As the obesity epidemic grows, so does the business of weight-loss - a nearly 60 billion dollar industry devoted to the promise that losing weight improves quality of life, health and self-esteem. But does shedding pounds make you happier? On today’s show, we’ll explore the tenuous relationship between losing weight and improving your mood. Plus, a scholar investigates the history of religious satire from Martin Luther to Monty Python, and explains why comedy, rather than rage, is more likely to affect change.
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Weight Loss Doesn't Always Equal Happiness
Ed Carais a science writer and contributor to Pacific Standard and The Atlantic, where he wrote about the correlations between weight-loss and mood: "Weight Loss Doesn't Always Lead To Happiness."
Drought Friendly Crops
Christopher Cook writes about food and the food industry - his article about drought-friendly desert crops was published in Craftsmanship magazine; "Food Shift."
A Work of Art, For Your Mouth
Cooking and presenting food is a daily part of life - but it's also an art, and a science. In this story, Ari Daniel of “Small Matters” takes us to a restaurant that takes the artistic and scientific aspects of food very seriously.
You can listen to this segment again at PRX.org.
God Mocks
In his new book, God Mocks, author, filmmaker and professor Terry Lindvall chronicles the evolution of religious satire from the old testament to Stephen Colbert and The Onion.
Pantone Color Expert Leatrice Eiseman
How does this sound for a gig? Twice a year, you meet in a European capital with representatives from various nations to choose the “color of the year” -- one for spring and one for fall. The results are published by pantone, the company that standardized color reproduction in the 20th and is now the global authority on color for designers, decorators, and fashion’s faithful hordes. This year, in an unprecedented move for Pantone, they chose two colors for 2016’s color of the year: rose quartz and serenity. At the helm for this decision was Leatrice Eiseman. She’s executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and co-author, of Pantone on Fashion: A Century of Color in Designand we spoke to her last year when the book was first published.
