What on MPR News – 3/11/19

Monday March 11, 2019
(Subject to change as events dictate. This page is updated throughout the day.)

9 a.m. – MPR News with Kerri Miller
Recent comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., triggered a firestorm of controversy that Democratic Party leaders are struggling to contain. Let the pundits argue about whether her statements were truly anti-Semitic. What are the historical and cultural contexts that lead to this moment? Is there room to question America’s relationship with the Jewish state? Are there different standards for white Christian men who discuss Israel than there are for a brown, Muslim woman?

10 a.m.- 1A with Joshua Johnson
They shape how we work and what we see. But most of us have no idea what they are, or how much they control our lives. Algorithms – invisible and all-powerful pieces of code. A user’s guide.

Guests: Kartik Hosanagar, author of “A Human’s Guide to Machine Intelligence: How Algorithms Are Shaping Our Lives and How We Can Stay in Control”; Safiya Noble, PhD, author of “Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism.”

11 a.m. – MPR News with Angela Davis
First, Angela Davis checks in with the city of St. Paul on where it’s putting the excessive amounts of snow this season. Then, a conversation with renowned polar explorer Ann Bancroft, the first woman known to have crossed ice to reach both the North and South poles.

12 p.m. – MPR News Presents
A new Intelligence Squared debate about the “techonomic Cold War” with China. Will the next Silicon Valley be in China? Is the Belt and Road Initiative a trillion dollar blunder? Will the US and China both lose the trade war? Debaters are Ian Bremmer, Michele Flournoy, Yasheng Huang, Susan Thornton, and Parag Khanna.

1 p.m. – The Takeaway
Senator Martha McSally of Arizona revealed during a Senate hearing last week that she was raped by a superior officer while she was serving in the Air Force. This is only the latest revelation in the ongoing discussion about sexual assault in the military. A look at what’s being done to combat sexual violence in the nation’s armed forces.

Last week saw a major development in the private prison industry. JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, announced it would no longer do business with this controversial sector. Roughly 75 percent of the country’s immigrant detainees are kept in private facilities. But growing public scrutiny has increased pressure on the industry’s funders.

President Trump signed an executive order last Wednesday which means that the CIA can carry out drone operations with greater secrecy. How the drone program has expanded under the Trump administration and who gets to even know about it.

Almost two percent of high school students said they identify as transgender… Among these students, few play sports. And when they do, they face obstacles — from being forced to compete with the gender they don’t identity with… to questions of fairness when they do.

2 p.m. – BBC NewsHour
The recovery of the flight recorders of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed on Sunday.

Judges in Algeria say they’ll refuse to oversee next month’s elections if President Bouteflika stands as a candidate.

Amd the growing anger in Venezuela over power cuts and the lack of food.

3 p.m. – All Things Considered
The policy of 5G; Lebron and the Lakers; revealing medical prices; Trump’s water plan for California.

6:00 p.m. – Marketplace
The challenges and solutions in growing a small-town business. Starting a business in a rural area can be tough, but one entrepreneur in Plymouth, Idaho was able to turn her boutique into an international enterprise.

6:30 p.m. – The Daily
As the special counsel finishes his investigation, he can pursue three different paths — each with a profoundly different effect on how Congress will proceed. Recent history makes one of those paths especially treacherous. (Part 2)

Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, who has been covering the special counsel investigation for The New York Times.

7 p.m. – The World
Ethiopian Airlines is a point of pride for many Ethiopians, with a strong safety record and the ability to connect the capital Addis Ababa with major international air travel hubs. In the aftermath of the crash of Flight 302, we look at the role the state-owned airline has in the country and the region. Plus, we remember one of the passengers who died on ET302, Nigerian writer Pius Adesanmi.

Also, this week marks the 60th anniversary of the ill-fated Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. It was after that failed rebellion in March 1959 that the spiritual leader of Tibetans, the Dalai Lama, was forced to flee into exile. For many Tibetans, this is a bitter memory. We hear from Lhadon Tethong, a Tibetan activist who lives in the US, and from Sarah Sewall, a former Special Coordinator for Tibet Affairs at the State Department.

Plus a profile of one of the few women who’ve joined the ranks of the famous cliff divers of Acapulco, Mexico.

8 p.m. – Fresh Air
Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest who left the pulpit to become a professor of religion. In her new book she writes about teaching the world’s religions at Piedmont College, an independent, church-related, four year liberal arts institution where most of the students hadn’t had much exposure to other religions. Taylor’s new memoir is Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others.