North Korea's Weapons, Generational PTSD, Cure for Sepsis

How is North Korea Still Growing its Missile Program? Guest: Shea Cotton, Research Associate, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey On the 4th of July, North Korea successfully tested a missile capable of hitting Alaska – which is a really big step for the nation’s weapons program and all the more worrisome considering North Korea also claims to be close to having a nuclear weapon it could strap to a long-range missile.  But, the world has known for literally decades that this was North Korea’s ambition. For decades, there have been efforts to try and limit North Korea’s access to weapons supplies and technology. Why haven’t they worked?  You're Office May Be Making You Sick Guest: Joseph Allen, DSc, Associate Professor of Exposure Assessment Science, Harvard University Your boss might stress you out, your co-workers possibly annoy you, but here’s one more potential downside to your job: the building you work in could make you sick. Our next guest is a sort-of physician for the workspace—he diagnoses sick buildings. Minor investments to clean up unhealthy buildings can yield major returns in productivity, not to mention how much better employees feel when the building in which they work isn’t making them sick. Training Teachers with Virtual Reality Guest: Richard Lamb, PhD, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education, Director of the Neurocognition Science Laboratory, University at Buffalo Pilots, soldiers, and surgeons all use virtual reality simulators to train before taking on a real-life mission. But we don’t normally think of school teachers training in flight-like simulators-for-teaching before stepping in front of a classroom full of flesh-and-blood students.  Apple Seed Sam Payne, host of the Apple Seed, stops by to inform us of his latest trip to a Storytelling convention on the East Coast. DNA May Contribute to PTSD Guest: Laramie Duncan, PhD, Faculty Member, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University Some soldiers and victims of rape or other trauma develop PTSD. But many don’t. Why not? The answer may be found deep in the coils of our DNA. New research suggests a genetic predisposition for PTSD, and it’s greater in women than in men. Vitamin C: A Cure for Sepsis? Guest: Paul Marik, MD, Professor of Medicine, Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School Sometimes in fighting an infection, the body’s immune system gets overwhelmed and goes haywire, triggering widespread inflammation that causes all kinds of urgent problems, including organ failure. It’s called sepsis and in severe cases, it kills up to half of patients, making it a leading cause of death in hospital intensive care units. It’s also notoriously difficult to treat. A sepsis diagnosis can feel like a runaway train speeding toward catastrophe as doctors scramble to keep up.  In one of those desperate moments, Dr. Paul Marik tried something unusual – an IV of Vitamin C. That’s not an accepted treatment for sepsis, but it worked so well he tried it again and again. The results he published on his experiments have stirred up quite a bit of controversy – but also hope.