Should Felons be Allowed to Vote? (0:35)

Guest: Christopher Uggen, Professor of Sociology and Law, University of Minnesota

More than six million Americans won’t be able to vote in the presidential election this year. These are people who have been convicted of a felony–they’re either in prison or out on parole or probation. But some felons are banned from voting for life. It’s all up to the states, and only two states in the country allow all prisoners to vote. (Originally aired 02/19/2020).

Photography Project is Capturing the Faces of the Last Remaining Speakers of Indigenous Languages (16:30)

Guest: Paul Adams, Head of Photography, Brigham Young University

Marie Wilcox just turned 86 and she’s the last person left on the planet who can speak fluently the Wukchumni language, a Native American tribe in Central California. Thousands of languages like Wukchumni are on the verge of extinction as the last speakers pass away. A project called “Vanishing Voices” is all about capturing taking portraits of these final speakers, including Marie. One of the photographs from this project was accepted into the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. (Originally aired 11/25/2019).

An Unlikely Wildlife Sanctuary in Chernobyl (33:15)

Guest: James Beasley, Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management, University of Georgia

The Chernobyl Nuclear Plant meltdown in 1986 is the worst nuclear disaster in history. Everyone within a 19-mile radius of the plant was evacuated and today that area remains off-limits to human inhabitants. But non-human inhabitants are welcome. And in fact, they seem to be thriving. (Originally aired 12/09/2019).

A White Supremacist’s Journey Out of Hate (52:45)

Guest: Tony McAleer, Author, “The Cure for Hate: A Former White Supremacist’s Journey from Violent Extremism to Radical Compassion”

Major cities in the US have seen a surge in hate crimes targeting Jews in recent months, including a stabbing in the home of a rabbi in New York during Hanukkah, in which five people were killed. The FBI says violence by white-supremacist extremists is the primary domestic terror threat in the US. And so Tony McAleer’s story is worth considering. As a young man, he joined a gang of white supremacists, shaved his head, spewed anti-immigrant rhetoric and attacked minorities, publicly denied the Holocaust, and created an automated phone messaging system to spread his hate more widely-before the internet made it even easier. Today Tony McAleer has left that hate behind and is co-founder of a nonprofit called “Life After Hate” which helps people leave extremist groups. (Originally aired 01/09/2020).

Dead or Alive, Whales Give as Much as They Take from their Ocean Environments (1:30:10)

Guest: Joe Roman, Conservation Biologist, Fellow, Gund Institute

For centuries whaling was such big business that whale populations worldwide shrank by as much as 90 percent. Since 1986, though, when most of the world banned whale hunting, the giants of the sea have begun to reboundand scientists are starting to understand just how different the oceans might have been when whales were plentiful. (Originally aired 02/06/2020).