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UnDisciplined: An Almost-Year In Review

Utah Pulbic Radio
UnDisciplined: Year in review

2018 is going to be remembered as a huge year in science. 

It was the year we took tremendous leaps forward in aritificial intelligence. It was when we faced the contorversial case of the world's first gene-edited babies. And,  it was the year we shot a billionaire's car into space. 

But here at Utah Public Radio, we're hoping 2018 is remembered for another reason: as they year we first started broadcasting UnDisciplined. 

This week, host Matthew LaPlante and producer Alyssa Roberts look back on UnDisciplined's first not-quite-full year on the air: the great, the maybe-not-so-great and, of course, the bees. 

Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something donned on him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be brutally depressing all the time. Today, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects by writing books about the intersection of science, human health and society, including the New York Times best-selling Lifespan with geneticist David Sinclair and the Nautilus Award-winning Longevity Plan with cardiologist John Day. His first solo book, Superlative, looks at what scientists are learning by studying organisms that have evolved in record-setting ways, and his is currently at work on another book about embracing the inevitability of human-caused climate change with an optimistic outlook on the future.