Happy Friday! Today we are discussing the latest out of Israel, a few fights on Capitol Hill, Nikki Haley's ideal social media policy, and the end of a couple strikes.
Without Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen might not be who he is today. The natural follow-up to Springsteen's hugely successful album The River should have been the hit-packed Born in the U.S.A. But instead, in 1982, he came out with an album consisting of a series of dark songs he had recorded by himself, for himself. But more than forty years later, Nebraska is arguably Springsteen's most important record--the lasting clue to understanding not just his career as an artist and the vision behind it, but also the man himself.
Nebraska is rough and unfinished, recorded on cassette tape with a simple four-track recorder by Springsteen, alone in his bedroom, just as the digital future was announcing itself. And yet Springsteen now considers it his best album. Nebraska expressed a turmoil that was reflective of the mood of the country, but it was also a symptom of trouble in the artist's life, the beginnings of a mental breakdown that Springsteen would only talk about openly decades after the album's release.
Warren Zanes spoke to many people for Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska (Crown, 2023), including Bruce Springsteen himself. He also interviewed more than a dozen celebrated artists and musical insiders, from Rosanne Cash to Steven Van Zandt, about their reactions to the album. Zanes interweaves these conversations with inquiries into the myriad cultural touchpoints, including Terrence Malick's Badlands and the short stories of Flannery O'Conner, that influenced Springsteen as he was writing the album's haunting songs. The result is a textured and revelatory account of not only a crucial moment in the career of an icon but also a record that upended all expectations and predicted a home-recording revolution.
Warren Zanes is the New York Times bestselling author of Petty: The Biography. As a member of the Del Fuegos, he has shared the stage with Bruce Springsteen, and continues to write and record music. Zanes holds a PhD in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester and presently teaches at New York University. He is a Grammy-nominated producer of the PBS series Soundbreaking and was a consulting producer on the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom. Zane's work has appeared in Rolling Stone and the Oxford American, and he has served as a vice president at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Bradley Morgan is a media arts professional in Chicago and author of U2's The Joshua Tree: Planting Roots in Mythic America. He manages partnerships on behalf of CHIRP Radio 107.1 FM, serves as a co-chair of the associate board at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and volunteers in the music archive at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Bradley Morgan on Twitter.
We'll tell you where Americans protesting the war in the Middle East delayed traffic and ended up getting arrested, as the fighting in Gaza is expected to expand.
Also, why is there a new bipartisan effort to get one U.S. lawmaker booted from Congress?
Plus, we're talking about a crackdown on fake designer bags in New York City, what to expect from another attempt to launch the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, and when you'll be able to buy a car on Amazon.
Family members of Israeli hostages held by Hamas are currently on a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, with plans to end the march in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home. Meanwhile, a protest calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was held outside the Democratic Party headquarters in D.C on Wednesday. And across the country in the Bay Area, dozens of protestors shut down the westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge for roughly four hours on Thursday.
Republican Representative George Santos announced that he will not seek re-election in next year’s elections after the House Ethics Committee released its highly-anticipated report on Thursday. The report found that there was “substantial evidence” that Santos used campaign money for personal expenses, and concluded that Santos “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”
And in headlines: the Senate passed a stopgap spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, the Supreme Court declined to enforce Florida’s anti-drag show law, and China’s President Xi Jinping suggested that his country might lend more giant pandas to the U.S. in the future.
Show Notes:
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A new study published this week in the journal JAMA found that cutting one teaspoon of salt a day results in a decline in blood pressure comparable to taking medication. Plus, other science news from this week, like the oldest confirmed black hole and how climate change and pollution are causing a big imbalance in the sexes of turtles.
Got other science news for us to consider? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
The world needs to understand that Hamas is “a brutal terrorist organization, [and] that it's only starting with Israel,” Sawsan Hasson says.
According to Hasson, head of public diplomacy at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, Hamas’ leaders have been quite vocal that they plan to carry out similar acts of violence against the United States and Americans.
The Daily Signal spoke with Hasson at the Israeli Embassy after a screening of a 45-minute film containing raw footage of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. It was Hasson’s third time watching the film, but she was still visibly shaken.
The embassy official says she and all of the people of Israel have a very clear message for America, and it's a call to bring the hostages “back home now.”
Hasson joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain what Israel’s key objective in the war is, and what's known about the hostage negotiations.
Want to learn more about the Israel film. Follow this link: https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/11/16/i-watched-raw-footage-hamas-attack-israel-most-graphic-thing-i-have-ever-seen/
The US Post Office just revealed that it lost $6.5B this year — So we’re going to tell you the story, the history, and business model of the mail service… that we all own.
For the 1st time ever, you can now buy cars on Amazon.com — Amazon will sell Hyundai cars, but only because Hyundai will put Amazon in its cars.
And the creator of “Anchorman” just launched a TV show on TikTok — Because TikTok is now TVtok.
Girls at a New Jersey high school were early victims of a novel and growing problem: their images were taken from social media without consent to create “deep-fake pornography.”
Guest: Julie Jargon, Wall Street Journal family and tech columnist.
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Today's episode features interviews with two giants in pop culture who get very real about the pitfalls in their personal and professional lives. First, NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Henry Winkler about his new memoir, Being Henry, and how his overnight stardom as The Fonz on Happy Days was followed by a long lack of acting roles. Then, NPR's A Martinez chats with Arnold Schwarzenegger about his book Be Useful, and the men in his life who taught him the importance of helping others.
