Episode 17 of Through the Gates: IU This Week airs at noon on Sunday, May 15. The episode will be available through SoundCloud or iTunes, or on the Media School website.

This week, host Jim Shanahan is joined by Sue Carter, the director of The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. Carter was appointed to her position at The Kinsey Institute in October, 2014, after a long career in the field of neuroendocrinology.

Carter has spent much of her recent career studying the consequences of birth intervention, particularly how the hormone oxytocin affects the health of both mothers and their newborn children.

In this interview, Carter will discuss her career, including research on the mating habits of the prairie vole, the present and historical challenges of sex research and the immediate future of The Kinsey Institute.

Also on this episode, Colin Allen, a faculty member in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine in the College of Arts and Sciences, talks about National Bike to Work Week, from May 16 to 20. May is National Bike Month, and Allen describes the environmental impact of the event: taking even 200 cars of the road for one day is equivalent to taking one car off the road for a year.

 

IU news highlights this week:

• The Indiana University Art Museum has been renamed the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art in recognition of a $15 million gift from the Indianapolis-based philanthropists. The gift is the largest in the museum’s history and will lead toward renovation of the museum.
• A new study reports that many government officials in the state say they would consider collecting payments in lieu of taxes from churches, private schools, hospitals and other charities. The study’s authors say the survey results are a sign of the heavy budget constraints faced by many local governments. The study was led by the IU Public Policy Institute, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
• Another analysis, this one conducted by SPEA and Vanderbilt University, has found that African-American children are three times as likely to be placed in gifted-education programs if they have a black teacher rather than a white teacher. Black students were also 54 percent less likely than white students to be identified as eligible for gifted-education services.
• A faint blue galaxy about 30 million light-years from Earth has been identified by IU astronomers as possessing qualities that could shed new light on the moment of the Big Bang. The galaxy, located in the constellation Leo Minor, contains the least amount of heavy elements ever detected in a galaxy, approximating certain conditions believed to be present at the birth of the universe.
• IU’s African American Choral Ensemble embarked on its first European tour this month as performers in an international festival of sacred music. The group of 27 IU students is performing five public concerts across the country.
• And finally, two IU alumnae attended the Cannes Film Festival in France this past week to screen “My Dear Arthur,” a short film they directed that was one of only 30 student works selected for the renowned international festival. Eli and Lu Blevins, who are sisters, are 2015 graduates of the IU School of Informatics and Computing.

IU event highlights this week:

• IU Baseball wraps up its final home series of the season today, finishing its three game series with Illinois. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. The Hoosiers currently lead the Big Ten baseball standings. Listen to our April 10 podcast with IU Baseball coach Chris Lemonis.
• Also in sports, the women’s rowing team is competing this weekend at the Big Ten Rowing Championship.
• Older folk artists will have a chance to showcase their work on Friday, May 20, through an event sponsored by the Mathers Museum of World Culture. The event, titled “Memory and Creativity,” is free and open to the public. It starts at 11:30 a.m.
• The Mathers Museum of World Cultures is also sponsoring an interactive art event on Sunday, May 15 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Anyone interested in participating will have a chance to weave an eight-pointed star to be displayed at the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival.

News and events for this episode will be read by Andrea Vega, a Media School student with a focus in journalism and a specialization in public relations, and Luqmann Ruth, of Chicago, a senior recording arts major in the Jacobs School of Music and composer of the music for this podcast.

Through the Gates: IU This Week is a collaboration of the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, The Media School in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the IU Newsroom.