Women and the Draft, Empathy, Graveyard Shift Health

Drafting Women Weakens Religious Freedoms Guest: Margaret Tarkington, J.D., Professor of Law, Indiana University McKinney School of Law Since the 1970s, all young men ages 18-26 have been required to register with the United States Selective Service in the event the government were to reinstate a mandatory draft. Women have always been exempt from the draft. But now that the Pentagon has opened all combat roles up to women, many top military officials and members of Congress say women should be included in the draft, too. Last month, the US Senate included such a provision in a defense policy bill. Meanwhile, the US House passed a bill calling for a study of the issue. They’ll have to work out an agreement and the President would need to sign it, but with support from top military officials and bipartisan backing in Congress, there’s a real possibility that young women will one day be required to register with Selective Service alongside young men.  "I Feel Your Pain?" Not Really Guest: Tor Wager, Ph.D., director of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience laboratory at the University of Colorado, Boulder We’ll sometimes say “I feel for you,” to a person in pain. And there is something to sympathetic pain, isn’t there? Why else do we cringe when we see someone take a bad fall or a hard hit? Researchers have isolated the part of the brain where that sympathetic reaction to another’s pain happens – and surprisingly, it’s not where our own pain comes from.  Working Graveyard or Swing Shift Raises Stroke Risk Guest: David Earnest, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine There are 15 million Americans who work the graveyard or keep irregular hours where they’re up overnight some days, but not others. No surprise keeping that kind of schedule can be grueling. It may also put men, in particular, at greater risk for more severe strokes. Does Practice Make Perfect? Guest: Brooke N. Macnamara, Ph.D., director of th