Brexit Has Happened. Sort Of. (0:30)

Guest: Wade Jacoby, PhD, professor of political science, BYU; Joel Selway, PhD, associate professor of political science, BYU

Well, Britain finally left the European Union. But actually, the curtain hasn’t quite yet gone up on an independent UK. It’s more like dress rehearsals have begun and opening night is still almost a year away.

 

Is It Ethical to Use Nazi Medical Research to Save Lives? (20:14)

Guest: Sabine Hildebrant, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School.

One of the most respected anatomy books ever published has a troubling history doctors still wrestle with today. It’s called Pernkopf’s Atlas and its colorful paintings of the body are so meticulous and beautifully detailed, it’s considered a masterpiece surgeons still refer to. But Pernkopf was a Nazi and the drawings in his atlas were likely based on victims of the Nazi regime. Should doctors be using the atlas to guide them in saving lives? How much does the origin of a thing matter?

 

Crime is Tough to Catch on the High Seas (37:04)

Guest: Karsten von Hoesslin, Head Detective, Remote Operations Agency

The world’s hunger for fish is depleting ocean fisheries, so countries and international organizations try to set and enforce limits on how much companies can fish out of the sea. But the incentive to cheat is so strong, that regulators can’t just trust fishing boats to be honest about what they’re up to. That’s where fishery observers come in. One man or woman from an independent organization gets assigned to go out on a ship – often for months at a time – to monitor and report anything illegal. The job is dangerous, and several fishery observers have disappeared in recent years under mysterious circumstances. 

 

Genocide Can Happen Anywhere (50:43)

Guest: Mathilde Mukantabana, Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the United States

For 100 days in 1994, the people of Rwanda turned against each other in ethnic violence. A million people died in the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda’s ambassador to the United States, Mathilde Mukantabana, lost her family – parents, siblings, aunts, uncles – who were members of the Tutsi group, which was targeted by Hutus in the genocide.

 

Women Are at a Disadvantage in the Housing Market (1:08:19)

Guest: Dr. Kelly Shue, Professor of Finance, Yale School of Management

If you’re a single woman in the housing market, I’ve got some bad news for you. A new study looked at 50 million house transactions across the US and found that single women often don’t do as well as single men – women buy homes for more and sell for less.

 

Whole Hog BBQ With a Rocket Scientist (1:23:10)

Guest: Howard Conyers, PhD, Whole Hog Pitmaster, Engineer at NASA Stennis Space Center

Texas barbecue is not the same as North Carolina barbecue is not the same as Kansas barbecue, as any barbecue aficionado knows. The meats, sauces and cooking methods all vary. Howard Conyers’s technique is among the rarest: he smokes a whole hog in a pit, the way indigenous and enslaved people in America were cooking barbecue long before white celebrity chefs were crowned the “kings of barbecue.”