Top of Mind with Julie Rose

Turkeys Have Gotten Bigger Over the Decades, But This Year Small Is Preferred Loneliness Peaks for People in Their 20s Scientists Worry About the Return of 1930s Dust Bowl Conditions in the Great Plains Can Carbon Collection Fix Climate Change? How to Survive a Landslide How Are Koalas Doing Almost a Year After the Australian Bushfires?

The Race to Confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee (0:30) Guest: James Curry, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Utah President Trump has nominated federal judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Four years ago, Senate Republicans refused to consider President Obama’s nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia because the vacancy happened in a Presidential Election year. And here we’re less than two months from the election, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised that Republicans will confirm President Trump’s nominee anyway. Confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin in two weeks. Exploring Sensory History (19:38) Guest: Mark Smith, Professor of History, University of South Carolina In ten or twenty years, when you talk about the year 2020, will there be certain smells or tastes or sounds that come flooding back? Maybe the smell of hand sanitizer. Or the way the streets were so eerily quiet in the early days of pandemic quarantine. History books will cover the who, what and when of 2020. Sensory historians like Mark Smith want to make sure the smells, tastes and sounds are remembered, too. A Look at President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett (36:59) Guest: Stephanie Barclay, Associate Professor of Law, Notre DameUniversity President Trump’s pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the US Supreme Court is Amy Coney Barrett. She’s a judge on the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago with a conservative track record who clerked for conservative Supreme Court icon Justice Antonin Scalia. Judge Barrett’s addition to the Supreme Court will give conservatives a solid 6-3 majority and Judge Barrett is 48 years old, so she’s likely to serve a very long time in this lifetime appointment. Breaking The Homeschooling Stereotype (52:48) Guest: Amber O’Neal Johnston, Homeschool Parent, Consultant, Heritage Mom blog and Instagram Two big movements have been front and center in America these last few months–race relations and homeschooling. Amber O’Neal Johnston has found herself as a sought-after voice on both. She’s a homeschool mom in Georgia with a big following on her Heritage Mom blog and Instagram feed. She’s also black and has become a leading organizer of homeschool groups and resources for families of color. Lately, she’s also been asked to help homeschool families of all backgrounds find the best resources to teach children about racism. It’s Not Enough to Be Nice. Let’s Work on Being Deeply Kind. (1:10:11) Guest: Houston Kraft, Co-Founder of CharacterStrong, Author of "Deep Kindness: A Revolutionary Guide for the Way We Think, Talk, and Act in Kindness" Are you a nice person? When was the last time that you did something intentionally kind, something that required you to step outside of your comfort zone or summon an uncomfortable amount of forgiveness and compassion? It’s not enough to be nice, says Houston Kraft. The world needs Deep Kindness. First Community of British Wild Beavers in Centuries Allowed to Stay (1:29:28) Guest: Mark Elliott, Wetland Ecologist, Devon Wildlife Trust in England Beavers were driven to extinction more than four centuries ago in England. But then one day, a family of wild beavers just showed up in a river. That was seven years ago, and scientists have been studying their progression and effects on the ecosystem the whole time. There are now 15 families of beavers there, and the British government recently ruled they can stay permanently.

Mixed Verdict on the United Nations as it Turns 75 (0:30) Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University The United Nations is celebrating its 75th anniversary. What’s there to celebrate? Hawaii’s Beaches are Disappearing. Here’s Why. (22:44) Guest: Kammie-Dominique Tavares, Graduate Researcher, University of Hawaii at Manoa Doesn't a vacation to a beach somewhere just to relax sound nice? Hawaii’s always a good choice–when there’s not a pandemic restricting travel, of course. But Hawaii’s beaches are disappearing at an alarming rate because of rising sea levels and something called “shoreline hardening.” If both continue as they are right now, O’ahu could lose 40 percent of its beaches over the next thirty years. Ticket Resales Business (34:18) Guest: Barry Rudin, Owner of Barry’s Ticket Service, Southern California This would have been a lucrative 24 hours for ticket re-seller Barry Rudin. He's based in Los Angeles where the Dodgers are playing at home and the Lakers are in the NBA finals. But alas, no fans are allowed inside, so there's no business for Rudin. Meet the (Quite Possibly) Only Female Coppersmith in the US (52:49) Guest: Sara Dahmen, Coppersmith at House Copper & Cookware, Author of "Copper, Iron, and Clay: A Smith's Journey." Sara Dahmen was a wedding planner when one day she decided to give it up and become a coppersmith. She now makes cookware out of her garage with techniques from hundreds of years ago, and she’s probably the only female coppersmith in the entire country. But then, there just aren’t very many coppersmiths anymore, male or female. Metal crafting is a dwindling art, and as the experts die, their knowledge is dying with them. Could women save metal crafts? The Mystery of Mass Whale Strandings (1:12:23) Guest: Scott Baker, Professor of Fisheries and Wildlife, Associate Director of the Marine Mammal Institute, Oregon State University Wildlife officials in Australia have just completed a week-long effort to rescue 470 whales that got stranded on a sandbank off the coast of Tasmania. They were able to save about 100 of them. Whales periodically get stranded on beaches around the world. This was the largest mass whale beaching in Australia’s history. What marine scientists aren’t sure of, is why this happens. How Afterschool Programs Can Better Help Parents (1:27:37) Guest: Carolyn Barnes, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Author of "State of Empowerment: Low-Income Families and the New Welfare State" Nearly one out of four low-income schoolchildren in the country participate in an after-school program funded by the federal government. The kids get tutoring, homework help and basic supervision. Their parents get some peace of mind knowing their kids are in good hands during that window between the end of school and the end of the work day.

Moria Refugee Camp Fire in Greece Prompts Renewed Efforts to Resolve Migration in Europe (0:32) Guest: Franziska Grillmeier, Freelance Reporter, Based in Lesbos, Greece Europe’s largest refugee camp burned to the ground two weeks ago, leaving more than 10,000 migrants without even the most basic shelter or access to clean water. The camp was called Moria–it was on the island of Lesbos in Greece. The fire prompted leaders of the European Union this week to propose a mandatory system of migrant resettlement. For years, European countries have been unable to agree on how to deal with migrants, which has meant that large numbers of asylum seekers are stuck in camps in Greece, Italy and Turkey. UConn Graduate Student Gets Her Crossword Puzzle Published in the New York Times (21:19) Guest: Anne Marie Crinnion, Doctoral Student, University of Connecticut There’s a whole industry out there of people making crossword puzzles and selling them to newspapers and magazines. It’s very competitive and getting one published in the New York Times is like winning the gold medal for amateur puzzlemakers, and University of Connecticut grad student Anne Marie Crinnion just pulled it off. Can Naps Hurt Your Brain? (36:06) Guest: Lauren Hablitz, Research Assistant and Professor of Neurosurgery, Center for Translational Neuromedicine, University of Rochester More than a third of American adults are not getting enough sleep. So maybe that means the occasional daytime nap to make up for it? You may wake up feeling refreshed, but sleeping during the day doesn’t give your brain the same benefits as nighttime sleep. In fact, if you’re doing a lot of day sleeping you may be at higher risk for developing neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s. The Tragedy of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South (52:48) Guest: Chip Jones, Author of “The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South” 25,000 organ transplants have been happened in the United States so far this year. The fact that they’ve happened despite the pandemic speaks to how urgent transplants are–the person in need of a new heart, or kidney or lung has no time to spare. Once a donor dies, there’s only so much time before his or her organs start to degrade. So the process has to happen quickly. In the early days of transplant science, the need for speed could have tragic results. The Effect of Disney Princesses on Girls (1:30:38) Guest: Tom Robinson, Professor and Associate Director for Graduate Studies, Brigham Young University A lot of girls grow up on a steady diet of Disney princesses. A lot of research says these movies aren’t healthy for young girls since many of these princesses have perfect bodies and unrealistic romantic relationships, and often get rescued to then live in luxury. But a new study out of BYU asked little girls themselves what they thought, and there may be some positive things that come from watching princess movies.

Ethiopia’s Internal War and Why it Matters Evidence Suggests Women Hunted in Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Societies Far-reaching Impacts of Biased School Discipline An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East Star Wars, AFOLs and the Secret to LEGO’s Enduring Popularity