Connections

First hour: Do whistleblower laws work?

Second hour: Understanding Pope Francis

Drones! One nearly crashed a White House party. There are questions about drone law as drones become an important asset for more companies. What limits should we see? What's next? We discuss this with our guests:

• Agamemnon Crassidis, RIT associate professor
• Brian Pitre, who teaches a new course at MCC designed to train pilots of small unmanned aerial vehicles
  

A new theory on autism suggests that the fundamental problem in autism-spectrum disorders is not a social deficiency - or a lack of empathy or reliability - but instead a super-sensitivity to experience, which is coupled with an overwhelming fear response. In other words: they feel too much, and it's terribly difficult to process the feelings. What might this mean for people with autism in our community? Our panel weighs in:

• Ann Cole, advisor for AutismUp and has two children on the spectrum
• Pat Muir,  head of Family Advocates United and  has a son on the spectrum
• Drew Richardson, self advocate and an administrative assistant at AutismUp
• Julian Roux, self advocate and a senior at Geneseo
  

The annual Susan B. Anthony birthday luncheon is coming up, and their guest speaker, Lynn Sherr, joins us. Sherr is a journalist and author, both of a book about Sally Ride, and a biography about Susan B. Anthony. We are also joined by Deborah Hughes, president and CEO of the Susan B. Anthony Museum and House.

We're following the news of the Measles outbreak at Disneyland. The number of cases has grown to 81. Doctors are concerned about parents who are choosing not to vaccinate their children in particular. Our panel will address vaccination, this case, and whether we're more likely to see similar stories as a result of the anti-vaccine movement. Our panel includes:

• Dr. Michael Pichichero, Director of Rochester General Hospital's Research Institute
• Dr. Geoffrey Weinberg, pediatric infectious disease specialist at UR Medicine's Golisano Children's Hospital
• Dr. Paul Graman, Clinical director of the infectious diseases division at UR Medicine's Strong Memorial Hospital
  

Both Governor Andrew Cuomo and President Barack Obama talked about connectivity and access to broadband in their addresses this week. We’ll talk with Doug Brake who gets paid to think about this stuff for the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

Then, we’ll catch up with Kara Miller from our sister program Innovation Hub who’s been looking into the latest innovations in seafood production and also, about the value of OLDER entrepreneurs.

Finally, Michelle Faust will join us briefly to preview the local screening/forum on poverty that she’s hosting at the Little Theatre on Monday. 

The think tank Truth in Accounting calculates that New York state has quite a bit of 'hidden debt' (roughly $78 billion) which puts an interesting spin on the notion of budgetary windfalls the Governor is looking to spend. Sheila A. Weinberg is founder & CEO, she will talk us through how to make sense of those big numbers thrown around in Albany (no not Sheldon Silver’s, the ones in the state budget delivered on Wednesday).

Then we’ll talk with the dynamic Tom Stewart, executive director of the National Center for the Middle Market. These types of companies occupy an important space in the national economy. They're not small businesses, but not mega corporations either. We’ll ask Tom about venture fund investment and the role of Middle Market companies which were featured in both the State of the State and State of the Union this week.

We wrap up our "Dialogue on Disability" with a conversation about employment access for all. With us to discuss: • Bill McDonald, executive director, Medical Motor Service • Dee Mascari, programs and services coordinator, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Upstate New York Chapter• Ruth Redmond, NMSS Program Participant • Sara Taylor, director of employment, Rochester Rehabilitation

Our series of shows on Dialogue on Disability continues with a look at the importance of staying active after a brain injury. 

The Panel:

Paul Akers of Epilepsy-Pralid, Inc
Anita O'Brien of Rochester Rehabilitation

We're post-holidays, and everyone is joining gyms... and some people are doing "juice cleansing."

A discussion of what the science says about that, and we'll talk about how to build a permanent eating regimen that is more plant-based. Panel in studio:

• Dr. Vicky Hsiao, UR Medicine endocrinologist
• Rachel Reeves, UR Medicine dieticians
• Damaris Pinedo, owner of Just Juice 4 Life
• Dr. Ted Barnett, co-coordinator of the Rochester Area Vegan Society