Reservation Voting, Cost of War, Patent Gap

Native Americans Face Huge Obstacles to Cast a Ballot (0:33) Oliver “OJ” Semans, co-executive director, Four Directions More Americans will likely vote by mail this election than ever before due to the pandemic. That’s more convenient for a lot of us, but what if mail carriers don’t deliver to your house? What if you’re a hundred miles from the nearest post office to drop off your ballot? That’s the reality for many Native Americans living on reservations. And in some places, like Arizona, tribal members are numerous enough to swing a close election. How Mary Shelley Brought Science Fiction to Life (19:53) Lisa Yaszek, Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies, Georgia Tech Frankenstein is one of the most enduring Halloween monsters – though technically Frankenstein was the name of the doctor who created the monster.  It’s not just the monster of Frankenstein that endures in our culture. The story itself – published by Mary Shelley more than 200 years ago when she was just a teenager – is considered the first science fiction novel. Adding Displaced Persons to the Tally of “Costs” Associated with America’s Ongoing War on Terror (32:35) David Vine, Professor of Political Anthropology, American University, author of “The United States of War” America has been fighting the “War on Terror” for going on 20 years now with a price tag of six and a half trillion dollars. That’s just the financial cost. There’s the loss of life, too - some 7,000 US troops dead and 8,000 military contractors. More than 330,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other countries where the War on Terror has stretched.  The independent Costs of War project at Brown University has now added another data point to the mix – some 37 million people have fled their homes because of US fighting in the War on Terror.  The Apple Seed (51:20) Sam Payne, Host Sam discusses scary stories that are really not scary and seemingly always end in a laugh. Inexpensive Treatment of Widespread Parasitic Infecti