PM Modi’s Hindu Nationalist Wins Re-election in India

Guest: Charles Nuckolls, PhD, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, BYU

The voting took six weeks –India is the world’s largest democracy. And last night the results of the nationwide parliamentary election were announced: incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP Hindu Nationalist party won big.

Life Matters. Talk About Death (Originally aired January 23, 2019) 

Guest: Michelle Acciavatti, End of Life Specialist at Ending Well

When the time finally comes, most Americans prefer to die at home. But less than a quarter actually do. The majority die in hospitals or nursing homes surrounded by tubes and needles and monitors. Is that part of what makes so many of us afraid of death? Or maybe it’s the other way around –we allow all the intervention because we’re afraid to die? Either way, dying more naturally is difficult to accomplish in America.

Determining Your Emotional Signature (Originally aired January 30, 2019)

Guest: Hillary Anger Elfenbein, Business Professor, Washington University in St. Louis

What effect do you have on people around you? Do you bring energy into a room? Do tensions rise when you show up? Everyone has an emotional signature, according to research by Hillary Anger Elfenbein and Noah Eisenkraft. 

China’s Booming Middle Class is Only Part of the Economic Story (Originally aired November 11, 2018)

Guest: Dorothy Solinger, PhD, Professor Emerita of Political Science, UC Irvine, Editor of “Polarized Cities: Portraits of Rich and Poor in Urban China”

While the trade war continues between the US and China, let’s take a closer look at how China became such an economic powerhouse. Political scientist Dorothy Solinger has documented a widening wealth gap in China. Despite having the fastest growing middle class and the highest number of new millionaires in the world, millions of China’s city dwellers are trapped in poverty.

Population Decline (Originally aired February 19, 2019)

Guest: John Ibbitson, Journalist, Co-Author of “Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline”

America’s birthrate in 2018 hit its lowest point in 32 years –something that surprised demographers who thought the booming US economy might encourage couples to have more kids. But Canadian journalist John Ibbitson’s book “Empty Planet” shows how couples around the world opt to have fewer children when their financial and educational situations improve. So, rather a global crisis of too much population growth, Ibbitson and his co-author say all evidence now points to a population decline as countries like India modernize. And that’s not necessarily better news.

First Ever Planetary Defense Mission (Originally aired January 15, 2019)

Guest: Andy Rivkin, DART Investigation Team Lead Planetary Astronomer, Johns Hopkins University

NASA recently released some more details about its plan to test its first planetary defense mission. It’s not aliens, NASA’s worried about, but asteroids. If one comes barreling towards Earth, could we launch a craft into it like a battering ram and steer it away from us? We’ll find out in the summer of 2021 when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will propel the defensive spacecraft into space for a test impact, which scientists will monitor to see how well the battering ram approach works.