Mass Migration, Climate Change, Enceladus, Copyright

Guest: Jacob Hickman, PhD, Professor of Anthropology at BYU  Several migrations of entire communities are underway. Hundreds of thousands of people—millions, even—are fleeing war, oppression and poverty in Syria, Iraq and parts of Africa. Years from now, we may note this period as we do today the Hmong Migration that began 40 years ago.   The Hmong are an ethnic group that played a critical role in America’s “Secret War” in Laos. It was an extension of the war in Vietnam. Hmong inhabited the hilly, strategically-important areas along the border between the two countries. Many were recruited by the CIA to fight against the Communist Pathet Lao army. When Laos fell to the Communists and the US pulled out of it and Vietnam, many Hmong were targeted for revenge, there were even extermination orders.

Guest: Kathryn Grace, PhD, Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Utah  Climate scientists on this show have explained the effect they expect a warming atmosphere to have on weather. Here in the states, that means bigger storms and extended dry spells, which are already affecting food and water supplies and our power bills as we crank the AC or heat a little more. In less-developed countries, people are feeling the effects more keenly: researchers including Professor Kathryn Grace at the University of Utah have isolated one negative impact—babies being born with lower-birth weights in Africa.

Guest: Carolyn Porco, PhD, Leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini Mission to Saturn  Saturn is already among the most popular planets for amateur sky watchers, because you can make out its rings even with a pair of binoculars. For a decade now, the unmanned spacecraft Cassini has been sending back much closer shots of Saturn and its 60-plus moons as it orbits Saturn. NASA scientists are particularly intrigued by a moon called Enceladus that has giant icy geysers bursting from its southern pole. The images are really cool—check them out at ciclops.org, where all of the Cassini images are posted.   The big new discovery by the Cassini Mission to Saturn is that those geysers are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Researchers now believe the entire moon is covered liquid—a global ocean.

Guest: Jennifer Hartle, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Stanford Prevention Research Center  Getting kids to eat more fruits and veggies is a centerpiece of efforts to making school lunches healthier. But the push comes with a catch: Often the most inexpensive way to get fruits and vegetables on the tray is taking the canned and pre-packaged route. That’s one of the first things Stanford researcher Jennifer Hartle noticed when she started studying school lunches. Everything comes pre-washed, pre-cut and often portioned in handy little plastic cups that go straight on a child’s tray. That’s when the warning bells went off for her.

Guest: Rod and Donna Gustafson review films at ParentPreviews.com  The popular young reader’s series Goosebumps by RL Stine is now the basis of a motion picture by the same name. Jack Black plays RL Stine, a recluse with a library full of secrets.  Another film out over the weekend is a Cold War spy thriller from Steven Spielberg featuring Tom Hanks as a civilian lawyer with the future of the nation in his hands.

Guest: Peter Midgley, Director of the BYU Copyright Licensing Office  Where does artistic ownership begin and end in this blurry online arena where another’s creativity can be co-opted at the click of a button? These are the questions we’re tackling in our innovation segment today with Peter Midgley, a copyright attorney and director of BYU’s Copyright Licensing Office.