Positive Energy

Guest: John Barrick, Professor in the School of Accountancy, BYU If you’re anything like the average American taxpayer, you spent about nine hours and $120 to file your taxes this year, including all the time it takes keeping and tracking down records to do the filing. That doesn’t count the hours spent fretting about and trying to ignore the rapid approach of the April 18th filing deadline. Why is filing taxes so painful and time consuming? It’s not nearly so bad in a lot of other countries, so clearly there’s another way. But is it a better way?

Guest: Tyler Cowen, PhD, Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics, Chairman and General Director of the Mercatus Center, George Mason University When Donald Trump campaigned to “Make America Great Again,” he tapped into a feeling among many people that the American Dream is dying – if not already dead. A lot has been made of how disenfranchised white, working-class Americans feel in the current economy, but George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen says there's a wide swath of Americans, from the wealthiest and best-educated among us to those stuck in a cycle of low-wage work and dysfunctional personal lives, who have virtually given up on trying to boost their status. Cowen's new book is called "The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream.”

Guest: Ken Shea, PhD, Chemistry Professor, University of California, Irvine Snake bites are relatively rare in the US, but globally they’re considered a serious threat. More than two-and-a-half million people suffer crippling injuries such as the loss of a limb each year from snake bites. More than 100,000 people die. But effective treatment and antidotes remain elusive – especially in poor, rural areas of Africa and Southeast Asia where the threat is greatest.  So there’s considerable excitement about the work being done by chemist Ken Shea at the University of California at Irvine. He’s developed an anti-venom that’s cheap to make, needs no refrigeration and appears to work on lots of different poisonous snake and insect venoms.

Guest: Jennifer Earl, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of Arizona In response to Tax Day rallies over the weekend where people across the country urged President Trump to release his tax returns, the President tweeted that “Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies.” Complaining that protests are the work of a small, outside group of paid agitators is a common tactic both Republicans and Democrats have used to undermine protest movements. In recent months, we’ve also seen at least 18 states introduce or vote on legislation aimed at curbing mass protests.

g Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s “Worlds Awaiting” Rachel Wadham joins us in studio. She’s the education and juvenile collections librarian here at BYU and host of Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio. Today we're discussing the habits of good readers: how you can teach them to your kids and foster them in your own life as well.