Month: October 2021

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Headlines From The Times - California put homeless people in hotel rooms. Then what?

To Project Roomkey’s architects, the program was a no-brainer. Thousands of hotel rooms were empty because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And there were thousands of people who lacked homes and seemed especially vulnerable to the coronavirus. The plan to put the people in the empty rooms and pay the hotel owners seemed to solve two problems at once.

Sounds easy, right? But in practice, not so much. The program helped some people but certainly not everyone.

Today we examine Project Roomkey — its promises, achievements, shortcomings and future. We talk to L.A. Times reporters Benjamin Oreskes and Doug Smith, who have covered the program from the start. We also talk to Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, the head of a nonprofit that helps people transition out of homelessness.

More reading:

L.A. had a golden opportunity to house homeless people in hotels — but fell short of its goal

L.A. County won’t expand program to shelter homeless people in hotels

Federal aid allows L.A. to extend hotel-room rentals for homeless people

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Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders - S5 Bonus: Brian Singer, Nobl9

Brian Singer has always been interested in computers. He into gaming in high school, which he claims is what led him to an engineering degree in college. He got his start in the industry with low level stuff, designing ASIC chips. Post that, he branched into product development, got his MBA, and funny enough, starting working in marketing for the software industry.

Eventually, he started his own company. From his professional journey, a big takeaway for him was its hard to start a company fresh out of school... cause you don't know anything. He has two boys at home, and is a soccer coach, avid golfer and skier. He finds that the most creative moments for him are away from the digital space, doing analog activities with other people.

His prior company was called Orbitera, which he eventually sold it to Google in 2016. He spent the first year at Google, migrating the product off of AWS, on to GCP. Once this was done, it was inquired of him about what the SLO's were for the product. This led to the spark of his current venture.

This is the creation story of Nobl9.

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Honestly with Bari Weiss - Why You’re Wrong—and Right—About Abortion

The most honest thing I’ve ever read about abortion is by Caitlin Flanagan. It’s called “The Dishonesty of the Abortion Debate: Why We Need to Face the Best Argument From the Other Side.” You can read it here.


On today’s episode, and in light of the new law in Texas, which effectively bans abortion, a conversation with my friend Caitlin. We talk about the best arguments on both sides of this issue, the reality of life before Roe v. Wade, the state of feminism and more.


Read all of Caitlin’s work for the Atlantic here.

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The Intelligence from The Economist - Ticker shock: London’s wheezing stockmarket

A global financial centre must move with the times, and—so far—London has not. Our correspondent lays out the causes of the malaise, and how to fix it. For many years compulsory military service was on the decline; we ask why so many countries are bringing it back. And why Europe is the destination for a growing class of digital nomads.

For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer

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What Next - What Next | Daily News and Analysis – Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic?

You might think that the wreckage caused by COVID-19 would be enough to make the U.S. take pandemic planning seriously. But a close look at current pandemic preparedness efforts reveals that’s far from the truth. It’s not too late, though, to get ready for the next Big One - if we’re willing to make serious investments beyond fighting germs.


Guest: Ed Yong, a staff writer at The Atlantic covering science.


If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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The Best One Yet - 🍷 “Hey Alexa, pour Pinot” — Napa’s audio wine. Twitter’s tipping. Oil’s $5 per gallo

Duckhorn Vineyards just IPO’d as a pure-play pinot stock, but its latest move isn’t drinking wine, it’s listening to wine. Oil prices just hit record highs worldwide — and that’s really a tax on the entire economy. And while Facebook was down Monday, Twitter wasn’t. But we’re focused on the Bitcoin tipping feature $NAPA $TWTR $BTC $MC $V $PYPL $SQ Got a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYork Want a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form: https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9 Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewform Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic?

You might think that the wreckage caused by COVID-19 would be enough to make the U.S. take pandemic planning seriously. But a close look at current pandemic preparedness efforts reveals that’s far from the truth. It’s not too late, though, to get ready for the next Big One - if we’re willing to make serious investments beyond fighting germs.


Guest: Ed Yong, a staff writer at The Atlantic covering science.


If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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Everything Everywhere Daily - The Legend of Andre the Giant (Encore)

On May 19, 1946, André René Roussimoff was born into the world in Coulommiers, France. At birth, he weighed 13 pounds or 6 kilograms...and from there, he only got bigger. He eventually topped out at 7 feet, four inches tall, weighed 520 pounds, and became a worldwide phenomenon as a professional wrestler and actor. He is one of the few humans to whom the adjective “legendary” can truly be ascribed. Today people still speak of his incredible feats in awe.

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Twenty years of More or Less

A look back at our origins, plus the usual mix of numerical nous and statistical savvy.

It?s two decades since More or Less first beamed arithmetic into the unsuspecting ears of Radio 4 listeners. We revisit the show?s genesis with the original presenter and producer.

Why are there two different figures about our vaccination rate doing the rounds and how does the UK now compare internationally?

Plus listener questions on how the colour of your front door affects your house price, TVs on standby mode, and more. And we try to respond to a meteor storm of complaints about our earlier item asserting that Star Trek?s Mr Spock is in fact highly illogical.

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NBN Book of the Day - Mark Atwood Lawrence, “The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era” (Princeton UP, 2021)

Histories of the Vietnam War are not in short supply. In U.S. history, it ranks alongside the Civil War and World War Two in terms of author coverage. The aftermath of the war has received a similar amount of attention, with historians noting the effect that the end of the war had on domestic politics and U.S. foreign policy. But what about shifts during the war itself? While the war dominated thinking in the Johnson Administration and overshadowed a whole host of other foreign policy issues, it did not cause them to simply disappear. Quite the opposite: Lyndon Johnson was confronted by a multitude of issues during his time in office, and the fact that those issues occurred in tandem with the Vietnam War shaped the U.S. response to them.

In The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era (Princeton UP, 2021), Mark Atwood Lawrence fills in some of the gaps about U.S. foreign policy during the Vietnam War. While historians have noted that U.S. foreign policy became markedly less ambitious under Richard Nixon, Lawrence notes through five different country case studies that U.S. foreign policy began to shift dramatically under Lyndon Johnson, a shift that eschewed transformative foreign policy and emphasized caution. Lawrence illustrates how the Vietnam War wrought a transformation in U.S. foreign policy whose ramifications can still be felt in the present day. 

Zeb Larson is a recent graduate of The Ohio State University with a PhD in History. His research deals with the anti-apartheid movement in the United States. To suggest a recent title or to contact him, please send an e-mail to zeb.larson@gmail.com.

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