Drone Warfare, Evolution of Happiness, ConnectographyTop of Mind with Julie Rose • Season 1, Episode 293
May 11, 2016 • 1h 44m
America Enters New Era of Drone Warfare
Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor in BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School
We've reached a new milestone in drone warfare. The US military just announced that 2015 was the first year we fired more weapons over Afghanistan by drone than by traditional warplane. New ethical and legal questions come with this shift.
Savanna Theory of Happiness
Guest: Norman Li, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at Singapore Management University
Some people are city folk. Some are rural folk. But we’re really all, deep down, rural folk, according the Savanna Theory of Happiness. It’s a concept that says, we’re essentially happiest when our environment most resembles the sparsely populated African savanna where our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived. And if this sounds pretty far-out, know that surveys of Americans across the country find the happiest among us are in rural areas, the unhappiest live in crowded cities. And research also shows a good way to boost your happiness, no matter where you live, is to socialize with close friends.
Okay, so here’s the wrinkle, recently documented by evolutionary psychologists Satoshi Kanazawa and Norman Li: Smarter people are less bothered by crowded environments and they get less of a boost from hanging out with friends.
Apple Seed: The Story-telling Power of Stuff
Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYU Radio’s “The Apple Seed”
Sam Payne joins us in studio each week with insights on tellers and stories.
Iraq in Crisis, Saudi Oil in Transition
Guests: Fred Axelgard, PhD, Senior Fellow at BYU’s Wheatly Institution; Steven Lobell, PhD, Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah; Shadman Bashir, Visiting Professor of Law and International Relations at Dixie State University
Islamic State terrorists set off bombs in Baghdad today killing more than 90 people. The violence appears to mark an escalation by the Islamic State in targeting civilians–despite having lost significant territory to Iraqi government troops of late. We also talk about th