Libya, Happiness, Students and Film, Gun Laws

Guest: Ambassador Deborah K. Jones, Deputy Commandant of the Eisenhower School at the National Defense University  Tenuous negotiations for peace are underway in Libya, led by the UN. In the four years since the US helped topple Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the nation has descended into a chaotic power struggle among local militias. A militia alliance overran the government in Tripoli last year, which sent the country’s leaders fleeing to another city 600 miles away. Meanwhile the militia groups have set-up their own rival government in Tripoli. All the while, Libya’s economy is crumbling and ISIS terrorists are encroaching.

Guest: Father Robert Spitzer, Author of “Finding True Happiness: Satisfying Our Restless Hearts”  Finding true happiness is a matter of satisfying our restless hearts, says Father Robert Spitzer. Ironic, he notes, that we’re surrounded by every imaginable form of entertainment and diversion, yet so often find ourselves gripped by insecurity, emptiness and malaise.

Guests: Joanne Ashe, Journeys in Film’s Founder and Executive Director; Eileen Mattingly, Journeys in Film’s Director of Education  With smart phones, tablets and computers nearly ubiquitous now, kids are spending more time with a screen than ever–watching videos, playing games, or messaging.  It’s a source of concern for parents.  Rather than trying to get kids off the screen, though, the educational group Journeys in Film wants to capitalize on kids’ visual literacy by bringing more films into the classroom.

Guest: Phillip Cook, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, Economics and Sociology at Duke University  It’s been one month since a 26-year-old man shot and killed ten people at an Oregon community college. Since that event nine other people have died in mass shootings across the United States. According to published news reports of shootings, the nonprofit website Shooting Tracker says 384 people have died this year in shootings involving more than 4 people.

Guest: Dean Mitchell, MD, Allergist and Immunologist in New York City  There’s been a major reversal recently in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations regarding peanuts. In the year 2000, the Academy said parents shouldn’t feed peanut containing foods to kids until at least three years of age. Expose them too early and they’re more likely to become allergic, the thinking went. But now, it seems that advice was all wrong.