Cherokee Nation Sends Its First Delegate to Congress

Guest: Chuck Hoskin, Jr., Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

For the first time in US history, a Native American tribe is sending a delegate to Congress. Now, there are already a handful of Native Americans serving in Congress from a number of states. But the Cherokee Nation is sending a delegate to represent their own sovereign Native American government.

 

The Effort to Bring Bison Back to the West

Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder & Editor-In-Chief of Nationalparkstraveler.org; Author “Re-Bisoning the West: Restoring An American Icon To The Landscape”

“Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play.” Have you ever wondered “Home on the Range” –the “unofficial anthem” of the American West -starts with buffalo roaming? I’ve eaten buffalo burger, but I’ve never seen buffalo roaming wild and I’m from the West. There are only about half a million buffalo in America today –most of those are being farmed for meat. And yet, the buffalo –or bison, same thing –is at the center of the Department of Interior’s official seal and on the National Park Service emblem and, just a few years ago Congress made it the official mammal of the United States. Why are we so enamored of bison?

 

Lava Mae and Mobile Hygiene

Guest: Doniece Sandoval, Founder and CEO of Lava Mae

After a hard workout or a long day at work, a shower just feels so good. It’s nice to be clean. But what if you didn’t ever have access to a shower? How would it affect your confidence and social life?  Or your ability to get a job? Most homeless people don’t have access to a shower. Lava Mae is a nonprofit that has provided thousands of free showers for the homeless through buses converted into shower units. Since we talked to CEO Doniece Sandoval a few years ago, her idea has turned into a movement.

 

Video Games and the Relation to Teen Violence: Is the Blame Justified?

Guest: James D. Ivory, Professor and Research Director, Department of Communication, Virginia Tech

Why do violent video games always come up in the days after another mass shooting in America? Politicians of both parties have, for years, called out video games for promoting violence. And it makes sense that spending hours shooting people indiscriminately in a virtual world might translate over to the real world.

 

Sharing Funny Posts on the Internet Could Be a Copyright Violation

Guest: Ruth Carter, Attorney, Carter Law Firm, Author of “The Legal Side of Blogging: How Not to Get Sued, Fired, Arrested, or Killed”

When something doesn’t seem fair, it really irks me. Always has. So I’m irritated when I see a funny video or cleverly-captioned photo pop up on my social media feed and it’s gone massively viral. And I want to “like” or “share it.” But –and here’s the fairness part –the person who made the video or photo isn’t actually the person getting the viral credit for it. Somebody else with a bigger following snagged the content and posted it to their feed and they’re getting all the traffic –and probably even making a buck off it. So then, I’m thinking, “Well I don’t want to help this cheater. I want to go like the original post and give credit to the person who created it.” But I can’t find the original online –it’s hard to track those things down. And really, shouldn’t there be a law that prevents this kind of rampant ripping off of other people’s property?

 

Educational Technology from Film Strips to Virtual Reality

Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host, Worlds Awaiting on BYUradio, Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian, BYU