Trump Trails, Ancient Food, Mentor and Murderer

Making Sense of Trump's Trailing Status in Polls Guests: Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of 20th Century US History at BYU; Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at BYU Donald Trump left the Republican National Convention with a boost in the polls against Democrat Hillary Clinton. But last week, he engaged in an unpopular fight with the parents of a fallen Muslim soldier and refused to back top Republicans in their primary races – including Senator John McCain and House Speaker Paul Ryan. If you average the current polls right now, Trump is trailing Clinton by 7 points.  Recreating and Trying Out Ancient Recipes Guest: Ilaria Patania, Graduate Student in the Department of Archaeology, Director of the “Eating Archaeology” Project at Boston University One of the most important parts of traveling is tasting the local food. If it’s true that you can’t completely understand a culture until you’ve eaten its food, could the same be true for ancient cultures? That’s the question behind a program called “Eating Archaeology” at Boston University. What Kids Are Really Doing on Social Media Guest: Marion Underwood, PhD, Professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Texas in Dallas If you could look at an entire year’s worth of texting and social media posts from one teenager, what do you suppose you’d find? Incoherent messages? Bullying? Inappropriate pictures? Lots of selfies and emojis, to be sure.  Psychologist Marion Underwood and her colleagues recently finished monitoring every single text, email, or Facebook message produced by a large group of youth from the time they were 9 until they were 20.  From this massive database they discovered that texting and social media use among teens is far more sophisticated, and not nearly as ugly, as adults tend to think.  Impact of Media Violence on Gifted Kids Guest: Brad Bushman, PhD, Professor of Communication and Psychology at Ohio State University Gifted children are often thought to have advantages that help them succeed no matter what circumstances they find themselves in. They’re seen as smarter, more creative, and less likely to participate in crime. But emerging research suggests gifted children may be more profoundly affected—in negative ways—by exposure to violence in the media, whether it’s a cartoon or the nightly news.  Parent Previews – Suicide Squad Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com We’ve got more superheroes in theater—if you can call them superheroes—in Suicide Squad. Rod Gustafson explains what to watch out for in the film. A Double Life: Youth Mentor and Murderer Guest: Kevin Kelly, Author of “Both Sides of the Line: My Coach, The Boston Mob Enforcer; My Mentor, the Murderer. The True Story of Clyde Dempsey and the 1974 Don Bosco Bears,” Dean of Students at Deerfield Academy We all lead doubles lives, of a sort: The way you act at work or church is probably a little different than the way you act in private.  But there are some people who manage to pull off the kind of double life that makes it hard to believe both sides are the same person. Clyde Dempsey was like that. He was a charismatic football coach at a small Catholic high school in Boston back in the 1970s who led an underdog team to an incredible championship. The players idolized him and credit him with helping them get into college and pursue their football dreams and even steer clear of drugs and alcohol.   They didn’t know their coach was also a brutal enforcer for the mob. A man losing his battle with addiction and rage, who killed a man in a busy Boston bar, then went into hiding and was caught thanks to an episode of “America’s Most Wanted.” Dempsey died in prison.