RNC Wrap Up, Comic-Con International, Finding Solace Amid Grim News

Coming up on today’s show:

• Friday is the halfway point between the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich  brings us analysis from the final night of the GOP Convention, and looks ahead to the Democratic gathering next week in Philadelphia. 

• Now that the 2016 Republican National Convention has come to a close, we examine the latest election polls with Harry Enten, senior political writer and analyst at FiveThirtyEight.

• Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will announce her running mate as early as Friday. The two frontrunners are currently Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, though others are still in the running. Angela Rye, a Democratic strategist and principal and CEO of Impact Strategies, weighs in. 

• This week Melissa Locker, culture correspondent for Time, The Guardian, and The Takeaway, fills us in on Comic-Con International, which is underway now in San Diego and is expected to attract about 130,000 people. 

• Rafer Guzman, film critic for Newsday and The Takeaway, looks at the big new releases hitting the box office this weekend, including “Star Trek Beyond,” “Lights Out,” “Absolutely Fabulous,” and “Ice Age: Collision Course.”

• Grammy-winning artist Eric Krasno is a guitarist who’s played with and written for The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, 50 Cent, Talib Kweli, and Aaron Neville, just to name a few. He’s used to working with established and powerful voices, but on his new solo album, called “Blood from a Stone,” Krasno takes a risk in trying to find his voice.

• When the news is difficult and hard to read about, where do you turn? Susan Johnson Cook, former ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom under President Obama, says we all need to find some sort of solace to retrieve our strength and find common ground to solve the problems facing America and the world.