Short Wave - From Scientific Exile To Gene Editing Pioneer

Gene editing was a new idea in the mid-1970s. So when Harvard and MIT planned new research in recombinant DNA, alarm bells went off. "People were worried about a 'Frankengene,'" says Lydia Villa-Komaroff, then a freshly minted PhD. Amidst a political circus, the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts banned research into recombinant DNA, forcing scientists like Villa-Komaroff into exile. But that turned out to be just the prelude to a breakthrough. In this episode, Dr. Villa-Komaroff tells Emily Kwong the story of overcoming the skeptics and coaxing bacteria into producing insulin for humans.

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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions’ traces the path to higher education

Timothy Fields and Shereem Herndon-Brown are college admissions experts, so they know how confusing and overwhelming the higher education system can be. That's especially true for Black students, which is why their new book offers a guide for how to think about application timelines, exposure to schools, and financial aid opportunities. In this episode, they explain to Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd why there are specific challenges pertaining to Black students, and why it's important for everyone – parents, guidance counselors, high schoolers – to be better informed about the process.

Amarica's Constitution - Mr. Amar Goes to Washington – the Moore v. Harper Oral Argument

After a year of lead-up, Moore vs. Harper has landed at the Supreme Court for oral argument.  Akhil and Andy travel to Washington and attend the three hours of argument in the Chamber.  We play clips and analyze them - the words, the logic, the briefs, the lawyers, the justices, the clerks, the legal world, as America holds its collective breath while democracy itself hangs in the balance.  This is the place for the most nuanced and informed analysis of the positions.  We also post relevant documents at akhilamar.com/podcast-2, for your “one stop shopping” whether you are a concerned citizen, a member of the media, or even a Supreme Court clerk or justice.

It Could Happen Here - The Tenacious Unicorn Ranch: How to Build a Haven, Part 2: The Sentinel

James and Gare look into the causes of the siege and the solidarity and support that people around the world showed to the ranch.

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Hayek Program Podcast - In Search of Monsters to Destroy — Peter Boettke & Chris Coyne

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke & Chris Coyne discuss Coyne's latest book, In Search of Monsters to Destroy. After 9/11, the United States tried to establish liberal political regimes in the Middle East and in the mountains of Afghanistan—but the effort, according to Coyne, was doomed to fail as illiberal means can lead only to illiberal ends. Boettke & Coyne discuss the ways in which these illiberal means have failed to produce a liberal empire and examine whether interventionist methods ever have a place in foreign policy. Additionally, Coyne reveals his picks for those who have best upheld liberal traditions in foreign policy as well as those who ultimately disappointed in their interventionist views.

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NBN Book of the Day - William Inboden, “The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink” (Dutton, 2022)

With decades of hindsight, the peaceful end of the Cold War seems a foregone conclusion. But in the early 1980s, most experts believed the Soviet Union was strong, stable, and would last into the next century. Ronald Reagan entered the White House with no certainty of what would happen next, only an overriding faith in democracy and an abiding belief that Soviet communism—and the threat of nuclear war—must end.

William Inboden's The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink (Dutton, 2022) reveals how Reagan’s White House waged the Cold War while managing multiple crises around the globe. From the emergence of global terrorism, wars in the Middle East, the rise of Japan, and the awakening of China to proxy conflicts in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Reagan’s team oversaw the worldwide expansion of democracy, globalization, free trade, and the information revolution. Yet no issue was greater than the Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union. As president, Reagan remade the four-decades-old policy of containment and challenged the Soviets in an arms race and ideological contest that pushed them toward economic and political collapse, all while extending an olive branch of diplomacy as he sought a peaceful end to the conflict.

Reagan’s revolving team included Secretaries of State Al Haig and George Shultz; Secretaries of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Frank Carlucci; National Security Advisors Bill Clark, John Poindexter, and Bud McFarlane; Chief of Staff James Baker; CIA Director Bill Casey; and United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Talented and devoted to their president, they were often at odds with one another as rivalries and backstabbing led to missteps and crises. But over the course of the presidency, Reagan and his team still developed the strategies that brought about the Cold War’s peaceful conclusion and remade the world.

Based on thousands of pages of newly-declassified documents and interviews with senior Reagan officials, The Peacemaker brims with fresh insights into one of America’s most consequential presidents. Along the way, it shows how the pivotal decade of the 1980s shaped the world today.

Grant Golub is an Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a PhD candidate in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research focuses on the politics of American grand strategy during World War II.

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The Gist - Nina And Ruth

Nina Totenberg has covered the Supreme Court for nearly 50 years for NPR. It’s a career that has given us a deeper understanding of the most mysterious body in American politics, and it gave Nina a friend for life … the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mike talks to Nina about what it’s like to have to report about your good friend and about her new book Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships. Also on the show, a tripledemic for the ages. And Wakanda Forever. Just that.


Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara

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Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons - Making Inclusive, LGBTQ-affirming Sex Ed A Reality

A viral video of the dean at Francis W. Parker school talking about an optional LGBTQ sex ed class got Reset thinking about what makes good sex ed, and why LGBTQ focused sex education is so important. Reset hears from sex educators and LGBTQ organizers Luke Romesberg, director of the Youth Housing Program at the Center on Halsted, and Stephanie Skora, Chief Operating Officer of Brave Space Alliance.