Guest host Patt Morrison leads the discussion on the FDA moving to remove all trans fats from foods. What will happen to some of your favorite snacks? Then, many residents in Southern California witnesses a meteor shower last night. Did you see it? Next, a European satellite has been out of fuel since October and will fall back to earth. Should we be concerned on where the debris will land? Then, can affairs actually strengthen a marriage? Next, does LA County need more supervisors, and should California regulate its groundwater? Lastly, we talk with author Katie Davis about today's youth deal with tech overload.
FDA to ban heart-clogging trans fats in processed foods
While food industry biggies like McDonald's, Walmart and others have tapered off use of trans fats, today the Food and Drug Administration said all food manufacturers gradually ought to eliminate the ingredient. Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said an all-out ban could prevent 7,000 deaths a year and 20,000 heart attacks.
Trans fat - a more solidified fat created by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil - is used in cookies, pizza, biscuits and other processed foods. The decline of its use has been dramatic - intake by Americans declined from 4.6 grams per day in 2003 to around one gram in 2012, according to the FDA. The agency is holding a 60-day comment period to gauge how soon companies could phase out trans fats.
Will there be resistance from some manufacturers? What ingredients would replace the fat? Will consumers notice the difference?
Are you a fan of microwave popcorn? Biscuits? Apple pie? Click here to see the Trans Fat Wall of Shame from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Guests:
Fred Kummerow, emeritus professor of comparative biosciences at the University of Illinois and author of “Cholesterol Won’t Kill You, But Trans Fats Could.”
John Cawley, Professor at Cornell University - studying the economics of risky health behaviors, with a focus on obesity; Co-Director of Cornell's Institute on Health Economics, Health Behaviors and Disparities
Ruth Frechman, registered dietician and nutritionist. Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a trippy meteor shower in LA!
Residents of Southern California were treated to a rare sight last light, when a bright streak of light flashed across the sky. Witnesses began reporting the sighting about 8 p.m. -- some as far away as San Diego -- and took to Twitter with their questions and testimonies.
Here is the picture of the
in LA !!! It was amazing and unbelievable. So lucky to have caught it on camera ! pic.twitter.com/gQeBtw9tdt
— chani (@comeuncammello)
We got it in Newport too! Thought we were going to have to swerve to miss; lit up while sky over PCH
— Jennifer (@Snowsquirrel7)
@LiveLoveLinda_ @Shareicesaid We got it in Newport too! Thought we were going to have to swerve to miss; lit up while sky over PCH #meteor
— Jennifer (@Snowsquirrel7) November 7, 2013
The National Weather Service says the fiery light is most likely linked to the South Taurids meteor shower that is especially active this time of the year.
Guest:
Ed Krupp, Director of Griffith Observatory and an astronomer
European satellite expected to fall back to Earth at unknown location
The European satellite, called the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (or GOCE), has been out of fuel since late October and will fall back to Earth sometime in the next several days. No one knows where it’ll land.
The New York Times reports that quite a few fragments of this one-ton “Ferrari of space” (so nicknamed for its sleek design) are expected to reach all the way to the surface of the earth. The chance for the re-entry to cause harm or damages is very tiny, but not completely impossible.
The satellite, launched in March 2009, was used to map the earth’s gravitational field. It’s not the first time a spent spacecraft has plunged back to earth. Two years ago, a decommissioned NASA satellite crashed into the Pacific Ocean, but not before inspiring much distress about where it would land. Last year, a Russian spacecraft also fell into the Pacific without causing harm.
But as these “uncontrolled entries” become more and more frequent, should we be alarmed?
Guest:
Stephen Clark, a reporter for the publication, Spaceflight Now, based in Florida
Can affairs actually be good for marriage?
Some therapists are now advocating the concept that affairs can save and strengthen a marriage. The idea is that the affair can be a wake-up-call for the couple, and be used as an opportunity to directly confront issues in the relationship. In other words, the affair can be the catalyst that can save their marriage.
The entire profession does not embrace the view, but a handful are arguing affairs do not have to end a marriage. As Hanna Rosin points out in her piece, “The Upside of Infidelity, even at an annual conference for Family Therapy, a panel was dedicated to the transformation affairs can have in a relationship. The therapists advocating for looking at the benefits of affairs, claim the focus should not be on blame, but what emotions cause the affair to take place.
Another way of looking at it is treating affairs like a trauma that can cause obsessive behavior. It’s about moving the affair to being the focal point and getting to the real issues in the relationships.
How would you cope if your spouse had an affair? Do you think a marriage can be strengthened after an affair? Can talking about the affair reveal underlying problems in the relationship?
Guest:
Emily Brown, long-time therapist specializing in extramarital affairs, Key Bridge Therapy and Mediation Center in Arlington, VA
Does LA County need more supervisors?
Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the United States. More than a quarter of Californians live there and most of its residents, some 60 percent, are Latino. But only one of the five LA County Board of Supervisors is Latino – Gloria Molina. Supervisor Molina was elected to the board over two decades ago, after the U.S. Justice Department got involved in redistricting and said that not creating a Latino seat would violate the Voting Rights Act.
Flash forward to 2010, Supervisors Molina and Ridley-Thomas, an African American, tried to get their fellow board members to create another Latino seat, to better represent the county’s residents. That effort failed, much to the disappointment of Latino activists. Now, in a piece for LA Observed, long-time political reporter Bill Boyarsky writes that Ridley-Thomas is supporting efforts to persuade the Justice Department to intervene again and create a second Latino seat.
What are the challenges of creating another supervisorial seat? Should one of the existing seats be converted or should a new seat be created? Would more supervisors be more or less effective?
Guests:
Gloria Molina, LA County Supervisor, First District
Jessica Levinson, Professor, Loyola Law School; governance expert
A Thirsty Land: Water Wars in Southern California, Part 3: Should California regulate its groundwater?
California is the only state other than Texas that doesn’t regulate its groundwater. The California Constitution says that an owner of a property that lies above an aquifer can pump “reasonable amounts” from it if it’s put to good use—like drinking or watering crops. That makes it difficult for local governments to regulate how much water is pumped from the ground.
California’s Central Valley Aquifer is one of the most used in the US and a 2009 Geological Survey found that from 1962-2003 it was depleted by about 60 million acre feet. California has a history of battling over whether or not the practice should be regulated, and with a slate of water issues on the agenda for the state’s upcoming legislative session, the issue of groundwater regulation is back on the table.
Should California regulate its groundwater? What would that mean for agriculture in the state?
Guests:
Jay Famiglietti, professor of Earth System Science and Director of the UC Center for Hydrologic Modeling at UC Irvine
Chris Scheuring, Associate Counsel, California Farm Bureau Federation
There’s an app for that: How today’s youth deal with tech overload
Want to find a place to eat? Read the news? Talk to you friends? Do you need a flashlight? Well there’s an app for all of that. But how does having everything you need at your fingertips (literally) affect creativity?
Harvard psychologist Howard Gardener and media expert Katie Davis teamed up to answer that question and to find out how the so called “app generation” is affected by having grown up with the amount of technology we use today.They focus on the three aspects of adolescent life they deem most important: identity, intimacy and imagination.
How does technology affect young people’s sense of identity? What effect does social media have on relationships in real life? Do apps make us more or less creative? “The App Generation” explores all of those questions and comes up with answers that are more complicated than you might expect.
Guest:
Katie Davis, co-author of “The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World” (Yale University Press, 2013) and Assistant Professor at The University of Washington Information School.