How Georgia Went Blue (0:31)

Guest: Angie Maxwell, Diane D. Blair Endowed Chair in Southern Studies, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Arkansas, Co-Author of “The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics”

All eyes are on Georgia, where election officials are recounting every vote in the Presidential election by hand, and two Congressional races are going to a runoff in January that will determine whether Republican keep control of the U.S. Senate. The recount of votes is not expected to eliminate Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow presidential victory in Georgia. The last time a Democrat for President won in Georgia, it was Bill Clinton in 1992–a Southerner, by the way. And before that, it was Jimmy Carter who is from Georgia, so that makes sense. But why would Joe Biden of Delaware make Georgia a swing state, suddenly?

 

Virtual Nature—As Good As the Real Thing? (23:15)

Guest: Matthew Browning, Professor of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Director of the Virtual Reality and Nature Lab, Clemson University

With shorter days and colder temperatures setting in, it gets harder to get yard work done, let alone spend time relaxing outdoors. There’s a lot research being done right now into a virtual alternative, where you strap on a headset and explore a coral reef or rain forest that looks so real, it can trick your brain. Could virtual nature experiences be just as good for you as the real thing?

 

Bird Forensics Investigator (36:59)

Guest: Pepper Trail, Senior Forensic Scientist and Ornithologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

You can’t just kill a hummingbird and turn it into a good luck charm–which is something people do. You can’t leave an oil slick open for birds to get trapped in–which is something companies do. You can’t serve wild woodcock to diners–which is something a restaurant did. You can’t possess the feather of a bald eagle–you probably knew that. The point is, there’s a lot of crime being committed in violation of laws that protect migratory and endangered birds in the US. And those crimes need forensic scientists to solve them.

 

The Apple Seed (52:15)

Guest: Sam Payne, Host, BYUradio's The Apple Seed

Sam drops by to talk about Thanksgiving stories.

 

Looking to Social Media to Figure Out How Happy People Are (1:05:42)

Guest: Munmun DeChoudhury, Professor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech University

This has been a really rough year. It’s probably safe to say that a lot of people aren’t doing great. But how can we actually get a pulse on the general mental health of Americans during this time? Well, how about Twitter? You can learn a lot about a person based on what they write on social media, and that information could be used in efforts to prepare for how future pandemics will affect mental health.

 

The Potential of CRISPR/Cas9, Nobel-Winning “Genetic Scissors” (1:21:52)

Guest: Kevin Davies, Author of "Editing Humanity", Executive Editor of The CRISPR Journal

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year went to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for “discovering one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors.” The scissors can target a specific piece of genetic code, snip it out and replace it with something else. The new book “Editing Humanity” charts that discovery and the controversy that continues to swirl around it.