Preventing Sex Abuse, Next Gen of Antibiotics, Lessons on Activism

Guest: Carla Van Dam, PhD, Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Author of “Identifying Child Molesters: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse by Recognizing the Patterns of the Offenders” and “The Socially Skilled Child Molester: Differentiating the Guilty From the Falsely Accused”

Katie Hurley, LCSW, Psychotherapist and Author, “No More Mean Girls: the Secret to Raising Strong, Confident, and Compassionate Girls” “Mean Girls” opens on the Broadway stage this spring. Based on the coming-of-age movie, it chronicles the skirmishes between the cool girls and the outcasts at a Chicago high school. But child psychologist Katie Hurley has noticed something about mean girls in real life—they’re getting younger. Socially aggressive behavior once typical of high school can be seen on elementary school playgrounds, according to Ms. Hurley. She’s written a guide for parents called “No More Mean Girls.”

Guest: Bryan Davies, PhD, Assistant Professor of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin The rapid growth of bacteria resistant to antibiotics is a global health crisis, according to the World Health Organization. But the race to discover new antibiotics that work is slow-going. A team of biologists at the University of Texas at Austin has found a way to speed up the testing process.

Guest: Nicolas Fabien-Ouellet, Food Systems Graduate Student, University of Vermont All the Canada travel guides say you have to eat poutine when you visit. And they’re totally right. I mean, it’s a bowl of crispy fries, topped with gooey cheese curd and hot gravy. It’s pretty straight forward and so tasty. But lately, poutine has become a sore point for some in Quebec, which is the French region of Canada where the dish originated. See, chefs across Canada have embraced poutine as a gourmet treat and now claim it as their own, ignoring the fact that for decades poutine was looked down on as a symbol of Quebec’s lack of sophistication.

Guest: Michael Sfard, Human Rights Lawyer, Author of “The Wall and the Gate” In the year since President Trump took office, human rights lawyers have turned to the courts to challenge his executive orders restricting travel and refugee arrivals and ending protection for young immigrants known as Dreamers. This is how it works in democracies: the courts are a place where people can seek relief from oppression or discrimination. Sometimes, they win. Often, they don’t. Sometimes the lawsuits end up doing more harm than good.