Month: March 2023

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The Daily Signal - INTERVIEW | Ranked Choice Voting Is ‘Spreading Like Poison,’ Alaskans for Honest Elections Founder Says

The founder of Alaskans for Honest Elections is speaking out against ranked choice voting, which he says is "spreading like poison."

"Ranked choice voting is a whole way that certain people want to redefine how we vote. It's no longer one person, one vote. It's a very complicated system where everybody's thrown into a jungle primary," Art Mathias, president and founder of Wellsprings Ministry in Anchorage, Alaska, tells The Daily Signal. 

"Our House race to replace [Rep.] Don Young was 48 people trying to make it through that to become the top four. Then the top four go through a campaign to a runoff. So, if you're not extremely well-known, if you don't have a lot of money, you're not going to go any place in the race," Mathias says.

Young, a Republican who held Alaska's sole at-large House seat from 1973 until 2022, was the longest-serving Republican in congressional history. He died a year ago this week on March 18, 2022. The ranked choice election for the seat was won by a Democrat, Mary Peltola.

Mathias adds: 

So, you end up with somebody that had only 10% in the primary actually winning at the other end. It's very complicated. People don't like it. Very expensive. It discourages voter turnout. It's not a good deal, and it's spreading like poison.

Mathias joins today's episode of "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the importance of election integrity, how big the movement around ranked choice voting is, and what's at stake if Alaska continues to use ranked choice voting. 


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Tech Won't Save Us - Robots Aren’t the Solution to Elder Care w/ James Wright

Paris Marx is joined by James Wright to discuss Japan’s efforts to develop robots to care for its growing elderly population, what the government hoped to achieve with that plan, and why it hasn’t worked out as planned.

James Wright is a research associate with Turning Institute and a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. He’s also the author of Robots Won’t Save Japan. You can follow James on Twitter at @jms_wright.

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.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

  • Paris is visiting New Zealand and doing a number of events through the latter half of March. Find all the dates and details here.
  • James wrote about Japan’s efforts to automate elder care for MIT Tech Review.
  • Jennifer Robertson spoke about the gendering of robots to cement conservative gender norms.

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How To Citizen with Baratunde - A New Shape for the Economy (Kate Raworth)

It’s no secret that our economy only works for a select few. But what would our economy look like if we prioritized people and the planet, instead of profit? Economist Kate Raworth says it might look like a doughnut and to build it requires changing how we talk about, teach, and imagine economics. Baratunde talks with Kate about her theory of doughnut economics and how we can build an economy that works for all life on Earth—exploring how our small acts of consumerism can enhance or degrade a culture of democracy. 

 

SHOW ACTIONS

Internally Reflect - What We Call Ourselves Matters

It's clear that we show up with different values, norms and expectations when called as a citizen rather than as a consumer. Take a moment to reflect on how you might interact differently with e-commerce and purchasing decisions if you were called a “Steward to the Commons.”

Become More Informed - Digest the Doughnut 

Check out Kate's 2018 TED talk (where Baratunde first met her!). Also, read Kate’s book Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. 

Publicly Participate - Find or Start Some Doughnuts Near You

Join the community at Doughnut Economics Action Lab! You can check out the members map to find others near you and read stories of how community groups are getting started putting the ideas into practice. You can also create your own event on DEAL's platform inviting others in your locality (be it town, city, or state) to join you. And check out the tools Kate mentioned: Doughnut Unrolled and Doughnut Design for Business. 

 

SHOW NOTES 

Check out the Doughnut Unrolled tool Kate developed for cities and places interested in trying out the doughnut. 

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. 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 and Layla Bina.

Additional thanks to our citizen voices Wesley F. and Sara H. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Is the SAT Done For?

Colleges are dropping the SAT as a requirement in their admissions process, citing studies that what the test measures best is simply how well you’ve prepared for the test. But the question at the heart of the matter remains: how do you create a fair and equitable college admissions process? And can a test-optional system help foster a more equal playing field when there’s still so much inequality built into our school systems?

Guest: Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, senior reporter at Higher Ed Dive.

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.

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Curious City - Why Aren’t There Any Federal Indian Reservations In Illinois?

Unlike many states in the Midwest, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, Illinois doesn’t have any federally recognized Indian reservations. Yet all around the state, in the names of cities, rivers, streets and sports teams, there are reminders that we are living on land where Native Americans once farmed, traded and made their home. So why doesn’t Illinois have any reservations? The answer requires a look back at the region’s history beginning in the 1700s.
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Curious City - Why Aren’t There Any Federal Indian Reservations In Illinois?

Unlike many states in the Midwest, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, Illinois doesn’t have any federally recognized Indian reservations. Yet all around the state, in the names of cities, rivers, streets and sports teams, there are reminders that we are living on land where Native Americans once farmed, traded and made their home. So why doesn’t Illinois have any reservations? The answer requires a look back at the region’s history beginning in the 1700s.
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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘Your Driver is Waiting’ takes a modern spin on ‘Taxi Driver’

Who would Travis Bickle– the protagonist of the 1976 film Taxi Driver – be today? That question sparked the new novel by Priya Guns, Your Driver Is Waiting. It follows Damani, a queer Tamil ride-share driver who is struggling to pay her bills while people on the street around her protest for cause after cause that she can't seem to keep track of. Then she meets Jolene, who is the epitome of the privilege Damani does not have. As Guns tells NPR's Scott Simon, it's a relationship that forces her protagonist to reckon with her own preconceptions of wealth and whiteness.
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Short Wave - Could de-extincting the dodo help struggling species?

As a leading expert on paleogenomics, Beth Shapiro has been hearing the same question ever since she started working on ancient DNA: "The only question that we consistently were asked was, how close are we to bringing a mammoth back to life?"

In the second part of our conversation (listen to yesterday's episode), Beth tells Short Wave co-host Aaron Scott that actually cloning a mammoth is probably not going to happen.

"But there are technologies that will allow us to resurrect extinct traits, to move bits and pieces of genes that might be adapted to a large animal like an elephant living in the Arctic."

That is what companies like Colossal Biosciences and Revive and Restore are trying to do, with Beth's help. And she is leading the effort on another iconic extinct species, the dodo.

In today's episode, how Beth Shapiro's initial work mapping the dodo genome laid the groundwork to bring back a version of it from extinction, and how the knowledge scientists gain from de-extinction could help protect species under threat now.

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It Could Happen Here - The Trans Genocide Part 1: Eradication

Garrison and Mia are joined by Margaret Killjoy to discuss the year's violent escalation in anti-trans rhetoric and the legislation they've produced.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Planet Money - How Silicon Valley Bank failed

Silicon Valley Bank was the 16th largest bank in America, the bank of choice for tech startups and big-name venture capitalists. Then, in the span of just a few days, it collapsed. Whispers that SVB might be in trouble spread like wildfire through group texts and Twitter posts. Depositors raced to empty their accounts, withdrawing $42 billion in a single day. Last Friday, after regulators declared that SVB had failed, the FDIC seized the bank.

As the dust settles on the biggest bank failure — and bank rescue — in recent memory, we're still figuring out what happened. But poor investment choices, weak regulation, and customer panic all played their parts. We'll look into the bank's collapse to understand what it can teach us about the business of banking itself.

This episode was produced by Willa Rubin, with help from Dave Blanchard. It was edited by Keith Romer, and engineered by Brian Jarboe. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Our acting executive producer is Jess Jiang.

Music: "I Don't Do Gossip," "Groovy Little Penguins" and "Vision."

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