Nepal, Ghost Armies, Myths of Meritocracy, Opting Out of Tests

Nepal’s Economy Post-Earthquake (1:08) Guest: Alok Bohara, professor of economics and founding director of the Nepal Study Center at the University of New Mexico More than 5,000 people are dead as a result of the Nepal earthquake. Buildings toppled, bridges demolished, whole villages collapsed. The humanitarian crisis in Nepal is urgent. But the worrisome underlying concern is the ability of Nepal’s economy to bounce back from a disaster of this magnitude. The Himalayan mountain nation is already one of the world’s poorest. How far back might this earthquake push Nepal’s progress toward greater development? Nepal: The Seismology and Disaster Mitigation (12:35) Guest: Ron Harris, a Professor of Geology at Brigham Young University specializing in structure and tectonics and natural disaster mitigation. He is also the founder of In Harm’s Way, which works with the most vulnerable communities to prepare themselves for disaster. You can check out the work they do at inharmswayhelp.org. When a natural disaster strikes, the inclination is to think, “Nothing could have been done. It was an act of God.” But Ron Harris makes the distinction between a natural hazard and a natural disaster.  A hazard becomes a disaster when a community is unprepared for it, so he’s created a nonprofit disaster-mitigation foundation to help communities prone to hazards avoid disasters. Ghost Armies (27:23) Guest: Rick Beyer, best-selling author and filmmaker. His latest work is “The Ghost Army of World War II,” which he co-wrote with Elizabeth Sayles, a children’s book author and daughter of one of William Sayles, who served in the Ghost Army The one thousand men assigned to the US Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troops in 1944 had a single mission—deception. They were painters, sculptors, sound engineers and actors. Their assignments were often so secret and so well-executed, they fooled high-ranking German commanders, civilians in towns near where they operated, and even American military personnel from other units. Their very exi