August 20 - Jimmy Carter Faces Brain Cancer; Turkey's President Erdogan's Cynical Power Play; the Rebellion Facing Greece's PM from His Own Party

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the announcement by former President Jimmy Carter that he has melanoma cancer that has spread to his brain and today, at the age of 90, is undergoing the first of four radiation treatments. Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and author of “Jimmy Carter”, joins us to discuss his article at CNN “Jimmy Carter’s courage in the face of cancer" and America’s 39^thpresident’s post-presidency since 1981 that has been remarkably active, making Jimmy Carter still a very influential figure in foreign relations and public life.

Part 2

Then we speak with Max Hoffman, a Political Analyst on the National Security and International Policy team at the Center for American Progress where he focuses on Turkey and the Kurdish regions. We discuss the recent agreement to allow NATO to use a Turkish airbase in exchange for giving Turkey’s President Erdogan a green-light to bomb the Kurdish PKK as well as the Islamic State. We assess whether Erdogan’s cynical power play to start wars to win elections will backfire as blowback from both the Islamic State and the PKK, who are conducting terrorist acts inside Turkey, escalates with the Turkish military suffering growing casualties.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the resignation of Greece’s Prime Minister Alex Tsipras who has called for new elections in September, and speak with James Angelos, a freelance journalist and former correspondent for the Wall Street Journal who also wrote for The New York Times. He is the author of the new book “The Full Catastrophe: Travels Amongst the New Greek Ruins”, and we discuss how Tsipras might handle the rebellion by 43 of 149 of his Syriza Party’s MP’s who oppose the bailout that Greece just got from Eurozone countries to avoid a default today on payments owed to the European Central Bank.