Bob Collins
Thursday April 11, 2019
(Subject to change as events dictate. This page is updated throughout the day.)
9 a.m. – MPR News with Kerri Miller
Overall, the country is growing more tolerant of religious diversity. But atheists are still last on the list. Only 30 percent of Americans have a “warm” view of nonbelievers. And women atheists bear even more scorn. Atheists are more likely to be male and younger than the overall population, and female atheists face misogyny even among other atheists. What does it mean to be a woman and an atheist in this culture?
Guests: Rebecca Watson, creator of the SkepChick Network, a collection of blogs focused on science, critical thinking and sarcasm; Sikivu Hutchinson, an American feminist, novelist, playwright and director, and the author of Moral Combat, the first book on atheism to be published by an African-American woman.
10 a.m.- 1A with Joshua Johnson
Barbara Bush was one of only two women to be a wife and mother of American presidents. Abigail Adams preceded her in this, though the latter didn’t live to see her son assume the nation’s highest office. For a new biography of the late first lady, “The Matriarch,” journalist Susan Page talked with more than 100 people who knew her. Page interviewed Bush herself five times in her final months of life. The sixth interview never took place. In April 2018, Bush die at age 92 of complications from heart and lung disease. Page was also given access to Bush’s diaries, which Bush began keeping in 1948.
11 a.m. – MPR News with Angela Davis (Marianne Combs hosts)
Counter Stories, our regular conversation about race, identity and social justice.
Panel: Don Eubanks, associate professor at Metropolitan State University and cultural consultant; Hlee Lee, owner of “the other media group”; Luz Maria Frias, president and CEO of YWCA Minneapolis; Anthony Galloway, executive director of ARTS-US; Marianne Combs, arts correspondent at MPR News.
12 p.m. – MPR News Presents
University of Minnesota professor Jane Kirtley speaks at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School about free speech and the First Amendment. She’s director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law. Later in the program, University of Minnesota student Isaiah Ogren joins the discussion to talk about free speech on campus. The event was moderated by professor Larry Jacobs.
1 p.m. – The Takeaway
A bill with bipartisan support would make it impossible for the IRS to develop its own free electronic tax filing service. This comes as the result of a huge lobbying effort by TurboTax.
Texas Secretary of State David Whitley has until the end of the day to turn over documents related to the House Oversight and Reform Committee related to efforts to purge thousands of voters from the polls who were suspected of being non-citizens.
On Wednesday, Jeffrey Rosen, President Trump’s nominee to be second-in-command at the Justice Department appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Takeaway looks back at Rosen’s track record in Washington and how he handled questions from Senators on Wednesday.
Today, the Sudanese military arrested the country’s longtime president Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Hear from Isma’il Kushkush , an independent Sudanese journalist who has been following the protests in Sudan closely.
Comedian Wyatt Cenac draws from his own experience for a new look at education in America.
2 p.m. – BBC NewsHour
Signs of a military coup underway in Sudan — after weeks of protests, is President Bashir now on his way out? We’ll have the latest from Khartoum. Also, a delay to Brexit — the EU gives the UK another six months. And India’s election — 900 million people prepare to cast their ballots.
3 p.m. – All Things Considered
Noor trial update; snow in April; how Ketamine works; 100 days of House Democrats; the 30-year anniversary of the whistleblower law; early melt on the Alaska ice road; Planet Money: Hazelnuts.
6:00 p.m. – Marketplace
Wise County, Virginia, is a rural county facing a drug crisis, and incarceration used to be one of the only ways to deal with it. But over the last decade, the county’s spending on jail has doubled and now some residents are trying to come up with a different plan.
6:30 p.m. – The Daily
President Trump has promised to broker the deal of the century between Israelis and Palestinians. His partnership with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may have made such a peace deal all but impossible
7 p.m. – The World
The legal entanglements and international intrigue around Julian Assange is at a fever pitch today, as the Wikileaks founder is arrested in the UK. More than a half-dozen countries have a direct interest in Assange’s fate as he faces extradition to the US. Our team today breaks down what he is accused of, which countries are lining up to support or defend him, and how his long, strange exile in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London came to an end.
Also, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has stepped down after weeks of protest against his 29-year presidency. We talk with protestors and Sudanese-Americans about the precarious situation now unfolding as the military attempts to assert control of the situation.
And, Brexit gets another extension, this time till Halloween. Get your costumes ready, The World’s Patrick Cox explains what happens next in the UK’s chaotic three-year effort to separate from the European Union.
Plus, Jonah and the Whale, for real. Rainer Schimpf is an experienced wildlife photographer and conservationist who was documenting a ‘feeding frenzy’ off the coast of South Africa when a whale scooped him up while taking a mouthful of sardines. He tells his story to the BBC’s Neal Razzell.
8 p.m. – Fresh Air
Actor Henry Winkler became known worldwide for his role over 40 years ago as ‘the Fonz,’ the motorcycle riding greaser in the Garry Marshall sitcom Happy Days, set in the 1950s. Winkler just received his first Emmy award for his role as the self-important acting coach Gene Cousineau in the HBO black comedy Barry, co-starring with SNL alum Bill Hader.
