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Sports May 21, 2017

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Writes About His Friendship With Coach Wooden

NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to writer and sports legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about his book, Coach Wooden and Me, about his 50-year relationship with his UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a basketball legend…

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #1: Three NCAA championships at UCLA. Six NBA titles with Milwaukee and Los Angeles.

Here’s Kareem, the sky hook.

UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #2: He has scored well over 37,000 points, well over 3,000 blocked shots.

UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #3: Kareem – swing left, right hand 12-footer good.

UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #4: And you can just tell the way the big fellow was laughing, he thinks that’s it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: …But his new book is a tribute to another legend, his coach at UCLA, John Wooden. Their 50-year-long friendship started on the court at Pauley Pavilion and grew over lunch at VIP’s Cafe in Tarzana and long afternoons of easy conversation in coach Wooden’s den. This week on Out of Bounds, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, author of “Coach Wooden And Me.” He joins me now from NPR West. Welcome so much to the program.

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR: Thank you very much, nice to talk to you.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: At the beginning of the book, you write about how you and coach Wooden when you first met were an odd couple sitcom waiting to happen. Tell us about who you were then.

ABDUL-JABBAR: Well, you know, I was this cocky kid from New York City who felt that I would go to UCLA and do very well playing basketball, and that’s what it would be all about. And coach Wooden was able to make me become aware of so much more.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You write in the book that you thought he was some white dude from the Midwest who might be close-minded, who just thought about farms, and you had some preconceptions about him as well.

ABDUL-JABBAR: Yeah. You know, when you’re – spent all your time in one section of the country, you get the little snippets and stereotypes of it and that’s all you know. So for me to come all this way across the country and go to Los Angeles, it was a brave new world a little bit.

And, you know, that’s really what I was trying to explain in writing “Coach Wooden And Me.” I wanted people to get an idea of just how out of place this was to put two people like this together and have them become lifelong friends.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. This is a book about a 50-year-long friendship and mentorship, he mentored you. You credit coach Wooden with instilling some key values in you. There are a lot of anecdotes in this book, so I’m going to ask you to just sort of relay one of them. When was the moment that you really came to understand the impact he was having on your life?

ABDUL-JABBAR: The moment that I understood the impact that he had had on my life was after I became a parent and I had to deal with my kids, and I used his tactics. And I would think about it and laugh to myself.

So in putting everything together in writing “Coach Wooden And Me,” I really had to go back and think about these things. And it took me some time. You know, I had to really digest what he had meant to me, and then I had to figure out if I wanted to share it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But it feels more than a tribute to a great man. It’s more about the nature of friendship and how you navigate fundamental differences with people that you care about.

ABDUL-JABBAR: Yeah. What we had that we loved together so much, you know, the things that we shared, the loves that we shared, you know, for literature and for sports other than basketball. But, you know, he was an English teacher. I was an English major. So we had that, and that was a tremendous bond. And it enabled him to reach into my life and for me to have insight into his life.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You write in this book though – and I’m quoting here – “he didn’t quite understand that when you are black in America, everything is about race.” You got to know him at a time when the civil rights movement was underway. You were finding your voice on race, but he disappointed you on that issue along the way at times.

ABDUL-JABBAR: Well, I don’t think coach disappointed me so much as sometimes he didn’t understand how race could affect somebody. And he didn’t see that until he was with me, and we went through incidents where he saw that geez, he wouldn’t like to have experienced that.

And he didn’t think that other Americans were that mean-spirited and cruel at times, the way that black people experience those emotions and sentiments from their fellow Americans. And he said he learned so much from what he saw me go through as his star player.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Race is so divisive. What can we learn from your relationship with a white man from a different generation?

ABDUL-JABBAR: That’s what “Coach Wooden And Me” is about. It’s about the fact that despite all the differences here in America, we come together on so much that we agree on, you know, our love for sport. Basketball fans across all ethnicities and socioeconomic lines, everybody loves hoops. And that’s where we come together, within our country and with other countries of the world.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: When you talk about your friendship with coach Wooden in the book, you use the word accomplishment. Why that word? Is having an enduring friendship and accomplishment?

ABDUL-JABBAR: Yeah, I think so because it’s something that you have to work at. It just doesn’t come. Building up trust and love and affection with someone else, you’ve got to take some risks. You could fail. It is an accomplishment, you know, because it tests your judgment and, what is your commitment?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You have to show your vulnerability to that person.

ABDUL-JABBAR: Yeah. It’s not just about I’m wonderful, here I am.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the legend, the author, the mentor, the friend. His book out now is “Coach Wooden And Me.” Thank you so much.

ABDUL-JABBAR: Great talking to you. Thanks.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRIBECA’S “GET LARGE”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports May 20, 2017

Cloud Computing Pulls Upset Win At Preakness, Ending Triple Crown Hopes

Cloud Computing (2), ridden by Javier Castellano, gallops out after winning the 142nd Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico race course as Classic Empire (5) with Julien Leparoux aboard finishes for second, Saturday, in Baltimore.

Patrick Semansky/AP

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Patrick Semansky/AP

Cloud Computing pulled a surprise win in the final strides of the 142nd run of the Preakness Stakes, shutting out any chances for a Triple Crown winner this year.

The clear favorite, Always Dreaming, who took the first jewel in Kentucky, wound up finishing eighth this run, despite sharing a strong lead with Classic Empire — who finished second — for the first half of the race. Senior Investment placed third.

In a final, fierce charge, Cloud Computing, ridden by Javier Castellano, nosed ahead of Classic Empire. Castellano finished the mile and three-sixteenth race in 1 minute 59.98 seconds at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md. It’s the jockey’s second Preakness win, following his 2006 victory aboard Bernardini.

The next stop is New York’s Belmont Stakes on June 10, where the final jewel is up for grabs.

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Business May 20, 2017

In Google's Vision Of The Future, Computing Is Immersive

Dan Howley tries out the Google Daydream View virtual-reality headset and controller on Oct. 4, 2016, following a product event in San Francisco. This week, Google announced plans for stand-alone VR goggles that won’t need to be attached to a PC or smartphone.

Eric Risberg/AP

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Eric Risberg/AP

Google offered a glimpse of how it sees the future at its annual developer’s conference this week. And it involves a lot of blending between the virtual and the real worlds using augmented and virtual reality. Google is calling that blend immersive computing.

Clay Bavor, who heads up Google’s AR and VR division, says it’s all part of a future where the virtual and real worlds blur.

“Virtual reality can make you really feel transported somewhere else,” Bavor says. “Augmented reality can bring kind of digital information into your environment and make it really seem as if it’s there in the real world.”

When it comes to virtual reality other companies like Facebook’s Oculus Rift, Sony VR, and HTC Vive have aimed for the expensive high end. But Google has actually reached more people with its $15 Cardboard viewer that attaches to smartphones. This week it announced plans for a more advanced VR headset.

Google will be the first major company to release stand-alone VR goggles. “Unlike systems that you have to connect to a PC or where you take your smartphone and insert it into a VR headset, everything you need for VR is contained right in the headset itself,” Bavor says.

Google is partnering with HTC and Lenovo to make the headset.

New #Daydream standalone headsets from partners like @htcvive won’t require a phone or PC. #io17pic.twitter.com/7TpYPJGEdU

— Google (@Google) May 17, 2017

Google is also beefing up its augmented reality technology. First, there’s Google Lens. The technology pulls together Google’s search technology and lays it over photos from the real world. You can point your camera at a flower and the search engine will identify it for you. Point the camera at a book and it will give you reviews and information about the author. Google Lens will initially be available through Google Assistant and Google Photos.

Google also announced what it’s calling Visual Positioning Service or VPS. Bavor says imagine going to a large store. “You go to Lowe’s and you need to find this very specific bolt. You can pull up the Lowe’s app — do a search for it and then your phone will walk you step by step to the exact aisle and shelf where that bolt is,” he says.

Bavor says this technology may also be especially useful to the blind. But, it won’t initially be widely available. It will be incorporated into a new ASUS smartphone.

There’s a lot of competition among the big tech companies to advance these immersive technologies — Facebook, Microsoft and Sony are competitors and analysts say Apple is likely to jump into the fray.

But Google has some advantages, says Greg Sterling, a contributing editor at Search Engine Land. “Because it’s got hardware, it’s got a massive consumer audience and brand and it’s got all this data and software expertise. And really none of the other players have all those pieces,” he says.

Google is adding both AR and VR capabilities to its Chrome browser. You’ll be able to switch between VR experiences quickly and of course use Google’s database to identify items in the real world. For example, you could point your augmented reality-enabled phone at a restaurant and review would pop up on the screen from Google search.

But not all of Google’s efforts may be destined to succeed. Take that stand-alone VR headset. Google’s new VR goggles might not appeal to either high-end VR fans or the low-end Google Cardboard fans.

Brian Blau, an analyst at Gartner, says the high-end users will spend money for the power of an Oculus Rift and the low-end market may not want to spend much at all. Google says its headset might cost the same as an Oculus Rift, but will be cheaper because you don’t have to buy a high-end computer too. That could be too much, Blau says.

“Because you really have to want to be an extended VR user, if you will, if you’re going to invest more than $500 into one of these systems,” he says.

And Google has had previous failures with augmented reality. Google Glass was a flop with consumers because the company didn’t think through the privacy implications.

Google’s VR headset will be out the end of this year and so will new augmented reality-capable smartphones. There’s still no word on price.

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Entertainment May 19, 2017

DVD Obscura: The New Indie and International Movies You Need to Watch

New Indie

It’s been loved, it’s been hated, it’s been praised, it’s been criticized, it won Best Picture, it didn’t win Best Picture: In the final analysis, though, La La Land (Summit/Lionsgate) is not a film to be ignored. You can nitpick its choices and what it has to say about jazz and whether or not the leads should have been cast in a musical, but there’s no denying that an attempt to mount a large-scale original musical movie (with strong indie roots, no less) qualifies as a daring experiment, no matter what you think of the final outcome. I was dazzled and continue to be enthralled by this sweet and sad movie; it’s a wonderfully heartbreaking musical, and it ranks among the great L.A. movies in the history of this oft-filmed city. Give it a look and make up your own mind.

Also available: Frank Langella stars as an old man taking a road trip to euthanasia in the comedy Youth in Oregon (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), also featuring Billy Crudup, Christina Applegate and Mary Kay Place; Lovesong (Strand Releasing Home Entertainment) charts a friendship that grows amorous before breaking apart, hauntingly performed by Riley Keough and Jena Malone; Sandra Oh and Anne Heche beat the crap out of each other in the bold satire Catfight (Dark Sky Films); the indie comedy Punching Henry (Well Go USA Entertainment) features an impressive ensemble, including Sarah Silverman, Doug Stanhope, Tig Notaro, Clifton Collins Jr. and J.K. Simmons.

New Foreign

You’ve never quite seen a real-time romance like Paris 05:59 Théo & Hugo (Wolfe Video); for one thing, it starts in an underground sex club where our leads get to know each other very well before they even learn each other’s names. But this charming film segues from explicit to intimate, as they spend the wee hours exploring the City of Lights while dealing with a potential health emergency, getting to know each other in waiting rooms and on buses. Smart, sexy and passionate, this lovely French import doesn’t hold anything back.

Also available: The comedy The Mafia Kills Only in Summer (Icarus Films) spans 20 years of Sicilian history, and of one small-town boy’s efforts to win the girl of his dreams; Three (Well Go USA Entertainment), from legendary director Johnnie To, sees a cop, a criminal and a surgeon cross paths in a tense race against the clock; in the waning days of WWII, a Hungarian man puts on a Nazi uniform to find his family in the moving Walking with the Enemy (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment).

New Doc

As politicians demonize our neighbors to the south and bloviate about building a wall, the powerful documentary All of Me (Strand Releasing Home Entertainment) puts a human face on those who risk their lives to cross the Mexican border in the hopes of improving conditions for themselves and their families. As migrants travel on a train known as The Beast, a group of women called the Patronas makes food and tosses it to the helpless each day as the train rushes by, bringing hope and love to circumstances that are utterly dire. It’s a gorgeous and inspirational look at people bringing their best selves to dark times.

Also available: The insect world is ready for its close-up in the eye-popping Microcosmos (Kino Lorber), now available on Blu-ray.

New Grindhouse

A hit at festivals, but barely released theatrically in the United States, the provocative British chiller The Girl with All the Gifts (Lionsgate) takes two narratives you never thought you wanted to see again – the “chosen one” YA heroine and the zombie apocalypse – and breathes fresh life into both. Young Sennia Nanua is the titular child, the first zombie who shows human tendencies and who might signal an end to the crisis. Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton and Paddy Considine lead a terrific ensemble in this smart, exciting genre film.

Also available: Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive Trilogy (Arrow/MVD) displays the director’s skill at both viscerally outrageous visuals and genuine dramatic impact; the walking tree is the monster in Japanese horror cult classic From Hell It Came (Warner Archive Collection); you’d best watch your step in Chupacabra Territory (Maltauro Entertainment), as four explorers learn the hard way in this found-footage freak-out.

Kenny Lin is the Sword Master (Well Go USA Entertainment) in this remake of the Hong Kong classic Death Duel from producer Tsui Hark; Clarence Williams III is your Cryptkeeper in the legendary horror anthology Tales from the Hood (Scream Factory); House: Two Stories (Arrow/MVD) brings the chills with tongue firmly in cheek as it takes us through a very haunted domicile; Ben Wheatley executive-produced Tank 432 (IFC Midnight/Scream Factory), in which barricaded soldiers and hostages must decide if they’re better off inside the wall or out in the post-apocalypse.

New Classic

Tampopo (The Criterion Collection) will make you hungry for ramen, to be sure, but there’s more on writer-director Juzo Itami’s mind in this brilliantly hilarious comedy. Partially a parody of spaghetti Westerns (it’s definitely got noodles on its mind) but also a loving examination of the human obsession with food, this hilariously episodic film follows a widow who is trained in the art of soup by a nomadic trucker and his comrades. Interspersed throughout are wild and bawdy sketches involving gourmet gangsters, eating lessons and much more. Delicious in every way possible, Tampopo ranks among the great international comedies, and after a long absence from American DVD, this new release looks great and overflows with tasty extras.

Also available: Once censored by authorities, Josef von Sternberg’s Anatahan (Kino Classics) tells the true story of U.S. sailors and Japanese locals in the final weeks of World War II; Rod Taylor and crew return from Mars to find a devastated Earth in the sci-fi staple World Without End (Warner Archive Collection); an early thriller from the great Claude Chabrol, Ophélia (Olive Films) stars Alida Valli in this Hamlet-inspired family mystery; Ladies of the Jury (Warner Archive Collection) features the great Edna May Oliver in a pre-code courtroom comedy-thriller that feels like a 1930s Legally Blonde.

One of the last silent serials ever produced, the newly-restored The Mysterious Airman (Sprocket Vault) debuts on DVD with seat-of-the-pants aviation footage (and low-budget thrills aplenty) still intact; Luchino Visconti’s Ludwig (Arrow Academy/MVD) stars the director’s muse Helmut Berger as the decadent “mad” king; Ride the High Country (Warner Archive Collection) put Sam Peckinpah on the map as one of the Western’s greatest auteurs; while you’re watching the new Hulu series, catch up with director Volker Scholondorff’s feature film of The Handmaid’s Tale (Shout Factory), starring Natasha Richardson and Robert Duvall.

One of French New Wave giant Jacques Demy’s American movies, the musical The Pied Piper (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) stars pop legend Donovan in the title role, opposite Jack Wild, John Hurt and Roy Kinnear; Nazi soldiers have 36 Hours (Warner Archive Collection) to convince American officer James Garner that the war has ended, so that he’ll divulge secret information; Elio Petri’s dark comedy Property Is No Longer a Theft (Arrow Academy/MVD) is both a tale of economic revenge and another of the director’s blistering social satires; there’s still no crying in baseball as A League of Their Own (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) celebrates its 25th anniversary with a new Blu-ray.

The Mephisto Waltz (Kino Lorber Studio Classics) is aiming at Rosemary’s Baby‘s brand of posh horror, but it generates some of its own genuine shocks; before The Waltons, there was Spencer’s Mountain (Warner Archive Collection), both based on Earl Hamner Jr.’s autobiographical novel; 1933’s The Vampire Bat (The Film Detective), starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas and Dwight Frye, comes to Blu-ray following a restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive; bunnies, jet engines and Sparkle Motion have never been the same since Donnie Darko (MVD), now available in a new 4K restoration.

Francis Coppola’s underrated Rumble Fish (The Criterion Collection) is a gorgeous piece of teen expressionism, and if you’ve never seen it, you’re missing out on a modern classic; the legendary Daughters of the Dust (Cohen Media Group), which inspired a good chunk of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, gets a full restoration for its 25th anniversary, along with a commentary featuring director Julie Dash.

Polish director Walerian Borowczyk’s only film made in his native land, Story of Sin (Arrow Academy/MVD) puts a surreal twist on the crime melodrama – and if you’re a Borowcyzk fan, Olive Films has released four new titles featuring his short films as well as features like Blanche, Theatre of Mr. & Mrs. Kabal and Goto, Isle of Love; Texas oilman James Garner sweeps Wall Street’s Lee Remick off her feet in the frothy comedy The Wheeler Dealers (Warner Archive Collection); the anthology film The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers (Olive Films) features international filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Ugo Gregoretti and Hiromichi Horikawa.

New TV

Whether it’s because of rights issues or other factors, made-for-TV movies remain very much under-represented on DVD and Blu-ray, with several classics (like Frank Perry’s adaptation of Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory) still unavailable. All the more reason to celebrate the release of a title like The Migrants (CBS/Kino Lorber), an Emmy-nominated film written by playwright Lanford Wilson, adapting the Tennessee Williams story. Cloris Leachman, Ron Howard, Sissy Spacek and Cindy Williams star in this saga of an impoverished Dust Bowl family eking out an existence as migrant farm workers during the Great Depression, and it’s a network prestige item that well deserves another look.

Also available: The Oscar-nominated Australian thriller moves its tale to southern California in Animal Kingdom: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment), featuring Ellen Barkin as the fearsome materfamilias of a crime organization; National Geographic explores our own world’s imperiled environment in Before the Flood and imagines the colonizing of a neighboring planet in Mars (both from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment).

Toby Jones, Andrea Riseborough and Kim Cattrall lead an exceptional cast in the BBC’s acclaimed treatment of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution (RLJ/Acorn); Veep: The Complete Fifth Season (HBO Home Entertainment) proves there’s still room for political satire in a world that would seem to have surpassed mockery; the story of the Asian superstar’s life continues in Legend of Bruce Lee: Volume Two (Well Go USA Entertainment); an Australian family finds a home in a remote area of New Zealand in the acclaimed drama 800 Words, Season 2, Part 1 (RLJ/Acorn).

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Business May 19, 2017

Episode 772: Small Change

Technology changes.

Giordano Poloni/Getty Images/Ikon Images

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Here is a thing we hear approximately every day: The world is changing faster than ever before. Robert Gordon doesn’t buy it.

He’s an economist who has spent decades studying technological change and economic growth in America. He argues that, contrary to popular belief, the world is not changing faster than ever before. In fact, it’s not even changing as fast as it was 100 years ago.

He recently made this argument in a book called The Rise and Fall of American Growth. In the New York Times, Paul Krugman called it a “magisterial combination of deep technological history, vivid portraits of daily life… and careful economic analysis.”

On today’s show, we talk to Gordon. His argument has profound implications for everything from how the next generation will live to whether robots really are about to take our jobs.

Music: “Burning In Me,” “Feels So Good” and “Nerd Disco.” Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts or PocketCast.

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Health May 19, 2017

Health Care Industry Drives Job Growth At The Expense Of Efficiency

As the debate over health care continues in Washington, one thing not in dispute is that health care industry employment has been going up steadily over the past decade. In Ohio, health care industry jobs now outnumber those in manufacturing. The jobs are good news to state and local economies, but some analysts also say it’s a reflection of the high costs and complexity of health care.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The number of health care jobs in the U.S. keeps growing. Take Ohio. Health care positions there now top those in manufacturing. Now, on one hand, those jobs are good for local economies, but on the other hand, analysts say that kind of job growth isn’t so great if it’s because of the inefficiencies of a complex health care system. NPR’s Don Gonyea reports.

DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Just east of downtown Cleveland sits a 160-acre campus of one of the most highly regarded hospitals in the world, the Cleveland Clinic. Toby Cosgrove, the CEO, points skyward to a massive piece of abstract art hanging from the ceiling in the lobby. It looks vaguely heart-shaped.

TOBY COSGROVE: Well, actually it’s a model of a iceberg.

GONYEA: OK.

COSGROVE: And the reason I like it and I think it’s appropriate for health care is there’s so much going on behind the scenes that you don’t see. For every doctor here, there are 18 employees that are supporting that individual.

GONYEA: Cosgrove talks about the shifting Ohio economy.

COSGROVE: Unfortunately we have lost a lot of the manufacturing, which were great jobs in the United States.

GONYEA: But he also notes the growing health care industry. The Cleveland Clinic alone has more than 50,000 employees nationally, most of them right in northeast Ohio.

COSGROVE: You see people like neurosurgeons on the one end of things.

GONYEA: And the bus drivers who shuttle people around the sprawling campus.

COSGROVE: So it’s a wide variety of employment.

GONYEA: And Cosgrove says there’s easily an equal number of spinoff jobs, everything from local restaurants to suppliers to housing. Now across town to the smaller public hospital known as the MetroHealth System – it has more than 7,000 employees, but that number is also growing. Derek Dodds has been a respiratory therapist there for 23 years.

DEREK DODDS: You know what? I think I was part of the influx into the health care system because I grew up in Youngstown.

GONYEA: Youngstown is known for its steel mills, nearly all of which are gone now.

DODDS: When I went to college, I was looking for something that would be – that I would be guaranteed to really get a job once I graduated, and the health care field is there.

GONYEA: This hospital’s finances have been helped by Medicaid expansion in Ohio, but President Trump and Republicans have proposed big cuts to Medicaid. Dodds says that worries him.

DODDS: Now it’s almost like the wild frontier again where you don’t know what’s going to be happening.

GONYEA: MetroHealth officials say the hospital is on solid financial ground these days. Obamacare has meant more people have insurance, but they’ve also found cost efficiencies. Many, many health care workers never set foot in a hospital or clinic. Meet 50-year-old Shanese Alexander.

SHANESE ALEXANDER: I go from home to home, taking care of patients.

GONYEA: She does the kind of job that’s been one of the fastest growing in recent years.

ALEXANDER: Different things like maybe a little light housekeeping, make them something to eat, making sure that they take their medicine, keep their doctor’s appointments and things like that.

GONYEA: She won’t say what she’s paid, but her union, the Service Employees International Union, is pushing to raise wages to $15 an hour. Alexander agrees that health care overall needs to be more efficient, but she hopes the work she does isn’t targeted for cuts.

ALEXANDER: That would mean a lot to people without service. Sometimes we’re the only people that they see.

GONYEA: Health care economists say the goal should be to continually find ways to make the industry, with its layers of administrative jobs, more cost effective. Katherine Baicker studies the health care economy at the Harvard School of Public Health. The jobs are great, she says, if…

KATHERINE BAICKER: If we have a lot of people employed in health care because we’re delivering a lot of health because people are living longer healthier lives, that’s a wonderful thing.

GONYEA: But she stresses it’s important to remember these jobs are funded by taxpayer dollars or insurance premiums.

BAICKER: We want people to have jobs, but we want those jobs to be producing a higher standard of living. If we have a lot of people employed in health care in a way that’s driving up health insurance premiums and the cost of services but isn’t producing health, then we’d be much better off if those people were employed somewhere else.

GONYEA: Compounding this is the reality that the population in places like Ohio is aging, which means more people are going to need more care. That would help justify the jobs, but the industry still has the challenge of delivering services more efficiently. Don Gonyea, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAURA GIBSON SONG, “HANDS IN POCKETS”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports May 19, 2017

Nashville Goes Nuts For Hockey And The Predators

A decade ago, the NHL’s experiment with hockey in Nashville, Tenn., was in trouble. Now “Smashville” fans are in love with the Predators, who are playing in their first Western Conference finals.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The biggest shock during this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs hasn’t come from a traditional hockey powerhouse. It’s been the Nashville Predators. Heading into last night’s game against the Anaheim Ducks, the Predators had won 10 consecutive playoff games at home. The Ducks managed to break their streak, winning 3-2, but a lot of credit for the Predators’ amazing run is going to the team’s fans and the electric atmosphere on the team’s home ice. Here’s Chas Sisk with member station WPLN.

CHAS SISK, BYLINE: Two hours before a playoff game against the Anaheim Ducks, and the party is already underway on the plaza outside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

(SOUNDBITE OF BANGING, CHEERING)

SISK: This is Smashville, and Predators fans are kicking things off by taking a sledgehammer to a junk automobile, painted over with the Ducks logo and color scheme.

(SOUNDBITE OF BANGING, CHEERING)

SISK: Jay Mayfield is one of the people working out his aggression. He lives two hours away in Chattanooga and says he’s been a Preds fan since the team’s inception in the late 1990s.

JAY MAYFIELD: When I tell friends who are from up north that I’m a big hockey fan and I live in Tennessee, none of them really believe me or process that it’s true.

SISK: They have good reason. In Tennessee, winter ice is considered a crisis, and playing the game – well, let’s just say that’s not required.

Can you skate?

MAYFIELD: I can’t skate to save my life.

SISK: But this is hockey with Nashville flair, and Mayfield loves it, the fans spewing out of the country music bars just across the street, Grammy winners like Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood singing the national anthem, pro wrestlers leading the cheers.

MAYFIELD: The entire experience is very distinctly Tennessee. It’s not something you’re going to see, and it’s not something you’re really going to see in D.C. or Pittsburgh or Cleveland or anywhere else.

SISK: This spectacle is a major reason why the Predators sold out all 41 of their home games this season, which is a big deal. A decade ago, attendance here was so poor, the team stood on the verge of relocating, either to Canada or Kansas City. Now, some experts say the Preds are the best show in the NHL. Its fans are among the loudest. And at home, the team is practically unbeatable.

TERRY CRISP: They thoroughly believe that when they make that noise and that chant and what they do, it boosts them, and they’re dead on right.

SISK: Terry Crisp is a former NHL player and coach. He’s been a broadcaster for the Predators since their inaugural season in 1998. Back then, Crisp had to tutor fans on the rules of hockey. Now, he says, they’re as engaged as followers up north.

CRISP: But when you’re sitting on the bench and you just finished a shift or you’re just going to go on for a shift and they start that uproar and they start that noise coming, the hair in the back of your neck rises. You get goosebumps everywhere. And they definitely pick you up.

SISK: Like other Sun Belt teams, the Predators have worked to spread the game through youth hockey teams and building rinks. Team officials say they now have a generation of fans who grew up on the team. But the Preds’ real age is location. The team plays in the heart of Nashville’s honky-tonk district, a place where people have come for decades to cut loose. Danny Shaklan is the Predators’ VP of marketing.

DANNY SHAKLAN: The party doesn’t start when the puck drops. The party starts, like, three hours earlier.

SISK: For Game 3 against the Ducks, the Predators brought in players from the city’s pro football team, the Tennessee Titans, to get the crowd riled up. As fans watched on the video monitors, a lineman stripped his shirt and shotgunned a beer. The game itself was tight, with the score tied late in the third period. Then the Predators amped up the pressure. Play-by-play man Pete Weber with ESPN 102.5 The Game in Nashville made the call.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PETE WEBER: Fifty seconds left, and the puck is knocked down. Josi scores.

SISK: Another home victory in the books, for the Nashville Predators and their growing cadre of fans. For NPR News, I’m Chas Sisk in Nashville.

(SOUNDBITE OF BRONTIDE’S “SANS SOUCI”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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Entertainment May 18, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: Armie Hammer as Shazam, 'Alien' Franchise Recap and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Dream Casting of the Day:

Dwayne Johnson wants Armie Hammer to play Shazam opposite his Black Adam, so BossLogic shows us what they’d look like:

Forgot to post the @armiehammer X @TheRock pieces I did for @ComicBook I dying to get some news on this film pic.twitter.com/UVPrOiW5Eq

— BossLogic (@Bosslogic) May 17, 2017

Franchise Recap of the Day:

Get ready for Alien: Covenant by watching this history of the Alien franchise from Distractotron (via Film School Rejects):

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Movie Science of the Day:

Also in honor of the new Alien movie, Kyle Hill explains the biology of the Xenomorphs:

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Behind the Scenes Video of the Day:

In his latest Alien: Covenant set visit video, Adam Savage shares a look at the movie’s creature and special effects:

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Fan Art of the Day:

For our third celebration of the Yondu Mary Poppins bit from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 this week, here’s some excellent art from Wooden Plank Studios (via Geek Tyrant):

“IS HE COOL?!” #GuardiansoftheGalaxyVol2#GuardiansOfTheGalaxy#Marvel#fanart#disney#MaryPoppins#iamgroot#immarypoppinsyallpic.twitter.com/QuGbz4QBMx

— Wooden Plank Studios (@WoodenPlankST) May 10, 2017

Cosplay of the Day:

In the latest edition of Tyrants of Cosplay, meet a mashup of the Joker and Boba Fett and a mashup of Harley Quinn and Slave Leia from Return of the Jedi:

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Vintage Image of the Day:

Frank Capra, who was born 120 years ago today, directs James Stewart and Jean Arthur on the set of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939:

Actor in the Spotlight:

Johnny Depp gets animated and talks about his youth in this adaptation of a 2009 Esquire interview:

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Supercut of the Day:

Enough hero worship, here’s a supercut showcasing the greatest bad guys in cinema:

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Cannes premiere of Far and Away. Watch the original trailer for the classic Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman pairing below.

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and

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Business May 18, 2017

U.S. Treasury Department Imposes Sanctions on Venezuelan Supreme Court

A protester demonstrates against the Venezuelan government outside the Organization of American States during a special meeting in April. The Trump administration has imposed economic sanctions on members of the country’s Supreme Court.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

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Jose Luis Magana/AP

The U.S. Treasury Department is freezing the assets of eight members of Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice as a result of rulings that the U.S. says have usurped the power of that country’s democratically elected National Assembly.

The sanctions were announced in a statement by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin:

“The Venezuelan people are suffering from a collapsing economy brought about by their government’s mismanagement and corruption. Members of the country’s Supreme Court of Justice have exacerbated the situation by consistently interfering with the legislative branch’s authority. By imposing these targeted sanctions, the United States is supporting the Venezuelan people in their efforts to protect and advance democratic governance in their country.”

As reported in the Two-Way, the economic and political crisis in Venezuela has sparked weeks of unrest.

In March, the Venezuelan Supreme Court temporarily dissolved the National Assembly and assumed the powers of the legislature. The high court is dominated by loyalists of President Nicolas Maduro.

That action, which was later reversed in the face of international criticism and street protests, was one of a half-dozen rulings by the court that U.S. officials say “interfere with or limit the National Assembly’s authority.”

Among those sanctioned is Maikel Jose Moreno Perez, president of the Supreme Court. His assets within U.S. jurisdiction and those of seven other justices have been frozen and U.S. citizens are prohibited from doing business with them.

The announcement came not long after President Trump addressed the Venezuelan crisis in remarks at the White House with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

“When you look at the oil reserves that they have, when you look at the potential wealth that Venezuela has, you sort of have to wonder, why is that happening? How is that possible? But it’s been unbelievably poorly run for a long period of time. And hopefully that will change,” said Trump.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on Venezuelan leaders. In February, the target was Vice President Tareck El Aissami, whom U.S. officials accuse of being involved in international drug trafficking.

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Health May 18, 2017

Fact Check: 'We Don't Have Health Care In This Country,' Trump Says

In a news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in the White House on Thursday, President Trump said the Affordable Care Act “is collapsing.”

Andrew Harnik/AP

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Andrew Harnik/AP

President Trump gave a eulogy on Thursday for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

“Obamacare is collapsing. It’s dead. It’s gone,” Trump said in a news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

“There’s nothing to compare it to because we don’t have health care in this country,” he went on.

That left some Obamacare customers scratching their heads — figuratively — on Twitter.

Doktor Zoom, for example, wondered why he’s still paying a premium.

Damn, Obamacare is dead and gone? Funny, i’m still paying my premium, seeing my doctor, and filling my prescriptions. I could be wrong.

— Doktor Zoom (@DoktorZoom) May 18, 2017

In fact, we do have health care in this country — quite a lot of it. The U.S. spent about $3.2 trillion on health care in 2015, or nearly $10,000 per person. It accounts for 17.8 percent of GDP.

But the president wasn’t talking about health care per se. He was talking about Obamacare, which Republicans are trying to replace with legislation currently in the hands of the Senate.

Even the picture of the current health law isn’t as bad as Trump tried to paint it, though. In the years since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, the uninsured rate fell toabout 10 percent, the lowest level in U.S. history. About 10 million people have bought insurance through the exchanges created by the health care law. Another 10 million got coverage through the expansion of Medicaid.

.@realDonaldTrump: “#Obamacare is dead…a fallacy…nothing there…it’s gone.” I;m sure the 20+million ppl on it will disagree w/u. #trump

— Andy Ostroy (@AndyOstroy) May 18, 2017

That’s not to say the Obamacare marketplaces aren’t struggling. In some states insurers are pulling out of the markets because they’re losing money, as Trump pointed out.

“Aetna just pulled out. Other insurance companies are pulling out,” he said.

That’s true. Aetna pulled out of all the Obamacare exchanges. In some states — Tennessee and Iowa, for example — there are areas that risk having no insurer at all. And premiums have been rising across the country.

Still, the overall Obamacare picture isn’t so stark.

Standard & Poors, for example, said last month that insurance companies that offer health plans on the exchanges are losing less money than ever, and the markets are becoming more stable. The Kaiser Family Foundation says more than half the population has the choice of three or more insurers if it wants to buy a policy on the exchanges. And most people who get insurance through the Affordable Care Act receive subsidies to offset the rate increases.

Several insurance companies, however, have said the uncertainty caused by Republican efforts to repeal the law have led them to either pull out of the markets or raise their rates for next year.

So when Trump says, as he did today, “Obamacare is a fallacy. It’s dead,” that’s not exactly true.

But he hopes to help make it so.

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