Executive Director, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Executive Director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; former director of International Peace and Security at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
PROFILE
Kennette Benedict
Guest
FROM Kennette Benedict
To the Point
Doomsday Scenarios When the Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons, the magazine Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock . As the prospect of nuclear war gets more likely, the minute hand gets closer to midnight. In January, when this program first aired, the hand was moved from seven minutes until midnight to five—the closest it's been since the Cold War. But there's a new twist: global warming has been added as an imminent threat to human kind.
To the Point
Doomsday Scenarios: What to Believe? When the Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons, the magazine Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the "Doomsday Clock." As the prospect of nuclear war gets more likely, the minute hand gets closer to midnight. This week, the hand was moved from seven minutes to night to five --the closest it's been since the Cold War. But in a new twist, global warming has been added as an imminent threat to human kind. Are recent predictions about the end of our species any more credible than those we've already survived? Can we count on unforeseen circumstances and human ingenuity? Does popular culture convey the right message or promote unnecessary anxiety?
Recommended
To the Point
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.
To the Point
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
To the Point
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.