Private Space Exploration, The Good Cemeterian, Water Crisis in Cape Town

Guest: Jeff Foust, Senior Staff Writer, Space News The future of America’s space exploration appears to lie mostly in the hands of private companies. President Trump has called for NASA to stop spending money on the International Space Station and look for companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin or SpaceX to build their own space stations in the coming decades. Then, NASA would just rent a room on one of those private space hotels when it needed to do a scientific experiment related to its bigger goals of returning to the moon and eventually putting humans on Mars. Learn more here.

Guest: Diane Barth, LCSW, Psychotherapist, and Author, “I Know How You Feel: The Joy and Heartbreak of Friendship in Women’s Lives” The #MeToo movement has allowed women to say things not everyone wants to hear – that’s part of its power and why it’s brought a sense of solidarity among many women. “Empowerment through empathy” is how the movement’s founder describes it. Therapist Diane Barth says empathy is an elemental component of female friendship. But the #MeToo movement has also brought to light a “less favorable quality” of friendships between women.

Guest: Robert Barney, PhD, Founder of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at Western University, and Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology, Western University The Olympics is big business. NBC news, for example, has paid nearly $8 billion for the exclusive right to broadcast the games through 2028. Cities looking to be the next Rio or PyeongChang spend millions of dollars just to win the Olympic bid – and billions more getting ready to host the games.  The power to make a host city’s dreams come true lies with the International Olympic Committee, which has struggled for decades with the corruptibility that always seems to follow money and power.  How has the Olympic brand survived its many scandals? And will cities continue to line up for the costly privilege of hosting an Olympic Games?

Guest: Sam Payne, Host, The Apple Seed, BYUradio

Guest: Andrew Lumish, Founder, “The Good Cemeterian Historical Preservation Project”

Guest: Anthony Turton, PhD, Environmental Strategist, Professor of Political Science, University of Free State, South Africa For several months, Cape Town, South Africa has been on the verge of running completely out of water. It would be the world’s first major city to end up in such a predicament. Cape Town residents have cut their water use so aggressively they’re now using barely enough water for one 3-minute shower and a couple of toilet flushes per person per day. City officials hope that kind of conservation will make Cape Town’s water resources last until the winter rains, which should arrive in June or July, since Cape Town is in the Southern Hemisphere.  How does a city of 4 million people run out of water?

Guest: Rick Steves, Author, “Travel As a Political Act: How to Leave Your Baggage Behind” Most of us consider vacation travel as a break from daily life - a way to relax, see cool things, eat good food. And often, Americans have a Rick Steves Travel Guide in their bag to make the logistics of the trip go smoothly.  But if he’s being honest, Rick Steves doesn’t care so much about how well your trip goes logistically. He’s more interested in what you learn from your travel and how you put that to use. Rick Steves’ manifesto “Travel as a Political Act” calls for Americans to take vacations that are more challenging – maybe a little less consumed with eating and site-seeing, and more focused on understanding other cultures.