Rob looks back at his days in a band while diving into cover songs and Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn.” Later, he is joined by Sophie B. Hawkins to discuss her hit “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover” as well as “Torn.”
A few years ago, a team of scientists set out on a field expedition in the rugged, dry Northern Territory of Australia. There, they found a plant that was both strange and familiar hiding in plain sight. After careful research during the pandemic, the newly described tomato recently made its debut in PhytoKeys, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. Today, Short Wave Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber talks to lead author Tanisha Williams about the plant's journey from the side of a trail in the Australian Outback to a greenhouse in rural Pennsylvania.
In the 1950s, pregnancy and adoption were topics often clouded in shame, secrecy – or both. That's certainly true for Eleanor and Ruby, the two protagonists of Sadeqa Johnson's new novel, The House of Eve. As the two young Black women try to maneuver the misogynoir in the society around them, they're also confronted with the complicated realities of becoming a mother. In today's episode, Johnson tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe how those circumstances bring the characters together, and why she felt it was important to pay special attention to Black women's experiences during that time in history.
We continue our discussion with Professor Roosevelt of his new book, The Nation That Never Was. We revisit our debate on the Declaration of Independence and specifically, the meaning of “all men are created equal.” This has profound implications, it turns out, for evaluating the 1788 transition from Articles of Confederation to U.S. Constitution, the 1861 secession, and the great Reconstruction moment of the later 1860’s. Were these all secessions of a sort? Were they extra-legal? Were they treasonous? And finally, what sort of national narrative can we coherently draw from all this? Profound implications, especially when one considers the arguments and claims of the recent 1619 project, emerge.
Police and politicians continue to intensify repression against the movement with domestic terrorism charges and unprecedented high bail costs. Meanwhile, a protest in downtown Atlanta ends with a police car in flames.
Today, Liz and Andrew break down a number of stories, all of which are bad news for Donald Trump, and we put all of them into the context of Trump's crimes. We also preview the forthcoming release of part of the Fulton County, GA special purpose grand jury report. Phew!
First, Liz continues to update us on the E. Jean Carroll litigation, this time focusing on Trump's post-discovery stunt in which he now is willing to offer his DNA. Find out why this is a disingenous stunt and find out all the law explaining why.
Then we learn more -- much more -- than you ever wanted to learn about Trump's document retention and destruction policies. Hint: it involves nightlights and toilets, and no, we are not making that up.
Jumping off an FT op-ed on venture capital and tech hype – which aligns great with TMK thought – we discuss the value and risk models of venture capitalism, then get into the emerging market structures and dynamics for generative AI. It’s not just a web3 redux. We end with Ted Chiang’s fantastic article on lossy compression as an analogy for large-language models.
Some stuff we reference:
••• The new Current Thing for VCs mourning the implosion of Web3 https://www.ft.com/content/83807cad-5f2c-4c35-a4ff-e9df5cbd3505
••• Generative AI: A Creative New World | report by Sequoia Capital https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/generative-ai-a-creative-new-world/
••• ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web
Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
Keith Humphreys—a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University who served as a drug policy advisor in the Bush and Obama White Houses—says Fentanyl really is a hugely destructive and disruptive force. He talks with Mike about how the rise of this drug is effected by, and might effect, the trend of marijuana legalization. Plus, Pete Buttigieg and the air-born toxic event. And on Valentine’s Day: to swoon or repugn?
Vocalo radio, WBEZ’s sister station, features movers and shakers who work to bring healing, joy and inquiry to their communities throughout Chicago as part of the Chi Sounds Like series. Reset highlights a Vocalo feature on a multidisciplinary artist who brings empowerment and joy through connecting youth to their African roots and history.
There were 41 after-school shooting incidents in 2022 near public schools in Chicago involving people 19 years old and younger. And in the last decade, there was an average of three murders of kids under 17 each year, a WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times analysis found. Now calls are growing louder for city officials and the district to take action. Reset finds out more on what’s behind the spike in shootings near CPS schools and learns about potential solutions with reporters Sarah Karp and Nader Issa.