Flip-Flop Politicians, Amazon and Whole Foods, Refugee Stories

When Politicians Flip-Flop Guest: Tamar Kreps, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management, University of Utah No politician wants the label of “flip-flopper.” Republicans in Congress are hoping to avoid it as they struggle to repeal and replace Obamacare after years of promising to do it as soon as they were back in control.  In everyday life, changing one's mind might be seen as a sign of open-mindedness or maturity. But politicians are judged harshly for it - especially under certain circumstances. University of Utah management professor Tamar Kreps and her colleagues found that leaders who justify their original position on moral grounds, and then have a change of heart, have the most trouble bouncing back from the flip-flop.  Amazon Will Change the Grocery Game Guest: Richard Feinberg, PhD, Consumer Psychologist, Professor of Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University When Amazon announced plans to buy Whole Foods, the stock price of grocery and retail giants like Kroger, Costco, and Wal-Mart immediately took a hit. What’s so scary to brick-and-mortar stores about Amazon picking up a chic, pricey urban grocery chain? A lot, it turns out.  Learning English Through Refugee Stories Guest: Roberta Baer, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, University of South Florida Learning English is a top priority for refugees who come to America. And a typical reading text in that English class would go something like, “Meg is my best friend. She’s ten. Everyone in our class likes Meg because she’s always happy and she’s very funny. She can ride a bike very fast too.” A text like that covers all the basics for learning English, but imagine if refugees could learn the language through stories that actually resonated with their own experience - like this one about a woman named Ana:  “I’m originally from former Yugoslavia. In 1992, war broke out there. I’m a child of mixed marriage. My mom is Catholic and my dad is Orthodox. The war in Yugoslavia was about religion.  Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox, everybody wanted their part. I didn’t want to be a part of that.” That’s one of dozens of true refugee stories that have been compiled into a reading text for other refugees to use in learning English. We Have a Food Waste Problem Guest: Roni Neff, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University; Marie Spiker, Doctoral Candidate in Human Nutrition, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University Millions of Americans have a shortage of key nutrients like fiber, potassium and Vitamin D. Meanwhile, we’re tossing food in the garbage that contains more than enough of those essential nutrients to plug the holes in our diet. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health hope that knowing just how much nutrient-rich food ends up in the landfill will offer new motivation to reduce waste.  Parent Previews—Spider-Man: Homecoming Guest: Rod and Donna Gustafson, Film Reviewers at ParentPreviews.com http://parentpreviews.com/ Another version of Spider-Man hit theaters over the weekend, this time featuring him as a teenager in training to become an Avenger. His Spidey-suit comes courtesy of tech genius Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. Power of Education and Faith to Bring Opportunities Guest: Helen Easterling Williams, Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Psychology, Pepperdine University From life as a sharecropper’s daughter in South Carolina to the dean’s office at Pepperdine University, Helen Easterling Williams has seen firsthand the opportunities that come through education. And now she is paying it forward, ensuring that people from all backgrounds have a place in higher education.