Summer TSA Delays, Human-Caused Wildfires, Mice and Zika

Summer Travel and TSA Delays Guest: Jean Medina, Senior Vice President of Communications for Airlines for America Long lines at airport security checkpoints are causing frustration among passengers and prompting a stream of social media messages with the hashtag “iHatetheWait.” Showing up an hour early for your flight may not be enough. The Transportation Security Administration says passengers should allow two hours for screening on domestic flights – three hours for international flights.  Phone Use at Dinner Table Guest: Carol Moser, Doctoral Student in the University of Michigan School of Information Okay, you’re having dinner with friends at a restaurant. The appetizers have just arrived and your phone rings. Do you answer or send it to voice mail? What if you’re at home having dinner with your family – do you answer a call or a text then?  The way you answer those questions turns out to vary widely depending on your age, your smart phone habits and – this one’s interesting – whether or not there are kids at the table. Human Causes in Wildfires Guest: Michael Mann, PhD, Assistant Professor of Geography at George Washington University It’s fire season again in the arid West. As blazes get bigger and burn more intensely, fire forecasting models tend to put a lot of the blame on hotter, drier weather caused by climate change. But they’re missing something really important. Why Fentanyl is so Fatal Guest: Traci Green, PhD, Professor at the Brown University School of Medicine and Deputy Director of the Boston Medical Center Injury Prevention Center The powerful painkiller Fentanyl has been blamed for the accidental overdose death of musician Prince. Federal health officials have been tracking its increased use with alarm as the latest worrisome turn in the opioid epidemic. Nationwide, fentanyl fatalities rose by 79 percent in a single year – from 2013 to 2014. In many parts of the country, fentanyl is killing more people than heroin. Mouse Pregnancy and Zika Virus Guest: Michael Diamond, MD, PhD, Virologist and Professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis A couple of research reports out today attempt to ease concerns about the risk of contracting Zika virus at the Summer Olympics in Brazil. One study reported by Reuters predicts the Rio Olympics would result in no more than 15 Zika infections out of some half a million visitors to the games.  Epidemiologists disagree on just how risky it is to hold such a large public gathering at the epicenter of the Zika epidemic. That’s partly because we’re still learning about the effects of the mosquito-borne virus and how it migrates from a mother to a fetus, causing serious birth defects. C-SPAN on the Road Guest: Ashley Hill, Producer of the C-SPAN Cities Tour Every two weeks a fleet of red white and blue TV vans rolls into a different city somewhere in America and the lights go on. A film crew talks to the city mayor, interviews local historians and authors and turns the footage into a weekend-long profile of the city airing on C-SPAN’s BookTV and American History TV channels. This week the C-SPAN Cities Tour is in Provo.