The Winter Olympics are here, and while they provide hours of incredible viewing for sports fans, they also offer insights into life and society. To explore the Olympics in this light, we turn to Cara Ocobock, assistant professor of anthropology. In a wide-ranging discussion, Prof. Ocobock explains what makes the Olympics so appealing, but also what needs to happen to achieve greater equality for male and female athletes. Finally, Ocobock talks about what happens to the body in extreme temperatures, citing insights from her research working with reindeer herders in northern Finland.…

One of the biggest stories in the last half of 2021 was the supply chain. It seems everyone was impacted by shortages or delays in getting a product from a manufacturer to a consumer. Well now that we’ve turned the page into 2022, where do we stand? To find out, we spoke with Kaitlin Wowak, associate professor of IT, analytics, and operations in the Mendoza College of Business.…

The Gospel account of St. Matthew includes a peculiar episode: Magi or wise men who followed a star to the place of Jesus’ birth. Grant Mathews, a Notre Dame astrophysicist, details the astronomical phenomenon he believes led them to Bethlehem. Re-edited version of the episode that aired Nov. 30, 2018.…

What do you do when the officers that are supposed to protect and serve the public are the ones torturing their suspects? Not in a third-world country, but in the city of Chicago. If you're a civil rights attorney, you stand up and defend the rights of those being abused -- regardless of whether the fight takes three decades, the tortured have been jailed as long as you've been alive, or you're a recent Notre Dame Law School graduate drawn to the effort.…

Tour guides have been answering questions about it for years. There's a large gold crown in a case, situated by the elevators in Notre Dame's Main Building (aka, the "Golden Dome"). A plaque inside the case offers some explanation, but there's much more to know. Turns out, this crown may not be the most famous piece of royal headwear the University has received. Our story is about two crowns, one crime, and one unsolved mystery.…

It's one of the biggest news stories of the month: social media and the spread of misinformation. While Facebook garnered much attention over the past several weeks, the problem of misinformation goes back far longer and is far broader than many people realize. In this episode, we chat with Tim Weninger, Frank M. Friemann Associate Prof. of Engineering. His work in this area goes back to the dawn of ISIS in the Middle East and continues today through the development of a suite of forensics tools to help fight coordinated misinformation campaigns.…

Ronnie and Alex Mansour chose Notre Dame over a traditional music conservatory because the University’s music program allowed them the flexibility to do it, as Sinatra would say, their way. In this episode, Brendan O'Shaughnessy tells the story of the siblings who charted their own creative path at the University.…

Fr. Malloy offers his reflection on the events of 9/11 and what followed for the campus community and himself.…

Iris Seabolt was convicted of felony murder in 2004 and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Prosecutors did not accuse her of killing restaurant owner A.J. Williams, but claim she was the female lure in an intended robbery that ended in murder. The police presented no physical evidence at all in her trial. Instead, a series of witnesses claimed they heard Seabolt admit her guilt. Seabolt lost hope, so she took a plea deal. All those witnesses have since recanted, saying they were coerced into lying by a corrupt and disgraced police officer.…

In the fourth installment of the Proving Innocence series, the Notre Dame law students take on the case of Leon Tyson. He was convicted of a 2015 murder in Elkhart, but the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic believes he is innocent. He was sentenced to 63 years in prison. The case took a turn when the students and professor placed a call to the mother of a man who was also there during the crime. Her revelations intrigued the students, but the case may turn on the question of hair -- witnesses said the shooter had dreadlocks, but Tyson has long had alopecia, a condition that makes him bald.…

In the final episode of the season, we sit down with Madeline Owen, the valedictorian of the class of 2021. Madeline discusses her Notre Dame journey, and what it meant to finish that journey here, on campus. Read more about Madeline…

In this episode, we look at the history of St. Joseph’s Farm, a place where religious brothers cultivated land to provide fuel for the University. Today, the farm is being used to produce another kind of fuel: solar power.…

The American Rescue Plan—the latest pandemic stimulus—was signed into law earlier this month and it was billed as a means to slash poverty. We discuss that proposition with Jim Sullivan, economist and co-founder of the Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities…

For the better part of a year, the mail has been increasingly slow…and COVID is only partly to blame. To find out what’s behind this we spoke with James O’Rourke, professor of management in the Mendoza College of Business…

As most of the country awaits their turn in line to receive a coronavirus vaccine, some have questions about its safety, how it was developed, and what it means for life…after the vaccination. Today we talk with Dr. Mark Mulligan '80, an infectious disease expert and head of NYU’s Langone Vaccine Center. Dr. Mulligan has worked on vaccine trials for decades, including most recently, the vaccine for COVID-19.…

For most of us these days, “office hours” take place…almost anywhere but the office. The dining room, bedroom, basement…they’ve all become the places we work, not just where we live. The pandemic has profoundly altered the work-life balance of Americans, and new research is uncovering how we’re dealing with this shift.…

Andy Royer confessed in 2003 to strangling a 94-year-old woman who lived in his apartment building in Elkhart, Indiana. But Royer, who has mental challenges that make him seem childlike despite his huge size, then asked if he could just go home. Confessions are convincing to juries. Most people are surprised to learn that they are sometimes given by the innocent. Royer was convicted and given a sentence of 55 years. After three earlier attempts failed, the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic in April won his release after 16 years – the first of what law students and faculty leaders hope are a string of successful petitions.…

In Episode Two, we hear the story of Keith Cooper’s 20-year odyssey to clear his name of a crime he didn’t commit in a town he hardly knew. Cooper tells the story in his words, starting with his arrest in 1997 based on a description of a crime by someone tall, thin and black. Mistaken witness identifications led to a speedy bench-trial conviction and a 40-year sentence.…

Episode One traces the origins of the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic’s rapid growth over the last four years. It began as a student volunteer club in 2016 with some awareness and advocacy events. The students launched into action after a visit from Keith Cooper, the only person in Indiana history to receive a governor’s pardon based on actual innocence, and his attorney, Elliot Slosar. They focused their legal assistance on Slosar’s cases in Elkhart, Indiana, a city about a half hour from Notre Dame’s campus. After recruiting faculty member Jimmy Gurulé, their efforts turned into a class and this year into the University’s sixth legal clinic.…

As the real estate market rebounds, more people are thinking about what makes a perfect home. Architecture professor Marianne Cusato is one an industry leader in the home building industry. She’s been named one of the top women in real estate by Fortune Magazine, to list just one of her many accolades. She earned international acclaim for the Katrina cottage, an attractive, well-built home that could be deployed in case of emergency.…