The Exchange

Pulitzer Prize Winning Socio-biologist, E.O. Wilson  has spent a lifetime exploring the ideas of evolution and the genetic basis for social behavior in humans. In his latest book, "The Social Conquest of Earth", Wilson overturns his earlier theory on why our species developed strong social ties. Group selection, Wilson now says, not kin selection is the primary driving force of human evolution

Guest

E.O. Wilson - Biologist, naturalist and author of more than 20 book. His latest is called "The Social Conquest of Earth" 

We sit down with Oxford professor Bryan Sikes whose new book. "DNA U.S.A." explores the complicated genetic melting pot of America. The findings are fascinating, southwestern Spanish Catholics with Jewish genes, African DNA in southern whites. Though we are all born with surnames, Sykes says, "those names fragment and mutate with far more regularity than the DNA we inherit”

Guests

After a long campaign season of caucuses and primaries, attack ads, and Super PACs, many have noticed significant changes.  This year, we've seen many more debates, an explosion in the use of digital media, and a decline of retail politics.  Is this a troubling trend or the new reality for  choosing  a President?

Guests

It’s been over thirty years since the U.S. severed all diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and regardless of president or party, not much has changed. Today, concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions dominate. Meanwhile, in a recent speech, President Obama said that no options are off the table, including the use of force against the country. 

Guests:

After ten years since the War on Terror began, many service members have come back with visible injuries, but many others have come home with less obvious wounds associated with military service; like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, and a high suicide rate. We’ll look at these problems, where the system is working and failing, and what some are trying to do to help. 

Guests

The statistics are startling: Girls have been surging ahead academically from the elementary years right on up through Graduate School while boys seem to be falling behind and are becoming disengaged from learning at an early age.  We take a look at the latest thinking on this subject and whether the picture is as dire as it’s often presented.  

Guests

Next week on the Exchange, we begin with one of our favorites from the Exchange archive vault.  We bring you our "Boys Left Behind" show and ask with all this attention to the advancement of girls in schools have we forgotten about the boys?

More than fifteen years ago, voters were given the option of changing their local democratic process and ditch the all-day gatherings through a new system called SB2, named after the senate bill that introduced it. Town have gradually adopted this system which some feel undermines the democratic process while others believe it is a far more manageable system given the typically busy schedules of the citizens.

Guests:

Dennis Delay: Senior Economist at the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies.