Dr. Adam Roth is part of a research team studying cognitive function, decline and the personal, face-to-face networks people enjoy.

There remain many uncertainties to explore in this growing area of research, but Roth says the data suggests greater diversity of our social networks serve us well as we age. Listen to this conversation to get more insights from the department of sociology research fellow and member of the Indiana University Network Science Institute.

Read his study here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19485565.2022.2052711?needAccess=true

More on Dr. Roth: https://www.adamroth.org/

IU social psychology doctoral student Tessa Benson-Greenwald joins us to discuss new research examining the perception of motives of scientists.

She talks about her team's new study, the risk we face when public trust in science ebbs, how the general public perceives the work of scientists, and also Young Frankenstein.

You can find her latest study:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01461672211064456

The challenges for patients and care providers are different in rural areas, compared to their urban counterparts. We're discussing that here with Dr. Christopher Owens, a recent graduate of the School of Public Health at Indiana University - Bloomington. Owens is now an assistant professor at Texas A&M University, where he works studying rural HIV prevention and care, rural LGBTQ+ health, and the sexual healthcare practices of rural healthcare providers.

Today the topic is his latest collaborative research, The Lived Experiences of Rural HIV Social Workers.

Owens co-authors on this qualitative research are Eva Voorheis, Harold D. Green, Debby Herbenick and Brian Dodge from the School of Public Health at Indiana University, Jessica N. Lester, from the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, School of Education at IU, and Randolph D. Hubach from Purdue University.

You can read the study here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09540121.2021.1981817?scroll=top&needAccess=true

Find more about Dr. Owens' work: https://sexualhealth.indiana.edu/news-events/_news/chris%20owens%20dissertation.html

And more, from the IU School of Public Health: https://publichealth.indiana.edu/

Millions of Americans are at risk of having their utilities disconnected, says Dr. Sanya Carley, a professor and scholar at Indiana University's O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Her latest research, Energy insecurity and the urgent need for utility disconnection protections finds that 24 percent of low-income survey respondents are energy insecure. She joins us to talk about those impacted, possible solutions, and much more.

You can read the study here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421521005280#

More on Carley: https://oneill.indiana.edu/faculty-research/directory/profiles/faculty/full-time/carley-sanya.html

Find more from Carley and the O'Neill School's work in energy equity at the Energy Justice Lab:

https://energyjustice.indiana.edu

Researchers at Indiana University's School of Social Work are using machine learning to study thousands of cases of adults -- using anonymized data from the Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment -- to help those coping with mental health issues, identify intersections mental health illness and suicidal ideation and develop a suicidal prevention/recovery model within the mental health system.

Drs. Betty Walton and Saahoon Hong join us to talk about their innovative approach.

Dr. Walton's bio: https://socialwork.iu.edu/FacultyAndStaff/profile.php?id=Walton_Betty_beawalto

Dr. Hong's bio: https://socialwork.iu.edu/faculty-staff/profile/hong_saahoon/

You can find more about their work here: https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/bitstream/handle/1805/26724/Hong2021Examining-the-intersection.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y

Professor Laura Littlepage from the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs joins us to discuss a recently completed study, Homelessness in Greene County, Indiana.

We talk about the unique issues that are brought about by people experiencing homelessness in rural areas, from a lack of services, the difficulties involved with helping those in need in a geographically broad area, simply coming to understand the extent of the population impacted, and much more.

You can read the paper here.

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/26798/Greene%20County%20Homelessness%20Report.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

For more on the Rural Center of Engagement, visit here:

https://rural.indiana.edu/

Dr. Jerome Dumortier, an economist and associate professor in the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI joins us to talk about National Clean Energy Week, the growing clean energy sector, his research in bioenergy, land use, carbon emissions policies and much, much more.

Dr. Dumortier's biography: https://oneill.iupui.edu/contact/people-directory/dumortier-jerome.html

More on National Clean Energy Week: https://nationalcleanenergyweek.org

Women's Equality Day, marks the anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, which guarantees all American women the right to vote is marked this month. As we celebrate the 101 anniversary of its certification, we talked with Deborah Widiss, a professor and associate dean for research in the Maurer School of Law, about the issues we face today.

Professor Widiss' bio: https://www.law.indiana.edu/about/people/bio.php?name=widiss-deborah

Professor Widiss has written several essays and op-eds regarding parental paid leave for single parents, which we touched on in this podcast. You can find two of them here:

"Parental leave laws don’t do enough for single moms – but there’s a way to fix that"

https://theconversation.com/parental-leave-laws-dont-do-enough-for-single-moms-but-theres-a-way-to-fix-that-137360

"Parental leave laws are failing single parents"

https://theconversation.com/parental-leave-laws-are-failing-single-parents-129668

The long-standing eviction moratorium has ended, and millions of Americans, including thousands of Hoosiers, are now at risk of finding themselves in court, or being removed from their homes. We talked with Kelley School of Business economist about it for this quick hit.

There are resources available. The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority has a portal for you, here: https://www.in.gov/ihcda/

In addition to the state funding, some county and city governments are also able to provide aid.

The Indianapolis Star recently wrote a terrific piece explaining your rights, and the process many are now undertaking. Read that here:

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/indianapolis/2021/06/17/indianapolis-rent-assistance-indiana-renter-rights-landlord-eviction-laws/7627831002/

Dr. Micah Pollak, an economist at IU Northwest and director of the Center for Economic Education & Research is the coauthor of a study titled "The effect of in-person primary and secondary school instruction on county-level SARS-CoV-2 spread in Indiana."

He and his colleagues, including two physicians, a biostatistician, a medical student and an education scholar, examined the 2020-2021 school year using data from across Indiana to ascertain the risk in-person teaching has had on local communities. We talked with Dr. Pollak about this study, how they conducted their research and what it might mean for next school year.

You can find the study here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33846706/