This week, Julie shares a conversation from Top of Mind’s live radio show archive that changed her life. In 2017 she spoke with Dan Brule, who is one of the world’s leading experts on breathwork. He recommends taking time daily to practice breathing. The techniques he shared have become Julie’s best tool for coping with stress and anxiety.

Guest:

Dan Brule, author of “Just Breathe: Mastering Breathwork for Success in Life, Love, Business and Beyond"

A professional magician teaches magic tricks to inmates, and it is changing their whole prison experience.

The American Chestnut tree is nearly gone for good. These people are working hard to bring it back.

A special type of wall creates a radiating cooling effect. Here's how it works.

The humanitarian needs across the world right now are enormous. War, political corruption, natural disasters, debilitating poverty, and economic failure can all cause a humanitarian crisis. When these crises occur, our natural instinct is the help. And, helping out seems straightforward – you just send money or show up. But can assistance sometimes do more harm than good? What is the true impact of humanitarian efforts? If you’re not careful, your time and money may do no good to help those in crisis. Worse, it might end up hurting those you’re hoping to help. In this podcast episode, we consider how best to respond in a humanitarian crisis, why doing a “service trip” to a distant country isn’t necessarily helpful and ways to boost the impact of your humanitarian aid.

Podcast Guests:

Svitlana Miller, founder, ToUkraineWithLove.org

Meg Sattler, director, Ground Truth Solutions

Bocchit Edmond, Haiti’s Ambassador to the United States

Pippa Biddle, author of “Ours to Explore: Privilege, Power and the Paradox of Voluntourism”

Kat Rosqueta, founding executive director, Center for High Impact Philanthropy (impact.upenn.edu) at the University of Pennsylvania

College education is traditionally seen in America as a worthwhile investment that can help people get ahead, find better jobs, and earn higher salaries. But with our ever-changing social and economic landscape, does a college degree matter? Some employers are no longer requiring a degree for professional jobs. As the cost of getting a degree continues to rise, is a college education worth the expense if it doesn’t lead to lucrative job after graduation? In this podcast episode, we’ll explore how American society determines the value of a college education and how to know when pursuing higher education is the right choice.

Podcast Guests:

Alexis Ayala, Business Development Representative at Okta

Anthony Carnevale, Director of the Georgetown Center for Education and the Workforce

Ron Lieber, New York Times Finance Columnist, Author of “The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make”

Ken Rusk, Entrepreneur, Author of “Blue Collar Cash: Love Your Work, Secure Your Future, and Find Happiness for Life”

Clues to Beethoven's inner life are all throughout his music.

Developing a less expensive portable MRI machine.

Desensitization treatment works well for food allergies. Why do so many people still suffer?

In our culture that celebrates youthfulness, countless Americans dread getting older. Aging brings inevitable changes to our bodies, abilities and lifestyle. But aging not all bad. Surveys show time and again that people in their 80s are happier than young adults and people in middle age. So why do we fear getting older? What if we rethink our obsession with aging? In today’s podcast episode, we explore what aging is really like in America right now and how the experience might be better if we stopped worrying about the process of growing old.

Podcast Guests:

Katherine Esty, therapist and author of Eighty somethings: A Practical Guide to Letting Go, Aging Well, and Finding Unexpected Happiness

Bill Rodgers, decorated marathon runner and Olympian

Marc Agronin, geriatric psychiatrist at Miami Jewish Health and author of The End of Old Age: Living a Longer, More Purposeful Life

Ashton Applewhite, activist and author of The Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism

Donna Butts, Executive Director of Generations United

In this bonus episode from the Top of Mind archive: "The Other Talk." Most kids of color in America grow up talking about racism at home, but most white children don't. They should, though, says author Brendan Kiely. His new book is a guide for starting the conversation about race at home. Then, a short, inspiring chat with a doctor who collects flower arrangements and delivers them to patients in the hospital where she works.

We're featuring another one of our great BYUradio podcasts on Top of Mind. The Lisa Show discusses how we can navigate life and parenting. And in this episode, host Lisa Valentine Clark seeks advice on how to be a good parent when the internet and technology are ever-changing.

Once a child is placed in foster care, reunification with a parent or guardian happens less than half of the time. But many child welfare agencies say reuniting families is the primary goal of foster care because placing a child in the care of strangers is always traumatic – even when it’s necessary. Why doesn’t reunifying families happen more often? Is there a solution that both protects children and prioritizes families? In this podcast episode, we’ll discuss how the foster system could do more to strengthen families and protect children while ensuring children and teens find stable homes with loving caregivers.

Podcast Guests:

Aby, a Mother who reunited with her child

Dalton Shump, Permanency Case Worker, KVC

Molly Tierney, Managing Director, North American Public Sector at Accenture, Former Director of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services

Lynn Price, Founder, Camp to Belong

Sixto Cancel, Non-Profit Founder, Think of Us

As colleges across the country are seeking to increase student diversity, is affirmative action the solution? What is the impact of affirmative action on college admissions? The US Supreme Court has repeatedly held that some amount of race-based discrimination is okay in college admissions, if the goal is to create a more diverse campus. And affirmative action policies have benefited college applicants from certain minority groups. But, no one wants to be rejected from their dream school because of something they can’t control – like their race, or their parents’ income. In this podcast episode, we’ll explore the effects of affirmative action and consider other ways to create diversity in higher education.

Podcast Guests:

Zachariah Chou, author of USA Today op-ed "My race may have played a factor in my college rejections, but I support affirmative action"

Wenyuan Wu, Executive Director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation

Monica O'Neal, psychologist in Boston and faculty at Harvard Medical School

Rick Sander, economist and law professor at UCLA

Audrey Dow, Senior Vice President of The Campaign for College Opportunity