Cool Science Radio

John and Lynn’s first  guest is Richard A. Muller, author of Now: The Physics of Time .  “Now” is a simple yet elusive concept. You are reading the word “now” right now. But what does that mean? What makes the ephemeral moment “now” so special? Its enigmatic character has bedeviled philosophers, priests, and modern-day physicists from Augustine to Einstein and beyond.

John’s first guest today is Robert Muir-Wood, author of The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters. In The Cure for Catastrophe, global risk expert Robert Muir-Wood argues that our natural disasters are in fact human ones.

  John and co-host Steve Joyce speak with Gretchen Bakke, author of The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future. America's electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor fit for the present. It's not just that the grid has grown old and is now in dire need of basic repair.

  John’s first guest is Stephen Wolfram, author of Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People. This book of thoroughly engaging essays from one of today's most prodigious innovators provides a uniquely personal perspective on the lives and achievements of a selection of intriguing figures from the history of science and technology.Guest two on the program is Daniel Levitin author of A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age.

  John and guest co-host Alex Butwinski talk with Meg Leta Jones, author of Ctrl + Z The Right to Be Forgotten. This is going on your permanent record!” is a threat that has never held more weight than it does in the Internet Age, when information lasts indefinitely. The ability to make good on that threat is as democratized as posting a Tweet or making blog. Data about us is created, shared, collected, analyzed, and processed at an overwhelming scale.

  John Wells and Lynn Ware Peek share Cool Science stories about the Apollo 11 mission, about new style  car-jacking.  Then it's Colleen Mclaughlin of the Natural History Museum of Utah, and finally BBC Security Correspondent Gordon Corera on his new book, Cyber Spies:  The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage.

  John and Lynn’s first guest is Rachel Ignotofsky, author of Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World. A charmingly illustrated and educational book, Women in Science highlights the contributions of fifty notable women to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from the ancient to the modern world.

  On today’s program, John and Lynn speak with Christopher Gonzales of Knack, a programmatic advertising platform that pairs brands with individual social media influencers to create and promote targeted user generated advertisements on social media. The second guest on the program is Winifred Gallagher, author of How the Post Office Created America: A History. Winifred Gallagher presents the history of the post office as America’s own story, told from a fresh perspective over more than two centuries.

  John and Alex’s  first guest is Antonio Garcia Martinez, author of Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley. Martínez unravels the chaotic evolution of social media and online marketing and reveals how it is invading our lives and shaping our future.The second guest is John Ruple, Associate Professor of Law, University of Utah. In a new study published in Environs Environmental Law & Policy Journal, University of Utah S.J.

  Lynn Ware Peek and John Wells speak with David Sumpter about soccer and Math in his book Soccermatics:  Mathematical Adventure in the Beautiful Game.  Love soccer and Math?  Or love soccer but wonder about how to be inspired by Math?  

Then, Wired magazine's co-founder Kevin Kelly. He's got us looking ahead to what we can expect from technology in The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future.