The Measure of Everyday Life

How to be a good parent has been a topic of conversation for decades but raising children now includes online influences as well. How is the Internet shaping how we think about parenting? On this episode, we talk with Ranjana Das of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. She is author of Parents Talking Algorithms: Navigating Datafication and Family Life in Digital Societies.

Even as people use online technologies in their everyday lives, they sometimes worry about potential pitfalls, including concerns about trusting other people. On this episode, we talk with two innovators who are seeking to improve public health by improving transparency in sexual relationships through a new platform called PlumCheck: Celine Gounder of the Kaiser Family Foundation and CBS News, and Josh Karetny, CEO of the new platform.

As we seek to know ourselves, who should help us with that exploration? Many different perspectives on empirical research,  philosophy, and contemplation can be helpful as we try to understand our minds and ourselves. On this episode, we talk with Vladimir Miskovic, co-author of DREAMING REALITY: How Neuroscience and Mysticism Can Unlock the Secrets of Consciousness with Steven Jay Lynn.

Local public health workers help communities all over the country. Who helps them do their work? On this episode, we talk with two people who have spent time supporting public health in Western North Carolina with compelling new innovations to improve communication about local health: Adrienne Ammerman, founder of Arclet, and Brandon Romstadt of the WNC Health Network. 

How should we support people facing mental health challenges? The Ad Council -- the same organization which introduced us to Smokey Bear over 80 years ago -- has some answers with their latest evidence-based campaign: Love, Your Mind. On this episode, we talk with Catherine Chao, Vice President of Strategy and Evaluation at the Ad Council. 

Artificial intelligence tools have been in the headlines and yet we are still learning who opts to use such tools and why. On this episode, we talk with David Playfoot of Swansea University in the United Kingdom about his work on student use of AI tools.

As online content evolves, you might assume teenagers are flourishing on the Internet while older Americans shake their head in confusion, but the reality might surprise you. On this episode, we talk with Amanda Lenhart of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop about adolescents and how they think about our lives online.

The growth of online courses has been an important part of the story of education in the United States in the past decade, but we need more evidence of the ways our shift online may affect our sense of connection with others. On this episode, we talk with Daniela Castellanos-Reyes of North Carolina State University about her work to understand student connections online. 

On this episode, Marieta Pehlivanova of the University of Virginia returns to the show to discuss her neurological perception research, including the adult experiences of people who as children reported memories of what some people refer to as a past life.

Helping children make friends with a wide range of people can benefit us all. On this episode, we talk with Melanie Killen of the University of Maryland, a psychology professor who has studied ways to reduce social exclusion and improve connections between people. 

What do Americans eat? What do we know about their overall health? Answering questions like those requires measurement on a national scale. For decades, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has continuously fielded its National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. On this episode, we talk with Tony Nguyen, Chief Medical Officer for the project.

Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution sets an age limit for people running for various offices but we do not have an upper age limit. What do Americans think about aging and civic life? On this episode, we talk with Yewande Addie of RTI International about her work on storytelling and public understanding. 

Crime rates in the United States are generally lower now than they were a few decades ago and yet researchers and criminal justice professionals continue to search for innovations to reduce rates of criminal offense. One approach which some advocates have proposed addresses mental health concerns. On this episode, we talk with Robert VerBruggen, Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, about the use of cognitive behavioral therapy with incarcerated people.  

On this episode, we lift up the work of three researchers who are making a difference through their efforts to promote suicide prevention among Native American people: Ivette Rodriguez Borja, Rebecca Perry, and Monica Desjardins of RTI International. 

When we read about the devastating effects of weather-related disasters, we often focus on housing and infrastructure. Such situations also might affect our eating patterns. On this episode, we talk with Lindsey Taillie of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health about her work on food marketing, the ways in which climate change might exacerbate unhealthy eating, and what steps we might take next.

When we hear stories about injuries from violence at the hands of other people or in the face of disasters, we often hear about acute physical injuries but there is more to the story in terms of mental health. How can we best support patients who have suffered trauma? On this episode, we talk with Douglas Zatzick of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington.

Although it is easy to scroll through social media applications to see posts from all over the world, it can be challenging to know what is real and what is artificial and to know about the mindset and wellbeing of people posting content. New tools can help us assess what gets posted online and to turn that into useful signals for interventions to help society. On this episode, we talk with Ana-Maria Staicu of the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University about her work.

How exactly does language evolve and how do people shape it? On this episode, we talk with Molly Flaherty of Davidson College. She has studied the birth and evolution of a new language: Nicaraguan Sign Language. 

Why do our news headlines often focus on war and crime and mortgage rates? Do we spend too much time focused on transactional markets and not enough on our unconditional existence as part of humanity? On this episode, we talk with Rob Faure Walker of University College London, author of Love and the Market: How to Recover from the Enlightenment and Survive the Current Crisis.

We have seen recent innovations in our efforts to detect medical conditions in infants through genetic screening, including a program called Early Check based in North Carolina. The service now provides parents in North Carolina including a free scan and review of a baby's entire genetic blueprint to look for hundreds of conditions. On this episode, we talk about the initiative with researcher Heidi Cope of RTI International and pediatrician Elizabeth Jalazo of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Each of us has a sense of our own identity. Sometimes, though, people make judgements about what another person's racial or ethnic identity is. How do people make those appraisals? On this episode, we talk with Raj Ghoshal of Elon University about his nationwide survey research.  

What happens to children who have been adopted from foster care as they become adults? On this episode, we talk with Rose Domanico and Heather Ringeisen of RTI International and Nancy Rolock of Case Western Reserve University about the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being Adoption Follow-Up Study and additional analysis funded by RTI International.

Although the threat of gun violence is common for some Americans, how exactly court officials, law enforcement professionals, and survivors each tend to talk about weapons is not something we often read about in news headlines. On this episode, we talk with two researchers who study how domestic violence survivors and law professionals talk about weapons and conflict: Allyson Corbo of RTI International and Beth Moracco of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

What happens to a person's online data after they die is something we may not spend much time thinking about, and yet there is much potential for that data to echo into the future. On this episode, we talk with Dr. Carl Ohman of Uppsala University in Sweden, author of The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care. 

Generating electrical power is vital for our current way of life and yet the process can have direct effects on human health. On this episode, we talk with Sarah Komisarow of Duke University and Emily Pakhtigian of Penn State University about their innovative research to assess the effects of power plants on human health. 

How can we improve our mental wellbeing by supporting our caregivers and healers? Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has many ideas which have come to her in part from her own remarkable life. Time magazine has called her a "Hero of Medicine." She's also an award-winning author. On this episode, we talk with her about her New Yorker Book of the Year, Fires in the Dark: Healing the Unquiet Mind.

Most people generally understand what friendship is and yet the roles it plays in our wellbeing have yet to be fully explored. On this episode, we talk with psychology researcher William Chopik of Michigan State University about new work on the value of friendship for health and what we can to do encourage better friendship in our lives.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges for many different people, but one of those groups whose story hasn't been sufficiently told yet is teachers. On this episode, we talk with Erin Thomsen and Erin Dunlop Velez of RTI International about their work to tell that story. 

Communities sometimes emerge into the public spotlight at moments of crisis, such as when there is a dangerous train derailment or catastrophic damage to a water system. When we try to help those communities, though, how can we do that in a respectful and useful way that reflects history. On this episode, we talk about doing community-engaged research with Vicki Johnson-Lawrence of RTI International, co-author of a new RTI Press report on trauma-informed approaches to improve public health. 

If you are hoping for a vacation this summer, it might reflect your frustrations with co-workers. Conflict in the workplace can be an important source of stress and can undermine team functioning. On this episode, we talk about how to cope with conflict with Jessica Jameson of North Carolina State University, author of Communication for Constructive Workplace Conflict.

Many of us sometimes scroll through the comments posted in reaction to a news article or social media post. How important is that and why might it matter? On this episode, we talk with Gina Sipley of the State University of New York Nassau Community College and author of a new book called Just Here for the Comments: Lurking as Digital Literacy Practice.

When some people die, no one comes to claim them. The death of people without easily identified social network ties can signal a different sort of loss, a loss for a society which comprises alienation and disconnection. On this episode, we talk with researchers Pamela Prickett of the University of Amsterdam and Stefan Timmermans of UCLA about their new book, The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels. 

What people now see presented on online platforms often reflects personal information about them, a situation which has raised alarms for some commentators. Might your personality affect whether you worry about data privacy protection and consequences for society? On this episode, we talk with Lisa Farman of Ithaca College about her work on this topic.

Traumatic loss, such as the death of a person close to you, can affect your everyday wellbeing in many ways. On this episode, we talk with researchers who have explored ways people can cope with such loss: Alexandra Early of RTI International and Caitlin Reynolds and Shevaun Neupert of North Carolina State University.

Parents often talk with family and friends about the roles of media in their children's lives, for better or worse. What can academic research tell us about what is ok for our kids? On this episode, we talk with Dr. Katie Davis of the University of Washington, author of a new book for MIT Press called Technology's Child: Digital Media's Role in the Ages and Stages of Growing Up.

The idea that we have more and more people on this planet has been prominent in recent decades but some researchers now project a future of declining population in some parts of the world, including the United States, which has implications for our physical infrastructure. On this episode, we talk with engineering researchers Sybil Derrible and Lauryn Spearing of the University of Illinois Chicago about a depopulated future. 

We sometimes hear about fatal use of force by police officers and yet we tend to not talk about the potential long-term effects of those tragedies on community members who were not directly involved. On this episode, we talk with Kevin Strom and Sean Wire of the Center of Justice at RTI International about new research which investigates community and police department response to fatal use of force incidents. 

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged and complicated school administration across the U.S. and around the world, we also are starting to hear stories of resilience. On this episode, we talk with Beth Glennie and Zach Smith of RTI International about their study of school enrollment and online achievement patterns in Hawai'i in the face of the pandemic. 

As recently as 2021, more than 30,000 U.S. citizens earned a PhD and yet the demographics of that group do not reflect the U.S. population overall, particularly in the case of science, engineering, technology, and mathematics. On this episode, we talk with Erin Velez and Ruth Heuer of RTI International and Lorelle Espinosa of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation about a new report documenting the experiences of Black and Hispanic science PhD candidates in the U.S.

At the end of each calendar year in the United States, many people talk about charity and voluntary contributions, much of which involves non-profit organizations. In recent years, U.S. government agencies and funders have asked non-profits for more formal evaluation of their work than ever before. On this episode, Aaron Horvath of Stanford University discusses surprising non-profit behavior to not only meet evaluation obligations but to voluntarily do more to share their stories.

During the week of Thanksgiving in the US, many of us are busy with holiday meal planning and getting together with family. It is also a time when we can thank public health officials for Public Health Thank You Day. On this episode, we talk with Brian Castrucci of the de Beaumont Foundation and Jenny Luray of Research!America about public health in America.

Women made crucial contributions to scientific inquiry for a long time and yet scientific professions has lacked equity in many ways. On this episode, we talk with Lisa M. P. Munoz, author of Women in Science Now: Stories and Strategies for Achieving Equity, about her journey in the sciences and about her efforts to spotlight stories of progress.   

You can find all sorts of content on social media platforms. Some organizations attempt to use social media to keep families safe but how successful has that work been? On this episode, we talk with Jennifer Manganello of the University at Albany and Lara McKenzie of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio about their work to encourage child safety.

Algorithms are essentially sets of instructions for what steps to take in response to input. They are embedded into many aspects of our everyday life and doctors even use algorithms to generate advice for patients. What should we do if we discover certain algorithms are based on flawed data or misleading analysis? On this episode, we talk with Adriana Joseph of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene about a new coalition to improve how we use clinical algorithms.      

Emotional abuse and manipulation can cause harm in interpersonal relationships and for society. On this episode, we focus on the science of healing from interpersonal trauma with professional counselor Dr. Amelia Kelley, author of a new book on trauma recovery.    

People who face challenges from intellectual and developmental disabilities comprise important audiences for many public health communication efforts. What are the best ways to support and work with people in those audiences? On this episode, we talk with communication researchers Molly Lynch, Linda Squiers, and Sidney Holt of RTI International about their work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and CommunicateHealth to improve the ways we engage with people in a range of situations.  

As another school year starts in the United States, we have opportunities to support students who are considering dropping out of school. On this episode, we talk with Marie-Hélène Véronneau of the University of Quebec at Montreal about interpersonal factors which seem to help reduce high school dropout.   

Chances are that you or someone you know has a dog in the house. What do we know about the relationships between people and dogs? On this episode, we talk with authors of The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human-Canine Connection, Jen Goldbeck of the University of Maryland and science writer Stacey Colino.   

Social media may play a role in our collective loneliness but researchers now also are attempting to use social media tools to reduce loneliness. On this episode, we talk with two University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professors, Barbara Frederickson and Allison Lazard, about their new work to improve mental health using new communication tools. 

A new generation of artificial intelligence applications have flooded many workplaces and smartphones. What types of relationships will people have with artificial intelligence technologies? On this episode, we talk about the human dimension of human-computer interaction with Dr. Roshni Raveendhran of the University of Virginia.

Daycare and early childhood education sites are more than vibrant places with children laughing and eating snacks. Such places also offer important opportunities to promote equity and justice. On this episode, we talk with Dr. Iheoma Iruka of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Along with three co-authors, she's written a new book called We Are the Change We Seek: Advancing Racial Justice in Early Care and Education.