Big Wireless Awaits Big Decision on T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Plan (0:34)

Guest: John Kwoka, PhD, Neal F. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Economics, Northeastern University

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint are the four main wireless carriers across the country. Two of them, T-Mobile and Sprint, are hoping to merge. But a dozen states filed a lawsuit to block the merger because they say it’ll result in higher prices for wireless customers. That trial wrapped up a week ago, and we’re now waiting for the judge’s ruling. 

 

10 Years After Citizens United (16:05)

Guest: Michael Morley, JD, Assistant Professor of Law, Florida State University

10 years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions have a First Amendment right to express themselves through unlimited spending on campaign advertising, so long as they aren’t directly donating to or coordinating with a candidate or party.

In the very next Presidential election in 2012, spending by groups not directly linked to a candidate or party skyrocketed to $1 billion – three times what had been spent by so called “outside” groups in the 2008 presidential election, before Citizens United. And then in 2016, outside spending climbed to nearly one and a half billion dollars. The sky’s the limit for 2020. So, was the Citizens United ruling a mistake? 

 

Henry ‘Box’ Brown: The Man Who Mailed Himself Out of Slavery (39:35)

Guest: Martha J. Cutter, PhD, Professor of English and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut

Throughout the practice of slavery in the United States, there were countless desperate attempts to escape.  But few were as unique as Henry Brown who mailed himself to freedom in a box. The story became a core part of his identity and professional success as an entertainer. “Box” became his nickname. 

 

Why We Don’t Have a Female World Chess Champion (50:43)

Guest: Alexey Root, Professor of Education, University of Texas at Dallas

We’re on the final stretch of a 12-game match of Chess between two women - one will be named best female chess player in the world on Thursday. What’s odd is that there’s no title for male world champion – they only compete in the world championship for both genders. Confusing, I know. So why do women have their own tournament while men don’t? Women do have an inherent physical disadvantage when it comes to sports, so it makes sense that we would compete separately in that arena. But in chess? It’s only a battle of wits.

 

How Bear Hibernation Might Work for Humans (1:06:12)

Guest: Heiko Jansen, PhD, Professor of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, Washington State University

Imagine if humans hibernated like bears. Science fiction has toyed with this idea for a long time – putting astronauts into hibernation could help them weather a years-long trip into space more easily. And they’d need less food and oxygen. Even if it wasn’t full hibernation, but just a way to slow some of the body’s systems down, that could be really useful in treating diseases like diabetes or cancer. 

 

Living Concrete: Scientists Create Bacteria-Based Buildings that Grow Themselves (1:23:35)

Guest: Chelsea Heveran, Assistant Professor of Engineering, Montana State University

Smart homes are all the rage these days, but what if your house were alive? Not haunted, but alive in the sense that the building materials in the walls and floors contained living organisms that could regrow and repair themselves? Chelsea Heveran was part of a team developing a kind of living concrete made of sand and bacteria and some other special ingredients.