Ginger Strand & Moises Velasquez-Manoff

Our returning guest tonight is journalist, author, and contributing editor at Orion Magazine Ginger Strand. Her latest book is "Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate." The Federal Aid Highway act of 1950s was one of the planets largest public works projects costing billions of dollars. This project was driven by a desire to counter recession, connect the cities of America, and fueled the dream of endless mobility and growth. But before long, as more and more of America was paved over, the public’s attitudes towards the highway system changed. Some stretches of highways became ugly places of grim isolation. To make matters worse, as this highway system grew, a number of horrific serial murders occurred along the endless miles of lonely roads. Was there a connection? Tune in tonight and find out.

Have you wondered why there seems to have been such a dramatic rise in disorders like asthma, food allergies, and Multiple Sclerosis in the last decades? Some researchers believe it is because our autoimmune system has run out of control. Some of the reasons for this are startling and counter-intuitive. Is there a connection between our living in more sterile environments and the rise of these disorders? Tune in tonight for a truly thought provoking talk with science journalist Moises Velasquez-Manoff. His new book is titled "An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases."