Today, we'll discuss the upcoming end to unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. Then, our Friday Flashback year-end review and Alan Alda challenges scientists to explain color to kids. Plus, your discarded Christmas lights travel to China and come back as other goods, we explain how to have the difficult end-of-life discussion with your aging relatives, LA band The Internet joins the show and much more.
1.3 million Americans to lose unemployment benefits
Tomorrow marks the end of unemployment benefits for more than 200,000 Californians.
Congress left for the holiday recess without approving a federal extension of jobless benefits for those who have been out of work for six months or longer. There are several proposals to extend unemployment floating around Congress but the two parties have clashed over how to pay for it.
RELATED: Are you experiencing long-term unemployment?
But the lack of a decision leaves 1.3 million Americas across the country without any more payments. Here to talk about the effects of this here in California is Maurice Emsellem, the co-policy director for the National Employment Law Project in Oakland.
For more information visit the Employment Development Department's information page here.
Closure of migrant camps forces seasonal workers to make tough choice
The fields around Watsonville produce more than half a billion dollars in berries every year.
After the raspberry vines have been cut back for winter and the strawberry fields plowed under, some farmworkers from Mexico still go back there for the holidays. At the Buena Vista Migrant Center, the end of the season means it’s time for 104 families to move out.
But as The California Reports's Rowan Moore Gerety reports, more and more farmworker families are having second thoughts about migrating twice a year.
2013 Review: Our Friday Flashback regulars review the year's top headlines
Today we've made it not only to the end of another working week but almost to the end of another year! In this week's Friday Flashback — our weekly review and analysis of the news — we're going to take the longview of 2013.
To help us wrap up this year's biggest political stories and explain how they got us to where we are now, we're joined in studio by James Rainey of the LA Times and Alex Seitz-Wald of National Journal.
We start all the way back in January of 2013 when President Obama was being sworn in for his second term in office. He was facing a bitterly partisan Washington, the Newtown shooting was in recent memory. What did his agenda looked like back then?
In February we were all talk of the sequester, which we may need to remind you were those across-the-board automatic spending cuts. The President offered a plan to postpone it, Republicans rejected it, the public seemed bored by it all, and the media seemed confused.
Both Republicans and Democrats must have seen some political advantage in allowing the cuts to go into effect, because they did on — March 1st — but with kind of wimper. Who won here in the end?
In April, the Tsarnaev brothers allegedly detonated two bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring over 200 others. There was extensive talk at the time of how this could have been prevented but Alex, in the end did it change any policy?
In May, a subcontractor for the NSA by the name of Edward Snowden leaked confidential information about the mass surveillance of Americans. That sparked a huge debate in this country about the level of autonomy provided to the NSA. The members of the White House review panel on data surveillance will appear before the Senate judiciary committee in just a few weeks. What are the longterm effects here?
At the beginning of the month, Republican Congressman Raul Labrador of Idaho announced he was leaving the House's 'Gang of Eight', the bipartisan group drafting an immigration reform bill. He said he couldn't come to an agreement with the others on healthcare for undocumented immigrants. A few weeks later the Senate passed its own comprehensive immigration bill, but Labrador's departure seemed to signal the unraveling of an agreement in the House.
It seemed there was broad consensus when we started 2013, even among republicans, about the need for an immigration bill, but why did it ultimately fail?
In July we had the not guilty verdict for George Zimmerman, who was on trial for the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. It was a racial flashpoint for the country and we also had President Obama's speech where he compared himself to Trayvon Martin. What is the lasting significance of this case?
In September, Syria dominated the news. The President asked Congress to approve a military strike to punish the Assad regime for its use of chemical weapons. That split lawmakers, and Russia ultimately stepped in to offer a diplomatic solution that seemed to improve President Putin's position at the expense of President Obama's. How will this chapter will be remembered for President Obama?
October brought both a temporary shutdown of the federal government and the open enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Let's start first with the shutdown, which lasted 15 whole days, making it only the third longest in our history. What impact did that have, both practically and politically?
We've talked so much about healthcare. What are your predictions for how the events of the past year and the fumbles with the federal website will be remembered in President Obama's legacy?
It seems the President had quite a wild ride of 2013 and in the end he seemed to annoy everyone, while Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner seemed to start the year in the doghouse but has perhaps emerged victorious after standing up to some fringe elements in his party.
Speaker John Boehner led a Congress that, according to a poll conducted by CNN this week, two-thirds of Americans say is the worst Congress they can remember in their lifetime.
Alan Alda's 'Flame Challenge' asks scientists to explain the concept of color to kids
Alright, we've got a question for you: what is color?
You might think like an artist, and say color is how you express emotions and ideas. Or you may think like a scientist and say it's all about different wavelengths of light. But now try explaining both concepts so a 6th grader can understand you.
That's the idea behind 2014's The Flame Challenge, an annual contest that challenges scientists to describe ideas that seem simple but in reality are incredibly complex.
The mastermind of the contest, now in its third year, is a visiting professor at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, Alan Alda himself.
"The first year's contest was, 'What's a flame?' So we called it the Flame Challenge and that name caught on," Alda told Take Two.
That was a question an 11-year-old Alan Alda once asked, so he geared this contest with other 11-year-olds in mind. Scientists can answer the question either with a written answer or a video, and it must be appeal to 6th graders.
To get a sense of what makes a winner, here's the video that took first prize in 2012:
"I really started the contest to teach scientists to explain things so kids can understand them," said Alda, "and it's not just for kids. Most of us can't understand it unless an 11-year-old can understand the same explanation."
Alda also says that the contest appeals to scientists because they want the general public, and especially young people, to understand their work.
"They want to share what they know with the public because it's so beautiful, and they want to be able to explain their work to policy makers to Congress, for instance, because they're not going to understand you and not going to give you money for something they don't understand," said Alda.
This year's question -- what is color? -- is one that was crowdsourced by kids. Alda says, what's exciting, is that it can be approached in various different angles.
"If there's a neurologist," he says, "they should really think about explaining this from that point of view. But you can also approach it from psychological terms."
If you're a teacher, you can get your own class signed-up to be a judge by January 31st. For scientists, the deadline is March 1st to turn in your own creative answer.
Tracing the around-the-world journey of discarded Christmas lights
A couple of years ago, author Adam Minter found himself in China staring at thousand of pounds of broken strands of Christmas lights sitting in a giant pile. He was in a recycling facility where more than two million pounds of lights per year were broken down and turned into a number of other products.
Host Alex Cohen talks to him about his journey and the journey of the Christmas lights that get recycled after each holiday season.
Do end-of-life decisions change once you've seen a loved one die?
The holidays are a wonderful time to come together with family and catch up, but it's also a time you can tackle a difficult question with older family members: What do you want to happen at the end of your life?
If a loved one were terminally ill or injured, do you prioritize doing whatever you can to save their life or let them pass as gracefully and painlessly as possible? Maybe you have ideas of what you would do, but how do those "what if" decisions hold up when pressed against reality?
If you have your own experience to share about your end-of-life decision, tell us on our Public Insight Network.
That's a question Margaret Pabst Battin faced. She's a professor of philosophy at the University of Utah, but also a renowned expert on the ethics of end-of-life decisions. Her own beliefs about those decisions began to evolve when, in 2008, a bike accident left her husband Brooke quadriplegic.
"His physician said, '100 percent of my patients say they want to die,' and that's typically not long after the accident when they discover life won't be the same," Margaret said.
That was the philosophy Brooke had beforehand, as well. His own medical directives stated he did not want procedures that would prolong the dying process if he were in a terminal or vegetative state. But doctors did not know that until well after he'd been treated by emergency staff and after Margaret arrived at the hospital.
It was in the aftermath, however, that Brooke flourished.
"His friendships became more intense, much deeper," said Battin, "His relationship with me deepened in ways that it would be almost impossible to describe the joy of."
Brooke lived on for several more years like this, but with a gradually failing health that would test Margaret's own sense of what was the right decision.
There would be times that Brooke would proclaim that he wanted to be taken off ventilators and life-sustaining equipment, but were those clear, decisive thoughts, or anguished cries from pain that are only temporary?
"If I ever thought he ever were having a moment of bizarre craziness or huge depression, then you would step back," said Battin, "But not when you see a decision developing over time."
In July 2013, Brooke made the final choice to pass away. It was a hard choice for Margaret to accept, as well, because the experience transformed her own views on end-of-life care.
"There was one point in which I said to myself, 'I wonder if I should tear up everything that I've ever written on this topic," Margaret said, "But that's because when you are so much closer to reality, it is so much more full of small detail that makes a different."
How to make the decisions for yourself
While the holidays are a great time to talk about these issues out in the open, the most important thing is to talk about it early, as well as often, says Emily Lauren Burg, end-of-life care manager in Southern California for Compassion and Choices.
"We never know what might happen at any moment," said Burg.
The first step is to initiate a conversation with loved ones to identify who you can trust with enacting your decisions. Then, it's important to document and detail your choices.
"An advanced directive is something that can be easily accessed," said Burg, "And the first place that it should kept is on your refrigerator so it is readily accessible to anybody that might come into your home."
In addition, she suggests updating your directive every decade or after major life events in order to reassess your own values. And remember that every situation may be different, and that your directive is how you start the conversation.
More tips from Compassion and Choices are available here.
If you have your own experience to share about your end-of-life decision, tell us on our Public Insight Network.
2013 Review: A look back at the year's biggest education stories
2013 was a big year for education. New policies changed classrooms, from what kids are taught in the classroom to the kinds of devices that they are using. KPCC's Education Editor Evelyn Larrubia joins the show to educate us on the year that was.
What to do with tourists in town for the Rose Parade
The city of Pasadena is home to 139,000 residents, but next week about a quarter of a million tourists are expected to descend on the Crown City.
The two major draws include the first of two big football games being played at the Rose Bowl and, of course, the famous Rose Parade.
If you're entertaining some of those tourists and looking for things to do before kickoff or watching the floats, we've got some ideas. KPCC's social media producer Kristen Lepore has a list of all the great things to do in Pasadena, you'll find it at KPCC.org.
Odd Future's The Internet is back with 'Feel Good'
The Internet isn't just a technological invention that has revolutionized the way we live our lives. It's also the name of an LA-based neo-soul group who are part of the Odd Future collective, a group of 20-somethings who've taken over the L.A. music scene.
It was Odd Future's leader, Tyler the Creator (who we've had on the show before), who discovered our next guests Matt Martians and Syd Tha Kyd, two members of The Internet.
They recently released a new album titled "Feel Good" to very positive reviews.
But before the critical acclaim, before they were able to work in a nice studio, they were in an apartment in Culver City where they recorded their first album. A Martinez sat down with them to talk about their humble roots.