Viewpoints Radio
Award-winning reporting on current issues featuring America's leading experts.
Before earning his PhD in applied mathematics from MIT, Urschel played college football at Penn State and then went on to play in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens. This week – we touch on his unique path & what he’s learned along the way.
It seems like all too often it’s common to see a driver chuck a cigarette butt out the window or throw one on the sidewalk. We speak with expert Thomas Novotny about how this type of littering affects the environment and the wildlife within it.
How often do you skim a headline and feel like that’s all you need to know? Or gather your daily news from a Twitter or Facebook feed? Economist & journalist Tim Harford joins Viewpoints this week to share the impacts of sensationalized or one-sided information and how we can all become more inquisitive consumers of content.
As some schools return back to in-person learning, we take a look at a few of the ways teaching has changed this year, including new safety precautions and the use of continued e-learning technology. Kelly Rigg is an eighth-grade teacher in Ephrata, Pennsylvania and shares what’s it’s been like to be back teaching in the classroom full-time during a …
There’s a certain amount of nostalgia when we revisit our favorite music, show and movies from those young, teenage years. This week on Viewpoints we discuss how many Americans cling to the hot pop culture of their generation.
Matt Parker, a former math teacher turned popular YouTuber, is working to fix that stubborn mindset. In his new book, he illustrates the powerful and interesting side of math through real-life engineering and computing failures that occurred because someone’s mathematical calculations were just slightly off.
The 2020 census is just around the corner. We speak with an employee from the U.S. Census Bureau about the importance of taking part in the nationwide survey and how the government is reaching students and their families through new in-school programs.
Christmas is just a few days away. By now, most people have bought all of their presents and have tucked their worn-in credit cards away until the new year. Viewpoints’ speaks with Colin Morris, director of product management at Adobe Analytics, about some of the hottest items and shopping trends this year, as well as the estimated 143 billion dollars that …
It’s almost 2020. While many more Americans have grown to be increasingly eco-conscious, some things still remain the same. It seems like almost everyday a smoker can be seen stomping on a cigarette on the pavement or chucking a lighted butt out their car window. Did you know that more than one-third of all collected litter is cigarette butts? We speak with …
If you were at a beach or barbecue this summer, there was probably a box of White Claw, Truly or Bon & Viv spiked seltzers somewhere in the vicinity. These canned, around 100-calorie alcoholic beverages have been the hottest drink craze of 2019 and beverage industry experts predict that the hype isn’t going to end anytime soon. Viewpoints spoke with Jim …
John Urschel is not your typical doctoral candidate. Before studying mathematics at MIT, Urschel played college football at Penn State and then in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens. Both mathematics and football have always been two steadfast pillars in his life.
For many, learning about mathematics can be a terrifying and daunting task. Steven Strogatz discusses the importance of learning the basics of calculus and not only the math itself, but also understanding its historical prevalence and everyday use in our world.
These days, there is data on just about everything. Our social media presence, our careers, our web search history- it’s all crunched into data points. And author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz says all that data can shed plenty of light on the truth about who we really are underneath all of our social formalities.
American students are way down the international list when it comes to math scores. Why is this? Is there something we could be doing to make learning math a simpler task? Our guests say yes, and have suggestions for kids- and adults- struggling to master mathematics.
It used to be that when you were watching sports, you were only watching with the people in the same room as you. Now, sports have become the gold-standard for entertainment that demands a second-screen.
Our guests have suggestions for kids- and adults- struggling to master mathematics.
We talk to data analyst and author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz about some of the conclusions this big data can help us reach.
We talk to mathematician and author Keith Devlin about Fibonacci’s mammoth contribution to mathematics and our daily lives.
We talk to two experts who say children take to science readily if it’s presented in the right way by tapping into the “ick factor” that seems to fascinate them.
Our two guests discuss some innovative ideas on how to help kids and adults become better at math.
As a kid, did you ever dream of becoming an astronaut and flying a rocket ship into space, but figured you weren’t good enough in science and math to do it? Our guest, a former U.S. astronaut admits he wasn’t the best young student in school in those subjects, but later on he grew fascinated by them and turned his new-found interest into becoming a Navy …
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