Regular exercise is considered to be a good old-fashioned, preventive practice that helps people “be healthy” and prevent many conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and many other conditions. On this episode, we want to take a moment and answer the question - why do people really work out? It can’t always be just to be healthy, especially given many social pressures to appear a certain way, and evidence that sheds light on the fact that overweight people and short people get paid less, in comparison to their tall and thin co-workers (according to Forbes), and that women are attracted more to muscular men (according to MensHealth). It may very well be the case that people work out - to look good and fit in, more so than “to be healthy”, which can in turn, result in unhealthy behaviors.

On this episode, we wanted to take a moment and test our debate skills and answer the question - should college be mandatory? Is there sufficient sociological, economic and personal evidence to suggest that we should all be required to attend college?

Have you ever heard anyone say that a glass of wine is good for the heart? Well, according to an article published on the Lancet on August 23rd, 2018, which looked at global patterns of alcohol consumption states, “...the safest level of drinking is none. This level is in conflict with most health guidelines, which espouse health benefits associated with consuming up to two drinks per day”. On this episode, we wanted to have a conversation about social drinking, binge drinking, not drinking at all and casual drinking. Does contemporary research on alcohol change our drinking behaviors?

Have you ever wondered why workweeks are usually 40-hours? In 1890, the government tracked worker’s hours and found that manufacturing laborers worked about 100 hours a week! In 1916, congress passed the Adamson Act, which established an 8 hour workday for railroad workers. Ten years later, Ford Motor Companies implemented a 5-day, 40 hour workweek. An amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act went into effect in October of 1940, which limited the workweek to 40 hours, down from 44 hours when it was first passed in 1938. Fast-forwarding to our current day, almost 80 years later... how’s our 40-hour workweek going? Does the Fair Labor Standards Act need a little more...amending?

A hospital-based study had over 1,000 adult patients interact with several physicians who had fake piercings and tattoos. The patients were asked about the physician’s competence, professionalism, caring attitude, approachability, trustworthiness and reliability. All five qualities were rated highly over 75 percent of the time, regardless of whether patients were treated by a doctor with tattoos or piercings. This study led us to propose the question - are visible tattoos simply becoming a norm in the workplace setting?

According to an article published in Science Advances, sociologist Elizabeth Bruch, Ph.D., and Mark Newman, Ph.D., a physics professor, collected DMs received by online daters across four cities to determine level of desirability. On this episode, we discuss trends in online dating, usage of data to identify social patterns and of course - social implications and new knowledge that can come from this!

According to an article published by the Pew Research Center, most people who attend religious services state that they attend church, synagogue or mosque to feel closer to God. Those who don’t attend religious services tend to be younger, more educated and democratic. Moreover, about 37% of survey respondents indicated that they don’t attend religious services, but they practice faith in other ways. On this episode, we explore some of the perceptions and traits of those who are churchgoers, some motivations for attending and why some opt not to go often or at all… as well as social implications, of course.

According to a study by sociologist Andrew Zekeri (Zekeri, 2004), oral communication skills were the number one skill college graduates found useful in the business world. Nonetheless, there are many other surveys out there that confirm that public speaking, and not many other things - including death - is one of people’s biggest fears. An article published by the Washington Post illustrated that fear of public speaking is America's biggest phobia (approximately 25%). Other fears included clowns (7.6%), ghosts (7.3%), and zombies (8.9%). If it is the case that public speaking skills are so invaluable -- why are people so afraid? How can we overcome these fears, to improve this crucial, and scarce, skill?

Contemporarily, many people have perceived polygamy to be something repulsive, sinful, immoral and inappropriate. According to an article published in Psychology Today, there seems to be trends alluding to the opposite - more and more people are being open about having multiple partners. Are we going “backwards” when it comes to the concept of what constitutes romantic relationships? Or, are we becoming more liberal?

According to an article published on the Huffington Post, children who have good relationships with their fathers and feel loved by them, tend to have fewer behavioral problems, and appear to engage in alcohol and drug abuse far less. Conversely, when fathers are less engaged, children are more likely to dropout of school earlier and exhibit behavioral and substance abuse issues. We have noticed that presently, there is a gap in the literature regarding the importance of the relationship between fathers and their sons. On today’s episode, we are joined by Dr. Antonio M. Harrison, founder of Renaissance Behavior LLC, which is an organization that builds, fosters, and nourishes a healthy relationship between fathers and sons.