Moves to shutter the president’s accounts and to crimp corners of the internet given to right-wing extremism raise thorny questions, both about free speech and social-media firms’ business models. Our public-policy editor takes a broad look at girlhood: how women’s adolescence has changed for the better but is challenged mightily by covid-19. And science’s bid to save more snake-bite victims’ lives.
Charlie Depman grew up in Connecticut, then went to college in Canada - pursuing environmental studies. His first job out of college was to be the Asia regional coordinator for an environment NGO, or non-government organization. He writes short sci-fi stories, and as he was learning to code, he discovered that he could now create these future stories with code, rather than just write them. He's been into bicycles since his first trip to China, prior to college - and has bought, built and used many different types of bikes... including an ice bike with metal studded tires.
Chinmay Malaviya grew up in New Delhi with engineers as parents - so math and science was always a thing growing up. He ended up doing his undergrad in Singapore, studying computer science. Funny enough, he is the trained engineer in his current venture. After trying out big companies and computer research early on in his career, he realized that he didn't like either one. He took the leap into the startup world with Food Panda, and eventually got involved with Lime, the popular micro mobility platform. At Lime, Chinmay was exposed to the environmental challenges we are facing as a society, especially around transportation.
Charlie & Chinmay got together early in 2020, with a shared passion for reducing transportation related emissions by creating the one stop e-mobility shop - complete with a marketplace and vetting system for the best micro mobility options available.
We’re facing a milestone in the shift to ecommerce: Ecommerce companies don’t want your returns anymore (just keep the socks). After a quick death, Quibi will be reincarnated… as Roku. And Cardtronics is the biggest chain of ATMs on Earth, but its greatest enemy is right now its greatest friend.
$ROKU $CATM
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With just over a week left in the Trump presidency, Congressional Democrats are asking Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and strip President Trump of his power. Is that the right way to hold the president accountable?
Does having deep expertise automatically ensure a leader will be great? Adam Grant, author of The New York Times bestseller Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, explains how the ability to get outside of one’s comfort zone contributes to leadership success.
Meet the CubeSat: a miniaturized satellite that's been growing in sophistication. In the last 20 years, over 1,000 CubeSats have been launched into space for research and exploration. We talk about three CubesSat missions, and how this satellite technology ventured from college campuses to deep space. (Encore) Tweet to Emily Kwong at @emilykwong1234 and talk #scicomm with Joe on @joesbigidea. And you can reach the show by emailing shortwave@npr.org.
Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas (University of Washington Press, 2020) by performer and scholar Gerry Smyth includes lyrics and commentary for dozens of sea shanties, as well as a brief history of the genre. The world that emerges in these 19th century sailor songs is surprisingly multi-cultural; in a sense, sea shanties were the first sonic products of globalization, combining African-American work songs, Irish ballads, and English folk tunes. This book is designed to be used by performers and ensembles looking for singable versions of these ribald and entertaining songs.
Andy Boyd is a playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of the playwriting MFA at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Arizona School for the Arts.
The business community is responding to the siege on the Capitol by suspending contributions to lawmakers who didn’t vote to certify the election results, or in some cases, suspending political donations altogether.
Security concerns continue to arise following the events of last week, including armed protests that the FBI says are being planned in all 50 state capitals between now and the inauguration. We talk about the effort to ramp up security around the country.
And in headlines: Rudy Giuliani’s license to practice law is at risk, the State Department re-designates Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, and Patriots coach Bill Belichick won’t accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump.
Show Links:
"More corporations suspend donations to Republicans who objected to Electoral College vote"
Following the mob violence at the U.S. Capitol last week, Facebook suspended President Donald Trump from its platform, and Twitter followed suit shortly thereafter.
Over the weekend, Google and Apple removed Parler, a social media platform widely used by conservatives, from its app stores. Then, Amazon suspended Parler from its web services Sunday evening. Now, many Americans are voicing their concerns over the power such platforms have to limit free speech.
Klon Kitchen, director of the Center for Technology Policy at The Heritage Foundation, joins the show to explain why Twitter and Facebook say they banned the president, and why Google, Apple, and Amazon are actively suppressing Parler.
Kitchen also explains what laws and reforms are needed to keep the power of technology giants in check.
We also cover these stories:
Democrats file an impeachment article against Trump, citing the Jan. 6 unrest at the Capitol.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., asks that Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas be removed from the Senate following their attempts to object to the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
The social media platform Parler sues Amazon after being suspended from Amazon Web Services.
