Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the second devaluation of the Chinese currency in two days and speak with an expert on the politics of Chinese banking policies,Victor Shih, a Professor of Political Science in the 21^st Century China Program at the University of California, San Diego. We examine the extent to which China is involve in currency manipulation as U.S. politicians charge, or whether this is a blow to China because the renminbi was seen as one of the most stable emerging market currencies and it remains to be seen whether there will be more devaluations and whether the Central Bank of China can adapt to a new system of determining exchange rates.

Part 2

Then we speak with Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health and a Professor of Sociology at New York University, about a New York Times investigation into how Coca Cola hired researchers to find that the obesity epidemic in America is not caused by too much sugar in the diet but rather by lack of exercise. We discuss her new book “Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning)” and her article in the UK Guardian, “Coca Cola says its drinks don’t cause obesity, Science says otherwise”.

Part 3

Then finally we look into reports that the young North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has executed a vice-premier because he had expressed discomfort over Kim’s forestation policy.Sue Mi Terry, the former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council and the Director of Japan, Korea and Oceanic Affairs at the National Security Council joins us to examine this latest of 70 senior officials killed under Kim Jong-un’s rule following the recent execution of a Defense Minister who was blown to bits by anti-aircraft fire. 

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the plume of toxic pollution that has turned the Animus River a mustard yellow, as toxic sludge makes its way downstream from the mining town of Silverton, Colorado into New Mexico. We first speak with Jeanne Bassett, a Senior Associate for Environment Colorado to get an understanding of how much pollution is contained in the 23,000 abandoned mines in Colorado that continually leak toxins in what is known as acid mine drainage. Then we will get an assessment of the damage done downstream to the fish and wildlife from Ty Churchwell, a back country coordinator with the environmental group Trout Unlimited. He joins us to discuss how the “River of Lost Souls” as it is known in Spanish was brought back to life after being polluted by mining activity but is now threatened again. 

Part 2

Then we examine the just-released Reuters/Ipsos poll following Thursday’s Republican presidential primary debate that has Donald Trump with a commanding lead of 24%, with Jeb Bush trailing in second with 12%, down from 17% before the debate. A leading voice on white identity and race in modern America, Ian Haney Lopez, a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley and author of “Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class” joins us. We will discuss how Trump, in spite of efforts by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch to ambush him in the Fox News debate, has taken dog whistle politics to a new level and is being rewarded by Republican primary voters as the punditry tries to write him off.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the restart of the Sendai nuclear plant in Japan, the first to go back on line since the Fukushima disasters in March of 2011. David Lochbaum, one of the nation’s top independent experts on nuclear power who worked for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is now the Director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, joins us to discuss why, after getting by without nuclear energy for the last 4 years, Japan is bringing back nuclear power.