Four conservative talk radio hosts have died of COVID-19 this summer, further revealing the consequences of a politicized pandemic. Why aren’t prominent right-wing figures doing more to embrace the coronavirus vaccine?
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The Earth is pretty old. Our current, best estimate is that it is 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus 50 million years.
Since then, however, a lot has happened. To help clarify the Earth’s timeline, geologists have divided the Earth’s history into various eras and periods. Each division of time represents a change in something, which happened on the planet.
Learn more about the Earth’s history and geologic time scales, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Should we be worried that the protection against Covid-19 provided by the vaccines is going down? Could it really be the case that eating a hot dog takes 36 minutes from your life? The Bank of England holds 35% of Government debt. Who owns the other 65%? Has the UK spent more on Test and Trace than on its operations in Afghanistan?
Stephen J. Pyne's new bookThe Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next (U California Press, 2021) tells the story of what happened when a fire-wielding species, humanity, met an especially fire-receptive time in Earth's history. Since terrestrial life first appeared, flames have flourished. Over the past two million years, however, one genus gained the ability to manipulate fire, swiftly remaking both itself and eventually the world. We developed small guts and big heads by cooking food; we climbed the food chain by cooking landscapes; and now we have become a geologic force by cooking the planet.
Some fire uses have been direct: fire applied to convert living landscapes into hunting grounds, forage fields, farms, and pastures. Others have been indirect, through pyrotechnologies that expanded humanity's reach beyond flame's grasp. Still, preindustrial and Indigenous societies largely operated within broad ecological constraints that determined how, and when, living landscapes could be burned. These ancient relationships between humans and fire broke down when people began to burn fossil biomass—lithic landscapes—and humanity’s firepower became unbounded. Fire-catalyzed climate change globalized the impacts into a new geologic epoch. The Pleistocene yielded to the Pyrocene.
Andy and Dr. Fauci cover all the latest questions you have, including boosters, variants beyond Delta, breakthrough infections, and vaccinating the globe. Plus, what Dr. Fauci and the Biden administration are doing to prepare for the next pandemic.
Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.
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A law that effectively banned abortions in Texas after the sixth week of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest took effect last Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block it. We spoke to Leah Litman, an assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan and cohost of the podcast “Strict Scrutiny,” to get a better understanding of how the law was designed.
Also in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott signed a voting restriction bill, yesterday, that bans 24-hour voting and drive-through voting, institutes onerous vote-by-mail ID mandates, and more.
And in headlines: the Taliban announced the formation of its interim government in Afghanistan, President Biden visited New Jersey and New York to survey the damage caused by Ida, federal unemployment benefits expired, former Trump advisor Jason Miller was briefly detained in Brazil, and Jamie Spears filed a petition to end Britney Spears’ conservatorship after 13 years.
For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
The news to know for Wednesday, September 8th, 2021!
What to know about the Taliban's newly announced government in Afghanistan, a powerful earthquake in Mexico, and the billions of dollars up for debate in the U.S.
Plus, why flu season could be worse this year, a major update in the legal case that inspired the #FreeBritney movement, and in what way TikTok has taken over YouTube.
At Thomas Aquinas College, students study the original works of the great thinkers of Western civilization, among them Aristotle, St. Augustine, Chaucer, Descartes, Newton, Locke, Lincoln, Einstein, and Dostoevsky.
After reading these influential scholars, students engage in small group discussions about the works, their conversations guided by a professor.
But it's not just the curriculum and the classroom methodology that make Thomas Aquinas College different. Despite having campuses in liberal California and Massachusetts, this small Catholic college is bucking trends in higher ed.
As students across America must obtain higher and higher loans to pay for higher education, Thomas Aquinas College is committed to ensuring that no student needs to take out more than $19,000 in loans. It encourages religious practices by making Mass available daily. And it offers only single-sex dorms.
Paul O'Reilly, incoming president of Thomas Aquinas College, joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the college's approach and results.
We also cover these stories:
The Taliban announce formation of an interterm government in an attempt to formalize control over Afghanistan.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., says new documents prove that Dr. Anthony Fauci lied to Congress about government funding for coronavirus research at a lab in Wuhan, China.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot signs election reform legislation despite opposition from the left.
Not too long ago, the Internet was seen as humanity's great hope. Today it feels more like our undoing. We see social media amplifying negative voices and harassment and producing political partisanship and interpersonal dysfunction, and it seems like no one knows to fix it—except maybe these two. Today we're joined by Danielle Keats Citron, a leading expert on information privacy, free speech, and civil rights, and Eli Pariser, co-founder of Upworthy and the author of "The Filter Bubble," who now leads the New_ Public project. Together they share their views on the Internet's current trajectory and how we might course correct.
