Month: October 2021

Posted on

Read Me a Poem - “When You Are Old” by W. B. Yeats

Amanda Holmes reads W. B. Yeats’s poem “When You Are Old.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.


This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.


See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Posted on

Bammers - Is it Even Football without Tailgating?

Due to the pandemic, the University of Alabama banned tailgating on campus for the 2020 season. No tents, no noise, no food -- nothing. A UA rep talks about what went into that decision, while fans discuss what an Alabama football season without tailgating looked like and why tailgating makes gameday so special in Tuscaloosa.


Guests: 

Roger Myers, Alabama superfan and tailgating veteran 

Nick Ferenz, University of Alabama Associate Director of Event Management 

Ben Shewmake, Marine Corps veteran and president of the Campus Veterans Association. 

Lacey Cencula, Die-hard fan and Bama Twitter personality from Birmingham


See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Posted on

Everything Everywhere Daily - How LIGO Works

To explore the universe humans have made any manner of telescopes. These telescopes can observe visible light, infrared light, radio waves, and even x-rays. One of the most important forces in shaping the universe is gravity. How can astronomers observe gravity? In 2002, the National Science Foundation, Caltech, and MIT managed to build a gravitational observatory.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Posted on

NPR's Book of the Day - How Colin Powell Wanted The World To Remember Him

When Colin Powell died on October 18 at the age of 84 from COVID-19 complications, he left behind a long, decorated career in Washington and the U.S. Army. He spent much of his life in the military, eventually rising to the rank of four-star general, and went on to become the first Black Secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs. But, as he discussed in a 2012 interview with NPR's Robert Siegel about his memoir It Worked For Me, Powell's reputation was tarnished when he used faulty evidence to push for the Iraq War: "I'll never leave it behind."
Posted on

Everything Everywhere Daily - El Niño and La Niña

Weather systems on Earth aren’t stable. There are cycles that weather patterns go through which can have enormous effects around the globe. There is probably no more important weather cycle than the one meteorologists called the Southern Oscillation. This cycle can have dramatic implications for temperatures and rainfall all over the world. Learn more about El Nino and La Nina and the Southern Oscillation on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Posted on

NPR's Book of the Day - Amor Towles’ new book is about a road trip that takes more than a few U-turns

Amor Towles' new book is quite the joyride — The Lincoln Highway follows four kids in a 1948 Studebaker who set out along the real-life Lincoln Highway, the first highway to cross the country. Two of them are trying to head for San Francisco to find their mother — the other two want to go the other way, looking for a promised inheritance. Needless to say, things don't go as planned. Towles talked to NPR's Scott Simon about the book — and also about the way the world moves so much faster now than it did in the 1950s, and how that affects the stories kids hear and see and create.