Close Encounters Turns 40

Guest: John Barrick, CPA, Professor of Accountancy, Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University President Trump has called for “the largest tax cut in US history.” His advisers and Republican leaders in Congress hope to release a framework of their plan in the next week. The hang up, according to many press reports, is how to pay it. That’s always the hang-up, isn’t it?

Guest: Steve Xu, MD, Resident Physician, Department of Dermatology, Fienberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Okay ladies--long eyelashes, plump lips, thick hair… sounds great, right? Well, not if that product causes serious skin irritation, which is what happened a few years ago with WEN Chaz Dean Cleansing Conditioners. The FDA got 127 complaints, and when they started investigating, they found that the manufacturer itself had received over 21,000 complaints from customers! Why didn’t the FDA get involved earlier?  A new study shows that more and more consumers have been complaining to the FDA about cosmetics recently, and the authors of the study have some insight as to why that’s the case and what can be done about it.

Guest: Sharon Choksi, Co-founder, Girls Will Be If you walk down the halls of your local elementary school when it’s warm outside and come across a line of second-graders walking to lunch, here’s what you’re likely to see: boys dressed in loose basketball shorts or baggy cargo shorts down to their knees, t-shirts in bold colors with graphics pronouncing themselves “Hero” or “#Awesome” and girls with tighter fitting shorts cut six inches above the knee and t-shirts in muted colors with ruffles and sparkles.  When her daughter Maya was about this age, Sharon Choksi found that she couldn’t find any clothes Maya liked because the girls’ clothes were too tight, skimpy or frilly, and the boys’ clothes were too baggy and bulky. So the former McKinsey consultant decided she would start her own company to provide the clothes girls like her daughter want.

Guest: Caleb Lystrup, Co-founder, Khione People who are hooked on hammocks take them to the park—you’ve seen them all summer---and camping, which seems great, in theory. But with just that thin layer of nylon between you and the nighttime air, it can get so cold sleeping in a hammock.   The problem of a cold backside on a camping trip last summer launched two BYU graduate students on a quest that has resulted in a new business and big success with a Kickstarter campaign. One of the founders joined us in studio.

Guests: Dallin Durfee, PhD, Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University; Spencer Rogers, Technology Transfer Office, Brigham Young University  To get an accurate sense of something very small typically requires getting up close. The microscope’s lens needs to be practically right on the thing, if it’s really small. And that’s not always practical or safe. Imagine you’re a disease researcher and you suspect that there are some deadly parasite larvae, on a log across a field.  You want to inspect them, but you don't want to get too close. Turns out, lasers can do the work of microscopes.