Political Protests, Human-Induced Earthquakes, Timeouts

Lessons in Protest from Lunch Counters to Airports Guest: David Meyer, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Political Science, University of California, Irvine Did the airport protests of President Trump’s travel and refugee order have any influence on a federal judge’s decision to put the ban on hold? We’re still awaiting a ruling from the appellate court on that stay, but it’s rarely easy to draw a straight line between protests and changes that came as a result of them. Typically, the dots are better connected in hindsight.  So let’s draw some lessons from a historic protest that was just getting started 57 years ago at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Check out David Meyer's blog here. The Rise of Human-induced Earthquakes Guest: Gillian Foulger, PhD, Professor of Geophysics, Durham University in England Societies have traditionally considered earthquakes to be natural disasters – an act of God, even. But new analysis of seismic events around the world during the last century finds humans are increasingly to blame for earthquakes that have caused hundreds of deaths. Specifically, industrial activities like mining and drilling are causing stronger and more destructive quakes. The study was commissioned by an oil and gas company in the Netherlands. Gillian Foulger is a Professor of Geophysics at Durham University in England and one of the study’s lead authors. She joins me now by phone from the UK.  See the full database of human-induced earthquakes here. Celebrity Influence on Medical Decisions Guest: Sunita Desai, PhD, researcher in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School There’s a reason companies hire beautiful celebrities to sell us everything from watches to weight loss programs: it works. We want to be like the beautiful and famous so we buy the stuff. And when it’s mascara or shampoo it’s probably not that big of a deal - no harm done. But what happens when a famous person goes public about a medical test, procedure or treatment they’ve had? Are pe