Your Call

A new study says we could face even more flooding in the future from atmospheric rivers, sea level rise & rising groundwater. How should cities adapt?

Last month, 196 countries signed on to a global agreement to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030. The planet faces an extinction crisis, with 28 percent of species across the global facing extinction, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

On this edition of Your Call's Media Roundtable, we discuss the impact of the recent heavy rainfall and flooding on poor communities and unhoused people in California.

The most recent disaster has placed a spotlight on the state's deep income and racial divide, and its failure to adequately shelter and support its unhoused population.

Guests:

Nuala Bishari, columnist and editorial writer at the San Francisco Chronicle

Mark Kreidler, national writer specializing in health and inequity

On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we discuss the latest developments in Ukraine. A recent Russian missile strike on an apartment building killed 45 people in Dnipro, including young children.

More than 9,000 civilians, including 453 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last February, according to officials.

Guest:

Eric Reguly, European bureau chief for The Globe and Mail, and author of Ghosts of War: Chasing My Father’s Legend Through Vietnam

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss new laws in California, including one that requires companies with at least 15 employees to add salary ranges in job descriptions. Another new law makes it easier for farmworkers to vote in union elections, free from intimidation. New laws affecting pay and working conditions for fast food workers and the ability of oil companies to drill near homes and schools could go to voters in 2024 after major businesses stepped in to file lawsuits.

Then we'll discuss Governor Newsom's proposed $297 billion budget, which includes funds to expand the social safety net to include more undocumented immigrants and protect a program that pays for 4-year-olds to attend pre-kindergarten. Budget cuts would affect major climate change programs and transit. How are social service advocates responding?

Guests:

Sameea Kamal, state Capitol and California politics reporter for CalMatters

Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California

Antonio De Loera-Brust, director of communications for United Farm Workers

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss the new Republican-led congress.

The deal between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and far-right Republicans will give extremists even more power. So far, House Republicans have voted to block new funding for the IRS and passed an extreme anti-abortion bill. Social service advocates are concerned they will use the debt limit to go after Social Security, Medicare, and other vital programs.

Guests:

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, chancellor’s professor at UC Berkeley, Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC Berkeley, founding editor of The American Prospect, co-founder of Inequality Media, and author of 18 books

Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, president of Social Security Works PAC

On this edition of Your Call, two doctors will discuss the latest research on Alzheimer’s, including the first randomized controlled trial to determine if the progression of early Alzheimer’s and mild cognitive impairment can be stopped or reversed by a comprehensive lifestyle medicine program.

We’ll also discuss a study by the Hawaii Alzheimer’s Disease Center that used dietary interventions to slow down cognitive decline in early-stage Alzheimer’s patients.

Guests:

Dr. Dean Ornish, founder and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, clinical professor of medicine at UCSF and UC San Diego, and author of seven national bestselling books, including UnDo It! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases

Dr. Steve Blake, director of nutritional neuroscience at the Maui Memory Clinic, research director at the Neuroscience Nutrition Foundation, and author of several books, including Nutrients for Memory

On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we mark Martin Luther King Day by discussing the chronic drinking water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi.

The city’s aging water system and low water pressure has left mostly Black residents without running water. The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether state agencies discriminated against Mississippi's majority Black residents by refusing to fund improvements to the water system.

Guests:

Dr . Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president of Environmental Justice, Climate & Community Revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation

Earnest McBride, contributing editor for the Jackson Advocate

The documentary Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus exposes the powerful spyware Pegasus, which was developed by the Israeli company NSO Group. Once you're infected, the device can access everything on your phone, even encrypted and deleted messages.

On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we discuss the attack on government buildings in Brasília by radical far-right groups supporting former President Jair Bolsonaro

If the attack was an attempted coup, it failed miserably, according to Brazil-based journalist Michael Fox. Former President Bolsonaro’s approval is now at an all-time low, according to the polling agency Quest.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva said authorities would find those responsible and discover who financed the attack. "We are not going to allow democracy to escape our hands, because it is the only chance for us to guarantee that humble people can eat three times a day, or have the right to work," he said. Police have detained more than 1,800 people in connection with the riot and have arrested 1,159, according to The Washington Post.

Guest:

Michael Fox, independent multimedia journalist and host of the podcast Brazil on Fire