Scholar of science and technology studies and Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Media Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Anita Say Chan, is back to break down the fight between the Pentagon and Claude A.I., & explain big tech's increasingly obvious and ominous gestures to a techno feudalist future where intelligence is paywalled, human bodies exist to be rented by AI agents, and big tech runs the American military machine.
Today we dive into the declining relevance of movies and movie theaters in the modern era, as well as the meager highlights from last night's Oscars ceremony: The snubs, the politics, and the tributes. Plus, more updates on the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz.
What makes us who we are? In Radio 4's discussion programme to start off the week, Tom Sutcliffe and guests explore consciousness and identity, and whether the face reveals our inner thoughts and character.
American science writer Michael Pollan is celebrated for his work on food and psychedelic drugs. His new book A World Appears, is a sweeping investigation into consciousness - examining where our sense of self comes from, how it is experienced across species, and what new theories from neuroscience, philosophy and plant biology reveal about awareness.
Cultural historian Fay Bound-Alberti traces the long, complex history of the human face, showing how it has been used to define identity, moral character and social status, and how new technologies – from photography to facial recognition – shape our understanding of selfhood in the modern world.
Mary Costello’s latest novel A Beautiful Loan, focuses on the life of Anna Hughes, a woman looking back across decades of love, loss and betrayal as she tries to understand the choices that shaped her and the deeper self she learns, slowly, to claim.
With the world’s attention on the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, a second front in the conflict has opened in Lebanon.
Israel has pummeled an area in the southern outskirts of Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway, as well as southern Lebanon, with airstrikes, displacing almost one million people. Israel has also expanded its assault into other parts of Beirut, the capital.
Christina Goldbaum, The New York Times’s bureau chief in Beirut, explains how the crisis in Lebanon connects to the broader war, what Israel hopes to achieve and what people in Lebanon fear might come next.
The United States and Israel are now at war with Iran. This direct conflict has grown out of decades of simmering hostility but is now erupting, reshaping the Middle East and rattling the global economy. FRONTLINE has produced and is streaming an updated presentation of Remaking the Middle East. From award-winning FRONTLINE filmmakers James Jacoby and Anya Bourg.array(3) {
[0]=>
string(38) "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source"
[1]=>
string(0) ""
[2]=>
string(1) "0"
}
Brandon Herrera is the GOP nominee for the 23rd Congressional District of Texas. He is a pro-gun activist and YouTube conservative influencer. He faces Democrat Katy Padilla Stout in the November General Election.array(3) {
[0]=>
string(38) "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source"
[1]=>
string(0) ""
[2]=>
string(1) "0"
}
The Movies…. Are back. The Mindset….Continues. Bet you thought we had forgotten? Will and Hesse get in right under the gun for another Movie Mindset Oscars Special. Our two professional film critics and acclaimed indie film stars discuss this year’s finest offerings from Tinsel Town and debate which among them deserves to be immortalized with that finest of names “Oscar.”
Will PTA finally have his crowning moment of glory this year or will it be One Disappointment After Another for the wunderkind director as he’s snubbed yet again…
Who will win the ideological battle over fascism this year? Will it be The Secret Agent, which maintains that fascism is bad or F:1 which stands for Fascism = #1?
Is having a parent evil, or is being a parent evil? And Is it better to exist or not to? Films like this year’s Frankenstein, Sentimental Value and Hamnet all delve into this tricky and universal human dilemma.
The Best Actor race is among the tightest in recent memory with many industry insiders saying it’s going to come down to Michael B Jordan playing a set of twins who are divided over eating pussy and becoming a vampire and Timothee Chalamet who plays an arrogant, pushy Jewish guy who gets everything he wants and conquers the world.
Will and Hesse discuss all this and more! Also Train Dreams? Place your bets NOW on which of this year’s movies will win, and which ones each of these professional film critics still haven’t seen!
For 12 years, Pete Wells had his dream job: working as the chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. The job’s journalistic mission required Wells to eat out most nights and taste nearly everything on any given restaurant’s menu. He didn’t realize it at the time, but the excessive eating had taken a toll on his body.
Then came a health crisis, followed by his doctor’s advice to “stop doing what you’re doing right now.”
In 2024, Wells gave up his post as restaurant critic and set out to remake his entire relationship with food.
On today’s episode, Michael Barbaro speaks with Wells about the realities of life as a restaurant critic, and what he’s learning about the joys of home cooking, mindful eating and grocery shopping for the diet he intends to follow.
On Today’s Episode:
Pete Wells is a reporter covering food for The New York Times. He was formerly The Times’s restaurant critic.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro stops by the studio to talk to Jon Lovett about Trump's war in Iran, growing antisemitism and Islamophobia in America, and what it'll take for Democrats to learn how to do big things again. The two then unpack what it takes for a politician to honestly change their mind, ask the Governor's sister — who was sitting in the studio — to fact-check his claims about growing up as a troublemaker, and debate whether a calm, collected approach to politics can also be cool in our current political moment.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
For this weekend's Saturday Show, Mike shares a recent Substack Live conversation with political analyst and commentator Chris Cillizza. They kick things off by diagnosing the crisis of adult male friendship, why society fails to foster it, and Mike's "erosion theory" of bonding. Then, they pivot to politics, contrasting Donald Trump's inability to sell the unpopular war in Iran with Ronald Reagan's successful messaging during the 1983 invasion of Grenada. Are modern Americans too accustomed to the friction-free "age of abundance" to accept genuine wartime sacrifices? Plus, a breakdown of the cynical legislative maneuvering behind the SAVE Act—noting that 36 states already require some form of voter ID, compared to 14 that do not—and a look at the shifting coalitions in the Texas Democratic primary, where affluent white liberals turned out in higher numbers than Black and Hispanic voters to propel James Talarico past Jasmine Crockett.
Produced by Corey Wara
Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig
Do you have questions or comments, or just want to say hello? Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
