With Jeb Bush announcing his presidential candidacy today, how can candidates with family legacies demonstrate their individuality? Also, U.K. Scientist and Nobel Laureate Tim Hunt set off public outrage when he made blatantly sexist comments about women working in the field of science. Then, Secretary of State Alex Padilla is pushing for a major overhaul of how Californians cast ballots.
Call me Jeb! or Hillary, or Rand -- the first name candidates
JEB Bush, HILLARY Clinton, RAND Paul - aggressively friendly retail politicians or particularly cautious candidates trying to put some distance between their individual policies and family legacies?
Mr. Bush attempted to quell consternation directed at whether or not he is officially running, an issue that has dogged his campaign as the line delineating coordination between super PACs and candidacies has broken down. In addition, he continued to make the case for what separates him from his fellow Republican contenders as well as from the legacies of both Presidents Bush. He is expected to officially announce his candidacy today.
In a similar vein, Mrs. Clinton tamped down on calls from the left as to what her official position was on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Over the weekend she stated, “the President should listen to and work with his allies in Congress, starting with Nancy Pelosi...to make sure we get the best, strongest deal possible...and if we don’t get it, there should be no deal.” Mrs. Clinton must contend with the stigma on the left associated with President Clinton’s NAFTA deal.
Mr. Paul has also fought to separate himself from his father’s legacy. A libertarian on matters of civil liberties and certain other matters, the younger Paul has courted the Republican base by taking a more supportive stance towards foreign aid and military spending than his father, former Representative Ron Paul. Among his official campaign slogans is “Stand with Rand,” a tie-in with his new book and a nod to the differences between him and his father that could give him the Republican support he needs to win in primary states.
How can candidates with family legacies demonstrate their individuality? To what extent should politicians embrace or reject the history associated with their last names?
Guests:
Garance Franke-Ruta, Editor in Chief, Yahoo Politics
Michael Grunwald, senior writer for POLITICO magazine. He’s also the author of “The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era.”
A look at CA laws after Colorado court rules that workers can be fired for off-duty marijuana use
Marijuana use is legal in Colorado, but a controversial high court ruling in the state has made clear that workers can get fired for using the drug—even if it’s for medical reasons and even if they do it off-duty.
The case stems from a lawsuit Dish Network employee Brandon Coats filed against the company. Coats, who is quadriplegic and uses medical marijuana to treat his spasms, was fired by the cable provider in 2010. The former customer service rep says that he was never high at work, but Dish cites its zero-tolerance drug policy and federal law under which medical marijuana usage is banned as justification.
The decision from the Colorado Supreme Court was 6-0.
What is the impact of the decision in Colorado? What are California laws dealing with medical marijuana use and employment?
No. 13SC394, Coats v. Dish Network—Labor and Employment- Protected Activities
Guests:
Sam Kamin, Vicente Sederberg Professor of Marijuana Law and Policy at the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver.
Todd Wulffson, labor law lawyer and partner at the law firm, Carothers, DiSante & Freudenberger in Irvine
#Distractinglysexy: The trouble of gender bias in the field of science
Last week at the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea, U.K. Scientist and Nobel Laureate Tim Hunt set off public outrage when he made blatantly sexist comments about women working in the field of science.
At the conference Hunt told a room of scientists and journalists that “three things happen when they (women) are in the lab: You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them they cry.”
Since then, there has been an outpouring of responses from women around the world who work in science related fields, posting pictures and comments with the hashtag “distractinglysexy” mocking Hunt’s comments.
Dear department: please note l will be unable to chair the 10am meeting this morning because I am too busy swooning and crying.
— Kate Devlin (@drkatedevlin)
Dear department: please note l will be unable to chair the 10am meeting this morning because I am too busy swooning and crying. #TimHunt
— Kate Devlin (@drkatedevlin) June 10, 2015
One is Kate Devlin who works as a lecturer at the Goldsmiths University of London, who tweeted “Dear department: please note I will be unable to chair the 10am meeting this morning because I am too busy swooning and crying.”
I did an entire Liver Transplant without crying or falling in love.
— Want2opr8 (@drtanthony)
I did an entire Liver Transplant without crying or falling in love. #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/6RdApuzFo9
— Tiffany Anthony MD (@drtanthony) June 12, 2015
Thousands of other women and men have made similar posts and comments about Hunt’s inappropriate characterization of women in the workplace.
Late to the party but here is my
grandmother, Dorothy Hodgkin, heading for the Nobel prize. pic.twitter.com/tkZ8kiPUBf
— kate hodgkin (@theduchessstill)
Late to the party but here is my #distractinglysexy grandmother, Dorothy Hodgkin, heading for the Nobel prize. pic.twitter.com/tkZ8kiPUBf
— kate hodgkin (@theduchessstill) June 12, 2015
As a result of overwhelming criticism from his peers and the public Hunt has since resigned from his position as an honorary professor with the University College London.
However, Hunt’s comments reveal a much larger issue facing women in science, with many recent studies showing that women continue to struggle with pervasive sexism and gender bias in the workplace. How prevalent is gender discrimination in the workplace? Do comments like Hunt’s discourage women from entering more male dominated fields?
Guests:
Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College, a private residential liberal arts college of science, engineering, and mathematics that is part of the Claremont Colleges. She is trained as a computer scientist
Kate Devlin, a lecturer and senior tutor at the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths, which is part of the University of London
Calif. elections chief lobbying to expand voting days and locations
Secretary of State Alex Padilla is pushing for a major overhaul of how Californians cast ballots.
New legislation, jointly authored by Democratic Senators Ben Allen and Bob Hertzberg, would allow counties to change numerous processes so as to increase voter participation. The biggest change would create "vote centers" open for 10 days, eight hours a day leading up to Election Day that would accept completed ballots from any resident of the county instead of tying people to a single, neighborhood polling location.
The state of Colorado was the first to implement the model and enjoyed approximately 55 percent turnout of eligible citizens in the November 2014 general election compared to 30 percent in California, according to the Secretary of State's tally.
Guest:
Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State
Elegy to the last days of American spaceflight
In July of 1969 U.S. Astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, declaring in his famous words "this is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
From that day on Americans have had a national fascination with space exploration and the race to be the first. In “Leaving Orbit: Notes From the Last Days of American Spaceflight” author Margaret Lazarus Dean examines NASA’s history, disasters, and her experiences from Florida's Cape Canaveral where she witnessed NASA’s last three space shuttle launches. Dean joins us to discuss what it means when a spacefaring nation no longer goes to space.
Guest:
Margaret Lazarus Dean, author of “Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight” (Graywolf Press, 2015) and an associate professor in English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Americans: White, fat, loud, slovenly, binge-drinking, overconfident elitists?
If you’re traveling abroad and trying to blend in, here’s a hint: stop trying. Everyone probably knows you’re American. At least, that’s what a video from YouTube user SW Yoon that went viral last week would suggest.
Yoon’s video features interviews with students of varying nationalities at Japan’s Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University about how they distinguish students visiting from the U.S. from students of other nationalities. The results? Not exactly flattering.
According to travel expert and TV/radio host Rick Steves, the international students aren't that far off when it comes to Europeans' perceptions of Americans.
“Europeans see American students exactly like the students reported. We’re sloppy, we’re overweight, we’re noisy, we’re drunk, we travel in groups, and we like McDonald’s hamburgers. That’s not to say we’re bad, I think that’s good news that Americans are getting exposed to other countries and other sensibilities. If we’re ethnocentric, we’re the ones who need to travel more.”
Just as the rest of the world subscribes to certain stereotypes of Americans, so have Americans subscribed to certain stereotypes of people of other nationalities. For example, the British are often associated with bad dental hygiene, the French are frequently stereotyped as arrogant, and the Irish are said to be drunks.
“I believe there are stereotypes for a reason," says blogger and author Toni Hargis, "But they’re very easily busted. Once you get to know Americans, you realize a lot of us aren’t those stereotypical Americans.”
Maybe Americans are doomed to be stuck with some of these stereotypes forever, but Rick Steves says he doesn't let it get him down.
“We’re just a wonderful, energetic, confident, informal, wide-eyed, curious, wealthy, ethnocentric group of people, and we’re lovable but we’re also not very well house-trained.”
For those who might be looking for a few tips on how to blend in a bit better next time you're traveling abroad, we've compiled a few tips from our experts, Toni Hargis and Rick Steves.
1. Don't be a lush.
One of the biggest giveaways that you’re American abroad, says travel guru Rick Steves, can be if you’re very clearly inebriated. “I’m impressed by how alcohol-centric [American] students are these days,” says Steves. “They’re just famously drunk.” It’s not to say you shouldn’t enjoy yourself with a few drinks when you’re traveling, but maybe it’s not the best idea to get lampshade-on-your-head-while-singing-Bohemian-Rhapsody-at-the-top-of-your-lungs drunk if you’re out for a night on the town.
2. Use your inside voice.
Admit it. Americans are loud. Like, really loud. And it can be a red flag for locals that you’re not one of them if you’re holding court in the middle of a café with a huge group of friends. “We take hundreds of groups around Europe every year, and we have a meeting with them on the first day, and we explain that Europeans are quiet. When you go out to eat, you don’t talk in a way that everybody in the restaurant has to listen to you.” British-American blogger/author Toni Hargis adds, “The stereotype about loud Americans? I’m afraid it is true. Americans aren’t really shouting or being aggressive, they just have loud voices.”
3. Ditch the white kicks, and the baggy pants while you're at it.
You know those brand new, shiny white sneakers you just bought for your trip abroad? You might as well color them red, white, and blue and draw stars and stripes all over them. It would probably be a more understated way to say you’re from the U.S. “That’s the big giveaway, as well as baggy clothing,” says Toni Hargis. “You can generally tell Americans in Europe…you can see them a mile off because of the way they dress.” This isn’t to say you shouldn’t dress how you like when traveling, just know that there are certain styles that scream ‘American.’
4. Less is more.
While this rule also applies to the previous three rules when it comes to Americans abroad, in this case, we’re referring to traveling in huge groups. You might be traveling with a tour group, which makes it sort of hard to travel in smaller numbers. But it’s a lot easier to blend in if you’re not one in a pack of fanny pack-clad, camera-toting tourists. If you are traveling in a big group, remembering the rule about using inside voices won’t make it so glaringly obvious that you’re American.
5. Check your ego with your luggage.
“You’ll hear a lot that American students act like they’re entitled,” says Rick Steves. “Well, that’s more than just American students. Our society in general acts like we’re entitled, on a global scale. It’s our trade policy, it’s our foreign policy, it’s the way adults travel, it’s the way students travel.” Maybe some Americans come by this sense of entitlement honestly, but that doesn’t mean it reflects well around the world. Remember where you are, why you’re there, and that you’re not at home, so act like a guest in someone else’s house.
Guests:
Rick Steves, author, TV/radio host, and travel expert. He has authored more than 50 guidebooks on European travel, hosts a weekly radio program called ‘Travel with Rick Steves,’ and writes and hosts the public television series ‘Rick Steves’ Europe.’
Toni Hargis, author, blogger, and journalist. She runs a blog called "Expat Mum," is a freelance writer for BBC America’s “Mind the Gap: A Brit’s Guide To Surviving America,” and the author of “The Stress-Free Guide to Studying in the States.” (Summertime, 2013).