Month: March 2023

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NBN Book of the Day - Patrick L. Schmidt, “Harvard’s Quixotic Pursuit of a New Science: The Rise and Fall of the Department of Social Relations” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2022)

Harvard's Department of Social Relations made history in the 1950s and 1960s as the most ambitious program in social science in the United States. Dedicated to a synthesis of sociology, anthropology, psychology, and other disciplines, the scope of its ambitions were matched only by the scope of its failures. Patrick Schmidt's new volume Harvard's Quixotic Pursuit of a New Science: The Rise and Fall of the Department of Social Relations (Rowman and Littlefield, 2022) documents the history of SocRel, as it was called, in intimate detail. It paints a colourful and carefully researched picture of the personalities and events that are central to the department's story, ranging from the austere theoretician Talcott Parsons to the hallucinogen-ingesting Ram Dass.

In this episode, Patrick talks to host Alex Golub about SocRel as well as the wider context of the Cold War academy in which it was situated.

Alex Golub is associate professor of anthropology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | When A.I. Steals Your Voice

Using just what you’ve posted to social media, generative A.I. can create a “puppet version” of your voice—one that’s close enough to scam your family into paying thousands in, say, bail money. And imitating public officials to create “deep fakes” who say whatever they’re told is even easier. 


Guest: Pranshu Verma, tech reporter for the Washington Post.


Host: Lizzie O’Leary


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Consider This from NPR - The Most Successful Global Public Health Plan You Probably Never Heard Of

Today, when we hear the word pandemic, most people think of COVID-19. But by 2003, while rates of HIV infections and deaths from AIDS had stabilized and fallen in the US, in sub-Saharan Africa, the rates were at epidemic proportions.

In his State of the Union address that January, President George W. Bush announced a massive investment in the global fight against HIV –The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

In the twenty years since, the program has dedicated billions of dollars to HIV prevention and treatment across Africa and other regions, saving tens of millions of lives.

NPR's Pien Huang speaks with Ambassador Dr. John Nkengasong, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and Dr. Helene Gayle, an epidemiologist and president of Spelman College, who spent 20 years at the CDC focused on HIV treatment and prevention and global healthcare.

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The Gist - BEST OF THE GIST: Three Pointer Edition

In this installment of Best Of The Gist, with 2023 March Madness underway, we listen back to Mike’s 2022 critique of the instinctive, and backward, admonishment so many announcers issue as time is winding down, “You don’t need a 3!” Then we listen to this past week’s Spiel on whales. 

Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara 

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Follow Mike’s Substack: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack 

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World Book Club - World Book Cafe: Paris

World Book Café travels to Paris to meet some of the French capital’s newest writers. Authors Mahir Guven, Blandine Rinkel, Laurent Petitmangin and Capucine Delattre discuss taking on the literary establishment and finding new ways to express themselves. Like many places in the world, questions of equality, diversity and freedom of expression are top of the agenda in France. But it is complicated; the ideal of universalism - meaning every citizen is considered to be the same regardless of class or ethnicity - is at the heart of the French republic. Does this 'universalism' leave space for the 21st Century desire to celebrate difference, and how can writing help reconcile these complex ideas?

Image: The skyline of Paris, 9 December 2022 (Credit: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

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Motley Fool Money - Waze Co-Founder on Entrepreneurship, Autonomous Vehicles, and ChatGPT

When venture capital investors walk into a pitch meeting, they usually know if they’re saying yes before anyone starts talking. Uri Levine is the co-founder of Waze and the author of “Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs.” Alex Friedman caught up with Levine to talk about: - The early days of Waze. - One way to know if a company “will die.” - What happens, behind the scenes, when venture capital investors choose investments. - ChatGPT, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving. Company discussed: GOOG, GOOGL Host: Alex Friedman Guest: Uri Levine Producer: Ricky Mulvey Engineer: Tim Sparks

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CoinDesk Podcast Network - BREAKDOWN: A Real-Time History of the Crypto Banking Crisis, With Austin Campbell

How much did the crypto banking crisis actually have to do with crypto?

NLW is joined by Austin Campbell, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and former banker and stablecoin operator, to discuss the recent crypto banking crisis. They discuss:

  • Why interest rate risk, not crypto troubles, was the source of the problems
  • Why even banal regulatory disinterest in crypto could create significant problems for the industry 
  • What rules need to change for crypto to fit in a U.S. banking framework

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“The Breakdown” is written, produced and narrated by Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with today's editing by Jonas Huck, research by Scott Hill and additional production assistance by Eleanor Pahl. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. Music behind our sponsor today is “Foothill Blvd” by Sam Barsh. Image credit: BrianAJackson / Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk.

Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.

Join the most important conversation in crypto and Web3 at Consensus 2023, happening April 26-28 in Austin, Texas. Come and immerse yourself in all that Web3, crypto, blockchain and the metaverse have to offer. Use code BREAKDOWN to get 15% off your pass. Visit consensus.coindesk.com.

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