Pakistani Taliban, Steph Curry, Child Soldiers, Buses to Showers

Pakistani Taliban (1:03) Guest: Michael Kugelman, Senior Associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center  The Taliban in Pakistan set off a bomb near the swings in a park in Lahore, Pakistan on Easter Sunday, killing 72 people and injuring hundreds more. Most of the dead are women and children picnicking for the holiday. It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since the massacre at a school in 2014 killed 134 students – the Pakistani Taliban claimed that one, too.  Who is this group? What are its goals? And why is it going after children?  Steph Curry (17:23) Guest: Tim Bontemps, National NBA writer for The Washington Post  The mere mention of “Curry” has the power to make pro-basketball fans salivate. We’re talking Steph Curry, league MVP and point guard for the Golden State Warriors, which are on six wins away from having the best NBA season of all time. One sports announcer called Steph Curry “the baby-faced assassin” – his accuracy is deadly from the three-point line and beyond.  Curry went on to make ten of the fifteen three-point shots he took in that game last month against the Magic. He’s amazing to a watch, a fan favorite, to be sure. And he may also be changing the game of basketball.  Child Soldiers: Girls in Warfare (34:11) Guest: Liz Jevtic-Somlai, PhD, Visiting Professor of Political Science at BYU  A few years ago, a campaign group called Invisible Children released a movie that went viral – it’s been viewed more than 100 million times and came with a call to action: help catch infamous African warlord Joseph Kony.  That was 2012 and Joseph Kony is still free, still kidnapping children to make soldiers of them. Boys only 7 or 8 years old, given weapons, forced to commit atrocities. But not just boys. Visiting BYU political science professor Liz Jevtic-Somlai says the role of girls as child soldiers is often overlooked or misunderstood. Her research indicates girls are also some of the most challenging child soldiers to rehabilitate once the conflict ends.  Buses to Showers (51:35) Guest: Doneice Sandoval, Founder and CEO of Lava Mae  You know what it feels like when you’ve been on traveling by plane for a really long day or – or out camping for a few days – without access to a shower? And how everything just looks better in the world once you’ve had a chance to get clean?  People who are homeless rarely have that chance. In fact, in San Francisco there are an estimated 3,500 people living on the streets and only seven places that offer showers for the homeless.  History of Street Food (1:18:52) Guest: Jeffrey Pilcher, Professor of Food History at the University of Toronto-Scarborough  Growing up in small town America, the notion of eating something from a vendor with a cart on the street was foreign to me, unless you count the ice cream truck in summer. But visit any major city in the world and you’ll see food being sold on the street: crepes, noodles, waffles, knishes, kebabs, tacos, or tamales. Taste the street food and you’ll get a taste of a community’s culture, ethnic influences and history.