The One-Day Police Training Program That Worked in Chicago (0:31)

Guest: Caroline Sarnoff, Executive Director, The Justice Collaboratory, Yale Law School

A repeated refrain in the conversation about policing in America is that officers need more training. Or different training. They need to learn how to de-escalate tense situations. How to recognize when their actions are being driven by hidden biases they harbor. How to use less lethal forms of force. But for all the millions of dollars being spent on police training, people still die unnecessarily in police custody. Is there any form of training that could actually make a difference?

 

NASA’s Plan to Be the Maytag Man for Satellites in Orbit (20:29)

Guest: Ben Reed, Chief of the Satellite Servicing Projects Division, NASA

There’s a lot of space in Earth’s orbit, but it’s getting more crowded by the day. SpaceX is in the process of launching a fleet of small satellites that will ultimately number in the thousands in hopes of bringing fast internet to every corner of the planet. Amazon plans to do something similar. The more satellite traffic in Earth’s orbit, the higher the chance of collisions. NASA has a division dedicated to developing ways to repair, refuel and even decommission satellites in orbit using robots.

 

Nursing Home Accountability (37:12)

Guest: Charlene Harrington, Professor of Social Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco

Half of all COVID-19 deaths in the US are estimated to have been in long-term care facilities, like nursing homes. The pandemic has brought to light long-standing problems in the nursing care system.

 

Microplastics Are Airborne, Come Down in Our Rain, and Are Virtually Everywhere (52:53)

Guest: Janice Brahney, Professor of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University

We’ve got a problem with plastic in our oceans. But now it’s in our wind and rain, too. New research shows that air and water deposit more than 1000 tons of plastic every year in US protected lands – and that’s just in the Western part of the country.

 

New Recommendation for Anxiety Screening in Women & Girls (1:08:40)

Guest: Heidi Nelson, MD, MPH, Professor of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University

Women are twice as likely as men to have anxiety. Nearly half of American women will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. So a coalition of women’s health professionals say screening for anxiety should be a regular part of routine check-ups for all women and teenaged girls.

 

The Glass Cliff (1:26:24)

Guest: Alexis Smith Washington, Associate Professor in the Management Department, Oklahoma State University 

Most of these companies making public statements of support for Black Lives Matter and their commitment to do better on issues of race, have a lot of work to do when it comes to hiring and promoting people of color. There are currently only five black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. None is a black woman. But, there’s a real risk that companies in a rush to address their lack of diversity right now will end up promoting minority workers to positions where failure is likely because we’re in a recession. It’s a phenomenon known as the glass cliff.