Donald Tusk’s predecessors in the hard-right PiS party captured the state and compromised its checks and balances. The newly-elected centrist party is having a hard time correcting course. A new NASA satellite which can map the tiniest of the earth’s particles is set to transform climate science (09:54). And a look at how motherhood hurts careers (17:41).
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We think Willi Carlisle is one of the best and most-interesting songwriters in folk and country music today. He'll make you laugh, make you cry, and sings about empathy in a way that is radical and sincere. This week we're joined by comedian Deanna Ortiz (@deannaortiz_, Crushes Podcast) to discuss Carlisle's newest LP, Critterland, which is heartbreaking, hopeful, and beautiful from beginning to end.
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Why do some of our identity-defining commitments resist reason and critical reflection, and why do we persist in them even when they threaten our happiness, safety, and comfort?
A sacred value is one that we cannot trade with ordinary values, or even consider trading off. When a value is sacred, no rational considerations will disrupt commitment to it. Philosophy of Devotion offers a detailed philosophical account and defense of these features both reasonable and unreasonable, beneficial and detrimental. Katsafanas explains that a life with meaningful commitments is richer and more meaningful than a life without deep, sustained commitments.
At the same time, that same devotion can deform into forms of individual and group fanaticism that can be alienating, extremist, and violent. This fanaticism is driven by feelings of persecution and threat to a fragile self, and exacerbated by feelings of ressentiment, a growing anger and resentment of opposition that becomes self-perpetuating.
In this book Katsafanas also provides an alternative to fanaticism, a way to express non-pathological forms of devotion. With this approach, individuals can avoid the dangers of fanaticism on the one hand and an empty lack of meaning on the other. This perpetual quest requires maintaining a form of existential flexibility, which may include oscillation between affirming these sacred values and deepening understanding through consideration of challenging questions.
If you take a look at the periodic table of elements, you will notice something interesting.
Go to the bottom and take a look at any element over, say, number 94. You will find a bunch of elements you have probably never heard of.
Don’t worry because most chemists probably aren’t familiar with them, either. They are not part of any chemical compounds, cannot be found in nature, and most have only existed for a fraction of a second.
Learn more about transuranium elements, what they are, and how we even know they exist on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.e
We'll tell you about a winter storm bringing the northeast some of its heaviest snow in years.
Also, we have a message from President Biden and a key Middle Eastern ally who met face-to-face for the first time since the war in Gaza began.
Plus, how a new form from the U.S. government is slowing down the college admissions process, why thousands of flight attendants are joining picket lines across the country, and where some of the biggest Mardi Gras celebrations are happening today.
We speak with cosmologist and science communicator Dr. Paul Sutter about his upcoming book, Rescuing Science. Dr. Sutter thinks (Capital S) Science has made some significant errors, and that people do not trust science because of the very system it has created for itself. Where has the discipline gone wrong, why is academia such a mess, and how do we fix it? Be sure to buy his book when it comes out on March 5th; you can also check out his podcast Ask A Spaceman! Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content! Graphic generated by Dall-e.
Control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives hinges on a special election taking place today in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Democrats currently have a one-seat majority in the chamber. The results of today’s race will determine if Democrats can pick up one more seat or if they become tied with Republicans. We’re joined by Melissa Walker, head of Giving Circles over at The States Project, to learn more about who’s running and what’s at stake.
It’s looking like a whirlwind of a week for Trump and the many battles he faces in court. After an appeals court ruled last week that he did not qualify for immunity from prosecution, Trump and his lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court on Monday and asked them to pause the case. Meanwhile, the hearing to address the allegations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis engaged in an improper and unethical relationship with her lead prosecutor will take place on Thursday.
And in headlines: Israel’s military killed at least 67 Palestinians in Rafah, a new bill that was introduced in Wyoming could take trans kids away from their parents if they receive gender-affirming care, and Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash drivers will walk off the job this Valentine’s Day.
If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, the threat it would pose to the U.S. would be significantly different from that of other aggressors, such as Russia, according to Simone Ledeen.
There's significant concern of “a nuclear bomb with a country that says routinely, ‘Death to America, death to Israel,’” says Ledeen, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.
With Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen firing rockets at ships in the Red Sea, the U.S. “should be targeting logistics points, leadership, [and] proxies outside of Iran in the region,” she said. “We could be engaging in some pinpoint targeting inside of Iran as well.”
According to Ledeen—a senior fellow at the Austin, Texas-based Strauss Center for International Security and Law—Iran and its proxies operate like an octopus, with Iran serving as the head and militant groups such as the Houthis and Hezbollah as the "many tentacles."
Ledeen joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” ahead of her testimony Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia to explain what her message to Congress will be, and what actions the Biden administration is not taking—but should take—against Iran.
