Social Media and Politics, Online Sales Tax, Marathon in Prison

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.