Radio Times

Guest: Joselin Linder

Joselin Linder carries a rare mutation in her genes that is unique to the Linder family.  The mutation causes a disease that killed her father in middle age and four other members of her family.  In her new book, The Family Gene, Linder investigates her family’s disease, her own struggle to come to terms with her genetic inheritance, and the hope that genomic medicine might offer.

Guest: Chris Hayes

There are two American criminal justice systems – one you’d expect to find in a democracy, the other you’d find in an occupied land.  That’s the argument in CHRIS HAYES’ new book, A Colony in a Nation. He examines police tactics, drug policies, mass incarceration, and politics to highlight how blacks and whites, the poor and affluent have been treated differently by law enforcement. Hayes joins Marty this hour to talk about the book, as well as the news of the day.

Reading List

Boston Globe: Danger of creating black colony in white nation

Vanity Fair: How America became a colonial leaders in its own cities

New York Times: Chris Hayes: By the book

Guests: Robert Baer, John Dean

FBI Director James Comey announced at a House hearing on Monday that they are investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.  It’s the latest development in what has become insurmountable evidence that Putin’s government intentionally interfered in the 2016 election.  Today on the show, we’ll discuss the implications of Russia’s cyber-attack on the American electoral process with former CIA case officer and author, ROBERT BAER. Then, we’ll talk with JOHN DEAN, who served as White House Council for Richard Nixon and was involved in the Watergate scandal, about the gravity of the hearings and how the implication of corruption will play out in the White House.

Guests: Lisa McElroy, Carol Nackenoff

We’ll be listening to live NPR coverage this morning of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.  Marty will follow NPR’s coverage by getting reactions and analysis from CAROL NACKENOFF, professor of political science at Swarthmore College, and LISA McELROY, associate professor of law at Drexel University School of Law.

Guests: Lawrence Krauss

Why are we here?  That’s the question theoretical physicist LAWRENCE KRAUSS asks and answers in his new book, The Greatest Story Ever Told – So Far.  Krauss traces the discoveries in physics that have altered our understanding of the universe and that explain the “curious accident” of our existence.  Marty talks with Krauss about gravity, electromagnetism, and the Higgs boson, and about scientists like Galileo, Paul Dirac, and Richard Feynman.

 

Reading List

Scientific American: Why Humans Prefer to Be the Center of the Universe

The Sun Star: Scientist tells ‘the greatest story ever told’

Scientific American: Why the Trump Immigration Ban Is Bad for the U.S. and Bad for the World

Guests: Bill Hayes, Gregory Korte

Neurologist Oliver Sacks was a public person known for his writing that humanized people with unusual medical conditions. There was a private side that he revealed in his memoir, On the Move, published shortly before he died in 2015 at the age of 82.  In the book, he revealed he was in love for the first time in his life with a man named BILL HAYES. Hayes has written a book about falling in love with Sacks and New York titled Insomniac City.  But first, what does President Trump’s budget blueprint tell us about how he’d like to govern and re-order government priorities. He wants to invest in defense and border security and make big cuts in the EPA and the State Dept.  GREGORY KORTE, who writes for USA Today, fills us in.

Guests: Jannie Blackwell, David Hardy, Will Hayes

The Committee on Education of the City Council of Philadelphia will hold a public hearing next week to discuss ways to improve the graduation rates for African American young men attending college. Their graduation rates lag behind others in higher education. Marty will get the conversation started with Councilwoman JANNIE BLACKWELL.  Then, two area principals share their experiences working with their black male students to develop the skills that enables them to succeed in college or university and beyond.  DAVID HARDY is the founder and CEO of Boys Latin of Philadelphia Charter School.  WILL HAYES is the principal of Mastery-East Camden Middle School in Camden. He’s a member of The Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice.

Guests: Scott Waldman, Mike Lofgren

Since President Trump has come into office, he’s been rolling back all kinds of environmental protections and has proposed significant funding cuts in climate science and research. And last week, Scott Pruitt, the head of the EPA, said that carbon dioxide is not biggest contributor of global warming.  This shocked many scientist and environmentalists and runs contrary to EPA and NOAA studies.  We start out this hour talking with E&E News reporter SCOTT WALDMAN about the new administration’s attacks on climate science. Then, we talk to MIKE LOFGREN, a former Republican Congressional aide who was the chief analyst for military spending in the Senate Budget Committee.  He joins us to tell us about the so-called “Deep State,” the pejorative used to describe the bureaucracy of the military and intelligence communities, as well as government contractors who are said to be attempting to undermine the Trump presidency. He wrote about his observations on this in his book The Deep State.

Reading list:

"Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Hits Record Levels" - Scott Waldman (Scientific American)

"The Deep State 2.0" - Mike Lofgren (billmoyers.com)

"There is No Deep State" - David Remnick (New Yorker)

"Five Myths About the Deep State" - Marc Ambinder (Washington Post)

Guests: Anne-Marie Slaughter

Today we’re going to listen to Marty’s conversation with ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER, recorded Friday at a WHYY member event at Princeton University. Slaughter served as director of Policy Planning at the State Department under Hillary Clinton, and President and CEO of the think tank, New America. Her new book is called The Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of Connection in a Dangerous World, which examines how our increasing interconnectedness effects the delicate balance of international relations.

Guests: Carol Kuniholm, Jowei Chen

Donald Duck kicking Goofy.  That’s how many have described the ridiculous shape of Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District; the most gerrymandered district in one of the country’s most gerrymandered states. Drawing congressional district lines, known as redistricting, has been a hotly contested issue for a long time.  The process is opaque and very political with incumbent parties aiming to retain their seats in the legislature. But reformers are hard at work trying to change the process to more accurately reflect the demographics of the states. In Pennsylvania, CAROL KUNIHOLM, founder of Fair Districts PA has been working with local organizations to end gerrymandering. She joins us on the show along with JOWEI CHEN, professor of political science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who studies the process of redistricting and its effects.