The Statue of Liberty Guest: Francesca Lidia Viano, Fellow, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard There is one monument that stands out more than any other on the East Coast. It represents freedom, liberty and to many early European immigrants, hope. Yet, there is more to the Statue of Liberty than most of us have ever realized. A Hug Helps You More Than You Think Guest: Tiffany Field, Director of the Touch Research Institute, Department of Pediatrics, The University of Miami School of Medicine Give me a hug! Wrapping your arms around someone shows love, stops the flow of tears, and makes your bond stronger. So why are we doing it less these days? The Hot Zone Guest: Richard Preston, author, "The Hot Zone" Ebola is one of the most dangerous viruses on earth. Highly contagious, it kills 90 percent of those infected and has no effective cure. Not only that, but it continues to reappear despite efforts to eradicate it. Where did it come from and what is the story of those who have risked their lives to contain it? Join us as we discuss the extraordinary story of this mysterious disease with Richard Preston, whose book, “The Hot Zone,” is becoming a National Geographic mini-series that premieres Monday, May 27. Listen, You Can Hear the Health of a Forest Guest: Zuzana Burivalova, incoming Assistant Professor, The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison The world’s biggest cities are explosions of noise and voices, of hundreds of lives lived close together, accustomed to the competition of being heard. The world’s biggest forests are no different, and scientists are learning how to use the musical cacophony of tropical forests to tell exactly how much life is actually in there. Coastal Cities Expand Into the Ocean Guest: Gil Wang, Naval Engineer, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Israel Institute of Technology Here’s a surprising statistic for you: approximately 70 percent of the world’s largest cities are coastal cities. This presents a problem when you consider the exponential population growth that our world is experiencing. How do you prevent the overpopulation of our cities? According to Gil Wang and others, you build on water.