On Halloween, the Supreme Court will hear pair of cases challenging affirmative action in university admissions. Spooky! Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, joins Melissa, Kate, and Leah to preview the cases.
The latest observations from Nasa’s InSight Mars Lander and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have revealed new information on Mars’ interior structure. Dr Anna Horleston, Senior Research Associate in Planetary Seismology at the University of Bristol, talks us through the mars-quakes that provided this data.
On the 30th of October, Brazilians will head to the polls to elect their next president. Jeff Tollefson, Senior Reporter at Nature, tells Roland what approach the two candidates – Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – might take towards science and the potential local and global impacts this could have.
Humans aren’t the only animals to pick their noses… it turns out primates engage in this habit too. Anne-Claire Fabre, Curator of Mammals at the Duke Lemur Center, tells reporter Vic Gill about the long-fingered aye-ayes having a dig around their noses, and how more research is needed to unpick the reasons behind this behaviour.
And producer Robbie Wojciechowski heads to the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton to capture the launch of the RRS Discovery mission to Ascension Island and St Helena. Science In Action will be following the mission over the next 6 weeks as it uncovers new specimens from the deep ocean, as well as surveying the overall health and wellbeing of the ocean around the British Overseas Territory.
Record-breaking heatwaves swept across the Earth’s northern hemisphere this summer, with continental Europe, China, the UK and parts of the US all experiencing exceptional temperatures. Listener Geoff in Australia wants to know: Is climate change really responsible or could it just be weather?
Marnie Chesterton goes to Kenya, where certain areas of Amboseli have experienced intense drought over the past 5 years. There she meets members of the Masai community who have been farmers for generations. They describe how seasonal rains have successively failed to appear when expected, and explain how this has affected their lives. Marnie asks local people, meteorologists and climate scientists for their take on the year’s hottest debate.
(Image: Impression of a rover on the surface of Mars. Credit: Getty Images)
“When the party is happening in the penthouse, this is a sector that’s in the basement.”
Industrial companies aren’t the sexiest stocks, but that’s where investors can find strong moats. You just have to look at “micro-verticals” like fluid-handling, label making, and aircraft replacement parts. Nick Santhanam is the CEO of the Fernweh Group and a co-author of the new book “The Titanium Economy: How Industrial Technology Can Create a Better, Faster, Stronger America.” Ricky Mulvey caught up with Santhanam to talk about: - Why investors often misunderstand the industrial sector - How companies are using 3D printing and blockchain technology - Why family-run companies have key advantages for long-term investors - The biggest challenge for companies in the Titanium Economy
Companies mentioned: GGG, HEI, SEE, BRD, CWST, AZZ
Host: Ricky Mulvey Guest: Nick Santhanam Engineer: Dan Boyd
Here’s a preview of a new podcast, The Last Resort.
What if California seceded from the United States? If it did, what would happen? Would it usher in a new era of peace and prosperity? Or plunge the US into a new civil war?
This is The Last Resort, a new documentary podcast following the rise, fall, and rebirth of CAL EXIT: the campaign for Californian Independence.
It’s a story about a dream for a new progressive utopia on the West Coast. It’s about the fight for America’s future. And it’s also a tale of two friends who started on the political fringe and ended up in the middle of a still-unfolding global criminal conspiracy involving the FBI and Russian Intelligence.
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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 “War” by Enoch Yang. Image credit: Violka08/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.
By all expectations, affirmative action is about to be a thing of the past. In a pair of landmark college admissions cases before the Supreme Court, a newly conservative majority is all but certain to roll back a major pillar of American life since the Civil Rights movement. Through talking to the plaintiffs in those cases, activists, legal experts, academics, and everyone in between, we revisit the history of affirmative action, how it was borne out of a desire to redress inequality, and why progressives are loath to acknowledge how it came to exacerbate the discrimination it sought to solve.
There are some 400 million surveillance cameras installed in China, one for every three to four civilians. Built with the help of American tech companies, the surveillance state was pitched to the public as a way to make society safer and more efficient. But after severe lockdowns during COVID, the public has been objecting out of the eye of the camera lens. Protests are being written on bathroom walls.
On Friday, federal authorities issued an internal bulletin that warned of the potential for violence from domestic extremists during the midterm election season.
The same day, a federal Judge in Phoenix refused to stop a group from patrolling outdoor ballot boxes. Members of the group have been showing up heavily armed, often masked and wearing tactical vests. Critics say this is intimidating voters. The judge said that barring the group would violate their constitutional rights.
From election deniers who continue to insist without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, to a flood of recent state laws that make voting more difficult, for many Americans, voting feels much more fraught. But volunteers are stepping up across the country to make sure that all voters feel safe casting their ballot.
Host Michel Martin talks to the Reverend Barbara Williams-Skinner of Faiths United to Save Democracy and TurnOut Sunday and Emily Eby, Senior Election Protection Attorney at Texas Civil Rights Project.
In this installment of Best Of The Gist, we listen back to Mike’s October 17, 2019 interview with former Secretary of Defense in the Obama White House, Ashton Carter. He died this week at 68 years old. Then we replay Mike’s Tuesday Spiel about Kanye West’s most recent public disaster and its root causes.
