The IRS Disproportionately Audits Lower-Income Families (0:30)

Guest: Paul Kiel, Business and Consumer Finance Reporter, ProPublica

The IRS does tax audits on the working poor at about the same rate as it does the wealthiest 1%. Mostly everyone else in the middle gets ignored. Why do lower-income families come under such scrutiny? Well, it’s just easier for the IRS–those audits take significantly less time and fewer resources. IRS officials have directly acknowledged this but say they can’t do anything about it due to budget constraints. Their budget has fallen by nearly 15% in the last decade.

Why Is The Recorder Taught in School? (18:22)

Guest: Nina Stern, Recorder Player and Classical Clarinetist, Recorder Teacher, Juilliard, Founder of S’Cool Sounds

Most Americans are familiar with the sound of a bunch of first and second graders playing the recorder. A lot of American kids learned–and still learn–the recorder in elementary school. But why? What’s so special about the plastic instrument? It’s not by accident that the recorder is so commonplace, according to professional recorder player Nina Stern.

Aquarium's Grand Plan To Show Deep Sea Creatures (37:33)

Guest: Beth Redmond-Jones, Vice President of Exhibitions, Monterey Bay Aquarium

The deep sea is full of strange, other-worldy creatures, but most of us will only be able to see these animals through photo and video. Monterey Bay Aquarium is hoping to change that. They are currently working on an exhibit where guests will be able to get up close and personal with some of these bizarre aquatic animals. This is the first time this has ever been attempted. But how can creatures that are used to thousands of pounds of pressure and no light live that close to us?

The GOP's Generational Divide on Climate Change (52:48)

Guest: Kiera O’Brien, Founder and President, Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends, Incoming Graduate Student, Columbia University

It’s extremely difficult to get Republicans and Democrats to agree on environmental policy. Many conservatives prioritize the economy and worry about the government becoming too heavy-handed in regulating emissions. But yet, there are now climate change activists who are Republican. That’s because there is a growing generational divide–a recent poll out of the Pew Research Center found that younger Republicans are twice more likely to agree that “humans have a large role in climate change \[and] that the federal government is doing too little on climate.”

The Pandemic Spawns a New Online Game: Blaseball (1:08:57)

Guest: Sam Rosenthal, Video Game Developer, The Game Band, Co-Creator, Blaseball

Looks like a great day for blaseball. Yeah, I said blaseball with an “L.” It’s an online version of baseball where anything can happen–it might start raining peanuts or a player might be brought back from the dead. It’s all up to the whims of the fans. Sounds ridiculous, but it’s become pretty popular–some people have even started sports blogs based on the fake teams. Sam Rosenthal created Blaseball when the pandemic hit–he wanted a way for people to stay connected.

What You Need to Know About Bear Spray (1:25:25)

Guest: Tom S. Smith, PhD, Professor of Wildlife Sciences, Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation Program at Brigham Young University

People hiking in the mountains may carry bear spray just in case they come across the furry omnivores. But for those people who own bear spray, when was the last time they checked the expiration date? There are a number of different factors that could mess with how effective your bear spray is, and that’s not the kind of thing you want to find out after you meet an angry bear.