The True Story of Yasuke, the African Samurai (Originally aired May 7, 2019)

Guest: Thomas Lockley, Assistant Professor, Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo, Co-author of “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan”

Chadwick Boseman –best known as the Black Panther –(Wakanda forever)is rumored to be the pick to play another heroic figure -Yasuke, the African Samurai. It’s a fascinating true story of an African boy kidnapped and enslaved in the 1500s who rose to become a samurai for Japan’s most powerful leader.

The Debate Over Statistical Significance (Originally aired May 2, 2019) 

Guest: William Christensen, Professor of Statistics, BYU

One of the most respected scientific journals in the world -The New England Journal of Medicine –has just announced that it will no longer rely so heavily on something called a “P value” when deciding which studies are worth paying attention to. This is a topic of hot debate –a schism even –in the statistics world. And it boils down to a difference of opinion over what constitutes a “positive” result. The P-value –which we’re going to explain in a moment –has been the bright line scientists have used to determine when to make hay about the results of a study: “We hit this threshold, everybody listen up!” But more and more researchers are beginning to think that line is bogus and science needs to stop relying on it so much. The New England Journal of Medicine has now come out on that side of the fight. 

An Adventurer Who Inspired Generations of Dinosaur Hunters (Originally aired May 6, 2019)

Guest: Clive Coy, Chief Technician at the Laboratory for Vertebrae Paleontology, University of Alberta, Member of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society

A fearless explorer who hates snakes, trekking across the Gobi desert with a caravan of cars and camels. Nope, not Indiana Jones. Let’s meet Roy Chapman Andrews –a real-life adventurer who made ground-breaking dinosaur fossil discoveries, led the American Museum of Natural History in New York and published a bunch of books for kids about dinosaurs that inspired a whole generation of paleontologists.

How the Kochs Influence American Politics (Originally aired August 10, 2018)

Guest: Kenneth Vogel, Reporter, New York Times, Author of “Big Money”

Billionaire industrialist, philanthropist and political activist David Koch has died. He and his brother Charle sare credited with moving the Republican party further to the right over the last two decades.  They founded Americans for Prosperity which helped give rise to the Tea Party Movement in the mid-2000s. In the 2016 election, the Koch network spent nearly as much on candidates and advertising as the Republican Party itself. But they’ve also publicly disagreed with President Trump’s version of the Republican Party.

The Importance of Vacation Time (Originally aired May 13, 2019)

Guest: Joe Robinson, Founder of Work to Live, Stress Management and Work-life Balance Trainer, Speaker, Author of “Work to Live” and “Don’t Miss Your Life”

Summer is just about over –did you get in enough vacation time? More than half of Americans don’t use all of their paid time off. Work-life balance expert Joe Robinson believes you should be using all of that PTO and then some. He’s the founder of Work to Live and coaches companies on how to get more out of their employees by taking more time off.

Lights Are Causing Problems for Sea Turtle Hatchlings (Originally aired May 16, 2019)

Guest: David Godfrey, Executive Director of Sea Turtle Conservancy 

Several environmental groups filed a lawsuit this week against the Trump Administration over changes to the Endangered Species Act. Sea turtles are on the list of species that could get less protection if the changes go forward. Right now, up and down Florida’s coast, it’s turtle nesting season. Little hatchlings are emerging from the warm sand and making a dangerous scramble toward water. Tens of thousands of them will be waylaid by misleading lights along the shoreline. The Sea Turtle Conservancy has an all-out plan to dim the lights on Florida’s coast, so the hatchlings don’t end up disoriented in swimming pools, on porches or smushed under cars.