We've all heard of them - fad diets - and some of us have turned to them, and maybe even gotten some positive results, too. But what's worth considering from a scientific perspective when it comes to your diet, and if following such a diet? Registered Dietician Alexandra Fowler, president of Atomic Nutrition, sat down to talk with me about some well-known fad diets and surprising commonality they all share.

Allie, in addition to counseling caution before adopting any drastic dietary changes, also recommended Eatingwell.com as a great resource for information related to this subject, and she can be contacted directly through the links above.

I bet this is a topic on your mind, or at least next to it: how are schools supposed to go back this Fall, and what will education look like for the vast majority of K-12 students in America moving forward? I discussed this issue with an old colleague of mine, who taught high school for years, then worked in school-level administration, and now works at the district level, and has spend the last 4+ months consumed almost entirely by this issue.

I learned a lot, and I hope you'll give this a listen, which will help you see this complex issue from at least an additional angle.

A discussion with Dr. Lee Eysturlid about the origins and meanings of these two terms, first in the sphere of military affairs, and then as applied to their migration into business, government, and other facets of life. We also discussed operations and logistics, the essential connective tissue between the two, and how and why they came into being in recent centuries, and are now so central to commercial enterprise.

Part two of my two-episode series in which I interview Brett Darling, longtime high school football coach and good friend, this time about the positions and work that goes into a teams Offense.

Apologies for the some-time creaking and clicking sounds...Brett is incapable of sitting still.

Talking with my "lay enthusiast" friend Matt again, we discussed the origins and Catholic justification for the position of the pope and some of the general limits on and areas of papal authority.

Suggested readings:

• Matthew 16: 13-19

I didn't start watching football (NFL only) until about 2012, and decided then that in order to get the most out of watching games, I should have a team. Through a friend at the time I decided on the Seahawks and was lucky that the won the Superbowl that year. In the years since I have had a lot of fun watching games and meeting other fans, and learning a little here and there about how the game works. I decided that it was time to talk with someone knowledgeable in the game, and this and the next episode are the results.

Brett Darling is a friend and former coworker of mine who has coached high school football in our area for years, and so I sat down to ask him some questions about that which, supposedly, wins games - the Defense.

Apologies for the some-time creaking and clicking sounds...Brett is incapable of sitting still.

The Declaration of Independence is far more than a document of a moment or even of its times, and Americans' acceptance and understanding of it has evolved over the last 244 years. In this episode I look at how it was first received and understood by Americans, and how Thomas Jefferson looked back on it at two separate points in his life, years later.

Suggested Readings:

• Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776

Thomas Jefferson and the Committee of Five wrote their draft of the DI, submitted it to the (Second) Continental Congress, and debate ensued, resulting in a number of edits and revisions, most of which don't much change the meaning of the documents...save for one whole paragraph, deleted at the demands of certain state delegations. What was in it? What can we learn from it? Read the documents linked below and listen to find out.

• Draft of the Declaration of Independence, 2 July 1776

Dr. Rob McDonald, Professor of History at the United States Military Academy, talked with me about Natural Rights - what they are, where they come from, and what they mean in our lives. We also discussed the notion of negative and positive rights, and how all of these relate to and are expressed in civil rights.

Suggested Additional Readings for this topic:

• The Glorious Revolution - Wikipedia article

Rob's books:

• Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson's Image in His Own Time

Minor Disclaimer: Robert McDonald is a Professor if History at West Point. His views are his own and do not represent those of the United States Military Academy.

If you want to get inside the heads and hearts of some of the leaders of the secession movement, as it tore the country apart in late 1860 and early 1861, paving the way for the creation of the Confederate States of America and the Civil War, you need to read this short book. Dew presents the Southern leaders in the way possible: in their own words. With little commentary outside of historical contextualization, he lets these men tell us what they thought and why.

Apostles of Disunion, Charles B. Dew