It's the body slam that shook the media. Are you guys it's just the latest alter cation We'll talk with a journalist who tells us what it's like to be on the receiving end for Saturday May 27th this is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. I'm Michel Martin and we'll also hear about President Trump's 9 day trip abroad including his closing comments at a u.s. Navy base terrorism it is a threat bad threat. To all of humanity and together we will overcome this threat we will win and we'll hear from the rising pop sensation colleague a 25 year old can go through the same form of heartbreak as a 35 year old Nessa 15 year old but 1st this news. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Janine Herbst President Tom son in law allegedly proposed setting up a secret back channel between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team this according to The Washington Post although n.p.r. Has not independently confirmed the report national security advisor ager McMaster says he won't address the Kushner report directly but said a back channel between the transition team in Russia wouldn't be a problem we have back channel communications with in a number of it with a number of countries So generally speaking about back channel communications what that allows you to do is to communicate in a discreet matter so it doesn't predispose you toward any sort of content of the conversation or anything so no I would not be concerned about McMaster made the comments while in Italy with the president neither crush nor nor the White House has commented on the report and the g. 7 Summit in Sicily has wrapped up the Group of 7 wealthy democracies heard from 5 African leaders whose agenda was migration as N.P.R.'s 8 Aperol to reports Italy which has received thousands of African immigrants wanted to make the continent a big part of the discussion at the 2 day meeting but much of it was dominated by climate change and the terrorist attack in Manchester still leaders of Kenya Tunisia Ethiopia in one theory you joined the talks Kenyan president who cannot a told the leaders that now is the time to invest in Africa there is a rising tide on the continent he said and the return on investment is among the best in the world a freer more prosperous Africa he said is a means toward solving some of the world's most affecting problems including the mass migration of Africans into Europe Interpol to n.p.r. News and they will be as part of President Trump's budget proposal funding for security at the perimeter of the nation's airports as well as at rail stations would be slashed N.P.R.'s David Schaper reports the plan is raising concerns about the vulnerable vulnerability of so-called. Targets a trumpet ministrations plan calls for shifting the responsibility for funding security patrols outside of the perimeter of t.s.a. Checkpoints to the local governments that own and operate airports the budget would also cut by more than half a $100000000.00 grant program for security at Amtrak and other passenger rail stations so I absolutely think there will be increased danger you have prices in aviation security expert at Metropolitan State University in Denver once you're starting to take away the individuals that are out there to protect the public areas then the public areas will simply become more vulnerable Rice says the risk is already great to what are known as soft target areas as demonstrated by the suicide bomb attack at the Manchester Arena David Schaper n.p.r. News Britain's downgrading at threat level from critical to severe officials say investigators have made major progress after this week's terror attack in Manchester the killed 22 and injured dozens of others 2 more suspects were arrested today this is n.p.r. News from Washington. A Muslim group is suing a city in New Jersey after its application to build a mosque was turned down N.P.R.'s Joel Rose reports the lawsuit filed this week accuses Bayonne of violating federal law the group known as ban on Muslims has been meeting in a church basement for years while trying to build a permanent mosque in this working class town across the harbor from New York City that effort stirred up local opposition in the Bayonne zoning board ultimately rejected the group's application citing concerns about parking and traffic but in a lawsuit the ban on Muslims allege the denial was really motivated by anti muslim animists the lawsuit was filed the same week that a similar case in New Jersey reached its apparent conclusion Berners township was sued by the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge and the Department of Justice last year after denying the group permission to build a mosque the town has agreed to settle Joel Rose n.p.r. News British Airways says it was a power supply issue not a cyber attack the cause the airline to cancel all of its flights from London's 2 airports today in a video message on Twitter the c.e.o. Said he was sorry for the inconvenience. For Gellman the southern rock pioneer whose bluesy vocals helped propel the Allman Brothers to band to superstardom has died that's him singing his 1st solo hit I'm no angel His publicist says he died today at his home in Georgia from liver cancer the band's songs including rambling man Midnight Rider and whipping post help to find a Southern rock sound he was married to share in the late 1970 s. He died at the age of $69.00 I'm Janine Herbst n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the estate of Joan Kroc whose bequest serves as an enduring investment in the future of public radio and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at our w j f dot org. This is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Michel Martin we're going to start the program today looking back on President Trump's week abroad his 1st as president President Trump flies back to Washington today after a 9 day trip that began in the Middle East with stops in Riyadh and Jerusalem and then another 3 stops in Europe some of those stops were more friendly than others n.p.r. White House correspondent Tamara Keith has been traveling with the president and she's with us now from Sicily the president's last stop and we can actually hear them packing up all around you to hi Tam thanks so much for joining us glad to be with you so the president addressed u.s. Troops at their base today and he gave his own assessment of the last 9 days what did he say he said that it went well he described the trip that they were able to build on existing relationships improve relationships with allies that he felt had atrophied under the Obama administration he went so far as to say that he believes that the work that they did on this trip could help pave the way for a more safe and prosperous America and here's another little bit of how he described it we have been God for close to 9 days this will be 9 days and I think we had a home run no matter where we are so the president started in the Middle East he went to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia then he went to Jerusalem and then he went to Europe what was the reception there it was different there were the same sort of red carpets and also the president's message with different in the Middle East he was trying to build coalitions he was trying to sort of win them over and improve the relationship between the u.s. And their countries then he went to this NATO alliance gathering and it's been described as lecturing he got up and said you other nations in NATO need to do your fair share you're not doing your part it's no fair to the American people know what he's talking about is their own spending on their national defense he wants countries to spend. A larger portion of their g.d.p. On defense so that the alliance as a whole would be stronger we do need to mention again that he wrapped up 2 days of talks with members of the 7 those are the industrialized economies and there was there was agreement on some issues was there not there was agreement on some issues at the end of each of these g 7 meetings they put out a communique So after the one a year ago there was a $32.00 page communique of all the things that the world leaders were able to come to consensus on the communique out of this meeting was 6 pages long and there was a lot less consensus in particular on Climate Change 6 of the g 7 said that they strongly affirm their commitment to the Paris climate agreement and one of the g 7 the United States said that they were still considering it and were not in a position to join the consensus So Tom you've been covering President Trump these 1st few bucks as president and it is important to mention that domestic political news continued unabated during his absence from the country so tell us about how he did it and what was it like the headlines back home were not the kind of headlines that he would want to see as relates to the investigation into Russian meddling in the election but in the other part of the world it was very controlled they kept him insulated from the press he primarily delivered prepared remarks reporters were not allowed into settings where you could really see him improvising so it was incredibly scripted and he didn't ever hold a press conference and that's notable because all of the other g 7 leaders held a press conference is staff said he was too busy he had had too full of a schedule he actually ended up getting to his final speech ahead of schedule probably because unlike the other leaders he didn't hold a press conference that's n.p.r. White House correspondent Tamara Keith She's been traveling with the president throughout his 9 day trip to the Middle East and to Europe she's speaking to us from Sicily the president's last stop tempi thank you so much for speaking with us you're welcome. Last week special congressional election in Montana got national attention for more than the issues a journalist has called for police to investigate Republican Greg g. And Forte for assaulting him an encounter captured in a recording and witnessed by others it's a latest example of hostility toward journalists it's also sparked a round of discussion about civility N.P.R.'s Vanessa Romo reports the violent incident that went viral instantly has people wondering if an invisible line has been crossed reaction in the social media world from all sides raised 3 questions the 1st how did we get here fairly god damn nice community did the same thing some blamed Congressman Greg Gianforte some cited with him others pointing to President Trump who's called the mainstream press the enemy of the people but the root of it according to author Deborah Tannen is the animosity in the political divide which she traces back more than 2 decades to the ideas in her book the argument culture stopping America's war of words I was making the point then that we are more and more approaching everything in an adversarial spirit we conceive of ideas as warring camps war on cancer one as a linguistics professor she says the use of the word war in this context planted a seed that's in full bloom now that there is no middle ground and everything is a battlefield as Americans experienced through the 2016 elections the 2nd big question where's the rough in all this in the political arena the rough never seems to step forward though Paul Ryan speaker of the house came close this week Should the gentleman apologize yeah I think he should apologize but he was roundly criticized for not outlining any concrete repercussions from the party Rabbi Jack Moline tried to get in the middle during the highly incivil 2000 presidential election when the Interfaith Alliance a group on. Religious leaders bonded together to tackle the problem but we started getting calls from all over the country asking us to enforce what people consider to be violations and they demanded that Interfaith Alliance step in and call these people out publicly the alliance was overwhelmed and they couldn't figure out how to force people to be more civil so they dropped it the final outcry online came after Jan Forte did apologize what good is your sorry was the gist of it last night I made a mistake Jan 41 and the apology to Jacobs came wrapped up in his victories in ash Cindy France a social and environmental psychologist studied what makes a good apology he clearly expressed that he understood that what he did was wrong and he clearly expressed that he will not behave that way in the future but the timing was off Jan Forte had already denied Jacob's account and blamed him for the body slam plus front says it's not really for Jacobs he was talking to the public as it stands now Jan forte is headed to Capitol Hill but not before a court appearance he's been charged with misdemeanor assault and could face up to 6 months in jail I'm sure Twitter will have plenty to say about that the NASA Romo n.p.r. News Washington we have one more take on the story in part because Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs complaint of a physical assault by an official was not the 1st or the only one like this in recent months earlier this month a news reporter in Alaska filed a police report against a state senator who he says slapped him across the face during an interview a reporter for Roll Call says he was pinned against the wall by security guards at the f.c.c. When he tried to ask officials a question those are just 2 and if you haven't heard those stories you might remember the story of Michelle feels she was working for the conservative online publication Breitbart News during the campaign last year when she was grabbed by Donald Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowsky and which left bruises she wrote about it this week in The New York Times in a piece titled journalism in the age of the body slam and she's with us. Now in our studios in Washington d.c. Michelle Fields thanks so much for joining us thanks for having me can you just describe what it's like in the 1st kind of minutes or hours after something like this like what goes through your mind well I mean I was shocked but I think what was more shocking was the aftermath and I think war hurtful was the lying about it the smearing and that's sort of what Ben Jacobs went through when it 1st happened to him the man said no that would that didn't happen I didn't touch him and so that's sort of the I think the most surprising part of it and then the reaction from online which is basically either they say it didn't happen or they say we deserved it you know you said in your piece for The Times that politics has become entirely situational and you say that Republicans have put party over civility you said that had Hillary Clinton's campaign manager grabbed your arm instead of Cory Lewandowsky you would not have been abandoned by your friends and mentors at Fox or your employer by which you meant what Yeah I do agree and with what I said which is that it's situational for Ben Jacobs says Well I think if he had been assaulted by a Democrat that would have been a completely different situation I think he would be sort of the hero in the right wing world and if it was in my case it was a liberal it safe it was Hillary Clinton's campaign manager I think I would certainly still have my show cashing in on Fox News I think I'd be going on every single day I think the fact that it was a Republican changes the whole thing and I think that's really sad as conservatives this doesn't feel like we have principles anymore everything situational we did find some examples of Democrat politicians being aggressive toward journalists I do wonder why you think the circumstances are as you see them now is that you think that people on the conservative side are feeling that they are under attack and they're for anything that. Detracts from their message is to be ignored or to Smith's story what and I'm just wondering if you just have a theory of the case like why you think things are as they are I think there was a lot of polarization under President Obama and conservatives were very unhappy with the press that you know they feel as though the press leans to the left and I think to some extent that is true there are a lot of reporters that are left leaning and so they feel like they didn't hold President Obama accountable so there's this anger and I think President Trump during the campaign he really capitalize on that sentiment and I think now conservatives no longer just distrust the media I think they despise the media I have to note that you're not working in journalism at the moment you have helped found one of the founders of a consulting firm j m w strategies. Did this incident push you out of the field in part. I needed a break I'm very disenchanted it was a hard year I mean I grew up sort of as a conservative activist and then I got into journalism and I just had such a terrible experience I mean I know a lot of people say well you deserved a you were naive you work for Fox News and Breitbart of course they would throw you under the bus they're terrible people but I was upset and I still am and so I just need a little break but I still wanted to be in politics that controlled things like the good thing to do that's Michelle Fields her up that in the New York Times is called journalism in the age of the body slam right now Michelle is kind enough to stop by our Washington d.c. Studios Michelle thanks so much for speaking with. Us. This is n.p.r. . It's easy to become mesmerized by the dollar in this year's political circus but it's time for progressives to focus on the outer rings where the Koch brothers American Legislative Exchange Council and their corporate cohorts have laid siege to our state governments it's not a coincidence that such a large flock of corporatists and right wing idiot logs now Reuss in state offices and keeps pushing exactly the same people rhetoric and tactics nor is their lockstep embrace of identical corporation and thrown in proposals the result of small minds thinking alike more than a fire fight here or an ambush there the Koch elec Cobol have launched a massive coordinated maneuver to conquer the countryside if you doubt that the strategy has gone local consider this fact even though the Koch's did not back a presidential campaign and said they were concentrating on only half a dozen u.s. Senate races this year they deployed $1600.00 paid political staffers into $38.00 states to drive elections and policy campaigns this is why we must pay attention Donald Trump is not the only or even the biggest. Danger to our democratic republic as Arne Pearson general counsel of Center for Media democracy warns there are a lot of different parts of the Coke machine pulling on this or from their think tanks up through their elected officials they're pushing on it hard you might think this is madness but madness plutocratic greed is the new American political reality just being progressive won't stop it we have to get aggressively progressive to confront and defeat the coke heads in our states this is Jim Hightower saying rolling back the effects of the continuing decades long attack on America's ideal of the common good will take some work to get started check out Center for Media democracy n.p.r. Watch dot org slash c.m.d. Hightower's commentaries are brought to you by the Hightower lowdown the monthly newsletter with high towers take on what Wall Street and Washington are up to for information visit Hightower lowdown dot org. Jim Hightower commentaries on every Saturday and Sunday are underwritten by back door consignment open 7 days a week from 10 am to 6 pm at 50 north towards 3 in Carbondale backdoor supports free speech. This is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Michel Martin and now it's time for the barbershop that's where we get together with a group of interesting people to talk about what's in the news and what's on their minds joining us for a shape up this week is. She's the writer behind the awesomely lovey blog and the author of The New York Times bestseller I'm judging you that do better manual she's with us from Chicago welcome back levee high. I think she's there from Chicago Well let's hope she'll she'll join us Kara Brown is a writer for the online magazine jazz about she's with us from n.p.r. West in Culver City California Kara good to have you happy to be here and last but not least from St Petersburg Florida our N.P.R.'s very own t.v. Critic Eric Dagan thank you so much for joining us once again yeah happy to join this cross country experiment you. Always exciting so you might be wondering why we brought you all together and with all the news about politics and national security we know that it's been nonstop but you know we were thinking This weekend marks the unofficial start of summer so why not try to take a few minutes to think about the entertainment offerings that are coming up this summer you know music movies television and we know that politics is never far away but we're going to try it I do want to mention we are going to take a few minutes to remember Gregg Allman the rocker one of the founders of the Allman Brothers Band who died today at 69 we're going to have that coming up a little later in the program and I also want to note that I know there is a shadow over the beginning of summer festivities after the suicide bomb attack last week in Manchester England at an Ariana Grande a concert that killed 22 people and injured many dozen more. Number of you I know Eric you certainly do I know Lovie you do a lot of public events readings and festivals and I you know I find myself asking if this makes you hesitate lover you back with us are you with us can you hear us now all right no love you sorry love you will miss you next time Eric what about you I mean I know you do a lot of reading as you're an author and does it make you hesitate a little bit. No it doesn't we had a great story on n.p.r. With folks saying that they can't let themselves in Manchester saying that they can't let themselves they can't let their lives be changed by this terrorism and that they have to live life the way they want the way they need to the way they want to and of course you want to take all that makes sense but in the end the goal of terrorism is to get you to check yourself to get you to live in fear and so the way you overcome that is to refuse to do that and so as long as I'm at places that have adequate security and I've always had that I'm going to live my life the way I need to live it and try not to let this moment or it will mean less taking that advice let's jump into one of the 1st big summer movies we've been hearing about Wonder Woman It opens around the country this Thursday it stars this really actress with a dot in the title role it's being celebrated as an overdue counterpoint to the male dominated superhero genre care you know I want to start with you on this just been writing a lot of bad Tell tell us what you think about it I'm excited although I do want everyone to remember that Halle Berry did star in a Cat Woman movie and that's so we have had a female superhero movie before you know I'm I'm cautiously optimistic I honestly haven't been really into the John Wright in a while largely I think because it's only been White Men starring in all of the films so I'm willing to give it a shot and I'm definitely one of those people where I will buy the ticket if nothing else if if I'm trying if it's someone I want to support and this is something I want to support because money talks Well you know Jesse has been writing a lot about this whole question of whether the girl power aspect of it is something that even you know the artists involved in it want to embrace you know noting that a Texas Theater that is having an all women's screening and that is this backlash ago. I mean 1st of all the screening apparently sold out in you know minutes and so took people clamoring for another one on the other hand they're getting a lot of negative pushback saying that that's you know it's not fair at all the other thing you know I don't do you feel can I ask you this do you do you feel you needed by the all what I disagree that you know you know what I think if I could go to Wonder Woman screening with all women and me I would totally do that I don't want to be around you know noisy smelly guys going oh no you know I can seriously though I can totally understand the idea of creating a woman only space so that women can experience this movie and talk about it without havin guys there with artist Aster and getting away and and I think that's great I mean there's going to be so many venues and places where you'll be able to see this movie why not let women have a space where they can see it without the sort of the patriarchy intruding Ok I'm really excited for this movie this is going to be the 1st tent pole superhero movie directed by a woman it's going to be the 1st one. That is going to be considered to be of any quality. And when I look at the Marvel series that were on Netflix for example I've always felt the best one was Jessica Jones because it was about so much more then her activities as as a superhero if you will and so I'm hoping that that's what we'll get with Wonder Woman and The bar is so low for these these d.c. Movies I mean Man of Steel and that never says Superman where you know roundly criticized very rightly so this movie doesn't have to be great to be the best d.c. Superhero movie that we have in recent years and I'm betting it will be yet Carol what do you think final final thought on that what do you think about it I mean do you feel that it's it's always interesting to sort of see this this dance about the people connected to the movie whether they say yes it is a girl power opportunity or no it's not. For everybody will read of course everybody wants everybody to go see it but what do you what do you think about that you know I think that the star of the film she was asked recently if she is a feminist or if the film is feminist and she actually gave like a better response than you usually hear entertainers give to that question. I feel like of course that was going to get tacked on to this film and you know a woman. Saving the world there or whatever saving whoever she is in the film like I guess it's very easy to spend that as a feminist thing or a girl power thing but I just hope that like more women get to go in are girls who haven't watched a lot of superheroes or don't really you know read a lot of comics because there aren't very many women in them like it's nice to just see a woman doing cool things because we don't get to see that that often are so let's switch over to late now let's we can switch over to late night we got a bunch of stuff we want to talk about it's been getting so much attention for being more political than many can remember you know Jimmy Fallon. Well what was so fascinating is that you know Jimmy Fallon has been criticized actually for being too soft you know after being sort of riding on the top of the ratings for you know for so long for kind of just you know playing games with people and now all of a sudden people are saying that's not that's not what we're looking for I mean Stephen Colbert has doubled down on his political humor and he that seems to have propelled his show to a surge in the ratings even closing this long time gap with The Tonight Show and so and then you know you know and Jimmy Kimmel causing a stir talking about health care you know of all things and so since this is your wheel house is this a big change is there something important going on here in television that we should talk about in this area that traditionally has not really been very political so yeah this is kind of a big change because the Tonight Show has generally been the ratings leader in late night we had a little bit of a hiccup in 2010 when Conan O'Brien was installed and Jay Leno was forced out and that didn't last long and Leno came back but for the most part the Tonight Show has been the most watched late night show since the mid ninety's and that has changed in the last few months because Stephen called Bear has found his voice and he's articulating something that viewers are flocking to I don't think it's just that he's criticizing Trump I think it's that he has. Talking about politics consistently in a funny way he's deconstructing it and he's also learned people laugh at it a little bit even though they may be horrified about it and I've always said these late night hosts excel when they really channel the feelings of their audience and Fallon's problem isn't that he's not tough on Trump it's that he is not connected to his audience he's not channeling what they are want to talk about or what they're feeling about this particular moment in history and so people are flocking to cold air and and unless Fallon figures out a way to reconnect because people don't want they don't want to while away the hours you know watching people play games they're really concerned about what's happening in government and Kobe was talking about love it we are told we have you finally with us do you want to weigh in on this is Jack No no I think it's all right or is it too strident What do you think how Let me talk to you guys and hear me but I'm really really here Ok I think it's really important for our Late Night to go with what is important to everybody else because you can't ignore politics right now if you're on television even if you're not like I can get political you don't have a choice because everybody's getting political So I think it's really important late night to step it up and give people what they want in terms of a place for them to decompress and be the water cooler to talk about the shenanigans of the day that happened in politics as anybody else Larry since we didn't get a chance to really visit with you fairly as anybody else on television right now kind of hitting that sweet spot for you for me right now besides the Daily Show and travel travel is the only one but I think television is missing the very strong black female voice but in terms of voices they're doing great things though Samantha Bee is doing really well for me Ok Kara what about you yeah I'm a big Samantha beef and it's funny I had this conversation with my dad recently because he was comparing what we're seeing in late night and he felt like it was really similar to when Bill Clinton was being impeached and it sort of seems like when is the law. Time we've had this much political chaos like this feels like the world is on fire every single day at least for me and he's like you know I remember there were you know Jay Leno and all the people they were talking about this all the time so it sort of seems like we haven't had quite as much going on maybe since then and that's what we're seeing now Ok before we let you go and sorry for all the technical difficulties here there's so much to see this summer everybody just give me one must see one thing you're really looking forward to loving what about you. I've already seen it but I was looking forward to Guardians of the galaxy so good Ok Kara what about you I'm about to buckle in and stay committed to the Bachelorette for the summer now that we have the 1st back black bachelorette and I'm going to I'm going to try to last until August Ok Eric what about if this is true crime series called The keepers on Netflix about this nun that disappeared and was later found murdered in 1969 and it leads to covering this incredible ring of sexual assault kids at a high school in the sixty's that is now being uncovered in the present day it's their modern making a murder it's a really interesting heart that's t.v. Critic Eric de Ken's joining us from St Petersburg Florida Carol Brown writer for jazz a bell with us from n.p.r. West in Culver City and will be a giant blogger a New York Times best seller joining us from Chicago thank you all so much thank you. In 1989 Gregg Allman and his older brother Duane Allman formed the Allman Brothers Band It was one of the era's most popular concert bands Gregg Allman signature bluesy voice and his skills on the keyboard made the Allman Brothers one of the most influential groups in southern rock with classics like Midnight Rider Melissa and whipping post Gregg Allman died today at his home in Savannah Georgia at 69 years old Joining us to tell us more about him his music journalist Amanda Petra sitch Welcome thank you so much for speaking with us thank you so much for having me what made him such an influential figure. Well one of the things that I think is the most remarkable about the Allman Brothers brand the Allman Brothers Band and of course Greg is that they were founded in Macon Georgia in 1989 the band's original drummer the great Jay mojo Hanson was black and the other 5 members of the group were these skinny long haired hippies who wore bell bottoms and silver jewelry and unbuttoned their shirts to far and had grown up listening to soul and rhythm and blues records so for me the idea that a band like this existed and thrived in a small Southern town at the end of the 1960 s. Is just truly remarkable I mean even independent of all of the incredible things that they did musically it was just such an act of dissent from the start and what's funny I think is that the omens were so instrumental in the genesis of what we now call southern rock you know John or that's associated perhaps unfairly with Confederate flags and pick up trucks and all this sort of iconography that suggests you know went on welcoming an outdated worldview that it's easy to forget they were revolutionarily inclusive at the time you know having $969.00 it's a year after Martin Luther King was assassinated it's you know a time in which many American school districts had yet to be desegregated So while their musical legacy is vast and I think Greg's work as a musician you know will be remembered and remembered and in the days that come this is such an important part of their history too for me thank you so much for telling us about this I mean we only have a couple seconds left tell us one song that you must listen to what's the one song I missed any other what you have to do for me it's whipping post any great songs but I think that's the one all right that's music. Joining us from her home in Brooklyn New York talking about musician Gregg Allman. Age of 69 in Savannah Georgia thank you so much for speaking with thank you. You're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. A stabbing attack on a train in Portland Oregon has left 2 people dead the attacker was shouting what police have described as religious hate speech directed toward 2 Muslim women 3 men tried to intervene and were stabbed by the attacker and 2 of those bystanders died Now this comes a week after another stabbing death in Maryland where a white college student stabbed and killed a black college student Richard column's the 3rd whose funeral was yesterday that incident is being investigated by the f.b.i. As a possible hate crime we wanted to talk more about this so we called Heidi Byron director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center that's a group that tracks extremist groups files lawsuits and works with communities to advance civil rights we spoke with her earlier today from her home in Alabama and I started by asking her how her group characterizes the attack in Portland Well we're not entirely clear at this point what all was up with him but it's clear from a social meeting at postings that he had gone on anti muslim rants he was a supporter of Timothy McVeigh the Oklahoma City bomber he posted things that were pro Hitler and Nazis anti-Semitism but there was a lot of other material there as well which kind of clouds the picture the way that we're thinking about this is this shows once again even if there are extenuating issues like mental health issues as in the case of Dylan roof the power of White Supremacist thinking and how it can lead people especially the fragile minded to incredible acts of violence do you have any evidence to suggest that this attack and what happened last week in Maryland are part of a pattern or perhaps not perhaps a just a terrible coincidence Well we have seen since the latter parts of the Obama administration an incredible rise in the frequency of attacks like this hate crime attacks and domestic terrorism attacks and the targets of those hate crimes have tended to be those populations demonized by the Trump campaign and now Trump administration and you know we tracked almost. 900 hated by since and between the election and 10 days later those are numbers that are quite extraordinary for such a short period of time one of the reasons that we called you is that you do community training in Portland the people who were killed were bystanders who tried to intervene and I have to ask you What should people do if they see people being vilified in a manner that offends the conscience sure I mean a lot of organizations talk about the fact that if you speak up you can defuse a situation but there is always the coffee out that you have to be very very careful about the possibility of violence and that can be very unclear what these 2 men did was very courageous and it's horrific that they paid for it so you know our inclination at Southern Poverty Law Center usually is if you have any concerns that something could go sideways or be problematic or violent leave it to law enforcement but it's very hard to read that right you might not know ahead of time and so it's very hard to give advice on this front you know the larger issue really is how is law enforcement going to deal with these folks but you know oftentimes people feel guilty because if they don't say something you know this person is having to deal with a diatribe or a terrible situation but you know folks when they get on these racist rants there can be incredible violence involved so it's not easy to sort out exactly what it is that you should be doing Heidi Barrett she is the intelligence project director at the Southern Poverty Law Center we reached her in Alabama thank you so much for speaking with us thank you. This is n.p.r. News. What does it mean to be remembered it's the question at the heart of the reminders the debut novel from I think the speed of our culture we don't have a lot of time to do like heavy thinking and pondering about the past and for some reason that bothers me and I was trying to find an answer of like what does all this matter that Sunday on Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News. I'm Janine Herbst with these headlines British police arrested 2 more suspects in connection with Monday's bomb attack in Manchester they killed 22 people and British Prime Minister Cerys m a says the nation's terror threat is being downgraded because of progress in the investigation Philippine government forces are battling for a 5th day to drive out ISIS inspired militants have seized a Southern city the suspected hideout of one of Washington's most wanted terrorists and President Trump says he traveled the world to strengthen longstanding alliances and form a new partnership among nations to eradicate terrorism plaguing the planet made the comment at the Group of 7 meeting with world leaders in Sicily He's due back in Washington d.c. Tonight after a 9 day 5 nation trip I'm Janine Herbst n.p.r. News in Washington. Support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Member stations and from Life Lock reminding consumers that identity thieves can pose as other people taking over bank accounts filing fake tax returns or doing other criminal acts more at Life Lock dot com from Margo and John are supporting North Country Public Radio in Canton New York and N.P.R.'s environmental coverage which helps to raise awareness on issues surrounding climate change and from the John s. And James l. Knight Foundation helping n.p.r. Advance journalistic excellence in the digital age. This is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Michel Martin. Yes it's that time of year graduation season if there's a new graduate in your life you might be wondering how the last few years of economic turmoil have affected people entering the job market we have a guest coming up who has some thoughts about that but 1st if you haven't been lucky enough to be invited to a graduation this year here is just a little taste of the words of wisdom warning and weirdness that commencement speakers deliver to the class of 2017 I believe with all my heart that the future of America indeed the future of the world depends on Brave thoughtful people like you insisting on truth and integrity right now every day you didn't create these circumstances but you have the power to change them while we must always work and hope and pray for peace the best way to ensure peace is for adversaries and our enemies to know that America is prepared. To lead and fight and win any contest any struggle anywhere on behalf of freedom I'm here to tell you that finding your purpose isn't enough the challenge for our generation is to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose some players and some of us go through our careers with their heads down focused on our craft and our tasks keeping to ourselves worrying about our numbers or our grades projecting our individual interest other players and others amongst us go through our careers with their heads up as a real part of a team. Alert and aware of others embracing difference employing empathy genuinely connecting putting collective interests ahead of our own it is a choice. Where our way is. You. Who is of you who was of 27 to be. That was in order Hillary Clinton and her alma mater Wesley College vice president Mike Pence at the u.s. Naval Academy Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University Chicago Cubs President of Operations Theo Epstein at Yale University and actor Will Ferrell at the University of Southern California as the class of 2017 prepares to enter the job market there is some good news waiting for them the unemployment rate is the lowest it's been since 2007 but these tubes have also come of age during a recession followed by a sluggish recovery so we're wondering how all this could be affecting these freshly minted graduates and job seekers to talk about this we called me here decides he's a professor at the Harvard Business School he has a new book out called The Wisdom of finance but we called him because he published a piece this week in the crimson Harvard student newspaper in the spirit of full disclosure that was my 1st journalism gig professor here decided thank you so much for joining us thanks so much it's a pleasure so the last time the unemployment numbers with this low these students were in 3rd grade do you see an impact on this generation of having grown up in this timeframe Yeah I think part of what's happened is they don't as much importance to economic outcomes that perhaps previous generations did so they grew up in an era of reduced expectations in some ways and as a consequence they look for different ways to fill their life up which is not purely per se professional in some ways that's quite helpful on the other hand it is a time in their life when they really should be dedicating. Themselves to building the human capital that will last them through the rest of their lives and let me get to the piece that caught our eye which is the piece that you posted in the crimson The trouble with optionality which is a way of saying Can you break it down in layman's terms for us what hedging your bets Yeah you're actually open yes of the number of young people I see who talk about maximizing optionality which is just a fancy way of saying I want to make sure and have as many options as possible so I think that sounds like a great strategy but what I've observed over the last several years is these people become obsessed with optionality you know with having options and instead of doing what we think that would do which is enable risk taking you know which is what options are supposed to be able to do right you don't acquire options just for their own use you do it so you can actually take on big risks what I observe these people doing is just have bitch really acquiring options they just get so used to the process of acquiring options that they never really execute on this larger vision of what they want so part of what I wanted to do in the piece is say look that's not the right way to think about this in fact when you do these things that acquire options for example working at prestigious firms these are again for the elite graduates going to grad school you know your social network yes that's wonderful It allows you to have a lot of optionality But don't forget that the really great things in life come from big risky investments and I think that's a really important piece of what people are missing out on and in particular you can get stuck you can get stuck in a place where you think you're maximizing your options and then you wake up and you're you know you're still there 20 years later that was going to be my last question because it's commencement season and everybody from Hillary Clinton to Will Ferrell is as we just heard are offering advice to recent graduates so any other advice that I didn't have the wit to squeeze out of you to this point well yeah it is it's always remarkable how in some ways consistent graduation advice is and in some ways that makes it and a dime but that doesn't make it any less true which is the pursuit of things that we truly love is the secret. Professional happiness and blocking out the noise I guess that's one thing I would add which is there is so much noise out there noise about what you know the unemployment rate is a noise about what you should be doing with your life or noise about what your friends are doing or what your parents want you to do use a block it all out you know look inside yourself find out who you are and pursue that so block out all the noise I think is an important piece of it as well that was me here beside professor at the Harvard Business School His latest book is The Wisdom of finance discovering humanity in the world of risk and return and as we said that we also called him for his piece posted in the crimson The trouble with optionality professor does I thank you so much for speaking with us thanks so much Michel finally today maybe you graduated this month maybe you didn't maybe you feel really confused about life right now about life love who you want to be maybe that just means you are a teenager and if so has your anthem say to me Oh Ok. The song commune or into. Them days to come. That is location from Robinson's debut album American teen and he wrote that song while he was a senior in high school that's just one reason he's been called a pop prodigy by Rolling Stone magazine and counts people like Sir Elton John among his fans but another reason though is that while his lyrics are very much of the moment the themes the longing love 2 loneliness loss are timeless. And even the album is blowing up the charts he hasn't gotten too big to credit his biggest influence his mom she is also a singer she performed with the u.s. Army Chorus and when we heard that we asked if we could visit with both of them together and yes he does just use one name is on tour. He's with us from his hotel room in St Louis Welcome thanks so much for joining us thank you for having me and please mom Linda Wolf joins us from member station Katy e.p. In El Paso Texas Linda Wolfe mom thank you so much for joining us well thank you and congratulations on all of your son success I'm going to give you credit and you should. So clearly let me start with you you are on tour right now and I know you well as an army kid you're used to moving around a bit but I have to ask though is it a little bit hard to be away from home it does get a little bit stressful because when I used to move around I moved around with family now moving around alone a lot of the friends that I have back home to we're kind of disconnected a little bit but I just can't wait until I have this show in a Paso in around 2 weeks where you live in El Paso that long as I recall right I mean isn't that part of what motivated the album do I have that right I mean that you had just gotten transferred there on your senior year which is kind of tough was a junior year senior year I forget it was my senior year and it was very tough but I felt like it just gave me a sense of realize ation that I needed was just the fact that a lot of things that we surround myself with are temporary only if we allow them to be a lot of the old friends that I had in New York we were temporary and they fell off but I met a lot of lifelong friends in El Paso who helped me be in the career that I am right now if I didn't move to a pass so my life wouldn't be where it is right now why do you think that is because the moment I moved past so that drive was just a loneliness really allowed me to just find comfort within myself and when I found that comfort within myself I began writing and when I began writing I began singing my own songs and a pass was really responsible for that. Let's turn to you haven't forgotten about you here did you know all this was in him this gift these thoughts these ideas did you know that was in there to an extent I knew that he was you know very gifted vocally You know I knew that he was a very smart and bright kid but the writing skills I didn't know that he had that d.n.a. Is a powerful thing. And I'm just so so so proud I mean just sitting back here just listening to him and how he just describes his journey I can see is growth and he's also very honest let's play 18 talk about that here in. Ok sounds good co-leading I think I share so very honest and I am very honest with my mom yes when I moved out of the house. When my mom and I we have trust within each other because I one time in our life we were kind of all that we had and so she let me go out I didn't really tell her everything that I was doing when I went out but mom always knows I'm pretty sure she knew I was going I was having fun I was doing stuff that I shouldn't be doing but as long as she trusted that I was responsible and I was going to make the right decisions I feel like that's all that really matters and let me know if you want to what you hear this song especially people. Hear it on the radio you go oh boy. Now definitely cherish the relationship that I have of my son and I raised him to be self expressive and to make good choices so he was very very smart to not let me find out he was doing all those things that he was doing so he made smart choices. But there's something he wrote in the pamphlet to the to the album that I wanted to read you said I sing with the voice of individuals who have a hard time expressing how they feel the individuals who are just like me not necessarily because they don't know how to express themselves but because they're afraid no one will listen that's quite a statement where did that come from so for me when I grew up I never really had an outlet when it came to my social surroundings and I felt like when I wanted to talk to either if it was teachers a lot of the teachers would listen to my problems because I felt like a lot of people thought that just because I was young that my problems weren't problems I feel like a lot of people keep the fact that you know I like youth you know they're not really gone through anything because they're not they're not 25 yet but at the same time a 25 year old can go through the same form of heartbreak as a 35 year old Nessa 15 year old you know love crosses all boundaries and so I felt like it was necessary for me to talk about the problems that I went through would involve not only just to speak to people who were young just to speak to people in general people who who felt the love but didn't know how to express how they felt to someone else. Now it's as easy as Ok let me play them this song to tell them everything that I want to say to them. So. She's a. Part of my so I say You be you know I say before we let you go but I wanted to ask is there a song that you include like to sing together since both of you are singers did you ever do that we had a singer who have you really give us a little sample what are you thinking clearly you want to do as w.v. Are you taking a leader of my take you take a lead of course right here we go. Gets only and then you need. To do it right know what do you do and you're. Definitely in spirit. How do you know Ok if I started it has to. Be. Me. That was nice we got to hear that you together for me. You wrote so much nonsense your son so busy and travelling around and do you have any advice or mom words for him before we we all go our separate ways for today thank you for that I just want him to get the rest that he needs he loves his fans but he just needs to get as much rest as he possibly can so and call mom or. Pick that was Linda will her son lead Robinson's debut album is American teen They were both kind enough to join us in St Louis mamas in El Paso Texas their hometown thank you both so much for speaking with us thank you for having me thank you for having me. You. Know. For Saturday that's All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Michel Martin thank you for listening we're back tomorrow we hope you have a great night. There you. Support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Member stations and from Squarespace allowing businesses to create their own website for those getting started or for established brands square spaces platform is designed to help businesses grow learn more at squarespace dot com From 5th generation incorporated maker of Tito's handmade vodka still independently owned by Tito beverage distilled and bottled in Austin Texas American made and gluten free recipes and more at Tito's vodka dot com and from the listeners who support this n.p.r. Station.