74,000 years ago, the Earth suffered the greatest natural disaster that it has seen in the last several million years.
A supervolcano erupted in what is today the country of Indonesia.
In addition to completely changing the Earth’s climate for years, it may have pushed a species known as Homo Sapiens to the brink of extinction.
Learn more about the Toba Eruption and how it might have almost spelled the end for humanity on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Many people are familiar with the United States Supreme Court’s merit docket. Each case follows detailed and professional proceedings that include formal written and oral arguments. The justices’ decisions provide lengthy arguments and citations. They are freely available to the public, press, policy-makers, law makers, judges, and scholars. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, they ruled publicly – and the press covered it extensively.
But Professor Stephen Vladeck’s new book, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic (Basic Books, 2023), highlights that 99% of the Court’s decisions are “unseen, unsigned, and almost always unexplained” on the “shadow docket.” State and federal policies – and constitutional rights – are affected by decisions that the Supreme Court makes behind closed doors. There are no opinions, no citations, and often observers have little idea which justices supported the action. The term ‘shadow docket’ was coined by law professor William Baude in 2015 – and Professor Vladeck sees a recent, radical, and concerning shift in how the shadow docket has been deployed in recent years. His remarkable book traces the shadow docket’s longer history to explain what is the shadow docket, where did it come from, and how the Court has radically departed from past practice to decide more and more cases out of the public eye. Professor Vladeck argues that the shadow docket has become a norm rather than an exception – and that procedural change impacts constitutional rights and public policy on a large scale including asylum eligibility, abortion, marriage equality, voting rights, and building a border wall. Professor Vladeck insists that, regardless of your individual political leanings, the Court’s increasing manipulation of the shadow docket threatens our shared constitutional system, and should alarm any American who believes in the value of the Supreme Court as an independent and legitimate institution.
Professor Vladeck’s impressively researched (and remarkably accessible) book employs historical analysis and case studies in clear and precise prose. This is a book for scholars, students, – and anyone interested in policy and politics. The podcast ends with Professor Vladeck’s suggestions for how we can all change how we talk about the Court and how Congress can make the Court more accountable.
Professor Stephen Vladeck holds the Charles Alan Wright Chair at the University of Texas School of Law. In addition to his extensive legal scholarship, Vladeck, has argued three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, co-hosts the National Security Law Podcast, and is editor and author of “One First,” a popular weekly Substack newsletter about the Supreme Court.
John Sebastiani served as the editorial assistant for this podcast.
Susan Liebell is Dirk Warren '50 Professor of Political Science at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
We're telling you about an armed mutiny in Russia that ended as quickly as it began: what it means for the future of Russia and its war in Ukraine.
Also, a train crash led to extra testing in the Yellowstone River.
Plus, one of the world's largest religious gatherings is underway; Google is launching a new type of search result that pulls from social media; and four people are starting an experiment to see what it's like to lie on Mars.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russia’s most notorious mercenary leader, sent an armed convoy toward Moscow over the weekend after accusing the country’s military of staging an airstrike on his own fighters. Crooked news contributor Max Fisher joins us to break down what happened, and what it could entail for Russia and the war in Ukraine.
And in headlines: Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was re-elected for a second term, the Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration over how it can enforce existing immigration laws, and a federal judge in Orlando blocked the state of Florida from enforcing its recent restrictions on drag performances.
Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffee
Violent criminals are being given a “slap on the wrist” and released back onto the streets in eight cities across America, says author Charles "Cully" Stimson.
The term “rogue prosecutor” refers to “those who are funded by, or inspired and supported by, the George Soros network,” says Stimson, who is a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Stimson's co-author, Zack Smith, is also a legal fellow there. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
Soros is a left-wing billionaire who has used his vast wealth to further the Left’s agenda, including spending “$40 million in [district attorney] races,” Stimson says, adding that in cities where these “rogue prosecutors" have been elected with Soros money, crime has spiked.
As an example, Stimson compares two cities, “San Diego and Philadelphia, tied as the seventh-largest cities in the United States."
"The difference between a real prosecutor in San Diego with [District Attorney] Summer Stephan and a rogue prosecutor like Larry Krasner [in Philadelphia] absolutely impacts your public safety privilege. And both big cities [have] gangs. San Diego [is] right on the border by Tijuana, Mexico. ... Philly's on [Interstate] 95; so, the corridor between Baltimore and New York City. Big highways. Last year ... Philadelphia [had] over 550 murders. San Diego, guess how many? Fifty—10 times less.”
Stimson joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain the spiking crime trend in cities with rogue prosecutors at the helm and to share stories of the lives of people who have been tragically affected by criminals being released back onto the streets.
For months, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has been railing against his own country’s military leadership. It all came to a head this weekend – when the mercenary leader gathered his troops, took over a Russian city, and started to march towards Moscow. Then – as suddenly as it began – it stopped. Russia says Prigozhin has fled to Belarus, and his troops will all be granted amnesty. But an independent Russian journalist in exile doubts the official narrative, and speculates on Vladimir Putin’s future..
Guest: Mikhail Zygar, Russian journalist and author of the upcoming book, “War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine”
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
Leah and Kate delve in to the latest chapter of Supreme Court justices going on secret fancy vacations with billionaires, this time starring Samuel Alito. And then it's opinion-palooza, recapping the opinions we got last week while we wait with bated breath for the horrors the last week of the term will bring.
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Frances Haugen came forward as the Facebook whistleblower in 2021, shortly after she exposed more than 20,000 documents proving that the company's algorithm boosted misinformation and extremism on the platform. In her new memoir, The Power of One, Haugen details how her life trajectory, from high school debate to Silicon Valley, poised her to speak up about what she saw during her time as an employee at Facebook. In today's episode, she tells Here & Now's Robin Young about losing her childhood best friend, navigating celiac disease, and prioritizing democracy and transparency over profit.
