SpendingTracker.org is a project aimed at giving citizens a clear idea about how much individual members of Congress vote to spend. Jonathan Bydlak of the Coalition to Reduce Spending discusses the project.
In this week's episode (with only a brief IT interlude), the gang talks about the Dell XPS-13, Macbook Pro touch bars, and ugh, Uber… And our special guest this week is Erica Brescia, co-founder and COO at Bitnami. She speaks to us about her passion for dev tools as well as the challenges of being a predominantly remote company (something that Stack Overflow knows a little bit about).
On Start the Week Kirsty Wark explores what it means to live either side of a wall, and whether barriers are built to repel or protect. Supporters of the US President urge him to 'build a great wall' along the Mexican border but the journalist Ed Vulliamy points out that there is already a wall and border guards, supported and funded by US Presidents for decades. And yet still drugs, guns, money and people continue to move north and south. Israel has been building its own separation barrier since the turn of the century, but Dorit Rabinyan is more interested in psychological barriers that drive Palestinians and Israelis apart. The map-maker Garrett Carr travels Ireland's border to explore the smugglers, kings, peacemakers and terrorists who've criss-crossed this frontier, and asks what it will become when the United Kingdom leaves the EU. The historian Tom Holland looks back at the successes and failures of wall-building from Offa's Dyke to Hadrian's Wall and asks whether they work more as statements of power than as insurmountable barriers between people.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
On Start the Week Kirsty Wark explores what it means to live either side of a wall, and whether barriers are built to repel or protect. Supporters of the US President urge him to 'build a great wall' along the Mexican border but the journalist Ed Vulliamy points out that there is already a wall and border guards, supported and funded by US Presidents for decades. And yet still drugs, guns, money and people continue to move north and south. Israel has been building its own separation barrier since the turn of the century, but Dorit Rabinyan is more interested in psychological barriers that drive Palestinians and Israelis apart. The map-maker Garrett Carr travels Ireland's border to explore the smugglers, kings, peacemakers and terrorists who've criss-crossed this frontier, and asks what it will become when the United Kingdom leaves the EU. The historian Tom Holland looks back at the successes and failures of wall-building from Offa's Dyke to Hadrian's Wall and asks whether they work more as statements of power than as insurmountable barriers between people.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
Joining us today is Ron Miscavige - the father of Scientology cult leader David Miscavige. Ron has a long history with the church and he takes us through the background of how his son went from an asthmatic 9 year old to the supreme leader of Scientology, and further, how Ron managed his and his wife's eventual escape from the organization. To get deeper into Ron's story, check out his book here. Here are links to the documents Ron mentioned: Document 1 from Ron Fair Game Policy Document Leave us a Voicemail: (916) 750-4746! Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email thomas@seriouspod.com Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: haeley@seriouspod.com
After a lucrative career as a thief, Charles Kennedy has an important realization: the real money is in drugs. He rises to become one of the East Coast’s biggest traffickers, throwing coke-fuelled parties and amassing a strange menagerie of pets. But his success attracts the wrong kind of attention.
For more information about this episode, and for a full list of credits, visit crimetownshow.com.
Interview with Greg Dash; Forgotten Superheroes of Science: Wang Zhenvi; News Items: Restoring Hearing, Smartphone Tricorder, Science of Smoking Bans, Seven Earth-like Exoplanets; Who's That Noisy; What's the Word: Pathology; Science or Fiction