Even as people use online technologies in their everyday lives, they sometimes worry about potential pitfalls, including concerns about trusting other people. On this episode, we talk with two innovators who are seeking to improve public health by improving transparency in sexual relationships through a new platform called PlumCheck: Celine Gounder of the Kaiser Family Foundation and CBS News, and Josh Karetny, CEO of the new platform.

As we seek to know ourselves, who should help us with that exploration? Many different perspectives on empirical research, philosophy, and contemplation can be helpful as we try to understand our minds and ourselves. On this episode, we talk with Vladimir Miskovic, co-author of DREAMING REALITY: How Neuroscience and Mysticism Can Unlock the Secrets of Consciousness with Steven Jay Lynn.

Local public health workers help communities all over the country. Who helps them do their work? On this episode, we talk with two people who have spent time supporting public health in Western North Carolina with compelling new innovations to improve communication about local health: Adrienne Ammerman, founder of Arclet, and Brandon Romstadt of the WNC Health Network.

How should we support people facing mental health challenges? The Ad Council -- the same organization which introduced us to Smokey Bear over 80 years ago -- has some answers with their latest evidence-based campaign: Love, Your Mind. On this episode, we talk with Catherine Chao, Vice President of Strategy and Evaluation at the Ad Council.

Artificial intelligence tools have been in the headlines and yet we are still learning who opts to use such tools and why. On this episode, we talk with David Playfoot of Swansea University in the United Kingdom about his work on student use of AI tools.

As online content evolves, you might assume teenagers are flourishing on the Internet while older Americans shake their head in confusion, but the reality might surprise you. On this episode, we talk with Amanda Lenhart of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop about adolescents and how they think about our lives online.

The growth of online courses has been an important part of the story of education in the United States in the past decade, but we need more evidence of the ways our shift online may affect our sense of connection with others. On this episode, we talk with Daniela Castellanos-Reyes of North Carolina State University about her work to understand student connections online.

On this episode, Marieta Pehlivanova of the University of Virginia returns to the show to discuss her neurological perception research, including the adult experiences of people who as children reported memories of what some people refer to as a past life.