Many of us make resolutions on New Year’s Day to lose weight, exercise more or maybe save more money. How are those going a month later? Most Americans don’t keep resolutions after a few weeks. Why is that? We’ll discuss strategies for planning and fulfilling that big change in your life.

It’s amazing that in the 21st century, science knows so much about all of the organs of the body save one: the brain. We talk to a scientist and author about the unbelievable abilities of the brain, how memories help us predict the future, where dreams are located, how brain injury can sometimes make someone a genius, and how research into brain function is opening up new areas of understanding the mind and its possibilities.

Sometimes talking about serious subjects, even with friends and family, can cause arguments and bad feelings. But just as Mary Poppins said, “…a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down,” humor can make the discussion of serious subjects go down easier. Our guests are two very talented and funny people who use humor, satire and irony to make their points about women in science, and the immigrants’ experience.

Kids are always on their phones, tablets or computers – even when they’re sitting across from one another at the lunch table! Does communicating via screens hurt kids? We talk to two researchers who found that too much screen time at the cost of face-to-face communication could decrease our ability to recognize emotions, and possibly even shorten our lives.

We’ve all heard stories about people who overcome tremendous odds and end up becoming a success. Or they’re faced with a serious illness, but they manage to come through it healthier and happier. How do they do it? We talk to two people who have experience with adversity about what it takes to make it through the dark, and seemingly hopeless times in life.

Late night television has changed dramatically during the past year with younger hosts such as Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert and James Corden taking over the helms of popular shows. Are these new hosts going to change late night in a substantial way? And if so, will they be changes for the better? We talk with a media professor and a former late night talk show star and author about the issue.

One fact that was brought out during the onslaught of that Hurricane Sandy was the need to update our nation’s weather forecasting and emergency management systems. We talk to a journalist and author who conducted research on the storm, the systems that tracked it and found out how our weather forecasting, tracking and evacuation protocols and equipment need to be modernized to deal with the extreme weather that climate change will bring us in the future.

We all want answers to the complicated questions in life, but sometimes just asking the questions are enough to make us think deeply about our lives and our world. We talk to a man who has made a living asking questions that sometimes have no hard and fast answers, or where the resolution changes depending upon our age or circumstances. He tells us how the process of coming to an answer is often more important than any one answer itself.

The PBS series, “Downton Abbey” premieres this week, and it’s one in a long line of very popular programs that the network has produced. How do they find shows like “Downton,” “Sherlock,” “Brideshead Revisited,” and “Poldark”? What goes into choosing which programs make it on the air? And how has the format for “Masterpiece” affected commercial network programming through the years? We talk to the producer of the series and also to a TV expert about these issues.

Why are people so afraid to give speeches in public? It’s the cause of sweaty palms, headaches, nausea and weak knees, to mention only a few of the problems speakers experience. We talk to a psychologist and a speech educator about why anxiety builds when we have to give a public address, and how we can use this stress to our benefit.