The terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, took a large toll on America’s sense of security. In the dawn of this new era, Congress moved to take swift action by creating the Patriot Act. The stated goal was to identify and strike back against terrorists, but in practice, the law had much wider-reaching effects. But everything changed in 2013 when an intelligence contractor named Edward Snowden decided to expose the truth, leaking more classified documents than any whistleblower in American history.
This four-part series from American Scandal follows Edward Snowden’s transformation, from a respected intelligence officer, to the most wanted whistleblower in the world.
This is just a preview of Edward Snowden from American Scandal, but you can listen to the rest of this episode at wondery.fm/AS_OpeningArguments
Since 1978, departing U.S. Presidents have to leave the office — and almost everything in it — behind. Why is that? And what are the implications for former President Trump's legal problems? Patrick Eddington explains.
When it comes to raising children, says Helena Andrews-Dyer, there are complicated dynamics connected to race and class – which she writes about in her book The Mamas. In an interview with Rachel Martin, Dyer details the trials and tribulations of being a first-time parent, attending social events with other moms and all the pressure put on her internally and externally to make sure her child turns out alright. But it's her experience as a Black mom among a sea of white mothers that pushed her to reimagine her parenting "through a larger lens of race, and class, and gentrification."
What topic is more controversial, sensational, and endlessly captivating than college admissions? It’s a billion-dollar industry. It sends celebrities to jail. The Supreme Court is weighing in on who gets in and why. We might think we have read all there is to read on the issue, and heard all there is to hear. But if you want to understand everything that’s going on with college admissions today—not just the battles over diversity, but the very existence of college applications, the essays and interviews and standardized tests—you have to look at the first group that tried to diversify elite schools. You have to look at the Jews. Gatecrashers, an 8-part podcast series launching Sept. 13, 2022, tells the story of how Jews fought for acceptance at elite schools, and how the Jewish experience in the Ivy League shaped American higher education, and shaped America at large.
Annie Duke was a professional poker player before retiring in 2012. Now, she is a decision-making consultant for a venture capital firm and author of the upcoming book, “Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away.”
Morgan Housel interviewed Duke in front of a live audience about: - Key differences between patience and stubbornness - How a quitter created Slack - Avoiding the sunk cost fallacy - How pre-mortems can make you a better investor
Host: Morgan Housel Guest: Annie Duke Producer: Ricky Mulvey Engineer: Tim Sparks
Hot on the tail of China’s heatwave comes the other side of the extreme coin – tragic flooding. Also, a coming global shortage of sulfur, while scientists produce useful oxygen on Mars in the MOXIE experiment.
Prof Chunzai Wang is the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography in Guangzhou, China. He tells Roland about the surprising nature of the extreme temperatures and droughts much of China has been experiencing, and how they are connected to so many of the record-breaking weather events around the northern hemisphere this summer, including the tragic flooding in Pakistan.
Some people of course saw this coming. Richard Betts of the UK Met Office talks of a paper by one of his predecessors published 50 years ago exactly that pretty much predicted the greenhouse gas-induced climate change more or less exactly.
Clearly, the world needs to cut carbon emissions, and oil and coal would be sensible places to start. But as Prof Mark Maslin points out, this will come with its own consequences in terms of pressure on the industrial supply of sulfur and sulfuric acid, essential to so many other devices and processes. Can a shortage be averted?
And scientists working on Nasa’s Mars Perseverance team report more results this week. Alongside all the sensitive instrumentation aboard, an experiment known as MOXIE was somehow squeezed in to demonstrate the principle of electrolyzing Martian carbon dioxide to produce usable oxygen gas. As Michael Hecht explains, the tech is scalable and would be more or less essential to any viable human trip to Mars in the future.
(Image: The Jialing River bed at the confluence with the Yangtze River is exposed due to drought in August 2022 in Chongqing, China. The water level of the Jialing River, one of the tributaries of the Yangtze River, has dropped due to high temperature and drought. Credit: Zhong Guilin/VCG via Getty Images)
Presenter: Roland Pease
Assistant Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski
Producer: Alex Mansfield
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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 BREAKDOWN20 for 20% off the General Pass. Learn more and register at coindesk.com/ideas.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. Music behind our sponsors today is “Razor Red” by Sam Barsh and “The Life We Had” by Moments. Image credit: Abu Hanifah/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.
In 1917, Albert Einstein published a paper whereby he proposed a new method of creating light based on the principles of quantum physics.
Over 40 years later, researchers finally put Einstein’s ideas into practice.
For years it remained a solution in search of a problem. Today, the number of applications for this source of light is almost limitless and includes everything from nuclear fusion, to annoying cats.
Learn more about Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, or LASERs, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
