Drone Defense Ethics (0:34)

Guest: Ryan Jenkins, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, California Polytechnic State University, Director of Ethics and Policy, WhiteFox Defense Technologies

A New Jersey man was arrested this week on charges of trying to smuggle contraband into a prison using a drone. These aircrafts can cause all sorts of problems in the wrong hands: at times, they’ve made fire-fighting more difficult, interfered with law enforcement, invaded privacy. While the government is still figuring out the best way to regulate drones, new companies are cropping up with technology to defend against the aircrafts. (Originally aired Feb 25, 2019).

 

Why Grocery Stores Don’t Help Communities in Food Deserts to Stay Healthy (19:16)

Guest: Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, PhD Candidate, University at Buffalo, Graduate Research Assistant, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

Many low-income communities don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. That can cause all kinds of health problems, and the seemingly obvious solution is to build grocery stores in those areas. That does make fruits and vegetables available to these people, only problem is that most still don’t buy them. (Originally aired Nov 5, 2019).

 

2,995 Days of Disney (33:01)

Guest: Jeff Reitz

Disneyland officials say they’reready to open back up–whenever the governor of California will let them. And the latest from Governor Newsom is that there is no plan to allow theme parks to reopen anytime soon. The pandemic shut down Disneyland in March, and with it, a pretty remarkable run for Jeff Reitz. He’d been to Disneyland every single day for eight years. The night the park closed was Reitz’s 2,995th consecutive day at Disneyland. Can you even imagine? (Originally aired Mar 25, 2020).

 

Turning Complicated Contracts into Comic Books (52:55)

Guest: Camilla Baasch Andersen, Professor, University of Western Australia Law School

With all the terms and conditions, agreements, and contracts I’ve mindlessly accepted or signed, I may have given away my first-born child without even knowing it. You know how it goes–long sentences, lots of complex legalise–who’s gonna read all that? Or better yet, understand it? That’s why attorney Camilla Andersenis turning contracts into comics. (Originally aired Feb 11, 2020).

 

Plastic Roads Provide a New Solution to Handling Waste (1:09:50)

Guest: Toby McCartney, Founder and CEO of MacRebur, The Plastic Roads Company

We’re in a plastic crisis. Not only is plastic ending up everywhere–in the ocean, in our food–but when we recycle in the US, it doesn’t always make a difference. A lot of recycling ends up in landfill. Toby McCartney has a novel idea that could help–reusing plastic to make roads. (Originally aired Mar 30, 2020).

 

Former Art Forger Now Sells His Fakes as Reproductions—But Misses the Thrill of Tricking the Experts (1:25:42)

Guest: Ken Perenyi, Art Forger, Author of “Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger”

For decades, until about 1998, American painter Ken Perenyi copied famous artists and passed his fakes off as the real thing. Some even ended up in fine art auction catalogs at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. They’re undoubtedly still hanging on the walls of galleries and art collectors around the world. But after the FBI came knocking, Perenyi decided to go legit. He still paints fakes, but he sells them as fakes–doesn’t try to pass them off as real. Which begs the question, why would anyone knowingly buy a fake? (Originally aired Jun 1, 2020).