In this installment of Best Of The Gist, we resurfaced a couple clips from our Tuesday interview with Douglas Farah (author of Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible), which we intentionally left on the cutting room floor but later decided they might be fun for listeners. Dust off your 90s NBA references!
And then we listen back to Mike’s Thursday Spiel about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s testimony to the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee this past week. Despite it being a rare example of Congress doing real work and a Biden Administration official giving solid answers, it got reduced to lowest common denominator. If you’re bored and want to see the federal government in action, here’s a link to the full hearing.
This week dozens of family members of victims of the Uvalde Texas school shooting showed up at the town's first school board meeting since a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in May.
The atmosphere became tense and emotional as families confronted board members, demanding assurances that students and staff would be safe in the coming school year.
The school board meeting followed the release of surveillance footage from the day of the shooting and an investigative report released by the Texas House of Representatives.
The investigation found that a total of 376 local, state, and federal officers converged on the scene. But due to "systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making" on the part of the police, more than an hour passed before anyone confronted the gunman.
Many Americans feel that the police stand between order and chaos. Yet the massive failure by law enforcement in Uvalde may change how the public views police and how police view themselves.
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Seth Stoughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Interview with Brian Dunning about UFO Movie; Cara's Cancer Experience; News Items: Global Warming Technologies, SLS Launch, Periodic FRBs, Habitable Super Earths; Who's That Noisy; Science or Fiction
Editor's note: This episode was recorded before news of the Coinbase's insider trading case was made public on Friday.
2021 was a milestone year for companies going public. In 2022, the tide turned. Dylan Lewis and Brian Feroldi look back on the IPO boom and discuss: - Reasons why companies go public - Newly-public companies that may never come back to IPO levels - Questions for investors to ask even when financials look strong - The trends that hit Robinhood and Rocket Mortgage - Lessons from pre-revenue companies that went public
OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:39) – Understanding the universe
(15:09) – Human limitations and AI
(24:05) – Dark matter
(31:25) – Vast universe
(39:07) – Alien life
(52:59) – Space exploration
(1:17:22) – Future technology
(1:28:44) – Newton and Einstein
(1:32:46) – Black holes
(1:46:27) – Cosmological threats
(2:13:31) – Advice for young people
(2:16:02) – Mortality
Qiao Wang is a creator of and core contributor to Alliance DAO, an accelerator for Web3 companies in decentralized finance (DeFi), infrastructure, distributed autonomous organizations (DAO), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and more. In this episode, he and NLW discuss the macro landscape, how this bear market is different and what he’d like to see entrepreneurs build during this quieter period.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Michele Musso and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsors is “The Now” by Aaron Sprinkle. Image credit:Westend61/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.
If you’re looking for an out-of-this-world festival, the Cosmic Country Cookout on Sunday is bound to have something you’ll love. Reset talks with event organizer Sully Davis and Lavender Country’s Patrick Haggerty for more details.
Introduced in 1968, the Boeing 747 totally revolutionized commercial air transportation. It was more than twice the size of the next closest passenger plane, and it brought air travel to a much wider audience.
Not only did it help democratize air travel, but the plane’s unique features also added a new element of style and luxury to the jet age.
In addition to carrying passengers, it has also served as an important cargo aircraft, and it has even served as Air Force One.
Learn more about the Boeing 747 on the 747th episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
