THE SQUIDMOBILE HAS ARRIVED. Get in losers; we’re talking cephalopods. Yes, she drives a vehicle with squid all over it and encourages people to text her, and we have this encore episode to prove it. The world's most impassioned squid nerd, Sarah McAnulty, gets locked in a basement with Alie to talk about cephalopods, alien DNA, camouflage, invisibility cloaks, why cute things make us bonkers, terrible mating strategies, cute and clever ones and why she is so charmed by squid. Also addressed: Philly accents and the Kraken. And why I am putting out an encore episode from a parking garage.
The squid facts hotline can be reached at 1-833-SCI-TEXT aka 1-833-724-8398
Follow Dr. Sarah McAnulty on Twitter & Instagram @SarahMackAttack
There is no political power without control of the archive, if not of memory. Effective democratization can always be measured by this essential criterion: the participation in and the access to the archive, its constitution, and its interpretation.
– epigraph in The Long Land War by Jo Guldi (2021)
Every political order contains within it tensions, contradictions, and vulnerabilities that at a certain point become too difficult to maintain.
– The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order by Gary Gerstle (2022)
In the Economica Centenary Coarse Lecture delivered virtually to the London School of Economics in 2021 Thomas Piketty lightheartedly remarked on his English as part of a larger point about how linguistic limitations can reduce our access to important information and data worldwide. And like the epigraph above opening a book about the global struggle for occupancy rights, Piketty was noting just how dependent scholars are on the kind of primary sources to which they can use and access. Coming from one of our era’s preeminent scholars of political economy it was more than just a self-deprecating lead-in for his 2020 Capital and Ideology, a book that enlarged the focus of his famous 2014 Capital in the 21st Century by expanding the geopolitical reach of its analysis of the structure of inequality with its emphasis on political and ideological forces as key causative factors rather than purely economic and technological ones. As he mentions in this interview, his latest book concisely refines his arguments.
Coming in at a short 277 pages the professor’s A Brief History of Equality, translated by Steven Randall (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2022) will come as a bit of relief for readers acquainted with his much lengthier earlier works. Piketty offers up this comparative history of inequalities among social classes in human societies – or, as he points out: a brief history of equality acknowledging the long-term trend toward greater social, economic and political equality. The book opens with ‘the movement toward equality’ and ‘the slow deconcentration of power and property’ before reminding readers of our ‘heritage of slavery and colonialism’ and then broaching ‘the question of reparations’. You will hear Professor Piketty share his thoughts on why this question is key for reconciling societal divisions and what reparations could represent in terms of social justice.
As he points out, both in this interview and in the book, ‘everything remains to be invented’ which is offered in the same optimistic spirit with which he argues that the struggle for increasing levels of equality requires ‘collective learning’. The crisp progression of ideas in the ten chapters of his narrative leads to its concluding implications that the need for increasing equality at the global level is not only a moral imperative but also an economic one. Not everyone will agree with the professor’s vision or his interpretations but few will question his authority or transparency in such deliberations. The professor’s research and data can be studied through his homepage, and the World Inequality Database.
Thomas Piketty is a professor at the Paris School of Economics, Director of Studies at The School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, and Co-Director of the World Inequality Lab and Database.
Keith Krueger lectures in the SILC Business School at Shanghai University.
In May 1776 more than two hundred Indian warriors descended the St. Lawrence River to attack Continental forces at the Cedars, west of Montreal. In just three days’ fighting, the Native Americans and their British and Canadian allies forced the American fort to surrender and ambushed a fatally delayed relief column. In Down the Warpath to the Cedars: Indians' First Battles in the Revolution (University of Oklahoma Press, 2022), Mark R. Anderson flips the usual perspective on this early engagement and focuses on its Native participants—their motivations, battlefield conduct, and the event’s impact in their world. In this way, Anderson’s work establishes and explains Native Americans’ centrality in the Revolutionary War’s northern theater.
Anderson’s dramatic, deftly written narrative encompasses decisive diplomatic encounters, political intrigue, and scenes of brutal violence but is rooted in deep archival research and ethnohistorical scholarship. It sheds new light on the alleged massacre and atrocities that other accounts typically focus on. At the same time, Anderson traces the aftermath for Indian captives and military hostages, as well as the political impact of the Cedars reaching all the way to the Declaration of Independence. The action at the Cedars emerges here as a watershed moment, when Indian neutrality frayed to the point that hundreds of northern warriors entered the fight between crown and colonies.
Adroitly interweaving the stories of diverse characters—chiefs, officials, agents, soldiers, and warriors—Down the Warpath to the Cedars produces a complex picture, and a definitive account, of the Revolutionary War’s first Indian battles, an account that significantly expands our historical understanding of the northern theater of the American Revolution.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.
We're talking about another twist in the debate over mask mandates and another threat from Russia's leader that's meant to rattle the rest of the world.
Plus, a new record to report in the hot housing market, some of the top tennis players in the world are not allowed at Wimbledon, and more Americans are homeschooling their kids. We'll explain what's behind the trend and the potential impact.
Russia gave Ukrainian forces in Mariupol an ultimatum earlier this week: surrender or die. Russian-backed separatists said only five people surrendered, which could mean that the city could be captured very soon.
Voting rights organizations are funneling their support to the people on the ground who oversee local elections ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Amanda Litman from Run For Something joins us to discuss her new program called Clerk Work dedicated to recruiting and supporting thousands of candidates for local offices in charge of running elections.
And in headlines: Florida’s Senate approved one of the nation’s most gerrymandered Congressional maps, South Carolina’s Supreme Court issued a temporary stay on Richard Moore’s killing, and Netflix’s stock price pledge by 35 percent.
Show Notes:
Run For Something: Sign-up for Clerk Work – https://wherecanirun.org/
Washington Post: “Meet the woman behind Libs of TikTok, secretly fueling the right’s outrage machine” – https://wapo.st/3K1plDM
Alex Pareene: “They Know How Journalism Works! They’re Just Against It!” – https://bit.ly/3EyD6Zw
Americans are worried about "three I's" right now: inflation, immigration, and general incompetence, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., says.
Citizens across the country are "deeply concerned about grocery prices and the price of fuel to fill up the gas tank," Johnson says. "And they see the wave of illegal migrants coming over the border, and they don't see any end to it. They're frustrated with us for our inability to do anything about it right now."
The Louisiana Republican joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss what he and other conservative lawmakers are doing to address these "three I's," and how the Biden administration has failed to tackle the challenges America faces.
Also on today's show, we cover these stories:
Florida takes a stand against potentially “irreversible” transgender treatments for children.
State senators in Florida vote to eliminate a special tax district that allowed the Walt Disney Co. to self-govern the land where Disney World sits.
Two Republican senators ask Secretary of State Antony Blinken to move the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine back to the capital city, Kyiv.
Bill Browder has been sounding the alarm about Vladimir Putin for decades. Formerly one of Russia’s largest foreign investors, Browder has made it his life's work to expose corruption in the country. Unsurprisingly, he’s one of Putin's personal targets. Browder believes that money is what's really driving the war in Ukraine.
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.
Sometimes, when Mike Ervin sees other wheelchair users about to board the bus or enter a train station in Chicago, he wants to catch up to them and say, “You’re welcome”. Because 30 years ago, much of the accessibility that people with disabilities encounter in public transportation today — lifts on buses, elevators at train train stations — didn’t exist. There were also no curb ramps, and buses would drive right by people in wheelchairs without stopping. But Mike Ervin, who has used a wheelchair all his life, fought to change all that. In this week’s episode we look at the history of the fight for disability rights in Chicago.
Sometimes, when Mike Ervin sees other wheelchair users about to board the bus or enter a train station in Chicago, he wants to catch up to them and say, “You’re welcome”. Because 30 years ago, much of the accessibility that people with disabilities encounter in public transportation today — lifts on buses, elevators at train train stations — didn’t exist. There were also no curb ramps, and buses would drive right by people in wheelchairs without stopping. But Mike Ervin, who has used a wheelchair all his life, fought to change all that. In this week’s episode we look at the history of the fight for disability rights in Chicago.
