How Perceived Threat Shapes Countries (0:32)

Guest: Michele Gelfand, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Author of “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World”

What do you fear? Natural disasters? War? Where you live makes a big difference on how you answer that question. It also changes how your country is run and how strict the laws are there. Many politicians are masters of knowing what people perceive as a threat and then capitalizing on that. But is using fear in politics always a bad thing?

 

The Discovery, Investigation, and Identification of the Colonial Vampire (17:24)

Guest: Nicholas Bellantoni, Emeritus State Archaeologist with the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and is Adjunct Associate Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut

Vampires today are cheesy Halloween costumes or heartthrobs in teen romance novels. But back in the 1800s, people in New England were genuinely afraid of vampires—so much so that they dug up the graves of their family members in order to protect themselves from the undead. When archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni found one of these corpses in 1990, he went on to study it for 30 years and only just discovered who this colonial vampire was.

 

What’s in that Halloween Candy (36:14)

Guest: Gene Ahlborn, Professor of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science, Brigham Young University

Your kids are probably going to stuff handfuls of candy and chocolate in their mouths tonight after trick or treating. Unless you eat it all first. We asked what questions you have about what’s in that stuff. BYU Food Science professor Gene Ahlborn is here to answer what you’ve been wondering about artificial flavors and colors.

 

Like to Be Scared? Here’s Why (50:38)

Guest: Carl Sederholm, PhD, Professor of Comparative Arts and Letters, Brigham Young University; Margee Kerr, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh, Author of “Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear”; Rob Dunfield, Owner The Fear Factory in Salt Lake City

Why do we like to be scared out of our wits by films and roller coasters and actors dressed in nightmarish costumes chasing us through dark hallways? We do we pay for this stuff?