What is the Legal, Constitutional Way to Do Impeachment, and Are Democrats Doing It? (0:35)

Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, BYU; Frederick Gedicks, JD, Professor of Law, BYU

President Trump has called the impeachment inquiry currently underway by House Democrats “illegal, invalid, unconstitutional” and another word we can’t say on the air. He, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Vice President Mike Pence have all announced they will not respond to subpoenas from the House for information or testimony. One of their key complaints is that the House of Representatives has not held a vote on initiating the impeachment inquiry.

 

Assad Has Won the Syrian War. But “The Revolution is an Idea and Ideas Don’t Die.” (21:03)

Guest: Wendy Pearlman, PhD, Professor of Middle East Politics, Northwestern University, Author “We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled”

As US troops withdraw from Northeastern Syria this week, Turkish are attacking Kurdish forces there and hundreds of thousands of civilians are once again on the run from violence. Without US support, the Kurds have turned to Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad’s military for support fighting Turkey, and so, the Assad regime has scored another major victory in regaining virtually all of the territory it lost over eight years of Civil War. What now for the Syrians who protested in the streets eight years ago and took up arms to oust Bashar Al-Assad? Political scientist Wendy Pearlman has spent the last 8 years speaking with Syrians at length about their motivation for protesting, their hopes and regrets and the war drags on. In 2017, she published excerpts of those interviews in a book called “We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled.”

 

The Last US/Canada Border Dispute (38:48)

Guest: Stephen Kelly, Former Diplomat and Research Scholar at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University

You know Puffins? They look like a cross between a penguin and a toucan? One of the very best places for puffin watching in America is a smallish mound of rock off the coast of Maine. It’s called Machias Seal Island and America has claimed it since the late 1700s. But Canada says the island has been its territory since the mid-1600s and believe it or not, this dispute has never been settled. For a long time, it seemed like it didn’t really matter, since neither the US or Canada are willing to come to blows over a little island that’s really only valuable as a spot for tourists to birdwatch. But the dispute also extends to Atlantic Ocean waters around the island, which have become a source of more heated dispute recently because there are lobsters in that water.

 

Holocaust Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph over Evil (51:11)

Guest: Judy Stone, MD, Infectious Disease Physician, Author of “Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil”

Most families have some stories that aren’t to be discussed at gatherings. If not necessarily skeletons in the closet, they’re uncomfortable episodes or tragedies best left out of those after-dinner conversations when the kids go off to play and the adults linger at the table to reminisce. Judy Stone grew up knowing that any discussion about the World War II years was off-limits in her family. Stones parents, aunts and uncles were all Hungarian Holocaust survivors. It was only near the end of her mother’s life, that Judy Stone began to hear the stories of suffering and survival in her family. She spent the next decade interviewing relatives and tracking down genealogical records. The result is a new book called, “Resilience: One Family’s Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil.”

 

Smarthome Cybersecurity (1:27:40)

Guest: Phil Windley, Professor of Computer Science, Brigham Young University

These days everything seems to be smart: lightbulbs, fridges, speakers, tvs... the list goes on and on. But when you make your home smart, what risks are you taking for the convenience? We asked for your questions, and we have a cybersecurity expert here in studio to answer them.