This episode from the Vault is a lecture by May Berenbaum about why insects are so scary. Professor Berenbaum is an American entomologist whose research focuses on the chemical interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants. She teaches entomology at the University of Illinois, and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2014. She is also the organizer of the annual Insect Fear Film Festival.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has always been globally situated, argues Montana State history professor Amanda Hendrix-Komoto in Imperial Zions: Religion, Race, and Family in the American West and the Pacific(U Nebraska, 2022). Through mission work, polygamous marriage, and extensive kinship networks, LDS members sought to create Zions - holy Mormon spaces - throughout the world through relationships with Indigenous people from the Intermountain West to Tahiti and the Hawai'ian islands. This process found both successful conversions, as well as pain and violence, since despite LDS insistence that they offered an alternative to American settler colonialism, often church members could be just as imperially-minded as their non-Mormon peers. Nonetheless, Hendrix-Komoto argues that the history of Indigenous people and the LDS Church is complex, and cannot be understood without placing a uniquely Mormon idea of the family at the very center.
We're talking about another winter storm that could bring heavy snow or tornadoes to millions of Americans this week.
Also, we'll tell you what happened seconds before an NFL player collapsed and what athletic trainers did immediately after, right on the field.
And the newly-elected Congress meets for the first time on Capitol Hill.
Plus, what new laws took effect in the new year, how the world is remembering a former pope and a broadcasting icon, and a national championship game set: how the top two teams in college football made history on the way to the finals.
Those stories and more news to know in around 10 minutes!
For our first episode of 2023, we talk about the big stories our hosts are watching this year. Stories include: the ongoing war in Ukraine, the effort to reform America’s childcare system, the release of some potentially game-changing films, and the ongoing battle over President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.
Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffee
With the start of a new year, Dr. Ben Carson says he is concerned that America has lost its vision.
Americans have lost “vision of what education is there for,” says Carson, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development and renowned neurosurgeon.
“Education is there to teach you how to function successfully in a complex society,” he says, “and when you lose sight of that, then you start saying, ‘Oh, we've got to concentrate on what kind of pronoun you use, and whether you're really a girl or a boy, and are you a victim?’”
With the start of the new Congress, Carson says, politicians need to prioritize not only education, but the economy, election integrity, lessening America's dependence on China, and holding Big Tech accountable.
“If we can put a man on the moon, we can certainly come up with a mechanism that we have open, fair elections that are transparent, that are quick, that we have Election Day, not election season,” he says.
Villainized by the right, protested from the left, Nancy Pelosi led the Democrats through the Iraq War, the fight for Obamacare, and two impeachments. As Congress resumes, she will step down from leading the House Democrats, leaving behind a complicated legacy—and a list of hard-fought accomplishments.
Guest: Rachael Bade, political analyst for CNN and the co-author of Politico’s “Playbook” newsletter.
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Liz Dye joins us to break down the J6 bombshell news that Cassidy Hutchinson's own lawyer was apparently... not her lawyer. It's some extremely unethical stuff. Possibly criminal? Listen in!
Time is woven into our personal memories. If you recall a childhood fall from a bike, your brain replays the entire episode in excruciating detail: The glimpse of wet leaves on the road ahead, that moment of weightless dread and then the painful impact. This exact sequence has been embedded into your memory thanks to some special neurons known as time cells. Science correspondent Jon Hamilton talks to Emily about these cells — and why the label "time" cells is kind of a misnomer.
Concerned about the space-time continuum? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — using science, we might be able to set you at ease in a future episode.
