Stories with The Apple Seed

Guest: John Barrick, PhD, Associate Professor of Accountancy, Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday, and the justices seemed split, on whether or not states can force an out-of-state internet store like Overstock.com to collect sales taxes. President Trump made his view clear on Twitter after the hearing: “States and Cities throughout our Country are being cheated and treated so badly by online retailers. Very unfair to traditional tax paying stores!” What’s the issue here and why is the Supreme Court involved?

Guest: Angelica Duran-Martinez, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell Every day in the US, more than 100 people die of an opioid overdose. As part of his plan to address the epidemic, President Trump wants a crackdown on drug dealers – what he calls, “the big pushers.” The President’s plan also includes making more treatment options available to people with opioid addiction and an awareness campaign to reduce the amount of opioids prescribed by doctors. But his call to execute drug dealers is getting the most attention.  Angelica Duran-Martinez has studied how well these tough laws work in addressing drug problems on a national scale.

Guest: Jim Blackburn, JD, Professor of Environmental Law, Co-Director of the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disaster (SSPEED) Center. Rice University It’s been about eight months since Hurricane Harvey’s torrential rain caused serious flooding in Houston, Texas. Since then, investigative reporting by the New York Times and other outlets has revealed that many of the worst-flooded neighborhoods were actually designed to flood in the case of a severe storm. People who bought homes in those areas had no idea, and many are now part of a class action lawsuit against the government.

Guest: Celine Irvene, Graduate Student and Research Assistant in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a member of the Communications Assurance and Performance (CAP) Group As the Internet of Things expands, more and more physical devices—refrigerators, hospital equipment, machines on a factory floor—are coming online. That means hackers have more opportunities to cause mischief in the physical world – and cause real physical harm to people. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way to trap hackers trying to take over a robot remotely.

Guests: Sandra Kahn, DDS, MSD, Orthodontist; Paul Ehrlich, PhD, Professor of Population Studies Emeritus, President of the Center of Conservation Biology, Stanford University. Scientists who study skulls from thousands of years ago can tell you something surprising about our ancestors: they didn’t need orthodontists. Our ancestors, as a general rule, had great teeth: straight, strong, no crowding or impacted wisdom teeth or overbite. These days having perfect teeth without braces or some sort of dental work done is really rare in America. What changed?  Paul Ehrlich and Sandra Kahn explore that question in their new book, “Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic.” They claim that we, as industrialized humans, have a host of health problems because, from the time we’re born, we don’t force our jaws to work hard enough.