THE BIGGER PICTURE with Timothy Spangler

Given the despairing nature of American politics lately, anyone wanting an upbeat story involving politicians is forced to look abroad. This week, the left wing Spanish political party Podemos gained international attention when it published its manifesto in the style of an Ikea catalogue. Rather than pages and pages of small-font texts of arcane terminology and general mumbo-jumbo, this manifesto is organized on a room-by-room basis, with the party's candidates pictured at home in the kitchen, on the sofa, in the garden or working at their desks. Interestingly, the photos correspond with policies. So the policy on social land use is illustrated by a Podemos party leader sitting next to pot plants on his terrace. Other party members are depicted feeding their fish, hanging out washing, making the bed and brushing their teeth. According to a party spokesman, they chose the Ikeas format because they wanted it to be "the most-read manifesto ever produced." Makes one wonder if our Presidential candidates let their creative juices flow, what might their Convention manifestos potentially look like? For Hillary, perhaps a Goldman Sachs IPO prospectus? For Donald, maybe a stack of high school composition books, filled in tiny methodical writing - Unabomber-style - with his unique solutions to the world's problems? Meanwhile, the world continued to lurch from one ridiculous story to another: * McDonald's Japan is using a Hamburglar-like McNugget thief to promote a contest offering a five-piece box of 18-karat-gold nuggets. * A flock of about 1,000 sheep were seen freely roaming about the streets of a Spanish city after escaping from their shepherd. * A Polish nightclub owner practicing tank driving for a planned party crashed the Howitzer into the front of his club during a Facebook live-stream. * The Russian Ministry of Sport has included virtual games in the register of official sports of the country. * A British TV host tested the strength of China's new glass-bottom bridge, said to be the world's highest, by slamming it with a sledgehammer. Call us this Sunday night between 10pm and midnight during the live broadcast of THE BIGGER PICTURE on 866-870-5752 (or 866-870-KRLA). Let us know what you're thinking about the state of the world we live in today!

MATT PASSMORE, star of the A&E fan-favorite 'The Glades' and USA's 'Satisfaction,' is our special guest this Sunday night! Since graduating from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2001, MATT has worked both on stage and screen in Australia and the United States. His starring television credits in Australia include 'Underbelly 2,' 'McLeod's Daughters'' 'The Cooks,' 'Last Man Standing,' 'Always Greener,' 'Blue Heelers,' 'The Cut,' 'Backberner' and 'Playschool.' Here in the US, MATT starred in 'The Glades' on A&E and 'Satisfaction' on the USA network. Film credits include the edgy horror film 'Come Back To Me' and the comedy 'Is That A Gun In Your Pocket' (co-starring Cloris Leachman). This month MATT is back in Southern California at the Matrix Theatre working with the Australian Theatre Company on their production of Andrew Bovell's noir psychological thriller, 'Speaking in Tongues.' In this theatrical jigsaw puzzle of parallel stories, two couples set out to betray their partners... a lover returns from the past... a husband doesn't answer the phone... and a neighbor is the prime suspect when a woman disappears. 'Speaking in Tongues" is a winner of the Australian Writers' Guild's AWGIE Award for Best Stage Play and called 'clever, provocative, elliptically resonant; by The New York Times. Hear our live interview with MATT PASSMORE this Sunday evening on KRLA 870AM!

Remember, always hire the Australian for any job opening you're looking to fill. They work hard, and you don't have to worry about them calling in sick every time they get a little cough. Case in point - an Australian man recently slashed his face open with a chainsaw while working on a farm in Ballarat, Victoria, and rather than sitting down and whinging about it, he simply tied his head up with cloth and drove himself to a nearby hospital. Some might ask, why didn't he just call the local equivalent of 911? Well, he was unable to call for an ambulance because he had sliced his tongue in half! When Bill Singleton, 68, reached the hospital, doctors discovered that when he had lost control of his chainsaw, it cut through his face as far back as his wisdom teeth, yet just missed his carotid artery and larynx. Fortunately, Bill has said that his accident had not put him off working with chainsaws in the future. And that's why you always hire the Australian! Meanwhile, the world continued to lurch from one ridiculous story to another: * A Chinese fire department freed a man whose head became stuck inside a washing machine while he was attempting to repair the appliance. * A real estate agent in Canada gained Internet notoriety for her unique ad campaign that featured a photo of her appearing to shoot lasers from her eyes. * A Chinese driver was caught on video holding his IV drip stand out the window with one hand and drinking what appears to be a beer with the other hand. * An Indian man whose hair measures 62 feet long said he is applying to be recognized by Guinness World Records. * A student driver in London managed to add to the cost of their gold-plated Maserati supercar by earning a ticket with a poor parking job. Call us this Sunday night between 10pm and midnight during the live broadcast of THE BIGGER PICTURE on 866-870-5752 (or 866-870-KRLA). Let us know what you're thinking about the state of the world we live in today!

ELLEN GEER, accomplished actress from such films as "Harold and Maude," "Clear and Present Danger" and "Phenomenon," is our featured guest this Sunday night. ELLEN has worked continuously for 46 years in television and motion pictures since making her debut in Richard Lester's "Petulia" in support of Julie Christie and George C. Scott. Probably best remembered for her turn as the committed actress who is lined up as the third (and last) date for Harold by his mother in the cult classic "Harold and Maude," ELLEN has played character and supporting parts in scores of movies and television shows. Some of her other film credits include "Hard Traveling," "Patriot Games," "Clear and Present Danger," "Phenomenon" and "The Odd Couple ll." Her television roles have been regular and plentiful, including recurring roles on classic shows such as "The Jimmy Stewart Show," "CHiPs," "Falcon Crest," "Dallas," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Desperate Housewives," and guest appearance in such recent hits as "CSI," "NYPD Blue," "Nip/Tuck," "Charmed," "7th Heaven," "Supernatural," "The Mentalist," "Criminal Minds" and "Castle." Since 1978, ELLEN has been the artistic director of Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum, where she helped the theater develop from a Sunday afternoon workshop performing Shakespeare to a professional repertory theater company now in its seventeenth season with a negotiated Actors Equity Contract. She has produced and directed over 50 Theatricum productions, including plays by Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Chekhov and Thornton Wilder, as well as Greek classics. She created the Academy of the Classics for Theatricum in 1976, which now houses an intensive Shakespeare seminar, scene study classes, teen classes and the popular Youth Drama Camp. She helped develop School Days, a field trip educational program for young people now in its 30th year, which brings over 10,000 Los Angeles school children to Theatricum each spring and fall, and co-developed Classroom Enrichment, which brings actor/teachers and programs into the classroom to work with English teachers. ELLEN was an also associate professor at U.C.L.A. teaching Shakespeare to graduate students in the theater department for 15 years. Hear our live interview with ELLEN GEER this Sunday evening on KRLA 870AM!

Next time you hear a parent or boss talk about how rough they had it growing up, take a moment to reflect on the walk to school that students from Atuler village in Sichuan province in China must do every day. These brave students must descend an 800-meter rock face, scrambling down rickety ladders and clawing their way over bare rocks as they go. The journey takes 90 minutes, and entails 17 vine ladders, but the most dangerous part is a path on the cliff without a vine ladder. The perilous trek is not for the faint of heart. If you make a mistake, you will fall straight into the abyss. According to village elders, their ancestors picked this isolated and dangerous location to avoid wars. And, no doubt, tax collectors, and process servers and Jehovah's Witnesses! Meanwhile, the world continued to lurch from one ridiculous story to another: * A Japanese man constructed a giant Lego castle that folds into two pieces before rising into an upright position like a pop-up book. * Dozens of cars were consumed by a massive sinkhole that opened up on an Italian street Wednesday morning. * Officials from a city in South Wales are warning that a group of sheep could have ingested cannabis causing them to stir up trouble in nearby towns. * An Australian brewing company has incorporated rare and expensive "whale vomit" into a special new beer. * Some viewers are decrying a new detergent commercial from China as racist. Call us this Sunday night between 10pm and midnight during the live broadcast of THE BIGGER PICTURE on 866-870-5752 (or 866-870-KRLA). Let us know what you're thinking about the state of the world we live in today!

TONY AMENDOLA, actor from ABC's hit show "Once Upon a Time" and SyFy's fan-favorite, "Continuum," is our special guest this Sunday! TONY began his acting career almost exclusively in the theatre, appearing Off-Broadway in an acclaimed production of "Filumena" and in leading roles on the stages of America's top regional theatres, including the Mark Taper Forum, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe. Hoping to expand his craft and career, TONY moved to Los Angeles to seek work in film and television. His film work as been varied and rewarding, including appearances opposite Susan Saradon in "The Meddler," Johnny Depp in "Ted Demme's Blow," Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas in Martin Campbell's "The Mask of Zorro" and Chris Cooper in John Sayles's "Lone Star." TONY has enjoyed long-running roles on "Stargate SG-1" as Master Bra-Tac; ABC's "Once Upon a Time" as Geppetto; SyFy's "Continuum" as Kagame; and the voice of Khadgar in the videogame "World of Warcraft." His numerous TV guest star roles include "NCIS LA," "CSI," "CSI NY," "CSI Cyber," "New Girl," "Being Mary Jane," "West Wing," "The Practice," "Judging Amy," and "X-Files." He has four feature films awaiting release, including "Dragon Slayer" opposite John Rhys Davis, "Club Dread" with Bill Paxton, "Shade" with Gabriel Byrne and Sylvester Stallone, and a wonderful part as a blind sorcerer in "Forbidden Warrior" directed by Jimmy Nickerson. TONY is currently starring in an Antaeus Theatre Company production of "Hedda Gabler," Henrik Ibsen's classic drama of passion and desperation, in North Hollywood. Hear our live interview with TONY AMENDOLA this Sunday evening on KRLA 870AM!

It is a scorcher this week in north-west India! Residents of Phalodi, in the desert state of Rajasthan, have called for government action as temperatures reached 123.8 degrees. This represents the highest temperature ever recorded in India. The local government hospital has seen patient numbers double in the last few days as people report more heat-related illnesses. Children are particularly vulnerable to sunstroke, and the hospital has seen a rise in the number of cases of diarrhea and vomiting. For the last few weeks, severe heatwaves have swept across India, and temperatures are expected to stay high in June. Last year, more than 1,500 people died in India because of heatwaves. Across the border, Pakistan is approaching this challenge with the same level of optimism and can-do attitude we have come to expect - namely, adding more hospital beds, consulting clerics about religious fasting guidelines that can be waived during the holy month of Ramadan, and - of course - digging more graves! Meanwhile, the world continued to lurch from one ridiculous story to another: * A New Zealand man put on a high-speed marriage proposal as he had the ring delivered to his table through a pneumatic tube at a local cafe. * Spanish National Police discovered more than 300 pounds of cocaine hidden in boxes of plastic bananas at the Port of Algeciras. * An English fitness company is set to offer people the opportunity to exercise while traveling on a bus. * A Canadian beer company plans to have an eagle deliver its product to a lucky contest winner as part of a promotional campaign. * A group of 100 Italian chefs in the city of Naples cooked up a 6,082-foot-long pizza to break a Guinness World Record. Call us this Sunday night between 10pm and midnight during the live broadcast of THE BIGGER PICTURE on 866-870-5752 (or 866-870-KRLA). Let us know what you're thinking about the state of the world we live in today!

JOANNE BARON, accomplished actress from such films as "This is 40," "Valley Girl," "Real Genius" and "Spider-Man 2," is our featured guest this Sunday night! JOANNE is a premiere actress, producer and acting teacher. For over 30 years, she has been co-owner and artistic director of the Joanne Baron/DW Brown Studio in Santa Monica, CA. Her past students include Halle Berry, Jeff Goldblum, Robin Wright, Mariska Hargetay, Patrick Dempsey and Leslie Mann. Her own acting credits includes the films "This is 40," "Valley Girl," "National Lampoons Joy of Sex," "Real Genius," "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," "Drag Me to Hell," "Spider-Man 2," "The Prince and Me," "Allie & Me," "Universal Soldier," "Someone to Watch Over Me." Her many TV appearances include "Mad Men," "Rake," "Law & Order," "The Shield," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Lovers and Other Strangers" and the Netflix original series "LOVE." JOANNE has 5 Best Actress Dramalogue awards for her lead roles in theater and is currently developing a web series called "Joanne Brown is Here," co-starring Jeff Goldblum. She is currently starring in the play "Blood From A Stone" at the Electric Lodge in Venice. A gut wrenching story of dysfunction and destruction, the play is a sadly relatable dark comedy that shows the most difficult trap to escape from may be our own family. An unflinching and darkly comic depiction of life in blue collar Connecticut, "Blood From a Stone" zeroes in on a working class family wrestling to keep it together. Hear our live interview with JOANNE BARON this Sunday evening on KRLA 870AM!

As much of the international community has been shaking their heads in collective disbelief of Donald Trump's campaign for the US presidency, there have been pockets of foreigners around the globe that welcome Trump and support his worldview whole-heartedly. One such group are certain Hindu nationalists of India. They are drawn to the Donald in large part because of his hardline, uncompromising stance against Islamic terror. India remains a tinderbox of potential violence due to lingering animosity between the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority. Hindu nationalists are already promising to stage rallies in support of Trump in India and to encourage Americans of Indian descent to vote for him. They seem to be willing to disregard Trump's repeated attacks on outsourcing, which have been an important contributor to the Indian economy for over 20 years. Another plus for Hindu fans who hold the cow as a sacred embodiment of the divine? Well, there won't be any more "Trump Steaks" on sale at least for the foreseeable future! Meanwhile, the world continued to lurch from one ridiculous story to another: * A baseball game in Japan was temporarily delayed due to something other than rain falling out of the sky -- a half-digested fish. * A university in Thailand cancelled its entrance exams after a small group of students were found using high-tech devices to cheat. * An Indian couple who are both in their 70s have had their first child after undergoing two years of fertility treatments. * A Burger King in Finland has made the idea of enjoying a Whopper in a sauna a reality by opening the world's first Burger King spa. * A couple in the African country of Tunisia won a live cow as a prize for their performance in a mobile game. * A Spanish soccer team has unveiled a set of shocking new uniforms meant to resemble the musculature of a human body. Call us this Sunday night between 10pm and midnight during the live broadcast of THE BIGGER PICTURE on 866-870-5752 (or 866-870-KRLA). Let us know what you're thinking about the state of the world we live in today!

STEVEN BERKOFF, film villain extraordinaire from "Beverly Hills Cop," "Rambo" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," is our special guest this week. STEVEN was born in Stepney, London. After studying drama and mime in London and Paris, he formed the London Theatre Group in 1968. "East," his first original stage play, was presented at the Edinburgh Festival in 1975. His plays and adaptations have been performed internationally and translated into many languages. In addition to an extensive and highly successful career on the stage, STEVEN has appeared in wide range of feature films including "A Clockwork Orange," "Barry Lyndon," "McVicar," "Outlands," "Beverly Hills Cop," "Rambo," "Revolution," "Under the Cherry Moon," "Absolute Beginners," "The Krays," "Legionnaire," "Forest of the Gods," "44 Inch Chest," "The Tourist" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." STEVEN is directing a rare production of Eugene O'Neill's 1922 expressionist play "The Hairy Ape," opening May 14 at West L.A.'s Odyssey Theatre. Hear our live interview with STEVEN BERKOFF this Sunday evening on KRLA 870AM!

Kim Jong-un, North Korea's soul-brother-number-one, is throwing a party! Well, not so much a party, as a party congress. The Leninist-style Korean Workers' Party, which basically serves as the instrument of totalitarian control and oppression, is having a once-in-a-generation meeting of its members. Kim will use the get-together as an opportunity to further secure his grip on power and send a few messages to the international community by way of 130 foreign journalists who have been invited into the country in order to cover the proceedings. Of course the media will not be able to conduct any unauthorized meetings with ordinary, everyday North Koreans. These journalists will be closely watched and followed around the clock by "minders" who will make sure that they see only what Kim wants them to see. With Kim being Kim, though, it's hard not to think there might be some attention-grabbing surprise to cap off the party congress. Perhaps another nuclear bomb test? More rocket launches? Been there, done that! I think a surprise guest appearance is the way to go. My money is on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to jump up onto the stage, joining Kim at the podium and saying, "Now this guy here knows how to build a beautiful wall!" Meanwhile, the world continued to lurch from one ridiculous story to another: * A motorist in China captured footage of a man using a most unusual form of slow-speed transportation -- a small cart pulled by a tiny dog. * A French beer company is set to open a pop-up bar in London staffed entirely by dogs. * Chinese live-streaming video websites announced female broadcasters are being banned from "seductively eating bananas" as part of a crackdown on pornography. * A joint investigation between Canadian law enforcement and a local prison found that methamphetamine-laced Christmas cards were being sent to inmates. Call us this Sunday night between 10pm and midnight during the live broadcast of THE BIGGER PICTURE on 866-870-5752 (or 866-870-KRLA). Let us know what you're thinking about the state of the world we live in today!

JEFF WARD, star of the Lifetime film, "Manson's Lost Girls," is our special guest this Sunday night. JEFF's most high-profile role to date was his portrayal of iconic cult leader, Charles Manson. The latest adaptation about the notorious killer brings a new take on the girls who worshipped Manson and lived with him on Spahn Ranch. Of course, JEFF is no stranger to the small screen with his guest roles on "The Mentalist," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Rosewood" just to name a few. He is also set to star alongside Zosia Mamet in the upcoming film "The Boy Downstairs." An accomplished stage actor, JEFF joined the world premiere of "Marjorie Prime," a production by Jordan Harrison, a writer on Orange is "The New Black." He played, Walter Prime, the new technological incarnation of Marjorie Prime's late husband. The play, a runner up for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, was presented by the Mark Taper Forum. JEFF is returning to the stage again in a poignant and darkly comic tale about love, pain and friendship opens May 13 at the Hudson Backstage in Hollywood. "Gruesome Playground Injuries" is a hilarious and heartbreaking love story about the intimacy between two people who allow their defenses to drop and their wounds to show. Over the course of 30 years, the lives of Kayleen and Doug intersect at the most bizarre intervals, leading the two childhood friends to compare their scars from the physical and emotional calamities that keep drawing them together. Hear our live interview with JEFF WARD this Sunday evening on KRLA 870AM!

The Large Hadron Collider on the outskirts of Geneva is the world's most powerful particle accelerator. It was designed to recreate in miniature fireballs similar to the conditions that prevailed at the birth of the universe, and occupies a 17-mile tunnel beneath Switzerland. Unfortunately, it stopped working this week. After double-checking that it was still plugged in and that the electricity bill was paid up, scientists looked further afield for the source of the problem. That was when they discovered that a small weasel, known as a fouine, had chewed through some wiring. The collider, which discovered the Higgs boson in July 2012, is expected to be out of action for a week while the connections to the transformer are replaced. A similar problem occurred in 2009, when the power was cut to one of the LHC's cooling plants. That incident was blamed on a bird dropping part of a baguette on a capacitor where the mains supply entered the LHC from the ground. We should start to consider if the animals know something about the LHC that we don't. Is this all part of a larger scheme by the rest of the animal kingdom to stop our investigations into high energy particles? Meanwhile, the world continued to lurch from one ridiculous story to another: * A mother decided to give her baby a unique name after giving birth aboard a flight on an Asian airline... * Russia's Kremlin has allocated more than $1 million toward technology that will guarantee good weather in the country's capital city for its May 1 festivities. * An Australian brewery is mixing up a unique malted beverage for an upcoming festival: a beer brewed using yeast from belly button lint. * A woman in New Zealand returned a book that she had checked out from a library more than 60 years ago. * A British inventor constructed a metallic hover bike that uses propellers to allow it to float a few inches off of the ground. Call us this Sunday night between 10pm and midnight during the live broadcast of THE BIGGER PICTURE on 866-870-5752 (or 866-870-KRLA). Let us know what you're thinking about the state of the world we live in today!

TONY ABATEMARCO, accomplished character actor who has appeared in "How to Get Away with Murder, "The L Word," "ER" and "Frasier," is our featured guest this week. TONY has been appearing on our television screens for many years, initially in shows such as "One Day and a Time," "Scarecrow and Mrs King" and "Hunter," and more recently in fan-favorite "How to Get Away with Murder." His feature film credits include "Beverly Hills Ninja 2," "Town & Country" and "Sleeping with the Enemy." Along the way, he has had a successful career in theatre. He has portrayed real-life figures Judge Francis Biddle in "Trying" and painter Mark Rothko in "Red." His plays Forever House and Beautified premiered at Skylight Theatre Company, where he is co-artistic director. TONY also founded two LA theaters: The Accident Theatre and The Night House. He is a three-time Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle Award nominee for lead performance (including for "Red"). This month, TONY will be staring in "A Walk in the Woods," a brilliant and funny play of ideas by playwright Lee Blessing at the International City Theatre in Long Beach. Winner of the prestigious American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award, and nominated for both the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, this dramatic comedy was inspired by historic conversations between a pair of arms negotiators during the Cold War. In the play, TONY plays a cynical career Soviet diplomat who meets an idealistic American negotiator in the woods outside Geneva to explore the obstacles their countries face on the path to peace. Hear our live interview with TONY ABATEMARCO this Sunday evening on KRLA 870AM.

President Xi Jinping has a dream. He wants to see China become one of the great soccer countries in the world. This month Beijing unveiled plans to completely revolutionize the way the global game is played in China. The country already has the world's largest football academy, and in a mere 5 years will have 20,000 specialist football academies and more than 30 million students regularly playing soccer. The ultimate goal is that by 2050, China would be able to host the World Cup tournament, and perhaps even make a run at winning the competition. There is - ahem! - some substantial improvement necessary in order for China to reach these goals. The country is currently ranked 81st in the world in soccer. Not to worry - the short-term solution for Chinese soccer clubs is easy. Import a LOT of Brazilian players who will help the locals learn how to really play the "jogo bonito," or beautiful game! Always nice to see globalization in action! Meanwhile, the world continued to lurch from one ridiculous story to another: * An unusual street fight in China involved rival construction firms using bulldozers and front-end loaders to do battle in the middle of an urban street. * British police busted a bungling burglar who officers said left a trail of white paint footprints from the scene of the crime to his own front door. * The Australian owner of a dog thought to be the world's oldest at 30 years of age announced the canine died peacefully in her sleep. * A resident of an apartment building in Colombia was recorded climbing out of his 13th story balcony to rescue a dog dangling from a ledge. * A woman in Spain was thanked by a local train station after finding and returning a bag containing more than €8,000 in cash. Call us this Sunday night between 10pm and midnight during the live broadcast of THE BIGGER PICTURE on 866-870-5752 (or 866-870-KRLA). Let us know what you're thinking about the state of the world we live in today!