We'll tell you about a historic settlement between states and American drug giants and how it's meant to help put an end to the opioid crisis.
Also, life is getting shorter for Americans, but COVID-19 isn't the only thing to blame for life expectancy changes.
Plus, new plans for the future Olympic Games into 2032, how the audio app Clubhouse is becoming more inclusive, and which entertainers are getting the prestigious Kennedy Center honor later this year.
Hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers went on strike yesterday across nearly a dozen cities in the U.S. to call for the passage of the PRO Act, which would allow employees to unionize and gain greater wage transparency and better benefits. In other labor news, workers at the Frito-Lay plant in Kansas have entered their third week in a strike against poor working conditions.
The #FreeBritney Movement hits Congress as members of the House of Representatives this week proposed the FREE Act, a bipartisan bill that would grant individuals like Britney Spears the right to request for their private guardian or conservator to be replaced.
And in headlines: drug manufacturers reach a $26 billion opioid settlement with state AGs, central China faces extreme flooding, and scientists in the United Arab Emirates electrocute clouds to produce rainstorms.
Show Notes:
LA Times: “Uber and Lyft drivers strike over pay, gig-work conditions” – https://lat.ms/3BuWMf1
Rep. Lauren Boebert just returned from another fact-finding trip to the southern border.
The Colorado Republican joins us today on "The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss her trip, migrant children crossing the border that she ran into there, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection's tally of the number of would-be illegal immigrants taken into custody at the border in June.
"I've gone three times now to the border, and each time, it's just more and more devastating, and the reality of this crisis is brought more into perspective of what's really taking place. I was down in McAllen, Texas, most recently with [former] President [Donald] Trump, and I saw groups of unaccompanied minors, dozens of groups of unaccompanied minors," Boebert says.
"And these children didn't have adults with them because of the Biden policies, because [President Joe] Biden is encouraging families to self-separate. If your child is 6 years of age or under, then you could cross with them, but if they're older than that, then they can't cross with you. So, they have a better chance of crossing the border without their children, putting their children in the hands of the [human smuggling] cartel and risking their lives."
We also cover these stories:
In a Tuesday interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Sen. Rand Paul announces he will be asking the Department of Justice for a criminal referral against Dr. Anthony Fauci. The Kentucky Republican claims Fauci lied to Congress about the National Institutes of Health funding illegal gain-of-function research at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The Biden administration is distancing itself from a group that is pushing critical race theory in public schools.
On Tuesday, the Louisiana state Senate voted to override Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto of a bill that would ban biological men from competing in women’s scholastic sports.
Paris Marx takes a solo episode to discuss the billionaire space race. Specifically, how billionaires are selling grand futures of space travel as a PR scheme to get huge public contracts that will allow them to control the infrastructure of space.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
Holy both sides, Batman! Yeah no suspense on this one, Quillette is garbage and the study this article references is garbage. But how garbage and why exactly? Is there any truth to it? As usual, Lindsey is here to give us the breakdown! This is a part 1. In order to grab part 2 early, make sure to pledge on patreon!
Squirrels are everywhere — living in our suburban neighborhoods to our city centers to our surrounding wilderness. Rhitu Chatterjee talks with researcher Charlotte Devitz about squirrels and how studying them might help us better understand the changing urban environment.
Overdose deaths in the U.S. spiked to a record 93,000 last year, according to new federal data.
Opioids are at the heart of these tragedies. Reset asks two experts to explain the factors driving these deaths and what can be done about it.
After way too long, we finally got our friend and comrade Paris Marx—host of the excellent podcast Tech Won’t Save Us—on TMK for a great conversation ranging from the politics of Bitcoin and Tesla to the current state of tech media/criticism and need for counter-propaganda against Silicon Valley. Paris is always in the interviewer seat on TWSU, so we turn things around on him and also ask how he got into leftist analysis of tech and his forthcoming book on the techno-politics of transportation.
Follow Paris on Twitter: twitter.com/parismarx
Listen to Tech Won’t Save Us: techwontsave.us/
Read The Hammer newsletter: techwontsave.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=3bfbe60f81172d5eff78e0dbe&id=09015cbec3
Support his wonderful podcast: patreon.com/techwontsaveus
Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills
Grab your TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)
The delta variant now makes up an estimated 83% of coronavirus cases in the U.S., a sharp increase over recent weeks. Cases are rising more rapidly in places with low rates of vaccination. Arkansas is one of those places. The state's Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, tells NPR what he's doing to try to convince more people to get a shot.
Amid those localized surges and reports of breakthrough infections, NPR's Allison Aubrey explains how to think about your own risk.
Find more NPR coverage of breakthrough infections here.
Bitcoin is up just over 7% in the last 24 hours, following its first close below $30,000 since New Year’s Day. On this episode of “The Breakdown,” NLW proposes possible explanations for this reversal, including:
Competing concerns of Inflation and slow post-COVID recovery
Institutional interest in crypto
A few weeks ago, headlines were centered around markets being nervous about inflation. Emergence of the Delta variant and its induced lockdowns, coupled with reports of unexpectedly slow growth in Q2 in China, casts doubt on the inflation concerns. Which concern will prevail and drive the next macro narrative?
Many speculated non-fungible tokens would be a fleeting phenomenon, in fashion for a short period of time and then fading away. However, an investment round for NFT platform OpenSea raised $100 million. Is OpenSea’s success an indicator of renewed long-term investor confidence in crypto?
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NYDIG, the institutional-grade platform for Bitcoin, is making it possible for thousands of banks who have trusted relationships with hundreds of millions of customers, to offer Bitcoin. Learn more at NYDIG.com/NLW.
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The Breakdown is written, produced by and features NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Only in Time” by Abloom. Image credit: Nuthawut Somsuk/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by CoinDesk.
