The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

Over the past few months, we’ve seen a lot of reports of weird things happening in the oceans - dead whales and dolphins washing ashore in New Jersey, crabs disappearing off the coast of Alaska, “red tides” filled with toxic algae in Florida. These things sound pretty worrying - are they a sign of serious damage to our climate? We discuss these concerns with Dr. Lisa Rodrigues, Associate Professor...

With Governor and a U.S. Senate seat up for grabs in Pennsylvania during the 2022 midterm election cycle, plenty of political eyes were fixed on the Keystone State. What everyone ended up witnessing was a one-sided performance in favor of Democrats, who not only claimed the gubernatorial and senate races, but tipped the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in their favor as well. What lessons and...

The implementation of name, image, and likeness sponsorships for student-athletes has been messy, while the power of member institutions continues to be consolidated to the few rather than the many. As a result, the NCAA's identity is shifting, and its influence could be on the decline. What's stopping schools from leaving and going off on their own? Dr. Karen Weaver, Graduate Faculty at the Unive...

That politicians grapple with mental health issues should come as no surprise. Think of the pressures and demands of the gig. What is alarming to one expert, however, is that too few elected officials seem willing to share their struggles. That's why Dr. Ann Rosen Spector believes there could be power in United States Senator John Fetterman's recent decision to buck past precedent, and go public a...

Are you keeping an eye on the sky now more than ever? If your answer is yes, we get it. In recent weeks, the United States has shot down four unidentified flying objects, calling into question who (or what) is watching us. But here's the thing: so far, only one of the four objects shot down is said to have been a foreign spy instrument, and according to one expert, this ambiguity poses a problem t...

Money is a major source of concern for a lot of working Americans - 87%, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA). And retirement isn’t what it used to be - systems like social security haven’t adapted to today’s economy and lifespans. How can workers manage their finances and make sure they’re saving enough - and early enough? Jeff Jones is t...

Much like the plot of the 2003 disaster film, The Core, the rotation of Earth’s inner core is changing. But unlike the movie, this change is very subtle. What exactly makes up the Earth’s core? And how significant is its rotation change? Swarthmore College Professor of Astronomy Dr. Eric Jensen explains how scientists made this new discovery and what it could mean for the future.

It seems like every few weeks, we hear about another high-ranking U.S. government leader who, knowingly or not, left office with classified documents. Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Mike Pence - all three are currently under investigation. But is this really that big of a deal? Or, is it just something else for politicians to make noise about? Villanova University Professor of Political Science Dr. Davi...

A union went on strike. Its company sued for damages. Now, with the case having made its way across the country from Washington state to the Supreme Court, power dynamics hang in the balance. But is the court really ready to break with nearly 65 years of precedent and upend federal labor laws? Dr. Susan Liebell and Dr. Laura Bucci, Professor and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Saint Jo...

In February 2022, after years of threats, Russia invaded Ukraine. A war that some people never thought would happen is still going on a year later. What has changed? Is there an end to this in sight, or could things escalate even further? Where does Ukraine stand in terms of international support? We bring back two experts from St. Joseph’s University who have helped us understand this crisis thro...

It’s fairly common for a contract or work agreement to include a non-compete clause, saying the worker can’t go to a competing company for a certain amount of time after leaving their job. But that might not be the case for long - the Federal Trade Commission has put forth a proposal that would ban non-compete agreements. What would that mean for workers and for businesses? The FTC makes rules to...

The holidays have come and gone. You’re feeling bloated. You need a cleanse. Enter ‘Dry January.’ Over the last couple years, this initiative has really caught on, to the point where restaurants and bars even design special menus for the month. But does it work? Is going cold turkey, only to resume indulgent behaviors a month later, the best way to lead a healthy life? Dr. Mariana Lazo, Associate...

Tipping at a restaurant. Rounding up at the grocery store for a charitable donation. Using the self-checkout line without getting a break on the final bill. The more you think about it, the more you realize just how much consumers are asked to subsidize certain parts of the service industry. Is this ok? What are we actually getting in return? Temple University Associate Professor of Travel and Tou...

Everyone likes to say America is a nation of immigrants, right? But here’s the thing: the country’s history also reveals that the United States has contributed to its own immigration problem. With immigration such a hot button political issue these days, Sarah Paoletti, the Director of the Transnational Legal Clinic and Practice Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School...

Lots of factors are working against teachers these days. Among the biggest? Pay, politicization of their profession, and the ripple effects of the pandemic. But recruiting new educators to enter the field is only part of the problem. Keeping the ones who have been around the longest is an issue, too. LaTanya Pattillo is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the non-profit group NWEA, which suppor...

Every year, Morning Consult releases a report on the fastest growing brands based on consumer polls. In 2022, Crocs made a comeback, Major League Baseball was big (in a year when the Phillies played in the World Series…coincidence?), and for some reason, people were really into Great Value cream cheese. Joanna Piacenza, Head of Industry Intelligence for Morning Consult, joins us to take a deeper l...

In 2022, inflation was the big economic buzzword. Interest rates kept going up, as did gas prices, but the job market started to turn around. Where do we stand now to kick off 2023? We check in with our go-to economist, David Fiorenza, to talk about the economic new year - where do we stand now and what does he think is ahead?

Facial recognition technology has been used for security purposes for decades. But today, businesses are using it to track and identify consumers and employees in ways that many people aren’t aware of - even at grocery stores and convenience stores. Many people are understandably concerned about their privacy, so we asked Samuel Hodge Jr. , professor of Legal Studies at Temple University, to expla...

At one point last week, 84% of Southwest Airlines flights through Philadelphia were canceled , and nationally, they were canceling two to three thousand flights a day - right in the middle of the holidays. The airline is back to normal operation now, but what happened? What pushed Southwest to this breaking point, and what can they and other airlines learn from this? Dr. Benjamin Altschuler, Assoc...

Angelo Cataldi expects the next phase of his life to be tough, at least the transitional part. For the last 30-plus years, he’s dominated Philadelphia sports talk radio as the morning show host on Audacy’s WIP, setting the agenda every day for what fans talk about around the water cooler. But within a matter of weeks, his legendary run will be over. He’s retiring the week after the Eagles’ season...

Does Jim Kenney really want his job? Philadelphia’s mayor brought this question upon himself on July 4th, when he said during a media briefing, “I’ll be happy when I’m not Mayor and I can enjoy some stuff.” The comments came in response to a non-fatal shooting incident during the city’s Fourth of July celebration, but those words have dogged Kenney ever since. So, how much truth was there to what...

Back in 2020, the South Carolina primary altered the trajectory of Joe Biden's presidential hopes. Now, halfway through his first term, the Palmetto State is on Biden's mind again, as he pushes fellow Democrats to make South Carolina the first stop on their 2024 primary tour. Would the shuffle make sense? What advantage would it give Democrats? Dr. David Barrett, Professor of Political Science at...

Given the way things have gone the past year, fuel independence sounds pretty good right about now, doesn’t it? That’s just one of several major implications behind a recent nuclear fusion breakthrough at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. But for all the promise this discovery brings, there could be some pitfalls, too, according to Dr. Christopher Peters, a teaching profess...

ChatGPT is the latest demonstration that AI can impersonate a human extremely closely. The chatbot can have text conversations and even write letters and poems - or term papers. Some people are concerned that this could be an easy way for students to get around doing their own work, but there are a lot of potential benefits to this type of language modeling technology - like helping businesses and...

Every sport has its cheating scandals, but it seems to be a regular thing in baseball. The rules keep evolving to prevent cheating - but that begs the question, is it really cheating if there wasn’t a written rule against it when it happened? Some types of cheating can ruin a baseball career, but others are overlooked or even glorified. Dan Levitt is the co-author, along with Mark Armour, of a new...