Bridge Collapse, Hygge, "Sing, Unburied, Sing"

Guest: Martin Gordon, PE, DFE, Professor of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology, president of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers Investigators are still piecing together the facts that led a partially-built pedestrian bridge to collapse onto a busy highway in Florida two weeks ago, killing six people and injuring ten. Several injured survivors and families of victims who died have filed lawsuits against the companies building the bridge. The US Secretary of Transportation has also ordered an audit of the bridge project, which was partially paid for by federal funding. The job of identifying what went wrong falls to forensic engineers. They’re like crime scene investigators, but focused on what role engineering practices played in a disaster.

Guest: Marie Helweg-Larsen, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Dickinson College Every year, a UN initiative puts out the World Happiness Report that ranks 156 countries based on their happiness levels, which, admittedly, sounds like junk science. But it’s actually based on some very specific measures developed over the years to capture what psychologist’s call “subjective well-being.” The report indicates the percentage of a country’s people who feel they’re living their best possible life, or close to it. The US this year ranked 18th on the report. Denmark, on the other hand, is always in the top three.  Danish psychologist Marie Helweg-Larsen believes that’s because of “hygge”  – which is a concept that we don’t really have here in the U.S.

Guest: Peter Verstrate, CEO, MosaMeat If you’re worried about the impact that eating meat has on the environment, and veggie or soy burgers just don’t cut it, you may soon be able to buy beef that was grown in a lab, rather than sourced from a slaughterhouse. It’s sometimes called “cultured meat.”

Guests: John C. Franklin, PhD, Associate Professor of Ancient Greek Literature, University of Vermont; David Carlson, Coordinator of Student Veteran Services, University of Vermont When Odysseus the Greek warrior returns to Ithaca in Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey,” he’s a hero, favored of the gods, reclaiming his throne. But, he’s also a veteran of a decade-long war with the Trojans, followed by another ten years of wandering through all kinds of trouble before finally getting it home. So, perhaps Homer’s epic war poems have something to offer modern-day warriors adapting to life after battle in Iraq and Afghanistan? The Iliad and The Odyssey are the texts for a class at the University of Vermont that’s just for veterans.

Guest: Jennifer Adams, Author, “I Am a Warrior Goddess” Staffmember, The King’s English Bookshop The novel “Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward won the 2017 National Book Award. It’s unusual because it’s a ghost story and a tale of spirituality and redemption set in modern-day Mississippi, where a family is haunted by events from decades gone by. Here's a review.

Guest: Marlena Fejzo, PhD, Associate Researcher of Medicine, UCLA and Associate Researcher of Obstetrics-Gynecology, USC The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, is weeks away from delivering her third child. All of her pregnancies have been marked by an extreme form of nausea and vomiting called hyperemis gravidarium that often requires hospitalization to treat. Living as she does in the public eye, the Duchess has brought publicity to a serious condition that is not well-understood.  But researchers are zeroing in on what may cause hyperemis gravidarium, or HG.