Shutdown Record, Echolocation for the Blind, Fluoride Water

Guest: James Curry, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah Now in its fourth week, this is the longest federal government shutdown in US history. How long could this shutdown go on?

Guest: Michael Stein, Professor of Health Law, Policy, & Management, Boston University Every year over 200,000 Americans die from preventable medical errors, many of them in operating rooms. Some patent advocates are now pushing to put surveillance technologies into operating rooms to enhance transparency and accountability – much like the “black boxes” used in airplanes to review the moments before tragedy strikes.

Guest: Wajid Ahmed, Acting Medical Officer for Health, Windsor-Essex County Two-thirds of Americans get fluoride in their drinking water. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls fluoridated water one of the top public health achievements of the 20thcentury, because of all the cavities it’s prevented in kids’ teeth. But fluoridated water has also always been controversial: Every year community outcry leads dozens of cities to debate removing it from their water. Some do. The Canadian city of Windsor, which is right across the river from Detroit, has just taken the unusual step of deciding to put fluoride back in the water after removing it five years ago. Why did Windsor make the switch back?

Guest: Jeremy Snyder, Professor of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada If you’ve looked at your Facebook feed lately, you’ve probably seen someone asking for help paying for medical treatment. Maybe they were in an accident, or maybe they’re hoping to get an experimental cancer treatment their insurance won’t cover. People donate hundreds of millions of dollars each year to medical causes on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. And despite the warm fuzzies of it all, there are some ethical concerns you may not have considered.

Guest: Daniel Kish Daniel Kish is blind, but he’s has developed a highly specialized sense of hearing that allows him to echolocate, like a dolphin or a bat –clicking his tongue and using echoes to visualize the world around him. For years Kish has been a popular public speaker, sharing his gift with the world and encouraging others. Since we last spoke with him three years, Kish participated in a study at Durham University in England that seems to validate his technique. So we figured it was time for an update.

Guest: Diane Levin, Professor of Applied Human Development at Boston University Did you see this video on Twitter of a kid asking Alexa for help with his math? It’s been viewed more than eight million times! His mom caught it all on video. Back in the day, using a calculator was considered cheating. Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant make it so kids today don’t even have to know how to work a calculator. What’s this doing to our the critical thinking skills of children?