Political Endorsements, Speak for Myself, Smoking Parents

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.