Online Harassment, Cyronics, Heroin Babies, Calvin

Guest: Danielle Citron, JD, Professor of Law, University of Maryland, author of “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace” The internet can be a rough place. You’ve seen the ugliness that comes out in arguments on Facebook or Twitter, or in the comments section of an online news site. For a long time, police, policy makers and everyday people have taken the view that if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the fire. Don’t venture online unless you have a thick skin. Online threats aren’t fun, but they’re just words and well, sticks and stones ...  But in the last couples of years, we’ve seen a growing number of states enacting laws aimed at the ugliest forms of online harassment. And we’ve seen victims coming forward, telling how the violent threats, explicit photos and rampant lies spread about them in online forums have caused serious damage.

Guest: Max More, PhD, President and CEO of Alcor Life Extension Foundation  Captain America, Han Solo, the astronauts in the movies “Interstellar” and “Passengers” are just a handful of characters who’ve been placed into suspended-animation and then brought back to life in science fiction. But there are actually about 300 people currently in a state of cryonic preservation and some 2,000 others who’ve signed up to be frozen as soon as they die. One of the main facilities where this preservation takes place and the bodies are stored is Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Guest: Nicole Villapiano, MD, Pediatrician, Clinical Lecturer, University of Michigan As opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions in America, the rate of so-called “heroin babies” born in both cities and rural areas has increased nearly five-fold. But rural areas, in particular have seen a much larger jump, as documented in a recent issue of JAMA Pediatrics.

Guest: Phil Windley, PhD, Enterprise Architect in the CIO’s office, Brigham Young University, Chairman of the Sovrin Foundation These days it’s tough to buy a new electronic device that’s not WiFi enabled with the promise of cool features if you hook it up to the internet. We’ve talked on this show about the security risks tied to the Internet of Things – what trouble might hackers cause if literally everything from our cars to our crockpots are connected online? But BYU IT expert Phil Windley is concerned about something even more fundamental: a looming threat to our digital freedom and independence.

Guest: Martine Leavitt, author of “Calvin,” winner of a Governor General’s Literary Award in 2016 What if Calvin from the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes wasn’t just a self-absorbed, hyperactive kid with an imaginary pet tiger and was, instead, suffering from schizophrenia.

Guest: Graham Thornicroft, PhD, Professor of Community Psychiatry, Kings College, London Staying on the topic of mental health, in wealthy nations like the US, it’s not unusual for Hollywood stars and prominent individuals to talk openly about struggling with – and seeking treatment for – conditions such as depression.  That is not so much the case in developing countries where only about 1 in 27 people who suffer depression get adequate treatment for it.  The estimate comes from a new study published in” The British Journal of Psychiatry.”