What to know about two conflicting rulings over abortion access in the U.S. that could put the issue back before the Supreme Court soon.
Also, top-secret American documents were published online, but who's behind the big leak? And how big of an impact will it have?
Plus, what new rules could mean a bigger push toward electric cars, which college graduates make the most money a decade after graduation, and the movie that broke all kinds of records at the box office.
Those stories and more news to know in around 10 minutes!
Judge Kyle Duncan, a conservative on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arrived on the Stanford Law School campus on March 9. He was there to deliver remarks to students at an event hosted by the campus Federalist Society group, but Duncan never had the opportunity to deliver his talk.
Upon entering the lecture call, students began heckling Duncan, preventing him from speaking. Finally Tirien Steinbach, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Stanford Law, stood up and took the podium. For about six minutes, she spoke to the students and to Duncan.
“For many people in this law school … your advocacy, your opinions from the bench land as absolute disenfranchisement of their rights,” Steinbach said.
When Duncan tried to respond, Steinbach told the judge, “Please let me finish.” Multiple students began shouting, “Let her finish” as they pounded their desks.
Duncan stood by and allowed Steinbach to complete her lecture. Now, the media watchdog group Accuracy in Media is calling on Stanford Law to dismiss Steinbach.
“These crybullies throw metaphorical punches all day long and they never have to take one in return, and that's where we step in," Adam Guillette, president of Accuracy in Media, says.
Accuracy in Media has a mobile billboard on the Stanford campus naming the students who heckled Duncan and calling for Steinbach’s termination.
The law school did issue an apology and has placed Steinbach on paid leave, but has stopped short of terminating her.
“These people, who think they know it all and seek to lecture federal judges, don't even apply the basic level of common sensewhich makes sense because they don't apply the basic level of civility,” Guillette says.
Guillette joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" today to explain how Accuracy in Media is advocating that Steinbach be fired. He also explains how his organization has gone undercover in public schools to expose how classrooms teach diversity, equity, and inclusion.
A ProPublica investigation revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas has been gifted luxury vacations by Republican donor and billionaire Harlan Crow. For over two decades, Justice Thomas has taken private jets, gone on yachts and stayed at private resorts alongside powerful Republican donors, all funded by Crow. For the most part, Justice Thomas did not disclose these vacations.
The investigation raises questions on the legality of these types of gifts, as well as the lack of oversight and ethics standards for the Supreme Court. Did these vacations break the law? To what extent could Justice Thomas’s court rulings have been influenced by Crow and other people on these trips? And even if some of these gifts may not have been illegal, why doesn’t the Supreme Court have more oversight and ethical guidelines to prevent potential conflicts of interest?
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.
Melissa, Kate, and Leah explain the ruling out of Texas that could strip mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions, of its FDA approval. Plus, they react to the explosive ProPublica reporting on Justice Clarence Thomas's luxury vacations sponsored by a billionaire Republican donor, and chat with CNN's Joan Biskupic about her new book, Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court's Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences. They discuss the lasting effects of the Trump presidency on the Court and the working relationships between Justices, giving listeners a glimpse behind the curtain on some of the most iconic scandals at the Court.
In 1957, the Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Since then, the number of objects humans have hurled toward the stars has soared to the thousands. As those objects have collided with one another, they've created more space debris in Earth's orbit. According to some estimates, all of that debris and human-made space trash, the number of objects — from satellites to screws — could be in the millions. In this iteration of our AAAS live show series, Short Wave co-host Aaron Scott talks to Danielle Wood, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, about the dangers of accumulating space debris, and how she and others are working to make space more sustainable.
Have a story about space innovation you'd love us to share? Launch it our way at shortwave@npr.org.
The egg can be found anywhere from a breakfast plate to an Easter basket to a science museum. As author Lizzie Stark details in her new book, Egg: A Dozen Ovatures, the egg is not just an intrinsic part of many culinary traditions – it's also a cultural and artistic symbol across a variety of cultures. And as she tells Here & Now's Jane Clayson, yes – it did come before the chicken.
Edward Frenkel is a mathematician at UC Berkeley working on the interface of mathematics and quantum physics. He is the author of Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(05:54) – Mathematics in the Soviet Union
(16:05) – Nature of reality
(27:23) – Scientific discoveries
(40:45) – Observing reality
(56:57) – Complex numbers
(1:05:42) – Imagination
(1:13:33) – Pythagoreanism
(1:21:28) – AI and love
(1:34:07) – Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems
(1:54:32) – Beauty in mathematics
(1:59:02) – Eric Weinstein
(2:20:57) – Langlands Program
(2:27:36) – Edward Witten
(2:30:41) – String theory
(2:36:10) – Theory of everything
(2:45:03) – Mathematics in academia
(2:50:30) – How to think
(2:56:16) – Fermat’s Last Theorem
(3:11:07) – Eric Weinstein and Harvard
(3:18:32) – Antisemitism
(3:38:45) – Mortality
(3:46:42) – Love
