Is Paleo a diet for an unhealthy planet? Also, California gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari apparently spent a week posing as a homeless, jobless man to look for a job in Fresno. Then, hitchhiking robot, hitchBot departed on a trip across Canada, relying on the kindness of strangers.
Republican lawmakers vote to sue President Obama
The GOP majority in the House passed a measure to launch a campaign-season lawsuit against President Barack Obama, accusing him of overstepping his constitutional authority. Democratic House members call the move a first step to impeachment procedures and say it is all a ploy to motivate the Republican base in the upcoming mid-term elections. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) asked members, "Are you willing to let any president choose what laws to execute and what laws to change?" He has argued Obama is picking and choosing which parts to implement of the Affordable Care Act.
What could be the fate of this lawsuit? How will each party spin it during campaigns?
Guests:
Ken Rudin, Host of Ken Rudin’s Political Junkie podcast; you can find his weekly podcast at krpoliticaljunkie.com - that’s all one word
Josh Gerstein, senior White House reporter for POLITICO
Paleo: Diet for an unhealthy planet?
Noshing on bread, pasta, potatoes and pancakes is so out of fashion that even having a slice of toast is thought of as "committing carbocide." The Atkins Diet started the trend towards high protein, even high fat, nutrition — and scared off Americans from consuming insulin-raising starches and sugars. Of late, the meat-centric diet is called "paleo" because proponents say our Paleolithic-era ancestors could not properly digest today's bagels and Oreos, and neither can we.
The New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert recently experimented on her family with a solid week of paleo. Beyond finding it tough to create recipes, she notes: "Pound for pound, beef production demands at least ten times as much water as wheat production, and, calorie for calorie, it demands almost twenty times as much energy." Recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows beef cattle need 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water than pork, poultry, eggs or dairy.
How do those findings impact your dietary choices?
Guest:
Elizabeth Kolbert, Staff Writer, The New Yorker
Is it fair for restaurants to ban children?
A popular restaurant on a touristy wharf in Monterey has doubled down on an effective ban on children.
The restaurant, Old Fisherman’s Grotto, has a policy against high chairs, strollers, booster seats, crying, and loud noises. Some families who visit the restaurant are peeved with what they call unfriendly rules -- parents who were turned away because the restuarant wouldn’t accommodate their infants or toddlers say it’s rude for an establishment to ban babies.
Parents of older children argue that their kids won’t learn how to behave while eating out if they aren’t allowed into restaurants. Other diners say that a lack of screaming kids and immature behavior is a good thing -- they prefer to eat undisturbed.
Is it fair for restaurants to ban kids? Should families accommodate restaurants, or vice-versa? Is there a way to compromise?
Guest:
Emily Yoffe, contributor at Slate, author of their Dear Prudence column
Gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari channels the jobless man in latest campaign video
The GOP candidate for governor in California apparently spent a week posing as a homeless, jobless man to look for a job in Fresno. His campaign produced a video documenting his travails and has released it on YouTube. Along with the video, the multibillionaire Laguna Beach resident also published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal elucidating his intention this morning.
The video shows an unkempt Kashkari getting off a Greyhound bus in Fresno with $40 to spend for the week and striking out looking for work. He ended up sleeping on park benches and in a homeless shelter.
“I was committed to finding a job. It was my top priority, but halfway through the week my priority was forced to change: I barely had any money left and needed to find food. Fortunately, kindhearted homeless residents in Fresno pointed me to a shelter, Poverello House, which provides services to the homeless. I had no choice but to join the hundreds of men, women and families who go to the shelter for food. As the shelter did not have any beds for me I slept on the streets all six nights. I had only one shower during that time,” Kashkari wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
Kashkari has made combating poverty and job creation a central plank in his campaign. How effective is this latest campaign move? Does it potentially turn away voters? Does his intention come across?
Guest:
Lisa Gritzner, President of Cerrell Associates, a public affairs and political consulting firm in Los Angeles
Little robot, big journey: would you pick up a hitchhiking robot?
Last week, hitchhiking robot, hitchBot departed on a trip across Canada, relying on the kindness of strangers. The little robot has its thumb permanently out, asking for a ride, and has so far met and made conversation with an interesting collection of drivers and passengers. So far, hitchBot has traveled a winding route from Nova Scotia to Montreal.
Armed with a programmed vocabulary and a pair of sturdy rainboots to protect itself against the weather, hitchBot tells those who pick it up for a ride its story and mission. Humans are increasingly connected to technology -- already there are stories about people who name their Roombas and soldiers who grow attached to bomb-detecting robots -- a cute robot in rainboots is unlikely to raise alarm, but the project does bring up questions of human-machine trust.
Can humans can trust robots as technology becomes “smarter” and more autonomous? Can robots “trust” humans? Will hitchBot make it all the way across Canada?
Guest:
David Harris Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at McMaster University, co-creator of hitchBot
Puppy love: NYT Magazine writer on our devotion to man’s best friend
When it comes to pets, the world could be divided between cat people and dog people. New York Times Magazine writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis's new book is the latest addition to the canon of literature devoted to the latter category.
In 'Travels With Casey,' Denizet-Lewis writes about the 13,000-mile road trip he took with his beloved Labrador-mix and the motley cast of dog-loving people they met on the road, from homeless dog owners to celebrity dog lovers to K9 cops to dog psychics. These encounters provide a prism through which the country's oftentimes complicated relationship with Fido is explored.
Guest:
Benoit Denizet-Lewis, author of "Travels With Casey: My Journey through Our Dog-Crazy Country" (Simon & Schuster, 2014) and New York Times Magazine writer