On the Gist, anti-maskers are getting the coronavirus.
In the interview, Dr. Jennifer Mercieca is here to discuss her new book, Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump. She and Mike talk about the origins of Trump’s verbal tactics, and how he’s been able to manipulate information. They also touch on the variety of ways presidents appeal to the people, and Joe Biden’s best route forward in that regard.
The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google faced questions today from a House subcommittee. Some lawmakers believe those companies have too much economic and political power. Former Facebook policy executive Dipayan Ghosh agrees.
Parents, teachers and students are informed and asking questions about Chicago Public Schools’ current plan to reopen schools in the fall. We talk to CPS CEO Janice Jackson about that plan, and how it could change depending on circumstances around the covid-19 crisis.
What do we know about the federal police surges planned for several American cities? There are important distinctions among the agencies tasked with federal police action in American cities. Patrick Eddington and Walter Olson comment.
What do we know about the federal police surges planned for several American cities? There are important distinctions among the agencies tasked with federal police action in American cities. Patrick Eddington and Walter Olson comment.
That was Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov’s answer when asked to describe the true disruption of decentralized finance to a traditional finance audience.
On this episode of The Breakdown, Sergey and NLW discuss:
Brand-based contracts vs. math-based contracts
The history of smart contracts
What it means to build an “abstraction layer” for “universally connected smart contracts”
Key moments in the history of smart contract infrastructure
Where smart contracts and DeFi are in terms of analogies to the early internet
Why Sergey believes traditional finance will inevitably shift to a math-based contract model
Ian Hutchinson is a nuclear engineer and plasma physicist at MIT. He has made a number of important contributions in plasma physics including the magnetic confinement of plasmas seeking to enable fusion reactions, which is the energy source of the stars, to be used for practical energy production. Current nuclear reactors are based on fission as we discuss. Ian has also written on the philosophy of science and the relationship between science and religion.
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
05:32 – Nuclear physics and plasma physics
08:00 – Fusion energy
35:22 – Nuclear weapons
42:06 – Existential risks
50:29 – Personal journey in religion
56:27 – What is God like?
1:01:34 – Scientism
1:04:21 – Atheism
1:06:39 – Not knowing
1:09:57 – Faith
1:13:46 – The value of loyalty and love
1:23:26 – Why is there suffering in the world
1:35:08 – AGI
1:40:27 – Consciousness
1:48:14 – Simulation
1:52:20 – Adam and Eve
1:54:57 – Meaning of life
After the end of WWII in Europe, General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed the military governor of the American Zone in Germany.
During his travels around Germany, he noticed that the German autobahn was really good. His respect for the German highways later became the impetus for passing legislation for the United States Interstate Highway System.
Katie Crutchfield is a singer and songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama. She’s been making music under the name Waxahatchee since 2010. Her fifth album, Saint Cloud, came out this past March. Pitchfork named it Best New Music, and The Guardian called it the best album of the year so far. In this episode, Katie breaks down how she made the song “Fire."
