Success of New Brexit Party Has Britain’s Establishment Looking Over Its Shoulder

Guest: John Longworth, UK Member of the European Parliament for The Brexit Party, Former Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce

A brand new political party, only in existence for six weeks, swept elections for European Parliament in England over the weekend. The Brexit Party now has at least 28 of its candidates headed to Brussels to represent the UK in the European Union’s governing body.

Gender-Specific Toys Can Limit Opportunities for Children to Learn and Grow

Guest: Lisa M. Dinella, Principal Investigator of the Gender Development Laboratory, Monmouth University

When you walk down the toy aisle at any store, you’ll usually find the aisle divided into pink and blue: on the pink side there are Barbies, tea sets, and princesses. On the blue side you’ll see cars, superheroes, and nerf guns.

A Check-In with Common Core Standards Ten Years Later

Guest: Tom Loveless, Former Senior Fellow and Director of the Brown Center on Education Policy, Brookings Institution

It’s been nearly 10 years since the main wave of US states adopted a new set of academic standards known as the Common Core. One of the main goals was to make sure schools are teaching students the skills they need to be competitive in a global economy. So, is it working?

The Broiler Chicken: A Symbol of Our Time (Originally aired January 16, 2019)

Guest: Richard Thomas, Professor of Archaeology, University of Leicester

Thousands of years from now, what do you suppose archaeologists will consider the symbol of our time? Like the Bronze Age or Iron Age, maybe we’ll be the iPhone Age? Actually, we may end up being remembered as the Chicken Age. Global food preferences have made the broiler chicken the most common terrestrial vertebrate on the planet. More than 65 billion are slaughtered each year. And they’ve been bred for lots of juicy meat, so they’ve got weird, warped bones that may baffle future scientists uncovering piles and piles of them in our landfills.

Brain Remodeling (Originally aired February 19, 2019)

Guest: Michael Merzenich, Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, Author of “Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life”

A lot of us have watched a loved one start to lose memory and brain power as they age. It can feel inevitable –and for a long time scientists agreed that once the brains stops developing in childhood, it’s basically all downhill from there. But today, researchers believe your brain can improve at any age.

Full or Forgot? (Originally aired January 29, 2019)

Guest: Marise Parent, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology and Associate Director of the Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University

Do you remember everything you ate for breakfast or lunch? I am a notoriously distracted eater. I’m either eating on the go or while watching TV or scrolling on my phone or reading a book or engrossed in conversation. Quite often I’ll be craving something sweet after dinner and think, “Hey, I haven’t had a treat all day, so I’m fine to have this cookie.” When in fact, I had a candy bar earlier in the day, but was doing something else while I ate it and just completely forgot.