Mexico City Trembles Under the Shock of Nature

Coming up on today’s show:

• A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Mexico City on Tuesday. It toppled buildings, and killed at least 200 people, and the death toll is still expected to rise.The earthquake came less than two weeks after an 8.1 magnitude quake left at least 100 dead in the country. Dudley Althaus, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal’s Mexico Bureau, and Jorge Guajardo, Mexican ambassador to China from 2007 to 2013 and consul general to Mexico in Austin, Texas from 2005 to 2007, bring us the latest. 

• Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday. For Caribbean territories who are under the decree of places like the United Kingdom, France, The Netherlands and the United States, how do past colonial relationships shape the response to hurricanes? Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, author of “Island People,” weighs in.

• U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy’s home state of Louisiana is among the states that stand to lose the most funding under the newly proposed healthcare bill. Susan Todd, executive director for 504HealthNet in New Orleans, has the details. 

• Next week, Alabama voters will go to the polls to cast their ballots for a new senator — the seat left vacant by Attorney General Jeff Seasons. Senator Luther Strange has the support of President Donald Trump, who is expected to visit Alabama on Friday, but his opponent former Judge Roy Moore, has the support of recently departed White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. Pat Duggins,news director for Alabama Public Radio, discusses the national implications of the race. 

• In lieu of attending a four-year college, a growing segment of Americans are paying to enroll in coding boot camps, which can lead to high-paying tech jobs in as little as three months. Brett Caudill, an instructor at the DevMountain coding school in Utah, started out with only a GED before embarking upon his journey as a nascent programmer.

• A new study in the journal of Child Development finds that teenagers have much different interests and priorities than they did 40 years ago. A cumulative survey of 8.44 million U.S. teens ages 13 to 19 show that these young people are drinking less, dating less, driving less, and working less than they were in 1976. Dr. Jean Twenge, the author of the study and a psychology professor at San Diego State University, explains.

This episode is hosted by Todd Zwillich.