Gun Politics, Former USA Luger Kate Hansen, Jomny Sun

Gun Politics in America Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, BYU President Trump held a listening session Wednesday with students, teachers and parents who have been affected by school shootings. Eighteen-year-old Sam Zeif survived last week’s shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, but his best friend did not. During the meeting, President Trump promised to do something to address school shootings. Trump called for more mental institutions, indicated interest in the idea of arming trained teachers with concealed weapons and raising the age limit to buy an assault weapon. He also promised to be “very strong on background checks.” But, if history is any guide, the President will have trouble delivering those things.  Can a Video Game Reverse Hearing Loss? Guest: Daniel Polley, PhD, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology, Harvard Medical School Having dinner in a crowded restaurant can make it really hard to hear what the person across from you is saying.  You may have always chalked this up to some permanent damage caused by attending really loud rock concerts in your younger years. But the problem may not be simply in your ears – but in your brain as well. And researchers believe the brain can relearn how to distinguish between speech and noise with the right kind of training. What’s It Like to Luge? Guest: Kate Hansen, USA Luge Athlete in the 2014 Sochi Olympics Only two Americans have ever won an Olympic medal in the individual luge competition – Chris Mazdzer who just took the silver in PyeongChang; and Erin Hamlin won bronze in Sochi. So, my point here is that Americans know they’ve got long odds going into the event that entails lying face up on a thin sled zipping down an ice track, feet first, at 80 miles an hour. It’s very serious business, which is maybe why BYU alum and So-Cal surfer girl Kate Hansen captured so much attention during her Olympic turn at the 2014 games in Sochi. She came in 10th place, but her warm-up dance before races made her a viral sensation. Jomny Sun (Originally aired: Aug. 23, 2017) Guest: Jonny Sun, author of the @jomnysun Twitter feed and the book, “Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too” Twitter is not a place for feeling good. It’s a place for ranting and sarcasm and bad news. Even comedy has a bite on Twitter, which is maybe why @jonnysun has such a following on Twitter. Because he’s none of those things. His tweets are silly, often punny, a little wistful, a little weird. But never mean. He has half a million followers and an illustrated book called, “Everyone’s a Alien When Ur a Alienb Too.” Chinese Consumers Are the Future (Originally aired: June 12, 2017) Guest: Jeffrey Towson, Professor of Business at Peking University and Co-Author of “The One Hour China Book” If you’ve been to any major tourist attraction in America recently, be it the Empire State Building, the Las Vegas strip or Zion National Park, you’ve undoubtedly found yourself standing amid tourists from mainland China. This surge in Chinese tourists represents a wave of new consumers who have recently joined the middle class and are eager to enjoy the same things middle-class families all over the world have long taken for granted. The question now is whether the world is ready for the changes that will inevitably come with half a billion middle class Chinese consumers. Is the ‘Man Flu’ Real? Guest: Kyle Sue, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor in Family Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland When men get sick, women often give them a hard time for whining. When a woman gets a cold, she still goes to work, runs errands, takes care of the kids, whatever needs to get done that day. When a man gets sick, he’s knocked down hard and tends to stay in bed until it’s all over. “Man flu,” it’s called. But one doctor says there’s at least some evidence to suggest the man flu is real – that men suffer more, or at least differently, when they get a cold or the flu.