Global Warming, Women on Currency, Running, Holodeck

Global Warming  (1:07) Guest: Gabe Bowen, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah  According to new research, today’s human-caused global warming is much like the atmospheric conditions on Earth 56 million years ago.  Crowdfunding  (20:08) Guest: John Mullins, Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, and author of the new book, The Customer-Funded Business  Last month, a video game development company crossed the $73-million mark, and solidified its position in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “most-funded crowdfunding project anywhere." $73-million dollars to develop a game called “Star Citizen” that people are apparently very excited about.  The tracking firm Crowdfunding Centre says that $60,000 dollars was raised ever hour on sites like Kickstarter, Kiva, Gofundme or IndieGoGo in 2014.  You can give online to teachers trying to raise money for class supplies or grad students raising money for tuition or musicians trying to put out an album – even entrepreneurs trying to start a company. Last year, a guy went on Kickstarter to raise $10 for his first batch of potato salad and the page went viral. He ended up with $55,000 – that’s a lot of potato salad.  Amid all this crowdfunding fervor, are some voices of warning. John Mullins, a Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, and author of the new book, The Customer-Funded Business, says donors and entrepreneurs ought to beware the downsides of crowdfunding.  A Woman on $20 Dollar Bills  (38:19) Guest: Barbara Ortiz Howard, founder of Women on 20s, an organization that seeks to get an image of a notable woman on the front of our 20-dollar bills  “Women on 20s” is campaigning to replace Andrew Jackson on the 20-dollar bill with a woman.  Running Keeps You Young  (52:56) Guest: Rodger Kram, Professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder  Ponce de Leon was looking for a fountain to deliver eternal youth, but perhaps he ought to have been looking at his feet.  A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE says running regularly can keep your body using energy efficiently. So, you could theoretically have the body of a 70 year old and the energy efficiency of a 20-year-old.  Parent Previews: Insurgent  (1:16:40) Guests: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett of ParentPreviews.com Part Two of the dystopian young adult novel-turned-film franchise Divergent Series topped the weekend box office. This installment is called “Insurgent.”  Tech Transfer: The Holodeck  (1:26:10) Guests: Daniel Smalley, professor in BYU’s department of electrical and computer engineering  David Brown, BYU Technology Transfer office  There’s 3D and virtual reality, but my next guest has set his sights a tad higher – Daniel Smalley is out to build the holodeck. Remember the holodeck from Star Trek? An empty room that could be converted in any holographic environment the user wanted – so lifelike it often became the user’s reality?