Parent Previews

Guests: Daniel Ferguson, Writer and Director of "Jerusalem"; Jodi Magness, PhD, Archaeologist and a Senior Endowed Chair in the Department of Religious Studies: Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill  In this season of Hanukkah and Christmas, let's spend a few minutes looking to the root of ongoing contention over the site considered among the very holiest by Jews, Christians and Muslims. The Temple Mount or Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem has been the site of escalating violence in recent months. An IMAX film by National Geographic called, "Jerusalem" explores the claim all three faiths have on the holy ground.

Guest: Mitchell Neubert, PhD, Management Professor at Baylor and Chavanne Chair of Christian Ethics in Business  Entrepreneurs in the US occasionally choose to incorporate their religious beliefs into their business model. The owners of Chik-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby have gone so far as to make faith part of their brand. Some new research out of Baylor University finds that in developing countries across Asia and Africa, entrepreneurs who believe in God tend to be more successful in the small-business arena where people compete for microloans.

Guest: Deborah Rhode, PhD, Professor of Law and Director of the Center of Legal Profession at Stanford Law School  There’s an obesity problem in America. The CDC and US Surgeon General call it an epidemic. But government attempts to tackle the problem have faltered: New York’s attempt to ban super-sized sodas was overturned in the courts. Fast food companies have found ways around community restrictions on kid’s meals. Many jurisdictions have resisted or rolled-back proposals to charge a soda tax or regulate where junk food can be advertised. In many cases, anti-obesity policies come smack into conflict with our deeply-held American freedom to choose our own destinies – even if that means becoming obese.

Guest: Edward Sazonov, PhD, Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering at the University of Alabama  Fitbit and Apple watches are both on the must-have list for Christmas gear this season. Wearable technology to track exercise, heart rate and other biometrics are incredibly popular. But they still have limits. None have figured out how to track calorie intake accurately, for example. There are ways to guess, but most of these devices require you to go online and record what you eat in order to make the calculations. The problem with that is that it’s a pain to keep up and people are notoriously bad at keeping accurate records of their diet, but researchers at the University of Alabama are making it easier.

Guests: Kim Manwaring, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Biotechnology and Neuroscience at BYU; Mike Alder, Director of BYU's Technology Transfer office  For all the advances we’ve seen in neuroscience over the last two decades, there’s still a lot about the brain that remains a mystery. If you’ve ever had a loved one experience a head trauma or stroke, you know how frustrating it is how little the doctors seem to really know about what’s going on inside the skull of a person in a coma. They often don’t know exactly where the bleeding is, what damage has been done to the brain or what the likelihood of recovery. It’s a waiting game to see if the person will wake up and in what condition.