Moms in Boston are saying what we’re all feeling. Rather, screaming it from the 50 yard line of the local high school. Mary Katharine and Vic give the full rundown on the mask debacle in Virginia, President Biden snaps at Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy, and a recap of one of the best weekend in professional football
Times
00:12 - Segment: Welcome to the show
04:35 - Segment: The News You Need to Know
05:53 - Mask mandate madness continues in Virginia
08:56 - Kids and resilience
10:04 - Fairfax County Public Schools town hall on masking
18:37 - Mad moms in Boston scream on a high school football field, The New York Times reports
23:44 - The New York Times’ David Leonhardt writes on coronavirus risk calculations
28:04 - NBC Poll: Americans view former president Donald Trump more favorably than Vice President Kamala Harris
30:47 - Experts say last weekend was one of the greatest in NFL playoff history
38:00 - President Joe Biden calls Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch," Doocy laughs it off
Food writer Jack Monroe sparked national debate this week when she tweeted about food price hikes on the cheapest goods in supermarkets - but does inflation really hit low income households hardest?
Social media and some news outlets have spread claims this week that only around 17,000 people have actually died of Covid. We debunk.
We test the truth of the five second rule - is it a good idea to eat watermelon within five seconds of dropping it on the floor? And can you think yourself better?
If maximizing utility leads to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people, as utilitarianism has always proposed, then why is it that as many of us currently maximize our utility--by working endlessly, undertaking further education and training, relentlessly marketing and selling ourselves--we are met with the steady worsening of collective social and economic conditions? In Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness(MIT Press, 2021), social and political theorist Neil Vallelly eloquently tells the story of how neoliberalism transformed the relationship between utility maximization and the common good.
Drawing on a vast array of contemporary examples, from self-help literature and marketing jargon to political speeches and governmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vallelly coins several terms--including the futilitarian condition, homo futilitus, and semio-futility--to demonstrate that in the neoliberal decades, the practice of utility maximization traps us in useless and repetitive behaviors that foreclose the possibility of collective happiness.
This urgent and provocative book chimes with the mood of the time by at once mapping the historical relationship between utilitarianism and capitalism, developing an original framework for understanding neoliberalism, and recounting the lived experience of uselessness in the early twenty-first century. At a time of epoch-defining disasters, from climate emergencies to deadly pandemics, countering the futility of neoliberal existence is essential to building an egalitarian, sustainable, and hopeful future.
Neil Vallelly is a political and social theorist based at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His research has appeared in journals such as Rethinking Marxism, Angelaki, and Poetics Today, and magazines, including New Internationalist and ROAR. In 2022, he will take up a two-year Rutherford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at Otago, working on a history of capitalism and migrant detention. An Italian translation of Futilitarianism will be published in March 2022.
Tom Discenna is Professor of Communication at Oakland University whose work examines issues of academic labor and communicative labor more broadly.
When the Choctaw Nation was forcibly resettled in Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma in the 1830s, it was joined by enslaved Black people—the tribe had owned enslaved Blacks since the 1720s. By the eve of the Civil War, 14 percent of the Choctaw Nation consisted of enslaved Blacks. Avid supporters of the Confederate States of America, the Nation passed a measure requiring all whites living in its territory to swear allegiance to the Confederacy and deemed any criticism of it or its army treasonous and punishable by death. Choctaws also raised an infantry force and a cavalry to fight alongside Confederate forces.
In Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country (UNC Press, 2021), Fay A. Yarbrough reveals that, while sovereignty and states’ rights mattered to Choctaw leaders, the survival of slavery also determined the Nation’s support of the Confederacy. Mining service records for approximately 3,000 members of the First Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles, Yarbrough examines the experiences of Choctaw soldiers and notes that although their enthusiasm waned as the war persisted, military service allowed them to embrace traditional masculine roles that were disappearing in a changing political and economic landscape. By drawing parallels between the Choctaw Nation and the Confederate states, Yarbrough looks beyond the traditional binary of the Union and Confederacy and reconsiders the historical relationship between Native populations and slavery.
Russia conducted a series of military drills yesterday while Ukraine received a shipment of weapons including antitank missiles from the U.S. These were some of the latest turns since diplomatic negotiations between the U.S. and Russia have faltered and now both are accusing the other of ratcheting up tensions. Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration and co-host of Pod Save the World, joins us to discuss how we got here and what’s next.
And in headlines: Pfizer announced that it has begun testing a new vaccine designed to target the omicron variant, British police opened an inquiry into a series of parties held at 10 Downing Street during COVID lockdown, and Neil Young threatens to pull his discography from Spotify if the company doesn't drop Joe Rogan.
The news to know for Wednesday, January 26th, 2022!
We have an update on the rising tensions in Eastern Europe. Russia seems to be taking more action, and the U.S. is shopping for fuel.
Also, all eyes are on the Federal Reserve. What the central bank is expected to announce today, and how it's already impacting the stock market.
Plus, one shortage has gotten so bad, American factories could have to shut down, some changes are coming to key college admissions tests, and who was and wasn't elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
President Joe Biden has finished his first year in office with a number of foreign policy tests he has had to confront. The Afghanistan pullout, the situation in Ukraine, and our growing rivalry with China all represent tests the president has had to face. They are tests that Vandenberg Coalition Executive Director Carrie Filipetti and Senior Policy Director Amanda Rothschild say he’s failed.
"You just go around the world in every region: We're worse off today than we were a year ago," says Rothschild. "Whether it's North Korea, Afghanistan, China, Ukraine, it's worse than we were a year ago, and that's a result of his policies."
Filipetti adds, "Our word mattered in the past because it was backed by our power, and we no longer have the power backing our word."
Filipetti and Rothschild, both of whom served in the Trump administration, join "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss a year of foreign policy events, and how the president has failed America on the world stage.
We also cover these stories:
Republican lawmakers accuse the Biden administration of targeting federal employees seeking religious exemptions from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Fearing a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration begins planning sanctions and export controls on the Russian economy, in addition to mitigation procedures if Russia withholds energy supplies in retaliation.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announces a tip line for parents to report the teaching of anything that could be considered divisive in the classroom.
The odds of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are increasing, with thousands of Russian troops stationed near the two countries' border. Vladimir Putin is set on ensuring Ukraine gives up its ambitions to join NATO and the European Union, and it’s unclear how much he’s willing to risk to meet that objective.
How far will the Russian leader go to get what he wants? Is there any way to end the standoff without violence?
Guest: Amy Mackinnon, national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy.
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.
It's no secret that social media is politically divisive. What we may not be as aware of is how our own behavior feeds into a positive feedback loop that leaves both sides progressively more outraged and more extreme in their beliefs. What should we be aware of before we like, share, and react to politically inflammatory content online? What techniques do we have at our disposal to improve our online behavior? The Progress Network Member Robert Wright, president of the Nonzero Foundation and a longtime journalist who writes about science, history, politics, and religion, discusses this phenomenon with The Progress Network executive director Emma Varvaloucas and gives his best tips for how to avoid a civil war.
This conversation was recorded before the 2020 presidential election.
Author Marc Eliot has written a new biography of country music icon, Merle Haggard. The Hag details Haggard's quite extraordinary life; from breaking into a restaurant (that turned out to be open) and subsequent jail time to his many broken marriages and everything in between. Haggard turned his past failures into songs, writing and singing about his inner turmoil. Eliot told NPR's Steve Inskeep that he thinks the Hag deserves a little more respect: "I think if he were played on the same radio stations that, say, play Frank Sinatra ... he'd be just as accepted. I think he was that good."
