Why the Federal Reserve Board Matters

Guest: Kathleen Day, Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business, Author “Broken Bargain: Bankers, Bailouts and the Struggle to Tame Wall Street”

“No interest rate hike” was the news out of the Federal Reserve board’s meeting last week. Also, Stephen Moore –President Trump’s nominee to fill one of two vacancies on the Fed’s board –withdrew from the running in controversy over past statements he’d made about women, race and sports. Another of President Trump’s choices to sit on the Federal Reserve’s governing board –pizza mogul Herman Cain –also withdrew his nomination recently.

 

A Healthy Diet Means More Than Cutting Out Unhealthy Foods

Guest: Ashkan Afshin, Assistant Professor of Health Metrics Sciences, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington

Sugary soda and red meat top the list of foods we’re told to cut back on. But they rank near the bottom of diet choices linked to death. A global study published in The Lancet found far more people die from eating too much sodium and not enough fruits and whole grains.

 

Japan’s New Emperor and the End of an Era

Guests: Aaron Skabelund, Professor of Japanese History at BYU; Jack Stoneman, Professor of Japanese at BYU

British Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have a new baby boy. As modern monarchies go, England’s is the most famous. But there are dozens of countries worldwide with kings or queens. Many of them are in Asia. In the last week two of those have coronated new kings –Thailand and Japan.

 

The Man Who Inspired Indiana Jones

Guest: Clive Coy, Chief Technician of Dinosaur Research, University of Alberta, Member of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society

A fearless explorer who hates snakes, trekking across the Gobi Desert with a caravan of cars and camels. Nope, not Indiana Jones. Let’s meet Roy Chapman Andrews –a real-life adventurer who made ground-breaking dinosaur fossil discoveries, led the American Museum of Natural History in New York and published a bunch of books for kids about dinosaurs that inspired a whole generation of paleontologists.

 

Dangers of Corruptible Artificial Intelligence in the Medical Field

Guest: Sam Finlayson, MD-PhD Candidate, Harvard Medical School and M.I.T.

If you’ve had a medical scan lately, there’s a chance the results were first read by a really smart computer program that’s learned to diagnose problems. And a smart computer program was almost certainly involved in the decision your insurance company made about what it would cover of that scan and what you’d be left to pay. Artificial intelligence promises to make our healthcare system more efficient –and maybe more accurate –but it comes with risks. 

 

Time-Restricted Feeding

Guest: Kate Early, Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology & Health Sciences, Columbus State University

Eating only during certain times of the day is trending as a weight-loss strategy. I’ve heard a lot of conflicting things –like, you should stop eating at 3pm or that you should start eating until the afternoon. But when comes down to it, does changing what time you eat really do your body any good?