What if your insurance company could use your DNA to raise your rates if they think you might get cancer someday? Or, what if a foreign adversary, like China, for example; could use DNA to reveal the true identity of all of our spies?

Think that's farfetched? Well, Akron-based journalist, author, and cold-case DNA expert, James Renner doesn't think so.

Find out why, as I explore advances in cold case DNA technology, and talk about the how the science we use to catch killers, could one day catch all of us in invisible data nets, violating our privacy in ways we can only barely imagine, today.

Thanks to a $450 thousand dollar grant from the National Science Foundation, Kent State University will offer a new summer robotics program open to undergraduate students from all over the country. We talked about it with Assistant Professor, Dr. Ye Lu, and Associate Dean Joycelyn Harrison, from the KSU College of Aeronautics and Engineering. Listen now.

Following up on our March 3 episode about clean water technology; today, we're talking about proposed new federal EPA regulations that would require testing for exceptionally dangerous chemicals that cannot be filtered out by the common methods used to make drinking water safe nationwide right now.

We'll find out exactly what those "forever chemicals" are, how they're detected, and what would be necessary to remove them from our drinking water supply.

Listen now, as I interview City of Akron Water Supply Bureau Manager, Jeff Bronowski.

The federal government's efforts to protect US citizens' sensitive data took on new urgency this week, as reports surfaced that the phones of more more than 50 top level government officials had been infected with sophisticated spyware.

Also this week, President Biden issued an executive order banning US government agencies from using spyware that is deemed a threat to US national security or is implicated in human rights abuses.

In addition, a bipartisan effort is underway in Congress that would give the federal government the power to ban foreign made hardware and software deemed to be a threat to national security, including (but not limited to) the popular Chinese-owned social media app, TikTok.

But, why is TikTok being singled out for such intense scrutiny? Don't all mobile apps do the same thing? Shouldn't we all be concerned about the spies we carry around in our pockets?

We talked about it with Computer Information Systems Professor, and Cybersecurity expert, Dr. John Nicholas, from the University of Akron.

The fallout from the recent Silicon Valley Bank collapse continues.

Listen now as we talk about it with Kent State University Political Science Professor, Dr. Mark Cassell, who wrote two books on the banking industry. You can find "Banking on the State: the Political Economy of Public Savings Banks", and "How Governments Privatize: The Politics of Divestment in the United States and Germany", on Amazon.com.

The massive failure of Silicon Valley Bank is not only sending shock waves through the tech industry, but also through the entire US Banking industry, and it has the potential to disrupt the entire US economy.

In fact, two other banks failed last week as well. Could it be a trend?

That's why federal regulators took swift action to limit the damage yesterday, and why President Biden assured the nation that banks are safe, and our economy remains strong.

But, how and why did this happen, and what can we do to protect our banks, our money, and our economy from meltdowns like this in future?

Listen now, for our discussion with Kent State University Finance Professor, David Pelleg.

While there are already a lot of ways to save energy and money by retrofitting your home with new windows, weather stripping, and insulation; wouldn't it be cool if you could do even more, just by using a different kind of building material? Well, now you can–or, at least you'll be able to soon–as a result of a new tech breakthrough in energy efficient building materials pioneered by researchers at Purdue University. Listen now to our conversation with Purdue University Assistant Civil Engineering Professor, Dr. Mirian Velay-Lizancos.

*Please note, this story was updated to correct technical issues, on 3-6-23

This week, we're taking a deep dive into clean water technology.

We decided to look into it, in response to the big train derailment and toxic chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio, which is about 76 miles Southeast of Akron.

Is anything going on with their water going to affect us? Could the kind of thing that happened there, happen here?

These are the kinds of questions that guided our conversations, but along the way, we encountered some surprises.

For example: Did you know that breathing in the steam from your bathroom shower is actually (at least somewhat) hazardous to your health, because of the chemicals they put in the water to keep it safe to drink? No? Well, we didn't either.

So, listen now to find out more, and get the whole back story on where we get our water, what is being done to protect it, and how there is always some give and take when it comes to reducing risk; including when you turn on the tap at home.

Our featured guests today, are City of Akron Water Supply Bureau Manager, Jeff Bronowski, and Chris Miller, who the founder and CEO of Fontus Blue, a technology company that provides drinking water quality management software and services for communities in a number of different communities nationwide, including Akron.

This week, we're taking a deep dive into clean water technology.

We decided to look into it, in response to the big train derailment and toxic chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio, which is about 76 miles Southeast of Akron.

Is anything going on with their water going to affect us? Could the kind of thing that happened there, happen here?

These are the kinds of questions that guided our conversations, but along the way, we encountered some surprises.

For example: Did you know that breathing in the steam from your bathroom shower is actually (at least somewhat) hazardous to your health, because of the chemicals they put in the water to keep it safe to drink? No? Well, we didn't either.

So, listen now to find out more, and get the whole back story on where we get our water, what is being done to protect it, and how there is always some give and take when it comes to reducing risk; including when you turn on the tap at home.

Our featured guests today, are City of Akron Water Supply Bureau Manager, Jeff Bronowski, and Chris Miller, who the founder and CEO of Fontus Blue, a technology company that provides drinking water quality management software and services for communities in a number of different communities nationwide, including Akron.

This week, it's all about recent breakthroughs that point the way toward a future with better, faster, and more secure computers, as well as nearly unlimited clean energy.

Listen now, for word from the National Science Foundation, about some new research being done now at the University of Rochester, which could make it easier to mass produce quantum computers.

We'll also hear an easy to understand explanation of nuclear fusion from our featured guest , Physics Professor, Dr. Susan Ramlo, who now teaches in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Akron.