Civil Discourse in Media, Gut Brain, Giving While Living

Guest: Alexander Heffner, Host, “The Open Mind,” PBS Civil discourse is not easy to find in the news these days. While name calling and personal attacks permeate most media, there are still a few places you can turn for a more reasoned approach. One is Alexander Heffner’s show on PBS called “The Open Mind.” But do Americans still want civil discourse anymore?

Guest: Ramy Raoof, Senior Research Technologist, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) While we in America concern ourselves with the tone of our speech and whether our discourse is civil, there are places in the world where expressing yourself can get you put in prison.  The government of Egypt has been systematically cracking down on critical voices online. The latest proposal involves requiring every Egyptian who uses Facebook to get approval from the government first. If citizens get on social media without permission, they could end up in jail for six months or pay a significant fine. Ostensibly, the idea is to prevent terrorists from using social media to promote dangerous ideas. But critics say the proposal is just another attempt by the government to monitor citizens and stifle free speech.

Guest: Doctor Premysl Bercik, Associate Professor of Gastroenterology, McMaster University A new discovery in the treatment of depression highlights a possible link between the brain and the belly. Researchers have found that probiotics, or so-called “good bacteria,” can help relieve depressive symptoms in people suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

(originally aired Feb. 13, 2017) Guest: Manu Prakash, PhD, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University If doctors want to detect bloodborne diseases like malaria, HIV and tuberculosis, they have to spin the patient’s blood in a centrifuge to separate out the pathogens from the components of the blood. But centrifuges are expensive and require electricity, and bloodborne diseases are often found in third-world countries where there’s little money and no electricity available to healthcare professionals. But a bioengineer from Stanford recently invented a hand-powered centrifuge that only costs 20 cents to make.

(originally aired March 7, 2017) Guest: Charles Gerba, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Environmental Sciences, University of Arizona Germophobes: prepare to be grossed out. "Dr. Germ" identifies the most contaminated things in our daily lives, and it turns out the worst offenders aren’t even in the bathroom.

(originally aired Feb. 1, 2017) Guest: Christopher Oechsli, President and CEO, The Atlantic Philanthropies The man Forbes magazine calls the most generous philanthropist in America is a billionaire you’ve likely never heard of. It’s not Bill or Melinda Gates or Warren Buffett. This donor has given away a much larger share of his fortune than they have - nearly all of it, in fact. His name is Chuck Feeney and he pioneered the duty-free shops now found in airports around the world. For decades he managed to keep his giving anonymous and he rarely talks to the press about his philanthropy, which he runs through a foundation called The Atlantic Philanthropies. The Foundation recently hit an important milestone – they gave away the last of Feeney’s money.