Since before the dawn of recorded history, humans have been haunted by rumors of monsters beneath the waves -- and, as time wore on, it seemed at least some of those legends were based in truth. Today's question: could any sea serpents, leviathans or other cryptids remain alive in the modern day? Tune in to learn more.
Radhika talks about her childhood in Ohio, her parents’ emigration from Tamil Nadu (relevant spoiler: an arranged Brahmin marriage), and her scholarly work on post-colonial migration, citizenship, and multiculturalism in Britain. (Bonus: BAME = POC/BIPOC?) She schools Tammy on Portland’s Black and immigrant communities (the city isn’t all white, Radhika softly yells) and describes the local vibe during 74+ days of Black Lives Matter protests.
Then, the discussion (takedown? disquisition?) many TTSG listeners have been waiting for: about the Netflix show “Indian Matchmaking”! Tammy and Radhika talk caste, religion, class, and colorism in the series, media representations of South Asians, and Modi’s bloody transnationalism. Radhika invokes the cultural critic Stuart Hall to question the desire for “cheering fictions” over messy depictions of identity, and looks forward to learning more about Dalit–Black American connections in Isabel Wilkerson’s new book on caste.
* Annihilation of Caste, the 1936 book by Dalit revolutionary B.R. Ambedkar (arguing that inter-caste marriages could never solve the problem of caste; take that, Auntie Sima!)
We’re all familiar with the statistic that 81% of white evangelical voters supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. But what if a deeper trawl through the complex relationship between religion and political activity in modern America suggests that statistic doesn’t really mean anything? In this exciting new book, John Compton, who serves as chair of the Department of Political Science at Chapman University, CA, suggests that we need entirely to revise the way in which we’ve thought about the relationship between religion and politics in American history. The End of Empathy: Why White Protestants Stopped Loving their Neighbors (Oxford University Press, 2020) suggests that religion might have played a much smaller role in the divisions that mark American culture than many commentators have supposed.
Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests focus on the history of puritanism and evangelicalism, and he is the author most recently of John Owen and English Puritanism (Oxford University Press, 2016).
President Trump fans fake theory about Kamala Harris's eligibility. The battle over mail in ballots. Rescue on the tracks with a train approaching. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
In the early days of internet search engines, Google set itself apart by providing a simple service. A list of links, inviting you to explore the websites that best matched your query. It was a portal to the rest of the internet. But over the last two decades, that mission has changed.
Does Google search still take you to the best result for your query? Or does it point users back to its own suite of products?
Recent reports paint a dark picture, from heatwaves to hurricanes to high-water marks. But some promising trends—and pandemic-era economics—provide reasons for hope. We examine the night-time economy of the very swankiest parties, discovering a kind of beauty brokerage at work behind the scenes. And what baseball season reveals for other sports that yearn for a return. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer
Saving endangered species usually brings to mind tigers or whales. But scientists say many parasites are also at risk of extinction. Short Wave's Emily Kwong talks with Chelsea Wood, an Assistant Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, who tells us about the important role parasites play in ecosystems and a new global plan to protect them.
This was the first week since March that the number of new unemployment claims in the US fell below one million. Tens of millions remain jobless and the start of Congress’s August recess means it’s unlikely we’ll see new relief legislation before September.
Trump said the quiet part out loud yesterday, admitting that his refusal to provide emergency funding to the postal service would make universal vote-by-mail impossible. We discuss Republican efforts to make voting-by-mail more difficult in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, and whether they’re succeeding.
And in headlines: a peace deal between Israel and the UAE, Mike Bloomberg to speak at the DNC, and the two bubbles of “Jurassic Park: Dominion.”
