A very strange bankruptcy case is coming to a close. Its settlement hinges not on payments rendered or bills neglected, but on the pain of millions of American families who slid into the jaws of the opioid crisis. Now, the people who set off the crisis are about to settle their debts.
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Rebecca Nagle, host of This Land, joins Leah and Kate to discuss the issues at stake in Brackeen v. Haaland, a case challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act that the Supreme Court will hear next term.
Plus, Kate and Leah catch you up on the latest in SB8 news, an opinion written by Justice Kagan, and the cases the Supreme Court will hear in the next two weeks [20:54]. There's also more drama with Ginni Thomas [51:50], a judge trying to cancel student protestors [56:18], and a House hearing on workplace protections in the federal judiciary [1:01:53].
Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed the state's Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate certain gender-affirming care as possible child abuse, leaving parents of transgender youth feeling caught between two choices: support their children or face a possible investigation. Annaliese and Rachel are mothers living in Texas and both have transgender children. They speak to NPR about the emotional and mental toll this order has had on their families. And while the order is currently blocked by a judge, Chase Strangio, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice with the American Civil Liberties Union, explains the status of other anti-LGBTQ bills in other states.
Author Azar Nafisi has written a love letter to literature and reading in Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times. She does this in a series of letters to her late father who passed on in 2004. Nafisi says that reading can help us really live and also help us, and has helped her, survive challenging times. Nafisi told NPR's Scott Simon that literature's purpose is to let us experience new worlds: "to come out of yourself, and join the other."
In part one we look at the right-wing crusade against gay marriage and learn the history of the Evangelical organizations that lead the charge on anti-LGBTQ+ hate and political action.
Investing Skeptically: - Materworks. Can you get rich buying art? - A super shitty fund - DOL (department of labor) follow up on 401k, 403b and other ERISA types of accounts. - Electricity - EV, solar panels and electric bills
Analysis of wastewater from sewage systems has provided an early warning system for the presence of Covid19 in communities – showing up in the water samples before people test positive. It’s also possible to identify the variants and even specific genetic mutations. Davida Smyth of Texas A&M University has been using this technique in New York and found intriguing results -forms of the virus not present in humans. The suggestion is that mutated forms may be infecting other animals, possibly those present in the sewers. An analysis of long Covid, symptoms of fatigue, and ‘brain fog’ which occur long after initial infection, show that around a quarter of those infected develop these symptoms. Lucy Cheke of Cambridge University discusses the implications.
The war in Ukraine has highlighted the importance of the region in supplying raw materials and energy to other countries, gas, cereal crops, and fertilisers in particular. As crop scientist John Hammond from Reading University explains stopping of fertiliser exports from Russia, in particular, could impact food security in many countries.
And with unseasonal fires already burning in the Western US Caroline Juang of Columbia University’s Earth Observatory gives us her analysis of the driving factors in the intensification of fires year on year.
Faced with one cake and eight hungry people, it’s pretty obvious how maths underpins reality. But as mathematics gets further from common sense and into seemingly abstract territory, nature still seems to obey its rules - whether in the orbit of a planet, the number of petals on a flower, or the structure of an atom.
But what exactly is the relationship between mathematics and reality? That’s the impossibly difficult question CrowdScience has been set this week by our listener Sergio in Peru. It’s one that’s been pondered by humans for millennia: the Greek philosopher Pythagoras believed “All is number”.
Is maths a human construct to help us make sense of reality - a tool, a model, a language? Does maths create its own reality? Or is it reality itself?
(Image: USA, New York, steam coming out from sewer. Credit: Westend61 via Getty Images)
The War in Ukraine has reminded the world how easily conflict might escalate into a Nuclear War. But according to Professor Barry Nalebuff of Yale University, good strategy and negotiating can help us with everything from avoiding Armageddon to dividing up a pizza fairly.
Tim Harford talks to Barry Nalebuff about his new book, ?Split the Pie?.
Few people know Instagram better than Bloomberg News tech reporter Sarah Frier. Author of the award-winning book No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, she talked with Ricky Mulvey about: - How parent company Meta Platforms affects Instagram’s user experience today - CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s role in company acquisitions - The company’s shift into the metaverse Want more background on investing in metaverse stocks? Click here: https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/market-sectors/information-technology/metaverse-stocks/
Stocks: FB, SNAP, AAPL Host: Ricky Mulvey Guest: Sarah Frier Engineers: Tim Sparks, Rick Engdahl
