Made in the Middle

We take a step back from the history lessons in this episode to talk about a startling trend in American society today, prejudice against Asian Americans amidst the global pandemic of COVID-19. We hear from one of the earliest guests on our podcast, professor Laura Huang of the Harvard Business School. She walks us through her book, Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage, and we discuss its’ relevance to the ballooning trend of identity-misunderstanding in America.

What do summertime cocktails, a Missouri doctor and parasitology have in common? They're all part of the history of malaria treatment. But in this episode, we not only talk about the history of treating this infectious disease, we also dive into the current research being developed in the heart of the Midwest today.

The origins of the office cubicle and it's creator's ideas about office design might surprise you. Open vs closed offices? Oh yes, we talk about it. In this episode, we delve into the history of the company now synonymous with Mid-Century Modern design, Herman Miller. Throughout the conversation we discuss current research and trends about the workplace; the ways it affects us and why we all find it so dang funny.

The boom of boutique fitness in America would likely not exist without a young girl from rural Iowa. In this episode, we get into the Midwestern origins of Jazzercise with founder and CEO, Judi Sheppard Missett. Then we discuss the changing face and message of “female fitness” today. Join us as we talk about the hormonal, skeletal, and social structures that makes working out different across genders and sexes.

This conversation takes a trip through the history of wrapping paper; taking twists and turns along the way to talk about the psychology and neurobiology of unwrapping. 

Thanks to our special guest, Stephanie A. Jesseau, Ph.D.  from the University of Nebraska, in Omaha. Additional thanks to all those interviewed for this episode:

Dr. Uzma Khan from University of Miami

Rich Daniels of FunPak

We start our conversation talking about The Center Mall, one of the first indoor malls in America. The Center Mall is unique to Omaha, but the concept of the American mall was blooming all over the US during the revolutionary decades of the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s. As the birth of the mall coincided with the beginning of the American civil rights movement, we have a conversation about what the status of the mall can tell us about society as whole.

We explore the origins as well as the social, psychological and philosophical implications of the popular American “boardgame”, The Ouija Board. There is more than a Midwestern connection here, the entire United States has experienced Ouija crazes throughout history. To find out why, we talk to researchers, skeptics and believers. Expect science, history and culture in this month’s conversation.

In this month’s episode we explore the idea that the familiar American broadcast voice comes from the American Midwest. We take a walk through radio history, the innerworkings of the human ear and psychological influences on listening to find out how all of this has formed the American broadcast voice. Omaha native, Kurt Andersen, author and host of Public Radio’s Studio 360, joins us for the conversation.

  If you google “science podcast”, you’ll get just about 1,010,000,000 results, including podcasts, instructional videos, science blogs, and peer reviewed journals.  We live in an age of free-flowing information with an incredibly curious public ready to ingest the constant feed of information.