A Romeo and Juliet Debacle

Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU In the last hour, South African president Jacob Zuma resigned. He’d been under pressure from his own party to step aside because of a corruption scandal. Corruption charges have also been leveled against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The humanitarian crisis in Syria is one of the most profound of our generation.

Guest: Zachary Zobel, Graduate Student, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Climate change won’t impact all regions of the world at the same time. For example, our studios sit at the base of the Wasatch mountain range, and those mighty peaks will actually delay the effects of climate change, according to research out of the University of Illinois, where new research methods allow climate scientists to predict what climate change will look like basically in your backyard. This could really help city managers and local utilities plan for the future.

Guest: Heather Dichter, PhD, Professor of Sport Management, Leicester Castle Business School, De Montfort University, England, and Editor, “Diplomatic Games: Sport, Statecraft, and International Relations since 1945” When all the medals have been distributed, will these Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang have been worth it for South Korea? Will they have a warmer relationship with North Korea? A better brand internationally? A bunch of vacant sports facilities they spent a bundle on and now have to maintain? Hosting an Olympics is an extravagance fewer countries are interested in taking on these days.

Guest: M. Rockwell Parker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, James Madison University How do you catch a 20-foot long, 200-pound, alligator-eatin’ python? Or should you just run? Probably a good idea, but Burmese Pythons are a major problem in the Florida Everglades and they’re really tricky to catch. So a wily biologist named Rocky Parker has a tricky solution he’s hoping will work.

Guest: Daphne de Marneffe, PhD, Psychologist and Author, “The Rough Patch: Marriage and the Art of Living Together” A quarter of divorcing couples cite money issues as a source of their conflict. When couples argue about money, there’s really so much more going on. How you can get to the bottom of conflicts about money and better understand your spouse.