Homelessness, Filk Music, Peanut Allergies, Election Conflict

Homeless Counts (1:09)  Guest: Nan Roman, CEO of National Alliance to End Homelessness  Every year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development requires communities to count the number of people staying in homeless shelters on a given night in January. Every other year, communities also have to count the number of people living in places unfit for habitation – like an abandoned building or a park.  “One of the things that data has revealed is the presence of the people who are chronically homeless. There is a group of people who spend a long time homeless, a year continuously or 4 times in 3 years. These are people with disabilities who can’t get out of the homelessness system. We have a solution to their problem which is permanent supportive housing,” says Roman.  Ceres: The Dwarf Planet (19:33) Guests: Denise Stephens, Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at BYU  Jani Radebaugh, Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at BYU  There is an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and in that asteroid belt, is something that’s not quite an asteroid, but not quite a planet either. It’s a dwarf planet called Ceres and this Friday, a NASA spacecraft will enter its orbit.  Ceres is exciting to astronomers because it’s the largest unexplored world in our region of the solar system. What’s it made of? What are those unusually bright spots scientists have spotted in their telescopes? We’ll start getting some answers in a matter of days when the spacecraft that’s been travelling for more than seven years finally gets close enough to enter Ceres’ orbit and starts snapping pictures.  “These few dwarf planets are just the tip of the iceberg of what could be out there,” says Stephens.  “It should be more about physical characteristics: is there a heat source? We should look more about what they are physically doing and less about what they look like,” says Stephens.  Filk Music (40:25) Guest: Tom Smith, Professional Filk Musician  With its roots in folk music, campfire songs, and comedy,