Timeout Radio

Esports are a billion dollar industry with millions of fans. Players compete in organized video gaming with teams, practices, seasons, and tournaments. A growing phenomenon, esports are an official high school sport in the U.S. and students can earn college scholarships to play for varsity teams. Esports will be part of the 2022 Asian Games and the International Olympic Committee is talking about including them in the Olympic Games. Justin McBurney (high school physical education teacher and esports coach) and Naish Carlisle (a student on the esports team at Da Vinci High School) tell us how and why they got into esports. Then we visit the birthplace of esports, South Korea. Beyond the global music phenomenon of K-pop, South Korea is the place to go for bibimbap, bingsu, and breakdancing.

Activist—a simple word just three syllables long—has been the subject of debate and polarization lately. Find out how the word alternately took on positive and negative connotations over the past decades. Then learn five things that you can do to become an effective activist and get people to support a cause. Meet Gloria Partida, City of Davis' first Latina mayor, who is a community activist with a long history of disability advocacy. She started the Davis Phoenix Coalition, a group that works to eliminate intolerance and prevent hate-motivated violence, and whose motto is "Rising From The Ashes Of Hate". Then visit Egypt, a cradle of civilization where the phoenix, writing, ink, and paper originated. Did you know that the 365-day 12-month calendar we use today was invented in Egypt to predict the yearly floods of the Nile?

We are in the midst of a pandemic of misinformation. Most people have shared fake news online and didn't know that it was made up until after they shared it. People have trouble sorting through digital information, fall for viral hoaxes on social media, and have difficulty recognizing sponsored content. This problem of misinformation gets especially serious during a pandemic. Two-thirds of people who are not vaccinated believe myths about the COVID-19 vaccine. We talk to Alex Mahadevan, senior multimedia reporter for MediaWise about why we believe misinformation and how to spot misinformation and fake news online. Then we visit St. Petersburg, Florida, a city that earned its name through a coin toss and where commercial aviation got its start. St. Pete is nicknamed "The Sunshine City" and holds a Guinness World Record for logging 768 consecutive days of sunshine.

Do you like solving mysteries, helping animals, and science? Listen to this episode to learn about veterinary toxicology—the science of poisons and their effects on animals. Because animals can’t tell us what they’ve eaten, trying to figure out the toxin that is making them sick can be a real mystery. Dr. Bob Poppenga tells us how veterinary toxicologists put clues together to solve puzzles that protect human and animal health. The expression, "my dog ate my homework", refers to a lame excuse that a student gives for not turning in their homework. Find out if your dog can get sick from eating your homework, and why dogs should also stay away from chocolate, grapes, and raisins. Then visit Illinois—the Prairie State—home to an emerald green river, Twinkies, the tallest man ever, and Superman.