Boeing, Better Angels, Oddly Satisfying, Life in Space
Boeing Planes Grounded Guest: Richard Aboulafia, Aviation Analyst, Vice President of Analysis, Teal Group Two fatal crashes in just the last five months –both involving the same newly-redesigned Boeing passenger plane. Hundreds of people dead. On Wednesday, President Trump announced the US would join China, Australia, the UK and the rest of the European Union in temporarily grounding all Boeing 737 Max airplanes. “Our hearts go out to all those who lost loved ones, to their friends to their families in both of the Ethiopian and the Lion Airlines crashes that involved the 737 Max aircraft,” said Trump on Wednesday. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing. Boeing is an incredible company. They are working very, very hard right now and hopefully they’ll very quickly come up with the answer, but until they do the planes are grounded.” What Happens When Rs and Ds Talk With Each Other, Rather than At or About? Guest: David Blankenhorn, President and co-founder of Better Angels (LINK FOR WEB: Better-Angels.org) How upset would you be if your child married an ardent Trump supporter? Or ardent Clinton supporter? Back in the 60s, hardly any parents said they’d be unhappy if their son or daughter married someone from the other party. Today half of Americans –both Republicans and Democrats –told YouGov’s survey-takers they’d be uncomfortable or upset by a cross-party marriage in the family. A nonprofit group called “Better Angels” has spent the last two years bringing together ardent Democrats and Republicans in hopes of fostering civil dialogue. Oddly Satisfying Trend Guest: Jessica Myrick, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Penn State Videos of people squishing slime, slicing bars of soap into thin flakes or even power washing a dirty deck get millions of views on YouTube. Often they’re labeled #OddlySatisfying –and they really are inexplicably mesmerizing. Finding Life in Space in Analogue Environments on Earth (Originally aired November 12, 2018) Guest: Morgan Leigh Cable, PhD, Research Scientist in the Instrument Systems Implementation and Concepts Section, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Last month, the nearly 15-year-serviceof the Opportunity Mars rover came to its end. One of the chief discoveries made by the rover was evidence that the Red Planet had large bodies of water on it at one point. At the ceremony commemorating the rover and its findings, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said, “We may not have to wait much longer to get our first glimpse of E.T.” But when we do find life in space, what will it be like? Many astrobiologists suspect that if we do find life in space it will probably be really small –and it won’t be trying to talk to us. Rising Prices of Prescription Drug (Originally aired December 6, 2018) Guest: Robin Feldman, JD, Professor of Law, Director of the Intstitute for Innovaton Law, University of California Hastings College of Law. Members of Congress this week announced plans for a bunch of reforms to address the high cost of prescription drugs – including ways to introduce competition for blockbuster drugs more quickly. University of California Hastings Law Professor Robin Feldman is author of the new book, “Drugs, Money and Secret Handshakes: The Unstoppable Growth of Prescription Drug Prices.” We spoke with her in December, just as the book was to be published. A Celebrated African Novelist on Migration and Identity (Originally aired March 29, 2018) Guest: Ken Bugul, Celebrated Senegalese Author of “Le Baobab Fou” and Other Novels If you look at the list of countries whose citizens have left for other places over the last decade, Syria’s emigrant population has grown the fastest worldwide. The rest of the top ten countries with fastest growing rates of emigration are all in Africa. So, it’s not too surprising that migration was something Ken Bugul spoke passionately about during a visit to our studio last year as a guest of BYU’s Africana Studies program.