Universal Background Checks

Guest: Clark Aposhian, Chair of the Utah Sports Shooting Council

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says background checks for gun sales will lead the discussion when Congress returns to work in September. The Democratically-controlled House has already passed a measure that expands mandatory background checks to include private gun sales between individuals.

The Race for Electric Aviation

Guest: Kevin Noertker, Co-founder and CEO of Ampaire

Airplanes spew a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If you add it all up, aviation emits as much greenhouse gas in a year as the UK and Australia combined. If cars are transitioning to electricity so they pollute less, could commercial flights be electric one day, too?

The Truth Behind Electrolytes in Sports Drinks

Guest: Kelly Pritchett, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Exercise Science, Central Washington University

We’re in the middle of the hottest part of the year, and that means a lot of sweat. Kids are playing outside more and a lot of adults are doing5Ks and half marathons. That means losing electrolytes. We hear all the time that electrolytes are important, but you may not need to be drinking sports drinks as often as Gatorade commercials may lead you to believe.

The Legacy of Toni Morrison

Guest: SaraEllen Strongman, LSA Collegiate Fellow, Department of Afro-American and African Studies, University of Michigan

Since the passing of novelist and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison last week, I’ve read dozens of tributes to her by African American writers –especially women. Roxane Gay wrote in the New York Times that Morrison “taught me and an entire generation of black writers to recognize that we are rich places to write from.”

Behind the Scenes of the Sound Design for Hollywood’s Hits

Guest: Richard King, Supervising Sound Editor and Designer

Movies area visual medium, obviously. Color and camera angles matter enormously to the experience you have in the theater. But so does sound. In fact, it’s maybe sound most of all that pulls you into a film. Makes you feel the wind and sea spray like you’re one of the rescued soldiers huddled on a small boat at the end of the World War II movie Dunkirk. As an enemy plane bears down, it’s the sound of it that makes your heart race. And the spray of bullets that makes you wince and momentarily shut your eyes.

Why US Presidential Campaigns Last So Long

Guest: Rachel Paine Caufield, Professor of Political Science, Drake University, Director of the Iowa Caucus Project

Democrats hoping to be the next President of the United States are at the Iowa State Fair eating fried food-on-a-stick and taking carnival rides and drumming up votes for the all-important Iowa caucuses in February. That’s still six months away. The general election is more than a year out. And it already feels like this presidential race has been going forever. A lot of other countries –most really –have much shorter presidential election campaigns. Meanwhile candidates are announcing their intent to run earlier and earlier in the US. Why do we punish ourselves like this?