Supreme Court, Nicotine Regulation, Understand Autism

Guest: John Fee, JD, Professor of Constitutional Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University The new term underway this week--with a full slate of 9 justices--is expected to bring some landmark rulings touching on religious freedom and discrimination, elections and organized labor.

Guest: Gordon Lindsay, Professor of Health Science, Brigham Young University For the first time in its history, the Food and Drug Administration plans to limit how much nicotine is in cigarettes. The goal is to get the level so low that cigarettes will no longer be addictive. But the FDA does not plan to limit nicotine in e-cigarettes. Gordon Lindsay explains what’s behind the policy shift.

Guest: Natasha Chong Cole, Doctoral Student, Division of Nutritional Science, University of Illinois If you’re a parent, you’ve probably tried lots of tricks to get your kids to eat vegetables: blending spinach in a shake, bribing kids to finish their peas, threatening no dessert unless all the green stuff is gone. Are picky eaters made – or are they born?  Some of both, probably. University of Illinois researchers have identified some possibilities for picky-eater genes in children.

Guest: Jon Ostenson, PhD, Assistant Professor of English Education, Brigham Young University The Hunger Games trilogy drew teens and adults alike into Katniss Everdeen’s dystopian world. Similar novels continue to captivate audiences: next week the latest installment in Paolo Bacigalupi’s young-adult Ship Breaker series will be out, and we've just had The Handmaid’s Tale brought to tv by Hulu. What’s the fascination with society gone wrong?  Professor Jon Ostenson has some ideas, and they’re not as bleak as you might think.

Guest: Tony Attwood, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia Even though the number of diagnosed cases of autism is growing, it is still widely misunderstood, especially by children unsure how to react to a classmate who behaves in ways they find mysterious. A whimsical, four-minute animation online has gained international acclaim for its accessible approach to explaining autism. It’s called Amazing Things Happen and Tony Attwood consulted on it as an expert on autism spectrum disorders.   See the video here.

Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of BYUradio’s Worlds Awaiting A lot of people think that new technological forms of writing are corrupting language—that texting is turning us into terrible spellers and twitter is changing grammar. But these forms can also be used to enhance writing skills and help children engage with writing in all forms.