We discuss the Russian warplane shot down by Turkey and its effect on the White House's IS meeting; Brian Grazer weighs in on producing his upcoming episode on aging in National Geographic's series "Breakthrough" & we look back at changes that erupted from the 2014 Sony hack.
Downed Russian warplane in Turkey looms over White House ISIS meeting
A Russian warplane was shot down on Tuesday by Turkey, which claimed that the jet had ignored repeated warnings after it violated Turkish airspace. The incident has thrown an already volatile region further on edge.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the downing of the plane “a stab in the back by the terrorists’ accomplices,” adding that it would have “serious consequences for Russia’s relationship with Turkey.” Despite being important trade partners, relationship between the two countries has been strained of late over Syria.
It is apparently the first time a NATO member has shot down a Russian plane in five decades. NATO’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council, held an emergency meeting in Brussels shortly after the incident.
The incident preceded a planned meeting at the White House between President Obama and French President Francois Hollande to go over their strategy to eradicate ISIS.
What is the impact of the downed plane on Russia and Turkey relations? How would it impact the international community’s plan to fight ISIS?
Guests:
Henri Barkey, Director of our Middle East Program and an expert on the relationship between Russia and Turkey at the DC-based Wilson Center, an independent research center looking at global issues
William Courtney, adjunct senior fellow at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, and a former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and Georgia
New food labeling bill would clarify use of 'natural' and 'healthy'
Four lawmakers want to put an end to the unregulated marketing and labeling of processed foods as “healthy” or “natural.”
When you go to the market and see foods labeled "healthy" or "natural," do you think of those as objective statements or marketing terms? Four Democrats in Congress are concerned shoppers are misled by those descriptors, and they want the federal government to restrict their usage.
To do so, they've introduced the Food Labeling Modernization Act. It would require uniform front-of package nutritional info, and put restrictions on foodmakers' claims. For example, if a product is labeled as “whole grain” or “multigrain,” it must also include information about the actual percentages of grains in the product. Foods would not be permitted to be labeled “healthy” unless half of the grains are whole grains.
How else would a product be deemed “healthy” or “natural” and do you think such labels are misleading without more regulation?
Guests:
Laura MacCleery, director of regulatory affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which is a supporter of the bill
Katherine Mangu-Ward, Managing Editor, Reason Magazine where she writes about food. She tweets at
Secrets to longevity focus of new Nat Geo Channel 'Breakthrough' documentary
A new National Geographic documentary on aging, directed by Ron Howard, might have come too late for aching baby boomers.
In "Breakthrough: The Age of Aging" episode premiering this Sunday, researchers say since a longer life isn't necessarily a better life, the real breakthroughs lie in extending our healthspan - the period of life spent free of disease.
Geneticist Dr. Nir Barzilai specializes in the genetics of exceptional longevity, and finds that centenarians have protective genes that allow for the delay of aging or for the protection against age-related diseases.
What can young people learn from new research into longevity? What diseases and ailments should be the focus of prevention efforts?
Guests:
Brian Grazer, Executive Producer, National Geographic Channel's "Breakthrough" series; Grazer is an acclaimed, Oscar-winning producer known for too many films and TV series to mention including "A Beautiful Mind," "American Gangster," "24," and "Friday Night Lights." He tweets at
Dr. Nir Barzilai, M.D., Founding Director, Institute for Aging Research, New York, New York
One year since Sony hack, changes evident throughout industry
It’s been a year since Sony Pictures Entertainment was left reeling after more than 170,000 emails and 30,000 internal documents were leaked by alleged North Korean hackers in retaliation for the U.S. release of the movie 'The Interview.'
The massive cyber hack lead to the resignation of a senior executive, the illegal release of at least three major movies and the disclosure of 47,000 social security numbers. The hack exposed reams of private emails between company executives and big Hollywood figures on the Internet.
At the center of the leak: Sony Pictures co-chairwoman Amy Pascal and movie producer Scott Rudin. In one exchange, Rudin calls actress Angelina Jolie a “minimally talented spoiled brat,” and in another he jokes with Pascal about what to ask President Obama at a breakfast hosted by DreamWorks Animation. “Should I ask him if he liked DJANGO?” Pascal writes, referring to the film ‘Django Unchained,’ about a freed slave. Both Rudin and Pascal have issued public apologies for their comments since the email leak.
Now a year out, did the hack change how the industry is approaching security? What’s being done to make sure a similar hack does not happen again?
Guests:
Andrew Wallenstein, Co-Editor-In-Chief at Variety. He tweets at
Tatiana Siegel, Senior Film Writer, The Hollywood Reporter. She tweets at
New UCLA study posits positive link between decline in school suspensions and academic performance
As California public schools have overhauled their suspension policies in recent years, a new study out Monday quantifies the effects.
Statewide, there were 709,580 suspensions in the 2011-2012 academic year. Two years later that number declined nearly a third, to 503,101. Los Angeles Unified School District’s suspensions dropped by nearly two-thirds.
African-American students saw the biggest suspension drop of any ethnic or racial group. The group dropped from 33 suspensions per 100 students in the 2011-2012 academic year to 25.6 per 100 students in 2013-2014.
This is the first study to link a drop in suspensions and an uptick in performance. How is that correlation calculated?
READ FULL STORY HERE.
Guests:
Daniel Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA and author of the study, Closing the School Discipline Gap in California: Signs of Progress. He is a former elementary teacher in the East Coast
Erin Sopapunta, an 11th and 12th grade teacher at Francis Polytechnic Senior High in Sun Valley. She’s been teaching at the school since 2006
How new technology is changing the geopolitical landscape of power
Smart phones, tablets, newfangled tech gadgets: they are not just today’s must-have new toys, they literally contain the key to who gets to control an increasingly important natural resource, a new book argues.
What these gadgets have in common are the rare metals that power them. David S. Abraham is a natural resource strategist and previously oversaw natural-resources programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget. His new book breaks down why the natural resource of rare metals are critical to the future of energy and consumerism. In “The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age,” Abraham reveals more about why the fate of the planet depends on using rare metals in a responsible way.
Abraham says that even though rare metals have become essential for electronic and military technologies, there are still a number of economic and environmental costs that need to be addressed if it’s truly going to revolutionize the modern era.
Where are do these rare metals come from? Why are they so essential to our modern wares? How will they define today’s markets in the same way that oil and bronze did previously?
Guest:
David S. Abraham, author of “The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age” (Yale University Press Books 2015). He is also the overseer of the Technology, Rare and Electronic Materials Center