Larry sits down with Dave Jones after a whirlwind week in state healthcare, including projections of higher premiums for Covered California and Anthem’s following exit from the SoCal insurance market. We also dive into the published transcripts of President Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders; speak with “A Prairie Home Companion” creator Garrison Keillor; and more.
The fallout of WaPo’s transcripts of conversations between Trump and world leaders
Thursday morning, the Washington Post published transcripts of Trump's phone conversations with Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The contentious conversations center on immigration and refugees, and the transcripts show that the President tried to get his Mexican counterpart to stop saying his country wouldn’t pay for a border wall. On AirTalk, we explore what the calls reveal about the President’s negotiation skills, and more.
Guests:
Scott Horsley, NPR White House reporter; he tweets
Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and CNN political analyst; his latest book is, “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society” (Penguin Press, 2015); he tweets
R.P. Eddy, CEO of the New York-based intelligence firm Ergo; former director at the White House National Security Council, as well as a former U.S. and U.N. senior diplomat; he is the co-author of the book, “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes” (Ecco, 2017) and tweets
Sean T. Walsh, Republican political analyst and partner at Wilson Walsh Consulting in San Francisco; he is a former adviser to California Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger and a former White House staffer for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush
Age-discrimination lawsuit against Google highlights growing problem in tech sector
A class-action lawsuit filed against Google claiming that the tech kingpin discriminated against older job candidates by intentionally not hiring them is one again shedding light on the seemingly rampant issue of ageism in the tech sector.
Age and experience are often correlated with one another in the workplace. An older potential employee, say in his or her 40s or 50s, would likely bring years of experience to a new job that a younger employee, who maybe fresh out of college and willing to work for peanuts, could bring. But in tech, people tell a different story. Programmers in their 40s leave their graduation years off resumes so as not to tip the employer off to their age. Engineers with 15 years of experience can’t get a response from potential employers. Hiring managers at companies in Silicon Valley have spoken openly about preferring younger candidates because they will work longer hours for less money and usually don't have certain family or home obligations that older employees with families might have.
Part of the problem could be that the industry itself is largely run by young people who like to surround themselves with other young people. The average American worker is aged 42. At Google, that age is 30. At Facebook, it’s 29.
But are employers leaving behind an entire pool of employees potentially rife with talent by immediately ruling out older job candidates? How can the issue of ageism in the tech sector begin to be fixed? If you work or have worked in tech, have you had experiences with ageism? If you’re a younger employee, what has your experience working with older employees?
Guest:
Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University
‘I’ll sue him’: CA Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Trump’s threat to cut ACA subsidies
With President Trump’s looming threat to cut Affordable Care Act subsidies, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is taking measures in an attempt to stabilize the state’s health care exchange.
But with new numbers released early this week announcing higher premiums for 2018, and insurance giant Anthem announcing it will leave multiple market regions next year, the challenges of maintaining the program are becoming increasingly difficult. Jones said he may sue the Trump Administration over Cost-Sharing Reduction cuts, which fund subsidies for higher Covered CA premiums.
But what are the legalities of that move and what difference would that make to the state? Many argue that Covered CA has never fully been a success. From its inception in 2013, the program has faced numerous setbacks, from website glitches to lack of affordability and choice for people deemed to need it most.
Jones joins Larry Mantle today to speak about his plans for health care in California under a Trump Administration.
Guests:
Dave Jones, Commissioner of the California Department of Insurance
Michelle Faust, KPCC’s health reporter who’s been following the story; she tweets
Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on free-market solutions to policy problems
Angelyne responds to the Hollywood Reporter revealing her true identity
Until Wednesday, the identity of the woman who “single-handedly created … a modern myth of L.A.” was a secret.
Then, Gary Baum, a writer at the Hollywood Reporter, broke the news: Angelyne, known in the 1980s Los Angeles for her billboards and her bright pink Corvette, was once Renee Goldberg, a Polish immigrant and child of Holocaust survivors.
AirTalk host Larry Mantle and former Off-Ramp host John Rabe spoke with the self-proclaimed icon this morning about her thoughts on the story.
“I’m not a woman; I’m an icon," she said at the start of the interview. It was her first public response to the revelation of the identity she had worked to keep under wraps for such a long time.
When asked whether Baum's story is true or not, Angelyne wavered.
“There are a lot of inaccuracies,” she said at first. “When I became famous a lot of people just wanted to be part of it so they’ll say anything.”
She called it “vindictive," but added that the technicalities of what was or was not accurate are “too voluminous to address” and “take up too much time.” She had said the same of her life story to Baum back in 2015: “It’s just a long story… I don’t want to get into it.”
According to the Reporter story, immigration records confirm that Goldberg came to L.A. around age eight with her family in 1959. Across the country, this post-war generation of Jewish immigrants was working hard to assimilate, anglicizing names and renouncing religious practice. Angelyne was no exception. By the early 1970s, Goldberg changed her name, at first distancing herself from her Polish roots, and eventually leaving behind any semblance of a Jewish past.
Without accounting for the early part of her life, she explained Thursday that regardless of identity, she has not changed.
“I was born with mystique,” she declared. “And I still have it.”
The details, she maintained, don’t matter.
By the early 1970s, Angelyne was making appearances in several films under her new name, starting with a porno in 1974. Her first billboard went up on Sunset Boulevard in 1984, declaring “Angelyne Rocks.” In 1995, a documentary called Angelyne was released; by then, Los Angeles was home to more than 200 Angelyne billboards.
But she rejected the Hollywood association Thursday.
“I’m not an actress,” she told Mantle and Rabe. “I inspire people. Somebody could do me in a movie which I would hate because nobody has that kind of energy.”
Instead, she is, as many have pointed out, the original “famous for being famous,” an '80s antecedent to Paris Hilton and the Kardashians.
And how did she afford the billboards?
“Well I slept with everybody in town!” she explained. Then, she added, “just kidding.”
While shaky on the details, Angelyne is sure about one thing: she has never failed to have an impact on other people.
“Even at 4 years old, the whole neighborhood would follow me around," she said. And now? “I inspire everybody in this city.”
This story has been updated.
One year out from Lake Wobegon: What Garrison Keillor’s been up to since
It’s been a little over a year since creator and former host of “A Prairie Home Companion” Garrison Keillor wrapped his final episode of the variety radio show, but he’s been busier than ever.
Keillor’s written a screenplay, continues to host literary radio program “The Writer’s Almanac” and has landed a new weekly column with the Washington Post. And now he’s celebrating turning 75 with the “Prairie Home Love & Comedy Tour,” hitting Los Angeles later this month.
We talk with Keillor about his prolific career as an writer, humorist and host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” as well as what he’s up to now.
Garrison Keillor will be in Los Angeles on August 22nd, at the Theatre at Ace Hotel, for his Prairie Home Love & Comedy Tour. For tickets and information, click here.
Guest:
Garrison Keillor, author, humorist and radio personality; creator and former host of A Prairie Home Companion
The fallout of WaPo’s transcripts of conversations between Trump and world leaders
Thursday morning, the Washington Post published transcripts of Trump's phone conversations with Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The contentious conversations center on immigration and refugees, and the transcripts show that the President tried to get his Mexican counterpart to stop saying his country wouldn’t pay for a border wall. On AirTalk, we explore what the calls reveal about the President’s negotiation skills, and more.
Guests:
Scott Horsley, NPR White House reporter; he tweets
Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and CNN political analyst; his latest book is, “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society” (Penguin Press, 2015); he tweets
R.P. Eddy, CEO of the New York-based intelligence firm Ergo; former director at the White House National Security Council, as well as a former U.S. and U.N. senior diplomat; he is the co-author of the book, “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes” (Ecco, 2017) and tweets
Sean T. Walsh, Republican political analyst and partner at Wilson Walsh Consulting in San Francisco; he is a former adviser to California Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger and a former White House staffer for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush
Age-discrimination lawsuit against Google highlights growing problem in tech sector
A class-action lawsuit filed against Google claiming that the tech kingpin discriminated against older job candidates by intentionally not hiring them is one again shedding light on the seemingly rampant issue of ageism in the tech sector.
Age and experience are often correlated with one another in the workplace. An older potential employee, say in his or her 40s or 50s, would likely bring years of experience to a new job that a younger employee, who maybe fresh out of college and willing to work for peanuts, could bring. But in tech, people tell a different story. Programmers in their 40s leave their graduation years off resumes so as not to tip the employer off to their age. Engineers with 15 years of experience can’t get a response from potential employers. Hiring managers at companies in Silicon Valley have spoken openly about preferring younger candidates because they will work longer hours for less money and usually don't have certain family or home obligations that older employees with families might have.
Part of the problem could be that the industry itself is largely run by young people who like to surround themselves with other young people. The average American worker is aged 42. At Google, that age is 30. At Facebook, it’s 29.
But are employers leaving behind an entire pool of employees potentially rife with talent by immediately ruling out older job candidates? How can the issue of ageism in the tech sector begin to be fixed? If you work or have worked in tech, have you had experiences with ageism? If you’re a younger employee, what has your experience working with older employees?
Guest:
Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University
‘I’ll sue him’: CA Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Trump’s threat to cut ACA subsidies
With President Trump’s looming threat to cut Affordable Care Act subsidies, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is taking measures in an attempt to stabilize the state’s health care exchange.
But with new numbers released early this week announcing higher premiums for 2018, and insurance giant Anthem announcing it will leave multiple market regions next year, the challenges of maintaining the program are becoming increasingly difficult. Jones said he may sue the Trump Administration over Cost-Sharing Reduction cuts, which fund subsidies for higher Covered CA premiums.
But what are the legalities of that move and what difference would that make to the state? Many argue that Covered CA has never fully been a success. From its inception in 2013, the program has faced numerous setbacks, from website glitches to lack of affordability and choice for people deemed to need it most.
Jones joins Larry Mantle today to speak about his plans for health care in California under a Trump Administration.
Guests:
Dave Jones, Commissioner of the California Department of Insurance
Michelle Faust, KPCC’s health reporter who’s been following the story; she tweets
Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on free-market solutions to policy problems
Angelyne responds to the Hollywood Reporter revealing her true identity
Until Wednesday, the identity of the woman who “single-handedly created … a modern myth of L.A.” was a secret.
Then, Gary Baum, a writer at the Hollywood Reporter, broke the news: Angelyne, known in the 1980s Los Angeles for her billboards and her bright pink Corvette, was once Renee Goldberg, a Polish immigrant and child of Holocaust survivors.
AirTalk host Larry Mantle and former Off-Ramp host John Rabe spoke with the self-proclaimed icon this morning about her thoughts on the story.
“I’m not a woman; I’m an icon," she said at the start of the interview. It was her first public response to the revelation of the identity she had worked to keep under wraps for such a long time.
When asked whether Baum's story is true or not, Angelyne wavered.
“There are a lot of inaccuracies,” she said at first. “When I became famous a lot of people just wanted to be part of it so they’ll say anything.”
She called it “vindictive," but added that the technicalities of what was or was not accurate are “too voluminous to address” and “take up too much time.” She had said the same of her life story to Baum back in 2015: “It’s just a long story… I don’t want to get into it.”
According to the Reporter story, immigration records confirm that Goldberg came to L.A. around age eight with her family in 1959. Across the country, this post-war generation of Jewish immigrants was working hard to assimilate, anglicizing names and renouncing religious practice. Angelyne was no exception. By the early 1970s, Goldberg changed her name, at first distancing herself from her Polish roots, and eventually leaving behind any semblance of a Jewish past.
Without accounting for the early part of her life, she explained Thursday that regardless of identity, she has not changed.
“I was born with mystique,” she declared. “And I still have it.”
The details, she maintained, don’t matter.
By the early 1970s, Angelyne was making appearances in several films under her new name, starting with a porno in 1974. Her first billboard went up on Sunset Boulevard in 1984, declaring “Angelyne Rocks.” In 1995, a documentary called Angelyne was released; by then, Los Angeles was home to more than 200 Angelyne billboards.
But she rejected the Hollywood association Thursday.
“I’m not an actress,” she told Mantle and Rabe. “I inspire people. Somebody could do me in a movie which I would hate because nobody has that kind of energy.”
Instead, she is, as many have pointed out, the original “famous for being famous,” an '80s antecedent to Paris Hilton and the Kardashians.
And how did she afford the billboards?
“Well I slept with everybody in town!” she explained. Then, she added, “just kidding.”
While shaky on the details, Angelyne is sure about one thing: she has never failed to have an impact on other people.
“Even at 4 years old, the whole neighborhood would follow me around," she said. And now? “I inspire everybody in this city.”
This story has been updated.
One year out from Lake Wobegon: What Garrison Keillor’s been up to since
It’s been a little over a year since creator and former host of “A Prairie Home Companion” Garrison Keillor wrapped his final episode of the variety radio show, but he’s been busier than ever.
Keillor’s written a screenplay, continues to host literary radio program “The Writer’s Almanac” and has landed a new weekly column with the Washington Post. And now he’s celebrating turning 75 with the “Prairie Home Love & Comedy Tour,” hitting Los Angeles later this month.
We talk with Keillor about his prolific career as an writer, humorist and host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” as well as what he’s up to now.
Garrison Keillor will be in Los Angeles on August 22nd, at the Theatre at Ace Hotel, for his Prairie Home Love & Comedy Tour. For tickets and information, click here.
Guest:
Garrison Keillor, author, humorist and radio personality; creator and former host of A Prairie Home Companion