ACSJ Presents Professor Sheldon W. Helms: Gay Conversion Therapy

Sheldon will be speaking on the topic of Gay Conversion Therapy, providing us with a brief history of the efforts to alter people’s sexual orientation both through religion and therapy, some evidence of the potential risks these processes pose to victims, as well as an overview of the problem in the social, legal, and political domains. Sheldon Helms is a Professor of Experimental Psychology at Ohlone College in Fremont, CA where he serves as senior faculty member in the psychology department. He holds a master’s degree in psychology, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Education at Alliant International University...
https://youtu.be/1llnklBbfuE

If Addiction is a Disease, Why is It Criminal? Maia Szalavitz Envisions a Compassionate Drug Policy

http://democracynow.org - President Obama has unveiled a series of steps aimed at addressing the epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States. We speak with journalist Maia Szalavitz about her new book, "Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction," and about her own experience of overcoming addiction. "We need to create a more compassionate and loving drug policy," Szalavitz says. "Nobody is going to believe that addiction is a disease as long as the behavior is criminal." Szalavitz is one of the leading journalists covering addiction in the United States...
https://youtu.be/D11C8ciFQ9A

America's 'Lead Wars' Go Beyond Flint, Mich.: 'It's Now Really Everywhere'

Flint, Mich., isn't the only American city with a lead problem. Though the health crisis in Flint has highlighted the use of lead in water pipes, author David Rosner tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that lead, which is a neurotoxin, can be found throughout the U.S. on walls, in soil and in the air.

"The problem with lead is that it's now really everywhere, and we've created a terribly toxic environment in all sorts of ways," he says.

Lead is particularly dangerous to young children. In their book, Lead Wars, Rosner and co-author Gerald Markowitz describe the ways in which even small exposures can interfere with a child's brain development and cause lasting learning challenges.

"It causes IQ loss. It causes behavioral problems. It causes attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, dyslexia," Markowitz says.

Rosner adds that even a small amount of lead can have a lasting effect on a child's health. "As early as the 1910s and 1920s, [doctors] were documenting children who had absorbed lead on their fingers as dust and had put their hands in their mouth and actually began going into convulsions," he says. "It's not like you need a lot of it."
Interview:

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/03/469039064/americas-lead-wars-go-beyond-flint-mich-its-now-really-everywhere

Gay “Cures” Are Harmful And Don’t Work, Says World’s Largest Body Of Psychiatrists

Exclusive: The World Psychiatric Association has condemned so-called conversion therapy and called on governments around the world to decriminalise homosexuality.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/gay-cures-are-harmful-and-dont-work-says-worlds-largest-body

Real Time with Bill Maher: New Rule – The Self-Esteem Movement (HBO)

In his editorial New Rule, Bill Maher examines how instilling an overinflated sense of self importance in children has led to the existence of Donald Trump. Original air date: March 18, 2016.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/xSSExfcD2cM

Buck v. Bell: SCOTUS Case That Led to Forced Sterilization of 70,000 & Inspired the Nazis

http://democracynow.org - As President Obama nominates centrist Judge Merrick Garland to replace late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, we take a look at what’s been described as one of the worst Supreme Court rulings in history. In the 1927 case Buck v. Bell, the court upheld a statute that enabled the state of Virginia to sterilize so-called mental defectives or imbeciles. The person in question was Carrie Buck, a poor, young woman then confined in the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and the Feebleminded, though she was neither epileptic nor mentally disabled. In the landmark decision, eight judges ruled that the state of Virginia had the right to sterilize her. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote the majority opinion concluding, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." The decision resulted in 60,000 to 70,000 sterilizations of Americans considered "unfit" to reproduce. At the Nuremberg trials, lawyers for Nazi scientists cited the opinion in defense of their actions. We speak to Adam Cohen, author of "Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck."
Interview:
Part 1
https://youtu.be/FLM8dkIsHS0

Part 2
https://youtu.be/acVPt1qr5MY

Big Marijuana

Legal cannabis about to change American life.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/-rolOcVcwiQ

Trump Owns Bill O'Reilly Post Debate

In this Majority Report clip, another tragicomic situation unfolds as Donald Trump, head bully of the world, appears to neatly bring up the most hurtful things possible that he could rub in Bill O'Reilly's face after the Republican debate. O'Reilly may or may not be drunk and doesn't seem to notice, but ... can we honestly feel bad for Bill O'Reilly?? What is happening to reality?
Interview:
https://youtu.be/asAxn1zbH0U

More Than A Third Of People Shot By LAPD In 2015 Were Mentally Ill

The report found a marked increase in the shooting of mentally ill people from the previous year...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lapd-shot-mentally-ill_us_56d617b5e4b0871f60ed1e3b

Snyder Aide Says Governor Knew About Flint Water Issues A Year Before Action Was Taken | ThinkProgress

Snyder Aide Says Governor Knew About Flint Water Issues A Year Before Action Was Taken...
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/02/26/3754137/flint-snyder-aides-emails/

The psychology of narcissism - W. Keith Campbell

Narcissism isn’t just a personality type that shows up in advice columns; it’s actually a set of traits classified and studied by psychologists. But what causes it? And can narcissists improve on their negative traits? W. Keith Campbell describes the psychology behind the elevated and sometimes detrimental self-involvement of narcissists.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/arJLy3hX1E8

What Did GM & the Governor Know? GM Stopped Using Flint Water Over a Year Before Emergency Declared

In October 2014, General Motors recognized the Flint water was corroding its engines. They got permission from the city’s unelected emergency manager–who was appointed by Republican Governor Rick Snyder–to disconnect from Flint’s water and go back to Detroit water. It would be another year before the people of Flint were finally allowed to disconnect from the corrosive Flint River as their water supply and hook up again to the Detroit water system. By then, the Flint River water had corroded the city’s aging pipes, poisoning the drinking water with lead, which can cause permanent developmental delays and neurological impairment, especially in children. We speak with a GM autoworker in Flint about the company’s actions once it realized that Flint’s water was corroding car engines...
https://youtu.be/2I0ShNQC2Cc

Depression Screening For All? (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

New recommendation from a national task force this week: that all adult Americans be screened by their doctor, their GP, for depression. And if they’re struggling, get them on to antidepressants and/or into psychotherapy. Is life that bad? We all need depression screening? That’s not the point, says the panel. Too many people go undiagnosed – and suffer. New moms and moms-to-be in particular. But everybody. This hour On Point, the call to screen us all for depression. And treat it. — Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
https://onpoint.wbur.org/2016/01/28/depression-mental-health-screening

Stereotypes about Native Americans and alcohol debunked

Native Americans are more likely to abstain from alcohol than whites, and heavy drinking and binge drinking rates are about the same for both groups...
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160209110402.htm

5 New Discoveries That Will Shake Up Our Understanding of Marijuana

New research shows marijuana may have more uses (and benefits) than we thought...
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/5-new-discoveries-will-shake-our-understanding-marijuana

Lead: America's Real Criminal Element

High childhood exposure [to lead] damages a part of the brain linked to aggression control. The impact is greater among boys...
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/02/lead-exposure-gasoline-crime-increase-children-health

Anti-LGBT Bullying Has Long-Term Mental Health Consequences, Study Finds

In particular, LGBT youth face mental health concerns like major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) long after their exposure to bullying ends...
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/02/12/3748829/bullying-study-consequences-over-time/

Real Time with Bill Maher: Erin Brockovich – February 5, 2016 (HBO)

Consumer advocate Erin Brockovich joins Bill Maher to discuss how greed and corruption created a toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and across the nation.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/qI7p_cFtZ4w

Which Countries Are Happiest? Global Survey Suggests Capitalism and Wealth Aren't Delivering the Goods

While Prosperous nations experienced a 42% net happiness, Emerging and Aspiring nations soared past with 59% and 54% respectively...
http://www.alternet.org/world/which-countries-are-happiest-global-survey-suggests-capitalism-and-wealth-arent-delivering

Thinking Critically about the “Self-Help” Genre (The Humanist Hour #187)

In this episode, Bo Bennett has a conversation with Dr. Michael Britt about the genre of books and programs known as “self-help,” a roughly $11 billion industry. As Bo says, the self-help movement is not much different from many religious movements, and, like many religions, self-help does have some good things to offer. The key is to be knowledgeable in this area and to think critically.

Bo’s guest, Michael Britt, has a Ph.D. in psychology from The State University of New York at Albany (specialization in social and industrial/organizational psychology). He is an adjunct professor in psychology and runs the most popular psychology podcast, The Psych Files.
Interview:
http://thehumanist.com/multimedia/podcast/self-help