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Podcasts Take Two
Grading students for effort, the rise of Asian evangelicals, SoCal's whale population rebounds
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Jun 11, 2018
Listen • 49:46
Grading students for effort, the rise of Asian evangelicals, SoCal's whale population rebounds

A local teacher experiments with grading students for effort, how the rise of Asian evangelicals could affect the November election, why SoCal's blue whales are recovering from population declines.
File: A blue whale exhales through its blowhole, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach on July 16, 2008.
File: A blue whale exhales through its blowhole, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach on July 16, 2008.
(
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
)
Asian Pacific American Christian leaders pray at an event at U.S. Capitol for the 9th Annual Lighting the Community Summit, Washington DC. June 2016.
Asian Pacific American Christian leaders pray at an event at U.S. Capitol for the 9th Annual Lighting the Community Summit, Washington DC. June 2016.
(
Courtesy Janelle Wong
)

To kick off the week, Take Two checks in with KPCC education reporter Kyle Stokes about a local teacher who experimented with grading her students for effort. We also speak with the author of a book about the rise of Asian evangelicals. And we check in with the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach about the SoCal blue whale population.

The primary 'glitch' mystery continues

(Starts at 1:26)

It's been almost a week since the statewide primary election. For the most part, election results are in but while some ballots continue to be counted, another mystery continues: Why were 118,000 names missing from voter rosters at precincts around the county? Elections officials issued a statement pointing to a printing error for the problem, but details of how that error happened haven't yet been determined. And over the last few days, there were some more developments.

Guest:

  • Mary Plummer, KPCC's senior political reporter

https://twitter.com/maryplummer/status/1005244002776436736

ICE Detainees move to a federal prison

(Starts at 5:38) 

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it would start using some 1,600 federal prison beds to detain immigrants. It's the first time federal prisons have been used to house immigrants on a large scale. Under the plan, most of the detainees are being sent to Victorville, in San Bernardino County.

Guest:

  • Libby Denkmann, KPCC reporter who was outside the prison when the first wave of detainees arrived on Friday.

https://twitter.com/libdenk/status/1005194208204898304

L.A. Unified teacher tests the idea of E for Effort

(Starts at 10:46)

In the fall, KPCC education reporter Kyle Stokes visited a teacher who wanted to use this school year as an experiment in a radically different approach to grading her students. Instead of grading just proficiency, she would grade her students based on their effort and improvement over time. At the end of the year, he checked back in to see how her experiment had worked. (Spoiler: it didn't.)

Guest:

  • Kyle Stokes, KPCC education reporter

How local North Koreans feel about President Trump's upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un

(Starts at 17:35)

A small percentage of the congregation at the family-run Giving Church in Koreatown is North Korean. Sarah Cho's father is the pastor there and she talks to Josie Huang about how the congregation is feeling about the upcoming summit talks between the U.S. and North Korea.

Guest:

  • Sarah Cho, her family runs that Giving Church in Koreatown

The rise of Asian evangelicals

(Starts at 24:07)

White evangelicals hold a lot of political clout in this country, coming together to help elect Donald Trump as president. But a growing wave of Asian, black and Latino evangelicals could change the political landscape in places like Southern California. 

Guest:

  • Janelle Wong, author of "Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change" 
Asian Pacific American Christian leaders pray at an event at U.S. Capitol for the 9th Annual Lighting the Community Summit, Washington DC. June 2016.
Asian Pacific American Christian leaders pray at an event at U.S. Capitol for the 9th Annual Lighting the Community Summit, Washington DC. June 2016.
(
Courtesy Janelle Wong
)

Disney life after John Lasseter

(Starts at 31:04)

John Lasseter, Disney and Pixar's chief creative officer has been on sabbatical since November for what was described as "unwanted touching." Last week it was announced he was leaving Disney at the end of the year. So what does life after Lasseter look like at Disney and Pixar?

Plus:

  • Following the #MeToo movement, Hollywood now has "disgrace insurance."
  • Monday is the first day of Emmy nominations voting and there's a surprising new contender.
  • Also, why critics love "Hereditary" and why audiences hate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6wWKNij_1M

Guest:

  • Rebecca Keegan, Vanity Fair

Expect to be wowed by 100-ft Blue whales this summer

(Starts at 40:52)

Beachgoers are heading to the coast and so are Big. Beautiful. Blue whales. (Thanks to a solid krill presence off SoCal beaches.) They kept their distance for a while, but this season looks especially promising for whale watching.

Guest:

  • James Stewart, Aquarium of the Pacific whale expert

https://twitter.com/OceanWatchLB/status/999787204288372736

PRIDE overload

(Starts at 46:55)

Over the weekend, people took to the streets of West Hollywood for PRIDE. But Saturday night was less joyous. The fest was supposed to run until 1 a.m. But the event reached capacity very quickly, so organizers closed off the entrances at 10 p.m., even for ticket holders. Angry attendees took to Twitter to complain:

https://twitter.com/wondermlm/status/1005670565808488448

Take Two's Leo Duran looked into what went wrong.

Guest:

  • Estevan Montemayor, board president of L.A. Pride