Religion and Globalization, Math Stories, Car Crash Risks, Nigeria

Religion in a Global Society (1:03) Guest: Mark Juergensmeyer, PhD, Founding Director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara and Author of “God in the Tumult of the Global Square: Religion in Global Civil Society” The internet, mobile phones and satellite TV have made the world a much smaller place. Through them, you can immigrate to a new country but still feel connected to the people and culture of your home. You can live in the US, but wear a hat knit by a woman in the far reaches of the Himalayas. For a month’s salary or less, you could hop on a plane and be face to face with that knitter in a day’s time. “Globalization” is what experts call this. Boundaries tend to mean less; cultures tend to blend more when we’re all so much more in touch. So here’s the question a group of scholars have been chewing on recently -- what does this smaller world mean for religion? For its place in our lives? And for the power of religious organizations in society? Math Story Timeline (23:20) Guests: Marjorie Scheafer and Talia Berkowitz, Graduate Students in the Developmental Psychology Program at the University of Chicago The bedtime story is a hallowed routine for many families. And research shows reading to children improves literacy and listening skills. How about boost math skills? The right kind of bedtime story can according to a study published in the journal “Science.” The Apple Seed (39:55) Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed” Sam Payne joins us in studio and captivates us with a new story. Car Crash Injury Risk (51:54) Guest: Ashley Weaver, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University Center for Injury Biomechanics Crash test dummies make for dramatic car commercial images, but they are so last decade. The latest research shows computer simulations of car accidents are a much better way to predict injuries. For one thing – you can’t tell by looking at the state of a dummy post-crash whether or not real-life victim might have suffered damage to internal organs. You can with a computer simulation. Displaced Students in Nigeria (1:09:05) Guest: Michael Zamba, Senior Director of Communications at Creative Associates International The terror group Boko Haram – which is now affiliated with ISIS – has wrought so much havoc in parts of Nigeria that some 2.2 million people have fled their homes and villages. Many of these internally-displaced refugees are children who have lost family members and the stability of their former lives. For them, the opportunity to spend a few hours a week in a classroom learning basic math and language skills is not just a diversion; it’s a refuge. Medical Side Effects on Women (1:24:29) Guest: Alyson McGregor, MD, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Brown University, Director for the Division of Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine, Attending Physician at Rhode Island Hospital, Co-founder of the Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative When your doctor says, something like “this medicine has been shown to work well in 60% of patients,” you probably think – “Well, hey, I’ve got a pretty good chance it’ll work well for me.” But, now let’s say you’re a woman and the doctor said, “this medicine has been shown to work well in 60% of men.” Then you’d be thinking – yeah, and…what about women? And here’s the thing – your doctor probably won’t have the answer. Because, drugs are mainly tested on men – or cells that came from men. It’s been that way for decades, but there is growing interest in addressing “gender blindness” in the drug mark