Month: March 2020

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The Daily Signal - Why Frederick Douglass Would Be Pro-Life Today

Abolitionists and the pro-life movement share a similar respect for the sacredness of human life. Frederick Douglass "was a strong proponent of the black family" in the mid- to late 1800s, says the Rev. Dean Nelson, a Baptist pastor who is executive director of Human Coalition Action.


Nelson joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss the legacy of Douglass, who died in 1895, and how his life and work should encourage the ending of abortion. He also explains how Human Coalition Action is using data and technology to serve the thousands of women who face a crisis pregnancy each year.


Also on today's show, we share an interview with conservative activist Scott Presler, who has been traveling the country to pick up trash in America's dirtiest cities. Plus, we have your letter to the editor.

  • And we read your letters to the editor.


Enjoy the show!


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the memory palace - Episode 159: The Newest News

The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts.

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.

Anyway...

Music 

Notes

  • I read and enjoyed The Golden Age of the Newspaper by George Douglas. 

  • I first learned about Moses Yale Beach and the pigeon reporters in an aside in one of the fantastic stories in Banvard's Folly by Paul Collins, a book you should purchase right now. 

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Unexpected Elements - Australia’s fires – fuelled by climate change

Attributing Australia's bush fires, a major study says man-made climate change was a big driver – making the fires at least 30% worse than they would have been if natural processes were the only factors.

We look at preparations for coronavirus in Africa. Although cases there are currently lower than in much of the rest of the world a major training initiative is taking place to spread awareness amongst medics across the continent.

We ask why Horseshoe bats in particular carry coronaviruses, and find a novel idea for distributing vaccines in places without refrigeration.

And why are we obsessed with crime? Kay from Hamburg, Germany asks as every Sunday evening Germans pile into their local pubs to watch Tatort, a hugely successful crime drama which has been running for 50 years.

Presenter Marnie Chesterton starts with the science and speaks with psychologists to get to the bottom of where this obsession might come from. Have we evolved to have an innate obsession with danger or are we addicted to feeling fear?

Or perhaps the dramatisation of crime fuels our obsession. Producer Caroline Steel visits the film set of BBC crime drama, Line of Duty. Producer Jed Mercurio explains what draws us to crime narratives and the techniques he uses to keep his audience captivated.

But does the way we chose to represent crime in media match up with reality? And what is the impact of this on society and policy?

(Image: Australian bushfires. Credit: Getty images/AFP)

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Undiscovered - New Show: Science Diction

Hello Undiscovered fans! We're here to tell you about a new show we've been working on at Science Friday. Science Diction is a podcast about words—and the science stories behind them.

Hosted by SciFri producer and self-proclaimed word nerd Johanna Mayer, each episode of Science Diction digs into the origin of a single word or phrase, and, with the help of historians, authors, etymologists, and scientists, reveals a surprising science connection. Here's a sneak peek!

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World Book Club - Leïla Slimani – Lullaby

French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani joins Harriett Gilbert in the Radio Theatre at the BBC and readers from around the world to talk about her novel Lullaby, the devastating story of a nanny, Louise, who kills two children in her care.

The book – an international bestseller – opens with this horrific crime then travels back in time to discover why an apparently perfect nanny turned into a cold blooded murderer. Through the lives of Louise and her employers, Slimani explores Paris’s economy and society, depicting a city where poverty and wealth live side by side and people know little about one another. The third programme in World Book Club’s year celebrating international women’s writing, this novel raises urgent questions about women’s lives and maternal instincts, and what is expected of them.

(Photo: Leïla Slimani. Photo credit: Catherine Hélie/Editions Gallimard.)

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Lex Fridman Podcast - #79 – Lee Smolin: Quantum Gravity and Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution

Lee Smolin is a theoretical physicist, co-inventor of loop quantum gravity, and a contributor of many interesting ideas to cosmology, quantum field theory, the foundations of quantum mechanics, theoretical biology, and the philosophy of science. He is the author of several books including one that critiques the state of physics and string theory called The Trouble with Physics, and his latest book, Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies Beyond the Quantum.

EPISODE LINKS:
Books mentioned:
– Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution by Lee Smolin: https://amzn.to/2TsF5c3
– The Trouble With Physics by Lee Smolin: https://amzn.to/2v1FMzy
– Against Method by Paul Feyerabend: https://amzn.to/2VOPXCD

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, or support it on Patreon.

This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”. 

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

OUTLINE:
00:00 – Introduction
03:03 – What is real?
05:03 – Scientific method and scientific progress
24:57 – Eric Weinstein and radical ideas in science
29:32 – Quantum mechanics and general relativity
47:24 – Sean Carroll and many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
55:33 – Principles in science
57:24 – String theory