Aurora shooting victim weighs in on James Holmes' guilty verdicts, Ian McKellan on his latest movie, Californians share their favorite Disneyland memories
For Aurora shooting survivor Marcus Weaver, Holmes conviction brings little comfort
Marcus Weaver was sitting in the fifth row of the Century Theater in Aurora, Colorado on the night James Holmes went on a violent rampage that would leave 12 dead and 70 injured.
Nearly three years to the day after the grisly massacre took the life of Weaver’s friend, Holmes was convicted of 24 counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted murder, and one explosives count.
Weaver told his story to Take Two’s Alex Cohen.
“My friend, Rebecca Wingo — she’d never saw Batman before,” he explained. “[We] went to the movie and [about] ten minutes into the movie, a smoke bomb went off … we were just perplexed. We thought it was just someone who lit off a smoke bomb … Once the gunman started opening fire on the crowd, it became really apparent it was not a Rocky Horror film show, or any of those pranks they do in theaters. It was a real event, and so something told me to get down on the ground.”
He pulled Rebecca down with him. A few minutes later, he realized she was hit during the first wave of gunfire.
When Holmes’ gun jammed, many moviegoers tried to flee. Weaver picked up his friend and started toward the exit. That’s when Holmes shot him in the arm.
“And so I tumbled over and she fell into the seat, and that was the last time I saw my friend Rebecca.”
Weaver didn’t notice he was hit until he made it out of the theater.
“A little girl came up to me and [said], ‘your arm is bleeding.’ And so I looked at my arm, and sure enough, I had two holes in my arm, and blood was just perfusing out of it.”
Weaver says the weeks following the shooting were ‘rough.’
Over the past three years, Weaver says the survivors have had to become ‘media experts’ at their stories. This hasn’t numbed him to the pain of that night, however. He says he cried when a juror read the name of the victims yesterday.
Even with the guilty verdicts, Weaver says Aurora won’t be able to put the memory of that night behind it for a long time.
“And so, was it a victory yesterday? I think it is, but I think it’s more or less a stepping stone as opposed to a ‘victory.’”
Press the play button above to hear more from Aurora shooting survivor Marcus Weaver.
Ouster of Reddit’s Ellen Pao highlights need to combat Internet trolls
Popular community website Reddit has been at the center of a contentious debate in recent weeks. Thousands of users revolted when the site shut down five of its most controversial discussion channels that encouraged hate for blacks, homosexuals and overweight people.
Community backlash was so strong, the site’s interim CEO, Ellen Pao, stepped down. Pao defended her decision to close the channels in an op-ed that appeared in the Washington Post Thursday. In it, she talks about the challenges of curating conversations on the web, while censoring hate speech and harassment.
She also pointed out how quickly threats on the web can turn into real life intimidation and silencing.
Abuse can be found in forums and comment sections across social media. It’s called "trolling." As more people continue to come online, forum moderators are working to strike a balance between free discussion and making comment sections safer.
Enter computer scientist Jennifer Golbeck, who has done extensive research on Internet trolling. She says site moderators are up against people who take joy in creating chaos.
“There’s research that has done psychological profiling on people who say they enjoy trolling as their main online activity. They tend to score really high on measures of sadism, narcissism, [and] psychopathy. They essentially enjoy destroying nice things that other people have set up, and they really find entertainment in that,” she said.
To hear more about the future of open forums on the Internet, press the play button above.
LGB workers protected from discrimination, federal commission rules
Beyond same-sex marriage, LGBT activists had their sights on another issue: discrimination in the workplace.
California is one of many states that already have protections in place that prevent employers from discriminating against or firing a worker based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
In many other states, however, that's perfectly legal.
But this week, a decision by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that lesbian, gay and bisexual employees are all protected. (Transgender employees are protected by an earlier ruling in 2012)
It lights a fire under Congress and the Supreme Court to take on this issue, themselves, to make the law more clear.
Douglas NeJaime, professor of law at UCLA and faculty director of the Williams Institute, joins Take Two to break down what this means for employees everywhere.
Sir Ian McKellen and his turn as Sherlock Holmes
The new film Mr. Holmes features Sir Ian McKellen as that famous British detective invented by yet another Sir - writer Arthur Conan Doyle.
But there's a twist... in this film, there's a REAL Mr. Holmes... a frail man in his 90s who is quite different from the character who appears in stories written by his colleague, Dr. Watson.
In the film, Mr. Holmes battles senility as he tries to resolve some final mysteries. He's cut off from the world, with the exception of his housekeeper, played by actress Laura Linney and her young son.
Alex Cohen joined them both recently to talk about the film, and she started by asking McKellen if he had any connection to the character growing up.
"I don't really remember a time when I didn't know who Sherlock Holmes was, and actually that's true of a lot of people. He's just part of the culture."
OSU scientists develop super-food seaweed that tastes like bacon
Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a new strain of an edible marine algae called dulse that is high in protein and packs twice the nutritional punch of trusty kale.
It just might be the next big, trendy super-food. Because, here's the clincher — it tastes like bacon.
Take Two spoke with Oregon State Professor of Fisheries Chris Langdon about this magical seaweed that he and his colleagues at the Hatfield Marine Science Center have patented and hope to bring to the plant-loving, health-conscious masses.
Interview Highlights
What is this miracle seaweed?
This is a red seaweed that is occurring naturally here on the West coast, all the way from Alaska to California. Palmaria Mollis, which is the scientific name for dulse, has been around for a very long time. But we've discovered a new strain called C3, and it's a fast-growing strain.
We get growth rates under optimal conditions of about 18 percent a day, which is really amazing...it ranks up with maize and rice and corn, some of the most productive terrestrial crops on the planet.
It also has a high protein content; so we found, typically, protein contents of about 16 percent. It's very nutritious in other ways; it has a lot of minerals, iodine, polyphenols, anti-oxidants, carotenoids, and poly-unsaturated fatty acids.
Does it really taste like bacon?
That's the real clincher. Unfortunately, it doesn't have quite the texture of bacon and all that wonderful fattiness of bacon; but in terms of the fattiness, it's actually more healthy for you because it does not have cholesterol.
You have to fry the dulse to get that bacon flavor. If you just eat it raw, it doesn't have that bacon flavor.
You still have to prepare it to get the bacon flavor, but you can fry it in good fats like olive oil or canola oil, that's going to give you a much better fatty-acid profile.
So, that's the magic. I think for vegetarians, vegans, and some ethnic groups who can't eat pork, this might be something that is very exciting for them.
On a scale of 1 to 10 — 10 tasting exactly like bacon — where does Dulse rank?
I would say it's probably ranking around seven. Six to seven. It's not a perfect replica, but it's certainly close. It has a savory flavor, definitely a meaty flavor, and then this bacon overtone.
Colleagues up at the Food Innovation Center in Portland have actually smoked dulse, so there may be smoked 'dulse bacon' in the future.
To listen to Take Two's entire interview with Chris Langdon, please click on the audio player above.
GOP candidate Jeb Bush campaigns and fundraises in CA
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush has been in California this week, fundraising and campaigning with stops throughout the state.
San Francisco Chronicle senior political writer Carla Marinucci joins Take Two to talk about what it's like for a GOP candidate to campaign in a solidly Democratic state.
California inmate exposed to Valley fever files hate crime lawsuit
Last week, a California judge ruled for the first time that an African American former inmate can sue the state under a hate crimes law for housing him in a facility where Valley fever was known to occur.
Valley fever is an infection caused by a fungus that lives in the soil of certain regions, like California's dusty Central Valley. There's no cure for it, no vaccine, and it can be fatal in some cases.
The disease has long been a problem in California's prisons, and African American, Latino and Filipino inmates are especially susceptible to the disease.
Glenn Towery is the plaintiff in this case. He contracted Valley fever while incarcerated in the Central Valley.
Numerous other lawsuits have been filed on behalf of California inmates who contracted the disease while in prison. However, suits have either been filed in federal court, where judges have been less hospitable to plaintiffs, or have been unsuccessful because state officials are protected by "qualified immunity."
In Towery's case, Superior Court Judge Stuart M. Rice has allowed attorneys for the plaintiff to proceed under the Bane Act, California's civil rights statute. Under the Bane Act, "qualified immunity" does not apply, and "willfulness" on the part of the defense is stipulated.
"The reason that [the plaintiff] is allowed to sue under the Bane Act is, because, by knowing that this disease is a problem, and by knowing that [Towery] is part of a population that is particularly affected by it, the state knowingly and willingly endangered his life by moving him [to a Central Valley prison]," said San Francisco Daily Journal reporter Andy Serbe.
Serbe spoke with Take Two about Glenn Towery's case.
To listen to Take Two's entire interview with Andy Serbe, please click on the audio player above.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation does not comment on pending lawsuits, but sent Take Two the following statement:
"We have put in place numerous measures in our prisons to reduce the amount of dust, and the movement of dust, particularly into buildings. We have also moved inmates deemed at higher risk and who chose to move out of the two prisons in the valley fever endemic zone. We have also worked with state and federal public health partners to study further methods of reducing the incidence of valley fever in Avenal and Pleasant Valley prisons and mitigation efforts continue."
Dito Montiel on directing Robin Williams in 'Boulevard'
The new film 'Boulevard' stars Robin Williams in his final lead role.
He plays Nolan Mack, a 60-year-old bank officer with a lovely wife and a solid job. But something seems to be missing from his life.
Then one night, he happens upon a young male prostitute named Leo and everything changes.
Director Dito Montiel joined Take Two to talk about the film, and what it was like working with Robin Williams in what would become his last on-screen performance.
To hear the full interview with Dito Montiel, click the link above.
'Boulevard' opens today in Los Angeles. There's a Q&A with Dito Montiel, actor Roberto Aguire and screenwriter Douglas Soesbe following the 7:15pm show at Sundance Cinemas in West Hollywood.
Weekend on the cheap: Long Beach Love Fest, dineLA and more
In case you forgot, it's Friday. That means it's time to find everything about all the great events happening in SoCal this weekend.
Southern California Public Radio's social media producer Kristen Lepore joins Take Two every Friday with fun things to do on the cheap. This weekend: Long Beach Love Fest, dineLA and pool parties at the Ace Hotel and the Hollywood Roosevelt.
Free weekend? For details on these events and even more local happenings, click here.
LA Aftershocks series: Dead Prez talks hip-hop and race relations
Hip hop has provided the soundtrack to African American social movements since the 80s. One of the key voices in the genre of music for activism is the duo known as Dead Prez.
As part of Grand Performances' series 'Aftershocks' marking 50 years since the Watts riots, Take Two' s A Martinez sat down with M1 and Stic.Man from Dead Prez along with Mark Torres from the Pacifica Radio Archives ahead of a performance mixing news coverage from the Watts riots with hip hop beats.
The conversation is part of "downSTAGE with Take Two" - a series of pre-show interviews adding context and color to the 'Aftershocks' events.
Join host A Martinez for the latest in the Aftershocks series, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the California Plaza as he talks mass incarceration with the creators of "The Last Jimmy."
Listen to the first in the Aftershocks series on Wattstax here.
Disneyland 60: Take Two listeners share their favorite memories
On July 17, 1955, Walt Disney opened a brand new, $17 million amusement park in Anaheim.
As it turns out, that first day at Disneyland was a disaster. According to Variety, counterfeit tickets led to overcrowding, vendors ran out of food, and some of the 18 attractions were still not ready for visitors.
But they worked out the kinks, and the very next day, Walt Disney himself eagerly greeted the park's first visitors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W8iiugY3C0
More than 650 million guests have visited since that day 60 years ago, including more than a few Take Two listeners. Some shared their memories. Thanks to:
- KPCC's Bob Garcia, who shared his marching band memories
- Katherine Kastan of Los Angeles, who spoke of personal triumph at the Disney 5K
- Patrick Reidy of Pasadena, who fell out of a canoe
- Tiffany Fox of Encinitas, who at 8 years old dared to (almost) ride Space Mountain
- Lisa Robertson of Burbank, whose son shared a special moment with Peter Pan
To hear their stories, click the blue audio player above.
Some of these voices were found through KPCC's PIN network. Become a source.