)
Guest: Brayden Floyd, Owner of Social Axe Throwing in Utah
A new hobby takes dartboards to a whole new level: axe throwing. More and more recreational axe throwing establishments are popping up around the country. With a couple of axes and a panel of wood with a target on it, people are simultaneously blowing off steam and having a great time with their friends.
Managing Harmful Content on Social Media
Guest: Tarleton Gillespie, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, Associate Professor at Cornell University, Author of “Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media”
Australia has passed a law that slaps huge fines on social media companies –and also threatens to jail executives –if they fail to quickly remove “abhorrent violent material.” It’s a direct response to the live Facebook video made by the shooter who killed 50 people at two New Zealand mosques last month. Facebook says the video was viewed 4,000 times before the company took it down. How much should social media companies be held responsible for the material people post on their platforms?
Not All Seizures Are from Epilepsy, Psychotherapy Helps Sufferers of Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures
Guest: Benjamin Tolchin, Neurologist, Yale School of Medicine
If someone has seizures, they must have epilepsy, right? Turns out, more than five percent of patients diagnosed with epilepsy actually have something else called "psychogenic non-epileptic seizures" or PNES. That means thousands of people are getting the wrong medical treatment, and that can have serious consequences.
Shipwrecks and Sunken Cities: The Work of Underwater Archaeology
Guest: Peter B. Campbell, Underwater Archaeologist, Assistant Director of The British School at Rome
Most archaeologists don’t put their lives on the line like Indiana Jones. But underwater archaeologists aren’t most archaeologists. And when you’re diving deep in the sea, exploring shipwrecks or slithering into caves, winging it like Indiana Jones is definitely not recommended.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Thoughts from a master on sharing and preserving family stories.
What We Can Do to Support Mothers Running for Public Office
Guest: Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, 2018 Candidate for State Representative in Connecticut
A record number of women are currently serving in the US Congress – they fill a quarter of the seats. To boost that ratio, many women candidates say they need more flexibility in campaign laws. Specifically, they want to be able to use campaign donations to pay a babysitter. Federal Election authorities last year granted that permission. But mothers running in most state elections can’t.
Hoist the Sails! And Sing a Sea Shanty with David Coffin
Guest: David Coffin, Performer, Music Educator
Before there were planes and trains and steamships, the world ran on the wind in the sails of sailors and whalers. America was born in the Age of the Sail, and if you were aboard one of the many whaling ships departing form New England at the time, you might have heard a boisterous call-and-response song called a "shanty." There's much history to be learned from the music of the sea.
Lots at Stake In Israeli Elections
Guest: Matthew RJ Brodsky, Middle East expert, Geopolitical Analyst, Senior Fellow at the Security Studies Group
For ten straight years, Benjamin Netanyahu has been Israel’s Prime Minister and he’s hoping to continue that run in nationwide elections happening today. Voting has just ended and early exit polls show Netanyahu’s Likud party in a very close race with the primary opposition Blue and White Party for control of Israel’s parliament.
A Call for More Women in Trucking
Guest: Ellen Voie, President and CEO, Women in Trucking Association
Long-haul trucking is almost entirely a man’s world: something like 92-percent of truckers are men. But there’s also a big shortage of truck drivers in the US right now –so maybe women could fill some of those jobs?
Digital Heart Attacks: Medical Device Cybersecurity
Guest: Joshua Corman, Chief Security Officer at PTC, Founder of “IAmTheCavalry.org”
Before long, just about everything in the medical world will be running on software – and even connected to the internet. That already applies to pacemakers and insulin pumps and a host of devices used in hospitals. Which means that a hacker could theoretically kill a patient by taking control of those devices. That’s what Joshua Corman does. Well, not literally. He and other members of the grassroots organization “I Am the Cavalry” do hacking simulations to find vulnerable spots in medical systems.
Prescribing Nature for Depression and Anxiety
Guest: Megan Delaney, Assistant Professor in the Department of Professional Counseling, Monmouth University, Author of the Upcoming Book “Nature is Nurture: Counseling and the Natural World”
By some estimates, Americans spend 93% of their time indoors or in a car. That means we’re only spending half a day outside each week, and that may be taking a toll on our mental health. Some psychologists are now prescribing time outdoors for patients struggling with depression and anxiety. This new treatment is called “ecotherapy.”
The Year I Didn’t Eat
Guest: Samuel Pollen, Author, “The Year I Didn’t Eat”
Samuel Pollen got an eating disorder when he was just 12 years old. Now, almost two decades later, he has written a book about his thoughts and feelings in an attempt to describe what an eating disorder feels like. It’s called “The Year I Didn’t Eat.” It’s a fictional story about a boy named Max and his daily struggles with anorexia.
Worlds Awaiting: Getting the Most of Reading Aloud
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
What is Cruel and Unusual Punishment and Who Does It Apply To?
Guest: Amos Guiora, Professor of Law, SJ Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, author of "The Crime of Complicity: The Bystander in the Holocaust"
The 8th Amendment is the one that prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.” The state of Alabama was just accused by the Department of Justice of violating the 8th Amendment rights of prisoners by failing to protect them from attacks and abuse while in prison. And the US Supreme Court last week ruled that a death row inmate in Missouri can be executed by lethal injection, even though the prisoner has a rare disease that may cause him to suffocate during the execution, which he said would be cruel and unusual. So how exactly do we define this Constitutional right? And does it apply to everyone equally?
Traveling the World on a Whim
Guest: Kim Dinan, World-Traveler, Author of “The Yellow Envelope”
You know these people who up and quit their job and sell everything they have to go travel the world? How do they get past the “I’d like to travel” daydreaming stage and actually do it? Kim Dinan did it in 2012 and then wrote about it in her memoir called, “The Yellow Envelope: One Gift, Three Rules, and a Life-Changing Journey Around the World.”
How Change Happens
Guest: Cass Sunstein, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Author of “How Change Happens”
We bet you’d never heard of the hashtag “MeToo” until a year and a half ago when actress Alyssa Milano started using it on Twitter. But a social activist named Tarana Burke coined the phrase in her work with sexual assault survivors ten years earlier. Why didn’t #MeToo become a thing back then?
The Rise of Rock-Climbing Gyms
Guest: Jeremy Balboni, CEO and Co-Founder, Brooklyn Boulders
Every city seems to have at least one rock climbing gym these days. But these gyms aren't just a place where people go for exercise - they host a climbing community with a very unique and distinct culture.
Designing a Bench to Deter Sitting
Guest: Dean Harvey, Co-Founder, Factory Furniture
Have you ever collapsed on a city bench for a moment and thought, “Man this is not a very comfortable seat?” Well, it’s probably that way on purpose. Benches studded with bumps, or angled so the sitter has to perch, are part of a movement called “hostile design” meant to discourage napping or loitering or skateboarding.
Fertility Medicine Largely Unregulated in US
Guest: Dov Fox, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Health Law Policy & Bioethics at the University of San Diego, Author of “Birth Rights and Wrongs: How Medicine and Technology are Remaking Reproduction and the Law”
Women in the US are waiting longer to have their first child, which may be one reason that more and more Americans are relying on fertility treatments to conceive. But if something goes wrong – whether by mistake or malpractice – there’s not much the patient can do. Fertility clinics are largely unregulated in the US.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Guest: Lori Gottlieb, Psychotherapist, Best-selling Author of "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed"
It's not so taboo to talk about these days. More often, it seems like a badge people wear - a sign that you're self-aware enough to realize that we all could use a little help figuring ourselves out, facing our demons. Life's tough. But it's still surprising to pick up Lori Gottlieb's book and see \_her \_talking so candidly about getting therapy. Because she's a therapist. How can you be a therapist if you need therapy yourself?
The Emerging National Education Battlefield: Local School Board Elections
Guests: Jeffrey Henig, Professor of Political Science and Education, Teacher College, Columbia University; Rebecca Jacobsen, Associate Professor of Education Politics and Policy, Michigan State University, Co-authors of "Outside Money in School Board Elections: The Nationalization of Education Politics"
How surprised would you be to learn that a candidate running for your local school board was getting money from a wealthy donor in another state? We're used to congressional seats being targeting by big donors looking to sway the balance of power in Washington. But what could a billionaire political donor like Michael Bloomberg or Sheryl Sandberg possibly gain from helping elect someone to a local school board in San Diego or Indianapolis? Especially when so much of what goes on in public schools around the country is now being dictated at the national level anyway - who cares about local school boards except the people who send their kids to those local schools?
Exonerated After 17 Years in Prison for the Murder of Her Son
Guest: Kristine Bunch, Executive Director, Justis 4 Justus, exonerated after 17 years in prison for wrongful conviction
Last year, 151 people were exonerated of convictions for crimes they didn’t commit. The average time a person spends in prison for a crime they’re later exonerated for, is eight years. Kristine Bunch was in prison for nearly 18 years after the court said she intentionally set the fire that killed her three-year-old son in their trailer home. But the fire was accidental. Now Kristine Bunch is free and working as an advocate for people exonerated for crimes.
Diversity Human Genetic Resesarch
Guest: Scott Williams, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
By now, you’ve probably spit in one of those vials to get your DNA analyzed for geneaology. If it says you’re of European descent, the info you got back was probably pretty detailed and fairly accurate. People of African or Asian descent aren’t so lucky, because most of the data in those DNA pools right now skews European. The companies who do that testing are working to fix that. But this isn’t just about getting an accurate snapshot of where your ancestors came from. Genetic analysis has become the foundation of disease and drug research. And the data used for that work is also primarily European DNA.
Human Looking Robots May Not Be Ideal
Guest: Kerstin Haring, Postdoctoral Researcher of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership, Warfighter Effectiveness Research Center, US Air Force Academy
Cartoons are full of friendly robots – Disney’s especially good at that: Big Hero Six, Wall-E, the whole crew in the Robots movie. Big eyes, soft, rounded features. You just want to take ‘em home and love ‘em. But in I ROBOT, they’re human-size with human-like faces; they’re supposed to be trustworthy, but Will Smith’s character does not like it. When robots become a central part of our lives in the not-too-distant future, should they look like humans or not?
Tuition Trouble: The Economic and Social Costs of Rising Student Debt (originally aired 11/12/18)
Guest: Julie Margetta Morgan, PhD, JD, Fellow, The Roosevelt Institute
In the last decade, student loan debt has more than doubled in the US. Americans currently owe $1.5 trillion. But it’s not like we flushed all that money down the toilet. Borrowing money for a college degree is just investing in a future that includes a better job and higher salary. Well, detailed analysis of student loan debt across the country suggests those assumptions are flawed – especially if you’re a black or brown student in America.
BYU's Bethlehem Exhibit Highlights Forgotten History and Culture
Guests: Cynthia Finlayson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Brightam Young University; Paul Stavast, Director, BYU Museum of People and Cultures
For Christians, Bethlehem brings to mind the birth of Christ. But it’s history is much more complicated than that. Bethlehem was once predominantly Christian. Today it’s mostly Muslim and lies in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, cut off from Jerusalem by a 25-foot wall built by the Israeli government. The Museum of Peoples and Cultures here at BYU has an exhibit that looks at the nuances of the Savior’s birthplace. It’s called, “Returning to Bethlehem: A Cultural Pilgrimage.”
Mobilizing Kids to Mow Lawns in Service
Guest: Rodney Smith Jr, Founder, Raising Men Lawn Care Service
Rodney Smith, Jr didn’t much like mowing lawns growing up. But now he’s made it part of his life’s mission. Last year, Smith completed a tour of every state in the US, mowing lawns for free for people who are elderly, disabled, single mothers and veterans. His ongoing goal is to get kids all around the country out serving in their communities, mowing the lawns of people who need a hand.
Who Is Free to Speak Their Minds on Campus?
Guest: Henry Reichman, Emeritus Professor of History at California State University, East Bay, Author of "The Future of Academic Freedom"
“Universities that want taxpayer dollars should promote free speech, not silence free speech,” President Donald Trump said two weeks ago issuing an executive order that cuts federal research funding to institutions that fail to promote “free inquiry.” He was flanked at the signing ceremony by conservative student activists. So what’s going on with speech on campuses in America right now?
The Hunt for the USS Wasp
Guest: Samuel J. Cox, Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command and Curator of the Navy, Retired US Navy Rear Admiral
There are 3,000 US Navy ships lying at the bottom of the ocean – that we know of. Many more ships are lost at sea, along with their crew. But there’s an underwater vessel called “the Petrel” dedicated to tracking down wreckage. The Petrel recently discovered the USS Wasp, 75 years after it sank. That aircraft carrier is just one of dozens of missing ships the Petrel’s crew has found.
New Barbie Will Come With a Wheelchair
Guest: Curt Decker, Executive Director, National Disability Rights Network
Part of the allure of Barbie has always been her accessories – the outfits, the Dream House, the pink Corvette. This summer Mattel is introducing a Barbie with what is says has been one of the most requested accessories – a wheelchair. Another Barbie will come with a removable prosthetic leg. They’re part of the Barbie Fashionistas line, which includes a variety of skin tone, hair and body types.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
How Stories Create a Safe Space to Explore Relationships Problems
Guest: Nathan Silver, Doctoral Student in Communication, Ohio State University
Do you or your kids sometimes get really, really invested in a TV relationship? It’s silly. But we do this. And apparently some of us do it more than others.
Legendary Voice Actor Steve Blum
Guest: Steve Blum, Voice Actor, President of Blumvox Studios
If you or your family watches cartoons or plays video games, chances are you’ve heard the work of voice actor Steve Blum. He's been in the animated series X-Men, Star Wars Rebels, and Transformers: Prime. That’s just a small sample of what Steve Blum has done—he has hundreds of voice acting credits and also holds the Guinness World Record for “most prolific male videogame voice actor.”
US-Mexico Border Crisis and Other World Events
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
President Donald Trump has threatened to close the nation’s southern border if Mexico doesn’t stop the flow of Central American migrants coming into the US. The President also vetoed legislation from Congress that would have overturned his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall on the border.
Tackling Global Problems Through Art
Guest: Daan Roosegaarde, Dutch Artist and Innovator, Roosegaarde Studios
We hear all the time about big problems like rising sea levels, space debris, and light pollution. But when you’ve got kids screaming and work emails piling up, those problems are the last thing on your mind. Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde gets that. His art helps people actually picture big problems – makes them easy to understand and even touch.
Coral is the New Black: Exploring the Impact of Color
Guest: Jill Pilaroscia, Founder, Colour Studio
Some of our color preferences are personal, but there are also some biological responses that are more universal. Like, red, for instance, apparently makes your heart rate speed up a bit.
Underage Marriage is More Common in America Than You Realize
Guest: Fraidy Reiss, Founder/Director, Unchained at Last
Over the last ten years, US Immigration and State Department officials says more than five thousand girls under the age of 18 have been brought to the US to marry an older man. Sometimes 20 or 30 years older. Immigration officials have also approved thousands of applications from underage girls living in the US to bring an older spouse to America. And it’s all perfectly legal under US immigration law and marriage laws in nearly every state. You probably thought child marriage only happens in far off places, didn’t you?
A Call for Girls to Be Brave, Not Perfect
Guest: Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO of "Girls Who Code," Author of "Brave, Not Perfect"
Dream big. Take risks. Don’t be afraid to fail. We’ve all heard successful athletes or business people saying stuff like that. But in your gut, do you believe it? And how do you overcome that almost primal fear a lot of us have about failure?
How Summer Camp May Help Your Kids
Guest: Daniel Richmond, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Youth Development, University of Utah
The decision to send your kids off to summer camp isn’t as simple as it once was. A week or two in the woods is only one option. There’s robotics camp and coding camp and filmmaking camp, too. So how do you know you’ve found a good one? A place your kid will have fun and, most importantly, be safe?
Today's Brexit Deadlock Was Easy to Predict
Guest: Alan Wager, Research Associate, The UK in a Changing Europe, King's College London
It was to be a weekend of celebration for those who want to see Britain leave the European Union. Instead, British elected officials are scrambling to come up with a plan to keep Brexit on track. The EU has given them until April 12.
When Lightning Strikes
Guest: John Jensenius, National Lightning Safety Expert, retired 2019 from National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration
If something’s really unlikely to happen, we compare it to winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning. But that’s not really fair because you’re 300-times more likely to get struck by lightning than you are to win the Powerball jackpot. So basically, lightning is a bigger threat than we give it credit for.
"The Architect" Designs Mind-Blowing Adventures for Special Occasions
Guest: Chris Waters, "The Architect," Founder of Constructed Adventures
They say the best gift is an experience. How about giving an adventure? There’s a guy who calls himself “The Architect” and he makes a living planning custom adventures for people. You could call them scavenger hunts, but that conjures annoying activities at family reunions, and what The Architect does is way more cool. Mysterious clues dropped on your doorstep, strange props, shopkeepers in on the secret, strangers handing you packages on the street.
Innovative Ski Companies
Guest: Jason Levinthal, Found of LINE Skis, Owner and Operator of J Skis, 4frnt skis, and rollwithapro.com
Have you got a hobby that you’d love to turn into a paying gig? Not many people manage to pull it off, but Jason Levinthal has. He was a skier who started making his own skis in college in the late 1990s and today is legendary for his ski designs. He sold his first startup to the ski giant K2. Now he’s back in the startup world with three companies – J skis, 4frnt [fore-front] skis, and RollWithAPro.com. “Serial entrepreneur” is a label that comes to mind.
The Biology of Superheroes - Sifting Fact from Fiction
Guest: Shane Campbell-Staton, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, Host of The Biology of Superheroes podcast
Some of the coolest superheroes come from cool science, like Peter Parker’s Spidey skills, Iron Man’s indestructibility, Bruce Banner’s radioactive Hulk and Black Panther’s energy harnessing vibranium suit. Now, a lot of real scientists might shake their heads at all that fantastic nonsense, but not one professor.
In the School of the Future, Computers Rule and Teachers Cheer from the Sidelines
Guest: Sugata Mitra, Professor Emeritus of Technology, Newcastle University, England
The people who put on the TED Talks also give cash prizes to people with big ideas. Six years ago, Sugata Mitra got the very first million-dollar TED prize to build a better classroom. And get this – that classroom has several computers with large screens which five or six kids can cluster around. The teacher? “In the last ten years, the internet has changed teaching into one of the least efficient and most expensive ways to learn anything.”
Surrender: A Mother and Her Daughter's Struggle With Heroin
Guest: Lou Alpert, author of “Surrender: A Love Letter to My Daughter
In 2017, Lou Alpert turned on CNN to see her daughter, Crystal eight-months pregnant, homeless and about to inject herself with heroin in an alley. The baby was born three weeks later and adopted by the Officer Ryan Holets and his wife. President Trump mentioned them in his State of the Union Address and CNN did a bunch of follow-up stories. Crystal became the poster child for America’s opioid crisis, as her mom watched it all play out on national TV. In a new memoir, Lou Alpert describes what it’s like to be the loved one of a person gripped by addiction. The book is called, “Surrender: A love Letter to My Daughter”.
A Gutenberg Bible and the Eccentric Woman Who Made It Her Own
Guest: Margaret Leslie Davis, author of “The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred Year Odyssey”
Fewer than 50 of them exist in the world. For rare book collectors, a Bible printed by Johann Gutenberg before the summer of 1456 is the Holy Grail of acquisitions. Throughout history only one Gutenberg Bible has been owned by a woman collector – an American named Estelle Doheny.
The Gutenberg Bible is Top of Mind this hour. Fewer than 50 of them exist in the world. For rare book
collectors, a Bible printed by Johann Gutenberg before the summer of 1456 is the Holy Gr
ail of
acquisitions. Throughout history only one Gutenberg Bible has been owned by a woman collector
–
an
American named Estelle Doheny.
Purdue Pharma Reaches Opioid Settlement with Oklahoma
Guest: Abbe Gluck, Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy, Yale University
Companies that make prescription painkillers are facing more than a thousand lawsuits from cities, counties, states and Native American tribes over their role in the worst drug epidemic in US history. The suits allege these companies misled doctors and patients about the addictiveness of their drugs in order to make more money. This week, Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, settled one of those lawsuits with the state of Oklahoma for $270 million dollars.
What Do Beards Tell us about Politics, Culture and Religion?
Guest: Christopher Oldstone-Moore, Senior Lecturer Assistant to the Chair for Graduate Studies, Wright State University, Ohio
Anytime a celebrity or politician comes back from a break sporting facial hair, people kinda freak out. Senator Ted Cruz’ new salt-and-pepper beard was an obsession for weeks online. And have you seen David Letterman since he left the Late Show? He’s giving Santa Claus a run for his money. What’s the big deal with facial hair? Whether a man shaves –or doesn’t –is his business.
Real Secrets of DaVinci’s The Last Supper
Guest: Ross King, Author of “Leonardo and the Last Supper”
This year marks the 500thanniversary of the death of Leonardo DaVinci. One of his most famous painting is his depiction of The Last Supper. It figures prominently in conspiracy theories about the Holy Grail and the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. That’s the whole basis for Dan Brown’s the DaVinci Code and the movie it was made into. There is a more feminine looking person next to Jesus, but art historian Ross King says people during DaVinci’s time would have recognized it as the apostle John, not a surprise appearance by Mary Magdalene at the Last Supper. There may not be Holy Grail secrets embedded in the masterpiece, but Ross King says it was revolutionary in other ways.
Tech Addiction Myths Debunked (originally aired June 6, 2018)
Guest: Christopher Ferguson, Professor of Psychology, Stetson University
In 2018 the World Health Organization officially declared that digital games can be addictive. That means everything from the Xbox in your family room to the phone in your kid’s pocket could lead to dependency. But not everyone agrees. Just before the WHO’s declaration, psychologist Christopher Ferguson from Stetson University in Florida came on Top of Mind to separate myth from fact on tech addiction.
Rethinking How to Teach the Holocaust (Originally aired May 31, 2018)
Guest: Alan Marcus, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Connecticut
A group of teenagers in California recently found shame on the internet for posing in photos doing a Nazi salute around a bunch of drink cups formed in the shape of a swastika. As a result, they got a visit from Eva Schloss, the 89-year old stepsister of Anne Frank. She told the young people about her time in the Auschwitz death camp and says the kids apologized profusely. “They didn’t realize what it really meant,” Schloss told USA Today, adding she hopes there will be more education about the Holocaust.
Sticks Become Majestic Art (Originally aired November 26, 2018)
Guest: Patrick Dougherty, Contemporary Artist, www.stickwork.net
The BYU Museum of Art has a large, light-filled gallery with a panoramic view of Mount Timpanogos. It’s hard for any kind of art to hang in that space and compete with the natural masterpiece on display. So contemporary artist Patrick Dougherty spent a month creating something enormous and dramatic in the gallery to complement the mountain view. He calls it Windswept, and you can see the exhibit through October.
Gerrymandering Back at the US Supreme Court
Guest: Michael Bitzer, Professor of Political Science, Catawba College
The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a couple of cases where state lawmakers in Maryland and North Carolina have admitted they drew congressional district boundaries to favor their own political parties. In Maryland it was the Democrats. In North Carolina, the Republicans. This is common in most states –whichever party controls the legislature when the next Census happens gets to draw the boundaries to their liking. Should that continue?
Capturing the Courtroom Drama on Paper, in a Hurry
Guest: Jane Rosenberg, Courtroom Sketch Artist
The internet–and late-night comedians –just love a courtroom sketch of a celebrity. “Hey, that doesn’t look like Taylor Swift or Bill Cosby,” people will complain. A few years ago, quarterback Tom Brady was in court over the deflated football scandal, and Patriots fans went berserk over how unattractive Brady looked in the courtroom sketch. It’s still a running joke on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert
BYU Grad is First Female Sky Soldier to Complete Ranger School
Guest: 1st Lt. Anna Hodge, 173rd Airborne Brigade (Sky Soldiers), First Female Sky Soldier to Graduate from Ranger School
Our guest is a Sky Soldier –and no it’s not Captain Marvel, though it does sound like something out of a superhero movie. “Sky Soldiers” is what members of the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade call themselves. They jump from planes and provide support for military operations from the air. But apparently that wasn’t enough of a challenge for, 1st Lieutenant Anna Hodge because she recently became the first female Sky Soldier to complete the Army’s famously-difficult Ranger School. Hodge is also an alum of BYU and she’s on the line from Italy where she’s based.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
ADA: The Robot that Can Help Feed the Disabled
Guest: Tapomayukh Bhattacharjee, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
Millions of Americans need help to do basic daily living activities. For some, holding a fork or a spoon is extremely difficult or even impossible. Those people depend on others to feed them, but maybe not for long. The University of Washington’s Personal Robotics Lab recently created a robot that can help disabled people eat a meal without human assistance.
The History of Island Alcatraz
Guest: John Martini, Historical Consultant, Author, “Fortress Alcatraz: Guardian of the Golden Gate”
Last month, letters from infamous mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger were sold at auction. In one, Bulger writes fondly about the time he spent locked up at Alcatraz, where the rules were “plain and simple.” That’s strange when you consider Alcatraz was where all the worst federal prisoners were sent because it was so foreboding and secure. Then again, Bulger was a pretty bad dude, so maybe Alcatraz was a nice break from other places he’d done time? Well, there is so much more to Alcatraz than what you may know from movies or that time you visited San Francisco.
Mueller Says No Collusion
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director, Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
President Trump responded on the tarmac to the summary of Mueller’s released Sunday by the Attorney General. For the last two years, Ryan Vogel has been helping us understand the nuances of the Mueller investigation
Childproof Your Ride
Guests: Amber Rollins, Director, KidsandCars.org.; Whitney Rodden, Parent Advocate for Vehicle Safety
Cars are the number one cause of death and injury for children in the United States. Traffic accidents account for many of these but what is surprising is how many tragedies occur when the car is simply parked or leaving a driveway. Parents are trained to think about child-proofing their homes with young kids around, but what about child-proofing your car? That’s the focus of a new campaign from the nonprofit KidsandCars.org.
Pyt -- Denmark's Happiness Vocabulary
Guest: Marie Helweg-Larsen, Professor of Psychology, Dickinson College
Denmark consistently ranks near the top in the World Happiness Report. The Danish concept of hygge -- which means intentional intimacy -- has caught on worldwide. Now there's another Danish concept catching on and it's called "pyt".
Nobody is Good at Flirting
Guest: Jeffrey Hall, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Kansas University
In a quick YouTube search, you’ll find hundreds of videos eager to teach you the art of flirting. Truth is, instructional videos may not be worth your time, or your teenager’s time, because the other person probably wouldn’t even know you were trying to flirt. Turns out, we’re all terrible at recognizing flirtation, and it’s even harder in the Me Too era.
U.S. Pastor Arrested in Turkey now Released
Guest: Kristina Arriaga de Bucholz, Commissioner, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
From a human rights perspective, Turkey has been backsliding for several years. Thousands of academics, journalists, activists and professionals with ties to the US or Europe have been arrested on suspicion of plotting against the Turkish government. For two years, Turkey detained an American Pastor named Andrew Brunson before finally releasing him last fall. Brunson’s imprisonment drove the wedge even further between Turkey and the US –which are technically allies.
Spina Bifida Surgery on a Fetus
Guest: Scott Adzick, Surgeon-in-Chief and C. Everett Koop Professor of Pediatric Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Director of the Hospital’s Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment
Spina bifida is a rare but devastating birth defect where the infant’s spinal cord is exposed. Surgeries to repair this problem immediately after birth can help, but by that time, irreversible damage has already occurred. If the operation could happen while the baby was still in the mother’s uterus, outcomes might be better.
Employee Wellness Programs
Guest: David Wood, Associate Professor in School of Accountancy BYU
We have all these employee wellness challenges here at BYUradio and –HR will not be happy to see me admit this on the air, but it’s no surprise to them –I’m really not into it. Most employers have these nowadays –and often they come with great incentives to get you to participate. So, what kinds of incentives work best to get reluctant folks like me to play along?
The Rule Changes That Could Boost Numbers of Women in US Politics
Guest: Louise Davidson-Schmich, Professor of Political Science, University of Miami, Author “Gender Quotas and Democratic Participation”
Mueller’s finding of “no collusion” is a boost for President Trump as the as he shifts focus toward re-election in 2020. The Democratic field to challenge President Trump seems to be getting bigger every day. Already 16 people have declared they’re running. What’s unusual, though, is that six of those are women–a record for a single party’s presidential field. And many of those women are also part of the record number of women currently serving in Congress. They now fill a quarter of the seats. Then again, women are half of the US population –why are they not half of the people representing us in Washington? There are some countries in the world that actually do get close to a fifty-fifty split in their national parliament–Mexico, for example. And many Nordic countries. So, what? Do those countries just think more of women?
How Bias is Baked into Scientific Research
Guest: Aaron Carroll, Associate Dean for Research Mentoring, Indiana University School of Medicine
Everyday there’s some new study touting the latest healthy thing to eat or drink or ask your doctor about. Savvy consumers know to ask who funded the research? Because if the pomegranate juice folks paid for the study that says pomegranate is a super-food, well there might be a conflict there, right? But conflicts in research go so much deeper than dollar signs. Pediatrician Aaron Carroll worries that bias is almost baked in to the system we use to determine which drugs get approved and which health guidelines get promoted.
That Houseplant isn’t Making Your Air any Cleaner
Guest: Elliott Gall, Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department, Portland State University
Did you know certain plants can clean help you breathe easier indoors? NASA scientists proved it back in 1989! Google it and you’ll find loads of websites selling plants to remove dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde from the air in your house. Well, this is another example of what we were talking about in the last interview. That NASA study was done jointly with the Associated Landscape Contractors of America, for one. And it only pointed to plants as a “promising solution to indoor air pollution.” Lots of research since then has shown you’d really have to turn your house into a jungle to get any kind of air-purifying benefit.
Counterfeit Amazon Goods
Guest: Stefani Dawn, Co-Owner and Founder of Climb-On Maps
The online shopping world is crawling with counterfeit goods –digital stores sell more than at rillion dollars in fake products every year. That sweet Amazon deal for an Apple charging cable or Michael Kors handbag probably really is too good to be true. And when you buy these products, not only will you get bogus and potentially faulty merchandise, but you’ll also be hurting businesses.
Making Brass Cool
Guests: Chuck Daellenbach, Founder of Canadian Brass; Jeff Nelsen, Canadian Brass
Five brass instruments together on stage is already kind of a surprising experience for concert goers –a tuba, French horn, two trumpets and a trombone make a lot of noise. And honestly, we expect to hear these instruments blending into a symphony –not acting like an a cappella group doing renditions of pop songs from the likes of Lady Gaga. The Canadian Brass group has been redefining what brass instruments can do for more than 40 years. They’re currently touring North America, including a stop at BYU today for the Bravo!
New Possibility for Treating Addiction
Guests: Kyle Bills, PhD Candidate, BYU; Mike Alder, director, BYU Technology Transfer Office
On average, the CDC says more than one hundred Americans die of an opioid overdose every day. Treatment for opioid abuse disorder is expensive and in short supply. But the symptoms of withdrawal from opioids are so severe that trying to overcome an addiction without treatment is rarely successful. And so there’s a vicious cycle where the side-effects of quitting opioids drive people to relapse.
Confessions of a Sushi Master
Guest: Taichi Kitamura, Master Sushi Chef, Owner of Sushi Kappo Tamura
Restaurants that serve raw fish on a bed of rice or rolled in seaweed are among the most expensive and celebrated around the world. Here in America, it wasn’t until a few decades after World War II that Americans discovered a love for sushi–partly because they were being told to eat more fish for good health. Some food historians say the TV mini-series Shogun –which aired in 1980, starring Richard Chamberlain-sparked another big sushi craze.
How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty
Guests: Karen Dillon, Former Editor of Harvard Business Review; Efosa Ojomo, Director of Global Prosperity Practice at Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, Co-authors of “The Prosperity Paradox”
Since 1990, global efforts have lifted a billion people out of poverty. That’s a lot of people no longer desperately poor. But look more closely at the data and it turns out most of that improvement has been in China. In other places, like sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people in poverty has actually increased. And that’s despite, trillions of dollars spent on development projects globally. Why aren’t those efforts making more of a difference?
Soft Skills and Nigeria’s Unemployment Problem
Guest: Misan Rewane, Co-Founder and CEO, West Africa Vocational Education (WAVE)
One of the biggest challenges facing Nigeria today is a huge population of unemployed young people. Many of them are high school - even college - graduates. And yet, the businesses who desperately need workers find young people lacking skills in things like teamwork and communication. West Africa Vocational Education is tackling the challenge of teaching "soft skills" to Nigeria's youth.
FAA’s Oversight of Boeing Under Scrutiny
Guest: Jim Hall, Former NTSB Chairman
The Federal Aviation Administration is Top of Mind today. It was responsible for certifying that Boeing’s 737 Max 8 jet was safe. But after two similar crashes in less than five months, the FAA’s oversight is under scrutiny. Both the Justice Department and the Department of Transportation’s inspector general are investigating how the FAA handled approval of the Boeing 737 Max8. Meanwhile, all of those planes are grounded until Boeing comes up with a fix to the software believed to have been involved in the crashes. The FAA will have to sign off on returning the 737 Max to the air. But, can it be trusted at this point?
A Religious Clash Between 19th Century Settlers and the Kiowa
Guest: Jennifer Graber, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Texas at Austin
When America’s original inhabitants were forced off their land, it was often violent. For example, President Andrew Jackson had the Cherokee Nation marched out at gun point on what’s become known as the Trail of Tears. An estimated 4,000 Cherokee died from hunger, exposure and disease. There were some Americans who didn’t approve of the violent tactics. Ministers and missionaries saw religion as a peaceful way deal with the country’s “Indian Problem.”
Honeybees Have Tiny Brains and Can Learn to Do Basic Math –So Brain Size Doesn’t Matter?
Guest: Scarlett Howard, Postdoctoral Researcher at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France
In the animal kingdom, the human brain is biggest, relative to our body size. And when it comes to smarts, size matters. Except researchers are discovering that’s not always true. Scarlett Howard taught honeybees –with teeny-tiny brains –how to do basic arithmetic. Not calculus, mind you. But still, if a bee can learn to add or subtract one, maybe there’s a lesson there for big-brained humans trying to teach robots to be artificially intelligent?
A Day in the Life of a Wyoming Ranch Family (Originally aired October 10, 2019)
Guest: Mike and Erin Galloway, Cattle Ranchers, Creators, “Our Wyoming Life”
Feeding pigs, fixing fences, harvesting vegetables, birthing calves and herding geese with a flying drone, no less. That’s how Mike and Erin Galloway spend their days on a family ranch in Gilette, Wyoming. All of it is on display to the world through their rapidly growing social media presence and day-in-the-life videos that get thousands of views.
Is Modern Music Becoming More Mundane? (Originally aired August 29, 2019)
Guest: Colin Morris, Pop Music Appreciator, Computer Scientist, Data Visualizer
At least one song is going to be stuck in your head for the next few hours. They’re supposed to. Computer scientist –and pop music fan -Colin Morris has analyzed the lyrics from 15,000 songs that made the Billboard pop charts from 1958 until today.
Brain Science Confirms that Giving Beats Receiving (Originally aired December 5, 2019)
Guest: Christina Karns, Assistant Research Professor, Center for Brain Injury Research and Training, University of Oregon
Getting an unexpected gift from a friend is a pleasant surprise but giving can be just as rewarding. Some new brain imaging work reveals an interesting connection between the two –the more grateful you are for what you have, the more you enjoy giving to others.
UK Asks to Delay Brexit. What Good Will That Do?
Guest: Wade Jacoby, Professor of Political Science, BYU
British Prime Minister Theresa May has asked the European Union to delay the UK’s exit until June 30 so she has some more time to try and find a Brexit deal her own parliament can agree to. As it stands, the divorce will happen next Friday at midnight. The European Commission will meet Thursday to consider whether to agree to the request for a Brexit delay. The vote will have to be unanimous in support or else . . .well, who knows. That’s kind of how this whole thing has played out for the last two years.
When to Post about your Children Online: The Effects of Sharenting
Guest: Stacey Steinberg, Law Professor, University of Florida’s Levin College of Law
If you love to share pictures, videos or funny stories about your kids on Facebook or Instagram, there’s a name for that –it’s called “sharenting.” And you’re not alone. Most kids today have an online presence from birth –even before then, if their parent post sonogram pics on their social feeds. And what’s your kid going to think when they’re old enough to Google their name and discover everything you’ve put online about them?
The Baby Thief of the 1900’s
Guest: Barbara Raymond, Author of “The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption”
The majority of adoptions done in the US today allow for some contact between the child and the birth parents. This openness is a relatively recent trend, though. The woman who popularized adoption in America in the 1920s insisted on secrecy –not because it was best for the kids, but because she had a lot of secrets to keep. Her name was Georgia Tann and while she created modern adoption in America, she also corrupted it. She stole children from poor parents and sold them to wealthy couples. Many of the children were abused in Tann’s care. And until the day she died in 1950, George Tann never faced prosecution for her crimes.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story about the little stories we tell that just might bend the truth.
What has Become of the Last Blockbuster on Earth
Guest: Sandi Harding, General Manager of the Last Blockbuster Video Store
Your kids have no idea what life was like before Netflix and Redbox, do they? Browsing the DVD boxes at the video store on a Friday night, looking for something to watch. It wasn’t that long ago, you know. Blockbuster had more than 9,000 stores at its peak in the mid-2000s. Today they’re gone. Except for one store that is somehow still open and it’s in Bend, Oregon.
Is Autotuning Cheating?
Guest: Chris “TEK” O’Ryan, Owner, TEKZENMUSIC
A lot of viral videos online use autotuning to make voices –or anything really –sound sing-songy and robotic. Maybe you’ve seen the cat that sounds like it’s singing thanks to autotuning. And you’ve heard it on the radio too. Back in 1998, Cher was the first to use an obvious auto-tune effect in her hit song “Believe.” But did you know that most every song out there has been auto-tuned in some way –more subtly –to fix a singer’s sour note or overall pitch. Vocal producer Chris O’Ryan is known for his skill with auto-tune –he’s worked with Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Mary J. Blige.
Not All Students Deserve Their Spots at an Elite College. They Never Have
Guest: Shan Wu, Former Federal Prosecutor, CNN Legal Analyst, DC Lawyer who Represents College Students
The college admissions bribery scandal is Top of Mind today. The FBI alleges dozens of wealthy parents, business executives and celebrities participated in a scheme to guarantee their kids admission at prestigious universities by bribing coaches and test administrators. Georgetown, Yale, Stanford, UCLA, the University of Southern California and the University of Texas are among the schools implicated in what the Justice Department says is the largest college admissions scam it’s ever prosecuted. And it’s a big blow to the idea that getting into college is a matter of how hard you work and how well you score on the SAT or ACT.
Art and the Achievement Gap
Guest: Mariale Hardiman, Vice Dean of Academic Affairs at Johns Hopkins
Remember the rhymes and songs our teachers used to help us memorize our times tables and the 50 state capitals? Teachers have always known that a little music can help kids remember stuff. But it can do more. Especially for struggling students.
Smaller Trade Deficit and Booming Economy Can’t Co-Exist
Guest: Scott Bradford, PhD, Professor of Economics, BYU
One of President Trump’s primary goals since taking office has been to make America’s trade relationships with other countries –like China –more balanced. That’s the goal of the tariffs Trump has imposed on goods coming into the US from some of our biggest trading partners.
Auction of a Life
Guest: Peter Carlson, Author of “Junius and Albert’s Adventures in the Confederacy”
One hundred and sixty years ago this month, the largest auction of enslaved people in US history happened in Savannah, Georgia. This was two years before the Civil War broke out. A newspaper reporter from the North went undercover as a buyer at the auction and came back with a story that outraged abolitionists around the world.
Avalanche Safety
Guest: Craig Gordon, Avalanche Forecaster and Media Coordinator for the Utah Avalanche Center
Avalanches happen naturally when mountain slopes are covered in snow. But most of what you think you know about them is probably wrong, if you’re basing your avalanche knowledge on action movies, disaster films or Bugs Bunny cartoons–like where Daffy Duck follows Bugs through a snow-covered pass... How many times have you seen that play out on the screen, right? A loud noise and boom, avalanche-city. Well, let’s get the facts.
Praise for the Female Action Hero
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Captain Marvel is right now the number one movie in the world –and it’s Marvel’s first female-led superhero movie.
Connecticut Supreme Court Opens a Door to New Options for Gun Control Advocates
Guest: Adam Winkler, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
New Zealand is reeling from the its worst mass shooting in decades:50 people murdered and dozens more injured in a shooting spree at two mosques late last week. New Zealand’s prime minister has promised changes to that country’s gun laws will come soon. After similar tragedies in the US, Congress has struggled to find solutions to our gun violence problem, but the Connecticut Supreme Court has opened the door to one-way victims can push for change. The court has said families of those killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 can sue the maker of the gun used in the attack. That’s despite a federal law meant to protect gun manufacturers from being held liable for what people do with their firearms.
Gender Inequity in Pro Sports
Guest: Mikaela Dufur, Professor of Sociology, BYU
In professional sports here in the US, men’s teams and players are usually the most popular. But with soccer, it’s the opposite. The US Men’s team has never won a world title, while the women have won three World Cups, four Olympic gold medals and they’re the most successful international women’s team in soccer history. I’m not even a big soccer fan, and yet even I remember that epic penalty-kick goal Brandi Chastain scored to win the World Cup title in 1999. During all of that time, the US women’s team has also been waging a battle in boardrooms and courtrooms over gender discrimination. The entire team has just filed a lawsuit accusing U.S. Soccer of paying the women less than the men and forcing them to play in more dangerous conditions.
Living The Tiny Life
Guest: Megan Carras, Researcher, School of Geography & Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews
As you’re Marie Kondo-ing your way to a simpler life, have you been tempted by the thought of really downsizing? Like, tiny house style? Imagine your entire life fitting into a living space of just a few hundred square feet?
The Far Side’s Enduring Popularity
Guest: Kerry Soper, Professor in the Department of Comparative Arts and Letters, Brigham Young University, Author of “Gary Larson and The Far Side”
Cows, cavemen, lumpy not-so-smart humans and animals always outsmarting them. Gary Larson’s strange, but smart, humor made The Far Side a hit. Every year, I’d give my dad the 365-day calendar and neither of us could bring ourselves to throw away the day’s comic when it was time to turn the page. So Dad had file folders full of them. Now it’s been 20 years since Larson retired and still The Far Side has an avid following.
Living High and Feeling Low
Guest: Brent Kious, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Utah
Suicide rates are on the rise in America and researchers have noticed a strange pattern in the data: the highest rates are in the most mountainous states -Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada.
The Importance of Knowing More About Stroke Symptoms, Prevention, and Recovery
Guest: Gary Epler, Physician, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Author of “Alive with Life”
Last week, actor Luke Perry died of a massive stroke at the age of 52. He was a star in Beverly Hills 90210 and more recently in Riverdale. It’s a sobering reminder to those of us in middle age, inclined to think strokes only happen to the elderly or people in poor health.
The Secret Hollywood Studio at the Heart of the Cold War
Guest: Ned O’Gorman, Professor of Communication, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Kevin Hamilton, Professor of Art and Design, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Authors of “Lookout America! The Secret Hollywood Studio at the Heart of the Cold War”
There’s a film called Operation Ivy. It was initially top secret and caused quite a stir when it was finally released to the public in 1952. From pictures of nuclear mushroom clouds to dogfights over Vietnam, some of the most enduring images of America’s Cold War came from Lookout Mountain Laboratory. That’s what the US government called its top-secret film studio tucked into the Hollywood Hills. For two decades the place churned out photos and dramatic films and animations done by artists from Disney. One film even starred movie star Jimmy Stewart. And then the studio quietly shut down and was mostly forgotten.
Motivation, Happiness and Habits
Guest: Gretchen Rubin, Bestselling Author of “The Happiness Project,” “The Four Tendencies” and “Outer Order, Inner Calm” (out March 2019)
Best-selling author Gretchen Rubin is out with a new book called “Inner Order, Outer Calm.” It builds on her ideas about motivation and establishing habits. She divides people into four categories –Four Tendencies, she calls them in her book of the same name –Upholders, Obligers, Questioners and Rebels.
Boeing Planes Grounded
Guest: Richard Aboulafia, Aviation Analyst, Vice President of Analysis, Teal Group
Two fatal crashes in just the last five months –both involving the same newly-redesigned Boeing passenger plane. Hundreds of people dead. On Wednesday, President Trump announced the US would join China, Australia, the UK and the rest of the European Union in temporarily grounding all Boeing 737 Max airplanes. “Our hearts go out to all those who lost loved ones, to their friends to their families in both of the Ethiopian and the Lion Airlines crashes that involved the 737 Max aircraft,” said Trump on Wednesday. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing. Boeing is an incredible company. They are working very, very hard right now and hopefully they’ll very quickly come up with the answer, but until they do the planes are grounded.”
What Happens When Rs and Ds Talk With Each Other, Rather than At or About?
Guest: David Blankenhorn, President and co-founder of Better Angels (LINK FOR WEB: Better-Angels.org)
How upset would you be if your child married an ardent Trump supporter? Or ardent Clinton supporter? Back in the 60s, hardly any parents said they’d be unhappy if their son or daughter married someone from the other party. Today half of Americans –both Republicans and Democrats –told YouGov’s survey-takers they’d be uncomfortable or upset by a cross-party marriage in the family. A nonprofit group called “Better Angels” has spent the last two years bringing together ardent Democrats and Republicans in hopes of fostering civil dialogue.
Oddly Satisfying Trend
Guest: Jessica Myrick, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Penn State
Videos of people squishing slime, slicing bars of soap into thin flakes or even power washing a dirty deck get millions of views on YouTube. Often they’re labeled #OddlySatisfying –and they really are inexplicably mesmerizing.
Finding Life in Space in Analogue Environments on Earth (Originally aired November 12, 2018)
Guest: Morgan Leigh Cable, PhD, Research Scientist in the Instrument Systems Implementation and Concepts Section, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Last month, the nearly 15-year-serviceof the Opportunity Mars rover came to its end. One of the chief discoveries made by the rover was evidence that the Red Planet had large bodies of water on it at one point. At the ceremony commemorating the rover and its findings, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said, “We may not have to wait much longer to get our first glimpse of E.T.” But when we do find life in space, what will it be like? Many astrobiologists suspect that if we do find life in space it will probably be really small –and it won’t be trying to talk to us.
Rising Prices of Prescription Drug (Originally aired December 6, 2018)
Guest: Robin Feldman, JD, Professor of Law, Director of the Intstitute for Innovaton Law, University of California Hastings College of Law.
Members of Congress this week announced plans for a bunch of reforms to address the high cost of prescription drugs – including ways to introduce competition for blockbuster drugs more quickly. University of California Hastings Law Professor Robin Feldman is author of the new book, “Drugs, Money and Secret Handshakes: The Unstoppable Growth of Prescription Drug Prices.” We spoke with her in December, just as the book was to be published.
A Celebrated African Novelist on Migration and Identity (Originally aired March 29, 2018)
Guest: Ken Bugul, Celebrated Senegalese Author of “Le Baobab Fou” and Other Novels
If you look at the list of countries whose citizens have left for other places over the last decade, Syria’s emigrant population has grown the fastest worldwide. The rest of the top ten countries with fastest growing rates of emigration are all in Africa. So, it’s not too surprising that migration was something Ken Bugul spoke passionately about during a visit to our studio last year as a guest of BYU’s Africana Studies program.
Drilling May Finally Happen in Alaska’s ANWR, After Decades of Debate
Guest: Liz Ruskin, Correspondent for Alaska Public Media
A plan to drill for oil in the wild Alaska is Top of Mind today, as the public comment period on the project closes. We’re talking about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge –or ANWR -which politicians, environmental groups, energy companies and Native Alaskan communities have argued about for a generation.
Online Public Mugshots Have Become a Controversial Business
Guest: Sarah Lageson, Rutgers School of Criminal Justice
You know those mugshot websites you see advertised online? We’re so intrigued –for some reason –by seeing how people look in a police camera. Well, just imagine, for a moment, that you or your kid end up arrested. Maybe you’re never even charged with a crime after the dust settles, but your mugshot is now in the public record. And thanks to one of those mugshot websites, it’s now the first thing that pops up when someone Googles you. What a way for a prospective employer to meet you online, eh?
Tom Wolfe, American’s First Concierge
Guest: Tom Wolfe, Chief Concierge, The Fairmont
The concierge is a fixture in luxury hotels, discreetly recommending a great place to eat or snagging you a seat to sold out show. But it wasn’t until 1974 that concierges even existed in America. That was the year Tom Wolfe opened a concierge desk at The Fairmont in San Francisco modeled on what he’d seen in Europe.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
In today's visit, Sam shares a story by Bil Lepp, the storyteller who cut his teeth as the perennial winner of West Virginia's annual "Liar's Contest." Sometimes Bil writes a whole story just so he can say a line he thinks is funny. Today's story is called "Hell's Congress," and it's the most political Bil ever gets.
A Better Way to Track Jumps During Sports Practice, Avoid Overuse Injuries
Guest: Dustin Bruening, Professor of Exercise Sciences, Brigham Young University
Researchers at BYU have created a device that measures the performance of figure skaters, similar to the way a Fit Bit works. The main goal of the device is to allow skaters to train smarter and more efficiently. It's been difficult to create something like this in the past because of the complex movements of skaters. Researchers focused on the aspect of skating skaters and coaches want to know the most about: jumps. The device focused on three aspects of jumps: count, height, and rotation speed. Measuring jumps allows athletes to avoid overuse injuries, and better understand mistakes their making. The way that athletes work to improve is repetition and having a device to provide more information will help them with technique.
Disease Detectives
Guest: Brian Amman, Ecologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
When a mysterious outbreak of a deadly disease like Ebola happens somewhere in the world, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sends in a team of disease detectives. Rather than looking for a criminal, these detectives are looking for the source of the infection.
Dealing with a Neighbor Conflict
Guest: Emily de Schweinitz Taylor, Conflict Mediator, Author of “Raising Mediators”
Is your neighbor starting a Spring construction project that’s driving you nuts? Or running the lawnmower next to your window at 6 a.m. every Saturday? Leaving their empty trash cans on the curb for days after pickup? Maybe their dog spends half the night barking or their teenaged kids block your driveway with their cars at night?
Schools Are Implementing Software that Can Detect Violence on Social Media
Guest: Gary Margolis, Founder & CEO of Social Sentinel
It’s unfortunate that after an incident of school violence, police will dig into the student’s social media and discover there were clues people missed. Clues that might have helped prevent the tragedy.
The Not-so-Secrets of Polyglots
Guest: Lydia Machova, Founder of Language Mentoring
Anyone who’s struggled to learn a second language probably finds people like Lydia Machova a little annoying. “I love learning foreign languages,” she said at the start of her TED Talk last year, which has been viewed two million times. “In fact, I love it so much I like to learn a new one every two years –currently working on my eighth. But the thing that’s interesting about Machova’s perspective on languages is that she insists she’s no prodigy. That most people who speak lots and lots of languages have no special talent for it. They’ve just learned an important secret.
Making up Lost Sleep Won’t Make You any Healthier
Guest: Christopher Depner, Assistant Research Professor of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado, Boulder
Getting enough sleep is hard! It’s tempting to skimp during the week and catch up with a good long sleep over the weekend. Sleep scientist Christopher Depner at the University of Colorado Boulder has looked into whether this works and –and let’s just say the news is not encouraging.
Winter for the Wild
Guest: Bridget B. Baker, Clinical Veterinarian, Wayne State University
It isn’t uncommon this time of year to see dogs out for a walk decked out in little sweaters and booties. Do they really need protection from the cold? How do squirrels and other animals manage in the wild without owners to bundle them up in cable knit?
Worlds Awaiting: Top 100 Novels of All Time
Guest: Rachel Wadham, host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Citizenship Question Stalls 2020 Census
Guest: Hansi Lo Wang, National Correspondent, NPR
Two federal judges have now ruled against the Trump Administration’s plan to include a question on next year’s Census that asks if the person being counted is a citizen of the United States. Why is such a simple question so controversial that the Supreme Court is planning to weigh in next month?
Teaching Proper Etiquette and Social Grace Through Cotillion
Guest: Ann Achiu Director of the Fairfax and Arlington Chapters of the National League of Junior Cotillions
Kids as young as sixth-grade have spent the last five months learning to waltz and introduce themselves politely and sit up straight at dinner. The boys wear suits. The girls wear dresses –and sometimes even gloves, because there’s an old-timey feel to cotillion. The months-long etiquette course culminates with a fancy Spring ball. Did you know this tradition was alive and well in America?
The Real Paleo Diet . . . Doesn't Exist
Guest: Herman Pontzer, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University
The whole idea behind the "paleo" diet is that if we go back to eating like our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we won’t have all the obesity and diabetes and heart disease our modern lifestyle has brought. Makes total sense when you look at the few hunter-gatherer societies left on the planet today: They are in excellent health. But studying the diet and exercise of actual hunter-gatherer societies alive today paints a different picture of the kind of diet that "works."
Wireless Sensors Now Let Parents Cuddle Their Children While Staying at NICU
Guest: Amy Paller, Professor of Pediatrics and Chair of the Dermatology Department at Northwestern Medicine
Having a baby in the newborn intensive care unit is scary and stressful for parents. Worse, all the wires hooked up to monitors keeping tabs on the baby’s vital signs get in the way of the way of physical bonding between a newborn and its parents. Researchers at Northwestern University have developed wireless sensors to solve this problem.
How to Not Let Stereotypes Undermine Your Performance
Guest: Russell McClain, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, University of Maryland Carey School of Law
We hear a lot about how stereotypes affect the way we treat other people. Even when you think you’re not affected by stereotypes, you probably are. Somewhere on a subconscious level, you’re making snap judgments about people based on their race or gender or religion. But how do you suppose stereotypes about you –about your race, gender or religion affect you? When you’re the only one like you in a group –the only woman, the only person of color, the only member of your faith–do you feel pressure to defy stereotypes?
Potty Policies
Guest: Steve Hodges, Pediatric Urology at Wake Forest University Medical Center
Put yourself in the place of your child’s school teacher. You’ve got 30 or 40 kids in the class. You’ve got material to get through, order to maintain and short attention spans to wrangle. And every few minutes a new kid is asking to go potty. It’s no wonder, for the sake of order, teachers have rules about bathroom breaks. Besides, for all the teacher knows, that kid just wants to stretch his legs and doesn’t really need to pee. But forcing a child to "hold it" can have serious health consequences.
When Rules Ruled Society and Mrs. Astor Was Queen
Guest: Cecelia Tichi, Professor of English and American Studies, Vanderbilt University, Author of “What Would Mrs. Astor Do?”
Mark Twain called it the “Gilded Age,” a time when strict rules ruled, and manners really mattered. From 1870 to 1900, the US population doubled, industry expanded, and wealth exploded. New York City was the center of it all and Caroline Astor was its queen.
A True Story About Schizophrenia
Guest: Sandy Allen, Author of “A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story about Schizophrenia”
Schizophrenia is a devastating disorder. There’s no test to diagnose it, no cure for it and no clear idea what even causes it. Sandy Allen didn’t know any of this when a manuscript arrived in the mail from Uncle Bob. There were whispers in the family that Uncle Bob was crazy. Over nearly a decade, Sandy Allen struggled to make sense of the story Bob told in the strange, typewritten pages he’d sent. The result is a fascinating look inside the mind of a man who describes himself as “unable to identify with reality.” Sandy Allen’s book is called, “A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story About Schizophrenia.”
What to Do with Americans Who Joined ISIS
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Hundreds of ISIS fighters surrendered this week in Eastern Syria where the US is backing the final push to force the terrorist group out of their last enclave. Once the battle has been won, then comes the problem of what to do with the ISIS fighters that have been captured? The answer is particularly tricky when the prisoner is an American citizen. We’re seeing a case of this play out in the courts right now –a 24-year old woman who was a college student in Alabama went to Syria four years ago to join ISIS and marry a fighter. Now she’s in a refugee camp over there with her baby, expressing remorse and hoping to come back to the US. But the Trump Administration is fighting that.
Famous Dodo Died a Violent Death
Guests: Mark Williams, Professor of Metrology, WMG at University of Warwick; Paul Smith, Director, Oxford University Museum of Natural History
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, there’s a scene with a dodo that was inspired by a famous actual dodo on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in England. The dodo is that stumpy bird that can’t fly and has been extinct for 300 years. Lewis Carroll apparently spent a lot of time at the Oxford museum. In his story, the Dodo challenges Alice and some other creatures to a silly race in which everybody wins. Which is ironic, because the dodo that inspired the story turns out to have died a violent death only recently exposed by scientists studying the Oxford specimen.
Making A True-Crime Podcast
Guest: Dave Cawley, Investigative Reporter and Host of COLD, Podcast for KSL News Radio
Podcasts about real crimes –often unsolved murders -are super popular right now. Of the Top 50 podcasts now on iTunes, about 1/3 of them are in this “true crime” category. Why are we so fascinated with these sordid stories?
Yourself In 4 Letters: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Originally aired October 9, 2018)
Guest: Merve Emre, PhD, MPhil, Associate Professor of English, Oxford University, Fellow, Worcester College, Author, “The Personality Brokers”
The most famous personality test in the world –the one that inspired all those crazy quizzes we take on social media –has a really surprising backstory. It was not developed by psychologists. The creators of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator were a mother-daughter team with no formal scientific training of any sort. But somehow their multiple choices test for sorting people into categories with four-letter codes like INTP or ESFJ has become the tool for companies, colleges, counselors -and even government agencies.
Rising Cost of Insulin Proving Devastating for Millions with Diabetes (Originally aired October 9, 2018)
Guest: Irl Hirsch, M.D., Diabetes Treatment and Teaching Chair, professor of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, University of Washington
This week, drug company Eli Lilly announced it will sell a cheaper generic version of its popular insulin. That’s welcome news for Americans with diabetes who’ve been wrestling with sky-high prices. A Yale survey recently found one in four patients are rationing their insulin because they can’t afford it. Last fall we spoke with endocrinologist Irl Hirsch about the problems that high insulin prices cause. He’s a professor at the University of Washington and has Type 1 diabetes himself.
Pluto May Be a Planet After All (Originally aired October 24, 2018)
Guest: Philip Metzger, PhD, Planetary Scientist, University of Central Florida
Poor little Pluto got demoted from full planet status more than a decade ago, but some of its advocates are still agitating to get it restored to its former glory. One of those is planetary physicist Philip Metzger at the Florida Space Institute. He says the reasons for re-classifying Pluto as a “dwarf planet” rather than a full planet were misguided. Metzger recently left NASA and joined us a few months ago to make the case for Pluto.
SpaceX & NASA Take a Big Step in Space Travel
Guest: Jeff Foust, Senior Staff Writer, Space News
Since a press conference, the SpaceX craft successfully docked at the International Space Station. It’ll come back to earth on Friday. But what’s the big deal here? NASA has sent people and stuff to the International Space Station many times. This latest launch didn’t even have astronauts on board.
Poop-Seeking Dogs Work to Save Endangered Orcas
Guest: Deborah Giles, Vessel Captain for this Project, University of Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology
Since orcas in the Pacific Northwest were placed on the endangered species list more than a decade ago, their status hasn’t improved. No one was quite sure why. That is, until sniffer dogs hit the water and found scientific gold: killer whale feces. How do you train a dog to sniff scat on the open sea?
How Liberia’s Women Overthrew Male Domination to Elect Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Guest: Helene Cooper, Pentagon Correspondent, New York Times, Author of “Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.”
Six of the 16 people currently running for president in 2020 are women. Hillary Clinton confirmed this week she will not make another run at the White House. What will it take for America to elect a female president? A decade before Clinton’s “Pantsuit Nation” came up short, the women of Liberia staged what New York Times reporter Helene Cooper calls a master-class in how to do it. That’s when Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first democratically-elected female president in Africa.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story.
The Race to Find our Hidden Planet
Guest: Mike Brown, Professor of Planetary Astronomy, California Institute of Technology
Years ago, Mike Brown gathered evidence that Pluto is just one of lots of small icy planets in the outskirts of the solar system and that led to Pluto’s demotion from the nine planets in the solar system kids memorize in grade school. Brown –who is a Professor of Planetary Astronomy at Caltech –is now leading the charge to add a ninth planet back to the list. No, he’s not bringing Pluto back. He and other astronomers believe there’s some giant planet nobody’s ever seen before way out past Neptune orbiting the sun on a really weird path.
Religion, Retail, and John Wanamaker’s Empire
Guest: Nicole Kirk, Associate Professor, Rev. Dr. J. Frank and Alice Schulman Chair in Unitarian Universalist History, Meadville Lombard Theological School
Chik-Fil-A is closed on Sundays, which you probably know is because the company founder was a devout Southern Baptist. And Hobby Lobby's owners are religious, too: you'll notice a lot of Christian themed decor for sale in their craft stores. But when it comes to blending religion and retail, John Wanamaker did it really big. His flagship department store in downtown Philadelphia had a huge pipe organ in the balcony fit for a cathedral. Wanamaker was as devoted to Christianity as he was to consumerism. So, he married the two in his groundbreaking chain of stores during the late 1800s. He liked to say that his stores were his “pulpit.” Any retailer today who infuses their religious beliefs with their business owes a debt to John Wanamaker.
Brexit, Kashmir, Algeria
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
In less than a month, the UK will leave the European Union and Britain’s leaders have yet to approve a plan for the exit.
Polio Vaccines
Guest: Ann Lee Hussey, Polio Survivor and Vaccine advocate
We’ve been hearing a lot about measles outbreaks in parts of the country where parents are opting not to vaccinate their children against the disease. Being reluctant to vaccinate your child is not just a trend in America. The World Health Organization names “vaccine hesitancy” a top ten threat to global health in 2019. Ann Lee Hussey uses her personal experience having contracted polio as a baby to encourage reluctant parents in countries around the world to vaccinate their children.
How the West Exported “Beauty” to the East
Guest: C.N. Le, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Asian Studies Certificate Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Every community has its own ideal of beauty. As Utah girl growing up in the 80s, my kinky curls were my torment. No amount of teasing and straightening would give me the smooth, bouncy hair that was considered beautiful. Why do communities gravitate toward one single beauty ideal when there are so many variations of skin color, hair texture and facial features? If “variety is the spice of life,” why would we all want to look the same?
Music of the Past: Auschwitz’s Deadly March
Guest: Patricia Hall, Professor of Music Theory, University of Michigan
“The Most Beautiful Time of Life” is the name of this happy tune. But wipe from your mind the image of couples foxtrotting around a ballroom in the Roaring Twenties. This version was arranged and played by an orchestra of prisoners at Auschwitz –the Nazi death camp. Apparently, the German SS soldiers like to dance in the evenings and the prisoner musicians were forced to oblige.
Using Drones to Attack Invasive Rats
Guest: Chad Hanson, Project Director of Island Conservation
If there’s anywhere on the world that would be safe from human encroachment, you’d think it’d be Seymour Norte. It’s one of the islands in the Galapagos chain, home to the Blue Footed Booby, which is a bird with feet the color of a robin’s egg. The Blue Footed Boobies and iguanas that live on Seymour Norte are right now in trouble because rats are feasting on their eggs. These are rats that hitched a ride on a boat to the Galapagos at some point and they’ve upset the whole ecosystem of the island. So, there’s an effort underway to eradicate the rats using remote-controlled drones dropping poison.
Defanging the Terror in Nightmares
Guest: Patrick McNamara, Associate Professor of Neurology, University of Minnesota Medical School; Professor of Psychology, Northcentral University
I have a bunch of recurring dreams that are stressful, but nothing that would qualify as a nightmare, really. I’m lucky that way, because apparently about four percent of American adults – that’s millions of people – have nightmares frequently enough to disrupt their quality of life. Not to mention all of the children whose nightmares wreak havoc on their sleep – and their parents. The main treatment for nightmare disorder doesn’t work well for everyone. Sleep researcher Patrick McNamara is working on a way to improve it using virtual reality goggles.
Let Teens of Anti-Vaxx Parents Choose for Themselves
Guest: Dorit Rubenstein Reiss, Professor of Law, UC Hastings College of Law
As many as 1 in 10 parents in the US are not following the vaccination schedule recommended for their children by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the last two months, the CDC says more than 200 cases of measles have been confirmed in 10 states. A third of those are in Washington State, where parents of public-school children are allowed to opt out of vaccination for personal reasons not related to religion or a medical condition.
Promoting Positive Body Image for Youth
Guest: Renae Regehr, Founder, Free to Be Talks
Ever look at a stunning photo of a person in a magazine and wonder if they digitally enhanced the model? In France, it’ll soon be easy to tell. France recently passed a law requiring labeling of all retouched photos used in media. In 2014, the US Congress considered such a bill, but it never even made it to a vote. So kids here are still on their own when in sifting the distorted body images that come their way.
The Bill Murray Stories
Guest: Tommy Avallone, Director, “The Bill Murray Stories”
What would you do if Bill Murray just showed up at your kickball game and joined in? Bill Murray’s become famous for these random sightings –popping in on house parties, photobombing engagement pictures. So, filmmaker Tommy Avallone had been hearing these stories and wondered if they could really be true. And if they were, why was a famous movie star like Bill Murray wandering around mingling with the regular folk when he could be cloistered away in a mansion somewhere?
Soda Taxes Reducing Consumption
Guest: Kristine Madsen, Faculty Director, Berkeley Food Institute, University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health
Almost half of adults in America have diabetes or are on the verge of getting it if they don’t make some changes. Maybe we could use a nudge? That’s where the soda tax comes in. Nearly 40 countries have them and seven US cities. Berkeley, California was the first to take the plunge. Five years later, there’s some evidence the tax is working.
Unexpected Discovery Illuminates Women’s Role in Creating Medieval Manuscripts
Guest: Alison Beach, Professor of Medieval History, Ohio State University
In Medieval times, before the printing press was invented, books were produced by hand. Monks with outstanding penmanship would spend their lives making painstaking copies. The fanciest books were embellished with colorful designs, and usually the scribe would get no credit for his artistry because his work was done anonymously. I say, “his” because we tend to assume only men did the job in the Middle Ages.
Wood on the Rise
Guest: Michael Ramage, Professor of Architecture and Engineering, Cambridge University, Director of Cambridge Center for Natural Material Innovation
Wood makes a cozy house or cabin, but no way could you build a skyscraper out of wood, could you? It’d collapse under the weight! And what about fire? Or rain or rot? There’s a reason the world’s tallest buildings are made of steel and concrete. But don’t discount timber. Some tall buildings are starting to pop up around the world made of high-tech plywood –they’re sometimes called “plyscrapers.”
Does Hollywood Still Have a Diversity Problem After 2019’s Historic Oscars?
Guests: Nancy Wang Yuen, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Biola University and author of “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism”; Maryann Erigha, PhD, Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, University of Georgia and author of “The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry”
You wouldn't know that Hollywood has a diversity problem if you just looked at the 2019 Oscars. Three of the four acting awards went to people of color (Regina King, Mahershala Ali and Rami Malek). Groundbreaking African American director and writer Spike Lee finally won a competitive Oscar (for BlacKkKlansman). Costume Designer Ruth Carther and Production Designer Hannah Beachler are the first African American women to win Oscars in their fields (both for Black Panther). And that's just a partial list of the diversity-related firsts this year. So, maybe #OscarsSoWhite is ancient history? Hollywood is now colorblind? Well, it’s more complicated than that.
How America Made the Central American Refugee Crisis
Guest: Maria Josefina Saldana-Portillo, PhD, Professor of Latin American & Latinx Studies, NYU, author of "Indian Given"
President Trump says the threat is so great, he’s declared a national emergency to address it. We can debate how serious the threat actually is and whether a wall will help. What we don’t hear discussed is how we helped cause the violent situation people in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are fleeing. That brutal gang MS-13 Trump talks about? It started in America as a direct result of our interference in civil wars in Central America. Then we shipped those gang members back to their home countries –even though they’d lived in America basically all their lives. So the question at the heart of our conversation this hour is a moral one: Do we have the right to turn away women and children now fleeing those violent gangs?
The Truth is Out There, but Most of Us Can’t Find it Online
Guest: Sam Wineburg Professor of Education and History, Stanford University, Author of “Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone)”
If you’re looking for it online, you’ll need some skills most of us over 30 did not learn in school. Remember when getting the facts about something entailed consulting an encyclopedia or using the card catalog to track down a book on the subject? Today, finding answers isn’t the problem. It’s knowing which answer to trust. And Sam Wineburg says most of us are pretty bad at that.
Tunisia’s Democracy Shows the Power of Islamic Political Movements
Guest: Shadi Hamid, Senior Fellow- Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution
There’s a legal battle underway this week in Tunisia over the right of an LGBT advocacy group to exist in an Islamic country where homosexuality is a crime. That there’s even a debate about the question –that it’s being settled in court rather than through violence –is significant. Eight years ago, the popular uprisings that overthrew dictators around the Arab world began in Tunisia. But today, only Tunisia has held onto the democracy installed during the Arab Spring. It’s considered an “island of freedom” in North Africa. But it’s not out of the woods.
The Case for Making Robots More Human
Guest: Amy LaViers, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois
A couple of viral videos from a robotics company called Boston Dynamics have gotten a ton of attention because they’ve got this robot –named Atlas –that can do flawless backflips. It looks human-like, too, with two arms and two legs with ankles and knees and hips. The general reaction from millions of people who’ve seen that video is –“Well, that’s it, then. The robots have won.”
Why We Should Listen to Bees (Originally aired June 7, 2018)
Guest: Mark Winston, PhD, Professor and Senior Fellow in Simon Fraser University's Center for Dialogue and Professor of Biological Sciences
The world’s largest bee was thought to have been extinct since 1981, but earlier this month one was rediscovered on an island in Indonesia. It has a wingspan of 2.5 inches across, and it frankly looks mean. But is that fair? Bees too often get a bad rap, argue poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar biologist Mark Winston in their book, “Listening to the Bees.” Bees can teach us quite a bit about being better humans, they argue.
The White Shark Café (Originally aired July 3, 2018)
Guest: Barbara Block, PhD, Professor of Biology, Stanford University
Great White Sharks live in the coastal waters. But once or twice a year, many of them head for open ocean, congregating in a remote area in the Pacific that looks quite barren. Why do these Great Whites make that long trek to such an odd place?
What an Italian Child Grave Suggests About Ancient Fears and Beliefs (Originally aired October 17, 2018)
Guest: David Soren, PhD, Professor of Archaeology, University of Arizona
In central Italy between Rome and Florence there’s an ancient burial ground known as the “Cemetery of Babies.” It dates to the 5th Century AD and may hold the remains of children who died in a devastating malaria epidemic. Archaeologists and anthropologists working there have uncovered lots of unusual things –including last year, when the remains of a10-year-old child were found buried with a rock jammed in the mouth. What can these discoveries tell us about how ancient Romans thought about life, death and disease?
Venezuelan Crisis Escalates
Guest: Laura Gamboa, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Utah State University
Embattled Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is digging in against efforts to oust him. Over the weekend, Maduro supporters blocked a convoy of humanitarian aid from entering Venezuela and two people were killed in violence at the border. Why would Maduro prevent much-needed food and medicine from getting to his people? Because he denies a humanitarian crisis exists.
Do School Suspensions Reduce School Violence?
Guest: Charles Bell, PhD, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Illinois State University
Millions of kids get suspended from public schools around the US every year. Suspension is a way to punish a student for seriously bad behavior, alert the parents that the school means business and keep the other students at the school safe. But kicking a kid out of school for a few days or weeks may not do any of those things.
One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America
Guest: Tommy Tomlinson, Author “The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America”
More than half of Americans are overweight, and everything is getting bigger to make room for us -seats, clothes, beds. But Tommy Tomlinson doesn’t want the world to expand for him. He wants to make himself fit. "I've spent a lifetime telling other people's stories," writes Tomlinson in his new memoir. "My weight is the biggest story of my life, but I haven't told it - because I was embarrassed, because I was afraid, because I knew I didn't understand myself. It's time to tell it."
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne reports from the Weber State University Storytelling Festival in Ogden, Utah.
Could India and Pakistan Come to Nuclear Blows?
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Asia Program Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
There are only nine countries in the world that have nuclear weapons. The presidents of two of them –North Korea and the US –are meeting this week for nuclear negotiations. But two others are right now exchanging air strikes that experts worry could escalate very quickly. India and Pakistan are neighbors and long-time rivals. Pakistan today says it shot down two Indian planes that had crossed into Pakistani territory and claims to have captured an Indian Air Force pilot.
Lie Detectors Don’t Work, But America is Still Obsessed With Them
Guest: Ken Alder, Professor of History, Northwestern University, Author of “The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession”
They’re a staple in TV crime dramas and they always seem to come up when a public figure is accused of some misdeed. But they’re so unreliable they’re usually not admissible in court. We’re talking about lie detector tests. I’ve never taken one. Have you?
EU Take on Trump’s Tough Trade Stance
Guest: David O’Sullivan, European Union Ambassador to the United States
Speaking to Governors at the White House on Monday, President Trump said: European Union is very, very tough. Very, very tough. They don't allow our products in. They don't allow our farming goods in. You people know. Many of you represent farm states. They won't --you know that better than anybody. They won’t allow our farm products –they won’t take any. The President also mentioned the fees European countries put on American cars imported over their boundaries. Trump has threatened to raise the fees America puts on European cars like Mercedes and BMW that come here to be sold in the US. That threat is one big reason European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker came to Washington last summer and agreed with President Trump that the US and EU would hold trade talks.
Scooby Doo
Guest: Kevin Sandler, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Arizona State University, Author of the upcoming book “Scooby Doo”
Scooby Doo is 50 this year. It was a staple of my childhood, and I hear people in their 30s and 40s are passing the Scooby love down to their kids, too. Would you believe the idea for the show was inspired, partly, by Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night”? A TV executive in 1969 heard Sinatra crooning “dooby dooby doo” at the end of the song and thought it’d be a great name for a mystery cartoon centered around a fraidy-cat dog.
What is Space Weather and Do You Need An Umbrella?
Guest: Jim Wild, PhD, Professor of Space Physics, Lancaster University
A bout of extreme weather –like that polar vortex that turned the Midwest to ice recently –can bring everything to a halt: flights, roads, school classes. For decades, astronomers have been warning of another kind of extreme weather that could wreak even more havoc on our modern technology –frying satellites, knocking GPS off line, zapping electric grids. It’s space weather.
How Touch Technologies Could Rock Your World
Guest: Chris Harrison, Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University
We can all agree touch screens are amazing, but we’ve still got the problem of big thumbs and tiny keyboard buttons or links. So, what if everything around us was a touch screen? Your couch could sense when the cat’s about to scratch and shoo it away. The reminder you scribble on a Post-It would be automatically uploaded to your computer.
Ask A Philosopher
Guest: Lee McIntyre, Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University
If you encountered an academic sitting at a table on the street with a sign that said, “I’m a philosopher –ask me a question!” would you stop? I would not. If it was a therapist or a doctor or even a priest or rabbi, I’d have lots of things I’d like to ask. But philosophers? They’re only interested in big, unanswerable questions. If I’m going to ask a random person on the street a question, I’d like an answer, thank you very much. So, I’m passing right on by that philosopher at the table.
Worlds Awaiting: Shakespeare in Comics
Guest: Rachel Wadham
What to Expect from Historic Second Meeting Between US and North Korea
Guest: Richard McBride, PhD, Associate Professor of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, Brigham Young University
President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet this week in Vietnam. It’s only the second time a sitting US president has met face to face with the North Korean leader. The first time was when Trump and Kim met last summer. President Trump boasted of the progress he’s made on North Korea during his State of the Union Address
Regulating Seizures through a Ketogenic Diet
Guest: Eric Kossoff, MD, Director of the Child Neurology Residency Program and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
You’ve probably heard of the Ketogenic Diet–it’s the latest health and beauty fad. On this meal plan, 90% of your calories come from fats. While that fat content makes it highly controversial as a weight loss strategy, the keto diet has made waves in the epilepsy community as a way to stop seizures in children.
The Doodle Revolution
Guest: Sunni Brown, Author, “The Doodle Revolution”
If your kid’s notebook is full of doodles, you may be worried they’re not paying any attention in school. I’m a chronic doodler, and when I do it in business meetings, I always worry that my boss is going to think I don’t care about work. So, is doodling bad? Sunni Brown doesn’t think so. She’s written a whole book about how we need to change the way we think about the practice called “The Doodle Revolution.”
Drone Defense Ethics
Guest: Ryan Jenkins, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at California Polytechnic State University, Director of Ethics and Policy, White Fox Defense Technologies
It’s the wild west out there when it comes to drones. They’re flying around invading privacy, making fire-fighting more difficult, and even smuggling contraband into prisons. While the government is still figuring out the best way to regulate drones, new companies are cropping up with technology to defend against the aircrafts.
What Makes a Place Your Home?
Guest: Brad Barber, Professor of Film and Documentary Making, BYU
The average American moves more than 11 times in their lifetime. So, what do you call home? Is it the first place you lived, where you lived the longest, or where you live now? Or does it have more to do with the people and culture of a place? Award-winning documentary director and BYU film professor Brad Barber set out to answer that question through a documentary called “States of America.”
Machines with an Imagination
Guest: Alex Schlegel, PhD, Neuroscience Researcher, Vicarious
Picture a dragon with a rabbit head. I’m sure you’ve never seen a dragon rabbit, but you can imagine it. That ability to conjure up images makes us human and separates us from machines –for now. As scientists figure out just how our brains do that, artificial imagination in machines is on its way.
Raising a Black Child in a White World
Guest: Loki Mulholland, Documentary Filmmaker, “Black, White & Us”; Allison Schlichter, Parent and Co-Founder of the Children’s Equity League
Your kids learned a lot about who they are and where they fit in society by watching and imitating you. But what if a child is so fundamentally different from his parents that he can’t learn to navigate the world by following their footsteps? That’s the bind transracial family faces. Up to a quarter of adoptions in the US every year are “transracial” –and most of those are white couples adopting a black child. In the new documentary, “Black, White & Us” several such couples talk candidly about how unprepared they were for the challenge.
Why Don’t We Tackle Mass Shootings Like We Tackle Terrorism? (Originally aired February 27, 2018)
Guest: Ari N. Schulman, Editor of the New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society
Last week, a man in Aurora, Illinois lethally shot five of his coworkers, and wounded 5 police officers that responded. The pace of mass shooting events is rising rapidly in the US. But what if there was a different way to think of shootings? What if we’re so busy blaming guns, or mental health, or lack of security in schools that we’re failing to see these mass shootings for what they actually are? And, that’s why they keep happening?
Smart Medical Devices are Revolutionizing Healthcare (Originally aired November 13, 2018)
Guest: Leslie Saxon, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, Director of USC Center for Body Computing
Imagine if there was a prescription pill that could measure exactly when you took it and send that information to your smart phone to remind you when to take the next dose. Or maybe even alert your doctor if you’re not taking the medicine right and your health is at risk. The FDA has already approved a smart pill like this, developed through the work of the University of Southern California’s Center for Body Computing.
This is Your Brain on Audiobooks (Originally aired October 23, 2018)
Guest: Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology, University of Virginia
Listening is in right now –whether it’s podcasts or the latest New York Times bestseller. The fastest growing segment of the publishing industry is audiobooks. And given how busy society has become, that makes perfect sense. You can listen while you do all the other stuff on your schedule. But how well do we actually catch and retain what we’re hearing as opposed to reading it in print?
Congress and President in Power Struggle Over War Powers
Guests: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, BYU; Geoffrey Corn, Professor of International Law, South Texas College of Law, Houston
e US House has taken the rare step of invoking something called the War Powers Resolution to try and force President Trump to withdraw US military support for the Saudis in the Yemeni Civil War. That conflict has been going on for four years –causing thousands of civilian deaths and a devastating famine. The Senate passed a similar condemnation our involvement in Yemen late last year and likely has the votes to approve the new one. Which means President Trump will either have to veto it or be forced to withdraw US support for the Saudis. He’s promised to veto and says Congress is overstepping its authority. All of this gets at some really important questions about who should be allowed to wage war on America’s behalf?
Shrimp Shells May Be the Key to Renewable Energy
Guest: Robin Rogers, PhD, Research Professor of Chemistry, University of Alabama, Founder of 525 Solutions
If you're an American fan of shrimp, you probably take the shells off before you eat them. In the US, that outer layer usually gets thrown away or sold as fertilizer. But one chemist believes the shrimp shell may soon be worth \_more \_than the meat inside.
Award-Winning Short Film Explores Abandoned Dreams
Guest: Robert Machoian Graham, Professor of Photography at Brigham Young University
A short film about a band called The Minors won an award at the Sundance Film Festival this year. The Minors is more of a dream than an actual band. In fact, it's a film about dreams, both old and young. The film is a very personal reflection by the director, and actually features his own children and his own father.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
Would you Quit Facebook for $1,000?
Guest: Jay Corrigan, Professor of Economics, Kenyon College
There always seem to be a few people in my Facebook feed threatening to delete their accounts for personal or political reasons. The latest is this new allegation that Facebook reveals people’s personal health information when they join a “closed group” dedicated to a certain disease. If we think Facebook is irresponsible or biased, you’d think it’d be pretty easy to dump it. But the site is a lot more valuable to us personally than a lot of people think.
Fear and Humor Are Both Good Motivators (Originally Aired: 3/28/2018)
Guest: Christofer Skurka, PhD Candidate, Communication, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University
Comedians like Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver and Seth Meyers are more and more a source of information. Their satire and sarcasm provoke viewers to question what’s going on in the world. How effective is humor in changing people’s minds and behaviors?
The Secret Co-Creator of Batman
Guest: Marc Tyler Nobleman, Author, “Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman,” featured in Hulu’s “Batman and Bill”
From the comic books to the campy TV cartoon to steady stream of blockbuster films, everybody knows Batman. And most know he’s the secret crime-fighting identity of billionaire orphan Bruce Wayne. Superfans also know the name Bob Kane, who got rich and famous as the creator of Batman. The sole creator, he insisted. But he wasn’t. There was another guy, named Bill Finger, who deserves just as much credit for Batman. Author Marc Nobleman has spent years trying to get justice for that guy. He wrote a book called, “Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman.”
National Emergencies and the US Constitution
Guest: Chris Edelson, Assistant Professor of Government, American University School of Public Affairs, Author of “Emergency Presidential Power: From the Drafting of the Constitution to the War on Terror”
President Trump has declared a National Emergency at the southern US border and plans to redirect some Defense Department funding to supplement the money Congress gave him for a border wall. On Monday, sixteen states with Democratic attorneys general filed a federal lawsuit to block the plan, arguing that it’s unconstitutional. What does the Constitution say about the President’s power to declare a national emergency? And does the situation at the border qualify?
Who Cares How the President Spends His Time?
Guest: Stacy Cordery, Professor of History, Iowa State University
We can’t imagine many jobs more stressful than being President of the United States. With the well-being of the nation on your shoulders, it’d be tough to ever step away from the job and recharge or get enough sleep. President Trump’s work ethic has been under scrutiny recently because some leaked copies of his daily schedule show frequent, large blocks of unscheduled time where the President is reported to be watching TV, reading the papers, sending Tweets and making calls to friends, aides and members of Congress. Should this worry us?
You can Remodel your Bain at Any Age!
Guest: Michael Merzenich, Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco
A lot of us have watched a loved one start to lose memory and brain power as they age. It can feel inevitable – and for a long-time scientist agreed that once the brain stops developing in childhood, it’s basically all downhill from there. But today, researchers believe your brain can improve at any age. Neuroscientist Michael Merzenichis one of the leading researchers in this field. He helped invent the cochlear implant, which has led to a much better understanding of the brain’s “plasticity” as it’s called.
Why it Matters that the World's Population May be Shrinking
Guest: John Ibbitson, Journalist, Co-Author of “Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline”
When you were deciding how many kids to have, I bet you thought about things like money and timing and emotional stuff like, “does our family feel complete yet?” Maybe you also thought about whether your house was big enough for another child. On a global scale, experts have been fretting for decades about Earth running out of room. They’ve warned of an impending population crisis that will stress our supply of food, water and land. Cue the apocalyptic soundtrack. But now there’s another group of population experts out there worried that maybe we’ve got the opposite problem –that somewhere around 2050 the Earth’s population is going to start shrinking. Crisis averted, right? Not entirely.
A Real Master Builder: Paid to Play with LEGO
Guest: Noel Straatsma, LEGO Master Model Builder, LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Toronto
The Master Builders of the LEGO Universe are back in theaters, attempting to avert Armamageddon (when Mom puts all the LEGOs in storage because the kids won’t quit fighting over them.) Optimistic LEGO guy Emmet leads the charge in this sequel. He’s come a long way from the first film when he had no Master Builder skills. Master Builders in the LEGO movies save the world with their super-creativity. In real life, what do Master Builders do?
Romantic Comedies Worth Watching
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Forget the stereotype about women preferring romantic comedies at the theater. Last year, Fandango surveyed more than 3,000 female moviegoers and found action movies are the most popular genre for women. RomComs were last on the list. Maybe that’s one reason why “Isn’t It Romantic?” did fairly well in theaters over the weekend –it stars Rebel Wilson and roasts all the typical romantic comedy stereotypes, starting with the single girl who gets knocked unconscious and wakes up to a dreamy doctor who’s taken with her beauty.
The Evolution of ADHD
Guest: Becky Lundwall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Brigham Young University; Mikle South, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Brigham Young University
Nearly 10% of children have been diagnosed with ADHD in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a lot of kids, but the disorder can also be easily misdiagnosed. Over the years, some have even questioned if it exists at all or if a changing society caused it.
A List to Help You Live Your Best Life
Guest: Stacy Taniguchi, PhD, Associate Professor of Experience Design and Management, Brigham Young University
That’s the pop-psychology way of explaining “self-actualization.” Stacy Taniguchi has spent his professional career studying it, and his personal life pursuing it. He’s jumped out of airplanes, guided a blind man to the summit of Denali, crawled off Mt. Everest with a blown-out knee and survived all kinds of hairy moments in the wilderness. Do you really have to push yourself to the limit in the great outdoors to become self-actualized?
What it Means to be Native American in the US
Guest: Michalyn Steele, Professor of Law, BYU, Member of Seneca Nation of Indians of New York
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has made her campaign for President official, all but guaranteeing continued scrutiny of her past claims to be part Cherokee. She has expressed regret for identifying herself as Native American in various formal settings, such as when she applied to the Texas bar in 1986 and when she was a law professor at Harvard in the 1990s. Taking a DNA test last year to prove her ancestry only increased criticism from Native American tribal leaders –to whom she has also personally apologized. Why is it so controversial that a white woman who grew up hearing stories of her Cherokee ancestors would claim Native American identity?
The Art and Ethics of Photographing Tragedy
Guest: Victor Biro, Toronto-Based Nighttime Photojournalist
A popular restaurant called Los Hermanos burned down here the other night. It’s been an icon in downtown Provo, Utah. Generations of BYU students have dated and dined there. So, the first thing I did that next morning was check the papers for photos. We’re drawn to dramatic images of tragedy, for some reason. There’s a whole segment of journalism dedicated to capturing these scenes while the rest of us are sleeping.
Why a Little Piracy Might be Good for Everyone
Guest: Antino Kim, business Professor, Indiana University
Do you share a Netflix password with someone or have a teenager in the house who watches their favorite shows for free from a pirate website? Look, we all know piracy is wrong, but in the digital age it’s just so easy. Hollywood studios and retailers like Netflix and Amazon spend a lot of money and time playing whack-a-mole with digital pirates. Maybe they should relax a bit.
A Week of Insanity with Meliodosis (Originally aired October 29, 2018)
Guest: Steven Peck, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University, Author of the personal essay “My Madness”
For one week back in 2002, BYU biology professor Steven Peck went mad. He had a rare brain infection that stumped his doctors and left him with vivid, disturbing hallucinations: The hospital walls were crawling with insects; an evil corporation had cloned his children and his wife. When antibiotics restored his sanity, Peck was relieved, of course. But also left wondering what was real? If his brain could so completely convince him of some alternate reality, how could he be sure what was real?
How Trauma Can Be Passed on Through Generations (Originally aired October 24, 2018)
Guest: Randy Jirtle, Biology Professor, North Carolina State University
Did you know that life experiences of your parents and grandparents may be embedded in your genes? For example, a 2018 study of Civil War and US Census data found that soldiers held in particularly harsh prison camps during the war ended up having sons who lived shorter lives. These sons weren’t even alive during the war, and yet somehow the trauma of their fathers affected their own health. How can that be?
When it Comes to Picky Eaters, Pick Your Battles Wisely (Originally aired October 5, 2018)
Guest: Julie Lumeng, Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan
The dinner table battles waged between parents and picky children are probably as old as time. How far should parents go in the tug-of-war over peas and broccoli?
Vacancies in Key Positions Hamper US Government
Guest: Max Stier, President and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service
The latest indication from the White House is that President Trump will sign a compromise spending bill, which would avoid another government shutdown at the end of this week. No one in Washington seems eager to go there again. An effective government should never be allowed to shutdown, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. It’s based in DC, and one of its main areas of focus right now is monitoring key government positions that are currently vacant or filled by temporary appointees. There are a lot. Six in the President’s Cabinet alone.
10 Year Study to Find Out How We Develop
Guest: Kara Bagot, MD, Study Co-Investigator
As a parent, you may be worried about how things like screen time, substance use, and sports could affect your child’s brain. Right now, we don’t have solid answers to those questions. But hundreds of researchers are embarking on the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the US to find out. It’s called ABCD or the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and is funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Fit to Parent: Have We Learned the Lessons of America’s Eugenic History?
Guest: Paul Lombardo, Regents' Professor and Bobby Lee Cook Professor of Law, Georgia State University
In the early 1900s, it was legal for people in America to be sterilized against their will –the Supreme Court even said so. After the Nazi horrors came to light most states stopped enforcing their eugenics laws. Even so, there were people into the 1970s who were being forced into sterilization because they were poor, black, disabled, in prison or just deemed unfit to parent. We hope that’s all in the past, right? But have you ever thought to yourself, “that person really shouldn’t be allowed to have kids”? Parents with intellectual disabilities in America, for example, have their children removed by the state up to 80 percent of the time, according to the National Council on Disability. Have we fully learned the lessons of our dark history with eugenics?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
Making A Modern Mongolia Through Heavy Metal Music
Guest: Kip Hutchins, Graduate Student, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
A band called The Hu has racked up more than 13 million views for their first two music videos on YouTube in the last few months. Not The Who –W-H-O. This The Hu -H-U –and they’re a Mongolian heavy metal group. The video shows a motorcycle gang in leathers and bandanas riding across spectacular landscapes while the band plays traditional Mongolian instruments and singing styles. It’s really something to see.
University of Nike
Guest: Joshua Hunt, Author of “University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education”
It’s common for public universities across the country to have close relationships with big corporations and wealthy donors. These arrangements have grown substantially in recent decades, as states have cut funding for higher education. Journalist Joshua Hunt says one deal led the way: “A lot of them refer explicitly to the blue print that was laid out by Nike and Phil Knight and the University of Oregon back in the 1990s. It was a highly unusual situation. I mean, there really wasn’t a roadmap.”
Most Americans Support Legalizing Marijuana. Why?
Guest: Jacob Felson, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology, William Paterson University
Two thirds of Americans now support legalizing cannabis, according to Gallup’s polling. That’s a complete reversal from the late 1960s when barely 10 percent of Americans thought marijuana use should be legal. Over that same period, we’ve seen a wave of states legalizing marijuana for medicine and recreation. Why has public opinion swung so dramatically in support of cannabis in the US?
The Science of Detecting Fake Internet Videos
Guest: Hany Farid, Professor of Computer Science, Dartmouth College
If there’s a video of something, that’s proof it really happened right? I mean people can fake an email or a social media post or even Photoshop a picture. But a video of President Trump saying something on the lawn of the White House –you can’t fake that. Well actually, you can, with the right software. And you don’t even need to be a computer whiz. Digital forgeries can now be so realistic that even a trained eye can be duped. Imagine the trouble that could cause –is causing, in some cases.
Cute Robots Ferrying Food
Guest: Ryan Tuohy, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Starship Technologies.
Pop culture loves heroic and cute robots: R2-D2, Wall-E, BB-8. Now what if one of those little guys delivered you a hot pepperoni pizza? That future may not be far off. As we speak, a fleet of delivery robots is ferrying food around the George Mason University campus. And that institution is just one of the many places around the world where delivery bots are being tested.
What’s—hic—up?
Guest: Georg Petroianu, Chair, Department of Cellular Biology and Pharmacology, Florida International University School of Medicine
Why do we hiccup? Is there some point to it? Kathryn hiccups off and on all the time. But this guy named Charles Osborne holds the record for 68 years of continuous hiccupping! Often up to 20 hiccups a minute. Can you imagine? He died in 1991, just in case you were thinking you might need to call him with some surefire cure your aunt told you about.
Calming Teen Panic Attacks
Guest: Debra Kissen, Clinical Psychologist, Executive Director of Light on Anxiety Treatment Center in Northern Illinois
In the moment that you realize you’ve lost control of your car and will crash, your heart might race, your mind might go blank, you might gasp for air or start shaking. If you’ve ever felt those things and weren’t in immediate danger, it may have been a panic attack. Millions of Americans suffer from them enough to be diagnosed with panic disorder. The first attack often comes in adolescence.
Worlds Awaiting: African American Illustrators
Guest: Rachel Wadham, host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Rachel helps us commemorate Black History Month by highlighting three of her favorite African American illustrators: Kadir Nelson, The Pinckneys (Jerry and Brian) and Brian Collier.
Why Blackface is Never Okay
Guest: David Pilgrim, PhD, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, Founder and Curator of the Jim Crow Museum, Ferris State University
The governor of Virginia continues to face pressure to resign but said over the weekend he'll serve out his term with an emphasis on race and equity. Politicians, fashion brands, and TV show hosts have all come under scrutiny recently for blackface. To understand the controversy, you need to know the history of the practice.
Oscar Nominee Brings Attention to Indigenous People in Mexico
Guest: Luis Urrieta, Susan B. and John L. Adams Professor of Education, University of Texas at Austin
The star of the Netflix film Roma is the first indigenous woman in history to be nominated for an Oscar. She’s up for best actress. Yalitza Aparicio is her name. She plays a live-in maid to an upper class white family in Mexico City. Her Oscar nomination, as an indigenous woman whose own mother is a domestic worker, has focused attention on some of the racial, class and ethnic divisions. Aparacio has even been featured on the cover of Vogue Mexico, which is remarkable, says Luis Urrieta.
Does an Unstable China Poses Risks to America?
Guest: Michael Auslin, Fellow in Contemporary Asia, The Hoover Institute, Stanford University
In the 20thCentury, the U.S. economy was so dominant that people said, “When America sneezes, the world catches a cold.” These days, that might also apply to China. It’s a giant in its neighborhood and our largest trading partner –just look at the stuff around your house. Much of President Trump’s rhetoric in his trade war seems focused on keeping China’s power in check and America in the dominant role. So, the fact that China’s economy is now slowing would seem like good news. But, Asia analyst Michael Auslin warns that storm clouds on China’s horizon could have serious repercussions for us.
When the Aliens Say Hello, Will We Understand?
Guest: Laurance Doyle, Principal Investigator, Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
In the last two decades, astronomers have identified thousands and thousands of planets orbiting stars outside of our solar system. According to NASA, many of them could potentially be habitable. Laurance Doyle has spent his entire career on this quest. He’s a member of the NASA Kepler Science Mission looking for habitable planets in space. And he’s also a research scientist at the SETI Institute, where some of his work entails developing a plan to decipher whatever messages alien life might try to send us one day.
Behind the Keys of the Red Sox Organist
Guest: Josh Kantor, Organist for the Boston Red Sox
This is what you’d expect to hear at Fenway Park during the 7th inning of a Boston Red Sox Game. But regular fans to know to keep their ears perked for sly humor from organist Josh Kantor throughout the game. Kantor has been making Fenway rock for the past 16 seasons. He takes requests on twitter, learns songs on the fly, and last year played 749 different tunes.
Starving Students
Guest: Suzanna Martinez, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
Generations of so-called starving college students have subsisted on ramen, and mac and cheese. Most aren’t truly starving, of course. But a recent government study found there are a lot more students going hungry on American college campuses than we tend to think. Some estimates say thirty percent of college students are “food insecure,” meaning they don’t have ready access to enough food for an active, healthy life. The Government Accountability Office’s report on campus hunger says that anywhere from nine percent to over 50 percent of college students face food insecurity. What's being done about it?
The Magic and Value of Vintage Toys (Originally aired December 14, 2018)
Guest: Joel Magee, America's Toy Scout (toyscout.com)
Toys are meant to be played with and cherished, but some people buy toys they never intend to open. Some of those unopened toys end up being sold for thousands of dollars. A toy is just something to entertain a child, so what makes old ones worth so much money? Is it only the unopened toys that are valuable? If you want to get into collecting them, where would you begin?
Your Teeth Are Time Capsules. Here’s What They Say
Guest: Tanya M. Smith, Associate Professor, Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia; Author of “The Tales Teeth Tell”
We pay to have them scraped, filled and pulled. We obsess over their whiteness. When we’re little, we wiggle and twist them so the Tooth Fairy will visit. But did you know your teeth are time capsules? Every day of your childhood is etched into the crowns and roots of your first molars. Tanya Smith has been crucial to our understanding of how this works. She’s spent her entire career decoding “The Tales Teeth Tell,” which is, incidentally, the name of her new book.
Living Together Before Marriage Should Make for Better Marriages. So Why Doesn’t It?
Guest: Scott Stanley, Research Professor and Co-Director, University of Denver’s Center for Marital and Family Studies
One of the most striking trends in America over the last forty years has been the rise cohabitation. Unmarried couples of all age groups, are living together in greater numbers. Among 18-24 years old, it’s now more common to cohabitate than to actually be married. And the justification is often that living together is a way to test the waters before marriage. But it generally does not lead to better odds that a marriage will succeed. Why?
Milk from Genetically-Modified “Spider-Goats” is Source of Valuable Silk
Guest: Justin Jones
Spider silk is stronger than steel, super lightweight and surprisingly elastic. If we could make it in bulk, it it’d be great for everything from parachutes and sports gear to replacement tendons and ligaments. Which is why the US Navy has been investing for years in a lab at Utah State University that’s figured out how to coax the building blocks of spider silk out of goats and alfalfa and even E. coli bacteria.
Countering New Threats to Asian Elephants
Guest: Peter Leimgruber, Center Head and Conservation Biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
Ivory poachers have long been a serious threat to African elephants, because both male and female African elephants can grow large tusks. Asian Elephants have escaped some of that poaching pressure, because only their males have tusks and they’re often smaller. But a new type of poaching has emerged in the last several years that has conservationists very worried about Asian elephant populations. Males, females and even juveniles are being killed for their skin.
From Rotten Seal to Root Beer: The Disgusting Food Museum (Originally aired October 24, 2018)
Guest: Samuel West, psychologist, Curator of the Disgusting Food Museum
There’s a Latin phrase my father often quoted: “De gustibus non est disputandum.” It means, roughly, “matters of taste cannot be disputed.” Dad, for example, liked to eat his spaghetti noodles and sauce in separate bowls. The idea of making a sweet pie out of a squash –pumpkin in this case –caused my French friends to shudder in disgust when I lived there years ago. Food is the ultimate “matter of taste.” It’s both incredibly individual and culturally specific.
The Hair Industry’s Dark Side (Originally aired October 10, 2018)
Guest: Dan Choi, Founder and Owner of Remy New York
Human hair is a billion-dollar industry globally–and we’re not talking about styling or coloring it. We’re just talking about the buying and selling of hair itself. When a Hollywood star suddenly grows luxurious long locks overnight, it’s thanks to extensions made of real human hair cut off someone else’s head. The trouble is that even the fanciest salons don’t really know where the extensions and wigs they’re using have come from. Common unethical sourcing practices include collecting hair from barbershop floors and exploiting desperately poor women in Asia and India. Entrepreneur Dan Choi’s aims to set a “fair trade standard” for hair. His company is called Remy New York and he commonly pays women five or ten times what a typical hair trader would for their ponytail. Choi joined me a few months ago to talk about the dark side of the hair industry.
Are We Turning into Selfie Narcissists? (Originally aired October 16, 2018)
Guest: Keith Campbell, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Georgia
There is no such thing as a selfie-free zone. Everywhere you turn, someone is hoisting a phone camera and posting it to Instagram or Facebook. Selfie-taking occasionally even turns tragic when someone loses their footing trying to capture the perfect shot on a hiking trail, for example. Are selfies turning us all into narcissists? Or maybe it’s just that social media is tapping into a narcissistic streak society already had in spades?
State of the Union Previews Trump 2020
Guest: James Curry, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
Those who follow President Trump on Twitter may have been surprised by his praise for bipartisanship and compromise. What does the speech tell us about what we can expect from the President in the coming year?
Superheroes and Supermarkets
Guest: Tamara Masters, Professor of Marketing, Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University
BYU marketing professor Tamara Masters has discovered that putting a heroic character like Luke Skywalker on a junk food label made people more willing to buy it. The hero’s benevolent qualities make the ice cream or chips seem less bad for you. And we fall for this.
Faking Military Service
Guest: Don Shipley, Retired Navy SEAL, Military Service Record Investigator
It’s a federal crime to lie about having received US military honors or medals in order to get some benefit. But that doesn’t stop people from trying. And if they do it in a public form –like on TV or a viral video –they’ll probably get called out by Don Shipley. He’s a retired Navy SEAL who’s developed a specialty exposing fakers. He’s the guy who discovered the Native American protester in that viral video from a few weeks ago didn’t actually serve in Vietnam. Most of the time, Shipley’s investigations are lower-profile. He says he gets dozens of requests a day from people wanting to verify that someone’s claim of being a veteran is legit.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam shares a fragment of a story called "Piano Story" by Michael Reno Harrell. It's a comical disaster story of the damage inflicted to Michael's childhood home trying to get a piano into the living room so Michael's brother could take lessons.
Suffering in Silence: Depression’s Toll
Guest: Jane Clayson Johnson, Author of “Silent Souls Weeping: Sharing Stories, Finding Hope”
Most people around the world who experience depression do not seek treatment. They may not have access to help. Or they’re ashamed. Or maybe they don’t realize they’re experiencing depression. In the depths of her first major depressive episode, journalist Jane Clayson Johnson blamed herself for being weak, ungrateful, unfaithful –how could she be so depressed when she was so blessed?
Behind Movie Sound Effects
Guest: Marko Costanzo, Emmy Award-Ainning Foley Artist
When the Incredible Hulk got his own superhero movie awhile back, the invisible details of one particular scene were really important to director Ang Lee. It’s when Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk for the first time. Lee needed the stretching and snapping sounds of Hulk busting out of his human-sized shoes and clothes to be just right. In Hollywood, the job of making sound effects is called “Foley Artist” and Marko Costanzo is one of the best. He did the effects for Hulk and Life of Pi and Ice Age and True Grit and Silence of the Lambs and hundreds of other shows.
Venezuela, Sudan, Israel in Syria
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
It’s been nearly two weeks now since the leader of the opposition controlled legislature in Venezuela –Juan Guiado –declared himself the rightful interim president of the country and demanded Nicolas Maduro step aside. Maduro has not done so, despite the US throwing its weight behind Guaido’s effort to force Maduro out.
Teaching Kids to Building Bridges Between Faiths
Guest: Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core, Author of “Out of Many Faiths Religious Diversity and the American Promise”
People who are active in religious congregations tend to be happier and more civically engaged, according to new analysis by the Pew Research Center. So, religious parents have good reason to want to instill faithful devotion in their kids. But how can we raise kids to believe deeply in their own faith while still respecting the religious beliefs of others?
The Ugly History of Ugly Laws
Guest: Susan Schweik, Professor of English, UC Berkeley and Author of “The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public”
Up until the 1970s, a number of US cities had laws on the books that made it illegal to be seen in public if you had a physical deformity. Can you imagine? It sounds so appalling –and today we can pat ourselves on the back for having seen the error of our ways. But the history of how these so-called “ugly laws” came about be offers insight into how we think about disability in America.
Oysters with a Mission
Guest: Pete Malinowski, Executive Director of the Billion Oyster Project
New York Harbor is famously polluted and has been for a century. But before that, it was world famous for oysters. They were delicious and plentiful. And, because oysters are nature’s water filters, they kept the harbor healthy. But there was only so much the dwindling oyster colonies could do in the face of so much industrial waste and raw sewage being dumped in New York harbor. By 1900, they were gone.
Chinese New Year
Guest: Diana Duan, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
Happy New Year! Today is the first day of the Chinese Lunar calendar –and this is the Year of the Pig. People all over the world are celebrating the Chinese New Year with lots of food, festivals, fireworks, and more food. Legend has it the festivities first began after a monster terrorized a village.
Why Fasting Might Help You Live Longer
Guest: Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Director, Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, University of California, Irvine
Fasting is often associated with religious rites and traditions, but new research suggests that fasting has a lot of really interesting health benefits. Researchers have been doing tests on both mice and humans and the results have been interesting.
New Trump Policy Requires Asylum Seekers To Wait in Mexico
Guest: Jodi Goodwin, Immigration Attorney, Harlingen, Texas
While Congress and the President wrangle over funding for a wall, the Trump Administration is moving ahead with changes in how it treats people seeking asylum at the border. As of a week ago, asylum seekers arriving at the US port of entry in Tijuana are required to stay in Mexico while they wait for a US immigration court to decide if they’ll be granted asylum. The plan is to start doing the same thing at other ports of entry along the border.
An ER Doc’s View of the E-Scooter Craze
Guest: Tarak Trivedi, National Clinician Scholar, Emergency Physician, UCLA, Greater Los Angeles VA Hospital
If you live in a big city, or have visited one in the last year, you’ve seen the electric scooters available for rent by the minute. They’re a huge hit -and for some unlucky riders, a literal hit. Anecdotally, emergency rooms around the country report a spike in injuries when dock less electric scooter rental companies –like Lime and Bird –come to town. The first scientific study to actually track e-scooter injuries has just been published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Augmented Reality for the Blind
Guest: Markus Meister, Professor of Biological Sciences and Executive Officer for Neurobiology, California Institute of Technology
Blind people have two options for navigation: a cane or a guide dog. But there may soon be a third choice: augmented reality. A team at the California Institute of Technology is building a software program that guides the blind through a pair of goggles and spatialized sound.
Determining Your Emotional Signature
Guest: Hillary Anger Elfenbein, Business Professor, Washington University in St. Louis
What effect do you have on the people around you? Do you bring energy to room? Do tensions rise when you arrive? Everyone has an emotional signature, according to research by Hillary Anger Elfenbein and Noah Eisenkraft.
How Fish Help Us Better Understand Social Behaviors and the Human Brain
Guest: Andrew Bass, Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University and Director of the Bass Lab
Neurobiologist Andrew Bass at Cornell University studies these humming fish for insight into how our brains and genes influence human behavior. Believe it or not, fish brains aren’t much different from our own.
He Wants to Be A Cyborg, Do You?
Guest: Professor Kevin Warwick, Emeritus Professor of Cybernetics, Coventry University and University of Reading
The human body is pretty remarkable. But engineer Kevin Warwick thinks it could be a lot better. We can’t communicate brain to brain, telepathically, for example. And we don’t have x-ray or infrared vision. Okay so Warwick’s gripes sound like he’s been watching too much science fiction. But he’s made a name for himself the last 20 years pushing the limits of what the human body can do when it’s merged with technology. He and his students at Coventry University and the University of Reading in England did some pretty wild experiments implanting electrodes and magnets in themselves, making themselves “cyborgs” as Warwick likes to say.
Raising a Challenging Child
Guest: Elaine Halligan, Director, The Parent Practice, Author “My Child’s Different”
Elaine Halligan’s son Sam had been kicked out of three schools by the time he was seven. He was angry and impulsive and his parents worried he was on a path straight toward juvenile detention. The story has a happy ending –today Sam is well-adjusted and successful. Getting there was a 14-year roller coaster for the Halligans, who had to learn an entirely new style of parenting to unlock Sam’s potential. In the process, Elaine Halligan actually switched careers from accountant to parenting coach.
Rethinking Masculinity in America
Guest: Ronald Levant, Professor of Psychology, University of Akron
What did you think of the Gillette ad? Opinions are all over the map. As it happened, the American Psychological Association also just barely came out with a new set of guidelines for treating boys and men. The document says that traditional ideas of masculinity are –on the whole –harmful to everyone, including men. Is this fair or accurate? And what can be done to improve things?
How Men Can Be Allies for Women at Work
Guest: Susan Madsen, Founder of the Utah Women and Leadership Project and Professor of Organizational Leadership, Utah Valley University
We’ve heard about the bind some men find themselves in as traditional masculinity comes under scrutiny. A survey by LeanIn.org finds that almost half of male managers in the US say they’re uncomfortable participating in a common work activity with a woman, such as mentoring or working alone or socializing. A study recently conducted by the Utah Women and Leadership Project attempts to identify effective strategies for “male allies” to improve opportunities for women in the workforce.
Afghanistan Peace, Venezuelan Turmoil, Transgender Ban in US Military
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
The war there has lasted 17 years. But in the last week, talks between US officials and the Taliban have raised hope that the war could finally end. Both sides say the core elements of a deal have been reached that would create a ceasefire and have the US withdraw its troops. But there’s one side that has not been part of those talks –the government of Afghanistan itself. So how’s that going to work, exactly?
Welcome to Wonderland
Guest: Timothy Threlfall, Director, Music Dance Theater Program, BYU; Frank Wildhorn, composer Wonderland
In 2011, a retelling of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” spent just one month on Broadway. The reviews were not great, but just because a musical flops on the biggest stage in showbiz doesn’t mean it’s over. This week, the curtain has risen again on “Wonderland.” BYU’s theater department partnered with Wonderland composer Frank Wildhorn to rehabilitate the production in hopes of giving it new life on regional theater stages around the country.
Symbiotic Farming with Aquaponics
Guest: Paul Venturelli, Assistant Professor of Fisheries, Ball State University
A lot of the fish we eat has been farmed –not caught in the wild. You probably knew that. Did you know that you can grow plants in water? Not just lilies and water cress, but lettuce and tomatoes and other edible stuff. Now here’s the really cool thing: there is a way to both farm fish and grow plants in water all in the same system. It’s called aquaponics and on a small scale it’s kinda fun to do in your kitchen. On a larger scale, some experts think it might be a farming solution for places that are short on water and land.
Ironing as an Extreme Sport (Originally aired November 20, 2018)
Guest: Jack Nichols, Photographer and Extreme Ironing Record Holder
Perched on the edge of a waterfall, dangling upside down on a climbing wall, straddling a tree trunk thirty feet up –there has to be an easier way to get your shirt pressed. But “extreme ironing” isn’t just about getting the wrinkles out. It’s about the challenge –and the great photo opp. Photographer Jack Nichols specializes in capturing hard-to-reach landscapes and he usually brings an iron along, too. He’s got the North American record for lowest-elevation extreme ironing and he joined us a few months ago to discuss what extreme ironing is all about.
Does Apple Cider Vinegar Live Up to the Hype? (Originally aired October 8, 2018)
Guest: Gabriel Neal, Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Texas A&M University
Apple cider vinegar has been said to help heal all sorts of sickness and it’s supposed to help with weight loss and blood sugar. You'll find people across the globe are drinking a daily shot of apple cider vinegar. Is there any science to back this up?
A Gay Mormon’s Perspective on Faith and Family (Originally aired June 25, 2018)
Guest: Tom Christofferson, Author of “That We May Be One: A Gay Mormon's Perspective on Faith and Family,” published by Deseret Book.
Across the country, conservative religious communities struggle with how to embrace LGBT members. Last summer I spoke with Tom Christofferson, who is openly gay and an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That combination presents challenges, which he explores in his memoir “That We May Be One.” Tom Christofferson says his story is not a “prescription” for others to follow. But he hopes people will find some of his experience helpful. Here’s our interview from last summer.
Pacific Northwest Just One of a Dozen “Hotspots” Where Measles Outbreak Likely
Guest: Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, Author of “Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism”
The Governor of Washington has declared a public health state of emergency. There have been 36 confirmed cases of measles in Clark County, Washington, which borders Portland, Oregon. Another case has been confirmed in King County, which includes Seattle. Both areas are hotspots that vaccine researcher Peter Hotez has been warning for several years were at risk of a major outbreak. And there are a dozen other metropolitan areas around the country at similar risk.
The Experiential Fun of Escape Rooms
Guest: David Spira, Room Escape Artist
There were only 22 escape room companies in the US five years ago, and now there are thousands. It’s a popular entertainment option for date nights and group bonding worldwide.
Some Food for Thought on Food Preferences
Guest: Paul Rozin, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
I bet there’s a food you hated as a kid but like to eat now. The first time I encountered pickled beets at a neighborhood picnic, I thought they were the worst-tasting thing ever. Now, I make a point of putting them on my plate if they’re offered at a salad bar. I also used to really hate vinegar-based salad dressings. Now I prefer them over the creamy ones.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
Potent Little Disease Fighters Hiding in that Cute Furry Ilama
Guest: Ian Wilson, DPhil, Professor of Structural Biology, Chairman of Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research
You probably know that the reason you have to get a flu shot every year is that there are a bunch of different flu viruses and we haven’t figured out yet out to make a vaccine that works against all of them. But llamas might be able to help. Yes, llamas.
What Do Superhero Movies Need a Science Advisor For?
Guests: Jennifer Ouellette, Senior Reporter, Ars Technica; Sean Carroll, Theoretical Physicist, California Institute of Technology
When you’re trying to tell a good story for the silver screen, you can’t get bogged down in the scientific details. You could argue we watch TV and go to the movie theater to escape reality. But many Hollywood producers and directors do care about getting at least some of the science right. The National Academy of Sciences even has a program to put the entertainment industry in touch with top scientists and engineers to advise them.
Oil, Gas Prices and Politics
Guest: David Blackmon, Independent Energy Consultant and editor of Shale Magazine
In some states right now you can get a gallon of unleaded for less than two bucks a gallon. The price dropped off at the end of December and now seems to be ticking back up again. Did you know the US gets a lot of its oil from Venezuela? This week, America sanctioned Venezuela’s state-owned oil company as part of a push to oust President Maduro. What might that mean for drivers at the pump?
The Vice of Voluntourism
Guest: Andrea Freidus, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina Charlotte
In the dead of winter, it’s pretty common to start planning a summer vacation. There are lots of nonprofits and church groups that would love to have you make that trip a volunteer opportunity. You can visit some far off country and experience a new culture while also “doing some good” in the form of digging a well or distributing medicine or doing repairs at an orphanage.
Finding Your Doppelgänger
Guest: Niamh Geaney, Spokesperson, TwinStrangers.com
Did you ever wish you had a twin when you were a kid? For companionship, maybe. Or just because it’d be cool to have a lookalike? The chances are good that somewhere in the world, there is someone who looks just like you. There’s even a website to help you find your doppelganger –it’s called TwinStrangers.com.
Full or Forgot?
Guest: Marise Parent, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology and Associate Director of the Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University
Do you remember everything you ate for breakfast or lunch? I am a notoriously distracted eater. I’m either eating on the go or while watching TV or scrolling on my phone or reading a book or engrossed in conversation. Quite often I’ll be craving something sweet after dinner and think, “Hey, I haven’t had a treat all day, so I’m fine to have this cookie.” When in fact, I had a candy bar earlier in the day, but was doing something else while I ate it and just completely forgot.
The State of the Union Is Tradition
Guest: Lauren Wright, Lecturer in Politics and Public Affairs, Princeton University
President Trump was to deliver his annual State of the Union Address tonight, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rescinded the invitation because of the partial government shutdown. Now they’ve agreed the ceremonial speech will happen next Tuesday. The State of the Union Address usually isn’t the subject of so much intrigue. It’s mostly just a really long speech punctuated by seemingly endless applause after ever sentence. The press covers it breathlessly and then we all forget about it for another year. What’s the point, really?
When Businesses Get Political
Guest: Alan Abitbol, Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Dayton
By now, you’ve probably seen or at least heard of the controversial Gillette ad. Gillette is just latest company that has become a social and political activist—and it won’t be the last. We’re seeing more and more companies taking bold stances on issues, but it doesn’t always land.
US Leads Drive to Oust Maduro in Venezuela
Guest: Paola Rondon
Over the weekend US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged members of the UN Security Council to join America in calling for Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro to step down. The US and many of Venezuela’s neighbors say Maduro’s re-election was a sham and they’re backing a leader of the opposition party named Juan Guaido who has declared himself Venezuela’s interim president. Maduro says the US is trying to engineer a coup.
Urine Testing for Opioid Addiction
Guest: Sarah Bagley, MD, Internist at the Boston Medical Center and a professor of medicine and pediatrics at Boston University.
It’s usually standard procedure for people receiving treatment for opioid addiction to be asked to take a urine drug test regularly – especially early on in treatment. But it’s a bit controversial because there’s a kind of “I want to help you overcome this, but I don’t trust you to tell me the truth” feel to it – and trust is crucial in the relationship between a patient and therapist. So, are urine drug tests really necessary to treatment of opioid use disorder?
A Story of Friendship, Letters and Loss
Guest: Sarah Ruhl, Playwright, Professor, Yale School of Drama, Co-Author of “Letters from Max: A Book of Friendship”
“When we find the right friend at the right time in our life, or the right teacher, or the right student, our lives are changed forever.” That’s a line from a recent New York Times essay by playwright Sara Ruhl. For her, that friend was Max Ritvo.
Nunchucks Are Legal in New York After 45 Year Ban Overturned
Guest: James M. Maloney, Adjunct Professor, State University of New York Maritime College
The two short sticks attached with a chain were one of Bruce Lee’s signature weapons. New York officials made it illegal to possess nunchucks in 1974 because of reports they’d become popular with muggers and street gangs. But a lawyer nicknamed “Professor Nunchucks” by comedian Stephen Colbert, has just succeeding in getting the ban overturned. A court said last month it violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms and state officials let the deadline to appeal the ruling expire. So nunchucks are back in New York
Is Buying and Selling Plasma Ethical?
Guest: Brendan Leier, Clinical Ethicist at the University of Alberta and Stollery Children’s Hospitals & Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute.
There are two plasma donation centers within walking distance of BYU’s campus. That’s not unusual: across the country, plasma donation is most popular with people who are cash-strapped, including college students. But donation isn’t really the right word, because donors get paid. America is the only country in the world where selling your blood is so widely accepted. A few provinces in Canada have started allowing it recently –which has reignited a long-running debate over the ethics and safety of selling plasma.
Hereditary Long Life
Guest: Ken Smith, Professor of Family and Consumer Studies, University of Utah
Grandparents die in their 70s and 80s. What does that mean for how long their grandchildren will live? Not as much as you might think. Predicting lifespan is very complicated, but a new study may help researchers identify the gene that controls if someone is going to live an exceptionally long life.
How Women Drove Activism in Appalachia
Guest: Jessica Wilkerson, Professor of History and Southern Studies, University of Mississippi, Author of “To Live Here, You Have to Fight”
Two years ago, the Women’s March became the largest single-day protest in US history. At least three and a half million people marched in Washington and other cities around the country the day after President Trump’s inauguration. It was not unusual to see women organizing and marching in large numbers. It was unusual to see women getting full credit for their role. While women have been key players in every major social movement in America, their stories aren’t often the ones remembered by historians.
The Future of Medicine is Personal
Guest: Fran Smith, Medical Journalist, Author of “How Personalized Medicine is Transforming Your Healthcare,” National Geographic
When someone is diagnosed with an illness today –whether it’s strep throat or cancer –the treatment they receive is based on what has generally worked for lots of other people who’ve had that same illness. A doctor may say, “This drug I’m prescribing worked well in 60 percent of patients with your condition. About 10 percent of people had bad side effects when they took it, so let’s hope it works for you.” But increasingly, scientists are figuring out how to flip that approach on its head. Rather than use blanket treatments that work for some people but not others, doctors will be able to look at your DNA profile and unique biochemical makeup and then tailor treatment for you.
Why is There No Appetite for Compromise in Washington?
Guest: Former Republican Arizona Senator Jeff Flake
With the longest government shutdown in US history dragging on, recently retired Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake visits Top of Mind to discuss what has gone wrong with our political discourse and whether his public criticism of President Trump achieved what he'd hoped.
Mysterious Venom of Mojave Rattlesnake
Guest: Jason Strickland, Post-doctoral Researcher, Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University
One of the most toxic snakes in the North America is the Mojave Rattlesnake, common in warm western deserts. Its venom has long been interesting to scientists because of how potent it is, and also, because Mojave rattlesnakes have different types of venom depending on where they’re found. One version paralyzes the victim, causing organs to shut down. The other results in massive internal bleeding. Needless to say, both are bad news. What evolutionary biologist Jason Strickland is trying to figure out is why some snakes have one venom and some have the other.
The Sobering Truth about the Effects of Pediatric Trauma
Guest: Charles Nelson, Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School
Scoring an ace in tennis, or “acing” a test, are both good things. But to neuroscientists who study the effect of trauma on the developing brain, ACE has an entirely different meaning. It stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences., and in recent years, researchers have found that these adverse events, or ACEs, increase the risk of developmental delays in childhood and long-term mental and physical health problems as the child matures.
Dress for Success in Space Exploration (Originally aired October 3, 2018)
Guest: Dava J. Newman, PhD, Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics, MIT, faculty member in Harvard-MIT Health Sciences Technology, former NASA Deputy Administrator
Within the next twenty years America hopes to send astronauts back to the Moon and then on to Mars. But before they launch, they’ll need to update their wardrobe. The spacesuits NASA has currently won’t cut it for these kinds of long missions and for walking around on Mars. So how does a space agency do a fashion makeover?
How Sweat Pants and Leggings Became Business Attire (Originally aired October 1,2018)
Guest: Deirdre Clemente, Associate Professor of History at University of Nevada Las Vegas, director of Public History at UNLV. Author of Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style.
Sales of clothing in the US have been generally flat the last few years, but there’s one fashion category that’s booming. It’s called “athleisure” and it’s blurring the lines between the office and the gym. Men wearing slim-fitting joggers to work instead of slacks? That’s athleisure. Women dressing up a pair of yoga leggings with heels and a long sweater? Athleisure.
Household Disinfectants Might Lead to Childhood Weight Gain (Originally aired October 1, 2018)
Guest: Anita Kozyrskyj, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta
Childhood obesity has tripled in the past generation – the CDC says one in five school age children are obese in the US now. The causes are complex, but one culprit may be lurking under the kitchen sink: household disinfectants. A 2018 study found that babies in households that use disinfectant cleaners have more of a certain kind of bacteria in their gut –and when those babies reach the age of 3, they’re more likely to overweight.
UK, EU Officials Say It’s Time to Prepare for a “No Deal” Brexit
Guest: Gregory Jackson, professor of Integrated Studies, Assistant Director, Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
After a dramatic defeat in Britain’s parliament last week, Prime Minister Theresa May is back this week with a Plan B she hopes to convince lawmakers to pass. They have until March 29, when, at the stroke of midnight, the UK will be out the EU, with or without a deal. Top British and European Union officials warned today that businesses should start seriously preparing for the possibility that Brexit will happen without a deal to smooth the transition.
When Coaches Cross the Line
Guest: David Barney, Associate Professor, Department of Teacher Education, Brigham Young University
Coaches are stereotypically tough. It’s their job to push their athletes beyond their limits. But when you are working with students at the high school or college level, there are limits to how far you can push. Threats to life and limb may be rare, but yelling and other forms of emotional abuse are common. At every level of amateur sports, from youth, through high school and college, the desire to compete and win can pave the way for abuse
The Dangers of Eating Cookie Dough
Guest: Brian Zikmund-Fisher, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School Public Health
Don’t eat raw dough. We’ve always kinda known it, right? But for the last several years, the Food and Drug Administration has made it an explicit public health recommendation. Is raw cookie dough really that dangerous, though?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story.
Better Movement through the Feldenkrais Method
Guest: Marek Wyszynski, Physical Therapist and Co-founder of the Feldenkrais Institute of New York
We humans are rough on our bodies. We pound and strain ourselves into fitness, power through discomfort and bounce to force a deeper stretch in a stiff muscle. When something is out of whack, we’ll get a deep massage that makes us wince, or have a chiropractor crack us back into alignment. The Feldenkrais Method does none of that. Its devotees include professional athletes and concert musicians and lots of regular people who experience chronic pain.
Life Matters. Talk About Death
Guest: Michelle Acciavatti, End of Life Specialist at Ending Well
When the time finally comes, most Americans would prefer to die at home. But less than a quarter actually do. The majority die in hospitals or nursing homes surrounded by tubes and needles and monitors -all the trappings of modern medicine. Is that part of what makes so many of us afraid of death? Or maybe it’s the other way around –we allow all the intervention because we’re afraid to die?
Partial Government Shutdown More Than a Month-Long, No End in Sight
Guests: Grant Madsen, Professor of History, BYU; Chris Karpowitz, Professor of Political Science, BYU
The shutdown has now lasted a full month. The Republican-controlled Senate is expected to vote this week on a proposal President Trump announced over the weekend to offer temporary protection to undocumented immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. That would be in exchange for funding Trump’s $5.7 billion request for a border wall. But the bill is unlikely to pass because Democrats in both the Senate and House say they will not negotiate until the government is reopened.
Fear of Blood
Guest: Christopher France, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Ohio University
Up until quite recently, I refused to donate blood. I did it once or twice in college and nearly fainted both times. So I spent the next 20 years convinced I just couldn’t donate. But it turns out I can give blood, if I master the panic that rises in my gut when the needle goes into my arm and I see my own blood start flowing out. I’ve donated successfully a few times recently – so I know it’s possible. Fainting – or feeling faint – is the most common negative side effect of donating blood, but it’s actually very very rare. Yet, many of us think it’s common, and it’s a reason people steer clear of donating.
Detour Down Highway 89
Joshua Creek performing "Honey Do List" in studio at BYUradio's Highway 89.
Face Exercises (Originally aired:1/25/2018)
Guest: Murad Alam, MD, Vice Chair and Professor, Department of Dermatology, NorthwesternUniversityFeinberg School of Medicine
If you search for “face yoga” on YouTube, you’ll end up with so many videos of people contorting their faces in crazy wayswhile promising that you’ll look years younger if you follow suit. “Get the benefits of plastic surgery without going under the knife!” You’re right to be skeptical. Dermatologist Murad Alamsure was. And then he decided to do a scientific experiment testing the effectiveness of these exercises. Now he’s singing a different tune.
Making Super-Plants
Guest: Amanda Cavanagh, Don Ort
Nature has a problem, according to plant scientists at the University of Illinois. The problem is that photosynthesis is just too inefficient –wasting tons of plant energy that could be used to grow bigger plants. So those researchers are trying to hack the system and help plants grow more efficiently.
Catching Killers with Their Family’s DNA
Guest: Harley Feldman
DNA solves serious crimes on TV all the time. In real life, it’s less common, but a couple of big serial killer cases have been solved using a technique that’s gaining traction in police departments. It’s called familial DNA –and it’s where police track down a suspect not in the database by finding a close relative who is. Only about dozens states currently allow police to do this kind of DNA search. Critics say it’s a potential violation of privacy a new tool for racial profiling.
Worlds Awaiting: Awards Season
Rachel Wadham, Host, World’s Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
To find some great children's books, search for following book award names. Diversity Awards: Coretta Scott King, Pura Belpre, Schneider Family Book Award; Legacy Awards: Children's Literature Legacy Award, Edwards Award; Specialty Awards: Children's Choice Awards, Beehive Book Awards, Carnagie Awards, Orbis Pictus Awards
MLK’s Last, Unrecognized Legacy
Guest: Michael Honey, PhD, Fred and Dorothy Haley Professor of Humanities, University of Washington Tacoma, Author of "To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice"
On this national holiday honoring Dr. King, we remember his civil rights legacy and iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. But we rarely hear about what he did after Congress passed landmark Civil Rights and voting legislation. He organized a fight for economic justice called the "Poor People's Campaign” –it was the reason he was in Memphis the day he was assassinated.
Rise of the Black Feminist through Literature and Social Media
Guest: Kristin Matthews, PhD, Associate Professor of English, Brigham Young University
to not be safe on the earth.
simply
because
of the color of your skin.
how does a being survive this.
That’s a poem by African-American poet Nayyirah Waheed. Her Instagram account, which solely features pictures of her work, has more than half a million followers. Through her poetry, she tackles tough concepts such as race, love, identity, and feminism. Inspired by the likes of Waheed, black feminists are turning to literature and social media to band together and make their voices heard.
Bog Bodies
Guest: Miranda Aldhouse-Green, PhD, Emeritus Professor, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
Bogs are swampy, smelly wetlands. Probably not the kind of location you would want for your final resting place, but yet, that’s where hundreds of bodies have been found in Denmark. The remains are thousands of years old, but look like they were buried yesterday. And no one is quite sure how they got there.
Boredom Isn’t Boring
Guest: Dr. Sandi Mann, Senior Psychology Lecturer, School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire in Preston, England
Boredom. ........ is a difficult... emotion to.... describe .... Have I bored you yet? Boredom can be frustrating and annoying, and yet for some reason, sometimes we like to wallow in the laziness of it. Overall, it’s usually not a pleasant experience. But some experts are starting to think that boredom may actually be a good thing.
Social Media Victory for a Teenager with Autism
Guests: Tracy and Bean McKay
Feel-good stories aren’t found often on Twitter –it’s one of the uglier places. But Bean’s peanut butter challenge is a great one. The quick version is Eric McKay (who goes by “Bean”) is 15, he has autism and one of the few foods he eats is peanut butter. When the family’s peanut butter supply started running out, he tweeted his local LIDL grocery store asking for peanut butter to go on sale so he could stock up again. LIDL said they’d do even better: “Get 72,000 retweets and we’ll give you a lifetime supply. ”Bean did it!
And Cut! Designing Costumes for Television and Film
Guest: Ann Foley, Costume designer for Skyscraper, Altered Carbon, and Agents of Shield
Some movie costumes are so iconic that you would recognize from anywhere, such as Dorothy’s checkered blue dress, Indiana Jones’ hat and whip, or Darth Vader’s all-black outfit. Viewers often take film wardrobes for granted, but the right clothing can be essential to bringing a character to life on the big screen.
Motivation, Happiness and Habits
Guest: Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of “The Happiness Project,” “The Four Tendencies” and “Outer Order, Inner Calm” (out March 2019)
It’s always right about this time, for me, when the honeymoon glow of a new year starts to rub off. January 1st feels like a clean slate, full of possibility. Maybe you make some resolutions? For me it’s more of a hopeful excitement that this year will be different. And then, January 2nd is like any other day and soon I’ve forgotten what it felt like to be flush with resolve new habits and big plans. So today, we have an expert on following through.
A Sonic Field Guide to Classical Music, Day by Day
Guest: Clemency Burton-Hill, Creative Director, Music & Arts, New York Public Radio, author of “Year of Wonder”
A living, breathing, diverse, vibrant and global art form. That’s how New York Public Radio’s Clemency Burton-Hill describes classical music. It’s not “a creaky old museum of dead white European” men, she insists. And her new book aims to prove it –A Year of Wonder is a “sonic field guide” through the year. One song for each day, along with some fun insight into the piece.
Children Caught in the Culture War of Adoption
Guest: Robin Fretwell Wilson, Professor of Law, University of Illinois College, Author of “The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law.”
Can an adoption agency, that’s run by a church and receives government money to assist with foster care and adoption placement, be forced to serve a same-sex couple? Some states have laws saying these agencies must serve LGBT couples. Other states have laws protecting a religious adoption agency that turns away a same-sex couple. Two major lawsuits over this issue are now moving through the federal courts. And as we’ve seen in similar conflicts before, there’s no middle ground –either religious freedom wins and LGBT rights lose or vice versa.
Banksy’s Self-Destructing Painting (Originally aired October 23, 2018)
Guest: Elizabeth Legge, Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, University of Toronto
Walking down a street in London or New York, you might see tourists snapping photos of a surreal stencil spray-painted on a public wall. The anonymous street artist Banksy’s work has become so sought-after, some of his pieces have sold for more than $1 million at auction. Did you hear about the Banksy original that self-destructed as soon as the bidding was finished a few months ago?
So You Think You’re Allergic to Penicillin? You’re Probably Not (Originally aired August 30, 2018)
Guest: Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard, Antibiotic Allergy Researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital
Did you know that 90% of people who think they are allergic to penicillin, actually aren't? And that misunderstanding places them at much higher risk for serious, drug-resistant infections. If penicillin is one of the most effective antibiotics available, why are so many people avoiding it unnecessarily?
Mother of a Potential Shooter (Originally aired June 5, 2018)
Guest: Liza Long, Freelance Writer, Mental Health Activist, and Author of “The Price of Silence: A Mom’s Perspective on Mental Illness”; Eric Walton, Son of Liza Long, High School Grad, and Presenter of the TED talk “Surviving with Mental Illness”
In May of 2018, a 17-year-old at Sante Fe High School in Texas allegedly opened fire, killing ten people and injuring 13. The shooter’s family said in a statement that the details of the shooting are “incompatible with the boy we love.” Police and people who knew the alleged shooter say there were no obvious warning signs of what he intended to do, which is unusual. There are almost always warning signs. Over six years ago when a troubled young man who exhibited a lot of warning signs killed 20 first graders and six employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Liza Long wrote a blog post about her own mentally ill son that went viral. The blog had a provocative title –I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother –a reference to the Sandy Hook shooter.
Liza Long’s son did not become a school shooter, but it’s been a painful road getting him the help he needs for his mental illness. She shares her experience as a parent and advocate, and her son, Eric Walton, shares his personal experience with mental illness.
Using Vultures to Solve Crimes (Originally aired July 11, 2018)
Guest: Lauren Pharr, PhD, Forensic Scientist, Pharr Forensic Consulting LLC
When police find human remains, blood and bone samples are important evidence, of course. But feathers? Absolutely, says forensic scientist Lauren Pharr. She’s an expert in reading the clues left behind by vultures. Her knowledge of vulture scavenging behavior has helped police solve some tricky missing persons and murder cases. Now, I’m going to warn you right now that her work is a little gruesome, but it’s also pretty fascinating. She came on the show to discuss her work in July.
Amazon tackles The Lord of the Rings adaptation (Originally aired August 27, 2018)
Guest: Dennis Cutchins, Professor of English, BYU
Before there was Star Trek, Game of Thrones or Harry Potter, there was Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien’s classic fantasy epic has had vast influence on the genre –and for entertainment companies, it has vast potential. Amazon announced this past summer that it bought the TV rights to develop a prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Rumor has it the story will center on a young Aragorn and Amazon has hired the writers behind the third installment of the Star Trek movie reboot to develop The Lord of the Rings series. What will it take to please the legions of serious Tolkien fans? Should they even try?
Trump, Russia, Mueller and the Man Who Would Be US Attorney General
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
William Barr has spent the last two days in Senate confirmation hearings, hoping to become US Attorney General. A lot of the questions from Senators of both parties on the committee have focused on what Barr will do with the Mueller Investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
The Cocktail Party Problem
Guest: Jonathan Z. Simon, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Biology, University of Maryland
Just now, your brain did something amazing. First you heard the Top of Mind theme music and then I started talking and immediately your brain recognized the sounds had changed –that now you were hearing speech and your brain needed to pay closer attention. How the brain does that so quickly is a focus of Jonathan Simon’s research at the University of Maryland.
Graphic Warnings on Cigarette Packages Decrease Use
Guest: Jeff Niederdeppe, Professor of Communications, Cornell University
The federal Food Drug Administration is a Catch-22. In 2009Congress ordered the FDA to require new, more powerful health warning labels on cigarette packages. But the FDA got caught in a cross fire of conflicting federal court orders. One way out of the legal mess was to prove that graphic, disturbing images of tobacco-related disease on the packages would significantly reduce smoking.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
The Broiler Chicken: A Symbol of Our Time
Guest: Richard Thomas, Professor of Archaeology, University of Leicester
Thousands of years from now, what do you suppose archaeologists will consider the symbol of our time? Like the Bronze Age or Iron Age, maybe we’ll be the iPhone Age? Actually, we may end up being remember as the Chicken Age. Global food preferences have made the broiler chicken the most common terrestrial vertebrate on the planet. More than 65 billion are slaughtered each year. And they’ve been bred for lots of juicy meat, so they’ve got weird, warped bones that may baffle future scientists uncovering piles and piles of them in our landfills.
Auctioneering
Guest: Jeff Stokes, Professional Licensed Auctioneer, Co-founder of Stokes Auction Group, Instructor, Western College of Auctioneering
Why do livestock auctioneers talk so fast –and are they really saying anything in between those numbers? We’ve got the man to explain how bid calling works. Jeff Stokes is a world champion auctioneer and co-founder of Stokes Auction Group. He’s also a sought-after instructor at the Western College of Auctioneering. Yes, you can go to college to be an auctioneer!
In Rapidly Leaving Syria, US Risks Ceding the Entire Country to Iran, Russia
Guest: Matthew Brodsky, Middle East analyst, Senior Fellow, Security Studies Group
The Department of Defense says it’s begun the process of withdrawing all 2,000 US troops currently stationed in Syria to fight ISIS. You’ll remember President Trump declared victory against ISIS and announced the withdrawal rather abruptly a month ago, which precipitated the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Since then, the President’s top advisors have been trying to convince America’s allies the withdrawal is a good thing –and they’ve been hedging a bit, saying the pull-out may take longer than the month President Trump initially promised and may only happen if certain conditions are met.
First Ever Planetary Defense Mission
Guest: Andy Rivkin, DART Investigation Team Lead Planetary Astronomer, Johns Hopkins University
One of the leading explanations for why dinosaurs went extinct is that a giant asteroid smashed into Earth 65 million years ago. We’re lucky another one hasn’t hit us since –otherwise we might have to send Bruce Willis to space with a nuclear bomb on his back to blow up the asteroid while the world cheers him on -like he did in the movie Armageddon. That’s Hollywood, but an asteroid collision really is a threat to Earth –enough so that NASA has a special mission to prepare for it. It’s called, “DART” and it’s entering a crucial phase.
How can we get more Tigers, but Fewer Accidents?
Guest: Nilanga Jayasinghe, Senior Program Officer for Asian Species at the World Wildlife Fund
Tigers may be endangered, but they’re finally making a comeback. There are nearly 4,000 worldwide now, but they still face threats from poaching and deforestation. And a rising tiger population brings its own challenges: more tigers means more chances for human-tiger confrontations that can lead to conflict and death.
National Park Shutdown
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder and Editor of NationalParksTraveler.com - Leading Online Resource for National Parks-related News
The ongoing government shutdown includes the National Park Service, technically. But for the last three weeks, many of the nation’s most popular parks have attempted to stay open with a skeleton crew of park police, first responders and –in some cases –volunteers. Their efforts are being stretched. There are reports of vandalism in parks, as well as overflowing trash cans and toilets –which you’d expect if no-one’s around to collect the garbage or pump out the porta-potties.
Why do we have too Much Cheese?
Guest: Andrew Novakovi?, The E.V. Baker Professor of Agricultural Economics, Cornell University
Back in the days, there was a huge glut of cheese in America. Dairy farmers couldn’t sell the cheese they were making –the US Government was even buying up a lot of it to keep the bottom from falling out of the dairy industry. And guess what? We’ve got another cheese surplus on our hands –the biggest one yet, in fact.
“The Upside” and Hollywood’s Take on Disability
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
A dramedy about a quadriplegic billionaire and the ex-con he hires as his caregiver somehow managed to beat out the superhero film “Aquaman” in theaters over the weekend. In the movie, Kevin Hart plays a released felon having a hard time finding a job. Bryan Cranston plays the man he goes to work for. The film is an opportunity for us to talk about how disability is portrayed on the big screen with Kirsten Hawkes of Parent Previews.com.
How Long Could This Shutdown Go?
Guest: James Curry, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
Now in its fourth week, this is the longest federal government shutdown in US history. How long could this shutdown go on?
Black Box Usage in Medicine
Guest: Michael Stein, Professor of Health Law, Policy, & Management, Boston University
Every year over 200,000 Americans die from preventable medical errors, many of them in operating rooms. Some patent advocates are now pushing to put surveillance technologies into operating rooms to enhance transparency and accountability – much like the “black boxes” used in airplanes to review the moments before tragedy strikes.
The Fluoridated Water Controversy
Guest: Wajid Ahmed, Acting Medical Officer for Health, Windsor-Essex County
Two-thirds of Americans get fluoride in their drinking water. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls fluoridated water one of the top public health achievements of the 20thcentury, because of all the cavities it’s prevented in kids’ teeth. But fluoridated water has also always been controversial: Every year community outcry leads dozens of cities to debate removing it from their water. Some do. The Canadian city of Windsor, which is right across the river from Detroit, has just taken the unusual step of deciding to put fluoride back in the water after removing it five years ago. Why did Windsor make the switch back?
The Ethics of Medical Crowdfunding
Guest: Jeremy Snyder, Professor of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
If you’ve looked at your Facebook feed lately, you’ve probably seen someone asking for help paying for medical treatment. Maybe they were in an accident, or maybe they’re hoping to get an experimental cancer treatment their insurance won’t cover. People donate hundreds of millions of dollars each year to medical causes on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. And despite the warm fuzzies of it all, there are some ethical concerns you may not have considered.
Echolocation for the Blind
Guest: Daniel Kish
Daniel Kish is blind, but he’s has developed a highly specialized sense of hearing that allows him to echolocate, like a dolphin or a bat –clicking his tongue and using echoes to visualize the world around him. For years Kish has been a popular public speaker, sharing his gift with the world and encouraging others. Since we last spoke with him three years, Kish participated in a study at Durham University in England that seems to validate his technique. So we figured it was time for an update.
Alexa, Do My Homework
Guest: Diane Levin, Professor of Applied Human Development at Boston University
Did you see this video on Twitter of a kid asking Alexa for help with his math? It’s been viewed more than eight million times! His mom caught it all on video. Back in the day, using a calculator was considered cheating. Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant make it so kids today don’t even have to know how to work a calculator. What’s this doing to our the critical thinking skills of children?
Documenting the Immortal Corpse
Guest: Vic Spitzer, Visible Human Project Creator, Director of the Center for Human Simulation, University of Colorado; Kurt Mutchler, Senior Science Photo Editor, National Geographic
Medical students learn its intricacies studying the cadavers of people who donate themselves to science. But what if there was a virtual cadaver that could be dissected, viewed from different angles and reassembled? That’s the idea behind the Visible Human Project, in which bodies are frozen, sliced thousands of times and photographed after each cut. That is what Susan Potter signed up for: “ That was my last will and testament, to leave something behind that would have an impact on the whole human race.” Before her death in 2015, Susan Potter recorded lots of videos talking about her life, her health, and her involvement with the Visible Human Project. National Geographic documented that story over 16 years, resulting in a short film a stunning interactive story in the magazine’s January 2019 issue.
See National Geographic’s interactive version of The Immortal Corpse here
Why Financial Crises Keep Happening to America
Guest: Kathleen Day, Professor of Financial Crises, Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business, Author of “Broken Bargain: Bankers, Bailouts and the Struggle to Tame Wall Street”
There are rumblings afoot that we may be headed for another one, which wouldn’t be surprising. Every decade prices get overheated in some sector like housing and investors get skittish, which leaves Wall Street firms and banks overextended, and usually, it’s the taxpayer on the line to bail them out. Why does this cycle keep happening? Given how painful these crashes end up being –especially for the American public –you’d think we’ve had crash-proofed our financial system by now.
Blood Alcohol Levels: How Much Is Too Much?
Guest: Bella Dinh-Zarr, Board Member, National Transportation Safety Board
Utah has just become the first state to lower its blood alcohol level for drunk driving from .08 to .05. That’s the lowest in the nation and critics say it will result in lots of people getting arrested after having just a drink or two with dinner, and do nothing to address the most dangerous drunk drivers who ignore blood alcohol limits anyway.
Who Fact-Checks the Fact Checkers? (Originally aired 07/16/2018)
Guest: Angie Holan, Editor, PolitiFact
Fact checking has become so popular that major news outlets do it on Presidential speeches in real-time. Political campaigns fact-check their opponents’ claims. But how sure can we be that the people doing the fact checking are not biased? That they’re not looking more critically on one party than another?
How to Spot a Liar (Orginially aired 07/30/18)
Guest: Norah Dunbar, Professor of Communication, UC Santa Barbara (07/30/2018)
Sometimes politicians misstate facts. Sometimes they twist the facts on purpose. Sometimes they just flat lie. So let’s talk about that. We like to think we can tell when someone is lying –they act shifty; they’re not making eye contact. But it turns out humans are terrible at spotting a liar. We can be trained, though. And University of California-Santa Barbara communication professor Norah Dunbar has developed a video simulation to speed up the process of training someone to detect a lie.
More Engaged and Available Dads (Originally aired 7/17/2018)
Guest: Kevin Shafer, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Canadian Studies Program, BYU
In a generation, the American family has changed. Not everyone sees that as a good thing, but a recent study argues that today’s dads are more interactive and emotionally available for their kids than ever.
Great-granddaughter Fights to Properly Honor Ida B. Wells (Originally aired 8/22/18)
Guest: Michelle Duster, Author, Speaker, Lecturer of Business Writing, Columbia College Chicago
And now, to a conversation about the contributions of Ida B. Wells, an African American journalist who was born enslaved near the end of the Civil War, sued a railroad for discrimination, and risked her life to expose the violence of lynching in the Jim Crow South. Last summer, we spoke with Michelle Duster, a great granddaughter of Wells, and a driving force behind efforts to honor her legacy. Fundraising for the first phase of a memorial to Ida B. Wells has since reached its $300,000 goal. Duster is a lecturer at Columbia College Chicago and member of the Ida B. Wells Memorial Foundation.
Hang Ten for Oceanography (Originally aired 08/02/18)
Guest: Phil Bresnahan, Senior Development Engineer, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, Lead Engineer of the Smartfin Project.
The ocean is a vital part of the health of our planet: holding oxygen and regulating temperature are just two of its many jobs. But its vital signs can be really hard to measure. That’s why oceanographers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC-San Diego have enlisted surfers to take the pulse of the ocean, with a special surfboard fin embedded with sensors.
Trump’s Worldview as Commander-in-Chief
Guest: Thomas M. Nichols, PhD, University Professor, National Security Affairs, U.S. Naval War College
In his prime time speech to the nation Tuesday night, President Donald Trump said Americans are in grave danger from people and drugs sneaking over the US-Mexico border and only a wall can protect us. Trump’s depiction of the situation as a crisis is questionable, since US Customs and Border Protection says the number of people apprehended at the border has been declining for more than a decade. Plus, nearly all of the heroin that comes into the US from Mexico arrives with people legally crossing at ports of entry, which a wall would not fix.
Arsenic Eaters and the History of Poison as Medicine
Guest: John Parascandola, Author of “King of Poisons: A History of Arsenic”
Legends tell of people taking small doses of poison until they develop a tolerance to it. That might come in handy if you’re a ruler worried about being poisoned by someone in your court. Or if you’re Westley in The Princess Bride and you have to challenge a villain to a battle of wits in order to win the freedom of your beloved Buttercup. But is developing tolerance to poison really a thing? It turns out that is kind of is. But it's not recommended.
A Breakthrough on Getting Brain Scans on Children with Autism
Guests: Terisa Gabrielsen, Assistant Professor of School Psychology, BYU; Ryan Kellems, Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, BYU; Mikle South, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, BYU
To undergo an MRI, you lie down and slide into a huge machine that makes loud noises while you hold completely still for up to 45 minutes. It’s a stressful thing for anyone –but for a child with autism, it can be totally overwhelming. Which is why not much brain scan research has been done to understand the neuroscience behind autism. But a team of researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah have developed a technique to ease the MRI process for autistic children.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
In the 60’s and 70’s, riding the wave of a folk music revival, three pals named Dick, Dennis, and Duane got together and wrote and performed songs under the name “The 3D’s.” Duane is still around, and still advocating for the power of stories and music as a bridge between generations. Today’s Top of Mind visit from Sam Payne features an oldie: the 3D’s folky setting of Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”
Too Cute to Handle
Guest: Oriana Aragón, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Clemson University
Have you ever seen something so cute like a kitten or puppy that you just wanted to squeeze it? Or have you heard someone tell a baby, “You’re so cute, I could just eat you up” or “I want to smother you in kisses.” These aggressive responses to cute things are kind of weird when you think about it, but research shows they actually serve a purpose.
All You Can Ever Know: An Adoption Story
Guest: Nicole Chung, Editor-in-Chief of Catapult Magazine and Author of “All You Can Ever Know”
Nearly all infant adoptions in America today allow for some contact between the birth and adoptive families. Until the last decade or so, the opposite was true. Adoptions were routinely closed and adoptive families shunned contact with birth parents. That was the case for Nicole Chung, who was born severely premature and raised by a white family in Oregon after being placed for adoption by her Korean parents.
Families with Housing Subsidies Could Rent in Better Neighborhoods. Why Aren’t They?
Guest: Alicia Mazzara, Research Analyst in the Housing Division, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
More than two million American families get monthly vouchers to help cover the rent through the nation’s Housing Choice Voucher program. The idea isn’t simply to keep families from becoming homeless. It’s also about helping them into a more stable economic situation so they won’t need government assistance anymore. The trouble is, most of these families don’t end up using their housing vouchers for apartments in the kinds of neighborhoods that make “moving up” likely. Rather, in most of America’s biggest cities, people on housing assistance end up overly-concentrated in poor, racially-segregated neighborhoods where schools struggle and good jobs are hard to come by. The real bummer here is that there are plenty of affordable apartments in higher-income neighborhoods. So why aren’t more families going there with their rental vouchers?
Why Imagining Phobias May Help you Conquer Them
Guest: Tor Wager, Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Director of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Colorado Boulder
“Exposure therapy” is a real thing that’s been common since the 1950s where people confront the thing they’re afraid of until the fear goes away. But what if, rather than experiencing the scary thing, you could just imagine it and still overcome the fear? Neuroscientist Tor Wager’s lab has found that works, too.
Getting Rid of Brain Bubbles
Guest: Kelly Lambert, Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Richmond
It’s one week into the 2019 –and if your New Year’s resolutions are already on the rocks, maybe you’re suffering from “brain bubbles.” That’s what neuroscientist Kelly Lambert calls the mental traps that distort reality, throw us off track, and leave us disheartened.
Battling Droughts with Recycled Water
Guest: Edmund Archuleta, Director of Water Initiatives, University of Texas-El Paso
From California to Texas, water is a pressing concern. El Paso, Texas was forecast to run dry next year. But more than a decade ago, under the direction of a big-thinking utilities director, the city changed its water destiny. Today it’s a model for conservation. It’s also home to one of the largest desalination plants in the world –which pumps and treats more than 20-million gallons of brackish water from the ground every day. Next, the city is looking to its sewers with plan to take all that used water and recycle it back to household taps.
Healing Power of Mindfulness
Guest: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Author of “The Healing Power of Mindfulness,” Professor of Medicine Emeritus and Founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic, University of Massachusetts
If you’ve had a therapist or doctor recommend that you get some training in mindful meditation, you can probably thank Jon Kabat-Zinn. Back in the 70s, while pursuing a PhD in molecular biology at MIT, Kabat-Zinn got interested in meditation and yoga. At the time, neither of those interests had anything to do with serious science, but Kabat-Zinn started doing research on the effects of meditation on the body and brain. His findings led him to found the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts and today more than 700 medical centers and clinics around the world use his mindfulness framework to help patients improve their health.
Worlds Awaiting: Read More
Guest: Rachel Wadham, host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Obamacare is Still the Law, but Court Will Decide
Guest: Sara Rosenbaum, Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy, George Washington University
For those hoping to get coverage through the Affordable Care Act this year, enrollment has closed –or will soon if you live in a state that runs its own insurance marketplace. About a month ago, a federal judge in Texas nearly yanked the rug out from under the entire system when he declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. But that ruling is on hold pending appeals. You may remember that the US Supreme Court has twice upheld the Affordable Care Act. So what’s the status here? Republicans in Congress have failed to repeal Obamacare, but might they ultimately get their way in court?
Why More Deer Must Die
Guest: Don Waller, Professor of Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The amount of hunting being done in the US is at its lowest level in 25 years, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Which is great for Bambi, but bad for ecosystems increasingly overrun with deer. Botanist Don Waller has been documenting the effect of deer on declining plant and bird diversity in Wisconsin’s forests for years.
Synesthesia Mixes Senses
Guest: Richard E. Cytowic, MD, Clinical Professor of Neurology, George Washington University
What does the sound of my voice smell like to you? Are Monday and Tuesday different colors? Does chocolate taste like a circle or a square? If those questions do not sound too strange, you might have synesthesia – or at least you’ve heard of it. Synesthesia is a mixing of two or more senses – and about four percent of people have it.
Hiring With No Questions Asked
Guest: Mike Brady, President and CEO, Greyston Bakery
At any given time, about six million people are part of the US correctional system – they’re either behind bars or out on parole or probation. Having served time makes getting a job on the “outside” very difficult. There’s a commercial bakery in New York that opts simply not to ask any questions about the background of people who apply. They call it “open hiring.”
What’s Up with Huawei?
Guest: Robert Griffiths, former U.S. Consul General in Shanghai, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Top Huawei executive was arrested last month in Canada at the request of the United States, which believes Huawei may have committed fraud and violated international sanctions on doing business in Iran. China subsequently arrested several Canadians, but denies it was retaliating. The US State Department last week warned Americans traveling in China to “exercise increased caution” due to “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”
Cooking with Legumes
Guest: Molly Morgan, owner of Creative Nutrition Solutions and registered dietitian, board certified sports specialist dietitian, and author.
Beans, peas, and lentiles. They’re yellow, brown, green, red, white and sometimes gray. There may be a bag of them languishing in your pantry right now because you know legumes are good for you, but making them appetizing for the family is a stiff challenge. Molly Morgan has some answers.
How the Light Gets In
Guest: Keira Shae, author, “How the Light Gets In"
Keira Shae had a moment of viral fame several years ago when her thank you letter to American taxpayers spread across the internet. “I am twenty-three years old,” she wrote. “I am the daughter of an uneducated, meth-addicted prostitute who was the single mother of six children. Since 1987, you have supported me as you paid your taxes. You’re the sole reason I am alive.” There is more – much more – to the story of how a girl survived a dire childhood of poverty and abuse to become a college graduate, nonprofit executive and vibrant wife and mother.
The Art and Science of Scent
Guest: Dawn Goldworm, Olfactive Branding Expert, Co-Founder, Creative Director and In-House Nose for 12.29
Fresh baked bread. Clean cut grass. Laundry just out of the dryer. A waft of your mother’s perfume. Scents can conjure powerful emotions –nostalgia, happiness, disgust or dread. They can bring vivid memories charging back from a forgotten corner of the brain. They can also put us in the mood to eat or shop or sway cheek-to-cheek with a special someone. How does that work, exactly?
Why It Matters That Interest on National Debt Will Soon Eclipse National Defense
Guest: Doug Criscitello, Executive Director, Center for Finance and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The ongoing budget dispute and government shutdown in Washington is not really about money. It’s about politics –President Trump trying to fulfill a campaign promise to build the wall and Democrats hoping to stop him. What they’re not talking about in any serious way is the nation’s debt –that even with a strong economy, budget deficits are increasing. And all that borrowing has a price. The amount of interest America pays on its debt is the fastest growing part of the government’s budget. In less than five years, we’ll be paying more interest on our national debt than we spend on national defense. What does that say about our priorities?
From Runway Model to Dog Race Musher
Guest: Zoya DeNure, Musher and Owner of Crazy Dog Kennels
For many Americans, snow is a sign of the season. For some, it means skiing or snowboarding, or cozy days inside with hot cocoa. Or maybe it just means the drudgery of shoveling walks and scraping windshields. But for mushers in Alaska, it’s a chance to start conditioning their dogs for epic sled races like the Iditarod, which spans more than 1,000 miles and kicks off the first Saturday in March.
China Lands on the “Dark Side” of the Moon
Guest: Mike Joner, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University.
China this week became the first country to land on the dark side of the moon. The robot lander will shed light on the mysterious moonscape that’s always facing away from earth, hidden from view. Exactly fifty years ago, the American crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to lay eyes on the far side of the moon when they made it into lunar orbit. Here’s some cockpit audio of the crew scrambling to photograph another incredible sight as they came out from behind the moon.
Succulent Smuggling Consequences (Originally aired October 1, 2018)
Guest: Patrick Foy, Captain of Regulations for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division
There’s a lucrative black market in China and Korea for succulent plants that grow well in the American West. Smugglers in California have been caught with 10s of thousands of plants worth millions of dollars. This is not exactly how we hoped to fix the trade imbalance.
Preserving the Letterpress (Originally aired June 20, 2018)
Guest: Erin Beckloff, Co-Director of “PRESSING ON: The Letterpress Film”; Gregory Walters, Long-time Printer, Featured in the Documentary
Computers and easy-to-use software have turned the whole world into graphic designers capable of making a decent poster or party invitation from a vast array of templates. So maybe that’s why there’s such a fascination right now with old-school printing and design. Owning a vintage letterpress bestows all kinds of hipster cred.
Battling Poverty in Community Colleges (Originally aired September 10, 2018)
Guest: Russell Lowery-Hart, PhD, President, Amarillo College
Getting a college degree is a proven pathway out of poverty, but poverty itself is a major barrier to actually getting that degree. A national survey of university students found a third of them had been without a reliable source of food in the last month. And nearly 10 percent had been homelessness in the last year. Among community college students, those numbers are higher. There’s a community college in Amarillo, Texas with an unusually, aggressive approach to making sure poverty doesn’t derail students from their studies.
Predictions for World Affairs in 2019
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
BYU political science professor Quinn Mecham is back in studio to look at how his predictions from last year played out and to make some new predictions for 2019.
Thank you Notes Have More Value than People Expect
Guest: Amit Kumar, Professor of Marketing and Psychology, University of Texas at Austin
Have you sent out all of your thank you notes from the holidays? We all know how great it feels when we receive a thank you note. However, a study done at the McCombs School of Business shows even though we know that giving thank you notes is a positive thing, we don't do it often. It also showed that people underestimate just how much a thank you note is well received and appreciated.
Risks Leading to Gaming Disorder
Guest: Douglas Gentile, Professor of Psychology, Iowa State University.
If you’re counting the days ‘til your kids go back to school so they’ll be forced to step away from the video game console, this might ease your mind. Video game addiction has become prevalent enough that the World Health Organization now considers it a treatable disorder. But when it comes to the likelihood of developing a gaming addiction, the amount of time someone spends playing may not matter as much as why they play.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
In May, 2019, the Transcontinental Railroad turns 150 years old. The Chinese American Heritage Foundation is doing important work to preserve the history of Chinese immigrants to America, including the workers who built the railroad. There weren’t any written records preserved by those workers. But the Chinese American Heritage Foundation has discovered that many of the grandchildren of the railroad workers remember stories told to them by their parents and grandparents about days working on the railroad. The Foundation is working on recording many of those stories. The Chinese American Heritage Foundation website: https://www.cahf.us/?
Scientists Unlocking the Secrets of Regeneration
Guest: Stephen Badylak, Deputy Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Lizards can regrow an entire tail, and salamanders can regrow a leg. Unfortunately, our human bodies mainly just close wounds and make scar tissue. But just imagine the possibilities if we could grow a new limb after an amputation – or a new organ, rather than needing a transplant?
Paid Leave to Care for a Newborn Benefits Mothers, Fathers and Economies
Guest: Andrea Doucet, Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies, Brock University, Canada Research Chair in Gender, Work & Care
In the richest countries in the world, a new mother gets about a year of paid leave to care for the child. America is the exception. Here, it’s up to companies to decide if – or how much – time they’ll pay an employee to be on leave caring for a new child. A survey by the Kaiser Foundation in 2017 estimated just one-in-three workers in the US are employed at a firm that offers paid maternity leave.
US Pulling Back from Syria and Maybe Yemen, Too
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
President Donald Trump has declared victory against ISIS in Syria and ordered all US troops – some 2,000 of them – home as soon as possible. US involvement in Yemen is also in question, since the Senate last week adopted two resolutions strongly condemning the President’s policy in that conflict.
Have a Merry Spooky Christmas
Guest: Leslee Thorne-Murphy, Associate Professor in the English Department, BYU
Ghost stories have no place next to jolly Santa and the babe in the manger, do they? Well, not in America and not today. But ghosts were very much part of the holiday once upon a time in Victorian England. So when Charles Dickens had ghosts visit Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve, he didn’t invent the idea out of thin air, so to speak. He was giving families across Britain just what they wanted – a good spine tingle.
Your Body Hosts Trillions of Viruses, and That’s OK
Guest: David Pride, Director of Molecular Microbiology, University of California San Diego
This time of year we’re all working hard to avoid picking up flu and cold viruses. But our bodies, are in fact, teeming with viruses we wouldn’t want to be without. Just like there are “good bacteria,” we’re also learning there are “good viruses.” And you host tons of them.
You’re Doing Leftovers All Wrong. Julia Turshen Can Help. (Originally aired September 10, 2018)
Guest: Julia Turshen, Best-Selling Author of the Cookbooks “Small Victories,” “Feed the Resistance,” and “Now & Again.”
We are in the season of holiday parties and feasting and trying to pawn leftovers off on guests so they don’t end up in your fridge where you family will ignore them because, who likes eating the same thing for days, right?
Cancer Treatment Drug Surprisingly Effective in Allergy Reduction (Originally aired September 26, 2018)
Guest: Bruce Bochner, Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Now, whether you’re taking Christmas treats to your kids’ class or planning party for friends, you’re also wrestling with the complication of food allergies. How to make sure that person with a severe reaction to peanuts, dairy, shellfish – whatever – is safe at the party.
Mammals Go Nocturnal (Originally aired July 18, 2018)
Guest: Justin Brashares, Professor and G.R. & W.M. Goertz Chair in the Department of Environmental, Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley
It wasn’t until the dinosaurs died out some 65 million years ago that scientists believe the Earth’s smaller, furry creatures started feeling bold enough to venture out during daylight hours. They’d been nocturnal while the dinosaurs roamed. Now, it seems we humans are having a similar effect: our presence is driving mammals back into the cover of night.
Partial Government Shutdown Looms as Trump and Dems Disagree
Guest: James Curry, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
We face the possibility of partial government shutdown if Congress can’t pass a spending bill by midnight Friday. President Trump is trying to get funding for a wall on the southern US border included in that bill, but Democrats in the House and Senate are refusing to go along with Trump’s full request. And remember, Democrats will take control of the US House on January 3, so if the President hopes to get his border wall funded, now is the time to do it, before Republicans lose control of the House. But is it worth shouldering the blame for a government shut down?
The Romaine Lettuce Recall
Guest: Brad Taylor, Professor of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science at BYU
It’s been over a month since the national recall of romaine lettuce due to an E. coli outbreak that hospitalized dozens of people in 15 states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still strongly advises that you only eat romaine if you know where it came from. Specifically, the CDC has linked the E. coli outbreak to three counties in California. But what can we learn from this incident, and what do consumers need to know to minimize risk?
Can Artificial Intelligence Make Food Taste Better?
Guest: Jason Cohen, Founder and CEO of Analytical Flavor Systems
The failures of New Coke and Crystal Pepsi are legendary in the soda business. But take a walk down the food aisle at a closeout store and it’s clear food companies are always gambling on new flavors that flop. At least a third of new food products fail in the first year and a half they’re on the market. Could artificial intelligence give food companies the ability to make their new flavors sure-fire hits?
Saving the Sumatran Rhino
Guest: Susie Ellis, Executive Director of International Rhino Foundation
Most efforts to protect endangered species focus on preventing poaching, protecting habitat and doing everything possible to help the animals thrive in the wild. So why, then, is an international coalition of conservation organizations now attempting to capture the last Sumatran rhinos still living in the wild? Isn’t trapping endangered rhinos the last thing conservationists would want to do Find more information about the Sumatran Rhino Rescue Project at rhinos.org.
Make-A-Wish and Children’s Health
Guest: James Fahner, Pediatric Oncologist and Former Chairman of the National Medical Advisory Council for Make-A-Wish America
Granting wishes to sick children is a heartwarming tradition – whether it’s meeting a celebrity, going to Disneyland, or getting a puppy. But does heartwarming lead to healing? A group of doctors who treat kids with cancer wanted to find out. They compared hundreds of sick kids who had wishes granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation to hundreds of similarly sick kids who did not. The results confirm what the doctors had long suspected: granting a wish helps children heal and can actually save health care costs.
Forgotten Christmas Movies Worth Remembering
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life … that Claymation version of Rudolph … everyone’s got a favorite Christmas movie. If you’re interested in mixing up your family movie watching this holiday, Kirsten Hawkes of ParentPreviews.com has some recommendations that too often get overlooked: Blizzard; Arthur Christmas; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; and Joyeux Noël.
Chinese President Xi Raises the Stakes on Economic Espionage
Guest: Robert Daly, Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the U.S., Wilson Center
At the same time that we’re seeing a pause in escalation of the trade war between the US and China, we’re also seeing US official more openly condemn China for hacking and stealing American trade secrets. A massive breach of 500 million Marriott customer records is likely China’s doing, we learned last week. Top White House, trade and justice officials have recently called out China for conducting economic espionage. Dozens of America’s top China scholars issued a report recently on the many ways China is interfering with American society and government.
Sumo Wrestling in the United States
Guest: Andrew Freund, Founder, Director, US Sumo Open
Did you know Sumo has a following in the US? Andrew Freund is the founder and director of the US Sumo Open.
The Rise of Sriracha
Guest: Griffin Hammond, Filmmaker and Creator of the Sriracha Documentary
Scan the aisles at the grocery store and you’ll find sriracha flavored chips, nuts, tuna, even ketchup. So if the quintessential American condiment - Heinz ketchup - now comes with sriracha, that’s a pretty good sign the red chili sauce with the tongue-twister name is firmly entrenched in America’s culinary culture.
How Climate Change Could Complicate the Job of a Murder-solving Fly
Guest: Christine Picard, Associate Professor in the Biology Department and Forensic & Investigative Sciences Program, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.
A blue-green insect with a killer sense of smell has long been a homicide detective’s best friend. Blow flies are a bit larger than your typical housefly, but they’re more particular when it comes to food. They find dead bodies within minutes and their larvae can help forensic scientists accurately estimate time of death. But rising temperatures in the U.S. are causing different species of blow flies to migrate to new areas – which could complicate future murder investigations.
Using Plant-based Plastic to Help Fight Climate Change
Guest: Joseph Rollin, Postdoctoral Researcher, US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Most of the plastic that surrounds us, fills our landfills and floats in giant trash islands on the ocean is made from oil. And most of that plastic doesn’t recycle all that well. Plastics made from plants may be the solution in the long-run. They biodegrade faster and can also be recycled more completely than traditional plastic. There’s also the intriguing possibility that plant-based plastics could be used to permanently trap harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
What’s Better than an Antibiotic? A Virus That Kills Bacteria
Guest: Julianne Grose, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, BYU; Richard Robison, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, BYU; Mike Alder, Director, BYU, Technology Transfer Office BYU
Unless we find a way to deal with antibiotic resistance, health experts predict that thirty years from now bacterial infections will be killing as many people as diabetes and cancer do. Inventing new antibiotics to tackle so-called superbugs that are resistant to the current arsenal is a top international health priority. Here at BYU, the focus is on finding viruses that kill deadly bacteria. Instead of pumping a patient full of antibiotics, doctors might instead pump that patient full of viruses – but nice ones.
The Magic and Value of Vintage Toys
Guest: Joel Magee, America's Toy Scout (toyscout.com)
Toys are meant to be played with and cherished, but some people buy toys they never intend to open. Some of those unopened toys end up being sold for thousands of dollars. A toy is just something to entertain a child, so what makes old ones worth so much money? Is it only the unopened toys that are valuable? If you want to get into collecting them, where would you begin?
Why We Give and How to Give the Best Gifts
Guests: Lara Aknin, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Director of the Helping and Happiness Lab, Simon Fraser University; Cindy Chan, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Toronto Scarborough
It’s the season of giving, which can also make it the season of stress – all that time and money and that nagging suspicion that most of what you give will be eventually forgotten anyway. But some gifts we do remember forever. We put a call out for gift-related stories and heard some really memorable ones we’ll share with you this hour. Plus, we’ve got expert insight on how to give presents that will be cherished and strengthen your relationships. But first, a look at why we do it in the first place. Is there some evolutionary reason for gift giving? Do we mainly do it because that’s what’s expected?
Dealing With Difficult Conversations over the Holidays
Guest: Emily de Schweinitz Taylor, Conflict Mediator, Author of "Raising Mediators"
You’re going to be with a lot of family and friends at holiday gatherings in the coming weeks. And maybe you’re dreading what will happen when your uncle brings up that politician you disagree with, or your mother-in-law starts giving you parenting advice. A lot of us are in the habit of walking away from those conversations just to keep the peace, maybe hiding out for a bit and venting on Facebook, right? But what if you didn’t walk away? What if there were a way to have that disagreement without ending in hurt feelings or broken dishes?
Ethical Clothing and American Brands
Guest: Emmanuel Teitelbaum, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University
For more than 20 years, Americans clothing companies have been under pressure to make sure their shoes and shirts and jeans aren’t being sewn in dangerous sweatshops by child laborers in Asia. All the big brands have divisions dedicated to doing things in a socially responsible way. Has any real progress been made? What about those two tragedies that happened in Bangladesh a few years ago where one factory caught fire and another collapsed entirely? Hundreds of workers were killed and logos for some big American brands were found in the rubble. How much progress have we made since that tragedy?
Sweden’s Child of Light
Guest: Christopher Oscarson, Professor of Scandinavian Studies, Brigham Young University
December 13 is Saint Lucia Day. Saint Lucia is especially big in Sweden. And it’s a little ironic because this song and the saint herself both come from warm sunny Sicily. Now it’s biggest devotees are in the dark, cold north. How did that happen?
Your Cat Might Actually Love You Back (Originally aired September 25, 2018)
Guest: Kristyn Vitale, Researcher at Oregon State University’s Human/Animal Interaction Lab
Dogs have a reputation for being social and smart and helpful. Cats, on the other hand, are aloof and only interested in humans as a source of food. But research being done by Kristyn Vitale at Oregon State University’s Human/Animal Interaction Lab suggests those stereotypes are wrong. Cats are social. Many seek out interaction with humans. And – get this – they can be trained.
When a Dog Comes to the Rescue (Originally aired August 20,2018)
Guest: Emily Sanford, Student in Psychology and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
People often feel a strong emotional connection to their dog. But does the dog feel the same way? Can a dog sense when its owner is in distress - and will it actually come to the rescue, like Lassie in the old TV show? Some researchers at Johns Hopkins University think so.
These Giant Rats Save Lives and May Soon Stop Poachers (Originally aired July 2, 2018)
Guest: Kate Sears-Webb, Behavioral Research Technician, APOPO
APOPO is a global non-profit organization based in Tanzania that has pioneered the training-rats-to-save-lives thing. Their African pouched rats have cleared more than 100,000 landmines from former war zones and can screen mucus samples for tuberculosis way, way faster than traditional methods. Now the rats are being grained to find illegally trafficked African hardwoods and pangolins, which are scaly anteaters.
PM May Hangs On, Brexit Still in Question
Guest: Sir Michael Leigh, professor of European Studies, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Italy; former European Commission official
British Prime Minister Theresa May survived a "no confidence" vote from her own party to remove her from office today, but over 100 conservative MPs voted against her. The Brexit deal she negotiated with the European Union is so unpopular that she doesn’t have the votes to get it approved by the UK Parliament. The European Union says they’re not interested in negotiating a new deal and any changes at this point will be mainly cosmetic. What now?
How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Became a Pop Culture Icon
Guest: Jonathan Entin, Professor Emeritus of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University
The oldest justice on the US Supreme Court is also the only one who can claim the status of viral internet meme. You can buy T-shirts with her picture and the words “Notorious RBG.” Her lace collars are a sign of solidarity among women and girls a protest marches. And she’s a crowd favorite on Saturday Night Live as impersonated by Kate McKinnon. Already this year, Justice Ginsburg – who is 85 - has been the subject of an acclaimed a documentary from CNN and a movie coming to theaters soon called, “On the Basis of Sex.” One breathless review calls it Ginsburg’s superhero origin story. Why is RGB having his media moment?
BYU’s Bethlehem Exhibit Highlights Forgotten History and Culture
Guests: Cynthia Finlayson Professor of Anthropology, BYU. Paul Stavast, Director of the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures.
For Christians, Bethlehem brings to mind shepherds and angels and a holy babe lying in a manger. But its history is much more complicated than the Nativity. Once a predominantly Christian community, today Bethlehem is mostly Muslim and lies in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, cut off from Jerusalem by a 25-foot wall built by the Israeli government. BYU’s Museum of Peoples and Cultures has a new exhibit that shows a more nuanced side of the little town where Christ was born. It’s called “Returning to Bethlehem: A Cultural Pilgrimage.”
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
Reviewed.com and the Role of In-Depth Reviews
Guest: David Kender, Editor in Chief, Reviewed
There are twelve days till Christmas. So if you still need to get French hens or French horns, it’s time to go shopping. But before you go, you may want to get some advice: not all turtle doves, electronics or appliances are created equal. That’s where reviews come in. How can you know which ones you can trust?
Popular Christmas Tradition Origins
Guest: Ace Collins, Author of "Stories behind the Great Traditions of Christmas”
For all the talk about putting “Christ” back in Christmas, you may be surprised to learn that Christ was actually a late-comer to the party. Many of our Christmas traditions have pagan origins. Author Ace Collins traces the historical roots of everything from the evergreen tree to the candy cane in his book, “Stories behind the Great Traditions of Christmas."
Why Are French Protesters Wearing Yellow Vests?
Guest: Charles Hankla, Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University
A contrite French President Emmanual Macron said in a televised address to the nation yesterday that he fell short in his response to weeks of violent street protests over his government policies. He promised a minimum wage increase and tax cuts for hourly workers and low-income retirees. It’s unclear whether his concessions will satisfy the demands of the protest movement known as the Yellow Vests.
Tiny Air Particles Cause Big Health Risk
Guest: Douglas Brugge, Professor of Public Health, Tufts University School of Medicine
A committee of the Environmental Protection Agency is meeting this week to review its rules for a type of air pollution that causes more deaths in the US every year than gun violence and car crashes combined. It’s called particulate matter, and scientists have known for decades that it’s dangerous. But the question has always been just how much is too much? And the answer is complicated by the fact that much of the worrisome pollution is microscopic.
Internet Pop Culture: Tik Tok, ASMR, Vlogmas
Guest: Sara Nelson, Senior Digital Marketing Manager, BYU Broadcasting
Check in with one of our internet culture experts. What are the kids up to online?
Weight Bias in the Doctor’s Office
Guest: Kimberly Gudzune, Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University.
One of the consequences of labeling obesity an epidemic in America is pervasive stigma in our society. Overweight people are often judged as lazy or otherwise lacking character. Even their doctors are prone to unconsciously slip into biased thinking about their patients who have obesity.
Traumatic Loss and the Brain
Guest: Lisa Shulman, Professor of Neurology, University of Maryland, Author of “Before and After Loss: A Neurologist’s Perspective on Loss, Grief, and Our Brain”
The symptoms of a traumatic brain injury include confusion, trouble concentrating, moving clumsily, memory loss and changes in sleep and mood. All of that sounded familiar to neurologist Lisa Shulman – not because she’d hit her head, but because her husband had just died of cancer. What if a traumatic loss like that is a form of emotional brain injury, she wondered? The answers she uncovered form the basis of Dr. Shulman’s new book, “Before and After Loss: A Neurologist’s Perspective on Loss, Grief, and our Brain.”
Worlds Awaiting: Why Seuss’ Grinch Endures
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Dr. Seuss gave us the Grinch and his Christmas-detesting ways just over 60 years ago in print. Then came at TV special – which still airs on network TV. And numerous film adaptations, including the one in theaters right now. Why is the Grinch such an enduring part of the landscape this time of year?
Election Fraud Investigation in NC Congressional Race
Guest: Michael Bitzer, Professor of Political Science, Catawba College
The winner of North Carolina’s 9th Congressional seat is still undecided because the state’s board of elections has refused to certify the result. As of now, Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes. But the state board is investigating allegations that the Harris campaign may have benefited from mail-in ballots that were collected fraudulently.
World’s First Gene-edited Babies Are Causing an Uproar
Guest: Henry T. Greely Professor of Law, Director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University.
A Chinese scientist announced last month that the first gene-edited babies have been born in China after editing the DNA of the twin girls’ embryos to help make them resistant to HIV infection. Dr. He Jainkui said he implanted the embryos in their mother, and the babies were born and are alive and healthy. But the scientific community is in an uproar over the announcement.
When Women Lie
Guest: Laura J. Kray, Professor at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
Imagine you are selling your car and you know it’s got an oil leak. Do you tell the buyer during the negotiation or not? What if the car belongs to a friend who asked you to sell it for her - would you tell the buyer about the oil leak in that case? According to one recent study, your answer in both cases may depend on your gender.
Preparing for and Forecasting the Next Big Earthquake
Guest: Ron Harris, Professor of Geology, BYU
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck just beneath Anchorage, Alaska last month, twisting roads and damaging homes, was not a surprise. Alaska is the most seismically active region of the United States – it gets an earthquake in the magnitude 7 range every other year, or so. But knowing exactly when and where the next one will hit still stumps seismologists.
EEG Test Provides More Effective Way to Measure Pain
Guest: Carl Saab, Professor of Neurosurgery, Brown University, Director of the Pain & Neural Circuits Center research lab, Rhode Island Hospital.
Chronic pain is among the thorniest problems in medicine. It affects 1 in 6 American adults and we simply don’t have very effective treatment for it. That’s one reason overuse of opioids has become such an epidemic problem. We also don’t have very good ways of diagnosing pain other than the “rate your pain on a scale of 1-10” method, which scientists agree is not very scientific.
Are Your Bananas At Risk?
Guest: Norman C. Ellstrand, Distinguished Professor of Genetics, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside
Quick quiz – how many varieties of apple can you name? Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Pink Lady are available at the local grocer. But if you had to name a few types of banana. . . . uh, what? Here in the US, there’s only one kind of banana in the supermarket – sweet, yellow, no seeds, about as long as your hand. It’s a variety called Cavendish and it dominates the international banana market. Which turns out to be a big problem.
Have Yourself a Spicy Holiday
Guest: Lior Lev Sercarz, Chef, Spice Blender and Owner of La Boi?te, A biscuits and Spice Shop in New York City
There are certain spices that evoke the holidays: mutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves. Why is that? Lior Lev Sercarz is a chef and the owner La Boi?te http://laboiteny.com/, a biscuits and spice shop in New York City. His custom spice blends are used by some of the city’s top chefs. He offers classes on how to make your own spice blends and he’s written a gorgeous book called “The Spice Companion” with everything you’d want to know about where the best spices come from, how they’re grown and what to do with them in your kitchen.
A Debate about Copyright Laws in the Internet Age
Guests: Sean Pager, Professor of Law, Michigan State University; Rick Carnes, President of the Songwriters Guild of America; Aaron Perzanowski, Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University; Kirby Ferguson, Filmmaker, Everything is a Remix
The idea of owning your work is embedded in the Constitution. The nation’s founders gave Congress the ability to write laws that would give "authors and inventors exclusive right to their writings and discoveries" for a "limited time." In the case of patents – say for a cool new toy or a drug to treat cancer - that exclusive right lasts for 20 years. If you come up with a new way of expressing idea – say in a book, a painting or a song – you get a copyright, instead of a patent. And that copyright lasts for the rest of your life, plus 70 years. Today there are ways to create and share work the founders couldn’t have dreamed of. And while copyright laws have been updated over time, the internet has us wondering in a serious way whether they strike the right balance.
Murder of Saudi Dissident Stirs Trouble for Trump
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
There’s a widening rift between the Trump Administration and members of Congress over whether and how to hold responsible Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman for the killing of Khashoggi, which happened in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two months ago.
A Prescription Drug Empire
Guest: Robin Feldman, Professor of Law, Director of the Institute for Innovation Law, University of California Hastings College of Law
Prices for prescription drugs in America have jumped dramatically in the past decade, far outstripping price increases on other stuff we buy. If your insurance covers prescriptions, you might not have noticed. If you are paying out of pocket, though, or have a serious illness like diabetes, the price hikes were likely devastating to your finances. Why are drug prices rising so quickly? And where is all that money going?
Restoring Movement to Paralyzed Limbs Through Nerve Transfers
Guest: Amy Moore, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Millions of Americans are living with some form of paralysis due to an injury, stroke or illness that damages the nervous system. While doctors haven’t yet discovered how to return full mobility in extreme cases of paralysis, they are making big strides in a technique called nerve transfer – which involves taking a healthy nerve from one part of the body and plugging it in to the paralyzed area.
Aztec Wisdom: Seek a Worthwhile Life and Happiness May Follow (Originally aired August 8, 2018)
Guest: L. Sebastian Purcell, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, SUNY-Cortland.
In the quest for happiness, people throughout time have looked to religion and philosophy – the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, Plato, Confucius. How about Montezuma? Well, he was more warrior than philosopher, but the Aztecs he ruled in the 1500s had a surprisingly grounded view of what it means to lead a good life. It's a view that actually aligns closely with the latest research being done on happiness today.
Clan Buchanan Finds a Clan Chief at Last (Originally aired on September 25, 2018)
Guest: David J. Byrne, President, Clan Buchanan Society International
The Clan Buchanan – one of Scotland’s most storied clans – has been without a recognized leader for more than 300 years. Only someone with proven descent from a chief can claim the title – and until recently, no one’s been able to do so. But a Scottish millionaire landowner named Mike Buchanan always believed he was descended from clan leadership. Thanks to some serious genealogical work, he proved his claim and was officially appointed chief of The Clan Buchanan a few months ago.
The Perfect, American Condiment (Originally aired June 20,2018)
Guest: Amy Bentley, Professor of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University
Ketchup is one of the most popular condiments in American restaurants. It pairs well with French fries and burgers. What makes ketchup so appealing to American taste buds? The Chinese actually made it first - though they left out the tomatoes and used fermented fish instead. So really, can you even call that ketchup?
The Legacy of George H.W. Bush
Guest: James Goldgeier, Visiting Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Professor of International Relations, American University
Since his passing, many have praised Bush for his humility, kind temperament and generosity, but he wasn’t elected for a second term, which in modern US politics is considered a failure. He was criticized for lacking a domestic agenda, but Bush's primary passion and work was in foreign policy, and he played a key role in the reunification of Germany, the expansion of NATO, Russian's transition from communism, and - of course - the Middle East.
Brain Science Confirms that Giving Beats Receiving
Guest: Christina Karns, Research Associate, Center for Brain Injury Research and Training, University of Oregon.
We’re in the season of giving and receiving. Some new brain imaging work reveals an interesting connection between the two – the more grateful you are for what you have, the more you enjoy giving to others. Also, gratitude can be intentionally cultivated and the results will show up in brain scans.
Controlling Your Own Dreams
Guest: Deirdre Barrett, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Harvard
Have you ever been in the middle of what you thought was reality and then suddenly become conscious that it was really a dream? Lucid dreaming moments are not uncommon. And researchers are now working on a device that aims to use advanced sleep tracking techniques and light and audio signals to artificially stimulate a lucid dream. Can lucid dreaming be controlled and directed? And to what end?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
Archaeologist Digs Spain’s 450-Year Old in North Carolina
Guest: Christopher Rodning, Professor & Graduate Studies Coordinator, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University
Starting in 1567, decades before the British came on the scene here in America, Spanish explorers built a series of forts in the Appalachian Mountains, stretching from modern-day North Carolina into Tennessee. Spain was looking to expand its claim far north of Florida and Mexico. But within two years the forts were gone. Excavation at one of the forts in North Carolina has uncovered some answers about the failure of this particular Spanish exploration.
The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety
Guest: Deborah Blum, Director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT and Author of “The Poison Squad”
In the 1880s if you walked into a grocery store and bought milk, bread and butter, it was “buyer beware.” The milk was likely diluted, quite possibly with dirty water, and then thickened with chalk. The bread might have sawdust in it and the butter might be preserved with borax, which is a poison, of course. It wasn’t until 1906 that the US finally got the Pure Food and Drug Act, which led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, and the expectation that our food should be safe to eat. The battle to get to there was both grisly and exhausting.
Why Brexit Supports Are Unhappy with the Brexit Plan
Guest: John Longworth, Chair of Leave Means Leave and former Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce
British Prime Minister Theresa May has a little over a week to get the UK parliament on board with her plan for an exit from the European Union. But she’s got a lot of opposition on both sides. Those who never wanted a Brexit in the first place hope that tanking the deal Prime Minister May has worked out with the EU will force a new referendum in which they believe British voters will change their minds and opt to stay. On the other hand, Brexit’s most vocal supporters say the deal makes too many concessions to the EU and doesn’t deliver the clean exit British voters chose in 2016.
Are Americans Really More Rude Than Canadians?
Guest: Bryor Snefjella, Linguistics and Languages, McMaster University, Ontario
If aliens tapped into Twitter to learn about humans, what might they conclude? If they did the kind of analysis some researchers at McMaster University in Canada did, the aliens would probably end up with a very stereotypical view of different countries: Canadians are nice and polite, for example. Americans are brash and rude.
The Grinch and Other Christmas Movies about Redemption
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Dr. Seuss’s holiday-hating villain is back in theater, looking pretty much the way he did when he first appeared on the page in 1957 and on-screen in 1966. Dr. Seuss wrote the lyrics to this song from the TV special himself. The latest Grinch film comes from the movie studio that brought us the quirky, cuddly Minions of Despicable Me.
Law Enforcement Tool or Legal Theft?
Guest: Beth Colgan, Professor of Law, UCLA
It’s a little known fact that police in most states have the ability to seize property – we’re talking homes, cash, cars – if they suspect the stuff helped in committing a crime. Say, if someone were caught selling drugs, police might seize the car the suspect was driving. In many states, police can even do this before someone is even charged or convicted of a crime. The seized property often gets sold and the law enforcement keeps the cash. “Civil forfeiture” brings in millions of dollars for police every year. And for the last year, the US Justice Department has been encouraging local police departments to seize stuff as a way of funding their crime-fighting efforts.
Milk Byproduct Could Make Farming More Water Efficient
Guest: Matthew Wallenstein, Professor of Soil Ecology, Head of Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University
Every continent on the planet is experiencing water scarcity, according to the United Nations. Most of the water being used - 70 percent of it – is for agriculture. So, finding ways to use it more efficiently in farming is a major concern.
Cornea Transplants
Guest: Wade McEntire, Director of Operations and Business Development, Utah Lions Eye Bank
The cornea is just a small, clear covering on the eye, but it accounts for about two-thirds of the eye’s optical power. And when it’s damaged, the world goes dark. We often hear about the importance of organ donations such as the heart, liver or kidney, but millions of people are also waiting to have their sight restored through a cornea transplant.
Mexico’s New President Embraces the "Common Man"
Guest: Claudio Holzner, Associate Professor of Political Science, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies, University of Utah
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was sworn in on Saturday, promising to clean up corruption, reduce poverty and make Mexico safer. His landslide election victory earlier this year ousted the conservative political party that has run Mexico for decades. But what kinds of changes will be bring? And what will his presidency mean north of the border for for trade and immigration policy?
Robin Hood Resurgent
Guest: James Deutsch, Curator, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Professorial Lecturer in American Studies, George Washington University
There's a new action flick out -- another rendition of folklore hero Robin Hood. Hollywood has done a lot of Robin Hood retellings. Frank Sinatra, Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, and Russell Crowe have all played the title role in past adaptations, and there are several more reboots in the works. Something keeps luring Hollywood back to the folklore hero again and again.
A Revolutionary Tool to Monitor Cancer
Guest: Ryan Kelly, Professor of Chemistry, Brigham Young University
When doctors want to know how a cancerous tumor is responding to treatment, they usually have to take a sample of tissue straight from the growth. Doing a biopsy is painful and risky. But to know if the cancer is shrinking or spreading, doctors need a pretty large sample of cells. BYU chemistry professor Ryan Kelly and his former colleagues at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a technique for getting even better information out of a blood sample, rather than a biopsy.
Some Americans Can’t Worship Without Fear
Guest: Christopher Scheitle, Assistant Professor of Sociology West Virginia University
It’s not uncommon in America for places of worship to be the target of crime – burglary, arson, graffiti – and violent attacks. Barely a month ago, 11 people were murdered by a shooter at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. How often are American churches targets of crime? And which faiths are most often targeted?
Helping Drug-Sniffing Dogs Do Their Job
Guest: Fred Helfers, Drug-Sniffing Dog Trainer and Retired Police Narcotics Detective
Sniffer dogs are used by police forces worldwide to search for drugs, dead bodies, arson evidence – and even money. Dogs are being used to help diabetics monitor their blood sugar, and research is underway to see if they can help detect cancer. But the more we rely on dogs to do vital work, the more critical it is that they be rigorously trained and tested.
The Mystery of Wombat Poop
Guest: David Hu, Professor of Fluid Mechanics, Georgia Tech
Cubes occur very rarely in nature. There are some minerals – like iron pyrite, aka fool’s gold – that naturally form in cubic crystals. Another notable exception is the Australian marsupial called a wombat – it’s shaped like a fuzzy, overstuffed football, but its droppings have flat edges. Wombats poop cubes. And until recently, nobody knew why.
Take Control of Your Depression
Guest: Susan Noonan, Consultant, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLain Hospital, Author of “Take Control of Your Depression: Strategies to Help You Feel Better Now”
It’s one of the most common mental disorders in the United States and, unfortunately, it’s not the kind of thing that doctors know how to cure simply. Having depression generally means living with its ebbs and flows – even when you’re treating it with medication and therapy. Noonan's book offers a multi-faceted approch to managing depression, including managing eating, sleeping and exercise.
A Journey through the Money, Medicine and Mysteries of Blood
Guest: Rose George, Author of “Nine Pints: A Journey through the Money, Medicine and Mysteries of Blood”
It’s a life-saving liquid, obviously. And so powerful, that blood is a banned substance for elite athletes. It’s also a valuable commodity – once you or I donate a pint, it is broken into components, brokered and sold around the world before entering the veins of a patient in need. And that’s strange because we generally think of selling organs as unethical. Blood is also a body part, so why doesn’t its global trade trouble us?
Conflict Between Ukraine and Russia Escalates
Guests: Celeste Beesley, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Scott Cooper, PhD, Professor of Political Science
Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian navy ships and their crews over the weekend in disputed waters between the two countries. Russia says Ukraine was provoking it. Ukraine says Russia is trying to seize more of its territory. In 2014 Russia annexed Crimea, which belonged to Ukraine. There’s been ongoing conflict along the border since then. What does this latest dispute mean, and what comes next?
Closing GM Factories
Guest: Christopher C. Douglas, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Michigan-Flint
The announcement by General Motors this week that it will lay off 14,000 workers and shutter five auto plants in North America, is a blow to President Trump’s emphasis on getting more stuff made in America. There could be political consequences, since three of the plants GM is closing were key to Trump’s election – Michigan and Ohio.
A Breakthrough in Migraine Treatment
Guest: Anne MacGregor, MD, Honorary Professor of Women’s Health, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, UK
Millions of people suffer from migraine headaches that can be completely debilitating. They may last for hours – even days – and can recur multiple times a month. Most severe chronic migraine sufferers are women, but the exact causes are still not well understood. But this year the FDA did approve new treatments that may help prevent migraines in some sufferers, a major breakthrough after decades of slow progress.
The Mars InSight Mission (Originally aired April 3, 2018)
Guest: Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
This week, NASA’s Mars InSight Lander successfully touched down on the surface of the red planet. For the next two years, the lander promises to give the most in-depth analysis of Mars ever. And you’re probably thinking, well NASA’s had Martian rovers for a long time. 14 years, to be exact. But those rovers just roamed around searching for signs of life and scoping things out for the day when humans will ultimately arrive.
Face-Recognizing Software Helps Kids with Autism Communicate (Originally aired August 22, 2018)
Guest: Dennis Wall, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University School of Medicine
Children with autism often have trouble recognizing emotion in the faces of people around them, which poses a major obstacle to social interaction and making friends. Researchers at Stanford University have experimented with giving the kids high-tech glasses that can help them interpret facial expressions. And it has worked well in a pilot study.
The Fight Against Factory Farm Pollution (Originally aired July 25,2018)
Guest: Sacoby Wilson, Associate Professor of Applied Environmental Health University of Maryland
Earlier this month, jurors in Raleigh, North Carolina settled down for a month-long federal lawsuit about pig poop. In August, a North Carolina jury in another federal trial handed down a $470 million dollar judgment against one of these massive pig farms. If you’ve ever passed a large pig farm or cattle operation and rolled up your windows to keep out the stench, imagine living next door to it. Neighbors believe the regulations that govern how smelly and messy a hog farm can be haven’t kept pace with just how huge these farms have become. So they’ve been suing the farms under nuisance laws – and winning those cases. What will that mean for meat production in the US.
Thousands of Migrants in Limbo at US/Mexico Border
Guest: Kari Hong, Assistant Professor, Boston College Law School
More than 5,000 migrants are camped out in Tijuana in deteriorating conditions, waiting to gain access to the US Port of Entry where they hope to make a claim for asylum in America. Most of them have travelled from Honduras, but US border agents are only allowing a limited number of asylum seekers to cross over each day. So the migrants are effectively in limbo and Tijuana’s mayor says the situation is a humanitarian crisis. The caravan of thousands arriving all at once like they did has overwhelmed the city’s shelters and a sports complex that has been converted into a camp.
Seemingly Competitive Transportation Options Actually Complement Each Other
Guest: Jonathan Hall, Professor of Economics, University of Toronto
Ride hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft have taken off, while public transit ridership has fallen in metropolitan areas. So the one must have caused the other, right? It seems like an easy connection to make, but a new study shows that the opposite might be true: ride hailing actually gives public transportation a small boost in some cities.
Throwing Axes for Fun
Guest: Brayden Floyd, Owner of Social Axe Throwing in Utah
A new hobby takes dartboards to a whole new level: axe throwing. More and more recreational axe throwing establishments are popping up around the country. With a couple of axes and a panel of wood with a target on it, people are simultaneously blowing off steam and having a great time with their friends. How long has axe throwing been around and where does it derive from?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story.
Was the Real Blackbeard a Jamaican Gentleman?
Guest: Baylus Brooks, Author, "Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World.”
300 years ago, almost to the day, one of the most fearsome pirates to roam the Atlantic was captured and beheaded. “Blackbeard” was his nickname and merchants told stories of this wild man with pistols strapped across his chest, a fur cap perched on his head and a giant beard that would sometimes catch fire when he smoked.
The Deadliest Flu Pandemic in Living Memory Happened 100 Years Ago. Could it Happen Again?
Guest: Richard Gunderman, Professor of Medical Education, Indiana University.
We’re marking the 100th anniversary this year of the armistice that ended the Great War. This also marks the 100th anniversary of the deadliest flu pandemic in recent memory, killing between 50 and 100 million people worldwide. That these two anniversaries coincide is actually not coincidental. The war was the vector that drove the epidemic.
App Store Lawsuit Challenges Apple’s Control Over iPhone Experience
Guest: Paul Stancil, Professor of Law, Brigham Young University
The US Supreme Court heard arguments Monday that could change how much control Apple – and potentially other companies like Google and Facebook – exert over the experience we have when using their services. In the Supreme Court case called “Apple v. Pepper” iPhone users argue that Apple’s App Store is a monopoly and apps cost more there than they would if Apple didn’t have such a tight hold on what you can download on your phone. Apple argues it’s just a marketplace where iPhone users can buy apps directly from the people who create them. As a result, Apple says iPhone users aren’t even eligible to bring this lawsuit. That’s what the Supreme Court will decide.
The Benefits of Talking to Yourself
Guest: Jason Moser, Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University
People talk to themselves a lot and that’s not unusual. But we always refer to ourselves as “I” – as in, “I’m so hungry.” Or, “I gotta it together here.” Is that a thing people actually do? But there is some research to suggest we ought to do it more.
If You Find Two Wheels Boring, Try Mountain Unicycling
Guest: Kris Holm, Early Pioneer of Mountain Unicycling and Founder of Kris Holm Unicycles
Kris Holm has climbed the highest mountain in Central America – and the 3rd highest in North America. He’s also traversed the trade-routes across the Himalayas in Bhutan, traveled the Great Wall of China, and climbed a nearly volcano in Bolivia that’s nearly 20,000 feet high. And he did it all on one wheel.
Nearly All the Water on Earth is Extraterrestrial
Guest: Ewine Van Dishoeck, Professor of Astrophysics, Leiden University, Netherlands
The search for life on other planets typically starts with a search for water. Liquid oceans are a distinguishing feature of this planet, where life thrives. We, humans, are mostly water ourselves. Astrochemist Ewine van Dishoek of Leiden University in the Netherlands has dedicated her career to figuring out where the water in our solar system – and in our bodies – initially came from and her conclusions will give you a whole new appreciation for that bottle you’re sipping water from right now.
Navigating the Wild World of Movie Prop Collecting
Guest: Brandon Alinger, Chief Operations Officer of the LA Branch for The Prop Store
The pair of slippers that Judy Garland wore in the Wizard of Oz were recently recovered by police – 13 years after they were stolen. There’s a booming business in movie props. And if you have the money, it can be a fascinating hobby. But be careful out there – movie prop collecting is a rough and tumble world. They were taken from a Minnesota museum in 2005, when someone broke in through a window late at night. The slippers are often said to among the most valued props in movie history. This pair was insured for $1m but experts have said they could be worth two times that now.
The Quest for Clean Food
Guest: Ruth MacDonald, PhD, Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University
Healthy food bloggers and authors like Michael Pollan encourage us to steer clear of food that contains ingredients we can’t pronounce. "Aim for clean and simple foods," is the mantra. So, something that contains glutamic acid, histidine, methionine, phytosterols and 2-hydroxy-3-methylethl would be a definite no-go right? Except the food I’m describing is a banana. And not even a genetically-modified one.
Prison Reform Gets Bipartisan Push
Guest: Priya Raghavan, Counsel, Brennan Center’s Justice Program, NYU
In this deeply divided political moment, one issue has emerged on which Democrats and Republicans find agreement. That point of agreement is that we are locking up too many people in the United States and too many of them end up back in prison for new crimes after they’re released.
China’s Booming Middle Class is Only Part of the Economic Story
Guest: Dorothy Solinger, Professor Emerita of Political Science, UC Irvine, Editor of “Polarized Cities: Portraits of Rich and Poor in Urban China”
In the past twenty years, China’s middle class has swelled to more than ten times its original size. It’s the fastest growing middle class in the world. China is also churning out new millionaires faster than any other country on Earth. All of that wealth makes China a major global economic power. But there’s more to the story. Political scientist Dorothy Solinger has documented a widening wealth gap in China that is trapping millions of city-dwellers in poverty.
Sticks Become Majestic Art
Guest: Patrick Dougherty, Contemporary Artist, www.stickwork.net
The BYU Museum of Art has a large, light-filled gallery with a panoramic view of Mount Timpanogos. It’s hard for any kind of art to hang in that space and compete with the natural masterpiece on display. So contemporary artist Patrick Dougherty (DOE-urr-tee) has spent the last month creating something enormous and dramatic in the gallery to complement the mountain view. It’s called Windswept.
Hikikomori-Japan’s Modern-Day Hermit
Guest: Alan Teo, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Oregon Health and Science University
In Japan, there are hundreds of thousands of people experiencing an extreme form of social withdrawal called “Hikikomori” where they will hole up at home and not leave for months. They’ll have limited contact with anyone but family in the home. This behavior isn’t unique to Japan, but it’s particularly well-studied there and researchers think there are some cultural reasons why may be more prevalent in Japan. Understanding Hikikomori could help us better understand the way depression and anxiety look in different cultures.
Big Emotions Can Damage Your Heart
Guest: Ilan Wittstein, Cardiologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
For some people – women in particular – emotional “heartbreak” can cause the heart to break, physically. It’s called Broken Heart syndrome and researchers have known about it for a few decades, but they’re realizing it may be more common than once thought.
Sleeping Too Much and Sleeping Too Little Have Similar Effect on Brain Function
Guest: Conor Wild, Ph.D. Neuroscience Research Associate, Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario
Everyone talks about getting enough sleep and with good reason: at least a third of American adults are sleep deprived. Have you ever heard someone say “Wow, I’m having a hard time focusing today, I got too much sleep last night”? While sleeping too much is rare, a global study conducted by the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario found both sleeping too little and sleeping too much have similarly negative effects on brain function.
The Dirty Secret About Recycling (Originally aired August 10, 2018)
Guests: Kate O’Neill, PhD, Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, University of California, Berkeley; Bill Rudy, Recycling and Solid Waste Supervisor, Brigham Young University
The campaign to ban plastic straws is in full gear. But plastic straws are only a tiny part of the problem. While most people now seem happy to toss bottles in the blue bin, no one seems really sure where it goes from there. What do we know about our plastic waste? And how much of what we think we know is wrong?
Apollo 8: The Most Daring of the Moon Missions (Originally aired August 10, 2018)
Guest: Robert Kurson, Author, “Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon”
Eight years ago, astronaut Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” on the surface of the Moon. In that thrilling, televised moment, Armstrong became a household name. But years later he would tell an interviewer that his mission to the moon was not the most daring. Rather, that mission had come six months earlier and was, as Armstrong said, “an enormously bold decision.” Others at NASA would call it the riskiest and most thrilling of all the Apollo missions. What is the overlooked story of Apollo 8?
How Hair Works (Originally aired August 3,2018)
Guest: Duane P. Harland, PhD, Senior Scientist, AgResearch New Zealand
Hair is one of those things we don’t think much about beyond how well it’s cooperating on a given day. But it’s kind of amazing and mysterious: Is it made of living or dead cells? Why does it curl? Why does it turn gray as we age? Why does its texture differ from person to person and even from place to place on our bodies? Why is it greasy for some people and dry for others? When you bleach or color it, what exactly is happening to the hair?
A Believer’s Take on Human Evolution (Originally aired August 3,2018)
Guest: Steven L. Peck, PhD, professor of evolutionary ecology, BYU, author of “Evolving Faith”
Is it possible to believe that we humans evolved from a lower life-form and also believe in divine Creator? Isn’t it one or the other? You either believe the Bible’s account of Adam and Eve, the first humans created by the hand of God, or you believe Charles Darwin’s theories “On the Origin of Species” and “The Descent of Man.” The two seem entirely incompatible. But BYU evolutionary ecology professor Steven L. Peck finds them compatible enough that his belief in the scientific evidence for evolution actually strengthens his belief in God.
A Native American Thanksgiving Menu
Guest: Freddie Bitsoie, Executive Chef, Mitsitam Native Foods Café at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
The only historical record we have an actual “First Thanksgiving” of any kind in 1621 involves the Pilgrims having a big party to celebrate their first successful harvest – shooting off guns and feasting for three days. And the Wampanoag Indians, who had a tenuous peace with the colonists, showed up to check out the commotion – maybe because the guns had them a little worried? They may have stuck around to see how things played out and cooked up a feast of their own. Some of those foods are likely on the menu at the Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. For Thanksgiving, Executive Chef Freddie Bitsoie has prepared are special meal with indigenous ingredients and cooking methods.
The Historian Who Saved, and the Stole, Jewish WWII Archives
Guest: Lisa Leff, PhD, professor of history, American University, author of "The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust"
Zosa Szajkowski is credited with saving a lot of Jewish historical documents that might have been destroyed in the Holocaust. But after the war, his “collecting," started to look a lot more like just plain stealing. How did a laudable mission become a troubling obsession?
Doctor Burnout Can Harm Your Health
Guest: Dike Drummond, MD, foujnder of TheHappyMD.com
Nearly half of all physicians are experiencing burnout symptoms, a recent study by the Mayo Clinic found.Not only doesphysician burnout impact patient care and satisfaction, it’s also linked to higher physician substance abuse and suicide – with approximately 400 physicians taking their own lives in the United States per year (Harvard health link).What can be done to mitigate these negative effects?
The Apple Seed: Kevin Kling
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's The Apple Seed, shares a story by Kevin Kling dealing with family and loved ones, appropriate for those heading into this holiday weekend.
What Rescuers During the Rwandan Genocide Tell Us About Becoming a Hero
Guest: Nicole Fox, PhD, assistant professor of criminal justice, California State University, Sacramento
In 1994 local leaders and live radio broadcasts in Rwanda were calling for all Hutu to kill Tutsi and over the course of just a few months up to a million people were murdered. But there were Hutu who risked their lives to rescue and shelter Tutsis. Interviews with some of those rescuers shed valuable light on the dynamics of heroism.
A Loved One's Guide for Dealing with Dementia
Guest: Anne Kenny, MD, geriatrics and palliative care, author of “Making Tough Decisions about End-of-Life Care in Dementia”
There are usually several family members who suffer alongside the dementia patient, and it is no easy task for them to get through the experience with their sanity and relationships intact. Anyone embarking on that journey could use a guide.
Did Russia Meddle in the 2018 Mid-Term Election?
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Florida’s very close Senate and Governor’s races were finally settled this week after a messy round of recounts that resulted in one key election official resigning. President Trump claimed, without evidence, that voter fraud had taken place in those races. But what about Russian interference? Heading into the mid-terms top US security officials warned Russia was actively trying to disrupt the election.
Ironing as an Extreme Sport
Guest: Jack Nichols, Photographer and Extreme Ironing Record Holder
Perched on the edge of a waterfall, dangling upside down on a climbing wall, straddling a tree trunk thirty feet up – there has to be an easier way to get your shirt pressed. But “extreme ironing” isn’t just about getting the wrinkles out. It’s about the challenge – and the great photo opp. Photographer Jack Nichols specializes in stunning capturing hard-to-reach landscapes and he usually brings an iron along, too. He’s got the North American record for lowest-elevation extreme ironing.
How the Food Industry Influences What We Eat
Guest: Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University
When someone with lots of followers on Instagram posts about some awesome new weight loss tea that’s #sponsored, we know to view the endorsement skeptically. But when a respected nutritional researcher publishes a study in a journal that finds health benefits related to chocolate or almonds or kale or pomegranates, well that’s legit, right?
Eradicating the last of Jim Crow Laws
Guest: Thomas Aiello, Associate Professor of History, Valdosta State University. Author of “Jim Crow’s Last Stand: Nonunanimous Criminal Jury Verdicts in Louisiana”
The power of juries in America. We know they’re an important part of the criminal justice system. We know that when you get called to jury duty, you have to go. And you probably know that you’re charged with a serious crime, a jury of 12 people will have to come to a unanimous decision in order to convict you. But actually, that’s not true in Oregon. It’s the only state that does not require a unified jury to convict someone of a felony. Louisiana was in the same boat until just a few weeks ago when voters decided to require a unanimous verdict in felony criminal trials.
Jury Nullification and Democracy
Guest: Ilya Somin, Professor of Law, George Mason University
Most states require a jury to come to a unanimous decision in order to convict someone of a serious crime. There’s a long-delayed correction to Louisiana’s old racially driven jury law. There is little-known power that juries hold. What would you do if you were sitting on a jury and you felt strongly that the law itself was unjust – or that the punishment was too severe? It turns out juries have a solution in their toolkit. It’s called jury nullification – which simply means that a jury can return a “not guilty” verdict if they object to the law itself or to the severity of the likely sentence.
The Children Act and Courts on Screen
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Parent Previews film reviewer Kirsten Hawkes has been thinking about how justice and the rule of law are depicted on screen. But we’re not talking about “A Few Good Men” or any of the John Grisham thrillers. Hawkes has a lineup of classic films that contemplate big questions about justice that could make for great family discussion fodder.
Why the Camp Fire in California is so Destructive and Deadly
Guest: Christopher Dicus, Professor of Wildland Fire & Fuels Management, California Polytechnic State University, President of the Association for Fire Ecology
The Camp Fire in Northern California is already the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, and it continues to burn. At least 77 people are confirmed dead and hundreds more are missing. Many of them are from the city of Paradise, which was entirely destroyed when the fire quickly overwhelmed it a week and a half ago. Why was this fire so fast moving and fatal?
The Future is Looking a Bit Hazy and Nuclear
Guest: Allison M. Macfarlane, Professor of Science Policy and International Affairs and Director of the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy, George Washington University
Nuclear power is fading in the US. Most of the nation’s 100 or so nuclear reactors are near the end of their 40-year-life-span initially approved by regulators. More than a dozen have become so expensive to maintain they are slated to be shut down permanently. The nation’s oldest commercial nuclear plant was 49-years-old – and it just closed down for good in Lacey, New Jersey. Meanwhile only one new nuclear power plant is currently under construction in the US. But America’s nuclear safety rules and regulations were designed for building and maintaining plants, not tearing them down.
Designing Crisis-Proof Buildings
Guest: Jay Brotman, Partner, Svigals + Partners
After a mass shooting with a high number of casualties in America – whether in a school or a church or a club – there are calls for gun control, but also for making our public places more secure. Armed guards. Bulletproof glass. Locked doors. Is it possible to design a building so secure it will prevent a mass shooting?
Something Isn’t Adding Up: Why Americans are Bad at Math
Guest: James W. Stigler, Professor of Developmental Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
Compared to many other wealthy countries, America’s 15-year-old rank near the bottom on math achievement. And the problem clearly starts earlier: just a third of eighth graders tested proficient at their grade level on math last year, according to US Department of Education.
BYU Professor’s Census Tree links families together through generations
Guest: Joseph Price, Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University, Director of the BYU Record Linking Lab
Finding your roots through DNA tests is a lucrative industry that has enabled many, many people to find relatives or distant ancestors. But there’s still a lot of manual work involved to flesh out the details of your family tree beyond the first few generations. US Census records are a key source for that, but anyone who has searched them knows how tricky it is to connect ancestors from decade to decade. BYU’s record linking lab is working to automate the process drawing from more than a hundred million US Census records now available online.
Decision-Based Learning
Guests: Ken Plummer, Consultant, Center for Teaching and Learning, BYU; Morgan Busch, Center for Teaching and Learning, BYU; Mike Alder, director of BYU Technology Transfer Office
We talked about the shortcomings of math instruction in the US – too much attention on memorization and practice equations, too little actual problem solving. A team here at BYU is developing a system to help instructors create lessons that train students to think the way experts think.
The “Fighting Chaplain” of WWI
Guest: Ken Alford, Professor of Church History, BYU
A Utah man, son of a top leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was volunteered by his father to be a chaplain in the war. He didn’t even know what a chaplain was. So this young man – Calvin Smith – heads off to the battlefront, making the job up as he goes along. Comforting the weary and burying the dead doesn’t feel like enough for him, so Chaplain Smith joins a team of stretcher-bearers. He’s out on the battlefield without a weapon, taking fire while bringing injured soldiers back to safety. He even gets a Distinguished Service Cross for battlefield bravery, highly unusual for a chaplain.
Breaking Down Eating Disorder Myths and Stereotypes
Guests: Corinne Hannan, Psychologist, BYU Counseling and Psychological Services; Nikole Squires, Eating Disorder Blogger, TMI
When you think of someone with an eating disorder, what comes to mind? For many, it's a skinny girl looking at herself in the mirror and thinking she's fat, and then refusing to eat. But it could be anyone - your co-worker, a friend, a family member. Obese women can have eating disorders. Or men. It's a complex mental illness that often has more to do with control than with food and body image.
A Divided Congress and a President Cleaning House
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Political Science Professor, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, History Professor, BYU
There are still some Congressional races where the count is so close the outcome isn’t yet certain, but we do know that Washington will be divided. What can we expect in the next two years?
Fitness Myths
Guest: Mark D. Faries, PhD, Associate Professor and State Extension Health Specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
We love a good health shortcut. The one exercise that’ll blast your belly fat. The one food that’ll help you lose weight. The one vitamin that will keep ward off the flu. And nine times out of ten, they’re myths.
Goat Yoga
Guest: Benson Richardson, Co-Owner of Goga LLC; A Utah-Based Goat Yoga Program
For thousands of years, yoga has been used as a peaceful meditative practice. But there’s a new twist on yoga that is gaining popularity coast to coast in the US and is now spreading to Europe. What do you get when you add pygmy goats to a yoga class? It’s called “Goga.”
Teens Are Using a Dangerous New E-Cigarette (Originally aired October 22, 2018)
Guest: Jessica L. Barrington-Trimis, Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California
The FDA announced this week that they would be taking action against flavored cigars as part of a push towards reducing underage vaping and smoking. The same day, Juul Labs, a company that controls 70% of the market for e-cigarettes, announced that it would discontinue most of its flavored e-cigarette pods.
Would You Eat Lab-Grown Meat? (Originally aired August 13, 2018)
Guest: Ali Bouzari, Food Scientist, Author of “Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food,” and Co-founder of Pilot R&D
Meat grown in a test-tube is currently possible, in small amounts. But a bunch of companies say they’re on the verge of being able to sell you a whole filet of fish, nugget of chicken or slice of foie gras made in the laboratory. PETA – the animal rights group - supports the idea because it doesn’t require force-feeding or slaughtering animals. The beef, pork and poultry industries would prefer these mad scientists not call their stuff meat, at all.
Killing a Terrorist Leader Can Backfire
Guest: Tricia Bacon, PhD, Assistant Professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs
Shortly after Barack Obama took office in 2009, he made killing or capture of Osama Bin Laden the top priority of America’s war against Al Qaeda. In 2011, they got him. But cutting off the head did not kill the proverbial snake in this case. In fact, killing Bin Laden may have hastened the rise of ISIS, whose tactics have been as more brutal as Al Qaeda's.
International Legacy of WWI
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. BYU political science professor Quinn Mecham is in studio for his monthly recommendation of world events worth closer consideration.
Your House is Teeming with Life, and That’s a Good Thing
Guest: Rob Dunn, Professor of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University
Over time, we humans have moved indoors for comfort and protection, but also to put a wall between us and the creepy, crawling stuff in the natural world. Our windows have screens. Our basements have insect traps. Our kitchens have bleach on standby. And we’re fighting the wrong battles, according to applied ecologist Rob Dunn at North Carolina State University. His new book, “Never Home Alone” is an in-depth look at the thousands of insects and microbes we share space with and why we should welcome most of them with open arms.
No Amount of Alcohol is Healthy
Guest: Sarah Hartz, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Having one or two alcoholic drinks a day is considered safe for adults according to US dietary guidelines – and some research even suggests a drink a day is good for your heart. But a pair of large-scale studies published in the last month find that the health benefits of a drink a day have probably been overstated and, in fact, the healthiest amount of alcohol on a daily basis is none.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
Video tutorials increase confidence, but don’t actually teach new skills
Guest: Michael Kardas, PhD Candidate, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
A series of experiments conducted at the University of Chicago Business School finds watching video tutorials doesn’t actually make you more capable of doing stuff. They just give you false confidence.
Excelsior! Remembering Stan Lee
Guests: Joseph Darowski, English Professor, Brigham Young University
The Marvel Comics icon who helped created Spider-Man, the X-Men, Black Panther, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four died on Monday. Stan Lee was 95. Since 1961, Marvel went from a small comic company to a media empire and helped shape popular culture in the US and worldwide. We consider his legacy.
Are Mass Shootings Contagious in America?
Guest: Sherry Towers, Research Professor, Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center, Arizona State University
Twice in the last three weeks a man with a gun fired on a group of people. At a synagogue in Pittsburgh, 11 victims died. At a dance club in Thousand Oaks, 12 victims died. While mass shootings in which four or more people are shot or killed are not new in America, they are more frequently involving large numbers of victims. “Contagion” is the word some scientists have begun using to describe this acceleration.
Combatting Ageism in Medical Practice
Guest: Ronald Adelman, MD, Professor of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital
Doctors are trained to pick up on details about the health of their patients. But many doctors also fail to notice the subtle ways in which their own biases affect how they treat their patients. Physicians are particularly prone to dismissing the concerns of elderly patients because of age-related stereotypes. A handful of medical schools across the country have developed programs to combat this “ageism” among doctors in training.
Looking at Disneyland Through a New Lens
Guest: Benjamin Thevenin, Assistant Professor of Media Arts, Brigham Young University
It’s the rare Disneyland visitor who manages to not get swept away by the immersive experience of the park. But a team of BYU professors and students has developed a mobile game app people can play while they’re at Disneyland to help them see more clearly the cultural and historical messages embedded in the park. It’s called “Dark Ride: Disneyland.”
The Rise of Valley Fever
Guest: Ian McHardy, Assistant Professor of Medicine, UC Davis, School of Medicine, Co-Director, UC Davis Center for Valley Fever
Two years ago California saw more than 6000 cases of a serious and sometimes fatal airborne infection called Valley Fever. In 2017 that number jumped to more than 8000 cases. That figure will likely rise again this year in California, as well as Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah where the fungus that causes Valley Fever is found. If you live in one of those states, you may have had the infection, but didn’t know it. The symptoms are easily confused with pneumonia and it’s commonly misdiagnosed.
Smart Medical Devices
Guest: Dr. Leslie Saxon, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Southern California
Patient compliance plagues doctors creating issues of increased healthcare costs (sporadic pill consumption equals ineffective health care), complications (longer recovery time), or even death (life critical medication). Digital health uses smart medical devices to solve these issues using sensor technology, the size of a grain of rice embedded in pills, to deliver real-time feedback and prod patients to ingest their medicine.
Worlds Awaiting: Comic Book Literacy
Guest: Rachel Wadham, host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Stan Lee, creator of some of Marvel’s most beloved superheroes, died this week at the age of 95. So we’re going to talk comic books and superheroes with Rachel Wadham, host of Worlds Awaiting.
Preserving Veterans’ Memories
Guest: Col. Karen D. Lloyd, Retired US Army, Director of Veteran’s History Project.
This weekend marked the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI. The last living American veteran of that war – Frank Buckles – died in 2011 when he was 110. In an oral history preserved at the Library of Congress, Buckles recalls lying about his age to enlist for the war when he was just 16 and then pestering every commanding officer he met while stationed in England, hoping to get transferred to the front in France. The Veteran's History project collects memories from veterans from over 100 years of service. Learn more about how it works and how to contribute.
Finding Life in Space in Analogue Environments on Earth
Guest: Morgan Leigh Cable, Technologist in the Instrument Systems Implementation and Concepts Section at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Hollywood’s gotten very creative over the years envisioning what extraterrestrial life might actually look and sound like. Astrobiologists, though, think that if we do find life in space it will probably won’t wave a tentacle or speak an alien language. It’ll be way more subtle. And NASA scientist Morgan Cable is making it her job to pick up those signals when they come. Cable works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena where she played a role on the Cassini Mission to Saturn. Her job also takes her to some of the harshest conditions on planet Earth, where she looks for clues about just what kind of life might be able to survive in space.
Tuition Trouble: The Economic and Social Costs of Rising Student Debt
Guest: Julie Margetta Morgan, Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute
Americans currently owe $1.5 trillion in student debt. That’s a lot of money. But in the scheme of things, borrowing money to get a college degree is a good investment, isn’t it? A college degree leads to a better job and higher salary. Well, detailed analysis of student loan debt across the country suggests those assumptions are flawed. Would you be surprised to learn that the heaviest student debt burdens fall on those with the lowest income levels?
Women Win Ultramarathons
Guest: Shawn Bearden, PhD, Professor of Exercise Physiology, Idaho State University
12 hours, 42 minutes and 39 seconds. That’s how long it took Camille Herron to run 100 miles last year. That’s running a 7 ½ minute mile – 100 times, back to back. Not only did she shatter the women’s 100-mile record, but she beat the fastest known time on that trail for both women and men. In most physical sports, men seem to be stronger and faster. But in the extreme lengths of ultramarathons, women are rising to the top.
What We Can Learn from Organisms that Live in Ice
Guest: Daniel Shain, PhD, Professor of Zoology, Rutgers University- Camden
There are some strange creatures that thrive in extremely cold places on this planet – tiny worms that live inside glacier ice, for example. Zoologist Daniel Shain has dedicated his career to understanding how these organisms do it. Unlocking the secret of their tolerance to extreme cold could help scientists engineer new types of crops for chilly climates or extend the life of an organ for transplant, say. Shain is a professor at Rutgers University-Camden and he joins us on the line.
What Could Google Look Like in Censored China
Guest: Rory Truex, Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, Department of Politics, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Eight years ago, Google took its search engine offline in China because the company didn’t want to comply with China’s censorship rules. Since then, Google has been secretly developing a version of its search engine that would satisfy the Chinese government’s demands. More than a thousand Google employees signed a letter protesting the project on ethical grounds. But Google’s CEO says the search engine would provide better information for Chinese citizens. In moving back into the Chinese market, is Google going back on its motto, "Don't Be Evil?"
A Model for Better Health Care in America? Look at the VA
Guest: Suzanne Gordon, Journalist and Author of “Wounds of War: How the VA Delivers Health, Healing, and Hope to the Nation’s Veterans”
The VA healthcare system has a reputation for impenetrable bureaucracy, long wait times and poor care. The VA has had problems at times, but journalist Suzanne Gordon spent five years researching the Veterans Health Administration and has concluded it’s actually providing care that’s as good – and often better - than what Medicare or the private health system in America. In fact, she argues the VA’s system of doctors, hospitals, clinics and health benefits for veterans is a model we’d do well to adopt for the rest of us. Gordon’s new book is “Wounds of War: How the VA Delivers Health, Healing and Hope to the Nation’s Veterans.”
WWII Airmen Silenced, Abandoned By US Gov’t for Decades
Guest: Frederic “Ric” Martini, Author of “Betrayed: Secrecy, Lies and Consequences”
In 1944, Frederic Martini’s plane was shot down over occupied France. He was captured by the German SS and held at Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Soldiers were supposed to be given certain protections as prisoners of war under international law. But Martini and more than 160 other Allied airmen were denied that status and instead held at Buchenwald where they were tortured, starved and forced to work as slave labor. When Martini and the other American soldiers held at Buchenwald came home from the war, the government locked all evidence of their ordeal away as top secret. The cover up meant that Martini would spend the rest of his life being told by the Veterans Administration that psychological trauma and injuries due to the time he spent in Buchenwald were all in his head, because as far as the government was concerned, he’d never been there. Frederic Martini died 13 years ago and his son Ric has now published a book detailing the real truth behind the Buchenwald airmen and their betrayal by the US government.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (Originally aired on May 5, 2018)
Guest: Samin Nosrat
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: according to chef Samin Nosrat, those are the four basic elements to master cooking. That’s also the name of her cookbook and new hit Netflix show. The documentary-style series is getting rave reviews: The Washington Post says it’s unlike any other food show on TV. But before her Netflix series came out, she spoke with host Julie Rose about her cookbook and her vast experience in the best kitchens in the world.
A King and an Inventor: The Story of How Hawaii Went Electric Before Most of the World (Originally aired August 23, 2018)
Guest: Allison Marsh, Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina
In the late 1800s, the most exciting technology was electricity itself. Here in America, it didn’t catch on as quickly as you might think, but thanks to a series of events, involving a curious king, a trip to Paris, and a meeting with Thomas Edison—the islands of Hawaii got electricity before most of the world. How did a tiny island Kingdom in the middle of the Pacific get on the cutting edge of this revolution?
Pop Artist, Playing With Your Food (Originally aired May 22, 2018)
Guest: Jason Mecier, Pop Artist
We’ve all been guilty of playing with our food. But Jason Mecier takes it to a whole new level. He’s made a name for himself by creating art out of food. He’s made Kevin Bacon out of bacon, Condoleeza Rice out of rice, and Grumpy Cat out of Friskies cat food.
Youth Sports Are Hurting Kids (Originally aired November 9, 2017)
Guest: Mark Hyman, JD, Writer, Assistant Teaching Professor of Management & Tourism Studies, George Washington University School of Business
Today’s kids pay high fees to play on club teams that travel extensively, play, and practice year round. The training and pressure has made stars out of a few prodigies. But it’s also leading to high schoolers with the kinds of injuries we used to see only in pro athletes.
A Wave or a Ripple? Unpacking The Midterm Elections
Guest: Adam Dynes, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
The results are in: Democrats have taken control of the House and Republicans have gained a stronger majority in the Senate. President Trump claims it as a huge success for the GOP, and many Democrats are disappointed that the “blue wave” wasn’t the tsunami they hoped for. Enthusiasm was strong this election with an estimate of more than 110 million voters, a very high ballot number for a midterm election.
Louisiana's Way Home
Guest: Kate DiCamillo, Author, "Lousiana's Way Home"
Children’s author Kate DiCamillo does not shy away from the hard stuff. Her tales weave themes of abandonment, loss, and fear, while also highlighting hope and resilience. You may have heard of her two Newberry Medal winning books, The Tale of Despereaux and Flora & Ulysses. Her latest novel is called “Louisiana’s Way Home.” The book centers on 12-year-old Louisiana who lives an unstable life with her Granny. In fact, the book begins when her Granny forces them to leave their home in the middle of the night, without warning.
The College Athlete Conundrum
Guest: Jasmine Harris, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Ursinus College
Division I college athletics - especially men's basketball and footbal - are a huge business, generating enormous TV revenues and high salaries for coach. But are the student athletes who fuel the public's obsession players - or are they pawns? Is anyone really looking out for their interests as they try to balance school and sports?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Same Payne shares a story.
Roller Skating and American Culture
Guests: Tina Brown and Dyana Winkler, Directors, "United Skates" Documentary
You may associate roller skating rinks with awkward double dates and children's birthday parties. But those rinks actually changed history: they played a key role in building African American community and developing hip hop during the Civil Rights era. A new documentary called "United Skates" shows how rolling skating, music, dance, and racial discrimination all roll together.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Guest: Heather Morris, Author, “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”
More than 60 years after Lale Sokolov was freed from the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, he finally got up the nerve to tell his story. He was forced to do horrible things there, but Auschwitz is also the place where he met the love of his life. Lale died in 2006, but author Heather Morris has turned his story into a historical novel published this year called “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.”
Controversial Census Citizenship Question Heads to Court
Guest: Richard Alba, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Graduate Center, City University of New York
The trial in New York over the new citizenship question on the 2020 census started Monday, after the Supreme Court rejected President Trump’s request to delay. Multiple states and organizations have sued the Department of Justice over the proposed census question, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”
Nebraska: Honestly, It’s Not for Everyone
Guest: John Ricks, Executive Director of the Nebraska Tourism Commission
When we say, “Nebraska,” what comes to mind? Probably some cornfields. And… that’s about it. Well the state is now wholeheartedly embracing its reputation for being a little boring. Its new tourism campaign slogan is “Nebraska: Honestly, it’s not for everyone.”
Sleep Paralysis: Waking Nightmares
Guest: Dr. Charles R. Cantor, Professor of Clinical Neurology and Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Medical Director, Penn Sleep Centers
You’re lying in bed - You’re not asleep but you can’t move and you can’t speak. Maybe you see shadowy figures in the room. You try to scream, but nothing comes out. It’s the stuff of nightmares, and it’s not the latest horror film. It’s called “sleep paralysis,” and millions of people have experienced its terror over the centuries.
After the Disaster Clean Up Crews Are Gone
Guest: Brian Houston, Associate Professor of Communication and Director of the Disaster and Community Crisis Center, University of Missouri
Relief efforts are still underway after Hurricane Michael, but the disaster doesn’t make the headlines anymore. The immediate effects of large disasters like Florence are obvious from photos and news reels. But what happens after the reporters, cameras and clean-up crews all go home? What we don’t see are the long-term psychological effects on survivors, which can sometimes be just as devastating as the physical effects.
Paralyzed Man Walks Again with Device
Guest: Dr. Megan Gill, Clinical Lead Physical Therapist at the Mayo Clinic Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation’s Spinal Cord Injury Program
Jered Chinnock was only 24 when he was in a tragic snowmobile accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. But now, five years later, he’s walking. This remarkable accomplishment came after two years of working with a team of scientists, physical therapists and an implanted electrical device. Hopes are high that this technology will eventually help other paralyzed patients get back on their feet.
Can DNA Really Give You a Personlized Diet and Exercise Plan?
Guest: Mark Sarzynski, Assistant Professor of Exercise Science, University of South Carolina
Hand over some saliva and genetics companies can tell you all about your heritage and even if you are susceptible to certain diseases. But have you thought about asking one for a personalized diet and exercise plan? A handful of companies say they can do just that, and promise to help you build muscle, lose weight, and improve endurance, all based on your DNA. But many experts are skeptical. Are personlized genetic diet and exercise programs a passing fad, or the emerging future of wellness?
Why Is It So Hard to Talk About Race and Racism in America?
Guest: LaShawn Williams, LCSW, MPA, Professor of Social Work, Utah Valley University
Last week there was an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission report which blamed systemic discrimination and white supremacist views for fomenting frustration that led young blacks around the country to riot in urban centers. Fifty years later, one in five Americans believes racism is not a problem in the United States – that’s according to a Pew Research survey released in the last two weeks.
Witches Through the Ages
Guest: Charlotte-Rose Millar, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland, Author of “Witchcraft, the Devil and Emotions in Early Modern England”
It’s the time of year when witches come out, resting on porches, leaning over bubbling cauldrons on suburban lawns, flying through the air on broomsticks in silhouette. We’re talking about Halloween décor, of course. But, there is some really serious, dark history surrounding witches. Thousands of women – and some men, even – were executed for the crime of witchcraft in Renaissance Europe. We had the Salem witch trials in the US, too. So how did witches become a fun holiday oddity?
Gardening Shown to Enhance Brain Health
Guest: Susan Rodiek, Associate Professor of Architecture, Texas A&M University
There are all kinds of brain training programs out there promising to help delay the onset of memory loss and dementia as we age. But an effective solution may be as close as your backyard or windowsill. Researchers from Texas A&M University and the University of Hyogo in Japan have found simple gardening activities may provide a benefit to aging brains.
Parties in the Graveyard: Day of the Dead vs Halloween
Guest: Evan Ward, Associate Professor of History, Brigham Young University
Halloween and the Day of the Dead – or Dia de los Muertos - are upon us. At first glance, the two holidays seem quite similar—skulls and skeletons, graveyards, candy. But don’t let the decorations fool you.
Journeys of a Lifetime
Guest: George Stone, Editor in Chief, National Geographic Traveler
National Geographic just released the second edition of “Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips.” Flipping through the pages makes people want to run out of the office right now and jump on the next flight out.
Artificial Music and Google Magenta
Guest: Douglas Eck, Principal Scientist, Google, Creator of the Google Magenta Project
If computers could listen to music like people do — hundreds and hundreds of hours of music of very different styles — could they absorb patterns that would help them learn to write and perform music that humans would enjoy listening to? Might computers get so good at composing music they’ll replace humans composers?
Brazil Elects New President
Guest: Harold Trinkunas, Deputy Director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University
In a major shift for Latin America's largest democracy, voters on Sunday rejected the liberal party that has run Brazil for more than a decade. The winner is Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing, controversial candidate whose campaign has been compared to President Trump’s. Why is Brazil making this sudden turn to the right?
Mental Health Care for Prisoners
Guest: Dr. Jeffrey L. Metzner, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colorado.
Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper and rapist Brian David Mitchell is serving a life sentence in prison. But Wanda Barzee – Smart’s other captor – has just been released from prison. Barzee received a 15-year sentence for pleading guilty but mentally ill to her role in the 2002 crime. While in prison, the state parole board says Barzee refused mental health evaluation. Even so, the board determined she had served her time and they couldn’t keep her any longer. Elizabeth Smart and her family believe Barzee is still a danger and implored officials to reconsider. How is it that someone who admits mental illness underlying a serious crime – and maybe even gets a more lenient sentence as a result of that – can refuse treatment while in prison and then be released back into the public?
World's Awaiting: Fiction vs. NonFiction?
Guest: Rachel Wadham, juvenile and children’s librarian, BYU Library, host of World’s Awaiting on BYUradio.
Why fantasy and fiction actually help young readers develop empathy better than other genres.
China’s Fake Moon
Guest: J. Ward Moody, Professor of Astronomy, Brigham Young University
By 2020, China will supposedly have a second moon in their night sky. Researchers in Chengdu, China recently announced that they are designing a satellite that will illuminate a miles-wide stretch across the city by reflecting the light of the sun. They think their satellite could be so bright it will eliminate the need for street lights in Chengdu. Could that really work?
A Week of Insanity with a Rare Tropical Disease
Guest: Steven Peck, Associate Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University
When BYU biology professor Steven Peck rubbed his eyes while on a research trip to Vietnam, a rare bacteria got into his eye and made its way to his brain. After returning home, Peck began having vivid hallucinations that frightened his wife and ultimately brought him to the hospital emergency room.
Teenagers Really Do Struggle to Decipher Their Own Emotions
Guest: Erik Nook, PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology, Harvard University
We’ve all been there – when it feels like the world is coming at you so fast, every moment is tangled with hope and fear, and everything seems to matter but nothing makes sense. Even adults can find it hard to know which pressure is triggering an emotion. Well, now there is research that demonstrates what we long suspected: teenagers, in particular, struggle to differentiate between the complicated swirl of emotions they experience.
The Spiritualism of Jonathan Koons
Guest: Sharon Hatfield, Author of “Enchanted Ground: The Spirit Room of Jonathan Koons”
Today the idea of communicating with spirits of the dead in a darkened room through mysterious gusts of wind and knocking noises, is spooky. But during the mid-1800s in America, communicating with the dead wasn’t considered scary or sinister at all. The spirits were playful and kind and – most importantly – offered proof of an afterlife. By 1850, thousands of mediums were hosting séances across the country and a religious movement known as Spiritualism was attracting millions of followers. Among the most famous and charismatic figures in the Spiritualist movement was a fiddle-playing Ohio farmer named Jonathan Koons. His story is the subject of a new book by journalist Sharon Hatfield called, “Enchanted Ground.”
Like to Be Scared? Here’s Why.
Guests: Carl Sederholm, Professor of Comparative Arts and Letters, Brigham Young University; Margee Kerr, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh, Author of “Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear”; Rob Dunfield, Owner The Fear Factory in Salt Lake City
Why do we like to be scared out of our wits by films and roller coasters and actors dressed in nightmarish costumes chasing us through dark hallways? We do we pay for this stuff? We'll talk with experts on the science and craft of fear and visit a haunted house.
Historical Perspective on US-Mexico Border
Guest: Brenden W. Rensink, Assistant Professor of History, BYU, Author, “Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands”
The United Nations estimates more than 7,000 have now joined the group making its way north through Mexico from Honduras, where the caravan started. If they continue to travel on foot, it will take two months for them to reach the US border. The Trump Administration is expected to deploy additional troops to the US-Mexico border to assist in security operations.
The Other Slavery
Guest: Andres Resendez, Professor of History, University of California, Davis
The story of African slavery in America is well known. Less told in the history books – and often not at all in school classrooms – is the story of Native American enslavement. In fact, diseases brought to continent by European explorers and colonists are often blamed for nearly wiping out indigenous communities. But the enslavement of Native Americans played an equal role in that, according to historian Andres Resendez. His book, “The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America” won the Bancroft Prize for History in 2017.
China’s Bold Move: The Disappearance of INTERPOL’s President
Guest: Julian Ku, Professor of Constitutional Law, Hofstra University
One month ago, the president of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, vanished. His name is Meng Hongwei. The Chinese government says they have Meng in custody “on suspicion of violating the law” and he has resigned his post at Interpol. He has not been seen publicly since. Why would China so secretively disappear a man who is arguably the highest-profile Chinese leader of an international organization?
The Rise of Mainstream eSports (Originally aired July 12, 2018)
Guest: A.J. Dimick, Director of eSports, University of Utah
NBA basketball legend Michael Jordan joined a team of investors this week that put $26 million into a pro sports organization called "Team Liquid." But this team doesn't play basketball. It plays Esports, as in, computer games. Professional Esports is now a huge worldwide viewing fanbase: last year’s League of Legends tournament broadcast drew 300 million viewers. Universities have e-Sports teams too, complete with athletic scholarships for top players. Last year, the University of Utah was the first Power 5 school to offer a varsity eSports team. A.J. Dimick heads up the e-Sports program at the University of Utah. We spoke with him this past summer.
Do Americans Still Believe in God? (Originally aired April 27, 2018)
Guest: Greg Smith, Associate Director of Research, Pew Research Center
The fastest growing religious group in America is the “nones” – people who believe “nothing in particular.” But most of those folks still believe in God. In fact, nine out of ten Americans believe in some sort of higher power. There’s a lot of difference in the details, though, according to the Pew Research Center. Even Christians have a lot of variety in just what they mean when they say they believe in God.
We’ve Got Lower Back Pain All Wrong (Originally aired April 12, 2018)
Guest: Judith Turner, Clinical Psychologist, University of Washington Medical Center
Low back pain is always bad news – and it’s increasingly common in the US and everywhere else in the world. But the really bad news is that the typical treatment for it – painkillers, “taking it easy,” and even shots or surgery – are not scientifically proven to be that helpful. In fact, they’re not even the first line of treatment recommended by expert groups such as the American Pain Society.
Who Is Interfering in the 2018 Midterm Elections?
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
US national security officials and the justice department have confirmed in quite a bit of detail that Russia has a sophisticated effort still underway to sow dissent around the mid-term elections just two weeks away. The Trump Administration also claims China is trying to influence the mid-terms.
How trauma can be passed on through generations
Guest: Randy Jirtle, Professor of Biology, North Carolina State University
Did you know that life experiences of your parents and grandparents may be embedded in your genes? For example, a recent study of Civil War and US Census data found that the sons of soldiers held in particularly harsh prison camps during the war had shorter lives. We’re talking about the sons of the soldiers – sons who weren’t even alive during the war. How can that be that a father might pass his own emotional or physical trauma down to a child through his genes?
Pluto May Be a Planet After All
Guest: Philip Metzger, Associate in Planetary Science Research, Florida Space Institute
“Plutoed” is a real word, at least according to the American Dialect Society. It means “to be devalued” and it showed up after Pluto was demoted from planet status back in 2006. Technically Pluto is now considered a “dwarf planet” – not one of the major planets in our solar system. But planetary physicist Philip Metzger has long argued that the reasons used to kick Pluto out of the planet club were misguided. His recently salvo is an historical look at all the many ways the definition of planet and it’s use by astronomers has shifted over the centuries
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
Innovative Program Offers Instruction and Tools for Tsunami Survival
Guest: Chad Emmett, Associate Professor of Geography, Brigham Young University
The death toll from the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Indonesia last month now stands at well over 2,000. You may remember the earthquake and tsunami in 2004 that claimed over 230,000 lives in fourteen countries, including Indonesia. This particular part of the world is prone to such disasters and the people too-often ill-prepared to survive them. For the past few years, Chad Emmett, a BYU professor of Geography, has been working in Indonesia to build pathways for escape and to help educate people living at sea level about proper tsunami evacuation techniques after an earthquake.
From Rotten Seal to Root Beer: the Disgusting Food Museum
Guest: Samuel West, psychologist, curator of the Disgusting Food Museum.
There’s a Latin phrase my father often quoted: “De gustibus non est disputandum.” It means, roughly, “matters of taste cannot be disputed.” Food is the ultimate “matter of taste.” It’s both incredibly individual and culturally specific. The Disgusting Food Museum in Sweden introduces visitors to foods that may appall them, but also gets them to think about how we decide what is yummy and what is gross.
Special Units Aimed at Correcting False Convictions Catching On
Guest: Sim Gill, District Attorney for Salt Lake County
In 2017, 139 people in the US were exonerated of crimes ranging from murder to non-violent drug offenses. Nearly a third of those exonerations came through the efforts of Conviction Integrity Units, which are a new trend in the justice system. Across the country district attorneys and top prosecutors are establishing these units to identify and correct false convictions.
Archiving the Entire Web
Guest: Mark Graham, Director, Wayback Machine, Internet Archive
People often say, “You can find anything on the Internet.” From Twitter to YouTube to Wikipedia, an impossibly huge amount of information is uploaded to the web every day — but information is also deleted and lost. Sometimes it’s because no one cared, and sometimes it’s an effort to scrub the past. If a Tweet or website gets deleted, is it gone forever?
Nothing but Net Loss: The Economics of College Sports
Guest: Andrew Zimbalist, Professor of Economics, Smith College, Co-Author of “Unwinding Madness: What Went Wrong with College Sports and How to Fix It”
In 39 states, the highest paid public employee is either a men’s football or basketball coach. And it’s not even close: the highest paid football coaches earn over $7 million a year. But the vast majority of colleges lose money on athletics — and even football, often thought of as the money maker, is far more often a money drain than a cash cow. Who’s paying for it all – and is worth it?
Banksy’s Self-Destructing Painting
Guest: Elizabeth Legge, Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, University of Toronto.
Walking down a street in London or New York, you might see tourists snapping photos of a surreal stencil spray-painted on a public wall. The anonymous street artist Banksy’s work has become so sought-after, some of his pieces have sold for more than $1 million at auction. Did you hear about the Banksy original that self-destructed as soon as the bidding was finished a few weeks ago?
The Power of a Dissenting Voice
Guest: Ann Power-Forde, Presiding Judge, Constitutional Court Chamber, Kosovo Specialist Chambers, The Hague; Former Judge, European Court of Human Rights
We’re always hearing that “one voice can make a difference,” but it feels more cliché than truth a lot of the time. What difference is my one vote or my one voice at a protest really going to make?
Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with someone who built a reputation for being that one voice. Ann Power-Forde is an international human rights judge and served for from 2008 to 2015 on the European Court of Human Rights. She often found herself alone championing the rights of vulnerable individuals as the sole dissenter on the court.
The Hate U Give and Political Activism in Film
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
The Hate U Give is a new film ripped from the headlines. It stars Amandla Stenberg as an African American teenager who watched a white police officer shoot her friend, Khalil. The film is about her grapple with systemic racial injustice. And it’s one of several films Kirsten Hawkes at ParentPreviews.com recommends for parents and older teenagers on the subject of dealing with racial discrimination.
Police Force and Code of Silence on Trial
Guest: Mitch Smith, reporter, New York Times
In the coming weeks, Jason Van Dyke will learn how long he will spend in prison for shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke is the first Chicago police officer in decades to be found guilty of murder for an on-duty shooting. It’s rare anywhere in the country for a police officer to be charged with a crime involving use of force on duty. It’s even more rare to see that charge result in a conviction.
Beware of Lawnmower Attacks
Guest: Deborah Schwengel, M.D., Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
If you live in a part of the country that experiences winter, as we do here in Utah, you’re at the tail end of lawn duties for the year. People are always happy to stow the lawnmower for several months. But don’t let your guard down this last time or two before winter sets in. Precise estimates vary, but very year thousands of people, mostly men and children, end up in emergency rooms after lawn mower accidents.
This is Your Brain on Audiobooks
Guest: Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology, University of Virginia
Listening is in right now – whether it’s podcasts or the latest New York Times bestseller. The fastest growing segment of the publishing industry is audiobooks. And given how busy society has become, that makes perfect sense. You can listen while you do all the other stuff on your schedule. But how well do we actually catch and retain what we’re hearing as opposed to reading it in print?
Metabolic Syndrome: the Silent Epidemic
Guest: Jeffrey Tessem, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science, Brigham Young University
You probably can’t see it and you might not even feel it, but nearly 1 in 3 American adults now suffers from what public health professionals call “metabolic syndrome,” and it’s putting them at increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
Teens Are Using a Dangerous New E-Cigarette
Guest: Jessica L. Barrington-Trimis, Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California
Tobacco use has been steadily dropping in the US among both adults and teenagers over the last few decades. But use of electronic cigarettes is rising – especially among youth. E-Cigarettes are battery-powered and come in flavors like watermelon and donut cream. While they’re technically illegal to sell to teens, the data suggest many, many teens are using them regularly and often don’t realize they contain nicotine. A new development in the e-cigarette market has public health officials even more worried – so-called “pod mods” deliver up to ten times as much nicotine as regular e-cigarettes and they’re booming among teens.
Will this new music money bill protect musicians?
Guest: Erin Jacobson, Music Industry Attorney in Private Practice, Beverly Hills, California.
Two-thirds of US consumers listen through on-demand streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube. Paying only a couple dollars a month for unlimited access to anything you want to listen to seems great for consumers, but musicians have complained for years that they’re getting a raw deal with streaming. This month President Trump signed the Music Modernization Act, which addresses some of loopholes that have led artists to receive less than they are owed when their songs stream.
Rodeo Clown Troy Lerwill is The Wild Child
Guest: Troy Lerwill “The Wild Child,” Professional Rodeo Clown, Six-time PRCA Clown of the Year
The giant pants, weird hats, and bright face paint are a fixture in the modern rodeo arena. They’re not just there to keep bulls from goring cowboys. They’re also featured entertainment. Some have acts that are silly. Others, downright death defying. This hour we’re talking to one of the best in the business. He’s been named the best Comedy Act of the Year on the pro rodeo circuit four times and PRCA Clown of the Year six times.
How to Have Your Voice Heard in Politics
Guest: Kay L. Schlozman, Professor of Political Science, Boston College, Co-Author, “Unequal and Unrepresented: Political Inequality and the People’s Voice in the New Guilded Age”
Traditionally in the US, only about half of eligible voters actually cast a ballot in mid-term elections like the one coming up on November 6. Voting is the way people in a democracy like ours can make their voice heard. So why doesn't everyone who can do it?
Americans Don’t Trust Government and It Shows
Guest: Jack Citrin, Professor of Political Science, U.C. Berkeley
Choosing to vote or to get involved in a campaign or contact your representative or donate to a candidate requires some confidence that what you do will make a difference, doesn’t it? You need a certain level of trust that the people in power actually care about things that matter to you -- trust that, given the opportunity, those people will do the right thing.
Can Young Voters Overcome Their Cynicism?
Guest: Peter Stone, Author, The Perfect Candidate
When Peter Stone was fresh out of high school in 1998, he was so full enthusiasm for the political process that he went to DC to intern for his California Congressman. But seeing how the sausage was made – so to speak – darkened his view. That Congressman he worked for was Democrat Gary Condit, who would soon be embroiled in political scandal involving infidelity and murder. Peter Stone has now written a political thriller inspired by his experience as a teenaged Congressional intern. It’s called “The Perfect Candidate” and it’s for young adults.
Caravans, Migration and Family Separation
Guest: Kif Augustine-Adams, Professor, J. Reuben Clark Law School, BYU
In the last three months, Border Patrol agents have seen a record number of migrant parents arriving with their children. That surge coincides with the end of the Trump Administration’s controversial policy of separating undocumented families at the border. So administration officials are now looking for a new way to deter families from attempting to enter the US illegally. A version of family separation may be on the table again.
Using I Instead of We
Guest: Grant Packard, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Have you noticed the person who answers when you call a customer service will often say, “How can we help you?” rather than “How can I help you?” It’s a subtle difference with big implications according to research by marketing professor Grant Packard at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada.
The Hair Industry's Dark Side
Guest: Dan Choi, Founder and Owner of Remy New York
Human hair is a billion-dollar industry globally – and we’re not talking about styling or coloring it. We’re just talking about the buying and selling of hair itself. When a Hollywood star suddenly grows luxurious long locks overnight, it’s thanks to extensions made of real human hair cut off someone else’s head. The trouble is that even the fanciest salons don’t really know where the extensions and wigs they’re using have come from. There’s a whole range of unethical sourcing practices behind the hair trade that includes collecting hair from barbershop floors and taking advantage of desperately poor women in Asia and India. Entrepreneur Dan Choi started a company in 2017 to try and develop a fair trade standard for hair. It’s called Remy New York and he commonly pays women five or ten times what a typical hair trader would for their pony tail.
Double Booking Double Trouble? (Originally aired October 18, 2017)
Guest: Amanda Morris, MD, Anesthesiologist, Clinical Instructor, Stanford University
This may have happened to you and you would have never known it - only about four percent of people are aware of the practice. Did you know that it’s not unusual for surgeons to schedule two surgeries at once? The procedures may overlap just a little – or maybe a lot. And surgeons don’t always tell their patients in advance how this will all go down. If they did, would you agree to it?
DNA Storage (Originally aired June 27,2018)
Guest: Luis Ceze, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington.
As a human race, we've used cave walls, tablets, scrolls, flash drives, and the "cloud" to store information. But even digital information, thousands of years from now, will be lost. Nature, on the other hand, has perfected a data storage system that can withstand all kinds of conditions for millennia: DNA.
Angel Gowns (Originally aired May 24, 2018)
Guest: Diane Dione, Founder and Executive Director of Angel Gowns Foundation (angelgownsbydiane.org)
When Diane Dione’s daughter lost a baby who only lived one day, part of the heartbreak was having to shop for a dress to bury the tiny girl in. They nearly didn’t find anything small enough for her, and the trauma of those hours spent shopping in the happy, bubbly world of baby clothes stuck with Dione. So she turned her personal tragedy into a blessing for others with her non-profit “Angel Gowns,” where she and 300-some volunteers transform donated wedding dresses into tiny burial gowns that are given to parents who have lost a baby.
UN Climate Change
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Each month, political scientist Quinn Mecham joins us with three world events worth a closer look. Today we discuss the recent IPCC report on climate change. We also look at the heated presidential election taking place in Brazil. And we’ll consider Nikki Haley’s foreign policy legacy and she resigns her post at US Ambassador to the UN.
What a Mysterious Italian Child Grave Suggests About Ancient Fears and Beliefs
Guest: David Soren, Professor of Anthropology, University of Arizona
In central Italy between Rome and Florence there’s an ancient burial ground known as the “Cemetery of Babies.” It dates to the 5th Century AD and may hold the remains of children who died in a devastating malaria epidemic. Archaeologists and anthropologists working there are uncovering lots of unusual things – including recently a 10-year-old child buried with a rock jammed in its mouth. What can these discoveries tell us about how ancient Romans thought about life, death and disease?
Coloring Books Are Not real Art Therapy
Guest: Girija Kaimal, Assistant Professor of Creative Arts Therapies, Drexel University.
Every bookstore you visit these days will have a section full of coloring books for grown-ups. Some of these books even crack best-seller lists. They’re trendy as a mode of self-help stress reduction for people not creative enough to just draw something from scratch. Do they work?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Sam Payne shares a story
Bring Your Dog to Class
Guest: Phyllis Erdman, Dean for Academic Affairs, Washington State University
College counseling centers are seeing more and more students with psychological problems. In response, those counseling centers have had to make adjustments in training and staffing. And now they also have to figure out what to do about the growing number of students with emotional support animals. It’s tricky for colleges because they’re required to make some accommodations for students with disabilities. But where do they draw the line?
Recalling Cthulhu: How HP Lovecraft Has Shaped Pop Culture
Guest: Carl Sederholm, Department Chair, Comparative Arts and Letters, Professor of Comparative Arts and Letters, BYU
When you binged Stranger Things on Netflix, you probably didn’t know that much of it was inspired by an obscure 1930s pulp fiction writer named H.P. Lovecraft. The writer was not at all successful during his life, but he’s since become an icon of all that’s weird and creepy. Stephen King has called HP Lovecraft the “twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.”
Saudi Dissident Disappears: Did Saudi Gov’t Do It?
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Almost two weeks ago, Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkish officials believe Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Saudi Arabia to get answers from the Saudi king. If indeed the king or his son, the controversial and powerful crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman ordered a hit on Khashoggi, what consequences might that have?
Can Restaurants Manipulate What We Order?
Guest: Dipayan Biswas, Professor of Business and Marketing, University of South Florida
Next time you are out to eat and suddenly decide to order a greasy burger instead of the salad you’d planned on, you might want to stop and listen for a moment. How loud is the music in the restaurant? There’s some evidence that louder music causes people to order unhealthy food. This was true in a grocery store, too, where researchers ran the same experiment – louder music led to more junk food in the shopping cart.
Is Social Media Making Us All Narcissists?
Guest: W. Keith Campbell, Professor of Psychology, University of Georgia
There is no such thing as a selfie-free zone. Everywhere you turn, someone is hoisting a phone camera and posting it to Instagram or Facebook. Selfie-taking occasionally even turns tragic when someone loses their footing trying to capture the perfect shot on a hiking trail, for example. Are selfies turning us all into narcissists? Or maybe it’s just that social media is tapping into a narcissistic streak society already had in spades?
Looking at Planes with a Bird’s Eye View
Guest: Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, Professor of Biology, Purdue University
In January 2009, US Airways flight 1549 took off from New York’s La Guardia airport and suddenly hit a flock of geese. Both the plane’s engines went out with the bird strike and the pilot had to land the aircraft in the Hudson River. Miraculously, no one died. In the last 25 years, 262 human fatalities have been attributed to collisions between planes and wildlife worldwide. Bird strikes are the most common of these and they cost the aviation industry hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Sears Was a Retail Innovator. Why Is It Nearly Dead Now?
Guest: Art Carden, Professor of Economics, Samford University’s Brock School of Business
Sears filed for bankruptcy this week. It’s been a long time coming. Years of losses and store closures and layoffs have made Sears feel like a relic in a day when Amazon and Walmart rule retail. But we still remember the days when the Sears catalog landing in our mailbox around Christmastime was really exciting. Sears pioneered the at-home shopping experience long before the internet was invented. So why did it lose its trailblazing edge?
Worlds Awaiting: Math Literacy
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, World’s Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU
Is the Government Equipped to Handle More Natural Disasters?
Guest: Jeff Schlegelmilch, Deputy Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
Rescue efforts are still underway in the path of Hurricane Michael, which tore into Florida’s panhandle last week. Residents in the storm’s path through Florida, Georgia and Alabama are being warned by FEMA to prepare for extended power outages. Hurricane Michael is just the latest of a dozen weather and climate disasters in the US this year bringing losses of more than billion dollars each. Where is the balance of emergency response and prevention in US federal and local policy?
The Canadian View on NAFTA Replacement
Guest: Stéphane Lessard, Canada Consul General for the US Mountain West Region
It took more than a year of on-again-off-again negotiating and tough talk for the US, Mexico and Canada to come to an agreement on altering NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement. President Trump insisted it be renegotiated or the US would pull out. The US and Mexico got on the same page about a month before the October 1st deadline. Canada signed on just days before the October 1 deadline. What was at stake, and what took Canada so long to make a deal?
Are My Devices Spying On Me?
Guest: Dale Rowe, Professor of Information Technology, BYU, Head of BYU’s Cybersecurity Research Lab
Amazon and Google have personal assistants in million of American homes, and Facebook is about to launch its own. So how risky is it to have all of these internet-connected gadgets around, with access to our credit card info and even the locks on our doors?
The Birth of the PC
Guest: Margaret O’Mara, Professor of History, University of Washington
If you’ve thought about it at all, you probably think your computer mouse first appeared on the early Apple computers around 1983. Few realize that Apple kind of stole the idea. The mouse actually debuted fifteen years earlier at a famous 1968 demo in San Francisco — along with several other key pieces of what became the personal computer. If the PC was born in the 1980s, then that event in San Francisco in 1968 was its ultrasound.
How WWI reshaped the literature of the 20th Century
Guest: Jarica Watts, Professor of English, Brigham Young University
November marks 100 years since the end of World War I. “The Great War” changed perceptions of war among a generation of young men who went off to fight dreaming of glory and returned traumatized by the horrors of trench warfare. Their trauma reflected in the literature of the day, too. Especially in the poetry written by soldiers at the front.
Making a Lab-On-A-Chip with a 3D Printer
Guests: Gregory Nordin, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Director, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Years ago, we would have a computer filling an entire room. Now you’ve got one far more powerful in your pocket. The same push is happening in medical technology. The tabletop equipment in a blood testing laboratory, for example, has been shrunk down to the size of a credit card – or smaller. But these “lab-on-a-chip” devices, as they’re called, are still pretty expensive and complicated to manufacture.
Dear Parents: A Field Guide for College Preparation
Guest: Jon McGee, Vice President for Planning and Strategy, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, Author, “Dear Parents: A Field Guide for College Preparation”
It’s a big milestone for any parent – the culmination of years of saving money and coaching and steering your child toward the college choice that will launch them to a great future. But it’s also a process fraught with emotion and anxiety and the opportunity to make a lot of mistakes.
College Rankings Aren't A Good Way to Pick a School
Guest: Denise Pope, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Education, Co-Founder, Challenge Success
There is a whole industry of ranking services eager to help your teenager choose a college. US News and World Report is the big one, but Forbes, Money, Time, Newsweek and Princeton Review will tell you which colleges are best. There are thousands and thousands of choices your kid could make. Rankings offer a shortcut. But does that shortcut lead to a better choice for your child?
Healing the Harm in American Health Care
Guest: Joseph Q. Jarvis, MD, MSPH, Author, “The Purple World: Healing the Harm in American Health Care”
America spends more on it than any other country, but we’re not getting better results – and in many cases, our results are worse. The Commonwealth Fund says the reason we pay so much is because of high prices and high administrative costs. Obamacare only made the problem worse, according to physician and public health expert Joseph Jarvis. But Trump’s proposed changes are no better. After decades working in medicine and trying to solve America’s healthcare problem, Jarvis is convinced the answer is radical – we need to completely do away with the health insurance system.
Why are US Politics So Ugly Right Now?
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor, Political Science, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor, BYU
“Rock Bottom” is how a number of Republican Senators referred to the bitter battle to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Why did it get so ugly? Is this a new level of partisanship? And what might this mean for the mid-term elections coming up in just a few weeks?
How to Turn Bugs into Weapons
Guest: Jeffrey Lockwood, PhD, Professor of Natural Sciences and Humanities, University of Wyoming
Entomological warfare. That’s a fancy word to describe using bugs as weapons. Pits full of sheep lice, swarms of diseased fleas, BEE BOMBS? exploding wasp nests. Since humans first started fighting with each other, they’ve come up with some pretty strange and awful ways to weaponize insects. But this isn’t ancient history. America had a program during the Cold War to use yellow-fever-infected mosquitoes against our enemies. The threat of a biological attack using insects to spread disease or destroy crops remains today.
Keeping the Peace with Guns: Conflict in the Central African Republic
Guest: Louisa Lombard, PhD, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Yale University
In fourteen fractured countries spanning four regions of the globe, thousands of UN peacekeepers wearing blue helmets are monitoring elections, protecting civilians from violence and aiding international efforts to end conflict. But how, exactly, do they do that? And how effective are they?
Carbonated Cartons of Ice Cream (Originally aired August 20, 2018)
Guests: Michael Dunn, PhD, Professor, Food Science, BYU; Mike Alder, Director, Technology Transfer Office, BYU
Ice cream is good and soda is good. Why not combine the two into carbonated ice cream? Not an ice cream float in a glass of soda, but a carton of ice cream you eat with a spoon that tastes like cherry cola or orange cream and gives you that carbonated tingle on your tongue. BYU food science professor Michael Dunn has developed spoonable carbonated ice cream and he’s in studio to explain how it works.
How Not to Die Cookbook (Originally aired December 19, 2017)
Guest: Michael Greger, MD, Author, “The How Not to Die Cookbook”
This is the season when our best intentions to cut down on fat and sugar go out the window. But, there might be a few sneaky ways to work healthier fare into Christmas brunch or the New Year’s party spread.
Why We Should Listen to Bees (Originally aired June 7, 2018)
Guest: Mark Winston, PhD, Professor and Senior Fellow, Simon Fraser University's Center for Dialogue, Professor of Biological Sciences
If you encountered a buzzing swarm of bees, your first reaction might be to back away slowly. But poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar (Sair-oh-jeenee Sack-lick-ar) and biologist Mark Winston make the case in their book for “listening to bees” more closely. Bees can teach us quite a bit about being better humans.
The Environmental Protection Agency
Guest: Christopher Sellers, PhD, Professor of History, Stony Brook University
One of the Trump administration’s major goals is reducing regulation, and the EPA has been a key target. Tuesday night, President Trump announced plans to remove ethanol restrictions on gasoline. “Today we are unleashing the power of E15 to fuel our country all year long. Not eight months, all year long.” The Trump Administration is also pushing changes to how greenhouse gases are regulated and the EPA has experienced budget cuts during his tenure.
Picky Eaters
Guest: Julie Lumeng, MD, Professor, Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan
The dinner table battles waged between parents and picky children are probably as old as time. How far should parents go in the tug-of-war over peas and broccoli?
Messy, Mixed-Up English
Guest: David Eddington, PhD, Spanish Philology and Linguistics, Brigham Young University
English doesn’t even crack the top ten list of most difficult languages to learn. But it has quirks that make it hard for non-English speakers to master – why does the word wrong start with a w? And the word knight – like “knight in shining armor” – has three silent letters. There’s actually a really good reason why English has so many strange spellings.
Almonds May Help Boost Cholesterol Clean-up
Guest: Claire Berryman, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences at Florida State University
You’ve probably had your cholesterol tested in the last year or so got the report about good and bad cholesterol in your blood? Some new nutritional research finds that eating almonds as a snack can help boost good cholesterol levels and get rid of the bad. A two-for-one!
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
A Day in the Life of a Wyoming Ranch Family
Guest: Mike and Erin Galloway, Cattle Ranchers, Creators, “Our Wyoming Life”
Feeding pigs, fixing fences, harvesting vegetables, birthing calves and herding geese with a flying drone, no less. That’s how Mike and Erin Galloway spend their days on a family ranch in Gilette, Wyoming. All of it is on display to the world through their rapidly growing social media presence and day-in-the-life videos that get thousands of views.
Novichok in Chemical Warfare
Guest: Peter Chai, MD, Medical Toxicologist, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA and Assistant Professor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Russia continues to deny it had anything to do with the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal – a former Russian spy living in the UK. Both Skripal and his daughter survived serious illness after exposure to a nerve agent British officials say was Novichok. Weeks later, a British woman named Dawn Sturgess died from Novichok poisoning. Police think she somehow came into contact with the nerve agent intended for Skripal. British officials have called the attack an unacceptable act of aggression.
Why No Deal is Better than a Bad Brexit Deal
Guest: Nathan Gill, Member, European Parliament, Wales, UKIP
The divorce date is six months away and the terms of the separation are still not clear. The next several weeks are crucial if Britain and the European Union are going to be able to come up with a plan that their parliaments can agree to and set in motion by the end of March. There are still major hang ups over trade and borders. And there are still very outspoken supporters of Brexit who have begun using the mantra “Leave Means Leave.” They want a clean, swift exit. Walking away with no deal – and the chaos that could bring to the UK – is better than a bad deal, they say.
Getting Ready for Flu Season
Guest: Dr. Tara Vijayan, MD, Infectious Disease, Physician and Assistant Professor, Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
It’s time to get the flu shot. And if you’re doubting whether or not you need it, consider that last year, the flu killed 80,000 Americans. That’s the highest death toll for influenza in the US in 40 years. Will this year’s flu be just as bad?
Children with divorced parents less likely to receive bachelor’s degrees
Guest: Susan Stewart, Professor, Sociology, Iowa State University
Divorce can affect kids in lots of ways. One particularly lasting consequence may be the level of education a child ultimately achieves. Researchers at Iowa State University found that when you compare children of divorced parents to children of parents who stay married, the kids of divorce are half as likely to end up getting a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Yourself In 4 Letters: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Guest: Merve Emre, PhD, MPhil, Associate Professor of English, Oxford University, Fellow, Worcester College, Author, “The Personality Brokers”
The most famous personality test in the world – the one that inspired all those crazy quizzes we take on social media – has a really surprising backstory. It was not developed by psychologists. The creators of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator were a mother-daughter team with no formal scientific training of any sort. But somehow their multiple choice test for sorting people into categories with four-letter codes like INTP or ESFJ has become the tool for companies, colleges, counselors - and even government agencies. The Myers-Briggs test has become a huge moneymaker – despite loads of criticism from the scientific community that it’s not really an accurate gauge of personality.
Rising cost of insulin proving devastating for millions with diabetes
Guest: Irl Hirsch, MD, Professor, Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Nutrition, University of Washington
Insulin is a life or death matter for millions Americans with diabetes. In recent years, the price of insulin at the pharmacy has risen so steeply that as many as one in four patients have started rationing their supply, based on a survey of several hundred patients at Yale’s Diabetes Center. Taking less insulin than the body needs – or skipping injections on occasion - can lead to serious health consequences, and even death in a patient with diabetes. Why has the cost of insulin risen so steeply?
Your Kid is Mad About Fortnite and Finsta. Here’s What You Need to Know
Guest: Clint Bishop, director of marketing, BYU Broadcasting
Let's get online and see what the kids are up to. There’s a lot parents not be aware of – or quite up to speed about – when it comes to what the tweens and teens are excited about in the digital world.
AZ Senator Jeff Flake and the Kavanaugh Confirmation
Guest: McKay Coppins, Staff Writer, the Atlantic, Author, “The Wilderness”
The bruising fight over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh came to an end over the weekend with a confirmation vote of 50 to 48 in the Senate. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake voted for Kavanaugh. A week ago Flake’s support appeared in question, making him a target of intense lobbying from both Republicans and Democrats. Flake was the reason the confirmation stalled for a week to allow additional FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh.
Current State of the Vaccine Wars
Guest: Michael Kinch, PhD, Associate Vice Chancellor and Director, Washington University’s Center for Research Innovation in Business, Professor, Radiation Oncology
This is the season of shots – vaccines and booster shots for school kids, flu shots for all of us. Well, not all of us, because child vaccination rates for major disease like polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria and whooping cough have been declining in the US in recent years. Why, when these vaccines are widely credited with eliminating devastating diseases in the US, are educated, and often wealthy, parents opting not to get their kids vaccinated?
Even Light Physical Activity Can Have a Big Payoff
Guest: Michael Yassa, PhD, Professor, Neurology, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine
The science is clear that exercise is good for your body, your brain and your mood. We even know that it can reduce or delay some of the effects of aging. But the standard recommendation that you get at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-intense exercise a week can be daunting for some.
Does Apple Cider Vinegar Live Up to the Hype?
Guest: Gabriel Neal, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Family Medicine, Texas A&M University
Apple cider vinegar has been said to help heal all sorts of sicknesses. And it’s supposed to increase health, leading to things like weight loss and lower blood sugar. You'll find people across the globe are drinking a daily shot of apple cider vinegar. Is there any science to back this up?
Countering the New Face of Genocide
Guest: Ewelina Ochab, Human Rights Activist, Author, “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East”
The Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded to two individuals working to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. One is a Congolese gynecologist and the other is 24-year-old Nadia Murad, herself a victim of sexual violence. Murad is a member of the Yazidi religious minority in Northern Iraq which has been targeted by ISIS for extermination. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls remained enslaved by the terrorist group.
What’s happening in Northern Syria?
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science, Coordinator, Middle Eastern Studies, BYU
There is an ethnic group in Northern Syria and Iraq that is fiercely independent and famously fierce on the battlefield. The Kurds have been a key ally of the US military in fighting ISIS. And in both Iraq and Syria, the Kurds have managed to establish secular democratic governments that the United States and its allies would like to see thrive. But getting too close to the Kurds could drive a serious wedge between America and another of its key Middle Eastern allies – Turkey.
A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country in the World
Guest: Sarah Smarsh, Author, “Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country in the World”
Growing up on a farm in Kansas in the 1980s and 90s, journalist Sarah Smarsh didn’t realize she and her family were part of the “working poor.” What she did know was that her parents and grandparents spent long days in fields and factories and on construction sites and still barely had enough to get by. All the while believing fervently in the American Dream that if you just work hard enough, you’ll get ahead. Only when Smarsh became the first in her family to get to college, did she realize she’d been sold a lie.
Asians, Harvard and Affirmative Action
Guest: Lee Cheng, Attorney, Private Practice. Fred Gedicks, Professor, BYU Law School
You may have heard there’s a high profile lawsuit going to trial soon over Harvard’s admissions policies. A group of Asian Americans claims that Harvard’s use of race as one criteria in admitting students, discriminates against them. But aren’t affirmative action policies supposed to help minority students get access to elite schools? After all, these policies came about because of the Civil Rights Movement and many organizations representing people of color still fervently support affirmative action.
USMCA vs. NAFTA: A Look at the New North American Trade Deal
Guest: Earl Fry, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Political Science, BYU
The US, Mexico and Canada trade a trillion dollars-worth of goods back and forth over their borders every year. And since 1993, that trade has been governed by an agreement called NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Act. This week, President Trump a new three-way deal to replace it: “Throughout the campaign, I promised to renegotiate NAFTA, and today we have kept that promise. But, for 25 years, as a civilian, as a businessman, I used to say, “How could anybody have signed a deal like NAFTA?” And I watched New England, and so many other places where I was just — the factories were leaving, the jobs were leaving, people were being fired, and we can’t have that. So we have negotiated this new agreement based on the principle of fairness and reciprocity.”
Hunting Ivory Smugglers with DNA
Guest: Samuel K. Wasser, PhD, Professor, Biology, University of Washington
Poachers kill tens of thousands of African Elephants every year for their tusks. Ivory trade is illegal, and yet the multi-billion dollar industry keeps growing. Authorities are up against some very powerful international crime syndicates. Researchers have discovered that the elephants themselves may be the key to stopping the whole trade at its source. They’re using elephant DNA to pinpoint where cartels are operating in Africa.
How to Sell Yourself on the Job Market
Guest: Ilana Gershon, PhD, Professor, Anthropology, University of Indiana Bloomington
Google “personal branding workshop” and you will get tens of thousands of hits. There’s a booming business in teaching job seekers how to package and market themselves like you would chewing gum or a new car. So, does it work?
Preventing Suicide (Originally aired June 6, 2018)
Guest: Michael Staley, Suicide Prevention Research Coordinator, Utah’s Medical Examiner’s Office
It’s time for Rewind. Over the last decades and a half, the suicide rate in America has risen 30 percent. Every state but Nevada saw an increase in its suicide rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same week those numbers were reported, two celebrities died of suicide, driving home the urgent need for better a better prevention strategy. How can we prevent suicide?
REWIND Free-Range Parenting Takes Effect (Originally aired April 3, 2018)
Guest: Senator Lincoln Fillmore, (R), Utah’s 10th District
Utah’s first in the nation free range parenting law took effect this week, and a number of states including New York and Texas are looking at following suit. The bill shields parents from liability if they allow children to walk home from school, or to a park, or wait in the car by themselves. Last April we had the bill’s author, Utah State Senator Lincoln Fillmore on the line. He spoke with Top of Mind’s Tennery Taylor.
Getting the Brain Tingles (Originally aired May 22, 2018)
Guest: Dr. Craig Richard, Ph.D., Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Shenandoah University, Founder of the ASMR University website, Researcher, The ASMR Research Project, Curator of the Voices of ASMR Project, Host of the ASMR University Podcast, Author , “Brain Tingles”
There’s an advertising gimmick companies like IKEA, Applebee’s and McDonald’s have been using, that involves people – often celebrities – whispering right into a microphone while bed sheets crinkle or meat sizzles loudly in your ears. If you don’t know they’re tapping into a viral online trend, you’ll think it’s really weird.
Are the EU's Internal Disagreements Irreconcilable?
Guest: Hans Kundnani, Senior Research Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London
Britain is on the verge of a messy exit from the European Union. A number of countries in the EU continue to struggle economically and financially – including Greece. The massive wave of migrants fleeing into Europe from Syria, Afghanistan and Africa has destabilized politics, across the European Union. Is it still realistic for European countries with drastically different histories and current realities to be joined at the hip through a common currency and government?
Dress for Success in Space Exploration
Guest: Dava J. Newman, PhD, Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics, MIT, Faculty Member, Harvard-MIT, Health Sciences Technology, former NASA Deputy Administrator
In the next couple of decades, America hopes to be sending astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars. But before they launch, they’ll need to update their wardrobe. The spacesuits NASA has currently won’t cut it for these kinds of long missions and for walking around on Mars. So how does a space agency do a fashion makeover?
What Guardrails Guarantee Crowdfunding Money Ends Up in the Right Hands?
Guest: Mark Roderick, Business and Corporate Attorney for Flaster Greenberg, Law Firm, Philadelphia.
Nearly a quarter of Americans have contributed to one of those crowdsourced fundraisers online like GoFundMe or Kickstarter. The ability to quickly raise money from lots of people has launched successful startups and led to heartwarming tales about a sick child’s hospital bills getting paid, or a young widow getting help with burial expenses or a viral story of a good deed leading to a huge cash windfall for a lucky Good Samaritan. But it’s not all warm fuzzies and faith in humanity on these sites. Fraud happens.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Today, a story from the great Lakota/Kiowa storyteller Dovie Thomason. The story is "Mouse and the Moon," from a collection called "Voices of the Animal People." Dovie points out that through the antics of the Animal People in these stories, we are gently and humorously made aware of human foibles. The entire collection features a cast of bears, chipmunks, turtles, and more.
Do People Judge You by Your gluten?
Guest: Maya Aloni, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Western Connecticut State University
Let’s be honest – when you end up at a dinner party with someone who has very specific diet requirements, you judge, right? Oh I’m vegetarian. Or I only eat clean. Or gluten-free. There’s some really interesting research about how your diet habits reflect on you. And some of the latest research looks specifically at how a gluten-free diet reflects on a person generally and as a potential romantic partner.
Finding Passion and Purpose after Retirement
Guest: Helen Wilkes, Author, “The Aging of Aquarius, Igniting Passion and Purpose as an Elder” and “Letters from the Lost”
They used to call it the golden years, but retirement was never really that simple. Saving enough money is not easy, and staying healthy is a challenge. Then there is the question of what do you do with yourself?
Trump’s Unusual Approach to North Korea: “We Fell in Love”
Guest: Richard McBride, PhD, Associate Professor, Asian & Near Eastern Languages, BYU
Another summit is in the works between President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. As recently as the end of August, Trump had put the brakes on meetings between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials because there hadn’t been enough progress in negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. But now the talks are back on and President Trump said, at a rally in West Virginia on Saturday, “We were going back and forth, and then we fell in love. No really. He wrote me beautiful letters. And they were great letters. And then we fell in love.” What's going on over there?
Fighting Crime with Super Face Recognizers
Guest: Josh Davis, PhD, Reader, Applied Psychology, University of Greenwich
Some people turn out to be savants at face recognition. They could see a photo of someone just briefly and then, months later, pick that person out of a crowd. A police department in London even has a team of these “super recognizers,” as they’re called, to nab criminals. British police force
Communicating to the Beat of your Own Drum
Guest: Dr. Barry Bittman, MD, Board Chairman, CEO and President, Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute
What’s your go-to method of stress relief? Exercise? Cooking? Gardening? Banging on drums? Not sure your neighbors would be too thrilled if you went with that last one. But neurologist Barry Bittman has spent years studying the health benefits of drumming. He’s even measured an improvement in the immune function of people who participated in an hour-long drum therapy session.
How Wolves Are Bringing Back Yellowstone’s Trees
Guest: Douglas Smith, PhD, Senior Wildlife Biologist, Yellowstone National Park, Author, “The Wolves of Yellowstone, Decade of the Wolf, and Wolves on the Hunt”
A generation ago, aspen trees in parts of Yellowstone National Park were in serious trouble. Young trees were having trouble taking root to replace older trees as they died. But today, the aspen are making a comeback. It’s not returning because people are planting trees or preventing wildfire. Strangely, the aspen resurgence is due to the return of wolves to Yellowstone over the last 25 years. It’s a long ecological chain, which includes everything from elk to beavers.
Don’t Worry; Be Stoic
Guest: Anthony Long, PhD, Professor Classics, University of California, Berkeley, Author, “How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic’s Life”
Perhaps you’ve noticed a rather esoteric hashtag popping up on social media along with empowering phrases about living in the moment, staying calm in the face of difficulties and focusing only on what you can control in life. Stoicism is an ancient philosophy that’s having a modern revival. And when you understand its origins, it makes perfect sense that people are embracing Stoicism it right now.
Promoting Problem-Solving in Kids
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
Kavanaugh and Conservatives Look for Vindication in FBI Investigation
Guest: Mona Charen, JD, Syndicated Columnist, Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
It’s back in session, but one justice short of the full nine until the Senate can confirm President Trump’s nominee Brett Kavanaugh. That confirmation is on hold for the week while the FBI looks into the allegation by Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school.
How Sweat Pants and Leggings Became Business Attire
Guest: Deirdre Clemente (PhD), Associate Professor, History, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Director of Public History at UNLV. Author, “Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style”
Sales of clothing in the US have been generally flat the last few years, but there’s one fashion category that’s booming. It’s called “athleisure” and it’s blurring the lines between the office and the gym. Men wearing slim-fitting joggers to work instead of slacks? That’s athleisure. Women dressing up a pair of yoga leggings with heels and a long sweater? Athleisure. Is this a passing fad or the new business casual?
Drawn Together
Guest: Minh Le, Author, “Drawn Together”
About 36 million Americans were born in the US to immigrant parents. By the time they have children of their own, those kids likely won’t speak the native language of their grandparents. Author Minh Le was in that exact situation. So he wrote a picture book to show how a boy and his grandfather overcome that barrier with love, creativity and lots of imagination. The book is called “Drawn Together.” It’s beautifully illustrated and written – magical, even.
Household Disinfectants Might Lead to Childhood Weight Gain
Guest: Anita Kozyrskyj, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta
Childhood obesity has tripled in the past generation – the CDC says one in five school age children are obese in the US now. The causes are complex, but one culprit may be lurking under the kitchen sink: household disinfectants. A new study finds that babies in households that use disinfectant cleaners have more of a certain kind of bacteria in their gut – and when those babies reach the age of 3, they’re more likely to overweight.
Succulent Smuggling Consequences
Guest: Patrick Foy, Captain of Regulations, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Law Enforcement Division
There’s a lucrative black market in China and Korea for succulent plants that grow well in the American West. Smugglers in California have been caught with 10s of thousands of plants worth millions of dollars. This is not exactly how to fix the trade imbalance.
How Company Brands Navigate Controversy
Guest: Timothy Calkins, Clinical Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Author, “How to Wash a Chicken: Mastering the Business Presentation”
Electric car maker Tesla and its controversial CEO Elon Musk settled a lawsuit with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the weekend. Musk was accused of securities fraud for misleading tweets about Tesla’s finances that affected its stock price. Musk and Tesla will each pay $20 million in fines and Musk will relinquish his role as the company’s board chairman, but he gets to stay on as CEO. What would Tesla be without Musk anyway? For better or worse, carmaker’s brand is wrapped up in Musk’s outspoken, often outlandish, identity.
An Immigrant’s Story of Searching for Home
Guest: Reyna Grande, Author of A Dream Called Home, The Distance Between Us, Across A Hundred Mountains
El Otro Lado. “The Other side.” That’s what people in Reyna Grande’s Mexican hometown call the United States. Grande’s father left for the US to find work when she was two. And then her mother followed him across the border. When Reyna Grande was 9, her dad returned to Mexico for a visit and she begged him to carry her on his back across the border. It took three tries before they made it safely.
Five Strange, Unusual, and Overlooked Jobs
There are a lot of weird jobs out there. Well, we tracked down five people with some pretty strange professions to find out what exactly they do and why they do it. Some are funny and entertaining, while others are surprisingly vital to our lives and economy.
Guests:
Professional Bridesmaid: Jen Glantz, CEO, Bridesmaid for Hire
Iceberg Hunter: Kristen Serumgard, Commanding Officer, International Ice Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard
Professional Line Sitter: Robert Samuel, CEO, Same Ole Line Dudes
Medical Illustrator: Shizuka Aoki, Founder, Anatomize Studios
Professional Mermaid: Chelsea Snow, Shellsea the Mermaid, Co-Founder of Springville Mermaid School
Why Stuff From China is About to Get More Expensive
Guest: Scott Bradford, PhD, Professor, Economics, BYU
As of this week, half of all the products China ships into the United States are subject to higher tariffs. That includes food, furniture, household appliances and electronics. Pick something at random in a Walmart and it’s probably on the list. President Trump touted his tough trade stance in a speech to the UN this week: “We will not allow our workers to victimized, our companies to be cheated and our wealth to be plundered and transferred.”
Sneaking One Over On Stink Bugs
Guest: Dorothea Tholl, PhD, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, Affiliate, Fralin Life Science Institute, Virginia Tech
Tiny stink bugs, less than an inch long, make a nasty smell when threatened or squashed. But this is just one part of their chemical toolkit. They also use pheromones to attract mates and signal that they’ve found food. Researchers at Virginia Tech hope to harness that aspect of stink bug behavior to develop new ways of controlling the pests, which are a major problem for farmers worldwide.
Why Observant Jews are “Roughing It” This Week
Guest: Jeffrey R. Chadwick, PhD, Professor of Religion, Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies, BYU
Today marks the 5th day of the major Jewish holiday Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles. Sukkot is named after the makeshift huts Jews are instructed to build and spend time in during this week-long celebration. It’s a joyous occasion that narrates an interesting story of faith and humble beginnings.
The Psychobiotic Revolution (Originally aired Nov. 7, 2017)
Guest: Scott Anderson, Lead Author, "The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection"
There’s a network of nerves around your gut so involved in your physical and emotional well-being, it’s often called your “second brain.” It takes its cues primarily from a huge community of microbes living in your gut. More and more evidence suggests that what you eat determines how happy those microbes are. And how happy those microbes are affects how happy you are. Literally. Bacteria in your gut affect your mental health.
New Fashion Dolls Are Empowered Like Barbie Never Was (Originally aired Jan. 9, 2018)
Guest: Sara Austin, Graduate Student, University of Connecticut
A generation ago, girls had Barbies and boys had action figures like GI Joe. In the last few years, Mattel, which makes Barbie, has come out with new toys for girls that are part action figure, part fashion doll based on characters from the popular series Monster High, Ever After High and DC Superhero Girls. These dolls have superpowers and back stories that make them a different kind of doll than Barbie ever was. And that’s empowering for the girls who play with them.
Why Gun Violence is a Public Health Crisis (Originally aired March 26, 2018)
Guest: Sandro Galea, MD, Dean, Boston University School of Public Health, Author, “Healthier: Fifty Thoughts on the Foundations of Population Health”
Mass shootings – including those that take place in schools – capture attention and stir emotion, but the truth is they represent just a tiny fraction of what epidemiologist Sandro Galea calls a public health crisis: in the United States, you’re as likely to die by a gun as you are to die in a car crash.
Trump Rejects Globalism in UN Speech
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
President Donald Trump on Tuesday made his second address to the UN General Assembly, reiterating his “America First” views: “I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return." Trump also called out China and Iran specifically. How did the UN respond?
Google and Apple’s Phone Battle
Guest: John Battelle, CEO, NewCo, Co-Founder, Wired Magazine
When you buy a new phone, your choice is basically an iPhone or something else. Most of your non-iPhone options, say a Samsung or LG phone, are actually powered by Google through their Android operating system. Apple, of course, has its own operating system called iOS. Both of the systems pre-load your phone with their own apps for things like email or web browsing – and Apple won’t even let you change those. But Google is the one in trouble over in Europe for doing this. Why is that? And more importantly, why are Google and Apple the only choices we have to power our phones?
Using Rice to Prevent HIV
Guest: Evangelia Vamvaka, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher in Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley
While the spread of HIV and rates of treatment for the virus have improved dramatically over the last 20 years, women and girls remain at serious risk. The majority of new HIV infections globally are among women and young women, in particular, are twice as likely to acquire HIV as young men the same age. This imbalance is driven by sexual violence and the inability of women in some cultures to demand that an infected partner take precautions to prevent the virus from spreading to her. Could a newly engineered strain of rice inhibit the tranmission of HIV through sexual intercourse?
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne
Today, a story from Odds Bodkin, who, since 1982, has combined dramatic voices, vocal effects, narrative and live music to create imaginative experiences for audiences. Today's story is just a tiny part of his incredibly dynamic telling of Homer's epic, "The Odyssey." Odds Bodkin sometimes performs the whole thing live, which makes for a performance that lasts more than a full day.
Cancer Treatment Drug Surprisingly Effective in Allergy Reduction
Guest: Bruce Bochner, Professor, Medicine, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
Nearly 15 million Americans have potentially life-threatening food allergies. Many live in constant fear that an allergen will sneak into their food and cause possibly fatal anaphylaxis. For food allergies like that, there really isn’t much that can be done to alleviate that fear. Now, a team of scientists is repurposing a cancer drug that may have broad capacity to block allergies. Ibrutinib (eye-broot-in-ib) is a cancer drug used to treat Leukemia through less-toxic means than chemotherapy. Could it also tackle allergies? It’s all very preliminary, but early results are promising.
When Teachers Rise Up and Resist
Guest: Doris Santoro, PhD, Associate Professor, Education and Chair of the Education Department, Bowdoin College
Many of America’s teachers are unhappy. In states across the country, from West Virginia to Washington State, teachers have marched on state capitols and held strikes this year. They want better pay, smaller classrooms, better financial support for programs. Many oppose state and federal rules that require teachers to use certain textbooks or give their students high-pressure tests. But when teachers are protesting, they’re not in the classroom doing their jobs. Is it possible for teachers to resist and press for change in their profession without derailing the education of the children in their care?
Listen to our conversation with Doris Santoro from earlier this year about why good teachers quit the classroom.
In the Justice System, Teenage Behavior Often Does Affect the Rest of Your Life
Guest: Eileen Ahlin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice, School of Public Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg
Supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh said on Fox News Monday night that he “never sexually assaulted anyone, in high school or otherwise.” Later this week, the Senate will hear testimony from Christine Blasey Ford who alleges Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a drunken party when they were in high school. Ever since these allegations against Kavanaugh surfaced a week ago, one line of debate has centered on how much weight a person’s behavior in childhood should reflect on their character and standing as adults.
Clan Buchanan Finds a Clan Chief at Last
Guest: David J. Byrne, President, Clan Buchanan Society International
That’s a bit of “Scotland the Brave” performed by the Pipes & Drums of the Royal Tank Regiment to launch us into this next conversation: The Clan Buchanan – one of Scotland’s most storied clans – has been without a recognized leader for more than 300 years. Only someone with proven descent from a chief can claim the title – and until now, no one’s been able to do so. But a Scottish millionaire landowner named Mike Buchanan always believed he was descended from clan leadership. Now, thanks to some serious genealogical work, he’s proven his claim and been officially appointed chief of The Clan Buchanan.
Your Cat Might Actually Love You Back
Guest: Kristyn Vitale, PhD Student, Oregon State University
Dogs have a reputation for being social and smart and helpful. Cats, on the other hand, are aloof and only interested in humans as a source of food. But research being done by Kristyn Vitale at Oregon State University’s Human/Animal Interaction Lab suggests those stereotypes are wrong. Cats are social. Many seek out interaction with humans. And – get this – they can be trained.
Teen Self-Regulation
Guest: Ali Crandall, Assistant Professor, Public Health, Brigham Young University
Earlier in the show we talked about the debate in America over whether teenagers who commit crimes should be treated as adults. Let’s dig a little more deeply into what we know about the development of the teenaged brain.
The Corn Ethanol Maze
Guest: Tristan R. Brown, PhD, JD, Assistant Professor of Energy Resource Economics, State University of New York
Every time American drivers fill up their gas tanks, corn farmers in Iowa get a paycheck. That’s thanks to federal fuel requirements and tax subsidies that see to it most gas for vehicles contains at least 10% ethanol. But there is not universal agreement than adding corn ethanol to gasoline is good for the environment or economy. So why are we still doing it?
Scary Movies for Families
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Scary movie season is upon us. I’m no fan of horror, but a good suspense film is always fun. And Kirsten Hawkes at Parent Previews.com is back with some recommendations for spooky viewing.
Puerto Rico After Maria
Guest: Charles Venator-Santiago, PhD, Associate Professor, Joint Appointment, Department of Political Science and El Instituto, University of Connecticut
A year after Hurricane Maria struck the island, government officials there have now acknowledged the death toll was much, much higher than they originally said. Nearly 3,000 people died in connection with the storm, making it the deadliest natural disaster in America in more than a century. Yes, Puerto Ricans are Americans. And while they struggle to recover from the hurricane’s damage, Puerto Rican officials are also renewing their push for US statehood. President Trump said in an interview with WTAM radio on Monday that he won’t support Puerto Rican statehood, so long as the current leaders are in office.
Creating Mini-Leopard House Cats(Creating Mini-Leopard House Cats)
Guest: Anthony Hutcherson, Bengal Cat Breeder, Ocelot Enthusiast
Humans have lived side by side with cats just about as long as human civilization has existed, at least as far back as 4,000 years in Egypt. And there are plenty of cats to go around: hundreds of thousands of them are euthanized at animal shelters every year. But for some cat enthusiasts, housecats just aren’t exotic enough. Hybrid cat breeders are crossing domestics with wildcats to create tiny – and hopefully tame - versions of big cats that can cost over $10,000 to purchase.
Should Elite Colleges Select Applicants by Lottery?(Should Elite Colleges Select Applicants by Lottery)
Guest: Barry Schwartz, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Swarthmore College and Visiting Professor at U.C. Berkeley
Ambitious high school students around the country have begun preparing their college applications. Many of them will have perfect GPAs, stellar ACT scores and outstanding extracurricular records. With competition so stiff, getting into an elite college can feel like a game of chance. So why not just go with it and make the application process a simple lottery? If you meet the minimum criteria, you get into the pool and the rest is left to luck. Proponents of this idea think it would be fairer and reduce some of the pressure high school students feel to be the perfect applicant.
The Ancient Human History of Cheese(The Ancient Human History of Cheese)
Guest: Paul Kindstedt, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Vermont
Americans eat an average of 35 pounds of cheese a year- and some of us even wear it on our heads (we're talking to you Wisconsinites). Apparently our love of cheese goes way, way back. In an ancient Egyptian tomb this summer, archaeologists just uncovered a bowl with a lump of 3,200 year old fromage. Ancient Egyptians loved cheese so much that they even gave it as a funerary offering. Who How did cheese become such a central part of the human diet?
Pollution & Dementia(Pollution & Dementia)
Guest: Nicolai Kuminoff, Associate Professor of Economics, Arizona State University
There’s a kind of pollution called PM2.5, tiny particles in the air, just a fraction the width of a human hair. Their tiny size allows them to sneak past the body’s natural defenses and they’ve long been known to cause respiratory problems. But a new study now links these tiny particles with increased risk of dementia.
The Psychological Impact of Social Media Comparisons(The Psychological Impact of Social Media Comparisons)
Guest: Sarah Coyne, PhD, Associate Professor of Family Life, Brigham Young University
Taking the perfect selfie is an art – you’ve got to get the angles and lighting just right or your face will look all distorted. Those who are great at it, actually manage to make themselves look more attractive in selfies than they do in real life. Mental health professionals say a similar distortion happens on social media with efforts to portray the perfect life – the perfect kids, spouse, vacation and even the dog. Comparing yourself to the people who see living their best lives online will only lead to heartache.
Raising Resilient Kids
Guests: Matthew Swenson, MD, Psychiatrist; ; Maureen Healy, Emotional Coach, Author, “Growing Happy Kids,” Consultant for “My Mixed Emotions: Help Your Kids Handle Their Feelings”
The rate of depression is on the rise among youth in America. More than a quarter of teens say they experience “extreme stress” during the school year, according to a survey by the American Psychological Association. That stress leads them to feel irritable, angry, nervous, anxious, overwhelmed, sad and – in some cases - even suicidal. How can parents help kids feel safe, confident and connected in a world full of fear and anxiety?
The Fly Girls Who Made Aviation History
Guest: Keith O’Brien, Author, “Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History”
When you think of the women who helped pioneer flight, you probably think of Amelia Earheart. But she was not the only female pilot in the early 1900s shattering records in the sky. A handful of others were just as famous – and some were even better pilots - Ruth Nichols, Louise Thaden, Ruth Elder. They were known as the “Fly Girls,” which is the title of journalist Keith O’Brien’s new book.
Accusation Against Kavanaugh Puts Senate Confirmation in Turmoil
Guest: Kimberly Robinson, Supreme Court Reporter, Bloomberg Law
Today the Senate Judiciary Committee was to vote on moving Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination forward for final confirmation by the full Senate, hoping to have him seated on the in time for the October start of the Supreme Court term. That process is on hold while the Senate grapples with an allegation from Christine Blasey Ford, who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school.
Documenting Endangered Languages Before They Die
Guest: Tyler Peterson, PhD, assistant professor of English at Arizona State University
There are thousands of languages spoken around the world, but linguists fear that half of them will be extinct by the end of the century. So researchers are scrambling to document these languages and cultures before they’re gone.
Social Support Could Mean Life or Life
Guest: Keren Ladin, Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, Tufts University
Every day, an average of 20 people die in the US waiting for an organ transplant. That’s according to figures the government tracks. But those numbers don’t include all the people that never even made it on the waiting list, because they didn’t meet basic criteria. For example, a patient has to show evidence of a strong social support group in order to qualify for an organ donation. Some experts in medical ethics believe that unfairly keeps people from a life-saving transplant.
Cries from Syria
Guest: Evgeny Afineevsky, Documentary Filmmaker, “Cries from Syria”
The Syrian Civil War – now in its seventh year – is entering the final stages. One last rebel-stronghold in the north of Syria is under assault from Syria government forces. But just a few days ago, Turkey and Russia appear to have brokered a surprise truce that will forestall Russian involvement in the government assault for one month and set up a buffer zone to shield three million civilians living the region. At least half of them are refugees from fighting elsewhere in Syria. Many, many of the Syrians affected by the long-running war are children. The HBO documentary “Cries from Syria” captures the war through the eyes of Syria’s children.
Navigating Money Troubles in Marriage
Guest: Daphne de Marneffe, PhD, Psychologist and Author, “The Rough Patch: Marriage and the Art of Living Together.”
A quarter of divorcing couples cite money issues as a source of their conflict. When couples argue about money, there’s really so much more going on, according to Daphne de Marneffe [de MARN-eff], a psychologist and author of “The Rough Patch: Marriage and the Art of Living Together.”
The 2008 Financial Crisis Ten Years Later
Guest: Brigitte Madrian, Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management, Harvard University, incoming dean of BYU Marriott School of Business
A decade ago, America’s biggest banks were in crisis and government officials were making plans to bail them out. The stock market crashed, retirement funds faltered. Millions of businesses went under and millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes. So where are we ten years on?
Why is Former NBA Player Shawn Bradley So Tall?
Guest: John Kauwe, PhD, Professor and Department Chair of Biology, Brigham Young University
The average basketball player in the NBA 6’ 7”, which almost a foot taller than the average man. And then there are the few NBA players who even tower over their own teammates. At 7 feet 6 inches Shawn Bradley is the third tallest player the NBA’s ever had. And it turns out that he’s always wondered why he’s so tall.
How Pinterest is Influencing Classroom Design
Guest: Robert Dillon, Director, Innovative Learning for University City School District, Co-Author of “The Space: A Guide for Educators”.
If you go on Pinterest or Instagram, you can find some amazing photos of classrooms schools teachers are posting. They’re bright and colorful and full of beanbags and comfy chairs and rarely an old-school desk in sight. The latest research on child learning and engagement says it’s a good thing to get away from the traditional classroom arrangement of desks in rows. What works, what doesn't? What's just fun, what is functional, and what is actually distracting?
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam anticipates the coming of Autumnal spooky stories by getting at the roots of the old campfire chestnut "The Golden Arm." Turns out, it's a story popularized by Mark Twain on his 1894 world speaking tour. On today's visit, Sam shares excerpts about the story from Twain's "How to Tell a Story and Other Essays."
Why is There no Vaccine for Lyme Disease?
Guest: Lorraine Johnson, JD, CEO, LymeDisease.org
Tens of thousands of people get Lyme Disease every year in the US. That number is going up, and the Center for Disease Control is worried about it. On the CDC’s website, there is a list of all the things the Center is doing to prevent Lyme Disease. What you won't find on that list is a vaccine for humans. There used to be one, actually, but it was taken off the market 15 years ago.
How Tech Companies Battle for Your Attention
Guest: Nick Seaver, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Tufts University
You’ve seen these studies that say we check our phones something like 100 times a day on average? Seems appalling, but it’s so hard to resist that little device and its constant notifications interrupting family dinner, distracting you from work, even demanding your attention when you’re trying to relax. This is exactly what Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Netflix, Apple have designed their products to do. The more time we spend on them, the more money they make. So why, then, are these same companies now offering features to help us limit the amount of time we while away on our phones?
How Drug Companies Continue to Make the Opioid Crisis Worse
Guest: Robin Feldman, JD, Professor of Law, Director of the Institute for Innovation Law, University of California
A prominent player in America’s opioid abuse problem, Purdue Pharma, is facing more than a thousand lawsuits from states and cities over its alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis with its prescription painkiller OxyContin. Now, Purdue notes that OxyContin accounts for less than two percent of opioid in the US. But it used to be much higher. And investigative reporting in a range of publications has shown how aggressively Purdue worked to expand opioid use in the US, even as the overdose crisis escalated. The Financial Times recently reported that a company affiliated with Purdue Pharma patented a new drug earlier this year to treat opioid addiction, meaning it could potentially profit off both sides of the opioid epidemic.
The Advantages of Online School
Guest: Laura Belnap, Director, Utah Online School
For generations, school meant desks, hallways, lunchrooms, bells. But now the same revolution that disrupted American retail is coming after education. States all around the country now offer an online public school option from Kindergarten through high school.
Re-Growing Beta Cells, Potential Type I Diabetes Treatment
Guest: Jeffery Tessem, PhD, Professor of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science, Head of the Tessem Diabetes Research Lab, Brigham Young University
One in ten Americans have diabetes and most of that is Type 2 diabetes, which means the body doesn’t use insulin properly to keep blood sugar levels in check. Proper exercise and diet can prevent most people from getting Type 2 diabetes. That’s not true for the other type of diabetes – Type 1, which is sometimes called “juvenile diabetes” because it often occurs in childhood. There is no cure yet for Type 1 diabetes, but researchers have zeroed in on something in the body called “beta cells.”
Sky-High Cost of College Explained
Guest: David Feldman, PhD, Professor of Economics, College of William and Mary
It’s homecoming season on college campuses. Alumni are back to visit their old haunts and marvel at the new buildings and amenities added to the school since they graduated. Those fancy sports arenas, workout facilities and dining halls must be a main reason tuition is so much higher today, right? Well, actually, that’s a common misconception, according to economist David Feldman.
Investigative Journalism
Guest: Thomas Peele, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with the Bay Area News Group, Lecturer of Journalism at University of California Berkeley
Veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s new book about dysfunction in the Trump White House has quickly become one of the year’s top-sellers and drawn sharp criticism from its subject. The President often complains about how the media covers him. “Enemy of the People” he calls them. But in a lot of cases reporters are the people’s only advocate uncovering corruption in government, holding powerful people to account. That’s the kind of investigative reporting Thomas Peele does – the kind of reporting that won him a Pulitzer Prize.
Why Dystopian Novels Are Good for Teens
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
What Manafort’s Plea Means for Russia Probe
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director, Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort made a plea deal with special prosecutor Robert Mueller in which he agreed to cooperate fully with the probe into Russian election meddling. What, if anything, might that mean for the President?
Do You Really Want to Live Forever?
Guest: John K. Davis, PhD, JD, Professor of Philosophy at California State University-Fullerton, Author of "New Methuselahs"
Ponce de Leon is said to have sought the Fountain of Youth in Florida. That’s probably a myth. But if he was looking for it, he was in the wrong sun-soaked state. Today, California-based Google and other high-tech companies are on the quest for eternal life. If you could get a treatment that would slow aging and let you live to be 150 or 200 years old, would you do it?
The Power of Play
Guest: Michael Yogman, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
The next time your child goes for a wellness checkup, don’t be surprised if the doctor prescribes a healthy dose of play. The American Academy of Pediatrics is urging its members to promote the benefits for play on a child brain and behavioral development.
How Did America Fall for Sushi – and Is It Really Sushi?
Guest: Eric Rath, PhD, Professor of History, University of Kansas
Seventy-six years ago in America, people of Japanese descent were being rounded up and forced into prison camps to wait out the war. Everything related to their culture was considered suspicious and threatening. Today, the most expensive, the most exclusive restaurants in America are sushi restaurants. How did that happen? And is the sushi Americans eat the same thing you’d find in Japan?
How Technology is Turning Us Into Spies
Guest: Karen Levy, Assistant Professor of Information Science, Cornell University
We know we’re being watched and monitored – by Google, Facebook, our iPhones, our Fitbits. We’ve pretty much gotten used to it because of how helpful it is to have those services know our preferences. But somewhere along the way, we’ve also turned into a society of watchers. We can see exactly where our Uber driver or our Amazon Prime package is as we wait. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Tech Transfer: Phage Therapy
Guest: Sandra Hope, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Miology, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Director, Technology Transfer Office, Brigham Young University
Antibiotics kill bacteria. You know that. But did you know bacteria actually make their own antibiotics to kill other bacteria? It’s one of their defense mechanisms. And, BYU microbiology professor Sandra Hope has figured out how to harness the antibiotic generating ability of bacteria fight infection.
A Look at New Flexibility for States in Education
Guests: Mike Petrilli, President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Executive Editor of Education Next; Alisa Ellis, Member of the Utah State Board of Education; Vance Randall, Professor, BYU McKay School of Education; Bryan Bowles, Associate Clinical Professor, BYU McKay School of Education
This school year, a new federal law called the Every Student Succeeds Act takes effect. It was passed as a replacement to No Child Left Behind – which lawmakers, teachers, administrators and parents all disliked for the way it graded schools and punished those that failed to meet federal standards. The new Every Student Succeeds Act puts the responsibility for grading schools squarely in the lap of state regulators. Two of the law’s biggest promises are more flexibility and more local control over education. So how is it working out?
Inside the Quirky World of Metal Detecting
Guests: Ryan Houston, Utah Metal Detecting; Todd Yerks, cttodd.com; Allyson Cohen, DetectingDiva.com; Dawn Chipcase, Digger Dawn on YouTube
At least a thousand times a year somebody in the UK reports finding something historically important in a field somewhere, while out metal detecting. Could be a gold broach or a silver coin – or even a whole hoard of precious stuff buried by some wealthy Saxon during Medieval times. Such finds are on the rise as metal detecting equipment gets better and shows like The Detectorists on the BBC prompt people to try their hand at treasure hunting.
The Challenges of Hurricane Prediction
Mark Bourassa, PhD, meteorologist, associate director, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida State University
Hurricane Florence is Top of Mind today. It’s expected to bring heavy rains, high winds and flooding to North and South Carolina. At least a million people have evacuated coastal areas in the storm’s path, because officials are never sure exactly where the brunt of a hurricane will be felt. To understand why hurricane forecasting is so difficult, we’ve got meteorologist Mark Bourassa on the line. He’s associate director of the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies at Florida State University.
Frankenstein's Monster Still Kicking at 200
Guest: Dennis Perry, PhD, Associate Professor of English, Brigham Young University
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” was published in 1818. It has since been imagined and reimagined so many times, it may be the most common narrative in popular culture. The book has never been out of print. What accounts for oure enduring fascination with this monster?
How to Make Baseball Entertaining Again
Guest: Steven Brams, PhD, Professor of Politics at New York University
Any parent with a kid in baseball knows the agony of a lopsided game that just won’t end. It even happens in the Major Leagues and a lot of fans think that’s just part of the sport. Besides, there are worse places than a ballpark to spend several hours on a summer night, right? Well a team of data scientists wants to fix the long, lopsided nature of baseball by changing the number of outs a team gets in each inning.
Weapons of Math Destruction
Guest: Cathy O’Neil PhD, data scientist and founder of the O’Neil Risk Consulting & Algorithmic Auditing company
Are you one of those people who gets credit card offers every day? Well, the offer in your mailbox might be different from the one in your neighbor’s because your credit score, your income, your outstanding debt and other factors are mysteriously processed by a number-crunching algorithm and out pops your APR. But that algorithm is not as objective as you think. Data scientist Cathy O’Neil says they can actually do a lot of harm. Her book is called, “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy.” We had this conversations with her last year.
Falling for The Tinder Trap
Guest: Jeffrey Hall, PhD, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas
Online dating is no longer a slightly embarrassing thing young single people do when they can’t seem to meet people in the usual ways. Services like Tinder and Match are the way people of all ages now find potential partners. But all the swiping and rating people based on their photos may be ruining our chances of really enjoying the company of a date when we finally meet in person.
Do Brain Lesions Make Criminals?
Guest: Michael Fox MD, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Deep Brain Stimulation Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
In 1966, a lone gunman named Charles Whitman perpetrated what’s often considered the first public mass shooting in modern America. He climbed a 300-foot tower at the University of Texas and shot 36 people, killing 14 of them before he was fatally shot by police. An autopsy found a tumor in Whitman’s brain, which some scientists believe may have contributed to his murderous behavior. We know that brain injuries and lesions can change someone’s personality, but can it make someone a violent criminal?
Cleaning Up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Guest: Kate O’Neill, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley
Over the weekend, an ambitious project to clean up what’s known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” left from San Francisco. It’s headed toward an enormous swirling mass of mostly plastic trash out in the ocean between California and Hawaii. The cleanup project consists of a 2,000 foot-long floating tube with a skirt hanging down 10-feet underwater. A ship is pulling the tube out to the garbage patch, like a super long tail trailing behind it.
Asylum Seeker Advocates
Guest: Michele Pistone, PhD, Professor of Law, Villanova University
Six out of ten people who show up in immigration court in the US come without a lawyer. Not surprisingly, their chances of avoiding deportation are slim without someone who understands the system to advocate on their behalf. But it turns out you don’t have to be a lawyer to assist immigrants in court. Villanova University law professor Michele Pistone is building an online training course for non-lawyers who want to help refugees and asylum seekers navigate the immigration system.
Learning About and Preventing ACL Injuries
Guest: Paul Sherbondy, M.D., Orthopedic Surgeon, Penn State Sports Medicine
From basketball and volleyball courts to soccer and football fields, some 200,000 athletes injure their ACL every year in the US. About half of those are serious ruptures in the knee ligament. And even casual sports fans know that an ACL injury can derail the career of an athlete at any level. Why are these injuries so common and is there a way to prevent them?
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne of The Apple Seed shares a story.
Why Colleges Are Adding Thousands of New Major Programs
Guest: Robert Zemsky, PhD, Professor of Education, Founding Director, Institute for Research on Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
Cuba’s New Constitution in Post-Castro Era
Guest: Ted Henken, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, Baruch College
Cuba is one of the last standard bearers of Communism globally – and now it appears to be backing away from that. Cuban politicians and voters are debating a new constitution that recognizes the “role of the market” and “private property.” Those ideas are central to Western Capitalism, which the Castros of Cuba have long railed against.
Assessing Security and War 17 Years after 9/11
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Today is the anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks. America has been fighting back now for 17 years. Are we safer today as a result of the global war on terror?
Long-Distance Care for Your Loved Ones
Guest: Sara L. Douglas, PhD, Professor of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University
As the Baby Boomers age, their children increasingly find themselves in a caregiver role. At least five million Americans are long-distance caregivers, meaning they live at least an hour’s drive from the sick loved one, but often much farther away, according to the National Council on Aging. This particular group of caregivers hasn’t received much attention from researchers, but if you’ve been one, you know how difficult and draining it can be. You can’t help with the day-to-day needs of your loved one, but you try to be helpful where you can, which means a lot of time on the phone with doctors, nurses and family members and expensive trips to visit when possible.
Resources Specific to Distance Care Givers: Caregiver Action Network, Aging Life Care Organization, Caring From a Distance, AARP, National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s Association (national and local)
The Real Results of Cryotherapy
Guest: Joe Costello, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Exercise Physiology, University of Portsmouth, UK
Icing sore muscles after a game is standard among athletes. But some people are now embracing an extreme form of icing called cryotherapy, where you climb into a chamber chilled to minus 160 degrees Fahrenheit, and sometimes even colder. There are elite athletes and spa-goers who swear by it. But the US Food and Drug Administration has warned that “whole body cryotherapy” is a dangerous and unproven.
Dealing with Grief in Long-Term Care Facilities
Guest: Toni Miles, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Georgia
Death is a part of life in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. But that doesn’t make it any easier. The inclination among some caretakers is to keep the loss quiet, so as not to upset the other residents. But epidemiologist Toni Miles at the University of Georgia, disagrees. Her research in care facilities suggests that openly grieving a patient is healthier for that person’s friends and family, as well as the staff and other residents.
Back-to-School at the Movies
Guest: Kirsten Hawkes, ParentPreviews.com
Since back-to-school is Top of Mind for many families right now, we’ve asked Kirsten Hawkes at Parent Previews.com to round up some of her favorite films about being a kid in school. There’s a critically-acclaimed one in theaters right now called Eighth Grade which we’ll get to in a bit. But first, we’ve got a couple of picks that could be great conversation starters for your next family movie night.
The Last Major Battle in the Syrian Civil War?
Guest: John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Utah Valley University
What could be the last major battle of Syria’s long-running civil war will begin soon. Syrian government forces are poised for a massive assault that UN officials fear may include chemical weapons, on Idlib province. It’s in the north of Syria and is the last stronghold of rebel fighters opposing the Assad regime. Some 3 million civilians also live there, about half of them refugees from other regions of Syria retaken by government forces. Russia and Iran are backing the government’s preparations to attack Idlib. Turkey tried desperately over the weekend to negotiate a truce. Those talks failed. Now a top UN official warns the coming onslaught could become the worst humanitarian catastrophe and biggest loss of life in the 21st Century.
Battling Poverty in Community Colleges
Guest: Russell Lowery-Hart, PhD, President, Amarillo College
Getting a college degree is a proven pathway out of poverty, but poverty itself is a major barrier to actually getting that degree. A national survey of university students found a third of them had been without a reliable source of food in the last month. And nearly 10 percent had been homelessness in the last year. Among community college students, those numbers are higher. There’s a community college in Amarillo, Texas with an unusually, aggressive approach to making sure poverty doesn’t derail students from their studies.
Embrace the Gray
Guest: Martha Truslow Smith, Founder of the Instagram Account, @grombre
Women have been told for decades that a good beauty regimen includes hair dye.So if you’re not coloring your hair and covering your grays, you’re telling the world that you’re not worth it? You’re basically letting yourself go? Martha Truslow Smith started an Instagram account several years ago to counter this message. It’s called Grombre, featuring pictures of women celebrating the gray in their locks. The account has tens of thousands of followers who chime in with “you go girl” positivity on every picture.
Pro Sports Wage Gap for Women
Guest: Nancy Lough, PhD, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Tennis stars Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic each got $3.8 million for winning the US Open over the weekend. Wimbledon also awards equal prize money to male and female winners. But tennis is unusual in professional sports. The winner’s prize for women in major golf tournaments like the British Open or US Open is less than half what the men win. The US Women’s Soccer Team has won far more World Cup titles and Olympic gold medals than their male counterparts – and the women even bring in more profits for US Soccer - yet the women get paid less than the men. Over on the basketball court, the minimum salary for an NBA player is $838,000. That’s eight times what the very highest WNBA player earns.
You’re Doing Leftovers All Wrong. Julia Turshen Can Help.
Guest: Julia Turshen, Best-Selling Author of the Cookbooks "Small Victories", "Feed the Resistance", and "Now & Again".
Cooking enough food to have leftovers the next day makes for an easy meal the next day. But much beyond that, it can be hard to get excited about eating the same thing again. Is there a better way to do leftovers?
How Hackable are US Voting Machines?
Guest: Jake Williams, Founder of Rendition Infosec
At the big annual hacking conference called DEF CON, there are lectures, games, hacking competitions and robotics. But a new event has popped up at the convention in recent years called - the Voting Machine Village. They bring in a bunch of voting machines currently in use around the country and let hackers have at it. You’ve probably seen some of the headlines and viral videos. They’re worrisome.
How White Kids Learn About Race and Privilege
Guest: Margaret Hagerman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Author of “White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America”
In this racially-divided time, what is the best way for white parents to help their children understand how race matters in their lives? For a kid growing up comfortably in a city lacking diversity, race just might not be an issue on the radar. Today, when explicit racism pops up on social media and in the news so often, how do wealthy white kids learn about race?
America’s Maternal Death Problem
Guest: Steven L. Clark, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Maternal and Fetal Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital
America is one of the most dangerous places in the developed world for a woman to give birth, and the problem has been getting worse in the last 20 years. On average, 2 or 3 women die in childbirth every day in America. More than 100 others come close. They may survive, but will often have lasting injuries. The CDC says most of these deaths and injuries are preventable. What is going wrong?
History of Politics in Supreme Court Nominations
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
The White House and the Supreme Court are Top of Mind today. If confirmed by the Senate, Brett Kavanaugh will be the second Supreme Court justice appointed by President Trump. The resulting conservative majority on the high court will be a signature achievement in President Trump’s legacy. But rather than taking a victory lap, the White House is embroiled in drama over an anonymous op-ed published Wednesday in the New York Times by a senior administration official calling President Trump “amoral” and claiming to be part of a resistance within the White House working to protect the country from Trump’s “misguided impulses.” President Trump says the anonymous editorial is “gutless.”
Are Search Engines and Social Media Free Speech?
Guest: Eric Goldman, JD, Professor of Law, Co-director of the High Tech Law Institute, Santa Clara University
Top social media executives testified in Congress on Wednesday about their efforts to make sure Russia doesn’t use their websites to meddle in the upcoming elections. But, after that hearing, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions had a different concern: that Twitter, Facebook and Google are keeping conservatives off their platforms. Sessions plans to meet with state attorneys general this month to discuss how social media companies may be “intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas." In the last week, President Trump made the same claim on Twitter when he complained about Google searches for “Trump News” resulting in mostly “bad stories.” Google denies it “ranks search results to manipulate political sentiment.” Still, Trump has promised a fix. Is there anything the government could do on this, or is a Google search protected by the First Amendment?
The Incredible Serena Williams
Guest: Mikaela Dufur, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University
Serena Williams’ more than two decades of tennis dominance has made her an icon. She’s redefined tennis as an athlete, a woman of color and, now, a mother. Just one year ago, she had her first child in an emergency C-section that was followed by a week-long medical crisis involving blood clots in her lungs and hemorrhaging in her abdomen. But as we speak on Thursday afternoon, Serena Williams is back on top of her game, playing in the semifinals at the U.S. Open.
3,000 Year-Old Uffington White Horse (Originally aired: 8/21/17)
Guest: Andrew Foley, Ranger, National Trust in England
Three thousand years ago, the image of a giant white horse was cut into the rolling hillside of Uffington, which is about 20 miles southwest of Oxford, England. It’s a sleek and minimalist stallion, as long as a football field, leaping across the landscape, bright white against the green turf. It’s made of chalk, and you have to wonder how it has survived the forces of erosion over three millennia.
Holocaust Refugees on Cuba’s Shores (Originally aired: 8/22/18)
Guest: Armando Lucas Correa, Author, “The German Girl”; Eva Weiner, Survivor, SS St. Louis
In May 1939, an oceanliner named the SS St Louis arrived in the port of Havana. Most of the ship’s 900 passengers were Jews fleeing Hitler. They had authorized travel documents, but Cuban officials only allowed a few dozen to come ashore. The rest were sent back to Europe. The novel “The German Girl” is a fictional account of a Jewish refugee aboard the ship who is allowed to stay with her mother in Cuba as a permanent exile.
Girls Will Be (Originally aired: 8/18/17)
Guest: Sharon Choksi, Co-founder, Girls Will Be
If you’re at an elementary school this week and come across a line of second-graders walking to lunch, you can expect to see boys dressed in loose basketball shorts or baggy cargo shorts down to their knees, t-shirts in bold colors with graphics pronouncing themselves “Hero” or “#Awesome.” The girls will have tighter fitting shorts landing well above the knee and t-shirts with ruffles and sparkles. When her daughter Maya was about this age, Sharon Choksi found that she couldn’t find any clothes Maya liked because the girls’ clothes were too tight, skimpy or frilly, and the boys’ clothes were too baggy and bulky. So the former McKinsey consultant started her own company to make the clothes her daughter wanted.
Senate Hearing Underway for Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh
Guest: Kimberly Robinson, Supreme Court reporter, Bloomberg Law
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is Top of Mind today as his confirmation hearing gets underway. Day One featured lots of arguing between Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee about whether they had enough information about Judge Kavanaugh to even hold the hearing. Questioning of the Supreme Court nominee will begin Wednesday and last for several days.
Protein 101
Guest: Jay Hoffman, PhD, full professor in the Sport and Exercise Science program at the University of Central Florida
Every diet deals with the basic building blocks of nutrition – protein, carbohydrate, fat. But protein usually gets the starring role. There’s a lot of confusion, though, about how much protein is ideal for a body and where that protein should come from.
Ending Lunch-Shaming Without Breaking the School’s Budget
Guest: Crystal FitzSimons, Director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs, Food Research and Action Center
What are schools to do about the families who run up a school lunch tab and never pay? Do you refuse to feed the kid? Make him eat a cheese sandwich instead of the more expensive hot meal? Public outcry over such “lunch shaming” as it’s been called, has led to districts in many states implementing universal school lunch policies, where kids get fed no matter what. But that can run up a pretty big tab, too.
When It Feels Good To Give
Guest: Hannah Schacter, National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research fellow at the University of Southern California
Teenagers are back to school – which is exciting for them, but scary for parents who know how prone kids can be toward cliques and cruelty. How can parents and schools encourage teenagers to think it’s cool to be kind, rather than catty?
Saving Infants’ Dying Hearts
Guest: James McCully, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
What if, instead of doing a heart transplant, surgeons could coax a patient’s failing heart to repair and revive itself? Harvard heart researcher James McCully is part of a team that’s had success with this in pigs and in human babies. Tests on adult hearts are in the works.
Worlds Awaiting: Free Verse Novels
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, Brigham Young University
Hold that Swat – Flies Are Amazing!
Guest: Paul Frandsen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics, Genomics, and Biotechnology, Brigham Young University
We often think of flies as a household pest, but do they deserve an entirely negative reputation? Biologists who study them think not. Sure flies can spread disease, but they also pollinate plants and help with decomposition and provide food lots of animals we do like.
How Labor Unions Changed America
Guests: Ignacio Garcia, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University; David Sims, PhD, Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University; Jessica Wilkerson, PhD, Professor of History and Southern Studies, University of Mississippi
What exactly do we even celebrate on Labor Day, besides the official end of summer? Here's just a partial list of things you can thank the labor movement for: overtime pay, minimum wage, 40-hour work week, and health benefits provided by your employer. What can we learn about the history and impact of organized labor in America?
Why Are Prisoners Striking Right Now?
Guest: Nicole Lewis, Tow Reporting Fellow, The Marshall Project
For several weeks, a group of inmates has been calling for a national prison strike to protest what organizers say are inhumane conditions inside the nation's prisons.
So You Think You’re Allergic to Penicillin? You’re Probably Not
Guest: Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard University, Antibiotic Allergy Researcher, Massachusetts General Hospital
Did you know that 90% of people who think they are allergic to penicillin, actually aren't? And that misunderstanding places them at much higher risk for serious, drug-resistant infections. If penicillin is one of the most effective antibiotics available, why are so many people avoiding it unnecessarily?
The Real Megalodon
Guest: Bretton W. Kent, PhD, Professor in the Department of Entomology, University of Maryland
A giant, prehistoric shark is terrifying audiences right now in a movie called The Meg. he megalodon was real, but it’s still extinct, so if the movie gave you nightmares, rest easy. But what was the megalodon like?
Lessons from the Suffragents on How to Be An Ally (Originally aired 9/13/17)
Guest: Brooke Kroeger, Professor of Journalism, New York University
Last year at the UN in New York, ten heads of state, ten global CEOs and ten university presidents – all men – gathered to draw attention to women’s rights and empowerment. Those thirty men are what the UN’s HeForShe initiative called “impact champions” – they included the Presidents of Iceland, Sweden and Japan, as well as the CEOs of Unilever, Barclays and McKinsey. If you wanted to be cheeky, you could call them “suffragents.” That’s how a group of prominent businessmen and politicians were known for their efforts to support women’s suffrage nearly 100 years ago.
Using Genetic Testing in Law Enforcement (Originally aired 5/10/18)
Guest: Sara Huston Katsanis, Instructor in Science & Society, Duke University
The so-called Golden State Killer’s rape and murder spree back in the 1970s terrorized Californians and stumped police. For 30 years, the case ran cold. But last Spring, police arrested former cop Joseph DeAngelo. Investigators used DNA-matching technology and a public genealogy website to link DeAngelo to the killings. The technique police used offers new promise in solving cold cases, but it also raises some questions about privacy and ethics.
Showcasing the Dignity of Indigenous People (Originally aired 5/29/18)
Guest: Dana Gluckstein, Internationally Acclaimed Photographer, Author, “DIGNITY: In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous People”
As a young woman in her twenties, Dana Gluckstein felt called to travel to remote places and photograph the people she calls “ancient ones.” She went not as a documentarian or journalist, but as a bridge between the modern world and disappearing cultures. The portraits of indigenous people she’s taken over decades are intimate and intense – and they’ve earned her international acclaim. More than 50 of the photos are currently on display at the BYU Museum of Art here in Provo through the end of September.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai On Net Neutrality
Guest: Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission
You've surely heard of net neutrality–the set of rules put in place by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015 to prevent internet service providers from giving preference to certain websites or content. Everything on the web had to be treated neutrally by the people who own the pipes that deliver it to you. But earlier this summer the FCC overturned those rules – it was a hugely controversial decision that even provoked death threats to the FCC’s chairman. Now 22 states and a bunch of internet content companies like Etsy and Vimeo are suing to get the net neutrality rules put back in place. In this interview, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai defends his policies and explains his vision for the future of the Internet.
Why Women Find Benevolently Sexist Men Attractive
Guest: Pelin Gul, PhD, Social Psychologist and Postdoctoral Researcher, Iowa State University
Some women like when a man opens doors and insists on paying for dinner on a date. Some women find it insulting. But multiple studies have found that even women who object in theory to men treating them a certain way just because they’re women, actually find men who do it to be attractive.
Is Modern Music Becoming More Repetitive?
Guest: Colin Morris, Pop Music Appreciator, Computer Scientist, Data Visualizer
When a new pop song comes on the radio, you likely know what to expect. Something catchy, with a good beat, and maybe a little repetitive. Modern music might be getting more repetitive, but is that repetition the secret sauce? See how repetitive your favorite pop artist is here.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
Sam Payne from The Apple Seed shares a story.
The Lonesome Underworld of Saturation Divers
Guest: Shannon Hovey, IMCA Saturation Diver, DMT, Ranger Offshore Inc.
Nearly a third of the oil currently being pumped out of the earth comes from wells drilled into the ocean floor. When the machinery hundreds of feet underwater needs repairing or removing, there are actual people, if you can believe it, who go down there and do the work. But they’re so deep underwater that they can’t just pop down for the day and go home at night. They have to live in pressurized chambers for weeks at a time – like astronauts in a space station, all so you can I can have gas to power our cars. These folks are called “aquanauts.”
You can visit the GoFundMe for Shannon Hovey's cancer treatment at https://www.gofundme.com/shannonhoveysbandp .
The Yippies
Guest: Abe Peck, Professor Emeritus-in-Service of Journalism, Northwestern University
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when violent clashes between police and young anti-Vietnam war protesters led to hundreds of injuries and arrests. The whole thing played out on the TV screens of families across America. At center-stage in the conflict were the Yippies – or the Youth International Party. They were known for theatrical demonstrations and pranks. They’d come to Chicago to protest the war and provoke “the man.” And in the minds of many Americans, the Yippies represented all that was wrong with the counterculture movement.
NAFTA Renegotiation Nearing Completion?
Guest: Joel P. Trachtman, Professor of International Law, Tufts University
After igniting trade wars with Mexico, Canada and China, President Trump saw some success this past week when he reached a bilateral agreement with Mexico, essentially replacing NAFTA. Canada still is holding out, but Trump was quick to take credit for replacing a free trade agreement he has long criticized as unfair to American industry and workers. What's next for Trump and trade?
Farming and Eating Algae
Guest: Rebecca White, PhD, Vice President of Operations, Qualitas Health
Algae, that green slime you often see atop stagnant ponds, is a nutritional powerhouse. If you’ve perused the supplements aisle lately, you may already know algae is high in Omega-3 fatty acids. But it’s also rich in protein. Some strains of algae are up to 60% protein, which is even higher than soy beans. So might algae be a solution to feeding the world’s growing population more efficiently than others forms of agriculture?
Etchings Show A Different Side of Artist Carl Bloch
Guest: Peter Titelbech, Danish Art Dealer, Carl Bloch Expert
Danish artist Carl Bloch is best known for his large, emotional paintings of scenes from the life of Jesus Christ. But Carl Bloch was also an accomplished printmaker, able to imbue inky scratches on a metal plate with just as much emotion as his large paintings. Dozens of them are currently on display at the BYU Museum of Art in an exhibit called “Lasting Impressions: Etchings and Drawings by Carl Bloch.” I had the chance to tour the exhibit with Danish art dealer and Carl Bloch expert Peter Titelbech who says the etchings are a window on what mattered most to Bloch.
Majoring in Mining Asteroids
Guest: Angel Abbud-Madrid, Phd, Director, Center for Space Resources, Colorado School of Mines
Cold chunks of rock hurtling through space could be the mining boom of the future – the next gold rush. And when that happens, one of the most storied mining schools of the past will be ready. Starting this Fall, students at the Colorado School of Mines can pursue a graduate degree in “Space Resources.” How do you mine asteroids? What is the career path of these new students? And what are they being taught in the program?
Discovering a New Flower Species at Zion National Park
Guest: Mikel Stevens, Professor of Plant Sciences, Brigham Young University
There are still millions of undiscovered plant and animal species on the Earth, and not all of them are in remote jungles. Some are hiding in plain sight, in well-traveled places frequented by millions of visitors — like Zion National Park in southern Utah. That’s where BYU plant scientist Mikel Stevens has found a vibrant fuchsia wildflower that may be a new species.
The Legacy of Aretha Franklin
Guest: Birgitta Johnson, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and African American Studies, University of South Carolina
The funeral for Aretha Franklin –Queen of Soul – will happen this Friday in Detroit, featuring an all-star line-up of performers paying tribute to her influence on gospel, soul and pop music. Into her late 60s, she was still recording music as a high level. What made Aretha such a powerful and enduring influence on American music and popular culture?
Lookback At Chaos: The 1968 Democratic Convention 50 Years Later
Guest: Taylor Pensoneau, Journalist, Author
Fifty years ago this week, America watched on television as the Democratic National Convention in Chicago descended into violence. In the months before the 1968 convention, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated. Public sentiment had turned against the Vietnam War. As protesters and police clashed brutally outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Democrats inside the hall were hopelessly split between establishment forces who backed LBJ’s Vice President Hubert Humphrey and the anti-war supporters of Senator Eugene McCarthy. Looking back on that week in 1968, a young reporter named Taylor Pensoneau assigned to cover the convention says it showed him, “that the solid fabric of American political life, and even society itself, could be undone.”
How Do 3D-Printed Firearms Work?
Guest: Alfredo Orejuela, Founder/CEO, STEAMporio
Earlier today, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik extended a ban prohibiting an organization called Defense Distributed from publishing blueprints for 3D-printable guns online. This extended ban marks the most recent development in a legal battle stretching back to 2013, when the founder of Defense Distributed, Cody Wilson, made the first fully-3D-printed pistol and posted the design online, but was told that uploading the files was the same as exporting illegal firearms. But how exactly do these 3D-printed guns work? What does it take to make one? What do we have to understand about the tech before we understand the issue?
Amazon Tackles The Lord of the Rings Adaptation
Guest: Dennis Cutchins, PhD, Professor of English, Brigham Young University
Before there was Star Trek, Game of Thrones or Harry Potter, there was Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien’s classic fantasy epic has had vast influence on the genre – and for entertainment companies, it has vast potential. Amazon recently announced it bought the TV rights to develop a prequel to Lord of the Rings. Rumor has it the story will center on a young Aragorn and Amazon has hired the writers behind the third installment of the Star Trek movie reboot to develop the Lord of the Rings series. What will it take to please the legions of serious Tolkein fans? Should they even try?
Greek Music
Guest: Armand D’Angour, classics professor at Jesus College at Oxford University
What we think of as classical music today is considered by many experts to have originated here with the Gregorian chants of medieval times. But musical anthropologist Armand D’Angour says the true root of the European musical tradition lies in ancient Greece. D'Angour and his colleagues have reconstructed ancient Greek musical instruments and the music itself using clues available in the ancient texts and images.
New Tech Helps Deaf Students on College Campuses
Guest: Korey Hocker, CEO of SignGlasses.
Around the country, tens of thousands of college students who are deaf or hard of hearing are preparing to return to the classroom. They’ll need more than the standard laptop and books for coursework. They’ll also need sign language interpretation. Everywhere they go. Imagine the challenge of that – both for the student and the university that is required to provide the accommodation. A tech startup developed at BYU has a solution that uses smart glasses and real-time ASL translation over a wireless connection.
Is Marijuana the Next Big Tobacco?
Guest: Keith Humphreys, Professor, Section Director for Mental Health Policy, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
More than half of states now allow marijuana for medical or recreational use, and the Pew Research center says more than half of Americans support such laws. Public backing for marijuana legalization has blossomed in the last decade years, driven by a perception that the drug carries little risk – that it’s far less dangerous than opioids, or even alcohol. But doctors and researchers once insisted alcohol was harmless. And tobacco. And opioids. So are we now heading down the same path with marijuana?
The Politics of Christianity in America (Originally aired: 5/4/18)
Guest: Matthew Bowman, PhD, Professor of History at Henderson State University, author of "Christian: The Politics of a Word in America"
White evangelical support for President Donald Trump is at an all-time high, according to a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute: 75-percent hold a favorable view of the president. On the other hand, 23 prominent Christian leaders, including an Episcopal Bishop, a Catholic priest and author, and a well-known evangelical commentator, recently published a letter rejecting policies central to the Trump administration – including “America First” - as “theological heresy for followers of Christ.” So, being a good Christian either means supporting or opposing Trump. How did Christianity become so politically divided?
I Scream for Ice Cream!
Guests: Jeffrey Worthen, Dairy Production Manager, Brigham Young University; Justin Williams, Owner, Rockwell Old Fashioned Ice Cream Company; Scott Rankin, PhD, Professor of Food Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The average American eats 23 pounds of ice cream every year. You might think its simplicity is what makes it so popular – creamy, sweet and cold. But ice cream is one of the most complicated foods to manufacture – from the ice crystals and air bubbles that have to be just-right, down to the flavor that can’t over-power, but needs to be strong enough to please frozen taste buds.
Is Trump’s Power Plan a Coal Rescue?
Guest: Kate Konschnik, Director, Climate and Energy Program, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University
The Trump Administration has proposed a new vision for how quickly the United States should shift away from coal as a source of energy. Coal currently accounts for nearly a third of all electricity generated in the country. But utilities have been using less of it because natural gas has been cheaper to burn and federal policies have pushed to reduce CO2 emissions. The new rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency this week will give states more control over how aggressively they reduce their carbon emissions and what role they want coal to play in that mix.
A King and an Inventor: The Story of How Hawaii Went Electric Before Most of the World
Guest: Allison Marsh, PhD, Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina
Inventors are always looking for the “next big thing” in technology. These days, that could be artificial intelligence or 3D printing. In the late 1800s, the most exciting technology was electricity itself. Here in America, it didn’t catch on as quickly as you might think, but thanks to a series of events, involving a curious king, a trip to Paris, and a meeting with Thomas Edison—the islands of Hawaii got electricity before most of the world. To put this in perspective, the White House in Washington, DC wasn’t electrified until 1891. By that time, over 800 homes in Honolulu and the King’s palace had electric lights. How did a tiny island Kingdom in the middle of the Pacific get on the cutting edge of this revolution?
Why Corporate Wellness Programs Aren’t Really Working
Guest: David Molitor, PhD, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Nearly half of workers in America have access to some sort of wellness program. It could be free fitness and nutrition classes or health screenings offered by the employer. Companies spend a lot of money and time on this stuff hoping to make their workers healthier and happier. Do they work? David Molitor says no.
The Fantastical Worlds of Brandon Sanderson (Originally Aired: 1/25/2018)
Guest: Brandon Sanderson, Fantasy Writer, Author, "Oathbringer"
Brandon Sanderson's fantasy novel, "Oathbringer," sold 300,000 copies in its first week. At more than 1200 pages, it’s a complicated tale of humanity hanging in the balance, while vengeful races, both human and non, battle for dominance through the use of magical powers. While he’s writing such long – and successful books – Sanderson also makes a point of mentoring aspiring writers. He even teaches a semester-long class at BYU.
The State of The Union’s Water (Originally Aired: 2/27/2018)
Guest: Marc Edwards, Ph.D, Professor of Civil Engineering, Virginia Tech
A judge in Flint, Michigan ruled that there is enough evidence for the head of Michigan’s health department, Nick Lyon, to stand trial. The charges are for involuntary manslaughter related to this year’s lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint. Marc Edwards first exposed the truth about Flint's bad water quality, and conducts similar tests in cities around the country. If something like Flint could happen, can any of us ever have confidence in the safety of our drinking water?
Dry Drowning: What You Need to Know (Originally Aired: 2/27/2018)
Guest: Mary Denise Dowd, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, Attending Physician, Emergency Department of The Children's Mercy Hospital and Chief, Section of Injury Prevention
Last Spring, a viral photo of a Florida four-year-old sparked renewed attention to “dry drowning.” The girl had accidentally inhaled some pool water and vomited, but seemed fine. Days later, though, she was rushed to the emergency room with a fever, accelerated heart rate, and face turning purple. She survived, thankfully, and her mother took to social media to share her story. These dry drowning stories are scary for parents, but many medical experts caution that it’s not a true medical condition. Worse, they worry confusion over “dry drowning” causes parents to panic unnecessarily and distracts from the real risks of drowning.
World Events: Turkey, Nicaragua, and Israel
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Regular contributor Quinn Mecham discusses current world events including the currency crisis in Turkey and Iran, protests in Nicaragua, and nation-state law in Israel.
College Classrooms Surveyed, Biases Identified
Guest: Jeremiah Wills, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science & Sociology Department, Queens University of Charlotte
College campuses have long been a battleground for political ideology. Students and faculty protest visiting speakers that are too liberal or too conservative – depending on the bent of the campus community. So what about inside classrooms, where the whole point is to explore new ideas and learn to think critically? Do all political viewpoints get an equal chance to be heard?
Phone Spying
Guest: Elleen Pan, Software Engineer
Have you ever been talking about something with friends and all of a sudden you notice that you start getting ads for that thing on your Facebook feed? For years, there’s been a rumor that your phone is listening to everything you say and using that information. So, some researchers decided to find out if it was true. They looked at 17,000 apps for Android phones. And for half of those apps, yes, your phone is spying on you.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
Sam Payne of The Apple Seed shares a story.
Face-Recognizing Software Helps Kids With Autism Communicate
Guest: Dennis Wall, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University School of Medicine
Children with autism often have trouble recognizing emotion in the faces of people around them, which poses a major obstacle to social interaction and making friends. Researchers at Stanford University have experimented with giving the kids high-tech glasses that can help them interpret facial expressions. And it has worked well in a pilot study.
Great-Grandaughter Fights to Properly Honor Ida B. Wells
Guest: Michelle Duster, Author, "Ida From Abroad," Speaker, Lecturer of Business Writing, Columbia College Chicago
The courageous African American journalist who was born enslaved near the end of the Civil War, sued a railroad for discrimination, and risked her life to expose the violence of lynching in the Jim Crow South, may soon have a proper memorial to her legacy. A driving force behind honoring Ida B. Wells is her great granddaughter, Michelle Duster, who is a lecturer at Columbia College Chicago and member of the Ida B. Wells Memorial Foundation.
US Schools Moving To Longer Days, Shorter Weeks
Guest: John Penn, Executive Director of Field Services, Colorado Department of Education
As kids head back to class, some schools are considering the trend of shorter weeks. More than 500 school districts in 25 states have at least one school on a four-day week – meaning they take Monday or Friday off and squeeze the week’s instruction into the other four days. Colorado leads the way, with more than half of its school districts on a four-day week.
How Much Money Can a District Save with a Four-Day School Week?
Guest: Michael Griffith, School Finance Policy Analyst, Education Commission of the States
The initial reason school districts switch to a four-day week is to save money. But often the savings don't amount to much. So why do districts stick with the four-day week? Because it's really hard to convince teachers to go back to five days, once you've made the switch.
The Curious Canon Of Swamp Sparrow Songs
Guest: Stephen Nowicki, PhD, Professor of Biology, Duke University
When a male swamp sparrow sings to a prospective mate, the song sounds more like Frank Sinatra singing “I got you under my skin” than Justin Bieber singing “If I was your boyfriend, never let you go.” Female swamp sparrows prefer males who croon the oldies, as it turns out. And so these birds have become really good at passing down the same successful love songs from one generation to another over centuries. That’s something scientists have long thought was really only possible in humans.
How Artificial Intelligence Can Promote Creativity In The Classroom
Guest: Craig Coates, PhD, Instructional Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Faculty of Genetics Member, Interdisciplinary Faculty of Biotechnology, Texas A&M University
At large public universities classrooms with 500 students are not unusual. Anything besides multiple choice could take weeks to grade. And cheating has become rampant. To fight back and enliven the classroom, some professors have begun using an Artificial Intelligence tool to keep up with their students’ work.
Who Are The Oscars For?
Guest: Gabriel Rossman, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, UCLA College, University of California, Los Angeles
12 Years a Slave. Birdman. Spotlight. Moonlight. The Shape of Water. The last five winners of the Best Picture Academy Award were all critically-acclaimed films, but not one of them broke $200 million at the box office. Meanwhile mega-hits like any of the Star Wars or Marvel superhero movies usually only get minor Oscar nominations for things like makeup or special effects. Next year will be different because the Academy says it’s going to give out an Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film, but the announcement has not gone over well in Hollywood.
Airbnb Doesn't Boost All Neighborhoods Equally
Guest: Mohammad Rahman, PhD, Associate Professor of Management at the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University
The world’s largest hotel isn’t really a hotel at all: it’s a worldwide network of regular people who rent out their spare rooms on Airbnb.com. The house-sharing site claims that it’s an economic boost to neighborhoods outside a city’s typical tourist zone, since Airbnb rentals are often in neighborhoods that don’t have hotels. But new analysis by management professor Mohammad S. Rahman at Purdue University finds that only restaurants and shops in predominantly white neighborhoods get a boost from Airbnb. Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, do not.
Overcoming Anxiety
Guest: Carrie Wrigley, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Morning Light Counseling
About 3 in 10 American adults will have an anxeity disorder at some point in their lives, according to the National Insitute of Mental Health. When anxiety strikes, your mind can start to race, chest can constrict, and breathing can shallow. Many people that experience anxiety feel they've completely lost control. Counselor Carrie Wrigley has some advice to help you or your child overcome anxiety.
Florida’s Killer Red Tide Explained
Guest: Richard Bartleson, PhD, Research Scientist, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Marine Laboratory
A harmful algal bloom in the Gulf of Mexico is killing marine life, driving away tourists and making it hard for local residents to breathe. Florida has been especially hard hit by this “red tide,” which is one of the most serious and long-lasting scientists have ever recorded for the area. Last week, Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency in seven Gulf Coast counties so extra resources can be sent to deal with the consequences of the algal bloom.
Climate Change, Excess Fuel, Housing Patterns & Wildfires
Guest: John Bailey, PhD, Professor of Silviculture and Fire Management, Oregon State University
2018 has been one of the hottest years on record. It’s also been one of the worst wildfire seasons in the West: the largest recorded fire in California history is still burning after nearly three weeks – that’s the Mendocino Complex fire, you’ve probably heard about it. How much of the wildfire problem is a result of climate change?
America’s Sheepdog Tradition
Guest: Mark Petersen, Founder, Event Organizer, Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog Championship
Come Labor Day weekend, forty dogs from as far away as South Africa and Scotland will converge on the little town of Midway, Utah to compete in one of the world’s most lucrative and respected sheep dog competitions. It’s called the Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog Championship. But why is it in Utah instead of the UK?
When a Dog Comes to the Rescue
Guest: Emily Sanford, PhD student in Psychology and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
People often feel a strong emotional connection to their dog. But does the dog feel the same way? Can a dog sense when its owner is in distress - and will it actually come to the rescue, like Lassie in the old TV show?
Brain Feeling Sluggish? You're Probably Dehydrated
Guest: Matthew Wittbrodt, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Emory University School of Medicine
If you’re feeling brain-dead after a long day of work, you may reach for a sweet snack. But what you might really need is a glass of water. Emory University postdoctoral researcher Matthew Wittbrodt compared the results from dozens of scientific studies on dehydration and found that even being mildly dehydrated can have an affect on your brain power.
Tech Transfer: Carbonated Cartons of Ice Cream
Guests: Michael Dunn, PhD, Professor of Food Science, BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU Technology Transfer Office
Ice cream is good and soda is good. Why not combine the two into carbonated ice cream? Not an ice cream float in a glass of soda, but a carton of ice cream you eat with a spoon that tastes like cherry cola or orange cream and gives you that carbonated tingle on your tongue. BYU food science professor Michael Dunn has developed spoonable carbonated ice cream and he’s in studio to explain how it works.
How Former Addicts Are Helping Turn Lives Around
Guests: Dave Durocher, Managing Director, The Other Side Academy; George De Leon, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, New York University; Christine Scott, Prosecutor, Utah County Attorney’s Office
There’s a program in Salt Lake City that is juggling nearly 100 convicted criminals, mostly repeat offenders, who would otherwise end up with long prison sentences. The building has no bars, and the doors are left unlocked. It has no professional staff, and it costs the state nothing. The therapy comes from other residents, also convicted offenders, who use tough methods to each other accountability and integrity. Does this sound like a fantasy, a “hug a thug” program bound to go wrong?
Rethinking Weeds
Guests: Michael Caron, Extension Horticulturist, Utah State University; Taun Beddes, Extension Horticulturist, Utah State University; Val Anderson, PhD, Professor of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University; Phil Allen, PhD, Professor of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University
During the hot, dry months, it’s painfully clear just how much of an advantage weeds have over carefully cultivated plants in our yards and gardens. The tougher the conditions, the more weeds seem to thrive. But Ralph Waldo Emerson once said a weed, “is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Could we better understand or acccommodate weeds?
Revoking Security Clearance and Dealing with an American ISIS Fighter
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
President Trump has revoked the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan. Also the US is involved in some thorny negotiations over what to do with a captured ISIS fighter who has dual American and Saudi citizenship. Right now the US would really like to drop him off in Syria and be done with him. Also this week, Congress passed its annual Defense Authorization Act which charts a course for the coming year’s $700 billion in defense budget. Even as President Trump signed the bill, he said he had no intention of following many of the provisions in it. What should be understood from these recent events?
For Religious Families, Family Prayer Can Be A Glue
Guest: Joe Chelladurai, Research Assistant, PhD Student, School of Family Life, Brigham Young University
Most families have rituals that bring them closer together. I loved going to the park with my parents and siblings to play softball as a family. Some research published recently in the Journal of Family Psychology found that in religious households, the ritual of praying together is particularly effective in strengthening relationships.
Electric Light is a Blight to Health
Guest: Richard G. ‘Bugs’ Stevens, PhD, Professor of Community Medicine and Healthcare, School of Medicine, University of Connecticut
The world’s biggest cities - Shanghai, London, New York – have grown even brighter since LED lighting arrived on the scene and made it possible to keep things glowing with a lot less energy. That’s better for the environment – but maybe not for our health. How damaging is the "relentless attack on night" brought on by artificial light?
The Apple Seed (Originally aired: 6/20/18)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of “The Apple Seed” on BYUradio
Sam Payne shares a work entitled, "Wood and Nails" by storyteller Michael Reno Harrell.
Unprisoned: Stories from the System (Originally aired: 6/20/18)
Guest: Eve Abrams, Lead Producer of the Radio Show “Unprisoned”, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation “Artist as Activist” Fellow
About one in every hundred people in Louisiana and Oklahoma are behind bars. In a country that sends more people per-capita than any other, these two states are competing for the incarceration capital of the world. Eve Abrams is producer of the “Unprisoned” podcast, which airs on WWNO public radio in New Orleans. It tells the stories of individuals impacted by the criminal justice system and mass incarceration in Louisiana.
Preserving the Letterpress (Originally aired: 6/20/18)
Guests: Erin Beckloff, Co-Director of “PRESSING ON: The Letterpress Film”; Gregory Walters, Long-time Printer, Featured in the Documentary
Computers and easy-to-use software have turned the whole world into graphic designers capable of making a decent poster or party invitation from a vast array of templates. So maybe that’s why there’s such a fascination right now with old-school printing and design. Owning a vintage letterpress bestows all kinds of hipster cred.
“Pressing On” is available on iTunes and Amazon.
It's Getting Harder to Become a US Citizen
Guest: Charles Kuck, JD, Attorney, Kuck Baxter Immigration and Adjunct Professor at Emory Law School
The Trump Administration has made its commitment to preventing illegal immigration very clear. But it’s also proposing changes that could make it harder for people to get green cards and become US citizens through proper legal channels. One change that has been leaked to the media and reported by a variety of news outlets would disqualify people from becoming a US citizen if they’ve ever received used a variety of public assistance programs, including food stamps or housing subsidies.
How To Raise Funny Kids
Guest: Peter McGraw, PhD, Associate Professor of Marketing and Psychology, University of Colorado Boulder
Have you noticed how kids love to tell jokes? Granted they’re not always funny. And when kids are really little, the jokes usually don’t even make sense. But humor researcher Peter McGraw says parents should encourage their kids to be funny.
Where No Radio Telescope Has Gone Before
Guests: Brian Jeffs, PhD, Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Brigham Young University, and Karl Warnick, PhD, Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Brigham Young University.
There is giant satellite dish as wide as three football fields set into a jungle-covered mountain in Puerto Rico. But it’s not for TV. It’s for receiving signals from deep space - maybe from extraterrestrials, but more likely from celestial objects can help us understand how our universe formed.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
Sam Payne of The Apple Seed shares a story and fiddle playing from Josh Goforth.
Utah Retiree Makes a Million Toys For Charity
Guest: Alton Thacker, Founder, Tiny Tim’s Foundation for Kids
If you could have a million of anything, what would you choose? Alton Thacker decided he wanted a million toy cars. Not for himself, though. For sixteen years, Thacker – who is 82 – has led a team of volunteers who saw and sand and paint wooden toy cars for kids around the world. He calls it Tiny Tim’s Toy Factory - it’s in West Jordan, Utah and they just made their one-millionth car. More Information: tinytimsfoundationforkids@gmail.com
Is Medicare Going Bust?
Guest: Jonathan Skinner, PhD, Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College
Every month a chunk of money comes out of your paycheck for Social Security and Medicare, with the intent that the money will be used after you retire. But a recent federal report warned Medicare is running out of money. Who really pays for Medicare? And is it sustainable over time?
Who are the Kochs and Does Their Tiff With Trump Matter?
Guest: Kenneth Vogel, Reporter, The New York Times, Author of “Big Money”
You’ve likely heard of the “Koch network,” established by a wealthy trio of brothers – last name Koch – who run a chemical and manufacturing empire. The Kochs have built a libertarian political operation over the years that some investigative reporters say rivals the Republican Party itself in size and influence. Which is why a recent dispute between Charles Koch and President Trump got a lot of attention: Koch levied some harsh criticism toward Trump’s trade policies at a meeting with major donors. Trump responded by calling the Koch brothers “a total joke” on Twitter, adding, “I don’t need their money or bad ideas.” Maybe this is just another one of Trump’s Twitter tiffs. But just what is the power the Koch network holds and does its influence have any bearing on life outside Washington?
Saving Zion for the Future
Guest: Lyman Hafen, Executive Director, Zion National Park Forever Project
Zion National Park is the third busiest National Park in the country, with 4.5 million visitors last year. That’s more than either Yosemite or Yellowstone, both of which are much larger. We’re at risk of loving Zion to death, with our feet and cars and trash and noise. Zion National Park – like many of America’s best-loved parks – has a nonprofit partner raising money to make sure future generations will be able to enjoy what we do today.
Is That Viral News Story In Your Feed Legitimate?
Guest: Fil Menczer, PhD, Professor of Computer Science and Informatics, Director, Observatory on Social Media, Indiana University
A news story keeps showing up on your Facebook or Twitter feed that all your friends are sharing and liking. How closely do you read it before sharing or liking it yourself? How sure are you that it’s not biased or completely fake or going viral mainly because automated accounts are liking and sharing it?
Online Retailers Now Pay Sales Tax Everywhere
Guest: Mark Cohen, Director of Retail Studies, Columbia Business School, Former CEO, Sears Canada
For about 20 years, online shoppers sidestepped local sales tax by buying online. Local governments were furious, but couldn’t force online stores to pony up. Now they can, thanks to a recent Supreme Court ruling. What will that mean for your online shopping experience?
BYU Prof Discovers New Fossil
The oldest flying vertebrates we know of are creatures called pterosaurs. They lived during the age of dinosaurs. But they’re not dinosaurs. They’re not birds either. In fact, we don’t actually know much about them because pterosaur fossils are really rare. And yet, BYU paleontologists have just found one in the most unlikely place.
Ghost Peppers Saving the Grasslands
Guest: Dean Pearson, PhD, Research Ecologist, US Forest Service
Once firefighters have put out the devastating wildfires burning across the West, the race will be on to get those burned areas to start growing shrubs and grasses that are native to the region. The trouble is that a lot of these areas are already infected by invasive plants – like cheatgrass – that grow aggressively, squeeze out native plants and only make future fires more likely because cheatgrass is an annual plant that becomes a field of dry tinder just itching to go up in flames during the next fire season. So, getting native, fire-resistant plants to take root in grasslands is a major priority. But field mice also happen to find the seeds of native plants really tasty – unless they're coated in chili powder, that is.
Smart, informative conversations and interviews that go beyond mere headlines and sound bites.
Canada and Saudi Arabia Battle Over Human Rights
Guest: Oonagh Fitzgerald, a former Canadian government official who worked on international law and human rights, directs the International Law Research Program at the Center for International Governance Innovation.
About ten days ago, Canada’s foreign minister Tweeted a call for some human rights activists to be released from jail in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis responded by kicking Canada’s ambassador out, bringing the Saudi ambassador home and cutting off all future business with Canada. Saudi Airways flights to Toronto have been suspended and thousands of state-funded Saudi students attending Canadian universities have been told by the Saudi government to find somewhere else to continue their studies.
Are 16-year Olds Mature Enought to Vote
Guests: Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart & Takoma Park Youth Council Chairman Kiran Kochar McCabe
A handful of cities around the country let 16 and 17 year olds vote in local elections and there’s a push to get more on board. Takoma Park, Maryland, which is a suburb of Washington, DC, was the first to do it five years ago. But are 16-year-olds really mature enough to cast an informed vote? On the other hand, if we trust them to drive a car and pay taxes on their after-school earnings, don’t they deserve a say in local issues that affect them, like education?
Are Diet Sodas Bad for Your Diet?
Eunice Zhang, MD, Clinical Fellow, preventive medicine, University of Michigan School of Public Health
When I drink soda, it’s always diet, because that way I get a sweet treat without the caloric consequences. Scientists, though, are discovering that calorie-free sweeteners like aspartame or sucralose aren’t harmless freebies in the body. They have consequences, which Dr. Eunice Zhang flagged in a recent article she wrote for The Conversation.
Would You Eat Lab-Grown Meat?
Guest: Ali Bouzari, PhD, Food Scientist and author of “Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food”
Meat grown in a test-tube is currently possible, in small amounts. But a bunch of companies say they’re on the verge of being able to sell you a whole filet of fish, nugget of chicken or slice of foie gras made in the laboratory. PETA – the animal rights group - supports the idea because it doesn’t require force-feeding or slaughtering animals. The beef, pork and poultry industries would prefer these mad scientists not call their stuff meat, at all. But what does it actually taste like? Will it ever do for the palate and the chef what meat does?
Ancient Egyptian Discovery
Guest: Dr. John Darnell, Professor of Egyptology at Yale University
Five-thousand-year-old graffiti has turned up in a remote part of the Sahara Desert between the Nile River and the Red Sea. It dates to a time just before Egyptians developed their hieroglyphic writing system, so these pictures scratched into stone are a window into what seems like a basic human urge to express ourselves and leave a mark on the world. These ancient Egyptians weren’t so different from people carving their initials in a tree or spray painting them on walls, really.
Students Study Their Own Microrganisms
Guests: Steve Johnson, PhD, Associate Professor of Micro and Molecular Biology at Brigham Young University and Scott Weber, PhD, Associate Professor of Micro and Molecular Biology at Brigham Young University.
A lot of big breakthroughs in science have been the result of people experimenting on themselves. A couple of scientists around the turn of the century helped discover that cancer is not contagious by injecting themselves with cancerous cells and waiting to see what would happen. Around that same time, US Army doctors infected themselves with yellow fever to prove that it was transmitted by mosquitoes. One of the doctors died in the process. Another doctor in the 1930s named Werner Forssmann couldn’t get permission to try his idea for treating heart conditions on a living patient, so he did it on himself – inserting a tube into a vein in his arm and threading it all the way to his heart. Cardiac catheterization is now routine in heart surgery. On a less dramatic scale, a couple of BYU microbiology professors recently discovered that if they had students study their own gut bacteria, the students were more in to what they were learning.
The Dirty Secret About Recycling
Guests: Kate O’Neill, PhD, Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, University of California, Berkeley; Bill Rudy, Recycling and Solid Waste Supervisor, Brigham Young University
The campaign to ban plastic straws is in full gear. But plastic straws are only a tiny part of the problem. While most people now seem happy to toss bottles in the blue bin, no one seems really sure where it goes from there. What do we know about our plastic waste? And how much of what we think we know is wrong?
Apollo 8: The Most Daring of the Moon Missions
Guest: Robert Kurson, Author, “Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon”
Eight years ago, astronaut Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” on the surface of the Moon. In that thrilling, televised moment, Armstrong became a household name. But years later he would tell an interviewer that his mission to the moon was not the most daring. Rather, that mission had come six months earlier and was, as Armstrong said, “an enormously bold decision.” Others at NASA would call it the riskiest and most thrilling of all the Apollo missions. What is the overlooked story of Apollo 8?
Why Aren’t there More Women Leading America’s Biggest Businesses?
Guest: Susan Madsen, PhD, Professor of Organizational Leadership, Utah Valley University
Less than 5% of CEOs at major public companies in the US are women. That number hasn’t changed much in a decade, though recently there has been a spate of departures – female CEOS at Campbell Soup, Mattel, Hewlett Packard and Mondelez have all left. This week, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi announced she’s stepping down, too. That will leave just 23 female CEOs at S&P 500 companies. Why aren’t there more women leading America’s largest businesses?
From Cricket Player to Prime Minister of Pakistan
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director, Senior Associate for South Asia in the Asia Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C.
In 1992, Pakistan beat England to win its first cricket World Cup. That victory vaulted cricket player Imran Khan to the very pinnacle of his sport. And now he’s achieved the pinnacle of Pakistan politics, too, by becoming prime minister. It’d be like if Michael Jordan became the US president. What impact does this have on US relations with Pakistan?
Chasing Curiosity and How Stuff Works
Guest: Marshall Brain, Founder, How Stuff Works, Director, Engineering Entrepreneurs Program, North Carolina State University, Author, “Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future"
Seemingly simple mysteries are all around us: How does a car engine work? Or an electric guitar? Those are the kinds of questions that have driven Marshall Brain, who founded the website How Stuff Works when the internet was first becoming popular. Brain is now the Director of the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program at North Carolina State University, but still chasing answers to the world's questions.
DNA from a 4,000-Year-Old Egyptian Head (Originally Aired: 4/23/2018)
Guest: Odile Loreille, PhD, Research Biologist, FBI
For nearly a century, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has had a 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummy head in its vaults. Archaeologists were pretty sure the head belonged to Governor Djehutynakht - or his wife - because it was found in their tomb in 1915. But by that point looters had done a number on the tomb, so the mummified head was all jumbled in the mess left behind. Once archaeologists had exhausted their methods of identification, they called the FBI for DNA analysis. But could they extract enough DNA from a 4,000 mummified head to glean any information?
Tech Transfer – A Supplement for Your Body and Your Brain (Originally Aired: 4/2/2018)
Guests: Benjamin Bikman, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Vitamin supplements are a $50-billion-dollar global industry and what would you guess is fueling it’s growth in the US right now? The Baby Boomers. Grand View Research Inc. says supplements to prevent muscle wasting and maintain healthy joins are expected to do be a big business as the boomers age. Imagine they could come up with a supplement that tackled muscle-wasting and the mental decline that comes with age? A brain-body supplement for boomers?
Do Thawing Soils Pose a Problem For Climate Change? (Originally Aired: 5/30/2018)
Guest: Ben Abbott, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Ecology, Brigham Young University
The ice caps in the Arctic are melting, but so is the permanently frozen soil. And that has the potential to really throw the balance of carbon dioxide out of whack. Why does melting dirt pose a problem for the atmosphere?
Trump Changing The Rules On Health Insurance
Guest: JB Silvers, PhD, Professor of Health Care Finance, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
The Trump Administration has made a couple of changes recently that could be really helpful for small businesses and individuals to find affordable health coverage this Fall. It may not be great health coverage, but it will be cheaper. What does that mean for those seeking affordable and effective healthcare?
Saving Holocaust Survivor Stories
Guest: Kia Hays, Program Manager, Dimensions in Testimony, Shoah Foundation, University of Southern California
If you go to a museum dedicated to remembering the Holocaust there’s a strong chance you’ll encounter an actual survivor, telling his or her story to visitors. But very few Holocaust survivors are alive today, so museums and remembrance groups are rushing to preserve their stories in a way that will still be powerful for future generations. The University of Southern California Shoah Foundation has a project to capture survivors telling their stories as interactive testimonies. Learn more.
Aztec Wisdom: Seek a Worthwhile Life and Happiness May Follow
Guest: L. Sebastian Purcell, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York College at Cortland
In the quest for happiness, people throughout time have looked to religion and philosophy – the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, Plato, Confucius. How about Montezuma? Well, he was more warrior than philosopher, but the Aztecs he ruled in the 1500s had a surprisingly grounded view of what it means to lead a good life. It's a view that actually aligns closely with the latest research being done on happiness today. What can we learn from the Aztec concept of happiness?
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne shares a story.
The Internet Hiding On The Sea Floor
Guest: Julian Rawle, Owner, Julian Rawle Consulting, Practice Leader, Market Analysis, Pioneer Consulting
“Where’s the internet?” It’s kind of everywhere — sprawling across server rooms and satellites and in our living rooms and pockets. But it turns out it’s also on the bottom of the ocean, travelling over really long cables. How does that even work?
Married to an ISIS Fighter
Guest: Tania Joya, Deradicalization Consultant
When Tania Joya was 19 she married a Texan who aspired to be the next Osama Bin Laden. They were married for ten years as he pursued that dream – ultimately becoming the most senior American member of the Islamic State terror group. Tania Joya was raised in England by Muslim parents from Bangladesh. Her ex-husband, John Georgelas, converted to Islam. Both turned to extreme ideology as teenagers. Today Georgelas is rumored to be a top English-language recruiter and spokesman for ISIS in Syria, while Tania Joya lives in Texas and is working to counter the allure of radicalization for young people like herself.
Who Gets to Claim Self-Defense in Stand Your Ground States?
Guest: Caroline Light, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University, Author, “Stand Your Ground: A History of America’s Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense”
At least half of states have "Stand Your Groung Laws," giving people the right to use deadly force in defending themselves. But a recent shooting in Florida underscores why these laws are controversial: a white man starts an argument with a black woman in a parking lot. The woman’s boyfriend – also black – comes out and shoves the white man. The white man pulls out a gun, shoots and kills the black man, and has yet to be charged with any crime because Florida has a law that gave him the right to defend himself with deadly force.
What Is Milk?
Guest: Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, New York University
When you reach for the milk to pour on your cereal, what kind of milk is it? Soy, almond, cashew, oat, rice, hemp? Or is it milk milk? The head of the US Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb, recently noted at a Politico event that maybe the FDA hasn’t been properly enforcing its definition of milk, which includes a reference to coming from a “lactating animal.” We all know almonds don't lactate, so what does the "milk" mean in products like almond milk?
Investigation of a Race Murder in 1955 Has Been Reopened
Guest: Rebecca DeSchweinitz, PhD, Professor of History at Brigham Young University
The Justice Department has reopened its investigation into the murder of Emmett Till, who was a 14-year old African American boy lynched in Mississippi in 1955. While Emmett Till’s murder helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement, a white jury and judge acquitted the two white men charged with his killing. So why is the case being reopened now after so many years?
“Who Owns the Moon?” And Other Questions For Space Lawyers
Guest: Frans von der Dunk, PhD, Professor of Space Law, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Director, Black Holes BV Consultancy
A new era has arrived in space exploration where private companies like Space X and Blue Origin are racing alongside NASA and other governments to return to the Moon, colonize Mars, harvest minerals from space and send tourists into orbit. Who polices what goes on in space? Or is the Wild West: take what you can claim, first-come-first-served, every astronaut for herself?
Running 135 Miles through Death Valley: Ultramarathons Explained
Guest: Ryan Montgomery, Ultra-trail Runner
According to legend, a Greek messenger was the first to run the distance of a marathon, after which he died from overexertion. That’s probably just a legend, but running 26.2 miles would be enough to make me wish I was dead. So what’s up with ultra-marathoners, covering distances up to 135 miles in single stretch, often over steep mountains?
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, juvenile and children’s librarian, BYU Library, host of World’s Awaiting on BYUradio.
Why fantasy and fiction actually help young readers develop empathy better than other genres.
What’s the US Strategy with Iran Right Now?
Guest: Aaron David Miller, Middle East Analyst, Vice president, Woodrow Wilson Center
As part of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, the US and five other world powers lifted economic sanctions that prevented Iranian companies from doing business with the outside world. Now a portion of those sanctions go back into effect. Over the weekend, President Trump gloated on Twitter about Iran’s economic troubles and expanding public protests. What will things look like moving forward?
Keeping Tabs on Earth’s Orbiting Junkyard in Space
Guest: David Geller, PhD, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Utah State University
We humans leave garbage wherever we go — including space. An enormous high-speed junkyard now orbits our planet, threatening satellites and space travel. Recently, a European Space Agency satellite was almost knocked out by hurtling debris. Is there something to be done about that?
Can Natural Gas Solve Our Energy Woes?
Guest: Michael P. Harold, PhD, Department Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston
American has a lot of natural gas. And it is a cleaner fuel than coal or diesel or gasoline. But natural gas is primarily made up of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. And if the methane doesn’t burn completely -- or if it escapes from wells and storage tanks on its way to be used -- it may actually make things worse. Is there a way to rely heavily on natural gas in the US without adding methane to the atmosphere?
When Birthmothers Regret the Adoption
Guest: Elissa Madden, PhD, Associate Professor, Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, Baylor University
For many mothers, becoming pregnant is joyful. But for a few, it’s time of struggle. This is especially true of teen mothers who find themselves deciding between keeping the baby and giving it up for adoption. Either answer involves sacrifice and pain. What do we really know about what goes on in the minds of birth mothers in adoption? A new study looks at how birth mothers felt about their decision many years down the road. The results include some surprises.
News Reporting Increases Suicide Risk
Guest: Alan Teo, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Oregon Health and Science University
When a celebrity dies by suicide, journalists face a struggle to know how to report on it without being part of the problem. Sensationalized reports can lead to an increase in suicide rates. On the other hand, we know that talking about suicide is important to preventing it. So what’s the right way to do that?
If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help: In the US: Crisis Text Line: Text START to 741741 from anywhere in the USA, at any time, about any type of crisis | http://www.crisistextline.org/ The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 | http://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386 | http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
Tech Transfer – Innovating for Good
Guests: Todd Manwaring, Director of the Ballard Center for Economic Self-Reliance, BYU Marriott School of Business; Mike Alder, Director of BYU Technology Transfer Office
Bright-eyed college students all over the world come up with great ideas to make life better for people. But getting their ideas funded – and then into the hands of the people who need them – that’s where most of these great ideas end up dying on the vine. The Ballard Center in BYU’s Marriott School of Business provides coaching, courses and funding to help students can run with their great ideas for changing lives.
How Hair Works
Guest: Duane P. Harland, PhD, Senior Scientist, AgResearch New Zealand
Hair is one of those things we don’t think much about beyond how well it’s cooperating on a given day. But it’s kind of amazing and mysterious: Is it made of living or dead cells? Why does it curl? Why does it turn gray as we age? Why does its texture differ from person to person and even from place to place on our bodies? Why is it greasy for some people and dry for others? When you bleach or color it, what exactly is happening to the hair?
A Believer’s Take on Human Evolution
Guest: Steven L. Peck, PhD, professor of evolutionary ecology, BYU, author of “Evolving Faith”
Is it possible to believe that we humans evolved from a lower life-form and also believe in divine Creator? Isn’t it one or the other? You either believe the Bible’s account of Adam and Eve, the first humans created by the hand of God, or you believe Charles Darwin’s theories “On the Origin of Species” and “The Descent of Man.” The two seem entirely incompatible. But BYU evolutionary ecology professor Steven L. Peck finds them compatible enough that his belief in the scientific evidence for evolution actually strengthens his belief in God.
Why Trump’s Trade War is Hurting US Farmers
Guest: Daniel Sumner, PhD, Frank H. Buck Jr. Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis
Yesterday, the Trump Administration proposed an even higher tariff than it had previously threatened on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods coming into the United States. Though Trump made a trade-war truce this week with the EU, escalation continues with China—and American farmers are feeling the effects of the retaliatory tariffs.
Hang Ten For Oceanography
Guest: Phil Bresnahan, PhD, Senior Development Engineer, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, Lead Engineer of the Smartfin Project.
The ocean is a vital part of the health of our planet: holding oxygen and regulating temperature are just two of its many jobs. But its vital signs can be really hard to measure. That’s why oceanographers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC-San Diego have enlisted surfers to take the pulse of the ocean, with a special surfboard fin embedded with sensors.
Left Turn Lanes Are Too Dangerous
Guest: Grant Schultz, PhD, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Brigham Young University
When you’re on a busy road and need to turn left into a business, that middle turn lane with the dotted yellow lines is a blessing. You can pull out of your own lane and safely pause to wait for a window to dart across oncoming traffic. But miscalculate and things can turn deadly in a flash. Left turns are a major cause of fatal traffic crashes, which is why engineers at BYU say the busiest roads should have concrete medians that keep people from turning left.
Remembering MLK’s Legacy (Originally Aired: 4/5/2018)
Guest: David Garrow, Pulitzer-prize Winning Author of “Bearing the Cross”
This year marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. What can we remember and learn from his life?
Tick and Mosquito-Borne Illness on the Rise in US (Originally Aired: 5/7/2018)
Guest: Sankar Swaminathan, M.D., Don Merrill Rees Presidential Endowed Chair, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine
Last spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report showing cases of tick and mosquito-borne illness like Lyme Disease, West Nile Virus and dengue fever had tripled in the US over the last decade. What does that mean for us?
Jumping Along With The Trampoline Park Craze (Originally Aired: 5/14/2018)
Guest: Case Lawrence, Founder and CEO, CircusTrix
You may have seen one of these warehouses filled with trampolines and foam pits and swinging ropes—some even have Ninja Warrior-type obstacle courses and trapeze swings. The jump craze is serious business in the US right now and the largest trampoline park company in the world happens to be headquartered here in Provo.
TSA is Watching You – Isn’t That What We Pay Them To Do?
Guest: Jeff Price, Author of “Practical Aviation Security”, Professor of Aviation and Aerospace Science at the Metropolitan State University of Denver
We learned this week from a Boston Globe investigation that federal air marshals have been taking detailed notes on how certain travelers behave in airports and on flights. They monitor if the passenger uses a computer, fidgets, sweats, uses the bathroom frequently. Since these passengers are not on any terror watch list, news of the program, called Operation Quiet Skies, has unnerved and alarmed people. It also raises questions about just what is the best way to flights safe. If forcing everyone to take off their shoes and empty their pockets at a screening checkpoint seems inefficient, but we’re also uncomfortable with the idea of certain people being monitored because they’re acting in a way that might be suspicious, is there some middle ground here?
Extreme Sensitivity to Stimuli - Is it Autism?
Guest: Elysa Marco, MD, Neurologist, Benioff Children’s Hospital, Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco
Crowded spaces, loud noises, an itchy sweater or scratchy clothing tag – these would be mild annoyances for most people. But to some, they can be extremely distressing, or even painful. It’s called Sensory Processing Disorder. It often appears in children who also have autism or ADHD. But Elysa Marco has worked with enough patients suffering from sensory processing disorder to be convinced it is a separate condition, not just a subset of autism.
Painting the Refugee Experience
Guest: Elizabeth Thayer, Portrait Artist affiliated with Their Story is Our Story
The number of people living on earth who have been forced from home is higher than it’s ever been, according to the UN Refugee Agency. More than half of the world’s 25-million refugees are children. A number like that is impossible to wrap your head around. But each of them is an individual with a face and a story. Elizabeth Thayer has spent the last several years painting their portraits as a volunteer with the nonprofit collaboration of artists and writers called, “Their Story is Our Story.” See some of Elizabeth Thayer’s portraits of refugees here and here.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Hunting Ancient Life Frozen in Burmese Amber
Guest: Paul Selden, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Invertebrate Paleontology, Director of the Paleontological Institute, University of Kansas
In a remote corner of Myanmar – also known as Burma - gem collectors and paleontologists sift through golden dollops of fossilized tree sap. Some of the amber is rough, uncut lumps. Some is polished and set into pendants or bracelets. The most prized pieces have bits of the ancient world trapped inside: insects, plants, even birds and reptiles dating back to the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Make Your Yard Climate-Friendly
Guests: Botanist Sue Reed and landscape architect Ginny Stibolt, Authors, “Climate-Wise Landscaping”
Gardening seems like one of the most environmentally-friendly things you can do. You’re planting and growing stuff! But what you plant and how you grow determines whether you’re helping or hurting the environment. Are you using chemicals? Watering too much? Trying to meet an unrealistic ideal of what a yard should look like? Landscape architect Sue Reed and botanist Ginny Stibolt have written a handy guide for gardening in a way that’s good for the earth.
Are We Winning the War on Poverty?
Guest: Robert L. Fischer, PhD, Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, Case Western Reserve University
More than 50 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared "unconditional war on poverty in America." Today, the Trump Administration has declared that war “largely over and a success” in a White House report, which also calls for major changes to some of the programs launched by LBJ to wage war on poverty all those years ago – including food stamps and Medicaid.
How To Help The Friends and Family Of A Suicide Victim
Guest: Lekeisha Sumner, PhD, Clinical Professor, Psychiatry & Bio-behavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
When someone dies by suicide, it’s hard to know how to help that person’s loved ones as they grieve. There’s a stigma and discomfort that makes it easy to justify just staying away. You don’t want to say the wrong thing or make the pain worse. And yet those who’ve lost a loved one to suicide are at increased risk themselves. They need your support.
Bringing Rheumatic Heart Disease Relief To The Children of Samoa
Guest: Richard Gill, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University; Associate Director, Rheumatic Relief
Strep throat is an unpleasant but minor illness in developed countries like the U.S.: a quick trip to the doctor for an antibiotic and you’re quickly on the mend. But in places where kids don’t have that kind of treatment as readily, a strep infection can progress to rheumatic fever – and from there to permanent heart damage. This especially common in Samoa, and for nearly a decade now, the Rheumatic Relief program has been working to tackle the problem.
The Grim Effects of the Graveyard Shift
Guest: Hans Van Dongen, PhD, Professor, Department of Medical Education and Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, Director, Sleep and Performance Research Center, Washington State University
Did you know working the graveyard shift can lead to an early grave? People who work nights and sleep during the day are at higher risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and some types of cancer. Researchers have always thought the problem had something to do with a person’s biological clock getting out of whack, but recent research might have uncovered that two clocks are involved.
Cooling Down Phoenix
Guest: David Hondula, Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences, Senior Sustainability Scientist, Arizona State University
Phoenix, Arizona hit 115 degrees last week. Today could reach 108. The desert city is so hot it tracks deaths due to heat — last year there were 155 fatalities. Is there anything a hot city can do to cool itself down?
Happy Birthday, Harry!
Guest: Neil Randall, Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada
Today is Harry Potter’s birthday. If Dobby is up to his tricks, the Boy Who Lived may not hear from his friends, but millions of people around the world are thinking of him. Harry’s story strikes chords with contemporary issues and with readers too, and that’s why you’ll find entire classes taught about the series at universities across the country. English professor Neil Randall teaches one such course at the University of Waterloo.
What Is Democratic Socialism?
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
Using the word “socialism” in American politics is never simple, but politicians like New York Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders openly campaign as Democratic Socialists. What does using that label mean?
How to Spot a Liar
Guest: Norah Dunbar, PhD, Professor of Communication, Univeristy of California, Santa Barbara
When someone’s lying to you, you know, right? They’re acting shifty. They’re not making eye contact. Well, the truth is you may as well flip a coin to decide if someone’s deceiving you, because humans are really not good at spotting a liar. Can lie-detecting techniques be taught?
Fighting Fire with Fire
Guest: Tony Cheng, PhD, Professor of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Director, Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, Colorado State University
Large fires – mostly in the Western States – have already burned more than 1 million acres of land this fire season. One of the reasons wildfires are burning bigger and hotter than ever is that we’ve been so intent on putting them out–changing the landscape and making it more susceptible to fires.
How Women’s Friendships Differ from Men’s
Guest: Deborah Tannen, PhD, Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University, Author, “You’re the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendships”
If you have a close friend who knows your most intimate personal details, you’re probably a woman.
If you’ve ever been cut off by a close friend with no explanation, you’re probably a woman, too. Friendships between women can be complicated, but they can also be as intense and rewarding as any relationship in a woman’s life.
Parent Previews – Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
The missions can't be that impossible if they keep completing them. And is this the DC superhero movie we've been waiting for? Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews.com gives a review of Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.
The Psychology Of Dehumanization
Guest: Emile Bruneau, PhD, Research Associate, Lecturer, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Lead Scientist, Beyond Conflict Innovation Lab
Throughout history humans have justified atrocities by defining victims as subhuman, often quite openly. European American dealings with Indians, white Southerners justifying slavery, and Nazis massacring Jews. But how much do we really know about how dehumanizing happens? Can the process be changed?
A Teenager’s Story of Holocaust Reckoning
Guests: Jordana Lebowitz, Advocate For Holocaust Remembrance; Kathy Kacer, Author, “To Look a Nazi in the Eye: A teen’s account of a war criminal trial”
In March, “The Bookkeeper of Auschwitz” Oskar Groening died. He was 96 and just about to start serving a four-year prison sentence for “aiding and abetting” the murder of more than 300,000 Jews in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp. His trial in 2015 was an important moment in the effort to bring Nazis to justice for their Holocaust crimes, and it was life-changing for a young college student who talked her way into a front row seat. That student, Jordana Lebowitz, shares her experience.
US Presidents And The National Pastime of Baseball
Guest: Curt Smith, Former Presidential Speechwriter, Author, "The Presidents and the Pastime"
With very few exceptions, US Presidents have found their way to the ballpark on the opening day of Major League Baseball. But we don’t see presidents making a ceremonial pass to start the football season. Or a toss to start basketball. Or a kick for soccer. Why is that? Especially when you consider that baseball is near the bottom of the list of sports Americans most like to watch on TV. Nevertheless, baseball continues to have the closest tie with the White House of any sport.
Bots are Hurting Social Media, But Are They'll All Bad?
Guest: Carolina Salge, PhD, Assistant Professor of Information Systems, School of Business, Wake Forest University
Facebook’s stock price plummeted today after it announced that its revenue growth is declining and so is the number of people actively using its site. Twitter will make its quarterly earnings statement on Friday, but its stock has already faltered as the company began aggressively purging millions of fake users – also known as “bots.” Both Twitter and Facebook have been criticized for allowing trolls and spammers and Russian agents to flood their services with misinformation.
What Happens If ICE Is Abolished?
Guest: Tanya Golash-Boza, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Merced
Today is the deadline a judge has set for US immigration officials to reunite parents and children separated at the border under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy. Outrage over the separations have given rise to calls to “abolish ICE” by protesters and progressive politicians. ICE is the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency. What would abolishing it accomplish, exactly?
Untangling Math Education With Knitting
Guest: Sara Jensen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Carthage College
What do you remember from college algebra class? Whiteboards? Thick textbooks? Knitting needles? Wait, what? Carthage College math professor Sara Jensen designed an entire course around knitting to help her students grasp parts of math that go beyond solving equations in a notebook.
Caffeine Can Kill (Originally aired June 7, 2017)
Guest: Barbara Crouch, PharmD, Clinical Professor of Pharmacotherapy at University of Utah; Director of the Utah Poison Control Center
Caffeine perks you up and can give you the jitters if you overdo it, but did you know that at high enough concentrations it can be very dangerous – even deadly? Getting to that threshold is easier than you might think.
Taking Stock of Black Life and Racism in America 50 Years After a Pivotal Moment (Originally Aired: 3/21/2018)
Guest: Nathan Connolly, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University, Author of the Award-Winning "A World More Concrete: Real Estate and the Remaking of Jim Crow South Florida," Co-Host, BackStory Podcast
A little over fifty years ago, the Kerner Commission was organized by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate why young black men were rioting in more than 150 cities around the country. The report was very direct: “White racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of World War II.” Racial discrimination in housing, employment and education had led to pent-up frustration in low-income black neighborhoods, and the report warned that the riots would continue if something didn’t change. Fifty years later, that legacy is not behind us. In fact, when it comes to homeownership, unemployment and incarceration, there’s been no progress for African Americans compared to whites, according to new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
America’s Baseball Diplomacy (Originally Aired: 4/9/2018)
Guest: Steven Wisensale, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, University of Connecticut
Baseball has helped broker peace for centuries. Believe it or not, the game played an important role in helping the US and Japan mend relations after World War II. And more recently, when a US submarine collided with a Japanese ship, killing nine high school students and teachers, a youth baseball tournament was organized to honor the victims. That tournament rotates between Japan and Hawaii and has happened every year since the accident in 2001.
Wild Cats Aren't Lone Wolves (Originally Aired: 11/8/2018)
Guest: Mark Elbroch, PhD, Lead Scientist, Puma Program for Panthera
BYU’s mascot, the Cougar, lives throughout the West, but since they hunt at night, there’s a lot we don’t know about them. Scientists have always thought that cougars are solitary animals who don’t interact with each other unless they’re mating or fighting. But studies have revealed that they actually don’t mind some company at dinner.
Trump Administration Reuniting Immigrant Families
Guest: Carolina Nunez, JD, Professor of Immigration Law, Associate Dean, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
The Trump Administration has until Thursday to reunite 2,500 children with their parents who were separated by immigration officials at the US-Mexico border. In a court hearing on Tuesday, the administration said more than 1,000 children have been reunified with their parents, but at least 400 won’t be because the parents have already been deported without their kids.
The Fight Against Factory Farm Pollution
Guest: Sacoby Wilson, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of Maryland
If you’ve ever passed a large pig farm or cattle operation and rolled up your windows to keep out the stench, imagine living next door to it. Neighbors believe the regulations that govern how smelly and messy a hog farm can be haven’t kept pace with just how huge these farms have become. So they’ve been suing the farms under nuisance laws – and lately they’re winning those cases. What will that mean for meat production in the US?
The Republic Formerly Known as Macedonia
Guest: Keith Brown, PhD, Professor of Politics and Global Studies, Director of the Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, Arizona State University
A tiny country just above Greece has agreed to change its name in order to join NATO – and, it hopes, the European Union, too. Why would the name of a country matter to other European nations? Well, mostly the name matters to one member of NATO and the EU: Greece has long felt threatened by its small northern neighbor calling itself Macedonia.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne shares his personal experience with rodeos.
Mobilizing Kids to Mow Lawns in Service
Guest: Rodney A Smith Jr, Founder, Raising Men Lawn Care Service
Rodney Smith, Jr didn’t much like mowing lawns growing up – and who can blame him. But now he’s made it part of his life’s mission. Smith just completed a tour of every state in the US, mowing lawns free for people who are elderly, disabled, single mothers and veterans. The goal is to get kids all around the country out serving in their communities, mowing the lawns of people who need a hand.
The Good News About Bad Behavior
Guest: Katherine Reynolds Lewis, Independent Journalist, Author, "The Good News About Bad Behavior"
If sending kids to timeout for misbehavior is a core part of your parenting arsenal, you’re not doing your kid any favors. And cajoling them into good behavior with treats and rewards is just as bad, according to Katherine Lewis. She’s a parent educator and author of the book, “The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever – and What to Do About it.”
Russian Election Meddling and the Spy Who Got Caught
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director, Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
It’s been a whirlwind of Russia-related news in the last week: The same day President Trump met one-on-one with President Putin, the Department of Justice arrested a Russian woman in the US on charges of spying. A few days earlier, the FBI indicted twelve Russian intelligence officers for hacking the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign during the 2016 election. Then during the summit, President Putin offered to let the FBI come to Russia and question the indicted intelligence officers – but only if Russians could come to the US and question a couple of Americans, including a former US ambassador to Russia. President Trump was considering the offer, but then rejected it at the same time the US Senate passed a resolution condemning it as a terrible idea. What's going on?
Zapping to Fix Your Tremor
Guest: Howard Eisenberg, MD, Professor, Chair, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Neurosurgeon, University of Maryland Medical Center
Millions of Americans suffer from a condition called “essential tremors” – which is benign, but really disruptive. The involuntary shaking can make it hard to drink from a glass, write or hold objects. The latest treatment approved by the FDA for essential tremors involves zapping part of the patient’s brain with concentrated sound waves.
The Pitfalls of International Giving
Guest: Jane Peebles, JD, International Charitable Giving Expert, Contributing Author, “Cross-Border Giving: A Legal and Practical Guide”
When a disaster happens somewhere in the world – whether it’s a hurricane, earthquake or humanitarian crisis brought on by war – generous Americans are eager to share their resources. But did you know that donating to charitable projects abroad can be a minefield? If any of your donation ends up in the hands of someone even loosely affiliated with a terrorist group, you could be in hot water with the US government.
The End of a “Miss America” Era?
Guest: Blain Roberts, PhD, Professor of History, California State University, Fresno, Author, “Pageants, Parlors, and Pretty Women: Race and Beauty in the Twentieth-Century South”
The most famous beauty pageant in America is getting a makeover. No more swimsuits and evening gowns will be optional. The Miss America Pageant isn’t even a pageant anymore, according to the organization’s new chairperson Gretchen Carlson. “We believe that physical appearance and beauty and being fit – that is empowering. We’re just not going to judge women on that anymore,” said Carlson on ABC’s Good Morning America in early July. Empowering women of all shapes and sizes seems like a great move, but what exactly is Miss America if it’s no longer a beauty pageant?
Parent Previews: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
In the awaited sequel to the musical "Mamma Mia!," "Here We Go Again" flashes back to exactly how all the first movie's characters met. The must-see mom-movie of the month!
Watching Out for Asteroids Heading for Earth
Guest: Michael B. Lund, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University
Try not to lose any sleep over this, but there are more than 1,600 asteroids on orbit patterns that could someday collide with Earth and cause major damage. To keep a closer eye on them, scientists are building a special telescope in Chile.
The Civil War And The Utah Question
Guest: Ken Alford, PhD, Professor of Church History, Brigham Young University
Utah’s very existence was a serious part of the political debate in the years leading up to the Civil War. Had you be reading national newspapers as South Carolina was preparing to secede from the union, you’d also see references to “Utah” popping up in those stories. And in turn, Utahns were deeply affected by the conflict and did not sit out the war.
Kossula’s Story of Enslavement, Published 87 Years After It Was Written
Guest: Deborah G. Plant, PhD, Literary Critic, Editor of “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” written by Zora Neale Hurston
During the mid-1800s in America, memoirs written by formerly enslaved people such as Frederick Douglass and Solomon Northup were best-selling books. A new slave narrative has just been published. “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” was written by ethnographer and novelist Zora Neale Hurston, based on her interviews with Cudjo Lewis. When they spoke in 1927, Lewis was 86 and one of the last people alive in America to have come across the Atlantic on a slave ship.
Where “Barracoon” Fits in the Long Legacy of Slave Narratives
Guests: Matthew Mason, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University; Kristin L. Matthews, PhD, Professor of English, Brigham Young University
The new book “Barracoon” tells the story of Cudjo Lewis, who was kidnapped from his village in Africa and sold into slavery in Alabama. It was written by Zora Neale Hurston – the famous ethnographer and Harlem Renaissance novelist – but has only just been published posthumously. How does “Barracoon” fit in with the other slave narratives that shape our understanding of this time period?
When Students Opt-Out of Tests, Schools May Suffer
Guest: Alisa Ellis, Vice-Chairperson, Utah Board of Education
During the decade-plus that No Child Left Behind was in effect, there was growing outrage over the amount of time students were spending every year taking standardized tests to assess their progress. A number of states had very large opt-out movements where parents kept their kids home on year-end test days. The movement is causing a headache for Utah schools, who will have to count the missed tests as failed grades that will affect their standing.
The Science of Good Science Teachers
Guest: Tammy Kolbe, Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership, University of Vermont
When kids in America get to middle school, their interest in science and technology – or STEM – topics drops off. Is it puberty? Is it the curriculum? Is it the teachers?
With Grace B. Bold
Guest: Megan Sullivan, Founder, With Grace B. Bold
When Megan Sullivan asked her mother what the worst part of her breast cancer experience was, she was surprised to hear the answer: it was the plastic tube she had to wear after surgery that drained fluid away from her incision. So Sullivan designed a top tailored for post-mastectomy women to feel more comfortable and confident, even with a cumbersome surgical drain.
The Secret Cause of Dementia (Originally Aired: 4/5/2018)
Guest: Steven Greenberg, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Stroke is often thought of as a single event – a big thing that happens to someone’s brain and has lasting effects. But there’s a slower, more progressive form of stroke that entails tiny vessels in the brain leaking blood over time. Researchers now believe this kind of stroke is closely tied to rising rates of dementia in America.
The Untold Story of Anna Murray Douglass (Originally Aired: 3/28/2018)
Guest: Leigh Fought, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Le Moyne College
Frederick Douglass, famous escaped slave turned abolitionist and orator, was the most photographed man of his time. He sat for more than 160 portraits that we know of, and yet, there are only two known pictures of his wife, Anna Murray Douglass. But Anna Murray Douglass’s behind-the-scenes support helped make her husband the powerhouse he was.
How Stealing Fashion Ideas Fuels The Knock-Off Economy (Originally Aired: 3/5/18)
Guest: Kal Raustiala, PhD, JD, Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles
If you plagiarize a book, you’re in legal danger. If your song sounds too similar to another artist’s, you better watch out. But unlike books or music, fashion is one of the few creative industries without copyright protection. Knock-off designers can emulate the look of the big name-brands, without fear of copyright infringement.
Will Kavanaugh’s Catholicism Affect His Confirmation to the Supreme Court?
Guest: Gary Doxey, JD, Associate Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Brigham Young University Law School
Appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh seeks Senate confirmation to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, and has brought up his background as a Catholic. Theoretically, a nominee’s religious beliefs aren’t supposed to be part of decision the Senate makes to confirm or reject a Supreme Court nominee. But Kavanaugh’s confirmation would make the Supreme Court solidly conservative and, potentially, open to new interpretations of the law on moral issues like abortion and same sex marriage that matter a lot to religious groups. So, should Judge Kavanaugh’s Catholicism be part of the decision to confirm him, or not?
We're Forcing Mammals To Live the Night Life
Guest: Justin Brashares, PhD, Professor and G.R. & W.M. Goertz Chair, Department of Environmental, Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley
It wasn’t until the dinosaurs died out some 65 million years ago that scientists believe the Earth’s smaller, furry creatures started feeling bold enough to venture out during daylight hours. They’d been nocturnal while the dinosaurs roamed. Now, it seems we humans are having a similar effect: our presence is driving mammals back into the cover of night.
AVATAR, The Lie-Detecting Security Kiosk
Guest: Nathan W. Twyman, PhD, Assistant Professor, Business and Information Tech, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Don’t you think there’s bound to be a better way to root out terrorists at airports than making every single passenger take off their shoes and belt and put all their liquids in tiny bottles? Why can’t TSA figure out who in that long line of passengers is most likely to have contraband in our pockets and then just screen them intensely? Maybe we can enlist a little automated help.
A Leader In The Cave: How The Thai Soccer Coach Made Rescue Possible
Guest: Nancy Koehn, PhD, Historian, Professor of History, Harvard Business School, Author, “Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times”
The 12 young soccer players and their coach who were rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand spoke publicly for the first time today about their ordeal. It was miraculous how an international team of cavers, divers and Thai Navy Seals somehow managed to get every single one of the boys and their young coach out through two-and-a-half miles of flooded, pitch-black passages so tight in some spots they had to remove their oxygen tanks to squeeze through. But a major contribution to the miraculous rescue came from the team’s coach, who managed to keep his players calm, focused and alive.
Spelunking Heroes And Cave Safety
Guest: Anmar Mirza, National Coordinator, National Cave Rescue Commission
At a press conference today, the 12 young soccer players and their coach who were rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand shared how they’d decided to go into the cave on a whim and only planned to be there for an hour or so. They brought no food or water. They didn’t tell their parents where they were going. What's the safe way to explore caves, and what goes in to a cave rescue?
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne from The Apple Seed shares a story called "The Correctional Academy" by Geraldine Buckley.
Eritrea and Ethiopia Move Toward Peace in Frozen Conflict
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
After President Trump’s chummy visit with Vladimir Putin, it's hard to pay attention to other important stuff happening in the world. But in Africa, two nations that have been bitterly divided and periodically at war for decades have reconciled.
Simple Physical Rituals Unlock Self-Control?
Guest: Juliana Schroeder, PhD, Professor of Social Psychology, Haas Business School, Uuniversity of California, Berkeley
Do you follow the same routine every day when you wake up? A new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests even silly rituals can be helpful in motivating us to use more self-control.
More Engaged and Available Dads
Guest: Kevin Shafer, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Director, Canadian Studies, Brigham Young University
In a generation, the American family has changed. Not everyone sees that as a good thing, but a recent study argues that today’s dads are more interactive and emotionally available for their kids than ever.
Are Movie Passes Changing the Game for Theaters?
Guest: Ian Puente, Director of Operations and Strategy, BYU Broadcasting
Cinemas and companies alike have been pushing theater subscription that sound a bit like Netflix: You pay a monthly fee, and get increased access to movie showings. The forefront service, Moviepass, offers a movie a day for $10 a month. How can that price model even work? Are theater subscription services the new way of seeing movies?
What is a Library?
Guest: Stuart Kells, PhD, Book-Trade Historian, Author, "The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders"
If you hear the word, "library," rows of shelving lined with books probably come to mind. But are books \_necessary \_for a library?
Challenging the Convictions of Eviction
Guest: Paula Franzese, JD, Peter W. Rodino Professor of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law
Every year, almost one million Americans are evicted from their homes for not paying rent, or about 1 in 40 renter households. Eviction causes poor families to spiral deeper into poverty, but for prosperous citizens, it can be easy to look at eviction in black or white: you pay your rent, or you get evicted. Is it that simple?
How Putin Is Beating Trump at Public Relations
Guest: Cynthia V. Hooper, PhD, Professor, Director, Russian and Eastern European Studies, College of the Holy Cross
Coming out of President Trump's summit with Putin, the two leaders did not announce any specific agreements resulting from their private meeting, other than a commitment to work together on countering terrorism and nuclear proliferation. When pressed by several American journalists to acknowledge the conclusions of US intelligence agencies and directly criticize Russia for meddling in the 2016 election – or anything else, for that matter, Trump declined. Was the summit a win for Putin, or a loss for Trump?
Slowing Down In An Accelerated, Technological Life
Guest: Simon Gottschalk, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Author, "The Terminal Self: Everyday Life in Hypermodern Times"
The pace of life and work has accelerated drastically in the past 70 years. Even in the last 10 years since phones got smart, things have sped up. What are the consequences of being connected and on-call all the time? Can anything be done to slow it all down?
Breaking the Food Waste Cycle
Guest: Dana Gunders, Author of "Waste Free Kitchen Handbook," Founder of Next Course
I bet there’s something in your fridge right now that’s perfectly edible, but you’ll end up throwing out because it expires, or starts to discolor, or falls on the floor, or just doesn’t sound good anymore. The average American throws away over $35 each month in the form of uneaten food—is there a better way?
Who Fact-Checks the Fact-Checkers?
Guest: Angie Holan, Editor, PolitiFact
Fact checking has become so popular that major news outlets do it on Presidential speeches in real-time. Political campaigns fact-check their opponents’ claims. But how sure can we be that the people doing the fact checking are not biased? That they’re not looking more critically on one party than another?
Parent Previews: Skyscraper, Hotel Transylvania 3
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Ford is on assignment in China when he finds the tallest, safest building in the world suddenly ablaze, and he's been framed for it. In the third installment of the Hotel Transylvania series, a family of monsters embarks on a vacation on a luxury monster cruise ship so Dracula can take a summer vacation from providing everyone else's vacation at the hotel.
Tech Transfer: Targeting Gut Bacteria that Promote Obesity
Guests: Laura Bridgewater, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Associate Dean, College of Life Sciences, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Director, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Scientists are becoming more and more convinced that the bacteria living in your gut plays a central role in good health. There have also been studies that show the wrong mix of bacteria in your gut could make you more prone to obesity. So the question is, how can you kill the bad bacteria making you depressed or obese or allergic to certain foods, without killing all the good bacteria your body needs?
Is Rooftop Solar the Future of US Electricity?
Guests: J. Andrew McAllister, PhD, Member, California Energy Commission; Garth Heutel, PhD, Professor of Economics, Georgia State University; William Moomaw, PhD, Emeritus Professor of International Environmental Policy, Tufts University, Nobel Peace Prize Winner in 2007
Of the truly renewable energy sources contributing to America’s electricity, solar is growing the fastest. California is leading the charge–Regulators there recently mandated that new homes starting in 2020 must have solar panels, though there is some disagreement over whether that’s the best way to go about reaching California’s aggressive renewable energy goals.
How the US Military Transformed the Global Economy After World War II
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University, Author, "Sovereign Soldiers"
War destroys infrastructure and upends economies, and for a decade the US has been trying to get Iraq and Afghanistan back on solid footing after our invasion. How well a country and its economy are rebuilt when the fighting stops is crucial to making sure peace lasts, and making sure we don’t end up in, for instance, a second World War just twenty years after fighting World War I. What can we learn from how America’s military generals patched things up in Germany and Japan after World War II?
What Conservatives Want from Trump’s Europe Trip
Guest: Peter Brookes, Senior Fellow in National Security Affairs, Heritage Foundation
President Trump left the NATO Summit in Brussels this morning, pleased with how it had gone. Today he’s in Britain meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May and on Monday he’ll be in Helsinki for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. How do conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation feel about Trump's actions in Europe?
The Rise of Mainstream eSports
Guest: AJ Dimick, Director of eSports, Entertainment Arts and Engineering, Director of Operations, Varsity eSports, University of Utah
This year’s Superbowl attracted more than 100 million TV viewers, but the League of Legends Midseason Invitational drew over 300 million. League of Legends is a video game where virtual teams battle each other with swords and sorcery, and it's one of the most popular eSports. And don’t laugh at that term, because it’s such a big deal ESPN now has a special streaming service dedicated to it.
Using Tech to Treat Autism
Guest: Alacia Stainbrook, PhD, TRIAD Early Intervention Program Coordinator, Assistant in Pediatrics, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center
Ideally, a child with autism disorder would get a diagnosis by age 2. In reality, most kids are diagnosed after four years of age. That’s especially true in communities far away from a university or clinic with autism expertise. So Vanderbilt University’s Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders is deploying a small army of robots to help families in rural Tennessee get treatment.
Clear Up Vacant Lots, Reduce Violence (Originally Aired: 3/19/2018)
Guest: Charles Branas, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University
If you were in the market for a new home, and your realtor showed you a house with an overgrown vacant lot across the street, would that be red flag? But in many urban communities, trash-strewn abandoned lots can attract drugs and violence.
The Cost of Happiness (Originally Aired: 4/10/18)
Guest: Ed Diener, PhD, Professor of Social Psychology, University of Utah, Utah Valley University
They say money can’t buy happiness, but that’s baloney. Lots of research shows income is connected to happiness. The trickier question is: just how much money do you need for optimal life satisfaction? According to newly-published research, the magic number is $95,000 a year, on average, worldwide.
The Mormon Octopus and Modern Intolerance (Originally Aired: 10/25/2017)
Guest: Anthea Butler, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
A little more than 100 years ago, a Baptist missionary group published a pamphlet featuring an inky-black octopus covering Utah and surrounding states. “Like a huge octopus, the Mormon hierarchy is fastening its tentacles throughout the Rocky Mountain States,” read the pamphlet. Looking back, such alarm might seem silly. But if you replace the word “Mormon” with “Muslim,” or “immigrant” or “refugee,” this ominous octopus pamphlet could have appeared on your Facebook feed yesterday.
Supreme Court Nomination Shenanigans
Guest: Richard Davis, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University, Author, “Supreme Democracy” and “Electing Justice”
The political fight is underway in Washington over President Donald Trump’s nomination of Federal judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat of retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. At first glance, the process for appointing a Supreme Court Justice is a simple choice by the President that's confirmed by the Senate—but maybe it isn't that simple.
Using Vultures to Solve Crimes
Guest: Lauren Pharr, PhD, Forensic Scientist, Pharr Forensic Consulting LLC
When police find human remains, blood and bone samples are important evidence, of course. But feathers? Absolutely, says forensic scientist Lauren Pharr. She’s an expert in reading the clues left behind by vultures, and her knowledge of vulture scavenging behavior has helped police solve some tricky cases.
Staying Civil in Social Activism
David Meyer, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of California Irvine
In the last several weeks, Trump Administration officials have been getting tossed out of restaurants or taunted by crowds while dining in public. Is it civil to harass a political figure while they’re conducting their private life? How about if it’s not a public figure, but just a regular teenaged Trump supporter wearing a Make America Great Again hat while eating in a fast food restaurant with friends?
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of “The Apple Seed” on BYUradio
Sam Payne shares a the song "Old People in Love."
Taking on African Sleeping Sickness with Chemistry
Guest: Ken Christensen, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, Brigham Young University
African Sleeping Sickness kills up to half a million people a world – mostly in hot sub-Saharan Africa. With the magic of careful chemistry and some glowing proteins, there might be new treatment options against the parasite that causes it.
Americans Are Having Fewer Babies
Guest: Caroline Sten Hartnett, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of South Carolina
There’s less of this happening in America than there has been in 30 years. Not since 1987 has the US fertility rate been as low as it is right now. Why are American women having fewer babies? And is it anything to be worried about?
Brexit Breakups, NATO Summit, Data Privacy
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
In eight months, Britain is supposed to leave the European Union, but negotiations over the exit have hit more trouble. Two of the key figures shaping Brexit suddenly resigned over the weekend, leaving British Prime Minister Theresa May in trouble. She’s been hoping for what she calls a “soft exit” from the European Union, but the hard-core Brexiters in her government are not on board. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in his resignation letter that the Brexit “dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.”
President Trump is in Brussels for a NATO summit with European countries and then he’ll make his first official visit to Britain before going on to Helsinki for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Employees vs. Workers
Guest: Julia Penny Clark, Attorney of Employment and Labor Law, Bredhoff and Kaiser Law Firm
In the last decade, arbitration agreements have become really common. Cell companies typically require their customers to sign them. So do doctors and hospitals. The upshot is that you sign away your right to sue if something goes wrong; you have to resolve the dispute through arbitration instead. The US Supreme Court recently ruled that companies can require their employees to sign arbitration agreements preventing them from suing - or even banding together - to tackle complaints over things like wage discrimination or overtime policies.
Large companies say arbitration is cheaper, faster and at least as fair as resolving disputes in court. Employees say it puts them at a major disadvantage.
Manhattanhenge
Guest: Jackie Faherty, PhD, Senior Scientist and Senior Education Manager, Department of Astrophysics and the Department of Education, American Museum of Natural History in New York City
When you imagine the best places to watch a sunset, you might think about a beach or a mountaintop. But right now one of the most striking places to see the sun dip below the horizon is New York City. This is the season of “Manhattanhenge” when, for a brief window, the sunset aligns perfectly with the East-West street grid of Manhattan. In those moments, traffic stops, people fill the streets and Instagram is flooded with really cool pics of #manhattanhenge.
Polio Curing Brain Cancer
Guest: Darell Bigner, MD, PhD, Emeritus Director, Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, Duke University
Nearly a year ago Sen. John McCain announced he had been diagnosed with glioblastoma—a particularly lethal form of brain cancer. The same disease claimed the life of former senator Edward Kennedy, and that of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Beau. In a poetic twist, it now seems that this deadly disease might be successfully attacked by another devastating one: the poliovirus.
Worlds Awaiting: Not Every Kid Learns to Read the Same Way
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
What If Primary Care Doctors Could Prescribe Methadone for Opioid Addiction?
Guest: Jeffrey Samet, MD, Chief of General Internal Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center, John Noble, MD Professor of General Internal Medicine and Professor of Public Health at Boston University, Vice Chair for Public Health in the Department of Medicine
One hundred fifteen people die every day in the United States from an opioid overdose. President Trump’s plan to reduce that number echoes the call from public health experts to expand access to treatment services for people with opioid use disorder. In an opinion published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Jeffrey Samet argues for a fundamental change in how opioid addiction is treated in the US: He’d like to see primary care physicians prescribing methadone, rather than limiting methadone access only to specialized clinics.
Electric Scooters are the Next Wave in Ridesharing
Guest: Enrique Dans, PhD, Professor of Innovation at IE Business School in Spain, Tech blogger “enriquedans.com”
In Santa Monica, LA, San Francisco, DC, Austin and a bunch of other cities, you can use an app to find an electric scooter nearby and take it for a cheap ride. These scooter-for-rent companies are the next wave in ride-sharing and they’re stirring up just as much controversy as their older siblings Lyft and Uber. City officials worry about safety hazards– people zipping along on sidewalks without helmets, for example, or dumping scooters willy-nilly on streets and sidewalks when they’re done riding.
Finding Hope in Troubled Times
Guest: Kate Davies, DPhil, Author of “Intrinsic Hope”, Clinical Associate Professor of Public Health at the University of Washington
All across the northern hemisphere, hot temperatures set records over the last week – from Ireland to Oman and throughout the United States. Climate scientists say things are only going to get hotter as greenhouse gases from cars, power plants and farms trap heat. This is a gloomy time in the world: drought, fires, food shortages, civil wars, animal extinction, political polarization, growing social inequality. You might even feel a bit hopeless for the future. But environmental policy expert Kate Davies finds plenty of room for hope. Maybe just not the kind of hope we’re used to thinking of.
Faith to Fight Gang Violence
Guest: Rev. Eugene F. Rivers, III, Co-Founder, Boston TenPoint Coalition
It’s been called the Boston Miracle. Back in the early 1990s, murders in Boston hit an all-time high. Most of the killings were a result of drugs and gang-related violence. When gang members attacked mourners inside the church where a funeral was being held for a young homicide victim, the Boston’s religious leaders took a stand. They formed the TenPoint Coalition to tackle the violence head on. And it worked – from a high of more than 150 murders in 1990, killings dropped to 31 by 1999.
Parent Previews: Ant Man and the Wasp
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
The hot holiday weekend brought yet another big hit for Marvel Studios. Ant-Man is back – and he’s got a partner with a fancy suit, too. Fancier than his, actually.
Crowdfunding Favors Female Entrepreneurs
Guest: Michael Johnson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management, Louisiana State University
The key to turning a great idea into a successful company – is money. And in the world of tech startups, men have a proven advantage getting venture capitalists to invest. Women entrepreneurs are even told to downplay their feminine side if they hope to get funding. But in the world of crowdfunding on sites like Kickstarter, the exact opposite seems to be true.
Native American Quest for Independence During Revolutionary Times
Guest: David Andrew Nichols, PhD, professor of history, Indiana State University, author of "Peoples of the Inland Sea: Native Americans and Newcomers in teh Great Lakes Region, 1600-1870"
It’s the 4th of July holiday week and we’re all busting with patriotism over the heroic victory of the scrappy American colonists over Britain. One of the great ironies of America’s War for Independence is that it led to a loss of freedom for our country’s original inhabitants who, at a certain point after the colonists arrived, actually envisioned banding together as tribes to form their own independent nation of “United Indians.” Today we're going to look at that history.
The American Indian Who Got the Better of the British and the American Colonists
Guest: Jenny Hale Pulsipher, PhD, professor of history, Brigham Young University, author of "Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped out of Harvard and Conned the King of England"
We’re turning the tables a bit this Fourth of July week and looking at America’s early years from the perspective of the indigenous people who were here first. This hour, we look at a fascinating American Indian named John Wompas was born around 1637 near what today is Grafton, Massachusetts. He was a Nipmuc Indian, but he didn’t come from any royal lineage in the tribe. His father was not a chief – or “sachem,” as the tribe’s leaders were called. And yet, John Wompas would become prominent in both Nipmuc and English communities. He would study at Harvard. Become the first Indian involved in the transatlantic sea trade. Get rich off of real estate deals. End up in debtor’s prison in London and con the King of England into helping him. It’s a remarkable story, which BYU history professor Jenny Hale Pulsipher tells in her book, “Swindler Sachem," just published by Yale University Press. We first spoke with Pulsipher last fall.
Dragonfly, The Mission to Saturn’s Moon (Originally Aired: 2/15/18)
Guest: Jani Radebaugh, PhD, Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, Brigham Young University
Besides Earth, there is only one other place we know of in our solar system where liquids accumulate in clouds, rain down and flow in rivers across the surface. That place is Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. NASA has chosen as a finalist to receive funding for an exploratory mission that would involve landing a helicopter-like drone on the surface of Titan: the Dragonfly.
Talking to Your Kids about Pornography (Originally Aired: 2/28/18)
Guest: Brian Willoughby, PhD, Professor, Family Life, Brigham Young University
When kids used pornography a generation ago, it usually meant racy magazines stashed under a bed. But kids today live their lives on screens, often being fed content that they weren’t even looking for. What can parents do to prepare their children for pornography that pops up during an internet search or the sidebar ads on their favorite sports page?
Space Archaeology (Originally Aired: 3/29/2018)
Guest: Sarah Parcak, PhD, Founder, President, GlobalXplorer, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Founding Director, Laboratory for Global Observation, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Sarah Parcak is a space archaeologist, and she wants you to be one too. You don’t have to travel in a rocket ship or use a telescope. All you need is an internet connection and some patience, because space archaeology entails studying satellite images to find hidden treasure.
Iconic Civil Rights Photographer’s Double Life as an FBI Informant (Originally Aired: 5/11/2018)
We’ve known for a long time that the FBI was spying on key figures in the movement. But when an investigative journalist at the Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis revealed that a black photographer named Ernest Withers had been an FBI informant, most people found it hard to believe. He’s been called “the Original Photographer of the Civil Rights Movement.” Martin Luther King, Junior knew and liked him. Withers was so trusted that he went places no white person – and few black journalists, for that matter - could have gone. All the while, he was reporting back to the FBI on what he’d seen and heard.
Syrian War Pushes 250,000 Refugees to Tense Southern Border
Guests: Steven Lobell, PhD, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah; John Macfarlane, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Utah Valley University
The United Nations says more than 250,000 people have fled the southern Syrian city of Dara’a in the last week to escape violence. Many of those people are now camped out on the border with Jordan and Israel hoping to be allowed in as refugees, right in the midst of the latest wave of fighting between the Syrian government and one of the last rebel strongholds in the war-ravaged country.
White Shark Café
Guest: Barbara Block, PhD, Professor of Biology, Stanford University
Great White Sharks live in the coastal waters of most major oceans, but once or twice a year they head off to a remote area in the Pacific that looks like a barren ocean “desert” on satellite images. Now scientists know those images are misleading, and explore the area now dubbed the White Shark Café.
Cooling Our Buildings With Space
Guest: Aaswath Raman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Co-Founder, CSO, SkyCool Systems
Long before modern refrigeration, ancient peoples made ice in hot desert climates. Sounds impossible without electricity, but remains of “ice houses” can be found throughout the Middle East and China. The lost art of “ice houses” could change how modern cooling systems work today.
Health Consequences of Mining Coal from Mountain Tops
Guest: Michael Hendryx, PhD, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, Indiana University School of Public Health, Indiana University Bloomington
America has been steadily moving away from coal as a source of energy during the last decade, but coal still accounts for a third of all electricity generated in the US. The coal mining process called mountaintop removal offers some advantages, but a growing body of research also suggests it comes at considerable cost to human health.
Why Do We Revere the US Constitution but Ignore Our State Versions?
Guest: Jeremy Pope, PhD, Professor of Politcal Science, Brigham Young University, Co-Director, Study of Elections and Democracy
This is the time of year in America when our reverence for the founding fathers and the birth of our nation is on full display with parades and patriotic readings. That makes it the perfect time to look into a fascinating bit of research on just how much we revere the US Constitution – but not our state constitutions.
Potatoes for Peace
Guest: Murat Iyigun, PhD, Professor and Stanford Calderwood Endowed Chair of Economics, University of Colorado Boulder
One of the factors that set the stage for the ongoing civil war in Syria was a devastating drought in 2006. What happens in the fields affects a country’s stability, you may be surprised to learn that a major driver of peace in Europe from the Middle Ages up through the 1900s was potatoes.
Changes Coming for US Supreme Court
Guest: RonNell Andersen Jones, JD, Professor of Law, SJ Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
Long-time swing voting Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring, which gives President Trump an opportunity to name his second justice to the nation’s highest court.
Infant and Parent Co-Sleeping
Guest: James McKenna, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, Director of Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Lab, University of Notre Dame, Author, "Sleeping with Baby: A Parent’s Guide to Co-Sleeping"
American parents have long been warned not to sleep with their baby in the same bed for fear of SIDS – sudden infant death syndrome. But across the globe parents, mothers in particular, sleep with their infants regularly.
Why We Need More Mixing Between Generations
Guest: Donna Butts, Executive Director, Generations United
Starting this fall, a nonprofit called Generations United will be matching up college students with older citizens who have a spare room in their house. The students will get cheap – or even free – rent, depending on how much they want to help out around the house. The program is meant to tackle two problems at once – the social isolation many seniors experience and the mounting debt students struggle with.
Indigenous People’s Religion is Forced to Adapt
Guest: Rosalyn LaPier, PhD, Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Montana
In Native American cultures, food isn’t just tradition, it’s often also religion. The corn or rice or prairie turnip that grew wild on the tribe’s homeland is sacred. So what happens when climate change or pollution or government policies threaten those sacred foods? Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest recently won a court case against the state of Washington aimed at preserving their connection to wild salmon, which they revere.
Teaching About Religion in an Age of Intolerance
Guest: Linda K. Wertheimer, Journalist, Author of “Faith Ed, Teaching About Religion In An Age of Intolerance”
Kids need early exposure to other religions, says journalist Linda K. Wertheimer. In fact, she says this education should happen in schools – though any time religion comes up in a public school, controversy is sure follow.
These Giant Rats Save Lives and May Soon Stop Poachers
Guest: Kate Sears-Webb, Behavioral Research Technician, APOPO
If I told you there was one tool that could clear landmines, detect tuberculosis, and catch poachers... would you believe that versatile tool was rats?
APOPO is a global non-profit organization based in Tanzania that has pioneered the training-rats-to-save-lives thing. Their African pouched rats have cleared more than 100,000 landmines from former war zones and can screen mucus samples for tuberculosis way, way faster than traditional methods. Now the rats are being grained to find illegally trafficked African hardwoods and pangolins, which are scaly anteaters.
Find more about APOPO's work by clicking here.
“Because I Come from a Crazy Family: The Making of a Psychiatrist”
Guest: Edward Hallowell, MD, Psychiatrist, Author of “Because I Come from a Crazy Family: The Making of a Psychiatrist”
When Ned Hallowell was 10 years old, he heard a voice out of nowhere, telling him he should “become a shrink.” He says he didn’t take it seriously at the time, but in hindsight it makes perfect sense. Mental illness runs deep in Hallowell’s family, so hearing voices wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, and why wouldn’t he spend his life trying to understand the people closest to him? Today Ned Hallowell is an acclaimed psychiatrist and expert in the field of ADHD. His books include “Driven to Distraction” and most recently a memoir titled, “Because I Come from a Crazy Family: The Making of a Psychiatrist.”
Hiking Culture
Guests: Zach Davis, Author of “Appalachian Trials: The Psychological and Emotional Guide to Successfully Thru-Hiking The Appalachian Trail,” Owner and Editor-In-Chief of The Trek, Host of Backpacker Radio podcast; Ciara Hulet, Creator of Cici Outside YouTube Channel, Producer of Top of Mind; Cordell Andersen, Uinta Wilderness Blogger, CordellMAndersen.com; Christine Hoyer, Backcountry Manager, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
According to Nielsen survey data, a third of US adults say they’ve hiked in the last year, and that figure has been steadily growing for a decade. Strangely, hiking is all the rage among millennials, driven perhaps by digital technology and outdoor selfies with a gorgeous backdrop courtesy of #nature? This new generation of hikers has introduced some generational clashes around habits, safety, and preservation.
Why Don’t the US and the UN Get Along?
Guest: Darren Hawkins, PhD, Professor of Political Science Professor, Brigham Young University
While the US is host to the UN, today the UN and the US are at odds, more often than not. In the last week, a UN report condemned the Trump Administration for exacerbating extreme poverty in America. The Trump Administration says it’s ridiculous and hypocritical of the UN to be examining poverty in America when so many other countries who are part of the UN “knowingly abuse human rights and cause pain and suffering.”
Why Seniors Fall For Phone Scams
Guests: Duke Han, PhD, Associate Professor (Clinical Scholar), Family Medicine, Director of Neuropsychology in the Department of Family Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, USC; Julie Schoen, Attorney, Deputy Director of the National Center on Elder Abuse, Keck School of Medicine, USC
Scams that target older adults are incredibly common – and unfortunately, senior citizens seem to be more susceptible to them. So much so that there’s a common con called the “grandparent scam” where someone calls claiming to be a grandchild in legal trouble needing bail-out money.
Can We Appreciate Art Created By #MeToo Offenders?
Guest: Sheila Winborne, PhD, Assistant Teaching Professor, Philosophy and Religion, Northeastern University
As the list of celebrities, politicians, CEOs and power people accused of sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era grows, what should we do with the work they created or participated in? Should we boycott? Or can we still enjoy it, while disapproving of their behavior?
Mysterious Microbes (Originally Aired: 3/6/2018)
Guest: Karen Lloyd, PhD, Assistant Professor, Microbiology, University of Tennessee Knoxville
The average depth of the ocean is more than two miles deep, and in the thick mud at the bottom, scientists have discovered a whole universe of microbes. Somehow, without sunlight, without oxygen, without obvious sources of food, these microscopic life forms manage to exist. If we could crack their secrets, we might have new solutions for improving life up here on land.
Watch the TED Talk here.
Mexican Education for Returnee Children (Originally Aired: 12/12/2017)
Guests: Bryant Jensen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Teacher Education, Brigham Young University; Eric Bybee, PhD, Assistant Professor, Teacher Education, Brigham Young University
Since 2008, more Mexicans have been leaving the US than arriving here. That flow to Mexico has included tens of thousands of children, many of them born in America. They’re US citizens that have attended US public schools, who often speak English better than they speak Spanish. What is life like for these kids when their parents go back to Mexico?
Fear and Humor Are Both Good Motivators (Originally Aired: 3/28/2018)
Guest: Christofer Skurka, PhD Candidate, Communication, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University
Comedians like Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver and Seth Meyers are more and more a source of information. Their satire and sarcasm provoke viewers to question what’s going on in the world. How effective is humor in changing people’s minds and behaviors?
The Supreme Court Rules for Privacy
Guest: Cyrus Farivar, Senior Tech Policy Reporter, Ars Technica, Author of “Habeas Data: Privacy vs. the Rise of Surveillance Tech”
Amid several rulings being made by the Supreme Court right now, there's a major privacy ruling on the case of a man named Tim Carpenter, who was convicted of robbing Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores. Police were able to arrest him because they got four months of his cell phone location data from his wireless provider, but got that info without a warrant, which Carpenter says was a violation of his fourth amendment rights. The Supreme Court agreed.
Listen to our conversation with Cyrus Farivar about his book Habeas Data here.
Emerging Technologies to Solve Big Problems
Guest: Jeff Welser, PhD, Vice President and Lab Director, IBM Research - Almaden
It’s fun to fantasize about what kind of technology we may all be using in 20 or 100 years, but at the rate things are going there will be new technologies reshaping business and society even five years from now. The folks at IBM make regular predictions along those lines: 5 technologies coming out of its global network of science labs that that will be changing our lives in 5 years.
Photo Storage in DNA
Guest: Luis Ceze, PhD, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
As a human race, we've used cave walls, tablets, scrolls, flash drives, and the "cloud" to store information. But even digital information, thousands of years from now, will be lost. Nature, on the other hand, has perfected a data storage system that can withstand all kinds of conditions for millennia: DNA.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of “The Apple Seed” on BYUradio
Sam Payne shares bluegrass music by David Holt and the Lightning Bolts and Josh Goforth.
Lab-Grown Diamonds
Guest: Brenda Harwick, Manager of On Campus and Laboratory Gemology Instruction, GIA World Headquarters
Diamonds are expensive, not just for their beauty but for their rarity. The diamond industry is having a bit of an existential crisis right now because scientists have figured out how to make diamonds in a laboratory identical to those found in nature but sell for a 10th of the price.
Sustainable Urban Development
Guest: Douglas Farr, President of Farr Associates, Author of Sustainable Nation
Urbanization is the technical term for what’s happening in countries all over the world – but especially here in the US: more and more people live in cities. Not just cities, but big ones, with traffic, pollution, wealthy neighborhoods and desperately poor ones. Urban design architect Douglas Farr argues cities can become more equitable, sustainable, walkable, and liveable one well-designed building and public space at a time.
Reuniting Immigrant Families Separated at the Border
Guest: Jodi Goodwin, Immigration Attorney, Member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association
The head of US Customs and Border Protection says his officers have temporarily stopped prosecuting everyone who crosses the border illegally, while authorities figure out how to carry on with the Trump Administration’s zero-tolerance policy. Jodi Goodwin is an immigration lawyer based in Harlingen, Texas who has been working with migrant parents to reunite some of the more than 2,000 migrant children currently in US custody with their parents.
Domino's Pizza is Filling Potholes
Guest: Eric Norenberg, City Manager, Milford, Delaware
Around the city of Milford, Delaware, some nasty potholes caused by a rough winter have been fixed by Domino’s Pizza, who is is handing out $5,000 grants to cities in exchange for publicity. Milford City Manager Eric Norenberg shares the particulars of the deal and why he partnered with the pizza company.
BYU Is Reuniting Lost Soldiers With Their Families
Guest: Jill Crandell, Professor of Family History, BYU; Melanie Torres, Student Researcher, BYU Family History Major
The remains of more than 80,000 American veterans dating back to World War II are lost and still need to be found, identified and returned to their families and the Department of Defense has asked BYU's family history experts for help. BYU genealogy professor Jill Crandell and student researcher Melanie Torres describe their genealogical mission to find the families of lost troops.
American Literature Needs Indie Presses
Guest: Nathan McNamara, Literary Reviewer, National Grant Writer for Reach Out and Read, Freelance Writer
The average American is spending less and less of their leisure time reading, so publishers want to invest in slam-dunk, cash-cow, mass-appeal books. Literary reviewer Nathan McNamara explains why smaller indie publishers and riskier books are the key to better literature and reader engagement.
Why Does Hangry Happen?
Guest: Jennifer MacCormack, PhD Candidate, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Go too long without eating and the tiniest thing can set you off – that's called being 'hangry.' Jennifer MacCormack is a psychology researcher at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and she shares her findings on why we get hangry.
Photos Get in the Way of Memories
Guest: Julia Soares, Graduate Student in Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
“Pictures or it didn’t happen” is the mantra of this social media generation. We document everything from family vacations to what our pet looks like in the morning. But, in a small study out of UC-Santa Cruz, researchers found that when you take a picture of something, you’ll remember fewer details about it than if you put your camera away and just observe it.
Worlds Awaiting: Favorite Books from Childhood
Guest: Rachael Wadham, Host of “World’s Awaiting” on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, Brigham Young University
Rachael Wadham shares a little nostalgia and some favorite novels from when she was a girl (including books by Joan Aiken, Lloyd Alexander, Robin McKinley), as well as some of the psychological research that talks about why the reading we do as children is so powerful.
A Gay Mormon’s Perspective on Faith and Family
Guest: Tom Christofferson, Author of “That We May Be One: A Gay Mormon's Perspective on Faith and Family”
Across the country, conservative religious communities struggle with how to embrace LGBT members. Tom Christofferson is openly gay and an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (in fact, his older brother Todd is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). That combination presents challenges, which he explores in his memoir “That We May Be One.”
Clothing that Works for Disabled Children
Guest: Sasha Radwan, Founder of Special Kids Company
Dressing a child or teen with special needs can be tricky. Shirts don’t lay down flat over feeding tubes. If teens need to wear diapers, clothes their size aren’t made to accommodate that. Special Kids Company sells clothes for kids and teens with special needs.
Language Skills in Elementary Students
Guest: Amy Pace, PhD, Assistant Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington
Pre-schoolers need to know basic math and reading skills, and how to follow directions. But if there’s one thing parents ought to really focus on with their pre-K kids, it’s language skills. Professor Amy Pace asserts the importance of language as the best predictor of a child’s success in later grades.
What it Means to be American
Guest: Benjamin Park, Assistant Professor of History, Sam Houston State University, Author of "American Nationalisms: Imagining Union in the Age of Revolutions”
It’s pretty clear we don’t all agree today on politics and policies, but have we ever agreed on the common values that America stands for? Ben Park has written a whole book about the topic.
Parent Previews – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Will we never learn that tinkering with dinosaur DNA is a bad idea? Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews.com gives a review of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
The Garbage Revolt in Russia
Guest: Laura Henry, PhD, Associate Professor of Government, Bowdoin University
Vladimir Putin has a tight grip on Russia and recently won re-election by a wide margin. But people living in suburbs around Moscow are complaining – and even protesting in the streets – about the city’s garbage being dumped in their communities.
A Daughter Remembers BYU Football Coaching Legend LaVell Edwards
Guest: Ann Edwards Cannon, Columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, Author of “I’ll Tell You What. . .”
To BYU football fans, the enduring image of the team’s legendary coach is him standing on the sidelines, arms crossed, face so stern he’s almost scowling – even when his team is winning. LaVell’s daughter Ann Edwards Cannon creates an entirely different portrait of "Laughing LaVell" in her new collection of essays called, "I'll Tell You What. . . ."
A Single View
Guest: Amy Harris, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University, Author of “A Single View: Family Life and the Unmarried in Georgian England”
The marriage rate in America is at its lowest point in at least 150 years, with barely half of adults in the US married today. BYU history professor Amy Harris has delved deeply into the story of eight siblings in a 1700s English family and their striking singleness, despite considerable wealth, charm and success in life. The Single Sharps of Georgian England shed new light on the history of singlehood, marriage and sibling bonds.
Must the Battle Between Religious Freedom and Equal Rights Be Winner-Take-All?
Guest: Shapri LoMaglio, Vice President for Government and External Relations, Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, Washington, D.C.
A week ago, Canada’s Supreme Court issued a major ruling that is expected to having rippling effects across North America. The case involves a private Christian university in Vancouver called Trinity Western, which planned to open a law school, but has been stymied by the regional law society’s refusal to give accreditation. The reason is that the law society objects to Trinity Western’s mandatory code of conduct for students and employees which prohibits extramarital sex and does not recognize gay marriage. The law society says that discriminates against LGBT people. Canada’s Supreme Court agreed. Faith-based institutions across the US and Canada were watching this case closely.
The Hijab in the United States
Guest: Loren Marks, PhD, Professor of Family Life, Brigham Young University
The traditional Muslim headscarf, called the hijab, is often misunderstood, which is why New York resident Nazma Khan started World Hijab Day five years ago. From that sprung the 30-day Hijab Challenge during the month of Ramadan – which just concluded. Women of different faiths from all over the world wore the hijab in a show of solidarity. Part of the American Families of Faith survey project here at BYU has included interviews with devout American Muslim women about why they wear the hijab.
Is College for Everyone?
Guest: Alex Bernadotte, MA, Founder and CEO of “Beyond 12”
A college education remains one of the best ways for a young person to rise out of poverty. But how committed are we, really, to the idea that every child should have a chance at college? And is it enough just to get kids to college? Students from disadvantage background – especially those who are the first to go to college in their families – are far more likely to drop out before college graduation.
REWIND Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (Originally aried 12/5/2017)
Guests: Cheryl Haggard, Founding Parent of “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep”; Cliff Lawson, Volunteer Photographer
One of the hardest things parents hope they never have to face, is the death of a child. When a baby is stillborn, or dies soon after birth, that grief is complicated by the fact that there was never really time to make memories. A nonprofit called, “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” connects grieving parents with volunteer professional photographers to help parents preserve those fleeting last moments with a child.
Click here to learn more about “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.”
REWIND Avoiding Everyday Disasters (Originally aired 1/31/2018)
Guest: Aviva Patz, Deputy Editor, Reader’s Digest Online
Some of us can't resist those stories on our social media feeds offering simple tricks to make everyday life better. If you love a good “life hack,” the new Reader’s Digest book of tricks for “Avoiding Everyday Disasters” is for you. How not to go blind from staring at a computer screen. How to reheat leftovers so they actually taste good. How to score a good parking spot in a crowded lot. How to wash a window without leaving streaks. How to chop an onion without tears.
REWIND Celebrity Chef Kelsey Nixon (Originally aired 2/27/2018)
Guest: Kelsey Nixon, Chef, Author of “Kitchen Confidence”
Before Kelsey Nixon had her own show on the Cooking Channel, she was a BYU student making cooking videos about quick meals for college students. Then she was a contestant on season 4 of Food Network Star. She didn’t win, but she did impress chef judge Bobby Flay enough to get her own show anyway – “Kelsey’s Essentials” on the Cooking Channel. Then came her cookbook “Kitchen Confidence” and then another Cooking Channel show called “Kelsey’s Homemade.”
Immigration and Family Separation
Guest: Sarah Pierce, Policy Analyst, US Immigration Program, Migration Policy Institute
US immigration policy is Top of Mind today. President Trump has just signed an executive order to end the forced separation of migrant families at the US-Mexico border. It’s quite a reversal after days of defending the policy and blaming Democrats for bad immigration laws that forced his hand. Since early May, 2,342 children have been separated from their parents after crossing the southern US border, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
From the Vaults- Class Notes From A.D. 370
Guest: Lincoln H. Blumell, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University
Among the ancient treasures housed in BYU’s Special Collections vault is a piece of papyrus that contains the notes of a student who attended the lecture of a famous religious scholar in early Christianity. The document has an incredible discovery story involving a cave and a group of soldiers during World War II who had no idea what they’d uncovered.
Ketchup: The Perfect, American Condiment
Guest: Amy Bentley, PhD, Professor of Food Studies, New York University
Ketchup is one of the most popular condiments in American restaurants. It pairs well with French fries and burgers. What makes ketchup so appealing to American taste buds? The Chinese actually made it first - though they left out the tomatoes and used fermented fish instead. So really, can you even call that ketchup?
Amy Bentley is also the author of, “Inventing Baby Food: Taste, health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet.” Click here to listen to our interview about her book.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of “The Apple Seed” on BYUradio
Sam Payne shares a work entitled, "Wood and Nails" by storyteller Michael Reno Harrell.
Unprisoned: Stories from the System
Guest: Eve Abrams, Lead Producer of the Radio Show “Unprisoned”, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation “Artist as Activist” Fellow
About one in every hundred people in Louisiana and Oklahoma are behind bars. In a country that sends more people per-capita than any other, these two states are competing for the incarceration capital of the world. Eve Abrams is producer of the “Unprisoned” podcast, which airs on WWNO public radio in New Orleans. It tells the stories of individuals impacted by the criminal justice system and mass incarceration in Louisiana.
Preserving the Letterpress
Guests: Erin Beckloff, Co-Director of “PRESSING ON: The Letterpress Film”; Gregory Walters, Long-time Printer, Featured in the Documentary
Computers and easy-to-use software have turned the whole world into graphic designers capable of making a decent poster or party invitation from a vast array of templates. So maybe that’s why there’s such a fascination right now with old-school printing and design. Owning a vintage letterpress bestows all kinds of hipster cred.
“Pressing On” is now available on iTunes and Amazon.
Bias and Insubordination at the FBI
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
Members of Congress have spent the last two days pressing FBI director Christopher Wray about evidence of negligence, insubordination and a culture of leaks documented in a report by the Inspector General of the Justice Department. The report looked specifically at how the FBI handled its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while Secretary of State. There’s ammunition for politicians of all stripes in this report. It includes scathing criticism of former FBI director James Comey as insubordinate in his decision to make several public disclosures about the Clinton email investigation at crucial moments during the 2016 presidential election. The report also details inconsistency in how the FBI handled Clinton investigation compared to the investigation that was also underway at the time into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia.
The Art of Poetry for Worship
Guest: Karen Lynn Davidson, PhD, Former English Professor at BYU, Former Member of LDS General Music Committee, and Author of “O Savior Thou Who Wearest a Crown” and “Each Life That Touches Ours for Good”
Sunday worship for many Americans includes hymn singing. What makes a good hymn? And how is writing a hymn different from just writing a poem? Karen Lynn Davidson is a scholar of the hymn writing process and a writer of hymns herself. Two of hers are included in the hymnal used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – a collection she helped develop, in fact. This week, the LDS Church announced plans to revise the current hymnal in the next few years “to unify members and reflect the needs of members around the world.”
The Marshmallow Test Revisited
Guest: Tyler Watts, PhD, Research Assistant Professor in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University
Thanks to something called the Marshmallow Test, it’s a widely-known fact that kids who are able to exercise a bit of self-control as toddlers will have more success in life – they’ll get better standardized test scores, do better in college and even in their careers. But a team of researchers recently attempted to replicate that original Marshmallow test published in 1990 and found the link between success in life and being able to resist the temptation of a fluffy marshmallow as a toddler is not nearly as strong as we thought.
Big Pharma and Generics
Guest: Jim Ruble, PharmD, JD, Professor of Pharmacy and Healthcare Law, University of Utah
Americans typically pay much higher prices for prescription drugs than patients in other countries – especially name-brand drugs. Which is why so many of us urge our doctors to prescribe generic drugs whenever possible. And that’s also why drug companies use lots of strategies to keep generic versions of their big money-making drugs off the market. What’s the fairest way to honor the investment drug companies make in developing new medicine, while also encouraging competition to keep prices in check?
Unmasking Beloved Comedian Robin Williams
Guest: Dave Itzkoff, New York Times Culture Reporter, Author of “Robin”
It’s been nearly four years since Robin Williams died of suicide. An autopsy later revealed he had an undiagnosed, progressive form of dementia known to cause depression and even hallucinations. Might that have contributed to his suicide? In death – and in life - Robin Williams was an enigma. Who was behind all the frenetic jokes and accents? When he wasn’t being funny for the world, who was he?
No More Insulin Shots for Neonatal Diabetics
Guest: Pamela Bowman, MBBS, Clinical Research Fellow, University of Exeter Medical School
Treating babies for neonatal diabetes has traditionally required giving them regular shots of insulin, a terrible task for both parents and baby. Now new research out of Europe signals an end to these shots.
Trump’s Summits, Colombian and Turkish Elections
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Each month Quinn Mecham joins us to recap three events happening internationally that are worth a closer look. Here we discuss President Trump’s involvement in the G7 summit in Canada and the US-North Korea summit in Singapore, Columbia’s presidential election, and the upcoming Turkish elections.
Cracking the Boy Code
Guest: Adam Cox, PhD, Clinical Psychologist, and Author, "Cracking the Boy Code"
Somewhere between the ages of 10 and 13, your energetic, playful son may morph into a sullen adolescent who rarely makes eye contact and who grunts as a primary form of communication. Stumped, parents often vacillate between bribing and threatening to motive their sons to do something meaningful, or at least TALK to the family again. Adam Cox has spent decades talking with boys in and out of therapy, and he helps parents navigate the minefields of the middle school and teen years with their sons.
The Creative Curve
Guest: Allen Gannett, Founder and CEO of TrackMaven, Author of “The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea at the Right Time”
In 1990, J. K. Rowling was sitting on a train from Manchester to London, and she said that “the idea for Harry Potter fell into [her] head.” Fell into her head. If you dream of being a published writer, those might be discouraging words to hear. How many of us have gotten a brainstorm like the wizarding world of Harry Potter? And so, we often quit and give up on our creative dreams—but we shouldn’t.
Parent Previews – Incredibles 2
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
It was an incredible weekend for Disney-Pixar’s Incredibles 2, breaking the ticket sales record for the best animated film opening of all time and best debut for a PG-rated film. The sequel starts with the family of superheroes forced to hide their powers because their attempts to thwart evil have failed. People see superheroes as a menace to society. But it's time for the Supers to come out of the shadows.
Tech Transfer – Turning Waste into Gold
Guest: Mike Alder, Director of BYU Technology Transfer Office; Brian Woodfield, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, BYU
Throughout the ages, alchemists have sought to turn common, inexpensive metals into precious gold. They often turned to magic and mysticism but never did manage to turn iron into gold. Chemists at BYU are doing a form of alchemy involving valuable petroleum products like diesel fuel and lubricants. Typically, you’d need a barrel of oil drilled out of the earth to make that stuff. But BYU chemist Brian Woodfield can make diesel fuel or paraffin wax out of cow manure and human sewage. No petroleum required.
More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.
Life Inside North Korea
Guests: Ji-Yeon Song and Doo-Hyeon Kim, Raised in North Korea, Currently Reside in Provo, Utah
As President Trump heads into an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, Doo-Hyeon Kim and Ji-Yeon Song are watching with great interest. They were raised in North Korea, but managed to escape several years ago. The young couple now lives here in Provo, Utah and we invited them into our studio. Because they’re still working to master English, some of what Kim and Song shared with us came from written answers they’d prepared. What you’re about to hear is a rare bit of insight into life inside a country closed-off from the outside world and notorious for its treatment of civilians.
Poverty in Suburbia
Guests: Scott W. Allard, PhD, Professor of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington; Daniel J. Evans, Endowed Professor of Social Policy, University of Washington
America’s suburbs were born of America’s middle class growth after World War II. Poverty and crime came to be seen as mainly inner-city problems. But today, poor people are just as likely to be living in the suburbs as they are in urban centers.
Preventing Suicide
Guest: Michael Staley, Suicide Prevention Research Coordinator, Utah’s Medical Examiner’s Office
Over the last decade and a half, the suicide rate in America has risen 30 percent. Every state but Nevada saw an increase in its suicide rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same week those numbers were reported, two celebrities died of suicide, driving home the urgent need for a better prevention strategy. How can we prevent suicide?
If you or someone you know need help, call the 24-Hour National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
The Worker’s Cup
Guest: Adam Sobel, Director, “The Workers Cup”
The World Cup gets underway in Russia this week, but for years now workers have already been at work in Qatar, building the stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. It’s exhausting work in the dust and heat, and they live in labor camps, which contain nearly 60 percent of Qatar’s population. But a few of them have gotten a glimpse of glory playing in a soccer tournament in the very stadiums that will house the World Cup. Filmmaker Adam Sobel documented this tournament in his new film, “The Worker’s Cup,” which just opened in New York and Los Angeles last weekend ahead of a nationwide rollout.
Parent Previews—Ocean’s 8
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews reviews “Ocean’s 8.”
Chemicals in Fast Food Wrappers (Originally aired: Feb. 14, 2017)
Guest: Graham Peaslee, PhD, Professor of Experimental Nuclear Physics, University of Notre Dame
When fast-food restaurants had to start posting calorie counts in their menus, it took some fun out of treating yourself to that cheeseburger, fries and shake. And, now comes word that the stuff those treats come wrapped also contain chemicals that carry serious health risks.
Research out of Notre Dame examined more than 400 packaging materials used to wrap everything from sandwiches to desserts. Nearly half contained fluorinated chemicals that can stay in the body long after you've licked your fingers.
New Way to Prescribe Antidepressants
Guest: Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, MD, Betty Jo Hay Distinguished Chair in Mental Health, Founding Director of Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
There are dozens and dozens of different drugs available to treat depression, but anyone who’s ever been prescribed one knows the process involves a lot of guesswork and months of waiting to see—is this drug helping? Is it making things worse? Can I live with the side-effects? Psychiatrist Madhukar Trivedi is trying to develop a blood test or brain scan that could cut through all the guessing and help doctors prescribe the right anti-depressant every time.
From Home-Schooled Survivalist to Cambridge PhD
Guest: Tara Westover, Author of “Educated”
Tara Westover was born in Idaho in the mid-1980s to survivalist parents who didn’t believe in public schooling or going to doctors. She spent her days working in her father’s junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a talented, self-taught herbalist and midwife. She had no formal education – and not much in the way of home-schooling, either – but Tara Westover somehow managed to get into BYU, and then Cambridge University, where she ultimately earned a PhD. Her memoir, "Educated," has become a sensation, and it’s a New York Times Bestseller.
How Comedy Took Over Our Culture
Guest: Ken Jennings, Jeopardy! Champion and New York Times Best-Selling Author of “Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture”
If you can believe it, there was a time – back in the Mad Men days – when advertising was not supposed to be funny. Neither were politicians or pastors, news reports or airline safety videos. So why is it that today, comedy is our favorite currency? And are we getting to the point where we’ve taken comedy too far?
Education Key to Security in Pakistan
Guest: Tariq Banuri, PhD, Professor of Economics, Director of The U.S.-Pakistan Centers for Advanced Studies in Water, University of Utah, and Newly Appointed Commissioner of Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission
Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world and an important partner for the United States in a region fraught with insecurity and terrorism. Since January, the US has been withholding security funding from Pakistan, hoping to pressure Pakistan to target terrorists on its soil who are killing Americans in Afghanistan. Pakistan has suffered from terror attacks, too – especially at schools where Taliban militants have killed hundreds in recent years. Why schools? Well, a strong education is fundamental to a country’s stability.
Funeral Potatoes and Doomsday Prep
Guest: Mark Augason, President of Blue Chip Group and Augason Farms
Wal-Mart did an ad campaign for a freeze-dried casserole dish recently that caused a lot of consternation. People were suddenly seeing ads on Facebook for “Funeral Potatoes” and wondering what kind of sick joke the store was playing. “Is Wal-Mart threatening me?” some mused. Why would a marketing team choose such a morbid name? Well, it was all just a misunderstanding. In Utah, Idaho and other Mormon enclaves, funeral potatoes are simply what you call a baked dish of potatoes, cheese and cream soup topped with cornflakes. It’s the edible embodiment of a warm hug – which is one reason they’re so popular at funeral receptions. Hence the name.
Why We Should Listen to the Bees
Guests: Co-Authors of "Listening to the Bees": Mark Winston, PhD, Professor and Senior Fellow at the Center for Dialogue and Professor of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University; Renée Sarojini Saklikar, JD, Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey, British Columbia, and Instructor of Creative Writing, Simon Fraser University and Vancouver Community College
If you ever came upon a swarm of bees, your first reaction would be to back slowly away. But poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar and biologist Mark Winston make the case in their new book for “Listening to the Bees” more closely. Bees can teach us quite a bit about being better humans.
REWIND The Hoxne Hoard (Originally aired 1/31/18)
Guest: Peter Guest, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology, Director of Postgraduate School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University in Wales
Decades ago, in a village called Hoxne, near Suffolk, England, a man set out with a metal detector to find his lost hammer in a field. He eventually found it, but first, he stumbled on the largest Roman treasure cache ever discovered in Britain. Archaeologists have been puzzling over the “Hoxne Hoard” ever since.
REWIND: VentureGirls (Originally aired 3/5/18)
Guest: Cristal Glangchai, PhD, Founder and CEO, VentureLab, Author of “Venture Girls,” Director of Blackstone LaunchPad, University of Texas at Austin, Director of Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange, UT Austin
Women hold only a quarter of the jobs in science, technology, engineering, or math (or STEM) fields, according to the US Department of Commerce. There have been all sorts of initiatives across the country to boost that number, but Cristal Glangchai says we haven’t gotten to the root of the problem: teaching young girls to be entrepreneurs. So she founded the non-profit “VentureLab” to do that and her new book is called “Venture Girls.”
Learn more about VentureLab here.
REWIND Travel as a Political Act (Originally 2/21/2018)
Guest: Rick Steves, Author of “Travel As a Political Act: How to Leave Your Baggage Behind”
Sometimes we consider vacation travel as a break from daily life - a way to relax, see cool things, eat good food. And often, Americans have a “Rick Steves Travel Guide” in their bag to make the logistics of the trip go smoothly. But if he’s being honest, Rick Steves doesn’t care so much about how well your trip goes logistically. He’s more interested in what you learn from your travel and how you put that to use. Rick Steves’ manifesto “Travel as a Political Act” calls for Americans to take vacations that are more challenging – maybe a little less consumed with eating and site-seeing, and more focused on understanding other cultures.
President's Pardon Power Has No Limits
Guest: Wayne McCormack, JD, Professor of Law, SJ Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
At the urging of reality star Kim Kardashian, President Trump today commuted the life sentence of a 63-year-old woman convicted of drug charges. White House aides tell CNN and the Washington Post that other pardons or acts of clemency could soon be on the way. Last week, Trump pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza for a conviction of making illegal campaign contributions. Others he’s pardoned include former Vice President Dick Cheney’s adviser Scooter Libby and former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio who had been convicted of disobeying a judge’s order to stop racially profiling people suspected of being in the US illegally. Trump has also hinted he may pardon Martha Stewart for her insider trading conviction and Rob Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who is serving a 14-year sentence for convictions related to trying to sell President Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Trump also tweeted this week that he believes he has the “absolute power” to pardon himself, but said he wouldn’t do so because he’s done nothing wrong. Just how far does the President’s pardon power go?
Fiction Review: "Varina"
Guest: Jennifer Adams, Author, "Baby Lit: Peter Pan" and Staff, The King's English Bookshop
Charles Frazier’s hugely successful historical novel “Cold Mountain” is about a Confederate soldier who walks away from the war because he no longer believes in it. Frazier’s latest historical novel, “Varina,” is also set in the Civil War, and in this story we get inside the head of Varina Davis, the wife of the president of the southern Confederate States, Jefferson Davis. Despite being First Lady of the Confederacy, she doesn’t believe in the cause of the South either.
Tech Addiction Myths Debunked
Guest: Christopher Ferguson, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Stetson University
If you feel the urge to check your phone, you may be familiar with the twinge of guilt, the thought that you may be addicted to your device. Well, you can relax, says psychologist Christopher Ferguson. Most of the fear about technology addiction is hype at this point. And no, your cell phone is not as addictive as cocaine.
Apps for Kids Are Not All Bad
Guest: Alexis Hiniker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Human Computer Interaction in the Information School, and Director, User Empowerment Lab, University of Washington
Phones, tablets, computers and game consoles are so ubiquitous that it’s impossible to shield kids from their allure. Parents feel like they’re losing the war over screen time – they’re certainly losing many daily battles with their kids over when to put the device down. And the people who design the apps and games on those devices are tipping the scales against parents. Alexis Hiniker’s research in Human Computer Interaction at the University of Washington shows how much difference some simple design changes could make for families.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne shares "State Fair" by Keven Kling. Kevin Kling is an author, playwright, and storyteller.
Dream Teams
Guest: Shane Snow, Tech Journalist, Entrepreneur, and Author of “Dream Teams: Working Together Without Falling Apart”
As dream teams go, this one’s legendary: the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team. The Miracle on Ice, it was called. A bunch of American college players somehow defeats the four-time defending gold-medal winning Soviet Team by one goal in the final seconds of the game. But, what if the Americans weren’t the dream team in this scenario? What if the Russians are the team we should be taking our cues from? That’s Shane Snow’s argument in his new book, “Dream Teams: Working Together Without Falling Apart.”
Trump Is Making Enemies of America’s Allies
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, BYU
As President Trump heads to the annual summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, he won’t get a very warm reception. A number of Trump’s moves over the last year have angered America’s closest allies. Just last week, President Trump drew outrage from Canada, Mexico and the European Union by putting an extra tax on all steel and aluminum those countries sell into the US. The EU is planning to tax iconic US products including motorcycles, denim, cranberry juice and peanut butter in retaliation.
The Science of Plot Twists
Guest: Vera Tobin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University, and Author of “Elements of Surprise: Our Mental Limits and the Satisfactions of Plot”
Have you ever flipped to the end of a book just to find out what happens before you commit to reading it? Believe it or not, spoilers can actually enhance the audience’s enjoyment of a film or book. Cognitive scientist Vera Tobin explains why.
Politically Linked Charities
Guest: Raymond Fisman, PhD, Slater Family Professor in Behavioral Economics, Boston University
It’s not that hard to track how much businesses donate directly to campaigns and politicians, since that information has to be disclosed. But when businesses donate to a politician’s favorite charity, connecting the dots is a little trickier. Should that kind of giving be considered political, too? And disclosed like campaign donations are?
The Suffocating Sea: The Dead Zone in the Arabian Sea
Guest: Bastien Queste, PhD, Marine Biogeochemist and Research Fellow at the Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia
Pirates and political conflict make a large stretch of the Arabian Sea dangerous for scientists concerned about the water quality there. So a team of researchers deployed human-sized underwater drones to get a closer look at the problems lurking below the water in the Gulf of Oman, which is bordered by Oman, Iran, Pakistan and India. Their findings show a dead zone that’s grown to roughly the size of Florida.
ChatterBaby: An Instruction Manual for Your Baby?
Guest: Ariana Anderson, PhD, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehvioral Science, UCLA, and the Director of the Laboratory of Computational Neuropsychology in the Medical Psychology-Neuropsychology Division, UCLA
Babies don’t come with instruction manuals, so one of the first challenges for new parents is learning how to interpret their child’s cries. Now there’s an app for that called ChatterBaby. UCLA statistician Ariana Anderson has created an algorithm that can tell the difference between a cry of pain and a cry that means “Feed me!”
Mother of a Potential Shooter
Guests: Liza Long, Freelance Writer, Mental Health Activist, and Author of “The Price of Silence: A Mom’s Perspective on Mental Illness”; Eric Walton, Son of Liza Long, High School Grad, and Presenter of the TED talk “Surviving With Mental Illness”
Investigators are still trying to sort out why a 17-year-old at Santa Fe High School in Texas allegedly opened fire, killing ten people and injuring 13, last month. The shooter’s family said in a statement that the details of the shooting are “incompatible with the boy we love.” Police and people who knew the alleged shooter say there were no obvious warning signs of what he intended to do. That’s unusual. There are almost always warning signs. Six years ago when a troubled young man who exhibited a lot of warning signs killed 20 first graders and six employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Liza Long wrote a blog post about her own mentally ill son that went viral. The blog had a provocative title, "I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother," a reference to the Sandy Hook shooter.
Liza Long’s son did not become a school shooter, but it’s been a painful road getting him the help he needs for his mental illness. She shares her experience as a parent and advocate, and her son, Eric Walton, shares his personal experience with mental illness.
Masterpiece Cakeshop Wins at Supreme Court
Guest: Brett Scharffs, JD, Rex E. Lee Chair and Professor of Law at BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School, and Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies
The Supreme Court ruled on a major religious freedom case today. Seven of the court’s nine justices sided with the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, who refused to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple because he believed doing so would violate his religious beliefs.
Methane Dunes on Pluto
Guest: Jani Radebaugh, PhD, Associate Professor of Geology, BYU
New Horizons spacecraft sent back the first high-resolution photos of Pluto back in 2015. Looking at these pictures, BYU planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh thought something seemed familiar. Parts of Pluto looked an awful lot like the dunes of Death Valley, California, where she often takes her students on field trips. But Pluto was supposed to a frozen planet, not one with a shifting surface.
Using Glaciers to Track Ancient Economies
Guest: Joe McConnell, PhD, Research Professor of Hydrology at the Desert Research Institute
At its height, the Roman Empire left its mark everywhere from England, to Portugal, to Iraq, Morocco, and the isles of the Mediterranean. Oh, and Greenland. Emperors like Nero and Julius Caesar never actually ruled over Greenland, but a record of the Roman economy’s strength dating back thousands of years is embedded in Greenland’s ancient ice.
Killing Cancer with Arsenic-Laced Fat Bubbles
Guest: Thomas O’Halloran, PhD, Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and Director, Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University?
The goal of treating cancer is to kill off the harmful cells without hurting the healthy ones. Most cancer treatments can’t do that very well and a lot of healthy cells get caught in the crossfire. So scientists are trying to figure out how to drop dangerous drugs like a special delivery from UPS right on the doorstep of a cancer cell. Chemist Thomas O’Halloran is experimenting with special deliveries of arsenic wrapped in tiny bubbles of fat.
The New Statement Piece: Graduation Caps
Guest: Sheila Bock, PhD, Associate Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Commencement ceremonies are an exercise in uniformity. Seen from the front, the graduates are an indistinguishable sea dressed in identical caps and gowns. But look at a group of 2018 graduates from the back and their individuality shouts at you from the flat tops of their caps. Folklorist Sheila Bock has documented the rise of this graduation cap-decorating fad.
Share photos of decorated mortarboard caps for Bock’s research here.
Parent Previews—Adrift
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
In 1983, 23-year old Tami Oldham and her British fiancé Richard Sharp were sailing a yacht from Tahiti to San Diego when they ran into Hurricane Raymond. The new film "Adrift" stars Shailene Woodley as the young woman, lost at sea with a badly injured fiancé and slim chance of rescue.
Tech Transfer—Wireless Security
Guests: Willie Harrison, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, BYU; Dave Brown, BYU Technology Transfer Office
You’ve likely overheard someone talking on their phones at full volume while they walk around the grocery store or down the street, which suggests that people aren’t too concerned about the prospect of their cell conversations being eavesdropped on. But in some fields—like if you work at the State Department or CIA—secure wireless communications are a must. And in the not-too-distant future we’ll all have an incentive to be concerned about wireless security when everything from the garage door to your dishwasher is connected to the internet.
Race, Religion and the LDS Priesthood
Guests: Marcus Martins, PhD, Professor of Religion, BYU-Hawaii; Eddie Gist, Former Leader of the Genesis Group; LaShawn Williams, EdD, Professor of Social Work, Utah Valley University, and Host of the Racism 101 Podcast at RationalFaiths.com; Matthew Bowman, PhD, Professor of Religious and Cultural History, Henderson State University, and Author of “Christian” and “The Mormon People”
Eight in ten American church-goers attend services at a place dominated by a single racial or ethnic group. Here we discuss how Christian churches in America have grappled with racial integration. And we’ve chosen today to have this conversation because The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is marking a key moment in its own reckoning with race: forty years ago – on June 1, 1978 - the Church lifted a ban that had been in place for a century which prevented black members of the Church from holding the priesthood or entering LDS temples.
A Geek in China
Guest: Matthew Christensen, PhD, Director of the Chinese Flagship Program, Professor, Asian and Near Eastern Languages, BYU, and Author, “A Geek in China”
China is involved in much of the Trump Administration’s maneuvering right now – both on trade and North Korea. But, despite its prominence on the world stage and prevalence in our daily lives as the manufacturer of basically everything, China is not well-understood by Americans. Here we explore “what makes China quintessentially China.”
Hurricane Maria’s True Toll on Puerto Rico
Guest: Alexis R. Santos-Lozada, PhD, Director of Graduate Studies in Applied Demography, Department of Sociology and Criminology, and Research Affiliate in the Population Research Institute (PRI), Penn State University
When the Category 4 Hurricane Maria touched down on September 20th of last year, it caused extensive damage. Many on the island were without electricity for months. And yet, miraculously, the Puerto Rican government said only 64 people lost their lives in the storm. Then, in December, demographer Alexis Santos, of Penn State University, published a study estimating at least a thousand people died because of the storm. This week, a new estimate published in the New England Journal of Medicine by a team at Harvard places the death toll around 4,500. That would make Hurricane Maria the deadliest in US history, outpacing even Katrina, which killed 1,833 in 2005.
How Would Housing Assistance Reforms Affect Poor Americans?
Guest: Alex Schwartz, PhD, Professor at Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at the New School, and Author of “Housing Policy in the United States”
Housing in America is expensive and the national system to subsidize rent for low-income Americans doesn’t come close to filling the need. Only one in four families who qualify to receive housing assistance actual gets it, the rest are stuck on waiting lists that are years long. A new proposal from the Trump Administration aims to put the housing assistance system on a more financially sustainable path. But the suggested changes will mean tripling the rent currently paid by the poorest families. That’s attracted a lot of criticism from housing advocates and experts.
Rethinking How to Teach the Holocaust
Guest: Alan Marcus, PhD, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Connecticut, and Faculty Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Earlier this month, Connecticut passed a law requiring public schools to teach students about the Holocaust and other genocides that have taken place. Legislators in more than a dozen other states are looking to sponsor similar legislation. Schools may soon need to rethink how they teach Holocaust history as the remaining survivors pass away.
Do Brain Lesions Make Criminals? (Originally Aired 1/29/2018)
Guest: Michael Fox, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School and Co-Director of the Deep Brain Stimulation Program, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
In 1966, a lone gunman named Charles Whitman perpetrated what’s often considered the first public mass shooting in modern America. He climbed a 300-foot tower at the University of Texas and shot 36 people, killing 14 of them before he was fatally shot by police. An autopsy found a tumor in Whitman’s brain, which some scientists believe may have contributed to his murderous behavior. We know that brain injuries and lesions can change someone’s personality, but can it make someone a violent criminal?
Texting and Walking (Originally aired 3/6/2018)
Guest: Tony Leonard, Captain, Georgia Tech Police Department
Texting while driving is terrible. We all know that. Texting while walking isn’t as bad, is it? Well it’s problematic enough that if you do it while crossing the street in Honolulu you could get a ticket. Quite a few other US cities are thinking about outlawing texting while walking – especially when you’re walking across a street. At Georgia Tech, campus police have started a campaign to get students to look up from their phones while walking.
Charming, Silly Poems About Life for Kids and Kids-at-Heart (Originally aired 12/14/2017)
Guest: Chris Harris, Comedy Writer, TV Producer, Author of “I’m Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups”
Chris Harris’ book “I’m Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups” is sure to make you laugh. It’s illustrated and, ostensibly for kids, but also immature grown-ups, as the book’s subtitle indicates. Chris Harris is a comedy writer and TV producer who worked on The Late Show with David Letterman, among other shows. This is his first foray into children’s poetry.
With North Korea Summit Trump Channels Clinton Administration
Guest: Eric Hyer, PhD, Associate Professor of International Relations of Asia, Brigham Young University, and Author of “The Pragmatic Dragon: China’s Grand Strategy and Boundary Settlements”
President Trump’s summit with North Korea appears to be still in the works for June 12, after the President called it off in a public letter to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un last week. The US currently has a team of diplomats negotiating with North Korean officials in the DMZ and another team of diplomats in Singapore where the meeting is to take place. Meanwhile, one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s top officials is traveling to the US this week to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. That’s an encouraging sign for those hoping the summit happens, since a visit to the US by a senior North Korean official is very rare.
Being Awake While You Sleep
Guest: Daniel Kay, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Brigham Young University
It’s not uncommon for people with insomnia to feel like they’re awake when their brain measurements indicate that they’re technically asleep. What does this dilemma mean for getting a good night sleep?
DNA Tests and IQ
Guest: Catherine Bliss, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, Author of “Social by Nature: The Promise and Peril of Sociogenomics”
As DNA testing becomes more common, researchers are on a quest for “genius genes” that will answer once and for all just how much of a person’s intelligence is inherited and how much is due to environmental factors like schooling or home life. But is that knowledge we need? Could a genetic test for IQ backfire, ethically or morally?
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed on BYUradio
Sam Payne shares a work from Syd Lieberman's collection of stories. The late Syd Lieberman was an internationally acclaimed storyteller, as well as a teacher and author. Learn more about his work here.
Rethinking Poll Reporting
Guest: Stephen Utych, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State University
As an election approaches, more and more press stories start to pop up about who’s leading in the polls. It’s the easiest – and maybe laziest – type of story a political reporter can do. And they should knock it off, according to new guidelines published in the Associated Press style guide for journalists. The guidelines are just the latest development in a year-long reckoning by the press and political polling establishment to come to grips with how they got the 2016 presidential election so wrong.
Melting Soils and Climate Change
Guest: Ben Abbott, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Ecology, Brigham Young University
The ice caps in the Arctic are melting, but so is the permanently frozen soil. And that has the potential to really throw the balance of carbon dioxide out of whack. Why does melting dirt pose a problem for the atmosphere?
Can a President’s Words Be Used in Court?
Guest: Kate Shaw, JD, Associate Professor of Law and the Co-Director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
We’re not used to getting so much unvarnished commentary from a modern US President, so the Supreme Court is now wrestling with how seriously to take President Trump’s words. They’re looking specifically at the President’s frequent campaign rhetoric calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US. Are those comments proof that the travel restrictions Trump enacted shortly after taking office were intended to discriminate against Muslims – and should that invalidate the travel ban?
Also, just last week, a federal judge ruled that the President cannot block people from commenting on or retweeting his Tweets. A number of people who say they’ve been blocked by Trump on Twitter because they’ve criticized or mocked him have brought that lawsuit.
Are Tariffs the Best Way to Win a Trade War with China?
Guests: Eric Priest, LLM, JD, Associate Professor of Law, University of Oregon; Sean Pager, JD, Professor of Law, Michigan State University
The US trade war with China is an on-again, off-again affair. As of today, it’s back on. President Trump announced he is moving ahead with a 25% tariff on $50-billion worth of Chinese imports and says he’ll impose new limits on Chinese investment in American high-tech companies. At the root of Trump’s concern is China’s unfair use of stolen intellectual property, like patented software and designs. The hope is that taxing Chinese products at a higher rate as they come into the US will make it so hard for Chinese companies to compete that China will get serious about enforcing intellectual property protections.
Parent Previews—"Solo"
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
The swaggering mercenary of the Star Wars universe made famous by Harrison Ford got his own origin story movie over the weekend, “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
Showcasing the Dignity of Indigenous People
Guest: Dana Gluckstein, Internationally Acclaimed Photographer, Author of “DIGNITY: In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous People”
As a young woman in her 20s, Dana Gluckstein felt called to travel to remote places and photograph the people she calls “ancient ones.” But not as a documentarian or journalist, but as a bridge between the modern world and disappearing cultures. The portraits of indigenous people she’s taken over decades are intimate and intense – and they’ve earned her international acclaim. More than 50 of the photos are currently on display at the BYU Museum of Art here in Provo through the end of September.
Training Coaches to Spot Child Abuse
Guest: Dawn Anderson-Butcher, PhD, MSW, Professor of Social Work, Executive Director of the LiFEsports Initiative, The Ohio State University
Every summer, hundreds of thousands of kids across the US participate in youth sports camps. The Ohio State University has used its popular Buckeye Sports Camps as an opportunity to train adult coaches and staff on how to recognize and report child abuse and neglect.
Worlds Awaiting: "The Great American Read"
Guest: Rachael Wadham, Host of “World’s Awaiting” on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, Brigham Young University
"The Great American Read" is an eight-part television series that celebrates the power of reading with reference to viewers' selections of their favorite 100 reads.
Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express
Guest: Jim DeFelice, Author of "West Like Lightning," New York Times Best-seslling Co-Author of "American Sniper"
The Pony Express has such a place in American lore that it's inspired countless books and films. But it turns out a lot – maybe most – of what we know about the Pony Express is difficult to verify, because there’s very little historical record of the facts. And also because people have been telling exaggerated tales about it since the day of the first ride on April 3, 1860.
Information on “West Like Lightning” book signing events here.
It's Not a Curse and It Shouldn't Be Taboo
Guest: Sabrina Rubli, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Femme International
Menstruation. That involuntary reaction you probably had when you saw that word is precisely why we’re talking about it today – and precisely why global health organizations are marking Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28. At least half a billion women and girls around the world lack adequate facilities for managing their periods. Consider the consequences of that: One in five girls in India drops out of school because they lack access to toilets and sanitary pads. Up to half of girls in Ethiopia and Bangladesh report missing school because of menstruation. There are also serious health consequences for girls and women who are unable to manage their periods safely.
The Problem With Disposable Period Products
Guest: Myles Elledge, Executive Director for Human Health and the Environment, Biomass Controls LLC, Leader of the Menstrual Hygiene Safe Disposal Project, Funded by the Gates Foundation
In places around the world where people don’t have flushing toilets, running water or regular trash service, the menstrual hygiene piece of the waste stream is often neglected. And it’s a problem that keeps piling up the longer communities go without solutions: Pads and tampons take between 200 and 500 years to biodegrade in a landfill, leaching dangerous chemicals into the soil and water as they do.
Making Reusable Period Products Work for Women
Guest: Celeste Mergens, Founder and CEO, Days for Girls
When Celeste Mergens founded Days for Girls 10 years ago, it was one of the earliest nonprofit organizations to get involved in menstrual hygiene management on a global scale. Mergens says the issue wasn’t on her radar until she began working with an orphanage in Kenya that was struggling to provide for 1,400 children. How were the girls in the orphanage managing their periods? Mergens says the answer shocked her.
Robocalls Are On the Rise
Guest: Margot Saunders, JD, Senior Counsel, National Consumer Law Center
If it feels like you’re getting more robocalls on your cell phone, interrupting you at work, at home and everywhere in between, you’re right. Government regulators and industry experts say there’s been a huge surge in robocalling over the last few years. In February alone, 3 billion robocalls were made. That works out to nine calls for every person in America over the course of a single month. Congress has been holding hearings on the problem lately.
Angel Gowns out of Donated Wedding Gowns
Guest: Diane Dione, Founder and Executive Director of Angel Gowns Foundation
When Diane Dione’s daughter lost a baby who only lived one day, part of the heartbreak was having to shop for a dress to bury the tiny girl in. They nearly didn’t find anything small enough for her, and the trauma of those hours spent shopping in the happy, bubbly world of baby clothes stuck with Dione. So she turned her personal tragedy into a blessing for others with her non-profit “Angel Gowns,” where she and 300-some volunteers transform donated wedding dresses into tiny burial gowns that are given to parents who have lost a baby.
Should Universities Be in the Business of Competitive Sports?
Guest: Rick Eckstein, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, Villanova University, and Author of “How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls' Sports”
As college graduates don caps and gowns to receive their degrees … and start paying off their student loan debt, let’s consider the disparity between what universities are spending on academics and what they’re spending on athletics. Over the last decade, one of those budget lines has remained relatively flat while the other has grown significantly.
Defend Yourself Against Mosquitoes (Originally Aired 2/12/18)
Guest: Clément Vinauger, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry, Virginia Tech
It’s summertime, and that means mosquitos. Researchers are getting to the bottom of why some people attract mosquitoes more than others. And, get this, they’ve done it by putting tiny helmets on mosquitoes. They’ve also figured out that if you swat at a mosquito like crazy, it just might remember that and avoid you later.
Schooling Isn’t Learning (originally Aired 9/12/17)
Guest: Lant Pritchett, PhD, Professor of Practice of International Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Researcher at the Center for Global Development
One of the great international development success stories of the last century is the fact that today practically every child in the world enrolls in school, and most attend at least to the end of primary school. Getting to this place has taken a consistent, global effort. But, for all that schooling, kids are not learning. There are some 250-million children around the world unable to read, write or do basic math, and more than half of them are in school.
Talking to Your Teen About Social Media (Originally aired 9/11/17)
Guest: Ana Homayoun, Author of “Social Media Wellness: Helping Tweens and Teens Thrive in an Unbalanced World”
You’ve heard of Snapchat, but have you ever used it? How about Tumblr, WhatsApp or AskFm? If you’ve got a teen or tween in the house, they know exactly what those sites are and probably use them more than you think. What’s the best way to talk to your kid about what they’re up to on social media, without being overbearing?
Hawaii’s Erupting Volcano
Guest: Estelle Chaussard, PhD, Professor of Geology and Geophysics, State University of New York at Buffalo
Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano continues to erupt. Its eruptions and lava flows have destroyed dozens of homes, released lethal gases and set forests ablaze. As the lava reaches the Pacific Ocean it’s releasing caustic plumes of acid haze. And now, officials say lava is encroaching on a geothermal plant that’s a major source of power on the island, as well as a potential source for toxic gas leaks if breached.
Homeless Youth Are Especially Vulnerable to Human Trafficking
Guest: Debra Schilling Wolfe, MEd, Founding Executive Director of the Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice and Research, University of Pennsylvania
More than a million teenagers under the age of 18 are homeless in the United States and “unaccompanied”– meaning they’ve got no parent or caregiver. They’re fending for themselves in homeless shelters and on the streets – and worrisome new research shows they’re extremely susceptible to human trafficking.
Motherhood and Politics
Guest: Laurel Elder, PhD, Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Hartwick College
In Maryland, Krish Vignarajah is running in the Democratic primary race for governor, and she campaigns on the fact that she’s a woman and mother of a baby. In her campaign ad, she is seen breastfeeding her baby. Here we discuss the way women on the 2018 ballot are tackling perceptions of motherhood and politics.
The Future of A-I
Guest: Miles Brundage, Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, and PhD candidate in Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology, Arizona State University
Artificial intelligence makes it possible for Google and Netflix and other services to learn our preferences, anticipate our needs and make recommendations we often end up loving. Which is great. But what might spammers and hackers do with the same capability? Rather than learning our likes to serve up a new favorite film, they could use artificial intelligence to craft the perfectly targeted, personalized email to get you to click on that infected link.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne of The Apple Seed shares a story.
Can Language Change How We Think?
Guest: Lera Boroditsky, PhD, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California San Diego, and Author of the forthcoming “7,000 Universes: How the Languages We Speak Shape the Way We Think”
In French, there are two forms of the pronoun “you.” There’s “vous,” that’s more formal for when you’re talking to strangers or superiors. And there’s the informal “tu,” for friends and family. But how close do you need to be before making the switch to using “tu” with people? Is it presumptuous to suddenly start using “tu” one day? When a French speaker makes that switch from "vous" to "tu," does it change the way the people in the relationship think about each other?
Are Forests a Renewable Source of Energy?
Guest: William Moomaw, PhD, Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy and Founding Director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and Member of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007
Trees absorb carbon dioxide and make oxygen for us to breathe. Burning wood releases the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. So if we cut down trees to burn for electricity and plant new ones in their place, is the process carbon neutral – basically cancelling out the CO2 effect on the atmosphere? The EPA recently announced a plan to treat the burning of wood harvested from managed forests as renewable energy – similar to solar and wind power. That decision hinges on this question of carbon neutrality.
Venezuela’s Maduro Wins Six More Years
Guest: Kirk Hawkins, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Venezuela’s leftist president Nicolas Maduro easily won another six-year term over the weekend. But the US and other independent observers say the election was a fraud, and yesterday the US imposed new economic sanctions on Venezuela. Also on Monday, 14 nations from the Americas, including Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, vowed to scale back diplomatic relations with Venezuela. Will these efforts to freeze Venezuela’s dictator out of the international community do anything to help the country’s people, who are suffering widespread hunger and lack of basic medical care?
Do Americans Still Believe in God?
Guest: Greg Smith, Associate Director of Research, Pew Research Center
The fastest growing religious group in America is the “nones” – people who believe “nothing in particular.” But most of those folks still believe in God. In fact, nine out of ten Americans believe in some sort of higher power. There’s a lot of difference in the details, though, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. Even among Christians there is a lot of variety in just what they mean when they say they believe in God.
Art Out of Food
Guest: Jason Mecier, Pop Artist
We’ve all been guilty of playing with our food. But Jason Mecier takes it to a whole new level—he’s made a name for himself by creating art out of food. He’s made Kevin Bacon out of bacon, Condoleezza Rice out of rice, and Grumpy Cat out of Friskies cat food… just to name a few.
Up To Us: Youth Engaged with the National Debt
Guest: Evan Rufrano, Junior at State University of New York at Old Westbury, Winner of the Sixth Annual “Up To Us” National Campus Competition
America’s national debt is more than $21 trillion dollars. That large a number is tough to get your head around – even if you check out the US Debt Clock online. There’s a ticker that shows the debt going up at lightning speed as you watch, but it feels like you’re staring at the timer running out on a bomb in a movie. There’s no real sense of what that fast-rising number means or what consequence awaits. College junior Evan Rufrano joined with some of his classmates at the State University of New York at Old Westbury to create a way to get young people thinking about the national debt. Their efforts won the annual “Up to Us” competition sponsored by a bipartisan coalition of advocacy groups concerned about America’s fiscal health.
What is ASMR? Why are People Thrilled by the Sound of Scissors Cutting?
Guest: Craig Richard, PhD, Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy at Shenandoah University, and Founder of the ASMR University website, Researcher at The ASMR Research project, Curator of the "Voices of ASMR" Project, Host of the ASMR University Podcast, Author of “Brain Tingles”
There’s a new advertising gimmick companies like IKEA, Applebee’s and McDonald’s have been using, that involves people – often celebrities – whispering right into a microphone while bed sheets crinkle or meat sizzles loudly in your ears. If you don’t know they’re tapping into a viral online trend, you’ll think it’s really weird. They’re referencing ASMR. But what on Earth is that?
Click here to learn more about ASMR.
The Unveiled Cambridge Library Tower
Guest: Mark Purcell, Deputy Director, Research Collections at the University Library at the University of Cambridge
Most countries have a law that requires at least one copy of every book that’s published in the country to be sent to a central archive. In America, that place is the Library of Congress. In England, there are several libraries that get a copy – one of them is at Cambridge University. And if you’ve ever visited Cambridge you’ve seen the tower that looms over campus – that 17-story tower is where the library has stashed many of those books. It’s been off-limits to the public and rather mysterious for many years. But all summer long, Cambridge Library staff will offer weekly guided tours. They’re calling the exhibit “Tall Tales: Secrets of the Tower.”
If you’re headed to the UK this year, “Tall Tales: Secrets of the Tower” is open until the end of October. Take a virtual tour here.
Worlds Awaiting: Tactile Learning
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of “Worlds Awaiting” on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collection Librarian at BYU
Children learn in different ways. Those who benefit from hands-on learning have often been labelled as having behavioral problems. Here we discuss how to incorporate tactile learning into the classroom and how it can benefit all students.
Cultures Collide at the Royal Wedding
Guest: Gregory Jackson, PhD, Professor of Integrated Studies at Utah Valley University, Host of the “History Doesn’t Suck” Podcast
The royal wedding – watched by nearly 30 million Americans on TV – was a collision of culture. From the British and American accents of the couple, to the contrast of musical styles during the ceremony. Here we discuss the cultural and symbolic contrasts on display during the royal wedding.
Brazilians ‘Right to Beauty’
Guest: Alvaro Jarrin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
Much breathless coverage of the royal wedding focused on Meghan Markle’s simple, elegant dress and makeup that “accentuated her natural beauty” as many reports noted. The concept of “natural beauty” is an interesting one. How does a culture decide what’s beautiful? Meghan Markle is beautiful. She’s also bi-racial, which for a long time in the United States would have disqualified her from the ranks of beauty. Sociologist Alvaro Jarrin studies the changing cultural definitions of beauty, with particular emphasis on Brazil, where race and plastic surgery collide in dramatic ways.
Observing Ramadan in America
Guest: Mohammad Hassan Khalil, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious studies, Director of the Muslim Studies Program, Adjunct Professor of Law, Michigan state University
Muslims around the world have just begun their annual fasting ritual, known as Ramadan. For roughly 30 days, they abstain from food and drink from sun up to sun down. But there’s more to it than simply fasting.
Festival of Choreography Features Women Behind-the-Scenes
Guest: Adam Sklute, Artistic Director of Ballet West
When you hear ballet, you probably think “ballerina" - tutus and point shoes. Women have long been celebrated in the ballet world as dancers and teachers. But it remains relatively rare for women to hold positions behind-the-scenes, choreographing and directing ballet companies. Ballet West in Salt Lake City is currently hosting a group of company led by women from around the country, performing work by female choreographers. The National Choreographic Festival started over the weekend and continues this coming weekend.
Parent Previews—Show Dogs
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer for ParentPreviews.com
The new movie Show Dogs features hip hop musician Ludacris as the voice of Max, a police canine going undercover as a contestant in a dog competition. Max’s human partner is played by Will Arnett, who is the voice of Batman in the LEGO animated movies. But Parent Previews warns a pivotal scene in the movie will raise concerns for parents.
Tech Transfer—Pedal Booster for Young Organists
Guests: Don Cook, Professor of Organ Music, BYU; Mike Alder, BYU Technology Transfer Office
The deepest notes on the organ are made by pressing pedals with your feet. It’s one of the things that makes organ so tricky—playing the keyboard with your feet, while also playing on multiple keyboards with your hands. So what if your legs are a bit shorter than the average adult organs are built for? What if you’re a kid learning to play the organ?
More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.
The Government is Watching You – Is It Legal?
Guest: Cyrus Farivar, Senior Tech Policy Reporter, Ars Technica, and Author of “Habeas Data: Privacy vs. the Rise of Surveillance Tech”
We’re all talking these days about how Facebook is tracking our every online move and using that data for all sorts of stuff. But what does the government – the NSA, the FBI, your local police department – know about us? US laws have not kept up the new technologies being invented to track us. For example, one of the key legal decisions courts still use to decide if the police cross a line in monitoring someone without a warrant dates back to 1966 and involves a microphone taped to the top of a phone booth. Cyrus Farivar details this huge gap between legal reform and the rapid transformation of surveillance technology in his new book, “Habeas Data: Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Tech.”
Hype: What’s Real and What’s Not in Medicine
Guest: Nina Shapiro, MD, Pediatric Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon, and Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, and Author of "Hype: A Doctor's Guide to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims and Bad Advice--How to Tell What's Real and What's Not"
When you hear about some new disease, treatment, promised cure or health trend, what do you do next? Google it? And then it’s a matter of sifting through the flood of information online. Definitive answers are hard to come by. Is buying organic always better for you? Do detoxes work? Does sugar feed cancer cells? Which diet is scientifically proven to bring weight loss? Do I really need to drink 8 glasses of water a day? Is taking vitamins necessary for good health? Can face creams really reverse aging? UCLA Pediatric ear, nose and throat surgeon Nina Shapiro says even doctors like herself fall for hype sometimes. So she’s written a book to help us sort out what’s real and what’s no. It's called “Hype.”
Gina Haspel and America’s Torture History
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
President Trump’s controversial nominee to head the CIA—Gina Haspel—was confirmed by the US Senate today. Haspel is an unusual nominee for several reasons—she’ll be CIA’s first female director. She’s also got a lot more experience working as a spy in the field than previous CIA directors. But most of all, her nomination has drawn renewed attention to America’s use of secret prisons and torture tactics in the fight against terror.
Cancer-Hunting Dogs
Guest: George Preti, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Dermatology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Organic Chemist, Monell Chemical Senses Center
Ovarian cancer is often fatal because there are rarely any early-stage symptoms so it frequently goes undetected until it’s quite advanced.
But an unlikely team of gynecologists, organic chemists, engineers, and veterinarians at the University of Pennsylvania is bringing man’s best friend to the fight. They’ve trained dogs to sniff out ovarian cancer, even in the early stages.
FDA Close to Approving Drug Derived from Marijuana
Guest: Timothy Welty, PharmD, Professor and Chair of Clinical Science, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Drake University
The FDA is on the verge of approving the first prescription drug made from marijuana. The new medicine contains a compound found in marijuana called cannabidiol (CBD) and has been shown to reduce seizures in patients with epilepsy. But unlike other forms of medical marijuana, CBD isn’t psychoactive, meaning it doesn’t produce the “high” associated with marijuana.
Scientific Possibility of a 2-Hour Marathon (Originally aired 6/20/17)
Guest: Michael Joyner, MD, Exercise Physiologist, Mayo Clinic
Running a mile in under four minutes was an impossible feat…until it wasn’t. Once Roger Bannister became the first to eke out a mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds back in 1954, an even faster mile quickly became the norm. Now, a group of Nike-sponsored runners has been trying to break the two-hour threshold for a marathon. The world record currently stands at two hours, two minutes and 57 seconds, for an officially recognized time. Last year, Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge came 24 seconds short of breaking the 2-hour barrier. That was after years of training and research and special shoe development by Nike. So, can it be done? And what would it take?
Suing to Diversify City Councils (Originally aired 6/5/17)
Guest: Kevin Shenkman, JD, Attorney
Do the people on your city council look like you? Are they from your side of town? Your racial group? In a democracy it feels important to know there’s someone in elected office who gets your concerns, right? But here’s the thing – as America becomes more racially and economically diverse, our local governments are not keeping pace. Why is that? Is there something baked into the way cities and counties elect councilmembers that suppresses racial diversity? Lots of research suggests the answer is yes. In Southern California, attorney Kevin Shenkman is leading a crusade to change that. He’s filed upwards of a dozen lawsuits and threatened to file many more against cities and towns across California to get more diverse local councils.
A Sneaky Way of Solving Florida's Python Problem (Originally aired 2/14/18)
Guest: M. Rockwell Parker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, James Madison University
How do you catch a 20-foot long, 200-pound, alligator-eatin’ python? Or should you just run? Probably a good idea, but Burmese Pythons are a major problem in the Florida Everglades and they’re really tricky to catch. So a wily biologist named Rocky Parker has a tricky solution he’s hoping will work.
Why the Mormon Church and the Boys Scouts Were Destined for Divorce
Guest: Benjamin Park, PhD, Assistant Professor of American History at Sam Houston State University, and Author of “American Nationalisms: Imagining Union in the Age of Revolutions, 1783-1833”
For more than 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been joined at the hip. One in every five Boys Scouts in the US is a Mormon. Scouting is the official youth program the LDS Church offers boys. But that relationship will end at the end of next year. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints plans to design its own youth program for all “girls and boys, young women and young men” to launch in 2020. The move will have a major impact on the Boy Scouts of America and on the youth experience within the LDS Church. Historian Benjamin Park says this divorce has been destined for some time.
Backup Cameras Now Required in Cars
Guest: Sue Auriemma, Vice President of KidsandCars.org
On average, more than 200 people – mostly children – are killed each year in the US when a car backs over them. Sue Auriemma knows how easy it is for that to happen. More than a decade ago, she was backing her SUV out of the driveway when her 3 ½ year old daughter suddenly darted out of the house and behind the vehicle. Luckily the girl only had minor injuries, but the trauma was a turning point for Auriemma. She worked with the advocacy group KidsAndCars.org to get a new federal law passed requiring rearview cameras to come standard in all new vehicles. The law went into effect on May 1.
Rebuilding Iraq’s Justice System
Guest: Jesse Wozniak, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University
America had grand plans for Iraq in the years after we toppled Sadaam Hussein’s dictatorship. President George W. Bush spoke to the nation in 2007 saying, “Victory in Iraq will bring something new in the Arab world—a functioning democracy that polices its territory, upholds the rule of law, respects fundamental human liberties, and answers to the people.” More than a decade later, things have gone so poorly that many Iraqis have rejected US involvement. Last week, Iraqi voters handed a surprisingly strong election victory to a Shiite cleric who is a vehement critic of American policy in the Middle East and fought against US troops as a militia leader after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed
Sam Payne from The Apple Seed shares a story.
Dry Drowning: What You Need to Know
Guest: Denise Dowd, MD, MPH, Associate Pediatric Director, Office of Faculty Development, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, Pediatric Emergency Room Physician at Children’s Mercy Hospital
Last month a viral photo of a Florida four-year-old sparked renewed attention to “dry drowning.” The girl had accidentally inhaled some pool water and vomited, but seemed fine. Days later, though, she was rushed to the emergency room with a fever, accelerated heart rate, and face turning purple. She survived, thankfully, and her mother took to social media to share her story. These dry drowning stories are scary for parents, but many medical experts caution that it’s not a true medical condition. Worse, they worry confusion over “dry drowning” causes parents to panic unnecessarily and distracts from the real risks of drowning.
Boots on the Ground
Guest: Elizabeth Partridge, Author, “Boots on the Ground”
Fifty years ago, the US was deeply embroiled in the Vietnam War and protests were roiling here at home.
Teenagers today are likely to be the grandchildren of soldiers who fought in Vietnam. What do they know of the war and how it shaped the world they live in today? Elizabeth Partridge came of age during the Vietnam War and has written a book for young adults about the conflict called “Boots on the Ground.” It looks at the war from the perspective of the young men and women who fought and died in it.
Tensions Between Israel and Iran, Armenian Political Changes and Malaysian Elections
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
More than 40 Palestinians were killed and more than a thousand injured by Israeli soldiers in clashes along the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The protests coincided with the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, a move fraught with political tension.
Armenia is undergoing political change as a new Prime Minister is sworn in. We'll discuss the circumstances leading up to Nikol Pashinian becoming Prime Minister and the political challenges facing the country.
Malaysia’s recent elections saw shocking results: an oppositional coalition formed a government and dethroned the incumbent party for the first time in more than half a century. What does the peaceful transition of government say about democracy in Malaysia?
CircusTrix
Guest: Case Lawrence, JD, Founder and CEO, CircusTrix
A generation ago, the family with the trampoline in the background seemed to be the most popular on the block. Nowadays, one trampoline won’t do for kids. They beg their parents for a trip to one of those warehouses filled with trampolines, foam pits and swinging ropes – some even have Ninja-warrior-type obstacle courses and trapeze swings. The jump craze is serious business in the US right now and the largest trampoline park company in the world happens to be headquartered here in Provo: CircusTrix.
The Pitfalls of Body Cam Footage
Guest: Deryn Strange, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The majority of police and the American public, surveyed by Pew Research, favor the use of body cameras by officers to record interactions with the public. The hope is that video evidence of just what happened during an encounter can restore some of the fraying trust between police and communities. If only it were that simple.
Keeping a Comic Journal
Guest: Brittany Long Olson, Writer, Illustrator, Editor, comicdiaries.com, Author of "Dendo: One Year and One Half in Tokyo"
First we had blogs, then Facebook and Instagram, as a platform for telling the intimate details of our lives to the world. All over the internet, you can peek into the triumphs, failures and daily minutiae of people you know and those you don’t. Brittany Long Olsen who keeps a daily journal in the form of comic strips. Her self-published book “Dendo: One Year and One Half in Tokyo” chronicles the 18 months she spent in Japan as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Parent Previews – “Breaking In” and “Life of the Party”
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Mother’s Day hit the movies over the weekend with two takes on the mama bear trope. Gabrielle Union fights off bad guys to save her kids in “Breaking In.” Melissa McCarthy simultaneously embarrasses and inspires her college-aged daughter when she enrolls at the same school in “Life of the Party.”
Ebola Outbreak
Guest: Jeremy Konyndyk, Senior Policy Fellow, Center for Global Development
The World Health Organization announced last week that there is an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo—19 people have died so far. The organization is rushing to contain the deadly virus, which kills half its victims. Over 11,000 died in the 2014-2016 Ebola pandemic in West Africa.
Iconic Civil Rights Photographer's Double Life as an FBI Informant
Guest: Marc Perrusquia, Investigative Journalist at the "Commercial Appeal" in Memphis, Author of "A Spy in Canaan"
We’ve known for a long time that the FBI was spying on key figures in the civil rights movement. But when an investigative journalist at the "Commercial Appeal" newspaper in Memphis revealed that a black photographer named Ernest Withers had been an FBI informant, most people found it hard to believe. Withers’ photos were iconic. He’s been called “the original photographer of the civil rights movement.” Martin Luther King, Junior knew and liked him. Withers was so trusted that he went places no white person – and few black journalists, for that matter - could have gone. All the while, he was reporting back to the FBI on what he’d seen and heard. It’s a stunning story that took years for journalist Marc Perrusquia to unravel. He’s written it all down now in a new book called “A Spy in Canaan.”
Shooting Ghosts (Originally aired 11/10/17)
Guests: Thomas James Brennan, Retired Marine Corps Sergeant, Founder, The War Horse, Co-author, “Shooting Ghosts” with Finbarr O’Reilly, Photojournalist
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now America’s longest running conflict. More than two-and-a-half million veterans have served in those wars. Retired Marine Corps sergeant Thomas James Brennan is one of them. He’s a Purple Heart recipient and now an investigative journalist. He’s co-written an unusual memoir in partnership with combat photographer Finbarr O’Reilly. They met in a remote outpost of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in 2010. What they experienced there formed the basis of a friendship that has brought both of them a measure a comfort as they’ve struggled with the psychological effects of war.
Immigration Crackdown
Guest: Carolina Núñez, JD, Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
A group of Republicans in the US House have just initiated an unusual move to bypass their leadership and force a vote on a plan to shield “Dreamers” from deportation. “Dreamers” are undocumented individuals who were brought to the US as children. Meanwhile at the US border, immigration officials have been ordered to separate children from their parents and prosecute everyone entering into the country illegally – even those seeking asylum from persecution.
Ben Aldana: From Convict to Public Defender
Guest: Ben Aldana, JD, Utah County Public Defender’s Office, Recent Graduate of J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
One of the newest graduates of BYU’s Law School took a highly unusual path. Ben Aldana spent six years in prison on felony drug charges. Now he’s about to take the bar exam and become a public defender in Utah County, working in the same courtrooms he passed through as a very troubled teenager.
The Ethics of Using DNA Databases to Solve Crimes
Guest: Sara Huston Katsanis, MS, Instructor in Science & Society, Duke University
The so-called Golden State Killer’s rape and murder spree back in the 1970s terrorized Californians and stumped police. For 30 years, the case ran cold. But then a few weeks ago, police arrested former cop Joseph DeAngelo. Investigators used DNA-matching technology and a public genealogy website to link DeAngelo to the killings. The technique police used offers new promise in solving cold cases, but it also raises some questions about privacy and ethics.
Securing the Internet of Things (Originally aired 4/6/17)
Guest: Phil Windley, PhD, Enterprise Architect in the CIOs office at Brigham Young University and Chairman of the Sovrin Foundation
These days it’s tough to buy a new electronic device that’s not WiFi enabled with the promise of cool features if you hook it up to the internet. What trouble might hackers cause if literally everything from our cars to our crockpots are connected online? Does the Internet of Things pose a threat to our digital freedom?
Calvin and Hobbs and Schizophrenia (Originally aired 4/6/17)
Guest: Martine Leavitt, author of “Calvin,” winner of a Governor General’s Literary Award in 2016.
What if Calvin from the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes wasn’t just a self-absorbed, hyperactive kid with an imaginary pet tiger? What if he was, instead, suffering from schizophrenia?
That thought inspired Martine Leavitt’s young adult book, “Calvin” which, in 2016, received one of the most prestigious literary awards in Canada: The Governor General’s Literary Award.
Majority of Depressed Worldwide Don't Seek Help (Originally aired 4/6/17)
Guest: Graham Thornicroft, PhD, Professor of Community Psychiatry at King's College London
In wealthy nations like the US, it’s not unusual for Hollywood stars and prominent individuals to talk openly about struggling with – and seeking treatment for – conditions such as depression.
That is not so much the case in developing countries where only about 1 in 27 people who suffer depression get adequate treatment for it. The estimate comes from a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.
Is Trump Succeeding?
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, Brigham Young University
Pulling the US out of the Iran nuclear deal is among President Trump’s most consequential foreign policy moves to date. Soon he’ll notch another one: Trump is slated to become the first President to meet with a North Korean leader while still in office. Overnight, his administration secured the release of three American prisoners being held in North Korea. These latest developments offer an opportunity to take stock of President Trump’s tenure. He frequently expresses frustration that he’s not getting enough credit in the media for his accomplishments.
Millennials Are Changing the Way We Shop
Guest: Steven Melnyk, PhD, Professor of Supply Chain and Operations Management, Michigan State University
Online ordering and fast shipping allow companies like Blue Apron to deliver fresh ingredients right to your doorstep in time for you to serve up a complete dinner. But services like Blue Apron are offering much more than convenience. There’s also the experience the buyer has with the product—picking it out, cooking up the food—that is transforming the way people shop. Millennials, who now outnumber baby boomers, are particularly drawn to shopping that involves having an experience with the product.
Acupuncture to Treat Addiction
Guest: Scott Steffensen, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Brigham Young University
Acupuncture is said to be helpful in resolving pain, digestive function, improving sleep, and increasing a general sense of well-being—if you can get past the needles. But there are scientists working to quantify the medical effects of this ancient form of treatment. Scott Steffensen has collaborated for a number of years with a lab in South Korea to study the effects of acupuncture on the brain and nervous system. He’s particularly interested in how acupuncture might be helpful in treating addiction.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne of The Apple Seed shares a Jack tale from Donald Davis.
The National Park System's Maintenance Backlog
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of "National Parks Traveler"
Maybe one of America’s 400-plus National Park Sites is on your vacation list this summer. Whichever you choose, you’re likely to encounter some potholes, crumbling walkways and out-of-order signs. The National Park Service has a backlog of maintenance projects that will cost $11.6 billion to address. Why are our nation’s natural treasures in disrepair? NationalParksTraveler.org has just kicked off a months-long investigation into the maintenance backlog.
Life After Manzanar
Guests: Naomi Hirahara and Heather C. Lindquist, Co-Authors of “Life After Manzanar”
Thirty years ago this summer, the US Congress passed a reparations act for the survivors of America’s World War II concentration camps. More than 110,000 Japanese Americans and their immigrant parents were unjustly imprisoned in ten camps primarily in the West. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 granted $20,000 payments to each surviving prisoner. Today we’re going to explore what life was like for those prisoners after the war.
US Quits Iran Nuclear Deal
Guest: Lawrence Wilkerson, Retired US Army Colonel, Former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colonel Powell, Adjunct Professor of Government and Public Policy, College of William and Mary
This afternoon, President Donald Trump did what he’s been promising to do since he took office – pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement, which he called “defective at its core.” In pulling out of the agreement, President Trump says the US will “impose the highest level of economic sanctions” on Iran. The nuclear deal signed in 2015 restricted Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for lifting sanctions that had crippled its economy.
New Leather Coating
Guest: Bharat Bhushan, PhD, Ohio Eminent Scholar and the Howard D. Winbigler Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
If you’ve ever driven in a car with leather seats in the heat of summer, you’ll know the discomfort of sticky leather seats. Not to mention, they stain really easily. Professor Bharat Bhushan has created a special elixir in his engineering lab at The Ohio State University. It’s a liquid coating he sprays on fake leather to make it super-water-proof, self-cleaning, and less sticky when it’s hot outside.
The Ancient Greek “Computer”
Guest: Alexander Jones, PhD, Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity and Director of the New York University Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, and Author of “A Portable Cosmos: Revealing the Antikythera Mechanism, Scientific Wonder of the Ancient World”
The most sophisticated piece of machinery ever discovered from ancient Greece is a two-thousand-year-old box of bronze gears. It was made centuries before the first geared clocks would be built in Europe. But this ancient Greek device doesn’t keep time in the hourly-sense of the word. It’s more about Time, with a capital T. The Associated Press has called it a “philosopher’s guide to the galaxy” with its spinning gears that show the movement of planets, the moon and the sun. While this device was pulled from a shipwreck more than 100 years ago, it’s only been in the last few years that scientists and historians have begun to crack its secrets, thanks to high-end scanning and imaging technology. What they’ve learned sheds new light on both ancient Greece and the modern world.
Implicit Bias
Guest: Calvin Lai, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
On Tuesday, May 29, all the standalone Starbucks stores in the country will close for a few hours in the afternoon “for a mandatory training around unconscious bias.” That announcement came from Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson a few days after a manager in a Philadelphia Starbucks called police on two black men who were waiting for a friend but hadn’t ordered anything. Video of the men being arrested by police went viral, prompting national outrage and an apology from Starbucks. But what’s this “unconscious bias” training the company’s baristas will now be required to take? And what difference might it make?
Buried Treasure and King Bluetooth
Guest: Anders Winroth, PhD, Birgit Baldwin Professor of History at Yale University, Author of “The Age of the Vikings”
At the start of the year, an amateur archaeologist and his 13-year-old student were metal detecting on an island in the Baltic Sea in northern Germany. They found what they thought was just some aluminum. But it turned out to be silver – a stash, in fact, of Viking treasure with historical significance tied to an ancient king.
How Closed Captions Work
Guest: Theresa Raymond, Closed Caption Coordinator, BYUtv
Have you ever wondered how closed captioning works? Is someone sitting at a keyboard at that very moment typing the words you see on the screen? Theresa Raymond of BYUtv happens to work in the same building, so we brought her over to give us an inside look at how it works. We started with the most intense part of her team’s job – doing captions for live television shows like BYU SportsNation which airs weekdays at noon Eastern on BYUtv.
Insect-Borne Illness on the Rise in US
Guest: Sankar Swaminathan, MD, Don Merrill Rees Presidential Endowed Chair, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine
The warm weather brings on diseases spread by ticks and mosquitoes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released a report showing cases of tick and mosquito-borne illnesses like Lyme disease, West Nile virus and dengue fever have tripled in the US over the last decade. Why are these diseases are more prevalent now than they were in the early 2000s?
Predicting Poverty by Satellite
Guest: Michael Xie, Computer Science PhD Student, Stanford University
Within 12 years, the United Nations hopes to have eliminated world poverty. One hurdle toward that goal is measurement: how to identify poor areas that need support and account for economic improvement happening in other areas? Right now, the basic approach is pretty archaic – survey takers go door-to-door asking people about their assets and income. But the Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Lab is working on training computers to identify poverty by looking at satellite images such as Google Earth.
Why We Call Some Killers Crazy and Others Terrorists
Guest: Masi Noor, PhD, Lecturer in Psychology, Keele University
In the hours after another violent attack, such as a mass shooting or a truck mowing people down in a public place, there’s always a public debate about what to call the killer. Even before we know the motive, some will be convinced he’s a terrorist, inspired by politics or religion. Others will say he’s a madman, driven by mental illness. What leads people to one conclusion or the other?
Alexa, Let’s Talk
Guest: Nancy Fulda, Team Lead, BYU Alexa Prize Challenge, PhD Candidate in Computer Science
Amazon’s Alexa is great at taking orders - she can tell you the weather or play your favorite podcast, but she won’t chat with you in any real way. She won’t laugh at your jokes or debate with you about who should with the NBA playoffs. Amazon hopes one day she will be capable of that. The Alexa Prize Challenge pits eight university teams against each other to come up with a bot that can hold a conversation. BYU has some skin in this game.
Parent Previews: “Overboard”
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
In the 1980s, a selfish heiress played by Goldie Hawn fell off a boat, woke up with amnesia and was duped into believing she was the hardworking housewife of a blue collar carpenter played by Kurt Russell. It was an elaborate revenge plot and a star vehicle for the two actors. The remake of "Overboard" (also called "Overboard") is now in theaters featuring Ana Faris and Eugenio Derbez. But this time the gender roles in the plot are reversed.
Tech Transfer: A Supplement for Your Body and Your Brain
Guests: Benjamin Bikman, PhD, Associate Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology, BYU; Mike Alder, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Vitamin supplements are a $50 billion global industry and what would you guess is fueling its growth in the US right now? The baby boomers. Grand View Research Inc. says supplements to prevent muscle wasting and maintain healthy joints are expected to do big business as the boomers age. Imagine they could come up with a supplement that tackled muscle-wasting and the mental decline that comes with age? A brain-body supplement for boomers?
The Politics of Christianity in America
Guest: Matthew Bowman, PhD, Professor of History at Henderson State University, author of "Christian: The Politics of a Word in America"
White evangelical support for President Donald Trump is at an all-time high, according to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute: 75-percent hold a favorable view of the president. On the other hand, 23 prominent Christian leaders, including an Episcopal Bishop, a Catholic priest and author, and a well-known evangelical commentator, recently published a letter rejecting policies central to the Trump administration – including “America First” - as “theological heresy for followers of Christ.” So, being a good Christian either means supporting or opposing Trump. How did Christianity become so politically divided? Matthew Bowman explains in his new book, “Christian: The Politics of a Word in America.”
For Global Refugees, The Crisis Continues (Originally aired: Jan. 19th, 2018)
Guests: James Bluemel, Award-winning Director of "Exodus: Our Journey to Europe" and "Exodus: The Journey Continues" on PBS Frontline; Hassan Akkad, Syrian Refugee featured in "Exodus: Our Journey to Europe," Researcher on "Exodus: The Journey Continues"
The Frontline documentary “Exodus: Our Journey to Europe" included cell phone video taken by refugees to give us an intimate look at their efforts to reach safety. The film (watch online here) won a Peabody award, a BAFTA (the British equivalent of an Emmy) and an International Emmy Award. Now director James Bluemel is back with a sequel, "Exodus: The Journey Continues" (watch online here) that follows-up with some of the refugees we met in the first film and introduces us to others.
The Mars InSight Mission (Originally aired: April 3, 2018)
Guest: Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA is in pre-launch mode to send its most in-depth mission ever to Mars on Saturday. And you’re probably thinking, "Well NASA’s had rovers on the Red Planet for a long time." You're right. It's been 14 years, to be exact. But those rovers just roamed around searching for signs of life and scoping things out for the day when humans will ultimately arrive. This lander launching Saturday will go much deeper – literally drilling down into Mars.
Follow along with the Mars InSight Launch here.
Poutine: Quebecois or Canadian? (Originally aired: Jan. 30, 2018)
Guest: Nicolas Fabien-Ouellet, Food Systems Graduate Student, University of Vermont
All the Canada travel guides say you have to eat poutine when you visit. And they’re totally right. It’s a bowl of crispy fries, first of all, topped with gooey cheese curd and hot gravy. It’s pretty straightforward and so good. But lately, poutine has become a sore point for some in Quebec, which is the French region of Canada where the dish originated. Chefs across Canada have embraced poutine as a gourmet treat and many now claim it as their own, ignoring the fact that, for decades, poutine was looked down on as a symbol of Quebec’s lack of sophistication. Quebec native Nicolas Fabien-Ouellet says this is cultural appropriation and he sparked heated debate when he published a study making that claim in the journal Cuizine.
How We Talk About Addiction Matters (Originally aired: Feb. 5, 2018)
Guest: Michael Botticelli, Executive Director of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center, Former Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
An estimated 21 million Americans over the age of 12 are addicted to alcohol or other drugs. But only ten percent of them are getting treatment. Would that number improve if we talked about addiction differently? If, instead of calling someone an addict or a user, we referred to them as “a person with a substance use disorder”?
Why We Sleep (Originally aired: Nov. 3, 2017)
Guest: Matthew Walker, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, Director of the UC Berkeley Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, Author of “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams”
How much sleep did you get last night? Americans are chronically sleep-deprived. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” some say. And guess what? The research is pretty conclusive that you’ll die sooner. Consistently getting less than six or seven hours of sleep a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubles your risk of cancer, shortens your life span and makes it harder for you to learn new things.
Why Gas Prices Always Go Up this Time of Year
Guest: David Blackmon, Independent Energy Analyst, Frequent Contributor to Forbes.com
Every year at this time, gas prices seem to go up. Or maybe it’s just that we notice it a bit more, because we’re making vacation plans? You’re not imagining things: the price for regular unleaded gas is at its highest level in three years. Americans are paying an average of $2.74 per gallon of regular unleaded right now, which is 30-cents higher than it was at the start of the year.
Bitter Pills
Guest: Muhammad Zaman, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, author of "Bitter Pills: The Global War on Counterfeit Drugs"
If you’re buying cheap Lipitor or Viagra on eBay or a Chinese website, there’s a chance you’re getting a counterfeit. That seems pretty obvious. But the much larger problem for global drug supplies comes down to sloppiness and poor quality. Not that someone is making fake Viagra pills out of chalk, but that lifesaving malaria drugs and antibiotics are tainted with a deadly chemical or don’t have the full amount of active ingredient to make them effective. This problem is terrifyingly common around the world – and even occasionally in the US – according to Boston University biomedical engineering professor Muhammad Zaman's new book, "Bitter Pills."
Weight Stigma in Men
Guest: Mary Himmelstein, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, University of Connecticut
Eavesdrop on any school playground in America and you’re sure to hear someone being teased for being fat. Shaming and bullying about body shape is pervasive and harmful – for girls and boys. The University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity recently conducted the first study about weight stigma that focused exclusively on men. The results suggest men and boys face stigma at rates similar to women and girls, but for slightly different reasons.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Bill Lepp is known for tall tales, but today Sam shares a true Lepp story about being a teenager on a trip to East Germany.
"Playing Mars" in the Utah Desert
Guest: Joseph Dituri, Crew Commander of Crew 192 at the Mars Desert Research Station, Consultant for the International Board of Undersea Medicine
NASA hopes to be sending people to Mars by the 2030s. But if you want to know what it might be like to live on the Red Planet today, just take a four-hour drive from Salt Lake City to a spot in the Utah desert near the town of Hanksville. For more than a decade, researchers have been marooning themselves in a tiny habitat in the desert “playing Mars” for weeks at a time. The Mars Desert Research Station is a privately-run facility funded by donors including Elon Musk of SpaceX.
The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind
Guest: Barbara Lipska, PhD, Director of the Human Brain Collection Core, National Institute of Mental Health and Author of "The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind"
Neuroscientist Barbara Lipska spent her career studying mental illness, and then she lived it. Tumors in her brain brought on all the confusion, irrationality and anger common in people with schizophrenia, which is the exact disease Lipska specializes in studying. Luckily, cutting-edge treatment saved Lipska’s life and restored her mind. She now considers her brain cancer a “priceless gift,” because suffering through mental illness taught her more about how the brain works than dissecting one in a lab ever could.
Are North Korea’s Promises Different This Time Around?
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, BYU Law
On Friday, Kim Jong Un became the first North Korea leader to set foot in South Korea. He shook hands – and even hugged – South Korea’s president Moon Jae-In. And the two leaders signed a declaration promising a “nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.” Next, President Trump is slated to meet with North Korea’s Kim – which will be another historic meeting. No sitting US president has ever met with a North Korean leader. Can these meetings actually lead North Korea to abandon the nuclear weapons program it has advanced quickly over the last year?
Chasing Men on Fire
Guest: Stephen G. Waxman, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Director of the Neuroscience & Regeneration Research Center, Yale Medical School. "Author of Chasing Men on Fire: The Story of the Search for a Pain Gene"
Chronic pain is more common than cancer, heart disease and diabetes combined. It affects 100 million adults in the US. But the existing medications to treat it are not effective in a lot of cases – and worse, they can be highly-addictive, as evidenced by the opioid overdose epidemic. So, there’s a pressing need to understand how pain works at a fundamental level. Why does tolerance for pain vary so widely? Why do some medications work for some people and not others?
12 Habits Holding Women Back at Work
Guests: Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith, Authors of “How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion or Job”
Almost half of the workers in America’s big businesses are women. But as you rise through the ranks of these companies, the percent of women narrows like you’re moving to the top of a pyramid. Only a quarter of executives are female and an even smaller percentage sit on corporate boards. And when you get to the top of the pyramid, fewer than 6 percent of CEOs in large American corporations are women. Discrimination is certainly at play. But leadership experts Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith say there are 12 habits common among women, that may also be holding them back. Ironically, these same habits worked to their advantage when they were at the bottom of the pyramid, but they’re a barrier to climbing higher.
Parent Previews – Avengers: Infinity War
Guest: Rod Gustafson, film critic, ParentPreviews.com
It’s the super group to end all super groups – Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Spiderman, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Panther, plus Star Lord and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy. And they’ve joined forces to face a new, powerful villain intent on – you guessed it – destroying the universe.
The Short Story Dispenser
Guest: Kristan Leroy, International Sales Director, Short Edition
In any doctor’s office, pharmacy, airport… anywhere people have to wait, it’s the same scene: people hunched over their phones. But visitors waiting in the lobby of the Prudential Building in Boston, or the Edmonton International Airport in Canada or one of dozens of train stations in France have another option: there’s a vending machine that doles out short stories for free on strips of paper like a really long receipt at the grocery store. There are more than 150 of these story-dispensing kiosks around the world so far. They’re the product of a French publishing house called Short Edition.
To find a Short Story Dispenser click here. To contribute your own story to the Short Story Dispenser, email kristan@short-edition.com.
America’s Boy Crisis
Guest: Warren Farrell, PhD, Author of “The Boy Crisis,” “Why Men Are the Way They Are,” The Myth of Male Power”
All over the world, boys are in crisis, says activist and author Warren Farrell. They’re falling behind girls in education. They’re jailed at much higher rates. Their suicide rates as teens are much higher than among girls. In his new book, “The Boy Crisis” Farrell argues that American society has made great strides in empowering girls to find new purpose and possibilities, but we’ve not given the same attention to boys, who are getting left behind. Farrell offers concrete suggestions for parents on raising boys with a healthier sense of purpose at home, at work and in society.
Why Dolly Parton’s Tennessee Mountain Theme Park Matters
Guest: Graham Hoppe, Author of “Gone Dollywood: Dolly Parton’s Mountain Dream”
Dolly Parton is easy to label as cheesy or artificial and she plays to that stereotype with her quips (“I’m a self-made woman and I have the doctor’s bills to prove it.”) But failing to take Dolly Parton seriously is a mistake, according to folklorist Graham Hoppe. And the best evidence of that may be Dollywood: the theme park Parton has owned for decades in the Tennessee mountains where she grew up. Here we discuss why an amusement park in Appalachia dedicated to a Dolly Parton is way more meaningful than you’d expect.
50 years after the Six Day War, Consequences Persist (Originally Aired June 8th 2017)
Guest: John Macfarlane, MPhil & MEd, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Utah Valley University
Fifty-one years ago, conflict erupted between Israel and its largest Arab neighbors – Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Six days later, it was over and Israel had beaten its much larger Arab rivals. The Six Day War of 1967 had a profound effect on the Middle East, even setting the stage for modern day terrorism.
Cries from Syria (Originally aired October 11th 2017)
Guest: Evgeny Afineevsky, Award-winning Documentary Filmmaker, Director of “Cries from Syria”
A report by UNICEF earlier this year concluded that children have paid the heaviest price in the Syrian Civil War, now in its sixth year. Thousands have been killed. Nearly 2 million inside Syria are out of school, because their schools have been destroyed and because schools have been repeatedly attacked during the war. UNICEF says nearly six million children in Syria now depend on humanitarian aid – food, shelter, medicine – for survival. Almost half of them have been forced to flee their homes and are now living as refugees in conditions only slightly better than the danger they left behind. Here we talk to the maker of the HBO documentary “Cries from Syria”.
Net Neutrality Not Yet?
Guest: Clark Asay, JD, Associate Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
Net neutrality is on its last legs – set to be officially repealed by the FCC any day now, pending some final bureaucratic paper-pushing. But there are also a number of lawsuits in process to try and block the Trump administration from killing net neutrality. Congress could also get in on the action. What is it and why should you care?
Busting Fitness Myths
Guest: Mark D. Faries, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor of Behavioral and Lifestyle Medicine, Texas A&M University College of Medicine
We love a good health shortcut. The one exercise that’ll blast your belly fat. The one food that’ll help you lose weight. The one vitamin that will ward off the flu. And nine times out of ten, they’re myths. Exercise physiologist and health psychologist Mark Faries runs a website dedicated to debunking this stuff.
Learn more here.
Too Much Beef
Guest: Martin Heller, PhD, Research Specialist at the Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan
Eating a lot of red meat is not good for your health, but did you know that it’s also not good for the environment? In fact, if you’re a big beef eater and you worry about greenhouse gas emissions, reducing your meat consumption will do more for the environment than driving your car less. Martin Heller’s recent work looks at just how much the typical American diet contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
Don’t Swat that Fruit Fly. Say “Thanks”
Guest: Stephanie Mohr, PhD, Lecturer in the Department of Genetics, Director of the Drosophila Screening Center, Harvard School of Medicine and Author of “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery”
Rather than swatting that cloud of fruit flies buzzing around the ripe bananas on your kitchen counter, maybe you should step back and offer a reverent “thank you.” Research on the humble fruit fly has unlocked countless secrets about human genetics and disease, earned scientists at least five Nobel Prizes and continues to reveal crucial insight for our health.
Could Artificial Hearts Become Reality?
Guest: Dr. Sanjiv Kaul, MD, Director of the Knight Cardiovascular Institute and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Oregan Health and Science University
There are almost 4,000 people in the U.S. currently waiting for a heart transplant, but only about 3,400 human donor hearts were transplanted in 2017. That leaves hundreds of people without a good option: the only artificial heart currently available is just a temporary fix until a donor organ – hopefully – is found. Oregon Health and Science University is working on developing an artificial heart that could stay in the patient permanently. If they succeed, it’ll be a first.
Water Matters
Guest: Radhika Fox, Executive Director, Value of Water Campaign, and CEO, US Water Alliance
There’s a one-in-ten chance your house has a leaky toilet, shower or faucet that’s wasting 90 gallons or more per day, according to the EPA. That obviously adds up on your monthly water bill. But it’s also part of an enormous nationwide problem – trillions of gallons of water lost every year through leaky drinking water, stormwater and sewer pipes.
What will it take to tackle America’s water waste problem?
Quest for Quiet
Guest: Matthew Jordan, PhD, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Pennsylvania State University
In the hit suspense film “A Quiet Place” we watch a family struggling to live their lives in complete silence so as not to attract vicious aliens with super-sensitive hearing. Silence is safety. Sudden noise brings sure death. Penn State University media studies professor Matthew Jordan wonders if the movie is doing so well with audiences because of our own complicated relationship to noise.
Prestigious Companies Treated Differently in Court
Guest: Brayden King, PhD, Professor of Management and Organization, Max McGraw Chair of Management and the Environment, Northwestern University
Google is facing several lawsuits over gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. Remember how Google’s motto was “Don’t be evil”? Now it’s “Do the right thing.” So what happens when a successful, well-respected company that holds itself up as a pillar of the community, goes before a jury on allegations that it did not do the right thing? Does prestige buy a company some benefit of the doubt? Or does a prestigious company get judged more harshly because we expect more of them?
Prosthetic Memory
Guest: Robert Hampson, PhD, Professor of Physiology/Pharmacology and Neurology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
When you hit middle age, you start to fear those “senior moments” when you forget things more frequently. People turn to memory-boosting pills like gingko or fish oil. But the future of memory enhancement could be more high-tech, if the results of a small study out of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center are any indication. Scientists there have been able to boost memory with brain implants.
"I Was Anastasia"
Guest: Ann Edwards Cannon, Author, and Staff, The King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, UT
The fate of the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov was one of the most fascinating mysteries of the 20th century: was she executed in a basement cellar with the rest of the royal family, or did she miraculously survive and resurface two years later in Berlin? The woman who showed up in Berlin, whom her detractors called Anna Anderson, spent 50 years trying to prove that she really was Anastasia and held claim to the Romanov fortune. DNA testing in the last couple decades has settled the matter, but still, author Ariel Lawhon has turned the story into the historical thriller “I Was Anastasia.”
High Intensity Exercise Could Delay Parkinson’s Progression
Guest: Daniel Corcos, PhD, Professor of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, but there are medications that can reduce the common symptoms, such as tremors, stiffness and slow movement. New research published in "JAMA Neurology" suggests that getting on a treadmill and working hard for 30 minutes also helps – and may even delay progression of the degenerative neurological disease. The findings are a bit counterintuitive, so we’ve got one of the lead researchers on with us.
Castros Step Back from Cuba
Guest: Evan Ward, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
For nearly 60 years, one name has been synonymous with the Caribbean island – Castro. First, Fidel and then his brother, Raul. But this week, for the first time since Marxist revolutionaries swept to power in 1959, a non-Castro is in charge. His name is Miguel Diaz-Canel and his ascension in Cuba marks a turning point on several fronts.
Archaeologists Turn to the FBI for Help with 4,000-year-old Mummy
Guest: Odile Loreille, PhD, Research Biologist, FBI
For nearly a century, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has had a 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummy head in its vaults. Archaeologists were pretty sure the head belonged to Governor Djehutynakht - or his wife - because it was found in their tomb in 1915. But by that point looters had done a number on the tomb, so the mummified head was jumbled in all the mess left behind. Once archaeologists had exhausted their methods of identification, they called the FBI – which does a lot of DNA analysis, as you can imagine, being a crime-solving agency. Sort of an Indiana Jones meets the X-Files crossover here. But could they extract enough DNA from a 4,000 mummified head to glean any information?
FBI research biologist Odile Loreille wasn’t sure, but she gave it a shot. And what she discovered is pretty incredible.
Rivers Are Getting Saltier
Guest: Gene Likens, PhD, Founding Director and President, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and Distinguished Professor, University of Connecticut, Recipient of the National Medal of Science
In the ‘70s, “acid rain” regularly made headlines as the US government wrestled with a pollution problem. Thanks to the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, pollution has declined dramatically. But one of the scientists who was first to identify acid rain in North America is now raising the alarm about salt pollution in our waters.
Barbershop Books
Guest: Alvin Irby, Social Entrepreneur, Educator, Author, Comedian
There is a new feature popping up in barbershops around the country, and it has nothing to with hair. It’s a colorful little display against the wall called “Barbershop Books” and it’s meant to inspire young boys to read for fun.
To learn more, click here.
Parent Previews: “I Feel Pretty” and “Truth or Dare”
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
I Feel Pretty: Renee Bennett (Amy Schumer) is struggling with her less-than-perfect appearance until a head injury has her believing she is a beautiful, sexy woman. Although the rest of the world sees her the same way as before, Renee's new confidence makes her see the world completely differently.
Truth or Dare: A group of young adults (Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane, Hayden Szeto, Nolan Gerard Funk, Sophia Ali) get stuck in a deadly game of Truth or Dare. If you try to quit -- you're dead. If you try to lie -- you're dead. And even if you tell the truth, there still no guarantee you'll live. Rod warns to stay clear of this movie.
Deciphering “Stone Man” Disease
Guest: David Goldhamer, PhD, Stem Cell Biologist, Associate Director, Stem Cell Institute, and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut
The skeleton of Harry Raymond Eastlack – who died in 1973 - is on display at the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. It stands up on its own, without all the wires and bolts a skeleton would normally need to keep its shape once all the muscles and ligaments are gone. That’s because Eastlack had an extremely rare disease that virtually encased his body in extra bone, fusing his joints in place. Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive or FOP is sometimes called “Stone Man Disease” and while it afflicts only one in 2 million people, scientists are actively working to understand what causes it.
Since today is International FOP Awareness Day, we’ve got one of those scientists on the line.
What is Mindfulness and Why Has It Gone Mainstream?
Guests: Michael Buxton, PhD, Associate Clinical Professor of Counseling Psychology, BYU Counseling and Psychological Services; Jared Warren, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, BYU; Patrick Steffen, PhD, Professor of Psychology, BYU
Around the country, you’ll find it being taught in schools, sports programs, hospitals, cancer treatment clinics, addiction and counseling centers. A Google Scholar search for scientific journal articles on mindfulness yields more than 400,000 results. Mindful meditation has gone mainstream. It’s not just for hippies who do yoga. Here we explore what mindfulness is and how it works with a panel of experts who both study and practice it.
The College Promise
Guests: Keira Sloan Scholz, Director, The Provo Promise; Harris Rosen, President and COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, Founder of the Tangelo Park Program; Charles Dziuban, PhD, Advisory Board Member for the Tangleo Park Program, Director, Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, University of Central Florida
If you’re a kid in a working poor family with parents who never went to college and you go to a school that doesn’t meet federal standards, what motivation do you have, really, to work hard and get good grades? You know you can’t afford college, anyway. Hope is the missing element. And that’s what Harris Rosen set out to restore in the low-income Florida neighborhood called Tangelo Park 25 years ago by promising to pay full college tuition, room and board for every student who graduated from high school. Hundreds of kids have taken him up on the offer. Today every high school senior in Tangelo Park graduates. And similar so-called “promise” scholarship programs have sprung up around the nation.
Learn about Promise Programs near you.
The Syria Situation
Guests: John Macfarlane, M.Phil., Professor of Political Science, Utah Valley University; Steven Lobell, PhD, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah; Scott Cooper, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, BYU
Nearly two weeks ago, a suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people in the town of Douma. The US, UK and France carried out strikes against the Syrian regime in retaliation for the attack, though Syria’s government says it was the opposition forces holed up in Douma who used the chemical weapons. We won’t know for sure until international experts have a chance to inspect the site of the attack, but those inspectors have yet to be allowed into the area by Syrian authorities, according to CBS News. The longer they’re delayed, the harder it will be to trace the evidence. We’ve got a panel of experts on hand to talk us through the significance of these latest developments in Syria.
A Spicy Cure
Guest: Ashok Shetty, PhD, Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Associate Director, Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Research Career Scientist, Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center of the Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System, Texas A&M University
More than 200-thousand veterans came home from The First Gulf War with some strange symptoms. Their memory loss, moodiness, and trouble sleeping are known collectively as “Gulf War illness.” Researchers in Texas might have found a treatment for this disease in a common Indian spice. Turmeric, which gives curry its reddish color, has an ingredient called curcumin which can restore impaired brain function.
From the Vaults: 150th Anniversary of Little Women
Guest: Cheri Earl, PhD, Adjunct Professor of American Literature and Creative Writing, Brigham Young University
The Little Women sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, are coming back to the screen just in time for the book’s 150th anniversary. The story is about to be re-introduced on screen in a major way. Next month, PBS is airing an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic nove. This is by no means the first screen adaptation of the Civil War era story. Since it was published in 1869, Little Women has resonated widely with audiences in its original form and in many adapted versions. BYU Special Collections has two original copies of the novel Little Women, as well as a series of novels with covers based on the various film adaptations.
America’s First Ladies (Originally aired April 29, 2016)
Guest: Kate Anderson Brower, Former White House reporter, Bloomberg, Author, “First Women”
Barbara Bush passed away this week. As former first lady, she had been part of an exclusive sorority who’ve experienced things only THEY can truly relate to. Mamie, Jackie, Lady Bird, Pat, Betty, Rosalynn, Nancy, Barbara, Hillary, Laura Michelle and Melania, America’s modern first ladies, faced challenges and opportunities inconceivable to most Americans--living in the White House, being married to the Commander-in-Chief.
But their shared experiences do not necessarily make them sisters. There are deep rivalries and long-standing animosities between some of them and surprising alliances between others. Michelle Obama felt more warmly toward Laura Bush on the other side of the political spectrum than she did toward fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Former White House reporter Kate Andersen Brower wrote a book packed with fascinating anecdotes about how the wives of US Presidents have tackled the role of first lady and their relationships with each other. The book is “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies.” We spoke with her in the spring of 2016, before the Obamas left the White House and the Trumps moved in.
Listen to our interview with Brower about First Lady Melania Trump here.
Supreme Court and Online Sales Tax
Guest: John Barrick, PhD, Associate Professor of Accountancy, Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University
The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday, and the justices seemed split, on whether or not states can force an out-of-state internet store like Overstock.com to collect sales taxes. President Trump made his view clear on Twitter after the hearing: “States and Cities throughout our Country are being cheated and treated so badly by online retailers. Very unfair to traditional tax paying stores!”
What’s the issue here and why is the Supreme Court involved?
What If America Executed Drug Dealers?
Guest: Angelica Duran-Martinez, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Every day in the US, more than 100 people die of an opioid overdose. As part of his plan to address the epidemic, President Trump wants a crackdown on drug dealers – what he calls, “the big pushers.” The President’s plan also includes making more treatment options available to people with opioid addiction and an awareness campaign to reduce the amount of opioids prescribed by doctors. But his call to execute drug dealers is getting the most attention.
Angelica Duran-Martinez has studied how well these tough laws work in addressing drug problems on a national scale.
The City That Was Made to Flood
Guest: Jim Blackburn, JD, Professor of Environmental Law, Co-Director of the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disaster (SSPEED) Center. Rice University
It’s been about eight months since Hurricane Harvey’s torrential rain caused serious flooding in Houston, Texas. Since then, investigative reporting by the New York Times and other outlets has revealed that many of the worst-flooded neighborhoods were actually designed to flood in the case of a severe storm. People who bought homes in those areas had no idea, and many are now part of a class action lawsuit against the government.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
HoneyBot, The Cybersecurity Decoy
Guest: Celine Irvene, Graduate Student and Research Assistant in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a member of the Communications Assurance and Performance (CAP) Group
As the Internet of Things expands, more and more physical devices—refrigerators, hospital equipment, machines on a factory floor—are coming online. That means hackers have more opportunities to cause mischief in the physical world – and cause real physical harm to people. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way to trap hackers trying to take over a robot remotely.
“Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic”
Guests: Sandra Kahn, DDS, MSD, Orthodontist; Paul Ehrlich, PhD, Professor of Population Studies Emeritus, President of the Center of Conservation Biology, Stanford University.
Scientists who study skulls from thousands of years ago can tell you something surprising about our ancestors: they didn’t need orthodontists. Our ancestors, as a general rule, had great teeth: straight, strong, no crowding or impacted wisdom teeth or overbite. These days having perfect teeth without braces or some sort of dental work done is really rare in America. What changed?
Paul Ehrlich and Sandra Kahn explore that question in their new book, “Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic.” They claim that we, as industrialized humans, have a host of health problems because, from the time we’re born, we don’t force our jaws to work hard enough.
Bail is Not Just
Guest: Shima Baradaran Baughman, JD, Professor of Law at the University of Utah, Author of “The Bail Book: A Comprehensive Look at Bail in America’s Criminal Justice System”
Nearly two-thirds of the people sitting in jail around the country right now have not been convicted of a crime. So why are they behind bars? Mostly because they either couldn’t come up with the money to make bail or a judge deemed them too risky to go free while they wait for trial. "And so what?" you may be thinking. These people obviously did something to get themselves arrested. But what about “innocent until proven guilty”? As legal scholar Shima Baradaran Baughman sees it, America’s bail system is racist, unfair to people who are poor, unnecessarily expensive to tax payers and maybe even unconstitutional.
Mantis Cam
Guest: Missael Garcia, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher of Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The mantis shrimp has the some of the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom, and if we could see like they do, scientists think we’d have better underwater navigation systems. Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have made a camera to help our much-less capable human eyes see more like the mantis shrimp. It’s called the “mantis cam” and we recently learned about it through an article in “The Atlantic.”
Women's Wear is Far from Fitting (Originally aired: June 15, 2017)
Guest: Anne Bissonnette, PhD, Associate Professor of Material Culture and Curatorship, Curator of the Clothing and Textiles Collection, University of Alberta
It’s just a fact of life that our bodies change in shape and size as we age. Sudden – or even subtle – shifts in weight can require a whole new wardrobe. Why are clothes in the Western world designed so that even a slight gain in the hips or belly requires a new pant size? A exhibit called "Misfits" at the University of Alberta in Canada explored the lack of adaptability in Western clothing.
Why a Drunk Brain Thinks it Can Drive
Guest: Ksenija Marinkovic, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Adjunct Associate Professor of Radiology, and the Director of the Spatio-Temporal Brain Imaging Laboratory at San Diego State University
Crashes caused by drunk driving kill more than 10,000 people a year in the United States. Why do so many people who’ve been drinking still get behind the wheel and think they’re fine to drive? Neuroscientists at San Diego State University may have found the answer.
Your Ticket to the Sun
Guest: Nicola Fox, PhD, Parker Solar Probe Project Scientist and Chief Scientist, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
If you’re making summer plans, you need to hurry to get a ticket to this summer’s hottest spot. NASA is launching the first-ever spacecraft to the sun and you can be part of the mission. Captain Kirk is doing it – aka William Shatner.
Get your ticket to the sun here.
Coding with DNA
Guest: Rebecca Chen, Graduate Student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware
One major problem with chemotherapy is that to kill the cancer cells, the treatment also kills lots of healthy cells, too. Radiation is used to treat cancer in a localized area in the body. But wouldn’t it be so much better if the drug could float harmlessly in the body until it sensed a cancer cell and only then would it turn toxic? University of Delaware chemists are one step closer to making that a reality.
Who Were the Dragomans?
Guest: Natalie Rothman, PhD, Associate Professor of History, University of Toronto
The predecessors of modern-day diplomatic interpreters date back to the 1500s when everyone who was anyone was in Istanbul hoping to win the favor of the Ottoman Empire. This was the Ottoman heyday and European countries were measly by comparison, so they all had embassies in Istanbul to negotiate with the Turks. But since these European diplomats didn’t speak Turkish, they relied on interpreters called dragomans.
Inside the IRS on Tax Day
Guest: Charles Rossotti, Former Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (1997-2002), Senior Advisor, The Carlyle Group, Author, "Many Unhappy Returns: One Man's Quest To Turn Around The Most Unpopular Organization In America"
The individual filing deadline is upon us. While you may be stressing to get your return in on time, consider this: the IRS deals with 150 million individual income tax returns a year and another 100 million federal tax returns for businesses and nonprofits. How does the famously unpopular and under-funded agency manage it all?
Charles Rossotti was the commissioner of the IRS from 1997 to 2002. He led a major reorganization of the agency during that time and has since written a book about it called, “Many Unhappy Returns.”
Downstairs at the White House
Guest: Donald Stinson, Author, “Downstairs at the White House”
Donald Stinson had big ambitions from an early age. In 1973, he talked his way into a series of low-level jobs making copies and delivering mail inside the White House, which gave him a front row seat to all kinds of drama – Watergate, Vietnam protests, Vice President Spiro Agnew’s resignation, the release of the Nixon tapes, the resignation of President Richard Nixon himself.
Stinson met all kinds of important people during his teenaged escapades at the White House – and made all kinds of enemies among the Secret Service who weren’t so impressed with his mischief.
The Frontier Lives On in the American Psyche
Guest: Samuel Bazzi, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, Boston University
The days of Manifest Destiny, when settlers spread out across the western United States to conquer the land and prove up their claims are long over. But the legacy remains ingrained in the psyche of those still living in what used to be the American frontier, to the extent that it influences their political beliefs today.
Parent Previews: "Rampage" and "Sgt. Stubby"
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
In "Rampage," primatologist Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) has become deeply attached to George, an extremely intelligent gorilla he has been tending for years. So when a genetic experiment goes wrong, turning the once gentle George into a rampaging animal, Davis sets out to find a way to stop his friend from going ape and destroying the world.
Based on a true story, "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" tells the story of a canine that served with the human troops during World War I. This animation tells the tale of his brave acts that led to him becoming the most decorated dog in American military history.
How Noisy is Your Neighborhood?
Guest: Kent Gee, PhD, Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University; Dave Brown, BYU Technology Transfer Office
You know that feeling of spending the first night in a new house? You’ve just signed away the next 30 years of monthly income to the bank and you’re lying in bed noticing all of this unfamiliar noise – the traffic whizzing along a major road a few blocks away, trains blowing their horns in the distance, your neighbor’s A/C unit humming away not far from your bedroom window. A real estate advice column once that said you should spend at least one night in a home before you agree to buy it. Not sure how that would work, exactly – what seller would agree to let a prospective buyer have a sleepover? But the reasoning is sound – there’s just so much about the noise in a particular place you won’t know until it’s too late.
How great would it be if there were a Google Earth or Zillow-type website that could give you a noise ranking for a particular neighborhood? That’s what BYU physics professor Kent Gee is working on.
Race and the Census
Guests: Richard Alba, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Graduate Center CUNY; Jacob Rugh, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University
In a little less than 2 years, we’ll all be getting the census in the mail. The questions that will be on it have just been finalized. Age, gender, relationship status will be there, as usual. New for the first time in 50 years on this short, mandatory census questionnaire will be a question asking if you are a US Citizen. That’s a controversial addition.
But the question that has the most bearing on how we see ourselves in America is the race question. Evidence suggests the way the census measures race and ethnicity is driving a deeper wedge between White Americans and racial minorities. And here’s a deeper question – if America is a melting pot of immigrants and cultures, why do we even need to ask about race on the census? Why isn’t “American” the only identity that matters?
Native American Perspectives on Land
Guests: Farina King, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, Northeastern State University; Nizhone Meza, JD, Attorney; Tommy Rock, PhD, Environmental Scientist and Founder of Rock Environmental Consulting; Aldean Ketchum, Musician, Flute Builder
Mother Earth’s sacred nature is a common thread through the spiritual beliefs of Native American tribes across the country. We saw reverence for the land unite diverse indigenous communities at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and in the effort to preserve Bears Ears in Utah. We explore what it is that so deeply binds America’s original inhabitants to the land.
Record GOP Exodus in Congress
Guest: James Curry, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
House Speaker Paul Ryan has announced he will not run for re-election, but he told reporters when he made the announcement that his decision has nothing to do with the possibility that Republicans will lose control of the US House in the coming mid-term election. Rather, Ryan says it’s about spending more time with his family. A record number of Republicans in Congress are retiring, resigning or leaving to run for other office. What’s does Paul Ryan’s departure as a Republican figurehead in Washington mean for the party’s chances of keeping control of Congress this year?
We’re Dealing with Lower-Back Pain All Wrong
Guest: Judith Turner, PhD, Clinical Psychologist, Center for Pain Relief, University of Washington Medical Center, Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington
Low back pain is always bad news – and it’s increasingly common in the US and everywhere else in the world. But the really bad news is that the typical treatment for it – painkillers, “taking it easy,” and even shots or surgery – are not scientifically proven to be that helpful. In fact, they’re not even the first line of treatment recommended by expert groups such as the American Pain Society.
Budget Deal Protects Workers’ Tips
Guest: Nicole Hallett, PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Law, and Director of the Community Justice Clinic, University at Buffalo
In the restaurant business there’s a sort of class divide not unlike the upstairs/downstairs thing in Downtown Abbey – but it’s between the people who work in the front of the restaurant dealing with customers and the people who work in the back. When you leave a tip for your server, do you ever think about the line cooks or dishwashers who also made your meal possible? Would you like them to get a cut of what you’re leaving for the team that took your order, delivered your food and cleared your plates? This question of who should get a share of the tips is an ongoing, heated debate in the restaurant world, which both the Obama and Trump Administrations have waded into.
ICU Visiting Hour Restrictions Hurt More Than They Help (Originally aired: Nov. 6, 2017)
Guest: Giora Netzer, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland
There’s a nationwide movement to loosen visitor restrictions in critical care hospital settings. Advocates for giving a patient’s family open access to the ICU say it improves things for both the patient and the family. Not all intensive care nurses or hospital administrators agree, however.
Next Generation of Antibiotics (Originally aired: Jan. 30, 2018)
Guest: Bryan Davies, PhD, Assistant Professor of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin
The rapid growth of bacteria resistant to antibiotics is a global health crisis, according to the World Health Organization. But the race to discover new antibiotics that work is slow-going. A team of biologists at the University of Texas at Austin has found a way to speed up the testing process.
Farming Doesn’t Come with Insurance Benefits (Originally aired: Aug. 29, 2017)
Guest: Shoshanah Inwood, Assistant Professor of Community Development and Food Systems, Ohio State University
When you think about the most dangerous jobs in America, does farming come to mind? Flipping tractors, unpredictable animals, chemical exposure and dangerous machinery make agriculture one of the most hazardous industries in the country. Little wonder that finding affordable health insurance is one of the most significant concerns facing American farmers, who are often self-employed. A survey funded by the US Department of Agriculture also found that concern deters young farmers from embracing the career.
Facebook Under Fire
Guest: Randy Dryer, JD, Presidential Honors Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spent the last 24 hours taking pointed questions on Capitol Hill. He’s admitted the company made mistakes: It didn’t do enough to prevent Russia from peddling disinformation and sowing discord on Facebook during the 2016 election. It didn’t do enough to keep companies like Cambridge Analytica from misusing data of more than 80-million Facebook users. It hasn’t done enough to prevent hate speech on the site.
Zuckerberg’s public grilling came from both Republicans and Democrats. The message was clear: If you don’t get your act together, we’re going to pass laws that make sure you do. And we may just pass those laws, anyway.
Red State, Blue State
Guest: David Scott Kastan, PhD, George M. Bodman Professor of English, Yale University
States that vote consistently Republican—like Wyoming, North Dakota and Mississippi—are called “red states.” What is it about the Republican platform that lends itself to red? Or what about Democrats is best represented by blue? Nothing, actually. The color-coded political system in the United States is really just a fluke that only came to be in the last few decades.
Don't Spend Too Much Time on Your Makeup
Guest: Adriana Samper, Assistant Professor of Marketing, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University
Here’s one of the most famous advertising slogans: “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.” That question of how much attractive women have to work at it is at the heart of some new research, research that finds that people don’t trust women who spend a lot of time putting on makeup and styling their hair. It's a no-win situation for women, it seems.
Stories from The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam shares a Haitian folktale from Len Cabral.
A Forgotten Civilization in the Amazon
Guest: Jonas Gergorio de Souza, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter
The Amazon rainforest is crucial to the health of our planet – it converts a huge amount of carbon dioxide into oxygen and houses more than half the world's species of plants and animals. It’s also an increasingly rich trove of archaeological information. Using satellite imagery, researchers at the University of Exeter have uncovered a bustling corridor of ancient settlements deep in the Amazon rainforest. Archaeologists long assumed people only settled along major rivers in the Amazon. The land deeper into the forest was just too overgrown and inhospitable, they thought.
On TV, Writers Call the Shots
Guest: Deb Fordham, Television Writer and Producer, Scrubs, Army Wives, Hart of Dixie, Nashville and Impulse on YouTube Red
In movies, the director is king. In television, the writers are in charge. They’re the keepers of the plot, the characters, the heart of the story. In fact, in television, it’s common for every episode of a series to have a different director who takes orders from the writers to keep things consistent across the season. Recently a veteran TV writer named Deb Fordham made a visit to BYU Broadcasting and gave us a look at how TV works. Her credits include "Scrubs," "Army Wives," "Hart of Dixie" and "Nashville." Writing for laughs is a lot harder than writing for tears, she says. Writing for television as an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hard, too. And so is being a woman in a chauvinistic field. We covered all that in our chat.
Has Dr. King’s Legacy Been Whitewashed?
Guest: Wornie Reed, PhD, Director, Race and Social Policy Research Center, Virginia Tech
Fifty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, what lessons does his legacy offer young activists today marching and organizing for issues such as racial equality, police reform, economic opportunity or gun control? Wornie Reed worries the real nature of Dr. King’s work is not well-known today, and certainly not taught in your typical social studies or history class at school. Reed marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr and saw him speak dozens of times.
A Journalist’s Defense of the Sinclair Statement
Guest: Robert Walz, Associate Teaching Professor of Journalism, Brigham Young University
When you watch your favorite local TV news, you probably don’t realize that station has a corporate owner somewhere. A company called Sinclair Broadcast Group is the largest – it owns 190 stations across the country and it’s been taking a lot of heat recently for requiring local TV news hosts at all of its stations to read a message on-the-air about a “troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country.” Across the media landscape, journalists have condemned the move by Sinclair, saying it’s a thinly veiled attack on mainstream news outlets and an endorsement of President Trump’s constant effort to discredit reporting he disagrees with. President Trump has, in fact, praised Sinclair on Twitter, contrasting it with the “Fakers at CNN, NBC, ABC & CBS.” We talk to a journalist who defends the move by Sinclair.
Making Wheelchairs More Versatile in the Developing World
Guest: Eric Wunderlich, Manager, LDS Charities Wheelchair Initiative; Ryan Larson and Cameron Johnson, Chemical Engineering Capstone Students, Brigham Young University
Can you imagine how limited your opportunities would be if you needed a wheelchair to get to work, school, church, the store... but you didn’t have one? The World Health Organization says there are 70 million people in the world who need a wheelchair. Those who live in countries like the US typically have what they need. People in poorer countries, don’t. And if they do have a wheelchair, it’s not well-adapted to getting around on rough terrain, over long distances. A group of engineering students at BYU has come up with a solution, in partnership with the humanitarian arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A New Legacy for the Immortal Henrietta Lacks
Guest: Adele Newson-Horst, PhD, Vice President of Henrietta Lacks Legacy Group, Professor of English at Morgan State University
In February, Virginia lawmakers approved development on a cancer research and treatment center in honor of Henrietta Lacks. The center will be constructed in Halifax County, not far from where Henrietta Lacks was buried in 1951. But in a very real way, Henrietta Lacks lives on today. For around $500, you can order a vial of her living cells for research purposes. The Henrietta Lacks Legacy Group promotes the “immortal biological contributions” of Henrietta Lacks to medicine.
The Cost of Happiness
Guest: Ed Diener, PhD, Professor of Social Psychology, University of Utah and University of Virginia
They say money can’t buy happiness, but lots of research proves that’s baloney. Income is connected to happiness. The trickier question is: just how much money do you need for optimal life satisfaction? According to newly published research, the magic number is $95,000 a year, on average, worldwide.
“New Retail” and the Future of Shopping
Guest: Jialu Shan, Research Associate, Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, Switzerland
Toys “R” Us is going out of business. It’s the end of an era for the generations who grew up wandering the aisles and begging parents for their favorite toy. Another casualty of Amazon.com? Perhaps, but not all of our shopping is not going to be online in the future. Consider that Amazon itself just opened its first Amazon Go store, a brick and mortar convenience store in Seattle. Researchers at the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation say that we’re entering the age of “New Retail,” a combination of online and “offline,” or brick-and-mortar retail. And in that game, it’s actually China that’s leading the way.
Corruption in Brazil & Violence in Gaza
Guest: Quinn Mecham
Regular contributor Quinn Mecham joins us monthly to point our attention toward three international events worthy of a bit more attention: corruption in Brazil, South Korea and South Africa, violence in Gaza and the new prime minister in Ethiopia.
What Adults Can Learn from Teens About Grieving
Guest: Robbie Miller Kaplan, Author, “How to Say It When You Don’t Know What to Say”
The stormy teenaged years are a time of intense emotions – lots of highs and lows as young people develop and learn to regulate their emotions. So, it may surprise you to hear grief expert Robbie Miller Kaplan say that we mature adults could learn a thing or two from the way teens cope with loss.
Read more of Kaplan's writing about grief on her blog.
The Diplomatic Glue Between America and Japan? It's Baseball
Guest: Steven Wisensale, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, University of Connecticut
Here’s a story about baseball’s centuries-long ability to broker goodwill. Believe it or not, the game played an important role in helping the US and Japan mend relations after World War II. And more recently, when a US submarine collided with a Japanese ship, killing nine high school students and teachers, a youth baseball tournament was organized to honor the victims. That tournament rotates between Japan and Hawaii and has happened every year since the accident in 2001.
Trust Your Gut
Guest: Linda Rinaman, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience, Florida State University
We say things like “I have a gut feeling” or “I know it in my gut.” What exactly do we feel in our gut, though? When my stomach clenches and I get a bit nauseous in a moment of dread, is that message originating in my gut or my brain? How much does the gut affect decisions we make?
Parent Previews: A Quiet Place, The Miracle Season, Chappaquiddick
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
A Quiet Place: In a post-apocalyptic world, a family tries to avoid detection from the unknown beings that destroyed mankind. They are only in danger if they make a sound… but it is hard to live in total silence.
The Miracle Season: A high school volley ball team is emotionally devastated after the death of star player Caroline "Line" Found. But under the guidance of their coach, the girls rally together to hoping to win the state championship in their teammate's honor.
Chappaquiddick: Based on a true story, this movie dramatizes the wreckage caused to the political career of Senator Ted Kennedy when, in 1969, he is involved in a car accident that claimed the life of a 28-year-old woman, Mary Jo Kopechne.
You Can’t Escape America’s Influence
Guest: Suzy Hansen, Journalist, Author, “Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World”
Journalist Suzy Hansen moved to Istanbul in 2007 to learn more about Islam and the Middle East. When her two year writing fellowship ended, the recession was in full swing and jobs were tight back in the US. So she stayed in Turkey and continued her travels reporting around the region – Afghanistan, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq. And everywhere she went, she encountered people surprised that the she knew hardly anything about their country’s history, while their lives were literally defined by US influence in their country.
Hansen’s book “Notes on a Foreign Country” is full of these eye-opening moments as she – a white American woman – discovers just how little she understands about America’s influence around the world.
Remembering MLK’s Legacy
Guest: David Garrow, PhD, Pulitzer Prize-winning Author of “Bearing the Cross”
Martin Luther King Jr. is often remembered for the soaring optimism of his “I Have a Dream” speech in the March on Washington. By the time he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, it had been five years since that march. The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act had both passed in Congress. So, at the point of his assassination, did Dr. King feel his dream had been accomplished? With the 50th anniversary of his assassination, we explore Dr. King’s legacy.
The Secret Cause of Dementia
Guest: Steven Greenberg, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Stroke is often thought of as a single event – a big thing that happens to someone’s brain and has lasting effects. But there’s a slower, more progressive form of stroke that entails tiny vessels in the brain leaking blood over time. Researchers now believe this kind of stroke is closely tied to rising rates of dementia in America.
The Art of Public Apology
Guest: Ashraf Rushdy, PhD, Professor of English, African American Studies, and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Wesleyan University
“I’m sorry.” Those words can be powerful. But not always. Take this recent apology by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on CNN about the misuse of Facebook data by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica: “This was a major breach of trust and I’m really sorry this happened.” What does that really mean? Is he sorry for the damage the breach may have done to Facebook users or American democracy? Is he mostly just sorry that he and his company have to deal with this?
John Wompas: American Indian, Real Estate Mogul, Swindler (Originally aired on Nov. 10, 2017)
Guest: Jenny Hale Pulsipher, PhD, Associate Professor, History, Brigham Young University, Author, “Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped Out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England” out in June 2018 from Yale University Press
The story of a fascinating American Indian starts about a decade after English settlers and the Wampanoag Indians gathered for a harvest festival we now consider the first Thanksgiving. John Wompas was born around 1637 near what today is Grafton, Massachusetts. He was a Nipmuc Indian, but he didn’t come from any royal lineage in the tribe. His father was not a chief – or “sachem,” as the tribe’s leaders were called. And yet, John Wompas would become prominent in both Nipmuc and English communities. He would study at Harvard. Become the first Indian involved in the transatlantic sea trade. Get rich off of real estate deals. End up in debtor’s prison in London and convince the King to lend him a hand.
Making Sense of Mergers in the Health Care Industry
Guest: Erik Gordon, PhD, Professor at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Walmart is rumored to be eyeing the huge health insurance company Humana. CVS pharmacy is buying Aetna insurance. Health insurer Cigna wants to merge with Express Scripts. And a trio of giant employers: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan say they’re so fed up with the high cost of insurance they’re teaming up to create an independent company that can provide insurance to their US employees.
Why does combining forces seem to be the go-to strategy in American health care right now?
Elite College Degree Won’t Shelter Asian Americans from Discrimination
Guest: Jennifer Lee, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, author of "The Asian American Achievemenet Paradox"
Harvard set a record for itself in college admissions this year – a record low. Fewer than five percent of applicants for the incoming freshman class got accepted. Diversity among the incoming class increased, though, which is encouraging to members of minority groups. But such low acceptance rates at the nation’s most elite colleges makes for a lot of disappointed high school seniors around the country. For one group in particular – Asian American students – the sting of rejection may be particularly intense.
ONLINE BONUS: Jennifer Lee talks about her book "The Asian American Achievement Paradox" on Top of Mind.
Where to Find the Next Moonstones
Guest: Daniel Moriarty, PhD, Postdoc researcher in planetary geology, NASA
Shortly after the moon formed, something gigantic smacked into it, leaving a mark large enough to fit half of the continental United States. This crater takes up a quarter of the Moon’s surface. And scientists think it holds the keys to understanding the early days of the solar system.
They’re looking for the best landing site in the giant crater to collect Moon rocks that would reveal those secrets.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
The Apple Seed shares a story by Dan Keding called, "Bobo and the Baseballs."
Leveraging Animal DNA to Cure Disease
Guest: Christopher Gregg, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Human Genetics, Assistant Professor in Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Utah School of Medicine
Humans are mammals. So are elephants, bats and dolphins. And we all share a fair amount of genetic information in common. What might we be able to learn about human diseases from studying the way bats have developed wings and elephants have evolved to avoid cancer?
History of the Race Beat
Guest: E.R. Shipp, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, Professor of Journalism, Morgan State University, Columnist, The Baltimore Sun
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. On Thursday afternoon, we’ll dive deeply into the Civil Rights leader’s legacy with the author of a King biography that won the Pulitzer Prize.
Right now, let’s get the perspective of another Pulitzer Prize winner – columnist E.R. Shipp – on how media coverage of race issues has evolved in the 50 years since King’s assassination and the release of something called the Kerner Report two months previously. Shipp was the first black woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. As a columnist for the New York Daily News, the Pulitzer committee commended her for “penetrating columns on race, welfare and other social issues."
Conflicts in Syria Take a Turn
Guest: Amy Austin Holmes, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, American University in Cairo; Fellow in Middle East Program at Woodrow Wilson Center
President Trump recently said the US will be bringing its forces home from Syria. But that does not mean conflict there is over. Rather, some conflict has opened on new fronts: Turkey is invading cities controlled by Kurdish forces in Northern Syria. And in the suburbs of Damascus, the military of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad has killed more than a thousand people in a campaign to clear opposition forces from cities. You’ve likely heard the names Eastern Ghouta and Douma. What does all of this mean for a civil war that’s now seven years old and has forced millions of Syrians from their homes?
Taking Mars' Vital Signs
Guest: Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
For 14 years, robotic rovers have been roaming the surface of the red planet, searching for signs of life and scoping things out for the day when humans will ultimately arrive on Mars. In about a month, NASA will launch another craft with a more in-depth Mars mission. Rather than roll around the surface of the planet, this one will drill down.
Free-Range Parenting Made Law
Guest: Senator Lincoln Fillmore (R), Utah’s 10th District
In recent years, parents have become much more cautious about letting their kids get around by themselves, so much so that a couple years ago, a Maryland couple was charged with neglect when they repeatedly allowed their 6- and 10-year olds to walk home from the park unsupervised. But there’s lately been a pushback against “helicopter” parenting, in an effort to allow kids more independence. Utah lawmakers recently changed state law so that parents can’t be prosecuted for letting their kids walk to the store, to school or to a friend’s house alone. The law is the first of its kind in the nation.
Stockton, California: Sowing the SEED of Universal Basic Income
Guest: Lori Ospina, Director of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED)
A little later this year, the city of Stockton, California will start handing out monthly checks of $500 - no strings attached – to some of its residents. It’s an attempt to test something that’s never been tried in the United States – guaranteeing a basic income for people to spend as they see fit. Conservatives and liberals have long toyed with the idea, for different reasons. But the devil’s in the details and that’s why all eyes are on Stockton’s experiment called the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, or SEED.
Singing the Truth of Black Men in America
Guest: Lawrence Brownlee, Opera Tenor, Artistic Advisor at Opera Philadelphia
Protests continue in Sacramento over the fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark. Officers were responding to a complaint of someone breaking into vehicles when they encountered Clark – a 22-year-old black man – in his grandmother’s back yard. An independent autopsy requested by Clark’s family found the he was shot eight times, with most of the bullets hitting him in the back. This is the environment into which acclaimed operatic tenor Lawrence Brownlee begins a national tour of a songs about what it means to be a black man in America. The music is inspired by those who’ve come before Stephon Clark: Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling.
Worlds Awaiting: Sketchnotes
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYU Radio
Rachel is a recent convert to the power of doodling in notetaking, also called sketchnotes.
Will Trump Supporters Turn Out for Traditional GOP Candidates in 2018?
Guest: Michael Barber, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Mid-term primaries have already taken place in several states. Traditionally the party that came into power during a presidential election suffers a setback in the midterm two years later. One big question for Republican candidates is how much they can rely on President Trump’s supporters to show up and support them, too. The extent to which a Trump supporter shows up to vote for another Republican may depend on just how much that voter identifies with the party.
Don't Criminalize Mental Illness, and Save Taxpayer Dollars
Guest: Judge Steve Leifman, Associate Administrative Judge, 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, and Chair, Florida Supreme Court Task Force on Mental Health
The Miami-Dade County jail is effectively the largest psychiatric facility in Florida. But Judge Steve Leifman wants to change that. We recently learned about his Criminal Mental Health Project through the New York Times: Instead of sending mentally ill offenders to jail, he gets them into treatment. He's hopeful that his effort could prevent future violence like mass shootings, which so often seem to be linked to mental illness.
Give Your Voice for Someone Without One
Guest: Rupal Patel, PhD, Professor of Speech Pathology and Computer Science, Northeastern University, and CEO, VocaliD
The late physicist Stephen Hawking’s computerized voice famously had an American accent, even though he was British. Why didn’t he have a British accent? Hawking explained on his website that, when he started using the technology, only the American accent was available and he just got attached to it. But speech pathologist Rupal Patel points out, that even today, there are just a handful of generic options for people using computerized devices to communicate. She’s developed a way to create custom voices based on the unique vocal characteristics of people who may only be able to make a few sounds. To do it, though, she needs a large bank of voice recordings donated by people like you and me.
Donate your voice here.
Mr. Chocolate
Guest: Steven Wallace, Founder, The Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company, and Author, "Obroni and the Chocolate Factory"
Those chocolate bunnies and Cadbury eggs in your Easter basket were made somewhere in the US or Europe. But the cocoa beans they came from were probably grown in Ghana or Ivory Coast, where the majority of all cocoa in the world comes from.
One of the few companies that actually makes chocolate in the same place the cocoa beans are grown is Omanhene and it’s in Ghana.
Parent Previews: "Ready, Player One" and "God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness"
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
The only way to escape the dreariness of life in 2045 is to escape to the OASIS. The virtual reality game lets players toy with anything or identity they came imagine. But a new challenge disrupts this pastime when the death of video game creator reveals he has hidden an Easter Egg in the program -- and the first person to find it will inherit his fortune.
Also, the third installment in the "God's Not Dead" series is the best so far.
Building a Quieter Airplane Toilet
Guest: Scott Sommerfeldt, PhD, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; Mike Alder, Tech Transfer Office, Brigham Young University
There are a lot of reasons to dislike the standard airplane bathroom. It’s so cramped, for one. But the noise. That toilet flushes so loudly I’ve sometimes wondered if it opens a portal straight to the outside of the plane. And how miserable is it if you’re stuck in a seat near the toilet? To be jolted out of your rest every time it flushes. Well, this is the very serious social problem BYU professor Scott Sommerfeldt has undertaken to solve.
Inside the Unseen World of Baseball for the Blind
Guest: David Wancyzk, Instructor and Editor, Ohio University, Author, "Beep: Inside the Unseen World of Baseball for the Blind"
Picture yourself in the outfield, the sun shining, the grass a vibrant green. Now close your eyes and imagine you have to chase down a fly ball with only your ears to guide you. But the ball is beeping.
And imagine that when you come up to bat, you’re still blindfolded. If you manage to connect with the ball, somehow, the base will start buzzing and that’s how you’ll know where to run.
This is Beep Baseball. There are dozens of teams playing it around the US – and a handful of other countries. David Wanczyk explores the sport in his new book, “Beep: Inside the Unseen World of Baseball for the Blind.”
The Royal Navy Squadron that Ended the African Slave Trade (Originally aired January 12, 2018)
Guest: John Broich, PhD, Associate Professor of British Empire History, Case Western Reserve University, Author, “Squadron: Ending the African Slave Trade”
Many years after the U.S. and England banned the transport of enslaved people across the Atlantic, and America tore itself to pieces in civil war to end slavery, an active slave trade was still going on in the Indian Ocean on the other side of Africa. But that was so far away it was essentially “out of sight, out of mind” for Americans and many British, too. Those who did know of it couldn’t agree on what to do about it. Some hoped it would peter out naturally. Others, including a Royal Navy commodore named Leopold Heath, believed England had a duty to use all of its military might to end the trade of kidnapped Africans as slaves. So, he assembled a squadron of ship captains and they took it upon themselves.
2020 Census Will Ask, "Are You a US Citizen?"
Guest: Tanya Golash-Boza, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of California-Merced
When it arrives in our mailboxes two years from now, the US Census will include the question: Are you a United States citizen? The Commerce Department just announced this week that question will go back on the full, once-every-ten-years census survey Americans are required to take. It’ll be the first time in 50 years that has been the case. Already, more than a dozen states, led by California, have filed a lawsuit to stop the question from being added. Let’s get a sense of why this is controversial.
You, Too, Can Be a Space Archaeologist!
Guest: Sarah Parcak, PhD, Founder and President, GlobalXplorer, Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Founding director, Laboratory for Global Observation, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Sarah Parcak is a space archaeologist, and she wants you to be one too. You don’t have to travel in a rocket ship or use a telescope. All you need is an internet connection and some patience, because space archaeology entails studying satellite images to find hidden treasure. The more eyes on the images, the better.
A Celebrated African Novelist on Migration and Identity
Guest: Ken Bugul, Author, “Le Baobab Fou”
If you look at the list of countries whose citizens have left for other places over the last decade, Syria’s emigrant population has grown the fastest worldwide. The rest of the top ten countries with fastest growing rates of emigration are all in Africa. So it’s not too surprising that migration was something Ken Bugul spoke passionately about during a recent visit to our studio as a guest of BYU’s Africana Studies program. Ken Bugul is from Senegal. She’s one of French-speaking Africa’s most celebrated authors. Her writing deals with independence, loss, inequality and identity. Her next novel is about migration. It’s unfortunate that only one of her books has been translated into English, because there’s a lot Ken Bugul wishes we, in the West, understood.
Bugs Are Fun (originally aired June 9, 2017)
Guest: Shawn Clark, PhD, Research Professor of Biology with an emphasis on entomology at BYU, Insect Collections Manager at the Monte L. Bean Museum
We were so fascinated with bugs when we were kids – inspecting them in the yard, bringing them inside, much to mom’s chagrin. And then at some point we learn that bugs are icky and we’re a lot more worried about squashing them than studying them. We’ve got someone with us this hour who never did learn to hate bugs.
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Russian Explusions and Bolton Heads the NSC
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director, Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a secret trip to Beijing aboard an armored train this week. Kim’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is believed to be his first foreign trip as leader of North Korea. It comes weeks before he’s scheduled to meet with South Korea’s president and then with President Trump. All of this is happening as the Trump administration shakes up its national security and diplomatic team.
Fight Your Filter
Guest: Tanya Menon, PhD, Associate Professor of Management and Human Resources, The Ohio State University
You know how, on Facebook, you tend to see posts from the same people over and over again? Well Facebook is feeding us what its algorithms predict we want to see. And it’s a proven thing that we naturally prefer to interact with the same circle – in real life and online. These people tend to be similar to us in thoughts – even in appearance, often. When it comes to getting a job or progressing in life, though, we’d do well to break out of our bubble on occasion. Tanya Menon argues that it doesn’t have to be scary or painful. She’s a professor of Management and Human Resources at The Ohio State University. Her popular TED Talk is called “The Secret to Great Opportunities? The Person You Haven’t Met Yet.”
Humor Can Motivate and Educate
Guest: Christofer Skurka, PhD Candidate in Communication, Cornell University
Comedians like Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver and Seth Meyers are more and more a source of information. Their satire and sarcasm provoke viewers to question what’s going on in the world. How effective is humor in changing people’s minds and behaviors? Researchers at Cornell took a serious look at the power of humor in a study that showed participants a series of videos about climate change. They found both humor and fear had advantages in getting people to climate change seriously.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam shares the winning story from Utah Biggest's Liars Contest.
What Happens to Our Data When We Die?
Guest: Jed Brubaker, Assistant Professor, Information Science, University of Colorado Boulder
What would you like to have happen to your Facebook account when you die? Do you want it frozen in time and turned into a digital memorial? Or would you rather it be deleted? You can actually make that choice right now thanks to the work of Jed Brubaker, a founding faculty member in the department of information science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Brubaker worked with Facebook to develop a more sensitive way to handle a person’s profile after death.
The Untold Story of Anna Murray Douglas
Guest: Leigh Fought, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Le Moyne College, Author, “Women in the World of Frederick Douglass”
Frederick Douglass, famous escaped slave turned abolitionist and orator, was the most photographed man of his time. He sat for more than 160 portraits that we know of, and yet, there are only two known pictures of his wife, Anna Murray Douglass. But don’t be fooled, says historian Leigh Fought. Anna Murray Douglass’s behind-the-scenes support helped make her husband the powerhouse he was.
To Address Gun Violence, We Must Change the Fundamental Condition
Guest: Sandro Galea, MD, ER Physician and Dean, Boston University School of Public Health, Author of "Healthier: Fifty Thoughts on the Foundations of Population Health"
Over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of people participated nationwide in “March for Our Lives," one of the events organized in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting that left 17 dead. Mass shootings – including those that take place in schools – capture attention and stir emotion, but the truth is they represent just a tiny fraction of what epidemiologist Sandro Galea calls a public health crisis: in the United States, you’re as likely to die by a gun as you are to die in a car crash.
Selfies and Cosmetic Surgery
Guest: Boris Paskhover, MD, Assistant Professorof Otolaryngology, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Everyone who’s tried it knows there’s an art to taking a good selfie. But some people are willing to go much farther than trying new angles or lighting to improve their selfies. The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery says more than half of surgeons they surveyed last year had seen patients who came in looking for cosmetic procedures to look better in selfies. But, those people may not realize how deceptive a selfie is.
Wikipedia Needs More Women
Guest: Tamar Carroll, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Rochester Institute of Technology
When I was young and had a random question about the world, my dad would send me to our book shelf of encyclopedias to find the answer. Remember how the full collection literally took an entire shelf? These days we ask Alexa, Siri or Google, and up comes a Wikipedia entry. The genius of Wikipedia is that anyone can edit and contribute to it. But most of the 33 million volunteer editors constantly keeping Wikipedia up-to-date are men. Combine that with the rules Wikipedia follows to make sure entries are accurate, and it’s not surprising that content about women is under-represented on the site.
Eye-Tracking Lab Can Tell if You're Lying
Guest: Kevin John, PhD, Assistant Professor of Communications and Director, Eye-Tracking Lab, School of Communications, Brigham Young University
Eyes are the window to the soul. Which is a lovely thing to say, but it could actually be scientifically correct. Communications professor Kevin John runs the Eye-Tracking Lab here at BYU. He joins me now in studio to explain how following people’s eye movements can tell us what people are really thinking – and when they’re lying.
"Single Wide" Musical: Love and Loss in a Trailer Park
Guests: George Nelson, Professor of Theatre Arts; Jordan Kamalu, Songwriter, Producer, Film Composer; Maclain Nelson, Writer and Director
Four full-sized single-wide trailers are sitting on the stage of the Pardoe Theater here at BYU to provide the backdrop for a new musical that’s just back from a successful run in New York City. The play’s called “Single Wide.” Written by Maclain Nelson and BYU theater arts professor George Nelson and composed by recent BYU grad Jordan Kamalu, it’s a sympathetic look at the residents of a trailer park.
Parent Previews: “Sherlock Gnomes” and “Pacific Rim: Uprising”
Guest: Donna Gustafson, Parent Previews
Talking to Kids about Pornography
Guest: Brian Willoughby, PhD, Associate Professor of Family Life, Brigham Young University
When kids used pornography a generation ago, it usually meant racy magazines stashed under a bed. But kids today live their lives on screens, often being fed content that they weren’t even looking for. What can parents do to prepare their children for pornography that pops up during an internet search or in the sidebar ads on their favorite sports page?
Politics and Power in the Global Chocolate Chain
Guest: Kristy Leissle, PhD, Lecturer of Global Studies, University of Washington Bothell, Author, "Cocoa"
Here in the Western World, cocoa conjures delight, indulgence, romance, even. Not politics, power or oppression. But the researcher known as “Dr. Chocolate” writes in her new book that behind every taste of chocolate you enjoy are millions of people for whom “chocolate means a daily grind of tough labor to make a precarious living.” In the book titled simply, “Cocoa,” University of Washington Bothell lecturer Kristy Leissle traces the power relations and politics embedded in every step of the chocolate supply chain from the cocoa farm to the foil wrapped candy bar on the grocery store shelf.
How the World Looks Different When More Women Design It
Guests: Brooke Smart, Illustrator; Ann Hintze, Graphic Designer and Art Director; Trisha Zemp, Photographer and Animator
The covers of the books on your shelf and illustrations in picture books. The design of the websites you surf. The photos in fashion and news magazine. There’s a strong chance those images were created or captured by a man.
Illustration, photography and graphic design are all dominated by men. The majority of Caldecott Winners for best children’s book illustrations have been men. The web design industry is overwhelming male. But in a lot of design programs at universities around the country, including right here at BYU, the student body is mostly female or pretty evenly split. Why is it, then, that the world around us is curated and visualized mainly through male eyes? And how does that affect the way we see ourselves – and each other – as human beings?
MS-13 is Not What the Trump Administration Thinks It Is
Guest: Steven Dudley, Senior Fellow, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University in Washington DC; Co-Director, Insight Crime
President Trump and the Department of Justice have made fighting the MS-13 gang one of their top priorities for law enforcement and immigration policy. “ICE recently arrested 15 MS-13 gang members -- these are not good people, folks. Okay?” said President Trump on Monday in a speech about the opioid crisis. In addition to drug policy, the President also points to MS-13 when he talks about the need to build a border wall, increase deportations, crackdown on sanctuary cities. But what if those policies don’t actually stop MS-13 from committing heinous acts of violence and instead just make the problem worse?
The Legacy of Martha Hughes Cannon
Guest: Janiece Johnson, Historian, Maxwell Institute of Religion, BYU
Right now in the US Capitol Building, there’s a statue of Philo T. Farnsworth – the Utah-born inventor of the television. For 40 years he’s been one of Utah’s contributions to the National Statuary Hall Collection, but soon he’ll be replaced by a different statue. The Utah Legislature has decided that Martha Hughes Cannon is a more deserving of the honor. What did she invent that’s better than TV, you ask?
Why Education Reform Consistently Fails
Guest: Jack Schneider, PhD, Assistant Professor of Education, College of the Holy Cross
Secretary DeVos has invested a lot of her personal wealth in school choice programs to give families an option beyond their neighborhood school. She’s not alone. Billions upon billions of dollars from philanthropists all over the political spectrum have gone toward school reform efforts intended to improve schools, improve teachers, improve student performance. The results have been lackluster. Education professor and historian Jack Schneider at the College of the Holy Cross says that’s because those efforts are typically one-sized-fits-all and come from the top down.
The Fearless Brain of Alex Honnold (Originally aired: June 17, 2017)
Guest: Jane Joseph, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience, Medical University of South Carolina
The world’s best rock climber, Alex Honnold, does free solo climbing. Meaning no net, no safety gear. Last June, he climbed the face of Yosemite’s El Capitan in less than four hours, with nothing but his fingers, his toes and a bag of chalk clipped to his belt. Many, many people have wondered over the years if Alex Honnold is even capable of feeling fear. Is there something wrong with his brain that makes it so he can do these insanely risky things?
Workplace Giving (Originally aired: Nov. 21, 2017)
Guest: Robert Christensen, PhD, Associate Professor of Public Management, Brigham Young University
It’s time to gather up all your paperwork to do your taxes. Some of your charitable deductions last year might have included workplace giving. Maybe yours was encouraged by your employer. A lot of people have really mixed feelings about these campaigns, which is apparent because workplace giving donations have been declining in recent years.
What Facebook Does with All that Personal Data It Collects (Originally aired: March 14, 2017)
Guest: Michal Kosinski, PhD, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford University
Let’s look now at some of the underlying science behind the current scandal involving UK-based Cambridge Analytica. The company got access to profile and preference data for some 50-million Americans through a personality quiz app that was available on Facebook and then used that information to try and sway the election for President Trump. The whole approach is based on work published in 2015 by psychologist and data scientist Michal Kosinski when he was a grad student at Cambridge University. Multiple reports indicate Cambridge Analytica approached Kosinski for help, but he declined and the firm turned to a different researcher at the university named Aleksandr Kogan.
Michal Kosinksi is now a professor at Stanford University and still working on using big data to predict people’s preferences. We spoke with him a year ago about his work.
A Data Scientist’s View of the Facebook Breach
Guest: Quinn Snell, PhD, Professor of Computer Science and Data Systems, Brigham Young University
Investigations by Congress and the Federal Trade Commission are underway into just how a data consulting firm in the UK called Cambridge Analytica got its hands on the basic profile information and “likes” of tens of millions of Facebook users and what it did with that data. A whistleblower says the firm used it to try and sway people in support of Donald Trump during the 2016 election. Facebook says a Cambridge University researcher misled them about what he planned to do with the data he was collecting through a personality test app he created on the site.
Was this a security breach? A hack? A door left open by Facebook intentionally, or by accident? The investigations are ongoing, but let’s get the perspective of a data scientist. Quinn Snell is a professor of computer science and big data systems here at BYU. He’s not involved in the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, but he does a lot of work with data through social media sites and trains students to do it, too.
Publish or Perish: Even Harder for Women
Guest: Ione Fine, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Washington
In the academic world, the way to get promoted is to publish your research in prestigious journals like Nature or The Lancet. But women don’t seem to get a fair shake in this system. University of Washington neuroscientist Ione Fine looked at the gender of the key researchers on thousands of articles published over the last decade in the top neuroscience journals.
Stephen Hawking’s Legacy
Guest: Raphael Bousso, PhD, Professor of Physics, University of California Berkeley
World-famous physicist Stephen Hawking died last week. As a bestselling author of “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes,” he made cosmology more accessible to millions. His image in pop culture image helped with that accessibility too – Hawking had cameos on The Simpsons, Star Trek, the Big Bang Theory and, of course, his early years were the focus of the Oscar-winning film “The Theory of Everything.”
For a look now at Stephen Hawking’s legacy – scientifically and culturally – we’ve got one of his former students on the line.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Center of the Galaxy
Guest: Farhad Zadeh, PhD, Professor of Astronomy, Northwestern University, Faculty member, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), Weinberg College of Arts and Science
We heard last hour how Stephen Hawking helped us better understand some of the mystery around black holes. In the center of our Milky Way galaxy, we’ve got a supermassive black hole, and lately astronomers have noticed unexpected things happening in the neighborhood right around it.
Taking Stock of Black Life and Racism in America 50 Years After a Pivotal Moment
Guest: Nathan Connolly, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University, Author, “A World More Concrete: Real Estate and the Remaking of Jim Crow South Florida,” Co-host, BackStory podcast
Fifty years ago this month, the Kerner Commission report came out. It was a group organized by President Lyndon B. Johnson and led by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner to investigate why young black men were rioting in more than 150 cities around the country.
The report was very direct. “White racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of World War II,” it said. Racial discrimination in housing, employment and education had led to pent-up frustration in low-income black neighborhoods. And the report warned that the riots would continue if something didn’t change. Fifty years later, that legacy is not behind us. In fact, when it comes to homeownership, unemployment and incarceration, there’s been no progress for African Americans compared to whites, according to new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Where Smartphones Go When They Die
Guest: Mohammad Shahrad, PhD candidate, Princeton’s Department of Electrical Engineering
The smartphone in your pocket holds more processing power than all the computers NASA had at its disposal when it sent the first astronauts to the moon. Yet, when the screen on a smartphone breaks or it no longer supports the latest apps, we toss them. Now researchers at Princeton are working to harness all that wasted processing power by bundling old phones into servers.
Economic Scars from the Great Recession
Guest: Henry Farber, PhD, Professor of Economics, Princeton University
It’s been ten years since it started. Hard to believe it’s been a decade - the drama still feels fresh. It started when the housing bubble burst and the banks faltered under the weight of foreclosures and bad debt. American companies and everyday people lost wealth and started spending less, which led to massive job losses. The national unemployment rate hit 10 percent. Today, it’s down to four percent. That’s pre-recession level. So is the economy good as new? Or did those years of turmoil in the labor market leave a lasting mark?
Survivors Finally Talk about the Khmer Rouge
Guest: Dana Bourgerie, PhD, Professor and Department Chair of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, BYU
Many Cambodians who were alive during the years between 1975-1979 prefer not to talk about them. That was Pol Pot’s brutal reign, when his Khmer Rouge regime tortured and executed millions of Cambodians. Families were split up and sent to work in separate labor camps under the watch of violent guards. Many people simply disappeared. The reluctance of Khmer Rouge survivors to talk about that awful period has led to a generation of young people today who have little understanding of their own family history.
When Pests are Best
Guest: Katja Poveda, PhD, Assistant Professor of Entomology, Cornell University
The world’s farmers face pressure to keep up with a growing population while cutting back on pesticides that hurt the environment. Potatoes in Columbia may yield a natural solution: researchers found that some of the tubers kick into overdrive and produce more potatoes when pests come around.
AllyWatch
Guest: Katelyn Strobel, Founder, AllyWatch
There are 74 million baby boomers in America who are now approaching the age when a fall or sudden health crisis could make living alone a problem. Technology could be the solution that helps them maintain their independence longer. BYU student Katelyn Strobel has developed a smartwatch application that can detect if mom or grandpa has a fall while wearing the watch and then notify a relative.
Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin
Guest: Rae Katherine Eighmey, Author, “Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin: A Founding Father's Culinary Adventures”
You may know Founding Father Benjamin Franklin as the American ambassador who wore a fur cap to the French court, or as the inventor who played around with kites in lightning storms. But he also took his curiosity into the kitchen. Cookbook author and food historian Rae Katherine Eighmey has just published a cookbook and biography of Benjamin Franklin’s life that opens up a window into his world.
Worlds Awaiting: Classic Children’s Science Fiction
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYU Radio
Recommendations for science fiction your kids will love.
Putin Stays in Power
Guest: Fred White, PhD, Professor of Russian Literature, Film and Culture, Utah Valley University, Associate Vice President, Engaged Learning
Vladmir Putin won Russia’s presidential election over the weekend by a huge margin, which was entirely as expected given that he controls the state media and his primary opponent was barred from running. What can the world expect from six more years of President Putin in Russia?
Clear Up Vacant Lots, Reduce Violence
Guest: Charles Branas, PhD, Professor and Chair of Epidemiology, Columbia University
If you were in the market for a new home for your family, and your realtor took you to a neighborhood that had an overgrown vacant lot on the street, would that be a red flag for you? In some neighborhoods, maybe it’s no big deal. But in many urban communities, overgrown, trash-strewn abandoned lots can attract drugs and gun violence. Epidemiologist Charles Branas has found that simply landscaping those plots of land can make a real difference for a neighborhood.
Brain Training Apps
Guest: Walter Boot, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Florida State University
Most of us in middle age are nagged by a fear of dementia. Or at the very least, memory loss. An increase in “senior” moments. Trouble remembering names or dates or where we put the keys.
A couple years ago, the brain-training game company Lumosity was fined two million dollars for false claims to improve cognitive function through its app. If brain games are suspect, is there anything that does work to ward off decline as we age?
What a Stanford Economist Learned as an Undercover Uber Driver
Guest: Paul Oyer, PhD, Fred H. Merrill Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Senior Fellow at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Let’s take an undercover journey into the gig economy with labor economist Paul Oyer. Well, economists crunch numbers and develop theories, but they're not trained to go undercover, right? But Oyer pulled it off, driving for Uber on the streets of Palo Alto, California where he’s a professor at Stanford.
Parent Previews: "I Can Only Imagine"
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
Bart Millard reveals the story behind the hit single "I Can Only Imagine" by the Christian band MercyMe. His journey of faith, forgiveness and healing may be as inspirational as the song.
Secret to Longer Life, in Fruit Flies
Guest: John Chaston, PhD, Assistant Professor of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University
We heard earlier in the show what works and what doesn’t to keep your brain sharp as you age. Diet, of course, is also important for living a long and healthy life, and our fast-food culture is like a minefield of temptations. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could take a supplement that turns an unhealthy food into something harmless in the body?
How Congress Works
Guests: Cliff Stearns, former Republican Congressman from Florida, current President of the United States Association of Former Members of Congress, author, “Life in the Marble Palace”; James Curry, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Utah, Co-director, Utah Chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network, author, “Legislating in the Dark”
How our elected representatives in Congress get their work done is Top of Mind this hour. There’s a public perception they don’t. Or that when they do manage to get something done, it’s hashed out in backroom deals between partisan power players and then rammed through a party-line vote without much effort to really air the issue in public, debate the merits or make amendments. This only adds to the frustration among Americans that Congress is some mysterious club better at grandstanding and sparring on cable TV than actually solving the nation’s problems.
At least 70 percent of Americans think Congress is doing a bad job.
Today we get the inside scoop from a former Republican Congressman and a political scientist who's studied the way US House leaders control information to get laws passed.
How Should Virtual Reality Be Used?
Guest: Jeremy Bailenson, PhD, Professor of Communication, Founding Director, Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Stanford University, Author, “Experience on Demand”
If you could strap on a headset and immediately be anywhere in the world, free to do anything – even the humanly impossible - what would you choose? Explore the sea floor? Check out the view from atop Mount Everest? Visit the fantasy world of your favorite movie ? Experience the sensation of flying like a bird or walking in the footsteps of an historical figure?
The possibilities are endless and they’re closer than you might think. So, one of the world’s leading experts on virtual reality says now is the time to decide what we want this technology to be in our society.
Rolling Back Banking Regulations
Guest: Christopher Peterson, JD, John J. Flynn Endowded Professor, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
The Senate has just passed a measure easing some of the rules placed on banks after the 2008 financial crisis. The measure got bipartisan support and the House has already passed an even more expansive rollback of Dodd-Frank, which was the name of the original law designed to prevent another banking crash. As it happens, this weekend marks 10 years since the investment firm Bear Stearns collapsed – one of the first big signs that something was seriously amiss in the banking world.
Teaching Students How to Dissent Is Part of Democracy
Guests: Sarah Stitzlein, PhD, Professor of Education and Affiliate Faculty in Philosophy, University of Cincinnati; Alison Van Orden, Journalism and English Teacher, Timpview High School; Jethro Knight Davis, Recent Graduate, Timpview High School; Anna Mason, Senior, Timpview High School
Wednesday morning marked one month since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Thousands of students across the country walked out of school at 10 am to gather for 17 minutes and remember the 17 victims killed last month and to call for stricter gun control. Though some schools threatened disciplinary action for students who walked out, some educators argue that schools should support the protests and even teach students how to dissent in the public arena.
Serious Flu Season Exposes Serious Flaw in the Medical System
Guest: Morten Wendelbo, Lecturer in Policy Sciences, Texas A&M University
The worst of flu season is over, thankfully, because it was a really bad one in just about every state and bringing some of the highest rates of hospitalization we’ve seen in recent years. All those serious flu cases also exposed a major flaw in the US medical system.
Robots Will Not be Taking Our Jobs
Guest: J.P. Gownder, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
By some estimates, up to half of all jobs in the US will be replaced by automation over the next few decades - and not just manual labor. Doctors, therapists and even journalists could be supplanted by smart computers capable of learning and improving over time. But Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder thinks those estimates are way overblown. He and his team estimate only a fraction of Americans will be completely out of a job because of automation. The majority of us will have to learn how to work side-by-side with the robots.
Recognizing and Preventing Altitude Sickness (Originally aired: Aug. 29, 2017)
Guest: Collin Grissom, MD, Critical Care Physician, Intermountain Medical Center
The snow has come late to the ski resorts here in Utah and locals and visitors alike are trying to get in a few more days on the slopes before the resorts close for the season. But if you’re coming to a place like Utah or Colorado from sea level, you should watch out for altitude sickness. Last fall we got some insight into this illness, which can feel just like the flu at first.Future of Jobs – Working With Robots (May 23, 2017)
Quest for Clean Food (Originally aired: Dec. 19, 2017)
Guest: Ruth MacDonald, PhD, Professor and Chair of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State University
Healthy food bloggers and authors like Michael Pollan encourage us to steer clear of food that contains ingredients we can’t pronounce. Aim for clean and simple foods is the mantra. So, something that contains glutamic acid, histidine, methionine, phytosterols and 2-hydroxy-3-methylethl would be a definite no-go right? Except the food I’m describing is a banana. And not even a genetically modified one. Iowa State University food science and human nutrition expert Ruth MacDonald says it’s not just short-sighted, it’s dangerous, to get too carried away with the whole “no chemicals, no preservatives” thing.
Tariffs, Italian Elections, and China Term Limits
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Every month, Quinn Mecham brings us three world events that might not be on our radar screens but are worth digging into.
Scientists Should Use Social Media More
Guest: Andrew Hoffman, PhD, Professor of Environment and Sustainability, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
We talk to a lot of really smart scientists and researchers on this show, and we’ve learned that it’s a special skill for someone in a very technical field to be able to translate that work into language the rest of us can understand. Academics aren’t trained to be good storytellers. They’re busy trying to cure cancer or solve the mysteries of the universe. Who’s got time to Tweet or blog about their work for the general public?
But that needs to change if the academic world wants to save itself from losing relevance in this digital age, according to Andrew Hoffman.
The Real St. Patrick
Guest: Lisa Bitel, PhD, Professor of History and Religion, University of Southern California
St. Valentine, St. Nicolas, St. Patrick—all historical figures whose lives have become the stuff of legends. But as with all legends, the story we pass down usually outgrows the facts. When it comes to St. Patrick, well, he wasn’t even Irish.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam shares a story from Donna Washington, who gets a little help from her little friends.
Washable, Wearable, Everywhere Electronics
Guest: Jonathan Claussen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Associate, US Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory
Fitbits are just the beginning. Biosensors someday may be embedded in your workout clothes to alert you if you’re getting dehydrated – and by the way, you could send that sweaty shirt through the washing machine without damaging the sensor. Sensors embedded in food packaging could tell you if the egg-salad sandwich you’re about to eat for lunch has been contaminated. Biosensors implanted in your body could regulate your heart beat or tell a damaged organ to regenerate. What could make this incredible future possible? Graphite. Yep, that stuff in pencils. Iowa State University nanoengineer Jonathan Claussen has figured out how to print microscopic flecks of it onto just about anything to make flexible, waterproof circuits.
Liberal Media and the Civil Rights Movement
Guest: David Greenberg, PhD, Professor of History, Journalism and Media Studies, Rutgers University, Author, “Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency”
Presidents and politicians have, for decades, had a beef with the press as being biased. Richard Nixon did it in secret. “The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy,” President Nixon emphasizes to his national security advisers in a recording of a White House conversation.
President Donald Trump doesn’t bother with secrecy. “A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people,” Trump said to a cheering crowd at the CPAC conference in February, 2017. “And they are, they are the enemy of the people. Because they have no sources. They just make ‘em up when there are none.”
Gallup polls show most Americans today believe the media favors a political party - and most of those people believe the media favors Democrats over Republicans. The “liberal media” as it’s called. But prior to the 1950s, Democrats – including FDR and Harry Truman – frequently complained the press was biased in favor of conservatives. So what changed? How did it become virtually gospel truth in the minds of so many Americans – and politicians – that the mainstream media is liberally biased?
The story is a fascinating one that’s important to understand as we all try to make wise choices in where we get our news.
What Sec of State Tillerson’s Ouster Means for US Diplomacy
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of Law, BYU
US Foreign Policy is Top of Mind today. President Trump announced on Twitter this morning that Rex Tillerson is out as Secretary of State and he’ll nominate CIA director Mike Pompeo to the position. Just before boarding a helicopter on the White House lawn this morning, President Trump explained his reasons for going with Pompeo: “I’ve worked with Mike Pompeo now for quite some time – tremendous energy, tremendous intellect – we’re always on the same wavelength. The relationship has been very good and that’s what I need as Secretary of State. I wish Rex Tillerson well.” What are the implications of this change?
When’s the Best and Worst Time to Have a Heart Attack?
Guest: Anupam Jena, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard, Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital
All around the country, people with common interests or expertise come together for big gatherings. Heart doctors go to cardiology conferences. Gun enthusiasts go to the NRA convention. Runners converge for the Boston Marathon. And when these gatherings happen, there are consequences for public health. Surprising consequences in many cases. For example, what happens to the patients of all those top-flight cardiologists when they’re away at the conference? Do they get worse care from the doctors who fill in? Actually, no. They do better.
Making the Most of the New Tax Code
Guest: Sandra Block, Senior Editor, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
We’ve got just about a month until 2017 taxes are due. When I’m scrambling to meet that deadline every year, I always resolve to keep better records and be more strategic about spending throughout the year, so next April 15th feels a little less daunting. Now is actually a really good time to start preparing for 2018 taxes, because there are lots of changes thanks to the tax bill Congress passed. We’ve got Sandra Block on the line to help us sort through it all.
Electric Vehicles and the Chinese Energy Revolution
Guest: Micheal Austin, Vice President, BYD America
Beijing, China traffic is legendary, as is its air pollution. Chinese President Xi Jinping is working to address both and has called for an “energy revolution” in China that includes incentives for buying electric vehicles. In fact, the world’s largest maker of electric vehicles is a Chinese company you’ve likely never heard of. You probably thought Tesla was the biggest, but actually it’s a company called BYD. What's on the horizon for electric vehicles, especially in China?
23andMe Breast Cancer Genetics Testing
Guest: Laura Hercher, MS, Director of Student Research, Joan H. Marks Graduate Program in Human Genetics, Sarah Lawrence College
If you send in a sample of your saliva to 23andMe, the genetics-testing company will send you a report about where your ancestors came from, and you can pay extra to find out if you’re at risk for Parkinson’s or Late-Onset Alzheimer’s. Just last week, the Federal Drug Administration also gave 23andMe the green light to screen for three mutations that increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. It was screening positive for mutations on these BRCA genes that led Angelina Jolie to have a double mastectomy. This is the first time the FDA has authorized this screening by a company selling directly to consumers.
Killing a Terrorist Leader Can Backfire
Guest: Tricia Bacon, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs, American University
Shortly after Barack Obama took office in 2009, he made killing or capture of Osama Bin Laden the top priority of America’s war against al Qaeda. In 2011, they got him. But cutting off the head did not kill the proverbial snake in this case. In fact, killing Bin Laden may have hastened the rise of ISIS, whose tactics have been even more brutal than Al Qaeda's.
Is Naloxone Making the Opioid Epidemic Worse?
Guest: Jennifer Doleac, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia, Founding Director, Justice Tech Lab
Opioids now account for two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths in the United States. One tool states are using to prevent those deaths is naloxone. It’s a medication that can reverse the effects of an overdose – literally save that person’s life - if administered quickly. So EMTs now carry it with them in ambulances. But all states now have laws making naloxone accessible to everyday people – some would like to see it in everyone’s medicine cabinet, given how common opioid overdose has become.
But what if knowing you’ve got a safety net sitting in your medicine cabinet actually makes someone more likely to overdose on opioids?
Ripple Effect of West Virginia Teacher Strike
Guest: Paul Reville, Francis Keppel Professor, Harvard University Graduate School of Education
After teachers in West Virginia went on strike for nine consecutive days, they succeeded in getting a five percent pay increase signed into law last week. Now teachers in Oklahoma, Arizona and Kentucky appear eager to catch the same wave. Union leaders in Oklahoma have even set a date to walk out in early April, if a pay increase isn’t approved by then.
Indian Instant Pot© Sensation
Guest: Urvashi Pitre, Author, “Indian Instant Pot Cookbook”
Programmable pressure cookers, like the Instant Pot©, are popping up in home kitchens around the country. The cookers promise one-pot cooking that takes just minutes, instead of hours. Which is a big deal if you love Indian food that requires marinating meat soaking lentils overnight. Food blogger Urvashi Pitre saw her recipe for Indian Butter Chicken go viral, which lead to a cookbook called “Indian Instant Pot Cooking.”
History of Military Parades
Guest: Andrew Bacevich, PhD, Retired Army Colonel, Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History, Boston University
Many countries are in the habit of parading their militaries through the streets, but the US hasn’t had a military parade in nearly 30 years. The last one was in 1991 when “Storm’n” Norman Schwarzkopf led thousands of Desert Storm veterans down Constitution Avenue in Washington to celebrate the Gulf War victory.
But President Trump saw a military parade in France last summer that impressed him, so he’s ordered one here – and the Department of Defense says it will oblige this coming Veteran’s Day. There will be period costumes from previous wars and military aircraft flyovers, but no tanks because they tear up streets. The parade will go from the White House to the Capitol as President Trump watches from a viewing area surrounded by veterans and Medal of Honor recipients.
Why are these types of parades so rare in the United States and what’s the point of holding one?
A Wrinkle in Time
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
Based on the classic children's novel, Meg, her brother and her friend are sent on an intergalactic mission to find her father who mysteriously disappeared while doing scientific research about time and space travel.
STEM Roots in Childhood Play
Guest: Anne Gold, PhD, Director of CIRES Education and Outreach, University of Colorado Boulder
The ability to look at a couch and picture how it might fit into a room – or what it would look like if you stood it on its end – is called “spatial reasoning” and it’s really important for engineers and scientists. Playing with LEGOs© may teach kids these skills at a young age, which could really pay off in STEM careers later.
The Power of Black Panther
Guests: Cameron McCoy, PhD, Assistant Professor of History; Kristin Matthews, PhD, Associate Professor of English; Benjamin Thevenin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Theater and Media Arts, Brigham Young University
"Black Panther" is a tremendous box office hit. But for many, it’s much more than a superhero movie. It’s been called a cultural touchstone. “A necessary and joyous tribute to being black.” And, an exploration of “what if?” What if Africa hadn’t been colonized? What if Africans had not been enslaved and torn from their homeland? We’re going to spend this hour considering the significance of this movie, "Black Panther," at this moment in America.
Why Good Teachers Quit the Classroom
Guests: Doris Santoro, EdD, Associate Professor of Education, Chair of Education Department, Bowdoin College, Author, “Demoralized: Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay”; Bryan Bowles, Associate Clinical Professor of Education, Brigham Young University, former Superintendent, Davis School District
The teaching profession is in trouble in the United States. There’s a nationwide shortage, for one thing. And that’s being driven, in part, by teachers choosing to leave the field. Not all of them leave because they’re “burnt out” or just a poor fit for the job. Many, many are, in fact, great teachers with years of experience in the classroom. The love their work. Why do they choose to leave? And what could be done to help them stay?
Let’s Talk About Suicide
Guest: Spencer Cox, Utah Lieutenant Governor
Nationwide, the suicide rate has increased markedly over the last decade. The highest rates are found in the Western mountain states, and here in Utah, the rate of teenage suicide is rising at nearly four times the national average. The Centers for Disease Control did a close study of Utah’s teen suicide problem last year and a state-wide task force was organized to recommend strategies for prevention. It’s co-chaired by Utah’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox, who has taken the effort very personally.
Little Fires Everywhere
Guest: Annette Lyon, Author, “Sweeter Than Any Dream”
The novel “Little Fires Everywhere” just hit the big time last week when Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington announced that they’d be making it into a short TV series. "Little Fires Everywhere" is the second novel from Celeste Ng and it’s set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where the author grew up. The novel tells the story of how the orderly planned community was rocked by the arrival of an itinerant, free-thinking photographer, Mia Warren, and her daughter.
New Journalists Are Tech Savvy But Lacking the Basics
Guest: Patrick Ferrucci, PhD, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Colorado Boulder
In “The Post” – the movie starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep – reporters at the Washington Post have just gotten their hands on a trove of documents from the top secret Pentagon Papers, which the New York Times was reporting on until the White House sued to stop it. Now The Post has a chance to run with the story, but there’s not much time to comb through the documents, figure out what’s most important and craft stories around that. If that story were happening 2018, the secret trove of documents would be more likely to come in the form of a digital dump. And that’s bad news for those of us who rely on journalists to inform us and hold our public officials accountable.
The Demise of Nuclear Power (Originally aired: Sept. 11, 2017)
Guest: Jeremy Carl, PhD, Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Just a decade ago, there was talk of a “nuclear renaissance” in the US. Plans were in the works for several new nuclear plants – the first to be built in the US in 40 years. But a few months ago, construction was abandoned on two of those new nuclear reactors – they weren’t even halfway built, but had already cost 9 billion dollars. And the energy companies building them decided just to cut their losses and walk away. The future of nuclear power in America looks bleak at the moment. But Jeremy Carl says it’s not too late to save it. He’s a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and co-author of the book “Keeping the Lights on at America’s Nuclear Power Plants.”
Your Old Books: Should They Stay or Should They Go?
Guest: Travis Patten, Store Manager, Pioneer Book
If you – or someone you love – would like to see the load on your bookshelves lightened just a bit, it’s time to make friends with your local used bookseller. You could turn those books you haven’t read in ages into cash or a new reading experience.
How Colleges Gauge Their Popularity - and Why BYU Ranks So Highly
Guest: Eric Hoover, Chronicle of Higher Education
Acceptance emails will soon be landing in inboxes – if they haven’t already. Social media feeds are buzzing with excited posts from proud parents of the latest young people to be “#BYUbound.” Brigham Young University seems to be among the earliest in the nation to get acceptance notices out. It’s also near the very top of the nation in something called “yield rate.”
How the U.S. Justice System Can Better Serve Victims of Domestic Violence
Guest: Andrew King-Ries, JD, Professor of Criminal Law, University of Montana, former state prosecutor
It takes a lot of courage for victims of domestic violence to speak out against their abusers, so when a perpetrator is successfully prosecuted, it’s a victory. At least that’s what former prosecutor Andrew King-Ries used to believe. But he had one victim tell him he had ruined her life when her abusive boyfriend was locked up. What more was he, as a prosecutor, supposed to do? King-Ries has come to believe the justice system could be doing a lot more for victims of domestic violence.
The Legacy of Homesteading
Guest: Rick Edwards, PhD, Director, Center for Great Plains Studies, Emeritus Senior Vice Chancellor, Professor of Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, who of course issued the Emancipation Proclamation, also signed into law The Homestead Act of 1820, which reshaped the American West and was – according to the National Park Service, one of the “most visionary . . . pieces of legislation in American history.” Today, 20 percent of us in America have an ancestor who was a homesteader. They story of hardscrabble life on the frontier is deeply ingrained in our national identity, with special thanks to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Willa Cather.
But did you know that historians typically see the Homestead Act in less flattering light? They say it was ineffective, filled with fraud and central to the displacement of American Indians. Which vision is more accurate?
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Letterjoy
Guest: Michael Sitver, Founder, Letterjoy
Those of us of a certain age, remember the excitement of finding a handwritten letter waiting like a little present in your mailbox. This was back when, long-distance phone calls were expensive and texting was a sci-fi dream. The daily check at the mailbox was a highlight because it brought more than just bills and ads.
A 21-year-old undergraduate political science major at The University of Chicago has founded a company that brings that feeling back. It’s called Letterjoy, and it delivers a weekly letter, with a twist: they’re re-creations of historic letters between famous people. For example, a young Wilbur Wright writing to the Smithsonian to request research about birds and flight. Which is the kind of thing you had to use letters for before the internet!
If you would like a letter sent to you, click here.
Panhandling Laws Are Unconstitutional
Guest: Joseph Mead, JD, Assistant Professor of Law and Urban Studies, Cleveland State University
Does freedom of speech in America extend to the homeless guy sitting in the median of the freeway exit with a sign that says, “Cold and Hungry, Please Help”?
Cities across the country have laws limiting when and where people can beg for money in public. But those laws are having trouble surviving court challenges lately.
Predicting Volcanic Eruptions through Tides
Guest: Társilo Girona, PhD, NASA Postdoctoral Fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
When New Zealand’s Ruapehu volcano erupted in September 2007, scientists weren’t really expecting the eruption, but luckily it came at the tail end of the winter ski season so the mountain’s popular resorts weren’t as packed as they’d usually be. No one died in the eruption. One person was seriously injured. Looking back at the geologic record of Ruapehu, one NASA scientist has found that there were clues that the volcano was about to blow – clues that could help predict future eruptions.
Tariffs and Trade Wars
Guest: Scott Bradford, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University
President Trump surprised America’s trading partners and many Republicans in his own party when he announced plans to place a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum coming into the US from other countries. When the EU, Canada and Mexico responded with anger to the announcement, Trump doubled down on Twitter saying, “To protect our country, we must protect American Steel. AMERICA FIRST!” And he even suggested that he’d welcome a “trade war.”
How to Breakup With Your Phone
Guest: Catherine Price, Author, “How to Break Up With Your Phone”
Think back to the last time you accidentally left your phone at home. How did you feel being without it for the day? Anxious? Did you have to go home to get it? Most of us have a dysfunctional relationship with our phone: we can’t live without it, but we know it doesn’t always make us feel great and wastes our time. Catherine Price came to this realization and wrote a book about it called “How to Break Up With Your Phone.”
You can learn about her 30-day challenge here.
iCow: Training African Farmers through Texts
Guest: Su Kahumbu, Founder of iCow, CEO, Green Dreams Tech Limited
According to USAID, 75 percent of Kenyans make at least some of their living from farming. But Kenyan farms don’t produce as much as they could. Su Kahumbu has come up with a simple solution for Kenyan farmers to improve their productivity using technology they already have in hand—their cell phones. It’s called iCow and it delivers information to farmers one text message at a time.
Listen to Kahumbu's TED talk
Mysterious Microbes
Guest: Karen Lloyd, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The average depth of the ocean is more than two miles deep. And down that far you’ll find mud that’s hundreds of feet thick. And in that mud, scientists have recently discovered a whole universe of microbes. Somehow, without sunlight, without oxygen, without obvious sources of food, these microscopic life forms manage to exist. If we could crack their secrets, we might have new solutions for improving life up here on land.
Don’t Text and Walk
Guest: Tony Leonard, Captain, Georgia Tech Police Department
Texting while driving is terrible. We all know that. Texting while walking isn’t as bad, is it? Well it’s problematic enough that if you do it while crossing the street in Honolulu you could get a ticket. Quite few other US cities are thinking about outlawing texting while walking – especially when you’re walking across a street. At Georgia Tech, campus police have started a campaign to get students to look up from their phones while walking.
World Awaiting: "A Wrinkle in Time"
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
Rachel and Julie revisit the staying power of the classic tale ahead of the movie's release this weekend.
Security Clearances, Diplomacy and National Security
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director, Center for the National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
President Trump’s agenda for the week includes a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an escalating conflict with Canada and Mexico over trade. At the center of both issues is Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who last week had his top-secret security clearance revoked. That’s raised questions about how Kushner will continue to manage his wide-ranging portfolio in the administration, which includes negotiating foreign trade deals and overseeing the Middle East peace process.
Want to Have a STEM Career? Learn to Be an Entreprenuer
Guest: Cristal Glangchai, PhD, Founder and CEO, VentureLab, Author, “Venture Girls: Raising Girls to Be Tomorrow's Leaders”
Women hold only a quarter of jobs in science, technology, engineering, or math (or STEM) fields, according to the US Department of Commerce. There have been all sorts of initiatives across the country to boost that number, but Cristal Glangchai says we haven’t gotten to the root of the problem. She says the key is teaching young girls entrepreneurship skills, so she founded the non-profit “VentureLab” to do just that. She’s got a new book out, “Venture Girls: Raising Girls to Be Tomorrow’s Leaders.”
Check it out here.
How Copying Fuels Innovation
Guest: Kal Raustiala, PhD, JD, Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles, Director, International Relations, UCLA, Author, “The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation”
The Oscars were a very sparkly affair last night – from the Swarovski-crystal-bedecked stage to the glittery, sequined dresses custom-made for Hollywood’s hottest stars by designers including Dior, Versace and Louis Vuitton. Those websites that sell Oscar-dress knock-offs will have their hands full copying all that sparkle. But they won’t need to worry about hiring extra lawyers because, believe it or not, it’s perfectly legal to rip off another designer’s dress. Unlike books or music, fashion is one of the few creative industries without copyright protection. UCLA law professor Kal Raustiala says that’s actually good for fashion.
Jiamin Huang and the Light of China
Guest: Jiamin Huang, Light of China Award, Professor of Dance, Beijing Dance Academy
Jiamin Huang is a retiring BYU dance professor who spent decades building friendship and cultural awareness between the United States and China. She was recently awarded China’s highest honor for a civilian living abroad - NBA player Yao Ming is a former recipient, so that tells you how big time this is. It’s called the Light of China Award.
Oscars Review
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
Tech Transfer: BYU Law Students Help People Being Sued
Guest: Kimball Parker, JD, Attorney, Parsons Behle & Latimer; Dave Brown, JD, MBA, Associate Director, BYU Tech Transfer Office
Over the last decade, landlords, payday lenders and credit card companies have increasingly turned to the courts to collect consumer debts. The people who owe those debts rarely have an attorney to help them navigate the lawsuit, which means they often miss key deadlines and end up automatically losing their cases.
A class of BYU law students last semester set out to even the playing field a bit in these debt-collection lawsuits. The result is a free website called “SoloSuit” which walks people through the first important steps when they’ve been sued over a debt.
The Problem of Dependency in US Welfare Programs
Guest: Ben Gibbs, PhD, Professor of Sociology at Brigham Young University, Academic Visitor in the Department of Sociology at Oxford University
President Trump and Republicans in Congress are proposing significant changes to food stamps – officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The goal is to reduce what administration officials call a “tragic state of dependency” that traps millions of Americans. The process is already underway to tighten work requirements for SNAP recipients and the US Department of Agriculture has proposed cutting the monthly food benefit in half and giving families a box of canned goods, instead.
New Vitiligo Treatment
Guest: Brett King, PhD, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology, Yale University
Pop star Michael Jackson was a source of fascination throughout the ‘80s for his eye-popping dance moves, but also because his skin transformed from black to white over that decade. He was accused of bleaching his skin and wanting to be white. In fact, his autopsy confirmed that he suffered from vitiligo, an auto-immune disease that destroys the pigments in skin, leaving random pale patches that spread over time. There are treatments for the disease, but not everyone responds to them, so when Yale dermatologist Brett King was presented with two really stubborn cases, he decided to try out a new course of treatment which could change the way vitiligo is treated in the future.
How Does America’s Infrastructure Measure Up?
Guest: Hiba Baroud, PhD, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt University
President Trump, a few weeks ago, announced his promised plan to rebuild “America’s crumbling infrastructure.” Those are the words he used, and while President Trump is prone to hyperbole, in this case, he’s not overstating things. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the US a D+ - that’s just shy of a failing grade - for the state of our highways, railways, seaports, airports, water and sewer systems.
Our Sense of Smell Doesn’t Actually Stink (Originally aired: June 17, 2017)
Guest: John McGann, PhD, Associate Professor, Behavioral and System Neuroscience, Rutgers University
You know how certain odors can trigger memories—maybe you smell your mother’s perfume in a department store, and it takes you way back? Or maybe a whiff of popcorn reminds you of baseball games when you were a kid? Even so, we’ve long been told that our human sense of smell is nothing compared to other mammals like dogs. But Rutgers University psychology professor John McGann says that’s just a myth. Our sense of smell is just as good – though maybe a little different.
Workplace Myths (Originally aired: Dec. 5, 2017)
Guest: Jacob Rawlins, PhD, Assistant Professor, Linguistics and English Language, Brigham Young University
It seems a bit silly when a restaurant or retail store has the staff insist on calling everyone a guest, rather than a customer. Or they have some special name for their coworkers – teammates, associates. Or they add some little rhetorical flourish when they answer the phone like the receptionist at my dentist’s office who always says, “This is so-and-so. I can help you.” Not how can I help you? Just the confident “I CAN help you.” These touches seem like gimmicks, but BYU linguistics professor Jacob Rawlins says they come from the stories companies weave about themselves and why they matter. These stories are powerful tools.
Love Bugs (Originally aired: May 2, 2017)
Guests: Lois O'Brien, PhD, and Charlie O’Brien, PhD, Entomologists
Most people try to keep bugs out of their house. But Charlie and Lois O’Brien added extra rooms onto their Arizona home in order to accommodate the bugs they’ve dedicated collected over 60 years. The O’Briens are leading entomologists – Charlie is an expert in weevils and Lois in planthoppers. Between them they’ve collected more than one and a quarter million insects– many of them rare specimens. They donated the entire collection to Arizona State University last year.
The Conversation We Need to Be Having About Gun Violence and Kids
Guest: Melissa Allen Heath, PhD, Professor of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, Brigham Young University
Classes resumed at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida today. School officials brought in additional counselors and added therapy dogs to classrooms. Meanwhile President Trump continues to advocate for increasing school security and – and even arming some teachers. Let’s get a school psychologist’s perspective on this.
Professor Heath recommends these resources for parents and teachers.
The Possible Solution to NYC Traffic
Guest: John Rennie Short, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
If you had to pay a fee to go into your city’s downtown area during rush hour, would you think twice about making the trip in your car? Right now there’s a proposal in New York City to charge cars $11.52 to drive into lower Manhattan during business hours. This kind of “congestion pricing,” as it’s called, is rare in the US, but it has worked in London, Singapore and Stockholm.
Military Veterans and Substance Use Disorders
Guest: Elizabeth Evans, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Policy, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts
Adults who grew up with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are more likely to turn to drug and alcohol abuse. Veterans are also more likely to turn to substances than civilians. A study of US military veterans realized a higher concentration of veterans also had adverse childhoods. The effect of ACEs in veterans compounds the risk of later substance abuse.
According to civilian studies, men are more likely than women to turn to substances. But this new study saw that all veterans are more likely, regardless of gender. This means that female veterans are more like male veterans than they are like civilian women. And a surprisingly high percentage of female veterans had adverse childhood experiences, including the highest rate of childhood sexual abuse. The study tentatively says that among the veterans who did have ACEs, the men are more likely to use alcohol and the women to use drugs.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam shares stories from the Weber Storytelling Festival.
How Terrorists Are Made
Guest: Marc Sageman, MD, PhD, Terrorism Expert, Government Counterterrorism Consultant
While ISIS has lost most of its territory in Iraq and Syria, the threat of its followers carrying out attacks around the world remains. Terrorism expert Marc Sageman has spent decades trying to understand what motivates a person to become a terrorist and he’s concluded that a lot of the traditional thinking on this is misguided. Mr. Sageman’s latest book is “Turning to Political Violence: The Emergence of Terrorism.”
Myths and Realities of Porn Addiction
Guest: Brian Willoughby, PhD, Associate Professor, Family Life, Brigham Young University
It’s become increasingly likely, in this digital age, that children will have been exposed to pornography by the time they turn 18. As parents, activists and church leaders grow more vigilant – and vocal - about the dangers of pornography, there’s a risk they will perpetuate certain myths that could actually add to the harm.
Why Don’t We Tackle Mass Shootings Like We Tackle Terrorism?
Guest: Ari N. Schulman, Editor, New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society
The pace of mass shootings is rising rapidly in the US. But what if we’re so busy blaming guns, or mental health, or lack of security in schools that we’re failing to see these mass shootings for what they actually are? And, that’s why they keep happening? Maybe there’s a different way to think about the problem.
Can Youth Protests Change America in 2018?
Guest: Rebecca de Schweinitz, Associate Professor of History, Brigham Young University, Author of “If We Could Change the World: Young People and America’s Long Struggle for Racial Equality”
Much to the surprise of some adults in the United States, teenaged-survivors of the high school shooting in Florida have quickly become prominent activists with their #NeverAgain social media campaign, media appearances and rallies. Many students involved in the #NeverAgain movement are too young to vote. Will they really be able to change gun laws when years of lobbying by activists before them have failed? But in America, there’s a long history of children agitating for – and sometimes ushering in – social and political change.
From College Food Videos to Cooking Channel Celebrity
Guest: Kelsey Nixon, Chef, "Kelsey's Homemade," Author of “Kitchen Confidence”
Before Kelsey Nixon had her own show on the Cooking Channel, she was a BYU student making cooking videos about quick meals for college students. Then she was a contestant on season 4 of Food Network Star. She didn’t win Food Network Star, but she impress chef judge Bobby Flay enough to get her own show anyway - "Kelsey’s Essentials," on the Cooking Channel. Then came her cookbook, "Kitchen Confidence," and then another Cooking Channel show called "Kelsey’s Homemade."
Saving Daylight Saving Time
Guest: David Prerau, PhD, Author of “Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time”
In just a couple weeks, we’ll “spring forward” as Daylight Saving Time begins. The change seems arbitrary, doesn’t it? If it’s for saving energy, we’ve got LED lightbulbs now, so does it really do us any good? And if it’s to maximize daylight for farmers, well we’re not really a farming society anymore. So why do we keep torturing ourselves with this twice yearly clock-changing ritual?
The State of the Union’s Water
Guest: Marc Edwards, PhD, Professor of Civil Engineering, Virginia Tech, Winner of the 2018 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science
In Flint, Michigan, court hearings are underway for a number of state and city officials facing prison time for the notorious contaminated-water crisis. Scientists say the water system in Flint is improving, but citizens are still encouraged to use filters or bottled water to avoid lead exposure. For years, Flint residents suspected their tap water was harmful, but local and state water quality officials insisted it was safe. Virginia Tech civil engineer Marc Edwards did the testing that exposed the truth about Flint’s water. He’d done the same thing a decade before in Washington, DC. And he’s doing it for other cities around the country. If something like Flint could happen, can any of us ever have confidence in the safety of our drinking water?
The Minecraft Server for Autistic Children
Guest: Stuart Duncan, Creator, Autcraft
Kids and tweens love Minecraft, a video game where players can build endless worlds with virtual building blocks. It’s a little like LEGOs, only creations are made out of pixels instead of plastic. You can build glass houses cantilevered over a river, light your house with torches, build furniture, keep animals, and mine for resources. But Stuart Duncan has found that for kids like his son, who has autism, Minecraft can also teach empathy and even encourage conversation and literacy. Mr. Duncan, who himself has autism, has created an entire Minecraft world just for kids with autism, called Autcraft, and it’s been so popular that he now manages it full-time.
Our Damaged Democracy
Guest: Joseph Califano, Author, “Our Damaged Democracy: We The People Must Act”
America never seems so deeply divided as it does in these politically and emotionally-charged days after a mass shooting. Survivors plead. Pundits argue and accuse. Social media burns with inflammatory rhetoric. And in the end, we know there’s a good chance any efforts at change will end up stalled in Congress.
After a lifetime serving in the halls of Washington power, Joseph Califano has concluded that American democracy is damaged. But it’s not Trump’s fault. Or Obama’s fault. Or the Republicans or the Democrats. We all bear some responsibility. And that means, we can all do something to help right the ship. Califano served in the Pentagon under Robert McNamara, as a domestic White House aide to President Johnson and as US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Carter.
Native American Slavery in New Mexico
Guest: Gregorio Gonzales, UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Sociocultural Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara
When we think of slavery in America, the painful legacy of enslaved Africans in the American South typically comes to mind. But there was, at the same time, a lesser-known slave trade on the other side of the continent, in what would become modern-day New Mexico and Colorado. Hispanic settlers enslaved tens of thousands of Native Americans, known today as “Genízaros.” Today, through DNA analysis, Hispanics in the Southwest are discovering – with some surprise – that they have Native American ancestry and that the story of their forebearers is complicated.
Painkiller from Marine Snails
Guest: J. Michael McIntosh, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Researcher, University of Utah Heath Sciences, Medical Director of Behavioral Health Clinic, VA Hospital, Salt Lake City
Every day, more than 115 Americans die of an opioid overdose. Doctors are becoming more careful in prescribing them but, really, scientists would like to find alternatives to these addictive painkillers. The Defense Department has just invested 10 million dollars in research being done at the University of Utah into the toxic venom of cone snails found in the ocean.
Oscar Algorithm
Guest: Gabriel Rossman, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, UCLA
When Hollywood gathers to honor itself at the Academy Awards this coming Sunday, the most successful films of 2017 will be conspicuously absent. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Wonder Woman” were the year’s biggest hits based on US ticket sales, so why aren’t they in the running for best picture? UCLA sociologist Gabriel Rossman has developed an algorithm to explain – and predict – which films will get an Oscar nomination. Spoiler alert – you gotta be a serious film if you hope to win the big prize.
Parent Previews: Every Day and Samson
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
Every day a soul named "A" wakes up in a different body. Although this lifestyle has its problems, they never feel as onerous as they do after he/she meets and falls in love with Rhiannon. How can they ever have a relationship if "A" is continually changing into someone else? This movie is based on a novel by David Leviathan.
Based on the Biblical story, Samson is a man gifted with great strength from God. But his reckless ways and his passion for Delilah cause him to stray from his appointed destiny.
At the Olympics, Green is the New Gold
Guest: Warren Mabee, Associate Director, Queen’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy, Professor and Head of the Department of Geography and planning, Queen's University
The 2018 Winter Olympics, which wrapped up in South Korea over the weekend, were the largest in history with nearly 3,000 athletes from 92 countries. All those competitors and their coaches were far outnumbered by the journalists and fans who trekked to Pyeongchang, adding up to an enormous amount of greenhouse gas emissions from air travel. The irony is that if the climate continues to warm as it has, many former Winter Games locations will no longer be cold enough to consider hosting the games again. That includes Sochi, Russia and Vancouver, Canada.
Three Generations of a Harlem Family
Guests: Co-Authors Bruce Haynes, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Davis, and Syma Solovitch, “Down the Up Staircase: Three Generations of a Harlem Family”
Sociologist Bruce Haynes is an authority on race and urban communities, so his memoir “Down the Up Staircase” looks intimately at his own family’s quest for the American Dream in the 20th century, and at the bigger picture of social forces that empowered and ravaged black communities across America. Haynes, his parents and his grandparents all got college degrees. His grandparents were famous members of Harlem’s elite creative and political class in the early 1900s. His parents raised him in an enormous mansion in Harlem’s fanciest neighborhood, dressed him in clothes from Saks Fifth Avenue and sent him to private prep schools. And yet, Haynes compares the experience of black middle class life to walking a tight rope – “each generation one misstep from free fall.” His family was no exception: One of his brothers was gunned down in the street. Another fell into a vortex of drugs and crime.
Healing Children: A Surgeon’s Stories from the Frontiers of Pediatric Medicine
Guest: Kurt Newman, MD, President and CEO, Children’s National, Washington, D.C.
If there’s one takeaway for parents from pediatric surgeon Kurt Newman’s new memoir it is this: in a medical emergency, like a broken bone or a concussion, it’s crucial to take your child to an ER that specializes in treating kids. Not just the closest ER. The most child-focused ER.
Dr. Newman’s memoir is called “Healing Children: A Surgeon’s Stories from the Frontiers of Pediatric Medicine.” He’s the President and CEO of Children’s National in Washington, DC., which ranks in the top ten best children’s hospitals in the country.
Gun Politics in America
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, BYU
President Trump held a listening session Wednesday with students, teachers and parents who have been affected by school shootings. Eighteen-year-old Sam Zeif survived last week’s shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, but his best friend did not. During the meeting, President Trump promised to do something to address school shootings. Trump called for more mental institutions, indicated interest in the idea of arming trained teachers with concealed weapons and raising the age limit to buy an assault weapon. He also promised to be “very strong on background checks.” But, if history is any guide, the President will have trouble delivering those things.
Can a Video Game Reverse Hearing Loss?
Guest: Daniel Polley, PhD, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology, Harvard Medical School
Having dinner in a crowded restaurant can make it really hard to hear what the person across from you is saying. You may have always chalked this up to some permanent damage caused by attending really loud rock concerts in your younger years. But the problem may not be simply in your ears – but in your brain as well. And researchers believe the brain can relearn how to distinguish between speech and noise with the right kind of training.
What’s It Like to Luge?
Guest: Kate Hansen, USA Luge Athlete in the 2014 Sochi Olympics
Only two Americans have ever won an Olympic medal in the individual luge competition – Chris Mazdzer who just took the silver in PyeongChang; and Erin Hamlin won bronze in Sochi. So, my point here is that Americans know they’ve got long odds going into the event that entails lying face up on a thin sled zipping down an ice track, feet first, at 80 miles an hour. It’s very serious business, which is maybe why BYU alum and So-Cal surfer girl Kate Hansen captured so much attention during her Olympic turn at the 2014 games in Sochi. She came in 10th place, but her warm-up dance before races made her a viral sensation.
Jomny Sun (Originally aired: Aug. 23, 2017)
Guest: Jonny Sun, author of the @jomnysun Twitter feed and the book, “Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too”
Twitter is not a place for feeling good. It’s a place for ranting and sarcasm and bad news. Even comedy has a bite on Twitter, which is maybe why @jonnysun has such a following on Twitter. Because he’s none of those things. His tweets are silly, often punny, a little wistful, a little weird. But never mean. He has half a million followers and an illustrated book called, “Everyone’s a Alien When Ur a Alienb Too.”
Chinese Consumers Are the Future (Originally aired: June 12, 2017)
Guest: Jeffrey Towson, Professor of Business at Peking University and Co-Author of “The One Hour China Book”
If you’ve been to any major tourist attraction in America recently, be it the Empire State Building, the Las Vegas strip or Zion National Park, you’ve undoubtedly found yourself standing amid tourists from mainland China. This surge in Chinese tourists represents a wave of new consumers who have recently joined the middle class and are eager to enjoy the same things middle-class families all over the world have long taken for granted. The question now is whether the world is ready for the changes that will inevitably come with half a billion middle class Chinese consumers.
Is the ‘Man Flu’ Real?
Guest: Kyle Sue, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor in Family Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland
When men get sick, women often give them a hard time for whining. When a woman gets a cold, she still goes to work, runs errands, takes care of the kids, whatever needs to get done that day. When a man gets sick, he’s knocked down hard and tends to stay in bed until it’s all over. “Man flu,” it’s called. But one doctor says there’s at least some evidence to suggest the man flu is real – that men suffer more, or at least differently, when they get a cold or the flu.
Private Space Exploration
Guest: Jeff Foust, Senior Staff Writer, Space News
The future of America’s space exploration appears to lie mostly in the hands of private companies. President Trump has called for NASA to stop spending money on the International Space Station and look for companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin or SpaceX to build their own space stations in the coming decades. Then, NASA would just rent a room on one of those private space hotels when it needed to do a scientific experiment related to its bigger goals of returning to the moon and eventually putting humans on Mars.
Learn more here.
#MeToo Brings out the Best and Worst in Women’s Relationships
Guest: Diane Barth, LCSW, Psychotherapist, and Author, “I Know How You Feel: The Joy and Heartbreak of Friendship in Women’s Lives”
The #MeToo movement has allowed women to say things not everyone wants to hear – that’s part of its power and why it’s brought a sense of solidarity among many women. “Empowerment through empathy” is how the movement’s founder describes it. Therapist Diane Barth says empathy is an elemental component of female friendship. But the #MeToo movement has also brought to light a “less favorable quality” of friendships between women.
Money, Scandal and the IOC
Guest: Robert Barney, PhD, Founder of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at Western University, and Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology, Western University
The Olympics is big business. NBC news, for example, has paid nearly $8 billion for the exclusive right to broadcast the games through 2028. Cities looking to be the next Rio or PyeongChang spend millions of dollars just to win the Olympic bid – and billions more getting ready to host the games. The power to make a host city’s dreams come true lies with the International Olympic Committee, which has struggled for decades with the corruptibility that always seems to follow money and power.
How has the Olympic brand survived its many scandals? And will cities continue to line up for the costly privilege of hosting an Olympic Games?
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
The Good Cemeterian
Guest: Andrew Lumish, Founder, “The Good Cemeterian Historical Preservation Project”
By the end of the Civil War, black men made up 10 percent of the Union Army. James A. Roberts was among them. He fought with the 34th Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry, survived the war, came home to Florida, got married, had a daughter, worked as a janitor in a government building and lived to the age of 75. At his death, Roberts was buried in a Tampa cemetery and his story was largely forgotten - like the small weathered headstone marking his grave. That is, until a Good Cemeterian found hit.
The Good Cemeterian is Andrew Lumish’s nickname. Over the years, he’s restored the gravestones of hundreds of veterans like James A. Roberts. Then he shares what information he can find about the veterans’ lives on his Facebook page. Lumish’s has started a non-profit to further his work called The Good Cemeterian Historical Preservation Project.
Cape Town Water Crisis
Guest: Anthony Turton, PhD, Environmental Strategist, Professor of Political Science, University of Free State, South Africa
For several months, Cape Town, South Africa has been on the verge of running completely out of water. It would be the world’s first major city to end up in such a predicament. Cape Town residents have cut their water use so aggressively they’re now using barely enough water for one 3-minute shower and a couple of toilet flushes per person per day. City officials hope that kind of conservation will make Cape Town’s water resources last until the winter rains, which should arrive in June or July, since Cape Town is in the Southern Hemisphere. How does a city of 4 million people run out of water?
Travel as a Political Act
Guest: Rick Steves, Author, “Travel As a Political Act: How to Leave Your Baggage Behind”
Most of us consider vacation travel as a break from daily life - a way to relax, see cool things, eat good food. And often, Americans have a Rick Steves Travel Guide in their bag to make the logistics of the trip go smoothly.
But if he’s being honest, Rick Steves doesn’t care so much about how well your trip goes logistically. He’s more interested in what you learn from your travel and how you put that to use. Rick Steves’ manifesto “Travel as a Political Act” calls for Americans to take vacations that are more challenging – maybe a little less consumed with eating and site-seeing, and more focused on understanding other cultures.
Making Sense of the Russia Indictment
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
A surprisingly detailed account has emerged of how – and why – Russia sought to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies. Among other things, the indictment claims employees of a Russian company set up hundreds of fake social media accounts, bought ads on Facebook and Twitter, and got actual Americans to show up at rallies, with the goal of inflaming public opinions and suppressing voter turnout for Hillary Clinton. The Russians even allegedly hired a Hillary Clinton impersonator to dress in a prison uniform and sit inside a cage at a couple of political rallies.
Make a List
Guest: Marilyn McEntyre, Author, “Make A List: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Lives and Open Our Hearts”
Grocery lists, to-do lists, bucket lists – even a wish list for Santa – show clearly how itemizing stuff is a good way to get organized or get what you want. But have you ever thought about taking the format further? Maybe writing a list of “Things I’ve been Wanting Recently” or “Things I’m Concerned About” or “Ways to Show Your Love to Someone”?
Author Marilyn McEntyre has turned list making into an art form and written a book about how the rest of us can try it too.
http://marilynmcentyre.com/
Parent Previews: Black Panther, Early Man
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
Black Panther: When T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) inherits the throne of a small African country, he returns to his homeland only to have his role as king challenged. Relying on his powers as the Black Panther, he fights not just for the fate of his own nation, but also the future of the world.
Early Man: Do you ever wonder how prehistoric man give way to the bronze age? Well, here is your answer. In the dawn of time, Early Man faced off against more advanced man -- in a winner-take-all game of football (soccer - if you're American). If that wasn't what you were expecting, then expect to be surprised by this stop-frame animation.
Bonobos Can Teach Us about Ourselves
Guest: Brian Hare, PhD, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University
When we say someone is a decent human being, we mean they care about others, pay attention to other people’s needs. That’s what makes us human, right? Well, yes. But we don’t have a monopoly on selflessness. Bonobos, a close relative of the chimpanzee, are also likely to help a stranger in need. What can we learn from them about our own instincts?
SMART Parks
Guest: Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Associate Provost for Academic Planning, Professor of Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles
In the future, your neighborhood park might have sidewalks that generate electricity when you walk on them and keep the lights on. Concrete walls in the park might have the ability to heal themselves of cracks. Park benches might have plugs for charging phones and solar-powered trash cans might be able to alert maintenance when they’re full. Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris has compiled all the possibilities technology holds for public parks into a guide for city planners and park managers.
Winners and Losers at the American Libary Association Awards
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
The winners of the Newbery and Caldecott awards.
Watching the Olympics in Virtual Reality
Guest: Blake Rowe, Olympics Implementation Manager, Intel Sports
Intel has partnered with NBC to bring a virtual reality experience to Olympics fans. Users with virtual reality headsets can look up and down the ski slopes, not tied to one particular camera angle. Elements like zoom are on the horizon.
From Widowhood to Remarriage
Guests: Jeff Hill, PhD, Professor, School of Family Life, BYU; Andy Bay, Alumni Communications Manager, BYU; Amy Teemant, homemaker; Justin Yopp, PhD, clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Finding love after loss is Top of Mind this hour. BYU family life professor Jeff Hill and his wife Juanita had eight children when she died of cancer in 2005. A year later he met Tammy Mulford, and they soon became a combined family of twelve children.
In late 2014, BYU Alumni Communications Manager Andy Bay lost his wife, Ana Preto-Bay, suddenly to causes that never could be explained, leaving him a widowed father of four. A neighbor of his and mother of three, Amy Teemant, had lost her husband Leo to melanoma less than a year before. Andy and Amy eventually began dating and have been married for a year and a half.
Though both couples have found love again, they, and their kids, have traveled a long road of adjustments. Jeff, Andy and Amy join us now in studio to share their stories of losing a spouse and finding new love. Tammy was unable to be here in person, so we’ll rely on Jeff to tell her story.
Find resources for widowed parents here.
When Cities Become War Zones
Guests: Rain Liivoja, Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia; Dick Jackson, Adjunct professor of law, Georgetown University and Former US Department of the Army Law of War Expert; Darren Stewart, UK Brigadier and Head, Operational Law, Army Headquarters, Emiliano Buis, Professor of International Law, International Humanitarian Law and Weapons Control, University of Buenos Aires Law School; Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, Law of Armed Conflict, BYU Law School
Hue. Fallujah. Aleppo. All three are examples of the enormous cost of armed conflict when it happens in an urban area. The battle to retake Hue City after the Tet Offensive was a turning point in the Vietnam War and a sobering lesson for the American military trained to fight in fields and jungles. In 2004, military officials would hark back to those bloody weeks in Hue when assessing the deadly battle to wrest control of the city of Fallujah from Iraqi insurgents. But those conflicts pale in comparison to the four years of fighting that raged between government and opposition forces for control of Aleppo, which is Syria’s largest city. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed and millions were forced to flee as refugees.
This week, legal experts from around the world are gathered at the BYU Law School to consider whether international law is sufficient to deal with the consequences that arise when war happens in heavily populated areas.
Canadian View on NAFTA and Trade
Guest: Stéphane Lessard, Consul General of Canada in Denver
The latest round of negotiations to re-write the North American Free Trade wrapped up this week in what appears to be a stand-still. President Trump continues to threaten the US could just walk away from NAFTA, unless big changes are made. Both the US and Canada accuse each other of not playing fair in the negotiations. And in a strange twist this week, the US Trade Representative said negotiations are going better with Mexico – ironic since for a long time President Trump painted Mexico as the bad guy in this deal.
Dragonfly Mission to Saturn’s Moon
Guest: Jani Radebaugh, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences, Brigham Young University
Besides Earth, there is only one other place we know of in our solar system where liquids accumulate in clouds, rain down and flow in rivers across the surface. That place is Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, and scientists are eager to know if it could sustain life – if they might even find some of the building blocks of life on the surface of Titan. BYU planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh is part of a team NASA has chosen as a finalist to receive funding for an exploratory mission to Titan that would involve landing a helicopter-like drone on the surface of Titan.
Spanish Use Is Dropping in the U.S.
Guest: Phillip Carter, PhD, Associate Professor of English and Linguistics, Florida International University
During both the George W. Bush and Obama presidencies, you could click on a button to read the WhiteHouse.gov website in Spanish, which is spoken by one in seven people in the US. But that Spanish-language content disappeared from WhiteHouse.gov when President Trump took office and it has yet to return. Perhaps not surprising, given this sentiment from then-candidate Trump during a Republican Presidential debate in 2015: “This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.” President Trump need not worry—Spanish isn’t even close to pushing English aside in the US and it never will.
The Legacy of the Cassette Tape
Guests: Zack Taylor, Filmmaker, “Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape”; Jared Ball, PhD, Professor of Communications at Morgan State University, and Author of “I Mix What I Like: A Mixtape Manifesto,” Creator of www.iMixwhatILike.org
If you’re of a certain generation, you probably remember hours spent in your bedroom with your dual-cassette recorder, making mixtapes for your crush or your friends. My how things have changed. You can loop your favorite song and artist on Spotify or YouTube all day long. Everything’s digital and on-demand and your entire music library can fit on thumb drive. So why are there musicians today putting out albums on cassette and music stores popping up that sell nothing but cassettes? Independent filmmaker Zack Taylor looks at this analog nostalgia in his new film, “Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape."
South Africa, Israel and Syria
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
In the last hour, South African president Jacob Zuma resigned. He’d been under pressure from his own party to step aside because of a corruption scandal. Corruption charges have also been leveled against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The humanitarian crisis in Syria is one of the most profound of our generation.
Climate Change at the Local Level
Guest: Zachary Zobel, Graduate Student, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Climate change won’t impact all regions of the world at the same time. For example, our studios sit at the base of the Wasatch mountain range, and those mighty peaks will actually delay the effects of climate change, according to research out of the University of Illinois, where new research methods allow climate scientists to predict what climate change will look like basically in your backyard. This could really help city managers and local utilities plan for the future.
Unwanted Facilities after the Winter Olympics
Guest: Heather Dichter, PhD, Professor of Sport Management, Leicester Castle Business School, De Montfort University, England, and Editor, “Diplomatic Games: Sport, Statecraft, and International Relations since 1945”
When all the medals have been distributed, will these Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang have been worth it for South Korea? Will they have a warmer relationship with North Korea? A better brand internationally? A bunch of vacant sports facilities they spent a bundle on and now have to maintain? Hosting an Olympics is an extravagance fewer countries are interested in taking on these days.
A Romeo and Juliet Debacle
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
A hilarious story of trying to prove your manhood while wearing tights on stage, from BYU professor Kerry Soper.
A Sneaky Way of Solving Florida's Python Problem
Guest: M. Rockwell Parker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, James Madison University
How do you catch a 20-foot long, 200-pound, alligator-eatin’ python? Or should you just run? Probably a good idea, but Burmese Pythons are a major problem in the Florida Everglades and they’re really tricky to catch. So a wily biologist named Rocky Parker has a tricky solution he’s hoping will work.
Navigating Money Troubles in Marriage
Guest: Daphne de Marneffe, PhD, Psychologist and Author, “The Rough Patch: Marriage and the Art of Living Together”
A quarter of divorcing couples cite money issues as a source of their conflict. When couples argue about money, there’s really so much more going on. How you can get to the bottom of conflicts about money and better understand your spouse.
Why is the GOP Growing the Deficit Now?
Guest: James Curry, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Utah, and Co-Director of the Utah Chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network
President Trump is out with a proposed budget that acknowledges he will not eliminate the federal budget deficit in eight years, as he promised. Rather, the tax cuts and large spending increases Republicans have approved in recent weeks will grow the federal debt by at least $7 trillion dollars over the next decade. So the question is why did Republicans in Congress do it? Why approve a 2-year spending bill that boosts funding $300 billion above the limits they’d enacted in 2011 to rein in government spending?
Declining Trust in the Medical Profession
Guest: Dhruv Khullar, MD, MPP, Physician, New York-Presbyterian Hospital
When your doctor tells you to lose 15 pounds or recommends a medication for a health condition you’re experiencing, do you obey? How much do you trust your doctor’s expertise? How much do you trust the healthcare system more broadly – the hospitals, clinics, insurance companies and pharmacies? Physician and public health researcher Dhruv Khullar is concerned about declining levels of trust between Americans and the medical community.
More Than an Ancestry Test
Guest: Sheldon Krimsky, PhD, Lenore Stern Professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University and Adjunct Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, Tufts University School of Medicine, and 35-year member of Council for Responsible Genetics
Have you taken one of these family history DNA tests where you send a vial of your saliva for analysis? I did one last year and was told 72 percent of my ancestry comes from Great Britain. What puzzled me was that Eastern Europe only made up 2 percent of my ethnicity, since I have several sets of great-great-grandparents who immigrated to the US directly from Czechoslovakia. I would have thought that would make for more than 2-percent of my DNA. I’ve heard that if I sent my saliva to another testing company, the results would probably be a bit different. So how reliable are these tests, really?
Consumer Guide to Genetic Tests
Psychology of Winning
Guest: David Matsumoto, PhD, Psychologist, San Francisco State University and former Olympic Judo Coach
One of the best things about watching the Olympics is when the cameras catch that amazing moment when an athlete realizes they’ve won a gold medal. Incredibly, researchers have found that split-second moment of victory looks the same on Olympic athlete’s faces, no matter what country they come from.
Making Welcoming Communities for People with Disabilities
Guest: Erik Carter, PhD, Professor of Special Education, Vanderbilt University
Nearly one in five Americans has some type of disability, according to Erik Carter, a professor of Special Education at Vanderbilt University. That number might seem high if we don’t usually interact with - if we’re not friends with - people with disabilities. It’s one thing for governments to legislate that buildings must be accessible to all, but who can legislate what happens in our hearts? Professor Carter wants to see not just better access to facilities for people with disabilities, but more a more welcoming attitude toward them when they show up at neighborhood, community and church events.
Using Twitter to Track the Flu (Originally aired: May 25, 2017)
Guest: Alessandro Vespignani, Sternberg Family Distinguished University Professor of Physics, Professor of Computer Science and Health Sciences, Northeastern University
Northeastern University computer science professor Alessandro Vespignani uses all the complaining people do on Twitter about feeling crummy and fluish to predict the scale of the coming flu season.
Protecting Yourself on Facebook, and from Facebook
Guest: Erin Egan, Chief Privacy Officer, Facebook
A series of court rulings against Facebook in Europe and some strict new privacy laws set to take effect across the EU in the coming months have prompted the social media company to overhaul its privacy settings. The idea is to “put the core privacy settings for Facebook in one place and make it much easier for people to manage their data,” said Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg at an event in Brussels a few weeks ago. Here's a quick tutorial from Facebook on how to protect your personal information.
South Korea on the World Stage
Guests: Kirk Larsen, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Brigham Young University; Mark Peterson, PhD, Associate Professor of Asian and Near and Eastern Languages, Brigham Young University
All weekend long, media reports bordered on breathless as they followed Kim Yo-jong, the only sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un and the first immediate member of North Korea’s ruling family to visit South Korea. She and South Korea’s president Moon Jae-In shared a warm handshake at the opening ceremonies. Photos of that went viral. And Kim Yo-jong also extended an unexpected invitation for the South Korean president to visit Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
Why Comics?
Guest: Hillary Chute, PhD, Author, “Why Comics? From Underground to Everywhere,” and Professor of English, Northeastern University
Another superhero from the world of comics is shaping into the year’s first movie blockbuster, Black Panther. It does have our attention – advance ticket sales for this weekend’s opening are through the roof. The DC and Marvel comic families have dominated at the box office for the last decade. But there’s more to comics than spandex and superpowers.
Defend Yourself against Mosquitoes
Guest: Clément Vinauger, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Virginia Tech
One good thing about the cold winter months is fewer pests. Mosquitoes are a summer time nemesis. Researchers are getting to the bottom of why some people attract mosquitoes more than others. And, get this, they’ve done it by putting tiny helmets on mosquitoes. They’ve also figured out that if you swat at a mosquito like crazy, it just might remember that and avoid you later.
Female Sports on Male Terms
Guest: Rick Eckstein, Author, “How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls’ Sports: The Pay-to-Play Pipeline”
If you want to insult a boy playing ball, just tell him, “You throw like a girl!” We laud female athletes who can keep up with the guys. Besides what this stigma might do to girls’ self-esteem, a male standard in athletics can actually be dangerous when it affects the way girls are coached and trained because their minds and bodies are different from boys’. That’s a central message of Rick Eckstein’s book “How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls’ Sports: The Pay-to-Play Pipeline.”
Parent Previews: Peter Rabbit and The 15:17 To Paris
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
Beatrix Potter's classic tale comes to the big screen, featuring live-action and computer graphics. The movie follows the antics of a rebellious rabbit who has an insatiable appetite for the vegetables growing in the neighbor's garden.
Based on a true story, three Americans (Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos) on holiday in Europe are forced to use their past military training when a terrorist attacks passengers on a train.
Making Hollywood Funny Is Serious Business
Guest: Brent White, Movie Editor
Have you ever watched an old comedy – and by old, anything made before 1990 – and found yourself a little disappointed? We’re spoiled, really, with how uproariously funny films are today. The laughs come faster and they seem engineered, somehow, to maximize the humor so that, at least in my case, leaving the theater with sore cheeks from laughing so hard is pretty common.
Well, the laughs are in fact engineered to be bigger. And that is Brent White’s job. He’s a Hollywood film editor and the guy directors turn to when they’ve got actors who do a lot of improvising on set. As the New York Times Magazine once said, Brent White is “the man who makes the world’s funniest people even funnier.” White is a graduate of BYU, and his film credits include Anchorman, Talladega Nights and the Ghostbusters reboot.
Black Ink: The Power of Reading and Writing
Guest: Stephanie Stokes Oliver, Author, Editor, “Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power and Pleasure of Reading and Writing”
Throughout American history, black people are the only group of people to have been forbidden by law to learn to read. An enslaved person caught reading, in certain states, could be put to death. So, learning to read and write became an act of resistance for enslaved people. And, in many ways, it has remained so for African Americans.
That theme runs through the new book, “Black Ink,” which is a compilation of essays and excerpts by 25 black writers spanning two and a half centuries. They include Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Colson Whitehead.
Race and Sport Panel
Guests: William Mitchell, Retired College Football Coach, USAF pilot; Cameron McCoy, PhD, Assistant Professor, History, Brigham Young University; Mikaela Dufur, Associate Professor, Sociology, Brigham Young University
Between the Super Bowl last weekend and the Winter Olympics starting this weekend, it’s a big moment in sports. When we watch elite athletes, I suspect most of us think we’re “color-blind.” We don’t care about the athlete’s skin; we care that they win.
But how do you explain the fact that 70 percent of NFL players are black, but quarterbacks, coaches and owners in the league are overwhelmingly white? And why is it that of the 242 members of Team USA in Pyeongchang, South Korea, only ten are black and 11 Asian American? That, by the way, is a record level of the diversity for Americans at the Winter Olympics.
Wild Week in the Markets
Guest: Ryan Law, Professor of Personal Finance, Director of the Utah Valley University Money Management Resource Center
On Monday, the Dow plunged 700 points, which is a lot. And there’s been quite a bit of unsettled anguish in the markets all week. The weird thing is that the US economy is doing great – unemployment continues to fall, jobs are growing and wages are going up too – that last bit of news came Friday and apparently sparked Monday’s sell-off. Why would good economic news cause investors to freak out?
Betting on Change
Guest: Jeremiah Weinstock, Associate Professor of Psychology, Saint Louis University
Investigators are still unsure what motivated a man to rain fire on a country music concert in Las Vegas last October, killing 58 and wounding hundreds of others. But, they’ve learned that the shooter was a serious gambler and they’re exploring whether that problem might be connected to the shooting. Scholars at more than 25 universities across the US say there’s too little research being done on the addictive nature of gambling and its effects on behavior. They’ve released an open letter calling on states and the federal government to put more resources toward learning how to prevent and treat gambling disorder.
Cell Phones Help Teachers in Ghana
Guest: Cade Dopp, Graduate Student, Instructional Psychology and Technology, Brigham Young University, and Founder, Educell
Parents and teachers in America complain about bureaucracy in education, but in Ghana, teachers are required to submit handwritten daily lesson plans to their supervisors. So, when BYU student Cade Dopp won a prize from BYU’s Ballard Center to use technology to improve education, he began thinking about ways to streamline the workload of teachers over in Ghana.
Learn more about Educell here.
Conservative Take on Immigration
Guest: Congressman Raúl Labrador, R, Idaho
Republicans in Congress are poised to pass another short-term spending bill that will avert another government shutdown this week and allow for more time to work out a solution for the “Dreamers.” Those are, of course, the undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children. Some 800,000 of them are enrolled in a program created by President Obama called “DACA,” which allows them to study and work in the US without fear of deportation. That program will end in one month under President Trump’s order. Idaho Republican Congressman Raul Labrador is co-sponsor of a bill introduced a few weeks ago that mirrors President Trump’s immigration priorities.
Exploitation of Black Labor after Slavery (Originally aired: Feb. 27, 2017)
Guest: Kathy Forde, PhD, Associate Professor of Journalism, University of Massachusetts Amherst
How to root out racial disparity in America’s justice system? Here’s what we know: African Americans make up 13 percent of the US population, but they account for 37 percent of the inmates in US prisons. Laws created during the tough-on-crime, War on Drugs era of the 1980s and 1990s are often blamed for America’s high incarceration, and for the disproportionate number of African Americans doing time. Historian Kathy Forde says the trouble dates back much further – to about a decade after the Civil War when thousands upon thousands of freed slaves were arrested on trumped-up charges and leased to private companies to keep the Southern economy afloat. They became slaves by another name.
Show Tunes in the Studio (Originally aired: March 22, 2017)
Guest: Frank Wildhorn, Songwriter and Composer of hit musicals such as “The Count of Monte Cristo,” “Jekyll and Hyde,” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel”
For more than two decades, Frank Wildhorn has captivated audiences worldwide with his popular musicals including "Jekyll & Hyde," "The Scarlet Pimpernel," and "The Count of Monte Cristo," to name a few. Unlike many professional composers who started learning music around the same time they learned to talk, Wildhorn taught himself to play the piano as a teenager, and before he wrote for theater, he wrote a huge hit for pop star Whitney Houston.
Trump a More Conservative President than Reagan?
Guest: Tommy Binion, Director of Congressional and Executive Branch Relations, The Heritage Foundation
As a candidate, Donald Trump didn’t cut a particularly conservative figure, but the Heritage Foundation – a leading conservative think tank - says Trump’s first year in office was more conservative than the first year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency – and Reagan is the conservative gold standard.
From the Vaults: Illustrating Wordsworth
Guest: Paul Westover, PhD, Associate Professor of English, Brigham Young University
It’s time now for our regular trip over to the Special Collections at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library for the segment we call “From the Vaults.” The collection includes some rare editions of poetry collections by British Romantic poet William Wordsworth.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud/ that floats o’er high on vales and hills.” That’s one of his famous lines – and an example of the vivid visual quality of Wordsworth’s poems. Those wispy cirrus clouds floating across the sky do seem awfully lonely, don’t they?
Border Wall Prototypes
Guest: Curtis Patterson, Owner, Patterson Engineering
Another government shutdown looms this week as Democrats and Republicans squabble over immigration. Democrats want a long-term solution for the recipients of DACA – the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that will expire in a month. President Trump says any funding for DACA has to come with funding for a wall on the US border with Mexico.
So let’s consider that wall. If the money is ever allocated to build it, we’re starting to get a sense of what it might look like. Eight prototypes have been erected in San Diego and Curtis Patterson, owner of Patterson Engineering, got a look at them.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
The Homecoming Queen
Guest: Ngozi Anyanwu, Playwright, “The Homecoming Queen”
Popular culture can have a big influence on the way we see ourselves – our race, our religion, our body type or hair color or community of origin. So what do you do if you feel like a part of your identity is being misrepresented in American culture?
Ngozi Anyanwu started writing plays. She’s part of what the New York Times has identified as a growing trend: American playwrights who are the daughters of immigrants from Africa getting their work staged at prestigious theaters in New York. Anyanwu is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. Her play, “The Homecoming Queen” opened two weeks ago at the Atlantic Theater off-Broadway.
White Fang
Guest: Tennery Taylor, Producer, Top of Mind
The Sundance Film Festival wrapped up last week and Tennery Taylor had the chance to catch a couple of films. One is the beautifully animated "White Fang," a re-telling of Jack London's classic tale.
Ending Child Slavery
Guest: Derek Doneen, Director, “Kailash,” Winner of the Sundance 2018 Grand Jury Prize for US Documentary Film
In his directorial debut, Derek Doneen presents the story of Kailash Satyarthi, who won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to free children from slavery and forced labor. Over 150 million children in the world are forced into labor. Kailash wants to see them all freed "in his lifetime."
Germany as World Leader?
Guest: Hans Kundnani, Senior Research Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House
Since the election of President Trump, and with the impending exit of Britain from the EU, there’s been debate about who should replace the US and the UK as the leader of Europe – and beyond. German Prime Minister Angela Merkel has positioned herself as that leader, but she faces significant challenges to her political power. Skeptics say she’s overestimating Germany’s ability to fill America’s shoes.
3-D Printing Ship Repairs
Guest: Rainer Hebert, PhD, Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut
The US Navy’s aircraft carriers are enormous – 1,000 feet long, capable of carrying airplanes (obviously) and a crew of 6,000 people. They’re basically self-contained cities at sea that will stay out for months at a time. But routinely, the Navy has to take these enormous ships offline to inspect and make repairs, because if something breaks while they’re at sea, it’s really expensive and time-consuming to come all the way back to shore for a fix. The Navy would like to extend the amount of time ships can stay out to sea between maintenance visits, but they need a better way to monitor critical equipment on the ship in real-time. And it would be even better if they could somehow manufacture the repair parts right on the ship.
Sea-Turtle Hatchlings Adapting to Humans
Guest: Sarah Milton, PhD, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University
Sea turtles undertake a hazardous journey as soon as they hatch on the beach where their mother laid them. Usually under the cover of night, they emerge from the nest and head toward the surf where they’ll swim out to sea. That is, unless there are a lot of lights or obstacles in their path. If they become disoriented, then a trip that should take a few minutes might turn into hours of wandering before they finally make it to the water’s edge. Scientists at Florida Atlantic University wanted to know if all that extra energy would hurt a hatchlings’ ability to swim once they made it. So they made turtle treadmills to find out.
WWI Code Talker Museum
Guest: Erin Fehr, Archivist, Sequoyah National Research Center at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock
A hundred years ago, the United States was entrenched in European battlefields, desperately looking for a way to win the first World War. One problem they had: Germany had hacked the US military codes. But two soldiers from the Choctaw tribe were stationed in France, and they turned out to be a secret weapon. They became the first American Indian code talkers, a generation before the famous Navajo code talkers.
Provo Startup Challenges Google
Guest: Kendall Hulet, CEO, Cake Technologies
Browsing the web on your tiny phone screen can be frustrating—you click on a link, wait for it to load, back up to the results page, click on another link. What if your search called up a stack of results and you could swipe through them like Tinder dates until you found the perfect match? That’s the way the mobile web browser “Cake” works.
Worlds Awaiting: ALA Book Award Predictions
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
Rachel predicts winners at this weekend's American Library Association's Book Awards.
How We Talk About “Addicts” Matters
Guest: Michael Botticelli, Executive Director of the Grayken Center for Addiction, Boston Medical Center, Former Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy
An estimated 21 million Americans over the age of 12 are addicted to alcohol or other drugs. But only ten percent of them are getting treatment. Would that number improve if we talked about addiction differently? If, instead of calling someone an addict or a user, we referred to them as “a person with a substance use disorder”?
The $5 Million Dollar Question
Guest: Gary Wilcox, PhD, Professor of Advertising & Public Relations, University of Texas Austin
So, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, but who won the battle for brand awareness during those very expensive commercial breaks?
Companies from Amazon and Budweiser to Tide and Turbo Tax shelled out $5 million dollars per 30-seconds of advertising time during the big game. Who got their money’s worth and who blew it?
Olympic Technology
Guest: Gordy Megroz, Correspondent, Outside Magazine
Every Olympics, the athletes get faster and their gear gets fancier. Did you know this year the American team is wearing parkas with built-in heaters? Technology is also changing how athletes train.
Religion and the Trump Presidency
Guest: Shaun Casey, MDiv, ThD, Director, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, Georgetown University, and former Special Representative for Religion and Global Affairs at the US State Department
US Presidents often talk about God – they end speeches with “God Bless America” and they tout the importance of faith in American life. We’ll see them attending church and sometimes they’ll reference their own religious beliefs when talking about how they came to a certain decision. President Trump offers an interesting paradox in this tradition: he presents himself as a champion of faith, but not as a particularly religious man. Shaun Casey is on campus to speak at BYU’s World Interfaith Harmony Week.
Parent Previews: Winchester
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
Sarah Winchester (played by Helen Mirren) is the heir of the Winchester fortune, which was made from the sales of the Winchester firearms. She also fears she has inherited the blame for those killed by the weapon. And that shame is haunting her-- literally.
Tech Transfer: Prosthetic Valve to Treat Varicose Veins
Guest: Brian Jensen, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Mike Alder, Director, Technology Transfer Office
Have you considered why, when you stand or walk, the blood in your body doesn’t just go with gravity right down to your feet and stay there? If that’s never occurred to you, it’s because you’re not one of the millions of Americans with a condition called chronic venous insufficiency. It turns out there are valves in our veins that keep blood from rushing to our feet. When those valves fail, the result can be spider veins, varicose veins or a host of painful and serious health problems.
BYU mechanical engineering professor Brian Jensen is developing a prosthetic valve that could be implanted in someone with chronic venous insufficiency.
Reflecting on A Key Vietnam Battle After 50 Years
Guest: Mark Bowden, National Correspondent, "The Atlantic," Senior Writer, Vanity Fair, Author, “Black Hawk Down,” “Hue 1968”
This week marks 50 years since the start of the Tet Offensive, when the North Vietnamese launched a surprise attack on the city of Hue and a number of other sites. America and its South Vietnamese allies were caught flat-footed. It would take two weeks for them to regain control of Hue: two weeks of intense combat, street by narrow street. The attack happened on Tet – the Vietnamese New Year – and, as Mark Bowden writes in his book “Hue 1968,” “after Tet, the debate was never again about how to win in Vietnam, but how to leave.”
Norwich, VT: A Winter Olympics Engine
Guest: Karen Crouse, Author, “Norwich: One Tiny Vermont Town’s Secret to Happiness and Excellence”
“The road to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, runs through a pocket square of a town" in rural Vermont. That’s the first line of New York Times reporter Karen Crouse’s new book “Norwich.” Somehow that tiny Vermont town of 3,000 people has managed to put an athlete on every US Winter Olympics team but one since 1984. There must be something in the water, right? But the truth is far more inspiring, as Crouse tells it.
Trump’s Immigration Plan
Guest: Charles Kuck, JD, Atlanta-based Immigration Attorney, Former President of the National American Immigration Lawyers Association
President Trump’s plan for immigration reform was the centerpiece of his State of the Union Address this week. The plan has vocal critics in all corners of Congress, which seems like a sign that it’s a real compromise. Congress faces some urgency to come up with a plan in the next week – when another budget vote must happen. Democrats have vowed to block that and force another government shutdown if an immigration compromise isn’t in the works. So let’s look at the President’s proposal.
Should Parents Rescue their Stressed Teenagers?
Guest: Denise Pope, PhD, Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, Co-Founder of Challenge Success
Teenagers in America today are getting less sleep than they were 20 years ago: Most of them report getting less than 7 hours when doctors say the teenaged body and brain need 9 hours a night to thrive. But how can they get that and still manage dance practice, swim team, honors classes, music lessons and time with friends? What’s the parents’ role in all of this and should a parent at some point step in to scale back or restore balance in a teen’s busy life?
Ice Melt Impacts Polar Bears
Guest: Blaine Griffen, Associate Professor of Life Sciences, BYU
A few months ago a National Geographic video of a starving polar bear went viral and sparked a debate about the effects of climate change and melting Arctic ice. If you’ve seen that video, you remember it: that poor emaciated polar bear dragging a leg, rummaging through an empty trash can before collapsing on the ground. Before that video went viral, BYU biologist Blaine Griffen had a study already in the works on the challenge polar bears face getting enough food when seasonal ice melts faster than it used to.
Trell (Originally aired: Oct. 12, 2017)
Guest: Dick Lehr, Professor of Journalism, Boston University, Author of “Trell”
The murder of 12-year-old Tiffany Moore on a Boston street in 1988 was a turning point in the city’s fight against drugs and gang violence. Police believed the African American girl had been an innocent victim of gang gunfire. The pressure was on to solve the case and send a strong message about law and justice. A few weeks later, they arrested a man who would ultimately get a life sentence for the killing. But they got the wrong guy. Fifteen years later an investigative reporter at the Boston Globe dug into the case and uncovered a host of police and prosecutorial wrongdoing.
How Self-Driving Cars Could Prevent Terror Attacks (Originally aired: Nov. 7, 2017)
Guest: Jeremy Straub, PhD, Professor of Computer Science, North Dakota State University
In the last 18 months, terrorists pledging allegiance to ISIS have made trucks their preferred weapons. More than 100 people around the world have been killed in nearly a dozen such attacks, including eight fatalities in New York City last Halloween. When someone uses a gun to kill lots of people, we immediately start debating gun control. Debating “vehicle control” after a terror attack seems preposterous, but what if the focus weren’t on controlling who can drive one? What if we focus on technology that would let the vehicle take control away from the driver who tries to steer the truck into a crowd of people?
Cryonics (Originally aired: January 10, 2017)
Guest: Max More, PhD, President and CEO of Alcor Life Extension Foundation
The latest Legend of Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, has been wildly successful among gamers and begins with Link waking up from a 100 year sleep. Other fictional characters who’ve been placed into suspended-animation and then brought back to life include Captain America, Han Solo, the astronauts in the movies “Interstellar” and “Passengers.” But there are actually about 300 people currently in a state of cryonic preservation and some 2,000 others who’ve signed up to be frozen as soon as they die.
Find out more about cryonics at Alcor
Trump Touts Unity in State of the Union
Guest: Adam Dynes, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
The Constitution states that the President, “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.” President Trump delivered his State of the Union address to Congress Tuesday night. Did he succeed in efforts to unify the country? How did he define his first year in office?
Avoiding Everyday Disasters
Guest: Aviva Patz, Deputy Editor, Reader’s Digest Online
Some of us can't resist those stories on our social media feeds offering simple tricks to make everyday life better. If you love a good “life hack,” the new Reader’s Digest book of tricks for “Avoiding Everyday Disasters” is for you. How not to go blind from staring at a computer screen. How to reheat leftovers so they actually taste good. How to score a good parking spot in a crowded lot. How to wash a window without leaving streaks. How to chop an onion without tears.
Van Noy’s Second Super Bowl
Guest: Spencer Linton, Play-By-Play Sportscaster, BYUtv, Host, BYU Sports Nation
When the New England Patriots face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII, a former BYU football player will be on the field. It’ll be the second Super Bowl for Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Noy. We don’t talk sports an awful lot on Top of Mind, but this is BYUradio, and Van Noy’s got an interesting story, so we’ve asked Spencer Linton into the studio to tell it.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
In honor of Groundhog Day, Sam shares a story told by Megan Hicks, "Three Groundhogs Gruff"
The Hoxne Hoard
Guest: Peter Guest, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology, Director of Postgraduate School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University, Wales
Decades ago, in a village called Hoxne, near Suffolk, England, a man set out with a metal detector to find his lost hammer in a field. He eventually found it, but first, he stumbled on the largest Roman treasure cache ever discovered in Britain. Archaeologists have been puzzling over the “Hoxne Hoard” ever since.
What’s Happening in the Brain When We Read?
Guest: Daniel Willingham, PhD, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Psychology, University of Virginia
It is so fun to see that switch click in a child’s mind when they realize they can actually look at a word, sound it out and read. And then they can’t stop reading. Riding in a car with a new reader is a kick--reading words on street signs and businesses and just so pleased with this new comprehension of the world they’ve acquired.
Reading feels magical. And also a little mysterious. What makes that switch flip? Why does it flip faster in some kids? And what drives actual comprehension of the words we read on a page?
Sex Abuse: Missed Warning Signs and Inadvertent Enablers
Guest: Carla Van Dam, PhD, Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Author of “Identifying Child Molesters: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse by Recognizing the Patterns of the Offenders” and “The Socially Skilled Child Molester: Differentiating the Guilty From the Falsely Accused”
Former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced last week to up to 175 years in prison after more than 150 women and girls said in court that he sexually molested them over the span of decades, and under the guise of medical treatment. Among the many horrifying details of the case is that the abuse sometimes happened while the girl’s parent was in the exam room, but couldn’t see what was going on, or trusted that the doctor was just doing what was necessary for treatment. The idea that something so horrible could happen at the hands of a well-respected doctor, and in the presence of parents sent us looking for expert insight on identifying and preventing such abuse.
No More Mean Girls
Katie Hurley, LCSW, Psychotherapist and Author, “No More Mean Girls: the Secret to Raising Strong, Confident, and Compassionate Girls”
“Mean Girls” opens on the Broadway stage this spring. Based on the coming-of-age movie, it chronicles the skirmishes between the cool girls and the outcasts at a Chicago high school. But child psychologist Katie Hurley has noticed something about mean girls in real life—they’re getting younger. Socially aggressive behavior once typical of high school can be seen on elementary school playgrounds, according to Ms. Hurley. She’s written a guide for parents called “No More Mean Girls.”
Next Gen of Antibiotics
Guest: Bryan Davies, PhD, Assistant Professor of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin
The rapid growth of bacteria resistant to antibiotics is a global health crisis, according to the World Health Organization. But the race to discover new antibiotics that work is slow-going. A team of biologists at the University of Texas at Austin has found a way to speed up the testing process.
Poutine: Quebecois or Canadian?
Guest: Nicolas Fabien-Ouellet, Food Systems Graduate Student, University of Vermont
All the Canada travel guides say you have to eat poutine when you visit. And they’re totally right. I mean, it’s a bowl of crispy fries, topped with gooey cheese curd and hot gravy. It’s pretty straight forward and so tasty. But lately, poutine has become a sore point for some in Quebec, which is the French region of Canada where the dish originated. See, chefs across Canada have embraced poutine as a gourmet treat and now claim it as their own, ignoring the fact that for decades poutine was looked down on as a symbol of Quebec’s lack of sophistication.
Lessons on Activism from an Israeli Human Rights Lawyer
Guest: Michael Sfard, Human Rights Lawyer, Author of “The Wall and the Gate”
In the year since President Trump took office, human rights lawyers have turned to the courts to challenge his executive orders restricting travel and refugee arrivals and ending protection for young immigrants known as Dreamers. This is how it works in democracies: the courts are a place where people can seek relief from oppression or discrimination. Sometimes, they win. Often, they don’t. Sometimes the lawsuits end up doing more harm than good.
Is the FBI Out to Get Trump?
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
Republicans in Congress are split over whether or not they need to pass a law that would make it more difficult for President Trump to fire Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor hired by the FBI to look into Russian meddling in the election and whether the Trump campaign colluded in that. Both the New York Times and Washington Post have reported that Trump ordered Mueller fired last summer, but his White House attorney refused.
President Trump and his allies insist the Russia probe is politically motivated by Democrats and that the FBI is out to get him.
Star Wars Bionic Hand is Becoming a Reality
Guests: Gil Weinberg, PhD, Founding Director, Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology; Jason Barnes, Musician, Amputee
Prosthetic hands these days may look really natural, but they don’t move naturally. Typically, the wearer can only command it to do a few basic things, such as gripping an object. Jason Barnes, who is 28 years old, lost part of his right arm in an accident five years ago. He’s collaborated with Gil Weinberg and his new prosthetic hand can do some amazing things.
Readers' Roundtable: News of the World, A Gentleman in Moscow
Guest: Ann Edwards Cannon, Author, Staff, The King’s English Bookshop
We discuss a couple books that have been customer favorites. Both take place in times when the world seems turned upside down to the main characters. Find out how they adapt and make peace with new realities.
In Good Faith: A Jewish Storyteller Shares Her Faith
Guest: Steven Kapp Perry, Host, "In Good Faith," BYUradio; Shonaleigh Cumbers, Storyteller
If you haven’t had a chance to catch the new BYUradio show “In Good Faith,” we’ve got a treat for you now. Host Steven Perry interviews people of faith – Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu—believers who are willing to share their personal experience with the sacred and the divine. You can catch the show on Sundays at noon ET. Here’s a sampling of his conversation with Shonaleigh Cumbers, who is a drut'syla, a storyteller in a Jewish tradition inherited from her late grandmother.
Maze Runner 3
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
In this third installment of The Maze Runner franchise, Thomas sets out on a quest to find the cure for The Flare, before the threatening disease becomes an epidemic.
Do Brain Lesions Make Criminals?
Guest: Michael Fox, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Co-Director, Deep Brain Stimulation Program, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
In 1966, a lone gunman named Charles Whitman perpetrated what’s often considered the first public mass shooting in modern America. He climbed a 300-foot tower at the University of Texas and shot 36 people, killing 14 of them before he was fatally shot by police. An autopsy found a tumor in Whitman’s brain, which some scientists believe may have contributed to his murderous behavior. We know that brain injuries and lesions can change someone’s personality, but can it make someone a violent criminal?
The Legacy of a Portuguese Diplomat Who Saved Thousands in WWII
Guests: Gerald Mendes, grandson of Aristides de Sousa Mendes; Dan Mattis, visa recipient whose life was saved by de Sousa Mendes during WWII
A remarkable story of heroism is Top of Mind this hour as we mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the spring of 1940, as Germany invaded France, thousands of people lined up at the Portuguese embassy in Bordeaux, hoping to secure a visa to travel to Portugal and from there to some place safe from Hitler’s grasp. A Portuguese diplomat named Aristides de Sousa Mendes saved their lives in what one historian has called “the largest rescue action by a single individual during the Holocaust.”
The Number of Great-Grandpa’s Arm
Guest: Amy Schatz, Director, “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm”
Earlier we heard about a Portuguese diplomat who helped tens of thousands of people flee Nazi occupied France, and paid a great personal price for his heroism.
Now we’re going to hear the story of Elliott and his 90-year-old great-grandpa Jack who are the central figures in a short film debuting Saturday, Jan. 27 on HBO called, “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm.” We watch an intimate conversation between the two of them, interspersed with hand-painted animation to tell the story of Jewish life in Eastern Europe before and during the Holocaust.
What Would You Have Done?
Guests: Jessica Hammer, PhD, Co-Designer, Rosenstrasse, Assistant Professor, HCI Institute, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University; Moyra Turkington, Co-Designer, Rosenstrasse
If you’ve been listening to these stories of heroism during the Holocaust and found yourself thinking, “I would have resisted. I’d have stood up to injustice, no matter the cost,” how can you know for sure? That question intrigued game designers Jessica Hammer and Moyra Turkington enough for them to design a role-playing board game called Rosenstrasse. Players take on the perspective of people living in 1943 Berlin when a large protest took place on Rosenstrasse Street. Day after day, hundreds of non-Jewish women came out to protest the incarceration of their Jewish husbands by the Nazis.
The Yes Brain
Guest: Tina Payne Bryson, PhD, Author, “The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Children”
Parents of school-aged children can exhaust themselves trying to provide all the opportunities a well-rounded child needs to succeed: challenging schoolwork, music and art lessons, sports teams, field trips to museums and parks. All good things. But sometimes, in our quest to give our kids the best opportunities we neglect their emotional growth, which also takes time, energy and expertise to cultivate. But investing in kids’ emotional health continues to pay dividends long after kids have forgotten about dusty soccer trophies and academic gold stars.
Parenting as Partners
Guest: Vicki Hoefle, parenting coach, Author, “Parenting as Partners: How to Launch Your Kids Without Ejecting Your Spouse”
While parents might agree on the goals of helping their kids feel safe, seen, secure and soothed, as we just heard, they may have very different ideas about how to accomplish them. Do kids feel soothed, for example, when they know they can fall asleep on their own? Or are they best soothed when a parent stays by their bedside until they fall asleep? Parenting Educator Vicki Hoefle noticed there aren’t many resources out there to help parents settle these differences. So she’s written one.
The History of Shutdown Politics
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Assistant Professor, History BYU
Two weeks from today we’ll be back in government shutdown watch mode, unless Republicans and Democrats have come to an agreement on spending and immigration by then. The three-day shutdown that happened over the past weekend was the first to occur with a single party controlling the White House and Congress. But it’s not as if U.S. leaders all the way back to George Washington have managed to pass a budget on time every year. It’s just that until fairly recently, the whole government did not shut down when Congress missed a budget deadline. So why does it happen now? And are we better off for it as a nation?
The Fantastical Worlds of Brandon Sanderson
Guest: Brandon Sanderson, New York Times Bestselling Author
Fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson’s latest book, Oathbringer, sold 300,000 copies in its first week. At more than 1200 pages, it’s a complicated tale of humanity hanging in the balance, while vengeful races, both human and non, battle for dominance through the use of magical powers. While he’s writing such long – and successful books – Sanderson also makes a point of mentoring aspiring writers. He even teaches a semester-long class here at BYU.
Brandon Sanderson's Lectures on Writing
Facial Exercises Can Make You Look Younger
Guest: Murad Alam, MD, Vice Chair and Professor, Department of Dermatology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
If you search for “face yoga” on YouTube, you’ll end up with so many videos of people contorting their faces in crazy ways while promising that you’ll look years younger if you follow suit. “Get the benefits of plastic surgery without going under the knife!” You’re right to be skeptical. Dermatologist Murad Alam sure was. And then he decided to do a scientific experiment testing the effectiveness of these exercises. Now he’s singing a different tune.
Weapons of Math Destruction (Originally aired: Sept. 20, 2017)
Guest: Cathy O’Neil, PhD, Author, “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy,” Founder and Data Scientist, O’Neil Risk Consulting & Algorithmic Auditing Company
Are you one of those “lucky” people who gets credit card offers every day? Well, the offer in your mailbox might be different from the one in your neighbor’s because your credit score, your income, your outstanding debt and other factors are mysteriously processed by a number-crunching algorithm and out pops your APR. But that mysterious process—that algorithm—might not be as objective as you think.
How to Talk to Your Kids About Mass Shootings (Originally aired: Nov. 7, 2017)
Guest: Brooks Keeshin, MD, Clinician Researcher, Division of Child Protection and Family Health, University of Utah, Child Psychiatrist at the Center for Safe and Health Families at Primary Children’s Hospital, Salt Lake City
On Tuesday, two 15-year-olds were killed, allegedly by another 15-year-old, in a school shooting in Kentucky. Over a dozen more students were wounded. It’s a scene that’s becoming almost routine in America. As parents, how do we explain these acts of violence to our children when they are becoming more common? How young is too young for a conversation about an event as unpredictable and terrifying as a mass shooting?
Lea Salonga (Originally aired: April 26, 2017)
Guest: Lea Salonga, Tony Award-Winning Broadway Performer
The Broadway revival of “Once On This Island” features the Lea Salonga as Erzulie, the goddess of love. Salonga is one of musical theater’s biggest stars and the voice of Disney princesses Jasmine and Mulan. But when we met up with her during a visit to BYU last spring, she was sitting on the edge of a folding chair in a room of aspiring performers. A few had been chosen to sing for her.
The Importance of CHIP
Guest: Tricia Brooks, Senior Fellow, Center for Children and Families, and Associate Research Professor, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
The deal lawmakers struck to reopen the government on Monday only lasts until February 8, but that measure did include a longer-term fix to a program called “CHIP” – the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Despite bitter partisan division, Congress somehow agreed to provide six years of federal money for that program. The news comes as a relief to the families of nearly 9 million children who get health insurance through CHIP.
Somebody Has to Dust!
Guest: Claudia Geist, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology/Division of Gender Studies, University of Utah
TV loves the stereotype of a grumpy retired guy like Archie Bunker or Frank Barone from "Everybody Loves Raymond" spending his days relaxing on the couch while his wife cooks and cleans around him. University of Utah sociologist Claudia Geist wondered if there was any truth to that stereotype, so she looked into surveys of retired couples over 60. She was particularly curious if health problems would affect how much housework the aging husband or wife would do.
Have Eyes, Will Sea
Guest: Benjamin Palmer, PhD, Postdoc Research Fellow, Department of Structural Biology, Weitzmann Institute of Science
Scallops seem like a simple seafood, little medallions of firm white flesh with no bones or skin to deal with, but if you encountered one in the wild, you wouldn’t think it was so simple. For one thing, scallops can have up to 200 eyes. Scientists have long wondered why that is – and how those eyes actually work. A team in Israel and Sweden has now managed to get a close-up look and one fascinating thing they’ve learned is that scallop eyes have microscopic mirrors in them – just like high-end telescopes use mirrors. So does that mean they can see into outer space? Let’s find out.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam recently had a back-stage tour and preview of Utah Opera's "Moby Dick."
Prince Alwaleed’s Life Bargain
Guest: Jeff Towson, Professor, Investment, Peking University, and Private Equity Investor
Saudi Arabia’s richest man - and one of the world’s richest people, period - is in a standoff with the Saudi government. A few months ago Saudi leaders put some 200 prominent businessmen and investors under arrest at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh as part of a crackdown on corruption. Slowly, the detainees have been released after agreeing to pay settlements likely to total $100 billion for the Saudi government. But Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal – the richest of the tycoons caught in the roundup – has held out. And now reports indicate his time to work a deal is running out: he’s been moved to a real jail. What makes this more than just a story of palace intrigue is the fact that Al-Waleed owns stakes in a lot of Western companies – Citibank, 21st Century Fox, Twitter, the Four Seasons. He’s also a major philanthropic partner of Bill Gates.
Revisiting the Odyssey
Guest: Emily Wilson, PhD, Professor, Department of Classical Studies, and Chair, Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania
The story has all the elements of a great superhero saga: battles with monsters, help from the gods, a homeland in need of saving. There’s even true love in the mix. But this isn’t a Marvel or DC Comics story. It’s maybe THE original epic in Western culture: Homer’s “The Odyssey.” For anyone groaning now at the memory of slogging through it in high school, The Odyssey’s out in a new translation accessible to an audience raised on a steady diet of comic books.
Hospitals Take Drug Shortages By the Horns
Guest: Erin Fox, PharmD, Senior Director, Drug Information and Support Services, University of Utah Health, Professor of Pharmacology
Several of the largest hospital systems in the country have just announced they’re going to create their own nonprofit drug company because they are sick of having critical drugs suddenly become unavailable or jump drastically in price. The collaboration includes Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, the US Department of Veterans Affairs and several large Catholic hospital systems that operate in dozens of states. It’s an unusual move that could bring big changes to the healthcare system, if it works.
English Channel Swimmer
Guest: Kurt Dickson, MD, Emergency Medicine Doctor, Banner Thunderbird Medical Center
Some people, when they turn 50, save up some money and splurge on a nice trip to Europe. BYU alum Kurt Dickson spent money, instead, on a very cold swim across the English Channel with some jellyfish, but no sharks, because the water's too cold for sharks. Kurt Dickson's chilly 21-mile channel swim took a bit over 10 hours.
Evidence of Climate Change in Alaskan Fish
Guest: Mark Belk, PhD, Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University
If you’re looking for evidence of climate change, head to Alaska, says BYU biology professor Mark Belk. He’s spent the last five summers on Alaska’s Admiralty Island, where there are more grizzly bears than humans. He takes BYU student scientists up to troll the waters of the Gulf of Alaska and the fish they reel in are telling a story about the changing environment.
Your State’s Road Safety Ranking
Guest: Cathy Chase, President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
American roads had been getting safer over the last decade. Traffic fatalities were steadily declining, thanks to more seat belt use and safety technology like air bags coming standard in cars. But then, in 2015 and 2016, US Department of Transportation data showed traffic fatalities on the rise again. What's behind the increase? What can states do to make their roads more safe?
Disney and Media Consolidation
Guest: Margot Susca, PhD, Professorial Lecturer, School of Communication, American University
You’ve probably heard that Disney is planning to buy 21st Century Fox, which means even more of what we see on TV and at the Cineplex will have Mickey’s fingerprints on it. Consolidation has been the name of the game in media for decades now and American University communications professor Margot Susca finds it worrisome.
Worlds Awaiting: Forthcoming Books in 2018 and Read-Aloud Events
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
Find out what books Rachel is looking forward to this year. Also, the importance of reading aloud to children.
Government-Shutdown Drama
Guest: James Curry, PhD, Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Utah, and Co-Director of the Utah Chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network
The government shutdown began at midnight on Friday, when the US Senate failed to pass a spending bill before a government-funding deadline. As we speak late Monday afternoon, the shutdown continues, but will probably end soon: Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have agreed fund the government through February 8 while they continue negotiating on immigration and other sticking points. The US House and President Trump will need to approve the plan for the shutdown to actually end, but that’s considered likely to happen soon.
Saving the World’s Waters
Guest: Ben Abbott, PhD, Assistant Professor, Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University
To the US Geological Survey’s satellites snapping photos of Earth from 400 miles up, the US looks very green. But not all of that green is good. Lakes and ponds in every single state frequently turn lime green with toxic algae growing out of control. The EPA says algal blooms are a major environmental problem: they kill fish, poison humans who swim in it and threaten drinking water. Preventing them is not easy, though, because the primary cause of algal blooms is agriculture – which feeds us. BYU ecosystem ecologist Ben Abbott offers a way to anticipate where algal blooms will become a problem.
The End of Cavities?
Peter Rechmann, DMD, PhD, Professor of Preventative and Restorative Dental Science, University of California, San Francisco
“You’ve got a cavity.” Dreaded words from the dentist because that means that means needles, drills, and, for many of us, anxiety. But Dr. Peter Rechmann would like to end the days of “drill and fill” at the dentist’s office. What does he propose, instead? Lasers. And not just to fix cavities, but also to prevent them in the first place.
Cutting Off Pakistan
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Asia Program Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center
Over the weekend, gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul, killing more than eighteen people. Afghanistan’s government says the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani terror network is responsible for the attack. And that puts further stress on the relationship between the US and Pakistan, which President Trump blames for harboring the Haqqani terror network and not doing enough to fight terrorism in neighboring Afghanistan. In an attempt to force Pakistan to take that fight more seriously, the US recently suspended nearly all of its aid to Pakistan’s military. What are the odds that cutting off aid will work?
Parent Previews: Paddington 2 & Forever My Girl
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
Lovable, marmalade-eating Paddington Bear’s latest film has yet to receive a single negative review on the movie site Rotten Tomatoes. That’s a rare feat for a film. And then you consider this is a CGI movie about a talking bear and it’s a sequel, too. But Parent Previews.com is right there with all the other positive reviewers – they gave it a solid A grade.
Forever My Girl is a predictable but pleasing romance.
A Test for Preeclampsia
Guests: Steven Graves, PhD, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Director of BYU Technology Transfer Office
Every year around the world, an estimated 75,000 mothers and half-a-million babies die from a disease about which we understand very little. It’s a pregnancy complication called preeclampsia and the majority of deaths are avoidable if it’s caught and treated early. BYU biochemistry professor Steven Graves has found a way to test for the risk of preeclampsia in pregnant women months before it emerges.
Does Privacy Still Exist? What You Need to Know
Guests: Leslie Francis, PhD, JD, professor of law and philosophy, University of Utah; John Francis, PhD, professor of political science, University of Utah; coauthors of "Privacy: What Everyone Needs to Know"
Isn’t interesting how the urge to protect our privacy is with us so strongly at an early age? We hide our childhood diaries from prying eyes and post “Do Not Enter” signs on our bedroom doors. But do we ever really have privacy in this day when our credit card company and favorite stores hold more information about us than even our closest friends know and every move we make online is being tracked, quantified and sold?
The premise of the new book, “Privacy: What Everyone Needs to Know” is that privacy still matters – and still exists – if you’re savvy about it.
Related event: The University of Utah College of Law is hosting a free privacy lecture on Feb. 15. Information on attending or watching the livestream, here.
For Global Refugees, the Crisis Continues
Guests: James Bluemel, award-winning director of "Exodus: Our Journey to Europe" and "Exodus: The Journey Continues" on PBS Frontline; Hassan Akkad, Syrian refugee featured in "Exodus: Our Journey to Europe," researcher on "Exodus: The Journey Continues"
The Frontline documentary “Exodus: Our Journey to Europe" included cell phone video taken by refugees to give us an intimate look at their efforts to reach safety. The film (watch online here) won a Peabody award, a BAFTA (the British equivalent of an Emmy) and an International Emmy Award. Now director James Bluemel is back with a sequel that follows-up with some of the refugees we met in the first film and introduces us to others.
"Exodus: The Journey Continues," premieres Tuesday, January 23rd on on PBS Frontline.
Inside the Debate about Funding Medical Marijuana
Guest: Misty D. Smith, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Utah; Emilie Campbell, advocate for medical marijuana and mother of a child with severe epilepsy
Veterans groups have been pushing for medical marijuana to be studied as an alternative to opioids and anti-depressants for treating PTSD and chronic pain. The US Department of Veterans Affairs announced this week it will not conduct that research, partly because the federal government still considers marijuana an illegal and highly dangerous drug in the same category as heroin. But across the country, research on marijuana’s medicinal properties is being done with government approval. It does requires jumping through a lot of extra hoops, and some members of Congress are trying to make it easier.
We talk to a researcher who works with medical marijuana and a mother of a child who has benefited from its use.
I Wish My Teacher Knew
Guest: Kyle Schwartz, Elementary-School Teacher and Author of “I Wish My Teacher Knew”
Colorado elementary school teacher Kyle Schwartz started a viral phenomenon a couple years ago when she asked her third-grade students to finish this short sentence: I wish my teacher knew… and posted their answers online. Here are some of them: “I wish my teacher knew I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework.” “I wish my teacher knew that my mom got divorced three times.” The exercise changed the way Kyle Schwarz teaches and prompted her to write a book called “I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids.”
Almonds May Help Boost Cholesterol Clean-up
Guest: Claire Berryman, Postdoctoral Fellow, U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine
You’ve probably had your cholesterol tested in the last year or so got the report about good and bad cholesterol in your blood? Some new nutritional research finds that eating almonds as a snack can help boost good cholesterol levels and get rid of the bad. A two-for-one!
How Self-Control Works
Guest: Marco Palma, PhD, Associate Professor, Agricultural Economics, and Director, Human Behavior Laboratory, Texas A&M University
More than half-way through January . . . how’s the New Year’s diet or exercise plan going? The temptation is to be ambitious in turning a new leaf – “I’ll work out every day for an hour” or “I’ll cut out all sugar and processed foods.” But that may be exactly the wrong approach for building the kind of self-control that can make you successful at your resolution in the long-run.
A Dictionary Where All the Definitions are Limericks
Guest: Chris. J. Strolin, Creator of the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick form, www.oedilf.com
There are people who love to read the dictionary. But for most of us, the dictionary would be a lot more interesting reading if all the word definitions were in the form of limericks. And this dictionary – we recently learned – actually exists. It's called "The Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form." It's a website - a little tongue-in-cheek, to be sure. But it's got nearly 100,000 limerick definitions of words.
Hilary Hahn on Practice, Nerves and Connection with Fans
Guest: Hilary Hahn, Grammy-Winning Violinist, album “Retrospective” out Jan. 19
World-famous, Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn caused a stir last year when she hopped on Instagram and told her 70,000 followers: “Hi everyone, it’s Hilary, I’m speaking quietly because I’m in a public space. I’ve decided to put a short video of my practicing every day.” #100daysofpractice was her take on a global effort to do something creative daily for 100 days. As promised, Hahn posted short videos daily practicing in closets and offices and dressing rooms and sometimes outdoors. To see a violin virtuoso doing scales and drilling small parts of music and even getting frustrated sometimes was a revelation to her fans.
Native American Voting Rights
Guest: Michalyn Steele, JD, Professor, Reuben J. Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
Across the country, there’s been a wave of legal challenges to state voter laws and district boundaries brought by Native American tribes. Alaska, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming have all had - or currently have - court challenges related to Native American voting rights. What’s driving these challenges?
Russia and Threats to American Democracy
Guest: Lucan Way, PhD, Professor, Political Science, University of Toronto
President Trump’s most ardent critics talk about American democracy being in decline and use words like “autocracy” and “authoritarian.” Are they being overly dramatic? Probably. But University of Toronto political scientist Lucan Way says democracy isn’t as clear cut as you might think: there are shades of gray, and the 2016 presidential election showed a lot of gray.
Special Collections: Toilet Seat Art Museum
Guests: Barney Smith, Owner, Artist, Toilet Seat Art Museum; Mark Burns, Host, Special Collections, BYUradio
Most artists work on paper, wood, or canvas, but 96-year old Barney Smith has been making art for 50 years using quite a different medium, toilet seat covers. He was inspired by the hunting mounts that his family used for trophies when he was a child. They’re shaped like shields and he thought they’d make a great canvas. Now he has an entire garage filled with toilet-seat-cover art. Approaching 100 years old, he’s decided to sell his collection, but he took time out to talk with our colleague Mark Burns.
Check out these toilet seats here.
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
News Media Literacy and Conspiracy
Guest: Stephanie Craft, PhD, Professor of Journalism, University of Illinois
Today President Trump had said he’d hold his “Fake News Awards” to single out “the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media.” It’s unclear if that event will actually happen, but Trump has made no secret of his dislike for outlets ranging from CNN to the New York Times. What Trump calls “fake news” are generally well-sourced and responsibly reported stories that he simply disagrees with. If the story is too critical of him, it’s “fake news.” But that’s confusing, because there’s a form of “fake news” that really is fake - conspiracy theories and made-up stories - and we know there’s a problem with that kind of thing duping Americans. President Trump has actually promoted some of those conspiracy theories – like the one about Barack Obama not being born in America.
With the President muddying the waters about the nature of truth, how can we expect casual consumers of the news to tell the difference between fact and fiction online?
M.C. Escher: Finding Balance in Chaos
Guest: Kenneth Hartvigsen, Curator, Museum of Art, Brigham Young University
If the name M.C. Escher doesn’t bring an image immediately to mind, think of a mind-bending black and white sketch you may have seen on a poster or a T-shirt or a mug. There’s a famous one with staircases that appear to be going up and down and even upside down all at the same time. Or there’s the image of two hands with pens that appear to be sketching themselves off the paper and into three-dimensional reality. And there’s a whole series of famous Escher prints that start as one geometrical design and morph across the page into something completely different.
They’re the kind of eye-teasing images that, once they’ve drawn you in, you don’t want to look away.
See some of Escher’s work here.
NSA Surveillance and Trump’s Fitness for Office
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law and Law of Armed Conflict, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
Congress is expected to pass a measure this week extending a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program for another six years. It allows the government to collect a large amount of phone and email communications between Americans and foreigners without getting a warrant. An unusual coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats in the House tried to get additional restrictions written into the measure, but failed. Also, a reaction to President Trump's bill of health.
How Well Will You Keep your New-Year's Resolutions?
Guest: Gretchen Rubin, Author, “The Four Tendencies”
This is the time of year a lot of people set goals for developing new habits, and the practice makes life better for a lot of people. But then there are some people who just don’t bother anymore because, what’s the point of articulating a New Year’s resolution they know they won’t stick to for longer than a week? For some people, personal goal setting works and for others it doesn’t. Some people thrive in structure, others wither. A new book suggests the secret to making sense of this lies within a simple question.
The Blue Blood Supermoon
Guest: Noah Petro, PhD, Research Space Scientist, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA
In a couple weeks, the Western US will witness a rare celestial event, a blue blood supermoon. If that sounds like a royal spectacle, it is something of a treat: three lunar events in one. To see it, you’ll have to set your alarm and get up a little early on January 31st.
Simple is the New Black
Guest: Courtney Carver, Author, “Soulful Simplicity: How Living with Less Can Lead to So Much More”
If you had to pare your winter wardrobe down to 33 items, including shoes and accessories, could you do it? Would having so few clothes make you feel deprived? Just the opposite, says author Courtney Carver. Paring down your closet gives you more freedom and allows you to focus on what really matters. She calls reducing your wardrobe “Project 333” in her new book “Soulful Simplicity.”
Is Video-Game Addiction a Disease?
Guest: Douglas Gentile, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Iowa State University
The World Health Organization is considering adding obsessive video-game playing to its official list of disorders. Does that mean your teenager who loves video games is sick? Not all psychological development experts agree on this, but one psychologist has published several of the seminal studies that suggest gaming addiction is a disorder worth classifying.
"Rich-Country" Diseases Hit the Developing World
Guest: Reshma Naik, DrPH, Senior Policy Analyst, Population Reference Bureau
Diabetes, stroke and heart disease are sometimes considered “rich country” diseases, a major problem mainly in countries like the US. Whereas, poorer countries struggle more with contagious disease like malaria or HIV/AIDs. And yet, global health researcher Reshma Naik says non-communicable diseases are actually a serious problem in poor and middle income countries.
What’s a Makerspace?
Guests: Nathan Robison, Programming Librarian, Orem Public Library; Matt Kammerer, Media Associate, Orem Public Library
In libraries and schools and warehouses around the country, spaces are popping up where people can come and use 3-D printers, high-end computer software and lots of gadgets to make stuff. Back when I was in high school, we had a sewing lab and a wood shop that attracted students with an itch to create. Today’s “makerspaces,” as they’re called, are similar, but usually more high-tech. A little later this hour, we’ll meet the man who coined the term “makerspace” and started Make Magazine more than a decade ago.
How the Maker Movement Was Born
Guest: Dale Dougherty, Founder, CEO, Make Magazine and Maker Faire, Author, “Free to Make: How the Maker Movement is Changing Our Schools, Our Jobs and Our Minds”
Makerspaces like the one we just visited at the Orem Public Library are in libraries and schools around the country today. A decade ago, that was not so. But, tech journalist Dale Dougherty saw it coming and was the first to call it “making.” He started Make Magazine: the latest issue has instructions on how to build a retro arcade game or hack apart a piano to build a new instrument.
Check out the Magazine here.
What’s the Point of a Maker Faire?
Guest: Jenn Blum, Co-founder, Salt Lake City Maker Faire
As Dale Dougherty mentioned, there were 225 maker faires in 48 countries last year. One of them was in Salt Lake City and Jenn Blum co-founded it.
Maker Faires across the country are accepting applications right now. Click here to get your make on.
If you are in Salt Lake City area, click here.
The Royal Navy Squadron that Ended the African Slave Trade
Guest: John Broich, PhD, Associate Professor of British Empire History, Case Western Reserve University, Author, “Squadron: Ending the African Slave Trade”
Many years after the U.S. and England banned the transport of enslaved people across the Atlantic, and America tore itself to pieces in civil war to end slavery, an active slave trade was still going on in the Indian Ocean on the other side of Africa. But that was so far away it was essentially “out of sight, out of mind” for Americans and many British, too. Those who did know of it couldn’t agree on what to do about it. Some hoped it would peter out naturally. Others, including a Royal Navy commodore named Leopold Heath, believed England had a duty to use all of its military might to end the trade of kidnapped Africans as slaves. So, he assembled a squadron of ship captains and they took it upon themselves.
How Will Americans Judge the Tax Reform?
Guest: Stephanie Leiser, Lecturer, Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Republicans in Congress exhaled a huge sigh of relief when the packaged tax bill passed at the end of the year – now they’d have something to show voters when they hit the campaign trail for re-election this fall. But tax cuts could be a double-edged sword for them – the biggest beneficiaries of the tax cuts will be corporations and the very wealthy. Also, polls taken just before the final bill passed found most Americans didn’t like it. So, is it a benefit or a liability to Republicans seeking re-election this year?
How Amazon Innovates
Guest: Jeff Dyer, PhD, Professor of Strategy, Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University
When Jeff Bezos gave his company the confident name of “Amazon” over 20 years ago, he obviously intended to be more than just an online bookseller. And he was right. Amazon can now deliver just about anything you need to your home or to your screen. It has the Kindle device and the new smart assistant, Alexa. How does Amazon come up with so many successful new ideas?
Voices from the Bayou
Guests: Clarence Nero, Professor of Creative Writing, Baton Rouge Community College; DeLisa Brown, Recent Graduate, Baton Rouge Community College
The summer of 2016 was traumatic for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was there that Alton Sterling, a black man, was fatally shot by a couple of white police officers in a convenience store parking lot. Video of the shooting sparked angry protest locally, and around the country. A few weeks later, a black man shot and killed three police officers and wounded three others at a Baton Rouge shopping mall. And shortly after that, historic flooding inundated the city. The intensity and trauma of that summer for Baton Rouge is at the center of a collection of essays written by students at Baton Rouge Community College. The title of their book is “Voices from the Bayou.”
Jerusalem the Movie (Originally aired: Dec. 1, 2015)
Guests: Daniel Ferguson, Writer and Director of “Jerusalem”; Jodi Magness, PhD, Archeologist, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
There is ongoing international anger toward the Trump Administration for its plan to endorse Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. Jerusalem has long been disputed territory, with Jews, Christians and Muslims all laying claim to it as holy land. For that very reason, the initial United Nation’s plan to create Israel and Palestine designated Jerusalem as a neutral “international zone.” National Geographic’s IMAX movie “Jerusalem” gives background to understand these competing religious claims.
How Self-Reflection Can Make You a Better Leader (Originally aired: March 8, 2017)
Guest: Harry Kraemer, Clinical Professor of Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Things move so fast in the modern business world that leaders often have to move quickly and juggle a lot of things at once. Parents can relate to that pressure, too. So this advice will apply to pretty much anyone under the gun to get a lot done at home or at work. Harry Kraemer’s first principle of successful leadership is self-reflection. He says leaders should spend 15 minutes a day quietly reflecting.
Young Athletes in Danger (Originally Aired: Sept. 12, 2017)
Guest: Neeru Jayanthi, MD, Sports Medicine Physician, Emory University
Tiger Woods started golfing at the age of three. Serena Williams picked up her first tennis racket at the age of four and went pro at 14. Swimmer Missy Franklin had won four Olympic gold medals by the age of 17. The message is clear – great athletes start young. But Tiger, Serena and Missy have also all experienced serious injuries related to their sport. Some physicians say the risk seems to be increasing as more and more kids specialize in one sport from an early age.
Trump Administration Takes Aim at Marijuana in States Where It's Legal
Guest: Daniel McConkie, JD, Assistant Professor of Law, Northern Illinois University
Voters in eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use – most recently California, where the law took effect just last week. More than a dozen other states allow marijuana use for medical purposes in a fairly broad fashion.
The problem is that federal law still says it’s illegal to grow, sell or use marijuana. And last week, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave federal prosecutors a green light to go after marijuana businesses in states that have legalized its use. This is a shift from the Obama Administration, which had federal prosecutors generally defer to state marijuana laws.
Teens Who Help Strangers Have Higher Self-Esteem
Guest: Laura Padilla-Walker, PhD, Professor, Family Life, Brigham Young University
Here’s an ironic research finding – having higher self-esteem and being more selfless appear to be linked in teenagers. So for a young person to feel better about him or herself, they should do something for someone else.
what3words: Your Unique Global Address
Guest: Chris Sheldrick, Co-Founder, CEO, what3words
GPS navigation has changed the way we find our destinations. Who even gives directions anymore? But what if you’re trying to find a house in a brand-new neighborhood that Google hasn’t mapped yet? Or what about those times when you’re in a huge crowd, trying to tell your friend where to find you? “I’m left of the speakers, about two-thirds back from the stage. I’m wearing a red shirt.” Or what if – and this is a lot more serious – what if, like billions of people in the developing world, you have no address. How do emergency services or deliveries find you? Without a precise address, you’re in some ways . . . invisible.
Chris Sheldrick wants to give an address – a specific label - to every single location on Earth.
A Story from the Late Thomas S. Monson
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
A story by the late Mormon prophet, Thomas S. Monson.
Pioneering 18th Century British Women
Guest: Jane Hinckley, Professor of Comparative Arts and Letters, Brigham Young University
In the century that witnessed the American and French Revolutions, social revolutions also rocked England and led to dramatic changes for women. In the 1700s, women could more freely write, publish and participate in the public sphere than they ever could before. The women like Mary Wollestencraft and Frances Burney who seized these opportunities laid a foundation for their literary daughters—Jane Austen, the Brontes, Mary Shelley—whose fame would overshadow that of the women who came before them.
Personality Profiling for Burglars
Guest: Bryanna Fox, Former FBI Agent, Assistant Professor, Criminology, University of South Florida
Every week, the agents on the popular TV show "Criminal Minds" on CBS develop profiles to try and help them catch a serial killer. The same concept works for catching serial burglars, too. Former FBI agent and criminology professor Bryanna Fox has identified four personality profiles of burglars. And once she trains police to recognize them, their arrest rate improves--a lot.
Asylum, Immigration and Detention in the Trump Era
Guests: Kif Augustine-Adams, JD, Law Professor, Brigham Young University; Luisa Fernanda Patoni-Rees, Law Student, Brigham Young University
Despite the Trump Administration’s reputation, there was an uptick last year in the number of people showing up at the US border and requesting asylum – families in particular. Currently the US houses women and children seeking asylum in a couple of detention facilities in Texas. For the last couple of years, BYU law professors have taken students to volunteer their legal services at a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.
Attraction Can’t Be Predicted
Guest: Paul Eastwick, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of California, Davis
Sophisticated computer programs and “big data” make it possible to predict what shows we’ll enjoy on Netflix, what products we’ll buy on Amazon and even what candidate we’ll vote for in elections. But there’s one aspect of human preference that may just be impossible for computers to predict – mutual attraction between romantic partners. Now, dating websites are built on the idea they can match people. But new research suggests otherwise.
Gel Seals Eye Wounds
Guest: John Whalen, PhD, Research Professor of Ophthalmology, Roski Eye Institute, University of Southern California
Of the soldiers wounded in combat in the Middle East, 13 percent had wounds to their eyes. Likewise, 13 percent of injured victims of the Boston Marathon bombing had eye wounds. In situations of mass trauma, medics and first responders have to treat life threatening wounds first, delaying attention to injuries to the eyes. But researchers at University of Southern California are developing an intervention—it’s a type of gel--that can be easily administered directly into the damaged eyeball, at the scene, essentially buying the patient time until they can receive the necessary surgery.
2ft Prosthetics
Guest: Koloa Wolfgramm, President, 2ft Prosthetics, Brigham Young University
When he was four years old, Koloa Wolfgramm was diagnosed with a cancer that would ultimately require doctors to remove most of his leg and fit him with a prosthesis. But that didn’t stop him from becoming the captain of his high school basketball team and a Paralympic bobsledder. But, his own achievements aside, Koloa Wolfgramm also works with a BYU organization called 2ft Prosthetics to bring affordable prosthetics to amputees around the world.
Barbie vs. Wonder Woman
Guest: Sara Austin, Graduate Student, English, University of Connecticut
A generation ago, girls had Barbies and boys had action figures like GI Joe. In the last few years, Mattel, which makes Barbie, has come out with new toys for girls that are part action figure, part fashion doll based on characters from the popular series Monster High, Ever After High and DC Superhero Girls. These dolls have superpowers and back stories that make them a different kind of doll than Barbie ever was. And that’s empowering for the girls who play with them.
Worlds Awaiting: 2017 Year in Review
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
Predictions for World Affairs in 2018
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Professor Quinn Mecham made several predictions at the beginning of 2017. They included more terror attacks by ISIS in places beyond Iraq and Syria, civil conflict to flare up in Turkey, Libya, Yemen, S. Sudan, Congo and Palestine and some sort of major crisis in global security – potentially involving Russia or North Korea. We review those predictions and look at his predictions for 2018.
Nike Vaporfly 4% Running Shoe and the Sub-Two-Hour Marathon
Guest: Wouter Hoogkamer, PhD, Research Associate of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder
The fastest marathon that’s ever been run took 2 hours, two minutes and 57 seconds. Kenyan Dennis Kimetto set that record at the Berlin marathon in 2014. Getting to a time of less than two hours has bedeviled the running world. Nike has developed a running shoe it believes could help the right runner break the two-hour barrier. Before the Vaporfly 4% show went on the market last summer, Nike funded a study of it at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Secrets to a Successful Sequel
Guest: Subimal Chatterjee, PhD, Professor of Marketing, Binghamton University, SUNY
Every single one of the top ten highest grossing movies in America last year was a sequel, a prequel or a remake. Topping the list? Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, is an important factor in the film’s popularity, especially compared to the Star Wars prequels fans and critics love to hate.
Blazing Black Holes Put on a Show
Guest: J. Ward Moody, PhD, Professor of Astronomy, Brigham Young University
Black holes are one of the great mysteries in astronomy because they absorb the light around them, so scientists can’t see them. But younger black holes swallow stars in a messier fashion, which leads to a lot of light in a disk spinning around the black hole and, sometimes, shooting straight out of the center. One particularly rare version of this is called a “blazar” and in late 2016 one flared up in a really big way. An international team of astronomers, including BYU professor J. Ward Moody, caught it in their telescopes and have just published a paper attempting to explain what happened.
The Post and Jumanji
Guest: Rod and Donna Gustafson, Parent Previews
Inspired by a true story, a female newspaper publisher and her editor go head-to-head against the US Government when officials try to suppress unfavorable stories and attempt to undermine the integrity of the press, in "The Post."
Also, in a sequel to the 1995 movie Jumanji, a group of teenagers get sucked into a video game version of the magical board game. This time the players control the characters like they are aviators. And the only way back to reality is to beat the game.
Fake Social Media is Bad for Your Health
Guest: Jon-Patrick Allem, PhD, Research Scientist of Preventative Medicine, Keck School of Medicine at USC
It’s become fairly clear that fake social media accounts and posts by so-called “social bots” had at least some role in amplifying certain political views during the 2016 presidential election. So what else in our lives might social bots be affecting? The way we spend our money? Interact with our friends? Researchers at the University of Southern California are looking at the impact of these fake social media voices on our health. They’ve identified social bots that promote e-cigarettes as a safe way to quit smoking.
America's Obsession with the British Class System
Guests: Jamie Horrocks, PhD, Assistant Professor, English, Brigham Young University; Nick Mason, PhD, Professor, English, Brigham Young University; Matt Mason, PhD, Associate Professor, History, Brigham Young University
America is fascinated with British society. Not just the royals (though we’re plenty excited about them, with American actress Meghan Markle marrying into House of Windsor). What we’re mostly looking to understand this hour is why so many movies and shows centered on Britain’s class system are popular right now: Victoria, The Crown, Poldark, Downton Abbey.
The costumes are spectacular. The sets are lush. The romance titillating. But the real drama in these shows is almost always rooted in class. The landed gentry and the commoners. The lords and ladies upstairs and the servants down. The forbidden love of an aristocrat and a peasant. The American businessman or heiress considered far too vulgar to get a warm welcome in British high society, but their money sure gets a warm welcome.
We’ve assembled a panel of cultural and historical experts to explore why these themes so fascinate us.
What Austen, Trollope and The Simpsons Can Teach Us About Finance
Guest: Mihir Desai, PhD, Professor, Harvard Business School; Professor, Harvard Law School, Author, “The Wisdom of Finance: Discovering Humanity in the World of Risk and Return”
You don't have to have seen the 1987 film Wall Street to know the famous quote from the show’s villainous corporate raider, Gordon Gecko: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.”
With Hollywood depictions like that, is it any wonder people think the financial world is morally bankrupt? Harvard Business School finance professor Mihir Desai says even people who work in the field struggle with that perception. But Desai says that’s getting the industry all wrong. His new book, “The Wisdom of Finance” uses examples from history, humanities and Hollywood to show how the underlying principles of finance are not immoral, at all. In fact, they make the world a better place.
Click here for more information about the Wisdom of Finance video contest for high school students running now.
Puerto Rico Recovery Hopes Dim in New Year
Guest: Charles Venator-Santiago, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and El Instituto, University of Connecticut
More than three months since Hurricane Maria hit the island and a third of Puerto Ricans are still without electricity. Many thousands have left for the mainland. And a clause in the Republican tax reform package could make economic recovery for Puerto Rico even more difficult. Charles Venator-Santiago is a native of Puerto Rico and a professor of political science and Latin American studies at the University of Connecticut where he’s leading several initiatives to support Puerto Ricans on the island and here on the mainland.
Is the ‘Man Flu’ Real?
Guest: Kyle Sue, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor in Family Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland
When men get sick, women often give them a hard time for whining. When women get a cold, we still go to work, run errands, take care of the kids, whatever needs to get done that day. When a man gets sick, he’s knocked down hard and tends to stay in bed until it’s all over. “Man flu,” it’s called. But one doctor says, there’s at least some evidence to suggest the man flu is real – that men suffer more, or at least differently, when they get a cold or the flu.
#MeToo: The Role of Social Media in Social Change
Guest: Andrea Press, PhD, Professor of Media Studies and Sociology, University of Virginia
The Hollywood awards season begins Sunday with the Golden Globes and the typical “what are you wearing?” conversations on the red carpet are going to go differently: Three hundred prominent women in the entertainment industry this week announced an initiative they're calling "Times Up." They're raising a legal fund to help victims of sexual assault and harassment. They're calling for legislation to punish companies that tolerate harassment. And they're asking women walking the red carpet to speak out and raise awareness by wearing black.
Celebrities have played a very prominent role in the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment. Would we even be having this moment at all, if it hadn’t been beautiful actresses who got the ball rolling with their public accusations of Harvey Weinstein? And should we be troubled by that?
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
‘Grief Policing’ After Celebrity Deaths
Guest: Katie Gach, PhD Student and Social Computing Researcher, ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado Boulder
In 2017, Americans mourned the deaths of celebrities including, Mary Tyler Moore, Tom Petty, Jerry Lewis, Roger Moore, Chris Cornell and Chuck Berry. And since it was 2017, a lot of that mourning was done online—on Facebook, Twitter, in the comments of news articles. If you’ve ever posted a comment on a public website, you know that backlash to what you say can come swiftly and from anyone, anywhere. Researchers at the University of Colorado have looked into a very particular kind of backlash after celebrity deaths known as “grief policing.” Their findings say a lot about how the internet is changing grief.
Mormon Women for Ethical Government
Guest: Sharlee Mullins Glenn, Founder, Mormon Women for Ethical Government; Maren Mecham, Director of Communications, Mormon Women for Ethical Government
Looking back over 2017, the year began with the Women’s March on Washington, DC, the day after President Trump’s inauguration. It ended with #MeToo: scores of women speaking out about sexist treatment, harassment and abuse they’ve experienced. In between, there’s been an explosion of women around the country running for office or getting involved in other ways, politically. The president of Emily’s List, the largest national organization devoted to electing female candidates, told the New York Times recently that her group has “never seen anything like (the level of interest and engagement they’ve seen) in the last 12 months.”
Mormon Women for Ethical Government is one manifestation of that. It’s a nonpartisan grassroots group, started initially on Facebook that has grown now to more than 5,000 members.
Significance of Political Protests in Iran
Guest: John Allen Gay, Executive Director, John Quincy Adams Society, Co-author, “War with Iran: Political, Military and Economic Consequences”
For six straight days, Iranians have rallied in the streets. At least 20 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces. More than 400 have been arrested. President Trump has praised the protests on Twitter.
50 Years of International Cinema
Guests: Christopher Oscarson, PhD, Associate Professor, Comparative Arts and Literature, Brigham Young University, Co-Director of BYU International Cinema; Daryl Lee, PhD, Associate Professor, French and Italian, Brigham Young University, Co-Director of BYU International Cinema
In just a couple weeks the 2018 Oscar nominees will be announced, including nominations for best foreign language film. The coveted Oscar nomination gives a foreign film a big boost with American audiences. But, here at BYU, students are spoiled with a treasure trove of foreign films brought to them for the last 50 years by BYU International Cinema.
Long-serving GOP Senator Hatch to Retire
Guest: David Magleby, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Utah’s long-serving Republican Senator Orrin Hatch announced Tuesday that he will not run for another term. He’s 83 years old. He’s been in the Senate for 40 years. David Magleby analyzes Hatch's legacy and what his departure means for Utah and for the US Senate.
The Great American Citizenship Quiz (Originally aired Sep. 19. 2017)
Guest: Solomon Skolnick, Author, "The Great American Citizenship Quiz"
In the past decade more than 6 million people have become naturalized citizens in the United States of America. To do so, they’ve passed a citizenship quiz. Could you pass it?
Understanding Autism (Originally aired Oct. 3, 2017)
Guest: Tony Attwood, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia, Consultant, "Amazing Things Happen"
Even though the number of diagnosed cases of autism is growing, it is still widely misunderstood, especially by children unsure how to react to a classmate who behaves in ways they find mysterious. A few months ago, we talked about a whimsical, four-minute animation online that has gained international acclaim for its accessible approach to explaining autism.
On A Mission to Reach Young Muslims (Originally aired Oct. 10, 2017)
Guest: Mohammed Amin, Chairman, Conservative Muslim Forum
Mohammed Amin has been named one of the hundred most influential Muslims in the UK. Since the 9-11 terror attacks, he’s made it his mission to explain his faith to others. But he’s especially interested in speaking to young Muslims – helping them see the possibilities for their lives. And he does it by telling them the story of his own life. The son of poor immigrants from Pakistan, Amin grew up in the slums of Manchester to become a partner at the prestigious accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
View his website here.
Is Train Travel in America Safe?
Guest: Richard Beall, Railroad Operations and Safety Consultant
The Amtrak derailment near Olympia, Washington on Monday killed three passengers and injured dozens of others. The train jumped the tracks when it hit a curve going 80 miles per hour where the speed limit was 30 mph. Investigators are still trying to find out why.
And there’s the larger question of why do these kinds of accidents continue to happen? A similar derailment in Philadelphia in 2015 killed eight passengers and hospitalized 185 more. A handful of other collisions and derailments around the country have caused injury and death.
Europe’s Bad Jobs Are Better
Guest: Chris Tilly, PhD, Professor, Urban Planning, UCLA
As you do your last minute holiday shopping, spare a smile for that worker behind the counter. Retail is tough way to make a living in America. The pay is low, benefits are rare and hours erratic. In a lot of other countries, working retail is a better gig. UCLA urban planning professor Chris Tilly has a book about this called “Where Bad Jobs Are Better: Retail Jobs Across Countries and Companies.”
Christmas Carols Played on a Factory Whistle in York, PA
Guest: Don Ryan, Factory Whistle Master
While putting together a special show we aired last Friday about interesting community traditions, we stumbled on one that really tickled us and we wanted to spend a little more time with it.
Listen to Don Ryan’s Christmas Whistle Concert in York, PA at 12:15 a.m. ET on Dec. 25 live on Facebook here.
The Sultan and the Saint (Originally aired Oct. 16, 2017)
Guest: Alex Kronemer, Co-founder, Unity Productions Foundation
The images of Islam in the press are so often connected with terrorism and violence. That perception is very much on the mind of the creators of a new film called “The Sultan and the Saint” that will be airing on PBS on December 26. It is about an encounter between Saint Francis of Assisi and the Sultan of Egypt during the Crusades, when the Christian army was intent on destroying non-Christians. Their story is a lesson for us today.
Learn more about the film here.
Cassini’s Space Mission (Originally aired Sep. 21, 2017)
Guest: Linda Spilker, PhD, Cassini Project Scientist, Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA
After 20 years of watching its every move, Linda Spilker looked on as the project that lasted half her career carried out a carefully-orchestrated suicide mission. Linda Spilker is the head scientist on the Cassini project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Cassini is the probe that sent back astounding pictures of Saturn and its moons until it completed its mission in spectacular fashion this last September.
Star Wars: A New Generation of Fans (Originally aired July 19, 2017)
Guest: Brandon Bishop, Social Studies Teacher, Blue Valley Southwest High School, Overland Park, Kansas
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away summer school was a terrible punishment for kids. But then, Mr. B. taught a class on the history and importance of Star Wars and summer school history was made. Young boys and girls dressed like Jedi and wielded light sabers. Mr. B – known in civilian life as Brandon Bishop – wasn’t yet born when the original Star Wars film came out 40 years ago. The younglings in his summer school class wouldn’t arrive on the planet for many decades. In this day of advanced movie making and special effects, why do films that debuted in the 1970s still excite young fans?
Why “Concealed Carry Reciprocity” is a Bigger Deal than It Sounds
Guest: Adam Winkler, JD, Professor of Constitutional Law, UCLA School of Law, and Author, “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America” and “We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights”
In early December, two months after the deadliest shooting in US history and just a week before the five-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to boost enhancing background checks for gun purchases. But the bill also includes a provision requiring states to recognize concealed carry permits issued by other states.
Five Years to Live Guest: Melanie Day, Blogger
Melanie Day was diagnosed with late stage cancer and given about five years to live back in 2015. Determined to make the most of the time she had left, she started the blog "Five Years to Live."
Follow Melanie Day's journey here.
Do Different Generations Balance Family and Work Differently?
Guest: Misty Bennett, PhD, Assistant Professor of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior, Central Michigan University
Which comes first: work or family? Common stereotypes would say “Millennials” place a higher priority on personal and family activities while their hard-working “Baby Boomer” parents or grandparents tend to see company loyalty as very important. But, a team at Central Michigan University finds Millennials are a lot more willing than you might think to put work at their center of their lives.
Christmas Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
The Origins of Santa Claus: A Rediscovered Biography
Guest: Pamela McColl, Publisher, Grafton & Scratch Publishers
Every superhero has an origin story. What about Santa? He circles the globe in a single night on a flying sleigh, delivering toys down the chimneys of good boys and girls. That’s pretty superheroic. What’s his backstory? Was he always jolly? Did he have a happy childhood? Nearly a century ago, a reporter named Sarah Addington decided to plug the gaps in our knowledge of Santa, with her illustrated children’s book called “The Boy Who Lived in Pudding Lane.” The boy is Santa. And spoiler-alert: Santa’s grandma is none other than Mother Goose.
The Nutcracker's Origins in American Christmas Tradition
Guest: Adam Sklute, Artistic Director, Ballet West
“The Nutcracker” ballet is an international holiday tradition. But the US version of it has its roots in Utah, with the founder of Ballet West, who staged the first full-length production of it in America back in 1944. To this day, much of Ballet West’s Nutcracker bear the marks of that original choreographer – Mr. C., as he’s known. Until this year, some of the costumes and sets dated back nearly that far, too. Which is why it was high time for the multi-million dollar makeover Ballet West gave its Nutcracker this year.
Pentagon’s UFO Program and Trump’s National Security Strategy
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Associate Professor of Law, Brigham Young University
President Trump has unveiled his national security strategy – something all Presidents are required to do. Also a front page story in the New York Times over the weekend revealed the existence of something called the “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program," which is on the lookout for aliens and UFOs.
The Bail Project
Guest: Ezra Ritchin, National Director of Operations, The Bail Project
In America, you’re innocent until proven guilty. But there are hundreds of thousands of people – not yet proven guilty - who spent last night in jails across the country. They just couldn’t afford the bail set by a judge to avoid jail time, so they must wait behind bars – often for months, if not years – for their case to be resolved. As the months drag on, a large percentage of them will plead guilty – even if they’re innocent – just so they can go home. A national effort called The Bail Project is getting underway to prevent people from being forced to plead guilty because they can’t cover a bail of $2,000 or less.
The Downside of "Clean" Food
Guest: Ruth MacDonald, PhD, Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Interim Senior Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Iowa State University
Healthy food bloggers and authors like Michael Pollan encourage us to steer clear of food that contains ingredients we can’t pronounce. Aim for "clean and simple foods" is the mantra. So, something that contains glutamic acid, histidine, methionine, phytosterols and 2-hydroxy-3-methylethl would be a definite no-go right? Except the food I’m describing is a banana. And not even a genetically modified one.
Iowa State University food science and human nutrition expert Ruth MacDonald says it’s not just short-sighted, it’s dangerous, to get too carried away with the whole “no chemicals, no preservatives” thing.
Program 60 Brings Senior Citizens Back to School
Guests: Mark Bainbridge, participant; Lauren Evans, Program 60 Coordinator, The Ohio State University
The thought has maybe occurred to you to go back to college, just to learn more about some of the topics you’re fascinated by. But the idea of doing all those assignments and taking all those tests probably has you second guessing yourself. Well, The Ohio State University has a genius solution targeted at retirees with the same inclination as you. Ohio residents over the age of 60 can attend university classes free of charge. The classes don’t count towards a degree, but the program participants also aren’t required to do any of the assignments. And it turns out to be a win for the seniors who enroll and the traditional college students taking the courses, too.
The Couch Surgeon
Guest: Sal Giangrande, Founder and Owner, New York Couch Doctor
The last time you bought a couch, was there a moment when you almost couldn’t get it through the door or around the hairpin turn in the stairwell? Did you worry about how to get it into the room where you want it? That’s how people end up needing the services of Sal Giangrande – the New York Couch Doctor. He and his team dissect and reassemble hundreds of couches and other unwieldy pieces of furniture every year for New Yorkers who find themselves in a literal pinch.
Learn more about his company here.
How Not to Die Cookbook
Guest: Michael Greger, MD, Author, “The How Not to Die Cookbook”
This is the season when our best intentions to cut down on fat and sugar go out the window. But, there might be a few sneaky ways to work healthier fare into Christmas brunch or the New Year’s party spread.
Michael Greger is a physician and author of the book “How Not to Die,” which advocates a plant-based diet. He’s now got a companion cookbook, so we thought it’d be the perfect time to ask for some tips on working a few healthy options into our holiday food.
Homeless Crisis on the West Coast
Guest: Carolyn Pruitt, Spokesperson, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
The number of people without permanent housing increased slightly last year – for the first time since the end of the recession. Now, I say “slightly” for the national number because it was about 1 percent – most of that increased happened along the West Coast. Which means cities like Seattle and Los Angeles have experienced a big surge in homelessness – and particularly among people living on the street, in tents and makeshift shelters. It’s become a crisis in many communities.
The Politics of Monuments and Native American History
Guest: Farina King, PhD, Assistant Professor, History, Northeastern State University and member of the Navajo Nation
Monuments of all sorts are a focal point for debate in America today: whether it’s Confederate War memorials, statues of conquering explorers like Columbus or natural landscapes like the Bears Ears National Monument President Trump recently scaled back significantly.
A monument is really about us saying “this is a place, a memory, a culture, a history we want to preserve.” But given the diversity of views and complexity of America’s history, is it any wonder we’re having trouble agreeing on our monuments? Let’s have a look at this from the perspective of America’s indigenous communities.
The Last Homestead
Guest: Mark Engler, National Parks Superintendent, Homestead National Monument
The westward expansion of the United States was fueled by the Homestead Act, which gave free land to intrepid settlers willing to claim and tame a plot. The act was passed in 1862. But guess when the last file was claimed under the Homestead Act? 1974—hardly ancient history, right? The Park Service’s Homestead National Monument in Nebraska has a new artifact on display in its lobby to commemorate the lesser-known modern history of homesteading in America—an old tractor that brings the history of homesteading full circle.
Top Reads from 2017
Guest: Carla Zollinger Gordon, Adult and Teen Services Manager, Provo City Library
Are you still shopping for a book-lover on your list, or looking for a book you can curl up with by the fire? We’ve got some suggestions, whether you like fiction or true stories. Or fiction based on true stories.
Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom by Condoleezza Rice
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Frontier Grit: The Unlikely True Stories of Daring Pioneer Women by Marianne Monson
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Parent Previews: Star Wars
Guest: Rod Gustafson
Portable Air Pollution Monitor
Guests: Milt Lee, PhD, Professor, Chemistry, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Director, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Winter is bad air season in a lot of places like the Wasatch Front here in Utah, where the landscape and temperature changes manage to trap pollution from cars and power plants close to the ground. BYU chemists have developed a portable device that air quality monitors could take with them to a location in the community and immediately check to see what pollutants we’re breathing at that moment, in that one spot. The device could also be helpful when there’s a chemical spill – it works with pollutants in both gas and liquid form.
Looking to History to Understand Feminism in 2017
Guests: Kif Augustine-Adams, JD, Professor, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University; Renata Forste, PhD, Professor, Sociology and Director, Kennedy Center for International Studies, Brigham Young University; Heather Belnap Jensen, Associate Professor of Art History and European Studies, Brigham Young University
Merriam-Webster has chosen "feminism" as a 2017 Word of the Year, because apparently a lot of people looked up the definition of "feminism" this year thanks to the Women's March, the #MeToo protests against sexual harassment, the “Wonder Woman” movie, the TV show “The Handmaid's Tale” and even a TV interview where political advisor Kellyanne Conway said she didn't consider herself a feminist.
We’re going to save you the trouble of looking the definition up online. We’ve assembled a panel of experts to talk about feminism.
Hometown Traditions That Make Us Love Where We Live
Guest: Melody Warnick, Author, “This is Where I Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place Where You Live”
Also featured: Natasha Szilagyi, Ralph Tobias, Don Ryan, Zach Tucker, Penny Meservier, Stephanie Driggs, Marie McCusker
What makes you nostalgic for your home town? Is there a certain holiday, or time of year, when you’ll go out of your way to be home? Holiday traditions and community celebrations make us feel connected to the place we live and we’re going to explore some fun ones from around the country this hour.
Special thanks to the media relations office at Virginia Tech for providing studio space for this interview.
Turnover in Congress and Sexual Harassment
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, Brigham Young University
It’s been quite a couple of weeks for Congress. Alabama’s upset election this week took one seat from the slim majority Republicans hold in the US Senate. That race was marred by allegations of sexual abuse against the Republican candidate Roy Moore. The week prior, sexual harassment and assault allegations led to the resignation of three sitting members of Congress: Democratic Senators Al Franken and John Conyers and Republican House member Trent Franks. We also saw several women renew the allegations of sexual misconduct against President Trump first made during the 2016 election and Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand calling for Trump’s resignation. President Trump has denied the accusations.
Expandable Children’s Clothes
Guest: Ryan Yasin, Designer, Petit Pli
Buying clothes for babies and kids is tricky. You see something adorable you'd like to buy, but kids grow so fast--you have to think ahead to what size they’ll be when the season for that cute sweater or summer dress arrives. Imagine if you could buy one jacket that would fit a 6-month old as well as a 3-year-old? The same jacket? Instead of having to buy a new one every six months?
London-based designer Ryan Yasin uses origami as the inspiration for kids clothing that expands as a child grows.
Charming, Silly Poems About Life for Kids and Kids-at-Heart
Guest: Chris Harris, Author, “I’m Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups” and Comedy Writer, TV Producer
Think of poets like Shel Silverstein and Ogden Nash and puns, wordplay and slightly subversive rhymes come to mind. That’s what you have in store with Chris Harris’ new book because it’s illustrated and, ostensibly for kids, but also immature grown-ups, as the book’s subtitle indicates.
Mark Twain Has a New Book Out
Guest: Philip Stead, Author, “The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine”
With your last-minute gift needs in mind, we’ve assembled some of our favorite author interviews that might be just what that person on your list needs. First up, Caledecott Medal winner Philip Stead has co-authored a new children’s book with Mark Twain. Yes, Twain is long-dead, but this new book is based on an unfinished fable recently discovered among his papers. It’s the story of a poor boy who eats a magic flower and can suddenly speak to animals. Mark Twain apparently told the story to his young daughters as a bedtime tale and liked it enough to jot down the outline in his journal. But he left off the ending.
An Immigrant’s Love Letter to America
Guest: Mitali Perkins, Author, “You Bring the Distant Near”
Next, a book perfect for a young adult on your gift list. Mitali Perkins’ new novel, “You Bring the Distant Near” shares a more hopeful story of immigration than we’re used to hearing right now. An Indian American family lands in New York in 1973 wishing for a better life. And they get it. The book was nominated for The National Book Award in Young People’s Literature this year.
Zingerman’s: Baking People Happy
Guest: Amy Emberling, MBA, Managing Partner, Zingerman’s Bakehouse and Co-Author, "Zingerman's Bakehouse"
Our last book selection is for the home-chef in your life. Zingerman’s Bakehouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan is famous for its artisan breads and traditional-style treats, and it’s known around the world thanks to the Zingerman’s mail order service.
Tax Reform's Big Winners: Corporations, Highly-Paid Executives, Tax Accountants
Guest: Gladriel Shobe, JD, LLM, Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
The US House and Senate are closing in on a final deal to merge their respective tax cut plans and get something to President Trump’s desk for signature by next week. President Trump says it will be "a giant tax cut for Christmas." How giant? And for whom?
How to Get Prescription Drugs to Market Faster
Guest: David MacMillan, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, Princeton University
Developing a new medicine today can take more than 10 years from lab to market. One time-consuming step in that process involves plugging a radioactive atom into the proposed new drug so researchers can track where it goes in the body. That way they can see if the medicine is hitting its target. But the process of tagging a drug with a radioactive label is so complicated it can take months. Princeton University chemist David MacMillan’s lab can do it in just hours using blue LED lights and some chemistry magic.
Probiotics Can Overcome High-Salt Intake, So Can They Reduce High Blood Pressure?
Guest: Eric Alm, PhD, Professor of Biological Engineering and Civil Environmental Engineering and Co-Director, Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics, MIT
Friendly bacteria – or probiotics - found in yogurt or sauerkraut, can help maintain balance in the gut microbiome. And new research suggests that probiotic supplements may be able to counteract some of the negative effects of a high-salt diet, which is known to contribute to high blood pressure.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Hanukkah Traditions Have Evolved
Guest: Alan Avery-Peck, PhD, Kraft-Hiatt Professor of Judaic Studies, College of the Holy Cross
Jewish homes celebrating Hanukkah lit the first candle in their menorah Tuesday night to celebrate the miracle of a one-day supply of oil that lasted eight days for the Jewish Maccabees. They were a small army who defeated the much larger forces of Syrian King Antiochus IV. Hanukkah today is known as the Festival of Lights. But light wasn’t always the key feature of the holiday.
Can Putin Turn Russia’s Olympic Shame to His Advantage?
Guest: Fred White, PhD, Professor of Russian Literature, Film and Culture, Utah Valley University
About 200 Russian athletes hope to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, but they won’t get to wear Russian uniforms, wave the Russian flag or hear the Russian national anthem if they win a gold medal. The International Olympic Committee has banned Russia from any official presence at the 2018 PyeongChang Games as punishment for widespread and systemic doping by Russian athletes at the last Winter Olympics, which were in Sochi, Russia. This isn’t just a story about sports and cheating. It’s also about politics, history and culture.
What’s All the Fuss About Bitcoin Investing?
Guest: Mark Jansen, Assistant Professor of Finance, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah
It’s no longer just a thing for techies to tinker with or buy. Over the weekend, a bitcoin product became available on a U.S. financial market for the first time. So now investors can bet on bitcoin nearly as easily as they can on traditional commodities like oil or corn. Some analysts have even begun to warn that bitcoin’s price is rising so fast it’s a bubble destined to burst.
Mexican Education for Returnee Children
Guests: Bryant Jensen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, Brigham Young University; Eric Bybee, PhD, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, Brigham Young University
Even before President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and his promise to build a wall, more Mexicans in the U.S. were leaving to go back to Mexico than were coming into the U.S. That flow has included tens of thousands of children. Many of them were born in America, but when their undocumented parents are deported or just decide to return to Mexico, the kids go too. But they’re US citizens. They’ve attended US public schools. They often speak English better than they speak Spanish. What is life like for them in Mexico? What is life like for them in Mexican public schools?
Smartphone Mechanic
Guest: Joshua Siegel, PhD, Research Scientist, Mechanical Engineering, MIT
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an unbiased source to tell you when to change replace your air filters and change your spark plugs? Well, there soon could be, in the form of a smartphone app.
Self-Harming Adolescents Cyberbullying Themselves
Guest: Justin Patchin, PhD, Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Co-Director, Cyberbullying Research Center
A little over a year ago, a 15-year-old girl in Texas intentionally overdosed to end her life. Natalie Natividad had been the subject of bullying in school for months. But when investigators tried to figure out who had posted anonymous messages on a web app calling her “ugly” and saying “she should kill herself,” they were shocked to find she had posted them herself. This heartbreaking type of online self-harm is the focus of a new study by the Cyberbullying Research Center.
Read more about Patchin’s research on cyberbullying here.
Female Entrepreneurs Stuggle Against Investor Bias
Guest: Michael Ewens, PhD, Associate Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship, Caltech
The tech companies that are now part of our daily lives – Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Amazon, Netflix – were all founded by men. Is that because men have better ideas? Probably not, but it may well be because men have an easier time finding funders to get their ideas off the ground.
Worlds Awaiting: Christmas Books
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
Jerusalem as Israeli Capital and Updates on Russia Investigation
Ryan Vogel, JD, PhD, Professor of International Law, Director, Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the headquarters of the European Union today – the first time an Israeli Prime Minister has done so in 22 years. Netanyahu was hoping the EU would join President Trump in endorsing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The EU said no. And Arab League nations at an emergency meeting over the weekend said they will ask the UN Security Council to condemn Trump’s decision.
The Risk of Having Laptops in the Classroom
Guest: Richard Patterson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, U.S. Military Academy at West Point
These days, the sound of pencil scratching on paper is rare on college campuses. Instead, professors hear clacking keys and look out on a sea of faces illuminated by laptop screens. But despite how convenient and useful laptops are, a new study finds they actually hurt academic performance when used in the classroom.
The Rarest Great Ape
Guest: Serge Wich, PhD, Professor of Primate Biology, Liverpool John Moores University and Honorary Professor for the Conservation of the Great Apes, University of Amsterdam
Scientists recently discovered a new species of great ape, which is a big deal since there were only six known species before this one was discovered on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Maybe it’s no surprise to learn, though, that this previously unknown species, called the Tapanuli orangutan is the world’s rarest great ape. Fewer than 800 survive today.
Age Divisions in the Fight for Women's Rights in America
Guest: Corinne Field, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, University of Virginia
Here’s a question – when is a birthday party more than just a reason to eat cake and toast another year of someone’s life? Could a birthday celebration actually be a political act? Historian Corinne Field joins us with a look at how a birthday celebration for a woman at the turn of the 20th Century had important political and social implications.
Parent Previews: Christmas Classics
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
Junior Dog Mushers of Interior Alaska
Guest: Andrew Wappett, Founder and President, Junior Dog Mushers of Interior Alaska
Imagine being pulled far away onto the icy tundra by several large and powerful animals who also happen to be your only hope at ever getting back home. Sounds dramatic, but every winter children ages four to seventeen in Fairbanks Alaska do that for fun. It’s called “dog mushing,” and Andrew Wappett teaches kids to do it.
Why Black Capitalism Can’t Overcome America’s Racial Wealth Gap
Guest: Mehrsa Baradaran, JD, Professor of Contracts and Banking Law, University of Georgia, Author, “The Color of Money: Black Banks and Racial Wealth Gap”
When Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks held less than one percent of all the country’s wealth. And that’s not really surprising, since you slaves weren’t allowed to own anything. But more than 150 years later, the number has barely budged. Blacks still hold only about one percent of the wealth in the U.S., even though they make up 13 percent of the population.
University of George Law professor Mehrsa Baradaran points out this staggering fact in the introduction to her new book, “The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap.” She argues the gap persists because US politicians and black community leaders have time and after time pinned their hopes on the wrong solution: black-owned banks serving black customers.
Debating the Limits of Copyright in the Digital Age
Guests: Mickey Osterreicher, General Counsel, National Press Photography; Ned Rosenthal, Intellectual Property Attorney, Frankfurt Kurnit; Blake Reid, Clinical Professor of Law, University of Colorado School of Law; Mitch Stoltz, Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
It has never been easier to use someone else’s creative work in your own dance mix, podcast, YouTube video, magazine article, website, book or fine art print. But the law to determine what’s fair use and what’s not was added to the copyright statute 40 years ago. A lot has changed about the way we create and publish in those four decades. So, courts have begun to rely heavily on an interpretation of that fair use law known as “transformativeness.”
Julie Rose moderated a debate at BYU on this topic between experts in the field. Tune in to see who won.
Government Shutdown Drama
Guest: James Curry, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Utah
Congress has until midnight Friday to pass new spending legislation or parts of the federal government could shut down like we saw back in 2013. Top Republicans in Congress this afternoon sounded pretty confident that they’ll manage to pass a temporary spending bill before the deadline, which keeps the current spending levels in place through Dec. 22. And then what?
From the Vaults: Edna St. Vincent Millay
Guest: Michael Lavers, PhD, Assistant Professor of English, Brigham Young University
Just as World War I was coming to a bloody end and the Roaring Twenties dawned with a promise of political freedom for women and a rebirth of the arts, a young female poet arrived on the American literary scene. Edna St. Vincent Millay, was barely out of her teens when she became a literary star. Her first book of poetry, “Renascence, and Other Poems,” was published 100 years ago.
New National Monuments
Guest: John Ruple, JD, Associate Professor of Law, Wallace Stegner Center for Land Resources and the Environment, University of Utah
Multiple lawsuits have been filed over the big move President Trump announced during a visit to Utah this week. The President dramatically reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah – Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears – and created five smaller monuments in their place.
Utah’s governor, members of Congress and many local officials in the region of these two monuments applaud the President’s move. Meanwhile, five Native American tribes and many environmental groups say the President has overstepped his authority and want the court to block the changes.
Climate of Hope (Originally aired May 3, 2017)
Guest: Carl Pope, co-author of “Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet”
Troubling news about the state of the earth's climate can make even the optimist despondent. Rising sea levels are threatening coastal communities. Warmer ocean temperatures are killing coral reefs at alarming rates. Temperatures are swinging dramatically, and the US is still recovering from unprecedented storms this hurricane season, Meanwhile, President Trump walked away from the Paris climate agreement. Is there any reason for hope that something can be done before the rapidly warming climate displaces people, plants and animals the world over?
It’s enough to make you want to bury your head in the sand, sometimes. But former Sierra Club executive director, Carl Pope, and billionaire and former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, have a new book meant to change the conversation. They’re an unlikely pair. The book is called, "Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet."
Why Kindergartners Need More Play Time (Originally aired May 3, 2017)
Guest: Christopher Brown, PhD, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education, University of Texas at Austin
As more and more states create public preschool programs, pre-K is becoming more like kindergarten than daycare. And kindergarten is the new first grade. What most kids do in kindergarten today is a lot more academically focused than you and I experienced decades ago. Doing away with playtime in kindergarten is not serving our children, though.
How Clean Are our Hospitals? (Originally aired June 20, 2017)
Guest: Jack Gilbert, PhD, Director, The Microbiome Center, and Professor, Surgery, University of Chicago Medicine, and Group Leader, Microbial Ecology, Argonne National Laboratory
There are at least as many bacteria living in and on your body as there are cells in your body. You’re a walking bacterial colony. And guess what? Those bacteria don’t stay put. They’ve colonized your desk, your bed, your car - basically anywhere you spend a decent amount of time bears the fingerprint of your microbiome. Most of the time, the bacteria are helpful or harmless. Sometimes they’re really bad news. Understanding how this works – how our bacteria affect and are affected by our environment – is the goal of a fascinating research project being done at the University of Chicago.
The Baker, The Gay Wedding and the Supreme Court
Guest: Elizabeth Clark, JD, Professor of Law and Associate Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Brigham Young University
Tuesday, the high court will hear arguments in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Masterpiece Cakeshop is owned by a Christian baker who refused to design a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple. That couple and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission say the baker can’t discriminate against customers based on sexual orientation because Colorado has a law against that. But the baker says being forced to design a cake for a gay wedding violates his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and religious expression.
Lack of Innovation is an Empowerment Problem
Guest: David Lee, Vice President, Innovation, UPS
Have you ever felt like life didn’t start until after you clocked out at 5 p.m.? For many of us, that is when our passion for doing things really comes out, when we aren’t at work.
Innovation expert David Lee believes the thing American industry needs today is more jobs where people can bring their interests and passions. He talks about how unfortunate it is that we’re often our most creative, energetic selves on Saturday and, come Monday morning, we leave that person in the trunk of the car.
David Lee's TED talk
Predicting Rainfall During Climate Change
Guest: Michael Bliss Singer, PhD, Researcher, Earth Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara and Lecturer, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University
All across the arid West, there are dry streambeds that are pretty much always dry. You’ve probably walked over them without noticing, if you’ve spent much time in Nevada or Arizona. But, if you’ve ever been caught in the desert during a summer thunderstorm, you know how fast that dry streambed can turn into a rush of water. These “runoff events” can cause lots of damage if there are homes nearby, but they’re also a critical part of the desert ecosystem and important for rivers downstream.
Hydrologists at UC Santa Barbara’s Earth Research Institute have been trying to understand how drought and climate change are affecting this thunderstorm-runoff equation in the American West.
Parole and Prison’s Revolving Door
Guest: Shawn Bushway, PhD, Professor, Public Administration and Policy, University of Albany, State University of New York
Prison has a revolving door. More than half of people released from prison in a given year in the US will return within five years. Why is that? Are felons just criminal by nature and inclined to reoffend no matter what? Or is there something about going to prison that makes it harder to keep on the straight and narrow after release? Both are explanations sociologists have looked into. Now a group of them has come up with a different answer – the parole system that prisoners enter when they leave prison is what drives the revolving door back behind bars.
Parent Previews: Darkest Hour
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
Winston Churchill became the British Prime Minister during England's darkest hour. With World War II underway, the new political leader needed to decide how to deal with Hitler's threats. And the fate of the world depended on his choices. Parent Previews gives this movie a rare "A" grade.
A Better Auto-Focus
Guests: Matt Linford, PhD, Professor, Chemistry, Brigham Young University; Shiladitya Chaterjee, PhD Candidate, Chemistry, Brigham Young University; Dave Brown, Technology Transfer Office, Brigham Young University
If it weren’t for the auto-focus on your phone camera, would you ever take a decent picture? Ever wondered how that works? The answer is algorithms. The answer to pretty much everything that works automatically in the digital world is algorithms.
It’s All Relative: Building a Global Family Tree
Guest: A.J. Jacobs, Author of “It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree”
Growing up in Utah a couple decades ago, the genealogy basics were a prerequisite from around the age of 10. All the kids in Sunday School took home a paper chart and scratched in their names and birthdates, then those of parents, then grandparents and great-grandparents. Four generations were the goal. And that’s where family history efforts usually stopped, because going any farther would have required hours of staring at microfilm in a musty library.
Then the internet happened. And today building your family tree is more like building your little twig on the branch of on one enormous, collaborative online sequoia. A global family tree showing how all 7.6 billion of us on the planet are connected.
Experimental journalist A.J. Jacobs figured a global family needs a reunion. So that’s what he set out to organize, because he’s a guy who likes using his own life as the stage for big ideas. After all, he spent a year trying to follow all the laws of the Bible and then wrote about it in the best-selling book, “The Year of Living Biblically.” His new book is “It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree.”
500 Year-Anniversary of Martin Luther’s Reformation
Guest: Brad Gregory, PhD, Professor, History, University of Notre Dame, Author, “Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts That Continue to Shape Our World”
The world might be a different place were it not for the spiritual crisis of one Catholic friar in the early 1500s. Martin Luther was hardly looking to fracture the Catholic Church when he published his Ninety-Five Theses, but once his ideas gained publicity, the Reformation became a movement Martin Luther could not control, and he would, most likely, be appalled by where it led.
Will SCOTUS Protect Your Cell Phone Privacy?
Guest: H.V. Jagadish, PhD, Bernard A. Galler Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan
If your smartphone’s always within reach, if you talk to Alexa and Siri more often than you talk to some of your real-life friends, then you should really care about the outcome of a case being considered by the US Supreme Court right now. It involves a guy named Timothy Carpenter who was convicted of helping rob a couple of Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores several years back. The FBI was able to close its case against Carpenter by getting cell phone call records and location information from his wireless company. The reason the Supreme Court is hearing this case is that the FBI got Carpenter’s data from his cell company without a warrant.
Teaching Chefs to Prevent Food Waste
Guests: Jonathan Deutsch, PhD, Professor, Culinary Arts, Center for Food and Hospitality Management, Drexel University; Kris Moon, Vice President, James Beard Foundation
Food waste is a problem globally, for a lot of reasons. Here in the US, most of the food gets wasted on the consumer end: in our homes, in grocery stores and in restaurants. That last category of food wasters is the focus of a new initiative at the James Beard Foundation, which is a big name in culinary arts, as all the foodies listening right now will know. The James Beard Foundation is testing a new curriculum at Drexel University intended to teach chefs how to get the most out of their ingredients and waste less.
Read More Foreign Literature
Guest: Marlene Hansen Esplin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Comparative Arts and Letters, Brigham Young University
Twenty years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find quinoa, gelato or Indian naan bread in most mainstream US grocery stores, but now they’re all favorites in our home kitchens. Turns out it’s good to try new foods! And the same concept applies to literature. Americans rarely read literature translated from other languages, but we are missing out on real treats.
Recommended Books in Translation:
Muriel Barbery, “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”
Clarice Lispector, “The Hour of the Star”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, “The Shadow of the Wind/The Angel’s Game/The Prisoner of Heaven”
Valeria Luiselli, “Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions”
Hideo Yokoyama, “Six Four”
Edgogawa Rampo, “Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination”
Mikhail Shishkin, “Maidenhair”
Sabahattin Ali, “The Madonna with the Fur Coat”
Abdelfattah Kilito , “Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language”
Halldor Laxness, “Paradise Reclaimed”
Nellie Campobello “Cartucho”
Oliver Pötzsch, “The Hangman’s Daughter”
Sources for finding more books in translation: http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/, https://www.asymptotejournal.com/, https://www.dalkeyarchive.com
A DACA Recipient Speaks Out (Originally aired Sep. 27, 2017)
Guest: Jose Franco, Recipient of DACA, BYU graduate
Congress has a week to pass another funding bill to keep the government open. One of the sticking points is that some in Congress would like to tie it to a bill protecting so-called Dreamers. These are undocumented individuals brought to the US as children. Hundreds of thousands of them are currently protected from deportation and allowed to work legally because of the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. President Trump has ordered that program to end next March. Many in Congress would like to write DACA into law and worry waiting any longer will make it harder to do.
The Problem with Modern Philanthropy (Originally aired May 24, 2017)
Guest: David Callahan, Founder and Editor of "Inside Philanthropy" and author of “The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age”
A few weeks ago, big names like Bill Gates, eBay’s first president, Jeff Skoll, the Rockefeller Foundation and others founded “Co-Impact,” a charitable organization that focuses on pooling generous donations from wealthy donors in order to streamline philanthropy for global needs. This concept is popular now among other billionaires as well, including Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett. But author David Callahan warns of a dark side to such unprecedented generosity in American society. `
Project FeederWatch Needs You and Your Backyard Birdfeeder (Originally aired Feb. 22, 2017)
Guest: Emma Greig, PhD, Project Leader of Project FeederWatch, Cornell University Lab of Ornithology
If you or your kids can spend hours watching the visitors to your backyard birdfeeder, here is the perfect thing for you. Emma Greig runs Project FeederWatch at the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, which collects data from citizen bird watchers all over the country for science. Bird lovers of any age - even school classes and scouting groups – can help. The bird-watching season runs from November until about April, so it’s the perfect time to get started.
For more information about FeederWatch click here.
Tobacco Advertises Danger of Cigarettes
Guest: Stanton Glantz, PhD, Truth Initiative Distinguished Professor of Tobacco Control, University of California, San Francisco, and Director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
A jarring series of advertisements began airing on network TV, online and an in print this week, paid for by US tobacco companies.
“Smoking kills on average 1,200 Americans every day,” reads one ad. “More people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol, combined.” Another one says, “RJ Reynolds Tobacco, Philip Morris USA, Altria and Lorillard, intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive.”
The ads are pretty basic: that slightly robotic voice reads as black text appears on a white background. They’ve been a long time coming, too. A judge actually ordered tobacco companies to air these so-called “corrective statements” ten years ago.
You can read the internal documents tobacco companies have been court-ordered to release here: https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/
Seeing More at Night Vision
Guests: Diane Cook, Landscape Photographer; Len Jenshel, Landscape Photographer
“The night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” Vincent van Gogh apparently said that once, and his famous Starry Night painting certainly makes the point. So does a new coffee table book from National Geographic called “Night Vision: Magical Photographs of Life After Dark.”
Lunar Colony in Sight
Guest: Jay Melosh, PhD, Distinguished University Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University
It’s been 46 years since an American astronaut last set foot on the moon. Vice President Mike Pence told the National Space Council meeting last month that’s going to change: “We will return American astronauts to the moon. Not only to leave behind footprints and flags, but to build the foundation we need to send Americans to Mars and beyond.”
He’s talking about setting up a more permanent presence on the Moon. A place where humans can train and stage supplies for missions farther out in space. So researchers are trying to find the perfect spot to build a lunar base. And new research published jointly by Japanese and American scientists points to an intriguing option – a giant underground cavern on the moon.
Stories from The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Prince Harry's Thoroughly Modern Match is Just What the Royals Need
Guest: Gregory Jackson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Integrated Studies, Utah Valley University, and Podcast Host, “History That Doesn’t Suck”
A spring wedding is the works for Britain’s Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle. The match highlights a modern shift in the House of Windsor. Not only is Markle American, she’s also divorced from a previous husband. The last time a member of Britain’s royal family tried marrying an American divorcee, he was forced to abdicate the throne, which made way for Queen Elizabeth to ultimately wear the crown. And now Queen Elizabeth says she’s “delighted” at her grandson’s wedding news.
The Wild West Tours Europe
Guest: Frank Christianson, PhD, Associate Dean, College of Humanities, BYU, Senior Editor of the Papers of William F. Cody Project based at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West
When President Trump rallies crowds with his promise to “Make America Great Again,” he’s harking back to a time in the last century when America first came into its own on the world stage as an undisputed political, military and cultural power. The 20th century has been called “The American Century” for those reasons.
A showman in a leather fringe coat and jaunty cowboy hat helped pave the way for America’s cultural dominance. In the late 1800s, Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show toured the world shaping the story of America we still tell today – hard working and destined for greatness.
A forthcoming book called “The Popular Frontier” traces the influence of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. It’s edited by Frank Christianson, an Associate Dean of the College of Humanities here at BYU. He is also the senior editor of the Papers of William F. Cody Project based at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
Why Net Neutrality Matters
Guest: Phil Windley, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Computer Science, and Enterprise Architect for the Office of the CIO, BYU
“The federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet.” That’s the promise made late last week by Ajit Pai, whom President Trump appointed to lead the Federal Communications Commission. Pai has proposed eliminating regulations passed by the Obama Administration in 2015 that prohibit internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon from picking and choosing who gets fast speeds online and who doesn’t. The FCC is expected approve Pai’s proposal in two and a half weeks.
If you’ve seen the words “net neutrality” pop up anywhere in your social media feeds over the last week, you know how heated this debate is. So let’s get some explanation on what it is and why it matters.
Time to End the Debate over Spanking
Guest: Tracie Afifi, PhD, Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences and Leader of the Childhood Maltreatment Research Team, University of Manitoba
To spank or not to spank? Using any kind of physical punishment on a child is illegal in more than 50 countries. But not here in the US. And surveys find the majority of Americans agree that a child sometimes needs “a good hard spanking.”
But researchers who study the effects of spanking on children say the debate should be over. In fact, University of Manitoba professor Tracie Afifi’s latest paper on the topic argues that being spanked as a child should be considered an “adverse childhood experience” – on par with being abused or neglected as a kid.
Predicting Earthquakes: A New Clue?
Guest: Rebecca Bendick, Professor, Geo-Sciences, University of Montana
There are certain places in the world that are prone to earthquakes. We're sitting on a fault line right here at BYU that scientists say will probably eventually cause a large earthquake. But predicting when, where and how large, an earthquake will be, is impossible, according to the US Geological Survey. Scientists keep looking for the secret. Imagine how much life could be saved if earthquake prediction were possible? Recently University of Montana geo-scientist Rebecca Bendick caused a stir with a paper that suggests quirks in the way the Earth spins on its axis could provide a heads-up that some big tremors are coming.
Get Your House Ready for Winter
Guest: Michael Bown, MBA, Associate Professor, Construction and Facilities Management, BYU
If you live in a part of the country that’s had unseasonably warm weather this fall, you might get caught off guard when winter finally rolls in. It’s time now, before snow piles up and temperatures plunge, to do some preventative home maintenance. After all, your home is probably your greatest financial asset. Let's take a minute to remind ourselves what our homes need to be ready for winter.
Screen Time Is Not All Bad
Guest: Sara DeWitt, Vice President of PBS KIDS Digital
If your kids spent some time watching a show or playing a game on a screen of some sort this morning while you were trying to get everyone out the door, you can stop beating yourself up about it. We’ve been conditioned to fear digital devices as mindless, addictive and all around terrible for our kids. But what if that fear is keeping you from harnessing the positive potential of these devices for your kids?
Worlds Awaiting: Outdoor Play and Literacy
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
Unstructured play helps kids make sense of the world, which is what literacy is all about.
Results of Sexual Assault and Campus Climate Survey
Guest: Lindsay Orchowski, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Staff Psychologist, Rhode Island Hospital
About a year ago, press investigations revealed that BYU students who had reported a sexual assault to campus authorities had their cases referred to BYU’s Honor Code office to investigate whether the victim had been doing anything that violates the honor code at the time of the assault. Extramarital sexual activity and alcohol and drug use are prohibited by BYU’s honor code.
BYU’s president formed an advisory council to look at the issue. That council recommended sexual assault victims be given amnesty from honor code violations related to the reported incident. BYU implemented that policy in June.
The advisory council also recommended BYU conduct a campus climate survey in order to gather research regarding perceptions and incidents of sexual assault. That survey is now finished and the results show there’s quite a bit of room for improvement.
Read the results of BYU’s Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault here.
Recognizing Hate Speech Online
Guest: Matt Teichman, PhD, Full-time Lecturer, Division of Humanities, University of Chicago
In the US, social media websites like Facebook and Twitter are not legally required to censor hate speech. But in Europe, they are. And all around the world, these companies face pressure from their users to police the ugliness of the internet. The problem is where to draw the line between someone spewing hate and someone exercising their right to speak freely.
Earlier this year, ProPublica published some internal documents Facebook uses to train content reviewers about what qualifies as hate speech and what doesn’t. The documents reveal just how tricky it is to police hate speech.
Tying Education to Trade to Keep Kids in School
Todd West, Steering Committee Member of the Eastern Maine Skippers Program, Principal of Bucksport Middle School, Maine
Did your Thanksgiving feast include lobster? Historians say it probably was part of the original celebration. And it’s still a big part of the New England coastal economy. Lobster is such a lucrative livelihood that some Maine high schools have trouble convincing kids to stay in school. That’s where The Eastern Maine Skippers Program comes in—it brings fishing into the classroom to help kids graduate.
Musical Robot Uses AI to Compose Original Music
Guest: Mason Bretan, PhD in music technology, Georgia Tech University
Shimon the robot has four arms, one glass eye and a bobbing head. He plays the marimba, but that is not all. Shimon has learned to compose music.
Parent Previews: "Wonder" and "The Man Who Invented Christmas"
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Host, Parent Previews
Born with a facial deformity, Auggie Pullman finds it difficult to fit into a new school. But his association with teachers and students soon has everyone learning that neither books nor faces should be judged by their covers.
The story behind the creation of Charles Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol" is told as the author's imagination brings to life the beloved characters. Christopher Plummer also stars in the role of Scrooge.
How Child Favoritism Affects Siblings
Guest: Alex Jensen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Human Development, Brigham Young University
Most parents will vehemently deny having a favorite child. And most kids are pretty convinced their parents do have a favorite. How does this disconnect affect relationships in the family? BYU family life professor Alex Jensen has some answers, based on surveys done with hundreds of families over a couple of years' span.
Growing Up Native American in Modern America
Guests: Chrystal Begay, Miss Indian Tribe of Many Feathers 2017-2018, BYU; Andrew Benally, President, BYU’s Tribe of Many Feathers; Jay Begaye, 2010 NAMMY Male Artist of the Year for the album “Horses Are Our Journey”
The historical record of how the Pilgrims and the Wampanaog ended up feasting together at the first Thanksgiving is scant. There’s no evidence the native residents of the region were actually invited to the harvest festival, for example. But the historical record is very clear about the centuries that followed when Native Americans died in massive numbers from European diseases, were killed, enslaved and forced from their lands. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Native American youth often taken from their communities and placed in government-sponsored boarding schools meant to make them more “civilized.” They were forced to dress in European clothing and forbidden to speak their native languages. Today, many of the children and grandchildren of those boarding school students are finding a way back to their Native American heritage.
Special thanks to Jay Begaye for permission to use the music in this converastion. All of the songs come from Begaye's album "Horses Are Our Journey," which won the 2010 Native American Music Award for Male Artist of the Year.
Behind-the-Scenes: BYUtv Holiday Movie "Instrument of War"
Guests: Adam Anderegg, Director, BYUtv’s Instrument of War; Russ Kendall, Producer, Instrument of War
An American bomber pilot during World War II is shot down and captured in northern Germany. As a prisoner of war trying to keep his spirits up, he gets a crazy idea: build a violin. This is a true story. Clair Cline is the name of the American pilot, and you can see the violin he made in the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. And Thanksgiving evening at 6 p.m. Mountain Time on BYUtv, you can see the movie his story inspired. It’s called Instrument of War.
The Link Between Mass Shootings, Domestic Violence and Suicide
Guest: Sonia Salari, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of Utah
Half of mass shootings that have taken place in the United States during the last decade have had one thing in common: they stemmed from domestic violence. The man who killed 26 people in a Sutherland Springs, Texas church last month was believed to have been targeting his in-laws and had previous domestic violence charges that should have prevented him from owning a firearm. The gunman who killed three of his neighbors and then attacked an elementary school in Northern California last week, first killed his wife and hid her body. Sonia Salari's research indicates a strong link between domestic violence, suicide and firearms.
State-by-State Gun Law Database (Originally aired June 6, 2017)
Guest: Michael Siegel, MD, Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston University
Because relatively few gun laws have been passed by Congress, it’s up to individual states to decide if, for example, you need a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Or if someone convicted of domestic violence can have a gun. The number of gun laws on the books in each state varies dramatically: California has 104. Alaska has just 4. A comprehensive new database of state gun laws offers a way to track the effects of restricting access to firearms.
Our Willingness to Waste (Originally Aired on Aug. 31, 2017)
Guest: Selina Juul, Founder, Stop Wasting Food Movement in Denmark
As you prepare to feast on Thanksgiving, don’t forget to be creative with the leftovers. On average, Americans and Europeans waste 25 percent of the food they buy. That’s basically like throwing out one in every four shopping carts you fill up at the grocery store.
3,000 Year-Old Uffington White Horse (Originally aired on Aug. 21, 2017)
Guest: Andrew Foley, Ranger, National Trust in England
Three thousand years ago, the image of a giant white horse was cut into the rolling hillside of Uffington, which is about 20 miles southwest of Oxford, England. It’s a sleek and minimalist stallion, as long as a football field, leaping across the landscape, bright white against the green turf. It’s made of chalk, and you have to wonder how it has survived the forces of erosion over three millennia.
North Korea Terror, Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor, Associate Professor of Law, Brigham Young University
President Trump has added North Korea to the list of “state sponsors of terrorism,” which clears the way for additional sanctions against the regime’s nuclear program. And the United Nation’s humanitarian envoy to Yemen this week said Saudi Arabia is violating international law there.
Hurricane History from Sediment Cores
Guest: Jeff Donnelly, PhD, Senior Scientist of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The 2017 hurricane season is winding down - November 30 is the typical end. But this season has not been typical by any measure. It’s one of the most active on record, with 16 named storms, including 10 hurricanes and six major hurricanes. Two months since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and half the island is still without power. Was 2017 just a bad year, or is something changing?
The Last Homestead
Guest: Mark Engler, National Parks Superintendent, Homestead National Monument
The westward expansion of the United States was fueled by the Homestead Act, which gave free land to intrepid settlers willing to claim and tame a plot. The act was passed in 1862. But guess when the last file was claimed under the Homestead Act? 1974—hardly ancient history, right? The Park Service’s Homestead National Monument in Nebraska has a new artifact on display in its lobby to commemorate the lesser-known modern history of homesteading in America—an old tractor that brings the history of homesteading full circle.
Saving India’s Sloth Bears, Snakes and Elephants
Guest: Katrick Satyanarayn, Co-Founder and CEO, Wildlife SOS
For centuries, dancing bears were a fixture in the streets of India. A V-shaped stripe of white fur stood out from the shaggy black fur on their chests and made it look like they’d dressed up for the occasion. They danced on their hind legs to entertain passersby and raise money for their owners. That’s written in the past tense, because there are no more dancing bears on the streets of India today, thanks to the efforts of a nonprofit called Wildlife SOS.
Native American Heritage Month
Guest: Meredith Lam, Native American specialist and Title VI Coordinator, Provo School District
The traditional Thanksgiving story of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians feasting together in peace and friendship is mostly myth, and glosses over the history of America’s first residents being killed and displaced by the colonists. To help set the record straight, US presidents dating back to George H.W. Bush have declared November Native American Heritage Month. It’s a chance to consider the culture and contribution Native Americans have made to this country.
Workplace Giving
Guest: Robert Christensen, Associate Professor in the Masters of Public Administration program, Brigham Young University
This time of year many companies do their annual charitable giving campaigns, encouraging employees have a regular donation taken out of their paycheck. Often a company will match the employee’s donations as an incentive. Companies will also often assign certain employees to ask their coworkers to make a gift. If you have mixed feelings about these campaigns, you are not alone, because workplace giving donations have been declining in recent years.
The Importance of World Toilet Day
Guest: Diane Kellogg, EdD, Professor of Management, Bentley University, Consultant with Sustainable Sanitation Alliance and the Stockholm Environment Institute
Sunday was World Toilet Day at the United Nations. And you may be wondering why on Earth we’d need a day dedicated to something we don’t give much thought here in the US. Well, it’s because the majority of people the world over either have no access to a toilet at all, or they use one that doesn’t dispose of the waste safely. The result is contaminated soil and water, widespread disease and frankly, a global sanitation crisis.
What’s Going On in Zimbabwe
Guest: Todd Moss, PhD, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development
Zimbabwe’s long-time president Robert Mugabe is clinging to power, despite a military takeover that placed him under house arrest and massive protests over the weekend calling for him to step down. Mugabe’s own political party voted him out of his leadership position. And yet, the 93-year-old president is refusing to relinquish the post he’s held for almost forty years.
Manipulating Memories Moves Beyond Sci-Fi
Guest: Steve Ramirez, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Boston University
All of us have at least one memory we’d like to forget; somehow just wipe the slate clean of that one troubling moment so it stops haunting us. Scientists at Boston University have done it in mice. Well, they actually did the reverse: they forced a mouse to recall a bad memory on-the-spot. It’s the first step in learning how to manipulate memory.
King’s Singers on 50 Years of Choral Spotlight
Guests: Christopher Gabbitas and Julian Gregory, Members of The King’s Singers
The King’s Singers. Is there a more legendary men’s vocal ensemble in the world? The group’s been around 50 years and to mark the occasion, they’ve released a multi-disc recording called “Gold.” While at BYU to perform last week, a couple of the group’s members sat down with BYUradio’s Steven Kapp Perry.
Parent Previews – Justice League and COCO
Guest: Rod Gustafson, movie reviewer, ParentPreviews.com
Wanting to see a movie over the Thanksgiving holiday? Let’s find out about some options from the team at Parent Previews.com. First, it’s a superhero supergroup: Justice League. Second, a big family movie opening this week. Disney Pixar’s COCO. It’s been out for a month in Mexico already and it’s been a huge hit there.
Sugar Power: Electricity from Plants
Guests: Gerald Watt, PhD, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Brigham Young University Technology Transfer Office
It’s holiday season and the sugary treats are starting to pop up everywhere. This time of year, there will probably be a day when you give in and your body will run almost entirely on sugar. But even when we’re not eating sugar, we’re consuming it in the form of more complex sugars – we call them carbohydrates. Sugar is the fuel of life. What if we could use it to fuel the devices around us, too?
Urban Foraging
Guests: Tom Smith, PhD, Associate Professor of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University; Neil Reed, Biological Science Technician, Bryce Canyon National Park, BYU Alum
What is foraging? Not dumpster-diving. Real-life foraging for edibles growing all around us – nuts, berries, flowers, shrubs. There’s foraging to be done in suburbs and big cities, believe it or not. And we’re going to find out how with a couple of experts.
The End of Orphanages
Guests: Jini Roby, JD, MSW, Professor of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, School of Social Work, Brigham Young University; Cindy Packard, Founder, Care for Life
There’s someone in your neighborhood, church or Facebook feed headed on a service trip over the holiday break. They’ll spend time in an orphanage somewhere like Cambodia or Malawi painting walls or doing repairs. They’ll play with the children and post photos online filled with hugs and smiles. And the fundraising pleas will come, too. There are, after all, more than 150 million orphans worldwide who need our help.
But what if all of these orphanage efforts and donations are misguided? What if they’re actually doing more harm than good?
The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve
Guest: Stephen Greenblatt, PhD, Professor of Humanities, Harvard, Author, “The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve”
The fall of Adam and Eve from innocence when they ate the forbidden fruit and were kicked out of their garden paradise has impacted nearly every branch of human thought. It teaches us about our relationship to God, to each other, and to the natural world. Adam and Eve in the Ghent Altarpiece, 1432, by Jan and Hubert van Eyck
source: wikipedia
Why We Should Teach Bible in Public Schools
Guest: Chuck Stetson, Founder, Essentials in Education
The story of Adam and Eve has had a deep historical influence on Western thinking. But what about the future? In a multi-cultural democracy like the United States, even children raised by parents who claim to be Christian or Jewish may not be well-versed in the stories from the Christian or Jewish Bibles. Should they be? What about Muslims or Hindus who are growing up in America? What about children in non-Christian nations? What worth is knowing the Bible to them?
Learn more about the campaign here. King David on Red Ground by Marc Chagall
source: artnet.com
Swap Your Burger for Bugs? (Originally aired Apr. 12, 2017)
Guest: Mohammed Ashour, CEO and co-founder of Aspire Food Group
There’s a new item on the US market that could change the way you snack. It’s salty and crunchy like potato chips, but with almost three times the amount of protein per gram that you would find in a T-bone steak. This power snack is an incredible source of calcium, fiber, and iron. It also happens to have six legs, two compound eyes, and a pair of wings.
We're talking about crickets. More than two billion people around the world eat insects, including crickets, as part of their daily diet. However, despite the health benefits, most Americans just can’t get past the idea of a six-legged insect sliding down their throat.
Aspire Food Group, a Texas-based food company, has taken on the challenge. Aspire’s two-part company goal is a simple, but lofty one: solve world Hunger and make insect-eating normal.
To get your own crickets click here.
Why Segregation is Returning to US Schools (Originally aired June 14, 2017)
Guest: Derek Black, JD, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina
Segregating schools by race has been illegal in the US for more than 60 years. But today, many of the gains made after that landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education have disintegrated. Schools across America are steadily re-segregating along racial lines. The separation isn’t as explicit as it was in the Jim Crow South, when communities designated schools for white children and other schools for black children. But if the effect is the same and more than a third of US schools are now attended almost entirely by students of one race, is that acceptable?
When the Movie Is as Good as the Book (Originally aired Sep. 6, 2017)
Guest: Dennis Cutchins, PhD, Associate Professor of English, Brigham Young University
"Murder on the Orient Express," based on Agatha Christie's novel, is getting a lot of press. Coming out this week is a film adaptation of the children’s novel "Wonder." Do the movies live up to the beloved books that inspired them? How often does a director ruin a great story in bringing it to the screen?
Chinese President Xi and the Legacy of Mao
Guest: Andrew Walder, PhD, Professor of Political Sociology, Stanford University, Author, “China Under Mao”
After his first official visit to China last week, President Trump raved about the elegant reception he received and great chemistry he felt with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump mentioned to reporters that President Xi is “the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. Some people say more powerful than Mao.”
Is it true? And if so, what does that mean for the Chinese people and China’s relationship with the US?
The Flu Shot – What You Need to Know
Guest: Lynora Saxinger, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alberta School of Medicine
It’s flu season. Let’s talk flu shots for a few minutes. Should you get one? At what point in the season is it too late to bother?
A Most Mysterious Star
Guest: Tabetha Boyajian, PhD, Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Louisiana State University
When NASA sent a telescope to space aboard the Kepler spacecraft, the goal was to look for planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy. Other Earths orbiting other suns, if you will. Over four years, Kepler sent back a huge amount of data – so much that NASA decided to call for backup and released the data online for amateur “Planet Hunters” to comb through. Those amateurs managed to find one of the most mysterious stellar objects ever identified. Then things got a little weird. Some of the Planet Hunters became convinced aliens were the likely explanation for the strange stellar object they’d discovered. Louisiana State University astronomer Tabetha Boyajian couldn’t blame them. Discovering aliens would be really cool, she says. But alas, she’s just co-authored a paper identifying a more plausible scientific explanation.
Eight Flavors of American Cuisine (Originally aired Feb 24, 2017)
Guest: Sarah Lohman, Historical Gastronomist, Author, "Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine”
American food. What makes the cut? Hamburgers and hotdogs? Pizza? French Fries? Apple Pie? Maybe there’s not a truly American food or flavor because everything we eat today originated in the recipes and tastes our immigrant forefathers brought with them from other lands a few hundred years ago.
Sarah Lohman set out to test that theory. She’s an historical gastronomist – which means, among other things, that she spends a lot of time recreating very old recipes - and through a combination of data analytics and sleuthing, she settled on eight central flavors of American food: vanilla, black pepper, garlic, chili powder, soy sauce, curry powder, Sriracha and MSG.
Check out Sarah's blog here.
Three World Events—Saudi Arabia, Catalan/Kurdistan Independence Fall Out, and the Congo
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Each month we highlight three world events worth a closer look. Over the last week, hundreds of Saudis – including princes, prominent businessmen and former senior officials have been arrested. Why?
What's the fallout from referenda in Catalonia and Kurdistan?
The source of violence in the Congo?
Earthquake Reconnaissance Team
Guest: Kevin Franke, PhD, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Brigham Young University
Sunday night, a major earthquake struck the border between Iran and Iraq. Devastation is substantial and urgent rescue efforts are still underway. In the weeks ahead, scientists will arrive in the area to try and understand what happened. Kevin Franke is a volunteer scientist for Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) and they recently worked on the big earthquake in Mexico a few months ago. He explains what scientists hope to learn in the aftermath of earthquakes.
Why the Right Whales Died
Guest: Erin Meyer-Gutbrod, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara
Things are not right among the world’s North Atlantic right whales. They’re a highly endangered species and over the summer 15 of them turned up dead in US and Canadian waters. That’s a major blow, considering there are fewer than 500 on the planet as it is. Another year like 2017 could wipe them out entirely, according to research coauthored by Erin Meyer-Gutbrod.
Will We Ever Have a Balanced Budget Amendment?
Guest: Ernest Istook, Former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma, Lecturer at Utah Valley University
For years, Republicans—and some Democrats—have called for a “Balanced Budget Amendment” to be added to the US Constitution that would make it illegal for the federal government to spend more than it takes in.
But, if Republicans manage to pass the tax cuts they’ve proposed, they’ll add an estimated one-and-a-half trillion dollars to the deficit over ten years. The hope is that cutting taxes will lead to economic growth to counteract that deficit increase. But what does it really matter if the federal government spends more than it brings in? Do we really want to force Congress to balance the checkbook every year? And is amending the Constitution of the United States really the way to go?
The Truth about Trailer Parks
Guest: Katherine MacTavish, Associate Professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, Oregon State University, Co-author of “Singlewide: Chasing the American Dream in a Rural Trailer Park”
Home ownership is a cornerstone of the American Dream, and owners of mobile homes or trailers often feel like they’ve almost, but not quite, made it—owning a trailer is one step closer to owning their own traditional home. But there are factors unique to trailer parks that can combine against residents to trap them in what they had thought would be a temporary situation.
Goodbye Christopher Robin
Guest: Ann Thwaite, Author of “Goodbye Christopher Robin: A.A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh” and “A.A. Milne: His Life,” Movie Consultant, "Goodbye Christopher Robin"
The movie “Goodbye Christopher Robin” opens a window into the world of the real-life Christopher Robin, the author A.A. Milne’s only child, who was the inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh books. Christopher Robin’s world in the Hundred Acre Wood was an inexplicable, magical place, but for the real Christopher Robin, life as a famous childhood character wasn't as magical as it sounds. The four Winnie-the-Pooh children’s books dramatically changed both father and son.
Sexual Harassment at Work
Guest: Elaine Herskowitz, JD, principal of EEO Training & Consulting Services, former senior staff attorney at the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The flood of troubling stories of men in business, entertainment, politics and the media harassing or assaulting women – and in some cases men and children – has many of us thinking about why such behavior persists. Many of the #MeToo stories involve men in positions of power forcing themselves on subordinates. Others involve what might be considered subtler harassment that has led female employees to feel uncomfortable or unvalued. This is despite the fact that most companies today have policies prohibiting sexual harassment and often mandatory harassment training for employees.
Death Penalty Decline
Guest: Brandon Garrett, JD, Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia, Author of “End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice”
The death penalty in America hit a peak in the mid-1990s and has been dropping off ever since. That’s a little surprising, isn’t it, considering how deeply engrained the death sentence is in our culture? But it’s actually a lot less popular in the public eye today, and in state legislatures across the country, conservatives are becoming as likely as liberals to sponsor bills banning it. With or without an actual ban, fewer states are handing down death sentences - only 13 states sentenced someone to death last year.
Will Walk for Food
Guest: Dominique Hazzard, Community Outreach Specialist, DC Greens
If you lived two miles from the nearest grocery store and you didn’t have a car, how do you think that would affect your diet? Some 40-million Americans – mostly in low-income and minority neighborhoods – live in what’s called a food desert, or grocery gap, where it’s easier to get fruit punch soda than actual fruit. These grocery gaps have mini-marts, but nowhere to buy fresh produce.
Should We Memorialize Violence?
Guest: Kenneth Foote, PhD, Professor of Historical Geography, University of Connecticut, Author, “Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy”
The sanctuary of the church in Sutherland Springs, Texas has been painted white and turned into a memorial to the 26 victims of the shooting that took place. White chairs and red roses have been placed in each spot where a victim fell. The pastor has said he may ultimately demolish the building.
In the aftermath of a tragedy, there is always a tension between remembering and forgetting. University of Connecticut historical geographer Ken Foote studies the way communities memorialize traumatic events. He says they can be an important part of the grieving and healing. They can also help us ask tough questions about what caused the violence – but Foote says we don’t often use memorials in that way, and it’s a missed opportunity.
Parent Previews: Murder on the Orient Express, Daddy's Home 2
Guest: Rob Gustafson, Parent Previews
When a murder happens aboard the luxurious Orient Express, thirteen train passengers find themselves both suspects of the crime and possible victims of the criminal. Private detective Hercule Poirot quickly steps into the action, attempting to sleuth out the killer before tragedy can strike again.
The unfunny "Daddy's Home 2."
NeuroMapper App Changes Brain Surgery
Guest: David S. Sabsevitz, PhD, ABPP, Clinical Neuropsychologist, Associate Professor of Neurology, Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin
Some types of brain surgery require the patient to be conscious during part of the procedure, so the surgeons can quiz the patient and make sure they’re not cutting into healthy parts of the brain that control speech or cognition. Neurology professor David Sabsevitz from Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin has created an app with a team of students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to make a surgeon’s interaction with the patient on the operating table more precise and effective.
Shooting Ghosts
Guests: Thomas James Brennan, Retired Marine Corps Sergeant, Founder, The War Horse, Co-author, “Shooting Ghosts” with Finbarr O’Reilly, Photojournalist
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now America’s longest running conflict. More than two-and-a-half million veterans have served in those wars. Retired Marine Corps sergeant Thomas James Brennan is one of them. He’s a Purple Heart recipient and now an investigative journalist. He’s co-written an unusual memoir in partnership with combat photographer Finbarr O’Reilly. They met in a remote outpost of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in 2010. What they experienced there formed the basis of a friendship that has brought both of them a measure a comfort as they’ve struggled with the psychological effects of war.
John Wompas: American Indian, Real Estate Mogul, Swindler
Guest: Jenny Hale Pulsipher, PhD, Associate Professor, History, Brigham Young University, Author, “Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped Out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England”
The story of a fascinating American Indian starts about a decade after English settlers and the Wampanoag Indians gathered for a harvest festival we now consider the first Thanksgiving. John Wompas was born around 1637 near what today is Grafton, Massachusetts. He was a Nipmuc Indian, but he didn’t come from any royal lineage in the tribe. His father was not a chief – or “sachem,” as the tribe’s leaders were called. And yet, John Wompas would become prominent in both Nipmuc and English communities. He would study at Harvard. Become the first Indian involved in the transatlantic sea trade. Get rich off of real estate deals. End up in debtor’s prison in London and convince the King to lend him a hand.
Election Results and a Year of Trump
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, Brigham Young University
On the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, Democrats picked up some important state-level seats. The outcome has been described as a worrisome sign for Republicans that President Trump’s polarizing ways could make it hard for the part to keep its grip on Congress in next year’s mid-term elections.
Youth Sports Are Hurting Kids
Guest: Mark Hyman, Author, Assistant Teaching Professor of Management and Tourism Studies, George Washington University
The way kids play sports across the country these days looks a lot more like professional sports than it does the recreational Little League or soccer you or your parents might have played. Today kids pay high fees to play on club teams that travel extensively, play and practice year round and vie for the most talented players. Often the most skilled youngsters end up in development academies affiliated with the pro sports teams their youth leagues now emulate. And all this professionalization has made stars out of young prodigies. But it’s also leading to high schoolers with the kinds of injuries we used to see only in pro athletes.
Alligators Eat Sharks
Guest: James Nifong, PhD, Division of Biology, Kansas State University
Ecologist James Nifong has uncovered proof of something that happens more often in the wild than scientists previously thought. In a battle between two top predators – the gator and the shark, who will win? Most wildlife biologists would put odds on the shark winning that match, but that isn’t the case.
Aging Isn’t All Bad (Originally aired Apr. 19, 2017)
Guest: Marc Agronin, Geriatric Psychiatrist, Vice President, Behavioral Health and Clinical Research, Miami Jewish Health Systems, author of “How We Age: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Growing Old”
The prospect of growing old is terrifying. Once we're solidly in middle age, we look to the post-retirement years down the road and worry about losing body function – or worse, brain function. One in seven people over the age of 70 has dementia in the US. When you look at Americans 85 and older, a third have Alzheimer’s. But aging isn't all that bad, according to Dr. Agronin, and few people have seen the realities of aging as fully as he has.
Courtroom Sketches from Famous Trials (Originally aired June 7, 2017)
Guest: Bill Robles, Courtroom Sketch Artist
Charles Manson once looked right at him with disdain. Michael Jackson was so impressed with him, he asked for a meeting, and OJ Simpson struck him as incredibly arrogant. Courtroom sketch artist Bill Robles has drawn many of the most notorious criminals and biggest stars of the last half-century. When cameras aren’t allowed in court, Robles is there to document the drama.
The Paradise Papers and America’s Elite
Guest: Will Fitzgibbon, Reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
One aspect of the Republican tax reform plan President Trump likes to emphasize is a provision that would encourage US companies to "bring back trillions" in foreign profits, which makes it sound like the foreign profits of US companies are being held hostage offshore somewhere. But that’s misleading. The companies could bring the money back anytime they wanted, they’d just have to pay corporate taxes on it. Instead, they stash it away in some of the world’s most beautiful escapes – Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Seychelles that offer pristine beaches and charge low – or even no – taxes.
More than 13 million documents have leaked from some of the law firms that help companies do that. They’ve been dubbed the Paradise Papers and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is coordinating reporting on them.
Starving Education to Feed Retirement
Guest: Richard Vague, Managing Partner, Gabriel Investments, Author, “The Next Economic Disaster”
When you’re cutting up a pie, and you’ve got more people to serve than you expected, one solution is to make each piece a little smaller, right? But what if you already promised someone a certain-sized slice and if you try to trim it a bit you’re gonna have a ruckus at the table? Well, then you’ll probably have to make the rest of the slices even smaller.
This is the situation state and local governments across the country find themselves in. They’ve guaranteed to fund pensions for government employees and Medicaid, and as those costs grow, who gets a smaller piece of the pie? Mostly education and infrastructure. That shows in America’s deteriorating roads and bridges and the poor international ranking of our school system.
Who Knew that Cougars Are Such Social Animals?
Guest: Mark Elbroch, PhD, Lead Scientist, Puma Program, Panthera
BYU’s mascot, the cougar, lives throughout the West, but since they hunt at night, there’s a lot we don’t know about them. Scientists have always thought that cougars are solitary animals who don’t interact with each other unless they’re mating or fighting. But a recent study reveals that they actually don’t mind some company at dinner.
Stories from The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
An interview with The Young Company, BYU's children's theater company.
Lincoln Changed the Course of the American Funeral Industry
Guest: Brian Walsh, MFA, Assistant Professor of Communications, Elon University, Documentary Filmmaker
Funerals in America often involve a viewing, where mourners pay respects to a body that’s been preserved to look more or less like the person did when alive. But, around the world, embalming is not necessarily standard practice. And, it wasn’t always typical in America, either. In fact, we have President Abraham Lincoln to thank for what we’ve come to think of a traditional American funeral.
Leaders Forged in Crisis
Guest: Nancy Koehn, PhD, Historian, Harvard Business School, Author, “Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times”
Tense and turbulent times like the ones we now live in call for a special kind of leader, wouldn’t you agree? Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn believes the leaders we need are really just ordinary people who’ve become capable of doing extraordinary things. Leaders are made, not born, she argues. Her new book explores the stories of five such leaders from history – polar explorer Earnest Shackleton, President Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.
Is Obamacare Really Dead?
Guest: Matthew Slonaker, JD, Executive Director of the Utah Health Policy Project
People who can’t get affordable health insurance through their job and hope to qualify for a federal subsidy by shopping for coverage on healthcare.gov have just over one month to enroll. Heading into this open enrollment period there was a lot of confusion and concern about whether people who need insurance would sign up. After all, President Trump regularly insists Obamacare is “dead,” “gone,” “finished.”
But Congress has yet to repeal ObamaCare, so the marketplace to buy insurance is still operating and the requirement that everyone have it or face a penalty is still in place. Sources at the Department of Health and Human Services have told multiple news outlets that a record number of people signed up for insurance on healthcare.gov during the first few days of open enrollment last week compared to previous years.
The Psychobiotic Revolution
Guest: Scott Anderson, Lead Author of “The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection”
There’s a network of nerves around your gut so involved in your physical and emotional well-being, it’s often called your “second brain.” It takes its cues primarily from a huge community of microbes living in your gut. More and more evidence suggests that what you eat determines how happy those microbes are. And how happy those microbes are affects how happy you are. Literally. Bacteria in your gut affect your mental health.
How Self-Driving Cars Could Prevent Terror Attacks
Guest: Jeremy Straub, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, North Dakota State University
In the last 18 months, terrorists pledging allegiance to ISIS have made trucks their preferred weapons. More than 100 people around the world have been killed in nearly a dozen such attacks, including eight fatalities in New York last week. When someone uses a gun to kill lots of people, we immediately start debating gun control. Debating “vehicle control” after a terror attack seems preposterous, but what if the focus weren’t on controlling who can drive one? What if we focus on technology that would let the vehicle take control away from the driver who tries to steer the truck into a crowd of people?
The technology to do that already exists. The question is, do we really want our vehicles to be able to override us?
Your Old Books: Should They Stay or Should They Go?
Guest: Travis Patten, Store Manager of Pioneer Book
The first thing Julie Rose felt a powerful urge to collect as a youngster was books. First library books that she could line up and admire on her shelf, if only for a week. Her father was a book collector—a trait she inherited. It took a couple of cross-country moves and the advent of e-books to break free of the habit.
If you – or someone you love – would like to see the load on your bookshelves lightened just a bit, it’s time to make friends with your local used bookseller. You could turn those books you haven’t read in ages into cash or a new reading experience.
We Need More Black Teachers
Guest: Valerie Hill-Jackson, PhD, Clinical Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture, Texas A&M University
America’s public schools are becoming steadily more diverse: sometime in the next few years, white students nationwide will drop below 50 percent. But the mix of teachers standing in front of those classrooms is not getting more diverse. The overwhelming majority are white - more than 80 percent. Black teachers are in particularly short supply and becoming more so with each passing decade.
To understand why that is – and why you should care - we need a brief history lesson.
How to Talk to Your Kids About Mass Shootings
Guest: Brooks Keeshin, MD, Clinician Researcher in the Division of Child Protection and Family Health at the University of Utah, Child Psychiatrist at the Center for Safe and Health Families at Primary Children’s Hospital, Salt Lake City
A gunman’s rampage in Sutherland Springs, Texas, over the weekend is the latest in a string of mass shootings in the US. As parents, how do we explain these acts of violence to our children when they are becoming more and more common? How young is too young for a conversation about an event as unpredictable and terrifying as a mass shooting?
Breaking Down the Opioid Commission Recommendations
Guest: JoAnn Petrie, PhD, Addiction Specialist and Research Associate, Brain Imaging and Behavior Lab, Brigham Young University
President Trump has declared the opioid overdose crisis a public health emergency. We now have a checklist to gauge how serious he is about addressing the crisis. The President’s Opioid Commission released its final report late last week with more than 50 recommendations.
Selling Green Bonds to Restore Wetlands and Watersheds
Guest: Diego Herrera, Natural Infrastructure Economist, Environmental Defense Fund
Louisiana has a Coastal Master Plan to save disappearing wetlands. It comes with a price tag of $50 billion dollars, and area governments are looking for novel ways to raise some of that money, such as finding investors willing to purchase “green bonds.”
ICU Visiting Hour Restrictions Hurt More Than They Help
Guest: Giora Netzer, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health, University of Maryland
A few years ago, Julie Rose was racing to the hospital to visit her father who was gravely ill in the Intensive Care Unit. But on the way, she got a call from a sibling that visiting hours had just ended for the day. She’d missed the window. And, as it turned out, she’d missed the chance to see her father conscious for the last time. He passed the next day.
There’s a nationwide movement to loosen visitor restrictions in critical care hospital settings. Advocates for giving a patient’s family open access to the ICU say it improves things for both the patient and the family. Not all intensive care nurses or hospital administrators agree, however.
Temple Grandin on Autism
Guest: Temple Grandin, Author, Professor of Animal Science, Colorado State University
The animal scientist Temple Grandin has famously explained autism to the world, from her own experience on the spectrum. In her many books, including Thinking in Pictures, The Autistic Brain, and The Loving Push, she draws on her own autism to inspire parents, educators and other people, like her, who have autism. This year she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Learn more here.
Movie Review: Thor: Ragnarok
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
Are we burned out on comic-book movies yet?
Fighting Bacteria with Viruses (Originally aired May 1, 2017)
Guest: Julianne Grose, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Brigham Young University
Apple and pear orchard growers suffer hundreds of millions of dollars in losses every year because of a disease called fire blight. First oozing cankers develop on the tree branches and leave streaks that darken to look like the branch has been licked by fire. Infected leaves and blossoms blacken and shrivel, too, like they’ve been burned. The name “fire blight” is apt. Though it’s not caused by extreme heat. It’s actually caused by bacteria and a BYU microbiologist has developed a new way of treating it using viruses that eat bacteria.
How to Help Your Kids Resolve Their Own Conflict
Guest: Emily DeSchweinitz Taylor, Mediator, Conflict Coach, Author, “Raising Mediators: How Smart Parents Use Mediation to Transform Sibling Conflict and Empower Their Children”
When the kids are at each other again in the playroom or the backseat of the car or the aisle of the grocery store, a parent’s instinct is often to shut the conflict down either by stepping in to referee, separating the kids or banishing them to a room to work it out on their own.
But there’s another way. It’s more time consuming. But also more beneficial to the kids. And could, actually, lead to a long-term resolution for those conflicts that seem to come up over and over again between the same kids over the same things.
It’s mediation - an approach well-known in the political, legal and business world. But parents don’t get trained in it. And so, Emily de Schweinitz Taylor has written a book for them.
Learn more here.
Why We Sleep
Guest: Matthew Walker, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California Berkeley, Director of the UC Berkeley Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, Author of “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams”
How did you sleep last night? Americans are chronically sleep-deprived. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” some say. And guess what? The research is pretty conclusive that you’ll die sooner without sleep. Getting less than six or seven hours of sleep a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubles your risk of cancer, shortens your life span and makes it harder for you to learn new things.
Will Corporate Tax Cuts Benefit the Rest of Us?
Guest: Mihir Desai, PhD, Professor of Finance, Harvard Business School, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Author, “The Wisdom of Finance”
Republicans in Congress have released their tax plan. It adjusts the current income tax brackets so that more middle-earners will qualify for a lower tax rate. It also boosts the standard deduction and child tax credit, but limits some popular deductions people can claim.
The heart and soul of the plan, however, is a permanent cut in the corporate tax rate. Republicans and the Trump administration are convinced the best way to turbocharge the US economy and get more money in the pockets of workers, like you and me, is to lower taxes businesses pay on their income. According to public polls, the American people are not so sure cutting corporate taxes is a good deal for them.
Who's Most Likely to Benefit from Companies "Repatriating" Their Foreign Cash?
Guest: Dhammika Dharmapala, PhD, Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Let’s take a closer look at the part of the Republican tax plan called “repatriation.” The idea is to encourage American companies doing business around the world to bring more of their international profits home to the US economy and invest it in their business here, create jobs here, pay more money to their workers here. Part of that $4,000-per-household-raise estimate from the White House Council of Economic Advisors would come from the repatriation of trillions of US dollars back from the foreign outposts of companies like Apple, Citigroup and Nike.
Meet the Secret Service Dogs Who Protect the White House
Guest: Maria Goodavage, Author, “Secret Service Dogs: The Heroes Who Protect the President of the United States”
When the President of the United States travels, he’s accompanied by 30-some vehicles, secret service agents, the press, aides, advisors, and often a dog like Hurricane, a Belgian Malinois with four titanium teeth. Hurricane is one of the dogs featured in a best-selling book just out in paperback called “Secret Service Dogs: The Heroes Who Protect the President of the United States.”
Is Owning A Car Still Worth It?
Guest: Todd Davidson, PhD, Research Associate in the Energy Institute and the Webber Energy Group, University of Texas at Austin
Do you wonder sometimes if it’s worth it to own a car? With all the maintenance and fuel and the hassle of sitting in traffic, I know I’ve wished for a better alternative at times. The Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin has come up with an online calculator to tell you whether it makes long-term economic sense to have that car in the driveway or to just rely on ride-hailing services like Uber when you need to go somewhere. It’s available for free at here.
10 Years of the iPhone (Originally aired Aug. 23, 2017)
Guest: Brian Merchant, Tech Journalist, Author of “The One Device, the Secret History of the iPhone”
In the next few weeks, lucky Apple customers who were first in line to order the new iPhone ten will finally have the sleek device in their hands. At the launch in September, Apple executives called the X “the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone,” which turns ten this year. Over the summer, we looked back at ten years with the iPhone and how it came to be.
Stopping ISIS Recruitment Through Assimilation (Originally aired Mar. 29, 2017)
Guest: Efraim Benmelech, PhD, Professor of Finance, Northwestern University
The man suspected of driving a pickup into a crowd in New York this week, killing 8 people, has been charged with terrorism offenses. He told investigators he was inspired by Islamic State videos and police say one of the suspect’s phones contained dozens of videos and images that appear to be ISIS-related propaganda.
ISIS has proven particularly savvy at using the internet to recruit people to its cause. The US and European countries are investing heavily in efforts to counter ISIS recruitment and prevent would-be martyrs from radicalizing. Efraim Benmelech of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management studies the economics of terrorism. His surprising conclusion is that wealthy, stable countries with small Muslim communities are those with the highest rates of radicalization. We spoke with him earlier this year in the wake of the ISIS attack that killed four people in London.
Xi is China’s New Mao
Guest: Eric Hyer, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science, Brigham Young University
Donald Trump will make his first trip to China as president during an Asian tour that kicks off this weekend. Other stops include Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. But let’s focus on China for now. President Xi Jinping has just begun a second five-year term and was elevated by the Communist Party to the same status as legendary leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Jiaoping.
Using AI to Understand Autism
Guest: Maithilee Kunda, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, Deputy Director, Vanderbilt Center for Autism and Innovation, Vanderbilt University
The scientist Temple Grandin has explained that some people with autism, including herself, think in a series of pictures, like a video stream or an old-school slide projector. They don’t think in words. Her work inspired computer scientist Maithilee Kunda to try to design tests that more accurately capture that kind of intelligence, and then to help those people who have it find jobs.
More Teenage Dads?
Guest: Maureen Pirog, PhD, Founder and Co-Director, Institute of Family and Social Responsibility, Professor, Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Babies born to teenagers tend to fare worse in the long run, financially and academically, than babies born to older parents. And social scientists are encouraged because the birth rates for teenaged mothers has been in steady decline. Rates of sexual activity among teenagers has also declined steadily since the 1970s, and the use of contraceptives among teens has gone up. But in her research into teen parenthood, one professor found that there were troubling trends in the rise of teen fathers.
Stories from The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
It Takes One to Tango
Guest: Winifred Reilly, Marriage and Family Therapist and Couples Therapist, Author, “It Takes One to Tango: How I Rescued My Marriage with (Almost) No Help from My Spouse”
We’re told that marriage is a 50-50 thing. It takes equal effort on both sides to succeed. And when it’s on the rocks, both partners need to work on a fix or the whole thing is doomed. But couples therapist Winifred Reilly says there’s a lot you can do to improve a relationship, even if your partner’s not interested in changing.
More Transparency in our Prison Systems
Guest: Heather Ann Thompson, PhD, Professor, History and Afro-American Studies, University of Michigan, Author, “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Rebellion of 1971 and its Legacy”
Over the last year, inmates in at least half a dozen prisons around the country have gone on strike or risen up in violent protest against the conditions they live in. There have likely been many more protests in prisons we haven’t heard about because very little information about what goes on inside actually gets out. If you call up the warden of your state prison and ask for a tour, you’ll probably be turned down. Even if you’re a reporter – and even if the prison is a government-run institution, as most are – you’re unlikely to get much in response to requests for information about how the prison operates. According to Heather Ann Thompson, this secrecy makes the system ripe for abuse.
An Unlikely Champion of Civility and Bipartisanship
Guest: David Axelrod, Director of the non-partisan Institute of Politics, University of Chicago, Former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama
Republicans and Democrats are farther apart than they’ve been in decades. Compromise is a sign of weakness. Crossing the aisle is so risky that a champion of bipartisanship in the Senate – Arizona Republican Jeff Flake – saw the writing on the wall and decided not to run for re-election. In announcing his departure, he lamented “the destructiveness of our politics,” the “indecency of our discourse” and the “coarseness of our national dialogue.” Who's to blame for this and is there any turning back?
SpaceX's Obstacles in the Pursuit of Life on Mars
Guest: Andrew Maynard, PhD, Professor of Future of Innovation in Society, Director of the Risk Innovation Lab, Arizona State University
NASA aims to send humans to Mars in about 15 years. Elon Musk – of Tesla Motors and SpaceX – plans to do it in seven years. And not just for a visit. His vision is a self-sustaining city on Mars where people can live, work and visit. The technical and financial challenges are immense, but Musk has already done a lot in space travel that NASA hasn’t been able to do. For example, SpaceX can launch a rocket into orbit, then bring it down to earth, land it upright and use it again. If anyone can built a city on Mars, I think it’ll be Elon Musk. But it won’t be without challenges.
Lightning Doubles Over Popular Shipping Lanes
Guest: Joel Thornton, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington
Here’s an electrifying correlation. In the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, lightning is twice as likely to strike over shipping lanes than it is to strike just outside the path where ships move. Researchers at the University of Washington believe the ships are attracting the lightning. But how?
Corn Maze Economics
Guest: Brett Herbst, Owner and Founder of The MAiZE, Founder of Cornbelly’s Corn Maze, Lehi, UT
Every Halloween, tens of thousands of people across the country drive to a corn field and buy a ticket to get lost in a maze carved through the tall stalks. Corn mazes are relatively new as a cultural phenomenon, and in some cases, an important revenue source for farmers.
The New York Times dubbed Brett Herbst “King of the American corn maze industry.” For 20 years, he’s been designing and building corn mazes. He now consults with farmers around the world on more than 200 corn mazes a year. His company is called The MAiZE (that’s M-A-I-Z-E, as in corn).
Click here to find a corn maze near you.
What's in a Font?
Guest: Douglas Thomas, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Brigham Young University, Author of “Never Use Futura”
What do IKEA, Vogue, and Louis Vuitton all have in common? Not fashion or style, but font. That modernist, blocky but super-clean typeface that all these brands use is called "Futura," and BYU graphic design professor Douglas Thomas argues that when brands use Futura, they're drawing on political history to sell you a democratic ideal.
Worlds Awaiting: Ghost Stories
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s Worlds Awaiting
Today we talk ghost stories: spooky, inspiring and friendly ghosts. Rachel Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Congress Debates War Authorization Power
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, PhD, Professor of International Law, Director of Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are currently testifying on Capitol Hill about something called an AUMF. It stands for Authorization for Use of Military Force, and, in 2001, Congress passed one allowing the President to go after Al Qaeda for carrying out the 9-11 terror attack. Sixteen years later, the US is battling terror across the Middle East and in Africa under that same authorization. But the foes have changed: ISIS, Al-Shabbab, Boko Haram—and with the recent death of four US soldiers in Niger, there are questions about whether that original authorization to go to war still applies.
Volcanoes, the Nile, and Social Unrest
Guest: Joseph Manning, PhD, Professor of Ancient History, Yale University
A volcano erupts on the other side of the planet and, two years later, an ancient Egyptian community erupts in violence. Could the two possibly be related? A collaboration of historians and climate scientists has concluded the answer is yes.
Explaining America to the French
Guest: François Busnel, Editor of “America: Like You’ve Never Read It,” Host of “La Grande Librairie”
A new literary magazine in France called “America: Like You’ve Never Read It” was founded in response to the election of Donald Trump, and it’s slated to run only through 2020. It uses American fiction and pop culture hits like The Simpons to explain America during the Trump presidency. The idea of explaining a politician through literature might seem odd to Americans, but it’s exactly the approach you’d expect from the magazine’s editor, François Busnel, who also hosts “La Grande Librairie,” a show that celebrates French literature and culture.
Marijuana and the Brain
Guest: Jeff Edwards, PhD, Associate Professor in Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology, Associate Director of the Brigham Young University Neuroscience Center, BYU
According to the National Institutes of Health, 70 percent of high school seniors don’t believe that smoking marijuana is dangerous. But researchers suspect that marijuana might permanently alter brain function in adolescents, essentially hard-wiring a teenage brain for addiction later in life. On a cellular level, the high from marijuana is more complicated than we used to think, according to new research out of BYU.
“Same Kind of Different as Me” and “Only the Brave”
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Reviewer at Parent Previews
“Same Kind of Different as Me” is based on a book by the same name that tells the story of a wealthy white couple struggling with their marriage who befriend a homeless African American man. “Only the Brave” is based on a true story about the elite wildfire fighting unit called the Granite Mountain Hotshots.
When is Gerrymandering Legal?
Guest: Jonathan Entin, JD, Professor Emeritus of Law and Political Science, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
When the Supreme Court heard arguments about gerrymandering earlier this month, protesters gathered outside holding signs that read, “Voters choose their Representatives, not the other way around.” Can’t argue with that, right? But voting districts are redrawn every ten years by whichever party is in control of a state’s legislature at that moment. And there are lots of ways to tweak the boundaries of a district to improve your party’s chances of winning in the next election. Politicians have been doing this for centuries. But suddenly the Supreme Court is weighing in on whether it’s legal. Why? And why now?
Preventing Relationship Abuse
Guests: Sharon Robinson, Co-founder, Vice Chair of the One Love Foundation; Jason Whiting, PhD, Couples Therapist, Professor in the School of Family Life, Brigham Young University
One out of every three women in America will experience some form of physical violence in a relationship during their lifetime. And the statistic is only slightly better for men – it’s one in four. It’s important to talk about recognizing and preventing relationship abuse – whether it’s physical or emotional. And those statistics should make clear that it can happen to anyone. Even someone whose Instagram feed shows what seems to be a charmed love life full of romantic moments and constant support from a partner.
Learn more about One Love here.
Uncomfortable Truths About Race in America
Guests: Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, Civil Rights Activist, Author; Loki Mulholland, Documentary Filmmaker
A couple of recent polls show about half of white Americans say discrimination against whites exists in the US today. That’s surely one reason why it’s common to hear people argue against the idea of “white privilege.” They may say, “I’ve worked hard for everything I have. So did my parents. I’ve received no benefits in life because of the color of my skin.” To the contrary, they may believe affirmative action has made being white a disadvantage in the college and job markets.
Filmmaker Loki Mulholland’s journey to understand just how being white has benefited his family across generations is the subject of a documentary called “The Uncomfortable Truth.” It’s currently streaming on Amazon and will air October 30th on KBYU for viewers in Utah. Mulholland’s story is particularly intriguing because his mother descends from a line of southern slaveholders, but she made her name as a civil rights activist, jailed for her participation in the Freedom Rides and targeted by the Ku Klux Klan.
What Happened in Niger?
Guest: John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Utah Valley University
Pentagon officials say four American soldiers were on a reconnaissance mission with a unit of Nigerien soldiers when they were ambushed and killed by group linked to ISIS. While few in the US public may realize it, Africa is an important battleground in America’s global war on terror. The deaths in Niger shine a spotlight on that, just as major gains are being made against ISIS in the Middle East.
When Your Boss is a Narcissist
Guest: Christopher Reina, Assistant Professor of Management, School of Business, Virginia Commonwealth University
It takes a healthy ego to be the CEO of a successful company, wouldn’t you agree? Enough confidence and charisma to take risks and make others believe you’ve got the answers…but don’t be narcissistic. We all know narcissists are bad for business, right? Maybe not.
Preserving Gaelic Culture through Music
Guest: Julie Fowlis, Scottish Folk Musician
The Gaelic language is only spoken by about 1 percent of people in Scotland today. But Julie Fowlis sings almost exclusively in Gaelic and proudly tours the world sharing the musical tradition she learned as a child. When Disney Pixar needed someone to sing on the soundtrack for the animated movie “Brave,” about a headstrong Scottish princess, they turned to her. Her new album “Alterum” is out on October 27, 2017.
The Golden Record (Originally aired Jan. 27, 2017)
Guest: Donald Hoffman, PhD, Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine
Almost 40 years ago, NASA launched a message into space aboard the Voyager spacecraft for any extraterrestrial beings who may happen upon it. Called the Golden Record, it’s a gold-plated phonograph record that carries pictures, music, and greetings from earth in 55 different languages. Ever since then, groups like the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute have been listening closely to satellite wavelengths for a sign that our message had been received, but so far there’s no word back from space. But, even if extraterrestrials found the Golden Record, could they make out the messages on it?
Workplace Satire: How to Look Smart in Meetings (Originally aired Jan. 9, 2017)
Guest: Sarah Cooper, Stand-Up Comedian, Author of “100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings”
Meetings are workplace kryptonite for a lot of us. Ten minutes in, professionalism evaporates – we grimace, fidget, roll our eyes involuntarily anytime someone says, “Let’s take a step back here.” Or “Go back a slide.” Or when the meeting comes to a standstill so two people can check their schedules for the best time to set up another meeting.
Each of these pet peeves appears in the book, “100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings.” It’s the satirical work of stand-up comedian Sarah Cooper.
Kenya's Election Do-Over
Guest: Daniel Nielson, PhD, Professor of Political Science and African Studies, Brigham Young University
The country’s elections have been plagued by disputes over vote rigging and stolen outcomes. So, when the country’s Supreme Court overturned a Presidential election in August and called for a do-over, there was hope the move would be an opportunity to strengthen Kenya’s democracy. It has not gone well. The rerun is supposed to happen tomorrow – Thursday – but may not go off. Concerns about violence at polling locations and in the streets.
The Tangled History of Halloween
Guest: Lisa Morton, Screenwriter, Author, Halloween Expert
Halloween is weird, isn’t it? It’s part harvest festival, with apple cider and pumpkin patches. And it’s part rowdy celebration, with trick-or-treaters running amok and adults dressing in costume. And it’s also part supernatural spookfest, with ghost stories and haunted houses. The strange nature of Halloween likely dates back to a peculiar Celtic holiday called Samhain. Halloween historian Lisa Morton has written about it extensively and joins me now.
America’s Soccer Problem
Guest: Rick Eckstein, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Villanova University
When the US men’s national team missed qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, Sports Illustrated called it “[t]he most embarrassing failure in U.S. Soccer history.” The team’s coach resigned, and there are calls for more changes at the top of the U.S. Soccer organization. But Villanova sociologist Rick Eckstein thinks that many problems with soccer in America start with our kids' teams. Youth soccer is becoming exclusive and expensive, and that is ultimately hurting the men’s national team.
Stories from The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Insecure, Outdated Computers Put Your Data at Risk
Guest: Douglas Schmidt, PhD, Associate Chair of Computer Science and Engineering, Professor of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University
Nearly 150 million people had their personal information stolen by hackers because Equifax – the credit monitoring company – failed to update some of the software it uses. In other words, the hack was completely avoidable. The software problem was known – there was even a fix for it that had been available for two months before Equifax was hacked.
The Sinister "Mormon Octopus" and Modern Religious Intolerance
Guest: Anthea Butler, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
A little more than 100 years ago, a Baptist missionary group published a pamphlet that featured an ominous map. On it, the Western United States are covered by an inky-black octopus centered over Utah. “Like a huge octopus, the Mormon hierarchy is fastening its tentacles throughout the Rocky Mountain States, and is sapping the very life-blood of American freedom,” read the pamphlet.
Who are these Mormons really loyal to – the United States, or their own church leaders?, the pamphlet asks. What will become of American democracy as Mormon settlers and missionaries fan out across the country? Looking back, such alarm might seem silly. But if you replace the word “Mormon” with “Muslim,” or “immigrant” or “refugee,” this ominous octopus pamphlet could have appeared on your Facebook feed yesterday.
Read The Mormon Octopus here.
#MeToo and the Global War on Women
Guest: Valerie Hudson, PhD, Professor of International Affairs in Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, Director of the Program on Women, Peace and Security
Allegations rolling in against high-profile men in Hollywood and other industries are stomach-turning. There’s a sense that a dam has been broken. The flood of #MeToo posts from women on social media sharing their own experiences of sexual harassment and assault has stunned a lot of people: more than one-and-a-half million posts thus far from celebrities and members of congress and the friends in your own Facebook feed. It shatters any notion that misogyny and mistreatment of women are a thing of the past.
East African Refugees Herd Goats in SLC to Strengthen Their Youth
Guests: Joshua Lloyd, Economic Empowerment Program Manager for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Salt Lake City; Gustave Deogratiasi, Eastern Africa Refugee Goat Project Coordinator
A third of all the refugees who came to the US last year were from war-torn countries in Africa – especially Somalia. And here in Utah there’s a large population of people resettled through the refugee program from Somalia and Burundi. They’ve collaborated with the International Rescue Committee to start an unusual business that taps into something their families may have done for generations. It’s called the East Africa Refugee Goat Project. Yep, goats.
Click here to access the project’s Facebook page.
Bad Air Leads to Kidney Disease
Guest: Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, Director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center, Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Education at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.
What do Beijing, New Delhi and Salt Lake City have in common come winter? Really bad air quality tied to something called an inversion, where warm air traps a layer of cold air and smog low over the city, lingering for days – or even weeks. A form of air pollution called fine particulate matter is of particular concern during inversions. It’s been linked to asthma, lung disease, heart attack and stroke. Now researchers believe it’s tied to kidney disease, too.
The Punny Thing about Words
Guest: Joe Berkowitz, Editor, “Fast Company,” Author of “Away with Words: An Irreverent Tour through the World of Pun Competitions”
Why is it that puns are more likely to induce a groan than a laugh? It takes a quick wit to come up with a good play on words on-the-spot. Can you imagine getting up on stage at a competition called The Punderdome to spit puns back and forth with someone on a topic you’ve just been given? Joe Berkowitz reveals the competitive world of punning. Who knew?
The Upside of Gentrification for Long-Term Residents
Guest: Professor Jonathan Wynn, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
The topic of gentrification brings out heated emotions in big cities like New York or San Francisco. It’s when the hipsters move into a run-down neighborhood and give it a new identity, complete with funky boutiques and artist collectives and coffee shops. The place becomes a cool new urban hangout and its original residents move because they can no longer afford the rent or property taxes. There are upsides for a city to have a rough neighborhood turn into a magnet for young urbanites, but we don’t hear those stories as often. And the thing we definitely don’t hear much is an argument for gentrification as the solution to what ails struggling small and mid-sized cities. Jonathan Wynn makes that case with us today.
The Case for Spanish Unity
Guest: Javier Ruperez, Retired Spanish Diplomat, Spain’s Ambassador to the United States from 2000 – 2004
Spain’s Prime Minister is poised to take an unprecedented move by the end of this week. His plan is to remove Catalonia’s separatist leaders from office and dissolve the region’s parliament to force new elections. Catalonia is a semi-autonomous region of Spain a little like a state here in the US. A few weeks ago, Catalonia violated Spain’s constitution by holding a vote for independence, which Spanish police disrupted with force in some places. Catalonia’s president has declared his intent to have the region secede from Spain. Just imagine California or Texas making such an announcement, and you can see why Spain’s central government is a bit upset.
Rebuilding the Smart Way after Natural Disasters
Guest: Mark Abkowitz, PhD, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering Management, Director, Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies, Vanderbilt University
America has been pummeled: Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Florida and Puerto Rico, and the horrific fires in Napa Valley, California. But as people return to what’s left of their homes and consider the prospect of rebuilding, now is the perfect time to ask whether we should rebuild in areas prone to natural disaster.
The Secret Life of Poison Frogs
Guest: Becca Tarvin, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin
Ecuador’s phantasmal poison frog has a neon yellow tiger stripe down its back. It’s a warning. Predators beware, this little frog produces a deadly neurotoxin. But here’s a puzzle: why don’t the frogs poison themselves?
Bringing Back an Extinct Tortoise
Guest: Gisella Caccone, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Director of DNA Analysis Facility, Director of YIBS MSCG Laboratory, Yale University
When Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands, the unique species he found there inspired his theory of evolution. Now, researchers are using the principles of evolution to bring back Galapagos tortoises that humans drove to extinction.
Challenges of Re-Using Rockets (Originally aired May 3, 2017)
Guest: Phil Larson, Assistant Dean for Communications, Strategy, and Planning, University of Colorado Boulder
Last week, a satellite launched into space aboard a special rocket built by SpaceX. What's special about the rocket is that it's reusable. About 7 minutes after it roared away from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral and released the satellite into orbit, the rocket came on home, touching down gently on a landing pad just off the coast. It's the twelfth time SpaceX has pulled off the feat of launching and landing a rocket. Up until just a few years ago, the rockets were for one-time use only. Which is a little like taking your car on a road trip and then sending it to the junkyard.
Women’s Wear is Far from Fitting (Originally aired June 15, 2017)
Guest: Anne Bissonnette, PhD, Associate Professor of Material Culture and Curatorship, Curator of Clothing and Textiles Collection, University of Alberta
It’s just a fact of life that our bodies change in shape and size as we age. Sudden, or even subtle, shifts in weight can require a whole new wardrobe. Why are clothes in the Western world designed so that even a slight gain in the hips or belly requires a new pant size? On the other hand, the one-size-fits-all sari from India is proof that clothing can both fit and flex with the normal shifts in a body.
How Bitcoin Changes the World Economy (Originally aired June 21, 2017)
Guest: Paul Vigna, Journalist, The Wall Street Journal, Author, "The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and the Blockchain Are Challenging the Global Economic Order"
The next time you swipe your card at your local 7-Eleven, think about this: Before the money can leave your bank account and end up in 7-Eleven’s, there are at least five different organizations that will handle your credit card information. It’s an invisible bureaucracy of banks and finance companies and government agencies that set interest rates, charge fees, and control nearly everything about the way we use money.
The electronic currency called bitcoin sidesteps all of that in a way that could save a lot of money. But bitcoin also has features that make it really attractive to drug dealers and hackers. So is bitcoin something to fear or embrace?
President Trump and the “Dishonest,” “Disgusting” Press
Guest: Joel Campbell, Associate Teaching Professor of Journalism, Brigham Young University
The relationship between President Trump and the Press is strained. And it’s a tad ironic, considering how avidly President Trump watches and reads news reports – and then immediately responds on Twitter. But in the last week, the President’s ire took a turn that has civil liberties advocates concerned. After an NBC news report particularly bothered him, President Trump tweeted: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!”
The American Writers Museum
Guest: Carey Cranston, Inaugural President, American Writer’s Museum
Two blocks away from that famous giant silver bean sculpture in Chicago, on the second floor of an office building, there’s a new museum dedicated to American writers. Not just Hemingway, Kerouac, Steinbeck…. Rapper Tupac Shakur and comedian Richard Pryor and chef Julia Child are in the museum, too. The exhibits are heavy on interactive technology, but light on books – you know, the bound paper kind – hardly any to be seen in the place, actually, other than as pieces of sculpture. The museum is getting rave reviews from attendees, but a more mixed reaction from literary types – for the reasons mentioned above. Let's find out what's going on inside the American Writers Museum.
What's the Point of an Education?
Guest: Steven Fesmire, PhD, Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies, Green Mountain College, Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Middlebury College
It’s college application season right now. The schools with the best career placement after graduation, according to The Princeton Review, include MIT and three other engineering or STEM-focused schools. And isn’t that what a degree is for, to help you get a job, launch right into a career? But what about education for its own sake?
Stories from The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Double Booking, Double Trouble?
Guest: Amanda Morris, MD, Anesthesiologist, Clinical Instructor, Stanford University
This may have happened to you and you would have never known it - only about four percent of people are aware of the practice. Did you know that it’s not unusual for surgeons to schedule two surgeries at once? The procedures may overlap just a little – or maybe a lot. And surgeons don’t always tell their patients in advance how this will all go down. If they did, would you agree to it?
The Sociable City
Guest: Jamin Rowan, PhD, Author, “The Sociable City: An American Intellectual Tradition,” Assistant Professor of English, Brigham Young University
When you walk through Manhattan’s Central Park you can forget that you’re in a city of more than 8 million people. Central Park was designed to shut out the city and the crowds. Compare that with New York City’s new High Line park, which takes in sweeping city views and is nestled right between buildings on an old elevated rail track. It embraces the city. The two parks represent opposing views of what parks and housing developments in the city should do: Should they provide refuge from the city or should they cultivate the street and sidewalk life that already exists in dense urban cities? Those are the questions at the heart of “The Sociable City.”
Catalan Independence, Russian Interference on Social Media, Bowe Bergdahl Pleads Guilty
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
DECLARING INDEPENDENCE
Spain’s top court has declared the Catalan referendum for independence invalid and two prominent activists for Catalonia’s secession have been jailed. The Prime Minister of Spain has threatened to take over some or all of Catalonia’s regional powers if its separatist leaders don’t get back in line with national unity by Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, tensions have flared between Iraq’s government and leaders of that country’s Kurdish state, which is also agitating for independence. Iraqi forces said Monday they seized a military base, an oil field and other key infrastructure from Kurdish soldiers near the northern city of Kirkuk.
Just what does it take for a region to succeed in declaring independence?
RUSSIAN MEDDLING IN THE 2106 ELECTION
Next month, executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter have been asked to appear before the House intelligence committee investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
BOWE BERGDAHL
Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl pleaded guilty yesterday to desertion and to endangering the American troops sent to search for him.
Divorce May Be Genetic
Guest: Jessica Salvatore, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Developmental Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University
If your parents divorced, you are more likely to divorce as well. Social scientists have long thought that this was because children didn’t learn healthy skills from their parents and they later repeated problematic behaviors in their own marriages. But a new study out of Virginia Commonwealth University shows that the risk for divorce could be genetic, instead of environmental. In other words, it’s not that children of divorce learn behavior that could lead to divorce, it’s that they’re born with genetic tendencies that put them at greater risk of divorce. Nature trumps nurture in this case, according to the researchers.
What 40 Years in Space Can Teach Us
Guest: Fran Bagenal, PhD, Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
The man-made object that has travelled farthest into space launched from Cape Canaveral on September 5, 1977. Voyager 1 and its companion craft Voyager 2 had a pretty straight forward initial mission – explore Jupiter and Saturn. They accomplished that within five years. And since then, it’s been a giant bonus bag of space insight. Remarkably, these two spacecraft are still communicating with Earth. Even though they’re 10 billion miles away and were built back when computers filled an entire room and phones were connected to actual wires.
Creating a Championship Culinary Program
Guests: Todd Leonard, Department Chair of the Culinary Arts Program at Utah Valley University; Madeline Black, Winner of the American Culinary Federation’s Student-Chef Competition
Today we have a delicious truffle-scented duck roulade finished in duck fat, with Utah honey lacquered duck thigh-riblet, pan seared foie gras with port and morel mushroom sauce, accompanied by potatoes gratin, celery root and pea puree, with rhubarb chutney and a summer vegetable medley. It’s the plate that won a national cooking competition.
Catalonia’s Culture and Identity
Guest: John Rosenberg, PhD, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Brigham Young University
With the Spanish region of Catalonia so top of mind in the news, we wanted to take a closer look at the place – its history, culture and how it’s developed a regional identity strong enough to make many Catalans want to break from Spain to form their own nation.
Worlds Awaiting: Detecting Bias in Children’s Literature
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s Worlds Awaiting
What should we do about racism in older children's books? History is history, says Wadham. Use examples of bias to teach children to think critically.
Is Coal Coming Back?
Guest: David Blackmon, Independent Energy Analyst/Consultant, Contributor to Forbes.com
President Trump repealed a moratorium imposed by President Obama on new coal mining on federal lands. And last week the EPA began the process of repealing Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which sought to limit greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. But there’s mounting evidence that the war on coal has already been won and rolling back regulations won’t bring it back.
The Sultan and the Saint
Guest: Alex Kronemer, Co-Founder, Unity Productions Foundation, Writer and Director of “The Sultan and the Saint”
The images of Islam in the press are so often connected with terrorism and violence. That perception is very much on the mind of the creators of a new film called “The Sultan and the Saint” that will be airing on PBS later this year about an encounter between Saint Francis of Assisi and the Sultan of Egypt during the Crusades, when the Christian army was intent on destroying non-Christians. Their story is a lesson for us today.
For more information on how to watch the film on PBS, click here.
Jack and Norman
Guest: Jerome Loving, PhD, Distinguished Professor of English, Texas A&M University
In 1981, Pulitzer-prize winning author Norman Mailer helped a convicted killer get out of prison on parole, largely because Mailer was so impressed with the inmate’s writing skills. Mailer even helped the prisoner get a book deal about growing up in the US prison system. And then, just six weeks after getting out of prison – the night before a glowing review of the book appeared in the New York Times – that prisoner, Jack Abbott, killed a New York City waiter and fled to Mexico.
It was a shocking turn of events that changed the conversation about US prisons and programs meant to help rehabilitate prisoners. It also brought condemnation down on Norman Mailer and other New York elites who made Jack Abbott a literary “It Boy” and seemed to ignore the fact that Abbott was also deeply disturbed. Jerome Loving details the story and its impact in his new book, “Jack and Norman.”
Running Out of Sand
Guest: Jodi Brandt, PhD, Professor, Human-Environment Systems Research Center, Boise State University
Sand is like the stars – innumerable. Endless. So why then did a group of researchers recently publish an article in Science Magazine warning of a global sand crisis?
Parent Previews: Happy Death Day
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
Have you seen Groundhog Day? Imagine that, but something more fitting for its debut on Friday the 13th.
Tech Transfer: Test to Identify Breast Cancer Growth
Guest: Marc Hansen, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Technology Transfer Office, Brigham Young University
More than 250,000 women in the US will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Most will undergo surgery to try and remove the tumor. They’ll likely receive radiation. And then, if the cancer has spread to elsewhere in the body, there will be chemotherapy. BYU molecular biologist Marc Hansen is developing a blood test that could tell doctors if a patient’s breast cancer has spread.
Mark Twain Has New Book Out
Guests: Philip Stead, Caldecott Winner, Co-Author (with Mark Twain), “The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine”; Robert Hirst, PhD, General Editor, Mark Twain Project and Curator, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
Mark Twain has just published his first story for young children. Yes, he’s long-dead, but the new book bearing his name is based on an unfinished fable recently discovered among Twain’s papers. It’s a story about a poor boy who eats a magic flower and can suddenly speak to animals. Mark Twain apparently told the story to his young daughters as a bedtime tale and liked it enough to jot down the outline in his journal. But he left off the ending. . . What good is a fable without an ending? That is where Philip Stead comes in.
Robert Hirst has been conversing with Mark Twain for more than 40 years through the reams upon reams of written material the author left behind. We get his reaction to Twain and Stead's "collaboration" and find out an insider's perpective on Twain's irascible (but surprisingly tender) genius.
Why We Need Safer Mosquitoes
Guest: Catherine Hill, PhD, Professor of Entomology, Purdue University
Mosquitoes carry West Nile virus, Zika, and malaria, making them one of the deadliest pests on earth. Most of us would be perfectly happy to see them wiped off the planet. And entomologist Catherine Hill at Purdue University spent 20 years working on that before she decided her quest would have unintended consequences. She now believes it’s important to proceed cautiously when looking to eradicate pests.
Using CRISPR to Fight Mouse-Borne Disease
Guest: Kevin Esvelt, PhD, Evolutionary Biologist, Director at Sculpting Evolution Lab, Massachusetts Institute for Technology
If we could wipe out mosquitos that carry malaria and Zika, why wouldn’t we? Or, what if scientists could alter the DNA of wild mice so they and all their offspring are immune to Lyme Disease and couldn’t pass it to ticks that could no longer pass it to humans and voila no more Lyme Disease? Brilliant!
That technology exists and Kevin Esvelt could do it. But before he goes tinkering with nature in such a big way, he’s trying to make sure we’ve thought through the consequences.
Trump in Times of Emergency
Guest: Christ Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
In the span of two months, President Trump has faced massive, fatal wildfires in California’s wine country, the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history and a series of hurricanes that have dealt significant damage to US states and territories. How well is President Trump handling these crises?
Wildfires in Northern California Continue to Burn
Guest: Gary Ferguson, Author, “Land on Fire: The New Reality of Wildfire in the West”
The latest emergency to test President Trump’s leadership is raging in Northern California. The pictures coming out of the area since wildfires began Sunday are apocalyptic: entire neighborhoods destroyed, lines of burnt out cars with wheels melted into the ground, the air thick with ash. More than 23 people have perished in the fires. More than 3,500 homes and business destroyed. And though 8,000 firefighters are battling the blazes, there is no prediction of when the fires will be contained.
Trell: Freeing an Innocent Father
Guest: Dick Lehr, Professor of Journalism, Boston University, Author, “Trell”
The murder of 12-year-old Tiffany Moore on a Boston street in 1988 was a turning point in the city’s fight against drugs and gang violence. Police believed the African American girl had been an innocent victim of gang gunfire. The pressure was on to solve the case and send a strong message about law and justice. A few weeks later, they arrested a man who would ultimately get a life sentence for the killing.
But they got the wrong guy. Fifteen years later an investigative reporter at the Boston Globe dug into the case and uncovered a host of police and prosecutorial wrongdoing. His stories led to the release of the wrongly convicted man. That story is now told in a newly published young adult novel called “Trell.”
Living with the Living Dead (Originally aired June 15, 2017)
Guest: Greg Garrett, PhD, Pop Culture Critic, Professor of English at Baylor University, Author of “Living with the Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse”
The undead are having a moment in Western culture. Zombies are everywhere – in the biggest shows on TV, most popular video games, and even lumbering their way into rewrites of classic literature, such as Pride and Prejudice. What’s behind this zombie renaissance?
Man Therapy with Dr. Rich Mahogany (Originally aired June 15, 2017)
Guest: Joe Conrad, Founder and CEO of Cactus advertising agency
In the US, men commit suicide three times more often than women. One contributing factor is the stigma still associated with men seeking help for their emotional wellbeing. The fictional Dr. Rich Mahogany offers “Man Therapy,” with a message for tough guys who think men shouldn’t talk about their feelings. It is a public service campaign developed with public health officials in Colorado with the mission to tackle mental illness in men.
The People’s Piano
Guest: Sally Reay, International Project Manager, “Play Me, I’m Yours” Project
When a refurbished piano with a wacky paint job shows up on a street corner somewhere in the world and the words, “Play Me, I’m Yours” are written on it, anything can happen.
Visit their website here.
Brexit and the EU Afterward
Guest: Sir Michael Leigh, Senior Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Former European Union Official
Brexit negotiations are finally, in earnest, underway between British officials and the European Union. But they’re hung up early on something. The EU wants to talk about the terms of the breakup – who gets what, who reimburses whom – in the split. Britain doesn’t want to talk about that just yet, it’s more interested in establishing what a relationship will look like after the breakup.
What’s Next for the National Monuments?
Guest: Robert Keiter, JD, Director of the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment, Wallace Stegner Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
The US Secretary of the Interior – in an internal memo published by the Washington Post – is urging President Trump to shrink the boundaries of several national monuments designated by previous presidents. That includes two very controversial ones in Utah – the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which was created more than 20 years ago, and the Bears Ears National Monument created just last year. Other national monuments on the list are recommended for changes that would allow mining or commercial fishing. President Trump has not said what he’ll do. The fact is, it’s not entirely clear what he can do where national monuments are concerned.
Corn Cobs Make More Efficient Biochemicals
Guest: Basudeb Saha, Associate Director of Research at the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation, University of Delaware
So much of the plastic in our life is made from petroleum, and manufacturers have been trying to replace petroleum with the sugar from plant materials like corn so that our disposable takeout containers and plastic spoons don’t rely on drilling for fossil fuels. But growing all that corn takes lots of fertilizer, and extracting the sugars requires chemicals and lots of water, so are we really protecting the environment with products that are made from plants instead of petroleum?
Stories from The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed
Sam sits down for a chat with storyteller Josh Goforth.
Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an
Guest: Denise Spellberg, PhD, Professor of History and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Author, "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders"
Freedom to practice one’s religion is embedded in America’s Constitution, but not all faiths get the same vote of confidence here. A survey by the Pew Research Center asking Americans how warmly they felt about various religions ranked Islam dead last. Atheists, Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, Evangelicals, Catholics and Jews all get a warmer reception than Muslims in American public opinion. And nearly half of US adults surveyed believe there is a natural conflict between Islam and democracy.
But, research done by University of Texas at Austin historian Denise Spellberg shows the founding fathers – and Thomas Jefferson, in particular – were thinking of Islam, right along with other faiths – when they enshrined the freedom to worship in our Constitution
Cries from Syria
Guest: Evgeny Afineevsky, Documentary Filmmaker, “Cries from Syria”
A report by UNICEF earlier this year concluded that children have paid the heaviest price in the Syrian Civil War, now in its sixth year. Thousands have been killed. Nearly two million inside Syria are out of school, because their schools have been destroyed and because schools have been repeatedly attacked during the war.
UNICEF says nearly six million children in Syria now depend on humanitarian aid – food, shelter, medicine – for survival. Almost half of them have been forced to flee their homes and are now living as refugees in conditions only slightly better than the danger they left behind.
It’s a tragic situation, which filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky witnessed personally in making his HBO documentary “Cries from Syria.”
Three World Events—Politics of Hurricane Recovery, Iran Nuclear Deal, Palestinian Reconciliation
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Quinn Mecham is a professor of political science here at BYU, and he’s also regular contributor here on Top of Mind, where he joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration.
Got an Accent? Get Therapy
Guest: Mary Young, Certified Speech-Language Pathologist, Director of Provo Speech Clinic, Adjunct Clinical Educator, School of Education, Brigham Young University
When you meet someone for the first time and they speak with an accent, do you immediately make assumptions about where they’re from, and even how intelligent they are? Though we’d like to think it’s the content of our communication that matters most, a lot rides on the way we say what we say. In fact, there’s a whole industry of speech and language pathologists who help people minimize their accents.
Your Social Life Affects Your Health
Guest: Julianna Holt-Lunstad, PhD, Professor, College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, Brigham Young University
If your doctor told you to get more exercise – or get more sleep – you wouldn’t be too surprised. But what if your doctor gave you a prescription to spend more time with friend? What business is your social life to your doctor?
Well, if your longevity is of concern to your doctor, then your social life should be, too, according to research done by BYU psychology professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad. In fact, she’d like to see social connectedness given priority by public health officials – right up there with eating a balanced diet and avoiding smoking.
The Equifax Hack: What You Need to Know
Guest: Christopher Peterson, JD, Professor of Law, University of Utah, former Special Advisor, Office of the Director, United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Just over a month ago, we got word of a big security breach at the credit-reporting agency Equifax. And since then, reports have told us to take immediate action to protect our identities. But how many of us have? What good can it do? Big hacks are getting so common, trying to protect information in one spot feels like stopping one hole in a boat that’s already so leaky it barely floats.
So how do know if this Equifax breach is one to really take seriously?
How Fair is the Nobel Prize for Scientists?
Guest: Caroline Wagner, PhD, Professor and Endowed Chair of International Affairs, The Ohio State University
The Nobel Prize is the most coveted prize in science. But it’s also a relic from another time, when scientists stayed in their own specialty lane and made discoveries in solitude. Today, international collaboration is the hallmark of big breakthroughs. Take the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded last week: hundreds of people from all around the world, and from a range of fields beyond physics, participated in the detection of gravitational waves, but only three American men received the award. In fact, the Nobel rules don’t allow the award to be split more than three ways. Has science outgrown the Nobel Prize?
On a Mission to Reach Young Muslims
Guest: Mohammed Amin, Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum
Mohammed Amin has been named one of the hundred most influential Muslims in the UK. Since the 9-11 terror attacks, he’s made it his mission to explain his faith to others. But he’s especially interested in speaking to young Muslims – helping them see the possibilities for their lives. And he does it by telling them the story of his own life. The son of poor immigrants from Pakistan, Amin grew up in the slums of Manchester to become a partner at the prestigious accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Visit Mohammed Amin’s website here.
Catalonia’s Separatist Threat to Spain and the EU
Guest: Mònica Clua-Losada, PhD, Professor of Global Political Economy, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Imagine if a state – say Texas – gets serious about seceding from the US and holds a vote about it. And the federal government sends soldiers to polling places to stop Texans from voting. Hundreds of people get hurt in the melee. And then imagine the vote goes ahead anyway and the result is a resounding “yes” for Texas independence. And then the Governor of Texas tries to have his state legislature formalize the vote, but the US Supreme Court says he can’t and then imagine a week of protests for and against independence in the streets of Texas while the rest of the world watches in disbelief.
That is what’s gone on in a region of Spain called Catalonia over the last week. Tourists know Catalonia for its beautiful capital, Barcelona. As early as tomorrow, Catalonia’s leader could follow through on his threat to declare independence from Spain. What happens next will have serious consequences for Spain and the rest of the European Union.
Smart Foam Detects Concussion Risk
Guest: Jake Merrell, President, XOnano Smartfoam, Mechanical Engineering student, Brigham Young University
A few weeks ago, researchers at Boston University announced they may have found a way to detect the degenerative disease CTE in football players while they’re still alive, which is a big deal because right now the only way to know if someone has it is by slicing up their brain after death. Which is obviously way too late to help the player. The focus on preventing concussion in football may also be of limited help in preventing CTE, because the latest science suggests it’s not those big bell-ringers that are the main culprit. Rather, it’s a lifetime of repetitive hits to the head that don’t even register as a problem for the player or coaches on the sideline.
But now those hits can register on the sidelines, if the player is wearing a helmet outfitted with sensors developed at BYU.
From the Vaults: The History of the Charity Bazaar
Guest: Leslee Thorne-Murphy, Associate Professor of English at BYU, Co-Editor of the forthcoming “Philanthropic Discourse in Anglo-American Literature, 1850-1920,” Curator of “Welcome to our Charity Bazaar,” an exhibit in the Harold B. Lee Library, runs through June 2018.
Soon the holiday bazaars will begin – you’ll be able to get handmade tree ornaments and jewelry, plus artisan jams and honey - all a bit overpriced, to be sure. But it’s usually for a good cause. The charity bazaar has a great origin story we’re going to explore for this month’s installment of From the Vaults—where we go inside the BYU library’s Special Collection. The library is currently hosting an exhibit called “Welcome to our Charity Bazaar,” and we’ve invited one of its curators to join us in studio.
Children’s Theater Meets Improv
Guest: Patrick Livingston, Improv Comedy Actor, Director, “The Glorious Story Emporium,” Young Company, Adjunct Professor of Theatre and Media Arts, Brigham Young University
Improvisational theater is a like a high-wire act coming up with dialogue, characters and laughs on-the-spot, never sure if the thing that pops into your mind will be a hit or miss with the audience. Improvising an entire play in front of a restless bunch of kids raises the wire a few feet higher and yanks out the safety net. Which is why it’s not done often. But they’re doing it at BYU right now.
Parent Previews: "The Mountain Between Us" and "My Little Pony"
Guest: Donna Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
Both of these movies show teamwork and trust, but in very different ways.
Women’s Rights in the Muslim World
Guest: Azza Karam, PhD, Senior Advisor on Culture, United Nations Population Fund
The King of Saudi Arabia has declared that, starting next summer, women will be allowed to drive. Women in Saudi Arabia have been campaigning for the right to get behind the wheel for decades, so the king’s announcement got quite a bit of attention. But is it an important change? What is the status of women in the Arab world today?
SNAKES!
Guest: Jack Sites, PhD, Curator of Herpetology, Monte L. Bean Museum, Brigham Young University
The study of snakes is called “herpetology” which derives from the Greek word “to creep.” And that’s apt: Snakes definitely creep a lot of people out. But BYU herpetologist Jack Sites says that’s because we haven’t been properly introduced to his slithering friends.
Blindness: My Second Sight
Guest: Vanessa Potter, Author, “Patient H69: The Story of My Second Sight”
Vanessa Potter woke up one day blind—or nearly so, but over the course of three days she eventually lost her sight entirely in a case that baffled the doctors attending her. She eventually regained her vision but the world never looked the same to her again. And after hearing her experience, the way you see the world, with your eyes, may never be the same, either.
Sticking Points in the Debate to Protect DACA Recipients
Guest: Charles Kuck, Immigration Attorney, Former President of American Immigration Lawyers Association, Adjunct Law Professor, Emory University
An important deadline is arriving for participants in the DACA program that gives two-year work permits to undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children. At President Trump’s order, a six-month wind down period is underway for DACA and no new applicants are being accepted. But there are tens-of-thousands of young immigrants currently safe from deportation under DACA whose two-year work permits will expire in the next few months. And this is the last day they could apply to renew the permit. Those who don’t could face deportation, unless Congress intervenes in the next few months.
Myanmar Dissident Speaks Out
Guest: Thein Than Oo, General Secretary, Independent Lawyer’s Association of Myanmar
The persecution of a Muslim minority group called the Rohingya in Myanmar is drawing international scrutiny to the status of the country’s fragile democracy. Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party control the civilian government, but the military in Myanmar retains significant power and it is conducting the violent raids on Rohingya villages that have caused half a million people to flee across the border to Bangladesh.
We are joined by a man who has been in a struggle against Myanmar’s military for decades. Thein Than Oo is a human rights lawyer and former political prisoner from Myanmar.
Realism with Restraint in US Foreign Policy
Guest: John Allen Gay, Executive Director, John Quincy Adams Society
What to do about North Korea’s escalating nuclear threats? How to stop ISIS and resolve the bloody civil war in Syria? What to do in Afghanistan, where more than a decade of American military presence has failed to bring peace and stability? What to do about Yemen, where millions of people are dying of famine and disease while Saudi Arabia and Iran play out their rivalry backing opposite sides of Yemen’s civil war?
These things are just a partial list of the complicated challenges facing world leaders. The question facing US leaders is how involved we should be in the conflicts happening outside our own borders. President Trump has said time and again that America’s needs and interest are his top priority. But speaking to the UN recently, he used another phrase to describe his foreign policy: principled realism.
How New is the New Wonder Woman? (Originally aired on Jun. 6, 2017)
Guest: Sarah Langsdale, PhD, Lecturer of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Texas
If somehow you missed Wonder Woman on the big screen this summer, you can still catch her streaming or on DVD right now. This summer’s Wonder Woman was a relief to fans of female superheroes, who were worried that Hollywood was going to offer up yet another one-dimensional take on female power rooted solely in sexuality or vengeance.
Why We’re Awkward (Originally aired on May 30, 2017)
Guest: Ty Tashiro, PhD, Psychologist and Author of “Awkward: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Awesome”
No one is immune to awkwardness, whether it’s getting a piece of food stuck in your teeth, forgetting the name of a former neighbor, or tripping over your own feet in a room full of people you’re trying to impress. But, for some people, life is a steady stream of awkward moments, and it turns out there is a reason why. But it's okay because awkwardness can be awesome.
Swipe Left? Not So Fast (Originally aired on May 30, 2017)
Guest: Jeffrey Hall, PhD, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Kansas
Online dating is no longer the taboo thing it used to be. Services like Tinder and Match are now common ways people of all ages find potential partners. But all the swiping and rating of people based on their photos may be ruining our chances of really enjoying the company of a date when we finally meet in person.
Discover your flirting style at Jeffrey Hall's website here.
How the NRA Shapes the Debate Over Guns After a Mass Shooting
Guest: Kelly Patterson, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
After each tragic mass shooting comes a spin cycles that’s now familiar: Gun control advocates press for restrictions on access to firearms and blame the NRA for blocking them. Meanwhile, the NRA goes silent. Up until Friday of last week, the NRA was posting multiple times daily on its Facebook and Twitter feeds. Since the shooting in Las Vegas, nothing. No public statements from the NRA in the press, either. And allies of the NRA in Congress say now is not the time to talk about gun laws, it’s the time for “thoughts and prayers.”
If the recent past is any indication, when the time to talk about gun laws does come, Congress is unlikely to make changes. How much credit can the NRA take for that?
How Soon Should I Patent My Idea?
Guest: Mark McCareins, JD, Clinical Professor of Business Law, Co-Director of the JD/MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Got a great idea for a startup? Some brilliant new software? Entrepreneurs often live on a shoestring and plow their savings into their projects. So, they may not place “get a trademark or patent” at the top of the to do list before, say, “building an app that works.” Besides, doing a patent right can cost thousands of dollars in legal fees. But, waiting too long to protect your ideas is a fatal mistake.
Pro Sports Joining the eSports Team
Guest: T. Bettina Cornwell, PhD, Head of Marketing Department, Director for Sports Marketing Center, University of Oregon
The Philadelphia ‘76ers, the New England Patriots, the Los Angeles Rams are just a few of the pro-sports teams with owners branching out into the world of professional gaming--video-gaming. Or “e-Sports,” as it’s called these days. A stamp of approval from an NFL, NBA or NHL investor seems as sure a sign as any that eSports are here to stay.
Cocoa May Prevent Diabetes
Guest: Jeffery Tessem, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science, Brigham Young University
We’ve heard a lot about how the chemicals in dark chocolate can have health benefits, and BYU researchers wanted to find out how these compounds, called flavonols, might work specifically to help people with type-2 diabetes.
Stories from The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Fun with Willy Claflin and Maynard Moose!
Healing after Disaster Strikes the Whole Community
Guest: Alyssa Bandford Witting, PhD, Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy, Brigham Young University
If you check out the crowdfunding site GoFundMe, you’ll see people raising millions of dollars to support victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas and for recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. After a traumatic event or disaster, the physical recovery is expensive. And what about emotional recovery? How does an entire community heal from mass trauma, whether it’s natural disaster, war or violence?
The Connection Between Big Chicken and Antibiotic Resistance
Guest: Maryn McKenna, Journalist, Author of “Big Chicken”
The emergence of bacteria resistant to antibiotics has become a global health crisis. We’ve heard about the need to stop using antibacterial soaps and how harmful it is to take antibiotics unnecessarily. But did you know that what we eat is also part of the problem? In particular, the US chicken industry has played a part in the rise of drug-resistant bacteria. It’s a strange and fascinating story, which journalist Maryn McKenna explores in her new book, “Big Chicken.”
Supreme Court Preview
Guest: John Fee, JD, Professor of Constitutional Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
The new term underway this week--with a full slate of 9 justices--is expected to bring some landmark rulings touching on religious freedom and discrimination, elections and organized labor.
FDA Moves to Stop Nicotine Addiction
Guest: Gordon Lindsay, Professor of Health Science, Brigham Young University
For the first time in its history, the Food and Drug Administration plans to limit how much nicotine is in cigarettes. The goal is to get the level so low that cigarettes will no longer be addictive. But the FDA does not plan to limit nicotine in e-cigarettes. Gordon Lindsay explains what’s behind the policy shift.
Picky Eating Might Be Genetic
Guest: Natasha Chong Cole, Doctoral Student, Division of Nutritional Science, University of Illinois
If you’re a parent, you’ve probably tried lots of tricks to get your kids to eat vegetables: blending spinach in a shake, bribing kids to finish their peas, threatening no dessert unless all the green stuff is gone. Are picky eaters made – or are they born?
Some of both, probably. University of Illinois researchers have identified some possibilities for picky-eater genes in children.
Why is Dystopian Fiction So Popular Today?
Guest: Jon Ostenson, PhD, Assistant Professor of English Education, Brigham Young University
The Hunger Games trilogy drew teens and adults alike into Katniss Everdeen’s dystopian world. Similar novels continue to captivate audiences: next week the latest installment in Paolo Bacigalupi’s young-adult Ship Breaker series will be out, and we've just had The Handmaid’s Tale brought to tv by Hulu. What’s the fascination with society gone wrong?
Professor Jon Ostenson has some ideas, and they’re not as bleak as you might think.
Helping Kids Understand Autism
Guest: Tony Attwood, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia
Even though the number of diagnosed cases of autism is growing, it is still widely misunderstood, especially by children unsure how to react to a classmate who behaves in ways they find mysterious. A whimsical, four-minute animation online has gained international acclaim for its accessible approach to explaining autism. It’s called Amazing Things Happen and Tony Attwood consulted on it as an expert on autism spectrum disorders.
See the video here.
Worlds Awaiting: How Technology Impacts Writing
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s Worlds Awaiting
A lot of people think that new technological forms of writing are corrupting language—that texting is turning us into terrible spellers and twitter is changing grammar. But these forms can also be used to enhance writing skills and help children engage with writing in all forms.
Puerto Rico’s Unfolding Disaster
Guest: Charles R. Venator-Santiago, PhD, Associate Professor with joint appointment, Department of Political Science and El Instituto: Institute for Latino/a, Caribbean, Latin American Studies, University of Connecticut
Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria caused major damage to the US territory, much of the island remains without power, running water, fuel or phone service. Puerto Rican officials are pleading daily for more relief from Washington.
Insurers Contribute to the Opioid Epidemic
Guest: Leo Beletsky, JD, Associate Professor of Law and Health Sciences, Northeastern University
Drug companies, doctors and even patients themselves have all been assigned some responsibility in the nation’s opioid epidemic. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50. More than two million Americans are estimated to be misusing addictive prescription painkillers.
A New York Times/ProPublica investigation found insurance companies are to blame, too. At times, they push people toward addictive opioid medicines that are cheaper than pain treatment that’s less addictive.
Getting Older Isn’t the Problem, Ageism Is
Guest: Ashton Applewhite, Author of “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism”
When’s the last time you joked about having a “senior moment” or lamented the aches and pains of getting old? How many times have given someone over 40 one of those hilarious birthday cards featuring wrinkly cartoon seniors quipping about sags and bags.
Can we just agree that, for all the jokes, aging is the pits? Well, hang on, says author and activist Ashton Applewhite: It’s not aging that’s our problem, it’s the ageist messages that have convinced us being young is better than being old.
The History of Protesting at Sporting Events
Guest: Richard Kimball, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
Fewer pro-football players knelt during the national anthem at NFL games on Sunday. Most teams either stood together, arms linked during the anthem or - in the case of the a few teams - knelt first as a team and then stood for the anthem. When the Baltimore Ravens took a knee before standing for the Star Spangled Banner, the crowd booed. The kneeling began as a protest for racial justice, but President Trump’s tweets reframed it as a question of patriotism – those who fail to stand during the anthem show disrespect for the flag, the country and the military, he says. Let’s have a look at the history of protest by athletes during the national anthem in the US.
Movie Reviews With Parent Previews
Guests: Rod and Donna Gustafson, Parentpreviews.com
Reviews of Flatliners, Battle of the Sexes, and Mully.
Tech Transfer: Breakthrough in Cellular Medicine
Guests: Dario Mizrachi, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology, Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Technology Transfer Office, Brigham Young University
Our bodies are made up of cells. Have you ever thought about how that works, exactly? Zoom out a bit from the individual cell and how exactly do they congregate to create a solid tissue or an organ? What holds the cells together in their structure?
BYU professor Dario Mizrachi has figured out how to slip molecules between cells that stuck together like super-tight Velcro, which could be a big breakthrough in delivering certain types of medicine.
How to Live a Climate-Friendly Life
Guest: Peter Kalmus, PhD, Author of “Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution,” Climate Scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
If you’re concerned about rising global temperatures and the problems they’re creating, it can be depressing to think how little is within your control. How much difference will it really make for the planet if you drive your car less, recycle your garbage and pay your power company a little more for renewable electricity? Not a lot frankly.
But making those changes – and some more radical ones like composting his own poop – brought unexpected benefits to Peter Kalmus’ life. For one thing, he says he’s happier - even though he doesn’t travel by plane anymore and feeds his family food that’s been discarded by grocery stores.
Tanner Mangum Talks Touchdowns and Mental Health (Originally aired Jun. 23, 2017)
Guest: Tanner Mangum, BYU quarterback
Tanner Mangum burst on to the Cougar scene in a blaze of Hail-Mary glory in the fall of his freshman year, 2015. Then he stepped back to the bench and graciously backed up starting quarterback Taysom Hill the next year, earning praise for his positive attitude. But, Tanner Mangum may have made his biggest impression yet, off the field, when he posted on social media a few months back about his experience with anxiety and depression.
Sports Watching: The Last Bastion of Appointment Viewing (Originally aired Jun. 23, 2017)
Guest: Mikel Minor, Senior Coordinating Producer for BYUtv Sports
Cable TV subscriptions are declining as more and more of us turn to internet streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. We don’t want to be forced to buy a bundle of cable channels we’ll never watch just to get the few we do watch. Streaming is cheaper, more customized and it’s on-demand. Plus, nobody seems to care anymore about tuning in at a set time every week to watch their favorite TV show live.
But sports is different. Mikel Minor says “sports is the last bastion of appointment viewing.”
Sitake Gets Ready for Season Two (Originally aired Jun. 23, 2017)
Guest: Kalani Sitake, BYU Football Head Coach
Coach Sitake remembers the lessons he learned from Coach LaVell Edwards, describes his team's culture, opens up about new season pressure and shares insight on balancing family and football.
History of Rohingya Persecution
Guest: Engy Abdelkar, JD, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University
In just the last month, nearly half a million people have fled Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh. They’re known as the Rohingya and a UN official says the way they’re being violently targeted by Myanmar’s military amounts to “ethnic cleansing.” A visit by a UN team to observe the situation was abruptly cancelled by Myanmar’s government today.
While the plight of this people is new to most of us in the West, the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar goes back decades and has roots in the era of British colonial rule, when Myanmar was known as Burma.
Orson Scott Card Takes on TV
Guest: Orson Scott Card, Co-creator of “Extinct” on BYUtv, Author “Ender’s Game”
In the opening scenes of BYUtv’s new science fiction series, three young adults have just come-to in a lake in the middle of a barren landscape. And they have a lot of questions for the soccer-ball-shaped droid suddenly floating in front of them. First and foremost, they’ve just been informed they were dead, and now they’re not. Orson Scott Card says a science fiction series about an alien apocalypse is a perfect way to explore big questions about spirituality, identity and human connection. Extinct premieres Oct. 1 on BYUtv.
A Veteran’s View of "The Vietnam War" on PBS
Guest: Bing West, Vietnam War veteran, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense in Reagan Administration, author of “The Village”
The exhaustive documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick about the Vietnam War is wrapping up on PBS. It’s difficult viewing. So many missteps and miscalculations. So much suffering and despair. And as we near the end of the 18-hour film, we’re left wondering what it was all for?
Vietnam Veteran Bing West says the documentary gets the lessons of Vietnam wrong.
Should Companies Apologize? (Originally aired Jun. 22, 2017)
Guest: Daryl Koehn, PhD, Wicklander Chair in Professional Ethics at DePaul University, Recipient of 2017 Master Teacher in Ethics Award from BYU Wheatley Institution
We learn in kindergarten to say we're sorry when we wrong someone. It's a basic tenet of good behavior. But only in the last decade or so has it become common for corporate CEOs to publicly apologize when their company makes a mistake. When it comes to corporate apologies, it turns out that saying sorry isn’t enough. Getting the apology just right really matters.
A Real Transportation Revolution Requires Ride-Sharing (Originally aired May 31, 2017)
Guest: Lew Fulton, Co-Director at the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program, UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies
Driverless cars are the future, judging by the billions of dollars being invested in them, and electric cars are well on their way to American roads. It seems that combining the two movements would guarantee cleaner air and fewer traffic jams, but, according to an analysis by the Institute of Transportation Studies, the only way to get to that future is by adding a third piece to the puzzle—ride sharing.
Ghosts of Twitter Past Haunt Job Seekers (Originally aired Jun. 7, 2017)
Guest: Steve McDonald, PhD, Associate Professor, Director of the Graduate Program of Sociology at North Carolina State University
When you post something to Facebook or Instagram, does it cross your mind how a future hiring manager might look it? What if you applied for a job and before you even got an interview, your social media posts were the first impression you made?
Hiring managers are turning to social media more and more as they evaluate job applicants. But without any clear guidelines on when and how such techniques are okay, there’s a lot of gray area.
Is Russia Really America's Big Bad Wolf?
Guest: Ronald Suny, PhD, Professor of History, University of Michigan, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History, University of Chicago, Senior Researcher, National Research University – Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg, Russia
We’re going to build a space station on the moon together with Russia – that word came today. Throughout the turbulent history of US-Soviet relations, space was one area the rival nations found room to cooperate. Interesting that we’re seeing this new space collaboration announced at a time when political tension between the US and Russia is so high. We’ve been slapping diplomatic sanctions on each other in a kind of tit-for-tat. And each week brings new revelations of just how hard Russia worked to influence the 2016 election, spreading misinformation and even running ads on Facebook aimed at amplifying social and political divisions in America.
Racial Stereotypes and the NFL
Guest: Patrick Ferrucci, PhD, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Colorado Boulder
There’s a lot of debate right now about whether or not a pro-football game is the place for political protest, and whether kneeling during the national anthem is an appropriate way to do it. If the protest is about racial inequality, an NFL game is, in some ways the perfect place, for it.
Internal Clocks Keep Us Healthy
Guest: Carrie Partch, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz
The problem with jet lag is not just that you’re tired, it’s that, no matter how tired you are, your body won’t sleep when it’s nighttime. Your internal clock is all messed up. And that’s not just a metaphor. Almost every cell in your body has a timing mechanism – a clock – with the ability to affect your sleep, your weight and even how well medicine works for you.
The Apple Seed: Stories and Tellers
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Music During War Time
Guest: Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff, PhD, Professor of History, University of South Carolina
Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez built their careers voicing the anti-war sentiment of the protest movement. But, as the new PBS documentary makes painfully clear, everything about the Vietnam War was complicated. And the same goes for the music of the era.
A DACA Recipient Speaks Out
Guest: Jose Franco, Recipient of DACA, BYU graduate
The clock is ticking on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – or DACA. It will expire under President Trump’s order in six months, unless Congress acts to protect the 800,000 undocumented young people who are currently able to work and study in the US without fear of deportation because of DACA. I’m joined in studio by one of those young people.
Here’s Why Many Conservatives Loved Graham-Cassidy
Guest: J.B. Silvers, PhD, Professor of Health Care Finance, Case Western Reserve University
Republicans do not appear to have the votes they need to repeal and replace Obamacare. But this latest attempt generated a lot of enthusiasm among Republicans because of its strong focus on giving states more control of healthcare funding. This won’t be the last we hear of the state-based approach in the bill – known as Graham-Cassidy – so let’s consider what it has to offer – and at what cost.
What a State-Based Health Care System Would Mean
Guest: Patricia Boozang, Senior Managing Director, Manatt Health
A lot of Republicans were keen on the latest proposal to replace Obamacare because it would give so much control to states in determining what health insurance looks like and how it’s funded. Health policy consultant Patricia Boozang recently published an analysis of the proposal’s impact on states.
History and Culture Define Race in America
Guest: Jacqueline Chen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Social Psychology, University of Utah
When you’re asked to check a box for your racial identity on a questionnaire – like the US Census – does it ever give you a moment’s pause? Maybe you’re white and the answer is automatic. Maybe your parents or grandparents married someone with skin color different from their own. So, which are you? Does race just mean skin color? Or is it as much about where you come from?
The way we, in America, think about race, is directly tied to the history of race relations in this country. And to prove that, University of Utah social psychologist Jacqueline Chen did an experiment comparing Americans and Brazilians on a series of questions about race. The results are thought-provoking.
Why We Need More Reporting About Solutions to World's Problems
Guest: Taylor Nelson, Manager of SolutionsU
The world’s got a lot of problems. The print, radio and TV news outlets are filled with them because, frankly, reporters love to talk about problems. You’ll have to dig a little deeper to find stories of how people are responding to those problems and what solutions are in the works. The Solutions Journalism Network launched several years ago with an aim to encourage more of that kind of news.
Fighting Your Insurance Company after Disaster Strikes
Guest: Phillip Sanov, JD, Insurance Attorney, Merlin Law Group, Houston
It’s been a month since Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston with torrential rains and floods. Victims have been busy with the unpleasant tasks of clearing debris, assessing the damage and filing claims with their insurance companies. Even though insurance companies are supposed to have your back when disaster strikes, the battle to get your claims paid can be as exhausting as the cleanup itself.
Having Technology Makes Women Less Likely to Approve of Wife Beating
Guest: Lauren Ferreira Cardoso, PhD Candidate, Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania
Men who beat their wives may justify it by saying, “She deserved it, she disobeyed me, she provoked me.” When it comes to spousal abuse, the University of Pennsylvania found that, around the world, women who have access to technology are much more likely to reject justifications for a man beating his wife.
Bison vs. Elk in the American West
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder and Editor of National Parks Traveler
Bison in the American West are a conservation success story. Tens of millions are said to have roamed the continent when Europeans first arrived. And then bison were hunted to the edge of extinction - there were only about 200 left in the 1960s. Conservation efforts have brought the bison back to around half a million head today in the US. They’re an especially popular tourist attraction in Yellowstone National Park. But bison are not universally beloved. In states with large cattle ranching industries, bison are considered a disease-ridden scourge. Kurt Repanshek details this bison battle in a new report at NationalParksTraveler.org – the nonprofit national parks reporting project he founded.
New Travel Ban and New Problems with North Korea
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, PhD, Professor of International Law, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
Last night, President Trump’s original travel ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries expired and he replaced it with a new ban that adds Chad, North Korea and Venezuela to the list. North Korea’s top diplomat, meanwhile, says his country now considers itself at war with the US and he blames President Trump for declaring it so on Twitter.
Breakfast Feast
Guest: Hana Kahleova, MD, Director of Clinical Research, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
The old adage that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” continues to get support from nutritional research that finds it’s even helpful for weight loss. But that doesn't mean you can eat a big breakfast, then eat a decent lunch and a good-sized dinner. But that’s not the point at all, according to new research.
What Ever Happened to Home Ec Class?
Guest: Natalie Hancock, President, Utah Association of Family and Consumer Sciences and Director, Family and Consumer Sciences Education, Brigham Young University
Students in middle school and high school today are expected to study reading, writing and arithmetic, just like they always have, but on top of the core basics, they’re also encouraged to study computer coding and foreign language at earlier and earlier ages. Electives like art, music and home economics (now called family sciences) can get squeezed out. And when budgets need to be cut, it’s ironically classes like family sciences that teach students about personal finance, as well as cooking and sewing, that can be first on the chopping block. There's a lot to lose, though, by cutting family and consumer sciences.
Giant Kaleidoscope Exhibit
Guest: Aundrea Frahm, Contemporary Artist, “We Revolve Ceaseless”
"We Revolve Ceaseless" recently opened at the Museum of Art here at BYU. It is a massive rotating triangular kaleidoscope with large mirrors on the three outer sides that reflect images of the day/night cycle onto the walls of the exhibit room. Viewers can put their heads into the kaleidoscope to see images of the seasons that rotate just like those fractured images in a toy kaleidoscope. We get viewers' reactions to the installation and speak with the artist herself about what it was like engineering art on such a large scale. The mirror dress that Ms. Frahm wore on opening night.
Lego Ningago
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
Behind the Scenes of “Jeopardy!”
Guest: Brandon Randall, Jeopardy! Winner and Brigham Young University student
Have you ever found yourself slamming an imaginary buzzer on the arm of your couch while watching Jeopardy! at home, while thinking to yourself – “Man, I could clean up on this game!"? This story is just for you. Brandon Randall, a BYU student majoring in English, made it onto Jeopardy! over the summer and walked away with $43,000 in winnings.
Fall Yard and Garden
Guests: Taun Beddes, Horticulture Professor, Utah State University, Utah County Extension; Michael Caron, Horticulture Professor, Utah State University, Thanksgiving Point Extension
It’s getting to be time – in many parts of the country – to put your flower beds to bed and ease your lawn into hibernation. Frankly, it’s time to do a lot of the stuff that’s not much fun yardwise – pulling up plants, raking leaves – the stuff a lot of us tend to let slide. So for some motivation – and some instruction on what to do and how – we’ve got our lawn and garden experts back in the studio.
The Artist’s Life
Guests: Lee Udall Bennion, Painter; Joe Bennion, Potter
The tiny, rural town of Spring City, Utah has only about 1,000 residents but it has attracted artists like the painter Lee Udall Bennion and her husband, potter Joe Bennion, who have made their home there for over 40 years. What does it really take to make it as an artist? Hint: possibly, working the night-shift at the dairy.
To check out Lee’s paintings, click here.
For Joe’s pottery, click here.
Should Medicinal Marijuana Be a Part of Mainstream Medicine?
Guest: Misty D. Smith, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Utah
US Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah introduced a bill last week to expand access to marijuana for research. He said, “While I certainly do not support the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, the evidence shows that cannabis possesses medicinal properties that can truly change people’s lives for the better.” Senator Hatch’s bill aims to make it easier for researchers to study the medical properties of compounds derived from marijuana. Misty D. Smith knows what it takes to get government approval to do medical research on compounds derived from marijuana. She studies a non-psychoactive component of marijuana called CBD and her research is funded by the Epilepsy Foundation.
When All Else Failed, Medicinal Marijuana Worked a Miracle
Guest: Emilie Campbell, advocate for medical marijuana and mother of a child with severe epilepsy
One of Dr. Smith's primary hopes in her research on marijuana-derived compounds is to be able to provide better information about how well they work and how safe they are in combination with other drugs to eliminate the guessing game people using marijuana-derived compounds for medicinal purposes currently face.
Emilie Campbell knows that guessing game intimately. Researchers are finding that compounds in marijuana, such as cannabidiol, or CBD, can help treat children with severe epilepsy. None of the traditional epilepsy drugs have worked for Emilie Campbell’s son Connor, who suffers multiple serious seizures on a daily basis. Out of desperation, she turned to cannabis oil. For a time, it worked well. But she says the lack of research on the right dosage and combination of marijuana compounds makes it a complicated guessing game to ease Connor’s symptoms over the long haul.
The Hobbit Turns 80
Guest: Carol Zaleski, PhD, Co-author, “The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings--J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams,” Professor of World Religions, Smith College
It’s the 80th anniversary of JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novel “The Hobbit,” which, of course, lead to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy that may have changed fantasy fiction forever. Let's explore that legacy and the work of C.S. Lewis, as well as the friendship between the two writers.
Cassini’s Space Mission
Guest: Linda Spilker, PhD, Cassini Project Head Scientist at NASA
After 20 years of watching its every move, Linda Spilker watched last week as the project she’d spent half her career on carried out a carefully-orchestrated suicide mission. Cassini is the probe that’s been sending back astounding pictures of Saturn and its moons until it completed its mission in spectacular style last Friday.
Anatomy Academy (Originally aired May 24, 2017)
Guest: Jonathan Wisco, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Translational Anatomy of Degenerative Disease and Developmental Disorders, BYU
When you tell a 10-year-old to pick a healthy snack or put down the tablet and go play outside, the inevitable response is “But why?” In response, you could launch into statistics about childhood obesity in America and the lifelong consequences of inactivity, but chances are it wouldn’t sink in. What kids need, according to BYU physiology professor Jonathan Wisco, is some hands-on laboratory experience. Several years ago, he created a program called Anatomy Academy that’s operating now in elementary schools around the country.
Merciful Judge (Originally aired May 24, 2017)
Guest: Douglas Hedger, JD, Chief Municipal Judge, Henderson Municipal Court
Courtrooms in cities and counties across the country are full of offenders who have problems with addiction or mental illness that drive a cycle of crime. Over and over again, judges will see the same faces standing before them, the penalties and jail time getting tougher with each offense. The cost to taxpayers only goes up, with little hope the offender will manage to get clean and stay out of trouble. At a certain point, Henderson Municipal Court Judge Douglas Hedger had seen enough. In 2008, he created a special program designed to help certain repeat offenders who are mired in addiction, mental illness and joblessness. It’s called the Assistance in Breaking the Cycle—or ABC Court.
Museum of Failure (Originally aired May 11, 2017)
Guest: Samuel West, PhD, Curator at the Museum of Failure
We all know Thomas Edison invented the light-bulb. But do you know he got it wrong over and over and over before it finally worked? In the face of so much failure, Edison famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” When it comes to innovation, failure comes with the territory.
Hence the new “Museum of Failure” in Sweden and a traveling display touring the globe. Coca-Cola Blak and a Bic Pen for women are part of the collection. Samuel West believes we should celebrate flops, not bury them.
Improving Government Response to Disaster
Guest: Holly Leicht, New York’s Empire State Development, former HUD official overseeing Hurricane Sandy recovery
It’s been a devastating month of natural disasters across Mexico, the Southern US and the Caribbean. Thousands of people from Florida to Texas are now in the early stages of what will be a long process navigating government bureaucracy as they attempt to rebuild their homes and lives. Holly Leicht had a front-row seat to the highs and lows of the government's response during Hurricane Sandy, while leading the federal recovery effort in New York and New Jersey. She's compiled a list of what works and what doesn't.
Read her report here.
Weapons of Math Destruction
Guest: Cathy O’Neil, PhD, Data Scientist, Founder of the O’Neil Risk Consulting & Algorithmic Auditing
Are you one of those “lucky” people who gets credit card offers every day? Well, the offer in your mailbox might be different from the offer in your neighbor’s because your credit score, your income, your outstanding debt and other factors are mysteriously processed by a number-crunching algorithm, and out pops your APR. But that mysterious process—that algorithm—might not be as objective as you think. Data scientist and mathematician Cathy O’Neil goes so far as to call these algorithms “weapons of math destruction."
When Tycoons Own the Press
Guest: Rodney Benson, PhD, Department Chair, Professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
The story of journalism’s financial decline is no longer front page news. It’s just a fact of life. Many national magazines and newspapers are now digital-only, because the web is where the ad money is these days. Local papers are laying off reporters, merging or closing shop. So when a billionaire like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos buys The Washington Post or Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs becomes a majority owner of “The Atlantic” magazine, hooray for the press! At least someone is willing to invest in journalism, right? Well, maybe.
Stories from The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed
Success of the Hand-Powered Well Drill
Guest: Christopher Mattson, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of Design Research Group, Brigham Young University
What started as a student engineering project six years ago has now brought water to more than 100,000 people in countries. It’s called The Village Well and it was designed right here at BYU.
An Immigrant’s Love Letter to America
Guest: Mitali Perkins, Author, “You Bring the Distant Near”
These days, America doesn’t seem like such a welcoming place for immigrants, but in Mitali Perkins’ new young-adult novel, “You Bring the Distant Near,” we get the hopeful story of three generations of Indian-Americans. The family, parents and two daughters, land in New York in 1973 wishing for a better life. And they get it. The book has been nominated for The National Book Award in Young People’s Literature.
Trump at the UN and Other Hot-Button World Issues
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University
President Trump's first address to the UN General Assembly was unusual in many regards: he called out North Korea by name, he disparaged existing the US' arms deal with Iran, he took jabs and China and Russia. But maybe he was just saying what many people in the room were thinking but would never say out loud? We dissect the President's address and also talk about his explanation of the US attitude toward refugees. And we explore how the Pentagon will likely move forward on the American ISIS prisoner in custody.
The Great American Citizenship Quiz
Guest: Solomon Skolnick, Author, "The Great American Citizenship Quiz"
In the past decade more than 6 million people have become naturalized citizens on the United Statesof America. To do so, they have to pass a citizenship quiz. Could you pass it? Do you know how many amendments there are to the US Constitution? Can you name one of the two longest rivers in the United States? Can you name one of the writers of the “Federalist Papers”?
Solomon Skolnick has recently published a new edition of “The Great American Citizenship Quiz,” which outlines all the questions and answers to the citizenship quiz. We reached out to him to ask him whether studying for this quiz really prepares people for US citizenship and whether most natural-born citizens have mastered this information.
How to Go to (and Enjoy) an Opera
Guest: Joshua Lindsay, PhD, Director of Opera Theater, Brigham Young University
Opera attendance has been on the decline in the US over the last decade. Only two percent of Americans will go to an opera in a given year. From one perspective, it's not hard to see why. Operas are long and a little stuffy. They’re almost always performed in a foreign language and the music’s just not as accessible as the pop songs most of us are used to.
But if you understand opera and do a little preparation in advance, you’ll probably enjoy yourself. So, we asked BYU’s new Director of Opera Theater, Joshua Lindsay, to give us some tips.
Want more of the music you heard in this interview? Here’s the full track list:
1. Prelude from Bizet’s Carmen, directed by Sir Georg Solti 2. “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” from Bizet’s Carmen featuring Tatiana Troyanos 3. “C’est toi!” from Bizet’s Carmen featuring Tatiana Troyanos & Placido Domingo 4. “Votre toast, je peux vous le render” from Bizet’s Carmen featuring José van Dam 5. “Ella giammai m’amò!” from Verdi’s Don Carlos featuring Ruggero Raimondi 6. “Stride la vampa!” from Verdi’s Il Trovatore featuring Fiorenza Cossotto 7. “O soave fanciulla” from Puccini’s La Boheme featuring Mirella Freni & Luciano Pavarotti 8. “Vissi d’arte” from Puccini’s Tosca featuring María Callas
Cities of the Future
Guest: Antony Wood, PhD, Executive Director, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Associate Professor of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology
The tallest building in the world is Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s more than 160 stories. But there are skyscrapers being built right now in China and Saudi Arabia that will go even higher. At what point does the potential height of a building max out? Could a building go a mile high? There’s an entire organization dedicated to these questions called the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Worlds Awaiting: Matching Younger Readers with Appropriate Books
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting, BYUradio
About Trump’s Tax Cut Plan
Guest: John Barrick, CPA, Professor of Accountancy, Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University
President Trump has called for “the largest tax cut in US history.” His advisers and Republican leaders in Congress hope to release a framework of their plan in the next week. The hang up, according to many press reports, is how to pay it. That’s always the hang-up, isn’t it?
Makeup Not FDA Approved
Guest: Steve Xu, MD, Resident Physician, Department of Dermatology, Fienberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Okay ladies--long eyelashes, plump lips, thick hair… sounds great, right? Well, not if that product causes serious skin irritation, which is what happened a few years ago with WEN Chaz Dean Cleansing Conditioners. The FDA got 127 complaints, and when they started investigating, they found that the manufacturer itself had received over 21,000 complaints from customers! Why didn’t the FDA get involved earlier?
A new study shows that more and more consumers have been complaining to the FDA about cosmetics recently, and the authors of the study have some insight as to why that’s the case and what can be done about it.
Girls Will Be
Guest: Sharon Choksi, Co-founder, Girls Will Be
If you walk down the halls of your local elementary school when it’s warm outside and come across a line of second-graders walking to lunch, here’s what you’re likely to see: boys dressed in loose basketball shorts or baggy cargo shorts down to their knees, t-shirts in bold colors with graphics pronouncing themselves “Hero” or “#Awesome” and girls with tighter fitting shorts cut six inches above the knee and t-shirts in muted colors with ruffles and sparkles.
When her daughter Maya was about this age, Sharon Choksi found that she couldn’t find any clothes Maya liked because the girls’ clothes were too tight, skimpy or frilly, and the boys’ clothes were too baggy and bulky. So the former McKinsey consultant decided she would start her own company to provide the clothes girls like her daughter want.
The SHEL: An Insulated Tent for Your Hammock
Guest: Caleb Lystrup, Co-founder, Khione
People who are hooked on hammocks take them to the park—you’ve seen them all summer---and camping, which seems great, in theory. But with just that thin layer of nylon between you and the nighttime air, it can get so cold sleeping in a hammock.
The problem of a cold backside on a camping trip last summer launched two BYU graduate students on a quest that has resulted in a new business and big success with a Kickstarter campaign. One of the founders joined us in studio.
Close Encounters Turns 40
Guest: Rod and Donna Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com; Shawn O'Neill, BYUradio
The enduring legacy of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Imaging Innovation
Guests: Dallin Durfee, PhD, Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University; Spencer Rogers, Technology Transfer Office, Brigham Young University
To get an accurate sense of something very small typically requires getting up close. The microscope’s lens needs to be practically right on the thing, if it’s really small. And that’s not always practical or safe. Imagine you’re a disease researcher and you suspect that there are some deadly parasite larvae, on a log across a field. You want to inspect them, but you don't want to get too close. Turns out, lasers can do the work of microscopes.
Memories of the Civil Rights Struggle
Guests: Samuel Walker, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska at Omaha; J. Bonner Ritchie, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Organizational Behavior, Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University, Former Dean, Woodbury School of Business, Utah Valley University
A viral photo taken during the race-related protests in Charlottesville made an impression on a lot of people. In the background, you can see a man raising his arm in a Nazi salute, another wears a scarlet KKK hood, and a third holds a Confederate flag. Standing calmly in front of them, guarding a barrier to protect the protesters, is a police officer in uniform. And he’s black. He’s protecting the free speech rights of men who wish him harm.
So much in that image speaks to the progress of race relations in America – and the work left to be done. This hour we’re going to reflect on some of that work from the perspective of two men whose rights were never threatened; they are white, but became allies in the Civil Rights Movement. And what they learned during those years of struggle lead them to work for peace and justice throughout their academic careers.
Canada Turns 150
Guests: Earl Fry, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University; Chris Hodson, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young Unversity; Brenden Rensink, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University; Dale Cressman, PhD, Professor of Communications, Brigham Young University
Canada doesn’t get much love or attention from us Americans, but this is an hour spent celebrating and discussing the 150th anniversary of our neighbor to the north. There’s an awful lot to Canada beyond maple syrup, hockey and handsome young Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Together these experts know what life is like and how Canada varies from east to west. Plus, Greg Wrubell, voice of the Cougars shares memories of his childhood in Canada and even sings its national anthem for us!
BONUS! Hear BYUradio's Voice of the Cougars Greg Wrubell sing "O Canada" and talk about why he loves being Canadian
Assessing Trump’s Relationship with Congress
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
President Trump had dinner last night with the top Democrats in the House and Senate – Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer - and for the second time in two weeks, he struck a deal with them – to the dismay of his fellow Republicans in Congress. Last week, it was a deal to temporarily raise the debt ceiling. Last night, it was a deal to protect from deportation thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. The purported deal with the Dems also included funding for increased border security, but not to build the wall Trump promised.
Is Victory in Afghanistan Possible?
Guest: Shadman Bashir, LLM, Visiting Professor of Law and International Relations, Dixie State University
After a period of pulling back, America’s longest-running military conflict is heating up again. Last month, the US dropped more than 500 bombs in Afghanistan aimed at Taliban and Islamic State targets. That’s the highest number in a single month since 2012, according to Air Force statistics. President Donald Trump last month also committed to doing what it takes to win the war in Afghanistan.
Thanks A Million
Guest: Jacqui Shine, Historian and Writer
Some people called Percy Ross “America’s Rich Uncle.” He had a rags-to-riches story and spent more than a decade giving his money away in small increments to people who bothered to ask. He purchased a space heater for a family living in an unheated basement, paid a $300 light bill for a woman supporting her disabled brother, bought dance lessons for an elderly woman trying to impress her new beau. Percy Ross did all of this in public style through a newspaper column that ran for more than a decade in papers across the country until 1999 when he stopped writing because he said he’d given away the whole wad. Ross did have his critics who found his particular style of charity a bit too vulgar.
Teaching Civics During the Trump Era (Originally aired Jan. 25, 2017)
Guest: Brent Chowen, PhD, Professor in the School of Education, BYU
Today’s American high schoolers will come of voting age during the presidency of Donald Trump and that will influence their political ideals, as well as their perceptions of how democracy works. Every president leaves an imprint on voters in that way.
High school history and civics teachers will shoulder much of the burden in helping the Trump Generation place current events into context. Let’s consider what tools and techniques they have at their disposal.
Using Twitter to Track the Flu (Originally aired May 25, 2017)
Guest: Alessandro Vespignani, PhD, Professor of Physics, Computer Science and Health Sciences, Northeastern University
Have you ever been so miserable with the flu, complete with fever, stuffy nose, body aches, coughs that keep you up at night, that you felt like you had to tweet about it? Well if you ever have, someone may have used your tweet to track the flu in real time. And that someone could be Alessandro Vespignani, a professor of physics, computer science and health sciences at Northeastern University. He has successfully answered the CDC’s 2013 challenge to figure out how to predict the influenza season and his method involves social media, not doctors’ reports.
Racial Violence in America: History Informs the Present (Originally aired Oct. 13, 2016)
Guest: Ryan Gabriel, PhD, BYU Sociology Professor
On Wednesday, Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the US Senate, met with President Trump and advised him to avoid the kinds of statements he made after the racial violence in Charlottesville when the President said “many sides” were to blame. According to The Washington Post, Senator Scott pointed to “three centuries of history” of violence that still informs race relations today. BYU sociology professor Ryan Gabriel studies how a legacy of racial violence gets passed down in communities.
How to Decide Where to Donate for Hurricane Relief
Guest: Eva Witesman, PhD, Associate Professor, George Romney Institute of Public Management, Marriott School, Brigham Young University
The back-to-back storms Harvey and Irma caused tens of billions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses and community infrastructure. People need our help and we’re told that sending money is the best way to do it. But where to give? And how to know that what you’re giving is going to help someone in need, rather than to the salary of a nonprofit executive?
Preparing for Disaster
Guest: Ron Harris, PhD, Professor of Geology, Brigham Young University, Founder, In Harm's Way
While Hurricanes Harvey and Irma flattened and flooded the southern US, fires raged in the Northwest, and Mexico was hit by its strongest earthquake in a century. With natural disasters all around us, let’s spend a moment thinking about how to prepare for one.
Lots of "Fear of Others" Among Religious Americans
Guest: Jerry Park, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, Baylor University, Affiliate Fellow, Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion
Christians, Jews, Muslims and those with no particular religion all preach the importance of loving your fellow man, but a new survey shows we’re a lot more judgmental of one another that we might like to admit. The latest Baylor University Religion Study finds, for example, that church-goers of all stripes look down on atheists as being morally inferior. But non-religious types look down on Christians for the same reason. So, we’re all pretty much looking down on each other? But it doesn’t stop there – we also admit to being afraid of other religious groups. So much for peace, love and understanding?
Apple Seed Stories
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam shares a story from Donald Davis about his best childhood Christmas: "The Red Scooters."
Bringing the Refugee Plight to American Hearts
Guest: John Lawrence, MD, President, US Board of Directors, Doctors Without Borders
Years of headlines about the global refugee crisis have had a numbing effect on a lot of us. The scale of the suffering is so large and far away from our lives in the US, it’s hard to stay engaged with the issue.
So, the international aid group Doctors Without Borders is bringing the experience to Americans. A free exhibit traveling to West Coast cities this fall simulates what it’s like to be a refugee: The rush to grab what you can and flee your home; the risky sea crossing in an inflatable raft crammed in with other exhibit visitors. There are tents to show how refugees live in camps and a medical tent where you can see how volunteer doctors work under challenging conditions.
Taking a Cue From the Men Who Supported the Suffrage Movement
Guest: Brooke Kroeger, Professor of Journalism, New York University, Author of “The Suffragents: How Women Used Men To Get the Vote"
In about a week at the United Nations in New York, ten heads of state, ten global CEOs and ten university presidents – all men – will gather to draw attention to women’s rights and empowerment. These thirty men are what the UN’s HeForShe initiative call’s “impact champions.” They include the Presidents of Iceland, Sweden and Japan, as well as the CEOs of Unilever, Barclays and McKinsey.
If you wanted to be cheeky, you could call them “suffragents.” That’s how a group of prominent businessmen and politicians were known for their efforts to support women’s suffrage nearly 100 years ago. NYU Journalism Professor Brooke Kroeger tells their story in her new book, “The Suffragents: How Women Used Men To Get the Vote."
Three World Events: UN Sanctions on NK, Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar, Independence Referenda
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Why sanctions won't work against North Korea; the roots of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar; referenda on independence in Kurdish Iraq and in Catalonia, Spain.
Money Won't Get You to the Gym
Guest: Mark Stehr, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University
Do you think you would go to the gym more if you got paid to do it? Think again. A new study indicates that money has very little effect on American exercise habits.
Young Athletes in Danger
Guest: Neeru Jayanthi, MD, Sports Medicine Physician, Emory University
Tiger Woods started golfing at the age of three. Serena Williams picked up her first tennis racket at the age of four and went pro at 14. Swimmer Missy Franklin had won four Olympic gold medals by the age of 17. The message is clear – great athletes start young. But Tiger, Serena and Missy have also all experienced serious injuries related to their sport. Dr. Neeru Jayanthi studies injuries in young athletes and says the risk seems to be increasing as more and more kids specialize in one sport from an early age.
A New Digital Handshake
Guest: Amy Schmitz, JD, Professor of Law, University of Missouri School of Law
Has this ever happened to you? You spend $15 on a bottle of hair product online that turns out to be a knock off of the real thing. You can't find any contact info on the website to log your complaint, so after about 20 minutes of angry searching for a way to reach someone at the company, you drop it and vow to be smarter about buying stuff from random websites. Maybe you worked harder to get a refund because your purchase was worth more than $15. Still, it's a huge hassle. Where customer service is concerned, the web is still pretty much the Wild West and sellers count on you not having the time or resources to follow through on a complaint. But we may be at a tipping point. Online purchasing is so ubiquitous that customers and regulators are beginning to call for dispute resolution standards.
Schooling Isn't Learning
Guest: Lant Pritchett, PhD, Professor of International Development, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
One of the great international development success stories of the last century is the fact that today practically every child in the world enrolls in school, and most attend at least to the end of primary school. Getting to this place has taken a consistent, global effort. But, for all that schooling, kids are not learning. There are some 250 million children around the world unable to read, write or do basic math and more than half of them are in school. We have a learning crisis.
Men Marrying Up
Guest: Arthur Sakamoto, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University
In your grandmother's time, women might have claimed to go to college just to pursue a "MRS" degree. But that's a byegone era and women now earn more bachelor's degrees than men do. Turns out, in a marriage, husbands are benefitting more from their wives' education than the women themselves are. New research out of Texas A&M reveals that there's an unexpected consequence of women's success in the workplace.
How to Recover When You’ve Lost Everything
Guest: Laurie Nadel, PhD, Psychotherapist, Hurricane Sandy survivor, Author, “The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes”
People from Texas to Florida will spend the coming months and years rebuilding their homes and lives after the devastating hurricanes and flooding of the last few weeks. Irma is still churning her way up the Gulf Coast, no longer a hurricane, but still a large, powerful storm.
Psychotherapist Laurie Nadel had built a career helping people overcome trauma when, in 2012, she lost her own home to Hurricane Sandy. She would go on to lead support groups for Sandy survivors and has a forthcoming book about healing from a disaster.
Talking to Your Teen about Social Media
Guest: Ana Homayoun, Author, “Social Media Wellness: Helping Tweens and Teens Thrive in an Unbalanced World”
You’ve heard of Snapchat, but have you ever used it? How about Tumblr, WhatsApp or AskFm? If you’ve got a teen or tween in the house, they know exactly what those sites are and probably use them more than you think. What’s the best way to talk to your kid about what they’re up to on social media? How can you help your kids spend less time looking at their phones without coming across as overbearing and out-of-touch?
Saving Lives with Medicine Pouch
Guest: Robert Malkin, PhD, Professor of the Practices of Biomedical Engineering and Global Health, Duke University
More than one million children in the world have HIV. Many of them got it from their mothers at birth. Transmission of the virus from mother to child can be prevented if the baby receives HIV drugs soon after being born. But many babies in the developing world are born at home and either don’t get the medicine or receive it too late.
That’s why Duke University Professor Robert Malkin and his engineering students invented the Pratt Pouch—it’s like a ketchup packet of antiretroviral drugs that can last up to a year and doesn’t need any refrigeration. The mother just tears it open and squeezes the medicine into her baby’s mouth after birth.
Legal Marijuana Hurts Students’ Grades
Guest: Ulf Zoelitz, PhD, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Behavior and Inequality Research Institute
More than half the states in the US have legalized marijuana use in some form, and as more proponents of recreational marijuana use push to change state laws, it’s helpful to look abroad to understand the consequences of marijuana use. Two economists from the Netherlands—where recreational cannabis consumption has been decriminalized for four decades—decided to take a closer look at the effect marijuana has on students and found, maybe unsurprisingly, that the less you smoke, the better you’ll do in school.
Parent Previews: Home Again
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
The Demise of Nuclear Power
Guest: Jeremy Carl, PhD, Research Fellow and Director of Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Just a decade ago, there was talk of a “nuclear renaissance” in the US. Plans were in the works for several new nuclear plants – the first to be built in the US in 40 years. But a couple of weeks back, construction was abandoned on two of those new nuclear reactors – they’re not even halfway built but had already cost 9-billion dollars. And the energy companies building them decided just to cut their losses and walk away. The future of nuclear power in America looks bleak at the moment. But Jeremy Carl says it’s not too late to save it.
The Hello Girls
Guest: Elizabeth Cobbs, PhD, Author, “The Hello Girls: America’s First Women Soldiers,” Melbern Glasscock Chair, Texas A&M University, Senior Fellow, Stanford University’s Hoover Institution
They were America’s first women soldiers. On the front lines in France, they ran the telephone switchboards that allowed men in the trenches to get battle instructions from their commanders. One of the female telephone operators even received a Distinguished Service Medal from US Army General John Pershing. But when the Hello Girls came home, the government denied they’d ever been real soldiers, refused to give them bonus pay or veteran’s benefits or even military funerals.
Award-winning historian Elizabeth Cobbs’ new book, “The Hello Girls,” preserves the story of America’s first women soldiers and their fight for recognition after the war.
Dirt Is Good
Guest: Dr. Jack Gilbert, PhD, Director of the Microbiome Center, Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Chicago, Author, “Dirt is Good”
Sweaty children running around chasing the dog in the mud would be a nightmare for most moms. But a new book called "Dirt is Good" teaches that from a microbial perspective, dirt is great for kids. So are dogs. And farm animals. And, by the way, if your baby’s pacifier hits the ground, go ahead and clean it by sucking on it yourself for a moment.
Can Politicians Block Followers on Social Media?
Guest: Lyrissa Lidsky, JD, Dean, University of Missouri School of Law
Is it legal for elected officials to block people from their Facebook pages or Twitter feeds? President Donald Trump’s done it enough to attract a lawsuit alleging his blocking of people on Twitter violates freedom of speech. The ACLU makes a similar argument in suing, or threatening to sue, governors and members of Congress who, in a number of states, have blocked people from official social media sites. This question is an active debate among Constitutional lawyers right now.
The Happiness Equation
Guest: Neil Pasricha, Author, “The Happiness Equation,” and “Two Minute Mornings: A journal to win your everyday,” blogger at 1000AwesomeThings.com, Director, Institute for Global Happiness
If you had to name 1000 awesome things in your life, could you do it? Is your life that great? Neil Pasricha thinks his life is and here are some of the things on list: #990 – Picking up a Q and U at the same time in Scrabble. #840 – Popping Bubble Wrap. #400 – Putting Your Own Shoes On After Bowling. #168 – When the meeting ends early. During a time in his life that was tough, he started a blog called “1000 Awesome Things,” which turned into a couple of books, a viral Ted talk and an entire foundation devoted to promoting happiness and gratitude. Neil Pasricha’s latest effort is a pocket-sized journal called “Two Minute Mornings: A Journal to Win Your Every Day.”
New Shows on BYUradio: Special Collections and In Good Faith
Guests: Mark Burns, Host, “Special Collections: Radio Tours To All the Cool places,” BYUradio; Steven Kapp Perry, Host, “In Good Faith,” BYUradio
This fall, BYUradio has launched several new shows that we hope you’ll love. Their hosts will give a peek into our new fall lineup. "Special Collections" is a show about museums of all sizes and scope. "In Good Faith" is a conversation with people of all faiths about when they recognized God or a higher power in their life.
Caffeine Can Kill (Originally aired June 7, 2017)
Guest: Barbara Crouch, PharmD, Clinical Professor of Pharmacotherapy at University of Utah; Director of the Utah Poison Control Center
Caffeine perks you up and can give you the jitters if you overdo it, but did you know that at high enough concentrations it can be very dangerous – even deadly? Getting to that threshold is easier than you might think.
Octopus Arms Have Minds of Their Own (Originally aired May 9, 2017)
Guest: Sy Montgomery, Author, “The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness”
Having an extra hand would certainly be convenient from time to time, but imagine if that extra appendage also had a mind of its own. What if it even had a bit of its own personality – like if it preferred to draw with pen, rather than pencil? That’s bizarre to consider, but for an octopus, it may be true, because the octopus has more than half of its neurons located on its eight arms instead of having them all concentrated in its brain like humans.
Helping a Child with Overeating (Originally aired April 17, 2017)
Guest: Michelle Maidenberg, PhD, President and Clinical Director of Westchester Group Works, Author of “Free Your Child from Overeating”
More than one-third of children and teens in the United States are overweight or obese, which means there are millions of parents across the country grappling with how to help their children reach a healthier weight, without making the problem worse. It can be agonizing. What if a parent’s well-meaning efforts backfire and the child develops an eating disorder? What if encouraging your child to make better food choices just leads them to indulge further? There’s so much emotion – and so much at stake – for parents in this situation; many are simply paralyzed, unsure what to do.
Check out Maidenberg's website here.
When Police and Hospital Staff Collide
Guest: Teneille Brown, JD, Professor of Law, University of Utah
The incident took place at the end of July, but police body cam video released on Friday turned it into a national story. In it, you see a nurse in the burn unit at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City explaining to a police officer that she can’t let him draw blood from an unconscious patient who was involved in a fatal traffic accident.
The nurse has a supervisor on speakerphone helping her explain the hospital policy, but the police officer isn’t satisfied. Moments later he grabs the nurse roughly and puts her in handcuffs as she screams for help.
Salt Lake City’s mayor and chief of police issued apologies after the video went viral. The police officer in the video has been placed on administrative leave and hospital staff say they’ve changed their policies: nurses will no longer be allowed to interact with law enforcement agents. There are still a lot of legal questions surrounding this incident.
Deflating the Nuclear Football
Guest: Tom Collina, Director of Policy, Ploughshares Fund
North Korea claims to have tested a nuclear weapon over the weekend and now says it has the ability to launch one aboard a long-range missile that could strike the United States. In response, various US officials have sternly warned North Korea to stop its threats and they’ve not ruled out military action against North Korea. There’s no indication that would include launching a nuclear bomb at North Korea, but if President Trump wanted to, he could do it in the time it takes to send off a tweet. The nuclear codes are always at the President’s fingertips, no questions asked.
As North Korea’s threats intensify the nuclear debate, there are renewed calls to restrict the unilateral power of the US President to launch the world’s deadliest weapon.
When the Movie Is as Good as the Book
Guest: Dennis Cutchins, PhD, Professor of English, Brigham Young University
Theaters are already plugging movies that won’t be out until the holidays, including one directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as the famous Inspector Poirot in "Murder on the Orient Express." Also coming out at the same time, just before Thanksgiving, is a film adaptation of the children’s novel, "Wonder." But will the movies live up to the beloved books that inspired them? How often does a director ruin a great story in bringing it to the screen?
Stories with The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio
What Dogs Teach Us About Parenting
Guest: Emily Bray, PhD, Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Arizona Canine Cognition Center, University of Arizona, Canine Companions for Independence
Helicopter parenting may not be limited to overanxious, overly competitive modern parents. In fact, it may not even be limited to humans at all. Dogs have their own version of helicopter parenting, too. And a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania found that mother dogs who were "helicopter" parents raised pups who were less successful later in their training programs.
From the Vaults: That’s A Wrap on a Career in the BYU Film Archives
Guest: James D’Arc, Former Curator, Special Collections, Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library
For our regular series “From the Vaults,” where we dive into the treasures held in Special Collections at the BYU Library, we have a special treat today. BYU has one of the world’s premiere collections of film artifacts, thanks to archivist James D’Arc, who has spent the last 41 years acquiring Hollywood history. The collection he’s amassed while working in BYU’s Special Collection is mindboggling. And last week, on his final day at BYU before retiring, James D’Arc gave us a private tour of the vault, in the basement of the BYU library.
WEB EXTRA: Listen to an extended version of our tour with James D'Arc here.
President Trump to End Protection for Dreamers
Guest: Carolina Núñez, JD, Professor of Immigration Law, Associate Dean of Research and Academic Affairs, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
President Trump is giving Congress six months to come up with a permanent solution to the status of some 800,000 undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers,” who were brought to the U.S. as children. “Dreamers” have had access to work permits and protection from deportation under a policy enacted by President Obama in 2012, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. President Trump announced Tuesday he will rescind that policy next March, but hopes Congress will make the policy permanent in the meantime.
Money Can Buy Happiness
Guest: Ashley Whillans, PhD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
How much is your time worth? Specifically, your free time? Experts say that people around the world have worked themselves into a shortage of free time. And now there’s evidence that if we spent some money on services that could buy us a little time – say hiring someone to mow the lawn or run errands for us - we’d be happier.
Designer Babies on the Horizon?
Guest: John Basl, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Northeastern University
Individuals with inherited, potentially fatal diseases can find it excruciating to know, as they become parents, that they might be passing these genes on to their children. Scientists have recently been able to edit one of these diseases from a human embryo, which could radically change how we can fight disease. But could the technology also allow people to decide whether their children have curly or straight hair, long eyelashes, or superior math skills? In other words, are that much closer to a world of designer babies?
Hackers Take on Hollywood
Guest: Michael Orosz, PhD, Research Director of Decisions Systems Group, Information Sciences Institute, School of Engineering, University of Southern California
The big concern for Hollywood studios used to be pirates selling illegal copies of their movies and TV shows. Now the studios have to worry about hackers stealing and releasing content before it’s aired. HBO and Netflix both recently had unaired episodes and scripts of hit shows “Game of Thrones” and “Orange is the New Black leaked online. What do hackers see in Hollywood?
Girls Who Code
Guest: Reshma Saujani, Founder, Girls Who Code, Author, “Girls Who Code”; Stacia Deutsch, Author, “Girls Who Code: The Friendship Code”
Every site you browse on the web, software program you use on your computer or app on your phone was created by a coder. And that coder was probably a guy. He probably started coding as a kid, too. Why don’t more girls gravitate to coding? Reshma Saujani has a theory and a new book that aims to address it called “Girls Who Code” – the same name as Saujani’s organization which teaches coding to girls all across the country. The book is an illustrated introduction to coding with a cast of girls who are also featured in a companion series of novels for young readers.
Worlds Awaiting: Novels Based on Superhero Comic Books
Guest: Rachel Wadham of BYUradio's "Worlds Awaiting"
Taking Charge of Cancer
Guest: David Palma, MD, PhD, Radiation Oncologist, Cancer Researcher, London Health Science Centre, Ontario, Canada, Author, “Taking Charge of Cancer: What You Need to Know to Get the Best Treatment”
One out of 12 adults in the US has experienced the fear, confusion and powerlessness that comes with a cancer diagnosis. The inclination for most people in that situation is to cling to their doctor’s expertise and hope for the best.
But your doctor could be wrong, or not experienced with your type of cancer, or just not up-to-date with the latest research developments. The clinic where you’re being treated may not have the best track record with your type of cancer, either. But most patients don’t have the tools to know whether the treatment they’re receiving is the best possible. That is why David Palma wrote this new book. It is a step-by-step guide to getting high-quality treatment.
Find more information and videos here.
The Legacy of the Cassette Tape
Guests: Zack Taylor, Filmmaker of “Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape”; Jared Ball, PhD, Professor of Communications, Morgan State University, Author, “I Mix What I Like: A Mixtape Manifesto”, Creator of www.iMixwhatILike.org
If you’re of a certain generation, you probably remember hours spent in your bedroom with your dual-cassette recorder, making mixtapes for your crush or your friends or – if you were like me, because you didn’t have money to go buy the albums of your favorite artists. I’d spend hours listening to the radio with my finger on the record button of the boombox I got for my 14th birthday, trying to capture every Michael Jackson song that played.
My how things have changed. You can loop your favorite song and artist on Spotify or YouTube all day long. Everything’s digital and on-demand and your entire music library can fit on thumb drive. So why are there musicians today putting out albums on cassette and music stores popping up that sell nothing but cassettes?
Catch a screening of “Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape.”
Why Hurricane Harvey Brought So Much Rain
Guest: Russ Schumacher, PhD, Associate Professor of Meteorology, Colorado State University
The amount of rain that Hurricane Harvey has dropped on the Gulf Coast is hard to fathom. An analysis in the Washington Post put it this way: “The 9 trillion gallons of water dispensed so far is enough to fill the entire Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City — twice! It would take nine days straight for the Mississippi River to drain into Houston and equal the amount of water already there.” The Gulf Coast is already pretty rainy and flood prone, but Harvey is way, way out-of-the norm.
Aftermath of Japanese-American Internment Camps
Guest: Daniel Shoag, PhD, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
The internment of Japanese Americans in the US during World War II was a tragic violation of human rights. And though the US government authorized restitution to the internees’ families some 40 years later, new research shows the financial repercussions of internment were still felt decades after the internees were released. Not only that, the location of the internment camp where a person was held had a major impact on that family’s economic standing for generations.
Our Willingness to Waste
Guest: Selina Juul, Founder, Stop Wasting Food, Denmark
On average, Americans and Europeans waste 25 percent of the food they buy – it languishes in the fridge or freezer until we throw it out. That’s basically like throwing out one in every four shopping carts you fill up at the grocery store. Meanwhile, people the world over are going hungry. It doesn’t have to be this way. The nation of Denmark cut back on the amount of food it wastes by a quarter in just five years.
Find out more about the Stop Wasting Food Movement here.
Practice Crime Scene (Originially aired on May 9, 2017)
Guest: Amie Houghton, Assistant Professor of Forensic Science, Utah Valley University
Crime scene investigation has become a staple of TV drama. Viewers love those moments when the brilliant detective stoops under the yellow police tape, scans the scene crawling with technicians in lab coats cataloguing evidence and then picks up on a subtle clue that makes the whole mystery fall into place. But that’s TV.
Students at Utah Valley University are about to get some hands-on training in what CSI is really like. The university’s forensic science program there has acquired a home that can be made to resemble any crime scene Hollywood could conjure, so students can practice processing the evidence.
Single-Gender Schools (Originally aired November 14, 2016)
Guest: Bette Heins, PhD, Professor of Education, Stetson University
All-boys or all-girls schools carry either an antiquated Catholic school connotation or the posh-Ivy-league prep aura in US education today. Segregating students by gender is very, very rare in public schools – even on the classroom level. But The Atlantic magazine recently profiled a couple of all-girls public charter schools in California and Colorado that got us thinking about the concept again. These schools happen to be focused on preparing girls for STEM fields – the science, technology, engineering and math careers that tend to be male-dominated.
Disastrous Relief (Originally aired August 18, 2016)
Guest: Juanita Rilling, Former Director at USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Center for International Disaster Information, Current Senior Humanitarian Advisor at USAID Center for International Disaster Information
This week Cedar Bayou, Texas clocked 51.88 inches—that’s over four feet—of rain from Hurricane Harvey, setting a new record for Continental US rainfall. When natural disaster such as this strikes, we often think, “what can I do to help?” Sometimes aid agencies publish requests for particular items online: sanitary supplies, groceries, even kennels to house displaced dogs.
In any disaster relief effort, there’s the risk of a “second disaster” prompted by unsolicited help and donations that can end up being worse than useless – think winter coats sent to Honduras in the summer.
Debt Ceiling Showdown Looming
Guest: Tim Shaw, Senior Policy Analyst, Bipartisan Policy Center
Congress and President Trump have one month to pass a spending measure and raise the debt limit in order to keep the government open and able to pay its bills. But so far getting anything passed has been a challenge for the divided Republican Congress. And President Trump only fueled the fire with a recent threat to veto a spending bill and force a shutdown if it doesn’t include money for his border wall.
This is all a little déjà vu. Congress is in the habit of passing stopgap spending bills every six months or so, because getting a long-term spending bill passed in a partisan political era has proven impossible. The debt limit debate comes around about every year or so.
Traffic Jams Are Data Heaven for Transit Company
Guest: Mark Pittman, CEO, Blyncsy
For many people who travelled to the path of totality for last week’s solar eclipse, the sun’s spectacular show was followed by many hours of sitting in traffic with hordes of other eclipse tourists heading home. That kind of mass people movement is a goldmine for the data company Blyncsy in Salt Lake City. Through a contract with the Idaho Department of Transportation, Blyncsy was able to monitor, in extreme detail, how well the state’s roadways bore up under the unusual crowds. Any community that deals with a periodic influx of cars – say for sporting events, concerts or holidays – could be better prepared with the kind of data Blyncsy collects.
Obesity Linked to Teen Exposure to Violence
Guest: Joy Piontak, PhD, Affiliated Scholar, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Research Public Health Analyst, Research Triange Institute
We know that kids exposed to violence can suffer mental illness, and increasingly we’re learning about how exposure to violence effects kids’ physical health as well. Obesity researcher Joy Piontak wanted to know how violence and obesity were connected.
Southern Suggestions
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Find out some of Michael Reno Harrell's "suggestions" (they don't believe in rules) for life in the South.
The Keeper of the Evening News
Guest: Melissa Gibbs, Broadcast Lab Manager, News Media Program, Brigham Young University
Of all the ways people can get the news today, TV remains the most popular. Nearly half of US adults tune in to their local TV news. To pull off a local news program requires an army of people behind-the-scenes. Since Top of Mind student producer Reed Wolfley aspires to a career in TV journalism, we asked him to pull back the curtain for us on one of the most important jobs in the industry that you’ve probably never heard of. So Reed sat down with Melissa Gibbs, who spent years producing newscasts at TV stations in Utah.
The New Superpower for Women
Guest: Steve Kardian, Author, “The New Superpower for Women: Trust Your Intuition, Predict Dangerous Situations, Defend Yourself from the Unthinkable”
In the event of an assault, pepper spray, a flashlight and some self-defense moves will all come in handy. But law enforcement expert Steve Kardian says a woman’s greatest tool to avoid becoming a victim of an assault is her intuition. Kardian is spent more than 30 years as a police officer, including time as an FBI defense tactics instructor. He’s just published a how-to guide called “The New Super Power for Women: Trust Your Intuition, Predict Dangerous Situations, Defend Yourself from the Unthinkable.”
Harvey Response Is One of Many Tests for Trump
Guest: Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield, Chairman Emeritus, Stimson Center, Washington D.C.
The President travelled to Texas on Tuesday to demonstrate his support for people dealing with the effects of Hurricane Harvey and assess the federal recover effort. It’s just one of the almost-daily tests President Trump faces. Another came overnight with North Korea’s launch of a missile right over Japan. President Trump has repeatedly warned North Korea to knock it off, or else. “All options are on the table,” said Trump in response to this latest missile.
Recognizing and Preventing Altitude Sickness
Guest: Colin Grissom, MD, Critical Care Physician, Intermountain Medical Center, Murray, UT, Professor of Medicine, Clinical Track, University of Utah
Less than two weeks ago, a Pennsylvania woman was hiking near Aspen, Colorado when she got violently ill and soon died from what is suspected to be altitude sickness. Just a couple weeks earlier, a boy scout backpacking trip to the High Uintas mountains here in Utah also ended in tragedy when a young athlete and Boy Scout died in the mountains from presumed altitude sickness. Both hikers died before medical professionals could reach them. Altitude sickness is a condition that can be very tricky to diagnose and fatal if left untreated.
Almonds May Help Boost Cholesterol Clean-Up
Guest: Claire Berryman, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine
You’ve probably had your cholesterol tested in the last year or so and got the report about good and bad cholesterol in your blood? Some new nutritional research finds that eating almonds as a snack can help boost good cholesterol levels and get rid of the bad. A two-for-one!
Farming Doesn’t Come with Insurance Benefits
Guest: Shoshanah Inwood, PhD, Assistant Professor of Community Development and Food Systems, The Ohio State University
When you think about the most dangerous jobs in America, does farming come to mind? Flipping tractors, unpredictable animals, chemical exposure and dangerous machinery make agriculture one of the most hazardous industries in the country. Little wonder that finding affordable health insurance is one of the most significant concerns facing American farmers, who are often self-employed. A survey funded by the US Department of Agriculture also found that concern deters young farmers from embracing the career.
STEM Degrees Don’t Mean More Inventions
Guest: Nicola Bianchi, PhD, Assistant Professor of Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
A degree in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) is seen these days as a ticket to career success. STEM graduates are sought after from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, but do they end up doing the kind of innovation that really fuels an economy?
Logging Town Becomes Tech Hub
Guest: Abe Streep, Contributing Editor, Outside Magazine
Facebook and Apple have recently set up shop in rural Prineville, Oregon, with a population of less than 10,000 people. The town is closer to two national forests than it is to any interstate highways. And an influx of newcomers drawn by the new industry, or by the allure of nearby recreational opportunities, means that, on the weekends, you can now either rent mountain bikes or attend the rodeo. Maybe both. The story of Prineville raises questions small towns across the US have to wrestle with.
Trapped in Houston’s Historic Flooding
Guest: Amy Bice Larson, Houston-area resident
Across the Houston region, more than two feet of rain fell in the span of Saturday and Sunday. By the end of this week, some parts of the Gulf Coast could get 50 inches of rain. Thousands of people have been evacuated from the rising flood waters, but many, many more remain stuck in their homes and neighborhoods, waiting for the rain to stop and hoping the water doesn’t get any higher. One resident's perspective on the current situation.
Officer-in-Residence: More than Just Community Policing
Guest: Eric Echevarria, Sergeant, Director of the Resident Officer Program of Elgin (ROPE)
In high-crime, high-poverty neighborhoods around the country, police have a trust problem. Officers are often seen as racially biased and uninterested in focusing on the problems the community is most concerned about.
It doesn’t help that most of the time, the police officers typically don’t live in the neighborhoods they patrol. What might change if they did? Police in the city of Elgin, Illinois have found out with their long-running “Resident Officer Program of Elgin” or ROPE.
What Good are Standardized Tests?
Guest: Christopher Tienken, EdD, Associate Professor of Education Leadership, Management and Policy, Seton Hall University
Standardized tests in US schools are not popular. They take up class time and put immense pressure on students and their teachers. But if we want to know how well teachers are teaching and students are learning in school, we have to test them somehow, don’t we?
Standardized tests are not the best option, though. Researchers can generally predict how well students will do on standardized tests based entirely on their lives outside of the classroom.
Should My Child Skip a Grade?
Guest: Russell Warne, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Utah Valley University
Parents of academically gifted children have to wrestle with some of these questions: Should they enroll them in AP and honors classes, have them take classes at a local community college, or skip a grade and get on to university that much faster? According to new research, they will make more money as adults if they skip a grade.
Parent Previews – Leap! and All Saints
Guest: Rob Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
"Leap!" is about an orphan named Félicie who wants to dance. In order to get into the Opera Ballet School in Paris, she pretends to be from a wealthy family. She will learn talent is not enough.
"All Saints" is based on a true story about pastor Michael Spurlock. When asked to shut his church down, a group of refugees from Southeast Asia inspires a plan to try and save the church.
VidAngel’s Relaunch
Guest: Neal Harmon, CEO, VidAngel
The popular movie filtering site VidAngel has reinvented itself. Its original version was shut down by a judge at the start of the year while a copyright infringement lawsuit plays out between VidAngel and major Hollywood studios, including Disney and Fox. The studios complained VidAngel was undercutting their streaming deals with sites like Netflix and Google Play by making illegal copies of DVDs and streaming them to VidAngel customers with filtering options.
VidAngel hasn’t given up that fight. But in the meantime, it has now layered its filtering options on top of streaming services like Netflix. For a monthly fee, VidAngel customers can stream shows on their Netflix, Amazon and HBO accounts – but with objectionable content filtered out.
Dirty Wars and Polished Silver
Guest: Lynda Schuster, Author of “Dirty Wars and Polished Silver: The Life and Times of a War Correspondent Turned Ambassatrix”
Lynda Schuster has seen enough adventure and suffering for several life times. At 16 she ran away to a kibbutz in Israel and landed smack in the middle of the Yom Kippur War. Rather than scaring her off, that gave her a taste for conflict. She became a war correspondent, covering violence in the Middle East and Central America. Her first husband – also a war correspondent – died in a roadside bombing just 10 months into their marriage. Her second husband, a diplomat, was posted to war-ravaged African nations, and she went along. In her 30s, Lynda Schuster found herself serving as an ambassador’s wife – thinking she’d chosen a more stable, safer, life, only to learn she was badly mistaken.
The Fraying Wires of America’s Energy Future
Guest: Gretchen Bakke, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, McGill University, Author, “The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future”
When you flip a light switch, power up a computer or kick on the A/C, that electricity is being created at that same moment somewhere else on the grid. There’s no bank vault of excess electricity out there that can dole out watts when we all get home from work on a hot summer day and turn our air conditioners up at the same time. The fact that electricity is almost always there when we want it is really incredible.
America’s grid is an engineering marvel. But it’s not aging well: it’s more of a pothole-ridden dirt road than an advanced superhighway. The grid is in trouble for a host of reasons, including neglect, bureaucracy and our changing desires as electricity consumers.
Making Movies of Faith
Guest: T.C Christensen, Filmmaker, “Love, Kennedy,” “The Cokeville Miracle,” “17 Miracles”
Movies with uplifting messages based on true stories are his trademark. Learn how he got started and how he decides which stories to make films about.
Teaching Students with Disabilities
Guest: Katie Steed, MS, Associate Clinical Professor Special Education, Brigham Young University
Whether you’re a professional teacher, a Sunday School instructor or a parent of a child with special needs, it’s daunting to keep the attention of a group of children with mixed abilities. That’s what prompted BYU special education professor Katie Steed to create a series of short training videos available online. Find them here.
Giving Every Dollar a Name
Guest: Bryan Sudweeks, Associate Teaching Professor of Finance, Brigham Young University
What topic could be more important than learning to better manage your own money? BYU’s Marriott School of Management offers a free online course in Personal Finance. Today we get motivated to budget.
Take the Personal Finance course!
Modern Slavery (Originally aired Feb. 22, 2017)
Guest: Kevin Bales, Co-Founder of Free the Slaves, Professor of Contemporary Slavery, University of Nottingham, UK
Worldwide, there are more than 40-million people in slavery - and it's happening right here in the US and just about every other country on the planet. It's hard to believe. But research into the problem has uncovered evidence that we all might be contributing to the problem when we buy certain kinds of frozen fish or shrimp at the supermarket, for example. And furthermore, the slavery involved in the production of those items is also contributing to massive degradation of natural resources.
Pass the Pho! (Originally aired May 2, 2017)
Guest: Chef Mai Pham, Owner of Lemon Grass Kitchen, Author of “The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking,” “Pleasure of the Vietnamese Table” and “Flavors of Asia”
Pham is on a quest to get more Vietnamese and Thai food in American bellies. She’s the force behind a couple of successful restaurants in California and has spun some of her best recipes into ingredients other restaurants can use. That’s why she’s at BYU on this particular day, standing behind vats of boiling water, translucent rice noodles, and aromatic broth, giving Dining Services Executive Chef John McDonald a quick tutorial on pho. We join her to sample her creation and learn how to incorporate more Southeast Asian cuisine into our own menus.
Metamessaging (Originally aired May 10, 2017)
Guest: Deborah Tannen, PhD, Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University, Author of “You’re the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendship”
You know when you text someone a request, and they reply “sure”? No exclamation point, no smiling emoji, not even a capital “S”? Are they happy to help you out, but in a hurry and can’t take long to text, as in and energetic, “Sure!” or are they just saying “sure” because they can’t think of a way to say no?
The way words are said can matter as much as the words themselves. Digital communication is fraught with opportunities to send or receive the wrong message. But so is face-to-face conversation. Linguist Deborah Tannen studies the messages behind our messages.
Afghanistan, Trump’s Defense Dept, Navy Collisions
Guest: Eric Jensen, Associate Professor of Law, Brigham Young University
President Trump outlined a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan this week – a war that he says Americans have grown weary of waging without victory after 16 years. But instead of pulling out of Afghanistan, as he’d promised on the campaign trail, Trump says he now believes it’s better to give the US military and officials on the ground in Afghanistan the resources they need to win, decisively.
Humor and Connection in 140 Characters
Guest: Jonny Sun, Author, @jomnysun Twitter feed and “Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aleibn Too”
Twitter is not a place for feeling good. It’s a place for ranting and sarcasm and bad news. Even comedy has a bite on Twitter, which is maybe why @jonnysun has such a following there. Because he’s none of those things. His profile says he’s “an aliebn confuesed abot humamn lamgauge,” which is evident from his atrocious spelling. His tweets are silly, often punny, a little wistful, a little weird. But never mean. His half a million Twitter followers and ardent fans include Lin Manuel Miranda, Patton Oswalt and Joss Whedon. All three of them have written gushing reviews of a new illustrated book based on Jonny Sun’s Twitter feed.
Eclipse Stories
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, BYUradio
Sam Payne's own experience of totality during the total solar eclipse this week.
Your Brain on Movies
Guest: Moran Cerf, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and Business, Kellogg School of Management, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Northwestern University
Are you a fan of all the trailers you have to watch before your movie starts at the theater? Even if you aren’t, the creators of trailers sure know how to tease. But is there a formula for an effective trailer? Does a good trailer translate into more ticket sales? Wouldn’t Hollywood like to know.
10 Years of the iPhone
Guest: Brian Merchant, Tech Journalist, Author of “The One Device, the Secret History of the iPhone”
Ten years ago, at the Macworld conference in 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage in his signature black turtle-neck to announce the iPhone. The “revolutionary” feature such as pinch-to-zoom is just one of many new things the iPhone brought into the mainstream. Social media exploded because people could post and share on their smartphones and not be tied to a computer terminal. It’s probably safe to say that the iPhone changed not only the way we communicate, but the way we see the world.
Trump Administration Renews War on Drugs
Guest: Dan McConkie, JD, Assistant Professor of Law, Northern Illinois University
You could argue that the War on Drugs came to an end during the Obama Administration when many of the 80s-era policies meant to get tough on drug crimes were put on hold. Federal prosecutors were instructed not to pursue the harshest penalties for low-level drug offenses. Judges embraced flexibility to not enforce mandatory minimum sentences. President Obama granted clemency to nearly 2,000 non-violent drug offenders serving lengthy sentences he deemed unfair. The expense of keeping all those drug offenders in prison helped create bipartisan support for reforming the way drug crimes are punished.
But President Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions has signaled he’s not ready to end the War on Drugs and he’s already reversed several of the Obama Administration’s policies for drug crimes.
Portraying Suicide in the Media
Guest: Jon-Patrick Allem, PhD, Research Scientist, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine
Even uttering the word “suicide” in earshot of a teenager is terrifying. It’s the second leading cause of death among young people in the US and that rate has been steadily rising for decades. Parents, teachers and the media agonize over how to talk about the suicide of a friend, family member or famous person. Is there a way to promote awareness and suicide prevention without inadvertently planting a dangerous seed in the mind of a fragile young person? The creators of the controversial Netflix drama “13 Reasons Why” say they hoped their graphic dramatization of a high school girl’s path to suicide would spark conversation. That it has, along with a lot of concern that the show glamorizes suicide and could inspire copycats.
New Insight into Losing Weight
Guest: Sai Krupa Das, PhD, Assistant Professor of Nutrition Science and policy, Tufts University, Scientist, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging
So, the doctor says you need to lose some weight. But how? More exercise, sure. But on the diet side, should you cut out sugar? Go Paleo? Whole 30? Atkins? Every diet has people who swear by its power and others who say it didn’t work for them.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could take a blood test and find out exactly which diet is best for your body and unique metabolism? Maybe there is.
Growing Pains of Incarcerated Youth
Guest: Laura Abrams, PhD, Professor of Social Welfare, UCLA
For young people who have been incarcerated in the juvenile justice system and then released back into society, the critical years of their late teens and earlier 20s can feel like navigating a mine field. For sure, those years are hard enough for young adults who haven’t gotten into trouble with the law. But for those trying to leave their criminal pasts behind—which social scientists call “desistance”—the way forward is even more fraught and confusing.
The German Girl: A Legacy of Cuban-German Relations
Guests: Armando Lucas Correa, Author, "The German Girl"; Eva Weiner, Survivor, "SS St. Louis"
On May 27, 1939, the “SS St. Louis,” an oceanliner filled with more than 900 people, mostly Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler, arrived in the port of Havana. Though the passengers had authorized travel documents, Cuban officials only allowed 28 passengers to disembark and turned the rest away. The novel “The German Girl” is a fictional account of a Jewish refugee, Hannah Rosenthal, who, along with her mother, Alma, is allowed into Cuba—where they become permanent exiles in a country they refuse to embrace. “The German Girl” is Armonda Lucas Correas’ debut novel. The book is just out in paperback this month.
Eva Weiner and her family were refused entry into Cuba and turned away from the United States, but they were taken in by Great Britain. She now lives in New Jersey.
Worlds Awaiting: Science Books for Children
Guest: Rachel Wadham of BYUradio's "Worlds Awaiting"
How Mentorship Can Close the Skills Gap in America
Guest: Patty Alper, President of the Alper Portfolio Group, Author of “Teach to Work: How a Mentor, a Mentee, and a Project Can Close the Skills Gap in America”
Students are heading back to school and there is a gap in the education system. A survey conducted last year by the data company PayScale found only half of hiring managers think young people are actually prepared to hit the ground running. Companies say recent grads seem to be missing a set of skills that’s not easy to teach in a classroom setting.
You can find more information here.
Villages of Tiny Houses for Homeless
Guest: Sergio Palleroni, Professor of Architecture, Portland State University, Director of Center for Public Interest Design
Across the country, cities struggle to find places to build homeless shelters and affordable housing, because established neighborhoods don’t want them in their backyards. Over the last decade, through a combination of desperation and creativity, we’ve started to see villages of tiny houses built for – and often by – homeless people popping up as a solution. Usually residents live alone or as a couple in small one-room huts – maybe even a shipping container converted into housing - with communal kitchen and bathroom facilities. Portland is home to the very first of these, called Dignity Village, which started in 2001 in an industrial part of the city where nobody would complain about having it as a neighbor. Dignity Village today is now thriving with some 60 people, its far flung location remains a challenge for residents.
Why Are Gas Prices so Volatile?
Guest: Gideon Bornstein, Doctoral Student of Economics, Northwestern University
We all remember several years ago when gas was over $4 a gallon. Now, it's holding steady around $2.30. Why do gas prices go up and down so much? According to a study out of Northwestern, it is not just because of OPEC. Customer demand plays a large a role.
3,000 Year-Old Uffington White Horse
Guest: Andrew Foley, Ranger, National Trust in England
Three thousand years ago, the image of a giant white horse was cut into the rolling hillside of Uffington, which is about 20 miles southwest of Oxford, England. It’s a sleek and minimalist stallion, as long as a football field, leaping across the landscape, bright white against the green turf. It’s made of chalk, and you have to wonder how it has survived the forces of erosion over three millennia.
Parent Previews - Logan Lucky
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
The director behind the Oceans 11, 12 and 13 films has a new take on his band-of-quirky-criminals-pull-off-an-unlikely-heist formula. “Logan Lucky” centers on two perpetually unlucky brothers by the name of Logan and their plan to rob Charlotte Motor Speedway on the day of a major NASCAR race.
Tech Transfer
Guests: Nathan Powers, PhD, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, BYU; Spencer Rogers, BYU Technology Transfer Office
For our weekly highlight of innovation taking place at BYU, physics professor Nathan Powers describes the hands-on learning lab he designed to teach students the basics of electricity, specifically, "electric potential."
The Search for a Muslim American Identity (originally aired July 18, 2017)
Guest: Asma Uddin, JD, Director of Strategy for the Center for Islam and Religious Freedom, Founder, AltMuslimah.com
When the media or non-Muslims talk of Islam, we tend to act as if there are just two Muslim communities: the terrorists and the non-terrorists. As if every peaceful Muslim living in the US is cut from the same cloth. But, in fact, American Muslims are the most racially diverse religious group in the country. They’re Arab, African, African American, South Asian, European, Latino and White American – the list goes on. Many, but not all, are immigrants to the US. They have different cultures, speak different languages, practice Islam in slightly different ways.
Doctors with Disabilities (originally aired July 18, 2017)
Guest: Dhruv Khullar, MD, Physician, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Healthcare Policy Researcher, Cornell University
People with a disability—that’s nearly one in five Americans—are less likely to receive routine medical care: things as basic as flu vaccines and cancer screening. One reason for this disparity is that doctor’s offices and clinics may not have accommodations, such as exam tables with adjustable height. Another reason is the social stigma associated with disability. Part of the solution to this problem is encouraging more people with disabilities to become doctors.
Stress Develops Strengths (originally aired July 18, 2017)
Guest: Bruce Ellis, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Anthropology, University of Utah
Children living in high-crime neighborhoods or extreme poverty are considered “at-risk” and in need of special intervention to help them overcome the problems that come with growing up in such a stressful environment. But University of Utah psychology researcher Bruce Ellis suggests that approach is like focusing on a half-empty glass, instead of acknowledging the other half that is actually full—of skills kids acquire from being in high-stress environments. He says nurturing those skills could offer benefits.
When Science Goes Wrong (originally aired April 21, 2017)
Guest: Paul Offit, MD, Professor of Vaccinology and Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Director of the Vaccine Education Center, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Author of “Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong”
Unintended consequences are a fact of life. We can’t perfectly predict how something we do today will affect us and those around us in the coming months and years. “Pandora’s Lab,” by Dr. Paul Offit, highlights seven scientific developments that were hailed as great miracles, even earning Nobel Prizes, but turned out to go terribly wrong. They include the invention of opiate painkillers, margarine as a heart-healthy alternative to butter, and lobotomies as a treatment for mental illness.
Get Ready for the Total Eclipse
Guest: Andrew Fraknoi, PhD, Professor and Emeritus Chair of Astronomy, Foothill College, Author of “When the Sun Goes Dark”
A once- or twice-in-a-lifetime event will fill the skies over the US on Monday, August 21, as a total solar eclipse moves eastward from Oregon to South Carolina. It’s been about 40 years since Americans have had this kind of opportunity! The Parent’s Guide to Their Children’s After-School Activities
Guest: Heather Austin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine
It’s back-to-school time and that means afterschool activities are ramping up. Families with kids at home, you know this drill: Jane has soccer on Mondays and Wednesdays, games on Saturday, ballet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Thursdays she goes straight from ballet to art class. She has to read for 20 minutes every day, do an hour of homework, and practice piano. Piano! Almost forgot about piano! Piano lessons before soccer on Wednesdays! . . . It's tiring just to think about. So how does little Jane feel at the end of the week?
What Babies See
Guest: Margaret Livingstone, PhD, Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
Eyes may be windows to the soul, but they are also windows to the brain. Scientists at Harvard Medical School have been studying the brains of baby macaque monkeys and they’ve found that eyesight is a key to brain development, even when the monkeys are asleep! Their findings have important implications for human brain development, too.
Apple Seed Stories
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, BYUradio
The Apple Seed team members reminisce about their favorite teachers.
Good Kidneys Are Going to Waste
Guest: Sumit Mohan, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Columbia University
Thousands of people in the US die every year waiting for a kidney transplant. Meanwhile, doctors are discarding thousands of donated kidneys every year because they’re not considered suitable for transplant. But what if many of those kidneys could actually save the life of a person in need?
Fake News and How to Fight it
Guest: Mark Verstraete, JD, Privacy and Freedom of Speech Research Fellow, University of Arizona
Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” proved to be so popular that last week NBC brought back the satirical newscast for a summer mini-series while Saturday Night Live is on summer hiatus.
We know that Weekend Update is fake, and fans go there for humor. But fake news, we also know, is a real thing, and concerns are rising about what to do about it. In a new report out of the University of Arizona, researchers tackle defining what fake news actually is and recommend strategies to combat it.
Keep the Memories, Lose the Clutter
Guest: Rebecca Reczek, PhD, Associate Professor of Marketing, Ohio State University
Somewhere in your attic, basement, or garage, there is likely a box of something, baby shoes and blankets, toys, or books, something you’re never going to use again but that you just can’t bear to throw away or donate. Other people might regard these items as clutter, but perhaps you see memories in those dusty boxes taking up space. How can we motivate ourselves to get rid of what we don’t need anymore, especially if there’s sentimental value attached?
Don’t Trust Generals Too Much
Guest: Gregory Daddis, PhD, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Graduate Program in War and Society, Chapman University, Author of “Withdrawal: Reassessing America’s Final Years in Vietnam”
From his first day in office, President Trump has expressed public confidence in the generals who fill top government positions. But does a distinguished military career necessarily translate into foreign policy expertise? Or, in the case of General John Kelly, insure success as the White House Chief of Staff?
Gregory Daddis recently analyzed the success of generals in civilian government in a piece in The Washington Post titled, “The generals can’t save us—and we shouldn’t want them to.”
Preventing Dementia
Guest: Helen Kales, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Michigan
This year, Americans will spend $259 billion on the care of patients with dementia, a figure that is only expected to climb in the coming decades. But, a new report published in The Lancet last month says that a third of all cases of dementia could be prevented.
Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain
Guest: Michael Bancks, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University
Exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking not only prevent dementia, they actually preserve brain mass. It turns out that healthier bodies lead to bigger brains.
What South American Can Teach Us About Police Reform
Guest: Yanilda González, Assistant Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago
A few weeks ago, in a New York suburb racked with gang violence, President Trump spoke with law enforcement and encouraged them to be rough with suspects.
Almost immediately, police departments across the country denounced the President’s request to “not be too nice” to criminals. But the President’s comments signal a 180-degree shift from the Obama-era police oversight intended to minimalize police racism, violence, and stereotyping. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department announced a policy that makes it easier for police to seize property from suspects. How quickly might the pendulum swing from reform to counter-reform?
ACL Tears Rising Among Teen Girls
Guest: Mackenzie Herzog, Doctoral Candidate, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health
There’s an alarming trend among teen athletes: the number of ACL tears—that’s when one of the crucial stabilizing ligaments in the knee rips or is severed—are on the rise, especially in young women. This is from a new report published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Find exercises for preventing ACL injuries here.
What is Race, Anyway?
Guest: Daniel Neilson, PhD, Professor and Associate Chair of Political Science, Brigham Young University
Political and racial tensions are high as protests over the weekend turned deadly in Charlottesville. Protesters in Durham NC pulled down a Confederate statue Monday night, and right-wing rallies are scheduled in San Francisco. While charges of racism and censorship are bantered back and forth, we’re going to take a minute to consider what race is anyway.
Three World Events—Qatar Crisis, New Prime Minister in Pakistan, African Elections
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University
World events are Top of Mind today as we welcome Quinn Mecham back into the studio. He’s a professor of political science here at BYU, and he’s also regular contributor here on Top of Mind, where he joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration.
Hope Dealer
Gest: Tina Stride, President of the Hope Dealer Project
Four women in Martinsburg, West Virginia are combatting the opioid epidemic by dealing something they believe is more potent than drugs: hope. These women make up the Hope Dealer Project, and they connect addicts and their families with life-saving resources, providing a light of hope in the darkness of addiction.
Learn more about the project here.
How to Stop North Korea
Guest: R.P. Eddy, CEO of Ergo, Former Director at the White House National Security Council, Co-Author of “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes”
The International Institute for Strategic Studies reports that North Korea has made unheard of progress in its development of ballistic missiles because it has likely acquired the necessary technology from abroad, probably from Russia or the Ukraine. The rapid advance in North Korean missile technology illustrates the country’s determination to be taken seriously, and R.P. Eddy, CEO of the intelligence firm Ergo warns that the US should not dismiss North Korea’s threats as empty rhetoric.
Social Media Could Save Your Life
Guest: Rob Grace, Doctoral Student of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University
When schools close due to bad weather, you can find announcements about it on traditional media like TV and radio, but increasingly, parents will get a text or maybe even a tweet informing them of schedule changes and actions they should take. Emergency services need to collect and receive information in real time and researchers at Penn State are eager to help connect locals with the help they need.
Parent Previews—Nut Job 2 and The Glass Castle
Guest: Rob Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Younger viewers finally get a sequel that’s been promoted all summer in trailers: "The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature."
Fans of Jeanette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle” can now see the adventurous, dysfunctional, and ultimately tragic Walls family on the big screen in a screen adaptation of the bestseller.
The Dead Zone
Guest: Nancy Rabalais, PhD, Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Shell Oil Endowed Chair in Oceanography/Wetland Sciences, Louisiana State University, Distinguished Research Professor, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
The dead zone is a mass of water the size of New Jersey just off the Mississippi River delta in the Gulf of Mexico. It appears every summer, but this year the dead zone is the largest on record. How did this phenomenon get its ominous name and can nothing really live there? What impact does it have on fisheries and tourism?
How to Be a Muslim: An American Story
Guest: Haroon Moghul, Fellow in Jewish-Muslim Relations, Shalom Hartman Institute Author of “How to Be a Muslim: An American Story”
Haroon Moghul’s new memoir is called “How to Be a Muslim,” but it’s not a how-to manual. It’s an exploration of Moghul’s struggle to find an identity as an American Muslim, the son of immigrants from Pakistan whose strict ideas about proper behavior and worship chafed him. As a teenager, he toyed with becoming an atheist, a Catholic, even a Mormon. But he came back to Islam, led a thriving Islamic Center for students at New York University, until the 9-11 terror attacks, and Americans developed a fear of Islam overnight.
Haroon Moghul found himself thrust into the role of “professional Muslim,” expected to speak for – and justify – his faith at every turn. This memoir is, in some ways, an answer to that.
Get Ready for Eclipsomania
Guests: Tyler Nordgren, PhD, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of Redlands, Author of “Sun, Moon, Earth: The History of Solar Eclipses from Omens of Doom to Einstein and Exoplanets”; Mike Joner, PhD, Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University; Patrick Wiggins, NASA Solar System Ambassador
I’m sure you’ve heard by now that a total eclipse of the sun will be visible from the United States on Monday, Aug. 21. A chance like this only comes around once or twice in a lifetime, unless you’re one of those people who actually chases solar eclipses and travels to wherever the best view will be in the world.
We’re going to talk to a couple of those people this hour to understand what the fuss is all about. By the end, you just might be making plans to high-tail it to the “zone of totality” which stretches diagonally across the US from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina.
Venezuela's Crisis Deepens
Guest: Laura Gamboa-Gutierrez, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Utah State University
For more than three months now, there have been almost daily clashes in the streets between protesters and security forces in Venezuela. At least 85 people have died and more than a thousand injured as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro tries to crack down on protests against him. Last week, an armed group of Maduro’s supporters stormed the National Assembly and beat up some of his fiercest critics.
Once one of the wealthiest and most stable democracies in Latin America, Venezuela is now in economic shambles and sliding quickly toward dictatorship.
Context is Everything with BYU's Famous Corpora
Guest: Mark Davies, PhD, Professor of Linguistics, BYU
Ever had this problem? Try to type in “sorry I missed you” and your phone insists on autocorrecting it to “sorry I kissed you”? Why does autocorrect insist that “sorry I” should be followed by “kissed” instead of “missed” or any number of less embarrassing alternatives?
How do our phones and computers come up with words to suggest as we type? Through giant databases, or corpora of words, which catalogue how words most frequently appear in context. BYU linguistics professor Mark Davies has designed 21 such word databases, commonly used by tech companies, people learning English and even judges looking to see how past courts have interpreted certain phrases over time.
Football Linked to Brain Disease
Guest: Michael Alosco, PhD, Clinical Neuropsychology Fellow, Boston University
Back-to-school also means back to the gridiron. Football players from high school to the pros are suiting up to make the hard tackles that thrill fans. But, mounting evidence points to a risk of long-term brain damage football athletes might be sustaining as they slam into each other. The NFL has agreed to a one billion dollar settlement for retired players diagnosed with brain injuries. At least 18,000 former players are part of that settlement.
In recent weeks, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine published the largest study, to-date, showing a degenerative brain disease called CTE in former football players of all levels.
Mercies in Disguise: When You Know How You’ll Likely Die (originally aired March 21, 2017)
Guest: Gina Kolata, Author and Science Reporter, New York Times, Author of “Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, A Family’s Genetic Destiny, and the Science that Rescued Them”
If a blood test could tell you that you would probably die of an incurable disease, would you get the test? Amanda Baxley faced that dilemma after watching her father, uncle, and grandfather succumb to a rare and fatal condition known as Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker (GSS), which has symptoms similar to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. As Amanda pondered getting the blood test to see if she, too, had the gene for GSS, some in her family begged her not to. Just think of the Pandora’s box such knowledge could unlock for a family with deep religious beliefs. . .
The story of the Baxley clan of South Carolina and their wrestle with GSS is detailed a book by Gina Kolata titled “Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, a Family’s Genetic Destiny, and the Science That Rescued Them.”
Secrets in Poop (originally aired October 11, 2016)
Guest: Michael Sadowsky, PhD, Director of the BioTechnology Institute, University of Minnesota
The lifesaving power of poop. Fecal transplants aren’t widely used yet, but they’re proving promising enough that before long they could be standard medical procedure. If we can get past the ick factor, that is.
Healthy Lungs Make Healthy Blood (originally aired May 1, 2017)
Guest: Mark Looney, Pulmonologist, Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
The heart pumps blood, the stomach digests food and the lungs bring oxygen into the body. Turns out these basic organ functions we learned in grade school are much too simplified. The body is a complex and finely tuned collection of processes. But researchers have recently discovered something that surprised even them – the lungs are also a major blood-making factory in the body, churning out at least half of the platelet cells that are critical for blood clotting. This discovery was made in mice, but it could provide important clues about human lungs, too.
Trading Threats with North Korea
Guest: Kirk Larsen, PhD, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
Tensions with North Korea are escalating. The dominoes have fallen in quick succession since Sunday. The UN security council passed a package of strict new sanctions meant to restrict North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. North Korea responded with an angry threat of “physical action” which provoked a response from President Trump on Tuesday, warning North Korea not to make another threat.
Hours after the statement, North Korea did make another threat, saying it had making plans to attack Guam, where the US has a key Air Force base.
Here's Why China's President is Big on Confucianism Right Now
Guest: Bryan W. Van Norden, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College, Author of the forthcoming book "Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto"
Apart from the occasional saying in a fortune cookie, or the Yin and Yang symbol common in pop culture, Americans don't know much about Chinese Philosophy. Even in academic circles, Bryan W. Van Norden argues that Westerners are woefully ignoant of the major school of thought that underpin Chinese society. Meanwhile, China's growing political, economic and military clout makes our ignorance a liability.
What Are You Looking For?
Guest: Angela Bahns, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Wellesly College
What do you notice about the people you meet? How attractive their faces are? Whether they’re in shape or not? If they wear expensive shoes? We might focus on any, or all, of those things, depending on whether we’re looking for a friend or hoping for much more.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed, on BYUradio
Tellers and Stories
Storm Chasing: Of All the Hobbies
Guests: Warren Petersen and Steven Petersen, Storm Chasers
Most parents call their kids inside when a storm hits. Not in the Petersen household. Ever since he was seven, Steven Petersen has joined his dad, Warren, in heading outside to chase a brewing storm. Tornados are their specialty. The Petersens – who live in Colorado - regularly provide their tornado footage to TV and print outlets.
The Art of Fear
Guest: Kristen Ulmer, Former Extreme Skier, Author of “The Air of Fear: Why Conquering Fear Won’t Work and What to Do Instead”
Fearlessness was Kristen Ulmer’s claim to fame as one of the world’s best extreme skiers for more than a decade. How else could she have done all those crazy things for the cameras? Like the time she attempted her first backscratcher flip off a cliff in front of a movie cameraman. The first time she ever did it was on screen. Fear of failing would have kept many a great skier from trying that. Ulmer skied ahead of – and in – avalanches. She skied over cliffs other hotshots were too chicken to take. And then she burned out and quit.
Decades later, Kristen Ulmer has concluded that her unhealthy relationship with fear was the root of her problems. She’s now an evangelist for fear. Her new book, “The Art of Fear,” argues for listening closely to our fears – even embracing them.
What Republicans Could—or Should—Do About Trump
Guest: McKay Coppins, Staff Writer for The Atlantic, Author of “The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House”
Republicans in Congress have a couple conundrums, including how to find enough votes to deliver on big promises such as repealing Obamacare or reforming taxes. But the elephant in the room is President Trump. How much could – or should – Republicans in Congress criticize Trump’s comments or behavior they find inappropriate? How much concern should they be expected to voice publicly over Russia’s meddling in the election and possible Trump campaign collusion? What’s wrong with Republicans in Congress keeping their heads down and just trying to get work done?
The Benefits of Mental-Health Homework
Guest: Andrés Consoli, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Co-Author of “CBT Strategies for Anxious and Depressed Children and Adolescents: A Clinician’s Toolkit”
If your child’s geometry teacher never assigned any homework assignments, you might start to wonder how she’ll ever master concepts like the Pythagorean theorem. Well, the same concept applies to mental health treatment for kids and teens: practice leads to mastery. Going to therapy one hour a week isn’t going to magically heal someone of their depression or anxiety. What happens between sessions is just as important – if not more so. That’s where a new workbook comes in. It’s designed as a handbook for therapists that includes lots of worksheets for kids and teens to do during therapy sessions and at home between meetings.
Talking Apes
Guests: Dieter Steklis, PhD, Professor of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences, University of Arizona; Netzin Steklis, MA, Lecturer, School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Department of Family Studies, and Human Development, University of Arizona
Separating fact from fantasy in the Planet of the Apes movies. Could apes ever really learn to speak? Two different theories are circulating out there in the world of primatologists. One set of researchers thinks that, anatomically, apes won't ever be able to speak. Another group suggests that the structure of the vocal tracts has nothing to do with it and that any spoken ape language would be different from human speech but still function as a useful means of communication. Husband-and-wife primatolgists weigh in on the debate.
BYU’s LawX Simplifies Law for the Masses
Guest: Kimball Parker, JD, Director of BYU LawX, Practicing Attorney at Parsons, Behle & Latimer
Lawyers are expensive. And most people who are slapped with a lawsuit from, say, a debt-collection agency or a landlord, don’t have the money for an attorney or the expertise to fight their case in court. So most people just don’t respond to the lawsuit, which ends up in a judgment against them.
Why isn’t there a TurboTax-like program for responding to a lawsuit? Filing a legal document with the court can’t be that much more complicated than filing taxes, can it?
Salt Lake City attorney Kimball Parker aims to find out. He’s heading up a new program in BYU’s Law School that will create technical solutions to legal problems. It’ll be a lab program called LawX.
When Foreigners Buy Second-Homes in the US
Guest: Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, PhD, Professor of Finance, Director at Center for Real Estate Finance Research, New York University
There’s a strange trend in the housing real estate market in New York, Florida and California: the market is booming, prices are rising, but some apartment buildings and neighborhoods feel like ghost towns. What’s going on here?
Back to School Books
Guest: Rachel Wadham of BYUradio’s “Worlds Awaiting”
Analysis of GOP Immigration Proposal
Guest: Charles Kuck, Atlanta-based Immigration Attorney, Former President of the National American Immigration Lawyers Association
President Trump has endorsed a plan to cut legal immigration to the US in half over the next decade. Instead of granting legal residency to more than a million people each year as the US currently does, that number would drop to 500,000. And instead of giving most of those green cards based on who already has family in the US to reunite with, President Trump wants to focus on what immigrants can offer the economy:
“This competitive application process will favor applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families and demonstrate skills that would contribute to our economy. The RAISE Act prevents new migrants and new immigrants from collecting welfare and protects US workers from being displaced.”
Let’s get a nuts-and-bolts look at what these changes would mean for immigrants already in the US and those looking to come here.
“From the Vaults” Lewis Carroll
Guest: Jamie Horrocks, PhD, Assistant Professor of English, Brigham Young University
As part of our regular series “From the Vaults,” let’s explore some fantastical illustrations in BYU’s Special Collections archive. They’re from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Did you know that surrealist painter Salvador Dalí illustrated a copy? Special Collections has his version—which makes the strange tale even “curiouser and curiouser.” The BYU holdings also include an 1886 edition with the original illustrations by John Tenniel.
The Apple-Orchard Sleuth
Guest: David Benscoter, Retired Investigator for the FBI and United States Treasury
David Benscoter retired from the FBI and turned his sleuthing skills to . . . apples. There used to be 17,000 varieties of apples in North America, but now you can find only about a dozen at your local grocer. David Benscoter combs abandoned orchards to find lost apple varieties and then works with Washington State University horticulturists to bring them back.
Reading Your Customers’ Emotions
Guest: Elliot Hedman, PhD, Founder and Chief Experience Designer of mPath
If retailers knew what we’re feeling when we walk into a store - what displays interest us, what annoys us - they could probably get us to buy more stuff. If teachers had the same ability, they could be more effective at helping kids learn. A start-up called mPath, born out of MIT’s Media Lab has a system that gets close to doing just that. They can’t read your mind, but they can read your basic emotions with a sensor that you wear on your hand and a camera mounted on a pair of glasses to show where you’re looking.
Parent Previews – Dark Tower
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com http://parentpreviews.com/
A beloved Stephen King story is in theaters now – The Dark Tower features a boy with a powerful mind, a killer responsible for defending mankind, and a slimy villain played by Matthew McConaughey. But fans of the Stephen King books are not loving this film adaptation.
Better Way to Make Star Vocalists
Guests: Diane Reich, DM, Associate Professor of Vocal Performance, BYU; Michael Johnson, Technology Consultant, BYU’s Center for Teaching and Learning; Dave Brown, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Rebecca Pedersen is the latest BYU singer to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The road to winning an award like that includes a lot of practice and a lot of singing in front of juries who rate your performance and offer feedback. Several years ago, some BYU vocal performance professors wondered if there might be a better way to manage those auditions and track their students' progress better. At the time, they were doing what most vocal programs do – tracking it all on paper, even in 2017.
Sibling Relations in History
Guest: Amy Harris, PhD, Associate Professor of History, BYU, Author of “Siblinghood and Social Relations in Georgian England”
Sibling relationships can be some of our closest and most rewarding. They can also be competitive and volatile. But at the end of your life, the people you’ve known the longest will have been your siblings. They were around long before you married. They’ll probably be around long after your parents are gone.
We’re going to hear, this hour, about some brothers and sisters who lived during the 18th century, when our modern idea of what it means to be “family” was just emerging.
The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict
Guest: Jim Ferrell, Managing Partner, The Arbinger Institute
The Kansas City SWAT team led by Senior Sergeant Chip Huth was once one of the most-complained about units in the Kansas City police department. They had a reputation for manhandling suspects, trashing their homes, and shooting suspicious dogs on sight. Each complaint received cost the city an average of $70,000 to investigate, and they used to garner two to three complaints a month. But there hasn’t been a complaint about Huth’s SWAT team in a decade. What changed?
The officers learned a couple essential lessons that could transform police relations around the country and the way people in other fields perform business, as well. The Kansas City Police Department turned to leadership consultants at The Arbinger Institute to help them transform their culture.
Why it Matters That a Judge Overturned Utah’s “Ag-Gag” Law
Guest: Erika George, JD, Professor of Law, University of Utah
At least nine states have “ag-gag” laws on the books. A federal judge recently ruled one such law in Utah unconstitutional. These laws make it a crime to lie about your identity in order to get onto a commercial farm or into a slaughterhouse and then secretly tape what goes on there and expose the recordings to the public. Animal rights groups say the laws amount to a “gag order” on their efforts to shed light on inhumane or unsafe food production methods.
The West Owes a Debt to Islam
Guest: Glen Cooper, PhD, Adjunct Professor of History, Pitzer College
During the European Dark Ages, when science, art and literature seemed to flounder for several centuries, there actually was a lot of discover and insight going on – but it was in the Islamic World: places like Iraq, Persia and Syria. The science of medicine, mathematics and astronomy flourished among Islamic scholars and would help catalyze the European Renaissance. But those contributions have been largely forgotten today. Why? And what’s lost when we ignore the debt we owe to Islam?
Where Did Our Healthcare System Come from Anyway?
Guest: Christy Ford Chapin, Associate Professor of History, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Visiting Scholar, Johns Hopkins University
Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act are a shambles, so some in Congress are now searching for a more limited plan to stabilize the individual insurance market, where premiums have risen steeply. Even though the fight over Obamacare is often called a fight over “health care reform,” it’s really more about insurance reform, dictating who should get coverage and what the coverage should look like. But how did health insurance companies end up being the gatekeepers to our medical care in the first place? About 100 years ago, health insurance companies didn’t even exist in America. The story of their rise to prominence helps explain why the battle over health care reform is so intense today.
Can I Kiss You? (originally aired Nov. 29, 2016)
Guest: Mike Domitrz, Founder of The Date Safe Project, Author of “Can I Kiss You?” and the DVD “Help! My Teen is Dating”
According to Mike Domitrz, consent starts from the first kiss. Forget the romance movie notion that a kiss should happen organically when your partner is sending the right signals and you’re picking up on them and fireworks go off when you come together without exchanging a word about it. The whole idea of consent often boils down to “No means no.” It’s the concept central to nationwide discussions regarding sexual assault. But is it really that simple? That “No means no” and “Yes means yes”?
Quagga Invasion (originally aired May 1, 2017)
Guest: Mark Belk, PhD, Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University
There's still time left in boating season, and here in Utah a popular destination for boaters is the massive reservoir Lake Powell, well over 100 miles long. But boaters there have had to deal an invasive species the last five years: quagga mussels are spoiling the party at Lake Powell, threatening serious damage to the thriving houseboat industry there and possibly wreaking havoc on sport fishing, just like they’ve done in the Great Lakes for the past 30 years. Will the quagga mussels win out again?
Need a Hand? How 3-D Printing and Online Networks Can Help the World’s Disabled (originally aired March 28, 2017)
Guest: Dr. Jon Schull, PhD, Director of RIT’s MAGIC Center, Founder of the e-NABLE Movement
Every year roughly 1,500 babies in the US are born missing all or part of an arm. Simple activities like getting dressed or opening a door can be a challenge for these children. But a prosthetic hand can cost tens of thousands of dollars and kids tend to out-grow them in a few years.
Enter the e-NABLE movement: a fast-growing network of more than 6000 volunteers that use 3-D printers to create custom-made prosthetics for less than $50. The movement has already provided about 2,000 prosthetics for people in more than 40 countries.
Russia’s Diplomatic Tit for Tat
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, PhD, Professor of International Law, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
President Donald Trump today signed a bill that imposes new sanctions on Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, among other offenses. Trump signed the bill reluctantly, because it also limits his ability to ease the sanctions without Congress’ permission. Russia saw this move coming and lobbed a pre-emptive strike of its own on Sunday, ordering the US to cut 75 percent of the employees working at US embassies and consulates in Russia.
Super Virus is the Future of Medicine
Guest: Peter Kasson, PhD, Associate Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia
There is a nearly indestructible virus that lives in the boiling acid of Yellowstone National Park’s bubbling hot springs. Using a fancy microscope and computer models, researchers at the University of Virginia believe they’ve figured out the survival secret of this super virus. It comes down to this virus’s unique membrane—the likes of which no one has ever seen before. Could the secrets of this durable super virus advance the field of medicine—or help us build materials stronger than ever before?
Facebook Personalities
Guest: Kris Boyle, PhD, Assistant Professor of Communications, Brigham Young University
If you’re a regular Facebook user, why? Is it for keeping in touch with people? Quietly stalking them? Promoting your business or ideas? Boosting your self-esteem with selfie likes?
A BYU School of Communications research team has concluded that Facebook’s one billion members could fit into four categories of reasons for using the site.
Apple Seed Stories
Guest: Sam Payne of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
"Faith" story from the champion liar Bil Lepp.
Teachers Not Trained for their Classrooms
Guest: Ryan Nixon, PhD, Assistant Professor of Science Education, Brigham Young University
In a US public school today, you probably wouldn’t find someone trained as a high school English teacher assigned to teach a high school biology class. But you might find someone who trained in physics assigned to teach geology. In fact, that kind of thing happens with as many as two-thirds of new high school science teachers.
Getting Psyched Up
Guest: Daniel McGinn, Senior Edictor at the "Harvard Business Review"
The power of a good pep-talk is not just in the energy of the person delivering. There’s actually a formula for getting pumped to take on a challenge. Daniel McGinn covers the key elements in his new book, "Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed."
Turbulence in Pakistan
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Asia Program Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia, Wilson Center, Washington, DC
The prime minister of Pakistan stepped down over the weekend after the country’s Supreme Court ruled him too dishonest to finish out his term in office.
Hard to fathom as that may be to Americans, this is nothing new for Pakistan, says Wilson Center South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman. The shakeup also comes at a troublesome time for US-Pakistan relations.
Finding Peace After Lengthy Conflict
Guest: James Patton, President and CEO, International Center for Religion and Diplomacy
With so many regions of the world embroiled in war, what lessons can we glean from a historic peace deal that ended the world’s longest conflict? Colombian government forces and FARC rebels signed an agreement in November to end fighting that had been going on since 1964. More than 220,000 Colombians had been killed - mostly civilians – and 8 million were driven from their homes in the conflict. What brought these two sides to peace? And now that both sides are laying down their arms, is the work done?
Can Anyone Live in a Tiny Home?
Guest: Lindsay Graham, PhD, Research Specialist, Center for the Built Environment, UC Berkeley
The majority of new houses built in 2015 were larger than 2,400 square feet. But there is also something of a movement toward tiny houses, which boast floor spaces of anywhere from 400 to a miniscule 100 square feet. Talk about downsizing. We talk to an expert on the psychology of home environments.
Dream Mining App
Guest: James Gaskin, PhD, Creator of uDreamed app, Professor of Information Systems, Brigham Young University
Dreams aren’t always obvious, are they? If you’re the type of person who likes to derive meaning from them, you could try UDreamed—an app that interprets them.
The Hormone Myth
Guest: Robyn Stein DeLuca, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Author of “The Hormone Myth: How Junk Science, Gender Politics & Lies About PMS Keep Women Down"
Hormones do not make women crazy, according to Professor Robyn DeLuca. But what about the PMS, the mood swings, the chocolate cravings, the menopausal looniness? What woman hasn’t used PMS to explain an emotional outburst? What woman hasn’t been chided for “PMSing” when she gets angry?
But Robyn Stein Deluca says it’s all a myth - “The Hormone Myth,” as she calls it in the title of her new book.
Past, Present and Future of the EU
Guests: Wade Jacoby, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Gregory Jackson, PhD, Professor of Integrated Studies, UVU
The European Union is Top of Mind this hour. Britain wants out. Poland could lose some of its privileges for violating the EU’s common values. There’s been a fair amount of concern over the last year about whether the EU can hold together in the face of challenges such as the global recession and the refugee crisis.
But let’s pause for a moment and step back. Do you know when and why the European Union was formed? Most of us are probably a little fuzzy, to be honest. From this side of the Atlantic, it seemed like we woke up one day and the EU was just there. That may be why it’s hard for Americans to understand what all the fuss is about. We’re going to get some answers from two experts of European politics.
Into the Grey Zone
Guest: Adrian Owen, PhD, Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging at the Brain and Mind Institute of Western University, Ontario, Canada. Author of “Into the Grey Zone: A Neuroscientist Explores the Border Between Life and Death”
Anyone who’s held the hand of a loved one who’s lying unconscious and unresponsive in a hospital bed has agonized over questions like: Do they know what’s happening? Do they know I’m here with them? Can they hear my voice? Are they maybe even trying to respond and just can’t get their body to cooperate?
The idea that someone could be fully-conscious but unable to let the world know is terrifying. And it’s a heart-wrenching thing for that person’s family to be faced with decisions about medical treatment not knowing if their loved one is in there, or not.
Renowned neuroscientist Adrian Owen believes that using brain scans, he can answer that question. In some cases he can even communicate with, and get a response back, from someone in a vegetative state. It’s amazing stuff, which he details in his new book, “Into the Grey Zone.”
The Fearless Brain of Alex Honnold
Guest: Jane Joseph, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina
Continuing our exploration of the brain’s mysteries, let’s go inside the gray matter of the world’s best rock climber. Alex Honnold does free solo climbing, meaning no net, no safety gear. In June, he climbed the face of Yosemite’s El Capitan in less than four hours, with nothing but his fingers, his toes and a bag of chalk clipped to his belt. Many, many people have wondered over the years if Alex Honnold is even capable of feeling fear. Is there something wrong with his brain that makes it so he can do these insanely risky things?
Neuroscientist Jane Joseph of the Medical University of South Carolina had these same questions, so she put Alex Honnold into an fMRI machine and took a close look at his brain.
The Case for More Immigration from Poor Countries
Guest: Lant Pritchett, PhD, Professor of Practice of International Development, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
President Trump is unapologetic about his approach to immigration. He wants people to "Buy American and Hire American." Immigrants, Trump says, threaten our jobs and our safety. He's particularly critical of low-skilled immigrants from poor countries coming to the US to take advantage of higher paying jobs and better quality of life.
However, Pritchett says those are precisely the immigrants America needs more of. He says their contributions are good for our economy and much better for their home countries than the billions of dollars the US spends every year trying to improve the economy, education and health of people in developing nations.
Angry Divorce Has Lifelong Health Consequences for Kids
Guest: Michael Murphy, Psychology Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
Parents who are divorcing often worry about the emotional fallout their separation will have on their children. Research results now suggest a rancorous divorce can also have a lasting physical effect on the health of children. To the point that, even as adults, children of divorce may be more susceptible to illnesses like the common cold.
New Wearable Tech for the Visually Impaired
Guest: Santani Teng, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher at Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute
Watching a person with visual impairments navigate the world with the use of a long white cane is truly awe-inspiring. The cane is a really low-tech solution, but in experienced hands it's very effective. Not perfect though: it can tell someone if there's an obstacle ahead, but not precisely what that obstacle is. A team at MIT has developed a solution that could help.
Unidentified Burials for the Mentally Ill (Originally aired Mar. 13, 2017)
Guest: Janina Chilton, Historian for the Utah State Hospital
There’s a cemetery just down the road from our studio here in Provo, Utah where 474 unmarked graves contain the remains of patients who died while housed at the Utah Territorial Insane Asylum. They died paupers, and when no families came to claim the bodies, they were buried in graves that have been long since forgotten.
This scenario played out in cemeteries near mental hospitals across the country during the 1800s and early 1900s. Today communities from Minnesota to Mississippi to right here in Provo, Utah, are working to restore some dignity to these forgotten graves.
For more information on the Forgotten Patient's Cemetery Project click here.
Tweeting Doctors: Conflict of Interest? (Originally aired Feb. 27, 2017)
Guest: Vinay Prasad, MD, Professor of Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University
Does your doctor Tweet? That’s maybe a strange question, but more and more doctors are using social media, including our next guest Vinay Prasad, who is a cancer doctor. A few years ago, he began to notice other cancer doctors tweeting about various drugs and clinical trials, and he started to wonder if they were being paid by drug companies to post that information. We’ve all seen celebrities, pro-athletes and popular bloggers promoting products from sponsors on their social media accounts. Has that kind of advertising taken root in medicine, now, too?
Back From a Year on "Mars" (Originally aired Oct. 3, 2016)
Guest: Christiane Heinicke, PhD, Physicist who Completed a Year-Long Simulation in a Mars Habitat
Fifteen years from now, NASA hopes to send the first astronauts to Mars, but there’s a lot to figure out in the meantime. Anyone who goes to Mars will need to spend a lot of time in a shelter of some sort and wear a spacesuit when outside – because of intense radiation from the sun. And it’ll be a long mission – the flight to Mars takes six months and they’ll have to spend a few years there before returning to Earth. So NASA needs to know how humans will hold up under the stressful of such isolation and being in tight quarters with the same few people for so long. So that’s how six volunteers ended up in a simulated Mars habitat funded by NASA on the rocky surface of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. For an entire year they lived in a 1,200 square foot geodesic dome completely off the grid, powered by solar panels. Food and water were delivered every few months. And the few times they ventured outdoors, they had to wear big space suits. They’ve just completed their year-long mission.
Absence of US Policy in Asia Causing Dismay, Turmoil
Guest: L. Gordon Flake, CEO of the Perth USAsia Center, University of Western Australia
North Korea’s escalating threat of nuclear war is at the top of the list. But head across the South China Sea to the Philippines and violent attacks by terrorists linked to ISIS have caused President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law on an island of 22 million people. And to the Northeast in Myanmar, also known as Burma, human rights groups say a Muslim minority known as the Rohingya are being systematically tortured, killed and forced to flee their homes. Myanmar has blocked UN investigators from visiting the region.
Meanwhile, American policy in Asia is absent, and China is stepping in to fill the void.
Newspaper Companies Hope to Take on Facebook & Google
Guest: Chris Sagers, JD, Professor of Antitrust Law, Cleveland State University
Nearly two out of every three Americans get some of their news from social media sites like Facebook. But the newspapers who pay the reporters to do that journalism don’t get money from the ads Google and Facebook shows while you’re reading those stories. Is that fair? An alliance of newspaper companies says it’s not and they’re asking Congress for permission to join forces and negotiation with Facebook and Google as a single entity to get a fairer shake. That violates antitrust laws – hence the need to get permission from Congress.
Trust is Genetic, Distrust is Not
Guest: Martin Reimann, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Arizona
You know somebody who’s really trusting, don’t you? Where does that come from? Is it genetics? Or maybe they’ve never been disappointed or betrayed by someone? That seems unlikely. Research looking at levels of trust and distrust in pairs of twins offers some intriguing answers.
Apple Seed Stories
Guest: Sam Payne of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
For his weekly visit, Sam Payne shares folktales about foxes.
How to Save the World's Ugly Animals
Guest: Diogo Verissimo, Conversation Research Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
When you donate to the World Wildlife Fund, you can get a tote bag with an unbelievably cute and cuddly Giant panda on it. You can even get a stuffed Panda to cuddle. Would you be as keen to donate if that tote had a blobfish on it? I mean, the gelatinous pink blobby fish with a big nose and grumpy frown is so ugly I dare you to look at a picture of it and not cringe.
But the blobfish is endangered, just like the Giant panda. Ugly creatures deserve saving, too, right? But how to get people to donate for them is the question. Conservation research fellow Diogo Verissimo at Johns Hopkins University is convinced the answer is marketing. Maybe the blobfish or the purple frog – seriously, look that one up, it’s hideous – just need some spiffy spin to get donors in their corner.
Love Stories Are Not Good for Us
Guest: Mandy Len Catron, Lecturer at University of British Columbia, Author of "How to Fall In Love with Anyone"
Happily-ever-after fairytales and romantic comedies are not a realistic take on romantic love, but we buy into their subtler messages anyway. Just look at the language we use to talk about it: We’re head-over-heels, swept-off-our-feet. We fall in love - it’s always falling. And usually “when we least expect it.” So, love is something that happens to us whether we want it or not, right? It’s beyond our control.
Listen to Arthur Aron talk with Top of Mind about his 36 questions to fall in love here.
Obamacare Is Not Failing, But It’s Not Perfect Either
Guest: Sherry Glied, PhD, Dean of the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University
Republicans in Congress are still trying to salvage a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. That’s Plan A. Plan B is to repeal Obamacare and work on a replacement later. Republicans are struggling to get support for that, too. So, Plan C appears to be what President Trump has touted many times on Twitter - just let Obamacare fail on its own and Republicans and Democrats will have no choice but to come together and fix things.
Is Obamacare really destined to collapse? And why are Republicans having such a hard time agreeing on a plan to replace it?
Imodium: The New Hydrocodone?
Guest: Heather Miller, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Texas A&M
There’s a drug—likely in your medicine cabinet—a potentially fatal opioid that some addicts are turning to. It’s not one of the usual suspects - oxycodone or hydrocodone. It’s actually the active ingredient in Imodium – you know the anti-diarrhea medication? Imodium and generic versions of it contain “loperamide” (low-PEAR-uh-mide). While the number of people overdosing on loperamide is still small, that figure is increasing according to new research published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.
Yale Uncovers New Hieroglyphs
Guest: John Darnell, Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale
You might call them ancient Egyptian billboards. A joint expedition from Yale and Belgium’s Royal Museums of Art and History uncovered some of the largest and oldest hieroglyphs ever found, dating back over 5,000 years. Egyptologist John Coleman Darnell, a professor in Yale’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations led the expedition.
The Car Wreck that is Uber
Guest: Evan Rawley, PhD, Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship, University of Minnesota
The ride-hailing company Uber needs some serious maintenance. Reeling from sexual harassment scandals and missing host of empty offices in the executive suite, including the CEO position, Uber needs a driver and a course correction, and soon.
Does the American Dream Die in Middle School?
Guest: Erin Godfrey, PhD, Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology, Psychology and Social Intervention Program, New York University
For children from economic and racial groups that tend to be at a disadvantage in society, middle school also appears to be a really critical time for understanding just how much things are stacked against them. A study of sixth, seventh and eighth graders showed disadvantaged youngsters who started off believing the world is fair and everyone has the same shot at success in life ended up falling farther into things like fighting, cheating and stealing as reality set in. It’s as if their optimistic view of the world turned into a serious liability when they learned the truth.
Worlds Awaiting: Harry Potter
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s “Worlds Awaiting”
Rachel Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Pivotal Vietnam Battle and Its Modern-Day Echoes
Guest: Mark Bowden, National Correspondent for The Atlantic, Senior Writer for Vanity Fair, Author of “Black Hawk Down” and “Hue 1968”
It was a turning point in the Vietnam War. On January 30, 1968, the North Vietnamese launched a surprise attack on the city of Hue and a number of other sites. America and its South Vietnamese allies were caught flat-footed. It would take two weeks for them to regain control of Hue. Two weeks of intense combat, street by narrow street. The attack happened on Tet – the Vietnamese New Year – symbolic because the North Vietnamese envisioned that “with the new year would dawn a new, independent Vietnam.” So writes Mark Bowden in his new book, “Hue 1968.” It is an exhaustive and gripping account of a pivotal battle – the most wrenching of the war. After Tet, writes Bowden, “the debate was never again about how to win in Vietnam, but how to leave.”
Similar themes echo through America’s ongoing fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other echoes of Hue can be found in the way US media report on wars today; the antagonism between the press and the President; the public fatigue with losing American lives in a far-off conflict.
You Are Boring, But Write It Anyway!
Guests: Louise Plummer, Retired Professor of English, BYU; Ann Cannon, Columnist for "The Salt Lake Tribune." Co-Authors of “You Are Boring, But You Are Uniquely Boring: 25 Models for Writing Memoir”
As a literary genre, memoir started to become a huge money maker in the 1990s, with a big boost from Frank McCourt’s best-seller Angela’s Ashes winning the Pulitzer Prize. Ann Cannon and Louise Plummer will try to convince us that anyone can write an engaging memoir, no matter how ordinary or dull they feel. They’ve just published a book called, “You Are Boring, But You Are Uniquely Boring: 25 Models for Writing Memoir.” Between them, Ms. Cannon and Prof. Plummer have published dozens of books of poetry, young adult fiction and memoir.
Iraq After ISIS
Guest: John Macfarlane, Adjunct Political Science Professor, Utah Valley University
The Iraqi military has recaptured the city of Mosul from ISIS. The US had been offering support to Iraqi forces in the fight, which started back in October. So now what for ISIS? And for Iraq, which is increasingly under the influence of Iran as the US pulls back?
Seattle’s Minimum Wage Ordinance
Guest: Jacob Vigdor, PhD, Professor of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington
No matter where you live in the country, surviving on the federal minimum wage of $7.25 is tough. Acknowledging that fact, one of the nation’s more expensive cities – Seattle – is slowly ramping up its city-wide minimum wage toward an eventual goal of $15 an hour. But a new study out of the University of Washington claims Seattle’s minimum wage hike is backfiring: instead of putting more money in the pockets of low-wage workers, it’s led companies to cut the hours employees work.
This study has generated a lot of criticism from researchers who’ve come to different conclusions about the effects of raising minimum wage. So we talk it out with the study's lead author.
A Secret Community of Book Sharers
Guest: Bruce Pedersen, President and CEO of BookCrossing
If you love books, and you love sharing a book you love with a friend, how about “setting that book free” for strangers to find in a kind of worldwide book treasure hunt? There’s a website called BookCrossing.com where people register their books and then secretly drop them in the most unlikely places – a bin of fruit at the market, the crook of a tree at the park, a bench in the subway. A book hunter snags it, checks it in on the site, reads it and drops it somewhere. Books can travel around town or around the country or around the world. More than a million people are registered with the site, believe it or not.
University Art Museums (originally aired Nov. 21, 2016)
Guest: Jacoba Urist, Journalist, "The Atlantic"
As we prepare for the school year to start, the arms race going on among university athletics departments is on full display: Non-stop preparations for college football and basketball games gives viewers a close-up look at the latest-and-greatest in stadium and arena construction, lighting and digital signs universities are installing to attract talented athletes, sell tickets and keep boosters happy.
There’s a similar rush to upgrade and outshine going on across college museums. You could call it an “arts race,” as Jacoba Urist did in her article for "The Atlantic" titled “Why Do Colleges Have So Much Art?”
Being Rude to Doctors Could Hurt You, Literally (originally aired March 13, 2017)
Guest: Peter Bamberger, PhD, Professor of Organizational Behavior, Associate Dean for Research, Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University
In a moment of frustration or fear, we all know that it’s like to say something we regret. If that moment happens to come in a medical setting and it’s a doctor you’re snapping at, you just might pay a little more dearly for it.
A study published a few months ago in the journal "Pediatrics" found rude comments, even mild ones, affected a doctor’s ability on the job.
Overcoming Rejection (originally aired Jan 4, 2017)
Guest: Jia Jiang, Owner of Rejection Therapy, Author of “Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection”
As we reach the middle of the calendar year, is there anything from your dusty list of New Year’s resolutions that you’d still like to accomplish but maybe just can’t find the nerve to really go for? Asking for a pay raise, perhaps. Or reaching out to that stranger you’re intrigued by? Fear of rejection keeps us from doing all sorts of things.
When Jia Jiang decided he was done letting that fear limit his life, he spent 100 days doing things virtually guaranteed to bring rejection. Like asking to play soccer in a stranger’s backyard or to sit in the driver seat of a police car. The result of those 100 days was a lot of rejection—and also a book called “Rejection Proof.”
Understanding Trump’s Voter Fraud Commission
Guest: Douglas Spencer, JD, PhD, Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of Connecticut
Voter fraud is one of President Donald Trump’s key concerns. He claims that millions of people voted illegally in the election and robbed him of winning the popular vote. To root out those claims, Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which met in Washington for the first time today. But Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity has already been hamstrung by half a dozen lawsuits. Also, dozens of states have refused to provide all of the voter information the commission has requested. How big of a problem is voter fraud in America?
Why Courts Should Use Statistics
Guest: Daniel J. Denis, PhD, Associate Professor of Quantitative Psychology, University of Montana
A number of years ago, Julie Rose had a very frustrating experience as a jury member on a federal criminal case. After they’d heard all the evidence, jurors were told that deciding the defendant was guilty meant we needed to be confident – “beyond a reasonable doubt” – that he’d committed the crime. The frustrating part was that none of the jury members seemed to agree on just what “beyond a reasonable doubt” meant. Some of them felt the evidence was so strong there was maybe an 85 to 90 percent chance of guilt. But a few jurors insisted that even one inkling of doubt, one weak spot in the prosecutor’s case meant “reasonable doubt.” In the end, those few jurors prevented the jury from getting the unanimous vote they needed for a guilty verdict and the guy got off.
Here’s the core problem: we’re asking jurors to make a decision based on statistical probabilities without giving them even a basic understanding of how statistics work.
Job Stress, Junk Food, and Sleep
Guest: Chu-Hsiang “Daisy” Chang, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University
Has a stressful day at work ever lead you to eat one extra donut or opt for that bag of potato chips over veggies when it came to dinner time? Research indicates that stress during the work day can lead to unhealthy food choices and overeating in the evening hours. So how do we combat that tendency? Sleep. New research studies reveal that a good night’s sleep can serve as a protection against job stress and overeating.
Apple Seed Stories
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
"The Spellin' Bee" by Mitch Capel
Star Wars: A New Generation of Fans
Guest: Brandon Bishop, Social Studies Teacher, Blue Valley Southwest High School, Overland Park, Kansas
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away summer school was a terrible punishment for kids. But then, Mr. B. taught a class on the history and importance of Star Wars and summer school history was made. Young boys and girls dressed like Jedi and wielded light sabers. Mr. B – known in civilian life as Brandon Bishop – wasn’t yet born when the original Star Wars film came out 40 years ago. The younglings in his summer school class wouldn’t arrive on the planet for many decades. In this day of advanced movie making and special effects, why do films that debuted in the 1970s still excite young fans?
Parenting as Partners
Guest: Vicki Hoefle, Parenting Coach, Author of “Parenting as Partners: How to Launch Your Kids Without Ejecting Your Spouse”
Bedtime is a source of conflict in many homes – and not just the tug of war between parents and children over when to turn in. In many, many cases, the root of the conflict lies between parents – should bedtimes be flexible or set-in-stone? Should a child get the drawn-out bedtime routine she demands or just a kiss goodnight and lights out?
Parenting educator Vicki Hoefle devised a way to help parents get on the same page about raising their kids.
The Search for a Muslim American Identity
Guest: Asma Uddin, JD, Director of Strategy, Center for Islam and Religious Freedom, founder, AltMuslimah.com
When the media or non-Muslims talk of Islam, we tend to act as if there are just two Muslim communities: the terrorists and the non-terrorists. As if every peaceful Muslim living in the US is cut from the same cloth. But, in fact, American Muslims are the most racially diverse religious group in the country. They’re Arab, African, African American, South Asian, European, Latino and White American – the list goes on. Many, but not all, are immigrants to the US. They have different cultures, speak different languages, and practice Islam in slightly different ways. So what does it mean to be a Muslim American?
Doctors with Disabilities
Guest: Dhruv Khullar, MD, Physician, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Healthcare Policy Researcher, Cornell University
People with a disability – that’s nearly one in five Americans – are less likely to receive routine medical care: things as basic as flu vaccines and cancer screening. One reason for this disparity is that doctor’s offices and clinics may not have accommodations, such as exam tables with adjustable height. Another reason is the social stigma associated with disability. Part of the solution to this problem is encouraging more people with disabilities to become doctors.
Stress Develops Strengths
Guest: Bruce Ellis, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Anthropology, University of Utah
Children living in high-crime neighborhoods or extreme poverty are considered “at-risk” and in need of special intervention to help them overcome the problems that come with growing up in such a stressful environment. But University of Utah psychology researcher Bruce Ellis suggest that approach is like focusing on a half-empty glass, instead of acknowledging the other half that is actually full - of skills kids acquire from being in high-stress environments. He says nurturing those skills could offer benefits.
Kids in High-Achieving Schools: Addiction Down the Road?
Guest: Suniya Luthar, Foundation Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University, Professor Emerita, Columbia University, Teachers College
Kids from upper middle-class homes would seem like the last group we need to worry about as a society. They’re not dealing with hunger, poverty or lack of basic healthcare. They go to the best high schools and most elite colleges.
But young people from this very group are a new focus of public health officials because their drug and alcohol abuse rates are two to three times higher than the national norm.
Spam: The Unlikely Story
Guest: Ayalla Ruvio, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University
Julie Rose knew she was in for a treat on Sunday nights growing up when her dad put on an apron and grabbed a spatula. Spam and cheese pancakes doused with maple syrup were his specialty. It was never clear why Frank Rose loved Spam so much … might have been from his days in the Air Force during the 70s. Or maybe he – like millions of people the world over – just bought into Hormel’s brilliant marketing, which has kept Spam on grocery shelves for 80 years.
Julie’s Dad’s Spam and Cheese Pancake Recipe
-Make regular pancake batter (Dad liked Bisquick and Krusteaz)
-Dice Spam and cheddar cheese into ½ inch pieces and add to prepared batter
-Cook pancakes on griddle
-Slather in butter and maple syrup!
Dressmakers Have Superior 3D Vision
Guest: Adrien Chopin, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher in Visual Neuroscience, UC Berkeley
Threading a needle usually takes a few stabs. Getting the thread into that tiny hole on the first try is just plain luck. Perhaps our depth perception is a bit lacking. There’s a specific visual skill involved in threading a needle, catching a ball, parking a car. And a small study out of the University of California, Berkeley suggests people who are successful in certain profession excel at this thing called 3D vision.
Three World Events—Macron’s France, New Saudi Prince, Cholera in Yemen
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
World Events are Top of Mind today as we welcome regular contributor Quinn Mecham back into the studio. He’s a professor of political science here at BYU and joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration.
Coconut Oil: The New No-No?
Guest: Vasanti Malik, Research Scientist, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard
Americans have been coo-coo for coconut oil lately: cooking with it, slathering it on their bodies and hair. Some healthy nuts swear that eating a spoonful a day helps them lose weight and ward off disease. No wonder people got pretty fired up when the American Heart Association came out recently and said coconut oil’s health-food status is bogus. The AHA report analyzed years of data on the link between saturated fat and heart disease and concluded that yes, saturated fat increases your risk of heart attack. But then they came straight for coconut oil, noting it’s higher in saturated fat that even butter or lard. “We advise against the use of coconut oil,” says the AHA.
Unemployed White Men: So Much to Lose
Guest: Shervin Assari, MD, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Public Health, University of Michigan
When you’re dragging yourself out of bed for work in the morning, you may not realize it, but having a job is good for your health and life expectancy. That’s especially true if you’re a white man. Women and black men don’t get nearly the same boost to their health from being employed. On the flip side, white men tend to suffer worse health consequences when they lose a job. Health disparities researcher Shervin Assari refers to this phenomenon as “the vulnerability that comes with privilege.”
Understanding the Teen Mind
Guest: Marie Banich, PhD, Executive Director of CU Boulder's Intermountain Neuroimaging Center, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Let’s take an expedition now into the weird and wild world of the teenage mind. We all remember being there. If you’ve got a teenager at home, you’ve got a front-row seat to the mystery of it. Is the brain of an adolescent different from that of a fully-grown adult? What do drugs, sleep and stress do to the brain’s development? Not to mention hormones.
Parent Previews—Planet of the Apes
Guests: Rod and Donna Gustafson, Film Reviewers at ParentPreviews.com
A science experiment gone-wrong created highly intelligent primates that now pose too great a threat to the human race. “War for the Planet of the Apes” picks up the story.
New Kidney Cancer Drug
Guests: Merritt Andrus, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, BYU; Mike Alder, Director, BYU Technology Transfer Office
Several years ago the National Cancer Institute put out a call for researchers to find new treatments for kidney cancer. While overall cancer death rates continue to decline in the U.S, the Institute notes that death rates for certain cancers, including kidney, are on the rise. One result of that call to action was the discovery of a natural compound from a plant in Africa that is particularly toxic to kidney cancer cells.
Click here for more information about technology developed at BYU.
Married to Mental Illness
Guest: Mark Lukach, Author of “My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward”
Mark Lukach knew something was very, very wrong with his 27-year-old wife Giulia the morning he woke up to find her pacing the bedroom and insisting that she’d talked to the Devil last night and the Devil told her she’s not worth saving.
It was Giulia’s first descent into psychosis. It came as a complete surprise to the young couple. It landed Giulia in the hospital for several weeks. It upended their lives, almost ended their marriage.
In a deeply personal new memoir called “My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward,” Mark Lukach gives us a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to love someone who has mental illness.
Fairytale Beasts
Guest: Jill Terry Rudy, PhD, Professor of English and Folklore, BYU; Jennifer Schacker, PhD, Professor of English and Folklore, University of Guelph; Christine A. Jones, PhD, Professor of French Literature and Fairytales, University of Utah
There’s the Frog Prince, the Big Bad Wolf, and of course, Belle and her Beast. The fairytale beasts that come most quickly to mind tend to be those in need of conquering, taming or transforming. But if we look back further to the origins of some of our favorite fairytale stories involving animals – like Goldilocks and the Three Bears – we find some surprises. In these vintage tales, beasts were more ambiguous – and occasionally even better than their human counterparts.
Preserving Civil Discourse in the Media
Guest: Alexander Heffner, Host, “The Open Mind,” PBS
Civil discourse is not easy to find in the news these days. While name calling and personal attacks permeate most media, there are still a few places you can turn for a more reasoned approach. One is Alexander Heffner’s show on PBS called “The Open Mind.” But do Americans still want civil discourse anymore?
Social Media Under Threat in Egypt
Guest: Ramy Raoof, Senior Research Technologist, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
While we in America concern ourselves with the tone of our speech and whether our discourse is civil, there are places in the world where expressing yourself can get you put in prison.
The government of Egypt has been systematically cracking down on critical voices online. The latest proposal involves requiring every Egyptian who uses Facebook to get approval from the government first. If citizens get on social media without permission, they could end up in jail for six months or pay a significant fine. Ostensibly, the idea is to prevent terrorists from using social media to promote dangerous ideas. But critics say the proposal is just another attempt by the government to monitor citizens and stifle free speech.
Healthy Gut, Healthy Brain
Guest: Doctor Premysl Bercik, Associate Professor of Gastroenterology, McMaster University
A new discovery in the treatment of depression highlights a possible link between the brain and the belly. Researchers have found that probiotics, or so-called “good bacteria,” can help relieve depressive symptoms in people suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
20-Cent Lifesaving Device (originally aired Feb. 13, 2017)
Guest: Manu Prakash, PhD, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University
If doctors want to detect bloodborne diseases like malaria, HIV and tuberculosis, they have to spin the patient’s blood in a centrifuge to separate out the pathogens from the components of the blood. But centrifuges are expensive and require electricity, and bloodborne diseases are often found in third-world countries where there’s little money and no electricity available to healthcare professionals. But a bioengineer from Stanford recently invented a hand-powered centrifuge that only costs 20 cents to make.
The Dirtiest Things We Touch (originally aired March 7, 2017)
Guest: Charles Gerba, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Environmental Sciences, University of Arizona
Germophobes: prepare to be grossed out. "Dr. Germ" identifies the most contaminated things in our daily lives, and it turns out the worst offenders aren’t even in the bathroom.
Giving While Living (originally aired Feb. 1, 2017)
Guest: Christopher Oechsli, President and CEO, The Atlantic Philanthropies
The man Forbes magazine calls the most generous philanthropist in America is a billionaire you’ve likely never heard of. It’s not Bill or Melinda Gates or Warren Buffett. This donor has given away a much larger share of his fortune than they have - nearly all of it, in fact. His name is Chuck Feeney and he pioneered the duty-free shops now found in airports around the world. For decades he managed to keep his giving anonymous and he rarely talks to the press about his philanthropy, which he runs through a foundation called The Atlantic Philanthropies. The Foundation recently hit an important milestone – they gave away the last of Feeney’s money.
How is North Korea Still Growing its Missile Program?
Guest: Shea Cotton, Research Associate, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
On the 4th of July, North Korea successfully tested a missile capable of hitting Alaska – which is a really big step for the nation’s weapons program and all the more worrisome considering North Korea also claims to be close to having a nuclear weapon it could strap to a long-range missile.
But, the world has known for literally decades that this was North Korea’s ambition. For decades, there have been efforts to try and limit North Korea’s access to weapons supplies and technology. Why haven’t they worked?
You're Office May Be Making You Sick
Guest: Joseph Allen, DSc, Associate Professor of Exposure Assessment Science, Harvard University
Your boss might stress you out, your co-workers possibly annoy you, but here’s one more potential downside to your job: the building you work in could make you sick. Our next guest is a sort-of physician for the workspace—he diagnoses sick buildings. Minor investments to clean up unhealthy buildings can yield major returns in productivity, not to mention how much better employees feel when the building in which they work isn’t making them sick.
Training Teachers with Virtual Reality
Guest: Richard Lamb, PhD, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education, Director of the Neurocognition Science Laboratory, University at Buffalo
Pilots, soldiers, and surgeons all use virtual reality simulators to train before taking on a real-life mission. But we don’t normally think of school teachers training in flight-like simulators-for-teaching before stepping in front of a classroom full of flesh-and-blood students.
Apple Seed
Sam Payne, host of the Apple Seed, stops by to inform us of his latest trip to a Storytelling convention on the East Coast.
DNA May Contribute to PTSD
Guest: Laramie Duncan, PhD, Faculty Member, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
Some soldiers and victims of rape or other trauma develop PTSD. But many don’t. Why not? The answer may be found deep in the coils of our DNA. New research suggests a genetic predisposition for PTSD, and it’s greater in women than in men.
Vitamin C: A Cure for Sepsis?
Guest: Paul Marik, MD, Professor of Medicine, Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School
Sometimes in fighting an infection, the body’s immune system gets overwhelmed and goes haywire, triggering widespread inflammation that causes all kinds of urgent problems, including organ failure. It’s called sepsis and in severe cases, it kills up to half of patients, making it a leading cause of death in hospital intensive care units. It’s also notoriously difficult to treat. A sepsis diagnosis can feel like a runaway train speeding toward catastrophe as doctors scramble to keep up.
In one of those desperate moments, Dr. Paul Marik tried something unusual – an IV of Vitamin C. That’s not an accepted treatment for sepsis, but it worked so well he tried it again and again. The results he published on his experiments have stirred up quite a bit of controversy – but also hope.
Venezuela Sliding Toward Dictatorship
Guest: Laura Gamboa-Gutierrez, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Utah State University
The escalating crisis in Venezuela is Top of Mind today. For more than three months now, there have been almost daily clashes in the streets between protesters and security forces in Venezuela. At least 85 people have died, more than a thousand injured as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro tries to crack down on protests against him. Last week, an armed group of Maduro’s supporters stormed the National Assembly and beat up some of his fiercest critics.
Once one of the wealthiest and most stable democracies in Latin America, Venezuela is now in economic shambles and sliding quickly toward dictatorship. What role could the US play in aiding the Venezuelan people?
Gardening Heals Trauma at Women’s Shelter
Guest: Claire Renzetti, PhD, Chair and Professor of Sociology, University of Kentucky
This time of year, many of us head into the garden to clear our heads after a long day at work or to unwind over the weekend. Well, a women’s shelter in Kentucky taps into this therapeutic benefit of gardening to help heal deep trauma and pain experienced by victims of domestic violence. The directors of the shelter, named GreenHouse17, have recently teamed up with researchers at the University of Kentucky to study how weeding, pruning and gather bouquets of flowers help survivors heal from trauma.
Even Young Kids Know the Difference Between the Whole Truth and Partial Truth
Guest: Hyowon Gweon, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
America is having a crisis of critical thinking. We’re too easily fooled by fake news stories we read online. We’re way too inclined to believe information only from sources we already agree with and to discount anything that doesn’t jive with our preferred understanding of the world. This problem goes all the way to our nation’s top leaders.
So it’s comforting to learn from some new research out of Stanford that it doesn’t have to be this way. Even kids as young as four know the difference between “the whole truth” and just some of the truth. Maybe harnessing that ability is the key to raising a generation that really can think critically about the information they’re given.
Writing Successful Screenplays
Guest: Drew Yanno, Screenwriter, Former Professor of Film at Boston College, Author of “The 3rd Act” and thriller "The Smart One"
Think about the ending to a movie you saw recently. Did you like it? Did it ruin the rest of the film for you? It’s amazing how vehemently people can talk about the somewhat sad, somewhat happy, ending of the recent film “LA LA Land.” People feel very strongly about movie endings. As they well should, says Drew Yanno, an author and screenwriter. A great ending can make or break a film. Yanno’s actually written a book on writing great endings to screenplays called “The 3rd Act.”
The Mighty Horseshoe Crab
Guest: John Tanacredi, PhD, Professor of Earth and Environmental Studies, Director of Center for Environmental Research and Coastal Oceans Monitoring, Molloy College
Horseshoe crabs have been on the earth for more than 400 million years. They survived the Ice Age and whatever it was that wiped out the dinosaurs, but they may not survive us, even though we owe a debt to these gnarly crabs for our own survival.
Worlds Awaiting: Romance
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s Worlds Awaiting
Rachel Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
When Politicians Flip-Flop
Guest: Tamar Kreps, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management, University of Utah
No politician wants the label of “flip-flopper.” Republicans in Congress are hoping to avoid it as they struggle to repeal and replace Obamacare after years of promising to do it as soon as they were back in control.
In everyday life, changing one's mind might be seen as a sign of open-mindedness or maturity. But politicians are judged harshly for it - especially under certain circumstances. University of Utah management professor Tamar Kreps and her colleagues found that leaders who justify their original position on moral grounds, and then have a change of heart, have the most trouble bouncing back from the flip-flop.
Amazon Will Change the Grocery Game
Guest: Richard Feinberg, PhD, Consumer Psychologist, Professor of Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University
When Amazon announced plans to buy Whole Foods, the stock price of grocery and retail giants like Kroger, Costco, and Wal-Mart immediately took a hit. What’s so scary to brick-and-mortar stores about Amazon picking up a chic, pricey urban grocery chain? A lot, it turns out.
Learning English Through Refugee Stories
Guest: Roberta Baer, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, University of South Florida
Learning English is a top priority for refugees who come to America. And a typical reading text in that English class would go something like, “Meg is my best friend. She’s ten. Everyone in our class likes Meg because she’s always happy and she’s very funny. She can ride a bike very fast too.”
A text like that covers all the basics for learning English, but imagine if refugees could learn the language through stories that actually resonated with their own experience - like this one about a woman named Ana:
“I’m originally from former Yugoslavia. In 1992, war broke out there. I’m a child of mixed marriage. My mom is Catholic and my dad is Orthodox. The war in Yugoslavia was about religion. Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox, everybody wanted their part. I didn’t want to be a part of that.”
That’s one of dozens of true refugee stories that have been compiled into a reading text for other refugees to use in learning English.
We Have a Food Waste Problem
Guest: Roni Neff, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University; Marie Spiker, Doctoral Candidate in Human Nutrition, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
Millions of Americans have a shortage of key nutrients like fiber, potassium and Vitamin D. Meanwhile, we’re tossing food in the garbage that contains more than enough of those essential nutrients to plug the holes in our diet. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health hope that knowing just how much nutrient-rich food ends up in the landfill will offer new motivation to reduce waste.
Parent Previews—Spider-Man: Homecoming
Guest: Rod and Donna Gustafson, Film Reviewers at ParentPreviews.com http://parentpreviews.com/
Another version of Spider-Man hit theaters over the weekend, this time featuring him as a teenager in training to become an Avenger. His Spidey-suit comes courtesy of tech genius Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man.
Power of Education and Faith to Bring Opportunities
Guest: Helen Easterling Williams, Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Psychology, Pepperdine University
From life as a sharecropper’s daughter in South Carolina to the dean’s office at Pepperdine University, Helen Easterling Williams has seen firsthand the opportunities that come through education. And now she is paying it forward, ensuring that people from all backgrounds have a place in higher education.
Bipartisanship in the Age of Trump
Guest: US Senator Jeff Flake, Republican, Arizona
Partisan politics and civility are Top of Mind today as we sit down with Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona. He just delivered the keynote address at BYU’s Religious Freedom Annual Review.
Cancer Wellness Goes Beyond Chemo
Guest: John Librett, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Education, University of Utah, Executive Director of the Cancer Wellness House, Salt Lake City
People being treated for cancer in the US are increasingly turning to complementary therapies for help with side effects. They may be receiving chemotherapy to treat the cancer, while also getting acupuncture to deal with the nausea. Yoga, massage and meditation are other therapies people with cancer sometimes find helpful. While research to support their effectiveness may be limited, anyone who’s been seriously ill can understand the appeal of trying something a little unorthodox.
Click here to learn more.
Powwows, Tribal Elders, and a New College Curriculum
Guest: Peter Stoicheff, PhD, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Every spring, in addition to its traditional black-robed graduation ceremony, Canada’s University of Saskatchewan hosts a Graduation Powwow. Bright feathers, ceremonial outfits, drumming, and singing, all in honor of the university’s aboriginal graduates. University President Peter Stoicheff wants the university to incorporate indigenous culture into all of its academics, and not just for native students, but for the benefit of the entire student body. Can an institution like a university, founded on the principles of Western colonial culture, truly represent indigenous philosophy and tradition?
Will Shortz, Crossword King (originally aired April 24, 2017)
Guest: Will Shortz, Editor of the New York Times Crossword, Puzzle Master for NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday
The most prestigious of crossword puzzles turns 75 this year. It became a regular feature of the New York Times paper in 1942 after some debate over whether such frivolity was appropriate when America was at war. An editorial in the New York Times had called the puzzles a “sinful waste” of time. Can you imagine parents today being upset to see their child solving a crossword?
If you have ever spent any time agonizing over the notoriously difficult Saturday puzzle, you can thank Will Shortz.
Understanding Your Own Bias (originally aired April 24, 2017)
Guest: Sara Taylor, President and Founder of deepSEE Consulting, Author of “Filter Shift: How Effective People SEE the World”
None of us like to think that we’re prejudiced toward others. Many of us go to great lengths not to let our biases show – but when you unintentionally offend someone with a comment you thought was innocuous, you’ve probably veered into a blind spot. Or when a conversation suddenly turns tense, just when you thought things were going great, unconscious bias was probably involved.
Leadership consultant Sara Taylor has developed a strategy for putting up mirrors so we can see into our unconscious blind spots.
Changes in Film Scoring (originally aired April 24, 2017)
Guest: James Knippling, Associate Professor Educator, English Department, University of Cincinnati
Even when we don’t realize it, music does a lot of work in Hollywood films, but the way it does that word has changed over the decades. From sweeping orchestral scores to pop music soundtracks, music makes the movie.
How Indian Americans Took Over the US Motel Industry
Guest: Susan Sessions Rugh, PhD, Professor of History, Dean of Undergraduate Education, BYU; Jake Rugh, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, BYU
One of the quintessential American experiences is the family road trip - often to explore the national parks - and staying in roadside motels along the way. But half of all motels in the US are owned today by Indian Americans, which means that, ironically, a deeply American tradition is facilitated by immigrants. This week, when we celebrate being American, is the perfect time to dig into the fascinating story of how people named Patel came to dominate the US motel industry.
Finding Silence in National Parks
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder and Editor of NationalParksTraveler.org
More than 300 million people will visit a national park this year, which means the sounds of nature will be increasingly hard to hear. Rather than the sound of birds chirping through an almost tangible silence, there will be cars rushing and manmade sounds polluting the ambient serenity. Kurt Repanshek has reported on noise pollution in national parks for the nonprofit news site NationalParksTraveler.org, which he founded.
Visit NationalParksTraveler.org to see more reports.
Apple Seed Stories
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s The Apple Seed
Sam shares what he's tried to learn from his younger self.
Walden – The Digital Version
Guest: Tracy Fullerton, “Walden” Game Designer, Professor and Chair of the Interactive Media and Game Division, USC School of Cinematic Arts
Since noise polution is basically impossible to escape even in the most remote corners of our national parks, why not experience quiet solitude digitally, instead? A new video game offers a chance to recreate Henry David Thoreau’s time spent on a remote pond in Massachusetts. “Living deliberately,” he called it. Like Thoreau’s book, the game is called Walden.
Check out the game here.
SCOTUS Rulings on Travel Ban and Religious School Funding
Guest: Frederick Gedicks, JD, Professor of Constitution Law and Religious Freedom, BYU
A new poll out today from Politico and Morning Consult found more than half of Americans support the limited travel ban put in place by the Trump Administration last week. The US Supreme Court cleared the way for the restrictions to take effect banning visitors from six majority-Muslim countries, unless the travelers can prove they have a bona fide relationship with a person or entity already in the US. The limited ban is intended to stay in place until the Supreme Court hears the full case in October. Last week, the court also issued a major religious freedom ruling in favor of a church-run preschool seeking government funds to resurface its playground.
What Do You Mean by “Freedom?
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
Freedom is embedded in our national identity and the climactic strain of our National Anthem. It is a significant reason America even exists. It’s the essence of rights we claim as US citizens – freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to exercise religion, freedom to assemble.
But, there’s actually a deep philosophical divide in American politics over what it means to be free. It’s at the root of political disagreements between conservatives and liberals.
A History of Uncle Sam
Guest: Don Hickey, PhD, Professor of History, Wayne State College in Nebraska
Let’s look now at an iconic American symbol—lanky, goateed Uncle Sam, decked out in stars-and-stripes who “wants you” for some patriotic duty. The image is credited to a political cartoonist named Thomas Nast who also came up with popular image of the jolly Santa Claus we know with the white beard and red cheeks. But just how Uncle Same came to represent the United States government is a murkier story that includes a long period when calling the government “Uncle Sam” was actually derogatory.
The Return of the Florida Panther
Guest: Darrell Land, Leader of the Florida Panther Team, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
The Florida Panther is making a comeback. They’ve been on the Endangered Species list since 1967 and they currently live almost exclusively in the southern tip of Florida. Since panthers need a large area to roam, they’re going to have to spread out for their population to thrive. News of panther kittens born outside of their current breeding grounds signals growth of the Florida panther population, but what does that growth mean for surrounding human communities?
How Heroes Are Made
Guest: Ari Kohen, PhD, Schlesinger Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Carl Wilkens was the only American to remain in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. He was an Adventist missionary who ignored evacuation orders so he could help two Tutsis who worked for him, as well as some other refugees hiding from Hutu militias. Why did he stay behind in Rwanda at his own peril when every other American service worker, businessman, and diplomat left the country?
We often think that people have to be born heroes, but Prof. Kohen argues that heroism is a learned behavior.
Movies with Shawn—Despicable Me 3
Guest: Shawn O’Neill, Producer and Movie Reviewer, BYUradio
The minions are back in theaters—time to get ready for their slightly adorable, slightly annoying appeal. Despicable Me 3 introduces Gru’s evil twin brother, also voiced by Steve Carell.
A Better Test for BPA and Other Chemicals
Guest: Bradley Bundy, PhD, Professor of Chemical Engineering, BYU; Mike Alder, Director, BYU Technology Transfer Office
There’s a growing concern in public health over a class of chemicals that can disrupt the endocrine system and are linked to cancer and other developmental disorders. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals are found in pesticides, metals, food additives, plastics and even personal care products. BYU chemical engineering professor Brad Bundy is developing a quick way to test for the presence of these chemicals.
The Truth about the Boston Massacre’s Role in America’s History
Guest: Eric Hinderaker, PhD, Chair and Professor, Department of History, University of Utah, Author, "Boston's Massacre"
A pivotal event in America’s path to independence happened in Boston in 1770, several years before the Revolutionary War actually broke out. But “The Boston Massacre,” as it’s known, was a galvanizing moment for the Patriot cause.
Right from the start, mythology arose around the events. What we know for certain is that British soldiers fired on a crowd in a street in Boston and that when it was over, five civilians were dead and eight British soldiers went on trial for murder. Major Revolutionary figures including Samuel Adams, John Adams and Paul Revere had a hand in shaping the way The Boston Massacre would be remembered.
Historian Eric Hinderaker writes that “from the beginning, the symbolic power of the Boston Massacre transcended its details.” Hinderaker has a new book exploring that symbolic power from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, to the Civil Rights Movement, to the Vietnam War protests, to today’s debate over police use of force.
Documenting Her Own Dementia
Guest: Gerda Saunders, PhD, Author of “Memory’s Last Breath: Field Notes on My Dementia”
When Gerda Saunders was diagnosed with microvascular disease five days before her 61st birthday, her neurologist told her she was already “dementing,” which can be a strange and terrifying way to put it. “Dementing,” as a verb, sends the message that it’s happening actively, meaning the worst is yet to come. To Gerda Saunders, it also carried a sense that she was complicit in the crime – she eats, she walks, she dements. In trying to understand the diagnosis, she started writing about it. She called them her “Field Notes on Dementia” and they are now part of her just-published memoir, “Memory’s Last Breath.”
Children of Immigrants Are America’s Future—and Right Now We’re Failing Them
Guest: Daniel Connolly, Reporter, "The Commercial Appeal" newspaper in Memphis, Author of “The Book of Isaias: A Child of Hispanic Immigrants Seeks His Own America”
Nearly one in four kids in America has at least one immigrant parent. Among them, Hispanics make up the largest group. Many have parents who came to the US illegally or overstayed a visa. In some cases, the children, themselves, are without legal status in the US. President Trump is still considering whether or not to end the Obama-era policy that gives work permits and protection from deportation to people who were brought to the country illegally as children.
But in focusing almost solely on the legal status of immigrants in America, reporter Daniel Connolly says we’ve left their children to flounder. And given their numbers, we need them to succeed.
See the book here.
Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes (originally aired Nov. 22, 2016)
Guest: Amy Oliver, Trial Attorney, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Salt Lake Regional Office
Despite all the festive celebration that comes with the summer season, reconnecting with family and friends can also open the door to something less than celebratory—financial fraud. The savviest of fraudsters trade in affinity—they tap into you through someone you know and trust. So how can you avoid becoming a victim?
If you know of anyone who might be participating in fraud, you can send a tip here, at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Using Facebook to Discover the REAL You (originally aired March 14, 2017)
Guest: Michal Kosinski, PhD, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford
When you’re scrolling through your Facebook feed and casually clicking “like” on posts, you’re leaving digital tracks – footprints, as our next guest calls them. And while you may think you’re not revealing anything intimate about yourself, researchers have found that with the right computer algorithm, they can paint a picture of your personality, interests and political views that’s more accurate than your close friends could paint – and in some cases even more accurate than you could describe yourself. The possibilities here are both exciting and terrifying.
Robot Pizza (originally aired March 29, 2017)
Guest: Julia Collins, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Zume Pizza
Silicon Valley's latest pizza delivery service could put Domino's out of business with their secret ingredient: robots. At Zume Pizza, the owners have built what they call a “co-bot” environment where employees work alongside robots to streamline the pizza-making and delivery process. Once the human employees and robots have prepped the pizza, they load it in a delivery van that bakes the pizza on its way to the customer’s house. CNBC recently named Zume Pizza the most promising young start-up for 2017.
Taking the Opioid Crisis to Court
Guest: Jim Ruble, JD, Associate Professor of Pharmacotherapy, University of Utah
The opioid abuse crisis has taken a new legal turn. For years, we’ve seen prosecutors and the families of overdose victims going after doctors who prescribed the opiate painkillers. Now we’re seeing a number of cities and states trying to pin wrongdoing on the manufacturers and distributors of drugs, including OxyContin and Percocet. The most high-profile is a lawsuit filed recently by the state of Ohio, arguing five drug makers knowingly misled doctors and patients about the risk of opioids. There are also pending lawsuits against pharmacies, including Walgreens and Walmart, for failing to keep a proper eye on just how much of these prescription pain killers were flowing into a community.
Expensive Textbooks Present Major Hurdle to Lower Income College Education
Guest: John Hilton III, PhD, Primary Researcher in the Open Education Group, Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU
Newly accepted college students are in for a big surprise this fall: although most students anticipate high tuition prices, it is the cost of textbooks that might take an unexpected bite out of their budget. The College Board recommends a budget of just over $1200 a year for books and supplies alone, which could actually make going to college just too expensive for some.
The movement to adopt “Open Education Resources” could mean free, online textbooks.
Black Women and the Economy
Guest: Chandra Childers, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, previously a Professor of Sociology at Texas Tech University and University of Washington
Black women are more likely to vote than any other minority group, the number of businesses they own nearly tripled in ten years, and they’ve made huge gains in attaining higher education. Yet, black women in the US are underrepresented in government, they make less money than most other groups, and they’re more likely to live in poverty than any other race, ethnicity or gender. Why haven’t the achievements of black women translated into more financial and political success?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, BYUradio’s The Apple Seed
Good Reputation: Bad for Business
Guest: Michael Pfarrer, PhD, Associate Professor of Management, University of Georgia
Being frequently successful can make it harder and harder to live up to others’ expectations. Hit a couple of home runs in a game or make the most amazing birthday cake your family’s ever seen and people will be disappointed if you don’t outdo that performance the next time around. And watch out if you decide to try something a little outside your expertise, because it's a long fall off the pedestal.
Successful companies face the same problem. The most admired companies get judged the most harshly by investors when they take a business risk.
Dog Genome Project
Guest: Elaine Ostrander, PhD, Distinguished Investigator, National Institutes of Health, Chief of Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics
Virtually anyone can take a DNA test to confirm where they’re from. These tests have become commonplace ever since scientists at the National Institutes of Health finished mapping the entire human genome. And now they’re turning their attention to man’s best friend. The Dog Genome Project has so far shed light on where certain breeds originated and how they came to be so different from one another. Believe it or not, the Dog Genome Project could also yield important insight for human health.
Learn more by visiting the National Human Genome Research Institute online here.
Modi and Trump Meet
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia, Asia Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi face-to-face for the first time Monday. It was a working meeting, rather than an official state visit. So let’s consider what world’s largest democracies have to work on.
How Giant Whales Fill Up on Tiny Creatures
Guest: Jean Potvin, PhD, Professor of Physics, St. Louis University
The largest creature on the planet survives by feeding on some of the smallest life forms. It’s the blue whale, and every day it consumes up to 4 tons of shrimplike animals called krill, which are only a couple of inches long. The secret to getting enough of its teeny-tiny food to maintain its huge body lies in the blue whale’s comb-like rows of teeth, called baleen. Jean Potvin at St. Louis University has been using the laws of physics to unlock the feeding secrets of baleen whales.
Does Share-Splitting Make a Difference Anymore?
Guest: William C. Weld, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Finance, University of North Carolina
In the last month, Amazon’s stock price has come tantalizingly close to $1000 per share, which means that anybody wanting to buy into Amazon should be ready to cough up some serious dough. But twenty or thirty years ago, this never would have happened. Any company whose stock had grown to a value this big would have performed a “stock-split,” which is like trading one $500 share for two shares worth $250 each. These days stock splitting is very rare.
Are Laptop Bans Really Effective?
Guest: Sheldon Jacobson, PhD, Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Airplane security seems to be a moving target: when officials got wind that terrorists were cooking up explosives made of liquids and gels, along came the 3 oz carry-on limit. Then came the attempted underwear and shoe bombers, so now we have to take off our shoes and get a full-body scan to check our underwear before boarding a flight. Laptops already have to come out and be turned on for scanning. Recently, the US banned laptops in the cabin of flights coming from 10 airports in the Middle East. That prohibition may soon extend to all international flights in and out of the US. Do these widening bans on carry-on items make us that much safer? Where does it end?
Bone Marrow Donation
Guest: Reed Wolfley, News Media student, BYU, Student Producer for Top of Mind
Last fall, we had a conversation on Top of Mind with the donor organization, Be the Match about bone marrow transplants, which can save the lives of people suffering from certain types of leukemia, lymphoma, or blood disease. Our student engineer Reed Wolfley was working in the studio that day, running the sound controls. Something clicked for him and he decided to join the donor registry. To his surprise, Reed was quickly matched with a needy recipient and a little over a week ago, he flew across the country to donate bone marrow. So we’ve asked him in to talk about the process.
Worlds Awaiting: Reading-Without-Walls Challenge
Guest: Rachel Wadham, host of BYUradio’s Worlds Awaiting, on challenging yourself to read new genres.
Doctors Need to Weigh in on HealthCare Bills
Guest: Danielle Ofri, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, New York University, Editor-in-Chief of the Bellevue Literary Review and the Author of “What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear”
The US Senate is expected to vote on its own version of a plan to replace Obamacare this week. The plan crafted by Senate Republicans bears a lot of similarity to what House Republicans passed several weeks ago. Major physician groups including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have expressed concern that the Republican proposals will make healthcare in the US worse.
Dr. Danielle Ofri recently published an Op-Ed in the New York Times encouraging health professionals to take a side in the healthcare debate and call their members of Congress.
Unopposed Local Elections on the Rise
Guest: Melissa Marschall, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Rice University, Director of the Center for Local Elections in American Politics (LEAP) of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research
The city of Provo, Utah is having a mayoral election this year. The two-term mayor is not running for re-election, so the field is wide open and eight candidates are running in the nonpartisan race. Based on some new research, that’s fairly unusual. The study looked at six different states over the last 15 years and found that half the time, the mayoral elections went uncontested, with only one candidate. It seems that unopposed mayoral elections are becoming more and more frequent.
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary
Guest: Jon Ostenson, PhD, Associate Professor of English, BYU
It’s the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter’s debut. Two whole decades have already passed. The series that has sold over 450 million copies also has movies, interactive websites like Pottermore, fictional textbooks, theme-parks, even a theatrical play created in its name. But, maybe the greatest significance of the Harry Potter legacy is how JK Rowling made reading magical again for a generation of adolescents.
From the Vaults: The Legacy of Langston Hughes
Guest: Kristin Matthews, PhD, Associate Professor of English, BYU
For this month’s segment of “From the Vaults,” we’re going to dive into the BYU Special Collections to celebrate one of America’s greatest poets: Langston Hughes. This year marks the 50th anniversary of his death. The “king” of the Harlem Renaissance was known for writing jazz-influenced poetry that reflected the daily lives of African-Americans at the time and was accessible to everyone, not just scholars. BYU Special Collections has a signed copy of his book of poetry, "The Dream Keeper." Professor Matthews argues that his dreams are still unrealized today.
Movies with Shawn—"Book of Henry" and "47 Meters Down"
Guest: Shawn O’Neill, Producer and Movie Reviewer for BYUradio
It is time for our weekly look at new movies in theaters. We are joined in studio by Shawn O’Neill to discuss the new movies, "The Book of Henry" and "47 Meters Down."
The Potential Effects of a Privatized Air Traffic Control
Guest: George Donohue, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Systems Engineering and Operations Research and Founding Director of the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research, George Mason University
The smartphone you switch into airplane mode when you get on a flight is running on more advanced technology than the air traffic control system that guides when planes take off, what routes they fly and when they land. The FAA, which both operates and regulates air traffic control, has been working for decades to modernize the system. There have been improvements – for instance, most air traffic controllers are now using GPS rather than old-fashioned radar, to track flights. These changes just barely happened in the last year or two. But the modernization has been slow and fraught with mistakes and there’s a growing chorus of skeptics who think the FAA simply isn’t up to the job. They say a private non-profit could better operate air traffic control in the US and President Trump has now backed that proposal.
Tanner Mangum Talks Touchdowns and Mental Health
Guest: Tanner Mangum, BYU quarterback
Tanner Mangum burst on to the Cougar scene in a blaze of Hail-Mary glory in the fall of his freshman year, 2015. Then he stepped back to the bench and graciously backed up starting quarterback Taysom Hill the next year, earning praise for his positive attitude. But, Tanner Mangum may have made his biggest impression yet, off the field, when he posted on social media a few months back about his experience with anxiety and depression.
Sports Watching: Live or Streaming
Guest: Mikel Minor, Senior Coordinating Producer for BYUtv Sports
Cable TV subscriptions are declining as more and more of us turn to internet streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. We don’t want to be forced to buy a bundle of cable channels we’ll never watch just to get the few we do watch. Streaming is cheaper, more customized and it’s on-demand. Plus, nobody seems to care anymore about tuning in at a set time every week to watch their favorite TV show live.
But sports is different. Mikel Minor says “sports is the last bastion of appointment viewing.”
Sitake Gets Ready for Season Two
Guest: Kalani Sitake, BYU Football Head Coach
Today is the day Cougar Football introduces itself to the media for a new season. Coach Sitake remembers the lessons he learned from Coach LaVell Edwards, describes his team's culture, opens up about new season pressure and shares insight on balancing family and football.
America and the Great War
Guest: Margaret Wagner, Author of “America and the Great War,” Senior Writer and Editor in the Library of Congress Publishing Office
This year marks the 100th anniversary of America’s entry into World War I. That entry came three years after the war first broke out and fighting engulfed Europe. For three years, America resisted joining the fight, instead offering aid to both sides. Facing pressure from both sides to join the war, Americans in the early 1900s were asking the same question many are asking today: Is it really our job to police the world’s conflicts? To come to the aid of other democracies just because they’re democracies?
Historian Margaret Wagner traces America’s path from neutral isolated nation to military power and defender of democracies abroad in her new book "America and the Great War."
What the French and UK Elections Tell Us About Europe Right Now
Guest: Gregory Jackson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Integrated Studies, Utah Valley University
Two leading nations in the EU – France and Britain – have held parliamentary elections in recent weeks, both with surprising results. Let’s consider what they tell us about the state of things in Europe right now.
Writing Dialogue Teaches Argumentation
Guest: Deanna Kuhn, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and Co-Author of "Argue with Me: Argument as a Path to Developing Students’ Thinking and Writing"
The best way to find out if you really understand a concept – or political position - is to try and defend it in an argument. The back-and-forth will quickly show where the holes are in your own comprehension. Being able to clearly articulate an idea is a basic skill schools are expected to teach. But the way it’s traditionally done - the good old essay with thesis statement, evidence and conclusion - doesn’t work nearly as well as it could.
Should Companies Apologize?
Guest: Daryl Koehn, PhD, Wicklander Chair in Professional Ethics at DePaul University, Recipient of 2017 Master Teacher in Ethics Award from BYU Wheatley Institution
We learn in kindergarten to say we're sorry when we wrong someone. It's a basic tenet of good behavior. But only in the last decade or so has it become common for corporate CEOs to publicly apologize when their company makes a mistake. When it comes to corporate apologies, it turns out that saying sorry isn’t enough. Getting the apology just right really matters.
Less Sleep Leads to Fewer Memories (originally aired May 11, 2017)
Guest: Rick Huganir, PhD, Director of the Johns Hopkins University Department of Neuroscience
When you’re cramming on a deadline late at night, or frustrated by a problem you can’t seem to fix, maybe you’ve been given the advice to “just sleep on it.” A recent Johns Hopkins University study shows that that’s probably a good idea. The study was done in mice and found that while they were sleeping, their brains were hard at work reconfiguring lessons learned during the day into memories that changed the mice’s behavior the next day. The researchers believe a similar thing happens when humans sleep.
Lower Your Voice to Persuade (originally aired July 27, 2016)
Guest: Joey Cheng, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Next time you’re in an argument, don’t raise your voice. Instead, deepen your pitch. A study out of the University of Illinois shows people who deepen their voice during a debate are more persuasive.
How to Tackle Cyber-Bullying (originally aired Feb. 21, 2017)
Guest: Carrie Goldman, Author of “Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear”
According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, about half of young people have experienced some form of cyberbullying. Last year, during her husband’s campaign, Melania Trump said she had plans to make it her focus as First Lady. And rightfully so, since she and her 11-year-old son Barron have both experienced it firsthand before and after the election. Yet, five months after the inauguration, the First Lady has been slow to put anything specific in motion. Earlier this year, we spoke with Carrie Goldman about what parents and teachers can do to tackle the problem.
Free Speech and Offensive Trademarks
Guest: Peter Midgley, JD, Director of the BYU Copyright Licensing Office
A rock band called The Slants won their case at the US Supreme Court this week. Their lawsuit had to do with the fact that their band name is “The Slants,” which is a racial slur for Asian Americans, but the band members themselves are Asian American and say they chose the name as a way of reclaiming the term. Peter Midgley explains what happened when they tried to trademark it.
How Bitcoin Changes the World Economy
Guest: Paul Vigna, Journalist, The Wall Street Journal, Author, The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and the Blockchain Are Challenging the Global Economic Order
The next time you swipe your card at your local 7-Eleven, think about this: Before the money can leave your bank account and end up in 7-Eleven’s, there are at least five different organizations that will handle your credit card information. It’s an invisible bureaucracy of banks and finance companies and government agencies that set interest rates, charge fees, and control nearly everything about the way we use money.
The electronic currency called bitcoin sidesteps all of that in a way that could save a lot of money. But bitcoin also has features that make it really attractive to drug dealers and hackers. So is bitcoin something to fear or embrace?
Tips for Parents to Help Teens Understand Romantic Love
Guest: Rick Weissbourd, Senior Lecturer on Education, Faculty Director of Human Development and Psychology, Director of the Making Caring Common Project, Harvard University
When teens graduate and move out they need to know how to work, how to handle money, how to clean up after themselves and, according to this guest, how to fall in love. Parents often fail to teach that last one, because, isn’t falling in love something that comes naturally, after all? Well, knowing how to make a healthy, loving relationship work takes lots of skills, and parents often don’t devote the time to teaching those, but, it turns out, kids really want to learn.
See the tips and guidebook here.
Apple Seed
Storyteller Sam Payne, of BYUradio's The Apple Seed, shares one of his favorite stories.
How to Build a Park
Guest: Mark Vlasic, President and Principal of Landmark Design
What makes a good park? Children usually prefer playgrounds with lots of areas to explore, where adults usually like parks with natural vegetation and walking paths. Mark Vlasic explains what makes a park successful.
The Fearless Brain of Alex Honnold
Guest: Jane Joseph, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience, Medical University of South Carolina
The first Saturday in June, a guy named Alex Honnold, arguably the best rock climber in the world, got up early, clipped a small bag of chalk to his waist, and climbed straight up the face of Yosemite’s El Capitan in less than four hours. El Capitan is sheer granite and is as high as a 277-story skyscraper. Honnold was often hanging on by his fingertips, jamming his hands and feet into small cracks in the cliff as he worked his way up. And he did it with no safety gear, nothing to save him if he slipped and fell. The entire climbing world is in awe. The rest of us are pretty sure Honnold is crazy, wondering if he even feels fear. Neuroscientist Jane Joseph also wanted to know, so she put Alex Honnold into an fMRI and took a close look at his brain.
Understanding the Confused US Economy
Guest: Brennan Platt, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics, BYU
The economy has been a bright spot and a point of pride for the Trump Administration. Unemployment in the US fell to just 4.3 percent in May and is expected to go even lower, which is great news. But the other signs we’d expect to see of a booming economy aren’t quite there. For one, prices aren’t increasing like they should be. And the usual thing the Federal Reserve does to step on the gas and get the economy cranking hasn’t worked. It’s been more like gunning the accelerator when the car’s out of gear—lots of revving, no movement.
Asteroid Mining Challenges the “Constitution” of Outer Space
Guest: Henry Hertzfeld, JD, PhD, Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs, George Washington University, Member of the Space Policy Institute
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to step foot on the moon in 1969, they planted an American Flag on the lunar surface. It was a symbolic gesture—Americans weren’t saying they owned the moon. It’s not like first-come-first-served in space. Or is it? The question is no longer purely hypothetical: a number of private companies have plans to settle the moon or mine asteroids for precious metals like platinum. Is space the new Wild West?
Toxic Masculinity
Guest: Cristina Escobar, Director of Communications for The Representation Project, the nonprofit behind the documentary “The Mask You Live In”
“Be a man.” Those three words can be incredibly damaging to a boy in American culture, according to a nonprofit called The Representation Project, which tackles gender stereotypes. The group’s films include a documentary called “The Mask You Live in” which explores what boys are taught about masculinity and how that affects the way they view their own worth and the worth of others.
Learn more about healthy perceptions of gender on their website.
Scientific Possibility of a 2-Hour Marathon
Guest: Michael Joyner, MD, Exercise Physiologist, Mayo Clinic
Running a mile in under four minutes was an impossible feat—until it wasn’t. Once Roger Bannister became the first to eke out a mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds back in 1954, an even faster mile quickly became the norm. Now, a group of Nike-sponsored runners are trying to break the two-hour threshold for a marathon. The world record currently stands at two hours and 57 seconds.
Last month, the reigning Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge came 24 seconds short of breaking the 2-hour barrier. That was after years of training and research and special shoe development by Nike. So, can it be done? And what more would it take?
Intellectual and Emotional Benefits of Dogs
Guest: Darlene Kertes, PhD, Research Psychologist at the University of Florida; Deborah Linder, DVM, Professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University, Associate Director of Tufts Institute for Human-Animal Interaction
We already know that man’s best friend is playmate, guardian, and companion. But new preliminary research suggests that dogs’ virtues may extend beyond the loyal friend and protector. For instance, does your child hate being assigned to read at school? A dog may be able to help with that. Do school assignments fill your student with dread and anxiety? Again, a dog may be able to help with that.
Understanding Bacteria in Hospitals
Guest: Jack Gilbert, PhD, Professor of Surgery, University of Chicago, Director of the Microbiome Center, Group Leader in Microbial Ecology, Argonne National Laboratory
There are at least as many bacteria living in and on your body as there are cells in your body. You’re a walking bacterial colony. And guess what? Those bacteria don’t stay put. They’ve colonized your desk, your bed, your car—basically anywhere you spend a decent amount of time bears the fingerprint of your microbiome. Most of the time, the bacteria are helpful or harmless, but sometimes they’re really bad news. Understanding how this works – how our bacteria affect and are affected by our environment – is the goal of a fascinating research project being done at the University of Chicago.
Could Puerto Rico Become the 51st US State?
Guest: Charles R. Venator-Santiago, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and El Instituto: Institute for Latino/a, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies, University of Connecticut
The governor of Puerto Rico is orchestrating a major push to demand that Congress honor the wishes of his people, who voted a week ago to become a full-fledged state. Puerto Rico’s governor Ricardo Rossello says statehood would be better for the island’s economy – and frankly that its current status is unfair and undemocratic.
The Social Science of Co-Sleeping
Guest: Susan Stewart, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Iowa State University, Author of “Co-Sleeping: Parents, Children and Musical Beds”
In the middle of the night, tired parents will cave to nearly any demand, if it means a few more minutes of precious sleep. So kids sneaking into bed with mom and dad might be tolerated if everyone gets more shut-eye out of the deal. And if it becomes a habit? Well, American parents aren’t that likely to admit it publicly, with fear of SIDS and raised eyebrows. So, we really don’t know how many American families are co-sleeping, as this arrangement is called. Susan Stewart wanted to find out more.
How Does Water Get to Our Homes?
Guest: Shahzeen Attari, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington
Do you know where the water from your tap actually comes from? The steps it went through to become clean, drinkable H2O? How about where it goes when it leaves the drains in your sink, shower, or toilet?
You don’t really need to know the answers to enjoy the benefits of our water system, but if we’re going to deal with drought effectively or prevent future contamination disasters like the one in Flint, Michigan, we all need to know how the water system works.
And new research suggest we really don’t get it. Indiana University Bloomington professor Shahzeen Attari surveyed 500 college students about their water system knowledge.
Parent Previews—Cars 3
Guest: Rod Gustafson and Donna Gustafson, Film Reviewers at ParentPreviews.com (link)
Pixar’s Cars are back in theaters, but a lot has changed since we first met cocky young racer Lightning McQueen.
Tech Transfer—Origami Adult Diapers
Guest: Spencer Magleby, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU Technology Transfer Office
There’s a big market opportunity on the horizon for makers of a product area that’s a little sensitive to discuss. Adult diaper sales are expected to increase 48 percent in the next few years. Compare that to baby diaper sales which are only expected to grow by 2.5 percent, according to Bloomberg News. In a decade, diaper companies Kimberly Clark and Procter & Gamble expect to be selling more diapers for adults than for babies. The reason is pretty simple – the baby boomers are aging, and they’re going to want some better options than exist right now.
A team led by BYU mechanical engineering professor Spencer Magleby took some cues from origami to design a better adult diaper.
Skid Row Marathon
Guest: Judge Craig Mitchell, Los Angeles county Superior Court; Founder of the Midnight Mission Running Club
More than eight-thousand people live in cardboard boxes and makeshift tents in the 50-block area of downtown Los Angeles known as Skid Row. Several times a week, early in the morning, criminal court judge Craig Mitchell leads a group of homeless, formerly homeless, recovering addicts and prison parolees on a run through skid row. And every year or so, they do a marathon together. But it’s about more than just running, says David Askew.
Land of Fire
Guest: Gary Ferguson, Author of “Land on Fire: The New Reality of Wildfire in the West”
The season for wildfires has arrived and risk is high across Nevada and the northern California. This may be surprising considering the wet winter the west coast had last year from all the rain and flooding, but ironically, that’s exactly why the fire risk is higher as we head into these hot dry months. It turns out that all the rain caused wild grasses to grow like wildfire in the Spring, and now they’re drying out, making the perfect tinder for wildfires.
The story of fires in the west is full of such contradictions. Here’s another—and this is a really big one—wildfires are burning hotter and faster than ever before precisely because we’ve spent the last 50 years trying to prevent them from catching.
Intelligence Leaks vs. Whistleblowing
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, PhD, Professor of International Law, Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
A 25-year-old government contractor named Reality Winner is in jail on charges of sharing a classified document with the media. Former FBI director James Comey also shared information, but he’s not in jail. He even admitted on live TV, under oath, that he arranged for the media to get notes of a meeting he had with President Trump. Despite the lack of legal prosecution, President Trump continues to call Comey a leaker on Twitter and has fumed publicly about information leaking from various government agencies.
President Trump appears to put James Comey in the same category as Reality Winner and, by extension, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Did Comey really break the law? When is a leak illegal and when is it an act of whistleblowing?
Women’s Wear is Far from Fitting
Guest: Anne Bissonnette, PhD, Associate Professor of Material Culture and Curatorship, Curator of Clothing and Textiles Collection, University of Alberta
It’s just a fact of life that our bodies change in shape and size as we age. Sudden, or even subtle, shifts in weight can require a whole new wardrobe. Why are clothes in the Western world designed so that even a slight gain in the hips or belly requires a new pant size? On the other hand, the one-size-fits-all sari from India is proof that clothing can both fit and flex with the normal shifts in a body. A new exhibit at the University of Alberta in Canada explores the lack of adaptability in Western clothing. It’s called “Misfits: Bodies, Dress and Sustainability.”
Click here for a more information on the exhibit.
Living With the Living Dead
Guest: Greg Garrett, PhD, Pop Culture Critic, Professor of English at Baylor University, Author of “Living with the Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse”
The undead are having a moment in Western culture. Zombies are everywhere – in the biggest shows on TV, most popular video games, and even lumbering their way into rewrites of classic literature, such as Pride and Prejudice. What’s behind this zombie renaissance?
Women Fear Childbirth and We Need to Know Why (originally aired Oct. 4, 2016)
Guest: Lee Roosevelt, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing, University of Michigan
Some questions have an obvious answer. For example, ask a pregnant woman expecting her first baby if she’s at all afraid of how the childbirth will go and the answer is bound to be “yes.” Fear about something so dramatic is normal. But the follow-up questions: “How afraid are you?” “What are you most afraid of?” Those questions don’t get asked nearly enough, according to midwife and nursing professor Lee Roosevelt. As she began to ask those questions, she realized we know next to nothing about fear of childbirth in the US, which could have serious health consequences.
Celebrities Affect Medical Decisions (originally aired Feb. 8, 2017)
Guest: Sunita Desai, PhD, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard University
There’s a reason companies hire beautiful celebrities to sell us everything from watches to weight-loss programs: it works. Our desire to be like the beautiful and famous gets us to make the purchase. This may not be much of a problem when it’s mascara or shampoo being advertised, but what happens when a famous person goes public about a medical test, procedure or treatment they’ve had? Are people just as eager to rush out and copy that, too? If so, what’s the consequence?
How Timekeeping Software Enables Wage Theft (originally aired Jan. 23, 2017)
Guest: Elizabeth Tippett, JD, Professor of Law, University of Oregon
Around 60 percent of U.S. employees punch a timecard. Well, they don’t actually “punch” a “timecard” anymore, but they do track their hours digitally and get paid accordingly—in theory. An analysis of a dozen commonly used timekeeping software programs in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology finds it wouldn’t be hard for employers to accidentally—or intentionally—short the pay of their workers.
What’s Putin Playing at and What do the Russians Think?
Guest: Fred White, PhD, Professor of Russian Literature, Film and Culture, Utah Valley University
US intelligence agencies and many members of Congress who’ve seen the classified reports are convinced Russia did meddle in the presidential election. A special prosecutor and several Congressional committees are trying to figure out if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in that meddling. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions called insinuation of his collusion “a detestable lie” in Congressional testimony on Tuesday. Professor White recently returned from Russia and offers some insight.
Using Big Data to Save Big Animals
Guest: Ted Schmitt, Lead Program Manager for the “Domain Awareness System” at Vulcan
As the population of African elephants plunges toward extinction, park rangers in key wildlife areas use everything at their disposal to stop poachers in their tracks. They’ve got digital fences, tracking sensors, cameras, and satellite data. What they haven’t had, until now, is a one-stop-shop: a single screen that shows wildlife, rangers and poachers as they move across the landscape. Kind of like the view you get in a multiplayer video game or when you call for a ride and watch your driver moving toward you on the app’s map in real-time.
Why Segregation is Returning to US Schools
Guest: Derek Black, JD, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina
Segregating schools by race has been illegal in the US for more than 60 years. But today, many of the gains made after that landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education have disintegrated. Schools across America are steadily re-segregating along racial lines. The separation isn’t as explicit as it was in the Jim Crow South, when communities designated schools for white children and other schools for black children. But if the effect is the same and more than a third of US schools are now attended almost entirely by students of one race, is that acceptable?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of the Apple Seed.
The comic, thought-provoking genius of Kevin Kling.
Rebuilding Trust inside a Scandal-Plagued Company
Guest: Marshall Schminke, PhD, BB&T Professor of Business Ethics, University of Central Florida
When laws are broken, ethics rules are violated, or customers are betrayed, it’s evident that companies have to make things right with customers. But there's another relationship that needs repairing – the company's relationship with its own employees, who also bear the stain of the scandal, whether they deserve it or not. How does a company do that? How do they become the kind of place employees can be proud to work at again?
From Reservation to Med School
Guests: Erik Brodt, MD, Family Medicine Physician, Assistant Professor at Oregon Health and Science University, President and Founder, We Are Healers; Lakita Maulson, Medical Student, University of Wisconsin
More minority groups are graduating from medical schools than ever before, except one. The number of Native American graduates from medical school is actually in decline. But one doctor in Oregon is determined to change that. His foundation, We Are Healers, is dedicated to inspiring Native American youth to help increase the number of native doctors who can come back and serve tribal communities.
Click here to see their efforts and hear their stories.
Bears Ears is Early Test of Trump’s Approach to Public Lands
Guest: John Freemuth, PhD, Executive Director, Cecil D. Andrus Center for Public Policy, Professor of Environmental Policy, Boise State University
Which of the many competing interests will get priority from the President when it comes to how millions of acres of publicly owned land in the West is managed? We have some indication now in a preliminary recommendation from Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to shrink, but not eliminate, the Bears Ears National Monument in Southeastern Utah. Bears Ears is one of 27 national monuments designated by previous presidents and currently under review by the Trump administration.
Rooting Out Human Trafficking in US Industry
Guests: Jeff Smith, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Supply Chain and Analytics Department, Virginia Commonwealth University; David Berdish, Executive in Residence, Supply Chain and Analytics Department, Virginia Commonwealth University
Slavery is illegal in every country, yet human trafficking earns profits of roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers, according to the International Labour Organization. US companies are not immune: factories, hotels, fisheries and service industries can all rely, to some degree, on forced labor. Often they do so without realizing it. What responsibility do companies have to make sure they’re not profiting off human trafficking somewhere in their supply chain?
Who, or What, Really Picks Your Playlist?
Guest: Brian Moon, PhD, Assistant Professor of Music, University of Arizona
The internet is significantly changing the way music popularity is tracked. It’s also changing the music itself and the way we listen to it. Computer algorithms now dictate much of what we hear.
Man Therapy with Dr. Rich Mahogany
Guest: Joe Conrad, Founder and CEO of Cactus advertising agency
In the US, men commit suicide three times more often than women. One contributing factor is the stigma still associated with men seeking help for their emotional wellbeing. The fictional Dr. Rich Mahogany offers “Man Therapy,” with a message for tough guys who think men shouldn’t talk about their feelings. It is a public service campaign developed with public health officials in Colorado with the mission to tackle mental illness in men.
The Tsimane People: A Window on the Past
Guest: Michael Gurven, PhD, Co-founder and Co-director of the Tsimane Health and Life History Project, Anthropologist, University of California Santa Barbara, Chair of Integrative Anthropological Sciences, UCSB
There’s a community in the Bolivian Amazon forest with the healthiest hearts of any population previously studied around the world. They’re also virtually free of allergies, asthma and adult-onset diabetes. But their villages have no running water or electricity. Studying the Tsimane people offers a window into the trade-offs that happen as a society modernizes.
The Military Knows How to Lead Millennials
Guest: Colonel Robert Carr, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Senior Fellow, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Stereotypes about millennials are two-pronged. On one hand, today’s young people are considered entitled, impatient, and overly sensitive. On the other hand, they’re ambitious, inventive and bold. They’re also a real challenge for managers tasked with recruiting and retaining a generation of workers with very different ideas about how things should happen on the job.
Those corporate managers might take some cues from the military, which has one of the largest millennial workforces around.
Three World Events—UK Elections, Qatar, ISIS Attacks Iran
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Three world events we should be paying attention to: an election outcome that was disastrous for Britain’s Conservative Party, Qatar's alleged role in sponsoring terrorism, and an ISIS attack that was carried out last week in Iran, killing seventeen people.
Chinese Consumers Are the Future
Guest: Jeffrey Towson, Professor of Business, Peking University, Co-author of “The One Hour China Book”
If you’ve been to any major tourist attraction in the US recently, be it the Empire State Building, the Las Vegas strip or Zion National Park, you’ve undoubtedly found yourself standing amid tourists from mainland China. This surge in Chinese tourists represents a wave of new consumers who have recently joined the middle class and are eager to enjoy the same things middle-class families all over the world have long taken for granted. The question now is whether the world is ready for the changes that will inevitably come with half a billion middle class Chinese consumers.
Empathy Literally Hurts
Guest: Michael Poulin, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, University at Buffalo
To really understand another’s suffering, we’re often advised to “walk a mile in their shoes,” put ourselves in their position, and ask, “How would you feel?” But there comes a point where that level of empathy can wear you down and even cause burnout, if you’re in a job that encounters a lot of suffering. So is having empathy unhealthy? Michael Poulin says it depends—there are two routes to empathy, and learning how to master one of them can help us be compassionate without the negative side-effects.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Guest: Clayborne Carson, PhD, Professor of History at Stanford University, Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute
Martin Luther King, Jr. is arguably the most influential advocate of American civil liberties. But, he himself did not consider his movement to be a uniquely American struggle. He had his sights set on global human rights, and as a leader he was impacted by global movements outside of his own.
When he visited the BYU campus earlier this year, Professor Carson sat down with Marcus Smith of BYUradio’s “Thinking Aloud.”
Parent Previews—The Mummy and Megan Leavey
Guest: Rod Gustafson and Donna Gustafson, Film Reviewers at Parent Previews
The Un-dead made a visit to theaters over the weekend in the form of a vengeful Mummy who comes back to life. Megan Leavey finds herself when she is assigned to canine duty in the Marines.
Game Puts Players in 1943 Protest Against Nazis
Guest: Jessica Hammer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Mellon University, Co-creator of Rosenstrasse; Moyra Turkingon, Co-creator of Rosenstrasse, leader of War Birds game design collective, Unruly Designs
If you’ve ever watched a film about Nazi Germany and thought, “I would have resisted. I’d have stood up to injustice, no matter how dangerous it got,” a new board game called Rosenstrasse will test your resolve. It’s a role-playing game that puts you in the shoes of people who participated in a historic protest on Rosenstrasse Street in 1943 Berlin. Hundreds of Aryan women turned out day after day in the spring of that year to protest the incarceration of their Jewish husbands by the Nazis.
Bugs Are Great—Especially Beetles
Guest: Shawn Clark, PhD, Research Professor of Biology and Entomology, BYU, Insect Collections Manager, Monte L. Bean Museum
As kids, we’re fascinated with bugs. We inspect them in the yard, bring them inside, and aren’t afraid to play with them. Then at some point, for some reason, we learn to fear them and become more preoccupied with squashing them than studying them. Shawn Clark, however, is someone who never did learn to hate bugs.
History and Future of LDS Church and the Boy Scouts of America
Guest: Brad Harris, MPA, Teaching Professor, Recreation Management, BYU
About one in five Boy Scouts is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In May, the LDS Church announced that it will end its participation in the Boy Scout Varsity teams and Venturing crews, effective January 2018. These programs only serve boys ages 14-18, but many have speculated this is the beginning of the end of the LDS Church’s relationship with the Boy Scouts for all ages. The two organizations have been closely intertwined for more than a century.
50 Years after the Six Day War, Consequences Persist
Guest: John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Utah Valley University
Fifty years ago this week, conflict erupted between Israel and its largest Arab neighbors – Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Six days later, it was over and Israel had beaten its much larger Arab rivals. The Six Day War of 1967 had a profound effect on the Middle East, even setting the stage for modern-day terrorism.
Paula Poundstone: How to Find Happiness
Guest: Paula Poundstone, Author of “The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness”
Comedian Paula Poundstone has a new book. It took nearly a decade to write, because she wasn’t just writing, she was experimenting with how to find happiness. In the name of science, she sweat a lot, threw stuff away, got a Twitter account, drove a Lamborghini, took swing dancing lessons, meditated, volunteered at a nursing home and hugged a lot of strangers. And now the rest of us can cheat by using her field notes, helpfully compiled in her book, “The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness.”
Translating a 1700-year-old Obituary (originally aired: Sept. 14, 2016)
Guest: Lincoln Blumell, PhD, Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU
When contemplating how we’ll be remembered after we’re gone, a common hope is that our gravestone can say something about having loved and been loved.
Late last year, BYU ancient scripture professor Lincoln Blumell helped translate a small and exceptionally sweet epitaph carved into limestone that’s languished in the archives of the University of Utah’s library for decades.
Art Critics Losing Their Jobs (originally aired: Jan. 17, 2017)
Guest: Jed Gottlieb, Music and Theater Critic, Boston Herald
It’s pretty rare to find a newspaper anywhere in the country with a full-time writer dedicated solely to covering theater, music or books. These are tough times for print journalism and it seems arts critics are among the first to go in layoffs and buyouts.
So, do newspapers really need someone dedicated full time to arts, or have internet reviews and friend recommendations on social media taken over?
Summer Homework (originally aired: May 14, 2015)
Guest: Denise Pope, Senior Lecturer, Stanford University, Co-founder of Challenge Success
At the start of summer, kids race home from the last day of school, ditching their backpacks in hallways and kitchen corners. Inside will likely be a packet the kids—and their parents—prefer to forget for now. Summer homework assignments are meant to counter the "brain drain" that can leave kids a little rusty when they show up for school again in the fall, but is homework the answer?
Is the Mainstream Media Anti-Trump?
Guest: Tom Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Does the media have an anti-Trump bias? That's how President Trump sees it, certainly. He often complains about his unfair treatment at the hands of the mainstream media. An analysis of media coverage during President Trump's first 100 days in office suggests he's got a point. We talk to the author of a report from the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Ghosts of Twitter Past Haunt Job Seekers
Guest: Steve McDonald, PhD, Associate Professor, Director of the Graduate Program of Sociology at North Carolina State University
When you post something to Facebook or Instagram, does it cross your mind how a future hiring manager might look it? What if you applied for a job and before you even got an interview, your social media posts were the first impression you made?
Hiring managers are turning to social media more and more as they evaluate job applicants. But without any clear guidelines on when and how such techniques are okay, there’s a lot of gray area.
Caffeine Can Kill
Guest: Barbara Crouch, PharmD, Professor of Pharmacotherapy at University of Utah; Executive Director of the Utah Poison Control Center
Caffeine perks you up and can give you the jitters if you overdo it, but did you know that at high enough concentrations it can be very dangerous – even deadly? Getting to that threshold is easier than you might think.
Apple Seed
Guest: Same Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
American folktales.
Bridges on the Verge of Collapse
Guest: Madeleine Flint, PhD, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech
Summer tourists hoping to drive scenic Highway 1 on the California coast will have to take a detour around the popular Big Sur cliffs. It’s there that, during the wettest rainy season on record, mudslides blocked the road and damaged the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, which remains closed until the end of September. The road itself could take a year to fix. Engineering experts say bridges across the country are not being designed to meet the reality of today’s weather, wear and tear.
Courtroom Sketches from Famous Trials
Guest: Bill Robles, courtroom sketch artist
Charles Manson once looked right at him with disdain. Michael Jackson was so impressed with him, he asked for a meeting, and OJ Simpson struck him as incredibly arrogant. Our next guest is courtroom sketch artist Bill Robles and he’s drawn many of the most notorious criminals and biggest stars of the last half-century. When cameras aren’t allowed in court, Robles is there to document the drama. The Library of Congress has just acquired a trove of courtroom sketches, including many by Robles. They are on display until late October. His work is featured in the book “The Illustrated Courtroom: 50 Years of Court Art.”
US vs. Europe
Guest: Wade Jacoby, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Just where we stand with regard to our European allies is a bit unclear at the moment – at least diplomatically speaking. President Donald Trump rankled British leaders with Tweets critical of London’s mayor after the weekend’s terror attack. And last week, he went against all of Europe, and the rest of the world, by pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Accord. Are transatlantic relations at a record low?
Looking Abroad to Revive American’s Middle Class
Guest: Steven Pressman, PhD, Professor of Economics, Colorado State University
President Trump made it clear in the last week he wants to do what’s right for Pittsburgh, not Paris. But if he really wants to “Make America Great Again,” he’ll need to bolster America’s middle class. And to do that, our next guest says the President actually should look to Paris, because France’s middle class is doing better than ours.
Lawyers Aren’t Immune from Bias
Guest: Andrea Curcio, Professor of Law, Georgia State University
Children who can reason, argue, and debate from a young age are often told “you should be a lawyer.” Lawyers have the reputation for being tough critical thinkers--logical and dispassionate. And law students often believe that their training makes them immune to bias. But Andrea Curcio, a professor of law, frequently shocks her students by revealing to them their own bias and prejudice as part of their training.
How New is the New Wonder Woman?
Guest: Sarah Langsdale, PhD, Lecturer of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Texas
Mixed in with all the excited anticipation for the new Wonder Woman movie was a fair amount of reservation among female comic-lovers, worried that Hollywood was going to ruin it by making Wonder Woman yet another one-dimensional take on female power rooted solely in sexuality or vengeance.
Well, those fans seem to have breathed a collective sigh of relief over the weekend because this Wonder Woman is strong, brave and sexy, yes, but also sincere and even vulnerable.
State-by-State Gun Law Database
Guest: Michael Siegel, MD, Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston University
How and where you can buy or carry a firearm depends entirely on where you live. Since relatively few gun laws have been passed by Congress, it’s up to individual states to decide if, for example, you need a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Or if someone convicted of domestic violence can have a gun. Would it surprise you to learn that the number of gun laws on the books in each state varies dramatically? California has 104 gun laws. Alaska has just 4.
A comprehensive new database of state gun laws offers a way to track the effects of restricting access to firearms.
You can see the database here.
Tracking US Migrations with DNA
Guest: Ross Curtis, PhD, Manager of Computational Genomics, AncestryDNA
People have been using DNA tests through the genealogy company, Ancestry, to find out where they’re from. The tests are conducted using test tubes of saliva sent in by people all over the country who are curious about their ancestry. After collecting so many, the company has decided to do something productive with all the left over DNA samples. They used the samples to map out how groups of people with common heritage have migrated around North America over the years.
You can see the map here.
What Now for Efforts to Conserve Energy in the US?
Guest: Noah Horowitz, Director of the Center for Energy Efficiency Standards, Natural Resources Defense Council
When President Donald Trump announced last week the US would withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord and its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he also said this, “The United States under the Trump administration will continue to be the cleanest and most environmentally friendly on earth. We’ll be the cleanest. We’re gonna have the cleanest air, we’re gonna have the cleanest water.”
President Trump didn’t say what his plans were along those lines, but we could look to some of the programs that got the US to where it is today – programs that encourage people to pollute less and conserve energy.
Suing to Diversify City Councils
Guest: Kevin Shenkman, JD, Attorney in Malibu, CA
Do the people on your city council look like you? Are they from your side of town? Your racial group? In a democracy it feels important to know there’s someone in elected office who understands your concerns. But, as America becomes more racially and economically diverse, our local governments are not keeping pace. Why is that? Is there something baked into the way cities and counties elect councilmembers that suppresses racial diversity? Research suggests the answer is yes.
The Return of the Sea Turtle to Padre Island
Guest: Donna Shaver, PhD, Chief of the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery, Padre Island National Seashore
The most endangered sea turtle on earth is called the Kemp’s ridley. Right from birth it leads a precarious life. When it’s time to lay her eggs, a female Kemp’s ridley will travel hundreds of miles to a beach somewhere along the Gulf of Mexico – usually the same beach where she was born. She’ll drag herself through the sand and lay her eggs, hopefully somewhere predators and human beachgoers won’t disturb then. When her hatchlings emerge, they scramble back to the water, always at night, to try and avoid predators.
By focusing on this period of the sea turtle life cycle, scientists with the National Parks Service have had tremendous success bringing the Kemp’s ridley species back from the brink of extinction.
Our Sense of Smell Doesn’t Actually Stink
Guest: John McGann, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University
You know how certain odors can trigger memories—maybe you smell your mother’s perfume in a department store, and it takes you way back? Or maybe a whiff of popcorn reminds you of baseball games when you were a kid? Even so, we’ve long been told that our human sense of smell is nothing compared to other mammals like dogs or rats. Professor McGann debunks that myth.
Parent Previews—Wonder Woman and Captain Underpants
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Reviewer at Parent Previews.
Blood Test for Pre-term Birth Risk
Guests: Adam Woolley, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, BYU; Mike Alder, Director, BYU Technology Transfer Office
The leading cause of death among children under the age of five is the fact that they were born too early. Complications from pre-mature birth kill nearly one-million children a year. Nearly all of them could be saved with the right intervention. Here at BYU, a team is working on a cheap, easy blood test that could – with just the prick of a finger – identify a pregnant mother’s risk of going into pre-term labor.
Click here for a video of Prof. Woolley explaining his work.
Learn more about technology developed at BYU here.
Driving Miss Norma: One Family’s Journey Saying “Yes” to Living
Guest: Tim Bauerschmidt and Ramie Liddle, authors of “Driving Miss Norma: One Family’s Journey Saying ‘Yes’ to Living”
So many firsts came in the final year of Norma Jean Bauerschmidt’s life. At age 90, she got a terminal cancer diagnosis, but instead of opting for treatment, she chose to spend her final year on the road with her son, daughter-in-law, and their poodle. Before long, her adventures went viral and half-a-million people were following along on Facebook. Just before the journey ended and Norma passed away last fall, her story got a book deal. That book is now out, written by Norma’s son and daughter-in-law, Tim Bauerschmidt and Ramie Liddle. It’s called, “Driving Miss Norma: One Family’s Journey Saying ‘Yes’ to Living.”
Obituaries Are All About Life
Guest: Vanessa Gould, director and producer of the documentary “Obit”; Bruce Weber, former obituary writer at The New York Times, author of "As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires" and "Life Is a Wheel: Love, Death, Etc., and a Bike Ride Across America"
It’s true that anyone can have an obituary published in the local paper, as long as they’re willing to write it and pay a handsome fee. But only a select few get an obituary written by a reporter of the paper, and they are usually famous, noteworthy or notorious. The pinnacle of obituary pages is The New York Times, where an entire team of seasoned reporters crank out some of the most memorable stories in the paper each day. And, as the new documentary “Obit” makes clear from the start, obituaries are not really about death.
The Serious Risks of Ignoring Warnings and Leaking Intelligence
Guest: Richard A. Clarke, leader of counterterrorism efforts for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Co-author of “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes”
In the aftermath of the Manchester bombing, British intelligence officials briefly stopped sharing information with their American counterparts because a number of details about the investigation were leaked to US media – including the attacker’s name and detailed photos of the bomb scene. President Trump has called for an investigation into leaks from US Intelligence agencies, although in at least one instance, Trump himself was the source of leaked intelligence to Russian officials in the Oval Office. Counterterrorism expert Richard A. Clarke says the US has now developed a reputation as a leaky boat and will not get the level of detail we need from allies who share intelligence with us. Clarke’s new book, “Warnings” explores a variety of disasters – including the rise of ISIS in Syria – which could have been prevented had we heeded the warning of at least one expert who saw the crisis coming.
Can Everyone Eat Local?
Guest: Elliott Campbell, PhD, Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, UC Merced
The “local food” movement has gone beyond a handful of hip, progressive towns to touch nearly every city in America. Farmer’s markets and locally-grown produce are fairly easy to find these days. But even the most devoted locavores have to get some of their diet from beyond the 50-mile radius generally considered the boundary of “local.”
If one day all Americans decided they wanted to eat only local food, would anybody starve? University of California-Merced’s Elliott Campbell analyzed food production and population trends across the country and found that, surprisingly, about 90 percent of the country could be fed by food grown nearby.
A Real Transportation Revolution Requires Ride-Sharing
Guest: Lew Fulton, Co-Director at the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program, UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies
Driverless cars are the future, judging by the billions of dollars being invested in them, and electric cars are well on their way to American roads. It seems that combining the two movements would guarantee cleaner air and fewer traffic jams, but, according to an analysis by the Institute of Transportation Studies, the only way to get to that future is by adding a third piece to the puzzle—ride sharing.
Apple Seed
Guest: Same Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
America’s Troubled Relationship with its Police
Guest: Samuel Walker, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Jury selection is underway in the trial of the Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Philando Castile last summer. Castile’s death was streamed on Facebook Live by his girlfriend and fueled the ongoing national debate over how police use deadly force and how they treat African Americans.
Samuel Walker explains the roots of America’s often fraught relationship with the police.
Europa’s Ocean Hints at Its Habitability
Guest: Edward Garnero, PhD, Professor of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University
Astronomers last week dug into a trove of new photos and up-close data about Jupiter and its intense, swirling atmosphere. A NASA spacecraft called Juno will continue circling Jupiter until next February, when it will steer itself straight into the gassy giant and burn up. Why the suicide mission? Because NASA doesn’t want to risk Juno crashing into Europa – which is one of Jupiter’s moons and the place in all the solar system now believed to have the best chance of extraterrestrial life. If any bacteria or spores from Earth are still alive on the Juno spacecraft and end up on Europa, “we could possibly contaminate an entire alien ecosystem,” says one NASA scientist. A close look into what makes that moon such a good candidate for sustaining life.
Click here for a video from NASA explaining why Europa has such a good chance of life and why it has liquid water, even though it's so far from the sun.
Trump White House Family Business
Guest: Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies, Lester Crown Professor of Management Practice, Yale School of Management
Trump expert and friend Jeffery Sonnenfeld gives an assessment of President Trump’s leadership. He was at BYU late last week for a conference sponsored by the Wheatley Institution and spoke with us about how Trump’s skills as CEO of a private, family-owned business are translating to the presidency.
Why We’re Awkward
Guest: Ty Tashiro, PhD, Psychologist and Author of “Awkward: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Awesome”
No one is immune to awkwardness, whether it’s getting a piece of food stuck in your teeth, forgetting the name of a former neighbor, or tripping over your own feet in a room full of people you’re trying to impress. But, for some people, life is a steady stream of awkward moments, and it turns out there is a reason why. But it's okay because awkwardness can be awesome.
Swipe Left? Not So Fast
Guest: Jeffrey Hall, PhD, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Kansas
Online dating is no longer the taboo thing it used to be. Services like Tinder and Match are now common ways people of all ages find potential partners. But all the swiping and rating of people based on their photos may be ruining our chances of really enjoying the company of a date when we finally meet in person.
Discover your flirting style at Jeffrey Hall's website here.
Game of Loans: Rhetoric vs. Reality of Student Debt
Guest: Matthew Chingos, PhD, Director of the Education Policy Program, Urban Institute, Co-Author of “Game of Loans: the Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt”
When total student loan debt in America breached the one trillion-dollar threshold a few years back, horror stories of unemployed college graduates crushed by six-figure debt and living with their parents took center stage. While these stories are true, they may not hold the full picture, according to Urban Institute Education Policy analyst Matthew Chingos. In fact, he argues that by fixating on those extreme student debt stories, we’re missing the real problem with student loans in America.
Risks of Going Gluten-Free
Guest: Benjamin Lebwohl, MD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University
Even if you don’t have celiac disease, cutting back on your gluten intake might seem like a good idea. After all, most gluten-free food is sold in the health food section at the grocery store and even fast-food joints like Wendy’s now offer no-gluten options. However, it turns out that cutting out gluten if you don’t need to is not as healthy as the blogs and popular press would have you believe.
A Stroke of Faith
Guest: Mark Moore, Author of “A Stroke of Faith: A Stroke Survivor’s Story of a Second Chance at Living a Life of Significance”
Through hard work, Mark Moore rose from a tough, poor neighborhood in New York City to a leafy, affluent suburb of DC and started a career as a successful technology entrepreneur with a profitable IPO and a major business sale under his belt. Moore was proud to be a self-made man in his 40s and believed that with discipline and effort anything was possible.
So when he suffered two strokes and awoke from a month in an induced coma, his plan was to work himself to a full recovery, but his body – and frankly, God – had other plans.
Like and Um Aren’t All Bad
Guest Panel: Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein, PhD, Linguistic Anthropologist and Writer; Alexandra D’Arcy, PhD, Associate Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Sociolinguistics Research Lab, University of Victoria; Scott Church, PhD, Assistant Professor of Communications, BYU; Nelson Flores, PhD, Assistant Professor of Educational Linguistics in the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
Most public speaking professors urge you to leave “like,” “um,” “so,” and “ya know,” out of presentations at all costs. If these are filler words, it seems that getting rid of them would only improve communication. However, many linguists argue words like these serve a very important purpose. On top of that, they say trying to abolish them perpetuates a sneaky type of bias against women, young people, and some racial groups.
Remember the Whole Story of the American Revolution
Guest: Scott Stephenson, PhD, Vice President of Collections, Exhibitions, and Programming at Museum of the American Revolution
How we remember war is not always in line with what really happened. We want to believe the truth is simple, but in reality there is more to it than just two sides and one conflict. Take the Revolutionary War, for instance. We learn in grade school the American colonists were united behind the heroic General George Washington in their fight for independence from Britain, but the truth was a lot messier. There were internal conflicts and contradictions, dark times and differing motivations for fighting, and Washington wasn’t the only hero.
America Forgot, but Korea Hasn’t
Guest: Kirk Larsen, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
A wartime conflict in Korea has been remembered differently for each side. It has been virtually forgotten in America, but is still well-remembered and taught to school children in North and South Korea, where it happened. We’re not talking about the Korean War in 1950. This conflict happened more than 75 years earlier and had an important role in shaping Korea’s relationship with the US. Obviously, the winners and losers of a war will remember it differently. But here we have a stark example of a conflict virtually wiped from the history books on one side, and enshrined by the other.
Is Obamacare Dying and What Is the GOP Plan?
Guest: J.B. Silvers, PhD, Professor of Health Care Finance, Case Western Reserve University
The effort to repeal and replace Obamacare is moving again. The bill House Republicans passed earlier this month now has an official price tag from the Congressional Budget Office, which means the Senate can get to work on it. Here’s the bottom line: the changes to healthcare will reduce the federal deficit and lower premiums for many people. But it will also raise premiums for many people and leave more Americans uninsured. So you’ll either love it or hate it, depending on your age, income and health.
Using Twitter to Track the Flu
Guest: Alessandro Vespignani, PhD, Professor of Physics, Computer Science and Health Sciences, Northeastern University
Have you ever been so miserable with the flu, complete with fever, stuffy nose, body aches, coughs that keep you up at night, that you felt like you had to tweet about it? Well if you ever have, someone may have used your tweet to track the flu in real time. And that someone could be Alessandro Vespignani, a professor of physics, computer science and health sciences at Northeastern University. He has successfully answered the CDC’s 2013 challenge to figure out how to predict the influenza season and his method involves social media, not doctors’ reports.
You’re Not as Self-Aware as You Think
Guest: Tasha Eurich, PhD, Organizational Psychologist, Researcher and Author of “Insight”
“Know thyself” is the ancient Greek adage, and from the looks of our modern social media behavior, we’re doing pretty well at it. We take selfies, make Instagram journals, and sometimes post vulnerable insights from therapy on our Facebook feeds. Being in-touch with oneself has become a point of social pride.
But organizational psychologist and best-selling author Tasha Eurich says we’re not nearly as self-aware as we think. All our navel-gazing doesn’t tell us anything about how other people see us. And without that kind of self-awareness, we’re pretty much just stumbling around in the dark.
The Pirate Next Door—Myths and Unexpected Truths (originally aired March 20, 2017)
Guest: Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos, DLS, Author of “The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates' Wives, Families and Communities”
Captain Jack Sparrow is back in theaters this weekend with all his swashbuckling swagger in the fifth installment of Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, “Dead Men Tell No Tales.” Thanks in part to characters like Jack Sparrow, when we think of pirates, we tend to think about peg-legged men with parrots on their shoulders who are either drunk, immoral, or both. But, even in the “Golden Age” of piracy, it wasn’t exactly like that. In fact, the legendary pirate captains of the time were often just regular men—active participants in society pushed by economic forces to take a risky career path. Many had wives and families depending on their loot back home and a pirate retirement plan to fall back on when they were ready to return home.
Choice and Bravery in the Novels of Kate DiCamillo (Originally Aired Dec. 7, 2016)
Guest: Kate Dicamillo, Newbery Author
Author Kate DiCamillo has won the Newbery Medal twice and two of her books have been made into movies—"The Tale of Despereaux" and "Because of Winn-Dixie." Her heroes are as endearing as they are unlikely: a mouse with ears too big for his body, a worn-out stuffed rabbit, a young girl who thinks that she can save her parents’ marriage if only she can learn to twirl a baton and win the local pageant. That’s Raymie, the hero of “Raymie Nightingale,” one of Kate DiCamillo’s latest novels for older children. She also has a chapter book out for younger readers called “Where Are You Going, Baby Lincoln?”
Potential Antidote to CO Poisoning (Originally Aired Jan 25, 2017)
Guest: Mark Gladwin, MD, Chair of the Department of Medicine and Director of the Pittsburgh Heart, Lung, Blood, and Vascular Medicine Institute, University of Pittsburgh
Thousands of people every year are sent to the emergency room as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, often from a heater, generator, or fireplace. Carbon monoxide is invisible – you can’t taste, smell or see it. There’s no known antidote for it, but research led by critical care physician/scientist Mark Gladwin at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine has discovered a promising lead. They were able to reverse a fatal dose of carbon monoxide in mice by giving them a mutated brain protein they’ve made in the lab.
NAFTA Renegotiation is Happening
Guest: Charles Hankla, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University
Just before leaving on his first trip abroad, President Trump officially got the clock rolling on talks to renegotiate the trade pact Canada, Mexico and the US have been operating under for more than 20 years. On the campaign trail, Trump said he wanted to rip up the trade agreement known as NAFTA, but then he took office, spent some time talking to the leaders of Canada and Mexico, and decided the agreement just needed some tweaking. For the next two and a half months, Trump will consult with Congress, industries, and the American public before starting official talks with Canada and Mexico in August.
Virginia Woman Builds Community-Centered Refugee Camp in Greece
Guest: Lisa Campbell, Co-founder of the nonprofit “Do Your Part”
More than 1,700 refugees have died so far this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy on boats that are overcrowded and barely seaworthy. The span between Libya and Italy is now the deadliest sea passage in the world and attempts to cross it have increased since the EU and Turkey made a deal to shut down the shorter crossing option between Turkey and Greece. Meanwhile 62,000 refugees, more than half of which are women and children, remain stranded in Greece waiting for their asylum applications to be processed so they find a permanent place to resettle.
Out of this crisis of temporary shelter and great humanitarian need came Lisa Campbell from Virginia. She’s the co-founder of a disaster-relief nonprofit called “Do Your Part” and she’s more than doing hers. She opened a camp for refugees in Greece and has been there managing it for about a year.
doyourpart.org
Anatomy Academy
Guest: Jonathan Wisco, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Translational Anatomy of Degenerative Disease and Developmental Disorders, BYU
When you tell a 10-year-old to pick a healthy snack or put down the tablet and go play outside, the inevitable response is “But why?” In response, you could launch into statistics about childhood obesity in America and the lifelong consequences of inactivity, but chances are it wouldn’t sink in. What kids need, according to BYU physiology professor Jonathan Wisco, is some hands-on laboratory experience. Several years ago, he created a program called Anatomy Academy that’s operating now in elementary schools around the country.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Stories of Abraham Lincoln from Springfield, Illinois.
Merciful Judge
Guest: Douglas Hedger, JD, Chief Municipal Judge, Henderson Municipal Court
Courtrooms in cities and counties across the country are full of offenders who have problems with addiction or mental illness that drive a cycle of crime. Over and over again, judges will see the same faces standing before them, the penalties and jail time getting tougher with each offense. The cost to taxpayers only goes up, with little hope the offender will manage to get clean and stay out of trouble. At a certain point, Henderson Municipal Court Judge Douglas Hedger had seen enough. In 2008, he created a special program designed to help certain repeat offenders who are mired in addiction, mental illness and joblessness. It’s called the Assistance in Breaking the Cycle—or ABC Court.
The Problem with Modern Philanthropy
Guest: David Callahan, Founder and Editor of "Inside Philanthropy" and author of “The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age”
A few months ago, we discussed the amazing story on a foundation called The Atlantic Philanthropies, which just gave away that last of founder Chuck Feeney’s fortune. The amazing part is that Mr. Feeney is still alive and entirely committed to “giving while living.” The concept is popular now among billionaires, including Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. But author David Callahan warns of a dark side to such unprecedented generosity in American society.
Future of Jobs—Working With Robots
Guest: J.P. Gownder, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research
By some estimates, up to half of all jobs in the US will be replaced by automation over the next few decades - and not just manual labor. Doctors, therapists and even journalists could be supplanted by smart computers capable of learning and improving over time.
But Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder thinks those estimates are way overblown. He and his team estimate only a fraction of Americans will be completely out of a job because of automation. The majority of us will have to learn how to work side-by-side with the robots.
Playlists Reduce Medication Needs of Elderly
Guest: Kali Thomas, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice, Brown University, Research Health Science Specialist, Providence VA Medical Center
Within the next decade, an estimated 7 million Americans will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, so the need for innovative ways to treat the illness is crucial. Maybe you’ve seen the viral video online of an elderly man with dementia slumped and staring blankly until a nurse puts some headphones on him and a favorite song begins to play. Suddenly, he comes alive. Anecdotally, music seems like a powerful tool for people with dementia. Brown University researchers now have the data to prove it. Kali Thomas worked on the study, appearing in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
The Fight Against Disease: Give Us Your DNA
Guest: Eric Schadt, PhD, Professor and Chair of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, CEO of Sema4
Cancer’s defeat might just come at the mechanical hand of computers and data. If enough genetic data can be collected, scientists could find patterns that could lead to personalized treatments for all types of cancers. The problem is just how much data will be required to get there, and whether doctors, hospitals, and patients will be willing to share it.
Sufferers of Chronic Pain Find Relief in Virtual Reality
Guest: Diane Gromala, PhD, Professor and Canada Research Chair in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University
Overdose deaths due to opioids, including prescription pain killers and heroin, have more than doubled in the US over the last ten years. Meanwhile, those who suffer from chronic pain have a tough choice: is it worth the risk of opioid addiction to relieve constant pain? Some patients don’t even have the choice anymore, as doctors stop prescribing opiate painkillers so readily. A new alternative is emerging with the help of tech companies and game designers. Some pain patients say the virtual-reality treatment works even better than drugs.
What Does it Take to Win a Newbery?
Guest: Gene Nelson, Director of Provo City Library, Member of the 2017 Newbery Committee, Adjunct Professor of Elementary Education, BYU
The 2017 Newbery Medal Award Winner for the best children’s book is “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” by Kelly Barnhill. The Newbery Award has been given to just under 100 books since its inception in 1922, and today we’re going to find out what it takes to win that prestigious award.
Frontline Shines Spotlight on Trump Strategist
Guest: Gabrielle Schonder, producer of PBS Frontline documentary “Bannon’s War”
The man credited with shaping President Donald Trump's policies and appeal with people is the subject of a new Frontline documentary airing on PBS Tuesday night. Stephen Bannon is Trump's chief strategist, but his influence has at times led political pundits to call him a sort of shadow president, pulling the strings behind the scenes, though rarely in the spotlight. In this new Frontline documentary, Bannon is squarely in the spotlight.
Inside a White House Under Investigation
Guest: Russell Riley, PhD, Associate Professor at Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, Co-chair of Presidential Oral History program
President Donald Trump’s first trip abroad has, for the moment, shifted attention away from the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign was involved in it. The President has complained loudly about the investigation as a “witch hunt” and a major distraction from his efforts to govern.
Presidential historian Russell Riley has some bad news from Trump on that score: it’s about to get worse now that a special prosecutor has taken over the investigation.
Power of the PSA to Stop Drunk Driving
Guest: Jeff Niederdeppe, PhD, Associate Professor of Communications in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University
For decades we’ve been trying to figure out how to stop drunk driving. Mothers Against Drunk Driving supports locking the ignition of a car unless a driver with a previous DUI can pass a breathalyzer test. Another approach is to lower the blood alcohol legal limit – Utah just took its limit to .05, making it the lowest in the nation. But Cornell communications professor, Jeff Niederdeppe, has data to prove that airing “don’t drink and drive” ads at the right times can actually save lives.
Soda Damages Your Brain
Guest: Matthew Pase, PhD, Visiting Research fellow in Neurology, School of Medicine, Boston University, Senior Research Fellow at Swinburne University, Australia
Soda is bad for your bodyweight and your heart, and we’re all pretty aware of that, which is why many of us drink the diet versions, instead. But now comes evidence from the Boston University School of Medicine that soda is bad for our brains, too. Even diet soda is correlated with increased risk of stroke and dementia.
FlowLight Improves Productivity
Guest: Thomas Fritz, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of British Columbia
Cubicle workers everywhere can relate to the frustration of having someone pop in and interrupt when you’re deep into the flow of a project. To avoid that, many people might try block-out techniques like wearing headphones most of the day to send the message, “don’t interrupt, I’m focusing.”
But University of British Columbia computer science professor Thomas Fritz has a different solution. It’s a traffic light, basically. When it’s green, coworkers know you’re okay to interrupt. When it’s red—or the more serious pulsing red—they know to stay away. And you don’t set the light yourself—it actually tracks your computer activity and sets itself based on that.
Parent Previews—Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Everything, Everything
Guest: Rod Gustafson, reviewer for http://parentpreviews.com/
A new installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series arrived in theaters over the weekend. It’s a road trip gone-wrong story line, starting with a surprise announcement by the mom.
Also, is there anything, anything to recommend Everything, Everything?
Secret to Longer Life—in Fruit Flies
Guest: John Chaston, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics, BYU
We heard earlier in the show about how soda shortens your life—or at least shortens the quality of it, since it puts you at risk for stroke and dementia. Turns out the old adage, “You are what you eat” is still true. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could take a supplement that turns unhealthy food into something harmless in the body? BYU genetics professor John Chaston’s research is based on that very concept.
When the Body Ages
Guests: David Thomson, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology, BYU; David Kooyman, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology, BYU; Jonathan Alder, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology
Aging is happening to all of us as we speak, but it’s not the same for everyone. The creaking, weakening, and shrinking seems to come faster or more severely in some than others. One 80-year-old may still be able to run a half marathon and another needs a walker just to get to the bathroom. Why is that? What’s going on in the body as we age?
Faith to Foster
Guests: TJ and Jenn Menn, authors of “Faith to Foster”
Of the more than 400,000 US kids in foster care today, nearly half of them are living with families they’re not related to. Families like TJ and Jenn Menn, who decided as a young married couple to become foster parents and have since welcomed 22 foster children into their lives. The Menns have written a first-hand account of how the system works and what it takes to love – and let go of – children in need of a home.
A Look at the Border Wall and What It Could Be
Guest: Ronald Rael, Associate Professor and the Chair of the Graduate Committee, Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley, author of “Borderwall as Architecture”
President Trump reiterated his promise to build a wall along the US-Mexico border today during a press conference with the president of Colombia. We need the wall to prevent drugs and criminals from crossing into the US, Trump said. What he didn’t point out – and what many people don’t realize – is that roughly one-third of the 2,000 mile border between the U.S. and Mexico already has some form of wall or fence for that very purpose. A closer look at how well that structure has worked offers important lessons as Trump struggles to convince Congress to fund his $20-billion wall.
Ronald Rael’s new book, “Borderwall as Architecture” explores the existing barrier and offers some fascinating thoughts on what it could be, if designed carefully.
The Mighty Baker
Guest: Peter Tidwell, two-time winner of Food Network’s “Cake Wars,” owner of The Mighty Baker
Twice, baker Peter Tidwell has won Cake Wars on the Food Network. Most recently he beat out a bunch of other champions on the show, and he did it with a couple Power Rangers themed cakes—one having Ketchup in it. He’s been known to put blue cheese in frosting, too. Crazy combos are his thing, and so are colorful, playful cake sculptures that look too amazing to eat.
Hair Inspires Better Body Armor
Guest: Marc Meyers, PhD, Profess of NanoEngineering, University of California San Diego
Think of all the ways we abuse our hair: we brush it, dye it, shave it, twist it, curl it, and more. It’s flexible, resilient and, actually, as strong as steel. In fact, researchers at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering are wondering if the structure of a human hair can inspire scientists to build stronger synthetic fabrics.
Middle East Panel
Guests: Steven Lobell, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah; John Macfarlane, Professor of Political Science, Utah Valley University; Fred Axelgard, Senior Fellow at Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institution
This week the Trump administration made an important move on Iran – it renewed a waiver on sanctions, which keeps the Iranian nuclear agreement in place. But Trump has been very critical of the Iranian nuclear deal—we discuss why he would keep sanctions lifted.
U2 30th Anniversary Joshua Tree Tour (originally aired Jan. 18, 2017)
Guest: Quint Randle, PhD, Professor of Communications, BYU
U2’s iconic album, “The Joshua Tree” turns 30 this year and the band is headed out on a commemorative tour.
“The Joshua Tree” wasn’t U2’s first album, but it was its first US chart-topper and made the group into a global phenomenon, capable of filling football stadiums.
So, why is U2 – one of the biggest bands of the 1980s – still such a big deal? Why have their fans never quit them? Why do songs like “With or Without You” still have the power to make entire stadiums sway rapturously?
Leak Trouble for Trump
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Director of Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
President Trump was accused of intelligence leaks and obstruction of justice this week. First, that he shared classified intelligence with Russian officials during a recent meeting at the White House, and second, that he asked former FBI director, James Comey, to drop its probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia. Ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in the presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign have been a major frustration to the President and a reason he cited for firing FBI director Comey last week.
Using Facebook to Fight Corruption
Guest: Sudipta Sarangi, PhD, Economics Professor, Head of the Department of Economics, Virginia Tech
Facebook has come under fire for enabling the spread of fake news, so it has recently begun a more assertive process of identifying false news items and rooting out hoaxes.
But Facebook is not necessarily the enemy of all truth. In countries where press freedom is limited, Facebook correlates strongly with reducing government corruption.
Preventing Violence Before It Happens
Guest: Hans Breiter, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University; Director, Laboratory of Neuroimaging and Genetics, Massachusetts General Hospital
No one can predict the future completely, but mathematical models and the right kind of data can predict much about our future behavior, such as when we’re likely to buy a new car or who we’re likely to vote for in the next election. So, what if the same approach could be used to predict bad behaviors – like who’s going to commit a crime? If this sounds like the Tom Cruise movie, “Minority Report,” you’re not wrong. New research could help us stop violence before it stops, but there are ethical and privacy considerations to address.
Hearing Tests Don’t Always Make the Grade
Guest: Richard Salvi, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, Co-founder and Director of University at Buffalo’s Center for Hearing and Deafness
Have you ever noticed that in a noisy room, you struggle to hear what people are saying, but in quiet place, you can hear just fine? If so, you may have a form of what’s known as “hidden hearing loss,” because the usual hearing test – typically done in a quiet room – wouldn’t flag any problems.
University at Buffalo researcher Richard Salvi may have figured out why.
Organ-on-a-Chip Improves Reproductive Research
Guest: Joanna Burdette, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, University of Illinois at Chicago
For the first time, doctors have recreated a woman’s entire reproductive system in the laboratory—uterus, ovaries and all. It even has a 28-day menstrual cycle. The hope is scientists can use it to discover and test new treatments for birth control, infertility, endometriosis.
Professor Joanna Burdette helped design this working model, which is named EVATAR.
Losing a Dog
Guest: Frank McAndrew, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Knox College
Anticipating the end of life – for yourself or for a loved one – is a sobering and difficult exercise most of us would rather avoid. The same is true for a beloved pet, although sometimes we are forced to have conversations like deciding how sick a dog should be before putting him or her down. The pain can be masked by getting a new puppy or some other distraction, but it is inevitably still there.
Psychologist Frank McAndrew was surprised at how difficult the loss of his own dog was, but then he looked into the research and it all made sense.
Why Can’t Airlines and Customers Get Along?
Guest: Henry Harteveldt, Travel Industry Analyst, President of Atmosphere Research Group
Conflict between passengers and airline employees seems to be escalating. Just in the last week a complaint went viral from a woman on a United flight who says she was forced to urinate in a cup rather than use the plane lavatory. In the terminal of the Fort Lauderdale Airport, passengers, Spirit Airlines employees, and airport police scuffled over several cancelled flights—all of it caught on video. Often the troubles stem from airlines overbooking flights and shuffling passengers in a less-than-diplomatic fashion. The most memorable being the video of David Dao shrieking and bloody as he was dragged off a United Airlines flight last month when he refused to give up the seat he paid for. United Airlines apologized, but a fuse seems to have been lit. Even US lawmakers are holding Congressional hearings about the state of airline customer service.
Why We Blame Abuse Victims
Guest: Jason Whiting, PhD, Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy, Texas Tech University
It might be uncomfortable to admit, but when we hear a news story about someone who was attacked, we might notice ourselves scanning the details to see how the victim was different from us. If we find that they were in a location where we never go, out alone after dark, drinking or doing drugs, we tend to feel safer, like it’s something that could never happen to us—but what we’re really doing is blaming the victim. Therapist Jason Whiting says that even though we do it as a way of protecting ourselves, that’s not to say we should be doing it. Understanding that it happens is important to changing how we think about abuse and violence.
The Networked Body
Guest: John Rogers, PhD, Professor of Material Science and Engineering, Northwestern University
Wearable trackers like the Fitbit and implanted devices such as pacemakers would seem pretty incredible to a time traveler, but they’re no big deal in modern medicine. The next frontier of wearable technology involves making devices much smaller and more flexible. One idea that John Rogers’ team at Northwestern University is working on is a tiny temporary tattoo with all the sensors and circuits necessary to monitor basically anything they want to about bodily function.
How Reviving Extinct Species Can Help the Environment
Guest: Ben Novak, Lead Researcher at Revive & Restore
Movies like Jurassic Park come to mind when we think about bringing lost species back to life, and they perfectly encapsulate all that could go wrong. But a lot of serious scientists believe de-extinction actually has great positive potential for the earth.
Visit the website for Revive and Restore here.
Immorality Is Impossible
Guest: Jonathan Phillips, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology, Harvard
Abraham Lincoln famously urged a divided nation to unite and listen to the “better angels of our nature.” There’s evidence out of Harvard that one naturally does listen to those angels. When faced with a split-second decision, the bad choice isn’t even considered as a possibility. It’s only after further consideration that the not-so-angelic side will lean toward stealing the candy bar or running the red light or sneaking onto the bus without paying the fare.
Mothers in Children’s Literature
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s Worlds Awaiting
Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and can be heard weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Major Global Computer Hack
Guest: Dale Rowe, PhD, Professor of Information Technology, BYU
A major cyberattack on computer systems around the world has hit at least 100,000 organizations in 150 countries, says the European Union police agency Europol. Hospitals and major companies, including car manufacturers and a host of government offices worldwide, were among the targets. Cybersecurity experts say Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan bore the brunt of the attacks, but hospitals in Britain, schools in China, and global companies including FedEx were hit. The attack was a ransomware virus that locked people out of their computer files until they paid a ransom to the hackers. How complicated was the attack and how likely is it to happen again?
It’s Really About Me, Not “You”
Guest: Ariana Orvell, PhD Candidate, University of Michigan, Psychology
There’s a common phrase we say when things don’t go our way: “you win some, you lose some.” But why don’t we refer to ourselves instead and say, “I win some, I lose some,” since we’re really talking about our own failures? Psycholgists at the University of Michigan have a theory on this.
Interview Techniques
Guest: Martin Yate, Career Performance Coach, Author of “Knock em’ Dead”
The US unemployment rate is now lower than it was during the recession in 2007. That’s great news for job seekers, since it means fewer people competing for positions. But there are still seven million Americans looking for work. If you’re one of them – or if there’s a job change in your future – here’s some advice on how to ace the most nerve-wracking part of the search: the job interview.
Click here for more information.
Would Abused Children Open Up to a Robot?
Guest: Cindy Bethel, Professor of Computer Science, Mississippi State University, Director of the Social, Therapeutic, and Robotic Systems Lab
One of a police investigator's trickiest jobs can be interviewing a child who has been abused or witnessed a violent crime. The investigator must stay neutral, but police are just as human as the rest of us, and children, for their part, sometimes want to tell adults what they want to hear. Robots, on the other hand, don’t find neutrality difficult at all. But there are some pitfalls to using them in this kind of interview.
Parent Previews – King Arthur
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at Parent Previews
The legend of King Arthur is back on the Silver Screen. But this is no Camelot or Disney animation Sword in the Stone. It’s a darker, grittier telling of how Arthur came to be king, directed by Guy Ritchie. In this clip, Arthur has just pulled the legendary sword “Excalibur” from the stone and landed in jail because the current king would rather not give up the throne. Charlie Hunnam plays Arthur and is the first voice you’ll hear. He tries to play a bit dumb in this conversation with Jude Law, the bloodthirsty king planning to kill him.
Poverty, Politics, and Profit
Guest: Laura Sullivan, NPR Investigative Reporter, Frontline Correspondent, Producer of the documentary “Poverty, Politics and Profit”
There are millions of people across the country struggling to pay rent each month. As many as two-and-a-half million of them will be evicted this year, forcing them into homeless shelters or low-budget motels or substandard situations. One citizen, Nena Eldridge, uses water from buckets to wash and flush the toilet in her small bungalow in Texas because she can barely afford the rent on her monthly disability check and the water got shut off.
She is featured in a new investigative report by NPR and PBS Frontline correspondent Laura Sullivan. Over nine months, Sullivan sought to answer the question: Why are a growing number of Americans like Eldridge in such dire housing trouble when the government spends $50 billion dollars a year on programs to help them? Sullivan’s investigation found a series of troubling answers related to politics, prejudice, lack of oversight and flat-out corruption.
Watch the documentary, "Poverty, Politics and Profit" here.
Listen to Sullivan’s coverage of the housing tax credit on NPR here.
Finding Booker Wright
Guest: Yvette Johnson, author of “The Song and the Silence”
In 1966, a man named Booker Wright went on national television and told the world what it was like to be Black in the segregated south. He looked straight into the camera and explained how it felt to be mistreated by the White customers at the restaurant where he worked. With that television appearance, Booker Wright became an unwitting icon for the Civil Rights movement. There would be devastating consequences for him and his descendants. In 2012, Booker’s granddaughter Yvette Johnson co-produced a documentary about him and about her quest to learn his story. Johnson has now written a memoir about that discovery. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago she knew anything about her grandfather, the racially-divided place he came from, and the impact he had on race relations nationwide.
Who Washes the Dishes? How Spouses Divide
Guest: Jean Kimmel, PhD, Professor of Economics, Western Michigan University; Renata Forste, PhD, Professor of Sociology, BYU
Who does the dishes in your house? As more women have entered the workforce in recent decades, they’ve come to spend less time on housework, but men have not picked up all the slack. Women still do the lion’s share of housework – even in this day when we’ve supposedly moved beyond antiquated ideas of men’s work and women’s work.
Why the gender gap persists in housework is our topic this hour – just in time for Mother’s Day.
What Next for North and South Korea?
Guest: Joseph Cirincione, President of Ploughshares Fund
South Korea has a newly-elected leader with a starkly different take on North Korea than his predecessor. President Moon Jae-in is a human rights lawyer who favors dialogue and economic cooperation with North Korea. He even said during a speech while taking the oath of office Wednesday that he'd be open to visiting Pyongyang to talk about North Korea's nuclear program. Incidentally, President Trump said something similar this week: he'd be "honored" to meet with Kim Jong-Un under the right circumstances.
Museum of Failure
Guest: Samuel West, PhD, Curator at the Museum of Failure
We all know Thomas Edison invented the light-bulb. But do you know he got it wrong over and over and over before it finally worked? In the face of so much failure, Edison famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” When it comes to innovation, failure comes with the territory.
Hence the new “Museum of Failure” in Sweden and a traveling display touring the globe. Coca-Cola Blak and a Bic Pen for women are part of the collection. Samuel West created the museum and joins us now from Sweden to talk about why we should celebrate flops, not bury them.
Wearable Sensors Can Predict Illness (originally aired Jan 31, 2017)
Guest: Michael Snyder, PhD, Professor of Genetics, Stanford
Your Fitbit can tell you how many steps you took in a day, but what if it could pick up subtle cues that you might be sick, even before you realize you’re not feeling well? The technology to do that is pretty much already here. What we need is computer programs that can collect that steady stream of data about our body temperature, heart rate, and oxygen levels and make sense of it.
Earlier this year, researchers at Stanford University published some preliminary work in the journal PLOS One that showed it’s possible.
Healthy Diet Helps Fight Depression (Originally aired Mar 14, 2017)
Guest: Felice Jacka, PhD, Professor of Nutritional and Epidemiological Psychiatry, Deakin University
When we’re feeling anxious or sad, we feel it in our gut – we say, “I have butterflies in my stomach” or “I’m feeling sick to my stomach.” But the relationship between your brain and your belly goes both ways. A growing body of research suggests the health of your gut – especially the bacteria in your gut – affects your mental health.
One recent study published in the journal BMC Medicine, found that eating a healthy diet for 12 weeks led to reduced symptoms of depression.
Text Message Thrillers (Originally aired Sep 14, 2016)
Guest: Prerna Gupta, Founder and CEO of Hooked
"Dracula," "The Screwtape Letters," "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" – all are examples of fiction that plays out through the exchange of letters and documents. In the digital era, authors have taken to telling stories through chains of emails between characters. No surprise that text messages are the next frontier. That’s what a startup called Hooked has tapped into. They call themselves “fiction for the Snapchat generation.” You download the app, pick a story to read and up comes the first few lines – written as a text, of course. Click “next” and another text pops up to advance the plot. It’s working so well, the founders of Hooked think they could use the data from their app to find the next “Harry Potter.”
Is Trump Channeling Nixon in Firing the FBI Director?
Guests: Michael Barber, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Brigham Daniels, Professor of Law, BYU
President Trump says he fired the FBI director in response to the Attorney General’s recommendation that a “fresh start” is needed at the FBI. A memo, justifying the firing, points to Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. The White House insists the dismissal had nothing to do with the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election and possible Trump campaign ties to Russia.
Worst-case Simulations Boost Parent Confidence
Guest: Deborah Raines, PhD, Associate Professor of Nursing, University at Buffalo
Can someone ever really be ready to be a first-time parent? That learning curve is even steeper when a newborn comes home after spending time in the neonatal intensive care unit. Understandably, many of these parents feel ill-equipped to care for their babies without a nurse nearby. A study by Professor Deborah Raines of University at Buffalo proved that if parents could be trained on nightmare scenarios before being thrust into the responsibility of caring for a fragile infant, they would be less stressed-out about it.
Why Teachers Aren’t Necessarily the Best Motivators
Guest: Cary Roseth, PhD, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, Michigan State University
From first grade through college, teachers get the question from their students, "Why do we need to learn this?" And teachers are ready with the answers, because it's important that students understand the rationale for what they're learning. Research has proven that understanding leads to better outcomes. But research also suggests it'd be a lot better if a peer were answering the question.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Metamessaging
Guest: Deborah Tannen, PhD, Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University, author of “You’re the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendship”
You know when you text someone a request, and they reply “sure”? No exclamation point, no smiling emoji, not even a capital “S.” Are they happy to help you out, but in a hurry and can’t take long to text, as in and energetic, “Sure!” or are they just saying “sure,” voice down, because they can’t think of a way to say no?
The way words are said can matter as much as the words themselves. Digital communication is fraught with opportunities to send or receive the wrong message. But so is face-to-face conversation. Linguist Deborah Tannen studies the messages behind our messages.
Slavery and the Economic Value of a Human Life
Guest: Daina Ramey Berry, PhD, Associate Professor of History and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas-Austin, Author of “The Price for their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation”
In the middle of the nineteenth century, when slavery was widespread in the American South, a healthy adult male slave could be purchased for what would be, in today’s currency, a sum of $23,000. Today, it's shocking to think of assigning a price tag to a human life. But analyzing the values placed on enslaved people throughout their lifetimes is the focus of a new book by historian Daina Ramey Berry called "The Price for their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation." Not only does she place front and center the market values of enslaved people, she reveals what slaves themselves thought about the price their owners paid for them and how they coped psychologically when other people tried to determine what they were worth.
Trump Administration Revisiting National Monuments
Guest: Amy Joi O’Donoghue, Environmental Reporter, Deseret News
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is in Utah this week taking a closer look at a couple of very large national monuments – Grand Staircase Escalante Monument designated by Clinton in 1996, and Bears Ears National Monument which was created by Obama on his way out of office. Both are opposed by Utah's Republican Congressional delegation and are included in a review President Trump has ordered of all national monuments created by his last three predecessors. Trump has suggested he could revise – or even rescind – any monuments he doesn't agree with.
Power of Facts
Guest: Richard Coffin, Project Manager for USAFacts.org
The spending bill Congress passed last week to keep the government funded through the end of September totals just over one-trillion dollars for six months of government business. If you want to know exactly how all that cash is spent, you’ll need a computer and a lot of patience. There are reams and reams of data available on government agency websites you can sort through.
But now, thanks to USAFactsorg, you can just type in a key word like Medicare or military or education and get simple charts built from government data. USAFacts.org is a non-profit, non-partisan civic initiative that launched just a few weeks ago. It’s backed by retired Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.
Benefits of Beet Root Juice
Guest: Daniel Kim-Shapiro, PhD, Professor and Associate Chair, Physics, Wake Forest University
One thing most kids refuse to eat are beets—mainly because they were served either boiled or pickled. There were reports that former president Barack Obama hated beets so much that they weren’t even planted in the White House kitchen garden. But one thing most people wouldn’t consider is that beets can be delicious—when juiced.
“Unbeetable” is what Wake Forest University professor Daniel Kim-Shapiro calls the beet juice drink he’s developed. Some preliminary research shows it is not only tasty, but has particular health benefits for people over 55.
Sleep and Human Aging
Guest: Joe Winer, University of California, Berkeley, Cognitive Neuroscience
Can’t sleep? You’re far from alone. More than 8 million American adults rely on prescription sleep aids to catch their Z’s, and, alarmingly, that reliance only increases with age. Trouble sleeping is a common consequence of getting older, but is that because older people just need less sleep? Or does something go haywire in the body’s ability to sleep as we age – and then lack of sleep makes other aspects, such as memory loss, even worse?
Standardization of Time
Guest: Richard J. Evans, DPhil, Historian and President of Wolfson College at Cambridge
If you wonder aloud, “What time is it?” all the people around you could pull out their smart phones and tell you the exact same time. Smart phones have been around long enough now that we take for granted that they’ll spring ahead for Daylight Saving Time, reset themselves when we cross a time zone, and that the time on your neighbor’s phone will be synchronized with the time on mine.
But, in historical terms, it really wasn’t that long ago that people didn’t feel the need to keep time at all. Many clocks, when they were used, only had an hour hand. So, what changed about us that prompted such a dramatic change in the way we track time?
Practice Crime Scene
Guest: Amie Houghton, Assistant Professor of Forensic Science, Utah Valley University
Crime scene investigation has become a staple of TV drama. Viewers love those moments when the brilliant detective stoops under the yellow police tape, scans the scene crawling with technicians in lab coats cataloguing evidence and then picks up on a subtle clue that makes the whole mystery fall into place. But that’s TV.
Students at Utah Valley University are about to get some hands-on training in what CSI is really like. The university’s forensic science program there has acquired a home that can be made to resemble any crime scene Hollywood could conjure, so students can practice processing the evidence.
Octopus Arms Have Minds of Their Own
Guest: Sy Montgomery, Author, “The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness”
Having an extra hand would certainly be convenient from time to time, but imagine if that extra appendage also had a mind of its own. What if it even had a bit of its own personality – like if it preferred to draw with pen, rather than pencil? That’s bizarre to consider, but for an octopus, it may be true, because the octopus has more than half of its neurons located on its eight arms instead of having them all concentrated in its brain like humans.
Three World Events: French and Iranian Elections, Press Freedom
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Political Science, BYU
The big election outcome in France is Top of Mind today as we welcome regular contributor Quinn Mecham back into the studio. He’s a professor of political science here at BYU and joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration. Today we'll also explore the upcoming Iranian elections and freedom of the press.
Meeting the Needs of Black Special Education Students
Guest: Elizabeth Drame, PhD, Professor & Department Chair of Exceptional Education, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Unlike some other diseases, autism appears to affect children of all races at the same rate. But when that diagnosis is made can differ pretty dramatically. It often comes several years later in African American children than in White children. As a result, African American children may require longer and more intensive intervention. Across the world in Africa, there are cultural barriers to treating autism.
Could Celiac Be Caused by a Virus?
Guest: Bana Jabri, MD, PhD, Professor in the Department of Medicine and Pediatrics, Director of Research at the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center
It's estimated that between a third and a half of Americans have a genetic predisposition for celiac disease, which causes severe reaction to gluten. But only about one percent of the total US population actually has celiac disease. So why do some people with the gene get it, but most don’t?
Researchers at the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center have found a clue in the form of a virus that is typically harmless to humans, but manages to reprogram some people's immune systems so they treat gluten like an enemy. The study appeared recently in the journal "Science."
Why Taking Out Assad May Be a Bad Idea
Guest: David Alpher, PhD, Adjunct Professor, School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
The latest effort to bring relief to the humanitarian crisis in Syria entails a series of “safe zones” hashed out by Russia, Turkey and Iran. But it’s unclear how those safe zones will be enforced and whether Syria President Bashar Al Assad’s regime will fully cooperate with the cease fire. Assad’s presence in Syria remains a major sticking in negotiations toward lasting peace for the embattled country. The US and other members of the UN have called Assad a barbarian, a butcher and a war criminal for his attacks on Syrian civilians, including the use of chemical weapons. But ousting him by force would not solve Syria’s problems.
Parent Previews: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
Does Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 deliver like its predecessor did?
From Ex-Con to Entrepreneur
Guest: Megan Goddard, Program Manager, Defy Ventures
In Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables,” ex-convict Jean Valjean could not escape his past and make a living as an honest man until he changed his name and denied his criminal history. Then, he prospered, eventually becoming a mayor and business owner, helping many people around him to prosper as well. Today, ex-convicts in the US can feel like they’re facing the same dilemma: employers balk at hiring a former criminal, particularly one with a felony conviction.
One job-skills training organization has set out to change that. They recruit felons, particularly leaders of gangs or drug rings, because they see in them ambition and marketing skills. Find out how Defy Ventures turns ex-cons into entrepreneurs and how you can help.
Defy Ventures
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Guest: Samin Nosrat, author of “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat”
Following a recipe is a worthy goal, but is it really knowing how to cook? Chef Samin Nosrat says the alchemy of cooking is all about knowing when a dish needs more salt, a squeeze of lemon, or a little more heat, just by the look, smell, or taste of it. Helping others understand that is the goal of her new cookbook, “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.” In it, Nosrat boils down her vast experience from the best kitchens of the world – including training with legendary chef Alice Waters at Chez Panisse – into the four essential elements of good cooking: salt, fat, acid, heat. Master them and Nostrat says you’ll be able to make a delicious dish in no time, without a recipe.
Breathing Your Way to Better Health
Guest: Dan Brulé, author of “Just Breathe: Mastering Breathwork for Success in Life, Love, Business, and Beyond”
If you stop inhaling and exhaling for too long, your body shuts down, so it’s amazing how little we think about it. Unless you’ve got an illness like asthma, most of us don’t pay any attention to the act of breathing. As a result, we’re missing out on something really powerful, says Dan Brulé. He’s one of the world’s leading experts on breathwork and an advocate for taking time daily to practice breathing. Why something so instinctual would require any practice is the next question. The answer is in Brule’s new book, “Just Breathe: Mastering Breathwork for Success in Life, Love, Business, and Beyond.”
The Power of Yoga is Much More than Power Poses
Guest: Yogi Cameron, author of “The Yogi Code: Seven Universal Laws of Infinite Success”
If you've ever taken a yoga class, you've probably had an instructor urge you to use the prana and "breathe in to" the tight joint or muscle that's yelling at you during a particular pose. It might seem strange at first, but such is the life of a true yogi. Yogi Cameron has written a tell-all that describes how he went from high fashion model to student and teacher of yogic traditions. It’s called, “The Yogi Code.”
Data on Race and Police Shootings
Guest: Ben Montgomery, Reporter, Tampa Bay Times
In the past three years, fatal encounters between police and unarmed black men sparked protests across the country. Were these just a handful of tragic but isolated incidents, as law enforcement officials claimed? Or were the shooting deaths of Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, and Walter Scott evidence of a larger pattern of racial discrimination by police? When Tampa Bay Times investigative reporter Ben Montgomery set out to answer that question in Florida, he quickly realized it wouldn’t be easy; no one—not even the FBI—was keeping track of police shootings in the country’s third-largest state. This is also true in most states around the country. So Montgomery and a team at the Tampa Bay Times decided they would. It took more than two years, but now they’re done and he shares his findings with us.
Men Without Work
Guest: Nicholas Eberstadt, Political Economist, American Enterprise Institute, author of “Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis”
Over the last two generations, there has been a startling rise in the number of men not working, and not looking for work. It’s a problem that has been often overlooked by the government, and its causes are complicated. Some men choose not to work, and that choice is not as socially disparaged as it was in your grandparents’ day. But there are other factors at play, and the economist Nicholas Eberstadt investigates them in his book “Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis.”
Human Impact (originally aired July 13, 2016)
Guest: Melinda Zeder, PhD, Curator
Think about all the laws aimed at trying to fix the damage humans have done to the landscape – the Clean Air Act, the Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Underlying them is the notion that, in a perfect world, we could roll back the clock and restore the ecosystem to its pristine state. But, pristine is impossible – and maybe never really existed – according to a provocative research paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An international team including archaeologists, geneticists, ecologists and anthropologists concluded in the article that humans have been leaving their mark on the planet for millennia: way before the industrial revolution or the colonization of the world’s islands and even before they invented the wheel, humans were changing their environment. And not all for the worse, either.
Fluoride Chemicals in Wrappers (originally aired Feb. 14, 2017)
Guest: Professor Graham Peaslee, PhD, University of Notre Dame
When fast-food restaurants had to start posting calorie counts on their menus, it took some of the fun out of treating yourself to that cheeseburger, fries and shake. And now we’re finding out that the stuff those treats come wrapped in also contain chemicals that carry serious health risks.
Research out of Notre Dame examined more than 400 packaging materials used to wrap everything from sandwiches to desserts. Nearly half contained fluorinated chemicals that can stay in the body long after you’ve licked your fingers.
Execution in America (originally aired March 18, 2015)
Guest: Austin Sarat, Professor of Law and Political Science, Amherst College, author of “Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty”
After going twelve years without a single execution, the state of Arkansas recently slated eight inmates for lethal injection within a ten-day period. Although legal challenges kept four of the eight from execution, the reason behind the blitz was simple: Arkansas’s supply of a drug used in lethal injection was about to expire. The drug, a sedative, is difficult to purchase, as drug companies have protested its use for capital punishment, all of which left Arkansas in a scramble to use what they had before it went bad.
A few years ago, anticipating a predicament like this one, the Utah Legislature considered allowing the firing squad as a backup plan for execution, should lethal injection become unavailable. We discuss the complicated process of execution.
Climate of Hope
Guest: Carl Pope, co-author of “Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet”
Troubling news about the state of the earth's climate can make even the optimist despondent. Rising sea levels are threatening coastal communities. Warmer ocean temperatures are killing coral reefs at alarming rates. Storms are becoming more intense and temperatures are swinging more dramatically. Meanwhile, President Trump has threatened to cancel America’s commitment to work with other countries on slowing climate change. Is there any reason for hope that something can be done before the rapidly warming climate displaces people, plants, and animals all over the world?
It’s enough to make you want to bury your head in the sand, sometimes. But former Sierra Club executive director, Carl Pope, and billionaire and former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, have a new book meant to change the conversation. They’re an unlikely pair. The book is called, "Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet."
Why Kindergartners Need More Play Time
Guest: Christopher Brown, PhD, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education, University of Texas at Austin
As more and more states create public preschool programs, pre-K is becoming more like kindergarten than daycare. And kindergarten is the new first grade. What most kids do in kindergarten today is a lot more academically focused than you and I experienced decades ago. Doing away with playtime in kindergarten is not serving our children, though.
Floating Farms: The Growing Solution for Urban America
Guest: Mary Mattingly, Artist, Founder of Swale Project
New York is nicknamed “The Big Apple,” but good luck finding an apple tree from which to pluck a healthy snack. Forget about picking the apple, just being able to buy fresh produce is a challenge in parts of many big cities across the country, which the USDA refers to as “food deserts,” because there’s easy access to a fast food joint, but not a grocery store. New York artist Mary Mattingly is working with the idea of bringing fresh food to the people. She’s planted a garden and fruit trees on a barge that has just arrived at a pier adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us from Topeka, Kansas, where he learned first-hand the story of desegregation in the days of Brown vs. Board of Education.
Shopping for a Friendly Judge
Guest: Paul Stancil, JD, Professor of Law, BYU
President Donald Trump is not a fan of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. It’s the one based in California where judges have twice now halted Trump’s executive orders on immigration – first, the travel ban and last week, the order aimed at defunding sanctuary cities. Since then, President Trump has complained on Twitter and in the press about his opponents bringing their challenges to his policies in California courts where they’re more likely to get a liberal judge. In fact, this type of shopping around for a friendly venue happens a lot in the US court system. It was no coincidence that opponents of President Obama’s policies choose to file their challenges in Texas courts, known for being more conservative.
Challenges of Re-Using Rockets
Guest: Phil Larson, Assistant Dean for Communications, Strategy, and Planning, University of Colorado Boulder
On Monday morning, the US military sent a spy satellite into space aboard a special rocket built by SpaceX. What's special about the rocket is that it's reuseable. About 7 minutes after it roared away from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral and released the satellite into orbit, the rocket came on home, touching down gently on a landing pad just off the coast. It's the tenth time SpaceX has pulled off the feat of launching and landing a rocket. Up until just a few years ago, the rockets were for one-time use only. Which is a little like taking your car on a road trip and then sending it to the junkyard.
Refugees: Their Story is Our Story
Guest: Trisha Leimer, President, Their Story is Our Story
Trisha Leimer is an American woman living in Germany, the European country that has received the largest number of refugees. As she began to meet and work with some of these individuals, she got involved in a nonprofit collaboration called “Their Story is Our Story.” Its mission is to help individual refugees share their stories through pictures, art and interviews distributed online and various social media sites. Leimer is now the group’s president and she stopped by our studio during a recent visit to the US. We asked her why letting refugees tell their own stories is important.
Find out more about Their Story is Our Story
Who Will Benefit from Trump Tax Cuts?
Guest: Jay Zagorsky, PhD, Economist and Research Scientist, The Ohio State University
Tax cuts are one of President Donald Trump’s main promises and about a week ago we got the broad outlines of what he’s got in mind. The big news is that Trump would like to slice the corporate tax rate in half. Trump believes a lower rate will give companies more money to invest in growing their business and make America more attractive to international companies accustomed to the lower corporate tax rates in other countries.
The focus on corporate taxes gives the impression that businesses are the biggest contributor to the US government’s tax coffers. But, they aren’t. Not by a long shot. And the largest sources of federal tax revenue may surprise you. Or maybe not, if you’re still smarting from filing your income taxes last month.
No, Einstein Didn't Really Say That
Guest: Garson O’Toole (pen name of Gregory Sullivan), PhD, author of “Hemingway Didn’t Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations”
Albert Einstein famously said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It’s one of the famous quotes we seem to hear most often in our social circles, but it turns out that Albert Einstein did not say that. Researcher Garson O’Toole is the Quote Investigator. His blog debunks hundreds of misquotations and now he’s got a new book about them called, “Hemingway Didn’t Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations.”
Plant Growth is Booming Due to CO2 Emissions
Guest: Elliott Campbell, PhD, Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of CA, Merced
The consequences of climate change can be confusing. Some spots around the world experience dramatic drought while others get massive snowstorms. Intense and unusual are the hallmarks of weather as the Earth’s atmosphere warms. Sometimes the changes aren’t all bad, either, at least not in the short-run. For example, a study just published in the journal Nature finds plants are thriving with the increased carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. Remember, CO2 is food for plants. The researchers found global plant production grew by 30 percent over the last 200 years, coinciding with the start of the Industrial Revolution and era of fossil-fuel burning.
So, more plant production is great, because it means more food, right? Well, as with all things climate-change-related, the answer is complicated.
Pass the Pho!
Guest: Chef Mai Pham, owner of Lemon Grass Kitchen, author of “The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking,” “Pleasure of the Vietnamese Table” and “Flavors of Asia”
Pham is on a quest to get more Vietnamese and Thai food in American bellies. She’s the force behind a couple of successful restaurants in California and has spun some of her best recipes into ingredients other restaurants can use. That’s why she’s at BYU on this particular day, standing behind vats of boiling water, translucent rice noodles, and aromatic broth, giving Dining Services Executive chef, John McDonald, a quick tutorial on pho. We join her to sample her creation and learn how to incorporate more Southeast Asian cuisine into our own menus.
An Entomologist Love Story
Guests: Lois O'Brien, PhD, and Charlie O’Brien, PhD, Entomologists
Most people try to keep bugs out of their house, but Charlie and Lois O’Brien added extra rooms onto their Arizona home in order to accommodate the bugs they’ve collected over 60 years. The O’Briens are leading entomologists: Charlie is an expert in weevils and Lois in planthoppers. Between them they’ve collected more than one and a quarter million insects – many of them rare specimens. And they’ve just donated the entire collection to Arizona State University. We talk about their life-long passion for bugs.
National Children's Book Week
Guest: Rachel Wadham, host of World’s Awaiting on BYUradio
Rachel Wadham discusses award winning children's books, and some special awards nominated by kids.
Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Trump’s First 100 Days
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
President Trump says his first 100 days in office were “just about the most successful in our country’s history.” So we’ve asked a US historian to fact check that claim. How do historians judge the early success of a president? And when did the “100 days” measurement become a thing anybody cared about?
Quagga Invasion
Guest: Mark Belk, PhD, Professor of Biology, BYU
It’s nearly boating season, and here in Utah a popular destination for boaters is the massive reservoir, Lake Powell, well over 100 miles long. But boaters there have had to deal an invasive species the last five years: quagga mussels are spoiling the party at Lake Powell, threatening serious damage to the thriving houseboat industry there and possibly wreaking havoc on sport fishing, just like they’ve done in the Great Lakes for the past 30 years. Will the quagga mussels win out again?
Healthy Lungs Make Healthy Blood
Guest: Mark Looney, MD, Pulmonologist, Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
The heart pumps blood, the stomach digests food and the lungs bring oxygen into the body. These basic organ functions we learned in grade school turn out to be much too simplified. The body is a complex and finely-tuned collection of processes. But researchers have recently discovered something that surprised even them – the lungs are also a major blood-making factory in the body, churning out at least half of the platelet cells that are critical for blood clotting. This discovery was made in mice, but it could provide important clues about human lungs, too.
The Stroke that Changed My Life
Guest: Christine Hyung-Oak Lee, author of “Tell Me Everything You Don’t Remember: The Stroke that Changed My Life”
Nearly 800,000 people have a stroke every year, but young people don’t usually think it will happen to them. That was certainly the case with Christine Hyung-Oak Lee, who had a stroke at the age of 33. Her recovery was robust and impressive, although, as she explains in her memoir, “Tell Me Everything You Don’t Remember: The Stroke that Changed My Life,” she is not the person she used to be, and, in some ways, that’s a good thing.
Aspirations of Children in India’s Slums
Guest: Gunjan Sharma, MEd, Education Researcher, Ambedkar University, Delhi; Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Scholar, BYU
The world’s largest democracy is facing an education crisis. Only half of India’s school age children actually attend school on a consistent basis. If India is to become a real global power, it needs much higher rates of literacy and school participation. Its gigantic population is the most important resource India has to offer the global economy. There are more children living in India than there are people living in the entire United States.
The government of India is working to improve the quality of its public schools, including overhauling teacher training programs and offering meals at school. There’s also a huge network of nonprofit organizations the government supports that work with parents and provide health services – anything to remove the barriers that might be keeping kids at home instead of at school. But, education researcher Gunjan Sharma says, the current school system in India fails in a fundamental way to appeal to India’s poorest children.
Fighting Bacteria with Viruses
Guest: Julianne H. Grose, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, BYU
Apple and pear orchard growers suffer hundreds of millions of dollars in losses every year because of a disease called fire blight. First, oozing cankers develop on the tree branches and leave streaks that darken to look like the branch has been licked by fire. Infected leaves and blossoms blacken and shrivel, too, like they’ve been burned. The name “fire blight” is apt, though it’s not caused by extreme heat. It’s actually caused by bacteria. BYU microbiologist Julianne Grose has developed a new way of treating it using viruses that eat bacteria.
Is Your Retirement Adviser Really Looking Out for You?
Guest: Bronson Argyle, PhD, Assistant Professor of Finance, BYU Marriott School of Management
You are probably paying more in brokerage fees than you need to be. And you’re probably being steered toward more expensive investment funds than you need to be, because – believe it or not – there is no rule preventing retirement advisers from pointing you toward investment funds that give them a better kickback. Americans saving for retirement are losing in the range of $17 billion a year because of financial advice that’s not in their best interest. That estimate came from the Obama Administration’s Council of Economic Advisers and led to the creation of a new rule meant to fix the problem. It was supposed to take effect in April, but President Trump delayed it – and may even scrap it entirely.
Elite Climber Beth Rodden on Balancing Success
Guest: Beth Rodden, Renowned Rock Climber
Beth Rodden is an elite rock climber who has spent nights in a cocoon bolted into sheer rock mountain faces, established some of the hardest climbing routes in the world ever set by a woman, and has even escaped a kidnapping by militants in Central Asia. She’s got nerves of steel, all wrapped up in a tiny 5" 1' frame.
But Beth Rodden has learned some of her hardest lessons from everyday life as she’s learned to balance elite rock climbing, marriage and parenting. Her story is featured in this month’s edition of Outside magazine.
How Big Data Could Help Prevent Suicide
Guest: Jessica Ribeiro, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Florida State University
About 800 people die by suicide every week. That’s enough people to fill two commercial airliners. Could you imagine the uproar if two planes crashed every week, killing everyone on board? What new laws or research might that prompt? And yet, after decades of study, scientists and doctors say their ability to predict who will commit suicide is still only about as good as a random guess.
But big data may offer new hope. A team of researchers analyzed two million medical records using a technique called “machine learning” and found they could predict, with 80-percent accuracy, which patients would die by suicide two years in the future.
Find more information about the app Professor Ribeiro mentioned here.
Answers About Autism (Originally aired Feb. 10, 2017)
Guest: Mikle South, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience, BYU; Terisa Gabrielsen, PhD, Professor of School Psychology, BYU; Jon Cox, PhD Licensed Psychologist and Clinical Professor, BYU; Rebecca Lundwall, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience, BYU
For parents and for public health experts, autism is confusing and frustrating. Autism can vary widely from one person to the next. In 2013, a range of disorders including Asperger’s Syndrome were all classified under one umbrella term known as “autism spectrum disorder,” which may have served to confuse the matter further. So, today we’re going to try and get some answers about what autism is, what causes it, and how it can be treated.
For more information visit BYU's website on autism here.
Court Deals Blow to Trump Immigration Order
Guest: Kari Hong, JD, Professor of Law, Boston College
A federal judge in San Francisco dealt another blow to the Trump administration’s immigration policies on Tuesday. You’ll recall the Trump’s ban on travel from certain Muslim-majority countries was blocked by the court. Now his plan to withhold federal funding from cities and towns that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities has been temporarily halted. President Trump’s response on Twitter was similar: he criticized the court for overreaching and pledged to take the case to the Supreme Court.
Food is Medication
Guest: Regina Brown, MD, Medical Oncologist, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver
Rice and beans are a staple food around the world. They’re affordable and plentiful and an environmentally friendly source of protein. Eating a lot of beans and rice may help prevent colorectal cancer, too, which is great news. Except that not many Americans are keen to work a lot of beans and rice into their diet. Dr. Brown has a plan to change that.
Voucher Programs Don’t Help Test Scores
Guest: Martin Carnoy, PhD, Professor of Education, Stanford University, author of “Vouchers and Public School Performance”
The school year is winding down, but principals are already busy assembling class lists for the fall. Students, and more particularly, parents, who are unhappy with their child’s school may be looking at other options. A range of choices has become the norm in many districts: charter schools, magnet schools and publicly-funded tuition vouchers might be available to help cover the cost of attending private school.
US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has pledged to make school choice – and vouchers, in particular - the norm nationwide, calling it the key to improving American education. But, a recent study published by the Economic Policy Institute finds vouchers are not a panacea for student performance.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio sharing tales of tellers and stories.
Broadway's Lea Salonga Blurs Musical Genres in Busy Career
Guest: Lea Salonga, Tony-Award-Winning Broadway Performer
Tony-award winning Broadway star Lea Salonga recently visited BYU as part of the Bravo! Performing Arts Series. Salonga blazed a trail for other Asian women on Broadway as the first actress to perform the lead role of Kim in “Miss Saigon” and the first woman of Asian descent to perform the roles of Eponine and Fantine in “Les Miserables” on Broadway. Her most recent Broadway appearance was in “Allegiance,” which Salonga says was a “show that we as Asian people needed to do. To be able to say, yes, you see Asian faces, but these are Americans on this stage.”
Salonga's new album, "Blurred Lines" is out May 5.
NFL Stadiums Funded with Tax Dollars
Guest: Roger Noll, PhD, Professor Emeritus in Economics, Stanford University
These last few years have been a period of stadium renovation and relocation drama in the NFL. Pro-football teams playing in stadiums built in the 1990s are itching for an upgrade, and where do they turn first for the cash? Taxpayers.
But public wallets haven’t opened so quickly this time around and that’s led to some shuffling: San Diego voters in November rejected a tax increase to build a new stadium for the Chargers. So now the Chargers are moving to Los Angeles, where they’ll share a stadium with the Rams, which are moving from St. Louis and leaving taxpayers there on the hook to pay off an old stadium that no longer has a team. Meanwhile, elected officials in Oakland, California refused to foot the bill for a new stadium so the Raiders just announced they’re headed to Las Vegas where taxpayers are willing to pitch in to the tune of three-quarters of a billion dollars. Are taxpayers right to balk at the cost of new stadiums, or are they missing out on an investment opportunity?
What the French Election Says About France in 2017
Guest: Corry Cropper, PhD, Professor of French, Chair of the Department of French and Italian, BYU; Yvon Le Bras, PhD, Professor of French and Contemporary French Civilization, BYU
Since World War II, two political parties have dominated France’s political scene. But neither of those parties has a candidate in the Presidential runoff election slated for May 7. Instead, voters will choose between a far-right candidate named Marine Le Pen whose campaign is unapologetically anti-immigrant and anti-European Union – sound familiar? The other choice for French president is a 39-year-old former investment banker who has never held elected office and created his own political party just a year ago. Emmanuel Macron is his name – he’s pro-business, pro-EU and globalization. The polls show him leading right now.
The choices couldn’t be more different for French voters. And the stakes are high for the European Union, already reeling from the impending Brexit; a “Frexit” could be disastrous.
What’s in a Name?
Guest: Jeffrey Zax, PhD, Professor of Economics, Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder
Some research by University of Colorado, Boulder economics professor, Jeffrey Zax, indicates people with a last name further down the alphabet are less likely to be recognized by the teacher as an outstanding student. And that disadvantage carries into your first career experiences.
Cancer is Mostly Just Bad Luck
Guest: Cristian Tomasetti, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Exercise, eat leafy greens, don’t smoke . . . all great advice for preventing cancer, but not enough to prevent all cancers. New research out of Johns Hopkins University, suggests two-thirds of gene mutations that cause cancer are completely out of our control. They’re just bad luck.
Why the US Constitution Needs the Middle Class
Guest: Ganesh Sitaraman, Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University, author of “The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution”
We’ve been hearing for some time about the shrinking middle class in America – how people are getting either richer or poorer and the gap between them is widening. But if many in the middle class are moving up to wealthier ranks, what’s the problem? Do we really need a large group of people in the economic middle in order for America to function?
The Fight Against California’s Tampon Tax
Guest: Cristina Garcia, Assemblymember, California’s 58th Assembly District
In many states across the country, tampons, pads, and even diapers are taxed as luxury items. That “luxury” designation might seem surprising, but the truth is that actually, only a handful of states give a sales tax exemption to these kind of products.
Last year, California lawmakers pushed for legislation—dubbed the tampon tax--to eliminate sales tax on feminine hygiene products. The bill was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who claimed the state could not afford the loss in revenue. But California Assemblymember Cristina Garcia is not giving up—she’s back, with a bill called the Common Cents Tax Reform, which would lift the sales tax on feminine hygiene products and diapers in CA, while imposing an increase in sales tax on hard liquor.
The People’s Piano
Guest: Sally Reay, International Project Manager, “Play Me, I’m Yours” Project
When a refurbished piano with a wacky paint job shows up on a street corner somewhere in the world and the words, “Play Me, I’m Yours” are written on it, anything can happen.
Visit their website here.
Will Shortz, NYT's Crossword King
Guest: Will Shortz, Editor of the New York Times Crossword, Puzzle Master for NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday
The most prestigious of crossword puzzles – the New York Times crossword - turns 75 this year. It became a regular feature of the paper in 1942 after some debate over whether such frivolity was appropriate when America was at war. An editorial in the New York Times had called the puzzles a “sinful waste” of time. Can you imagine the parents today being upset to see their child solving a crossword?
Now, if you spent any time over the weekend on the notoriously difficult Saturday puzzle, you can thank Will Shortz. We discover how a good crossword puzzle is made. And solved.
Understanding Your Own Bias
Guest: Sara Taylor, President and Founder of deepSEE Consulting, author of "Filter Shift: How Effective People SEE the World"
None of us like to think that we’re prejudiced toward others. Many of us go to great lengths not to let our biases show – but making that effort also acknowledges that our biases exist. They exist on the unconscious level, driving the assumptions we make and conclusions we jump to without even realizing it. And because they’re happening so automatically, they’re a little like blind spots as we roll down the road of life. When you unintentionally offend someone with a comment you thought was innocuous, you’ve probably veered into a blind spot. When a conversation with a colleague or customer suddenly turns tense, just when you thought things were going great, unconscious bias was probably involved.
The Evolution of Film Scores
Guest: James Knippling, Associate Professor Educator, English Department, University of Cincinnati
Even when we don't realize it, music does a lot of work in Hollywood films, but the way it does that work has changed over the decades. From sweeping orchestral scores to pop music soundtracks, music makes the movie.
Work in Progress: A Mural to Women
Guest: Jann Haworth, American Pop Artist, Artistic Director of the “Work in Progress” mural
In the BYU Museum of Art is a painted wall of women: Amelia Earhart, Anne Frank, Annie Oakley, Alice Walker. And those are just a few of the names that start with A. The mural is 8 feet high, nearly forty feet long. It’s a sea of female faces called, “Work in Progress,” developed by American pop artist Jann Haworth.
For more information on "Work in Progress" click here.
Disneynature’s Born in China
Guest: Shawn O’Neill, BYUradio Producer, Movie Reviewer
Disney’s new nature documentary “Born in China” debuted on Saturday - Earth Day, which was no coincidence. The film, which Disneynature says is its most ambitious project to date, takes moviegoers on a grand journey into the wilds of China following a trio of families that includes an unbelievably cute a baby panda, a young golden monkey and a female snow leopard.
Stronger than Steel
Guests: Spencer Rogers, BYU Technology Transfer Office; Carter Smith, President of IsoTruss; Nathan Rich, CEO of IsoTruss
Our next guests claim to have a building product that’s 10-times stronger than steel but just 1/10th the weight of steel. If they can deliver on that, the technology could have exciting uses for construction and transportation. It’s called IsoTruss and it was invented here on campus. Two BYU graduates have now licensed the technology to try and make something of it in the marketplace.
Life in America for Immigrants and Refugees
From MBA to Minimum Wage
Guest: Deepak Singh, Writer, Radio Producer, Journalist. Author of “How May I Help You? An Immigrant’s Journey from MBA to Minimum Wage”
When the political debate turns to immigration, we tend to think of poor workers with little education and few skills crossing the border illegally to work low-wage jobs. But nearly half of all immigrants to the United States between 2011 and 2015 had a college degree. That doesn’t mean, however, they all managed to get higher paying jobs that require a college degree, however.
Often their experience is like Deepak Singh’s. He came to the US from India with an MBA and experience as a journalist for the BBC World Service. But here in the states, the only job employers found him qualified for was selling electronics in the mall for minimum wage.
How a Syrian Doctor Ended Up Teaching at a Utah University
Guest: Abdul Nasser Kaadan, M.D., Orthopedic Surgeon, Syria, Visiting International Professor, Weber State University
We’re hearing stories about what it’s like to be an immigrant in the United States: the challenge of finding work, even when immigrants are highly educated and respected in their own countries.
This scenario applies to many Syrian refugees whose country had one of the best systems of higher education in the Middle East, before it became embroiled in war and chaos.
When Science Goes Wrong
Guest: Paul Offit, M.D., Professor of Vaccinology and Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Director of the Vaccine Education Center, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, author of “Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong”
Unintended consequences are a fact of life. We can’t perfectly predict how something we do today will affect us and those around us in the coming months and years. The new book “Pandora’s Lab,” by Dr. Paul Offit, highlights seven scientific developments that were hailed as great miracles – some even earned Nobel Prizes for their discoverers – but each would go terribly wrong. The invention of opiate painkillers for example. And margarine as a heart-healthy alternative to butter. And lobotomies as treatment for mental illness.
Trump’s Angry Rhetoric About the Press
Guest: RonNell Anderson Jones, Professor of Law, University of Utah; Lisa Grow Sun, Professor of Law, BYU
President Donald Trump appears to have won a minor skirmish in his war with certain media outlets, over the number of players and staff from the New England Patriots who visited the White House this week. The President angrily condemned the error by The New York Times, which he called “failing,” as he has many times before. The Times quickly apologized and retracted the photo that misrepresented the number of attendees as too small, but the minor Twitterstorm around the event is only the latest in a long-running feud between the President and the organizations he often calls “fake news.”
Two law professors argue in a paper that will be presented at the Yale Freedom of Expressions Scholars Conference later this month that President Trump’s battle with the press goes well beyond the usual acrimony that exists between a President of the United States and the media, and warn that the rhetoric President Trump employs could have an effect on democracy, if left unchecked.
Genesis, Apocalypse and the Maya
Guest: Mark Z. Christensen, Professor of History, Assumption College in Massachusetts, translator of “The Teabo Manuscript”
Several years ago, a BYU alum who now teaches history at Assumption College in Massachusetts went digging in some dusty boxes housed in BYU’s Special Collections library and came up with a whopper of a find.
It’s a rare and mysterious 44-page booklet that dates back centuries and comes from a Mayan town on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico called Teabo. The booklet talks about the creation of the world, the mission of Jesus Christ and the Apocalypse. How’s that for intriguing?
Check out the Teabo Manuscript here.
Satire and the News
Guest: Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, PhD, Professor of Communications, Ohio State University, author of “Choice and Preference in Media Use”
Satirical news is having a heyday with Donald Trump’s presidency. Saturday Night Live’s spoofs of the President and his cabinet have become pop culture phenomena. Stephen Colbert – who struggled to get his footing when he made the leap from Comedy Central to the Late Show on CBS – is now surging in the late-night ratings, thanks to his news-heavy take on comedy.
Does satire about the news just make us laugh? Or does it actually affect our views on politics? Our willingness to get engaged in the political process?
Preventing Concussions in Professional Football
Guest: Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2011 MacArthur Fellow
After years of research into a devastating brain disease called CTE “chronic traumatic encephalopathy,” the NFL last year acknowledged its connection with concussions and settled a class-action lawsuit brought by retired players who accuse the league of not warning players and hiding the damages of brain injury.
This new awareness has led the NFL to change some of its rules and it’s also given rise to calls for tackle football to be prohibited in kids and teenagers.
How to Quit Your Job
Guest: Anthony Klotz, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management, College of Business, Oregon State University
There’s more than one way to quit a job, it turns out. At least seven ways, in fact. The most common is a fairly amicable parting of ways. But research conducted by Oregon State University management professor Anthony Klotz finds it’s surprisingly common for people to quit in dramatic fashion – even calling the boss names and torching all good will on the way out.
Given how common it is for people to quit these days – hardly anybody stays at the same job their entire career anymore – Klotz and his colleagues say it’s important to understand how people resign and what effect their chosen method has on the company they leave behind.
How Hoodoos Are Formed
Guest: Thomas Morris, PhD, Professor in Department of Geological Sciences, BYU
This week marks National Park Week, and in celebration, the National Park Services is allowing free admissions this Saturday and Sunday to all attendees. Here in Utah, we have quite a few national parks within driving distance. One of them being Bryce Canyon National Park. If you’ve never been, this is the park famous for tall, spindly rock formations called hoodoos. Bryce Canyon has more hoodoos than any other place in the world. Some of the pictures look to me like a giant toddler was playing in the mud millennia ago, taking handfuls of mud that was not too wet or too dry and drip, glop, dripping it into totem pole-looking structures that have frozen in time. But they’re actually not frozen.
We spoke with BYU Geology professor Thomas Morris late last year soon after a famous landmark hoodoo crumbled. He offered us his expertise on these formations.
Aging Isn’t All Bad
Guest: Marc Agronin, Geriatric Psychiatrist, Vice President, Behavioral Health and Clinical Research, Miami Jewish Health Systems, author of “How We Age: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Growing Old”
The prospect of growing old is terrifying. Once we're solidly in middle age, we look to the post-retirement years down the road and worry about losing body function – or worse, brain function. One in seven people over the age of 70 has dementia in the US. When you look at Americans 85 and older, a third have Alzheimer’s. But aging isn't all that bad, according to Dr. Agronin, and few people have seen the realities aging as fully as he has.
Sesame Street’s Newest, Autistic Character
Guest: Wesley Dotson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Special Education in the School of Education, Director of the Burkhart Center for Autism Education & Research, Texas Tech University
Last week, Sesame Street got a new friend and, in a first for the show, she has autism. Wesley Dotson says the PBS show’s move to include a character with autism is a huge step forward for those on the spectrum.
Asylum Seekers Flee the US; Seeking Refuge in Canada
Guest: Jeffrey Reitz, Director of Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
In light of uncertain immigration policies taking shape under the Trump Administration, there’s been a recent spike in refugees leaving the US to take their chances in Canada.
What prospects do these asylum seekers face when the sneak across the border into Canada? What about Canada is more attractive to refugees?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Why Bad Guys Have Bad Skin
Guest: Vail Reese, Dermatologist, Assistant Professor, University of California, San Francisco
Warts and scars, pale skin, facial lesions and balding heads . . . have you ever stopped to think how many movie villains have serious skin problems? Darth Vader's got just about every one of those problems just mentioned hiding under that mask of his.
Some dermatologists recently set about calculating just how often filmmakers use skin conditions to make villains seem even more evil – and the answer's probably not going to surprise you if you watch a lot of movies. It's a lot.
Navigation Makes Us Human
Guest: George Michelsen Foy, Professor of Creative Writing, New York University, Author of “Finding North: How Navigation Makes Us Human”
Smart phones and GPS are lifesavers for those of us who were born with a poor sense of direction. But though GPS relieves us of the fear and responsibility of navigating, does it rob us of something essentially human when we don’t have to find our own way, literally, in the world?
Why is Filing Taxes So Complicated?
Guest: John Barrick, Professor in the School of Accountancy, BYU
If you’re anything like the average American taxpayer, you spent about nine hours and $120 to file your taxes this year, including all the time it takes keeping and tracking down records to do the filing. That doesn’t count the hours spent fretting about and trying to ignore the rapid approach of the April 18th filing deadline. Why is filing taxes so painful and time consuming? It’s not nearly so bad in a lot of other countries, so clearly there’s another way. But is it a better way?
The Rise of America’s Complacent Class
Guest: Tyler Cowen, PhD, Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics, Chairman and General Director of the Mercatus Center, George Mason University
When Donald Trump campaigned to “Make America Great Again,” he tapped into a feeling among many people that the American Dream is dying – if not already dead. A lot has been made of how disenfranchised white, working-class Americans feel in the current economy, but George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen says there's a wide swath of Americans, from the wealthiest and best-educated among us to those stuck in a cycle of low-wage work and dysfunctional personal lives, who have virtually given up on trying to boost their status. Cowen's new book is called "The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream.”
New Antidote for Snake Venom
Guest: Ken Shea, PhD, Chemistry Professor, University of California, Irvine
Snake bites are relatively rare in the US, but globally they’re considered a serious threat. More than two-and-a-half million people suffer crippling injuries such as the loss of a limb each year from snake bites. More than 100,000 people die. But effective treatment and antidotes remain elusive – especially in poor, rural areas of Africa and Southeast Asia where the threat is greatest.
So there’s considerable excitement about the work being done by chemist Ken Shea at the University of California at Irvine. He’s developed an anti-venom that’s cheap to make, needs no refrigeration and appears to work on lots of different poisonous snake and insect venoms.
Positive Energy
Guest: Kim Cameron, PhD, Professor of Higher Education and Professor of Management and Organizations, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Fellow at the Wheatley Institution, BYU
Most adults would love to have more energy in their lives. Most kids only have a problem with excess energy. When it comes to the workplace, energy seems like a means to an end. It’s all about how to manage your energy so you don’t lose steam before the end of the day. And that’s what the 3 p.m. snack is for, right?
But sugar and caffeine aren’t the only ways to boost your energy. Certain types of interactions at work can also be energizing – and those can lead people to do even better work.
Are Public Protests in Jeopardy?
Guest: Jennifer Earl, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of Arizona
In response to Tax Day rallies over the weekend where people across the country urged President Trump to release his tax returns, the President tweeted that “Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies.” Complaining that protests are the work of a small, outside group of paid agitators is a common tactic both Republicans and Democrats have used to undermine protest movements. In recent months, we’ve also seen at least 18 states introduce or vote on legislation aimed at curbing mass protests.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s “Worlds Awaiting”
Rachel Wadham joins us in studio. She’s the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. Today we're discussing the habits of good readers: how you can teach them to your kids and foster them in your own life as well.
Turkish Election, North Korea, Brexit
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
A major election outcome in Turkey is Top of Mind today as we welcome regular contributor Quinn Mecham back into the studio. He’s a professor of political science here at BYU and joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration.
The Slaves Who Saved Georgetown University
Guest: Judy Riffel, Lead Genealogist, Georgetown Memory Project
One of the nation’s top universities owes its existence to the traumatic sale of 272 slaves – men, women and children – in 1838. At the time, the Jesuit priests who ran what would become Georgetown University were deeply in debt. Selling off all of their slaves raised the equivalent of $3.3 million today and saved the university.
But the debt Georgetown University owes to these 272 African American slaves had been largely forgotten until a few years ago when a campaign to recognize them was started by students, faculty and alumni. In an effort to make amends, university officials recently decided to give preference to descendants of those slaves who apply to attend to Georgetown. On April 18, the university will hold a ceremony to memorialize the 272 slaves and rename a building in honor of Isaac Hawkins, the first slave listed on the sale documents.
To learn more about the project click here.
Men’s Marriage Views
Guest: Nicholas H. Wolfinger, PhD, Professor of Family and Consumer Studies, Adjunct Professor of Sociology, University of Utah
Marriage has a bad rap in the minds of some young men. Researchers at the Institute for Family Studies cite one 29-year-old man who said he’d “much rather buy a condo by the beach in Florida, work 10–20 hours a week with plenty of time and money to relax and . . . hang out with friends than marry a 30-year-old woman and take care of her into old age by working 50 hours a week at a job I don’t like.”
Declining rates of marriage among US men in their 20s and 30s would suggest the old ball-and-chain notion of getting hitched needs a makeover.
Check out the study here.
Sound Blasters
Guest: Brian Anderson, PhD, Professor of Physics, BYU
In action movies like Dr. Strange or X-Men, the battle weapons of choice are typically lasers, force fields or mind control. BYU physics professor Brian Anderson and his team have demonstrated the power of sound waves to knock things over or fling them into the air. It’s a process called time reversal and, in a demonstration designed to wow young students of science, it allows researchers to pinpoint one Lego figure and send it tumbling without disrupting the rest of the Lego army close by and all around.
Fate of the Furious
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
Fast cars and tough guys crushed the box office over the weekend. “The Fate of the Furious” had the biggest global opening in history, earning half a billion dollars.
Helping a Child with Overeating
Guest: Michelle Maidenberg, PhD, President and Clinical Director of Westchester Group Works, author of “Free Your Child from Overeating”
More than one-third of children and teens in the United States are overweight or obese, which means there are millions of parents across the country grappling with how to help their children reach a healthier weight, without making the problem worse. It can be agonizing. What if a parent’s well-meaning efforts backfire and the child develops an eating disorder? What if encouraging your child to make better food choices just leads them to indulge further? There’s so much emotion – and so much at stake – for parents in this situation, many are simply paralyzed, unsure what to do.
Check out Maidenberg's website here.
American Anarchist
Guest: Charlie Siskel, Director, “American Anarchist”
When William Powell was an angry 19-year-old, he did something that would dog him the rest of his life. Maybe you, or someone you know, committed a petty crime at that age, or posted something online that still pops up in embarrassing ways. Well, William Powell wrote “The Anarchist Cookbook” – a how-to guide for violent acts, including bomb-making. Powell did very few interviews in the 40 years since “The Anarchist Cookbook” was first published, but in 2015, he agreed to speak with filmmaker Charlie Siskel, whose new documentary is called "American Anarchist."
Sacred Architecture
Guest: Val Brinkerhoff, Retired Professor of Visual Arts, BYU, Photographer, Author
At this holy time of year for Christians and Jews, we wanted to spend some time exploring places of worship. Photographer Val Brinkerhoff has spent decades traveling the world capturing the Buddhist temples of Asia, the great mosques of Islam, the cathedrals of France, the Anasazi ruins of the Southwest. Across space and time and religious and cultural differences, he has found a common language in the structures people build to honor God.
H-1B Visas Take Jobs from American Workers
Guest: Ron Hira, PhD, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Howard University, Research Associate, Economic Policy Institute
In just four days last week, the US program that issues temporary visas to high-skilled workers reached its annual limit. For several years now, it’s been common for the program to hit its cap in less than a week, but this year applicants for what’s known as “H-1B visas” flooded into the system with extra urgency because the Trump Administration has begun cracking down on the program in an effort to make sure the foreign workers getting the visas aren’t taking the jobs of equally-qualified Americans.
Immigration Laws and the Indian Diaspora in America
Guest: Maina Chawla Singh, PhD, Scholar-in-Residence, School of International Service, American University
The vast majority – 70 percent - of H-1B visas go to workers from one country: India. Today there are more than 2-and-a-half million Indian-born immigrants living in the US. The H-1B visa program has facilitated just the latest wave of them. The first Indian immigrants to the US came more than 100 years ago, mainly as farmers. But there weren’t many and they stopped coming entirely in the early 1900s when the US passed laws effectively banning immigration from Asia.
Emotions in the Bible
Guest: Heather Seferovich, Curator of the Education in Zion Gallery, BYU; Emily Darowski, Psychology Librarian, Harold B. Lee Library, BYU
Anger, surprise, happiness, disgust, sadness and fear are the basic human emotions psychologists believe are universally recognized across cultures. So, perhaps it’s not surprising that these emotions are well-represented in the Bible. But when a team of researchers at BYU ran the numbers, they came across some intriguing insight. Love, for example, is the Bible’s most-mentioned emotion, followed by Fear. But both appear mostly in the context of humans feeling them. The most common emotion related to deity in the Bible? Anger.
Explore the exhibit and data here.
Having the “Race Talk” with Children Leads to Diverse Friends
Guest: Deborah Rivas-Drake, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology and Education, University of Michigan
Nearly all parents sit down with their kids at some point to have “the talk” about sex, or about drugs. But parents should also be thinking about opening the lines of communication with their kids on the topic of race. And if they do, their kids are more likely to have a diverse group of friends.
Middle East Panel
Guest: Donna Lee Bowen, Political Science Professor, BYU; John Macfarlane, UVU; Fred Axelgard, Wheatley Institution, BYU
In a press conference with the Secretary General of NATO yesterday, President Trump reiterated that the US missile strike on a Syrian airbase in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians was “absolutely. . . the right thing.” And he said he thinks it’s unlikely that Russia was unaware the Syrian government was planning a chemical weapons attack. Russia has been a key supporter of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whom Trump called a “butcher.” What next for US policy in Syria?
History of the University System
Guest: Christopher Carlsmith, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
A college degree is still an important way for Americans to climb the socioeconomic ladder, but recent analysis by researchers at Harvard and Stanford finds the universities that are best at launching poor students into a higher income bracket are also admitting a lot fewer low-income students than they used to.
That’s just the latest data point in the debate over how affordable and accessible the all-important-college education is in America. Believe it or not, this debate goes back centuries - millennia, even - to the very first university, which was founded in Italy in 1088. The University of Bologna has been offering degrees continuously since then and served as an important model for the birth of the university as we know it today.
Trump Rolls Back Internet Privacy
Guest: Phil Windley, Enterprise Architect, Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, BYU
The week after Congress failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, it did manage to come up with the votes to repeal another set of rules put in place by President Obama at the end of his tenure. The rules would have prohibited internet service providers from selling information about your online behavior to advertisers without your consent. The rules hadn’t yet taken effect. Congress and President Trump have seen to it that they won’t.
Calculating More Efficient School Bus Routes
Guest: Ali Haghani, PhD, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland
A busy soccer mom will tell you that the key to keeping the afterschool carpool hours sane is efficiency: Drop off Joey on the way to pick up Jane, and pick up milk on your way back to get Joey. The same principles apply to getting the masses of elementary, middle, and high school students to school and back every day. In fact, even small efficiencies—or inefficiencies—can have a big impact on a school district’s bottom line, according to University of Maryland Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Ali Haghani. He and his team have been working with the Howard County Public School System in Maryland to improve the efficiency of its bus routes.
Swap Your Burger for Bugs?
Guest: Mohammed Ashour, CEO and co-founder of Aspire Food Group
Two billion people around world commonly consume insects as part of their diet. However, most of them live outside of the US. Although insects like crickets are far healthier than most traditional snack foods, most Americans can't get past their gag reflex. But a Texas food company has taken on the challenge. Their goal: to make insect-eating normal.
To get your own crickets click here. Use the promo code BYU for a discount!
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
A Refugee’s Story
Guest: Karak Miakol, Women’s Rights Activist, Refuge
Karak Miakol is a refugee activist from South Sudan who has dedicated her life to helping women in her country, and she has paid a terrible price for the good she has done there. She founded two organizations to teach literacy, farming, and business skills to women in South Sudan, northern Uganda and Western Kenya. But working as a human rights advocate, she found herself in imminent danger from government forces, so she fled to the United States two years ago. Now settled in Colorado, she’s struggling to bring over the six children she was forced to leave behind.
For more information on Women Who Grow click here.
To donate to Miakol's family click here.
Public Companies Have Difficulties Assuming Social Responsibility
Guest: Andrew Wu, PhD, Assistant Professor of Technology and Operations and Finance, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
A quick case study to illustrate our next topic. Kraft Heinz – you know, cheese and ketchup? – tried to buy the consumer goods giant Unilever earlier this year. And failed. Smarting from that public rejection – and probably looking for a way to boost its stock price - Kraft Heinz came out a few weeks ago with a splashy announcement designed to gin up some goodwill. It pledged to spend $200 million on socially-responsible things like reducing the company’s environmental impact and donating a billion nutritious meals to fight world hunger.
The announcement didn't not help the Kraft Heinz stock price. Shareholders aren't typically keen to see companies they invest in spending money on anything except boosting profits. But let’s be generous and assume the expanded commitment to social responsibility at Kraft Heinz is not just a PR ploy. Does society really benefit when companies make these pledges?
Pizza or Salad Bar?
Guest: Lori Spruance, Health Sciences Professor, BYU
The "Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools" initiative has brought sald bars to 4,800 public schools in the US. This means half of all high school students in the country now have access to salad bars in school cafeterias. But critics question just how many students are willing to choose leafy greens over a slice of pizza. A study by one BYU health sciences professor suggests that it depends on how well the school markets healthy lunch alternatives.
Did Trump Need Congressional Approval to Strike Syria?
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Director of Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Moscow today where he is calling on Russia’s leaders to stop supporting Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and help transition the dictator out of power in hopes of ending Syria’s Civil War.
What’s not yet clear, is how far the US is willing to go toward ousting Assad. Until President Trump ordered the missile strike on a Syrian military airbase last week in retaliation for Assad’s chemical weapons attack on civilians, the US had not been directly involved in the Syrian Civil War. US military activity in Syria has been focused on fighting ISIS, not Assad.
If President Trump decides to commit the US military to doing any more in the fight against Assad, a large – and bipartisan – group in Congress says he needs to get their approval first. He didn’t ask for permission to carry out the missile strike last week. And does he really need it when he’s the Commander-in-Chief?
Colonial Cryptography
Guest: Sara Georgini, PhD, Series Editor of The Papers of John Adams, Massachusetts Historical Society
It's become popular these days in political and media circles – and even among White House staff, reportedly - to use one of a growing number of apps, such as What's App or Signal, that allow you to send encrypted messages impervious to hackers and government surveillance and your boss who might not be thrilled that you’re leaking information to the press.
Encrypting messages has a long history in American politics. Many of our founding fathers were avid cryptographers and some of the messages they encoded two-hundred years ago have yet to be deciphered.
Humor in the Workplace
Guest: Brad Bitterly, Doctoral Candidate, University of Pennsylvania
In the TV show The Office, the manager, Michael Scott, was always telling wildly inappropriate or dumb jokes that nobody thought was funny. But he was convinced his sense of humor was a major reason he was such an effective and beloved boss. He was neither of those things, if you haven’t see the show. In preparing for this next conversation I couldn’t get Michael Scott out of my mind.
Don’t Fall for Pet Food Marketing Myths
Guest: Cailin Heinze, VMD, Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist, Assistant Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University
Americans spend 60-billion dollars a year on their pets. Veterinary care, grooming, boarding, cute little sweaters and toys – all of it adds up. But the single largest expense of owning a pet is food, and it’s only getting more expensive as pet owners become convinced that their dogs should only eat what they themselves would be willing to eat. Pet food companies play right into this with their ads.
Most Bang for Medical Buck
Guest: Anupam Jena, Ruth L. Newhouse Associate Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Physician in the Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
With furniture and shoes, the old adage, “you get what you pay for” applies: A higher price tag typically means higher quality.
This is not the case in medicine, though. Patients that had more expensive hospital stays, because their doctors ordered more procedures and tests, did not have better outcomes. Plainly put, they were not less likely to die or be readmitting to the hospital than patients with doctors who ordered fewer tests and procedures.
From Spinach Leaf to Human Heart
Guest: Glenn Gaudette, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Director of WPI’s Myocardial Regeneration Lab
The science of tissue regeneration has made incredible progress in recent years. Bioengineers can now coax generic cells to specialize into heart cells that beat, for example. But getting those cells to grow into a functioning heart – or even just heart tissue - is a big leap. Researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute think spinach might help. They’ve trained human heart cells to regenerate on a spinach leaf. And no, they’re not trying to create a leafy-green Frankenstein.
Trump’s China Summit
Guest: Kirk Larsen, PhD, History Professor, BYU
Syria is very much Top of Mind and we’ll be discussing it on the show throughout the week, but for the moment, let’s turn to an important international event that took place over the weekend – the first meeting of President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The relationship between the US and China is a delicate one, given President Trump’s tendency during the campaign to paint China as America’s economic enemy during the campaign. Beyond trade, the two countries are also on edge about the problem of North Korea’s escalating missile tests and nuclear weapons program.
Coral Reefs Bleaching
Guest: Mark Eakin, PhD, Director of Coral Reef Watch, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s largest living structures. It’s a natural wonder and mecca for divers, home to a magnificent diversity of sea creatures, and it’s dying at an alarming rate. Huge sections of coral spanning hundreds of miles were killed off by high water temperatures in the last two years. And scientists say the problem is getting worse.
When Journalists Perpetuate Fake News
Guest: W. Joseph Campbell, PhD, Professor, School of Communication, American University; author of “Getting it Wrong: Debunking the Greatest Myths in American Journalism”
President Trump's habit of crying “fake news” over any story he doesn’t agree with is frustrating and alarming to members of the press: Just because you don't like a story doesn't mean it's untrue. Playing fast and loose with “fake news” claims could undermine public trust in the media, which has an important role in bringing truth to light and holding powerful people accountable.
So, we in the media have been on a bit of a high horse about this lately. But American University journalism historian W. Joseph Campbell’s knocking us down a peg. His book, “Getting it Wrong” details cases throughout history in which “the media themselves have often been the purveyors of bogus stories.”
School Shootings and the Economy
Guest: Adam Pah, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management
At an elementary school in San Bernardino, California today, two adults were killed and two students injured in what officials are calling a murder-suicide.
A team of researchers at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management recently combed through school shooting data back to the early ‘90s to try and understand what motivates these tragedies. In the process, they discovered a surprising correlation to economic factors such as unemployment and foreclosure rates.
Smurfs, Boss Baby
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parentpreviews.com
A trio of family-friendly films led the box office over the weekend – must have been Spring break for lots of kids around the country. The animated film “Boss Baby” took the top spot for the second weekend in a row, followed by “Beauty and the Beast” and a new Smurfs film in the number three slot.
Arthritis Joint Therapy
Guest: David Kooyman, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology, BYU; Mike Alder, Technology Transfer, BYU
The hands, hips and knees are most frequently at risk for arthritis as we age. Degenerative joint disease – or osteoarthritis – affect more than 30 million American adults. Treatment typically includes exercise, pain medication and, when all else fails, surgery to replace the joint.
Imagine if there were a cream you could rub on an arthritic joint that could stop the pain? Imagine if that cream also addressed the underlying cause of the arthritis?
Expert Tips for Your Yard and Garden
Guest: Taun Beddes, Horticulture Professor, Utah State University extension, Utah County; Michael Caron, Horticulture Professor, Utah State University extension, Thanksgiving Point
Your yard and garden are Top of Mind this hour now that Spring has sprung. Our horticulture experts are in the house to take your questions and ours.
Diabetes: A Personal Quest for a Cure
Guest: Scott Summers, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutrition & Integrative Physiology, University of Utah
More than a third of American adults are walking around with a condition that amounts to a ticking time bomb. They have blood sugar levels higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. As a result, they’re at higher risk for heart disease, stroke and the various problems that come with full-blown diabetes.
Most of the 86 million Americans with “prediabetes” don’t know it and they don’t all fit into the overweight, sedentary stereotype of diabetes, either. It’s possible to be fit and active and still be surprised with a diabetes diagnosis in middle age.
Senate Partisanship Casts Shadow on Supreme Court
Guest: Kimberly Robinson, Bloomberg BNA Supreme Court reporter
Republican Senators invoked what’s known as “the nuclear option” to push past opposition from Democrats and clear the way for Judge Neil Gorsuch’s appointment to the Supreme Court. Much of the drama centers on procedural maneuvers and partisan bickering. The US Supreme Court is supposed to be above politics, but making that argument will become more difficult after the Gorsuch confirmation.
Fighting for the Right to Repair
Guest: Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of the Repair Association.
Once upon a time, electronics were simple enough that someone with a repair manual and a bit of knowhow could figure out how to fix a broken TV, stereo or camera. But electronics are a lot more complicated today, and companies that make everything from cars to phones are working to prevent repairs from happening easily. They no longer provide repair manuals free of charge. They lock down the software that runs a device so repairs can only be done by the manufacturer – at a higher price than the corner store would have charged. And, in the case of many Apple products, just opening the device up to inspect its inner-workings is virtually impossible.
So, now repair shops and consumer advocates are pushing back with legislation and lobbying aimed at reclaiming the “right to repair” electronics.
Why Lowering the DUI Limit May Not Make Roads Safer
Guest: J.T. Griffin, Chief Government Affairs Officer, MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)
Last month, Utah became the first state in the nation to drop its drunk driving blood alcohol limit to .05. While that lower limit is common in other countries, it’s unusual in the US, where the standard for years has been .08 blood alcohol content, thanks to advocacy by the influential group “Mothers Against Drunk Driving,” or MADD. Now, the interesting twist here is that MADD does not advocate lowering the DUI limit to .05 and many critics argue that if the goal is making roads safer, changing the blood alcohol threshold is not the best approach.
Securing the Internet of Things
Guest: Phil Windley, PhD, Enterprise Architect in the CIO’s office at Brigham Young University and Chairman of the Sovrin Foundation.
These days it’s tough to buy a new electronic device that’s not WiFi enabled with the promise of cool features if you hook it up to the internet. What trouble might hackers cause if literally everything from our cars to our crockpots are connected online? Does the Internet of Things pose a threat to our digital freedom?
Calvin and Hobbs and Schizophrenia
Guest: Martine Leavitt, author of “Calvin,” winner of a Governor General’s Literary Award in 2016.
What if Calvin from the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes wasn’t just a self-absorbed, hyperactive kid with an imaginary pet tiger? What if he was, instead, suffering from schizophrenia?
That thought inspired Martine Leavitt’s young adult book, “Calvin” which, in 2016, received one of the most prestigious literary awards in Canada: The Governor General’s Literary Award.
Majority of Depressed Worldwide Don't Seek Help
Guest: Graham Thornicroft, PhD, Professor of Community Psychiatry at King's College London
In wealthy nations like the US, it’s not unusual for Hollywood stars and prominent individuals to talk openly about struggling with – and seeking treatment for – conditions such as depression.
That is not so much the case in developing countries where only about 1 in 27 people who suffer depression get adequate treatment for it. The estimate comes from a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.
Captains of Charity
Guest: Mary Eyring, PhD, Assistant Professor of English, BYU, author of “Captains of Charity: The Writings and Wages of Post-Revolutionary Atlantic Benevolence”
Today it’s not at all unusual for people to make a career of charity work – ten-percent of all private sector jobs in America are with nonprofits. But there was a time, only a few centuries ago, when the notion that you could make a living as a do-gooder was path-breaking. The people who pioneered this were often women and minorities cut off from more traditional job options. And often they were able to marry charity work with money making during times of community distress – a disease outbreak, for example, or an economic downturn.
Writing Black History for Kids
Guest: Denise Lewis Patrick, author of “The Adventures of Midnight Son,” “Finding Someplace” and the American Girl “Cecile” and “Melody” books
Helping kids understand the history of racism in America is a heavy topic that can be difficult for writers to tackle effectively. Doing it for young readers, though? That’s a particular challenge. How to make it understandable, but not sanitized?
Civil Rights Through the Eyes of a 6-year-old
Guest: Ruby Bridges, activist; author of "Through My Eyes"
November 14, 1960 was Ruby Bridges’ first day of first grade as one of the first African American children to integrate an all-white school in the South. When Norman Rockwell memorialized that day in his famous painting “The Problem We All Live With,” Bridges became a civil rights icon at age six. In the painting, she’s flanked by four federal marshals. Her dress and sneakers and the little bow in her braided hair are impossibly white. She looks calm and resolute, even though the wall she’s walking by is marred with a racial slur and the splatter of tomatoes. Today she travels the country telling her story to children.
Brexit is Happening, So Now What?
Guest: Simon Usherwood, PhD, Reader in Politics, University of Surrey, Former Senior Fellow at the “UK in a Changing Europe,” King’s College London
British Prime Minister Theresa May submitted a letter to the European Union on Wednesday formally triggering an escape clause that’s never been used before. The British people are still very split about whether they want to leave the EU. But Prime Minister May was clear in a speech to parliament Wednesday that it’s happening.
Curious Remedies
Guest: Meg Frost, Physiological Sciences Librarian, Harold B. Lee Library, BYU
For this month’s installment of From the Vaults, we’ve taken a little field trip across the BYU campus to travel back in time to the 16th Century, when visiting the doctor was not a sterile and sanitized experience. We’re here, in the lobby of the Harold B Lee Library, where, behind a tall black curtain just inside the main entrance, the world of Renaissance Medicine comes alive. The exhibit is called Curious Remedies, and in it we’re introduced to mysterious powders, surgical tools that look like instruments of torture, fantastic masks and lots of blood—and leeches.
NeoLife Ventilator
Guest: Erick Gerday, Utah Valley Neonatology
An estimated 15 million babies are born prematurely each year. If it happens in the US, our hospitals have expensive equipment that can save the baby’s life, including ventilators to breath for these tiny babies whose lungs are not developed enough to breath on their own. But in less-developed nations, hospitals and clinics often can’t afford a $40,000 ventilator and, as a result, babies born there are at a much greater risk of dying.
For more information on how to get involved click here.
Teens Learn to Cope with Social Stressors
Guest: David Yeager, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin
Here’s the thing about teenagers – we remember what it was like to be one – but at that age everything is such a big deal. Especially the social stuff. The popular kid turns you down for the dance and you’re convinced no one will ever love you. It’s so nerve-wracking to strike up a casual conversation with someone you don’t know well and suddenly you’re sure that you’ll always be painfully shy and have to live as a hermit.
Your Smartphone Holds More Secrets Than You Know
Guest: Pieter Dorrestein, PhD, Professor in the School of Medicine, UC San Diego, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
There’s a scene early in the BBC TV series Sherlock where Sherlock Holmes deduces pretty much all of John Watson’s personal and family secrets just by looking at the scuff marks on his cell phone. It’s a fun, fanciful exchange. But chemists at the University of California San Diego’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences could give Sherlock a run for his money. By swabbing a cell phone, they can tell what you eat, what your wear and even what medicine you take.
The Childhood Obesity Epidemic
Guest: Nikhil Dhurandhar, Professor and Chair of the Nutritional Sciences Department, Texas Tech University
Health experts have declared obesity a national epidemic affecting one-in-three US adults and one-in-six kids. Programs to address the program often focus on fitness and diet – much like former first-lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign which aimed to “end obesity in a generation.”
But what if our obsessive focus on obesity as a lifestyle problem misses other causes?
Privatizing Criminal Justice
Guest: Maybell Romero, Visiting Assistant Professor of Criminal Law, BYU
President Trump this week placed his son-in-law Jared Kushner in charge of a new White House office focused on leverage business ideas to make government more efficient – and in some cases, to privatize government functions. We’ve already seen evidence through directives from the US Attorney General’s office that the Trump Administration intends to continue relying on privately-run prisons, which the Obama administration had planned to move away from.
Private Prisons in the US
Guest: Brett Burkhardt, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Oregon State University
Now let’s turn to the future of privatized prisons in the US justice system. Shortly after taking office last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed a directive issued by the Obama Administration aimed at phasing out the federal government’s contracts with private prisons. Attorney General Sessions has indicated the future needs of the federal correctional system will require the use of private prisons. That corresponds to President Trump’s immigration enforcement policies which are likely to result in many more people being detained while they wait for their immigration claims to be processed by the courts.
Robot Pizza
Guest: Julia Collins, co-CEO and co-Founder of Zume Pizza
Silicon Valley's latest pizza delivery service could put Domino's out of business with their secret ingredient: robots. At Zume Pizza, the owners have built what they call a “co-bot” environment where employees work alongside robots to streamline the pizza-making and delivery process. Once the human employees and robots have prepped the pizza, they load it in a delivery van that bakes the pizza on its way to the customer’s house. CNBC’s recently named Zume Pizza the most promising young start-up for 2017.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Delay Cutting the Umbilical Cord
Guest: Maria Mascola, Maternal & Fetal Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology
The umbilical cord is a literal lifeline between mother and her baby. And a father’s first official act in his baby’s life is often cutting that cord, making the baby an independent human. In the US, this usually happens within seconds of birth, but the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists now recommends waiting up to a minute before cutting the umbilical cord.
Stopping ISIS Recruitment Through Assimilation
Guest: Efraim Benmelech, PhD, Professor of Finance, Northwestern University
ISIS was quick to claim credit for the attack that killed four people in London last week. Almost as quickly, the terror group spun the attack into YouTube propaganda videos aimed at attracting new recruits. ISIS has proven particularly savvy when it comes to recruitment, drawing more than 30,000 people from at least 85 countries to fight for its cause on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria – and carrying out attacks in their countries of origin.
The US and European countries are investing heavily in efforts to counter ISIS recruitment and prevent would-be martyrs from radicalizing.
Best of Europe with Rick Steves
Guest: Rick Steves, Travel Expert, host of a popular PBS TV and radio shows, author of “Rick Steves Best of Europe”
If you’ve ever planned a trip to Europe, you’ve probably spent time with Rick Steves. For over 30 years, his guidebooks have steered millions of us toward the perfect hotel or restaurant for sampling the local delicacy. Many are particularly fans of the tips and tricks he offers for avoiding lines, scoring cheaper admission to popular sites and navigating the transit system like a local.
From Leisurely to Busy: A Symbol of Status
Guest: Neeru Paharia, Assistant Professor of Business, Georgetown University
A show called, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” was popular in America in the 1980s. On the show, conspicuous consumption and leisure time were the hallmarks of extraordinary wealth. You knew you’d arrived if you could buy anything you wanted and spend your time lounging on a yacht, not having to lift a finger. But somewhere in the last 30 years, there’s a been a shift in America toward busyness as a symbol of status. It’s all over social media, if you know what to look for. It’s also probably part of your own habits. When somebody asks how you’re doing, what’s your response? I bet “busy” comes up a lot.
Vitamin D Fights Respiratory Infection
Guest: Adrian Martineau, PhD, Clinical Professor of Respiratory Infection and Immunity, Queen Mary University, London
Everybody knows Vitamin C is the cold-fighting vitamin. But there’s new evidence that Vitamin D, the “sunshine vitamin,” also protects against respiratory infections.
Tweets Shaping Politics
Guest: Jonathan Supovitz, Director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, University of Pennsylvania
Social media has been touted as a great democratizing force: everyone has access to the same platform, so everyone has an equal voice, right?
But that assumes we’re all equally savvy about wielding our influence on social media. And one look at my 1,200 followers on Twitter compared to President Trump’s 27 million is proof some people have a much bigger megaphone.
A very cool project out of the University of Pennsylvania has mapped exactly how influence works on social media during debates over hot topics like the Common Core standards. Their work also uncovered some surprises about how particularly savvy users can hi-jack a debate to flood the system with their views and drive policies in their favor.
Check out the Common Core debate analysis here.
What is a “Like” Worth?
Guest: Professor Daniel Mochon, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Tulane University
Everybody wants your likes on Facebook these days. What’s less clear is just what those “likes” mean. If you Like a company’s Facebook page, does that make you more likely to buy their products? Or maybe you liked the page because you already buy the products? Most companies have yet to crack the code. Some new research about to be published in the Journal of Marketing Research suggests there’s nothing like good old advertising to reach customers – even in the age of social media.
Need a Hand? How 3-D Printing Can Help the Disabled
Guest: Dr. Jon Schull, PhD, Founder of the e-NABLE Movement
Every year roughly 1,500 babies in the US are born missing all or part of an arm. Simple activities like getting dressed or opening door can be a challenge for these children. A prosthetic hand can cost tens of thousands of dollars and kids tend to out-grow them in a few years.
Enter the e-NABLE movement, a fast-growing network of more than 6000 volunteers that use 3-D printers to create custom-made prosthetics for less than $50. The movement has already provided about 2,000 prosthetics for people in more than 40 countries.
enablingthefuture.org
Trump’s First Test with Congress
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, Professor of Political Science, co-director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU
The Republican party’s initial efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare failed last week in dramatic fashion. President Donald Trump says he’s moving on to other priorities, including tax reform, and he shrugged off the healthcare failure as other people’s failures – certainly not his own. But just how much blame does he bear for the inability of Republicans to deliver on seven years of promises to end Obamacare?
Holy Smokes: Batteries in Flames
Guest: Dean Wheeler, PhD, Professor of Chemical Engineering, BYU
Holy smokes! Did you see the story earlier this month about the woman whose noise-cancelling headphones caught fire and burned her face on a flight to Australia? And last year there were massive recalls of battery-powered hoverboards and Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones because they were catching fire.
We don’t think much about the rechargeable batteries that power so much of what we use every day: we just want them to last as long as possible between charge. But are we actually carrying little bombs around in our pockets and purses?
Particle Accelerators
Guest: Mark Transtrum, Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, BYU
The first time many of us ever paid much attention to the scientific device known as a particle accelerator was probably five years ago when physicists in Switzerland used one to discover something called Higgs Boson, which is apparently important to understanding the nature of the universe. Scientists caught a glimpse of it by engineering a massive high-speed collision of larger particles around a 17-mile circular track called the Hadron Collider. It’s the world’s largest particle accelerator.
Here’s what you may not realize, though. Particle accelerators are not just for physicists trying to answer big questions. They’re also used, on a smaller scale, to sterilize medical equipment and kill pathogens on produce. They’re used for hardening plastic and setting glue on milk cartons and potato chip bags. They help make computer chips, too, and can kill cancer cells.
Illegal Ivory Trade
Guest: Thure Cerling, Professor of Biology, Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah
And estimated 30,000 African elephants are killed each year, to satisfy demand for ivory – particularly in Asia. The poaching is pushing African elephants toward extinction, despite bans on the international trade of ivory. Smugglers usually try to pass off the ivory as antique—and thus exempt from trade restrictions—but the bootleggers may have met their match in our next guest.
Power Rangers
Guest: Rod Gustafson, parentpreviews.com
The Power Rangers morphed from the TV to the big screen over the weekend. An origin story of how the teens got their powers and took it upon themselves to save the world.
Private Companies Innovating for Global Health
Guest: Gary Cohen, Executive Vice President of Global Health and Development, Becton, Dickinson and Company
Up until the mid-1990s, the World Health Organization and other global health leaders were more likely to be cracking down on private drug and medical device companies than partnering with them.
In the last few decades since that mindset at the WHO shifted, private companies have emerged as a leading source of money and leadership in the global fight against disease and in the development of life-saving devices.
The BD Odon Device
Native Americans vs. Museums
Guest: Chip Colwell, PhD, Senior Curator of Anthropology, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, author of “Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture”
Think back to the last time you visited a museum of natural history or ancient peoples. While examining the intricate carvings, beaded clothing or handmade tools, did you pause to think how the descendants of the people who owned those items might feel about them being displayed behind glass, under lights?
Fifty years ago, Native American leaders launched a crusade to get the most sacred of their tribal artifacts back from museums so they could honor them properly. Museums balked at the idea that tribes, without any professional archivists on staff, could do a better job caring for beautiful ceremonial robes or centuries-old bones unearthed by archaeologists.
Washington’s Runaway Slave
Guest: Erica Armstrong Dunbar, PhD, Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Black Studies and History, University of Delaware, author of “Never Caught: The Washington’s Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave Ona Judge”
George and Martha Washington’s Runaway Slave’s name was Ona Judge and she slipped away from Washington’s presidential mansion in Philadelphia one Saturday afternoon during dinner, never to return. George Washington pursued her until the end of his life. He enlisted government officials to track her down and offered a reward for her capture.
Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings for Neil Gorsuch
Guest: Amy Wildermuth, JD, Professor of Law, University of Utah
Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch is Top of Mind today. With the customary grilling of the nominee over and a vote by the full Senate expected next week, we’ve rung up Supreme Court expert and University of Utah law professor Amy Wildermuth for some analysis.
Ending Violence Against Girls
Guest: Gary Cohen, Founder and Board Chair, Together for Girls, Senior Executive for Global Health and Development, Becton Dickinson
This next conversation may not be appropriate for young listeners. We’re going to speak with the founder of an international nonprofit called Together for Girls, which leans heavily on the power of data to address the problem of sexual violence against girls. While such violence is universally condemned as a violation of human rights with devastating consequences, it’s also far more common than people realize. That realization is what prompted Gary Cohen to found Together for Girls.
The Bad Kids
Guest: Vonda Veeland, Black Rock HS Principal, Subject of the Documentary “The Bad Kids”
Remember the bad kids in high school? The ones who talked backed to the teacher and disrupted class? That is, if they came to class at all. They partied hard, fell into drugs, got pregnant, dropped out or simply disappeared.
Vonda Viland knows all about the bad kids. She is the principal at Black Rock High School, and when it comes to kids acting out, she’s seen it all. But she is not discouraged. In fact, her optimism about the future for the kids at her school is the subject of a new documentary called “The Bad Kids.” The movie is streaming now until April 15 at pbs.org.
To donate to the school's fund click here.
What to Do in a School Shooting
Guest: Greg Crane, CEO and Founder of the ALICE Training Institute
Columbine, Virginia Tech and Newtown are tragic and well-known school shootings. But a tally of news and police reports by the advocacy group Every Town for Gun Safety shows that since 2013, there’s been an average of nearly one instance a week of a gun fired on school property somewhere in America.
Thankfully, most of those instances have not ended in mass casualties. Still, responding to an active shooter is now on the list of things school officials and students are expected to prepare for – along with earthquakes and fire. Many are turning to a training called “ALICE,” that is somewhat controversial because it teaches students and teachers to fight back, rather than just hunker down and hope to survive.
Space Junk
Guest: Don Kessler, retired NASA Senior Scientist, Chairman of National Research Council Committee for the Assessment of NASA’s Orbital Debris Programs
If you’ve ever gotten a chip in your windshield from a pebble on the freeway, you know the danger of high speed. So imagine the damage even a paint flake can do hurtling through space at seven times the speed of a bullet. A window on the International Space Station recently got a small crater from what was probably just that – a tiny flake of paint that came off a satellite or rocket. Earth’s orbit has become increasingly hazardous in the 50 years people have been sending stuff up there. Tens of thousands of pieces of debris are floating around up there, colliding to create even more debris, which pose a threat to the space station, shuttles carrying astronauts and satellites with important work to do.
Female Doctors Have Better Patient Outcomes
Guest: Anupam Jena, MD, Association Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Physician in the Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Next time you end up in the hospital, you might want to hope your doctor is a woman. Hospital patients who are treated by female doctors have a better chance of survival than those treated by male doctors. That’s the conclusion of an analysis published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine that looked at more than a million and a half Medicare patients who were hospitalized. Here’s one way of looking at the difference: if all Medicare patients in the hospital were treated by female doctors, there would be 32,000 fewer patient deaths every year.
Parsing Trump’s Wiretapping Claims
Guest: Ryan Vogel, J.D., Professor and Founding Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
President Trump has not backed down from his claims that Trump Tower was wiretapped during the election. First he blamed President Obama for it in a tweet. Then he said the British Secret Service did it for Obama.
But, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee – Republican Devin Nunes – announced he had evidence that some of President Trump’s personal communications may have been caught up in “incidental” surveillance of a foreign power in the months after the election. We tease out what we know, and what we don't, about alleged wiretapping activities involving Trump.
Who is Rural America?
Guest: Jennifer Zwagerman, Associate Director of the Agricultural Law Center and Director of Career Development, Drake University Law School
Manufacturing output is at an all-time high, but you wouldn’t know it from talking to residents of rural America, which lost one-quarter of its manufacturing jobs in the 2000s. Donald Trump won big in rural areas by tapping into feelings and experiences often overlooked on the national stage—after all, only 14 percent of Americans live in rural areas. People in those communities can easily feel forgotten when their fortunes do not rise with the rest of the country.
The Holi Festival: India’s Color-Throwing Spring Fling Gone Global
Guest: Ravi Gupta, Professor of History, Director of the Religious Studies Program, Utah State University
The Holi Festival is being celebrated around the world right now. It’s a springtime holiday for Hindus marked, most notably, by the throwing of multi-colored powder. Holi has become a worldwide phenomenon with large rainbow-powdered gatherings in cities across the US and Europe. It’s even spawned fun runs where participants dress in white and are doused with color at various points during the race.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Windy Rivers in the Sky
Guest: Duane Waliser, PhD, Chief Scientist and Earth Science and Technology Directorate, Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA; Visiting Associate in the Geological and Planetary Sciences Division, Caltech; Adjunct Professor in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department, UCLA
They seem like something out of science fiction: giant rivers in the sky, producing fantastic storms when they hit land. And it’s not just the water, these storms pack a huge punch with the wind they carry. Atmospheric rivers are what they’re called, and their power is the focus of some new research in the “Nature Geoscience.”
Frank Wildhorn Brings Pop to the Stage
Guest: Frank Wildhorn, Songwriter and Composer of hit musicals such as “The Count of Monte Cristo,” “Jekyll and Hyde,” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel”
For more than two decades, Frank Wildhorn has captivated audiences worldwide with his popular musicals. Unlike many professional composers who started learning music around the same time they learned to talk, Wildhorn taught himself to play the piano as a teenager, and before he wrote for theater, he wrote a huge hit for pop star Whitney Houston. He joins us in our performance studio to play some of his hits and share his story.
Do Grammar Rules Like the Oxford Comma Really Matter?
Guest: Don Chapman, PhD, Professor of Linguistics and English, BYU
Yes, we’re taking a break from the barrage of news coming out of Washington to spend some time on a topic that has the ability to get people worked up to a surprising degree. On that score, the Oxford Comma is on our minds. Also known as the “serial comma,” it’s the little squiggle that either definitely belongs before the “and” in a list of more than three things or not. “Make a sandwich with bread, jelly and peanut butter.” Does a comma belong after jelly, or does the “and” suffice to make the point that you’re listing things? In case you haven’t heard, last week, this seemingly pointless argument made the difference in a class action lawsuit brought by some dairy truck drivers who were suing for overtime pay. In this case, the lack of a comma in Maine law regarding which activities can be paid overtime and which can’t, left enough ambiguity that the appeals court ruled the dairy truck drivers should get overtime pay. That one missing comma could cost the dairy company $10 million. Fans of the Oxford Comma rejoiced!
Space Poop
Guest: Thatcher Cardon, Air Force Colonel, Flight Surgeon, BYU Alum, Winner of NASA’s Space Poop Challenge
Sometimes NASA can be a bit wonky with its acronyms and scientific terms, but it minced no mincing words in naming its recent “Space Poop Challenge.” That’s the official name. The media had a bonanza with the potty puns covering it. But this is serious business. As NASA plans to send astronauts farther and farther into space, they need to plan for emergency situations that would require the crew to stay in their pressurized space suits for days on end. And how are astronauts going to do their business when they can’t get out of the suit?
Travel Ban Could Affect Immigrant Doctors
Guest: Jonathan Roth, PhD Candidate, Department of Economics, Harvard University
While the Trump Administration wrangles in court to get the President’s latest travel ban implemented, a team of economists at Harvard and MIT are warning healthcare in the US could suffer. In an ironic twist, the economists find access to doctors in some of the Rust Belt and Appalachian communities that supported Trump during the election would be most harmed by the proposed travel ban.
Mercies in Disguise
Guest: Gina Kolata, New York Times Science and Medicine Reporter, author of “Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, a Family’s Genetic Destiny, and the Science That Rescued Them”
If a blood test could tell you that you would probably die of an incurable disease, would you get the test? Amanda Baxley faced that dilemma after watching her father, uncle, and grandfather succumb to a rare and fatal condition known as Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker [GSS], which has symptoms similar to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. As Amanda pondered getting the blood test to see if she, too, had the gene for GSS, some in her family begged her not to. Just think of the Pandora’s box such knowledge could unlock for a family with deep religious beliefs. . .
Stand-Up Comedy
Guest: John Moyer, Stand-up Comedian and Comedy Hypnotist
We’re going to enjoy a little humor for the next few minutes. And find out what it takes to make good stand-up comedy. We have with us live in the studio local comedian John Moyer.
Children’s Books Made into Movies
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s “Worlds Awaiting.
Rachel Wadham joins us now in studio. She’s the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Dutch Populism, Global Humanitarian Crisis, Happiness Index
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
World Events are Top of Mind today as we welcome regular Top of Mind contributor Quinn Mecham back into the studio. He’s a professor of political science here at BYU and joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration.
The Pirate Next Door
Guest: Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos, author of "The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates' Wives, Families and Communities"
Last week, a group of frustrated fishermen captured an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia to protest foreign vessels interfering in their livelihood. But the Somali pirates released the ship after just a few days and agreed to forgo the ransom they typically demand, for reasons we won’t go into here. The point is, that piracy is still alive on the high seas. Today’s pirates don’t have peg legs, parrots or the swashbuckling mystique of Blackbeard and Jack Sparrow, but – and this will probably disappoint you and the Pirates of the Caribbean fans in your life - even the pirates of that “Golden Age” weren’t like that. In fact, the legendary pirate captains of the time were a lot more like the Somali pirates of today – active participants in society pushed by economic forces to take a risky career path. Many had wives and families depending on their loot back home and a pirate retirement plan to fall back on when they were ready to return home.
Raising Our Babies
Guest: Ilse Dekoeyer-Laros, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Utah, Child Development Specialist at Help Me Grow Utah
When a parent is under stress at work or school, worried about finances, exhausted when they’re home, and feeling at wit’s end, their children feel it. Not just in the “Mom’s in a bad mood, watch out” way. Psychologist Ilse Dekoeyer-Laros at the University of Utah says when parents are stressed out they don’t do a good job buffering their kids from stress. And stress has serious consequences for developing brains – especially babies.
For more information on attending the event "Raising Our Babies," click here.
Creating Drinks to Prevent Athlete Over-hydration
Guest: Kevin Miller, Professor in the Athletic Training Program, Central Michigan University
Make sure you drink plenty of water is standard advice parents and coaches give to athletes hoping to prevent heat stroke and cramping. But after several high school athletes in the United States died after drinking large amounts of water and other fluids, researchers began to discover that too much water can be harmful.
Beauty and the Beast
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast set a record for a March opening – brought in 170 million dollars and pretty-much ensured that we’ll eventually see every animated Disney classic rendered in eye-popping CGI.
New Antibiotic Development
Guest: Joel Griffitts, PhD, Professor of Molecular and Microbiology, BYU; Mike Alder, Director fo the Technology Transfer Office, BYU;
Antibiotic resistance is such a huge global problem that the World Health Organization recently published the first list of priority pathogens for researchers focus on. It’s just too enormous and widespread a crisis to tackle every type of bacteria that are known to resist antibiotic treatment. At the top of the WHO’s priority list is the bacteria family that includes Salmonella, E.Coli and many of the serious infections now popping up in hospitals and nursing homes.
Do Online Petitions Work?
Guest: Jennifer Earl, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona; David Karpf, PhD, Professor of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University
Slacktivism. That’s the belittling term critics use to describe the way it’s become so easy to sign an online petition, forward a Facebook post or Tweet a hashtag and feel like we’ve actually made a difference. Has the internet ruined activism? Are online campaigns as effective as old-school protests in bringing change? Take online petitions: There’s one on the White House website right now calling for President Trump to release his tax returns – it’s got over 1 million signatures. But so far no tax returns. Then again, people have marched in the streets making the same demand and got the same response.
Realities of Extreme Poverty in America
Guest: Kathryn Edin, PhD, co-author of “$2.00 a Day,” Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University
Think about what you spend in a given day. Just start with the gas in your car and the bagel or beverage you grab for breakfast on your way to school or work - you’ve already maxed out the daily budget for the person we’re talking about today. One and a half million American households live on $2 per person per day. Those households include three million children. And that number has grown dramatically in just the last 20 years.
Assessing GOP Healthcare Proposal
Guest: Mark Showalter, PhD, Chair of the Department of Economics, BYU
The Republican health care proposal is called the American Health Care Act – or AHCA – and it narrowly cleared a key House committee. Republicans are under the gun to get the replacement in place quickly so they can deliver on years of campaign promises to repeal Obamacare. But there are significant hurdles ahead. Republicans do not unanimously approve of the proposal as it stands. Health insurance companies, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association are also opposed to it.
Dopamine Helps Moms Bond with Babies
Guest: Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Northeastern University, author of “How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain”
When a mother and her baby are really bonded, they do this thing called “synchrony” where they mirror each other’s facial expressions and sounds back and forth in sync. Well our next guest wanted to know if that bond was playing out on a neurochemical level in the mom’s brain, too. The results of that research recently appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science and provide the first evidence that dopamine – the neurotransmitter involved in the brain’s reward center – is also central to human bonding.
Dads Need Parent Training Too
Guest: Holly Schindler, PhD, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood and Family Studies, University of Washington
Parenting experts talk about the importance of noticing when a child does something right and praising the child for it. Well, that strategy doesn’t just work with kids. Researchers at the University of Washington are using it to great effect with parents, too. In particular, they’re focused on helping fathers be better parents – more engaged, more confident. And get this – eighty percent of dads who participated in the program said that it worked for them.
Is Daylight Saving Worth it?
Guest: Laura Grant, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, Claremont McKenna College
You may still be recuperating after losing that one hour Sunday morning. Jumping ahead does mean it will be lighter outside when you get home from work tonight thanks to that quirky clock-changing thing we do twice a year. (Well, every state except Arizona and Hawaii does, anyway.) What’s the point of Daylight Saving Time? Every year state legislatures try – and fail – to opt out of it, so clearly the value is in question.
Corporal Punishment Discrimination in Schools
Guest: Liz Gershoff, PhD, Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas, Austin
In some US states, teachers can discipline their students with a paddle across the backside – even if the paddling causes injuries that parents would be prosecuted for inflicting. You heard me right: corporal punishment is still in use in US schools, and teachers can be immune from prosecution for injuries caused by it.
Now there’s evidence that corporal punishment is more often used on boys, Black students and those with disabilities. The discrimination is detailed in a Social Policy Report from the Society for Research in Child Development.
Why Your Appendix Might Be Important
Guest: Heather Smith, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Midwestern University
The appendix at the end of a book is extra material that you can easily skip and still get the gist of things. It may be helpful, but it’s not critical. And for a long time, that pretty much summed up our understanding of the human appendix, too. If you’ve had yours out, no big deal because it basically has no purpose anyway.
But new research confirms what’s been a growing suspicion lately among researchers: the appendix evolved for a specific function, and research at Midwestern University in Arizona suggests that function in immunity.
Why a Muslim Ban is a Bad Idea
Guest: Frederick Gedicks, Professor of Law, BYU
President Trump’s latest travel ban is scheduled to take effect Thursday, barring a court ruling. The president’s order temporarily blocks new visas for travelers from six countries that are majority-Muslim: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The measure also suspends refugee admissions for the next several months.
The President’s first attempt to do this was blocked by the court and criticized as a thinly-veiled ban on Muslims, which Trump called for during his campaign. The White House rejects that criticism, noting that both versions of the travel ban focus on nationality, not religion.
Farmers’ Concerns with EPA Water Rule
Guest: Reagan Waskom, PhD, Director of the Colorado Water Institute and Water Center, Colorado State University
Ranchers and farmers, particularly in the West, have been chafing under the Clean Water Rule, but they got some promised relief a couple weeks ago when President Donald Trump issued an executive order to urging the EPA to rescind or revise the rule.
How Technology Can Ruin Your Love Life
Guest: Brandon McDaniel, PhD, Professor of Human Development and Family Science, Illinois State University
How long has it been since you checked your phone? An hour? 15 minutes? Studies show that the average American checks their smartphone once every six-and-a-half minutes. This can create what our next guest calls “technoference,” and it is especially damaging to close relationships.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
The Limon Dance Company
Guest: Colin Connor, Artistic Director of the Limon Dance Company
We sat down with Colin Connor, Artistic Director of the Limon Dance Company, when the company performed here on the BYU campus recently.
Carnegie Hall Goes Behind Bars
Guest: Daniel Levy, Composer, Program Instructor with Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections
At Sing Sing Correctional Facility – the notorious maximum security prison near New York City – a group of inmates is right now writing music compositions that will eventually be performed by professional musicians affiliated with Carnegie Hall. On a regular basis, these world-renowned artists carry their oboes, flutes and violins past the 30-foot-high concrete walls and razor-wire topped fences to sit down next to incarcerated men who’ve committed serious – often violent – crimes.
Tumult in Asia
Guest: Kirk Larsen, PhD, History Professor, BYU; Mark Peterson, PhD, Professor of Korean Language and Culture, BYU
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is headed to China, South Korea and Japan for his first official trip to the region. It’ll take extra diplomacy on his part, coming at a time when South Korea’s president has just been ousted and the likely replacement doesn’t agree with many US policies in the region. Add to that North Korea’s escalating provocation, including numerous recent missile tests that have other countries in the region on edge. And China is particularly peeved right now that the US has begun installing an anti-missile system in South Korea, which is supposed to prevent against a North Korean nuclear attack, but which China sees as a threat to its dominance in the region.
Experiments in African Healthcare
Guest: Dan Posner, PhD, Professor of International Development, UCLA
About 10 years ago, a study of health clinics in Uganda caused a big stir in the global development world. The researchers claimed that without spending any additional money on supplies or staff, they were able to cause dramatic – really dramatic – improvement in health outcomes. All they did was organize meetings between the health clinic workers and residents of the rural communities where they operated. So basically, people talked and held each other to account and maternal health improved, babies lived longer – the list goes on.
Development experts were thrilled at the possibilities. And governments in developing countries were excited, too, because if they could get much better health outcomes without spending any extra money – well that’s brilliant, right?
Healthy Diet Helps with Depression
Guest: Felice Jacka, PhD, Professor of Nutritional and Epidemiological Psychiatry, Deakin University
When we’re feeling anxious or sad, we feel it in our gut – we say, “I have butterflies in my stomach” or “I’m feeling sick to my stomach.” But the relationship between your brain and your belly goes both ways. A growing body of research suggests the health of your gut – especially the bacteria in your gut – affects your mental health.
Virtual Reality for Engineers
Guest: John Salmon, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BYU
Virtual reality has become so accessible – and so advanced – that it’s not just for gamers anymore. Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is using it to train technicians more efficiently and effectively. BYU received a grant to help develop the system.
Predicting Who Will Sing or Swim in College
Guest: Charles Thornburgh, Founder and CEO of Civitas Learning
Less than half of the nation’s college students graduate in four years, and even adding two more years to get the job done only increases the graduation rate to about 60%. So, colleges try to predict which students are going to struggle and funnel them into extra coaching and support services. Except that crystal balls don’t come standard in the offices of college advisement counselors, and it turns out that just looking at a student’s GPA (as many colleges do) is not a good predictor of who will make it to graduation and who won’t.
Using Facebook to Discover the Real You
Guest: Michal Kosinski, PhD, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford University
When you’re scrolling your Facebook feed and casually clicking “like” on posts, you’re leaving digital tracks – footprints, as our next guest calls them. And while you may think you’re not revealing anything intimate about yourself, researchers have found that with the right computer algorithm, they can paint a picture of your personality, interests and political views that’s more accurate than your close friends could paint – and in some cases even more accurate than you could describe yourself.
What is Populism, Really?
Guest: Benjamin Moffit, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden; author of “The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style and Representation”
Populist. It’s a label that’s been given to Donald Trump and European politicians such as Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders. Since the passage of Brexit in the UK and the election of Trump in the US, many a pundit has gone on TV to decry a wave of populism sweeping the world.
The word itself – populist - connotes something that is “of the people.” But in a political context, populism is a disparaging label to describe someone who is xenophobic, nationalist or downright undemocratic.
American Suspicion of Russia
Guest: Nina Tumarkin, Professor of Slavic studies and History, Wellesley College
President Trump has nominated former Utah Governor and former US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr. as America’s new ambassador to Russia. If confirmed, Huntsman is in for a tough time, given pending Congressional investigations into Russia’s meddling in the US election and alleged ties to the Trump Administration. By some accounts, the relationship is heading back to Cold War territory.
Hostility between the US and Russia goes back much further, though. To America’s founding, in fact.
Being Rude to Doctors Could Hurt You, Literally
Guest: Peter Bamberger, PhD, Professor of Organizational Behavior, Associate Dean for Research, Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University
In a moment of frustration or fear, we all know what it’s like to say something we regret. If that moment happens to come in a medical setting and it’s a doctor you’re snapping at, you just might pay a little more dearly for it.
A study published recently in the journal Pediatrics found rude comments, even mild ones, affected a doctor’s ability on the job.
Unidentified Burials of Mentally Ill
Guest: Janina Chilton, Historian for the Utah State Hospital
There’s a cemetery just down the road from our studio here in Provo, Utah where 474 unmarked graves contain the remains of patients who died while housed at the Utah Territorial Insane Asylum. They died paupers, and when no families came to claim the bodies, they were buried in graves that have been long since forgotten.
This scenario played out in cemeteries near mental hospitals across the country during the 1800s and early 1900s. Today communities from Minnesota to Mississippi to right here in Provo, Utah, are working to restore some dignity to these forgotten graves.
For more information on the Forgotten Patient's Cemetery Project click here.
Kong and The Shack
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
Since King Kong first lumbered and roared onto the silver screen in 1933, there have been a total of eight different films about the giant ape. So, either filmmakers believe viewers can’t get enough of this particular monster, or they’ve got a sort of “I can do it better” mentality. Both are probably true, given the way Kong: Skull Island crushed the competition at the box office over the weekend.
Therapy Card Game for Kids
Guest: Jon Cox, PhD, Clinical Professor, Counseling and Psychological Services, BYU; Dave Brown, Technology Transfer Office, BYU;
Hundreds of thousands of kids in the US get therapy for emotional or behavioral difficulties.
What works for adults in that setting isn’t always ideal for kids – you know, the sitting on a couch for an hour talking to a therapist.
What if therapy were a game, instead?
Rescuing Pets and Humans, Too
Guest: Amy Sutherland, author “Rescuing Penny Jane: One Shelter Volunteer, Countless Dogs, and the Quest to Find Them All Homes”
There are now more US households with dogs than with children. And a growing number of those households got their dog from a shelter. Pet stores are falling out of favor. Owning a “rescue dog” has become a sort of badge of honor.
“Rescued” from what, exactly? Amy Sutherland has a lot to say on the matter. Her new book chronicles her path from volunteer dog walker at a local animal shelter to an opinionated expert on all that’s right – and wrong – with the dog shelter system in America. Don’t even get her started on the “No Kill” shelter movement.
My Birth Experience is Okay and So Is Yours
Guest: Lizzie Heiselt and Valerie Best, Co-Hosts of the Cocoon Stories podcast (www.cocoonstories.com)
Why is it that talking about having an induction, C-section or home birth brings up such strong reactions? Almost like talking about religion or politics. What can we learn when women are given the space to share their childbirth experiences openly, without fear of being judged?
We’re going to find out this hour. We’ve invited more than a dozen women to share their stories with us – it’s a different format for us. Nobody’s an expert on the show this hour.
But in a way, every woman we’ll hear from is an expert: she’s an expert in her own experience and what it meant to her.
The Stock Market, the Economy and Trump
Guest: Steve Thorley, PhD, professor of finance in the BYU Marriott School of Management
The world’s most famous stock index – the Dow – hit an historic high a week ago, crossing 21,000 for the first time. That came the day after President Donald Trump gave his first joint address to Congress. True to form, Trump boasted about it on Twitter, noting just how well the stock market had done since his election and ending with one word – “Jobs!” The Dow has since dipped back under 21,000, but remains close.
Just how much of the market’s current strength can President Trump take credit for? And does a booming stock market equate to more jobs in the US economy?
Music Heals Terrorist Victim
Guest: Sam Baker, Terrorist Survivor, Musician
Sam Baker didn't start writing music until he nearly died in a terrorist bombing. It was 1986, and Baker was 31, a tourist on a train in Peru that was blown up by The Shining Path terror group. Baker’s injuries were so severe he had to relearn how to walk, move, and speak. During all of that time his body was healing, something changed inside Sam Baker as well. He gave up his job in a bank to write music, which he felt was a new calling for him. His album “Say Grace” was named one of the top ten country albums of 2013 by Rolling Stone.
Optimism Leads to Longer Life
Guest: Kaitlin Hagan, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
We’ll hear now from a medical perspective that a sunny, hopeful disposition improves your chances of having a longer, healthier life. This according to research published recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Middle East Panel
Guest: Steven Lobell, Political Science Professor, UofU; John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, UVU; Fred Axelgard, Senior Fellow at the Wheatley Institution, BYU
Let’s turn to affairs in the Middle East now with our monthly panel of experts.
President Trump has signed a new executive order restricting travel and refugee admissions. It’s slated to take effect next Thursday. The travel ban portion would last 90 days and applies to citizens from six countries – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Iraq was left off the list this time.
The Bracero Program
Guest: Prof. Edward Kosack, Assistant Professor of Economics, Xavier University
Since President Trump took office, the number of migrants caught trying to cross illegally into the US from Mexico has dropped by nearly half. The White House is touting the new figures from US Customs and Border Protection as proof the President’s executive orders aimed at tougher immigration enforcement are already working. But America’s long history with Mexican immigration has been driven by a pendulum of presidential actions and political orders - sometimes tightening the border, sometimes putting up the welcome sign. One such period, 70 years ago, offers important insight.
Corruption Scandal Sweeping Latin America
Guest: Shannon K. O'Neil, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies, Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Program, Council on Foreign Relations.
A massive bribery scandal has broken out in Latin America. It involves a giant construction company not well-known in the United States. But in Brazil, where the company is based – and across Latin America, really – this company, called Odebrecht – is a major player in large construction projects like bridges, office towers and stadiums. The company has admitted to paying nearly 800-million dollars in bribes to win lucrative construction contracts in 12 different countries. The sordid details of it all are still emerging, and as they do, government officials and politicians across Latin America are being outed as bribe-takers.
How Fitness Tracking Devices Could Affect Insurance
Guest: Andrew Boyd, Professor of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago
Lots of employers and fitness clubs sponsor contests around how much activity you can log on your Fitbit or other wearable device. Now, a major health insurer is getting in on the action: people on some of United Healthcare’s insurance plans can earn up to $1,500 credit toward their health expenses by hitting certain milestones on their fitness tracker. But, could giving all that data about your daily activity to an insurance company backfire on you?
How Self-Reflection Can Make You a Better Leader
Guest: Harry Kraemer, Professor in the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Things move so fast in the modern business world, that leaders often have to move quickly and juggle a lot of things at once. Moms can relate to that pressure, too. So the advice our next guest offers will apply to pretty much anyone under the gun to get a lot done at home or at work.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Sequencing the Genome of Quinoa
Guest: Jeff Maughan, PhD, Professor of Plant & Wildlife Sciences, BYU
Quinoa has become a trendy menu item in whole food and vegetarian restaurants because of its outstanding nutritional value: high in protein, gluten-free, low glycemic index and an excellent balance of essential amino acids. If you’re attracted to superfood fads, this grain is for you. But the potential for quinoa goes beyond fad - the United Nations declared 2013 the International Year of Quinoa because it holds such promise for tackling hunger worldwide. . . if only it would grow well in the places people need it most.
Protecting Syria’s Treasures
Guest: Amr Al-Azm, PhD, Associate Professor of History and Anthropology, Shawnee State University, Ohio
Next week marks the 6th anniversary of the start of the Syrian Civil War that has left hundreds of thousands dead and forced millions to flee their homes. In the years before war broke out between Syria’s Assad regime and his opponents, archaeologist Amr Al-Azm was head of science and conservation in the Antiquities Department of the Syrian government and a professor at the University of Damascus. But political pressure and frustration with the Assad regime led Al-Azm to leave Syria. He spent several years as a visiting professor at BYU before taking his current position as a professor of history and anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio, where he also coordinates international efforts to protect Syria’s antiquities from looting and destruction.
Refugees Are Not the Problem
Guest: Nathaneal Molle, Co-Founder of Singa
President Trump’s new executive order suspends all refugee applications to the United States for the next four months. It takes effect next Thursday and applies to refugees from all countries. The pause is intended to give the Trump administration time to review the process for identifying refugees that pose a threat to US security. The underlying message is that refugees are a problem from which Americans need protection.
A Little Narcissism Is Not a Bad Thing
Guest: Craig Malkin, PhD, author of “Rethinking Narcissism: The Bad—and Surprising Good—About Feeling Special,” Clinical Psychologist and Lecturer, Harvard Medical School
To call someone a narcissist is very much in vogue right now. Whole books have been written about Millennials and their obsession with selfies and hunger for approval. Many a pundit has lobbed the label as our new President, too. Anybody who’s overbearing or obnoxious or egocentric is liable to be called a narcissist.
Decline in U.S. Life Expectancy Ranking
Guest: Gordon Lindsay, PhD, Professor of Health Science, BYU
How do you think the United States compares in life expectancy to other developed countries? Near the top? Somewhere in the middle? It turns out, among 17 of the wealthiest democracies in the world, we’re dead last, according to a report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.
Did that come as a surprise? If it did, you’re not alone.
A national survey asked the same question. Not even five percent of respondents correctly responded that U.S. life expectancy falls at or near the bottom of the rankings. Now, the question here is why does it matter whether Americans know how poorly we compare to other countries on health measures?
What is Nothing?
Guest: James Weatherall, PhD, Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine, author of “Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing”
When we lament that we have “nothing to wear,” or there’s “nothing in the fridge,” we don’t mean literally nothing. But let’s say we did. A fridge with shelves completely empty – not even a cube of butter or a half-full ketchup bottle? If we took out all the shelves and the light bulb and sucked the air out of the fridge, then would it be completely empty?
This question of “what is nothing?” has bedeviled physicists for centuries – and it still does, frankly. You might wonder why they care all that much. Isn’t something more important than nothing?
Germaphobes Be Aware
Guest: Charles Gerba, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Environmental Sciences, University of Arizona
All you germophobes prepare to be grossed out here for the next few minutes, because we’ve got microbiologist Charles Gerba on the line to offer some insight on the most contaminated things in our daily lives. A little spoiler here - the worst offenders aren’t even in the bathroom.
Spring Picture Books
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s “Worlds Awaiting”
Rachel Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear
Guest: Danielle Ofri, PhD, MD, Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York’s Bellevue Hospital, author of “What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear”
When you visit the doctor, do you get the sense you’re not really being listened too? And when your doctor explains a diagnosis or new medicine you’re going to try, how much of what’s being said are you really hearing and comprehending?
When a doctor is good a communicating, we sometimes call it “bedside manner” and, for some reason, we see it as a nice quality, but not essential. When it comes down to it, the doctor’s medical knowledge and skill matter most.
For information on attending Ofri's lecture at the University of Utah School of Medicine on March 9,2017 click here.
Why the World Needs More Serious Gardeners
Guest: Marcus Smith, Host of “Thinking Aloud" on BYUradio; Matthew Gowans, PhD, Assistant Professor of English, Snow College
There’s a hint of Spring in the air. Avid gardeners are taking inventory of their seeds, starting to sprout indoors, walking the aisles of the home and garden store thinking about their next project. The National Gardening Market Research Company says in its 2016 survey report, “The US is a nation full of gardeners.” A major part of their reasoning is that we’re spending more money on our lawns and gardens than in recent years. But does that translate to getting more of our food from our own gardens? Or having the kind of meaningful connection with the Earth that many would argue is the primary benefit of gardening?
Social Media and Politics
Guest: Jennifer Stromer-Galley, PhD, Professor in the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, author of “Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age”
It has been four days since President Donald Trump made an attack on Twitter. Sunday afternoon he Tweeted a couple of times about the “failing New York Times” and the “Fake News” media, which is one of his favorite lines of attack lately. But since Sunday, Trump’s tweets have focused on congratulating himself and his party rather than tearing anyone down.
Does that surprise you? After all, Donald Trump’s become legendary for his negativity on Twitter. But when data analysts at Syracuse University actually tallied up the substance of social media posts made by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton during the election cycle, they found Clinton was more negative.
See Prof. Stromer-Galley’s analysis of social media during the 2016 election here.
World Whistling Champion
Guest: Chris Ullman, Four-Time National and International Whistling Champion
Winking and whistling are two skills many of us never mastered, but, then again, few people have mastered whistling like this.
Hear more of Chris's whistling here. Pre-order his memoir "Find Your Whistle" here.
Online Sales Taxes
Guest: John Barrick, CPA, Professor in the School of Accountancy, BYU
One of the perks of online shopping is that you don’t always get charged sales tax. But given how common it has become to shop online, states have become eager to capture tax revenue from those sales. To date, their efforts have been mixed. But the online behemoth Amazon is more willing than it was even a few years ago to strike deals with states to start charging and collecting sales taxes. It’s made deals with about 40 states – including Utah. That deal took effect on January 1st.
Running a Marathon in Prison
Guest: Isaac Wood, Director of Operations for Track and Field and Cross Country, BYU
Last fall, the winner of the Draper Invitational marathon here in Utah finished in 3 hours and 44 minutes, which is not too far from a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. But this marathon took place in the small yard of the Utah State Prison and the eight men who finished the race are all serving time for serious crimes.
Kids Who Have Trouble Behaving in Preschool Fall Behind in School
Guest: Janelle Montroy, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Children’s Learning Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
If you had to choose between having your preschooler graduate to kindergarten with either the ability to say their ABCs and count to 20, OR the ability to pay attention and follow directions, which would you choose? Since pre-school is typically geared toward helping children succeed academically, the ABCS and 123s get a lot of focus. But an increasing body of research finds that a child’s ability to focus, sit still and minimize disruptive behaviors in pre-school is a good predictor of how well that child will do academically throughout school.
Trump Speech to Congress
Guest: Jeremy Pope, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
For just over an hour on Tuesday night, President Trump outlined his accomplishments in office thus far and gave a broad outline of how he hopes to fulfill the big promises that helped him win the White House: namely, to “make America great again.”
The President’s speech was striking for a number of reasons, including the optimistic tone and the fact that he stuck almost entirely to the teleprompters.
The Costs of Raising a Newborn During the First Year
Guest: Beth Mattingly, PhD, Director of Research on vulnerable families, Carsey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire
Expectant mothers want nothing but diapers and wipes as shower gifts. Just keeping an infant stocked with those basics is costly. Then you add food and doctor’s visits, clothes and car seats and strollers and cribs – and that doesn’t even include the childcare so many new parents rely on in order to keep their jobs. According to government estimates, the cost of raising a newborn through the first year of life costs more than $10,000.
Company Politics: The Social Impact of Businesses Taking Sides
Guest: Joseph Ogden, Professor of Public Relations and Communications, BYU
President Trump called for an end to “trivial fights.” What’s trivial and what’s not, though? In this polarized political climate we’re in right now, virtually anything can be interpreted as a statement. That’s complicating things for companies. Take Nordstrom, which got a tongue-lashing from Trump on Twitter for dropping Ivanka’s fashion line – even though the company said the decision was based purely on flagging sales. Or the rideshare company Uber, which ended up at the center of a customer boycott for failing to join a taxi strike to protest Trump’s travel ban. What’s the best way for companies to handle a situation like that? And why are some companies like Starbucks willing to take very public political positions while others aren’t?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us live from the Weber Storytelling Festival.
Eat Less, Live Longer
Guest: John Price, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, BYU
Most of us know the many subtle ways aging shows up – in the texture of our hair, the wrinkles on our skin, the settling of weight in new areas of the body. There’s the aching and creaking and changing stamina level. Aging happens on a cellular level, too. If scientists can figure out how to slow aging at that level, all the anti-aging creams and supplements on the market would just be band aids by comparison.
US Foreign Policy Not Making Us Safer
Guest: William P. Ruger, Vice President for Research and Policy, Charles Koch Institute, Vice President for Research, Charles Koch Foundation
During his speech to Congress on Tuesday night, President Trump reiterated his “America First” approach to US foreign policy. Some have called Trump’s foreign policy “nationalistic,” even “isolationist.”
We spoke with William Ruger who advocates what he calls a “realistic” approach to US foreign policy. What we’ve been doing the last decade or so has not made America safer, he says. Interestingly, Ruger is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Religious Freedom and Business
Guest: Brian Grim, PhD, President of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation
The last few days have seen another wave of bomb threats to Jewish schools and community centers in the US and a second Jewish cemetery seriously vandalized. The Anti-Defamation League says there have been more than 90 such threats in at least a dozen cities since just the start of the year. There’s also been a spike in attacks on Muslim centers and mosques around the country. Religious freedom may be a core tenet of American democracy, but even isolated acts of hostility toward certain religions can undermine that freedom.
Why You Should Have (More) Children
Guest: Jonathan Anomaly, Research Assistant Professor in the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program, Joint Appointment at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University
There are 7.5 billion people on the Earth. But think about this for a second – at the turn of the century – on January 1, 1900 – there were only about one-and-a-half billion people living on Earth. In just over 100 years, the world’s population grew seven-times-over. It exploded – there’s really no other word for it. And that’s led to much doom-and-gloom concern about just how long we can keep this up before the Earth can no longer support all of us. How long until we run out of food, energy, clean water or clean air?
So would you be surprised to hear an academic that we really need people in some parts of the world to start having bigger families?
Women's Perspective on Weight Stigmas
Guest: Rebecca Puhl, PhD, Deputy Director, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity
In America these days, being discriminated against because of your weight is nearly as common as racial discrimination - particularly among women. But there haven't been many successful campaigns to eliminate this type of prejudice, and, surprisingly, few resarchers have asked obese women themselves which efforts to reduce the stigma have made the most difference to them.
Should We Still Celebrate Black History Month?
Guest: Dr. Eddie Chambers, Phd, Professor African Diaspora Art History, University of Texas, Austin
We’ve come to the end of Black History Month. February was first designated as such in the 1970s, but the commemoration actually dates back to 1926 when an historian named Carter Woodson declared the second week of February “Negro History Week” – that was the language of the time – to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. There’s a perennial debate this time of year over whether or not Black History Month is still a good idea. Do we really need one month designated for mulling over the history of one race? And why confine it to just one month when African Americans are so central to US history? Plus, America elected a black president twice. So can we just call Black History “American history” at this point?
Going to School Via Robot
Guest: Veronica Newhart, Graduate Student, School of Education at the University of California, Irvine
These days, school is much more than sitting in class, listening quietly and doing worksheets. There tends to be a lot of interaction: working in groups; moving to different centers; having classroom discussion. Which makes missing school that much harder for children with chronic illness or cancer who may sometimes be absent for many months. Teachers can send home reading material and workbooks; parents can hire tutors; but nothing can really compensate for not being in the classroom.
But have you seen these robots that are kind of like an iPad on wheels where you can Facetime or Skype through it using remote control? Some schools are beginning to experiment with them as a way to get homebound students into the classroom virtually, and researcher Veronica Newhart says they’re showing real promise.
Tap Dancing Genius of John W. Bubbles
Guest: Brian Harker, PhD, Professor in the School of Music, BYU
Here’s an example of a figure you’ve probably never heard of, who was a major influence on iconic American performers including Fred Astaire.
John W. Bubbles was his stage name. He was a singer and tap dancer of great renown in the early 20th Century. BYU’s Special Collections in the Harold B. Lee Library here on campus has a large stash of his personal belongings, including the top hat and cane he used in his dancing. For this month’s installment of “From the Vaults,” we’re going to look at the life work of John W. Bubbles with Professor Brian Harker of BYU’s School of Music.
NK Assassination, Israeli Court Shakeup, Cyprus Peace Talks
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
World Events is Top of Mind today as we welcome regular Top of Mind contributor Quinn Mecham back into the studio. He joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration.
Is Cybersecurity a Human Right?
Guest: Scott Shackelford, PhD, JD, Assistant Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
Back in 1948, the United Nations created a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of person.” Pretty straightforward stuff, but since 1948, you could argue the definition of “person” has evolved a bit. Today, many of us feel like our lives extend to the internet. Our social media profiles, for example, or the purchase history that makes Amazon and Netflix so useful to us – they feel like an extension of ourselves. So, does the right to “security of person” extend to the cyber-persona? This is an area of active discussion in law and human rights circles.
Is Your Doctor Being Paid to Tweet?
Guest: Vinay Prasad MD, Professor of Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University
Does your doctor Tweet? That’s maybe a strange question, but more and more doctors are using social media, including our next guest Vinay Prasad, who is a cancer doctor. A few years ago, he began to notice other cancer doctors tweeting about various drugs and clinical trials, and he started to wonder if they were being paid by drug companies to post that information. We’ve all seen celebrities, pro-athletes and popular bloggers promoting products from sponsors on their social media accounts. Has that kind of advertising taken root in medicine, now, too?
Exploitation of Black Labor after Slavery
Guest: Kathy Forde, Chair and Associate Professor in the Journalism Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Rooting out the racial disparity in America’s justice system is a major goal of ongoing reform efforts supported both by conservatives and liberals. Here’s what we know: African Americans make up 13 percent of the US population, but they account for 37 percent of the inmates in US prisons.
Laws created during the tough-on-crime, War on Drugs era of the 1980s and 1990s are often blamed for America’s high incarceration, and for the disproportionate number of African Americans doing time. Historian Kathy Forde says the trouble dates back much further – to about a decade after the Civil War when thousands upon thousands of freed slaves were arrested on trumped-up charges and leased to private companies to keep the Southern economy afloat. They became slaves by another name.
Oscars
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
I watched La La Land win the Oscar for Best Picture last night and as soon as the producers started giving their acceptance speeches I switched off the TV and went to bed. And this morning I woke up to discover I missed the biggest drama of the evening – maybe of the biggest Oscar drama ever. They announced THE WRONG WINNER and only after several La La Land people gave their speeches, did one of the La La Land producers realize what had happened.
New Anemia Treatment
Guest: Richard Watt, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, BYU; Mike Alder, Director, Technology Transfer Office, BYU
If you’ve ever had your doctor prescribe iron supplements, you may have had a bout of anemia. It’s particularly common among women and young children. Worldwide, anemia affects a quarter of the population and leads to fatigue and decreased productivity. At its most serious, it’s linked to brain damage and death in children and pregnant mothers who may hemorrhage during delivery.
Eight Flavors of American Cuisine
Guest: Sarah Lohman, Historical Gastronomist, “Author of Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine”
American food. What makes the cut? Hamburgers and hotdogs? Pizza? French Fries? Apple Pie? Maybe there’s not a truly American food or flavor because everything we eat today originated in the recipes and tastes our immigrant forefathers brought with them from other lands a few hundred years ago.
Sarah Lohman set out to test that theory. She’s an historical gastronomist – which means, among other things, that she spends a lot of time recreating very old recipes - and through a combination of data analytics and sleuthing, she settled on eight central flavors of American food: vanilla, black pepper, garlic, chili powder, soy sauce, curry powder, Sriracha and MSG.
Check out Sarah's blog here.
Rocket Girls: NASA’s Female Computers
Guest: Nathalia Holt, Author of “Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us from Missiles to the Moon to Mars”
On Sunday, the film “Hidden Figures” is up for three Oscars, including Best Picture. It’s about the team of black female mathematicians at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia who overcame racism and sexism to help put a man in space. Meanwhile, on the other coast, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California, a separate racially-integrated team of women was doing the calculations behind the rockets that powered the space program.
What Trump Means for Undocumented Immigrants
Guest: Claudio Holzner, PhD, Professor of Political Science and Associate Director, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Utah
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly are in Mexico today discussing, among other things, the Trump Administrations new immigration enforcement policies announced this week. The changes mean immigration agents will no longer focus primarily on undocumented immigrants who commit serious crimes. Anyone in the country illegally can be detained and deported if they’re charged with even a minor offense, like a traffic violation. So-called “Dreamers” who were brought to the states by their parents as children are, for the moment, still protected under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. But if one of the 750,000 people who’ve been granted that status does something criminal or is found to have gang affiliation, they can be deported, too. Trump’s new policies also call for enlisting more local authorities to enforce immigration law and jailing more people who cross the border illegally, rather than allowing them to go free while they wait for a hearing to determine their eligibility for asylum. There’s also a plan afoot to send border crossers immediately back to Mexico to wait out the immigration process – even if they’re from another country and just came through Mexico to get to the US border. That last proposal is something Mexican officials say they won’t stand for.
Play-by-Play Sports Announcer
Guest: Greg Wrubell, Voice of the Cougars, Radio play-by-play for football, basketball and soccer
College basketball season is winding down, and teams have their eyes on the playoffs. Wherever BYU ends up, one thing is certain: sports announcer Greg Wrubell will be there to bring the game to life for Cougar fans listening by radio.
American Gut Project
Guest: Rob Knight, Professor at UCSD, Co-Founder of the American Gut Project
We think a lot about heart health or mental health – but how often do we consider the health of our gut? Our next guest says it – specifically the bacteria that thrive there – is like a forgotten organ in the body – and it has an outsized impact on our well-being. Gut bacteria influence body weight, allergies, even the way we respond to medication.
Amazon Go
Guest: Brent Franson, CEO of Euclid Analytics
Now that Amazon has gotten us all hooked on the online, two-day delivery shopping experience, it’s going old-school with a small bricks-and-mortar store in Seattle. But there’s a technical twist, of course. AmazonGo is a convenience store stocked with perishable items. You load an app on your phone and then you walk into the store, pick up what you want and walk out. No waiting in lines, no checkout counters, no swiping a credit card. Just grab and go, and the total is charged to your Amazon account. Right now the AmazonGo store in Seattle is only open to Amazon employees, but the company says it’ll open to the public in the coming months.
Opiate Withdrawals Among Babies in Rural Areas
Guest: Nicole Villapiano, MD, Pediatrician, Clinical Lecturer, University of Michigan
As opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions in America, the rate of so-called “heroin babies” born in both cities and rural areas has increased nearly five-fold. But rural areas, in particular have seen a much larger jump, as documented in a recent issue of JAMA Pediatrics.
America Warms to Religion
Guest: Jessica Martinez, Senior Researcher, Pew Research Center
America is sharply divided politically and racially. But a new Pew Research Center survey says that we’re becoming less divided religiously: Americans express more positive feelings toward various religious groups today than they did just a few years ago. Even public perception of Muslims has improved. Which is surprising, considering the angry talk from politicians of banning Muslims from this country. And generally speaking, it’s surprising that feelings toward religion would be improving at all given other Pew Research data that finds Americans are less and less religious. The fastest growing religious group in the country is the “nones” – as in, they identify with “no religion.”
Presidential Conflicts of Interest
Guest: Kathleen Clark, Professor of Law, Washington University, St. Louis, Attorney in Pirvate Practice, Washington, DC
Americans may be feeling warmer about religion in the US, but they’re not very hot on how President Trump is handling the conflicts of interest that could arise from his vast web of business dealings. A Quinnipiac University poll taken in late January found only half of Americans are satisfied with Trump keeping ownership of his business but having his sons run it while he’s president. More than half of Americans are concerned that “Trump would veto a law that would be good for the country because it would hurt his business interests.”
We are in uncharted territory. Trump’s business entanglements around the globe are unprecedented for a US President. And he’s so far made less of an effort than his recent predecessors to establish the kind of separation between himself and his business that would eliminate suspicion his sons are getting special treatment while they’re out making deals for the Trump company because their father is leader of the free world.
Less Sleep Leads to Fewer Memories
Guest: Rick Huganir, PhD, Director of the Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Medical School
When you’re cramming on a deadline late at night, or frustrated by a problem you can’t seem to fix, maybe you’ve been given the advice to “just sleep on it. A recent John Hopkins University study shows that that’s probably a good idea. The study was done in mice and found that while they were sleeping, their brains were hard at work reconfiguring lessons learned during the day into memories that changed the mice’s behavior the next day. The researchers believe a similar thing happens when humans sleep.
Modern Slavery
Guest: Kevin Bales, Co-Founder of Free the Slaves, Professor of Contemporary Slavery, University of Nottingham, UK
Worldwide, there are more than 40-million people in slavery - and it's happening right here in the US and just about every other country on the planet. It's hard to believe. But research into the problem has uncovered evidence that we all might be contributing to the problem when we buy certain kinds of frozen fish or shrimp at the supermarket, for example. And furthermore, the slavery involved in the production of those items is also contributing to massive degradation of natural resources.
Helping Kids Enjoy P.E.
Guest: David Barney, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, Mckay School of Education, BYU
Think back to the kids lining up in your elementary school P.E. class. While some of them were thrilled to be there, ready to get up and moving, a lot of them faced the hour with dread, rolling their eyes in anticipation of one-too-many laps around the track. Or more jumping jack. Team sports often weren’t any more fun, as the same kids were picked first, and the same kids waited and waited to be claimed, finally, by a team they knew would rather not have them.
Project FeederWatch Needs You and Your Backyard Birdfeeder
Guest: Emma Greig, PhD, Project Leader of Project FeederWatch, Cornell University Lab of Ornithology
If you or your kids can spend hours watching the visitors to your backyard birdfeeder, our next guest needs your help. She runs Project FeederWatch at the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, which collects data from citizen bird watchers all over the country for science. Bird lovers of any age - even school classes and scouting groups – can help.
For more information about participating in FeederWatch click here.
Presidential Leadership
Guest: Donald Nieman, PhD, Presidential Historian, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Fresh off the national President’s Day Holiday and the start of Donald Trump’s second month in office, let’s look at the question of “acting presidential.” A fair amount of criticism lobbed in Trump’s direction during the campaign - and since his inauguration - relates to his unorthodox approach to the presidency: he calls people names on Twitter; he holds rambling press conferences in which he complains at length about how the media is covering him; he’s turned his nose up at Camp David in favor of retreating to his ritzy private club in Florida every weekend since he took office. Is it all just a matter of individual style? Or might President Trump learn from the way some of his predecessors behaved in office?
Read Donald Nieman's article from Newsweek here.
How to Tackle Cyber-Bullying
Guest: Carrie Goldman, Anti-Bullying Educator and author of “Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear”
According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, about half of young people have experienced some form of cyberbullying. Melania Trump has said she plans to make it her focus as First Lady – the social media culture has gotten “too mean and tough,” she said in a speech just before the election. She and her 10-year-old son Barron have both experienced it firsthand. Let’s consider what parents and teachers can do to tackle the problem.
An American Family’s Ex-Pat Life in India
Guest: Paul Frost, Foreign Commercial Service Officer, US Department of Commerce, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Tracie Frost, Student of Accounting, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
It’s a rare American family that has the opportunity to uproot and move overseas to live and work. It’s an even rarer family that accepts a long-term post to a place unlike home in every imaginable way. India was that place for Paul and Tracie Frost who had never lived abroad as a family before Paul left his banking job in North Carolina to join the foreign commercial service and took an assignment in New Delhi. Their four kids were 2, 6, 9 and 12 years of age. Paul and Tracie Frost have just returned from two and a half years living and working with their family in India and are now living in Florida.
Bulletproof Origami
Guest: Larry Howell, PhD, Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology, BYU
Cranes, paper hats, paper airplanes…Origami is an elementary school favorite and, for those who are really good, a delicate art form. Recently, though, an engineering team at BYU discovered that origami can also save lives. They took an origami structure, and turned it into a bullet-proof shield for police.
Single Sex Schools
Guest: Lise Eliot, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago; author of "Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps and What We Can Do About It"
More and more single-sex schools have popped up in the last decade as a way to close the “gender gap” between boys and girls in education. If we separate them, we can tailor the curriculum to their different learning styles, the thinking goes. Hopefully, boys will learn better communication and behavioral skills while girls will be more likely to embrace math and science when they’re free of the social pressure and stereotypes that pervade mixed-gender classrooms.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest:Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s “Worlds Awaiting”
Rachel Wadham joins us now in studio. She’s the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
She Stood for Freedom
Guest: Loki Mulholland, Award-Winning Filmmaker of the documentary, “An Ordinary Hero,” Author of children’s book series, “She Stood for Freedom”
How far would you go to speak up against something you believed was wrong? What if taking that stand would cost you your family, your friends and maybe even your life? At the age of 19, Joan Trumpauer made that calculation and chose to stand for freedom. When she joined the Civil Rights movement in 1960, her Southern family and friends disowned her. You may have seen pictures of her – a young, blonde white woman sitting between African American youth at a lunch counter in Jackson, Mississippi while angry whites dump salt and water and ketchup on her head. Maybe you’ve seen her mugshot – slight smile, long hair curling over one shoulder – when she was carted off to prison for two months along with other Freedom Riders. She was on the KKK's hit list. She marched on Washington. When other young whites joined the movement, Joan coached them on what to expect and how to make an impact. Her son Loki Mulholland captured her humility and courage in his 2013 documentary "An Ordinary Hero." Now he’s telling her story to children in a picture book and a version for early readers – both titled “She Stood for Freedom.”
Birds and Bees
Guest: Loreen Allphin, PhD, Professor of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, BYU
The Birds and the Bees are Top of Mind this hour. Yes, it’s a nod to Valentine’s Day week, but also to the inklings of Spring Fever starting to set in. The science of pollination is pretty incredible. Some plants and their pollinators have evolved together over time so that they carefully meet each other’s needs. Some plants don’t bother with relying on a bee or bird to reproduce – they “self-pollinate.”
Education Inequity
Guest: Sean Parker, Executive Director, Teach for America, Las Vegas Valley
Some schools are better than others at helping kids succeed. That’s a fact that bedevils policy experts who have long struggled to bottle the key factors of success in some schools and put them to work in others. Funding, teacher quality, administrative skills and lots of community factors such as the poverty and education levels of students’ parents play into a school success. The unfortunate truth is that not all kids have an equal chance at getting a good K-12 education. The parents you’re born to and the place where you live make all the difference. It’s simply not fair.
Oscar-Nominee “Land of Mine”
Guest: Chip Oscarson, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of the Scandinavian Program, BYU
One of this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language films is a film out of Denmark titled “Land of Mine.” It recreates a devastating chapter of World War II history, when, at the end of the war, 2,000 German POWs—many of them just in their teens—were forced to clear a million and a half land mines buried in the western beaches of Denmark. Half of these prisoners were killed or injured.
Somehow this often brutal film manages a tender portrait of these young soldiers and their gruff overseer.
Evolving Ourselves
Guest: Steve Gullans, PhD, Managing Director, Excel Venture Management
The National Academy of Sciences just this week endorsed a highly controversial procedure that allows American scientists for the first time to edit out inherited diseases from human embryos. The disease, then, is no longer passed down through the family line. Consider this, last year, the first baby genetically related to three parents was born. American doctors did the controversial procedure in Mexico, because it was not then legal in the US. They first took the mother’s egg and cut out the genes for a devastating disease, then replaced them with healthy genes from another woman before fertilizing the egg with the father’s sperm and implanting it in the mother. So the baby – born healthy in April– has DNA from two women and one man. And the baby then passes down this altered DNA to its children. It’s a striking example of humans taking the reins of evolution from Mother Nature.
Squatters May Actually Help Neighborhoods
Guest: Claire Herbert, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Drexel University
The housing and foreclosure crisis that helped cause the Great Recession also plunged many neighborhoods into decline. Homes that have been abandoned by their owners and the bank quickly over grow with weeds; then they become a magnet for thieves, loiterers and worst of all, squatters.
Moral Chivalry
Guest: Oriel Feldman Hall, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Brown University
Valentine’s Day being this week has us thinking about conventional courtship. Old ideas about chivalry say that women need their doors opened and arms held – this idea that women are somehow weaker and more in need of protecting. But some really interesting research by psychologists at Columbia, the University of Birmingham and New York University concludes two things: people generally default to protecting women over men when they have to make a choice which to save; and that urge is tied to social norms that tell us women need protecting.
Martian Crops
Guest: Bruce Bugbee, PhD, Professor in the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, USU
Soil, water, sun. It’s a pretty simple equation for growing a plant. But that equation gets a lot more complicated when you leave Earth and look to grow food in space – or on Mars. That’s where NASA hopes to be sending humans in another 15 years or so.
Addressing Fear of Islam in America
Guest: Safi Kaskas, Co-Founder of East West University, Senior Researcher in Islam and Multi-faith Reconciliation at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, Co-Author of “Qur’an—with References to the Bible: A Contemporary Understanding”
President Trump and many in his administration tell us that Islam poses a grave threat to America. As a candidate for President, Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the US and floated the idea of a national registry for Muslims already here. His executive order, which the courts have temporarily blocked, aims to ban travel from seven Middle Eastern countries that have a Muslim majority, because Trump says we need extreme vetting to keep out “radical Islamic terrorists.”
Keeping the Peace in a World of Religious Tensions
Guest: Laura Vinson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Oklahoma State University
Imagine how things might be different if President Trump were required to choose a Muslim as his vice presidential running mate. Do you suppose he would have talked so angrily about banning Muslims from the country? Might it have changed how he approached the executive order to limit travelers and refugees from Muslim countries?
Such religious requirements to run for office aren’t legal in the US, but they are a matter of course in some countries as a way of keeping the peace between conflicting groups.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Sanctuary Cities
Guest: Kari Hong, JD, Professor of Law, Boston College
During the last week, federal immigration raids led to the arrest of more than 600 people in at least 11 states. President Trump said on Twitter: “The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!” Protests against the raids cropped up across the country, particularly in places that call themselves “sanctuary cities.” President Trump wants to withhold federal funding from those cities and signed an executive order to that effect, which San Francisco is now challenging in court. Just what is a sanctuary city and how much power do local officials really have to push back against federal immigration authorities?
Teaching from Antarctica
Guest: Josh Heward, Zoology and AP Biology Teacher, Timpanogos High School, Orem, UT; Byron Adams, PhD, Professor of Biology, BYU.
Our next guests are back from a month spent in one of the world’s most inhospitable places – Antarctica – where they were studying how life manages to survive there.
Read Josh Heward's journals from his PolarTREC expedition to Antarctica here.
Partisanship in Local Politics
Guest: Adam Dynes, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
What’s the big issue in your city right now? It’s probably public safety or infrastructure or economic development. Not matter the size of the city, police, potholes and places to work tend to absorb the attention of local officials. And because cities share so many concerns in common, there’s a lot of opportunity to share solutions, too. But just how that works – how it is that a proposal to limit smoking in public places, for example, spreads from one city to another to another – is worth considering. If we can figure out how city officials come up with their policy ideas and where they look for inspiration, maybe we can figure out how to encourage more innovation in tackling challenges communities have in common.
School Improvement Grant
Guest: Andy Smarick, Morgridge Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
What do we do with the worst public schools in America? The Obama Administration aimed for dramatic “transformation” by funneling 7-billion dollars to states for use turning around the poorest-performing schools.
But according to an independent analysis of the program, recently released by the US Department of Education, it didn’t work. Most schools that got the money didn’t turnaround or transform themselves in dramatic ways and there was no significant impact on test scores and graduation rates or college enrollment at those schools.
Fluorinated Chemicals in Fast-Food Wrappers
Guest: Graham Peaslee, PhD, Professor of Experimental Nuclear Physics, University of Notre Dame
When fast-food restaurants had to start posting calorie counts on their menus, it took some of the fun out of treating yourself to that cheeseburger, fries and shake. And, now comes word that the stuff those treats come wrapped in also contain chemicals that carry serious health risks.
Research out of Notre Dame examined more than 400 packaging materials used to wrap everything from sandwiches to desserts. Nearly half contained fluorinated chemicals that can stay in the body long after you’ve licked your fingers.
Teacher-Student Interactions
Guest: Bridget Hatfield, PhD, Assistant Professor in Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University
Preschool may look like it’s mostly play, but it’s a big step for kids - often the first time away from mom and dad in a new environment with new rules and lots of other children around. It can be stressful. And research suggests a lot of stress during those developmental years can affect behavior and learning down the road. So, what can preschool teachers do to bring down those stress levels?
The Magic Yarn Project
Guest: Holly Christensen, Founder of The Magic Yarn Project
When adult women battling cancer lose their hair, they may start wearing wigs and hats, but when children fighting cancer lose their hair, those options aren’t very appealing. . . Until now. An oncology nurse from Alaska has turned a one-time gift from a friend’s daughter into an international nonprofit organization making colorful yarn wigs for kids with cancer. Imagine a giant yellow braid festooned with flowers Rapunzel-style, or for boys, a beanie with braided dreadlocks and beads to look like Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. Volunteers from around the world are churning out hundreds of these yarn wigs to brighten the lives of sick kids.
Check out The Magic Yarn Project here.
Victorian Flirtation Cards
Guest: Barbara Rusch, expert in ephemera from the Victorian era and an avid collector
If your Valentine’s Day celebrations included sending someone a text full of emoji hearts and the smiley face with heart eyes, be glad you weren’t an amorous youth during the Victoria-Era America. All of their flirting had to happen under the watchful eye of a parent or chaperone and it was all so proper and reserved. But young people had their methods, including the exchange of flirtatious little cards in secret.
Religious Freedom and Trump
Guest: Elizabeth Clark, JD, Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, BYU
America’s 45th president – with his multiple marriages and provocative reality TV persona – is not an obvious choice to champion the priorities of religious conservatives. But on the campaign trail, Trump promised to nominate a Supreme Court justice “evangelicals will love” and he did that with Judge Neil Gorsuch, who is known for his views in support of religious groups and pro-life positions.
Having Fun on the Job
Guest: Michael Tews, PhD, Professor of Hospitality Management, Pennsylvania State University
Company picnics, March Madness brackets, birthday celebrations and Taco Tuesdays are all efforts to nurture comradery and boost employee morale. But fun at work might do even more than make workers feel better about their jobs – it may actually make them better at their job, too.
The Paperfuge
Guest: Manu Prakash, PhD, Bioengineering Professor, Stanford University
When doctors need to detect blood-borne diseases like malaria, HIV or tuberculosis, they spin the patient’s blood in a centrifuge to separate out the pathogens from the blood cells so they can see them under a microscope and identify them. A centrifuge is like a high-speed merry-go-round. They’re expensive and require electricity, and that’s a problem in developing countries where money and electricity are not always available in health clinics.
So a bioengineering professor and his students at Stanford University have invented a hand-powered centrifuge made of paper and string that costs 20-cents.
The Potato Eaters
Guest: Rebecca Campbell, MFA, Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts, California State University, Fullerton
A painting of a peasant family around a dimly-lit table eating their potato harvest is considered Vincent Van Gogh’s first masterpiece. And from that image, called “The Potato Eaters,” Utah native Rebecca Campbell drew the inspiration and title for a painting and sculpture exhibit about her own family’s heritage as Idaho potato farmers. Campbell’s images are brighter and more colorful than the Van Gogh painting, but they contemplate the same themes of hard work, family relationships and our connection to the land.
Parent Previews
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
Lego Movie was hilarious – and a big hit with audiences. And the next installment – Lego Batman – is entertaining audiences equally well, based on its top spot at the box office over the weekend.
BluRay Scanner
Guest: Troy Munro, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BYU; Spencer Rogers, Associate Director, Technology Transfer Office, BYU
Earlier in the show we heard about researchers at Stanford drawing inspiration from simple toys like the whirligig to make really low-cost science tools, such as a paper centrifuge for testing blood. So here’s another installment in the annals of do-it-yourself laboratory science.
Immigration in a Time of Walls, Vetting and Bans
Guest: Ignacio Garcia, PhD, Professor of History, BYU; Jacob Hickman, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, BYU; Jacob Rugh, PhD, Professor of Sociology, BYU
Border walls, “extreme vetting,” travel bans and a limit on refugees: we’re at a moment when the definition of what it means to be American is up for some debate. Who belongs here and who doesn’t? What can we demand of those who come here? Does putting “America First” mean putting the needs of all Americans first, or just those of certain races and religions?
President Trump’s executive orders on immigration and border security – as well as new legislation proposed by several Republicans in Congress - aim to slow the flow of certain kinds of newcomers to America. What drives that urge? And what consequences does it hold?
Answers About Autism
Guest: Mikle South, Professor of Neuroscience, BYU; Terisa Gabrielsen, Professor of School Psychology, BYU; Jon Cox, Licensed Psychologist and Clinical Professor, BYU; Rebecca Lundwall, Professor of Neuroscience, BYU
For parents and for public health experts, autism is confusing and frustrating. “Autism” can vary widely from one person to the next. In 2013, a range of disorders including Asperger’s were all classified under one umbrella as “autism spectrum disorder,” which may have served to confuse the matter further. So, today we’re going to try and get some answers about what autism is, what causes it and how it can be treated.
For more information visit BYU's website on autism here.
Dakota Access Pipeline Reversal Explained
Guest: Deborah Sivas, JD, Professor of Environmental Law, director of Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program, Stanford University
Just two months ago, the Obama Administration put the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline project on hold and ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to look for alternate routes. You’ll remember there were months of protests by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other supporters who fear the pipeline will endanger the nearby reservation’s water supply if it’s allowed to run beneath a lake on the Missouri River.
Well, today, construction of the pipeline is back on and the developer expects it to be operational within three months.
Work & Family: You Can’t Have it All
Guest: Myra Strober, PhD, Professor Emerita, Stanford University
“Can I have it all?” is the question labor economist Myra Strober says she got more than anything else from women in her course titled “Work and Family” at Stanford University. Her response was “No, you can’t have it all. Nobody can.” She wasn’t trying to discourage her students from pursuing demanding careers and having families. But her pioneering research in workplace inequality and her personal story both illustrate just how hard it’s always been for women to do both well.
The Ivory Tower of Academia
Guest: Amy Schalet, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Every day on Top of Mind, we talk to scholars researching and writing about information that can help us all better understand our communities and make better decisions. But often it’s a challenge for these academics to boil down their life’s work into a message that resonates with the rest of us – and do it in a language we’ll understand. Academic speak really is like a foreign language.
That’s where the Public Engagement Project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst comes in. It teaches academics how to be part of the public debate.
Middle East Panel
Guest: Steven Lobell, Political Science Professor, UofU; John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, UVU; Fred Axelgard, BYU Wheatley Institution
President Trump’s executive order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and halting the flow of all refugees into the US is still on hold, pending a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. So, for the moment, people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen can travel to the US and refugees from Syria are still welcome.
Muslim Minority Terribly Mistreated in Myanmar
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director of the Asia Program, Woodrow Wilson Center
Reports coming from UN officials and aid workers out of the South Asian country of Myanmar are grim. In the country’s north-western region, more than a million members of an ethnic group called Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions. They’re denied citizenship and other rights. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled over the border to Bangladesh, where they’re also despised and rejected, living in camps. And last week a UN report documented mass killings and gang rapes against the Rohingya by Myanmar government forces in the last several months. The horrors very likely amount to crimes against humanity, the report says. It also notes that the international community has largely ignored the plight of the Rohingya.
Lessons in Protest from Lunch Counters to Airports
Guest: David Meyer, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Political Science, University of California, Irvine
Did the airport protests of President Trump’s travel and refugee order have any influence on a federal judge’s decision to put the ban on hold? We’re still awaiting a ruling from the appellate court on that stay, but it’s rarely easy to draw a straight line between protests and changes that came as a result of them. Typically, the dots are better connected in hindsight.
So let’s draw some lessons from a historic protest that was just getting started 57 years ago at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Check out David Meyer's blog here.
The Rise of Human-induced Earthquakes
Guest: Gillian Foulger, PhD, Professor of Geophysics, Durham University in England
Societies have traditionally considered earthquakes to be natural disasters – an act of God, even. But new analysis of seismic events around the world during the last century finds humans are increasingly to blame for earthquakes that have caused hundreds of deaths. Specifically, industrial activities like mining and drilling are causing stronger and more destructive quakes. The study was commissioned by an oil and gas company in the Netherlands. Gillian Foulger is a Professor of Geophysics at Durham University in England and one of the study’s lead authors. She joins me now by phone from the UK.
See the full database of human-induced earthquakes here.
Celebrity Influence on Medical Decisions
Guest: Sunita Desai, PhD, researcher in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School
There’s a reason companies hire beautiful celebrities to sell us everything from watches to weight loss programs: it works. We want to be like the beautiful and famous so we buy the stuff. And when it’s mascara or shampoo it’s probably not that big of a deal - no harm done. But what happens when a famous person goes public about a medical test, procedure or treatment they’ve had? Are people just as eager to rush out and get that thing, too? And what’s the consequence?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Disciplining with Timeouts
Guest: Andrew Riley, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, OHSU School of Medicine
Sending kids to time-out for misbehavior is a standard parenting practice in the US. But most parents are doing it wrong, so it’s not working nearly as well as it could. Yes, there’s a right way to do time-out … and prepare to be surprised about the specifics.
Knock ‘Em Dead Resumes
Guest: Martin Yate, New York Times best-selling author of the “Knock em’ Dead” Career books
At least 7.5 million people are actively looking for work in America right now – and lots more are probably dusting off their resumes in hopes of making a job change. Think back to the last time you updated your resume. Did you shrink the font and margins to pack in every last detail of your work history? Did you describe yourself as: “detail-oriented, excellent communicator, hard worker, team player?”
Mexico-US Relations on the Rocks
Guest: Evan Ward, PhD, History professor, BYU
America’s relationship with Mexico is not great right now. Maybe as bad as its been in decades, actually, thanks to tough talk by President Trump. He and Mexican President Pena Nieto were supposed to have met in person last week, but they called it off after some angry rhetoric and a tweet from Trump saying, “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.”
The two have since had a phone conversation in which Trump is reported to have criticized Pena Nieto’s for not doing enough to fight drug cartels.
Presidential Lawsuits
Guest: Stephen Vladeck, JD, Professor of Law, University of Texas
One way to measure a new President’s momentum is to tally the various official actions and executive orders he issues during his first week and a half. By that measure, Donald Trump has far outpaced Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, but he stands just shy of Barack Obama’s 19 executive orders and memorandums during his first 12 days in office. Not all orders and memos are created equal, though, so another measure of a President’s initial time in office is to look at the lawsuits filed against him. And on that score, Donald Trump is winning, with over 50 federal lawsuits to Obama’s three.
Cancer’s Invisibility Cloak
Guest: Wilfred Jefferies, D.Phil., Professor of Medical Genetics and Immunology, Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia
Among the reasons cancer is difficult to detect and treat is that cancer cells are experts in evading the body’s defenses. In the direst of cases, cancer cells have a way of donning an “invisibility cloak” that allows them to spread beyond the initial tumor without the immune system noticing or fighting back. Researchers at the University of British Columbia believe they’ve discovered the secret weapon of invisibility in certain types of cancers. Their results appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.
Repair Cafes
Guest: Martine Postma, founder of Repair Cafes
When your toaster breaks, or your favorite blouse has a hole in it, or the soles of your shoes wear out—your first instinct may be to throw them away. But what if those items could easily be fixed….for free?
Repair cafes are popping up around the US, and they offer a place for people to bring their broken items and learn how to repair them with the help of a knowledgeable volunteer. The cafes originated with a Dutch woman named Martine Postma; since she opened the first one in 2009, more than 1,100 repair cafes have popped up in 29 different countries.
Get your repair starter kit here.
Endangered Species’ Road to Recovery
Guest: Peter Alagona, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
The Endangered Species Act is credited with saving some beloved animals, including the bald eagle and the gray whale. But they are the rare exception. Some 1,600 US plant and animal species are currently on the endangered list and only 47 have ever been taken off the list – like the bald eagle and gray whale were - because they’ve recovered enough.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s “Worlds Awaiting”
Rachel Wadham joins us now in studio. She’s the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Why is Betsy DeVos Such a Controversial Pick for Education Secretary?
Guest: Christopher Loss, PhD, Professor of Public Policy and Higher Education, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University
The Senate is expected to vote on Betsy DeVos’ nomination Tuesday and, at the moment, it looks like it’ll be a tie requiring Vice President Mike Pence to cast the deciding vote in her favor. No education secretary nominee has ever faced a vote this close – and no cabinet nominee has ever required the Vice President to break a tie vote.
Why is Betsy DeVos’s nomination to lead the US Department of Education so controversial that educators and parents have flooded social media and jammed the phone lines of Senators?
Wrong Care in the Wrong Places
Guest: Jane Bolin, PhD, JD, BSN, Director of the Southwest Rural Health Research Center, Professor of Public Health, Texas A&M
Changes implemented under Obamacare helped 13 million Americans to get health insurance who didn’t have it before. But there are still tens of millions more who remain uninsured for a variety of reasons and when they end up in a medical crisis, where do they turn? Often, it’s the ER, because US law says people cannot be turned away from the emergency room for lack of insurance. The problem is that the ER is not always the best place to treat the needs of these individuals. They’d often be better off in a doctor’s office or a clinic, but those places don’t take uninsured patients and aren’t open after-hours. So emergency rooms across the nation become the de facto primary care option for millions of Americans, at great expense to the system.
Disease Spreads When People Mistrust the Government
Guest: Robert Blair, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Brown University
During the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, more than 11,000 people died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. As researchers moved in to determine which neighborhoods were hardest hit by Ebola and why, they discovered a pattern: people who didn’t trust the government were less likely to take precautions against the virus in their homes.
George Orwell’s 1984: A Novel for Today?
Guest: John Broich, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Case Western Reserve University
Since President Trump’s inauguration, the dystopian novel “1984” by George Orwell has remained near the top of the best-seller list on Amazon. Some people may see a connection between the “alternative facts” promoted by Donald Trump’s administration and the work done by the central character in “1984” who scrubs historical records of facts that are damaging to current regime.
Would George Orwell recognize the anxieties that abound in the media today about President Trump’s habit of calling reporting he disagrees with “fake news” and making unsubstantiated claims about the size of his inaugural crowd or the level of voter fraud in his election?
The Space Between Us
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
The Space Between Us came out over the weekend. A film in which a female astronaut who has taken a motherly-likeness to the boy on Mars is urging company officials back on Earth to let him come to Earth.
Bacteria to Biogas
Guest: Mike Alder, Director of Tech Transfer Office, BYU; Zachary Aanderude, Professor of microbial and ecosystem ecology, BYU
When we think about alternatives to fossil fuel, solar, hydro and wind power come to mind. There’s another sustainable fuel source called biogas, which researchers would like to figure out how to harness because it comes from something we have lots of – garbage.
Taller Than the Trees
Guest: Megan Mylan, Academy Awards winning director of the new short documentary “Taller Than the Trees”
Developed countries all over the world are facing a “crisis of care.” Aging populations and declining birthrates are creating a generation of people squeezed on both ends: Their parents need care and so do their own young children. This is true in most European countries. It’s true in the US as the Baby Boomers age. And it’s especially true in Japan, where the birth rate is as low as it’s ever been and society is what demographers call “hyper-aging.”
Academy Award winning director Megan Mylan’s latest short documentary profiles one middle-aged Japanese man stuck in this crisis of care.
You can watch "Taller Than the Trees" here.
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes
Guest: Brad Ricca, author of “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes,” SAGES fellow, Case Western Reserve University
A true story of American crime and the pioneering efforts of a woman detective ahead of her time has now been put into print form. Her name was Grace Humiston, but the press took to calling her “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes” because of her knack for cracking cases the New York police had given up on. Her most famous case was the disappearance of a young woman in 1917, sensationalized in the press with headlines such as “Pretty Skater Girl Strangely Missing.” The case captured public attention and stumped the police, but not Mrs. Sherlock Holmes.
In his new book of that title, historian Brad Ricca at Case Western Reserve University tells the story of Grace Humiston in gripping detail. She wasn’t just a great detective. She was the first female U.S. district attorney and an advocate for immigrant and women’s rights at a time when women didn’t even have the right to vote. She also died in obscurity, which Ricca argues is a tragedy.
Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee
Guest: Kimberly Robinson, Supreme Court reporter, Bloomberg BNA, covering the high court since 2012
President Trump has nominated Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy left by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia a year ago.
Neil Gorsuch is a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which spans six Western states. His selection has been cheered by conservatives. Let’s get some background on Gorsuch and what he might face in confirmation hearings.
Kidney Donor Certificate
Guest: Jeffrey Veale, MD, Transplant Surgeon, Director of the UCLA Kidney Transplantation Exchange Program
Pay it forward. That’s the premise of a creative new program for kidney donors pioneered at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Just imagine someone you love is on the list of more than 100,000 people in America desperately hoping for a kidney transplant. You would gladly give them one of yours, but you’re not a good match. At some transplant centers, including UCLA, you can do a swap, where your kidney goes to someone else and their loved one gives a kidney to your loved one. These swaps sometimes turn into chains where, once your loved one gets a kidney, you give yours to someone else and their loved one gives to another person down the chain and so on.
Why You Probably Shouldn’t Give Your Kids Cold Medicine
Guest: Edward Bell, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Drake University
A sick kid coughing so much that she can’t sleep – and neither can you . . . there are few parenting challenges more frustrating. Especially since doctors and drug manufacturers over the last 30 years have been continually revising the guidelines on which over-the-counter cold medicines are okay for kids and which aren’t. Much of what parents used to rely on to ease the cough and help a child sleep really isn’t recommended for youngsters anymore. What’s a tired parent to do?
The Ethics of Stem Cell Research
Guest: Alonzo Cook, PhD, BYU; Dr. Martin Tristani-Firouzi, U of U,
Last week, scientists reported in the journal Cell that they’d been able to coax human stem cells to survive in a pig embryo – an important first step toward being able to grow human organs in animals for transplant. Another team reported in the journal Nature that they used mouse stem cells to grow a mouse pancreas in a rat and then transplanted some of those pancreas cells back into the mouse and cured it of diabetes.
The science of stem cells is moving a lightning speed, so we thought now would be a good time to rewind our conversation from last fall about the status of that science and the ethical dilemmas that remain. Scientists years ago discovered ways to obtain stem cells that do not involve destroying human embryos. So now the ethical debate shifts to what might happen if we put human stem cells into an animal to grow a kidney or a pancreas and some of those cells also end up in the animal’s brain. Is the animal now part-human and entitled to be treated differently from animal subjects?
Concussions and the Super Bowl
Guest: Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, 2011 MacArthur Fellow, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Football and concussion are Top of Mind today as millions of sports fans anticipate this Sunday’s Super Bowl. After years of research into a devastating brain disease called CTE “chronic traumatic encephalopathy,” the NFL last year acknowledged its connection with concussions and settled a class action lawsuit brought by retired players who accuse the league of not warning players and hiding the damages of brain injury.
This new awareness has led the NFL to change some of its rules and it’s also given rise to calls for tackle football to be prohibited in kids and teenagers.
Guskiewicz will be the keynote speaker Friday morning at the University of Utah about concussion in sports. It’s free and open to the public. For information on how to attend click here.
Giving While Living
Guest: Christopher Oechsli, President and CEO, The Atlantic Philanthropies
The man Forbes magazine calls the most generous philanthropist in America is a multi-billionaire you’ve likely never heard of. It’s not Bill or Melinda Gates or Warren Buffett. This donor has given away a much larger share of his fortune than they have - nearly all of it, in fact. His name is Chuck Feeney and he pioneered the duty-free shops now found in airports around the world. For decades he managed to keep his giving anonymous and he rarely talks to the press about his philanthropy, which he runs through a foundation called The Atlantic Philanthropies. The foundation recently hit an important milestone – they gave away the last of Feeney’s money.
Cuba Puts Trump in an Immigration Bind
Guest: Dr. Susan Eckstein, Professor of Sociology and International Relations, Boston University
President Trump has made clear during these first weeks in office that he’s serious about the campaign promises he made to secure America’s borders, deport people who come here illegally and carefully vet those who attempt it legally. So, an action taken by President Obama during his final weeks in office could put President Trump in a sticky spot.
It’s called the Wet-Foot, Dry-Foot policy and until Obama ended it a few weeks ago, it had been in place for 20 years. Any Cuban who could make it to American soil and place a foot on dry land was allowed to stay in the US – no questions asked – and become a legal permanent resident after one year. Cubans were the only nationality to get such special treatment and the policy clearly runs counter to President Trump’s insistence on careful vetting and secure borders. So you’d think he’d be happy that Obama ended the policy, except that Republicans were not happy with that move and Trump himself has called on getting tough on Cuba again.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
How the US Refugee System Works
Guest: Erika George, JD, Professor of Law, University of Utah
Refugees seeking asylum in the United States are particularly affected by President Trump’s immigration order fulfilling a campaign promise to have “extreme vetting.” No refugees from any country are to be admitted into the US for the next four months, while the Trump administration reviews the process and implements additional procedures intended to make sure refugees do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of United States. All Syrian refugee applications to the United States are suspended indefinitely.
Just what is the United States required to do with regard to refugees? What vetting has already been in place to prevent terrorists from slipping into the country disguised as refugees?
Do Flaws in Voter Registration Equal Fraud?
Guest: Douglas Spencer, JD, PhD, Professor of Election Law and Public Policy, University of Connecticut
One piece of evidence President Trump has used to back up his unproven claim that millions of votes were cast illegally during the election is that millions of Americans are registered to vote in more than one state. That doesn’t mean millions of Americans actually voted in more than one state. But it certainly points to a challenge in the voter registration system that most of us don’t give much thought to. In fact, if you’ve registered to vote in one state and then moved to another and registered to vote there, you’ve got a decent chance of still being registered to vote in your former home. It turns out that several of Trump’s closest aides are in that situation, which is ironic. Maybe you are in that situation.
What Obamacare Was Really About
Guest: J.B. Silvers, PhD, Professor of Health Care Management at Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
This is the last day people can sign up for health insurance in 2017 through the state and federal marketplaces – or “exchanges” – created by the Affordable Care Act. It could be the last Obamacare enrollment period ever, since President Trump and Republicans in Congress are in the process of repealing it. If you get insurance through your employer or from Medicaid or Medicare, this deadline doesn’t mean much to you, because the Obamacare marketplaces are meant for people who are self-employed or retired early or work an hourly job that doesn’t offer health benefits. They make up the “individual insurance market” and what you may not realize is that Obamacare was primarily created for them. So, they will be among those most affected if its repealed.
Teaching Teeth to Heal Themselves
Guest: Paul Sharpe, PhD, Professor of Craniofacial Biology, Dental Institute King’s College, London
All through childhood and adolescence, cavities were a pretty regular part of our lives, and getting them filled is no fun. The needles and drills and the sitting there with your mouth cranked wide open trying not to freak out about what’s going on.
So here’s some exciting news - researchers at King’s College London have figured out how to make teeth in mice regenerate themselves. Here’s hoping they can figure out how to make it work in humans.
Wearable Sensors Predict Illness
Guest: Michael Snyder, PhD, professor of Genetics, Stanford
Your Fitbit can tell you how many steps you took in a day, but what if it could pick up subtle cues that you might be sick, even before you realize you’re not feeling well? The technology to do that is pretty much already here. What we need is computer programs that can collect that steady stream of data about our body temperature, heart rate, oxygen levels and such and make sense of it.
The Cost of Helping Co-Workers
Guest: Klodiana Lanaj, PhD, Professor of Management, University of Florida
Most of us know what it’s like to be the new person at work, relying on our coworkers to show us the ropes until we get the swing of things. And once we’re seasoned, some people take great pleasure in being the one everyone goes to for help. That kind of generosity at work can win you points with the boss and the rest of the team. It can even make you feel good. But it does have its consequences.
Battling Obesity with Video Games
Guest: Amy Lu, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the Game Design Program, College of Arts, Media and Design, Department of Health Sciences of the Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University
Anyone who thinks all video games are for couch potatoes has not worked up a sweat playing Dance Dance Revolution. There’s a whole crop of video games that use motion sensors and require players to move their bodies in order to win a dance off, compete in a virtual sports game or fend off attackers. The problem is that these active video games aren’t typically the ones that absorb children for hours on end. They’re lacking some element that could actually keep a child engaged long enough to get a real workout. If researchers could figure out what that missing something is, video games could become a real tool for fighting the childhood obesity epidemic.
Trump’s Travel Ban and NSC Shakeup
Guest: Ryan Vogel, J.D., Professor and Founding Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
It’s been a dramatic 24 hours for the US Justice Department, stemming from President Trump’s order temporarily banning all refugees from entering the US, as well as citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The order also bans Syrian refugees from resettling in the US indefinitely.
Late Monday, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates ordered Justice Department lawyers not to defend President Trump’s immigration order because she wasn’t convinced it was legal. President Trump swiftly fired her and calling her “an Obama Administration appointee, who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.” A new acting Attorney General who will defend Trump’s order was sworn in around 9 p.m. Monday. Then today, a committee of senators was supposed to vote on Trump’s nominee for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but Democrats delayed that citing concern that Sessions wouldn’t stand up to Trump if he thought the president were doing something illegal.
Meanwhile, Trump’s order, officially titled, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” continues to draw protests and praise.
Abortion Laws and Reproductive Rights Under Trump
Guest: Leslie Francis, JD, PhD, Professor of Philosophy and Law, Director of the Center for Law and Biomedical Sciences, Professor of Bioethics, University of Utah
At the annual March for Life in Washington over the weekend, opponents of abortion expressed hope that President Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress will make strides in limiting access to and federal funding for abortion. Overturning the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion 44 years ago is the ultimate hope of many in the “pro-life” movement. President Trump plans to nominate a new Supreme Court justice this week who will likely be a staunch opponent of abortion. Just what could Trump and Congressional Republicans accomplish on the subject?
Stick Bugs Back from Extinction
Guest: Nicholas Carlile, Researcher and Senior Scientists at the Office of Environment and Heritage, Ecosystem Management Science, Sydney, Australia
A huge, strange-looking insect that was once believed extinct is now hatching in this country for the first time. Scientists call the wingless creature a “phasmid.” Its nickname is “the tree lobster,” so that should give you a mental image. It’s also known as the “The Lord Howe Island stick insect.” Lord Howe is a small island near Australia, and it was once the only known home of these giant bugs, which can grow as long as an adult human hand, and as thick as a thumb. Scientists at the San Diego Zoo acquired some of the insect eggs from keepers in Australia a year ago and the hardy species is now doing well at the zoo.
Key Traits for Winning at Evolution
Guest: John Wiens, Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona
If you picture the entire animal kingdom laid out in a sort of family tree, the arthropod branch has more than a million species coming off it, including the tree lobster and all other insects, crustaceans and spiders. By contrast, the branch for the Xenoturbellida phylum is tiny, with just a couple of species of strange little worms with no internal organs and covered with tiny hairs for moving around in the icy ocean water.
Why do some branches of the animal kingdom tree end up with loads of different species, and others don’t? It's a question that has puzzled scientists. Two at the University of Arizona think they’ve identified three traits that are key. Their analysis will be published in the March issue of The American Naturalist.
Here is a list of animal phyla with the their number of species.
How Kids View Stereotypes
Guest: Steven Roberts, Psychology Doctoral Student, University of Michigan
Boys play with trucks and girls play with dolls. Girls wear pink. Boys don’t wear pink. Those are just a few examples of stereotypes that can perpetuate without us really meaning them to. As adults, we can look at them and say – “Well that’s silly. Boys and girls can play with any toy and wear any color they want.” But children don’t see through them so easily. University of Michigan researchers find that the younger the child, the more firmly they cling to stereotypes and want to see them enforced.
A Dog’s Purpose and Oscar Nominees
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
Advertisers have a lot of shameless tactics to get our attention: cute babies and cute puppies are right up there. So the new film “A Dog’s Purpose” seemed like a pretty solid bet to draw crowds – and it did, coming in second at the box office over the weekend.
Entrepreneurship
Guest: Jeff Brown, Assistant Director, Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technolog; Mike Alder, Director of Tech Transfer Office, BYU
A couple of years ago, startup activity in the US hit a 20-year-low, but entrepreneurs have been busy these last two years and business startup rates are now getting close to where they were before the Great Recession. The latest Kauffman Foundation Index of Startup Activity also found some age gaps in last year’s new entrepreneurs. There was significant growth among people 35 to 44 starting up businesses, but younger entrepreneurs are on the decline.
Microbial Roots of Life
Guest: David Montgomery, Professor of Geomorphology, University of Washington; Anne Biklé, Biologist and Environmental Planner; Authors of the book, “The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health”
Microbes are bad news when they make us sick. But scientists are beginning to realize that microbes are also really important to our health. In fact, our guests this hour say our war on microbes over the last century has really undercut some of the foundations of life.
In our bodies, bacteria and other microbes outnumber our own cells at least three to one. In one handful of fertile soil, there are more bacteria than there are people who live in Africa, India and China combined. What do they do? And what happens when we wipe them out of our bodies or soil?
For more information visit dig2grow.com.
A Drummer’s Life
Guest: Matt Coleman, Percussionist, Professor in the School of Music, BYU
Anonymity is the lot of most drummers, isn’t it? Aside from the occasional solo, they’re mostly just a presence at the back of the stage, keeping the whole thing together, driving it forward, not attracting attention and rarely getting the credit they deserve. So today, we’re shining a spotlight on drummers.
If you want to hear more from Coleman and you happen to live in Utah, check out his upcoming faculty recital at BYU on February 24, 2017.
The Truth About Facts
Guest: Ryan Christensen, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, BYU
What is a fact? The dictionary says it’s something that is indisputably the case. But, we’ve seen top Trump Administration officials in the last week suggesting that facts are up for debate.
What’s the truth about facts? Can you have different facts than I have? If facts are always a matter of framing and perspective, then maybe the media obsession with fact checking and labeling things true or false is pointless.
The Making of El Chapo
Guest: Don Winslow, author “The Power of the Dog,” and “The Cartel”
The head of the Sinaloa drug cartel – Joaquin El Chapo Guzman – was extradited to the US last week and for charged a host of crimes including murder conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons violations. He’s being held in a maximum security prison in Manhattan, where chances are much slimmer that he could manage a dramatic escape like he did from a prison in Mexico during the summer of 2015.
Studying Culture Through Obituaries
Guest: Janice Hume, PhD, Head of the Department of Journalism and Carter Chair in Journalism Excellence, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia
If you still get a print newspaper on your doorstep each morning, what do you flip to first? At a certain age, lots of people can’t resist looking at the obituaries right away. It’s not a morbid thing. For friends and family, obituaries are a way of celebrating an individual’s life. For strangers, there’s a kind of community connection that comes from reading about someone who breathed the same air and traveled the same streets as you. Taken together, obituaries are an historical record of society and what it values.
Why People Don’t Flee Natural Disasters
Guest: Jennifer Horney, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Texas A&M University
Last weekend there were flash flood warnings in effect in parts of Georgia and officials warned residents to move to higher ground. Evacuation orders are a crucial component to keeping people safe in natural disasters. But late last fall, we saw people clinging to their rooftops after Hurricane Matthew in the southeast. At times like these, many of us sit comfortably at home and wonder, “Why didn’t those people leave when evacuation was ordered?”
That Song That’s Stuck in Your Head
Guest: Kelly Jakubowski, PhD, Music Psychologist, Post-doctoral Research Associate, Durham University, UK
How long has it been since you had a song stuck in your head? We recently spoke a music psychologist about this phenomenon.
Teaching Civics During the Trump Era
Guest: Brent Chowen, PhD, Professor in the School of Education, BYU
Today’s American high schoolers will come of voting age during the presidency of Donald Trump and that will influence their political ideals, as well as their perceptions of how democracy works. Every president leaves an imprint on voters in that way.
High school history and civics teachers will shoulder much of the burden in helping the Trump Generation place current events into context. Let’s consider what tools and techniques they have at their disposal.
Predicting Gentrification
Guest: Keren Horn, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Boston
People choose to live in a neighborhood for lots of reasons – the cost of housing, the quality of the schools, the proximity to work or play options.
So what’s going on when wealthy, educated people who could afford to live anywhere opt for an inner-city neighborhood their parents would have considered too sketchy to live?
Famous Instruments Have Lives of Their Own
Guest: Eric Hansen, MA, Professor of Double Bass, Director of Young Ambassadors, BYU
Certain musical instruments, perhaps a particular Stradivarius violin or Gibson guitar, become famous because of an unusually rich sound—and because of the people who have played them. One such instrument was recently here at BYU, the Karr-Koussevitzky double bass. It was no easy task to get it here, and it came with a rich history, including a ghost story and a touching reunion.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to shares tales of tellers and stories.
CO Poisoning Antidote
Guest: Mark Gladwin, MD, Director of the Vascular Medicine Institute, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Thousands of people every year are sent to the emergency room as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, often from a heater, generator or fireplace. Carbon monoxide is invisible – you can’t taste, smell or see it. There’s no known antidote for it, but research led by critical care physician/scientist at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine has discovered a promising lead. They were able to reverse a fatal dose of carbon monoxide in mice by giving them a mutated brain protein they’ve made in the lab.
Optimism Improves Health
Guest: Kaitlin Hagan, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
A sunny disposition improves your chances of having a longer, healthier life, according to research published recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Colleges and Economic Mobility
Guest: Michael Droste, Pre-doctoral Fellow Equality of Opportunity Project, Research collaborator of Stanford, Harvard and Brown Universities and UC-Berkeley
Young people in America today are a lot less likely than previous generations to end up earning more than their parents. Getting a college degree has been considered one of the best ways to move up the socioeconomic ladder and do better than your parents, financially. And, for the most part, that’s still true. But, where you go to college matters a lot. And interestingly, the colleges doing the best job launching young people into the next income bracket are not the ones you might expect.
Police Perspectives
Guest: Rich Morin, Senior Editor at Pew Research Center
The Obama Administration was marked by polarized debate over race and policing. The shooting deaths of several black men by white officers led to street protests in many cities and gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement. Under President Obama, the Department of Justice investigated 25 police departments for misconduct and placed nearly a dozen under sanction. President Trump’s nominee to head the justice department has questioned whether the Obama administration has treated police departments fairly.
What do police themselves think? For one thing, most officers say the much-publicized, fatal encounters between blacks and police have made it harder to do their job. But a survey of police in large and mid-sized cities nationwide also finds a racial divide within law enforcement: black and white officers see the situation differently.
Check out "Behind the Badge" here.
Baby Talk is Good for Baby’s Brain
Guest: Catherine Laing, PhD, linguist and Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University
For some reason, when many of us encounter a baby, some switch seems to trigger in our minds and without thinking about it – without even wanting to really – we start talking differently. “Hi baby. Look how cute you are. Ohh, can you smile? Are you a happy baby?”
It’s silly. It’s annoying even. And it’s surely not helpful in teaching the baby how to speak properly. Then again, maybe it’s just what your baby needs as she’s learning to talk.
The Body Can Heal its Own Arthritis
Guest: Eric Robinson, MD, Physician at Intermountain Health
It’s the largest and strongest joint in the human body, but it’s also the most prone to arthritis: the knee. Knee surgery for arthritis is a last resort, and one that may become less and less needed as doctors and researchers perfect ways for the body to use its own resources to heal itself and eliminate osteoarthritis of the knee.
The Obesity Epidemic
Guest: Dr. Nikhil Dhurandhar, Professor and Chair of the Nutritional Sciences Department, Texas Tech University
Health experts have declared obesity a national epidemic affecting one-in-three US adults and one-in-six kids. Programs to address the program often focus on fitness and diet – much like former first-lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign which aimed to “end obesity in a generation.” But what if our obsessive focus on obesity as a lifestyle problem misses other causes?
Will A.I. Be the Death of Us?
Guest: Matt Johnson, PhD, Department of Computer Science Chair, California State University, East Bay
Does the thought of robots that can learn and take over human functions seem scary? A robot to clean your house is one thing, but a robot that can outsmart you, and maybe prevent you from doing something you want to do—that’s something else altogether. In the here-and-now, robots and automation on assembly lines have elbowed out millions of human workers worldwide. Anger over those job losses contributed to President Trump’s election victory. So what are the real opportunities and threats posed by artificial intelligence?
Worlds Awaiting: Presidential Biographies for Children
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s Worlds Awaiting
Rachel Wadham joins us now in studio. She’s the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
2017 World Event Predictions
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Regular Top of Mind contributor Quinn Mecham is back in the studio with some predictions for what 2017 may hold on the international stage.
Why Customers Google a Brand
Guest: Jeff Dotson, PhD, Associate Professor of Marketing, BYU
Ever since the internet changed how we shop, marketers have been collecting data about consumers through cookies and clicks, trying to predict when we’re ready to buy and the best way to get us to that point. Recent research from a partnership between Google, Drexel University and BYU reveals that when someone searches for a certain brand on online, they aren’t necessarily looking to buy that brand. But companies can still capitalize on those searches.
Weekend Warriors
Guest: I-Min Lee, MD, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Epidemiology, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard
Three weeks into the new year, how are you doing on that resolution to get more exercise? If you’re already falling behind your goal, don’t be too hard on yourself. New research shows that weekend warriors—people who cram all their workouts into the weekend—get about the same protection from some deadly diseases as those who spread their exercise out over the week.
How Timekeeping Software Can Short Worker Pay
Guest: Elizabeth Tippett, JD, Professor of Law, University of Oregon
Around 60 percent of U.S. employees punch a timecard. Well, they don’t actually “punch” a “timecard” anymore, but they do track their hours digitally and get paid accordingly. In theory. An analysis of a dozen commonly used timekeeping software programs in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology finds it wouldn’t be hard for employers to intentionally – or accidentally - short the pay of their workers. Check out her article here.
Split and Monster Trucks
Guest: Rod Gustafson
A young teen named Tripp (Lucas Till) gets some extra help on a project from a mysterious creature that takes refuge under the hood of his car. The movie is full of animation and action and is titled "Monster Trucks."
Targeted Cancer Treatment
Guest: Mike Alder, Director of the Technology Transfer Office, BYU; Scott Weber, Professor of Molecular Biology, BYU
Immunotherapy is the exciting new frontier in cancer treatment right now. It entails finding ways to get the body to attack the cancer itself, instead of using the blunter weapons of chemotherapy and radiation, which kill healthy cells right along with the cancer and leave devastation in their wake.
Our Potato Obsession
Guest: Raghavan Iyer, author of “Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked—and Fried, too! A Celebration of Potatoes in 75 Irresistible Recipes”
We don’t traditionally think of potatoes as the star of the table. They’re more of a stomach filler, or a comfort food – that guilty pleasure when fried to a crisp.
But if you follow the recipes in chef Raghavan Iyer’s new cookbook, potatoes will steal the show at your next meal. The photos themselves are mouthwatering. And nearly every recipe has an international flair to it. Turns out just about every culture in the world eats potatoes. The book is called Smashed Mashed Boiled and Baked – and Fried, too!”
Suggestible You
Guest: Erik Vance, author of “Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain’s Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal.”
We all know someone who believes they were healed miraculously by faith, or by an essential oil or a juice extract or acupuncture. Their stories seem fishy and can’t be explained by modern science, and yet, there they are, free of whatever pain or disease or disfigurement had plagued them.
Are they nuts? Or just naïve? Or is it possible they have a special power of the mind to heal the body? That last one sounds like the least plausible answer, but Erik Vance’s new book suggests it is the truth.
Here Comes Trump
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Jeremy Pope, BYU
Noon on Friday will mark the start of Donald Trump’s first day in office – a day for which he made lots of big promises on the campaign trail: withdraw from the Trans Pacific Partnership; label China a “currency manipulator;” lift restrictions on oil and gas production; cancel support for UN climate change programs; stop federal funding for sanctuary cities; begin deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records and suspend immigration from “terror prone” countries. That’s just a partial list. You can check out the full list here.
Phantom Dumper
Guest: Lawrence Burton, Water Reclamation Manager, City of Orem
The mayor of Orem, Utah recently put out an urgent plea on YouTube for help catching the Phantom Dumper. This is not a joke. The city’s offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the capture of this criminal. They’re selling T-Shirts with an image of the Grim Reaper dumping something into a man-hole in the dead of night. “He’s seeping while you’re sleeping,” reads the caption. We spoke last month with Lawrence Burton, the Water Reclamation Manager for the city of Orem, about the menace of the sewer system. The city still hasn’t caught the Phantom, and in fact, the Dumper hit the city again this week.
For more information or to report a tip about The Phantom Dumper, visit http://www.orem.org/phantom
Behind the Scenes at an Inauguration
Guest: Jim Bendat, author of “Democracy’s Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President 1789-2013”
The forecast calls for cold rain when Donald Trump takes the oath of office on Friday. At President Reagan’s second inaugural the wind chill was 20-below and they had to move indoors. And President William Henry Harrison refused to wear a coat or hat during his two-hour inaugural speech in weather so wet and cold he soon caught pneumonia and died a month after taking office.
Nothing nearly so dramatic is in Friday’s forecast. And while weather has thrown a curve ball or two over the centuries, presidential inaugurations have changed very little since George Washington.
Effective Ex-Presidents
Guest: Matthew Mason, PhD, Professor of History, BYU
At noon on Friday, President Barack Obama will become, “former President Barack Obama.” The typical behavior for someone in that situation has been to head home and settle into the role of “elder statesman.” They often write a memoir, give speeches and set about creating a presidential library to enshrine their legacy. In 1956, Congress passed the Former Presidents Act guaranteeing a stipend and benefits to former commanders-in-chief so they don’t have to stoop to getting a full-time job to pay the bills. President Obama has indicated that he plans to stay in Washington until his youngest daughter Sasha graduates high school, which makes him the first ex-president since Woodrow Wilson to stay in Washington once his administration ends. Obama has also said he plans to return to community organizing and activism. In that life, he's unlikely to ever have the stature or influence he’s had during eight years a President.
The Trouble with Peer Review
Guest: Tricia Serio, PhD, Professor and Department Head in Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona
Publication adds a layer of credibility to scientific studies, stemming from a system called “peer review.” Typically, every study that appears in a scientific journal has been reviewed by other scientists who verify that the study was conducted using sound research principles and is worthy of publication. Peer review is a core principle of the way science is reported and distributed. And now it’s facing a crisis.
The Tessera Game for Teens
Guest: Derek Hansen, PhD, Professor of Information Technology, BYU
This may surprise you, but the National Science Foundation is very interested in online games as a tool to teach kids. A new one it’s backed has just launched online. “The Tessera” is its name and it’s an alternate reality game aimed at teaching teenagers how to think like computer engineers. There’s a haunted tavern and a host of historical computer figures, including Steve Jobs and Alan Turing, who guide players to solve puzzles that unlock important clues in the mystery.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Why Your Appendix May Be Important
Guest: Heather Smith, PhD, Associate Professor of Anatomy, Midwestern University
The appendix at the end of a book is extra material that you can easily skip and still get the gist of things. It may be helpful, but it’s not critical. And for a long time, that pretty much summed up our understanding of the human appendix, too. If you’ve had yours out, no big deal because it basically has no purpose anyway.
The Enduring Appeal of U2’s Joshua Tree
Guest: Quint Randle, PhD, Professor of Communications, BYU
U2’s iconic album, “The Joshua Tree” turns 30 this year and the band is headed out on a commemorative tour.
“The Joshua Tree” wasn’t U2’s first album, but it was its first US chart-topper and made the group into a global phenomenon, capable of filling football stadiums.
So, why is U2 – arguably the biggest band of the 1980s – still such a big deal? Why have their fans never quit them? Why do songs like “With or Without You” still have the power to make entire stadiums sway rapturously?
Philippine President’s Drug War and Relation with US
Guest: Prashanth Parameswaran, Associate Editor at The Diplomat, PhD candidate the Fletcher School, Tufts University
President Rodrigo Duterte has just marked six months at the helm of the Philippines, which has long been an important ally of the US in Southeast Asia. But that friendship has been strained by Duterte’s angry rhetoric and threats to sever ties with America. It has also been strained by Duterte’s “war on drugs” in which more than 6,000 people have been killed in the last six months. Human rights advocates and the Obama administration have condemned the campaign, but President-elect Trump’s Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, in his nomination hearing, refused to denounce Duterte as a human rights violator.
How Humans are Now Evolving Ourselves
Guest: Steve Gullans, PhD, Managing Director at Excel Venture Management
Last year, the first baby genetically related to three parents was born. American doctors did the controversial procedure in Mexico, because it’s not yet legal in the US. They first took the mother’s egg and cut out the genes for a devastating disease, then replaced them with healthy genes from another woman before fertilizing the egg with the father’s sperm and implanting it in the mother. So the baby – born healthy in April– has DNA from two women and one man. And the baby then passes down this altered DNA to its children. It’s a striking example of humans taking the reins of evolution from Mother Nature.
Obama’s Legacy and Future of Partisan Conflict
Guest: Gary Jacobson, PhD, Professor of Political Science, UC San Diego
Republicans and Democrats are more deeply divided than they’ve been in decades and the polarization did, in fact, get worse during Obama’s eight years in office. But there may be a silver lining.
Parent Previews
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
Before there were computers to do the complicated calculations necessary to get American satellites and space craft into space, there were women armed with pencils and paper who did the computing. They were called “computers,” and the black women who were among them are the focus of a new film called “Hidden Figures,” which is based on real-life events.
Art Critics Losing Their Jobs
Guest: Jed Gottlieb, writer
It’s pretty rare to find a newspaper anywhere in the country with a full-time writer dedicated solely to covering theater, music or books. These are tough times for print journalism and it seems arts critics are among the first to go in layoffs and buyouts. Or, they get other duties and breaking news assignments added to their job so they spend less time writing about arts.
And so what? Do newspapers really need someone dedicated full time to arts when the internet is teeming with movie and music reviews?
When Grown-Ups Learn Musical Instruments
Guest: Sam Tsugawa, PhD, Professor of Music Education, Director of the New Horizons Orchestra, BYU
Think of the people you know who play a musical instrument? Chances are, most – if not all – of them started learning it when they were in grade school. In American culture there’s a window of opportunity to learn a music instrument that seems to close at around junior high. It doesn’t have to close, of course. A program called New Horizons Music just marked 25 years of helping adults – particularly senior citizens – pick up a musical instrument. There are now New Horizons Bands and Orchestras all across the country that welcome people of all musical skill levels – even complete beginners.
The History of American Childhood
Guest: Paula Fass, PhD, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley, author of “The End of Childhood in America: A History of Parenting From Life on the Frontier to the Managed Child”; Rebecca de Schweinitz, PhD, Associate Professor of History, BYU
No matter how old you are, you’ve surely had a moment when you’ve looked at kids today and thought, “Boy, things were different when I was growing up.” Maybe they were harder, maybe easier. But you’re not wrong – things were different when you were young. The experience of childhood has changed dramatically as America’s politics, economy and values have evolved. Today we’re at another turning point in the American childhood experience: respected economic research shows young people can no longer count on being more financially successful than their parents were. The American Dream that each generation will do better than the last, is fading.
Presidential Inauguration History
Guest: Jim Bendat, author of “Democracy’s Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President 1789-2013”
Presidential Inaugurations are a lot of pomp and circumstance and they tend to be fairly predictable, aside from the occasional naked streaker, jumbled oath or bout of bad weather. But there’s a rich history to the way America swears-in its presidents, which Jim Bendat captures in his book, “Democracy’s Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President: 1789-2013.”
Presidential Farewells
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, History Professor, BYU
We’re about a week from President-elect Trump taking office. On Tuesday night, President Obama offered his farewell to the nation. That’s a tradition dating all the way back to George Washington who gave what may still be the most legendary farewell in US history. For a century, school children would learn to recite it and even today, it is read in its entirety each year on the floor of the US Senate.
Why Abuse Survivors Keep Quiet So Long
Guest: Chris Anderson, Advocate for Survivors of Abuse and Trauma, Member of the Board of Directors of the National Nonprofit Male Survivor
When survivors of abuse decide to come forward, they may face a second form of trauma from the people who ought to support them – especially if it’s been many years since the abuse took place. People are prone to wonder, in these cases, why it took so long to tell someone? And maybe even wonder if it was really all that bad, given the victim waited years to come forward. Male survivors of childhood sexual abuse are particularly subject to this kind of doubt and skepticism – and they’re particularly inclined to wait many years before coming forward.
Middle East Panel
Guest: Steven Lobell, Political Science Professor, U of U; John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, UVU; Fred Axelgard, Wheatley Institution, BYU
Since our last conversation, Russia and Turkey negotiated a ceasefire in Syria and have made plans for peace talks to take place later this month.
The US and UN took a hard stance on Israeli settlements that angered Israel and in-coming President Donald Trump. The President-elect’s choice for Secretary of State – Rex Tillerson –yesterday fielded questions from Senators about how he would act in the Middle East if confirmed. There are also developments in Iran.
Doctors Reverse Guidance on Peanuts
Guest: Corinne Keet, MD, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
This next topic is one that never fails to spark animated conversation in the company of mothers: Peanuts. The dramatic rise in nut allergies over the last several decades has parents, schools and daycare facilities on edge about peanuts. And for the past 17 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that babies at risk for allergies should not be fed peanuts and peanut products until at least the age of 3.
But the NIH has just released recommendations that say the exact opposite. Strong evidence from clinical trials published in the last two years has shown that the best way to prevent peanut allergies is to feed peanuts to babies by the time they’re 6 months old. There are some specific guidelines on how to do this.
Venezuela in Crisis
Guest: Kirk Hawkins, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Venezuela’s economy is in collapse. Its people are starving. Its hospitals are without basic supplies. And the country’s National Assembly this week accused President Nicolas Maduro of abandoning his post. That was mostly symbolic, the National Assembly can’t remove a Venezuelan president from office and country’s top court annulled the vote.
How to Quit a Job
Guest: Anthony Klotz, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management in the College of Business, Oregon State University
It turns out that there’s more than one way to quit a job. At least seven ways, in fact. The most common is a fairly amicable parting of ways. But research conducted by Oregon State University finds it’s surprisingly common for people to quit in dramatic fashion – even calling the boss names and torching all good will on the way out.
We’re Missing the Point on Russia
Guest: Jeremy Friedman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, author of “Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World.”
Donald Trump’s first press conference as President-elect today was dominated by questions about Russia: on the subject of whether or not Russia was behind the hack of the Democratic Party during the election, Trump says, yes, he thinks it was; on his relationship with Vladimir Putin, Trump said, if Putin likes him, that’s a good thing for US-Russian relations. As to whether or not Russia might have incriminating information on him, Trump says they would have used it already if they had it, so they clearly don’t have it.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Extreme Downpours
Guest: Andreas Prein, PhD, National Center for Atmospheric Research
The National Weather Service is documenting a week of unsettled weather across the country. Heavy rain and snow are pummeling the West, causing major flooding concerns in some areas, while unseasonably warm temperatures are registering in the Central and Eastern U.S. But toward the weekend, a strong cold front will move into those parts of the country, bringing freezing rain to the Southern plains and thunderstorms from Texas to the Carolina coast.
Climate scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research say storms will get more intense – particularly in summer months – as the atmosphere warms. Their analysis appears in the journal “Nature Climate Change.”
Female Doctors Have Better Health Outcomes
Guest: Anupam Jena, MD, Association Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, a Physician in the Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Next time you end up in the hospital, you might want to hope your doctor is a woman. Hospital patients who are treated by female doctors have a better chance of survival than those treated by male doctors. That’s the conclusion of an analysis published in the journal “JAMA Internal Medicine” that looked at more than a million and a half Medicare patients who were hospitalized. Here’s one way of looking at the difference: if all Medicare patients in the hospital were treated by female doctors, there would be 32,000 fewer patient deaths every year.
Tackling Online Harassment
Guest: Danielle Citron, JD, Professor of Law, University of Maryland, author of “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace”
The internet can be a rough place. You’ve seen the ugliness that comes out in arguments on Facebook or Twitter, or in the comments section of an online news site. For a long time, police, policy makers and everyday people have taken the view that if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the fire. Don’t venture online unless you have a thick skin. Online threats aren’t fun, but they’re just words and well, sticks and stones ...
But in the last couples of years, we’ve seen a growing number of states enacting laws aimed at the ugliest forms of online harassment. And we’ve seen victims coming forward, telling how the violent threats, explicit photos and rampant lies spread about them in online forums have caused serious damage.
Cryonics
Guest: Max More, PhD, President and CEO of Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Captain America, Han Solo, the astronauts in the movies “Interstellar” and “Passengers” are just a handful of characters who’ve been placed into suspended-animation and then brought back to life in science fiction. But there are actually about 300 people currently in a state of cryonic preservation and some 2,000 others who’ve signed up to be frozen as soon as they die. One of the main facilities where this preservation takes place and the bodies are stored is Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Opiate Withdrawals Among Babies in Rural Areas
Guest: Nicole Villapiano, MD, Pediatrician, Clinical Lecturer, University of Michigan
As opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions in America, the rate of so-called “heroin babies” born in both cities and rural areas has increased nearly five-fold. But rural areas, in particular have seen a much larger jump, as documented in a recent issue of JAMA Pediatrics.
Securing the Internet of Things
Guest: Phil Windley, PhD, Enterprise Architect in the CIO’s office, Brigham Young University, Chairman of the Sovrin Foundation
These days it’s tough to buy a new electronic device that’s not WiFi enabled with the promise of cool features if you hook it up to the internet. We’ve talked on this show about the security risks tied to the Internet of Things – what trouble might hackers cause if literally everything from our cars to our crockpots are connected online? But BYU IT expert Phil Windley is concerned about something even more fundamental: a looming threat to our digital freedom and independence.
Calvin and Hobbes and Schizophrenia
Guest: Martine Leavitt, author of “Calvin,” winner of a Governor General’s Literary Award in 2016
What if Calvin from the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes wasn’t just a self-absorbed, hyperactive kid with an imaginary pet tiger and was, instead, suffering from schizophrenia.
Majority of Depressed Don’t Seek Help
Guest: Graham Thornicroft, PhD, Professor of Community Psychiatry, Kings College, London
Staying on the topic of mental health, in wealthy nations like the US, it’s not unusual for Hollywood stars and prominent individuals to talk openly about struggling with – and seeking treatment for – conditions such as depression.
That is not so much the case in developing countries where only about 1 in 27 people who suffer depression get adequate treatment for it. The estimate comes from a new study published in” The British Journal of Psychiatry.”
How the US Intelligence Community Works
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Founding Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
The CIA, FBI and NSA released a declassified assessment over the weekend that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign of cyber hacking and fake news to undermine the 2016 presidential campaign and hurt Hillary Clinton’s chances of getting elected. President-elect Donald Trump got a more detailed briefing and his incoming chief of staff says Trump now accepts that Russia was behind the hacks. For weeks, Trump has been very critical of that conclusion and frequently blasted intelligence officials and agencies on Twitter. Also over the weekend, the president-elect named former Indiana Senator Dan Coats as director of National Intelligence, which is a position some of Trump’s advisers suggested was unnecessary, so it was unclear whether Trump would even fill it.
Just what does the Director of National Intelligence do? And to what extent are intelligence assessments a matter of opinion that Presidents and politicians can choose to accept or reject?
NASA’s Space Junk Problem
Guest: Don Kessler, retired NASA Senior Scientist, Chairman of National Research Council Committee for the Assessment of NASA’s Orbital Debris Programs
If you’ve ever gotten a chip in your windshield from a pebble on the freeway, you know the danger of high speed. So imagine the damage even a paint flake can do hurtling through space at seven times the speed of a bullet. A window on the International Space Station recently got a small crater from what was probably just that – a tiny flake of paint that came off a satellite or rocket. Earth’s orbit has become increasingly hazardous in the 50 years people have been sending stuff up there. Tens of thousands of pieces of debris are floating around up there, colliding to create even more debris, which pose a threat to the space station, shuttles carrying astronauts and satellites with important work to do.
Skydiving to Stay Grounded
Guest: Erin Ptaschinski, Undergraduate Major Advisor, Academic Advisor in the Psychology Department, UC Berkeley, professional skydiver
Our next guest is a world record holder, along with 64 other women who flung themselves headfirst out of an airplane at 20,000 feet, then linked hands to form a snowflake formation as they fell, heads still pointing to the ground. It’s called vertical formation skydiving, and for Utah native Erin Ptaschinski, it’s a pretty dramatic way to relieve stress.
Workplace Satire: How to Look Smart in Meetings
Guest: Sarah Cooper, satirical blogger and author of “100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings.”
Meetings are workplace kryptonite for a lot of us. Ten minutes in, professionalism evaporates – we grimace, fidget, roll our eyes involuntarily anytime someone says, “Let’s take a step back here.” Or “Go back a slide.” Or when the meeting comes to a standstill so two people can check their schedules for the best time to set up another meeting.
Each of these pet peeves appears in the book, “100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings.” It’s the satirical work of stand-up comedian Sarah Cooper.
Fences and A Monster Calls
Guest: Rod Gustafson, parentpreviews.com
Denzel Washington hits the big screen again as an African American father who is struggling to know what to protect in an everchanging world. His movie "Fences" is now in theaters.
DNA Injection Device
Guest: Mike Alder, Director of the Tech Transfer Office, BYU; Brian Jensen, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BYU; Jonathan Chichoni, CEO of Blöcks
Imagine a device equipped with four million needles. They’re very tiny, mind you. But even four-million microscopic needles are bound to hurt. Luckily, this particular device is not meant for human torture. It’s meant for speeding up the process scientists use to inject DNA or other molecules into tiny cells for research.
Putin’s Rising Russia
Guest: Scott Cooper, PhD, Political Science Professor, BYU; Celeste Beesley, PhD, Political Science Professor, BYU; Fred White, PhD, Professor of Russian History and Culture, Utah Valley University
Russia has become a dominant force in the Middle East – pushing the Syrian government closer to victory in that country’s brutal civil war and working alongside Turkey to broker a fragile ceasefire in the conflict. All – notably – without US involvement. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strong leadership and continues to openly question the conclusion of US intelligence officials that Russia hacked the recent presidential election in his favor. Next week, a confirmation hearing will be held for Trump’s Secretary of State, nominee Rex Tillerson, who has had a close working relationship with Russian officials as the CEO of Exxon Mobil.
So there’s a lot to consider where Russia is concerned. And it’s interesting to note that we’ve just marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the USSR. Few experts then would have predicted that in 2017, we’d see Russia back in a position of such international influence.
Politics of Slavery in Early America
Guest: Matt Mason, PhD, History Professor, BYU, author of “Apostle of Union: A Political Biography of Edward Everett.”
The Civil War wouldn’t end for another two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. And the Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in ten Southern states that had rebelled from the Union. It would be several years before slavery was abolished throughout the country.
Leading up to that point, the politics of slavery in America were not as straightforward as we tend to think, with Southerners for it, Northerners against. And slavery was not the primary reason the North and South went into Civil War.
Trump Trade Policies
Guest: Charles Hankla, Professor of Political Science, Expert on the Economics of Trade, Georgia State University
The man President-elect Trump chose this week to be his chief trade negotiator – Robert Lighthizer - is yet another signal that Trump intends to follow through on his promises to put America first in trade negotiations and get tough with trading partners such as China and Mexico. Also this week, Ford Motor Company scrapped a plan to build a factory in Mexico – for which Trump took credit. The President-elect has been very critical of American manufacturers building stuff in other countries and then shipping it back to the US for sale.
Kids Who Struggle to Behave in Preschool Fall Behind
Guest: Janelle Montroy, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Children’s Learning Institute, University of Texas, Houston
If you had to choose between having your pre-schooler graduate to kindergarten with either the ability to say their ABCs and count to 20, OR the ability to pay attention, follow directions and participate without distracting other children in class, which would you choose? Since pre-school is typically geared toward helping children succeed academically, the ABCS and 123s get a lot of focus. But an increasing body of research finds that a child’s ability to pay attention, sit still and minimize disruptive behaviors in pre-school is a good predictor of how well that child will do academically throughout school.
Ex-Prisoners Lack Health Care
Guest: Tyler Winkelman, MD, Robert Wood Johnson Fellow and Clinical Lecturer for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan
Prisoners have access to health care when they’re in jail. If they have a mental illness or chronic disease like diabetes – which so many do – they can see a prison doctor and get medicine to manage the condition. But once they’re released, a third of them end up entirely uninsured – and since they’re often unemployed coming out of prison, they have no way to pay for medical treatment or a prescription refill.
The Affordable Care Act had a provision intended to plug this gap. But not all states have successfully implemented the changes, so uninsured rates for people who’ve been in jail or prison are still much higher than for the general public.
Child Soldiers in Terror Attacks
Guest: Mia Bloom, PhD, Professor of Communication, Georgia State University, author of upcoming book “Small Arms: Children and Terrorism”
One of the horrors of terrorist attacks is the use of child soldiers as suicide bombers. Boko Haram and ISIS have lately taken this approach. ISIS even has a program called “Cubs of the Caliphate,” which actively recruits child soldiers online. They’re featured in ISIS propaganda, they carry out attacks and even do some of the recruiting.
FDA Bans Antibacterial Soaps
Guest: Allison Aiello, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
When you’re in the grocery aisle buying soap, it seems like a no-brainer to go for the one that promises to kill 99.9% of bacteria. The antibacterial soap just naturally seems better than the regular kind, doesn’t it? Well, later this year, you won’t be facing that dilemma. In the fall, a new FDA rule will take effect banning common ingredients in soaps and body washes marketed as “antibacterial.” More than 2,000 products will have to be changed or discontinued because the FDA says they don’t work and may actually do more harm than good.
The Healthiest Kind of Happy
Guest: Steve Cole, Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry and Bio behavioral Sciences, UCLA
Happy people are often healthy people, too. Researchers have long noticed a relationship between psychological well-being and long-term physical health. But only with the advent of genomic testing have scientists begun to understand just how deeply emotions affect physical health.
Refugees Driven by Climate Change
Guest: Somini Sengupta, New York Times United Nations Bureau Chief
International attention of refugees these last several years has focused primarily on those fleeing war and violence in places such as Syria. A different group of so-called "economic migrants" tends to get less of our sympathy because it's easy to write them off simply as people looking to take advantage of better job prospects and public benefits in countries other than their own.
Read Sengupta's report and see incredible drone footage here.
For Middle-Class, Wage Gap Between Blacks, Whites is Large as it was in 1950s
Guest: Kerwin Charles, PhD, Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago
Boosting jobs and economic growth are key promises of incoming US President Donald Trump. But the challenging thing about improving the US economy is that it looks different depending on your income, education level and a host of other factors. Your skin color matters, too. For example, Census and labor data have long shown that being a black man in America is a major disadvantage when it comes to employment and earnings.
What Does it Take To Grow Crops in Space?
Guest: Bruce Bugbee, PhD, Professor of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, Utah State University
Soil, water, sun. It’s a pretty simple equation for growing a plant. But that equation gets a lot more complicated when you leave Earth and look to grow food in space – or on Mars. That’s where NASA hopes to be sending humans in another 15 years or so.
Apple Seed: When Stories Change the World
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
How Student Loans Lead to Higher Tuition
Guest: Taylor Nadauld, PhD, Associate Professor of Finance, BYU Marriott School of Management
Outside of mortgages, student loans are the largest form of debt in the United States, totaling more than 1.3 billion dollars. Even during the Great Recession, college tuition in the US continued to rise steadily. And evidence is mounting that federal student loan and grant programs meant to make college more affordable are actually doing the opposite – they’re prompting colleges to raise tuition.
Overcome Fear of Rejection by Getting Rejected, A LOT
Guest: Jia Jiang, Owner of RejectionTherapy.com, author of “Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection”
While we’re making resolutions for the New Year, is there anything on your list that you’ve hoped for in the past but maybe didn’t have the nerve to really go for? Asking for a pay raise, perhaps. Or reaching out to that stranger you’re intrigued by? Fear of rejection keeps us from doing all sorts of things.
Bears Ears and Native American Approaches to the Environment
Guest: Chip Colwell, PhD, Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
In the final weeks of his Presidency, Barack Obama has used his power under the Antiquities Act to create new national monuments in Utah and Nevada that place more than a million acres of land off-limits to development. Republican lawmakers and state and local officials hope the new President or Congress can undo the designations. The Utah land known as “Bears Ears” will be the first national monument to be co-managed by Native American tribes that lobbied for its creation. Anthropologist Chip Colwell has studied the way indigenous communities see natural places as living beings and how embracing that view might lead to changes in our laws.
Training Kids to Fight Back in a School Shooting
Guest: Greg Crane, former police officer, Founder and CEO of ALICE
Columbine, Virginia Tech and Newtown are tragic and well-known school shootings. But a tally of news and police reports by the advocacy group Every Town for Gun Safety shows that since 2013, there’s been an average of nearly one instance a week of a gun fired on school property somewhere in America.
Thankfully, most of those instances have not ended in mass casualties. Still, responding to an active shooter is now on the list of things school officials and students are expected to prepare for – along with earthquakes and fire. Many are turning to a training called “ALICE,” that is somewhat controversial because it teaches students and teachers to fight back, rather than just hunker down and hope to survive.
What Medieval Monks Can Teach Us about Treating Mental Health
Guest: Carol Neel, PhD, Professor of European Middle Ages, Colorado College
While not always effective, the medications and psychotherapy we use to today to treat mental illness are certainly more enlightened than the asylums, lobotomies and exorcisms that used to be standard treatment.
But historical handling of mental illness isn’t all rubbish, according to medieval history professor Carol Neel of Colorado College. Her research suggests that monks during the Dark Ages had a pretty enlightened view of depression and psychoses that we could stand to learn from.
Did you miss New Year's Eve Leap Second?
Guest: Patrick Wiggins, NASA Solar System Ambassador to Utah
While you were watching for the clock to strike midnight on New Year’s Eve, you probably missed the strange thing that happened at 7 p.m. Eastern. Just as the time rolled over from 6:59:59 to 7 p.m., there was a slight hesitation as an extra second was added to the world’s clocks. It’s called a “leap second.” Why do we need them?
"Popular Science" Magazine Gets a Makeover
Guest: Joe Brown, Editor-in-Chief, "Popular Science"
For a period in the 1800s, science was really taking off as a field and the public was endlessly fascinated by new discoveries about how weather worked and how the body worked and how amazing the natural world was. And it was during this period that a new publication arrived on newsstands with a goal of sharing scientific knowledge with the public. Writing by Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur and Thomas Edison all appeared on the pages of The Popular Science Monthly. In the nearly 150 years since its first issue, the magazine has undergone lots of ownership and design changes, but it’s always been focused on making science interesting and accessible to “the rest of us” who get quickly lost attempting to read a scientific journal article. What the newest makeover means for readers.
Please Don't Power Pose
Guest: Kristopher Smith, doctoral student in Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
I bet you’ve heard that posing like Wonder Woman with feet apart and hands on hips for two minutes before an important task will boost your confidence. Harvard researcher Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk about “power posing” has been viewed 38 million times. But several months ago, Cuddy’s collaborator – Berkeley professor Dana Carney - publicly denounced their earlier research that found holding a power pose for just a few minutes, could lower stress hormones and boost testosterone. Carney wrote in October: “I do not believe that ‘power pose’ effects are real.” She said her conclusions come partly because since they first published their work in 2010, other social scientists have had a limited success replicating the findings. Psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania just published a study in which power posing didn’t seem to be related to winning behavior in competitive situations and may actually backfire in some cases. Doctoral student Kristopher Smith is the lead author on the research.
TOP OF MIND REWIND
Peanuts and Religion
Guests: Amy Schulz Johnson, daughter of Charles Schulz; Stephen J. Lind, PhD, Professor of Business Administration at Washington and Lee University, author of "A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz"
Watching the animated TV movie “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is a tradition for so many of us this time of year. "Peanuts" is possibly the best known and most-successful comic strip of all time and Charles Schulz drew it for 50 years – up until the final frame published on the day he died in 2000. But Peanuts was groundbreaking in another, less-appreciated way: it was the first mainstream comic strip to openly address religious themes – and even spout scripture on occasion.
Big Loss for VidAngel in Initial Phase of Court Battle
Guest: Peter Midgley, Director of the BYU Copyright Licensing Office
A judge has ordered VidAngel to stop streaming films from several major Hollywood studios while a lawsuit between the site and the studios plays out. VidAngel has yet to actually stop streaming the movies and is hoping to get the temporary injunction overturned, but the judge’s ruling does not bode well for VidAngel.
China’s Role in Genetic Enhancement
Guest: Owen Schaefer, DPhil, Research Fellow in Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore
The word “eugenics” carries unsettling connotations of the Nazi quest for a master race and American laws in the early twentieth century that allowed for forced sterilization of people with disabilities and prohibited interracial marriage. It’s a period of Western history that we’d like to forget. But advances in genetic science today—and in particular the ability to edit genes —have forced a new conversation about the ethics of using technology to, say, change the skin color of a fetus or eliminate the presence of a certain disease-causing genetic defect.
Climate Change and National Security
Guest: David Titley, PhD, American Meteorological Society Fellow, Professor at Pennsylvania State University
President-elect Donald Trump has said that climate change is a hoax and has called for the US to withdraw from the Paris Climate agreement.
What the President-elect may soon discover, as he digs into the many complexities of leading the country, is the way in which rising sea levels, intensifying natural disasters and wide temperature fluctuations go beyond questions of energy policy – they are also a threat to America’s national security. The US Navy even has a Task Force on Climate Change.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
AmazonGo and Consumer Habits
Guest: Brent Franson, CEO of Euclid Analytics
Now that Amazon has gotten us all hooked on the online two-day delivery shopping experience, it’s going old-school with a small bricks-and-mortar store in Seattle. But there’s a technical twist, of course. AmazonGo is a convenience store stocked with perishable items. You load an app on your phone and then you walk into the store, pick up what you want and walk out. No waiting in lines, no checkout counters, no swiping a credit card. Just grab and go, and the total is charged to your Amazon account.
Tenebrae's World-Famous Brand of Singing
Guest: Nigel Short, award-winning conductor of Tenebrae and a former member of the King’s Singers
Passion and precision underpin the world-famous sound of the London-based choral group Tenebrae. They’re known for performing in cathedrals and churches – often acapella, surrounded by candles. The group also frequently tutors and sings with amateur choirs. They visited BYU recently and Nigel Short sat for an interview with Top of Mind.
2016 World Events in Review
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Back in January, regular Top of Mind contributor Quinn Mecham made some predictions for the year and he’s back now to see how clear his crystal ball was.
Syria’s Medical Crisis
Guest: Dr. Zaher Sahloul, MD, Associate Clinical Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, Senior Advisor and past President of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and Founder of the American Relief Coalition for Syria
Thousands of people who’ve been stuck in Aleppo, Syria amid intense fighting for months now, are being evacuated to safety under the supervision of UN monitors. But “safety” is a relative term in a country wracked by civil war and terrorism. The suffering in Syria is a humanitarian crisis of enormous scale. People lack shelter, food, clean water and medical care.
For those looking to help, Dr. Sahloul says money and volunteers are desperately needed. He recommends the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and the American Relief Coalition for Syria.
Non-Traditional College Students are the Norm
Guest: Julie Johnson, Vice President of Strategy at Complete College America
Technically speaking, “traditional college students” are 18 to 20 years old and live on campus at a four-year institution. But in the US, that “traditional” student is becoming atypical. The majority of college students are pursuing something other than a four-year degree. Or they’re older than 25. Or they work full-time or have kids. These so-called “nontraditional students” make up as much as 70-percent of the college population, but universities have been slow to focus on their needs. In myriad ways, what works for a 20-year-old living on campus attending school full-time is completely wrong for a non-traditional student and might explain why graduation rates for non-traditional students are much lower.
Tap the Brakes on Self-Driving Cars
Guest: Aaron Renn, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Contributing Editor of City Journal, Economic Development Columnist for Governing Magazine
The ride-sharing company Uber is currently in a standoff with California state regulators over whether it’s self-driving cars need special permits to run on San Francisco streets. Regulators in Pittsburgh, where Uber is also testing its automated cars, have been more friendly to the technology. This is just one example of the challenges ahead as cities and states adapt to the notion of a car driving itself – ultimately without even a human riding on standby to assist if the car has trouble. Putting computers and algorithms in charge of driving promises to make roads safer and less congested. But cities will have to do a lot of work on streets, parking lots and bridges in order to become “driverless-car-friendly.” In all that excitement, we’re at risk of making the same mistakes we made a hundred years ago, when we embraced automobiles as our transportation mode of choice.
Scandinavian Holiday Traditions for Any Home
Guest: Melissa Bahe, Blogger, Luluthebaker.com, author of “Scandinavian Gatherings.”
December in Scandinavia is dark and cold. Today, there will be only about six hours of daylight in Stockholm, and on Norway North Cape, there is no daylight at all. In spite of its glum weather – or maybe because of it, Scandinavia offers enchanting Christmas traditions: candles, greenery, and lots of delicious pastries.
Academia’s Ivory Tower
Guest: Amy Schalet, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Director of the Public Engagement Project
It’s a challenge for scholars to boil down their life’s work into a message that resonates with the rest of us – and do it in a language we’ll understand. Their professional success depends almost exclusively on scholarly publications. Writing an op-ed for the public or doing radio interviews typically won’t win them points in the Ivory Tower or help them get tenure.
That’s where the Public Engagement Project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst comes in. It teaches academics how to be part of the public debate.
Is Trump Risking War with China?
Guests: Eric Hyer, PhD, BYU Professor of Asian Politics; Robert Griffiths, Former US Consul General in Shanghai, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at BYU
The President-elect will inherit a tense relationship with China, made more so in recent days by Trump’s provocative tweets criticizing China for seizing a US Navy research drone in international waters late last week. Chinese State Media responded by saying Trump apparently has no idea how to run a superpower. Beyond the Tweets, it’s Trump’s recent comments about Taiwan that likely have the Chinese defensive.
The Future of US-Russia Relations
Guest: Norman Naimark, PhD, Professor of Eastern European History at Stanford University
Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was assassinated at an art gallery in Ankara today by a lone gunman reported to have shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo! Don’t forget Syria!” before being shot dead by security. Turkey and Russia support opposite sides of the civil war in Syria, which has strained relations between the two countries.
Why Mistletoe Matters
Guest: Jonathan Brigg, Mistletoe Expert, Runs the UK Organization “Mistletoe Matters”
Mistletoe carries connotations of peace, love and romantic kisses at Christmastime, but did you know that it’s actually a parasitic plant feeding on the tree that hosts it and that it’s occasionally poisonous? That’s a jarring juxtaposition of symbols, isn’t it? A romantic, poisonous parasite.
The Nativity is a Refugee Story
Guest: Anne Booth, Author of “Refuge”
A young family is threatened by political violence. Realizing their child’s life is in danger, they make the tough decision to leave home and seek refuge somewhere else. This is the story of millions of refugees displaced in the Middle East and Africa today. It is also part of The Nativity Story, though not the part we typically focus on.
$1 from the sale of each copy of “Refuge” in the United States goes to the UN Refugee Agency
"Rogue One" Review
Guest: Shawn O’Neill, Producer at BYUradio, Independent Movie Reviewer
Britain’s Rip-Roaring Holiday Theater Tradition
Guest: Jennifer Schacker, PhD, Professor of English and Theater Studies at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada
Turning now to a fun British holiday tradition I’d never heard of until recently - and am frankly surprised we don’t have it in the US, because it seems like it’d be a big hit. It’s a type of theater called pantomime – or panto, for short.
The Secret of Giving Well
Guest: Richard Gunderman, PhD, MD, Chancellor’s Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts and Philanthropy, Indiana University, author of "We Make a Life By What We Give."
There’s nothing very complicated about sharing with others. It’s one of the earliest lessons we learn as kids. But doing it in a way that has maximum meaning – that enriches both our own life and others – that’s not quite as simple or easy.
Physician and philosopher Richard Gunderman has written extensively about this – including in his book “We Make A Life By What We Give.” It’s a series of essays on cultivating a generous outlook, really thought-provoking. The perfect conversation for this time of year when giving is so much on our minds.
Small-Town Sacrifices for War
Guest: Kyle Longley, PhD, Professor of History, Arizona State University and author of “The Morenci Marines: A Tale of Small Town America and the Vietnam War”
This is the story of a small Arizona mining town that sent nine young men to Vietnam and only three returned. That’s an inordinate burden. The odds of dying in Vietnam in combat were 10 percent – so of those nine young men from the town of Morenci, Arizona, just one should have died. Why they and Morenci were so unlucky is part of a larger story about the role of small towns across America during war time.
Presidential Politics
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Political Science Professor, BYU; Grant Madsen, History Professor, BYU
President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is five weeks away. His cabinet selections are nearly complete. So, it seems a good time hear some thoughts on how Trump’s presidency is shaping up compared to his predecessors.
What You Should Never Flush Down the Toilet
Guest: Lawrence Burton, Water Reclamation Manager, City of Orem
Someone has been illegally dumping waste into the sewer systems in Orem and it clogs up the waste processor at the sewer plant. It has been costing the city thousands of dollars to clean up the mess and the "phantom dumper" is still at large.
When Christmas Was Illegal
Guest: Bruce Forbes, PhD, Chair of the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department, Morningside College, author of “America’s Favorite Holidays”
Every year we hear the lament: Santa Claus is a commercial invention. Christmas is about Christ. We’ve forgotten the true meaning of the holiday. And there are calls to return to the pure spiritual roots of Christmas.
Except, the true roots of Christmas have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. And once, the holiday was considered so pagan it was banned in America. Anyone caught observing Christmas in any way could be fined five shillings in Massachusetts. That was back in 1659 when the Puritans ruled the roost.
Jerusalem, the Movie
Guest: Daniel Ferguson, writer and director of “Jerusalem”; Jodi Magness, PhD, Archaeologist, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
In this season of Hanukkah and Christmas, let's spend a few minutes looking to the root of ongoing contention over the site considered among the very holiest by Jews, Christians and Muslims. The Temple Mount or Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem has historically been the site of devotion but also violence. An IMAX film by National Geographic called "Jerusalem" explores the claim all three faiths have on the holy ground. The film is both grand and intimate in scope, and you can catch it on DVD or stream it on Amazon.
Russian Hacks and Tillerson’s Putin Connection
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Professor, Founding Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
A public dispute is playing out over a secret assessment by the CIA that Russian hackers were doing more than just trying to meddle with the 2016 election – they were out to help Donald Trump win. Trump has rejected the claims as “ridiculous.” The FBI and the Officer of the Director of National Intelligence have also declined to endorse the CIA’s assessment. A bi-partisan group of US Senators is calling for an investigation into the claims, but there’s not a unanimous agreement on the question in Congress.
Why You Probably Shouldn’t Give Young Kids Cold Medicine
Guest: Edward Bell, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Drake University
A sick kid coughing so much that she can’t sleep – and neither can you . . . there are few parenting challenges more frustrating. Especially since doctors and drug manufacturers, over the last 30 years, have been continually revising the guidelines on which over-the-counter cold medicines are okay for kids and which aren’t. Much of what parents used to rely on to ease the cough and help a child sleep really isn’t recommended for youngsters anymore. What’s a tired parent to do?
Fast Food Calorie Labels Don’t Change Habits
Guest: Andrew Breck, Doctoral Candidate at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
In six months, the FDA will require all chain restaurants, with at least 20 locations in the U.S., to display calorie counts on their menus. The idea is that since Americans eat a third of their calories away from home, more info on just what we’re consuming will encourage us to eat healthier.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "The Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Recycling Textiles into New Clothes
Guest: Jana Hawley, PhD, Director of the John and Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Arizona, board member of the Council of Textile Recycling
Those labels on paper and plastic packaging that say what percentage of it is recycled material could, somewhere down the road, end up on your clothes, too. Patagonia, along with several other outdoor apparel companies, have started using recycled textiles—down, zippers, wool, polyester—in some of their products, but the process is so complicated that most clothing companies still rule it out.
Your Smartphone Knows ALL Your Secrets
Guest: Pieter Dorrestein, PhD, Professor of Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego
There’s a scene early in the BBC TV series Sherlock, where Sherlock Holmes deduces pretty much all of John Watson’s personal and family secrets just by looking at the scuff marks on his cell phone. It’s a fun, fanciful exchange. But chemists at the University of California San Diego’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences could give Sherlock a run for his money. By swabbing a cell phone, they can tell what you eat, what you wear and even what medicine you take.
Why Some Sites Change Sales Taxes and Others Don’t
Guest: John Barrick, CPA, Professor of Accountancy, BYU
People still go to stores for their holiday gift purchases, but online Christmas sales continue to tick steadily up each year. So, it’s no wonder states would like to capture tax revenue from online sales. To date, their efforts have been mixed. But the online behemoth Amazon is more willing than it was even a few years ago to strike deals with states to start charging and collecting sales taxes. The latest of these arrangements is with Utah. In local media reports, Utah officials are practically rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of new revenues, while online shoppers look into the camera rather glumly.
NASA is Sending Astronauts to Mars
Guest: Stephen Hoffman, PhD, Senior Systems Engineer and Independent Contractor for NASA’s Journey to Mars Mission
NASA hopes to have astronauts on Mars in the next 20 years. Getting there isn’t really the challenge, since scientists have already figured out how to send rovers to the Red Planet and communicate with them from Earth. The larger questions center on how well humans will hold up on the months-long journey to Mars and where they’ll live and work once they get there.
Real or Fake News?
Guest: Teresa Ortega, Senior Project Manager of the Stanford History Education Group
More than a year ago – long before the outcry over how damaging fake news is online - researchers at Stanford began to study how well young people can tell truth from fiction on the internet. The results are “bleak” to quote the researchers. Most middle school students couldn’t tell ads from news articles and most high school students couldn’t tell real news from fake. College students had trouble judging if a claim in a Tweet came from a biased source.
The Age of Accountability is Making Teachers Miserable
Guest: Marc Tucker, President and CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy
American high school students are falling further behind their international peers in math, and they’re not gaining any ground on science and reading, based on the latest assessment of academic achievement worldwide. Those numbers were released last week. Where does the fault for these failures lie? Is it No Child Left Behind and the policy makers who enforced it for more than a decade? Is it insufficient funding for schools? Is it the obsession with testing and standardized curriculum that now dominates US public schools? Or are teachers to blame – and, if so, how can we hold them better accountable to do right by our kids?
The Correction Official’s Take on Solitary Confinement
Guest: Rick Raemich, Executive Director of the Colorado Dept. of Corrections
More than 50,000 inmates in prisons across the country are spending months – and even years – in solitary confinement. That typically means at least 22 hours of the day alone in a cell roughly the size of a king-sized bed. Research has shown that extended time in such conditions causes mental and physical health problems that are made even worse by the fact that many prisoners held in isolation already suffer from mental illness. The research also shows that putting inmates in confinement does not make prisons safer. So several national corrections organizations now recommend prisons limit how much they use of solitary confinement.
Children’s Christmas Book
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of World’s Awaiting
Rachel Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian, here at BYU, and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Surprise ER Doctor Bills
Guest: Zack Cooper, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Health, Assistant Professor of Economics, Assistant Professor in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University
You go to an emergency room that’s in your insurance network – you make sure of that - and while you’re there, a doctor patches you up. Then comes a bill in the mail and that doctor who took care of you turns out not to have been in the same insurance network as the ER where you went. So you’re on the hook for that out-of-network bill, which is probably hundreds of dollars, because ER doctors don’t come cheap.
Health Insurance Under Trump
Guest: Marc Showalter, PhD, Professor of Economics, BYU
Given the Republican control of Congress and President-elect Trump’s nomination of an outspoken Obamacare critic to head the Department of Health and Human Services, changes are definitely in store for the healthcare in the US. Republican leaders in Congress are pushing to pass a bill, early next year, that would repeal many key provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
Saying Goodbye to Mom-in-Chief, Michelle Obama
Guest: Sara Hayden, PhD, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Montana
America will soon bid farewell to the nation’s first African American first family. So, let’s spend a moment looking at Michelle Obama’s legacy in the role of First Lady. Very early on, she began referring to herself as “mom-in-chief” and reiterated it again during her speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention when Obama was seeking re-election.
Michelle Obama’s focus on her role as a mother to her daughters – and through her Let’s Move program to all of America’s kids – rankled feminists who would rather have seen her place more emphasis on her extensive professional credentials as an attorney and executive.
When Gut Bacteria Eat the Colon
Guest: Eric Martens, PhD, Professor of Microbiology, University of Michigan
According to research done by microbiologists at the University of Michigan Medical School, fiber is an important food source for a certain type of gut bacteria. And if you don’t give those bacteria enough fiber to eat, they’ll start munching on the lining of your colon, instead.
Lion and LA LA Land
Guest: Rod Gustafson, parentpreviews.com
“La La Land” won best picture and best director at the Critic’s Choice Awards over the weekend and got seven Golden Globe Nominations – the most of any film this year.
Treating Muscle Injuries
Guest: Mike Alder, Tech. Transfer, BYU; Robert Hyldahl, Exercise Science Professor, BYU
Use it or lose it is the rule with muscles. So, for people who are unable to exercise, either because of old age, illness or maybe they’re astronauts floating weightless in space, the search is on to find ways of preventing muscles wasting away from lack of use.
This is Where You Belong
Guest: Melody Warnick, author of “This is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live”
How many cities have you lived in? The average American will move at least 11 times in their lifetime. I’ve got 8 under my belt so far. Do you dread moving, or are you a little addicted to it? There’s a thrill to arriving in a totally new place, with new people, new opportunities, and things to discover. Then the honeymoon ends and are you, like Dorothy, dreaming of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow?” And until you find that place, you’re stuck with cities or towns not quite the right fit, never deserving your complete devotion.
Returning Home: Reintegration After Prison or Jail
Guest: Stephen Bahr, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, BYU, author of “Returning Home: Reintegration after Prison or Jail”
The United States locks people up at a higher rate than any other country. We have less than five percent of the world’s population, but the people behind bars in the US make up almost a quarter of the world’s total prison population. The reasons for our high incarceration rate are complex – and we’ll touch on them a bit this hour. But the real focus of our discussion is what happens when those inmates return to society? The number of released inmates is growing quickly, thanks to bipartisan efforts at reforming the justice and prison system. Almost half will end up back behind bars before long.
Deporting the American Dream
Guest: Jacob Rugh, PhD, Professor of Sociology, BYU
Foreclosures and Immigration. The link may not be obvious, but new research, out today in the journal “Sociological Science,” paints a clear picture of how a spike in deportations over the last decade made the housing and foreclosure crisis much, much worse for Latinos in the United States.
Award-Winning Civil-Rights Graphic Novel
Guest: Congressman John Lewis; Andrew Aydin; Nate Powell, Co-Authors
Last month, for the first time ever, a graphic novel won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. It was the third installment of the graphic novel trilogy “March,” which tells the story of the civil rights movement through the eyes of Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who was a central figure in the lunch counter sit-ins, the freedom rides and the March on Washington in 1963 – this was long before he was elected to Congress. “March” is history in comic-form, but it feels very current amid today’s simmering tension between police and communities of color, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Moral Opinions vs. Fact-Based Opinions
Guest: Andy Luttrell, PhD, Student in Social Psychology, Ohio State University
Most of us have opinions that are pretty set-in-stone and some that are a little more flexible. Some prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla, but depending on the quality of the ice cream that opinion can change. On the other hand, most view murder as wrong and are not likely to be convinced otherwise. It’s an opinion based on fundamental moral beliefs about right and wrong. Social science research has shown that we tend to stick more firmly to attitudes and opinions when they’re tied to moral beliefs.
Middle East Panel
Guest: Steven Lobell, Professor of Political Science, U of U: John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, UVU; Josh Gubler, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Let’s look at the latest developments in Syria’s civil war and how Israelis and Palestinians are reacting to the election of Donald Trump, among other things.
Star of Bethlehem
Guest: Grant Mathews, PhD, Professor of Astrophysics and Cosmology, Notre Dame University
Historians, astronomers and religious scholars have puzzled for millennia over the Star of Bethlehem. Was it a new star? A comet? A supernova?
A theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Notre Dame has concluded – after a decade of study – that the star was actually a very rare planetary alignment. And knowing that, he’s pinpointed the exact birthdate of the Christ child. Spoiler alert – it’s not December 25th.
Marijuana Laws Sweeping the Nation
Guest: Karmen Hanson, Healthcare Policy Analyst, Program Director at the National Conference of State Legislatures
The 2016 election was a big one for marijuana. Voters in California, Massachusetts and Nevada all passed laws allowing recreational use of marijuana. Voters in several other states passed medical marijuana use initiatives. Now, more than half of the states allow people to legally use cannabis in some form.
But, from a federal perspective, marijuana is still a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance in the same category as heroin. The DEA recently confirmed that classification, which means, in the federal government’s eyes, there is no safe or legitimate use for marijuana, medical or otherwise.
Newbery Author Kate DiCamillo
Guest: Kate DiCamillo, Author, two-time winner of the Newbery Medal
Kate DiCamillo has won the Newbery Medal twice and two of her books have been made into movies—The Tale of Despereaux and Because of Winn-Dixie. Her heroes are as endearing as they are unlikely: a mouse with ears too big for his body, a worn-out stuffed rabbit, a young girl who thinks that she can save her parents’ marriage if only she can learn to twirl a baton and win the local pageant. That’s Raymie, the hero of “Raymie Nightingale,” Kate diCamillo’s latest novel for older children. She also has a chapter book out for younger readers called “Where Are You Going, Baby Lincoln?”
Before You Upgrade
Guest: Robyn LeBoeuf, Associate Professor of Marketing, Washington University, St. Louis
Are you hankering for an upgrade to your phone, computer or car? Marketers have us pretty well-programmed to know when we’ve fallen behind the times – and let’s face it, whatever we buy is pretty much guaranteed to be obsolete in six months or a year.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio's "Apple Seed"
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Why Songs Get Stuck in Our Heads
Guest: Kelly Jakubowski, PhD, Music Psychologist, Post-doctoral Research Associate, Durham University, UK
We’ve all had those moments when we simply can’t get a song out of our heads. But how does it work? And why do some songs become earworms and others don’t?
Graphic Novel Adaptations of Classics
Guest: Kristin Matthews, Associate Professor of English, BYU
The classic novel Moby Dick has around 700 pages, so that’s one reason a comic book version of the book might be attractive to some readers. The practice of adapting classics into comics has a long history in the US – and a controversial one tied up in Cold War politics and debate over what it means to be a good, literate American youth.
Dakota Pipeline and the Army Corps
Guest: John Freemuth, PhD, Professor of Environmental Policy, Boise State University, Executive Director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy
Construction for a portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline is on hold since the US Army Corps of Engineers announced, Sunday, it would not allow the oil pipeline to cross under a dammed-up section of the Missouri River that is a water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Indian reservation, which is about a half-mile away. Instead, the Army Corps said it will conduct an environmental review to consider alternative routes for construction. That could delay the $3.8 billion pipeline by months – or years.
The companies building the pipeline are expected to appeal the decision and may be counting on President-elect Trump to reverse the situation when he takes office.
The Effect of Religious Experiences on Our Brains
Guest: Jeffrey Anderson, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Radiology, Director of the fMRI Neurosurgical Mapping Service, University of Utah
When someone has a religious experience, what’s really going on? A fascinating effort at the University of Utah called The Religious Brain Project is answering that question using brain imaging. They’ve just released their first findings, which were focused on a couple dozen devout young members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who agreed to lie in an MRI machine while reading scripture and watching uplifting church videos.
The Best Schools Might Not Be Best for Your Child
Guest: Jorg Spenkuch, PhD, Professor of Economics, Northwestern University
Our school system is not doing a good job of serving high-achieving students. If you’re a parent of a kid who is bored in class day in and day out, wouldn’t you jump at the chance to move him to a more advanced class or a top school?
Challenging Gender Discrimination in Nepal
Guest: Cecile Shrestha, Associate Director of Philanthropy at WaterAid
One in three people around the world lacks access to adequate sanitation – including, something as simple as clean water for drinking and cleaning. In developing countries, where sanitation is lacking, women and girls tend to suffer the most, for a variety of reasons we’re going to discuss. And we’re going to focus on Nepal, where a combination of topography and cultural myths make the problem particularly acute.
Why is Gerrymandering Legal?
Guest: Michael Barber, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
The US Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases about the constitutionality of gerrymandering. That’s the practice of one political party redrawing legislative and congressional district boundaries, so it can more easily win elections. It’s totally legal to draw the lines based on political partisanship, according to previous Supreme Court rulings. But drawing the boundary lines based on race is not. What the court’s trying to figure out now, is where the line between partisanship and race lies. If – as is the case in North Carolina – the majority of white voters are Republicans and the majority of African American voters are Democrats, how can the court be sure the boundaries were drawn based on political affiliation and not skin color?
How Doctors Die
Guest: Zara Cooper, MD, Surgeon, Proffessor at Harvard Medical School
That fact is we will all die, but very few of us are comfortable accepting that without making every effort to delay it. Our medical system also defaults to lots of interventions when the end-of-life is near - hospitalization, surgery, invasive treatments. And many, many people have a hard time saying no to intervention, no matter how unlikely it is to prolong life. Saying "no" to last-ditch treatment feels like saying "yes" to death.
But the doctors performing those procedures tend to make very different choices when facing their own death. Researchers have long suspected that doctors choose to die differently than the rest of us. A Harvard Medical School team from the Center for Surgery and Public Health, at Brigham and Women's Hospital, has quantified just how differently doctors die.
India’s Cash Crisis
Guest: Haimanti Bhattacharya, PhD, Professor of Economics, University of Utah
Imagine that when you woke up this morning, everything larger than a $10 in your wallet was suddenly worthless. In order to get your money back, you have to take those worthless tens and twenties to a bank or ATM – but the banks aren’t prepared to handle the crush, so the lines are long and there’s a limit on how much you can swap each day. You have until the end of the year to swap the worthless bills or you’ll just lose the money. Oh, and if you try to use the defunct paper to pay a bill that’s due to today or buy just something for your family’s dinner tonight, you’ll be turned down.
This is exactly what happened in India on November 8th. And the consequences have been dramatic for India’s economy – especially the poor who rely almost exclusively on cash for daily life.
Undocumented College Students
Guest: Tanya Golash-Boza, PhD, Professor of Sociology, UC Merced
President-elect Trump has vowed to end the Obama administration program that gives some young immigrants, who were brought to the country illegally, temporary relief from deportation. In response, college students across the country are calling for their schools to become “sanctuary campuses” where students without legal status in the country could be safe from immigration enforcement. The concept is similar to “sanctuary cities,” which President-elect Trump has also condemned.
It may come as a surprise to you that immigrants without legal status can even enroll in college, but about 30,000 do each year. Getting in is only the start of the struggle.
Lying to Kids About Santa
Guest: Rachael Sharman, Lecturer in Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
Just a quick heads up - If you’ve got young kids listening in right now, you might want to put some headphones on or catch this conversation later on our podcast. We’re going to be talking about the beloved tradition that turns even the most upstanding among us into bold-faced liars this time of year: Santa Claus. Are we right to mislead our kids about how their gifts arrive under the tree? When is it time to come clean with them about Santa?
How Hoodoos Are Formed
Guest: Thomas Morris, PhD, Thomas Morris, Professor Geological Sciences, BYU
Bryce Canyon National Park, here in Utah, looks just a little different this week. If you’ve never been, this is the park famous for tall, spindly rock formations called hoodoos. Bryce Canyon has more hoodoos than any other place in the world. Some of the pictures look like a giant toddler was playing in the mud millennia ago, taking handfuls of mud that was not too wet or too dry and dripping it into totem pole-looking structures that have frozen in time. But they’re actually not frozen. A landmark hoodoo called The Sentinel lost its top half a week or so ago and apparently this kind of thing happens a lot in Bryce Canyon. We just don’t hear much about it. Giving Digital Movies as Gifts
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parentpreviews.com
For most of the 1990s to early 2000s, DVDs were popular gifts to place in Christmas stockings. But Google, Amazon, Netflix and the Internet have ruined that tradition. So, now what?
Pancreatic Cancer Detection
Guest: Mike Alder, Director of the Technology Transfer Office, BYU; John Price, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, BYU
Almost a year ago in his State of the Union address, President Obama announced an aspirational plan to cure cancer – he called it a “moonshot.” There have since been summit meetings and task forces formed and new funding and policies created to target the disease that kills more than half a million people in the US every year. But cancer is not just one disease. Each form has different characteristics and causes and treatment requirements. So “curing cancer” will require a vast army of researchers and doctors and patients participating in experimental trials.
Excellence Gaps in Education
Guest: Sara Hacken, Member of Alpine School District School Board, Recent Winner of Utah’s Teacher of the Year Award; Jonathan Plucker, PhD, Co-author of “Excellence Gaps in Education,” Professor of Talent Development at John Hopkins University School of Education
The last decade under No Child Left Behind saw a lot of money and resources poured into bringing children up to a minimum level of achievement. Minority and low-income students consistently lag behind their white and wealthy peers. But there’s another kind of achievement gap in American education that has received less attention. Their called “excellence gaps” because they happen at the upper end of the achievement spectrum, the children scoring off the charts on standardized tests, sometimes called “gifted” or “advanced.” Up there, the evidence is clear that white, wealthy students have an overwhelming advantage and we’ve made no progress in shrinking the gap between them and their Black, Hispanic, Native American or low-income peers.
History of Wind
Guest: Bill Streever, Biologist and Affiliate Faculty Member with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Author of “And Soon I Heard a Roaring Wind”
Biologist Bill Streever must not like sitting in an office much. For each of his last three books, he’s put himself at the mercy of extreme weather: first heat, then cold, and now wind. Streever is an affiliate faculty member at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, but he splits his time on a sailboat currently in Central America.
Sunni Catastrophe in Iraq
Guest: Liz Sly, Beirut Bureau Chief for the Washington Post
The Islamic State is losing ground. Iraqi government forces – with help from the US and various militia groups – are progressively pushing the terror group out of Mosul, ISIS’s last stronghold in the country. But Washington Post reporter Liz Sly says the real losers, in the long-term, will be the millions of Sunni Muslims who’ve been displaced by the fighting. As she has traveled through Northern Iraq for her latest in-depth report, Sly found a tragic irony: ISIS claims to champion the Sunni sect, so now all Sunnis are at risk of guilt by association. Many may never be allowed to return to their villages again. And that’s not just bad news for Sunnis. It’s bad news for the entire country.
Read Sly’s latest report on what’s ahead for Iraq’s Sunnis here.
Covering Trump’s Transition
Guest: Tommy Burr, President of the National Press Club, Washington Correspondent for the Salt Lake Tribune
Donald Trump has been breaking rules since he first announced his run for office. It’s part of why his fans like him. It’s also causing consternation among journalists tasked with covering the US President. Donald Trump side-steps the media routinely to communicate directly with his 16-million Twitter followers. He belittles media outlets and individual reporters on social media and in speeches. Shortly after his election, he ditched the pool of reporters tasked with keeping tabs on his public activities and went to dinner without letting them tag along. Sounds like a reality TV celebrity dodging pesky paparazzi, doesn’t it? Donald Trump is exactly that. But he’ll also soon be the leader of the free world. What should his relationship with the press look like?
Discriminatory Use of Corporal Punishment in Schools
Guest: Elizabeth Gershoff, PhD, Developmental Psychologist, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin
In some US states, teachers can discipline their students with a paddle across the backside – even if the paddling causes injuries that parents would be prosecuted for inflicting. That’s right: corporal punishment is still in use in US schools, and teachers can be immune from prosecution for injuries caused by it.
Now there’s evidence that corporal punishment is more often used on boys, black students and those with disabilities.
Kenya: A Culture of Running
Guest: Andrew Arnold, Researcher funded by the National Geographic Society, Former Track and Field Team Captain at Cornell University
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Kenya took home 13 medals, most for distance running. They’re legendary for their marathon prowess. And you’ve likely heard the explanation that their bodies have adapted to the high altitude of their country in a way that’s perfect for running.
Cornell University track and field captain Andrew Arnold wasn’t satisfied with that explanation, so he headed to Kenya for six months to see what’s really behind the nation’s success with distance running. What he found was a training culture that, in some ways, is akin to running as a religion for young Kenyans.
Roller Coasters Help Pass Kidney Stones
Guest: David Wartinger, MD, Professor and Urologist at Michigan State University
About one in ten people deal with kidney stones at some point in their life. These hard buildups of calcium in the kidney or urinary tract are extremely painful, and treatment options are limited: you can wait for it to pass or, if it’s big enough, schedule surgery to break it up.
Or you could take a ride on a rollercoaster. No kidding.
An App for the Voiceless
Guest: Rebecca Koszalinski, PhD, Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
When patients are intubated in the hospital, they can go instantly from articulate and talkative to unable to express more than basic thoughts through hand motions or scribbles on message boards. It can be a frustrating experience, but, more than that, it can lead to miscommunication between patients and hospital staff, and even to lapses in care.
South Korea’s President Offers to Resign
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU
We’re starting with South Korea because until this morning, it looked like the country’s president Park Geun-Hye would be impeached this week. But then she made a speech today offering to resign under the direction of parliament. So now it’s unclear if the impeachment proceedings will go forward.
Running a Marathon in Prison
Guest: Isaac Wood, Director of Operations for Track and Field and Cross Country, BYU
The winner of the recent Draper Invitational marathon here in Utah finished in 3 hours and 44 minutes, which is not too far from a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. But this marathon took place in the small yard of the Utah State Prison and the eight men who finished the race are all serving time for serious crimes.
What Laws Reduce Firearm Homicides?
Guest: Eric Fleegler, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Pediatric Emergency Physician at Boston Children’s Hospital
The attack at Ohio State University yesterday was initially reported by campus police on Twitter as an “active shooter” situation. Later, it was confirmed the perpetrator drove his car into a group of people and then got out and started attacking with a knife. A campus police officer shot and killed the attacker. Eleven victims were hospitalized. And like clockwork, the debate over guns flared up on social media and in the press. Gun control advocates reacted to the initial news that the attack involved a shooter by calling for laws that restrict access to firearms. Then, as it became clear this attack didn’t involve a gun, Ohio lawmakers renewed their focus on a measure that would make it easier for people to carry a weapon on campus to defend themselves.
Fostering a Culture of Consent
Guest: Mike Domitrz, Founder of The Date Safe Project, Author of “Can I Kiss You?” and the DVD “Help! My Teen is Dating”
The whole idea of consent often boils down to “No means no.” It’s the concept central to all of these discussions taking place across our country about the problem of sexual assault. But is it really that simple? That “No means no” and “Yes means yes”?
What to Know About Your Child's Lexile Reading Score
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting
Rachel Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Castro’s Cuba
Guest: Jeffrey Shumway, PhD, Professor of History, Coordinator of Latin American Studies, BYU
Since the long-time leader’s passing on Friday, Fidel Castro has been hailed as a hero and condemned as a brutal dictator. The wide range of views on Castro from leaders of other countries underscores just how deeply his regime shaped global politics.
Mental Health and Jail Populations
Guest: Jeff Luck, Associate Professor of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University
More than 1,000 prison inmates have had their sentences shortened by President Obama. Most are serving decades-long sentences for non-violent, low-level drug offenses. Obama says that doesn’t make us safer and it also doesn’t serve taxpayers. Keeping someone in jail in the US costs an average of $60 per day. That cost, combined with overcrowded conditions in prisons, has led to a bi-partisan effort nationwide to change the way sentences are handed out in the criminal justice system.
A new study by public health researchers at Oregon State University, suggests there could also be savings to the prison system if communities invested more in mental health services.
Tips for a Green Holiday
Guest: Michael Caron, Horticulturist, Professor at the Utah State University Extension at Thanksgiving Point
Is the tree up at your house? Wreath on the door? Poinsettias by the hearth? Let’s get some tips on how to keep your holidays green and your indoor plants thriving until Spring, when you can head back out to the flower beds.
Moana
Guest: Rod Gustafson, parentpreviews.com
Disney’s new animation “Moana” dominated at the box office over the Thanksgiving holiday. Set in the South Pacific, Moana is the daughter of a chief who sets out on an ocean voyage to save her island and their way of life. But first she has to recruit the help of a vain demi-god named Maui, voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Sign Language Glasses
Guest: Dave Brown, Technology Transfer Office, BYU; Michael Jones, Computer Science Professor, BYU
When Google launched its Google Glasses in 2013, everyone talked like the future had arrived – the ability to see the world around you and also see something projected on your glasses from your computer would make us so much more efficient and wired-at-all-times. But Google Glasses flopped as a consumer gadget and the company quietly ended the project last year. Consumers may not have been excited to wear goofy spectacles that let them read emails as they walked in the park, but researchers have been all over the Google Glass concept for other purposes. Here at BYU, they’ve worked out a way to help deaf students follow lectures and even planetarium exhibits using digital eyewear.
Falling for Financial Fraud
Guest: Amy Oliver, Trial Attorney at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Salt Lake Regional Office
All the festive gatherings that reconnect us with family and friends can also open the door to you or a loved one being taken for a ride. The savviest of fraudsters trade in affinity – they tap into you through someone you know and trust.
For more information on the SEC Financial Fraud Whistleblower program, click here.
Empathy Across Cultures
Guest: William Chopik, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University
The election has many people wondering if we, as Americans, can understand and relate to people who believe different things or have different life experiences. Have we lost the ability to walk a bit in another’s shoes? New research aims to compare empathy levels between citizens of different countries.
Black Friday Economics
Guest: Jay Walker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, Niagara University
Last year 35 million Americans ventured out on Thanksgiving Day to shop for deals. Black Friday sales are no longer just on Friday, though there’s been some public backlash to the way Christmas is creeping up on Thanksgiving. Stores are responding.
This time of year is great for retailers. But is it great for shoppers?
Facebook, Fake News and Democracy
Guest: Kelly Garrett, PhD, Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Ohio State University
Almost half of Americans get their news from Facebook on a regular basis. But on Facebook, as numerous investigative reports have made clear in recent days, not all news is actual news. Opportunists took unprecedented advantage of social media during the election creating bogus stories that went viral and earned their creators boatloads of cash off all the clicks. A BuzzFeed News analysis found the fake news and conspiracy theories from one particular hyper partisan right-wing site got more shares, reactions and comments on Facebook than stories from the Washington Post or the New York Times.
Fake news may not have won Donald Trump the election, but people profiting off fake news definitely won the election. So now the question is, should Facebook fix the problem? Can it?
Voter ID Laws Can Affect Election Outcomes
Guest: Mary Gray, PhD, Math and Statistics Professor, American University
In the recent election, voters in 32 states were required to show some form of ID before voting. These laws have become increasingly common in recent years – backed primarily by Republicans concerned about the possibility of people voting fraudulently. Voting rights activists say the laws are more likely to disenfranchise poor and minority voters – and the courts have agreed in some states, striking down the laws.
The big question now is whether or not these laws actually did affect the 2016 election outcome. In Milwaukee, the city’s election chief says the ID law caused problems at the polls that likely led to lower voter turnout. Liberal news outlets have concluded the same effect was in play across the country and helped Donald Trump win. But studies that say so, definitively, have not been done.
Check Out a Book in the Human Library
Guest: Sarah Christensen, Visual Resources and Outreach Specialist, Co-Organizer of the Human Library, University of Illinois Library; Nisha Mody, Graduate Assistant, Co-Organizer of the Human Library, University of Illinois Library
The axiom is that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover - and you shouldn’t judge a person that way either. An organization called The Human Library takes that analogy literally. Around the world, they stage events in which people volunteer to be “books” with titles like “Homeless,” “Muslim,” “Refugee,” “Bipolar.” Readers “check-out” one of these human books by sitting down to have a one-on-one chat there in the human library. The project is about helping people get beyond the labels that so often define us in public and see the humanity in others.
US and Japan Relations in a Trump World
Guest: Toshihiro Nakayama, Professor of American Politics, Foreign Policy in the Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University; Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs
Over the weekend, leaders of China, Russia, Mexico, Japan and several Asian countries met in Peru for a trade summit that was to be a victory lap for President Barack Obama and his Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. But that deal appears dead now, given President-elect Trump’s strong opposition to it.
On his way to that meeting, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a stop in New York to be the first world leader to have a face-to-face with Donald Trump since the election. Abe said he wanted to “build trust” with the incoming US president. His eagerness to be the first from the region to sit down with Trump carries some important symbolism, too.
College Art Museums Expanding Their Role
Guest: Jacoba Urist, contributing writer for The Atlantic
This time of year, the arms race going on among university athletic departments is on full display: Non-stop television coverage of college football and basketball games gives a close-up look at the latest-and-greatest in stadium and arena construction, lighting and digital signs universities are installing to attract talented athletes, sell tickets and keep boosters happy.
There’s similar rush to upgrade and outshine going on across campus at the college museum. You could call it an “arts race,” as Jacoba Urist does in her recent article for The Atlantic titled, “Why Do Colleges Have so Much Art?”
Benefits of Thanksgiving Rituals
Guest: Barbara Fiese, PhD, Director of the Family Resiliency Center, Professor of Human Development & Family Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
I think it’s fair to say a lot of us are anticipating Thanksgiving with a mix of excitement and dread, which Saturday Night Live captured perfectly in this spoof of a Target commercial over the weekend.
Given how stressful these holiday gatherings can be, are they really worth it?
“Flowers” and Basque Culture
Guest: David Laraway, PhD, Department Chair for the Spanish and Portuguese, BYU
Films in the Basque language are relatively rare. However, one made history this year as Spain’s entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars. Never before had Spain submitted a film in Basque for that honor. For much of the 1900s, under the regime of Francisco Franco, people weren’t supposed to speak Basque in public.
So this film – called “Flowers,” in English – is an important marker in Basque history, both for the language spoken and the story it tells.
Fantastic Beasts
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
People who were 11 when the first Harry Potter book came out are now 30 years old. It’s these aging Potter fans who were swept up in the first wave of JK Rowling’s wizard tale that are still turning out for her latest installment – “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”
Solar-Powered Public Spaces
Guest: John Salmon, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BYU; Mike Alder, Director of the Tech Transfer Office, BYU
If every house in the country were to have rooftop solar panels, they’d be enough to supply 40-percent of the power we use in the U.S. That’s according to analysis published earlier this year by the US Energy Department. Now imagine how that number might grow if bus stops, street benches, garbage cans and picnic tables were outfitted to capture solar energy.
America’s Great Depression Food Legacy
Guest: Andrew Coe, Authors of “A Square Meal”
Depressing. There’s really no other word to describe the cuisine of the Great Depression as explored in the new book, “A Square Meal.” Loaves of mystery ingredients, chopped meat in white sauce on slices of white bread, casseroles swimming in cream of chicken soup, “salads” made of canned fruit mixed with gelatin and mayonnaise.
All of those things still show up at church potlucks. They don’t represent the finest that American food has to offer, that’s for sure. But for some reason, the culinary influence of the Great Depression stays with us. And with the feasting and potluck holiday season upon us, what better time to consider the origins of these quintessentially American offerings?
Dying Well - The Role of Palliative Care
Guest: Timothy Ihrig, MD, Palliative Care Physician and CEO of Ihrig MD & Associates
The end comes for all of us. Some, like 100-year-old Robert Allman in Tennessee, will have a surprising number of years to check things off our bucket list: last month Allman parachuted out of an airplane. For others, the end will come suddenly and too soon. But many of us will spend time in a middle zone, declining unevenly with age or suffering from a long illness or faced with a fast-moving terminal one. How to make sure those days, months, and years are spent comfortably, and with dignity – that’s the goal of palliative care. The field is generally misunderstood.
A third of US hospitals don’t even offer it to their patients.
But, the growing concern over health care costs in America has given palliative care more of a place in the conversation. Unnecessary interventions at the end of life cost a lot of money and also tend to cause more pain and heartache for patients and their families.
Journalism’s Day of Reckoning
Guest: Kyle Pope, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review
A day of reckoning for journalists. That is what Kyle Pope, editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journalism Review, calls this moment. He says the failure of journalists to understand Donald Trump’s appeal and real potential for victory in the 18 months before the election stands “among journalism’s greatest failures.”
100 Love Notes Reborn
Guest: Hyong Yi, Author of “The #100 Love Notes Project”
The anniversary of a loved one’s death is typically a private affair for those who grieve. But as the first anniversary of his wife Catherine’s death approached, Hyong Yi feared the grief would overtake him. So, he decided to write their story as a series of 100 love notes – each just three lines long, written from her perspective and his. They’re whimsical, tender, and achingly poignant. We know this because on Nov. 20th of last year, Yi and his two children took the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, where they live, to hand the notes out to strangers. The Love Notes went viral: They were translated into more than a dozen languages and covered by media outlets worldwide. Now, as the second anniversary of Catherine’s death approaches, Yi’s love notes have been paired with art commissioned by 17 artists and published in a book called, “The #100 Love Notes Project: A Love Story.”
Why Soda Companies Sponsor Health Organizations
Guest: Michael Siegel, MD, Professor of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Boston University
Coca-Cola sponsors the Olympics, the NBA, and the FIFA world cup. Has it ever struck you as odd that a maker of sugary drinks linked to obesity would sponsor athletes and organizations that focus on fitness and health?
Public health researchers, at Boston University, set out to see just how wide these sponsorships go and what the consequences might be for our health. Their findings are published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.
Terror, Detention and Torture under President Trump
Guest: Ryan Vogel, Professor of National Security, Foreign Policy and the Law of Armed Conflict, Founding Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University
As President-elect, Trump works to fill his cabinet, four of the 15 positions are directly related to national security issues – State, Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security. His picks to fill those posts will give us a clearer indication of how closely President Trump will align with “Candidate Trump” on issues such as how the US will target, detain and interrogate suspected terrorists and how far the nation will go to monitor communication of American citizens.
Origin of Flight in Birds
Guest: Michael Habib, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Research Associate in the Dinosaur Institute at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
A region in Southern China has become a hotspot for dinosaur discoveries: in the last five years, half a dozen bird-like dinos have been unearthed there. The latest was found by construction workers building a new school. The name they gave it translates into: “Muddy dragon on the road to heaven” and it appears to have perished after getting stuck in the mud. It has a beak, a crest on its head, wings and feathers. But scientists say it probably couldn’t fly.
Three Things Effective Bosses Do
Guest: Kathryn Shaw, PhD, Ernest C. Arbuckle Professor of Economics, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
TV comedies are riddled with bad bosses: Michael Scott from The Office, Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation, for example. We love to laugh at their terrible ideas, or their disinterest in being ‘good’ at their job.
But what makes a good boss? Is it the one who gets to know the names of your kids or brings treats to the office or makes motivational speeches in staff meetings?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share talks of tellers and stories.
Will & Jane and the Cult of Celebrity
Guest: Janine Barchas, PhD, English Professor, University Texas, Austin; Kristina Straub, PhD, English Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
William Shakespeare and Jane Austen were recently featured together in an unusual exhibit at the very serious Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. It’s a venue where scholars go to study First Folios of The Bard’s plays.
This latest exhibit was unusual because Shakespeare had never before shared the library’s Great Hall with another writer. And because the displays included quite a bit of pop culture and whimsy alongside the more serious stuff you’d expect to see in a literary exhibition. Bobblehead toys of Will and Jane, for example. And a certain long white tunic from the wardrobe vault of the 1995 BBC adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice.” Mr. Darcy fans know the one. . .and they turned out by the bus load to swoon over it.
From Illiterate Childhood to Novel Writer
Guest: Othello Bach, Author
Words have shaped Othello Bach’s life. First, it was her inability to decipher them – she was illiterate until the 8th grade. When she finally did discover the secret to reading, words brought an escape from her miserable life in an orphanage and restored a bit of her self-confidence. She became a prolific letter writer and then tried her hand at novels and published her first at the age of 25. It just never occurred to her that publishing a book wasn’t something a girl who’d been illiterate most of her childhood could do. She went on to publish several novels that sold tens of thousands of copies and several children’s books, too. “Whoever Heard of a Fird?” is her most successful. Othello Bach’s memoir is called, “Cry Into the Wind.”
Vid Angel Gets Its Day in Court
Guest: Peter Midgley, Director of the BYU Copyright Liscensing Office; Ty Turley-Trejo, Licensing Administrator, BYU Copyright Liscensing Office
Family-friendly entertainment is harder to find on the networks and is definitely rare on cable channels. During the Presidential Campaign it was even hard to find family-friendly news broadcasts.
A streaming movie filtering service, VidAngel, believes the hunger for clean entertainment is so big it’s willing to go all the way to the US Supreme Court for it. Recently, the company raised $10 million from supporters to help fund that fight. Major Hollywood studios, including Disney and Warner Brothers, are hoping to see the company shut down long before that. On Monday, a federal judge heard several hours of arguments from both sides about whether or not to temporarily shut VidAngel down while the lawsuit plays out over copyright laws.
The Future of Libraries
Guest: Miguel Figueroa, Director of the American Library Association Center for the Future of Libraries
Today’s college students have lived their entire lives with access to the internet. Their whole lives they’ve been able to access almost any information they need online and have had, perhaps, less use for the library than any other generation. Books, even, are offered in electronic format to public library patrons.
Risk of Chronic Health Problems After Removing Ovaries
Guest: Dr. Walter Rocca, MD, Mayo Clinic
Ovarian cancer is so deadly that doctors sometimes encourage women in need of a hysterectomy to have their ovaries removed as a precautionary measure. Women who test positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation, tied to breast and ovarian cancer, have been known to remove their ovaries as a preemptive strike. The actress Angelina Jolie is a prominent example.
A team of researchers at the Mayo Clinic have now concluded that having both ovaries removed carries significant risks for other diseases and that women under 50 should not have them removed unless they’re at high-risk for ovarian cancer.
Mobile Devices are Running Productivity
Guest: Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, Founding Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center, Author of “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World”
About two thirds of Americans have a smartphone. Because of this, we’ve become a nation of multi-taskers. We can answer emails in the middle of meetings, text while we’re at sports games, or create a spreadsheet while the kids play on the floor at our feet. But we’re really not as effective as we think we are at getting any one single task done.
Convincing Young Adults to Invest
Guest: Bryan Sudweeks, PhD, Associate Teaching Professor of Finance, BYU
This past spring, a Harris Poll found that nearly 80% of millennials are not invested in the stock market. Citing a lack of money, crushing student debt or a lack of knowledge, young adults have been reticent to invest in stocks. What will their financial future hold for them and how can any of us, regardless of our age, know if we’re making the right investment decisions for our own situation?
www.personalfinance.byu.edu
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio
Worlds Awaiting is a show where the conversation is always about encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It’s a show for grownups who want to help the kids in their lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them.
Melania Trump as First Lady
Guest: Kate Andersen Brower, Author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies”
Melania Trump received a private tour of the White House residence last week from Michelle Obama. That’s a tradition dating back decades. As tradition goes, Melania Trump is unusual – she speaks with a Slovenian accent and is only the second American First Lady to have been born outside the United States. She’s a former super model who once posed nude – that’s a first for First Ladies. And another first is her status as third wife of the president. But when she gets to the White House, author Kate Andersen Brower expects Melania Trump to be ultra-traditional in the role in comparison to her modern predecessors.
Single-Gender Schools
Guest: Bette Heins, PhD, Professor of Education, Stetson University
All-boys or all-girls schools carry either an antiquated Catholic school connotation or the posh-Ivy-league prep aura in US education today. Segregating students by gender is very, very rare in public schools – even on the classroom level. But The Atlantic magazine recently profiled a couple of all-girls public charter schools in California and Colorado that got us thinking about the concept again. These schools happen to be focused on preparing girls for STEM fields – the science, technology, engineering and math careers that tend to be male-dominated.
Metabolism Tips for the Holidays
Guest: Taylor Newhouse, Registered Dietitian with the Texas A&M School of Public Health
Oh, the holidays are coming, with all their emotional highs and lows and the simmering annoyance with that person in your life who can say yes to all the holiday delicacies without any worries because they have such a fast metabolism. The rest of us will put on a few pounds in the coming weeks, if the research is correct. Short of just saying “no” to everything tasty, is there anything you can do to give your metabolism a head start on the holiday eating season?
Why People Don’t Flee Natural Disasters
Guest: Jennifer Horney, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Texas A&M University
Once a hurricane hits and floodwaters start to rise, helicopter camera crews inevitably capture heartbreaking scenes of people clinging to their rooftops in hopes of a rescue—as we recently saw after Hurricane Matthew in the southeast. At those moments, those of us sitting comfortably at home are tempted to wonder, “Why didn’t those people leave when evacuation was ordered?”
Arrival and Almost Christmas
Guest: Rod Gustafson, parentpreview.com
A rare piece of entertainment from outer-space arrived over the weekend – rare because currently the film Arrival is getting overwhelmingly positive reviews from both critics and audiences. Just check out its score on Rotten Tomatoes. And, it’s rare because it’s an alien movie that’s not about all-out-war to protect the human species from invaders. They do not blow up the White House or the Empire State Building in this film. Yes, the aliens have arrived on Earth. But the star of Arrival is a language expert played by Amy Adams.
Artificial Blood Vessels that Grow with the Body
Guest: Robert Tranquillo, PhD, Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota
Tens of thousands of babies in America are born each year with a congenital heart defect. Many will need surgery to survive. And then, as they grow, they’ll need multiple open-heart surgeries to replace the original graft materials doctors used to fix the defects. At the moment, there aren’t any tissue or blood vessel graft materials that will grow along with the child.
But biomedical engineers at the University of Minnesota are making progress on that. Their latest work appears in the journal Natural Communications.
End of the Clinton Era in Politics
Guest: Russell Riley, PhD, Associate Professor at the Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, Co-Chair of the Presidential Oral History Program, Author of “Inside the Clinton White House: An Oral History”
The Washington Post noted this week that Donald Trump took down two dynasties in “disposing first of Jeb Bush and then Hillary Clinton” on his way to winning the White House. If, as many suspect, the Clinton era in politics is now over, what legacy do Bill and Hillary leave behind? Did they change American politics or the White House in any lasting way? Did their twenty-plus years in the public eye contribute to Hillary’s defeat? What effect have the Clintons had on political partisanship and the way Americans feel about government?
Social Media’s Influence on US Elections
Guest: Richard Davis, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU, Co-Editor of “Twitter and Elections Around the World”; Leticia Bode, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Culture, and Technology, Georgetown University
Wind the clock back eight years and you’ll recall one of the big stories of Barack Obama’s election was how his campaign harnessed the power of social media to raise money and get out the vote. Twitter and Facebook were still fairly new. At the time, Obama had a 112-thousand Twitter followers which impressed a lot of people.
That’s pretty quaint when you look at the 14 million followers Donald Trump has on Twitter and Hillary Clinton’s 11 million. (Obama now has 79 million Twitter followers.) Did social media help Donald Trump win the election? Did journalists underestimate Trump because they were too comfortably ensconced in the political echo chamber of their own Twitter feeds? Did viral fake news stories and ugly exchanges on Facebook exacerbate the divisiveness of the election? Or, was 2016 a triumph for social media as a force to energize and inform voters?
America Trumps UK Brexit Vote
Guest: David Kirkham, PhD, Academic Director of the BYU London Center, Senior Fellow at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at the BYU Law School
America’s Brexit. That’s what some are calling Donald Trump’s presidential victory and, while campaigning, Trump himself promised to deliver “Brexit times five." The parallels are clear: A swelling of public support for a side that the pundits and pollsters thought couldn’t possibly succeed; those same pollster and political elites left scratching their heads in shock the morning after the election. Trump supporters and Brexit supporters also share some of the same sentiments about issues.
"Fearful Odds" and the Hidden Toll of PTSD
Guest: Chuck Newhall, Vietnam Veteran, Author of "Fearful Odds: A Memoir of Vietnam and Its Aftermath"
Doctors during the Civil War era called PTSD “soldier’s heart” or “nostalgia.” By World War I, it was referred to as “shell shock.” Soldiers back from Vietnam were the first combat veterans to get the official diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. More than 20-percent of veterans returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated to have mental health conditions including PTSD, anxiety disorder or depression.
Why Kids Graffiti
Guest: Lynne Vieraitis, PhD, Head of Criminology Program, University of Texas, Dallas
Graffiti is an expensive and perplexing problem for cities. Billions of dollars go into scrubbing it clean every year, only to see more spray-painted “tags,” as they’re called, pop up. The taggers rarely get caught and strategies to make them stop are hard to come by. In Denver, there are designated areas where people have permission to do graffiti. It remains to be seen whether that actually stops people from tagging other walls, overpasses and buses.
Middle East Under President Trump
Guest: Steven Lobell, PhD, Political Science Professor, University of Utah; John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, UVU; Fred Axelgard, PhD, Senior Fellow at BYU's Wheatley Institution
As is customary in a presidential transition, Donald Trump will now begin receiving the same intelligence briefings that President Obama receives every morning. We don’t know what’s discussed in those briefings, but the Middle East surely comes up regularly. The US is engaged in on-going efforts to push back ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Two major offensives are under way in the ISIS strongholds of Mosul and Raqqa. The US also backs a Saudi-led campaign against rebels in Yemen. And there’s the refugee crisis which continues to destabilize the region. So, let’s turn to our monthly panel of Middle East experts for thoughts on what might change in the Middle East when President-elect Trump takes office and begins implementing his own foreign policy.
Educating Child Brides in India
Guest: Jacqueline de Chollet, Founder of the Veerni Institute; Mahendra Sharma, Local Director of the Veerni Institute
One in three girls in the developing world is married before the age of 18, many much younger than that. In some parts of India, girls are married off as young as nine. At puberty, the child bride is sent to work as a servant in the home of her in-laws. Child marriage is illegal in India, but the old customs run deep in parts of the country where young girls continue to be married off in secret. For them, education and employment are out of the question.
How Trump Won
Guest: Jeremy Pope, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU; Michael Barber, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
There’s still a lot of head-scratching and finger-wagging over the election outcome. There will be for some time to come. But we have more clarity on the future than we did yesterday. So let’s get some analysis from a professor of political science at BYU.
Mixed-Race Couples in America
Guest: Ryan Gabriel, PhD, Professor of Sociology, BYU
The new film Loving tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving. He was white, she was black. Their marriage was at the center of the landmark US Supreme Court case Loving vs. Virginia, some fifty years ago, challenging anti-miscegenation laws.
They won, and mixed-race romance has become widely accepted in America. Pew Research analysis of Census data finds, that about 1 in 8 people who get married chose someone of a different race.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Tracking Ecstasy Through Prices
Guest: Siddharth Chandra, PhD, Director of the Asian Studies Center, Professor of Economics, Michigan State University
Among US teens and college students, a synthetic drug called MDMA is widespread. Ecstasy or Molly are the more common names and it’s known as a party drug because of its energizing and psychedelic effects. It’s a version of methamphetamine. It’s popular at night clubs, raves and music festivals.
It’s also a bit of a puzzle for drug enforcement officials trying to intercept traffickers.
How to Fix America’s Political Gender Gap
Guest: Jessica Preece, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Hillary Clinton came as close as a woman ever has to becoming President of the United States. Her failure cements, for another four years, America’s status on a shrinking list of global democracies that have never had a female head of state. Germany, Brazil, India, Britain and half of the world’s most populous nations have all had women in their highest political office. Looking down the ballot to US Congress and state legislatures, women hold fewer than a quarter of seats.
The Reason Swing States Exist
Guest: Bill Schneider, PhD, Visiting Professor of Communications, UCLA
270. That’s the number of electoral votes it takes to win the White House. If you look at an election map of the US, you’ll see red and blue states that experts consider reliably Republican or Democratic. And then you’ll see purple states – they’re toss-ups, swing states, battleground states – lots of different names. They are where the race will be decided.
Obituaries and Culture in America
Guest: Janice Hume, PhD, Head of the Department of Journalism, University of Georgia
If you still get a print newspaper on your doorstep each morning, what do you flip to first? At a certain age, many people can’t resist looking at the obituaries right away. It’s not a morbid thing. For friends and family, obituaries are a way of celebrating an individual life. For strangers, there’s a kind of community connection that comes from reading about someone who breathed the same air and travelled the same streets as them. Taken together, obituaries are a historical record of society and what it values.
What Kind of Government Did the Founding Fathers Want?
Guest: Peter Kastor, PhD, Chair of the Department of History, Washington University St. Louis
This – like all presidential elections – is a big day in America. It’s the day when ordinary citizens decide what kind of a country we want to live in; what kind of a leader we want; what role we want government to play in our lives in the form of taxes, regulations, and social safety net programs. Do we want government to be bigger or not? Have we strayed too far from the intent of the founding fathers, or not?
Scandal and Shamans in South Korean Politics
Guest: Mark Peterson, PhD, Associate Professor of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, BYU
Tens of thousands of South Koreans protested in Seoul over the weekend, even blocking a 16-lane highway as they called for President Park Geun-hye to resign. President Park is embroiled in a scandal involving her spiritual advisor, who is suspected of acting as a shadow-president or modern-day Rasputin. President Park has not agreed to step down, but she has apologized and today agreed to let parliament choose the next prime minister, which is a major concession of power on her part.
Teens Rebel by Eating Healthy
Guest: Christopher Bryan, PhD, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science, FMC Faculty Scholar, University of Chicago
Health experts would like to get teens to eat less junk food, so they bombard them with warnings about how bad it is for their bodies. And they hammer home the need for healthy choices, balanced meals, the food pyramid and so on. But face it: for most teens those messages amount to “yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah.” Researchers at the University of Chicago and University of Texas have landed on a better approach that taps into the age-old adolescent desire to rebel against authority. The researchers basically convinced a bunch of 8th graders that Big Sugar and Big Fat were manipulating them into eating junk food, and that if they really wanted to “stick-it-to-the-man” they should say “No” to chips and soda.
Opioid Painkillers Might Cause More Pain
Guest: Peter Grace, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Care Research, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Opioids, including morphine, fentanyl, and oxycodone, are powerful painkillers whose use has increased dramatically over the last few decades, as has concern for how addictive and overdose-prone they are.
New research suggests opioids may not always help with pain – in lab rats with nerve damage, morphine was found to intensify the pain and make it last longer.
How Exit Polling Works
Guest: David Magleby, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU
Tomorrow, news media will call the election long before all the ballots are counted. One reason they can do that with confidence is because of exit polls.
Utah is considered by some to be a toss-up for the presidential race this time around, because independent Evan McMullin has drawn a fair amount of support. As a result, the Republican candidate isn’t a clear shoo-in to win Utah as has been the case in the past. So, you may actually hear the Utah Colleges Exit Poll cited on some national news outlets tomorrow night.
Did You Really Need that MRI?
Guest: Daniel Wolfson, Executive Vice President and COO of American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation
For the past decade in American medicine, there’s been a less-is-more movement pushing back against the idea that doctors and patients should pull out all stops, conduct all tests, do all interventions. Maybe you recall a New Yorker article in 2009 that got a lot of attention for highlighting a hospital in Texas called McAllen Medical Center that was found to have the highest health care costs per person in the entire country. The reason was not that the hospital’s patients were sicker than at other hospitals. It was that doctors at McAllen were ordering lots and lots of tests and treatments. But, their patients weren’t made any healthier, for the extra work.
In fact, part of this less-is-more push in medicine is the fact that sometimes extra tests and interventions actually do more harm to a patient. But how do you tell a doctor not to do something a patient wants adamantly? How do you convince a patient not to have a test or intervention when we’re conditioned to believe that, in health and medicine, more is the best approach? These are the goals of an ongoing campaign by the American Board of Internal Medicine called “Choosing Wisely.”
Racially-Segregated Preschools
Guest: Erica Frankenberg, PhD, Associate Professor of Education and Demography, Pennsylvania State University, Co-Director of the Center for Education and Civil Rights
More American children are going to pre-school, which experts consider a good thing, particularly for children who are economically disadvantaged and need the extra learning boost. But a worrisome trend of racial segregation has emerged in US pre-schools. The typical black or Hispanic preschooler attends a school where more than half of the students are from his or her same race. Conversely, more than a fifth of white students attend preschools that are almost entirely white.
Is Daylight Saving Worth It?
Guest: Laura Grant, PhD, Claremont McKenna College
It’ll be darker when you get home from work tonight, thanks to that quirky clock-changing thing we do twice a year. What’s the point of Daylight Saving Time? Nearly a dozen state legislatures tried – and failed – to opt out of it last year, so clearly the value is in question.
Dr. Strange and Trolls
Guest: Rod Gustafson, parentpreviews.com
He’s been in a Star Trek movie and the Hobbit series and starred as Sherlock Holmes, so really it was only a matter of time before Benedict Cumberbatch got a superhero movie. The Disney/Marvel movie Dr. Strange did better than expected at the box office over the weekend.
Securing the Internet of Things
Guest: Dave Brown, Tech Transfer, BYU; Todd Berrett, Managing Director of Infrastructure Services in the Office of Information Technology, BYU
There are lots of advantages to this “Internet of Things” as it’s called. There are also serious security concerns: like when hackers tap into baby monitor cameras, or harness the connectivity of blu-ray players and other internet-enabled devices to orchestrate an attack on a key internet service provider. That actually happened a few weeks ago and was a real wake-up call to the industry.
When the System Fails Kids
Guest: Rosie Maloney, Author of "Girl Unbroken"; Regina Calcaterra, Author of "Etched in Sand"
Most people who read the memoirs of Regina Calcaterra and Rosie Maloney probably have a moment where they just have to stop for a bit because it’s so grim. And they’re thinking - how could this possibly happen to kids in America, when we have a whole child welfare system set up to make sure they’re safe and cared for?
Preserving Languages
Guest: Chris Rogers, Assistant Professor in Department of Linguistics and English Language, BYU; Dirk Elzinga, Associate Professor of Linguistics of English Language, BYU
Over the last century, hundreds of languages have disappeared from the Earth: not a soul remains who can speak them. And the same fate awaits hundreds more languages in the coming decades. Most of us don’t think much about this notion that a language could become extinct, because nearly 80 percent of the world’s population shares just a handful of native tongues – Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi and Arabic are the top five. What does it take to save a language, and why is it worth the effort?
Climate Change Agreement Takes Effect
Guest: Brigham Daniels, JD, PhD, Environmental Law Professor, BYU
Tomorrow the Paris Climate Agreement goes into full-effect. Which is just a few days before the US elects a new president who may or may not agree with the greenhouse gas emission reduction goals outlined in the agreement. What exactly does the Paris Agreement commit us to? And will the next president have to uphold it?
Can the Next President Fix Washington?
Guest: Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield, Jr. Chairman of the Nonpartisan Stimson Center, Washington, D.C.
Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are historically unpopular as presidential candidates, as is Congress. The outcome of the election on Tuesday will be as much about that unpopularity as anything else. Americans are unhappy with what’s going on in Washington. Will things get better after Tuesday?
Scanning Fingerprints in Developing Countries
Guest: Anil Jain, PhD, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University
The World Health Organization says roughly one-and-a-half million children die each year from diseases that could have been prevented with a vaccine, such as diphtheria, whooping cough and measles. The death rates are highest in underdeveloped countries where health care providers struggle to track the medical histories of children.
Fall Gardening
Guest: Max Darrington, Arborist, BYU; Taun Beddes, Horticulturist, Utah State Univeristy; Michael Caron, Thanksgiving Point
Depending on where you live in the country, you could be looking at the final few weeks of lawn mowing for the season. Or you may be buried in an endless pile of leaves taunting you and your rake. Maybe you’re worried about getting your bulbs in before the ground freezes.
Fall is an important time for yards and gardens – and I’ll admit there’s a lot I don’t know about how to get my lawn, flowerbeds and fruit trees ready for winter. Last fall we reconvened our panel of experts for the hour to offer us some tips on how to get ready.
Addressing Sexual Assault at BYU
Guest: Julie Valentine, PhD, Nursing Professor, BYU; Ben Ogles, PhD, Dean of College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, Professor of Psychology, BYU; Jan Scharman, PhD, Student Life Vice President, Licensed Psychologist, BYU; Sandra Rogers, PhD, International Vice President, BYU
Sexual Assault is a challenge universities across the country are grappling with. They’re creating stricter rules for alcohol use on campus and establishing committees to improve their response to sexual assault reports. A four-person advisory council, established to look at this issue at Brigham Young University, has just completed its work and all of its recommendations have been accepted by campus leaders. That includes adopting an amnesty clause from sanctions related to honor code violations the victim may have engaged in at or near the time of the sexual assault.
Developing and Anti-Aging Pill
Guest: Matt Kaeberlein, PhD, Professor of Pathology, University of Washington, Co-Director of the Dog Aging Project
For as long as humans have been around, we’ve been searching for a way to live longer – the legendary Fountain of Youth.
A compound first discovered 50 years ago in soil from Easter Island has recently been shown to have life-prolonging effects in mice. Researchers are now testing it in dogs – and humans could be next.
Zion National Park’s New Visitation Rules
Guest: Alyssa Baltrus, Spokesman for Zion National Park, Chief of Interpretation and Visitor Services
In the 100th year of the National Park Service, it’s clear we still think the parks are “America’s best idea” – as Wallace Stegner once said. Now many of the most iconic parks are experiencing overcrowding, which brings erosion, pollution and long lines. Here in Utah, the problem is particularly acute at Zion National Park, where attendance numbers break records every year. Nearly half a million more people visited Zion last year than did in 2014. Park officials are now considering a plan to limit the number of visitors in some of Zion’s most popular areas.
Click here for more information about submitting comments on the proposal.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
How Violence at Home Affects the Whole Classroom
Guest: Scott E. Carrell, PhD, Professor of Economics, University of California, Davis
At least one out of every ten kids in America is exposed to some form of family violence each year. If you think about the typically school class of about 30 kids, that means three of those students are experiencing violence at home. The extent to which that domestic violence spills over into the classroom is the focus of more than a decade of research. Recent studies suggest that, having kids from troubled families in a class brings down the overall performance of their peers. But there’s some encouraging news in the research, too.
Redefining the American Dream
Guest: Courtney Martin, Author of “The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream”
“With hard work, anything is possible in America.” That’s one of our founding tenets, along with the idea that each hard working generation can be more prosperous than the last. But today in America, the majority of parents do not believe their kids will be better off than they were.
Presidential Politics
Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Grant Madsen, Professor of History, BYU
There's only one more week until the presidential election is all over. Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen are back for some final thoughts on how things have played out.
Jekyll and Hyde Burying Beetles
Guest: Mark Belk, PhD, Professor of Biology, BYU
Burying beetles are known for embalming their prey, cannibalizing their young and also being very doting parents. Real Jekyll and Hyde-types, these beetles.
Biometric Smart-Gun
Guest: Kai Kloepfer, Inventor, MIT Undergrad
If you can require a fingerprint to unlock your iPhone, why not require a fingerprint to unlock a gun? Advocates of smart-gun technology claim it will save lives: hundreds of people are killed or injured in the US each year when a child accidentally fires a gun, often because the gun was not safely stored in the home. But many gun rights advocates oppose laws that would require guns include “smart technology” like fingerprint locks because, as every iPhone user can tell you, sometimes the technology doesn’t work right.
Large Animal Extinction
Guest: Michael Nelson, PhD, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Ruth H. Spaniol Chair of Renewable Resources, Oregon State University
Big predators – lions, tigers, bears, rhinos, gorillas – they certainly capture our attention and imagination. But they’re also in danger, themselves. Sixty percent of the world’s largest mammals are at risk of extinction - according to a paper in the journal Bioscience. Dozens of wildlife experts signed onto the article, which calls for bold political action and financial commitments to save many of Earth’s most iconic species.
Before the Nobel Prize
Guest: Vera Keller, PhD, Associate Professor of History, University of Oregon
Winning the Nobel Prize represents reaching the pinnacle of one’s field, and comes with a cash prize just shy of 900,000 US dollars. Prizes and competitions are a central part of how science is funded and motivated today.
This wasn’t always the case. A few hundred years ago, scientists typically relied on wealthy patrons who expected something in return for their support. This is how we ended up with so many discoveries in biology and physics named after 18th-century royals and nobility.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting
Rachel Wadham is the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. It’s a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and, starting next week, you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Halloween Trends
Guest: Trisha Lombardo, PR Manager for Spirit Halloween
How many trips to the Halloween store have you made already? The National Retail Federation estimates Americans will spend an average of $83 a person this year on costumes, candy, decorations and cards. That’s by far the biggest spending figure since the National Retail Federation started surveying people about their Halloween plans 11 years ago. We take this holiday very seriously, it seems. And it’s obviously big business, which explains why, about 20 years ago, we started seeing stores dedicated exclusively to Halloween pop up in empty warehouses or big-box retail spaces around the middle of September.
The ubiquity of these pop-up Halloween shops helps explain why you’re bound to see some trends in the parade of people coming to your door tonight.
What Scares Us, Why, and Why Do We Like It?
Guest: Margee Kerr, PhD, Scare Specialist, Social Science Faculty, Robert Morris University, The University of Pittsburgh, and Chatham University
Some people really love the spooky side of Halloween – the ghoulish costumes and haunted houses. Others are not. Why is it that some love the rush of a good fright and others don’t?
Growing a Giant Pumpkin
Guest: Ed Dennis, award-winning Giant Pumpkin Farmer
Pumpkins are big this time of year. And I mean big. The winner in this year’s Utah Giant Pumpkin contest weighed in at 1, 491 pounds. That’s three quarters of a ton. These vegetable weigh-off events are quite the experience. You’ll see tomatoes the size of a baby, watermelons heavier than a full-grown man, and Gourds taller than a basketball player. But, the pumpkins are the true stars.
Why Clowns Give Us the Creeps
Guest: Frank McAndrew, PhD, Knox College, Professor of Psychology
Somewhere in America over the next 24 hours, there will be a creepy clown sighting. There’s been a rash of them across the country in the last month, tailor-made for Halloween. What is it about clowns that creeps out so many people? Believe it or not, someone has actually studied the science of creepiness.
Inferno and Jack Reacher
Guest: Shawn O’Neill, Movie Reviewer
A literary take on the dark side is in theaters now. Inferno stars Tom Hanks as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon in this latest from the Da Vinci Code series.
Frankenstein Organs
Guest: Mike Alder, Director of the Office Technology Transfer; Lon Cook, PhD, Professor of Chemical Engineering, BYU
We all know the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. But is creating life from death scientifically possible? One chemical engineering professor, here at BYU, is working on creating functioning organs from stem cells in his laboratory.
Why Knowledge Matters
Guest: E.D. Hirsch, Jr., PhD, Professor Emeritus of Education and Humanities at the University of Virginia, Acclaimed Literary Critic, Founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation, Author of “Why Knowledge Matters”
More than half of Americans – 55% - tell Gallup polls they are not satisfied with kindergarten-through-high school education in the U.S. They blame politicians, federal laws like No Child Left Behind, state-based Common Core Standards, and teachers’ unions. But, it is possible that the real culprit is the curriculum teachers are expected to teach.
NaNoWriMo
Guest: Grant Faulkner, Executive Director of NaNoWriMo
November 1st could mark a new chapter in your life. Literally. It’s the first day of NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, thousands of people pound out 50,000-word-novels. That’s about 200 pages in 31 days. Does that sound like something you could never do? Our next guest would like to convince you otherwise.
Altruism
Guest: Ulrich Mayr, PhD, Head of the Psychology Department at the University of Oregon
Generosity can have many motives. You might give money to a charity because you believe giving is good and you enjoy seeing others benefit. But maybe, deep down, you wouldn’t be making that gift if there weren’t a tax write-off in it for you or some measure of social prestige.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Same Payne joins us in the studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Spending Time With Kids
Guest: Judy Treas, PhD, Chancellor's Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine
If you, like many parents, feel guilty for not spending enough time with your kids, take comfort in this new study coming out of the University of California, Irvine. It finds parents today are spending a lot more time with their children thant parents did in the 1960s.
Tell-Tale Heart
Guest: Carl Sederholm, PhD, Department Chair for Comparative Arts and Letters at BYU; Dennis Perry, PhD, Associate Professor of Humanities at BYU; Dane Allred, Adjunct Professor of Public Speaking in Student Development at BYU
If you search Amazon.com for Edgar Allan Poe’s famous refrain “Nevermore” from his dark poem “The Raven,” you’re likely to turn up wall art, Halloween wreaths, mugs, even fabric to design your own American gothic creations.
So we’ve chosen to look at Edgar Allan Poe for this month’s installment of “From the Vaults,” where we explore the holdings of BYU Special Collections, which houses an 1845 edition of American Review, where Poe first published “The Raven.” Why does this old poem feel so modern?
Politics in Asia (Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan)
Guest: Joel Selway, PhD, Asian Politics at BYU; Eric Hyer, PhD, Asian Politics at BYU
In Thailand, people are mourning the passing of the world’s longest-reigning monarch King Bhumibol. At his death last Thursday at the age of 88, King Bhumibol had held the throne for 70 years – since shortly after World War II. He’d been a stabilizing influence in a time of increasing polarization for Thailand, punctuated by military coups, the most recent in 2014. With a military junta in control of Thailand since then, the democratic process King Bhumibol presided over is in question.
Meanwhile, there have been some interesting developments in the politics of Hong Kong and Taiwan. Both countries have seen a surge in demonstrations and support for greater independence from China.
Pumpkins: Beyond the Halloween Jack-O-Lantern
Guest: Sarah Frey-Talley, CEO of Frey Farms
The most popular Halloween pumpkins are big and orange. Millions have already been shipped all over the country for families to buy and use for this spooky season. But there are more exotic pumpkins that people should try – the bumpy, multi-colored, misshapen kinds. These strange pumpkins are perfect for decorating and even eating once the season is over.
Vaccinating Babies Through Mom’s Breastmilk
Guest: Ameae Walker, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Sciences in the UC Riverside School of Medicine
Right from birth, babies in the US begin a series of vaccines to protect them from serious diseases including hepatitis B, chickenpox, polio, diphtheria, measles and mumps. Those vaccines come in the form of shots that are no fun for the baby or its parents. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have discovered a new possibility for vaccinating babies that entails vaccinating the mother and letting that immunity pass through her breastmilk to the nursing infant. Their research, published in the Journal of Immunology, could be a breakthrough for diseases like tuberculosis, which are difficult to vaccinate newborns against.
The Plight of the Recent College Grad
Guest: Rich Deitz, PhD, Assistant Vice President and Senior Economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Any parent who has groaned at news that their college-age child is majoring in “humanities” or “the arts” can take comfort in knowing that unemployment for college graduates of all stripes is down in the US. The good news is, more young college grads are finding good jobs in their twenties. The bad news, according to analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, recent graduates who majored in liberal arts or general business are two to three times more likely to be underemployed than those with engineering or nursing majors.
How to Improve the Supreme Court
Guest: Eric J Segall, JD, Professor of Law at Georgia State University
Since Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, the US Supreme Court has been made up of just eight justices, split evenly between conservatives and liberals. Yesterday, Senior Republican Senator John McCain signaled the court could stay that way for a long time yet. He said in a radio interview that Republicans would unite to block any Supreme Court justice Hillary Clinton might nominate were she elected president. McCain backed off that threat later in the day, but it seems likely the Supreme Court will not be getting a new tie-breaking ninth justice any time soon.
While some lament the fact that the divided Supreme Court seems reluctant to take up hot-button issues likely to fall along party lines, Prof. Segall argues this could be a good thing.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian at BYU, Host of Worlds Awaiting at BYUradio
Worlds Awaiting is a show dedicated to encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. Eastern and, starting next week, you can also hear it weekdays at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on BYUradio.
Haiti’s Unnatural Disaster
Guest: Jason von Meding, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Disaster Risk Reduction, University of Newcastle, Australia
Hurricane Matthew killed at least 1,000 people in Haiti, but relief workers say the worst is yet to come. The storm destroyed homes, crops and livestock. Hunger and famine are a real threat. So is cholera. Water sources in Haiti were contaminated by the hurricane, which threatens to worsen a cholera epidemic that has already killed 9,000 Haitians and sickened three-quarters-of-a-million. The epidemic has been traced to UN peacekeepers during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti – one example of how attempts to help can sometimes make things worse.
Click here for more on how to help Haiti.
Designing Away Terrorism
Guest: Thomas Fisher, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Metropolitan Design Center at the University of Minnesota
To protect ourselves from a terror attack, we’ve got metal detectors and body scanners in our airports and government buildings. The NSA and FBI try to detect terror cells and disrupt their plans. But could we organize our cities and businesses differently to make ourselves less of a target? The Pentagon looks like a bulls-eye from the air. The Twin Towers were hard to miss, too, before they were brought down in the 9-11 terror attacks.
Selfies Make You Happy
Guest: Yu Chen, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher in University of California, Irvine Department of Informatics
When you’re feeling down, the common advice might be to put down the phone and take a walk or talk with someone you love. But hang on - your smartphone might actually be a tool for increasing positive emotions, if used the right way. And that’s the key, because not all smartphone activities will put a smile on your face, but taking a selfie of yourself smiling, or taking a photo of something that makes you happy – those things can actually lighten your mood.
Homeschooling in America
Guest: Kyle Greenwalt, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Education at Michigan State University, Author of “Home/Schooling: Creating Schools that Work for Kids, Parents and Teachers”
“Homeschool” carries a certain stigma as the domain of religious conservatives or social misfits. But today’s homeschoolers are a diverse bunch and as their numbers increase, the movement has gone mainstream.
Get Ready for Sequels
Guest: Shawn O’Neill, Movie Reviewer
Shawn O’Neill, an independent movie reviewer at BYUradio, with some thoughts on how to prepare for some blockbuster sequels coming our way.
Nanoscopic Sieves for Detecting Cancer in Blood
Guest: Mike Alder, BYU, Director of the Office of Tech Transfer; Rob Davis, BYU Physics Professor, Nick Morrill, Co-Founder of Precision Membranes
When astronomers look for other planets that could sustain life, they focus on the Goldilocks Zone where a planet is just the right distance from the star it orbits. Not too close, not too far away. Just the right temperature.
On the microscopic scale, researchers at BYU have been working on a “Goldilocks” puzzle of their own. They’re trying to create a strainer – like the colander in your kitchen – but with super-tiny holes that are just the right size to catch some things but not others, such as cancer cells in a sample of blood.
Commonsense Solutions to America’s Economic Challenges
Guest: James M. Stone, PhD, Founder and CEO of Plymouth Rock, Author of “5 Easy Theses: Commonsense Solutions to America’s Greatest Economic Challenges”
It’s clear during this election cycle that many, many Americans are unhappy with the inability of our government to solve problems like stagnant wages, our growing national debt, the unsustainable future of Social Security, and the unreasonably high cost of health insurance.
A big reason Congress can’t get anything done is partisan politics. Let’s set aside our partisan leanings and preconceived notions. If we really want to be healthier and more financially secure as individuals and as nation, what can we do?
Love Letters from Mt. Rushmore
Guest: Richard Cerasani, Author, "Love Letters from Mount Rushmore: The Story of a Marriage, a Monument and a Moment in History"
Seventy-five years ago this month, work officially stopped on Mount Rushmore. The quirky sculptor who dreamed it up and convinced Congress to fund it had died. The carvings of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln in the granite face of a South Dakota mountain weren’t finished, but the money ran out, so they’d have to suffice. Among the last workmen to leave the site was an aspiring sculptor named Art Cerasani. Desperate for work at the height of the Great Depression, he’d left his new wife and young sons in New York and trekked to South Dakota to help with the ultimate sculpting project. The work wasn’t all he hoped for and the separation from his family was grueling.
Decades later, Cerasani’s son, Richard, accidentally discovered a trove of letters between the young sculptor and his wife during the time he spent at Mount Rushmore.
Racial Violence in America: History Informs the Present
Guest: Ryan Gabriel, PhD, BYU Sociology Professor
When fatal shootings of black men by white police officers started capturing our attention a few years ago, some Americans were quick to write them off as isolated incidents. There were complaints that angry protesters and the Black Lives Matter movement were stirring up tension where none existed. Racial discrimination has been illegal in the US for decades. Segregation is over. Jim Crow is history. Harping on the past just makes it harder to move on, some say.
But history informs the present. For example, there’s evidence that communities in the south, where lynching was prevalent 100 years ago, are more prone to white-on-black violence today.
Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr. on What Comes Next
Guest: Leslie Odom Jr., Award-Winning Broadway Performer
Leslie Odom Jr. won a 2016 Tony for his portrayal of Aaron Burr in “Hamilton.” Now he’s touring with his new solo jazz album called, “Leslie Odom Jr.” We spoke last month just before his performance here at BYU.
Mosul, Yemen, Saudi Tensions
Guest: John Macfarlane, Professor of History and Political Science at UVU; Fred Axelgard, PhD, Senior Fellow of International Relations at the Wheatley Institution at BYU
We are now weeks away from an expected battle to retake Iraq’s second-largest city from ISIS. It could be a key turning point in the years-long effort to defeat the terror group also known as the Islamic State.
Could the 2016 Election Be Hacked?
Guest: Richard Forno, PhD, University of Maryland
More embarrassing internal emails from the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee are trickling out through Wikileaks. Russia remains the chief suspect in the hack, according to US security officials. We also know Russian hackers have accessed voter records in some states. So, this question of whether Russia could hack a US election isn’t completely paranoia. After all, most of us cast votes on touch-screen systems that are just computers. And computers can be hacked. Just how vulnerable is our US election system?
Should We Be Worried About North Korea?
Guest: Gordon Flake, CEO of the Perth USAsia Centre, Member of the International Advisory Board of BYU’s Kennedy Center
As Election Day approaches, experts who study North Korea say that the country is likely to do another missile or nuclear test. North Korean officials have a history of inciting tensions around the timing of the US elections. Looking at the status of North Korea as a threat, by some measures, you could say it’s having a good year – with 17 missile and two nuclear tests already under its belt. It’s easy to write off North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-Un, as despotic, unstable and even crazy. But don’t we have to take those weapons tests seriously? How much of a threat is North Korea to the region – and maybe even to America?
Streaming on Twitter Is Changing Television as We Know It
Guest: Amanda Lotz, PhD, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Michigan
Cord-cutting is on the rise, thanks to streaming options from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and YouTube. But, live sports and national events like Presidential addresses or debates pose a problem for cord-cutters. There are many people who would drop their cable subscription in a heartbeat, if they had an alternative way to watch live basketball, football, soccer and such. So that’s what makes Twitter’s latest experiment really interesting. Twitter has purchased the rights to stream 10 NFL games this season on its app. Millions have watched sports games that way so far and millions more tuned in for live Twittercasts of the presidential debates.
What You Need to Know About Bankruptcy
Guest: Adelaide Maudsley, Lawyer at Kirton McConkie, and Adjunct Professor at the U of U
Bankruptcy: Is it a shameful resignation to problems that have spiraled out of control, or is it a strategic move that can get your finances back on track? Unforeseen financial emergencies like medical expenses or job loss may lead people who would never have considered personal bankruptcy to ask themselves “Is it worth it?”
Do We Still Need Nuclear Fallout Shelters?
Guest: Timothy Jorgenson, PhD, Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program and Associate Professor of Radiation Medicine at Georgetown University
If you live in a mid-century home, you might have a massive storage space under your house that you use for storage and probably haven't given it a second thought. In the 1960s, dutiful Americans built bomb shelters under their homes to protect themselves from a nuclear blast after President John F. Kennedy recommended it during the Cold War. Nobody builds fallout shelters these days. But, why not? The nuclear weapons are still around, after all. And we know terror groups, like ISIS and Al Qaeda, are eager to get their hands on one. Plus, North Korea’s still a nuclear threat.
Supreme Court Preview
Guest: John Fee, JD, Professor of Constitutional Law, BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School
The US Supreme Court is back in session after its summer break, during which time the Senate continued to stall appointing a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February. Senate Republicans have vowed not to fill the vacancy until a new president is sworn in, which would mean the Supreme Court will have gone nearly a year without a tie-breaking ninth justice. At the moment, the justices are ideologically split four-to-four.
Kashmir Violence, Ethiopia Unrest, New UN Secretary General
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, BYU Professor of Political Science
Quinn Mecham joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration.
Too Many Men Can Be a Good Thing
Guest: Ryan Schacht, PhD, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Utah
A decade ago, researchers made a startling claim that the surplus of men in Asia, due to the selective abortion and infanticide of female babies, was a threat to international security. Too many men would lead to violence and political instability, according to the argument, which became widely accepted.
But University of Utah anthropologist Ryan Schacht’s latest research suggests the opposite may actually be true. In societies with more men than women, the men are not more violent and, in fact, family relationships are more stable.
Hyperbaric Chambers and Withdrawal
Guest: Raymond Quock, PhD, Pharmacologist and Professor of Psychology at Washington State University
Opioid addiction and overdose deaths are now at epidemic levels in the US: the number of opioid deaths has nearly quadrupled in the last 15 years. Prescription pain medicine and heroin are the primary culprits. Federal health officials also say communities don’t have enough treatment options to help people overcome the addiction. Withdrawal from opioids is so painful that most therapies involve giving people opiate medications that provide some relief from the symptoms, but also carry the risk of further addiction or relapse.
Galaxy's Top 20 Habitable Planets
Guest: Nader Haghighipour, PhD, Full Astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii
Humans have long wondered about the existence of life beyond Earth. Part of our fixation on Mars is its potential to harbor some sort of life – even if it’s just a particularly hearty algae or bacteria. There are some who even consider Mars a possible escape hatch for the human race once we’ve ruined Earth. Mars is not nearly as hospitable, but it is in what’s called the Goldilocks Zone – meaning not too close or too far from the sun – which is important for supporting life. Since 2009, the real hunt for other “earths” has been focused beyond our Solar System thanks to a high-powered telescope NASA launched into space that year. It’s called the Kepler telescope and with it, astronomers have discovered more than 4,000 planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy besides the sun. Researchers at the University of Hawaii-Manoa’s Institute for Astronomy have narrowed that list down to 20 most likely to be like Earth.
Hillary Clinton and the Hysterical Woman
Guest: Laura Briggs, PhD, Professor and Chair of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at UMass Amherst
There was a head-scratcher moment at the end of the Presidential debate on Sunday when Donald Trump was asked to name something he admired about Hillary Clinton. He replied, “She does fight hard. She doesn’t give up and she doesn’t quit. I consider that to be a very good trait.”
What’s confusing is that during Clinton’s bout with pneumonia, Trump was spreading rumors about her health and even said, “She doesn’t have the stamina. And to be president of this country you need tremendous stamina,” at the last debate.
So is she a fighter who doesn’t quit or does she lack stamina? If this presidential race were happening 100 years ago, Donald Trump would probably have been calling Hillary Clinton “hysterical” – which was a catchall medical diagnosis to communicate just how unfit women are for positions of power.
The Secret Power of Poo
Guest: Michael Sadowsky, PhD, Director of the University of Minnesota's BioTechnology Institute
We turn now to the lifesaving power of poop. Fecal transplants aren’t widely used yet, but they’re proving promising enough that before long they could be standard medical procedure. If we can get past the ick factor, that is.
What Canadians Think About the 2016 US Election
Guest: Christopher Sands, PhD, Director of the Center for Canadian Studies at John Hopkins University
Did you know it’s Thanksgiving in Canada? Probably not. We don’t tend to know much about Canadians other than maple syrup, hockey and maybe their camera?friendly young Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada hasn’t come up much in the presidential campaign either – though Donald Trump did namecheck it once in last night’s debate with a comment about how terrible Canadian healthcare is.
Trump and Clinton on National Security
Guest: Ryan Vogel, UVU, Founder of National Security Studies
On Friday, US Homeland Security and National Intelligence agencies came right out and accused the Russian Government of directing the hacks into Democratic Party emails. They said it was an attempt to interfere with the US election process. In last night’s presidential debate Hillary Clinton addressed the topic further.
Rising Power of the Latino Vote
Guest: Albert Camarillo, PhD, History Professor at Stanford University, Founder of the Stanford Center for Chicano Research.
In the presidential debate last night, immigration came up only in the context of if and how the US should allow Muslims to enter the country.
The immigration question likely to have a bigger impact on the election outcome is what to do with the 11 or 12 million immigrants – mostly of Mexican origin – who are in the United States illegally. Every day in this country, 3,000 more Hispanics become eligible to vote. Their ability to influence the election in 2016 is unprecedented, and immigration policy is their top concern.
Deep Water Horizon, Masterminds, Miss Peregrine’s
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Parent Previews
The backstory of a real?life disaster and a real?life bank heist gone?wrong are both in theaters now. We’ll start with the disaster. Deepwater Horizon is the name of the film and the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that exploded in 2010, triggering the BP Oil Spill. Mark Wahlberg stars as the rig’s chief electronics technician when something goes terribly wrong.
Improving Catalytic Converters
Guest: Brian Woodfield, PhD, BYU Chemistry Professor; Mike Alder, BYU Director of Tech Transfer
On the air quality front, the news is mixed in the US. The Clean Air Act, stricter controls on power plant emissions and advances in fuel efficiency have led to a steady decline in air pollution over the last two decades. But there are some cities – particularly out here in the West – where heat and drought combine with pollution to create a record number of days with dangerous levels of pollutants in the air. Along the Wasatch Front, where BYUradio is located, we routinely have “red air” warnings through the winter when we’re urged to carpool and not burn wood fires.
So there is work to be done. And one are of that work includes making cars cleaner.
You Should Be a Bone Marrow Donor
Guest: Julianne Grose, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology at BYU; John Philipott, Community Engagement Representative Community Engagement Representative for Be The Match; Andrew White, BYU Student; Mary Halet, Regional Director of Donor Services at Be The Match
Thousands of people are diagnosed every year with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases that can only be cured by a bone marrow transplant. Most of them – 70 percent – will not be able to find a match in their family and will have to turn to the national “Be The Match” registry. And because that registry isn’t long enough – maybe because you aren’t on it – half of the people whose only chance is finding a donor on that registry, will die.
Join Be The Match Bone Marrow Registry. Use code BYU
William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line
Guest: Heather Hendershot, PhD, Professor of Media Studies at MIT and Author of “Open to Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on The Firing Line”
Debates today seem to comprise mostly of yelling and talking over each other. The polarized debate, personal attacks and shrieking pundits we’re accustomed to these days make a show called “Firing Line” seem like a snoozy relic.
Firing Line debuted 50 years ago, first on commercial TV in New York and then on PBS for a run of thirty years. By the time it left the air in 1999, it already seemed out of place on American TV. Sitting on a barebones set with a live audience of college students, conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr would host weekly debates with a who’s who of American liberals including Noam Chomsky and Norman Mailer. He also had sparred with major conservatives such as Henry Kissinger and Milton Friedman. During the period Firing Line was on the air, America underwent a dramatic shift to the right, culminating with the election of Ronald Reagan as president.
To Fact Check or Not To Fact Check: The Debate Moderator's Dilemma
Guest: David Mindich, PhD, Professor of Media Studies, Journalism & Digital Arts Saint Michael's College
It’s worth saying right up front that it’s easy to criticize the moderator, but it’s a tough job. A thankless one many wouldn’t not volunteer for. This year’s election seems particularly dangerous territory for well-meaning moderators.
That said, what is the ideal role for a moderator to play in a high-profile, televised debate? Should they fact-check candidates’ lies or not? Should they play referee so neither candidate dominates the time?
Why Did Colombians Say No to the Peace Deal?
Guest: Kirk Hawkins, PhD, Professor of Latin American Politics at BYU
The government of Colombia and FARC rebels who’ve been engaged in civil war for more than 50 years were able to negotiate a remarkable peace deal between themselves. It was hailed as a model of how to end intractable conflicts.
Then, on Sunday, Colombians went to the polls to ratify the agreement, and they said, “No.”
Smoking Changes Your DNA
Guest: Roby Joehanes, PhD, Professor at Harvard Medical School
Smoking is bad for your lungs, your mouth, your skin, your hair. But it also affects you on the molecular level – smoking causes a kind of scarring on DNA that can lead to cancer and other diseases. It may also explain why someone who quit decades ago can still be at risk for smoking-related diseases.
Flu Shot Myths
Guest: Michael Huckabee, PhD, University of Nebraska Medical Center
It’s flu shot season again. Last year, only about half of Americans got one. Does the vaccine really help all that much? We all know someone who got the shot and also came down with the flu, right?
The Environmental Toll of Our Gadgets
Guest: David Abraham, Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, Head of the Technology, Rare and Electronic Materials Center, Author of “The Elements of Power”
A remote landscape in Congo holds the crucial ingredient to Silicon Valley’s success: cheap cobalt, a mineral essential to manufacture rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power smartphones, laptops, and electric cars.
While there has been a lot of praise for the environmental benefits of going digital and driving electric cars, The Washington Post just last week reported on the human cost of our skyrocketing demand for the precious metals needed to power modern technology. The conditions of African miners who extract these metals worsens as our demand increases. Some of these miners are children, and many of them suffer lung disease and are paid poorly for their work. Not to mention, in the long run, all this mining may be hurting the environment rather than helping it.
Social Media Shapes Modern Warfare
Guest: Thomas Zeitzoff, PhD, Professor at American University
Since its inception, media has been used to show the face of war. In the Civil War, newspapers and the telegraph enabled political parties to report details from the battle front to their sympathizers in record time. The Gulf War in 1990 is considered the first to play out on live TV, when cable news broadcast actual footage from both sides of the conflict as it happened. That feels almost antiquated today when YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have become the first places people turn for instant coverage of global conflicts.
How does that kind of immediacy shape the way conflicts play out? Does massive support for one side of the fight on Twitter, for example, translate into more success on the battlefield?
How Data Science Could Determine the 2016 Election
Guest: Eric Siegel, PhD, Founder of Predictive Analytics World, Author of “Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die”
Polls show the race remains close and both major party candidates are historically unpopular. The next few debates will matter. So will campaign strategy “on the ground” – convincing on-the-fence voters to their camp and then making sure people actually vote on Election Day.
A Giant Rift Underneath the American Midwest
Guest: Doug Wiens, PhD, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
Instead of the amber waves of grain in America’s bread basket, picture rolling waves of an inland sea. That was nearly the fate of the American Midwest. A billion years ago, a long geological rift snaking through modern-day Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan tried – but failed – to wrench North America apart. Hundreds of geologists around the country are part of a new collaboration to get a better look at the scar left behind by that failure – and because it’s deep underground, they’ve had to get creative.
Link to a video.
Making Good Financial Decisions for Retirement
Guest: Scott M. Peterson, Founder of Peterson Wealth Advisors, Author of “Maximize Your Retirement Income: A Guide to Financial Decision Making at Retirement”
Americans are notoriously bad about saving for retirement – more than half of us say we’ve got less than $25,000 socked away for the “Golden Years.” A lot of us say we’re banking on social security to carry us through retirement. Or we’re just planning to keep working and not retire. But Scott M. Peterson something even harder than saving for retirement right now is managing your money during retirement.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Roller Coasters Help Pass Kidney Stones
Guest: David Wartinger, MD, Urologist, Professor at Michigan State University
About one in ten people deal with kidney stones at some point in their life. These hard buildups of calcium in the kidney or urinary tract are extremely painful, and treatment options are limited: you can wait for it to pass or, if it’s big enough, schedule surgery to break it up. Or you could take a ride on a rollercoaster. No kidding.
Why Abuse Survivors Keep Quiet So Long
Guest: Chris Anderson, Advocate for Survivors of Abuse and Trauma, Member of the Board of Directors of the National Nonprofit Male Survivor
When survivors of abuse decide to come forward, they may face a second form of trauma from the people who ought to support them – especially if it’s been many years since the abuse took place. People are prone to wonder, in these cases, why it took so long to tell someone? And maybe even wonder if it was really all that bad, given the victim waited years to come forward. Male survivors of childhood sexual abuse are particularly subject to this kind of doubt and skepticism – and they’re particularly inclined to wait many years before coming forward.
Corporate Ethics and Wells Fargo
Guest: Brad Agle, PhD, Professor of Ethics and Leadership in the Marriott School of Management at BYU, Author of “The Business Ethics Field Guide”
Thousands of Wells Fargo branch employees, under intense pressure to meet sales goals, opened more than two million bank and credit card accounts without approval of customers, who then got slapped with more than two million dollars in fees for those accounts they never wanted. Wells Fargo has agreed to refund those fees and pay a big fine for the wrongdoing. More than five thousand bank employees have been fired in the scandal and the bank’s CEO John Stumpf will forgo his bonus for this year and tens of millions in unvested stock. But a bipartisan chorus in Congress wants Stumpf fired. He underwent two days of public shaming at their hands.
Are Immigrants a Boon or a Drag on US Economy
Guest: Pia Orrenius, PhD, Vice President and Senior Economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Immigration is such a divisive topic in America right now that even the US Supreme Court can’t agree. The court this week refused to re-hear a case it deadlocked on over the summer, essentially blocking President Obama’s plan to protect some illegal immigrants from deportation. Obama attempted the move through executive action because Congress, too, is stalled on how to reform the immigration system.
So, it’s not surprising that both sides of the debate found something to crow about in a massive new report from the National Academics of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that attempts to say, once and for all, whether immigration is good or bad for the US economy. The short answer is it depends on how you look at it.
How Presidential Races Affect Down-Ballot Voting
Guest: Robert Erikson, PhD, Professor of Political Science at Columbia University
There are dyed in the wool voters who can almost always be counted on to vote a straight-party ticket in a Presidential election. But, in the polling booth, there are also voters making a more calculated decision: if they feel confident that a certain candidate will win the presidency, they will purposely vote for members of Congress from the opposite party as the likely presidential winner. It’s an attempt to keep one party from gaining too much political power, and it poses a problem for political parties hoping that the coattails of a strong presidential candidate can sweep fellow party members into office.
Chivalry Is Not Dead
Guest: Oriel FeldmanHall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Brown University
There are many women and men who reject of old ideas about chivalry – that women need their doors opened and arms held – this idea that women are somehow weaker and more in need of protecting. But some really interesting research by psychologists at Columbia, the University of Birmingham and New York University concludes two things: people generally default to protecting women over men when they have to make a choice which to save; and that urge is tied to social norms that tell us women need protecting.
Women Fear Childbirth and We Need to Know Why
Guest: Lee Roosevelt, PhD, Midwife and Clinical Professor of Nursing at the University of Michigan School of Nursing
Some questions have an obvious answer. For example, ask a pregnant woman expecting her first baby if she’s at all afraid of how the childbirth will go and the answer is bound to be “yes.” Fear about something so dramatic is normal. But the follow-up questions: “How afraid are you?” “What are you most afraid of?” Those questions don’t get asked nearly enough, according to midwife and nursing professor Lee Roosevelt. As she began to ask those questions, she realized we know next to nothing about fear of childbirth in the US – and not knowing could have serious health consequences.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio
Worlds Awaiting is a show where the conversation is always about encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It’s a show for grownups who want to help the kids in our lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them.
Worlds Awaiting airs weekly on Saturdays at 1:30 pm ET here on BYUradio, Sirius XM Radio channel 143.
Political Endorsements in the Press
Guest: Joel Campbell, Associate Teaching Professor in Journalism in the BYU School of Communications
USA Today – for the first time in its history – has endorsed a presidential candidate: Hillary Clinton. A host of conservative-leaning editorial boards at major newspapers have endorsed Clinton, too. The San Diego Union Tribune did so on Friday, having never endorsed a Democrat for president in its 148-year history. Same story for the Arizona Republic, in its 126-year history. Newspapers in Cincinnati and Dallas are on the list, too. Why would a newspaper with a conservative readership risk losing subscriptions by endorsing a Democrat? And do voters even pay attention to these endorsements?
Back from a Year on “Mars”
Guest: Christiane Heinicke, PhD, Physicist who Completed a Year-Long Simulation in a Mars Habitat
Fifteen years from now, NASA hopes to send the first astronauts to Mars, but there’s a lot to figure out in the meantime. Anyone who goes to Mars will need to spend a lot of time in a shelter of some sort and wear a spacesuit when outside – because of intense radiation from the sun. And it’ll be a long mission – the flight to Mars takes six months and they’ll have to spend a few years there before returning to Earth. So NASA needs to know how humans will hold up under the stressful of such isolation and being in tight quarters with the same few people for so long. So that’s how six volunteers ended up in a simulated Mars habitat funded by NASA on the rocky surface of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. For an entire year they lived in a 1,200 square foot geodesic dome completely off the grid, powered by solar panels. Food and water were delivered every few months. And the few times they ventured outdoors, they had to wear big space suits. They’ve just completed their year-long mission.
App Allows Voiceless Patients to Speak for Themselves
Guest: Rebecca Koszilinski, PhD, Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
When patients are intubated in the hospital, they can go instantly from articulate and talkative to unable to express more than basic thoughts through hand motions or scribbles on message boards. It can be a frustrating experience, but, more than that, it can lead to miscommunication between patients and hospital staff, and even to lapses in care.
How to Help Parents of Kids with Asthma Quit Smoking
Guest: Belinda Borrelli, PhD, Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Health Policy and Health Services Research at Boston University
Smoking is clearly unhealthy – both for the smoker and the people breathing in the secondhand smoke. Kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke are at much higher risk for asthma and serious flare-ups if they already have asthma. But healthy policy professor Belinda Borrelli has noticed in her work that parents who smoke have a way of ignoring that link – they don’t automatically connect their smoking with their children’s asthma. That may be because smoking is notoriously hard to quit.
Parent Previews: Queen of Katwe, Denial
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Much of Disney’s new movie “Queen of Katwe” was shot in the slums of Uganda, with no attempt to put a rose-colored spin on the level of poverty and need its real-life characters face. The story centers on a teenaged girl named Phiona, her chess-teacher played by David Oyelowo and her mother, played by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o.
Joblessness in the Middle East
Guest: Nader Habibi, PhD, Professor of Economics of the Middle East, Director of Islamic and Middle East Studies at Brandeis University
The Middle Eastern nations of Egypt, Iran and Turkey have what would seem to be a good problem: All three have a glut of college-educated young people.
But Brandeis University economist Nader Habibi says this “overeducation” is actually a threat to social and economic stability – and further instability is the last thing any Middle East country needs right now.
From Homeless to Attorney General
Guest: Nicole Lowe, Utah Assistant Attorney General in the Child Protection Division and author of “Never Let Me Go”
Today, Nicole Lowe is a Utah Assistant Attorney General in the Child Protection Division. Many days she finds herself in court, urging a judge to terminate the parental rights of women addicted to drugs and unable to take care of their children. Twenty years ago, Nicole Lowe could easily have been one of those women. Between the ages of 13 and 16 she ran away repeatedly and lived on the streets. She did drugs and dealt drugs. She was raped and assaulted. At 17 she became pregnant. But then she turned things around, finished her high school degree, went on to get a law degree at the University of Utah and last year founded a Homeless Youth Legal Clinic in Salt Lake City. Now she’s written the whole unlikely, but inspiring, story down in a memoir called, “Never Let Me Go.”
Liberation and Development in South Africa
Guest: Leslie Hadfield, PhD, Professor of African History at BYU and author of “Liberation and Development: Black Consciousness Community Programs in South Africa”
How best to help people in need? Whether it’s a group of refugees just arrived from a far-off place or an inner-city neighborhood wracked with poverty or a village in Africa battling hunger and disease, what should be the primary goal of efforts to help? Is it best to lift people out of poverty? To help them lift themselves? Should improving the material situation of people’s lives be the primary goal? Is there a level of \_psychological \_improvement that ought to be the priority?
These questions are actively debated wherever governments, nonprofits and community activists are engaged in development work. It’s happening in your community and it’s happening on the other side of the planet. This hour we glean some lessons from a fascinating period of development in South Africa when a group of black students came up with an approach that was ahead of its time. Leslie Hadfield writes about the period in her new book, “Liberation and Development: Black Consciousness Community Programs in South Africa.”
Police Video Policies
Guest: Rachel Levinson-Waldman, JD, Senior Counsel in the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program
“No tapes, no peace” was the chant taken up by protesters in Charlotte at the end of last week. For several days after the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by a Charlotte police officer, the department declined to released body cam or dashboard video of the incident. When the videos were finally released on Saturday night, they still left many questions about the shooting unanswered. That left us wondering why some police departments seem to release video footage quickly, while others like Charlotte resist then release, and some – like Chicago police in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald – release video only when a judge orders it.
Why Kids Tag with Graffiti
Guest: Lynne Vieraitis, PhD, Heads the Criminology Program at the University of Texas, Dallas
Graffiti is an expensive and perplexing problem for cities. Billions of dollars go into scrubbing it clean every year, only to see more spray-painted “tags,” as they’re called, pop up. The taggers rarely get caught and strategies to make them stop are hard to come by. In Denver, there are designated areas where people have permission to do graffiti. It remains to be seen whether that actually stops people from tagging other walls, overpasses and buses.
From the Vaults: Banned Books Week
Guest: Richard Hacken, Senior Librarian at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library
Book lovers might know the answer to this riddle: what does the classic “The Grapes of Wrath” have in common with the tragic novel, “The Fault in Our Stars?” Or with the romantic tale of “Romeo and Juliet?”
All three of those titles have been the subject of calls for them to be banned from libraries or schools. Since this is the annual “Banned Books Week,” we’re dedicating our regular installment of “From the Vaults” to the history and complexity of book banning.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio to share stories of tales and tellers.
Turkish Brain Drain
Guests: Ibrahim Sirkeci, PhD, Professor of Transnational Studies and Marketing, Director of Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies at Regent’s University in London; Jeffrey Cohen, PhD, Professor of Anthropology at the Ohio State University
Since the failed coup in Turkey in mid-July, there’s been a broad crackdown on suspected dissidents. Thousands of government employees, members of the military – even academics and university employees – have been arrested or fired. Fifteen universities in Turkey have been closed, leading to a spike in out-of-work professors and university students leaving the country.
US Parents Less Happy
Guest: Jennifer Glass, PhD, Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin
For all the talk about how rewarding parenting can be, there’s growing evidence that people who have children in industrialized countries are not as happy as people without kids. This happiness gap between parents and nonparents turns out to be biggest in the United States. A report in the American Journal of Sociology claims to have found the reason why. And here’s an odd twist – the solution is something both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump agree on.
Peace Deal Ends 52-Year Conflict in Colombia
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
On a white stage decorated with the symbol of a dove yesterday in Colombia, the country’s president and the leader of the FARC rebel group signed a peace agreement with a pen made from a bullet. The ceremony ends a conflict of more than 50-years in which more than 260,000 people were killed and millions displaced. The ceremony was broadcast on live TV across Colombia. FARC leader Timochenko asked the nation for forgiveness for “all the pain that we may have caused during this war.”
Unreported Crimes
Guest: Shabbar Ranapurwala, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center
More than half of violent crimes in the US do not get reported to the police, according to the Department of Justice. Why wouldn’t someone report a rape, assault or home break-in? The reasons are complicated – but worth addressing according to new analysis by the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center.
What I Wish My Teacher Knew
Guest: Kyle Schwartz, Third-grade Teacher at Doull Elementary in Colorado and Author of “I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids”
Colorado elementary school teacher Kyle Schwartz started a viral phenomenon when she asked her third-grade students to finish this short sentence: I wish my teacher knew… and posted their answers online. Here are some of them:
“I wish my teacher knew I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework.”
“I wish my teacher knew that my mom got divorced three times.”
“I wish my teacher knew I love my family.”
“I wish my teacher knew that we are low on money and have to go to a food bank to get food.”
“I wish my teacher knew that moving schools it’s hard to make friends with people you feel don’t like you.”
The exercise changed the way Kyle Schwarz teaches and prompted her to write a book called, “I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids.”
Protecting Assets While Caring for the Elderly
Guest: Bret Bryce, JD, Attorney at Law
As a “White Wave” of aging baby boomers approaches the years when they’ll need care from their adult children, let’s spend a few minutes considering how best to prepare for that time.
Attorney Bret Bryce specializes in estate planning and asset protection and shares some insight on navigating the financial choices of old age.
Life After the Olympics
Guest: Jared Ward, Olympic Marathon Runner, Former BYU All-American, Adjunct Professor of Statistics at BYU
Jared Ward, one of the fastest marathon runners in the world, came in sixth at the Rio Olympics – a rainy Sunday on the last day of the games. He ran a personal-best time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 30 seconds.
Check out his new coaching project at www.coachjaredward.com.
When Red Means Go
Guest: Ravi Mehta, PhD, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Green means go. Yellow means caution. Red means stop. Even a kindergartener knows that. But red’s story is a bit more complicated. For some people, the effect of red is the opposite of stop.
Assessing Obama’s Foreign Policy Legacy
Guest: David Milne, PhD, Historian of US Foreign Policy, Senior Lecturer at the University of East Anglia, Author of “Worldmaking: The Art and Science of American Diplomacy”
How will Barack Obama’s foreign policy efforts be remembered? Will he be the President who killed Osama Bin Laden? The President who opted not to get involved in Syria’s civil war, only to see it drag on for years and spark a refugee crisis? Will he be the President who quietly revolutionized warfare with his extensive use of drones? President Obama has made clear he’d like to be remembered for his work building an international commitment to combat climate change.
When Kids Miss Too Much School
Guest: Hedy Chang, Executive Director of the Advocacy Group Attendance Works
A little more than ten percent of school kids in the US are chronically absent, missing at least three weeks of class in a year. But only recently have states and school districts begun a concerted effort to look at attendance data and better understand what’s behind the absenteeism. The US Department of Education began collecting nationwide data on chronic absence in 2013. New analysis of those numbers by the advocacy group Attendance Works sheds light on where the problem is biggest.
Schools Need to Start Later
Guest: Kyla Wahlstrom, PhD, Senior Research Fellow at the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota
There’s growing evidence that teenagers just aren’t built to wake up early. Kyla Wahlstrom claims that if we’d just let teens sleep in a bit longer and push the school start time back to 9, we could reduce teen car crashes, raise student grades, and cut down on teenage angst all at the same time.
How the UN Can Address Human Trafficking
Guest: James Cockayne, PhD, Head of Office at the UN for the United Nations University
International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney took the United Nations to task last week for failing to prevent or punish the genocide ISIS is perpetrating against minority groups including the Yazidis. She spoke at a ceremony honoring a Yazidi woman named Nadia Murad Basee Taha who was kept for three months as an ISIS sex slave before she escaped. Both women say UN nations can do more to stop the international slave market in which an estimated 45 million people remain trapped. ISIS and Boko Haram have become so brazen, they publish instructions on how to trade slaves, and use social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to sell women to bidders.
Parent Previews
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Denzel Washington leads a crew of killers and misfits in a Hollywood remake of the 1960 hit western, The Magnificent Seven. Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews says the original was not high on the list of movies in need of a remake. But really, when has that stopped Hollywood?
Treating Restless Leg Syndrome
Guests: Ulrike Mitchell, PhD, Professor of Exercise Sciences at BYU; Shane Wolcott, President of InfraMed; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
A lot of us have trouble turning off our brains when we lay down to sleep. But there are some very unlucky people who also have trouble turning off their legs. Lying down and trying to relax activate the symptoms of a mysterious disorder called Restless Leg Syndrome. People feel their legs throbbing, pulling, creeping or other sensations and an uncontrollable urge to move the legs, which makes them feel better, but wreaks havoc on their ability to sleep.
As many as 10 percent of Americans may have Restless Leg Syndrome, according to the National Institutes of Health. Treating it is a process of trial and error and often includes drugs that have unpleasant side effects. But BYU exercise scientist Ulrike Mitchell has developed a treatment that appears to work better using light.
How a Man Named Nathan Built a Hot Dog Empire 100 Years Ago
Guest: Lloyd Handwerker, Author of “Famous Nathan: A Family Saga of Coney Island, the American Dream, and the Search for the Perfect Hot Dog” and Director of “Famous Nathan”
For 100 years, Nathan’s Famous has been synonymous with hot dogs. The annual July 4th hot-dog-eating contest is part of its fame. But more than anything, Nathan’s is famous for the iconic yellow and green sign at the corner of Surf and Stillwell on Coney Island where Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker opened a small counter and started selling hot dogs for a nickel in 1916.
How that simple food stand became a multi-million-dollar business and a household name is a quintessential story of the American Dream. Nathan Handwerker’s grandson Lloyd writes about it in fascinating detail in his new book, “Famous Nathan: A Family Saga of Coney Island, The American Dream, and the Search for the Perfect Hot Dog.”
Nature Holds the Keys to Corporate Survival
Guests: Martin Reeves, Senior Partner at the Boston Consulting Group, Director of the BCG Henderson Institute, Author of “Your Strategy Needs a Strategy”; Simon Levin, PhD, Director of the Center for Biocomplexity at Princeton University, Author of "Fragile Dominion"
“It’s a dog eat dog world.” “Only the strong survive.” “It’s a jungle out there.” Lots of business clichés make the not-so-subtle comparison to biological principals of evolution and adaption. But when it comes to actually learning lessons from the natural world about how the fittest survive, the business world isn’t such a good study. For example, part of surviving in nature is experimenting with lots of different features in a species to see what works. Businesses are inclined to think of too much failed experimentation as a waste. Nature is also really good at redundancy – the human immune system includes layers of physical barrier and chemical barriers, as well as massive amounts of extra immune cells hanging around just in case an infection shows up. Again, businesses would likely see that as a wasteful threat to profits. But business strategist Martin Reeves and Princeton biologist Simon Levin argue that corporations would do well to learn nature’s lessons of survival in this increasingly complex world.
Global Development Panel
Guests: Crys Kevan Lee, Executive Director of Empower Playgrounds; Jessica Hogstrom Wells, Research Manager for AidData; Julie Ford Brenning, Director of Research and China Outreach at Give Her Life
In New York today, the United Nations is marking the 30th anniversary of a document called the Declaration on the Right to Development. It declares, in essence, that no one, no matter where they live in the world, what the state of their economy or the choices of their political leaders, deserves to be left behind. The declaration urges the international community to ensure people living in countries in need of development are included in planning and implementing the projects meant to improve their lives, and that everyone in the community has an equal chance to benefit from those improvements. So as the UN ponders its progress on that front, we hear from a panel of BYU alumni involved in global development efforts around the world.
American Girl Doll Civil Rights Story
Guest: Rebecca de Schweinitz, PhD, History Professor at BYU and Author of “If We Could Change the World: Young People and America’s Long Struggle for Racial Equality”
The American Girl dolls have always been more than just toys. From the period clothing and accessories to the collectible historical novel that comes with each doll, American Girl pairs educating and inspiring with profitmaking. An African American girl living in 1960s Detroit is the latest doll from the company. Her name is Melody Ellison and BYU history professor Rebecca de Schweinitz helped make Melody’s story authentic.
Meet Melody here.
Poldark
Guest: Andrew Graham, Son of Winston Graham: Author of the “Poldark” series
This Sunday night on PBS, Poldark is back. The story of British army officer Ross Poldark was a huge international hit in 1975, when the BBC made it into a TV series. An update of the story, has a new generation of fans is enthralled by Poldark galloping along the cliffs of Cornwall, pining for lost love, finding new love with his fiery young maid Demelza and fighting to keep his copper mine open for the sake of his own inheritance and the workers who depend on him.
Elephants and Bees Project
Guest: Lucy King, DPhil, Head of Save the Elephants’ Human-Elephant Co-Existence Program
Gardeners in these parts have slugs, deer and rodents to contend with. But if you’re in Kenya trying to farm a small plot of land to feed your family and make a living, you’ve got a much bigger problem. I mean literally much bigger. Incidents of African elephants raiding crops are on the rise, in large part because efforts to restore the dwindling elephant populations are succeeding. Elephants are returning to old migratory patterns they’d abandoned for years, only to find tasty new farms in their path.
The nonprofit “Save the Elephants” is testing a novel solution to the problem using this little fact of nature: elephants do not like bees.
Fostering a Culture of Responsibility
Guest: Ned Smith, PhD, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern University
When something goes wrong at work, and you have the choice to fall on your sword or blame someone else, it’s not hard to go with blaming. Because, let’s face it, no one wants to be responsible for the mistakes of the entire group. But what if there was a method of management that actually rewarded people for taking responsibility when things go south?
On a trip to the U.S. Army's National Training Center, Professor Ned Smith saw how such a system can thrive. But could it work in corporate America?
Teaching Tolerance Amid 2016 Election
Guest: Maureen Costello, Leads the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project
Every four years, the presidential election is a perfect civics lesson opportunity for teachers of all grades. They decorate their classrooms in red, white and blue, hold mock elections and use the campaign to basically illustrate how American democracy works and why it’s so great. But this year is different – and to put it bluntly, not so great.
A survey of some 2,000 school teachers taken at the height of the primary election this year found more than half of teachers said they’ve seen an increase in uncivil political discourse among their students – including a spike in bullying. Nearly half are reluctant to even bring up the election because of the chances it’ll stoke fear or spark unpleasant conversation in class.
The Different Economic Realities of Democrats and Republicans
Guest: Ian Anson, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Listening to politicians talk about the economy during an election year feels like looking in a funhouse mirror. Time after time, when we hear Democrats or Republicans, they paint opposite pictures of the economy. Now, this is not really surprising in an election year, because history has shown a strong economy favors the incumbent party. So Republicans have a motive to make the current situation as terrible as possible.
Social Media and Modern Warfare
Guest: Thomas Zeitzoff, Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs at American Univeristy
Since its inception, media has been used to show the face of war. In the Civil War, newspapers and the telegraph enabled political parties to report details from the battle front to their sympathizers in record time. The Gulf War in 1990 is considered the first to play out on live TV, when cable news broadcast actual footage from both sides of the conflict as it happened. That feels almost antiquated today when Youtube, Facebook and Twitter have become the first places people turn for instant coverage of global conflicts.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Russian Cyberattacks
Guest: Frank Cilluffo, Director of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University
Tensions between the US and Russia are high right now over attacks in Syria. Last week, the US says it inadvertently bombed military forces of the Syrian President who is a Russian ally. Now, the US is blaming Russia for bombing an aid convoy bound for Aleppo. Russia denies it was responsible. As Russia’s aggressive stance plays out in Syria and in Ukraine, it’s also a growing threat online. This summer alone Russian hackers are believed to have breached the White House, the State Department, the Defense Department, the stock exchange and the Democratic National Committee. That’s just a partial list.
How the Paralympics Work and Why People Love Them
Guest: Tony Naar, Facilitator of the Australian Paralympic History Project at the University of Queensland
Heading into the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, ticket sales lagged and disappointment was in the air. But then a late surge of enthusiasm filled arenas and propelled them to become one of the most popular Paralympics in history. A spokesman for the games in Rio noted that, “Brazilians had no idea how emotional and entertaining the Paralympics could be.” Aside from the sheer awe of seeing athletes with daunting limitations accomplish incredible physical feats, the Paralympics are also an important look at how the world views disability. To pull the games off requires a complicated system of evaluating and sorting athletes according to their level of disability so that competition is as fair as possible. Just as an example, there were 16 gold medal winners in the men’s 100 meter dash this year representing various levels of disability.
How the Sugar Industry Paid Researchers to Blame Fat
Guest: Stanton Glantz, MLIS, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco
The current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine contains an article you might expect to see from the investigative team of a newspaper. Someday, it may even turn into a movie, because Hollywood loves a conspiracy and that’s exactly what this article details – complete with a smoking gun. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found emails and other documents dating back to the 1960s, when the sugar industry paid three nutrition professors at Harvard to publish articles making fat and cholesterol out as the real dietary bad guys when it comes to heart disease. The articles helped shaped decades of nutrition guidelines that said eating fats was tied to heart health, eating sugar was mainly a problem for your teeth. The truth is, sugar is bad for your heart, too.
Check out the research here.
The Need for Handwriting
Guest: Ellen Handler Spitz, PhD, Professor of Humanities at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
State lawmakers across the country are debating whether or not kids really need to learn cursive anymore these days. Many can honestly say the ability to type on a keyboard and text with thumbs are both far more important in daily life than good handwriting. A flurry of opinion pieces and letters to the editor in the New York Times took up this question recently. One titled “Handwriting Just Doesn’t Matter” prompted some rebuttal.
FDA Ban on Antibacterial Soaps
Guest: Allison Aiello, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
When you’re in the grocery aisle buying soap, it seems like a no-brainer to go for the one that promises to kill 99.9% of bacteria. The antibacterial just naturally seems better than the regular kind, doesn’t it? Well, a year from now, you won’t be facing that dilemma. That’s when a new FDA rule will take effect banning common ingredients in soaps and body washes marketed as “antibacterial.” More than 2,000 products will have to be changed or discontinued because the FDA says they don’t work and may actually do more harm than good.
The Mathematics of Crime
Guest: Brendan Hassett, PhD, Professor of Mathematics at Brown University and Director of the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics
The power of big data is well-established. It powers the recommendations that keep us coming back to Netflix and Amazon. It’s why Google seems to know what we’re searching for before we know it ourselves. For that matter, it’s why every company we do business with seems to know more about us than we know about ourselves.
That was the goal of a weeklong workshop last month that unleashed 25 mathematicians from around the globe on data from police departments and Twitter. Among their findings? Rioting in Baltimore at the time of Freddy Gray’s death in 2015 was five times as contagious as the Ebola virus.
Shopping for Hijabs
Guests: Lisa Vogl and Nadine Abu-Jabara, Co-founders of Verona: a clothing store for Muslim women
Modesty is a growing fashion trend right now, fueled by blogs, online stores and clothing lines designed for women who want to look good while covering up. Often religious beliefs are part of the motivation – here in Utah, the Mormon culture spawns stores selling long skirts and modest prom or wedding dresses. Stores selling headscarves and flowy cardigans are beginning to pop up in communities with lots of Muslim women. I’m joined on the line by the founders of one such store that recently converted from a purely online outlet to an actual retail space in a mall in Orlando, Florida. They opened just a month before the Pulse nightclub shooting, which was committed by a Muslim man and since then, the store has become more than just a place to buy clothes. It’s also become a place for dialogue and understanding.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of “Worlds Awaiting” on BYUradio
Time now to talk about books with the host of Worlds Awaiting, another show here on BYUradio where the conversation is always about encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It’s a show for grownups who want to help the kids in our lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them.
Worlds Awaiting airs weekly on Saturdays at 1:30 pm ET here on BYUradio, Sirius XM Radio channel 143.
Why Trade Deals Are Dying
Guest: Charles Hankla, PhD, Professor of Political Science and International Political Economy at Georgia State University
A major new trade agreement between the US and 11 countries in the Pacific Rim is among the final foreign policy accomplishments President Barack Obama hopes for before he leaves office. It’s called the Trans-Pacific Partnership – or TPP – and it’s not popular. Hillary Clinton opposes it. Donald Trump utters it like a curse word on the campaign trail. There are Democrats and Republicans against it in Congress. But President Obama hasn’t given up.
Haven’t I Heard This Song Before?
Guest: Richard Hass, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Philadelphia University
The saying goes that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” But if your imitation becomes a hit song, you’re likely to get sued . . . like when rapper Vanilla Ice ripped off the iconic hook from Queen and David Bowie’s Under Pressure” for his song “Ice Ice Baby.”
Vanilla Ice ended up settling out of court with Queen and Bowie for an undisclosed amount and a writing credit on the song. Why Queen and Bowie would want to get credit, for anything associated with Vanilla Ice is another matter.
The question of originality in pop music is a perpetual one. Led Zeppelin was just in court for allegations it lifted the famous opening riff in “Stairway to Heaven” from a song by a band called Spirit. The court dismissed that case. Last year a jury made pop singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell pay more than five million dollars to the estate of Marvin Gaye because their song Blurred Lines bore too close a resemblance to Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up.”
Tracing the DNA of Essays
Guest: Patrick Madden, PhD, Associate Professor of English at BYU
On the subject of imitation vs. inspiration, writers are also influenced by each other and those who came before them. A team here at BYU has developed a way to identify those connections. We’re not talking about plagiarism. This is more about language and style and structure. They call it the Essay Genome Project, because they use a massive database of essays and a bunch of computer algorithms to break the essay down into its essential building blocks – like the Human Genome Project maps the DNA of the body.
With the Essay Genome Project, you can trace the lineage of a writer like Annie Dillard and see that she’s on the same branch of the family tree as other contemporary essayists like Lia Purpura, John D’Agata and Elena Passarello. And if you like Annie Dillard, but don’t know those other writers, the Essay Genome Project would suggest you check them out. You can also enter your own essay into the system and see where you fall in the family tree.
LINK TO THE ESSAY GENOME PROJECT HERE.
Hollywood-Inspired Filming of Drug Resistant Bacteria
Guest: Tami Lieberman, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at MIT
This week, the United Nations General Assembly will hold its first high-level meeting on the growing problem of superbugs - bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. The World Health Organization says drug-resistant bacteria are an urgent global health threat.
To better visualize how this resistance happens, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology used a giant petri dish and a camera mounted on the ceiling of a laboratory. The result is both mesmerizing and important for understanding how bacteria rapidly evolve to resist antibiotics.
Watch it happen here.
Low-Income Smokers Quit Insurance, Not Cigarettes
Guest: Mary Politi, PhD, Psychologist and Smoking Cessation Researcher in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. It’s also incredibly costly: cigarette smoking is tied to $170 billion in healthcare spending every year in the US. So, it’s in everyone’s interest that smokers have health insurance. But many don’t. And changes created under the Affordable Care Act seem to have made the problem worse.
Manufacturing Better Materials on the Microlevel
Guests: Oliver Johnson, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at BYU; Dallin Frandsen, Graduate Student at BYU; Spencer Rogers, BYU’s Technolgoy Transfer Office
Take a look around you. I’m guessing a lot of the material that makes up your surroundings – the inside of your car, the desk or counter you’re working at right now is man-made material. If you could aim a high-powered microscope at that stuff, you’d likely see lots and lots of small crystals fused together. How that fusing happens and the direction the crystals face affects the strength and flexibility of the material.
How the 2016 Election Challenges Journalistic Fundamentals
Guests: David Mindich, PhD, Professor of Media Studies, Journalism & Digital Arts at Saint Michael’s College; Thomas Patterson, PhD, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Author of “Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism”
When you tally all of the press coverage of candidates during this presidential cycle, it’s clear that Donald Trump has had an advantage. Thomas Patterson at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center says, “Trump is arguably the first bona fide media-created presidential nominee.” The breathless way reporters fixated on Trump’s unlikely candidacy and surprising momentum in polls helped him clinch the Republican nomination and continues to propel him toward the White House.
But since the presidential race narrowed to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as the major party candidates, something unusual has begun to take place. We’re seeing political journalists – and I’m not talking about pundits or columnists or commentators, I’m talking about journalists who typically maintain a detachment, objective stance in reporting on politics - we’re seeing those journalists abandon calling out Donald Trump as a liar, a racist, an incompetent, even. And sometimes they do it right to his face.
Are "Haters" and Doubters the Reason Trump Ran for President
Guest: McKay Coppins, Senior Political Writer for BuzzFeed and Author of “The Wilderness”
Let’s talk to one political reporter now who, back in 2014 made the worst prediction of his career. Buzzfeed senior writer and BYU alum McKay Coppins wrote a lengthy piece called “36 Hours on the Fake Campaign Trail with Donald Trump” in which he declared the whole thing a publicity stunt. No way would Trump actually run for president.
Well, the latest polling averages show Donald Trump nearly tied with Democrat Hillary Clinton. McKay Coppins has done a lot of reflecting and reporting since then, trying to understand how and why Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for president. His conclusions suggest he, and the many others who laughed at or dismissed Trump, may be to blame.
Understanding Trump's Appeal with Working-Class Whites
Guest: J.D. Vance, Author of “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis”
There’s another quirk in this election – and that is Donald Trump’s appeal with white working class voters. He gets strong support from the Rust Belt and Appalachia. These are people inclined toward a dim view of the wealthy and privileged – people like Donald Trump.
To understand why Trump resonates in Appalachia, it helps to understand a little about the culture of the place. J.D. Vance’s new book offers one take. His best-selling “Hillbilly Elegy” is “A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.” Vance was raised by a single, drug-addicted mother in an Ohio steel town that – as he writes – “has been hemorrhaging jobs and hope for as long as” he can remember.
Why the Dakota Pipeline Has United American Indians into a National Movement
Guest: Michalyn Steele, JD, Professor of Law at BYU, Member of the Seneca Nation of Indians of New York
Back in April, a few members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe set up camp to protest the construction of a pipeline to carry crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. Tribe members say the pipeline endangers sacred burial grounds and could threaten the tribe’s water supply. Late last week, a judge denied the tribe’s request for a temporary injunction to halt construction. But almost immediately, the US Justice Department stepped in and ordered construction near the tribe’s reservation to stop so government officials can review the permits and ensure the tribe was properly consulted.
Even with that temporary victory, the protest movement encamped near the pipeline route in North Dakota is growing. Thousands of people from many different American Indian tribes have set up tents and trailers. The camp is now larger than most small towns in North Dakota. It’s clear this is about more than just the Dakota Access pipeline.
Secrets of Live Sports Play-By-Play
Guest: Greg Wrubell, Voice of the Cougars and Director of Broadcast Media for BYU Sports
Here Greg Wrubell was Saturday night when BYU played Utah. Then Monday, he was in Columbus, Ohio narrating BYU women’s soccer action.
If it’s on the radio and the BYU Cougars are involved, Greg Wrubell can’t be far away. He’s the Voice of the Cougars giving the play-by-play radio commentary for BYU football, basketball and women’s soccer. And in this very hectic season he’s carved out a few minutes to join us for some behind-the-scenes insight.
All Brains Are Wired to Become Addicted
Guest: Brian Anderson, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at Texas A&M
Drug addiction is often considered a deviance from the normal human experience: Someone chooses to consume a substance that changes the state of their mind and body, leading to a cycle of addiction that is tough to break because addiction has rewired the brain somehow. But what if the brain function that make it hard for addicts to get clean is actually a very normal, basic way for a healthy brain to operate? That, in a sense, we’re all wired to become addicted?
Crackdown on Payday Lenders Leaves Few Options for Poor
Guest: Mehrsa Baradaran, JD, Associate Professor of Contracts and Banking Law at The University of Georgia Law and Author of “How the Other Half Banks”
Over the summer, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed the first nationwide regulations on payday lenders with the goal of preventing people from getting caught in “debt traps” caused by taking out one high-interest short-term loan after another. The bureau is accepting public comment on the rules until October 7 and the payday lending industry has mobilized opposition, urging people to “Tell policymakers in Washington, D.C.: Don’t Take My Credit Away.”
Pokemon GO Paves Way for Useful Applications
Guest: Derek Hansen, PhD, Professor of Information Technology at BYU
Back at the peak of the Pokemon GO craze in July, we spoke with BYU information technology professor Derek Hansen about the game’s appeal and what it might signal for future mobile technology development. We’re not seeing the hordes of Pokemon GO-ers wandering around town as much as we used to, but it’s still the most successful mobile game of all time and it’s still going to shape future mobile technology.
Grouping Students by Age Wastes Education Funds
Guest: Jonathan Plucker, PhD, Education Policy Scholar and Professor of Talent Development at Johns Hopkins University
More than a decade of education policies in the US have been focused at making sure kids perform at their grade level. There’s been little or no focus on what’s happening at the other end of the spectrum – how many kids are performing beyond their own grade level? The Institute for Education Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Education estimates it’s as many as a third of elementary and middle school students. So, how well we’re meeting their needs.
Obama to Veto 9/11 Victim Bill
Guest: Ryan Vogel, JD, Professor of National Security, Foreign Policy and the Law of Armed Conflict, Founding Director of the Center for National Security Studies at Utah Valley University
On the eve of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, Congress passed a bill to let families of the victims sue the country of Saudi Arabia for financial compensation, since 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. But President Obama says he’ll veto the measure, saying it would threaten US foreign policy and diplomatic relations.
Leaving Out Criminal Status on Applications Actually Hurts Minorities
Guest: Jennifer Doleac, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Virginia
It’s common for a job application to ask if you’ve ever been convicted of a felony. Check the box for “yes” and you can bet your chances of getting the job just went down. So a national movement has swept the country to “ban the box” from job applications and delay the criminal background check until later in the hiring process. More than 100 cities and counties have adopted the policy, as have more than half of state governments. A handful of states even prohibit private companies from including the criminal conviction question in their initial screening of job candidates. The idea is that employers should look first at a candidate’s qualifications, and not discount someone just because of past behavior.
Fostering A Culture of Responsibility
Guest: Ned Smith, PhD, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern University
When something goes wrong at work, and you have the choice to fall on your sword or blame someone else, it’s not hard to go with blaming. Because, let’s face it, no one wants to be responsible for the mistakes of the entire group. But what if there was a method of management that actually rewarded people for taking responsibility when things go south?
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Text Message Thrillers
Guest: Prerna Gupta, CEO and Founder of Hooked
Dracula, The Screwtape Letters, The Perks of Being a Wallflower –all are examples of fiction that plays out through the exchange of letters and documents. In the digital era, authors have taken to telling stories through chains of emails between characters. No surprise that text messages are the next frontier. That’s what a startup called Hooked has tapped into. They call themselves “fiction for the Snapchat generation.” You download the app, pick a story to read and up comes the first few lines – written as a text, of course. Click “next” and another text pops up to advance the plot. It’s working so well, the founders of Hooked think they could use the data from their app to find the next “Harry Potter.”
Who was Ama Helene?
Guest: Lincoln Blumell, PhD, Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU
We’ve all spent a moment or two thinking about how we might be remembered when we’re gone, haven’t we? What we’d like to have written on our gravestone. . . something about having loved and been loved, would be nice.
BYU ancient scripture professor Lincoln Blumell recently helped translate a small and exceptionally sweet epitaph carved into limestone that’s languished in the archives of the University of Utah’s library for decades. The carving dates back to just a couple of hundred years after the death of Christ.
Presidential Politics
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU and Co-director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of 20th Century US History at BYU
Eight weeks until election day and many voters in America are just now tuning into the choice they’ll have. As they do, the race seems to be narrowing: Democrat Hillary Clinton is about 3 percentage points ahead of Republican Donald Trump in polls of likely voters. Perhaps three televised debates in the coming weeks will give voters more clarity. Maybe not.
Paragliding Pioneer
Guest: Ken Hudonjorgensen, Founder of Two-Can Fly Paragliding
Just up the road from our studios here in Utah is one of the top paragliding sites in the country. If the wind is right, you’ll be driving along I-15 and see them soaring and spiraling like a flock of giant colorful birds, graceful and carefree. Ken Hudonjorgensen is probably up there. He’s one of the first and most experienced paraglider pilots in the US.
Wireless Sensor Planted in Body
Guest: Michel Maharbiz, PhD, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley
It’s the stuff of science fiction, but scientists have recently invented tiny sensors, the size of grain of sand, that can be implanted in the body to both monitor and ultimately control muscle and nerve function. The invention could lead to non-invasive treatments for inflammation or epilepsy or even to help patients control their prosthetic limbs.
Bias Towards Interracial Marriage
Guest: Allison Skinner, PhD, Psychology Post-doctoral Researcher for the University of Washington
Nearly fifty years ago, the US Supreme Court said laws banning interracial marriage unconstitutional. The landmark case Loving Vs. Virginia is now dramatized in a new film called “Loving.”
Today, the vast majority of Americans – 87 percent according to a Pew Research poll – are fine with interracial couples marrying and many say such unions are good for society. But researchers at the University of Washington looked at the brain activity of people who say they’re fine with interracial romance and found evidence of bias buried beneath the surface.
“Michael Vey” and Richard Paul Evans
Guest: Richard Paul Evans, New York Times Best-selling Author for “The Christmas Box” and the “Michael Vey” Series
The sixth and latest installment of the popular young adult series by Richard Paul Evans is out today. The books center on a teenager named Michael Vey who is a superhero in the X-Men vein who struggles to keep his power in check. But Michael’s amazing ability to channel electricity isn’t the only thing he wrestles with – he also has Tourette Syndrome – and that battle may just be larger than the rest.
Addressing Sexual Assault on Campus
Guest: David Lisak, PhD, Forensic Consultant, Clinical Psychologist, Helps the US Military and Colleges and Universities to Develop Rape Prevention and Response Policies
Some 200 universities across the country are currently being investigated by the US Department of Education for how they handle reports of sexual violence. BYU is among them, and, in the coming weeks, is expected to release the recommendations of an advisory council created to help BYU better handle the reporting process for sexual assault victims.
Children in the War for Terror
Guest: Mia Bloom, PhD, Professor of Communication at Georgia State University, Author of Upcoming Book “Small Arms: Children and Terrorism”
A few weeks ago in Kirkuk, a city in southern Iraq, police were on their toes. There had been a suicide bombing earlier in the day not far away, so when they noticed something strange about a boy approaching a Shia mosque, they stopped him to investigate. That’s when they found the suicide vest. The boy was only fifteen. ISIS had told him that if he carried out this suicide mission, he would go straight to heaven.
Children have become an effective weapon for ISIS. They’re featured in ISIS propaganda, they carry out attacks and even do some of the recruiting.
Long-Term Effects of Childhood Bullying
Guest: Dorothy Espelage, PhD, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Florida
Nearly a quarter of public school students in the US experience bullying – it’s a topic taken to more seriously today than it used to be. It may also have longer-lasting consequences than previously thought. A new study out of the University of Illinois found college students were still experiencing the mental and emotional effects of having been bullied as a child. That was true for women, in particular
Older Adults on Facebook
Guest: Bill Chopik, PhD, Assistant Professor in Michigan State University’s Psychology Department
How many of your friends on Facebook are older than 50? Start scrolling through the list and you might be surprised at the answer. Older adults are surprisingly active on social media. And it’s good for their health, apparently.
Brain Connections to Reading
Guest: Zeynep Saygin, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT
The ability to read written words on a page is unique to humans, which makes it intriguing to scientists who study the human brain. Imaging technology has made it possible to zero in on a part of the brain that appears pre-wired for reading and grows more and more specialized to reading as we learn to deciphers words.
Parent Previews
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks teamed up at the movies over the weekend with “Sully.” It’s based on the real-life “Miracle on the Hudson.” Hanks is the pilot, Sully Sullenberg. Captain Sully was widely considered a hero for landing that plane on the Hudson. But the trailer makes it sound like the government investigators thought he’d been incompetent.
Genetics of Heart Defects
Guest: Jonathan Hill, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology at BYU; Mike Alder, Directs BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
The most common type of birth defect involves the heart. Often they’re simple problems that need no treatment or can be easily fixed. Others, though, require lifelong care. Medicine has made great strides in diagnosing and treating complex heart defects, but scientists are still working to understand how and why they happen in the first place.
Life of a Rural Veterinarian
Guest: Bo Brock, DVM, Founder of Brock Veterinary Clinic and Author of “Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere: Tales of Humor and Healing from Rural America”
This is by no means scientific, but it may be that one in four children at some point in their youth dreams of being a veterinarian. Because they just love dogs or cats or horses, you know?
If they knew what a veterinarian’s life was really like – especially the rural vet – they might reconsider. Then again, they might just think it sounds like the greatest adventure on earth.
Man’s Best Friend
Guest: Robert Losey, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta
The special bond between people and their dogs is not recent. Excavation of cemeteries in Siberia that date back 7,000 and 8,000 years have unearthed ancient evidence that dogs got special treatment from humans.
Inside Illustration
Guests: Bethanne Andersen, Professor of Illustration at BYU; Guy Francis, Illustrator of Clark the Shark, Ghostville Elementary, Ghosthunters; Brett Helquist, Illustrator of “The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket” and Creator of Roger the Jolly Pirate; Sam Ricks, Winner of the 2016 Geisel Award for Best Beginning Reader Book Published in the US for Illustrations in “Don’t Throw it to Mo!”
We’re going inside the illustrator’s mind this hour. If you close your eyes for a moment and think back to reading your favorite book as a child, the images likely come fast. Even when you graduate from picture books to chapter books, the illustrations matter. The way the characters look on the cover of the book shapes the movie in your head as the story unfolds. The occasional illustration tucked between chapters feels like finding a prize in a cereal box.
Comparing Trump/Clinton Foreign Policy Plans
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton laid out some of their plans in a live TV town hall Wednesday night. Secretary Clinton said defeating ISIS is her highest counterterrorism goal. We need to provide more support for the Arabs and the Kurds fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
In previous statements, Donald Trump has not ruled out sending ground troops to defeat ISIS. He’s also promised he has a plan to defeat ISIS very quickly, but he’s not talking about it other than to say he’ll consult with military generals.
Baha’i Struggle to Get Education in Iran
Guest: Farhad Sabetan, PhD, Economics Lecturer at Cal State East Bay, Online Teacher for the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education in Iran, Spokesperson for the Baha’i International Community
Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, there has been only one officially accepted religion in Iran – Islam. Over the decades, other religions have been marginalized in the country, to the point that, today members of the Baha’i faith are banned from many aspects of life in Iran. Most notably, Baha’i youth are prohibited from attending college. If they do manage to get into a university those students are usually quickly expelled.
Rio’s Economy Post-Olympic Games
Guest: Steve Salaga, PhD, Assistant Professor at Texas A&M specializing in Sports Economics and Sports Management
The Paralympics are now underway in Rio. It’s the second act of the biggest sporting event in the world. Countries vie for the chance to host the Olympics because of the international attention they bring and the hope of an economic boost from all those tens of thousands of tourists who will visit.
If history is a guide, the Olympics will not bring Rio’s economy out of its current recession, and may be more likely to leave the city’s budget in the red.
Middle East Panel
Guests: Steven Lobell, PhD, Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah; John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Utah Valley University; Fred Axelgard, PhD, Senior Fellow at BYU’s Wheatley Institution
A renewed effort is under way to broker peace in Syria. US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Geneva hoping to deal could be finalized by Friday, but Defense Secretary Ash Carter also says “there’s a long way to go” before Russia and the US can come to an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria.
Meanwhile, the Syrian city of Aleppo remains under siege and civilians there have little access to food, water or medical care. Earlier this week an apparent chlorine gas attack injured 100 people in Aleppo. Activists blame the forces of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad for using the chemical weapon.
The Pitfalls of Too Much Homework
Guest: Denise Pope, PhD, Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education and Co-author of “Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids”
Just as the school year got underway a letter to parents from a second grade teacher in Texas went viral. “There will be no formally assigned homework this year,” the letter said. “Rather, I ask that you spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success. Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside, and get your child to bed early.”
Back in 2014, we spoke with a leading expert on the subject of homework. Stanford researcher and education scholar Denise Pope knows that a lot of teachers and parents think homework is essential to learning. It’s the “no pain, no gain” idea and it certainly was in play when I was in school. But Pope’s research shows that’s not always the case. In fact, homework can have negative effects on student well-being and behavioral engagement.
How Welfare Reform Affected Families
Guest: Alan Hawkins, PhD, Professor of Family Life at BYU, Author of “The Forever Initiative”
This year marks the 20th anniversary of major reform to the US welfare system. Leading up to the changes implemented by President Bill Clinton and a Republican-led Congress, welfare programs were criticized for promoting government dependency and single-motherhood. The 1996 reforms added work requirements and time limits to the welfare system and gave states more control over the money. Child care, job training and even marriage skills classes are now part of the welfare spending mix. So how have families fared? Original welfare programs may have encouraged women to have children out of wedlock. Does welfare now encourage couples to marry and stay together?
Squatters May Actually Help Neighborhoods
Guest: Claire Herbert, PhD, Recent Doctoral Graduate in Sociology at the University of Michigan
The housing and foreclosure crisis that helped cause the Great Recession also plunged many neighborhoods into decline. Homes that have been abandoned by their owners and the bank quickly over grow with weeds; then they become a magnet for thieves, loiterers and worst of all, squatters.
So why on earth would some neighborhoods in Detroit want to recruit squatters? Claire Herbert spent five years interviewing homeowners, community leaders and squatters in Detroit for her doctorate in sociology at the University of Michigan. She found that sometimes squatters are good for a neighborhood.
From the Vaults: Kay Nielsen
Guest: Julie Allen, PhD, Humanities Professor at BYU
Do you remember this final scene from Disney’s Fantasia? There’s a winged demon with glowing eyes on top of a craggy mountain. He looms over a sleeping village and then he starts summoning spirits from the grave. They’re flying through the air on wispy skeletal horses and then there are demons dancing around a pit of fire. The whole thing is super-creepy and a lot of people said it was too dark for a kid’s movie. But it ends on a really lovely note when the music shifts to Schubert’s Ave Maria and there’s a serene candlelight procession weaving through stately trees.
The Apple Seed: Cowboy Poetry
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
BYUradio’s Sam Payne joins us live in studio to share stories of tellers and tales.
Twins Live Longer than the Rest of Us
Guest: David Sharrow, PhD, Demographer and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Washington
Who didn’t fantasize about having a long lost identical twin after watching the “Parent Trap?” An automatic best friend. Someone to swap places with. Well, a new study from the University of Washington indicates that twins—especially identical twins—are getting away with more than the occasional switcheroo. Twins are literally getting away with more life. They have lower mortality rates than the rest of us.
"Playing Aaron Burr in Hamilton Made Me a Better Friend, Husband, Person"
Guest: Leslie Odom Jr, 2016 Tony Award winner for portrayal of Aaron Burr in “Hamilton,” currently touring for solo jazz album, “Leslie Odom Jr.”
Leslie Odom’s role as Hamilton’s friend – and killer – won him a 2016 Tony for best leading actor in a musical. He’s just left the cast to release a solo album of jazz standards called “Leslie Odom, Jr.” and he’s performing concerts around the country. He sat down with Julie Rose before his concert at BYU.
The Online Labor Market that Fuels Scientific Research
Guest: David Rand, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Yale University
There's vast online labor market with a strange name that PBS Newshour called, "The Internet's Hidden Science Factory." It's called Amazon Mechanical Turk and it has fundamentally changed the way social scientists do research.
Real Men Get Therapy
Guest: Kevin Shafer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Social Work at Brigham Young University
Take it like a man. What does that really mean? Hide your emotions? Don’t talk about your feelings? Don’t admit it if you’re struggling—especially emotionally? Kevin Shafer tried his best to do all that, for 20 years. But it didn’t work, and it certainly didn’t help him to escape the depression that haunted him.
Helping Troubled Youth in the ER
Guest: Patrick Carter, MD, Emergency Room Physician and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Injury Center
How do you intervene to help at-risk youth who don’t go to school or who rarely see a pediatrician? In Flint, Michigan, doctors have begun offering counseling in one place at-risk youth do show up: the emergency room. A three-and-a-half-year study at Hurley Medical Center in Flint found that a 30-minute session with a social worker in the ER can decrease a young person’s involvement in future violent behaviors.
Catholic Priest Retirement Crisis
Guest: Michael Kane, PhD, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Professor in the School of Social Work at Florida Atlantic University
Let’s consider the plight now of a select group of aging Americans unsure if retirement will even be an option for them. The well-being of this group has an outsized effect on other people. They are the priests who lead and minister to some 66 million Catholics in the U.S.
Over the past 50 years, the number of priests and men seeking ordination has dropped off, but the number of parishes in need of a priest has remained steady. Which means Catholic priests in the US are aging, and being called upon to do more. Those who hope to retire from the demanding job when they reach 70 or older are finding it increasingly difficult to do so, and those who do manage to retire are often left with little in the way of financial resources.
Family Law Influences Stability in Afghanistan
Guest: Donna Lee Bowen, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
Fifteen years since the US invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban in response to the 9-11 terror attacks, the country remains unstable and violence is surging. To understand why, researchers at BYU and Texas A&M University say, we need to look at how women are treated in Afghanistan. Their research shows the stability of a nation is tied to the status of its women. The countries with the most violence and insecurity are the ones where women have the least say over their lives: they’re treated as subservient, married off as children, not allowed to seek divorce, attend school, work, hold public office or own property.
Worlds Awaiting: Easy Readers
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio
Time now to talk about books with the host of Worlds Awaiting, another show here on BYUradio where the conversation is always about encouraging a love of reading and discovery in children. It’s a show for grownups who want to help the kids in our lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them.
You can hear it on Saturdays at 1:30 pm ET right here on BYUradio.
Aida's Secrets
Guests: Alon Schwarz, director of the new film “Aida’s Secrets,” US release in early 2017; Laurence Harris, Head of Genealogy, MyHeritage.com.
Separation, reunion and decades-old secrets. The new film “Aida’s Secrets” is a family documentary and a suspenseful mystery in which a genealogist plays the role of lead gumshoe.
Two brothers, born in a camp for displaced persons in Germany shortly after World War II, were separated as babies. One grew up with an adopted family in Israel, the other with his father and stepmother in Canada. Neither knew of the other’s existence until they were in their 70s.
Stem Cells - Organs and Ethics
Guests: Alonzo Cook, PhD, professor of Chemical Engineering, BYU; Martin Tristani-Firouzi, MD, pediatric cardiologist and research scientist, University of Utah School of Medicine
The ethical debate over stem cells in the early 2000s focused on where the cells came from. At the time, the most powerful stem cells used in research were derived from human embryos discarded by couples undergoing fertility treatment. President George W. Bush restricted federal funding for research using such stem cells because they required the “destruction of human life.” Scientists have since discovered ways to obtain stem cells that do not involve human embryos. So now the ethical debate has shifted to focus not on where the cells come from, but where they will go. Imagine if human stem cells could be implanted in a pig embryo that would then grow up with a human kidney in its belly. And after the pig incubates the kidney, it is transplanted into the person with kidney disease who donated the stem cells for that very purpose. That would be incredible, but also fraught with new ethical questions: What if some of those human stem cells also ended up in the pig’s brain and it became super-smart? Researchers treat animal and human subjects differently. How should they treat something that’s part-animal, part-human?
The National Institutes of Health is at this moment working out new guidelines to deal with the thorny ethics of this new frontier in stem cell research. This hour we’re considering the ethic questions, as well as the range of advancements in stem cell research for creating and regenerating human organs and tissue.
Hillybilly Elegy
Guest: J.D. Vance, Author of “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis”
J.D. Vance’s life today is something his 13-year-old self would have considered impossibly ludicrous. He’s a former Marine with a degree from Ohio State University and a graduate of Yale Law School now working as a principal in a Silicon Valley investment firm. He’s also a rising star among conservative commentators.
For a kid with Kentucky roots growing up in an Ohio steel town that – as Vance writes – “has been hemorrhaging jobs and hope for as long as” he can remember, the future was bleak. Life with his single, drug-addicted mother was chaotic and miserable. The numbers said a lucky outcome for a kid like him would mean barely avoiding welfare. Unlucky meant dying of a heroin overdose.
Can Skateboarding Survive the Olympics?
Guest: Neftalie Williams, Professor of Skateboarding Business, Media and Culture at the University of Southern California
The next time the Summer Olympics roll around – that’ll be 2020 in Tokyo – skateboarding will be part of the games. To see skateboarding get the official Olympic sport seal of approval might surprise anyone who considers the kids doing tricks on curbs and handrails around town a public nuisance. The more surprising thing is that lots of skateboarders want nothing to do with the Olympics or even the title of “sport” applied to what they do. More than 7,000 of them have signed an online petition urging the International Olympic Committee to drop skateboarding from the plan for Tokyo.
Why Do Some Animals Have Body Armor?
Guest: Ted Stankowich, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology at California State University, Long Beach
We know that animals adapt and evolve to survive as their environments change. So what kind of an environment causes an animal to develop quills, spikes or noxious spray, while other animals living in the same environment have no such protection?
Break Open the (Non-Alcoholic) Bubbly
Guest: Bruce Blosil, CEO and Founder of Delmosa
The founders of a new company called Delmosa are, like a third of Americans, non-drinkers. And they’ve decided that the experience of pairing and savoring fine brews shouldn’t be just for people who consume alcohol.
Check them out here.
Ty Detmer Comes Home
Guest: Ty Detmer, Winner of the 1991 Heisman Trophy, Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach for the BYU Cougars
This weekend BYU football will play their first game of the season, testing out a new coaching staff at the same time. As part of the changes, new head coach Kalani Sitake hired BYU football legend Ty Detmer as his offensive coordinator.
The Big Weather Question: Is Climate Change to Blame?
Guest: David Eaterling, PhD, Top Climate, Flood Expert at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information
Looking at the record heat July brought to the globe, the severe flooding that caused so much trauma in Louisiana and the raging fire season in California shaping up to be one of the state’s worst ever, you have to wonder, don’t you, if climate change is driving this? And are we humans adding to the problem?
Combatting Lazy Eye Through Video Games
Guest: Ahmed Alsaleem, Doctoral Student in Game Engineering at the University of Utah
Lazy eye is the leading cause of vision loss in kids. It’s treatable if it’s caught early enough, but it can be difficult to diagnose in very young children, particularly if it’s a mild case. So some graduate students at the University of Utah have designed video games that can both diagnose and treat lazy eye in kids.
Patents and FDA Approval Allow for EpiPen Price Increases
Guest: Timothy Holbrook, JD, Professor of Law at Emory University
The EpiPen price gouging controversy is just the latest instance in which a company has caught flak for dramatically hiking the cost of a prescription drug. In the case of the EpiPen, which is a life-saving treatment for someone having a severe allergic reaction, the company Mylan acquired it about a decade ago and proceeded to steadily boost the price to about six times its original sticker. Today, two EpiPens will run you $600, if you pay out of pocket. Thanks to all the bad PR, Mylan has announced it’ll soon begin selling a generic version of the EpiPen for half price. Why a company would sell a generic to compete with its own name brand is mysterious to me. But the entire system of drug pricing is rather mysterious and hinges in large part on two regulator systems: Patents and FDA approval.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in stories to share tales of tellers and stories.
Kenya’s Culture of Running
Guest: Andy Arnold, Young Explorer Conducting Research Funded by the National Geographic Society
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Kenya took home 13 medals, most for distance running. They’re legendary for their marathon prowess. And you’ve likely heard the explanation that their bodies have adapted to the high altitude of their country in a way that’s perfect for running.
Cornell University track and field captain Andrew Arnold wasn’t satisfied with that explanation, so he headed to Kenya for six months to see what’s really behind the nation’s success with distance running. What he found was a training culture that, in some ways, is akin to running as a religion for young Kenyans.
40 Years Behind the Lens
Guest: Mark Philbrick, BYU’s Official Photographer for 40 Years
Eight times in his 40-year career at BYU, Mark Philbrick has been named the best University photographer in the country. Which begs the question, what does a University Photographer do?
Check out a retrospective look of his career here.
Burkini Bans and the Law
Guest: Elizabeth Clark, JD, Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion at BYU
Until a French court intervened last week, dozens of cities and towns in France had banned full-body bathing suits called “burkinis” on public beaches. Many of these beaches allow topless sunbathing, but women covered head-to-toe were the ones being cited by police for offending public sensibilities. The burkini bans laws typically refer to them as inappropriate displays of religious affiliation and a risk to public order at a time when France has been the target of terror attacks.
Divorce Is Causing More Americans to Stay Put
Guest: Thomas Cooke, PhD, Geography Professor at the University of Connecticut
Over the last fifty years, Americans have done a lot less moving from one state to another – about half as much, in fact. That’s a big decline and one that demographers have puzzled over. Is the economy limiting people’s willingness to move? Is it the aging baby boomers who hit retirement and settle in?
The Nordic Theory of Everything
Guest: Anu Partanen, Finnish Journalist and Author of “The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life”
For many Americans, the idea of being truly free includes being free from too much government intervention in our lives. We abhor the “nanny state” and recoil at policy recommendations that are “socialist.” But what if people who live in countries with big governments that provide free health care, education and such, are actually more free than we are?
Focus on Bringing Kids Up to Grade Level Holds High Achievers Back
Guest: Jonathan Plucker, PhD, Education Policy Scholar and Professor of Talent Development at Johns Hopkins University
More than a decade of education policies in the US have been focused at making sure kids perform at their grade level. We want to leave “No Child Left Behind,” ensure that “Every Student Succeeds.” There’s been little or no focus on what’s happening at the other end of the spectrum – how many kids are performing beyond their own grade level? How many millions of dollars are being spent to teach children things they already know?
The Soundtrack for Generations of Mexican Lives
Guest: Ignacio Garcia, PhD, Professor of Latin American and Chicano History at BYU
Mexico’s most prolific and popular singer-songwriter died on Sunday of a heart attack. “One of the greatest musical icons of our country,” is what the Mexican president tweeted about the passing of Juan Gabriel. TV stations abandoned regular programming for wall-to-wall coverage of the pop star when news broke of his death. Juan Gabriel was 66 at his death. He was as flamboyant performer who wrote aching love songs and catchy mega-hits.
The Most Important Thing a Teen Can Learn in School
Guest: David Yeager, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin
Here’s the thing about teenagers – at that age everything is such a big deal. Especially the social stuff. The popular kid turns you down for the dance and you’re convinced no one will ever love you. It’s so nerve-wracking to strike up a casual conversation with someone you don’t know well and suddenly you’re sure that you’ll always be painfully shy and have to live as a hermit.
There might be a way to inoculate teenagers against the long-term effects of such adolescent angst. It has to do with training young people to understand that how they are today is not how they’ll always be.
Center for Disease Control Says Sepsis is a Medical Emergency
Guest: Clark Bishop, MD, Critical Care Physician at Utah Valley Hospital
A new report from the CDC says that when doctors encounter sepsis in patients, they need to treat it as a “medical emergency.” Sepsis is what killed actress Patty Duke and boxer Muhammad Ali this year. More people die of sepsis in America every year than from heart attack, according to the CDC. And yet, this new report says nearly three-quarters of patients with the fast-moving, deadly illness have recently seen doctors and nurses who missed the signs of it. Where sepsis is concerned, every hour is critical.
Why Are We So Judy of Other Parents?
Guest: Ashley Jo Thomas, Doctoral Student of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine
The facts show that children are more likely to be hurt in a car accident than to be kidnapped by a stranger. So, why do we call 9-1-1 when we see a kid alone in the park, but not when we see children riding in cars?
Excitement Over a New T. Rex Skeleton
Guest: Gregory Wilson, PhD, Adjunct Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Washington
Tyrannosaurs rex is by far the most iconic, most popular dinosaur. But did you know that fossils of it are actually very rare? The largest collection of them comes from this one a place in Montana called Hell Creek and it’s there that paleontologists recently unearthed a big new find.
Skinny People Are Still at Risk of Diabetes
Guest: Arch Mainous, PhD, Professor of Public Health at the University of Florida
We’ve come to associate Type 2 diabetes with obesity, but some new analysis of adult health data in the US indicates doctors may be missing the warning signs of diabetes in millions of people because those patients are not overweight. As many as one-third of adults over 45 who have a healthy weight have elevated glucose levels that put them at higher risk for developing full-fledged diabetes.
Hollywood Teachers and Back to School Movies
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Since everyone’s caught up in back-to-school excitement, we’re going to look at how school and teachers appear in Hollywood.
A lot of it has to do with skipping school – Bueller, anyone – or languishing in detention like the Breakfast Club. But a lot of truly inspirational school stories – many of them based on real-life teachers – have made a mark on the silver screen.
Thailand's Deepening Divisions
Guest: Joel Selway, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
A closer look now at the state of things in Thailand, where the elected prime minister was ousted in a military coup two years ago. Military leaders have, in the last month, managed to pass a new constitution through a public vote that further cements their control over the country. This isn’t exactly new territory for Thailand. In the last 80 years, there’s been a coup or attempted coup in Thailand every four and a half years on average, and 20 different constitutions in that time.
But something about the current situation feels different, says Joel Selway, a professor of political science at BYU. He studies politics in Thailand and was there during the recent constitutional referendum. This time around, Selway says Thailand seems more deeply divided. There are two dominant political movements in Thailand: one is The Yellow Shirts, who tend to align with urban elites in Bangkok; the other is The Red Shirts who are more likely to live in villages and be loyal to a powerful political family from the north of Thailand led by a man named Thaksin Shinawatra. Over the last decade, he and a series of his family members have been elected prime minister, only to be ousted by military coup. What’s different this time, says Selway, is that the divide between the Red Shirt and Yellow Shirt movements is beginning to align with Thailand’s ethnic and regional divides. And that’s how civil wars start.
How Art Helped Establish the National Parks
Guests: Joni Kinsey, PhD, Professor of American Art History at the University of Iowa and Author of “Thomas Moran and the Surveying of the American West”; Ashlee Whitaker, Curator Religious Art at the Museum of Art at BYU
We’ve heard a lot this week about how the National Park Service came about 100 years ago and some of the forces that led to the preservation of magnificent landscapes like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite. But think back to the late 1800s. This was before planes and cars and cable TV. Most Americans and politicians in Washington had never been out West. Aside from the occasional report of a surveying expedition and a grainy photograph or two, what could they really understand about the depth of the Grand Canyon, the grandeur of Half Dome or the magic of Old Faithful?
Had it not been for intrepid artists willing to venture into the wild with their sketchbooks and paintbrushes, it’s likely our most iconic National Parks would not have captured the imagination of Americans as powerfully as they did.
What You Think You Know About Surviving a Bear Encounter is Probably Wrong
Guest: Tom Smith, PhD, Professor of Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation at BYU
We snuggle our teddies as kids and think of bears as cuddly, lovable creatures. But also a bit terrifying, judging from all the “what-to-do-if-you-meet-a-bear” tips you can find online. A lot of what you think you know about bears is probably flat wrong, as we’re going to learn this hour from someone who’s spent more than two decades studying human/bear encounters.
UN Admits It Caused Haitian Cholera Outbreak
Guest: Rosa Freedman, JD, Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development at the University of Reading
Haitians had known political unrest and grinding poverty prior to the devastating earthquake and floods hit in 2010. But one plight the country had avoided was cholera. That was not a disease found in Haiti until UN peacekeepers brought it with them when they came to help after the earthquake. Since then, cholera has killed at least 10,000 people in Haiti and made hundreds of thousands sick.
Asthma and the Amish
Guest: Carole Ober, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago
Six million kids in the US have asthma – that’s one out of 11 children, and the number is rising.
But what if there were a simple solution to preventing asthma from developing? You just have to live with a cow.
A report out in The New England Journal of Medicine finds Amish children who grow up on a family farm, in close proximity to dairy cows, have much lower rates of asthma. And researchers at the University of Chicago believe microbes in the dust have something to do with that.
Why Paying Kidnappers Doesn’t Pay
Guest: Todd Sandler, PhD, Professor of Economics at the University of Texas - Dallas
Just imagine, for a moment, that someone in your immediate family were kidnapped by a terror group in Iraq or Syria. If you pay a million-dollar ransom, your loved one will be released. If you don’t, the result will likely be a gruesome execution broadcast online. You pay the money, right?
But since 9-11, the United States has stuck to a strict policy of not making any concessions to terrorist kidnappers – no ransoms, no prisoner swaps. Bending to the terrorist demands will only invite more kidnappings of Americans, US officials have said. In several tragic cases involving American hostages of ISIS and Al Qaeda, not only did the US refuse to pay the ransom, they refused to let the family pay either. And the hostages were killed.
National Park Service Looks to the Next 100 Years
(Note: this conversation originally aired in May 2016)
Guest: Jeremy Barnum, Spokesman for the National Park Service
This week marks one hundred years since President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created the National Park Service. At the time, there were 35 national parks and monuments. Yellowstone was the first – it had already been a national park for 44 years by that time, so clearly, Americans had an inkling that wild spaces and historical places mattered enough to give them special attention – special protection. As the National Park Service turns 100, there are some 400 national parks and 20,000 employees looking after them.
Yellowstone and Our Notion of "Wildness"
Guest: David Quammen, Author of National Geographic May Issue, “Yellowstone: The Battle for the American West.”
Every year people from around the globe flock to Yellowstone National Park. For the rest of this hour we’re going to explore why the oldest national park in the world holds such a grip on our collective imagination: bears, bison and wolves now thrive there and if you’re lucky you’ll be able to snap a photo of one, from your car or on the park trails. But bring your bear spray—grizzlies and cougars use the same trails we do, and that’s how Yellowstone is intended to be—wild. What lessons about co-existing with the wild can, and should, we learn from the grand experiment that is Yellowstone National Park?
Assessing the Status of ISIS
Guest: John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science and Terrorism Studies at Utah Valley University
Daily, it seems, there’s another attack somewhere in the world which ISIS claims to have inspired. More than 50 people were killed this week at a wedding in Turkey by a suicide bomber authorities say may have been just 13 or 14 years old. When President Obama last gave an update on the US strategy to defeat ISIS – which he calls ISIL – the news was good and bad. The President rattled off a list of key defeats in Iraq and Syria, noting that ISIS’ territory has now shrunk to basically two strongholds – Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
Why You Should Keep Flossing
Guest: Julie Rezk, DMD, Assistant Professor of Dentistry at Vanderbilt University
There’s a flap going on about flossing. While dentists and health agencies have been recommending we do it regularly for decades, there turns out to be very little research evidence that flossing prevents gum disease or cavities. The proof is so scant that this year, the federal government dropped flossing from its recommended health guidelines.
Which is a great relief to irregular flossers like me. But not so fast. Dentists have come out in force urging people to keep up with the floss.
Antiquities Act Controversy
Guest: John Freemuth, PhD, Executive Director for the Cecil D. Andrus Center and Professor of Public Policy at Boise State University
This week marks the 100-year anniversary of the National Park Service, so let’s take a moment to consider how spectacular landscapes are preserved. Nearly a quarter of America’s national parks – including the Grand Canyon and Zion – were created first as national monuments through special power given to the president of the United States. Only later, did Congress come along and turn them into National Parks.
The president has this authority through the Antiquities Act of 1906, and it has not been without controversy over the last century. Just today, President Obama used it to designate a large swath of Maine’s North Woods as a new national monument, against the wishes of Maine’s governor and legislature. Obama is also under pressure to create a new national monument in Southern Utah before he leaves office. Many Utahns still bristle at President Bill Clinton creating Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument at the end of his first term.
The Apple Seed: How Stories Connect Us
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio to share tales of tellers and stories.
Measuring Mental Distraction On-the-Move
Guest: Hasan Ayaz, PhD, Associate Research Professor at Drexel University, Member of the Cognitive Neuroengineering and Quantitative Experimental Research Collaborative
This past spring New Jersey lawmakers considered legislation to fine people caught texting while crossing the street. It’s just asking too much of your brain, the bill’s sponsor claimed, to think you can control your phone and also respond to the dangers around you. Researchers at Drexel wanted to test just how distracted we really are when we’re using mobile devices, and if we’re any less distracted when using smart glasses, like Google Glass, where digital information is projected onto glasses and so you don’t have to look down to see the digital information.
Until now, it’s been difficult to test brain function in the real world—in situations like walking down the street. But the Drexel researchers were able to use a wearable, battery-operated monitor to track brain scans of the test subjects and their findings could have far-reaching implications for technology development as well as our understanding of the brain.
The End of Private Prisons?
Guest: Maybell Romero, JD, Visiting Assistant Professor of Criminal Law at BYU
The US Department of Justice is phasing out its use of prison runs by private companies. A recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General recently concluded that privately-operated prisons compare poorly with those run by the government: they do not maintain the same level of security and safety and they also don’t save substantially on costs.
Why Predicting Floods Is So Hard
Guest: Jim Nelson, PhD, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at BYU
The flooding in Louisiana that killed 13 and damaged or destroyed more than 60,000 homes is the “worst natural disaster” to strike the nation since Hurricane Sandy, according to emergency response officials. As President Obama visits the region today and tens of thousands work to rebuild their lives, we’re asking what it will take to better predict flood threats. With better prediction, state and local officials could be more precise in evacuating and responding to flood threats. Homeowners might be more inclined to get flood insurance in certain areas.
Black Lives Matter and K-12 Education
Guest: Jonathan Stith, Founding Member and National Coordinator for the Alliance for Educational Justice
Black Lives Matter activists have focused a spotlight on racial inequities in the criminal justice system. Now they’re broadening the focus to include K-12 education, which is where they say the discrimination often starts. Some of what they’re calling for might surprise you: a moratorium on opening charter schools is on the list and so is abolishing Teach for America, an institution whose self-proclaimed purpose is to “disrupt inequality.”
Pokemon GO Proxies
Guests: Jeff Sheets, Advertising Professor at BYU;
Pokemon Go isn’t as big in the US as it was earlier this summer, but it’s still the most popular mobile game in history. Players use their smartphones to locate Pokemon creatures hiding all over town – including places where playing is inappropriate or unsafe, like a war memorial or a hospital. Such places have struggled to manage the disruptions the game causes, even banning it on their property. But some BYU advertising students turned the disruption on its ear at Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah: They developed a way for sick kids to play Pokemon Go without leaving the hospital and without interfering with hospital staff and regulations.
Therapy by Text Message Helps Crack Counseling Code
Guest: Jure Leskovec, PhD, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University
The latest development in crisis hotlines is texting. Now, if you’re of a certain age, that probably sounds strange to reach out for help and not even hear a friendly voice on the other end of the line. But for the people from the emoji-era of communication, texting is a perfectly natural way to express themselves and get support.
And there’s an added benefit researchers are discovering – those text-message counseling sessions yield a wealth of data on what works and what doesn’t in counseling.
What Folktales Teach About Grief
Guest: Kim Bateman, PhD, Clinical Psychologist and Author of “Crossing the Owl’s Bridge: A Guide for Grieving People Who Still Love”
You know the stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. But isn’t grief more complicated than just five words? Sometimes, it is quiet. Other times, it tears apart homes and families, spawns unhealthy habits and creates lifelong problems.
So how can we learn to better deal with grief?
Worlds Awaiting: Easy Readers
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio
Time now to talk about books with the host of Worlds Awaiting, a show for grownups who want to help the kids in our lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them.
Worlds Awaiting airs weekly on Saturdays at 1:30 pm ET here on BYUradio, Sirius XM Radio channel 143.
Are Obamacare Exchanges in Trouble?
Guest: Katherine Hempstead, Senior Adviser on Health Insurance Coverage at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
A central piece of the Affordable Care Act—also known as Obamacare—suffered a blow in the last week. The nation’s third largest health insurer, Aetna, announced it will withdraw from the insurance plan marketplaces in most states. Aetna is the largest insurer to withdraw in a big way, but UnitedHealth Group and Humana have also begun to retreat from the marketplaces—also known as “exchanges.”
The exchanges were created to help the “uninsurable” get coverage. So what now for those people? Can the exchanges survive without heavyweights like Aetna?
Adult Learners Still Not Being Taught Technology
Guest: Iris Feinberg, PhD, Assistant Director of the Adult Literacy Research Center at Georgia State University
A growing number of adults older than your typical college student are heading back to school in the US. Some are seeking to finish the college degree they need before applying to certain jobs. Others are feeling the disadvantage of not having grown up immersed in the technology today’s younger workers use so naturally.
But educational researcher Iris Feinberg finds that colleges aren’t teaching older adults the technical skills they need—in fact more than half of community college students say they’ve never taken a computer class while in school.
Influence of Internet Memes
Guests: Grant Kien, PhD, Associate Professor at California State East Bay Department of Communication; Amalia Alexandru, Digital Product Manager for BeMyApp
The photo of a young Syrian boy pulled from the wreckage of a bomb, sitting dazed and bloody in an orange ambulance seat quickly went viral last week. He was photo shopped into pictures with world leaders, and rendered in sketch form by artists in shareable memes, a symbol of outrage and frustration over the response to Syria’s civil conflict.
Viral images and hashtags have the power to raise awareness of an issue and galvanize people in sympathy. Think of the #JeSuisCharlie and #JeSuisParis hashtags after terror attacks in France and the way Facebook was suddenly awash in people turning their status pictures into the French flag.
But more often than not, viral images and hashtags are not helpful in uniting people or sparking meaningful action.
Global War on Terror Memorial
Guests: Andrew Brennan, Former Army Captain, Founder and Director of the Global War On Terror Memorial Foundation; Jan Scruggs, Vietnam War Veteran, Founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now America’s longest active conflict – nearing 15 years of deployments, 7,000 service members dead and more than 50,000 wounded. But if you go to America’s front lawn—the National Mall in Washington, DC—you will not find a memorial to those men and women. World War I, II, Vietnam and Korea War veterans all have a monument of remembrance there, but not Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Even the question of what to call such a memorial is unclear, frankly. And there’s the little matter of a US law that says a war must be over for 10 years before a national memorial can be built for it.
None of that is stopping Former Army Captain Andrew Brennan from trying. He’s creator of the Global War On Terror Memorial Foundation and he’s got support of Jan Scruggs, who faced stiff opposition in his quest to get the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built.
Parent Previews
Guest: Rob Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Ben Hur, the Charlton Heston epic film about revenge and forgiveness, has returned to theaters with a modern cast and all the special effects we’ve come to expect of action films today—even if it’s horse—drawn chariots racing instead of fast cars.
Making Smarter Drones
Guests: Karl Warnick, PhD, Professor of Electrical Engineering at BYU; Dave Brown, JD, BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
About four times a day, somebody flies a drone too close to a passenger plane or breaks some other airspace regulation. Data from the Federal Aviation Administration show such incident reports last year totaled five times what they were in 2014. It’s no wonder the government has created stricter rules for lightweight drones that take effect at the end of the month. Drone owners will be required to register their craft with the government and get a special license to operate them.
But there will still be operator error and close calls. So drones need to get smarter too. BYU electrical engineering professor Karl Warnick and his students have created a way for drones to see other aircraft and avoid them.
The Mirror Test
Guest: J. Kael Weston, Former State Department Official, Author of “The Mirror Test: America at War in Iraq and Afghanistan”
Kael Weston spent seven years as a State Department official in the most dangerous parts of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Think of it. Not just a few weeks off and on. Not even an 18-month deployment. Weston was at the frontlines of the wars for seven consecutive years. He saw unspeakable things. He recruited school teachers and local leaders to work with America in rebuilding communities. He saw those collaborators killed for working with him. He made decisions that resulted in the death of US troops, too.
Doping in the Olympics
Guest: Charles Yesalis, PhD, Expert on the Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports, Emeritus Professor of Health and Human Development at Penn State University
The 2016 Summer Games in Rio featured a lot of finger-wagging and audience booing about the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Outspoken American swimmer Lilly King literally shook her finger at Russian rival Yulia Efimova, who was allowed to compete despite being implicated in a Russian doping investigation and serving two suspensions for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs during her career. Doping was bound to be a big story in Rio because of two high-profile reports released just before the Olympics showing evidence of a sophisticated system facilitated by the Russian government to ensure its athletes could dope without being caught. None of Russia’s track and field athletes were even allowed to compete in Rio. Others from the country, like Efimova, did compete, though under a cloud of suspicion. After her events were over, she told USA Today the public shaming made the Olympics a nightmare for her.
Cost of War Project
Guest: Neta Crawford, PhD, Professor of Political Science at Boston University, Co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute
A heartbreaking image of a young boy, dazed, bleeding and covered in dust after a bombing in Aleppo has swept around the internet, prompting calls for a more concerted effort to end the conflict in Syria. It’s the war that captures most media attention right now, making it easy to forget that the US war in Afghanistan is nearing 15 years and violence is intensifying.
Do Third-Party Candidates Matter?
Guest: Barbara Perry, PhD, Director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center and Co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are not the only candidates in the 2016 presidential race, though you wouldn’t know it from the majority of press coverage. There’s a Green Party Candidate named Jill Stein and a Libertarian named Gary Johnson who are currently capturing a combined 12 percent of the overall vote in polls. What’s the likelihood that either of them will manage to make an impact on the election in November?
How Olympic Athletes Pay the Bills
Guest: Edward Etzel, PhD, 1984 Gold Medalist in Olympic Sharpshooting for the United States, Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology at West Virginia University
First comes the gold medal. Then comes the Wheaties box. Then comes a life of fame and wealth, right? Well, there may be some truth to that in the short-term if you’re Michael Phelps or Simone Biles. But the vast majority of US athletes who land atop a medals podium in Rio will not get rich from being at the top of their sport.
Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Guest: Kathryn Blaze Baum, National Reporter for The Globe and Mail
The official count from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is that some 1,200 indigenous women have gone missing or been murdered during the past 30 years, but the actual number could be closer to 4,000 according to research by the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Many of the women vanished along a remote roadway in British Columbia that’s become known as the Highway of Tears. Canada’s prime minister has now launched a national inquiry into the disappearances and murders of indigenous women.
Challenges Facing Cancer Survivors
Guest: Niraj Gusani, MD, Founder of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Survivorship Clinic at the Penn State Cancer Institute
Advances in cancer treatment and the longer lives Americans are living combine to mean millions upon millions of people are now “survivors of cancer.” By 2026, that survivor number is expected to reach 20 million people. Which is great news, because surviving cancer is better than succumbing. But surviving doesn’t mean the battle is over. There are lingering physical and emotional challenges that my next guest says are not being met by doctors very well today.
Disastrous Relief
Guest: Juanita Rilling, Director at USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Center for International Disaster Information
Devastating floods in Louisiana and fires in California have forced thousands of people from their homes and mobilized the disaster relief groups that swoop into comfort and help with recovery.
In any disaster relief effort, there’s the risk of a “second disaster” prompted by unsolicited help and donations that can end up being worse than useless – think winter coats sent to Honduras in the summer.
Defending the Olympic Brand
Guest: Shontavia Johnson, JD, Trademark Law Professor and Director of Drake University Law School’s Intellectual Property Law Center
The Olympics are everywhere, all over the news and social media. But the image and brand of the Olympics is managed and policed – even in the wild west of the internet. Trademark law expert Shontavia Johnson says the International Olympic Committee is virtually without peer in its ability to maintain a gag order on companies who are not official sponsors of the Olympics.
Lack of Pharmacies Increases Re-Hospitalization
Guests: David Lee, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Oregon State University’s College of Pharmacy; Sarah Bissonnette, PhD, Oregon State Postdoctoral Fellow
Nobody wants to end up in the hospital. Being readmitted after you leave the hospital is even worse—and represents a multi-billion dollar problem for the health care industry. Congress even passed legislation five years ago to penalize hospitals with high readmission rates. New research from Oregon State University suggests that one way to keep people from ending up back in the hospital is to improve access to pharmacies.
Evolution of Modern Prayer
Guest: Daniel Falk, PhD, Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and the Chaiken Chair of Jewish Studies at Penn State University
Gathering together in prayer is a prominent ritual among Jews, Christians and Muslims. So it’s a little surprising that scholars say prayer doesn’t really show up much in ancient religious records. The Hebrew Bible, for example—which Christians call the Old Testament—has detailed rules for all sorts of behavior – but Penn State scholar Daniel Falk notes there’s not a single law about prayer.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us live in studio to share stories of tellers and tales.
How People Value a Car’s Form vs. Function
Guest: Raj Echambadi, PhD, Professor and Senior Associate Dean of Strategic Innovation for the College of Business at the University of Illionois
Why did you buy your car? Were you most concerned about the look of it? The comfort of the seats, the way it handles, fuel-efficiency? The balance between form and function is a complicated puzzle automakers wrestle with in their quest to win you over.
Navigating Sexuality as a Chaste Single
Guest: Jennifer Finlayson-Fife, PhD, Chicago-Based Psychotherapist, Expert in Human Sexuality and Relationships
Some new research suggests that for all the criticism about Millennials being selfish and promiscuous, today’s young adults are having less sex than their parents did in their early 20s. Sex-before-marriage is still the common behavior among American singles, but there remains a small segment that chooses to abstain while single.
Link to Jennifer Finlayson-Fife's website.
Thailand, South Sudan, Boko Haram
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
We welcome regular contributor Quinn Mecham as he points our attention toward three international events worthy of a bit more attention.
How Your Smart Watch Could Leak Your ATM Pin
Guest: YingYing Chen, PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology
“Wearables” are big in personal technology right now. Fitbits, Apple Watches and devices like them can count your steps, measure your heartrate, track your location . . . and give away your ATM pin. Yep, researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology have figured out wearable technology could accidentally “leak” information to hackers.
Probing the Parallels Between Boss-Employee, Parent-Child Relationship
Guest: Peter Harms, PhD, Professor of Management at the University of Alabama
As a kid, did your parents tend to let you work out your troubles or did they rush in to comfort you? Did you feel anxious about whether you could rely on them for comfort? The type of attachment you felt with your parents could be affecting your relationships at work, too.
What's Really Driving the Lipstick Effect
Guest: McKenzie Rees, PhD, Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Associate at the University of Notre Dame
When the US economy takes a dive, people cut back on lots of spending. But economists have noticed one exception – during recessions, people tend to spend a little more on things that improve appearance. It’s sometimes called the Lipstick Effect and the thinking has been that women, in particular, are subconsciously trying to attract a male provider to improve their economic lot. New research out of the University of Notre Dame finds women have a very different reason today for buying lipstick when the economy tanks.
Secret Science of Ice Cream
Guest: Scott Rankin, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Food Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Few treats are as simple, and simply satisfying, as ice cream on a hot summer evening. But ice cream is hardly simple – which you’ll know if you’ve ever tried to make it. Even understanding the chemistry of creaminess is still fairly mysterious to scientists.
The Value of a Gap Year
Guest: Evan Ward, PhD, History Professor at BYU
Parents dread hearing the words, “I think I’ll take some time off,” come out of the mouth of a child just graduated from high school. If a young person doesn’t dive straight into the business of getting a degree and getting on with life, what’s to stop him or her from sliding into a low-wage limbo, mooching off their parents and failing to launch? We Americans like to see our kids dive straight into the business of growing up after high school. But elsewhere in the world – particularly in England – taking a “gap year” before starting college is not uncommon.
Jury Trials Disappearing
Guest: Dan McConkie, JD, Professor of Criminal Law at Northern Illinois University School of Law, Former US Prosecutor
Trial by jury is a bedrock of America’s judicial system and a staple in crime dramas. So unless you’re in the legal profession, it’ll likely come as a surprise to you that jury trials rarely ever happen in US courts these days. The decline has been so steep over the last 30 years that some judges today might preside over only a few jury trials during their entire career on the bench.
Cheating is as Old as the Olympics
Guest: Nigel Crowther, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Classical Studies and Former Director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at Western University, Canada
Dopers and suspected dopers are not getting a warm welcome from Olympic crowds in Rio. American sprinter Justin Gatlin, who has served two suspensions for using banned substances in his career, was booed loudly by the audience yesterday, before winning the silver medal in the men’s 100 meters.
While doping is primary scandal in elite sport today, other forms of cheating have a long history at the Olympics – going all the way back to Ancient Greece, in fact.
Analysis of Hollywood Suit Against VidAngel
Guest: Larry Iser, JD, Intellectual Property Attorney, Managing Partner at Entertainment Law Firm Kinsella, Weitzman, Iser, Kump, and Aldisert
The filters in the year-old online movie service VidAngel lets users choose to automatically mute or skip over scenes that contain offensive material. Companies that have attempted to sell or rent edited movies in the past have lost copyright legal battles.
Now Disney, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Entertainment are suing VidAngel for violating copyright and streaming laws.
Proving China’s Great Flood
Guest: David Montgomery, PhD, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington
You’re probably familiar with the great flood from the Bible – the one Noah survived with his ark. But there’s also a great flood story in China’s history, dating back millennia to what may or may not have been the first Chinese dynasty. But there’s been no archaeological evidence to support the story of a legendary flood 4,000 years ago that coincided with the start of Chinese civilization.
Now Chinese archaeologists believe they’ve found a link to suggest the ancient flood really did happen.
Parent Previews
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Reviews Films at ParentPreviews.com
Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant star in the new film “Florence Foster Jenkins,” and Disney’s got another live-action remake of an animated classic out: “Pete’s Dragon.”
Tech Transfer
Guest: Paul Farnsworth, PhD, Chemistry Professor at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
The pool at the Olympics turned so green officials actually ended up draining it completely so they could hold the synchronized swimming completion – which requires judges to be able to see what’s happening underwater. In the days that it took Olympic organizers to figure out what the problem was with the pool, they could have used a device invented by researchers at BYU—a portable laboratory.
Major Shifts in South African Politics
Guest: Leslie Hadfield, PhD, Professor of South African Social and Political History at BYU
The African National Congress is the political party of Nelson Mandela, the party that led the fight against apartheid twenty years ago and has been in power ever since. But in the last week, the ANC suffered a string of election losses in key South African cities, leading to serious questions about the party’s future.
Who Speaks for the Military
Guest: Paul McLeary, Pentagon Reporter for “Foreign Policy” Magazine
Both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions featured retired military generals offering fiery speeches of endorsement. Lieutenant General Michael Flynn lead the Defense Intelligence Agency endorsing Trump and General John Allen who commanded the war effort in Afghanistan endorsed Clinton. They’re certainly not the first retired generals to voice political opinions, but it’s a controversial move because of the sense that the America’s military is – and should – be above politics.
Independent Candidate Evan McMullin
Guest: Evan McMullin, Former CIA operative and House Republican Policy Advisory, Independent Candidate for US President
Among the things that stand out about this year’s presidential election is the tremendous unpopularity of both major party candidates. Polling averages show 53 percent of Americans dislike Hillary Clinton and 60 percent dislike Donald Trump. Those are historically bad numbers for leading presidential contenders. And they mean that literally millions of voters across the country are torn about what to do in November. There are Green Party or Libertarian candidates to consider. But conservatives seem particularly distraught about their choices. Many have told me they simply won’t vote, or they’ll write someone in as a protest. What should you do in a democracy like ours if you simply don’t like any of your choices on the ballot?
Well, Evan McMullin decided to run for the office himself. He’s a former CIA operative and national security advisor to Republicans in Congress. He’s a BYU graduate and a Mormon. In the last week, he launched an independent bid for the White House, even though he’s never held elected office and November is just three months away.
Zika Continues to Spread
Guest: Andrew Pavia, MD, Chief of the Division of Pediatric and Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah Medical Center
Four more cases of Zika were reported in Florida on Tuesday, bringing the total to 21 for a small neighborhood of Miami. That neighborhood is the only place in the continental US with “active transmission,” meaning people are getting Zika from mosquitoes there instead of from traveling to other countries with the virus. The CDC says women who are pregnant or planning to get pregnant—and their partners—should not go to that Miami neighborhood.
Florida fits the profile of a place we were warned could be affected by virus, since it’s the warm, humid climate where mosquitoes that carry the virus thrive. But the first confirmed Zika death in the continental United States was not in a humid southern state – it was in Utah. And Utah is also where health officials confirmed the first case of Zika that had not come from being exposed to a mosquito or sexual contact with an infected person. Which just underscores how confusing this disease is.
Boomerang Fathers Curb Depression in Girls
Guest: Daphne Hernandez, PhD, Assistant Professor at the University of Houston’s Department of Health and Human Performance
It’s not really a surprise to hear that children who deal with lots of family instability are more likely to suffer from symptoms of depression. But a new study published in the “Journal of Marriage and Family” says finds when a father moves out but then returns to the home—even if he cycles in out repeatedly—his daughter will actually be less depressed than if he left for good. These dads are called “boomerang fathers,” it’s a pretty fitting name. Their presence is significant, even if it’s not predictable.
Is It Better to Celebrate or Commemorate Special Occasions?
Guest: Selin Malkoc, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Ohio State University
The trend in gift giving these days is to give an experience, rather than a thing. Memories last a life time, as they say. But then again, “diamonds are forever.” When it comes to marking a major life event, like a wedding or graduation, what kind of gift do you suppose will keep the memory of that moment alive longer? An experience or a gift?
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio to share stories of tales and tellers.
Certain Group of Men Appreciate Being Nagged by Wives
Guest: David Warner, PhD, Sociologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have discovered a scenario in which men like being nagged by their wives. There’s a certain set of older married men today who feel more loved when their wives harp on them about eating right, going to the doctor, taking their medicine and such.
Taiwan and China
Guest: Robert Griffiths, Professor of Political Science at BYU, Former US Consul General in Shanghai, Former Foreign Service Officer in Asia
Keen-eyed observers of the Olympics might have noticed something about the team from Taiwan. The island nation of 23 million people has about 60 athletes competing in Rio and just won their first gold medal of the 2016 Summer Games in women’s weightlifting. But when Hsu Shu-ching stood on the podium to accept her medal, it was not under the flag of Taiwan nor the national anthem of Taiwan. She and her fellow athletes are competing officially as “Chinese Taipei” at the Olympics, because China insists upon it. The question of Taiwan’s autonomy is a source of long-standing tension with China that’s been heightened by the arrival of the Olympics and the recent election of a Taiwanese president from a pro-independence party is raising the level of tension.
Nationalism and the Olympics
Guest: Peter Rutland, PhD, Professor of Government at Wesleyan University, Blogger at NationalismWatch.com
Isn’t it a little strange how we root so intensely for American athletes at the Olympics, for no reason other than our shared citizenship? Most of us don’t follow most of these sports closely, but the Olympics come along and we’re suddenly bursting with pride to see athletes we’ve never heard of before standing atop the medals podium, beneath the stars and stripes, as our national anthem plays.
The Olympics are practically built for indulging in what you might call “good nationalism” – as opposed to the xenophobic kind that leads to discrimination, war and even genocide. But the 2016 Summer Games arrive at a time of fervent support political messages of American superiority, while terrorism and the refugee crisis fuel fear of outsiders and a desire to close ranks in Europe.
Why the US Wins Big at the Olympics
Guest: Camila Gonzales, Member of Dartmouth research team to predict the Rio Olympic games medal count
Since we’re talking about national pride at the Olympics, let’s look at the medals count: America is currently in the lead in Rio with 20 medals, total. Five of those are gold medals – and on that score, America is currently tied with China, which also have five golds.
When it’s all over in Rio, the US is predicted to top out over 100 medals, with China coming in at 89 and the United Kingdom with 67. There’s a very precise formula behind those predictions, developed by researchers at Dartmouth who have predicted previous Summer Olympic results with stunning accuracy.
Peter Kramer: “Ordinarily Well”
Guest: Peter Kramer, PhD, Psychologist and Author of “Listening to Prozac,” “Against Depression” and “Ordinarily Well”
When Peter Kramer published his landmark book “Listening to Prozac” in 1993, it changed the way that people thought about anti-depressants, but it also caused some backlash as critics clamored that placebos were just as effective or that psychotherapy works just as well. Anti-depressants came under fire and in his latest book, “Ordinarily Well: The Case for Antidepressants,” Kramer defends the use of the drugs that he says are essential to the good health of millions of people.
Secrets of Magnetism
Guest: Karine Chesnel, PhD, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at BYU
Have you ever put a credit card or a hotel key card too close to a magnet and had the memory wiped out? Magnetism is really amazing because it can be used both in storing data and erasing it. The trick is getting the magnetic field at just the right amount of intensity.
The Piano Teacher with 30,000 Students
Guest: Joseph and Kelly Hoffman, Founders of HoffmanAcademy.com
Kids can learn math, geography, and even foreign language online. But some skills - like playing a musical instrument – have traditionally been taught face-to-face and often one-on-one because they require a lot of feedback and demonstration.
That hasn’t stopped Joseph Hoffman from trying to teach piano with YouTube videos. His free piano lesson videos now have more than 30,000 subscribers on YouTube and are causing music instruction experts to take note.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio
It’s time now to peek into another show here on BYUradio called Worlds Awaiting, a show about fostering reading and discovery in children. It’s a show for grownups who want to help the kids in our lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them.
Worlds Awaiting airs weekly on Saturdays at 1:30 pm ET here on BYUradio, Sirius XM Radio channel 143.
Making Sense of Trump's Trailing Status in Polls
Guests: Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of 20th Century US History at BYU; Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at BYU
Donald Trump left the Republican National Convention with a boost in the polls against Democrat Hillary Clinton. But last week, he engaged in an unpopular fight with the parents of a fallen Muslim soldier and refused to back top Republicans in their primary races – including Senator John McCain and House Speaker Paul Ryan. If you average the current polls right now, Trump is trailing Clinton by 7 points.
Recreating and Trying Out Ancient Recipes
Guest: Ilaria Patania, Graduate Student in the Department of Archaeology, Director of the “Eating Archaeology” Project at Boston University
One of the most important parts of traveling is tasting the local food. If it’s true that you can’t completely understand a culture until you’ve eaten its food, could the same be true for ancient cultures? That’s the question behind a program called “Eating Archaeology” at Boston University.
What Kids Are Really Doing on Social Media
Guest: Marion Underwood, PhD, Professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Texas in Dallas
If you could look at an entire year’s worth of texting and social media posts from one teenager, what do you suppose you’d find? Incoherent messages? Bullying? Inappropriate pictures? Lots of selfies and emojis, to be sure.
Psychologist Marion Underwood and her colleagues recently finished monitoring every single text, email, or Facebook message produced by a large group of youth from the time they were 9 until they were 20. From this massive database they discovered that texting and social media use among teens is far more sophisticated, and not nearly as ugly, as adults tend to think.
Impact of Media Violence on Gifted Kids
Guest: Brad Bushman, PhD, Professor of Communication and Psychology at Ohio State University
Gifted children are often thought to have advantages that help them succeed no matter what circumstances they find themselves in. They’re seen as smarter, more creative, and less likely to participate in crime. But emerging research suggests gifted children may be more profoundly affected—in negative ways—by exposure to violence in the media, whether it’s a cartoon or the nightly news.
Parent Previews – Suicide Squad
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We’ve got more superheroes in theater—if you can call them superheroes—in Suicide Squad. Rod Gustafson explains what to watch out for in the film.
A Double Life: Youth Mentor and Murderer
Guest: Kevin Kelly, Author of “Both Sides of the Line: My Coach, The Boston Mob Enforcer; My Mentor, the Murderer. The True Story of Clyde Dempsey and the 1974 Don Bosco Bears,” Dean of Students at Deerfield Academy
We all lead doubles lives, of a sort: The way you act at work or church is probably a little different than the way you act in private. But there are some people who manage to pull off the kind of double life that makes it hard to believe both sides are the same person. Clyde Dempsey was like that. He was a charismatic football coach at a small Catholic high school in Boston back in the 1970s who led an underdog team to an incredible championship. The players idolized him and credit him with helping them get into college and pursue their football dreams and even steer clear of drugs and alcohol.
They didn’t know their coach was also a brutal enforcer for the mob. A man losing his battle with addiction and rage, who killed a man in a busy Boston bar, then went into hiding and was caught thanks to an episode of “America’s Most Wanted.” Dempsey died in prison.
Assessing Brazil's Status as the Olympics Arrive
Guests: Christopher Lewis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at the University of Utah; Evan Ward, PhD, Associate Professor of Modern Latin American History at BYU; Rex Nielson, PhD, Assistant Research Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at BYU
The Olympics have arrived in Rio. It’s an international spectacle tailor-made for showing off. When Brazil secured the hosting gig seven years ago, it was a nation on the rise: the poster child of an emerging market poised to become a global power.
Today, the largest country in Latin America is in an historic recession with a government in disarray over allegations of corruption. The New York Times quoted a Brazilian politician and writer as saying the country is in “economic, political and moral disaster.” Now we consider how things went so wrong for Brazil and what the future might hold.
Politics of Protest
Guest: David S. Meyer, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Political Science at UC Irvine, Author of “The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America,” Blogs at https://politicsoutdoors.com
The national party conventions Republicans and Democrats hold every four years are like the Super Bowl for protesters because of the high-ranking public officials, celebrities and wall-to-wall media coverage they attract. Marches, sit-ins, rallies and spontaneous street closures fill virtually every hour of every day the convention runs. You’ll typically find just about every issue represented, too, from abortion access to religious freedom to immigration reform and gun rights.
According to reports this year, the DNC featured a lot more protesting than the RNC. And we even saw the protest work its ways inside the convention arena where Bernie Sanders supporters shouted down speakers and staged walk outs against Hillary Clinton’s Democratic nomination.
America’s Next First Lady
Guest: Kate Andersen Brower, Former White House Reporter and Author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies”
The role of “first lady” holds a special place in American culture. We’ve come to expect the president’s wife to personify womanhood: graceful, well-dressed, faithful to her husband and her country. So, uh, what if it’s not a she?
Bill Clinton would shake up the role of First Lady beyond the fact that he’s not a lady. Kate Anderson Brower says there are subtler ways the Clintons could forever change what American’s expect of a presidential spouse.
Teen Suicide in Greenland
Guest: Steven Arnfjord, PhD, Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Greenland
Suicide rates reached a 30-year high in the U.S. this year, which is alarming. But on Native American reservations, the rates are even higher – particularly among Native Alaskans. And the same is true for indigenous communities in Canada. Even so, Greenland stands out. It has a suicide rate six times that of the United States – one of the highest in the world – and it has been so for thirty years.
The reasons are complicated. Greenland is modernizing rapidly. It’s still part of Denmark and the legacy of colonialism plays a role in the suicide problem. So does racism and isolation and a lack of access to mental health services and support.
Training Dogs with Technology
Guest: David Roberts, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at North Carolina State
There’s a whole art to training a dog to behave – and a host of videos online that’ll show you how. The commands and rewards, over and over, it’s challenging to train a dog. Could a computer do it better? Hard to imagine. But researchers at North Carolina State University are getting close, thanks to a special dog harness and a powerful computer algorithm.
Urban Forests
Guest: Rob Northup, Urban Forester of Hillsborough County, Florida with the University of Florida
In big cities full of concrete and steel, a row of trees or a pocket park can have a soothing effect on fast paced urban life, but that’s not all they do. City planners from Oregon to Florida are beginning to realize the real economic benefits urban trees provide including reducing healthcare costs. It turns out that the spruces and sycamores shading a boutique or lining a parkway filter toxins from the air, lower air conditioning bills, reduce asthma and even birth defects. “Urban Foresters,” a new career resulting from these realizations, are emerging to take care of the trees we already have, and make plans to take advantage of this green recourse in future city projects.
Eastern Coyotes
Guest: Roland Kays, PhD, Associate Professor at North Carolina State University and Author of “Candid Creatures: How Camera Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature”
In those urban areas we’ve just been discussing, you may find a new predator roaming about – particularly for those living in the North Eastern United States. It’s larger than a coyote, but not quite a wolf. Some have distinctly dog-like features – long legs, floppy ears, mottled fur. It even sounds like a mashup – part wolf howl, part coyote yip, part dog bark.
Just what is this hybrid creature? “Coywolf” is the name the public and media have seized on. Zoologist Roland Kays of North Carolina State University isn’t a fan of that name – he prefers “Eastern Coyote.”
Manufacturing and Welfare
Guest: Ken Jacobs, PhD, Chair of the Labor Center at UC Berkeley
The days when a job in a factory meant lifelong employment and a ticket to the middle class are long gone. While presidential candidates debate how to bring the American manufacturing industry back, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education shed some light on just what it means to work in manufacturing today. They find that, increasingly, a day’s work on the frontline of a factory is not enough to pay for basic necessities. As a result, a third of the families of those workers are enrolled in public safety net programs like food stamps or Medicaid. When you look only at the factory workers hired through temporary staffing agencies, the rate is even higher – on par with fast-food workers and their families leaning on public assistance.
Off-Shore Accounts Draining African Economies
Guest: Will Fitzgibbon, Reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington, DC, Involved in the Panama Papers Investigation
The Panama Papers–that massive leak of documents revealing the inner-workings of the offshore tax haven world–have yielded a new wave of investigations focused on Africa. Every year, the world’s poorest continent takes in more than $50 billion in aid money from foreign countries, while that same amount of money is simultaneously siphoned out of Africa through bribes and money-laundering, often facilitated by secret companies set up to avoid taxes.
Learning Russian Through Debate
Guests: Tony Brown, PhD, Associate Professor of Russian at BYU; Jennifer Brown, PhD, Associate Professor of Russian at BYU
When it comes to learning a language, I’ve always heard it said that you know you’ve really mastered it when you start dreaming in that language. That may be true if fluent conversation is the goal. But students in advanced Russian classes at BYU have much higher hurdle to clear. They conduct entire debates on world issues in Russian, with native speaking Russians–often by videoconferencing.
Why Drug Prescriptions Should Not Be Race-Based
Guest: Charmaine Royal, PhD, Associate Professor of African and African American Studies, Genome Sciences and Policy at Duke University
A little more than a decade ago, the first race-specific drug was approved by the FDA. BiDil was specifically intended for African Americans with heart failure. More often than you might think, doctors make drug and treatment decisions based on a patient’s race, because research has shown certain ethnic groups are particularly susceptible to some conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. But is ethnicity really the best indicator we can muster in deciding what medication to prescribe?
Apple Seed: Kevin Kling
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us to share tales of tellers and stories.
Ending Deaths of Kids in Hot Cars
Guest: Janette Fennell, President and Founder of KidsandCars.org
Heat waves are sweeping the nation, bringing with them a tragic kind of danger: At least twenty-three children have already died this year from being left in hot cars. In just one weekend in July, four children died this way. Our cars alert us to all kinds of things as we exit the vehicle, if the keys in the ignition, or the lights are left on. How hard would it be to alert us that someone is still sitting inside when we click that lock button?
Safety tips from KidsandCars.org.
Music of Love and Mercy in a Time of Violence
Guest: Sam Baker, Musician, Artist, Motivational Speaker
Sam Baker didn't start writing music until he nearly died in a terrorist bombing. It was 1986, and Baker was 31, a tourist on a train in Peru that was blown up by The Shining Path terror group. Baker’s injuries were so severe he had to relearn how to walk, move, and speak. During all of that time his body was healing, something changed inside Sam Baker as well. He gave up his job in a bank to write music, which he felt was a new calling for him. His album “Say Grace” was named one of the top ten country albums of 2013 by Rolling Stone.
Why American Voters Are So Angry
Guest: Stephen Walt, PhD, Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Columnist for “Foreign Policy” Magazine
If you’ve been paying even the slightest bit of attention to the Presidential election, you know American voters are angry. Republican Donald Trump makes a point of channeling it among his supporters. The most popular chant at his rallies isn’t “Make America Great” or “U.S.A.” it’s “Lock Her Up” - referring to Democrat Hillary Clinton, of course.
Democrat Bernie Sanders tapped the anger, too, appealing to voters fed up with the political process and a “rigged economy.” Americans aren’t the only angry ones, by the way. Anger and fear fueled the British vote to leave the European Union and is helping anti-immigration politicians win election victories across Europe.
Elite Climber Turns to Wildlife Photography
Guest: John Sherman, Wildlife Photographer and Elite Rock Climber
Wildlife photographer John Sherman’s specialty is birds, which he captures in remarkable color and grace. I’m looking at one he’s taken of a California Condor – which is a notoriously difficult bird to photograph. It’s nestled in the branches of a tree, bathed in evening sun that makes the orange flesh on its face glow brilliantly. And the condor seems to be just casually looking over its shoulder at the camera.
But then you stop for a second and thing – hang on, how did he capture this picture? Did he scale a cliff? Is he up in a neighboring tree? Don’t put any of those options past him.
How the Beach Became Popular
Guest: Helen Rozwadowski, PhD, Professor of History at the University of Connecticut and Author of “Fathoming the Ocean”
Just about everyone considers a trip to the beach to be the ideal summer vacation. The sand and the surf equate to play and relaxation in modern culture. But that’s a fairly recent thing. Go back a hundred years and beachgoers were there for either medicinal benefits or serious study. And before that, the beach wasn’t a place where a respectable person would even venture.
Detecting a Lie
Guest: Amy-May Leach, PhD, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology
In some countries it is against the law to testify in court with your face covered, which can pose a problem for Muslim women who wear face veils. Even judges in the US, Canada and the UK have occasionally insisted a Muslim woman remove her veil before testifying. The thinking behind is that a judge or jury will be better at detecting a lie if the witness’s face is clearly visible. But according to new research, it may actually be easier to tell if someone is lying when that person wears a veil.
Income Based Tuition
Guest: Sajay Samuel, PhD, Professor of Accounting at Penn State University
College graduates with an early childhood education degree will have a starting salary of about $30,000. Whereas a student with a degree in petroleum engineering can plan on making about $100,000 right out of college. Yet, if both of them graduated from the same school, they’ve paid the same tuition and incurred the same debt. Is that really fair? What if, the cost of tuition was tied to the projected earnings of a chosen major?
How Useful Are Online User Ratings?
Guest: Bart de Langhe, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Leeds School of Business
Many of us have made a purchase on Amazon or Ebay driven largely by the customer comments online. There’s something about scrolling through a bunch of five-star reviews and customer raves that gives someone the confidence go ahead and click “Add to Cart.” On the flip side, a particularly critical customer comment may slow you down, make you look for an alternative, because now there’s a lingering worry you, too, might end up disappointed.
But apparently, it’s a waste of time. New research in the “Journal of Consumer Research” that shows customer reviews are simply not a good indication of a product’s quality.
"March" Graphic Novel Series: History of Civil Rights Protests
Guests: Georgia Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell, creators of the award-winning graphic novel trilogy "March" about Lewis’ work during the civil rights movement
The third installment of the award-winning graphic novel trilogy “March” is out today. It tells the story of the civil rights movement through the eyes of Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who was a central figure in the lunch counter sit-ins, the freedom rides and the March on Washington in 1963. It’s a history book in comic-form, but it feels very current amid today’s simmering tension between police and communities of color and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Perhaps that’s why the trilogy has become a best-seller and required reading in high schools around the country.
Kidney Gift Certificates
Guest: Jeffrey Veale, MD, transplant surgeon, Director of the UCLA Kidney Transplantation Exchange Program, Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA
Pay it forward. That’s the premise of a creative new program for kidney donors pioneered at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Just imagine someone you love is on the list of more than 100,000 people in America desperately hoping for a kidney transplant. You would gladly give them one of yours, but you’re not a good match. At some transplant centers, including UCLA, you can do a swap, where your kidney goes to someone else and their loved one gives a kidney to your loved one. These swaps sometimes turn into chains where, once your loved one gets a kidney, you give yours to someone else and their loved one gives to another person down the chain and so on.
Now comes a new twist – a sort of layaway plan for kidney donation. A California lawyer and retired judge came up with the idea to help his young grandson and he convinced UCLA to let him do it. Learn more about the new program here.
Educators Shortchanged Due to State Policies
Guest: Lea J.E. Austin, PhD, researcher at The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley
States put a lot of focus on hiring – and trying to keep - high-quality teachers in public schools. But research increasingly shows the years before a child arrives in kindergarten are just as crucial to their success. On that front, fewer than half of states have policies aimed at ensuring pre-school and child care workers are well-trained and fairly compensated. To bring attention to the gap, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley has created a new state score card called the Early Childhood Workforce Index.
Ending Racial Bias in Children
Guest: Antonya Gonzalez, graduate student of psychology at the University of British Columbia
What would it take to eliminate racism in America? If outlawing discrimination based on race isn’t enough – which it clearly isn’t – then we’re talking about changing people’s hearts and minds, aren’t we? President Barack Obama talked about this last month at a memorial honoring the four Dallas police officers killed by a sniper during a Black Lives Matter rally. He called on Americans to open their hearts to each other, to see in each other “a common humanity and a shared dignity” and “recognize how our different experiences have shaped us.”
Research on how bias takes root suggests that accomplishing what President Obama calls for will mean starting early – in childhood. A study just out in the journal Child Development offers insight into how that might work.
Jason Bourne and Nerve
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Matt Damon is back as Jason Bourne, the deadly CIA hitman with a bad case of amnesia.
Rod Gustafson on "Nerve": there must be a better way for a girl to work up the nerve she needs to get some attention and tell her mom she wants to leave home for college.
Robots Sorting Fruit
Guests: D.J. Lee, PhD, Professor of computer engineering at BYU; Dave Brown, BYU’s Technology Transfer office
Have you seen video from a produce processing plant? The workers wear hairnets and gloves and stand over a conveyor belt weeding out the apples or lettuce heads not suitable for sale? It’s hard to imagine how that aspect of the process could ultimately be automated. Can a robot sort the good produce from the bad as effectively as a human?
Millennials on Marriage, Work and Family
Guests: Jennifer Sabatini Fraone, Associate Director of the Boston College Center for Work and Family; Emily Zuehlke, Consultant with The Advisory Board; Brian Willoughby, PhD, Assistant Professor in the School of Family Life at BYU
Anyone between 19 and 35 years of age today fits into the millennial generation, also known as “Y.” They are officially the largest living generation in America, barely edging out the baby boomers. And so, just like the Boomers changed society in fundamental ways, so too, are the Millennials.
How Beauty Shapes Women’s Lives
Guest: Autumn Whitefield-Madrano, Author of “Face Value: The Hidden Ways Beauty Shapes Women’s Lives,” creator of The Beheld
A common saying is “beauty in the eye of the beholder.” But there’s a multibillion dollar industry convincing women that without the right makeup, hair style and body shape they can’t reach their full beauty potential.
Autumn Whitefield-Madrano offers plenty of criticism for the way unrealistic ideas about appearance shape us. But she also says we can’t blame it all on Maybelline and MAC. Her argument is, essentially, let’s look closely at why we’re so absorbed with what’s skin deep and see if we can figure out what’s really bothering us.
DNC and Clinton’s Campaign Prospects
Guest: Kelly Patterson, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
A little later tonight, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will formally accept the Democratic nomination, the first woman to do so for a major US political party. Last night, President Obama passed Clinton the baton with a warm embrace on stage and an enthusiastic endorsement.
Extra Week in the Womb Offers Trade-off
Guest: Jeffrey Roth, PhD, Research Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Florida
The evidence is clear that when it comes to health and cognitive ability, being born full-term is better than being born premature. Now comes an interesting twist from analysis of more than a million babies born in Florida during the late 1990s and published recently in JAMA Pediatrics: Being born a week late can boost a baby’s intellect slightly, BUT, those babies also have a slightly higher chance of having a physical disability. So there’s a trade-off to that extra week of gestation.
From the Vaults: Beatrix Potter’s 150th Birthday
Guest: Leslee Thorne-Murphy, PhD, Associate Professor of English at BYU
If you’ve ever owned a stuffed Peter Rabbit, or heard the tale of that mischief-making rabbit that nearly ended up in Mr. McGregor’s pie, you know something about the world of Beatrix Potter: the adventures of naughty or foolish characters like Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny and Jemima Puddle-Duck and their near-disasters are classic childhood stories.
In this month’s installment of “From the Vaults,” where we dive into the holdings of BYU Library’s Special Collections, we’re going to celebrate Beatrix Potter’s 150th birthday, which is today. The library houses first edition copies of 21 of Beatrix Potter’s Tales, and we’ve invited BYU English Professor Leslee Thorne-Murphy into our studios to discuss these beloved stories, the genius behind their creation, and Beatrix Potter’s larger influence beyond the literary world.
National Parks Anniversary
Guests: Jeremy Barnum, Spokesman for the National Park Service, David Quammen, Writer of the May issue of “National Geographic”
It’s been 100 years since President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created the National Park Service. At the time, there were 35 national parks and monuments. Yellowstone was the first – it had already been a national park for 44 years by that time, so clearly, Americans had an inkling that wild spaces and historical places mattered enough to give them special attention – special protection. As the National Park Service turns 100, there are some 400 national parks and 20,000 employees looking after them.
U.S. and Russian Relations Under Clinton or Trump
Guest: Scott Cooper, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science at BYU
Cybersecurity experts and US officials say hackers working for the Russian government were behind the hack of Democratic National Committee emails that led to the abrupt resignation of the DNC chairwoman. Yesterday, President Obama joined the chorus of people who suggest Russia timed the release of those damaging emails just before the DNC Convention in order sow dissent within the Democrats and give Republican Donald Trump a boost. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump have openly admired each other. This may all be just conspiracy theory, but the question of Russia’s power and ambition looms large over politics and national security across the Western world.
Older Americans’ Driving
Guest: Lisa Wiese, PhD, Assistant Professor of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University
Thanks to the aging baby boomer generation, almost half of all drivers on US roads are over the age of 65. In the next 30 years the over-65-set will make up three-quarters of all drivers. That has important implications for driver safety. Being an older adult doesn’t necessarily make you more dangerous behind the wheel. Drivers between 65 and 75 years of age actually have fewer fatal crashes than people 35-54 years of age. But older adults still have the highest crash rate per mile – basically they drive less, but when they do, they have more crashes.
So, this all leads to really difficult questions: How do you know when it’s no longer safe for an older adult to be driving? Worse yet, how do you tell them that it’s time to hand over the keys?
Flu Shots
Guest: Andrew Pavia, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of Infectious Diseases in the University of Utah School of Medicine
For the past dozen years, getting a flu vaccine has meant one of two options – either a shot or a nasal spray. Among kids, especially, the nasal spray has been popular. And at some points, health officials have actually recommended it over the shot because it was so effective.
But not anymore. An Advisory Committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people not to get the nasal spray vaccine called FluMist this season because last season, it pretty much didn’t work at all.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us with tales of stories and tellers.
Using Voice for Social Status
Guest: Joey Cheng, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Next time you’re in an argument, don’t raise your voice. Instead, deepen your pitch. A recent study out of the University of Illinois shows people who deepen their voice during a debate are more persuasive.
Health, Happiness and Purpose
Guest: Steve Cole, Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in the University of California, Los Angeles’ School of Medicine
Happy people are often healthy people, too. Researchers have long noticed a relationship between psychological well-being and long-term physical health. But only with the advent of genomic testing have scientists begun to understand just how deeply emotions affect physical health. Dr. Steve Cole at UCLA’s School of Medicine is a leader in this work. Using blood tests, he’s discovered that emotional well-being changes the body’s underlying genetic code. Among his most interesting findings is that all happiness is not created equal: only certain versions of it offer long-term advantages to your health.
The Truth about the Trade Deficit
Guest: Neil Irwin, Senior Economics Correspondent for “The New York Times” and Author of “The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire”
Bernie Sanders says poorly negotiated trade deals have led to hundreds of US factories closing and millions of lost jobs and he’s managed to get some of his trade position inserted into the Democratic Party’s platform. Donald Trump makes the same argument, but also points to the US trade deficit as evidence of just how disastrous the situation is.
But, what do deficit figures really mean? A deficit of any kind sounds like a bad thing. Except trade deficits are different from your typical budget deficit. And eliminating a trade deficit isn’t always the best thing for an economy.
How Good Is Your Sunscreen?
Guest: Steve Xu, MD, Resident in Dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Most Americans don’t use sunscreen when they’re outdoors for more than an hour. Kids might get it slathered on a little more by parents. But adults and teens are particularly bad at using sunscreen regularly, even though we know sun exposure can lead to skin damage and cancer. So what’s the hang up?
International Whistling Champion
Guest: Chris Ullman, Four-time National and International Whistling Champion
Few people have mastered whistling like this Chris Ullman. He’s a four-time national and international whistling champ. He’s performed in NBA arenas, on the Tonight Show and in the White House during his 30-year whistling career. In 2012 he was inducted into the International Whistlers Hall of Fame and has a memoir coming out soon about whistling.
You can hear his talent at happywhistler.com.
Algae Blooms
Guest: Larry St. Clair, PhD, Professor of Botany at BYU and Director of the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum
Every summer, lakes and ponds across the country break out in algal blooms. The Environmental Protection Agency says they’re a major environmental problem in all 50 states. We’re in the middle of one here in Provo – nearby Utah Lake has been off limits to swimming and boating for the past few weeks because of a toxic algal bloom covering more than 100 square miles.
Parent Previews - Star Trek
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
The latest Star Trek film produced by JJ Abrams begins with Captain Kirk – played by Chris Pine – wondering whether he’s got what it takes to stay with the job.
But before he formally announces his retirement from that famous Captain’s chair on the deck of the Starship Enterprise, he and the crew are needed for one more mission. That’s the set-up for “Star Trek Beyond.”
Teaching Arabic in US Elementary Schools
Guest: Shereen Salah, President of the Utah Arabic Teachers Association and Adjunct Professor in BYU’s Arabic Language Department
Earlier this year, a student from UC Berkeley was kicked off a plane for speaking on his phone in Arabic. Suspicion and fear surround the language and its accompanying cultures, fueled by recent terror attacks and the charged political climate of this presidential election.
But, in spite of—or maybe because of—these fears, public schools are launching programs that teach Arabic to elementary school students.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of “Worlds Awaiting” on BYUradio
We welcome back to the show Rachel Wadham, host of “Worlds Awaiting” as we discuss media literacy and great summer books.
Shakespeare Saved My Life
Guests: Laura Bates, PhD, Author of “Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard,” Professor of English at Indiana State University; Rex Hammond, Former Student of Laura Bates
As prison populations in the US have grown over the last few decades, states have looked for ways to help inmates reform during incarceration and be less likely to re-offend once they’re released. Researchers say programs that offer a chance for education in prison are particularly helpful in that regard.
But when Indiana State University English professor Laura Bates proposed teaching Shakespeare to the most serious offenders in a maximum security prison, officials didn’t think she’d have much luck. Particularly since her plan was to teach inmates being held in solitary confinement. They couldn’t sit face to face in a class room. They weren’t even allowed to have hardback books in their cells. What good could an English professor and the Bard possibly do in that setting?
Picturing Migrants and Refugees
Guest: James Swensen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Art History at BYU, Author of “Picturing Migrants: The Grapes of Wrath and New Deal Documentary Photography”
When we think today about what poverty looks like in America, it’s the 80-year-old images taken by Dorothea Lange and her fellow New Deal photographers that still come to mind. The furrowed brow of a Migrant Mother, or the vacant stare of a barefoot child in a tattered dress. You can’t help but recognize the similarities to the photos of hungry women and children in refugee camps in Greece, Turkey and Jordan.
Russian Doping Scandal
Guest: John Gleaves, PhD, Associate Professor of Kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton
Today, Russian track and field athletes reacted with anger as the international Court for the Arbitration of Sport rejected their appeal to reinstate their eligibility to compete in the Rio Olympics this summer. The team was banned from the Olympics last November because of widespread doping allegations. The punishment is a first in Olympic history and yet there have been even louder calls for the entire Russian team to be banned from every sport in this summer’s Olympics. The International Olympic Committee will meet this week to consider that ban on the entire team.
The Emily Effect
Guest: Eric Dyches, Founder of The Emily Effect
At least half a million women in the US suffer from postpartum depression every year – it is the most common complication of child birth. But only a tiny fraction of those women actually get professional help coping with what can be debilitating depression and anxiety brought on by dramatic changes in hormones, swirling emotions, the trauma of giving birth, and the exhaustion of caring for a newborn.
It was a postpartum mood disorder that led to the tragic death of Emily Cook Dyches in February of this year. Her husband, Eric, and their five children are channeling their grief into helping other mothers through their foundation called The Emily Effect.
Documenting Human Rights Abuse in China
Guest: Nanfu Wang, Independent Filmmaker based in New York City
To what lengths would you go to reveal injustice? Would you speak up despite disapproval from your neighbors? Use hidden cameras to document it? Would you be willing to face interrogation by national security agents? Filmmaker Nanfu Wang claims she witnessed all the above while filming Hooligan Sparrow, a human rights documentary which premiers this weekend in New York and next weekend in Los Angeles.
Gangs and Depression
Guest: Chris Melde, PhD, Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University
Gang membership had been declining in the US over the last decade, but recently it’s bounced back to levels on par with the mid-90s. The Department of Justice says gangs are a “stubbornly persistent” problem with current membership at about 850,000.
In addition to the violence and drug trafficking that come with gangs, a study in the journal “Criminal Justice and Behavior” says there are also mental health consequences: Young people who join gangs end up with higher levels of depression and suicide.
Muscle Mass
Guest: Preethi Srikanthan, PhD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Body Mass Index – or BMI – is a common way for doctors to assess whether a person’s weight is in the healthy or obese range. But researchers are finding that a BMI score is not always a good indicator of a person’s overall health. In particular, they’ve noted an “obesity paradox” that finds higher BMI scores are often associated with lower mortality. Just the opposite of what you’d expect.
The Republican Convention and Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential Nomination
Guest: Jeremy Pope, PhD, Political Science Professor, Co-Director of the Center for Elections and Democracy at BYU
After all the talk of a contested convention and efforts by the Never Trump group, Donald Trump became the Republican Party’s official nominee for president, and made Indiana Governor Mike Pence his running mate.
Puerto Rico’s Path to Economic Recovery
Guest: Brian Gendreau, PhD, Visiting Professor of Finance at the University of Florida
Puerto Rico has $72 billion in debt it can’t pay, and came right to the edge of defaulting on its debt when Congress passed a rescue plan. But Puerto Rico is not off the hook for all that debt. Rather, it’ll be restructured so Puerto Rico has a better chance of covering the debts. And Congress created a new oversight board to manage Puerto Rico’s finances.
Will that be enough for the US territory recover like Iceland has done from its near collapse during the 2008 global financial crisis? Or will Puerto Rico’s experience be more like Greece, which got two bailout packages from the EU and made harsh budget cuts but is still, 8 years later, at an economic standstill?
Perceptions of the American Dream Hurting Economic Mobility
Guest: Azim Shariff, PhD, Psychology Professor at the University of Oregon
The American Dream is all about the possibility that with enough hard work, you can go from rags to riches and that your kids will be better off financially than you were. That’s called “economic mobility” because you’re moving between economic strata. But the crazy thing is that even though it’s called The American Dream our rate of economic mobility is among the lowest of any developed country. Which means that for most Americans, the American Dream of improving your station in life is just that – a dream. But not many Americans realize this – and that misperception is actually making it harder for us to address the underlying problem of income inequality that could bring back the American Dream.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Pokemon Go Is a Game-Changer
Guest: Derek Hansen, PhD, Professor of Information Technology at BYU
Pokemon GO is either a great way to get people out of the house and interacting with others or it’s spawning a swarm of trespassers and zombie pedestrians who congregate in public places staring intently at their phones. Or maybe the most successful mobile game of all time is both of those things? One thing’s for sure: Pokemon GO is a game-changer in the world of game development.
Unravelling the Mystery of Vocal Cords
Guest: Ingo Titze, PhD, Director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Utah
The human voice is a remarkable instrument, isn’t it? A piano uses hundreds of different vibrating strings, one for each note, and yet, singers can create a huge variety of notes with just two strings.
What’s Next for Turkey?
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU and Expert on Politics in Turkey
Since members of the Turkish military staged an unexpected – and unsuccessful – coup over the weekend, there’s been a wide-spread crackdown on people suspected of opposing Turkey’s powerful president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
More than 7,000 people – particularly military personnel, judges and police officers – have been arrested. Tens of thousands of government workers have been fired or suspended. The coup attempt appears to have been just the opening President Erdogan needed to send Turkey’s democracy quickly into an authoritarian abyss.
Some Viruses Survive on Children’s Toys for Hours
Guest: Richard Bearden, Graduate Student of Biology at Georgia State University
Germophobic parents will not be encouraged by this next conversation. Researchers at Georgia State University have found that certain viruses can survive on a toy for a full 24 hours after an infected child plays with it. That, of course, means the virus has the potential to infect other kids who come along and handle the toy.
Flying Off the Handle or Stonewalling Have Different Effects on Health
Guest: Robert Levenson, PhD, Psychologist at UC Berkeley
If psychologist Robert Levenson were to watch you and your spouse having an argument, he could make a pretty solid prediction about some of the health problems that might arise for you twenty years down the road. He’s been studying the same group of married couples for decades and discovered strong links between the way we respond to conflict and the types of disease that occur later in life.
The Power of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
Guest: Eric Rasmussen, PhD, Professor of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University
“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” was all about learning how to recognize feelings and play well with others and cope with life’s disappointments. Well, it’s been almost 15 years since the final episode of that show, but the world of Mr. Rogers lives on in an animated spinoff on PBS called “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.” It aims to teach to teach preschoolers the same great lessons Mr. Rogers did. And researchers at Texas Tech University have found that it works really well – even with kids who have autism and struggle with social skills.
Why We Tend to Go with the Flow
Guest: Christina Tworek, Graduate Student in Psychology at the University of Illinois
But Why? That question can be maddening coming from a child over and over again. And have you ever just said in exasperation – “Because that’s the way it is.”? It’s a cop out answer. But it’s also a strategy we use in making decisions. We tend to think that the way things have always been is the way they ought to be. We wear black at funerals and brides wear white at weddings. We dress baby girls in pink and boys in blue. We give roses on Valentine’s Day and decorate pine trees at Christmas. All because that’s just what people do.
There are more serious examples of this tendency, too. At one point in US history, slavery had been so common, many people considered it the normal, right thing. The same is true of child labor.
Why are we so inclined to accept that the right way to do things is the way they’ve always been done?
Fish Spawning and Survival
Guest: Mark Belk, PhD, Professor of Biology at Brigham Young University
Some fish spawn in the very places they were born, but others are not so particular. Professor Mark Belk has been studying the ways that fish reproduce and how that affects their chances of survival.
Prospect of War in South China Sea
Guest: Eric Hyer, PhD, Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies at BYU, Author of “The Pragmatic Dragon: China’s Grand Strategy and Boundary Settlements”
Tension in the South China Sea isn’t on the front page today but it could very quickly end up back there before long. The South China Sea is a crucial shipping channel between Asia and the rest of the world. And in the last year, China has been dredging to build up tiny islands there, claiming them as Chinese territory and installing military gear and landing strips for planes. That has angered other countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines which also border the South China Sea and make their own claims to the islands. Last week an international court of arbitration ruled that China is out of line in claiming virtually the entire South China Sea as its own.
Writing an Award-Winning Soundtrack
Guest: Jordan Kamalu, Recent BYU Graduate in Commercial Music, Winner of a Student Emmy for Music – Composition at the 2016 College Television Awards for the Film “Papa”
In the movies, you can’t have a love story without a soundtrack. The attraction, the tension—will the lovers get together or not? —and the kiss, when the lovers finally overcome the obstacles in their way—all of it is underscored with music in the movies. A romance wouldn’t be as romantic without the music.
Why Work Martyrs are Only Hurting Themselves
Guest: Katie Denis, Senior Project Manager Project: Time Off
One of the first things we want to know when we take a new job is how many vacation days we get, right? There’s something satisfying about knowing you’ve got a couple of weeks of paid time off to look forward to. But more than half of American workers left vacation days unused last year. Just left the time on the table – and a big chunk of those days were lost completely because they couldn’t be rolled over to the next year or banked for an emergency. That’s according to a study funded by a travel industry group called Project: Time Off.
City Life Increases Mental Health Risks for Kids
Guest: Candice Odgers, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at Duke, Senior Associate Director at Duke’s Center for Child and Family Policy
Children who grow up in cities are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia in adulthood compared to kids who grow up in rural areas. That’s a stunning, but well-documented finding. The question is, why? A study of more than two-thousand twins in England sheds offers some clues.
Why Dual-Language Immersion is So Popular
Guests: Chantal Thompson, Teaching Professor of French Studies at BYU, Tester and Trainer for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages; Heidi Foss, Parent with Student in Dual-Immersion Program; Lillian Foss, 3rd Grade French Dual-Immersion Student
Language immersion classes give children the chance to become practically fluent in a second language. These programs are growing in popularity across the nation – sometimes students have to wait on long waiting lists to get into the courses.
Ghostbusters & The Secret Life of Pets
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
The Ghostbusters are back in theaters and critics seem to have liked the movie pretty well – despite all the public outcry about it featuring women in the lead roles.
Seeking a Cure for HIV
Guests: Mike Alder, BYU’s Technology Transfer Office; Greg Burton, PhD Professor of Biochemistry at BYU; Matthew Ollerton, BYU Graduate Student
Decades of research have succeeded in treatments that mean HIV/AIDS is no longer a terminal disease. People with access to the right medication live with it as a chronic condition, rather than a death sentence. And yet, a cure for HIV/AIDS has remained elusive.
Last week, the National Institutes of Health awarded 30-million in grants to make progress toward a cure for HIV/AIDS. Among the recipients is a team of researchers from 18 different universities and medical sites.
Coyote Coursing
Guests: Eric Eliason, PhD, Professor of Folklore and Literature in BYU’s English Department, Author of “To see Them Run: Great Plains Coyote Coursing” with Scott Squire, Documentary Photographer and Filmmaker Based in Seattle
In the prairies of South Dakota and Nebraska, it’s the coyotes getting chased by packs of hounds bred specifically for it. “Coyote Coursing” is an old hunting practice little known beyond the Great Plains. It’s a hobby that consumes people. They build custom rigs for their trucks and spend thousands of dollars on just the right dogs at auction and swap stories laced with lingo. Nearby, kids roll around in the dust playing “hound and coyote,” acting out the moment when the dogs leap from the truck in sync and streak across the field after their prey.
Coyote coursing is controversial. Some animal rights activists condemn it as a blood sport. It’s illegal in some states. But, if you know where to look, coyote coursing remains a thriving culture.
Food Truck Economics
Guests: Christian Faulconer, Food Truck Entrepreneur; Keith Crossley, Food Truck Entrepeneur, Owner of Food Truck “Sweeto Burrito”
Food trucks are one of the fastest growing sectors in the US food and restaurant market, bringing in revenue of more than a billion dollars a year. They’ve gone way beyond the ice cream trucks and hot dog carts that used to define “street food” in America. Today we’re looking at the economics of food trucks: How do they operate? Why do some succeed and others don’t? What happens to the local food scene when food trucks roll in?
Food Truck Roundup
Guests: Tom Jensen, Monica Jensen, Brooke Jensen, Matt Colyar, Kristy Colyar, Lisa Rice
We take a stop at Provo’s Food Truck Roundup.
Middle School Parenting
Guest: Suniya Luthar, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, Professor Emerita at Columbia University’s Teachers College
You’d think toddlers or infants would be the toughest to parent. They cry, they scream, and the little ones won’t let you sleep through the night. However, recent research shows it’s middle schoolers, with their dismissive attitudes and rebellious tendencies, who wreak the most havoc on a parent’s wellbeing. We all remember how lonely and awkward those years were for us. But was it even worse for our moms?
Teaching with Movies
Guests: Joanne Ashe, Founder and Executive Director of Journeys in Film; Eileen Mattingly, Education Director of Journeys in Film
With smart phones, tablets and computers nearly ubiquitous now, kids are spending more time with a screen than ever – watching videos, playing games, or messaging. It’s a source of concern for parents. Rather than trying to get kids off the screen, though, the educational group Journeys in Film wants to capitalize on kids’ visual literacy by bringing more films into the classroom.
Check out the project here.
The Silver Lining
Guest: Tamara Sims, PhD, Research Analyst at the Stanford Center on Longevity
Cheer up! Smile! Look on the bright side! Put on your happy face! We put a lot of emphasis on the importance of happiness – maintaining a positive outlook, savoring the good times. Research shows that Americans are pretty good at finding the silver lining.
Condors in Zion National Park
Guest: Chris Parish, Peregrine Fund Condor Program Director
The California Condor is dangerously close to completely disappearing from the planet. It’s the largest land bird in North America, with a wingspan nearly ten feet across. And thirty years ago, poaching, lead poisoning and habitat destruction made it extinct in the wild. Since then, biologists have worked to raise California condors in captivity and a few have been released into the wild, with mixed success. One pair settled in Zion National Park.
Smartphone Addiction
Guest: James Roberts, PhD, Marketing Professor at Baylor University and Author of “Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone?”
Do you know the feeling of trying to put down your smart phone only to be lured back in with rings, beeps, buzzes, and dings? It’s not impossible to turn off your smart phone screen, but for many of us, it can be difficult. If you think you might be addicted to your smartphone, this next conversation might help you supplement your willpower with some strategies to curb the use of your phone.
Consumer Rage
Guest: Mary Murcott, President of the Customer Experience Institute at DIALOGDIRECT
A study by Arizona State University last year found two-thirds of respondents reported feeling consumer rage at some point – often brought on by a frustrating encounter with customer service – 35 percent said they’d actually yelled, 15 percent admitted to cursing. Customers are getting angrier and the biggest culprits are cable and satellite TV companies. Phone companies are high on the list, too, and internet providers.
Eyewitness Video and Police Justice
Guest: Jackie Zammuto, Senior Engagement Coordinator for Witness
Twenty-five years ago, it was video tape of LA police beating Rodney King that made race and law enforcement a national conversation. Today, we’ve got high quality video cameras in our pockets. In just the last few years, cell phone video capturing police shooting and killing black men has prompted demonstrations, helped spawn the Black Lives Matter movement, and gave new intensity to the national conversation about race and law enforcement. But last week, the power of eyewitness video reached a new level. First, a bystander captured the shooting death of Alton Sterling by police in Louisiana. Then Diamond Reynolds pulled out her phone in the moments after her fiancée Philando Castile was shot by a Minnesota police officer during a routine traffic stop. She streamed the aftermath live on her Facebook page. Millions have watched that video. And then, at a demonstration against police brutality in Dallas, five police officers were killed by a sniper who mentioned the Facebook Live video to police before he was killed.
Gene Protects Women from Heart Disease
Guest: Hooman Allayee, PhD, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California
The number one killer of both men and women in the United State is heart disease. But the disease itself affects men and women differently – something scientists have long known, but can’t fully explain.
The Age of Humans Goes Back Further Than You Think
Guest: Melinda Zeder, PhD, Senior Research Scientist and Curator of Old World Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology for the Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History
Think about all the laws aimed at trying to fix the damage humans have done to the landscape – the Clean Air and Water Acts, the Endangered Species Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Underlying them is the notion that, in a perfect world, we could roll back the clock and restore the ecosystem to their pristine state. But, pristine is impossible – and maybe never really existed – according to a provocative research paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An international team including archaeologists, geneticists, ecologists and anthropologists concluded in the article that humans have been leaving their mark on the planet for millennia: way before the industrial revolution or the colonization of the world’s islands and even before they invented the wheel, humans were changing their environment. And not all for the worse, either.
Apple Seed: A Cowyboy's Prayer
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Middle East Panel: Future of ISIS and Prospects for Syria
Guests: John Macfarlane, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Utah Valley University; Donna Lee Bowen, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU; Steven Lobell, PhD, Department of Political Science at the University of Utah
Islamic State terrorists and their allies made this year’s Muslim holiday of Ramadan the bloodiest in memory. Hundreds of people were killed in attacks on civilians in Baghdad and Bangladesh and Istanbul and even in Saudi Arabia, among others. Most of the victims were Muslim. Terrorist bombs even targeted one of the holiest places in Islam – the Prophet’s Mosque in the city of Medina.
Immigration Law at the Border
Guests: Kif Augustine-Adams, JD, Charles E. Jones Professor of Law at the BYU Law School; Carolina Nunez, JD, Professor at the BYU Law School
A town of 4,000 people in South Texas holds a key spot in the national debate over who belongs in America, and what should be done with those who don’t. There, in late 2014, the US Department of Homeland Security opened a massive detention center designed to hold more than two-thousand women and children who’d come across the border, fleeing violence and poverty in South and Central America.
There are ongoing questions about the legality of detaining children and treating them like criminals. There have been allegations of human rights abuses at the South Texas detention center.
For more information about volunteering at the South Texas Family Residential Center see caraprobono.org.
Elie Weisel on the Power of Hope and Individual Action
After a week filled with such anger and anguish in the United States – at a time of instability, violence and fear globally – let’s take solace in the words of Elie, who died on July 2. He was a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust and a powerful witness to its atrocities. In 1986, Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for speaking out against violence, repression and racism. Three years later, in 1989, he gave a commencement speech at Brigham Young University. A quarter of a century later, those words still resonate.
Benefits of Friending a Grown-up Online
Guest: Andrea Forte, PhD, Assistant Professor in the College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University
We’ve all experienced the awkwardness of our different social circles colliding on our social media feed. For teenagers, there’s a particular horror at the thought of mom or a high school teacher seeing everything you post on Facebook. But some new research out of Drexel University suggests teenagers stand to gain a lot from interacting with adults online. The researchers even say schools should rethink social media policies that prevent teachers and students from mixing.
Calculating the Lifelong Value of a Consumer
Guest: Rajkumar Vankatesan, PhD, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia
What’s a customer worth to a company? Is it the money you spend that they care about most? Or is it your data? Maybe the scope of your influence on other people who might turn into customers? The answer today is ALL OF THE ABOVE – and it’s thanks largely to the power of the internet.
Companies aren’t just looking for a one-time purchase anymore. They want a lifetime consumer – think Netflix or Amazon – or even your local grocery store that rewards your loyalty with discounts on stuff you buy regularly.
Why Politicians Sometimes Ignore Their Constituents
Guest: Adam Dynes, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University and Co-author of the paper “How Politicians Discount the Opinions of Constituents with Whom They Disagree”
The Presidential Election is dominating news headlines, but across the country, there are thousands of people running in city, county and state races that will have an ever greater impact on our daily lives. Politicians who manage to get re-elected year after year do it, in large part, by keeping pace with what the people they represent want. When polls show the people in a district have shifted in their views on an issue, a wise politician shifts along with them. But we all know cases where our local officials did not vote in line with our views. So what’s going on there? Why do politicians, elected to represent the will of the people, sometimes flatly ignore the voice of the people?
Worlds Awaiting: Encouraging Kids to Make and Share Digital Media
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of “Worlds Awaiting” on BYUradio
Rachel Wadham joins us in studio to talk media literacy and about creating media.
You can hear “Worlds Awaiting” on Saturdays at 1:30 pm ET.
The Power of Stories
Guests: Jill Rudy, PhD, Folklorist, Professor of English at BYU; Jeff Parkin, Filmmaker, Professor of Film at BYU; Philip McArthur, PhD, Professor of Anthropology and Dean of the College of Arts and Humanitiesat BYU-Hawaii
What is it about some tales that enthrall us so deeply we’ll sit in the driveway just to hear the end of it on the car radio, or stay glued to our seats until the film credits are over and the lights come up because we’re so moved? Why do some stories do that to us, and others just make us shrug? We’ve assembled a panel of experts to dissect what makes a good story great. We’ll also look at the power of stories – because how we tell them and the ways they affect us get at the essence of who we are as people and cultures.
Empire of Things
Guest: Frank Trentmann, Professor of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of London, Author of “Empire of Things”
In developed countries, each person uses around 150,000 pounds of material per year: that’s food, clothes, gadgets, and all the resources that were employed to make all that stuff. We are a world of consumers with a seemingly endless appetite for things. But the things we fill our homes and lives with serve purposes beyond what they were manufactured to do. This hour we’re going to look back in time and forward to future as we consider how we came to have so much stuff, what that stuff really means to us, and whether our appetites for material goods will ever be satisfied.
From the Vaults: Alexander Hamilton's Death
Guests: Matt Mason, PhD, Associate Professor of History, BYU; Russ Taylor, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections, BYU
Next week marks the 212th anniversary of Alexander Hamilton’s death from wounds sustained in a duel. On July 11, 1804, the Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr, fatally shot his long-time political rival Alexander Hamilton, a noted Federalist who had been the first Secretary of the Treasury of the US. Hamilton died the next day.
Here at Brigham Young University, the library’s Special Collections houses an original letter written by Dirck ten Broeck, a former law clerk under Hamilton, who, in fact, had an appointment to see Hamilton on that fateful afternoon. The meeting never happened, but ten Broeck was there with Hamilton when he died and he wrote this letter to tell his father what happened during those tragic events. See a scan of the letter here.
American Obsession with Storytelling
Guest: Qi Wang, PhD, Professor of Human Development, Cornell University and author of “The Autobiographical Self in Time and Culture”
America is the home of Facebook, epicenter of the selfie culture. From memoirs and blogs to reality TV and Snapchat, we seem driven to divulge the intimate details of our lives.
Psychologist Qi Wang goes so far as to say that Americans are obsessed with telling their own stories – a notion foreign to many other cultures. Wang is a professor of human development at Cornell University and author of the 2013 book, “Autobiographical Self in Time and Culture.”
Gender, Education and Title IX
Guests: Robin Fretwell Wilson, JD, Director, Family Law and Policy Program, University of Illinois College of Law; Kif Augustine Adams, JD, Professor of Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School; Michael Austin, PhD, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Newman University where he oversees Title IX (NOTE: Since this interview was recorded in May 2016, Michael Austin has become Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of Evansville.)
Title IX is the federal law that made colleges give female athletes their due on campuses and playing fields. But there’s a lot more to it than just sports. The Obama Administration used it as the basis for guidance sent this spring to all public schools saying they must allow transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. Title IX is also at the heart of a struggle on college campuses across the nation about how best to prevent sexual assault and respond to reports of it. BYU is among the schools wrestling with that. We will explore the history of Title IX and its expanding role as a civil rights doctrine in US education.
Terrorism in Bangladesh
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Senior Associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center
In the past week, hundreds of civilians have died in attacks on four different Muslim countries. This comes just as the holy month of Ramadan ends. It’s supposed to be a time of celebration and reflection in Islam, but the extreme terror group ISIS has turned into a time of fear and mourning for many. The attacks happened in Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. That last one isn’t much on the radar of Americans and, until recently, has not been a prime target for ISIS. Late last week, gunmen stormed a bakery in Dhaka, which is the capital of Bangladesh, in an upscale neighborhood popular with expats and diplomats. The twenty people killed in the attack were mostly foreigners from Italy, Japan and India. One American is among the dead. ISIS has claimed responsibility.
The Real-Life James Bond
Guest: Larry Loftis, JD, Author of “Into the Lion’s Mouth: The True Story of Dusko Popov, World War II Spy, Patriot, and the Real-Life Inspiration for James Bond”
James Bond is dashing, daring and larger than life, right? Well Ian Fleming’s tuxedoed spy, made famous in books and movies that are still smash hits at the box office, that impossible hero was inspired by a real World War 2 double agent who got himself into situations just as dangerous as those we’ve seen Sean Connery or Daniel Craig escape from on the big screen. In his new book “Into the Lion’s Mouth,” author Larry Loftis uncovers the undercover life of the Serbian spy Dusko Popov. A dashing, brilliant playboy millionaire who took Nazi Germany by storm, Dusko was a spy who changed the course of World War 2 and who is now, with this new book, finally getting the attention he was skilled enough to avoid as the top agent for the British Government.
American Gut Project
Guest: Rob Knight, PhD, Professor at the University of California San Diego, Co-Founder of the American Gut Project
We think a lot about heart health and mental health – but how often do we consider the health of our gut? My next guest says the gut – specifically the bacteria that thrive there – are like a forgotten organ in the body that has an outsized impact on our well-being. Gut bacteria influence body weight, allergies, even the way we respond to medication.
More information about the American Gut Project here.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Why Animals Develop Body Armor
Guest: Ted Stankowich, PhD, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at California State University, Long Beach
We know that animals adapt and evolve to survive as their environments change. So what kind of an environment causes an animal to develop quills, spikes or noxious spray, while other animals living in the same environment have no such protection? A new theory published in the journal "Evolution" explains.
Chavez’s Legacy in Venezuela
Guest: Kirk Hawkins, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
As Venezuela sinks deeper into economic crisis and political despair, the name Hugo Chavez looms large. He’s been dead for three years. How much of Venezuela’s trouble today is tied to how he led the nation, or that fact that he’s no longer there to lead it?
Drafting Women Weakens Religious Freedoms
Guest: Margaret Tarkington, J.D., Professor of Law, Indiana University McKinney School of Law
Since the 1970s, all young men ages 18-26 have been required to register with the United States Selective Service in the event the government were to reinstate a mandatory draft. Women have always been exempt from the draft. But now that the Pentagon has opened all combat roles up to women, many top military officials and members of Congress say women should be included in the draft, too. Last month, the US Senate included such a provision in a defense policy bill. Meanwhile, the US House passed a bill calling for a study of the issue. They’ll have to work out an agreement and the President would need to sign it, but with support from top military officials and bipartisan backing in Congress, there’s a real possibility that young women will one day be required to register with Selective Service alongside young men.
"I Feel Your Pain?" Not Really
Guest: Tor Wager, Ph.D., director of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience laboratory at the University of Colorado, Boulder
We’ll sometimes say “I feel for you,” to a person in pain. And there is something to sympathetic pain, isn’t there? Why else do we cringe when we see someone take a bad fall or a hard hit? Researchers have isolated the part of the brain where that sympathetic reaction to another’s pain happens – and surprisingly, it’s not where our own pain comes from.
Working Graveyard or Swing Shift Raises Stroke Risk
Guest: David Earnest, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
There are 15 million Americans who work the graveyard or keep irregular hours where they’re up overnight some days, but not others. No surprise keeping that kind of schedule can be grueling. It may also put men, in particular, at greater risk for more severe strokes.
Does Practice Make Perfect?
Guest: Brooke N. Macnamara, Ph.D., director of the Skill, Learning, and Performance Laboratory in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University
Pop psychology writer Malcolm Gladwell popularized the 10,000 hour rule: that anyone can become an expert in something – an elite athlete or a concert pianist, say - if they put in 10,000 of practice. Well, I’ve always suspected that no amount of practice would turn me into an Olympic swimmer or gymnast. Genetics and physiology must count for something. And they do, according to new research.
Social Media Use Tied to Eating Disorders
Guest: Jaime Sidani, Ph.D., M.P.H., Assistant Director of the University of Pittsburg’s Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health
If you’ve posted a selfie of yourself to social media, you know how it goes – snapping 15 or 20 from different angles in order to get one that accentuates – or minimizes – just the right features. Well, scrolling through such carefully curated images of idealized bodies and lifestyles appears to be linked to a risk for eating disorders in young women and men. A study reporting this appears in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Parent Previews: Disney's The BFG and The Legend of Tarzan
Guests: Rod and Donna Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
Let’s have a look now at how the holiday weekend was for Hollywood. Two big releases – The Legend of Tarzan and The BFG came out – neither managed to kick the cute little forgetful-fish Dory off the top spot.
Summer Vacations
Guest: Susan Rugh, PhD, Professor of History at BYU, Author of “Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations”
Somewhere in your memory bank, I bet there’s a golden nugget from a family vacation on the road: kids piled in a car, maybe a camper in tow, eating ice cream at gas stops, parents groaning at the constant “Are we there yet?” questions en route to a national park or the beach or grandma’s house.
Project Smoke
Guest: Steven Raichlen, Host of “Primal Grill,” “Barbecue University,” and “Project Smoke” on PBS, Author of “Project Smoke”
What says summer more than an outdoor barbecue? Steven Raichlen is a certified barbecue master and host of numerous cooking shows on PBS including “Primal Grill” and “Barbecue University.” “Project Smoke” is the title of his new show and cookbook. We’re not just talking about smoked meat. Would you believe he’s got recipes for smoked ice cream? See, smoking food does not always mean cooking the food. Raichlen’s a big fan of cold smoking, where you basically marinate food in smoke so it picks up the flavor, not the heat.
Barbecue Competition with Steven Reichlen
Guests: Steven Raichlen, BBQ Competition Judge; Tara and Brian Winthrop, BBQ Competitors on Team HQO
In addition to being a TV host and author, Raichlen is also an official inductee into the Barbecue Hall of Fame and a frequent judge of BBQ competitions. He headed to one right after our interview. The competitors take barbecue to a whole new level with a passion for making the perfect chicken, ribs, and brisket.
Valiant Ambition
Guest: Nathaniel Philbrick, Author of “Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold and the Fate of the American Revolution”
On July 4th, we celebrate the signing of the Declaration in 1776, but independence for the colonists wouldn’t come for another five years. First, the Continental army would need to triumph at Saratoga, endure the harsh winter at Valley Forge, ally with the French and taste the bitter betrayal of heroic army general Benedict Arnold.
Arnold’s treason made him the villain to George Washington’s hero. But the truth, according to master historian and best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick, is that without Benedict Arnold, the colonies likely wouldn’t have one the war. His betrayal galvanized them at a moment when Americans were close to losing it all thanks to their own apathy and self-interest.
The Making of a Football Game
Guest: Caitlin King, Sports Producer, BYU Broadcasting
A behind-the-scenes look at the way most people watch football these days – on a high-definition TV at home. Ever wonder how the big game ends up on your big screen with replay shots from every angle so you don’t miss a thing?
I peeked inside the process of a live football broadcast last fall when BYU played University of Connecticut at home. Dozens of BYU Broadcasting personnel had already been working for weeks by the time I showed up. On game day, about thirty of them crammed into tight rows of desks in a semi-trailer parked just outside the stadium. Giant coils of cables snake into the trailer. Small TV monitors line the walls. Flashing lights and buttons checker the desks. It’s a broadcast control room on wheels that could double as a space ship in a sci-fi movie.
Ty Detmer Returns to BYU
Guest: Ty Detmer, 1991 Heisman Trophy winner, BYU Football Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach
Back in 1990, Ty Detmer – the quarterback who led the Cougars to an incredible upset of the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes - was hands down the biggest celebrity in Provo. He went on to spend 14 years in the NFL and then coached a small private high school team in Texas to a miraculous turnaround.
And now, suddenly, he’s back in the heart of his fandom, as Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach for the BYU Cougars.
E-Sports
Guest: Claire Schaeperkoetter, doctoral student, The University of Kansas
Last year, the University of California, Irvine built a state-of the art arena with high-end computers and the equipment to do live broadcasts of videogaming competitions – also known as e-Sports. They offered 10 academic scholarships for students to join the team.
Now get this – there are five universities in the country who offer scholarships to gamers as athletes. Not academic scholarships like at UC Irvine.
But really, is playing a video game with your thumbs a sport? Can you actually call these people athletes? University of Kansas researchers recently surveyed some of these gamers on athletic scholarships about this question.
The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution
Guest: Joseph Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
We’re coming up on July 4, when we celebrate the signing of The Declaration of Independence in 1776 – early in the Revolutionary War for independence from Britain. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis says that was merely the first American Revolution. The second started after the war ended, culminating in 1788 with the signing and ratification of the Constitution to create one nation, united – rather than 13 states loosely allied in the way that the countries of the European Union are today.
You see, the United States of America was not a foregone conclusion in the beginning and was, in fact, a revolutionary idea foisted on the states and their citizens by an ambitious foursome Ellis calls “The Quartet.”
Abortion Rulings by the Supreme Court
Guest: Lynn Wardle, JD, Professor of Biomedical Ethics and Family Law at BYU
The nation’s highest court finished its term this week with an abortion decision many are calling “this generation’s Roe v. Wade.” It comes 43 years after that famous ruling that declared a woman’s right to abortion is included in her constitutional right to privacy. But the court also acknowledged that at some point a fetus becomes a human life and states have a responsibility to protect that life. This tension between a mother’s right to choose what she does with her body and a state’s responsibility to protect human life has been at the heart of every legal battle over abortion since Roe v. Wade – including this week’s ruling by the Supreme Court.
Eye-Tracking Healthy Food
Guest: Dan Graham, PhD, Colorado State University Public Health Researcher
The nutritional labels on the back of food products in the US are getting an overhaul. By 2018, the total calories will be in much bigger font on the label and there’ll be a new line listing how much sugar has been added to the food.
New American Leaders
Guest: Sayu Bhojwani, PhD, Founder and President of the New American Leaders Project
The world is a hostile place to be an immigrant right now. The European Union is fraying under the weight of the migrant crisis and fear of terrorism. Donald Trump is fanning the flames in America with his call for a wall on the border with Mexico and a ban on Muslim immigrants.
If more first and second generation immigrants held political office, things might be different. If you look at elected positions nationwide – ranging from county commissions to Congress – less than 2 percent are held by Latinos or Asian Americans. And yet, they make up 22 percent of the total population.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Constructed Languages
Guest: Dirk Elzinga, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and English Languages at BYU
Star Trek is 50 this year and among the things we can thank it for – besides William Shatner – is Klingon.
Star Trek movie actors aren’t speaking gibberish. Klingon is a complete language with grammar and sentence structure and whole dictionaries of vocabulary. Someone has even written an opera performed entirely in Klingon.
This is not just a sci-fi geek thing. Constructed languages, as they’re called, are very serious business for linguists.
Ethical Hiring of Domestic Help
Guest: Scott Stiles, Co-Founder and General Manager of the non-profit Fair Employment Agency
A form of endangered servitude has taken root in Hong Kong. Here’s how it works: Women from mostly poor families in Indonesia and the Philippines hoping to find domestic work in the homes of Hong Kong residents respond to ads from employment agencies promising a great placement. But there’s a catch: the women must pay the employment agency a huge fee – on the order of $4,000 dollars – to get the job. To do that, they take out a high-interest loan from a moneylender who’s probably in cahoots with the employment agency. And then, they’re stuck working in Hong Kong, putting all their money toward their spiraling debt and few options if things go awry and their employer turns out to be abusive.
Public Defenders in Crisis
Guest: Maybell Romero, JD,Visiting Law Professor,BYU
Across the country, programs that provide legal defense to low-income people accused of crimes are themselves being sued or investigated. Most recently, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Utah’s public defender system, calling it underfunded and unconstitutional.
Can Plastic Make Us Fat?
Guest: Mahua Choudhury, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Texas A&M University’s Health Science Center.
More than a third of all US adults are considered obese. We’re well-aware of the need to eat healthy and exercise, but what if there is some other factor lurking in our lives that contributes to our expanding waistlines?
A recent study on animal stem cells found that a component of the plastics used in food processing equipment could be tied to rising obesity rates.
Building Shelter on Mars
Guest: Robert Orwoll and Richard Kiefer, Professors Emeriti of William & Mary’s Department of Chemistry
Fifteen years from now NASA hopes to be sending humans to Mars, but first scientists must figure out how to protect astronauts and equipment from the intense radiation they’ll be exposed to beyond Earth’s orbit. One of the many projects receiving NASA money to solve the radiation problem is happening at a private firm called International Scientific Technologies. The company has charged two professors emeriti to figure out how to make bricks from Martian soil for building shelters to keep people safe from radiation and other elements on the Red Planet.
Germany: Historical and Modern Migrant Hub
Guest: Allison Schmidt, PhD, historian of migration, begins postdoc at the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C. this August
Throughout the current migrant crisis, Germany has been both a key transit point and a destination for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. German officials say they’ve welcomed more than a million refugees during the crisis and half of them are seeking asylum to stay permanently. This is not an accident. Germany has long played a central role in migration and was one of the first countries to come up with a processing system for refugees and migrants. Those systems have impacted the flow of refugees around the Western world for over a century.
3D Printing for Dummies
Guest: Michael Jones, PhD, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University; Casey Walker, BYU civil engineering student
Playing with playdoh is so satisfying, isn’t it? In the lab of BYU computer science professor Michael Jones, sculpting with clay is more than just play. Even in this digital era with software that can create 3-D models right on your screen, it turns out there’s still a lot of value in being able to hold the design in your hand, turn it over, make sure the curves are right and the buttons are in the best spot. Jones and his colleagues have created a design technique that marries clay sculpting with 3D printing.
Worlds Awaiting: Summer Teen Romance Novels
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of the BYUradio show Worlds Awaiting and BYU Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian
Regency romances for teens in the tradition of Jane Austen.
Keeping the Castle (Keeping the Castle, #1)
by Patrice Kindl
Love, Lies and Spies
by Cindy Anstey
Newt's Emerald
by Garth Nix
Presidential Politics
Guests: Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of 20th Century US History at BYU; Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
How much does it take to win the White House? President Obama raised $722 million for his re-election in 2012 and slightly more to win in 2008. Democrat Hillary Clinton is expected to raise a billion dollars for her race. Republican Donald Trump thinks he can win for a lot less and insists the latest dismal fundraising disclosure report from his campaign is nothing to worry about. Clinton raised nearly nine times more than Trump did from individual contributors during May. She finished the month with $42 million in her war chest, while Trump had a measly one million.
Trump has certainly broken many rules of traditional presidential campaigns, but can he really win without raising – and spending – as much money as his competitor?
Women and The Draft
Guest: Cameron McCoy, PhD, Post-Doctoral Fellow of Military History at the United States Military Academy, Will Join BYU Faculty in 2017, Major in the Marine Corps Reserves
Six months ago, the Pentagon cleared the way for women to serve in all combat roles in the military – including the ability to become Navy SEALs or Army Rangers if they can pass the rigorous training to qualify. So, what about the military draft? Young men between 18 and 25 are currently required to register with Selective Service in the event America needs to reinstate a draft for military service. Should young women be required to register, too?
The requirement that women register for the draft made it into a large defense bill the Senate passed overwhelmingly, but it’ll need approval from the House and President to become law.
Glass with a Past
Guest: Jodi McRaney-Rusho, Recycled Glass Artist
Environmental regulators are investigating factories across the country that make the beautiful, colored glass used in stained-glass windows and art. Toxic chemicals including arsenic and cadmium have been found in the smoke emitted from furnaces that make the art glass.
As a result, Utah artist Jodi McRaney-Rusho finds her particular expertise in high-demand. She’s pioneered the process of turning glass that comes from bottles and windows into recycled art – and that kind of glass doesn’t contain the dangerous heavy metals used in making art glass. If it sounds easy and rather obvious to just recycle glass into art, it’s not.
Washington Irving’s Fame in Spain
Guest: Javier Villoria, PhD, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Granada
Washington Irving is most famous in America for writing The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. In fact, he’s considered the first professional writer America ever produced – the first person to make a living with his pen. But Washington Irving might be just as famous in Spain, where he travelled for a bit in the 1820s and then served as US Ambassador in the 1840s. There are even Spanish roads and businesses named after him.
Parent Previews
Guest: Rod Gustaffson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
20 years and nobody seems to care, based on the box office take for Independence Day: Resurgence. It’s a sequel to Independence Day which came out in 1996 starring Will Smith. That film was a big hit. This new one, not so much.
Anti-Aging Compound
Guests: Mike Alder, Director of the BYU Technology Transfer Office; Edwin Lephart, PhD, BYU Physiology and Developmental Biology Professor at BYU
Everybody who’s hit middle age starts to think about how to roll the clock back. Whether you’re concerned about the sagging and wrinkling of your face or you’re a man experiencing the many challenges that come with an enlarged prostate. Both conditions could potentially be addressed with a naturally occurring molecule called equol. You’re not going believe where it comes from.
Latino Political Power
Guest: Ignacio Garcia, PhD, Professor of Western and Latino History at BYU
America’s electorate is more racially and ethnically diverse than it’s ever been. Nearly one-in-three eligible voters this November are not white, according to the Pew Research Center. Hispanic voters are driving the shift toward diversity and they’re a particularly young group. Nearly half of the 27 million Hispanics eligible to vote are millennials.
Rocket Girls
Guest: Nathalia Holt, PhD, Author of “Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars”
The women behind America’s space program were called “computers” because that’s what they did: with pencils, graphing paper and incredible math skills, this elite group of women were responsible for all the critical calculations that powered early military missiles, launched America’s first satellite, guided lunar missions, landed rovers on Mars and sent the Voyager spacecraft on its journey beyond our solar system.
What Islamic Schools Really Teach
Guest: Charles Glenn, PhD, Professor of Educational Leadership at Boston University
We’re well into the month of Ramadan – the holy month when Muslims fast from food and drink from sun up to sundown. Only about 1 percent of the US population is Muslim, so imagine the challenge of going an entire month in the heat of summer without eating or drinking during the day while your colleagues and classmates snack and sip away in front of you.
Ramadan is probably a little easier for Muslim kids enrolled in the 230 or so Islamic high schools in the US where fasting at Ramadan is the rule, not the exception. My next guest has spent years interviewing students, teachers and parents involved in Islamic schools to better understand what’s being taught there. Public polls show Americans, in general, are very skeptical of the how committed Muslims living in the US are to being American. Many worry Islamic schools teach extreme ideology.
Recycled Hollywood Stories
Guest: Chris Hansen, MFA, award-winning writer, director. Director, Film and Digital Media Division of Baylor University’s Department of Communication
The biggest Hollywood blockbusters these days all seem to feel just a little familiar, don’t they? Independence Day, X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Finding Dory. Why doesn’t Hollywood seem interested in trying something new these days?
Conversations About Death
Guest: Karl Lorenz, MD, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and at The RAND Corporation; Section Chief for the Veterans Health Administration-Stanford Programs in Palliative Care
Here’s a stunning fact to consider – back when Medicare was signed into law 50 years ago, most people died in their homes and the life sustaining treatments we’ve come to consider standard procedure hadn’t been invented yet. Technological advances have helped us live longer. But are we living better? We’re definitely not dying better, according to the doctors and researchers who focus on end-of-life care.
The Town on Fire
Guest: Glenn Stracher, PhD, East Georgia State College Professor Emeritus and coal-fire expert
Centralia, Pennsylvania is a modern-day ghost town. Fewer than a dozen people live there now – but in the 1980s, it was a pretty typical coal-mining town with a population of nearly 1,000 people. Today, the buildings are boarded up, the streets cracked and overgrown. An unnerving layer of smoke and smog rises from the ground, much like a scene in a horror film. Travel guides warn curious onlookers of poisonous gasses seeping from the ground.
Beneath central is a massive coal fire that has been burning for over half a century and is likely to burn for at least another 50 years. Centralia’s is not the only underground fire burning around the world, but it’s among the most famous.
Mexican Immigration Flows in Reverse
Guest: Leo Chavez, PhD, Professor, University of California Irvine’s School of Social Sciences
Donald Trump’s talk of building a wall to keep out Mexican immigrants and his questioning of the impartiality of a judge of Mexican descent have focused attention during the presidential race on Mexican immigration to the US. But last year, analysis published by the Pew Research Center found that since the recession, more Mexicans have left the US than have come here. The tide seems to have reversed. We’ll hear why.
When to Hit the Restroom in a Movie? There's An App for That
Guest: Dan Florio, Creator, RunPee app
When you want to know whether a movie’s worth seeing, you can check Rotten Tomatoes or Parent Previews or whatever your favorite movie review site is. But where do you turn once you’re at the movie and you’ve consumed that large soda with your high-priced bucket of popcorn and you realize won’t make it to the end of the movie before you’ll need a bathroom break?
Dan Florio has come to your rescue with his smartphone app, appropriately called “Run Pee.” It’ll tell you exactly when the best times to sneak out to the restroom are without missing anything too important in the film.
Brexit and Security, Police Searches, Moon Exploration, Dividing Iraq
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law in BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
Thursday is the long-awaited referendum in which British voters will decide whether to stay in the European Union or not. As we welcome international legal expert Eric Jensen back to the studio, we’re asking what legal and national security questions might arise from a Brexit.
High Heel Prosthetic
Guests: James Gilman, MD, Executive Director of the Military and Veterans Health Institute at Johns Hopkins; Luke Brown, Recent Graduate of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University
Prosthetic feet and legs today are so advanced they make it possible for people with an amputation to walk, run and jump. But wearing high-heels has been out of the question until now.
Engineering students at Johns Hopkins University have come up with a prosthetic foot design that adjusts to work with flats and high-heeled shoes. Men might be surprised to learn how important it is for a woman to have that option.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Mental Health Stigma
Guest: Dan Lannin, PhD, Psychology Graduate Student at Iowa State University
One in five adult Americans suffer from some sort of mental health problem. But although treatment exists, only about half of people with serious mental disorders actually seek help. The stigma attached to mental illness is a major reason for that. Iowa State University researchers found the stigma is so powerful it can even prevent people from clicking on a link to learn more about mental health treatment. Somehow just the act of looking for information in private is shameful to many because of the stigma around mental illness.
Foster Youth Program
Guests: Xochitl Sanchez, Co-Founder and Director of the Guardian Scholars Program at San Francisco State University; Sokhom Mao, Guardian Scholars Program Participant, Community Engagement Officer at Sunny Hills Services
There are hundreds of thousands of foster youth in America today and only six percent of those youth earn a college degree according to a study at the University of Chicago. Why is that number so low and what can be done about it? The Guardian Scholars Program at San Francisco State University provides a model that’s been working for a decade now. The program fills the void of emotional and financial support young people typically get from parents in getting into college and sticking it out to graduation.
Doping and the Olympics
Guest: John Gleaves, PhD, Professor of Kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton; co-director for The International Network for Doping Research
Russia’s track and field team will not be allowed to compete in the Rio Olympics this summer because of widespread doping allegations. The punishment is a first in Olympic history and prompts more questions about how common doping is among the world’s elite athletes and whether or not there’s any way to ensure they are competing on their own steam and not the boost of a drug coursing through their veins.
New Moms on Facebook
Guest: Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, PhD, Professor in the Department of Human Sciences and Psychology at Ohio State University
It’s normal to see women in our Facebook circle of friends having babies. They often post photos of the newborn within hours of birth. Which amazes me, because the last thing you might think after the ordeal of a birth is, “Hey, get my phone and let’s get a picture for social media.”
A study of new mothers conducted at The Ohio State University finds Facebook can be a double-edged sword, particularly for women who feel pressure from society to live up to a certain standard of motherhood.
Shanghai Disney
Guest: Elliott Weiss, PhD, Professor of Business Administration and Operations Management at the University of Virginia
Mickey Mouse opened his largest outpost yet in Shanghai last week. It’s the first Disney resort in mainland China – joining Magic Kingdoms in Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong. It is, after all, a small world.
But does a smile really mean friendship to everyone? Each time Disney has opened a resort overseas, it has encountered significant challenges adapting its quintessential American-ness to the local culture and customs. Shanghai Disneyland could prove the biggest challenge yet.
Human Organs on a Chip
Guest: Collin Edington, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate at MIT
Before a drug makes it to market, it’s typically been tested for years on isolated cells in a petri dish and in various animals before clinical trials on humans take place. The process is lengthy, expensive and not as efficient as we’d like it to be. It’s a big leap from testing a drug on liver cells in a dish to testing it on a rat to seeing it actually work in the complicated environment of a human body. To address that disconnect – and eliminate the need for animal testing – cutting edge research happening at Harvard and UC Berkeley and MIT has figured out how to create miniature human organs – livers, hearts and lungs – inside tiny plastic chips the size of a thumb drive or smart phone. The ultimate goal is to string a bunch of these organs-on-chips together with channels for blood and fluids to pass and basically replicate the entire human body in miniature. Check out MIT's Human Physiome on a Chip Project here.
Watch a video of Harvard's lung-on-a-chip here.
Training Robots Like Animals
Guest: Matthew Taylor, PhD, Professor in Washington State University’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
In the not-too-distant future, when robots are cooking our meals and cleaning our houses, how do you suppose we’ll train them to do things the way we like them? To add that extra dash of spices right at the end? Or tuck the bed sheet corners in the way we like them? Or put the clean dishes away in the right cupboards? I’ve never really thought about how much personalization will be required after we bring our helpful new robots home from the store. How will the non-computer programmers among us tweak the robot behaviors to our needs?
The Heart Can Literally Break
Guest: Gregory Dehmer, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Texas A&M University College of Medicine and Chief of Cardiology at Baylor Scott & White Health, Central Texas
We mean it metaphorically, when we talk of a broken heart: the pain of loss is real, but the heart does not tear in two along jagged lines like a spurned Valentine’s card. Did you know, however, that there is such a thing as a literal broken heart brought on by extreme emotional distress. It’s a condition first documented among Japanese women in the 1990s. And research suggests that up to five percent of women who are thought to be having a heart attack, actually have broken heart syndrome instead.
Strengthening Opinions by Citing Morality
Guest: Andy Luttrell, PhD student in Social Psychology at The Ohio State University
Most of us have opinions that are pretty set-in-stone and some that are a little more flexible. Some prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla, but depending on the quality of the ice cream and the mood on a given day, that opinion can change. On the other hand, most people view murder as wrong and you’re not likely to convince them otherwise. It’s an opinion based on my fundamental moral beliefs about right and wrong. Social science research has shown that we tend to stick more firmly to attitudes and opinions when they’re tied to moral beliefs.
"Emergency" War Fund Allows Defense Budget to Skirt Spending Caps
Guest: Laicie Heeley, Defense Fellow at The Stimson Center in Washington, DC
The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are drawing down and troops are coming home, but the budget used for fighting those wars is not declining as you’d expect. The reasons are worrisome both to those who believe defense spending is out of control and to the people responsible for America’s national security.
Helping Teachers Stick with It
Guest: Melissa Scheve, Project Director of Hollyhock Fellows at Stanford
Teaching in America’s public schools is a tough job, as evidenced by the data showing 30 to 40 percent of teachers last less than five years in the classroom before quitting the profession. Brand new teachers who start off in low-income schools with a lot of needs and few resources are at particular risk of calling it quits within a few years. They’re generally replaced with a new crop of inexperienced teachers working in classrooms full of students who – you could argue – need seasoned teacher the most.
Saving Dory
Guest: Karen Burke Da Silva, Professor of Biodiversity and Conservation at Flinders University in South Australia and Director of the nonprofit Saving Nemo Conservation Fund
The new Pixar film Finding Dory set a new record over the weekend for the highest-grossing animated film debut of all time. Nemo’s forgetful friend Dory – voiced by Ellen Degeneres – is searching for her parents. Dory is a Blue Tang and her popularity on the silver screen has conservation groups worried. Back when Finding Nemo came out in 2003, there was a spike in people buying up clownfish for their aquariums. If the same thing happens for Dory fish, the Blue Tang population could be in serious trouble.
Absorbing Water from the Atmosphere
Guest: Tadd Truscott, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Principle Investigator of the Splash Lab at Utah State
As you’re zipping through a desert at 70 miles an hour with the A/C on in your car, the eye catches mostly a wide-open landscape of rocks and dirt and the occasional gnarly tree or cactus. To see the life teeming in a desert climate, you have to slow down and look closely. But it’s there. And the way plants and animals have adapted to thrive in a place where most could not, is really incredible.
Using high-powered microscopes, a team of scientists from China, BYU and Utah State University have discovered how one of the most abundant desert mosses in the world survives by sucking water straight from the air using tiny hairs all over its leaves.
Check it out here.
Parent Previews: “Finding Dory,” “Central Intelligence”
Guest: Rod and Donna Gustafson, Film Reviewers at ParentPreviews.com
This week, we have a rare species indeed – a film that earned the once-in-a-blue-moon rating of a straight A on ParentPreviews.com. Not an A minus. A bonafide A is the grade for the Finding Nemo sequel Finding Dory – starring Nemo’s forgetful pal Dory voiced by Ellen Degeneres.
Finding Dory had a huge weekend and broke the record for highest-grossing debut of an animated film.
Making Fitbit Fun Again
Guests: Derek Hansen, PhD, Professor of Information Technology at BYU
How many steps have you logged today? People have been enamored with fitness trackers like the Fitbit. And most of them have lost interest in it after the novelty wore off or they grew tired of getting clobbered by a really active coworker or family member in friendly step competition.
BYU information technology professor Derek Hansen has designed a suite of games called FitPlay Games on Android that work with the Fitbit and promise to keep people engaged in the stepping much longer.
More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.
The Price of a Litigious Society
Guests: Justin Collings, JD, Legal Historian and Law Professor in BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School; Paul Rubin, PhD, Professor of Law and Economics at Emory University
You’ve heard the laments: Americans are so quick to sue people who’ve wronged us that we’ve driven auto and health insurance rates sky high and taken all the fun out playgrounds and public pools. Some cities are actually banning sledding on public property because of liability. Is there any aspect of our lives not affected by the risk of getting sued?
There are legal scholars who say America is not any more litigious than other wealthy nations and that it’s a small group of outlier cases that giving us a bad name – like the $2.8 million jury award to a woman who spilled hot McDonald’s coffee on her lap. This hour we’re looking at America’s penchant for personal injury and class action lawsuits, how this area of the law evolved and what effect it has on our economy and society.
Past, Present, and Future of the Death Penalty
Guest: Austin Sarat, JD, Professor of Law and Political Science at Amherst College and Author of “Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty;” Stephen H. Urquhart, Republican Utah State Senator and sponsor of SB 189 to abolish the death penalty in Utah
Twenty-eight people were executed in America last year – the lowest number in more than two decades. The number of death sentences handed down by US courts has dropped off precipitously during that time, too. Capital punishment in America is in steady decline.
Part of the answer has to do with drug manufacturers in the US and Europe now refusing to sell their chemicals for use in lethal injection. As a result, Utah brought back the firing squad as an execution alternative. Other states are looking at bringing back the gas chamber or electric chair. Another reason for the death penalty’s decline is public opinion. Polls show Americans are less and less supportive of it.
Presidential Politics
Guest: Jeremy Pope, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science at BYU, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at BYU
Democrats are poised to nominate the first female candidate ever to represent a major party in a general presidential election. The presumptive nominee for the Republican Party is running the most unorthodox general election campaign ever seen in modern American politics. And now, the worst mass shooting in US history is coloring the political landscape.
Preventing Falls
Guest: Jacob Sosnoff, PhD, Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Community Health, Director of the Motor Control Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
More than 700,000 people are hospitalized for fall injuries each year in the US. Falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injury and hip fractures – amounting to billions of dollars in the nation’s health costs. While falls cause more problems for older adults, our population is aging, so now is the time to start thinking about how to prevent falls from happening in the first place.
Diabetes Stresses
Guest: Minal Patel, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan
Health care costs associated with diabetes add up quickly. Those with diabetes have to spend money on medication, getting the right foods, special equipment, and doctor visits throughout their entire life. A new study published in the journal of Medical Care finds that, unsurprisingly, people with diabetes are more likely than others to face financial stress. And in a frustrating downward spiral, financial distress can lead them to give up the health care and healthy food they need to manage the disease.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Newborn Drug Withdrawal
Guest: Matt Grossman, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Hospitalist at Yale New Haven Hospital; Camisha Taylor, Assistant Patient Services Manager at Yale New Haven Hospital
Every 25 minutes a child is born addicted to opiate drugs, and suffering from withdrawals. For these children, life begins in agony. They suffer tremors, coughing, diarrhea. In the past, hospitals have used a lengthy process of administering medications to these children, and slowly weaning them off over the course of a hospital stay that lasts for weeks, or even months.
But the staff at Yale New Haven Hospital has started a new groundbreaking method to help soothe and even cure these symptoms faster. Their new prescription for the babies? Cut down on the drugs and spend more time with mom.
Women and Work
Guest: Myra Strober, PhD, Professor Emerita at Stanford University, Author of “Sharing the Work: What My Family and Career Taught Me About Breaking Through (and Holding the Door for Others.)”
“Can I have it all?” is the question labor economist Myra Strober says she got more than anything else from women in her course titled “Work and Family” at Stanford University. Her response was “No, you can’t have it all. Nobody can.” She wasn’t trying to discourage her students from pursuing demanding careers and having families. But her pioneering research in workplace inequality and her personal story both illustrate just how hard it’s always been for women to do both well.
World Events
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
Quinn Mecham joins us monthly to highlight three international events worthy of a bit more attention. Today, he joins us by phone from Washington DC where he’s currently directing BYU’s internship program for students in government and politics.
Targeted Online Ads
Guest: Christopher Summers, PhD Candidate at Ohio State University
The thought of being “targeted” brings a bad taste to one’s mouth. To be singled out, inspected, aimed at . . .targeting often goes hand-in-hand with discrimination, too.
And yet, marketing research conducted at The Ohio State University finds people can be persuaded to buy more stuff if they know they were targeted by a specific ad. It’s an ironic twist – and underscores just how susceptible we are to marketing persuasion.
Disaster Relief
Guest: Juanita Rilling, Director at USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Center for International Disaster Information
When natural disaster strikes, we often think, “what can I do to help?” Recently, for example, the entire town of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, had to be evacuated. Aid agencies published requests for particular items online: sanitary supplies, groceries, even kennels to house displaced dogs.
It’s important to adhere to the specific requests of aid agencies, or well-meaning donors could trigger what relief workers call “the second disaster,” when massive amounts of unsolicited donations—think winter coats sent to Honduras in the summer – can end up being worse than useless.
Clear Wood
Guest: Tian Li, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the University of Maryland
How many different materials went into the construction of your house: wood, cement, vinyl, steel, glass? In the future you may see more uses for wood, in places you’d never expect such as in window panes. That’s right, you may one day be gazing out windows made not of glass, but of wood. How can that be . . . transparent wood??
Pain Medication Monitoring
Guest: Carla Jungquist, PhD, Professor at the University at Buffalo School of Nursing
When we go to the hospital, especially for surgery, we expect to be well taken care of, and well monitored. After all, we’re placing our lives in the hands of medical professionals, who deal with medicine that we don’t understand, right? However, a recent study from the University at Buffalo found that if you’re receiving opioid painkillers after surgery, the chances that you’ll be appropriately monitored painkillers are less than one in four.
Worlds Awaiting: Summer Reading
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of “Worlds Awaiting” on BYUradio
Rachel Wadham hosts BYUradio’s “Worlds Awaiting,” which is all about fostering reading and discovery in children. She joins us in studio to discuss summer reading and the following books:
"The Relatives" by Cynthia Rylant, Stephen Gammell (Illustrator)
"Groundhog's Day Off" by Robb Pearlman, Brett Helquist (Illustrator)
"The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Intense Boy" by Jeanne Birdsall
"Fort" by Cynthia DeFelice
Check out more great summer reads.
Profile of a Mass Shooter
Guest: Michael Stone, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, Author of “The Anatomy of Evil”
It’s the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history, leaving fifty people dead and more than fifty others wounded in a nightclub early Sunday morning. Authorities say the gunman – a 29-year-old American-born citizen named Omar Mateen – appeared to be motivated by extremist propaganda online, but they have not found any links connecting him with radical groups like ISIS. President Obama earlier today called the shooting a case of “homegrown extremism.” Details about the shooter’s life and motives are still emerging, but the FBI says he had been on their radar in recent years for making comments to coworkers about terrorist groups and expressing a desire to martyr himself. FBI investigators determined he’d merely said those things out of anger because he felt like his coworkers were teasing him for being Muslim.
Were those comments in fact key warning signs? What makes the difference between someone who says angry, hateful things and someone who takes a gun into a public place and kills scores of people?
The Emily Effect: Postpartum Mood Disorders
Guest: Eric Dyches, Founder of The Emily Effect in honor of his wife Emily Cook Dyches
At least half a million women in the US suffer from postpartum depression every year – it is the most common complication of child birth. But only a tiny fraction of those women actually get professional help coping with what can be debilitating depression and anxiety brought on by dramatic changes in hormones, swirling emotions, the trauma of giving birth, and the exhaustion of caring for a newborn.
Find resources and read the stories of other women coping with post-partum depression at www.TheEmilyEffect.org.
Salmonella and Turtles
Guest: Megin Nichols, Veterinarian at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
If you’re a sucker for pictures of cute little critters online, do not do a Google image search for “tiny turtles.” Then again, you’re probably better off looking at pictures of small turtles than actually buying one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued a health warning that small turtles have been linked to four separate outbreaks of salmonella in the last year. More than 100 people in 26 states have been infected by the bacteria, which causes diarrhea, fever and cramps.
Challenges Facing Cancer Survivors
Guest: Niraj Gusani, MD, Oncologist and Founder of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Survivorship Clinic at the Penn State Cancer Institute
Advances in cancer treatment and the longer lives Americans are living combine to mean millions upon millions of people are now “survivors of cancer.” By 2026, that survivor number is expected to reach 20 million people. Which is great news, because surviving cancer is better than succumbing. But surviving doesn’t mean the battle is over. There are lingering physical and emotional challenges that my next guest says are not being met by doctors very well today.
Parent Previews – "Warcraft" and "Now You See Me 2"
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Rod Gustafson talks "Warcraft" and "Now You See Me 2." "Warcraft" features conflict between humans and orcs, and portrays the origin story of a hugely popular video game called World of Warcraft.
Tech Transfer: Pre-eclampsia Intervention
Guests: Juan Arroyo, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Developmental Biology at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
Fans of Downton Abbey will remember the tragic demise of Lord Grantham’s youngest daughter Lady Sybil, who died shortly after childbirth of a condition called “eclampsia.” Turns out that’s a real thing and it’s still killing women today. It accounts for between 40 and 60 percent of maternal deaths in developing countries. Here in the US the number is much lower. But globally as many as 1 in 10 women experience a pregnancy complication called “preeclampsia.” There’s no cure other than to deliver the fetus, and the cause remains a mystery.
More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.
The Value of Music in Schools
Guests: Brittany May, PhD, Professor of Elementary Music Education at BYU; Andrew Dabczynski, PhD, Professor of Music Education at BYU and Expert of String Pedagogy; Sam Tsugawa, PhD, High School Orchestra Teacher and BYU Music Education Professor
In schools across the country, children learn to play the violin, the piano or maybe the ukulele. They’re not all prodigies and won’t all become accomplished musicians, but that’s beside the point. They learn to work hard, listen to each other and contribute to a common goal.
The No-Child-Left-Behind era of performance measures led many, many schools to slim down music and arts programs and spend more time preparing for high-stakes reading and math tests. But you’ll still find districts around the country committed to weaving music into the student experience. In high-poverty schools, such programs are all the more powerful because they democratize music, in a sense. Learning to play the piano or violin is no longer just for kids with parents who can afford to buy instruments and enroll them in private lessons.
Why Kids Should Learn to Code
Guests: JD Tueller, CEO of App Raptors; Hunter Rentz, 17-year-old coder; Jay Jayaseelan, Founder of Learning through Robotics; Angela Jones, Director of Curriculum for the Do Good Foundation at InsideSales.com; Majestic Billings, 9-year-old creator of over 100 projects using code
It’s not much of a stretch to envision a day when children will need to know the basics of coding as much as they’ll need to know how to write. Lots of kids are learning how to code, and girls, in particular, need exposure to coding while they’re young.
Armenian Genocide
Guest: Richard Hovannisian, PhD, Founder of the Armenian Studies program at UCLA
A week ago, the German Parliament voted to officially condemn the massacres and deportation of over 1 million Armenians in 1915 as “genocide.” The move by the German parliament has angered the Turkish government and could test diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The genocide was carried out by Ottoman forces in modern-day Turkey. It’s sometimes called the Armenian Holocaust and it bears similarities to the better-known Jewish Holocaust. Here, too, people were chased from their homes, forced on death marches, herded onto trains and torn from their families because their religion and ethnicity were seen as a threat. While many historians and world leaders agree the actions amounted to a campaign to exterminate the Armenian people, the Turkish government does not call it a genocide or acknowledge the scope of the events.
Fact Checking
Guest: Jane Elizabeth, Senior Research Project Manager at the American Press Institute
The rise of fact-checking journalism has made it harder for political candidates to get away with the half-truths and spin that are bread and butter for campaigns. That doesn’t mean politicians have stopped stretching the truth – or that their supporters are necessarily concerned about it.
Protein and Cancer
Guest: Valter Longo, PhD, Professor in Gerontology and Biological Science at the University of Southern California, Director of the USC Longevity Institute
Atkins, Paleo, and the South Beach diets all recommend a cut in carbohydrates in favor of a high-protein diet. These diets are popular because they work well in the short-term, but research from the University of Southern California’s Longevity Institute shows that eating lots of animal proteins can lead to a long-term increased risk of cancer.
Poetry 180
Guest: Robert Casper, Head of the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress
When was the last time you read a poem – or heard one recited? If it’s been awhile, we can remedy that right now, with the help of Robert Casper, Head of Poetry and Literature at the Library of Congress.
Alaska Shipwreck
Guest: Timothy Dilliplane, Retired Colonel in the US Army Reserve, Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Co-principal Investigator of the Neva Project
Hollywood might want to take note of this next story: It has all the makings of a great adventure film. In January of 1813, a Russian ship called the Neva wrecked off the coast near Sitka, Alaska. More than a dozen of the ship’s crew had already died in the difficult journey from Siberia. Another 32 died when the ship broke apart on the rocks. But 28 men made it to shore alive. And then what? It was mid-winter in Alaska. They had nothing but what they could forage on land and scavenge from the wreckage. Remarkably, 26 of the men were still alive when they were finally rescued a month later.
The story of how they survived has remained a mystery, until last year. Researchers from the US and Russia – funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation – found what they believed to be the campsite of the shipwreck survivors.
What New Payday Lending Rules Mean for Borrowers
Guest: Mehrsa Baradaran, JD, Associate Professor of Contracts and Banking Law at The University of Georgia Law, Author of “How the Other Half Banks”
Millions and millions of Americans who find themselves short on cash turn to payday lending outfits. You’ve seen them clustered on street corners and in strip malls in at least 30 states where they’re allowed. According to some experts, the payday loan industry is about to be gutted by plans for the first nationwide regulation of their business. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rule will end what its director calls “payday debt traps.”
Traps are certainly bad news for consumers, but where will those millions of Americans in need of quick cash turn if payday loans are off the table?
Men Take Relationship Bumps Harder than Women
Guest: Robin Simon, PhD, Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University
Researchers who studied young adults in Miami found men struggle more emotionally than women do when there is strain in a romantic relationship. That’s the opposite of what you might expect, isn’t it?
To Inspire Young Chemists, Play with Fire
Guest: Jennifer Nielson, PhD, Teaching Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at BYU, Chair of the American Chemical Society’s task force on International Chemistry Education
The world needs more scientists from developing countries and the way to get them is to have more fire in science classrooms. BYU chemistry professor Jennifer Nielsen has spent the last five summers training high school science teachers in Uganda to make chemistry hands on – mixing substances, lighting things on fire and basically playing in the laboratory – so they can make science interesting enough to students that they’ll choose a career in the field.
Apple Seed in Zion
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us from Zion National Park to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
Bees Keep Elephants Out of Kenyan Crops
Guest: Lucy King, DPhil, Head of Save the Elephants’ Human-Elephant Co-Existence Program
Gardeners in these parts have slugs, deer and rodents to contend with. But if you’re in Kenya trying to farm a small plot of land to feed your family and make a living, you’ve got a much bigger problem. Incidents of African elephants raiding crops are on the rise, in large part because efforts to restore the dwindling elephant populations are succeeding. Elephants are returning to old migratory patterns they’d abandoned for years, only to find tasty new farms in their path.
The nonprofit “Save the Elephants” is testing a novel solution to the problem using this little fact of nature: elephants do not like bees.
Why Should Wine Drinkers Have All the Fun Pairing and Tasting?
Guest: Bruce Blosil, CEO and Founder of Delmosa
The founders of a new company called Delmosa are like a third of Americans, non-drinkers. And they’ve decided that the experience of pairing and savoring fine beverages shouldn’t be just for people who consume alcohol.
Summer Travel and TSA Delays
Guest: Jean Medina, Senior Vice President of Communications for Airlines for America
Long lines at airport security checkpoints are causing frustration among passengers and prompting a stream of social media messages with the hashtag “iHatetheWait.” Showing up an hour early for your flight may not be enough. The Transportation Security Administration says passengers should allow two hours for screening on domestic flights – three hours for international flights.
Phone Use at Dinner Table
Guest: Carol Moser, Doctoral Student in the University of Michigan School of Information
Okay, you’re having dinner with friends at a restaurant. The appetizers have just arrived and your phone rings. Do you answer or send it to voice mail? What if you’re at home having dinner with your family – do you answer a call or a text then?
The way you answer those questions turns out to vary widely depending on your age, your smart phone habits and – this one’s interesting – whether or not there are kids at the table.
Human Causes in Wildfires
Guest: Michael Mann, PhD, Assistant Professor of Geography at George Washington University
It’s fire season again in the arid West. As blazes get bigger and burn more intensely, fire forecasting models tend to put a lot of the blame on hotter, drier weather caused by climate change. But they’re missing something really important.
Why Fentanyl is so Fatal
Guest: Traci Green, PhD, Professor at the Brown University School of Medicine and Deputy Director of the Boston Medical Center Injury Prevention Center
The powerful painkiller Fentanyl has been blamed for the accidental overdose death of musician Prince. Federal health officials have been tracking its increased use with alarm as the latest worrisome turn in the opioid epidemic. Nationwide, fentanyl fatalities rose by 79 percent in a single year – from 2013 to 2014. In many parts of the country, fentanyl is killing more people than heroin.
Mouse Pregnancy and Zika Virus
Guest: Michael Diamond, MD, PhD, Virologist and Professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis
A couple of research reports out today attempt to ease concerns about the risk of contracting Zika virus at the Summer Olympics in Brazil. One study reported by Reuters predicts the Rio Olympics would result in no more than 15 Zika infections out of some half a million visitors to the games.
Epidemiologists disagree on just how risky it is to hold such a large public gathering at the epicenter of the Zika epidemic. That’s partly because we’re still learning about the effects of the mosquito-borne virus and how it migrates from a mother to a fetus, causing serious birth defects.
C-SPAN on the Road
Guest: Ashley Hill, Producer of the C-SPAN Cities Tour
Every two weeks a fleet of red white and blue TV vans rolls into a different city somewhere in America and the lights go on. A film crew talks to the city mayor, interviews local historians and authors and turns the footage into a weekend-long profile of the city airing on C-SPAN’s BookTV and American History TV channels. This week the C-SPAN Cities Tour is in Provo.
Mental Illness and Law Enforcement
Guest: Michael Woody, President of CIT International, Retired Akron Police Lieutenant
When police fatally shoot someone in the United States, there’s a one-in-four chance the person is mentally ill. Over the last three decades, a shift in how mental health is treated in America has filled jails, emergency rooms and homeless shelters with people suffering from mental illness. And police are the de facto first responders. But without specialized training, the standard procedures officers learn at police academy can backfire with someone who has a mental illness. The end is too often tragic.
Law enforcement agencies are increasingly turning to a training program developed by police in Memphis a few decades ago and lauded by the White House as an ideal model for getting officers up-to-speed on mental illness. It’s called Crisis Intervention Team.
Designing Spaces for People with Autism
Guest: Sherry Ahrentzen, PhD, Professor of Construction Management at the University of Florida, Co-Author of “At Home with Autism”; Kim Steele, Director of Urban and Health Initiatives for The Elemental Group, Co-Author of “At Home with Autism”
For a person with autism, a squeaky ceiling fan, splashing faucet or cluttered room can be more than just annoying – it can be debilitating. Parents go to great lengths to minimize those kinds of stimuli that can be so problematic for an autistic child.
A new book called “At Home with Autism” offers design tips, but it’s also intended as a guide for building homes and communities where people with autism can thrive beyond the relative safety of a parent’s home.
Star Wars and Eastern Religions
Guest: Julien Fielding, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Author of “Discovering World Religions at 24 Frames Per Second”
Star Wars is almost a religion unto itself. Devotees quote Yoda and Obi Wan and Darth Vader like scripture, fraught with symbolic meaning. Ever since Luke, Leia and their droids first arrived on screens in 1977, religious scholars have noted its Christian parallels: Jedi knights as crusaders, the red-faced Sith Lord Darth Mal as Satan, the Force as the power of God.
So the Christian themes are much-heralded, but Star Wars has strains of Judaism and Buddhism and Daoism, too. In fact, the franchise is so fertile with religious themes that University of Nebraska at Omaha adjunct professor Julien Fielding now uses it as the platform for an upper-level course on religious studies.
What’s Being Taught in Islamic Schools?
Guest: Charles Glenn, PhD, Professor of Educational Leadership at Boston University
This is the first day of Ramadan – the holy month when Muslims fast from food and drink from sun up to sundown. Only about 1 percent of the US population is Muslim, so imagine the challenge of going an entire month in the heat of summer without eating or drinking during the day while your colleagues and classmates snack and sip away in front of you.
Ramadan is probably a little easier for Muslim kids enrolled in the 230 or so Islamic high schools in the US where fasting this month is the rule, not the exception. My next guest has spent years interviewing students, teachers and parents involved in Islamic schools to better understand what’s being taught there. Public polls show Americans, in general, are very skeptical of the how committed Muslims living in the US are to being American. Many worry Islamic schools teach extreme ideology.
Parent Previews
Guest: Rob Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
A tragic romance called “Me Before You” opened in theaters over the weekend and was apparently the go-to choice for anyone not interested in seeing superheroes or animation. “Me Before You” is about a young man, paralyzed by a spinal cord injury, falling in love with his new caregiver – but he’s already started the ball rolling to commit suicide. The film is based on a successful novel. It’s drawn considerable opposition from the disability rights community unhappy with how it portrays disability a problem best solved by death.
Better Bacteria Testing
Guest: William Pitt, PhD, BYU Chemical Engineering Professor; Mike Alder, Director of the Technology Transfer Office at BYU
The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a global health crisis, fueled partly by the inability to quickly identify exactly what strain of bacteria infects a person. Current testing takes up to three days, during which time doctors basically have to guess which antibiotic to prescribe. If they guess wrong and the infection is particularly aggressive, a patient could be dead before the bacteria test results are in.
For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood
Guest: Christopher Emdin, PhD, Professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Creator of the #HipHopEd Social Media Movement, Author of “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all Too”
If you were to drop by an inner city school just about anywhere in this country – Atlanta, LA, Chicago, Miami, New York – you’ll mostly find white teachers standing in front of classrooms filled with black and brown students. There’s a push in urban districts to recruit more minority teachers. But Christopher Emdin says it’s just as important to improve the teaching of white teachers who are already in those schools. His book, “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood. . . and the Rest of Y’All Too” outlines something he calls, “reality pedagogy.” It also takes a hard look at the real harm traditional teaching methods can do to youth of color.
The Trouble with Living Wills
Guest: Samuel Brown, MD, Professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Director of the Center for Humanizing Critical Care at Intermountain Medical Center, Author of “Through the Valley of Shadows: Living Wills, Intensive Care and Making Medicine Human”
We generally hate thinking about our own lives ending, but when pressed, we tend to know what we want. Those wishes are the basis of a living will, also called an “advance directive” or DNR, which stands for “do not resuscitate.”
But, intensive care doctor Samuel Brown says “living wills have outlived their usefulness.” They’re now more likely cause harm to patients and families. It sounds counterintuitive, but if you or someone you love has experienced a critical illness in a hospital ICU, you’ve probably had an inkling that something about the DNR situation didn’t feel right. Dr. Brown says that’s because living wills arose in a time when most people died in ICUs. Today, most people survive. Life-support and resuscitation technologies have different roles than they once had. Today, a blanket Do Not Resuscitate order could actually rob someone of many more, good years.
Heroin Death Obituaries
Guests: Denise Perkins, Executive Director of Broken No More; Liz Perkins, Addiction Awareness Advocate
The medical examiner’s report released today shows music legend Prince died in April from an accidental overdose of a powerful pain medication called fentanyl. Nationwide, the CDC says the rate of people dying from an overdose involving opioids has tripled since the year 2000. Widespread use of prescription pain killers and the easy availability of cheap heroin are driving the epidemic. Americans young and old, male and female, rich and poor are falling victim to overdoses tied to opioids.
Advocacy groups are rallying for better treatment options and legal changes that would treat drug addiction as a disease, rather than a crime. And you’ve likely noticed a shift on the obituary page of your local newspaper, too. More and more families are dispensing with vague references to a loved one having died “suddenly” or “at home” and writing the truth: He died of addiction; she died of an overdose.
Learn more at about Broken No More here.
Leisure and Stress
Guest: Matthew Zawadzki, PhD, Assistant Professor and Health Psychologist at the University of California, Merced
"Take it easy." "Lighten up." "Chillax." Most of us see the wisdom of a little leisure from time to time, right? A balance of work and play makes for better health and happiness in the long run – but it turns out that leisure activity also has immediate and measurable effects on the mind and body.
Smiling and Stress
Guest: Sarah Pressman, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine
If you’ve had your heart crushed or your ankle sprained, you may have been told to “grin and bear it.” Callous as it sounds, the mere act of smiling may actually have the power to conquer a bad mood or eliminate pain.
Picky Eaters
Guest: Dr. Nancy Zucker, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University
Mealtime is all-too-often battle time in homes with children. Most of us probably consider it normal for a kid to turn his nose up at vegetables on the plate. You might have done the same when you were young. There is a point, however, when picky eating becomes a sign of deeper, more worrisome problems.
Teens Finding Purpose
Guest: William Damon, PhD, Professor of Education at Stanford University, Director of the Stanford Center On Adolescence, Co-author of “The Power of Ideals”
“Millennial” is the generally-accepted term for the current crop of youngsters, but they’ve also been referred to as “Generation Me” or the “Selfie Generation.” They’re absorbed by their phones and their social media feeds and by themselves.
That’s a gross generalization, of course, but those who fit the bill also find themselves lacking a sense of meaning or purpose.
Renée Fleming
Guest: Renée Fleming, Renowned American Soprano
You might expect a woman with this voice – one of the most celebrated opera singers in the world – to have a snobbish streak when it comes to music. But Renee Fleming does not. And her latest endeavor proves it. She’s just accepted a three-year appointment with the Kennedy Center for the Arts where she will curate concerts “celebrating the full gamut of vocal expression” – jazz, pop, classical, singer-songwriter – everything will be fair game.
Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Guest: Kathryn Blaze Baum, National Reporter for The Globe and Mail Newspaper
The official count from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is that some 1,200 indigenous women have gone missing or been murdered during the past 30 years, but the actual number could be closer to 4,000 according to research by the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Many of the women vanished along a remote roadway in British Columbia that’s become known as the Highway of Tears. Canada’s prime minister has now launched a national inquiry into the disappearances and murders of indigenous women.
E-sports Athletes
Guest: Claire Schaeperkoetter, Doctoral Student at the University of Kansas
Last year, the University of California, Irvine built a state-of-the-art arena with high-end computers to host big video gaming competitions. They added a stage and studio webcasting games live. And they offered 10 academic scholarships for students who will join the team. Let me repeat that – a major public research university is now offering scholarships to students for doing the very thing so many parents consider a colossal waste of time.
Now get this – there are five universities in the country who offer scholarships to gamers as athletes. Not academic scholarships like at UC Irvine. We’re talking athletic scholarships – like you could be recruited to the football team, or you could come play for the school’s e-sports team.
Virtual Blended Schools
Guest: Gary Miron, PhD, Professor of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology at Western Michigan University
Education experts have been saying for some time now, that online instruction is the future. Getting to that future has posed some growing pains. The 2016 Virtual Schools Report from the National Education Policy Center shows student performance lags on a number of measures at schools that are entirely online and those that blend virtual and face-to-face instruction.
America’s Obsession with Stories
Guest: Qi Wang, PhD, Professor of Human Development at Cornell University and Author of “Autobiographical Self in Time and Culture”
America is the home of Facebook and the epicenter of the selfie culture. From memoirs and blogs to reality TV and Snapchat, we seem driving to divulge the intimate details of our lives.
Bacteria Crash Testing
Guest: Daniel Austin, PhD, BYU Chemistry Professor
With diseases like Ebola and Zika lurking around the globe we are very aware of the importance of preventing cross contamination across individuals, but what about planets? When traveling through space NASA tries their hardest to be a good planetary neighbor. They go to great lengths to keep Earth bacteria from accidentally hitchhiking to Mars and potentially vice versa. To better understand what they can expect from our microscopic tag-alongs NASA is funding BYU researchers to see how well bacteria survive when they crash into a surface at high speeds. Incredibly, the team has yet to discover a speed at which bacteria will not survive impact.
The Cost of Being an Ethical Boss
Guest: Russell Johnson, PhD, Professor of Management at Michigan State University
Enron. Worldcom. Volkswagen. Just a few company names that have, at some point, been synonymous with scandalous dishonesty. Business researchers have spent a lot of time in the last two decades studying the value of hiring leaders who make ethical choices. What’s less-studied is how consistently those upstanding leaders manage to do right. Whether or not, say, making tough ethical choices can wear a person down and lead to lapses in judgment the next day – maybe unfairly lashing out at an employee.
Rent Assistance for Families with Kids at Decade Low
Guest: Doug Rice, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Even as the economy improves, homelessness among school-aged children is at an all-time high in the United States. Part of the problem is that rents are getting more and more expensive all across the country. Another important factor is the government rent subsidy program sometimes known as “Section 8.” New analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows a steep drop in the number of families with children getting government help to pay the rent over the last decade.
Adults and Learning a Second Language
Guest: Chantel Prat, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington
Some people just seem to have a way with languages. I know people who speak three or four and talk about plans to learn a new one like it’s a big hike they’re preparing for and will master with a few months of hard work. What’s their secret?
Urban Foresters
Guest: Rob Northup, Urban Forester of Hillsborough County with the University of Florida
In big cities full of concrete and steel, a row of trees or a pocket park can have a soothing effect on fast paced urban life, but that’s not all they do. City planners from Oregon to Florida are beginning to realize the real economic benefits urban trees provide including reducing healthcare costs. It turns out that the spruces and sycamores shading a boutique or lining a parkway filter toxins from the air, lower air conditioning bills, reduce asthma and even birth defects. “Urban Foresters,” a new career resulting from these realizations, are emerging to take care of the trees we already have, and make plans to take advantage of this green recourse in future city projects.
Second Skin
Guest: Amir Nashat, PhD, CEO of Olivo Labs
Walk down the aisle of any drug store and you’ll see dozens of eye creams promising to get rid of those puffy dark bags under your eyes. For a higher price, there’s botox or surgery to restoring firm, youthful skin. Scientists at MIT have landed on a remedy that just might work even better – and no surgery is required. They call it “Second Skin.”
Using Smartphones to Study Sleep
Guest: Olivia Walch, PhD Student at the University of Michigan and Developer of Entrain
There’s a strong chance you’re running on fumes right now because a third of adults in America are sleep deprived, according to the CDC. Sleeping less than seven hours per day is associated with an increased risk of developing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and frequent mental distress. Insomnia, hectic schedules or pesky kids keeping you up at all hours can make those precious 7 hours frustratingly elusive. Biology and culture also play a role. That’s the most interesting finding from a worldwide study of sleep patterns in 100 different countries conducted by mathematicians at the University of Michigan.
Word’s Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of “Worlds Awaiting” on BYUradio
We welcome back Rachel Wadham as we talk about fostering a love of reading in children and some of her favorite children’s poets.
China One-child Policy
Guest: Valerie Hudson, PhD, Professor of International Affairs and George H.W. Bush Chair in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University
Last year, Chinese officials announced they would relax the one-child policy that was in place for more than 30 years. Couples will now be allowed to have two kids. Part of the motivation for the change is China’s shortage of young people to take care of an aging population and fill jobs that fuel the nation’s economy.
Endangered Click Languages
Guest: Bonny Sands, PhD, Professor of Linguistics at Norther Arizona University
Around the world, there are efforts to protect plant and animal species from completely disappearing. We’re maybe a little less concerned about the vestiges of human culture dying out. Take languages, for example. The United Nations estimates that by the end of this century, half of the world’s six thousand languages will be gone. And along with them disappears the cultural significance and history embedded in the words people used to express themselves.
Elephants Don’t Get Cancer
Guest: Joshua Schiffman, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Adjunct Professor of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah
Here’s a scientific mystery to chew on - elephants have 100 times as many cells as humans. Which means there ought to be 100 times more likely to have one of those cells turn cancerous over their long lives – elephants live up to 70 years. But turns out that elephants rarely get cancer.
Marriage and Pressure
Guest: Wendy Birmingham, PhD, Psychology Professor at BYU
Marriage is good for your health. Studies show married people tend to live longer than unmarried people and are at lower risk for depression. Generally speaking, married people are happier people. BUT, and there’s a big but here, the quality of your marriage matters. If you’re unhappily married your health might worse than if you were single.
So what about the in between stages? Marriages that are more-or-less ambivalent – not exactly blissful, but not awful either? And how exactly do marriage relationships affect one’s health?
Modern India
Guest: Edward Luce, Washington Columnist and Commentator for the Financial Times
India is on the path toward “world power.” But what kind of power will it be? With 1.2 billion people, it’s the world’s largest democracy. It’s in arguably the world’s most dangerous neighborhood. And it’s a nuclear power. As India continues to rise, will it be a massive headache or a major ally to the United States?
National Park Graffiti on the Rise
Guest: Mark Miller, PhD, Chief of Resources Stewardship and Science for the National Park Service’s Southeast Utah Group
People are a threat to National Parks. Specifically, those who can’t seem to resist the urge to make a mark on our nation’s most natural treasures. In the last month, rangers at Arches National Park in Southern Utah discovered large graffiti on a famous arch – names and phrases etched so deeply into the red rock, it might be impossible to erase. The Park’s superintendent says there’s been a “tidal wave of graffiti” at Arches and other National Parks in recent years. Joshua Tree, Zion – even the Grand Canyon – have been defaced by vandals who often post pictures of their activity on social media.
Gun Safety with Parents
Guest: Alice Kuo, MD, Professor at University of California Los Angeles’ Medical School
A judge in New Jersey yesterday awarded more than half a million dollars in damages to the family of a six-year-old boy who died when a four-year-old neighbor accidently fired his dad’s gun. Already this year, at least 96 children under the age of 18 have picked up a firearm and accidentally shot themselves or someone else. That’s according to news reports compiled by a gun-control group called “Everytown for Gun Safety.” Tragically, many of those accidental shootings end in the death of a child.
So, pediatricians feel increasingly compelled to bring up gun safety in check-ups with the families they care for. But not everyone likes that. Florida passed a law in 2011 prohibiting doctors from asking about guns. It’s being challenged in court and will go before the US Court of Appeals next month.
Dinosaurs in Hollywood
Guest: Michael Habib, PhD, Professor at the University of Southern California School of Medicine and a Research Associate at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles’ Dinosaur Institute
The Jurassic Park film franchise has inspired who-knows-how-many young dinosaur fans. The hands down favorite is the T-Rex, of course, because it’s the king of them all. If you’re going to love dinosaurs, the bigger, scarier and meaner the better, eh? That was the whole premise of the latest Jurassic film, where geneticists created the Indominus Rex.
Hollywood can’t seem to help itself, even when it’s depicting real dinosaurs, from stretching the facts, says paleontologist Michael Habib. And that’s too bad, because dinosaurs are plenty cool without the fictitious stuff movies make up about them.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYU Radio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Ransomware
Guest: Anthony Vance, PhD, Associate Professor of Information Systems at BYU
Ransomware attacks are on the rise in the US where hackers act like high-tech document kidnappers. They infect computers, encrypt all documents and demand hundreds – or thousands of dollars – in order to unlock them. If you think it’d never happen to you, well you’re wrong. Police departments, city offices, hospitals and companies of all stripes – even tech companies – have fallen victim. Along with scores of private individuals. The FBI received more than 2,400 complaints of ransomware last year –which was a 33 percent increase over 2014. And those victims lost and estimated $24.1 million in the attacks.
Robot Surgery
Guest: Simon Leonard, PhD, Assistant Research Professor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University
We’re totally comfortable having robots make all the parts of our cars and iPhones. We’re even warming to the idea of self-driving cars. But how would you feel about going in for surgery where all the cutting and stitching is done by a robot? Not a surgeon using a robotic tool to help with parts of the procedure – that’s pretty common today. I’m talking about a robot doing the whole thing, without any human involved.
That’s a little unnerving, isn’t it? But it’s time we got over that, because some researchers at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington and Johns Hopkins University recently tested a robot’s skill sewing up a pig intestine . . . and the robot did a better job than a human surgeon.
STAR is the robot’s name – it stands for Smart-Tissue Autonomous Robot.
America's Resegregating Schools
Guest: Jacob Rugh, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology at BYU
The Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling “Brown v. Board of Education” sixty-two years ago this month declaring racially-segregated schools are illegal.
So why, then, do new federal data show a growing number of schools almost entirely full of Black and Hispanic students who also happen to come from very poor households? The number of such schools in the US has more than doubled in the last 15 years, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office released last week. The conclusion? America’s public school system appears to be steadily re-segregating by race and class.
Treating Tourette Syndrome
Guest: Michael Himle, PhD, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Center of Excellence in Tourette Syndrome at the University of Utah
People with Tourette Syndrome have often been the butt of cheap jokes in movies where they’re featured blurting profanities. That’s actually a symptom that affects a small portion of people diagnosed with Tourette. Involuntary sounds and movement known as “tics” are the more common manifestation of this neurological disorder that has no cure and limited treatment options. The best treatment is not easily accessible to many patients with Tourette.
Water from Thin Air
Guest: Majid Bahrami, PhD, Engineering Professor at Simon Fraser University
Nearly 800 million people across the globe are without access to clean water – many of them living in drought-stricken Africa. The underground reservoirs that have sustained life around the world for centuries are drying up. So, scientists have turned to the sky. Not just to capturing rain water, but to actually wringing water out of the atmosphere – out of thin air.
Why “Colorblindness” Is Not a Good Thing
Guest: Carla Hunter, PhD, Professor of Psychology at University of Illinois
One of six police officers charged in connection with the 2015 death of Freddie Gray was found “not guilty” on all charges yesterday. Gray’s death sparked riots in Baltimore and was among several incidents across the country to ignite a national conversation about the police treatment of black men.
Little Liars
Guest: Kang Lee, PhD, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience and Education at the University of Toronto
There’s a crash in the other room. You come running in and there’s a four-year-old standing next to the broken lamp looking all innocent and surprised, insisting he didn’t do it.
But you’re not fooled because kids are terrible liars. Or, so we think.
From the Vaults: Copernicus’ Revolutionary Theory
Guests: Tom Stephens, a Physical and Mathematical Sciences Librarian in the Harold B Lee Library at BYU; Maggie Kopp, Curator of the History of Science Collection in Special Collections at the Harold B Lee Library
“You are not the center of the universe!” Ever used that retort with someone being annoyingly self-centered? Well, Nicolaus Copernicus essentially began telling that to the world in the year 1514. It was a blow to the collective ego of the West, and, was not warmly embraced by either scientific or religious leaders. We now know he was right.
The Mythology of Sykes-Picot in the Middle East
Guest: Henri Barkey, PhD, Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
You've probably heard talk recently of how a 100-year-old agreement called Sykes-Picot still drives conflict engulfing the Middle East today. But Henri Barkey of the Woodrow Wilson Center says that's giving too much credit - or blame - to the agreement.
Here's the history: In mid-May of 1916, a British diplomat named Mark Sykes and a French one named Francois Georges-Picot were assigned to meet secretly and carve up the weakening Ottoman Empire. This was two years before the end of World War I, but the empires of Britain and France were hoping for victory and eager to stake their claim to the vast land and resources of what we now call the Middle East. The lines that Sykes and Picot drew on a map – blue for French territory, red for British – didn’t pay any attention to the religions, ethnicities or languages of the people living on the land they were divvying up.
So that’s where Sykes-Picot gets its bad name, as an example of classic imperial diplomacy: “We’re the conquerors, we’re going do what we want with you.” The thing is, the Sykes-Picot agreement was never adopted. But, the rough shape of what Britain and France would eventually claim for themselves as colonial powers did bear some resemblance to the map Sykes and Picot drew.
Gangs Make Young People Depressed
Guest: Chris Melde, PhD, Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University
Gang membership had been declining in the US over the last decade, but recently it’s bounced back to levels on par with the mid-90s. The Department of Justice says gangs are a “stubbornly persistent” problem with current membership at about 850,000.
In addition to the violence and drug trafficking that come with gangs, a study in the journal “Criminal Justice and Behavior” says there are also mental health consequences: Young people who join gangs end up with higher levels of depression and suicide.
Making Trains Aerodynamic
Guest: Wayne Kennedy, Director of Fuel Conservation at Union Pacific Railroad; Aaron Terry, Recent Graduate of BYU's Engineering Program
Most of what’s in your house took quite a journey to get to you. It likely arrived in a shipping container full of electronics or clothes or furniture at a port somewhere in the US. That container was loaded right onto a train – probably stacked two-high like giant LEGOs – for a cross-country trek, before transferring to a truck for the final leg. The fuel required to power that journey is a large expense factored into the final cost you pay for the product. So this next conversation is about how Union Pacific Railroad has relied on teams of engineering students here at BYU to improve its fuel efficiency by making its trains more aerodynamic. The end result is something called the Arrowedge. It sits on the top of the first shipping container in that long line of double-stacked containers and has a pointed nose to cut down on drag that slows the train.
Factory Workers Often Rely on Welfare Programs
Guest: Ken Jacobs, PhD, Chair of the Labor Center at UC Berkeley
The days when a job in a factory meant lifelong employment and a ticket to the middle class are long gone. While presidential candidates debate how to bring the American manufacturing industry back, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education shed some light on just what it means to work in manufacturing today. They find that, increasingly, a day’s work on the frontline of a factory is not enough to pay for basic necessities. As a result, a third of the families of those workers are enrolled in public safety net programs like food stamps or Medicaid. When you look only at the factory workers hired through temporary staffing agencies, the rate is even higher – on par with fast-food workers and their families leaning on public assistance.
Parent Previews: Angry Birds
Guest: Rob Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
The box office winners over the weekend were the Angry Birds and their archenemies – the Green Pigs. Yep, that annoyingly addictive smart phone game is now a full-length feature. Parent Previews critic Rob Gustafson joins us to go over the newest movies.
Preventing Nuclear Meltdowns
Guest: Matt Memmott, PhD, BYU Nuclear Engineering Professor; Spencer Rogers, BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
Nuclear reactors generate a fifth of all the electricity we use in the United States – and the percentage is much, much more if you live in certain parts of the country – like the Southeast. When I lived in North Carolina for a number of years, I was shocked to learn there were three nuclear plants within 20 miles of my home. Growing up in the Intermountain West, we only heard about nuclear in reference to fallout from bomb testing that happened in Nevada years ago or radioactive waste from nuclear plants stored in the Utah desert. Or disasters like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima. In other words, nuclear meant danger.
What I’ve since learned is that the danger of a nuclear meltdown at the 100 power plants operating in the US is very remote. And yet, disasters like the tsunami that spurred Fukushima can happen. So reactors re built with emergency systems in place to prevent meltdown. BYU engineering professor Matthew Memmott has come up with a way to improve on those systems.
Religion and Horror
Guest: Douglas E. Cowan, PhD, Author of “Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen," Professor of Religious Studies and Social Development Studies at Renison University College
What is it about a foggy graveyard that raises the hair on the back of our necks? Why is the image of a cross one of Dracula’s greatest weaknesses? And why do movies about vindictive ghosts and demonic possessions maintain worldwide popularity, even across cultural and economic borders?
Horror movies have been fraught with religious symbolism really since the beginning of the film era. And while they certainly don’t require religious elements to be scary, filmmakers return again and again to ideas rooted in spiritual beliefs. What makes them so terrifying and why do people flock to them?
Title IX and Education
Guest: Robin Fretwell Wilson, JD, Director of the Family Law and Policy Program at the University of Illinois College of Law; Kif Augustine-Adams, JD, Professor of Law in BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School; Michael Austin, PhD, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Newman University
Title IX is the federal law that made colleges give female athletes their due on campuses and playing fields. But there’s a lot more to it than just sports. The Obama Administration uses it as the basis for guidance sent last week to all public schools saying they must allow transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. Title IX is also at the heart of a struggle on college campuses across the nation about how best to prevent sexual assault and respond to reports of it. BYU is among the schools wrestling with that. This hour, we’re going to explore the history of Title IX and its expanding role as a civil rights doctrine in US education.
Eat Ugly to Eliminate Food Waste
Guest: Dominika Jarosz, Campaign Manager at Feedback
Western countries waste up to half of their food supply – in large part because we want our produce to look perfect. All told, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says the world wastes enough food to feed every person suffering from hunger more than twice over.
Hope in Palestine
Guest: Zaid Malhees, Senior at BYU studying Genetics and Biotechnology
There is so much conflict in the world today, physically and rhetorically. Zaid Malhees is a young Arab born in East Jerusalem, raised in Ramallah in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. Growing up he needed a permit to cross into the part of Jerusalem where his aunt lives, where he was born. He felt treated as a second-class citizen. He understands the hate that has driven decades of violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
But he also has hope – and hearing him talk about it is both inspiring and enlightening.
Buses to Showers for Homeless
Guest: Doneice Sandoval, Founder and CEO of Lava Mae
You know what it feels like when you’ve been on traveling by plane for a really long day or – or out camping for a few days – without access to a shower? And how everything just looks better in the world once you’ve had a chance to get clean?
People who are homeless rarely have that chance. In fact, in San Francisco there are an estimated 3,500 people living on the streets and only seven places that offer showers for the homeless.
iRelaunch Helps Workers Return to Careers
Guest: Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO and Co-Founder of iRelaunch
“Beware of the gap.” That was the warning drilled into me during a career skills and resume writing course near the end of college. Employers do not look kindly on an unexplained employment gap on your resume. Which makes getting back into the workforce after time off to take care of family or deal with a health crisis an even bigger challenge than finding your first job out of college.
The solution, according to Carol Fishman Cohen is to do like you did fresh out of college – get an internship – or a returnship as Cohen calls it.
Benefits of Unplugging in Nature
Guest: Ruth Ann Atchley, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of Kansas
The summer season of outdoor excursions and afternoons in the park is just about here. And while many state parks and recreation areas now offer WIFI to keep you connected even when you’re out of cell service, let’s hear a pitch for letting your devices go dark while you’re in nature. There’s evidence to suggest that if you combine the rejuvenating power of the outdoors with a break from the distractions of your phone and tablet, your brain works better.
Venezuela in Crisis
Guest: Sam Handlin, PhD, Professor of Latin American Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah
Despite having the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela is experiencing critical shortages of food, medicine and electricity. We got a grim look at the humanitarian crisis that’s unfolding on the front page of the New York Times this week: Photos showed patients in Venezuelan hospitals languishing in puddles of their own bloods, critically ill patients without medicine, infants dying without access to incubators. There are long lines for what few necessities are available in stores and rolling blackouts keep people in the dark for long stretches of time. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has declared a constitutional state of emergency. Protests in the street calling for his ouster are intensifying. There are fears that Venezuela could be on the verge of a coup – or even complete collapse.
Eastern Coyote
Guest: Roland Kays, PhD, Associate Professor at North Carolina State University and Author of “Candid Creatures: How Camera Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature”
There’s a new predator roaming the North Eastern United States and even popping up in the middle of New York City. It’s larger than a coyote, but not quite a wolf. Some have distinctly dog-like features – long legs, floppy ears, mottled fur. It even sounds like a mashup – part wolf howl, part coyote yip, part dog bark.
Carrots
Guest: Phillip Simon, PhD, Professor of Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Research Scientists with the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service
Now that scientists have decoded the entire human genome, they’re casting about for other worthy genetic targets to decipher. Thanks to the work of research scientist Philipp Simon at the US Department of Agriculture, we can now check carrots off the list.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYU Radio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Importance of Muscle Building
Guest: Preethi Srikanthan, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles
Body Mass Index – or BMI – is a common way for doctors to assess whether a person’s weight is in the healthy or obese range. But researchers are finding that a BMI score is not always a good indicator of a person’s overall health. In particular, they’ve noted an “obesity paradox” that finds higher BMI scores are often associated with lower mortality – just the opposite of what you’d expect.
Discovering Cancer Drugs
Guest: Vito Quaranta, MD, Director of the Integrative Cancer Biology Center and Co-Director of the Center for Matrix Biology at Vanderbilt University Medical School
Finding new drugs to treat cancer can be a lengthy and expensive process, almost always ending in failure at the clinical trial stage. A new study co-authored by Vanderbilt University cancer biologist Vito Quaranta suggests the reason so many cancer drugs ultimately fail is because we’re not testing them correctly.
Scheduling Free Time
Guest: Selin Malkoc, PhD, Associate Professor of Marketing at Washington University in St. Louis
Day-planner or digital calendar, what’s your method for staying on-task? I never really embraced the planner, but was an early adopter of the Palm Pilot. These days hardly anything in my life happens without first making an appearance on the Google Calendar constantly open on both my desktop computer and my smart phone. Which is great for getting things done. Not so great for enjoying leisure activities, according to research conducted by Selin Malkoc, a marketing professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She finds that precisely scheduling something that’s supposed to be fun – like going to the movies or grabbing lunch with a friend – can actually sap the fun out of it.
Political Changes in Philippines, Turkey, Iraq
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
Regular contributor Quinn Mecham joins us monthly to point our attention toward three international events worthy of a bit more attention: The recent presidential election in the Philippines, The Turkish Prime Minister’s decision to step down, and the current political state of Iraq.
Dogs and Human Emotions
Guest: Ross Flom, PhD, Professor of Psychology at BYU
Have you ever scolded a dog and gotten those big, sad puppy-dog eyes in response? Or that hang-dog look? Be careful. Dogs can be really sensitive to our scolding—it might be even more powerful than the positive encouragement we give them in determining their behavior.
Vets and Doctors v. Cancer
Guest: Elizabeth McNiel, PhD, Assistant Professor of Oncology at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University
The quest to treat – and ultimately cure – cancers often requires doctors to think creatively. At Tufts University, they’re even thinking beyond their own disciplines. Oncologists at the university’s medical school now collaborate closely with the Tuft’s veterinary school. It turns out that humans and their pets share the same environment, and are therefore susceptible to the same factors that cause cancer and other diseases.
Seven Summits
Guest: David Roskelley, Adjunct Professor of Public Health at the University of Utah, Partner at R&R Environmental, Inc.
For the first time in two years, climbers have reached the top of Mt. Everest. Attempts to summit the world’s tallest mountain were called off last year when the Nepal earthquake triggered an avalanche that killed 19 climbers. The previous year, an avalanche above Everest base camp killed 16 Sherpa guides. But Everest is back open for business, and this week marks three years since David Roskelley made it to the top. He did it as part of a larger quest to climb “The Seven Summits”: the highest point on each of the seven continents. Everest and Kilimanjaro are on the list. Roskelley finished his seventh this year, climbing Mt. Vinson in Antarctica.
Scientists and Religion
Guest: Elaine Howard Ecklund, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University
We tend to see science and religion as being in conflict. You either believe in God or you believe in science, but you can’t believe in both. So perhaps you’d be surprised to learn that in many countries such as India, Italy, Taiwan and Turkey more than half of scientists consider themselves “religious.”
This “war” between science and religion turns out to be more of a Western thing and mainly involving Christianity.
Worlds Awaiting
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of “Worlds Awaiting” on BYUradio
Rachel Wadham joins us back in studio to discuss fostering reading in children and literacy in the 21st century.
Divided Politics in America
Guests: Grant Madsen, PhD, BYU 20th Century US History Professor; Chris Karpowitz, PhD, BYU Political Science Professor
When Donald Trump met with House Speaker Paul Ryan at Republican Headquarters in DC last week, the cable news outlets covered it like a mix of a major boxing match and a meeting between heads of state. Wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s arrival to meet with members of his own party and the colorful protests raging outside the building, underscore just how bizarre this election feels at times. Now that wealthy businessman Donald Trump is the last candidate standing and apparent Republican nominee, the ongoing thread in media coverage is that the Republican Party is a house divided. Speaker Ryan has yet to officially endorse Trump. The two former Republican Presidents still living – George H.W. and George W. Bush – have declined to endorse Trump. You can find tallies in the political press of who’s backing him and who’s not.
It’s worth noting that Democrats are divided too, though, perhaps to a lesser extent. Senator Bernie Sanders is pressing forward with his race, despite lagging significantly behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the all-important delegate count.
How Homeless Youth Live
Guest: Melissa Welch-Lazoritz, Project Director for REACH at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
While local, state and federal efforts to address chronic homelessness have made big improvements in how they coordinate and communicate over the last decade, services aimed at homeless young people have not. Some of that stems from lack of information about what drives teenagers to the streets and what they need in order to find housing and stability.
Endangered Condors Lay Egg in Zion National Park
Guest: Chris Parish, Condor Program Director for The Peregrine Fund
The California Condor is dangerously close to completely disappearing from the planet. It’s the largest land bird in North America, with a wingspan nearly ten feet across. And thirty years ago, poaching, lead poisoning and habitat destruction made it extinct in the wild. Since then, biologists have worked to raise California condors in captivity and a few have been released into the wild, with mixed success. One pair settled in Zion National Park and now appears to have a chick on the way.
Marketing to Smokers at the Cash Register
Guest: Mohammad Siahpush, PhD, Professor in the University of Nebraska’s College of Public Health
All those candy bars and gum packs and random sale items on the checkout counter at the convenience store can be so hard to resist when you’re hungry or tired or craving sugar. The temptation is even more intense for smokers confronted with that floor-to-ceiling display of cigarettes behind the cashier. Tobacco companies have increasingly focused on what’s called “point-of-sale” marketing as other forms of cigarette advertising have been restricted. Research done at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Public Health concludes push to sell cigarettes at the register not only facilitates smoking, but also may result in people spending money on cigarettes, instead of necessities, like food.
Summer Movie Preview
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Rod Gustafson discusses you can expect the kids to e begging you to see this summer including “The Secret Life of Pets,” “Finding Dory,” and “X-Men: Apocalypse.”
Frigelato Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Bowl
Guests: Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office; Michael Dunn, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Food Science at BYU
When I was a kid in the 80s, frozen yogurt was all the rage, but my parents were not about to fork over 4 bucks per kid for our large family to go to the yogurt shop and get a cup of the stuff topped with candy and cookie pieces. So we tried to make it ourselves, which meant putting regular yogurt cups in the freezer. And it was a disaster. Straight from the freezer, the yogurt was hard as a rock, and then as it melted, it separated into liquid and goo and curd and was just awful. We tried controlling the thaw by zapping it for a few seconds in the microwave. We tried the slow melt where we thawed it in the fridge. Nothing worked. And since Mom wouldn’t let us waste food, we had to eat the stuff anyway. Eventually we just quit trying.
It's pretty rare to find a product that works just as well frozen as it does thawed, with an appealing taste and texture either way, but a new product called Frigelato could fit the bill.
The Right Wrong Man
Guest: Lawrence Douglas, Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College, Author of “The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial”
A case of mistaken identity and delayed justice is the story of Ivan Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian immigrant working at Ford motors in Cleveland in the 1970s, who was wrongly accused of being a sadistic Nazi known as Ivan the Terrible. He was deported to Israel where he was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. But then it became clear that he really wasn’t Ivan the Terrible, so he came back to the US.
But the story continues, because while Ivan Demjanjuk wasn’t Ivan the Terrible, he had been a guard in a Nazi death camp. When that secret came to light, his US citizenship was revoked a second time and, in 2011, a German court convicted him of being an accessory to murder. That trial came 70 years after the alleged crimes and represented a major turning point for Germany’s handling of former Nazis. Legal scholar Lawrence Douglas writes in his new book that before Demjanjuk, judges in Germany treated the Holocaust as if it had been “perpetrated by no more than a handful of men” like Hitler and Goring. Demjanjuk was the first “replaceable cog” in the Third Reich’s killing machine to be tried and convicted.
How to Clone a Mammoth (originally aired August 14, 2015)
Guest: Beth Shapiro, PhD, Professor of Paleogenomics at the University of California Santa Cruz
Molecular biologist Beth Shapiro’s lab at the University of California in Santa Cruz focuses on “ancient DNA.” She’s just published a truly fascinating book about the possibility of bringing ancient species back to life. It’s called “How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction.”
Jogging Stroller for Disabled
Guests: Devin Adams and Grant Getts, BYU Engineering Graduates; Allison Mitton, Mother of McKay
Too often people with physical disabilities are limited in how much of the outdoors they can experience and enjoy, which is too bad, since we all know how therapeutic the smell of a canyon trail after a light rain can be – or the feel of wind on your face as you run or cycle down a park path.
A team of six BYU engineering students took on the task of creating a vehicle that could help an adult with physical disabilities enjoy the outdoors. They developed a lightweight jogging stroller that converts to a trailer behind a bicycle. And they did it with one young man in mind: 18-year-old McKay Mitton.
Check it out yourself here.
Diabetes Prevention
Guest: David Marrero, PhD, Professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine
More than a quarter of adults in the US have pre-diabetes, which means they’re on the cusp of developing full-blown Type 2 diabetes and all the costly complications that come with it. But research has shown weight loss and moderate exercise can keep the disease at bay for many of those Americans. Unfortunately, Medicare has traditionally only paid for medicine to treat diabetes, not the kind of coaching on diet and exercise that could actually prevent the disease among people at risk. The Department of Health and Human Services recently said that’s going to change.
Health and Geography
Guest: Benjamin Scuderi, Research Assistant with the Health Inequality Project at the Harvard University Economics Department
Being wealthy in America generally means being healthier and living longer, too. That’s even more true today. A new study of millions of US tax records shows the gap in life expectancy between the rich and poor has expanded in the last decade. But here’s the really interesting part: if you’re poor, you can improve your chances of living longer just by moving to certain cities like New York or San Francisco.
Read the full report here.
America Enters New Era of Drone Warfare
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor in BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
We've reached a new milestone in drone warfare. The US military just announced that 2015 was the first year we fired more weapons over Afghanistan by drone than by traditional warplane. New ethical and legal questions come with this shift.
Savanna Theory of Happiness
Guest: Norman Li, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at Singapore Management University
Some people are city folk. Some are rural folk. But we’re really all, deep down, rural folk, according the Savanna Theory of Happiness. It’s a concept that says, we’re essentially happiest when our environment most resembles the sparsely populated African savanna where our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived. And if this sounds pretty far-out, know that surveys of Americans across the country find the happiest among us are in rural areas, the unhappiest live in crowded cities. And research also shows a good way to boost your happiness, no matter where you live, is to socialize with close friends.
Okay, so here’s the wrinkle, recently documented by evolutionary psychologists Satoshi Kanazawa and Norman Li: Smarter people are less bothered by crowded environments and they get less of a boost from hanging out with friends.
Apple Seed: The Story-telling Power of Stuff
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYU Radio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Iraq in Crisis, Saudi Oil in Transition
Guests: Fred Axelgard, PhD, Senior Fellow at BYU’s Wheatly Institution; Steven Lobell, PhD, Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah; Shadman Bashir, Visiting Professor of Law and International Relations at Dixie State University
Islamic State terrorists set off bombs in Baghdad today killing more than 90 people. The violence appears to mark an escalation by the Islamic State in targeting civilians–despite having lost significant territory to Iraqi government troops of late. We also talk about the Taliban's "Spring Offensive" in Afghanistan and a shake-up at the state-run oil company in Saudi Arabia.
The World is More Connected Than Divided
Guest: Parag Khanna, PhD, Global Strategist, CNN Global Contributor, Author of “Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization”
Read the headlines and you could make a pretty strong case that we live in a divided world. The Middle East is in chaos, the open borders of the EU are closing and countries the world over are in political turmoil.
But global strategist and author Parag Khanna says we’re more connected than we are divided. In a couple of his popular TED talks and his new book called, “Connectography,” Khanna redraws world maps–basically erasing the political borders we’re familiar with and emphasizing how economic ties, trading relationships, internet and phone connections matter more. He says, looking at the world that way can bring us closer to peace, prosperity and environmental sustainability.
Resisting Antibiotic Resistance
Guests: David Hyun, MD, Senior Officer for Pew Research’s Antibiotic Resistance Project; Adam Hersh, Associate Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah and Primary Children’s Hospital
Health officials are warning – with increased alarm – of the rise of “super-bugs” resistant to antibiotic treatment. They say the problem is tied to the overuse of antibiotics for things like colds or viral flus that aren’t bacterial and thus, don’t respond to antibiotics. But until now, we’ve not had clear data on just how often doctors are prescribing antibiotics inappropriately in the United States. The answer – according to the first study quantifying the problem – is that nearly one out of every three antibiotics prescribed in doctor’s offices and emergency rooms in the US is unnecessary.
Making Retirement Saving Automatic
Guest: Bob Pozen, JD, Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution
Nearly half of Americans said in a Federal Reserve Board survey that that could not come up with $400 on the spot to cover an emergency expense. Not only are we not saving for the here and now. We’re not saving for the future. Nearly a third of us have nothing saved for retirement. Zip.
Why Disaster Plans Should Include Pets
Guest: Ragan Adams, DVM, Extension Veterinarian at Colorado State University
When disaster strikes we immediately focus on the safety of those we love – and for more than 60 percent of Americans, that includes a household pet. But in a disaster, emergency responders are typically consumed with evacuating and protecting humans – there’s not always a system in place to consider animals in a household. That became painfully clear during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Hundreds of thousands of pets are estimated to have perished in that disaster. Emergency responders found, time and again, people who refused to evacuate from rising floodwaters in New Orleans because they didn’t want to leave a pet behind.
A year later, Congress passed the PETS Act, which requires state and local emergency responders to have a plan in place for evacuating and sheltering pets in a disaster.
Short-Term Memory and Distraction
Guest: John Gaspar, Doctoral Student in Psychology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia
For some people, every person and conversation that comes within earshot or sight can distract us from what we’re doing or thinking. But not everyone is this way. A new report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests short-term memory plays an important role on why some people are more easily distracted than others.
Arizona's Scorpion Wranglers
Guest: Ben Holland. Founder of Scorpion Sweepers
February and March set records globally for warmth and ushered in an early spring across the United States. Up popped the tulips. And for those lucky enough to live in Arizona, out popped the scorpions. The Arizona Bark Scorpion is the deadliest variety in North America. They’re out in force right now and keeping scorpion wrangler Ben Holland busy. Yep. He wrangles them, one scorpion at a time, at night.
Check it out here.
American Views on Marriage and Family
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science at BYU; Jeremy Pope, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science at BYU
Americans consistently say their own personal lives and relationships are of higher quality than the rest of the nation. My way is better than your way – that’s the American way of thinking, apparently.
The marriage and family research comes from a study called The American Family Survey published at the end of last year by the Deseret News and Brigham Young University. It polled 3,000 Americans, representative of the nation as a whole, about their attitudes towards marriage, family, parenting and political views on family-related policies.
US Currency Redesign
Guest: Matthew Mason, PhD, BYU History Professor
A sweeping redesign of America’s paper money is underway, with new images planned for the $5, $10 and $20 bill. Notably, a woman will grace the front of the $20 bill for the first time since Martha Washington was briefly on the $1 silver certificate more than 100 years ago. The woman who will give President Andrew Jackson the boot on the face of the $20 will also be the first African American on the face of US paper money. Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave nicknamed “The Black Moses” for leading scores of slaves to freedom as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. To have her take up residence next Washington on the $1 and Lincoln on the $5 and Hamilton on the $10 sends a pretty powerful message about what we value.
Nature and Health
Guest: Peter James, ScD, Research Associate in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard
Taking a walk in the woods – or even just in a city park – is a great way to clear your head. That’s well-established. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have found that just living in a green area helps people live longer. The study looked at a hundred thousand women from across the country, but the researchers suggest the same findings would be true for men, too.
Spanking Doesn't Work
Guest: Elizabeth Gershoff, PhD, Developmental Psychologist from the University of Texas at Austin
Spanking is both fairly common in the United States and generally accepted. Whether you spank or not, I imagine most parents have had a moment with a child where they’ve thought – if I could only give this kid a whack on the backside, he’d straighten out. We tend to think spanking may not be ideal, but it’s at least effective when all else fails.
Virtual Job Interviews for Youth With Autism
Guests: Robert Ahlness, Department Manager for the Dan Marino Foundation; Skip Rizzo, PhD, Psychologist at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies
I don’t care how confident or qualified you are; job interviews are stressful. The hand shake, the eye contact, sounding self-assured but not self-absorbed. Now, imagine you’re on the autism spectrum and reading social cues is a mystery to you. That may explain why unemployment rates among young adults with autism are as high as 66 percent.
Could they have better luck finding work if they had a way to practice the job interview? The Dan Marino Foundation and the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies are looking to find out. They’ve developed a virtual interview technology.
Parent Previews on Captain America: Civil War
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Critic at ParentPreviews.com
Film Reviewer Rod Gustafson discusses the new film “Captain America: Civil War” with us.
Tech Transfer: Monitoring Air Pollution
Guest: Jason Hansen, PhD, BYU Chemistry Professor; Mike Alder, Director of the BYU Technology Transfer Office
For more than 50 years, US laws have been in place to keep our air clean. Communities monitor air quality and warn residents when particulate levels get dangerous. Here in Utah, we routinely have “red air” days in the winter, when pollutants get trapped by the mountains and weather patterns, making it unsafe for people to exert themselves outside – especially the elderly and those with asthma. One of the challenges in air monitoring is determining where the pollutants are coming from. Is it the power plant in a community? The cars on the freeway? The oil and gas wells? Air pollutants don’t carry name tags. But the right device might be able to track them back to their origins.
National Parks
Guest: Jeremy Barnum, Public Affairs Specialist for the National Park Service; David Quammen, Writer of the May issue of National Geographic on Yellowstone National Park
It’s been 100 years since President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created the National Park Service. At the time, there were 35 national parks and monuments. Yellowstone was the first – it had already been a national park for 44 years by that time, so clearly, Americans had an inkling that wild spaces and historical places mattered enough to give them special attention – special protection. As the National Park Service turns 100, there are some 400 national parks and 20,000 employees looking after them. Then we'll explore the vastness of Yellowstone with writer David Quammen who wrote the May issue of National Geographic. He says one of the greatest threats to America’s wild places is us – the millions of people who visit them every year.
PODCAST EXTRA: Battling Noise Pollution in National Parks
Guest: Kezia Nielsen, Environmental Protection Specialist at Zion National Park
One of the problems that plagues many of our most popular national parks is noise. Take Zion National Park in Southern Utah – over 2 million people visit it each year to take in the breathtaking views and peaceful sounds of nature. But increasingly, peaceful sounds have been interrupted by manmade noises.
So, in 2010, Zion became the first national park in the U.S. to create a Soundscape Management Plan intent on eliminating noise pollution. Student producer Brandi Bronson prepared this report on the plan, which first aired on BYUradio in December 2014.
The Art of Forgery
Guest: Noah Charney, author, art historian found of ARCA – the Association for Research into Crimes against Art
Art forgery is among the most romanticized of crimes and often considered victimless, unless you’re inclined to feel bad for the uber-rich or the supremely-snobbish folks suckered by an imposter’s canvas. Forgery is a crime, though – and a difficult one to prosecute, according to Noah Chaney’s new book “The Art of Forgery.”
Among the most surprising revelations in his book about the greatest art forgers of all time is his suggestion that rarely is the forgery motivated by money. Rather, the most successful forgers are out to prove their artistic genius or to exact revenge on the art houses that fail to see that genius. In some incredible cases, the forger does it all for fame – even leaving clues in the forged work, hoping to be discovered.
Grandmother Hypothesis
Guest: Kristen Hawkes, PhD, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah
Grandmas are great. They bake and knit and organize family gatherings. And nobody can spoil a child like a loving grandmother. That doting turns out to have been an important driver in human evolution. University of Utah anthropologist Kristen Hawkes has been developing this “Grandmother Hypothesis” for years and recently added a new benefit to the list of things grandmas have done for humans: She says they’re responsible for the male tendency to pair up, rather than mate with multiple partners.
Peace Officer
Guests: Scott Christopherson, Director and Producer of the film “Peace Officer,” Assistant Professor of Theater and Media Arts here at BYU; Brad Barber, Co-director and Co-producer of “Peace Officer,” Associate Professor of Theater and Media Arts here at BYU; Dub Lawrence, Former Davis County Sheriff
“Dub” Lawrence had been retired for several decades when, on September 22, 2008, he found himself watching helplessly from across the street as a SWAT team swarmed the home and driveway of his son-in-law, Brian Wood, in Farmington, Utah. Wood was distraught and threatening to kill himself. Dub Lawrence assured his family that the police were professional and knew what they were doing. But things went bad and Brian ended up dead of a fatal gunshot wound which the police initially claimed was self-inflicted, but later admitted had been fired by one of the officers.
Since then, the man who started the SWAT team in Davis County in 1975 has been on a crusade to bring it to justice in his son-in-law's death. The documentary about him - called “Peace Officer,” - won both the Grand Jury and the Audience Award at last year’s South-by-Southwest Film Festival and it is playing on the PBS Independent Lens series this Monday, May 9.
Suicide on the Rise
Guest: Tom Golightly, PhD, Licensed Therapist, Associate Clinical Director of the Counseling Center at BYU, President of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Outreach
New analysis from the National Center for Health Statistics finds suicide in the United States is at the highest level in nearly 30 years. Every age group except older adults is committing suicide at higher rates than in the mid-1980s. Among adolescents and young adults, suicide remains a leading cause of death, but the study also finds it’s now rising among middle-aged Americans, which is a worrisome trend after decades of stable or declining rates for that group.
Digital Eyestrain
Guest: Adam Gordon, OD, Optometrist and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
More and more of our lives involve looking at digital screens that flicker ever-so-subtly and emit high-energy blue light. The eye strain that accompanies all this screen time is a real thing doctors are now treating. But some lens manufacturers are also warning that too much blue-light can cause permanent damage to the retina and hasten eye disease. And they’ve got glasses that promise to protect you.
Are we really putting ourselves – and our kids – at risk for macular degeneration and other eye disease with all this digital screen time?
Endangered Languages
Guest: Bonny Sands, PhD, Linguist and Adjunct Professor at Northern Arizona University
Here in the United States, we have laws to protect plant and animal species from completely disappearing. We’re maybe a little less concerned about the vestiges of human culture dying out—like language. The United Nations estimates that by the end of this century, half of the world’s six thousand languages will be gone. And along with them, all of the cultural significance and history embedded in the words people used to express themselves.
Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYU Radio’s The Apple Seed
Sam Payne joins us in studio to captivate us with a new story.
Artificial Muscle
Guest: Zhenan Boa, PhD, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University
The muscles and skin of our bodies have incredible characteristics that make it hard to imagine how a manmade prosthetic limb, for example, could come anywhere close to the real thing. To be as flexible and touch sensitive and – most importantly – able to heal itself from a scratch or a tear. But researchers at Stanford University are making some amazing strides. They’ve created plastic skin that can tell the difference between a firm handshake and a light one. And communicate that to the brain. And, they’ve created plastic that actually can heal itself.
Link to the research here.
Unethical Behavior
Guest; Matthew Quade, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management at Baylor University
Suppose you've got an employee or a co-worker who is really productive, but also happens to be a bit shady. Maybe wastes a lot of time surfing questionable websites or taking care of personal stuff at work. Maybe the employee even crosses ethical lines in dealing with clients or making deals. But remember, this employee gets a lot of work done, too, and that makes your life as a boss or a co-worker easier. Less work to land on your lap, right?
Textalyzer
Guest: Ben Lieberman, Co-Founder of Distracted Operators Risk Casualties
Whether your fiddling with the stereo or rummaging around in the backseat or checking your phone, research has shown distracted driving can be as dangerous as driving drunk. Texting and driving is the worst – potentially six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. We know how dangerous it is. It’s even illegal in most states. And yet nearly half of adults who use text messaging admitted in a Pew Survey having done it while driving.
Would that change if – like with drunk driving – we knew that the police could run a quick test like a breathalyzer, and know for sure whether you were using your phone at the time of a crash?
Link to Distracted Operators Risk Casualties here.
Child Care
Guest: Elaine Weiss, PhD, Economic Policy Institute and National Coordinator of the Broader Bolder Approach to Education Campaign
High-quality child care in the US can be so expensive that it’s not unusual for one parent in a household to just quit work and be the caregiver. A new report out of the Economic Policy Institute finds both low and middle income families struggle with the child care finance equation. What’s more, the report says that government programs geared toward making high quality child care more affordable will help both the kids and the broader economy. It’s one of those spend-money-to-make-money scenarios for the US economy.
Harsh Parenting
Guest: Thomas Schofield, PhD, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University
Americans generally agree that sometimes a kid “needs a good, hard spanking.” Seventy percent of us, was the figure in a survey from 2012 funded by the National Science Foundation. And we tend to think other parents are doing a good enough job disciplining their kids.
Researchers at Iowa State University have found evidence that parents who are particularly harsh toward their teenagers are actually putting their kids’ health at risk. And they find that even if only one parent is harsh and the other is nurturing, the “good cop” can’t overcome the negative effects of the “bad cop’s” behavior.
Parent Previews
Guest: Rod and Donna Gustafson, Film Reviewers at parentpreviews.com
We discuss the films “Mother’s Day” and “Ratchet and Clank.”
Tech Transfer
Guests: Mike Wirthlin, PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor at BYU; Dave Brown, BYU's Technology Transfer Office
One of the challenges NASA must solve before going to Mars is how to protect astronauts from the sun’s radiation during the long trip. We’re protected from the most harmful radiation here on Earth by a magnetic band at the outer edge of the atmosphere. To solve the radiation problem, NASA’s been running contests and offering prizes to people who offer good ideas.
Chernobyl and Nuclear Power (1:03)
Guests: Matt Memmott, PhD, Professor of Nuclear Engineering at BYU; John Colton, PhD, Former Senior Scientist at the US State Department and Senior Officer at the International Atomic Energy Agency and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Judd Gregg, JD, Former Governor and US Senator, Co-chair of Nuclear Matters
Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster in Ukraine that killed dozens of people and exposed thousands to dangerous radiation. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima embody the risk that many Americans associate with nuclear energy. What people rarely realize is that a fifth of all electricity in the US comes from nuclear power plants and for some states, nuclear is the primary source of their electricity.
First Women (51:36)
Guest: Kate Andersen Brower, Former White House Reporter for Bloomberg and Author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies”
Mamie, Jackie, Lady Bird, Pat, Betty, Rosalynn, Nancy, Barbara, Hillary, Laura and Michelle are America’s modern First Ladies and members of an exclusive sorority who’ve experienced things only they can truly relate to. Living in the White House, married to the Commander-in-Chief poses challenges and opportunities inconceivable to most Americans.
But their shared experiences do not necessarily make them sisters. There are deep rivalries and long-standing animosities between some of them and surprising alliances between others. Michelle Obama feels more warmly toward Laura Bush on the side of the political spectrum than she does toward fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Former White House reporter Kate Andersen Brower’s new book is packed with fascinating anecdotes about how the wives of US Presidents have tackled the role of First Lady and their relationship with each other. The book is “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies.”
Climate Accord and the Clean Power Plan
Guest: Tim Profeta, JD, Director of Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
The United States and 170 other nations signed an agreement at the United Nations last week committing to lower greenhouse gas emissions. President Obama’s role in lobbying countries to sign on was bolstered by his own plan to limit emissions from existing power plants in the US except a Supreme Court ruling recently put that plan on hold, so where does the effort to slow climate change go from here?
Amazon Coral Reef
Guest: Patricia Yager, PhD, Associate Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia
UN scientists say the most widespread and conspicuous impact of climate change at the moment is coral bleaching. Ninety-percent of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia has begun turning white because of changes in ocean conditions.
Scientists are reporting a glimmer of good news, though. They’ve discovered an enormous coral reef in a surprising spot – the place where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Chinese Pipa Virtuosa
Guest: Wu Man, Chinese Pipa Virtuosa
Long before there was a guitar or a banjo, there was the pipa, a lute-like instrument dating back 2,000 years in China. It has a pear-shaped body, a long neck with four strings and wide-set bamboo frets. When the world’s premier pipa player made a visit to BYU for a concert earlier this year, we asked her into our studio for a demonstration. Her name is Wu Man and she played for us with the body of the pipa cradled in her lap, the neck pointing up over her shoulder.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares a story told by Syd Lieberman.
How Movies Teach Manhood
Guest: Colin Stokes, Public Speaker on The Roles Stories Play in Identity
There’s a lot of handwringing about what messages the Disney Princess movies send our girls about their place in the world. But what do the films we show our boys teach them? Take maybe the most popular movie for boys ever – Star Wars. The story of a young hero tasked with saving the universe – using weapons and the magic he was born with.
No disrespect to Star Wars but Colin Stokes is keen to see fewer of these quest-type movies for boys that teach them success comes from going out and fighting alone. In the real world, teamwork and leadership matter a lot more than they seem to in a lot of the films geared toward our children.
The Danger of Common Cold Medicines
Guest: Shannon Risacher, PhD, Assistant Professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Indiana University School of Medicine
Many of the most common over the counter medicines for cold and allergy – along with popular prescription drugs for heart disease and high blood pressure – are known to increase the risk of dementia and reduce brain size in older adults.
See the list of drugs that carry this risk here.
Brazil’s Political Problem
Guest: Greg Michener, PhD, Professor of Politics and Public Administration at the Fundação Getulio Vargas’ Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (FGV-EBAPE) in Rio de Janeiro
President Dilma Rousseff is on the verge of being impeached for steering Brazil’s economy into recession and allegedly hiding a budget deficit so she could get re-elected in 2014. The lower house of Congress already voted to oust her. The upper house votes in the coming weeks. The awkward thing here is that more than half of those people in Congress are, themselves, under indictment or investigation for corruption – some in connection with the massive scandal dubbed “Operation Car Wash” in which billions of dollars were skimmed from the state oil company. What’s causing the stench in Brazilian politics? Gregory Michener says it’s the political system itself – built to foster more political parties in its Congress than any other country.
Global Access to Surgery
Guest: Raymond Price, MD, Director of the University of Utah School of Medicine’s Center for Global Surgery and Member of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery
More than half of all the people on this planet cannot access the treatment they need if, for example, they were to hemorrhage after childbirth, suffer a burn or develop cancer. Safe, affordable surgery and anesthesia is simply out of reach for 5 billion people. Improving global access to surgery is one of the UN’s millennium development goals, because it will both improve health and economic productivity in low and middle-income countries.
The Crunch Effect
Guests: Ryan Elder, PhD, Professor of Marketing in BYU’s Marriott School of Management; Gina Mohr, PhD, Professor of Marketing at Colorado State University
Diet experts have long warned against unconscious eating. Focusing on the food you put in your mouth will help you eat less. New research from BYU and Colorado State University suggests listening to your food as you chew also helps. Their paper called, “The Crunch Effect” found study participants ate less pretzels, cookies and chips when they listened closely to their chomping sounds.
Emotional Cost of Empathy
Guest: Daryl Cameron, PhD, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Iowa
Thinking of people as less-than-human has led to some of the more egregious atrocities in history – slavery and genocide, for example. You and I like to think we’re above that. We could never fail to see the humanity in another person, no matter how different they are from us.
But we do it more than we think. Anytime we look the other way when a panhandler sidles up to our car, or when we sigh at the tragic images of desperate refugees on TV and then shrug and switch the channel.
Paid Maternity Leave
Guest: Arijit Nandi, PhD, Epidemiologist and Professor at McGill University’s Institute for Health and Social Policy
Parents in nearly every country in the world get paid leave when a child is born. Mothers in developed nations typically get six months or more. Even less-wealthy countries offer upwards of three months of paid leave. The US is the one big exception in all of this. We do not have mandatory paid leave for parents after a baby is born. What difference does it really make? According to research from McGill University and UCLA, it improves the chances of a baby surviving.
Benefits of Being Outside
Guest: Ruth Ann Atchley, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of Kansas
The summer season of outdoor excursions and afternoons in the park is just around the corner. And while many state parks and recreation areas now offer WIFI to keep you connected even when you’re out of cell service, let’s hear a pitch for letting your devices go dark while you’re in nature. There’s evidence to suggest that if you combine the rejuvenating power of the outdoors with a break from the distractions of your phone and tablet, your brain works better.
Who is Qualified to Be President? (1:03)
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, BYU Political Science Professor; Grant Madsen, PhD, BYU History Professor
The bruising primary season is pushing toward a conclusion. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump remain the front runners for their parties. And the question of “who is qualified” to be President has been taking up a lot of air time among pundits. Democrat Bernie Sanders has taken some heat from his party for questioning the qualifications of former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Technically speaking, there are only two qualifications required of a US president – you must be at least 35 years old and a natural born citizen of the United States. Given that fairly low bar, how do voters come to a consensus around a candidate? What criteria drive their decisions?
Ocean Discovery Institute (25:03)
Guest: Carla Pisbe, Manager of Business Development at the Ocean Discovery Institute
Seeing the ocean for the first time can be a life-changing experience. But some California kids who live a 15-minute drive from the ocean can go their whole lives without ever seeing it. The mission of the Ocean Discovery Institute is to make sure that the kids in one urban neighborhood of San Diego get to experience the wonder of the ocean, and build on that to launch into careers in science and technology.
Kolkata Bridge Collapse (50:11)
Guest: Puneet Manchanda, PhD, Professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business
An overpass that was under construction above a crowded street in Kolkata, India collapsed several weeks ago, killing 27 people and injuring scores of others. Immediately, an official with the construction company blamed the tragedy on “an act of God.” That firm is now being charged with attempted murder, mischief and criminal conspiracy. Unfortunately, building and bridge collapses are not uncommon in India’s famously-congested cities as the nation plays catch-up on infrastructure. A one-trillion dollar spending plan is currently underway to build new roads, bridges, ports and railway lines. But the projects have been hampered by delays, mismanagement and corruption.
Parent Previews: The Huntsman (1:06:12)
Guest: Donna Gustafson, Reviews Films at ParentPreviews.com
Donna Gustafson says “The Huntsman: Winter's War” has very little of redeeming moral value, but if you like action and special effects, you'll enjoy this film.
BYU Team Overcomes Key Challenge in Lightweight Car Design (1:21:18)
Guests: Mike Miles, BYU Engineering Professor; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
“Lighweighting” is a movement among auto manufacturers to make cars and trucks with better fuel efficiency and handling. The challenge is to figure out how to get these lightweight materials – plastic, carbon fiber, aluminum and a host of high-strength allow metals - to hold together. Traditional welding works best when you’re joining pieces of the same material.
BYU engineering professor Michael Miles and his colleagues have hit on a way to fuse aluminum and high strength steel that the auto industry has taken note of.
Three World Events that Matter (begins at 1:05)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, BYU Political Science Professor
BYU political science professor Quinn Mecham says there's been a general decline in democracy globally over the last several years, but during his monthly visit to our show he highlights a new democratically-elected government in Myanmar/Burma as a possible success. Mecham says the recent conviction of South African president Jacob Zuma by the country's highest court for inappropriate spending of public dollars on his residence is an example of the "horizontal accountability" of democracy working. Democracies work best when there's vertical accountability from the people to their leader and horizontal accountability between branches of government like the the president and the court system. Mecham's third event worth taking a closer look at this month is the new UN-backed government Libya, which has Western nations hopeful the war-torn country could be on the path to stability.
Who Benefits From a $15 Minimum Wage? (begins at 23:13)
Guest: Ken Jacobs, Chair of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Berkeley
So far in 2016, two states - California and New York - have passed laws gradually boosting their minimum wages to $15 in the coming years. They’ll have the highest minimum wage rates in the nation, by a long shot, and twice the federal minimum of $7.25. Since this is new territory for state wages, it’s unclear just what the effect will be on workers and businesses. Opponents fear forcing companies to pay higher wages for employees at the bottom of the pay scale mean layoffs and price increases. Supporters say the raises will lift low-income earners out of poverty. Jacobs says the stereotype of minimum wage earners as teens and college students working in fast food and retail is wrong.
Making Greenhouses More "Green" (begins at 39:24)
Guest: Stacy Adams, Instructor of Horticulture and Greenhouse Management at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Russ Finch, Creator of Greenhouse in the Snow
A lot of the produce we buy at the supermarket has come long distances to get to our table. We like to eat tropical fruit in the winter. Oranges all year round. Berries at Christmas time. All of that cross-country and international shipping creates a hefty carbon footprint. So food growers are increasingly interested in using greenhouses to trick those strawberries into thinking it’s harvest time, no matter what the weather outside the hothouse plastic bubble. But it turns out that heating greenhouses demands a lot of fossil fuels, too. So in the long run, is it better just to bring the tropical fruit in from the tropics?
"Embrace Ugly" to End Food Waste (begins at 51:45)
Guest: Dominika Jarosz, campaign manager at Feedback
Western countries waste up to half of their food supply – in large part because we want our produce to look perfect. All told, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says the world wastes enough food to feed every person suffering from hunger more than twice over.
Campaign Signs Matter (begins at 1:21:18)
Guest: Brandon Lenoir, PhD, Professor of Political Communication at High Point University
We’re not even close to peak season but already you can find campaign signs popping up in yards across America. Bright red, white and blue. Bold lettering and patriotic symbols. Political campaign yard signs are weirdly ubiquitous in this era of high-tech outreach and fundraising. Are they really worth the money and effort it takes to pepper a precinct before election day?
Worlds Awaiting: Great Sci-Fi for Teens (begins at 1:28:37)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of Worlds Awaiting
Children's literature expert Rachel Wadham recommends "Railhead" by Philip Reeve and a number of other authors who write science fiction for teenagers. Wadham says good sci-fi for young people hinges on an authors ability to create a compelling, immersive world. "Railhead" hits the mark. Worlds Awaiting is a show for grownups and Ms. Wadham will help us to help those kids in our lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them. It airs Saturdays at 1:30 pm ET on BYUradio.
True Tax Burden (begins at 1:03)
Guest: Chuck Marr, Director of Federal Tax Policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
Maybe you’ve heard the statistic that roughly half of Americans pay no income taxes. But that doesn’t mean today is a holiday for them. We tend to think about income tax on Tax Day, but those other little boxes on the W-2 for Social Security and Medicare taxes add up for everybody who works. In fact, most lower and middle-income Americans pay more in those so-called “payroll taxes” than they do in federal income taxes. And you better believe the government is glad for that money.
Families & Taxes (begins at 10:56)
Guest: Jocelyn Wikle, PhD, Professor of Economics at BYU
We dig a little deeper into how the tax system has – or really has not – evolved to keep pace with the reality of family life in America.
Poor Parent Interventions (begins at 21:31)
Guest: Jan Wallander, PhD, Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of California, Merced
Being poor is a vicious cycle. Children raised in low-income households typically have less-educated parents and they tend to do poorly on cognitive tests. Which means they often struggle in school, are more likely to drop out and more likely to still be poor as adults. And then their children are prone to doing worse in school and the cycle continues.
A study published in the journal Pediatrics offers promising evidence that low-income parents can be trained to improve the chances their children will succeed. But the intervention has to be intensive and start well before the child is 3 years old.
Downside of Electric Cars (begins at 32:06)
Guest: David Abraham, Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, Author of “The Elements of Power”
Tesla’s latest electric car caused such a stir when it was unveiled recently that, in just one week, some 325,000 people plunked down a $1,000 deposit to get one. The Model 3 will cost $35,000 – which is less than half what previous models have sold for and it’ll be able to go at least 215 miles on a single battery charge. There’s also the zero to 60 in six seconds promise and the general warm fuzziness of driving a car that’s totally clean and environmentally-friendly.
While it may be true that no greenhouse gases are spewing from your Tesla’s tailpipe, electric vehicles take a toll on the environment in other ways. The Union of Concerned Scientists says that making an electric vehicle generates more carbon emissions than manufacturing a regular one.
Democracy and Corruption (begins at 51:32)
Guest: Ameet Morjaria, PhD, Assistant Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences at Northwestern University
How can you measure corruption in a country? Untangling trails of bribes and favoritism can keep investigators busy for years. But Ameet Morjaria came up with a surprisingly simple way to measure corruption, and more importantly, the power of democracy to curb corruption in Kenya.
Parent Previews (begins at 1:09:07)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Reviews Films at ParentPreviews.com
Rod Gustafson joins us to talk about “The Jungle Book” and “Barbershop: The Next Cut.”
Tackling Cancer with Anthrax (begin at 1:20:00)
Guest: Ken Christensen, PhD, Professor of Chemistry at BYU; Dave Brown, BYU’s Technology Transfer Office; Michael Rogers, PhD, Teacher at the Harvard Medical School and Researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital
Cancer and many other diseases are caused by cells going haywire in the body, it’s not that they stop working, rather they kick into overdrive, growing tumors, for example. There’s an avenue of research focused on how to keep cells from becoming hyperactive that focuses on a tissue’s ability to grow new blood vessels. That turns out to be an activity that primarily happens in the body when something’s gone wrong, and BYU biochemistry professor Ken Christensen has landed on a technique to stop the new growth in its tracks – at least in mice - using part of the Anthrax disease toxin.
Hoping to Help
Guest: Judith Lasker, PhD, Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University, Author of "Hoping to Help: The Promises and Pitfalls of Global Health Volunteering"
A million Americans every year volunteer in other countries. Inspired to serve those who have less, they visit impoverished communities to distribute medicine, do surgery, improve sanitation, dig wells and build houses. They come home a few weeks later, feeling exhausted and fulfilled.
But what good have they really done? Or more to the point, have they actually done more harm than good? Sociologist Judith Lasker of Lehigh University gives these questions a hard look in her new book, “Hoping to Help: The Promises and Pitfalls of Global Health Volunteering.”
International Drug Policy (1:04)
Guest: Joanne Csete, PhD, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of Public Health
A special session of the United Nations General Assembly is about to get underway in New York focused on the “world drug problem.” The last time UN nations met on this topic was 1998 and the theme of the gathering was, “A drug free world – we can do it!” Well, nearly 20 years later, we haven’t done it. Rather, a panel of public health and policy experts from around the world say efforts to eliminate drugs from the world have led to greater violence, overcrowded jails, disease outbreaks and the current opioid overdose epidemic plaguing the United States. Drug policies meant to protect public health have actually harmed public health, they say.
Diabetes Prevention (19:17)
Guest: David Marrero, PhD, Professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine
More than a quarter of adults in the US have pre-diabetes, which means they’re on the cusp of developing full-blown Type 2 diabetes and all the costly complications that come with it. But research has shown weight loss and moderate exercise can keep the disease at bay for many of those Americans. Unfortunately, Medicare only pays for medicine to treat diabetes, not the kind of coaching on diet and exercise that could actually prevent the disease among people at risk. The Department of Health and Human Services now says that’s going to change.
Death and Poverty (39:24)
Guest: Benjamin Scuderi, Research Assistant with the Health Inequality Project at the Harvard University Economics Department
The Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program will be particularly important to poor Americans who can’t easily afford gym memberships and personal trainers. Being wealthy in America generally means being healthier and living longer, too. That’s even more true today. A new study of millions of US tax records shows the gap in life expectancy between the rich and poor has expanded in the last decade. But here’s the really interesting part: if you’re poor, you can improve your chances of living longer just by moving to certain cities like New York or San Francisco.
TOP OF MIND REWIND: Primer On China's Economy
Guest: Jeffrey Towson, Private Equity Investor, Professor at Peking University’s Business School in Beijing, Co-author of “The One Hour China Book”
The press is fixated on China’s economic woes at the moment – a slumping stock market, looming debt crisis and possible recession. That’s quite a turnaround from the breathless reports of China’s booming growth and goldmine potential for investors that dominated coverage up until about a year ago.
Neither take on China’s economy is particularly helpful, according to Jeffrey Towson. The country is developing so rapidly and on such a vast and complex scale that instability and chaos are natural.
South China Sea (1:02)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, International Law Professor at the BYU Law School
The South China Sea is the hotly-disputed portion of the Pacific Ocean that’s surrounded by Asian countries – China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia all touch the South China Sea. But China has grown increasingly possessive of it in recent years – sparking disputes that are becoming military in nature. The conflict is now so worrisome to international leaders that the developed nations known as the G7 – which include the US, Canada, Japan and several European countries – issued a statement this week basically calling on China to back off – without actually naming China. Beijing shot back that the G7 should mind its own business.
Financial Equality in Marriage (30:16)
Guest: Stephanie Coontz, Author of “The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap” and Professor of History and Family Studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington
“Marrying up” the social and financial ladder has been a deeply-held tenet of courtship in America. Today, though, women are increasingly looking to marry an “equal,” and the shift is affecting both the quality of marriages and the socioeconomic landscape of the country.
Apple Seed (49:49)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne joins us in studio to captivate us with a new story.
Gender Wage Gap (1:03:56)
Guest: Jessica Kirkpatrick, PhD, Lead Product Data Scientist for Hired
Women working full-time in the United States make only 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. So a woman looking to earn as much money as a man did all of last year would have to work last year and the first few months of this year – up until April 12 – yesterday, which is known as Equal Pay Day.
But there’s an interesting exception to this well-documented wage gap: in the sales, marketing and technology fields it turns out that young women fresh out of college end up with salaries 7% above what men are offered for the same jobs. The finding comes from a report compiled by the jobs website Hired.
Supreme Court on Voting Representation (1:20:49)
Guest: Derek Muller, JD, Professor of Election and Constitutional Law at Pepperdine University School of Law
When we say that a democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, what people are we talking about? Is it just those who are eligible to vote? Or do we expect our elected officials to be just as concerned about the needs of people who can’t vote – either because they’re not old enough or they not a legal resident of the United States? The nation’s highest court recently weighed in on these questions with a closely-watched ruling in a case called “Evenwel v. Abbott.”
Underserved Veterans (1:02)
Guest: Bart Stichman, Joint Executive Director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program
A new report by two veterans’ advocacy groups and Harvard Law School finds roughly 125,000 men and women who have served in the military since 2001 are being wrongfully excluded from basic veteran benefits. That’s a much higher rate than veterans of previous wars, including Vietnam and World War II.
The trouble stems from something called “bad paper” and the consequence is that veterans who served in combat, and may have suffered traumatic injuries, are being denied housing, health care and disability benefits. Which puts them at greater risk for homelessness and suicide.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has praised the report and says it’s working with the advocacy groups to remedy the problem.
Gun Control Misconceptions (16:55)
Guest: Benjamin Miller, PhD Student in Political Science at Yale
America has a conflicted relationship with guns. The right to own them is enshrined in our Constitution and vigorously defended by politicians. Efforts to pass stricter gun laws over the last several years have failed repeatedly, even amid public outcry over mass shootings like the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy. There is a mysterious disconnect in public opinion: Numerous national polls conducted last year by Quinnipiac University, Gallup and the Pew Research Center found 90 percent of Americans – that’s virtually all of us – support a law that requires universal background checks on all gun buyers – including private sales between people, online buyers and at gun shows, which are currently exempt from background checks. But only about half of Americans say they favor stricter gun laws. So which is it? Do we want stricter laws or not? That’s the question political science researchers at Yale University have been puzzling over. They conducted their own national survey to try and figure it out.
Microchimerism (32:09)
Guest: J. Lee Nelson, MD, Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington
Any woman who’s borne a child will tell you the experience changed her deeply – physically, emotionally, psychically. The changes go much deeper than you might expect, though. Scientists have discovered a biological phenomenon called microchimerism in which mothers retain some of their children’s cells long after birth – they’re present in her brain and other parts of the body. The question is why? What purpose, if any, does these left-over fetal cells have?
Baby Speech (50:55)
Guest: Alison Bruderer, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences at the University of British Columbia
It’s tempting to rely heavily on a pacifier to keep your baby happy. But new research suggests that babies who use a pacifier too much might be missing out on language acquisition.
According to new research out of the University of British Columbia, parents should keep forgo the pacifier at least some of the time, because babies need free tongue movement in order to understand and learn new sounds.
Bilingual Babies (1:00:19)
Guest: Naja Ramirez, PhD, Neuroscientist at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington
Sticking with the subject of babies learning to speak, there’s also evidence to suggest an infant exposed to multiple languages from birth has a leg-up on babies that only hear one language at home when it comes to the all-important “executive function” of the brain. That’s the set of skills that help us manage time, solve problems and decide what to focus our attention on.
Open Source Trailer for Adults with Disabilities (1:21:50)
Guests: Devin Adams, Grant Getts, Seniors in Engineering at BYU; Allison Mitton, Mother of Mckay
Too often people with physical disabilities are limited in how much of the outdoors they can experience and enjoy, which is too bad, since we all know how therapeutic the smell of a canyon trail after a light rain can be - or the feel of wind on your face as you run or cycle down a park path.
A team of six BYU engineering students took on the task of creating a vehicle that could help an adult with physical disabilities enjoy the outdoors. They developed a lightweight jogging stroller that converts to a trailer behind a bicycle. And they did it with one young man in mind – 18 year old McKay Mitton.
Panama Papers (1:03)
Guest: Will Fitzgibbon, Reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Some 11 million documents leaked from a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca reveal off-shore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and more than 100 other politicians and public officials globally. Iceland’s prime minister resigned last week over his family’s financial dealings revealed in the Panama Papers. British Prime Minister David Cameron was on the hot seat in Parliament answering for his family’s offshore dealings revealed by the leak. Officials in China and Russia are clamping down on unwelcome media coverage of what the papers say about the shady financial dealings of their friends and family.
iRelaunch (21:14)
Guest: Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO and Co-Founder of iRelaunch
“Beware of the gap.” That was the warning drilled into me during a career skills and resume writing course near the end of college. Employers do not look kindly on an unexplained employment gap on your resume. Which makes getting back into the workforce after time off to take care of family or deal with a health crisis an even bigger challenge than finding your first job out of college.
The solution, according to Carol Fishman Cohen is to do like you did fresh out of college – get an internship – or a returnship as Cohen calls it.
American Religiosity (36:20)
Guest: Jean Twenge, PhD, Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University and Author of “Generation Me”
The rise of the “nones” has been much discussed since the Pew Research Center’s massive study on religion in America found that the fastest growing religious group in the country is people who claim “no religion.” A fifth of Americans now fit that category. But researchers have also suggested that “none” doesn’t necessarily mean “nothing.” Rather, “nones” are spiritual in their own, private way: they may believe in God and even pray; they’re just not into the public, organized aspects of faith.
German Ambassador (50:59)
Guest: Peter Wittig, German Ambassador to the United States
A deal between the European Union and Turkey went into effect one week ago. About 200 refugees were loaded onto boats in Greece and sent back to Turkey. But further deportations are on hold while Greek authorities attempt to process thousands of asylum applications. The looming threat of deportation may be having the intended effect of keeping refugees from attempting the dangerous boat trip to Greece. The Associated Press reports that just 18 refugees entered Greece by sea in the last 24 hours – which is down from the thousands that were coming daily at the peak of the crisis in October.
Getting to Germany has been the goal of many – maybe even the majority – of migrants fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries.
Parent Previews (1:08:35)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We discuss the film “God is Not Dead 2” and profanity in Hollywood.
Tech Transfer: Radiation Chip (1:22:37)
Guests: Mike Wirthlin, PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor at BYU; Dave Brown, BYU's Technology Transfer Office
One of the challenges NASA must solve before going to Mars is how to protect astronauts from the sun’s radiation during the long trip. We’re protected from the most harmful radiation here on Earth by a magnetic band at the outer edge of the atmosphere. To solve the radiation problem, NASA’s been running contests and offering prizes to people who offer good ideas.
Defending Disruption (starts at 1:06)
Guest: Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School; and is regarded as one of the world's top experts on innovation and growth.
“Disruptive innovation” been important buzz words in the business world for more than a decade as a way to explain how startups find a foothold at the low-end of a market and then sneak up on established businesses, often causing them to topple. Wide-eyed MBA students study it earnestly and CEOs of well-established organizations like Intel and Salesforce.com adhere to it. The merits of disruptive innovation theory have also been hotly debated by scholars in major publications of late. So much so, that the man who first introduced disruptive innovation to the business world back in the 1990s says it’s now in danger of becoming a victim of its own success. Harvard Business School professor and best-selling author Clayton Christensen recently co-authored an article in the Harvard Business Review reminding us what he really meant when he developed the theory.
End of College (starts at 52:07)
Guest: Kevin Carey directs the education policy program at the New America Foundation and authored the 2015 book, “The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere.”
Getting a college degree is more important than it’s ever been to finding success in the American economy. And yet, for at least 100 years, very little about the process of getting a college degree has changed. Prospective students take standardized tests, wait for an acceptance letter, move to the college, live with other students and sit in classrooms full-time for at least four years in order in order to get a diploma. Kevin Carey says there’s little about that system makes sense today. Who says that four years is the optimal time to master a subject? And does sitting in a huge auditorium being talked at by a professor really amount to effective learning? Kevin Carey directs education policy at the New America Foundation. In his book titled, “The End of College,” he argues – not unlike Harvard’s Clayton Christensen – that technology is about to transform higher education in radical ways. Kevin Carey says the reason it hasn’t happened yet is because of accreditation policies and government regulation that have meant only diplomas from certain institutions matter. .
Palestinian Hope for Peace (1:02)
Guest: Zaid Malhees, Senior at BYU studying Genetics and Biotechnology
There is so much conflict in the world today, physically and rhetorically. Zaid Malhees is a young Arab born in East Jerusalem, raised in Ramallah in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. Growing up he needed a permit to cross into the part of Jerusalem where his aunt lives, where he was born. He felt treated as a second-class citizen. He understands the hate that has driven decades of violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
But he also has hope – and hearing him talk about it is both inspiring and enlightening.
Crane Migration (19:22)
Guest: John French, PhD, Biologist and Director at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
The brilliant-white whooping crane is among nature’s most majestic birds and the tallest in North America, standing nearly five feet. They’re also endangered. So for the past 15 years, government biologists have been breeding whopping cranes in captivity and teaching them to migrate south to Florida in what seems like an outlandish experiment: Picture a guy dressed head to toe in a white suit to hide his human-ness – he even has a fake beak on his white-hooded head. And he’s leading a flock of cranes to their southern destination in one of those tiny, super-light-weight aircraft that’s more like a bicycle with wings. And the craziest thing is that it worked, but not without consequences.
Web Therapy (36:51)
Guest: Connie Guille, MD, Psychiatrist and Faculty Member at the Medical University of South Carolina
The people we rely on to save our lives are one to two times more likely to end their own. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says 300 to 400 physicians die by suicide each year.
A web-based therapy program proved effective in reducing the risk of suicide among medical interns and residents studied by psychiatrists at the University of Michigan and the Medical University of South Carolina. Among other things, they found that 30-minutes of web-training on how to identify and copy with negative thoughts and feelings was enough to cut the rate of suicidal thoughts in half for these young doctors.
Education in Post-NCLB Era (51:54)
Guests: Vernon Henshaw, PhD, BYU Education Faculty and Retired Superintendent of Alpine School District; Suzanne Bolingbroke, Director of Literacy for Alpine School District; Suzanne Parker, Instructional Coach and Literacy Specialist for Provo School District
An era ended in mid-December when Congress passed – and the President signed – a law called The Every Student Succeeds Act. It replaces the No Child Left Behind Act, which was enacted in 2002 and for more than a decade would come to define – and to some defile – America’s system of educating its youth.
Pakistani Taliban (1:03)
Guest: Michael Kugelman, Senior Associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center
The Taliban in Pakistan set off a bomb near the swings in a park in Lahore, Pakistan on Easter Sunday, killing 72 people and injuring hundreds more. Most of the dead are women and children picnicking for the holiday. It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since the massacre at a school in 2014 killed 134 students – the Pakistani Taliban claimed that one, too.
Who is this group? What are its goals? And why is it going after children?
Steph Curry (17:23)
Guest: Tim Bontemps, National NBA writer for The Washington Post
The mere mention of “Curry” has the power to make pro-basketball fans salivate. We’re talking Steph Curry, league MVP and point guard for the Golden State Warriors, which are on six wins away from having the best NBA season of all time. One sports announcer called Steph Curry “the baby-faced assassin” – his accuracy is deadly from the three-point line and beyond.
Curry went on to make ten of the fifteen three-point shots he took in that game last month against the Magic. He’s amazing to a watch, a fan favorite, to be sure. And he may also be changing the game of basketball.
Child Soldiers: Girls in Warfare (34:11)
Guest: Liz Jevtic-Somlai, PhD, Visiting Professor of Political Science at BYU
A few years ago, a campaign group called Invisible Children released a movie that went viral – it’s been viewed more than 100 million times and came with a call to action: help catch infamous African warlord Joseph Kony.
That was 2012 and Joseph Kony is still free, still kidnapping children to make soldiers of them. Boys only 7 or 8 years old, given weapons, forced to commit atrocities. But not just boys. Visiting BYU political science professor Liz Jevtic-Somlai says the role of girls as child soldiers is often overlooked or misunderstood. Her research indicates girls are also some of the most challenging child soldiers to rehabilitate once the conflict ends.
Buses to Showers (51:35)
Guest: Doneice Sandoval, Founder and CEO of Lava Mae
You know what it feels like when you’ve been on traveling by plane for a really long day or – or out camping for a few days – without access to a shower? And how everything just looks better in the world once you’ve had a chance to get clean?
People who are homeless rarely have that chance. In fact, in San Francisco there are an estimated 3,500 people living on the streets and only seven places that offer showers for the homeless.
History of Street Food (1:18:52)
Guest: Jeffrey Pilcher, Professor of Food History at the University of Toronto-Scarborough
Growing up in small town America, the notion of eating something from a vendor with a cart on the street was foreign to me, unless you count the ice cream truck in summer. But visit any major city in the world and you’ll see food being sold on the street: crepes, noodles, waffles, knishes, kebabs, tacos, or tamales. Taste the street food and you’ll get a taste of a community’s culture, ethnic influences and history.
U.S. Financial Warfare (1:03)
Guest: Juan Zarate, Former Assistant Treasury Secretary and Deputy National Security Adviser
Some of the most powerful weapons the United States has to fight terrorists and keep rogue regimes in line comes not from the Department of Defense, but from the US Treasury Department. Bad guys need money to do bad things. So, in the days after 9/11, the United States unleashed a batter of tactics aimed at tracking Al Qaeda’s financial footprints and freezing it out of the financial system. These same weapons are now being used on ISIS. They were also key in convincing Iran to dismantle its nuclear program.
Man’s Best Friend (19:22)
Guest: Robert Losey, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta, Research Associate at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Do you have a dog? Do you treat it like a member of the family? Let it sit at the table or sleep on the bed? Recent excavation of cemeteries in Siberia that date back 7,000 and 8,000 years finds this closeness between man and his furry best friend is an ancient one. Anthropologist Robert Losey has unearthed the remains of dogs closely resembling modern Siberian Huskies buried for their own sake – not just as companions to their owners in the afterlife.
From the Vaults: Women’s Suffrage (32:17)
Guest: Connie Lamb, Senior Librarian in the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU
In a campaign year that features Hillary Clinton so prominently, we’d like to explore for a moment early political milestones for women, when they first had to fight for the right to vote, not to mention hold office.
Archive.org: Utah woman's sufferage song book
Contested Conventions (1:03)
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, Ph.D, Professor of Political Science at BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of 20th Century American History and Politics
It’s become clear that Texas Senator Ted Cruz will probably not catch up to billionaire Donald Trump in terms of sheer votes this primary season. So Cruz is now pinning his hopes for winning the Republican nomination on a “contested convention,” which Trump says is basically stealing.
European Security (24:20)
Guest: Margaret Gilmore, Senior Associate Fellow with Royal United Services Institute
The investigation into terror attacks in Belgium widened over the weekend to Italy where police arrested a suspect thought to have provided false identification documents to the Islamic State militants, allowing them to evade authorities while plotting attacks in Belgium and France.
A picture is emerging of missed opportunities and poor communication between security agencies as the attackers moved throughout Europe. At least one of the brothers who blew himself up in the Brussels attack had been in Turkey last summer trying to cross over into Syria to join Islamist militants. Turkish authorities stopped him and deported him to the Netherlands. Belgian officials knew about this, but somehow the would-be suicide bomber was able to get back into Belgium and become involved in the terrorist plot.
ADHD (39:02)
Guest: Michael Kofler, Ph.D, Assistant Professor and Director of Children’s Learning Clinic at Florida State University
One out of every ten kids in the US today has been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, according to CDC data. Which means there’s usually at least one in every classroom, struggling to sit still, making it a challenge for the teacher trying to maintain order.
Researchers at the Children’s Learning Clinic at Florida State University have uncovered new insight into just why those kids fidget so much and how it might be beneficial to let them keep doing it when working through complex problems.
Syrian Agriculture and Peace (51:16)
Guest: Ghada Ahmed, Researcher with the Duke University Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness
Embattled Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is celebrating a military victory – his forces regained control of the ancient city of Palmyra from the so-called Islamic State which took the city last summer. Progress in a brutal war like this is often measured in territory: who controls which cities, which roads. But gaining power in Syria really boils down to who controls the oil, the water and the bread.
Parent Previews (1:05:40)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We discuss “Batman vs. Superman” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.”
Tech Transfer: Alzheimer’s Biomarkers (1:18:30)
Guests: Steven Graves, Ph.D, Professor of Biochemistry at BYU; Mike Alder, BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
As baby boomers age, doctors are expecting a big jump in the number of people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Some estimates say the prevalence of Alzheimer’s will triple in the next 30 years. We tend to think of any chronic memory loss as being Alzheimer’s, but it’s actually a very specific disease involving degeneration of brain tissue that happens to also be very difficult to diagnose. Typically, a doctor will administer memory tests over many years before diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. They may do a probe of the brain to see if the damage resembles what we know about Alzheimer’s. But the only sure way to know if that’s really what’s causing the dementia is to do an autopsy of the brain once the patient has died.
Researchers at BYU have hit upon a simple blood test that could improve the accuracy of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis before death. And could also help improve the accuracy of clinical studies looking for drugs to treat the disease.
Philanthropy (1:03)
Guest: Bill Somerville, TEDxBYU Speaker, Founder of Philanthropic Ventures Foundation
There’s a philanthropist from Silicon Valley who’s all about giving away money with as few questions as possible. One of his programs is known affectionately among Bay Area public school teachers as the “fax grant program.” Need money for teaching aids? Want to take your students on a field trip? Just fax a one-page letter with your request and your principal’s signature and get 500-bucks immediately.
What philanthropic foundation in its right mind would have such a loose arrangement for giving away cash? What about the lengthy grant applications and vetting and after-the-fact reports of measurable results most foundations require?
Bill Somerville’s Philanthropic Ventures Foundation has given out more than $119 million in the last 24 years, often in small increments of $200 or $500. The basic philosophy is to “trust people and keep it simple.”
Jobs for African Youth (26:09)
Guest: Misan Rewane, Co-founder of West Africa Vocational Education (WAVE)
Let’s go to Africa, where a gigantic wave of young people is cresting. The International Monetary Fund says countries like Nigeria need to create jobs faster than ever before in order to absorb this labor force. Currently half of Nigerians under the age of 34 are unemployed. We’re talking about millions upon millions of people dragging down the economy instead of contributing. Clearly it’s not just because half of all young Nigerians are too lazy to work. Something else is keeping them from the labor force.
And that is where social entrepreneur Misan Rewane comes in.
Racial Passing (52:22)
Guest: Allyson Hobbs, PhD, Assistant Professor of American History at Stanford University, Author of “A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life.”
A 1949 film called “Lost Boundaries” tells the mostly-true story of Albert and Thyra Johnston – a respected doctor and his blue-eyed high-society wife - who passed for “white” in a New Hampshire town, raised their children to believe they were white and then were outed as having African American heritage. The film ends with a minister preaching a sermon about tolerance. The subtext is that this is a town of magnanimous white Christians willing to forgive the Johnstons for deceiving them.
But were the Johnstons really in need of forgiveness? Or did the greater sin lie with the community’s racist conditions that prompted the Johnstons to claim whiteness in the first place?
Stanford history professor Allyson Hobbs explores the long history of racial passing in America in her acclaimed 2014 book, “A Chosen Exile.” It is fundamentally, she says, a book about loss. Those who “passed” as white had a world of privileges opened up to them from the time of slavery through the era of Jim Crow laws. But they lost family and ties to a community. Many even lost themselves.
Going Independent (1:04)
Guest: Larry Pressler, Former Senator from South Dakota and Member of The Centrist Project
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke to about 200 Congressional interns yesterday. He called for a return to civility in political discourse, without naming anyone specifically. But we all know what he was getting at. And then he urged that room full of fresh, young, idealistic citizens not to lose hope in the system. Voter turnout in the US is lower than most other developed countries. A growing number of us identify as “independent” – which generally translates to being disenchanted with Republicans and Democrats and a lot less likely to vote at all.
Breast Cancer and Smoking (16:47)
Guest: Michael Passarelli, PhD, Cancer Epidemiologist at the University of California San Francisco School
In the days after a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, there’s one lifestyle change that could lower her risk of death by 33 percent. It’s to stop smoking.
A study of more than 20,000 women with breast cancer found smoking can increase your chances of getting breast cancer, but also that it’s never too late to quit and improve your chances of survival – even if it’s after you’ve been diagnosed.
Geographic Profiling (31:08)
Guest: Kim Rossmo, Chair of Criminology and Director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University
It’s well known to criminologists that serial offenders don’t stray far to do their deeds. They operate effectively in a donut, committing crimes not-too-close, but also not too far away from home or their operations base. Plotting a suspect’s activity on a map, in a process called “geographic profiling,” has helped catch notorious rapists, murderers and even confirmed the identity of famously-secretive graffiti artist Banksy.
Asian American Paradox (52:22)
Guest: Jennifer Lee, PhD, Professor of Sociology at the University of California Irvine and Co-author of “The Asian American Achievement Paradox”
Of all ethnic groups in the US – including native-born whites – Asian Americans have the highest household median income and education level. That probably doesn’t surprise you. Asian Americans are the country’s “model minority” group. Their culture places high value on educational achievement. Their hard-driving “Tiger Mothers” see to it Asian American children get good grades, develop stunning musical abilities and end up at Ivy League schools.
False Crime Confessions (1:18:12)
Guest: Stephen Porter, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia and Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Psychological Science and Law
According to the Innocence Project, more than 1 out of 4 people who were wrongfully convicted, and who were later exonerated by DNA evidence, had made a false confession or incriminating statement. Why do so many people confess to crimes they did not commit?
Little Sisters v. Obamacare (1:03)
Guest: Elizabeth Clark, JD, Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religious Studies at BYU
An Obamacare challenge at the Supreme Court is about birth control again – specifically the requirement that companies make it available for free to women covered by their health insurance plans. Churches are exempt from that if the use of birth control violates their religious beliefs. But religious nonprofits like schools or the nursing homes run by an order of Catholic nuns called the “Little Sisters of the Poor,” are not exempt from the birth control requirement. Instead, they’re given a way to opt-out. It’s workaround that requires some effort and is still a violation of their religious freedom, say the Little Sisters and half a dozen other religious organizations who argued their case before the Supreme Court today.
March Madness and Sleep (21:48)
Guest: Cathy Goldstein, MD, Neurologist at the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center
We’re down to the Sweet Sixteen in March Madness of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. How’s your bracket so far? Let’s talk about strategies for picking a winner. You could go any number of ways – go with your gut, look at win-loss statistics and point spread averages. Or you could go with neurologist Cathy Goldstein’s approach and pick teams based on time zones and circadian rhythms.
Transitional Justice and Gender (34:30)
Guest: Kelli Muddell, Director of the Gender Justice Program at the International Center for Transitional Justice
When a brutal war ends, it’s not as though the sun comes up, the flowers bloom and all is again right with the world. The consequences of conflict linger and must be dealt with. Communities rebuilt, psychological trauma addressed. Healing can also mean holding people accountable for atrocities committed in the fog of war.
It’s called “transitional justice” – basically ensuring justice is done in the transition from war to peace. And Kelli Muddell, of the International Center for Transitional Justice, says it’s not a one-size-fits all thing. Men and women suffer war in different ways and have different demands for justice, after the fact.
Rich Habits, Rich Life (51:37)
Guest: Randy Bell, PhD, CEO of Landmark Research Group
You would think that someone who has worked on disaster sites as devastating as Chernobyl, the 9/11 World Trade Center, and the BP Oil Spill, as well as crime scenes as tragic and infamous as the Nicole Brown-Simpson and JonBenét Ramsey murder sites would have a jaded and skeptical view of humanity, but this guest proves just the opposite can be true.
How Syria’s Revolt Went Wrong (1:13:28)
Guest: Liz Sly, Beirut Bureau Chief for Washington Post
The terror group ISIS is proving effective at coordinating – or at the very least motivating – attacks in major Western cities, but Syria and Iraq are at the heart the Islamic State ISIS is trying to build. Why Syria? Remember, just five years ago, democratic protests there were part of a movement many dubbed the “Arab Spring.” That was tragically too optimistic. Most of the countries where those protests flourished are now mired in brutal war. And what of the protesters who started it? For the most part, they’re in prison, in exile or dead. Washington Post Beirut Bureau Chief Liz Sly marked the fifth anniversary of protests in Syria with a detailed look at how that nation’s democratic revolt went so terribly wrong.
Terror in Brussels (1:03)
Guest: Jereon Dewulf, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of German and the Director of European Studies at the University of California—Berkeley
Three explosions in the airport and a metro station of the Belgian capital left more than 30 people dead. The extreme terror group ISIS – or the Islamic State – has claimed responsibility. It’s a strike at the heart of the European Union and likely also linked to the arrest last Friday of the sole surviving fugitive believed to have participated in November’s terror attacks in Paris.
That man and a suspected accomplice were captured in a suburb of Brussels called Molenbeek, which has been called Europe’s capital of jihad. Per-capita, Belgium is Europe’s largest contributor of ISIS fighters in Syria.
Cuba and Brazil (19:13)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
Other big news happening on the international stage today comes out of Cuba, where Barack Obama is the first US President to visit since 1928. In a televised speech seen in Cuba and abroad, President Obama said he had come to “bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas.”
President Obama also said that change will depend upon the Cuban people. The United States “will not impose its political or economic system” on the country.
Cuba is where we begin with BYU political science professor Quinn Mecham, back for his monthly analysis of three international events we should be paying attention to.
Refugee Crisis (52:12)
Guest: Alexander Betts, Professor and Director of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terror attacks in Brussels that killed more than thirty people today. The added tragedy of the attacks is that they’ll likely prompt new backlash against the people fleeing ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The fear that terrorists might be hiding among these refugees has fueled anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe, which threatens to tear the European Union apart.
VidAngel (1:15:34)
Guest: Neal Harmon, Co-founder of VidAngel
There have been a fair number of companies over the last decade have tried to rent or sell cleaned-up versions of Hollywood films with profanity, violence and sexual content cut out. But they’ve come up against copyright law and the courts have ruled much of that practice illegal. Meanwhile, web-enabled TVs and streaming video have opened up new avenues for filtering content that, so far, have managed to pass legal muster. One of the newest entrants into this field is VidAngel.
Worlds Awaiting (1:32:59)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of the new BYUradio show Worlds Awaiting
Worlds Awaiting is a show for grownups and Ms. Wadham will help us to help those kids in our lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them. Worlds Awaiting airs weekly on Saturdays at 1:30 pm ET here on BYUradio, Sirius XM Radio channel 143.
New Painkiller Guidelines (1:03)
Guest: Anita Gupta, PharmD, Professor of Pain Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine and Co-chair of the American Society of Anesthesiology’s task force on prescription opioid abuse
Prescription drug abuse is such a big problem that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just issued new guidelines urging primary care doctors to avoid prescribing painkillers called opioids for patients with chronic pain.
Rising Sea Levels (19:58)
Guest: Mathew Hauer, Doctoral Student at the University of Georgia’s Institute of Government
If you’re living in coastal Florida at the end of this century, you may find your home underwater. And you won’t be alone. Rising sea levels could affect 6 million Florida residents, and another 7 million people throughout the coastal US. While scientific reports about rising sea levels are now nearly commonplace, our next guest says that scientists have dramatically underestimated the number of people who will be affected by the rise in sea levels.
Fasting (33:23)
Guest: Valter Longo, PhD, Professor of Biological Science at the University of Southern California
Folklore is full of stories of magic potions that magically restore youth. While the magic elixir remains elusive, new research suggests that there may be a way to trigger your body’s own processes to regenerate new, healthy cells and achieve measurable health improvements—maybe even extend your life. There’s no drinking of magic potions involved—in fact, we’re talking about quite the opposite: fasting.
Women Entrepreneurs (51:40)
Guest: Carlianne Patrick, PhD, Economist at Georgia State University
For the past decade, entrepreneurial growth has been leveling out in the US. But one demographic seems to be immune to the plateau – single women.
Parent Preview: Miracles and Divergent (1:07:30)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We discuss the films Miracles and Divergent.
Tech Transfer: Drone Tracking Software (1:20:00)
Guests: Randy Beard, PhD, Professor of Electrical Engineering at BYU; Dave Brown, from BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
Remote-control flying robots, unmanned aerial vehicles, drones. Whatever you want to call them, they are huge among hobbyists and for commercial uses like videography or scientific data collection. We know they’re a big part of the current U.S. military strategy, too. Which is all just to say that one of the hottest research areas for engineering right now is honing the capabilities of drones.
Predictive Analysis (1:03)
Guest: Eric Siegel, PhD, Founder of Predictive Analytics World, Author of “Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die”
The power to predict just about everything lies in the vast amounts of data floating around about virtually every aspect of our lives. It’s being used to personalize the ads in your Facebook feed and that little gem Netflix recommended to you. It’s being used to win elections, too. President Obama’s 2012 victory is attributed, in large part, to his campaign’s sophisticated use of voter information.
A campaign data breach in December got some Bernie Sanders staffers fired and his campaign locked out of the Democratic National Committee’s database for a weekend. Who cares if the Sanders campaign saw a few mailing lists from Clinton’s camp? As it turns out, data is just about the most valuable possession of any campaign, company or government in 2016.
Free College Education (51:33)
Guests: Deborah Santiago, Co-founder of the Research and Advocacy Group Excelencia in Education; Andrew Kelly, PhD, Director of the Center on Higher Education Reform at the American Enterprise Institute; Davis Jenkins, PhD, Senior Research Associate the Community College Research Center at Columbia University Teachers College
Have you noticed that nobody’s talking about kindergarten through 12th grade on the Presidential campaign trail? That’s pretty amazing when you consider that educating our kids was a major campaign message for the last three presidents who took office – Bush, Clinton and Obama.
The educational focus this time around is college – thanks in large part to the campaign of Democrat Bernie Sanders. His free college promise resonates with lots of Americans. This segment discusses the practicality of that promise and at whether or not it would make the US better educated and more competitive on the international stage.
Supreme Court Nominee (1:03)
Guest: RonNell Anderson Jones, JD, Professor in the BYU Law School, Former Clerk for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
Supreme Court Justice nominee Merrick Garland’s courtship of US Senators who must confirm his selection is underway, though not with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell who is refusing to meet with Garland and says the Senate will not hold hearings on President Obama’s nomination to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Obama said during a speech announcing the nomination yesterday that he knew his choice would face an uphill battle in the Republican Senate. That’s why he chose Garland.
Vacations and Creeping Obesity (27:47)
Guest: Jamie Cooper, PhD, Associate Professor in the University of Georgia’s Department of Foods and Nutrition
The average American gains 1 to 2 pounds a year, which doesn’t sound like a lot of weight until you consider that over the course of 50 years, you’re looking at a gain of 50 to 100 pounds. Research out of the University of Georgia sheds some light on when and where we might be packing on that extra weight. Not to put a damper on your spring break, but vacations might actually be making us fatter.
Discriminatory School Discipline (38:27)
Guest: Albert Ksinan, Doctoral Student in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Family Sciences
In a perfect world, students who misbehave in school will be disciplined equally. But a snowballing body of evidence finds African American, Hispanic and American Indian students are punished more severely and more often than white students in US middle and high schools. The most comprehensive analysis of this problem to date includes 23 million students in 35,000 schools across the country.
Urban Parks (51:50)
Guests: Ryan Gravel, Atlanta-based Urban Planner and Author of “Where We Want to Live;” Soren Simonsen, Visiting Professor of Urban Design at the University of Utah; Jamin Rowan, PhD, English Professor at BYU; Gonzalo Casals, Vice President of Public Programs & Community Engagement at The High Line park in New York City
The CDC says “nearly half of youth live in neighborhoods without parks or playgrounds, community centers, and walking paths or sidewalks.” Most of us live in cities built for cars. So, when communities decide they want more green places for walking and recreating – as is happening in cities across the country – the question is where do we put it? Big empty fields are hard to come by in most urban centers.
What cities do have is abandoned infrastructure—old gasworks, viaducts, and rail lines.
Using a hefty dose of creativity, urban planners around the country are taking these cast-offs from the industrial age and turning them back into greenspace. It’s like recycling land for a new use. But these aren’t your typical grassy-field-and-playground-parks. And they’re often tied-in with other kinds of development like housing, transit or retail.
Syrian Conflict and Prospects for Peace (1:02)
Guest: Hakan Yavuz, PhD, Professor of Political Science and Middle East Affairs at the University of Utah
This week marks five years since the start of the War in Syria, and it comes with a surprising twist: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the “main part” of his forces will withdraw from the country where they’ve been fighting in support of Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad. Media reports indicate Russian forces did, indeed, begin to withdraw yesterday. Meanwhile, a tenuous ceasefire between Assad and rebel groups trying to oust him has lasted two weeks. All of which has “produced new momentum” in peace talks underway in Geneva, according to a UN special envoy for Syria.
Value of Ex-Employees (23:20)
Guest: Ravi Gajendran, PhD, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of Illinois
Employers might feel a sense of regret or frustration when a good employee they’ve invested a lot of money and energy into decides to leave the company. But maybe it’s not a total loss.
Blind Hiring (37:31)
Guest: Kedar Iyer, Co-Founder of GapJumpers
Imagine if a company assessed candidates through a blind audition process like on the NBC reality music show The Voice.
My next guest has co-founded a company to offer blind audition for tech companies looking to cut back on the subtle bias that too often overlooks female and minority job applicants.
Apple Seed (51:31)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne joins us in studio to captivate us with a new story.
Relative Race (1:06:07)
Guest: Doug and Margo Engberg, Contestants on Relative Race
A new reality show on BYUTV called “Relative Race” blends elements of the Amazing Race with a passion for family history. Four married couples are in a 10-day road-trip race across the country in search of distant relatives they’ve never met, but know they’re related to because they’ve had their DNA tested. A $25,000 prize is on the line, but you could argue that no matter who wins, all of the couples gain something precious – new people they can call family.
Viral Invaders Fight Infections (1:28:04)
Guest: Cedric Feschotte, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Utah; Ed Chuong, PhD, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Utah
When your body’s immune system defeats an infection caused by a virus, certain types of viruses will leave a little genetic souvenir of themselves behind. It’s happened so often over time that today, about eight percent of human DNA was originally left behind by viruses that lost ancient immune system battles.
Why Americans Are So Worked Up (1:01)
Guest: Jacob Hickman, PhD, Professor of Anthropology at BYU
Donald Trump has been criticized for incidents of violence against protesters and the press at a number of his rallies. Trump says he doesn’t condone violence, and blames protesters for being so “dangerous” they need to be controlled or ejected.
We’ve heard recently on Top of Mind how 2015 saw an increase in hate group participation, fueled partly by angry political rhetoric. There was also a rise in anti-government groups like the militia that occupied a wildlife refuge in Oregon for more than a month. Hateful threats against Muslims are increasing, too. Experts say the anger is driven by lots of things—including a sense of economic disenfranchisement, toxic political partisanship and the fear that terrorism is an increasing threat in our communities.
Mother Courage and Her Children (26:23)
Guest: Barta Heiner, Founder and Director of BYU’s Bachelor of Fine Arts Acting Program
High school students in the US today have never known a time when American troops were not deployed abroad, when the nightly news was not consumed with grim reports of conflict abroad. Even the experts express dread that there’s no clear end in sight to the wars gripping many parts of the world.
Against this backdrop, a play written in 1939 by German exist Bertolt Brecht has renewed currency. “Mother Courage and Her Children” is considered by some to be the greatest play of the 20th century and maybe the greatest anti-war play of all time. It’s set during the Thirty Years War that took place in the 1600s across Central Europe and centers on a woman – nicknamed Mother Courage – who is so dedicating to profiting from the conflict that she loses everything in the process.
BYU is staging the play on campus this week with Barta Heiner in the lead role.
Death Do Us Part (51:50)
Guest: Kyle Bourassa, PhD Candidate in the University of Arizona’s Clinical Psychology Program
Nearly 14 and a half million Americans have been widowed by the death of a spouse, according to Census data. And even though the common marriage vow is “until death do us part,” many people who’ve lost a partner in this life continue to be influenced by them. Psychologists at the University of Arizona found the influence can be both positive and negative. But what’s most surprising is that the association between a deceased and surviving spouse is just as strong as the association between partners who are both living.
Prenatal Stress (1:04:56)
Guest: Darlene Kertes, PhD, Assistant Professor in the University of Florida’s Department of Psychology
Being pregnant is stressful. And unborn babies seem to pick up on that – not that they’re prone to making things any better with their kicking and shifting and basically taking over much of mom’s insides. But just how does the stress a mother experiences affect the health of her baby at birth? To gauge this, researchers from the University of Florida went to one of the most stressful places in the world to be a woman: the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Beyonce’s Influence (1:22:35)
Guest: Kristin Matthews, Program Coordinator of BYU's American Studies Program
When she performed the new song Formation at the Super Bowl, she ignited heated debate about her overtly political messages and role as a black female icon.
Germany and the Refugee Crisis (1:02)
Guest: Hans-Jorg Neumann, German Consul General in Los Angeles
State elections in Europe’s largest economy over the weekend dealt a serious blow to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democrat party. It’s her open-door policy toward refugees that helped deliver historic gains to an upstart anti-immigrant party. The elections show just how seriously the migration crisis is affecting politics in Germany and could hasten the end of Chancellor Merkel’s tenure.
Cigarette Warning Labels (20:00)
Guest: Nicole LaVoie, Doctoral Student at the University of Illinois
Remember how several years ago the Food and Drug Administration decided to start requiring graphic images on cigarette packages to up-the-ante on the warning label? One of the approved images was a mouth riddled with cancer missing teeth and part of the lip. Another showed a man smoking through a hole in his trachea with the words, “Warning: Cigarettes are addictive.”
Well, tobacco companies sued and a court ruled the graphic warnings violated the company’s constitution right to free speech. That case is still tied up in appeals.
But in the meantime, a University of Illinois study found the more intense warnings may not do much to deter smoking.
Women in Advertising (33:11)
Guest: Jean Kilbourne, Filmmaker, Media Critic, and Public Speaker
There’s a magazine ad from 1970 for a weight-loss treatment that shows woman’s before and after photos and the copy reads: “I’d probably never be married now if I hadn’t lost 49 pounds.” An ad company could never get away with that today; not in this post-feminist movement era with women leading Fortune 500 companies and running for president.
But media critic and filmmaker Jean Kilbourne says the “image of women in advertising today is worse than ever,” and she’s been tracking it for 40 years.
Every Student Succeeds Act (51:13)
Guest: Kelley King, PhD, Professor of Education at the University of North Texas
Late last year, Congress finally tossed aside the much-hated federal education law known as No Child Left Behind and replaced it with something called Every Student Succeeds. Getting to that point was a battle, but that was really only the half of it. In Congressional hearings and workshops organized by the US Department of Education, teachers, administrators and advocates are clashing on how to interpret and implement the new law.
Parent Previews (1:07:30)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We discuss the films “10 Cloverfield Lane” and “The Young Messiah.”
Tech Transfer: Engineering Capstone Program (1:18:00)
Guests: Kelly Marcum, Director of the Engineering Capstone Program; Spencer Rogers, of BYU’s Tech Transfer Office
We discuss BYU engineering students’ final project with the director of the engineering capstone program.
Capturing Life in Bronze (1:36:37)
Guest: Gary Lee Price, Sculptor
Gary Lee Price shares his philosophy on bronze sculpture, and discusses the process that goes into his art.
Western Lands Debate (1:02)
Guests: Rob Bishop, Utah Congressman, Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Co-sponsor of the Public Lands Initiative; Christopher Solomon, Contributing Editor, Outside Magazine; Brigham Daniels, Law Professor at Brigham Young University specializing in environmental and natural resources law
The federal government owns nearly half the American West, and even larger portions of the land in states like Utah, Nevada and Oregon—where angry state’s rights activists recently occupied a wildlife refuge for 41 days. Behind that occupation was the belief that lands owned by the federal government would be better managed by locals.
For the past three years, Utah Congressman Rob Bishop has been spearheading what some might consider an impossible task. He’s out to craft a “grand bargain” to settle land disputes that have plagued this state for nearly a century. His proposal, released in January, places millions of acres into new wilderness areas across Eastern Utah, while also opening up vast stretches of land for oil and gas development and off-road vehicle access. Nobody is entirely happy with the plan – as is the case with compromises. If it clears Congress, it could be a template for resolving land disputes across the West.
One Hour China Book (52:10)
Guest: Jeffrey Towson, Private Equity Investor, Professor at Peking University’s Business School in Beijing, Co-author of “The One Hour China Book”
The press is fixated on China’s economic woes at the moment – a slumping stock market, looming debt crisis and possible recession. That’s quite a turnaround from the breathless reports of China’s booming growth and goldmine potential for investors that dominated coverage up until about a year ago.
Neither take on China’s economy is particularly helpful, according to Jeffrey Towson. The country is developing so rapidly and on such a vast and complex scale that instability and chaos are natural.
Cutting the Cost of Health Insurance (1:03)
Guest: Scott Schneider, Vice President of Sales for SelectHealth
It’s not unusual for health insurance companies to boost premiums as much as 20 percent a year these days. They say they have to raise rates to keep up with higher drug prices and the fact that many of the people they’re forced to cover under the Affordable Care Act have serious health problems.
But suppose, rather than just passing the higher costs on to you as a premium increase, the insurance company committed to work extra hard at getting the best deals on medical procedures and prescriptions? And the doctors who accepted the plan were as efficient and thoughtful as possible about the procedures and tests they do? And you promised to be extra vigilant about a healthy lifestyle and getting screenings that could catch problems before they become serious? And suppose with everyone working together like that, the insurance company promised to keep premium increases at four percent – much less than the typical increase?
That’s the experiment a nonprofit system in Utah called Intermountain Healthcare has recently launched. Intermountain is known for tracking and analyzing costs and quality of patient care, so this latest attempt to keep premiums low is being closely watched by the industry and was featured in the New York Times.
Struggles of African-American Students (20:33)
Guest: Ebony McGee, PhD, Assistant Professor of Diversity and STEM Education at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development
Much educational research has looked at what it takes for minority students to succeed. Closing the achievement gap and attracting a diversity of students to various fields are common goals. Far less attention is paid to the students who are succeeding – they’re not the squeaky wheels, so to speak. But, my next guest says, there is a mental health crisis among high-achieving African American students at predominantly white colleges.
Passover (36:26)
Guest: Jeffrey Chadwick, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious Education and Jerusalem Center Professor of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies
The season of Spring celebration is nearly upon us and not just Spring break vacations and flower-planting. The season brings key holidays for world religions. Easter in Christianity comes on the last Sunday of March this year. Passover in Judaism begins on April 22nd.
Middle East Panel (51:37)
Guests: Steven Lobell, PhD, Political Science Professor at the University of Utah; John Macfarlane, PhD, Political Science Adjunct Professor at Utah Valley University; Fred Axelgard, PhD, Senior Fellow at the Wheatley Institution at BYU
“Mixed messages” is one way to describe the latest news out of Iran. Recent parliamentary elections have prompted hope that pragmatic reformers are gaining power in Iran, promising economic reforms and cooperation with the West. At the same time, Iran is drawing strong criticism from the United States for a couple of test firings of ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel. Iran is where our monthly panel of Middle East experts starts their analysis today of events in the region.
Nancy Reagan (1:20:32)
Guest: Gregory Newell, Former Special Assistant and Director of Presidential Appointments of the Reagan Administration, Former Assistant Secretary of State and later US Ambassador to Sweden
Former first lady Nancy Reagan died of congestive heart failure last weekend at the age of 94. Her funeral is scheduled for Friday.
Apple vs. the FBI (1:04)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor at BYU’s Law School
You’ve undoubtedly heard the broad strokes about Apple’s standoff with the FBI: the FBI wants Apple’s help unlocking an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters; Apple says doing so would compromise the security of every other iPhone user.
Acid Attacks (32:46)
Guest: Jaf Shah, Executive Director of Acid Survivors Trust International
Their stories usually contain the same elements: a young girl, a spurned suitor, and a savage act of violence using a weapon as ubiquitous as pencils or paper. Acid attacks are a serious problem in countries including India, Bangladesh and Cambodia, where sulfuric and nitric acids are commonly used in factories. Once it makes contact with the skin, acid burns away at the flesh. If it’s not fatal, the acid leaves behind horrific scars and can render a victim blind, deaf or without the use of their hands.
Apple Seed (50:57)
Guest: Same Payne, Host of the Apple Seed
Same Payne joins us in studio to captivate us with a new story.
Stun Guns (1:01:10)
Guest: Robert Kane, PhD, Professor and Department Head of Criminology and Justice Studies at Drexel University
As concerns over police shootings grow, TASERS have become the key law-enforcement alternative. Instead of a bullet, TASERS shoot two metal probe darts at the end of 15-foot threads that deliver a brief 50,000 volt burst of electricity. If the person being “TASED” has heart problems, the shock can be deadly. But on the whole, Tasers are considered “one of the preferred less-lethal weapons” and are so widely used by police the TASER company says one is deployed every two minutes.
However, very little research has looked at how TASER exposure affects a victim’s brain and ability to make rational decisions. Research funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and published in the journal Criminology & Public Policy finds being “TASED” could prevent someone from understanding their rights at the point of arrest.
Renee Fleming (1:19:28)
Guest: Renee Fleming, American Soprano and Artistic Advisor At Large at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
You might expect a woman with this voice – one of the most celebrated opera singers in the world – to have a snobbish streak when it comes to music. But Renee Fleming does not. And her latest endeavor proves it. She’s just accepted a three-year appointment with the Kennedy Center for the Arts where she will curate concerts “celebrating the full gamut of vocal expression” – jazz, pop, classical, singer-songwriter – everything will be fair game.
Remembering the Reagans (1:03)
Guest: Ambassador Gregory Newell, Reagan White House Special Assistant and Director of Presidential Appointments
Nancy Reagan died of congestive heart failure over the weekend at the age of 94. Her funeral is scheduled for Friday.
The Engineer Who Made Voting Possible for All (22:30)
Guest: Juan Gilbert, PhD, Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and Chair of the Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department at the University of Florida
For most Americans in an election year, the primary barrier to casting a vote is mustering the motivation to get out and do it. Typically little more than half of people eligible to vote in the US, do it in a presidential election. People with disabilities are even less likely to vote, because the barriers they face go beyond self-motivation. For a person with limited sight or hearing or use of their arms, the act of voting itself can be intimidating – and even humiliating.
Middle School Parenting (52:07)
Guest: Suniya Luthar, PhD, Foundation Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University and Professor Emerita at Columbia University’s Teachers College
You’d think toddlers or infants would be the toughest to parent. They cry, they scream, and the little ones won’t let you sleep through the night. However, recent research shows it’s middle schoolers, with their dismissive attitudes and rebellious tendencies, who wreak the most havoc on a parent’s well-being. We all remember how lonely and awkward those years were for us. But was it even worse for our moms?
Worlds Awaiting (1:10:18)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio
Worlds Awaiting is a new show here on BYUradio about fostering reading and discovery in children. It’s a show for grownups, and Ms. Wadham will help us to help those kids in our lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them. Worlds Awaiting airs weekly on Saturdays at 1:30 pm EST here on BYUradio, Sirius XM Radio channel 143.
Shakespeare’s First Folio (1:26:05)
Guest: David Kastan, PhD, Professor of English at Yale University
“Friends, Romans, countrymen… lend me your ears.” That famous line from “Julius Caesar,” one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, might have been lost to history along with 18 other Shakespearean classics including Julius Caesar, Macbeth and As You Like It. They were saved for posterity by a couple of Shakespeare’s acting buddies who took the unusual step, shortly after his death, of publishing 36 of the bard’s plays in a rare collection known as The First Folio.
Today, it’s common for drama lovers to have a collection of Shakespearean works bound in a single volume, but in the mid-1600s, such a publication was a rare honor for an artist - and not one that Shakespeare himself would have cared much about. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, a copy of The First Folio is visiting all 50 states this year.
A Year in Space (1:03)
Guests: Scott Kelly, NASA Astronaut, Engineer and a Retired U.S. Navy Captain; Mark Kelly, Brother to Scott Kelly, Twins Study participant and Former NASA Astronaut; Julie Robinson, International Space Station Program Chief Scientist; John Charles, Human Research Program Associate Manager for International Space
An astronaut named Scott Kelly just returned from the International Space Station where he broke the record for the most consecutive days spent in space by an American. He was there for nearly an entire year – 340 days –acting, essentially, as a human guinea pig. NASA hopes in the next decade or two that astronauts will be going to Mars, which will be a round trip of up to three years. We have no idea what being in zero gravity and confined to close quarters with the same few people for such a long time will do to humans – psychologically or physically. Scott Kelly’s year in space was a step toward answering those questions.
Dementia (18:40)
Guest: Kenneth M. Langa, MD, PhD, Professor at the University of Michigan in the Center on the Demography of Aging
Here’s a little brain teaser to start of this next conversation. What do the following have in common: an educated mother, a vibrant social life, and delayed retirement? All three are factors that can lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s or dementia in old age. Research suggests your own education level and the amount of exercise you get are also influential in preventing or delaying dementia.
Drop-in Centers (36:58)
Guest: Natasha Slesnick, PhD, Professor of Human Sciences at Ohio State University
There are anywhere from half a million to two million homeless youth in America today. The estimates range widely because young people are notoriously difficult to track on the streets. They tend to steer clear of the traditional shelters and service centers set up to help the homeless community. Youth feel so unsafe in those settings, they’ll opt to stay in cars, on benches or in abandoned buildings.
Cancer and Virtual Reality (51:17)
Guest: Olivier Elemento, PhD, Specialist in Precision Medicine at the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell
Virtual reality—seeing electronic images in an immersive 3D experience—is changing how we view movies and play video games, but cancer researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College think its uses go far beyond entertainment. They’ve developed a software that allows them to examine and manipulate 3-D models of DNA proteins to help pinpoint the exact location of cancer-causing mutations.
Parent Previews: Zootopia and Eddie the Eagle (1:05:36)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We discuss the films “Zootopia,” Disney’s latest, and “Eddie the Eagle.”
Tech Transfer: College of Engineering (1:20:22)
Guests: Spencer Rogers, BYU Tech Transfer Office; Alan Parkinson, Dean of BYU’s Fulton College of Engineering and Technology
Demand for young people with engineering and technology degrees is on the rise. So, too, is the scrutiny of college engineering programs for how well they serve women and minority students.
Spring Gardening (1:02)
Guests: Taun Beddes, Horticulturist and Gardening Expert at the Utah County Extension of Utah State University; Michael Caron, Expert Gardener at the Utah County Extension of Utah State University at Thanksgiving Point
February was a record hot month for Planet Earth, according to satellite measurements. Climate scientists say a near-record El Nino weather pattern is partly to blame, since El Nino brings warmth and water – especially on the West Coast. And so, the tulips are popping up around here and I’m bracing for the need to start mowing my lawn before long.
With that in mind, we’ve assembled our panel of yard and garden experts to get the latest thinking on how what your lawn, garden, flower beds and trees need right now.
The Invention of Nature (51:17)
Guest: Andrea Wulf, Author of “The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt’s New World”
Alexander von Humboldt was the most famous man you’ve never heard of. He was a German aristocrat who invented nature as we know it today: the idea that earth is a web of interconnected life; that the health of a tree in a forest depends on the soil and the sky and the other plants and animals.
Humboldt was so admired that after his death in the mid-1800s, tens of thousands of people crammed the streets in cities around the world to celebrate him. If there’s a county, river, park or bay called Humboldt near you, it’s named after Alexander von Humboldt.
And yet, this is probably the first time you’re hearing about him, isn’t it?
Sanctions on North Korea (1:01)
Guest: Mark Peterson, PhD, Professor of Asian Studies and Korean Language at BYU
Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council adopted harsh sanctions in the strongest push yet to pressure Pyongyang to stop developing and testing nuclear weapons. North Korea retaliated early this morning by launching six short-range projectiles – likely either rockets or missiles – into the Sea of Japan.
Mustaches and Med School (22:46)
Guest: Eleni Linos, MD, Professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
If your dream job is to lead a department in one of America’s top 50 medical schools, put down your razor and grow a mustache. And if you’re a woman, well, good luck with that.
Mustachioed individuals significantly outnumber women as leaders of medical departments across the country. We’re guessing it has less to do with the mustache and more to do with medicine being historically-dominated by men.
Hotel Employee Perceptions (34:10)
Guest: Larry Martinez, PhD, Assistant Professor of Hospitality Management at Penn State University
US employment law protects people from being discriminated against based on numerous characteristics, including race, gender, age and disability. But a person’s weight is not on that list and studies have shown employers do tend to discriminate against overweight people when it comes to hiring and promotions, especially women.
So a new study by researchers at Penn State University came to a surprising conclusion about women who work the front desk in hotels. They found overweight women tend to get higher customer approval ratings as being both warmer and more competent than thinner women or men.
Gender Pricing (51:16)
Guest: Julie Menin, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs
It pays to be a man when shopping for things like razors, body wash – even bike helmets and knee pads for kids. A comprehensive comparison published last December that evaluated 800 such products with male and female versions found items marketed to girls and women cost an average of 7 percent more than those for boys and men. That means that over her lifetime, a woman will spend thousands of dollars more to purchase products branded for women.
Read the full report here
Orson Scott Card (1:06:16)
Guest: Orson Scott Card, Best-selling Author of the “Ender’s Game” series
Is imitation really the sincerest form of flattery? Orson Scott Card’s prolific career spanning four decades includes science fiction and fantasy novels that draw inspiration from historical and religious figures. He’s reimagined fairytales, written screen plays of Bible stories and even updates of Shakespeare plays. Orson Scott Card teaches writing at Southern Virginia University and has a new book out.
Super Tuesday Analysis (1:05)
Guest: Jeremy Pope, PhD, Political Scientist and Co-director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at BYU
Donald Trump won seven of the eleven states up for grabs in yesterday’s Super Tuesday Republican primaries. And Hillary Clinton won with big margins yesterday; she may have all-but sewed up the Democratic nomination.
Barbie’s New Look (21:35)
Guest: Laura Choate, PhD, Professor of Counselor Education at Louisiana State University
This month Mattel plans to release its new line of Barbie dolls with tall, petite, and curvy body types. The toy company hopes the diverse body types – along with new skin tones and hair textures introduced last year – will more closely reflect the world girls live in today. Barbie sales have been dropping in recent years.
How Doctors Die (39:15)
Guest: Zara Cooper, MD, Surgeon and Researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston
The fact is we will all die, but very few of us are comfortable accepting that without making every effort to delay it. Our medical system also defaults to lots of interventions when the end-of-life is near – hospitalization, surgery, invasive treatments. And many, many people have a hard time saying no to intervention, no matter how unlikely it is to prolong life. Saying “no” to last-ditch treatment feels like saying “yes” to death.
But the doctors performing those procedures tend to make very different choices when facing their own death. Researchers have long suspected that doctors chose to die differently from the rest of us.
Hand-Written Letters and Children’s Literacy (50:35)
Guest: Kathryn Pole, PhD, Assistant Professor in Literacy Studies at the University of Texas Arlington
Who doesn’t love getting mail? I mean a REAL hand-written letter? But we send them so rarely that children today hardly know what it feels like to get a letter from grandma. However, one kindergarten teacher found that when she introduced a letter-writing project into her classroom, not only did the kindergartners’ writing skills evolve dramatically, but they tapped into a new way of recording family history.
Women in Islam (1:04:51)
Guest: Alaa Murabit, Peace Activist and Founder of “The Voice of Libyan Women”
In 2005 Alaa Murabit moved with her family from Canada to Libya, where she says she was surprised to discover that women are not treated equally to men in that country. She was 15 and had grown up learning from Islamic scripture that all are equal in the eyes of God. The disappointment she felt in being treated as a lesser person because of her gender has propelled her to become an activist and peacebuilder in Libya. She was active with other women in agitating for change during the 2011 Libyan revolution. Murabit has since formed an organization called “The Voice of Libyan Women” to promote equality and “improve the political participation and the economic empowerment of women in Libya.”
Babies at Risk (1:16:55)
Guest: Deborah Fein, PhD, Head of Clinical Division in the Department of Psychological sciences at the University of Connecticut
A growing number of American children are being diagnosed with autism: one in sixty-eight kids are on the autism spectrum, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Early intervention can be key to helping these child, but often such intervention is too expensive for families or not available until a child is several years old.
The good news is there’s a lot parents can do to help an autistic child make up some of the ground in social and verbal areas where they lag. Child development expert Deborah Fein of the University of Connecticut has co-authored a how-to book of activities parents can do with an at-risk baby or toddler and she’s on the line now.
TV Stars in American Politics (1:03)
Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, BYU Professor of Political Science; Grant Madsen, PhD, BYU Professor of History
On this eve of Super Tuesday, ten states will hold their primaries. In the Republican field, Donald Trump has the momentum, despite early predictions from pundits and political experts that a bombastic, wealthy reality TV star couldn’t possibly win the nomination.
But America has a history electing famous people with little to no political experience. More than a few Hollywood stars have been mayors. Californian elected Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor. And remember when pro wrestler Jesse Ventura became the governor of Minnesota? The halls of Congress have seen star power, too, with Al Franken, Fred Thompson and don’t forget Sonny Bono.
Googling Cancer (28:03)
Guest: Carolyn Lauckner, PhD, Assistant Professor in the College of Public Health's Department of Health Promotion and Behavior
A cancer diagnosis is traumatic for a patient and for a patient’s family. And these days one of the first things they’re inclined to do is Google the diagnosis. There are inevitably things you forgot to ask the doctor in that first meeting. Or you forget what the doctor said because of the stress. The internet is a vast resource, but not always a helpful one.
Leap Day (38:10)
Guest: Raenell Dawn, Cofounder of the Honor Society of Leap Year Babies
Today, February 29th, is Leap Day. Once every four years, an extra day is added to the calendar to account for the fact Earth’s complete trip around the sun takes 365 days … and 6 hours. We’ve had a Leap Day on the calendar every four years since Julius Caesar decreed it back in 46 B.C.
You’d think we’d be used to it by now. But it still feels rare enough that people born on Leap Day are a novelty and some organizations won’t even recognize it as a valid birthday.
Test-Blind College (49:14)
Guest: Meredith Twombly, Dean of Enrollment and Retention at Hampshire College
SAT and ACT scores are traditionally important aspects of a college application, but a number of universities in recent years have made those tests optional for aspiring students. One well-respected liberal arts school - Hampshire College in Massachusetts – went a step further. In 2014, Hampshire became “test-blind” meaning the college won’t even look at your ACT or SAT score if you send one.
The switch had one big consequence – Hampshire College got dropped from the prestigious rankings of US News & World Report. But school officials say it was worth it.
Parent Previews: Oscars (1:08:54)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
The Academy Awards last night honored a bunch of films we haven’t reviewed here on Top of Mind due to their R-rating. But there were some overall themes worth considering and a few wins that pleased critic Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews.com.
Tech Transfer: Corporate Training Software (1:23:26)
Guests: Benjamin Mackley, BYU Master’s Student in Instructional Psychology and Technology; Dave Brown, BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
There’s a big online aspect to college education these days. Professors communicate with students by email, give tests online and even teach entire courses by webcast. Being online opens up new opportunities for students and instructors to track their progress. But the power of the web should be able to do so much more than let you log on and see your latest test score or term grade. With the right software, a professor ought to be able to know how what percentage of the class actually watched the online video to the end or see a graph of student test performance showing topics that need more focus in class.
Unspoken: Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools (1:03)
Guests: John Howe, Director of the documentary “Unspoken”; Davina Spotted Elk, Member of the Navajo Nation, American Indian Education Coordinator for the Salt Lake City School District
At the height of America’s Westward Expansion, one US official stated his perspective towards American Indians this way: “Kill the native, save the man”. Tribes were forced onto reservations and into boarding schools designed to train up a generation Indians that would fit into white culture. The result? One member of the Sioux tribe, Ron His Horse Is Thunder, described it this way: “They’ve stripped our language away by sending us to boarding to schools. . . our culture, our way of thinking about spirituality. . . You cannot imagine the damage they have done to our culture by sending our kids to boarding schools.” This man is one of the many voices featured in a new documentary by John Howe of KUED public television. The film, “Unspoken,” aired recently in Utah and traces the history and legacy of American Indian Boarding Schools, including the conflicted relationship tribes have with the system in recent decades as they have gained control over the schools. John Howe and Davina Spotted Elk discuss with us the documentary and its implications.
Elite Running (51:20)
Guests: Jared Ward, Olympic Marathoner; Ed Eyestone, Two-Time Olympian, BYU Track and Field Head Coach, BYU Cross-Country Head Coach.
Here are three sets of numbers for you: 2 hours, 13 minutes. 26.2 miles. And 2 and a half.
Two hours and 13 minutes is the time it took BYU graduate Jared Ward to run 26.2 miles in the Los Angeles Marathon on February 13 and qualify for the US Olympic team competing in Rio this summer.
Two and a half is the number of years Jared Ward has been running marathons.
It’s a remarkable rise to elite competition for the 27-year-old father of two. Here’s another interesting thing: Ward has a master’s degree in statistics and teaches BYU classes on the subject. His master’s thesis, by the way, looked at pacing strategies to win a marathon.
Ward and BYU track coach Ed Eyestone discuss with us the mechanics of winning a marathon.
Brexit (1:02)
Guest: Sir Michael Leigh, Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Former Senior Official at the European Commission
Brexit—that’s what people are calling the vote scheduled for June 23 when British citizens will decide whether or not to remain part of the European Union. High profile leaders in the UK have begun lining up on both sides of the issue since the date was announced earlier this week. Including Prime Minister David Cameron campaigning to remain in the EU and London’s Mayor Boris Johnson backing the vote to leave.
Polls so far suggest the vote will go narrowly in favor of the UK staying in the EU. But the fact that this debate is happening at all poses serious questions about the long-term viability of the European Union.
Women in Politics 2016 (20:11)
Guest: Kathleen Dolan, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Unlike Germany, Britain, Brazil, India and a number of other democracies around the world, America has never had a female head of state. We also rank way down on the list when it comes to the percentage of national legislative seats held by women. Less than 20 percent of the US Congress and Senate is female. Look down the line to governors and state houses and the numbers are pretty similar there, too.
College Admissions (36:23)
Guest: James C. Kaufman, PhD, Professor of Educational Psychology in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut
While high school seniors around the country are obsessively monitoring the mail for college acceptance letters, high school juniors are stressing about taking the standardized tests that mean so much to college admissions offices. There’s extra anxiety this year because a revamped SAT debuts next month that’s supposed to be a better gauge of what kids learned in high school and a little more similar to the ACT. But will the new SAT be any better at assessing intellectual curiosity or creativity?
Spouse Porn Addiction (51:51)
Guest: Jill Manning, PhD, Colorado Sexual Recovery Center Specialist
The decision not to include pornography addiction as a mental illness in the last year’s updated diagnostic manual from the American Psychiatric Association fueled debate in the therapeutic community.
Every Kid in a Park (1:10:15)
Guest: Julia Washburn, Education Lead of the Every Kid in a Park Initiative
The average kid in America spends 7 hours a day looking at a screen. The White House has a new program hoping to get some kids to put down the tablet or phone and focus on the world around them. It’s called the Every Kid in a Park Initiative. Families with fourth graders are able to receive a free pass allowing them access to federal lands and waters through the end of the summer. If you’re making plans for spring break or summer vacation, this might get you thinking about how to get those kids off their screens and into nature!
Foodies (1:23:18)
Guest: Yann Cornil, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business
Research into epicureans who so intensely appreciate fine food discovered they are not more likely to be overweight. Rather, it’s the antagonistic relationship to food as a guilty pleasure we hate to admit but can’t resist—that’s the kind of eating likely to cause weight gain.
Angry America (1:04)
Guest: Mark Potok, Senior Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center
You can feel anger on the presidential campaign trail – especially at rallies for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. It’s in the comments on your Facebook feed and the voices of people calling in to radio and TV shows. A poll by Esquire Magazine and NBC taken at the end of last year found half of all Americans are angrier today than they were a year ago, and that white Americans are the angriest of all. This rage is borne out in the yearly report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups and extremist activity: For the first time in five years, the total number of hate groups rose in 2015.
Changing the Game (22:17)
Guest: John O’Sullivan, Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project
Youth sports are huge in America – find me a family that doesn’t have at least one game or practice to attend on a Saturday and I’ll be impressed. Some 40 million kids play youth sports. But the vast majority of them drop out of the game before they reach high school.
A lot of those kids aren’t getting cut from the team. They’re just deciding they don’t want to play anymore. And John O’Sullivan says the reason can be found on the sidelines, rather than on the field.
Emily Dickinson Lexicon (35:38)
Guest: Cynthia Hallen, PhD, Associate Professor of Linguistics and English Language at BYU
One of the most significant writers in American history was virtually unknown during her lifetime. Poet Emily Dickinson was an introvert. She hardly left the house, never married, and maintained many of her friendships through correspondence alone. It was only after she died that her poems became popular. Emily Dickinson’s poems are much like her life; there is more to them than meets the eye, full of allusion and ambiguity, puns and idioms.
Human Rights Activism in China (52:09)
Guest: Nanfu Wang, Independent Filmmaker
To what lengths would you go to reveal injustice? Would you speak up despite disapproval from your neighbors? Use hidden cameras to document it? Would you be willing to face interrogation by national security agents? Filmmaker Nanfu Wang claims she witnessed all the above while filming “Hooligan Sparrow”, a human rights documentary which recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It was filmed in 2013, when Wang returned to her native China to document a protest led by an activist who calls herself “Hooligan Sparrow.” It wasn’t long before Wang became a character in her own film, capturing on camera the lengths to which the Chinese government was willing to go to keep her from telling those human rights activists.
Poet Laureate (1:16:12)
Guest: Juan Felipe Herrera, US Poet Laureate
The life story of the first Latino U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera is a classic American story—he grew up the son of itinerant migrant farm workers, but through hard work and timely scholarships, was able to earn degrees from UCLA and Stanford. Always a writer, artist and teacher, he began his term last fall as the 21st poet laureate of the United States.
World Events (1:05)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
We welcome BYU political science professor Quinn Mecham back for his monthly analysis of three international events we should be paying attention to: A resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, economic and political crises in Venezuela, the British Referendum on EU membership.
Digital Distractions (28:05)
Guest: Barney McCoy, Associate Professor of Broadcasting and Journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Put yourself in the shoes of college kids today with a high-powered computer in their pocket, tempting them with texts and status updates and endless opportunities for distraction.
It’s a real problem. Students surveyed for a study in the Journal of Media Education estimated they spend an average of 20-percent of class time using digital devices for stuff not related to class.
The Apple Seed (42:15)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins in studio to captivate us with a new story
Decline in Driver Licenses (51:22)
Guest: Brandon Schoettle, Project Manager of the Sustainable Worldwide Transportation Group at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute
If turning 16 is a big deal, it’s for really one reason – you’re old enough to get a driver’s license in most states and maybe even get a car if your parents really like you. So it’s surprising to discover that only a quarter of all 16 year-olds in the US have a license. That rate has actually been declining steadily since the 1980s when closer to half of 16 year olds were licensed to drive.
Ethnic Studies Course (1:06:04)
Guest: Emily Penner, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Stanford School of Education and Center for Education Policy Analysis
Achievement gaps in US education are well-documented and worrisome: black and Hispanic students are twice as likely as their white peers to drop out of high school. In math alone, black and Hispanic eighth graders are about two to three years behind their white peers.
Stanford researchers working with the San Francisco Unified School District wanted to help these students, but they didn’t bring in math tutors. Instead, they made a ninth grade ethnic studies class mandatory for all students with GPA lower than 2.0. The results were a measurable academic success.
World’s Awaiting (1:23:25)
Guest: Rachel Wadham, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian at BYU and Host of BYUradio’s new show “Worlds Awaiting”
How to instill a love of literature in children is the question at the heart of a new show on BYUradio, “Worlds Awaiting.” It premieres this Saturday, hosted by Rachel Wadham, the Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian here at BYU.
Fair Use in the Digital Age (1:03)
Guest: Peter Midgley, Director of the BYU Copyright Licensing Office
When political campaigns are in full swing, it’s common to see musicians and media outlets complain when a candidate they don’t like uses their music or soundbites in their campaign material. Donald Trump’s been getting a lot of pushback from musicians including Adele and REM for playing their music at his rallies. Regular folks can run afoul of fair use laws, too, when they post a video of themselves lip synching or their kids dancing adorably to a hit song. If the video goes viral, the risks are much higher.
The boundaries of what’s fair use and what’s not under the law are harder than ever to distinguish in this day when anyone can easily borrow someone else’s work, put their own twist on it and share it with the world.
Pollution and Pregnancy (21:34)
Guest: Emily DeFranco, DO, Physician-Researcher at the Center for Prevention of Preterm Birth at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
During peak haze season here in Northern Utah, something about the cold air and big mountain range traps the smog and creates dangerously high pollution levels for weeks at a time. During those periods, we’re warned that children, older adults and people with asthma should stay indoors. Perhaps pregnant women should be added to the list, too.
A study in the journal “Environmental Health” has found high levels of certain types of air pollution correspond to an increased risk of giving birth prematurely.
Why We Work (35:22)
Guest: Barry Schwartz, PhD, Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College
Do you like your job? About seventy percent of Americans either flat out hate their work or are simply not engaged in the job, according to Gallup polls. Which means that the majority of us are clocking in every day eager for the minutes to pass so we can head home. Not only are we not enjoying ourselves, we’re probably not getting as much done or doing as good a job as we would if we really enjoyed the work.
Social theorist Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore College says the trouble with work in America is the system we’ve evolved for making money since the Industrial Revolution. In our race toward efficiency and profits, we’ve forgotten how important it is for us to feel like our work matters and that we’re part of something great.
E-cigarettes and Teens (52:25)
Guest: Thomas Wills, PhD, Interim Director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center’s Prevention and Control Program
Electronic cigarettes have become enormously popular around the world – and here in the US, the percentage of teens who’ve used them has tripled in just five years. That trend is worrisome to public health officials who’ve watched youth smoking rates decline to historic lows.
But young people often think e-cigarettes are safer than traditional smoking, since you’re just inhaling water vapor mixed with nicotine and other chemicals. What’s left to be seen is whether teenagers who “vape” become teenagers who smoke tobacco cigarettes.
Parent Previews: Race and Risen (1:09:18)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We discuss the films “Race,” about Jesse Owens, and “Risen,” the story of Christ from the perspective of a Roman guard.
Tech Transfer: Digital Credit Card Storage (1:23:52)
Guests: Phil Windley, PhD, Professor of Computer Science at BYU; Dave Brown, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
It’s common for credit card information to be on file with at least a dozen different websites and businesses – it’s so convenient to have the monthly cell phone bill or magazine subscription charge automatically to the card. And isn’t it nice not having to enter your card number every time you want download a book to your tablet or order supplies from Amazon?
But all of that ease turns into a real hassle every few years, when the card expires and we get a new one in the mail and never can remember all the of the places we need to update it.
Antarctica (1:03)
Guest: Alasdair Macleod, Head of Collections at the Royal Geographical Society in London; Byron Adams, PhD, Professor of Biology at BYU
Antarctica is one of the most extreme environments in the world. In this segment, we speak with a BYU scientist who just got back from a two-month stint on the Frozen Continent. We hear what life there is like and what scientists can learn on Antarctica that they can’t learn anywhere else.
The most famous survival story from Antarctica is that of Ernest Shackleton and the crew of The Endurance. Shackleton was a seasoned British explorer who set out in December 1914 to cross all of Antarctica on foot. But just getting to the part where they could start walking required dodging enormous sheets of floating ice, often using the ship as a battering ram to press forward. Six weeks into the sea voyage – with land in sight - “The Endurance” got stuck and was slowly crushed by the ice over the next ten months. Shackleton and his crew of about two dozen men were forced to abandon the ship and spend another nine months in a grueling test of their will to survive. The entire saga was captured in remarkable detail by the crew’s official photographer – James Francis Hurley. To mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of The Endurance, the Royal Geographical Society in London is showcasing never-before-seen photographs by Hurley that reveal a lot about the perils of Antarctica.
View the photographs here
Killing Pluto, Finding Planet Nine (52:06)
Guest: Mike Brown, PhD, Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, Author of “How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming”
We used to have Pluto, but about 10 years ago, astronomers gave it the boot, saying it’s not quite big enough to warrant the same status as Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Astronomer Mike Brown was instrumental in killing Pluto’s planetary status. It’s not that he’s got anything against planets, it’s just that he managed to find another one in Pluto’s neighborhood that was even more massive. So, rather than add a tenth planet to the family – Pluto got punted into dwarf planet status, along with Mike Brown’s discovery, called Eris. There’s also dwarf planet called Sedna. Brown discovered that too, along with a couple of others. When it comes to discovering big objects at the edge of our solar system, Brown is one of the most prolific.
Now, he and a colleague, Konstantin Batygin, at the California Institute of Technology have found their biggest yet. A planet they think is nearly as big as Neptune but 20 times further away from the sun.
Brown and his team have yet to actually lay eyes on this giant planet, but their mathematical models and computer simulations have them pretty convinced it’s there. If they turn out to be right, it’ll be an ironic turn for Brown, who wrote a book titled, “How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.”
Addiction Obituaries (1:04)
Guests: Denise Cullen, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Addiction Resource Organization Broken No More and GRASP; Liz Perkins, Advocate for addiction treatment and awareness
The CDC says the rate of people dying from an overdose involving opioids has tripled since the year 2000. Officials say widespread use of prescription pain killers and the easy availability of cheap heroin are driving the epidemic. Americans young and old, male and female, rich and poor are falling victim to overdoses tied to opioids.
Political candidates are talking about it on the campaign trail. Advocacy groups are rallying for better treatment options and legal changes that would treat drug addiction as a disease, rather than a crime. You’ve likely noticed a shift on the obituary page of your local newspaper, too. More and more families are dispensing with vague references to a loved one having died “suddenly” or “at home” and writing the truth: He died of addiction. She died of an overdose.
The decision is controversial among families who’ve lost a loved one to drugs.
More information on addiction recovery
Flawed BMI Scale (17:12)
Guest: Jeffrey Hunger, Doctoral Student in UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Bring up the term “BMI” in a group of people with variety of body sizes and fitness habits, and you better brace yourself for some backlash. The measure of Body Mass Index is used by dieticians and fitness trainers and even health insurance companies to assess how overweight or obese a person is. It’s very controversial. And may just be very wrong, as well.
Engaging Young Adults in Politics (29:40)
Guest: Katy Harriger, PhD, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University
Political views in America are more polarized than at any point in recent history, and that’s not likely to change soon, judging from the tenor of the current presidential election.
But what if we wanted it to change? If we wanted to start training a new generation to be more tolerant of diverse viewpoints; to deliberate over controversial issues rather than just debate in anger; to become leaders who can work across differences in addressing complex community problems – what would it take to raise a generation like that?
Biased Algorithms (52:00)
Guest: Suresh Venkatasubramanian, PhD, Associate Professor in the University of Utah’s School of Computing
It’s common these days for HR departments in large companies to use computer programs to cull through thousands of job applications and make the initial cut. It’s efficient and seemingly less subject to the subtle bias of humans. Except, maybe not that last part. A team of researchers has found algorithms can be just as biased as human beings.
BRCA Gene and Breast Cancer (1:03:13)
Guest: Sandra Buys, MD, Medical Director of the High Risk Breast Cancer Clinic at Huntsman Cancer Institute and Professor in the University of Utah School of Medicine
You couldn’t have missed the news last spring of a rather private nature: actress and director Angelina Jolie Pitt announced in a New York Times column that she’d had her ovaries removed. The surgery came two years after she opted for a double mastectomy. Both procedures were prompted by a test that revealed Jolie Pitt had inherited a defect in the BRCA1 gene.
Cocaine and Memory (1:23:07)
Guest: Barbara Sorg, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience at Washington State University Vancouver
Sometimes our standard scale for measuring, or describing, things just isn’t sufficient. Well that’s what cocaine does to memory, says Dr. Barbara Sorg.
International Law (1:04)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
World Powers – including the US and Russia – agreed to work toward a ceasefire while meeting in Munich late last week, but there appear to be some significant hang-ups over the details.
Disney and Gender (34:16)
Guest: Carmen Fought, PhD, Professor of Linguistics at Pitzer College
Disney’s princesses have come a long way since Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Ariel and Belle and Mulan and Merida and Anna and Elsa are so much more capable and independent than the damsels-in-distress of the classic Disney animation era. Much better role models for girls, many of us would agree.
But, a couple of linguists have been analyzing Disney’s catalogue to get beyond the basic storyline of these princess films and they’ve discovered that while most of them feature strong heroines, men do 50 percent, of not more, of the talking and, in some cases, as much as 90 percent. The gender gap in both roles and dialogue is striking, when you start looking at the numbers.
Apple Seed (51:41)
Guest: Sam Payne, host of “The Apple Seed” on BYUradio
Tellers and stories on BYUradio. Sam Payne sings an original composition.
Restaurant Calories (1:01:14)
Guest: Susan Roberts, PhD, Senior Scientist and Director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at Tufts University
Big chain restaurants with their promises of sheer quantity – bottomless fries, endless breadsticks, super-jumbo shrimp. And like Pavlov’s dogs, we salivate. It’s literally in our genes to crave more food than we really need. Plates at chain restaurants are huge, partly because we demand it. Skimping on portions is a surefire way to get a bad customer review on Yelp.
So, if you’re trying to keep a diet in check, you’re probably better off avoiding the chains and going to a locally-owned-one-of-a-kind eatery, right? One with a reputation built on something other than endless, bottomless servings. But some really comprehensive calorie analysis of popular meals in locally-owned restaurants and chains in San Francisco, Boston and Little Rock found restaurants in general are just bad for our waistlines.
Walden in Farsi (1:19:34)
Guest: Alireza Taghdarreh, First to Translate Walden into Farsi and a Self-Taught Iranian Scholar of Thoreau
Remember reading Walden in high school or college, by Henry David Thoreau? It’s a reflection on living simply and in-tune with nature, but it’s not a simple read. Thoreau’s sentences and paragraphs are long and complex. The metaphors and double meanings and sarcasm can trip you up. So, just imagine reading it if English were not your first language. And if there was a revolution in your country and the universities closed down as you were graduating from high school, without an option for formal education, learning English meant watching American Westerns and reading anything you could get your hands on.
That’s the story of Alireza Taghdarreh from Tehran who, after teaching himself to speak English fluently, has spent the last decade doing the first translation of Walden into his native Farsi. Last year, Taghdarreh finally journeyed to the place itself - Walden in Massachusetts.
Remembering Justice Scalia (1:05)
Guest: John Fee, JD, Professor of Constitutional Law at BYU, Former Clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden passing over the weekend at the age of 79 leaves a vacancy on the nation’s high court over which the President and Congress will spar for months to come. The vacancy is now a key topic in the presidential election underway.
Indian Spice (22:36)
Guest: Ruplal Choudhary, PhD, Food and Bioprocess Engineer, Associate Professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Agricultural Systems at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
If you cook Indian food, you probably have a jar of turmeric in your spice rack. It’s pungent, with just a hint of ginger, and also turns out to have medicinal properties so strong that one of its main compounds is being tested as an antibacterial agent. It can even kill that nasty food-borne bug E. coli.
Antarctic Ice Increase (38:00)
Guest: Jay Zwally, PhD, Glaciologist with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
As global temperatures rise, ice caps shrink and seas rise. Right? Well, last year, scientists from NASA released a report said that the ice in the Antarctic is actually increasing, which contradicts several other reports in recent years that claim that the Antarctic has been losing ice. The findings are so controversial that even within NASA, scientists don’t agree about them. Eric Rignot, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been quoted as saying that “[t]here is no quality data to support the claims made by the authors of [ice] growth in East Antarctica.” It’s complicated, measuring the ice on this frozen continent, but lead author Jay Zwally defends the science behind his findings.
From the Vaults: Harvey Fletcher Grammy (50:00)
Guest: Maureen Meyer, Film Teacher at the Walden School in Provo, Utah
You know about the Grammys last night for all the big music awards. But there is also a Technical Grammy Awards ceremony that will be taking place later this spring, and one of the posthumous recipients is a BYU alum named Harvey Fletcher. He died 35 years ago, but his innovations continue to influence just about everything about the way we enjoy music today. Fletcher has been called “The Father of Stereophonic Sound.” And if you wear a hearing aid, you can also thank Dr. Fletcher for his work in that field.
Physicians and Burnout (1:10:43)
Guest: Colin West, PhD, MD, Director of the Mayo Clinic Department of Medicine Physician Well-Being Program
When you go to the doctor, it’s your health that’s on your mind. I’ll bet it doesn’t even cross your mind to wonder how your doctor is doing, health-wise. Maybe it should. Research out of the Mayo Clinic finds an epidemic of professional burnout is afoot among America’s doctors. More than half report signs of career burnout and there’s been a pretty significant jump in that figure over just three years.
Poor Boys Become Jobless Men (1:27:17)
Guest: Jeremy Majerovitz, Pre-doctoral Fellow at the Harvard Lab for Economic Applications and Policy
Living in America means being able to improve your status no matter where you start from. That promise has brought immigrants to this country for centuries. It’s woven into the personal stories politicians share on the campaign trail and the tales in best-selling books.
But for children across this country living with single mothers in poor, segregated neighborhoods the promise is largely out of reach.
New analysis of millions of tax records from the last two decades shows that for young boys, the outcome is particularly dire. Whereas, men are generally more likely to work than women, if you’re a poor boy in certain neighborhoods in America, the opposite is true. Those boys become unemployed men.
Index Card Finance (1:02) Guest: Harold Pollack, PhD, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Chicago, Co-Author of "The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated"
There’s an entire industry dedicated to helping us manage our money, make it work for us, plan for retirement, and get rich off the stock market with our best interests in mind. These financial advice companies give the impression that getting it right is enormously complicated and not something any sane person would undertake without help from a professional. But Harold Pollack says it’s just not true. He’s a professor of public policy at the University of Chicago and he off-handedly mentioned to a financial reporter a few years ago that everything most people need to know about money management could fit on a three-by-five card. Then he actually wrote it down on a three-by-five card. It went viral online and big name finance experts started agreeing with him. It was such a phenomenon that Pollack, and the original journalist he mentioned the card to, expanded the idea into a book. It’s called “The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated”, and it’s just out.
Valentine's Day and Modern Love (52:16) Guests: Brian Willoughby, PhD, Researcher and Professor of Family Life at BYU; Barbara Rusch, Victorian Ephemera Collector; Bruce Forbes, PhD, Author of “America’s Favorite Holidays: Candid Histories”
Love and courtship has changed over time. In the Victorian Era, American courtship included exchanging flirtatious cards to evade the disapproving eyes of parents and chaperones. Here’s an example from a young man: “May I be permitted the blissful pleasure of escorting you hope this evening.” Imagine the hearts a young man could set aflutter passing out cards printed with that sentiment! After looking at love and courtship at the turn of the century, we jump ahead to 2016 for look at how kids are flirting and falling in love these days. Texts and emojis have replaced those Victorian cards. You probably think Valentine’s Day started with St. Valentine, who was somehow known for his loving acts, but our guest, Bruce Forbes says you’d be wrong on that front. He’s a professor of religious studies at Morningside College and author of the book, “America’s Favorite Holidays: Candid Histories.”
Ambassador Ryan Crocker (1:03) Guest: Ryan Crocker, Dean of the George Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University, US Ambassador six times to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon
This week, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said, “Unpredictable instability has become the new normal,” in his annual assessment of security threats facing the United States. Much of that instability emanates from the Middle East, where sectarian violence, brutal dictators and the strength the Islamic State terror group are driving millions of people from their homes and countries. The troubling truth is that America’s own actions have contributed to the problem.
Baby Language Acquisition (27:58) Guest: Julie Gros-Louis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Iowa
When babies babble during story time, they’re working out the fundamentals of language, and how adults respond is a crucial piece of the process. A study of mothers reading to their one-year-olds conducted at the University of Iowa offers some insight into why reading – even more so than talking back and forth as parents and children play with toys - is an integral part of language acquisition in children. The next time you read to your baby, you might want to pay more attention to their babbling.
Roominate (41:38) Guest: Bettina Chen, Co-creator of the toy Roominate
Among the so-called STEM fields – science, technology engineering and math, it’s the E – engineering, where women lag particularly, far outnumbered by men. Getting more women into the field, means getting more girls to consider it, even if just in subtle ways. Bettina Chen is an electrical engineer with degrees from Caltech and Stanford who’s invented a dollhouse-building toy to turn girls into engineers. The toy – called Roominate, was a big hit on the TV show “Shark Tank.” Since making that deal, Chen and her partner have cut a deal for Roominate to be sold at Wal-Mart and Forbes lists it among the “Top 10 toys that kindle creativity.”
Middle East Panel (52:18) Guests: Steven Lobell, PhD, Political Science Professor at the University of Utah, Author of six books on International Relations and Middle Eastern studies; Michael Stathis, PhD, Professor of Political Science at Southern Utah University; John Macfarlane, PhD, Adjunct Political Science Professor at Utah Valley University
Terror threats and doomed peace talks in Syria are on the table as we welcome our monthly panel of international affairs experts is back to consider the latest from the Middle East.
Love Notes (1:31:46) Guest: Hyong Yi, Assistant City manager in Charlotte, North Carolina, Author of the 100 love notes that have become a social media phenomenon
Last November 20th, Hyong Yi and his two children spent their morning handing love notes to complete strangers in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. They were marking one year since their wife and mother, Catherine, died of ovarian cancer. Their story has since been covered by media around the world – India, Korea, Italy and beyond – and countless people have joined in, sharing their own love notes on social media using the hashtag 100lovenotes.
Read them at www.100lovenotes.com.
New Hampshire Primary Analysis (1:02)
Guest: Jeremy Pope, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders – two outsider candidates running against the established system –won big in New Hampshire’s primary. Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton who both left Iowa with considerable strength in their respective Republican and Democratic fields are now back on their heels. And rather than winnowing the field, New Hampshire voters have left the race deeply unsettled.
Life of a Mayor (13:47)
Guest: John Curtis, Mayor of Provo since January 2010
Mayors of mid-sized cities are the politicians who are really on the front lines of American life. They’re the keepers of our communities, fielding our complaints about potholes and police presence and places to shop. The mayors of mid-sized cities grapple with bringing historic downtown areas back to life, coaxing retailers into the city limits so we benefit from those sales taxes and convincing us to give our cars a break in favor of transit.
All of those challenges are true in the city where BYUradio is located – Provo, Utah. By many counts, Provo’s doing better than a lot of other cities – unemployment for the region is 2.7% - almost half the national rate. Provo’s consistently ranks high on lists of places to get a job, start a business or raise a family. Provo’s Mayor John Curtis can’t take credit for all of that, but after 6 years in office, he’s learned a thing or two about running a mid-sized city.
Sustainable Tourism (39:12)
Guest: Kelly Bricker, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism at the University of Utah
It’s the middle of February, and people tired of the cold and snow begin to think about spring break and summer vacation. If you can afford it, planning a visit to a tropical island just might pull you out of the winter doldrums. There’s a lot to consider when booking that vacation: Where do you really want to go? How much can you spend? And what kind of impact your visit will make on the destination you choose? Ok, there probably aren’t a lot of people who ask themselves that last question, but maybe more people should. And not just for the benefit of that local economy that relies on tourism.
Southest Asia Economy (51:39)
Guest: Pisan Manawapat, Ambassador of Thailand to the United States
Every day we hear news about China’s growth or, lately, its economic woes. In the US, we feel the effects of what happens on the other side of the world in China. Consider, then, the impact that China has on its neighbors in Southeast Asia. Ten of those smaller countries, including Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, participate in a cooperative called the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN formed in 1967 to foster greater economic and political cooperation between member nations and to help themselves compete better with world powers in the region and across the globe.
Together, these countries now make up the world’s seventh largest economy. And on December 31, 2015 ASEAN upped the economic ante by forming an alliance called the ASEAN Economic Community, or AEC, wherein the members of ASEAN agreed to work more seamlessly to reduce tariffs, open borders for workers and encourage investment in the region.
Underground in Berlin (1:09:38)
Guest: Hermann Simon, Director of the New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum Foundation
Here’s an incredible story – well, two stories, really. One is of a young woman, barely out of her teens, orphaned and Jewish in Berlin at the height of World War II. She went underground to avoid the Nazis, refusing to wear the yellow star that would blow her cover. Without the ability to work legally in Nazi Germany, she relied on the mercy of people who often exploited her. Marie Jalowicz Simon’s story of survival is captivating and it nearly went with her to the grave. She didn’t keep a journal – that would have been dangerous. She didn’t speak of her underground years after the war - not to the philosophy students she taught at university - not even to her son.
Only in the last year of her life, did that son, Hermann Simon, convince her to talk. And that’s the second incredible story here: How Hermann Simon was finally able to convince his mother to tell the story which is now published – exactly as she told it – as a book titled, “Underground in Berlin: A Young Woman’s Extraordinary Tale of Survival in the Heart of Nazi Germany.”
Catholic-Orthodox Schism (1:03)
Guest: Eric Huntsman, PhD, Professor of Ancient Scripture and Early Christianity at BYU
Later this week, Pope Francis intends to meet with the leader of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church. Here’s why that matters: The Russian Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian church in the world after the Catholic Church, but the two religions have been estranged for nearly a millennium. Never has the head of the Russian Orthodox Church met with the Roman Catholic Pope, so when Patriarch Kirill I and Pope Francis sit down this week, it’ll be a significant step toward healing the schism.
Benefits of Day Care (20:48)
Guest: Daniel Berry, edD, Developmental Psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois
In some communities here in the states, there’s a stigma attached to daycare that says the best place for a child is at home with a parent. But today, many homes require two incomes to maintain a household, making daycare a necessity. A new study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly finds that for some children, daycare can actually be a better alternative than being at home.
Mardi Gras (50:24)
Guest: Alecia Long, PhD, Associate Professor of History at Louisiana State University
Today is Mardi Gras—French for Fat Tuesday, which marks the end of a month of revelry before Ash Wednesday and the Christian season of Lent kick in. It’s a sort of, “live it up one last time,” moment on the religious calendar. Now, if we’re going to talk Mardi Gras, it’s history and traditions, then we have to turn to New Orleans.
Weight Discussions (1:08:46)
Guest: Erin Hillard, Doctorate Student in Developmental Psychology at the University of Notre Dame
So, Barbie dolls have gotten a body makeover—have you heard? There are now, tall, petite and curvy Barbies, in addition to whatever you want to call the impossibly-proportioned traditional Barbie. Perhaps, more realistic-looking Barbies is a win for parents trying to help their daughters have positive body image. But it’s an uphill battle with the thin-obsessed messages bombarding girls at every turn. If you’re a mother, talking to your daughter about dieting or fitness can be a minefield—potentially even backfiring into an eating disorder.
Autistic Dating (1:25:00)
Guest: Alex Plank, Autism Rights Activist through Autism Rights Watch and Founder of Autism web community WrongPlanet.net
When you think of the word “romantic,” do the words “logical, honest, and strict routines” also come to mind? Probably not. But they just might for the 3.5 million Americans on the Autism spectrum. Dating and romance are a different kind of challenge for Autistic people who are now getting some help from web communities like WrongPlanet.net.
China Economics Rap (1:03)
Guest: Andrew Dougherty, China Economist and Asia Research Director for Capital Strategy Research
After decades of mindboggling growth compared to the rest of the world, China has hit a speedbump that’s got economists worried and investors skittish. We’re told much of what China is experiencing is tied to global factors. So, why is China only now heading toward recession when the US and Europe hit the skids eight years ago?
Charter Schools (15:00)
Guest: David Miller, PhD, Director of the Collaborative Assessment and Program Evaluation Services at the University of Florida’s College of Education
Over the last decade, new charter schools have sprung up at a fast clip while every nearly every state in the country passed laws allowing them to receive public education funds. Charter schools are often popular for the special programs they’re able to offer as a result of the flexibility that comes with not being a formal public school. But the data so far on just how well charter schools do at improving student performance is mixed. Researchers at the University of Florida found that charter schools in that state lose about 10 percent of their teachers each year – more than double the turnover rate at public schools. The results are similar to what a number of other states have found.
Giving Birth In Vs. Out of Hospitals (31:43)
Guests: Dr. Jonathan Snowden, PhD, Graduate faculty member in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Department of Public Health & Preventive Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University; Dr. Ellen Tilden, PhD, Expert in well-woman exams and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University
The vast majority of babies born in the United States are born in a hospital. That’s been true since the late 1960s. But during the last decade, the rate of women choosing to give birth someplace other than a hospital has been rising. Today about 1½ percent of all babies are born at home or in a birthing center. This increase has come with considerable controversy about the relative safety of giving birth outside of a hospital.
A study of all babies born in Oregon during 2012 and 2013 yields some important insight comparing the risks of in-hospital and out-of-hospital birth. Yes, both venues pose risks of their own. The research was in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.
Driving Drowsy (50:56)
Guest: Hans Van Dongen, PhD, Director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University
Drowsy driving causes about 100,000 of accidents annually in the US – 1,500 of them fatal. The risks are even higher for commercial drivers who can be on the clock for 60 or 70 hours at a time.
Imagine if our cars could sense when we’re about to nod off and jolt us awake somehow? Researchers at the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University have recently patented a device that would do that. They’re also looking in-depth in to the short and long-term effects of sleep deprivation.
Parent Previews (1:08:46)
Guest: Rob and Donna Gustafson, Film Reviewers at ParentPreviews.com
We discuss the films “Hail Caesar” and “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”
Tech Transfer: Infant Ventilator (1:20:44)
Guests: Jim Trent, Assistant Dean in the BYU College of Engineering; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer; Sheryl Flannery, Nurse
About 1 million babies die each year because they’re unable to establish breathing on their own. The World Health Organization neonatal asphyxia, as it’s called, is one of the primary causes of newborn mortality-- primarily in third-world countries where access to expensive ventilators is rare.
A team of BYU engineering students came up with a portable ventilator that costs $500 to make – a fraction of the $40,000 price tag on ventilators you’d typically find in American newborn intensive care units. Now, BYU management students are hatching a plan to get the device manufactured and into the hands of doctors and parents around the world.
Education Post-No Child Left Behind (1:03)
Guest: Vernon Henshaw, PhD, Retired Superintendent of the Alpine
School District in Utah and Adjunct Faculty in the McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University; Suzanne Bolingbroke, Director of Literacy for the Alpine School District; Suzanne Parker, Literacy and Instructional Coach in the Provo School District
An era ended in mid-December when Congress passed—and the President signed—a law called The Every Student Succeeds Act. It replaces the No Child Left Behind Act, which was enacted in 2002 and for more than a decade would come to define, and to some defile, America’s system of educating its youth. We are looking back at the legacy of No Child Left Behind—the good and the bad—and ahead to what might come under The Every Student Succeeds Act.
Urban Parks (51:37)
Guest: Ryan Gravel, Atlanta-based Urban Planner and Author of “Where We Want to Live”; Soren Simonsen, Visiting Professor of Urban Design at the University of Utah; Jamin Rowan, PhD, English Professor at BYU
The Center for Disease Control says “nearly half of youth live in neighborhoods without parks or playgrounds, community centers, and walking paths or sidewalks.” Most of us live in cities built for cars. So, when communities decide they want more green places for walking and recreating—as is happening in cities across the country—the question is where do we put it? Big empty fields are hard to come by in most urban centers.
What cities do have is abandoned infrastructure—old gasworks, viaducts, and rail lines.
Using a hefty dose of creativity, urban planners around the country are taking these cast-offs from the industrial age and turning them back into greenspace. It’s like recycling land for a new use. But these aren’t your typical parks. And they’re often tied-in with other kinds of development like housing, transit or retail.
Syrian Refugee Children (1:03)
Guest: Dr. Selcuk Sirin, PhD, Associate Professor of Applied Psychology at New York University
Of the more than 4 million refugees fleeing war and poverty in Syria, about half are children – most under the age of twelve. Now, we’ve all seen how resilient kids can be in adapting to new environments and overcoming hardship. But what these young Syrians have – and continue – to experience is something different altogether. And the research of New York University psychology researcher Selcuk Sirin suggests the mental health needs of most of these children are not being met by the international community. Sirin spent time interviewing young Syrian refugees at a camp in Turkey to get a handle on both their mental health and educational needs.
Croatian Ambassador on Refugees (22:24)
Guest: Josip Paro, Croatian Ambassador to the United States
The refugee crisis has placed enormous strain on the European Union and its open border policies – leading some experts to speculate it could be the end of the union. German Chancellor Angela Merkel finds herself at the center of the storm, having led the creation of migrant policies across the region. She faces new pressure to restrict access after a number of asylum seekers were linked to sexual assaults that took place in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. One of the European Union’s newer members – Croatia – is a cross-roads for migrants making their way up from Greece, bound for Austria, Germany and further West.
Social Networks (37:32)
Guest: Kathleen Harris, PhD, James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
Having friends is important to mental health, and over the last 20 years, research has shown positive social relationships can improve physical health and even help us live longer. But to this point, the exact connection between friends and the health of our bodies has been unclear. What’s biological mechanism that translates BFFs into better body weight? Is having friends more important when we’re younger, if good health is the goal? And what about the question of quantity? How many friends is the right amount to maximize good health?
Civil Rights (51:42)
Guest: Hasan Kwame Jeffries, PhD, Professor of African American and US History at Ohio State University, Author of “Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt”
It’s Black History Month, a time to reflect on the fight for racial equality here in America. Fifty-one years ago, the historic march from Selma to Montgomery helped usher in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The midpoint of that march passed through rural Lowndes County, Alabama, which is where author Hasan Kwame Jeffries focuses his account of the Civil Rights movement.
Ruby Bridges (1:17:00)
Guest: Ruby Bridges, a Civil Rights icon since the age of six, when she was among the first African American children to integrate an all-white school in the South
Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting of a tiny African American girl flanked by four federal marshals is called “The Problem We All Live With,” and it’s a provocative invitation to consider the ugliness of racism. The girl’s dress and sneakers and the little bow in her braided hair are impossibly white. She looks calm and resolute, even though the wall she’s walking by is marred with a racial slur and the splatter of tomatoes. She’s Ruby Bridges, and November 14, 1960 was her first day of first grade as one of the first African American children to integrate an all-white school in the South. Looking at the painting, you can’t help but wonder what’s going through her mind. Make sure to see the exhibit yourself at the BYU Museum of Art. Last day is February 13th.
Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl (1:03)
Guest: Erik Spanberg, Senior Staff Writer at the Charlotte Business Journal
Sunday’s matchup between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers features a few storylines that have captured fan attention. Carolina’s Cinderella status for one – and its high-energy young quarterback, known for his on-the-field enthusiasm and his off-the-field fashion.
Denver, of course, has storied quarterback Peyton Manning. He and the Broncos are veterans of this Super Bowl stuff. As a team, they’ve been seven times and won two. Manning has one Super Bowl ring from back when he was with the Indianapolis Colts. The Panthers, on the other hand, have only ever been once – more than a decade ago. And they didn’t win.
Airplane Germs (15:21)
Guest: Raymond Wang, Seventeen-year-old Inventor and Winner of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
Seventeen-year-old Raymond Wang has come up with an ingeniously simply solution to bad smells and germs spreading on airplanes. Using a lot of 3-D computer modeling, he invented a fin-like attachment to the air vents in a plane so it flows down and out through filters along the side of the cabin. As it is, Wang’s computer models show the air in a plane circulates all over the place – along with any germs people have coughed up – before leaving through the filters.
Brazil in Crisis (30:00)
Guest: Paulo Sotero, Director of the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center
Brazil is at the epicenter of the Zika virus epidemic that is now a global health crisis. Last week, Brazil’s health minister was quoted as saying the country was “badly losing” the battle against Zika.
Paulo Sotero says it’s just the latest in a line of leadership failures the country is suffering. The once rising economic power rising star is facing its second consecutive year of deep recession and a major corruption scandal implicating many of Brazil’s top officials and political parties. Now there’s the Zika virus stretching resources and discouraging people from visiting the country. And let’s not forget later this year, Brazil will host the Summer Olympics.
“The Bridge” Musical (50:00)
Guests: Andrew Maxfield, Composer and Producer; Glen Nelson, Writer and Playwright of the musical “The Bridge”
When you think rock music, you think electric guitars and drum licks and strutting singers on stage. When you think opera, you think soaring sopranos and melodrama performed on gilded sets with a live orchestra.
And when you think rock opera? Well, that’s when things get interesting. The Who, Green Day and Duncan Sheikh made famous ones. Rock operas are epic and risky and nothing a traditional opera fan would recognize. With their sprawling musical themes that seem to scream “ART” in capital letters, sometimes rock operas can seem pretentious. But they can be an awful lot of fun, if audiences know what they're in for.
A new rock opera is about to premiere at BYU next week called The Bridge. The story of “The Bridge” tells, through music, dance and film projection, a short story by Ambrose Bierce set during the Civil War.
Tambora (1:19:24)
Guest: Gillen D’Arcy Wood, PhD, Author of “Tambora: The Eruption that Changed the World”
These days, if a volcano erupts, the world knows about it instantly, thanks to Twitter and satellite communications. But before those things were around, a giant eruption could disrupt weather and climate patterns for years without people really understanding why. That’s the story of Tambora, which erupted in 1815. Its eruption was 100 times the size of the eruption at Mt. St. Helens back in 1980.
Iowa Caucuses (1:03)
Guest: David Anderson, PhD, Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University
Iowa Caucuses last night, Republican Ted Cruz bested Donald Trump and Marco Rubio came in at a much closer third place than polls anticipated. The rest of the large Republican field for president failed to get out of the single digit range for voters.
Meanwhile, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders ended in a near tie with Clinton nabbing 49.9 percent of votes and Sanders 49.6 percent.
The question, of course, is now what? But before we turn our attention entirely to the New Hampshire primary next week, let’s see what we can learn if we move beyond the final vote tallies in Iowa last night.
Visual and Auditory Memory (18:05)
Guest: David Somers, PhD, Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University
You know when you’re driving down the road and you hear an ambulance siren, but you can’t for the life of you figure out which direction it’s coming from? Only when you get a glimpse of the flashing lights or see other cars down the road pulling over does it become clear where the ambulance is? Well, it turns out that’s because your brain is better at processing some things using sight and other things using sound. And that processing happens in different compartments in the brain.
The Apple Seed (36:10)
Guest: Sam Payne, host of "The Apple Seed" on BYUradio
Tellers and stories on BYUradio.
Sundance Film Festival: Land of Mine (51:24)
Guest: Chip Oscarson, PhD, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities and Scandinavian Studies and Coordinator for the International Cinema Studies Program at BYU
One of the more devastating tactics of ISIS is their recruitment of youth as foot soldiers. But, really, sending teenagers to war is nothing new. In 1945, at the end of World War II, 2,000 German POWs—many of them just in their teens—were forced to clear a million and half land mines buried in the Western beaches of Denmark. Half of these prisoners were killed or injured.
This event is dramatized in a brutal—and at the same time, tender—new film out of Denmark. It’s called Land of Mine and it made its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last week.
Original Intent of the Constitution (1:05:13)
Guest: James Phillips, Clerk for Justice Tom Lee at the Utah State Supreme Court, Former Visiting Law Professor at BYU
The job of the US Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution in all kinds of current legal disputes. But the Constitution was ratified in 1789. So, the question that often comes up is, should we be trying to interpret the Constitution in just the way the founders intended it? Or should we be look it as a living document, with a meaning that evolves as modern life evolves?
If you adhere to the idea that original intent matters most, you get into the trouble of knowing just what the founding fathers meant when they wrote the word “commerce” or the phrase “to carry arms.” You might think it’d be as easy as turning to an English dictionary from 1788 and looking up the word “commerce” or “arms.” But you’d be wrong, says James Phillips, a former visiting professor at BYU’s Law School and now a clerk for the Utah State Supreme Court.
Volkswagen Emissions Deadline (1:27:20)
Guest: Michael Haji-Sheikh, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Northern Illinois University
Volkswagen’s reputation and earnings have suffered tremendously since the automaker was discovered to have manipulated sensors in hundreds of thousands of cars to cheat on emissions tests. Today is the deadline for VW to tell US regulators how it plans to fix the problem in diesel SUVs and larger cars. The company has yet to announce a timetable for repairing the smaller VWs currently on US roads that are programmed to bypass pollution controls.
Zika Virus (1:03)
Guest: Sallie Permar, MD, Pediatrician and Director of Neonatal Viral Pathogen Immunity at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute
In a matter of just over a week, the Zika Virus has jumped to the front page of US newspapers and has been the subject of emergency meetings at the CDC and World Health Organization. Pregnant women are being advised not to travel to countries where Zika is spreading because of the virus’ possible link to birth defects.
Zika is a mosquito-borne illness that has spread to at least 23 countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Officials in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador and Jamaica, are urging women not to get pregnant at all until the threat has passed.
Happiness (18:42)
Guest: Harvey Krahn, PhD, Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton
Much has been made of the mid-life crisis, when many studies show happiness tends to stall out among adults after rising steadily through the golden years of adolescence and young adulthood.
But new research published in the journal Developmental Psychology suggests middle-aged adults are as happy as they’ve ever been – and maybe even more so.
Organ Donation (35:36)
Guest: Nancy Scheper-Hughes, PhD, Professor of Medical Anthropology and Sociocultural Anthropology at UC Berkeley
How desperate would you have to be to sell a kidney? Say you live in a third-world country, you’re mired in poverty and donating a kidney could fund an education for your child? Or, suppose you live in a war-torn country and a kidney could pay your passage to freedom? These are extreme, but not necessarily uncommon, in the very active international market for buying and selling organs.
But Medical Anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes says far too often the market is unkind to donors. She says having two kidneys doesn’t mean you’ve got a spare. Donors are often in poor health and worse-off financially after giving up a kidney.
Student Success (51:05)
Guests: Mark North, PhD, Visiting Professor of Psychology at BYU; Hunter Hill, Research Assistant and BYU Student
Many of us can attribute our love for a subject because of a teacher, and there’s research to back the claim. How do student-teacher relationships influence learning outcomes?
Parent Previews (1:08:42)
Guest: Rob Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We discuss film “The Finest Hours,” about a US Coast Guard rescue.
Tech Transfer: Long-Term Data Storage (1:19:51)
Guests: Barry Lunt, PhD, BYU Information Technology Professor; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
CDs, DVDs, flash drives…they’re unwieldy, but really, what better solution do we have for keeping stuff that’s important to us? Computers crash. The Cloud is so new, you have to wonder if storing stuff on Google or Apple’s servers is really a permanent solution. One day it could be gone in a puff.
BYU information technology professor Barry Lunt has come up with a solution that is so durable he calls it “permanent storage.” It’ll survive a fire, a flood and even the passage of 1000 years.
Missionaries in Europe (1:03) Guests: Eric Dursteler, PhD, Professor of History at BYU; Cindy Brewer, PhD, Professor of German Language and Literature at BYU; Craig Harline, PhD, Professor of European and Religious History at BYU
Mormons are well-known today for their proselyting efforts. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it has 84,000 missionaries currently serving in more than 400 missions around the world. They proselyte two-by-two in every country where the government and political climate will allow. But the Mormons didn’t invent missionary work. From the day of Jesus Christ’s death, people calling themselves Christian have been out to convert unbelievers to their gospel. Over centuries, the focused shifted. First it was toward Europe, then to converting the people of Africa, Asia and the Americas. And then back to Europe. Tracing the paths of missionaries offers an interesting look at how religion has spread and evolved across the globe. That’s our quest this hour with three scholars of religious and European history.
Lessons from the Hmong Migration (51:10) Guests: Jacob Hickman, Ph.D, Professor of Anthropology at BYU; Bruce Thao, Founder and CEO of LIT Consulting; Pa Der Vang, Assistant Professor of Social Work at St. Catherine University
Millions of people from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are fleeing war and poverty to seek refuge in Europe and the West. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says this is the most significant migrant crisis since World War II. Some 20 million people have been forcibly displaced from their countries. Another 30 million people have been displaced from their homes, but haven’t left the country. How can countries like Germany, Canada or the US help these people? There’s intense debate about whether or not to even let refugees in. But even when we do, is that enough? There are lessons to be learned from a period of mass migration America experienced 40 years ago when some 300,000 Hmong people fled the Communists in Laos. A close look at the successes and failures of that mass migration could help nations better help this latest wave of refugees.
Flint Water (1:03)
Guest: Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, Pediatrician at Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint and Michigan State University Medical School
The governor of Flint, Michigan, has declared of state of emergency because of the water crisis and the EPA has stepped in to manage the city’s water because it contains dangerously high levels of lead. The lead is coming from the old pipes that make up Flint’s water system. For nearly two years it was leaching into the bodies of Flint residents because the water wasn’t being treated correctly to prevent pipe corrosion.
While this city of about 100,000 people located an hour north of Detroit was being poisoned by its drinking water, state and local officials denied there was even a problem. Emails released by the governor’s office show months of downplaying the dangers and discounting the data put forward by people like Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.
How to Stop Bullying (18:17)
Guest: Hana Shepherd, PhD, Sociologist at Rutgers University
You know the saying that one bad apple can spoil the bunch. Well, how about one good apple? Researchers from Rutgers, Princeton and Yale Universities spent a year working with what you might call the “good apples” in 56 middle schools to see if they could use the power of peer influence to reduce bullying and other types of student conflict. And it worked impressively.
Religious Freedom (28:47)
Guest: Daniel Mark, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Villanova University in Pennsylvania
The debate over the role of religion in American life and politics is alive on many fronts. Later this year, the Supreme Court will rule on whether a group of Catholic nuns should be forced to provide their employees with health coverage for contraception. The backlash Indiana faced last year for passing a law that allows people and companies to use their religious beliefs as a legal defense is flaring up again this week. You’ll remember, critics claimed Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act would give businesses cover to discrimination against gays and lesbians. Boycotts ensued and now the tourism group Visit Indy says a dozen groups opted not to host conventions in Indianapolis last year because of the law. All told, Indiana may have lost as much as $60 million in hotel profits, tax revenue and economic benefits.
Sundance Film Festival: “The Bad Kids” (50:20)
Guest: Vonda Viland, Principal at Black Rock High School
Remember the bad kids in high school? The ones who talked backed to the teacher and disrupted class? That is, if they came to class at all. They partied hard, fell into drugs, got pregnant, dropped out or simply disappeared.
Vonda Viland knows all about the bad kids. She is the principal at Black Rock High School, an alternative high school in a remote small town in the Mojave Desert of California, and when it comes to kids acting out, she’s seen it all. But she’s not discouraged. In fact, her optimism about the future for the kids at her school is the subject of a new documentary called “The Bad Kids” that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Alien Communication (1:15:30)
Guest: Donald Hoffman, PhD, Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine
Almost 40 years ago, NASA launched a message into space aboard the Voyager spacecraft for any extraterrestrial beings who may happen upon it. Called the Golden Record, it’s a gold-plated phonograph record that carries pictures, music, and greetings from earth in 55 different languages. Ever since then, groups like the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute have been listening closely to satellite wavelengths for a sign that our message had been received, but so far there’s no word back from space.
Cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman says even if extraterrestrials found the Golden Record, they probably couldn’t make out the messages on it.
Utah Gender Wage Gap (1:07)
Guest: Susan Madsen, PhD, Utah Valley University’s Woodbury Professor of Leadership and Ethics
Here in the US, women hold half the jobs, but make just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns on average. It’d be easy to assume the problem is primarily among uneducated and part-time workers. But college data released by the US Department of Education last year found that’s not the case. There’s a large wage gap even between male and female graduates of elite universities. Ten years after starting college, men who graduate from MIT, Harvard and Stanford are earning at least 50 percent more than women who graduated from the same schools.
Colleges with religious affiliation also tend to have large wage gaps between male and female graduates. And Brigham Young University has the highest of all the data compiled by the US Department of Education—10 years after enrolling at BYU, male graduates earn one and a half times more than female grads. Several other universities in Utah top the wage gap list for graduates.
Mechanics of Porous, Brittle Material (27:48)
Guest: Julio Valdes, PhD, Civil Engineering Professor at San Diego State University
San Diego State University Civil Engineering Professor Julio Valdes has spent a lot of time in the physics lab listening to the crackle of puffed rice in order to learn more about what happens in avalanches and manufacturing processes where crunchy stuff gets smashed.
The Apple Seed (41:35)
Guest: Sam Payne
From the Vaults: Helen Foster Snow (51:01)
Guest: Sheril Foster Bischoff, Trustee of the Literary Collection of her Aunt, Helen Foster Snow
News about China’s volatile economy, booming middle class and powerful government is easy to come by these days. But in the early 20th Century, news out of China was very rare. And, in the 1930s the news that the West received about China often came from an unlikely source – a dashing young American couple: Edgar Snow and his wife Helen Foster Snow. They crossed through dangerous military zones to cover student uprisings and the intense political conflicts between Nationalist and Communist forces. Oh, and she befriended Chairman Mao.
For this month’s installment of “From the Vaults,” we dive into the holdings in Special Collections at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library, to explore the adventures and legacy of Helen Foster Snow.
Mariachi Math (1:10:00)
Guest: Crystal A. Kalinec-Craig, PhD, Assistant Professor in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at the University of Texas in San Antonio
There’s recently been a trend in teaching fraction that involves music. An add-on to this idea is that using culturally relevant/familiar music might help the learning process even more—students who have a cultural context for the music might even benefit from its math connections outside of the classroom.
Quichua Language and Photo Essay (1:23:06)
Guests: Jaren Wilkey, Manager of BYU’s University Photography office; Janis Nuckolls, PhD, Professor of linguistics at BYU
Quichua is a 2,000-year-old language that has evolved in ways English has not. Which makes it particularly fascinating to BYU linguistics professor Janis Nuckolls and the students she regularly takes to Ecuador to study Quichua and the people who speak it.
View the Photo Essay
History and Significance of Early Primaries (1:03)
Guests: Christ Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU; Grant Madson, PhD, Professor of 20th Century American History and Politics
The Iowa Presidential Primary is a week away - next Monday, Feb. 1. Then New Hampshire’s primary on the 9th and South Carolina’s on the 20th. And by then, maybe, we’ll know who among the crowded Republican field of candidates is likely to be crowned the party’s nominee and whether or not Bernie Sanders really is a threat to Democrat Hillary Clinton. But why is tiny Iowa first? Wouldn’t it make sense for a more populous state like California or New York to be first in line?
Video Game Brains (23:26)
Guest: Jeffrey Anderson, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroradiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine
Do you scold your kids about playing too many video games? Maybe warning that their brains will turn to mush? New research by the University of Utah and Chung-Ang University in South Korea confirm what previous studies have begun to show – that people who spend excessive time playing video games have brains that are wired differently. Some of the changes are good, while others are not so good.
Gene Editing (36:07)
Guest: Charis Thompson, PhD, Chancellor’s Professor and Chair of Gender and Women’s Studies at UC Berkeley
Scientists have figured out how to edit DNA. The process is cheap and easy to harness. It’s not super-precise yet, but it’s only a matter of time before a researcher could tweak the genes of an unborn child to make sure he’s not born with a genetic disease that afflicts his parents. Even more remarkable, researchers could go into the DNA of the egg and sperm before they become an embryo and snip out the genetic disease so the resulting child and all of his offspring would be free of it. We’re talking about genetically-engineering the building blocks of the human race.
Which is amazing. And also terrifying, when you consider how easily we humans seem to slip into eugenic thinking – what would stop us from editing out certain colors of skin or ensuring a certain IQ level?
Weight Discrimination Laws (52:09)
Guest: Dr. Rebecca Puhl, PhD, Deputy Director for the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity and Professor in Residence in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Connecticut
More than a third of American adults are obese according to the CDC. They’re consequently at much higher risk for dying from heart-disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer. Overweight and obese people are also more likely to be discriminated against in the work place.
Some new survey research published in the The Milbank Quarterly finds strong support for laws that would prohibit job discrimination based on a person’s weight, but there’s a limit to the public support.
Parent Previews: The Fifth Wave, The Boy (1:09:09)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We review films “The Fifth Wave,” about a girl in a dystopian society, and “The Boy,” a horror film about a nanny in the English countryside.
Tech Transfer: Herpes Treatment (1:22:46)
Guests: Matt Cryer, CEO of KP Biosciences; Dave Brown, Associate Director of BYU's Technology Transfer Office
It’s not talked about much and there’s no cure for it, but genital herpes is increasingly prevalent. The CDC says three-quarters of a million people come down with a new infection of it every year. It’s highly contagious – even when the infected person is showing no visible symptoms. Drugs to treat genital herpes primarily limit outbreaks of painful and unsightly sores and lesions.
Private Space Exploration (1:03) Guests: Alan Wasser, Chairman of the Space Settlement Institute and Former CEO of the National Space Society; Jeff Foust, Senior Writer for SpaceNews.com; Marc Timm, Program Executive in NASA’s Commercial Spaceflight Development Division
It’s the mission of choice for international moguls with billions to burn—Richard Branson has Virgin Galactic, Jeff Bezos has Blue Origin and Elon Musk has SpaceX. They’re competing for bragging rights and what could potentially be big money sending rich tourists to space. Where’s NASA in all of this? Why aren’t the best and brightest who got us to the moon still on the job? Well, they are. But their role has shifted a bit.
We’ll also get some details on what these private companies are up to with the rocket launches you’ve been hearing about. We’ll also start thinking really big about what it might take to get a colony built on the Moon—or Mars—and why it hasn’t happened yet.
Fitness for the Elderly (52:06) Guests: Sara Madsen, Certified Fitness Trainer with the American Council on Exercise; Barbara Lockhart, BYU Exercise Science Professor; Nadine Jensen, Client of Sara Madsen
The youngest Americans of the Baby Boom generation are now reaching retirement. They’re a “gray wave” affecting Medicare and Social Security spending, along with much about how society operates. Car manufacturers, clothing makers and even exercise gyms are adapting to meet the needs of this giant cohort of boomers in the 50 to 70-year-old range.
Contact Sara Madsen at: Sara.madsen@ymail.com (801-808-8409)
Saying 'No' to El Chapo (1:03)
Guest: Gerardo Reyes, Director of Univision’s Investigative Unit
El Chapo Guzman -- notorious leader of the Sinaloa Cartel is back in prison again, awaiting possible extradition to the United States. On the pages of Rolling Stone Magazine, he comes across as an unflinching businessman who is chivalrous toward women and still in touch with his simple roots. El Chapo approved of that characterization by actor Sean Penn, after they met in a jungle hideout last fall. The interview came with a condition that El Chapo be allowed to approve the article before it was published.
Rolling Stone’s managing editor said the conditions were small price to pay for the chance to interview the most powerful drug lord in the world – who hadn’t granted an interview in over a decade. But here’s the thing – El Chapo had offered to be interviewed before. It’s just that nobody was willing to accept his conditions until Sean Penn came along.
In a commentary for the Washington Post this week, Univision investigative reporter Gerardo Reyes describes turning down an interview with El Chapo in 2013.
Read Gerardo Reyes’ op-ed for the Washington Post about why he turned down an interview with El Chapo Guzman
Tooth Enamel (23:59)
Guest: Janet Moradian-Oldak, PhD, Professor of Dentistry and Biomedical Engineering the University of Southern California
Are you a good teeth brusher? How about flossing? Tooth decay is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the country – five times more common in than asthma is children, even – but it’s also such an easy thing to let slide.
A big problem with slacking off for a bit is that tooth decay is permanent. It’s not like gaining five pounds and then losing them. Tooth enamel does not regenerate once you get back on the wagon and start brushing better. So there’s a lot of research going on right now into materials that could be used as enamel replacements protecting teeth from further decay.
Dental researcher Janet Moradian-Oldak recently contributed to two published papers that combine to offer real promise for understanding – and replacing – tooth enamel.
Financial Gender Gap (40:44)
Guest: Laura Mattia, PhD Candidate in Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University, Financial Adviser for 15 years and Founder of the Women’s Money Empowerment Network
The financial gender gap so often discussed in America doesn’t just apply to earnings. Women make less than men, yes. But they’re also less knowledgeable about finances in general. The Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center last year asked men and women in the US three multiple choice questions along the lines of calculating how much interest you’d earn on $100 in a savings account if the rate is 2 percent. Thirty-eight percent of men got all three questions right. Only 22 percent of women did.
You can find Laura Mattia’s Podcast “Financially Empowering Women,” on iTunes.
Execution in America (52:12)
Guest: Austin Sarat, JD, Professor of Law and Political Science at Amherst College, Author of “Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty”
Last year, numerous states began authorizing alternative methods of executing death row inmates if they run out of drugs used in lethal injection. Those drugs have become increasingly difficult to obtain for a variety of reasons.
In Utah lawmakers voted to reinstate the firing squad as a backup plan for execution. Electrocution is the backup plan under consideration in Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia. Oklahoma is considering something even more dramatic – a form of the gas chamber that entails death by nitrogen inhalation.
And the irony here, is that all of those methods have fallen out of favor over the years because lethal injection has been seen as more humane.
Gentle C-Sections (1:12:46)
Guest: Bill Camann, MD, Director of Obstetric Anesthesia at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Co-author of “Easy Labor: Every Woman's Guide to Choosing Less Pain and More Joy During Childbirth”
Hazard a guess at what you think might be the most common surgery in America? Tonsil removal? Appendectomy?
It’s actually the cesarean section – about 1 in 3 babies in America is delivered by C-section. Public health officials are working to bring that rate down because of the risks associated with caesarean section. But there’s also a trend – in cases where a C-section is unavoidable – toward making it a better experience for the mother and child. They’re called “family centered C-sections” by some. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, they call the procedure a “gentle C-section.”
Civil War Photos (1:30:00)
Guest: Bob Zeller, President of the Center for Civil War Photography
Last year a trove of remarkable photos documenting life before and during the Civil War arrived at the Library of Congress and is being digitized for people to view online. The pictures themselves are remarkable, but so, too, is the story of how they came to be in a single collection.
The photos offer a glimpse at daily life of southern slaves before the war and extend all the way to a shot of Abraham Lincoln’s Illinois home draped in a black-and-white mourning cloth after his assassination. The Library of Congress announced last week it had acquired more than 500 of these images from the collection of an 87-year-old Texas grandmother.
View the photos here: Library of Congress: Robin Stanford Collection
International Law Update (1:03)
Guest: Eric Jensen, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Prof. Jensen examines current events around the globe: the recent Iranian-US prisoner swap, Iranian sanctions, Iranian detention of US soldiers, the US bombing of Kunduz, military use of drones, and the situation in North Korea.
Reducing Stress on Preemies (31:06)
Guests: Joerg Graf, PhD, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at University of Connecticut and Associate Department Head for Graduate Research and Education; Adam Matson, MD, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology, University of Connecticut and Neonatologist at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center
More than ten percent of babies in the US are born prematurely. That’s an enormous number of families who experience the stress of an impossibly tiny preemie hooked up to monitors and tubes in Newborn Intensive Care. It’s stressful for the babies too – and a study underway at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center aims to find out if that stress might be linked to some of the health problems premature infants experience later in life.
Creative Arts Therapy (51:11)
Guest: Melissa Walker, Creative Arts Therapist at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence at Walter Reed Medical Center
Imagine a display of handmade masks painted with American flags or words written across the forehead or cheeks. Some have eyes. Some don’t. They’re the first exercise in a four-weak treatment program for military service members suffering from PTSD, brain injury and other psychological issues.
The National Endowment for the Arts and the Department of Defense are so committed to this kind of therapy that they recently expanded a program called the Military Healing Arts Partnership at various military facilities including the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.
Tampon Tax (1:10:47)
Guest: Cristina Garcia, California State Assemblymember, Bell Gardens, California
The Tampon Tax. That’s what it’s been dubbed in California, where State Assemblymember Cristina Garcia made it the subject of the bill she introduced on the first day of the 2016 legislative session. It would make feminine hygiene products exempt from sales tax. Canada lifted its Tampon Tax last summer after thousands of people signed an online petition. Five states in the U.S. also exempt tampons and feminine napkins from tax. California would be the most populous state in the country to do it, if Garcia’s bill passes.
A Critic of the Press (1:22:00)
Guest: Jay Rosen, PhD, Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University and Founder, PressThink blog
What makes you trust a specific journalist or media outlet in this day when we have so many choices and so many options coming straight to your Facebook feed? Media critic and New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen says what we consider “new media” – blogs and social media feeds – actually bear close resemblance to the press at the founding of America. Rosen’s own blog is called “PressThink.” During a visit to BYU last week, he spoke with my colleague Marcus Smith, host of Thinking Aloud.?
2016 World Event Predictions (1:03)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU
Regular contributor and BYU Political Science Professor Quinn Mecham is here for his monthly visit and he’s come with his crystal ball in hand to talk about how he sees global events shaping up over the coming year.
Antibiotics & Infant Gut Bacteria (22:47)
Guest: Anita Kozyrskyj, PhD, Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that women be screened for group B strep several weeks before their due dates. If they test positive—and 25% of all women do—they should receive antibiotics through an IV during labor, according to the CDC, to prevent the newborn from contracting group B strep from the mother. But according to a recent study published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, those antibiotics given during delivery may have unintended consequences and alter the bacteria in the infants’ gut.
Minority Voters (50:20)
Guest: Lisa Garcia Bedolla, PhD, Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Political Science Department at the University of California, Berkeley
Nearly a quarter of all eligible voters in the US are African American, Hispanic or Asian—which makes their support critical to candidates eyeing a victory in the 2016 presidential election.
Just how to make sure those minority voters actually go to the polls on Election Day is the challenge for campaigns. There’s been a lot of thought that high-tech solutions like texting or Facebook outreach could be the key to mobilizing both minority and young voters.
New analysis funded by the James Irvine Foundation finds old-fashioned methods, like going out and knocking on doors, are still best.
Barbershop Health Intervention (1:10:47)
Guest: Olga Davis, PhD, Professor of Human Communication at Arizona State University and Founder of the “African American Cardiovascular Health Literacy Exploration”
The list of health problems that affect African Americans disproportionately in the US is long: heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, colorectal cancer and HIV are some of the most worrisome according to CDC data. The average life span for African Americans is three years shorter than the nation as a whole. Why? Racial discrimination, cultural barriers and lack of access to health care all contribute.
A project out of Arizona State University is targeting those factors from an unlikely place—the barbershop.
Airline Near Misses (1:28:14)
Guest: Peter Madsen, PhD, Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership and Strategy at BYU
Taking a commercial flight is safer today than it’s ever been. Does that mean that no one in the crew made a mistake on that last flight you slept through? Of course not. According to organizational leadership expert Peter Madsen, potentially hazardous mistakes happen on 68% of commercial flights. Since so few of those mistakes end up causing any arm, Madsen says it’s easy—too easy—for airlines and crewmembers to get complacent about their own skill and the strength of their safety procedures.
Olive Oatman the Tattooed Girl (1:03)
Guest: Margot Mifflin, Professor of English at the City University of New York
At the age of 14 Olive Oatman was captured and enslaved by Native Americans, then sold to a friendlier tribe who tattooed her chin with distinctive blue hash marks and raised her as one of their own. Four years later, Olive was delivered back to the whites in exchange for horses, blankets and beads. She became a national sensation. People flocked to read her autobiography and gawk at her on the lecture circuit. But Olive Oatman could never really be white again, says author Margot Mifflin. In her book, “The Blue Tattoo,” Mifflin deciphers fact from fiction and explores what Olive’s story teaches us about race and identity in America.
Memoir Writing (50:00)
Guest: Joey Franklin, PhD, Professor of English at Brigham Young University
A lot of us write about our lives on Facebook or Instagram. We share little snippets of our lives. They’re often mundane and always curated. We crop the clutter out of the picture; wait for the one moment when the kids are finally playing together nicely to snap a shot; and channel a little extra positivity before writing the caption--#blessed. Maybe we’re completely honest in a private diary, but certainly not when publishing our lives to the world. And yet, when was the last time you read a memoir or autobiography that including only sunny, sweet moments? How boring. The messy truth of life is what makes memoir so compelling to readers. Adolescent humiliation, marital angst, parenting failures and a willingness not to take himself seriously all figure prominently in the collection of personal essays BYU English professor Joey Franklin has just published. The book is called, “My Wife Wants You to Know I’m Happily Married.”
Middle Class Hollowing (1:03)
Guest: Rakesh Kochhar, Associate Director of Research at Pew Research Center
How to win the hearts of middle class voters is on the mind of Republican candidates meeting in their latest Presidential debate tonight. Polls tend to show middle class Americans more confident that Democratic candidates are looking out for them.
But the very essence of America’s middle class is changing, according to a comprehensive report out from the Pew Research Center. A close look at data from the Census Bureau and Federal Reserve finds the majority of Americans can no longer be considered middle class. There’s been a “hollowing” of the class over last forty years. The consequences are significant to the broader US economy.
Impact of Diet on COPD (17:09)
Guest: Corrine Hanson, PhD, Professor Medical Nutrition Education at the University of Nebraska Medical Center School of Allied Health Professions
People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, rely on inhalers to help them breathe. Emerging research suggests they could also improve lung function with a change in diet.
Children’s IQ (31:23)
Guest: John Protzko, PhD, Postdoctoral Research and the University of California, Santa Barbara
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is reading “Quantum Physics for Babies” to his month-old daughter Max. He posted on Facebook about it, of course. And that’s a real book for kids, explaining quantum physics in simple pictures. Reading to babies is a thing among parents eager to boost the IQ of their little ones. There’s evidence it works. But researchers have also long wondered about a phenomenon called the “fadeout effect,” where a child can experience a temporary boost in IQ that fades away over time.
Middle East Panel (51:04)
Guests: Steven Lobell, PhD, Political Science Professor at the University of Utah, Author of six books on International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies; Fred Axelgard, PhD, Senior Fellow in International Relations at the Wheatley institution at BYU; John Macfarlane, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Utah Valley University
Our monthly panel of international affairs experts is back to consider the latest from the Middle East. Just as President Obama prepared to give his final State of the Union Address this week, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard captured 10 US sailors in the Persian Gulf. There were immediate fears of a tense hostage crisis, but Iran released the sailors within 24 hours. Secretary of State John Kerry said the quick resolution was thanks to newly-forged diplomatic ties between the US and Iran as they worked out a nuclear agreement.
Supreme Court Influences (1:20:42)
Guest: James Phillips, JD, Clerk for Utah State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Lee, Scholar of Judicial Behavior, Former Visiting Professor in BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
The constitutionality of affirmative action and the rights of labor unions are the high profile issues being considered by the US Supreme Court. What drives the decisions of the court’s nine-justices in cases like these? Attorney James Phillips has spent considerable time analyzing oral arguments to answer that question. Phillips is currently clerking for a justice of the Utah State Supreme Court. He was previously a visiting law professor at BYU studying judicial behavior. We spoke with him last spring about the inner workings of the nation’s top court. Incidentally, that was before the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
U.S. Population Change (1:04)
Guest: Steve Murdock, PhD, Sociologist at Rice University and Former Director of the US Census Bureau
In his final State of the Union Address last night, President Obama laid out the reasons why we should be optimistic about where the country is headed. The United States, right now, he said, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world.
President Obama went on to mention increased automation, global competition, stagnant wages and an increasing gap between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the population.
In the next fifty years, the United States will grow larger and more diverse, but we’ll also become poorer and less-educated as a nation. That will make us less competitive with other countries unless we address the factors dragging us down. Do nothing and Steve Murdock says we’re on a path to “inevitable socio-economic decline.”
U.S. Dietary Guidelines (24:23)
Guest: Edward Archer, PhD, Obesity Theorist and Public Health Expert
The U.S. Department of Department of Agriculture is out with its latest dietary guidelines, which get updated every five years. Good news for egg lovers -- the guidelines no longer say you should limit cholesterol intake. Salt limits were eased, too, but we're still supposed to avoid saturated fats—like those found in meat and dairy. Also, skipping breakfast is no longer considered a health hazard.
These updates are always a topic of heated debate among lobbying groups representing various food products and health conditions. But this year also saw unusual scrutiny of the science behind the recommendations.
Link to study here
Service-Learning Courses Impact Post-Grad Salaries (42:51)
Guest: Paul Matthews, PhD, Associate Director of the University of Georgia Office of Service-Learning
What are the most important things a college student can do to maximize the salary they’ll make in their first job? Get a high GPA? Pick a field that’s in-demand? Do an internship? All are good ideas. Some new research suggests it helps to take classes that incorporate hands-on service in the community.
State of the Union (51:30)
Guest: Jeremy Pope, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science at BYU
President Barack Obama promised something different in his eighth, and final, State of the Union Address last night, “I don't want to talk just about the next year. I want to focus on the next five years, ten years, and beyond. I want to focus on our future.”
Word of the Year (1:09:44)
Guest: Ben Zimmer, Linguist, Language Columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Chair of the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society
The Washington Post Style guide has already given approval to using “they” in singular situations. And now, the American Dialect Society has chosen singular “they” as its 2015 Word of the Year. It beat out popular phrases “thanks Obama” and “on fleek,” among others.
David Bowie (1:23:20)
Guest: Christian Asplund, Associate Professor of Music here at BYU
Last weekend the music icon David Bowie passed away at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer. His influence on pop music is undeniable—with his dramatic stage presence and artistic music videos. His passing has also prompted an outpouring of deeply emotional response from fans and other musicians about what David Bowie meant to them, personally.
Public Lands Law (1:05)
Guest: Brigham Daniels, PhD, Professor of Environmental and Natural Resources Law at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
The occupation of a national wildlife area in Oregon by a small armed group is now in its second week. The leader of the group – Ammon Bundy – says they will not leave until there is a plan in place to transfer millions of acres of federal land in the area to local control. Armed standoffs are unusual, but in the West there is a long history of conflict between the federal government and local officials over who controls the land.
Ranked-Choice Voting (24:23)
Guest: Jason McDaniel, PhD, Political Science Professor at San Francisco State University
Picking your first, second and third choice of something feels natural when it’s a lunch order or the office costume contest. It’s not so natural – and maybe even unhelpful – when you’re asked to do it in an election. A few dozen cities, including San Francisco, have been experimenting with the system called “ranked-choice voting,” to avoid the need for a run-off election if the first round of results are too close. But analysis recently published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, suggests the strategy makes things worse for voters, not better.
Hearing Aids and Memory (38:05)
Guest: Jamie Desjardins, PhD, Audiologist and Rehab Sciences Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso
About a third of Americans in their sixties have hearing loss, but only a fraction of them wear hearing aids to help. There’s a stigma attached to those little wires hooked over your ears which keeps a lot of people from signing up for what could actually be a tremendous help – not just to their hearing, but to their overall cognitive function.
El Chapo Capture (51:35)
Guest: Claudio Holzner, PhD, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Utah
Infamous drug lord El Chapo is back in the same Mexican prison he escaped from six months ago. Authorities have released video of the raid when they recaptured the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel that looks like footage from a Hollywood movie – heavily armed marines pounding down doors, searching hidden passageways. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped through a sewer into a stolen car before he was apprehended. In a strange twist, authorities say it was Guzman’s desire to see his name in Hollywood lights that led to his capture.
Community Reading (1:12:41)
Guest: Beth Gorrie, Director of Staten Island’s OUtLOUD Program
What might happen if everyone in your community was reading and discussing the same book?
Staten Island residents spent a month reading Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and exploring its themes in community events. What made the experience powerful was the fact that it happened to coincide with a period of heightened racial tension after the death of Eric Garner in police custody on Staten Island.
China’s Pollution Crisis (1:27:24)
Guest: Jane Hall, PhD, Professor of Economics at the University of California Fullerton
China’s infamously polluted air poses a challenge to the nation’s leaders, who’ve established aggressive growth plans for the country. Every time a big international event comes to Beijing – the 2008 Summer Olympics, for instance or a summit of world leaders – officials order up blue skies by temporarily shutting down steel mills and coal plants in the area. Profits and output fall temporarily, too. So imagine the costs a longer-term solution might bring – permanent factory closures, limits on automobile traffic and the transition to cleaner, but more expensive fuels.
Downton Abbey (1:02)
Guest: Jamie Horrocks, PhD, Assistant Professor of English at BYU
As Downton Abbey begins its sixth and final season on Masterpiece in the United States, it remains the highest-rated PBS drama in history. Nearly 10 million people tune in Sunday evenings for the glamorous gowns, class tensions and salacious storylines of the Crawley family and their many servants. Downton Abbey features a mainly British cast and it’s pretty popular in the U.K., but, Americans are bonkers for this show.
Pressure to Publish (22:08)
Guest: Jacob Foster, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles
Big discoveries – the kind that win Nobel Prizes and end up in textbooks – come from asking big questions, often in a realm others have yet to explore. Flip open a scientific journal, though, and most of what you’ll see is far more mundane: researchers building on each other’s work, incrementally expanding our understanding of established science. Why do relatively few scientists set their sights on the big questions?
Poisoned Water Solution (39:54)
Guest: Judit Smits, PhD, Professor of Public Health at the University of Calgary
Lentils are cheap and good for you, but not exactly a favorite choice for a lot of us. They’re just so bland and squishy. It might be surprising, then, to learn that they may also have the power to save lives.
University of Calgary public health professor Judit Smits is in the midst of a project to see if lentils could address what the World Health Organization calls the “worst case of mass poisoning in history.” Might lentils help people in Bangladesh deal with the arsenic in their water?
Consumer Creativity (52:15)
Guest: Ravi Mehta, PhD, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of Illinois
What leads people to be more creative in the way they use stuff? When you have a household problem to solve – say you’ve spilled something on the carpet or your shoes are starting to stink – what’s your inclination? Do you run off to the store and buy stain remover and odor eaters? Or do you follow the MacGyver method and dig around in your cabinets to see if you’ve got something that might do the job?
Parent Previews: Golden Globes (1:08:06)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We’ll look at the winners of last night’s Golden Globes.
Tech Transfer (1:22:34)
Guests: Larry Howell, PhD, Mechanical Engineering Professor at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
The art of origami is inspiring engineering innovation here at BYU. Scientists on campus have collaborated with NASA to design a solar panel that would expand to ten times its size after it’s launched into space. Now, mechanical engineering professor Larry Howell is turning to the potential of very tiny origami for use in surgery.
How Our Genes are Hurting Us (1:03)
Guest: Lee Goldman, MD, Dean of Medical School at Columbia University
We have some bad news about our health: our genes are out to get us. Traits that our forefathers needed to survive in a violent, dangerous world now conspire to cause the diseases that explain nearly half of all deaths in the United States: obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke--even depression and anxiety. Dr. Lee Goldman explains how this works in his new book, “Too Much of a Good Thing: How Four Key Survival Traits Are Now Killing Us.”
Picturing Frederick Douglass (50:17)
Guest: John Stauffer, PhD, Professor of English, African, and African American Studies at Harvard University
Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a leading abolitionist known for speeches as eloquent as Lincoln's or Emerson's. Frederick Douglass was also obsessed with having his picture taken. He was photographed more than any other American of the 19th Century. More than General Custer, than Abraham Lincoln, even the heroic Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Everywhere he went, Douglass popped into portrait studios to have his image made. Then he’d distribute them far and wide in his own newspapers, as calling cards, as signed souvenirs for fans. Why? Was Frederick Douglass simply vain? Or just a geek for new technology? Or did his passion for photography have a part in his campaign for freedom and justice? The answer is found in the new book, “Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American.”
Korean/Japan Comfort Women Agreement (1:04)
Guest: Mark Peterson, PhD, Professor of Asian Studies and Korean Language at BYU
Japan and South Korea have settled a dispute that has, for decades, stirred animosity between them. At a meeting in Seoul just before the new year, Japan agreed to contribute $8 million to a fund for women who, during World War II, were forced to work in Japan’s brothels. Only a few dozen of these women known euphemistically as “comfort women” are still alive. But the agreement is as much about symbolic repentance as it is about the money. For its part, South Korea promises to stop bringing up the issue of Japan’s war-time sex slaves.
Electrical Stimulation on Bacterial Infections (23:55)
Guests: Haluk Beyenal, PhD, Professor in WSU’s Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering; Doug Call, PhD, Professor of Molecular Epidemiology in the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health at Washington State
According to the CDC, at least two million infections and 23,000 deaths are the result of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Hospitals now see “superbugs” that are resistant to so many drugs they’re nearly invincible and lead to almost certain death if they make it to a patient’s blood stream. The race is on to create new antibiotics, yes. But also to come up with treatments that don’t involve drugs the bacteria can develop a resistance to. How about electricity?
Printable Clothing (37:53)
Guest: Danit Peleg, Recent Graduate from Shenkar College in Isreal, Creator of the first 3D-printed fashion collection using home printers, Adviser for designers and fashion houses on new technologies
How cool would it be if you could design an outfit on your home computer, click a button, and have it pop right out on a 3D printer – perfectly tailored to your measurements?
It’s not as futuristic as it sounds.
Challenger Whistleblower (49:49)
Guest: Allan McDonald, Author of “Truth, Lies and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster”
We spoke with a man who nearly took the fall for NASA back in 1986. Most people who were alive then remember exactly where they were on the morning of January 28th. Space Shuttle Challenger launch. 73 seconds into the flight. All 3 crew members died.
Gandhi in South Africa (1:12:35)
Guest: Gaurav Desai, PhD, Professor of English and African Studies at Tulane University, Author of “Commerce with the Universe”
The relationship between India and the U.K. has improved quite a bit in the 70 years since Gandhi fought for India’s independence from British rule. The statute of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi unveiled in London’s Parliament Square was erected to mark the 100th anniversary of Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa to begin the movement toward Indian independence.
But that South African period in Gandhi’s life isn’t necessarily glossed-over.
Gender Pricing (1:03)
Guest: Julie Menin, JD, New York City’s Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs
It pays to be a man when shopping for thinks like razors, body wash – even bike helmets and knee pads for kids. A comprehensive comparison of 800 such products with male and female versions found items marketing to girls and women cost an average of 7 percent more than those for boys and men. That means that over her lifetime, a woman will spend thousands of dollars more to purchase products branded for women.
Read the study here
Advantages of Being Epicurean (16:08)
Guest: Yann Cornil, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business
Research into epicureans who so intensely appreciate fine food finds they are not more likely to be overweight. Rather, it’s the antagonistic relationship to food as a guilty pleasure we hate to admit but can’t resist - that’s the kind of eating likely to cause weight gain.
Intense Weather Ahead for California (34:41)
Guests: Lawrence Hipps, PhD, Climate Scientist at Utah State University; Robert Gillies, PhD, Director of the Utah Climate Center
After years of record drought, Southern California is now being pummeled by rain and flooding that is expected to last a couple of weeks. Meteorologists blame El Nino – that storm generating system over the Pacific Ocean that rears its head every four or five years.
Climate scientists at Utah State University have linked global warming to a more intense El Nino pattern. Their latest study published in the journal Nature Communications predicts even more dramatic fluctuations are in store for California, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.
Global Gender Gap (50:56)
Guest: Gwen Young, JD, Director of the Global Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Wilson Center
Half of the world’s most populous countries have never had a female head of state. The US is on that list – though the distinction could change next year, with Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina are running for President. The lack of women in halls of power is one of the reasons the United States fell in the rankings of countries making most progress to close the gender gap. It’s called the Global Gender Gap Report and The World Economic Forum has been doing it annually for ten years. Gwen Young from the Wilson Center shares her reaction.
New Elements (1:06:49)
Guest: Larry Baxter, PhD, Professor of Chemical Engineering at BYU
This next conversation will probably elicit groans from current and future chemistry students – the periodic table just got bigger. Four new elements were officially added to the 7th row of that nightmare for memorization.
False Crime Confessions (1:18:09)
Guest: Stephen Porter, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia and Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Psychological Science and Law.
According to the Innocence Project, more than 1 out of 4 people who were wrongfully convicted, and who were later exonerated by DNA evidence, had made a false confession or incriminating statement. Why do so many people confess to crimes they did not commit?
A new study from the University of British Columbia examines one explanation: innocent people somehow become convinced they actually did commit the crime.
Officer-Involved Shootings (1:03)
Guest: Amy Brittain, Investigative Reporter for the Washington Post
A year-long Washington Post investigation found nearly 1000 people were fatally shot by police in 2015. Law enforcement officials often describe these incidents as rare and traumatic in the life of an officer. But the Post investigation also found that for some 50 police officers involved in fatal shootings last year, this was not their first time. For a handful of them, it was even their third shooting.
Unreliable Senses (24:34)
Guest: Ladan Shams, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles
Whether it’s a wooly mammoth or an oncoming car, our survival has always depended on our ability to accurately identify objects around us. As a result, you’d think the skill of locating objects in space – using our eyes and ears – would be finely tuned. But the largest study yet on this concept shows we’re not nearly as accurate as we like to think.
Apple Seed (40:06)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed on BYUradio
Sam Payne joins us in studio to share a story from Jewish storyteller Syd Lieberman.
Family Plan Thesis Research (50:17)
Guest: Erin Cech, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rice University
Technically speaking, there are not “jobs for men” and “jobs for women” in the American labor force, and yet many fields remain dominated by one gender or another. There are more female teachers and more male engineers, for example.
One explanation for the division is called the “Family Plan Thesis” and it suggests that men gravitate to jobs that will help them provide for a family, while women go into fields that will give them flexibility to care for a future family. The current crop of college students doesn’t seem to be buying that thesis, though.
Impact of Food Insecurity on Kids (1:08:51)
Guest: Rachel Kimbro, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology at Rice University and the Associate Director of the Kinder Institute's Urban Health Program
Being hungry is never fun. Living in perpetual hunger – or even just the threat of it – is more damaging to children than previously thought. Sociology professor Rachel Kimbro has just published work looking at what happens to the behavior and mental health of young children when they suddenly find themselves “food insecure.” The results suggest there’s a lasting effect – even into adulthood.
Increasing Understanding of Islam (1:21:33)
Guest: Morgan Davis, PhD, Assistant Research Fellow at BYU’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Director of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative
The US Department of Education this week sent out an urgent plea for schools to guard against harassment and discrimination of students because of their race, religion or national origin. The call is a response to anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiments that appear to be on the rise since the San Bernardino terror attacks and the ongoing campaign rhetoric of Donald Trump, who says Muslims should temporarily be banned from entering the US.
Fostering understanding of the Muslim faith is a key priority of BYU’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, which translates and publishes ancient philosophical writings of Muslims, Jews and Christians into English.
Homeless Youth and the Law (1:03)
Guest: Nicole Lowe, Assistant Attorney General, Utah Attorney General’s Office
The governor of New York yesterday issued an executive order that all homeless people must be brought inside during freezing weather – even if that means police officers forcibly carting people off to homeless shelters when the temperature dips below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a controversial move, to say the least. And an interesting entry into our discussion today about meeting the needs of the more than one million teenagers living on U.S. streets. They’re a difficult group to serve because they often steer clear of homeless shelters, where they don’t feel safe. Shelters can offer them warm coats and meals. But more permanent strategies for helping people get off the streets don’t work with kids who are underage.
Child Well-Being (21:06)
Guest: Anne Gadermann, PhD, Assistant Professor with the Human Early Learning Partnership at University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health
Parents worry: Are their kids are getting enough green vegetables? Are they making enough friends? Do they have enough opportunities? A study published in the Journal of Happiness suggests the secret to a child’s sense of well-being is pretty straightforward and it doesn’t have much to do with money or meals.
Blind Analysis (32:44)
Guest: Robert MacCoun, PhD, Professor of Law at Stanford University
You know how you can read over something you’ve written many times and never notice a typo until someone else points it out? Either you’re not looking for it or you just don’t see it because you don’t want to or don’t expect to. There’s a phenomenon in scientific research called “confirmation bias” where scientists get the result they expect to get. In myriad subtle – even unconscious ways – they tweak their analysis and hone in on the findings that match their hypotheses. In the journal Nature two renowned scientists – including a Nobel Prize laureate in Physics – called on researchers to adopt techniques to avoid the unconscious biases that make studies less reliable. “Blind analysis” should be the standard for all types of research, they say.
Changing Labor Laws (51:02)
Guest: Patrick Flavin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences
A key source of votes and funding for the Democratic Party is in flux. The party’s likely candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, has already been endorsed by large unions representing the majority of state and local employees and teachers across the country. She’ll need their support to win because the nation’s eight million government workers represented by labor unions are central to Democratic election strategy. But the winds may be shifting. Overall union membership is in decline, states are curtailing collective bargaining rights and a pending Supreme Court case could weaken the influence of unions in politics.
Parent Previews: Concussion, Joy (1:12:51)
Guest: Rod Gustafsen, Film Reviewer at Parentpreviews.com
More than a few Americans have football on the brain as the Super Bowl approaches. Football’s literal effect on the brain is the focus of a new film featuring Will Smith called "Concussion."
Also, the based-on-reality movie "Joy" features Jennifer Lawrence as a down-on-her-luck single mom with a dysfunctional family who makes it big inventing a self-wringing mop.
Tech Transfer: Bee-Colony Collapse (1:22:37)
Guests: Sandra H. Burnett, PhD, and Mike Alder, Director of BYU's Technology Transfer Office
Honey bees have disappeared at a staggering rate in the US. In just one year, the US lost 42 percent of its managed honey bee colonies, according to the US Department of Agriculture. There are many reasons for the decline, but BYU microbiology professor Sandra Burnett has pioneered a novel solution to one disease so contagious beekeepers are often forced to incinerate their infected hives. It’s called American Foulbrood and we discuss it as part of our weekly technology series.
This special "Snow Day" episode uses segments which originally aired on "The Morning Show with Marcus Smith" on December 26, 2014.
The Romance of Snow in America
Snow is the essence of paradox, says Bernard Mergen, professor emeritus of American Studies at George Washington University and author of “Snow in America.”
“Snow falls as soft, individual crystals, but when it hits the ground it becomes heavy and watery – that contrast catches people from the beginning,” says Mergen, of snow’s power. “Snow comes in a season of darkness, but it’s white and reflects the light of sun and moon – so it’s those kinds of paradoxes that draw people to snow.”
Years ago, when Mergen set out to right “Snow in America” he sent out a request in the New York Times for people to share their first experiences with snow. The results surprised him. “Having grown up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, I never thought about people who hadn’t experienced snow in childhood.” The responses flooded in from people who had their first snow encounter as older children or adults. “The most important thing I learned about snow was that throughout the world it is equated first with Northern Europe, then with the United States. People responded that they thought about “going to America to see snow. That an American Christmas is a White Christmas.”
Mergen traced that connection back to the British Colonists in the 17th Century who encountered in New England, more severe snow conditions than they’d known in England. “As good religious people they saw it as a test. If they were going to create a utopia in America, they would have to work harder than other people.”
New England authors including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne created a literature of snow storms they felt were exceptional to New England. “Exceptionalism isn’t just national, it can be regional, too,” says Mergen.
As North/South rivalries and dissension grew stronger in 19th century, “snow was used more and more as a symbol of New England goodness and hard work and preparation for winter made them better people than Southerners who were lazy and had slaves to work because they weren’t up to the task themselves.”
Mergen says when Scandinavians came to Midwest, they brought stronger images of living in heavy snow – they brought the pleasure of snow, recreating in snow, using snow as a means of communication because a sled could go faster than a wagon. “Winter was a time of play and leisure and good times.” Mergen adds that it’s no accident the first winter carnival in the United States was in St. Paul, MN.
Romantic “snowscape”paintings became popular in the 1840s and 50s when lithography came into being, says Mergen. An artist named George Drury led out with paintings copied by Currier and Ives, which “invariably showed a farm house in the snow – snow on the roof, smoke coming from chimney, animals and children playing, a sleigh driving by. Drury’s paintings engaged in multiple symbolism of winter harmony.”
Emerson’s use of the snowstorm as a metaphor is Mergen’s primary candidate for how snow was perceived in the 19th Century. “It is a philosophical meditation on order and disorder. A snowstorm that comes in and disrupts life and isolates the farmer in his home is really about order and disorder. It’s disorder as it blows in and swirls and piles up and then order emerges at the end when you go out and look at the new snowscape for first time and see things you’ve never seen before. Snow is a great encourager or imagination. One of the paradoxes of snow is that it traps the farmer at home, but encourages him and his wife and children to see things in a new way. You find a lot of that in 19th Century romantic literature and art.”
In the 20th Century, Mergen says snow takes on modernist meaning. “Man, having lost much of his faith in the divine, is looking at an empty expanse that is, in some ways, frightening.”
Falling snow is also a symbol of beginnings, while fallen snow evokes endings – or “the beginning of the end.” That ties into the cyclical nature of snow as a process, says Mergen. “Snow is water that evaporates, goes into the atmosphere, freezes, falls and rests until it melts and evaporates again.”
Snow Survival
Snow is romantic and cozy if you’re inside, but if you’re stuck on the side of the road in a blizzard or our in the woods when a storm hits, snow can turn dangerous, very quickly.
The key to surviving in a storm is “not to lose your cool,” says Tom Kostigen, founder of The Climate Survivalist and author of National Geographic’s “The Extreme Weather Survival Guide: Understand, Prepare, Survive, Recover.”
If you’re stuck in your car in a storm, stay in it, says Kostigen. “Then at least you know you have shelter. Make sure your tailpipe is clean. Run the engine every ten minutes to keep you warm. Crack the windows so you don’t get carbon monoxide poisoning. Put a colored flag on your antenna. It’s up to you to have the tools – sand, salt, shovels, emergency supplies in your car so you can prepare for those emergencies.”
“We plan ahead for Christmas, for vacations, for holidays - but we don’t like to plan ahead for negative things, we don’t like to think about emergencies,” says Kostigen. Make sure your car is tuned-up when you travel, that your tank is full.
If you get stuck outside in a snow storm, Kostigen says look for some sort of shelter to block out rain, snow and wind. Staying put is very important, because things look closer in the snow. If you have to move, toss something dark like a rock or piece of clothing in front of you so you know if it’s safe to step forward. You may have to move in order to find a safer place to hunker down.
Sweating is a big issue, too, says Kostigen. “That’s another reason it’s important to stay put. Perspiration will really drop your temperature quickly – just a four degree drop in your body temperature and you’re in a hypothermic state when your body starts to shut down.”
Find something that’s darker than the snow
How Hollywood Gets Snow Wrong
“Snow, snow! I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow,” sings one of the characters in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.
“I hear that Snow song and I think, this is clearly a song written by somewhere in Southern California who’s never had his face washed in snow,” says Kerry Bennett of Parent Previews. She reviews movies with Rod Gustafson and both live in Canada, which makes them experts on snow.
They say Hollywood gets it wrong, generally. “I think they use it a lot because it looks pretty for the cameras,” says Gustafson.
Two of their favorite snow-themed movies are “Cool Runnings” about the Jamaican bobsled team competing in the Calgary Winter Olympics and “Groundhog Day,” where snow takes on various identities and ultimately the star makes peace with it.
Snow's Economic Effects
The duality of snow really comes out in a snow storm hits a city. Kids are elated when school is cancelled. You can’t get into work, so you can spend the unexpected day off holed up with a book or watching an entire season of your favorite TV show on Netflix.
But your boss probably isn’t so thrilled. A major storm can mean slow sales, cancelled flights, power outages.
When storm shuts down a city, “money is not moving and that economic impact ripples right across the nation,” says Scott Bernhardt, President of Planalytics which studies the impact of weather on businesses and economies.
Some of that money comes back, says Bernhardt. Any major purchase you delay because of snow, you’ll probably still buy later. “But a lot of activity fails to come back. If you don’t go to a restaurant on that Friday night, you don’t go twice on Saturday night. That trip on Friday night you skipped because of a storm is completely lost.”
If the storm comes during a major business or shopping season – like Black Friday – the loss will be even bigger, adds Bernhardt.
Cities spend big money to deal with snow, too. Planalytics estimates New York City, has to spend one million dollars an inch for basic snow removal on the city street.
Both cities and businesses “have to do their homework and do the math,” says Bernhardt. The best way to do that is to look at historic weather and economic data to see if staying open or buying extra plows has made good financial sense in the past.
If you’re forecast for the stomr of the century, or storm of the decade, it’s a pretty easy decision – shut the business down. But if you’re looking at a 1-3 inch snowstorm, that’s a more common decision businesses are faced with.
When businesses lose in a snowstorm, so do governments, which rely on sales taxes. Cold weather pushes up the cost of heating government buildings, too.
Energy companies, on the other hand, get a nice financial boost when cold weather hits. “you talk about the negative effect of snow, but it’s not negative if you’re selling snow shovels. People that make boots talk about that first snow as ‘white gold.’”
Even with the money being made during a snow storm, Bernhardt says big storms are a “net negative” on local economies: more money is lost than is gained.
The Business of Snow
Snow is money to the ski industry and quality matters, says Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association.
“We’ve learned to hedge,” adds Berry. “We’ve learned to make snow and create a quality experience, but to be honest, a great snow makes a great business year.”
Snow making is almost ubiquitous in the United States now - “it’s the cost of doing business – if you don’t have snow, you’re not in business,” says Berry. “Some years it gets the season going early. Some years we use it to open lower elevations or build a base for new snow.”
Berry notes that ski resorts today are less-dependent on actually skiing, while food, lodging, retail and rental are increasingly important to overall revenue. Most operations at a ski resort are owned by a single operating company (hotel, restaurant, ski school, rental shop, etc.)
Skiers are loyal to the sport and to their “home ski area,” says Berry. “They’re always comparing their home ski area to other places they ski.”
As the climate changes, Berry says “Snow making is more important than ever, to us and we’ve become very good at it. If you’re nostalgic for the good old days, I would argue you weren’t there, because the product really has never been better than it is today.”
“We don’t have our head in a snow bank when it comes to climate change,” continues Berry. “We’re very concerned about the possibility of warming. But in the immediate term, we’re pretty good at serving up a product that meets people’s expectations and that’s a result of our increasingly sophisticated snow-making systems.”
He says ski resorts are taking an active role in reducing their own CO2 emissions and encouraging their customers to do likewise.
The Economy of Skiing
Does Utah really have “The Greatest Snow on Earth?”
“It’s scientific fact,” says Nathan Rafferty, president of Ski Utah, which popularized the slogan. He says the slogan was coined by a newspaper writer decades ago and just caught on. “If it’s on the license plate, it must be true.”
But now, says Rafferty, there’s science to suggest that Utah’s snow really is special. “Without getting too technical, it has to do with how storms come here in a way they call ‘right side up’ where storms start off warmer and get colder as storms move through, which makes denser snow on the bottom, lighter snow on the top, which makes for really great conditions.”
Snow making is fine for a base, but you need Mother Nature’s snow for the perfect conditions. “That’s part of the allure in skiing,” adds Rafferty. “When it’s on, it’s on and you gotta get to the slopes.”
Sometimes, living up to the slogan is tough. “In Utah, we have a whole state full of snow snobs,” says Rafferty. “That usually works for us, but in a bad snow year, it hurts us.”
Good marketing can make up for less-than-optimal snow on some level. “I’ve had really, really fun ski experiences in a lot of locations around the country and it doesn’t just have to be perfect powder. Just being outside with your family in nature is pretty magical.”
Quinn Mecham’s 2015 Predictions (1:09)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, BYU Professor of Political Science
It’s the time when people start looking back at the year that was and making predictions for 2016. In that spirit, BYU Political Science professor Quinn Mecham joins Top of Mind to look at how well he predicted things would play out on the international stage this year.
Cancer Treatment and Media Bias (25:38)
Guest: Vinay Prasad, MD, Medical Oncologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Knight Cancer Institute and Oregon Health and Science University
This next conversation has the potential to be a game changer—a breakthrough, even. How often do you hear words like that used by the media to describe the latest cancer drug or treatment? Quite a bit, it seems. Medical oncologist Vinay Prasad from the Knight Cancer Institute and Oregon Health and Science University recently co-authored an analysis about who is guiltiest of using superlatives that make cancer discoveries sound more impressive than they really are. While the media aren’t the only culprits, we’re at the top of the heap.
Ignoring Distractions (51:20)
Guests: Michael Halassa, PhD, Professor at New York University’s Langone Medical Center; Jim Gnadt, PhD, Program Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health
Distraction is a constant in our daily lives. Sometimes by choice—like when you scroll through your Facebook feed while watching TV while carrying on a text conversation with a friend. Sometimes by circumstance—think about everything that comes at you when you drive—the traffic signals, the weather, the pedestrians, other cars around you and whatever you’re listening to on the radio.
How our brains are able to filter out unnecessary information and zero in on what matters is a mystery researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health are getting closer to unlocking.
Breathless Choir (1:11:17)
Guest: Evelin Alvarez-Flores, Member of Philips’ Breathless Choir
Good singers will tell you that breath control is essential to their craft: It doesn’t matter how lovely your voice is if you can’t make it through a phrase without gasping for air.
So imagine trying to sing with a chronic lung disease like emphysema or severe asthma. Most people with such conditions might consider singing out of the question. But that’s because they haven’t met famed British choirmaster Gareth Malone and his Breathless Choir.
Christmas History (1:22:51)
Guest: Bruce Forbes, PhD, Chair of the Philosophy and Religious Studies department at Morningside College and author of “America’s Favorite Holidays”
Every year we hear the lament: Santa Claus is a commercial invention. Christmas is about Christ. We’ve forgotten the true meaning of the holiday. And there are calls to return to the pure spiritual roots of Christmas.
Except, the true roots of Christmas have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. And once the holiday was considered so pagan it was banned in America. Anyone caught observing Christmas in any way could be fined five shillings in Massachusetts. That was back in 1659 when the Puritans ruled the roost.
So how did Christmas become America’s favorite holiday?
Private Insurance Costs (1:03)
Guest: Zack Cooper, PhD, Professor of Health Policy and Economics at Yale University
The window for enrolling in health insurance through healthcaare.gov closed last week with a bang: more than half a million people signed up on Tuesday alone, prompting President Obama to highlight the success in his year-end press conference. The President also noted that health care prices are increasing at a slower pace than they have in 50 years.
But prices are still increasing, as anyone who’s paid a hospital bill or renewed an insurance policy can tell you. One of the oft-cited criticisms of the Affordable Care Act is that it hasn’t really made care more affordable. Its primary focus has been getting more people covered by insurance through a variety of programs and penalties.
Tackling the high cost of health care in American has been a challenge, in part, because of a simple lack of data. The government knows what it pays for procedures covered by Medicare. But no one has had a good handle on how much the rest of us paying for scans or surgery at the hospital. Until now.
Huddled Masses (21:51)
Guest: Leonard Greenspoon, PhD, Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies and of Theology at Creighton University and the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization
Just before leaving for Christmas vacation last week, President Obama attended a naturalization ceremony for 31 of the nation’s newest citizens, including people from Iraq and Uganda. He told the crowd that while most countries admit immigrants, America is different because it is a nation born of immigrants. And he offered a few stark historical comparisons for the skepticism facing current refugees.
Disability Inclusion (41:32)
Guest: Mary Beth Bruder, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service Center at the University of Connecticut
By the time children with developmental disabilities get to elementary school, it’s fairly common across the country for them to have the option of attending a public school with some special education classes throughout the day. “Mainstreaming” is pretty mainstream, so to speak. But before elementary school, the options are a lot more limited. In fact, the US Department of Education says more than half of preschool children with disabilities are in settings entirely separate from their peers without disabilities. Often, they’re not even given the option of an inclusive pre-school setting.
The US Department of Education recently issued a policy statement urging a more focused state effort to create inclusive early childhood programs for preschoolers with disabilities.
Avoiding Stress (51:05)
Guest: Daniel Levitin, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at McGill University and Dean of the College of Arts & Humanities at the Keck Graduate Institute’s Minerva Schools
If you’re anticipating a fair amount of stress in the coming days, with the feasting and the visiting relatives and the kids with their high, high expectations of gifts, plus the returns and the clean-up, do yourself a little favor: Take a moment to imagine just how bad it might get.
It’s a technique called “pre-mortem” and behavioral neuroscientist Daniel Levitin says it can help you stay calm during stressful times.
Parent Previews: Star Wars (1:06:53)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Reviews films at ParentPreviews.com
You may need a little of the force to offer any kind of critique on this new Star Wars movie. It is such a huge hit, making half a billion dollars in the opening weekend.
Decoy Packages (1:17:08)
Guest: Thad Weiland, Resident of the Daybreak community in Utah
For the first time in history, nearly half of all Christmas shopping is being done online, according to the National Retail Federation. And so, mail delivery companies are working at full tilt and thieves are on the prowl for easy pickings off un-attended porches.
One community near Salt Lake City called, “Daybreak” has been getting national attention for their grassroots approach to preventing package pilfering. No, it doesn’t entail spycams or lurking in the bushes for a bandit. They’re using decoy packages to foil thieves.
Healthy Holiday Eating (1:26:13)
Guest: Nicholas Fischetti, Clinical Dietitian with Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical Center
Don’t look now, but the calories are piling up on the counter—all those treats from the neighbors and the indulgent stuff you are obligated by tradition to make for the holiday feast. Skimping on the cream or sugar feels a little bah-humbug this time of year.
If it’s even possible to make the holidays healthy, then Nicholas Fischetti is going to show us how.
Art and Religion Panel (1:03)
Guests: Elliott Wise, PhD, Instructor of Art History at BYU; Kirk Richards, Artist; Anthony Sweat, PhD, Professor of Religion at BYU
How do you paint the face of God? What color, what gaze, what form should it take? Where does an accomplished artist begin to tackle such a task – and perhaps more importantly, why?
Save Me from My Demons
Cherubim and a Flaming Sword
Christo V
Isenheim Altarpiece
Greatest Snow on Earth (52:15)
Guest: Jim Steenburgh, PhD, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah and Author of “Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth.”
Snow is a big deal in the Western US, bringing in billions of dollars in tourism revenue from California to Washington, Idaho to Colorado. There’s heated debate among skiers and state tourism officials about where the best snow can be found. Since the 1960s, Utah has brazenly claimed to have The Greatest Snow on Earth. Marketing ploy? Yes, but there’s some scientific fact to it as well.
Cuba-U.S. Settlement Claims (1:03)
Guest: Evan Ward, PhD, BYU History Professor
Already, the long-estranged nations have re-opened embassies in each other’s borders and restored travel by air and sea. But there’s a two-billion-dollar hurdle standing in the way of a full-thawing between the US and Cuba.
Two billion dollars is the value of America company assets seized by Fidel Castro’s government in the early 1960s. Texaco, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive and even Disney claim to have had factories, mills, homes and even rail-lines taken by the Castro regime. Those seizures are a big reason the US cut economic ties with Cuba. And now, for the first time in 50 years, formal talks are underway to resolve the claims. Until there’s a settlement, the US trade embargo can’t be lifted.
Lack of Sleep (20:45)
Guest: Michael Grandner, PhD, Director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the UA College of Medicine
If you have trouble sleeping, you know about its tolls: the fatigue, the difficulty focusing at work, the stress of constantly running on fumes. But there’s a financial cost, too. A study in the “Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine” found that people who always have trouble sleeping end up spending $3,500 more per year on health care than people who sleep fine. That even takes into account other health problems people might have.
Childhood Obesity and Sugar (32:28)
Guest: Alejandro Gugliucci, MD, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry and the Associate Dean for Research at Touro University California
The sweets just keep coming during the holidays. If weight loss is the goal, then reducing calories is key. But, there’s increasing evidence that even if you just swap a dinner roll for that cookie, your body will thank you.
Identity Theft and Terrorism (51:53)
Guest: Suzanne Barber, PhD, AT&T Endowed Professor in Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Center for Identity at The University of Texas at Austin
Having your identity stolen can be a nightmare for your finances and credit. It can also become a nightmare for national security. Terrorists depend on stolen or fake passports and other ID information usually obtained fraudulently. At least one of the Paris attackers and six of the 19 terrorists involved in 9/11 are thought to have used fake passports in carrying out the attacks.
Get the free PrivacyCheck browser plug-in here
Images of Mary (1:15:42)
Guest: Catherine Taylor, PhD, Adjunct professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU
Artists most famously depict Mary in two ways: either looking radiantly down at the newborn son of God or holding the lifeless body of Christ just down from the cross.
But, early Christian art portrayed Mary in a very different way. They drew great meaning from envisioning Mary in domestic life—not just a sainted mother of the Son of God, but a woman in her own right.
Drug Pricing and Pharmacies (1:03)
Guest: Joel Hay, PhD, Professor of Pharmaceutical Economics at the University of Southern California Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics
A wave of high profile price increases on generic drugs prompted a US Senate committee to start investigating. At a hearing to kick off that investigation, specialists from all corners of the health care system testified they’re powerless to rein-in out-of-control prescription costs. Today we’re asking what the pharmacy’s role is in all of this. Why does the same prescription cost $10 at one pharmacy and $60 at another? Do pharmacies mark up the cost of drugs? Do they have deals with drug makers or health care companies to get an extra cut when they fill certain prescriptions? And by the way, where have all the independently-owned corner drug stores gone?
Storing Energy Underground (19:55)
Guest: Mark Jacobson, PhD, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford
Most of the talk about shifting to renewable energy in America also includes an admission that some coal, gas or nuclear will still have to be part of the mix. After all, the sun’s not always shining, the wind not always blowing. How would we keep the lights on when it’s dark and still?
Sexual Assault (35:48)
Guest: Julie Valentine, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner and Nursing Professor at BYU
Every few minutes, someone in America is sexually assaulted, but the vast majority of those rapes do not get reported. Of those that do, it’s highly unlikely the perpetrator will spend even a day in jail. Keep in mind, when the crime is rape, the crime scene is literally the victim’s body, so evidence has to be collected immediately and processed later. However, that DNA and other evidence, collected in what’s called a “rape kit,” is highly likely to end up sitting on a shelf in some police precinct, never to be tested for a DNA match. Best estimates by media outlets and the department of justice place the national backlog of untested rape kits in the tens of thousands.
Drones (51:52)
Guest: Richard Jost, JD, Director of the Drone practice with law firm Fennemore Craig and Professor of Law and Unmanned Aerial Systems at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Drones are a hot Christmas item – the FAA expects about a million to be sold this holiday. Get ready to see more buzzing over the park when you take your family or the next outdoor concert you attend – or, maybe outside your windows. Federal regulators – and legal experts – are scrambling to catch up with the explosion of light-weight, relatively inexpensive flying robots often equipped with high-powered cameras. Aviation officials are particularly concerned about the dozens of close encounters drones are having with passenger planes. But our conversation is concerned with privacy questions.
Crouching Tiger (1:15:53)
Guest: Peter Navarro, PhD, Professor at the Merage School of Business at the University of
California-Irvine and Author of “Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism means for the World”
What is America’s single greatest foreign policy challenge? Some might say a nuclear Iran or maybe an increasingly threatening ISIS, or perhaps an aggressive Russian president. Peter Navarro, however, suggests America’s greatest foreign policy challenge could be a crouching tiger. His new book, “Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World” assesses the probability of conflict between the United States and the rising Asian superpower.
Religion in a Global Society (1:03)
Guest: Mark Juergensmeyer, PhD, Founding Director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara and Author of “God in the Tumult of the Global Square: Religion in Global Civil Society”
The internet, mobile phones and satellite TV have made the world a much smaller place. Through them, you can immigrate to a new country but still feel connected to the people and culture of your home. You can live in the US, but wear a hat knit by a woman in the far reaches of the Himalayas. For a month’s salary or less, you could hop on a plane and be face to face with that knitter in a day’s time. “Globalization” is what experts call this. Boundaries tend to mean less; cultures tend to blend more when we’re all so much more in touch. So here’s the question a group of scholars have been chewing on recently -- what does this smaller world mean for religion? For its place in our lives? And for the power of religious organizations in society?
Math Story Timeline (23:20)
Guests: Marjorie Scheafer and Talia Berkowitz, Graduate Students in the Developmental Psychology Program at the University of Chicago
The bedtime story is a hallowed routine for many families. And research shows reading to children improves literacy and listening skills. How about boost math skills? The right kind of bedtime story can according to a study published in the journal “Science.”
The Apple Seed (39:55)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
Car Crash Injury Risk (51:54)
Guest: Ashley Weaver, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University Center for Injury Biomechanics
Crash test dummies make for dramatic car commercial images, but they are so last decade. The latest research shows computer simulations of car accidents are a much better way to predict injuries. For one thing – you can’t tell by looking at the state of a dummy post-crash whether or not real-life victim might have suffered damage to internal organs. You can with a computer simulation.
Displaced Students in Nigeria (1:09:05)
Guest: Michael Zamba, Senior Director of Communications at Creative Associates International
The terror group Boko Haram – which is now affiliated with ISIS – has wrought so much havoc in parts of Nigeria that some 2.2 million people have fled their homes and villages. Many of these internally-displaced refugees are children who have lost family members and the stability of their former lives. For them, the opportunity to spend a few hours a week in a classroom learning basic math and language skills is not just a diversion; it’s a refuge.
Medical Side Effects on Women (1:24:29)
Guest: Alyson McGregor, MD, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Brown University, Director for the Division of Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine, Attending Physician at Rhode Island Hospital, Co-founder of the Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative
When your doctor says, something like “this medicine has been shown to work well in 60% of patients,” you probably think – “Well, hey, I’ve got a pretty good chance it’ll work well for me.” But, now let’s say you’re a woman and the doctor said, “this medicine has been shown to work well in 60% of men.” Then you’d be thinking – yeah, and…what about women? And here’s the thing – your doctor probably won’t have the answer. Because, drugs are mainly tested on men – or cells that came from men. It’s been that way for decades, but there is growing interest in addressing “gender blindness” in the drug mark
Fed Interest Rates (1:03)
Guest: Christian vom Lehn, PhD, Professor of Economics at BYU
This is the month when the Federal Reserve is likely to finally raise the benchmark interest rate from the rock bottom level it’s been at since 2008. Of course, analysts have said a rate increase would definitely happen before, but this time, US employment and new job growth are robust enough that it would be hard for the Fed’s Open Committee not to follow through when it meets tomorrow and Wednesday.
Mexican Migration (21:48)
Guest: Leo Chavez, PhD, Professor in the University of California Irvine’s School of Social Sciences and Author of “The Latino Threat”
There’s another Republican presidential debate tomorrow and immigration will probably come up. While the focus has shifted to Syrian refugees, it will undoubtedly circle back to Mexico before the race is over. We may yet hear renewed talk of mass deportation and building a wall on the US border. But new analysis by the Pew Research Center finds that since the recession, more Mexicans have left the US than have come here. The tide seems to have reversed.
Conversation About Dying (38:45)
Guest: Karl Lorenz, MD, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and Section Chief for the Veterans Health Administration-Stanford Programs in Palliative Care
Here’s a stunning fact to consider – back when Medicare was signed into law 50 years ago, most people died in their homes and the life sustaining treatments we’ve come to consider standard procedure hadn’t been invented yet. Technological advances have helped us live longer. But are we living better? We’re definitely not dying better, according to the doctors and researchers who focus on end-of-life care.
Consumer Rage (51:17)
Guest: Mary Murcott, President of the Customer Experience Institute and Chief Strategy Officer of DIALOGDIRECT
“Your call is very important to us.” If hearing that empty declaration of your importance while on hold for an eternity makes your blood boil, you’re in good company. A new study by Arizona State University found two-thirds of respondents reported feeling consumer rage at some point – often brought on by a frustrating encounter with customer service - 35 percent said they’d actually yelled, 15 percent admitted to cursing. Customers are getting angrier and the biggest culprits are – wait for it – cable and satellite TV companies. Phone companies are high on the list, too, and internet providers.
Parent Previews: In the Heart and the Sea (1:11:56)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Time now for our weekly look at new movies: The real-life encounter of a whaling ship that encounters a whale of mammoth size – and sinks because of it. This is the maritime tragedy that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. It opened in theaters over the weekend.
Tech Tranfer: Better Quinoa (1:20:09)
Guests: Rick Jellen, PhD, Professor in the Plant & Wildlife Sciences Department at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
The past couple of years, quinoa has been by popping up on the organic aisle at the grocery store and appearing on the menus for those hip soup and salad places that are so popular. It’s a grain, in case you were wondering. And now it’s become so mainstream that you can buy it in your Cheerios cereal.
A couple of researchers here at BYU are tinkering with quinoa’s DNA to see if they can make a better version – better for growing in certain places, not necessarily better tasting.
More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.
How the Other Half Banks (1:03)
Guest: Mehrsa Baradaran, JD, Associate Professor of Contracts and Banking Law at The University of Georgia School of Law
Anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of Americans have to rely on “fringe banks” such as payday lenders, check cashers and pawn shops because the traditional banks are simply not interested in meeting their needs. Mehrsa Baradaran lays out the problem and its causes starkly in her book – and proposes a rather surprising solution involving the mail carrier who drops by your house every day.
"The Hillary Doctrine" (51:13)
Guest: Valerie Hudson, PhD, Professor and George H.W. Bush Chair of the Department of International Affairs at Texas A&M University and Author of “The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy"
When the Secretary of State considers the war, tyranny and violence in the world – where do the needs of women fit into the picture? According to Valerie Hudson, the first question in any foreign policy decision should be “what about the women?” Too often, she says, international negotiators say, “Let’s do what we can to broker peace and then we’ll worry about how women will fare under the deal.”
Climate Change and Hunger (1:03)
Guest: John Antle, PhD, Agricultural Economist and Professor at Oregon State University
The UN’s climate change conference wraps up in Paris tomorrow. Nearly 200 governments honing in on a deal to fight climate change have set lofty aspirations for protecting vulnerable countries from rising seas, but delegates said there were still gaps in the latest draft of an agreement.
The world’s food supply is one of many things at stake.
Children's Self-Esteem (19:46)
Guest: Dario Cvencek, PhD, Research Scientist at the University of Washington's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences
Can we measure the confidence of a five-year old? If she says, “I did it!” or “I can’t do it!” what does that mean about her underlying self-confidence? Measuring self-esteem in a five-year old is tricky, but a new study presents findings that give insight into what’s going on in those little brains.
deFUNKit (35:29)
Guest: Richard Geiger, PhD, CEO of Dune Sciences, Inc.
No matter how many times you wash a pair of gym socks, sometimes they just hang onto a certain stench. There’s a scientific explanation for that – and now, a scientific solution.
Middle East Panel (51:35)
Guests: Steven Lobell, PhD, Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah; John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Utah Valley University; Fred Axelgard, PhD, Wheatley Institution Senior Fellow at BYU
Our monthly panel of Middle East experts is back as a majority of Americans have shifted opinion to be in favor of sending ground troops into the fight against ISIS. And that CNN poll was taken before the attack in San Bernardino and its link to ISIS were known. ?We'll begin with the fear of terrorism and its link to Islam in the United States.
Sewage Sludge Treasure (1:27:05)
Guest: Paul Westerhoff, PhD, Environmental Engineering Professor at Arizona State University
We have treasure in a most unlikely place. Researchers have found significant amounts of precious metals in sewage sludge. They say that the valuable metals in bio-solids may be worth up to $13 million per year for a community of 1 million people.
Thailand at a Crossroads (1:04)
Guest: Shane Strate, PhD, Professor Southeast Asian history at Kent State University and Author of “The Lost Territories: Thailand’s History of National Humiliation”
Thailand has been under military control since a coup in May 2014. That coup – just the latest in a series over the decades – was prompted, in part, by violent protests against government corruption. The generals have cracked down on publish gatherings and criticism of the Thai king, who is so ill he was unable to give his traditional birthday speech when he turned 88 this week. The combination of an unpopular military government, an impending royal succession and a strengthening movement for democracy make this an important moment for Thailand. A crossroads, even.
Texting While Parenting (26:14)
Guest: Alexis Hiniker, Software Engineer and PhD Candidate at the University of Washington
Pick a park on a sunny afternoon and look around. You’ll see a fair number of adults on the perimeter of the playground, absorbed in their phones. But here’s a twist: most of those adults feel guilty about being on their phones instead of paying attention to their kids.
Unburdening Lightness of Forgiveness (36:34)
Guest: Ryan Fehr, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Washington Foster School of Business
We often use physical metaphors when talking about state of mind or emotions. We say that our worries are a burden – even though we’re not literally carrying them around in a backpack. We think about a kind word as having the ability to “lighten our load.” Again, not our literal load.
And yet, some emotional or mental states actually can translate to our physical bodies in remarkable ways.
American Heritage: Postmodernism (50:39)
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, History Professor at BYU
Today, we dive into postmodernism and its rejection of the traditions and philosophies that preceded it.
From the Vaults: Dickens and Christmas (1:15:58)
Guests: Dane Allred, Actor, High School Drama Teacher, Adjunct Faculty Member of the Theater and Media Arts Department at BYU; and Jamie Horrocks, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at BYU
Back in time now to the year 1843 and the publication of new novel that would change the way the Western world thought about Christmas. Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is a book that’s still in print and which is performed every year around the world.
We look at some early editions of Dickens’ Christmas books in this month’s installment of “From the Vaults,” where we dive into the holdings we have here on our BYU campus over in Special Collections at the Harold B Lee Library and today we also pay a visit to a rare book in the New York Public Library.
International Law w/ Eric Jensen (1:03)
Guests: Eric Jensen, JD, Associate Professor of Law at BYU
How is the fight against ISIS evolving in light of the group’s link to the San Bernardino attack last week. Why is it important that officials identify that attack as one by terrorists? How is US involvement in Syria changing now that special operations forces are to be sent there?
Effects of Terrorism (29:05)
Guest: Yitzhak Fried, PhD, Area Coordinator and Trinity Professor of Management at Texas Tech’s Rawls College of Business
Israel is where researchers focused their efforts for an article just out in the Journal of Organizational Behavior. They were specifically interested in what happens to work-life when people have a heightened fear of terror attacks. To what extent has terrorism affected American minds and how is the fear of attacks affecting our well-being and work life?
Apple Seed (40:22)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed” ?
Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
Kids and Deception (51:24)
Guest: Rose Scott, PhD, Developmental Psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Califorina, Merced.
It's likely you’ve had the experience of looking into the eyes of an infant and wondering just how much she understands. How aware is he of the people around him and what they’re expressing? Study after study has begun to show that babies are capable of much more than we previously thought. Researchers at the University of California, Merced have recently discovered that kids recognize lying and deceit even before they’re able to talk.
Cleaner Cookstoves (1:10:17)
Guest: Garrett Allawatt, PhD, Student of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington
Nearly half of the world’s population relies on something called a three-stone fire for cooking and heating. That is, three-stones propping up a pot over an open flame. The smoke and fumes causes millions of deaths each year. In Kenya, women journey on foot for hours to collect enough wood for their families each week – a journey that leaves them vulnerable to violence and sexual harassment. ?
University of Washington PhD student Garrett Allawatt is part of a team funded by the US Department of Energy to find a cleaner, more efficient alternative to the three-stone fire.
Lotion Ingredient Paraben and Carcinogens (1:29:50)
Guests: Ruthann Rudel, Director of Research at the Silent Spring Institute
Cold dry winter climates like Utah make for lots of lotion use. There are so many choices at the drug store, finding the right lotion for your skin can seem like trial and error. The message from some new research out of UC Berkeley and the Silent Spring Institute, which studies environmental health issues, is to steer clear of lotions that include parabens.
Jerusalem: The Movie (1:03)
Guests: Daniel Ferguson, Writer and Director of "Jerusalem"; Jodi Magness, PhD, Archaeologist and a Senior Endowed Chair in the Department of Religious Studies: Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
In this season of Hanukkah and Christmas, let's spend a few minutes looking to the root of ongoing contention over the site considered among the very holiest by Jews, Christians and Muslims. The Temple Mount or Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem has been the site of escalating violence in recent months. An IMAX film by National Geographic called, "Jerusalem" explores the claim all three faiths have on the holy ground.
Spiritual Capital (22:14)
Guest: Mitchell Neubert, PhD, Management Professor at Baylor and Chavanne Chair of Christian Ethics in Business
Entrepreneurs in the US occasionally choose to incorporate their religious beliefs into their business model. The owners of Chik-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby have gone so far as to make faith part of their brand. Some new research out of Baylor University finds that in developing countries across Asia and Africa, entrepreneurs who believe in God tend to be more successful in the small-business arena where people compete for microloans.
Obesity (38:56)
Guest: Deborah Rhode, PhD, Professor of Law and Director of the Center of Legal Profession at Stanford Law School
There’s an obesity problem in America. The CDC and US Surgeon General call it an epidemic. But government attempts to tackle the problem have faltered: New York’s attempt to ban super-sized sodas was overturned in the courts. Fast food companies have found ways around community restrictions on kid’s meals. Many jurisdictions have resisted or rolled-back proposals to charge a soda tax or regulate where junk food can be advertised. In many cases, anti-obesity policies come smack into conflict with our deeply-held American freedom to choose our own destinies – even if that means becoming obese.
Body Sensing (49:33)
Guest: Edward Sazonov, PhD, Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering at the University of Alabama
Fitbit and Apple watches are both on the must-have list for Christmas gear this season. Wearable technology to track exercise, heart rate and other biometrics are incredibly popular. But they still have limits. None have figured out how to track calorie intake accurately, for example. There are ways to guess, but most of these devices require you to go online and record what you eat in order to make the calculations. The problem with that is that it’s a pain to keep up and people are notoriously bad at keeping accurate records of their diet, but researchers at the University of Alabama are making it easier.
Parent Previews (1:06:34)
Guest: Rod Gustafson of ParentPreviews.com
The newest addition to the Rocky franchise, Creed; Disney and Pixar's new family-friendly film, The Good Dinosaur; The strange holiday-themed horror film, Krampus.
Tech Transfer: Tissue Monitoring (1:18:35)
Guests: Kim Manwaring, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Biotechnology and Neuroscience at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU's Technology Transfer office
For all the advances we’ve seen in neuroscience over the last two decades, there’s still a lot about the brain that remains a mystery. If you’ve ever had a loved one experience a head trauma or stroke, you know how frustrating it is how little the doctors seem to really know about what’s going on inside the skull of a person in a coma. They often don’t know exactly where the bleeding is, what damage has been done to the brain or what the likelihood of recovery. It’s a waiting game to see if the person will wake up and in what condition.
Housing First (1:04)
Guests: Benjamin Henwood, PhD, Assistant Professor at the USC School of Social Work; Sam Tsemberis, PhD, CEO of Pathways to Housing National
On any given night in the United States more than half a million people are homeless – which means they’re sleeping on the street or in a shelter or a weekly motel or maybe crashing with family or friends. To be homeless in America is to be without a stable housing option. And of the half a million people who fit that category, not quite half are families. About a fifth of the overall homeless population are considered chronically so – in and out of housing and on the street repeatedly, sometimes for years.
This hour, we’re about the Housing First philosophy, which has become the approach to dealing with homelessness nationwide. It’s just what it sounds like – offer housing to homeless people first, and then help them work on their other problems, such as addiction or mental illness. Dozens of large cities have made 10-year-plans to end homelessness using the Housing First approach. A few communities – including Salt Lake City – have been lauded for actually reaching that goal with subsets of the homeless community. No community has figured out how to completely and permanently eliminate the problem of homelessness. Throughout this hour, we’ll talk about how Housing First won converts from all political stripes, how it works – and what it’s limitations are.
Alone on the Wall (50:44)
Guest: Alex Honnold, Expert Rock Climber and Co-Author of “Alone on the Wall”
At 30 years old, Alex Honnold may be the most famous climber in the world. But not the kind of climbing so popular at gyms these days, with ropes and safety harnesses.
Honnold’s claim to fame is free-soloing. He ascends cliffs – often more than a thousand feet of vertical granite or sandstone – with nothing but his fingers and his feet. No ropes. No partner. No net. He won’t grab onto bolts that other climbers might have placed in the wall.
When Honnold is free-soloing, the equation is simple: If he falls, he dies.
National Security in France (1:04) Guest: Gerard Araud, French Ambassador to the United States
France remains in a state of emergency following the November 13th attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. The Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility. French authorities this week announced they shut down three mosques for an alleged "pattern of radicalization.” There’s heightened security at France’s borders, too. But French ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud emphasized the difficulty of national security in an address on BYU’s campus as a guest of the Kennedy Center for International Studies. Araud said that after terrorists attacked the Paris headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish grocery store in January, French authorities knew there would be more attacks, but struggled to anticipate when and where.
Slave Against Slave (15:20) Guest: Jeff Forret, PhD, Professor of History at Lamar University and author of “Slave Against Slave: Plantation Violence in the Old South”
In Baltimore, the trial for one of six police officers charged in the murder of Freddie Gray is underway. You’ll remember Freddie Gray is the black man who died from alleged mistreatment while in police custody back in April. The incident sparked widespread protests in Baltimore, adding to the national debate over young black men being mistreated by police officers – often white officers, though in the case of Freddie Gray, the officer currently on trial is black. Race is nearly always at the center of the debate over such violence in American society. In the tumult in Ferguson and Florida and Baltimore – and the rise of the BlackLivesMatter movement – there’s a question that always seems to bubble up. Sometimes it’s a TV reporter asking it of a protester or a pundit lobbing it on cable news: What about black-on-black violence? FBI statistics show some 90 percent of blacks murdered in the US are murdered by other blacks. What doesn’t often get mentioned is that more than 80 percent of whites murdered in the US are murdered by whites. Like so much else that happens in American society – church, school, social activities – violent crime also tends to be segregated by race.
Child Anxiety (35:37) Guest: Armando Pina, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University
It’s important to catch anxiety issues early in life. Anxiety affects schoolwork, social skills, and eventually even life outcomes. If parents wait to act, children with anxiety could develop substance abuse problems and depression.
Japanese Delegation (52:20) Guests: Honorable Ken Shimanouchi, former Japanese ambassador to Spain and Brazil; Norimichi Hayashi, former employee of Itochu Corporation and Kurita Waters Industries; Akemi Takayama, former employee of the Bank of Tokyo, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Deutsche Bank, and Kumon Leysin Academy Of Switzerland; Michiko Iwanami, researcher at Sojitz Research Institute, Ltd.; Kyoko Shibata, credit officer at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
A delegation of Japanese citizens join us to talk about current events, diversity in the workforce and the essence of what it means to be Japanese today.
What To Do With Terrorists (1:04)
Guest: Tim McCormack, PhD, Professor of Law at Melbourne Law School and Current Special Advisor on International Humanitarian Law to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague
US Special Operations forces are heading into the fight to target top Islamic State leadership. In wrapping up three days of climate talks in Paris yesterday, President Obama found himself again defending his strategy to oust the terror group from Syria and Iraq. As the fight continues, there will undoubtedly be ISIS combatants captured. But what then? Do we detain them indefinitely at Guantanamo? Do we try them? If so, where and under who’s jurisdiction? These questions have plagued the US – and the rest of the international community - from the start of the self-proclaimed “War on Terror” in 2001.
World Religious Freedom (27:54)
Guest: Katrina Swett, PhD, President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice
When you consider the violence, pain and suffering being inflicted around the world in the name of religion, it’s tempting to wonder whether the world might be a more peaceful, prosperous place without religion.
American Heritage: Marxism (51:58)
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History at BYU
This week, we continue our discussion regarding the impact Karl Marx had on economic theory.
Ad-Deir (1:13:50)
Guests: Cynthia Finlayson, PhD, Professor of Archaeology at BYU; Josie Newbold, Graduate Student in Archaeology at BYU
Also known as the Rose City because of the color of the sandstone out of which the ancient city is carved, Petra in Jordan is an international heritage site and an archaeological treasure dating back to around 300 BC, or earlier. You’d think that such a well-known series of monuments might have been studied to death. But, there’s one structure in the Petra Archaeological Park that’s only now being comprehensively examined. It’s called “Ad Deir” and it’s a spectacular columned façade carved into a sandstone cliff like something straight off an Indiana Jones movie set. And like a movie set, it’s just a façade. The 26-foot tall doorway into the ornate temple-like structure opens into merely a small, simple room.
Human Trafficking at Sea (1:03)
Guest: Ian Urbina, Investigative Reporter for the New York Times
A rising chorus of advocacy groups and food manufacturers are acknowledging that labor and human rights abuses are rampant in the fishing industry that supplies the largest pet food makers in America. Nestle acknowledged the scale of the problem in a report released last week that tells of migrant workers lured onto Thai fishing boats and forced to work under inhumane conditions in what amounts to indentured servitude. There are now class-action lawsuits and proposed legislation in the US aimed at forcing the makers of brands including Iams, Meow Mix, Fancy Feast and Purina to ensure they don’t buy fish from boats that enslave migrant workers.
Thanksgiving: America’s National Cheat Day (22:23)
Guest: Roberta Anding, Dietitian at Rice University
Thanksgiving is in the rear window, but the opportunities for indulgence have just begun. For people on a diet, or feeling like they ought to be on one, the holidays are tricky. How many times have you heard someone lament having gained five pounds just on Thanksgiving alone?
100 Love Notes (29:35)
Guest: Hyong Yi
On November 20th, Hyong Yi and his two children spent their morning handing love notes to complete strangers in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. They were marking one year since their wife and mother, Catherine, died of ovarian cancer. Their story has since been covered by media around the world – India, Korea, Italy and beyond – and countless people have joined in, sharing their own love notes on social media using the hashtag 100lovenotes.
Apple Seed (42:22)
Guest: Kendall Haven, West Point Graduate turned Storyteller
Kendall Haven captivates us with a new story.
Modern Marriage (51:38)
Guest: Shelly Lundberg, PhD, Associate Director of the Broom Demography Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara
What’s the point of marriage? To have a companion? To have kids? To have a better financial situation? Answering these questions is key to understanding the big shift in American attitudes toward marriage over the last 50 years. People get married much later in life, for one thing. And those with a college-education are much more likely to get married.
Reactions to Miscarriage and Stillbirth (1:03:47)
Guest: Joyce Nuner, PhD, Assistant Professor in Family and Consumer Sciences at Baylor University
Infant mortality has declined in the United States, but the latest CDC statistics show little progress in reducing the rate of pregnancies that end in stillbirth or miscarriage. Approximately one in four women will experience a miscarriage, and yet there are few resources or policies in place to support those women at work and in their communities.
International Woman Screenwriters (1:24:41)
Guest: Julie Selbo, PhD, Radio/TV/Film Professor at the University of California, Fullerton
A recent and much-talked-about cover story for the New York Times Magazine highlighted Hollywood’s gender gap on and off-screen. It detailed blatant sexism in the industry and lots of subtle ways in which women are marginalized and underused in film. The latest Hollywood diversity report out of UCLA gives the hard data - men outnumber women 2 to 1 in lead movie roles, 8 to 1 among film directors and 4 to 1 when it comes to the scriptwriters who give film actors the words to say.
Refugees (1:04) Guests: Annette Harris, Social Service Program Supervisor for the Refugee and Immigrant Center at the Asian Association of Utah; Lina Sarah Wembi, Advocate for refugee resettlement and a former refugee herself, now a proud citizen of the United States
Since the attacks in Paris, more than 30 state governors in the US have said they will not welcome any of the 10,000 Syrian refugees President Obama has committed to take by the end of next year. The Governors are concerned some of the refugees might be terrorists in disguise, yet the UN says almost half of all Syrians fleeing violence are children. Since January, about two thousand Syrians have been admitted to the United States and the State Department says 67 percent of them are women and young children. While state and federal leaders debate the fate of asylum seekers, let’s pause to consider a few questions: What happens once they do get here? Where do they live? How do they establish new lives?
World’s Largest Telescope (26:11) Guest: Taft Armandroff, PhD, Giant Magellan Telescope Board Chair and Director of the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin
A gigantic telescope that will produce images ten-times sharper than the Hubble, is under construction in a remote desert of Chile. Astronomers say it could help unlock the secrets of how the universe formed and whether life exists on planets hundreds of light years away.
Facebook Social Support (37:07) Guest: Brianna L. Lane, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at New Mexico State University
We write-off the whole Facebook Friend thing as shallow and empty. But there’s research to suggest it’s not.
American Heritage: Marxism (51:42) Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, BYU History Professor
On this week’s American Heritage segment, we hear about the impact that Karl Marx had on economic theory.
Joan of Arc Movie (1:15:01) Guest: Russell Holt, Writer, Director and Co-producer the new BYUtv film “Joan of Arc,” which premieres at 8 p.m. EST on BYUtv
Joan of Arc is the subject of a new film produced BYUtv. It’s part documentary, part dramatic re-enactment. BYUtv’s Joan of Arc will premiere on Thanksgiving and be rebroadcast throughout the holidays. The story of the girl whose divine visions prompted her to help lead to the French to military victory and later led to her death as a martyr has been told before on screen.
Native American Thanksgiving Dinner (1:28:01) Guest: Jerome Grant, Executive Chef at the Mitsitam Native Foods Café in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC
Holiday food traditions are as powerful as the family stories we pass down from generation to generation, keeping our heritage alive. Keeping us connected to our roots. The storytelling power of food is precisely why it is the centerpiece of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. At the museum’s Mitsitam Native Foods Café you can sample cuisine inspired by tribes across the country.
Immigration (1:03) Guest: Caroline Nunez, JD, Professor of Immigration Law at BYU
Governors in more than half of U.S. states say they’ll reject refugees from Syria. Can they actually do that? A similar number of states are also challenging President Barack Obama’s executive action that would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to legally live and work in the country without threat of deportation. Thus far, courts have sided with the states and blocked Obama’s executive action on immigration. Now the President is turning to the Supreme Court for final say.
Anxiously Waiting (21:32) Guest: Kate Sweeny, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside
When we’re waiting for news—we’re really good at anticipating the worst-case scenario and all the mental gymnastics that go along with planning for a bad outcome.
Thankfulness (37:48) Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
We hear from Suzanne Christensen. Listen to her story about being thankful for being taught to read.
Climate Change (50:06) Guest: Kathleen Springer, Geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey
The American West is in a state of intense drought. California is so parched that NASA satellite data project it’ll require 11 trillion gallons of water to recover.
Youth Unemployment and Mental Health (1:06:02) Guest: Sidra Goldman-Mellor, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Health at the University of California, Merced
There’s a fair amount of interest from governments—not to mention parents— in understanding what challenges young people face in the transition to life after high school. Is their failure to launch because they lack motivation?
The Inner Ear (1:28:17) Guest: Quinton Gopen, M.D., Ear Surgeon in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
A disorder of the inner ear causes those who suffer from it to hear every sound their body makes? from the quick rhythmic beats of their heart, to their eyes rolling over the words of a page as they read, to food digesting noisily in their stomach. Dr. Quinton Gopen is one of the few doctors who has figured out how to accurately diagnose – and then treat – the condition. ?
Ruby Bridges (1:03)
Guest: Ruby Bridges, a Civil Rights icon since the age of six, when she was among the first African American children to integrate an all-white school in the South
Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting of a tiny African American girl flanked by four federal marshals is called, “The Problem We All Live With” and it’s a provocative invitation to consider the ugliness of racism. The girl’s dress and sneakers and the little bow in her braided hair are impossibly white. She looks calm and resolute, even though the wall she’s walking by is marred with a racial slur and the splatter of tomatoes.
She’s Ruby Bridges and November 14, 1960 was her first day of first grade as one of the first African American children to integrate an all-white school in the South.
Evolution of Thanksgiving (24:20)
Guest: Bruce Forbes, PhD, Chair of the Philosophy and Religious Studies department at Morningside College and Author of the new book “America’s Favorite Holidays”
Bruce Forbes’ writes in his book, “America’s Favorite Holidays” that pretty much everything we think we know about Thanksgiving is wrong.
The Extinction of Mammoths (39:52)
Guest: Todd Surovell, PhD, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wyoming
Why aren’t there any mammoths wandering the earth today? The ancient, elephant-like beasts have been extinct for tens of thousands of years. Theoretical explanations include a meteor, an earthquake or a heatwave.
Research coming out of the University of Wyoming claims to prove that we humans are the culprit.
Environmental Thanks (51:49)
Guest: Peter Kareiva, PhD, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA
Doom and gloom is the standard approach these days when it comes to talking about climate change. We’ve certainly heard a fair amount of it from experts on this show. But with Thanksgiving upon us, Peter Kareiva of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability is proposing a different angle. He says negativity isn’t that effective in getting people to act anyway, so he’s giving thanks for somethings are going right with regard to the environment.
Parent Previews (1:11:16)
Guest: Rod Gustafson of ParentPreviews.com
The end to "The Hunger Games" saga has arrived at last.
Tech Transfer: Turkey Vaccine (1:22:52)
Guests: Marcus Jensen, Retired Professor of Microbiology; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer office
There’s plenty of turkey for Thanksgiving– even though a devastating outbreak of avian flu caused more than 7 million of them to be euthanized over the summer and sparked fears we’d have a holiday shortage. Disease is a perpetual challenge for turkey growers who raise tens of thousands of birds in close proximity. Several decades ago, some BYU scientists landed on a deceptively simple way to vaccinate turkeys against a version of whooping cough that can quickly wipe out entire flocks. If you look forward to a tender slice of turkey on your plate during the holidays, you owe some thanks to retired BYU microbiology professor Marcus Jensen and his colleagues.
Failing Our Brightest Kids (1:03)
Guests: Chester Finn, PhD, and Brandon Wright, JD, Co-Authors of “Failing our Brightest Kids: The Global Challenge of Educating High-Ability Students”; Cindy Taylor, Fifth-Grade Teacher at the Center for Accelerated Studies in the Provo School District
The term “gifted and talented” evokes strong feelings, doesn’t it? For some it smacks of elitism or others maybe the isolation of being treated differently than your classmates. Not to mention the implication that if some are gifted and talented, then others are not, and therefore lesser in some way.
We tend to prize equality over excellence when it comes to our education system. At least that’s the assessment of two experts who’ve written a book about the many ways we are failing to help our smartest kids reach their potential. They say our national preoccupation with closing the achievement gap in schools has resulted in raising the floor, but not the ceiling.
Peanuts (52:15)
Guests: Stephen J Lind, PhD, Author of “A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Shulz”; Amy Schulz Johnson, Daughter of Charles Schulz
“Peanuts” is back on the big screen in beautiful CGI and 3D - there’s the bossy girl named Lucy, tom-boy Peppermint Patty, a dreamy-eyed dog named Snoopy, a wise-for-his-age-but-still-carries-a-security-blanket tot named Linus and, of course, the angsty Charlie Brown who can never seem to do anything right and it just eats him up.
Peanuts is possibly the best known and most -successful comic strip of all time and Charles Schulz drew it for 50 years – up until the final frame published on the day he died in 2000. But Peanuts was groundbreaking in another, less-appreciated way: it was the first mainstream comic strip to openly address religious themes – and even spout scripture on occasion. nd sound bites.
Why Middle-Aged Whites are Dying (1:03)
Guest: Gordon Lindsay, Professor of Public Health at BYU
Middle-aged white Americans are the only group in the country whose death rate is rising, and the fairly recent realization of this fact has stunned public health experts. It seems that no one had thought to parse health and mortality data in this precise way before two Princeton researchers published it last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Pivotal Tuesdays (20:53)
Guest: Margaret O’Mara, PhD, Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington
We’re a little less than a year away from the next presidential election. Every four years since 1789, Americans have chosen their leader in a vote of the people. Since 1845, they’ve done it on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. You could argue that all presidential elections are important for a democracy, but some have had more lasting impact than others.
Richard Paul Evans (52:08)
Guest: Richard Paul Evans, Author of The Christmas Box and the Michael Vey series
Michael Vey is a superhero in the X-Men vein. He’s an awkward teenager who struggles to keep his super-human power in check and secret, because what teenaged boy wants the world to think he’s a freak, right? But Michael’s amazing ability to channel electricity isn’t the only thing he wrestles with – he also has Tourette’s – and that battle may just be larger than the rest.
Rodeo Grandma (1:17:36)
Guest: Nancy Hunter, Champion Barrel Rider
What’s your grandmother’s favorite pastime? While careers and hobbies vary widely from woman to woman, not many grandmothers can claim to be a champion barrel rider. Or especially, a current champion barrel rider. But even after decades of riding, Nancy Hunter is still good enough to make a living winning barrel-racing championships. Pretty much the coolest grandma on the block in Neola, Utah, where she lives.
GMOs (1:03)
Guest: Alan McHughen, PhD, Professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at the University of California, Riverside
When you see “all natural” on a package at the grocery store, what do you assume about the food inside? There’s apparently enough confusion about it that the Food and Drug Administration last week began seeking public input on the question.
Wasting Time in America (22:53)
Guest: Alexis McCrossen, PhD, Professor of US Social and Cultural History at Southern Methodist University
Our relationship to time in America is complicated. It’s immensely valuable to us – “time is money,” right? So we punish people by forcing to spend time locked up. And we brag about how many hours we work and scoff at the Europeans who put in only 35 hours a week. Yet, we also spend massive amounts of money and time on leisure activities.
GOP Struggle to Retake the White House (35:45)
Guest: McKay Coppins, Senior Political Writer at BuzzFeed
Another Republican candidate for President – Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal – bowed out of the race. But there’s still an unusually crowded field vying for the GOP nomination: there’s Trump, Carson, Bush, Rubio, Cruz, Christie, Fiorina, Paul, Kasich, Santorum, Graham, Pataki and Gilmore. In the years since Mitt Romney lost the 2012 campaign to Barack Obama, the Republican Party has been in “the wilderness,” says Buzzfeed senior political reporter McKay Coppins.
American Heritage (52:22)
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, BYU History Professor
It’s time for “Our American Heritage.” My colleague Marcus Smith of Thinking Aloud and history professor Grant Madsen sit down each week and discuss a topic from American History, usually one that sheds lights on the world we live in now. This week they discussed the economist Friedrich Hayek and his impact on conservatism in the US.
From the Vaults: Museum Collections and their Collectors (1:16:56)
Guest: Paul Stavast, Director of the Museum of Peoples and Cultures at BYU
All over the country school children are dressing up to re-enact the first Thanksgiving feast when the Pilgrims and the Native American Indians sat down together in harmony. That’s not exactly how it went, though. Which we know, of course. And that’s partly why, in addition to being the month of Thanksgiving, November is also Native American Heritage Month.
It’s in that vein that we dedicate this month’s installment of “From the Vaults” to a selection of Ute artifacts from the Museum of Peoples and Cultures here at BYU. The Ute tribe is indigenous to Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona and, of course, Utah.
Three World Events (1:03)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, BYU Political Science Professor
BYU political science professor Quinn Mecham is back for his monthly analysis of three international events we should be paying attention to. We discuss the terror attacks in Paris, the elections in Myanmar, and political violence in Burundi.
Parents and Math Anxiety (24:47)
Guest: Erin Maloney, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar in Psychology at the University of Chicago
If you feel the panic rising when your elementary school child comes home with a math assignment to finish, you may want to just take a pass rather than dig in and try to help. Your anxiety or negative attitude about math will likely mean lower test scores for your kid.
Apple Seed (40:37)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
Socializing and Depression (51:59)
Guest: Alan Teo, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University
Who will you be with for Thanksgiving this year? How long has it been since the whole extended family was around the same table? Turns out the answer might affect your health – your mental health, that is. Face-to-face contact – even more than phone calls and emails – has the power to decrease depression in older adults.
Women in Kuwait’s Political System (1:05:27)
Guest: Marwa Shalaby, PhD, Director of the Women’s Rights in the Middle East Program at Rice University
Most Americans know Kuwait as the place that Saddam Hussein invaded and we helped to liberate during the Gulf War of the early 1990s. This small, oil-rich Arab country at the northern tip of the Persian Gulf has a democratically elected, and very powerful, parliament. But Kuwait also has a powerful king – or emir, as he’s called - which makes it an interesting case to consider. When women were given the right to vote in Kuwait ten years ago, there was an initial surge of female members of parliament. There was even a woman appointed to the emir’s cabinet. But those numbers have steadily declined since. Today, not a single woman sits in the Kuwaiti parliament.
How a Black Hole Swallows a Star (1:29:52)
Guest: Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, PhD, Professor and Chair of Astronomy and Astrophysics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz
The details of how a star gets swallowed by a black hole have been largely left to theory. Occasionally, astronomers luck out, though, and manage to capture the carnage of a black hole in action through high-powered telescopes.
Rise of the Islamic State (1:03)
Guest: Cole Bunzel, Author of “From Paper State to Caliphate: The Ideology of the Islamic State” which was published by the Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World
The Islamic State terror groups has claimed responsibility for a series of coordinated attacks in Paris over the weekend that killed more than 120 people. The Islamic State also claimed responsibility for two deadly bombings in Lebanon earlier last week and the apparent bombing of a plane carrying more than two-hundred Russian tourists that crashed in Egypt a week and a half ago. All of this from a group once considered by US and other Western officials as less of a threat than Al Qaeda. How did the Islamic State become so powerful and are its goals changing as it rises?
You can read the full report here
Proposition 47 Prisoners (23:18)
Guest: Milena Blake, JD, Staff Attorney on Stanford’s Justice Advocacy Project
Overcrowded prisons are a problem nationwide, but they’ve become so serious in California that the US Supreme Court ordered a significant reduction in prison headcount by next year. Initially, the plan involved releasing some prisoners early and transferring others from federal prisons to county-run jails with more space.
Then California voters got involved. Last year they passed a proposition that converted six types of non-violent felonies into misdemeanors. And it’s retroactive, so a Stanford Law School report says some 13,000 people doing time in California prisons and jails on those offenses have had their sentences reduced and been released in the last year.
National Parks in Winter (42:42)
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder and Editor of NationalParksTraveler.com – the leading online resource for National Parks-related news
As winter approaches the temperature drops and the snow begins to fall. Sometimes there’s a powerful urge to snuggle up and wait out the winter from the comfort of a chair by the window. Shame that, because apparently there’s a lot to be appreciated out-of-doors in winter. Particularly in the country’s National Parks.
National Parks Traveler is just out with its Essential Park Guide to winter adventures.
Flu Shots (52:12)
Guest: Michael Huckabee, PhD, Professor and Director of the Division of Physician Assistant Education at the University of Nebraska Medical Center
Flu season is back, along with the posters in doctor’s offices and ads on TV urging us to get a flu vaccine.
Slightly less than half of Americans go the flu shot last year. Does the vaccine really help all that much? We all know someone who got the shot and also came down with the flu, right?
Parent Previews: "The 33" and "Love, The Coopers" (1:09:43)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Sometimes real life provides more drama than any screenwriter could dream up. Case in point – the 2010 collapse of a mine in Chile where 33 men were trapped for more than two months. A new movie tells their story. It’s called, “The 33.”
Tech Transfer: Cancer Treatment (1:20:38)
Guest: Marc Hansen, PhD, Professor in the Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology at Brigham Young University; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
Can you hazard a guess here – what’s the leading cause of death among Americans? The Centers for Disease Control says Heart Disease, which kills more than 600,000 people a year. Not far behind in the number two spot? Cancer. Accidents are actually the fourth highest cause of death, but the number is much, much smaller – 140,000 per year.
So, let’s look at number two: Cancer. Among the challenges to treating it the many different types that can arise and the aggressive way in which cancer cells grow - and even become resistant - to drug treatment.
More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.
Chinese Collectors and the Art Market (1:03)
Guest: Michael Plummer, Principal and Co-Founder of Artvest Partners LLC and Co-Director of the Art Fair Spring Masters New York
At a Christie’s auction this week, a Chinese collector rattled the art work by paying $170.4 million for a painting of an outstretched nude woman by early-20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani. That $170.4m figure is the second highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction and more than twice the previous high price for a Modigliani. The collector is Liu Yiqian, a former taxi driver turned billionaire. He and his wife plan to exhibit the painting in an art museum they opened five years ago in Shanghai.
Grit: Knowing When to Quit (17:22)
Guest: Gale Lucas, PhD, Senior Research Associate for the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California
We celebrate “grit” in our athletes, our leaders, our literary heroes – and often encourage it in our kids. But there are times when sticking with something in the face of adversity is not a good thing. That’s according to some new results in the Journal of Research in Personality.
Teacher Quality (30:22)
Guest: Kate Walsh, President of the National Council on Teacher Quality
A few months into the school year now, and we’re going to address an issue we touched on at the start – the teacher shortage. Hopefully, by now, your child’s class has a teacher and not a perpetual substitute. Back in August we were hearing that a number of large urban districts across the country were struggling to fill all their slots with just days before classes started. But we also learned, in that initial conversation, that talking about a national teacher shortage isn’t very helpful, because the situation varies dramatically from state to state and district to district. A more important conversation centers on how to ensure our children are being taught by the most qualified teachers possible.
Mid-East Panel (50:10)
Guests: John Macfarlane, PhD, Adjunct Political Science at Utah Valley University; Matthew Stathis, PhD, Professor of Political Science at Southern Utah University; Hakan Yavuz, PhD, Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah
Our monthly panel of Middle East experts is back as we consider the growing possibility that terrorists are to blame for the crash of a passenger jet carrying more than 200 Russian tourists. We’ll also be discussing an important recent election in Turkey and the evolving nature of America’s relationship with Iran.
Red Meat and Cancer (1:24:25)
Guest: Mariana Stern, PhD, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University Of Southern California School Of Medicine and a member of the WHO panel
You probably heard about the recent World Health Organization report that declared eating processed meats carries an increased risk of cancer. A lot of us pretty much figured hot dogs and baloney weren’t great. But bacon? Prosciutto and salami? That’s harder to swallow. Alas, the WHO report says there is reasonable certainty all processed meats cause cancer. So bacon, ham, hot dogs and the rest are now in the same category as smoking and formaldehyde.
International Law Update: Veterans, Russian Plane Crash, GITMO (1:04)
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, LLM, BYU International Law
Health and other benefits for veterans, the downed Russian plane in Egypt and an imminent proposal from President Obama to fulfill a campaign promise before his second term ends are all discussed in our monthly International Law update.
Integration of Immigrants (32:20)
Guest: Irene Bloemraad, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Member of the U.S National Academics of Sciences
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. Much of what we discuss today regarding immigration stems from that act 50 years ago – the rise in immigrants from Asia and Africa; the challenge of preventing people from crossing the US/Mexico border illegally. One point often obscured in the heated debate is this: a quarter of people living in the United States are the children or grandchildren of immigrants.
How well have these immigrants integrated into American society? That’s the question more than a dozen of the nation’s top scholars convened to study last year.
Modern India (52:24)
Guest: Edward Luce, Financial Times Correspondent
India is on the path toward world power. What kind of power will it be? With 1.2 billion people, it’s the world’s largest democracy. It’s inarguably the world’s most dangerous neighborhood. And it’s a nuclear power. As India continues to rise, will it be a massive headache or a major ally to the United States?
Perfect Princesses (1:20:33)
Guest: Shannon Hale, New York Times Best-selling Author
In the beginning of Shannon Hales’ young adult fiction book “Goose Girl,” the crown princess Ani’s attitude toward her royal duties is described this way: “[She] wanted so badly to do it right, to be regal and clever and powerful. But too often her only truly happy moments were the bursts of freedom, stolen afternoons on her horse’s back, brief, breathtaking rides past the stables to where the gardens turned wild, her lungs stinging with the cold, her muscles trembling with the hard ride.”
In this book, and throughout her fiction, Hale plays with the concept of being a princess and whether or not the fairy tale is all it’s cracked up to be.
Waging War on Cheatgrass (1:04)
Guest: Ann Kennedy, Soil Scientist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service
More than nine million acres burned in wildfires across the US this summer – among the highest on record and making it among the most expensive fire-fighting seasons. Western drought and invasive weeds are largely to blame. How are weeds to blame? Consider cheatgrass – aptly named because it grows so aggressively it cheats other native grasses and flowering plants of any chance for survival.
Cheatgrass has taken over large swaths of the sagebrush country. And the kicker is that it’s not tasty to livestock or wildlife, so it just grows and grows and then it dries into perfect kindling just as peak burn season arrives. If we’re going to get a handle on the wildfires burning larger and hotter every year, we have to get a handle on cheatgrass.
Ambivalent Relationships & Blood Pressure (23:43)
Guest: Wendy Birmingham, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Brigham Young University
Marriage is good for your health. Studies show married people tend to live longer than unmarried people and are at lower risk for depression. Generally speaking, married people are happier people. BUT, the quality of your marriage matters. If you’re unhappily married your health might worse than if you were single.
So what about the in between stages? Marriages that are more-or-less ambivalent - not exactly blissful, but not awful either? And how exactly do marriage relationships affect one’s health?
The Apple Seed (42:44)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
The Smart Grid (51:40)
Guest: Steven Low, PhD, Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology
When we talk about energy efficiency and the push toward relying on more renewal sources, there’s a parallel effort you may be less familiar with. It’s the work of bringing our electricity system into the new digital age.
Do you realize the “grid” that links a power plant to the light switches in your home is fundamentally decades-old? And that while you may use an app on your smartphone to control the thermostat in your house, many power companies still have to send an actual person to read the meter and see how much electricity you used last month?
A “Smart Grid” is what experts call a future where our electric utility system has been computerized with sensors and chips.
Open-Source Education (1:10:20)
Guest: David Wiley, PhD, Education Fellow at Creative Commons, Adjunct Faculty in Brigham Young University's graduate program in Instructional Psychology and Technology, Co-founder and Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning
The average college textbook will run you about 100 bucks – some are much more. And the reliance on those big heavy, worth-their-weight-in-goal texts hasn’t changed, even as just about everything else in our lives has gone digital. But there is a movement afoot to make open source, digital textbooks the norm in college. Several recent studies find students can learn just as much from the open, digital textbook and get grades that are just as high as their peers using the old-school $100-a-pop textbook.
Bison Return to Colorado Grasslands (1:32:34)
Guest: Jennifer Barfield, PhD, Reproductive Physiologist from Colorado State University
November 1st marked the first time bison have roamed free on the northern Colorado grasslands in 150 years. Getting to that milestone took a lot of work by conservationists and reproductive scientists – including high-tech fertility treatment to help the bison overcome a bacterial infection that prevents them from reproducing.
Interfaith Cooperation in Jordan (1:03)
Guests: Dr. Yahya Al-Btoush, Grand Mufti, Jordanian Armed Forces; Father Nabil Haddad, Founder and Director, Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center
Religious beliefs can unify or divide. They are at the heart of so much conflict and misunderstanding around the world. They are also the source of great humanitarian efforts.
Father Nabil Haddad, an Arab-Christian and dean of Saints Peter and Paul Old Cathedral in Amman and Dr. Yahya Al-Btoush, one of the top Muslim leaders in Jordan as Grand Mufti of the Jordanian Armed Forces visit BYUradio to talk about efforts in their country to promote interfaith cooperation and understanding between Muslims and those of other faiths. The vast majority of Jordanians are Muslim, but there are Christians, too. They have long history in the country. Back in 2004, the King of Jordan launched a project called, “The Amman Message” to formalize interfaith cooperation – and also to clarify the true nature of Islam. Several hundred Islamic scholars back the Amman Message, which is an attempt to convince Muslims and non-Muslims alike that Islam is a religion of peace – not war – and that terror groups claiming to act in the name of Islam are not adhering to the religion’s tenets.
Finance of College Athletics (12:45)
Guest: Jordan Bass, PhD, Assistant Professor of Physical Education and the Sports Management Program Director at the University of Kansas
Sports are the public face of so many universities – the first impression and the tie that keeps alumni excited about their alma mater. They’re also not funded the way most people assume.
Meaning, big athletics departments are not the big money makers a lot of people imagine. A team at the University of Kansas recently published a detailed study of how college athletics are funded in the U.S. Dr. Bass has co-authored a monograph on the subject, explaining how many teams can’t financially sustain themselves any longer.
Why Elephants Don’t Get Cancer (35:24)
Guest: Joshua Schiffman, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Adjunct Professor of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah
Here’s a scientific mystery to chew on - Elephants have 100 times as many cells as humans. So, it would be reasonable to assume that their chance of having any cell turn cancerous is 100 times more likely than a human’s. But turns out that elephants rarely get cancer.
Recently, researchers have been trying to figure out why, hoping the elephants might provide an answer that could help far-more-cancer-prone humans.
Desmostylia Fossils (50:39)
Guest: Louis Jacobs, PhD, Vertebrate Paleontologist, Professor at Southern Methodist University
A pre-historic hippo-like sea creature that sucks up plants from the shore. Desmostylia – or desmos, as they’re often called – are getting some new attention thanks to fossilized bones uncovered on an Alaskan island when villagers started turning earth to dig a new school.
Parent Previews: Peanuts and Spectre (1:04:55)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Flu Drug (1:21:16)
Guests: Dave Busath, Biology Professor at BYU; Mike Alder, Technology Transfer
It’s flu season. And the good news is this year’s flu vaccines are expected to work better than last year. There’s an element of guessing when scientists cook up the vaccine each year. . . they’re never entirely which flu strains will be most bothersome until the season arrives.
Influenza is a virus, as you may know. Especially if you visited the doctor with it recently and were told, no an antibiotic will not help, because what you have is not a bacterial infection. Rather, influenza has to be treated with antiviral medications. But, just like bacteria, viruses are capable of mutating to become resistant to those drugs.
How Theater Happens (1:02)
Guests: Tim Threlfall, Music Dance Theatre Program Chair at BYU; Shelley Graham, Adjunct Professor of Theatre at BYU and the Resident Dramaturg at the Covey Center for the Arts; Christopher Clark, PhD, Theatre Program Chair at Utah Valley University and Executive Producer for Robert Redford's Sundance Summer Theatre in Sundance, Utah; Melissa Leilani Larson, Award-winning Playwright and Screenwriter
Have you ever wondered what’s going on behind that empty stage in those minutes before it’s show time? Or what goes on in the days and months leading up to a show? Or before the show is even a show? How it goes from being somebody’s vague idea of a story to lines actors recite on stage?
We’re devoting our first hour to the magic of theater - How theater happens. And the panel we’ve assembled knows every detail of the process.
Euro Design (52:24)
Guests: Richard Fry, Professor of Industrial Design at BYU; Marc Olivier, PhD, Professor in the Department of French and Italian at BYU
Take a look around you and pick an object. A chair, a cup, a pen. Maybe the steering wheel in your hands or the dial on your car stereo. Does your mind go immediately to the purpose of the thing? Or to the way it looks? Or maybe where it came from? Do you wonder how it was made, or who designed it?
What are the marks of a good design? That's one of the many questions we're tackling with this hour's guests.
Puerto Rico Bankruptcy (1:02)
Guest: Brook Gotberg, JD, Fellow of the BYU Law School
Puerto Rico says it doesn’t have enough money to repay $73 billion dollars it owes bondholders. Since the island’s debt crisis became public in June, Congress has wrestled with what to do. A lot of Puerto Rico’s debt is owed by the territory’s public entities – like utilities. So one proposal would be to allow those entities to declare chapter 9 bankruptcy. Or, should Puerto Rico itself be allowed to declare bankruptcy? That’s what the Obama Administration has suggested and it’s got people pretty worked up.
Counseling in the Wake of Disaster (22:43)
Guest: David Schonfeld, MD, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician and Director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at the USC School of Social Work
Disasters leave visible scars – charred homes, collapsed buildings, flooded streets. Too often, the mental and emotional scars go unnoticed and unaddressed – particularly among children, according to a new clinical report by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
For example, after Hurricane Sandy, children whose homes had suffered even minor damage were five times more likely to feel depressed, nervous or afraid than children whose homes were undamaged. They were eight times more likely to have trouble sleeping.
According to this new report, doctors and school counselors need to be on the lookout for the mental health of a child from the moment a disaster strikes to many months and years afterward.
Ancient Mosaics Discovered in Galilean Synagogue (35:32)
Guest: Matthew Grey, PhD, Area Supervisor on the Huqoq Excavation Project in Galilee and Assistant Professor in the BYU Department of Ancient Scripture
Archaeologists excavating an ancient Jewish village off the Sea of Galilee over the summer made a surprising discovery. The village is called “Huqoq” and in it is a synagogue dating back to the fifth century. That’s not the surprising part, though. What really stunned experts is that in that Jewish synagogue, they’ve uncovered mosaics depicting non-religious images you’d expect in a Greek or Roman temple to the gods of wine, revelry and theater. The lead archaeologist on this discovery says it’s “the first time a non-biblical story has been found decorating any ancient synagogue.”
The Chair (52:18)
Guest: Galen Cranz, PhD, Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley
As you read to this, chances are you’re sitting. Chairs are ubiquitous in American work and leisure. We sit while driving, eating, filing our taxes. They’re so common they’ve virtually faded into the background. But now they’re the enemy. You’ve seen the reports, right? About how sitting is the new smoking – it’s that bad for us?
Unbroken (1:16:15)
Guest: Laura Hillenbrand, Author of Multiple New York Times Bestsellers, including "Unbroken" and "Seabiscuit?"
“Unbroken” is the story of Louis Zamperini - an Olympic runner whose record-breaking career is interrupted by World War II. The plane for which he’s a bombardier goes down over the Pacific and he’s marooned with two other crewmen for nearly two months, subsisting on rain water and fish. When a plane finally spots them, it turns out to be Japanese and rains fire down on their disintegrating raft. Finally he and one surviving crewmember are rescued by the Japanese and become prisoners of war. More horror ensues. Still Zamperini survives. And eventually, he even forgives.
Laura Hillenbrand’s book, “Unbroken” is gripping, heart-wrenching and inspiring. And it took her nearly a decade to write because of her own suffering.
Orson Scott Card (1:03)
Guest: Orson Scott Card, Best-selling Author
A few weeks ago, best-selling author Orson Scott Card was in town for a conference on issues of creativity, license and ownership hosted by the BYU Copyright Office. He stopped by our studio for a chat. But he had one condition – he wouldn’t talk about the 2013 movie adaptation of his most famous book, “Ender’s Game.”
Orson Scott Card is a prolific writer, with 70 novels ranging from fantasy and science fiction to historical non-fiction.
Life in Dead Forests (32:24)
Guest: Mark Harmon, PhD, professor and Richardson Chair of Forest Science at Oregon State University
What’s a dead tree good for, other than for firewood or pulp to make paper? Dead is dead, right?
From forest scientist Mark Harmon’s perspective, a dead tree might actually be more lively than a living one. Harmon is a professor at Oregon State University who studies the thriving ecosystems in fallen logs. His work makes the case for not clearing out dead trees and log debris from forests.
American Heritage (51:13)
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, BYU History Professor
Today's conversation will highlight the philosophies of John Dewey, especially regarding liberty and how its definition changes over time.
Most Likely to Succeed (1:18:50)
Guest: Greg Whiteley, Documentary Filmmaker
Filmmaker Greg Whiteley brought an insider’s perspective to the family life of Mitt Romney in the documentary film Mitt. He created a similarly intimate portrait of former 70s glam rocker Arthur Killer Kane in the film New York Doll. This year, he’s premiering a new documentary in which he turns his lens to an issue that affects all of us, public education. The film is called Most Likely to Succeed and it may shake up anyone who’s feeling complacent about public education today.
Federal Inmate Release (1:02)
Guest: Daniel McConkie, professor of law at Northern Illinois University
Over the weekend, some 6,000 people convicted on federal drug charges got out of prison early. The largest numbers are from Texas, Florida, California, North Carolina and Illinois. Why are they getting out? And what might their release mean for communities?
Maltreated Children (24:16)
Guest: Dr. Kate McLaughlin, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington
Every year in the US, reports of abuse or neglect involved more than six million children. The consequences of that tragic statistic are far-reaching in a child’s life – particularly on his or her ability to cope with emotions and trauma as they age.
A new study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry explains why that’s the case – and give hopes that these children can be trained to manage their emotional responses with the right help.
The Apple Seed (39:51)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
China Abandons One Child Policy (52:00)
Guest: Valerie Hudson, professor and George H.W. Bush chair in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University
Chinese officials have announced they will relax the one-child policy in place for more than 30 years. Couples will now be allowed to have two kids. Part of the motivation for the change is China’s shortage of young people to take care of an aging population and fill jobs that fuel the nation’s economy.
Parents and Violent Video Games (1:12:05)
Guest: Russell Laczniak, Ph.D., professor of marketing and Interim Associate Dean for Graduate Programs & Research at Iowa State University
A growing body of research shows playing violent video games can affect kids in negative ways and that parents should limit that play. But what’s the best way to go about that?
A study out of Iowa State University discovered that some parenting styles are better than others at helping children play less violent video games.
New Eczema Treatment (1:28:50)
Guest: Arup Indra, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutial Sciences at Oregon State University
The onset of cooler temperatures also means the onset of irritated skin for many people – dry, cracked hands or heels. Eczema can be brought on by seasonal changes or exposure to irritating chemicals. Dr. Arup Indra has been a pioneer in getting to the bottom of skin conditions like eczema. Several years ago he discovered a gene that plays a part. Now he’s come up with a treatment approach that goes beyond the standard "here, try this lotion" that makes people with eczema so weary.
Counterterror Strategy (1:04)
Guest: Eric Schmitt, Senior Writer for the New York Times and Co-author of “Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda”
The Obama Administration is planning to send a small number of US ground troops to assist in the fight against ISIS in Syria. That’s a shift in the US policy toward ISIS, which for the last year has consisted mainly of air strikes and providing support to local forces.
All Souls Day/Art (22:50)
Guest: Elliott Wise, Instructor of Art History at BYU
For the Christians who celebrate All Souls Day, it is a day to pray for, maybe even attempt to intercede for, the souls of loved ones who have passed away, in attempts to help their souls into heaven. In medieval times, art played a large role in purifying one’s own soul.
"The Descent from the Cross" by Rogier van der Weyden
"Merode Altarpiece" by Robert Campin
Sequoias and the Drought (37:36)
Guest: Anthony Ambrose, PhD, Tree Biologist at UC Berkeley
The largest known living tree on the planet is named “General Sherman.” It’s a Giant Sequoia in California, tall as a 25-story skyscraper and 100 feet wide at the base. Picture a trunk larger than a pro-basketball court. General Sherman is estimated to be more than 2000 years old.
If you’ve visited Sequoia National Park, you felt how immense and permanent these trees seem. But might they have met their match in the record-breaking drought that grips California?
Career Help for Millennials (51:34)
Guest: Craig Watkins, PhD, Professor of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin
Millennials now comprise a larger share of the American workforce than any other population segment, according to 2015 Census data. The Pew Research Center says that means that one in three workers is between the ages of 18 and 34.
Millennials need a different kind of workplace. And, just as importantly, they’re entering the workforce in a very tough economy where stable, meaningful employment is elusive. So they’re getting creative about making a living, often on the margin of the traditional economy.
Prof. Watkins’ website to help Millennials develop careers can be found at www.doinginnovation.org.
Parent Previews: Holiday Preview (1:07:26)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
It is officially acceptable to put up your holiday decorations, now that Halloween is over. So, Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews.com talks about what we can expect in theaters this holiday season.
Tech Transfer: Seed Coatings (1:20:48)
Guests: Matthew Madsen, PhD, Professor of Plant Science at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
Western wildfires have become more frequent and more intense in the last several decades – partly because of an invasive weed called cheat grass. It springs up fast and is unappetizing to cattle, sheep and wild birds like the sage grouse. So, come peak fire season, the cheat grass is prime tinder. And once a blaze sweeps through the range, what do you suppose grows back quickest? Cheat grass, because it doesn’t need much water and it easily beats out native grasses.
Rangeland managers and researchers are spending millions of dollars in a race to give those native grasses a better chance.
More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.
Water 4.0 (1:03)
Guest: David Sedlak, PhD, Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of California Berkeley and Author of Water 4.0
You turn on the tap, and voila, water flows. Unless our rates go up or the government imposes restrictions about when we’re allowed to water our lawns, we don’t really give the system of water much thought. How, exactly, does it get to our faucets and spigots? And where does it go when we flush it away?
Nature and the Mind (51:12)
Guest: Nalini Nadkarni, PhD, Professor of Biology at the University of Utah
What would happen if you could find a way to introduce nature into one of the most unnatural of places on earth – the bare concrete, windowless walls of a maximum security prison? What would happen if, instead of shuttling an agitated inmate off to solitary confinement, he was sent to a room with nature images projecting on the walls along with the sound of leaves rustling and streams gurgling?
State of Affairs in Libya (1:03)
Guest: Ambassador Deborah K. Jones, Deputy Commandant of the Eisenhower School at the National Defense University
Tenuous negotiations for peace are underway in Libya, led by the UN. In the four years since the US helped topple Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the nation has descended into a chaotic power struggle among local militias. A militia alliance overran the government in Tripoli last year, which sent the country’s leaders fleeing to another city 600 miles away. Meanwhile the militia groups have set-up their own rival government in Tripoli. All the while, Libya’s economy is crumbling and ISIS terrorists are encroaching.
Happiness (22:36)
Guest: Father Robert Spitzer, Author of “Finding True Happiness: Satisfying Our Restless Hearts”
Finding true happiness is a matter of satisfying our restless hearts, says Father Robert Spitzer. Ironic, he notes, that we’re surrounded by every imaginable form of entertainment and diversion, yet so often find ourselves gripped by insecurity, emptiness and malaise.
Students and Film (39:47)
Guests: Joanne Ashe, Journeys in Film’s Founder and Executive Director; Eileen Mattingly, Journeys in Film’s Director of Education
With smart phones, tablets and computers nearly ubiquitous now, kids are spending more time with a screen than ever–watching videos, playing games, or messaging. It’s a source of concern for parents. Rather than trying to get kids off the screen, though, the educational group Journeys in Film wants to capitalize on kids’ visual literacy by bringing more films into the classroom.
Gun Laws and Violence (51:00)
Guest: Phillip Cook, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, Economics and Sociology at Duke University
It’s been one month since a 26-year-old man shot and killed ten people at an Oregon community college. Since that event nine other people have died in mass shootings across the United States. According to published news reports of shootings, the nonprofit website Shooting Tracker says 384 people have died this year in shootings involving more than 4 people.
Peanut Allergies (1:17:27)
Guest: Dean Mitchell, MD, Allergist and Immunologist in New York City
There’s been a major reversal recently in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations regarding peanuts. In the year 2000, the Academy said parents shouldn’t feed peanut containing foods to kids until at least three years of age. Expose them too early and they’re more likely to become allergic, the thinking went. But now, it seems that advice was all wrong.
Russian Aggression (1:03)
Guests: Scott Cooper, PhD, and Celeste Beesley, PhD, Professors of International Affairs and Political Science at BYU
President Vladimir Putin appears eager to assert Russia’s power and influence in the Middle East. Today it was announced that Russia has convinced Iran to be part of peace talks with the US this weekend toward finding a resolution to the Syrian civil war. Just last week, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was in Moscow meeting with Putin. Meanwhile, Russia continues air strikes against Assad’s enemies – although Russian military leaders insist their primary target is the Islamic State and not the rebel fighters trying over overthrow Assad.
Helping Kids Write (20:44)
Guest: Paul Ricks, PhD, Instructor of Teacher Education at BYU
Ernest Hemingway once said, “It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” Unfortunately, beginning writers often DO think that great writers were born that way and they often discount the long—and often painful—writing process that all writers have to go through.
Stereotypes and Girls in Science (36:40)
Guest: Allison Master, PhD, Post-doctoral Researcher at the University of Washington
In the list of science, technology, engineering and math careers where women are in short supply, computer science is near the top of the list. There are all kinds of initiatives underway to get girls excited about coding. Some new research published in the Journal of Educational Psychology suggest we look beyond just the coding itself to the room where the work happens. Typical high school computer classrooms are just not appealing to girls, apparently.
American Heritage (49:14)
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, BYU History Professor
Today’s conversation will cover President Lyndon Johnson and the often complicated motivations that drove his presidency.
From the Vaults: Spooky and Strange (1:13:26)
Guests: Maggie Kopp, Curator of European Books in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Department of the Library at BYU; Scott Miller, PhD, Professor of Japanese and Dean of the College of Humanities.
A new exhibit at the Harold B. Lee Library’s Special Collections archive sheds some light on why people love haunted houses and horror, and what that means here versus Japan or today versus 100 years ago. The collection features the spooky Japanese ghost scroll and the strange, human hair art.
Japanese Ghost Scroll
Photos of Items in Vault
The Future and Back to It (1:04)
Guest: Matt Novak, Writes for Gizmodo
There is lots of geeking out going on over a new installment of Star Wars, due out next month – which technically takes place “a long time ago and far far away.” But it’s pretty futuristic, if you ask me. And we’ve just marked Back to the Future day – October 21, 2015 – the date to which Marty McFly and Doc Brown travelled to in the second installment of the film franchise. In 1985, the movie envisioned a world 30 years in the future where cars and skateboards flew, clothes and shoes automatically adjusted to fit and a thumbprint was all you needed to pay for a cab or open a door.
Social Responsibility Promotes Conservative Risk Behavior (27:41)
Guest: Gary Bolton, PhD, Professor of Managerial Economics at the University of Texas at Dallas
If you are a risk-taker, research shows you’ll be a little less-bold in your decisions when other people are involved. The power of the group to push people toward more conservative choices is fairly well documented. The question is, why does it happen?
Apple Seed (42:15)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
Video and Justice (51:24)
Guest: G. Daniel Lassiter, PhD, Psychology Professor at Ohio University
Cellphone camera video of a white school officer upending the desk of a black high school student in South Carolina and dragging her across the floor went viral yesterday. Investigations are underway. It’s just the latest video to prompt debate over race and policing. Police departments across the country are getting federal grants to equip officers with body cameras. Hundreds of jurisdictions already require interrogations of suspects to be videotaped. The general thinking is that the camera doesn’t lie. That when video is available, the truth will out.
Intellectual Arrogance (1:08:41)
Guest: Wade Rowatt, PhD, Psychology Professor at Baylor University
Nobody likes a know-it-all, except maybe when that person’s the ringer on your Trivia Night team. Generally, we consider humility better than arrogance. Is one universally good and the other bad?
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (1:19:13)
Guest: Michele Dunn, PhD, Directs the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
During the 2011 Arab Uprising, massive crowds protesting in the streets of Cairo inspired big hopes for democracy in Egypt. The movement did force the ousting of the long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak. But democracy has not taken hold. Rather, Egypt has since undergone a military coup and the vicious resurgence of authoritarianism. At the center of the drama is a group called the Muslim Brotherhood.
Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says the Muslim Brotherhood had a long history as an opposition group Egypt, but only in the days following Mubarak’s ouster did it gain entry into the halls of power. The Brotherhood – which adheres to principles of Islam, but does not advocate the creation of a religious state in Egypt – won hastily-held democratic elections in 2012. A year later, it was overthrown by the military.
What’s the Big Deal about Benghazi? (1:04)
Guest: Glenn Thrush, Chief Political Correspondent for Politico
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent a day last week being grilled by members of the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Her performance dominated headlines and news talk shows right through the weekend. All of this tracing back to the night of September 11, 2012 when terrorists overran a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans died: Ambassador Christopher Stevens, state department official Sean Smith and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. An extremist militia leader from Libya has been charged with murder in the attack and is awaiting trial in the US.
Zebra Stripes (17:15)
Guest: Theodore Stankowich, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at California State University, Long Beach
How did the zebra get its stripes is one of those age-old questions like “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” Scientists have developed lots of theories about why zebras evolved stripes and other horse-like creatures didn’t.
Breast Cancer Risk Calculator (38:06)
Guest: Charlotte Gard, PhD, Assistant Professor of Applied Statistics at New Mexico State University; Jeffrey Tice, MD, Associate Professor at the UC San Francisco School of Medicine
One in eight U.S. women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. The challenge in predicting who will be at risk and who won’t, is that family history isn’t all that helpful: About 85% of breast cancer occurs in women with no family history of it. So, the real goal would be to develop a way of calculating a woman’s risk that her breast tissue cells will mutate, regardless of her family history.
Online Risk Calculator
To download an app of the model for iOS
Eye-Tracking (52:28)
Guest: Kevin John, PhD, Professor of Communications at BYU
Have you noticed that you don’t see as many ads along the borders of your Facebook feed lately? Maybe you haven’t because, it turns out, people really weren’t paying much attention to those ads in the first place. Which is why Facebook is shifting ads to appear in the stream of news you’re your friends. Those “sponsored” messages that look like a standard post, but are really a paid ad. And for that, you can thank eye-tracking research. Rather than survey people about what they noticed in an ad, media researchers can now just put people in front of a webpage and use infrared cameras to see where their eyes linger, and then adjust accordingly.
Parent Previews (1:09:22)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
The 80s cartoon girl group “Jem and the Holograms” has been reimagined for the big screen and updated for the era of Taylor Swift and Hannah Montana-turned-Miley Cyrus. Rod also discusses the new Vin Diesel flick, “The Last Witch Hunter,” and an old favorite: “My Fair Lady.”
Bridge Inspection (1:21:32)
Guests: Spencer Guthrie, PhD, Professor of Civil Engineering at BYU; Brian Mazzeo, PhD, Electrical Engineering Professor at BYU; Spencer Rogers of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
Do you cross a bridge on your daily commute? The Federal Highway Administration this year said some 61,000 bridges across the country structurally deficient and needing repair. You might be in one of the 215 million vehicles crossing that cross over those bridges every day. There is a national program to address those deficiencies, but one of the challenges in knowing whether a bridge needs repair is knowing what’s going on beneath the surface: Down inside the concrete, where deterioration might be underway long before it’s visible on top.
Fall Garden (1:03)
Guests: Max Darrington, Arborist for Brigham Young University; Taun Beddes Horticulturist and Gardening Expert at the Utah County extension of Utah State University; Michael Caron, Expert Gardener with Utah State, based at Thanksgiving Point
Depending on where you live in the country, you could be looking at the final few weeks of lawn mowing for the season. Or you may be buried in an endless pile of leaves taunting you and your rake. Maybe you’re worried about getting your bulbs in before the ground freezes.
Trains (52:10)
Guest: Drake Hokanson, Author and Photographer
Before interstates crisscrossed America, rails were the nation’s arteries. The construction of the nation’s first transcontinental line from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California was a stunning feat that changed the face of the West. Suddenly, Americans and American companies could transport themselves and their goods from coast to coast in a matter of days. New towns sprang up along the rail line. New industries thrived.
Canadian Elections (1:03)
Guest: Earl Fry, PhD, Professor of Canadian Studies in the Department of Political Science at BYU
After nearly a decade in office, the incumbent Conservative Party Prime Minister was ousted by a Liberal with a famous last name this week. The outcome was such a surprise and the young new Prime Minister so photogenic that the story’s even landed in a few newspapers this side of the border.
Healthy Happy Meals (23:21)
Guest: Marie Bragg, PhD, CLinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Section on Health Choice, Policy, and Evaluation at New York University
Anyone who’s ever taken a child to a fast food restaurant knows how important those darn toys are in the kids meals. Little else seems to matter. Apples or fries? Milk or soda? Just get me that toy, is the look in a child’s eye standing at the counter of a McDonalds or a Burger King or a Wendy’s.
How might we put that obsession to work for the health of our kids? Officials in New York City are trying. They’re considering a measure to limit calories, fat and sodium in Happy Meals and the like.
Sign Language Education in Africa (38:06)
Guest: Joshua Josa, Program Analyst at USAID’s Office of Education
A recent UNICEF report found the number of children not enrolled in school is rising globally, partly because of conflicts like the one in Syria. But also because—particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa—there aren’t enough schools to keep up with the growing population of children. One consequence is that children with disabilities end up with no education options at all. The UNICEF report says targeted interventions are important to help those kids, particularly.
Antibiotics (52:08)
Guest: Maryn McKenna, Investigative Journalist
Brand new research out of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provides the strongest evidence yet that antibiotics in early childhood can contribute to weight gain.
Gospel Music Library (1:20:42)
Guest: Robert Darden, Professor in the Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media in Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences
A distinctly American musical legacy is quickly disappearing—gospel on vinyl. Baylor University’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project has embarked on the world’s largest initiative to identify, acquire, digitize and catalogue the music, which will eventually find a permanent home in the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.
New Drone Rules (1:04)
Guest: Tim McLain, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at BYU
Federal regulators this week announced plans to create a national registry of recreational drones. The move to make hobby drone-users register their vehicles is fueled by a rise in sightings and "close calls" between drones and airplanes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Small, easy-to-fly drones have become hugely popular. This year about 700,000 are expected to be sold in America - that's up more than 60 percent over last year's figures.
London Theater (16:42)
Guest: Tim Slover, Ph.D., and Jane England of the University of Utah's Department of Theatre
Everybody knows when you visit New York, you need to see a play - preferably a big, shiny musical on Broadway. But this next guests says, if theater is your thing, New York is not your best bet. Hop the pond to London, and not just because that's where Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch is onstage doing Hamlet in what one review called "an extravagantly royal affair."
Virtual Reality (42:44)
Guest: Evan Suma, Ph.D., Virtual Reality Researcher in the Mixed Reality Lab at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies
Retro video games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong are cool again with teenagers. The pixelated graphics are fun in a vintage-chic way that's so, so vastly different from the movie-like, immersive images of today's video games. But you know what the old school and the new school video games all have in common? Hand-held controllers with joysticks and buttons. That's weird, isn't it? That visually, things would have advanced so far, but you're still controlling the game in basically the same way? Maybe not for long, though, if Evan Suma has his way.
American Heritage (51:54)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., BYU History Professor
Today’s conversation will cover the complex history and lasting impact of the Vietnam War.
Therapy Dropouts (1:17:14)
Guest: Partha Krishnamurthy, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing at the University of Houston and Director of the Institute for Health Care Marketing
Therapists have a drop out problem. Somewhere in the range of 50 percent of patients in psychotherapy stop showing up for treatment before the prescribed number of sessions is through. They just drop out. Why they drop out is something of a mystery to psychotherapists. But community mental health clinics consider it a pressing problem.
Independent Cinema Today (1:27:11)
Guest: Guest: Brandon Purdie, Provo Film Society; Greg Whiteley, Documentary Director, "New York Doll" and "Mitt"
"New York Doll" is the story of a wild life that turns quiet, making it a unique story with a twist at the end that even the filmmakers couldn't have predicted. There is a need for theaters who will show independently made movies like "New York Doll."
Child Refugees (1:04)
Guest: Elizabeth Jevtic-Somlai, Visiting Professor of Political Science at BYU
The UN says more than 43 million people worldwide are now forcibly displaced as a result of conflict and persecution—that’s the highest number since the mid-1990s. Of those 43 million, almost half are children, many will spend their entire childhoods far from home. The pictures of Syrian toddlers washed up on Turkish beaches caused hearts to break, and intensified calls for international aid. What awaits the young refugees who survive the treacherous journey?
The Chinese Perception (24:37)
Guest: Haifeng Huang, PhD, Assistant Political Science Professor at the University of California, Merced
Authoritarian governments, like China’s, go to great lengths to control the information coming into their countries as a way of keeping their citizens content. The idea is people won’t want to organize or rise up in protest if they don’t know what they’re missing. If they don’t know how the rest of the world lives.
Here’s the problem: controlling the message too much, can backfire in a fascinating way. Many Chinese romanticize how great they think we have things, and that makes them less content with their own lives. Exactly the opposite of what the Chinese government is going for with its censorship program.
Rabies (51:06)
Guest: Ryan Wallace, DVM, MPH, a Veterinarian who leads the Rabies Epidemiology Unit at the CDC’s Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
During the course of today’s show, somewhere in the world, six people will have died from rabies. More than 59,000 people die of the virus every year—that’s 1 person every 9 minutes. And the tragic thing is that we know how to treat rabies. People who get the vaccine shots soon after infection generally survive. As a result, only a few people in the US die from rabies each year. But in parts of Africa and Asia, many, many more die because people either don’t have access to the rabies vaccine or can’t afford the high cost of the shots.
Ancient Cold Period (1:14:20)
Guest: Jud Partin, PhD, Research Assistant at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
The disaster movie from a couple of years ago called “The Day After Tomorrow,” depicted a scenario in which the ocean current collapses and the entire world enters an ice age with weeks.
The film was all-Hollywood, but the premise of the story came from an actual cooling period some 12,000 years ago. In that case, it happened not in weeks, but in a decade, which is still a really short amount of time for the average temperature in Greenland to drop nearly 20 degrees. And like in the movie, the sudden cooling was tied to ocean currents.
Synthetic Turf and Cancer (1:29:48)
Guest: Amy Griffin, Associate Head Coach of the University of Washington’s soccer team
Across North America, some 11,000 artificial turf fields host high school and college athletes playing everything from football to lacrosse. Beneath the plastic grass lies a layer of recycle tire crumbs that give the field its bounce. Athletes call the crumbs “turf bugs:” they work their way into player’s clothes, eyes, nose and mouth during games and practice.
Recently, there have been calls for more research into the health effects those turf bugs might be having on athletes.
Mass Migration (1:04)
Guest: Jacob Hickman, PhD, Professor of Anthropology at BYU
Several migrations of entire communities are underway. Hundreds of thousands of people—millions, even—are fleeing war, oppression and poverty in Syria, Iraq and parts of Africa. Years from now, we may note this period as we do today the Hmong Migration that began 40 years ago.
The Hmong are an ethnic group that played a critical role in America’s “Secret War” in Laos. It was an extension of the war in Vietnam. Hmong inhabited the hilly, strategically-important areas along the border between the two countries. Many were recruited by the CIA to fight against the Communist Pathet Lao army. When Laos fell to the Communists and the US pulled out of it and Vietnam, many Hmong were targeted for revenge, there were even extermination orders.
Climate Change and Birth Weight (21:41)
Guest: Kathryn Grace, PhD, Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Utah
Climate scientists on this show have explained the effect they expect a warming atmosphere to have on weather. Here in the states, that means bigger storms and extended dry spells, which are already affecting food and water supplies and our power bills as we crank the AC or heat a little more. In less-developed countries, people are feeling the effects more keenly: researchers including Professor Kathryn Grace at the University of Utah have isolated one negative impact—babies being born with lower-birth weights in Africa.
Enceladus (39:43)
Guest: Carolyn Porco, PhD, Leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini Mission to Saturn
Saturn is already among the most popular planets for amateur sky watchers, because you can make out its rings even with a pair of binoculars. For a decade now, the unmanned spacecraft Cassini has been sending back much closer shots of Saturn and its 60-plus moons as it orbits Saturn. NASA scientists are particularly intrigued by a moon called Enceladus that has giant icy geysers bursting from its southern pole. The images are really cool—check them out at ciclops.org, where all of the Cassini images are posted.
The big new discovery by the Cassini Mission to Saturn is that those geysers are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Researchers now believe the entire moon is covered liquid—a global ocean.
Unsafe School Lunches (52:23)
Guest: Jennifer Hartle, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Stanford Prevention Research Center
Getting kids to eat more fruits and veggies is a centerpiece of efforts to making school lunches healthier. But the push comes with a catch: Often the most inexpensive way to get fruits and vegetables on the tray is taking the canned and pre-packaged route. That’s one of the first things Stanford researcher Jennifer Hartle noticed when she started studying school lunches. Everything comes pre-washed, pre-cut and often portioned in handy little plastic cups that go straight on a child’s tray. That’s when the warning bells went off for her.
Parent Previews (1:11:19)
Guest: Rod and Donna Gustafson review films at ParentPreviews.com
The popular young reader’s series Goosebumps by RL Stine is now the basis of a motion picture by the same name. Jack Black plays RL Stine, a recluse with a library full of secrets.
Another film out over the weekend is a Cold War spy thriller from Steven Spielberg featuring Tom Hanks as a civilian lawyer with the future of the nation in his hands.
Copyright in the Digital Age (1:23:50)
Guest: Peter Midgley, Director of the BYU Copyright Licensing Office
Where does artistic ownership begin and end in this blurry online arena where another’s creativity can be co-opted at the click of a button? These are the questions we’re tackling in our innovation segment today with Peter Midgley, a copyright attorney and director of BYU’s Copyright Licensing Office.
House Speaker Drama (1:04)
Guest: Michael Barber, Ph.D., Political Science Professor at BYU
Speaker John Boehner’s abrupt announcement resigning from the House and speakership two and a half weeks ago sparked a frenzy that’s included a couple of hopefuls throwing their hat into the ring. The likely replacement was to be Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California – the next in line after Boehner. Except that he abruptly pulled out of the running, too. And now, as one political scholar puts it, the US House of Representatives has been “flash frozen.”
Freezing Pollution (22:22)
Guest: Larry Baxter, Ph.D., Chemical Engineering Professor at BYU
A big part of the international effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions focuses on coal. It’s responsible for the majority of electricity production here in the US and in many other countries. Burning coal to make electricity spews toxins and gasses that warm the atmosphere and harm the environment. Over the years, the technology to scrub ash, particulates and harmful chemicals from coal-fired power plant smokestacks has made big strides. But scrubbing carbon dioxide gas from the stack has proven a thornier challenge.
Body Noises (39:58)
Guest: Quinton Gopen, M.D., Ear Surgeon in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
A disorder of the inner ear causes those who suffer from it to hear every sound their body makes? from the quick rhythmic beats of their heart, to their eyes rolling over the words of a page as they read, to food digesting noisily in their stomach. Dr. Quinton Gopen is one of the few doctors who has figured out how to accurately diagnose – and then treat – the condition.
American Heritage (52:27)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., History Professor at BYU
BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares insights from the US history courses he teaches on campus here. This week he sat down with BYU Radio’s Marcus Smith to discuss JFK.
How Armed Groups Retain Power (1:17:06)
Guest: Benedetta Berti, International Policy Analyst and Fellow and Lecturer at Tel Aviv University and the Institute of National Security
The nature of war has changed in the last fifty years?and not just the weapons being used. The battle lines themselves are radically different. It used to be that one country would declare war on another – one government’s military would battle another’s. But think about the current conflicts in the Middle East. They’re driven by armed groups not affiliated with a formally-recognized “state;” think of ISIS and Hezbollah. To win a war against insurgents, militias and terrorists requires different strategies, and a better understanding of who these groups are. In particular, international policy analyst Benedetta Berti says it’s important to understand what these groups do when they’re not fighting.
Three World Events That Matter (1:05)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science at BYU
Over the weekend, suicide bombers killed about 100 people at a peace rally in Turkey’s capital Ankara. It’s the worst terror attack in Turkey’s modern history and the subsequent finger-pointing has exposed deep rifts in the nation’s politics. We’re discussing developments of the war in Syria, three potential peace deals, and the Nobel peace prize for Tunisia.
MRSA Research (22:52)
Guests: Jacob Hatch, BYU Microbiology Student; Bradford Berges, Ph.D., Molecular Biology Professor at BYU
New York Giants tight-end Daniel Fells is currently in a hospital intensive care unit fighting a bacteria infection so severe, it may require the amputation of his foot and end his football career. MRSA, or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, is bacteria resistant to most antibiotics that treat staph infections. That’s why it’s so dangerous. It’s also a growing threat to patients with open wounds or weakened immune systems in hospitals and nursing homes. While researchers work to find new antibiotics that will fight MRSA, others are turning to alternative ways of tackling the bacteria.
The Apple Seed (42:13)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYURadio’s The Apple Seed
Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
Fashion in the National Archives (52:17)
Guest: Kathy Woodrell, Decorative Arts Specialist in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division at the Library of Congress
Looking backward is the essence of an impressive collection of photos, magazines and other artifacts housed at the Library of Congress. Yes, apparently fashion is as important to archive as everything else in this country.
Early Intervention in the Classroom (1:07:21)
Guests: Christian Sabey, Ph.D., and Cade Charlton, Ph.D., Instructors in the Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education at BYU
In the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, there is always a dark cloud looming over recess: the bully, Moe, who steals Calvin's lunch money and his favorite toys and threatens general mayhem. Moe's behavior goes generally unchecked, and, as in so many other situations, the grown-ups in Calvin's world appear not to get what's going on. What should be done about bullying, disrespect and other anti-social behaviors in the elementary school?
Tricycle Accidents and the ER (1:30:03)
Guest: Hany Atallah, M.D., Chief of Emergency Medicine in the Grady Health System and Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine
Tricycles send upwards of 5,000 toddlers to the ER each year. They cause head injuries and damage to the bladder. Elbows are the most common fracture seen among these young patients. With three wheels, a tricycle is more stable than a bicycle and it’s supposed to be a lot safer for kids in the 1 to 3-year range. But a study of childhood injuries recently published in the journal “Pediatrics” paints a different picture.
International Law Update (1:03)
Guest: Eric Jensen, Ph.D, Law Professor at BYU
President Obama has apologized to the head of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders for the airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan that killed at least 22 patients and staff. Over the weekend, the Pentagon said the US will make condolence payments to the injured civilians and families of those killed in the strike. The head of Doctors Without Borders is calling for an independent investigation into the strike as a possible war crime.
Coworkers (24:34)
Guest: Adina Sterling, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. That old adage is true, according to some new research by Adina Sterling in Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. But there are certain conditions that make it true. And often the more important thing is not just what you know, but whether or not your new colleagues know that you know it.
Poetry 180 (38:00)
Guest: Robert Casper, Head of the Poetry and Literature Center of the Library of Congress
The Poetry 180 Project was started by Billy Collins during his time as Poet Laureate from 2001-2003. It’s designed to get high school students interested in poetry.
Mars 2020 Mission (51:43)
Guest: Ken Farley, Ph.D., Professor of Geochemistry at CalTech
“The Martian” is a great movie that includes a lot of real science, but to set the record straight – astronauts have not yet been to Mars. NASA’s working on it, though. The Mars 2020 Mission’s current focus is to pick the best landing spot for a rover that will visit the Red Planet in 2020 and gather critical information for astronauts to use when it’s their turn to go.
Parent Previews: “Pan” and “He Named Me Malala” (1:07:35)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Peter Pan’s origin story hit theaters over the weekend, featuring Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund and Levi Miller.
“He Named Me Malala” is a documentary about Nobel Peace Prize winner and activist Malala.
Tech Transfer: Spinal Clamp (1:21:01)
Guests: Anton Bowden, Ph.D., Professor of Mechanical Engineering at BYU; Aubrie Taylor, Graduate Student in Mechanical Engineering at BYU; Mike Alder of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
Back pain is the most disabling condition in the world and costs billions of dollars to treat every year. An increasing number of people are opting to undergo surgery fusing some of the bones in the spine – even though spinal fusion offers mixed results. In the lab of BYU mechanical engineering professor Anton Bowden, the focus is developing technology to support the spine in less-invasive ways that don’t require removing or fusing bones.
Digital Destiny (1:04)
Guest: Shawn DuBravac, Ph.D., Chief Economist and Director of Research for the Consumer Electronics Association
How will we work, play and communicate in 2025? Even though that’s just ten years from now, think about how much faster, smaller, smarter and cheaper the technology in your life has become in just the last decade.
Messages in Bottles (1:17:57)
Guest: Clint Buffington, English Instructor at Westminster College
What would you do if you found a message in a bottle washed up on the beach? First of all, your chances are pretty slim – about as likely as winning the lottery. Clint Buffington has defied the odds, finding some 85 bottles with messages inside. And then, like a man possessed, he tracks down the senders. He’s travelled around the world to find them.
UK and the EU (1:04)
Guest: Michael Leigh, Ph.D., Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund
The refugee crisis in Europe has prompted new calls for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. Prime Minister David Cameron’s unexpected victory in May’s general elections came with a promise that he would put the question of a “Brexit” – a British exit from the EU – to a nationwide referendum by the end of 2017.
Motherhood and Employment (23:21)
Guest: Caitlyn Collins, Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin
There’s been much discussion lately about whether women can really have it all: a high-powered career and a family. The United States gets a lot of criticism in that conversation for being the only developed country in the world that doesn’t require employers to offer paid maternity leave. In European countries, women can have a baby and still feel confident that they’ll come back to a job.
Miller Competition Series (41:34)
Guests: Tyler Young, MBA student at BYU; Kyle Taylor, MBA student at BYU
The TV show “Shark Tank” takes us inside the process of getting money to start a business. While the stakes may not be quite as high, universities across the country host Shark Tank-like competitions to help students get their big ideas off the ground. At BYU, it’s called the Miller Competition Series and over the course of several phases of the competition, thousands of dollars are on the line.
Mid-East Panel (51:12)
Guests: John Macfarlane, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Utah Valley University; Fred Axelgard, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in International Relations at BYU; Steven Lobell, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah
Our monthly panel of Middle East experts is back, as Russia intensifies its role in the Syrian war and Muslims worldwide mourn the deaths of more than 1,000 people trampled during the annual pilgrimage to the holy site of Mecca. Those are just a few of the topics we’ll cover with our panelists.
Suicide and Altitude (1:27:16)
Guest: Perry Renshaw, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah
The suicide rate in the American West puzzles public health officials. Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming—all have a roughly 1.5 times higher suicide rate than the rest of the nation. Researchers sometimes call it "the Suicide Belt.
Taliban in Afghanistan (1:03)
Guest: Dodge Billingsley, Fellow at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at BYU
The American commander in charge of operations in Afghanistan testified in front of Congress this week that an airstrike on a hospital in the city of Kunduz was a mistake. Twenty-two patients and hospital staff were killed. The medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which runs the clinic, calls the bombing a “war crime.”
Libraries at the Crossroads (25:27)
Guest: John Horrigan, Ph.D., Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center
The role of the public library has changed in the last decade – and it’s still changing. They could even disappear in the digital future. But for the moment, Americans are okay with the cost that comes with keeping a bricks-and-mortar-books-on-shelves and story time-on-Tuesdays library open in their communities.
Body Maps in Babies’ Brains (38:34)
Guest: Peter Marshall, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Temple University
Ever watched a baby discovering her tiny feet for the first time? Unable to stop touching them or keep the little toes out of her mouth, the knowledge of this new body part is an exciting moment in the life of an infant. New research involving something called “body maps” is giving us a peek inside that baby’s brain to explain what’s going on – and why it’s an important part of human development.
American Heritage (51:50)
Guest: Grand Madsen, Ph.D., History Professor at BYU
BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares insights from the US history courses he teaches on campus here. This week he sat down with BYU Radio’s Marcus smith to discuss civil rights.
The Reason for Flowers (1:18:60)
Guest: Stephen Buchmann, Ph.D., Pollination Ecologist and Author of “The Reason for Flowers”
“Say it with flowers” goes the well-known advertising slogan. Flowers are an integral part our daily landscape: we decorate with them, inside and out; we incorporate them into our celebrations and our mourning. We rely on them to convey messages that we can’t quite put into words.
PTSD: Fearful Odds (1:04)
Guest: Chuck Newhall, Vietnam Veteran and Author of “Fearful Odds: A Memoir of Vietnam and Its Aftermath”
Doctors during the Civil War-Era called PTSD soldier’s heart or nostalgia. By World War I, it was referred to as shell shock. Soldiers back from Vietnam were the first combat veterans to get the official diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. More than 20-percent of veterans returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated to have mental health conditions including PTSD, anxiety disorder or depression.
Religion in Intensive Care Units (23:07)
Guest: Farr Curlin, Ph.D., Medical Humanities Professor from The Divinity School at Duke University
When facing the end of life, many people and their families turn to faith for comfort and answers. But when those moments happen in a hospital, doctors and nurses are rarely inclined to engage in a religious conversation. Researchers from Duke and the University Pittsburgh tracked a couple hundred of end-of-life discussions between health care professionals and the families of dying patients in Intensive Care Units. During the majority of conversations, when family members brought up faith or religion, doctors and nurses either changed the topic or quickly brushed off the comments.
The Apple Seed (38:46)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYURadio’s The Apple Seed
Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
New Dietary Guidelines (51:55)
Guest: Steven Abrams, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Texas
Every five years, the US government assembles a committee of scientists and medical experts to reassess recommendations for a healthy diet. The food pyramid you learned about as a kid and the healthy plate diagram kids are taught today are based partly on the recommendations of this every-five-years committee.
Satellites in the High Country (1:14:20)
Guest: Jason Mark, Environmental Journalist and Author of “Satellites in the High Country"
If you want to wade into a truly heated debate, find a community where a national park or wilderness preserve is being proposed. The divisions that spring up between landowners, recreationists and conservationists – and even within those groups – expose the problem of defining what wild means in the modern day.
Mechanics of a Football Broadcast (1:05)
Guest: Caitlin King, Line Producer at BYU Broadcasting
Games dominate weekend TV schedules in the fall. And it almost seems that watching a game on TV is better than seeing it live in the stadium. TV broadcasts bring you high definition replays and slo-mo and more angles than you can shake a stick at.
Over the weekend, we got a peek inside the intensive process of doing a live football broadcast. It was the BYU game against University of Connecticut. The BYU Broadcasting team had already been working for weeks before. Dozens and dozens of people are involved in the effort. On game day, about thirty of them are crammed into tight rows of desks in a semi-trailer parked just outside the stadium. Giant coils of cables snake into the trailer. Small TV monitors line the walls. Flashing lights and buttons checker the desks. It’s a broadcast control room on wheels that could double as a space ship in a sci-fi movie.
Memory Thief (14:45)
Guest: Kyle Herges, Assistant Communications Professor at Dakota Wesleyan University and Author of “The Memory Thief”
Alzheimer’s is a cruel and confusing illness. There’s no prevention, no cure and no way to slow its course. Families watch the essence of their loved ones slip away.
After his mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, Kyle Herges was looking for a way to explain the disease to his children. He was also trying to cope. Both efforts came together in his children’s book called “The Memory Thief.”
Neva Shipwreck (29:05)
Guest: Timothy Dilliplane, Col. (Ret.), Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Co-Principal-Investigator of the Neva Project
In January of 1813, a Russian ship called the Neva wrecked off the coast near Sitka, Alaska. More than a dozen of the ship’s crew had already died in the difficult journey from Siberia. Another 32 died when the ship broke apart on the rocks. But 28 men made it to shore alive. And then what? It was mid-winter in Alaska. They had nothing but what they could forage on land and scavenge from the wreckage. Remarkably, 26 of the men were still alive when they were finally rescued a month later.
The story of how they survived has remained a mystery, until now. Researchers from the US and Russia - funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation - believe they’ve found the campsite of the shipwreck survivors.
Religiosity and Health (51:58)
Guest: Cameron Hopkin, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology at BYU
We think of religion as a spiritual practice, but it’s also found to have a large effect on people’s physical health. For instance, research in the last 20 years has found people who are religiously observant are less likely to abuse substances or engage in risky sexual behavior. They’re also less like to have cardiovascular disease and cancer. The question is WHY? What is it about being religiously observant that leads to positive health outcomes?
Parent Previews: “The Walk” and “The Martian” (1:08:47)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
Director Robert Zemeckis’ new movie “The Walk” is about the Frenchman who famously walked a high wire between New York’s Twin Towers in 1974, and it’s so realistic it’s apparently giving movie-goers vertigo.
“The Martian” features Matt Damon playing an astronaut left for dead during a manned mission to Mars.
Tech Transfer: Avalanche Detection (1:24:10)
Guests: David Long, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at BYU; Andre Brummer and Nicholas Moller, Representatives of Niivatech; Spencer Rogers, Member of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office.
Over the last decade years, an average of 27 people have died in avalanches each winter in the United States, according to statistics gathered by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Ski resorts and federal land management officials spend a lot of time and effort attempting to predict where the next avalanche will happen, so they can prevent death, injury and damage to property.
BYU electrical engineering professor David Long and his students have developed an approach to predicting avalanches that entails radar 3D imaging.
More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.
Happiness (1:03)
Guest: Ed Diener, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah and University of Virginia, Author of “Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth”
The US and many other countries obsessively track interest rates, employment and economic output as a sign of national health. They measure disease and death rates to track individual health. After decades of research, psychologist Ed Diener has become convinced countries should also be measuring the happiness of their people, and taking steps to boost it. What would that entail? Distributing anti-depressants? Sending people on vacations? Handing out cash? What is happiness and what causes it?
Without You, There is No Us (51:16)
Guest: Suki Kim, Author of “Without You, There is No Us”
We know very little about what goes on in the famously-closed nation of North Korea. Nicknamed “the Hermit Country,” almost nobody goes in or out and any information is limited to satellite photos, defector’s experiences, and whatever glimpses North Korea decides to give the world.
But journalist Suki Kim managed to spend six months inside North Korea teaching English to sons of the country’s elite officials in 2011. She’s written a memoir about her time there. It’s a rare – and often disheartening – look at what it’s like to for even the most privileged youth of the country to live in constant fear. The book is called, “Without You, There is No Us.”
Supreme Court Session (1:04)
Guest: RonNell Anderson Jones, J.D., Constitutional Law Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research at BYU
The last Supreme Court session featured a couple of high profile cases – including one legalizing same-sex marriage that’s been hailed as a landmark ruling. This term, the justices will hear controversial cases on affirmative action, voting laws and unions, among others.
Forgiveness (24:42)
Guest: Christine Proulx, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Missouri
Forgiveness is more than just being nice. Whether it’s forgiving others, forgiving oneself, or being forgiven, it can have a profound impact on mental health. Are you a healthier person if you can forgive yourself, or if you’re the person doing the forgiving?
Western Domination (35:40)
Guest: Phillip Hoffman, Ph.D., Professor of Business Economics and History at Cal Tech
As countries in the European Union deal with a surge of migrants from war-torn countries and the escalation of conflicts on their own borders, there’s renewed talk about the need to work together on national defense. Earlier this year, the European Commission president event called for a common EU army. That’s a fascinating prospect when you consider that several hundred years ago, Western European nations were in a state of constant war against each other. Those centuries of battle forged the skill and technology Europeans needed to succeed in taking over much of the world by the early 1900s.
Every Kid in a Park (51:42)
Guest: Julia Washburn, Education Lead for the Every Kid in a Park Team
The average kid in America spends 8 to 10 hours a week looking at a screen. The White House has a new program hoping to get some kids to put down the tablet or phone and focus on the world around them. It’s called the Every Kid in a Park Initiative. Families with fourth graders are able to receive a free pass allowing them access to federal lands and waters for a full year.
Eritrea (1:04:18)
Guest: Steve McDonald, Former Director of the Africa Program at the Wilson Center
Syrians comprise the largest number of refugees making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean in rickety boats to get to Europe. But the second largest group is Eritreans. While their plight is generally less-well-known than that of Syria’s displaced citizens, a recent UN report says the human rights violations happening in Eritrea are on “on a scope and scale seldom witnessed elsewhere.”
The Opposite of Spoiled (1:27:03)
Guest: Rob Lieber, Author of “The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money”
Does talking about money make you uncomfortable? Children often ask their parents quite frank questions about money, and answering those questions honestly and in detail can have a big impact on the way children mature.
Science Behind VW Scandal (1:05)
Guest: Dale Tree, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering Professor at BYU
Volkswagon is poised to announce a plan this week for recalling some 11 million cars fitted with software rigged to cheat on emissions tests in the US and the Europe. The scandal cost Volkswagen’s CEO his job and a drop of $25 billion in market value for the company. Why did Europe’s biggest car maker attempt to fool customers and regulators into believing its cars were cleaner and more efficient than they really were? Why go so far as to have sneaky software that limits emissions only when the car is being inspected? Is it really that hard to make a diesel engine that gets great mileage and has low emissions without cheating?
Dyslexia (20:50)
Guest: Nancy Mather, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies at the University of Arizona It’s estimated that around 10 and 15 percent of US schoolchildren suffer from dyslexia, a neurobiological disorder that makes it difficult to read and write. Despite the high number of students with the disorder, most states lag in creating laws and policies to make sure dyslexic students get the help they need in school.
New Lady Liberty Coin Design (36:37)
Guest: Justin Kunz, M.F.A., Designer of U.S. Coinage and Assistant Professor of Illustration at BYU, When the US Mint decided to redesign Lady Liberty for the 2015 American Liberty High Relief Coin, they chose the design submitted by one of our BYU professors, Justin Kunz. To see the design, visit the BYU News Webpage.
Our American Heritage: Early Cold War (52:21)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., History Professor at BYU
BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares insights from the US history courses he teaches on campus here. This week he sat down with BYU Radio’s Marcus Smith to discuss the early years of the Cold War.
Peace Officer (1:19:44)
Guests: Dub Lawrence, Retired Sheriff; Brad Barber, Co-Director and Co-Producer of Documentary “Peace Officer”; Scott Christopherson, Co-Director and Co-Producer of Documentary “Peace Officer."
“Dub” Lawrence had been retired for several decades when, on September 22, 2008, he found himself watching helplessly from across the street as a SWAT team swarmed the home and driveway of his son-in-law, Brian Wood, in Farmington, Utah. Wood was distraught and threatening to kill himself. Dub Lawrence assured his family that the police were professional and knew what they were doing. But things went badly and Brian was killed by a gunshot wound which the police initially claimed was self-inflicted, but later was admitted to have been fired by one of the officers.
Since then, the man who started the SWAT team in Davis County in 1975 has been on a crusade to bring it to justice in his son-in-law's death. The documentary about him - called “Peace Officer,” - won both the Grand Jury and the Audience Award at this year’s South-by-Southwest Film Festival and is opening around the country this month. You can visit the film's website here.
Drug Prices (1:05)
Guest: Joel Hay, Professor of Pharmaceutical at the University of Southern California
Daraprim is the brand name of a generic medicine used to treat a parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis that is really dangerous to people with weakened immune systems, like people with AIDS or cancer. So it’s a smallish group of people who need the drug, but those who need it, really need it. And recently, the price of Daraprim has gone up from around $18 a pill to $750. The small pharmaceutical company that recently bought the drug and hiked the price several thousand percent has taken a lot of heat – and even been accused of price gouging. But the thing is, it’s not the first company to acquire a drug and raise the price tag. There have been far more significant examples in recent years, all perfectly legal under the US system of drug regulation.
School Start Times (25:43)
Guest: Anne Wheaton, Ph.D., Researcher with the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
The American Academy of Pediatrics says teens have a biological excuse for being so drowsy in the mornings and recommends that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that’s later than most schools start across the country.
Heart Age (41:16)
Guest: Dr. Matthew Ritchey, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
The heart is among the body’s most powerful muscles - beating day in and day out, keeping our systems functioning until the day we die. Or so we hope. The sobering reality is that the average American adult has a heart that’s older than it should be. That is to say, it’s more worn down than you’d expect a person’s age. This idea of “Heart Age” is something the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is attempting to increase awareness about.
From the Vaults: Rose Marie Reid (51:56)
Guesst: John Murphy, BYU Special Archives Historian; Carole Reid Burr, Daughter of Fashion Designer Rose Marie Reid
Any woman who’s bought a swimming suit with a slimming panel in the tummy, an underwire bra for extra support or a flouncy skirt to flatter the hips, owes a debt to Rose Marie Reid. If you’ve noticed the retro look that’s so popular right now poolside, thank Rose Marie Reid. During the 40s and 50s, she pioneered the notion that women could look and feel beautiful in a bathing suit. She used exotic fabrics and design tricks to flatter all shapes and sizes. Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and the cast of the movie “Gidget” wore Rose Marie Reid originals. By 1960, her company was worth $18 million. Adding to her intrigue is that fact that Reid was twice-divorced, a mother of three, and a Mormon.
Good Moods Infectious Among Teens (1:22:50)
Guest: Thomas House, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester
Have you ever forced yourself to go to a party or social event when you really weren’t in the mood for it, and then found that afterwards you were glad you did because you felt better? This effect might have real consequences for teenagers, particularly those with depressive symptoms. Researchers at the University of Manchester have found that teens with healthy moods are likely to spread these positive moods to their friends.
Back-to-School Jitters (1:31:43)
Guest: Theodote Pontikes, M.D., Pediatric Psychiatrist at Loyola University
For many, the first weeks of school are packed with excitement, new clothes, and the promise of new friends. And then there are the back-to-school jitters, which seem to persist from elementary school right up through college.
EB-5 Visas (1:03)
Guest: Carolina Nunez, J.D., Law Professor at BYU
China's President Xi Jinping is in Seattle to talk trade with big American tech companies. He’s eager to encourage US investment in Chinese companies at a time when the primary flow of money is going the other way – from China here to the US. One reason for that flow is that Chinese millionaires have been active in using a visa program that allows wealthy foreigners to get permanent green cards for themselves and their families when they invest in US companies.
The Grandmother Hypothesis (19:53)
Guest: Kristen Hawkes, Ph.D., Anthropology Professor at the University of Utah
The nurturing instinct of grandmothers has been a driving factor in human evolution. University of Utah anthropologist Kristen Hawkes has been developing this “Grandmother Hypothesis “ for years and recently added a new benefit to the list of things grandmas have done for humans: She says they’re responsible for the male tendency to pair up, rather than mate with multiple partners.
TSA Uniforms Converted into Luggage for Foster Children (44:46)
Guest: Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson
Can you imagine having to put all of your belongings into two trash bags and move to a different home at a moment’s notice? This uncertain lifestyle is the reality for some foster children in the United States. Officers from the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, in West Virginia wanted to help ease the stress of moving for foster children by providing them with real luggage they could call their own.
Our American Heritage: President Truman (51:55)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., History Professor at BYU
BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares insights from the US history courses he teaches on campus here. This week he sat down with BYU Radio’s Marcus Smith to tell us some things about President Harry Truman that we may not have heard before.
Good and Cheap (1:17:21)
Guest: Leanne Brown, Author of Cookbook “Good and Cheap”
There are 5,600 people thanked, by name, in Leanne Brown’s new cookbook. Those 5,600 people donated more than $140,000 so she could publish her book and give thousands of copies to low-income families. Why the giveaway? Because the entire book is made up of recipes designed to feed a family on $4 per person per day.
Humanitarian Crisis in the Middle East (1:03)
Guest: Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne, Chairman of the AMAR International Charitable Foundation
The current refugee crisis the largest since World War II and continues to overwhelm European nations. Over the weekend, the Obama Administration announced plans to boost by more than 40-percent the number of refugees it allows in the US each year. The current cap is 70,000. By 2017, that’ll climb to 100,000. But human rights advocates are warning that that’s not enough to effectively address the problem of millions of people who are fleeing poverty and conflict in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries.
Pains of Relationships (25:51)
Guest: Craig Morris, Ph.D., Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at Binghamton University
To say someone has a broken heart so perfectly sums up the pain of a lost love, doesn’t it? It’s a pain both emotional and physical, though its intensity differs depending on your gender. That’s the finding of a new study published in the journal “Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.”
The Apple Seed (42:31)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYURadio’s The Apple Seed
Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
The Boston Miracle (50:42)
Guest: Reverend Jeffrey Brown
The Reverend Jeffrey Brown says he’s learned some of his most important life lessons from drug dealers, gang members and prostitutes while standing on street corners in rough Boston neighborhoods after midnight.
The Reverend has been part of an effort since the 1990s to reduce crime in urban areas, including inner-city Boston. For eight years in the mid-nineties, it contributed to such a huge drop in youth violence, it’s been dubbed “The Boston Miracle.” Today, the effort has been retooled for new challenges in the nation’s urban centers. “Season of Peace” is what Brown and his colleagues are calling the program.
View Rev. Brown's March 2015 "TED Talk" on this subject
African Security Issues (1:21:48)
Guest: Steve McDonald, M.A., Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center
Between the Libyan Civil War, the Boko Haram insurgency, and Kenya and Somalia’s border dispute, tensions in Africa are rather high. President Obama’s visit to Kenya for the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit strengthened the relationship between the United States and Kenya, but security in Africa remains a prominent issue.
Homo naledi (1:03)
Guest: Duane Jeffery, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biology and Evolution at BYU
Homo naledi is the name given to a new species of human ancestor discovered deep in a cave not far from Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s among the most remarkable collections of hominid fossils ever uncovered. A team of slightly-built scientists shimmied through passages less-than-a-foot in diameter to collect 1,550 fossil fragments making up at least 15 individual skeletons.
And as with most amazing scientific discoveries, there are now more questions in need of answers. Where does Homo naledi fit in the human family tree?
Sleep Apnea (41:14)
Guest: Rajesh Kumar, M.D., Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Radiological Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles
Our brains need sleep. That’s no secret. New research is showing exactly why. A study published in the Journal of Neuroimaging recently found that sleep apnea actually damages the brain.
Back-to-School Jitters
Guest: Dr. Theodote Pontikes, M.D., Pediatric Psychiatrist at Loyola University
For many, the first weeks of school are packed with excitement, new clothes, and the promise of new friends. And then there are the back-to-school jitters, which seem to persist from elementary school right up through college.
Dr. Theodote Pontikes says anxiety is one of the most common mental health challenges for children.
SAT Testing (53:26)
Guest: Jack Buckley, Senior Vice President of College Board’s Research Department
SAT scores have dropped to the lowest level in a decade. That’s obviously bad news for college-bound kids sweating through the test – and for the schools attempting to prepare them for success after graduation. Are the kids less-prepared, or have changes in the SAT itself led to the decline? Just for reference, if you’re one of those who took the SAT and still remember your score – the average for the Class of 2015 was 1490 out of a maximum 2400.
Parent Previews: Scorch Trials (1:12:14)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
It’s out of the frying pan, into the fire for the young people at the center of the latest Maze Runner film, “The Scorch Trials.” You’ll remember the first film ended as Thomas and his friends escaped the sinister maze. Now they face a new menace.
Tech Transfer: Tool Development (1:21:47)
Guests: Chris Mattson, Ph.D., Professor of Mechanical Engineering at BYU; Spencer Rogers, Technology Transfer Office at BYU
BYU mechanical engineering professor Chris Mattson and his students have come up with one improvement to the standard Leatherman. And while they’re at it, they’ve improved on the standard drill, too.
Sage Grouse at Risk (1:04)
Guests: Randy Larsen, BYU wildlife biology professor; Mark Farmer, habitat manager, Central Region, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
Most people who grew up in the West, probably never gave much much thought to the stubby sagebrush that dot the landscape, sometimes as far as you can see. But decades of wildfire, mining and development have caused sagebrush to disappear in large numbers, along with species that rely on the plant. As a result, the US Fish and Wildlife Service will soon decide whether or not to place a bird called the “Greater sage-grouse” on the endangered species list. Its natural habitat spans 11 states – which means an endangered listing could disrupt ranching, mining and development across the West. Our panelists explain the importance of the sage grouse and the threats it faces.
Catholicism in America (51:50)
Guests: Jessica Hamar Martinez, senior research on religion at Pew Research Center; Grant Underwood, professor of history at BYU; Father John Evans, pastor of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Sandy, Utah; William Dinges, professor of religion and culture in the School of Theology and Religious Studies.
Pope Francis makes his first visit to the United States at a time when nearly half of all Americans have some connection to the church, according to a recent Pew Research survey. This hour we’re asking it what it means to be Catholic in America today – culturally and spiritually.
China Dream (0:58)
Guest: Frederick Crook, Director of Research at The China Group
China’s President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit the US at the end of this month. In addition to being guest of honor at a state dinner at the White House, President Xi will speak to the United Nations General Assembly and participate in a technology forum China is organizing in Seattle. In one of those appearances, he just might utter the term “China Dream.” In 2013, it emerged as the catchphrase of his regime, emblazoned on enormous posters and billboards that popped up overnight in public places all over China.
Alliances (22:39)
Guest: Brett Ashley Leeds, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science at Rice University
Countries make military and political alliances to protect themselves in case of attacks by enemies. For example, Tony Blair famously defended the invasion of Iraq by referring to the obligations of Britain’s alliance with the United States. Political scientists at Rice University recently set out to measure the qualities of strong alliances and how, ultimately, strong alliances can promote international peace.
Language Immersion (33:23)
Guests: Jamie Leite, Utah Portuguese Dual Language Immersion Director; Jill Landes-Lee, Secondary Dual Language Immersion Bridge Director at the University of Utah
In the fall of 2014, there were 25,000 students in the state of Utah enrolled in foreign-language immersion programs in the public schools. At Wasatch Elementary, just down the road from our studios, first-graders learn to say, and sing, directions in Chinese. Utah was the first state to legislate funding for dual language immersion, but this reflects a larger national trend. As of 2014, there were 1,000 language immersion schools across the United States.
Marijuana Debunked (52:34)
Guest: Ed Gogek, M.D., Addiction Psychiatrist and Medical Director at the Bridges Network and Viewpoint Dual Recovery Center
In Colorado Springs, a new business model called “Gas and Grass” will appear next month. People will be able purchase medical marijuana and fill up their cars in one stop. Recreational marijuana use today is legal in four states – Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington – and many other states are now considering if they should legalize marijuana. Some worry that we’re sending the wrong message to teens by legalizing marijuana for adult use, even if it is intended to be only for medicinal purposes. Psychiatrist Ed Gogek has seen marijuana use increase among teens over the past several years, and says that their marijuana use can have long-term negative consequences in a variety of aspects of their adult lives.
Work-Family Balance (1:07:46)
Guest: Jeffrey Hill, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Family Life at BYU
Last year the Census Bureau reported that telecommuters make up 2.6 percent of the American workforce, and thanks to technology like Skype of Google Hangout, many employers are able to offer various forms of flexible work options. What impact do these options have on a worker’s family life? Do they minimize conflict between life and work, or do they simply lead to workers putting in more hours at home after work?
Conservative Heart (0:56)
Guest: Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute
The top ten candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination will meet in the second debate of the season tonight on CNN. Listen closely to how they talk about economic opportunity and the needs of the poor in America. It’s a topic that too-often trips up conservative politicians – and it really shouldn’t, according to Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute.
A new book takes conservatives to task for failing to use the right words or the right policies that could make a difference for the poor.
Education Technology in Prisons (22:10)
Guest: Brian Hill, Founder and CEO of Edovo
Each year, nearly 12 million people cycle through the US prison system. Most inmates pass their time unproductively, with television being a common pastime, and they often leave the correctional facility only to return within a few years. BYU Alumnus Brian Hill believes that time in prison should be put to good use.
Missing and Unidentified Persons' Conference (40:10)
Guest: Helen Connelly, Program Administrator at the National Criminal Justice Training Center
Did you know that approximately 2,300 Americans go missing every day? For such a big number, we’re remarkably unaware of all the different stories of missing persons. Homeless people, veterans, undocumented immigrants, and those with physical or mental disabilities who go missing are often unrecognized or forgotten by the general public. The 9th Annual National Missing and Unidentified Persons’ Conference is currently underway in Atlanta, Georgia. The purpose of the conference is to inspire people to not give up hope on missing persons; to “identify ways to locate and protect missing persons and provide effective strategies for understanding how to best serve hidden victim populations and their families.”
Our American Heritage: The New Deal (52:25)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., History Professor at BYU
BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares insights from his US history courses. This week he sits down with BYU Radio’s Marcus Smith to discuss World War II ideologies.
Rebuilding in Nepal (1:17:37)
Guest: Bishnu Adhikari, In-Country Director for Choice Humanitarian, www.choicehumanitarian.org
Four months since the large earthquake in Nepal and an estimated 10-percent of the nation’s population is still in need of shelter, food and basic medical care. Many of those people are in mountainous, hard to reach areas – exactly the areas where Bishnu Adhikari has been working feverishly to help his country rebuild.
Three World Events that Matter (0:53) Guest: Quinn Mecham, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science at BYU We welcome BYU political science professor Quinn Mecham back for his monthly analysis of three international events that deserve our attention.
Mindfulness Meditation and PTSD (24:47) Guest: Melissa Polusny, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Nearly one in four veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD, which can involve hyper-arousal where the patient is moved to sudden action by stimulation from his or her environment. New research shows that instead of avoiding disturbing thoughts and experiences, accepting them and embracing the present actually helps veterans to cope with PTSD.
The Apple Seed (39:35) Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s The Apple Seed Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story.
Smartphone Use (51:16) Guest: James Roberts, Ph.D., Marketing Professor at Baylor University Do you know the feeling of trying to put down your smart phone only to be lured back in with rings, beeps, buzzes, and dings? It’s not impossible to turn off your smart phone screen, but for many of us, it can be difficult. If you think you might be addicted to your smartphone, Professor James Roberts can help you supplement your willpower with some strategies to curb the use of your phone.
Demanding Bad News (1:10:21) Guest: Jill McCluskey, Ph.D., Economics Professor at Washington State University Economists from Washington State and Belgium have recently created a model that shows that consumers actually can handle bad news, possibly receiving more value from negative news than from positive news. Their findings have been published in the journal Information Economics and Policy.
Heart Conditions (1:26:56) Guest: Martin Tristani-Firouzi, M.D., Clinician-Scientist at the University of Utah's School of Medicine According to the National Institutes of Health, every year more than 35,000 babies are born with congenital heart defects in the United States. Modern medicine allows these children to grow up and live long lives, but as more children with heart complications have survived, researchers have noticed that these kids are more likely to have developmental disabilities.
The Cult of Apple (1:02)
Guest: Tim Bajarin, President of Creative Strategies, Inc. Recognized Consultants, Analysts and Futurists covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology.
If you’ve got a smartphone, and more than half of Americans do, there’s a 40% chance it’s an iPhone. Apple came out with a new version last week with something called 3D touch.
These Apple product launches inspire breathless anticipation. Devotees will soon be lining up at Apple Stores to get the latest iPhone. The fervor, the adoration, the loyalty Apple inspired is legendary. Why?
Fantasy Football (20:17)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., BYU History Professor
Pro-football is fully underway now, along with an increasingly popular side-culture in which some 30-million Americans pretend to be the owner of imaginary teams. It’s so ubiquitous, and it's likely a fantasy football player somewhere in your circle of family and friends. It’s become such a big deal that it’s now driving the NFL to record TV ratings.
Yawning and Psychopathy (36:04)
Guest: Brian Rundle, Doctoral Student of Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University
Everybody knows yawning is contagious. Now, scientists have figured out the level of contagion in a yawn is tied to a person’s empathy. If you know or care about the yawner, you’re more likely to yawn when you see them doing it.
Conversely, if you are immune to contagious yawning, you just might be lacking on the empathy scale, and that just might mean you have the makings of a psychopath.
Reshuffling of Marine Life (50:56)
Guest: Ben Halpern, Ph.D., Professor in UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and an Associate at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
Raging wild fires in the West and shrinking ice caps at the poles are two of the more visible effects of a changing climate. But two-thirds of the Earth is underwater, and life there is changing, too.
A group of scientists affiliated with UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) has set out to understand how. Their latest findings suggest that as ocean temperatures rise, marine life begins to search for more suitable conditions, which has consequences for biodiversity and for communities such as fishermen who live off the sea.
Parent Previews (1:07:23)
Guests: Rod Gustafson of ParentPreviews.com
Faith-based films are all over the box-office rankings right now. Among them, "War Room" surprised a lot of people taking the top spot the first few weeks it was out. Another one that just came out over the weekend landed in the top ten—impressive on its own for movies with a religious film. It’s called “90 Minutes in Heaven” and it’s about a pastor who is pronounced dead after a terrible car accident. But while his family and friends pray over his loss, the pastor has an out-of-body experience.
Tech Transfer: Lab on a Chip (1:23:42)
Guests: Aaron Hawkins, Ph.D, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer office. More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu
A major hurdle in the fight to prevent disease outbreaks like Ebola—or the spread of drug-resistant bacteria—is the time it takes to identify the problem. The results of a blood test can take several days to come back, during which you might be taking an antibiotic that’s not helping because you’ve got bacteria resistant to that drug. In the case of Ebola, often by the time the virus is evident in a blood test, you’ve already got a serious problem on your hands.
And so, scientists are working to come up with faster, cheaper tests. BYU Micro Engineering professor Aaron Hawkins has spent ten years coming up with what amounts to a “lab on a chip.”
Combat-Ready Kitchen (1:01)
Guest: Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, Food Writer and Former Public Policy Researcher, Author of “Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat”
After two years of research, Anastacia Marx de Salcedo has determined that our kitchens have been invaded by the military. What’s more, were you to remove every product in a grocery store that was influenced by military research, the shelves would be half-empty. Some entire aisles would be bare. We’re not just talking SPAM. Even the boneless chicken breasts at the meat counter and the pre-washed bags of lettuce over in produce bear the finger print of the US Department of Defense.
Why We Memorialize
Guests:
Jan Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
Greg Dickinson, Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University and co-editor of the book "Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials."
Aaron Skabelund, professor of history here at BYU with an emphasis on collective memory and modern Japan.
Scott Paeth, professor of Religious Studies, Peace, Justice and Conflict at DePaul University
We hear from the man credited with getting one of the most iconic memorials in America built: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. That nearly-five-hundred-foot wall of black granite on the National Mall with more than 58,000 names of veterans engraved on it.
Why do we feel the urge to memorialize moments of tragedy or events in history? What moves us to erect monuments to the fallen? Or to national heroes? Or to place flowers and teddy bears on the side of the road where an accident took place?
We talk about the power of memorials and collective memory.
This interview originally aired May 22, 2015. You can listen to it here.
New Media Advocacy Project (1:04)
Guest: Adam Stofsky, Executive Director of the New Media Advocacy Project, or N-Map
When the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund wanted to raise awareness and money for poor clients who couldn't make bail, they turned to filmmaker Adam Stofsky, who was trained as a lawyer. Turns out that making film and arguing cases have a lot in common and the ability to do both can change the face of advocacy.
What’s Bullying and What’s Not (21:47)
Guest: Eileen Kennedy-Moore, Ph.D., Psychologist and Public Speaker
A fifth of junior high and high school kids in the US have experienced bullying according to the most recent federal report on school crime. But what exactly does that mean? What constitutes bullying? The report references things like being made fun, threatened with harm, pushed, shoved or excluded from activities on purpose.
Bullying in the Workplace (39:46)
Guest: Richard Himmer, Ph.D., Certified Emotional Intelligence Consultant and an affiliate with the Workplace Bullying Institute
Bullying doesn’t just happen on the playground. There’s evidence it’s also going on at work. The boss who frequently breaks out in explosive—even violent—rants is an obvious example. But certain types of constant criticism or passive-aggressive sabotage also qualify, according to research being done by the Workplace Bullying Institute.
Middle East Panel (51:58)
Guests:
Fred Axelgard, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in International Relations at the Wheatley institution at BYU
John Macfarlane, Ph.D., teaches a course on international terrorism and leads Utah Valley University’s study abroad program to the Middle East
Steven Lobell, Ph.D., Department of Political Science at the University of Utah, author of six books on International Relations and Middle Eastern studies
Our monthly panel of Middle East experts is back as Congress debates the Iran nuclear deal and we mark the anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks with a look at how the region has since changed.
Ebay and Online Spending (1:28:43)
Guest: Brennan Platt, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Economics at BYU
BYU economics professor Brennan Platt has just finished a paper on how deadlines influence buyer behavior in online auctions.
International Law (1:05)
Guest: Eric Jensen, J.D., teaches The Law of Armed Conflict, International Criminal Law, and National Security Law at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
Hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing poverty and conflict and Syria are arriving by train, bus and on foot in Austria and Germany. Heart-wrenching images last week of drowned toddlers intensified calls for European nations to do more for the refugees. The president of the European Commission today announced binding quotas for distributing a total of 160,000 refugees between EU nations.
The Washington Post reported last week that the CIA and US Special Operations forces have launched a secret campaign to hunt terrorism suspects in Syria—this is part of a targeted killing program that is separate from the military’s broader offensive against the Islamic State.
North and South Korea recently agreed to ease tensions.
Fall into National Parks (36:10)
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder and Editor of NationalParksTraveler.com—the leading online resource for National Parks-related news
Summer’s in the rearview window now, but there’s still time to visit a National Park—in fact, there are some parks best visited in Fall when Mother Nature’s color palette is on full display.
American Heritage (50:37)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D, BYU History Professor
We take time now for our weekly segment called “Our American Heritage.” BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares insights from his US history courses. This week’s discussion is on The New Deal.
Super Lice (1:17:01)
Guest: John Clark, Ph.D, Professor of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst
Parents dread getting that note home from their child’s school warning that head lice are making the rounds. Thinking of it might make you itch: the caustic shampooing and careful combing, the endless piles of pre-emptive laundry to make sure the lice aren’t hiding out on linens or clothes.
And now comes news from the lab of Dr. John Clark at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst that a drug-resistant strain of lice have now been found in 25 states.
Skepticism Required (1:28:24)
Guest: Sean Mackinnon, Ph.D, Instructor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University
In the scientific method you form a hypothesis, conduct an experiment, analyze data, and draw conclusions. The ultimate validation of your results comes when someone else is able to replicate your experiment and get the same—or at least a very similar—outcome.
But this last step of validation happens far too rarely for a group of researchers who’ve formed the Reproducibility Project to reproduce published studies and see if they get the same results.
Online Dating and the Law (1:03)
Guest: Curtis Anderson, J.D., BYU Law School
Target, Home Depot, Sony Pictures and even the US State Department have been the target of hackers and large data breaches. But the hacking of adultery website Ashely Madison seems to be in a league of its own. Some 33-million customer account details – including very private personal information – have been spilled onto the internet. The company’s CEO has resigned. The cheating intentions of high profile people – including government employees with top secret security clearance – have now been outed. Canadian police have even tied a couple of suicides to leaked Ashley Madison customer details.
Sodium Intake (20:46)
Guest: Mary Cogswell, Ph.D., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
New research from the CDC finds the average American adult consumes way more sodium than recommended. And the good news is a lot of people with hypertension are taking steps to cut down on salt. But here’s the bad news – most of the sodium we’re consuming doesn’t come from the shaker on the table.
Apple Seed (36:40)
Guest: Sam Payne, BYU Radio
Sam Payne from The Apple Seed joins us.
Antibiotics (49:22)
Guest: Maryn McKenna, Investigative Journalist
The World Health Organization has declared antibiotic resistance a major health threat. In its first global report on the problem, a WHO official made this dire warning: “Without urgent, coordinated action by many stakeholders, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill.”
Guns and Police Officer Deaths (1:18:31)
Guest: David Swedler, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois
Law enforcement officials from across the country gathered yesterday in Fox Lake, Illinois for the funeral services of a slain police lieutenant shot and killed last week as he chased three people following a report of suspicious activity. It’s tragic, but not unusual. Police officers die on the job at 3 times the national average for occupations. And you’d think that the most dangerous places to be a cop would be cities with the highest rates of violent crime. But recent analysis by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health indicate homicides of police officers correlate most strongly with statewide gun ownership, rather than violent crime rates.
India (1:02)
Guests: Eric Hyer, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science and International Relations at BYU; Benjamin Cohen, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah; Tahira Carroll, Ph.D., Teacher of Hindi at BYU
India is the second largest country in the world and the largest democratic nation, with a population four times the United States.
This is also a critical time for India as it jostles with China for global attention and superpower status. When the Chinese stock market began crashing recently, there was a fair amount of talk among Indian leaders about this being the moment to show how India’s economy is outshining its neighbors.
Eating Disorders (51:52)
Guests: Melissa Smith, Ph.D., Psychologist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist at Balance Health and Healing; Lauren Absher, Dietician at BYU Student Health Center; Jordan Younger, Blogger at thebalancedblonde.com
Eating Disorders aren't just about food, or about trying to have a model-thin body. In fact, those are two misconceptions that can stand in the way of real healing, according to the latest thinking on disordered eating.
What’s clear is that the problem is widespread. Up to 30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder in the United States.
Religious Freedom (0:57)
Guest: Elizabeth Clark, J.D., Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religious Studies
County clerk Kim Davis of Kentucky was jailed today after she was found in contempt of court for failing to issue any marriage licenses since the Supreme Court handed down its decision legalizing same-sex marriage in late June. Davis has argued that issuing licenses to same-sex couples is a violation of her religious beliefs.
Driver's Ed (18:46)
Guest: Duane Shell, Ph.D., Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Sixteen year-olds look forward to time behind the wheel but often the classroom portion of the drivers’ ed course elicits much less enthusiasm. However, a new study shows that the classroom portion of Driver’s ed is actually time well spent. Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln “followed more than 15,000 teen drivers over eight years” and found that taking the classroom portion of the drivers’ ed course significantly reduces crashes and traffic violations among new drivers.
Gratitude is Sweet (34:16)
Guest: Ann Schlosser, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing at the University of Washington
When fall arrives, the holiday season is not far behind. Halloween then Thanksgiving. There may be a scientific reason holiday feasting tradition persists. Research shows that feelings of gratitude and connectivity with friends and family can actually cause people to eat more sweets.
Public-Sector Unemployment (50:06)
Guest: Jennifer Laird, Sociologist and Doctoral Student at the University of Washington
Government jobs have long been a sort of haven for employment diversity in America. For example, nearly one in five black adults works for the government in jobs ranging from teaching to delivering mail or investigating crimes. But the public sector took a big hit from budget cuts during the recession in 2008 and those layoffs appear to have disproportionately hurt black workers.
De-Clutter Your Life (1:02:25)
Guest: Laurie Reeve, CEO of Simply in Order
Parents may wish they had a fairy godmother to help them with the endless tasks of keeping the house clean and organized. The next best thing is turning to a professional organizer.
Apple Seed (1:25:56)
Guest: Sam Payne, BYU Radio
Sam Payne of The Apple Seed is at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival and brings us a sound check from Bill Harley.
China's Rise (1:06)
Guest: Daniel Lynch, Ph.D., Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California
The popular narrative over much of the last decade has been that China is unstoppable. The International Monetary Fund announced last year that at least by one measure, China had overtaken the US to become the world’s top economic power. A burgeoning Chinese middle class adds fuel to China’s rise.
But the latest manufacturing numbers out of the country are weaker than expected and the Chinese stock market has been tumbling for several weeks. Has all the talk about China’s inevitable, unending rise been too heady?
Doctor-Parent Divide (22:58)
Guest: Laura Scherer, Ph.D., Assitant Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri
Parents have a lot to consider when making healthcare decisions for their child. It’s not much of a surprise that they expect doctors to do everything in their power to make their kids better, and according to a new study published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, the way a doctor words a diagnosis can drive how parents react.
Healing Families from Pornography Addiction (33:40)
Guest: Jill Manning, Ph.D., Colorado Sexual Recovery Center
The decision not to include pornography addiction as a mental illness in the latest diagnostic manual from the American Psychiatric Association has fueled debate in the therapeutic community. Some practitioners have made treatment of sexual addictions their sole focus. One has gone a step further and made the spouses of pornography addicts her focus.
American Heritage (52:24)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., Professor of History at BYU
This week Marcus Smith talks with Madsen about the origins of big government.
Asian American Achievement Paradox (1:17:43)
Guest: Jennifer Lee, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at University of California, Irvine
Of all ethnic groups in the US, including native-born whites, Asian-Americans have the highest household median income and education level. That probably doesn’t surprise you. Asian Americans are the country’s “model minority” group. Their culture places high value on educational achievement. Their hard-driving “Tiger Mothers” see to it Asian American children get good grades, develop stunning musical abilities and end up at Ivy League schools.
Waking Up White (1:07)
Guest: Debby Irving, Author of "Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race"
What does it mean to be racist? Is it enough to say that you’re “colorblind” when it comes to skin color and then avoid the uncomfortable conversations that accompany race in America?
Kidnected World (34:59)
Guest: Jed Wells, Content Director of The Wonderment Project
What helps produce sympathy in children for the needs of others, other children who live far away and in cultures widely different from our own? One on-line game company, Kidnected World has created a website called The Wonderment where kids become agents for good around the world.
History of Meteorology (51:40)
Guest: Peter Moore, Author of “The Weather Experiment: The Pioneers Who Sought to See the Future”
It's hard to fathom a time when forecasts weren’t part of daily life and weather was considered more mystical than scientific. But, 150 years ago, the skies were God’s realm. Storms were divine punishment. Rainbows were heavenly blessings. The idea that man could understand the weather – let alone predict it - wasn’t just audacious, it was heretical.
Dorito Effect (1:29:54)
Guest: Mark Schatzker, Author of “The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor”
Why do we eat? Because our bodies need fuel or crave specific minerals? Do we eat for the pleasure of it? Because we like the taste? The natural purpose of flavor is to attract us to certain nutrients our bodies need. In his new book, “The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor,” author Mark Schatzker says the natural purpose of flavor is to attract us to certain nutrients our bodies need. But through the magic processing and science, flavor has become divorced from nutrition.
New Orleans After Katrina (0:00)
Guest: Fatima Shaik, Native of New Orleans and Author of “What Went Missing and What Got Found”
It’s the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the storm considered the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. More than 1,800 people died when Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast. The flooding in New Orleans displaced tens of thousands of people.
A visitor to New Orleans today might consider the city entirely rebuilt: $135 billion has gone into the effort and the population of New Orleans is back to 90 percent of what it was before Katrina. But those figures don’t tell the full story.
Military Families (19:52)
Guest: Gordon Capp, Ph.D., Student in the School of Social Work at the University of Southern California
Along with the new generation of U.S. veterans ushered in by the decade-long War on Terror, has come a new generation of children growing up in military households. An estimated four million students nationwide – mostly in public schools – have parents who served in Iraq or Afghanistan. A comprehensive new study of military-connected students sheds light on the challenges they’re facing at home and at school.
Medieval Feminism (36:25)
Guest: Paula Findlen, Ph.D., Professor of Italian History and Chair of the Department of History at Stanford University
The women of Bologna are so legendary, there’s even a page dedicated to them on the Italian city’s tourism website. They’re known as Medieval Feminists – highly-educated and influential at a time when women were generally considered less-than-men.
Their stories are a point of great pride in Italy. They’re also largely fiction according to the research of Paula Findlen.
Overhydration (52:00)
Guest: Kevin Miller, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Athletic Training at Central Michigan University
Young athletes are back on the field, conditioning in the late-summer heat to prepare for fall sports. Fears of dehydration loom large among coaches and parents – to the point they may actually be encouraging too much drinking. While dehydration is unpleasant and undesirable, it’s rarely fatal. The opposite condition is – and it’s become enough of a problem that some new guidelines have been developed.
Parent Previews (1:13:15)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com
We’re in the late-summer movie lull, as studios gear up for their big holiday releases and Academy Award season. So for our weekly chat with Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews we’re turning our attention to the subject of documentaries and biopics.
Tech Transfer: Student Assessment Tool (1:26:39)
Guests: Richard Young, Professor of Education at BYU; Lynnette Christensen, Researcher in the Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education & Schooling; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer office
“Assessment” is both a buzzword and a thorny challenge in education. We want to know how well students are doing in school. We need to know if teachers are helping kids mastering the skills we expect. In the last decade, end-of-year tests at certain grade levels have become the standard for assessing student performance. Many parents and teachers now says we’ve gone too far – made the testing stakes too high.
Imagine, instead, if teachers had a kind of dashboard that could show them day by day how well their students were doing on math or science or reading assignments. At any given moment, a teacher could see which students are struggling, which skills are giving lots of kids trouble and so on.
Video Game Addiction (1:03)
Guests: Brett Merrill, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist; Joseph Hilgard, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center; Douglas Gentile, Ph.D., Developmental Psychologist
Video Games represent one of the largest entertainment industries in the world– here in the US, some 34 million people play at least 5 hours a week. But few players stop at just 5 hours. The average time spent playing is 22-hours. That’s the equivalent of a part-time job spent playing in the virtual worlds of games like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty or even Minecraft. So, perhaps it’s no surprise that people are now being diagnosed with an addiction to video gaming. People lose jobs, destroy relationships and develop severe health problems as a result of too much time spent gaming. This hour we’re talking about the power – and price – of video game playing.
Technology in Africa (50:10)
Guests: Gabriel Senay, Ph.D., Physical Scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center; Dan Nielson, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Chair of Political Science at Brigham Young University; Guy Grossman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania; Michelle Larsen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Information is power, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Africa, where the explosion of new technology is making information more available than ever before. The use of personal technology, including cell phones, is changing banking in Africa, as well as energy, medicine, politics and even agriculture.
Wild Market Week (1:04)
Guest: Bill Conerly, Ph.D., Economist
By CNN’s tally, the American stock market lost more than two trillion dollars of value in less than a week. Monday was particularly angst-inducing for traders as Dow Jones Industrial average lost an unprecedented 1089 points within minutes of the market opening. But yesterday and today, things improved so much that the Dow got back everything it lost.
Shifting Mexican Migration Patterns (17:15)
Guest: Todd Pugatch, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at Oregon State University
Traditionally, Texas and California were the primary states where Mexican immigrants settled in America. However, a study conducted by researchers at Oregon State University and Public Policy Institute of California shows that increased enforcement along the border has led to changes in where Mexicans head once they arrive in the US.
Bystander CPR (32:54)
Guest: Carolina Malta Hansen, M.D., Duke Clinical Research Institute
If you’ve never learned CPR, this next bit of research just might convince you to tackle it. Some new research out of the Duke Clinical Research Institute raises the stakes for bystanders in possibly fatal situations.
Eating Lunch After Recess (50:53)
Guest: Joseph Price, Ph.D., BYU
Back to school brings families back to the school lunch routine. The federal government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to try and get healthier food into the bellies of kids eating school lunch. And recess looms large to distract those kids.
Female Inmate Policies (1:03:34)
Guest: Emily Salisbury, Ph.D., Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
In the national conversation about America’s over-crowded prisons, women are rarely mentioned. They’re less than 10-percent of the total inmate population. But they’re a rapidly-growing segment. Criminal justice expert Emily Salisbury says too many prisons are unprepared to deal well with female inmates. Salisbury’s research focuses on developing gender-appropriate prison facilities and programs.
California’s Lawns (1:30:53)
Guest: Esther Margulies, American Society of Landscape
Architects, USC School of Architecture
A new report out today from the California state board that oversees water shows city-dwellers have cut their water use by a third in the last year. That’s good news for cities implementing mandatory restrictions to deal with the state’s worst drought in a millennium. The cut-backs have wrought a conspicuous change to California’s once-verdant neighborhoods. Many lawns are now the color of straw. Many are simply gone, as homeowners take advantage of cash incentives to rip out their turf.
Human Trafficking (1:05)
Guest: Noy Thrupkaew, Journalist
Human Trafficking is Top of Mind today. When I said that just now, I imagine sex trafficking came to your mind. It’s true, forced prostitution is an element of the problem. But according to journalist Noy Thrupkaew, it’s not the majority of the problem. And to assume so masks reality in way that makes helping its millions of victims more difficult.
Noy Thrupkaew has investigated and written about human trafficking while reporting extensively from around the world. Her 2015 TED Talk on the subject has been viewed 3/4s of a million times.
Purebred and Homegrown: America’s County Fairs (27:41)
Guests: Drake Hokanson and Carol Kratz, Authors of “Purebred and Homegrown -- America’s County Fairs"
It’s county fair season across America. Gardeners are trotting out their giant squashes and prized peaches. Home cooks are hoping to win a blue ribbon for their famous pie recipe. And eager young 4H-ers are hoping a good showing for the sheep and goats and cows will lead to a handsome price at auction. And then there are the politicians, shaking hands and kissing babies in the most American of venues.
American Heritage (50:43)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., Professor of History at BYU
Grant Madsen of BYU’s History department talks about American Foreign Policy.
Football Stadium Economy (1:16:12)
Guest: Roger Noll, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Economics at Stanford
The excitement starts well before game day. For decades, cities have been falling over themselves to attract an NFL team. Sealing the deal requires a state-of-the-art stadium, which taxpayers have long been asked to subsidize for the promise of major economic benefits. But on that score, Stanford economist Roger Noll says NFL stadiums fail to live up to the hype.
Wage Distribution (1:03)
Guest: David Sims, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Economics at BYU
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently completed a rule that will require some 3,800 public companies to start disclosing just how much more money their CEOs are taking home than rank-and-file employees. Companies fought this “pay ratio” rule for several years, fearing the extra work it might make for their HR departments – but more importantly, the uncomfortable conversations it might force. The average CEO today makes nearly 300 times what a company’s average employee makes, according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Donating to Charities in Wills (23:30)
Guest: Dr. Russell James, Ph.D., Director of Texas Tech University’s Graduate Studies in Charitable Planning
Baby boomers have been the subject of much attention and eager anticipation since they day they were born. Their arrival led to an explosion of suburban America, their youthful protests changed college campuses and political conversations, their consumption has driven the consumer marketplace, their aging is expected to pressure Social Security and Medicare like never before. Is it any wonder, then, that much focus is now turning to what boomers will do with their money when they die?
Apple Seed (40:15)
Guest: Sam Payne, BYU Radio
Sam Payne of The Apple Seed brings us a song from Clive Romney, Executive Director of Utah Pioneer Heritage Arts and Pearl-Award-winning recording producer, composer, songwriter, storyteller, arranger, teacher and performer.
What Makes People Feel Loved (52:30)
Guest: Joachim Vandekerckhove, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Cognitive Sciences program at UC Irvine.
Is the secret to conveying love in a look? In a word? In an act? Researchers at Penn State and UC Irvine have embarked on a three- year study to find the answer. They’re looking at the whole range of what makes people happy over the long haul – and feeling loved is part of that picture.
Correct Diagnosis (1:03:21)
Guest: Danielle Orfi, M.D., Ph.D., Doctor at Bellvue Hospital in New York City
Have you ever wondered what your doctor is thinking? The emotional factors that go into making medical decisions may have an effect on your diagnosis.
Holocaust Stories (1:16:54)
Guest: Hans-Wilhelm Kelling, Ph.D., Professor at BYU
Austria-born Hermine Ryan was a homemaker in Queens living a quiet life, known for her friendliness and pristine housekeeping when, in 1964 the New York Times revealed her secret past as an infamous Nazi prison guard known as “The Stomping Mare.” What could transform a working-class girl who at one time wanted to become a nurse, and who would later live a quiet life as an American housewife, into a cruel prison guard who was feared because of her violent treatment of women and children? Ryan’s story is among the many BYU German professor Hans-Wilhelm Kelling has studied, trying to understand what could turn ordinary people into extraordinarily cruel Nazi agents.
Heat Wave (1:05)
Guest: Deke Arndt, Monitoring Branch Chief for NOAA’s National
Center for Environmental Information
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says July was the hottest month on record for the planet. Climate scientists believe 2015 is on track to overtake last year as the warmest ever.
Aha! Moment (20:56)
Guest: John Kounios, Ph.D., Professor at Drexel University
Have you ever had an “Aha! moment?” Psychologist Dr. John Kounios of Drexel University has discovered that there’s a lot more to those lightbulb moments than the flash of inspiration we call an “epiphany.” The Aha! itself is really just the tip of the iceberg. Kounios summarized much of his research in a book last year called “The Eureka Factor.” Now he’s taking our understanding of insight further with support from the National Science Foundation.
Working Memory (40:57)
Guests: Ross Alloway, Ph.D., Research Associate at University of North Florida; Tracy Alloway, Ph.D, Professor of Psychology at University of North Florida
Do you struggle with proprioception? Proprioceptive activities relate to the position and movement of the body. It turns out that Proprioception has to do with working memory, and if you struggle with one you’ll struggle with the other.
Obesity Gene (52:19)
Guest: Naima Moustad-Moussa, Ph.D., Professor at Texas Tech University
Researchers at Harvard and MIT recently made headlines by claiming that FTO, a gene that has long been associated with obesity, could be “turned off” to genetically stop weight gain. Could turning off this gene be the silver bullet we’ve been looking for?
God Bless the Child (1:05:36)
Guest: Robert Machoian, Filmmaker; Harper Graham, actress
American parents get a lot of criticism for coddling their teenagers, but today we’re going to talk about what it looks like at home when the opposite happens--when mom and dad are AWOL and the kids are left to their own devices all day long. At least as it is envisioned by one independent filmmaker.
YouTube - God Bless the Child Official Trailer 2015 HD
Beehive Collapse (1:21:14)
Guest: Sandra Burnett Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology at BYU; Mike Alder, Director at BYU’s Technology Transfer Office
Honey bees continue to disappear at a staggering rate in the US. Just between April of last year and April this year, 42 percent of managed honey bee colonies were lost due to a variety of factors, according to the US Department of Agriculture. BYU microbiology professor Sandra Burnett has pioneered a novel solution to one disease so contagious beekeepers are often forced to incinerate their infected hives.
Literacy in the Digital Age (1:05)
Guests: Gideon Burton, PhD., Professor of English at BYU; Joella Peterson, Children Services Manager at the Provo Library; Travis Patten, Sales Manager at Pioneer Book
It’s a tricky thing, this concern we have about kids and “screen time.” The American Academy of Pediatrics says parents should keep it to one or two hours a day for their children. If a child is under two, researchers say they shouldn’t have any screen time. But where does reading on a tablet or phone fit into that recommendation? We want kids to read as much as possible. And while e-books haven’t replaced the printed word, they’re certainly gaining ground. This hour, we’ve convened a panel to discuss the pros and cons of digital reading.
Learning for Life (50:45)
Guests: Kathryn MacKay, PhD., Professor of Teacher Education at BYU; Jeff Edwards, PhD., Faculty of BYU Neuroscience Center and Professor of Developmental Biology at BYU; Mona Hopkins, PhD., Director of the BYU Neuroscience Center and Professor Psychology at BYU
We’re broadcasting live from the annual BYU Education Week here on campus, where thousands of people converge to sit in classrooms for a week and listen to lectures on just about anything you can imagine. While sitting in a classroom is not the way most people would choose to spend a weeklong vacation, the idea of learning a new skill or getting acquainted with a different view of the world is rather appealing. This hour we’re focusing on the power of learning at every stage of life. From teaching children to be intellectually curious to tips for keeping your mind and memory fresh as you age, our experts will share the latest research and insight.
NAACP March (1:02)
Guest: Cornell William Brooks, PhD., President and CEO of the NAACP
An 860 mile march is underway from Selma, Alabama to Washington D.C. Dubbed, “America’s Journey for Justice,” it is led by Cornell Brooks, who discusses civil rights with us from the march route. You can visit the NAACP website at naacp.org
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (19:53)
Guest: Warren Price, Retired Utah National Guard Medic and Recreational Therapist
Teach a man to fish, as the saying goes, and he’ll be fed for life. This next conversation puts a dramatic twist on that adage: Teach a man to fish, and you’ll save his life. Warren Price says fly fishing brought him back from the brink of suicide and emotional ruin suffering the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. He tells his story in an autobiographical scientific article published in the Journal of Leisure and Research. It’s called, “I Tie Flies in My Sleep.”
Painting Now (44:43)
Guest: Suzanne Hudson, PhD., Associate Professor of Art History and Fine Arts at the University of Southern California
In this age of digital images, photoshop, and high-tech animation, old-fashioned paintbrush and canvas art feels a little dated. Irrelevant, even. How would Van Gogh or da Vinci be received if they were painting their masterpieces today? Art historian Suzanne Hudson argues in a new book called "Painting Now" that painting is absolutely still relevant – and that its significance continues to grow.
Iran Deal (52:00)
Guest: John Macfarlane, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Utah Valley University; Josh Gubler, PhD., Assistant Professor of Political Science at BYU; Steven Lobell, PhD., Professor of Political Science of the University of Utah
President Obama peppered Congress with all kinds of tough talk in support of the Iran nuclear deal before leaving them to chew over the plan while he’s on vacation for a few weeks. We start with Iran and the impending congressional vote as we convene our monthly panel of Middle East experts.
Privacy and Social Media (1:34:09)
Guest: Trevor Hughes, President and CEO of the International Association of Privacy Professionals
There is a video-sharing app called Periscope that turns any smartphone into a live broadcast camera, feeding video straight onto Twitter for the world to see. Literally anyone can be the star of their own unfiltered reality show. There’s no editing of the video, no opportunity to reconsider that image you just put out to the world. You want immediacy? Periscope is it.
International Update (1:07)
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of Law at BYU
ISIS is top of mind today. We’re nearing the one-year-mark of America’s involvement in the fight against the self-declared “Islamic State.” Call it a war, if you like--it’s one President Obama still doesn’t have Congressional authority to wage.
Millennials Living with Parents (34:49)
Guest: Richard Fry, PhD., Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center
Employment and average wages are on the rise – all good news for young adults entering the labor force. But here’s a number not rising where millennials are concerned: the percentage of millennials moving out of their parents’ house and on to independent life.
Progressives (51:11)
Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD., Professor of History at BYU
For this week's "Our American Heritage" segment, Grant Madsen sits down with Marcus Smith to discuss The Progressives.
Trophy Hunting (1:15:12)
Guest: Richard Hayes, PhD., Visting Lecturer at Stanford Law and a member of the White House Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking
Prosecutors in Zimbabwe have now charged a local tour guide and farmer in facilitating the death of Cecil the Lion by an American dentist last month. The hunt appears to have been conducted illegally and has sparked intense international debate over the morality and legality of trophy hunting African animals. Protestors are demanding an end to the practice. A number of US airlines have stopped allowing the spoils of such hunts to return to the states as cargo on their planes. Today we discuss possible policies that might discourage trophy hunting.
Algorithm Prejudice (1:31:11)
Guest: Suresh Venkatasubramania, PhD., Associate and Assistant Professor at the University of Utah's School of Computing
It’s common these days for HR departments in large companies to use computer programs to cull through thousands of job applications and make the initial cut. It’s efficient and seemingly less subject to the subtle bias of humans. Except, maybe not that last part. Research has found that algorithms can actually be as biased as human beings.
World Events (1:03)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD., Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University
We return to our monthly discussion of recent international events. We discuss the mass protests in Brazil and the current state of Brazilian politics, legislative elections in Sri Lanka, and anti-terror legislation in Israel and Egypt.
Vacations Without Wi-Fi (24:40)
Guest: Karen North, PhD., Director of the Univeristy of Southern California's Annenberg's Digital Social Media Program
Many parents take vacations with their children with the hope of digitally disconnecting their family for a bit. But with the internet availability that exists nowadays, WiFi-free vacations are rather difficult to come by. We discuss possible solutions to digital disconnection today.
Richard Wright (52:00)
Guest: Brian Roberts, PhD., Professor of English at Brigham Young University
In the mid-1950s, American expatriate novelist Richard Wright visited Indonesia for the Bandung Conference. He referred to this conference as “a conglomeration of the world’s underdogs” because it included representatives of 29 countries, nearly all of which had been colonized by Western Europe but which were now free. Professor Brain Roberts is an expert on Richard Wright and just recently returned from Indonesia, where for the last six months he has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar studying Richard Wright’s trip.
Picky Eaters (1:14:00)
Guest: Nancy Zucker, PhD., Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University.
Mealtime is all-too-often battletime in homes with children. Most people probably consider it normal for a kid to turn his or her nose up at vegetables on the plate. There is a point, however, when picky eating becomes a sign of deeper, more worrisome problems.
Teenage Purpose (1:31:50)
Guest: William Damon, PhD., Professor of Education at Stanford Univeristy and Director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence
“Millennial” is the generally-accepted term for the current crop of youngsters, but they have also been referred to as “Generation Me” or the “Selfie Generation.” They’re absorbed by their phones and their social media feeds and by themselves. That’s a gross generalization, of course, but those who fit the bill also find themselves lacking a sense of meaning or purpose.
Teacher Shortage (1:02)
Guest: Ross Brenneman, Assistant Editor at Education Week Teacher
In many districts around the country, they’re in short supply of teachers, even as school is back in session. The New York Times recently noted large urban districts including Louisville, Nashville, Oklahoma City and Providence, Rhode Island are scrambling to fill spots. Charlotte, North Carolina had more than 200 vacancies as of last week.
Leisure and Daily Health (25:19)
Guest: Matthew Zawadzki, Ph.D., Professor at University of California, Merced
"Take it easy." "Lighten up." "Chillax." Most of us see the wisdom of a little leisure from time to time, right? A balance of work and play makes for better health and happiness in the long run – but it turns out that leisure activity also has immediate and measurable effects on the mind and body.
Women Live Longer (41:32)
Guest: Caleb E. Finch, Ph.D., Professor of Gerontology at the University of Southern California
How many women do you know who have outlived their husbands? The world over, women can expect to live longer than men. The difference in life expectancy is a relatively recent phenomenon. Some have hypothesized smoking or a tendency toward risky behavior causes men to die earlier. But new analysis of mortality data from the turn of the century suggests the culprit is far more mundane – it’s the heart.
2016 Rio Olympics (52:11)
Guest: Bryan McCann, Ph.D., History Professor at Georgetown University
By this month next year the 2016 Summer Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—the first South American city in history to host the Olympic games. After hosting the World Cup last summer, you can say that the past few years have been both exciting and busy for the country. Before the World Cup, Brazil scrambled trying to finish last minute preparations, resulting in unfinished stadiums and hotels for it attendants, and it seems that history might be repeating itself for next year’s Olympic games.
Second Green Revolution (1:02:22)
Guest: Jonathan Lynch, Ph.D., Professor of Plant Nutrition, Genetics and Physiology at Penn State University
The world’s population is outpacing our ability to feed everyone with current agricultural practices, says Penn State plant scientist Jonathan Lynch. During a visit to BYU’s campus, Lynch spoke with BYU Radio’s Marcus Smith about the struggles facing in countries like Africa, where water is scarce, erosion is degrading the soil, cheap sources of phosphorous for fertilizer are running out and farmers lack the expertise to improve the output of their crops. Lynch says agricultural “business as usual” will not suffice to feed Earth’s billions in the coming decades.
Parent Previews (1:14:42)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Critic at parentpreviews.com
Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews joins us to discuss the latest movies. Stylish is the word I’d use to describe the weekend’s big new movie, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” It’s a period spy film based on the popular 1960’s TV series.
Then, Gustafson offers his insights on "Ricki and the Flash". The movie stars Meryl Streep as an aging rock musician with a lot of regrets about her family life.
Tech Transfer (1:27:32)
Guests: Bill Baker, Ph.D., Retired Professor of Organizational Leadership and Strategy at BYU; Ken Meyers, CEO of goreact.com; Mike Alder, Director at BYU's Technology Transfer Office
If it’s been awhile since you were in school, I’m going to ask you to think back to what might have been among the more stressful moments in your college career . . . the class presentation. Maybe your final grade was riding on it. Maybe it was a group project you and your classmates had rehearsed for weeks. PowerPoint was the newfangled thing we had to incorporate into our presentation when I was in college. While we spoke – and sweated – in front of the class, I recall my professor scribbling notes so furiously it was rare to see her actually looking at us. That was 20 years ago, and I’m told things haven’t changed much. But they could if more professors were to adopt the technology Bill Baker came up with. It’s a quick and easy way for people to record a presentation and then offer feedback moment-by-moment.
How to Clone a Mammoth (1:06)
Guest: Beth Shapiro, Ph.D., Professor of Paleogenomics at the University of California Santa Cruz
Molecular biologist Beth Shapiro’s lab at the University of California in Santa Cruz focuses on “ancient DNA.” She’s just published a truly fascinating book about the possibility of bringing ancient species back to life. It’s called “How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction.”
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (50:56)
Guest: Darl Larsen, Ph.D., Theater and Media Arts Professor at BYU
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s absurdly absurd. Packed with low-brow humor and farce. BYU theater and media arts professor Darl Larsen has studied it so closely that he’s prepared to make a pretty audacious claim: Monty Python and the Holy Grail is an art film.
Prison Pell Grants (1:05)
Guest: Robert Bozick, Ph.D., Sociologist at the Research and Development Corporation
The Obama Administration is moving to reverse a 20-year-old policy prohibiting prison inmates from receiving federal Pell Grants to pursue college degrees behind bars. Technically, such a change requires Congressional approval, so the US Department of Education is initially embarking only on a pilot program.
In announcing the plan, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called America “a nation of second chances.” He said helping inmates get a degree will reduce their chances of landing back in prison and ultimately save taxpayers money.
Child Abuse Study (22:09)
Guest: David Finkelhor, Ph.D., Director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire
One of the challenges in preventing violence against children is data. Without accurate numbers it’s been difficult for public health professionals to really know, for example, whether physical abuse of children in the US is increasing or decreasing and whether bullying is an epidemic or on the decline. That’s the justification for a comprehensive new survey of thousands of households across the country.
Happy Meal Effect (38:28)
Guest: Martin Reimann, Ph.D., Professor of Consumer Psychology at the University of Arizona
McDonald’s can spiff up the edibles in a Happy Meal all day long, but you and I both know what kids are really after is the toy. Well, guess what? Prizes are apparently a good motive for adults, too. Recent studies have shown that grown-ups consistently chose a smaller food portion when it came with a prize.
Clean Power Plan (1:03)
Guest: Larry Baxter, Ph.D., Professor of Chemical Engineering at BYU.
Summer is bad air season in cities across the country. Hot temperatures combine with pollutants to create ozone and other dangerous conditions bad for health.
The Environmental Protection Agency has now added CO2 to the list. That’s a big deal because, carbon dioxide doesn’t actually harm plants and people directly. But we’re well aware by now that CO2 emissions are a primary driver of global warming and now it’s the target of the EPA’s new pollution program called the Clean Power Plan. President Obama announced it to great fanfare last week. Power plant emissions are the primary target.
Glamping (25:46)
Guest: Christopher Solomon, Freelance Adventure Writer.
It sounds like the best of two worlds: sleeping in the great outdoors, with a cool breeze blowing, stars twinkling overhead—all the while you’re tucked into real king-sized bed swaddled in a luxury down comforter, with mood lamps on the bedside table next to you. Welcome to the world of glamping, or “glamourous camping.” Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it?
Musicians Hearing Loss (40:56)
Guest: Chuck Kardous, Engineer at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Many people spend their early 20s going to really loud music concerts that leave a mark on their hearing. It's worse for the musicians up on that stage, rocking at high decibels night after night. Hearing loss turns out to be a pretty big concern for musicians, according to some new work being done by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
American Heritage: Positive and Negative Liberty (52:19)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., BYU History Professor.
Grant Madsen returns for our recurring segment, "American Heritage." This week he talks with my colleague Marcus Smith about the cherished American value of liberty.
Teaching Abstract Math (1:17:22)
Guest: Daniel Schwartz, Ph.D., Professor of Educational Technology at Stanford.
We humans are apparently hard-wired to find symmetry attractive – people with symmetrical faces are generally considered better-looking. The balanced circular design of a flower’s petals is appealing to our eyes. Researchers at Stanford University have discovered a way to tap into our hunger for symmetry to help kids better understand abstract math concepts.
Early-College Programs for At-Risk High School Students (1:32:18)
Guest: Chad d'Entremont, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Rennie Center in Boston.
When high school students are struggling with academics, principals try all sorts of aids to help them succeed: counselors, tutors, on-line classes. But a new study out by the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy found that high schools can help some of their struggling students by sending them to college early.
Guns and Crime Data (1:03)
Guest: Philip Cook, Ph.D., Professor at Duke University.
James Holmes will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing 12 moviegoers and wounding 70 others in a mass shooting at a theater in Aurora, Colorado three years ago. His trial – which just ended – lasted three months, during which time, at least three mass shootings took place in the US: in a Charleston, South Carolina; outside a military recruiting office in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and in a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Big Families Get Sick More (27:33)
Guest: Carrie L. Byington, M.D., Professor at the University of Utah.
Here’s some news that will definitely not surprise parents with multiple kids at home: the more kids you’ve got, the more likely everyone in the house is to be sick. Researchers at the University of Utah tracked several dozen households for an entire year – some with no kids, some with six or more kids – and compared the results.
Apple Seed (40:02)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYU Radio's Apple Seed.
Sam Payne brings us a story from Antonio Sacre.
Governments Better Prepare Now (52:08)
Guest: Kevin Desouza, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Research at Arizona State University.
Imagine for a moment that you’re the mayor of a city. Could be any city, really. And you’re thinking about the not-too-distant future, when driverless cars will be commonplace on your city streets. What we know about these cars so far suggests we’ll see fewer accidents due to things like drunkenness or distraction. Roads will be less congested because cars will drive more efficiently than we humans. Even street lights could be programmed to work optimally with the automated vehicles. Sounds great, yeah?
But if you’re a mayor, this change probably ought to bring with it a sense of foreboding. All the revenues you’ve been collecting for your city budget from parking and speeding tickets? Wave goodbye to them.
Super-Earths (1:07:16)
Guest: David Latham, Ph.D., Senior Astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge.
The rocky, blue planet we call home has the perfect conditions for human life—lots of water, an atmosphere and an array of habitable temperatures. So as astronomers search for life beyond Earth, they’re looking for planets with similar conditions.
Last month, NASA’S Kepler Mission seeking for planets beyond our solar system added 500 new candidates to the list. And of those, one in particular moved us a step closer to finding what one NASA administrator calls “Earth 2.0.” It’s called Kepler-452b.
Water and Dams (1:28:20)
Guest: Daniel Beard, Ph.D., Former Commissioner of the US Bureau of Reclamation.
As drought continues its grip on much of the Western United States, communities are being forced to rethink their ideas about water. Daniel Beard says we’ve too long taken for granted the availability of cheap, abundant water. And he says our national policies of damming and diverting rivers are partly to blame for that mindset. During a recent visit to BYU, he spoke with Marcus Smith, host of Thinking Aloud on BYU Radio.
Bonneville Salt Lake Flats (1:03)
Guest: Kevin Oliver, West Desert District Manager for the Bureau of Land Management in Utah.
Last weekend was to have been the annual Speed Week race on the legendary Utah expanse known as the Bonneville Salt Flats. Racers driving anything with wheels have long congregated to the spot hoping to reach speeds of 300 or 400 miles per hour – and of course, set a record.
The event was cancelled this year, just as it was last year. Race organizers say there’s not enough smooth, hard salt to race on. Mud is oozing up through the salt crust that forms the bed of an ancient lake called Bonneville which once filled the entire Salt Lake Valley.
Chile Peppers (17:12)
Guest: Paul Bosland, Ph.D., Director of the Chile Pepper Institute and Professor at New Mexico State University.
What’s your heat threshold? I’m talking spice here. Are bell peppers your limit? Or are you the one loading up on jalapenos and adding a dash of habanero to everything?
Scientists believe chile peppers evolved their distinct heat to keep mammals from eating them. And look how that turned out . . . How did we end up loving the spiciness that was developed to keep us away?
Cycling Headphones (40:00)
Guest: Gemma Roper, Designer of “Safe + Sound” headphones.
Bike commuting and cycling for fun are on the rise in cities across the U.S., which corresponds to a recent rise in bike-auto fatalities. Nearly 750 cyclists died in crashes with motor vehicles in 2013. Nearly 50,000 bicyclists were injured in motor vehicle crashes.
One concern among cyclists is the headphones in their ears. Listening to music makes for a more entertaining ride, but can also block out the sound of oncoming vehicles. Now a design expert is using an ancient technique of bone-conduction to make safer headphones for cyclists.
Samurai Warriors (51:53)
Guests: Aaron Skabelund, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of History at BYU; Jack Stoneman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Japanese at BYU.
In recent weeks, Japan’s leaders have begun shifting the nation away from the pacifist stance forced upon them when they lost World War II. They’re moving to expand the purpose of the Japanese military beyond mere self-defense.
Today we’re going to roll the clock back several centuries to a time when Japan was synonymous with great warriors – the samurai.
Link to the Guns, Scrolls and Swords exhibition.
Parent Previews (1:13:39)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, Critic at parentpreviews.com
Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”. He’s assembled a team to track down a rogue syndicate intent on destroying their own secret agency.
Tech Transfer (1:26:29)
Guests: Carl Sorensen, Ph.D. ,Professor of Mechanical Engineering at BYU; Tracy Nelson, Ph.D., Professor of Mechanical Engineering at BYU; Mike Alder, J.D., Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office.
In a society where so much is made of metal, welding is key to make the various shapes we rely on – houses, cars, and furniture. Welding is an ancient art dating back to the Bronze and Iron Ages. But there’s still room for improvement and innovation.
Today's guest for our weekly innovation segment have come up with a new welding method that creates a bond so strong the joint itself often ends up stronger than the individual pieces of metal that have been welded.
Overloaded and Underprepared: Kids Go Back to School (1:03)
Guest: Denise Pope, Ph. D., Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education and Co-founder of Challenge Success; Maureen Brown, MBA, Executive Director at Challenge Success; Sarah Miles, Ph.D., MSW, Director of Research at Challenge Success
School is Top of Mind this hour. High-schoolers across the country are slowly acknowledging that summer’s-almost-over pit in their stomachs. Our guests this hour say the stress and pressure of school in America is as intense as it’s ever been. And here’s the real problem – kids are leaving the education system missing many of the components to a successful life. Schools are so worried about tests and grades, they’re not teaching kids to be independent, adaptable, ethical or capable of thinking critically.
The new book, “Overloaded and Underprepared” offers strategies for creating stronger schools and healthier, more successful kids. It’s the culmination of years of research by the Stanford Education initiative called “Challenge Success.” Stanford education professor Denise Pope co-founded the program and joins me for the hour. Welcome.
The Art of Forgery (50:47)
Guest: Noah Charney, author, art historian found of ARCA – the Association for Research into Crimes against Art
Art Forgery is Top of Mind this hour. It’s among the most romanticized of crimes and often considered victimless, unless you’re inclined to feel bad for the uber-rich or the supremely-snobbish folks suckered by an imposter’s canvas. Forgery is a crime, though – and a difficult one to prosecute, according to Noah Chaney’s new book “The Art of Forgery.”
Among the most surprising revelations in his book about the greatest art forgers of all time is his suggestion that rarely is the forgery motivated by money. Rather, the most successful forgers are out to prove their artistic genius or to exact revenge on the art houses that fail to see that genius. In some incredible cases, the forger does it all for fame – even leaving clues in the forged work, hoping to be discovered.
Mobile Money in Africa (1:06)
Guest: Daniel Nielson, Ph. D., BYU Political Science Professor
President Obama has just concluded his first trip to Africa while in office, including stops in Kenya and Ethiopia where he said, "The future of Africa is up to Africans, for too long many looked to the outside for salvation." He urged African leaders to create jobs, foster innovation and uphold the human rights ideals of democratic society.
BYU Political Science Professor Dan Nielson argues that Africans, in many ways, are already taking charge of their destinies and that local success stories on the ground in Africa might surprise Westerners.
Social Work and Religion (16:15)
Guest: Holly K Oxhandler, Ph. D., Professor of Social Work at Baylor University
Do your doctors know what your religion is? Should they? How about your therapist? Is it any of their business? Or might it be helpful for them to know?
This turns out to be a question many social workers wrestle with. The vast majority surveyed in a recent study said they believe discussing their clients’ religious beliefs would be helpful, but the fact is, very few are actually doing it.
Circus Ministry (36:58)
Guest: Sister Dorothy Fabritze, Missionary Sister of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Under the Big Top of Ringling Bros. circus there are acrobats! Clowns! Tigers! Elephants! Even llamas! And nuns! Yes, nuns. More than a decade ago, Sister Dorothy Fabritze joined the circus ministry of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. She travels the country mentoring circus performers, arranging mass in the center ring and pitching in to help make the circus The Greatest Show on Earth.
Summer Food Services Program (56:45)
Guest: Audrey Rowe, Administrator for the Good Futrition Service at the USDA
Believe it or not, there are children in America who feel a sense of dread when school gets out for the summer. They know there will be hunger pains without the daily breakfasts and lunches they get at school. To ease those pains, the USDA offers funding for states to distribute meals during the summer – often in parks and community centers in low-income neighborhoods. Last year the Summer Food Service Program served more than 187 million meals to children. But USDA officials know there are many families still hungry in the summer, because they don’t know where the meals are served.
Math Olympiad Champs (1:11:14)
Guest: Po-Shen Loh, Ph. D., Professor of Math at Carnegie Mellon University, Team USA Math Olympiad Coach
Call it an upset. Call it historic. Definitely don’t call it a matter of basic arithmetic. It took a lot more than adding and subtracting to propel Team USA to victory at this year’s International Math Olympiad. It was the first time Americans took the crown in 21 years. A fact made no less surprising by the fact that American teenagers fall below average in math compared to 64 other countries.
Football Players and Weightlifting (1:30:57)
Guest: Peter Weyand, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Applied Physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University
College football is just around the corner, and players all over the nation are in preparation mode. This typically means protein shakes, training and, of course, weightlifting. But believe or not, weights weren’t always a big part of football. In fact, 50 years ago, weight training was generally frowned on in football. Coaches worried it would slow players down. Today, they feel quite differently.
Guns and Laws (1:03)
Guest: Robert Spitzer, Ph. D., distinguished service Professor and chair of the Political Science Department at SUNY Cortland
Gun laws are Top of Mind today. Funerals were held this week for the victims of two separate mass shootings that took place within the span of 7 days – one at a military recruiting center in Chattanooga, the other in a movie theater in Louisiana. That last one happened just hours after President Barack Obama said this in an interview with the BBC:
“The one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws.”
Louisiana, Chattanooga, Charleston, Newtown, Aurora - each time someone with a gun kills multiple people and captures national attention, the debate over gun laws in America flares up. One side argues we need stricter gun laws to be safe. The other side argues that safety lies in allowing more Americans to arm themselves in self-defense.
Political scientist Robert Spitzer says the one thing you can count on in this debate is that nothing’s likely to change.
Gluten Myths (21:03)
Guest: Bana Jabri, M.D., Ph. D., Director of Research at the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center
Seems like every restaurant menu I see these days has a few “gluten free options.” Grocery store aisles have entire shelves dedicated to people steering clear of the protein found in wheat, barley and rye. I’ve noticed the gluten-free products often appear in the health food category of the store.
That subtlety may explain why as many as one in three Americans tries to avoid gluten. The number of people for whom gluten is actually a medical problem – Celiac Disease is what it’s called – is also four times more common than it was just 50 years ago. What’s going on with gluten?
Political Polarization (33:52)
Guest: Carroll Doherty, Director of Political Research at the Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center recently uncovered a new wrinkle in the story of America’s polarized political climate: while Republicans and Democrats are farther apart than they’ve been in decades, Republicans have lately been a little less bullish on their own party.
American Heritage: Our Republic (51:43)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph. D., BYU History Professor
Grant Madsen returns for our recurring segment with Marcus Smith, “American Heritage.” This time, they discuss the nature of the American Republic.
Correct Diagnoses (1:15:05)
Guest: Danielle Ofri, M.D., Ph. D., Doctor at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and author of “What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine”
When you’re at the doctor, it’s all about how you feel right? That’s what you’re there to convey: “I hurt here.” “I feel weak.” “I’m worried this might be serious.” As you sit in that small exam room across from the doctor, has it ever crossed your mind to be concerned how he or she feels? I doubt it. But maybe it should.
Revising No Child Left Behind (1:29:12)
Guest: Vern Henshaw, Ph. D., Superintendent of the Alpine School District in Utah
The much-maligned federal education act called “No Child Left Behind” is as close as it’s ever been to official retirement. Both the US House and Senate have passed bills to revise – or effectively replace - No Child Left Behind. They’re now in the arduous process of reconciling differences in the two versions of the bill. What they share in common is a move to scale back the federal government’s role in public education.
In the 14 years since No Child Left Behind became law during the George W. Bush administration, it has been criticized for creating a legacy of “test, blame and punish.” But it has also made it more difficult for schools to mask gaps in achievement between high and low-income students, whites and minorities.
GOP Presidential Chaos (1:02)
Guest: Nathan Gonzales, Editor, Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report
The large field of Republican hopefuls is engaged in a publicity frenzy: putting out viral videos, firing off TV ads and whipping up their constituents with tough talk and controversial comments all in pursuit of a spot on stage in Cleveland. That’s where, in about a week’s time, Fox News will hold the first televised debate of the nominating season.
But only the ten candidates with the highest poll numbers will get on that stage – leaving another half dozen out in the cold. So that explains the spike in aggressive stunts and amped-up rhetoric we’ve been seeing from the contenders.
El Chapo Guzman (13:53)
Guest: Don Winslow, author of “The Cartel” and other novels
The head of the Sinaloa cartel – Joaquin El Chapo Guzman - remains at large after his July 11 escape from a maximum security prison. A Mexican judge has now ordered three of the prison’s officers be formally taken into custody and questioned about their potential role in the prison break.
Government officials say El Chapo Guzman squeezed through the opening to a tunnel in the floor of his cell and escaped on a motorcycle. But novelist Don Winslow is skeptical. He’s spent the last 15 years researching the drug trade in Mexico and following Guzman’s career. His new book, “The Cartel”- and previous works “The Power of the Dog” and “Savages”- trace the rise of the drug wars in Mexico and the US. They’re works of fiction, but many – maybe even the majority - of characters and events they depict are real.
Apple Seed (38:23)
Guest: Sam Payne, host of BYURadio’s Apple Seed
Sam Payne shares a story from the guitar-strumming Odds Bodkin on “Sir Percival,” unlikely knight.
Why Torture Doesn’t Work (50:26)
Guest: Shane O’Mara, Ph. D., Professor of Experimental Brain Research at Trinity College in Dublin
We now know that the nation’s largest professional organization for psychologists colluded with the US government to sanction the use of torture to interrogate detainees in the War on Terror. An external report commissioned by the American Psychological Association found that its own officials were involved in developing the interrogation techniques and offered an air of legitimacy that helped the Bush Administration and Justice Department argue tactics, such as waterboarding and extreme sleep deprivation, were safe and did not constitute torture.
If we step away from the political and ethical debates over torture, we’re left with the science of it. And on that front, Shane O’Mara, says the evidence is clear: torture doesn’t work. O’Mara is a professor of experimental brain research at Trinity College in Dublin, and author of the forthcoming book: “Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation,” from Harvard University Press.
Mars Rover Competition (1:14:17)
Guest: Eric Homer, Ph. D., BYU Engineering Professor; David Allred, Ph. D., BYU Physics Professor
NASA hasn’t sent humans to Mars, yet, but we do have eyes on the Red Planet in the form of several robotic vehicles called “rovers.” In developing the next generation of Mars exploration machines, NASA might look to the next generation of engineers. Every year, teams of college students bring their own Mars Rover designs to compete in a sort of Olympics held in a remote part of Southern Utah.
BYU’s student engineers came in second place at the competition this year, hosted by the nonprofit “Mars Society.”
Anchor It! (1:04) Guest: Joseph Mohorovic, M.B.A., Consumer Product Safety Commission “Child-proofing” a home is a daunting task. The cabinets, the toilet, the stairs. Hazards are everywhere once you start looking for them. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission a child ends up in the emergency room injured from a falling piece of furniture every 24 minutes. The commission has a new campaign called “Anchor It” to help raise awareness and create solutions for the dangers of tip-over accidents.
Genetic Testing Kids (10:39) Guest: Dr. Jeffrey Botkin, M.D., Chief of Medical Ethics and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah Doctors and geneticists have noted what they call, “The Jolie Effect:” Each time actress and director Angelina Jolie has gone public with her choice to get preventative surgery because she tested positive for genes that place her at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer, genetic testing offices have seen a strong uptick in other women seeking the DNA tests. But how young is too young to get such tests done? Should parents have their children tested for genetic diseases? What about teenagers? The American Society of Human Genetics has just released new guidelines on the ethics of genetic testing in children and adolescents. Bioethicist Dr. Jeffrey Botkin is the lead author of the statement.
Motivating Employees (35:10) Guest: Matthew McCarter, Ph. D., Professor of management at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Affiliate of the Economic Science Institute at Chapman University Giving employees a simple cash bonus isn’t always the best way to motivate them to work better. New research in Human Resources shows that a diversity of incentives can appeal to people more.
Children’s Emotions (50:56) Guest: Ross Flom, Ph. D., BYU Psychology Professor Emotions are hard enough for adults to navigate, never mind trying to explain them to a child. Pixar recently took on the challenge in the animated film “Inside Out” which personifies five emotions in the mind of a pre-teen named Riley. Kids who see the film “Inside Out” might come away with a better understanding of those basic emotions, but what about more complicated ones like shame, guilt or pride? BYU psychology professor Ross Flom and his team of students recently released a study identifying the age at which children are capable of understanding pride and recognizing it in others.
Parent Previews – Pixels and Paper Towns (1:08:23) Guest: Rod Gustafson, critic at parentpreviews.com Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews joins us to discuss Adam Sandler’s new movie, “Pixels.” A lot of young kids think it’s cool to play retro video games now like Pac Man and Donkey Kong, on which the film is (loosely) based. But are kids really the intended audience for this film? Then, Gustafson offers his insights on “Paper Towns,” a film he classifies in the “Pimples-to-Beard” genre of coming of age story.
Tech Transfer: Sparkling Yogurt (1:26:49) Guest: Lynn Ogden, Ph. D., Professor of Nutrition, Food science at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office There’s something so pleasing about the tongue-tingling sensation of a carbonated drink. Like tiny bubbles exploding in your mouth – although, interestingly, researchers have found it’s not the bubbles that give us that fizz and tingle on the tongue. Rather, carbonation seems to activate a combination of taste receptors and sensory cells in the mouth. Why we like that sensation so much is still a bit of a mystery to scientists. But there’s no denying we like it. And so, why not put it into more of our food? BYU food scientist Lynn Ogden has figured out how to carbonate yogurt and he’s betting you’ll love it.
Mitsubishi Apology (1:04)
Guest: James Parkinson, J.D., Co-Author of "Soldier Slaves: Abandoned by the White House, Courts and Congress."
An Apology is Top of Mind today. Mitsubishi has become the first private corporation to apologize to American soldiers captured during World War II and forced into deplorable conditions as slave laborers for years in the mines and factories for Japanese companies.
Water Filtration Systems in Peru (21:14)
Guest: Randy Lewis, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering at BYU
Floating on Peru’s famous Lake Titicaca near the city of Puno is a cluster of man-made islands. Some 1,200 people called the “Uros” live on the artificial archipelago made of thick reed mats that have to be regularly repaired and refreshed. It’s a precarious life, made more so by the lack of clean water for drinking. Yes, they’re surrounded by Lake Titicaca, but the waters are polluted by solid waste and sewage.
Computers Grading Writing (39:15)
Guest: Joshua Wilson, Ph.D., Professor at the University of Delaware
Any English teacher will tell you that the downside to teaching writing is grading all those papers! Teachers may even choose to assign less writing than they’d like just because they just don’t have time to read all that student work. Fortunately, in this digital age, teachers can use essay-grading software to analyze and grade student’s essays, without having to sit down and read every paper.
Listening for Life in Space (52:17)
Guest: Seth Shostak, Ph.D., Senior Astronomer and Director of the Center for SETI Research
The search for what's out there just got a very big boost from Russian tycoon Yuri Milner. He's injecting $100 million into a major new Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence initiative.
Pluto's Close-Up (1:18:01)
Guest: Jani Radebaugh, Ph.D., Planetary Scientist at the BYU Department of Geological Sciences; Denise Stephens, Ph.D., professor in the BYU Department of Physics and Astronomy
The first color footage of Pluto and photos of all five of its moons recently arrived on Earth and got planetary scientists really excited.
Regenerating Herniated Back Discs (1:32:06)
Guest: Grace O'Connell, Ph.D., Professor at University of California Berkeley
Maybe it’s all of the sitting at desks we do in America, or the extra weight so many Americans are carrying, or just the fact that we’re living longer. But back pain – and by the same token back surgery – seem to have become a fact of middle age. Just imagine if scientists could figure out how to – say with a simple injection – get that herniated disc in your back to regenerate and become healthy again?
Greece Update (1:04)
Guest: Wade Jacoby, Ph.D., Political Science Professor at BYU
Greece is Top of Mind today. The nation’s parliament is slated to take another important vote on reforms necessary to get bailout funds from the European Central Bank. The reforms include tax increases and spending cuts that Greece’s European creditors demanded in exchange for keeping the country in the Eurozone and out of bankruptcy. The deal was cut at the 11th hour and has since allowed Greece’s banks to reopen for the first time in three weeks.
Underground Coal Fire (21:02)
Guest: Glenn Stracher, Ph.D., Professor at East Georgia State College
When visiting the site of Centralia, Pennsylvania, it’s hard to believe that there used to be a bustling coal-town of nearly 1,000 residents that once resided there. The streets that were once filled with passing cars and busy people are now cracked and overgrown, and the buildings that line them are boarded up and rotting away. An unnerving layer of smoke and smog rises from the ground, much like a scene in a horror film. Centralia—in a sense—is a ghost town, caused by the very substance that kept the town thriving—coal. Underneath Centralia is a massive coal fire that’s been burning for over half a century and doesn’t seem to die out any time soon.
RunPee App (40:07)
Guest: Dan Florio, M.A., Founder of RunPee
When you want to know whether a movie’s worth seeing, you can check Rotten Tomatoes or Parent Previews or whatever your favorite movie review site is. But where do you turn once you’re at the movie and you’ve consumed that large soda with your high-priced bucket of popcorn, and you realize won’t make it to the end of the movie before you’ll need a bathroom break?
American Heritage (51:25)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., History Professor at BYU
Professor Grant Madsen sat down with Marcus Smith to discuss the publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and the impact it had on early American society.
The Silver Lining (1:14:13)
Guest: Dr. Tamara Sims, Stanford University Post Doctorate Fellow
Cheer up! Smile! Look on the bright side! Put on your happy face! We put a lot of emphasis on the importance of happiness – maintaining a positive outlook, savoring the good times. Research shows that Americans are pretty good at finding the silver lining. Stanford psychologist Tamara Sims says we’ve been culturally trained to find the positive in every situation. Her recent research explains how.
Tanning (1:32:11)
Guest: Dawn M. Holman, CDC Behavioral Scientist
So long as the sun-kissed glow of tanned skin is considered the ultimate in beauty, Dawn Holman’s job will be an uphill battle. Recent survey data shows a decline in the number of US adults who frequent indoor tanning booths. But there are still about 10-million people who continue the practice, despite the risk of skin cancer. If fear of melanoma isn’t enough to dissuade them, what else might work.
World Events to Watch (1:04)
Guest: Quinn Mecham is a professor of political science at BYU. His research focuses on political mobilization in the Islamic world and he joins us monthly with perspective on important international news events worth taking time to consider.
World news is TOP OF MIND today, as we welcome BYU political science professor Quinn Mecham back for his monthly analysis of three international events we should be paying attention to.
High Uintas Mountaineering (21:16)
Guest: Cordell Andersen has been working on his High Uintas Wilderness Project for the last 13 years. You can follow his progress on his blog.
When you picture your retirement, where do you see yourself? On a beach? In a condo where you don’t have any yard work? Traveling the world? How about backpacking alone for weeks at a time? That’s how Cordell Andersen is spending his golden years. It’s a dream he envisioned as a teenager—documenting with his camera every corner of the High Uintas Wilderness Area of northeastern Utah. He shares his findings on a blog and has become something of a celebrity among outdoor enthusiasts here in Utah.
Musana (51:16)
Guest: Melissa Sevy is the Founder and Executive Director of Musana International. You can find out more about Musana here.
A company called Musana International employs Ugandan women to make unique jewelry sold online and marketed through pretty pictures on Instagram and elsewhere.
Body and the Brain (1:05:43)
Guest: Ranjana Mehta, a professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at Texas A&M University speaks with student producer James Perkins about the link between mental fatigue and muscle strength.
When your brain’s stressed, your body is too. Normally, we think about fatigue as a purely physical problem, but research from Texas A&M has shown that there’s a correlation between trying to perform mental tasks and your physical endurance. The more occupied your mind is, the more fatigued your muscles become. Student producer James Perkins spoke about this correlation with Ranjana Metha, a professor of environmental and occupational health at Texas A&M.
Go Set a Watchman (1:18:20)
Guest: Dr. Chris Crowe is a professor of English at Brigham Young University. He writes historical fiction and biography for both young adult and adult audiences. His latest book is Death Coming Up the Hill, the story of a young man’s coming to terms with the Vietnam War.
The common refrain of readers and critics over the last week, seems to have been “Say it isn’t so, Atticus! Say it isn’t so!” They’ve bemoaned the newly revealed racism of a beloved literary hero, Atticus Finch. Harper Lee’s long-lost manuscript for Go Set a Watchman, has been marketed as a sequel to the classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Collins sold more than a million copies in the first week – making it the publisher’s fastest-selling book ever.
Drugs and Politics in Mexico (1:04)
Claudio Holzner is a professor of political science and director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Utah.
Politics and drugs in Mexico are Top of Mind today. A little over a week ago, the world’s biggest drug lord - Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman - escaped from a maximum security prison. He’s still at large and widely assumed to have been aided in his escape by corrupt guards and prison officials. It was his second prison break. And it’s an embarrassment for Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto who took office two and a half years ago with a promise to tackle drug trafficking and “change the narrative” on Mexico’s criminal violence.
Antipsychotic Medications (17:41)
Michael Schoenbaum, Ph.D. is Senior Advisor for Mental Health Services, Epidemiology, and Economics at the National Institute of Mental Health.
Parents have a big decision to make when their children are prescribed antipsychotics. These drugs will allow their children to better function in society, but at what cost?
Antipsychotics can lead to long-term health problems, especially in children. This month the National Institute of Mental Health studied the trends of antipsychotic use among children and young adults. A surprising finding was that many of the prescriptions made for antipsychotic drugs were off-label, meaning these drugs were prescribed in ways not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Poldark (31:53)
Andrew Graham is the son of Poldark series author Winston Graham. He was a consultant on the new Mammoth Screen adaptation of the story on behalf of the Poldark Estate. The series is currently airing Sunday nights on Masterpiece on PBS in conjunction with WGBH.
The story of British army officer Ross Poldark was a huge international hit in 1975, when the BBC made it into a TV series. A new generation of fans is now enthralled by Poldark galloping along the cliffs of Cornwall, pining for lost love, finding new love with his fiery young maid Demelza and fighting to keep his copper mine open for the sake of his own inheritance and the workers who depend on him. The Mammoth Screen remake of Poldark is airing Sunday evenings on PBS’s Masterpiece in conjunction with WGBH here in the US. I should disclose that I am one of those fully-enthralled new fans.
Farming in Ethiopia (51:51)
Michael Sloan is a social entrepreneur and a business professor at San Diego State University. He and his team have developed an award-winning concept to create portable thresholders for farmers in Ethiopia.
In the small, rural town of Simbo, Ethiopia farming is life, but without modernized farming equipment it’s not an easy one. The traditional method of harvesting grain takes hours of work, lots of manpower, and produces a measly 2 lbs. of grain. Many times people aren’t even able to harvest enough grain to feed themselves, let alone sell any for profit, and children often miss school to help on the family farm.
Parent Previews: "Minions" (1:09:27)
Rod Gustafson reviews films at ParentPreviews.com and joins us weekly.
The little yellow tic-tac-shaped characters from the Despicable Me animated films showed everyone up over the weekend with the second-biggest animated film opening of all time. And they did it without speaking a word of English. But their goofy antics apparently make up for their gibberish. The movie is prequel to the Despicable Me story line and has them on the hunt for a suitable villain to serve.
Tech Transfer (1:22:43)
James Patterson is a professor of chemistry at BYU. Graduate student Shawn Averett is his collaborator.
Mike Alder directs BYU’s Technology Transfer office which license and markets innovations made on campus. More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.
We’re surrounded by metal. We rely on it to support us, protect us. But metal weakens. It can fail. And often, the impending failure is not immediately obvious to the naked eye. Trained experts pour over every inch of aircraft wings, oil rigs, freeway bridges, to try and catch weakness before it becomes a disaster.
Extraordinary Ordinary Medicine (1:04)
Guest: Dr. Sharon Kaufman, chair of the department of anthropology, history and social medicine at UC-San Francisco and author of “Ordinary Medicine: Extraordinary Treatments, Longer Lives and Where to Draw the Line.”
Medicine is Top of Mind. There’s nothing ordinary about the miracle of technology enabling Americans to live longer, healthier lives and survive ailments that even a few decades ago meant certain, swift death. But in her new book, “Ordinary Medicine,” medical anthropologist Sharon Kaufman argues that once clinical trials back up the power of a new breakthrough and insurers like Medicare decide to cover it, extraordinary treatments becomes ordinary. Expected. Impossible to turn down. And so, when an 85 year old gets a liver or kidney transplant or a defibrillator implanted in his chest to shock his heart back to life if it stops, we say – “Well, he’ll probably live another year or two as a result of the procedure. How can we deny him that? Even if it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, paid by Medicare? We value life at all costs.”
All the Wild That Remains (51:43)
Guest: Professor David Gessner of the University of North Carolina Wilmington
The Wild West is Top of Mind. Not cowboys and Indians, or Great Train Robberies, but the wild landscape of the West. Its immensity attracted outlaws, gold diggers, and dreamers of every variety.
But nature writer David Gessner argues in his latest book that the grand valleys and majestic peaks of the West are deceptively fragile. He examines that dichotomy through the works of two iconic writers, and his book is called All the Wild that Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West.
Forgiveness (1:04)
Guest: Dr. Everett Worthington
Forgiveness is Top of Mind today. A dramatic example of it played out recently in a Utah courtroom when the widow of a slain police officer attended the sentencing hearing of 17-year-old Meagan Grunwald and asked the judge to go easy. Grunwald led police on an hours-long chase through Utah, driving a pick-up truck while her 27-year-old boyfriend shot at police officers through the rear window. The chase ended with the boyfriend dead, a police officer dead and another wounded. Grunwald was ultimately convicted of murder and faced life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judged handed down a more lenient sentence of 25-years-to-life, reflecting the sentiment of the slain officer’s widow who said to Grunwald at the hearing: “You are forgiven, sweet girl. I hope that one day you can forgive yourself.”
We heard similar sentiments from victims’ families after the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. So forgiveness is on our minds today: how it helps to heal victims, criminals, and communities. Dr. Everett Worthington is a professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a leading researcher on forgiveness. In the midst of his research, he was forced to confront his own ability to forgive, not once but twice.
Learning Disabilities in College (27:24)
Guest: Lindsay E. Jones, director of public policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, and Aaron Allred, Ph.D, BYU Accessibility Center
A new crop of college freshman is registering for classes and planning the décor for their dorm rooms. Many of America’s 18 year-olds are getting ready this summer to start college in the fall. Likely not on their minds is where they’ll turn for special assistance to deal with a learning disability. The good news is more students with such disabilities are college bound these days. The bad news those kids often have trouble getting the accommodations they need on campus – or they simply don’t disclose their needs and end up setting themselves.
The issue has caught the attention of the US Department of Education, which last month announced plans to fund a center focused on improving the transition for students with learning disabilities entering college.
Middle East Panel on Iran (51:09)
Guests: Steven Lobell, University of Utah Political Science, John Macfarlane, Utah Valley University Political Science, and Quinn Mecham, Brigham Young University Political Science
After years of negotiation, the US has agreed to a deal meant to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in the next decade. Iran promises to wind down its nuclear enrichment program and give international inspectors unprecedented access to monitor Iran’s compliance with the deal. In exchange, major nations including the US will lift the economic sanctions that have hampered Iran’s economy.
With an hour-long press conference yesterday, President Obama kicked off a PR effort to sell the deal to Congress, which has 60 days to review it. Joining me now to discuss the deal and its impact is our monthly panel of Middle East experts.
Pornography (1:31:21)
Guest: Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Professor of Church History
Pornography accounts for 30 percent of all data transferred over the Internet, and 90 percent of children ages 8-16 have viewed it at least once. It’s been linked with low self-esteem and lower marriage rates in young men. Pornography is working its way into homes and families. Parents struggle with how to protect their children against its effects, given how likely they are to be exposed.
Richard Neitzel Holzapfel is the faculty advisor for the student club here on campus dedicated to educating people about the harms of pornography. Holzapfel is a professor of religious studies.
Prison Sentencing (1:04)
Guest: Michael Stoll, Ph.D., UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
In a speech at the annual NAACP convention yesterday, President Obama called for sweeping reforms including reducing – or eliminating - mandatory minimum sentences. The President is particularly concerned about minimum sentences in place for non-violent drug crimes that have resulted in a disproportionate number of black and Hispanic men behind bars. Earlier this week, Obama commuted the sentences of 46 such offenders.
Solitary Confinement (27:28)
Guest: Betty Gilmore, Psy.D., Southern Methodist University
The other thing President Obama addressed in his speech was the use of solitary confinement in prison. President Obama singled out the use of solitary confinement in prison as has having “no place in any civilized country.” The US Attorney General is now reviewing the “overuse of solitary confinement across American prisons.”
Tens of thousands of US inmates are currently being held in tiny cells for 23 hours a day. A stint in solitary can last months – even years. Sometimes it’s to punish the inmate. Sometimes it’s to keep them safe from the rest of the prison population. Regardless the reason, activists call it inhumane. And psychologists warn it causes tremendous harm.
American Heritage (50:22)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU
Grant Madsen sat down with guest host Marcus Smith and provided what might be to many people a totally new perspective on the American colonists’ bid for independence.
Economics of the Affordable Care Act (1:13:28)
Guest: Dr. Amanda Kowalski, Yale University
Republicans in Congress continue to pledge they’ll repeal – or at least rollback – as much of Obamacare as they can manage. It’ll undoubtedly come up on the stump this Presidential election. But practically speaking, the Affordable Care Act grows more deeply entwined with the health care system in America with each passing year it stays on the books. The Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold a key portion of the Act further cemented its status. So, it’s not too early to start asking how well Obamacare is working to make insurance more accessible and affordable.
Yale University economist Amanda Kowalski has some preliminary answers. Her analysis of “The Early Impact of the Affordable Cart Act, State by State” was published by the Brookings Institution
New Rules on Housing Segregation (1:04)
Guest: Jacob Rugh, BYU Sociology
Housing and Segregation are Top of Mind today. In spite of fair housing laws passed during the Civil Rights-era, many US cities remain starkly divided by race. The Obama Administration last week unveiled stricter rules aimed at the broader goal of those fair housing laws. Yes, they prohibit discrimination based on race, but they also require local governments to actively foster integration in communities. That piece of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 has gone largely unenforced - and according to President Obama – the result includes the racial imbalances and lack of opportunity that have contributed to unrest in cities like Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore.
Mosquitos and Bacteria (22:37)
Guest: Dr. Jeff Tomberlin, Texas A&M entomologist
Mosquitos sometimes make the decision to sit outside and enjoy the summer a painful one. What makes mosquitos like us so much? Entomologist Jeff Tomberlin has recently found evidence that the bacteria on our skin have a way of sending a message to mosquitos that's pretty much like ringing a dinner bell. But now for the good news- Dr. Tomberlin and his colleagues think they might be able to mute that message so mosquitos steer clear.
Apple Seed (39:04)
Guest: Sam Payne, host and storyteller of The Apple Seed
Sam Payne, host of BYU Radio's "The Apple Seed" joins us to tell a story by his friend who wrote a full story every day for 40 days. This one is called "All the Pleasures"
Reenacting Ahab's Voyage (51:32)
Guest: Dr. Mary Bercaw Edwards, University of Connecticut English
Many of you are familiar with Captain Ahab, who searched for “the white whale” in “Moby Dick”. His ship – the Pequod – is a central character in the book, and a career-long obsession for University of Connecticut English professor Mary Bercaw Edwards. She’s an experienced sailor – even circumnavigated the world with her family at the age of 16. Last year, Bercaw Edwards set sail on the closest thing possible to Melville’s fantastical Pequod: She joined the crew of the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship in the world and the final vestige of a once vast fleet of ships on which Herman Melville himself spent time as a seaman.
Between War and Peace (1:06:17)
Guest: James Hill, Pulitzer Prize winner
There are certain photographs that have become iconic and our culture and history: New York’s Twin Towers in flames, the lone protester staring down a tank in Tiananmen Square, a 9-year old Vietnamese napalm-victim fleeing naked. Powerful photographs certainly impact those who look at them. What impact do these images, particularly those that document violence, have on the person behind the lens?
The stories behind the photographs are part of what makes award-winning photojournalist James Hill’s new book so fascinating. Somewhere Between War and Peace is a retrospective of his 20 plus years documenting war and politics in the world’s most dangerous places.
Link to the photos from Somewhere Between War and Peace. Viewer discretion advised.
Apple Music Review (1:04)
Guest: Eric Harvey, Assistant Professor in the School of Communications at Grand Valley State University.
The way that we access and listen to music has dramatically changed in the last decade. From cds to mp3s, and now on to streaming services. Apple has recently joined the streaming game, already being played by Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, and others. The participation of Apple, one of the industry giants, indicates that streaming is here to stay. But how is Apple Music holding up when compared to its competition?
Chasing Fireflies (24:46)
Guest: Seth Bybee, assistant professor of Biology at Brigham Young University
Fireflies have long been among the most magical things about summer nights in the East and South. Remarkably, fireflies have started to pop up around Utah. BYU Entomologists are collecting public sightings online to track and study the insect population.
Add your sighting here
New Laser Release (42:15)
Guest: John Rogers, Urbana-Champaign engineering professor at the University of Illinois
Crafters will immediately get this conundrum: you’re working with something tiny – a piece of glitter or confetti – and you want to get it in just the right spot on your masterpiece, but you can’t seem to shake it off your finger. That’s because the speck of glitter has more surface area than it has weight, so gravity isn’t much help in breaking up the surface adhesion between your finger and the glitter.
Imagine you’re an engineer trying to build a circuit for a sensor that will fit on a piece of confetti. It’s a real challenge to get the stuff that makes up the circuit to stick to the tiny circuit board.
Researchers supported by the National Science Foundation have found a possible solution-- Lasers.
Twins: Switched at Birth (52:26)
Guest: Nancy Segal, Ph.D., Director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University.
It was a normal day at work for Jorge Castro, a 26-year-old pipe designer from Bogota, Colombia, until a co-worker approached him to show an interesting Facebook photo of her friend. Much to Jorge’s surprise, the man in the photo looked exactly like him, so much so that Jorge thought it was him. Pretty strange coincidence, right? Well, he kept scrolling through his doppelganger’s photos until he saw the picture that would change his life—his mysterious look-alike posing with another man that looked exactly like his “twin” brother, Carlos. They soon discovered that the two sets of twins had actually been switched at birth.
Their lives could not have been any different. One set of twins was raised in the city, while the other was raised in the small rural town of Santander. Yet after meeting, each set of identical twins began to realize how alike they were to their long-lost brother. The story became an international sensation, leading to many questions about the science and behaviors of twins.
Parent Previews: Minions, Self/Less (1:15:56)
Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com
The little yellow tic-tac-shaped characters from the Despicable Me animated films showed everyone up over the weekend with the second-biggest animated film opening of all time. And they did it without speaking a word of English. But their goofy antics apparently make up for their gibberish. The movie is prequel to the Despicable Me story line and has them on the hunt for a suitable villain to serve.
Another film out over the weekend was Self/Less starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley. Billionaire industrialist Damian Hale is master of his universe, until he encounters a foe that he can't defeat: cancer. His only hope is a radical medical procedure called "shedding," in which his consciousness is transferred to a healthy body.
Tech Transfer: Underwater Propulsion (1:26:29)
Guests: Brian Iverson and Kevin Marr, BYU Mechanical Engineering, Mike Alder, Technology Transfer
Drones are all the talk right now. Unmanned aerial vehicles, as devotees prefer to call them, can be used by the military and in scientific exploration or taking cool photos, or spying on your neighbors. But 71 percent of the Earth is covered in water, so unmanned underwater vehicles are of equal interest in most of those same applications. At any rate, there’s a hunt on to find a better way to maneuver robotic vehicles underwater – even give them enough thrust to turn them into underwater rockets.
The Science of Grilling (1:04)
Guests: David Joachim; Andrew Schloss
We’re in peak grilling season. Eighty percent of US households have a grill or smoker according to the national Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association – yes, grill makers have their own professional organization. We take our barbecues very seriously here in America. Food just tastes better when it’s cooked over a flame. There’s a whole science behind why that is – and how to do it well. And for that, we’re joined this hour by two leading experts on grilling technique and science. David Joachim and Andrew Schloss are noted food writers and cooks. They co-wrote “Mastering the Grill,” “Fire It Up” and the incredibly-cool cooking reference book, “The Science of Good Food.”
The Power of Fasting (51:38)
Guests: Dr. Marc Hellerstein Ph. D., Professor of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at UC Berkeley; Eric Huntsman, Professor of Ancient Scripture and Comparative Religion at BYU
The holy month of Ramadan is winding down for Muslims worldwide: no food or drink is supposed to pass their lips from sun up to sun down. Most religions embrace fasting in some form as a spiritual practice. There’s a growing evidence that fasting has health benefits as well – to reduce your risk of disease, improve brain function and even extend life. For the next hour, we’ll explore the power of fasting – first for the body and then for the spirit.
Perils of Shark Week (1:04)
Eight people have already reported being bitten by sharks of North Carolina’s beaches this summer – which is more attacks than happened during all of last year. And coincidentally this is SHARK WEEK on the Discovery Channel, which is akin to the Super Bowl of nature shows – it’s that popular. Marine scientists have been increasingly concerned at how Shark Week programs amp up the fear factor and sometimes just plain make stuff up about sharks. The most-watched Shark Week show of all time aired two years ago all about an ancient, enormous shark called megalodon that still roams the sea. It was pure fiction. Megalodon has been extinct for millions of years. Sonja Fordham will talk about the pros and cons of Shark Week. She is the founder of Shark Advocates International at the Ocean Foundation. She’s been involved in shark policy projects for two decades.
Recycled Stories in Movie Plots (20:47)
The biggest Hollywood blockbusters these days all seem to feel just a little familiar. Jurassic World and the other big hits of this summer certainly haven't escaped this trend. They’re either sequels, remakes or adaptations of a past hit movie. Why doesn’t Hollywood seem interested in trying something new these days? Independent filmmaker and Baylor University media professor Chris Hansen discusses this phenomenon with us today. Chris Hansen is an award-winning writer and director. His feature films have screened at festivals throughout the United States and Canada, and have been released theatrically in Los Angeles and New York. He is the chair of the film and digital media department in Baylor University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Protein Hazards (35:27)
Atkins, Paleo, and the South Beach diets all recommend a cut in carbohydrates in favor of a high-protein diet. These diets are popular because they work well in the short-term but research done by the director of the University of Southern California’s Longevity Institute, Dr. Valter Longo, shows that eating lots of animal proteins can lead to a long-term increased risk of cancer. Dr. Longo is a professor of Biogerontology at the University of Southern California. His research appeared in the journal Cell Metabolism.
Caregivers (50:59)
Demographers say American is currently in a “golden age” of caregiving because there’s no real shortage of people who are capable of giving the care young children and aging seniors need. But that will change in the coming years as the Baby Boomers reach old age. University of Washington sociologist Emilio Zagheni has been studying the makeup of the caregiving community – who’s taking care of whom in the US today – and trying to get a handle on exactly how prepared we are to handle the “white wave” of aging Boomers. Emilio Zagheni is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Washington. His study about the demographics of caregivers is published in the journal Population and Development Review.
Fighting Violence with Music in Honduras (1:02:29)
The Honduran City of San Pedro Sula has been dubbed by some the “murder capital of the world.” An average of more than three people are killed in the city every day. Health officials say the homicide rate is beyond an epidemic. Honduran singer/songwriter Eduardo Umanzor is a native of San Pedro Sula and now he’s working to inspire his people to fight violence though his hopeful and upbeat music. Umanzor is currently collaborating with USAID’s program Alianza Joven to prevent violence.
Fact Checking (1:18:07)
Political candidates in 2015 have a much harder time getting away with the kind of half-truths and spin that are bread and butter for stump speeches and campaign ads. The last few presidential election cycles have seen the rise of Fact Checking as a hybrid of journalism and public service. On politifact.com you can read all about Republican candidate Donald Trump’s latest comment that "the Mexican government forces many bad people into our country," which the site gives a “pants on fire” rating – meaning it’s a lie. That statement earned Trump four Pinocchios (the maximum given to real whoppers) from the Washington Post’s popular Fact Checker column. Meanwhile, factcheck.org calls out Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for making false blanket statements about where her Republican opponents stand on immigration. It’s a lot harder to twist the truth in politics these days. What’s behind this Fact Checking “movement” as some have called it? And where is it taking us? Jane Elizabeth shares her insights with us. She is the Senior Research Project Manager at the American Press Institute. She’s leading a project to improve and expand political fact-checking. She is the Washington Post's former deputy local editor, and teaches advanced journalism as a member of the adjunct faculty at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
Summer Jobs Disappear for Teens (1:04)
Over the course of the last 40 years, they’ve become a disappearing institution, according to Pew Research Center analysis of US labor statistics. Pew senior writer Drew DeSilver wrote about the phenomenon recently referring to the Great American Summer Job. And they were great, weren’t they? Not always fun or glamorous, but man, those of us who were teenagers in the 70s and 80s really could land all kinds of work to make a little spending money and while away the summer days. Drew DeSilver is a senior writer at the Pew Research Center and will talk about how and why things have changed for teen workers in summer time.
Nature and Mental Health (19:11)
The United Nations says more than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas and that figure is rising quickly. On the one hand, urbanization brings modern benefits for quality of life and access to services. On the other, people who live in cities are more likely to suffer from anxiety disorders, depression and even schizophrenia. Researchers at Stanford University have been looking into the power of nature to mitigate those mental illnesses and published some intriguing evidence in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Greg Bratman is a doctoral student at the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University.
National Parks Update (36:36)
If National Parks are a regular part of your summer vacation, expect to pay higher fees. The entrance fees and annual pass prices went up at 130 national parks, in some cases doubling or tripling. An annual pass to Arches in Southeast Utah will cost you $50 this year – last year it was $25. The cost to enter Yellowstone in a car went up $5 this year to $30. Yosemite and Grand Canyon on the list of parks with higher fees, too. And whether you enter in a car, on foot or by motorcycle, you’ll probably be paying more for the visit. Kurt Repanshek is founder and editor of NationalParksTraveler.com – the leading online resource for National Parks-related news.
American Heritage: Passions and Interests (50:31)
When did greed become acceptable in American culture? Marcus Smith and BYU history professor Grant Madsen discuss this question.
From the Vaults: Death of Alexander Hamilton (1:15:24)
This weekend marks the two hundred and eleventh anniversary of one of history’s most famous, or infamous, duels. On July 11, 1804, the Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr, fatally shot his long-time political rival Alexander Hamilton, a noted Federalist who had been the first Secretary of the Treasury in the US. Here at Brigham Young University, we have in our library’s Special Collections an original letter written by Dirck ten Broeck, a former law clerk under Hamilton, who, in fact, had an appointment to see Hamilton on that fateful afternoon. The meeting never happened, but ten Broeck was there with Hamilton when he died and he wrote this letter to tell his father what happened. Russ Taylor is the Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Dr. Matt Mason is an Associate Professor of History here at BYU. See a scan of the letter here
Correction. July 9, 2015. The audio and previous web text state that the duel and death happened on a weekend, but they, in fact, happened on Wednesday and Thursday, July 11 and 12, 1804.
Greek Debt (1:03)
Greece has defaulted on its debt and Greek voters have rejected the terms of an international bailout. Since that weekend vote, the ball has been in Greece’s court to come up with a new proposal its international credits can accept. But today, Greece’s finance minister showed up for an emergency meeting in Brussels empty-handed. Meanwhile Greek banks are running out of cash and face the danger of collapse within days without new aid. Korkut Erturk is a professor of international economics at the University of Utah.
Warren Buffett's Secret Millionaire Club (23:15)
Warren Buffett’s legendary business and investment success comes wrapped in folksy wisdom that makes him even more popular with the tens of thousands of people who flock to his company’s shareholder meeting every year in Nebraska. Buffett himself has lately turned his expertise toward a younger audience. For the last four years, he’s hosted a business challenge for young entrepreneurs. The winners Buffett chose recently got $5,000 cash and shares in his company. Buffett also lends his name to an animated web series called “Secret Millionnaires Club” which has aired on The HUB Cable Network and the Discovery Family Channel.
Buffett voices his own character and he finishes every episode with the adage: The more you learn, the more you’ll EARN. Amy Heyward is the President of Genius Brands where she helped develop the Secret Millionaires Club series with Warren Buffett.
The Economics of Environmentalism (49:57)
What’s the value of a forest? Is it in the wood that can be used for construction or paper making? Or the campers and hikers it draws? Or some other environmental advantage all those trees in close proximity provide? Around the world, there are governments, organizations and companies starting to look more closely at the value of natural resources beyond their short-term value – such as logging forests for lumber. Oregon State University professor Jane Lubchencho calls says the approach requires viewing nature as form of economic capital. By assigning a dollar figure to all of the value nature provides, communities can create better economic incentives to preserve it. She spoke with James Perkins of our staff about this concept of “natural capital,” which she recently wrote about in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Smoking and Children's Health (1:06:46)
Pregnant women are generally well-aware that smoking is bad for their baby. But there’s not been much research to date on what exposure to second-hand smoke does to the bodies of young children. Psychologist Linda Pagani has found a strong link between that exposure and obesity in children. She’s a professor of psychoeducation at the University of Montreal, where she’s also a senior investigator at St. Justine’s Children’s Hospital. Her study on Smoke Exposure and Metabolic Risk appeared this month in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
Giggle Gene (1:23:30)
Are you prone to getting the giggles? Ever wondered why some people can’t seem to keep a straight face when something strikes them funny while others don’t? New research out of UC Berkeley and Northwestern University indicates the reason is partly genetic. Their work appeared recently in the journal Emotion. Robert Levenson is a psychology professor at UC Berkeley and specializes in researching emotion.
Redistricting and SCOTUS (1:04) Democracy is Top of Mind today. In drafting the Constitution of the United States, the founders spent a lot of time wrestling with how to ensure the federal government represents the will of the states and their citizens. The US Supreme Court recently interpreted what’s known as the “Elections Clause” in the Constitution to allow for unelected commissions of citizens to draw the boundaries for congressional districts. Supporters of the ruling say it reduces the amount of partisan game-playing that has always gone into district boundary-drawing. Opponents say the ruling strips away the rightful power of state legislatures to do the work of redistricting by putting it in the hands of citizen commissions. Kelly Patterson is an elections expert and professor of political science here at BYU.
Stick to your Hospital (20:19) One byproduct of the intense debate Americans have had over health care reform is our increased awareness of what it costs. It’s increasingly common for patients – particularly those with high-deductible insurance plans – to shop around for the best price on a procedure. At the same time, there’s a trend toward hospitals establishing themselves as expert in certain procedures like heart surgery or knee replacement. What that means is that “medical tourism” is on the rise: people traveling to a hospital far from home for specialized surgical care. What too few people consider in making the choice to travel for surgery is where they’ll turn if complications arise and they’ve already returned home. University of Utah surgery professor Benjamin Brooke’s latest research published in The Lancet finds your chances of surviving surgical complications are better if you go back to the same hospital. . . which could be a problem if that hospital is hundreds of miles away.Dr. Benjamin Brooke is an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and lead author of “Readmission destination and risk of mortality after major surgery.”
Drones in Coral Reefs (38:32) Scientists are quickly finding ways to deploy drones for their research, too. We spoke recently with one who has designed a drone to collect water samples. A team at the Nature Conservancy has an amphibious one that is helping chart sensitive coral reefs in the Caribbean.Steve Schill is a Senior Scientist for the Nature Conservancy’s Caribbean Program.
High Rent, Low Wages (51:41) The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Some cities across the country have bumped theirs to $15 – the highest minimum wage in American history. And yet, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, even $15 an hour is not enough to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment in most states. Sheila Crowley is the President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Their report “Out of Reach” addresses the conflict between wages and rent affordability in America.
Parent Previews Terminator Genisys (1:12:20) It’s that time of week when we talk movies here on Top of Mind.The Terminator franchise is back with “Genisys” and Arnold Schwarzenegger is too. Rod Gustafson reviews films at ParentPreviews.com and joins us weekly.
Tech Transfer - Mass Digitization of Documents (1:27:14) I had a project once that entailed a lot of standing over a digital scanner loading in one page at a time to create digital files. I occupied my mind with daydreams, for the most part. If I’d been more innovative, maybe I’d have had a flash of inspiration that could have improved the drudgery of my task. That’s what Scott Eldredge has done. He manages the digital initiatives program for BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library and works as the Digital Initiatives Program Manager for the BYU library.
The Quartet (1:04) Guest: Joseph Ellis, Ph.D., Pulitzer-prize winning author of “The Quartet”
America’s Independence is Top of Mind this hour. The Declaration of Independence was published on July 4, 1776 – early in the Revolutionary War with Britain. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis says that was merely the first American Revolution. The second started after the war ended, culminating in 1788 with the signing and ratification of the Constitution to create one nation, united – rather than 13 states loosely allied in the way that the countries of the European Union are today. You see, the United States of America was not a foregone conclusion in the beginning and was, in fact, a revolutionary idea foisted on the states and their citizens by an ambitious foursome Ellis calls “The Quartet.”
History of the 4th of July (50:50) Guest: Paul Warner, Executive Director of “America’s Freedom Festival at Provo”; Adam Criblez, Ph. D., Professor of History, Director for the Center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University, author of 2013 book “Parading Patriotism: Independence Day Celebrations in the Urban Midwest, 1826-1876”
Every year, Provo, Utah hosts one of the largest Fourth of July festivals in the country. It includes dozens of events - a speech contest, colonial reenactments, a street carnival, hot air balloon launches and a big parade – culminating with a massive stadium event with headline musicians, a famous emcee and a lot of fireworks. Some 50,000 attend the “Stadium of Fire,” as it’s called. We spoke with Executive director of the event, Paul Warner. But how did such grand celebrations begin? Adam Criblez is the author of the 2013 book Parading Patriotism: Independence Day Celebrations in the Urban Midwest, 1826-1876. In it, he describes how parades and fireworks and pancake breakfasts have become part of 4th of July celebrations.
The Working Poor (1:04) Guests: Scott Sanders, Ph. D, Assistant Professor of Sociology at BYU
Work and poverty are Top of Mind today. The U.S. Census reports that 45 million Americans are poor. That word invokes a stereotype held by many that people are poor by choice – they’re lazy or would rather be on welfare than work, oeven that they’re gaming the system. Research done recently by BYU sociology professor Scott Sanders and his co-authors at Louisiana State University and Cornell University finds the reality of poverty in America is in stark contrast to that stereotype. The majority of America’s poor live in a household where someone works and that a large number of poor Americans are in fact “playing by the rules” but find themselves unable to escape poverty.
Older Workers and the Job Search (21:50) Guest: Darla Hamann, Ph. D., Professor of Human Resource Managment at the University of Texas, Arlington
Let’s turn now to the challenges facing people over 55 who find themselves out of work. They were hit especially hard during the 2007 financial crisis, and they now continue to have more difficulty finding a job than younger displaced workers. Dr. Darla Hamann is part of a team of researchers studying why this is the case. Dr. Hamann is a professor of human resource management at the University of Texas, Arlington. She co-authored “Age and Reemployment Success After Job Loss” a study published in the journal Psychological Bulletin.
Dangers of Low-head Dams (37:16) Guest: Rollin Hotchkiss, PH. D, Department of Engineering at BYU
Just last month, two kayakers on a river in Ohio died while trying to cross over a small dam. These “low-head” dams—usually no more than two feet high—don’t block water altogether, instead they limit the height, usually for irrigation purposes. Yet even though they may be small, they create inescapable currents that have killed more than 450 people in the past 50 years. There have been fatalities in almost every state, even as most people aren’t aware of the danger of what—on the surface, looks like mild white-water.
Colorado River Delta History and Conflict (52:09) Guest: Evan Ward, Ph. D, Professor of History at BYU
A little over a year ago, something historic happened to the Colorado River—it reached the sea. That hadn’t been true for more than a decade, thanks to the steady damming and draining of the river to slake the thirst of cities and fields across the West. But, in 2012, the US and Mexico signed a deal to experiment with restoring what was once a rich delta where the Colorado River meets the Sea of Cortez in Northern Mexico. The experiment entailed releasing more water from dams along the river and it’s been hailed by conservationists and the US Department of Interior as one of the great successes of 2014. But the five year experiment will end soon and the future of the Colorado River Delta will depend on the ability of the US and Mexico to reach another agreement.
Buyer’s Change Sales Processes (1:24:37) Guest: Kathleen Glass, Founder and CEO of Oinkodomeo LLC
A decade ago there was an awful lot of talk about how online shopping would drive “brick and mortar” stores to extinction. Who would fight traffic, navigate parking lots, wander the aisles looking for that one thing and then stand in line to check out when you could have the item delivered to your doorstep with just a few clicks? Well, the intervening years have proven both types of shopping can coexist – but buyer behaviors are changing. And that’s forcing stores to sell differently.
Global Views on Iran and US (1:02) Guests: Richard Wike, director of global attitudes research at the Pew Research Center The US and Iran are Top of Mind today. The two nations are in the thick of nuclear negotiations that are running beyond the self-imposed June 30 deadline. They now have until July 7 to finalize a plan to dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons program and lift economic sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. The Pew Research center recently conducted surveys assessing public opinion about the US and Iran globally as these negotiations have been underway for the past year. The findings yield some interesting insights.
Sensory Clothing (22:31) Guest: Kristi Gaines, Ph. D., Interior Design Professor at Texas Tech University
For a child with autism spectrum disorder (or ASD) the world can be a tricky place. Any unpleasant noises, sudden change in temperature or unexpected touch, can be tremendously upsetting to a child with autism. Now, imagine that child could wear a special jacket that could soothe them in those moments. Texas Tech University professor Kristi Gaines have made a piece of clothing designed specifically to help children on the autism spectrum cope with their environments.
Women’s World Cup (36:39) Guest: Aleisha Rose, assistant women’s soccer coach, BYU
The US Women’s Soccer team defeated number-one-ranked Germany yesterday to advance to the 2015 World Cup final match, which will be played on Sunday. TV viewership has been breaking previous Women’s World Cup records and, here in the US, the matches have been a ratings boon for Fox. We spoke with former US Women’s National Team player, Aleisha Cramer Rose. In 1998, at 16, she was among the youngest players ever to land a spot on the national team, where she played with Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and two women on the current team – star goalkeeper Hope Solo and the team’s highest all-time goal scorer Abby Wambach. For the last ten years, Aleisha has been an assistant coach for the BYU Women’s soccer team.
American Heritage: The Legacy of John Locke (51:29) Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph. D, Professor of History at BYU
BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares insights from Locke’s philosophy about the individual’s relationship with government, in this episode of our recurring segment, American Heritage.
Sad Secret History of Cubicles (1:12:54) Guest: Nikil Saval, author of "Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace.”
The man credited with inventing the office cubicle never meant to torment you. Robert Propst was just trying to help, says Saval writes. But he would come to regret the way his revolutionary office space design became the opposite of what he intended: a flexible workspace that could be adapted to the needs of an office worker. Before his death in 2000, Propst told one reporter that he didn’t feel regret for his design, but did acknowledge that he underestimated, “how unenlightened the managerial class had been and how quick and ready they were to create ‘barren rathole’ places for workers,” says Saval.
Predicting Drought and Disease with Satellites (1:33:56) Guest: Gabriel Senay, Ph. D., Research Physical Scientist at the US Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, co-located at Colorado State University with the North Central Climate Science Center
What difference would it make if climate scientists and food aid organizations could find out three weeks earlier than they currently do that a crop in Ethiopia is going to fail? An early warning like that could mean saving lives, instead of waiting until word of widespread famine finally makes its way back to USAID. Some remarkable work is being done with satellite data to provide just that kind of early notification for drought, famine and even malaria outbreaks.
US Hostage Policy (1:06) Guests: Amos Guiora, professor of international law and terrorism at University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law.
Americans held hostage abroad are Top of Mind today. "These families have already suffered enough," said President Obama last week in announcing that families of people held hostage will no longer face threat of prosecution from the government if they pay ransom to free a loved one. Since 9-11, the White House says more than 80 Americans have been taken hostage by groups engaged in terrorism or piracy. Approximately 30 are currently being held captive. The brutal murders of Americans at the hands of ISIS in the last year prompted the Obama Administration to review – and now revise – its hostage policy. International law and terrorism expert Amos Guiora spoke to us about the significance of the change.
Advantages of the Finnish Education System (25:17) Guest: Pasi Sahlberg, Ph. D., Visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education
School is out, and kids are glad to be done with tests, at least for a couple months. Maybe there is something behind that huge sense of relief kids feel when summer starts—maybe we test them too much. Pasi Sahlberg—a Finnish educator, author and scholar—claims that we do spend too much of our time and resources on testing students, and also that when it comes to evaluating teachers themselves, we could learn a lot from Finland.
Moral Machines (51:58) Guest: Colin Allen, Professor of Cognitive Science and the History of the Philosophy of Science at Indiana University at Bloomington
There has been a rash of movies recently featuring incredibly intelligent robots as either the hero or villain. The Avengers, Interstellar, Ex Machina, Chappie and even the Oscar-winning Big Hero 6 – in which a large inflatable robot is tasked as a “personal healthcare companion,” for the film’s teenage protagonist. Off the big screen, robots today can vacuum our houses and drive our cars. As we entrust these “artificial intelligences” with more and more decisions, ethics and morality become central to the conversation. Can we build robots to be both intelligent and moral? To navigate those difficult times when we’re faced with two “bad decisions” and have to choose the path of less harm, for example?
Micronations (1:16:30) Guest: John Ryan, author of Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations
Do you remember the urge as a kid to establish your own little kingdom – maybe in your bedroom with a “keep out sign” on the door, or under the thicket of trees at the side of the house, where you could spy on the world from your secret hideout? There are dozens of people around the world who’ve taken that urge to an extreme that might surprise – or even delight – you. Just a few weeks ago, a group of Polish tourists on a trip to Slovenia heard about an unclaimed strip of land near Croatia and declared it the Kingdom of Enclava – making their the world’s newest micronation. There are micronations all over the world – maybe even in your own neighborhood. There’s even a Lonely Planet guide to these home-made nations, written by John Ryan, who joined us to talk about the phenomenon.
Same-Sex Marriage Ruling (1:04) Guests: Lynn Wardle, Ph. D., Professor of Law at BYU; James Phillips, Ph. D., Professor of Law at BYU
Since the court’s divided opinion came down on Friday, making gay marriage legal in all 50 states, there have been jubilant celebrations, courthouse weddings and foiled attempts to marry. Attorneys general in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas have all told county clerks either not to issue same-sex marriage licenses or given them that option if marrying a gay couple would violate the clerk’s religious beliefs. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell vs. Hodges is being hailed as groundbreaking – a seminal moment in the gay and lesbian fight for equal rights – but it does not end the legal battles. In his dissenting opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts predicts a new wave of lawsuits involving religious institutions and individuals who refuse to serve or accommodate same-sex couples as they do heterosexual couples. Lynn Wardle and James Phillips of BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School spoke with us on the implications of the SCOTUS ruling. Lynn Wardle is a national expert on family law and has been involved in drafting and defending federal and state marriage laws. James Phillips is a Supreme Court scholar.
Women's Sports Coverage (38:05) Guest: Cheryl Cooky, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Purdue University
Germany, Japan, the US and England are the finalists in the 2015 Women’s World Cup. The winning US matches have delivered a surge of viewers – even breaking some records – for TV broadcaster Fox. But don’t be fooled: when it comes to the news and highlight shows wrapping up the sports world at the end of the day, women are still virtually absent from the mix. The title of a new report summarizing 25 years of women’s sports coverage in TV news sums up the situation: "It’s Dude Time!" Purdue University women’s studies professor Cheryl Cooky is one of the study’s co-authors and spoke to us about the spotty coverage of women’s sports.
Talent and Dedication (51:53) Guest: Kenneth Kiewra, Ph. D., Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
When a young star bursts onto the stage in sports or academics or the arts, there are always the initial comments about what a great talent the kid has—what a natural they are. But Educational Psychologist Kenneth Kiewra says that behind every young standout are parents so devoted to their child’s success they’re willing to uproot their careers, mortgage their homes, and move their families across the country. They spend their own lives in practice facilities alongside their kids. Kiewra is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He recently interviewed parents of 24 talented youth with national or world-class standings to discover their role in their child’s success.
3D Printed Prosthetic Hands (1:14:03) Guest: Jeff Powell, Senior in BioEngineering at the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The price tag for a prosthetic hand can run into the tens of thousands of dollars – making the option prohibitive for some people with an amputation or physical disability. But a senior in biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill has figured out a way to make one for about $20 using a 3D printer.
Tech Transfer: Lithium Ion Batteries (1:27:58) Guests: Mike Adler, Tech Transfer at BYU; Dean Wheeler, Ph. D., Chemical Engineering at BYU; Brian Mazzeo, Ph. D., Electrical and Computer Engineering at BYU
Think about the latest electronic device you’ve got your eye on. Chances are, it’s slimmer and more powerful than the previous model, with a smaller, more robust battery. Smaller and smaller batteries present challenges for manufacturers who need to know that all the tiny components inside these batteries meet their product specifications. Lithium ion batteries are a favorite in the industry. Until recently, it’s been difficult to test their effectiveness during the manufacturing process. Producer Tennery Taylor spoke with Mike Alder, our colleague from Tech Transfer here at BYU, along with Dr. Dean Wheeler of the Chemical Engineering Department and Dr. Brian Mazzeo of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at BYU to discuss a device they’ve invented to test the conductivity of lithium ion batteries.
Segregation in Post-Civil Rights Era (1:58)
Guests: Jacob Rugh, Ph.D., Sociologist at Brigham Young University; Douglas Massey, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton
Race is Top of Mind today. President Barack Obama this afternoon delivered the eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a South Carolina State Senator gunned down while leading a Bible study in his Charleston church last week. The killings appear to have been racially motivated. The President called on Americans to have the collective will to tackle the “uncomfortable truths about the prejudice that still infects our society.” “Every time something like this happens someone says we need to have a conversation about race,” said Obama. “We talk a lot about race. There’s no short cut. We don’t need more talk.”
Nation-building and TV (51:53)
Guests: Stewart Anderson, Ph.D., History Professor at BYU; Melissa Chakars, Ph.D., History Professor at Saint Joseph’s University. Co-Authors of “Modernization, Nation-Building and Television History”
Television is Top of Mind this hour. Viewing is on the decline here in the US, believe it or not – being replaced slowly by the entertainment now ubiquitous on other screens - our computers, tablets, phones.
But wind the clock back to the heyday of television in the 50s and 60s, when only a few channels were available and that seemed sufficient. From Eastern Germany to far-flung Soviet Siberia, television played an important role in developing national cultures – even strengthening governments.
Renewable Energy (2:08)
Guest: Mark Z. Jacobson, Ph.D., Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford, Co-Founder of the Solutions Project
Renewable Energy is Top of Mind today as we continue our weeklong series on the environment. Many states have short and long-term goals in place to transition some of their energy sources away from fossil fuels like coal and gas to renewable sources like wind and solar.
As a distant goal, the Group of 7 industrial nations – which includes the United States, Canada, France and Germany – recently agreed to work toward a carbon-free energy system over the course of the century. But researchers at Stanford University say it doesn’t have to take that long for America. They’ve created a roadmap for all 50 states to get to 100% renewable energy-dependent by 2050.
Comparing Children (24:25)
Guest: Alex Jensen, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Family Life at BYU
Good parenting can feel like a minefield at times. Parents want to encourage their kids, praise them, protect them from harm – but psychologists say those goals are sometimes at odds with each other. One thing’s for sure – parents should never play favorites. However, there’s new research showing how easy it is for parents to show favoritism without even realizing it. And the subtle language they use in communicating with their kids can affect how academic performance and future pursuits in life.
Lightbulb Warnings (40:28)
Guest: Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism at UC Irvine
It’s expected to see warning labels on cigarettes, airbags, and fireworks…but on lightbulbs? A Florida company called Lighting Science Group announced recently it will start putting warning labels on all of its light bulbs, alerting customers to the dangers of artificial light and pointing them to a website for more information.
Invasive Plant Series (52:53)
Guest: Katrina Dlugosch, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Moneywort, also known as Creeping Jenny, is a tenacious vine-like plant, and a quick search on the internet reveals it to be one of thousands of plant species not native to North America and therefore considered invasive. The proliferation of non-native plant species is considered a classic tale of unintended consequences. Some well-meaning colonist plants a seed from home and years later, it’s taking over the landscape, even supplanting the native species.
Smart Bandages (1:06:50)
Guest: Michel Maharbiz, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley
Bed sores are a critical concern for people who are bed-ridden or hospitalized for long periods of time. Also known as “pressure sores” they can lead to serious infection and even death. What’s particularly worrisome is that by the time you see signs of a bedsore on the surface of the skin, it’s usually too late to get a handle on the infection. Researchers at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco have developed a smart bandage that can detect tissue damage related to bedsores before it’s visible to doctors.
Copyright Predicament (1:21:39)
Guest: Clark Asay, J.D., Associate Professor of Law at Brigham Young University
There’s a new Mission Impossible movie coming out next month. Tom Cruise has played the central character in that franchise for more than a decade. His performance will be key to the success of this latest film. So here’s a question to chew on – does Tom Cruise own the rights to that performance? Can an actor copyright his work on screen? Or does the copyright belong to the writer or director or producer? What would happen if actors could copyright their performances? If Tom Cruise saw the final cut of the Mission Impossible movie and didn’t like the way it turned out, could he then demand that it not be released based on his ownership of the performance?
Meaning of the Confederate Flag (1:58)
Guest: Scott Huffmon, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, Founder and Director of the Social & Behavioral Research Laboratory at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina
The Confederate Battle Flag is Top of Mind today. It flies on the grounds of the South Carolina State Capitol today as mourners converge to pay their respects to longtime State Senator Reverend Clementa Pinckey, who was among the nine people shot last week at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. The murders are being investigated as hate crimes. Photos of the alleged shooter show him proudly displaying the Confederate Battle Flag. A growing chorus of voices, including the Governor of South Carolina, say it’s time for the flag to come down from its post at the state capitol; that it’s become a too-glaring symbol of racism. South Carolina lawmakers have agreed to debate the flag’s presence later this summer – they’ll need a 2/3s majority to bring it down.
Falsifying Job Applications (22:31)
Guest: Robert Cardy, Ph.D., Professor of Management, Chair of the Department of Management at the University of Texas at San Antonio
The whole point of a resume is to sell yourself, put your best foot forward, and present your skills in the most impressive way possible. And so there’s a temptation to fudge a bit. Maybe just overstate your skills. In some cases – an increasing number, in fact – people outright lie on their resumes. That’s the conclusion of Robert Cardy, a Professor of Management at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He’s been looking at why people falsify their information on resumes and what happens when the lies are found out. Professor Cardy joins me now.
Night Eating (39:13)
Guests: James LeCheminant, Ph.D., and Lance Davidson, M.S., Professors of Exercise Sciences at BYU
Dinner is often the largest meal of the day for Americans, and perhaps the reason is more than just cultural. A new study using brain imaging here at BYU finds evidence that food is less rewarding to us at night, which could make us prone to eating more in search of satisfaction.
American Heritage: Authenticity (52:32)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., History Professor at BYU
The culture wars. Politicians identify themselves or malign others with labels: Conservatives. Neo-cons. Liberals. Libertarians. Today, in our weekly segment called “American Heritage,” we’re going to go back to the 1960s, where Professor Grant Madsen identifies the origins of our modern culture wars. This week my colleague Marcus Smith and Professor Madsen delve into the history of the animosity that constantly creeps up in our current political culture.
Women on 20s Update (1:11:28)
Guest: Barbara Ortiz Howard, Founder of Women on 20s
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the decision to place a women on the 10-dollar bill has been years in the making, but for the last four months a campaign called “Women on 20s” has garnered hundreds of thousands of supporters and widespread media attention. That campaign has been pushing to see Andrew Jackson replaced by a woman on the 20-dollar bill and after a public vote, they settled on former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
Artificial Reef Systems (1:25:05)
Guest: Alex Goad, Reef Design Lab in Australia
Coral reefs are the “rainforests of the sea,” according to the Earth Institute at Columbia University, because they’re home to a quarter of all marine species. But the World Resources Institute says 75% of the world’s coral reefs are at risk for damage and destruction. Young Australian sculptor, industrial designer and scuba diver Alex Goad has a new project called the Modular Artificial Reef System, or MARS, and it just won him a Popular Science 2015 Invention Award.
Wildfire Ecosystem (1:04)
Guests: Jason Forthofer, M.S., and Bret Butler, Ph.D.; Researchers at the U.S. Government’s Fire Sciences Laboratory
Wildfires are Top of Mind today. There are currently about a dozen large ones burning in the Western United States. One in the San Bernardino National Forest of Southern California has already burned 17-thousand acres over five days and is threatening hundreds of homes and buildings. Another is racing through the densely wooded Olympic National Park in Washington. The number of mega-fires burning tens of thousands of acres has jumped exponentially since the 1980s, and fire experts say that’s partly because we’ve gotten so good at fighting fires.
Pain (24:56)
Guest: Tor Wager, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado, Director of the school’s Cognitive and Affective Control Laboratory
In the heat of the moment – on the battlefield or on the court, say – an injury may not feel as painful as it could – or should. There’s something about being in the moment, maybe the power of attitude and emotion, to moderate the pain. And when things have calmed down, well that’s when the hurt really hits.
Apple Seed (43:43)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host and Storyteller of The Apple Seed
Sam Payne, host of BYU Radio’s The Apple Seed, brings us a hilarious story from one of the greats, Kevin Kling.
Typhoon Intensity and Climate Change (51:58)
Guest: Wei Mei, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar at Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting the current hurricane and typhoon season – which started in May and goes until October – will produce an above-normal number typhoons coming off the Pacific Ocean. New research out of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego indicates typhoons will be stronger and more intense in the coming years, thanks to warmer surface temperatures on the Pacific Ocean.
Climate Change and Faith (1:01:43)
Guest: Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D., Director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University
The Pope’s encyclical calling on Christians to embrace their responsibility as stewards of the Earth was discussed yesterday on Top of Mind. There’s often a tension between religion and environmentalism. So, too, is there a long-standing tension between science and religion. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe wrote an entire book about that tension as an evangelical Christian. It’s called “A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions.”
Shakespeare Fest (1:12:56)
Guest: Fred Adams, Founder of the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah
When the Utah Shakespeare Festival opens in Cedar City this summer, its longest running character will take a final bow. The Adams Memorial Shakespearean Theater gave the festival its first permanent stage when it was completed in 1977. Shakespeare would have approved – it was, after all, designed to echo his own Globe Theatre: open air with tiered seating-in-the-round.
Faith and Climate Change (1:04)
Guests: Brigham Daniels, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Law at BYU; George Handley, Ph.D., Professor of Humanities. The two are board members of the nonprofit “LDS Earth Stewardship”
Faith and the environment are Top of Mind today. The subtitle to Pope Francis’ sweeping essay released last week calling for global action to combat climate change is “On the care for our common home.” The Pope criticizes political corruption and rampant consumerism for degrading the earth. He blames humanity for climate change, but also writes that “We know that things can change. The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home.”
Technology and Education (22:14)
Guest: Kentaro Toyama, Ph.D., W.K. Kellogg Associate Professor of Community Information at the University of Michigan School of Information, Author of “Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology”
Walking down the halls of an American high school you’ll see students with cell-phones in hand and laptops strapped to their backs. They’re mere clicks away from a vast database of knowledge. Technology has given American students more tools than ever to find success in school. And yet, on the whole, test scores have not improved significantly. Dr. Kentaro Toyama’s forthcoming book tackles the reasons why. It’s called “Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology.”
Parkinson’s (38:55)
Guest: Mark VanDam, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences at Washington State University Spokane
One of the side-effects of the neurodegenerative disease known as Parkinson’s is quiet speech. Did you know that? People with Parkinson’s tend not to realize that they’re speaking softly, so conversations are peppered with “What’s that?” “Can you speak up?” Linguistics professor Mark VanDam at Washington State University Spokane is developing a wearable device that could remind people with Parkinson’s to speak up when they’re being too quiet.
Anchor It! (52:14)
Guest: Joseph P. Mohorovic, M.B.A., Commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
“Child-proofing” a home is a daunting task. The cabinets, the toilet, the stairs. Hazards are everywhere once you start looking for them. And what about the TV or the bookcase? According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission a child ends up in the emergency room injured from a falling piece of furniture every 24 minutes. The commission has a new campaign called “Anchor It” to help raise awareness and create solutions for the dangers of tip-over accidents.
Parent Previews (1:07:59)
Guests: Kerry Bennett and Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewers at ParentPreviews.com
Our movie this week is Inside Out – the latest form Disney’s Pixar Studios. It’s an emotional journey—literally, because while a young girl named Riley is the human star of the show, it’s her emotions that take center stage.
Tech Transfer: Mini-Mass Spectrometer (1:23:30)
Guests: Daniel Austin, Professor of Chemistry at BYU
On TV, first responders and crime scene investigators can sniff a mysterious substance or take a sample and on-the-spot know exactly what it is. Real life generally requires the use of a fairly bulky device called a mass spectrometer – which is in a lab somewhere – so it takes some time to know what substance we’re dealing with. It would be better if the analysis could be done in the field, like it is on TV.
Inventing Baby Food (1:10)
Guest: Amy Bentley, Ph.D., is the author of Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet. She’s an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University.
With help from that famous cherubic face, Gerber has been the leader in baby food for decades. How it got there is the subject of Amy Bentley’s book, Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet. She traces the meteoric rise in popularity of those little bottles of multi-colored goo as an expression of American strength, power, convenience and modernity mid-century.
Statelessness, pt. 1 (51:54)
Guest: Rachel Nolan wrote about the displaced and stateless people of Haitian decent born in the Dominican Republican in the May issue of Harper’s Magazine. She’s a doctoral candidate in Latin American and Caribbean History at New York University.
Statelessness, pt. 2 (1:20:30)
Guest: Michael Kagan, a professor of immigration law at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
Having a country to call home is not a given in this world. In 2013 some 200,000 people born to Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic suddenly found themselves stripped of any citizenship, any nation to call home. They find themselves in limbo – potentially facing deportation to Haiti – a place they’ve never lived with a language they don’t speak.
Update on Nepal (5:25)
Guest: Dr. James Mayfield is the co-founder of CHOICE Humanitarian and professor emeritus of Public Administration and Middle East studies at the University of Utah.
The recovery effort in Nepal has been stymied by the remoteness of many communities in dire need of food and shelters. The mountainous terrain is a formidable barrier. Humanitarian groups also report disorganization and government bureaucracy are preventing resources from reaching those in need.
Utah-based CHOICE Humanitarian has managed to rebuild key structures in some of the more remote villages with remarkable speed, using a network of employees and volunteers already on the ground when the earthquake struck.
Gospel Music (20:19)
Guest: Robert Darden is a professor in the department on Journalism, Public Relations and New Media in Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences. He is director of Baylor’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project.
A distinctly American musical legacy is quickly disappearing – gospel on vinyl. Baylor University’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project has embarked on the world’s largest initiative to identify, acquire, digitize and catalogue the music – which will eventually find a permanent home in the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.
Tanning (44:14)
Guest: Jay Yoo, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Family and Consumer Sciences at Baylor and Vice President of academic affairs for the Texas Family and Consumer Sciences Association.
The quintessential summer activity is also terrible for our skin. We know that. We know tanning causes skin cancer and that nearly half of all cancers are skin-related. But look at the magazine racks or the TV screen: A golden tan is still a beauty ideal, people are somehow able to pursue with gusto, despite knowing the risks.
Medication Misuse (52:20)
Guest: Dr. Anthony Campbell, RPh, D.O., is a Clinical Specialty Consultant with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrated (SAMHSA) and adjunct professor in Howard University’s College of Pharmacy and College of Medicine.
Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of injury deaths in the United States and are responsible for killing more people than car crashes in most states. At least half of those overdose deaths are related to prescription drugs – a trend that has more than doubled in the last 14 years. This is all from a national injury report released this week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Trans Fats in Food (1:10:48)
Guest: Michael Dunn, Ph.D., chair of the department of Nutrition Sciences at Brigham Young University.
The FDA announced this week that food manufacturers have three years to phase all trans fats out of their products. If there’s any microwave popcorn, frozen pizza, pie crust or frosting in your pantry, you’re probably sitting on some of this stuff the FDA now says is so bad it simply can’t be considered safe in food anymore.
Urban Toilets in Haiti (1:31:08)
Guest: Sebastien Tilmans has a PhD in Environmental Engineering at Stanford University and is the Co-Founder of re.source.
Two-and-a-half billion people in this world lack access to adequate sanitation and about 750 million of them live in cities. The unregulated disposal of human waste creates immense health problems in populated areas. So immense, that a few years ago, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched an entire challenge dedicating to reinventing the toilet and have awarded millions of dollars in grants to people taking on the challenge.
Depression in Veterans (1:04)
Guest: Raymond Novaco, Ph.D., UC Irvine professor of Psychology & Social behavior.
Some two-and-a-half million American men and women fought in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade. Of those, more than a third were deployed more than once. With this new generation of veterans has come a stronger focus on helping returning service members deal with their mental and emotional wounds.
Diabetes (21:41)
Guests: Jeff Tessem, Ph.D., Assistant professor of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science at BYU.
Ben Bitner, BYU student and research assistant at the Tessem Lab.
Diabetes afflicts nearly 400 million people around the world, according to the International Diabetes Federation. It’s a staggering figure, and despite decades of research and billions of dollars, a cure remains elusive. Scientists and BYU and Duke University have just published research identifying a gene that appears key in triggering the cellular malfunction that leads to diabetes.
Veterans and PTSD (36:27)
Guest: Catherine Caska Wallace Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at the Seattle VA Hospital.
The Department of Veteran’s affairs estimates as many as 20 percent of veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychologist Catherine Caska Wallace has been studying the effects of a soldier’s PTSD on his or her partner and family.
American Heritage (51:21)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph.D., History professor at Brigham Young University
BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares his insights from the introductory American History course he teaches. So, we’ll get a college history lesson, but we don’t have any homework or quizzes! Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of our past.
This week Marcus Smith talks with Professor Madsen about the birth of consumerism—something alive and well today in American culture.
Water Pricing (1:17:32)
Guest: Ariel Dinar, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy at the University of California, Riverside, and co-author of Water Pricing Experiences and Innovations.
The US Drought Monitor has a map right on the front page of its website showing the relative dryness of the nation on any given day. At the moment – and as it has been for several years now - there’s a deep red gash covering much of California, with rings of orange, brown and yellow emanating, as if from an epicenter. Red signifies exceptional or extreme drought – those are two separate categories of parched. Orange and tan mean severe and moderate. Yellow means abnormally dry. The entire Western United states is encircled in this visual ring of fire.
A combination of changing climate factors and booming population over a period of decades has brought a water crisis to the region. California Governor Jerry Brown has ordered a 25% reduction in water use for his state.
That’s one way to go about conserving water: Ask people to use less and threaten them with fines if they don’t. Another possibility is to give people an incentive to conserve without being forced.
World Events (1:04)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Ph.D., professor of Political Science at BYU. His research focuses on political mobilization in the Islamic world.
World news is top of mind today, as we welcome BYU political science professor Quinn Mecham back for his monthly analysis of three international events we should be paying attention to. He discusses the recent Turkish parliamentary election, the Greek debt crisis, and the attempted arrest of Sudan’s President in South Africa.
Healthy Aging (20:11)
Guest: Kate De Medeiros, Ph.D., professor of Gerontology and Sociology at Miami University and author of “Narrative Gerontology in Research and Practice.”
Kate De Medeiros tells us there’s a power of cultural arts like writing and painting that help minimize the effects of age. As a writer the idea that the act of writing a poem could somehow minimize the difficulties of growing old intrigued me.
Parent Previews (32:12)
Guests: Kerry Bennett, ParentPreviews.com
There’s a good chance you were one of the many audience members that made Jurassic World a smashing success at the box office last weekend. Kerry Bennett gives us her review.
Spending and Neuroscience (50:56)
Guest: Peter Whybrow, M.D., is director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the author of "The Well-Tuned Brain: Neuroscience and the Life Well Lived."
We’re a nation of spenders – by the end of 2014 American households owed nearly 12-trillion dollars in debt. That’s from data the Federal Reserve Bank of New York collects. Why is it seemingly so easy for us to spend money we don’t have? Neuroscientist Peter Whybrow says it’s because the human brain isn’t built to handle the temptation of easy credit.
Women’s Health (1:04:00)
Guest: Nancy Lee, M.D., is the Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services and Director of the Office on Women’s Health.
I remember when I was in college, I could eat my fill at the cafeteria, skip exercising and no one could tell the difference. Now that I’m a BIT older than I was then, I have to watch what I eat and be diligent about regular exercise. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This year, the Office of Women’s Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services has been celebrating women at every age and stage of life.
Saving Native Languages (1:19:45)
Guest: Colleen Fitzgerald, Ph.D., Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Arlington and director of the Native American Languages Lab.
Of the hundreds of native languages once spoken in North America, 194 remain, and only 33 of those are spoken by both adults and children. The rest are endangered as the older speakers of those languages pass away without teaching them to the young.
Mega-Sporting Events and Corruption (1:03)
Matthew Burbank teaches political science at the University of Utah and has written extensively on the politics, economics and ethics of mega-sporting events.
International sports are Top of Mind today. The US Soccer Team is preparing for a second match tomorrow night in the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada. Meanwhile, the international soccer governing body FIFA has announced it will postpone the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup in light of the ongoing investigations of other World Cup site selections and millions of dollars in alleged bribes.
Detecting Cyanide (25:26)
Dr. Brian Logue is Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at South Dakota State University.
If fire strikes an industrial complex which houses chemicals, firefighters not only need to save people and infrastructure, they need to protect themselves and others from being poisoned by chemicals such as cyanide. Potential victims may not be checked quickly for cyanide poisoning, but that could change in the near future.
Fluoride (36:34)
Dr. Boris Lushniak is US Deputy Surgeon General.
Three-quarters of Americans have fluoridated water flowing out of their taps at home. It’s improved the dental health of so many people that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent counts fluoride as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. For the first time in 50 years, the US Department of Health and Human Services is recommending communities put less fluoride in their water.
National Parks Update (50:28)
Kurt Repanshek is founder and editor of NationalParksTraveler.com – the leading online resource for National Parks-related news.
In honor of the much-anticipated return of the Jurassic Park series in movies this weekend, we’re dedicating our monthly focus on National Parks to dinosaurs. We discuss national monuments, national parks and the differences between the two.
Summer Snow Cone Economics (1:05:22)
Brennan Platt is a Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University.
It’s summer time, and here in Utah—and perhaps where you live, too--that means snow cone season. Almost overnight – usually right around Memorial Day – the snow shacks pop up everywhere. Today on the show, we discuss the logistics and behind-the-scenes work that goes into owning a snow shack.
Bug Consumption (1:26:32)
Ophelia Deroy is the Associate Director for the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London. She also works as a senior researcher at the Centre for the Study of the Senses.
We're eating bugs on the show today. Well, not literally. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recently told the Guardian newspaper that, considering how much carbon emission poultry and beef production contributes to the environment, we should give serious consideration to a different source of protein: BUGS. We discuss the natural resistance to eating bugs and the benefits of eating the creepy crawly creatures.
International Law (1:04)
Eric Jensen teaches The Law of Armed Conflict, International Criminal Law, and National Security Law at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. He is a regular guest on Top of Mind.
The US Supreme Court just issued a ruling in the case of a 13-year-old boy who was born in Jerusalem and wants to have his passport read “Israel” as his place of birth. The Supreme Court turned him down.
Congress is considering a bill about the Guantanamo Bay detention center. President Obama would like to close the prison before he leaves office. What will it take to close GITMO, and what effects will it have on a newly elected president if it is still open?
Congress was facing a deadline to reauthorize a few provisions of the Patriot Act that would have allowed the National Security Agency to continue with its bulk collection of US phone records. Congress did NOT reauthorize those provisions.
Members of Parliament voted overwhelmingly yesterday to hold a nationwide vote in the next year or two allowing the public to decide if the UK remains part of the European Union.
Short-term Debt and Depression (34:26)
Michael Collins is faculty director of the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and author of a new study in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues that may link short-term debt and depression.
Fundamentally, all debt is the same: You owe money to somebody. But new research out of the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin, Madison shows that some kinds of debt are worse for our mental health than others.
American Heritage (50:09)
Grant Madsen visits our studio weekly to provide perspective on 20th Century economic, political and intellectual history in America – all subjects he teaches in his American Heritage history class here at BYU. You get to listen in from wherever you happen to be!
This week Marcus Smith talks with Madsen about what was likely the most important economic event of the last century—the Great Depression.
Profitability of Organic Farming (1:14:52)
John Reganold is the Regents Professor of Soil Science & Agroecology at Washington State University. His paper on the financial competitiveness of organic agriculture appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this month. It was co-written by Professor David Cowder, also at Washington State University.
Only 1% of the cropland in the world is being farmed “organically” – meaning without traditional pesticides. Organic products remain a luxury enjoyed disproportionately by those living in Europe and North America with enough income to afford the higher prices such product generally carry. Could organic farming ever grow beyond a niche industry?
Why People Don't Like Learning Math (1:23:28)
Learning math doesn't have to be boring. Former comedien and current math enthusiast, Edward Burger, talks about how learning math can be fun.
Pesticides (1:05)
Bob McNally is the director of Biopesticides and Pollution Prevention at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Pesticides are Top of Mind today. For generations we’ve purchased fruits and vegetables, basing our decisions on the appearance of the produce, and on the cost. More recently, we’ve seen consumers interested in how the food was produced. “Organic” is a sought-after label in most grocery stores now.
Cabin Pressure (20:37)
Dr. Barbara St. Pierre Schneider is an Associate Professor of Nursing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The ability to transport an injured person by plane or helicopter has saved countless lives. But there’s also evidence that in some types of injuries, high altitude and cabin pressure could cause further damage to tissues. Dr. Barbara St. Pierre Schneider is studying the short-term effects of cabin pressure on skeletal muscle.
Apple Seed (37:51)
Sam Payne visits the Treehouse Museum where children learn to step into a story.
Mid-East Panel (51:55)
The Middle East is always TOP OF MIND these days and so it’s time again to get some analysis from our monthly panel of experts on the region. Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are on our list to discuss – and ISIS, of course.
Professor Steven Lobell is from the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah and the author of six books on International Relations and Middle Eastern studies.
Fred Axelgard is a senior fellow in international relations at the Wheatley institution at BYU.
Adjunct Utah Valley University political science professor John Macfarlane teaches a course on international terrorism and leads UVU’s study abroad program to the Middle East.
Feedable Cities (1:27:24)
Professor Elliott Campbell teaches Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Merced. His recent paper on local food potential was published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
The “local food” movement has gone beyond a handful of hip, progressive towns to touch nearly every city in America. Farmer’s markets and locally-grown produce are fairly easy to find these days. But even the most devoted locavores have to get some of their diet from beyond the 50-mile radius generally considered the boundary of “local.”
Free-Range Kids (1:07)
Guests Lenore Skenazy is author of Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant children (without going nuts with worry). She also hosts the show "World's Worst Mom" on the Discovery Life channel.
Larry Nelson teaches and researches parenting in the Department of Family Life here at BYU. His latest research on the effects of helicopter parenting appears in the journal Emerging Adulthood.
Parenting is Top of Mind this hour. Free-range and helicopter are the much-talked-about varieties right now. A couple in Maryland was cleared last week of neglect charges in a couple of instances where they let their kids walk home alone from a park about mile from their home. The kids are 10 and 6 years old. They"ve become a cause celebre for the "free-range parenting" movement, a word coined by Lenore Skenazy who"s with us this hour.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from letting your kids roam free is the common tendency to hover over their every move, pad every landing and smooth every bump in the road. So-called"helicopter parents" are a phenomenon BYU Family Science professor Larry Nelson has studied extensively. He joins me now in studio. Welcome.
Mormon Rivals (51:43)
Guests Matt Canham and Thomas Burr are reporters at The Salt Lake Tribune. They've just released a new book called Mormon Rivals about the Romney and Huntsman families.
Mormon Rivals are Top of Mind today. That's the title of a new book by Matt Canham and Thomas Burr of the Salt Lake Tribune. It documents the similarities, differences and disagreements of two prominent members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who faced off in the 2012 Republican primary race for president.
The novelty of two Mormons on the ballot was a source of endless fascinating for the national press and curiosity for voters unfamiliar with the faith. Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Junior descend from the same fiery Mormon pioneer. They're both sons of self-made millionnaires and scions of their communities. Both have had successful careers and been elected Governor.
Inside the Mormon community, the Huntsmans and the Romneys are as close as it comes to royal clans. And yet, Matt Canham and Thomas Burr write in their book that Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Junior could not be more different in many regards. They're not friendly. In fact, they barely know each other. Their intertwining story is one of faith, money, power and ambition.
Race and Self-Defense Killings (1:05)
Guest: Addie Rolnick, Ph. D., Professor of Criminal Law and Race Theory at University of Nevada, Las Vegas Boyd School of Law
Self Defense Laws are Top of Mind today. Across the nation, states are reviewing – and in many cases expanding – laws that allow people to use deadly force to protect themselves and their property. Sometimes known as “Stand Your Ground” laws – they’re at issue in recent high-profile cases in Nevada, Montana and Utah where people have killed trespassers and would-be attackers.
At the heart of these laws lies is the question of whether or not the person doing the killing was reasonable to feel threatened. That question is also wrapped up in the national debate over police shootings of civilians.
“The only time we want to say ‘killing is right’ is when there is no other option,” says Rolnick. “Stand your Ground” laws allow someone to claim self-defense even when retreat was an option.
Rolnick argues that race is always a factor, no matter how much someone may claim it wasn’t. “None of this requires intentional targeting of someone because of their race… it’s just something that operates on a subconscious level.”
Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (25:56)
Guest: Gabrielle Kardon, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Utah
Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia occurs in 1 out of every 2,500 births. Which puts it up there with muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis by prevalence – but CDH, as it’s called, is less-well known. Its causes are also more mysterious to doctors. Geneticist Gabrielle Kardon at the University of Utah has recently uncovered some answers about the condition
An infant born with CDH has a weakness in the diaphragm, that can no longer act as a barrier for the stomach and impedes the development of the lungs. The mortality rate of babies born with the condition is about 50%.
Cultivate Creativity (37:55)
Guest: Arthur B. Markman, Ph. D., Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin
Mozart, Shakespeare, Picasso. . . such creative genius is surely innate on some level . . so seemingly effortless to those of us who are not born prodigies.
But psychologist Art Markman says the ability to create is something people can develop, regardless of their natural gifts. Dr. Markman has made the quest for creativity his life’s work. He works at the University of Texas, where he’s a professor of psychology and marketing. He’s also editor of the journal Cognitive Science.
“The problem of practicing creativity is most of us don’t know what that means,” says Markman. Yet you can develop knowledge, skills, and habits to learn how to be more creative. According to Markman, creativity isn’t a “talent,” but something “anyone can nurture, anyone can improve.”
"You need to unlearn the unwillingness to make mistakes," says Markman. The American school system punishes us for mistakes, especially—but true creativity cannot be achieved without doing so. “You’re finding new ways for old knowledge.”
Immigration (52:11)
Guest: Ted Curry, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas at El Paso
This week, Congress voted to block the Obama Administration from defending the president’s executive action on immigration in court. President Obama’s order would protect some immigrants in the country illegally from being deported. That order has so angered Republicans that it is motivating much of their opposition to other Obama efforts on trade and international relations.
When the debate over immigration gets rolling, one of the main arguments pundits and politicians turn to is crime. Illegal immigration fuels crime, they say. It makes neighborhoods unsafe. But years of research culled from a variety of neighborhoods in El Paso, Texas paint a different picture.
Immigrant communities tend to be close-knit, which helps keep such neighborhoods low-crime, even if they may be poor. El Paso is one of the safest big cities in the country, and one of the reasons it may be, says Curry, is that it’s an “immigrant destination city.” “Immigrant neighborhoods have higher levels of poverty, but don’t have higher levels of crime.”
NASA Radiation Competition (1:13:05)
Guest: Kerry Lee, technical lead
NASA wants your help figuring out how to keep astronauts safe from dangerous radiation on the long trip to Mars. The best ideas submitted before June 29 could win up to $30,000.
Why would NASA—which has some of the world’s best and brightest—need citizen help? They’re hoping to engage the public and get good ideas, says Kerry Lee, the technical lead for NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Antibiotic Resistance (1:24:09)
Guest: Miriam Barlow, Ph. D., Associate Professor at UC Merced, School of Natural Sciences
This final conversation today comes from the “Math Rocks” file. A mathematician at American University has teamed up with biologist at the University of California-Merced to tackle what the World Health Organization calls a global threat: the increase in drug-resistant strains of bacteria. Some 2 million people fall ill to such infections in the US each year, according to the CDC. Bacteria are able to quickly mutate and evolve themselves to resist antibiotics they encounter.
So, this mathematician and biologist have developed some software they call “Time Machine,” because it spits out a computation that could be used by doctors to force bacteria to mutate back into a form that can be killed by antibiotics.
Miriam Barlow of UC-Merced’s School of Natural Sciences is the biologist part of the duo and joined us to discuss her research.
Barlow collaborated with mathematicians to figure out how a model on how to best combat the bacteria. It's like a dog chasing its own tail—cycling through antibiotics until the disease reverts to being vulnerable to the first antibiotic.
Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels (1:05)
Guest: Ian Morris, Willard Professor of Classics and a fellow of the Stanford Archaeology Center at Stanford University. Author of “Foragers, Farmers and Fossil Fuels: How Human Values Evolve.”
Human values have changed over millennia: our tolerance for violence, our willingness to be divided into social classes by gender or wealth, our respect for authority, our definition of justice. The fundamental question for Stanford classics and archaeology professor Ian Morris is, “What causes our values to evolve over time?” Are we squeamish about the death penalty because we’re more enlightened than our hunter-gatherer forbearers?
Morris, in a series of provocative lectures delivered at Princeton University, says no. Our values are not driven by evolutionary superiority. Rather, they’re driven by how we fuel our lives. Do we hunt, farm or burn oil, gas and coal? Morris has captured his Tanner Lectures in a new book called, “Foragers, Farmers and Fossil Fuels: How Human Values Evolve.”
Least Religious Generation (37:12)
Guest: Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of the book Generation Me.
Many of today’s youth have lost their religion. “Millennials” constitute the least religious generation in the past 60 years according to analysis out of San Diego State University. She writes about it extensively in her recent book Generation Me.
Big Government (52:30)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Professor of History at BYU
Our weekly segment called “Our American Heritage.” BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares insights from his introductory American History course with us. We get a college history lesson—and we don’t even have to go to class! This week my colleague Marcus Smith talks with Madsen about the origins of big government.
Microfarming (1:18:06)
Guest: Dave Dewitt, an accomplished chile pepper farmer and author of over fifty books including “Microfarming for Profit.”
I find myself, at the moment, with a glut of salad greens. Not being much of a gardener, a friend suggested I start with something easy. It’s gone much better than I expected and now I’m burdened with way more kale, spinach, arugula and red leaf lettuce than I can possibly consume. After giving bags of it away, I’ve found myself wondering, could I wander down to the farmer’s market and make a little money with my harvest?
People do. But it’s not easy to turn a profit. For those with the fortitude and free time, Dave DeWitt has written a how-to-guide.
Is Shame Necessary? (1:04)
Guest: Jennifer Jacquet, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Studies at New York University, Author of “Is Shame Necessary?”
Shame and accountability are Top of Mind today. Sepp Blatter - the embattled and newly-re-elected president of soccer’s international governing body FIFA – made a surprise announcement today that he will step down. Even though he’s spent the last week refusing to do just that and denying that he had anything knowledge of the corruption and bribery that have led to indictments of more than a dozen officials tied to FIFA.
Blatter now says he’ll step down to help FIFA put the scandal behind it. But you could also make the argument that he’s resigning because he’s been shamed into it by public outcry in the press and on social media. We here in the West don’t tend to like the idea of shaming people into things and but there’s no denying its power.
New York University environmental studies professor Jennifer Jacquet thinks we should give shame a chance to solve society’s biggest problems. “Is Shame Necessary?” is the title of her new book.
Polarized Presidency (22:47)
Guest: Robert Smith, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University, Author of “Polarization and the Presidency: From FDR to Barack Obama”
In America today, people who identify as Republicans are more reliably conservative than they’ve been in 20 years. And Democrats are more reliably liberal. In other words, we’re an increasingly polarized nation where politics are concerned. A new book co-authored by San Francisco State University political scientist Robert Smith looks at the role presidents have played in driving the parties apart. His conclusions may surprise you: Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Barack Obama are among the most polarizing by his measures. But JFK, LBJ and George H.W. Bush and were not.
The book is titled, “Polarization and the Presidency - from FDR to Barack Obama.”
The Apple Seed (43:22)
Sam Payne is the host of BYU Radio's storytelling show, The Apple Seed. Sam visits Top of Mind to share an excerpt from a story told by Judith Black titled “Retiring the Champ”
Publication Bias (56:26)
Guest: Craig Williams, Pharm.D., Clinical Professor and Pharmacotherapy Specialist at Oregon State University
Antidepressants are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in America, even though the scientific literature suggests they’re not as effective in treating depression as we tend to think. The reason for that disconnect has to do with something called “publication bias” and new analysis in the American Medical Association’s Psychiatry Journal shows it’s also leading doctors and patients to overestimate the effectiveness of anti-depressants for treating anxiety disorders.
Trade Deals (1:18:15)
Guest: Wade Jacoby, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science at BYU
Before he leaves office, President Obama would like to finish up a trade deal that would be the largest in a generation. It would link 12 nations, including Canada, Chile, Japan and Australia, lowering tariffs on goods they trade and strengthening America’s economic power in Asia as a counterbalance to China’s growth.
Congress is far from convinced that the deal is a good thing and they’re deeply divided on whether or not to give the president fast track authority to make such trade deals without out getting line-by-line approval or amendments from legislators.
“Trade deals” don’t sound awfully exciting to most Americans, but they can have a major impact on local economies. They are also almost always controversial in Congress. As one Democratic Representative told the New York Times this week, “Outside of an authorization of military force, votes probably don’t get tougher than trade.”
International Sports and Corruption (1:06)
Guest: Anita Ramasastry, J.D., Professor at University of Washington School of Law, Writer for Justia.com
Sports and Corruption are Top of Mind today. The sweeping U.S. indictments of 14 people tied to FIFA - international soccer’s governing body - continue to reverberate in the headlines. The charges include bribery, racketeering and money laundering. A separate Swiss investigation is examining the possibility of improprieties in FIFA’s awarding of the next two World Cups to Russia and Qatar.
Even so, FIFA’s long-time president Sepp Blatter managed to hang onto his post in an election held Friday. Blatter has not been directly implicated in the corruption charges, but the US and Swiss investigations are expected to widen.
Embracing Stress (21:52)
Guest: Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., Health Psychologist and Lecturer at Stanford University, Author of “The Upside of Stress”
Stress relief is big business: We buy supplements, soaps and scrubs to dissipate it. We take yoga and meditation classes to get it under control. We moan about it to our friends and hear about its dangers from our doctors. Stress is an indisputable enemy to our health and well-being.
Which is exactly what Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal thought and what she taught her students…until she stumbled upon some research that made her realize she had it all wrong. You probably do too, which is why McGonigal wrote her new book, “The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good for You and How to Get Good at It.”
unPrison Project (39:52)
Guest: Deborah Jiang-Stein, Author of “Prison Baby,” Founder of the unPrison Project
Three percent of kids in America have a parent in prison and the majority of women behind bars are also mothers. Deborah Jiang-Stein’s personal experience with these statistics has led her to develop a nonprofit she calls the “unPrison Project.” She’s partnered with the Children’s Book Council to start children’s book libraries in prisons so incarcerated mothers can read to their kids during visits.
Female Role Models and Media (50:39)
Guest: Elizabeth Daniels, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado
For all the focus on getting girls interest in science, math and technology fields, it seems they still relate most to the actresses and models who dominate magazine covers. University of Colorado psychology professor Elizabeth Daniels joins me now to discuss her findings, which appear in the Journal of Adolescent Research.
Parent Previews (1:08:41)
Guests: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett, Parent Previews.com
The big one has finally hit California. That’s the premise of the new film “San Andreas” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a rescue chopper pilot. Also, another new movie in theaters – “Aloha,” stars Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams and John Krasinski – all significant actors.
Tech Transfers: Scent Detection (1:21:27)
Guests: Matthew Linford, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry at BYU; Ray West, Director of New Business Development for Moxtek; Spencer Rogers, Associate Director at BYU’s Technology Transfer office
What’s that smell? When I’ve uttered that line, I’m really asking about the source of the smell. Where’s it coming from? Have you ever wondered what the smell itself is made of?
The answer to that question is part one of our innovation segment this week, courtesy of BYU’s Technology Transfer office, which markets and licenses inventions coming out of BYU’s laboratories.
Making and Unmaking Nations (1:05)
Scott Straus, Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His latest book is “Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa.”
At this moment the word genocide is being used in context with the Rohinga in Myanamar, the Yazidis in Iraq. It represents that ultimate failure of politics, as Scott Straus says in his new book, “Making and Unmaking Nations.” His book is not merely a study of genocide, but a cautionary tale. Genocide need not be the inevitable outcome of war, hate and greed, he argues. Ideas matter immensely – particularly the ideas espoused by the founding leaders of a nation. Does this “founding narrative” focus on dialogue and inclusion? Or is it rooted in the superiority of one group over another?
That founding narrative, says Straus, is what made the difference between a nation like Rwanda where some 800,000 Tutsis were killed because of their ethnicity and Cote d’Ivoire, Mali or Senegal – all of which stepped to the brink of genocide, but then stepped back.
Fighting Wildfires (51:57)
Jason Forthover from U.S. Government’s “Fire Lab” in Missoula, Montana, a mechanical engineer with 20 years of firefighting experience.
Bret Butler from the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory where he researches heat and combustion processes in wildland fire.
Thomas Fletcher, professor of Chemical Engineering here at BYU, where he researches ignition and combustion.
Jeff Kline, Fire Operations Specialist at the Utah Bureau of Land Management, has extensive experience fighting fires.
A panelist of experts discusses wildfires. The season of brush blazes and forest conflagrations is upon us, and these fires are getting bigger and hotter. Data from the National Interagency Fire Center Show an exponential growth since the 1980s in mega-fires that burn over 100,000 acres.
Militarized Policing (1:04)
Guest: Peter Kraska, Ph. D., Professor of the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University
Law enforcement is Top of Mind today. As part of an effort to re-establish trust between police and civilians in communities across the country, the Obama Administration recently announced that local departments will be banned from acquiring some types of military-style equipment from the federal government. Federal grant money can’t be spent on the equipment either. The list includes: grenade launchers, tracked armored vehicles, armed aircraft, bayonets, and guns and ammunition of .50 caliber or higher.
And if you’re like many Americans, you may be wondering, “Why on earth does the police department in my city even need a grenade launcher or a tank?”
Pete Kraska has spent years documenting a shift toward military gear and tactics in US law enforcement and he joined us to speak about it.
“Our research also found that a lot of these teams formed in an ad-hoc way,” says Kraska—not the highly-trained, disciplined units we think of. “We absolutely need SWAT teams, but does every jurisdiction need one?”
Posture and Emotions (22:10)
Guest: Erik Peper, Ph. D., Professor of Psychology at San Francisco State University
Proper posture is important for how you might be perceived—but it also enhances self-esteem and can improve your mood. We spoke with San Francisco State University psychologist Erik Peper on his research on how sitting up straight can help improve your life.
“We have underestimated the power of our bodies,” says Peper. Keeping your body in an upright position dramatically improves your mood. When your body is collapsed, “your health is compromised.”
Get Up and Move (36:36)
Guest: Srinivasan Beddhu, Ph. D., Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah; Robin Marcus, Ph. D., Professor of Sports Science and Interim Dean of the College of Health at the University of Utah
Moving around a little isn’t just good for your state of mind – it could actually extend your life, according to some new research out of the University of Utah. Results of a study by Internal medicine doctor Srinavasan Beddhu and sports scientist Robin Marcus say you don’t have to hit the gym for an hour or work up a sweat to get the benefit of exercise. Even just a casual walk or some gardening has important health benefits. Their findings appear in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Simple Rules (52:28)
Guest: Kathleen Eisenhardt, Stanford W. Ascherman M.D. Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University
How do you feel about rules? Are they limiting and annoying to you? Something to be broken? Or do you thrive under them – and even create them for yourself? The new book “Simple Rules: How to Survive in a Complex World” makes the case for rules to promote progress and productivity. But – as the title suggests – the rules have to be simple. Kathleen Eisenhardt is the co-author of the book and director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. She joined us to discuss how these simple rules can help your life.
Investing in Sleep (1:12:19)
Guest: Michael Scullin, Ph. D., Director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor University
People who burn the candle at both ends will sometimes say, “I’ll sleep when I’m old” – or even, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” There’s a persistent notion in America that time spent sleeping is time lost. Increasing research shows that sleep is important to health and brain function – particularly when we’re young. That link doesn’t appear to be so strong once we hit old age – which is probably lucky, since older people tend to sleep a lot less. The question on neuroscientist Michael Scullin’s is whether or not getting more sleep when we’re younger has carryover effects on brain function in old age?
Virtual Reality (1:24:17)
Guest: Jeremy Bailenson, Ph. D, Director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, author of book Infinite Reality
Former college quarterbacks who made the draft are getting an introduction to life in the pros this week. NFL teams are holding their first on-the-field activities of the off season. Nothing beats time spent on the field for a quarterback honing his skills. But, suppose that turf is virtual?
Football coaches around the country are taking note of a new virtual reality sports trainer developed in Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. The lab’s director Jeremy Bailenson joins me now by phone. He’s a renowned expert on virtual reality and author of the book Infinite Reality. Welcome.
Job Outlook for Recent Grads (1:04)
Guest: Andrea Koncz, Research Manager for the National Association of Colleges and Employers
Good news for the college class of 2015. As they head off with their newly-minted degrees, they face some of the best prospects of landing a job since the Great Recession. Students graduating in Engineering and Computer Science have the best opportunities, but all students have been having more luck this year.
“Sniffing” Robots (14:06)
Guest: Brian Smith, Ph. D., Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at Arizona State University
Robots are becoming more human every day. We’ve programed them to clean our houses, manufacture goods, and even fight our wars. They can move, speak, see, and interact with their environment – often better than humans. But here’s one thing robots can’t do even remotely as well as we can – sniff an odor on the air and figure out what it is.
Robots that could smell could detect threats without endangering lives—like gas or bomb threats, for example. Brian Smith, behavioral neuroscientist at Arizona State University, looks at other animals for inspiration on how to create robots that could smell.
Nanotechnology and Cancer Treatment (32:44)
Guest: Ramazan Asmatulu, Ph. D., Mechanical Engineering Professor at Wichita State University
A cancer diagnosis is bad. The treatment is bad, too. And the after-effects of the treatment are bad. But magnetic nanoparticles have shown promise in getting chemotherapy drugs to cancer tumors in a more targeted way, so there’s less collateral damage to surrounding cells. The particles can take many shapes—but are incredibly small: 100,000 times smaller than a human hair . That’s not just invisible to the naked eye—but even to most conventional microscopes.
American Heritage: The Birth of Modern Politics (52:23)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Ph. D., History Professor at Brigham Young University
BYU history professor Grant Madsen brings his introductory American History course right to us. We get a college history lesson—and we don’t have to worry about quizzes or grades! Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of significant milestones in American history. This week Marcus Smith asked Grant Madsen where the political divide between liberals and conservatives originated.
Healthy Chocolate (1:20:15)
Guest: Larry Stevens, Ph. D., Professor of Psychophysiological at Northern Arizona University
60-percent, 70-percent – 86-percent – that’s what my favorite claims to have - Ghirardelli’s Intense Dark Midnight Reverie chocolate bar. The percentage indicates how much of the bar comes from the cocoa bean – as opposed to other stuff like milk or sugar. I happen to spend a lot of time perusing the chocolate aisle, so I can tell you with some authority that we’re seeing more and more dark – and really dark – varieties for sale. I suspect this has less to do with taste preferences and more to do with all the research we’re seeing about how dark chocolate is good for you. . .
Exactly how and why it’s good for us is the subject of a new study published in the journal NeuroRegulation. Northern Arizona University psychology researcher Larry Stevens co-authored the study, and joined us to discuss it.
Vitamin D and Depression (1:34:56)
Guest: David Kerr, Ph. D, Psychology Professor at Oregon State University
While we’re on the subject of health, let’s turn now to some new research about depression and Vitamin D. Researchers have long suspected a connection between the two, but a proven link has been evasive. However, a recent study published in the journal of Psychiatry Research seems to have found clear evidence that the proper levels of Vitamin D can, in fact, ease depressive symptoms in healthy young women.
Oregon State University psychology professor David Kerr was lead author of the study. He spoke with Top of Mind student producer Kim Anderson about the effects of Vitamin D on mood.
Ecosystems and Human Networks (1:03)
Guest: Dr. Matthew Mars, Ph.D. from the University of Arizona's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Researchers at the University of Arizona and at the National Counterterrorism Center say the interconnectedness of ecosystems in the natural world provides a good metaphor for examining terror groups.
Obesity Stigma (22:18)
Guest: Dr. Alexandra Brewis Slade, co-director of Mayo Clinic-ASU Obesity Solutions Overeating, lack of exercise, depression, and an unhealthy diet are just a few of the contributing factors that can lead to obesity. Alexandra Brewis Slade, the co-director of Mayo Clinic-ASU Obesity Solutions says the stigma attached to being overweight - so-called "fat shaming"- may also be exacerbating the obesity problem in America. Some causal factors: people who feel stigmatized because of their weight tend to avoid exercising in public, and may fall back on patterns of comfort eating or extreme caloric restriction (often leading to later cravings and binges) when they feel bad about themselves. Moreover, many people who have felt judged by a health care provider avoid going to the doctor later, reducing their access to professional weight loss guidance.
Apple Seed (39:49)
Sam Payne is the host of BYU Radio's storytelling show, The Apple Seed. Sam visits Top of Mind to share a story told by Michael Reno Harrell: "13 Quilts."
History of Chairs (51:04)
Guest: Dr. Galen Cranz, Ph.D. (Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley)
Dr. Galen Cranz is a champion of what she calls "body-conscious design." She says it"s about time people caught on to the evils of chairs.
Dr. Cranz: "Every posture has a stress associated with it...we're designed for movement."
"Ghost Army" (1:15:16)
Guest: Rick Beyer, best-selling author and filmmaker. His latest work is “The Ghost Army of World War II,” which he co-wrote with Elizabeth Sayles, a children’s book author and daughter of one of William Sayles, who served in the Ghost Army.
The one thousand men assigned to the US Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troops in 1944 had a single mission—deception. They were painters, sculptors, sound engineers and actors. Their assignments were often so secret and so well-executed, they fooled high-ranking German commanders, civilians in towns near where they operated, and even American military personnel from other units.
Their very existence was highly classified and largely untold for some 50 years after the War ended. But when their story came to light, it came not just in words, but in a trove of paintings and sketches from these artist-soldiers who seem to have spent every spare minute with their noses buried in sketchbooks and paint boxes.
The adventures of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops are now on full display in a just-published book by Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles called “The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Infalatable Tanks, Sound Effects and Other Audacious Fakery.”
Public Housing Myths (1:09)
Public Housing Myths
Guest: Fritz Umbach, professor of history and criminal justice at the City University of New York
The conventional wisdom among politicians and planners across political divides is that public housing is a failed experiment. So, cities across the country are demolishing their public housing projects and replacing them with developments meant to mix people of all income levels. But the notion that "mixed-income redevelopment" is the only wait to fix failed public housing is a myth, according to a new book co-edited by Nicholas Bloom, Fritz Umbach, and Lawrence Vale.
They challenge virtually everything we think we know about public housing in their book titled "Public Housing Myths: Perception, Reality and Social Policy."
Why We Memorialize (50:57)
Guests:
Jan Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
Greg Dickinson, Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University and co-editor of the book "Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials."
Aaron Skabelund, professor of history here at BYU with an emphasis on collective memory and modern Japan.
Scott Paeth, professor of Religious Studies, Peace, Justice and Conflict at DePaul University
We hear from the man credited with getting one of the most iconic memorials in America built: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. That nearly-five-hundred-foot wall of black granite on the National Mall with more than 58,000 names of veterans engraved on it.
Why do we feel the urge to memorialize moments of tragedy or events in history? What moves us to erect monuments to the fallen? Or to national heroes? Or to place flowers and teddy bears on the side of the road where an accident took place?
We talk about the power of memorials and collective memory.
Restoring the Meaning of Memorial Day (1:03)
Guest: John Raughter, national communications manager for the American Legion
AAA projects holiday travel this weekend to be the highest in a decade. That’s what Memorial Day’s all about, right? A kick-off to summer. Barbecues and campouts and picnics.
Of course we know Memorial Day has deeper meaning as a time to honor fallen service members. But it’s clearly lost some of that significance in America. That has prompted some to call for the holiday to be moved so it’s not on a Monday and thus always part of a three-day weekend, which makes recreational activities so tempting.
Meet Your Future Self (15:22)
Guest: Hal Hershfield, social psychologist at UCLA Anderson and his research focuses on how human behavior can be modified by bringing people closer to their future selves
If you could hop in a time machine, go 40 years into the future and spend an hour with your future self—how do you suppose your behavior today might change? Would you start taking care of your body better? Tuck more money away for retirement?
Probably so, according to researchers at UCLA Anderson who’ve been conducting experiments in which they introduce people to a version of their future selves.
Disabilities (35:43)
Guest: Gloria Krahn, the Barbara Emily Knudson Endowed Chair in Family Policy Studies at the College of Public Health at Oregon State University
People with disabilities face myriad health challenges related to their conditions—but that doesn’t account for the unusually high rates of preventable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and obesity they experience, says public health policy expert Gloria Krahn. Her recent article in the American Journal of Public Health makes the case for a more systematic approach to improving the health of Americans with disabilities, which trails other segments of the population, despite some $400 billion a year spent on their medical care and long-term services.
K-12 Financial Education (51:12)
Guest: Janneke Ratcliffe, Assistant Director for Financial Education at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Americans are saving less and racking up more debt with credit cards, student loans and such. According to the Council of Economic Education, one in three adults believes they made poor financial decisions as a result of lack of financial literacy.
They may have lacked that literacy because financial education is relatively rare in America’s public schools. Fewer than half of states require a high school course in Personal Finance as a requirement to graduate. So, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has developed a guide to help policymakers improve that number.
Cervantes and Don Quixote (1:01:58)
Guest: Dale Pratt, professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature here at Brigham Young University. He joined us today to talk about the recent discovery of the remains of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, which is widely considered to be one of the greatest works of modern literature
After a seemingly quixotic search spanning decades, archaeologists and historians in Spain have discovered what they believe to be the long-lost remains of the man who wrote Don Quixote. They’ve unearthed bones and a coffin marked “M C” beneath a 17th Century convent in Madrid, prompting us to reflect on the significance of the author and his magnum opus. It appears regularly on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published and is often considered to be one of the first modern novels. What makes Don Quixote so important?
Low-Allergy Soybean (1:27:52)
Guest: Eliot Herman, professor in the school of plant sciences at the University of Arizona and co-author of a report in the journal Plant Sciences about a new variety of low-allergenic soybean
Soybeans are one of the biggest culprits in food allergies in America. They’re also a major ingredient in many infant formulas, processed foods and even livestock feed. A team of researchers at the University of Arizona have engineered a soybean without the protein that provokes an allergic reaction. And, they’ve made the bean more useful as livestock feed in the process.
World Events (1:04)
Guest: Eric Jensen, teaches The Law of Armed Conflict, International Criminal Law, and National Security Law at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
The strategically-important city of Ramadi in Iraq has fallen to Islamic State forces, igniting new criticism here in the United States over President Obama’s strategy to fight the terror group also known as ISIS and ISIL. Thus far, US involvement has been limited to air strikes, training and support—rather than sending in American forces to fight on the ground. All the while, Congress has yet to give the President official authorization to wage the war and in the last few days, Republican House Speaker John Boehner cast even more doubt on whether that approval will ever come.
Also over the weekend, what’s being called a “battle” between rival biker gangs broke out in Waco, Texas. Nine bikers were killed, 18 others wounded and more than 150 people were arrested and charged with engaging in organized crime linked to capital murder.
There is a migrant crisis going as tens of thousands of people flee violence and poverty in parts of the Middle East and Africa and attempt a treacherous journey by boat across the Mediterranean in hopes of finding refuge in Europe. Migrant deaths have surged to more than 1,800 people this year. Meanwhile European countries have wrestled with what obligation they have to accept the migrants—they’re loathe to do so. And so, on Monday, the European Union decided on a different approach to the crisis, they’ve approved the use of military force against the smugglers responsible for bringing many of the migrants out of North Africa.
Online Payment Security (40:33)
Guest: Dale Rowe, IT Professor and head of the BYU’s “cyber security lab”
Nobody writes checks anymore. It’s even rare to find people carrying cash now that debit cards are so ubiquitously accepted. Even small merchants and food trucks can take them. And now we’re moving into the era where carrying a card is becoming passé. Banks have apps that allow you to pay bills with a single click. Square and VenMo have apps that link to your debit card or bank account and send cash to a friend, so you don’t have to hit the ATM for twenties when you’re divvying up the tab for a night out. PayPal is the granddaddy of these services. They’re simple, fast, and convenient, but are they secure?
American Heritage: Foreign Policy (52:26)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU history professor
We follow along as BYU history professor Grant Madsen brings his introductory American History course to us. We get a college history lesson—and we don’t have to don’t have to worry about the grades! Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of significant milestones American history.
Struggling Law School Graduates (1:18:01)
Guest: Deborah Merritt, professor in The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law
As the Class of 2015 leaves campus and heads into the job market, we’re going to zoom in on one field—law school graduates. Deborah Merritt from the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University has just completed an analysis of the state of the legal profession post-recession and finds lingering effects that seem to have fundamentally altered a field that had been unchanged for decades. Law school grads today are still burdened by large student debt, but they’re less likely to land a high-paying, partner-track job at a prestigious law firm. An increasing number of law grads end up in jobs that don’t even require them to pass the bar exam.
Brain-Machine Interface Controls Prosthetic Hand (1:35:17)
Guest: Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, teaches in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department of the University of Houston
Scientists are making great strides in prosthetic limbs that are more functional and lifelike than ever. The Holy Grail, so to speak, in their quest is to make a limb that responds to the thoughts of its wearer and reach out to grasp a cup, say, as effortlessly and naturally as a biological hand.
Researchers at the University of Houston are getting closer using something called a ‘brain-machine’ interface and the really amazing thing is that it’s non-invasive. Meaning they’re not implanting electrodes in a person’s brain.
World Events That Matter (1:04)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, BYU political science professor
Quinn Mecham is back for his monthly analysis of three international events we should be paying attention to: the British election, attempted coup in Burundi, political prosecutions in Egypt.
China Immigration to U.S. Overtakes Mexico (24:15)
Guest: Eric Jensen, statistician and demographer at the US Census Bureau
Which country do you suppose sends the most immigrants to the United States? If you guessed Mexico, it's a good one. That has long been true. But as of 2013, Mexico ceded the top spot to China, which is now the leading country of origin for immigrants coming to America. A recent report by US Census Bureau demographer Eric Jensen found of the 1.2 million people who immigrated to the US in 2013, 147,000 came from China. That's 20,000 more than came from either Mexico or India, which are tied for the number two spot.
Brain Health (34:07)
Guest: Gary Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the Parlow-Soloman Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine. He's also the co-author of "2 Weeks to a Younger Brain"
"My memory's just not what it used to be." How often do you hear someone say that? Research out of UCAL's Longevity Center has found memory loss doesn't just plague us when we hit 40 or 50. It starts as young as 20 and it's tied to subtle changes in the brain as we age. But there's also a lot of research suggesting that with the right approach, you can be middle-aged, but have the brain of a much younger you. The gray matter needs exercise just like the rest of our muscles.
The End Game (50:22)
Guest: Corey Abramson, professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona. His book, The End Game: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years, will be published by Harvard University Press later this year
Dream vacations, bridge tournaments, leisure time by the pool or on the golf course-there's a definite "golden tinge" to the way Americans like to envision spending their twilight years-just check out all the vibrant pictures and travel advertisements on the AARP website. But the reality is some 23 million Americans over the age of 59 are "economically insecure." Social Security and Medicare are meant to be a safety net, of course. And there's a prevailing notion among sociologists that inequalities earlier in life fade away in the end: the challenges of aging arrive in much the same fashion, no matter how much money or education you have.
Corey Abramson challenges this theory in his new book: "The End Game: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years."
Preschool (1:10:43)
Guest: Libby Doggett, Deputy Assistant secretary for Policy and Early Learning at the US Department of Education
Having established the fact that the effects of inequality stay with us to the end of life, let's look at one proposal to try and level the playing field right from the start: preschool.
There's a new push from the US Department of Education to give more children access to high-quality preschool, including additional grant money for states to create publicly-funded preschool programs.
Summer Homework (1:28:21)
Guest: Denise Pope, senior lecturer at Stanford University School of Education and co-founder of Challenge Success, a research and student intervention project.
In the coming weeks, kids will be racing home from the last day of school. Inside the backpacks they ditch in hallways and kitchen corners will likely be a packet the kids - and their parents - prefer to forget for now. Summer homework assignments are meant to counter the "brain drain" that can leave kids a little rusty when they show up for school again in the Fall. But is homework the answer?
America: A Less Christian Nation (1:02)
Guest: John Greene, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Akron. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, and he served as a senior adviser on the Pew Center Religious Landscaper Studies
America is rapidly becoming a less Christian nation, according to a comprehensive new study by the Pew Research Center. It found the number of people identifying as Christian dropped by nearly 8 percent in just 7 years. And where are those people turning? The Pew study tracks a comparably increase in people who identify as “atheist,” “agnostic” or “nothing in particular.”
China’s Agricultural Imports (23:08)
Guest: Fred Gale, economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture whose work focuses on China’s agricultural development and international trade
America is now the leading exporter of agricultural products to China – crops cotton, meat, cereal grains and hay. This is a major shift, considering the high value Chinese officials have long placed on self-sufficiency. The country has traditionally resisted pressure to import agricultural products officials have resisted the urge to import agricultural products. But China is the world’s most populous country and Chinese diets are changing.
FoodKeeper (39:37)
Guest: Christopher Bernstein, with the USDA’s Food Safety Education Staff
Think about what’s in your fridge right now. Anything questionable? That spaghetti from last week—still okay to eat? Yogurt that’s passed the sell-by date? The USDA estimates that billions of pounds of good food goes to waste because home cooks aren’t sure if it’s safe to eat. The problem is exponentially larger when you include restaurants and manufacturers, so reducing food waste is a major initiative of the USDA.
And yet, who really wants to roll the dice on that old stroganoff in the fridge? “When in doubt, throw it out” seems like a smart way to go.
A new smartphone app could help keep us safe and prevent us from wasting unnecessarily.
Smartphone Datawall (51:29)
Guest: Alex Webb, assistant professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico
Imagine you walk into a building and suddenly, there on a wall, in full view of everyone, are your personal details—who you are, your location, maybe even your Facebook friends and latest Tweets.
The “DataWall” is what Alex Webb calls his art concept. He’s a professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico and he’s not trying to steal your identity. He’s trying to demonstrate just how vulnerable you are to having your personal information taken right off the phone in your pocket as you walk by.
Parent Previews: "Pitch Perfect 2" and "Mad Max: Fury Road" (1:10:24)
Guest: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett or ParentPreviews.com
The championship college glee club—the Barden Bellas—are back with their song and dance routine, only this time a wardrobe malfunction forces them off stage.
Tech Transfer: Blood Filter for Cancer Detection (1:25:08)
Guests: Robert Davis, Professor of Physics at Brigham Young University
Nick Morrill, BYU Nanotechnology Research Group
Spencer Rogers, works in BYU’s Technology Transfer office which license and markets innovations made on campus. More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu
We’re surrounded by filters—in our furnaces and water systems and cars. And even in the kitchen, where we use strainers and sieves to drain and purify. A team of researchers here at BYU is working on a filter with holes ten times smaller than the hair on your head. Microscopic holes.
River Republic (1:05)
Guest: Daniel McCool, author of the book, “River Republic, The Fall and Rise of America's Rivers.” He is director of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program and a professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Utah
"Eventually,” wrote Norman Maclean, “all things merge into one, and a river runs through it."
They feed and fascinate us. We use them to transport freight and fill reservoirs. And we’ve nearly ruined them with our single-minded focus on damming and diverting them, says Dan McCool. He’s director of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program at the University of Utah and author of the book “River Republic: The Fall and Rise of America’s Rivers.”
McCool points out that we’ve destroyed over half the nation’s wetlands and polluted the majority of our rivers. At the same time, over half of the U.S. is experiencing extremely dry conditions – and in many cases deepening drought. When water is in short supply, it’s difficult to prioritize wetlands and fish habitat above thirsty crops and communities.
Straight Talk Parenting (52:01)
Guest: Vicki Hoefle, professional parent educator and family coach. Her latest book is “The Straight Talk on Parenting: A No-Nonsense Approach on How to Grow a Grown-Up”
In her last best-seller, she urged parents to stay on the sidelines and keep quiet, even if it meant using duct tape on their hands and mouths to allow their kids to step up and learn respect, responsibility and resilience. In her new book, “The Straight Talk on Parenting: A No-Nonsense Approach on How to Grow a Grown-Up,” Hoefle pushes parents to ask themselves: “Do you want to produce a polite seven-year-old or raise a high-functioning, emotionally healthy adult?” In her interview, she explains the difference between raising a well-behaved child and “growing a grown-up.”
Guest: Joe Califano (1:28:06), national anti-smoking campaign. His book “How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid” has just been released in revised form to meet the challenges facing today’s kids and parents
Nearly every child in the U.S. will be offered drugs or alcohol before graduating from high school. But, if you can get your children to the age of twenty-one without smoking, using drugs or abusing alcohol, they’re just about certain never to use those substances. So the adolescent years are critical. And that’s why Joseph Califano wrote his book about raising drug-free kids—a new revision of which was released last year.
Bipartisanship in Congress (1:04)
Guest: Jeff Flake, fifth-generation Arizonan and has served in the US Senate for the last two years. Prior to that, he served for 12 years in the US House of Representatives
Politicians and pundits alike bemoan the death of bipartisanship in Washington. Cross-party collaboration on big issues is rare. It’s even rarer to see Republicans and Democrats spending quality time together, let alone breaking bread. But Republican Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona thinks the benefits of face-time with the opposition are worth the possibility of a little partisan indigestion. He and fellow Senator Martin Heinrich -- a Democrat from New Mexico -- recently organized a rare bi-partisan lunch in the Senate. They hatched the idea while doing something even more hard-to-believe in this partisan political climate—they spent a week together on a deserted island proving that even opponents can work together when they want to.
Cost of Dominance (17:15)
Guest: Timothy W. Smith, professor of psychology at the University of Utah. His research looks at how personality and social style affect cardiovascular health
There’s more than one way to climb the social ladder. You can do it aggressively—always in competition with the people you pass up. Or you can do it in what University of Utah psychologist Tim Smith calls the “warm-dominant style,” which leaves the people around you happy to see you passing them on your way up.
Shakespeare and Text Analysis (30:48)
Guests: James W. Pennebaker, Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas, Austin
Ryan Boyd, doctoral candidate UT Austin and principle investigator of the paper: “Did Shakespeare Write Double Falsehood?: Identifying Individuals by Creating Psychological Signatures With Text Analysis” The paper was published in the journal Psychological Science.
Double Falsehood was first published in 1728 and purported by the publisher to be a “lost play” by William Shakespeare. Scholars have long debated whether it really is. Now two psychologists from the University of Texas at Austin claim to have solved the mystery with computer analysis of the text.
The Middle East (51:25)
Guests: John Macfarlane, adjunct Utah Valley University political science professor
Josh Gubler, professor of political science at BYU
Steven Lobell, from the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah, author of six books on International Relations and Middle Eastern studies
President Barack Obama had probably hoped for a better turnout of Persian Gulf leaders at Camp David this week. The U.S. organized the summit with the goal of smoothing feathers and getting buy-in from Arab leaders unhappy that America is negotiating a nuclear deal with their sworn enemy—Iran. But of the six Gulf States, only the leaders of Qatar and Kuwait have come to Camp David. The King of Saudi Arabia notably cancelled at the last minute – which was widely viewed as a snub. Bahrain’s King is also a no-show.
Motivation behind Collecting (1:29:14)
Guest: YanLiu Huang, assistant marketing professor at Drexel University
A woman named Anne Langton in the UK currently holds the world record for the largest collect of pig items. Over 40 years she’s amassed 16,779 pig figurines, stuffed toys, piggy banks and so on.
Nancy Hoffman of Peaks Island Maine holds the Guinness record for the largest collection of umbrella sleeves—you know those fabric slip covers that usually get lost the first time you open a new umbrella? Nancy has 730 of them and has turned her house into the official Umbrella Cover Museum.
Is there any rhyme or reason to the urge to collect stuff? Dr. YanLiu Huang thinks so. She’s a marketing professor at Drexel University and author of a study in the Journal of Marketing about the moment when someone decides to start a collection.
Psychology of Speed Limits (1:03)
Guest: John Bowman, vice president of the National Motorists Association, which is a member-supported advocacy group for drivers
The psychology of driving, and particularly how speed limits influence our behavior on the road, has been in the news here in Utah recently. Back in January, the state boosted the speed limit on I-15 through the most populated part of Utah from 65 miles per hour to 70. How do you suppose drivers have behaved on I-15 since then?
Data just released by the Utah Department of Transportation shows average speeds increased up to 2 miles per hour in some spots compared to how fast drivers were going before the speed limit went up. And in some places, drivers are actually going slower than they used to.
Balding (20:17)
Guest: Cheng Ming Chuong, pathology professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine
Our next subject is a sensitive one. It’s central to individual identity for so many Americans. We unabashedly spend enormous amounts of money to maintain and improve it. Even more money goes into trying to get it back, once it’s lost. We’re talking about hair.
New research coming out of the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine poses some interesting promise for people with hair loss conditions such as alopecia and male-pattern baldness.
National Parks Update: Oil Trains and Parks (36:31)
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, founder and editor of NationalParksTraveler.com -- the leading online resource for National Parks-related news
At least 7 people are dead and several hundred injured after an Amtrak passenger train en route from Washington to New York hurtled off the tracks last night while rounding a curve. Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the crash. It’s against this backdrop that NationalParksTraveler.com today published a special report on train safety and America’s National Parks. The report focuses specifically on trains that transport oil near, or even through, some of the country’s most pristine landscapes. In just the last few months trains carrying crude oil have crashed in Illinois, West Virginia, North Dakota and twice in Ontario, Canada, forcing residents to evacuate and contaminating the environment.
American Heritage: The Gilded Age (50:48)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History professor
We follow along as BYU history professor Grant Madsen, shares his curriculum for his introductory American History course with us. Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of significant milestones American history. This week Grant Madsen sat down with Marcus Smith to discuss the Gilded Age.
Body Language (1:14:04)
Guest: Jack Brown, physician and body language expert. He blogs at Body Language Success.
Stop for a moment and take stock of your body language. Are you slouching? Is your head tilted? How aware are of you your posture, movements and facial expressions when interacting with people? We’re generally not aware, according to body language expert and physician, Jack Brown. But he says you can improve your non-verbal communication skills with a few small tips and some extra attention paid to a few areas of the body.
Sugary Drinks and Cardiovascular Disease (1:31:37)
Guest: Kimber Stanhope, research scientist on the effects of diet on metabolic disease at the University of California, Davis
A report soon to appear in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that even if you’re young and health, your risk of cardiovascular disease goes up when you consume lots of sugar—even if only for two short weeks.
2016 Presidential Race (1:03)
Guest: Quin Monson, BYU political science professor
Challengers have been slow in coming forward to vie with former US Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination. But the Republican Party's presidential pool is already crowded - and likely to grow more so before the first state caucus happens in Iowa next January. Six Republican candidates have formally declared and seven more are expected to join them. Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said definitively that he is not running again.
Quin Monson joins us to analyze how the race is shaping up.
Physicians Lack Physical Exercise Education (24:46)
Guest: Brad Cardinal, professor of exercise and sport science in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University
Primary care doctors routinely ask patients about their fitness routine, they routinely urge patients to lose weight or get more aerobic exercise, and yet, less than half of physicians trained in the U.S. get any formal education in medical school about fitness and physical activity. That's according to new research led by Oregon State University sports science professor Brad Cardinal. He says the disconnect is worrisome, when you consider how many chronic health problems in the US are linked to obesity.
The Apple Seed (39:45)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of the Apple Seed
We listen to Syd Lieberman tell "Saved by a Sale" by Yuri Suhl.
Girls in Justice (52:07)
Guest: Richard Ross, award-winning photographer and Professor of Art at the UC Santa Barbara. His most recent book "Girls in Justice," documents the experiences of girls with the juvenile detention system. You check his work out atrichardross.net Girls represent a small percentage of incarcerated youth in the US, but they're the fastest growing segment in the juvenile justice system. Award-winning photographer Richard Ross attempts to capture their reality with images and essays in "Girls in Justice."
History of the AP Test System (1:16:36)
Guest: Trevor Packer, College Board's Senior Vice President for AP and Instruction
High school students across the U.S. are in the grips of a panic. Tens of thousands of teenagers are cramming to take tests this week and last week got us wondering about the history of the Advanced Placement test system, which dates back to the 1950s.
British Elections (1:06)
Guest: John Talbot, instructor for BYU's Study Abroad program
The dust is settling now on national elections in the United Kingdom. Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party awoke Friday morning to a solid victory that came as a surprise to pollsters, pundits and Cameron's opponents who were all expecting a much tighter outcome.
Exploding Head Syndrome (24:29)
Guest: Brian Sharpless, assistant professor and director of the university psychology clinic at Washington State University
We've all been startled awake by a loud noise at some point. You're on-edge, maybe unable to get back to sleep again for a bit.
Now, suppose you were awakened by an abrupt loud noise that no one else heard. They say you're nuts. You start to think maybe you are crazy. Especially as it keeps on happening-sometimes it so intense if feels like your head is exploding. This is a real thing, sometimes called Exploding Head Syndrome. It's long been associated with people over 50, but new research by Brian Sharpless at Washington State University suggests nearly one in five college students suffer from the syndrome, too.
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Food Presentation (34:24)
Guest: Kären Jurgensen, Chef Instructor at Seattle Culinary Academy
When you're concerned about getting food on the table before your hungry kid's meltdown or your picky ones pitch a fit about what you're serving, how the food looks on the plate just doesn't feel top of mind, does it? But it should, says Chef Kären Jurgensen. She even says a nice presentation can make meals more satisfying and less inclined to over eat.
Market for Algorithms (52:15)
Guest: Kenny Daniel, the CTO and co-founder of Algorithmia
Behind every search result on Google or friend post that shows up in your Facebook feed or recommendation that pops up when you shop on Amazon is an algorithm. It's a set of detailed instructions your computer follows to solve a problem. And when you think about how ubiquitous they are in our digital lives, it's easy to understand why a company like Algorithmia is having such success. Algorithmia is a market, and even a matchmaking service, for people who write algorithms and people who need them in the apps they're developing.
Parent Previews: Avengers and Hot Pursuit (1:06:16)
Guests: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett of ParentPreviews.com
First, the Avengers. Two weeks into its theater release and the latest film in the Marvel Comics Universe is still leading at the box office-by a long shot. The avenging team of superheroes this time battles a robot intent on eradicating evil by doing the obvious thing - eradicating the human race that does the evil. It's up to Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Black Widow to save the day.
Another new movie in theaters - a comedy featuring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara called "Hot Pursuit."
Inventing the Perfect Box (1:20:51)
Guests: Spencer Magleby, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Dean in the Fulton College of Engineering and Technology at Brigham Young University
Mike Morgan, master's student in the mechanical engineering program
Spencer Rogers, works in BYU's Technology Transfer office which license and markets innovations made on campus. More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu
Have you ever found yourself wishing you had a third hand? Maybe you're holding something secure with one hand and trying to get the first aid kit or tool box or jewelry box open with your other and realizing you can't manage it with a single hand? If you had a morphing box you could, though. That's what BYU mechanical engineering graduate student Michael Morgan calls the box he invented with his faculty advisor Spencer Magleby. It's based on principles of origami.
Summer Sky Panel (1:04)
Guests: Jeanette Lawler, directs the planetarium at Brigham Young University
Elizabeth Jeffery Kraczek, visiting professor of astronomy at BYU with expertise in stars
Denise Stephens, assistant professor of astronomy who studies planets
As soon as the nights start to turn warm and staying up late becomes an option with the kids out of school, it's suddenly a lot easier to notice how spectacular the star-studded sky is.
For the next hour, we're going to seek for just the right balance of science and pure fun as we explore the summer night sky.
Economics of Paying College Athletes (52:21)
Guests: Allen Sanderson, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Chicago. His latest article making the case for paying college athletes appears in the winter 2015 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Jeffrey Dorfman, professor of economics at The University of Georgia and a frequent contributor on sports topics at Forbes.com
Collegiate sports are Top of Mind today. Specifically, the debate over whether college athletes should be paid. It's an active debate with growing significance in light of several recent lawsuits and new NCAA rules that will allow universities to give extra cost-of-living stipends to the incoming crop of football and basketball players. Athletics programs are scrambling to figure out how much those stipends should be. Fans are lined up on both sides of the debate, worried that questions of money will destroy everything they love about college sports.
Saudi Succession (1:10)
Guest: Fred Axelgard, a senior fellow in international relations, at the Wheatley institution at BYU and a former state department official who served in US embassy in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is Top of Mind. The kingdom has been one of America’s most important Arab allies, is a top exporter and is deeply embroiled in the war in neighboring Yemen. And in the last two weeks, Saudi King Salman made surprising, and unprecedented, changes in the kingdom’s leadership, calling into question much of the conventional wisdom about the Saudi Arabia.
City Growth (21:25)
Guest: Michael Smith, a Mesoamerican archaeologist and a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University
It’s difficult to imagine that large urban centers in 2015, with their trains and taxis and traffic and tall buildings, could bear any resemblance at all to ancient settlements like the Aztecs of Mesoamerica. But archaeologists increasingly believe that urban centers follow predictable growth pattern that are the same no matter the era.
Deep-Sea Fish Mutations (34:39)
Guest: Michael Kent, a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University. His study on the effects of toxicants on mile-deep ocean fish was published in the journal the Marine Environmental Research
Even if they don’t live close to the shore, fish can’t escape the consequences of human pollution. Scientists have recently discovered that deep-sea fish in the Bay of Biscay, west of France, have developed odd mutations from the poisons and metals that accumulate there. The findings are troubling both for the fish and the humans who could be harmed by eating them.
Power of Twitter (51:27)
Guest: Sudha Ram, lead researcher on the study that used Twitter, Google Searches and environmental monitoring data to predict emergency room visits for asthma attacks with remarkable accuracy. Ram is also a professor of management information systems and computer science at the University of Arizona
Researchers at the University of Arizona figured out how to harvest information from Twitter, Google and even the EPA’s air monitoring stations to predict with 75-percent accuracy when local hospitals would see a spike in asthma patients coming in for treatment.
Evolution of Grimm’s Fairy Tales (1:18:08)
Guest: Jack Zipes, author of Grimm Legacies: The Magic Power of the Grimms’ Folk and Fairy Tales, Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota and a fairy tale expert
The classic fairy tales of American childhood are familiar from start to finish: Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel. “And they all lived happily ever after,” right?
Well, it wasn’t always so. When the Brothers Grimm first published their now-famous tales, there was nothing “happily ever after about them.” They weren’t even fairy tales, according to Jack Zipes, author of Grimm Legacies: The Magic Power of the Grimm’s’ Folk and Fairy Tales.
Cuban Tourism (1:03)
Guest: Evan Ward, professor of Modern Latin American history and a visiting fellow at the Wheatley Institution here at BYU
This week, the U.S. Government approved commercial ferry service between Florida and Cuba. It’s the first time in 50 years. Same goes for a direct charter flight Jet Blue announced yesterday between New York and Havana. The embargo that has prohibited Americans from travelling to or doing business with Cuba is lifting as the Obama administration works to “normalize relations” with the Caribbean nation. But you can’t book a trip to Cuba for your next vacation quite yet. Congress has yet to lift decades-long US ban on tourism travel, so only people with a special license from the US State Department are allowed to make the trip.
American companies are eagerly awaiting the day Cuba is entirely open for US tourism. But Evan Ward says they might want to temper their expectations a bit.
Painkillers and Birth Defects (21:11)
Guest: Jennifer Lind, pharmacist and epidemiologist with the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
Approximately 1/3 of women in the U.S. who are of child bearing age fill a prescription for a narcotic painkiller at least once a year, according to a recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That figure is not necessarily alarming, until you consider that the CDC also says half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned. Which means many women taking narcotic painkillers may also be in the early stages of pregnancy and not realize it—opening the door to serious birth defects in their babies.
Spider Silk (30:38)
Guests: Randy Lewis, professor of Biology and director of the Lewis Lab at Utah State University
Justin Jones, senior research scientist in the Lewis Lab. Their team’s research on producing sythnetic spider silk appeared recently in the American Chemical Society’s journal Biomacromolecules
The amazing spider silk of Peter Parker’s superhero alter-ego was pure Marvel Comics invention and fodder for the daydreams of many a young boy. But spider silk really is tremendously strong and holds great promise for making everything from surgical tools to artificial tendons to safer airbags and better body armor. The trouble, of course, is training an army of spiders to spin their silk on demand.
Enter researchers at Utah State University’s Lewis Lab. They’ve figured out how to make synthetic spider silk, but they’ve been stumped for a while on how to make enough of it to really be useful. Now they’ve cracked the problem and they’re on the line now to explain.
American Heritage: The Gilded Age (50:00)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History professor
We get insights from BYU history professor Grant Madsen, who is currently teaching an introductory American History course. Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of significant milestones American history.
BYU Animation (1:14:11)
Guests: Kelly Loosli, professor of animation at BYU and director of the Center for Animation. You can see previous animated shorts from the center at studentfilms.byu.edu
Garrett Hoyos, a senior in BYU’s animation program and director of the award-winning short film “Ram’s Horn”
Hollywood’s animation houses—Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney—find themselves turning increasingly to an unlikely source for new talent: Provo, Utah. Short films from BYU’s Center for Animation consistently win student Emmy and Oscar Awards. Pixar President Ed Catmull has visited the campus twice in recent years, praising the talent and work ethic of BYU’s animation students.
Their latest winning entry is a comedic short about a cocky mountaineer squaring off against an unexpected rival in his quest toward the peak of a daunting mountain. It has a decidedly “Looney Toons” feel. If Wile E. Coyote suddenly scrambled into the picture, you wouldn’t be surprised at all. “Ram’s Horn” is the name of the Emmy-winning short film.
Global Health (1:11)
Guest: Michael Gerson, the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI). Gerson serves as senior adviser at One, a bipartisan organization dedicated to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable diseases
Disaster relief groups working in Nepal say funding and supplies are needed to prevent an outbreak of cholera or dysentery in the earthquake-stricken nation. While disease outbreaks are always a risk when housing, sanitation and water supplies are disrupted, the word "outbreak" feels a little more ominous thanks to Ebola. The largest outbreak of Ebola in history gripped West Africa for much of last year, killing more than 10,000 people. In the next few days, one of the hardest-hit countries -- Liberia -- will be officially Ebola-free, though Guinea and Sierra Leone are not. During a recent visit to BYU as a guest of the Kennedy Center, global-health expert Michael Gerson called the Ebola outbreak a "wake up call" for the international community.
Invisibility Stickers (26:38)
Guest: Alon Gorodetsky, professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of California, Irvine and co-researcher in the study that was published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C and presented at 2015 American Chemical Society national meeting
Humans have long taken a page from Mother Nature's survival strategy handbook in the form of camouflage. Insects, reptiles and fish are particularly adept at changing their appearance to blend in with the background and avoid detection. Soldiers and hunters mimic the technique with all kinds of elaborate camouflage gear. But when the light changes or the enemy puts on infrared goggles, the mottled green and brown field uniform of a soldier is of no help.
Researchers at the University of California-Irvine have been studying the incredible skin of squid -- a master of disguise -- for inspiration to create what they're calling "invisibility stickers" that could help ground troops avoid infrared detection.
Apple Seed (43:50)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of the Apple Seed
Hear the story behind John McCutcheon's song "1913 Massacre."
Social Smoking in College (52:28)
Guest: Mimi Nichter, professor of sociology at the University of Arizona. She's the author of Lighting Up: The Rise of Social Smoking on College Campuses, now available on Amazon and other booksellers
Smoking has fallen out of style among adults since the haze-filled restaurant and board-room days of the 1960s. Seeing all those stylish Mad Men characters light one cigarette from the tip of the last seems almost quaint. But as adult smoking has dropped significantly in the last 40 years, young adults have risen to the top of the pack, smoking more than any other age group. They're lighting up, even as more and more college campuses go "smoke-free" and many college students themselves think smoking is "disgusting." University of Arizona sociologist Mimi Nichter gets to the bottom of this disconnect in a new book called "Lighting Up: The Rise of Social Smoking on College Campuses."
Climate Change (1:22:06)
Guest: James McCann, a history professor at Boston University
The seasons deterimine the rhythm of life. In the medium to long-range future, shifts in temperature and rain will adjust what and when farmers around the world can plant. Understanding this instability is critical to planning for the future.
Aspirin Misuse (1:30:34)
Guest: Craig Williams, a clinical professor and pharmacotherapy specialist at Oregon State University
There is one medication that over half of older Americans take every day, even though many, many of those people should not be taking it, based on recommendations by the Food and Drug Administration. It's aspirin and over the years, Americans and their doctors have come to treat it more and more as a preventative pill -- almost like taking a vitamin -- to head off future heart attack or stroke.
This widespread misunderstanding, and misuse, of aspirin in older Americans is documented in a recent article by Oregon State University pharmacology professor Craig Williams. It appears in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.
Baltimore, Riots and History (1:05)
Guest: Elizabeth Nix, professor of legal, ethical and historical studies at the University of Baltimore and co-founder of the Baltimore ’68 Project that resulted in an anthology of stories and essays published in 2011 titled: “Baltimore '68: Riots and Rebirth in an American City”
A curfew imposed on the city of Baltimore after rioting and looting broke out last week has been lifted. National Guard troops called in to restore order are pulling out. What had been planned as a major protest over the weekend turned into a celebration when the city’s top prosecutor announced six police officers would face murder and manslaughter charges in the death of Freddie Gray. Calm is returning, but the scars remain—in the form of burned buildings, broken windows. But we need to look much deeper to understand what really happened in Baltimore last week.
National Parks and Budweiser (20:13)
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, founder and editor of NationalParksTraveller.com: the leading online resource for National Parks-related news
The National Park Service has had a decades-long policy of not partnering with alcohol and tobacco companies, but recently the Park’s fundraising arm signed a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with the makers of Budweiser beer. The decision is raising lots of questions, which reporter Kurt Repanshek has been chasing down in the last week.
Yellowstone: Magma Chamber (33:10)
Guest: Jamie Farrell, postdoctoral researcher in Geology at the University of Utah and co-author of a recent report on the existence of an even larger magma reservoir beneath Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, where hot springs bubble and more than 300 geysers erupt spontaneously, is actually situated inside the crater of one of the world’s largest volcanoes, 45 miles wide in places. Scientists have long known that the magma in the reservoir beneath Yellowstone could fill the Grand Canyon a couple times over. But a team of geologists has just discovered that, in fact, there is a second, much larger magma chamber that sits below the previously known chamber containing enough magma to fill the Grand Canyon 11 times!
Fighting Cyber Attacks (52:22)
Guest: Matt Might, associate professor of computer science at the University of Utah and co-leader of a team working on a new Defense Department initiative called “Space/Time Analysis for Cybersecurity”
Major hacks on US corporations seem to have become commonplace—whether it’s a store like Target or Home Depot, a bank like JP Morgan Chase, a major health insurer like Anthem or a movie studio like Sony Pictures. All fell victim to hackers in the last year, who gained access to customer data, sensitive internal discussions and financial information.
Corporations and the US government are now concerned about what happens when we’ve plugged the obvious holes that hackers are using now. They’re not going to give up; they’re just going to get more sophisticated. So, the Department of Defense has launched a four-year initiative to prepare for that next generation of cyberattack.
Parent Previews: The Sound of Music (1:06:58)
Guests: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett of ParentPreviews.com
Fifty years ago, the movie version of a popular musical smashed box-office records. It was the first to break the 100-million-dollar barrier and became a Hollywood icon.
This year, The Sound of Music is being shown in theaters nationwide to mark its 50th anniversary. Rod and Donna Gustafson of ParentPreviews.com discuss the Sound of Music’s staying power.
Tech Transfer: Continuous Transmission (1:21:47)
Guests: Robert Todd, emeritus professor of Mechanical Engineering at Brigham Young University
Mike Alder, directs BYU’s Technology Transfer office which license and markets innovations made on campus. More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu
Suppose a car, instead of having maybe 5 or 6 gears, had an infinite number that were always engaged. The transmission could slide seamlessly from one gear to the next, without that momentary interruption in power before a new gear engages.
This is the vehicle transmission that BYU mechanical engineering emeritus professor Robert Todd has designed.
Dinosaurs (1:15)
Guests: Brooks Britt and Rodney Scheetz, paleontologists in the Department of Geological Sciences
Dinosaurs are the single obsession of so many 6 and 7 year olds—and of Hollywood. Tell me you’re not looking forward to the new Jurassic Park movie this summer. They fascinate and terrify us and quite frankly, we can’t get enough. So the next hour is all about dinosaurs with BYU paleontologists Brooks Britt and Rodney Scheetz.
Homeownership and the American Dream (51:50)
Guests: Mechele Dickerson, a nationally recognized bankruptcy law scholar and a global media expert on consumer debt. She teaches at the University of Texas-Austin school of law and is author of the 2014 book, “Homeownership and America’s Financial Underclass: Flawed Premises, Broken Promises, New Prescriptions”
Eli Spivak (1:15:23), owner of Orange Splot, a housing development company providing non-traditional housing options to people who might otherwise not be able to afford a home in Portland, Oregon.
The narrative goes something like this: get a college degree, get a full-time job, get married and buy a house. Homeownership has long been the pinnacle of American success—a symbol of adulthood, financial success and stability. Decades of government policies were built on that ideal and yet, Americans are changing. They’re graduating from college with far more student debt than their parents. They’re struggling to find work and more likely to jump from job to job, city to city. They’re marrying later—if at all.
Mechele Dickerson says it’s time for a new housing conversation that stops focusing on ways to justify homeownership subsidies and stops assuming that owning is always better than renting.
Nepal’s Economy Post-Earthquake (1:08)
Guest: Alok Bohara, professor of economics and founding director of the Nepal Study Center at the University of New Mexico
More than 5,000 people are dead as a result of the Nepal earthquake. Buildings toppled, bridges demolished, whole villages collapsed. The humanitarian crisis in Nepal is urgent. But the worrisome underlying concern is the ability of Nepal’s economy to bounce back from a disaster of this magnitude. The Himalayan mountain nation is already one of the world’s poorest. How far back might this earthquake push Nepal’s progress toward greater development?
Nepal: The Seismology and Disaster Mitigation (12:35)
Guest: Ron Harris, a Professor of Geology at Brigham Young University specializing in structure and tectonics and natural disaster mitigation. He is also the founder of In Harm’s Way, which works with the most vulnerable communities to prepare themselves for disaster. You can check out the work they do at inharmswayhelp.org.
When a natural disaster strikes, the inclination is to think, “Nothing could have been done. It was an act of God.” But Ron Harris makes the distinction between a natural hazard and a natural disaster. A hazard becomes a disaster when a community is unprepared for it, so he’s created a nonprofit disaster-mitigation foundation to help communities prone to hazards avoid disasters.
Ghost Armies (27:23)
Guest: Rick Beyer, best-selling author and filmmaker. His latest work is “The Ghost Army of World War II,” which he co-wrote with Elizabeth Sayles, a children’s book author and daughter of one of William Sayles, who served in the Ghost Army
The one thousand men assigned to the US Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troops in 1944 had a single mission—deception. They were painters, sculptors, sound engineers and actors. Their assignments were often so secret and so well-executed, they fooled high-ranking German commanders, civilians in towns near where they operated, and even American military personnel from other units.
Their very existence was highly classified and largely untold for some 50 years after the War ended. But when their story came to light, it came not just in words, but in a trove of paintings and sketches from these artist-soldiers who seem to have spent every spare minute with their noses buried in sketchbooks and paint boxes.
The adventures of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops are now on full display in a just-published book by Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles called “The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Infalatable Tanks, Sound Effects and Other Audacious Fakery.”
Myths of Meritocracy (52:00)
Guest: Mahesh Srinivasan, assistant professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley
America’s identity is underpinned by a strong sense that with enough hard work, anything is possible— even rising from rags to riches. So, many American children are raised to believe that failure is a result of their own efforts and that working a little harder can mean success in school or on the playing field. On the other hand, if children are frequently told things like “You’re so smart,” or “You’re just not a math person,” they may be inclined to think their success is beyond their control.
It’s this dichotomy that psychology professor Mahesh Srinivasan at the University of California, Berkeley set out to study in an article published this month in the journal Developmental Science. Why do some children believe their destiny is in their own hands and others believe they have little control over success in life?
Opting Out of Tests (1:10:26)
Guest: Eric Mihelbergel, founding member of New York State Allies for Public Education and father of two New York public school children
It’s end-of-year test time for public school students across the country. This year marks the first time many of them are taking tests aligned with state-based standards known as the Common Core. And a growing number of parents scattered around the country are instructing their kids to sit-out the tests. The “Opt-Out” movement experienced particular momentum in New York, where standardized tests wrapped up last week.
New Earth Layer (1:28:42)
Guest: Lowell Miyagi, assistant professor and geologist at the University of Utah, whose research about a new earth layer appears in the journal Nature Geoscience
Remember learning about the layers of the earth in elementary school? There’s a thin crust on the surface, then the Earth’s mantle and at the very center is the molten core. Well, there are a lot more layers than that, really. Layers within layers, like the skin of an onion, says University of Utah geologist Lowell Miyagi. He’s just published a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience explaining one of those layers within the earth’s mantle that has been a particular mystery.
100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide (1:07)
Guest: Richard Hovannisian, leading expert on the Armenian Genocide and founder of the Armenian Studies program at UCLA. He’s also an advisor to the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation on its Armenian Genocide testimony collection
This last week marked the 100th anniversary of the start of systematic killing by Ottoman forces in modern-day Turkey that took the lives of over 1 million Armenians. It’s sometimes called the Armenian Holocaust and it bears similarities to the better-known Jewish Holocaust. Here too, people were chased from their homes, forced on death marches, herded onto trains and torn from their families because their religion and ethnicity were seen as a threat. While many historians and world leaders agree the actions amounted to a campaign to exterminate the Armenian people, the Turkish government does not call it a genocide or acknowledge the scope of the events.
Listen to stories from the Armenian Genocide survivors
Military Suicide (24:56)
Guest: Craig Bryan, psychology professor and director of the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah
Rates of suicide among veterans and active-duty military personnel have been a major concern of federal officials for some years. In 2012 and 2013, the Pentagon said more soldiers died of suicide than from war-related activities. But surely suicide among military personnel is related to war?
Exactly how, is the focus of research conducted by University of Utah psychologist Craig Bryan and appearing this month in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.
Analysis of the Supreme Court Gay Marriage Hearing (40:13)
Guest: James Phillips, Supreme Court legal scholar and visiting professor at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
The U.S. Supreme Court spent nearly two and a half hours yesterday hearing arguments in a landmark case that will decide if same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry and whether states can be required to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. It will be a few months before the nine justices issue a ruling on the case, but a number of them seemed fairly clear about their views yesterday.
American Heritage: Reconstruction (51:55)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History professor
Now we turn to our weekly segment focusing on “Our American Heritage.” We get insights from BYU history professor Grant Madsen, who is currently teaching an introductory American History course. Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of our nation’s founding and significant insights into our American history.
Pulitzer Prize Editorial Cartooning (1:19:07)
Guest: Adam Zyglis, editorial cartoonist for The Buffalo Times in New York and winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize
When Adam Zyglis got the job as editorial cartoonist for The Buffalo News in 2004, his boss said something along the lines of “Welcome aboard. Now go win us a Pulitzer.” Zyglis was in his early twenties—right out of college and replacing a legend who had won a Pulitzer. No pressure.
And now he’s done it. Zyglis is the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner for Editorial Cartooning. The Pulitzer committee commended him for using “strong images to connect with readers while conveying layers of meaning in a few words.”
The Future of Wind Energy (1:06)
Guest: Jose Zayas, Director of the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy
From time to time we like to take a closer look at various sources of sustainable energy. Wind is the very essence of clean and sustainable, so we've wondered why it's not used more. Currently, only 4-and-a-half-percent of the nation's electricity comes from wind power. But an energy market report out yesterday from the firm BTM Consult says wind turbine installations around the world increased by 42% in 2014, over the previous year. Most of that growth was in China, Germany and the U.S.
Nepal and Choice Humanitarian (21:37)
Guest: James Mayfield, Co-Founder of Choice Humanitarian and Professor Emeritus, Public Administration and Middle East Studies, University of Utah
The massive earthquake that struck Nepal over the weekend is among the disasters that United Nation's officials and humanitarian groups most feared for many reasons. First of all, the international aid community is stretched thin responding to health and war-related crises across the Middle East and Africa. The humanitarian response in Nepal will be costly, given how remote and mountainous the terrain is. And the nation itself is desperately poor, its people and infrastructure ill-equipped to deal with the earthquake's devastation.
It is also a major set-back for economic development efforts that have been trying to help Nepal lift itself from the category of a "Least Developed Country" to a "Developing Country" in the coming decades. James Mayfield is part of that effort, as co-founder of the nonprofit Choice Humanitarian.
More information about making a contribution to help the villagers in Nepal can be found at www.choicehumanitarian.org.
Leisure and Stress (36:12)
Guest: Matthew Zawadzki, professor and health psychologist at the University of California, Merced
Most of us see the wisdom of a little leisure from time to time, right? A balance of work and play makes for better health and happiness in the long run, but it turns out that leisure activity also has immediate and measurable effects on the mind and body. Health psychologist Matthew Zawadazki figured this out by hooking people up to heart monitors and quizzing them throughout the day as they engaged in work and play.
Smiling and Good Health (52:25)
Guest: Sarah Pressman, assistant professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine
If you have had your heart crushed or your ankle sprained, you may have been told to "grin and bear it." Callous as it sounds, the mere act of smiling may actually have the power to conquer a bad mood or eliminate pain.
Why We Have Chins (1:09:40)
Guest: Nathan Holton, teaches in the University of Iowa's Department of Orthodontics. He is co-author of a study explaining why we have chins, which appears in the Journal of Anatomy
New research from the University of Iowa which claims to - once and for all - settle the mystery of why humans have chins when primates and Neanderthals do not.
Facebook Addiction (1:20:48)
Guest: Ofir Turel, one of the co-authors of the recent study, "Examination of Neural Systems Sub-serving Facebook 'Addiction'." Dr. Turel is a Professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at the College of Business and Economics, California State University, Fullerton, and a Scholar in Residence at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California
Psychologists in recent years have documented a condition called "Fear of Missing Out" that's made amplified by social media. That compulsion we used to feel only when the little pop up on our screen told us "You've got mail" is now a constant urge to see what's new on our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feeds.
Maybe you consider all this compulsive Facebooking a harmless distraction - at worst, a waste of time? But scientists at California State University, Fullerton have taken a look at the brain on Facebook and found that it looks a lot like brain on drugs.
California Drought (1:14)
Guest: Doug Carlson, Information Officer for California’s Department of Water Resources
We’re looking at a crisis here in the Western United States. California is in a drought state of emergency, following its lowest snowpack ever recorded. Earlier this month, Governor Jerry Brown mandated substantial water use reductions across the state. California is the most populous state in the union—home to 12 percent of Americans— and a major business center and agricultural producer. So the impact of California’s deepening drought is very much top of mind across the country.
EPA Safer Choice Label (23:31)
Guest: Clive Davies, Chief of the Safer Choice Program at the EPA
For many years, the US Environmental Protection Agency has had a program to evaluate the safety of products. Soon they’ll have a new green-and-blue label stamped “Safer Choice” to give consumers confidence when choosing products such as kitchen and bath cleaners, carpet cleaners and laundry detergents.
Smartphone Earthquake Warnings (35:10)
Guest: Craig Glennie, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Houston whose research focuses on creating more available earthquake warning systems around the globe
A powerful 7.8 earthquake shook the mountainous nation of Nepal on Saturday, leaving entire villages flattened, toppling buildings in Katmandu and causing an avalanche on climbers attempting to summit Mount Everest. The death toll is nearly 4,000 people and climbing, as rescue efforts continue. Could any of those lives have been saved with even a few minutes of warning before the tremor hit?
Developed countries like Japan and the US have invested millions of dollars in early earthquake detection and warning systems. But scientists at the US Geological Survey and several universities believe smartphones might provide a viable alternative for poorer countries like Haiti or Nepal.
Henry Ford and Movies (52:02)
Guest: Phillip Stewart, recipient of the J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award given by the Society of American Archivists for his work promoting motion picture film preservation and research at the National Archives. He’s author of the book “Henry Ford's Moving Picture Show.”
Henry Ford pioneered the automobile, the assembly line and the minimum wage. Did you know he was also a pioneer of film? Just a decade after founding the Ford Motor Company, he became obsessed with moving pictures and opened up a film department that became the largest motion picture production and distribution operation on the planet in the early 1900s.
The movies are silent, the black and white images grainy by modern film standards, but they reflect a rare slice of American life prior to the Great Depression. The collection is now housed at the National Archives and several hundred of the films have been digitized for online viewing.
Parent Previews: Age of Adaline (1:12:00)
Guests: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett of ParentPreviews.com
“The Age of Adaline” opened in theaters over the weekend, starring Blake Lively. After a strange accident, her character—Adaline— become immortal and spends a life wandering through the twentieth century, hiding her secret and watching those she loves age. Among them, is a character played by Harrison Ford.
Tech Transfer (1:21:34)
Guest: Robert Hyldahl, BYU kinesiology professor
American astronaut Scott Kelley is currently in space on the longest mission NASA has ever launched. He’ll be at the International Space Station for a full year, while his twin brother Mark remains on Earth. Researchers hope to learn about the effects of space on the human body by comparing how the twins fare. The information will be critical if NASA ever wants to send humans to more distant destinations like Mars.
One thing Scott Kelley will experience in space, no matter how much he uses the space station treadmill, is loss of muscle. Previous astronaut studies have shown muscle health is difficult to maintain without gravity. BYU kinesiology professor Robert Hyldahl might have the answer.
Sex Education (1:20)
Guests: Julie Metzger and Dr. Robert Lehman are co-authors of the new book, “Will Puberty Last My Whole Life?: REAL Answers to REAL Questions from Preteens About Body Changes, Sex, and Other Growing-Up Stuff.” Together they’re also co-founders of the Great Conversation speaking series which offers workshops on puberty and sex education around the country. Metzger is a registered nurse and Lehman is an adolescent health specialist and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington.
For nearly two decades, Julie Metzger has been voluntarily giving “the talk” to emerging teens. But she insists their parents be in the room, too. Can you fathom a more awkward setting? Learn how she does it.
Eye on the Struggle (51:40)
Guest: James McGrath Morris, author of numerous best-selling biographies and works of narrative non-fiction. His latest book is “Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, The First Lady of the Black Press.”
As President Lyndon Johnson looked into the TV cameras from behind a table in the East Room of the White House on July 2, 1964, a short woman in a striped skirt and white beret sat in the crowd—unrecognized by most of the invited guests. She had good reason to be there: President Johnson was about to sign landmark legislation outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Such discrimination, he said, looking into the cameras, has been “deeply imbedded in American history. . . but cannot continue.”
After signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Johnson presented one of the ceremonial signing pens on his desk to the small woman in the striped skirt—52-year-old Ethel Payne—she’d spent years leading up to that signing as an eye witness to the Civil Rights movement for one of the most respected black-newspapers in the country. She covered seven presidents and reported from around the world well into her 70s. She broke a number of color barriers in journalism and came to be called “the First Lady of the Black Press,” all the while suffering an enormous amount of race and sex discrimination.
That scene in the East Room of the Whitehouse in 1964 opens a new biography about Ethel Payne, written by New York Times best-selling author, James McGrath Morris.
"The white and black presses, operating in parallel worlds, saw events differently. The white press was quick to portray civil rights legislation as munificent gifts bestowed on American blacks, while Payne’s reporting focused on the failures of legislation to grant African Americans the equality that rightfully belonged to them."
Earth Day (1:11)
Guest: Brigham Daniels, professor of environmental and natural resources law in BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
Today is the 45th Earth Day—held every year on April 22nd since 1970 as a day of action and education on the environment. What impact has it had over the decades? Is the environment any better off today as a result of Earth Day? BYU environmental law professor Brigham Daniels has been looking into the birth of the environmental movement.
American Vice Presidents (16:46)
Guest: Jules Witcover, an American journalist, author, and columnist
From John Adams to Joseph Biden, the political influence of an American Vice President has changed throughout the last 40 years. A government position that was once powerless has since moved to the very core of the executive branch and today as we approach a new year of presidential candidates, the decision to choose a good running mate is essential to a future President’s success.
Flame Retardants and Obesity (37:29)
Guest: Maria Bondesson, research assistant professor of biology and biochemistry at the University of Houston
By now we know that gaining weight could be caused by your diet, your metabolism, your genetics, your lifestyle, the bacteria in your gut and toxins you may have been exposed to as a child. Go ahead and add your favorite electronics to the list, as well. Scientists at the University of Houston’s Center for Nuclear Receptions and Cell signaling have found a chemical commonly used to keep cell phones, TVs and tablets from overheating led to chubbiness in zebra fish.
American Heritage: Civil War (48:52)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU history professor
Time now for our weekly segment focusing on “Our American Heritage.” We get insights from BYU history professor Grant Madsen, who is currently teaching an introductory American History course. Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of how our nation was founded.
Emotional Fit Between Patient and Doctor (1:12:02)
Guest: Tamara Sims, postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Stanford and lead author of the study on emotions and shaping patient health behavior
Last time you visited the doctor, did he or she tell you to do something you weren’t all that thrilled to hear? So much of the doctor-patient relationship is based on advice –eat healthier, exercise daily, stop smoking, get more sleep. And we’re good at only hearing what we want to hear, aren’t we?
Some new work being done by the Culture and Emotion Lab at Stanford University points to one way of making patients more receptive to their doctors’ advice. It has to do with the emotional fit between doctor and patient.
Taliban in Afghanistan (1:28:41)
Guest: Zahir Tanin, Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations
The New York Times today is reporting “a wave of kidnappings followed by numerous beheadings of a minority ethnic group in Afghanistan known as 'Hazaras'.” The violence was carried out by the Taliban and though beheading is not normally a Taliban tactic, observers say this incident may be a bid for some of the attention ISIS is getting for its own extreme brutality.
Three World Events That Matter (1:04)
Guests: Quinn Mecham, BYU political science professor
As we speak, some 900 migrants are feared dead in a shipwreck of the Libyan coast and European foreign ministers are meeting to answer urgent calls for a new approach to deal with a surging wave of refugees crossing the Mediterranean to Europe from Africa and the Middle East.
We also analyze the elections in Nigeria and the Civil War in Yemen.
"The number of deaths are much higher this year because there are fewer out there to patrol and rescue. So many are coming because they think their only real chance to escape poverty is to make a bold move. (Risky with payoffs)," says Mecham on European refugees.
Mecham says the elections in Nigeria are "Groundbreaking this year because this is the first time ever in Nigerian political history where an incumbent president has been ousted in a democratic election."
"Last month a thousand people were killed, a thousand injured, and 150,000 people displaced. I am worried that we are just at the tip of a humanitarian disaster," says Mecham on the Civil War in Yemen.
DUST Game (21:04)
Guest: Derek Hansen, IT Professor at BYU. He researches interactive systems and human-computer interaction
DUST was the name of the exercise, a game really, consisting of online and real-world interaction that unfurled in real-time with some 2000 people participating. The game was designed to engage teenagers in the scientific process. It was created by BYU in collaboration with the University of Maryland and funding from the National Science Foundation.
"DUST is a new genre of game with stories that play out over time. As you solve puzzles, the next story elements get revealed. What’s neat is that it’s a fictional story where you interact with the characters, as yourself," says Hansen.
The Apple Seed (40:56)
Guest: Sam Payne, host of the Apple Seed
Sam Payne tells us the story of his lost iPad.
"I left my iPad on the plane when flying back from Oregon. While waiting to hear from the airlines, I called Apple and they showed me how to log into the website and find my pad (I could see it as a green dot out in America somewhere!) I found it on 102nd Street and 6th Avenue in Queens," recalls Payne.
Solitary Confinement (50:12)
Guest: Robert Morris
Solitary confinement is one of the toughest punishments prisons have to discipline offenders. It usually means keeping a prisoner in a small cell for 23 hours a day, denied all human contact.
And new research by criminologist Robert Morris finds it doesn't work - at least if the goal is to get prisoners to straighten up and stop acting out behind bars.
"We’ve discovered there’s no deterrent benefit from exposing inmates to solitary confinement following a violent act and we also don’t find an aggravating effect," says Morris.
Virtual Traffic Lights (1:03:44)
Guest: Ozan Tonguz, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University
I'm sure this has happened to you: you've arrived at an intersection to find yourself the only car, sitting there waiting impatiently for the red light to turn green, while not a single car passes in the opposite direction.
Suppose, instead of waiting your turn at a light suspended over an intersection, the traffic lights was in your car, and the other cars on the road. And those cars communicated with each other. When multiple cars arrive at an intersection, the virtual traffic light system would display red or green arrows on your windshield, telling you when it's your time to drive through.
Such virtual traffic lights would make roads safer and more efficient according to Ozan Tonguz, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University who developed the concept.
Advertainment on the Rise (1:17:33)
Guest: Storm Gloor, author of the recent study, "Songs As Branding Platforms? A Historical Analysis of People, Places, and Products in Pop Music Lyrics." He is an associate professor of Music Business Professor at the University of Colorado-Denver
Pop music and pop culture have always been intertwined. But University of Colorado-Denver music business professor Storm Gloor has just completed an exhaustive research project that finds what we listen to is more closely tied to what we wear and drive than ever before.
"Advertainment is the idea of using what we typically refer to as entertainment media (songs, movies, etc.) to advertise. Example: The pop song, ‘My ADIDAS,’ sung by Run-D.M.C, is all about ADIDAS shoes," says Gloor.
Laws of War (1:09)
Guest: Eric Jensen, BYU law professor
The law of war is Top of Mind today as we kick things of with our monthly visit from BYU international law expert Eric Jensen. He is just back from a conference in Geneva, Switzerland debating the legality of a new generation of drone warfare. We also talk about the Blackwater guards who have recently be sentenced to lengthy prison terms for killing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad traffic circle back in 2007. We also touch on the desertion charge now facing Bowe Bergdahl - the soldier who was freed nearly a year ago in exchange for several high-value Taliban leaders being held at Guantanamo Bay.
“I would like to make a brief distinction between this idea of autonomous weapons and artificial intelligence,” says Jensen. “When people talk about killer robots sometimes what comes to mind is 'The Terminator' or a self-thinking machine. This is not what autonomous weapons are. We’re not talking about artificial intelligence, which is a system that can learn on its own and make its own decisions. We’re talking about an autonomous weapons system which means it’s only applying the alga rhythms and instructions that have been given by the human. There is a human putting all the information into that machine and telling that machine how to respond. That is a key difference.”
Positive Effects of Chocolate Milk (35:04)
Guest: John Ivy, an emeritus professor in kinesiology and health education at the University of Texas, whose research specializes in exercise and human performance
That iconic image of a winning football coach getting a bucket of Gatorade dumped on his head after the game could get a lot messier as new research about the benefits of chocolate milk catches on.
Yes, chocolate milk. It is no longer just a childhood favorite or special indulgence. Researchers have found it also just might be the perfect beverage for athletes.
“We put the cyclists through two experiments. In the first, they did 1½ hours of intense exercise and at the end did sprints to simulate a road race and to fatigue them. They did this on two occasions. The first occasion, they received chocolate milk as post exercise supplement. Then, 2 hours later, they received the chocolate milk again. In the second treatment, they received the same amount of calories but in carbohydrate form. Then, after 4 hours of recovery, we then had them complete a simulated cycling time trial, about 40 kilometers. What we found was, when the individuals received the chocolate milk for the recovery supplement, they were able to do time trial somewhere around 10% faster than when they received the carbohydrates," explains Ivy.
Sex Trafficking and Technology (50:50)
Guest: Vanessa Bouche, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas Christian University and lead researcher on a new report for the anti-human trafficking non-profit THORN
Technology has proven both a blessing and curse in many aspects of society. Perhaps nowhere is its dual nature more stark than in sex trafficking. Police use the internet to catch perpetrators. But a new report by the anti-human trafficking organization THORN finds traffickers are also rapidly leveraging digital networks and platforms to recruit, groom and sell children for sex. The report was based on a survey of more than a hundred victims of the sex trade in America who were first trafficked at the age of 16 or 17, on average.
“There are a variety of factors that make children at risk for sex trafficking. (Over 300,000 victims in the United States). Some of the factors include poverty, parental abuse, and neglect. Also, parents being drug addicts. Sometimes these factors lead children to want to run away or seek some kind of community of belonging outside of their family and, it many times, makes them vulnerable to sex trafficking. The statistics are that 48 hours after running away, the minor will be picked up and recruited for the purpose of sexual exploitation," says Bouche.
Parent Previews: Paul Blart, Monkey Kingdom (1:07:58)
Guest: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett
The film is "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2." Comedian Kevin James returns as a hapless mall security guard who succeeds in spite of himself. This time he has to save the day at a convention for security guards in Las Vegas.
Another film came out over the weekend. It is the latest nature documentary from Disney.
Drought Resistant Plants (1:21:40)
Guests: Mikel Stevens, professor of genetics and biotechnology in BYU's Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences
Mike Alder, director of BYU's Technology Transfer segment
More than half of the United States is currently experiencing abnormally dry conditions and 30 percent of the country is in full-fledge drought according to the federal drought monitor. The worst of it is focused across the west, where drought conditions have persisted for years and climate models predict more heat and less rain in coming decades.
The traditional water-intensive methods of landscaping yards, highway medians and public spaces in the West will have to change and BYU professor Mikel Stevens is working to help that along.
"The reality is, with a little effort, we can actually find opportunities to find things that will bloom longer and get greener a little later in the season and still be drought tolerant. I don’t think we have to completely give up the bright green Kentucky Blue Grass," says Stevens.
Why Fiction Matters (0:59)
Guests: David Kidd, postdoctoral fellow at The New School for Social Research in New York. He's also the lead author on "Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind"
Stephen Tuttle, BYU English professor specializing in creative writing, fiction writing, and American Literature
According to research done at The New School for Social Research in New York, reading fiction has the power to make you more empathetic. Maybe even improve your interpersonal skills. So today, we’re delving into the power and purpose of fiction. Why read it? How does it influence us? Is one brand of fiction better for society than another?
“The research has shown that fiction gives you more empathy," says Dr. Kidd. “One thing that we are particularly interested in is not so much deciding what sort of fiction is better or worse. That’s really up to the individual reader to decide what they like. But, we’re interested in the consequences of engaging with different fictional worlds. One of the things social psychologists study is how different social environments impact how we perceive other people, how we perceive ourselves, and what sorts of things that we value. And, one of the things that interested me as a researcher, was how much time we spend in fictional worlds that operate using some of the rules that make the real world work. We’re interested in whether or not the sources of the fictional world we engage with affects what we pay attention to and how we interpret things in our real world environment.”
“This research of Dr. Kidd’s certainly confirms something that I am inclined to believe and absolutely squares with what I find as a teacher. What I’ve found in the classroom is that there is something that happens to a student when we ask them to read texts on their own, outside the class. They understand to a certain degree what’s going on in the text and large chunks of plot. And, as we start to talk about text and break down what’s going on, I think they realize that the text has had an impact on them that they were not aware of. Something that’s happening under the surface. That they are thinking through much larger, ethical and moral problems," says Tuttle.
Performing Under Pressure (52:11)
Guest: Hank Weisinger, co-author of "Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most." He is a psychologist and a leading expert on emotional intelligence.
Michael Jordan is the very definition of a "clutch player." Every sport has them. Businesses have them too-the person who rises to the occasion, who pulls a rabbit out of a hat in the nick of time to save the day. We generally think that without the intense pressure of that moment, the amazing accomplishment might not have happened-and the story takes on mythical proportions in the re-telling. But according to psychologist Hank Weisinger, that's all the theory is-a myth. He points to study after study showing NOBODY does better under pressure. Rather, it undermines your performance and the best you can hope for is to manage its harmful effects. That is the crux of the new book Dr. Weisinger has co-authored with J.P. Pawliw-Fry called "Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most."
Police Body Cameras (1:12)
Guest: William Sousa, director of the Center for Crime and Justice Policy and an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Two officers in recent weeks have been charged with murder in the shooting of civilians -- and in both cases, the murder charge might not have been made had the shooting not been captured on video. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the shooting by a volunteer officer was recorded on a body camera he was wearing. In South Carolina, a bystander captured officer Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott multiple times in the back as he ran away. The incidents have renewed calls by the Obama Administration and others to put body cameras on all police officers as a way to increase law enforcement accountability and community trust. A new poll by YouGov and the Economist finds 88 percent of Americans support body cameras for police, too. But the technology may also have some drawbacks.
"There are no firm results with the research yet. We’re waiting for a year till results are coming in. We have found lately, though, that police body cameras are reducing complaints of officer misconduct or what people perceive as officer misconduct. We’re hoping that in the end that this is a good thing. Police officers are saying, citizens are behaving themselves more. And, citizens who don’t have good experiences with police say, police are behaving themselves more."
Jet Lag and Fruit Fly Brains (21:01)
Guest: Todd C. Holmes, professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of California Irvine and lead researcher on the fruit fly study published in the journal Current Biology
A new study published in the journal Current Biology gets at the reasons why we experience jet lag when travelling across time zones. It has to do with light and the synchronization of our body's circadian clock. And the researchers behind the study figured this out by manipulating the disembodied brains of fruit flies in jars.
"To decrease the effects of jet lag, begin the process before you start the trip. Once you get to your destination - track the day of where you are. Get up early in the morning to encounter as much sunlight as you can. Then, avoid alcohol and taking naps. The quicker you can sink into your new zone, the better."
Native American Languages (35:53)
Guest: Colleen Fitzgerald, professor of linguistics at the University of Texas at Arlington and director of the Native American Languages Lab
Of the hundreds of native languages once spoken in North America, 194 remain, and only 33 of those are spoken by both adults and children. The rest are endangered as the older speakers of those languages pass away without teaching them to the young. The Native American Chickasaw language is on that endangered list.
Eye on the Struggle (52:33)
Guest: James McGrath Morris, author of numerous best-selling biographies and works of narrative non-fiction. His latest book is “Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, The First Lady of the Black Press.”
As President Lyndon Johnson looked into the TV cameras from behind a table in the East Room of the White House on July 2, 1964, a short woman in a striped skirt and white beret sat in the crowd—unrecognized by most of the invited guests. She had good reason to be there: President Johnson was about to sign landmark legislation outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Such discrimination, he said, looking into the cameras, has been “deeply imbedded in American history. . . but cannot continue.”
After signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Johnson presented one of the ceremonial signing pens on his desk to the small woman in the striped skirt—52-year-old Ethel Payne—she’d spent years leading up to that signing as an eye witness to the Civil Rights movement for one of the most respected black-newspapers in the country. She covered seven presidents and reported from around the world well into her 70s. She broke a number of color barriers in journalism and came to be called “the First Lady of the Black Press,” all the while suffering an enormous amount of race and sex discrimination.
That scene in the East Room of the Whitehouse in 1964 opens a new biography about Ethel Payne, written by New York Times best-selling author, James McGrath Morris.
"The white and black presses, operating in parallel worlds, saw events differently. The white press was quick to portray civil rights legislation as munificent gifts bestowed on American blacks, while Payne’s reporting focused on the failures of legislation to grant African Americans the equality that rightfully belonged to them."
Food Insecurity (1:02)
Guest: Hilary Seligman, associate professor at the University of California San Francisco
To be food insecure means that you don't have enough money afford enough nutritious food for a healthy lifestyle. One in 7 Americans live in a food insecure household. But that does not mean that one in seven Americans are perpetually hungry or losing weight. In fact, the irony of food insecurity in America is that it has a tendency to lead-in many cases-to obesity. Dr. Hilary Seligman calls this the "obesity-hunger paradox."
Narcissistic Leaders (20:14)
Guest: Brad Owens, professor of business ethics at BYU and author of a study on the effects of narcissism in leadership published in the Journal of Applied Psychology
Nobody likes a narcissist, and if you know the story of the mythological man Narcissus, for whom the condition was named, you know being a narcissist didn't serve him well. So obsessed with the beauty of his own reflection in a pool of water, he ended up drowning.
But, if you're a leader in a dynamic field, you just might need a little narcissism-so long as you know how to be humble occasionally. Such is the finding of a new study by BYU ethics professor Brad Owners, published in the latest Journal of Applied Psychology.
Redesigning Tax Forms (39:35)
Guest: Joseph Bankman, professor of law and business at Stanford University and an expert in the field of tax law
Tax forms are notoriously confusing and getting help from the IRS is increasingly rare. The commissioner of the IRS said this week customer service at the agency is abysmal, due to budget cuts: six out of every ten people who call the IRS for help can't even get through to a representative.
While the experience is painful for taxpayers, it's also costing the government a lot of money. Stanford University law and business professor Joseph Bankman says that redesigning the tax forms to be simpler and more direct would encourage people to be more truthful in their filing and cut down on the more than $400 billion the government loses to tax evaders each year.
American Heritage: Creative Destruction (52:29)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU history professor
BYU history professor Grant Madsen shares insights with us as he teaches an introductory American History course this semester. Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of how our nation was founded.
Engineering for Earthquakes (1:13:13)
Guest: Jennifer Tovar Craft, defended her thesis in BYU's College of Engineering and is headed to work for Exxon Mobil in Houston. She is the 2015 winner of BYU's 3 Minute Thesis Competition
On any given day, the US Geological Survey records dozens of earthquakes happening around the world. Many are so small and deep as to not be noticed by people on the earth's surface, but others are significant enough to cause damage.
The USGS says the majority of deaths and injuries from earthquakes result from damage to buildings or other structures. Hence, the importance of building codes and engineering techniques that have developed in the U.S.-many tied to major earthquakes in the 80s and 90s in tremor-prone California. While buildings today are much safer than they once were, techniques to resist seismic activity are far from perfect.
Language Learning Secrets (1:24:43)
Guests: Raymond Clifford, associate dean in the College of Humanities and director of BYU's Center for Language Studies. From 2012- 2014 he served as president of the Joint National Committee on Languages
Hiligaynon, Lithuanian, Malagasay, Cebuano, and Finnish are just a sampling of the languages for which students here at BYU can enroll in advanced-level courses. BYU actually offers more advanced second language classes than any other US university. We discuss the myths and best practices for learning a second language.
Tsarnaev and the Death Penalty (1:06)
Guest: Karen Pita Loor, professor of law at Boston University
The judge in the case of convicted Boston Marathon Bomber Dzohar Tsarnaev has placed the sentencing phase of the trial on hold until next Tuesday - a day after Boston will hold its second marathon since the bombing took place. When the court reconvenes, defense attorneys will try to convince the jurors who convicted Tsarnaev on all 30 counts against him, to sentence him to life in prison, rather than the death penalty. More than half of the counts Tsarnaev was found guilty of are punishable by death and the jury's verdict wasn’t surprising, considering defense attorneys admitted all along Tsarnaev was involved in the bombing.
The more contentious phase of the trial comes next, as Tsarnaev's attorneys try to argue the 21-year old wouldn't have gone through with it without the domineering influence of his more radically-minded older brother Tamerlan, who was shot by police in the manhunt after the bombing.
Light Cigarettes (26:14)
Guest: Greta Hsu, associate professor of management at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. She led the study on light cigarettes published in the American Sociological Review
Labels matter a lot. A snack food says "low-fat" or "low sugar" and we are instantly convinced it is good for us. An apple labeled "organic" conjures a pastoral orchard scene where everything is done naturally and by hand.
Research by sociologist Greta Hsu at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management finds companies have increasingly taken advantage of our willingness to believe such claims, even as they are changing the composition of their products to be less healthy. Her latest research, published in the American Sociological Review, investigates how the tobacco industry has manipulated consumers of "light" cigarettes.
The Apple Seed (39:21)
Guest: Sam Payne, host of the Apple Seed
We hear "A Story for the Season of Passover" by Judith Black
Environmental Policy (51:17)
Guest: Gesa Luedecke, works at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. She studies the impact of the media on shaping individual perceptions and behavior about climate change
When warnings about climate change first start to resonate in the media, an image of a polar bear stranded on a melting iceberg became iconic.
The media's treatment of climate change and its causes has since evolved. So have scientific and public opinion of the issue. Gesa Luedecke has been studying the media’s influence on public opinion and behavior toward climate change as a post doctorate scholar at the University of Colorado Boulder's Center for Science and Technology Policy Research.
Violence Prevention (1:16:01)
Guest: Angelia Trujillo, teaches forensic nursing at the University of Alaska Anchorage, School of Nursing and is author of the article, "A Practical Guide to Prevention for Forensic Nursing," which was published in the Journal of Forensic Nursing
By the time a forensic nurse gets involved in a sexual assault case, the crime has already been committed, the physical and emotional damage already done. The forensic nurse collects evidence from the victim's body, takes photographs and helps police find and prosecute the perpetrator.
But University of Alaska Anchorage nursing professor Angelia Trujillo is training her forensic nursing students to do more and an article she published in the Journal of Forensic Nursing last year has prompted many in her field to take a closer look at their role in preventing violence, rather than merely treating its aftermath.
Shigella Outbreak (1:06)
Guest: Anna Bowen, medical officer in the CDC’s Waterborne Diseases Prevention Branch
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning that infections of a drug-resistant strain of shigella are on the rise in the U.S. They say the spike is linked to people traveling internationally and bringing the bacteria back to the US, where it spreads quickly through contaminated food and recreational water.
The Recession and College Attendance (12:19)
Guest: Caroline Hoxby, Economics Professor at Stanford University and co-editor of the book "How the Financial Crisis and Great Recession Affected Higher Education"
At 5.5 percent, the national unemployment rate is nearly back to where it was just before the Great Recession hit. Which is not to say that all Americans feel as though they’ve recovered from the shock to their earnings, their retirement funds, or the value of their homes. A new book co-edited by Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby finds universities managed pretty well during the recession, due in no small part to the fact that more people enrolled in college when the job market tanked.
Sympathy (38:47)
Guest: Birgit Koopmann-Holm, lecturer at Santa Clara University. Co-author of a series of studies on the differences between American expressions of sympathy and German expressions of sympathy.
When someone passes, we often hear typical responses like: "So sorry for your loss." "My prayers are with you and your family." "Be strong." Pretty standard stuff as far as sympathy goes. But maybe it’s not so standard from a global perspective. Apparently, sympathy is culturally-specific. Santa Clara University researcher Birgit Koopman-Holm has found Americans sympathize differently than other cultures—specifically Germany, where Dr. Koopmann-Holm comes from.
Drones and Targeted Killing (50:39)
Guest: Marjorie Cohn, professor of law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, a former president of the National Lawyers Guild and author of the book, “Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues.”
The War on Terror itself has evolved a lot in the last decade. Since President Barack Obama took office in 2008, it has increasingly been fought by soldiers sitting in secret command sites in the U.S. remotely controlling unmanned aircraft that hover and fire on suspected terrorists 7,000 miles away in Pakistan, Yemen, and Afghanistan. The use of drones has become intensely controversial among politicians, lawyers and academics of all partisan stripes.
Thomas Jefferson School of Law professor Marjorie Cohn parses the legal, moral and geopolitical issues of America’s drone program in her book, “Drones and Targeted Killing.”
Parent Previews: Longest Ride, Freetown (1:13:23)
Guests: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett of ParentPreviews.com
Grab your hankies and you girlfriends, because Nicholas Sparks is out with another of stories featuring not one, but two couples in love and trying to beat the odds. This one introduces Clint Eastwood’s son Scott as a bull rider.
The movie “Freetown” is set in Liberia, filmed in Ghana, and is produced by the director of previous faith-based films “The Saratov Approach” and “Saints and Soldiers.”
Tech Transfer (1:24:06)
Guests: Steve Castle is a professor of chemistry and associate director of the Simmons Center for Cancer Research at BYU
Mike Alder, director of BYU’s Technology Transfer segment
Many of the drugs approved by the FDA to treat various conditions work, but only to a certain extent. For example, there is a certain medication used to treat people with HIV/AIDS that has only a very short “shelf-life” in the body. As a result, it has to be injected twice daily in very large amounts. Needless to say, many patients prefer another treatment, if it’s available, and generally it’s used only on patients who don’t respond well to other HIV/AIDS drugs.
The question is, why does the drug degrade so quickly in the body? Well that, has to do with the fact that the drug is a peptide and peptides are rapidly chewed up by enzymes in the body.
BYU chemistry professor Steve Castle has come up with a new way to slow down that process and potentially create more effective drugs for lots of diseases.
The American Dream in Crisis (1:05)
Guest: Robert Putnam, author of “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis” and the Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University
The American Dream—the notion that anyone, with enough hard work and gumption, can find success in America today. Noted Harvard researcher Robert Putnam says the American Dream is in Crisis for Our Kids, which is the title of his latest book. It’s a mix of intimate and often heart-breaking stories about the lives of many youth living in America today, interspersed with hard numbers and charts that show a recurring “scissor” effect. Picture an open pair of scissors, or the gaping maw of a crocodile, and you’ll pretty much get just how much kids from affluent backgrounds are pulling further and further ahead in society.
Putnam’s central thesis is that “in recent decades the challenges and opportunities facing rich and poor kids have grown more disparate.”
National Parks (51:34)
Guest: Kurt Repanshek, a veteran journalist and founder and editor-in-chief of National Parks Traveler—the top-ranked website dedicated to daily coverage of national parks
Are national parks a part of your vacation memories? Do you want them to be? We talk about how they came to be, their status today and get some tips for visiting the nation’s parks like a pro. Who better to talk us through all of that than the man who wrote “America’s National Parks for Dummies”?
Child Labor (1:08)
Guest: Charita Castro, Division Chief for Research and Policy in the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking at the U.S. Department of Labor
The latest report on Progress Against Child Labor from the International Labour Organization documents a positive trend downward in the prevalence of child labor globally. Even still, there are an estimated 168 million child laborers worldwide and half of them are forced to do hazardous work and the U.S. Department of Labor has released a report documenting the worst forms of child labor around the world.
Michael Vey Series (16:43)
Guest: Richard Paul Evans, a New York Times best-selling author known for his book The Christmas Box and more recently the Michael Vey series.
Michael Vey is a superhero in the X-Men vein. He is an awkward teenager who struggles to keep his super-human power in check and secret, because what teenaged boy wants the world to think he's a freak, right? But Michael's amazing ability to channel electricity isn not the only thing he wrestles with - he also has Tourette's and that battle may just be larger than the rest.
Lasers and Nanoparticles in Cancer Treatment (42:11)
Steen Madsen, Professor at UNLV and the chair of the Department of Health Physics and Diagnostic Science
People have long imbued gold with mystical powers of immortality. Ancient alchemists ate it in search of longevity. There is a researcher at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas working on a technique to prolong life in cancer patients that promises to work much better than simply eating gold. Dr. Steen Madsen is chair of UNVL's Department of Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences and lead author of a study published in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering that proposes sending nanoparticles of gold into a type of brain tumor that is today an almost certain death sentence for its victims.
The nanoparticles of gold congregate around the tumor and help amplify the effects of lasers used to kill the tumor. The primary challenge is how to get the gold into the tumor.
Middle East Panel (52:06)
Guests: Josh Gubler, BYU political science professor
John Macfarlane, adjunct professor of political science at UVU
Steven Lobell, political science professor at the University of Utah
Iran and the US, along with five other world powers, have worked out a tentative agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program. But as they say, the devil is in the details and the next few months will prove critical in securing a final deal. Just today Iran's supreme leader sounded pretty pessimistic in talking about the deal's prospects.
Meanwhile, Yemen is quickly become the next site of regional conflict, with Iran backing Houthi rebels that have taken over most of the country and Saudi Arabia leading a bombing campaign to fight back the Houthis.
Power dynamics in the Middle East are shifting and progress made after the Arab Spring appears to be dissipating.
Breast Cancer Brain (1:32:16)
Guest: Patricia Ganz, medical oncologist and director of Prevention and Control Research at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
As if being diagnosed with breast cancer weren't bad enough, treatment by chemotherapy is notoriously devastating. And then comes "chemo brain." Cancer survivors post-treatment often complain of cognitive difficulties - and for a long time, doctors chalked it up to a patient's imagination.
But Dr. Patricia Ganz of UCLA's Schools of Medicine and Public Health has some new research that validates the reality of "chemo brain" in breast cancer patients - and perhaps more importantly, offers some hope for addressing the problem.
Workforce Future Trends (1:05)
Guest: Beth McFarland, Director of Foundation Programs for the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation
A lackluster employment report last week had economists worried about a slowdown, but new data released by the Labor Department on Tuesday offers detail that reveals a more hopeful outlook. The report shows job openings hit a 14-year high in February. Companies are clearly willing to add more workers after being slow to make such a commitment during much of the recovery.
But there's a catch here - while companies advertised for new jobs at a quick clip, actual hiring was down. That would suggest that businesses are having trouble finding people with the right skills to fill those jobs - or they're not offering the right wages to attract applicants. Both are concerns that employers will have to deal with in the coming decades, according to a new report by the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation.
What is Music? (20:55)
Guest: Patrick Burke, professor of music at Washington University in St. Louis
Why are tastes in music so diverse - and yet music is universal? What's good music and what's not? Better yet, what's music, and what's not?
American Heritage: Positive and Negative Liberty (52:13)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU history professor
This is the weekly visit we have with BYU history professor Grant Madsen who shares insights with us as he teaches an introductory American History course this semester. Each week brings a new topic and a deeper understanding of how our nation was founded.
Nutrition and Eye Health (1:17:16)
Guest: Neal Adams, distinguished ophthalmologist, editor-in-chief of the journal Eye Reports, and the former chief of visual physiology of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins
"The Eye is a Window to the Soul" right? Ophthalmologist Neal Adams believes the eye is a window to the body, too - to systemic disorders like diabetes or blood pressure. Make sure to check out Dr. Adams' latest book, Healthy Vision: Prevent and Reverse Eye Disease through Better Nutrition.
Mount Everest Biogas Program (1:30:59)
Guest: Garry Porter, manager of the all-volunteer Mount Everest Biogas Program
The peak season for climbers attempting to summit Everest is weeks away, so we turn our attention now to a growing problem on the famous mountain-poop.
Some 14 tons of it are carried down the mountain from Everest Base Camp on the backs of local porters. They haul it in blue barrels and dump it into open pits at high-altitude village called, Gorak Shep. It stinks. It's contaminating the village's drink water. And until now there's been no progress on a solution to Everest's poop problem.
The Mount Everest Biogas Program aims to convert all that human waste into fuel.
Religious Freedom Acts (1:11)
Guest: Elizabeth Clark, associate director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at BYU
Lawmakers in Indiana and Arkansas have come under scrutiny and political pressure in the last few weeks for passing a law commonly referred to as a "RFRA," which stands for Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Critics say the laws empower businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians in the name of religion. Late last week, Indiana's governor signed an amended version of the state's law clarifying that it cannot be used as a defense for discrimination. Arkansas' governor only signed his state's version after a similar provision was added. But Indiana and Arkansas are hardly the first to enact "Religious Freedom Restoration Acts." Nearly half of states have them and the federal government passed one in 1993 - and in the past, these laws had bi-partisan support and were largely noncontroversial. What's changed?
Millennium-Long Photograph (25:33)
Guest: Jonathan Keats, distinguished experimental philosopher, artist, writer, and a renowned contributor of Forbes magazine
You have seen time lapse photos, right? Where a camera captures a single image over a period of minutes or hours to show how the environment changes over time? Well, suppose you could set a camera to capture the passage of years - even centuries?
Civil War Photographs (38:09)
Guest: Bob Zeller, president of the Center for Civil War Photography
We recently learned about a trove of remarkable photos documenting life before and during the Civil War that has arrived at the Library of Congress and is being digitized for people to view online. The pictures themselves are remarkable, but so, too, is the story of how they came to be in a single collection.
The photos offer a glimpse at daily life of southern slaves before the war and extend all the way to a shot of Abraham Lincoln's Illinois home draped in a black-and-white mourning cloth after his assassination. The Library of Congress announced last week it had acquired more than 500 of these images from the collection of an 87-year-old Texas grandmother.
After-Hour Correspondence (51:26)
Guest: Marcus Butts, lead researcher of study and associate professor of Management at the University of Texas at Arlington
Smartphones and remote access to the company network have changed the way we work. We are always connected - and many employees, it turns out, actually get angry when they get a work email at home after hours. A new study of more than 300 working adults published in the Academy of Management Journal explains the perils of the increasingly common corporate policy that employees are essentially always on call and expected to check email. There are obvious downsides, but some surprising upsides, too.
Parent Previews: Furious 7 and Woman in Gold (1:07:17)
Guest: Kerry Bennett and Rod Gustafson, parentpreviews.com
The seventh installment in the Fast and Furious movie franchise beat analyst expectations and set box office records opening over the weekend. One big reason is that it is the last movie filmed by actor Paul Walker before he died in a car crash last year. Another, is the movie is racially diverse cast which helps attract lots of minority audiences. And then there are the cars jumping cliffs and skydiving from planes.
Tech Transfer (1:19:30)
Guests: Benjamin Bikman, professor of physiology and developmental biology in the College of Life Sciences at BYU
Mike Alder, director of BYU's Technology Transfer segment
Many health experts will tell you that losing weight is fundamentally just a matter of "calories in vs. calories out." Consume more calories than your body needs and it will store the excess as fat and you will gain weight.
But it is not that simple, says BYU physiology professor Benjamin Bikman. He is researching the way certain tissues in our body accumulate a certain type of fat that can increase the likelihood of insulin resistance and obesity. Suppose we could prevent those tissues from accumulating that type of fat?
Saudi Arabia and Yemen (1:10)
Guest: Fred Axelgard, senior fellow in international relations for BYU’s Wheatley Institution and former US State Department official
The US and five world powers announced the framework of a deal today with Iran over that country’s nuclear capabilities. Iran has agreed to reduced its capacity to build a nuclear bomb in exchange for relief from harsh trade sanctions imposed by the US and European Union. While the US has been focused on striking a deal with Iran, Iran’s opponents in the Middle East are stepping up their aggression in battles where Iran is involved. Most notably, Saudi Arabia has entered the battlefield in Yemen, leading airstrikes against Houthi rebels who have taken over Yemen’s government, with support from Iran. Saudi Arabia has also announced plans to join with other Arab League Nations – including Egypt, Iraq and Jordan – in creating a regional military force to fight insurgencies that are inflaming the region.
Gentle Caesarean (22:26)
Guest: William Camann, director of obstetric anesthesia at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and co-author of "Easy Labor: Every Woman's Guide to Choosing Less Pain and More Joy During Childbirth"
Hazard a guess at what you think might be the most common surgery in America? Tonsil removal? Appendectomy?
It’s actually the caesarean section – about 1 in 3 babies in America is delivered by C-Section. Public health officials are working to bring that rate down because of the risks associated with caesarean section. But there’s also a trend – in cases where a C-Section is unavoidable – toward making it a better experience for the mother and child. They're called "family centered C-Sections" by some. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, they call the procedure a "gentle C-Section."
Toxoplasmosis (39:43)
Guest: Kirk Jensen, assistant professor in Biology at the University of California Merced
If you happen to be eating right now, you may want to put your fork down. Apparently, a third of the world’s population is infected with a microscopic parasite called, toxoplasmosis. That includes 60 million Americans, according to the CDC.
Now, it's possible you carry the toxoplasma parasite and don't know it because many people are carriers, but don’t get ill. On the other hand, it can be fatal to people with compromised immune systems, like pregnant women or those with HIV/AIDS. And even if it doesn’t make you sick, research suggests that Toxoplasmosis correlates with mental disorders such as, Schizophrenia.
Ghandi and South Africa (52:26)
Guest: Gaurav Desai, professor of English and African Studies at Tulane University
A 9-foot statute of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi was recently unveiled in London’s Parliament Square "not far from a statue of Winston Churchill – who famously said that Gandhi” ought to be lain bound hand and foot at the gates of Delhi and then trampled on by an enormous elephant."
Needless to say, the relationship between India and the U.K. has improved quite a bit in the 70 years since Gandhi fought for India’s independence from British rule. The statute was erected to mark the 100th anniversary of Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa to begin the movement toward Indian independence.
But that South African period in Gandhi’s life is not to be glossed-over, says Gaurav Desai, a professor of English and African Studies at Tulane University. He's done extensive research on the ties between South Asia and Africa and spoke recently on BYU's campus about Gandhi's time on the African continent.
Beef Imports (1:15:32)
Guests: Justin Kastner, associate professor of food safety and security at Kansas State University and co-director of the Frontier program
Danny Unruh, research assistant at Kansas State University
The embargo has lifted and the first European country to get approval for beef import into the United States is Ireland. They’re calling it green beef.
Taxes and the ACA (1:31:30)
Guest: Aaron Martinez, master tax advisor with H-and-R Block
Are you taking a hit on your taxes because of the Affordable Care Act? Learn how "Obamacare" might affect your filing this year. Smart, informative conversations and interviews that go beyond mere headlines and sound bites.
Breast Cancer (1:09)
Guest: Sandra Buys, Medical Director of the High Risk Breast Cancer Clinic at Hunstman Cancer Institute and a professor in the University of Utah School of Medicine
You couldn't have missed the news of a rather private nature actress and director Angelina Jolie Pitt made last week by announcing in New York Times column that she’d had her ovaries removed. The surgery came two years after she opted for a double mastectomy. Both procedures were prompted by a test that revealed Jolie Pitt had inherited a defect in the BRCA1 gene.
Cocaine and Memory (21:00)
Guest: Barbara Sorg, professor of neuroscience at Washington State University Vancouver
Barbara Sorg is the lead author of a study in the Journal of Neroscience describing a memory-related mechanism in the brain that helps explain why drug addiction is so hard to overcome.
Wound Healing (40:17)
Guest: Pak Kin Wong, professor of bioengineering at the University of Arizona lead investigator on the mechanism of wound healing published in the journal Nature Communications
This process of cells collectively migrating to heal a wound is one of the most universal, but least understood biological processes in living organisms. Researchers at the University of Arizona think they've unlocked the secret.
American Heritage: Thomas Jefferson (53:23)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU history professor
This is the weekly appointment we have with BYU history professor Grant Madsen who shares insights with us as he teaches an introductory American History course this semester. Each week brings a new lecture topic and a deeper understanding of how our nation was founded.
Terrorism in the Media (1:14:30)
Guest: Amos Guiora, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Global Justice at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, the University of Utah
Iraq's military today is declaring victory over the group calling itself the Islamic State in Tikrit, after a weeks-long offensive to rid the city of the extremist group. Iraq's Defense Minister pronounced the victory in a video statement. In the last few days, as the offensive in Tikrit intensified, The Islamic State released a video of its own – yet another of the notorious execution videos, known for their high production values, multiple camera angles and brutality.
Today we're asking about the increasing role of social media and the internet in terrorism today - and perhaps more importantly, what role the media plays - or should play - in reporting on terror now that groups like the Islamic State can disseminate its own propaganda on YouTube and Twitter, without relying on TV stations to broadcast the videos.
A Nuclear Iran (1:06)
Guest: Eric Hyer, BYU political science professor
Nuclear negotiations with Iran are TOP OF MIND today. The US and five other nations are extending their deadline by one more day, hoping to get the framework of a deal in place with Iran over its nuclear capabilities. Iran is looking to have the US and European nations lift trade sanctions that have crippled its economy for years. If they settle on a framework for the deal, it still won’t be final until this summer. The negotiations have already gone on for more than 18 months, missing several earlier deadlines, but supporters say abandoning the process is not an option. They raise the specter of a “nuclear Iran” that could threaten prospects for stability in the Middle East.
Do Opposites Really Attract? (19:45)
Guest: Melissa Curran, associate professor of family and consumer sciences at the University of Arizona
Everybody knows opposites attract. Half of the romantic comedies ever made prove it’s true. But research done at University of Arizona, finds you’re better off not looking too far in the opposite direction in choosing a mate.
Hollywood Diversity Report (52:03)
Guest: Darnell Hunt, professor of sociology at director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American studies at UCLA
The 2015 Oscars were widely criticized—and even lampooned by host Neil Patrick Harris—for their lack of diversity. All the nominated actors and actresses were white, and only one best picture nominee Selma, featured a director who was not white and male – she’s African American Ava Duvernay. People chalked up the homogeneity of the Oscars to the largely white, male and middle-aged make-up of the Academy’s voters. A new report out of UCLA finds Hollywood is increasingly out of sync with U.S. demographics where more than 40% of Americans are ethnic minorities and half are female.
Digital Threats (1:12:38)
Guest: Jeffrey Price, associate professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver in the Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science, and the owner of Leading Edge Strategies, a top aviation management training and consulting company
Investigators and families of those who died in the Germanwings plane crash last week continue to seek answers. In the initial stages, many leapt to one of two conclusions – either the plane had malfunctioned or it was brought down by an act of terror. Investigators now say a different type of event caused that disaster. They believe that a mentally ill copilot crashed the plane intentionally. We may never know exactly why.
The possibility of a terror event – while not the culprit in this incident – is causing increasing problems for airlines. As it turns out, a terrorist doesn’t even have to be on board a plane to disrupt a flight. Since mid-January, airlines report a spike in fake bomb threats made over social media that have led to numerous flights being delayed, diverted or cancelled.
Japanese Ambassador on Military (1:31:18)
Guest: Kenichiro Sasae, Japanese Ambassador to the United States
Japan appears to be shifting away from the pacifist approach to national defense imposed upon it by the United States after World War II. For decades, Japan has been bound by its constitution drafted in 1947 to mobilize troops solely for self-defense. But since two Japanese citizens were beheaded by the group calling itself The Islamic State, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has stepped up efforts to overhaul the nation’s security strategy. In April, Japan’s governing “Diet” is expected to debate a package of bills from Abe’s government that would create a legal framework for a “Self-Defense Force” to protect Japan’s power overseas like a normal military.
Spring Gardening
Guests: Max Darrington, the arborist for Brigham Young University
Taun Beddes, horticulturist and gardening expert at the Utah County extension of Utah State University
Michael Caron, expert gardener with Utah State, based at Thanksgiving Point
The days are getting longer. Temperatures are warming up. It’s time to start thinking about your yard and garden.
Spring Religious Observances
Guests: Eric Huntsman, professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Early Christianity at BYU
Jared Ludlow, BYU professor of Ancient Scripture and Judaism
Richard Holzapfel, BYU religion professor whose expertise is in ancient scripture and religious history
It’s a season of renewal, of hope and a reminder of the cycle of life. In Christianity, it’s the sacred season of Easter, a time to remember the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Judaism, it’s Passover - at time to thank God for sparing the firstborn children of Israel in Egypt and freeing them from bondage. For Hindus, spring brings the joyous Holi Festival where people fling colorful dust at each other, sing, dance and light bonfires. And, of course, many of our Spring religious rites are rooted in Pagan symbols of life and rebirth.
Tribal Territory VAWA Law (1:06)
Guest: Michalyn Steele, BYU Law professor
A federal law took effect this month giving Native American government’s authority to arrest and prosecute non-Indians who commit acts of domestic or dating violence while on tribal lands. Until now, tribal police could do little more than boot the non-Indian perpetrators off the reservation and hope they don’t come back.
“Many tribes will choose to comply. Even if it is not their first choice on how to handle internal domestic violence,” says Steele.
Lincoln’s Body: A Cultural History (20:46)
Guest: Richard Fox, history professor at the University of Southern California and author of the book Lincoln’s Body: A Cultural History
What comes to mind when you think of Abraham Lincoln? Maybe the commander-in-chief during the civil war? His words at the Gettysburg address? Or how about the Emancipation Proclamation that began the process of freeing America’s slaves? Apparently, his political accomplishments were not the only focus during the 16th president’s time in office. Many were fascinated by his appearance which many characterized as homely.
“He seemed to be asymmetrical, too long in the legs and too short in torso. He was very tall. That was enough to make people think he was very strange. One of the most common adjectives to describe him was grotesque. He appeared to be almost alien," says Fox.
Negative Carbon Emissions (40:50)
Guest: Klaus Lackner, director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University
The Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University has a lofty goal: to suck carbon dioxide out of the air to help prevent climate change. With global CO2 emissions reaching unsustainable levels, the team at ASU has developed a technology to “capture” carbon dioxide from the air. The CO2 could then be used by industries that need it, or disposed safely without entering the atmosphere.
“If you look at what we put out right now, it comes out to be 30 billion tons of CO2 a year," says Lackner.
How Congress Works (51:49)
Guest: Kelly Patterson, BYU political science professor
Republicans in Congress pulled off an unusual maneuver yesterday, when House Speaker John Boehner brought multiple versions of a budget to the floor for a vote as a way of ending a standoff over spending plans. Speaker Boehner has struggled to find consensus among Republicans in the House on tough issues, including the budget. This latest tactic is yet another of example of how backroom negotiation and procedural maneuvering has become central to getting anything done in Congress.
“The house is a majoritarian chamber. The senate is more collegial," says Patterson.
Loneliness (1:22:05)
Guest: Tim Smith, professor in counseling psychology and special education at BYU
A new study released by the university says that there is a direct correlation between living longer and spending less time alone.
"You can be lonely while having lots of people around you," explains Smith.
Concussions (1:11)
Guest: Kelly Pearce, a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Sports Medicine Concussion Program
In recent days, several high-profile athletes have been in the news because of them. New York Yankees rookie Jose Pirela suffered a concussion after running into an outfield wall. If you follow “March Madness,” then you probably saw that Maryland guard Melo Trimble was inadvertently kneed in the head by a teammate. And, you may have also seen the news that 24-year-old NFL linebacker Chris Borland decided to retire from professional football after just one year, in order to protect his long-term neurological health. Many of today’s athletes are facing competition that is bigger, stronger and faster. If you have family members who compete in sports, then you may be concerned about the risks.
Astronomy (19:28)
Guest: Patrick Wiggins, NASA Solar System ambassador to Utah
It’s been a lovely couple of weeks for sky-gazers. Last Tuesday, a geomagnetic storm caused beautiful aurora over the Midwest and Northeast. And March 20th brought a trifecta of excitement – a total solar eclipse, a supermoon, and the vernal equinox all in one night.
Saving Species (35:04)
Guest: Burak Guneralp, professor at Texas A&M University
What would you do with a million dollars? Buy a house or a large stretch of land? Maybe a few cars? Travel the world? How about save an entire species? According to a new study, a subset of species can be saved from extinction for about 1.3 million dollars per year.
American Heritage (50:09)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History Professor
This is the weekly appointment we have with BYU history professor Grant Madsen.
Interactive Dance (1:10:48)
Guests: Michael Kraczek and Allison Dobbins
There’s a dance performance moving its way across the country right now that encourages its audience to use their phones during the show. In fact, people are instructed to download a special app when they enter – and through that app, they’re given the power to control the entire performance. In real time. Whatever the audience wants the dancers to do on stage, the dancers do. It’s like a “choose your own adventure” dance recital and it’ll be performed here on BYU’s campus this weekend.
License Plates and Free Speech (1:27:46)
Guest: RonNell Anderson Jones, BYU professor and constitutional law expert
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week on a case about license plates and free speech. There have been many, many lawsuits over a person’s right to have his or her license plate say something controversial or profane. This current case before the nation’s highest court has to do with those specialty plates states sell as a way to make extra money. Some have literally hundreds to choose from, supporting all kinds of nonprofit groups and causes. But several states, including Texas have drawn the line at a license plate proposed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which would feature the Confederate flag. The government of Texas says they don’t endorse the message underlying that image and to put it on an official state license plate would amount to an endorsement. The Sons of the Confederate Veterans says Texas is discriminating against them and infringing on their right to expression. The Supreme Court’s decision later this year will affect similar cases in states across the country.
Global Warming (1:07)
Guest: Gabe Bowen, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah
According to new research, today’s human-caused global warming is much like the atmospheric conditions on Earth 56 million years ago.
Crowdfunding (20:08)
Guest: John Mullins, Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, and author of the new book, The Customer-Funded Business
Last month, a video game development company crossed the $73-million mark, and solidified its position in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “most-funded crowdfunding project anywhere." $73-million dollars to develop a game called “Star Citizen” that people are apparently very excited about.
The tracking firm Crowdfunding Centre says that $60,000 dollars was raised ever hour on sites like Kickstarter, Kiva, Gofundme or IndieGoGo in 2014. You can give online to teachers trying to raise money for class supplies or grad students raising money for tuition or musicians trying to put out an album – even entrepreneurs trying to start a company. Last year, a guy went on Kickstarter to raise $10 for his first batch of potato salad and the page went viral. He ended up with $55,000 – that’s a lot of potato salad.
Amid all this crowdfunding fervor, are some voices of warning. John Mullins, a Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, and author of the new book, The Customer-Funded Business, says donors and entrepreneurs ought to beware the downsides of crowdfunding.
A Woman on $20 Dollar Bills (38:19)
Guest: Barbara Ortiz Howard, founder of Women on 20s, an organization that seeks to get an image of a notable woman on the front of our 20-dollar bills
“Women on 20s” is campaigning to replace Andrew Jackson on the 20-dollar bill with a woman.
Running Keeps You Young (52:56)
Guest: Rodger Kram, Professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder
Ponce de Leon was looking for a fountain to deliver eternal youth, but perhaps he ought to have been looking at his feet.
A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE says running regularly can keep your body using energy efficiently. So, you could theoretically have the body of a 70 year old and the energy efficiency of a 20-year-old.
Parent Previews: Insurgent (1:16:40)
Guests: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett of ParentPreviews.com
Part Two of the dystopian young adult novel-turned-film franchise Divergent Series topped the weekend box office. This installment is called “Insurgent.”
Tech Transfer: The Holodeck (1:26:10)
Guests: Daniel Smalley, professor in BYU’s department of electrical and computer engineering
David Brown, BYU Technology Transfer office
There’s 3D and virtual reality, but my next guest has set his sights a tad higher – Daniel Smalley is out to build the holodeck. Remember the holodeck from Star Trek? An empty room that could be converted in any holographic environment the user wanted – so lifelike it often became the user’s reality?
Israeli Elections Recap (1:07)
Guest: Steven Lobell, political science professor at the University of Utah
In an upset end to a close election, incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won a fourth term this week, solidifying conservative control of Israel’s parliament.
Drone "No Fly Zone" (19:11)
Guest: Ben Marcus, founder of NoFlyZone
The Federal Aviation Administration has established new rules for how high such small drones can go – and even says they have to stay within eyesight of the person controlling them. But there’s nothing in there yet to address the privacy question about a drone flying in your yard or over your house. Well, a new company called NoFlyZone has a plan to create something like a “Do Not Call List” for drones.
Iceland’s Uplift (33:46)
Guest: Kathleen Compton, geosciences doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona
The whole country of Iceland has been slowly—but steadily—rising. Researchers at the University of Arizona discovered this phenomenon last year, with their findings published in the Geophysical Research Letters. Researchers have speculated Iceland’s rise – as much as 1.4 inches a year in some places —may have to do with its melting icecaps. This study is the first to confirm this theory.
Systemic Barriers in Addressing Poverty (50:51)
Guest: Scott Miller, CEO of Circles USA, an organization helping people who live below the poverty line through community networking and support work
You know the saying about how you can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, or you can teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime? Well, suppose after you teach the man to fish, you take the pole away from him. Suddenly he’s hungry again and probably a little demoralized and confused at how the system he’d gotten used to changed so suddenly.
Scott Miller says that’s what happens with public assistance programs in the U.S. – such as food stamps and rental support.
Superstitions (1:12:44)
Guest: Eric Hamerman, assistant professor of marketing at Tulane University
Four leaf clovers. Horseshoes. Rabbit’s feet. Found pennies. Do you have a good luck charm? How about a superstitious routine like not washing your socks or getting a haircut before a big game? I’ve heard of both. But here’s one I’ve never heard of. One of our producers at Top of Mind says she would spray paint her armpits before every soccer game. I’m not sure how that would help score goals, but that’s the point right. Superstitions are not rational. That doesn’t mean they can’t be studied scientifically, though!
Execution in America (1:03)
Guest: Austin Sarat, professor of law and political science at Amherst College and author of the 2014 book Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty
Numerous state legislatures are in the process of authorizing alternative methods of executing death row inmates if they run out of drugs used in lethal injection.
Those drugs have become increasingly difficult to obtain for a variety of reasons.
So, Utah lawmakers last week voted to reinstate the firing squad as a backup plan for execution. Electrocution is the backup plan under consideration in Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia. Oklahoma is considering something even more dramatic – a form of the gas chamber that entails death by nitrogen inhalation.
And the irony here, is that all of those methods have fallen out of favor over the years because lethal injection has been seen as more humane.
“The method of execution that has proven to be the most problematic has been lethal injection,” says Sarat.
Anxiety and Decisions (21:22)
Guest: Sonia Bishop, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley
We all get a little anxious from time to time. Some 40 million adults in America experience something more than a “touch of nerves” on occasion – they have full-fledged anxiety disorders, such as phobias or panic attacks. And here’s a bit of bad news for those people – new research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience shows anxious people are more inclined to make bad decisions when faced with uncertainty.
Ransomware (39:29)
Guest: Dale Rowe, IT Professor and head of the BYU’s “cyber security lab”
Reports of a terrifying new type of hack called “ransomware” have been increasing lately. It’s a type of software virus that encrypts all of the data on your computer and requires that you pay a ransom before the hackers will release your files.
American Heritage (51:45)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU history professor
Of all the aspects of early American history, none seems harder to explain than slavery. In every aspect it seems both wrong and antithetical to how Americans see themselves today. It was based on racism. It required brutal violence to maintain itself. It treated people as property. In short, it violated in almost perfect order the very ideas that animated the American Revolution—the idea that all people are created equal and that governments are instituted to protect the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It took the nation nearly a hundred years (and a bloody civil war) to end the practice of slavery. It took another century to begin the process of undoing the racism that justified it. Today we continue to talk about and live with the legacy of this “peculiar institution” (as southerners called it).
Learning Styles (1:12:34)
Guest: Daniel Willingham, professor at the University of Virginia
There are dozens of theories about the different ways people learn. And cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham says they’re pretty much just fads that are not terribly helpful for teachers in the classroom.
Precious Metals (1:26:59)
Guest: Paul Westerhoff, environmental engineering professor at Arizona State University
We have treasure in a most unlikely place. Researchers have found significant amounts of precious metals in sewage sludge. They say that the valuable metals in bio solids may be worth up to $13-Million per year for a community of 1-Million people.
ACLU Suing NSA Over Internet Tracking (1:04)
Guest: Patrick Toomey, ACLU Staff Attorney
Internet Surveillance and the NSA are Top of Mind Today. Thanks to the classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden we know that the National Security Agency is watching our online movements. You and I may not be targets of the surveillance, but that doesn’t mean our emails and searches and internet posts aren’t being scooped into the net that NSA officials mine for leads on terrorism or espionage.
The net is simply too broad, according to a new lawsuit filed against the NSA by the ACLU, on behalf of a diverse of educational, media, human rights and legal organizations.
“An email may travel outside the country before it arrives to a friend inside the United States,” says Toomey.
“What the NSA has not shown is it cannot do its job effectively and appropriately,” says Toomey.
Exercise Myths (19:20)
Guest: Amy Huebeschmann, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and researcher with the Center for Women’s Health Research
Nobody will be surprised to hear me say that research shows exercise is good for us. It helps with physical and mental fitness. It can prolong life. But that’s a tough message to hear when you face physical limitations that make it hard – even seemingly impossible – to exercise.
Dr. Huebschmann says that exercise “doesn’t have to be for a very long period of time to be beneficial.”
“The first thing is to make sure if you have pain when being active to talk to your doctor but the majority of people even with moderately severe arthritis should not preclude you or keep you from being active,” says Huebschmann.
“You’re never too old to be physically active,” assures Huebschmann.
Apple Seed (38:52)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
We listen to a story from Brian “Fox” Ellis called “In the Realm of the Seal King.”
Income Inequality and Health (52:00)
Guest: Jessica Allia Williams, post-doctorate fellow at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
“Income Inequality” - or the gap between the rich and the poor in America – has been expanding in the last 30 years. Today, just 5 percent of wage earners account for nearly a quarter of total income. Cash compensation for CEOs is 90 times that of rank-and-file employees. The debate over income inequality raging from local city halls to the chambers of Congress generally focuses on “fairness” and “morality” and “social justice.”
What about plain old “health?” Is it possible that America is less-healthy because this gap between the rich and the poor is so wide?
Higher income inequality can result in stress with social comparisons, according to Williams.
Williams says it is important to inform “…people of these connections between work and health that they might not be aware of.”
Cockroach Personality (1:14:40)
Guest: Isaac Planas Sitja, behavioral ecologist at the Free University of Brussels
This next story might just make you think twice before stomping on a cockroach you catch scurrying across the floor.
“The most important thing is, no matter the complication of the group, they always finish in a shelter,” says Sitja.
Islam in Africa (1:23:42)
Guest: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, professor of philosophy and French at Columbia University
Numerous guests on our show of late have established that Islam is not a monolithic religion. Extremist such as the group calling itself the “Islamic State” espouse what they consider a more orthodox practice of the religion dating back centuries to nomadic Arab tribes. Now, the group in West Africa known as Boko Haram is pledging allegiance to the Islamic State – not surprising given Boko Haram’s brutal tactics and stated opposition to Western influences.
What is surprising, to many, is that Islam is different in Africa. When you move south beyond Libya, Egypt and Tunisia to what’s known as sub-Saharan Africa – which includes Nigeria, Sudan, Chad and Senegal - the dominant form of Islam is a tolerant, open-minded branch known as Sufism. Senegal native Souleyman Bachir Diagne recently visited BYU to talk about the nature of Islam in Africa and how an extreme group like Boko Haram is gaining traction in a place where Muslims are generally more moderate in their views.
“The emphasis of Sufism in general is the idea that there is one common driving force in the world, which is the love of God,” says Diagne.
Money and Politics (1:08)
Guest: Michael Barber, Political Science at BYU
Americans are more politically polarized than at any other point in the last 20 years, according to Pew Research. So it stands to reason that our elected leaders in Congress – and even in statehouses around the country – are also polarized in their views, votes and rhetoric, right?
Well, what if it isn’t as simple as that? What if money has a lot more to do with the polarized picture of politics in America?
Money is “definitely an important part of the electoral process,” says Barber. “The one that has more money to spend in advertising or get out the vote candidates is likely to fare better on Election Day.”
“Legislators are nervous about losing money they could miss out on in the future. They behave in a way so that they can please those who contribute to their campaign,” says Barber.
Iran Sanctions (18:38)
Guest: Raj Bhala, a leading expert on international trade and Rice Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas School of Law
Iranian leaders have famously called America the “Great Satan.” So why now, are they willing to come to the table with Western nations, including the United States, and consider making a deal to limit its ability to develop a nuclear weapon? What does Iran stand to gain from such concessions?
The answer lies in Iran’s desire to get out from under trade sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations on various sectors of Iran’s economy. As the nuclear negotiations face an interim deadline of March 24th, we’re taking some time to better understand the nature of these sanctions Iran is so eager to be rid of.
“When you look at the conventional measures of the performance of a domestic economy, Iran performs poorly during the sanctions period. Unemployment is very high, and that of course is dangerous in any society for the rulers because if there are a number of smart educated people that aspire to a better future, they can’t find employment. Inflation is very high partly because of the supply constraints—goods are not available in ready supply. There is cost-push inflation but also demand-pull inflation. Iran has not been able to get the investment it needs from abroad because of the sanctions. The performance of the banking system has also been poor,” explains Bhala.
“There’s a large, fragile middle class in Iran that has suffered a lot from the sanctions,” says Bhala.
Hormones and Exercise (51:52)
Guest: David Lee, assistant professor at USC Davis and lead author of the "MOTS-c Hormone" study, which appears in the current issue of the journal "Cell Metabolism."
Diet and exercise are generally considered the best approach to dealing with type 2 diabetes brought on by obesity. Drugs like metformin are also known to help. But a team of scientists at the University of South California have identified a naturally-occurring hormone that might also be used to tackle type 2 diabetes – and could have the added benefit of letting you eat a high-fat diet while not gaining weight.
“Exercise is a very complex thing and it changes many factors in your body. We do believe that this hormone mediates exercise,” says Lee.
Parent Previews: Cinderella (1:08:03)
Guests: Kerry Bennett and Rod Gustafson of ParentPreviews.com
“This film was just refreshing. It was nice to see something different,” says Bennett on Cinderella.
Tech Transfer: Tremor Measurement (1:20:52)
Guests: Nathan Stanford, CEO and co-founder of Vykon Technologies
Dave Brown, BYU Technology Transfer office
Matt Durrant, CTO of Vykon Technologies
Cameron Hadley, CTO of Vykon Technologies
For the millions of Americans who suffer from movement disorders – like tremors associated with Parkinson’s disease – a simple smile or sipping from a glass can be a challenge. To date the tools for accurately diagnosing movement disorders and tracking their progression over time have been limited – and costly. A research assistant in BYU’s Neuromechanics Lab has a different solution.
“Movement disorders are very complicated and difficult to diagnose,” says Stanford.
“We work a lot with people who have a central tremor. It’s a type of tremor that’s diagnosed by what’s called exclusion. It’s a relatively fast tremor, predominant in older populations. It’s not going to really hamper someone’s life where they will die but it really messes with quality of life,” explains Stanford.
“We are tracking and monitoring the tremor. You will be able to use this device on a daily basis and receive accurate data to take back to your neurologist and track your tremor,” says Stanford on his company called Vykon Technologies.
Rise of the For-Profit Hospice (1:03)
Guests: Karen Wyatt, family physician and author of “What Really Matters: 7 Lessons for Living from the Stories of Dying”
Arla Jaramillo, registered nurse and the Utah County Hospice Director for Envision Home Health & Hospice
Decades ago, Americans with terminal disease had pretty minimal options when it came to choosing how they’d like to die. It was either in a hospital hooked up to tubes or IVs, or at home, likely uncomfortable and in pain.
Today, hospice has become so prevalent that nearly half of Medicare beneficiaries use it in some form as they die. Initially, hospice was the purview of church and community organizations—generally nonprofits, funded by donations. But then insurance started covering hospice care and Medicare got on board. It wasn’t long before private companies figured out there was money to be made in helping people die “well.” The Washington Post reports hospice is now a $17 billion dollar industry dominated by for-profit companies.
Patient advocates and government regulators have raised concerns that profits might take precedent over quality of care in hospices. Dozens of hospice providers have been by investigated for fraudulent billing practices. We look at the rise of the for-profit hospice industry and ask what it means for patients and providers.
“The criteria for hospice care is care for a patient who is expected to have 6 months or less to live,” says Wyatt.
“Our primary focus is quality of life. Comfort is a big piece of that because obviously if you’re uncomfortable your quality of life is diminished,” says Jaramillo.
China (52:26)
Guests: Eric Hyer, professor of political science at BYU
Kirk Larsen, professor of Asian History at BYU
Rachel Yiu Liu, teaches Chinese at BYU
China is the world’s most populous country. Its economy is second only to the United States in terms of GDP. It’s where most of what you’re wearing or touching at this very moment was probably made. And it’s an important political power on the global stage.
We take a closer look at China’s place in the pantheon of world powers, how it’s faring and where the nation is headed in the coming decades.
“Americans should understand national boundaries are a rather recent phenomenon. Great empires didn’t have clearly defined boundaries. China technically had boundary differences with every one of its neighbors,” says Hyer.
Blurred Lines and Copyright
Guest: Ed Carter, attorney, journalist, and associate professor of communications at BYU
Does “Blurred Lines”, a song by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, sound like Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up”? We talk copyright laws on Top of Mind.
“The idea really is we want to provide enough of an incentive for people to create things so that they will make money at the end of the day and spend the time making it,” says Carter on the Copyright Act.
“The jury determined that the songs were substantially similar,” says Carter.
“The bigger question is: can we all as content users and content creators, rely on the abilities of the works that have come before us and make something new?” says Carter. “There’s going to be borrowing, building on, repurposing, reusing. That’s just a part of new creations.”
Joy in Everyday Moments
Guest: Ting Zhang, doctoral student in the Organizational Behavior Program at Harvard Business School
Think for a moment about your best memories in life. We tend to place a premium on the “headline events” like a wedding or the birth of a child or a college graduation ceremony. But new research out of the Harvard Business School, finds reflecting on every day, ordinary experiences can bring more joy than we might realize.
“We see that people are again and again systematically underestimating the value of rediscovering those moments down the road,” says Zhang.
Martin Luther and Communism
Guest: Stewart Anderson, assistant professor of History at BYU
Political movements have always tried to co-opt the past. Both Republicans and Democrats, for example, invoke the nation’s Founding Fathers in support of their own views. For a darker take, consider how the terror group ISIS invokes Muhammad—the founder of Islam—to try to legitimize their extreme and brutal activities.
BYU History Professor Stewart Anderson has been delving into one example of this from East Germany in the mid-1980s when a flagging communist government tried to bolster its base by casting Christian reformer Martin Luther as died-in-the-wool party member. Never mind that Luther died hundreds of years before the Communist Party was a thing. Never mind that communism traditionally took a dim view of organized religion.
“Most of the major Martin Luther sites were in, what was at the time, East Germany,” says Anderson.
Middle East Panel
Guests: Steven Lobell, political science professor at University of Utah
John MacFarlane, political science adjunct professor at Utah Valley University
Fred Axelgard, senior fellow at the Wheatley Institution at BYU
Forty-seven Republican senators signed an open letter to the Iranian government this week warning them against making a nuclear deal directly with the Obama Administration. Secretary of State John Kerry has called the letter irresponsible as he faces a March 24 deadline to establish a framework for the nuclear deal. But Republicans in Congress have signaled they’re unlikely to approve it.
“The letter is wrong in asserting that the future congress can amend this agreement,” says Axelgard on the open letter to the Iranian government.
“President Obama needs congress to permanently eliminate these sanctions,” says Lobell.
“If they don’t have this agreement, Iran will accelerate,” says MacFarlane.
“What’s going to happen when you add a war with Iran with everything you already have in the Middle East?” asks Axelgard.
Air Masks
Guest: Yi Cui, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford University
Many U.S. cities and states have air quality problems and even offer public warnings about when it’s unsafe to exert ourselves outside. But none of our communities compares to the pollution some 20-million people living in Beijing, China experience daily. One report by Shanghai researchers described Beijing’s atmosphere as almost “uninhabitable for human beings.” And visitors are often initially taken-back at the sight of people everywhere wearing face masks to protect themselves from the pollution.
“Particles can go through filters, they have holes and they are big. What’s bad is this particle will go into people’s lungs and get stuck and release the toxic stuff and it’s just terrible,” says Cui.
Guantanamo, Gaza, and Boko Haram (1:05)
Guest: Eric Jensen, Law Professor at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
As the United States begins to “normalize” relations with Cuba and President Obama winds down his final term in office, the detention center he promised to close at Guantanamo Bay remains open and very much a political hot potato. Cuban officials would like to take back the 45 square miles of their island that have been controlled by the U.S. since 1903.
Guantanamo is America’s oldest overseas military base, but it’s become better known as the detention center for “foreign terrorism suspect.” Treatment of those detainees has drawn international criticism and lawsuits from the prisoners themselves. In fact, this week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear two appeals involving detainees who claim they were tortured at Guantanamo.
“Al-Nashiri has been held by the U.S. government for 13 years. I’m not sure I can predict a time when this all will close,” says Jensen.
“Gaza is the most densely populated place in the world. It is at least in the minds of the Gazans, a true prison,” says Jensen.
Hollywood in China (33:25)
Guest: Stanley Rosen, Professor of Political Science and Director of the East Asian Studies Center at the University of Southern California
One of last year’s biggest box office hits in North America did even better in China.
Transformers 4: Age of Extinction earned about $245 million in the U.S., but more than $300 million in China, making it the highest grossing film of all time in that market. And Hollywood is taking note of the possibilities as North American movie ticket sales flag.
“In February last month, China was the largest film market in the world. Last month china past the United States for the first time,” says Rosen.
American Heritage: Federalist Papers, no. 10 (52:25)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History Professor
Marcus Smith joins Grant Madsen to discuss the background of the Federalist Papers, written by James Madison to argue for the Constitution’s ratification. Madison essentially wrote the “rough draft” of the Constitution. He wrote Federalist Paper number 10 to discuss some of the key features of the new document.
Madison ran for his local state house back in the day and lost to a tavern-owner, who gave all the voters free beer. Federalist paper number 10 considers this problem: how elites can “buy” votes and wield disproportionate power.
“The term he used was cancelling ‘local faction’—you can overcome the powers of small groups through large groups.” This contradicted common theories of republican governments, which insisted that functioning Republics must be small. “Imagine whoever the cool kids were in your high school actually were in charge of something,” says Madison. “Imagine if a clique sort of got power, how would they wield it? They’d remember all the people they wanted to get back at, and seize power to do it.”
Madison’s idea was more “factions,” not less, actually help cancel out their power. The more people you have competing for the same job, the better candidates you’d get.
Never Lose Your Child Again With This Student-Made Smartband (1:13:47)
Guest: Spencer Behrend, BYU MBA student
When you take a toddler to a crowded public space, you better be prepared to keep one hand on the kid at all times, or risk just the kind of scare that prompted my next guest to invent a new technology.
After Spencer Behrend temporarily lost his 2-year-old son in a massive Fourth of July parade, he invented a Bluetooth device called “Kiband” [pronounced “Kie-band”], to help parents keep track of their kids without needing a leash.
“There’s no GPS in this version of the Kiband, it’s just for localized supervision of the child,” says Behrend. It only goes as far as the Bluetooth radius of your phone. When a child goes further than the set range a parent sets, an alarm will go off on the Kiband bracelet.
“The problem isn’t ‘when’ is that child getting too far away, but ‘where’ is that child getting too far away,” says Behrend. “You can very quickly react and find where the child is.”
Sample-Collecting Drones (1:26:41)
Guest: Carrick Detweiler, assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Nebraska
Now that the Federal Aviation Administration has released rules on when and where drones can fly in the U.S., we’re beginning to hear about a range of possibilities for small unmanned aerial vehicles that go beyond delivering packages or spying on your neighbors.
Scientists are keen to use drones in their research. Dr. Carrick Detweiler is working on just that—he’s an assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Nebraska.
Detweiler is working with physical water scientists to figure out where the water might be coming from, and how they may be connecting with each other.
“Right now these vehicles are very good at flying high and taking pictures,” says Detweiler, “in the future they could go out and take samples or place sensors.”
The new regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration slow down some of Detweiler’s hopes for development, given that drones must remain in “line of sight” of an operator. Detweiler hopes that they may one day fully automate the system.
Soul Music in Brazil (1:11)
Guest: Christopher Dunn, professor of Brazilian Literature and Culture at Tulane University. He’s the author of Brutality Garden: Tropicalia and the Emergence of Brazilian Counterculture.
The Civil Rights Movement is Top of Mind this week with 50th anniversary of the historic voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery. All the world watched how America handled – or mishandled calls for racial justice and equality. But it was through soul music that the sentiment of the Civil Rights movement spread the world over. And at the same time soul caught fire in the U.S., it was taking off in Brazil, Afro-Brazilians were on the verge of their own fight against inequality. In the late 1960s, Brazil was under a conservative military dictatorship.
"…under the military regime, Brazil was considered a racial democracy, which meant that inequality existed not because of prejudice but because of the history of slavery,” says Dunn.
Supermassive Black Hole at Cosmic Dawn (15:04)
Guest: Xiaohui Fan, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory
Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see the unexpected. Researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Peking in China have discovered a supermassive black-hole at the edge of the known universe, 12.8 billion light years from Earth. Yet these experienced scientists wouldn’t have noticed it if not for the work of students, who saw the anomaly while combing through data their mentors had missed. Their observations challenged standing theories about black hole formation, and prompt new explanations about the early universe.
"You can see it [Quasar] literally across the universe,” says Fan. "If you traveled to this Quasar and somehow survived, you would see a tremendous amount of light—bright as daylight."
Gastric Bypass Study (35:35)
Guest: Lance Davidson, Exercise Science Assistant Professor at BYU as well as a Research Assistant Professor in Cardiovascular Genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine
Surgery is an increasingly common way for severely obese Americans to lose weight. Gastric bypass—which basically reroutes the intestines to make the stomach smaller—generally leads to rapid initial weight loss. But to-date, there’s been little research on how well people who undergo the procedure keep the weight off and benefit from the surgery after the first few years.
"Of the study, after 6 years, 66% were no longer diabetic. Blood levels stay normal without medicine. We will check them at ten years and see what really happens. But we know that the good cholesterol goes up, and the bad goes down,” says Davidson.
U.S. Supreme Court Influences (50:25)
Guest: James Phillips, visiting professor in BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
The U.S. Supreme Court is nearing the end of its term, with a number of big cases yet to be heard and decided. There’s another challenge to the Affordable Care Act. There’s a case involving how law enforcement should treat a violent, mentally-ill suspect. Perhaps the most anticipated case will be heard at the tail-end of the term in late April when the court will consider the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans enacted in several states.
“The supreme court is like nine separate law firms,” says Phillips. “It’s not about the facts, it’s about the law.”
Mars One (1:12:31)
Guest: Cody Reeder, geology student at Utah State University, finalist for the Mars One program
How eager would you be to sign up for a one-way ticket to Mars? I’ll admit I struggle to get my head around the prospect of leaving Earth for good. But some 200,000 have applied for that very mission since it was announced in 2013. And now the list has been whittled down to 100 finalists. They are 50 men and 50 women between the ages of 19 and 60 and they come from all around the country.
“When I applied, there were 70,000 people and I knew I had to stand out, so I spent a long time on the application video and the essays,” says Reeder who conducted his interview hanging upside down.
Reeder says his parents are “really happy for me because they know it’s my dream but they don't want me to go.”
Maternity Tourism and Anchor Babies (1:05)
Guest: Andy Semotiuk, Immigration Attorney in the U.S. and Canada, Former UN correspondent
Federal agents swept into several birth centers in Southern California last week said to be connected with multimillion-dollar-businesses that bring pregnant Chinese women into the United States so their babies can be born as U.S. citizens. The investigation could result in the biggest federal criminal case ever against the “anchor baby” or “birth tourism” industry. The search warrants cite suspected visa fraud, tax evasion and harboring illegal immigrants.
“The key thing is the 14th amendment says all persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States. That is a pretty fundamental law,” says Semotiuk.
“Coming to America is not a right, it’s a privilege. The concept of coming to the US to come and have a baby,” says Semotiuk, “is not one of the normal reasons that the US gives foreigners to visit the United States. It’s a violation of those privileges.”
“American passport is one of the greatest gifts a person can have,” says Semotiuk.
5-Dollar Dinners (15:51)
Guest: Erin Chase, “The Five Dollar Dinner Mom”
Drive through a fast food restaurant and you’re likely to drop at least 5 dollars on a meal. Same is true at just about any lunch place in town. But Erin Chase wanted more of a bargain when feeding her family.
“Back in 2008 when the gas prices initially shot up, our budget was pinched, so we needed to cut back some more,” says Chase.
“Generally I have a couple of kids with food allergies so I can’t just go buy a box of hamburger helper or a packet of ranch. So because of that, I have to cook from scratch,” says Chase.
“I would say almost every week at the drug stores or grocery stores,” says Chase, “there are sales for household products. That is how I save on groceries.”
Coaching Opera Excellence (31:29)
Guest: Darrell Babidge, Professor of Voice at BYU
Each Spring, the most talented young opera singers in the country compete in the Metropolitan Opera’s Annual National Council Auditions.
“More successful is being successful in being happy wherever they are. It doesn’t have to be the best opera house that everybody thinks,” says Babidge.
Babidge reflects on his experience as a teacher: “It’s really hard to define but in the moment of teaching and seeing someone progress in the moment it can be quite revelatory.”
“I always think that if big voices can use flexibility is a good thing but also using roundness to the sound. If it doesn’t have bloom it’s not very attractive,” says Babidge.
Closeness in Relationships (45:49)
Guest: Arthur Aron, Research Professor of Psychology in the School of Medicine at Stony Brook University
A set of 36 questions has been top of mind on Facebook, social media, and the pages of the New York Times for several weeks now.
“Typically they [relationships] develop by both people sharing personal information,” says Aron.
“If you have been with a person for 40 minutes and you share personal stuff, it’s not hard to find something you like about them,” says Aron.
Chemoresistance (1:17:19)
Guests: Josh Andersen, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at BYU
Mike Alder, head of the BYU Technology Transfer Office (techtransfer.byu.edu)
The American Cancer Society estimates more than a million and a half new cancer cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year and just over half a million people will die of cancer. One reason the disease is so devastating is that it’s wily. Cancer tumors have proven adept at becoming resistant to chemotherapy treatment. They adapt and keep growing, so doctors have to find other ways to try and eradicate the disease before it kills the patient.
BYU biochemist Josh Andersen and the students in his lab believe they’ve found a way to prevent tumors from becoming resistant to chemotherapy.
“We study the protein called 1433. …We have tried to make direct inhibitors. And we have also tried to look at how this 1433 has been regulated in cells and we have discovered this off switch and so by targeting the regulation you can shut it down,” says Andersen.
Crazy Weather (1:02)
Guests: Deke Arndt, monitoring branch chief of NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information
Robert Gillies, Climate Expert and Director of the Utah Climate Center
“The planet is warming, but not equally all over the planet. The arctic is warming up far faster," Giles said.
This winter has been unusually warm for the United States. That’s looking at the national average, temperature, though. While record snowfalls were widespread in the East, record warmth engulfed much of the West. Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Washington all had their warmest winter on record, according to data released today by the National Climatic Data Center of NOAA.
“I think it’s safe to say that for most of the U.S., things are different than they were 20 years ago," Arndt said. “[Our storms are] more intense and having more capacity to deliver precipitation.”
On Top of Mind, we look at the weather disconnect between the East and West of the United States.
Keystone Pipeline (50:24)
Guests: Jeremy Pope, Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at BYU
Larry Baxter, Chemical Engineering Professor at BYU studying sustainable energy
Kevin Book, Managing Director of Research at ClearView Energy Partners.
It’s been six years since TransCanada, a Canadian energy and infrastructure company, applied for the approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, submitting the proposition for the 1,179-mile long pipeline to the U.S. State Department. The plan? To carry oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This bill has been nothing short of controversial, as some look at this legislation as a way to create jobs, while other see it as a threat to the environment. President Obama just vetoed this bill, but that does not necessarily mean this bill is going away.
“It’s difficult to get that oil from Montana out to real markets," Baxter said. "The shale oil is pretty high quality oil from a viscosity standpoint.”
Homeless Counts (1:09)
Guest: Nan Roman, CEO of National Alliance to End Homelessness
Every year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development requires communities to count the number of people staying in homeless shelters on a given night in January. Every other year, communities also have to count the number of people living in places unfit for habitation – like an abandoned building or a park.
“One of the things that data has revealed is the presence of the people who are chronically homeless. There is a group of people who spend a long time homeless, a year continuously or 4 times in 3 years. These are people with disabilities who can’t get out of the homelessness system. We have a solution to their problem which is permanent supportive housing,” says Roman.
Ceres: The Dwarf Planet (19:33)
Guests: Denise Stephens, Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at BYU
Jani Radebaugh, Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at BYU
There is an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and in that asteroid belt, is something that’s not quite an asteroid, but not quite a planet either. It’s a dwarf planet called Ceres and this Friday, a NASA spacecraft will enter its orbit. Ceres is exciting to astronomers because it’s the largest unexplored world in our region of the solar system. What’s it made of? What are those unusually bright spots scientists have spotted in their telescopes? We’ll start getting some answers in a matter of days when the spacecraft that’s been travelling for more than seven years finally gets close enough to enter Ceres’ orbit and starts snapping pictures.
“These few dwarf planets are just the tip of the iceberg of what could be out there,” says Stephens.
“It should be more about physical characteristics: is there a heat source? We should look more about what they are physically doing and less about what they look like,” says Stephens.
Filk Music (40:25)
Guest: Tom Smith, Professional Filk Musician
With its roots in folk music, campfire songs, and comedy, Filk has even influenced popular music, from “nerdcore” rockers like Weezer to parodists like Weird Al.
“It’s just a very small drop in that ocean, the ocean of recorded music. But it’s a very tight community,” says Smith. “We are trying to just entertain—sing for people and have them wing with us.”
Peanut Allergy News (50:51)
Guest: Dean Mitchell, Clinical Expert in Allergy and Immunology in NYC and a member if the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology
Over the past 13 years, the prevalence of peanut allergies has more than quadrupled, and so now schools are peanut-free and food labels carry warnings and kids these days don’t automatically grow up knowing the satisfaction of having your mouth temporarily stuck together by a gooey chunk of PB&J between bread.
In the year 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics went so far as to recommend parents not feed peanuts to kids until they’re three years old to reduce the risk of peanut allergy. But a study just published in The New England Journal of Medicine says that just the opposite may be true. Feeding peanut-foods to babies dramatically reduces their changes of having a peanut allergy by the time they are 5 years old.
“The biggest striking thing is 30 years ago it seemed almost rare to see anyone with a rare food allergy but today, it’s more commonplace. It’s not unusual in a class of 30 children where 4 or 5 of them have peanut allergies,” says Mitchell.
“Most food allergies that have high proteins in them can cause a high reaction. The peanut has always been a great, inexpensive source of protein, so it’s widely available, and it is a high protein food and the higher the protein the more allergenic,” explains Mitchell.
“The difference with the food allergies is that some of these food allergens have been introduced to infants topically through skin products, like shampoos. One of the quickest ways to become allergic is to apply something continually to your skin. That’s been brought up and never fully explored but that may be one of the strongest reasons we have food allergies today,” says Mitchell.
Partisanship (1:11:25)
Guest: Jim Leach, Former member of Congress (R-IA) and former Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities
It’s no secret that Congress isn’t particularly effective at getting things done these days – the latest standoff over funding the Department of Homeland Security involved procedural maneuvers and grandstanding and ultimately an angry split among Republicans in the House, until finally, they passed a funding bill that kicks the can down the road for a few more months. Temporary solutions are seemingly all Congress is able to agree upon as elected Democrats and Republicans become increasingly polarized and divided internally.
Which brings us to Jim Leach, who served 30-years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Iowa. He was elected as a Republican, but angered the party by voting against the Iraq War. Then, after leaving the House, he came out in support of Democrat Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign for President. Leach was branded a turncoat by Republicans. And he was subsequently appointed by Obama to serve as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He’s since left that post and now speaks around the country on the need for more peace and mutual understanding in the halls of government.
“… when it comes to final voting, you have to do what’s best for the country,” says Leach about representatives in the U.S.
“I was appalled with the foreign policy of the US by people that I had helped elect. I believe that America was in the process,” says Leach, “of making the biggest foreign policy mistake and so I voted against the Iraq war.”
Eat 'Em to Beat 'Em (1:17)
Guest: Matt Barnes, Assistant Professor in Natural Resources Management at Texas Tech University. Co-founder of invasivore.org
This weekend marked the end of the National Invasive Species Awareness Week.
The EPA defines an invasive species as “a plant or animal that is non-native to an ecosystem, and whose introduction is likely to cause economic, human health, or environmental damage in that ecosystem. Once established, it is extremely difficult to control their spread.” These species grow rapidly and are causing some concern. Some Notre Dame graduate students decided to take this threat head on, and come up with a way to fight back against invasive species in a very unique way.
“We focus mostly on the education. The idea of eating invasive species all started with exhausted biology students at the field station. We were unwinding one evening with a tongue and cheek eat your study dinner. We noticed that those non-harmful invasive species were on our plate and we started to wonder if we were on to something,” says Barnes.
“The website gives us a chance to talk about biological invasions more generally. It allows us to provide education on invasions,” says Barnes.
“It’s a topic that is unknown to a lot of people and I think with these creative approaches like eating invasive species is a good excuse to talk about it,” says Barnes.
G Proteins (24:14)
Guests: Rebecca Plimpton, PhD. Candidate in Biochemistry at BYU
Barry Willardson, Faculty Advisor in the Biochemistry Department at BYU
Your ability to react fast – and without having to think “Okay, I need adrenaline” – is a result of a special class of protein that has long mystified scientists. So-called “G” Proteins are like the switchboard operators in your cells, telling various processes when to turn on and off.
“We were actually looking for something that happens with G proteins before its attached to the cell membrane. All proteins when they are made start out as a long string of atoms all connected together and in order for the G protein to perform its function that string has to fold into a 3-dimensional, precise shape. Our research looks at how the proteins fold into this shape,” says Plimpton.
Wealth of Nations (51:57)
Guest: Grant Madsen, Political Science Professor at BYU
Time now for another episode of “Our American Heritage.” This is the weekly appointment we have with BYU history professor Grant Madsen.
In the same year that Americans declared their Independence, Adam Smith published his massive inquiry into why some nations seemed to be doing better economically than others. Popularly called the Wealth of Nations, Smith provided a thoughtful meditation on the nature of economic growth, its consequences, and why it might make the world a better place.
Smith had more than an economic agenda, though. He also wanted to change politics. Ideally he hoped to bring peace to Europe. Thus, much of his explanation of what we call economics today had to do with social organization and moral reform. In the end, he hoped that free markets might bring people together rather than tear them apart.
“Obviously it’s about wealth,” says Madsen, “but a lot of what he’s writing about is how to find a solution to the perpetual problem of war.”
“If you want to be wealthy, you have to have a division of labor,” says Madsen. “But Smith is saying wealth is not money—it’s not gold, it’s not silver… you’re wealthy as a nation if you produce more stuff.”
Parenting and Depression (1:14:47)
Guest: Kevin Shafer, Assistant Professor of Social Work at BYU
The Brady’s made it look so easy, didn’t they? Blending families, step-parenting, finding harmony.
In real-life, stepdads are really stressed out and prone to depression. Researchers at Brigham Young University and Princeton studied just how much stress different members in a blended family experienced and found dads topped the list.
“We all have an image of the wicked stepmother… what Dads’ face that’s different than stepmoms, is that they have an awkward middle ground,” says Shafer, “Am I supposed to be like a biological father? Like a cool uncle? It’s quite ambiguous.”
Stress and depression relates to how many new roles stepparents take on, says Shafer. “The expectations of moms are usually pretty solid... whereas for Dads there’s a lot more variability in what parenting looks like.”
“I think the biggest mistake that blended families make is that they don’t communicate with each other,” says Shafer. “They don’t go in talking about all the baggage they’re bringing into the relationship, not talking about their previous marriage, not going through everything that goes with divorce, and just jumping into new relationships.”
“They’re not having the conversations they need to have with their kids. If you have children who are of the age that they can communicate with you, their opinions and impressions should be integrated into what the family will look like,” says Shafer.
Hostile Bosses (1:30:04)
Guest: Marie Mitchell, Associate Professor of Management at the University of Georgia
The old saying goes that you attract more flies with honey than vinegar. But according to a study published in the journal of Personnel Psychology last month, employees who strike back against their abusive bosses fared better psychologically than those who cowered.
“By and large a primary reaction is 3rd party employees get pretty angered by it… abusive supervision is not cool behavior.”
Abusive behaviors are “incredibly financially costly to the work environment. These are not productive behaviors for the work environment.”
Three World Events That Matter (1:12)
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science at BYU
Everyone is paying attention to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. His address to both chambers of the US Congress was televised internationally and offered sharp criticism of the Obama Administration’s ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is running as a security candidate—someone who is trying to stand up for Israel’s security issues,” says Mecham.
“Since the year 2000, Russian democracy has been on the decline,” says Mecham on Putin’s terms as president and prime minister.
Meditation and the Brain (26:38)
Guest: Emily Lindsay, graduate student at Carnegie Melon and co-author of a new report on the effects of meditation on the brain
Meditation and mindfulness have, for centuries, been known to improve mental and physical well-being. It can alleviate stress and even loneliness. But only recently have researchers begun to understand why.
“Meditation is a pretty broad and mindfulness meditation is a specific type of meditation. The point is to bring your attention to something and you can choose what that thing is. You can focus on thoughts, your emotion. You are letting these emotions rise and pass. You are really just observing what is happening in the present moment,” says Lindsay.
“The idea here is that eventually this feeling of emptiness can become a sources of quiet and comfort,” says Lindsay on loneliness and mindfulness training.
Apple Seed (43:46)
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
We listen to a preview of Diane Ferlatte’s story, “The Word the Devil Made Up”.
Net Neutrality (52:18)
Guest: Michael Hiltzik, Columnist for the LA Times
After a year of deliberation and millions of public comments, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that access to the internet is a lot like a phone service and so internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon are now going to be regulated like phone companies. Just like the phone company can’t give certain calls priority over others based on the content or destination of your call, internet companies won’t be allowed to give preferential treatment to certain content or websites. So, for example, Comcast won’t be able to strike a deal with Netflix that guarantees you get faster broadband when you’re streaming the latest House of Cards episode while the person next door has their speed slowed down because they’re streaming on a site that doesn’t have a deal with Comcast. This is called Net Neutrality and it’s had the tech industry tied up in knots for months as the FCC deliberated over the decision.
“Internet access has become so engrained in what we do every day, it’s something that we now view as crucial to the way we live and work. The FCC now believes it should be regulated as a utility,” says Hiltzik.
“It allows more competition for the Netflix and YouTubers of the world to arise,” says Hiltzik.
Civics Education (1:17:19)
Guest: Frank Riggs, CEO of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Joe Foss Institute, former U.S. Congressman, and a national education leader
Some 650,000 became naturalized citizens of the United States last year, and in doing so, passed a civics test that would stump most natural-born citizens.
“We think that the civics test is just a floor, a baseline way to gauge that fundamental teaching and learning is occurring,” says Riggs.
“I believe the fundamental responsibility of education,” says Riggs, “is to prepare young people for citizenship.”
The principles found in the Constitution “are what unite us as Americans. They are the inspiration and the pathway to liberty, prosperity, and opportunity in our society,” says Riggs.
Citizen Science: Valley of the Khans with Albert Lin (1:11)
Guest: Albert Lin, Research Scientist at the University of California, San Diego and an emerging explorer at the National Geographic Exploration
People are commemorating a key moment in the Civil Rights movement—the Selma Montgomery march that took place 50 years ago this week. Many people coming together and marching is one way to make a change.
In this digital age, there’s increasing opportunity to mobilize virtually – to combine the expertise of many hundreds of thousands of people – and make something happen. Petitions circulated on Change.org routinely prompt public officials and corporations to take action. The Smithsonian Museums have a crowd-sourcing website where people with spare time or an excess of enthusiasm for history can help transcribe documents in the museum collection that are too hard for a computer to decipher. Along those same lines, anytime you get one of those “captcha” tests when you’re posting or signing up for something on the internet, you’re proving you’re not a robot while simultaneously teaching computers how to better read handwritten documents.
The scientific world is particularly keen on capturing the power of the group. Players of an online puzzle game called FoldIt have helped advance our knowledge of how proteins are structured. What else might “citizen scientists” be able to solve?
“There is this idea that we can participate in science at an individual level but also that those individual contributions can come together to be bigger than those corporations alone. When we start to mobilize,” says Lin, “together we can really change how we think of individual participation in science.”
EU and Greece (16:10)
Guest: Wade Jacoby, Professor of Political Science at BYU
There are undoubtedly leaders of some European countries shaking their heads right now and wondering if it was such a good idea after all to switch to a common European currency. They’ve been forced to agree to yet another round of bailout funds for Greece, whose debt crisis has been dragging on the rest of the Eurozone for years. This latest bailout is only temporary – lasting four more months – and requires Greek officials to commit to tough reforms, including sharp tax hikes and budget cuts. Such harsh measures have already pushed Greek unemployment to over 25 percent in the last several years. If Greece’s economy were allowed to collapse the other 19 countries tied to it by a common currency would also suffer. You have to wonder if this is an eventuality those countries foresaw when they signed on to use the Euro.
There would be some consequences for the rest of the Euro zone.
“..having a weak country like Greece join stronger countries like Germany and the Netherlands, it weakens the value of the Euro,” says Jacoby.
“It’s a pretty complicated thing to do. It can be done, but it’s not easy,” says Jacoby on setting up a new currency.
Snoring and Sleep Apnea (33:11)
Guest: Helena Schotland, Division Sleep Specialist in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Health Systems
Some of the latest research indicates that children diagnosed with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder may actually be suffering the effects of sleep apnea. And the extreme fatigue people with MS experience could also be a result of sleep apnea.
“As people age, unfortunately we get kind of floppy on the outside. As we age, we also get floppy on the inside. People may develop sleep apnea over time,” says Schotland.
“The brain often wakes up for a split second and you go back to sleep and you don’t even realize it. But if you do this 100 times during the night it’s as if someone comes and pokes you and wakes you up 100 times in the night. You need sleep that is not interrupted—what we called consolidated sleep where you fall asleep but also stay asleep for an extended period of time,” says Schotland.
“We’re finding many more people,” says Schotland, “who have sleep apnea who might have been diagnosed with something else in the past.”
Social Networking and Crisis (51:57)
Guest: Lewis Borck, PhD. Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Arizona
A Pew Research study done in 2010 said that a little more than four-in-ten American adults know most or all of their neighbors. Maybe we just don’t feel the need to be as connected to those who live near us. Or maybe it’s the fault of Facebook and Instagram, making us feel connected online, while being isolated in the real world. Whatever the reason, researchers at the University of Arizona say you might want to focus a little more on building connections with your neighbors. Pottery unearthed in the American southwest show the bigger your social circle, the better you’re equipped to handle a crisis like a natural disaster.
“We can actually watch large groups of multiple villages and multiple cities and how they are coming together and how they treat their neighbors and persist or survive in a difficult time. You are more likely to survive in a crisis if you are socially connected to people in your area,” says Brock.
Parent Previews: Lazarus Effect and Leonard Nimoy (1:05:33)
Guests: Rod & Kerry Gustafson of Parent Previews
A moment of reflection now, on the passing of TV and film star Leonard Nimoy – best known as Dr. Spock, of course. Considering how iconic his character and the TV show Star Trek have become, it’s incredible to think the original series only aired for three seasons from 1966 to 1969. It’s been in reruns constantly since then – which is how I came to know and love Nimoy as Spock during my childhood. And of course, there have been countless spin offs and remakes of the original.
Nimoy died Friday at the age of 83 from chronic lung disease. And we start with him today as we connect with Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett of Parent Previews for our weekly chat about film.
“He had a lot of talent,” says Rod Gustafson about Leonard Nimoy.
"There's this conflict between science and religion in this movie, but it's all zombies by the end. Very much your zombie science fiction movie," says Kerry Gustafson.
Tech Transfer (1:18:05)
Guests: Bryan Morse, Professor of Computer Science at BYU
David Brown, with the BYU Technology Transfer Office
As digital cameras get more advanced—and even allow people to capture 3-D video—the editing software needs to keep pace.
“We’re all used to going to the movies and seeing 3-d movies. Those are done with stereo cameras. Just the same way stereo has 2 speakers and you get a richer volume of sound, the same is with visual audio,” says Morse.
“I try to teach my students that anything that we do,” says Morse, “a user can do interactively if they spend enough time on it. Our goal is to save people time. The more we can automate the more and more value there is for the users. We want to do the heavy lifting and save the people from doing the tedious part of the process.”
Segregation in Post-Civil Rights Era
Guests: Jacob Rugh, BYU Sociologist
Douglas Massey, Sociologist in the Office of Population at Princeton University
We’re more than 50 years beyond the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. It outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It also ended segregation in schools and public places and a follow-up act four years later ended the practice of housing discrimination. However, new research shows high levels of racial segregation in hundreds of cities across the country.
“There is a connection between the size of population and the presence of segregation,” says Rugh.
“In general the West is less segregated, but it doesn’t fall cleanly along regional lines,” says Massey.
Painkiller Abuse
Guests: Anita Gupta, Medical director of the Division of Pain Medicine and Regional Anesthesiology at Hahnemann University Hospital and Drexel University College of Medicine.
Jo Ann Petrie, Research Development Specialist for BYU’s FHSS and the MRI Research Facility
More people die from prescription drug overdoses in the United States each year than die in auto accidents, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The vast majority of those drugs are prescription pain killers. The CDC has termed painkiller abuse the “worst drug addiction epidemic in the country’s history, killing more people than heroin and crack cocaine.”
Late last year, the government enacted new rules attempting to curb access to the drugs that contain highly-addicted “opioids.” We explore the nature of the painkiller abuse epidemic and the challenges in stopping it.
“This discussion is about how powerful these drugs are,” says Petri, a mother whose son passed away from a heroin overdose. “When we did find out, it was 2-3 years before he actually died. He died on a third relapse and that is the problem with addiction, it’s relapsing.”
“The main issue is these drugs are extremely powerful. They have a right place,” says Gupta. “We need to question whether it’s the right thing to do—I often times think physicians aren’t doing that. That is a core of the issue. There needs to be better education, even on a physician’s level.”
Solar Power (1:03)
Guest: Dr. Gregory Reed, Director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Energy and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Pittsburgh
Oil, coal, and natural gas are the world’s chief sources of energy. Many refer to those resources as “fossil fuels,” because they are the remnants of organic matter that existed on the planet millions of years ago. As earth’s human population grows, we’ll hear—with increased frequency—about how fossil fuels are finite resources, and that their use damages the planet. One alternative fuel source with seemingly limitless potential is solar energy. We are going to examine some of the factors that might enable us to become more efficient in our use of solar power.
“In the long term, mixes of renewables with the continued use of the cleaner developed fossil energy is going to be a big part of what our future looks like,” says Reed.
Computational Creativity (21:56)
Guest: Dan Ventura, Professor of Computer Science at BYU
PIERRE stands for Pseudo-Intelligent Evolutionary Real-Time Recipe Engine and he was developed in the computational creativity lab of BYU professor Dan Ventura.
“Creativity is sort of an inherently contestable idea. There are people that argue that that is exactly what it is and it’s not meant to be agreed upon,” says Ventura.
The Teenage Brain (38:21)
Guest: Frances Jensen, Chari of the Department of Neuroscience at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Teenagers are more impulsive, moody, and susceptible to addictions. That’s not just folk wisdom—that’s hard science about which medicine has shown us a great deal in recent years. Dr. Frances Jensen has synthesized our current knowledge about the nature and limitations of the teenage brain aptly called The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults.
“You know that there is biology at work. It certainly doesn’t give them a free pass for all they’re doing but it makes you understand them,” says Jensen.
“This generation still has issues with distraction. They may be better at some things but the brain has its limits, it has its thresholds,” says Jensen.
Great Salt Lake Institute (51:43)
Guest: Bonnie Baxter, Director of the Great Salt Lake Institute
We as earthlings have made some really remarkable advancements in space exploration over the past year. A manned balloon reached the stratosphere. 3-D printing took place on the International Space Station, and the European Space Agency landed a satellite on a comet. Even as we imagine using resources from beyond our own planet, some scientists focus their efforts on earth's unexplored possibilities. Dr. Bonnie Baxter us a Utah-based scientist whose research focuses on a geographic landmark that many people have avoided due to its pungent odor and its seemingly barren ecosystem. Dr. Baxter studies the Great Salt Lake and she sends water samples to other researchers around the world. Dr. Baxter is director of the Great Salt Lake Institute, which is based out of Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“Some cells [pulled out of the lake] can grow right on top of salt crystals,” says Baxter.
“[Sunburns] cause direct DNA damage.” Halophiles at the Great Salt Lake may have characteristics that will help us develop more effective sunscreens.
eSight Glasses (1:21:02)
Guest: Taylor West, Director of outreach for eSight
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some 20 million Americans have vision problems, ranging from those who are legally blind to people who wear corrective lenses but still struggle to see well. To this point, the legally blind population has had limited options for enhancing their sight. Traditionally, glasses can only do so much.
But digital eyeglasses? That's another story. A Canadian company called eSight has patented an eyeglass that incorporates a digital video camera and LED screen and the results so far are pretty remarkable.
“[After using eSight] I am able to go to the library and read any book I want,” says Demers.
Kino Border Initiative (1:11)
Guest: Reverend Sean Carroll, Executive Director of the Kino Border Initiative
The Department of Homeland Security will run out of funding on Friday unless Congress can agree on a budget for the agency that secures our borders. The stand-off is tied to Republican trying to undo President Obama’s executive action on immigration. There’s ongoing political disagreement about how to handle the problem of people crossing into the U.S. illegally. After a decade’s decline in the number of illegal migrants begin apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, the department of Customs and Border Protection says 2014 saw a spike. They attribute that increase to unaccompanied children and families turning themselves in over the summer. Discussion on this side of the border often focuses on what to do with nearly half-a-million illegal migrants who were apprehended last year. Jail them? Send them back to Mexico? The side of the story we rarely hear about is what happens to those people once they’re dropped off on the side of the border.
“For many if not all, it’s the most traumatic experience of their lives,” says Carroll on deportation.
“We have a lot of mothers who are separated from their children who are in the United States. There are no words,” says Carroll, “to describe the experience of a mother who cannot be with her children.”
Super Journalist (20:00)
Guest: Lewis DVorkin, Chief Product Officer at Forbes Media
In 2013, the Pew Research Center says 82% of Americans got news on a desktop or laptop and more than had said they received news on a mobile device. Many young people get their news almost exclusively from what shows up from friends and sponsors on Facebook or Twitter feeds. This shifts in news consumption is helping usher in a new role for journalists.
“I have always believed that the mission of journalism is to inform,” says DVorkin.
“If they’re going to understand their audience they need to understand what the audience consumes and how they consume their stories,” says DVorkin on journalists.
“Today’s most successful journalists,” says DVorkin “will be the most knowledgeable about a specific category.”
Turning CO2 to Rock (39:52)
Guest: Pete McGrail, Research Fellow at Northwest National Laboratory
Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of life. It’s what we exhale in every breath and it’s one of the things left over from most of our means of transportation and energy production. Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps heat, making it a major contributor to global warming. So the focus on reducing CO2 emissions is twofold: emit less and keep what we do emit from reaching the atmosphere. There’s long been talk of trapping CO2 as it escapes the smokestack of a power plant and pumping it underground. But since the CO2 is still a gas, there’s always a chance it could escape and make its way back into the atmosphere. So what if, rather than burying it under a rock, we turn the CO2 into a rock?
“What happens when we can extract those metals, is they can bond with the CO2 and form carbonate minerals, what people know as limestone,” says McGrail.
Declaration of Independence (51:10)
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History Professor
This is the weekly appointment we have with BYU history professor Grant Madsen who shares insights with us as he teaches an introductory American History course this semester. Each week brings a new lecture topic and a deeper understanding of how our nation was founded.
Better Traffic Signs (1:14:17)
Guest: Ryan Elder, BYU Marriott School of Management Professor
Picture the standard crosswalk sign on roads here in the U.S. It’s the yellow one, usually shaped like a house with the black stick figure on it. The figure looks like it’s kind of ambling along, right? Well, that may be limiting the sign’s effectiveness. Apparently, more dynamic street sign images work better.
Islam (1:30:02)
Guest: Shadman Bashir, Professor of Law and International Relations at Dixie State University
Shadman Bashir is a native of the city of Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan. He’s a practicing Muslim and an attorney trained in a mix of English, Islamic, and U.S. law. Bashir recently visited BYU to do something he finds himself doing a lot of these days—explaining what Islam is and what it isn’t. He says it’s not just Westerners who get it wrong, but even people in predominantly Muslim countries misunderstand Islam. They see it as a single monolith—like a rock face with a single way to be Muslim and a single interpretation of Islamic belief.
Truth, Lies, and O-Rings (1:16)
Guest: Allan McDonald, author of “Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster”
The explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986 killed all 7 crew members, as America watched in shock.
“I was in the launch control center and frankly very nervous because just the night before, my company had recommended not launching because there was a cold front,” says McDonald. Grandma Rodeo (23:51)
Guest: Nancy Hunter, two-time winner at Rodeo Houston, Barrel Racing Grandma
58 year-old Nancy Hunter is pretty much the coolest grandma on the block.
Nancy has motivated others to pursue their dreams, despite their age. “If it’s helping others to get off the couch and follow their dreams, then so be it,” says Hunter on telling people her age.
“I used to be that child on the side of the rode,” says Hunter, “that used to be like ‘Can I pet your horse? Can I ride your horse?’”
“We’re all competitors, but it’s not a cutthroat thing. It’s a game and you just try to play it to the best of your ability. For the most part, we all get along well,” says Hunter on her relationships with her competitors.
The Viral Equivalent of the Enigma Code (52:23)
Guest: Peter Stockley, Professor of Biological Chemistry in the University of Leeds’ Faculty of Biology Sciences
During World War ll, a team of scientists, including the father of the Modern Day computer, Alan Turing, managed to crack the “Enigma Code” used by the Nazis to scramble their secret communications. Maybe you’ve seen the movie about their efforts called The Imitation Game. Well, it turns out that viruses may have an Enigma Code, too: a genetic message embedded in the virus that tells it how to replicate and wreak havoc on the immune system.
“You can think of virus particles as a transport vehicle as the nucleic acid gets wrapped in the protein cell,” says Stockley.
“There is a hidden code that people don’t really suspect. It’s a set of instruction,” says Stockley “how to build that protection cell around the nucleic acid.”
Month of Letters (1:06:14)
Guest: Mary Robinette Kowal, leader of the movement A Month of Letters
“We have about 7,000 people signed up this year which was astonishing. The first year, we had around 700 sign up. People have been really excited about it,” says Kowal.
“The internet is a perfectly useful tool; it’s about taking time and thinking about one other person. People are rediscovering the intimacy of communication,” says Kowal.
When & Why We Laugh (1:19:08)
Guest: Scott Weems, neuroscientist at the University of Maryland and author of “HA! The Science of When We Laugh and Why”
When was the last time you really laughed? Was it because someone told a joke? Or you saw something in life that you found absurd? Maybe a sarcastic snipe on Twitter gave you a chuckle? Or perhaps your last laugh was a nervous one. When we are unsure what else to do, we often resort to laughter, don’t we?
Humor is complicated. As is humor’s most common symptom, laughter.
“Usually there is a meaning behind it, some subtle message. That’s the case with any joke; there is usually a message behind it,” explains Weems. “Our brains hate to be bored.”
“Surprise is a start, but you also have to have an outcome too,” says Weems, “a new way of thinking after the punch line.”
Global Seafood Market
Guest: Gavin Gibbons, Vice President of Communications for the nonprofit organization National Fisheries Institute
The Christian season of Lent is underway, during which many Catholics abstain from red meat on Fridays and eat fish instead. That has us thinking about the state of the seafood industry. Pollution, warming temperatures and radiation
“The future of seafood and expanded consumption of seafood is going to come from fish farms. It’s not only safe, it’s a smart choice,” says Gibbons.
“People are not being mercury poisoned. That’s sort of an old way of thinking,” says Gibbons. “The benefits outweigh the risks in terms of mercury and in terms of ingesting it.”
“There is no concern in terms of radiation and commercial seafood,” reassures Gibbons, “coming off the coasts of Japan.”
Reading Unopened Scrolls
Guests: Roger Macfarlane, Classics Professor at BYU
Brent Seales, Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky
The eruption of Mount Vesuvias in 79 AD buried entire cities in volcanic ash. The Roman town of Herculaneum was destroyed, including a tremendous trove of scrolls. The contents of this ancient library are virtually unknown.
“Many of the scrolls were in fact open physically and you can see the writing doing that. The problem is that they are so fragile,” says Seale.
“The images that come from the scanner,” explains Seale, “look more like slicing something on a deli slicer. They don’t give you the flattened surface and that’s where we need to computer science to create that.”
“We’ve been able over the centuries,” says MacFarlane, “to be able to edit complete texts of the Herculaneum papyri.”
Gross National Happiness
Guest: Dr. Ed Diener, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia and University of Utah
The Pursuit of Happiness is enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, but as a nation, we’re far more concerned with measures such as interest rates, unemployment, and economic output.
The tiny South Asian kingdom of Bhutan has taken a different approach—for forty years, it has been measuring Gross National Happiness instead of “Gross Domestic Product.” The results of that focus have been mixed, but a global discussion about the value of measuring “well-being” is underway. The UK is collecting national “life satisfaction” statistics for possible use in developing policies. Japan and Chile are considering the same thing. Even here in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention take periodic stock of people’s satisfaction with life in some health surveys.
The overarching question though, is whether or not happiness is something that can be measured reliably.
“Happiness is a bit of a tricky word so we labeled it subjective wellbeing. What we mean by it,” explains Diener “and what we measure are people’s feelings and appraisals, their judgment of how life’s going. How satisfied are you are as a whole? If you could live your life over, how much would you change? How close is your life to your ideal?”
“First of all, it reflects the overall quality of life in society. It gives a broad picture that goes beyond money,” says Diener on why happiness measurements matter.
“It’s not just telling you how society’s doing, but how it’s going to do better.”
Mind Games and Manipulation
Guest: Diane Benscoter, author of “Shoes of a Servant: My Unconditional Devotion to a Lie” and founder of Own Your Own Brain
Young radicals from Western nations including America are swelling the ranks of the Islamic State. They are recruited through slick marketing and compelling messages that convey the opportunity to be part of something bigger that ones’ self—to belong, to have meaning.
We discuss the impacts of manipulation on Top of Mind.
“I see it in a variety of places. We see it in gangs, we see it in terrorist organizations like ISIS, we see it in relationships sometimes. There’s the type that goes on in businesses that takes advantage of people of scams. It can appear in a variety of situations in society,” says Benscoter.
Ownyourbrain.org, empowering individuals to resist manipulation
“It’s like a fire, if it doesn’t have oxygen, it can’t burn,” says Benscoter on resisting manipulation.
Oscar Recap
Guests: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett, Parentpreviews.com
Social media is a-flutter today with Oscar gossip. The Twitter consensus is that John Travolta was creepy, John Legend and Common made everyone weep with their Best Song winner “Glory” from the movie Selma and Best Supporting Actress winner Patricia Arquette’s call for women to be paid equally has generated heated debate.
“I wasn’t really surprised, but I was disappointed,” reflects Gustafson and Bennett about last night’s Oscars.
“These are industry professionals and Birdman just plays right into them. It’s about a washed up actor who’s trying to reignite his career. They [The Academy] are biased. They really love movies about movies, about people who are in the industry,” says Gustafson.
Tech Transfer – Brad Bundy Enzymes
Guests: Brad Bundy, Biotech
Mike Alder, head of the BYU Technology Transfer Office
The complexity of human life boils down to just 20 building blocks called amino acids. In a laboratory here at Brigham Young University under the director of Brad Bundy, researchers are trying to expand that vocabulary of building blocks. If they succeed, we could have better ways to treat cancer, better vaccines, and better way to sense the presence of hazardous chemicals in our environment.
“Proteins are the catalysts of life. They’re the things that make all the chemical reactions in our bodies. They are the reason that everything occurs,” says Bundy.
“Over half of the top grossing drugs are proteins,” says Bundy. “They are very exciting in their application.”
“Inside cells, if you want to try to recode, to try to put a lot of these manmade proteins into amino acids, it’s really hard to do inside a living cell.”
Neighborhoods and Schools
Guests: Felton Earls, Research Professor of Human Behavior and Development in the Harvard School of Public Health
Gary Seastrand, Former Public School Teacher and Administrator, directs the BYU Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education & Schooling
Bill Hulterstrom, CEO of the United Way of Utah County
A neighborhood used to be a place where kids played together outside and people sat on their porches plugged into what was happening on their block instead of online on their Facebook feeds. In many neighborhoods, all of the kids would go to the same school just a few blocks away.
The nature of neighborhoods in America has fundamentally changed, thanks to housing policies and open enrollment school systems and the internet’s power to make us feel more connected to someone on the other side of the world to the person living next door.
“Trust was important. More important than trust was what we call agency or a sense that you care enough about what was going wrong in the neighborhood to intervene. If a child was disrespecting an adult, neighbors would intervene and correct the child,” says Earls.
Evolution of Language/Grammar
Guests: Dr. Vyv Evans, Professor of Linguistics at Bangor University and author of Language of the Mind
Cynthia Hallen, Professor of English Language and Linguistics at BYU
We all use it, we all had to learn it, and we all know what it sounds like when its not used the right way. It’s called grammar. Yes, the important topic of grammar. Why we have it? Where did grammar emerge? What's the nature of it in our language. The rules and words behind languages change all the time, but how?
“You read style manuals and they will tell you that there is a fixed grammatical correct way of deploying grammar. But it actual evolves amazing quickly,” says Evans, “at different rates. English has changed dramatically beyond recognition within the past 1,000 years.”
For example,”’Ain’t’ used to be a legal form for the first person,” says Hallen.
Secure Voting
Guest: Dan Wallach, Professor of Computer Science and a Rice Scholar in the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University
STAR-vote: An ideal electronic voting system that solves the security and accuracy dilemma of previous voting methods.
“The current electronic voting systems are not really engineered with security in mind,” says Wallach.
“An ideal voting system has to be easy to use even for a variety of people with different disabilities,” says Wallach. “But likewise, an ideal voting machine has to be something that works for the poll workers. And it has to work for the security auditors. And it has to serve the candidates by providing evidence that is meaningful to them. And it has to serve the public by providing evidence that is meaningful to them. And on top of all of that, it has to be affordable.”
Perovskite
Guest: Michael Graetzel, Director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne
The cost of solar energy has been dropping rapidly in recent years, as scientists find better, cheaper ways to build panels that can convert sunlight to electricity.
Traditionally, those panels have been coated in silicon, but there’s increasing excitement over a mineral found in the Earth’s mantle called “perovskite” which seems to be much better at absorbing sunlight. These minerals have been known about for a hundred years, but their photovoltaic properties were fairly recently discovered by accident when a team at the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne used colorful perovskite crystals as a molecular dye on solar cell.
Graetzel says that perovskite “comes as a gift from God. The crystals that are formed are unusually pure. Silicon purification are very costly. Perovskite comes out very pure.—very few materials have that property.”
Teen Brains and Food
Chad Jensen, BYU Psychology Professor
More than a third of American children and adolescents are overweight or obese. The CDC says the primary reason is “caloric imbalance”: kids are consuming more calories than they burn. That seems fairly obvious, but the solutions aren’t as simple. New research out of BYU’s MRI laboratory suggests that teenagers can train their brains to choose healthier food options.
“Our results suggest that physical activity is a key part. Even if one is in the overweight or obese category, physical activity is reliable. The study kind of underscores the importance of physical activity,” says Jensen.
Insurance Coverage
Guests: Mitch Vilos, Personal Injury Attorney
Ann Fadel, Farmer’s Insurance Agent
The moment of impact in a car accident may be the most terrifying, but it’s certainly not the end of the pain you’re likely to experience—particularly if the accident is your fault. You’ll wrangle with your insurance company. The other drive will too. You’ll inevitably be surprised or frustrated at what your insurance actually covers. There are probably gaps in your policy you never thought to ask about.
And then, you might even get a call from the other driver’s attorney. Though personal injury lawsuits are declining, there were still more than 60,000 of them filed in U.S. Courts in 2013 with an average payout of $60,000 for the plaintiff.
“You just don’t want to be without coverage—it’s so dangerous. The most dangerous things we do as citizens of the United States is get into a car,” says Mitch.
The New Harper Lee Novel
Guest: Chris Crowe, BYU English Professor
Picture the scene in black and white. A young Gregory Peck, in suit and spectacles, sits on a porch swing talking to a distressed little girl named Scout. Despite the popularity of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee never published another book. Well, until now.
To Kill a Mockingbird remains to be a required reading for junior and high school students across the country. “Sometimes teachers are looking for stories that their readers can connect with. They have a character that is more easily identifiable for a teen reader,” says Crowe.
NASA SMAP
Guest: Vanessa Escobar, Support Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
Despite pockets of intense snowfall and ice across parts of the South and Northeast, the U.S. Drought Monitor says 44 percent of the nation is “abnormally dry” and a quarter of the U.S. is experiencing some form of drought. California, Nevada, and parts of Texas are seeing the worst of it.
NASA has a new mission that promises to better predict drought, improve flood warning systems and even help farmers forecast crop yields. It’s a satellite called “SMAP,” which launched on January 31st. SMAP stands for “Soil Moisture Active Passive.”
“The information from the satellite is meant to enhance and inform processes that are already in place,” says Escober.
The satellite can provide useful information for many professions. “The farmer is not going to use the data directly,” says Escober. “We have people that are going to process this information and make it very useable. It’s going to be scaled to the relevance of an individual.”
2.3 Billion Year Old Fossil
Guest: Malcolm Walter, Professor of Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney
Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection says that organisms evolve in response to changes in their environment. So the flip side of Darwin’s theory is that if there’s no change in an environment, organisms won’t change either. Evidence of an organism that has remained completely unchanged for millions of years fully supports Darwin’s theory of evolution. Fossils dating from 1.8 to 2.8 billion years old remain untouched on the ocean’s floor.
“On the sea floor there’s mud, very soft mud,” says Walter, “and there’s microbes living in that mud.”
Walter says oxygen is what drives evolution. “In ancient times, the whole of the earth had very little oxygen in waters of the ocean and the atmosphere.”
Securing our Digital Lives
Guest: Dale Rowe, Cybersecurity Expert and IT Professor at BYU
Kids these days are constantly plugged into the Internet through laptops, phones, and tablets. But with all of this access comes dangers: children stumbling onto dangerous or inappropriate websites, or losing valuable personal information with just a swipe or a click.
“It’s definitely an option,” says Rowe on filters. “For a desktop computers or laptops, it’s relatively effective. They’re fairly good at blocking deliberate searches. But, they are really just a first layer of defense. Sometimes it’s not just getting around, it’s the device as well. You might put a filter on your laptop but there might be 6 or 7 other device in the house that might not be protected.”
“Have a good relationship,” advises Rowe. “It’s really about if you can feel comfortable talking to your kid, if they feel comfortable talking to you. Don’t make them feel condemned about finding something” on the Internet.
“My four year old has been playing on tablets since he was two. He didn’t know what he was doing at two but now he’s four. It’s kind of startling how fast he gets there. We told him ‘Okay, it’s time to get off.’ We tried to take the tablet away from him and he threw a fit. They’re a good way to relax every now and then but they shouldn’t be a way of life,” says Rowe.
Passions and Interests
Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History Professor
This week’s “American Heritage” segment analyzes passions and interests and if greed is ever a good thing.
“There were always rich people that lived like kings but that is because they were literally the king,” said Madsen.
There must be a balance between greed and hard work. “The key is where to do you learn discipline?” said Madsen. “Where do you learn the qualities of key character that can keep you under control?”
Concussions and Magnets
Guest: Dr. Ray Colello, Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
The National Football League is negotiating a settlement with 5,000 former players who accuse the NFL of hiding the dangers of concussions. Efforts to address the problem of football head injuries has fallen along two lines – educating players and coaches about the danger of concussion and redesigning helmets to better protect players. Dr. Colello believes magnets might be a better answer than adding more padding to a football helmet.
“We’re not talking about putting the magnets on the outside of the helmet, but on the inside by the polycarbonated shell,” says Colello. This reduces the linear forces and extends the time impact takes place.
Peaceful Muslims
Guest: Ruth Nasrullah, Freelance Journalist and Communications Director of the Houston Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
Another horrifying video is being circulated by ISIS that shows 21 several dozen Egyptian Christians executed on a beach in Libya.
Tomorrow in Washington, President Obama will host a White House summit on Countering Violent Extremism. The meeting has come under criticism from Muslim groups who say their faith is too much the target of summit discussion. This is a difficult time for peaceful Muslims in America and abroad who find themselves maligned, misunderstood, and even tragically murdered because of their faith.
“The Texas Muslim Capitol Day is the opportunity for some to visit the state capitol, meet with their state representative, and discuss issues of concern,” says Nasrullah. But first time visitors received more than they bargained for when protestors rallied outside to scream and harass them. “They were protesting everything about us—that we were Muslim, that we were there, that we were being a part of the system. The really sad thing was there were many children there,” reflected Nasrullah, “and it was their first time visiting the capitol, and meeting representatives, and when they saw these protestors screaming, some actually cried. It was a tough start to the day.”
“It’s not often a child would have to face that kind of protest. But when they are questioned in school, I think they need to reach from their teachings from their religion and the prophet Mohamed,” says Nasrullah.
“I can only be horrified when anyone kills for any reason at all. Islam is a religion of mercy, so when I see things that ISIS does, I know that they aren’t practicing the religion I know because it is a religion of mercy,” says Nasrullah on ISIS.
Unboiling Eggs and Cancer Treatment
Guest: Gregory Weiss, Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at the University of California, Irvine
How to boil an egg is among the simplest first lessons a home cook learns. Unboiling the egg, is certainly not. A team at the University of California, Irvine, in partnership with Australian chemists, recently published a paper in the journal ChemBioChem explaining how to turn a boiled hen egg back into liquid to help reduce costs in cancer treatments.
“I’m really interested in the proteins that drive cancer cells to become tumors. Those kinds of protein cells,” says Weiss, “are truly evil. I want develop things that will detect those kinds of proteins so we can quickly diagnose the cancer.”
Storytelling
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
Storyteller Bil Lepp tells about “The Armadillo Recon Unit”
Drone Law
Guest: Tim McLain, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at BYU and Director of the “Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems”
Over the weekend, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed new rules for operating small commercial drones. Until now, the FAA has cracked down on private businesses or hobbyists flying the unmanned aircraft. The proposed rules would allow people to use drones in limited circumstances, though it will likely be several years before the regulations are official and the air begins to buzz with machines.
“I think it’s pretty clear there needs to be some regulations as to where and how these aircrafts need to be flown. The rules that were released this weekend is a good start,” says McLain.
Family Impacts Economic Success
W. Bradford Wilcox, Sociologist and Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia
“When you’re looking at raising kids, it’s much easier to do with two parents in the home,” says Wilcox.
“Married men tend to make 16,000 dollars more than their single peers,” whereas for women, “there is no personal financial advantage of getting married, or any penalty,” explains Wilcox.
“In general we found, kids in a single parent family tend to do worse,” says Wilcox, “as compared to a two parent family, doing the best.”
Untold Stories of U.S. Presidents
Guest: Rick Beyer, author of “The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy”
We know about their leadership techniques, the various policies they’ve implemented, and the lasting effect they’ve had on our nation, but what do we know about their lives outside of the public eye? From George Washington’s custody battle to Jimmy Carter’s UFO sighting, we get insight into some of the juiciest stories on the most powerful men in U.S. history.
“George Washington is not our first president. He is our first president under the constitution,” says Beyer, “but our country existed about 8 years before the constitution was ratified, and during that time we had a bunch of presidents. The first one was John Hanson—he is actually our first president.”
Women Undercover in the Civil War
Guest: Kern Abott, Best-selling author including “Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy”
Pick up a book about Civil War history and you’re likely to read about Generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant and the men who fought under them for the future of the nation. Women figure into the story mainly as the wives and girlfriends back home whose letters and pictures gave the men on the front something to live for. But that’s because you haven’t read best-selling author Karen Abott’s new book about Emma Edmondson, Belle Boyd, Rose Greenhow, Elizabeth Van Lew. The amazing stories of these four women are the subject of the new book, “Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy”
Boyd was 17 and obsessed with Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. “Part of her disguise was her brazenness. She would wander through Union Army camps stealing sabers and pistols and telling the men that she was a Confederate spy,” says Abott.
“I think it just comes down to this: No one had any idea what women would look like wearing pants. People were so used to seeing women corseted and in crinoline they couldn’t fathom a woman in pants, let alone a full army uniform,” says Abott on Emma Edmondson.
Unbroken
Guest: Laura Hillenbrand, Best-selling author including “Unbroken”
Louis Zamperini is an Olympic runner whose record-breaking career was interrupted by World War II. The plane for which he’s a bombardier goes down over the Pacific and he’s marooned with two other crewmen for nearly two months, subsisting on rain water and fish. When a plane finally spots them, it’s Japanese and raining fire down on their disintegrating raft. After surviving, he’s sentenced to unspeakable brutality in Japanese prison camps. “Unbroken” is an inspiration story of a survivor who learns to forgive.
“I fell in love with Louis Zamperini,” says Hillenbrand. “He was such an inspiring figure and a happy man who was such a joy to be around. He was a virtuoso of joy.”
Mothers Behind Bars Connect with Kids
Guest: Brooke Adams, Public Information Officer at the Utah Department of Corrections
Three-quarters of the women incarcerated around the country are mothers, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. While in prison, they’re missing out on dance recitals and graduations and even just the nightly bedtime stories.
But a program run by employees and volunteers at a women’s prison here in Utah is giving mothers behind bars the chance to read to their children through audio recordings—a program called, Bedtime Stories.
“Women are often dealing with trauma and abuse as an underlying issue,” explains Adams. Helping them stay connect to their children while in prison is critical to their emotional health and the likelihood they will transition successfully after release.
Women in the Workforce
Guest: Pamela Stone, Sociologist at Hunter College
Lori Wadsworth, Professor at BYU’s Romney Institute of Public Management
Listen as we discuss the various pressures working women face in the U.S. and how government policies and corporate structure dictate when women work and when they don’t.
Lori Wadsworth says it hasn’t really been a decline in women in the workforce but a, “stagnation. I don’t think we have as strong of a decline as we might consider.”
“Many of us can’t afford to take time off. Although we may have a desire to take time off, we can’t afford to do that,” says Wadsworth on the lack of government benefits for women.
When it comes to protecting women in the workforce, Pamela Stone says that, compared to other nations, the U.S. is “abysmal. Europe is far ahead of us. We are an outlier,” says Stone.
When someone asks for that [benefits] they are looked down upon and they aren’t looked at as serious workers. After they’ve asked for those programs they aren’t taken seriously and they see their career stagnate,” says Wadsworth.
21st Century Dating
Guests: Dr. Brian Willoughby, Professor in BYU’s School of Family Life
Dr. Beth Bailey, History Professor at Temple University and author of “Sex in the Heartland”
On this Valentine’s Day Weekend, we’re having a closer look at dating and love in the 21st century.
“The way that we think about the courtship process has been very fluid throughout history,” says Willoughby.
“I think what’s funny is we compare traditional dating to today as if the traditional model had lasted forever and had been a sudden break. What we consider traditional dating,” says Bailey, “has lasted a whole lot less time than what we do today.”
Civil Rights
Guest: Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Author of the book, “Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt” and Professor of African American and US History and The Ohio State University
Fifty years ago next month, the historic march from Selma to Montgomery helped usher in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The midpoint of that march passed through the rural Lowndes County, Alabama. Jeffries clarifies the misconception that the African American struggle for rights culminated with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, 50 years ago. That he says, was in many ways, just a beginning.
“Embrace nonviolence tactically, strategically. If you came into Bloody, Lowndes County and talked about nonviolence,” says Jeffries, “you were going to get yourselves killed.”
The black panther was a symbol that originated in the rural south coming out of the civil rights struggle. According to Jeffries, African Americans in Lowndes County, Alabama can relate to this symbol because “cats are peaceful animals until there are backed up into a corner. Self-defense in the rural southwest was critical to their [African Americans'] survival. It was an aspect of the movement we often overlook.”
Laughing Gas & Depression
Guest: Dr. Charles Zorumski, Professor of neurobiology and head of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
A team of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have found that giving nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, to individuals with severe depression makes the majority of them feel better.
“Nitrous is given in dentist’s offices for a long time, so there is a track record of studying it and it’s well tolerated,” says Zorumski.
Meetings
Joe Allen, Professor in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at BYU
“Bad meetings create the need for more meetings. Meetings beget meetings. We think the meeting will solve the problem but the problem might actually be the meeting,” says Allen.
Allen suggested three key components a successful meeting:
1. Meeting relevance: ensuring that you’ve invited the people that need to be there and what is being discussed is relevant to those people. If we can only invite people the meeting is necessary for, you capture some of that relevance. You’re not walking out of a meeting thinking you’ve lost an hour of your life.
2. Providing an opportunity for voice within the meeting: everyone in the room feels they’ve had an opportunity to express their opinion.
3. Meeting time courtesy: it’s about managing the meeting effectively.
Middle-East Panel
Guests: Steven Lobell, Political Science Professor at the University of Utah
John Macfarlane, Political Science Professor at Utah Valley University
Fred Axelgard, Senior Fellow in International Relations at the BYU Wheatley Institute
We discuss foreign affairs in Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Israel, and more with our middle-east panel.
Obama looks to Congress for an approval to wage a war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. “I think what’s interesting is we’re seeing a bit of a refocusing going on. The focus is really on ISIS now and not on the Assad regime,” says Lobell.
“I believe ISIS declaring a caliphate is a sign of weakness, a sign of desperation,” says Axelgard.
“We need to give diplomacy time in these negotiations to work out. With Iran, if you push them even more,” says Macfarlane, “they’re just going to have their backs against the wall and they’re going to stop negotiations.”
Protecting Monarchs
Guest: Dr. David James, Professor of Entomology at Washington State University
The U.S. government is launching a major campaign to save the monarchy butterfly. The butterflies are found across the United States, but their numbers have declined by about 90 percent in recent years.
“It can all be traced back to lack of milk weed—it’s the major cause. Without milk weed they’re unable to survive,” says James.
“We lose an important pollinator. They are food for birds and other insects. They’re a part of a natural ecosystem. They’re also an indicator of things going wrong. All of our pollinators are in trouble,” says James.
International Law Update
Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor at BYU’s Reuben Clark Law School
Obama looks to Congress for an approval to wage a war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. “This makes me think he might be contemplating much more serious activity against ISIS. He has in his mind, he cannot win this war without US ground troops,” says Jensen, “and he wants to go back to congress to get them. He is clearly seeking an operation to use the US military to carry out this task.”
“A hostage taking is clearly against the law. It’s an unfortunate but emerging principle that some of these violent extremist are using as a leverage to further their influence,” says Jensen.
Hockey Moms
Guest: Jody Anderson, author of Hockey Mom’s Aren’t Crazy…Well Maybe a Little!
“The best way to get back at a player, instead of a fist to the neck, is a puck in the net,” says Anderson.
Anderson went on to describe the expense of the sport and how it was all worth it, “Now that my kids are all grown up, they aren’t looking for a bar to hang out at, they’re looking for a pick-up game. So, for me, the money was well spent.
Mindfulness in Schools
Guest: Patrick Cook-Deegan, Mindfulness Instructor
“Usually when it sticks is when a teenager has one instance outside of the class that changes their life,” says Cook-Deegan.
“As a young guy, I got mad all the time, I used to break things, get really mad, similar to the kids I teach. Mindfulness helps you recognize the feeling,” says Cook-Deegan, “and then allows you to respond. I think of it like an oncoming train. You can see a train coming in, you can let the train hit you (get really angry) or you can move off the tracks.”
Legacy of John Locke
Grant Madsen, BYU History Professor
“It’s very American. All of our rights are a sense of ownership. The first thing we own is ourselves. I have a property right in myself,” says Madsen on Locke’s philosophy.
Business and Ethics
Brad Oates, Former NFL Player & Co-managing Partner and Chairman of Stone Advisors LP
“Sometimes they live in a bubble and everyone around them enforces that bubble and their moral compass gets thrown out the window,” says Oates on ethics.
“In a media driven world, where the mantra is ‘winning is everything’ and losing is looked down upon and it’s a winner take all society, it’s no wonder all these athletes are going to these extreme unethical lengths,” says Oates.
Global Events Roundup: Ukraine, Yemen, and Bangladesh
Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science at BYU
"If you add weapons to this conflict, you’re just going to escalate it,” says Mecham on the evolving crisis in Ukraine.
“Can they govern? I don’t think they’re going to be good at it and I don’t think that they want to be,” says Mecham about the rebels in Yemen.
Leadership in the Workplace
Guest: Liz Wiseman, President of The Wiseman Group and author of best-sellers “Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter” and “Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work”
Liz Wiseman tells us how we can be genius-makers like, Magic Johnson. “He has been an incredible businessman,” says Wiseman. She tells of his experience in high school with a coach who encouraged him to take as many shots as he could. “So he does and he scores a lot of points and the team wins every game. The team loves it, the coach loves it. But he recounts an experience walking out to his car, watching the faces of the parents of the other players and he made a decision that he would use his God-given talent to make everyone else a better player."
"His ability to raise the level of play around him, captures the way it means to be a multiplier. He played the role of genius-maker,” says Wiseman.
The Apple Seed
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of The Apple Seed
Geraldine Buckley tells of her interactions with inmates as Chaplain of a Maryland prison.
Blind Echolocation
Guest: Daniel Kish, Founder and President of World Access for the Blind
The modern day Batman, Daniel Kish, has learned a clicking technique that allows him to hear the echoes that alert him of his surroundings.
“I discovered my ability to do this as sighted people discover their ability to see. It does require some sustained concentration, focus. There are mistakes,” says Kish, “and those mistakes can have implications, but the actual process of a child doing this is much the same.
“We tend to move forward as our capacity allows. Rather than be discouraged from running or moving, I was encouraged to be more strategic, pay more attention,” says Kish.
Cancelled Studies
Guest: Dr. Philip Pizzo, Pediatric Hematologist and Oncologist and former Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine
In late December, federal officials from the National Institute of Health announced they were “pulling the plug” on The National Children’s Study after $1.2 billion had already been used in funding.
“It’s hard to call it wasted. We certainly learned what didn’t work. But we didn’t want to make the mistake of saying we have spent $1.3 billion, let’s keep spending more money. That is past history, let’s move forward and not use precious resources unless we know that we’ll get something definitive,” says Pizzo.
"Middle Class" vs. "Trickle Down" Economics
Guest: Richard Evans, co-founder and co-director of the BYU Macroeconomics and Computational Laboratory and is one of the original nine members of the Utah Economic Council.
Community Food Councils
Guest: Rick Morse
“We hear about how the average meal has traveled 2,000 miles to get to your plate. And ever since then there’s this growing interest—the value of healthy sustainable food systems.”
3D Printed Cars
Guest: Jean Paul Capin Gally
Local Motors is "...“aiming for highway ready certified vehicles by the end of the year.”
"We’re trying to reinvent the retail experience to buying a new car."
Families and Social Media
Guest: Dr. Lynn Schofield Clark
“We live in this 24/7 world and work can always be done with a device in front of us. We need to be able to manage our use of social media. Parents can be so engrossed in their phones that they aren’t present with their children,” says Clark.
“We want to make sure to give young people the opportunity to take the lead and teach us what we don’t know.”
Parent Previews
Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett review Seventh Son, Jupiter Ascending and the new Spongebob movie.
“If Jupiter Ascending is for girls, Seventh Son is for boys.”
Relative Finder
Dr. Bill Barrett talks about BYU's innovative new family history app.
“We have got 10-15 undergrad students who are not afraid to think outside the box, who innovate and we encourage that. We give them interesting problems to work on and it’s proof that undergrads can come up with great things,” says Barrett.
“There is a market opportunity but there’s more to it than that, it is a genealogy tool,” says Mike Alder, director of BYU's Technology Transfer office.