Restoring the Meaning of Memorial Day

Guest: Hal Hershfield, social psychologist at UCLA Anderson and his research focuses on how human behavior can be modified by bringing people closer to their future selves  If you could hop in a time machine, go 40 years into the future and spend an hour with your future self—how do you suppose your behavior today might change? Would you start taking care of your body better? Tuck more money away for retirement?  Probably so, according to researchers at UCLA Anderson who’ve been conducting experiments in which they introduce people to a version of their future selves.

Guest: Gloria Krahn, the Barbara Emily Knudson Endowed Chair in Family Policy Studies at the College of Public Health at Oregon State University  People with disabilities face myriad health challenges related to their conditions—but that doesn’t account for the unusually high rates of preventable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and obesity they experience, says public health policy expert Gloria Krahn. Her recent article in the American Journal of Public Health makes the case for a more systematic approach to improving the health of Americans with disabilities, which trails other segments of the population, despite some $400 billion a year spent on their medical care and long-term services.

Guest: Janneke Ratcliffe, Assistant Director for Financial Education at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau  Americans are saving less and racking up more debt with credit cards, student loans and such. According to the Council of Economic Education, one in three adults believes they made poor financial decisions as a result of lack of financial literacy. They may have lacked that literacy because financial education is relatively rare in America’s public schools. Fewer than half of states require a high school course in Personal Finance as a requirement to graduate. So, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has developed a guide to help policymakers improve that number.

Guest: Dale Pratt, professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature here at Brigham Young University. He joined us today to talk about the recent discovery of the remains of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, which is widely considered to be one of the greatest works of modern literature  After a seemingly quixotic search spanning decades, archaeologists and historians in Spain have discovered what they believe to be the long-lost remains of the man who wrote Don Quixote. They’ve unearthed bones and a coffin marked “M C” beneath a 17th Century convent in Madrid, prompting us to reflect on the significance of the author and his magnum opus. It appears regularly on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published and is often considered to be one of the first modern novels. What makes Don Quixote so important?

Guest: Eliot Herman, professor in the school of plant sciences at the University of Arizona and co-author of a report in the journal Plant Sciences about a new variety of low-allergenic soybean  Soybeans are one of the biggest culprits in food allergies in America. They’re also a major ingredient in many infant formulas, processed foods and even livestock feed. A team of researchers at the University of Arizona have engineered a soybean without the protein that provokes an allergic reaction. And, they’ve made the bean more useful as livestock feed in the process.