Last week, President Trump named Robert C. O'Brien as his new national security adviser. He replaces John Bolton, who was fired by the president two weeks ago.

Prior to his appointment, O’Brien was an envoy for hostage affairs. Now the fourth national security adviser during the Trump administration, he will be play a key role in carrying out the president’s foreign-policy agenda.

With drama escalating between Iran and Saudi Arabia, China’s growing global power, and denuclearization negotiations with North Korea, what can we expect from O’Brien and the Trump administration?

MPR News Kerri Miller spoke with Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Ellen Laipson, who directs the Master's in International Security program at George Mason University.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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It’s a tale worthy of a soap opera. On Sept. 13, we learned a whistleblower inside the U.S. intelligence community had submitted a complaint, flagging a phone call between President Trump and a foreign leader as troubling. The Intelligence Community Inspector General had looked into the complaint and agreed that it was credible and urgent. But Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire kept it from Congress, leading House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff to issue a subpoena.

It gets more complicated. Further developments involve former Vice President Joe Biden’s son and his dealings in Ukraine during the Obama era, scheduled aid payments to Ukraine being suspended - and, of course, the president’s response to all this. Tuesday morning, Kerri Miller and BuzzFeed News editor Hayes Brown attempted to untangle the threads.

Guest:

Hayes Brown is a world news editor and reporter for BuzzFeed News.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Propaganda has a long history, going back to P.T. Barnum and crowd psychologist Gustave Le Bon. But it can be tricky to recognize – especially today, when social media has given everyone a megaphone. Certainly, President Trump uses Twitter as a way to speak directly to the people – without gatekeepers or a public relations team keeping watch.

White supremacy groups are also taking advantage of the new world and getting increasingly bold. The Anti-Defamation League says recruiting propaganda from racist groups increased 182 percent in 2018.

Monday, Kerri Miller spoke with two experts – one who studies propaganda and how it’s used, and another who says the best way to fight white supremist propaganda is to face it head-on.

Guests:

Tim Wise, essayist about race and educator and the host of the podcast “Speak Out with Tim Wise”

Cory Wimberly, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley with a particular interest in propaganda

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Each week, senior producer Stephanie Curtis offers five suggestions to read, watch, listen to or experience.

1. "Writing to Persuade," a book by former New York Times op-ed editor Trish Hall that came out this summer, is about more than syntax. While she has advice about style -- don't choose "utilize" when a simple "use" will do -- it’s really about how to get your point across and communicate with people who don't agree with you. It would be invaluable for anyone hoping to survive this election.

2. After reading George Packer's long, convoluted, personal essay "When the Culture War Comes for the Kids" about how he and his wife decided to leave the public school system, I returned to Nikole Hannah-Jones' thoughtful article about her own journey. Also, check out the Two Tour Pledge if you are facing a similar debate in your home.

3. "Unbelievable," a new police procedural on Netflix, is based on a true story that I first read about in Pro Publica and the Marshall Project. Here’s how it starts: "An 18-year-old said she was attacked at knifepoint. Then she said she made it up. That’s where our story begins." The series, starring Toni Collette and Merritt Wever, begins in the same spot. It's a disturbing and powerful story about how rape is investigated. You see inept police work and the skilled, nuanced work needed for a rape investigation.

BONUS: Kerri says you must check out the two-part series from The Daily, in which the New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story discuss new findings that raise questions about the legacy of two feminist icons – Gloria Allred and her daughter, Lisa Bloom.

4. Dear Joan and Jericha is an adults-only podcast in which comedians Julia Davis and Vicki Pepperdine play advice columnists with terrible, terrible advice. Don’t listen to it with kids around, but do listen -- and prepare to laugh.

5. I love some moody music, and Angel Olsen, a singer-songwriter from Asheville, fits the bill. She feeds my love of bands like...

A record number of Native American candidates ran for office in the 2018 midterm elections.Debra Haaland, D-N.M., and Sharice Davids, D-Kan., made national headlines as the first Native American women elected to Congress.

Another notable victory happened in North Dakota, where Ruth Buffalo, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, defeated an embattled four-term incumbent, Randy Boehning.

Rep. Buffalo, a Democrat, won a district that spans south Fargo and had previously been reliably Republican.

Her win is significant not only because it makes her the first Democratic Native American woman to serve in the North Dakota Legislature, but also because of the timing.

Her victory came after a controversial voter ID law went into effect. The law required voters to have a residential address; opponents warned that it would create barriers because many Native voters on reservations have a post office box instead of a residential address. Boehning was the primary sponsor of that law.

Rep. Buffalo stopped by MPR News ahead of the Facing Race Awards.

Guest:

Rep. Ruth Buffalo is a public health advocate and the first Democratic Native American woman to serve in the North Dakota Legislature.To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Ruth Buffalo is the first Democratic Native American woman to serve in the North Dakota Legislature. An earlier version stated that she was first Native American woman to serve in that state’s legislature from any political party.

Growing up in Miami, Cuban-American author Jennine Capó Crucet saw herself as a white Latina. It wasn’t until college and graduate school that she started to challenge her understanding of race, class and power in America.

In her new collection of essays, “My Time Among the Whites,” the University of Nebraska English professor reflects on her undergraduate days at Cornell College.

She writes about the importance of her college education, and about how learning that she wasn’t quite as white as her peers shifted the way she related to her family and her native Miami. It also transformed the way she interacted with the world.

On Wednesday, MPR News host Kerri Miller spoke with Jennine Capó Crucet about her new book, “My Time Among the Whites.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Few of us would embark on a vacation without knowing the price of airline tickets, hotel stays and side excursions. But that’s exactly what Americans are forced to do when they enter a hospital, according to Dr. Marty Makary in his new book, “The Price We Pay.”

Courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing

Dr. Marty Makary’s new book, “The Price We Pay,” examines how hidden problems in the health care industry costs patients.

The Johns Hopkins surgeon takes an in-depth look at how the medical industry drifted into a money-making enterprise – one that has seemingly lost its focus on the patients it purports to serve. His book is filled with maddening examples of doctors recommending unneeded medical procedures, hospitals suing members of their community to collect on inflated bills, and middlemen who drive up costs behind the scenes. But the meat of his book offers suggestions for how to fix our broken system.

Tuesday, MPR host Kerri Miller spoke with Makary about the problems baked into the American health care system – and what’s needed to get it back on course.

Guest:

Dr. Marty Makary, Johns Hopskins surgeon, professor of health policy and author of the new book “The Price We Pay”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Members of Parliament shut down British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's no-deal Brexit proposal. In response, Johnson suspended Parliament. What's next for Brexit?

Courtesy of publishers

Fall book roundup

The fall book season is upon us, and the shelves will be packed. Many big names are returning with new titles: Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, Jacqueline Woodson, Zadie Smith and more.

MPR News host Kerri Miller joined MPR's Stephanie Curtis and Tracy Mumford to share the fall books on their must-read lists.

Fall reads

“One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America” by Gene Weingarten

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gene Weingarten wanted to tell the story of a single day in America. With the help of strangers at a bar, Weingarten picked a date from the past: Sunday, Dec. 28, 1986.

“It is a great book. It’s not about anything huge, it’s not uncovering murder mysteries or anything, but it makes connections about people’s lives in America at that time that reverberates today.” –Stephanie Curtis

“The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You” by Dina Nayeri

Dina Nayeri fled Iran when Nayeri was eight. She traveled with her mother and brother, but her father stayed behind in Iran. Her family’s story informs her latest book, as she talks to others about their experiences.

“She’s now going into refugee communities and talking to refugees about how they’re perceived … The things that people tell her are just remarkable.” –Kerri Miller

“In the Dream House” by Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado, whose book of short stories was a finalist for the National Book Award, has now delivered a memoir. She tells the story of her religious upbringing, of her sexuality, of psychological abuse – while weaving in fairy tales, pop culture and more.

“Ducks, Newburyport” by Lucy Ellmann

Many people will be talking about the length and structure of this novel come fall: The book is almost a thousand pages, and it’s nearly a single sentence. It follows the thoughts of a mother in Ohio, contemplating everything from existence to eggs.

“It is like a modern, James Joycean inner mono...

Members of Parliament shut down British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's no-deal Brexit proposal. In response, Johnson suspended Parliament for five weeks.

A Scottish court has ruled that maneuver unconstitutional, and the British Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the matter next week. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s deadline to leave the European Union is Oct. 31.

Speaking in Rotherham last Friday, Johnson said he remained confident he could make a deal happen. “We are working incredibly hard to get a deal. There is the rough shape of the deal to be done,” he said.

MPR News’ Euan Kerr, filling in for host Kerri Miller, spoke with NPR’s foreign correspondent Frank Langfitt and journalist Lesley Riddoch about the latest Brexit news.

Guest:

Frank Langfitt, NPR foreign correspondent in London

Lesley Riddoch, an award-winning journalist who writes regularly for the Scotsman, the Sunday Post and The Guardian

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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