The United Nations estimates more than 400,000 people have lost their lives in the Syrian civil war and millions more have had to leave their homes and the country. Cynthia Viveros-Cano is stationed in Damascus, Syria, as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer for the United Nations. Her role is help ensure aid gets to the people who need it most.

Recently, many have protested the dramatically different direction the U.S. is beginning to take in regards to climate change. Tim Profeta, director of Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, helps sort through the many changes being proposed by the Trump administration.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has become the universal yardstick of progress. GDP judges the value of goods and services produced inside a country’s borders. But the number has a big problem: it only judges output. More car production for example, would seem on the surface as a success, but at what cost? Dirk Philipsen's book is The Little Big Number, How GDP Came to Rule the World and What to do About It.