Apple Seed Stories

Guest: Eva Witesman, PhD, Associate Professor, George Romney Institute of Public Management, Marriott School, Brigham Young University The back-to-back storms Harvey and Irma caused tens of billions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses and community infrastructure. People need our help and we’re told that sending money is the best way to do it. But where to give? And how to know that what you’re giving is going to help someone in need, rather than to the salary of a nonprofit executive?

Guest: Ron Harris, PhD, Professor of Geology, Brigham Young University, Founder, In Harm's Way While Hurricanes Harvey and Irma flattened and flooded the southern US, fires raged in the Northwest, and Mexico was hit by its strongest earthquake in a century. With natural disasters all around us, let’s spend a moment thinking about how to prepare for one.

Guest: Jerry Park, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, Baylor University, Affiliate Fellow, Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion Christians, Jews, Muslims and those with no particular religion all preach the importance of loving your fellow man, but a new survey shows we’re a lot more judgmental of one another that we might like to admit. The latest Baylor University Religion Study finds, for example, that church-goers of all stripes look down on atheists as being morally inferior. But non-religious types look down on Christians for the same reason. So, we’re all pretty much looking down on each other? But it doesn’t stop there – we also admit to being afraid of other religious groups. So much for peace, love and understanding?

Guest: John Lawrence, MD, President, US Board of Directors, Doctors Without Borders Years of headlines about the global refugee crisis have had a numbing effect on a lot of us. The scale of the suffering is so large and far away from our lives in the US, it’s hard to stay engaged with the issue.  So, the international aid group Doctors Without Borders is bringing the experience to Americans. A free exhibit traveling to West Coast cities this fall simulates what it’s like to be a refugee: The rush to grab what you can and flee your home; the risky sea crossing in an inflatable raft crammed in with other exhibit visitors. There are tents to show how refugees live in camps and a medical tent where you can see how volunteer doctors work under challenging conditions.