Worlds Awaiting: Ghost Stories

Guest: David Axelrod, Director of the non-partisan Institute of Politics, University of Chicago, Former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama Republicans and Democrats are farther apart than they’ve been in decades. Compromise is a sign of weakness. Crossing the aisle is so risky that a champion of bipartisanship in the Senate – Arizona Republican Jeff Flake – saw the writing on the wall and decided not to run for re-election. In announcing his departure, he lamented “the destructiveness of our politics,” the “indecency of our discourse” and the “coarseness of our national dialogue.” Who's to blame for this and is there any turning back?

Guest: Andrew Maynard, PhD, Professor of Future of Innovation in Society, Director of the Risk Innovation Lab, Arizona State University NASA aims to send humans to Mars in about 15 years. Elon Musk – of Tesla Motors and SpaceX – plans to do it in seven years. And not just for a visit. His vision is a self-sustaining city on Mars where people can live, work and visit. The technical and financial challenges are immense, but Musk has already done a lot in space travel that NASA hasn’t been able to do. For example, SpaceX can launch a rocket into orbit, then bring it down to earth, land it upright and use it again. If anyone can built a city on Mars, I think it’ll be Elon Musk. But it won’t be without challenges.

Guest: Joel Thornton, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington Here’s an electrifying correlation. In the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, lightning is twice as likely to strike over shipping lanes than it is to strike just outside the path where ships move. Researchers at the University of Washington believe the ships are attracting the lightning. But how?

Guest: Brett Herbst, Owner and Founder of The MAiZE, Founder of Cornbelly’s Corn Maze, Lehi, UT Every Halloween, tens of thousands of people across the country drive to a corn field and buy a ticket to get lost in a maze carved through the tall stalks. Corn mazes are relatively new as a cultural phenomenon, and in some cases, an important revenue source for farmers.  The New York Times dubbed Brett Herbst “King of the American corn maze industry.”  For 20 years, he’s been designing and building corn mazes. He now consults with farmers around the world on more than 200 corn mazes a year. His company is called The MAiZE (that’s M-A-I-Z-E, as in corn).  Click here to find a corn maze near you.

Guest: Douglas Thomas, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Brigham Young University, Author of “Never Use Futura” What do IKEA, Vogue, and Louis Vuitton all have in common? Not fashion or style, but font.  That modernist, blocky but super-clean typeface that all these brands use is called "Futura," and BYU graphic design professor Douglas Thomas argues that when brands use Futura, they're drawing on political history to sell you a democratic ideal.