Bestselling author Sofi Oksanen answers readers' questions about her novel Purge.
It's a harrowing story of sexual violence, betrayal and retribution which charts the troubled history of Estonia during and after the Second World War. Told through the lives of two women, the story starts when a frightened stranger, Zara, arrives on Aliide's doorstep. Gradually, their parallel stories, and connected histories are uncovered. This powerful novel has been translated into 38 languages.
(Picture: Author Sofi Oksanen. Photo credit: Toni Härkönen.)
Every July 1, the people of Canada celebrate their national holiday of Canada Day.
The day dates back over 150 years, and despite what many people think, the day isn’t exactly Canadian Independence Day.
Also, for most of the time the day has been celebrated, it wasn’t even called Canada Day, which can provide an insight as to what the day was originally celebrating.
Learn more about Canada Day, its origins, and how it is celebrated on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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John Dewey and Jane Addams are both credited with the claim that the cure for democracy’s ills is more democracy. The sentiment is popular to this day among democratic theorists and practitioners. The thought is that a democratic deficit lies at the root of any political and social problem that a democracy might confront. Accordingly, a good deal of work in democratic theory aims at designing new practices and institutions that can erase the deficit. But this raises a problem: The civic task of democratic citizenship must be manageable for ordinary citizens. And ordinary citizens are differentially busy with other pursuits, many of which are independently valuable and socially beneficial. Thus, proposals for “more democracy” tend to be exclusionary.
In Democracy for Busy People (University of Chicago Press, 2023), Kevin J. Elliott addresses this difficulty head on. He devises a conception of the civic responsibilities of citizenship that is authentically democratic without being overly demanding.
Robert Talisse is the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled affirmative action in college admissions is unconstitutional. Today, we’re replaying the conversations we had back in April, where we reviewed what the cases were about and the wide-reaching impact of the decision. You’ll hear from Supreme Court reporter Amy Howe and UCONN Director of Admissions Vern Granger.
This week marks the anniversary of the Stonewall riots — the very reason we celebrate Pride in June every year. In honor of the drag queens that have always been on the front lines of the fight for equality before, during, and after Stonewall, we dive deep into the troubling saga of Tennessee’s first-in-the-nation attempt to ban public drag performances.
Memphis-based drag queen and Tennessee native Bella DuBalle joins us to discuss the impact the legislation has had on local performers ever since was introduced, the community’s resilience that ultimately led to the law being overturned, and why the world needs drag.
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
On the "CBS News Weekend Roundup", host Allison Keyes has team coverage on the Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action in college admissions, and on student loans. We'll have the latest on the mess that is holiday travel amid airline delays. In the "Kaleidoscope with Allison Keyes" segment, a discussion about a University of California San Francisco study finding that high housing costs are the driving factor behind homelessness in a state where 30 percent of the nation's unhoused live. It is a national crises.
This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions. We consider this coverage so essential that we’re taking down the paywall for all of it. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. And sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.
Finally, Dahlia turns to Michaele Turnage Young of the NAACP LDF to take a closer look at Thursday’s affirmative action decision, which outlawed race-conscious admissions in most higher education contexts.
In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to answer a listener question about something that has us all scratching our heads in the wake of Moore v Harper, and look ahead to some gun safety litigation that’s winding its way up to the High Court.
An article on the UK?s Telegraph newspaper website claimed that there would be just 6 grandchildren for every 100 South Koreans today. We ask whether that figure is correct and look at why South Korea?s birth rate has fallen to one of the lowest in the world, with the help of author and mathematician Rob Eastaway and journalist and author Hawon Jung.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producers: Bethan Ashmead Latham, Jon Bithrey
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Engineer: James Beard
