Vice: Post-Truth News & Microbiome

"Post-Truth News" - The U.S. is more divided across party lines than ever before in recent American history, and nowhere are these divisions more visible than in our media. With President Trump waging a war on mainstream news outlets and the rise of hyperpartisan sites spreading misinformation, trust in the traditional press has fallen to a record low of 32%. VICE Correspondent Isobel Yeung looks at what's driving the media's battle over facts and the polarization of the American public in the Trump era. "Microbiome" - Powerful antibiotics and widespread sanitation practices have expanded lifespans across the industrialized world. But they have also come at a cost. Our microbiomes, or the trillions of microbes collectively working in our bodies to help regulate our immune system and food digestion, have lost much of its health-promoting bacteria because of our modern lifestyles and sanitation practices. Scientists across the world are now looking to the planet's few remaining pre-industrialized societies to see what industrialized guts have lost--and in doing so, could fundamentally change the way scientists think about germs. Thomas Morton heads to the Central African Republic to see this emerging field of microbiome science. (TV14) (AC,AL,BN,MV)