In chemistry and biochemistry Professor Don Spratt’s lab, students make ice cream in the name of science.

Spratt’s Kitchen Chemistry course has become a popular selection for students who aren’t science majors. In the lab, students experiment with ingredients under Spratt’s guidance. While making butter, ice cream, root beer, and pickles, they discover how pH, elements, and molecules interact with food.

“This course was spawned from trying to help students not be so scared of chemistry, but also appreciate science around us and improve scientific literacy,” says Spratt. “Food is chemistry, and if students can see that, they’ll become better cooks, and that could be a good life lesson.”

On this episode of Challenge. Change., Spratt gives us a taste of the science behind making ultra-creamy ice cream and a history lesson on pickles. Outside the kitchen, Spratt studies enzymes responsible for cancers and other diseases, neurodegenerative and immune disorders, and congenital defects. His research focuses on the structural and mechanistic studies of the HECT E3 ubiquitin ligases and homeodomain transcription factors using biophysical approaches.

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Professor Julie Frechette, Clark’s master’s in communication program lead, has long studied campaign communication. This means her phone has been inundated with text messages, emails, and push alerts from the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump for months.

In the past, voters often complained about the number of negative political ads on television. Today, campaigns use social media platforms and podcasts to spread their message further, swamping voters on every corner of the internet.

“We have a fractured media market, so most of us aren't only paying attention to traditional or legacy media the way that we used to. Most of us have social media and email and SMS messaging, but that has become overwhelming in the same way that negative TV ads used to overwhelm people because it really creates anxiety,” says Frechette.

“When the campaign teams for either candidate are telling you how bleak things are or what their advantages are, it's like the pendulum's always moving side to side and you never know what's accurate or who's going to have the winning message.”

On this episode of Challenge. Change., Frechette discusses how Trump and Harris are using social media and how they’re persuading voters in the final hours before Election Day.

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

English Professor Stephen Levin spent his summer with the turtles.

He traveled to Barbados and Trinidad to observe sea turtles and how they’ve become a focal point in tourism — a fellow tourist told Levin her motivation for visiting the turtles was “evidence of divinity.” It’s part of his latest research in the environmental humanities, which underscores the role that literature and the arts play in seeking solutions to problems such as climate change.

“One of the questions in the environmental humanities is how much has to disappear before we realize that we are at risk of disappearing,” says Levin. “There's a profound awareness watching these turtles that our fate is tied to theirs.”

On this episode, Levin discusses what it was like to watch six-foot-long turtles bury their eggs at the Grand Riviere beach in Trinidad, challenges the idea of human exceptionalism, and examines the costs and benefits of using charismatic creatures like lions, tigers, bears, and turtles to spread messages about the climate and environment.

“How do we understand the marketing of these turtles and their status as commodities with the attendant reality that the focus on this charismatic species has brought attention to conservation efforts and it appears to have created a reverence among the tourists who encounter and visit these turtles,” says Levin. “I think it's important to recognize the complexity.”

This research is part of Levin’s forthcoming book, “Figures of Disappearance: Selfhood in an Era of Mass Extinction,” which examines loss and absence in the era of the climate crisis.

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.