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Brexit, Kashmir, Algeria Guest: Quinn Mecham, Professor of Political Science, BYU In less than a month, the UK will leave the European Union and Britain’s leaders have yet to approve a plan for the exit. Polio Vaccines Guest: Ann Lee Hussey, Polio Survivor and Vaccine advocate We’ve been hearing a lot about measles outbreaks in parts of the country where parents are opting not to vaccinate their children against the disease. Being reluctant to vaccinate your child is not just a trend in America. The World Health Organization names “vaccine hesitancy” a top ten threat to global health in 2019. Ann Lee Hussey uses her personal experience having contracted polio as a baby to encourage reluctant parents in countries around the world to vaccinate their children. How the West Exported “Beauty” to the East Guest: C.N. Le, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Asian Studies Certificate Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Every community has its own ideal of beauty. As Utah girl growing up in the 80s, my kinky curls were my torment. No amount of teasing and straightening would give me the smooth, bouncy hair that was considered beautiful. Why do communities gravitate toward one single beauty ideal when there are so many variations of skin color, hair texture and facial features? If “variety is the spice of life,” why would we all want to look the same? Music of the Past: Auschwitz’s Deadly March Guest: Patricia Hall, Professor of Music Theory, University of Michigan “The Most Beautiful Time of Life” is the name of this happy tune. But wipe from your mind the image of couples foxtrotting around a ballroom in the Roaring Twenties. This version was arranged and played by an orchestra of prisoners at Auschwitz –the Nazi death camp.  Apparently, the German SS soldiers like to dance in the evenings and the prisoner musicians were forced to oblige. Using Drones to Attack Invasive Rats Guest: Chad Hanson, Project Director of Island Conservation If there’s anywhere on the world that would be safe from human encroachment, you’d think it’d be Seymour Norte. It’s one of the islands in the Galapagos chain, home to the Blue Footed Booby, which is a bird with feet the color of a robin’s egg. The Blue Footed Boobies and iguanas that live on Seymour Norte are right now in trouble because rats are feasting on their eggs. These are rats that hitched a ride on a boat to the Galapagos at some point and they’ve upset the whole ecosystem of the island. So, there’s an effort underway to eradicate the rats using remote-controlled drones dropping poison. Defanging the Terror in Nightmares Guest: Patrick McNamara, Associate Professor of Neurology, University of Minnesota Medical School; Professor of Psychology, Northcentral University I have a bunch of recurring dreams that are stressful, but nothing that would qualify as a nightmare, really. I’m lucky that way, because apparently about four percent of American adults – that’s millions of people – have nightmares frequently enough to disrupt their quality of life. Not to mention all of the children whose nightmares wreak havoc on their sleep – and their parents. The main treatment for nightmare disorder doesn’t work well for everyone. Sleep researcher Patrick McNamara is working on a way to improve it using virtual reality goggles.