It's another quantum SIO! Hopefully you caught Ann's last appearance when we discussed quantum computing. This time we're going more basic! Quantum entanglement, non-locality, Schrödinger's Cat... all that good stuff. But, with a bit of a twist. Ann tells us about how she actually accomplishes this stuff in the real world, and it's so much... messier than you would think. It's fascinating! Are you an expert in something and want to be on the show? Apply here! Please please pretty please support the show on patreon! You get ad free episodes, early episodes, and other bonus content!
Kathleen Lubey,'s book What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest Since the Eighteenth Century (Stanford UP, 2022) offers a new history of pornography based on forgotten bawdy fiction of the eighteenth century, its nineteenth-century republication, and its appearance in 1960s paperbacks. Through close textual study, Lubey shows how these texts were edited across time to become what we think pornography is—a genre focused primarily on sex. Originally, they were far more variable, joining speculative philosophy and feminist theory to sexual description. Lubey's readings show that pornography always had a social consciousness—that it knew, long before anti-pornography feminists said it, that women and nonbinary people are disadvantaged by a society that grants sexual privilege to men. Rather than glorify this inequity, Lubey argues, the genre's central task has historically been to expose its artifice and envision social reform. Centering women's bodies, pornography refuses to divert its focus from genital action, forcing readers to connect sex with its social outcomes. Lubey offers a surprising take on a deeply misunderstood cultural form: pornography transforms sexual description into feminist commentary, revealing the genre's deep knowledge of how social inequities are perpetuated as well as its plans for how to rectify them.
Kathleen Lubey is Professor of English at St. John's University. She is the author of Excitable Imaginations: Eroticism and Reading in Britain, 1660-1760 (2012).
Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel.
We're talking about more extreme heat across the U.S. and the world. A popular tourist spot is now dealing with what could be the largest evacuation effort for the country because of wildfires.
Also, say goodbye to Twitter. The social media platform has a new name.
Plus, we'll tell you how a new study says exercising only on the weekends could impact your health and why it costs about the same to buy a new house as an old one.
Israel’s parliament is set to vote today on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to reform the country’s judicial system. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets across Israel to protest the proposal, saying that it threatens the country’s democratic foundation.
Voters in Spain cast their ballots in what was arguably one of the most important elections in that country in years. Though no single party captured an outright majority, the results defied expectations that Spain’s far-right would secure a role in government for the first time in decades.
And in headlines: Russian airstrikes damaged a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Ukrainian city of Odesa, wildfires burning on the Greek island of Rhodes forced tens of thousands of evacuations, and the Barbie movie made box office history on its opening weekend.
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
It's the duty of Congress to use American tax dollars responsibly, Richard Stern says.
American taxpayers deserve to know where their money's going because “the government doesn't have the moral right to walk up and take whatever it wants of your labors because a bureaucrat thinks they know better than you how to use the resources you produced,” says Stern, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
There are 12 appropriations bills that move through Congress each year, and according to Stern, it's the job of lawmakers to ensure that each bill uses Americans' hard-earned taxpayer dollars well, but also the job of the American people to hold their elected officials accountable to do just that.
"I think we've ended up in a society where people have kind of quietly thought, 'Maybe the government is better at spending that than I am.' And I think that's been the genesis of the problem," he says.
Stern joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain what appropriations are and the approval process for them, and why politicians need to be more transparent and responsible when spending taxpayer money.
Around the United States and around the world, people are suing their governments and governments are suing fossil fuel companies over the changing climate—revealing what they knew and when they knew it. But even if these lawsuits succeed, what difference can they make for a problem with a literal global scale?
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As Indictment Watch(TM) continues, Liz and Andrew turn their eyes to Fulton County, Georgia. Will DA Fani Willis beat Jack Smith in the race to indict Donald Trump for a third set of crimes? Will Trump's new lawyer, John Lauro, be less of a dipshit? (No.) And what about the fake cosplay electors who helped Trump try to steal Georgia? What's going to happen to them? Listen and find out! In the Patreon bonus, Liz explains that yes, sometimes it is RICO, and gives us a very special Lizdive into the Georgia standardized test scandal of 2009. Trust us, it's all a seamless web!
Scorpions: They're found pretty much everywhere, and new species are being identified all the time. Arachnologist Lauren Esposito says there's a lot to love about this oft-misunderstood creature. Most are harmless — they can't even jump — and they play a critical role in their diverse ecosystems as a top invertebrate predator. (encore)
Want to hear us talk about other newly identified animal species? We'd love to know! We're at shortwave@npr.org.
