Why Making End-Of-Life Plans Right Now Is Important, and Empowering (0:30)

Guest: Timothy G. Ihrig, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Crossroads Hospice and Palliative Care

As hospitals across the country scramble to find the space and ventilators to treat the most seriously ill COVID 19 patients, there is something you and I can do right now (besides staying home and staying safe). Doctors say this is a crucial time for you and your loved ones to document your end-of-life wishes in the form of an advanced directive.

 

Mothering Young Kids Under Stress in Quarantine – How MK Backstrom Keeps Her Cool (16:38)

Guest: MK Backstrom, Blogger and Author “Mom Babble: The Messy Truth About Motherhood.”

We’re all stressed right now. Florida mom MK Backstrom is maybe a little more stressed than many, because she’s got two young kids at home. MK Backstrom’s got a large and devoted following on her “MomBabble” Facebook and Instagram pages. She’s known for her humor and her kids’ hijinx. Lately her live videos have taken a more serious turn given her husband’s role treating COVID-19 patients. But in the middle of it all, Backstrom is out with her first book of funny essays called, “Mom Babble: The Messy Truth About Motherhood.”

 

The Sneaky Bias That Keeps Women and African Americans Off Juries. (35:53)

Guest: Ann Eisenberg, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina

The US Constitution guarantees you the right to a jury trial in criminal cases, and the Supreme Court has said that ought to be a jury of your peers. But if you’ve watched any legal drama on TV, you know that juries are not assigned at random based on the community they’re drawn from. If you’re black, there’s no guarantee there will be any people of color on your jury because lawyers on the case have a lot of power to pick and choose. They’re technically not supposed to kick people off a jury because of race or gender. But University of South Carolina law professor Ann Eisenberg has evidence that women and African Americans are disproportionately removed from death penalty cases in her state.

 

What if Justice Meant Something Other Than Punishment? (50:37)

Guest: Sonya Shah, Executive Director of the Ahimsa Collective, Associate Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies

If you were seriously wronged by someone – say they hurt you or someone you love in a really terrible way – would you want to see that person punished? Here in America, justice equals punishment. Someone commits a crime, we lock them up. That helps explain why the US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. But many indigenous communities – and even a few countries like Norway – don’t think about justice as punishment. Instead, they do “restorative justice.”

 

The Enormous Power of Placebos, Paired With Persuasion (1:09:52)

Guest: Jay Olson, PhD Candidate, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University

A bunch of college students at McGill University in Canada thought they were participating in a research experiment where they’d take a drug similar to magic mushrooms and see how it affected their creativity. More than half of them reported a psychedelic experience during the four hours of the study. So, imagine their surprise when they were told that little pink pill they’d been given was just a placebo. How did so many of them feel like they were on a drug when they weren’t really? The answer has some interesting – and important – implications for the way drugs are used to treat all kinds of conditions.

 

Treat the Parent to Treat the Child With Anxiety (1:24:41)

Guest: Eli Lebowitz, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of the Program for Anxiety, Child Study Center, Yale University

Treatment for anxiety in children only works about half the time. But what if we treated the parent instead of the child? New research shows that putting parents in counseling actually works because their efforts to help their anxious kid are often hurting more than helping.