Why We Should Be Sending Fewer People to Jail (0:30)

Guest: David Leavitt, Utah County District Attorney

America locks up more people, per capita, than any other country–including China and Russia. The consequence of that is that, across the nation, jails are overcrowded, prosecutors are overburdened and people who can’t afford bail spend months and months in jail waiting for their court date. Suppose communities just charged fewer people with crimes? That would surely make for fewer people in jail, but would we be safer?

 

Allergic Reactions to Medications (20:09)

Guest: Allen Chambers; Giovanni Traverso, MD, Gastroenterologist at Harvard University’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

When Allen Chambers had sinus surgery several years ago, his Celiac Disease wasn’t on his mind – at first. He was given a pain pill after the procedure and immediately started going into spasms. Turns out, the medication had gluten in it. Researchers don’t know yet just how common this type of reaction is, but one study looked at thousands of oral medications and found that 93% had some type of allergen in them.

 

Is It Just Me, or Is It Getting Cold? (36:31)

Guest: Julie Parsonnet, MD, George Deforest Barnett Professor in Medicine, Professor of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University

If you or your child is sick and you’re wondering how serious it is, you’ll probably check for a fever. Any reading over 98.6 degrees on the thermometer is high because that’s the temperature of a healthy human body. However, it seems that’s no longer true. Healthy humans today are closer to 97.5 degrees on average – a whole degree lower. What? How did that happen?

 

Censoring Criticism of Islam on Social Media May Do More Harm Than Good (50:36)

Guest: Nadia Oweidat, Professor of History, Kansas State University, Senior Member of St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford

Social media sites like Facebook are in a tight spot when it comes to policing posts about Islam. On the one hand, extremists use social media posts to recruit people to their jihadist views. You’d want that to be blocked from Facebook, right? But on the other hand, what to do about a post that criticizes an Islamic teaching or cultural practice, like honor killings? You could interpret that criticism as Islamophobic speech. Should it be censored?

 

Should Websites Designed to Trick You Be Legal? (1:08:44)

Guest: Katie McInnis, JD, Policy Counsel for Consumer Reports

You’re shopping online and a message pops up that supplies of a particular item are running low. You rush to put in your cart. Then a countdown clock pops up telling you the item will disappear in 10 minutes. This common scenario is an example of ‘dark patterns’ that companies use to nudge us toward spending more money or giving up more personal information. Should that kind of thing be legal?

 

Better Oral Cancer Detection (1:21:54)

Guest: Brian Iverson, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, BYU; Mike Alder, BYU Technology Transfer Office

Oral cancer often goes unnoticed in its early stages when it doesn’t cause any pain or visible symptoms, so doctors may catch it only once it’s metastasized to another part of the body like the lymph nodes. BYU scientists have invented a sensor that can detect oral cancer early on from a simple saliva sample.