What can be done to prevent pilots and co-pilots from crashing planes? Also, a controversial op-ed by Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva has sparked a fierce debate about the number of minorities being cast in Hollywood. Then, a special report shows only 45% of Medicare patients suffering from Alzheimer’s said their doctors told them about the diagnosis.
Disturbing audio indicates co-pilot Andreas Lubitz may have intentionally crashed Germanwings Airbus A320
The released audio from Germanwings Airbus A320’s recovered voice recorder is disturbing: the pilot can be heard tapping with increasing force on the locked cockpit door as he returns from using the restroom, but only breathing can be heard from the co-pilot as the plane is manually controlled to descend.
Andreas Lubitz, co-pilot of the downed Germanwings flight, appears to have showed a “willingness to destroy [the] aircraft.” The CEO of Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, stated that Lubitz was “100 percent fit to fly” and that “no system in the world” could have foreseen his actions.
What can be done to prevent pilots and co-pilots from crashing planes? Is there a technical solution to the problem, or does the problem require a comprehensive reevaluation of pilot screening, training, and care?
Guests:
Dr. Diane Damos, aviation psychologist and founder of Damos Aviation Services
Michael Barr, senior instructor in the Aviation Safety Program at the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC. He’s an expert in aviation safety as well as airline crash investigation and prevention.
AP reporter exposes modern-day slavery of fishermen tied to U.S. supermarket seafood
By MARGIE MASON, MARTHA MENDOZA and ESTHER HTUSAN
Indonesia (AP) - A year-long AP investigation finds that hundreds of men in a remote Indonesian island and its surrounding waters are forced to fish, with some of the slave catch eventually reaching U.S. dinner plates.
The men often endure severe beatings, 22-hour shifts and even confinement.
The men the AP interviewed on Benjina were mostly from Myanmar, also known as Burma, one of the poorest countries in the world.
The slave catch often enters global commerce from Thailand, mixing in with other fish. U.S. Customs records show that several Thai factories ship to America. The AP tracked one such shipment.
Tainted fish can wind up in the supply chains of some major grocery and retail stores like Kroger, Albertsons Safeway and Wal-Mart, as well as in popular brands of canned pet food like Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams.
Firms contacted about the investigation denounced the practices and said they would institute safeguards to examine supply sources.
Guest:
, Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press National Writer based in California
Is Hollywood too diverse?
A controversial op-ed by Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva has sparked a fierce debate about the number of minorities being cast in Hollywood.
“As is the case with any sea change, the pendulum might have swung a bit too far in the opposite direction.” she writes. “ Instead of opening the field for actors of any race to compete for any role in a color-blind manner, there has been a significant number of parts designated as ethnic this year, making them off-limits for Caucasian actors, some agents signal." The implication that minorities are taking jobs from caucasians has a lot of people upset. On Twitter, reaction has been swift and cutting.
A recent report from UCLA examining diversity in Hollywood revealed that, while ethnic casting is definitely on the rise, whites still outnumber minorities on TV by about 6 to 1. The report states that between 2012 and 2013, “In the digital arena, Latino actors claimed the largest share of the roles among the minority groups, 12 percent, while African Americans accounted for just 6 percent of the roles and Asians just 3 percent.”
Today on AirTalk, Jessica Yellin examines the casting changes taking place in Hollywood.
Should networks make a concerted effort to cast more minorities? Are you in the industry? What changes have you noticed? Have you ever been turned away because you were the wrong race?
Guests:
Eric Deggans, NPR TV critic and author of, “Race-Baiter,” a book about how media outlets profit from segmenting Americans
Darnell Hunt, professor of sociology at the UCLA Bunche Center for African American Studies and lead author of the “2015 Hollywood Diversity Report”
Anne-Marie Johnson, African American actress and producer
Debating the changing definition of poverty and whether it's all relative
Merriam-Webster defines poverty as ‘the state of being poor.’ While this definition seems simple enough, defining poverty as it applies to our world in 2015 is not quite so cut and dry.
A recent op-ed in the New York Times examines this idea of whether the poor are actually getting poorer and just how poor the poor are these days. Doing this requires that one look not just as median household incomes, welfare programs, or employment numbers, but rather consider what ‘poor’ means based on the standard of living that is expected today, which is much different than it was in, say, 1960, due to advancements in technology and change in economy.
Has the war on poverty been won or lost? Are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? What needs to be factored in when considering what ‘poverty’ means to us today?
Guests:
Gary Burtless, Ph.D., John C. and Nancy D. whitehead Chair in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution.
Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow at the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society Domestic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
Shawn Fremstad, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Study: Discomfort keeps many doctors from telling patients they have Alzheimer’s
The findings from the Alzheimer’s Association’s special report are shocking: Only 45% of Medicare patients suffering from Alzheimer’s said their doctors told them about the diagnosis.
Stigma around mental illness and doctors’ own discomfort in talking about Alzheimer’s are contributing factors. But also at issue is the lack of a test that can definitive diagnose the disease. To that end, a team of UCLA researchers are working to develop a blood test and a protocol for measuring one of the disease’s earliest signs.
What can be done to address the issue? Do doctors need more training to help them disclose to their patients that they have the disease?
Guests:
Debra Cherry, Ph.D., executive vice president of the Alzheimer's Association's California Southland Chapter, where she oversees public policy efforts on behalf of people with dementia and their families
Dr. Liana Apostolova, director of the neuroimaging laboratory at the Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research at UCLA. She and her team of researchers have come up with a protocol to measure one of Alzheimer’s earliest signs, and a potential blood test to diagnose the disease.
Dog groomer sues over bad Yelp review
Crowdsourced review sites like Yelp, Angie’s List and TripAdvisor have had a sizable impact on businesses. They give consumers a new means to hold companies accountable and more than ever before, these reviews have the power to make or break a business.
A recent lawsuit filed in Virginia illustrates just how important these consumer-written reviews have become. A dog training business in Virginia has filed recently a lawsuit against a consumer who posted a negative review on Yelp and Angie’s List for defamation.
Do you think this small business in question has a case? If you are a small business owner, how have you handled negative reviews given by customers?
Guests:
Chris Morran, Senior Editor at The Consumerist, consumer affairs blog owned by Consumer Media LLC, a subsidiary of Consumer Reports. He’s been reporting on crowdsourced review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisors for the past five years.