Turkey Crackdown, Viruses on Toys, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

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.