After the former Republican gubernatorial candidate said that she'll back Clinton, you share the tradeoffs you'll be making at the ballot box; the author of a Wall Street Journal report explains why the US sent $400 million in cash to Iran to coincide with the release of four hostages; and the host of KPCC's The Ride explains why new car owners will soon need temporary plates in CA.
As another Republican, California billionaire jumps ship for Clinton, what voting tradeoffs are you making?
Former eBay head honcho and prominent Republican Meg Whitman is throwing her weight behind Hillary Clinton, snubbing GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, whom she called “a dishonest demagogue.”
Whitman isn’t the latest in a line of right-leaning billionaires to defect from the Republican Party. Mogul Michael Bloomberg and the Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban have also jumped ship to pledge their support for Clinton.
They are overlooking ideological differences they have with the Democratic Party and Clinton to prevent Trump from reaching the country’s highest office, and reflects what many regular voters have to do in this presidential election.
What voting tradeoffs are your making?
Guests:
Daniel Lippman, reporter for POLITICO and a co-author of POLITICO's Playbook, a morning political newsletter
Arthur Lupia, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, and author of the book, “Uninformed: Why People Seem to Know So Little about Politics and What We Can Do about it” (Oxford University Press, 2015)
Did the US pay $400 M in ransom to Iran?
The Wall Street Journal broke a story today that $400 million was secretly airlifted to Iran by the Obama administration while four Americans detained in Tehran were released.
President Obama had previously said it was the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a decades-old dispute over a failed arms deal signed just before the 1979 fall of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Republican VP nominee Mike Pence is already making hay out of it on the campaign trail and raising questions about the U.S. paying for hostages.
The country’s official stance is not to give money for the release of detainees. So how will this play out on the campaign trail? And what does it mean for the country’s image around the world? Patt Morrison talks with Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon today, for an inside look on the story.
Guest:
Jay Solomon, foreign affairs correspondent who broke today's story for the Wall Street Journal; he tweets from
Why we might be ancient aliens
Sorry, fans of The X-Files.
The search for little green men in outer space could be a futile one, according to an upcoming study in The Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
The reason? Because human beings might be the oldest form of intelligent life in the universe, according to the researchers at Harvard and Oxford who are behind the new study. Basically it means that the universe is still waiting for space aliens to be born.
Guests:
Avi Loeb, a professor of science at Harvard University. He is the lead author of the study looking at how old intelligent life is in the universe, to be published in The Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer and Director of the Center for Study Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California
Former FBI head of Olympic security on safety concerns during Rio
Brazil has security out in full force today as the 2016 Summer Olympics get underway in the country’s capital, Rio de Janeiro.
Amid financial, public health, and political concerns surrounding the games, there is the threat of a terrorist attack or security breach. Officials in Rio are on even higher alert than usual after recent terrorist attacks, but many still worry that Rio doesn’t have the proper security and safety measures in place to handle the task of keeping the athletes, fans, and staff safe.
We’ll also take a look at some of the more memorable opening ceremonies in Olympic history as the Rio Games have their opening ceremonies this Friday.
Guests:
David Wallechinsky, president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and author of "The Complete Book of The Olympics"
Ray Mey (FBI, ret.), consulting security expert at the forensic consulting firm Park Dietz & Associates; he was the FBI Olympic Security Manager for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy
What to know about California’s new temporary license plate bill
A bill has been passed requiring newly purchased vehicles to have temporary license plates.
The bill, AB 516, which was proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Kevin Mullin of South San Francisco, would be put into effect by 2019. The law currently requires the DMV to issue 2 license plates to car owners and dealer must attach a report of sale form to the vehicle.
This leaves room for untraceable tickets and other violations. But what does this mean for consumers? Dealers and lesser retailers will electronically report the sale to the DMV and give new car owners the temporary license plates.
Questions still remain about how people having problems with DMV registration would be able to drive off the lot with a new car.
Patt Morrison speaks to The Ride host Sue Carpenter today for everything you need to know about the bill.
Guests:
Susan Carpenter, Co-host for KPCC’s The Ride, and the former car critic for the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register; she tweets from
Brian Maas, President, California New Car Dealers Association
People are worn out when it comes to cargo shorts. Here’s why:
Cargo shorts probably seem like a great idea if you’re someone who uses tools or carries a lot of stuff on a regular basis.
But guys, let’s face it, these days we don’t have much more to carry around than the big three: phone, wallet, keys. Why, then, have men gotten away with wearing cargo shorts for so long?
This is the topic of a recent Wall Street Journal Article that has touched off an internet-wide conversation on the utility (and fashion status) of cargo shorts. If you’ve never seen a pair, they’re those baggy, khaki shorts with big pockets cut into the sides. Trouble is, not everyone is as big a fan of the extra pocket space, and this is even evident in the recent decline in cargo shorts sales. Though their popularity traces back to the 90s and early 00s when Abercrombie & Fitch showed pictures in its catalogs of shirtless men in cargo shorts, they’ve since become more of a fashion eyesore than a useful clothing option as slimmer men’s shorts with an average number of pockets became more popular in the 2010s.
Today on AirTalk, we’ll chat with a law professor/fashionista about why people are still wearing cargo shorts and how they became popular in the first place.
Guest:
Susan Scafidi, Founder & Academic Director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School
Oppressive minimalism vs. joyous clutter
In a scathing piece in the New York Times magazine over the weekend, Kyle Chayka took aim at the notion that minimalism, or what he refers to as “an ostentatious ritual of consumerist self-sacrifice” reserved for elites of Silicon valley, who along with the likes of Marie Kondo espouse owning fewer things but more gadgets.
In it, he calls out James Altucher’s “How Minimalism Brought Me Freedom and Joy,” as emblematic of a budding genre for which “as with watching birds or going Paleo, talking about the material purge is just as important as actually doing it.”
Is there a happy medium?
Guests:
James Altucher, entrepreneur and author of several books; his blog post “How Minimalism Brought Me Freedom and Joy” is mentioned in the NY Times Magazine piece; he tweets from