Today on AirTalk, we discuss the recent allegations of inappropriate touching against potential 2020 presidential candidate, Joe Biden. We also examine how the Census measures race; analyze New York City's passing of a proposal to impose tolls on vehicles entering central Manhattan; and more.
In the wake of #MeToo, should Biden’s touchy-feely style receive greater scrutiny?
On Monday, a second woman alleged that Joe Biden touched her inappropriately.
That makes two allegations of inappropriate touching against the potential 2020 presidential candidate.
Biden has been leading the polls for the Democratic nomination even though he is still undeclared, but some say the allegations could mark the end of his run before it’s even begun.
Biden has long been known for being overly familiar and physically affectionate by those who have worked with him. But in the wake of #MeToo, Biden’s“touchy-feely” style is receiving greater scrutiny.
Should Biden change the way he publicly interacts with people? Do you like that he makes affectionate gestures toward others? Do you have people in your life you interact similarly as Biden and, if so, how do you respond to them?
Guest:
Phil Freedman, news director at The News Journal/Delaware Online, in Wilmington, Delaware
What does ‘white’ mean? How the Census measures race
Over the last few years, minority groups including the Middle Eastern or North African descent (MENA) communities have lobbied the Census Bureau to create a separate category for them.
For the 2020 survey, several groups who may identify as people of color are listed as examples of “White” in the survey form, including those of Lebanese and Egyptian descent. Latinx individuals and those who belong to several other minority groups will have to fill in their racial identity rather than checking a box, which according to Professor of Sociology, Rebecca Jean Emigh would leave those individuals undercounted.
Today, we discuss how “white” came to be defined by the Bureau and what its implications are for the people and data it could underrepresent.
And we want to hear from you. If you are of Middle Eastern or North African descent, how do you feel about being classified as “white” in the census? If you self-identify as one of the unlisted groups in the upcoming Census Bureau survey, how do you negotiate your personal self-identification with the options on the form? If you are mixed race, which box or boxes do you choose to check?
Call us at 866-893-5722.
Guests:
Kenneth Prewitt, professor of public affairs at Columbia University; former Census Bureau director who served under the Clinton administration; he is the author of “What Is "Your" Race?: The Census and Our Flawed Efforts to Classify Americans”
Rebecca Jean Emigh, professor of sociology at UCLA whose expertise includes the role of cultural, economic, and demographic factors in social change; she is the co-author of “Antecedents of Censuses from Medieval to Nation States: How Societies and States Count” (2015, Palgrave Macmillan)
Congestion pricing is coming to New York City. What LA can learn from its East Coast rival
New York has passed a proposal to impose tolls on vehicles entering central Manhattan as a way to reduce traffic and raise transit revenue.
Beginning in 2021, the toll would vary based on the time and day, and while no specific toll amounts have been suggested, earlier estimates had pegged the figure as high as $12. Motorists would automatically pay the electronically collected toll when they drive south of 61st Street. Similar “congestion pricing” toll proposals have failed in the past, but supporters said increasing subway delays and service problems have demonstrated the urgent need to reinvest in transit.
Now that New York is implementing a form of congestion pricing, many expect other big cities like Los Angeles to do the same.
How would L.A. go about conceiving its congestion pricing policy, given what New York has passed?
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Henry Goldman, City Hall reporter for Bloomberg in New York who’s been following the story
Liisa Ecola, senior policy analyst at the Rand Corporation who focuses on transportation and land use issues
Martin Wachs, professor emeritus of urban planning at UCLA
New study of brain imaging suggests that in order to forget, we must first do a little remembering
How does our brain decide what information it stores and what we forget? And are humans at all able to influence what things we remember and what we forget?
Conventional wisdom might suggest that certain memories are forgotten over time and as less attention is paid to them. But a new study published last month in The Journal of Neuroscience explores whether and how humans can harness the power of the brain to voluntarily forget something. And contrary to conventional wisdom, it turns out that if you want to make a memory vanish, you might have to think about it a bit first.
For the experiment, researchers placed subjects in an MRI machine and then showed them a series of about 200 images. They were then told to remember or forget each image, and the researchers studied activity in areas of the brain that light up when focusing on simple images. After a short rest, the subjects were shown another series of images -- some they’d seen in the previous series and some they hadn’t -- and were asked to rate how certain they were they’d seen or not seen one. Overall, participants remembered 50-60% of images they were told to remember and successfully forgot about 40% of the images they were told to forget. And when the research team looked at the brain imaging, they discovered that very high or very low levels of brain activity were usually linked to a failed attempt to forget one of the images. It didn’t help a person to forget something if he or she focused really hard on forgetting it or tried to mentally ignore it, but in that sweet spot between the two was where subjects were most successful in forgetting unwanted memories.
What can we learn from the findings of this study about humans’ ability to voluntarily forget certain memories? How could this power be harnessed to help certain groups of people? Are there potential unintended consequences?
Guest:
Tracy Wang, lead researcher on the study “More is less: increased processing of unwanted memories facilitates forgetting” (Journal of Neuroscience, March 2019) and a postdoctoral psychology fellow at The University of Texas at Austin; she tweets
As the curtains are drawn for Netflix’s ‘One Day At A Time,’ we examine Latinx representation in TV
Last month, Netflix
We’ve made the very difficult decision not to renew One Day At A Time for a fourth season. The choice did not come easily — we spent several weeks trying to find a way to make another season work but in the end simply not enough people watched to justify another season.
— Netflix (@netflix) March 14, 2019
its decision to end "One Day at a Time," a TV show about the lives of a Cuban-American family in Los Angeles as they face issues of mental illness, divorce, LGBTQ rights, and alcoholism.
The show was a modern-day take on Norman Lear's 1975 show of the same name. In this rendition, the family sitcom centered around complex Latino characters across generations and delved into sensitive topics from addiction to sexism. The cancellation of the program brought out some harsh outcry from fans of the show, including
So @netflix just cancelled @OneDayAtATime & said don’t take this like a message that your stories don’t matter. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO TAKE THIS. By cancelling you are telling us OUR STORIES DON’T MATTER ENOUGH...TO YOU!!!!! Thanks for the vote of confidence. 😡
— Maria Hinojosa (@Maria_Hinojosa) March 14, 2019
and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, among others. Supporters of the show also took to Twitter and began the trending hashtag #RenewODAAT.
The series ended its third season with the announcement by Netflix that "simply not enough people watched to justify another season." This comes as other Latino-centered shows continue to receive screen time, including the CW’s “Jane the Virgin” and Netflix’s “On My Block.” Yet, Latino roles make up only 7.2% of digital scripted media despite constituting for roughly 18% of the U.S. population.
We look into the history of Latino representation in TV. What were the cultural choices in making "One Day at a Time"? How was it different than previous shows about Latino families in the U.S.? And what led to its cancellation? Weigh in and share your thoughts with us at 866-893-5722.
Guests:
Vanessa Erazo, film & TV editor at Remezcla; she tweets
Isabel Molina, professor of Latina/Latino Studies and media & cinema studies at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign