For Chinese students, getting into an American college is a sign of prestige - but that prestige has incentivized fraudulent essays, faked sat scores, and even cheating during Skype interviews. On today’s show, the global arms race for admissions.
Then, most beauty pageants test the mettle of contestants in categories like the evening gown and swimsuit competition, the Mrs. America pageant has a history of judging contestants a bit differently.
Listen to the full show:
Cheating Their Way into College
Jessica Meyers is China correspondent with the Boston Globe, she and her Globe colleague, Laura Krantz reported on the often flagrant strategies of students paying to cheat their way in to U.S. schools.
“Fight to Find Cheats Takes Schools Around the World”
Finding Methane Leaks As They Happen
Methane emissions happen all over the world, some leaks are vented and burned off with gas flares. Often, the colorless, odorless gas vents directly into the atmosphere, undetected and unreported, until now. Christina Nunez writes in National Geographic about a new satellite imaging tool that can locate the biggest leaks and worst offenders.
“The World is Hemorrhaging Methane, and Now We Can See Where”
Killer Fashion
There are inherent difficulties of detecting a leak of a colorless, odorless gas like methane, and now, the difficulties in controlling a type of pollution that is all around us. This story comes to us from Open Orchards Production and youth reporter Katia Hauder.
You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.
There She is...Mrs. America
Most beauty pageants test the mettle of contestants in categories like the evening gown and swimsuit competition, the Mrs. America pageant has a history of judging contestants a bit differently.
Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite , writer, editor and Jezebel contributor – which is where we found her article “The Long, Strange Life of the Mrs. America Pageant”
The Uncommon Core - How To Win a Beauty Pageant
The Uncommon Core is a series that examines unusual college courses being taught in schools across the United States. In this episode, a professor explains how our beauty pageants can tell us a lot about who we are as a culture.
Read more and listen to all the stories in the Uncommon Core Series: The Uncommon Core
The Myth of the Female Fertility Cliff
"Having Kids in Early 20s Brings No Health Benefits" "NHS Chief Warns Women Not to Wait Until 30 to Have Baby" "Why It's Harder For Older Women to Have Kids" The headlines are often full of advice for women about when they should have children. But is there a right answer? Marnie Chesterton brings us this story.
You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.