When Experts Attack!

Music professor Colin Roust discusses the complete works of Francis Johnson, an internationally famous African American composer who reshaped the origins of American music.

Imogen Herrick says schools can serve as "estuaries of learning" — a metaphor that connects science to larger culture and society.

International trade expert Raj Bhala assesses the greatest disruption in trade since the end of World War II and asks whether manufacturing will really return to the U.S.

Maybe the least-known specialty in any music school is music therapy — the clinical and evidence-based use of music to improve health and well-being. In this episode, associate professors of music CharCarol Fisher and William Matney outline what the latest research shows are the musical skills that make a good therapist.

James Yékú sees social media empowering people to respond to corrupt political leaders in his home country of Nigeria — yet, social media also shuts down debate on important social and literary topics.

Jack Zhang researches the sometimes-hidden complexities of tariffs and says innovation, competition, small business and the pocketbooks of working-class Americans might suffer under the new wave of American taxes on foreign imports.

Why do university graduates wear caps and gowns? Steve Wolgast gets medieval explaining how European scholars centuries ago, wearing gowns for warmth in chilly libraries, led to an Ohio academic suggesting American universities standardize academic dress.

Researcher and gambler Justin Balthrop explains pitfalls of legalized online sports betting, including more credit card debt and fewer sound financial investments.

Author and scholar Mary Banwart discusses her new book chronicling the history of women in U.S. politics, with a newly penned forward following Kamala Harris' rise to Democratic presidential nominee.

Stephen Jackson, an education professor who prepares future teachers on instructing students in history, discusses how controversies in teaching history have become part of the culture wars, how teachers are scared and why some have said this era is worse than McCarthyism.

A year ago, police officers executed a search warrant on a small-town Kansas newspaper, triggering worldwide outrage over the seizing of newspaper equipment. The stress of the raid is said to have helped lead to the death of the publisher's mother. Journalist and professor Steve Wolgast discusses why the raid happened and just why it's so problematic for government to obstruct freedom of the press...

Brian Donovan is teaching a university course on the artistic and sociological influence of Taylor Swift. He outlines how the semester's lessons mirror the performer's career from a breakout country music star to the gazillion-selling icon of her recent Eras tour.

Mahbub Rashid says his book is the first to examine how spatial qualities impact health issues for people living in areas that aren't strictly rural or metropolitan.

Sara Reed, an expert in transportation logistics, has extensively researched autonomous vehicle delivery. She discusses the technology's benefits for businesses and whether they'll outweigh potential drawbacks for customers and human employees — as well as other considerations for society's driverless future.

Linguist Lacey Wade has discovered many of us shift our speech in expectation of what others might sound like, especially in respect to the U.S. Southern accent.

People don't learn the same way everywhere — in large part this comes down to culture. Guest Michael Orosco says new culturally responsive studies in neuroscience show working memory, executive function and other cognitive functions are influenced by how we grew up, where we were raised and the languages we speak.

Public policy expert Kevin Mullinix discusses how policy reforms to reduce wrongful convictions depend on political sentiments in any given U.S. state, along with leanings of the governor and sway held by innocence-advocacy groups.

Kathryn Conrad, University of Kansas professor of English, says artificial intelligence can no longer safely be ignored in academia. It's better, she believes, to try to establish some guideposts in a wild and wooly AI frontier.

Robert McDonald resents the intrusion of incentives into virtually every facet of modern life, from healthcare to education to the legal system. He lays out how this happened and offers ways to counter the false choices offered from on high.

While many reasonable people fear possible disruptions from artificial intelligence like ChatGPT and its brethren, others look to seize its potential. Jamie Basham argues banning the technology from schools is not the answer — especially so for students living with disabilities.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so much of the news has been focused on events in central and eastern Europe. Marc Greenberg, an expert in Slavic, German and Eurasian studies, talks about the languages, cultures and national identities driving history in a volatile region.

China increasingly gets scapegoated for any crisis involving the economy, security or global health in the U.S. Jack Zhang, assistant professor of political science at the University of Kansas, studies how a nation that has at times been allied with the U.S. has turned into its major geostrategic rival.

Paleontologist Bruce Lieberman tracks the history of steam-powered locomotives for answers to huge questions about natural evolution and why species die out.

What if you could receive counseling and psychotherapy in a forest, log cabin or Sigmund Freud's office — maybe from a therapist who also happens to be a wizard, an Earth mother, a trickster or, uh, maybe even a furry? Well, you can! A new virtual reality system developed by University of Kansas researchers provides counseling in a setting that is therapeutic, calming and restorative, where people...

John Symons, professor of philosophy at the University of Kansas, explores social, technological and existential concerns relating to artificial intelligence. A native of Cork, Ireland, Symons is an expert in Large Language Models, which he argues should be seen less as an existential threat and more as something to be excited about.