Viewpoints Radio
Award-winning reporting on current issues featuring America's leading experts.
Parenting in the online era can be quite confusing. At what age should you let your kid have a Facebook or Snapchat account? How closely should you monitor what they view on the internet? We speak with Julianna Miner, author of Raising a Screen Smart Kid: Embrace the Good and Avoid the Bad in the Digital Age, to get the inside scoop on teaching kids how to …
Author Jared Yates Sexton shares memories from his own turbulent childhood and accounts as a journalist and connects it to the larger discussion around the phenomenon of toxic masculinity in the U.S. What exactly is toxic masculinity and how is it affecting men and youth?
Amirah Zaveri, the producer of Viewpoints Radio, asks New York Times bestselling author David Epstein about his unique career path and what he learned along the way.
In today’s fast-paced world, it can be tough to start anew or slow down and reexamine what you’re working towards. We speak with journalist and author David Epstein who argues that switching focuses and developing a wide range of skillsets ultimately leads to greater success.
Viewpoints Radio intern Annie Krall spoke with linguistic experts and psychologists about the prevalence of emojis today. How do emojis help us communicate what we really mean? Why do we use them so much? Listen in for a short clip from her interview.
Many of us throw an emoji or two in a text or social media message to help get our point across. But do you ever wonder how emojis came about and why we pick certain ones over others? We speak with three experts about their rise in popularity and reflection of different cultures and generations.
Social media has become an all-consuming way of life for many. It’s hard to get away from unconsciously opening Facebook or Instagram throughout the day and scrolling through your feed. While social media can be positive, the unrealistic posts can also lead to damaging outcomes. We discuss its negative effects and the rise in the number of plastic surgery …
Amirah Zaveri asks Rachel Louise Snyder, journalist and author of the new book No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us about the portrayal of domestic violence in the media and how women are rallying around this issue.
In the U.S., one in four women are victims of domestic violence. Between 2014 and 2017, the number of victims killed by their partners rose by 20 percent. Two survivors share their firsthand stories and struggles. We also speak with author, Rachel Louise Snyder, about why domestic violence persists and what can be done.
We speak with Nora McInerny, the author of No Happy Endings: A Memoir about enduring the loss of her husband and accidentally finding love again. McInerny discusses the grief and despair she felt and how she learned to embrace those feelings rather than tuck them away.
Binge-watching several seasons of a TV show all at once might not be the best idea after all. For some lighter shows like Stranger Things it may make sense, but it can be cumbersome and brain draining to get through all eight seasons of Game of Thrones in a matter of weeks. We discuss an alternate route that avoids the fatigue.
We all get gut instincts when we walk into a room of strangers. Do we fit in here? Do these people seem friendly? Snap judgments are simply a part of how we function. But Princeton University psychology professor Alexander Todorov says that while these first impressions are natural, we should try to resist them.
Fashion advertising raises issues about confidence, self-esteem and body image. Our guest discusses why it’s important to look beyond the advertisements and find the fashions that are right for you, how cheap clothing is hurting developing countries and the environment, and why designers and manufacturers need to change how they create clothing for and …
Recess helps kids unwind during the school day, but it’s much more than just a time to exercise. We talk to two recess “specialists” about the mental as well as the physical benefits of recess, and learn about some recess activities that help a child be more creative, more social as well as more physically active.
Hearing voices in your head comes with an unfortunate stereotype that you must be mentally ill. However, experts tell us the “voices in your head” can be used to talk to, and about, yourself in a healthy, productive way. In fact, most people hear voices in their head and already use inner speech on a daily basis. We discuss tips and techniques to use …
The hustle and bustle of the world can overwhelm us all from time to time. Expert Marc Lesser talks about how we can embrace mindfulness to relieve anxiety, enhance our empathy and become better collaborators and leaders in our lives.
The Harry Potter series is full of creatures and storylines that parallel real-life adversities like depression, PTSD and grief in a heightened reality. Dr. Janina Scarlet says these stories are so powerful that she uses them to help people cope in real-life therapy sessions.
Anecdotal evidence and some real data science both suggest that we never grow out of the things we loved at 15.
Grudges are something most of us think of as a negative feeling. They’re petty or vindictive or unforgiving. But we talk to author Sophie Hannah, who says grudges can be a really positive thing in our lives if we just know how to hold them properly. She can explain.
Grief is an innate part of human life, but how we process that grief varies from person to person. Tom Malmquist knows too much about grief after he lost his partner shortly after the birth of their first child. Malmquist put his experiences into his novel, In Every Moment We Are Still Alive, to help others in similar situations feel less alone.
Maintaining a relationship or a marriage is a wonderful thing, but sometimes it can be tricky. We hear tips from an expert clinical psychologist on how couples can communicate better, understand each other more deeply, and work through some of the issues common in modern marriages.
We all sleep, it’s human evolution. But the amount of sleep we get and the quality of that sleep can vary greatly. We talk to Matthew Walker, a professor at California-Berkeley, who says sleep in the single biggest thing we can do to help our physical and mental health both in the short-term and long-term.
It can easy to get the blues, especially with all of the division and turmoil in the world. But author Kate Davies has a different way of look at the world: one that can make us more hopeful, positive, and willing to pitch in and help. She calls it intrinsic hope, and it may be just what we all need this holiday season.
There are all sorts of myths about how we can avoid dementia or how to best brainstorm a new idea. We talk to a psychologist and author to get the inside scoop on how our minds really work, and why we just can’t resist the urge to watch cute animal videos online.
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