Midwest Farmers, Good Place Philosophy, Vote-at-Home

2019 Can’t Be Over Soon Enough for America’s Corn Belt (0:32) Guest: Jerry Jackson, Jackson Farms, Illinois “2019 can’t be over soon enough,” wrote farmer Jerry Jackson in a recent Tweet. Jackson grows corn, soybeans, and wheat in Illinois. It’s been the wettest year on record for the lower 48. Spring floods and incessant rains delayed crop planting for Midwest farmers like Jerry Jackson. And then autumn rains made harvesting those late crops a mad dash. Philosophical Adviser to The Good Place (13:38) Guest: Todd May, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, Clemson University, Author of “A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us he twistiest show on TV right now has got to be The Good Place on NBC. At first, we thought it was a comedy about the afterlife. Ted Danson plays the architect Michael who’s built a paradise –The Good Place –for all the best humans who’ve died. And Kristen Bell plays Eleanor who ends up there. But pretty quickly, we learn that there’s been a case of mistaken identity. Eleanor did not do all the wonderful things that supposedly landed her in the Good Place. And then at the end of Season 1, there’s a giant twist. Nothing is what we thought it was. From there, every single episode seems to turn the tables just a bit. But the wildest part, if you ask me, is that the real premise of the show is to explore the biggest questions humans can have. What’s the purpose of life? What does it mean to be good? Can bad people change for the better? The creator of the show, Michael Schur, is an avowed philosophy nerd. And so, The Good Place is maybe the only network comedy ever to employ philosophical advisers Gun Smuggling Across the US-Mexico Border is Out of Control (30:59) Guest: David Shirk, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of San Diego, Director of Justice in Mexico A shootout between drug cartel gunmen and police killed 21 people in northern Mexico over the weekend, including four police officers. Also over the weekend, Mexican authorities said they arrested sev