Life Inside North Korea, Worker's Cup, Preventing Suicide

Guests: Ji-Yeon Song and Doo-Hyeon Kim, Raised in North Korea, Currently Reside in Provo, Utah As President Trump heads into an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, Doo-Hyeon Kim and Ji-Yeon Song are watching with great interest. They were raised in North Korea, but managed to escape several years ago. The young couple now lives here in Provo, Utah and we invited them into our studio. Because they’re still working to master English, some of what Kim and Song shared with us came from written answers they’d prepared. What you’re about to hear is a rare bit of insight into life inside a country closed-off from the outside world and notorious for its treatment of civilians.

Guests: Scott W. Allard, PhD, Professor of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington; Daniel J. Evans, Endowed Professor of Social Policy, University of Washington America’s suburbs were born of America’s middle class growth after World War II. Poverty and crime came to be seen as mainly inner-city problems. But today, poor people are just as likely to be living in the suburbs as they are in urban centers.

Guest: Michael Staley, Suicide Prevention Research Coordinator, Utah’s Medical Examiner’s Office Over the last decade and a half, the suicide rate in America has risen 30 percent. Every state but Nevada saw an increase in its suicide rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same week those numbers were reported, two celebrities died of suicide, driving home the urgent need for a better prevention strategy. How can we prevent suicide?  If you or someone you know need help, call the 24-Hour National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Guest: Adam Sobel, Director, “The Workers Cup” The World Cup gets underway in Russia this week, but for years now workers have already been at work in Qatar, building the stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. It’s exhausting work in the dust and heat, and they live in labor camps, which contain nearly 60 percent of Qatar’s population. But a few of them have gotten a glimpse of glory playing in a soccer tournament in the very stadiums that will house the World Cup. Filmmaker Adam Sobel documented this tournament in his new film, “The Worker’s Cup,” which just opened in New York and Los Angeles last weekend ahead of a nationwide rollout.

Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com Rod Gustafson of Parent Previews reviews “Ocean’s 8.”

(Originally aired: Feb. 14, 2017) Guest: Graham Peaslee, PhD, Professor of Experimental Nuclear Physics, University of Notre Dame When fast-food restaurants had to start posting calorie counts in their menus, it took some fun out of treating yourself to that cheeseburger, fries and shake. And, now comes word that the stuff those treats come wrapped also contain chemicals that carry serious health risks. Research out of Notre Dame examined more than 400 packaging materials used to wrap everything from sandwiches to desserts. Nearly half contained fluorinated chemicals that can stay in the body long after you've licked your fingers.

Guest: Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, MD, Betty Jo Hay Distinguished Chair in Mental Health, Founding Director of Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center There are dozens and dozens of different drugs available to treat depression, but anyone who’s ever been prescribed one knows the process involves a lot of guesswork and months of waiting to see—is this drug helping? Is it making things worse? Can I live with the side-effects? Psychiatrist Madhukar Trivedi is trying to develop a blood test or brain scan that could cut through all the guessing and help doctors prescribe the right anti-depressant every time.