Podcasts about demographic research

Humanity is hitting the upper limit of life expectancy, according to a new study. Advances in medical technology and genetic research—not to mention larger numbers of people making it to age 100—are not translating into marked jumps in lifespan overall, according to researchers who found shrinking longevity increases in countries with the longest-living populations. “We have to recognize there's a limit” and perhaps reassess assumptions about when people should retire and how much money they'll need to live out their lives, said S. Jay Olshansky, a University of Illinois-Chicago researcher who was lead author of the study published by the journal Nature Aging. “We are reaching a plateau” in life expectancy, he agreed. It's always possible some breakthrough could push survival to greater heights, “but we don't have that now,” said Mark Hayward, a University of Texas researcher. Life expectancy is one of the world's most important health measures, but it is also imperfect: It is a snapshot estimate that cannot account for deadly pandemics, miracle cures, or other unforeseen developments that might kill or save millions of people. In the new research, Olshansky and his research partners tracked life expectancy estimates for the years 1990 to 2019, drawn from a database administered by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. The researchers focused on eight of the places in the world where people live the longest—Australia, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Switzerland. The study suggests that there's a limit to how long most people live, and we've about hit it, Olshansky said. “We're squeezing less and less life out of these life-extending technologies. And the reason is, aging gets in the way,” he said. It may seem common to hear of a person living to 100. In 2019, a little over 2% of Americans made it to 100, compared with about 5% in Japan and 9% in Hong Kong, Olshansky said. It's likely that the ranks of centenarians will grow in the decades ahead, experts say, but that's because of population growth. The percentage of people hitting 100 will remain limited, likely with fewer than 15% of women and 5% of men making it that long in most countries, Olshansky said. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

A new study says humanity is hitting the upper limit of life expectancy. 一项新的研究表明，人类正在达到预期寿命的上限。 Developments in medical technology and genetic research are not leading to major increases in lifespan overall, the researchers said. 研究人员表示，医疗技术和基因研究的发展并没有导致整体寿命的大幅延长。 The study was published recently in Nature Aging. 该研究最近发表在《自然衰老》杂志上。 “We have to recognize there's a limit” and possibly change ideas about when people should retire and how much money they will need to live out their lives, said S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois-Chicago. Olshansky was the lead writer of the study. 伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校的 S. Jay Olshansky 表示，“我们必须认识到这是有限制的”，并可能改变人们关于何时退休以及需要多少钱来度过余生的想法。奥尔尚斯基是这项研究的主要作者。 Mark Hayward of the University of Texas was not involved in the study. However, he called it “a valuable addition to the mortality literature.” 德克萨斯大学的马克·海沃德没有参与这项研究。然而，他称其为“对死亡率文献的宝贵补充”。 “We are reaching a plateau” in life expectancy, he said. 他说，预期寿命“我们正在达到一个平台期”。 It is always possible that some new development could push survival to greater lengths, “but we don't have that now,” Hayward said. 海沃德说，一些新的发展总是有可能将生存推向更大的长度，“但我们现在还没有这样的能力”。Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a particular year might expect to live. The measurement assumes death rates at the time of birth do not change. 预期寿命是对特定年份出生的婴儿预期寿命的平均年数的估计。该测量假设出生时的死亡率没有变化。 Life expectancy is one of the world's most important health measures. Still the life expectancy measurement has problems. For example, life expectancy is an estimate that cannot include new developments or changes that might affect the length of people's lives. 预期寿命是世界上最重要的健康指标之一。预期寿命的测量仍然存在问题。例如，预期寿命是一种估计值，不能包括可能影响人们寿命长度的新发展或变化。 These unknown developments could include pandemics or new treatments for diseases. 这些未知的发展可能包括流行病或疾病的新疗法。 In the recent study, Olshansky and other researchers followed life expectancy estimates for the years 1990 to 2019. They took information from a database administered by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. 在最近的研究中，奥尔尚斯基和其他研究人员跟踪了 1990 年至 2019 年的预期寿命估计。他们从马克斯·普朗克人口研究所管理的数据库中获取信息。 The researchers paid special attention to eight of the places in the world where people live the longest: Australia, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland.研究人员特别关注了世界上人们寿命最长的八个地方：澳大利亚、法国、香港、意大利、日本、韩国、西班牙和瑞士。 The United States does not rank in the top 40, but it was included in the study because the researchers live in the U.S. Also, some experts have made estimates that life expectancy in the U.S. would increase greatly in the 2000s, Olshansky said. 奥尔尚斯基表示，美国并未进入前40名，但由于研究人员居住在美国，因此被纳入研究范围。此外，一些专家估计，美国的预期寿命将在2000年代大幅增加。Women continue to live longer than men. Female life expectancy improvements are still happening — but at a slower rate, the researchers found. In 1990, the average amount of improvement was about 2.5 years every 10 years. In the 2010s, it was 1.5 years — but almost zero in the United States. 女性的寿命仍然比男性长。研究人员发现，女性预期寿命仍在延长，但速度较慢。1990年，平均每10年改善2.5年左右。2010 年代，这个数字是 1.5 年——但在美国几乎为零。 Life expectancy measurements in the U.S. are more difficult. The country is affected by a number of causes of early death. Examples include drug overdoses, shootings, weight problems and uneven health care services. 美国的预期寿命测量更加困难。该国受到多种早逝原因的影响。例子包括药物过量、枪击、体重问题和医疗保健服务不均衡。But in one calculation, the researchers estimated what would happen in all nine places if all deaths before age 50 were prevented. The increase at best was still only 1.5 years, Olshansky said. 但在一项计算中，研究人员估计了如果 50 岁之前的所有死亡都被避免的话，所有九个地方将会发生什么。奥尔尚斯基说，最好的情况是增加了 1.5 年。 The study suggests that there is a limit to how long most people live, and we have almost hit it, Olshansky said. 奥尔尚斯基说，这项研究表明，大多数人的寿命是有极限的，而我们几乎已经达到了极限。 “We're squeezing less and less life out of these life-extending technologies. And the reason is, aging gets in the way,” he said. “我们从这些延长生命的技术中榨取的生命越来越少。原因是，衰老会成为障碍，”他说。 It may seem common to hear of a person living to 100. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, for example, recently celebrated his 100th birthday. 听说有人活到 100 岁似乎很常见。例如，美国前总统吉米·卡特 (Jimmy Carter) 最近庆祝了他的 100 岁生日。 In 2019, a little over two percent of Americans made it to 100, compared to about five percent in Japan and nine percent in Hong Kong, Olshansky said. 奥尔尚斯基说，2019 年，略高于 2% 的美国人达到了 100 岁，而日本和香港的这一比例约为 5% 和 9%。 It is likely that the number of people who reach 100 will grow in the years ahead, experts say, but that is because of population growth. The percentage of people hitting 100 will remain limited, likely with fewer than 15 percent of women and 5 percent of men making it that long in most countries, Olshansky said. 专家表示，未来几年，活到 100 岁的人数可能会增加，但这是因为人口增长。奥尔尚斯基表示，活到 100 岁的人口比例仍然有限，在大多数国家，能活到 100 岁的女性和男性可能只有不到 15% 和 5%。

Hosts: Greg Skordas and Taylor Morgan Recent analysis of Utah’s demographics examines several changes: the amount of Californians moving into the state as well as the growing ethnic and racial minority communities. Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute breaks the reports down for the KSL at Night hosts. Then we discuss what those trends could mean for the political landscape in the Beehive State.

Hosts: Greg Skordas and Taylor Morgan Utah Supreme Court rejects Colby Jenkins’ petition in CD-2The Utah Supreme Court has rejected former GOP candidate Colby Jenkins’ petition in the primary race for the 2nd Congressional District. Jenkins had asked the Court to force the state to count late postmarked ballots; the Court said no. KSL Legal Analyst Greg Skordas breaks the case and ruling down for our listeners, while KSL at Night host Taylor Morgan talks about the future legislative action that could come as a result of this lawsuit. Utah Supreme Court rejects Phil Lyman’s petition in gubernatorial primary raceShortly after rejecting Jenkins’ petition, the State Supreme Court also rejected GOP candidate Phil Lyman’s request regarding the gubernatorial primary race. Lyman had asked for a few things, including the removal of Governor Spencer Cox and Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson from office. Once again, the Court dismissed Lyman’s request. We talk about the meaning of the ruling and its future implications. Democrats surprised at Harris’ pledge to eliminate taxes on tipsDemocratic presidential-hopeful Kamala Harris’s recent pledge to eliminate taxes on tips has taken many Democrat insiders by surprise. Many who said it was a silly idea when Donald Trump proposed it were taken aback by a similar proposal from the other side. We talk about this development and offer some other polling updates in the presidential race. How a new bond could improve mental health services in jailA $507 million bond proposal for public safety is heading to the ballot in Salt Lake County in November. One of the motivations for this bond is to improve and expand mental health resources for those dealing with homelessness and criminal activity. Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera says that the county jails are the largest mental health providers in the state. She joins KSL at Night to talk more about the things she sees in her department. Inflation cools in July; what does that mean for consumers?New numbers released this morning show that inflation cooled off in July, with consumer prices rising only 2.9% last month. It’s the lowest inflation reading since March 2021. What does that actually mean for consumers, however? We hear from a senior economist who explains the numbers for our listeners. Utah’s changing population and its effects on the political landscapeRecent analysis of Utah’s demographics examines several changes: the amount of Californians moving into the state as well as the growing ethnic and racial minority communities. Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute breaks the reports down for the KSL at Night hosts. Then we discuss what those trends could mean for the political landscape in the Beehive State. Odd lawsuit involving allergies and Disney+Following the death of his wife due to an allergic reaction at Disney World, a man filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Disney. However, the entertainment company says the man can’t sue them, due to terms of use he agreed to when he signed up for a free trial of the Disney+ streaming service in 2019. We finish the show taking a look at this rather outlandish situation involving allergies and a streaming service.

Hosts: Taylor Morgan and Leah Murray A new report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute dives into the details of Utah’s aging population and how that’s affecting their retirement options. Co-author of the report, and Director of Demographic Research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute Mallory Bateman joins Taylor and Leah to talk about this report and the policy implications for Utah. How does our state compare to others across the nation? What does this have to do with life expectancy? Tune in to learn more!

Hosts: Taylor Morgan and Leah Murray  Cohen’s Testimony at Trump Trial  KSL at Night Hosts Leah Murray and Taylor Morgan start off the show talking about Day 16 of former President Donald Trump’s trial in New York. This trial could be wrapped as soon as the end of the week and KSL Legal Analyst Greg Skordas joins the hosts to discuss the credibility of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and bombshell witness for the prosecution.   More public officials under investigation  We often hear about accusations and scandals around public officials whom we rely on to uphold higher levels of ethical behavior. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have avoided the controversy. The KSL at Night hosts discuss how the House Ethics Committee is probing into allegations that Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) may have misused campaign funds for personal purposes.   Utah’s population is getting older  A new report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute dives into the details of Utah’s aging population and how that’s affecting their retirement options. Co-author of the report, and Director of Demographic Research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute Mallory Bateman joins Taylor and Leah to talk about this report and the policy implications for Utah. How does our state compare to others across the nation? What does this have to do with life expectancy? Tune in to learn more!  Lower rates of turnout among Utah’s young people in the 2022 midterm elections  Utah is the youngest state in the nation by median age, but a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows young voters in Utah didn’t turn out to vote in the 2022 midterm elections. The report found that Utah has the largest share of adults (25.5%) between the ages of 18 and 29. But in the 2022 midterms here in Utah, young adults between 18 and 29 accounted for just 12% of the voters, meaning young voters in the state were underrepresented by 13.9% – the biggest gap in the nation. Why is that? What obstacles do young people have to get to the ballot boxes? The KSL at Night hosts discuss these questions and more.  Conservative minorities in Utah  A new KSL.com story examines how ethnic and racial minorities are becoming more conservative here in Utah. KSL.com Reporter Tim Vandenack explains which historic trends candidates are bucking and why. Do conservative minorities need a safe space? Listen to hear the KSL at Night hosts get to the bottom of this issue.  Hot races in the House   In this segment, KSL at Night hosts Leah Murray and Taylor Morgan go over some of the hottest congressional races this election cycle, both in Utah and around the country. These races are impactful and could result in either house flipping control. Whether they’re the convention winner, endorsed by an elected official, have an immaculate track record, or all of the above, our hosts break down what matters most and why.  Hot races in the Senate  This segment, hosts dive into the race to fill departing U.S. Senator from Utah, Mitt Romney. Leah and Taylor discuss the range of candidates hoping to fill that seat, and discuss their various types of campaigns as well. They take a closer look at what each candidate brings to the table.  Remembering fallen Santaquin Police Sergeant Bill Hooser  Today, people from around Utah came together to honor and remember fallen Santaquin Police Sergeant Bill Hooser. Governor Spencer Cox, Hooser’s colleagues, and Hooser’s daughters each gave powerful—and emotional—speeches at the funeral. KSL at Night Producer Andy Cupp joins Leah to talk about his father who recently retired from law enforcement, and the constant vigilance that comes with a career in public safety. 

In this episode of Cutting Edge: Web Content Development, host Jonathan Ames is joined by Jamie Hudson, SEO Content Manager at Dash Hudson. Join them as they discuss strategies for SEO success.

Today there are over eight billion people on Earth. That's an awe-inspiring figure… but how does it compare to the vast numbers who came before us? Listener Alpha wants to know how many people have ever existed, so CrowdScience sets out to do a historical headcount.The Population Research Bureau in the USA estimated this number back in the 90s, and have been updating their calculations ever since. Demographer Toshiko Kaneda explains how their model works, the assumptions it makes – and the huge uncertainties around the number it comes out with.We first need a date for when ‘humans' first began, so Caroline travels to the Natural History Museum in London to meet human evolution expert Chris Stringer, and marvel at his collection of replica fossil skulls. Chris demonstrates how to distinguish our species, Homo sapiens, from other species like Neanderthals. When did these species first appear - and which of them count as human?And once you know where to start the clock, how do you estimate the numbers of people alive at different points in history? For a population demographer like Walter Scheidel, it helps that some ancient civilisations kept detailed censuses, a few of which have survived to the present day. Caroline and Walter pour over one of these census fragments, and learn how to combine them with other archaeological clues to get some very rough numbers.And finally: what does the future of our population look like? Poonam Muttreja from the Population Foundation of India discusses developments in the world's most populous country, as well as the big demographic trends ahead for humanity. Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Phil Sansom Additional Recording: Umaru Fofana Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Connor Morgans Studio Manager: Sue Maillot Featuring: Toshiko Kaneda, Technical Director of Demographic Research, Population Research Bureau Chris Stringer, Research Leader in Human Evolution, Natural History Museum London Walter Scheidel, Professor of Classics and History, Stanford University Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India

In this episode with Dr. Zachary Neal and Dr. Jennifer Watling Neal, we explore their research about the prevalence and characteristics of childfree adults in the US and globally. Despite the fact that people without children make up a significant portion of the population, both nationally in the US (20-25%) and globally, this group remains largely underrepresented in policymaking and demographic surveys. Driven by the desire for more inclusive representation of this group and for more objective demographic reporting, Zak and Jenna's research tackles the inconsistency across various surveys - both in data collection and data reporting. What sets apart their research from other demographic research is their attempt to create a consistent definition of “childfree” by including specific questions about people's desire for children rather than their biological capability for having children. Their findings show that among people without children, being voluntarily childfree is significantly more prevalent than being involuntarily childless, which challenges the often alarmist and pronatalist media and demographic narratives. The underrepresentation of the needs and desires of people without children in real estate planning, which privileges the needs of people with children, is also reflected in their lower levels of satisfaction with their neighborhoods. We also discuss how the combination of market forces and alarmist ‘population crash' arguments are increasingly influencing demographic research, making it less reliable, and why reproductive choice should never be driven by state or economic forces. Lastly, we chat about how the childfree community can leverage social network theory – by using bonding and bridging ties between childfree and parent individuals – to build stronger child-free social networks and shift societal norms towards greater acceptance of child-free choices. See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/zachary-neal-jennifer-watling-neal   ABOUT US The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/ 

Host: Leah Murray Congresswoman Celeste Maloy describes her trip to the Arizona border Immigration is one of the top concerns for U.S. voters, which is why politicians have been working to figure out a good solution to this issue. Over the weekend, Congresswoman Celeste Maloy paid a visit to Sierra Vista, a border town in southeastern Arizona. She joins Leah to share what she saw and how it’s different from what she saw at the Texas border. Mallory Bateman explains the census’ new race and ethnicity categorization In 2030, the U.S. Census is changing the way we count people. For the record, we’ve been counting people in this country since 1790 since we are constitutionally required to do so, but how we do it is left to the bureaucrats at the Census Bureau to decide. Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, joins Leah to discuss what this change would mean for their work with studying demographics. Taylor Morgan discusses the meaning behind early election results A Democrat has flipped the seat in a special election to the Alabama Legislature. She focused her campaign on abortion rights in a state that’s known for being deeply conservative, and she won. Could this be a bellwether? Taylor Morgan, Partner at Morgan & May Public Affairs and Host of KSL @ Night, joins the discussion. Nick Norris lays out the newest plan for SLC’s Ballpark neighborhood City planners have released a new plan that will try to merge the old and new ways of the southwest corner of Salt Lake City’s ballpark neighborhood. Nick Norris, Planning Director at the SLC Planning Division, joins Leah to discuss what’s in the new plan.

Host: Leah Murray In 2030, the U.S. Census is changing the way we count people. For the record, we’ve been counting people in this country since 1790 since we are constitutionally required to do so, but how we do it is left to the bureaucrats at the Census Bureau to decide. Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, joins Leah to discuss what this change would mean for their work with studying demographics.

Salt Lake City's youth population is at a 100-year low. That's the latest from Kem C Gardner Policy Institute.  Their Director of Demographic Research Mallory Bateman discusses why.

  A new just-released study reveals SLC has a kid problem. According to the research from Kem C. Gardner Institute, in 2020, Salt Lake City’s population hit a record high of almost 200k residents... Simultaneously, the city hit a record low: the lowest number of residents under 18 in more than a century.  Mallory Bateman Director of Demographic Research with the Kem C. Gardner Institute joins Dave and Debbie to break this down.   

New research from the Kem C. Gardener Policy Institute found that Salt Lake City's youth population is at a 100-year low.  The Institute's Director of Demographic Research Mallory Bateman joined Jeff Caplan's Afternoon News on KSL NewsRadio to unpack the numbers.  

What is the future of small-scale fisheries, in Newfoundland and Labrador? Who's going to fish? What will make people stay in the fisheries? What's the vision of the communities for their own future?  In this episode, Michael speaks with: María Andrée López Gómez, Memorial University, Canada / Center for Demographic Research, Spain Rachael Cadman, Dalhousie University, Canada  Dawn Mercer, DFO, Canada Ocean Frontier Institute  

Fertility—or the ability to conceive and bear children—has impacted women's lives for millennia. Cultural, social, economic, religious, and personal factors have influenced questions of whether to have a child, when to have a child, how many children to have, and in what context to have them. The Utah Women & Leadership Project (UWLP) published a research snapshot to understand trends and changes related to fertility in Utah, which is the topic of this episode. Dr. Susan Madsen, Founding Director of the UWLP, is joined by Kaitlyn Pieper, Executive Director of the Utah Center for Legal Inclusion; and Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research and State Data Center Coordinator at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah.Support the show

Hosts: Leah Murray and Derek Brown Utah seems to be growing like never before, and a new study by the Kem C. Gardner Institute of Policy shows how much Utah is growing, and what parts of the state are seeing the most growth. Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research and State Data Center Coordinator at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute joins us to discuss what this means for Utah.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosts: Maura Carabello and Taylor Morgan A new study by the University of Utah shows how Utah's Multiracial population has changed during the last decade. Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute walks us through the research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With wild weather in the west, Cedar City gets slammed with rain and floods, and water raining down onto slot machines in Las Vegas by surprise. Dave and Debbie talk with KSL Meteorologist Matt Johnson about what the weather means for the rest of the Monson season in Utah. 83% of the state is experiencing extreme or exceptional drought conditions according to a new poll by the Deseret News and Hinckley Institute of Politics conducted a poll. What can we do about it? Spanish Fork City Mayor Mike Mendenhall calls in to discuss the measure put in his city. A new report says there has been a shift in who makes up the democratic party. Kelsey Dallas, a Deseret News reporter joins the show to discuss what changes have taken place at the party and why. Are voters tired of picking from only 1 of 2 parties? Andrew Yang and Christine Todd have joined forces to create the Forward Party as a viable 3rd option in politics. Leah Murray, co-host of KSL at Night and  Academic Director at Walker Institute of Politics at Weber State University joins to discuss whether this will have any impact in the political arena. A new study from the University of Utah suggests a slowdown in the population growth here in Utah. Deb and Dave talk with Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research and State Data Center Coordinator at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute discusses what the future growth of Utah will be and whether this is good or bad for our state. After the PACT act failed to move forward in Congress, Jon Stewart and others are attacking the GOP for voting down the bill. Braden Wayment, a retired Army Officer joins the show to share his experiences as a veteran around these pits and how the news of the PACT act affects his fellow vets. The new virus keeps spreading throughout the US. Doctor Sankar Swaminathan from U of U Health calls in to share what we know about Monkeypox and what we can do to stay safe and ahead of the curve. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has begun her trip through Asia, but no word as to whether she's scheduled to land in Taiwan. With China's threat against official visits to Taiwan, Professor Amos Guiora from the University of Utah shares what a trip to Taiwan would mean for relationships between both countries. "Drive like your Grandpa" and "Traffic school's boring" signs are popping up in West Salt Lake. Where are they coming from and why now? Alejandro Puy, Salt Lake City's District 2 Councilman is the man behind the signs, he calls the show to explain why he is making them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new study from the University of Utah suggests a slowdown in the population growth here in Utah. Deb and Dave talk with Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research and State Data Center Coordinator at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute discusses what the future growth of Utah will be and whether this is good or bad for our state.Listeners call in to share their thoughts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Utah County. In the Beehive State, nearly 40% of its population growth from mid-2020 to 2021 can be attributed to one county. Experiencing a huge swell in population, Utah County ranked 10th in county numeric growth across the U.S., seeing an increase of 21,843. Mallory Bateman, Director of Demographic Research with the Kem C Gardner Institute joins the show to discuss how much the area has grown and what's to come.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode 5 of Series 2 of our podcast, we talk to Alejandra Rodríguez Sánchez from the University of Berlin and Susan Harkness from the University of Bristol about research from the DIAL funded Equal Lives project on the gendered division of housework during lockdown and whether or not changes that happened were temporary or long-lasting. Gender division of housework during the COVID-19 pandemic: Temporary shocks or durable change?  is research published in Demographic Research by Alejandra Rodríguez-Sánchez, Anette Fasang and Susan Harkness. Transcript Christine Garrington  0:00 Welcome to DIAL a podcast where we tune in to evidence on inequality over the life course. In this series, we're discussing findings from DIAL's Equal Lives Project, which looks at how inequality impacts the lives of young adults. Our guests in today's episode, are Equal Lives' Principal Investigator Susan Harkness, and Aleja Rodríguez Sánchez. They've been looking at the gender division of housework during the COVID-19 pandemic, to see whether any changes are temporary or longer lasting. I started by asking Susan to explain the backdrop to the research. Susan Harkness  0:32  So this research fits into a larger body of research looking at how inequalities evolve over the lifecourse. And so when COVID came along, we realised it revealed that there are really important changes going on and new inequalities and growing inequalities we needed to think about so a part of that we're looking at what is happening within families, and in particular, how households divide their labour because that has implications for what happens in the labour market and what happens to broader inequalities. Christine Garrington  1:01  Aleja what exactly was it that you're hoping to get a better handle on, a better understanding of in all of this? Alejandra Rodríguez Sánchez  1:09 Yeah, we started with the idea that maybe the effects of the pandemic and the lockdown on the division of labour were going to affect some people more than others. We intended to look at what couples would do differently if they had children or didn't have children. We also further wanted to look at whether the age of the child would make a difference in how the pandemic impacted the division of labour. But then we realised that there were a lot of things going on at the same time and it wasn't going to be easy to sort of look at one moment in time and before and after. And so we wanted to give it a more dynamic look and see how the situation evolved over time as these further changes in the furlough scheme, childcare and school closures were put in place and then lifted.  Christine Garrington  1:55  Can you talk us through exactly what it was that you that you did? Alejandra Rodríguez Sánchez  1:58  We opted for a very, first, very descriptive type of study, looking at the share of housework done by women, and here we look at the percentage or the proportion or the share that it's done by women of the total amount of number of hours spent on housework, cooking, cleaning, but does not include childcare in this case. So we want to know how that share of the work done by women changed. So we wanted to look at this quantity at different moments in the pandemic. We wanted to look at it first shock but then we also wanted to look at what happened after that first shock, whether those same things, the same effects would have stayed over time or were they, whether there would need some sort of change. And for that we use a technique called kernel density estimation, which helps us to see how the distribution of a variable in the population has shifted over time. So we wanted to first estimate pre-pandemic distribution and then we wanted to see how the distribution has shifted over time. Then secondly, we wanted to sort of further those descriptive analysis with a fixed effects type of regression, which basically we tried to compare couples to their own selves in the past to sort of get rid of some of the heterogeneity that it's unobserved.  Christine Garrington  3:13  You got your information from an especially conducted COVID survey, what sorts of things were people asked in that that made it possible to look really closely at these questions?  Alejandra Rodríguez Sánchez  3:23   Yeah, the COVID survey - it's really like a special very special or very unique study, in a way even for other in comparison to other UK studies that were done during the first year of COVID. The sample is basically a sub sample of this Understanding Society study, which is this much larger study that has followed UK households for more than 10 years. And there were lots of questions on how the COVID pandemic affected sort of the general welfare of households and individuals and there were questions about socio-economic conditions, I think, unemployment stuff, and there were also things about family dynamics. So it's quite comprehensive. And I think there's a lot more to see in there. Christine Garrington  4:02  How and why do surveys like this help us gain such important insights into what is going on in people's lives and how that's changing over time? Susan Harkness  4:11  Okay, so there's two things that are really valuable about surveys like the UK household Longitudinal Survey, or Understanding Society, as we call it. First of all, it's a survey that's conducted at the household level so we can see what's going on. Not just amongst individuals, but how, how relationships within the household pan out. And then the second thing that's valuable about it of course, is the longitudinal aspect. So that really allows us to look at changes over time. And that allows us to understand much more about why we have inequalities and how they affect different people. So in the case of the COVID studies, we can see where change happened, where they relatively, families where things were relatively equal before became more unequal? Or which particular groups were most affected? So we can see these changes over time. And I suppose if we look at the COVID Understanding Society surveys, and what's also really valuable about this survey is that whilst there have been a lot of other surveys which have given us a sort of snapshot of what's happening at a particular point in time, with the COVID surveys with Understanding Society, we can see how these inequalities are emerging as we move through the pandemic so we can see who is being affected and how that is changing for them over time. Christine Garrington  5:30  Yeah, really important and Aleja so let's get down into the nitty gritty then - when you, when you looked over time at how men and women were dividing housework or sharing housework at different times during the pandemic. What did you find? Alejandra Rodríguez Sánchez  5:44  Yeah, well, we found a remarkable first data set that is seen as a sort of shift in the distribution towards more equality between couples. So the original pre-pandemic distribution it's quite was quite unequal and therefore sort of skewed looking like more women, we're doing more. So visually, it really looks like a bump around like 65-70%, which means really, women do the majority of this housework. And so the first shock is that the shape of that bump to the left, so to say towards more equality, so it's close to 50/50 but it's not quite there yet. And then after, after that first shock with the data for further and further waves revealed was a gradual, but a clear return to previous levels, that we're seeing pre-pandemic where women started to do again a higher percentage of the total housework over time. And this sort of return to normal was especially clear for couples with children, whereas couples without children, we saw that this higher equality achieve after their lockdown or during the lockdown was more sustained. And these results were also confirmed with the fixed effects regression that I mentioned. So we think that the results basically show us that there were different trends, depending on the lifecourse stage in which the family was. Christine Garrington  7:07  Yeah, so it looks to be fairly robust doesn't it? And Susan, is that what you expected to see? Or were you surprised that having children made a difference to whether couples continue to share housework more equally, or revert to their pre-pandemic habits as it were in this, this area? Susan Harkness  7:23  Right, well of course, I mean, COVID has been an enormous shock, I think. Especially in the early months where we had people's work was affected, and for those who had children schools were closed. And I think that shock meant that couples changed their behaviour, whether they had children or not. And of course, there was a lot of early optimism that, that those changes would mean a bit more gender equality. But what we've seen is I think that as people have adapted, we've seen the sort of patterns emerge in a way that's quite similar to what happens for example, when children, children are born. And we have this specialisation, where women tend to revert back to taking on more of the roles involved in sort of looking after the house whereas men tend to specialise more in work. So sadly, and I think for those with children, I think we see these greater specialisation - so children are often a trigger for more specialisation within households with, with men doing more paid work and women doing more of the housework. And I think to some extent, what we're finding reflects these, these old patterns that we've seen previously in the data before COVID. So perhaps early optimism was, was not as well placed as it might have been. Christine Garrington  8:31  Hmmm I will ask you a bit more about the implications of that in a moment, but Aleja what would you say that we've learned from this piece of research that you've done and I wonder if you have plans to look further at this particular area, this particular aspect of people's lives? Alejandra Rodríguez Sánchez  8:45  I think one key message besides what Susan has already said is that before and after comparisons, sort of they can be informative, but they're only showing us like a snapshot of what actually happened. And longitudinal data is really key because for us, we gained a lot of information by actually looking at how things evolved over time, which gives a different take on this, on how, when we claimed, those early claims on how the pandemic would change at all for the better or worse we are definitely looking at working already further on the COVID-19 effects. But this time, we're going to, we're shifting the perspective from the couple to the children in particular to teenagers. We're interested in understanding what factors may explain some preliminary findings on what was found as the serious deterioration of mental health among teenagers, especially teenage girls. We want to see what factors about their families but particularly about mothers who were also having, were having a hard time during the pandemic may explain what happened to teenagers. And so we're working with Susan and Annette on this. Christine Garrington  9:52  Yeah, no really interesting, more really important work to come by the sounds of things. So Susan, just to wrap up really a lot has been said about how COVID-19 has negatively affected the lives of women more than men. Fears have been expressed around the reversal of any sort of pre-pandemic trends towards a greater gender equality. Would you say that this piece of research and, and other work that you're doing tells us anything about that, do you think? Susan Harkness  10:17  Well, I think certainly other studies have, have shown that women's mental health has been particularly adversely affected by the pandemic and particularly by the lockdown measures, so we know that some of the responses to the COVID crisis have really negatively affected women more than they have affected men. We've also, I think seeing some trends in the labour market where particularly mother's employment is perhaps recovering a bit more slowly than that, that of men to pre-pandemic levels of employment and hours of work. So I think there are some indications that there are implications for gender equality, and that those are not necessarily going to be reversed in the short term. I think the longer-term consequences are much harder to tell of course. You know, what effect this, these, these closures has on women and their careers is, it's something that we don't yet know, but it's, it's not hard to imagine reasons that parents may feel that they're going to fall, fall behind in the labour market because of the extra roles they've had to take on over this crisis. And I suppose the question remains about whether in the longer term, they'll be able to catch up with where they may have been otherwise. Christine Garrington  11:31  “Gender Division of Housework Furing the COVID-19 Pandemic: Temporary Shocks or Durable Change” is research by Alejandro Rodriguez Sanchez, Annette Fasang and Susan Harkness and is published in Demographic Research. You can find out more about the Equal Lives project at www.equal-lives.org. Thanks for listening to this episode of our podcast, which is presented and produced by Chris Garrington. Don't forget to subscribe to the DIAL podcast to access earlier and forthcoming episodes.

In this episode, Jolie speaks with Dr. Kei Nomaguchi, professor of sociology, and Dr. Sandra Faulkner, professor in the School of Media and Communication. They talk about their research exploring both the data and personal experiences of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people navigating the demands between their professional jobs and their roles as caretakers.   Announcer:From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, this is BG Ideas.   Musical Intro:I'm going to show you this with a wonderful experiment.   Jolie: Hello, and welcome back to the Big Ideas podcast brought to you by the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society and the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. I'm Dr. Jolie Sheffer, associate professor of English and American culture studies and the director of ICS. Jolie: Due to the ongoing pandemic, we are not recording in the studio but remotely via phone and computer. As always, the opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of BGSU or its employees.   Jolie: Bowling Green State University and its campuses are situated in the Great Black Swamp and the lower Great Lakes region, homeland of the Wyandotte, Kickapoo, Miami, Pottawatomie, Ottawa, and multiple other Indigenous tribal nations present and past who were forcibly removed to and from the area. We recognize these historical and contemporary ties, and we honor the Indigenous individuals and communities who have been living and working on this land from time and memorial.   Jolie: Today, I'm joined by Dr. Kei Nomaguchi and Dr. Sandra Faulkner. Kei is a professor of sociology and a research affiliate with the Center for Family and Demographic Research and the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at BGSU. Kei's research explores various social and personal dimensions of parenting in the U.S.   Jolie: Sandra is a professor in the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. Her research focuses on how individuals navigate gender and sexuality through interpersonal communication and personal narrative. She often uses creative expression and autoethnography to explore her own negotiation of identity as a parent, partner, and professor. Today we're talking about how the pandemic has affected professionals who are also caretakers, but first I'd like to hear a little bit from both of you about your research and how you got into studying care work in particular. Kei, will you start us off?   Kei: Yes. Thank you, Jolie and thank you for the nice introduction. I'm interested in studying parents, parenting, parents, our relationships in the United States today and including work family conflict and parenting stress and the wellbeing of the parents and children. So well,I began my graduate study wanting to study gender inequality in workplace, but then I quickly realized that gender inequality in the workplace is deeply rooted in gender inequality within the family, especially care taking roles. And so, as we all know, the women disproportionally shoulder care taking responsibilities, and that prevents women from putting time and energy in their paid work activities. So that's how I sort of switched our interest in family, rather than workplace.   Jolie: What about for you,Sandra? How, what is your evolution as a scholar on this subject been?   Sandra:Well, initially I was interested in the kind of broad topic of difficult conversations in close relationships. And so I had started studying that in graduate school. I was interested in how partners, women in particular, negotiated sexual activity, sexual pleasure, in essence how they talked about sex and sexuality. And I will say by the way that I studied it kind of traditionally, and by traditionally, I mean, kind of traditional qualitative research. And so I think the evolution of my work moving toward more creative ends and the use of poetry, personal narrative in social science happened with some of the evolution of the topics that I was interested in studying. And really some of this shift happened when I also became a mother and I have an 11-year-old now, and since we're going to be talking about care work and balancing and all of that, I had been re-introduced to poetry when I was doing a post-doc and I started to kind of move in a more critical direction.   Sandra: I was still interested in difficult conversations in close relationships, but then it started to move to examining some personal experiences and then connecting that up to larger structural issues. And so I started studying mother work shortly after my daughter was born. And one thing that I found was that using personal narratives, using poetry were things that fit in between some of those care spaces. So I couldn't do large ethnographic projects where I was out in the field for long periods of time. And so that's really been some of where I was and some of where I was going. And I look forward to talking more about that.   Jolie: I'd like to start maybe with sort of defining some of our terms. So, Kei, when you talk about care work, what does that mean to you and what are you including in that?   Kei: So I tend to define care work as one person's activity, meeting the needs of others who cannot fully care for themselves. So it includes childcare, elderly care, care for people who are ill or injured, or care for people with disabilities, or care for people who need help in learning few new skills or subjects, and many other things. So care work is actually everywhere around us, but in my work and also today's discussion, I focus on care for children, care work for children. And so, but it involves a lot of work that we need to be alive and to be functioning.   Jolie: And what about for you, Sandra? Does your definition differ in any distinctive ways?   Sandra: And the first example in Knit Four, Frog One, it's a poetry collection that I actually introduce as social science, though it's a series of poems about family stories. And I use different poetic forms, such as collage, free verse, dialogue poems, sonnets to show and critique patterns of communication in close relationships. And in particular, this collection is looking at mother daughter relationships, women's work, mothering, writing, and family secrets. And what I do in the collection is try to knit connections between do-it-yourself value.   Sandra: These are some of the themes that I saw in my own family, economics, family culture through the poems. And I use poems and images to talk about four generations of women in my family. My grandmother, my mother, myself, and my daughter. And so I was really calling it memoir and verse, but the poems really play with these tensions of work, family life, and ultimately kind of show that it's through those everyday interactions that we see some of the meaning of the relationships.   Sandra: And I wanted to talk about another project that I just finished because it's relevant to care taking in the pandemic. And it's a project I'm calling buttered nostalgia. In this piece, I use poetry, personal narrative to tell a story of cooking, cleaning, and caring for my elderly parents during last March 2020, when the lockdown first happened. I originally had gone for spring break and then everything's shut down.   Sandra: And so I ended up staying some extra days. My parents are both disabled. And so the piece talks about how I cared for them. And it's organized as a series of daily menus, lyrical reflections, narrative poems about family stories, family values, and the enactment of the supportive behaviors that really show how families deal with political difference, identity negotiation, crisis. Because partly what I was doing when I was there, I was trying to convince my parents that pandemic was actually real. And so the questions that I ask in this project, what does it mean to be a good daughter? And how does one reconcile family differences and political views and hold true to family and personal values? And the third question that I explored in this piece was how does one decide what obligations to focus on during a moment of personal and international crisis? And so I think in this pace, they use of poetic inquiry shows how public cultural discourses influence our private experiences.   Jolie: Kei, since Sandra has brought up the kind of methodological approaches, could you talk a bit about maybe one of your research projects and kind of what are some of the animating research questions and the methods that you're going about it to sort of track some of these changes to care taking and that work family conflict?   Kei: Well, for my research, I use national data, national survey data often collected by U.S. federal agencies like census data, census bureau, or a center for education statistics. So my strength is to analyze those data that are already collected by other researchers and looking into variations by social groups and especially the socioeconomic status and race, ethnicity, or marital status or other types of family structure. Well, so I looked at the work family conflict and how the work family conflict distributed differently by socioeconomic status.   Kei: So well, okay, so other types of stress tend to be more experienced by those who have fewer resources and in terms of the socioeconomic resources, but in terms of work family conflict, it's actually those who have higher SES, socioeconomic status, also experience high work family conflict. That's because those who have higher socioeconomic status tend to have higher responsibilities in the workplace. So especially when you have responsibilities for other people, supervising, that's actually increases job demands for you. And whenever people who you supervise have questions, even though it's not your work hours, you have to answer those questions, sometimes immediately to deal with some immediate issues. And those work responsibilities tend to spill into your family life. So that is really cause a high work family conflict. So work family conflict is, in that sense, it's a unique type of stressor that affects people who have a higher socioeconomic status.   Jolie: Is it too simplistic to sort of say that what we see at the lower socioeconomic status is that the family life is interfering with work, right? Especially if you think about the pandemic and school closures and things like that. And what we're seeing is more, the other side of it with higher socioeconomic status families where the work life is interfering with the family, because those jobs have been, are still there, but the demands have shifted, or is it more complicated than that?   Kei: Oh, actually that's a great question, a great point. And so it's kind of complicated. So, okay. So those who have lower social economic status, their jobs tend not to allow them to have flexibility. So most times they cannot take their work to home. So, it ended up that work family conflict, it's almost like whether you can keep a job on that and that's actually gets to more difficult situation, economically difficult. And so the highest professional jobs that tend to allow the workers to take their work home.   Kei:And so at the higher SES jobs, they can keep the job, although the amount of work don't decrease and it gets to a higher stress level. But in terms of the family demands, those who have lower social economic or economic status tend to have more illness and injuries among a family members and that increases needs for caretakers at home. So, but when it comes to parenting the complication today, it's that the parenting culture in U.S. increasingly emphasized parents to be involved in their kids' lives. And especially that pressure is high among professionals so that sort of make it complicated in terms of socioeconomic status differences in work family conflict.   Jolie: We're going to take a quick break. Thank you for listening to the big ideas podcast.   Announcer:If you are passionate about big ideas, consider sponsoring this program. To have your name or organization mentioned here, please contact us ics@bgsu.edu.   Jolie:Welcome back to the Big Ideas podcast today. I'm talking with Kei Nomaguchi and Sandra Faulkner about the pandemic's impact on caretakers. Sandra, throughout your career, as you've demonstrated, you've explored poetry and creative modes as methods of critical inquiry. Can you talk a bit about what poetic inquiry is and how it functions as a scholarly method of analysis?   Sandra:Sure. Pretty simply, poetic inquiry is the use of poetry as research, in research, and for research. Poetry can be used as a tool and a method for presenting research data. It can be used as a source of data and also as a source of data analysis. When I define it for students, I'll say poetic inquiry is the use of poetry that's crafted from our research endeavors either before a project analysis, as a project analysis, and/or poetry that we use that's part of or constitutes an entire research project.   Sandra: Poetry used as qualitative research is a method then that you would turn research interviews that you do, transcripts, observations, personal experience, and reflections into poems or poetic forms. Poetic inquirers use poetry then as a method of inquiry by presenting their research as poetry, by analyzing poetry as qualitative data, using poetry to show the research process and as a means of data analysis. So as you can see, it can come in anywhere in the research process. Also, some researchers, and I would argue this as well, use poetry as a way to ensure rigor in qualitative research and as a means to show reflexivity in the research context. And so I really see poetic inquiry as a feminist methodology because of the focus on ethics. There's also can be a real focus on collaborative work. I do a lot of collaborative poetic inquiry and because poetic inquiry is embodied research practice.   Jolie: And Kei, could you talk a bit about, you're looking at kind of large quantities of data, right? And looking for patterns in that, and given that this moment of the pandemic, we are all hearing about the challenges of caretakers, that this is no longer a kind of submerged narrative, it's one that I think most people are really paying attention to, how are you thinking about your quantitative research as a way of illustrating or complicating the personal experiences? Right? So how are you sort of thinking about the relationship between the sort of anecdotal stories that we might hear on the news and the data that you're studying in the aggregate?   Kei: So the quantitative studies that the purpose or strength is to find the patterns across the U.S. population or among the U.S. parents, and when I interpret our data, I rely on the qualitative studies and how the qualitative studies show what parents actually say, how they describe their difficulties or worries about their kids and how things changed before and after pandemic.   Kei: So I think in both sort of the qualitative research or anecdotal studies and the quantitative studies kind of give us a whole picture. So for example, so there has been a lot of studies started showing whether, even among those who are able to keep their jobs, mothers with children, again, reduce their work hours. And of course those data doesn't tell us why, but from qualitative studies and anecdotal stories, we can guess that this is because these mothers had to attend to their children at home who were...who couldn't attend childcare centers or schools. So that's how I sort of use our quantitative data and the qualitative data that other researchers collected.   Jolie: It's no secret that at ICS we believe in the power of collaboration. Could you each talk about what those collaborations look like for you and how it enriches your work?   Sandra:I really think collaborative work is like a good conversation where you see the back and forth, the give and take. And so a lot of my collaborative work starts with conversations. I've been fortunate to work with both poets and social scientists in fruitful collaborations. And the collaborations always begin with conversations about issues that have been bothering us, occupying our times, our thoughts. Sandra: And I just think of some work that I've done with a poet and essayist, Sheila Squillante. We've done some video work. We've published a feminist womanifesta that was born out of some conversations we were having about feminism and toxic masculinity and rape culture and our mutual love of poetry. And so that just kind of got us started about wanting to do a project. And so when I work with others, I like to think of it as a conversation, but also we work by going with our creative strengths and always honoring the relationship. And so, what this means...I think that that's important for the collaboration, right? Always honor the relationship that you have with the other person, always, secondly, think of it as a conversation, and then thirdly, kind of play with the strengths of each collaborator.   Jolie: And Kei, what does collaboration look like with the kind of work you're doing and what sorts of roles do you play in those collaborations?   Kei:I have to be honest about my personal situation, meaning that I have a daughter who is now 14, so I have to work around my daughter's schedule. So that really sort of make it difficult for me to collaborate with other researchers because sometimes I work after my daughter sleeps. And so sometimes I just cannot have meetings even in the late afternoon. So expanding my collaboration is my hope after my daughter leaves my home. So anyway, so currently my collaboration is more with my graduate students. So in part, it is my responsibility to train graduate students to be independent researchers. So sort of the training and also the collaboration go hand in hand. And so, well, the graduate students bring fresh ideas and new ideas. And so our conversation sometimes creates new research questions. And that is also how I benefited when I was graduate student. I collaborated with academic advisors and the other faculty.   Jolie: This is a question that is perhaps unfair. It's a bit about prognostication, but given what each of you knows from your own research, do you think the shift that we are seeing in the personal and professional lives of so many working caretakers, do you think these shifts will indicate a permanent reversal of some of the gains for gender equity? Do you think we're about to have a national reckoning? Do you have any thoughts about kind of what the last year has revealed about labor and gender in our society?   Kei: So in the media has been emphasizing that there has been an increase in gender inequality, especially in terms of the labor force participation and that it is true in terms of the data showing that the gender gap in labor force participation between mothers and fathers increased by 5%, especially the districts where schools kept closed. And some people say, well, that will have no long-term consequences in prolonged gender inequality, but there are some other data showing that during the pandemic, more fathers got involved in housework and childcare, especially those know who were able to work from home.   Kei: There are some, a good portion of households that both mothers and fathers saying that their share of housework and childcare got a little bit more egalitarian. So that means that there's a positive signs towards gender equity. It may be that this situation that both mothers and fathers kind of stuck in a household and stepping home, and the fathers found a way to get involved in daily routine of children's lives or housework. So now employers know that employees can work from home without reducing productivity. So that's probably a good sign that after this pandemic, maybe more workplaces will provide work family, flexible arrangements to both fathers and mothers. And hopefully that will increase gender equality.   Jolie:What about you, Sandra, any fortune telling, or if not, kind of what you think will happen, what you hope might happen post pandemic?   Sandra: Those are kind of two different questions. Because as I was listening to Kei, I was like, I'm not quite as optimistic. And I don't know if it's because I was on a few Facebook groups with working moms, some of them academics, some of them not. And it seemed to me that it was kind of mixed in terms of expectations and you would hear stories about the childcare falling right back on women during the pandemic. And I do think that, for some workplaces, yes, being able to work at home might be good or if you have some reduced expectations, like maybe you can have another year toward tenure, but I didn't really see a lot of reduced expectations for work. I'm just thinking personally I got less done this year because there were two of us working from home and then it was my daughter was going to school at home and always asking questions about, can you help with this math problem, et cetera.   Sandra: And it, it just seems like there were the expectations for producing were still there. And so, but the hopeful part is, here it is, as someone who studies like personal narratives, et cetera, I did see some news coverage, I think the New York Times had some coverage of all kinds of working mothers, all levels of socioeconomic status, et cetera. And I had a lot of friends who posted stories of like, I'm really not feeling okay. And I'm feeling really overwhelmed about all of this. And so I'm wondering if, if maybe we have some more of these discourses about the importance of caregiving and these conversations and these stories are out in the public, then maybe we can get some policy changes that might actually make our lives better. And so I think that that's what I hope for the future is that we have more of this honest kinds of storytelling. And then that actually shifts into real policy changes that can enact some of the changes I think we need.   Jolie: And Kei, to that score, given your research, what are some of the kinds of policy changes that would make a significant difference in the lives of working caretakers?   Kei: First of all, so those flexible work hours and workplace is very important or necessary for parents or any types of caretakers to keep their jobs while they meet their family responsibilities. So I hope that more workplaces recognize the needs for those work flexibility. And also like Sandra mentioned about expectations. And I think that the change in the culture, so it's not a policy, but it's a changing culture in terms of what we expect. Or maybe I should say that everyone should expect that everyone has family responsibilities. And I think this pandemic really pushed the public discussing this issue. And I think that that's really...That's why I think that I I'm kind of optimistic. So the policies and also the cultural change is important.   Jolie: And Sandra, do you want to add anything? Are there particular kinds of policy changes that you think would make a dramatic difference in the lives?   Sandra:Yeah, I think that we need universal daycare for everyone. I think we need family leave policies and I'm particularly even thinking about those who might wait tables, for instance, if that's their job. I think we need to value workers before profits. I mean, that's yeah. Right? Because in our conversation, I keep hearing a lot of, well, we still have these expectations, but it still seems to be all about producing something. And so what that says is we really need to value care taking, first of all. And I think like, hey, maybe we're starting to see some of that valuing of it. And I think that a lot of this care taking was just invisible. And so maybe people just didn't think about it until they had to think about it. And so that's what I think. We need the policies as well as kind of the cultural value placed on everyone who does care taking.   Musical Intro: What a wonderful experiment.   Jolie: Thank you so much for joining us today, Kei and Sandra. Listeners can keep up with ICS happenings by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @icsbgsu. You can listen to Big Ideas wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Please subscribe and rate us on your preferred platform. Our producers for this episode are Chris Cavera and Marco Mendoza with sound editing by Deanna MacKeigan, Ryan Cummings, and Marco Mendoza. Stevie Scheurich researched and wrote interview questions.

Rod Arquette Show Daily Rundown – Wednesday, July 28, 20214:05 pm: Steve Moore, Chief Economist of the Heritage Foundation, joins the program live from the ALEC meetings for his weekly visit with Rod about politics and the nation's economy4:20 pm: William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection joins the show from the ALEC meetings in downtown Salt Lake City to discuss the Supreme Court's decision to take on an abortion case that challenges Roe v. Wade4:38 pm: Carson Jorgenson, Chair of the Utah Republican Party, joins Rod live from the ALEC meetings in Salt Lake City to discuss mask mandates, vaccines and making healthcare political5:05 pm: Jonathan Williams, Vice President and Chief Economist for the American Legislative Exchange Council joins Rod live from the ALEC meetings to discuss Utah's well run economy and why other states aren't so well run5:20 pm: Derek Brown, former chair of the Utah Republican Party, joins Rod from the ALEC meetings to discuss the state of the Republican Party and the future of the national GOP5:38 pm: Hans von Spakovsky, a Legal Analyst for the Heritage Foundation, joins the show live from the ALEC meetings to discuss mandatory vaccinations by employers, as well as election integrity6:05 pm: Former Utah Speaker of the House Greg Hughes joins Rod for their weekly conversation about the wacky world of politics6:35 pm: Pam Perlich, Director of Demographic Research for the Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, joins the program to discuss how U.S. population growth has ground to a near halt and the economic impacts of that slowing

The U.S. life expectancy dropped by a year and a half in 2020. We haven't seen this large of a decline since World War II. And according to the CDC, the pandemic is mainly to blame for this decline. Pam Perlich, Director of Demographic Research at the University of Utah, joins us to discuss the reasons why the life expectancy fell and if we can get it back up.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cranberry Powder Attenuates Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia University of Suwon (South Korea), June 21, 2021   Cranberry powder (CR) is reported to be effective against lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and recurrent urinary tract infections. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in men older than 50 years is a common cause of LUTS. Here, we attempted to evaluate if CR is also effective for treating BPH using a BPH-induced rat model, which was orally administered CR. Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 200–250 g were randomly divided into the following six groups (n = 9): noncastration group; castration group; BPH group; BPH and cranberry for 8-week (CR8W) group; BPH and cranberry for 4-week (CR4W) group; and BPH and saw palmetto group (saw palmetto). Compared with the BPH group, the CR8W group showed a significant decrease in prostate weight (by 33%), dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels (by 18% in serum and 28% in prostate), 5-alpha reductase levels (18% reduction of type 1 and 35% of type 2), and histological changes. These results indicate that CR could attenuate BPH by inhibiting 5-alpha reductase and by reducing other biomarkers such as prostate weight and DHT levels. Thus, CR may be an effective candidate for the development of a functional food for BPH treatment. IACUC (USW-IACUC-R-2015-004).   In our investigation, the administration of CP significantly prevented the progression of BPH by reducing the 5AR levels, and consequently reducing DHT levels in the serum and prostate, along with reduction of the prostate size. This study demonstrated that CR exerts positive effects against BPH, based on biochemical and histological changes in BPH-induced rats. Although further investigation and validation is required, our study provides evidence, for developing a potential treatment for BPH from natural products.     Psychedelic spurs growth of neural connections lost in depression Yale University, July 5, 2021 The psychedelic drug psilocybin, a naturally occurring compound found in some mushrooms, has been studied as a potential treatment for depression for years. But exactly how it works in the brain and how long beneficial results might last is still unclear. In a new study, Yale researchers show that a single dose of psilocybin given to mice prompted an immediate and long-lasting increase in connections between neurons. The findings are published July 5 in the journal Neuron. "We not only saw a 10% increase in the number of neuronal connections, but also they were on average about 10% larger, so the connections were stronger as well," said Yale's Alex Kwan, associate professor of psychiatry and of neuroscience and senior author of the paper. Previous laboratory experiments had shown promise that psilocybin, as well as the anesthetic ketamine, can decrease depression. The new Yale research found that these compounds increase the density of dendritic spines, small protrusions found on nerve cells which aid in the transmission of information between neurons. Chronic stress and depression are known to reduce the number of these neuronal connections. Using a laser-scanning microscope, Kwan and first author Ling-Xiao Shao, a postdoctoral associate in the Yale School of Medicine, imaged dendritic spines in high resolution and tracked them for multiple days in living mice. They found increases in the number of dendritic spines and in their size within 24 hours of administration of psilocybin. These changes were still present a month later. Also, mice subjected to stress showed behavioral improvements and increased neurotransmitter activity after being given psilocybin. For some people, psilocybin, an active compound in "magic mushrooms," can produce a profound mystical experience. The psychedelic was a staple of religious ceremonies among indigenous populations of the New World and is also a popular recreational drug. It may be the novel psychological effects of psilocybin itself that spurs the growth of neuronal connections, Kwan said. "It was a real surprise to see such enduring changes from just one dose of psilocybin," he said. "These new connections may be the structural changes the brain uses to store new experiences."   How long can a person live? The 21st century may see a record-breaker University of Washington, July 2, 2021 The number of people who live past the age of 100 has been on the rise for decades, up to nearly half a million people worldwide. There are, however, far fewer "supercentenarians," people who live to age 110 or even longer. The oldest living person, Jeanne Calment of France, was 122 when she died in 1997; currently, the world's oldest person is 118-year-old Kane Tanaka of Japan. Such extreme longevity, according to new research by the University of Washington, likely will continue to rise slowly by the end of this century, and estimates show that a lifespan of 125 years, or even 130 years, is possible. "People are fascinated by the extremes of humanity, whether it's going to the moon, how fast someone can run in the Olympics, or even how long someone can live," said lead author Michael Pearce, a UW doctoral student in statistics. "With this work, we quantify how likely we believe it is that some individual will reach various extreme ages this century." Longevity has ramifications for government and economic policies, as well as individuals' own health care and lifestyle decisions, rendering what's probable, or even possible, relevant at all levels of society. The new study, published June 30 in Demographic Research, uses statistical modeling to examine the extremes of human life. With ongoing research into aging, the prospects of future medical and scientific discoveries and the relatively small number of people to have verifiably reached age 110 or older, experts have debated the possible limits to what is referred to as the maximum reported age at death. While some scientists argue that disease and basic cell deterioration lead to a natural limit on human lifespan, others maintain there is no cap, as evidenced by record-breaking supercentenarians. Pearce and Adrian Raftery, a professor of sociology and of statistics at the UW, took a different approach. They asked what the longest individual human lifespan could be anywhere in the world by the year 2100. Using Bayesian statistics, a common tool in modern statistics, the researchers estimated that the world record of 122 years almost certainly will be broken, with a strong likelihood of at least one person living to anywhere between 125 and 132 years. To calculate the probability of living past 110 -- and to what age -- Raftery and Pearce turned to the most recent iteration of the International Database on Longevity, created by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. That database tracks supercentenarians from 10 European countries, plus Canada, Japan and the United States. Using a Bayesian approach to estimate probability, the UW team created projections for the maximum reported age at death in all 13 countries from 2020 through 2100. Among their findings: Researchers estimated near 100% probability that the current record of maximum reported age at death -- Calment's 122 years, 164 days -- will be broken; The probability remains strong of a person living longer, to 124 years old (99% probability) and even to 127 years old (68% probability); An even longer lifespan is possible but much less likely, with a 13% probability of someone living to age 130; It is "extremely unlikely" that someone would live to 135 in this century. As it is, supercentenarians are outliers, and the likelihood of breaking the current age record increases only if the number of supercentenarians grows significantly. With a continually expanding global population, that's not impossible, researchers say. People who achieve extreme longevity are still rare enough that they represent a select population, Raftery said. Even with population growth and advances in health care, there is a flattening of the mortality rate after a certain age. In other words, someone who lives to be 110 has about the same probability of living another year as, say, someone who lives to 114, which is about one-half. "It doesn't matter how old they are, once they reach 110, they still die at the same rate," Raftery said. "They've gotten past all the various things life throws at you, such as disease. They die for reasons that are somewhat independent of what affects younger people. "This is a very select group of very robust people."     Dried Plum Consumption Improves Total Cholesterol and Antioxidant Capacity and Reduces Inflammation in Healthy Postmenopausal Women San Diego State University, June 27, 2021 Dried plums contain bioactive components that have demonstrated antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. The objective of this study was to determine if dried plum consumption reduces the risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in postmenopausal women, specifically examining lipid profiles, oxidative stress, antioxidant capacity, and inflammation in a dose-dependent manner. We conducted a 6-month, parallel-design controlled clinical trial, where 48 postmenopausal women were randomly assigned to consume 0, 50, or 100 g of dried plum each day. After 6 months of intervention, total cholesterol (TC) in the 100 g/day treatment group (P = .002) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the 50 g/day treatment group (P = .005) improved significantly compared to baseline. Inflammatory biomarkers interleukin-6 (P = .044) and tumor necrosis factor-α (P = .040) were significantly lower after 6 months within the 50 g/day dried plum group compared to baseline. Moreover, total antioxidant capacity increased significantly within the 50 g/day group (P = .046), and superoxide dismutase activity increased significantly within both 50 and 100 g/day groups (P = .044 and P = .027, respectively) after 6 months compared to baseline. In addition, plasma activities of alanine transaminase (P = .046), lactate dehydrogenase (P = .039), and creatine kinase (P = .030) were significantly lower after 6 months in the 50 g/day dried plum group. These findings suggest that daily consumption of 50–100 g dried plum improves CVD risk factors in postmenopausal women as exhibited by lower TC, oxidative stress, and inflammatory markers with no clear dose dependence.     Regular physical activity linked to more 'fit' preteen brains   Childrens Hospital Boston, July 2, 2021 We know exercise has many health benefits. A new study from Boston Children's Hospital adds another benefit: Physical activity appears to help organize children's developing brains. The study, led by Dr. Caterina Stamoulis, analyzed brain imaging data from nearly 6,000 9- and 10-year-olds. It found that physical activity was associated with more efficiently organized, robust, and flexible brain networks. The more physical activity, the more "fit" the brain. "It didn't matter what kind of physical activity children were involved in," says Dr. Stamoulis, who directs the Computational Neuroscience Laboratory at Boston Children's. "It only mattered that they were active." Crunching the data Dr. Stamoulis and her trainees, Skylar Brooks and Sean Parks, tapped brain imaging data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, a long-running study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to estimate the strength and organizational properties of the children's brain circuits. These measures determine how efficiently the brain functions and how readily it can adapt to changes in the environment. "The preteen years are a very important time in brain development," notes Dr. Stamoulis. "They are associated with a lot of changes in the brain's functional circuits, particularly those supporting higher-level thought processes. Unhealthy changes in these areas can lead to risky behaviors and long-lasting deficits in the skills needed for learning and reasoning." The team combined these data with information on the children's physical activity and sports involvement, supplied by the families, as well as body mass index (BMI). Finally, they adjusted the data for other factors that might affect brain development, such as being born before 40 weeks of gestation, puberty status, sex, and family income. Healthy brain networks Being active multiple times per week for at least 60 minutes had a widespread positive effect on brain circuitry. Children who engaged in high levels of physical activity showed beneficial effects on brain circuits in multiple areas essential to learning and reasoning. These included attention, sensory and motor processing, memory, decision making, and executive control (the ability to plan, coordinate, and control actions and behaviors). In contrast, increased BMI tended to have detrimental effects on the same brain circuitry. However, regular physical activity reduced these negative effects. "We think physical activity affects brain organization directly, but also indirectly by reducing BMI," Dr. Stamoulis says. Analyzing brain effects In the analyses, the brain was represented mathematically as a network of "nodes": a set of brain regions linked by connections of varying strength. Physical activity had two kinds of positive effects: on the efficiency and robustness of the network as a whole, and on more local properties such as the number and clustering of node connections. "Highly connected local brain networks that communicate with each other through relatively few but strong long-range connections optimizes information processing and transmission in the brain," explains Dr. Stamoulis. "In preteens, a number of brain functions are still developing, and they can be altered by a number of risk factors. Our results suggest that physical activity has a positive protective effect across brain regions."   Could Sumac Be Effective on COVID-19 Treatment? Fırat University Medicine Faculty (Turkey), June 11, 2021 Sumac is an herbal product, commonly consumed as a spice and was used for medical treatment for centuries. The phytochemical structure of Sumac was studied extensively, and it was established that the herb contained tannins, polyphenols, flavonoids, organic acids, and essential oils. Various scientific studies demonstrated that Sumac had a free oxygen radical-scavenging effect, a protective effect against liver damage, antihemolytic, leukopenia, and antifibrogenic effects, along with its antiviral, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. Recently, several scientific studies described the pathophysiology, clinical course, and the treatment of COVID-19 infection. The examination of the characteristics of COVID-19 infection revealed via the clinical studies suggests that Sumac extract could be useful in the treatment of COVID-19. Given the scientific studies focusing on the beneficial effects of Sumac, the present review aims to provide an encouraging viewpoint to investigate whether Sumac is effective in treating COVID-19 infection. Antiviral Effect SARS-CoV2 virus, which causes COVID-19 infection, is a highly infectious RNA virus. There are no scientific studies on whether Sumac is effective against the SARS-CoV2 virus. On the contrary, the medications currently being used for treatment were directly administered in clinics, without scrutinizing whether they were effective against the novel coronavirus. Subsequently, several medications were identified to be useful during the clinical course of the disease. Yet, there are scientific in vitro and in vivo studies that investigated the antiviral effects of Sumac against several viruses. In a study, bioflavonoids isolated from Sumac were evaluated for their antiviral activities. Sumac presented inhibitory activities against respiratory viruses (influenza A, influenza B, and measles) and herpes viruses (HSV-1, HSV-2, and varicella zoster virus [VZV]).2 Another study found that Sumac extract exhibited significant antiviral activity against fish pathogenic infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, and viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus. Furthermore, it was considered that Sumac was a potential antiviral therapeutic against fish viral diseases.3 In a study conducted in 2015, it was established that urushiol obtained from Sumac exhibited reverse transcriptase inhibitory activity for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). It was specified that Sumac could be used as a biological resource due to such inhibitory activity.4 Another study focusing on HIV found that Sumac extracts exhibited anti-HIV activity due to inhibiting the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and protease activity. It was also demonstrated that Sumac inhibited the viral load in HIV-infected CEM-GFP (a CD4+ T-lymphocytic reporter cell line expressing green fluorescent protein [GFP] under HIV-1 LTR promoter) cells and human peripheral blood lymphocytes.5 Another study reported that Sumac extract presented strong antiviral activity against HSV-1 and HSV-2. The study also revealed that Sumac extract did not only interact with the viral envelope but also interacted with the surface of the host cells of the viruses, thus, disrupted the ability of the virus to adsorb and penetrate the host cells.6 The above-mentioned studies indicated the antiviral effects of Sumac extracts. The review of the viruses, on which Sumac is effective, such as influenza, HSV-1, HSV-2, VZV, and HIV-1 demonstrated that the common point between these viruses was the fact that they are all enveloped viruses, contain dense lipids in their envelopes, and are sensitive to ether.7 Coronaviruses share the same common features.7 Sumac is likely to affect the lipid layer in the virus envelope, disrupting the adsorption to the host cell and preventing the virus from penetrating the host cell, positively contributing to the infection. Naturally, this hypothesis should be evidenced in future studies. However, its effectiveness on the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) should be clarified first through animal testing and subsequently should be tested through human subjects. Conclusion An evaluation of the up to date knowledge, revealed by the clinical studies, on the characteristics of COVID-19 infection, its pathophysiology, clinic, and treatment, suggests that the use of Sumac extracts could be beneficial. Based on the beneficial effects indicated by the scientific studies on Sumac extracts, the present review could be encouraging to investigate its effectiveness for COVID-19 treatment. The authors of the present study believe that the benefits of Sumac extract can be tested by adding the adverse-effect-free Sumac extract to treatment and protecting the existing treatment protocols.   Sugar intake during pregnancy is associated with allergy and allergic asthma in children University of Bristol (UK), July 5, 2021 High maternal sugar intake during pregnancy may increase the risk of allergy and allergic asthma in the offspring, according to an early study led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) involving almost 9,000 mother-child pairs. While some research has reported an association between a high consumption of sugar-containing beverages and asthma in children, the relation between maternal sugar intake during pregnancy and allergy and asthma in the offspring has been little studied. The team, which included researchers from University of Bristol, used data from a world-leading birth cohort study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), also known as 'Children of the 90s'. The cohort recruited mothers who were pregnant in the 1990s and has been following up their offspring ever since. The current study, which is published in the European Respiratory Journal, analysed associations between maternal intake of free sugars in pregnancy and allergy (defined by positive skin tests to common allergens, namely dust mite, cat and grass) and asthma at seven years of age. While there was only weak evidence for a link between free sugar intake in pregnancy and asthma overall, there were strong positive associations with allergy and allergic asthma (where the child was diagnosed with asthma and had positive skin tests to allergens). When comparing the 20 per cent of mothers with the highest sugar intake versus the 20 per cent of mothers with the lowest sugar intake, there was an increased risk of 38 per cent for allergy in the offspring (73 per cent for allergy to two or more allergens) and 101 per cent for allergic asthma. The team found no association with eczema or hay fever. Lead researcher Professor Seif Shaheen from QMUL said: "We cannot say on the basis of these observations that a high intake of sugar by mothers in pregnancy is definitely causing allergy and allergic asthma in their offspring. However, given the extremely high consumption of sugar in the West, we will certainly be investigating this hypothesis further with some urgency. "The first step is to see whether we can replicate these findings in a different cohort of mothers and children. If we can, then we will design a trial to test whether we can prevent childhood allergy and allergic asthma by reducing the consumption of sugar by mothers during pregnancy. In the meantime, we would recommend that pregnant women follow current guidelines and avoid excessive sugar consumption." The team speculate that the associations may be explained by a high maternal intake of fructose causing a persistent postnatal allergic immune response leading to allergic inflammation in the developing lung. The researchers controlled for numerous potential confounders in their analyses, such as background maternal characteristics, social factors and other aspects of maternal diet, including foods and nutrients that have been previously linked to childhood asthma and allergy. Importantly, the offspring's free sugar intake in early childhood was found to have no association with the outcomes seen in the analysis. As the study is observational, it does not prove a causal link between maternal sugar intake and allergies or asthma. A randomised controlled trial would be needed to definitively test causality.

Jolie is joined by Dr. Monica Longmore and Dr. Wendy Manning, professors of sociology at BGSU, to discuss their National Science Foundation-funded grant to study social distancing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also discuss how family bonds are being challenged and redefined in this challenging time.   Announcer : From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, this is BG Ideas. Musical Intro: I'm going to show you this with a wonderful experiment. Jolie: Welcome back to the Big Ideas podcast, a collaboration between the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society and the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. I'm Jolie Sheffer, associate professor of English and American Culture Studies and the Director of ICS. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we are not recording in the studio but remotely via phone and computer. As always, the opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of BGSU or its employees. Bowling Green State University is located in The Great Black Swamp, long a meeting place of the Wyandotte, Shawnee, Lenape, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Fox, Pottawatomie, Erie, Miami, Peoria, Chippewa and Seneca Indian tribes. We honor the rich history of this land and its indigenous inhabitants, past and present. Jolie: Today I have the pleasure of being joined by two guests, Dr. Wendy Manning and Dr. Monica Longmore. Wendy is a distinguished research professor of sociology who studies the increasing diversity and complexity of contemporary family relationships. She currently serves as Director of the Center for Family and Demographic Research and co-director for the National Center for Family and Marriage Research. Monica is also a professor of sociology, she studies how individuals defined themselves along with self-evaluations of various personality components. Thank you for joining me today. Both of you in April, as well as Dr. Peggy Giordano, were awarded a National Science Foundation grant on the subject of the coronavirus pandemic predictors and consequences of compliance with social distancing recommendations. So, we've all been living with social distancing but you're, sort of, really thinking about the impacts of that. So, thank you for joining me today to talk more about this research. Jolie: Can you describe the research project and how it's evolved as this pandemic has continued? And generally speaking, how is social distancing connected to your own individual research interests relating to marriage and family relationships and adolescent development? Wendy, will you start us off? Wendy: Sure. It's a great pleasure to be here today, so thank you. What we're doing today is really based on a long-term, 20 year project and so, that really has positioned us to best understand what's happening with COVID. And we started this project back in 2001, we did our first year of data collection of teenagers who were living in Lucas County, Ohio and they were all going to public schools and so, it was a population-based sample. And we had about 1,300 adolescents participate in the survey and we have been following them all through their adolescence, all through their 20s and now they're in their early 30s. And so, we had just finished our sixth wave of data collection when the pandemic hit and so, we have these valuable participants who we really know a lot about their lives and we had just finished a data collection, focusing a lot on child well-being and because a lot of our respondents are now parents and we thought, how are our respondents doing in the pandemic? Wendy: So, we were considering about how we're doing during the pandemic but we were like, how are our people doing? And so, we decided that it would be really a unique opportunity to ask them, when we just finished interviewing them about child wellbeing and parenting, how are you doing now? And so, that's really how the project stemmed was. We thought we have all of this information for so many years about these respondents and there's a lot of polls and surveys that are going out right now but they're all cross-sectional. And they're just asking you, kind of, one point in time, how are you doing? But we really wanted to know, we knew how they're doing over their whole life course and what they were like prior to the pandemic and how that's influencing what they're doing now. So, that's, sort of, in a nutshell where we got the idea. Maybe Monica, you want to tell us about the actual, how it's going. Monica: I think Wendy's correct. I distinctly remember a conference call with Peggy and Wendy and we had just completed our data collection and the first polls were coming out and these posters were saying, "oh, everyone's depressed and there's problem drinking and there's child maltreatment" and Peggy, Wendy and I were saying, "relative to what? What's our baseline?" And we knew that we had those measures, not only did we have them but we had those measures going back many, many years. This is, in a sense, a natural experiment. We've been collecting these data and then this pandemic hits, so that becomes our stimulus, so to speak. What do people look like now? Did their problem drinking really increase? Did child wellbeing decline? Did depressive symptoms go up? Did anxiety go up? And how much so? Or is it the case that individuals who are already experienced in these problems, perhaps the pandemic amplified it? Wendy: And also the question of, who does better and who fares better during the pandemic? So, trying also to learn something about maybe targeting programs or targeting efforts to try to help folks out. So, the National Science Foundation had an opportunity, what they call the rapid grants, where they would review them very quickly and that's exactly what we needed was, we needed to get in the field soon, we could not sit around and think about this for a year. Usually we would pre-test, we would have a lot of ideas, we would write a long grant application but we really had to pull something together quickly but we were in a good position because we had just finished asking them a whole compliment of questions. And so, a big feature and something that our colleague, Peggy Giordano, has really been taking the lead on are, we do a fair number of qualitative interviews. Wendy: So, we interview people with an online survey but we also target different groups of folks and talk to them. And in their own words, find out what's going on and we've had different themes over time and so, we decided we really wanted to ask some questions about social distancing, about COVID. And so, you were asking about how this project changed. We normally would do those interviews face-to-face, we have a wonderful interviewer in Toledo, Claudia Vercellotti, and she, instead of talking to folks in person, talked to them on the phone, we couldn't be face-to-face. And so, the pandemic did change how we did our interviews and it gave us an opportunity, though, to talk to a wide variety of people. Not everybody was living in the area, we had over 50 of those interviews completed on top of our efforts to do an online survey with close to 1,000 respondents. Wendy: So, the online survey continues during the pandemic, so that is something that our respondents are used to. We initially interviewed them in person, the first few waves and then we slowly have been moving to an online format. They know us, they know what the survey is about and it allows them to do the survey in the comfort of their own home, when it's good for them. We're almost out of the field collecting data on them, so we started in June and we'll be hopefully completing at the end of October and about 80% of the respondents have agreed to participate. Jolie: That's really impressive. It really speaks to this long-standing relationship that you have. Monica, your research examines how people define themselves in multiple factors, including their identities, beliefs and experiences. How do you see the pandemic and social distancing protocols having complicated or changed or amplified how individuals, particularly adolescents and young adults, craft these self-definitions? Monica: Right. So, one of the areas I'm interested in is, what are the psychological resources that people have for coping with problems? Particularly what I'm calling stress-related COVID problems. And so, what I'm suggesting is that, individuals who started out with a higher sense of efficaciousness or sense of control over their lives, would better be able to manage COVID related stresses, things like having to homeschool, having to telecommute, financial problems and that those are the individuals that perhaps would be less likely to experience depressive symptoms, high anxiety and problem drinking because I was trying to think of something that's behavioral and that's of a concern to individuals. So, that's, kind of, the approach that I'm taking up and I'm just recently looking at that, the idea of what I'm calling positive parenting. What are the ways that parents can continue to provide emotional support in a sense of caring to their children? And then, obviously, what's the gendered component of that? Because one of the things many people know is that, when kids are stressed, they call for mom. Kids are angry, they call for mom. Monica: And so, it does seem like there's going to be a disproportionate workload for women, particularly in that emotional range, what they have to give and obviously then, something has to give. What is going to give? Perhaps work hours have to give, maybe standards for homemaking have to give, something has to give. And so, as we've said before, we need a base, we have to know what it was prior, we can't just go in now and say, oh, look, women are not working as much as they used to. Well, compared to what? That's the approach that we're always taking. In prior work, Peggy, Wendy and I, have also looked at this notion of uncertainty, whether it's relationship uncertainty. As you probably know, there's high rates of cohabitation. And so, we're interested in whether or not COVID, the pandemic, is making individuals less certain about their relationships. Or perhaps you realize life is short, this is not so bad and then obviously, financial uncertainty, what is the effect of financial uncertainty on psychological wellbeing? Jolie: Wendy, much of your research is about cohabitation and its relationship to wellbeing. And we know that due to social distancing, many of them are living in closer quarters that they have ever lived before. Do you have any early implications for short or long-term impacts for couples and families? Wendy: I think that's a great question and there's been a lot of speculation about that and we can all draw on our own experiences and thinking about how relationships can be strained during these times but also you might learn that this is really a great relationship for you. Wendy: And so, I think, initially a lot of people were thinking, we're going to see high divorce rates because couples aren't going to have any outlets. We don't know the answer to that yet, we don't know if more couples are moving in together. There was a thought that maybe in our effort to create a COVID bubble, you would have COVID cohabitation. And whether those relationships are going to be as stable as other relationships that weren't formed during COVID and so, that all remains to be seen. And so, that's what's going to be really exciting because we'll actually have some evidence about that and we really want to know the answers about that. We've done a lot of research on intimate partner violence and relationship quality and we'll actually be able to understand if there's a change in intimate partner violence or verbal conflict or relationship satisfaction. So, all of these elements of relationships we'll be able to see what was happening before COVID and what was happening after. So, we're interested in that. Wendy: Peggy is analyzing, right now, a lot of the qualitative interviews that we've done and she's finding, also that there's couples where there's not agreement about social distancing or about how to manage it and so that can be an extra source of stress. So, it's not just being in the same house together, maybe having financial pressures but also just the pandemic itself and how to manage it, can differ. And she's seeing a decision and I consider there might be more increases in that with the holidays emerging. So, how are couples going to deal with social distancing? And it's one thing if you're social distancing during months where there's not major holidays but eventually, I think, there's going to be additional pressure and strain on couples. So, we're using the surveys, we'll be using the in-depth interviews, so we're really looking forward to moving forward on that. Jolie: This team on this grant includes Peggy, who has a background in criminology, Wendy, you as a demographer and Monica with social psychology. Why was it so important for this project and this project in particular, as well as your research, generally, to bring together these different disciplinary perspectives? Monica: For all of our projects but this one in particular, I think that we all brought something unique to it. Wendy, of course, understands demographic patterns and I think that I brought to it, sort of, the theory of behavioral motivation and then Peg always has been able to really articulate problem behaviors. And what is life like for individuals who have more disadvantaged backgrounds? Whether it's economic marginality or perhaps a history of substance abuse or a history of intimate partner violence or a history of parental incarceration. And to contextualize it, her point is always, you can't just study family life without looking at how it might differ by these sociological variables. So, I think we've all brought something different into the project. Jolie: Monica, your research is so much about child adolescent development. Since most adolescents can't currently have the typical social experiences that define their stage of life, what are some of the questions you're interested in finding answers to about the repercussions or changes to adolescent self-definition? Monica: I think this is a tough time to be an adolescent. Part of it is developmental, that the process of individuation, where you're supposed to be separating from your parents and really looking more to your peer group for guidance, at least, in terms of popular culture kinds of things. And that has been completely turned on its head. Now, on the other hand, what young people have now that they haven't had in the past is the social network and Snapchat and FaceTiming and all of these different kinds of ways of connecting. And so, I suspect what we're going to see is that, kids are finding ways to separate from parents in ways that we don't even know because we're just not in the groove, so we have no idea how they are staying connected. But one of the other things I was going to mention but normally when we're thinking about health and wellbeing, usually the larger your social network, the better you are, right? Monica: Particularly because the larger the social network, the more likely you'll get the emotional support you need. And you can also give social support because of that norm of reciprocity. But what happens then when you have this large social network and you can't do it anymore. And so, one of the hypothesis that Peggy, Wendy and I have is, this may be one of those instances where individuals with the smallest social networks may actually fare better than an individual with a larger social network. Now, again, this is something, it's a preliminary hypothesis, so we have to still study that. Jolie: We're going to take a quick break. Thanks for listening to the Big Ideas podcast. Announcer: If you are passionate about Big Ideas, consider sponsoring this program. To have your name or organization mentioned here, please contact us at ics@bgsu.edu. Jolie: Hello and welcome back to the Big Ideas podcast. Today I'm talking to Dr. Wendy Manning and Dr. Monica Longmore about their NSF funded project on compliance amid social distancing protocols. Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified many, many of the aspects of systemic, racial and economic inequalities in the United States and around the world. We are seeing that racial and ethnic minority groups are at increased risk of getting sick and of dying from COVID-19. In regard to your study, how diverse is the sample in terms of ethnicity and the variables of disproportionality related to social distances capability? Wendy: So, that's a big question that we're interested in, is the idea that the pandemic is not experienced evenly across all groups. And so, there's people who are marginalized in terms of economics, in terms of race and ethnicity, we have folks who are marginalized, all kinds of domains. And so, we'll be able to consider that in our analysis because our sample reflects the population of Toledo. And so, we have a sample and we over-sampled on racial and ethnic minorities in our project. We have...Our sample also includes a fair number of folks of different economic standings and economic wellbeing, so that will be important. We have included questions about who's an essential worker or not, so we'll have some understanding of what their occupation is and whether they've suffered economically due to COVID. We asked very direct questions about that. So, I think we'll be able to answer questions and find out ways that maybe some folks are better able to cope than others. Wendy: And so, that's what we're hoping to learn is that, while the pandemic is going to hit some people harder, people might have different kinds of resilience. Maybe if they have different kinds of social networks or different kinds of engagements in their relationships. So, we don't know the answer but it's a good one. Monica: I would add to that, that we also know a little bit about their social experiences, in particular. One of the questions we asked is, do you know someone who came down with COVID? And then a second follow-up question is, do you know anyone who passed away from COVID? And so, I think that those are questions that really get at the lived experiences. Jolie: What are you hoping your research might reveal about community and cultural factors for compliance with social distancing protocols? How are you hoping that your findings might help public health officials and others to better communicate around particular pandemic protocols but maybe also about qualities for resilience, more generally? Wendy: I think that's what makes our project really exciting because we feel like we've done a lot of research over the years but we've never researched something that's so time-sensitive and such a crisis, that's experienced by everybody. So, we're hoping that we will learn, who is resilient, who is able to maybe cope. We assume everybody is stressed, how that differentially impacts some folks versus others. And so, we're trying to reach out to broad audiences. One of the missions of NSF is that you have a public engagement component of your project and so, we are very invested in that. And so, we look forward to speaking to people in our community about what we find but until we know our findings, we don't know what the solutions will be. And so, right now, some of the solutions are, sort of, generic, it's, sort of, a one-size-fits-all and the messaging has changed a lot over time. Wendy: I know already that from the qualitative data, that it's complicated, that people have complex rationales for their behavior and they're appropriate for them in their life. But we're really excited about making a difference. We're just not sure exactly how that's going to happen. Jolie: I'm wondering if, because of this time, you are also thinking differently about getting some of your findings in the hands of your subjects. Has that been a subject of conversation amongst the three of you co-PIs on this project? Wendy: We don't have a specific plan, at this moment, to share the findings with the subjects but we definitely are thinking about new ways of sharing the findings through social media and we have hopes that then, we'll be able to reach out to our respondents. We typically do not correspond directly with our respondents, unless it's about interviewing and about the project but as many of them have participated over the years, I'm sure they've Googled us and they understand what our project is. Sometimes we talk about what some of the findings are, we really want the respondents to know that they are valuable to us because only they can represent their lived experience, nobody else can, we can't replace them with somebody else just like them. So, if I was just doing a big survey, I could just say, oh, here's a 20 year old person who's in college, I can just find another person like that. So, they're very unique and special but we're hoping, not only our respondents but the broader community, as they represent the community, we'll be able to speak out to them. Monica: One of the other strategies we've done on this project, more so than any of our other projects, is the involvement of undergraduates in the research process. Through the CFDR, I was able to receive a small grant to hire, I think it was about, five undergraduates, to work on our project, to help with the transcription. We met with them weekly and they were just fabulous. And, in fact, was so successful we're doing it again. We also have several students, undergraduates, who are doing research projects that will be present in their research projects, on campus, at one of our undergraduate conferences. And we're just given thought to, how do we take it to the next step? Is it possible that not only are the students transcribing and critiquing the data and writing about it, is there a role to actually train some of them to be part of the interview process? Is that something we can do as a next step? Monica: And so, that's as a research team, that we're trying to do is, bring research to the level of the undergraduate so that they are active participants in it. And with this particular project and because they were all home, it was not hard getting really bright, enthusiastic, students to work with us. Jolie: A group of researchers from the University of Maryland, coined the term quarantine fatigue, to talk about the decline of people observing social distancing protocols, as the pandemic has grinded on. Through their research, they estimated around April 15th was when some of that fatigue started to set in. Do you have any advice that you would give to those who are experiencing quarantine fatigue but are trying their very best to comply with social distancing guidelines? Monica: Quarantine fatigue is nothing new, I'm thinking back to research that Peggy, Wendy and I did during the HIV epidemic. And it was very similar, kind of, thing, in fact, they sometimes call it zigzag compliance, where you comply with safe sex practices and then it goes down and then you comply and then it goes down and it does get exhausting. And I think the message just has to be the same. You have to wash your hands, you have to social distance, you have to wear a mask. And I think that the constant reminder is the only thing, I don't know what else can work. Jolie: How are you two, personally, holding up in this challenging time? What are some of the strategies that each of you has taken to, sort of, deal with the additional stressors of social distancing of, sort of, higher alert around health and wellbeing, things like that? For you Monica, what are some of the strategies you've maybe ramped up or shifted compared to before? Monica: No matter what we're doing in terms of our research, I'm always the one who says, let's just remember, everything will take more time, nothing takes the time we think it takes. What used to be 15 minutes is now an hour and a half and we have to give ourselves that break. And I think Peggy, Wendy and I have been fortunate with this long friendship that we connect a lot, we talk a lot. In terms of my own personal life, I live out in the country, I have, maybe, three friends. Once in a while I'll go into Bowling Green but I'm pretty much at home. Jolie: What about for you, Wendy? What is this time look like for you and how are you coping, maybe, differently than before? Wendy: Well, I think we're working at home, so as faculty, that's different. We are engaging with students in different ways. And, maybe, we're having more intense and even sometimes more emotional conversations with students as they are trying to cope and deal with COVID. So, I think, you feel like you might be making more of a difference for some people who are having a hard time and I think we all, as faculty, feel a responsibility for that but at the same time, we all face our own struggles. And so, trying to think of activities that you can do, to get outside, I went camping, so some things like that. I thought I was past the years of camping but I actually slept on an air mattress on the ground and it was not bad. Wendy: So, I think, we're all doing a lot of Zoom calling with family and friends. So, I had a Zoom call on Sunday, with people from all over the world I had went to a international high school, so people were in Japan and Israel and Houston and London. And so, I think sometimes we're reaching out to people in new ways and connecting more, so I think that's helpful. I play online Euchre with my in-laws, once a week, so that I have a card game. It's almost the same as being there, it really feels almost the same. We never did this before the pandemic. So, Monica and I both have dogs, so we spend a lot of time with our dogs. Monica: And I also had a huge vegetable garden this year, it's just so classic, just like you see on television. I had a huge garden and every weekend I'm canning something. And when I do go to-- Wendy: --About bringing me a can. She dropped off at the shops, she goes, I was in town and I left you some salsa, I'm like, great. So, I benefited. Monica: Yeah. Yeah. Jolie: Thank you so much for joining me today, Wendy and Monica. Listeners, you can keep up with other ICS happenings by following us on Twitter and Instagram at @icsbgsu or on our Facebook page. You can listen to Big Ideas wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Please subscribe and rate us on your preferred platform. Our producers for this podcast are Chris Cavera and Marco Mendoza, with sound editing by Marco Mendoza. Research assistance was provided by Kari Hanlin. Thank you all so much. Musical Outro: Discussion.

Data from several states around the country shows a 7% drop in birth rates over the last year. Pam Perlich, Director of Demographic Research at Kem C. Gardner Institute, joins Lee to discuss what this means for the future. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode we talk with Trevon Logan about his workflow & tips for mentoring. Trevon is the Hazel C. Youngberg Distinguished Professor of Economics and Dean, College of Arts and Sciences at "The" Ohio State University. Trevon holds a BS from University of Wisconsin, and PhD in economics from Berkeley. He is also an NBER fellow and director of the AEA mentoring program! He currently serves on the editorial boards of Explorations in Economic History, Historical Methods and Demographic Research. Professor Logan specializes in economic history, economic demography and applied microeconomics. Sebastian Tello-Trillo is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in the University of Virginia. Alex Hollingsworth is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Indiana University. Recommendations of the week: Trevon's recommendation of the week is try different vinegars! Lots of things to explore so why not try a different vinegar on your next stop at the supermarket Alex's recommendation is to use "issues" in Github to communicate with co-authors as oppose to emails! It almost work like chat for a specific project. Sebastian's recommendation is to add a bit of evaporated milk in your "home" ramen. Makes things more creamy. I got this tip Dr. Guanyi Yang. Second is to use the "Archive" feature in your email. Start using it now and start clearing your inbox! Archiving just puts emails in a folder and out of your inbox, so if you've dealt with something, then archive it. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hidden-curriculum/message

Listen to Ronora Stryker, ASA, MAAA, SOA Senior Practice Research Actuary; Prof. James Vaupel from the Danish Center for Demographic Research at the  University of Southern Denmark; and Dr. Erwin Tan, MD, Director at AARP Thought Leadership Health discuss the 2020 Living to 100 Monograph's Demographic Perspectives on the Rise of Longevity from Session 4A: Mortality Patterns with host, R. Dale Hall, FSA, CERA, MAAA, CFA, SOA Managing Director of Research. We welcome your questions or comments at researchinsights@soa.org.

Vinney Chopra, the CEO of Moneil Investment Group, Moneil Management Group, and Moneil Multifamily Fund, has acquired over $250,000,000 plus in transactions on over 3500 units throughout the United States. He’s been doing multifamily syndication for about fourteen years now. Vinney Chopra came to the United States from India more than 40 years ago. With a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, he entered The George Washington University to seek a master of business administration degree in marketing and advertising. He has been a passionate motivational speaker and teacher for over three decades. After getting a taste of sales and marketing while pursuing his MBA, Vinney decided to leave engineering altogether and become a motivational speaker and fundraiser. Vinney Chopra manages four successful companies that include Moneil Investment Group, Moneil Management Group, Multifamily Academy and Youth Academy. His diverse experience has allowed him to gain sharp insight into acquisition, syndication and property management of multifamily properties. He has successfully completed 26 syndications and has over $200 Million in his Multifamily Portfolio. He has his own Property Management Company with 60+ personnel and has over 3100 units under management. He is the actual dealmaker who walks his talk.

Avoiding Risky Health Behaviors Can Increase Lifespan by 7 Years Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and University of Michigan, August 12, 2020  Study shows that those who do not smoke, are not obese, and consume alcohol moderately can live 7 years longer than the general population - spending most of these extra years in good health. A new study shows those who avoid risky health behaviors tend to live a long life. Perhaps more importantly, those extra years are characterized by good health. Examples of such “risky health behaviors” include smoking, consuming an excess of alcohol and eating to the point of reaching obesity. The study's results show avoiding such behaviors leads to an increased lifespan of seven years. The study's details were recently published in Health Affairs. Mikko Myrskyla, the Director of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, and Neil Mehta, a University of Michigan professor, spearheaded the study. The study examined data for over 14,000 individuals living in the United States. It determined those who never smoked and did not become obese lived between four and five years longer than the rest of the population. These additional years were not plagued by disabilities. It was also determined those who consumed alcohol in moderation enjoyed an extended lifespan of seven disability-free years. In fact, these individuals enjoyed a life expectancy beyond that of those living in Japan, a nation that is commonly considered to be the best example of how healthy living leads to an extended life. Most people think advancements in medical technology are a primary determinant of lifespan and health. However, this study shows a healthy lifestyle can extend lifespan and improve health. The bottom line is those who avoid smoking and obesity while limiting alcohol consumption will enjoy considerable health and lifespan benefits. This study is a trailblazer of sorts as it is the first to study the aggregate impact of numerous health behaviors on total life expectancy as well as one's odds for being afflicted by disabilities. Prior studies examined single health behaviors. Myrskyla and Mehta studied an array of behaviors to determine lifespan and level of health for those who avoided the most common behavioral risk factors. The pair of researchers found smoking, obesity and consuming an excess of alcohol were tied to reduced life expectancy as well as an earlier occurrence of numerous disabilities. It was determined that smoking was tied to an early death yet not with an increase in the number of years in which people were plagued with disabilities. Obesity is tied to an extensive period of time in which people are plagued with disabilities. Excessive consumption of alcohol is tied to a reduced lifespan and a reduction in the number of years spent in good health. The most surprising finding was the massive difference in the average lifespan between the groups that were most at risk and least at risk. Men who avoided obesity, did not smoke and only drank at moderation lived 11 years longer than those who smoked, drank in excess and were overweight. For women, the difference between these groups was 12 years. People will be happy to know the number of years in which one lives with physical limitations does not increase as he gains more years with a healthy way of life. Rather, a healthy way of life is linked to a solid increase in physically fit years. This means the years one gains through a healthy lifestyle are years characterized by good health. This study's results show just how important it is for people to key in on prevention. Avoid the risky health behaviors noted above and the odds of a long and healthy life dramatically increase. Furthermore, policy interventions to target health behaviors might help significant portions of the population to enjoy the health benefits noted in the study.   UCalgary researchers discover the microbiome's role in attacking cancerous tumours Findings show how our gut bacteria can enhance immunotherapy to battle different forms of cancer UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY   Researchers with the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) have discovered which gut bacteria help our immune system battle cancerous tumours and how they do it. The discovery may provide a new understanding of why immunotherapy, a treatment for cancer that helps amplify the body's immune response, works in some cases, but not others. The findings, published in Science, show combining immunotherapy with specific microbial therapy boosts the ability of the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells in some melanoma, bladder and colorectal cancers.  Dr. Kathy McCoy, PhD, is a leading expert on the body's relationship with the microbiome. She and her team are focused on harnessing the power of the microbiome to improve health and treat diseases. McCoy says to harness and direct that power scientists need to better understand the role bacteria play in regulating the immune system. "Recent studies have provided strong evidence that gut microbiota can positively affect anti-tumour immunity and improve the effectiveness of immunotherapy in treating certain cancers, yet, how the bacteria were able to do this remained elusive, " says McCoy, director of the International Microbiome Centre at the University of Calgary and principal investigator on the study. "We've been able to build on that work by showing how certain bacteria enhance the ability of T-cells, the body's immunity soldiers that attack and destroy cancerous cells." First, the researchers identified bacterial species that were associated with colorectal cancer tumours when treated with immunotherapy. Working with germ-free mice, they then introduced these specific bacteria along with immune checkpoint blockade, a type of cancer immunotherapy. Research revealed that specific bacteria were essential to the immunotherapy working. The tumours shrank, drastically. For those subjects that did not receive the beneficial bacteria, the immunotherapy had no effect. "We found that these bacteria produce a small molecule, called inosine," says Dr. Lukas Mager, MD, PhD, senior postdoctoral researcher in the McCoy lab and first author on the study. "Inosine interacts directly with T-cells and together with immunotherapy, it improves the effectiveness of that treatment, in some cases destroying all the colorectal cancer cells." The researchers then validated the findings in both bladder cancer and melanoma. The next step in this work will be to study the finding in humans. The three beneficial bacteria associated with the tumours in mice have also been found in cancers in humans.  "Identifying how microbes improve immunotherapy is crucial to designing therapies with anti-cancer properties, which may include microbials," says McCoy. "The microbiome is an amazing collection of billions of bacteria that live within and around us everyday. We are in the early stage of fully understanding how we can use this new knowledge to improve efficacy and safety of anti-cancer therapy and improve cancer patient survival and well-being."   Yoga shown to improve anxiety, study shows New York University School of Medicine, August 13, 2020   Yoga improves symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, a condition with chronic nervousness and worry, suggesting the popular practice may be helpful in treating anxiety in some people. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, a new study found that yoga was significantly more effective for generalized anxiety disorder than standard education on stress management, but not effective as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the gold standard form of structured talk therapy that helps patients identify negative thinking for better responses to challenges.  "Generalized anxiety disorder is a very common condition, yet many are not willing or able to access evidence-based treatments," says lead study author Naomi M. Simon, MD, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health. "Our findings demonstrate that yoga, which is safe and widely available, can improve symptoms for some people with this disorder and could be a valuable tool in an overall treatment plan." For the study, publishing online Aug. 12 in JAMA Psychiatry, 226 men and women with generalized anxiety disorder were randomly assigned to three groups - either CBT, Kundalini yoga, or stress-management education, a standardized control technique.  After three months, both CBT and yoga were found to be significantly more effective for anxiety than stress management. Specifically, 54 percent of those who practiced yoga met response criteria for meaningfully improved symptoms compared to 33 percent in the stress-education group. Of those treated with CBT, 71 percent met these symptom improvement criteria.  However, after six months of follow-up, the CBT response remained significantly better than stress education (the control therapy), while yoga was no longer significantly better, suggesting CBT may have more robust, longer-lasting anxiety-reducing effects. Study Details The study involved an evidence-based protocol for CBT treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, including psychoeducation, cognitive interventions (focused on identifying and adapting maladaptive thoughts and worrying), and muscle relaxation techniques.  Kundalini yoga included physical postures, breathing techniques, relaxation exercises, yoga theory, and meditation/mindfulness practice.  The stress-management education control group received lectures about the physiological, psychological and medical effects of stress, as well as the antianxiety effects of lifestyle behaviors, such as reducing alcohol and smoking, and the importance of exercise and a healthy diet. Homework consisted of listening to educational material about stress, nutrition, and lifestyle. Each treatment was administered in groups of three to six participants, over weekly two-hour sessions for 12 weeks with 20 minutes of daily homework assigned. Can Yoga Help Treat Anxiety? According to researchers, generalized anxiety disorder is a common, impairing, and undertreated condition, currently affecting an estimated 6.8 million Americans. While most people feel anxious from time to time, it is considered a disorder when worrying becomes excessive and interferes with day-to-day life. CBT is considered the gold standard first-line treatment. Medications, including antidepressants and sometimes benzodiazepines, may also be used. Yet, not everyone is willing to take medication which can have adverse side effects and there are challenges with accessing CBT for many, including lack of access to trained therapists and long waitlists. "Many people already seek complementary and alternative interventions, including yoga, to treat anxiety," says Dr. Simon. "This study suggests that at least short-term there is significant value for people with generalized anxiety disorder to give yoga a try to see if it works for them. Yoga is well-tolerated, easily accessible, and has a number of health benefits." According to Dr. Simon, future research should aim to understand who is most likely to benefit from yoga for generalized anxiety disorder to help providers better personalize treatment recommendations. "We need more options to treat anxiety because different people will respond to different interventions, and having more options can help overcome barriers to care," she says. "Having a range of effective treatments can increase the likelihood people with anxiety will be willing to engage in evidence-based care."   High omega 3 fatty acid intake associated with decreased risk of depressive symptoms in middle-aged women Gachon University (S Korea), August 12, 2020   According to news originating from Gyeonggi Do, South Korea, the research stated, “Omega-3 fatty acid n-3FA intake is known to have a preventive effect on depressive symptoms in a general population.” The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Gachon University: “This study assessed the effects of n-3 FA intake on depressive symptoms and brain function in middle-aged women. Depressive symptoms were screened using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale (CES-D) assessment questionnaires, and n-3 FA intakes were assessed using semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. We found that * * n* * -3 FA intakes were negatively associated with depressive symptoms in middle-aged women. Psychiatrists diagnosed the presence of depressive disorders using the 5th edition of the Mental Disorder Diagnosis and Statistics Manual (DSM-5). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was performed to investigate the association between n-3 FA intake and brain functional connectivity. Functional connectivity of the right middle frontal cortex (default mode network) and the right middle temporal pole (frontoparietal network) was positively associated with depressive symptom scores and negatively associated with n-3 FA intakes.” According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “In conclusion, high Omega-3 n-3 FA intake decreases the risk of depressive symptoms and modifies the brain functional connectivity in middle-aged women.”   Study: Medical marijuana associated with fewer hospitalizations for individuals with SCD Obtaining medical marijuana also associated with an increase in use of edible cannabis products Yale School of Medicine, August 13, 2020   Individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) who receive medical marijuana to treat pain may require fewer visits to the hospital, according to a new study in Blood Advances. Adults with SCD who requested and obtained medical marijuana were admitted to the hospital less frequently than those who did not obtain it. SCD is the most common inherited red blood cell disorder in the United States, affecting an estimated 100,000 people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SCD affects one out of every 365 Black or African American births and one out of every 16,300 Hispanic American births. SCD is characterized by abnormal, sickle-shaped red blood cells that can adhere to and block blood vessels, preventing oxygen from reaching the tissues. When this occurs, individuals living with SCD experience severe pain events which may drive them to seek emergency care. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 SCD-related hospital stays in the United States each year. There is a need for other options for management of pain so that individuals with SCD do not have to go through the time, hardship, and expense of hospitalization and can manage their symptoms at home. Previous studies have shown that cannabis and cannabinoid products can effectively treat chronic pain associated other conditions such as cancer. More controlled studies of marijuana for the treatment of pain in SCD are still needed. "When we offered medical marijuana as an option to our patients with sickle cell disease, we found the majority of people who were interested were already using illicit marijuana to treat pain," said the study's lead author Susanna Curtis, MD, of the Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center. "Illicit marijuana is not regulated, so its quality and contents are not standardized. And particularly for people with sickle cell disease, many of whom identify as Black, we know that while Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates, Black people are four times more likely to be arrested for possession. We didn't want our patients using unsafe products or being arrested for trying to control the pain of their condition." Dr. Curtis and her team examined data from 50 individuals with SCD at the Adult Sickle Cell Program at Yale New Haven Hospital who were certified for medical marijuana use. Of those certified, 29 obtained medical marijuana and 21 did not. Those who obtained medical marijuana visited the hospital less frequently on average over the following six months. Several patients even reduced their hospital admission rates by three, four, or five visits. Receiving medical marijuana was not associated with a change in emergency room or infusion center visits, total health care utilization, or opioid use. Researchers did not observe any change to hospitalization rates in individuals who did not obtain medical marijuana. Dr. Curtis suggested a possible reason for the reduced hospitalization rates could be that medical marijuana helps individuals better tolerate their pain at home. The researchers also sought to understand why many patients were unable to access medical marijuana, and why some continued to occasionally use illicit cannabis despite obtaining medical marijuana. In a survey, individuals who obtained medical marijuana reported that they felt it was safer than illicit marijuana and they felt it was effective at controlling their pain; however, they did also report barriers such as greater expense and difficulty of access. Race and socioeconomic status may also be barriers for patients with SCD. "About 80% of our clinic population identifies as Black, and another 15% as Latinx, and unfortunately people of color who visit the hospital with pain are often not believed or accused of being drug-seeking. Medical marijuana is associated with significant stigma, and stigma is already a big part of the life of a person with sickle cell," said Dr. Curtis. Cannabis and cannabinoid products also present legal and medical challenges. While 33 states have medical marijuana laws, only five of those states list SCD as a qualifying condition. Medical marijuana products vary greatly in their chemical content and forms of administration. In the study, patients who obtained medical marijuana were more likely to use edible products as opposed to inhaled products. Previous research suggests the pain-relieving effect of edible products has a slower onset but a longer duration than that of inhaled products. This variability between different products can cause difficulty for patients trying to manage their symptoms. Dr. Curtis highlighted the need for further research to understand the efficacy, side effects, and drug interactions of various cannabis products on SCD treatment. "My patients are living with a very difficult disease that causes them a lot of pain. We need controlled trials to look at each product, and the effects of how it is taken, so that we can offer regulated, pharmaceutical-grade treatment options."   Recalling memories from a third-person perspective changes how our brain processes them Remembering your past as an observer affects your memories, according to new study University of Alberta, August 13, 2020   Adopting a third-person, observer point of view when recalling your past activates different parts of your brain than recalling a memory seen through your own eyes, according to a new paper. "Our perspective when we remember changes which brain regions support memory and how these brain regions interact together," explained Peggy St Jacques, assistant professor in the Faculty of Science'sDepartment of Psychology and co-author on the paper.  Specifically, the results show that recalling memories from an observer-like perspective, instead of through your own eyes, leads to greater interaction between the anterior hippocampus and the posterior medial network. "These findings contribute to a growing body of research that show that retrieving memories is an active process that can bias and even distort our memories," added St Jacques. "Adopting an observer-like perspective involves viewing the past in a novel way, which requires greater interaction among brain regions that support our ability to recall the details of a memory and to recreate mental images in our mind's eye." Adopting an observer-like perspective may also serve a therapeutic purpose, explained St Jacques. "This may be an effective way of dealing with troubling memories by viewing the past from a distance and reducing the intensity of the emotions we feel."  This work builds on St Jacques' previous research on visual perspective in memory, which found that the perspective from which we recall a memory can influence how we remember them over time.     Calcium-rich fermented foods preferred in improving bone and heart health, study says Nattopharma (Norway), August 9, 2020 Calcium should come from healthy sources like fermented dairy products and leafy greens as a review outlines an approach to receiving an adequate intake while supporting bone and heart health. The review paper, published in the latest edition of the Open Heart journal, stated that the majority of the US population did not consume the current recommended dietary allowance for calcium. This finding has also been echoed in Europe with studies identifying dietary calcium intake as low - 300 and 600 mg/day in women, and 350 and 700 mg/day in men. The review also found milk and dairy products the most readily available dietary sources of calcium that were preferred by the general population. However, concerns as to these food's long-term health effects were mentioned as milk, in particular was singled out as a promoter of inflammation and oxidation in adult humans. Despite this, the review detailed a series of steps that could help in building strong bones while maintaining soft and supple arteries.  These included obtaining calcium from dietary sources rather and ensuring that adequate animal protein intake is coupled with calcium intake of 1000 mg/day. Other measures included maintaining vitamin D levels in the normal range, and increasing intake of fruits and vegetables to alkalinise the system and promote bone health. Other research has shown that calcium supplementation can play an important role in boosting levels, especially in areas where healthy diets are less common. The average calcium requirement for young adults (18–24 years) is 860 mg/day as defined by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). EFSA also define the safe upper limit for calcium intake in adults, including pregnant and lactating women, at 2,500 mg/day. The findings that suggest milk as a less-than-ideal source of calcium will come as a surprise to many. Indeed, the review acknowledged that "cow's milk, though rich in many nutrients, including calcium, has issues that render it less than ideal as a dietary staple for many adults."  These issues include milk's d-galactose content, which has been linked to a high mortality rate and high fracture incidence. Along with calcium's direct benefits the paper also recognised its role in facilitating vitamin K-dependent pathways. Increased vitamin K2 intake has been associated with decreased arterial calcium deposition and the ability to reverse vascular calcification in animal models . The vitamin is most abundant in meat, especially liver, chicken and beef along with dairy products. The primary vegetarian source is Nattō, a Japanese soybean food fermented with the bacterial species Bacillus subtilis var. natto.  “The only food that contains enough Vitamin K2 is the Japanese dish Natto,” explained Dr Hogne Vik, chief medical officer with Norwegian vitamin K2 supplier, NattoPharma, whose firm has responded to rising demand for vitamin K2-fortified supplements and foods in recent years.   Berry eaters may be at lower risk of diabetes: Meta-analysis Zhejiang University (China), August 12, 2020 Data from almost 400,000 people suggests that consuming berries and the anthocyanins they contain may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus by 15-18%. Scientists from Zhejiang University in China reported that the potential benefits could be linked to the antioxidant properties of anthocyanins in berries and their regulation of inflammatory responses, as well as via pathways to reduce blood glucose and insulin resistance. “T2DM [type 2 diabetes mellitus] and its associated complications cause serious medical and socioeconomic burdens. The findings from the present meta-analysis provide sufficient evidence that dietary intakes of anthocyanins and berries are associated with a lower risk of T2DM, respectively,” wrote the researchers in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition . Booming berries Consumer interest and demand for berries has grown rapidly in the US, driven by several factors, including the potential health benefits, improved quality and year-round availability,according to a 2012 article by Roberta Cook from UC Davis . “The berry category recently became the number-one dollar category in fresh produce departments, with national supermarket sales (excluding club stores, supercenters, and some other formats) projected to surpass $5.3 billion annually by June 2011,” wrote Cook. Many companies are also offering concentrated extracts from the products as dietary supplements, with brands such as Life Extension, Puritan's Pride, and Swanson offering products. Study details An example of one of the many berry extract dietary supplement products commercially available to US consumers The new study, said to be the first to “evaluate the association of dietary consumption of anthocyanins and berries with T2DM risk”, assessed data from three cohort studies looking at dietary anthocyanin intakes and diabetes risk (200,894 participants and 12,611 cases of diabetes documented) and five cohort studies looking at berry intake and diabetes risk (194,019 participants and 13,013 cases of diabetes). Crunching the numbers indicated that dietary anthocyanin consumption was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of T2DM, while berry intake was associated with an 18% reduction in risk. For every 7.5 mg/day increment of dietary anthocyanin or 17 g/day increment in berry intake the risk of T2DM decreased by 5%, added the researchers. Interestingly, there were some gender differences observed with the benefits from berry consumption observed for women and not men. “More prospective studies in other regions and ethnic groups are warranted to further explore the associations of dietary anthocyanins and berries with T2DM risk,” wrote the researchers.     Scientists sound the alarm: Lockdowns may escalate the obesity epidemic University of Copenhagen Health and Medical Sciences, August 13, 2020   Scientists sound the alarm: Lockdowns may escalate the obesity epidemic Emotional stress, economic anxiety, physical inactivity and social distance - locking down society to combat COVID-19 creates psychosocial insecurity that leads to obesity, warn three Danish researchers. Counter measures are needed if we are to keep the public both metabolically healthy and safe from the coronavirus Rates of obesity may explode because of strategies to limit the spread of COVID-19, warn a trio of researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University. Investment in obesity research will help inform counter strategies that people eating healthily, feeling happy and staying active, while also combatting COVID-19. "We are concerned that policy makers do not fully understand how strategies such as lockdowns and business closures could fuel the rise of obesity - a chronic disease with severe health implications, but with few reliable treatment options," says Associate Professor Christoffer Clemmensen, from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR), at the University of Copenhagen. Alone, inactive and hungry In a letter published in the scientific journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology, Clemmensen and two co-authors outlined how COVID-19 containment strategies could increase rates of obesity. Firstly, it is well documented that people with limited economic resources are more likely eat highly-processed and energy-rich food. These foods have been shown to stimulate people's appetites, so that they end up eating more calories than they need. "It is likely that more people will turn to these forms of food, as more people lose their jobs and experience economic hardship," says co-author Professor Michael Bang Petersen, from the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University. Secondly, physical distancing increases anxiety by limiting our ability to socially interact. Feelings of loneliness and isolation, combined with confinement within a home setting, can impact our food behavior and lead us to overeat. This effect is compounded by lower levels of physical activity, as people are urged to work from home and venture out as little as possible. Stopping the virus and protecting metabolic health Co-author Professor Thorkild I.A. Sørensen from CBMR at the University of Copenhagen, stresses that we still do not exactly understand how a person's mental health and economic status end up increasing a person's risk of developing obesity. "We know that there are links between obesity and a person's class and mental health, but we don't exactly understand how they make an impact," says Sørensen. More research is needed to uncover the cause and effect, but the three co-authors say the scientific expectations are clear: physical distancing and rising rates of unemployment should lead us to expect increased rates of obesity.  Together they urge governments and decision makers to consider what impact COVID-19 containment strategies, such as lockdowns, will have on the public's metabolic health. With this in mind, counter strategies should be considered to ensure that the public remains healthy, happy and active - and also safe from the coronavirus.

Rod Arquette Show Daily Rundown - Monday, March 16, 20204:20 pm: John Merline of Issues and Insights join the program to discuss his recent piece comparing the coronavirus situation with that of the swine flu outbreak during the Obama administration4:35 pm: Dr. Dagmar Vitek, Medical Director for the Salt Lake County Health Department, joins the show to discuss the latest on the coronavirus outbreak and why she says testing for the virus is losing its importance5:05 pm: Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce President Derek Miller joins the show to discuss how the state will approach the economics of the coronavirus after being named the head of a task force created by Governor Hebert to handle the situation5:35 pm: Author and historian Victor Davis Hanson joins the show to discuss why he says America should approach the Covid-19 outbreak as if it’s an enemy during a war6:05 pm: Pamela Perlich, Director of Demographic Research at the University of Utah, joins the show to discuss how the coronavirus pandemic will affect Utah’s growth in the long run6:20 pm: Peter Morici, a professor at the business school at the University of Maryland, joins the program to discuss his recent op-ed piece about how to solve the rising costs of a college education6:35 pm: John Carney, Economics and Finance Editor for Breitbart, joins Rod for a conversation about how to respond to the economic emergency being caused by the coronavirus

Rod Arquette Show Daily Rundown - Monday, December 2, 20194:20 pm: Larry Gelwix of Columbus Travel joins the show to give us his reaction to a recent report that shows unruly behavior by airline passengers is on the rise5:05 pm: Peter Reichard, President of the Utah Foundation, joins Rod for a conversation about whether Utah can be a leader in clean-car technology to help improve air quality6:05 pm: St. George Mayor Jon Pike joins Rod to discuss the importance of the Lake Powell Pipeline to communities in Southern Utah6:20 pm: Pam Perlich, Director of Demographic Research at the University of Utah joins Rod to discuss a new report that shows Utah’s fertility level has fallen below the “replacement rate” – where a generation replaces itself – for the first time ever6:35 pm: Tirzah Duren, a policy analyst with The Commonwealth Foundation, joins the show to discuss her recent piece in The Federalist about how millennials are leaving Democrat-controlled cities in droves

Florida cancelled its tax credits for film makers in 2016 -- and now industry observers say some big productions are moving to places like Georgia, which are still giving out large financial incentives. But several studies have come out saying state support for the film industry might not be worth the money -- including one from Florida's Office of Economic and Demographic Research, which showed a return on investment of just 18 cents per dollar spent. We're continuing our conversation with Sarasota Herald Tribune reporter Jimmy Geurts; Tyler Martinolich, Hillsborough County Film Commissioner; and Tony Stopperan, a filmmaker  based in Sarasota, Florida.Support for Florida Matters More comes from the National Foundation for Transplants. Right now, hundreds of Tampa residents need an organ transplant they can not afford. Join National Foundation for Transplants, an organization providing financial relief to transplant patients for more than 35 years. Visit transplants.org to learn more.

Florida cancelled its tax credits for film makers in 2016 -- and now industry observers say some big productions are moving to places like Georgia, which are still giving out large financial incentives. But several studies have come out saying state support for the film industry might not be worth the money -- including one from Florida's Office of Economic and Demographic Research, which showed a return on investment of just 18 cents per dollar spent. We're continuing our conversation with Sarasota Herald Tribune reporter Jimmy Geurts; Tyler Martinolich, Hillsborough County Film Commissioner; and Tony Stopperan, a filmmaker  based in Sarasota, Florida. Support for Florida Matters More comes from the National Foundation for Transplants. Right now, hundreds of Tampa residents need an organ transplant they can not afford. Join National Foundation for Transplants, an organization providing financial relief to transplant patients for more than 35 years. Visit transplants.org to learn more.

Florida cancelled its tax credits for film makers in 2016 -- and now industry observers say some big productions are moving to places like Georgia, which are still giving out large financial incentives. But several studies have come out saying state support for the film industry might not be worth the money -- including one from Florida's Office of Economic and Demographic Research, which showed a return on investment of just 18 cents per dollar spent. We're continuing our conversation with Sarasota Herald Tribune reporter Jimmy Geurts; Tyler Martinolich, Hillsborough County Film Commissioner; and Tony Stopperan, a filmmaker  based in Sarasota, Florida. Support for Florida Matters More comes from the National Foundation for Transplants. Right now, hundreds of Tampa residents need an organ transplant they can not afford. Join National Foundation for Transplants, an organization providing financial relief to transplant patients for more than 35 years. Visit transplants.org to learn more.

点击每期节目可以看到具体文稿内容Want to live past 100? These centenarians share their secretsBy Sharon JaysonGertrude Siegel is 101 and hears it all the time. “Everyone says ‘I want to be just like you.' I tell them to get in line,” she said.John and Charlotte Henderson, 104 and 102, often field questions from wannabes eager to learn their secrets.“Living in moderation,” he said. “We never overdo anything. Eat well. Sleep well. Don't overdrink. Don't overeat. And exercise regularly.”Mac Miller, who is 102, has a standard reply.“People ask me ‘What is the secret?' The answer is simple. Choose the right grandparents. They were in their 80s. My mother was 89, and my father was 93,” he said.Genetics and behaviors do play roles in determining why some people live to be 100 or older while others don't, but they aren't guarantees. And now, as increasing numbers are reaching triple digits, figuring out the mysteries of longevity has taken on new importance among researchers.Although those 100 and older make up a tiny segment of America's population, U.S. Census reports show that centenarian ranks are growing. Between 1980 and 2010, the numbers rose from 32,194 to 53,364, an increase of almost 66 percent. The latest population estimate, released in July 2015, reflects 76,974 centenarians.“The number of centenarians in the U.S. and other countries has been doubling roughly every eight years,” said James Vaupel, founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany.“When the baby boomers hit, there's going to be acceleration, and it might be doubling every five or six years,” he said.Henderson and his wife of 77 years live in Austin in the independent living section of Longhorn Village, a community of more than 360 seniors, many of whom have ties to the University of Texas at Austin. Henderson is UT's oldest-living former football player, arriving in 1932 as a freshman. They're the only centenarians in the complex and are a rare breed: married centenarians.968重庆之声每周一至周五8点56分每天三分钟养成良好英语听说习惯

Chris Forbes is the logistics and demographic strategists for the church planting team for the Baptist General Conference of Oklahoma. In this episode, we talk about how organizations can do better demographic research in order to better know what kinds of churches to plant. We also talk about Chris' latest research project where his team identified and developed the spiritual profiles of non-Christians in Oklahoma in order to better mobilize church planters. Learn how your organization can do the same. Learn more about Hidden Harvest and download a free copy of the report.

"Free Shipping" doesn't exist. There's no such thing. It's a myth. Somebody ALWAYS pays for shipping. In the 25+ years I've been making money online (and in my 43+ years in business overall) I have never come across a shipping company that ships for free. Have you? Be sure to Subscribe to the Show! Find much more TRUTH about ECommerce on my site. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT "Free Shipping" doesn't exist. There's no such thing. It's a myth. Somebody ALWAYS pays for shipping. In the 25+ years I've been making money online (and in my 43+ years in business overall) I have never come across a shipping company that ships for free. Have you? In one of my EBiz Insider Workshops last year, I had a person who had been a UPS Driver for 17 years. I asked him if he ever worked for free. He said no. I was not surprised. Covering the shipping cost of a product to an online customer happens in one of three ways: 1. The seller pays for the shipping, which comes out of their profit margin. 2. The buyer pays for the shipping, which gets charged to them during the purchase. 3. The seller pays for the shipping by HIDING the shipping cost in a higher product price, which still means that they buyer pays for the shipping. Then of course sometimes, there's a combination where the seller hides SOME of the shipping in a higher product price, and charges the buyer a lower 'flat rate' shipping price. Any way you ship it, there is NO such thing as actual Free Shipping. You know that, I know that...hey, even our dog probably know that. She's pretty smart. Free Shipping has a cost. Always. Small business owners cannot afford to cover any of that cost out of their profit margins (which is the only way to offer Free Shipping). Fake Gurus who tell you that as a small business owner you must offer Free Shipping are simply trying to feed you a plate full of ship, so to speak, and are expecting you to pay them for the meal. Like so many other things in sales, Free Shipping is a gimmick. Sales gimmicks are the last resorts of people who don't know how to actually market products. Let me repeat that LOUDLY for those in the back row who are playing games on their smart phones and not paying attention: SALES GIMMICKS (like Free Shipping) ARE THE LAST RESORTS OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO ACTUALLY MARKET PRODUCTS. Fake Gurus do not know how to actually market products. They only know how to feed you plates full of ship, and (ironically) charge you for delivering them. Small business owners who do know how to market products charge shipping to their customers all day long, and their customers pay it without a problem. So let's talk about some of the things involved in actually marketing a product properly. 1. Choose a product market that's profitable and has room for competition. Market Research (when done correctly) is the process of finding products that (a) sell well, (b) are not overly competitive, and (c) fall within certain price ranges that make a product worth selling. The Fake Gurus will tell you to 'sell something you like', or 'test products to see what sells'. That's why they're called Fake Gurus; both of those ideas are ridiculous. This isn't about selling what you like. It's about researching what sells well and has room for competition, and then learning to love that product. A good retail salesperson is a die-hard evangelist for the product they sell. If they're not, their lack of enthusiasm in their Social Media efforts will rat them out in a heartbeat and kill their sales before they begin. 2. Understand how people search for the product. A good marketer knows that Keyword Research is, well, KEY to marketing a product. Researching every possible word or phrase, whether closely or distantly related to the product line, and then using those words and phrases properly in marketing makes all the difference. Marketurds and Midiots won't even mention Keyword Research to you most of the time, and it's absolutely critical to do it, and do it right. 3. Develop a deep understanding of WHO BUYS the product. You CANNOT sell the same product to all age and gender demographics at the same time. No professional marketer ever even tries to do that. Not even the big kids at the multi-million dollar Ad Agencies on Madison Avenue. Every product line has a 'sweet spot' where the highest concentration of customers for that product exist, and it's a marketer's job to find that sweet spot and understand it. When you figure out who the customer is that buys the most of your product most of the time, you've found the money in the product line. Demographic Research then tells you things like how to talk to them, what color palettes work for them, whether they prefer to see a lot of text and less imagery, or lots of imagery and less text on sales pages, what style of graphics and typography we should be using, and many, many more critically important things. When you understand the Demographic, you know how to present them with an extended marketing message that strikes an irresistible chord with them, and if that's done right they'll buy from you immediately even if they have to walk to the Moon and pick up the product themselves. But again, Fake Gurus know nothing of these processes. These are real world marketing tools, and the Fake Gurus aren't interested in the real world except as it applies to emptying your wallet. 4. Sell in the right places. If you were going to build a lemonade stand on the sidewalk and sell cups of lemonade to passers-by, like kids do in the summertime, would you rather build that lemonade stand in from of The Dollar Store, or in front of Macy's? People walking into The Dollar Store are bargain hunting. They're trying to save money. You might get a nickel a cup for lemonade once in a while in front of The Dollar Store. However, you'll get a quarter a cup for lemonade all day long in front of Macy's. In the PHYSICAL retail world, LOCATION matters because the FOOT TRAFFIC matters. Higher end retail stores are built in physical locations that have a higher-income DEMOGRAPHIC per capita because that's where the money is. The same thing happens online. People who are shopping on eBay, Amazon, WalMart.com, etc., are bargain hunting. Those people will most often be price-comparing, because they have a need to save money. In those places, Free Shipping DOES have an impact, and so does price. When you sell in places where people shop with a bargain-hunting mentality, you have to lower your price to the point where your profit margins are so low you couldn't see under them with a microscope, and that's no way to run a business. You need to place your business where the money is; where people are searching for products based on the quality they want rather than the price they can afford. That is and always will be your own web site. People who shop the search engines for products are NOT going directly to eBay, Amazon and WalMart. They're searching for the PRODUCT, not the PRICE. The number of people who search Google and other search engines for products vastly outnumbers the people who bargain hunt directly at eBay, Amazon, etc. If you learn proper Market Research, Keyword Research, Demographics, and sell in the right place with a clear understanding of marketing, you'll make a lot of money and you won't need to even think about offering Free Shipping. The next time some Fake Guru tries to sell you a plate full of 'free ship', hand them a spoon and tell them to eat it themselves; you're not hungry. Want to learn how things really work? Check out my FREE EBiz Insider Video Series at ChrisMalta.com. I'll teach you 'til you beg for mercy.

The idea of a Free Trial Website is purposely misleading, and here's why. When you start a REAL online business using a Website, the Website is actually the LAST thing you do, NOT the first. Be sure to Subscribe to the Show! Find much more TRUTH about ECommerce on my site. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Welcome to Chris Malta's EBiz Insider Podcast, where you CAN buy EBiz Scammer Pinatas in the gift shop if you like! The idea of a Free Trial Website is purposely misleading, and here's why. When you start a REAL online business using a Website, the Website is actually the LAST thing you do, NOT the first. There is a certain amount of learning that needs to be done before you jump into this business. Then there's a certain amount of Market Research, Keyword Research, Graphic Development, Site Pre-Design, Marketing Material Development, Demographic Research, Social Media Setup and SEO Development to be done FIRST. THEN you get the Website and start to put it together. If that sounds like it's just too much for you, you should not be considering an online business. If you're not willing to learn and work, you're never going to make any money in any business of any kind. If you are willing to learn and work, read on. Very 'reputable' companies will offer you Free Trial Websites. All the big ones you see on TV and online do this in one form or another. The problem with that is that they know there's a lot of other work to do first, but they don't care and won't tell you. As long as they can get you hooked with a Free Trial and then start marketing useless "apps, systems and tools" that make it all sound EASY to you, they're doing their happy-dance because they've successfully connected your wallet to their bank account on a monthly recurring basis, and they'll keep stringing you along for as long as they possibly can. That's disgusting. I once had a man attend my EBiz Insider Workshop who told me that he had started four Websites in a row that had each failed. I felt bad for him until we started talking about the details. Then I felt even worse for him. He told me he had let Shopify talk him into a 2 Week Free Trail Website. He started the Free Trial, slapped some random products from Oberlo on it (oh, boy), didn't make any money in 2 weeks, so he shut it down. Then he started another Shopify 2 Week Free Trial, slapped some random products from Oberlo on it, didn't make any money in 2 weeks, so he shut it down. Then he started another Shopify 2 Week Free Trial, slapped some random products from Oberlo on it, didn't make any money in 2 weeks...well, I'm sure you know where this story is going at this point. He said he did that four times in 2 months. I think I was probably speechless for almost a full minute, which, as you can tell, is rare for me. But you know what? This WASN'T HIS FAULT. This is the level of absolute insanity that these sick, greedy con artists tell people to in order to cheat them out of money. He was TOLD to do that by some skeechy online marketing hack who charged him thousands of dollars for THAT kind of advice!! You're never going to make any real money online in 2 weeks. Or in 2 months, for that matter. Not money that counts. This take patience, effort and time. The people who most often become the worst victims of all these misleading cons are people who are in a hurry to make money. An online business, or any other kind of business, is not a quick solution to a short-term financial shortage. It's going to take time, patience, effort and SOME money. Please remember that. There are a FEW (not MANY, but a FEW) highly experienced business owners out here who actually care more about being honest than we do about making money. If you want to see that strange concept in action, check out my FREE EBiz Insider Video Series at ChrisMalta.com. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time.

Rod Arquette Show Daily Rundown - Wednesday, March 28, 20184:20 pm: Pamela Perlich, Director of Demographic Research at the Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, joins Rod to discuss why she says it’s a bad idea for the 2020 Census to include a question about the citizenship of the person filling out the survey4:35 pm: Mark Floyd, co-owner of Social Axe Throwing in Salt Lake City, joins Rod to discuss the new social activity, and if it’s a good idea to serve beer to those wielding axes6:05 pm: Deseret News Opinion Editor Boyd Matheson joins the show for his weekly visit with Rod about the world of politics6:20 pm: McKay Coppins of The Atlantic joins Rod to discuss his piece about how Mitt Romney has no plans to join “the resistance” against President Trump and that his opposition to Trump is born from his conservatism6:35 pm: Author and Pastor Michael Anthony, also a blogger on couragematters.com, joins Rod to discuss why he says the organizers of March for Our Lives are wrong when they say the government is our savior

In a 3 week period, Irene Schreiner went from renting a little room in an office to renting a 3 room suite in a different building. She did this by making numerous, calculated business decisions that enabled her to build a thriving private practice in a matter of weeks. One of the primary driving factors that enabled her to do this is by doing detailed demographic research into where she would open her private practice. Listen to the episode to discover all of the details. The post TTE 76: How Demographic Research Helped Irene Go From Renting a Single Room to a 3 Room Suite in 3 Weeks appeared first on BrighterVision.com.

Host, Bob Hobbs speaks Caitlin Coyle, PhD from the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging at UMass Boston on upcoming survey being sent to Beverly senior citizens on how the Beverly Council on Aging can best serve the city's growing senior population For more information on the Beverly Council on Aging visit: www.beverlyma.gov/departments/council-on-aging/ For information on BevCam visit: www.BevCam.org

Mikolaj Szoltysek (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock) gives a talk for the Cantemir Institute on 12th February 2013.