Native Americans Face Huge Obstacles to Cast a Ballot (0:33)

Oliver “OJ” Semans, co-executive director, Four Directions

More Americans will likely vote by mail this election than ever before due to the pandemic. That’s more convenient for a lot of us, but what if mail carriers don’t deliver to your house? What if you’re a hundred miles from the nearest post office to drop off your ballot? That’s the reality for many Native Americans living on reservations. And in some places, like Arizona, tribal members are numerous enough to swing a close election.

 

How Mary Shelley Brought Science Fiction to Life (19:53)

Lisa Yaszek, Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies, Georgia Tech

Frankenstein is one of the most enduring Halloween monsters – though technically Frankenstein was the name of the doctor who created the monster.  It’s not just the monster of Frankenstein that endures in our culture. The story itself – published by Mary Shelley more than 200 years ago when she was just a teenager – is considered the first science fiction novel.

 

Adding Displaced Persons to the Tally of “Costs” Associated with America’s Ongoing War on Terror (32:35)

David Vine, Professor of Political Anthropology, American University, author of “The United States of War”

America has been fighting the “War on Terror” for going on 20 years now with a price tag of six and a half trillion dollars. That’s just the financial cost. There’s the loss of life, too - some 7,000 US troops dead and 8,000 military contractors. More than 330,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other countries where the War on Terror has stretched.  The independent Costs of War project at Brown University has now added another data point to the mix – some 37 million people have fled their homes because of US fighting in the War on Terror. 

 

The Apple Seed (51:20)

Sam Payne, Host

Sam discusses scary stories that are really not scary and seemingly always end in a laugh.

 

Inexpensive Treatment of Widespread Parasitic Infection Results in Economy-Wide Benefits (1:03:13)

Edward Miguel, PhD, the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics in the Department of Economics at University of California, Berkeley

Roughly 20% of the world’s population is infected with parasitic worms. The problem is particularly acute parts of Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, but infections have also occurred in the rural US South.  It’s cheap and easy to treat these infections, but governments aren’t always committed to doing so. 

 

How Psychopaths Can Still Succeed in Society (1:14:15)

Emily Lasko, Doctoral Student, Virginia Commonwealth University

Psychopathy is a serious mental illness that makes people antisocial and often causes them to commit crimes. But not all psychopaths are murderers. In fact, some can overcome their darker impulses and are able to function normally in society: hold a job, get married, be successful. 

 

The Gendered Patent Gap (1:26:48)

Stephanie Plamondon Bair, Professor of Law, Brigham Young University Law School 

Of all the patents awarded to inventors in America last year, fewer than 13 percent went to women. This gender gap has been a persistent problem for decades. Is it just that there are fewer women inventing things in America?