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Today on Word of Mouth, we look at what steps need to be taken immediately to reduce carbon output, and in doing so, we make some enemies in the environmental movement. We also find out how a protein in our brains helps us trust strangers. We sample the newest culinary trend, Asian-Italian fusion, and wash it down with a glass of Southern sweet tea, with a profile of Georgia musician Jim White.

(Photo by Jeroen Bennink)

The lines between regional food and international cuisine have gotten very blurry over the centuries. As people migrate, they carry their traditions with them. Things get tossed together in the melting pot and the frying pan, and we end up with new forms of cuisine created through the marriage of different cultures. Of course, when chefs purposely set-out to bend the rules and combine flavors from different parts of the world, it’s called “fusion”. One new trend along those lines is beginning to intrigue foodies in cities all over the world – it’s the fusion of Japanese and Italian cuisines. Writer Jean Railla has noticed these restaurants popping up in New York, where she lives, and she joins us on Word of Mouth to give us a taste.

(Photo by Boris Anthony)

You're crossing the street at a traffic light, and there’s a car approaching. They have a red light. Do you freeze in fear? Do you run to the other side? No, you take your time and cross. You trust that the driver will obey the rules of the road, even though you don’t know them.

Trust isn’t just a social or emotional response, there’s a physiological connection as well. Researchers have discovered that the hormone and neurochemical oxytocin plays a role in allowing strangers to trust each other.

The research is described in the June issue of Scientific American, and the magazine's editor-in-chief, John Rennie, joined Word of Mouth to share the brain science behind trust.

Read more about researcher Paul Zak and the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies.

(Photo by Colin Ashe)

Here’s a quiz. What is the most important thing you can do to stop global warming? Is it eating organic? Turning down the A/C? Driving a hybrid car?

According to the June issue of WIRED Magazine, none of those things are as important as cutting carbon. Instead we should embrace nuclear power, clear-cut the old-growth forests, forget organic food, and ditch the hybrid car, all in an effort to slow down global warming by any mean necessary.

As part of our series "The Next Green Thing," WIRED contributing editor Spencer Reiss joined Word of Mouth to kill some of environmentalism's sacred cows with the "ten inconvenient truths" of climate change.

(Photo by James Phelps)