The Apple Seed

Guest: Brigitte Madrian, Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management, Harvard University, incoming dean of BYU Marriott School of Business A decade ago, America’s biggest banks were in crisis and government officials were making plans to bail them out. The stock market crashed, retirement funds faltered. Millions of businesses went under and millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes. So where are we ten years on?

Guest: John Kauwe, PhD, Professor and Department Chair of Biology, Brigham Young University The average basketball player in the NBA 6’ 7”, which almost a foot taller than the average man. And then there are the few NBA players who even tower over their own teammates. At 7 feet 6 inches Shawn Bradley is the third tallest player the NBA’s ever had. And it turns out that he’s always wondered why he’s so tall.

Guest: Robert Dillon, Director, Innovative Learning for University City School District, Co-Author of “The Space: A Guide for Educators”. If you go on Pinterest or Instagram, you can find some amazing photos of classrooms schools teachers are posting. They’re bright and colorful and full of beanbags and comfy chairs and rarely an old-school desk in sight. The latest research on child learning and engagement says it’s a good thing to get away from the traditional classroom arrangement of desks in rows. What works, what doesn't? What's just fun, what is functional, and what is actually distracting?

Guest: Lorraine Johnson, JD, CEO, LymeDisease.org Tens of thousands of people get Lyme Disease every year in the US. That number is going up, and the Center for Disease Control is worried about it. On the CDC’s website, there is a list of all the things the Center is doing to prevent Lyme Disease. What you won't find on that list is a vaccine for humans. There used to be one, actually, but it was taken off the market 15 years ago.

Guest: Nick Seaver, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Tufts University You’ve seen these studies that say we check our phones something like 100 times a day on average? Seems appalling, but it’s so hard to resist that little device and its constant notifications interrupting family dinner, distracting you from work, even demanding your attention when you’re trying to relax. This is exactly what Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Netflix, Apple have designed their products to do. The more time we spend on them, the more money they make. So why, then, are these same companies now offering features to help us limit the amount of time we while away on our phones?