Part 1: The Science of Changing Your Mind/Sex and Religion
Ever wonder whether hard facts play a part in changing a person's mind? Turns out, not so much. Boing Boing's Maggie Koerth-Baker wrote aboutthe real influences on choice for The New York Times Magazine.
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Nigel Barber is an evolutionary psychologist and author of The Human Beastblog on Psychology Today, where he put together the results of several studies to address this provocative question. A warning to concerned parents and sensitive listeners that we will be discussing the existence of sex, pornography, and in this segment.
And what would a Pastor think about the article? Frank Weller, a Pastor from Michigan writes the blog Frankly Speaking and weighs in, here.
Part 2: Are Re-Runs Good for You? Are Re-Runs Good for You?
With the glut of content available on Netflix, cable, and even YouTube, summertime TV longer has the monopoly on re-runs. Well, a new study reveals that watching reruns doesn’t only kill time. It may actually be good for you. Tom Jacobs is a science writer with Pacific Standard.
Plus...we did a little man-on-the-street survey about re-runs, asking regular folks, "What show or movie can you watch over and over again?"
Part 3: Privacy/Connected Cars
Greta Garbo is best known throughout her storied career for her plea from the 1932 film Grand Hotel. She later left the spotlight and chose to live the rest of her life privately and anonymously – an exit considered freakish by the public and a press which shadowed her the rest of her life. Today, we know far more about everyday citizens who’s allure falls far short of Garbo’s. Hundreds of millions share photos, videos, opinions, and other details of their intimate lives online…meanwhile, our personal spending habits, web searches, communications and possibly even DNA can be monitored, analyzed and sold without our knowledge. In the book Privacy, the latest entry in Picador’s big ideas/small books, series, writer Garret Keizer goes beyond the technological and legalistic conversations about privacy to consider the moral, social and economic dimensions of privacy.
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Automotive safety is generally focused on the driver and the vehicle, rather than unknown dangers of the road … features like anti-lock brakes, airbags, back-up cameras and crumple zones increase buyer confidence and sticker price.
This month, field trials in Germany and the US are testing whether accidents and injuries could be prevented by focusing outside individual vehicles…cars are silently communicating with each other and with the world around them to avoid accidents and traffic jams. Doug Newcomb writes and speaks about car technology– his article in Wired’s Autopia blog details the large-scale tests of a kind of automotive social network.
Check out this video from inside of a networked car.
Part 4: Castle in the Clouds
In the words of Henry David Thoreau: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. now put the foundations under them.” Thoreau wasn’t writing about constructing actual castles, but realizing one’s dreams. Sean Hurleyfound a North Country man who’s castle in the air is actually a castle…and he’s building it. Sean takes us on this radio field trip to the kingdom of Thornton.
Check out a gallery of photos Sean took here.
