Empowerment is for everyone. This idea is championed by those who take action, get involved, and try to make a difference. And at Miami, these ideals are embodied by a program called the Urban Cohort. And what makes this program so unique is how it’s grounded in community life in very, very real ways.

Electronic cigarettes are spreading like a wave across this country. Just three years after hitting the market, e-cigarettes are being used by teenagers almost everywhere. Even the FDA has recently called it an epidemic.

Even though we have a better understanding of what’s healthy. And what’s not. Improving public health is still tremendously difficult. Because changing attitudes and behaviors is never easy. After all, how do you get people to first pay attention to accurate and relevant information, and then actually get them to do something about it? So in this episode, we’ll hear about how a local community is making a calculated and creative public health initiative to try and communicate the right message, to the right audience, at the right time.

Back when Brian Schultz was a 5th-grade teacher in a struggling urban school, he asked his students to name some issues they could address through a class project. But when his students decided that they really needed was a whole new school building, no one could have predicted how the project would have unfolded from there. But their efforts soon attracted national media attention and, eventually, even inspired a book called Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, which now in its 2nd edition. Brian Schultz is now a Miami University professor of teacher education, and today he’s here to talk about this incredible project, the new edition of his book, the lasting impact it’s had on some of this students, and more.

What do you know about building a robot? It’s not a subject that most people would claim to know a lot about. And even despite the growing opportunities across many engineering and computer science-related fields today, there are still many barriers that prevent so many people -- especially younger students who come from families or schools that lack the proper resources – from learning about robotics, and why that’s now so important. But this is exactly what one former teacher is working very hard to change.

Are Students Being Prepared to Thrive in a Knowledge Economy? In this episode, we explore the complex answer to this simple question, especially as it relates to the literacy skills students now need today.

In our last episode, we began to explore the complex subject of human sexuality, as well as why it’s still so challenging for educators to provide a proper sexuality education. And so, this time we continue our conversation with certified sexuality educator Richelle Frabotta. We’ll talk about the direction society seems to be moving on this issue, and we’ll learn about what Miami’s new Sexuality Education Studies Center will do for the campus and the community.

We’ve all heard the phrase: Sex sells. And while that may be true, it also creates controversy. But for all the attention this subject commands, it is surprising how little we actually understand it. Sexuality is not something many people are comfortable speaking about openly. But Richelle Frabotta is not one of them. As one of the few certified sexuality educators in the country, she teaches openly and frankly from a sex positive perspective about what have traditionally been very challenging issues. She is also at the forefront of the new Sexuality Education Studies Center here at Miami, and today she’s here to talk about the importance of sexuality education, and much more.

Everybody knows that exercise is good. But that is not the whole story. It’s not just that exercise is good. It’s also that not exercising is actually so much worse. A general lack of physical activity can lead to many diseases and even cancer. So in this episode, we speak with Kyle Timmerman and Kevin Ballard. Two accomplished exercise science researchers who have just been named Fellows in the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Their work explores the mechanisms behind exercise science and how living a much healthier life might not actually be that hard for most people.

In this episode, we speak to Susan Schaurer, Miami University Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management, who is here to break down the college admissions process. What to do, what not to do, and where to even begin.