WeWork, the company that invented the âhot desk,â has declared bankruptcy â Adam Neumann injured the WeWork, but the real estate market killed it.
Shein pioneered ultra-fast fashion and now reportedly wants to IPO at a $90B valuation â To explain Sheinâs fashion, weâre going to quote philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
And the Great Resignation is over. Nobody is quitting anymore â Quiet Quitting has become Loud Lingering.
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Is climate discourse doomerism based on the right facts and frameworks? Are we not giving the potential of change enough credence? And where does the climate movement go from here? Today, we hear from the authors of "Not Too Late," Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua, whose climate activism is deliberately removed from despair.
For the first few years that National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward was writing her new novel, Let Us Descend, she says she really struggled to tap into her main character. Annis is an enslaved Black woman who faces unsurmountable hardships â but she also finds deep comfort in the spirits and elements that surround her. In today's episode, Ward tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe why she needed to incorporate spirituality into the Southern hellscape Annis faces; and why as hard as it can be to read about slavery, it's also an act of memory and resistance.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
In our 150th episode, we present the amicus brief in Moore v. United States, authored by Professor Amar with his brother, Professor Vikram Amar. Reminder: CLE credit is available after listening by going to podcast.njsba.com. The brief begins with the provocative statement that most other briefs in the case have missed the point? What is the point that they missed? We explain how their focus on the 16th amendment misses the basic constitutional questions which the Court answered back in 1796 in the Hylton v. US case. Who says so? Some guys named Washington and Hamilton, to start. And this Lincoln fellow agreed later. But everyone seems to have missed this. You wonât.
We dive into effective accelerationismâits cult of personality, capitalist metaphysics, techno-theology, and lukewarm manifestos. We connect it to previous movements like Singulatariansim, strip away the mercurial branding of these ideologies, and look more closely at the material politics at their core.
â˘â˘â˘ âItâs a Cultâ: Inside Effective Accelerationism, the Pro-AI Movement Taking Over Silicon Valley https://www.theinformation.com/articles/its-a-cult-inside-effective-accelerationism-the-pro-ai-movement-taking-over-silicon-valley
â˘â˘â˘ The Techno-Optimist Manifesto https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/
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Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
For the longest time, when you thought about the most powerful person in the world, the person who probably came to mind was the president of the United States, the leader of the free world. But in 2023, the person who comes to mind for most people these days isnât an elected official at all. Instead, a lot of people picture a 52-year-old civilian who, through his own determination, ambition, and sheer will, has amassed an enormous amount of wealthâmore than any other person on this planetâand also an enormous amount of influence over many of the most important industries in the world, especially as we look to the future.
Elon Muskâs biography is difficult to summarize, but thatâs exactly what our guest today, Walter Isaacson, has spent the past two and a half years doing: outlining Elon Muskâs life to the tune of about 700 pages, in a new book simply titled Elon Musk. Isaacson is an award-winning biographer of luminaries including Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, and Jennifer Doudna. But this recent undertaking has no doubt been his most complicated one to date. Thatâs because the man he wrote about has a story thatâs very much still unfolding. In fact, when Walter Isaacson started writing the book, Musk hadnât even purchased Twitter yet.Â
One of the questions that underlies the entire biography is this: What does it mean for a single man to have so much singular power? And though Walter doesnât answer the question explicitly, weâve all had a glimpse into exactly what it means for the world during this past month.
Take, for example, how when Israel briefly cut off the internet inside of Gaza as part of their war strategy to eliminate Hamas, Elon announced that he was going to provide it himself through his company, Starlink. After widespread criticism, he posted an exploding head emoji. Then, when a commenter suggested that he must have felt pressure to provide the coverage, Elon simply responded, âyeah,â with a frowny face. Musk apparently then met with the head of Shin Bet, Israelâs internal security service, and announced that he would, âdouble check with Israeli and U.S. security officials before enabling any connections.â The point, as my friend and writer Jacob Siegel put it, is that ânon-state kingmakers are redefining the scope of warfare through direct intervention.â
Of course, thereâs also Elonâs newfound power over the information that all of us consume on X, Twitterâs new brand. Itâs hard to imagine under Twitterâs previous regime that we would have had access to the raw, brutally violent footage from Hamasâs October 7 massacre. Elonâs version of Twitter, which is less censorious than the previous guard, has allowed millions of people across the globe to seeâwith their own eyesâexactly what Hamas did. And yet, with those loosened rules, thereâs also so much genuine disinformation spread at a pace like never before. Scores of people, including elected officials like Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, are posting horrifying photos and videos of crying children from Gaza, when in reality they are photos and videos from Syria in 2013.Â
It has never been clearer that one man wields an enormous amount of influence over everything from social media to warfare. And the question is, should he? Thatâs the theme of todayâs conversation.Â
At the Supreme Court on Tuesday, justices seemed inclined to uphold a federal law that bans anyone covered by a domestic violence court order from having a gun.
But if they do that, the decision will likely be a narrow one, leaving many questions about the future of gun regulations unanswered.
John Judis and Ruy Teixiera drop by to answer the question posed in the title of their new book Where Have All the Democrats Gone? Their warning is that the more Dems tack left, the more likely the only constituency left will be "the left."Â Plus, the guilty plea of a mass shooter's father. And the meaning imparted in the misreported presence of beheaded babies in Israel.
