Bob Collins
Tuesday March 20, 2018
(Subject to change as events dictate)
Until 9 a.m. – Morning Edition
Minnesota reaction to President Trump’s anti-opioid policy; the Austin bombings investigation update; a bomb plot trial helps a Kansas town embrace Somalis.
9 a.m. – MPR News with Kerri Miller
Update on Maryland school shooting.
Guest: Robert Spitzer, Chair of the Political Science Department and Author of Guns Across America
9:20 a.m. – A recent national survey found that 81 percent of women had experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime. But so few of those women have sought legal recourse. The National Women’s Law Center is looking to change that.
Guest: Chai Feldblum, a commissioner of the EEOC.
10 a.m.- 1A with Joshua Johnson
One of the leaders of Cambridge Analytica has gone on the record to say the company was more than a way to influence elections. As he describes it, Cambridge Anayltica was essentially built to be the most powerful weapon in a culture war. Officials from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have in the past denied that the firm used the social network’s data. After these new revelations went public, lawmakers in the U.S and the U.K. began demanding answers from Facebook.
But even if the firm is found to have improperly acquired data, that won’t make all this information go away. By using Facebook and other networks, we’ve already given up enough personal information to be targeted and swayed by anyone with access to our profiles and an incentive to influence us.
What now? (Listen)
Guests: Issie Lapowsky, senior writer for Wired, covering politics and national affairs; Brendan Fischer, director of federal and FEC reform at the Campaign Legal Center; Zeynep Tufekci , associate professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina; Michael Simon, co-founder & CEO of Elucd, a technology company based in New York City.
11 a.m. – MPR News with Tom Weber (Mike Mulcahy hosts)
A world where most cars will operate without drivers may be closer than you think. Last week Gov. Mark Dayton created a 15-member advisory council to study how driverless car will affect Minnesota. This technology will affect not just drivers – how the way cities are designed, according to Frank Douma, director of the State and Local Policy Program at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. In an age of driverless cars, he predicts, cities will become more walkable, parking lots and ramps will be replaced with residential buildings and car ownership itself could become a thing of the past. (Listen)
Guests: Charles Zelle, MnDOT commissioner; Mary Smith, Walker Consultants.
12 p.m. – MPR News Presents
From the America Abroad series: “Islam and the Cosmos.” How some Muslim countries are trying to become world leaders in astronomy and space science. (Listen)
1 p.m. – The Takeaway
Displaced and desperate. Six months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans in temporary shelters struggle to start over.
2 p.m. – BBC NewsHour
Politicians and regulators in the U.S. and Europe say Facebook has huge questions to answer over personal data.
2:30 p.m. – Live coverage of Hennepin County Attorney’s news conference on charges against Minneapolis police officer involved in fatal shooting.
3 p.m. – All Things Considered
The charges against Minneapolis police officer; woes of American infrastructure; who owns AR-15s; the fall of the Chinese space station; the death of the last white rhino; free speech and the abortion debate; the poetry of jazz; and a Twin Cities engineer’s quest to understand love.
6:30 p.m. – Marketplace
Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner and the fall of Lehman. There are, in general, three ways to save a failing company:Find a buyer, add capital, or bridge loans. Lehman Brothers went 0 for 3.
7 p.m. – The World
We begin a three-part series on humanitarian aid workers who face sexual assault and harassment by their own colleagues. Reporter Amy Costello speaks with survivors, and examines why the aid community is struggling to deal with the problem.
Also, Deepa Fernandes reports on a growing trend in California: employers who threaten immigrant workers with deportation. It often happens when employer and worker are in a dispute over pay, even though under California law employers must pay laborers for their work regardless of immigration status.
Plus, The World’s Rupa Shenoy introduces us to a so-called “third culture kid” who now explores the many layers of her identity through music. Sirintip Phasuk was born in Thailand, to a Thai father and a Swedish mother. She later moved to Sweden and then New York. She says her new album reflects the sort of global mix that any “third culture kid” could relate to.
8 p.m. – Fresh Air
How early Christianity spread from a small group of followers to the religion of the Roman Empire. A talk with biblical scholar Bart Ehrman, who’s written a new book on the subject. It includes his own conversion from born again Christian to a religion scholar who describes himself as a Christian agnostic.
