Dutch Elections, Pirate Next Door, Beware Overhydration

Dutch Elections, Pirate Next Door, Beware Overhydration

Top of Mind with Julie Rose

  • Mar 20, 2017 11:00 pm
  • 1:43:28 mins

Dutch Populism, Global Humanitarian Crisis, Happiness Index Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU World Events are Top of Mind today as we welcome regular Top of Mind contributor Quinn Mecham back into the studio. He’s a professor of political science here at BYU and joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration. The Pirate Next Door Guest: Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos, author of "The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates' Wives, Families and Communities" Last week, a group of frustrated fishermen captured an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia to protest foreign vessels interfering in their livelihood. But the Somali pirates released the ship after just a few days and agreed to forgo the ransom they typically demand, for reasons we won’t go into here. The point is, that piracy is still alive on the high seas. Today’s pirates don’t have peg legs, parrots or the swashbuckling mystique of Blackbeard and Jack Sparrow, but – and this will probably disappoint you and the Pirates of the Caribbean fans in your life - even the pirates of that “Golden Age” weren’t like that. In fact, the legendary pirate captains of the time were a lot more like the Somali pirates of today – active participants in society pushed by economic forces to take a risky career path. Many had wives and families depending on their loot back home and a pirate retirement plan to fall back on when they were ready to return home.  Raising Our Babies Guest: Ilse Dekoeyer-Laros, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Utah, Child Development Specialist at Help Me Grow Utah When a parent is under stress at work or school, worried about finances, exhausted when they’re home, and feeling at wit’s end, their children feel it. Not just in the “Mom’s in a bad mood, watch out” way. Psychologist Ilse Dekoeyer-Laros at the University of Utah says when parents are stressed out they don’t do a good job buffering their kids from stress. And stress has serious consequences for developing brains – especially babies. For more information on attending the event "Raising Our Babies," click here. Creating Drinks to Prevent Athlete Over-hydration Guest: Kevin Miller, Professor in the Athletic Training Program, Central Michigan University Make sure you drink plenty of water is standard advice parents and coaches give to athletes hoping to prevent heat stroke and cramping. But after several high school athletes in the United States died after drinking large amounts of water and other fluids, researchers began to discover that too much water can be harmful. Beauty and the Beast Guest: Rod Gustafson, ParentPreviews.com Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast set a record for a March opening – brought in 170 million dollars and pretty-much ensured that we’ll eventually see every animated Disney classic rendered in eye-popping CGI. New Antibiotic Development Guest: Joel Griffitts, PhD, Professor of Molecular and Microbiology, BYU; Mike Alder, Director fo the Technology Transfer Office, BYU; Antibiotic resistance is such a huge global problem that the World Health Organization recently published the first list of priority pathogens for researchers focus on. It’s just too enormous and widespread a crisis to tackle every type of bacteria that are known to resist antibiotic treatment. At the top of the WHO’s priority list is the bacteria family that includes Salmonella, E.Coli and many of the serious infections now popping up in hospitals and nursing homes.