The Effect of Tragic Images on Viewers and the Photographers Who Capture Them (Originally aired July 14, 2015)

Guest: James Hill, Photojournalist, Author of “Somewhere Between War and Peace”

The tragedy of what’s happening at the US-Mexico border came into stark relief this week with the publication of a heartbreaking photo: Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his not-quite-two-year-old daughter Valeria drowned in the Rio Grande River. The family from El Salvador was attempting to swim across the river to request asylum in the United States. On the one hand, there are people horrified that the media would publish such an upsetting photo. And on the other, devastating images like these have a way of moving politicians and the public to act. 

The Race to Find our Hidden Planet (Originally aired March 6, 2019)

Mike Brown, Professor of Planetary Astronomy, California Institute of Technology 

Let’s turn now to the search for a 9thplanet in the solar system –13 years ago, astronomer Mike Brown led the charge to get Pluto demoted from the list because it’s just one of many small icy planets orbiting in the same neighborhood out there. Brown’s Twitter handle is literally @PlutoKiller. But now he’s is now leading the charge to add a ninth planet back to the list. He and other astronomers believe there’s some giant planet nobody’s ever seen before way out past Neptune orbiting the sun on a really weird path. 

Dragonfly, Mission to Saturn’s Moon (Originally aired February 15, 2018)

Jani Radebaugh, Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Science, BYU

NASA has just chosen the winner of its billion-dollar competition to be the next space mission. Dragonfly is a helicopter-like drone. BYU planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh is on the team that proposed Dragonfly –and will now get to work on the mission of a lifetime. 

Wizards Unite (Originally aired July 31, 2018)

Guest: Neil Randall, Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo

The company that made Pokemon Go a viral hit has a new game that’s similar but based in the world of Harry Potter. Wizards Unite is the name of the app. Instead of capturing Pokemon, you’re a wizard, searching for lost magical items to return to their proper place before any muggles notice something wrong.

Milk from Genetically-Modified “Spider-Goats” Is Source of Valuable Silk (Originally aired February 7, 2019)

Guest: Justin Jones, Assistant Professor of Biology, Utah State University

Spider silk is stronger than steel, super lightweight and surprisingly elastic. But you already knew that. With the new Spiderman movie hitting theaters, we wanted to revisit a crazy conversation we had earlier this year with a scientist at Utah State University who is genetically modifying goats to produce spider silk.