Apple Seed

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?

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.

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.

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.

Guest: Paul Marik, MD, Professor of Medicine, Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School