Divided Congress, Goat Yoga, Lab-Grown Meat

Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Political Science Professor, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, History Professor, BYU There are still some Congressional races where the count is so close the outcome isn’t yet certain, but we do know that Washington will be divided. What can we expect in the next two years?

Guest: Mark D. Faries, PhD, Associate Professor and State Extension Health Specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service We love a good health shortcut. The one exercise that’ll blast your belly fat. The one food that’ll help you lose weight.  The one vitamin that will keep ward off the flu. And nine times out of ten, they’re myths.

Guest: Benson Richardson, Co-Owner of Goga LLC; A Utah-Based Goat Yoga Program  For thousands of years, yoga has been used as a peaceful meditative practice. But there’s a new twist on yoga that is gaining popularity coast to coast in the US and is now spreading to Europe. What do you get when you add pygmy goats to a yoga class? It’s called “Goga.”

(Originally aired October 22, 2018) Guest: Jessica L. Barrington-Trimis, Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California The FDA announced this week that they would be taking action against flavored cigars as part of a push towards reducing underage vaping and smoking. The same day, Juul Labs, a company that controls 70% of the market for e-cigarettes, announced that it would discontinue most of its flavored e-cigarette pods.

(Originally aired August 13, 2018) Guest: Ali Bouzari, Food Scientist, Author of “Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food,” and Co-founder of Pilot R&D Meat grown in a test-tube is currently possible, in small amounts. But a bunch of companies say they’re on the verge of being able to sell you a whole filet of fish, nugget of chicken or slice of foie gras made in the laboratory. PETA – the animal rights group - supports the idea because it doesn’t require force-feeding or slaughtering animals. The beef, pork and poultry industries would prefer these mad scientists not call their stuff meat, at all.

Guest: Tricia Bacon, PhD, Assistant Professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs Shortly after Barack Obama took office in 2009, he made killing or capture of Osama Bin Laden the top priority of America’s war against Al Qaeda. In 2011, they got him. But cutting off the head did not kill the proverbial snake in this case. In fact, killing Bin Laden may have hastened the rise of ISIS, whose tactics have been as more brutal as Al Qaeda's.