The use of political surrogates in the bid for the presidency and the US sugar industry's 50-year-old sugar cover up.
Who would benefit from Trump's childcare plan?
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to speak this evening in Pennsylvania to announce more details about his child care proposal.
In a speech last month, Trump called for child care costs to be tax-deductible. His plan was immediately criticized as benefiting mostly wealthy families – but that criticism could shift depending on the specifics that come out tonight.
So far the broad outlines of a tax-deduction plan could be linked to state guidelines.
"You will reduce your taxable income by the average child care cost in your state and this will apply whether you are a stay-at-home parent or a working parent," said Elaine Maag, Senior Research Associate at the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center.
How can politicians call on their surrogates when they need a hand?
Former president Bill Clinton is in southern California today. He'll be appearing at two Beverly Hills area fundraisers. In Philadelphia, sitting president Barack Obama will appear at a Hillary for America event.
Meanwhile, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is at home in New York, recuperating from pneumonia. With just eight weeks until the election, what does it mean to have stand-ins appearing on behalf of a candidate?
For more, Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke with Steven Shepard, editor and chief polling analyst for Politico.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
When sugar beat science: The decades-old study that doomed our diets
In the mid-1960s, Harvard researchers examined the relationship between the American diet and heart disease — a leading cause of death among men.
At the time, experts disagreed over what caused heart disease: some blamed sugar, others blamed fat and cholesterol. The widely-distributed review singled out fat and cholesterol, downplaying the effects of sucrose. The problem? The analysis was funded and controlled by a sugar industry trade group.
It's a discovery made by Cristin Kearns, a dentist researcher at UC San Francisco. Take Two spoke with Kearns to learn more.
Press the blue play button above to hear the interview.
New music from A Tribe Called Red, Slavic Soul Party! and Metá Metá
If you don't have time to keep up with the latest in new music we've got the perfect segment for you: Tuesday Reviewsday. Every week our music experts join our hosts in the studio to talk about their favorite new tunes. This week, music journalist
Artist: A Tribe Called Red
Album: "We Are the Halluci Nation"
Songs: "R.E.D.," "Indian City"
The map says Canada. The cultural history is of the First Nations, those who have been there since long before European colonialists. But for A Tribe Called Red, it’s life in the Halluci Nation. That’s the land, and state of mind, where the Pow Wow meets the rave. And as the name suggests, it can be rather surreal. Or hyper-real.
The term Halluci Nation comes from Native American poet/activist John Trudell, who died a year ago but whose voice is heard in the opening and closing songs on the new album from A Tribe Called Red, a pioneering trio of Ian "DJ NDN" Campeau, Tim "2oolman" Hill and Bear Witness, who come from indigenous reservations in the Ontario province.
On previous recording and live work, the DJs have deftly crafted a mix of traditional drumming and chanting with pointedly used vintage pop cultural images of Native Americans and current news bits of the harsher realities into a powerful and often witty mix of music and commentary that has been dubbed "pow-wow step" exploring the depths and challenges of modern tribal life. On the new "We Are Halluci Nation," they bring in poets and performers from both the First Nations (Trudell, Canadian First Nations art-music innovator Tanya Tagaq, drum troupe Black Bear and singers Northern Voice) and the hip-hop nation (Saul Williams, Yaslin Bey — formerly known as Mos Def) as well as representatives of cultures encountered in their travels (Australian aboriginal EDM team OKA, Swedish-Sami singer Maxida Märak), both expanding and focusing a global-minded statement on the shared threats to indigenous cultures.
The result is greatly increased dimension both in content and music. "R.E.D.," featuring Bey, the Black Bear drums and rapper Narcy packs both sonic and observational punch worthy of M.I.A. or, well, Mos Def. The tone ranges from spare and stern, as in the Saul Williams spoken piece "The Virus," to frenziedly impressionistic, as in Tagaq’s typically out-there vocals on "Sila" and the twitchy electronics of OKA on "Maima Koopi, which also has chanting from the Chippewa Travelers.
Of course, they also don’t overlook the "D" of the EDM aesthetic around which they orbit, and with "Indian City" in particular, in which they form electronic beats to the contours of a chant by the Northern Voice ensemble, the pow-wow step is not a break with tradition, or even a new approach to it, but a true, grounded continuation.
Artist: Slavic Soul Party!
Album: "The Far East Suite"
Songs: "Tourist Point of View," "Blue Pepper"
The medieval Crusades were bloody massacres into the Middle East and Asia Minor launched in the name of religion. But there were some cultural exchanges in the process, including in music as instruments and sounds were brought back through Europe that had impact for centuries. Not that this excuses any of the horrors.
The 1963 tour by the Duke Ellington Orchestra of the Middle East, Asia Minor and the Asian subcontinent was a much friendlier adventure, but one left before completion due to the assassination of JFK. The music it inspired, "The Far East Suite," composed by Ellington and his collaborator Billy Strayhorn, is one of the essential late-period Duke works. But there’s also a sense of something not quite fulfilled.
At least, that’s how it struck percussionist Matt Moran and his cohorts in the band Slavic Soul Party!, the New York ensemble that, as the name suggests, embraces the sounds and styles of the Balkans and neighboring cultures, exclamation point inclusive. It’s not just that the Ellington tour was curtailed, but that there might be another side to the cultural exchange unrepresented. So with that as inspiration. SSP! reworked the "Suite" from a Balkan musical point of view, adapting the pieces for Roma-styled brass-and-percussion band and recording the whole thing in performance at the Barbès Club in Brooklyn.
Of course, Ellington and Strayhorn were aware of their perspective (if not geography, as really it was by and large a near-East trek), giving the opening song of the suite the title "Tourist Point of View." But if on the original 1966 album version Duke and crew offer this as a little traveling music, something they would have played on the way over, Slavic Soul Party! plays it as it might have come from a band welcoming the visitors on arrival — the same tune but with the springy Balkan bounce in the rhythms and flash in the brass. This is the point of view looking at the tourists, but in a very complementary, and complimentary, way. Find the original online for some compare and contrast.
Throughout the journey, though, it’s testimony to how well Ellington and Strayhorn did in borrowing themes that they adapt (or, perhaps, re-adapt back) to the Roma styles so readily, through the Persian-ate "Isfahan" and the Taj Mahal evoking "Agra" to the closing, extended "Ad Lib on Nippon" (the one reach to the real Far East, though inspired by a separate Ellington Orchestra tour of Japan). But it’s also testimony to the impact of Western music, jazz in particular, on Balkan brass over several generations. The Ellingtonian colors, those densely constructed brass charts, are hardly alien to even the regular Eastern European festival and wedding bands these days, while the ones that have reached global stages — Romania’s Fanfare Ciocarlia and Serbia’s Boban and Marko Markovic Orkestar among the best known — have added their own highly sophisticated sense of harmonic blends to the music of their cultures.
Never does this reworking feel the least bit forced or gimmicky, or like something done merely out of what-if curiosity. And in some cases, notably the hopping "Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)," it’s not really that far from the original. After all, both groups went from New York to the East — and back again.
Artist: Metá Metá
Album: "MM3"
Songs: "Angeoulême," "Corpo Vão"
Sao Paulo, Brazil, has been quite the scene for exciting new music of late. Just recently we talked here about the wonderful young artists Luísa Maita, mixing modern and classic styles. But just what is the Sound of Sao Paulo? That is really hard to say.
It’s hard to say just what the sound of the group Metá Metá is in itself. On its 2011 debut, the group took a minimalist approach rooted in Brazilian samba-jazz, with some alternative twists. On its second, the next year’s "Metal Metal," the sound (hinted strongly by the title) got dense and heavy, some tagging it as Afro-punk — an impression furthered by a side-project collaboration with Nigerian Afrobeat drum legend Tony Allen.
The band’s third album, "MM3," takes it all. And takes it further. But…. where? Still hard to say, but it’s a very, very interesting place. The foundation is a greater embrace of African inspirations, the band specifically citing a love for music from Morocco, Ethiopia, Niger and Mali. Of course, the music from those lands covers a lot of variety. And the basic format for the band — the core trio of singer Jucara Marcal, sax player Thiago Franca and guitarist Kiko Dinnuci her expanded into a quintet with bassist Marcelo Cabral and drummer Sergio Machado — is jazz-rock, more or less, with both the adventurism and sophistication for which modern Brazilian music has been known.
Opening song "Três Amigos" starts out spare like the first album, but moves midway into raucous intensity, Marcal’s sturdy voice and Franca’s sax in particular pushed by Machado’s thunder. The jagged "Angoulême," the next song, starts with an image being watched on a cell phone screen and quickly moves to a trip and fall to the ground, a bloodied mouth and all. There’s modern life for you.
And modern love comes into view with "Imagen do Amor" ("Picture of Love"), the music swinging between quiet seduction and fierce shouting — love’s indoor and outdoor voices, if you will. Or ice and heat, maybe. It’s kind of exhilarating. And disturbing. Take the translation of the chorus, roughly:
The image of love
It’s not for anyone
Hurts unfaithful eyes
Drives the immortals
Hallmark Valentine’s Card stuff, huh?
And the art-rocky "Corpo Vão" (something like "Empty Body") is just about as cheery, with its images of insular paranoia. Yet — and here’s the key to the album as a whole — the music, regardless of the words (or whether we understand them or not) has a magnetism and even warmth that cuts through. It all plays out on the closing, 9-minute adaptation of the Yoruban song "Obá Kosô," through its several cycles of building intensity and release. Threading through it, through the album, is a sense of longing. And for the listener as well, not least of which is a longing to visit Sao Paulo.
Pamela Adlon on her show 'Better Things' and how parents can deal with 'hate eye'
The new FX show "Better Things" stars LA-based actress and voiceover artist Pamela Adlon, who's a single mom to three daughters.
She plays Sam Fox, an LA-based actress and voiceover artist who's a single mom to three daughters.
The show is a raw, honest portrayal of some of the harsher realities of parenthood. It's largely based on Adlon's real-life experiences, but there's a fair amount of embellishment too. And that, Adlon says, can make the whole experience a bit of a 'Catch-22.'
Interview highlights:
On the portrayals of parenting on TV that have been lacking
"In terms of someplace that I could go to when I was a newer mom, there really wasn't anything that was representing me. Of course there's 'One Day at a Time,' with Bonnie Franklin, but at that point, I was young and I didn't really didn't get the concept that she was a single mom with two daughters, it just felt like they were a family. But I kinda thought she was married to Schneider, so I didn't really get it. But yeah, that was really my pitch to John Landgraf, the president of FX, I don't see anybody like me represented on television. I don't see somebody who is in their 40s, single, Los Angeles, raising her daughters. I don't see people who are like my friends. Everything is just so shellacked and weird. You know, that's not the world that I live in."
On the opening scene of the show, when a woman gives her character the 'hate eye'
"I actually just lived this moment having dinner with my friend because there was a family next to us and we were hate-eyeing them. You know, it's one of those things that basically you get over as you roll through the years. But when I was a newer mom, I used to be very aware of looks that people were giving me, and it would just really upset me. And I just decided, I'm not gonna look for the hate. I know that they don't want me coming on this plane with a baby, I'm not gonna look around. Because it is what it is."
On the 'Catch-22' of a creating show that's so close to real-life
"The interesting thing, and what I've come to realize is, it's a Catch-22 right now. Because everybody is going to take everything that happens in this show as sacred truth. So I said to my girls, 'If I embellish and I make things up, it's just, it's going to be what it is. People are going to think that I smoke pot, people are going to think that you're this or you're that.' You know, it is essentially my life, but it's not completely my life. And I get to go off the rails, and it's an amazing gift to be able to tell these stories, but it is a weird kind of thing."
To hear the full interview, click the blue player above.
Soccer player Abby Wambach struggles with addiction like many other women do
Today marks the release of the new book FORWARD by soccer star Abby Wambach.
The memoir is made up of chapters titled for the labels she has lived with throughout her life...
Tomboy, captain, lesbian... and addict.
In the book, she opens up about her abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs.
Wambach says she's been sober since her arrest for driving under the influence in April.
Addiction is a struggle for anyone caught in its grip... but when it comes to dealing with addictions, it may be important to bear in mind some differences between the genders.
For more on this, Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke to Dr. Joy Hao of UCLA Medical Center.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
Zev Yaroslavsky remembers Ed Edelman: 'He was a man for all seasons'
Los Angeles is remembering former L.A. County Supervisor Ed Edelman who died yesterday at the age of 85 from complications of Atypical Parkinson's Disease.
Edelman served for 20 years as county supervisor for L.A.'s third district, which winds from Los Feliz to West L.A. and includes beach communities like Santa Monica and parts of the San Fernando Valley. Edelman is credited for revamping the way the country provided vital public services and for changing how the county responds to the needs of Angelenos.
Take Two’s Deepa Fernandes spoke about Edelman's legacy with former L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky who succeeded Edelman in his seats in the Los Angeles City Council And County Board of Supervisors.
Highlights
Ed Edelman's Approach to His Work:
Above all, first and foremost, he was a human being and he treated people like human beings. He never raised his voice. He never belittled people. He was a person who led through inspiration and not through intimidation like so many of our politicians do today. He was really a special person. He had a great integrity; personal, political, and professional integrity. Never a hint of scandal in anything he ever did. He really is the model that political figures should follow and emulate.
I personally feel very lucky, very fortunate that I was able to follow him in two offices, both in the L.A. City Council and then in the Board of Supervisors. He was a mentor of sorts to me because he was the lighthouse against which I navigated my own public service career. We shared a constituency, we shared a philosophy. He was really a very special person who had a profound impact on Los Angeles County on the delivery of human services, on arts and culture — which was an issue near and dear to his heart. Ed was an amateur cellist and an aficionado of classical music and chamber music and continued to raise and donate money for chamber music and the county museum of art long after he left office — really a man for all seasons.
Ed Edelman’s Impacts on LA County
Child Welfare:
He’s well known for his focus on child welfare issues at the county. He was the person who led the effort to create the Department of Children and Family Services — which centralized most of the child welfare responsibilities under one department instead of having them dispersed in multiple departments — to try to get better results.
I think he saw what we’ve all seen over the years — that the system was failing the kids and there needed to be more accountability, and in order to have more accountability you needed to have a governed structure that allowed for that kind of accountability. So, instead of having disparate departments and offices and centers around the county that dealt with different aspects of child welfare issues, there needed to be one central location in the interest of the kids so that they could have their issues, and their family issues and the abuse issues, and the adoption issues all dealt with under one roof.
LGBT issues:
He was at the board when the gay rights issue and the AIDS epidemic erupted in the 70s and 80s. When so many other politicians in the country — especially straight politicians — were afraid to utter the word "gay." I was elected in 1975 and I remember those days politicians felt like they were taking their lives into their hands by just uttering the words "gay" or "lesbian." It’s hard to believe today but Ed was definitely a pioneer. He represented the same council district that I represented which surrounded West Hollywood. We had a significant LGBT population in his district so this was not a foreign population to him. They were part of his constituency and they were in need of help. As a county supervisor… he turned the county health bureaucracy to the AIDS epidemic before it was done on a national scale.
Ed Edelman’s legacy:
Hew as a civil libertarian and he was a good politician. He was a problem solver. I was talking to some friends last night about the kinds of things he did, and those people who live in Westwood and see Westwood Park behind the Veteran’s building — it’s a regional park — that park came to be when Edelman was a city councilman. He orchestrated a land swap between the federal government, which owned that, and the city government which owned a piece of land in downtown that the federal government wanted for a courthouse.
The Santa Monica Boulevard between Beverly Hills and The 405 Freeway which is now a broad parkway that carries a lot more cars than it ever did and it’s landscaped. That came about because of Ed’s deft negotiating ability… It took him years to get it done.
So, his fingerprints are all over the place….
*Quotes edited for clarity
To hear the full interview, click the blue arrow above.