Western Wildfires, Boys and College, Life on Venus

How Humans Are Making Wildfire Season Worse in the West (0:30) Guest: Jennifer Balch, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder As of yesterday, wildfires have burned 3.2 million acres in California, and that’s nearly double the previous record set in 2018. Parts of Oregon that haven’t burned in years went up in flames this year. Whole swaths of the western United States are choking from smoke in the air. Is this just a bad year, or a sign of things to come? Teaching Kids to Navigate the Visual World (21:40) Guest:  Diarmuid Verrier, PhD,  senior lecturer in psychology, Sheffield Hallam University  Reading text is a critical skill for navigating the modern world. So is the ability to interpret visual images. And not just being able to identify what an image is – but what it’s trying to accomplish. Why does that picture or video that pops up in your social media feed make you laugh or angry or motivated to do something? How do we teach this skill to children so they’re equipped to process all the visuals they’re bombarded with?  The Effect of the Pandemic on People with Eating Disorders (35:49) Guest: Christine M. Peat, Director, National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Many people who struggle with eating disorders say their symptoms have been worse during the pandemic. Compton and Beverly Hills: A Portrait of Boys in LA the Year Before College (52:47) Guests: Jeff Hobbs, Author of “Show Them You’re Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before College”; Tio, APB High School graduate and UC Riverside Senior studying engineering; Jonah, Beverly Hills High School graduate and UCLA senior studying pre-law Senior year of high school in America is a potent mix of pressure and possibilities. Some may feel torn between savoring the end of an important life chapter while also feeling super-stressed about “what comes next?”. Standardized tests, college applications, scholarship applications. It’s a lot for any 17-year-old to deal with.  Best-selling author Jeff Hobbs spent a year following about a dozen high-achieving seniors at two high schools in Los Angeles – one in Compton, one in Beverly Hills. The result is his new book, “Show Them You’re Good.”  Scientists Discover Stinky Gas on Venus—Potentially Indicating Life on the Planet (1:33:09) Guest: Sukrit Ranjan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Northwestern University The hunt for life beyond Earth has long focused on Mars. But this week, scientists reported signs of life on another of our planetary neighbors that hasn’t really been on their radar–Venus. They’ve picked up the signature of a gas called phosphine from clouds in the super-hot, toxic atmosphere surrounding Venus.