People didn’t travel much in the ancient world. But, for those who did they developed the ancient equivalent of guidebooks. These were often lists of manmade sites and attractions which any traveler should take the time to see.
Over time, one such Greek list was written down and it became known to us as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Learn more about the Seven wonders, how they were built and how they were destroyed, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Is pop superstar Britney Spears really being held hostage? What is it like to witness a derecho firsthand, and live to tell the tale? Can human beings really, without warning, burst into a ball of mysterious, fatal flames? Learn the answers to these questions and more in this week's listener mail segment.
President Trump encourages supporters to vote twice. Anger over a Rochester police killing. Concern about spreading the virus this holiday weekend. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
America's Inequality Trap (University of Chicago Press, 2020) focuses on the relationship between economic inequality and American politics. Nathan J. Kelly, Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, argues that the increasing concentration of economic power effects political power, thus allowing the gap between the rich and everyone else to become more acute and more rigid. The increasing level of inequality, according to Kelly, also tends to be reinforced by public policies. This then creates a self-perpetuating plutocracy because those with more economic resources will have more political power or the capacity to influence those with political power and the kinds of policies that are being made. Thus, we have the theory of the inequality trap.
Kelly’s analysis is fairly specific to the United States, since the inequality trap itself combines aspects of the American political system that are rather unique, but he notes that the trip is not exclusive to the U.S., it is part of a “more general phenomenon.” In order to understand this inequality trap, Kelly’s research links politics, policy, and income inequality. He then explores different pathways that contribute to establishing and perpetuating this system, which concentrates more and more wealth in fewer and fewer hands. Each chapter assesses a different pathway: public opinion, elections, inegalitarian policy convergence, and policy stagnation, all of which contribute to economic inequality in the United States and how it operates within the political system. Public opinion and elections center around political attitudes and behavior while inegalitarian policy convergence and policy stagnation focus on policy-making institutions and processes. Each pathway shares the same outcome that they contribute to the inequality trap in which only those who are wealthy benefit from it.
In analyzing the effects of high inequality on each of the pathways, Kelly exposes the pattern of political response, or non-response, to the problem of inequality and the role of partisan politics within these dynamics. Kelly also emphasizes that racial bias and economic inequality play a substantial role in political decision making, especially in public opinion and elections. These distinct areas often have some overlap in terms of voter engagement and political behavior and choices and, according to the research, this also helps us understand the outcome in the 2016 presidential election. America’s Inequality Trap concludes with a discussion about economic inequality before the Great Depression and the Great Recession. Both events occurred during times of high economic inequality but there were distinct differences in the political response to that inequality and the economic collapses that followed. Kelly explains how and why the political responses differed, and by comparing the two, he suggests possible strategies for escaping the ongoing inequality trap.
Baratunde builds off the last episode of his previous podcast, We’re Having a Moment. He speaks with two esteemed guests, Dr. Phil Goff, who works directly with police departments around the country, and Zach Norris, who works with communities, about ways we can reclaim public safety that don’t always need to involve the police.
Find Zach @zachwnorris and at zachnorris.com. Visit Ella Baker Center, and @ellabakercenter on social media. Also grab his book, We Keep Us Safe here.
Find this episode, a transcript, show notes and more at howtocitizen.com. Please rate and review this podcast and share feedback at comments@howtocitizen.com. Use #howtocitizen on social media.
For this episode, here is what you can do.
INTERNAL ACTIONS
It starts with you. Explore your own relationship to feeling safe and living among your neighbors. Answer some of the following questions for yourself AND in discussion with at least one other member of your community.
What do you need to feel safe in your community?
What makes you feel unsafe in your community?
How do you get to know your neighbors?
When was the last time you made eye contact with someone in your neighborhood?
When was the last time you talked to one of your neighbors?
What can neighbors do to keep each other safe?
Has a neighbor ever made you feel unsafe? What happened and what would have made it better?
Don’t look away. Get educated on how policing works where you live.
How much of your city and county budget go to police. What percentage is this of the total? What rank is police expenditure among top spending categories?
Who runs law enforcement in your area? City? County? Sheriff? Chief? Who has hire/fire authority?
What is your most local access to law enforcement? Where is the nearest station or precinct?
Who is already working on public safety issues where you live?
Identify who is responsible for and makes public safety decisions where you live and find out which positions get voted in.
When is the next election for these positions in your community and who is running?
Good neighbors don’t just call the cops. Know who you call instead of the police.
Create a resource you can keep on hand or enter into your phone that looks like this great example from DSMNTL IG account for Washington, DC.
Bonus: Create these alternative number guides physically and digitally and share them widely with your neighbors, local businesses, and online.
EXTERNAL ACTIONS
Work with local groups to help get new policies enacted that we know work.
Lend your voice to CampaignZero by supporting its nation-wide campaign to end police violence. You can track state legislation on their homepage to see progress.
Join or create an event as part of the Night Out for Safety and Liberation on October 6. If you don’t feel comfortable going to or hosting a physical event, host a discussion with your family or online with community based on the NOSL discussion guide.
Be a supportive bystander and report police interactions.
Download the Mobile Justice App (created in 2015 by the ACLU to help people report on police interactions). According to the ACLU, it is completely within a US citizen’s Constitutional rights to record interactions with the police. *Note that if you do film a crime, you may become a key witness as a part of an investigation.
Share your answers with us. Send and email to action@howtocitizen.com. Include “public safety” in the subject line.
And if you liked what you heard here, please share the show, leave a review, AND sign up for Baratunde's newsletter at baratunde.com where he announces upcoming live tapings.
Recent fires in the Bay Area have a lot of us thinking about how to evacuate our homes, maybe for the first time. We answer all the basics about when you'll know it's time to go, what to bring, and where to go. And, we take some hope from the resilience of our redwood forests, even after tragic wildfires.
Reported by Carly Severn and Danielle Venton. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, and Rob Speight. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Carly Severn, Bianca Hernandez, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Don Clyde.
The outcome of Jamaica’s election isn’t much in doubt. What’s uncertain is how the wider Caribbean can handle rock-bottom tourism and looming hurricane risks amid the pandemic. North Korea’s leadership at last admitted to the hardships of covid-19; the coming human cost could rival that of the famine in the 1990s. And why African countries put out so many unlikely stamps.
In which the nightmarish complexity of the world's non-standardized rail systems is marveled at, and Ken hatches a zeppelin-related plan to resurrect Dame Agatha Christie. Certificate #48966.
Word from PFWTM is that dating app Bumble wants to IPO ASAP. Liquor legend Brown Forman saw shares jump 11% because its bourbon sales reflect our current unique economic reality. And Amazon just launched the most innovative thing in online grocery delivery yet: A ghost grocer grows in Brooklyn.
$BF $AMZN
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President Donald Trump’s business dealings have been shrouded in secrecy, but new legal scrutiny on the Trump Organization might turn up some answers about how the president makes and keeps his money.
Guest: David Fahrenthold, Washington Post reporter covering the Trump family and its business interests.
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