World Events, Hope Dealers, The Dead Zone

Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University World events are Top of Mind today as we welcome Quinn Mecham back into the studio. He’s a professor of political science here at BYU, and he’s also regular contributor here on Top of Mind, where he joins us monthly with a look at three international events worth closer consideration.

Gest: Tina Stride, President of the Hope Dealer Project Four women in Martinsburg, West Virginia are combatting the opioid epidemic by dealing something they believe is more potent than drugs: hope. These women make up the Hope Dealer Project, and they connect addicts and their families with life-saving resources, providing a light of hope in the darkness of addiction.    Learn more about the project here.

Guest: R.P. Eddy, CEO of Ergo, Former Director at the White House National Security Council, Co-Author of “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes” The International Institute for Strategic Studies reports that North Korea has made unheard of progress in its development of ballistic missiles because it has likely acquired the necessary technology from abroad, probably from Russia or the Ukraine. The rapid advance in North Korean missile technology illustrates the country’s determination to be taken seriously, and R.P. Eddy, CEO of the intelligence firm Ergo warns that the US should not dismiss North Korea’s threats as empty rhetoric.

Guest: Rob Grace, Doctoral Student of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University When schools close due to bad weather, you can find announcements about it on traditional media like TV and radio, but increasingly, parents will get a text or maybe even a tweet informing them of schedule changes and actions they should take. Emergency services need to collect and receive information in real time and researchers at Penn State are eager to help connect locals with the help they need.

Guest: Rob Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com  Younger viewers finally get a sequel that’s been promoted all summer in trailers: "The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature." Fans of Jeanette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle” can now see the adventurous, dysfunctional, and ultimately tragic Walls family on the big screen in a screen adaptation of the bestseller.

Guest: Nancy Rabalais, PhD, Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Shell Oil Endowed Chair in Oceanography/Wetland Sciences, Louisiana State University, Distinguished Research Professor, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium The dead zone is a mass of water the size of New Jersey just off the Mississippi River delta in the Gulf of Mexico. It appears every summer, but this year the dead zone is the largest on record. How did this phenomenon get its ominous name and can nothing really live there? What impact does it have on fisheries and tourism?