The Grinch and Other Christmas Movies about Redemption

Guest: John Longworth, Chair of Leave Means Leave and former Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce British Prime Minister Theresa May has a little over a week to get the UK parliament on board with her plan for an exit from the European Union. But she’s got a lot of opposition on both sides. Those who never wanted a Brexit in the first place hope that tanking the deal Prime Minister May has worked out with the EU will force a new referendum in which they believe British voters will change their minds and opt to stay. On the other hand, Brexit’s most vocal supporters say the deal makes too many concessions to the EU and doesn’t deliver the clean exit British voters chose in 2016.

Guest: Bryor Snefjella, Linguistics and Languages, McMaster University, Ontario If aliens tapped into Twitter to learn about humans, what might they conclude? If they did the kind of analysis some researchers at McMaster University in Canada did, the aliens would probably end up with a very stereotypical view of different countries: Canadians are nice and polite, for example. Americans are brash and rude.

Guest: Beth Colgan, Professor of Law, UCLA It’s a little known fact that police in most states have the ability to seize property – we’re talking homes, cash, cars – if they suspect the stuff helped in committing a crime. Say, if someone were caught selling drugs, police might seize the car the suspect was driving. In many states, police can even do this before someone is even charged or convicted of a crime. The seized property often gets sold and the law enforcement keeps the cash. “Civil forfeiture” brings in millions of dollars for police every year. And for the last year, the US Justice Department has been encouraging local police departments to seize stuff as a way of funding their crime-fighting efforts.

Guest: Matthew Wallenstein, Professor of Soil Ecology, Head of Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University Every continent on the planet is experiencing water scarcity, according to the United Nations. Most of the water being used - 70 percent of it – is for agriculture. So, finding ways to use it more efficiently in farming is a major concern.

Guest: Wade McEntire, Director of Operations and Business Development, Utah Lions Eye Bank The cornea is just a small, clear covering on the eye, but it accounts for about two-thirds of the eye’s optical power. And when it’s damaged, the world goes dark. We often hear about the importance of organ donations such as the heart, liver or kidney, but millions of people are also waiting to have their sight restored through a cornea transplant.