Punishing China for the Pandemic

Guest: Eric Jensen, JD, Professor of International Law, Brigham Young University

President Trump doubled down on blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic during a televised townhall on Fox News Sunday night. The President and his allies want to punish China for alleged failures.

 

Video Conferencing Is Taking a Toll on Us

Guest: Andrew Franklin, Professor of Psychology, Norfolk State University 

Are you tired of having meetings and social gatherings over video chat? I never imagined I’d say this, but lately, I’d actually prefer a phone call to a Zoom meeting. Video chat somehow feels more exhausting than face-to-face meetings, and I don’t know why. People have taken to calling it “Zoom fatigue” but, of course, it applies to Skype, Facetime and Microsoft Teams.

 

Why Mixed-Citizenship Families Aren’t Getting COVID-19 Stimulus Checks

Guest: Jane Lopez, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Brigham Young University. 

Millions families in the US qualify for pandemic stimulus checks, but aren’t getting them because someone who files taxes in the household is an unauthorized immigrant. That's what happened to Jane Lilly Lopez's family. 

 

Microlending Has Backfired for Women in Jordan

Guest: Rana Sweis, Freelance Journalist, Founder and Managing Director of WishBox Media

Microfinancing was seen as a revolutionary way for poor women to start a business that can lift their families out of poverty. And for many, it has worked. But a huge number of low-income women in Jordan now find themselves trapped in a cycle of debt where microloans have basically become payday loans. And to make matters worse, they are being sent to prison because defaulting on a loan is a crime in Jordan.

 

When Buildings Stand Empty, Water Quality Suffers

Guest: Andrew J Whelton, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Purdue University

While many of us have spent the last month staying home to help slow the spread of coronavirus, the water in our now underused or vacant schools and offices has been sitting stagnant in pipes. Researchers at Purdue University got an emergency grant from the National Science Foundation to find out what dangers lurk in that water and how to make sure it’s safe as we begin slowly returning to work.

 

There’s an Antarctica Accent. No, Really

Guest: Jonathan Harrington, Professor of Phonetics and Digital Speech Processing and Director of the IPS, University of Munich.

We all know what various accents sound like, British, Irish, Australian, and so on. But how about Antarctican? You heard me right. People who’ve spent months living isolated together in Antarctica have started to develop their own accent.