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A note on shownotes. In a perfect world, you go into each episode of the Memory Palace knowing nothing about what's coming. It's pretentious, sure, but that's the intention. So, if you don't want any spoilers or anything, you can click play without reading ahead.
Music
Field of Reeds by Leo Svirsky.
Stellify by Federico Albanese.
Opening by Nathanial Bartlett.
Turning 16 by Ben Sollee.
Notes
I strongly recommend checking out Annelise Orlick's Common Sense and a Little Fire, an exhilarating history of Pauline Newman, Rose Schneiderman and other women at the center of the labor movement in the 20th Century.
What to know today about the clear front-runner in the race for the Democratic pick for president, which country President Trump is in this week (and why), and what to expect at Kobe Bryant's public memorial today...
Plus: another major first for artificial intelligence, why Lyft cars could look more like taxis soon, and a Friends reunion with Ross, Rachel and the rest of the crew is happening.
Those stories and more -- in less than 10 minutes!
Award-winning broadcast journalist and former TV news reporter Erica Mandy breaks it all down for you.
Author and educator Booker T. Washington played a critical role in the promotion of education and free market enterprise among black Americans at the turn of the century.
Alabama businessman and political consultant Richard Finley joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss what the legacy of Washington, who died in 1915, means to him and others in the African American community.
If you hit your thumb with a hammer, what swear word would you immediately scream? Charvy Narain asked her friends and family this question, which lead to a personal journey from the 'buffalo's eye' to New York City cops and the her surprising Mausi. In this edition of The Boring Talks Charvy Narain takes a very foul mouthed and personal look at swearing in Hindi and English.
James Ward introduces another curious talk about a subject that may seem boring, but is actually very interesting.... maybe.
First developed by a toy company in the 1890s, slot machines have become one of the most profitable tools of the gambling trade - but many who play them say winning isn't the point. So why can't people pull themselves away? Tim Harford looks under the spinning wheels and flashing lights to see what these devices reveal about the business of addiction.
Roland Pease reports from the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting in Seattle. At the UK Research and Innovation’s stand in the exhibition hall, he’s joined by three scientists to discuss monitoring the Coronavirus outbreak, the locusts devastating crops in East Africa and the ever increasing amount of space junk orbiting the Earth.
Professor Jeffrey Shaman of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University talks about how he is modelling the movement of Covid-19 around China and beyond.
Dr Catherine Nakalembe, of the University of Maryland and East Africa Lead for NASA Harvest explains how she uses data collected by satellites to find out where crops are thriving and where they are not. She also talks about how this technology can alert countries to approaching locust swarms.
And Professor Moriba Jah of University of Texas at Austin, tells Roland why he’s concerned about the amount of space junk that’s orbiting the earth and why so little is being done about controlling satellite launch and disposal.
A lovely day out in the countryside can be blighted when swarms of midges or mosquitos invite themselves to the party. A CrowdScience listener in New Zealand has noticed that, when sand-flies come a-biting, she and her daughter are targeted, while her husband and other daughter escape unharmed. She wants to know why some, but not all of her family become bait for insect bites. CrowdScience delves into a world of smells, called semiochemistry, which explores the aromas one animal uses to attract or repel another. Does our attractiveness as a blood meal to insects come down to what we wear, what we’ve eaten or is it all in our genes? Host Marnie Chesterton discards the DEET and bravely offers herself up as a meal for mozzies, in a quest for answers.
(Image: Artist response to NASA Harvest discussion at AAAS Credit: Lorenzo Palloni)
The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week the Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss catalysts and CEOS in the world of blockchain projects, the organizational and organic structures of decentralization and to wonder whether crypto even needs Satoshi-like catalysts now that the fire of blockchain burns bright.
On today's podcast we continue the discussion, applying concepts and stories from "The Spider and the Starfish: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations", a formational book on pre-blockchain decentralization written in the early 2000's, as the centralized US military struggled to effectively dispatch a much smaller decentralized force in Afghanistan. While the battlefield is different, the insight is perhaps even more relevant to the world of blockchain projects, their decentralized origins and ambitions.
In the first round of our series “Closing The Gap”, we look at the disparities in life expectancy across Chicago. Here in part 2, we take a closer look at Englewood, the neighborhood with some of the lowest life expectancies not only in Chicago, but in the country.
