True or False? A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Identifying Fake News (0:33)

Guest: Cindy Otis, Former Intelligence Analyst at the CIA, Author of “True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News”

In this final week before the election, Twitter and Facebook are taking extra precautions to prevent misinformation from spreading on their sites. When the stakes are high, fake news flourishes online. And despite the efforts Twitter and Facebook might make, it really comes down to you and me doing our part to think critically about what we’re reading and watching online.

 

How Homework Can Help or Harm (23:42)

Guest: Denise Pope, Founder, Challenge Success and Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University

The boundary between school and home is blurred for so many families right now, and so is the line between classwork and homework, when kids don’t spend all day in a physical classroom with their teacher. How are your kids coping? Stanford’s Challenge Success program has long been studying the effects of homework on students–when it’s helpful and when it actually harms kids. That's right, homework can actually hurt.

 

Horror Movie Fans Are Coping Better During the Pandemic (39:16)

Guest: Coltan Scrivner, PhD Candidate, Department of Comparative Human Development, Fellow at the Institute for Mind & Biology, University of Chicago

Horror films are hot right now. But who wants to watch a movie about a global pandemic in the middle of a global pandemic? Why would anyone living in a stressful moment like this want to spend a couple of hours watching invincible–and infectious–zombies take over the world? But apparently, people who are drawn to horror films are faring a little better psychologically right now. It’s like watching the world fall apart on screen prepared them for real-world chaos.

 

The First Professional Disabled Golfer to Play in the European Tour (52:49)

Guest: Brendan Lawlor, Professional Disabled Golfer

This year, for the first time ever, a golfer with a disability competed in a professional European Tour. Brendan Lawlor is 22-years-old and 4’11” tall, but he competed well on the Tour against fully able-bodied golfers. He’s ranked fourth in the world among disabled golfers, and he hopes to pave the way for other people with disabilities to get into the sport.

 

Impact of Sexual Violence Normalization in College (1:09:28)

Guest: Laura Sinko, PhD Prepared Mental Health Nurse, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, National Clinician Scholars Program, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Stereotypes and social norms are barriers for college-aged women trying to heal from the trauma of sexual assault. There’s even evidence that how parents talk to their young daughters about consent and sexuality can make it harder for healing to happen as adults.

 

Electromagnetic Diabetic Treatment (1:27:16)

Guests: Calvin Carter, Postdoctoral Fellow, Neurology and Pediatrics, University of Iowa; Sunny Huang, PhD-MD Student, Molecular Medicine, University of Iowa

It’s estimated that half of people with Type 2 Diabetes are not managing their blood sugar levels effectively. That’s partly because it’s hard. There’s medicine, exercise, diet–and sometimes insulin shots–to keep track of. So a hands-off approach to treating Type 2 diabetes would be a huge boon for public health. Some researchers at the University of Iowa have found a way to control insulin and blood sugar levels remotely using electricity. Now, they’ve only done it in mice, but the science behind this is promising.