David Plotz talks with author Mat Johnson about his new novel Invisible Things. Johnson’s novel tells the story of a group of astronauts that land in a bubble colony on Jupiter's biggest moon.
They talk about the challenges of writing satire when reality feels fake, how mediocre people rise up by sucking up, and why we need to look at the invisible things in our daily lives.
Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
We dig deep into Effective Altruism and Longtermism, laying out the origins, beliefs, and actions of this ideological moral system and the networks of influence and wealth that it’s plugged into. Along the way we critique the extreme logical conclusions it leads to, the extremely simpleminded fairy tales it’s based on, and the extremist group of moral zealots, useful idiots, and cynical bullshiters that rule this rationalist religion.
Some stuff we reference:
••• The Case for Longtermism https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/opinion/the-case-for-longtermism.html
••• The Reluctant Prophet of Effective Altruism https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/the-reluctant-prophet-of-effective-altruism
••• Stop the Robot Apocalypse https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n18/amia-srinivasan/stop-the-robot-apocalypse
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Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)
East Africa has endured more than two years on continuous drought. The latest predictions suggest the drought is not likely to end any time soon. We look at why climate change and weather patterns in the Pacific and Indian oceans are largely to blame.
Andrea Taschetto, chief investigator at the Centre on Climate Extremes at the University of New South Wales discusses the latest predictions Drought has also been an issue in Europe, comparable with events nearly 500 years ago.
Chantal Camenisch at the Institute of History at Bern University in Switzerland has been delving into European drought history and says despite the vast differences in living conditions there are many parallels with today. When a dinosaur killing asteroid hit the earth did it have company? A suspected impact crater discovered off the coast of West Africa may have been caused at around the same time . Heriot Watt University geostratigrapher Uisdean Nicholson and University of Texas geologist Sean Gulick have been investigating. And we have some of the answers to why T Rex had such small eyes for the size of its skull, Stephan Lautenschlager at the University of Birmingham has the gruesome answer.
Also, Have you ever wondered why waterfalls appear white when still water is transparent? Why clouds, or snow, appear white when they too are essentially just water molecules in different states? What makes something white, opaque or transparent? These are the questions CrowdScience listener Gerardo has been pondering ever since taking in the beauty of fallen water on a hiking trail in his home of Cantabria, Northern Spain. Presenter Marnie, sets off on a quest to find out the answers to all of those questions and more. What even is white? Is it a colour, the absence of colour or all the colours of the rainbow combined? Is black really the opposite of white? And what colours do we mix to make white or black paint?
Image: Woman carrying water in drought, Kenya Credit: Getty Images
In this installment of Best Of The Gist, former Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel left the game after three seasons to get his PhD in mathematics. Totally normal career path, right? He wrote the book Mind And Matter: A Life In Math And Football alongside his wife, author Louisa Thomas, and they joined Mike in June of 2019 to discuss the similarities and differences between John’s two chosen career paths. And then we listen back to Wednesday’s Spiel, in which Mike ponders the threat of overstating threats from the right.
It's the kind of captivating, complex story that's hard to forget once you hear it. In 2012, star Notre Dame linebacker Manti T'eo's grandmother died. Just hours later, his girlfriend died of leukemia. Rising above the tragedy he seemed unstoppable on the field as Notre Dame went on to a winning season.
But the girlfriend was a hoax. Te'o was the victim of catfishing. He had fallen in love with a fake Facebook profile. In the media frenzy that followed, he went from the golden boy of Notre Dame football to the target of ridicule and attack. In a new documentary on Netflix, Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist, Manti Te'o gets the opportunity to tell his full story for the first time in nearly ten years.
Host Michel Martin speaks with Te'o about the scandal and how he overcame it.
Institutional money is not invited to this party. Bill Mann and Ricky Mulvey continue their series on small cap investing, one area where individual investors have a shot at beating the market. They look at the stories behind some companies you know (and ones you probably don’t), and discuss: - How to discover new small cap opportunities - Metrics that can tell you a lot about a company’s future - Small caps for chicken wing lovers and fans of workers' comp insurance
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk facilitates capital flow and market growth by connecting the digital economy with traditional finance through the presenter’s mainstage, capital allocation meeting rooms and sponsor expo floor. Use code HASH20 for 20% off the General Pass. Register now: coindesk.com/ideas
This episode has been produced and edited by Michele Musso. Our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is by Matt Wigton “Angeles Crest.”
