Election Disinformation, Love Drugs, First-Gen Students

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