First hour: Assessing the strength of the MeToo movement through the Weinstein trial
Second hour: Could fast radio bursts from space be coming from...aliens?
The Harvey Weinstein trial offered a chance to assess the strength of the MeToo movement. “It’s a perfect test case of what happens when a culture begins to shift,” said Deborah Tuerkheimer, a law professor at Northwestern, to the New York Times. Is this the beginning of a permanent shift, with the powerful being held to account? Or was the verdict not strong enough? Our guests discuss it. In studio:
- Meaghan de Chateauvieux, CEO of Willow Domestic Violence Center
- Lauren Berger, training coordinator for RESTORE
Then in our second hour, scientists say they don’t know what to make of a pattern of fast radio bursts that’s coming from space every 16 days. While it’s known that the signal is coming from a spiral galaxy 500 million light-years away, the exact source is a mystery. Some researchers speculate that the bursts could be sent by aliens. Meanwhile, a massive asteroid that could have caused planet-wide devastation came close to Earth earlier this month. While scientists say there was no danger and that they know the asteroid’s orbit well, the news stands as a reminder of our precarious place in the universe. This hour, we sit down with two physicists who discuss all of this and more. In studio:
- Brian Koberlein, astrophysicist and science writer with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
- Roger Dube, experimental physicist, and professor emeritus at RIT
