Focus on Technology—reported and hosted by WVXU’s Ann Thompson—looks at important scientific advancements and tech news trends, as well as their many intersections with other areas and issues in our society today like medicine, politics, entertainment and the environment. Airing weekly on 91.7 FM, Focus on Technology takes on a range of fascinating topics, from archaeology to alternative fuels, every Monday in Thompson’s engaging, in-depth style, and covers the cutting edge of research and development as well as forecasts from experts about where we’ll be in a few years with the future technology of tomorrow.

From cute animals to social justice, this NPR podcast produced by WVXU brings its listeners engrossing and relevant content about the world of high tech that we’re living in, like:

· Earlham College archaeologists using drones and 3D mapping to survey the landscape for potential sites of Viking artifacts in Iceland;

· fairness in the art world with a discussion of NFTs as a mechanism of equity for marginalized and minority artists;

· and the use of RFID, or radio frequency identification, chips to monitor activity and interaction between penguins at the new little blue or “fairy” penguin exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo—the only such use of RFID technology on penguins in the world.

In political tech news, Thompson illuminates the unexpected but alarming links between ideological extremism, domestic terror and nuclear power plants. In the field of medicine, she takes a close look at what only a few years ago would have seemed like future technologies—laparoscopic surgeries performed on fetuses in utero to repair spina bifida at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital; new research on peanut allergies at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; and advancements by researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in the care of patients with respiratory distress, allowing them to “breathe” through their intestines.

Focus on Technology is also available online and wherever NPR podcasts are found—on the NPR One app, streaming services, and a wide variety of smart devices.