What does that pay. Once a key feature of american fiveweek academic boot camp before they even start school. Life. Cristian so one of the skills that i think wasesning h to stu. The American Dream rests on the cristian 80 to 90 thousand. I thought i was the smartest kid idea that each generation will in high school. I was doing really well in my do better than the one before soledad so you will literally serealiz how unprepared i really it. Be moved out of poverty at graduation. But according to a recent pew cristian yes. Study. The individual earnings for soledad like that. Was. Young workers have remained cristian like that. Soledad cristians success how are you doing at mostly flat over the past 50 story is no outlier. Connecting with your professional buddies. Years. Stony brook university, a state besides awarding degrees can school, ranks third among us schools on the social mobility your mentor . Colleges play a role in helping index a metric used by soledad kimberly dixon, poorer students reach upward social mobility . Harvard researchers to measure created a core stony brook in partnership with the gates how well colleges do at support initiative the diversity professional foundation and the hechinger Leadership Network which propelling students from the report we look at a School Provides them with mentors. Kimberly dixon many of them are focused on helping them with their vision statements, helping thats had success in helping them establish and achieve goals students create wealth. Bottom 20 of family incomes before college into the top 20 of incomes after graduation. But that success is in jeopardy due to millions of dollar in in addition to the things that were helping them do with their government budget cuts. Resume and interviewing skills. How many of you guys actually soledad but stony brooks work hands on with students . Success with enabling social dad mobility is increasingly at risk. Oh, everybody. Soledad and finally, theres wow. The school is receiving 50 Million Dollars less in state how do they do it . At least part of the answer to concern that one of the worlds that question lies inside this funding than it did a decade ago. Graduate from college. Oldest, most resilient species room these fellow students, do you worry with that administrators, counselors, and information you run the risk of could be become extinct due to others are worki ogget students to and through climate change. Monarch butterflies typically slowing that social mobility for poor students . Spend their summers in the northern united states, breed in Michael Bernstein were very concerned that it becomes more the south then migrate to central mexico for the winter. And more difficult for students to come to stony brook to the but changing temperatures are disrupting their migration and threatening their existence. And were also concerned that without further support from the state or other sources of summers in the midwest are revenue, we cant continue to getting hotter, texas droughts build the faculty and staff are drying up the milkweed monarchs eat, and the winters in support that has been so central mexico are getting too cold. Effective in transforming the lives of these students. Soledad a transformation that could impact cristians family Scientists Say a billion butterflies have disappeared for generations. Between 1990 and 2015. Cristian i dont think ive ever expected myself to be where and its not just monarchs in danger. I am now. The United Nations recently reported 1 million species of truthfully. Plants and animals face possible its very rewarding and extinction within decades due in large part to climate change. Humbling. Soledad the university tell us about 64 percent of stonybrook students graduate in four years. Just this week the Un Convention the rate is slightly higher for on biological diversity set a goal to stabilize biodiversity students in eop 68 percent. By 2030 and allow ecosystems to recover by 2050. Ency warned thee next on matter of fact, goals will require urgent action money, power, and politics. America has always had more on both local and global levels. Or less control by the very thats it for this edition of wealthy of our political system. Matter of fact. Well see you next week. Has that pushed america away from true democracy . Plus an indepth look at the role of an impeachment manager. And are you wreaking havoc on nature, or living in harmony with it . When your vneck looks more like a uneck. Thats when you know, its halfwashed. Downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. Downy and its done. Doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Introducing a razor that works differently. The gillette skinguard. Designed with a guard between the blades that helps protect skin. It guards against razor burn on the neck and irritation on the face. Get the shave youve been waiting for. Gillette skinguard. Robert handa hello and welcome to a Lunar New Year edition of Asian Pacific america. Im robert handa, your host for our show here on nbc edition of Asian Pacific america. Its more enjoyable to celebrate the Lunar New Year knowing the customs and traditions. We have some experts to tell us all about them. I suppose this is also in the realm of tradition, shopping for lunar near year. Then another special segment on apa eats, oligarchy . On how to make a favorite new years dish. First lets define oligarchy. According to Merriam Webster one then our own custom of artistic and cultural performances, definition is government by the few. A wealthy few. The firebird Chinese Youth orchestra is back, now a new book takes a look at Young Musicians playing traditional instruments, how two powerful families rose all on our show today. To wealth and power in america Lunar New Year traditions are often more simple than you might and what that means for democracy. Awardwinning investigative think, and really stress how personal and familyoriented journalist Andrea Bernstein is the celebration really the author of american oligarchs the kushners, the trumps, and the to talk about this, i have two longtime friends. Marriage of money and power. She joins us from new york. Its so nice to have you. Your book is amazing. Lets begin by talking about this idea that this potentially is an oligarchy. Because i think that the wealthy have long been involved in trying to grab power. Well, before 2016. Wanted to look at in the book. So i covered the 2016 campaign. What happened. But they really focused on sort of the moment. And i wanted to ask the 2016 about a zillion analysis of question, what were the forces at play that produced this presidency . Ificly because ive covered money and power for about forever. I wanted to ask what were the trends in american democracy that produced the trump family and also how did they themselves help accelerate this trend . Youre right. I mean, america has always had more or less control by the very wealthy of our political system. And if you go back to the gilded age, the late eighteen hundreds, which was actually when Donald Trumps grandfather arrived in america. But what happened after that is there were a series of muckraking reporters and there was a progressive movement. Trump and kushner, where you see i mean, people were polled will say theyd like to see billionaires and theyd like to see Big Companies pay more in taxes, but they dont follow up with that. In actually not supporting those businesses. They buy iphones. They have amazon delivered to their houses. And it seems like they dont see a contradiction in that. Am i wrong about that . Andrea well, i think theres a couple of things that are going on. First of all, its very hard to opt out of these systems because theyre designed to seduce you and entice you and make it easy to use them. So that is very, very hard. But also, people are a product of a very deliberate attempt to create a social consensus that taxes are bad and that tax avoidance is good. Tion tax cuts that beganin all with reagan and lasted through the 2017 tax cuts and jobs act. When you look at that, whats happened is that each time the way that these bills get passed is there is an argument. Oh, look, we have to close the loopholes and make the system more fair and were going to lower taxes. But each time you lower taxes, you corrode the idea that paying taxes is a good thing. And that in itself stimulates that in itself stimulates tax avoidance. So you have the situations where these big corporations, they have these headquarters in a place that doesnt even exist somewhere between bermuda and ireland, so they can avoid taxes. So that is what is happening overall in the country. And it frays the social consensus. It increases wealth inequality because the rich corporations and the very wealthy get to keep more of their money. And it also allows them to influence politics. And we see this all the time in the trump administration. You just have to go to his hotel or book a room or become a member in his golf course or maybe buy a condo and get yourself in front of trump and he will look favorably upon youy single day of hisat ds that mea . Not just for right now, but, you andrea well, i mean, i think democracy is really in trouble. What happened the last time america faced this during the gold gilded age is that people pushed back. And that has been american history. But past isnt always prologue, and its something that the founders understood everybody in america would always have to fight for because wealth and money would always influence politics. Soledad Andrea Bernstein, the book is called american oligarchs. So nice to talk to you. Thanks for joining me. Andrea thank you so much. What does the impeachment trial of President Trump have in plus mixing tech and theatre fair soledad weve talked a lot about the growth of Artificial Intelligence on this program. From the bias of facial Recognition Software used by Law Enforcement to the impact of deep fakesvideos used to spreadmisy influence democracy. Annie dorsen is pushing the limits of Artificial Intelligence even further. Shes pioneered a new genre of theater that is challenging human and nonhuman communication and putting ai center stage. Do you like steely dan. I love steely dan. Are you reelin in the years . I do not know whether i am reelin in the year. I am encased in a box. Just kidding. Ha ha ha ha [audience laughs] soledad thats from her 2010 piece hello, hi there. Her work won a grant from the macarthur foundation. Which is also known as the genius award. I recently sat down with annie to learn more about how shes using tech to shakeup theatre. Its so nice to have you. Congratulations on being a genius. Annie thank you very much. I dont know if im goto ill accept on your behalf. Yes you are. You get to call yourself a genius from now. Annie thank you. Work . Because in the clip we showed annie it doesnt look like normal theater because the first thing you notice is theres no actors. But ive started doing this kind of thing in 2010 working with computer programmers to sort of generate theater where computers or computer algorithms would perform alongside or even instead of human actors. Soledad are you a technologist . I mean is this do you come at this from a tech perspective or from a theater perspective annie from a theater perspective. I was trained as a theater director and i did you know plays with actors and scripts and the whole you know sort of normal way for many years. And i started working with computer programmers back in 2010. So i dont do any of the coding. Me more i dont know conceptually about how Information Technologies are changing the way people live together and how we live actually with computers. Soledad so often theater directors right will take human beings and have them have conversations or have something impact their lives as we watch it on the stage unfold. They dont make the Technology Center stage. Did you look at it that way . Annie well i started thinking about how much were adapting the way we live to the needs of computers. Thats something that i think a lot of media theorists have pointed out. Soledad give me an example. Annie i mean just really at a basic level you know people now sit in front of a computer all day doing their work. We learn the language of computer programs. We start to communicate with each other via these machines. They structure our you know not only our mode of communication but they also are the windows we have into the world. So what we know about the world to a large extent is becoming really dependent on how algorithms present that information. Soledad so what were you hoping to explore . Annie so in traditional theater you know theres lines and theyre written by a playwright and we think were learning something about the characters inner life their desires their motivation. And i started thinking well if a computer is generating that language you know a computer has no desire theres no inner life. Its a kind of a flatness to it. And yet at the same time the language has an impact. So this is one of the sort of classic questions of Computer Science going back all the way to 1950 is can you program a computer to have a conversation that sounds like a human conversation. Soledad what is the takeaway then what would you say that youve learned from 2010 to now about kind of the value the impact theres the risks of a. I. Annie yeah, i mean i think it goes back to actually what you said in the introduction that we think about a. I. In the political realm as something that we have to be very careful of. And i think you know what id like to propose is that we also can be thinking and reflecting about a. I. Also in the social and emotional realm sort of the psychological realm as well that these tools have a lot of power and were starting to entangle with them more and more. These are powerful things. And in theater were used to telling stories. These algorithms also tell stories. Soledad thank you so much. Annie thank you for having me. Soledad appreciate it. Coming up next, the clocks ticking. How long before millions of species go extinct . And what can you do to stop it . But first today, we will make history. The people pleading the case to remove the president from office. Soledad now to a weekly feature we like to call were paying attention even if youre too busy. Youll hear the word manager a lot over the coming days, since House Speaker nancy pelosi announced the seven representatives who will serve as impeachment managers. They are representatives adam schiff of california, jerry nadler of new york, Hakeem Jeffries of new york, jason crow of colorado, zoe lofgren of california, val demings of florida, and sylvirc texas. We want to explain what an impeachment managers are lawmakers who are literally case impeachment managers, are presenting the case for removal. Speaking in the senate is a big deal for a member of the house. Normally they dont even walk over legislation. This role is also unusual because weve only had 2 impeachment trials in our history. There were seven managers for president Andrew Johnsons impeachment in 1868. During the impeachment of president bill clinton, 13 republican lawmakers served as impeachment managers. When we return what can the migration pattern of monarch butterflies teach us about climate . Of monarch butterflies teach us about climate . Whats going on . Oh, darn let me help. Here we go. Lift and push and push wrinkles send on there. Its up there. Oh, boy. Help prevent them before they art