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June 27, 2015

The National Parks
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They are an incredible part of America’s Heritage- our National park system. If you’ve visited some of them, and think you know all about them, you don’t. We have an inside look that may surprise you. Then, countless public places have banned smoking. What’s the effect? A new study says the benefits are many.
Episode Segments:
 
InfoTrak: Your Guide to the National Parks

In researching his book, Michael Oswald, author of “Your Guide to the National Parks: The Complete Guide to all 58 National Parks” visited and camped in 48 of our national parks over the course of several years. He shared his thoughts on the importance of the national parks system, and offered advice for visitors regarding some on the lesser-known attractions. Based on his observations as a frequent visitor, he believes that the national park system is being managed and funded in a responsible way.
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InfoTrak: The Effect of Smoking Bans

Stanton A. Glantz, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco recently published a comprehensive study of the effect of laws that ban smoking in public places. He found that the restrictions result in a rapid decrease in hospitalizations for heart attack, stroke, respiratory diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He said he favors even stronger legislation to restrict smoking, because he found that the strictest laws resulted in the highest health benefits.
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InfoTrak: Bilingual is Better

Since the founding of the US, immigrants traditionally expected their children to embrace the American melting pot by leaving behind their heritage language and speaking only English. However, author Roxana Soto is part of a growing movement of Latino parents who want to maintain their language and cultural heritage, by encouraging their children to be bilingual. She talked about the obstacles faced by bilingual families and the benefits of speaking more than one language. Her new book is caller Bilingual Is Better: Two Latina Moms on How the Bilingual Parenting Revolution is Changing the Face of America
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Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode
Michael Oswald
Michael Joseph Oswald is an American travel writer. In 2003 he graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with degrees in electrical engineering and chemistry. After four years working in a corporate environment, he escaped to a more adventurous lifestyle traveling and pursuing his passion for kayaking, biking, and hiking across America's National Parks.

Your Guide to the National Parks on Amazon

 
Stanton Glanz
Dr. Glantz, the American Legacy Foundation Distinguished Professor of Tobacco Control, conducts research on a wide range of topics ranging from the health effects of secondhand smoke (with particular emphasis on the cardiovascular system) to the efficacy of different tobacco control policies. Dr. Glantz conducts research on a wide range of issues ranging from the effects of secondhand smoke on the heart through the reductions in heart attacks observed when smokefree policies are enacted, to how the tobacco industry fights tobacco control programs. His research on the effects of secondhand smoke on blood and blood vessels has helped explain why, in terms of heart disease, the effects of secondhand smoke are nearly as large as smoking. Consistent with what would be expected from the biology of secondhand smoke, he demonstrated a large and rapid reduction in the number of people admitted to the hospital with heart attacks in Helena, Montana, after that community made all workplaces and public places smokefree. His work in this area was identified as one of the “top research advances for 2005" by the American Heart Association. He was one of the people who first argued that controlling youth access to tobacco products was not an effective tobacco control strategy and was on of the first people to identify the importance of young adults (not just teens) as targets for the tobacco industry and efforts at smoking cessation and tobacco use prevention. He is author or coauthor of numerous publications related to secondhand smoke and tobacco control, as well as many papers on cardiovascular function and biostatistics. He has written several books, including the widely used Primer of Biostatistics (which has been translated into Japanese, French, Russian, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, and Primer of Applied Regression and Analysis of Variance). In total, he is the author of 4 books and nearly 300 scientific papers, including the first major review (published in Circulation) which identified involuntary smoking as a cause of heart disease and the landmark July 19, 1995 issue of JAMA on the Brown and Williamson documents, which showed that the tobacco industry knew nicotine was addictive and that smoking caused cancer 30 years ago. This publication was followed up with his book, The Cigarette Papers, which has played a key role in the ongoing litigation surrounding the tobacco industry. His book Tobacco Wars: Inside the California Battles chronicles the last quarter century of battles against the tobacco industry in California. He also wrote Tobacco: Biology and Politics for high school students and The Uninvited Guest, a story about secondhand smoke, for second graders. He is now running two educational projects, SmokeFreeMovies.ucsf.edu, which is working to end use of movies to promote tobacco, and TobaccoScam.ucsf.edu, which is countering tobacco industry efforts to coopt the hospitality industry.

More About Dr. Glantz,

 
Roxana Soto
My name is Roxana A. Soto (my middle initial stands for Alexandra, a name I absolutely love, but I never get to use) and I am a lover of languages. I like to say I’m trilingual, but my French is not as strong as I’d like it to be. I’m not giving up, though, especially after my mother – who is in her 60s – went to Quebec to study French in 2011, proving that it’s never too late… for anything! I am an immigrant born in Lima, Peru – land of the most delectable food… if I do say so myself. I’ve been married for over 10 years to a kind, loving and fun Puerto Rican man who has introduced me to the best the Caribbean has to offer: delicious food (check out my suegra’s recipe for flan de queso), amazing music (had never heard of bomba and plena before I met him), fun cultural traditions (one day I’ll be part of a parranda) and breathtaking natural and man-made beauty — for such a tiny island, Puerto Rico’s biodiversity is astounding! Our two children, Vanessa, 6, and Santiago, 3, are my two main reasons behind SpanglishBaby.I want to make sure they grow up speaking Spanish as comfortably as they speak English. I want them to never doubt that loving and honoring their Latino heritage – both on their father’s side and mine – doesn’t make them less American. On the contrary, it’s exactly what makes them American.

Roxana's Website