What to know about holiday travel, and why tens of thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed.
Also, how the world is remembering an iconic activist.
Plus, there will be fewer college football bowl games this year, the CEO of DoorDash might deliver your next order, and 3D-printed houses could become a game-changer for families across the country.
Top 5 of 2021 Day 1: During this Christmas season, we're sharing some of our favorite interviews of the year to allow our team to take time off for the holidays.
There’s a crisis in San Francisco. Homelessness has skyrocketed and drug use is rampant.
Michael Shellenberger moved to San Francisco in 1993 to work on liberal causes, and even spent time working for George Soros’ foundation. He advocated the decriminalization of drugs and promoted drug treatment programs. But, Shellenberger says, he began to worry when he saw the number of drug overdose deaths in America rise from 17,000 in 2000 to more than 70,000 by 2017.
“Clearly, we are in the midst of a massive drug crisis,” Shellenberger says, “and it felt like nobody was offering a particularly clear explanation of it or offering very good solutions.”
Out of frustration over the problems he was seeing in San Francisco and other liberal cities, Shellenberger became determined to diagnose the problems driving the homeless crisis and find solutions. He presents the result of his research and investigation in his new book “San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities.”
Shellenberger joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss how the left’s “victim” ideology has harmed West Coast cities and what can be done to save those communities from complete ruin.
We’re re-running some of our favorite episodes from the past year. This episode originally aired in September 2021.
Who are the people seeking a religious exemption to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate? What are their religious claims? And how do workplaces decide who has a real claim to belief versus a convenient letter from a pastor-for-hire?
Guest: Ruth Graham, reporter for The New York Times.
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.
Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Danielle Hewitt, Elena Schwartz, Davis Land, and Carmel Delshad.
We’re re-running some of our favorite episodes from the past year. This episode originally aired in September 2021.
Who are the people seeking a religious exemption to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate? What are their religious claims? And how do workplaces decide who has a real claim to belief versus a convenient letter from a pastor-for-hire?
Guest: Ruth Graham, reporter for The New York Times.
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.
Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Danielle Hewitt, Elena Schwartz, Davis Land, and Carmel Delshad.
Author Emma Straub has written a book about family dynamics and the mess and love that comes with them in All Adults Here. It's no secret that families are complicated. Straub argues a lot of our familial relationships are watching each other grow up and whether or not you allow those you love to grow and change. She told NPR's Scott Simon though that even the bits that aren't perfect are worth loving.
It's "My Favorite Things" week on Short Wave! Through December 30th, we'll dive into our archive to bring y'all some of our personal faves — including behind-the-scenes stories from the team.
First up, a throwback from November 2019: Imagine having your Thanksgiving meal in microgravity? That's the reality for the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Today, we look at the evolution of astronaut food and a planned attempt to bake chocolate chip cookies in space. (Encore episode)
S2 Ep 27. The amazing agility of a dragonfly leads to the creation of a new spy drone. Their four wings can move independently of each other, enabling them to fly forwards, backwards, sideways, up and down and suddenly stop and hover like a helicopter. This caught the attention of engineers who wanted to develop a small drone that could be used by the military as a spying device. In the future, this sort of technology might send back pictures from areas where it’s too dangerous for humans to go.
Get in touch: www.bbcworldservice.com/30animals
#30Animals
Studies from South Africa and the UK suggest Omicron may be a mild infection for the majority of people. Hospital admissions are down when compared with other variants. However, the virus is replicating at a much faster rate than earlier variants and is able to overcome vaccines to some extent. Cases studies so far have mainly been in young people. There is concern over what will now happen as Omicron spreads across Europe and the US where there are older unvaccinated populations.
Anne von Gottberg from South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases tells us what early results from studies there show and discusses the implications.
Typhoon Rai in the Philippines led to the loss of many lives and even destroyed buildings designed to resist such extreme weather events. Could more have been done either to predict the ferocity of the typhoon or to prepare for its impact?
Liz Stephens, Associate Professor in Climate Risks and Resilience from the University of Reading discusses these issues.
Beavers are making a comeback – in the Arctic. Their activity in engineering the landscape, building dams, and changing water courses is so widespread it can be picked out by satellites. However, this is not entirely welcome says Helen Wheeler Senior Lecturer in Zoology at Anglia Ruskin University. who has been working with local people concerned about the beavers impact on their livelihoods.
And the James Webb telescope is finally launching. Heidi Hammel, who has been involved in the project for over 20 years tells us what it’s all about.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens – CrowdScience has covered a lot this year. And what better way to see out 2021 than to look back at a few of our (and your!) favourite things? Great questions are right at the top of the team’s list – especially with the way that for every one we answer, five more appear in our inbox!
So for a festive treat, Marnie asks the crew to answer three of them. What's the sun's role in our sense of direction? Why are we so uncomfortable with other people’s sadness? And why does listening to the radio make us sleepy? (Or is it just too much eggnog…?) From our favourite listener advice on how to keep your Christmas lights untangled to why cold swimming could activate your Vagus nerve, tune in for new questions and more CrowdScience favourites to light up your holiday season!
Presented by Marnie Chesterton and many members the CrowdScience Team – Melanie Brown, Marijke Peters, Caroline Steel, Hannah Fisher, Samara Linton and Anand Jagatia.
Produced by Sam Baker for BBC World Service.
Featuring:
• Haneul Jang, post-doctoral researcher, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
• Juliet Rosenfeld, psychotherapist and author of The State of Disbelief: A Story of Death, Love and Forgetting
• Mathias Basner, professor of psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
