History of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico Hit by Brutal Violence This Week (0:31)

Guest: Cristina Rosetti, PhD, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside

Funerals are being held now for the nine American women and children murdered in northern Mexico by cartel gunmen. They are part of a fundamentalist Mormon community with a long history in the region. More than a century ago, former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fled to Mexico when the church and US laws banned polygamy. Many of their descendants ranch and farm the region today with dual citizenship in the US and Mexico.

Harriet Tubman, Abolition Super Hero (17:00)

Guest: Kellie Carter Jackson, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Africana Studies at Wellesley College, Author of “Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence”

Someday Harriet Tubman might be on the $20 bill –the plan for that switch is stalled. But for now, people are handing over their $20s to see Harriet on screen. The new film depicts Harriet Tubman as a gun toting action hero. Which Kellie Carter Jackson says is true-to-life. 

After 51 Years Are Movie Ratings Still Relevant? (34:58)

Guest: Kelly McMahon is the Senior Vice President and Chair of the Classification and Rating Administration for the Motion Picture Association

Have you ever gone to a movie with your kids and have been surprised at the amount of violence or profanity you saw? Or an unexpected sexual moment? But are parents actually using the ratings? And do they understand what they mean?

The CIA’s Failed Quest to Develop Mind Control (51:08)

Guest: Stephen Kinzer, Author of “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control”

The CIA has developed the ability to reprogram minds and wipe away inconvenient memories. At least in the movies, it can. That’s what the CIA did to assassin Jason Bourne once they were finished with him. And that’s where the Men in Black got their flashing pen-like “neutralizer” to erase knowledge of aliens from ordinary folks. So that’s all fun and fiction, but for 10 years during the Cold War, the CIA really did have a secret mind control project. Instead of flashing pens, they were experimenting with LSD. And instead of a little harmless amnesia about aliens, the CIA was wreaking havoc on the minds of prisoners, children, sex workers and even some of their own government employees.

13-Year-Old’s Study Shows Hand Dryers Hurt Kids’ Ears (1:28:15)

Guest: Nora Keegan, Thirteen-Year-Old Scientist

When kids cry about things like their ice cream melting or their water being too wet, it can be hard for parents to gauge how serious their children’s concerns really are. But a new study shows that when kids complain about hand dryers in bathrooms are hurting their ears, it’s real. Nora Keegan has spent the last four years researching the negative impacts hand dryers on kids’ hearing, and her study was recently published in the official journal of the Canadian Pediatric Society. And get this, she’s only 13-years-old.