We'll tell you what the Fed decided about interest rates this week, and what the CEO of TikTok is expected to tell Congress today.
Also, it's twice the width of the U.S., and it's headed for Florida's beaches. We'll explain what it is and what’s the risk.
Plus, why more kids could be getting free school lunches, what happened when a 3D-printed rocket launched for the first time, and what to know about the holiday millions around the world are observing today.
Those stories and more news to know in around 10 minutes!
An American inventor is speaking out about a law he says has significantly affected the country's ability "to lead the world in innovation and stay ahead of our adversaries."
"We're a 501(c)(4) [tax-exempt organization], and our mission is to restore to America something that has been actually just totally destroyed by Big Tech," Randy Landreneau, president of US Inventor, tells The Daily Signal. "And what that is is that if you're an inventor and you invent something really valuable, and you get a patent on it, you're supposed to have the legal ability to stop a large entity from just taking it, and that is what our patent system was created for."
Landreneau has numerous patents and owns Complete Product Development, which is "a product design and prototyping company based in Clearwater, Fla.," according to his US Inventor biography page.
"That's what worked so well in America for 200 years, what enabled us to lead the world in innovation and stay ahead of our adversaries, etc.," Landreneau says. "And Big Tech got a law passed about 10 years ago that really drastically destroyed that. It made it virtually impossible now to stop a large entity from simply taking what you had invented and patented."
Landreneau was referring to the America Invents Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2011 by then-President Barack Obama, who at the time said the “much-needed reform will speed up the patent process so that innovators and entrepreneurs can turn a new invention into a business as quickly as possible.”
Landreneau joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to further discuss the U.S. patent system and some of the challenges he and other U.S. inventors are facing today.
Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, how it’s part of a larger crisis in the tech sector, and why it’s turning people against the industry’s venture capitalists.
Jacob Silverman is a journalist and the host of The Naked Emperor, a new CBC podcast. Follow Jacob on Twitter at @SilvermanJacob.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
Jacob wrote about the lessons from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in the Globe and Mail.
Paris wrote about how the SVB collapse should be a radicalizing moment against venture capitalists.
A video circulated about Jason Calacanis bragging about SVB offering him favorable banking services.
A screenshot shows a founder complaining about Chase closing his bank account because his company doesn’t have a physical office, saying SVB never required one.
According to Ruha Benjamin, we’re living inside someone else’s imagination. An imagination that limits our ability to build a more just, liberated world. So, how do we take back our agency and begin to seed something different? Baratunde talks with Princeton professor and founding director of the Just Data Lab, Ruha Benjamin to find out.
SHOW ACTIONS
Internally Reflect - Bear witness and create a ripple
This one is inspired from Ruha’s book Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want which says: “…bear witness to the weight of individual and communal protective acts and consider how all of us can be involved in sheltering one another from the rain and sun by cultivating relationships, skills, accountability, and healing.”
Think about when you witnessed someone near you perform an act of justice or kindness or protection for another. Was it a big or small act? Did it require courage? How did witnessing that make you feel about the world? Is it something you could repeat and further the impact?
Become More Informed - Learn about racial justice
Ruha recommends Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey and The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander both of which you can find on our Bookshop page.
Publicly Participate - Invest in your community using your time & skills
Find How To Citizen on Instagram or visit howtocitizen.com to join our mailing list and find ways to citizen besides listening to this podcast!
Please show your support for the show by reviewing and rating. It makes a huge difference with the algorithmic overlords and helps others like you find the show!
How To Citizen is hosted by Baratunde Thurston. He’s also host and executive producer of the PBS series, America Outdoors as well as a founding partner and writer at Puck. You can find him all over the internet.
CREDITS
How To Citizen with Baratunde is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts and Rowhome Productions. Our Executive Producers are Baratunde Thurston and Elizabeth Stewart. Allie Graham is our Lead Producer and Danya AbdelHameid is our Associate Producer. Alex Lewis is our Managing Producer. John Myers is our Executive Editor and Mix Engineer. Original Music by Andrew Eapen and Blue Dot Sessions. Our Audience Engagement Fellows are Jasmine Lewis and Gabby Rodriguez. Special thanks to Joelle Smith from iHeartRadio.
Despite his campaign promises, President Biden has signed off on the Willow Project, an $8 billion plan to extract 600 million barrels of oil from public lands in Alaska. But how useful might this 30-year project be with the country continually prioritizing electric energy?
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Amicus—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.
How disco evolved in Chicago in the 1970s in two distinct ways: On the near north side as part of the city’s emerging Queer nightlife scene. And on the southside in warehouses, underground clubs, and even in Catholic schools where it laid the foundation for house music.
How disco evolved in Chicago in the 1970s in two distinct ways: On the near north side as part of the city’s emerging Queer nightlife scene. And on the southside in warehouses, underground clubs, and even in Catholic schools where it laid the foundation for house music.
What’s inside that boarded up house? Should you explore an abandoned mall? A vacant factory? And how much of an old house ends up in a landfill? The founder of Domicology, Dr. Rex LaMore of Michigan State University’s Center for Community and Economic Development, is an expert on these things and answers any possible question you might have, from ghost towns to hidden house notes, arson, recycling wood, stealing metal and how to leave a better housing situation for future generations. Also: whale poltergeists.
Sometimes you hear these stories about an airplane that suddenly nosedives. Everyone onboard thinks this is it, and then the plane levels out and everything is fine. For about 72 hours, people and companies that had deposited millions of dollars at the Silicon Valley Bank — many of whom were in the tech industry — thought they had lost absolutely everything to a bank collapse.
Two weeks later, the situation at Silicon Valley Bank has leveled off. The FDIC seized the bank and eventually made all of its depositors whole. But to understand what that financial panic felt like, we retrace the Silicon Valley Bank run and eventual collapse. We hear from four people who were part of the bank run — when they realized early rumblings, what it felt like in the full stampede, what hard decisions they faced, and what the aftermath felt like. And along the way, we uncover the lessons you can only learn when you think the entire world is ending.
This episode was reported by Kenny Malone, produced by Alyssa Jeong Perry with help from Dave Blanchard, engineered by Brian Jarboe, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and edited by Jess Jiang.
Paris Hilton is ubiquitous with early 2000s pop culture: She graced the cover of magazines, her own reality TV show and even Billboard charts. But the heiress now says she was playing a character – one she built to hide from the trauma she endured earlier in her life. In Paris: The Memoir, Hilton finally takes control of her own narrative. She spoke to NPR's Juana Summers about what made her want to start breaking down the walls between her public persona and her private life, and how paparazzi and influencer culture has changed during her time in the spotlight.
