Joseph Fiennes will play Michael Jackson in a new British made-for-TV movie about a fictional road trip taken by Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, and Marlon Brando from New York to California after 9/11. We might applaud the casting of a white actor to play one of the most iconic black entertainers in American culture if we lived in a post-racial society. But that's fiction, too.
Also this hour, rapper B.o.B released a diss track against Neil deGrasse Tyson after both engaged in a Twitter debate about whether the earth is flat. Does B.o.B's certainty that the world is flat reflect the same anti-science thinking that discounts climate change, vaccinations and evolution? Or, a healthy search to understand the world in which we live and challenge those who fail to explain?
Lastly, the chief product officer at Facebook is about to mess with the one thing that until now was non-negotiable. The "like" button brings in lots of advertising dollars from its 1.6 billion users who click "like" for news as varied as their best friend's new haircut to the latest mass shooting. Is it time for a better tool?
GUESTS:
- Jim Chapdelaine - Musician, producer, composer and recording engineer
- Luis Figueroa - Associate professor of History at Trinity College
- Carolyn Paine - Actress/Comedian, Dancer, and Founder, Choreographer and Director of Connetic Dance
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Colin McEnroe, Betsy Kaplan and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
