An all-out "naked mole rat war" has broken out at Smithsonian's National Zoo, after the queen of the colony was mortally wounded by one of her own children. Short Wave's Pien Huang and Margaret Cirino visit the battleground – a series of deceptively calm-looking plexiglass enclosures at the Zoo's Small Mammal House. There, the typically harmonious, eusocial rodents are now fighting their siblings with their big front teeth to determine who will become the new queen. Pien and Marge talk with zookeeper Kenton Kerns about what led to this violent succession drama, the stress he feels in witnessing his first naked mole rat war and how he hopes it will resolve.
NOTE: This episode contains some detailed descriptions of animals fighting each other, so be warned.
Check out the Smithsonian National Zoo's naked mole rat live cam.
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The Daily Signal - New Research on ‘Conversion Therapy’ Turns LGBTQ Narrative on Its Head
On today's show, Tyler O'Neil sits down with Father Paul Sullins, senior research associate at the Ruth Institute and a former sociology professor at Catholic University, to discuss his research into "sexual orientation change efforts."
Sullins analyzes the best data on how people who identify as homosexual have fared after undergoing therapies to address psychological issues that might underlie their same-sex attraction. While many U.S. states and health organizations claim that these efforts, often branded "conversion therapy," increase the risk of suicide, Sullins finds the exact opposite.
LGB people who underwent SOCE were actually less likely to have suicidal thoughts AFTER the therapy. This finding turns the literature on its head and suggests that therapy to resolve issues underlying same-sex attraction may help LGB people, even if such therapy does not lead them to reject homosexuality.
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Ologies with Alie Ward - Evolutionary Anthropology (METABOLISM) with Herman Pontzer
*Content warning up top: This episode discusses sensitive themes like diet culture, caloric intake, the psychological & physical effects of food restriction and includes many listeners’ personal experience with the term “obesity." It may be triggering for those with a history of or sensitivity to disordered eating. We also discuss the Body Mass Index, still used by medical professionals, but acknowledged by many sociologists to be rooted in structural oppression.*
Let’s explore our human machinery. And talk about Brazilian butt lifts. Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and metabolism researcher Dr. Herman Pontzer gives us the data on mitochondrial backstories, muscle mass and hormones, our expanding brains, the flaws of the Body Mass Index, humans’ relationships with nutrition, why crash dieting can change your metabolism, perspectives on sticky medical terms, isotope magic, how much exercise hunter gatherers get, carnivore diets, scales, and what to do if you're grappling with sadness.
Visit the Pontzer Lab website
Browse Dr. Pontzer’s papers on ResearchGate and follow him on Instagram and X
Buy Dr. Pontzer’s book, Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Stay Healthy, and Lose Weight
A donation went to Hadza Fund
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Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes
Other episodes you may enjoy: Pyrotechnology (FIREMAKING), Entomophagy Anthropology (EATING BUGS), Kalology (BEAUTY STANDARDS), Genicular Traumatology (BAD KNEES)
Transcripts and bleeped episodes
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Transcripts by Aveline Malek and The Wordary
Website by Kelly R. Dwyer
Theme song by Nick Thorburn
The Best One Yet - 😶🌫️ “Merlot vs Marijuana” — Cannabis’ Dry January surge. SmartLess’ $100M podcast deal. Big Tech’s dollar saved.
Dry January is drier than ever, but the real winner is the Cannabis industry — Marijuana sales surged this month because it’s actually “Canuary.”
Google and Microsoft just announced record profits, but they also announced more and more layoffs — Because a dollar saved is easier than a dollar earned.
And the comedy podcast SmartLess just landed a $100M deal with SiriusXM — Because Content is King, but Distribution is The Duchess.
$TLRY $CGC $SIRI $GOOG $MSFT
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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Has Trump Already Beaten Fani Willis?
One of Donald Trump’s codefendants in the Georgia election subversion and racketeering case has filed a motion to dismiss his case due to an improper relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and a prosecutor she has hired to work on the case. How can Willis address the allegations and what does it mean for the case?
Guest: Ankush Khardori, attorney and former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Justice Department.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Madeline Ducharme, Anna Phillips, Paige Osburn, and Rob Gunther with help from Kathryn Fink.
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NPR's Book of the Day - Kaveh Akbar’s novel ‘Martyr!’ is a journey of identity, addiction and poetry
Halfway through today's episode, author Kaveh Akbar tells NPR's Scott Simon that his life is a summation of "private joys amidst collective grief and private grief amidst collective joy." It's a contrast that contextualizes his emotionally dark yet deeply funny debut novel, Martyr!, about an Iranian-American poet grappling with addiction, loss, displacement and art. Akbar, who is also poetry editor at The Nation, explains why his protagonist is so obsessed with the concept of martyrdom, and how it relates to his own personal journey with sobriety.
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Amarica's Constitution - A Self-Educating Gaffe
Oral arguments are approaching in the Trump v. Anderson case, and the nation is talking about little else. At the Harvard Law School, Professor Amar is invited to debate a former US Attorney General and Federal Judge, Michael Mukasey, who also submitted an amicus brief in the case together with Bill Barr and Ed Meese, among others. We analyze the debate - and the brief. And in that brief, Akhil identifies what he considers to be an egregious error, which is telling not only in its fatal weakening of the particular argument, but in the way it calls into question the entirety of their brief, and how it points the way to needed reforms in the legal ecosystem as a whole. This is an indispensable episode. CLE credit is available from podcast.njsba.com.
The Stack Overflow Podcast - Inside Intuit’s generative AI system, GenOS
Intuit shares more about their generative AI operating system (GenOS) in this Medium blog.
Learn more about Intuit technology here.
Congrats to Lifeboat badge winner Mohsin Naeem for answering the question How can I extract metadata from an MP3 file?
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It Could Happen Here - Ohio’s War On Trans People, Pt. 2: From WPATH to the Legislature
In part 2 of our interview with Ky and Lee, we discuss how anti-trans groups campaigned to influence medical organizations like WPATH and drew in vulnerable people along the way.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
array(3) { [0]=> string(150) "https://www.omnycontent.com/d/programs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/78d30acb-8463-4c40-a5ae-ae2d0145c9ff/image.jpg?t=1749835422&size=Large" [1]=> string(10) "image/jpeg" [2]=> int(0) }This Machine Kills - Patreon Preview – 314. Cops Love Forensic Pseudoscience
We start with a story designed to hit so many of our pressure points all at once: police have been using pseudoscience machine learning to render 3D avatars of suspects from DNA samples, sometimes from decades ago, and then running these 3D avatars through facial recognition. Then, ending with less horrific and more absurd, we get into an interview between Peter Thiel and John Gray where we learn a surprising fact about Thiel.
••• Cops Used DNA to Predict a Suspect’s Face—and Tried to Run Facial Recognition on It https://www.wired.com/story/parabon-nanolabs-dna-face-models-police-facial-recognition/
••• John Gray and Peter Thiel: Life in a postmodern world https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2024/01/john-gray-peter-thiel-discussion-post-modern-world
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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)