What can A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke tell us about AI? Does Shakespeare's Othello contain a warning for the 2024 US presidential election? Our journalists (and our listeners, too) recommend books that might help us better understand our times.
Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
In this installment of "The Protocol," hosts Brad Keoun, the founding editor of The Protocol Newsletter, and tech journalists Sam Kessler and Margaux Nijkerk, explore the following stories:
TOPIC | New Technology - Projects
Celestia
Celestia has released its mainnet beta after issuing tokens to 580,000 users.
Avail
The announcement comes as Celestia's recent launch and airdrop have kindled interest in "modular" blockchain projects that can relieve the burden on primary networks like Ethereum.
EigenDA
EigenLayer’s platform for "re-staking" is designed to extend Ethereum’s pooled security from ETH stakers to other blockchain systems – a way for developers to bootstrap new networks without having to create their own communities of network validators.
SUAVE
Unbundles the mempool and block builder role from existing blockchains and offers a highly specialized and decentralized plug-and-play alternative. Sharing the same sequencing layer allows crypto to stay decentralized, block builders to capture cross-domain MEV, validators to maximize their revenue, and users to transact with the best execution, while reducing the economic centralization pressure on each domain.
The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) is an open-application awards program that draws on community input to support developers and startups building on Stellar and Soroban. Accelerate your web3 project today.
The Protocol has been produced and edited by senior producer Michele Musso and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Take Me Back” by Strength To Last.
Usually Unexpected Elements looks at the science behind the news, but this week Marnie Chesterton and Caroline Steel are looking back at some of the best bits from our first few months.
We’ve got the best from our team of panellists across the globe, including what’s going on in your brain when you speak more than one language, the horrific mating ritual of the bedbug and the science behind our panellist Camilla’s terrible haircut decision.
We look back at some of the brilliant scientists we’ve spoken to, with subjects as diverse as whale song, how the entire universe was once the size of a marble, why an archaeologist hasn’t run off with all the gold he’s found and how the jewel wasp turn a cockroach into a zombie.
We have ‘Under the Radar’ stories about power outages in South Africa, human ancestors from China, bringing Rhinos back to life in Kenya and how to keep everyone safe from Polar Bears in a place where there’s no phone signal.
We reflect on our attempts to find the Coolest Science in the World, and whether it’s possible to pit a hurricane machine against an alternative to antibiotics.
And it wouldn’t be a ‘best of’ show without a digest of all the fruit chat from throughout the year.
All that plus eating glue for science, our best (or worst?) puns and some singing cows.
Presented by Marnie Chesterton & Caroline Steel
Produced by Ben Motley, with Tom Bonnett
In 1957, two chemists at the Clinton Corn Processing Company of Clinton, Iowa, developed a system for converting the glucose found in corn starch into fructose.
Over 60 years later, the product they created can be found in a dizzying array of food products worldwide.
Learn more about High Fructose Corn Syrup, how it is made, how it is used, and the controversy surrounding it on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
On an August night in 1933 Harbin in then-Japanese controlled Manchuria–Semyon Kaspe, French citizen, famed concert musician, and Russian Jew, is abducted after a night out. Suspicion falls on the city’s fervently anti-semitic Russian fascists. Yet despite pressure from the French consulate, the Japanese police slow-walk the investigation—and three months later, Semyon is found dead.
In this interview, Scott and I talk about Harbin, the major players in Semyon’s abduction and murder, and how the investigation and trial became an international sensation.
Scott D. Seligman is a writer and historian. He is the national award-winning author of numerous books, including The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots That Shook New York City (Potomac: 2020), The Third Degree: The Triple Murder that Shook Washington and Changed American Criminal Justice (Potomac: 2018), and The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo (Hong Kong University Press: 2013)
We'll tell you the next step in the Colorado court battle about whether former President Trump can be on the state's primary ballot.
Also, protesters blocked roads leading to airports in America's largest cities on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Plus, a new lawsuit has sparked a brawl between big tech and major news companies; beer sales are down to their lowest levels in a quarter-century, and this New Year's Eve could break wedding records.
And use my link go.mycopilot.com/NEWSWORTHY to get a 14-day FREE trial AND 20% off your first month of personalized fitness if you sign up before February 1st!
Between Christmas and New Years, The Daily Signal is looking back at the most popular interviews from the year. Enjoy episode three of our "Best of 2023" series!
Chadwick Moore appeared on the final episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on that fateful night in April, just days before Fox News abruptly canceled the show April 24. Carlson and Moore didn’t know it would their last time on Fox News, but it makes Moore’s biography of Carlson all the most interesting—and fortuitous.
Moore is the author of “Tucker,” a biography that’s available for pre-order ahead of its Aug. 1 publication by All Seasons Press.
Long before taping that interview with Carlson, Moore began work on his biography. It tells the story of the former CNN and MSNBC host who anchored the top-rated primetime show on Fox News for seven years.
But the book is about more than Carlson’s TV career. Moore spoke to The Daily Signal about the hundreds of hours he spent interviewing Carlson and others who have influenced his life.
While the What Next team spends some time with their families this week, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes Jan. 2.
For all of his success, Steven Spielberg has a spotty record at the Oscars. He’s been nominated 22 times, but he’s only won three. Is it a curse?
This Sunday could mark a shift for the King of Hollywood’s five decades in the industry. And with The Fabelmans this year, it’s personal.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Amicus—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.
As 2023 comes to a close, Short Wave teamed up with our friends at All Things Considered to round up some of our favorite stories of the year — this time, about the science behind music. First, science correspondent Rob Stein talks to researchers (and Phish's Mike Gordon) about what happens to our brains on music. Then, All Things Considered host Juana Summers and investigations correspondent Sacha Pfeiffer share a study about why lead singers, like Jeff Beck, have gotten quieter over the years. And finally, All Things Considered hosts Ailsa Chang and Ari Shapiro explore research that says some animals might be able to perceive melody and rhythm, too.
Have other questions about the science behind music? What have you observed about how your favorite songs make you feel? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
