Roving Reports

March 2009 - Kathmandu, Nepal

After traveling to Dharamsala, India for a private conference with the Dalai Lama, Adele Diamond visited a "bamboo school" in Kathmandu. They brought a gift -- a set of kites painted by students in Vancouver, British Columbia. These students had never flown a kite before.

November 19, 2009

Adele Diamond, a leading cognitive neuroscientist, is a professor at the University of British Columbia who studies how social dramatic play can build Executive Function skills in children's brains. As Diamond explains it, Executive Function is a container term for capacities like inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility.

In this narrated slideshow, we pair Diamond explaining the nuts and bolts of Executive Function with 5th and 6th graders demonstrating some of the principles she describes through improvisational theater games.

Diamond's interview is featured in our public radio program, "Learning, Doing, Being: A New Science of Education." Check it out at speakingoffaith.org/programs/2009/learning-doing-being/.

August 28, 2009 - University of Minnesota Center for Cardiovascular Repair

For our public radio program, "Stem Cells, Untold Stories," we toured Doris Taylor's lab. Here, Dr. Doris Taylor shows Krista Tippett live heart cells beating in a dish. To watch more videos on Taylor's works with regenerating hearts and stem cells and to download an mp3 of the produced show, visit speakingoffaith.org/programs/2009/stem-cells/.

Produced by Andy Dayton and Trent Gilliss for Speaking of Faith.

August 28, 2009 - University of Minnesota Center for Cardiovascular Repair

For our public radio program, "Stem Cells, Untold Stories," we toured Doris Taylor's lab. Here, she shows Krista and senior producer Mitch Hanley a pig's heart and liver that have had their cells removed. To watch more videos on Taylor's works with regenerating hearts and stem cells and to download an mp3 of the produced show, visit speakingoffaith.org/programs/2009/stem-cells/.

Produced by Andy Dayton and Trent Gilliss for Speaking of Faith.

August 28, 2009 - University of Minnesota Center for Cardiovascular Repair

For our public radio program, "Stem Cells, Untold Stories," we toured Doris Taylor's lab. Here, she shows us the phases of regenerating tiny, rodent hearts suspended in elaborate architectural glass bulbs with tubes feeding them — one lifeless with old cells; another one stage further, a pale "scaffold" ready for stem cells to be injected; and finally a regenerated heart — pink, pumping, alive, and beating on its own.

Taylor also tells the story of a man with a rare, heart disease who says that her cutting-edge work is "building hope." To watch more videos on Taylor's works with regenerating hearts and stem cells and to download an mp3 of the produced show, visit speakingoffaith.org/programs/2009/stem-cells/.

Produced by Andy Dayton + Trent Gilliss for Speaking of Faith.