Rural America and the 2020 Election

Guest: Sarah Smarsh, Author of “Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth”

Rural America helped Donald Trump win the presidency and could give him another four years in office. Kansas author Sarah Smarsh says the prevailing story of what rural America is –who the people are, what they want, why they voted for Donald Trump –is largely wrong.

 

Autopsy of a Wrongful Conviction

Guest: John Hollway, Associate Dean and Executive Director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School

2,482. That’s how many people over the last 30 years have spent time in prison–an average of 8 years –and then been exonerated of the crime because it turned out they were innocent. 2,482 people. How do mistakes like that happen? Or maybe it’s not mistakes –it’s outright misconduct on the part of cops or prosecutors? Increasingly, cities around the country are setting up task forces to uncover wrongful convictions –and in a few cases, when they do, another task force comes into figure out what went wrong.

 

Seniors Are at Higher Risk for Suicide

Guest: Yeates Conwell, MD, Director of Geriatric Psychiatry, Co-Director, Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, University of Rochester

As Baby Boomers reach their golden years, the risk of suicide among seniors is a growing concern. Americans 85 years and older have one of the highest suicides rates of any age group.National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

 

Seagulls Have Some Redeeming Qualities

Guest: Sarah J. Courchesne, Associate Professor of Natural Science at Northern Essex Community College, Co-Coordinator for the Gulls of Appledore Project with the Shoals Marine Laboratory

Seagulls can be really annoying. They steal your French fries. Poop on your beach towel. Harass your kids. The pesky birds have become such a problem in a New Jersey city that officials spent thousands of dollars this month on hawks, owls, and falcons to scare away the gulls. But maybe it’s time we stop hating on them so much - Sarah Courchesne has been studying seagulls for the past 11 years, and she says we’re missing how amazing these creatures are.

 

How One Fungus Could Wipe Out the Banana as We Know It

Guest: Randy Ploetz, Professor of Plant Pathology at the Tropical Research & Education Center, University of Florida in Homestead

fungus that has been wiping out banana plantations in Asia and Australia has finally crossed the ocean to Latin America –where we get most of our bananas. The Colombian government has declared a national emergency. And scientists are scrambling to figure out how to protect the world’s bananas. 

 

Tackling Mental Health, Finding Hope on Social Media

Guest: Caroline Kaufman @poeticpoison, Author of “When the World Didn’t End”

Caroline Kaufman started posting raw, personal poetry on Instagram when she was a freshman in high school. At first, she did it anonymously under the handle @poeticpoison. Then her poems went viral and her following grew to over a hundred thousand. Teenagers, in particular, connected with her short, powerful poems about struggling with mental illness and thoughts of suicide, learning to cope with heartbreak and be kinder to herself. Six years later, Caroline Kaufman is attending Harvard and publishing her second poetry collection –the first came out last year was called “Light Filters In.” Her latest is “When the World Didn’t End.”