With direct primary elections only a month away, AirTalk dives into all the major news and information relating to the state and congressional races. We also discuss the rise in fentanyl-related overdoses; dive into this weekend's NASA launch of its Mars InSight craft; and more.
You can thank us later: An overview on California’s 2018 primary election
With just over a month left until California’s June primary election, we’re starting to see races take shape, frontrunners emerge, plenty of ads floating around, and ballot measures breaking the signature threshold needed to appear on the June ballot.
But with all of these races, initiatives, ads and everything else, there’s a lot of information to process. So what’s most important to be watching for in the next month leading up to the primary?
For starters, there’s some intrigue coming out of the governor’s race, where a recent PPIC poll has GOP dark horse John Cox in second behind frontrunner Gavin Newsom. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in third. There’s also a number of Congressional district races to watch right here in Southern California that could potentially play a role in flipping the balance of power in the House of Representatives from Republicans to Democrats. The GOP, meanwhile is preparing for its statewide political convention in San Diego this weekend, where we may find out who the state Republican Party decides to endorse in the race for governor.
We’ll talk with California political reporters who have been following the major headlines and races you need to know about before you head to the polls next month.
Guests:
Mary Plummer, KPCC senior politics reporter and Human Voter Guide; she tweets
Marisa Lagos, KQED politics reporter and co-host of KQED’s Political Breakdown podcast; she tweets
Melanie Mason, LA Times state government and politics reporter and co-host of California Politics Podcast; she tweets
Ready for Election Day? Get up to speed on what you need to know with KPCC’s Voter Game Plan. Read up on the candidates and ballot measures, find out about registration deadlines and ask us your questions.
Fentanyl-related overdose deaths have spiked: How a synthetic opioid is affecting the drug market
A recent analysis of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. shows that synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have surpassed prescription painkillers as the drug that’s most commonly involved in fatal overdoses.
Fentanyl is an incredibly potent painkiller that’s 25 to 50 times more powerful than heroin, and its increasingly common for heroin and cocaine to be cut with fentanyl, usually without the knowledge of consumers.
What is fentanyl and what are its legitimate uses? Why have fentanyl-related overdose deaths risen recently? And how is this changing the landscape of the opioid epidemic?
Guests:
Wilson Compton, M.D., deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); a federal government research center studying drug abuse and addiction; co-author of a paper on the role of fentanyl in opioid drug overdose deaths published in May in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
Shalini Shah, M.D., director of pain services at the UC Irvine health system and Chair of the Committee on pain at the California Society of Anesthesiologists, a group of physicians across the state working on managing and responding to the drug shortages
Does Gibson’s bankruptcy signal another ‘nail in the coffin’ for electric guitars?
Gibson Brands, Inc., the legendary company behind guitars played by Jimmy Page and B.B. King, filed bankruptcy Tuesday.
As reported by Rolling Stone, the Nashville-based company announced that it’s working on “refocusing, reorganizing and restructuring.” That means leaving behind some of its “non-core” brands in audio and home entertainment, which cost Gibson $135 million in order to expand its reach with consumers; a plan that couldn’t hold in sales. But the company is far from dead. It’s still a force in the instrument biz, with big brands like Steinberger, Baldwin and Epiphone as part of its inventory.
But could the bankruptcy of Gibson, the guitar giant, be a sign of something bigger in the music industry? There’s been talk in recent years about the end of the electric guitar, especially as electronic music takes center stage. And just last month, Guitar Center announced that it is experiencing financial problems and might go bankrupt. Is changing musical taste a contributing factor to the demise of the electric guitar?
Guests:
Amy X. Wang, music business reporter for Rolling Stone; she’s been following the story
Mikael Wood, pop music critic for the LA Times
Marsquakes, WALL-E and the inside of the red planet: lead scientist on NASA Mars mission previews Saturday launch
On Saturday, NASA is launching a spacecraft to Mars for a mission that aims to go beneath the surface (both figuratively and literally) of the red planet to answer questions about its temperature, the composition and size of its core and its geologic activity (or “Marsquakes").
InSight, or Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is launching from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base at 4:05 a.m. PDT, the first interplanetary mission to be initiated from outside of Cape Canaveral in Florida. This $1 billion mission will send a robotic geologist to study the insides of the planet.
For more info on the InSight mission, click here.
This lander will be accompanied by two briefcase-size satellites which will be testing out whether InSight can pass along communication signals during the journey and after the landing. These CubeSats are nicknamed WALL-E and EVE, after the Pixar movie characters. They use the same propulsion mechanism that a fire extinguisher uses to spray foam, and which was used by WALL-E to steer himself in zero gravity.
We get a preview of the InSight launch with Bruce Banerdt, the chief scientist on the mission.
Guest:
Bruce Banerdt, Principal Investigator and Scientist of the InSight mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Can lab-grown brain tissues develop consciousness— and other ethical issues surrounding so-called ‘mini brains’
The development of cerebral organoids, also known as mini-brains, has ignited a debate over its ethical consequences.
Currently, those living brain cells are used to study brain development and disorders. But the research of cerebral organoids is progressing so quickly that scientists need to consider implications like developing “what looks like consciousness or any kind of sentience, the ability to feel something like pain,” says Nita Farahany, a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University and the director of Duke Science and Society. So what are the ethics of experimenting with human brain tissue? We explore whether potential health benefits outweigh ethical risks.
GUEST:
Nita Farahany, lead author of a paper in Nature on the ethics of experimenting with human brain tissue; She is the director of a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University, and director of the school’s Bioethics & Science Policy curriculum
Forget dating apps… how has technology changed your experiences with breaking up?
Breaking up is hard to do – and social media doesn’t make it any easier.
Nearly 15 years have passed since the launch of the social networking pioneer Myspace, and though the days of carefully curating your “top friends” may be long over, social media has only become more connected to users’ real-life relationships. A new romantic partner often means adding shared photos, mutual friends and even an updated relationship status to your profile… but when those relationships end, what do you do with the remaining virtual connections?
Even though it’s pretty customary to return or throw out possessions an ex left behind, it often feels a bit harsh and extreme to cut ties online in the same way. But even if it seems harmless, keeping an ex on social media can make it harder to move on and create confusion if you see that he or she liked or even just viewed one of your posts.
What role has social media played in your breakups? If you were dating before the social networking boom, how has it changed your experiences ending relationships? Do you go cold turkey online or try to stay friends on your various accounts – and how has either choice affected your ability to move on? Call us at 866-893-5722.
Guest:
Cortney S. Warren, clinical psychologist, adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and adjunct clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Nevada School of Medicine; she is also a featured expert for EXaholics, a website for people who struggle to move on after breakups