What makes a genre of music successful? Ideally, the art connects on a personal level with the audience, speaking truth to power, tapping into a universal experience.... but what if that isn't always the case? In 2012, an email from someone claiming to be a former music industry executive alleged that gangster rap was not an organic success. Instead, they claimed, the success of this genre was the result of a secret, high-level meeting in 1991, between members of the music industry's elite and representatives of the private prison industry. Making this music successful, they argued, would ensure the prison system became even more profitable for investors. It's a profoundly disturbing idea -- but could it be true? Tune in to learn more.
In June 1940, with the conquest of France, Nazi Germany and Italy had conquered almost all of Western Europe. The map of Europe was one solid color reflecting the domination of the Axis Powers.
Except for one small hole in the donut: Switzerland.
Switzerland’s neutrality didn’t guarantee anything. In fact, the Nazis desperately wanted to invade Switzerland.
Learn more about Operation Tannenbaum, the planned German invasion of Switzerland, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
One of the most significant macroeconomic questions facing the world is what the future of the global reserve system, dominated for the last 80 years by the U.S. dollar, holds.
Today’s episode is a replay of NLW’s epic conversation with macro analyst Luke Gromen from April 2020. In it, Luke discusses the entire history of that U.S. dollar system, including:
Bretton Woods and why the world went on a USD-based system rather than John Maynard Keynes’ idea for a non-sovereign “bancor” world reserve currency
The move to the petrodollar in the 1970s
The financialization of commodities that started in the 1980s
The monetary policy vacuum after the Cold War ended
How a shift in executive compensation rules led to many of today’s problems with Wall Street
The export of Treasury bills as a business model
The economic fallout of 2008 globally and domestically
The end of Treasury bill buying in 2014
Why the Federal Reserve is the only sugar daddy left
Concern from health officials about a post-Thanksgiving COVID spike. Black Friday during the pandemic has many shoppers thinking of going virtual. President Trump says he would leave the White House peacefully January 20th, but adds a lot can happen before then. Correspondent Peter King has the CBS World News Roundup for Friday, November 27, 2020:
Many of the country’s institutions are being slowly hobbled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government; we ask whether the world’s largest democracy is in peril. Sweden has a surprisingly entrenched problem with gang violence, revealing the social costs of its segregated populations. And how Black Friday is playing out in the pandemic era. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer
Despite the tremendous gains of the LGBT movement in recent years, the history of gay life in this country remains poorly understood. According to conventional wisdom, gay liberation started with the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village in 1969. The 1970s represented a moment of triumph -- both political and sexual -- before the AIDS crisis in the subsequent decade, which, in the view of many, exposed the problems inherent in the so-called "gay lifestyle."
In Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation(Basic Books, 2016), the acclaimed historian Jim Downs rewrites the history of gay life in the 1970s, arguing that the decade was about much more than sex and marching in the streets. Drawing on a vast trove of untapped records at LGBT community centers in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, Downs tells moving, revelatory stories of gay people who stood together -- as friends, fellow believers, and colleagues -- to create a sense of community among people who felt alienated from mainstream American life.
As Downs shows, gay people found one another in the Metropolitan Community Church, a nationwide gay religious group; in the pages of the Body Politic, a newspaper that encouraged its readers to think of their sexuality as a political identity; at the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore, the hub of gay literary life in New York City; and at theaters putting on "Gay American History," a play that brought to the surface the enduring problem of gay oppression.
These and many other achievements would be largely forgotten after the arrival in the early 1980s of HIV/AIDS, which allowed critics to claim that sex was the defining feature of gay liberation. This reductive narrative set back the cause of gay rights and has shaped the identities of gay people for decades.
An essential act of historical recovery, Stand by Me shines a bright light on a triumphant moment, and will transform how we think about gay life in America from the 1970s into the present day.
Jim Downs is Gilder Lehrman NEH professor of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College. The author of the critically acclaimed Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction, he has also written for Time, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times, among other publications.
Morris Ardoin is author of STONE MOTEL – MEMOIRS OF A CAJUN BOY (2020, University Press of Mississippi). A communications practitioner, his work has appeared in regional, national, and international media. He divides his time between New York City and Cornwallville, New York, where he does most of his writing. His blog, Parenthetically Speaking, can be found at www.morrisardoin.com. Twitter: @morrisardoin
It’s our Thanksgiving Special! Host Chris Hill and Motley Fool analysts Ron Gross and Jason Moser explain why they’re thankful for Cerence, Nike, and PayPal. We discuss why investors might want to avoid stock market turkeys Blue Apron, Macy’s, and Slack. And since no Thanksgiving is complete without dessert, we dig into a few slices of humble pie and talk Zillow and EPR Properties. Our analysts explain why they don’t want to talk about Robinhood, stock splits, or “Stay at home” stocks at the Thanksgiving table. Plus, we revisit our conversation with Collaborative Fund’s Morgan Housel, author of the best-selling book, The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness.
We talk about the ridiculously complicated science involved in measuring Mount Everest with NPR international correspondent Lauren Frayer. And we'll hear why the height of the world's highest peak is ever-changing.
Looking for more? You can read Lauren's story here at our episode page. It's got links, photos, and other cool information.
