Senate Democrats tried to open up debate on sweeping voting rights legislation Tuesday but were stopped by a lack of support from their Republican counterparts. Would a more incremental approach have succeeded?
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The Delta variant is behind the big increase in the number of new Covid 19 cases in the UK since April. We take a look at what impact vaccines have had on infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
Chris Packham told viewers on the BBC?s Springwatch that blue tits eat 35 billion caterpillars a year. We get him onto the programme to explain.
How much does Type 2 diabetes cost the NHS a year? While exploring a dubious claim we find out why its hard to work that out.
Is it true that on in two people will get cancer? We?ve looked at this statistic before but listeners keep spotting it on TV.
We also ask: if the SarsCov2 RNA is 96% similar to the RNA of a virus found in bats - is that similar, or not?
World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia—and he was certainly dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. The Second World War was not Hitler’s war; it was Stalin’s war.
Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin's War: A New History of World War II(Basic Books, 2021) by award winning historian, Sean McMeekin, Professor of History at Bard College, revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have helped unleash Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the Pacific war of 1941–1945 fulfill Stalin’s goal of unleashing a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversary.
McMeekin also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US and Britain’s self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine, McMeekin shows, was substantially reliant on American materiél from warplanes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed the Red Army.
This unreciprocated American generosity gave Stalin’s armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism.
A groundbreaking reassessment of the Second World War, Stalin’s War is revisionist history at its very best: breaking down old paradigms and narratives and bringing to the fore new understandings of the historical process. All from a historian who has the best claim to be the closest, modern-day American equivalent of A. J. P. Taylor.
Charles Coutinho Ph. D. of the Royal Historical Society, received his doctorate from New York University. His area of specialization is 19th and 20th-century European, American diplomatic and political history. He has written for Chatham House’s International Affairs, the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History and the University of Rouen's online periodical Cercles.
We'll explain a recent increase in violent crime and how the White House plans to address it.
Also, it looks like the U.S. will miss that 4th of July vaccine goal, just as a new variant threatens progress in the COVID-19 fight.
Plus, another state made marijuana legal, American airports are getting a boost, and the "free Britney" movement heads to court with Britney Spears getting ready to testify.
The vote to open a debate about the For The People Act, which would make it easier to vote, strengthen campaign finance rules, and end partisan gerrymandering, was blocked in the Senate yesterday with all 50 Republicans united against it. With moderate Democrats like Manchin and Sinema refusing to budge on the filibuster, the future of voting rights is uncertain. We spoke with Crooked Media's Political Director Shaniqua McClendon about what might happen next.
And in headlines: Biden won’t hit his July 4th vaccine goal, Teamsters start nationwide project to unionize Amazon workers, and L.A. County wants its residents to stop feeding peacocks.
Show Notes:
Vote Save America: HR1 or We're Fucked – https://votesaveamerica.com/forthepeople/
For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
What is “wokeness” in America today? How did we get here?
Are "woke" corporations a threat to this country? What risk do we run if we don’t push back?
Vivek Ramaswamy, the author of the forthcoming book "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam," joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss wokeness and the dangers it poses to American society and beyond.
"If wokeism is a religion, then an employer can no longer force that religion down the throat of their employees any more than they could force down Christianity or Islam or any other religion. So, then, that raises the question of, well, 'Is wokeism a religion or not?'" Ramaswamy said.
"And I think on the facts, the answer is abundantly clear ... . There are certain words you can't say, certain clothes you can't wear, certain apologies you must recite, and an excommunication that follows, whether or not you recite it," he added.
We also cover these stories:
The White House says it won't meet President Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccine goal of vaccinating 70% of American adults by Independence Day on July 4.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., reaffirms her stance on retaining the Senate filibuster.
Black Lives Matter is criticizing Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., for his membership in a reportedly all-white beach club.
Welcome to your new life! As a reborn person, your job is now to serve others, in this case by listening to all of our podcasts. Remember, every podcast is a face of god, so maybe listen twice!
Tam O'Shaughnessy and Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, shared a passion for getting girls involved in STEM. It led them to co-found Sally Ride Science, a company focused on equity and inclusion in science education. But, there was much more to Tam and Sally's relationship. Tam gives us an intimate look at their decades-long partnership: how they met and fell in love, the pressures they faced as a queer couple, and their long-awaited and public coming out with Sally's death in 2012. We want to know which LGBTQ+ scientists have inspired you! Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.
Rob explores indie-rock darling Pavement’s critically acclaimed hit “Gold Soundz” by discussing their quirky charm, enigmatic lyrics, and unique fan following.
This episode was originally produced as a Music and Talk show available exclusively on Spotify. Find the full song on Spotify or wherever you get your music.
Akhil and Andy continue their tour of the 9 established colleges at the Founding, 7 were in the Ivy League, so the Ancient Eight will inevitably stand out in our survey - but they are not alone, as we discuss. Still it is remarkable that such a tiny portion of the population yielded so many familiar names. Latter-day scholars from these institutions still loom large as well, from Daniel Webster and Charles Beard to Gordon Wood and Maggie Blackhawk - giants all. And learn about one of the greats that you may not know well - Douglas Adair.
