Hiring with No Questions Asked (Originally aired January 7, 2019)

Guest: Mike Brady, President and CEO, Greyston Bakery

Job openings are near a record high right now, but that doesn’t matter if no one will hire you. Such is often the case for the millions of Americans with a criminal record. Many employers want that kind of thing disclosed on job applications. But earlier this year we spoke to the CEO of a commercial bakery in New York that not only doesn’t ask about criminal history . . . they don’t ask any questions about an applicant’s background. It’s called “open hiring.” Greyston Bakery is known for its brownies –you’ve had them on Delta flights and in Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. 

 

Teaching Kids to Building Bridges Between Faiths (Originally aired February 5, 2019)

Guest: Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core, Author of “Out of Many Faiths Religious Diversity and the American Promise”

People who are active in religious congregations tend to be happier and more civically engaged, according to research by the Pew Research Center. So, religious parents have good reason to want to instill faithful devotion in their kids. But how can we raise kids to believe deeply in their own faith while still respecting the religious beliefs of others?

 

Some Food for Thought on Food Preferences (Originally aired January 30, 2019)

Guest: Paul Rozin, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

I bet there’s a food you hated as a kid but like to eat now. The first time I encountered pickled beets at a neighborhood picnic, I thought they were the worst-tasting thing ever. Now, I make a point of putting them on my plate if they’re offered at a salad bar. I also used to really hate vinegar-based salad dressings. Now I prefer them over the creamy ones. As a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Paul Rozin has spent more than 40 years studying how food preferences develop and how they differ from person to person and culture to culture.

 

Fake Internet Videos (Originally February 12, 2019) 

Guest: Hany Farid, Professor (I School and EECS), UC Berkley (former professor of Computer Science, Dartmouth College)

Congress held a hearing Thursday on the problem of “deep fakes.” These are super-convincing doctored videos that basically anyone can make with the right software. There’s one circulating online of Mark Zuckerberg right now bragging about how much of our data he controls. And a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi edited to make her appear drunk went viral last month. Congress is worried how deep fakes might affect the 2020 presidential election.

 

The Ethics of Medical Crowdfunding (Originally aired January 14, 2019)

Guest: Jeremy Snyder, Professor of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

All over the internet, you’ll find people asking for help paying for medical care. People donate hundreds of millions of dollars each year to medical causes on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. And despite the warm fuzzies of it all, there are some ethical concerns you may not have considered.

 

Symbiotic Farming with Aquaponics (Originally aired January 31, 2019)

Guest: Paul Venturelli, Assistant Professor of Fisheries, Ball State University

A lot of the fish we eat has been farmed –not caught in the wild. You probably knew that. Did you know that you can grow plants in water? Not just lilies and water cress, but lettuce and tomatoes and other edible stuff. Now here’s the really cool thing: there is a way to both farm fish and grow plants in water all in the same system. It’s called aquaponics, and on a small scale it’s kinda fun to do in your kitchen. On a larger scale, some experts think it might be a farming solution for places that are short on water and land.