Show Notes

Think back to how you made decisions growing up. Whether it was the clothes you wore, where you hung out, who your friends were, and even how you coped with the struggles you faced—who did you confide in?  

Was it a friend, a sibling, a parent, a mentor or other trusted adult? It’s likely that peer influence—or how much your personal circle can affect what you do and think— had a big impact.  

Peer influence has the power to shape nearly every decision a young person makes, and social media often plays an outsized role in how those everyday conversations occur. 

Approximately 95% of youth ages 13 to 17 report using a social media platform—according to recent data reported by the Office of the Surgeon General.  

Social media can also help researchers understand the context of certain health-related behaviors by offering real-time insights into trends, interactions and peer influences within online communities.  

For example, it can shed light on the challenges faced by vulnerable groups, such as youth experiencing homelessness, who may turn to digital platforms for support, connection, or expression of their struggles.

In this episode, Jordyn speaks with Associate Professor of Social Work Anamika Barman-Adhikari about how the social networks of young people experiencing homelessness can influence behaviors like substance use.

Anamika Barman-Adhikari is an associate professor of social work at the University of Denver. Her experiences in research, policy and clinical services have collectively helped her to formulate an academic agenda, which is devoted to the prevention of HIV and substance use among high-risk youth and other vulnerable populations. Barman-Adhikari's research interests are broadly centered on understanding the social-contextual determinants of risk and protective behaviors among vulnerable populations, such as unhoused and minority youth.

More Information

Substance use and sentiment and topical tendencies: a study using social media conversations of youth experiencing homelessness

Harnessing Social Media to Identify Homeless Youth At-Risk of Substance Use

Identifying Marijuana Use Behaviors Among Youth Experiencing Homelessness Using a Machine Learning–Based Framework: Development and Evaluation Study

Social Media and Youth Mental Health – The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory

Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Show Notes 

Booker T. Washington once said: “An inch of progress is worth more than a yard of complaint.”  

A once enslaved man who became an author and speaker in the post-Reconstruction Jim Crow-era South, Washington famously advocated against protest and agitation tactics meant to advance civil rights. Washington’s position was that Black Americans should concentrate on economic progress, rather than desegregation efforts.   

Washington believed that economic success would advance Black people in American society and protect them from the violence of the Jim Crow era.  

However, this wasn’t always—or even often—the case.  

In a paper titled, “An Inch of Progress: Black Business and Black Accountants Fighting Jim Crow Violence,” researchers from the University of Denver have set out to set the record straight on how economics and accounting actually hurt or benefited Black Americans at the time. 

In this episode, Emma speaks with Daniels College of Business professor Tony Holder and history professor Kimberly Jones from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, plus grad student Mayowa Alabi, about their research into the history of racism and accounting. 

Anthony D. Holder, PhD, CPA (Inactive), is an associate professor at the University of Denver. He has previously taught at Case Western Reserve University, the University of Toledo and the University of Cincinnati. He also spent a semester teaching in Shanghai, China. He earned his BA in Accountancy at Park University, a Master of Accountancy at Wright State University and a PhD in Accountancy at the University of Cincinnati. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Prior to obtaining his PhD, he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in their auditing and tax departments. 

Kimberly Jones is an associate professor of history in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Jones studies the experiences of enslaved and free black people across the Atlantic World. Her primary research is centered on the construction of racial identity through medicine and science. 

Mayowa Alabi is a graduate student in the Daniels College of Business. 

Hosted by writers Emma Atkinson and Jordyn Reiland, RadioEd is a triweekly podcast created by the DU Newsroom that taps into the University of Denver’s deep pool of bright brains to explore the most compelling and interesting research coming out of DU. See below for a transcript of this episode. 

This week, production assistant and DU graduate student Madeleine Lebovic steps in to host.  

Show Notes 

When Hollywood paints a picture of childhood, it’s often one of nostalgia-tinged wonder. Playing outside, moments of carefree innocence and the highs and lows of the adventure of self-discovery.   

But this is not the childhood that everyone experiences. For many, childhood was a place of uncertainty and fear. And when those kids grow up to become parents, those hard realities can impact their own parenting. 

How can we break those cycles of intergenerational trauma? This week on RadioEd, Madeleine Lebovic chats with Associate Professor of Clinical Child Psychology Angela Narayan about the surprising science behind reflecting on positive childhood experiences – and how it can help parents counter childhood adversity.  

Angela Narayan, PhD, LP, is an Associate Professor in the Clinical Child Psychology PhD Program in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver (DU). She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She received her PhD in Clinical Child Psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota and completed a predoctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry and Child Trauma Research Program at UCSF. Narayan directs a program of research that examines how childhood adversity and positive childhood experiences have enduring effects on development across adolescence, adulthood and parenthood. She is particularly interested in understanding intergenerational pathways of adversity, psychopathology, and resilience in populations with diverse backgrounds.  

Narayan is a licensed clinical psychologist in Colorado and a clinical supervisor in the Center for Child and Family Psychology (CCFP) in the DU Department of Psychology. Her expertise is in trauma-informed therapies (e.g., Child-Parent Psychotherapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy) and relationship-based and parent-focused treatments (e.g., Parent Management Training, Interpersonal Psychotherapy). 

She also directs the DU Department of Psychology’s PROTECT Lab where researchers study the intergenerational transmission of risk and resilience across families and generations. Links to different versions of the Benevolent Childhood Experiences scale, used to assess positive experiences in childhood, can be found under instruments. 

More Information: 

Positive childhood experiences predict less psychopathology and stress in pregnant women with childhood adversity: A pilot study of the benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) scale by Angela Narayan et al. 

A multisystem, dimensional interplay of assets versus adversities: Revised benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) in the context of childhood maltreatment, threat, and deprivation by Angela Narayan et al.  

Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study by Vincent J Felitti, MD, FACP et al.  

Information on ACEs from the CDC 

As we get older, things change. Our priorities shift, viewpoints and opinions evolve, and our bodies—and brains—age.  

Many of these changes are good—we can celebrate the process of aging as one that invites wisdom and joy. But there are natural consequences of getting older, and one of those consequences is cognitive decline. 

Eric Chess is a former medical doctor who has also earned degrees in law and business. Chess is the director of the Paul Freeman Financial Security Program at DU. He seeks to identify the earliest signs of cognitive impairment—and works to protect the lives and financial assets of older people experiencing cognitive decline. 

Dr. Eric Chess is a physician, lawyer and professor with a focus on prevention, comprehensive well-being, financial security and older adults. He has over a decade of experience in internal medicine practice (board certified), as a hospitalist and as an outpatient physician. He is currently a Clinical Professor at the University of Denver's Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging, serving as the founder and director of Aging and Well-being/The Paul Freeman Financial Security Program. Additionally, he serves as an adjunct Professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law and Daniels College of Business. Dr. Chess has an undergraduate degree in economics and political science, and a graduate law degree with experience as an attorney and economic consultant. 

The Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging creates and implements solutions for aging issues through multidisciplinary research, education and outreach by serving as an information clearinghouse for media on matters related to aging; educating and training a diverse workforce to serve a rapidly aging population; and promoting innovation, research and business development related to aging. 

The Paul Freeman Financial Security Program combines the expertise of faculty, researchers and students at the University of Denver. Their interdisciplinary team of researchers in law, finance, psychology, social work, business, neuroscience, and medicine is led by Eric Chess, MD, JD. Goals of impact include four main areas: Research and Development; Outreach and Collaboration; Education; and Policy. Part of the program’s core mission is to address the need for more impactful solutions regarding financial exploitation and fraud of older adults. Target areas currently include developing a financial vulnerability scale, leading a state-wide collaboration, developing a financial-protective team legal instrument, and addressing the significant transfer of wealth affecting older adults and potential future generations and clients. 

Since 2021, when DU was designated as an R1 research institute, the University has been full speed on groundbreaking research locally and globally in psychology, engineering, education, natural science, mathematics and more. 

And no one knows that better than Corinne Lengsfeld, senior vice provost for research and graduate education, whose tenure at the University tells the story of DU’s research journey. 

RadioEd co-hosts Emma Atkinson and Jordyn Reiland sat down with Lengsfeld earlier this month to chat about research: Why it matters, Lengsfeld’s own projects and more. 

Corinne Lengsfeld serves as the Senior Vice Provost for Research & Graduate Education at the University of Denver. As the chief research officer, she is the primary advocate for the University's research mission and is charged with understanding, celebrating, leading and enhancing all forms of scholarship to foster professional growth of the faculty, advancing knowledge, enriching the student experience, and enhancing University visibility. Lengsfeld oversees all internal support for research, the management of external grants and contracts, research integrity and protection, intellectual property and technology transfer and some multidisciplinary research institutes/core facilities. 

What makes you feel safe? Is it a familiar voice on the phone, a particular place, friends or family by your side, your spiritual beliefs or even a favorite blanket? 

What about a person outside your personal circle, like a paramedic, a lifeguard, a firefighter or a police officer?

20-year-old Joseph said that people should feel safe around police officers, but that isn’t always the case in Durham, North Carolina—where he lives—and elsewhere.

He says, “I think that police officers almost have to have a—not necessarily nurturing aspect, but kind of like a—sense of safety about them. Because you should feel safe around police officers, you know? I don’t necessarily know how to put that in a word, but I think that you should definitely just feel safe around police officers.”

So how can police departments increase safety and earn trust in the communities where they work? 

University of Denver Assistant Professor of Public Policy Ajenai Clemmons’ research answers these questions that can extend beyond North Carolina.

On this episode of RadioEd, co-host Jordyn Reiland chats with Clemmons about how the men she interviewed made sense of policing in their neighborhood—and what they needed to both be safe and feel safe.

More information:

What the Durham Police Department Can Do to Enhance Safety and Earn Trust

Our lives are made up of the experiences we’ve had. And those experiences stick with us, particularly the good ones. 

When we look back on our lives, it’s easy to feel as though things were better in the past. We long for the “good ‘ol days,” as it were. 

There’s a word for this feeling: Nostalgia.  

And nostalgia, like many other human emotions, has been commodified. That’s right: Advertisers, marketers and even politicians know people yearn for bygone times, and they know just how to take advantage of it.  

Ana Babic Rosario, professor of marketing at the University of Denver, studies what’s called “nostalgia marketing." She says that nostalgia is complex; it’s about more than just longing for the past. 

On this episode of RadioEd, Emma chats with Rosario about the good, the bad and the ugly of nostalgia marketing—and finds out who’s most susceptible to it. 

In 1987, 17% of people had an unfavorable view of the Supreme Court.

Now, in 2024, 51% of people say the same thing.

That’s a 200% increase in just 37 years, according to analysis of Pew Research data. So why have American's opinions of the court's declined so significantly?

In this episode, new co-host Jordyn Reiland chats with Assistant Professor Phil Chen about how trust and legitimacy in the Supreme Court and federal judiciary more broadly is contingent on more than just descriptive representation—otherwise known as demographic diversity. Americans also want to see substantive representation, effectively whether your specific policy interests are being met.

Phil Chen is an assistant professor of political science in the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences. His research delves into race, ethnicity, gender, and partisanship in political psychology, as well as political communication and how voters interpret and react to appeals from politicians and the media. Chen teaches classes on campaigns and elections, race and ethnicity, political polarization, media and politics, political psychology, and political participation.

More information:

Amy Coney Barrett is Not Enough: How Descriptive and Substantive Representation Shape Trust and Legitimacy of the Federal Courts by Phil Chen and Amanda Savage

Favorable views of Supreme Court remain near historic low

Most of Biden’s appointed judges to date are women, racial or ethnic minorities – a first for any president

In the six years that Chancellor Jeremy Haefner has helmed the University of Denver, much has changed—and research at DU has truly blossomed.

DU was awarded R1 research status in 2021, making it the fourth university in Colorado and the only private institution in the Rocky Mountain Region to have achieved the classification. Since then, the research being done by faculty and students across DU has only gotten more exciting.

As we head into the 2024 school year, with more to come from DU’s stellar researchers, we sat down with Chancellor Haefner to chat about why research is such an integral part of the DU identity.

Women make up just 34% of the workforce in professional STEM fields. In college, too, women are underrepresented: about 21% of engineering majors are women and around 19% of computer and information science majors are women. 

So, the question is: Why does this happen? Are women just less interested in these fields? 

Jennifer Hoffman, Shannon Murphy and Robin Tinghitella, all faculty in the University of Denver’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, answer that question with a resounding “NO.” 

Together at DU, Shannon, Jennifer and Robin co-host science summer camps for middle-school girls. And they are not only providing opportunities for girls to become acquainted with STEM fields, they’re also studying the campers’ relationships to science.   

In a recently published paper, the trio, along with outside colleagues, examine the effects of these science summer camps on girls’ relationship with science and their scientific self-efficacy by asking the girls a series of questions before and after their camp experiences. 

In this episode, Emma chats with the three female scientists about their experiences as women in STEM and why it’s so important to get girls interested in the sciences early in life. 

Jennifer Hoffman is a professor of physics and astronomy in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Denver. She holds the Womble Chair of Astronomy and directs DU's historic Chamberlin Observatory. Her research interests focus on the late stages of massive stellar evolution, in particular on the role of binary stars in shaping supernova explosions. Hoffman uses a combination of observational spectropolarimetry and 3-D computational modeling to explore these research questions. She sees her roles as an educator and mentor as a vital part of her scholarship. In all these arenas, Hoffman works to expand opportunities and remove barriers to participation in physics and astronomy for people from historically underrepresented groups. 

Robin Tinghitella is an associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Denver. As a behavioral ecologist, she works to understand how rapidly changing environments alter animal communication, particularly interactions between males and females. Researchers in her animal behavior lab use both insect and fish model systems and are supported by the National Science Foundation, the Morris Animal Foundation, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Animal Behavior Society (amongst others).  

Shannon Murphy is a professor of biological sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Denver. She studies the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and insects. Murphy works side by side with students to investigate how these plant-insect interactions are affected by global change. She works closely with undergraduate and graduate students to both teach them about and study the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and insects, and together they investigate how these interactions are affected by global change. 

More Information: 

“STEM Summer Camp for Girls Positively Affects Self-Efficacy" by E. Dale Broder, Kirsten J. Fetrow, Shannon M. Murphy, Jennifer L. Hoffman, Robin M. Tinghitella 

AAUW: “The STEM Gap: Women and Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics”