Yeah. They're like, oh, my God. Make that face again. That's so funny. But it's not like that. And the reason I talked about it and shared when I did was because there started to be all these compilations of my tics that were made by the fans, which they just thought it was, like, goofy Billie is making a bunch of faces. And they're funny. Let's make a video about it, which is, of course, out of love. And they think that's funny. And they didn't - they don't know, you know?

O'CONNELL: Especially if they think you're doing them on purpose, then it's totally out of love.

They think I'm doing it on purpose. But I felt almost, like, attacked in a way, which was kind of stupid. But it's something like I've lived with my whole life and, like, not been open about because I didn't want it to label me, you know?

Sure, you don't want the whole - that to be the second sentence of every every paragraph about you.

turn 0 : "And they're funny.Let's make a video about it, which is, of course, out of love." - The implied meaning here is that the fans are making videos out of love for Billie, but they do not realize that these tics are a result of a neurological condition.

What is the reason behind the fans making videos of Billie's tics?

Answer: Love


So, you're skeptical about a car czar. You think that there should be loans, though, with strict provisions attached to them.

Right, right.

What else?What else needs to be done?I mean, this is a massive, massive problem, and two of the three are facing extinction at this point.

Don't forget, what's putting them in this condition is the economic, you know, the economic condition of the nation right now. But the kind of fixed-cost structure that these auto companies have is massive, massive losses that have to do with what's happening to demand.

turn 3 : None of the turns in this conversation have a figurative or non-literal meaning.

How does the economic condition affect the auto companies?

Answer: Economic


Good to talk to you.

How important an event was this that Mr.  Kim missed?

It was a very important event. It's an event in a mausoleum where his father, previously ruler of North Korea is buried, interred, and so is his grandfather, the founding leader of North Korea. So it was a big deal. Kim Jong Un has not been seen since September 3, when he attended a concert in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, with his wife.

Before that, he'd been seen frequently, but always waddling with a really bad limp. He was clearly in discomfort, and finally the North Korean authorities said he is in physical discomfort. So there's something up. We don't quite know what. The speculation is he's had surgery, he's ill, ranging right through to there's been a coup, and he's lost power or certainly being shunted away from power. That's the speculation.

Now, we're talking about somebody who - as my recollection is - he's on television every two minutes. So this must be a tremendous vacuum in the lives of North Koreans.

turn 2 :  implies that Kim Jong Un's absence is unusual and concerning

Answer: Kim-Jong-Un's


The videos of the embryos. He does sort of time lapse of human development, and it was really fascinating to watch, going from this sort of little hard to, you know, nondescript ball to what you would recognize. . .

As an embryo.

. . . as an embryo or a fetus.

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR. I'm Ira Flatow talking with Flora Lichtman about our Video Pick of the Week, and it's a - videos of embryos, all different kinds of embryos. So you got the film, the footage. . .

turn 1 : Literally, this turn is a short response to A's previous statement about the time-lapse videos of human development. However, the implied meaning is that B understands and acknowledges A's previous statement about the videos featuring embryos, and is simply reiterating that fact.

Which statement did PersonB acknowledge by saying "As an embryo"?

Answer: Repair


I am not a dog owner. I would say I'm an aspiring dog owner. Just a couple of weeks ago I did a review of robot pets. This is the only kind of pet that I think I would be responsible enough to take care of.

OK. So cockroaches was number one. Dogs was number four. What was two and three?

Well, number two was why don't humans have a mating season?It turned out that there's an entire chapter of a book by Jared Diamond, the author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel," that looks at just that question. And question number three was about a photograph from an old issue of Life magazine showing the descendants of George Washington. The person wanted to know, who is the current living descendant of George Washington?And, I guess, who would be king of America if George Washington had been king?That question has been answered most recently in an article for Ancestry magazine.

Slate. com's Daniel Engber. Thank you, Dan.

turn 2 : A has recently researched various topics and is knowledgeable about them.

How would you describe the second question PersonA researched?

Answer: Mating


Yeah.

You know, so, yeah, I think that there are people who really enjoy - just like it's sort of a niche market that people like the Winter Olympics. But largely, I think a lot of people who couldn't tell, you know, an Olympic torch from, you know, a fire extinguisher are waiting to find out if - can we wrest the gold medal back in basketball?

Why do you think that is?I remember watching the Olympics growing up, you know, and as a young man, I mean, it was big, big deal. You wanted to watch all of it. That's how you learned about other sports that you didn't even know anything about was through watching the Olympics. But it seems of late that it's lost some of that. I don't know if it's because of the doping scandals and Marion Jones and others. Why do you think that our interest has changed?

That's a great question. But I think it's - what's happening in entertainment in general is that there's just so much on our palette. There are so much to choose from and to watch. You know, when we were kids, you know, back in oh-hundreds, you know?

turn 2 : The speaker is reflecting on the declining interest in Olympics and questioning the reasons behind it.

What is the PersonA's question in turn 2?

Answer: Interest


It's the 100th birthday of the Pulitzer Prizes this year - the centenary of a prize that can change the life and the career of a journalist, a photographer, a biographer, a dramatist or a poet. In the latest conversation in our series to mark the Pulitzer's big year, we welcome Gregory Pardlo. He won the Pulitzer for poetry last year for his collection of poems entitled "Digest. "And he joins us from our studios in New York. Greg, thanks so much for being with us.

Hi, Scott. Thanks for having me.

Can we hear a bit of your work, maybe from the poem "For Which It Stands?"

Absolutely. (Reading) "For Which It Stands" - for a flag, I answered facetiously. A flag of tomorrow. Fluent in fire, not just the whispers, lisps, not just the still there of powdered wigs, dry winds. Who wants a speckled drape that folds as easy over smirch as fallen soldier?

turn 3 : implies that the Mexican government is trying to portray El Chapo in a negative light by discussing details of his private life.

What details of El Chapo's private life is the Mexican government discussing?

Answer: Portrayed


The idea of this is that she - Julie escapes from Paris and ends up in Marseilles, and she joins the opera there, starts singing. And she becomes famous for the first time. . .

I mean, forgive me, we have to ask - how does a duelist on the run become a star of the Paris Opera?

(Laughter) Well, I don't know. She just auditioned for the Marseilles Opera, but then later on after the adventures that she had in Marseilles and Provence, she made her way to Paris with another lover, Thevenard, who was baritone. And he auditioned for the Paris Opera and he said I will only join you if my girlfriend can come, too. And so at the age of 17, she found herself part of one the world's great musical companies. And she became - both of them became stars.

And then there follows what you call the evening of gasps.

turn 0 : "she becomes famous for the first time" - The use of "first time" in this context is figurative language that suggests Julie has never been famous before, rather than implying she has been famous multiple times before this event.

How was Julie's fame described in the dialogue?

Answer: First


What in this agreement makes it better in your perspective?Because you did say that there was something in it that was, so tell me one thing.

There are. The labor chapter itself is better. However, if you can't enforce the labor chapter, it is meaningless. And so we're trying to get the enforcement on three different levels that I outlined earlier.

So what's your message to Democrats here?I mean, the issue is, so far, the administration has been trying to work with the Democrats. I mean, the trade chief, for example, the U. S.  trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, has been working with Democrats to hear their concerns about it. I mean, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has appointed nine House Democrats to committees to negotiate these sort of - these changes.

But there is this some sense that, you know, the administration - others in the administration would like to fast-track it. There is a mechanism for doing that. I mean, do you have a specific message to Democrats?Because, as you know, with such a large - particularly with such a large presidential field, you've got all kinds of different opinions about international trade in that group. Do you know what I mean?So do you have a specific message to them about how to - you would like to see them proceed?

turn 1 : The labor chapter is better but useless without proper enforcement on three different levels.

How is the labor chapter in the agreement?

Answer: Better


So Flame has - so far they've found about 20 modules that can be swapped in and out, and they do everything from turning on the internal microphone and webcam on your computer, this way that they could record conversations that you have over Skype or conversations that you have in the room, in the vicinity of the computer.

It takes screenshots of your communications. They seem particularly interested in any email communications or instant messaging communication that you do. It also turns your computer into a Bluetooth beacon. So if you have Bluetooth enabled on your computer, they will turn that on and do a discovery for other Bluetooth-enabled devices in the vicinity, such as a phone, and they will use your computer to then siphon the contact information that is in any phone in the area.

Wow. Wow.

Why all those things?I mean, what's the reason for that?

turn 2 : "Wow" is an interjection that expresses surprise or admiration, and its literal meaning is the same as its actual meaning.

Answer: Surprise


Latin America and Mexico. South America, by contrast is being hit with a delay. When you go to Colombia or Peru, people are aware of the bad news of the global economy, but in the local economy they do not feel the - the impact with great strength yet.

Now, we're seeing reports, for example, that say that unemployment has hit every sector in Latin America, even the bodyguards in drug-torn countries like Colombia are losing their jobs. How big an issue is unemployment?

It will become an increasingly more important issue as time goes by. Latin America in contrast, say, with Asia, is less integrated into the production chain. So the falling in exports of Latin America are essentially the fall of commodity exports. And they are not very intense in employment.

However, as the tsunami of the global problems propagates through Latin America, unemployment will start picking up in other sectors eventually including in the non-tradable sectors like services and so forth. So, in countries like Mexico, surely, the impact is already being felt given its proximity to the U. S. In other countries, it's coming with some delay. But, unemployment and recession are the name of the situation for Latin America, not financial meltdown.

turn 1 : No one was hit, but the unemployment numbers have been a shock and have had a negative affect on latin america. No one fell, but numbers have gone down in exports.

How have unemployment numbers affected Latin America?

Answer: severe


But some people might want the extra three months of the nine months option. Just look through and see what's offered. And the other good thing is, this is not one of those negative option kind of options. At the end of the six months or nine months, they're not going to automatically enroll you into a plan in which you have to pay, because the six month is worth about 60 dollars and the nine month is about 115 dollars. So they will absolutely stop it, and you have to say, I want this back. But listen, for six or nine months you've got someone looking through your TransUnion credit file, so it's worth it.

You know, Michelle, what you're saying is anyone who has applied for credit, essentially in the last 20 years, any credit card, is eligible for this. There is a benefit, including maybe some cash, sitting there on the table. You can write in and get it. That's it?

That's it. That's exactly right. And you do have to register for it. It's not automatic, and you have to go to www. listclassaction. com. And once you go to the site, you click on the link for Register for Benefits. And then they will email you and tell you later when you can actually start getting the monitoring service.

We will link to you and to this website at our site, that's npr. org. Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist for the Washington Post and contributor to Day to Day. Michelle, thank you.

turn 0 : The offer is a good deal and worth considering.

Answer: Crowding


Then later on, I ended up having to deal with, really, racism from both sides, from white people, as well as from black people who claimed that I was not really black because of the music I listened to or the way that I speak or some intangible delineation that people make in terms of how you're supposed to behave based upon the color of your skin.

Well, Brian, you know, you went on to basically go about your life and kind of sublimate this incredible pressure. But at some point, it all broke for you. What happened then?

Well, what happened was - I should back up and say that at the time that I wrote "Not a Genuine Black Man," the book and the play, I decided that in order for it to be real and to be true and to be what I wanted it to be, I'd have to be completely naked. And that being the case, I knew that I would have to talk about the darkest moment in my life, which was a very severe period of depression I went through in 1999.

I had - I didn't realize it at the time, but apparently I had suffered depression since childhood, from all of the, you know, strangers driving down the street yelling the N-word, not being included because I was the only black kid and being different. And I'd spent a lot of time isolating and by myself.

turn 1 : B acknowledges that A had to suppress the pressure he faced, but eventually reached a breaking point.

Which point did PersonA eventually reach?

Answer: Breaking


You described some playwrights, Beckett, for example, as somebody whose work seems to back away from you the closer you get it. But Miller's play, you say, is not like that.

No. It wasn't like - my experience with Chekhov and Beckett was just what you call - that they get harder and harder as you go. But with "Salesman," surprisingly, because it's fully as great a play as those others, it did welcome us and come toward us day by day. And then, we did a fairly smart thing, which is that we had a workshop just for ourselves for almost a month, and nobody ever saw it and we didn't perform it, but we just worked on it. And then as per plan, we went away for over three and a half months.

And then when we came back, we went into rehearsal and then finally got onstage and did it. And the three and a half months living and doing other things made a surprisingly big difference. It just sank into everybody and took enormous strides all on its own, and that was both exciting and surprising in its extent. And also, it was a clue to what was going to continue to happen, which is that it just burrowed deeper and deeper into the actors and they - into one another, and they have become a family. And they're - what goes on between them is - I've never seen - in my experience, I've never seen it quite like this.

Philip Seymour Hoffman obviously plays the lead role. Is - did the play come first or the actor come first?

turn 1 : Miller's play 'Salesman' was surprisingly welcoming and approachable despite being a great play.

Answer: Welcoming


Well, what Bill Lockyer, the State Treasurer is telling us, and what the governor is telling us is that we are in real trouble right now. Lockyer has said that we will not be able to meet payroll by the end of this month unless something is done to unfreeze the credit markets and the state is credit worthy.

I mean, it's the eight largest economy in the world. But they've been unable to obtain the normal short-term financing to meet cash flow needs. And when the state runs out of money that means that cities and counties and school districts also run out of money.

Has the state ever had to do this before, go to the federal government and say we need money now, help us?

I think this is unprecedented and certainly the state ordinarily would be solving their cash flow needs out of the regular market, not from the federal government. And what the governor is saying is that he would be asking the federal government to serve that role for the state of California.

turn 0 : The state of California is in financial trouble and may not be able to pay its employees or meet its financial obligations

How is the state of California's financial situation?

Answer: Trouble


So they believe in the rapture. And unless they stick to Brethren rules and have no contact with the outside world, they'll be left behind in the rapture. So that's essentially them. They're very conservative, very secretive.

So this new leader - when he took over, what kind of things did he change?

He upped all the stakes, really. He decided that the Brethren were not being hardline enough, that they weren't being separate enough. And he enforced the rule that if you had a teenager in your house who had been raised in the Brethren but was not yet breaking bread - i. e. , fully compliant - you couldn't eat with them. You couldn't eat with non-Brethren outside. You couldn't go to the cinema or have radios or television or newspapers.

So effectively, he not only separated off the Brethren from all contact with the outside world - you know, they might have been able before to have worked for non-Brethren. Now they had to work for other Brethren. And there was a great deal more compliance and surveillance as well. There's a lot of mass confessions. There are a lot of punishments for noncompliant behavior.

turn 3 : "mass confessions" - This phrase refers to a practice where members of the Brethren confess their sins publicly in front of the congregation. The literal meaning would be a large number of confessions happening at once.

Which phrase refers to a public confession practice in the Brethren group?

Answer: Mass-confessions


You know, one of the things - you know, getting back to your book, "The National Team" - one of the things that your book makes clear and what some people frankly might find shocking is just how early these issues started for women's soccer. I mean, there's something almost like on every other page about this. I'll just read one one paragraph. (Reading) While each player on the men's team got a $10,000 bonus for qualifying for the 1990 World Cup, the women received only a couple of T-shirts for qualifying for the 1991 Women's World Cup. The shirts featured the logo of Budweiser, a U. S.  Soccer sponsor. The players sarcastically call them their $5,000 T-shirts.

(Laughter).

OK. I just, you know - how has this been justified through the years?

You have to admire the sense of humor that the players had about it. You know, I think it would be unfair to sit here and say that it hasn't improved. But U. S.  Soccer - the women's national team started in 1985. The players were given uniforms that were clearly, like, leftover men's uniforms. And?The players before the first ever U. S.  Women's National Team game were up the night before sewing and cutting their uniforms so they would fit.

turn 0 : Despite being the champions, the female players were not given the same bonus as the male players, showing the inequality in the sport industry.

How were the female players treated in terms of bonuses compared to the male players? (Answer: Unequally)

Answer: Unequally


Well, we knew something was going to happen. We were preparing for it, but you didn't know where. And we were all set to jump on the - would be the take-off on the flight - night of the 4th, so D-Day would have been the 5th. But it was pouring rain, so it was held off for 24 hours. But we all were laying on these cots. And the cots were right next to each other. You're talking about 500 cots in this big hangar, so it was a pretty rank place after a while.

Smelled pretty bad?

It smelled mannish, yeah.

Mannish. . .

turn 0 : D-Day  implies the mapped out date or the fixed date for the event

How was the date for the event referred to in the dialogue?

Answer: D-Day


You know, Latin America used to be the region of crisis where crises used to be the most frequent and most sinister. And this time around, Latin America is being hit from an outside shock, and the shock finds Latin America in a relatively strong position in terms of its domestic policy frameworks. So, the shock this time is very interesting for Latin America, contrast with its past where domestic financial system and domestic policies are not a source of trouble, independent source of trouble. Therefore, the shock is coming from outside, it's hitting Latin American countries that are most open and small and have greater exposure to the U. S.  markets…

Now we're seeing…

Latin America and Mexico. South America, by contrast is being hit with a delay. When you go to Colombia or Peru, people are aware of the bad news of the global economy, but in the local economy they do not feel the - the impact with great strength yet.

Now, we're seeing reports, for example, that say that unemployment has hit every sector in Latin America, even the bodyguards in drug-torn countries like Colombia are losing their jobs. How big an issue is unemployment?

turn 3 : They are implying that drugs running rampant in their country may be cause for "unemployment."

What may be causing unemployment in drug-torn countries like Colombia?

Answer: Drugs


And what has it gotten back?

There was a record 455 films and television productions that were shot in Georgia in the last fiscal year. And they represented a $2. 7, you know, billion in direct spending, which they estimate brings in $9. 5 billion in total economic impact. So these numbers are really huge. And they have been a huge destination for feature films, and not just any sort of feature films, expensive blockbusters, the biggest of those being Marvel's "Avengers" movies, which shot at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, which is a big production facility.

As we mentioned, studios and media companies have sent some warning signals. How likely, though, is an actual boycott?

These laws have sort of been spreading. And production people here in Hollywood are sort of taking a wait-and-see approach. And this abortion ban isn't supposed to take effect until January of 2020. So we have this sort of in-between time where a lot of studios and producers and executives are trying to figure out what the best course of action is, and do they keep projects there in the meantime?Should it be overturned before it's enacted, then Hollywood doesn't really have to worry about pulling out their productions.

turn 1 : Georgia has become a popular destination for big budget movies and TV shows.

How much was spent on direct spending in Georgia due to film and television productions in the last fiscal year?

Answer: 9.


The fear is magnified by a third factor, which is uncertainty, and the uncertainty level is enormous right now. We're really at the brink. People don't know - are we entering an inflationary environment or a deflationary environment?We really don't know what's going to happen. And the potential outcomes are so different and so huge in their consequences that there's just an enormous amount of uncertainty, and that magnifies the fear. People say, I don't want to play this game if I don't have any idea where it's going to head.

Haven't there been studies that show that people are more motivated by fear than by the lure of profit or the lure of gain?

Exactly. People are twice as afraid of taking a loss or afraid of the pain of taking a loss as they are of the feel of pleasure of taking a gain. So what you have in the markets is the effect where as stocks drop and people become more and more into negative territory, they're both afraid of taking the pain of a loss but at some point, as they're riding down, they're losing stocks, they capitulate. They finally throw in the towel and say, that's it. This is too much pain. I can't take it anymore. It's one explanation for why bull markets tend to be long and trending while bear markets like this are rapid and short.

So how do we get out of this?How do we get out of this negative feedback loop?

turn 2 : People are more afraid of losing than they are of gaining in the stock market.

What motivates people to sell stocks in a bear market?

Answer: Loss


Every president in his or - his - well, I should say his or her. Every president in their first year has an unexpected crisis, whether it's national security, a natural disaster, domestic unrest. This is certainly shaping up to be Donald Trump's unexpected crisis. And I think he realizes that. And the stakes are getting higher, and I think that's why he's lashing out more because I think he realizes what's going on.

It's moved to the capital. As we said Secretary Price has resigned, but at least three more Cabinet members face similar accusations about charter jets. Whatever happened to them, can the Trump administration say they'll drain the swamp when they seem to be flying over it in private jets?

You, know, this reminds me of that line from "The Godfather" about Mr.  Corleone likes his bad news early. Donald Trump is not like bad news. And this was starting to spread to other cabinet members, obviously. And I think the we'll-see when he was asked whether Trump - I mean, whether Price should resign was his way of signaling, yes. And sure enough, Tom Price offered his resignation. And unlike the Session's case, the president accepted it because I think he sees this for the irony that it is of his own cabinet doing what he campaigned exactly against.

Is the Republican Party offering much of a profile of leadership at the moment?- can't get Repeal and Replace passed, the tax code seems - proposal seems fuzzy, federal response seems to certainly be slow if not negligent in Puerto Rico. We could go on.

turn 3 : (4) - The actual meaning is that the Republican Party's leadership is being questioned due to their inability to pass important legislation and their slow response to certain issues, such as the hurricane in Puerto Rico.

Which party's leadership is being questioned due to their inability to pass important legislation and their slow response to certain issues?

Answer: Republican


South Africa has some very liberal policies. It has a very liberal constitution on migration and immigration. I think with that, though, is a history since 1994 of xenophobia and of a backlash against that very liberal migration policy. We saw in 1994 the Inkatha Freedom Party actually really try to take physical action, or threatened to take physical action if the government failed to crack down on undocumented workers in South Africa.

We saw similarly later on that decade a study that was done by the Human Sciences Research Council, an institute for security studies in South Africa, that reported that 65 percent of South Africans were in support of forced repatriation of undocumented migrants in their country.

And so I think that history - history of violence against not just Zimbabweans, but Somalis, Mozambiquans and Angolans has just played itself out in larger and larger ways here in the last couple of weeks. And that Zimbabwe has been, I mean, Zimbabwe and South Africa, both governments, have been trying to respond to this recent wave of migration. But their responses have not been enough.

Alright. I want to move on to an interesting initiative. Physicist Steven Hawking is looking for Africa's Einstein. What he wants to do with a bunch of entrepreneurs and scientists is to create Africa's post-graduate centers for advanced math and physics, places that don't exist yet. And it's planned to cost 75 million British pounds, or over 150 million U. S.  dollars. Hawking said, quote, the world of science needs Africa's brilliant talents. So what exactly is this plan going to do?

turn 0 : "very liberal policies" and "liberal constitution" - the literal meaning of these phrases is that South Africa has policies and a constitution that are characterized by a broad-minded or progressive approach. The implied meaning, however, is that South Africa is relatively open to immigration and migration.

Answer: South-Africa


Hey. How you doing, Lulu?

I'm very well. For people who haven't been to Richmond, can you describe Monument Avenue for us?What statues are there?

Monument Avenue is one of the most beautiful stretches of street in the United States of America. I mean, it's tree-lined. It's on the national historic registry. There are statues to Robert E.  Lee. There's a statue to Jeb Stuart, to, you know, Stonewall Jackson. And there's a lonely statue of Arthur Ashe, which I call the only true champion on that stretch of street.

The tennis champion, Arthur Ashe.

turn 3 : "The tennis champion, Arthur Ashe." - The actual meaning is the speaker is confirming that they know who Arthur Ashe is, rather than just stating his name without any context or understanding.

Which tennis player's name was mentioned in the conversation?

Answer: Arthur


Well, how did they react to you as a person?I mean, you're a glamorous Los Angelina, and so what did they think when you showed up?

I think that it's interesting, because I was in a program called Cross-cultural Solutions, where they send volunteers to different areas. I was the first African-American that had been at this school. So I think they were confused. I mean, and these people in the town, they were just like are you from Ghana?Or are you Yabo(ph)?Yabo is a foreigner, and most likely, more than usually, a white foreigner. But I had a couple of people call me Yabo.

But they would sort of ask like where are you from, and one of the program's administrators would have to explain, she's an ancestor of Africans, and then they would say, oh, okay. So it was definitely some confusing sort of looks that I got.

But the kids were - you know, kids are very, you know, easy to sort of get along with. These kids were, you know, absolutely adorable. They didn't understand what I was saying a lot of the time, but they really connected to me. I mean, I would bring bubbles and jumping ropes and stuff like that, stuff that they had never seen before. So, you know, I was quite popular at the school, I have to say. I mean, particularly with my bubbles, that brought even the junior-high-school kids out…

Oh, I'm sure.

turn 3 : The person being referred to was well-liked by the school kids for bringing unique items.

How was the person received by the school kids?

Answer: Unique


Well, I want to offer condolences to you and the Virginia Beach community. I'm wondering what you can tell us about how people are holding up. I understand you visited a hospital where some of the people wounded in the shooting are being treated still.

I did. You know, this is - again, it's a horrific tragedy, and our hearts go out to certainly the 12 victims that showed up for work yesterday for the city of Virginia Beach intending to go home. And this tragedy occurred, and they weren't able to. And so there's a tremendous void in their families and our community right now. There's a lot of hurt and healing that needs to take place.

I was able to go to the hospital this morning. My intentions were twofold. I wanted to thank the caregivers, the doctors, the nurses and the administrators. And then also, I was able to speak with one of the patients and the families. And they're just such strong and faithful people and just going through what must be one of the hardest experiences in their lives. They were just very grateful for the care that they were receiving and grateful for the heroic work of the law enforcement agents yesterday.

Inevitably, after each mass shooting, there are calls for tighter gun laws. You introduced a number of gun control bills in Virginia's General Assembly back in January, not even six months ago.

turn 1 : The speaker is expressing sympathy for the victims and their families.

Which community does the speaker offer condolences to?

Answer: VirginiaBeach


The regime does blame rebels for escalating this bout of violence. And, as you say, there's a lot at stake here. It's a place that's swollen with civilians. A lot of people who've fled the fighting elsewhere in the country have taken refuge here, and aid workers are saying it would be a catastrophe if a full war took hold here.

Oh, this is amazing. So this is where a lot of people who have fled violence arrived in huge numbers, thinking that this might be their one last safe. . .

Right.

. . . Space. And if there are that many civilians there - like, what do we know about these airstrikes so far?How badly are civilians being hit?

turn 2 : they are just acknowledging the person's response

Which turn is a confirmation of the PersonA's agreement with the previous PersonA's statement?

Answer: acknowledging


It's a pleasure to be with you. And thank you very much for having me.

So this issue has been kind of dancing around the edges of political discourse for years now. I mean, Jesse Jackson made it part of his platform when he ran for president in 1988. And as we mentioned, your former colleague, Representative Conyers, reintroduced the bill in every congressional session for 25 years. But now it seems to be gaining some traction again. Why do you think that is?

I frankly believe that there's something to elections - And this is a Democratic House with Democratic leadership - and also the times. And it is tragic, but it is real that we've seen an uptick in racial incidences - white supremacy, white nationalism. And so the question of slavery, frankly, has never been addressed, particularly from the institutional governmental perspective. And I've updated the language of the resolution, HR40, and that is that it is a commission to study and to engage in proposals, recommendations on the question of reparation.

And it really goes to, I think, more people understanding that 40 acres and a mule was a legitimate concept right after the Emancipation Proclamation, and that never happened. But yet cotton was king. It was an economic engine of the entire United States. And so the prominence of the United States today in the 21st century is grounded on the free brutal labor that Africans gave and their descendants.

turn 2 : The election of a Democratic House and the rise of white supremacy have made it possible for the issue of slavery and reparation to gain more attention.

Which issue is gaining more attention due to the election of a Democratic House and the rise of white supremacy?

Answer: Reparations


Hey, Geoff.

What's up, Farai?

Well, as you can tell, things are starting to crystallize and solidify in terms of this race. So you've got this endorsement of Barack Obama by Senator Ted Kennedy and his niece, Caroline Kennedy. How's that reverberating online?

Well, it's interesting. After Caroline Kennedy's op-ed appeared in The New York Times, searches of her name rose 179 percent, mainly by people over the age of 35 and across the two-thirds of the nation geographically. Now this is according to Yahoo Buzz Index. Now, for Ted Kennedy, his searches went up 248 percent. People were also searching for more about JFK, Maria Shriver and Jacqueline Kennedy.

turn 3 : This phrase means that the endorsement is having an impact or causing reactions online. It is not referring to actual sound reverberation.

How is the term "reverberating" being used in the conversation?

Answer: Impact


Well, so certainly President-elect Trump has issued a few statements on cybersecurity, including a campaign platform. Those are pretty thin on details. And some of his statements - it's been difficult to understand whether or not he - how literally to take those particular recommendations. Of his national security hires that have been announced at this point, none are known for having particularly strong cybersecurity backgrounds. So as we see more and more people coming into the administration, we might be able to start getting a sense of what exactly this administration's cybersecurity policy might look like.

Surely when you become the administration, you have a vested interest in national cybersecurity that maybe you lacked before, don't you?

Absolutely. I think while many of his statements during the campaign did not necessarily evince well-developed policy thoughts - he's going to have to come up with more specific ideas. One thing that Donald Trump might run up against is the existence of current laws. So, for example, he's indicated a number of times that he intends to transfer a lot of the cybersecurity mission to the Department of Defense to come up with a plan for defending critical infrastructure. And there are potentially rather serious consequences to sort of the militarization of civilian cyber defense. I think that they might find themselves coming up against an existing framework that doesn't necessarily square with the broad instinct towards wanting to turn towards the military to solve this problem.

I thought the Obama administration was pretty clear in saying, after they asserted that Russian attempts to meddle in the elections had been ongoing, that the United States was going to reply in kind. Can we assume those efforts are going on now?

turn 1 : sking if the Trump administration has an interest in national cybersecurity that it didn't have before

Answer: Trump


That's what won, finally, the attention of the old man. And only when he was tough did the old man respect him. And I think when his father became incapacitated, Bobby began to resort to who he was as a kid. As a kid, he was - he hung around all the time with African-American kids. Those were his playmates, even in Hyannis. He was - he, you know, Father Feeney - when Father Feeney said no salvation outside the Catholic Church, he railed against that, which was so extraordinary in that very Catholic family.

You know, Ralph Bunche - he insisted that that great African-American statesman get to speak to a integrated audience at UVA when he was in charge of the lecture series down there. There's all kinds of evidence of Bobby in the beginning being a liberal in the best sense of that word. And I think it just came more to life after Jack was gone and after the old man was out of action.

Will American voters these days - and donors and journalists, for that matter - let a public figure change in public the way Robert Kennedy did?

Well, I think the hardest thing for him - and to me, the sweetest part of the book - was his evolution on Joe McCarthy. There's no doubt that he loved the guy. It came through right to the end when he was driving in the car at National Airport. And Kathleen, his young daughter, said he was so stricken by the news that McCarthy had just drank himself to death at Bethesda Naval Hospital that he drove around the airport three times. He was just distraught.

turn 2 : (3) Implied meaning: Will modern society be open to and tolerant of a public figure's change in opinion?

How did Robert Kennedy's evolution on Joe McCarthy affect him emotionally?

Answer: stricken


Qatar would like to improve its relationship with the U. S.  government, which has supported a Saudi-led economic blockade of the small Persian Gulf power. Qatar didn't just hire well-known K Street lobbyists and powerbrokers. It targeted people they believe President Trump listens to - a radio broadcaster, a real estate developer, a commentator and former presidential candidate - and gave them all-expense paid trips to Qatar and, usually, a consulting fee. Qatar's regime believed if it could win over people that President Trump listens to, he might change his mind. Now, that's according to a news story published in The Wall Street Journal by Julie Bykowicz, who joins us now. Thanks very much for being with us.

Thank you.

Tell us how this is done. You begin the story by talking about Alan Dershowitz, whose name doesn't usually come up when you're talking about Qatar.

Sure. He's not an elected official. He's not in the administration. But what Mr.  Dershowitz does bring to the table, at this point, that lobbyists have identified is President Trump really likes this guy. And so other lobbyists have picked up on this, and the two gentlemen that I interviewed for this Qatar story said they identified him as someone that could potentially be influential. What Alan Dershowitz is thinking, perhaps President Trump would begin thinking as well.

turn 0 : Qatar believes that by winning over people that President Trump listens to, he might change his mind on supporting the Saudi-led economic blockade of Qatar.

How did Qatar try to win over people that President Trump listens to?

Answer: Targeted.


Well, a pretty disturbing picture has emerged of these two men online - some interest in, I guess, Nazism and Russian communist iconography. And beyond that, very little is known. I mean, they're a mystery to us. They are currently still on the run. Their families have spoken a little bit and have now sort of gone quiet.

And I think the whole country and beyond is just waiting to see where and when these two men might pop up or if indeed they will at all. There's a good chance, at this point, they might also be dead.

Well, police were zeroing in on a community that they thought might be their chance at finding them. And they called in drones and helicopters and boats and the military. But it sounds like they might be scaling back now. I mean, are they giving up?

Yeah, I mean, the problem is these young men had quite a head start. Initially, they were only believed to be missing and even thought to be potential victims after their vehicle was found burned out in B. C. So. . .

turn 0 : to be on the run in this context means you are avoiding authorities

Which term describes the ideologies the two men are believed to have an interest in?

Answer: Nazism


Investors are ecstatic about central bankers working there. Listen to this, the German DAX Index up about 10 percent, the French CAC 40, up more than nine percent. Now, they are both measures like the Dow 30, which on Wall Street jumped 500 points in the morning.

In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown put $65 billion of government money into three British banks. NPR's Rod Gifford is in London. We're going to him. Rob, hello. I think that people are saying it is this British plan, the so-called British plan that seems to be may be spurring a little bit of a recovery around the world. What is the British government doing, and what does it want in return?

Well, as you say, Alex, Gordon Brown is getting a lot of kudos from this, because he was the one who put this plan forward last week. What they're doing, as you say, is to put a lot of government money that is taxpayer's money, $65 billion worth of it, into three British banks into order to - they hope - free up the bank to bank lending, and the whole crisis of confidence that has struck British banks as it has done elsewhere.

In return - some very important conditions they want in return. Right upfront, leaders of these banks that have got into trouble must step down. Bonuses are being frozen for other executives who stay on and crucially, the demand that these banks maintain mortgage lending and small-business lending at 2007 levels, levels of last year.

turn 2 : The British government is being praised for its plan to save the banks.

Which government is receiving praise for its bank-saving plan?

Answer: British


I went back to Nepal in 2013 to write about the same supply chains feeding guys making cameras for the iPhone 5 in Malaysia. And some of the families that I wrote about at the time and got together and - was this woman, this magnetic woman who lit up the room, who was leading the conversation that everybody was deferring to. She was cutting off the men, which you also don't see much of in Nepal. And I didn't even recognize her.

And it was the same young woman. This woman, who was broken when I saw her in 2005 at this ashram, had just completely transformed her life. She not only made herself self-sufficient, but she rebuilt herself emotionally and has just this incredible self-awareness about everything that's happened to her and her refusal to be a victim and to rise up and face KBR Halliburton as a key witness in this case.

I was about to ask. How. . .

Yeah.

turn 0 : The woman was a strong leader and dominated the conversation despite the patriarchal society in Nepal.

What kind of woman was leading the conversation in Nepal?

Answer: magnetic


It occurred on August 1st, in the late hours of the morning. One Serbian fell, and another (unintelligible) porter fell as well trying to rescue him, and that was the beginning of the fatalities. However, the serac fall, which stranded most of the climbers, didn't occur until quite late in the evening on August 1st.

A serac is a big column of ice, a big sheet of ice. And it fell off the mountain, and that complicated things for a lot of people. What were conditions like?

The weather was completely calm, very cold and clear, which is normal. No wind and as the day began to - as the sun began to rise, the weather was actually better than we could have hoped for. But, of course, things changed. The wind began to pick up the next day as people were stranded, and that complicated the rescue effort.

You were attempting to summit on that day, weren't you?

turn 0 : "and that was the beginning of the fatalities." - The implied meaning here is that the fall resulted in people dying, rather than just being the start of a sequence of events.

What was the consequence of the incident described in turn 0?

Answer: Deaths


How has technology changed the way that vaccines are made?Is it easier to sort of see responses in living things as they happen now?

Yes, the technology has improved by leaps and bounds. We have, in the case of influenza, now a variety of different ways that we can read out virus neutralization. The traditional way was done using red blood cells, and we would look at the clumping of red blood cells, which is called hemagglutination. And the antibodies to flu would prevent the agglutination of red blood cells.

That was used for decades as the best marker of an immune response. Now we can look with automated assays at neutralization of the virus.

What does that mean?

turn 1 : Improved by leaps and bounds, meaning it has improved by a large margin.

Which word describes the extent of improvement in technology mentioned in turn 1?

Answer: Significant


Right. As far as I could tell, it wasn't so much derogatory as he wanted to create a mental picture to the listeners, you know, on radio, to say, OK, it was created in one big bang and so on.

And so what was his big blunder?

So the big blunder was - so he came up with a theory that was - that the universe is in a steady state. Namely the universe is always the same. It always was the same and always will be the same. And - but he also knew that the universe is expanding. So for the universe to stay the same, for example, for the density of matter to not change, he had to create matter in the universe. Because as the universe was getting larger, he had to have new matter there for the density to stay the same.

So this in itself was not a blunder. When he suggested this, it was a beautiful idea because, you know, we say the universe is the same everywhere and in every direction. And he wanted to add to that and that every time. So that, you know, sounded very elegant.

The blunder was that after about 15 years, when evidence started accumulating that this is really not the way the universe behaves but in fact the universe does evolve and change, he stubbornly refused to accept that.

turn 2 : The universe is not always the same and new matter is needed for it to stay the same.

How did the universe have to change to stay the same?

Answer: Treasury


What's the diet?

Yeah. I mean, are you juicing five minutes an hour or. . .

No, there isn't any particular diet, particular training. I know I made a training video, but it was just a spoof of the Rocky Montage training. So rather than knocking out an opponent, my job was to knock out the kettle.

Oh, my word. Well, you know, I'd vowed to stay away from this, but I have to ask. So you've seen "Guys and Dolls"?

turn 1 : Are you juicing five minutes an hour means are you juicing (eating fruits or vegetables in liquid form) for five minutes every hour?

Answer: No


Does this raise the hopes that, you know, you might be finding more exoplanets that are more like Earth because there seemed to be a little period going through here with astronomers that they were saying it may be a little more difficult than we expected, or there may not be as many in that sweet spot as expected?

Yeah, I think the arc of discovery is showing us that there's actually a lot more than anyone would have hoped. And finding them this close and this soon and this easily, as we improve our techniques, is telling us that virtually every star has planets, and a lot of systems probably have planets similar to the kind we're seeing here.

And so yeah, that greatly raises the ante in terms of the likelihood that there are similar Earths out there around stars. There's more planets in the sky now than there are stars.

A couple of questions: Does a planet have to be like, quote-unquote, "like Earth" for it to be habitable?

turn 2 : It's likely there are similar Earths out there

What is the likelihood of finding similar Earths out there?

Answer: High


OK, starting with GlobalGrind. Here's the deal Farai, as you know, being in the media, it's becoming more and more niche, and people, especially what you're talking about Internet, you're talking about web communities and defining that niche. Now we're seeing more and more websites pop up where we've had black websites in the past, but GlobalGrind is this one-stop shop.

They claim, or they offer, for news, gossip, humor, entertainment. It's just about everything that users think is important. So the whole site is actually driven by users voting on other content that's happening elsewhere. And so the higher the vote of a specific piece of content, the more relevant it comes up on the GlobalGrind webpage.

Is it fun?

It is fun. It looks very clean. It's sleek. I do like the ownership behind the company, and some of the people driving it, because Navarro is a guy that ran 360HipHop. com, which was very successful that was sold to BET. I've met with their advertising people. I think they really got their handle on - they've made it mobile. They now integrate it with Facebook, which wasn't there before, which I was dinging them on. I was like, when are you guys going to get with mobile applications in a Web 2. 0 space?

All right, Mario. We have to jump in. RushmoreDrive. Give me the skinny.

turn 0 : Being in the media industry is becoming more niche and specialized

Answer: Media


Well, it's very difficult to verify independently because some of the information he claims to be from within the inner circle of those around President Mugabe, but certainly it creates a lot of interest and in some cases, some of his predictions have come to pass in ways that really points to credibility on the part of this character.

For example, he had warned that individuals within the ruling party were plotting to kill a former minister of parliament, Edward Chindori-Chininga, and indeed within a week this official died in a suspicious car accident.

Now, I mean, saying that almost any politician of any prominence other than President Mugabe is vulnerable to being killed mysteriously, wouldn't that be a truism in Zimbabwe?

Yes, it is, but particularly if you look at the tensions in the countries we approach elections that will be held on July 31. So, yes, that is true.

turn 2 : The information this mysterious character provides is likely to be accurate and can be trusted.

How are the predictions of the mysterious character regarded?

Answer: Credibility


It was absolute - you're absolutely correct. Our time is out, but I'm going to ask you about this before I let you go. Talking about perfect performances, two people strolled in to New York's Madison Square Garden and lit up the Knicks back to back, Kobe Bryant 61 on one night and LeBron James, I think, it was 52 the next night and a triple double.

All I can say is thank god for the Knicks.

And, you know what?And the Knicks are even actually better than they were before and then they still let people come in there and just spank them like crazy.

That's what we do.

turn 1 : thank god for the Knicks impling the Knicks made it possible to happen...

Answer: Knicks


The banks can bring in their junky securities and swap them for cash or treasury bills. And that, on top of interest rate cuts, Bernanke thought would be enough to keep the financial system working until it healed itself. The strategy at the Fed was known as the finger in the dike strategy, keep the water out and eventually things will recover.

But obviously, you know things didn't work out like that. And in the spring, we had the great Bear Stearns crisis, and the Fed was forced to intervene to prevent them going bankrupt. Then, we had another few months where it seemed like things had stabilized, but this thing's like a disease. It goes away for a while, and then, you know, it comes back in a more virulent form.

In September, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, you know, all hell broke out, basically. And since then, we've had a sort of slow motion collapse of the financial system.

Now, this entire crisis has really tarnished Alan Greenspan's legacy, and he even admitted that his basic economic philosophy is now changed. What about Ben Bernanke?Does he deserve the same criticism?

turn 1 : The financial crisis is recurring and becoming more severe each time it comes back.

Answer: Finger


So if we're negotiating in public, we're not really negotiating at all.

That's correct. What we're doing is playing chicken, all kinds of games with each other. It's just a mess. You know, whenever you get to the entitlements, and so everybody knows, I'm out of the Senate three years and a half, but I was there for 36 years, and much of my work was budgeting. If I were there, I would be right in the middle of this. You would have been hearing from me for the last two years, and you'd be tired of my voice.

And you, Neal, would have had me on so many times, you would have said I don't want you anymore.

Well, I doubt that, Senator.

turn 3 : The literal meaning is that the listener doubts that they would tire of hearing from the speaker. The actual meaning is that the listener is being polite and respectful towards the speaker.

How did the PersonB respond to the speaker?

Answer: Respectful


Oh, no. As a matter of fact, I was delighted that I had had the opportunity to contribute to it. I had the option to volunteer for the program. I opted not to because I was very much involved in research that needed to be done. So I was - I turned down the opportunity because I felt that what we were doing was valuable for the future of our space program. As a matter of fact, the small 5-foot diameter parachute that we used to stabilize my freefall is still being used today in every ejection seat in the world. So what we did some 50 year - 55 years ago is still being used today.

What do you think about space exploration now?It struck me watching this that it's lost its human component, in a way. We send these unmanned missions into deep space, but we haven't really pushed human boundaries, I think, for quite some time.

I personally think that we should go back to the moon as soon as we can because there's a lot of lessons we need to learn before we can go to Mars, which should be the next great human adventure.

May I ask you a question?As you were standing on the precipice, you said a prayer. What was that prayer?What were you praying for?

turn 1 :  (2) - Implied meaning: What is your opinion on modern space exploration, which has become more robotic than human?

Which turn mentions the idea of going back to the moon before going to Mars?

Answer: Turn3


Oh, sheesh. I'll play a little bit of "I Knew a Lady. "

OK, I knew a lady too.

I'm sure you did.

(Singing) I knew a lady. And she was fine. She had a pretty face And a troubled mind. All she wanted was a little fun. She got dancing feet. She wanted to get it on. All the Lord's children need to be saved All the Lord's children lost in these days All the Lord's children in the frying pan Good God, Almighty throw up your dang hands All the Lord's children out on these streets All the Lord's children fighting for peace All the Lord's children up off your knees Good God, Almighty Come dance with me Oh, oh, oh, oh All the Lord's children feeling the pain All the Lord's children trying to maintain All the Lord's children trying to kill the brain With two vodka din(ph) And a glass of champagne Don't do it Huh, it ain't gonna work All she wanted was a little fun She got dancin' feet she want to get it on.

turn 3 : "I knew a lady and she was fine" means that she looked beautiful or pretty.

Answer: Sheesh


The inspector general also alleges that lucrative government contracts were given to friends and former colleagues of the bureau. And this isn't the first criticism by the inspector general of the Minerals Management office. Last year, that office was accused of making mistakes in the royalties that calculated for the industry. It saved companies more than 10 billion dollars. So, at the very least, this latest investigation gives ammunition to the people who say that the Bush administration is too close to the oil and gas industry.

And so, this directly affects taxpayers and consumers?

Well, you know, the head of the Minerals Management Agency says, no, that the agency has been collecting the proper amount of royalties, but the report says some oil companies were allowed to revise their payments downward after their contracts were finalized. And outsiders have to wonder why would the industry be giving gifts to employees of this agency, if they didn't want something in return?

OK. Still on oil, another story. OPEC announced it will be cutting production. What does that mean?

Well, they do want to cut production to keep the price high, but you know, Saudi Arabia said today that it isn't necessarily going to stick to those quotas and produce what the cartel imposed late on Tuesday. So, the prospect that Saudi Arabia might continue to crank out high levels of crude is pushing oil prices down, even as Hurricane Ike barrels down on the Gulf of Mexico.

turn 2 : The oil industry may be involved in bribery to get favorable treatment

How were oil companies able to revise their payments downward?

Answer: Downward


Well, some of their problems - they're doing very badly in the polls - is due to the personality of the Democratic Party leader, Matteo Renzi. He has a very sharp Tuscan wit, which, to non-Tuscans, makes him sound like an obnoxious smart aleck. And he's deeply disliked within his own party. Several members of the leftist old guard accused Renzi of being too centrist. They broke away, and that strongly weakened the party.

Under the party leadership, Italy's economy came out of a very devastating recession. And it has grown in the last five years, not as fast as its European partners. But it's done much better. And the party also passed a landmark civil rights legislation with a civil unions law for same-sex couples, despite the strong influence of the Catholic Church in politics. But, you know, the party's push for structural reforms was strongly resisted by both the right and the left. Italians are essentially conservative. They don't like change. But the populists are really pushing a vision of the past. And they're strongly skeptical of the European Union. And if they came to power, that could further destabilize the EU at a time when the bloc is already dealing with Britain's exit and growing authoritarianism in member states like Poland and Hungary.

Sylvia, thanks very much.

Thank you, Renee.

turn 1 : Populists' vision of the past could destabilize the EU

Which political movement could potentially cause further destabilization of the EU?

Answer: Populists


Hello.

What happened to you this morning?What happened in Kathmandu?

Well, we were on a staff retreat with our editors and reporters up on a mountaintop overlooking Kathmandu Valley. And it felt as if I was propelled two meters up into the air. It was just such a heavy jolt. And when we looked down at the city, it looked like it had been completely destroyed because there was a ball of dust covering the entire valley in which Kathmandu is situated. And we thought the whole city had been destroyed. But as we got down back into the city through the roads, it looked like it wasn't as bad as we initially feared. Many of the residential buildings were damaged, but seem to be intact. On the other hand, the monuments of the world heritage sites in Kathmandu - Bhaktapur and Patan - many of them have been completely destroyed.

Mr.  Dixit, have you been able to get a handle on how extensive the damage is in Nepal and for that matter the region 'cause there are reports that India's also been affected.

turn 1 : ) B: "What happened to you this morning? What happened in Kathmandu?" This is a common greeting or small talk used to start a conversation. The speaker is not actually asking about a specific event that happened to the person in Kathmandu this morning.

What was the condition of the world heritage sites in Kathmandu?

Answer: Destroyed


Yeah. Well, there are definitely multiple factors. You know, about a decade ago, China passed their renewable energy law. They started to really grow wind and solar as the future strategic industries. And now they're the largest in the world. They install by far the most wind turbines and solar panels in the world. So they really can see that this is a future growth area, that this is something that they can export to other countries. And it has all of these environmental benefits. So of course, to them, it just makes sense to do it.

So they see jobs in green energy.

That's right. You know, there's 3 million renewable energy jobs in China. That's the most in the world. Renewable energy jobs around the world, including in the U. S. , are growing much faster than the overall job market. So there are definitely areas for growth.

At the same time, China is the world's largest coal user and producer, isn't it?

turn 3 : The literal meaning of this turn is simply a confirmation question about China's status as the largest coal user and producer. However, the implied meaning is that China's heavy reliance on coal for energy production contradicts their efforts towards renewable energy and environmental benefits. This turn serves as a counterpoint to the previous discussion about China's growth in renewable energy and job opportunities in that sector.

How does China's heavy reliance on coal contradict their efforts towards renewable energy?

Answer: Coal


Then Clark Carrington(ph) chimed in from Dar Salam, Tanzania. He wrote, I'm an African-American living in Tanzania and totally rely on Farai and crew through podcast to keep me informed about what is going on in the U. S.  and the world, for that matter. However, Farai's much more than a female African-American voice. She is an informed progressive and an insightful mind.

And finally, we go to a fan in Saudi Arabia. Ibrahim Sadik(ph) heard a re-broadcast of a conversation we had on Latin jazz and sent us this. I wish to thank News & Notes for the excellent program on Latin jazz as well as the month-long treatment on jazz. I currently live in Saudi Arabia and enjoy News & Notes, which is rebroadcast during my morning commute. It provides a refreshing entry for the morning. I hope that the coming months will bring about a turnaround in the U. S.  economy that will allow kaleidoscopic programs such as News & Notes to remain on air.

And that's it for letters. So wherever you are, please keep your thoughts coming over the next few months.

To write us, just log on to npr. org and click on contact us. When you get there, you'll see lots of shows to choose from. Make sure you pick News & Notes when you write to us.

What is the name of the show that listeners should choose when they write to NPR through the contact us page?

Answer: News-&-Notes


Here to tell us more about that report is the vice chair of the commission, former senator from Missouri, Jim Talent. Welcome to the program, sir. And if you could tell us a bit about this report. It states that the biological threat to this country is greater than the nuclear one. What sort of biological threat are we talking about?

Well, people normally think in terms of like Anthrax, and that's the most visible potential pathogen. There's others that could be used, smallpox, for example. And one of the dangers is that, with DNA synthesizers that are available and dual-use technology all over the world, it's becoming increasingly easy to isolate pathogens, old or new. It's technologically easier to weaponize.

Can you tell me a little bit about how you conducted the research for this report?

We're a follow onto the 9/11 commission, congressionally created, bipartisan. The report was unanimous, and we interviewed hundreds of people who travel all over the world, everywhere from the national labs in Sandia, to London, to Asia, to Russia interviewing people.

And then we all, each of us on the commission, has experience in this area as well. And what Congress wanted was an update on the assessment of the threat and then recommendations about what can be done to reduce it.

turn 1 : There are other pathogens that could be used as weapons besides Anthrax

Which potential pathogen, besides Anthrax, could be used as a weapon?

Answer: Smallpox


So even among homeowners, we found white people are more likely to get a buyout. So NPR's Robert Benincasa - he's my reporting partner on this project - he got a list of properties that the federal government has bought. There are about 40,00 of them. Robert filed a Freedom of Information Act request. The federal government denied it. NPR sued. Eventually, we won.

So when we got it, Robert took all the ZIP codes associated with the property addresses and linked them to U. S.  census data on demographics. And we found that nationally, sales of flood-damaged homes happened most often in places where the population was more than 85 percent white. Now, for context, the whole country is about 62 percent white.

So that's dramatic. So is the federal government responding to this now that you have seen these numbers and done this investigation?

They are. So we interviewed David Maurstad, who oversees FEMA's buyout program. And he said the program is working if it makes the community less risky, it saves property and if it potentially saves lives. It's not designed to consider demographics. And he points out correctly that they don't actually choose which properties are offered buyouts. That's what local governments do.

turn 3 : The actual meaning is that the federal government is not responsible for choosing which properties are offered buyouts, as that is the responsibility of local governments.

How does David Maurstad justify the federal government's responsibility in choosing which properties are offered buyouts?

Answer: Not


Well, Mr.  Market feels pretty strongly that he's seen this show before. And. . .

He's counting on something to be worked out at the last minute.

That's right. The real question is, if by Thursday there's no deal, will stock markets still be gaily rising?I think the answer is probably no.

I was struck by a phrase in Chris Arnold's piece about the dollar being the bedrock currency for much of the world. Is that jeopardized?

turn 0 : (1) "Mr. Market feels pretty strongly that he's seen this show before." The literal meaning of this sentence is that Mr. Market has a strong feeling of déjà vu. However, the implied meaning is that Mr. Market believes the current situation or event is similar to a previous one and may have similar outcomes or patterns.

Which phrase in Chris Arnold's piece caught PersonB's attention?

Answer: Dollar


You know, like, you could sleep on concrete every day in your life, and if you try to sleep on a warm bed, you wouldn't be able to sleep because it's not cold.

Our story, Miracle on the Streets, came to us from independent producer Dmae Roberts and the NPR program Hearing Voices.

Coming up in the program, we switch gears a bit and get funny with "Saturday Night Live's" Andy Samberg. Samberg and two other very funny dudes are the band Lonely Island. They have a new album; it's called "Incredibad. "Maybe that means songs so bad that they're good. Our critic Andrew Wallenstein brings us a review. That's coming up later on in the program.

Day to Day returns in a moment.

turn 2 : changing from one segment of the show to different segment of the show

Answer: Album


Well, I am, and I have been watching it this morning. There's video of water rolling over the top of a levee.

That's Industrial Canal in New Orleans.

That's right. Still, wouldn't that make you a little anxious?

Well, it would, but our reporting systems we have, we have monitoring systems throughout the parish on our levees, on our drainage canals, on our pumping stations. Right now all of them are reporting well below flood stages.

turn 2 : The situation is concerning enough that it could make someone anxious, despite the monitoring systems in place.

What emotion could the situation potentially evoke despite the presence of monitoring systems?

Answer: Anxiety


What about beyond the environment?- because your platform goes well beyond just issues. . .

Yeah.

. . . Of climate. What else do you stand for?

Well, having a clear attitude against racism through our diversity, not flirting with populist parties but confronting them. This is something that the Greens have been always good in. And I think that resonates with the population. And also, the Green Party has always been most pro-European party, longing for United States of Europe as a vision.

turn 3 : The Green Party has good attitudes towards diversity, opposes populist parties, and is pro-European.

How does the Green Party confront racism?

Answer: Diversity


Several of them. I mean, Espanola had only 14 individuals left in the 1960s, and then it was 12 females and two males. A third male was found in the San Diego Zoo and brought back to Galapagos (unintelligible) 1975. And there have now been about 2,000 young tortoises released back to that island through the reproduction program at the tortoise center here on Santa Cruz.

The same holds true for several of the other populations. I would say many of the populations are out of danger. But we're still, given the exploitation from the 1800s, the total tortoise population of Galapagos is still about 10 to 20 percent of the original population. So we have a long way to go to bring them back to the original populations.

A couple of questions tweeted and asked by listeners of the same ilk, saying: Would it be possible to clone him?

OK, this is an interesting thing, and we are trying to save some of Lonesome George's tissues, cells. Cloning in reptiles has really not been developed at all, and we're doing - a few mammals seem to be doing OK, but in general the technology, the methodology to actually clone reptiles is decades away.

So hopefully they will be able to maintain cells as in cryogenics, and who knows in the future, but at the moment, it would be impossible.

turn 2 : "clone him" - This implies the possibility of cloning Lonesome George, a tortoise, rather than just asking if it is possible to create a genetic duplicate of him.

Which reptile is mentioned to have a cloning technology that still needs decades of development?

Answer: Reptiles


You're a breast cancer survivor. Your husband passed away. One of your other children was in a serious accident, and yet when you deal with the Imus ordeal, you say I've never felt so powerless in my life. Why did that touch you so much?

You know, Farai, one of the things that maybe people didn't know is that here I had a team of 10 players, and five of those young ladies were freshmen. Less than a year before that, they were sitting on bleachers at a high school graduation. Some of them that came to me had braces on their teeth. They had dreams and aspirations of becoming doctors and psychologists and musicians and all the like.

And here while they had done something that they should be commended for because throughout the year, the year had been a tremendous struggle. They had been pushed to the brink, and yet somehow they survived. And beyond surviving, here they were standing before a national audience and being honored as one of the top two teams in this nation.

And I was so proud of them because I could remember seeing some of them cry or think that they couldn't and then to see their faces on television or USA Today and, you know, this is what it's all about - for us as leaders and as parents and as people that care about our young people - to take them to places that they don't think that they can go, have them accomplish those things, and then with that level of security and confidence, they can take on the world.

turn 0 : Despite facing several difficult situations, the Imus ordeal made the person feel powerless

How did the person feel during the Imus ordeal?

Answer: Powerless


Yeah. I think people are starting to back away from that a little bit because there are enough little pockets where you could get some ice accumulating every summer and not melting out because, basically, you have the wind that pushes that together and piles it up. So you have always have a few places where it's piled up. But on the other hand, that will be a fairly small part of the Arctic, quite a small bit. So it's not - so for practical purposes, the ocean will look ice-free, and the North Pole may be sort of in a large area of no ice at all. Occasionally, right now, there are cracks and there are openings that drift around. And so, sometimes, the North Pole itself is in an ice-free area.

Open water, yeah.

But it could be possible to be in a large area of open water in the coming decades. That's the expectation.

The other enormous area of a white, reflective surface is the ice cap that covers the island of Greenland, the biggest island in the world. And that this summer also had a really powerful melt.

turn 0 : The Arctic may have pockets of ice even when it appears ice-free

Which area may have a powerful melt according to B?

Answer: Arctic


But you do know that this is public information.

Yes. But we are not contributing to fuel any hate. We are contributing because we want President Trump to be reelected. I like the job he's doing as president. I love the way he loves America, the same way that I love America. I named my company Great America Companies in 1972 when I first immigrated to America because I felt this was a great place.

President Trump has used the words invasion and killer, according to new statistics, over 500 times when speaking about immigration and immigrants since 2017. That is as president. People see his rhetoric as divisive and specifically when speaking about Latino immigrants. Does that not concern you?

Not at all because he's not being taken in the full context of these expressions. What he wants is legal immigration. He's not objecting to immigration of Latinos or Hispanics. He only objects to illegal immigration.

turn 1 : Fueling hate does not mean to give it gas but to make more people hate each other.

What is the reason for PersonA contributing to President Trump's reelection campaign?

Answer: love


Major party conventions are almost a year away. But let's note this week Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts seems to be picking up steam, doesn't she?

If the focus is on the economy, well, Elizabeth Warren will tell you she's got a plan for that. And, of course, the other candidates will say they do, too. But policy is really Warren's strong suit. It's one reason she's climbing in the polls even as nearly the - all of the other top-tier candidates are sliding a bit.

Finally, Ron, I had occasion to look up and listen to the Greenland national anthem this week. It's very moving, as you may know. And President Trump, who complained about the fact that Puerto Rico is an island, reportedly wants the U. S.  or wanted the U. S.  to buy Greenland. What do you make of this?

Yeah, this is apparently one of the good islands. It's not so crazy an idea. The United States was interested in buying Greenland in the 1860s when we bought Alaska from Russia. And we were interested again after World War II when we were trying to keep Russia at bay. The only problem is Greenland belongs to Denmark. Denmark doesn't want to sell. And a lot of people in Greenland would rather be independent. So don't watch for the just-sold sign anytime soon.

turn 0 : picking up steam means she is getting more popular

What is the reason for Elizabeth Warren's climb in the polls?

Answer: Policy


Before we started recording, you were telling me a story about talking to Dr.  King while he was shaving.

Oh. Well, I've been in his room. . .

Yeah.

. . . When he was shaving. I've been in Dr.  Abernathy's room. Dr.  Abernathy would put more lather on his face. And he didn't smell quite as mild as Dr.  King (laughter), you know?I can just - I didn't have no reason to think I could be remembering that - anything like that. I was just a young fella just caught up in the movement. And it was just an honor to be able to just see Dr.  King, as well as to go up to his room with somebody. It wasn't by myself during that time. . .

turn 1 : Implies that A had already been in Dr. King's and Dr. Abernathy's room before, while

What was Dr. Abernathy putting on his face while shaving?

Answer: Lather


You have your camera there with you?

I do. You want a sound effect?

Yeah, please.

You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.

turn 1 : This implies that B want to probably have a picture with A.

Answer: WEEKEND


I hate to see it fade out.

Yeah, me too.

There's another story that really sounds like it has to be made up, about the driver who brought a hotshot guitarist from Macon, Georgia to Stax for a session.

Yeah. The driver kept bugging the musicians in the studio to give him a chance. And someone had promised him, OK, buddy, you know, chill out for a second. You'll get your chance. When nothing happened with the big talent, people had already started packing up their cars when they remembered, oh yeah, we got to let this guy try.

turn 1 :  (2) A is implying that they also share a shared sadness about the same thing.

What does PersonA agree with PersonB about regarding a story involving a driver and a guitarist?

Answer: Agreement


Thanks, Michel.

Now, you've been reporting along the border all day. What have you seen?

Well, I was at the actual border this morning. It's a river that divides Mexico and Guatemala. And there was no presence of authorities there. So there are these inflatable rafts that carry people and goods across the river, and they were traveling without a problem across the river. So I saw several groups of migrants cross this morning. But things change as you move north on highways here.

So I'm currently at a highway checkpoint. There's about a dozen Mexican migration officers, as well as Mexican Army and Mexican police. And they're stopping every van and bus that comes by here and checking it for undocumented migrants.

So tell us a little bit more, if you would, about what happens to travelers who arrive at those checkpoints.

turn 3 : Mexican officials are actively searching for undocumented migrants.

Which officials are searching for undocumented migrants?

Answer: Mexican


I suppose worth noting - the - these were young women at the time that they were employed working in factories. Not. . .

Teenagers, many of them. Yeah.

Teenagers - I mean, how young were some of them?

Well, the youngest - records show that the youngest were 11.

turn 2 : Turn (3) is an example of a statement whose meaning is different from its literal meaning. The speaker is not actually asking about the ages of the women, but rather expressing surprise or concern about how young some of them were.

Which emotion did the speaker express through turn 2?

Answer: Surprise


Well, they basically came to myself, and from what I found out tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of small businesses, and cut our credit limits down to bare bones. We had had a - what they call guidance of $165,000, which they tell you you have no credit limit, but you really do. They cut it to $5,000 which was laughable. We're a company with sales into eight figures and profits into seven figures, never have had a lost, been in business 27 years, and we called to question it. We were treated very poorly. The woman was actually nasty on the phone.

So we thought we don't need American Express, we have Capital One, Visa cards, and MasterCard, and everything else, and so we just closed our American Express account. I personally went from a Platinum card to a Green card just to have in case of an emergency. So I've not spent a penny with American Express in over a year, so I knew why I got the letter.

Well, tell me why they made that decision to cut your credit line from - you said $165,000 to $5,000?

Mm hmm. Yes. They seemed to have just gone into a panic last January, and I've seen comments all over the Web from other small businesses owners who had the same thing happened to them. They did it without warning. They actually refused charges we had made even though we weren't above our credit limit, we weren't delinquent.

turn 0 : bare bones refers to their credit being SIGNIFICANTLY reduced

Which limit did American Express cut from $165,000 to $5,000?

Answer: Platinum


Well, look. Latinos care about the economy. They care about education. They care about health care and national security. So when you weigh those things on a scale, you'd be surprised how much folks embrace the conservative message. In fact, more Latinos self-identify as conservatives than they do as liberals.

Right. Obviously, Latinos are not a monolithic group. Many Cubans, for example, vote Republican because of their particular history. But how do you sell the conservative view at this particular point in time?You may have a powerful economic message. But can that resonate if an entire demographic may feel demonized and under threat?

Look. Latino citizens are smart, mature, educated voters who understand and can disassociate the comments of the president with what, you know, they need for solid policy that is going to make their lives better. I mean, that's what you have to ask yourself at the end of the day, you know, when you vote for some one person or the other, or one party or the other. Will that person make my life better?And that's the calculation that everybody makes. And Latinos do, too. So look. It's up to the candidate. And it's up to the party to sell their message, to market their message. We're a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. And what we advance are principles. And that's what Latinos embrace.

But it's not just the president. The Republican Party and its base has swung to the right on the issue of immigration and how to deal with it. There hasn't been a discussion, for example, of reform, looking at how people can work here legally but rather enforcement, deporting people, building walls.

turn 2 : Latino citizens can disassociate comments from the president and focus on solid policy

How do Latino citizens approach policy despite what?

Answer: Demonization


This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.

Tornadoes hit Oklahoma City last night. Five people are reported to have died, including a mother and her child. Nearly 90 people are being treated for injuries. The twister touched down in Oklahoma City and in nearby Moore and triggered flash floods and power outages. And, of course, we remember that Oklahomans are still recovering from tornadoes that hit a few weeks ago. Kurt Gwartney is the news director at our member station KGOU in Oklahoma City. He joins us now. Kurt, thanks so much for making time for us on a very busy morning.

You're welcome.

What's the latest news you can give us?

turn 1 : The tornadoes did not actually hit but touched down in the areas.

How did the tornadoes affect Oklahoma City and nearby areas?

Answer: Touched


It's not unusual for a new president to shed some of the staff that comes in with him in the first year. You know, people from the campaign, for example, who don't fit in in the new environment. But this is the earliest we've ever seen a chief of staff go. And this many departees at this high level, it's hard to think of an analog in the first six months of any other administration.

OK.  A really big legislative story this week with the Senate failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Is that effort dead as in really, really, really dead?

It is dead for the moment. You know, the president has been tweeting in the last 24 hours about killing the filibuster rule because it's too hard to get to 60 votes. You know, on this bill, all they needed was 50 votes and they could not get to 50 votes. And the real problem here is not process. It's the problem. They don't have consensus on health care. So it looks dead in the Senate, at least for the moment, but it could be revived in the longer run.

And just quickly, we could have started our conversation with North Korea or Russia. The world is out there, isn't it?

turn 3 :  implies that the questioner is asking if the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act is completely over, while (4) implies that the questioner is suggesting that there are more important issues that the conversation could have started with than North Korea or Russia.

Which legislative story did PersonB ask about?

Answer: Healthcare


Non-binary meaning they don't identify as male or female. They and many other English speakers have been using they like this for years. Here, Emily Brewster will use it in a sentence.

Here is my friend J. They will be joining us for dinner. The they is referring to this individual who is standing right here.

Now, there's been criticism of this usage - some by those who don't understand why someone might identify as non-binary but also by those who are put off by this change in grammar. They - the critics - say it's confusing to hear they are in a sentence if the speaker is only referring to one person. But our word expert disagrees. Brewster says we already do this with another pronoun.

The word you was originally a plural pronoun, and in the 14th century, it started to slide toward this use of being both plural and singular. And so when I am speaking to you, an individual, a single person, I say you are. I don't say you is. The you are is grammatical.

turn 3 : The usage of the word started to become used as singular and plural.

What was the word that started to become used as both singular and plural?

Answer: you


We're hoping that this research kind of paves the way to looking at novel high-speed adhesives. So how do you grab things - difficult things - very, very quickly?And so, like, if you were to grab something that's dusty, like a brick, or furry, duct tape's not going to be able to stick to either of those things. You know, you're going to have to use something like claws or grabbing mechanisms. But we think that with this new type of thick, viscous fluid coating a very soft substrate, that it will be able to grab oddly textured things very quickly. So in my mind, I'm dreaming of a - like, a frog tongue attached to a drone, and the drone can fly around and pick up packages really quickly and fly away.

Do you mind me asking - after a day in the lab - I'm just guessing- do you just want to go home and fast?I mean, it must be difficult to eat anything.

(Laughter) There are times that - especially in the beginning - where I had the smell of frog in my nose for at least an hour, and I couldn't eat anything. But by the end of the study, I'd been - you know, I was eating frog legs every week - part of the study.

Oh, no. Seriously?

turn 2 : The implied meaning of this turn is that the speaker has become used to working with frogs and can even enjoy eating frog legs as part of the study.

How did the PersonA's experience with frogs change over the course of the study?

Answer: Damage


Is there a way to balance - to better balance interest in public safety, the rights of defendants and also the public's interest in not burdening people with so much debt that they can't function?

The problem with approaches like this private pre-trial supervision is that they not only fail on a sort of, you know, human, moral level when you look at the impact that they're having on poor people, they also really are failing on a public safety level. They're failing in terms of outcomes. There's really nothing that suggests to us that our current approach of investing in this kind of surveillance and caging black and brown people is actually resulting in better public safety outcomes.

That's Blake Strode. He's the executive director of ArchCity Defenders. That's a nonprofit civil rights law firm in St.  Louis, Mo. Blake Strode, thank you so much for talking with us.

Thank you very much.

turn 1 : The current approach of investing in pre-trial supervision is immoral, discriminatory and doesn't result in better public safety outcomes

How is pre-trial supervision approach failing?

Answer: outcomes


Global warming?

Global warming, you know, is warming or changes in the, you know, there are two theories right now kind of competing, although it's probably some of the both. Natural cycles versus anthropogenic causes in global warming. And both have been identified in records of gulfstream modulation or the changing of its speeds.

Yeah. Water will also - changing the temperatures, water gets warmer. We all know it expands and rises sea levels. So there's three causes of sea level rise. One, the land can sink or rise up. That will change sea levels of the coasts. Warming of the water, as it gets warmer, it expands, and sea level will go up. And you can add water essentially to the bathtub by melting ice sheets from the. . .

turn 2 : The turn "If the water gets - just gets warmer, though, doesn't it expand the volume of it?" is an example of literal language. The speaker is referring to the scientific fact that water expands as it warms.

How does the speaker refer to the scientific fact that water expands as it warms?

Answer: Competing


Yeah.

And so - especially in the 24/7 cable environment, where you're desperate for eyeballs, you know, which would you rather see, somebody who's methodically and deliberately laying out the science of climate change or two people yelling at each other and getting. . .

Yeah.

. . . into a fight. So unfortunately, the media itself has some structural issues that make it harder to have a reasonable conversation.

turn 1 : (2) implies that the media environment is desperate for viewers, and so it chooses to show people yelling at each other instead of presenting the science of climate change in an informative way.

Answer: Viewers


It depends on who you ask. For the South Koreans who have been really eager to have a successful Olympics and for the president, Moon Jae-in's administration, who has really pushed for better ties to North Korea, this will be a big success for them in terms of getting the North Koreans to participate, to march under the joint flag and to mitigate any potential North Korean provocations that could have happened during the Olympics and ruin the whole atmosphere. But in terms of applying maximum pressure on North Korea and getting them to denuclearize, this is just a minor blip on the radar.

And what do we make of the military parade in North Korea just before?Is that a way of saying we don't mean it, or what?

Absolutely. I think - you know, I've been likening the North Korean participation in the Olympics as kind of like "The Wedding Crashers," where they just storm in, guzzle everybody's champagne, other people's food and then they're going to leave a mess behind. And nothing they've said since Kim Jong Un's New Year's address has suggested that they're going to be talking about their nuclear weapons program at all. In fact, they've not had any pressure from South Korea or anybody in terms of talking about nuclear weapons.

Well - and that brings up a question. And I feel the need to ask it every now and then - why does North Korea want nuclear weapons?What's their overall strategic goal?

turn 3 : The literal meaning of (4) is asking what North Korea wants to achieve with nuclear weapons. The implicated meaning is questioning why North Korea wants nuclear weapons in the first place.

What is the implicated meaning of turn 3?

Answer: Why


It's a great legal strategy. You know, if Zazi didn't cooperate, he was going to be facing life in jail. The other options is to go to trial. And when you go to trial, universally you end up getting sentenced to a much longer sentence than you would if you cooperated.

Can you compare how we handle a case like this, which has to do with Islamist terrorism, with the domestic terrorism cases we've been hearing about recently?I'm thinking specifically about white supremacists. Does the government deal with them in the same way?

Yeah, in many ways they do in terms of cooperation. They don't in terms of charges. So you can charge an individual with material support to terrorism as it relates to ISIS or al-Qaida. You can't have that same statute when it comes to white supremacy. There isn't a parallel statute. For white supremacists, you know, they do flip a lot of individuals. But it's a different approach.

In this case, as you mentioned, they were able to put a lot of pressure to bear to get information, the names of people who were involved. Do you think that's happening with investigators who are dealing with the synagogue shooting suspect, for example?

turn 2 : Flip a lot of individuals does not actually mean they are physically doing a flip.

Which term used by PersonA is applicable to the legal strategy used in Zazi's case?

Answer: Cooperate


ORDOÑEZ: Well, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was on shows this morning defending the administration, defending the White House, saying Democrats like Swalwell, who we just heard, are trying to score political points on the tragedy, saying that about some of the other Democratic candidates who are still in the presidential race. Mulvaney himself is calling the shooter a sick person and says drawing anything other than that is wrong or fair - trying to blame the president is unfair.

This was a sick person. The person in Dayton was a sick person. No politician is to blame for that. The people responsible here are the people who pulled the trigger. We need to figure out how to create less of those kinds of people as a society and not trying to figure out who gets blamed going into the next election.

ORDOÑEZ: And Trump himself, you know, at a rally in Charlotte last year, he said the White House didn't blame Bernie Sanders when one of his supporters went out and shot a Republican lawmaker during a baseball practice. They're saying they want the same type of response.

: And where does the White House stand in terms of policy solutions?

turn 0 : Mulvaney is defending the White House and administration

Answer: defending


Oh, no. No, you don't - but to who - and that's such an interesting - I love that you got right to the college dorm part of the argument, you know - are you going to let people die?No one's going to let people die. You know, there's talk about - oh, my gosh, the Trump budget cuts Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels gets 3 percent of its funding, approximately, from government sources. Ninety-seven percent is people want to take care of their neighbors.

I. . .

People are not going to let their neighbors die.

turn 0 : Are they willing to let people die over that principle?

What is the principle being referred to in the conversation?

Answer: principle


You can never protect someone by stripping them of their rights. The premise is that unless California lawmakers become complicit in denying California athletes equal rights, then somehow those players will be harmed. And that's just a false premise.

And before we let you go, do you feel like you're making headway?Like, you know, part of the reason you got started with this - you were a former UCLA football player yourself. You saw the NCAA suspend your teammate for accepting a bag of groceries when he had no food. You know, you've seen a lot over the course of time that you've been working on this. And I'm just wondering if you feel like your arguments are making headway. Are people starting to take the questions around how college athletes are treated more seriously?

I do think there's progress. Not as fast as I would like - you know, you look at the multi-year scholarships are now available, the name, image and likeness lawsuit from Ed O'Bannon that resulted in stipends. There's still a ways to go. Let's put it that way. But I do think there's reform. I think a lot of key people are listening, especially lawmakers.

That is Ramogi Huma. He is the founder and executive director of the National College Players Association, an organization founded to advocate for college athletes.

turn 2 : Reform for college athlete treatment is progressing slowly, but key people are listening.

Which organization does Ramogi Huma lead?

Answer: Association