Author: knutson4

Noted: Well before the recent shift in public discourse, racism brewed under the surface for decades, but hate groups generally maintained a lower profile, said Pamela Oliver, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin. Racially offensive images became publicly unacceptable by the end of the Civil Rights era, she said, but they never disappeared completely.

Guest is Amy Wagner, executive director of the UW Child Development Lab.

Quoted: The work of UW-Madison marketing professor Evan Polman centers on consumer psychology. Several recent studies he’s conducted show that “there can be a dark side to generosity. It’s not 100 percent good,” says Polman.

Polman, who researches gift giving, says that most studies on the topic focus on what happens before gift giving. “It’s usually about the struggles and decision-making the giver goes through when thinking about what kind of gift to give someone,” says Polman.

Quoted: UW-Madison journalism professor Mike Wagner says if the GOP supermajority in the Assembly seems lopsided, “that’s probably why there is a lawsuit.”

“A court-drawn map or bipartisan commission map certainly wouldn’t promise a Democratic majority,” Wagner says. “But it would be far more likely to have a more representative result given the partisan makeup of the state. Wisconsin is very competitive. That we know.”

Evan Polman is an assistant professor of marketing and the Cynthia and Jay Ihlenfeld Professor for Inspired Learning in Business at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Quoted: “The consensus seems to be that missing school has adverse consequences, from achievement growth to high school graduation and I’m not sure I totally buy it,” said Eric Grodsky, a UW-Madison professor of sociology and educational policy studies who has been studying absenteeism among Madison students.

Noted: Studies disagree about whether the credit spurred job growth, with University of Wisconsin-Madison economics professor Noah Williams crediting it with creating 20,000 manufacturing jobs while the Wisconsin Budget Project cites federal statistics showing state manufacturing job and wage growth continue to be slower here than the national average.

A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has mathematically concluded what  Packer national already knows: Aaron Rodgers is a better quarterback than Tom Brady.

UW-Madison math professor Jordan Ellenberg — author of the bestseller “How Not to Be Wrong” — will make his numbers-crunching case for Rodgers in a pregame feature during the national broadcast Sunday of the match-up between the Green Bay Packers and Brady’s team, the New England Patriots.

Guests include Michael Apple, professor of curriculum and instruction, and educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Marcia Slattery, the head of the UW Anxiety Center, talks about how you can help kids with anxiety cope on Halloween.

Quoted: “It’s extraordinarily unlikely that a single product is going to have a positive effect on a whole series of diseases,” said Alta Charo, a UW professor of law and bioethics.