Viewpoints Radio
Award-winning reporting on current issues featuring America's leading experts.
The topic of healthcare is one of the most-debated issues so far in the 2020 election – but what’s the fix for the expensive, inefficient system that’s currently in place? So far it’s a murky answer. Millions are struggling with the high cost of care, doctors are burning out and patient-doctor interaction is at an all-time low. We speak with an industry …
The 2020 census is just around the corner. We speak with an employee from the U.S. Census Bureau about the importance of taking part in the nationwide survey and how the government is reaching students and their families through new in-school programs.
We delve into two great true crime miniseries, “When They See Us” and “Unbelievable” that are now streaming on Netflix. The two shows take a deeper look into past crimes to uncover how the justice system failed the people behind these stories.
While many schools have put in place comprehensive anti-bullying campaigns, we still seldom focus on ensuring that the child bullies get the help they need. We routinely punish troubled kids with harsh detentions, suspensions and from there it escalates onward. Because of this, many bullies seem to never get the proper support and get stuck in a perpetual …
What would it be like to feel crippled by identity theft for most of your young adult life? Axton Betz-Hamilton shares her surprising identity theft story and how she’s now helping others in a similar boat.
It’s almost 2020. While many more Americans have grown to be increasingly eco-conscious, some things still remain the same. It seems like almost everyday a smoker can be seen stomping on a cigarette on the pavement or chucking a lighted butt out their car window. Did you know that more than one-third of all collected litter is cigarette butts? We speak with …
Directed by Todd Phillips, the newest installment in the “Joker” franchise was released earlier this month to mixed reviews. We cover the evolution of the classic villain and how this movie portrays a different side of the character and society itself.
Ryan Leigh Dostie, author of Formation: A Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line, enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school and was deployed to Iraq shortly after finishing her training. In 2002, while abroad, she was raped while sleeping in her Army barracks. What followed was a series of victim-blaming tactics and unfair bias directed towards …
The Netflix original Mindhunter is finally back for season two, and to celebrate its return we talk about what sets this true crime and thriller series apart from all of the others.
It's back-to-school season, and while schools have put in place comprehensive anti-bullying campaigns, we seldom focus on making sure child bullies themselves get the help they need to deal with the problems that are causing them to act out in the first place. We still punish troubled kids with detentions, suspensions and from there it escalates onward. Many …
What exactly is implicit bias and how does it form? We breakdown this complicated issue and discuss why it’s so important for parents to address implicit bias with kids early on through candid conversations and exposure to diverse environments.
In an ideal situation, a taser – an electrical weapon – allow law enforcement to subdue a subject without having to pull out their gun. But why do tasers sometimes fail? We discuss possible factors at play when a taser is deployed and new technology in development at Axon Enterprise, the main supplier of tasers and body cameras to law enforcement.
We cover the Norco shootout of 1980 – an extravagant bank robbery by five heavily armed criminals ending in multiple lives lost, several wounded and a police helicopter shot down from the sky. We speak with author, Peter Houlahan about that fateful day and how it forever changed police response to organized crime.
The rise and fall of the now defunct blood-testing company Theranos has captivated the attention of millions and exposed the dark side of the startup culture in Silicon Valley. Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, is awaiting trial next summer, facing 11 felony charges for allegedly defrauding the public. We speak with Stanford professor Dr. …
Season 4 of the TV show, ‘Veronica Mars’ premieres on Hulu July 24. We take a look back at the evolution of the series and its surprising survival through low ratings and network TV changes.
Racial segregation still persists throughout the U.S. One factor contributing to this inequality is the structure of our towns and cities. Richard Rothstein and Tonika Johnson talk about how past laws and our government created a divided demographic and the impact this has on certain populations.
If you came upon a rundown, roach-infested bunkhouse in the heartland of America, full of middle-aged and elderly men in poor health who worked all day at a job for little pay and had been for decades, you might think you had time traveled back to the 19th century. We talk to an author who writes about this very situation where mentally challenged men were …
In the 20 years since writing the young adult novel Speak, based on her own rape, author Laurie Halse Anderson has met with numerous audiences of adolescents. She has found a huge gap in the ways girls and boys perceive what constitutes sexual consent, abuse, and the consequences of assault.
Statues commemorating the Confederacy remain in some towns in the US South, though its principles promoting slavery and oppression of blacks are in disrepute. Some towns have removed these statues in the face of heavy opposition. A former Mayor of New Orleans describes how his thinking evolved toward a decision to remove the statues in his city, and the …
On April 20, 1999, Sue Klebold’s son and his friend went into Columbine High School and committed one of the largest mass shootings in US history. Over the last 18 years, Klebold has been forced to cope with this horrible tragedy while managing anxiety attacks and being blamed by so many. Klebold talks about her story and the mental health messages she wants …
Reshma Saujani is a lawyer, a former political candidate, an author and the founder of Girls Who Code. She says our society puts too much pressure on women to be perfect, which means girls are afraid to explore their true passions for fear of failure. She’s hoping to change that, and to teach girls that it’s okay to try something that you might not succeed …
After working for years as an OB/GYN for inmates at San Francisco Jail, author Carolyn Sufrin wanted to tell the story of the women she helped. She talks about what health care for pregnant women in jails and prisons looks like, and the changes she hopes to see in the system.
From Pirates of the Caribbean and Captain Hook to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, pirates have a real foothold in our culture. But their history is anything but a fairy tale. Historian Eric Jay Dolin joins the show to discuss some of the most notorious real-life pirates to ever life.
Since the beginning of the U.S. prison system, religion has been suggested as a way to help rehabilitate criminals. We talk to Tanya Erzen, a professor of religion, about why that is and what role prison ministries play in the lives on inmates.
Subscribe to get the latest from Viewpoints Radio directly in your inbox.
