US vs. Europe, Subconscious Bias, Gun Laws

Guest: Wade Jacoby, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU Just where we stand with regard to our European allies is a bit unclear at the moment – at least diplomatically speaking. President Donald Trump rankled British leaders with Tweets critical of London’s mayor after the weekend’s terror attack. And last week, he went against all of Europe, and the rest of the world, by pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Accord. Are transatlantic relations at a record low?

Guest: Steven Pressman, PhD, Professor of Economics, Colorado State University President Trump made it clear in the last week he wants to do what’s right for Pittsburgh, not Paris. But if he really wants to “Make America Great Again,” he’ll need to bolster America’s middle class. And to do that, our next guest says the President actually should look to Paris, because France’s middle class is doing better than ours.

Guest: Andrea Curcio, Professor of Law, Georgia State University Children who can reason, argue, and debate from a young age are often told “you should be a lawyer.” Lawyers have the reputation for being tough critical thinkers--logical and dispassionate. And law students often believe that their training makes them immune to bias. But Andrea Curcio, a professor of law, frequently shocks her students by revealing to them their own bias and prejudice as part of their training.

Guest: Sarah Langsdale, PhD, Lecturer of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Texas Mixed in with all the excited anticipation for the new Wonder Woman movie was a fair amount of reservation among female comic-lovers, worried that Hollywood was going to ruin it by making Wonder Woman yet another one-dimensional take on female power rooted solely in sexuality or vengeance.  Well, those fans seem to have breathed a collective sigh of relief over the weekend because this Wonder Woman is strong, brave and sexy, yes, but also sincere and even vulnerable.

Guest: Michael Siegel, MD, Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston University How and where you can buy or carry a firearm depends entirely on where you live. Since relatively few gun laws have been passed by Congress, it’s up to individual states to decide if, for example, you need a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Or if someone convicted of domestic violence can have a gun. Would it surprise you to learn that the number of gun laws on the books in each state varies dramatically? California has 104 gun laws. Alaska has just 4.  A comprehensive new database of state gun laws offers a way to track the effects of restricting access to firearms. You can see the database here.

Guest: Ross Curtis, PhD, Manager of Computational Genomics, AncestryDNA People have been using DNA tests through the genealogy company, Ancestry, to find out where they’re from. The tests are conducted using test tubes of saliva sent in by people all over the country who are curious about their ancestry. After collecting so many, the company has decided to do something productive with all the left over DNA samples. They used the samples to map out how groups of people with common heritage have migrated around North America over the years. You can see the map here.