Bob Collins
Wednesday April 4, 2018
(Subject to change as events dictate)
Until 9 a.m. – Morning Edition
Memphis poverty compared to when Martin Luther King Jr., was killed supporting striking sanitation workers; a New Hampshire postcard; Ask Cokie about the census.
9 a.m. – MPR News with Kerri Miller
On this 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King host Kerri Miller will examine his influence on young activists today.
Guest:DeRay McKesson, the founder and co-editor of the Ferguson Protestor Newsletter and a former employee of Minneapolis Public Schools.
9:15 a.m – Facebook and privacy
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress next week in a hearing about data privacy. The company has been embroiled in a scandal with data firm Cambridge Analytica, which reportedly mined information from millions of Facebook users without their knowledge. Facebook has been slow to enact meaningful privacy reforms, and we’ll take a look at whether this will ultimately hurt the company’s image.
Guests: Brian Feldman, associate editor at New York Magazine; Hayley Tsukayama, reporter who covers consumer tech for Washington Post.
10 a.m.- 1A with Joshua Johnson
It was a labor dispute that took Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis. Sanitation workers were striking, and King’s support was part of the Poor People’s Campaign, an anti-poverty initiative that he imagined would lead to another march on Washington.
The economic side of civil rights has long been overlooked, though it’s always been there. In a discussion about legislation in 1962, John F. Kennedy said there wasn’t much value in a man “obtaining the right to be admitted to hotels and restaurants if he has no cash in his pocket and no job.”
Fifty years after King’s assassination, income inequality has increased significantly.
Guests: Sarah Anderson, director, the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies; Nisha Patel, executive director, U.S. Partnership on Mobility from Poverty at the Urban Institute; Rev. William Barber, Protestant minister, national board member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Terrance Wise, employee, McDonalds, leader of the “Fight for $15.”
11 a.m. – MPR News at 11
Working parents in rural Minnesota are struggling to find day care. Research from the Center for Rural Policy and Development shows a massive day care shortfall, especially in the northern and central parts of the state. In northwestern Minnesota alone, they estimate roughly 2,500 children need day care, and can’t get it.
Guests: John Enger, MPR News reporter; Marnie Werner from the Center For Rural Policy and Development in Mankato, Minn.; James Koppel, from the Minnesota Department of Human Services
11:45 a.m.– Dr. King’s legacy.
Guest: Sarah Bellamy artistic director of the Penumbra Theatre.
12 p.m. – MPR News Presents
To mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a broadcast of the APM documentary by Stephen Smith and Kate Ellis, called “King’s Last March.”
1 p.m. – The Takeaway
Does American really understand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
2 p.m. – BBC NewsHour
The international chemical weapons watchdog holds hearings on the spy poisoning. Brazil is braced for a Lula verdict; Ukraine’s far right vigilantes; and a freedom rider remembers.
3 p.m. – All Things Considered
An early GOP parade through New Hampshire; The Mexico migrant caravan; an inspection of the use of force in the Sacramento police shooting.
6:00 p.m. – Marketplace
The Space Age began with government-funded projects. Now, business titans like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are aiming to open up space travel to entrepreneurs.
6:30 p.m. – The Daily
It started with a report on Fox News, and ended with calls for United States troops at the border with Mexico. We look at how President Trump’s approach to immigration transformed over just 72 hours. Guest: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, who covers the White House for The New York Times.
7 p.m. – The World
Martin Luther King Jr.’s called for minorities and the disadvantaged to join together and support each other to overcome injustice. Fifty years after his assassination, what are the prospects?
8 p.m. – Fresh Air
Mark Oliver Everett is a singer and songwriter and the founder and creative force behind the band Eels. They have a new album titled The Deconstruction. He is the son of the late physicist Hugh Everett who originated the theory of multiple universes.
