The Complicated Story of Racial Bias and Fatal Police Shootings

Guest: David Johnson, Post-doctoral Researcher in the Lab for Applied Social Science Research, University of Maryland

As Gilroy, California reels from a mass shooting that killed three and injured at least a dozen at a community festival yesterday, we’re going to focus on another aspect of gun violence in America–fatal shootings of civilians by police officers. A black person in America is more than twice as likely to be fatally shot by a police officer as a white person is. That troubling discrepancy helped give rise to the Black Lives Matter movement and has prompted police departments across the country to hire more officers of color and require racial bias training. 

 

New Discovery Could Prevent Cancer from Spreading

Guest: Andre Levchenko, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. But what typically makes cancer so deadly isn’t the initial tumor. It’s when the tumor cells spread throughout the body. If scientists could figure out how to stop that spread, it’d be a game-changer for cancer treatment.

 

Protests and Telescopes on Mauna Kea

Guest: Noenoe Silva, Professor of Political Science, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Author, “Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism”

A massive new telescope is planned for the top of Hawaii’s highest peak –the Maunakea volcano. The conditions atop the mountain are so good –and the planned telescope so big –that astronomers believe it will unlock mysteries of the universe and provide views of space even better than the Hubble telescope which is up in space. But Maunakea is sacred land to Native Hawaiians. Thousands have spent the last week blocking the access to the site where construction is set to begin.

 

Brain Scans Often Misinterpreted in Criminal Justice System

Guest: Eyal Aharoni, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, & Neuroscience, Georgia State University

If someone commits a crime and, afterward, doctors discover the person has a brain tumor, should the punishment be different? That’s the whole point behind the “insanity” defense –hoping for a lighter sentence by showing that on some level, a person’s brain caused the crime. No surprise, then, that it’s becoming more and more common for defense attorneys to present brain evidence in court –sometimes even MRI or CAT scans of the defendant. How much weight should judges give this evidence?

 

DNA Tests: Facts vs. Fiction

Guest: Wendy Roth, Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

“Journey,” “story,” and “discovery” are buzz words for DNA companies like Ancestry and 23andMe. Some ads even show customers doing things like buying a kilt when they find out they have Scottish ancestry. But DNA tests aren’t totally accurate, and they’re leading us to create potentially harmful ideas about race and history.

 

The History of Air Guitar

Guest: Byrd McDaniel, Professor of Ethnomusicology, Northeastern University

The country’s best air guitarists are gathering in Nashville this weekend for the US Air Guitar National Championships. The winner will represent America at the Air Guitar World Championships in Finland. Yes, there are people who actually do this in public.