Flake’s Game, Vaccines, Mild Activity,Kurds in Northern Syria

Guest: McKay Coppins, Staff Writer, the Atlantic, Author, “The Wilderness” The bruising fight over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh came to an end over the weekend with a confirmation vote of 50 to 48 in the Senate. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake voted for Kavanaugh. A week ago Flake’s support appeared in question, making him a target of intense lobbying from both Republicans and Democrats. Flake was the reason the confirmation stalled for a week to allow additional FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh.

Guest: Michael Kinch, PhD, Associate Vice Chancellor and Director, Washington University’s Center for Research Innovation in Business, Professor, Radiation Oncology This is the season of shots – vaccines and booster shots for school kids, flu shots for all of us. Well, not all of us, because child vaccination rates for major disease like polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria and whooping cough have been declining in the US in recent years.  Why, when these vaccines are widely credited with eliminating devastating diseases in the US, are educated, and often wealthy, parents opting not to get their kids vaccinated?

Guest: Michael Yassa, PhD, Professor, Neurology, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine The science is clear that exercise is good for your body, your brain and your mood. We even know that it can reduce or delay some of the effects of aging. But the standard recommendation that you get at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-intense exercise a week can be daunting for some.

Guest: Gabriel Neal, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Family Medicine, Texas A&M University Apple cider vinegar has been said to help heal all sorts of sicknesses. And it’s supposed to increase health, leading to things like weight loss and lower blood sugar. You'll find people across the globe are drinking a daily shot of apple cider vinegar. Is there any science to back this up?

Guest: Ewelina Ochab, Human Rights Activist, Author, “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” The Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded to two individuals working to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. One is a Congolese gynecologist and the other is 24-year-old Nadia Murad, herself a victim of sexual violence. Murad is a member of the Yazidi religious minority in Northern Iraq which has been targeted by ISIS for extermination. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls remained enslaved by the terrorist group.

Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science, Coordinator, Middle Eastern Studies, BYU There is an ethnic group in Northern Syria and Iraq that is fiercely independent and famously fierce on the battlefield. The Kurds have been a key ally of the US military in fighting ISIS. And in both Iraq and Syria, the Kurds have managed to establish secular democratic governments that the United States and its allies would like to see thrive. But getting too close to the Kurds could drive a serious wedge between America and another of its key Middle Eastern allies – Turkey.