Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the irony that just as the Republicans are uniting around Donald Trump, divisions among Democrats appear to be widening with one of the main points of friction between the Clinton and Sanders campaign being the head of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Named the best political writer in Florida, Adam Smith, the Political Editor of the Tampa Bay Times joins us to provide a local angle on the polarizing Florida Congresswoman who, as Chair of the DNC will preside over the Democratic convention in Philadelphia where instead of brotherly love, there is likely to be an eruption of booing the minute Debbie Wasserman Schultz gavels the convention to order. As pressure builds among grassroots Democrats to “dump Debbie”, we examine whether the efforts by Bernie Sanders and others to support Schultz’s primary challenger will cost the controversial congresswoman her seat.

Part 2

Then we get an update on the political impasse over funding to prevent the spread of the Zika epidemic that has struck Central and South America and is moving north into the southern United States. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies joins us to discuss the delay in funding that could put about 2 million pregnant American women at risk and why raiding the fund for Ebola and offering $622 million instead of the $1.9 billion requested will end up being penny wise and pound foolish since the cost of prevention will be a fraction of the costs of a spreading epidemic.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with the Oscar-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox, who helped spark the anti-fracking movement with his film GASLAND. He joins us to discuss his final film in the GASLAND trilogy “How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change” which opens in LA on June 3 and airs nationally on HBO on June 27. We discuss what the oil and gas industry calls the shale oil and gas revolution as well as the other revolution involving millions of people around the world organizing against “fracking”.  

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the efforts underway by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to mediate between the Sanders camp and a growing number of senior Democrats who are concerned that Bernie’s continuing campaign is hurting their chances of beating Donald Trump. Jim Manley, a Senior Director at Quinn Gillespie and Associates who served as senior advisor to Harry Reid for the past six years, and before that, 12 years as an aide to the late Senator Ted Kennedy, joins us. We discuss Harry Reid’s call on Tuesday to Democrats criticizing Bernie urging them to, quote, “I think we should just kinda lay off Bernie Sanders a little bit, OK?” and Reid’s meeting with Jane Sanders on Wednesday, as well the future of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz who will preside over the Democratic convention where she is likely to booed the minute she bangs the gavel and be less than useful in helping Hillary Clinton win over Sanders supporters in the name of party unity.

Part 2

Then we examine that case against Hillary Clinton for her unauthorized use of a private email server and focus on the fundamental issue at stake which is the privacy and security of communications at the highest level of government that involve state secrets. Robert Morgus, a policy analyst with The New America Foundation’s Cybersecurity Initiative joins us to discuss why the protection of government emails and communications is so lax making it easy for hackers to breech antiquated and poorly managed systems, as well as the private emails of current and former government employees.

Part 3

Then finally we assess the historic visit of President Obama to Hiroshima on Friday and discuss the criticism coming from all directions with some upset that Obama has ruled out an apology, while others argue that his call to eliminate nuclear weapons flies in the face of a massive trillion dollar “modernization” of the U.S.’s vast nuclear arsenal. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist Kai Bird, the author of “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” joins us to discuss the father of the atom bomb Oppenheimer’s charge that we dropped the bomb on “an essentially already defeated enemy”.