Today on AirTalk, we discuss what Joe Biden's selection of Kamala Harris as running mate will mean for California politics. Also on the show, we talk with Katie Hill about her new memoir; answer your COVID-19 questions; and more.
Former CA Congresswoman Katie Hill Is Back With A Memoir
Last year, Democratic Congresswoman Katie Hill from California resigned after nude photos of her were leaked online and the House began investigating whether she had a sexual relationship with an aide, which she denied.
In her new book, “She Will Rise,” Hill recounts her life and also lays out her path forward and her take on gender equity and politics. We sit down with Hill to discuss the memoir.
With guest host Libby Denkmann
Guest:
Katie Hill, founder of the political action committee HER Time; former Representative representing CA’s 25th congressional district; her new book is “She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality” (August 2020, Grand Central Publishing); she tweets
COVID-19: LA County Surpasses 5,000 Deaths, Study On Effectiveness Of Various Types Of Masks
In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, guest host Libby Denkmann talks with Dr. Kimberly Shriner, infectious disease specialist at Huntington Hospital.
Today’s topics include:
L.A. County surpasses 5,000 COVID-19 deaths
California’s public health director resigned
Is there any chance we’d have a vaccine by election day?
Even with a vaccine, will COVID-19 go away completely?
Plus, Russia claims it has approved a vaccine for the virus
Are some facial coverings worse than no mask at all?
With guest host Libby Denkmann
Guest:
Kimberly Shriner, M.D., infectious disease specialist at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena
It's Kamala! And What That Means For California Politics
Joe Biden is making his first appearance with newly chosen running mate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, betting that the California senator’s historic profile and confrontational style against President Donald Trump will boost Democrats’ efforts to oust the Republican president amid cascading national crises.
The former primary rivals will appear at a high school in Biden’s Delaware hometown to discuss their shared vision for how to defeat Trump and then lead the country through a pandemic, its economic fallout and a long-simmering reckoning with systemic racism. Harris and Biden then will sit down together for an online fundraiser designed to let even small donors get a fresh glimpse of what the Democratic presidential ticket will look like together.
The daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, she is the first Black woman and first person of Asian descent to join a major party presidential ticket. But the 55-year-old former prosecutor will have to put her animated public style – often a contrast to the folksier 77-year-old Biden – to use in television and online streaming formats without voter interaction or feedback. Harris was considered a favorite throughout Biden’s search. She’d been a regular surrogate for him for months, with the pair appearing at ease during online fundraisers together and the senator appearing on her own as a surrogate for campaign events and on television. They’ll nonetheless have to paper over some differences exposed during the early primary campaign, from Harris’ initial support for a single-payer health insurance system and the Green New Deal to her deeply personal debate-stage broadside against Biden over his opposition to federally mandated busing to integrate public schools in the 1970s.
Today on AirTalk, we’ll take a look through a California lens at what Senator Harris brings to the Democratic ticket, what the official Biden-Harris 2020 campaign will look like, and who might be on Governor Newsom’s shortlist to replace her in the U.S. Senate.
With files from the Associated Press
With guest host Libby Denkmann
Guests:
Marisa Lagos, political reporter at KQED and co-host of the podcast Political Breakdown; she tweets
Mark Z. Barabak, staff writer covering state and national politics for the Los Angeles Times; he tweets
Nicholas Kristof And Sheryl WuDunn On The Challenges Facing Working Class America
In their new book, Pulitzer-prize winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn delve into the lives of America’s working-class.
From the Dakotas and Oklahoma to New York and Virginia, “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope” tells the stories of those navigating poverty, drug addiction, abuse and more, while offering solutions to those issues. To paint the picture, the authors travel to Kristof ‘s hometown— rural Yamhill, Oregon— where about one-fourth of the kids Kristof rode the bus with have died as adults from drugs, alcohol, suicide and reckless accidents.
Larry sits down with authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to talk about the “other America” and why they felt it necessary to write this book.
Guests:
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times op-ed columnist; co-author of the new book, “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope” (Knopf; 2020)
Sheryl WuDunn, co-author of the new book, “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope” (Knopf; 2020); former business editor and foreign correspondent for the New York Times