America: A Less Christian Nation

Guest: Fred Gale, economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture whose work focuses on China’s agricultural development and international trade America is now the leading exporter of agricultural products to China – crops cotton, meat, cereal grains and hay. This is a major shift, considering the high value Chinese officials have long placed on self-sufficiency. The country has traditionally resisted pressure to import agricultural products officials have resisted the urge to import agricultural products. But China is the world’s most populous country and Chinese diets are changing.

Guest: Christopher Bernstein, with the USDA’s Food Safety Education Staff Think about what’s in your fridge right now. Anything questionable? That spaghetti from last week—still okay to eat? Yogurt that’s passed the sell-by date? The USDA estimates that billions of pounds of good food goes to waste because home cooks aren’t sure if it’s safe to eat. The problem is exponentially larger when you include restaurants and manufacturers, so reducing food waste is a major initiative of the USDA. And yet, who really wants to roll the dice on that old stroganoff in the fridge? “When in doubt, throw it out” seems like a smart way to go. A new smartphone app could help keep us safe and prevent us from wasting unnecessarily.

Guest: Alex Webb, assistant professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico Imagine you walk into a building and suddenly, there on a wall, in full view of everyone, are your personal details—who you are, your location, maybe even your Facebook friends and latest Tweets. The “DataWall” is what Alex Webb calls his art concept. He’s a professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico and he’s not trying to steal your identity. He’s trying to demonstrate just how vulnerable you are to having your personal information taken right off the phone in your pocket as you walk by.

Guest: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett or ParentPreviews.com The championship college glee club—the Barden Bellas—are back with their song and dance routine, only this time a wardrobe malfunction forces them off stage.

Guests: Robert Davis, Professor of Physics at Brigham Young University Nick Morrill, BYU Nanotechnology Research Group Spencer Rogers, works in BYU’s Technology Transfer office which license and markets innovations made on campus. More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu We’re surrounded by filters—in our furnaces and water systems and cars. And even in the kitchen, where we use strainers and sieves to drain and purify. A team of researchers here at BYU is working on a filter with holes ten times smaller than the hair on your head. Microscopic holes.