This is Your Brain on Audiobooks

Guest: Mitch Smith, reporter, New York Times In the coming weeks, Jason Van Dyke will learn how long he will spend in prison for shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke is the first Chicago police officer in decades to be found guilty of murder for an on-duty shooting. It’s rare anywhere in the country for a police officer to be charged with a crime involving use of force on duty. It’s even more rare to see that charge result in a conviction.

Guest: Deborah Schwengel, M.D., Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine If you live in a part of the country that experiences winter, as we do here in Utah, you’re at the tail end of lawn duties for the year. People are always happy to stow the lawnmower for several months. But don’t let your guard down this last time or two before winter sets in. Precise estimates vary, but very year thousands of people, mostly men and children, end up in emergency rooms after lawn mower accidents.

Guest: Jeffrey Tessem, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science, Brigham Young University You probably can’t see it and you might not even feel it, but nearly 1 in 3 American adults now suffers from what public health professionals call “metabolic syndrome,” and it’s putting them at increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

Guest: Jessica L. Barrington-Trimis, Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California Tobacco use has been steadily dropping in the US among both adults and teenagers over the last few decades. But use of electronic cigarettes is rising – especially among youth. E-Cigarettes are battery-powered and come in flavors like watermelon and donut cream. While they’re technically illegal to sell to teens, the data suggest many, many teens are using them regularly and often don’t realize they contain nicotine. A new development in the e-cigarette market has public health officials even more worried – so-called “pod mods” deliver up to ten times as much nicotine as regular e-cigarettes and they’re booming among teens.

Guest: Erin Jacobson, Music Industry Attorney in Private Practice, Beverly Hills, California. Two-thirds of US consumers listen through on-demand streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube. Paying only a couple dollars a month for unlimited access to anything you want to listen to seems great for consumers, but musicians have complained for years that they’re getting a raw deal with streaming. This month President Trump signed the Music Modernization Act, which addresses some of loopholes that have led artists to receive less than they are owed when their songs stream.