Obamacare Up in Smoke, Ford Challenges Trump, Fighting Terror With Music

Coming up on today’s show:

• As Republicans rally to repeal Obamacare, The Takeaway considers the future of the Affordable Care Act with Jonathan Gruber, one of the architects of the ACA and an economics professor at MIT, and Renée Landers, a professor of law at Suffolk University.

• On Tuesday, the Ford Motor Company announced that it was scrapping plans to build a new manufacturing plant in Mexico. The decision comes amid criticism from the Trump administration, but Ford says the decision was not made because of political pressure. Joe Hinrichs, president of the Americas at Ford Motor Company, explains. 

• We continue our look at Chicago gun violence with a personal essay from Edwin Day, a former gang member who now works with youth to steer them away from gun violence.

• Diagnosed at the age of 17 with epilepsy and bipolar disorder, Sitawa Wafula found few avenues for support in her home country of Kenya. She started a blog about living with mental illness and has now set up Kenya’s first free mental health support line, “My Mind, My Funk.”

• Apps like Talkspace present an alternative to expensive therapy sessions, but a new investigation is raising questions about the ethics and practices of therapy apps. Todd Essig, a clinical psychologist and writer, explains. 

• Karim Wasfi, a renowned cellist and the conductor of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, uses music to heal in the face of terror. Last year, after a deadly car bomb exploded in a cafe, he sat with his cello and played amid the charred remains in protest of the violence and to “equalize” the terror with an act of creativity and beauty.