The debate over school lunch requirements continues as lobbying groups gear up to fight against 2010 regulation. Is the 2010 school lunch law working? KPCC healthcare reporter Stephanie O'Neil joins guest host Patt Morrison to discuss the real-life affects of Obamacare. Later, how is technology changing the economy and job market?
Unravelling competing theories about the Malaysian Airlines mystery
The mystery surrounding the tragic disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 has captured global attention since it went missing with 239 people on board last Saturday. CNN has provided nearly nonstop coverage of the news and speculation surrounding the plane’s disappearance and ongoing search.
The lack of new evidence in the search for the missing plane has not halted the public’s interest and has led to a number of conflicting accounts and conspiracy theories. Currently, Malaysian authorities have expanded the search for the missing plane westward toward India, after some evidence indicated that the plane may have continued flying after its last reported contact.
How does the continued speculation hurt or help the search for missing flight 370? Have you been following the search for the missing jetliner?
Guests:
Finn Brunton, Assistant Professor in Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. He is the author of “Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet” (The MIT Press, 2013)
Michael Wood, a psychologist from the University of Winchester in England and an expert on the psychology of conspiracy theories
School lunches are a hot (and cold) debate in Washington
Many of the provisions of the landmark school lunch law - the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act - haven't even been implemented yet and already industry groups are gearing up to make major changes before it's reauthorized next year.
U.S. Department of Agriculture's revamped nutrition standards include limits on the amount of sodium that can be in school lunches, boosts whole grains and requires students to select either a half cup of fruit or vegetables with their meals.
Schools have been slow to adapt to the changes and a recent report from the Government Accountability Office shows a lot of hiccups in implementation. About a million fewer students participated in the school lunch program during the 2012-2013, leading to a loss of revenue for the districts.
Members of the School Nutrition Association, which represents school cafeteria leaders, recently met with lawmakers in Washington to ask for more flexibility in implementing the program.
The SNA wants some requirements on whole grains and sodium levels to be rolled back, claiming that students aren't accepting some of the new foods and instead tossing them out.
Is the 2010 school lunch law working? What changes should be made during the reauthorization period? Has the law been given enough time to work?
Guest:
Tarini Parti, Agriculture Reporter for POLITICO
Not your dad’s 'Tonight Show': Jimmy Fallon’s debut month sparkles
Jimmy Fallon’s affable, admiring hosting style earned him late-night praise and lasting virality online even before he took over as host of the Tonight Show in February. The former SNL comedian has an agreeable air about him -- he pals around with his A-list guests, many of them friends, and remakes hit songs with stars and his effortlessly cool backing band, The Roots.
In the Los Angeles Times, Mary McNamara calls Fallon the “Tom Hanks of hosting, able to project endearing uncertainty even as he clearly runs the show.” Fallon is accessible, easy to identify with, silly. And though he may not be a hard-hitting interviewer, he shines in skits and musical numbers.
The ratings have gone up, viewership has increased, and Fallon’s debut month as host of the Tonight Show has been labeled a success.
Why is Fallon such a popular host? What does the reaction to the new late night style reflect culturally? What does the future hold for Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show?
Guest:
Robert Thompson, Director, Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications
The very real and personal effects of Obamacare on the American workaday
We’ve debated how the Affordable Care Act will affect the workforce and the economy. On a micro scale, it’s changing some peoples’ lives and choices already. As KPCC’s Stephanie O’Neill reports, it’s allowing early retirement for some and new small businesses for others.
Until late last year, Mike Smith, 64, of Long Beach worked about 60 hours a week and only dreamed of being able to retire early. Smith says, “At our age, with some pre-existing medical conditions, it would have been very costly to buy insurance on the open market - about $3,000 a month is what it would have cost us.”
Under ACA, Smith and his wife are enrolled in a private subsidized policy that costs about $200 a month. For young families, it’s meant the difference between a dead-end job and a new business venture.
UCLA health policy researcher Dylan Roby says, “We used to see people who had pre-existing conditions or high health care needs unable to leave a job they didn’t like and go start their own small business - because they were afraid if they tried to buy insurance on their own, an insurance company would reject them. And now that can’t happen.”
What’s the impact of the ACA - and Covered California - on your work life?
Guest:
Stephanie O’Neill, Healthcare Reporter, KPCC
'Aliens,' 'The Terminator,' and 'The Walking Dead': Uber-producer Gale Anne Hurd on the art of making the blockbuster
It’s not an understatement to say sci-fi is in Hollywood producer and screenwriter Gale Anne Hurd’s DNA. Her producing credits include some of the most iconic films in the genre in the last three decades: “The Terminator” series, the “Aliens” films, “Armageddon” (1998), “The Incredible Hulk” (2008). In the last few years, Hurd has turned her attention to the small screen, as one of the producers behind the AMC hit “The Walking Dead.”
Hurd’s entry into Hollywood came courtesy of B-movie czar Roger Corman. A friend had recommended Hurd for an assistant job at Corman’s production company, and under his tutelage, she began learning the ins and outs of the business. Today, films produced by Hurd have generated an estimated $3 billion in the global box office. Buffo aside, these films also showcased strong female leads, think Linda Hamilton in “The Terminator” or Sigourney Weaver in “Aliens.”
An analysis of the top 250 grossing films of 2013 by Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University has found a significant drop since 1998 in the percentage of women directing, writing, producing, editing and shooting films.
AirTalk contributor Patt Morrison speaks with Hurd about this troubling decline, as well as about her role in making “The Walking Dead” one of the most watched, and most talked about, shows on TV today.
Guest:
Gale Anne Hurd, Producer of Academy Award-winning films and Emmy-winning programs - including Executive Producer of AMC’s “The Walking Dead;” Producer and Co-Writer, “The Terminator;” Producer, “Aliens,” “Armageddon,” “The Abyss” and more
More teenage boys feeling pressures of body image
A new study published in the January edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that young men are increasingly feeling pressure about their body image.
Previous research that had been more geared towards women focused on thinness and weight loss, but when Dr. Alison Field and her collaborators expanded their research to muscle tone and other areas, they found that boys and young men were more concerned about their bodies and weight.
While the more common eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia, were still much more prevalent in young women, the broadened research indicated that other disorders, like binge eating, were more equally spread between the genders. Young men feeling intensified pressure about their bodies were also more inclined to binge drink.
How do young men feel about their bodies? Is pressure to be thin or muscled just as difficult for boys as it is for girls? What kinds of societal and cultural norms impact male body image?
Guest:
Alison Field, ScD, Associate of Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, she is the author of the JAMA study and her research focuses on weight, weight gain, and disordered eating in children and adolescents
Robots may take your jobs: new tech and the economy
Machines are getting smarter. It’s an age of self-driving cars, robots that can beat master chess players and win Jeopardy, take customer service calls, and turn on the lights in your home from miles away.
Robots are taking our jobs, people are increasingly reliant on machines. But is that such a bad thing? MIT economist Erik Brynjolfsson says the “new machine age” is great for the economy -- as long as people can learn to effectively coexist with technology.
How is technology changing the economy and job market? Will robots and machines change employment prospects? How? What role does big data play in the new machine age?
Guest:
Erik Brynjolfsson, Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, co-author of The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technology