Brittany Hogan worked in diversity and inclusion for the Rockwood School District for eight years. As public debate intensified over the way race is discussed in schools, and threats were made against her, Hogan eventually was pushed to resign.
Guest: Brittany Hogan, former director of educational equity and diversity for the Rockwood School District in St. Louis County.
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The biggest thing there is and the biggest thing there can be is infinity. It literally has no bounds. In fact, thinking about infinity can quickly give you a nosebleed because our finite minds can’t really grasp just how enormous it really is.
However, what if I were to tell you that there is something even bigger than infinity? Or, to be more accurate, there are infinities that are bigger than other infinities?
The dominant impression of Russia in the news media and politics, even today, is that it is and always has been an autocratic power controlled by a single despotic ruler. But historians of the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries have long realized that this vision was to some extent a myth projected by the central authorities to support a system that was in fact oligarchic but competitive in nature. A fundamental step in recognizing the gap between that myth and reality was the identification of marriages between aristocratic clans as a determinant in political alliances, followed by a new understanding of patron-client relations and other interpersonal connections within the elite.
In The Tsar’s Happy Occasion: Ritual and Dynasty in the Weddings of Russian Rulers, 1495–1745(Northern Illinois UP, 2021), Russell E. Martin explores the ways in which the weddings of tsars and lesser members of the royal family worked to integrate brides and their families into the elite while moderating tensions among the nobility. The whole occasion was elaborately choreographed and developed over time as the needs of the original dynasty, the Daniilovichi, to extend and sustain the lineage by managing the number of heirs gave way to the new Romanov dynasty’s attempts to establish its legitimacy, followed by a squabble for power between two branches of the later Romanovs (Peter the Great and his descendants). And the stakes were high—the book is full of examples of poisoned brides, recalcitrant exiles, bridegrooms executed for failing to judge the balance correctly, and more. Through this in-depth but beautifully written study, we gain a new appreciation of the importance of ceremony and ritual in creating and promoting visions of how the world does and should work at specific points in time.
C. P. Lesley is the pen name of Carolyn Johnston Pouncy, a historian of Muscovite Russia who hosts New Books in Historical Fiction. Under her real name, she translated and edited The Domostroi: Rules for Russian Households in the Time of Ivan the Terrible. Her latest novel, Song of the Sisters, appeared in 2021. Find out more about her at http://www.cplesley.com.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is traveling across the country this week to discuss how schools and community colleges can help students after they lost out on so much due to the pandemic, and to outline applications for the $122 billion in education funding from the American Rescue Plan. We asked Dr. Cardona about that trip, as well as local PPE enforcement, student loans, classroom curriculum, and more.
And in headlines: the arrest of former South African president Jacob Zuma sparked protests, updates on Biden’s $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed federal decriminalization of marijuana.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
We'll tell you about the latest multi-trillion-dollar proposal in Washington: what's included and what are the chances it will become law.
Also, a painful record hit in the U.S. Why experts think overdose deaths are up so much, and what's being done to help.
Plus, a medical breakthrough that involves a sort-of mind reading, how a judge gave Britney Spears a reason to celebrate, and why a lot of parents are going to want to check their bank accounts today.
The Chinese Communist Party, which has ruled China for 100 years, remains highly secretive in its policies and actions. Fortunately, sources outside China's government have provided the world with a great deal of information about what is really happening within the communist regime.
Compiling what we do know about the Chinese Communist Party, The Heritage Foundation—parent organization of The Daily Signal—just released its 2021 China Transparency Report. The document assesses China’s level of transparency across eight key areas: the economy, energy and the environment, human rights, influence operations, the military, outbound investments, politics and law, and, technology.
The goal of the report "is partly to bust a myth that China is completely closed off and opaque," says Dean Cheng, a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow for Asian studies who contributed to the report.
"You cannot have a country of 1.3 billion people, you can't have any economy that's the second largest in the world, and the world's largest trading state, and not have some amount of interaction and data flow, etc.," Cheng says. "But part of the problem is that the available information isn't easily available, partly because, well, it's in Chinese."
Cheng and Justin Rhee, co-editor of the China Transparency Report, join “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain its significance in understanding the actions and goals of the Chinese Communist Party. (You may read the full report here.)
We also cover these stories:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken invites U.N. envoys on racism and minority issues to visit the United States.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduces a bill to repeal federal mask mandates for those using public transportation.
In remarks at The Heritage Foundation, former Vice President Mike Pence calls communist China a greater threat to America than the Soviet Union was during the Cold War.
Paris Marx is joined by Alex Rivera to discuss his 2008 film Sleep Dealer and how it imagined exploitative technologies being implemented in a future Mexico of hardened borders and limited migration.
Alex Rivera is a filmmaker and digital media artist whose work explores themes of globalization, migration, and technology. His feature films include Sleep Dealer and The Infiltrators. Follow Alex on Twitter as @Alex_Rivera.
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.
This episode was inspired by this Insider article, Baby Boomers Are More Sensitive Than Millennials. Science is often butchered by the media, so I sent it along to our own Dr. Lindsey Osterman to see if the study backs up the article. As it turns out... not really. But it does say some interesting things. Listen in and find out!
