After The Fact

Stat: Four in 10 Americans say technology has improved their lives most in the past 50 years. Story: To end 2018, we look ahead at the promise of new technologies, which also bring challenges for societies. To understand the issues, we speak to Arati Prabhakar, former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. From artificial intelligence to neurotechnology, she notes the “dazzling” new capabilities emerging and the thorny considerations they bring.

Stat: 21. The number of African countries where manatees live. Story: If you’ve ever seen a manatee, chances are you were in Florida, where these aquatic relatives of the elephant may have poked their faces above the water’s surface to get a look at you. But this episode’s guest studies manatees few have ever seen—the African species that live in remote, murky waters. Host Dan LeDuc talks to 2017 Pew marine fellow Lucy Keith-Diagne about what makes these creatures so fascinating—and the threats facing them.

Stat: 39 percent. That’s how many Americans say they are highly religious. Story: When asked about their religion, most Americans identify with a traditional faith: Christianity, Judaism, Islam. But the Pew Research Center recently looked beyond familiar classifications and analyzed patterns of American beliefs and behaviors across many faiths. Host Dan LeDuc talks with one of the authors of this analysis, Rich Morin, about how the researchers created this religious typology and what each of the seven types means.

Stat: $764 billion. That’s how much the arts contribute to the U.S. economy each year. Story: The creative process for artists can seem mysterious—what sparks an artist’s initial idea and how does that idea become reality? Host Dan LeDuc talks to Pew Arts Fellow, and Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning classical composer Jennifer Higdon about her creative process, and also interviews Paula Marincola from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage about supporting the arts.

Stat: 61 percent. That’s how many voters say they’re enthusiastic about voting in November. Story: Traditionally, voters don’t flock to the polls for the midterm elections. But this year, the Pew Research Center has found that voters are more enthusiastic about voting than at any point during midterms in the past two decades. Why is that and what’s on voters’ minds? In this episode, Dan LeDuc talks with the center’s director of political research, Carroll Doherty, who will share his insights from the polling data.

Stat: 7 out of 10 babies born in London have at least one parent who wasn’t. Story: London is on track to exceed 9 million people in three years and most of the new babies there have at least one foreign-born parent. One area in particular is emblematic of these changing world demographics: Brixton. Host Dan LeDuc went for a walk there with Ben Rogers and Denean Rowe from the Centre for London to see up close how it’s evolving from a quintessential South London neighborhood into a dense, multicultural hub.

Stat: 70 percent. That’s how many children now born in London have at least one foreign-born parent. Story: In many ways, the metropolis of London is a microcosm of what’s happening around the globe. People move across borders and flock to urban centers, causing their newfound homes to evolve and adapt. How are global demographic trends affecting and changing our world? To learn, host Dan LeDuc talks with Mark Hugo Lopez, director of global migration and demography research at the Pew Research Center.

Stat: 7 in 10. That’s how many Americans say that debt is a necessity, even though they prefer not to have it. Story: Ten years after the global financial crisis, we explore Americans’ relationship with debt, and interview Dave Ramsey, the host of his own syndicated radio show, who talks to some 13 million listeners each week about how they can overcome financial setbacks and build wealth. Ramsey shares his thoughts about why so many Americans are in debt today, why they’re not stuck, and the key to breaking the cycle.

Stat: Four. That’s how many letters in the DNA alphabet make up every living thing. Story: How does genetic information transmit across generations? While trying to find out, scientists Craig Mello and Andrew Fire quite by accident made a discovery in 1998 that would earn them a Nobel Prize—and pave the way for the first drug to take on harmful genes. Pew’s Dan LeDuc talks with Mello about science’s surprises. Additional audio licensed for use by the Nobel Foundation. All rights reserved. © Nobel Media 2006

Stat: North Atlantic cod have nearly tripled since 2006 to 118,000 tons. Summary: Overfishing has strained most global fish stocks. But the European Union has made progress bringing back one popular species: North Atlantic cod. The flaky white fish—a British staple when battered and served with chips—has rebounded after plummeting to critically low levels in the late 2000s. In this episode, we go to one of London’s oldest fish and chips restaurants and learn how quotas can be used to help other stocks recover.

Stat: 44 percent. The percentage of Americans who think the public doesn’t know enough about science to understand new findings in the news. Story: Ira Flatow, the host of “Science Friday,” has been with National Public Radio since it went on the air in 1970. Although he knows the public loves science, he’s worried that most people don’t know how the scientific process works. Pew’s Dan LeDuc talks to him about why critical thinking is crucial, who asks the best questions, and how science can be addictive.

Stat: At least 2 million Americans get antibiotic-resistant infections each year. Story: Nearly a century after Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, bacteria continue to develop the ability to defeat antibiotics. Doctors worldwide are concerned about the spread of superbugs that are resistant to all antibiotics. Host Dan LeDuc visits Fleming’s London lab for some history and talks with Pew’s Allan Coukell about current efforts to reduce unnecessary use of these drugs and encourage development of new ones.

Stat: $477 billion. That’s the amount spent on prescription drugs in the United States last year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Story: Skyrocketing prescription drug prices have long troubled U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who has championed bipartisan legislation to give consumers more affordable choices. In this rebroadcast of a Pew event, she discusses what can be done to manage drug costs and ensure that Americans get the medicine they need.

Stat: At least 63 million sharks are taken from the ocean every year. Story: And that’s the low estimate; others range as high was 273 million. That worldwide catch—for shark fins and increasingly for their meat—is threatening some species with extinction. In this episode, host Dan LeDuc talks with two unlikely advocates for protecting sharks: South African Paralympian Achmat Hassiem and Pew’s Debbie Salamone. Both have been bitten by sharks but have turned their experiences into something positive: becoming shark attack survivors supporting shark conservation.

Stat: The ocean generates $2.5 trillion of economic benefits around the world each year. Story: Fisheries, tourism, and shipping are some of the ways we quantify the monetary value of the ocean—but it also drives weather patterns and provides more than 1 billion people with their primary source of protein. As the ocean faces increasing environmental stresses, what would an economic approach mean for conservation efforts? We explore the issue with a fishing family in Florida and Pew’s Tom Dillon.

Stat: The flag that inspired our national anthem has 15 stars and stripes. Story: It flew over Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. And after the fight, it was what Francis Scott Key was looking for when he asked, “Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave.” It was, and it continues to inspire Americans today in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington. Host Dan LeDuc went there to talk to curator Jennifer Jones about the history of perhaps our most famous flag.

Stat: Antarctica is home to more than 9,000 species found nowhere else on Earth. Story: They include Adélie and emperor penguins that depend on the nutrient-rich waters that surround the continent. In 2016, 24 countries and the European Union created the world’s largest marine protected area—encompassing 1.9 million square miles—in the Ross Sea. In this rebroadcast of a Pew event, the former president of Costa Rica and other ocean conservationists discuss the need to give other Antarctic waters this same protection.

Stat: The penguin population in Punta Tombo, Argentina, has declined by 43 percent since 1987. Story: Not all of those birds are dying: Many are relocating to areas with more prey—a move aided by their ability to swim 170 kilometers a day—and 200,000 breeding pairs remain in Punta Tombo. But expert Dee Boersma, known as the Jane Goodall of penguins, says the decline may foretell worrying trends in the ecosystem. Host Dan LeDuc sits down with Boersma, and hears from a few of the penguins, to learn more.

Stat: By midcentury, there will be 2 billion elderly people in the world—and 2 billion young Story: For the first time there will be as many of each group —and together they’ll account for more than 40 percent of the world’s population. This will have deep implications for the labor supply, family structures and finances, demands on health and welfare services, housing, and more. In this episode, we hear a rebroadcast of a Pew event in London: “How Today’s Generations Are Changing the World.”

Stat: 63 million Americans, many of them children, live in areas with a shortage of dental care. Story: To help alleviate this, a new kind of dental provider is being created: dental therapists, who are much like physician assistants in a medical office. In this episode host Dan LeDuc heads to Minnesota to join one of them, Christy Jo Fogarty, as she travels the state to bring dental care to children, many of whom have never been to a dentist before.