War Cost, Olympic Athlete Finances, Canada's Missing Indigenous

Cost of War Project Guest: Neta Crawford, PhD, Professor of Political Science at Boston University, Co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute A heartbreaking image of a young boy, dazed, bleeding and covered in dust after a bombing in Aleppo has swept around the internet, prompting calls for a more concerted effort to end the conflict in Syria. It’s the war that captures most media attention right now, making it easy to forget that the US war in Afghanistan is nearing 15 years and violence is intensifying. Do Third-Party Candidates Matter? Guest: Barbara Perry, PhD, Director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center and Co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are not the only candidates in the 2016 presidential race, though you wouldn’t know it from the majority of press coverage. There’s a Green Party Candidate named Jill Stein and a Libertarian named Gary Johnson who are currently capturing a combined 12 percent of the overall vote in polls. What’s the likelihood that either of them will manage to make an impact on the election in November? How Olympic Athletes Pay the Bills Guest: Edward Etzel, PhD, 1984 Gold Medalist in Olympic Sharpshooting for the United States, Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology at West Virginia University First comes the gold medal. Then comes the Wheaties box. Then comes a life of fame and wealth, right? Well, there may be some truth to that in the short-term if you’re Michael Phelps or Simone Biles. But the vast majority of US athletes who land atop a medals podium in Rio will not get rich from being at the top of their sport. Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Guest: Kathryn Blaze Baum, National Reporter for The Globe and Mail The official count from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is that some 1,200 indigenous women have gone missing or been murdered during the past 30 years, but the actual number could be closer to 4,000 according to research by the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Many of the women vanished along a remote roadway in British Columbia that’s become known as the Highway of Tears. Canada’s prime minister has now launched a national inquiry into the disappearances and murders of indigenous women. Challenges Facing Cancer Survivors Guest: Niraj Gusani, MD, Founder of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Survivorship Clinic at the Penn State Cancer Institute Advances in cancer treatment and the longer lives Americans are living combine to mean millions upon millions of people are now “survivors of cancer.” By 2026, that survivor number is expected to reach 20 million people. Which is great news, because surviving cancer is better than succumbing. But surviving doesn’t mean the battle is over. There are lingering physical and emotional challenges that my next guest says are not being met by doctors very well today. Disastrous Relief Guest: Juanita Rilling, Director at USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Center for International Disaster Information Devastating floods in Louisiana and fires in California have forced thousands of people from their homes and mobilized the disaster relief groups that swoop into comfort and help with recovery.  In any disaster relief effort, there’s the risk of a “second disaster” prompted by unsolicited help and donations that can end up being worse than useless – think winter coats sent to Honduras in the summer.