Month: September 2021

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Everything Everywhere Daily - Alfred Wegner and Continental Drift

In 1910, a German Earth scientist noticed something about the map of the world. South America seemed to fit into Africa. North America seemed to fit into northwest Africa and Europe. He proposed that the continents may at one time have been joined and subsequently moved. The scientific community laughed at him and rejected his idea. Learn more about Alfred Wegener and the theory of Continental Drift, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Start the Week - Climate activism: the next generation

Richard Powers’s prize-winning Overstory was an impassioned evocation of the natural world and a call to arms to save it. In his latest novel, Bewilderment, a father and son navigate a world seemingly bent on destruction. Powers tells Andrew Marr how the father, an astrobiologist, models planets in far away galaxies searching for life, while his nature-loving 9 year old struggles to understand why earth’s life forms are so thoughtlessly destroyed.

Mya-Rose Craig, aka ‘birdgirl’, is a young British-Bangladeshi ornithologist and activist. From a deep love of bird watching she has gone on to become a prominent environmentalist. In ‘We Have A Dream’ she speaks to 30 young indigenous people of colour to find out how their environments have been affected by climate change, and why young people are so involved in protecting the natural world.

The journalist Simon Mundy argues that climate change is affecting more than just the environment: everything from energy, farming, technology and business, as well as migration. In Race for Tomorrow, Mundy has travelled the world talking to the people at the front line of this transformation, from those battling to survive the worst impacts, to those eager to reap the financial rewards.

Producer: Katy Hickman

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NBN Book of the Day - Mathias Clasen, “A Very Nervous Person’s Guide to Horror Movies” (Oxford UP, 2021)

Horror fans are attracted to movies designed to scare us, but others shudder already at the thought of the sweat-drenched nightmares that terrifying movies often trigger. The fear of sleepless nights and the widespread beliefs that horror movies can have negative psychological effects and display immorality make some of us very, very nervous about them. In A Very Nervous Person's Guide To Horror Movies (Oxford University Press, 2021) horror expert Mathias Clasen examines the psychological science of horror to address myths and correct misunderstandings surrounding the genre. Clasen addresses questions such as What are the effects of horror films on our mental and physical health? Why do they often cause nightmares? Aren't horror movies immoral and a bad influence on children and adolescents? Shouldn't we be concerned about what the current popularity of horror movies says about society and its values? While media psychologists have demonstrated that horror films indeed have the potential to harm us, Clasen reveals that the scientific evidence also contains a second story that is often overlooked: horror movies can also help us confront and manage fear and often foster prosocial values.

Rebekah Buchanan is an Associate Professor of English and Director of English Education at Western Illinois University. Her research focuses on feminism, activism, and literacy practices in youth culture, specifically through zines and music.

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In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt - The FDA Commissioner on Boosters & Vaccines for Kids (with Dr. Janet Woodcock)

As we await the FDA’s final decision on booster shots, Andy talks with the person tasked with making the final determination: Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock. Only on In the Bubble will you get a chance to hear how she’s approaching this decision, how close we are to vaccines for kids under 12, and more from the person in charge at the Food and Drug Administration.

 

Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt. 

 

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What A Day - Deteriorating Conditions At Rikers Island

An FDA panel, last week, unanimously approved a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid vaccine for people 65 and older, and anyone at risk of severe illness. The full FDA will likely make a formal decision on boosters based on that advisory panel’s recommendations in the coming days, followed by a CDC meeting to decide who should be getting them. 

Rikers is the main jail in New York City and the second biggest jail in America. It has always been known as an especially brutal place, but since the start of the pandemic, lawyers and public officials say conditions are now the worst the jail has seen in its 90 year history.

And in headlines: U.S. officials began deporting hundreds of Haitians who arrived at the Texas-Mexico border, the White House is trying to set up a call between Biden and Macron to smooth things over, and the Pentagon admitted that a drone strike in Kabul was a, “tragic mistake.”


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The NewsWorthy - Booster Shot Decision, Pentagon’s Deadly Mistake & Netflix Wins Big – Monday, September 20th, 2021

The news to know for Monday, September 20th, 2021!

We'll tell you about a big decision from an FDA panel, likely affecting who will and won't be allowed to get COVID-19 booster shots. 

Also, something very rare for top military leaders: They're apologizing for a deadly mistake in a war zone. 

Plus, an update about the first all-civilian space flight and how much money it raised for charity, who won big at last night's Emmy Awards, and a new service that lets fans chat one-on-one with celebrities.

Those stories and more in around 10 minutes!

Head to www.theNewsWorthy.com/shownotes for sources and to read more about any of the stories mentioned today.

This episode is brought to you by kiwico.com (Listen for the discount code) and Rothys.com/newsworthy

Thanks to The NewsWorthy INSIDERS for your support! Become one here: www.theNewsWorthy.com/insider 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Daily Signal - Whatever Happened to Those Pro-Democracy Protests in Cuba?

Thousands of Cubans took to the streets in July to protest the county's communist government. But since then, two months later, we have heard very little about the pro-democracy movement in Cuba. 


Many of the individuals who led the protests are now in prison, says John Suarez, executive director at the Center for a Free Cuba. Despite that, Suarez says he remains hopeful for Cuba’s future. 


“[T]here's a profound desire by Cubans for change,” Suarez says, adding that what is needed now “is international solidarity, not just in the United States, but from the democratic world more broadly.”  


Suarez joins “The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the strength of the pro-democracy movement in Cuba and how America can play a role in moving the Caribbean island nation toward freedom.  


Also on today’s show, we read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a simple way you can say thank you to two U.S. military veterans. 


Enjoy the show!


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Lex Fridman Podcast - #222 – Jay McClelland: Neural Networks and the Emergence of Cognition

Jay McClelland is a cognitive scientist at Stanford. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:12) – Beauty in neural networks
(11:31) – Darwin and evolution
(17:16) – The origin of intelligence
(23:58) – Explorations in cognition
(30:02) – Learning representations by back-propagating errors
(36:27) – Dave Rumelhart and cognitive modeling
(49:30) – Connectionism
(1:12:23) – Geoffrey Hinton
(1:14:19) – Learning in a neural network
(1:31:11) – Mathematics & reality
(1:38:19) – Modeling intelligence
(1:48:57) – Noam Chomsky and linguistic cognition
(2:03:18) – Advice for young people
(2:14:26) – Psychiatry and exploring the mind
(2:27:04) – Legacy
(2:32:53) – Meaning of life

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It Could Happen Here - Building Resiliency with Margaret Killjoy

A discussion with author Margaret Killjoy on how to get involved in your community and first steps to take towards resiliency.

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30 Animals That Made Us Smarter - Cicada and safe surfaces

Bye-bye bacteria! How an insect’s wings inspired materials that could keep surfaces free from bacterial infections. The wings of cicadas are covered with tiny spikes which burst the walls of bacteria and kill them. Replicating this remarkable design could lead to the development of antibacterial materials with potential for industrial and medical use. Thanks for listening. Get in touch: www.bbcworldservice.com/30animals #30Animals