Apple Seed Stories

Guest: Susan Sessions Rugh, PhD, Professor of History, Dean of Undergraduate Education, BYU; Jake Rugh, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, BYU One of the quintessential American experiences is the family road trip - often to explore the national parks - and staying in roadside motels along the way. But half of all motels in the US are owned today by Indian Americans, which means that, ironically, a deeply American tradition is facilitated by immigrants. This week, when we celebrate being American, is the perfect time to dig into the fascinating story of how people named Patel came to dominate the US motel industry.

Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder and Editor of NationalParksTraveler.org More than 300 million people will visit a national park this year, which means the sounds of nature will be increasingly hard to hear. Rather than the sound of birds chirping through an almost tangible silence, there will be cars rushing and manmade sounds polluting the ambient serenity. Kurt Repanshek has reported on noise pollution in national parks for the nonprofit news site NationalParksTraveler.org, which he founded. Visit NationalParksTraveler.org to see more reports.

Guest: Tracy Fullerton, “Walden” Game Designer, Professor and Chair of the Interactive Media and Game Division, USC School of Cinematic Arts  Since noise polution is basically impossible to escape even in the most remote corners of our national parks, why not experience quiet solitude digitally, instead? A new video game offers a chance to recreate Henry David Thoreau’s time spent on a remote pond in Massachusetts. “Living deliberately,” he called it. Like Thoreau’s book, the game is called Walden.  Check out the game here.

Guest: Frederick Gedicks, JD, Professor of Constitution Law and Religious Freedom, BYU A new poll out today from Politico and Morning Consult found more than half of Americans support the limited travel ban put in place by the Trump Administration last week. The US Supreme Court cleared the way for the restrictions to take effect banning visitors from six majority-Muslim countries, unless the travelers can prove they have a bona fide relationship with a person or entity already in the US. The limited ban is intended to stay in place until the Supreme Court hears the full case in October. Last week, the court also issued a major religious freedom ruling in favor of a church-run preschool seeking government funds to resurface its playground.