Vivek Ramaswamy calls himself a proud father, a loyal husband, and a grateful son. His parents emigrated to America from India. A Hindu, he made his mark as a successful biotech entrepreneur.
Ramaswamy has joined forces with the Philanthropy Roundtable to narrate a compelling video as part of the organization’s True Diversity campaign—pushing back against the left’s narrow and divisive view of diversity and inclusion.
Debi Ghate, vice president of strategy and programs at the Philanthropy Roundtable and host of the "Can We Talk About It?" podcast, joins me on “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the real meaning of diversity.
"At the Roundtable, we believe an individualized approach is better for achieving true diversity," Ghate says. "What we mean by that is looking for the strengths that each person brings to the table, their values, their passions, their experiences, their background, their skills, and even more."
Last week, the U.N. published a landmark report — detailing the current state of global climate change. One thing's for sure, humans are causing a lot of this extreme weather by emitting greenhouse gases. NPR's Climate Correspondent Rebecca Hersher gives Emily three key takeaways from the report that might surprisingly help everyone feel a little more hopeful.
S2 Ep8. A cow’s amazing stomach could hold the key to stopping wastewater pollution. Engineers have designed a new sewage treatment plant based on a cow’s unique digestive process. Wastewater is progressively cleaned by microorganisms until it’s safe enough to be released into the environment. This new plant does not need electricity to operate, so it’s environmentally-friendly.
Thanks for listening. Let us know what you think. #30Animals
Get in touch: www.bbcworldservice.com/30animals
In the agricultural town of Salinas, Calif., Police Officer William Yetter repeatedly makes mistakes. First there's a stolen bike he doesn't investigate. Then, his bosses discover he's not filing police reports on time.
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.
-
“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: Golden_Brown/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by CoinDesk.
There are few things that are truly universal across all cultures and throughout history. These things are often so obvious that we overlook them and forget how they are things that make us human.
One such thing which seems so simple yet actually has profound origins: singing children to sleep.
Learn more about the lullaby and how it is one of the things which all humanity has in common, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(09:46) – Who or what is God?
(25:15) – Terence McKenna’s DMT Trips
(29:58) – Psychedelics were the source of collective intelligence
(40:30) – Psychedelics in ancient alcohol
(43:30) – The Immortality Key
(46:16) – Jesus and psychedelic wine
(58:56) – Role of rituals in human society
(1:02:37) – Human confrontation with death
(1:05:15) – The future of the human experience
(1:17:07) – The role of religion in society
(1:22:54) – The future of psychedelics research
(1:26:05) – Fasting and meditation as religious experiences
(1:29:44) – Neuralink and BCIs
(1:36:42) – Is LSD a crutch or an aid in creative work
(1:39:21) – Nietzsche said God is dead
(1:41:48) – Creatures people meet while on psychedelics
(1:47:18) – Consciousness
(1:53:41) – Books or movies that made an impact
(1:57:39) – Meaning of life
The latest IPCC assessment raised alarm about the rate at which manmade emissions are contributing to climate change. Much of the focus for action is on reducing levels of carbon dioxide, however there is a more potent greenhouse gas, methane, produced by natural and industrial processes which, as Roland Pease tells Drew Shindell of Duke University and lead author on the Global Methane Assessment, is relatively easy to target for reduction.
Gut microbes and behaviour
Roland speaks to neuroscientist John Cryan of University College, Cork in Ireland who is interested in the effects our gut microbes can have on our behaviour. It’s an unusual connection and one which he’s been experimenting on in mice. By feeding the faeces of younger mice to older ones he has found that the older ones’ took on some of the younger ones’ behaviour.
Ball lightning
Ball lightning is the stuff of legend and the supernatural. And yet there are many reported sightings of this phenomenon. Texas State University's Karl Stephan explains to Roland that he is keen to uncover the science behind these observations. He’s running a crowd sourcing project encouraging people to contribute video recordings of any ball lightening events they might observe.
Chile mummies
And Chile is home to the oldest known mummies in the World. UNESCO world heritage status has been given to a collection of around 300 mummies from Chile’s northern deserts. The mummies of babies, children and adults are thought to have been created in response to arsenic poisoning in the region around 7,000 years ago.
How can smart tech tackle climate change?
Humans are responsible for emitting over 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year – and we all know that we need to reduce that figure to prevent devastating climate change. Listener Saugat wonders whether smart technology and artificial intelligence can help us do this more quickly?
Green energy will go a long way to tackling the problem, but integrating wind and solar into our current electricity grid is complicated. Marnie Chesterton hears how AI is being used at a wind farm on the island of Orkney to predict periods of high winds, so that excess energy can be turned into hydrogen and stored, then converted back to electricity when there’s greater demand.
Digital mirrors are also playing a major role in optimising performance, and scientists say cloud-based “twins” of physical assets like turbines can improve yield by up to 20%, allowing engineers to identify problems via computer without ever having to be on site.
Marnie visits an intelligent building in London’s financial district where sensors control everything from air-conditioning to lighting, and machine learning means the building knows which staff will be on which floor at any given time, switching off lifts that are not in use and adjusting ventilation to save on power. Its designer says incorporating this kind of digital technology will help companies achieve net zero more quickly.
And in India, more than half the population are involved in agriculture, but the sector is plagued by inefficiency and waste. Tech start-ups have realised there’s potential for growth, and are using drones to monitor crop production and spraying, giving farmers apps which help them decide when and where to fertilise their fields.
Image: Livestock farm in Brazil
Credit: Photo by Igor Do Vale/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Presenters: Roland Pease and Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Julian Siddle and Marijke Peters