Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien

APRIL 6, 2019 (3x28)

Air date: Apr 06, 2019

This week on Matter of Fact with Soledad, we continue to push the conversation about climate change out of the political sphere and into science, where it belongs. 97% of U.S. government scientists agree that global warming is happening, including NASA’s chief scientist, Dr. James Green. He joins Soledad to explain how the space agency is using satellite technology to track changing rivers, peer deep into snowpacks, and work to predict future flooding before it becomes a humanitarian disaster. Plus, it’s been called the most beautiful building in Washington, and once you look inside you’ll see why. Soledad heads to the Library of Congress for a special tour with Carla Hayden. She’s the first woman, and first African-American to become Librarian of Congress. She not only shares her plan to keep libraries relevant in the digital age but also tells Soledad what her all time favorite book is. (We bet you haven’t heard of it.) And would you give up your First Amendment rights to get a job? 26 states have passed anti-BDS legislation. The laws are meant to show political support for Israel, and ban states from doing business with people and companies who protest Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians through BDS – boycott, divestment, and sanctions. But when does supporting an ally become unconstitutional? Soledad sits down with ACLU attorney Brian Hauss to find out. In our weekly segment, “we’re paying attention even if you’re too busy”, it’s not the sexiest topic on Capitol Hill but it could be the most important to your daily life: infrastructure. New analysis finds more than 235,000 bridges in the country are in need of repair and nearly 50,000 are structurally deficient. And without more funding from Congress, it could take a century to fix them all. And finally, emoji are getting a diversity upgrade. Emoji need to be officially approved by a special consortium. There are about 15 emoji that show hair, but not one is an afro. We’ll show how two women a