Russian Aggression, Kids Writing, Girls' Stereotypes in Science

Guests: Scott Cooper, PhD, and Celeste Beesley, PhD, Professors of International Affairs and Political Science at BYU President Vladimir Putin appears eager to assert Russia’s power and influence in the Middle East. Today it was announced that Russia has convinced Iran to be part of peace talks with the US this weekend toward finding a resolution to the Syrian civil war. Just last week, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was in Moscow meeting with Putin. Meanwhile, Russia continues air strikes against Assad’s enemies – although Russian military leaders insist their primary target is the Islamic State and not the rebel fighters trying over overthrow Assad.

Guest: Paul Ricks, PhD, Instructor of Teacher Education at BYU Ernest Hemingway once said, “It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” Unfortunately, beginning writers often DO think that great writers were born that way and they often discount the long—and often painful—writing process that all writers have to go through.

Guest: Allison Master, PhD, Post-doctoral Researcher at the University of Washington In the list of science, technology, engineering and math careers where women are in short supply, computer science is near the top of the list. There are all kinds of initiatives underway to get girls excited about coding. Some new research published in the Journal of Educational Psychology suggest we look beyond just the coding itself to the room where the work happens. Typical high school computer classrooms are just not appealing to girls, apparently.

Guest: Grant Madsen, PhD, BYU History Professor Today’s conversation will cover President Lyndon Johnson and the often complicated motivations that drove his presidency.

Guests: Maggie Kopp, Curator of European Books in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Department of the Library at BYU; Scott Miller, PhD, Professor of Japanese and Dean of the College of Humanities. A new exhibit at the Harold B. Lee Library’s Special Collections archive sheds some light on why people love haunted houses and horror, and what that means here versus Japan or today versus 100 years ago. The collection features the spooky Japanese ghost scroll and the strange, human hair art. Japanese Ghost Scroll Photos of Items in Vault