Textalyzer, Child Care, Harsh Parenting

Textalyzer Guest: Ben Lieberman, Co-Founder of Distracted Operators Risk Casualties Whether your fiddling with the stereo or rummaging around in the backseat or checking your phone, research has shown distracted driving can be as dangerous as driving drunk. Texting and driving is the worst – potentially six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. We know how dangerous it is. It’s even illegal in most states. And yet nearly half of adults who use text messaging admitted in a Pew Survey having done it while driving.   Would that change if – like with drunk driving – we knew that the police could run a quick test like a breathalyzer, and know for sure whether you were using your phone at the time of a crash?  Link to Distracted Operators Risk Casualties here. Child Care Guest: Elaine Weiss, PhD, Economic Policy Institute and National Coordinator of the Broader Bolder Approach to Education Campaign High-quality child care in the US can be so expensive that it’s not unusual for one parent in a household to just quit work and be the caregiver. A new report out of the Economic Policy Institute finds both low and middle income families struggle with the child care finance equation. What’s more, the report says that government programs geared toward making high quality child care more affordable will help both the kids and the broader economy. It’s one of those spend-money-to-make-money scenarios for the US economy.  Harsh Parenting Guest: Thomas Schofield, PhD, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University Americans generally agree that sometimes a kid “needs a good, hard spanking.” Seventy percent of us, was the figure in a survey from 2012 funded by the National Science Foundation. And we tend to think other parents are doing a good enough job disciplining their kids.  Researchers at Iowa State University have found evidence that parents who are particularly harsh toward their teenagers are actually putting their kids’ health at risk. And they find that even if only one parent is harsh and the other is nurturing, the “good cop” can’t overcome the negative effects of the “bad cop’s” behavior.  Parent Previews Guest: Rod and Donna Gustafson, Film Reviewers at parentpreviews.com  We discuss the films “Mother’s Day” and “Ratchet and Clank.” Tech Transfer Guests: Mike Wirthlin, PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor at BYU; Dave Brown, BYU's Technology Transfer Office One of the challenges NASA must solve before going to Mars is how to protect astronauts from the sun’s radiation during the long trip. We’re protected from the most harmful radiation here on Earth by a magnetic band at the outer edge of the atmosphere. To solve the radiation problem, NASA’s been running contests and offering prizes to people who offer good ideas.