Civil Rights, Laughing Gas, Middle East, Monarch Butterfly

Civil Rights Guest: Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Author of the book, “Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt” and Professor of African American and US History and The Ohio State University  Fifty years ago next month, the historic march from Selma to Montgomery helped usher in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The midpoint of that march passed through the rural Lowndes County, Alabama. Jeffries clarifies the misconception that the African American struggle for rights culminated with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, 50 years ago. That he says, was in many ways, just a beginning.  “Embrace nonviolence tactically, strategically. If you came into Bloody, Lowndes County and talked about nonviolence,” says Jeffries, “you were going to get yourselves killed.”  The black panther was a symbol that originated in the rural south coming out of the civil rights struggle. According to Jeffries, African Americans in Lowndes County, Alabama can relate to this symbol because “cats are peaceful animals until there are backed up into a corner. Self-defense in the rural southwest was critical to their \[African Americans'] survival. It was an aspect of the movement we often overlook.”  Laughing Gas & Depression Guest: Dr. Charles Zorumski, Professor of neurobiology and head of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis  A team of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have found that giving nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, to individuals with severe depression makes the majority of them feel better.  “Nitrous is given in dentist’s offices for a long time, so there is a track record of studying it and it’s well tolerated,” says Zorumski.  Meetings Joe Allen, Professor in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at BYU  “Bad meetings create the need for more meetings. Meetings beget meetings. We think the meeting will solve the problem but the problem might actually be the meeting,” says Allen.  Allen suggested three key components a s