What’s on MPR News – 1/14/19

Monday Jan. 14, 2019
(Subject to change as events dictate. This page is updated throughout the day.)

9 a.m. – MPR News with Kerri Miller
The Political Junkie. Host Kerri Miller will have her weekly discussion with Political Junkie Ken Rudin.

9:15 a.m. – The political divide in America is stark, but the relationship between Conservatives and Liberals hasn’t always been so corrosive. A study from Pew Research shows that between 1994 and 2016 the number of Republicans and Democrats who have “very unfavorable” views of the opposing party has more than doubled.

Guest: Political scientist Lilliana Mason

10 a.m.- 1A with Joshua Johnson
No other advanced democracy has government shutdowns. Here, they’ve become almost routine. Is this fight over a wall? Or over power of the presidency?

Guests: Patrick Madden, senior reporter, WAMU Washington D.C.; W. Craig Fugate, former administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency; J. David Cox, national president, the American Federation of Government Employees.

11 a.m. – MPR News with Angela Davis

Twenty years ago, the sleep medicine program at Mayo Clinic did 18 pediatric sleep studies. Last year, it did more than 800. Although kids are still only a fraction of the sleep medicine patient population, it’s been growing quickly as doctors have focused on the importance of sleep to child and teen development – and realized that sleep disorders like apnea aren’t limited to adults.

Guests: Suresh Kotagal and Robin Lloyd, two doctors at Mayo’s Center for Sleep Medicine.

11:45 a.m. – The Ford assembly plant along St. Paul’s riverfront produced everything from the Model T to Ford Ranger pickup trucks during its nearly century-long history. When it opened in 1925, the site one of Ford’s largest and most innovative in the country. Over the years, it employed thousands of Minnesotans and spurred the growth of the Highland Park neighborhood.

The plant, which Ford closed in 2011, is headed for redevelopment.

A new documentary, “Made in St. Paul: Stories from the Ford Plant,” captures the history of the plant, from Henry Ford’s early interest in the site to the stories of the workers who spent their days making the cars Americans drive.

Guest: Peter Myers, producer.

12 p.m. – MPR News Presents
An American Public Media Reports documentary, “Hard Words: Why American Kids Aren’t Being Taught to Read.”

1 p.m. – The Takeaway
As special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation nears its conclusion, The Takeaway looks at two new developments that underscore the gravity of what’s at stake; Steve King’s racism; the impact of incarceration on parents.

2 p.m. – BBC NewsHour
A highly unusual court case in China leads to the death sentence for a Canadian man; a Polish mayor is stabbed to death on stage; in South Africa, what’s the future for the all-powerful ANC?

3 p.m. – All Things Considered
Furloughs and finances; no deal on Brexit; freedom from Facebook; the 2020 campaign; more on Jaymie Closs.

6:00 p.m. – Marketplace
Navigating the corporate tax landscape. Tax season is around the corner, but between the new tax code and the government shutdown, some companies are already having facing tax problems.

6:30 p.m. – The Daily
As the shutdown continues over the president’s demand for a border wall, Annie Brown from “The Daily” joined Azam Ahmed, a New York Times reporter, and Meridith Kohut, a photojournalist, on their endeavor to drive the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border. Here’s what they saw on the first part of that journey.

7 p.m. – The World
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo finished up the Saudi Arabia leg of his multi-country Middle East tour. This was Pompeo’s second visit to the kingdom since the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Today, Pompeo said he expects accountability from the Saudis for the killing. Host Marco Werman also gets into the story of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, and how that issue figured into Pompeo’s talks with Saudi leaders.

And, Canadian air traffic controllers are taking pity on their American brethren who are working without pay during the US government’s partial shutdown. Marco speaks with Peter Duffey, president of the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association, who describes their spontaneous effort to send sympathy pizza to US colleagues.

Plus, The World’s Carolyn Beeler reports on the “Green New Deal,” as it’s called. There’s a youth climate group behind Alexandria casio-Cortez’s new proposal to fight climate change and, in the process, create new jobs.

8 p.m. – Fresh Air
Notes from a Transplant Surgeon. Dr. Joshua Mezrich talks about the thrill of implanting a new organ and changing a patient’s life, and about some operations that didn’t go so well. His new book is part memoir, and part history of organ transplantation. It’s calledWhen Death Becomes Life.”