Sexual Assault, Long-Term Effects of Bullying, Aging Facebook

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.