Apple Seed

Guest: Hakan Yavuz, PhD, Professor of Political Science and Middle East Affairs at the University of Utah  This week marks five years since the start of the War in Syria, and it comes with a surprising twist: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the “main part” of his forces will withdraw from the country where they’ve been fighting in support of Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad. Media reports indicate Russian forces did, indeed, begin to withdraw yesterday. Meanwhile, a tenuous ceasefire between Assad and rebel groups trying to oust him has lasted two weeks. All of which has “produced new momentum” in peace talks underway in Geneva, according to a UN special envoy for Syria.

Guest: Ravi Gajendran, PhD, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of Illinois  Employers might feel a sense of regret or frustration when a good employee they’ve invested a lot of money and energy into decides to leave the company. But maybe it’s not a total loss.

Guest: Kedar Iyer, Co-Founder of GapJumpers  Imagine if a company assessed candidates through a blind audition process like on the NBC reality music show The Voice.  My next guest has co-founded a company to offer blind audition for tech companies looking to cut back on the subtle bias that too often overlooks female and minority job applicants.

Guest: Doug and Margo Engberg, Contestants on Relative Race  A new reality show on BYUTV called “Relative Race” blends elements of the Amazing Race with a passion for family history. Four married couples are in a 10-day road-trip race across the country in search of distant relatives they’ve never met, but know they’re related to because they’ve had their DNA tested. A $25,000 prize is on the line, but you could argue that no matter who wins, all of the couples gain something precious – new people they can call family.

Guest: Cedric Feschotte, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Utah; Ed Chuong, PhD, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Utah  When your body’s immune system defeats an infection caused by a virus, certain types of viruses will leave a little genetic souvenir of themselves behind. It’s happened so often over time that today, about eight percent of human DNA was originally left behind by viruses that lost ancient immune system battles.