Teaching Tolerance, Political Party Economic Reality, Cyberattacks

Teaching Tolerance, Political Party Economic Reality, Cyberattacks

Top of Mind with Julie Rose

  • Sep 21, 2016 11:00 pm
  • 1:42:20 mins

Teaching Tolerance Amid 2016 Election Guest: Maureen Costello, Leads the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project Every four years, the presidential election is a perfect civics lesson opportunity for teachers of all grades. They decorate their classrooms in red, white and blue, hold mock elections and use the campaign to basically illustrate how American democracy works and why it’s so great. But this year is different – and to put it bluntly, not so great.    A survey of some 2,000 school teachers taken at the height of the primary election this year found more than half of teachers said they’ve seen an increase in uncivil political discourse among their students – including a spike in bullying. Nearly half are reluctant to even bring up the election because of the chances it’ll stoke fear or spark unpleasant conversation in class.  The Different Economic Realities of Democrats and Republicans Guest: Ian Anson, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Listening to politicians talk about the economy during an election year feels like looking in a funhouse mirror. Time after time, when we hear Democrats or Republicans, they paint opposite pictures of the economy. Now, this is not really surprising in an election year, because history has shown a strong economy favors the incumbent party. So Republicans have a motive to make the current situation as terrible as possible. Social Media and Modern Warfare Guest: Thomas Zeitzoff, Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs at American Univeristy Since its inception, media has been used to show the face of war. In the Civil War, newspapers and the telegraph enabled political parties to report details from the battle front to their sympathizers in record time. The Gulf War in 1990 is considered the first to play out on live TV, when cable news broadcast actual footage from both sides of the conflict as it happened. That feels almost antiquated today when Youtube, Facebook and Twitter have become the first places people turn for instant coverage of global conflicts.  The Apple Seed Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYUradio’s “The Apple Seed” Sam Payne joins us in studio to share tales of tellers and stories. Russian Cyberattacks  Guest: Frank Cilluffo, Director of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University Tensions between the US and Russia are high right now over attacks in Syria. Last week, the US says it inadvertently bombed military forces of the Syrian President who is a Russian ally. Now, the US is blaming Russia for bombing an aid convoy bound for Aleppo. Russia denies it was responsible. As Russia’s aggressive stance plays out in Syria and in Ukraine, it’s also a growing threat online. This summer alone Russian hackers are believed to have breached the White House, the State Department, the Defense Department, the stock exchange and the Democratic National Committee. That’s just a partial list.  How the Paralympics Work and Why People Love Them Guest: Tony Naar, Facilitator of the Australian Paralympic History Project at the University of Queensland Heading into the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, ticket sales lagged and disappointment was in the air. But then a late surge of enthusiasm filled arenas and propelled them to become one of the most popular Paralympics in history. A spokesman for the games in Rio noted that, “Brazilians had no idea how emotional and entertaining the Paralympics could be.” Aside from the sheer awe of seeing athletes with daunting limitations accomplish incredible physical feats, the Paralympics are also an important look at how the world views disability. To pull the games off requires a complicated system of evaluating and sorting athletes according to their level of disability so that competition is as fair as possible. Just as an example, there were 16 gold medal winners in the men’s 100 meter dash this year representing various levels of disability.