What is Cruel and Unusual Punishment and Who Does It Apply To?

Guest: Amos Guiora, Professor of Law, SJ Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, author of "The Crime of Complicity: The Bystander in the Holocaust"

The 8th Amendment is the one that prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.” The state of Alabama was just accused by the Department of Justice of violating the 8th Amendment rights of prisoners by failing to protect them from attacks and abuse while in prison. And the US Supreme Court last week ruled that a death row inmate in Missouri can be executed by lethal injection, even though the prisoner has a rare disease that may cause him to suffocate during the execution, which he said would be cruel and unusual. So how exactly do we define this Constitutional right? And does it apply to everyone equally?

Traveling the World on a Whim

Guest: Kim Dinan, World-Traveler, Author of “The Yellow Envelope”

You know these people who up and quit their job and sell everything they have to go travel the world? How do they get past the “I’d like to travel” daydreaming stage and actually do it? Kim Dinan did it in 2012 and then wrote about it in her memoir called, “The Yellow Envelope: One Gift, Three Rules, and a Life-Changing Journey Around the World.” 

How Change Happens

Guest: Cass Sunstein, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Author of “How Change Happens”

We bet you’d never heard of the hashtag “MeToo” until a year and a half ago when actress Alyssa Milano started using it on Twitter. But a social activist named Tarana Burke coined the phrase in her work with sexual assault survivors ten years earlier. Why didn’t #MeToo become a thing back then?

The Rise of Rock-Climbing Gyms

Guest: Jeremy Balboni, CEO and Co-Founder, Brooklyn Boulders

Every city seems to have at least one rock climbing gym these days. But these gyms aren't just a place where people go for exercise - they host a climbing community with a very unique and distinct culture. 

Designing a Bench to Deter Sitting

Guest: Dean Harvey, Co-Founder, Factory Furniture

Have you ever collapsed on a city bench for a moment and thought, “Man this is not a very comfortable seat?” Well, it’s probably that way on purpose. Benches studded with bumps, or angled so the sitter has to perch, are part of a movement called “hostile design” meant to discourage napping or loitering or skateboarding.

Fertility Medicine Largely Unregulated in US

Guest: Dov Fox, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Health Law Policy & Bioethics at the University of San Diego, Author of “Birth Rights and Wrongs: How Medicine and Technology are Remaking Reproduction and the Law”

Women in the US are waiting longer to have their first child, which may be one reason that more and more Americans are relying on fertility treatments to conceive. But if something goes wrong – whether by mistake or malpractice – there’s not much the patient can do. Fertility clinics are largely unregulated in the US.