This year’s socially-distanced DNC began last night, with speeches from former First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders, and more. Joe Biden went into the convention with a 7-9 point national lead against Trump, but the next few months are still full of unknowns. Watch the convention along with us every night this week at crooked.com/convention
UNC Chapel Hill has decided to pivot to online-only instruction after 130 students test positive for Covid-19. Los Angeles' public schools start remote classes today, and are launching a large-scale testing system for students and staff.
And in headlines: Lebanon sees a Covid-19 surge after the explosion in Beirut, California experiences one of its worst heat waves on record, and the Trump administration finalizes plans to drill in the Arctic.
How has the pro-life movement affected culture and politics? Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, examines that impact in her new book, "Life Is Winning: Inside the Fight for Unborn Children and Their Mothers." She joins the podcast to discuss how the pro-life cause went from “an orphaned political problem” to a winning issue "embraced at the highest levels of the Republican Party,” how women built the pro-life movement, and more.
We also cover these stories:
The Trump administration announces plans to begin drilling for oil and gas in 1.5 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska.
Protests against police in Seattle again become violent, and police arrest 18 on Sunday when another riot breaks out.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks in support of the city's police Sunday after violence erupts again over the weekend.
Amanda Holmes reads Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem, “Spring and Fall.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
With some fresh updates, ocean and policy expert Dr. Ayana Johnson guests in an encore presentation of a fan favorite episode. Hear updates from her, learn about her new podcast “How to Save a Planet,” and what she’s been up to since this episode originally aired in 2018. Are plastic straws really that bad? What's the oldest message in a bottle? Any scuba vs. snorkel strategies? Does sunscreen kill coral? Can we reverse ocean warming in our lifetime? Alie struggles with finding a balance between the wonders and the bummers, and in the first 20 or so minutes, we’ll learn weird ocean trivia, why we love the sea, and facts about the ocean's depths and beauty. Then, we get to the sad stuff: ocean health, climate change, acidification, pollution, policy and what we can all do.
If you've been feeling helpless, this episode gives you all the tools you need to understand and help our friend, the World Ocean.
1979 is the year that Ex-Green Beret Doctor Jeffrey MacDonald is convicted of the murders of his pregnant wife and two young daughters. It’s also the year he meets a new friend in famous journalist Joe McGinniss. Joe agrees to write a book about Jeff’s case. That book becomes a smash bestseller and a TV limited series watched by over 65 million people, but the story it tells isn’t quite the story Jeff expected and that sets off a series of events that ruin both men’s lives…Who’s the real bad guy here, the journalist or the murderer?
We review the 1990 Barbet Schroeder film “Reversal of Fortune,” covering Alan Dershowitz’s representation of Danish vampire Claus von Bülow after he is accused of murdering his wife. Needless to say this depiction of Dershowitz raises a few eyebrows 30 years down the line.
Keep your eyes on twitch.tv/chapotraphouse this Tuesday and Wednesday for coverage of the DNC.
On the Gist, a supposedly benevolent association supports a malevolent force.
In the interview, we mark the beginning of the virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention with a slightly different format; no spiel and more conversation. Mike talks with Charlie Sykes, a republican who will be voting for Joe Biden in November. Author of "How the Right Lost Its Mind," host of the Bulwark Podcast, and an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, Sykes explains how the DNC will be unlike anything we have ever experienced in politics, dissects never-Trumpism, and shares his thoughts on why the GOP needs to reevaluate their base.
