Radio Harris

Kindergarten is supposed to be a year of transition - the time when toddlers become bona fide students. But when it comes to math, American kindergartens are falling way behind. Teachers are focusing on material that kids already know, challenging them little and costing them big in the long run. Assistant Professor Amy Claessens helps us understand why, and what can be done about it.

Bruce Rauner just took office as the 42nd Governor of Illinois - but with that title comes a very tall order. Rauner is inheriting a state in serious financial turmoil. The deficit is expected to nearly double in a year, while revenues are expected to drop by billions. Meanwhile, a $100 billion pension debt looms large in the background. What can be done, and how might Gov. Rauner handle it? Chicago Harris Senior Lecturer Paula Worthington helps sort it all out.

Imperial. Unilateral. Over-reaching. These are just a few of the terms that have been used to describe President Obama's recent actions on immigration. Is this a Constitutional crisis, typical partisan squabbling, or something else entirely? Chicago Harris Professor William Howell, expert on the US presidency and separation of powers, helps navigate this prickly terrain. Hear his take on the immigration debate, how presidents always expand their authority, and why that might not be a bad thing.

How would your school days have been different without access to a bathroom? In India, as in many parts of the world, that's the status quo. But now that's changing, ad the results are promising. In the newest episode of Radio Harris, we hear from Chicago Harris Assistant Professor Anjali Adukia, who has studied the influence of sanitation facilities on student performance in India. Tune in to hear who cares about latrines most, why sanitation is catching on in the developing world, and how an ambitious monkey almost ruined Adukia's research.

Every election season, pundits are fixated on polls and candidates. But as Chicago Harris Assistant Professor Anthony Fowler explains, there's a more fundamental issue that isn't receiving much attention: Who will, or will not, turn out to vote - and what does it mean for the country? In the second installment of Radio Harris, Professor Fowler shares what he's learned about the surprising effects of get-out-the-vote efforts, what the US could learn from Australia, and what it'll all mean on Election Day.

Over the past several weeks, a sense of panic has been building around the outbreak of the Ebola virus. The disease has dominated headlines, conversations and social media feeds, and not necessarily to our benefit. How does the way we get information about threats like this affect how we respond to them? To find out, Chicago Harris Assistant Professor Daniel Bennett and his co-authors looked at the 2003 SARS outbreak in Taiwan. The paper, co-authored by Bennett, Chun-Fang Chiang of National Taiwan University and Anup Malani of the University of Chicago Law School, is forthcoming in the Journal of Development Economics. What they discovered might make you question what, and how, you're really learning about the threat of Ebola.

Mo "Mutha*******" Keachie is our next delighted guess on Radio Harris. Tune in for 32:30 minutes of _____ ______!

Radio Harris is proud to present one of Jane and Finch's finest gangstas, Harbir Rehill. He discusses his roots in hip hop, how he came to love film soundtracks, and shoots the shit with franchise.

Radio Harris invites folk enthusiast, Benjamin Hermann, as he takes us through the process of creating and recording his music.

British celebrity, Dan Kiener, sits down with Radio Harris and talks about his five years doing live sound, his current music, and other charming facts.