Measuring Pain, Blind Navigation, Political Moms

EEG Test Provides More Effective Way to Measure Pain -- (Originally aired December 10, 2018) Guest: Carl Saab, Professor of Neurosurgery at Brown University and the director of the Pain & Neural Circuits Center research lab at Rhode Island Hospital Pain is notoriously difficult to gauge and treat because it’s so subjective. That’s one of the reasons opioids became so popular in the US. All doctors can really do is ask a patient to rate their pain on a scale form 1-10. But now researchers at Brown University are using brain scans to make pain objectively measurable -more like taking your temperature. Augmented Reality for the Blind -- (Originally aired February 4, 2019) Guest: Markus Meister is a Professor of Biological Sciences and Executive Officer for Neurobiology at the California Institute of Technology Blind people have two options for navigation: a cane or a guide dog. Augmented reality may soon be a third choice. At CalTech, they’ve developed software guides a blind person by layering sound on the space around them. The evolution of motherhood in political campaigns -- (Originally aired June 4, 2019) Guest: Kelly Dittmaris an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University–Camden and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics, author of Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns In the last presidential democratic debate, Senator Elizabeth Warren talked about how losing her job as a teacher after having a baby taught her resilience. Senator Amy Klobuchar told a story about how her daughter got really sick after birth inspired her to advocate for hospital reforms and go into public service. Motherhood used to be considered a liability in politics, but more women are highlighting the ways that being a mother qualifies them to lead. Why Storming Area 51 Is Unlikely to Yield Alien Secrets -- (Originally aired August 6, 2019) Guest: Peter W. Merlin, Aerospace Historian, Founding Member of the X-Hunters Aerospace Archeology Team, Author of “Im