Apple vs. the FBI, Acid Attacks, Stun Guns, Renee Fleming

Name: Goodpods
Rating: 4.8 (3721 reviews)

03/09/16 • 102 min

Apple vs. the FBI (1:04) Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor at BYU’s Law School You’ve undoubtedly heard the broad strokes about Apple’s standoff with the FBI: the FBI wants Apple’s help unlocking an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters; Apple says doing so would compromise the security of every other iPhone user. Acid Attacks (32:46) Guest: Jaf Shah, Executive Director of Acid Survivors Trust International Their stories usually contain the same elements: a young girl, a spurned suitor, and a savage act of violence using a weapon as ubiquitous as pencils or paper. Acid attacks are a serious problem in countries including India, Bangladesh and Cambodia, where sulfuric and nitric acids are commonly used in factories. Once it makes contact with the skin, acid burns away at the flesh. If it’s not fatal, the acid leaves behind horrific scars and can render a victim blind, deaf or without the use of their hands. Apple Seed (50:57) Guest: Same Payne, Host of the Apple Seed Same Payne joins us in studio to captivate us with a new story. Stun Guns (1:01:10) Guest: Robert Kane, PhD, Professor and Department Head of Criminology and Justice Studies at Drexel University As concerns over police shootings grow, TASERS have become the key law-enforcement alternative. Instead of a bullet, TASERS shoot two metal probe darts at the end of 15-foot threads that deliver a brief 50,000 volt burst of electricity. If the person being “TASED” has heart problems, the shock can be deadly. But on the whole, Tasers are considered “one of the preferred less-lethal weapons” and are so widely used by police the TASER company says one is deployed every two minutes. However, very little research has looked at how TASER exposure affects a victim’s brain and ability to make rational decisions. Research funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and published in the journal Criminology & Public Policy finds being “TASED” could prevent someone from understanding their rights at the point of arrest. Renee Fleming (1:19:28) Guest: Renee Fleming, American Soprano and Artistic Advisor At Large at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts You might expect a woman with this voice – one of the most celebrated opera singers in the world – to have a snobbish streak when it comes to music. But Renee Fleming does not. And her latest endeavor proves it. She’s just accepted a three-year appointment with the Kennedy Center for the Arts where she will curate concerts “celebrating the full gamut of vocal expression” – jazz, pop, classical, singer-songwriter – everything will be fair game.

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Nancy Reagan, Disability Voting, Middle School Parenting

Remembering the Reagans (1:03) Guest: Ambassador Gregory Newell, Reagan White House Special Assistant and Director of Presidential Appointments Nancy Reagan died of congestive heart failure over the weekend at the age of 94. Her funeral is scheduled for Friday. The Engineer Who Made Voting Possible for All (22:30) Guest: Juan Gilbert, PhD, Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and Chair of the Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department at the University of Florida For most Americans in an election year, the primary barrier to casting a vote is mustering the motivation to get out and do it. Typically little more than half of people eligible to vote in the US, do it in a presidential election. People with disabilities are even less likely to vote, because the barriers they face go beyond self-motivation. For a person with limited sight or hearing or use of their arms, the act of voting itself can be intimidating – and even humiliating. Middle School Parenting (52:07) Guest: Suniya Luthar, PhD, Foundation Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University and Professor Emerita at Columbia University’s Teachers College You’d think toddlers or infants would be the toughest to parent. They cry, they scream, and the little ones won’t let you sleep through the night. However, recent research shows it’s middle schoolers, with their dismissive attitudes and rebellious tendencies, who wreak the most havoc on a parent’s well-being. We all remember how lonely and awkward those years were for us. But was it even worse for our moms? Worlds Awaiting (1:10:18) Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio Worlds Awaiting is a new show here on BYUradio about fostering reading and discovery in children. It’s a show for grownups, and Ms. Wadham will help us to help those kids in our lives discover great literature and to learn to think critically about the world around them. Worlds Awaiting airs weekly on Saturdays at 1:30 pm EST here on BYUradio, Sirius XM Radio channel 143. Shakespeare’s First Folio (1:26:05) Guest: David Kastan, PhD, Professor of English at Yale University “Friends, Romans, countrymen… lend me your ears.” That famous line from “Julius Caesar,” one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, might have been lost to history along with 18 other Shakespearean classics including Julius Caesar, Macbeth and As You Like It. They were saved for posterity by a couple of Shakespeare’s acting buddies who took the unusual step, shortly after his death, of publishing 36 of the bard’s plays in a rare collection known as The First Folio. Today, it’s common for drama lovers to have a collection of Shakespearean works bound in a single volume, but in the mid-1600s, such a publication was a rare honor for an artist - and not one that Shakespeare himself would have cared much about. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, a copy of The First Folio is visiting all 50 states this year.

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Health Care, Struggles of African-American Students, Passover

Cutting the Cost of Health Insurance (1:03) Guest: Scott Schneider, Vice President of Sales for SelectHealth It’s not unusual for health insurance companies to boost premiums as much as 20 percent a year these days. They say they have to raise rates to keep up with higher drug prices and the fact that many of the people they’re forced to cover under the Affordable Care Act have serious health problems. But suppose, rather than just passing the higher costs on to you as a premium increase, the insurance company committed to work extra hard at getting the best deals on medical procedures and prescriptions? And the doctors who accepted the plan were as efficient and thoughtful as possible about the procedures and tests they do? And you promised to be extra vigilant about a healthy lifestyle and getting screenings that could catch problems before they become serious? And suppose with everyone working together like that, the insurance company promised to keep premium increases at four percent – much less than the typical increase? That’s the experiment a nonprofit system in Utah called Intermountain Healthcare has recently launched. Intermountain is known for tracking and analyzing costs and quality of patient care, so this latest attempt to keep premiums low is being closely watched by the industry and was featured in the New York Times. Struggles of African-American Students (20:33) Guest: Ebony McGee, PhD, Assistant Professor of Diversity and STEM Education at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development Much educational research has looked at what it takes for minority students to succeed. Closing the achievement gap and attracting a diversity of students to various fields are common goals. Far less attention is paid to the students who are succeeding – they’re not the squeaky wheels, so to speak. But, my next guest says, there is a mental health crisis among high-achieving African American students at predominantly white colleges. Passover (36:26) Guest: Jeffrey Chadwick, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious Education and Jerusalem Center Professor of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies The season of Spring celebration is nearly upon us and not just Spring break vacations and flower-planting. The season brings key holidays for world religions. Easter in Christianity comes on the last Sunday of March this year. Passover in Judaism begins on April 22nd. Middle East Panel (51:37) Guests: Steven Lobell, PhD, Political Science Professor at the University of Utah; John Macfarlane, PhD, Political Science Adjunct Professor at Utah Valley University; Fred Axelgard, PhD, Senior Fellow at the Wheatley Institution at BYU “Mixed messages” is one way to describe the latest news out of Iran. Recent parliamentary elections have prompted hope that pragmatic reformers are gaining power in Iran, promising economic reforms and cooperation with the West. At the same time, Iran is drawing strong criticism from the United States for a couple of test firings of ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel. Iran is where our monthly panel of Middle East experts starts their analysis today of events in the region. Nancy Reagan (1:20:32) Guest: Gregory Newell, Former Special Assistant and Director of Presidential Appointments of the Reagan Administration, Former Assistant Secretary of State and later US Ambassador to Sweden Former first lady Nancy Reagan died of congestive heart failure last weekend at the age of 94. Her funeral is scheduled for Friday.