Being that today was the last day that our guests from Los Angeles will be in New York City, we wanted to create a fun episode where we talk about the differences of life in general between NYC and LA, in hopes that we can confirm that one city is indeed, much cooler than the other!

According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, over 25% of undergraduate students (4.8 million students) are raising children. There are generalizations made about the ability of college students being able to complete a degree while raising children. The question we came to address on this episode is: can students who are also parents, still complete a college degree?

According to an article published in Annals of Internal Medicine in 2007, “…moderate drinkers who have high blood pressure are 30% less likely to have a heart attack than non-drinkers”. There are many health benefits associated with drinking wine in moderation, including reduction of type 2 diabetes, reducing the risk of stroke, and reducing the risk of colon cancer. Given all the apparent health benefits of drinking wine, we decided to pour a few glasses and talk about wine and wellness... WINE not! Cheers!

Gang violence has plagued our cities for decades. According to the FBI, about 5% of our youth (or 1.4 million) is involved in a gang to some degree and they make up about a fifth of homicide rates. In Kacey Shap’s forthcoming book, titled “The Sage, The Shepherd and the Peacemaker: How Gangs, Police and Activists Externalize Violence Through Gangs” he explores gangs as a holistic system. The question we came together to address on this episode is: why do people join gangs in the first place?

Language is the key to everything… or is it? Language is often taken for granted. There are some in the political spectrum who utilize language diplomatically, while some opt for more direct, blunt forms of communication. On today’s episode, we explore the spectrum and power of language, and how it can be used to both unify and oppress.

We all hate it. Arriving to the airport only to get into the TSA security line, in what seems to be a purposeless and irritating process. According to the TSA, in 2015, 2,653 firearms we confiscated at security checkpoints in the US. In light of new mandates to forbid laptops from 10 airports into the US, and controversy around president Trump’s travel ban, is the TSA making us safer?

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the death rate from prescription opioid overdoses more than quadrupled between 1999 and 2015, which accounted for 183,000 deaths during this time span. Currently, there’s evidence depicting growing trends in what is being called “death by despair”. On today’s episode, we explore some of the current trends in morbidity and mortality, as well as some of the social implications.

Stress is a normal part of our usual routines. Stress can often be perceived as a motivator, but it can also be considered toxic. One of the main sources of stress, is stress in the workplace. According to stress.org, the 2000 Integra Survey revealed that 65% of workers stated that workplace stress had caused difficulties and more than 10 percent described these as having major effects in their lives. The question that we came to discuss today is - how do we maintain a work-life balance?

There appears to be consensus around what is socially known as “white”. However, there are also other ethnicities packed into “white”, according to the Census Bureau; Is what we have come to know as “white”, a social construct?

The approach to addressing mental illness and wellbeing have varied significantly over time. The days of forced lobotomies are long gone and have been replaced with more humane forms of what is known as contemporary and alternative medicine (CAM), along with other metaphysical and spiritual types of therapies. On today’s episode, we discuss some of these forms of contemporary alternative medicines, and why we think people gravitate towards them.