Sidewalk grates make people feel uneasy. An anxiety expert said this uneasiness is rooted in something much deeper.
Curious City - ‘Gratest’ Fear: The Psychology Behind Chicago’s Sidewalk Grates
Sidewalk grates make people feel uneasy. An anxiety expert said this uneasiness is rooted in something much deeper.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - Insurance
Legally and culturally, there’s a clear distinction between gambling and insurance. Economically, the difference is not so easy to see. Both the gambler and the insurer agree that money will change hands depending on what transpires in some unknowable future. Today the biggest insurance market of all – financial derivatives – blurs the line between insuring and gambling more than ever. Tim Harford tells the story of insurance; an idea as old as gambling but one which is fundamental to the way the modern economy works.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon
(Image: Lloyds Coffeehouse, Credit: Getty Images)
CrowdScience - Should we Use Ships to Transport Fresh Water?
Earth’s surface may be 70 percent water but many places are struggling to access it. We look at a range of water supply options including delivering it by tanker. In Malta we meet a man trying to solve its water problems, with a clever contraption to recycle sewage.
Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Produders: Cathy Edwards and Marijke Peters
(Image: Tanker ship. Credit: Getty)
the memory palace - Episode 103 (The Rose of Long Island)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
Music
- We start and end with Daniel Berenboim playing Lizt's 6 Consolations, S. 172: No. 3 in D flat minor.
- We hit up Yes But, from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriens' score to Christine.
- We return to the official Memory Palace love theme of William Henry Harrison, The Gentle Softness, Lalo Schiffrin's score to The Last Dragon
- We cruise on the U.S.S. Princeton to Dispute by Yann Tiersen.
- Twist comes to Missing Pieces from the Broken City score.
Notes
- I read quite a bit about the Tylers, but really, one needs only to read "and Tyler Too," by Robert Seager II.
The Gist - He Left the Hold Steady for Mongolia
Franz Nicolay made his bones playing with big bands, in size and in popularity (The Dresden Dolls, Against Me, the Hold Steady). But Nicolay longed to strike out on his own and master the “practical craft of the old vaudevillian.” So he packed his banjo (and accordion and guitar) for a string of tours across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Nicolay’s consequent book is The Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring the Punk Underground From Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar.
For the Spiel, the many types of liars employed by Donald Trump. Today’s sponsor:
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Pod Save America - BONUS POD: “He has a lot of edits.”
Cody Keenan, President Obama's chief speechwriter in the second term, joins Jon and Jon to talk about speechwriting, working for Obama, and lessons learned over eight years in the White House.
More or Less: Behind the Stats - WS More or Less: Is democracy failing in America?
Does North Carolina really rank alongside North Korea if you measure electoral integrity
Cato Daily Podcast - The Iran Nuclear Deal vs. Team Trump
Why do key members of the Trump Administration believe the Iran nuclear deal is so weak? How would other signatories to the deal respond to a U.S. withdrawal? John Glaser comments.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - Will You Accept This Robe?
In an elaborately choreographed prime-time ceremony this week, President Trump tapped Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court seat that has been vacant for almost a year. We sit down with the Constitutional Accountability Center’s Elizabeth Wydra to examine Judge Gorsuch’s judicial record, whether he really is “Scalia 2.0,” and the difficult choices confronting Senate Democrats in the wake of this nomination.
We also consider the ramifications of reports that some U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are defying federal court orders around Trump’s new travel restrictions. Slate staffers Mark Joseph Stern and Leon Neyfakh tell us what they learned from constitutional law scholars about the possibility of a standoff between two branches of the federal government. (Read our Slate piece on the subject here.)
Finally, we zero in on one of the many lawsuits filed this week against Trump’s executive order. Aziz v. Trump centers on a pair of young men who were en route to join their father in Michigan when the order was issued, and wound up being deported to Ethiopia upon their arrival at Dulles International Airport. We’re joined by the Legal Aid Justice Center’s Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case.
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Podcast production by Tony Field.
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