What to know about what could be a massive overhaul in the presidential election season: why President Biden is reportedly calling for a change.
Also, Congress' final decision on a deal to avert a rail strike and a new development in the Justice Department's investigation into documents found at former President Trump's home.
Plus, what's behind a big drop in gas prices, why the rapper Ye was suspended from Twitter again, and how one celebrity decided to pay it forward in his hometown.
Those stories and more news to know in around 10 minutes!
Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose started her undercover work as a teenager, posing as an underage victim of sexual abuse seeking an abortion — but with a camcorder hidden in her blouse to document her conversations with Planned Parenthood workers.
Since then, Live Action has amassed 6 million social media followers and 1.7 billion lifetime video views. And Live Action says their testing has found that Live Action’s content has changed the hearts of 43% of those the organization surveyed on abortion.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rose for a Daily Signal interview, during which she shared that she had done a lot of acting in high school and found it natural to empathize with the plight of a girl grappling with an unexpected pregnancy and to pose as this victim, sent by her abuser to do away with the baby.
"I'm 15," Rose said she told the worker. "He's much older than me, 24. What do I do? I'm pregnant."
"In the state of California, that should immediately trigger mandatory reporting," she explained. "But the Planned Parenthood worker, without blinking, told me to lie about my age in the paperwork to get a secret abortion, and no one would know anything."
Rose believes the abortion industry wants to perpetuate negativity around motherhood.
"Planned Parenthood is not interested in women having their babies and they're certainly not doing anything to support those women," she said. "They're interested in women killing their children."
But the Live Action founder also emphasized that modern society faces an existential crisis in which people fail to realize that true happiness comes from relationship with others.
"We're all seeking happiness, but we think we're going to find it in career or we're going to find it in fame or wealth or some sort of material thing when really it can only be found in people," she explained, noting that the ultimate person through which people will find happiness is God. "And so we reject our own children because they're a threat to happiness when really they're actually a key to happiness."
During the massive protesting that took place following the leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade would soon be overturned (and in the months since then) I have frequently heard pro-abortion protestors say that abortion is necessary to allow them to have consequence-free sex.
It's a bit of a good news show! The Respect for Marriage Act has passed the Senate! Justice Alito was ratted out by a Rev. Schenck. And, the 11th Circuit delivered a whopper of a decision putting an end to the Judge Cannon Naro Lago nonsense.
Julia Ruth's job takes a lot of strength, a lot of balance, and a surprising amount of physics. She's a circus artist — and has performed her acrobatic Cyr wheel routine around the world. But before she learned her trade and entered the limelight, she was on a very different career path — she was studying physics. Julia talks with Emily (who also shares a past life in the circus) about her journey from physicist to circus artist, and how she learned her physics-defining acts.
There is a common hurdle for many first generation immigrants: feeling out of place. Whether that's in school, speaking a different language, or living through parents' expectations. Today: two books about overcoming those feelings of inadequacy. First, Simu Liu, Marvel's first Asian superhero, discusses his memoir We Were Dreamers, where he talks about his complicated relationship with his parents and what he calls his "immigrant superhero origin story." Then, Cuban-American author Margarita Engle explores what it's like to be an outsider as a bilingual speaker and the creative freedom she found in writing Spanish without italics in her book.
Back in the day, many political foes were friends in real life—hanging out for a beer after a tough legislative floor fight, attending their kids’ weddings over the weekends. It’s a sure sign of the times when any across-the-aisle friends that still exist out there in the wild tend to keep their friendship on the down low, in case they’d be accused of fraternizing with “the enemy.” From the halls of Congress to our hometown, this makes becoming or staying bipartisan friends an act of straight up rebellion against the toxic and divided culture we find ourselves in.
We chat with one such pair of fantastically dissimilar friends, Dr. Jacob Hess (who has been an influential force for The Village Square) and Village Square Founder Liz Joyner. Jacob and Liz have been rebelling together for about a decade now, and they’re not only convinced liberals and conservatives are better together but they are obstinately bound and determined to buck the stultifying groupthink and start a trend.
Ah Sam, will we ever be able to escape you? This week, “main character syndrome” came roaring back into fashion as Sam Bankman-Fried broke his silence with a string of interviews culminating in appearances with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times DealBook Summit and on “Good Morning America” with George Stephanopoulos. NLW breaks down what SBF said, and how the community is reacting.
-
Nexo is a security-first platform where you can buy, exchange and borrow against your crypto. The company ensures the safety of your funds and keeps innovating with products like the Nexo Wallet - a non-custodial smart wallet that allows you to create your Web3 identity. Get early access at nexo.io/wallet.
-
Circle, the sole issuer of the trusted and reliable stablecoin USDC, is our sponsor for today’s show. USDC is a fast, cost-effective solution for global payments at internet speeds. Learn how businesses are taking advantage of these opportunities at Circle’s USDC Hub for Businesses.
-
Kraken, the secure, trusted digital asset exchange, is our sponsor for today's show. Kraken makes it easy to instantly buy 185+ cryptocurrencies with fast, flexible funding options. Your account is covered by regular Proof of Reserves audits, industry-leading security and award-winning Client Engagement, available 24/7. Sign up and trade today at kraken.com/breakdown.
-
“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 "Back To The End" by Strength To Last. Image credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.
Joe Lieberman has been in politics for most of his adult life. First as a Connecticut State Senator, then as the state’s Attorney General, and finally, as a U.S. Senator for 24 years. A self-proclaimed “centrist,” over the course of his career, he saw the middle of the political spectrum transformed from a place everyone was trying to meet into a place no one would be seen dead. But for Lieberman, the ability to eschew party dogma was a source of power, a journey he documents in his 2021 book, The Centrist Solution: How We Made Government Work, And How We Could Make It Work Again. He joins Mike for an extended interview on today’s show.
Ravi and Rikki start with the latest fallout from the spectacular downfall of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried. The hosts then turn to the historic anti-lockdown protests in China with Pulitzer-winning journalist Ian Johnson and some startling inequities in New York City’s special education system.
Congress passed a bill forcing an agreement between companies and rail workers to avoid a rail strike. Reset talks to a labor expert Robert Bruno, professor and director of the Labor Education Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to find out what this means for rail workers and other unionization efforts around the country.
