Get a behind-the-scenes peek at the reporting for On Our Watch: New Folsom asAyesha Rascoe, host of NPR’s The Sunday Story from Up First, speaks with Sukey about the season and the wider context of this kind of journalism.
Resources
If you are currently in crisis, you can dial 988 [U.S.] to reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
The Supreme Court has granted Donald Trump broad immunity for his official actions as President. Hurricane Beryl is causing extensive damage in the Caribbean, and the first ever millennial saint has been approved for canonization.
Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today's episode of Up First was edited by Krishnadev Calamur, Rachel Waldholz, HJ Mai, Janaya Williams and Olivia Hampton. It was produced by Claire Murashima, Chris Thomas, Lindsay Totty and Mansee Khurana. We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez and our technical director is Zac Coleman.
This week we revisit a favorite topic: insane, pandering, patriotic country songs. Originally aired on July 4th 2022, this episode features comedian Joe Mande (Hacks, The Good Place, Parks and Recreation), who joins us in going down the un-nuanced rabbit hole of unabashedly pro-America country music.
This episode has been remixed and remastered to improve sound quality and include new song clips for context.
In January, I was announced as a 2024 TED speaker in Vancouver. Predictably, a small group of very loud people were angry—mostly on Twitter. Then, five TED fellows resigned. They wrote a letter to the head of TED, Chris Anderson, titled: “TED Fellows Refuse to Be Associated with Genocide Apologists.” They pleaded to disinvite me, plus a few others who had been asked to speak, and take us off the program.
A strange thing considering that TED is devoted to curiosity, reason, wonder, and the pursuit of knowledge, without an agenda: “We welcome all who seek a deeper understanding of the world and connection with others, and we invite everyone to engage with ideas and activate them in your community.” In the end, TED didn’t disinvite me. But I wondered if I should actually go.
For some people, being invited to TED probably is the most exciting thing in the world. And at one point I would have felt that way too. But I knew they were inviting me to be their token dissident voice, to prove that they are not a monolith. And on the one hand, I appreciated that effort. On the other hand, if I’m your representation for ideological diversity, if I’m your most radical speaker, then you’ve already lost.
In the end, I decided to speak. I felt like they were genuinely trying to right the ship, and shouldn’t I support that effort?
When I arrived, I was sequestered in a group with people like Bill Ackman, Avi Loeb, Andrew Yang, and Scott Galloway, and TED called our portion of the conference “The Provocateurs.” But as I looked around at my little group of five, something felt very obvious: none of us are all that provocative. Or at least we shouldn’t be. The biggest irony of all is that that was the very topic of my speech I came to Vancouver to give.
The talk is about how normal ideas and issues are often crowded out and overshadowed by boutique issues such as whether Bari Weiss should be allowed to speak at TED. It’s about how a few small voices end up adjudicating which voices are morally righteous and which ones are not. It’s about how common-sense positions became transgressive and polarizing overnight; how our ability to disagree is our freedom, and, most critically, why it’s so important to stand with conviction in our beliefs even when it means standing out in the cold.
Today, you’ll hear my talk, titled “Courage, the Most Important Virtue.” Afterward, you’ll hear a conversation I had with the head of TED, Chris Anderson, about victimhood, about how words are misinterpreted as violence, and about the paper-thin line between civilization and barbarism.
Thanks to the TED Talks Daily podcast for letting us share this episode of their show with Honestly listeners today. And if you want to hear more talks like mine, check out TED Talks Daily. Each day, the show brings you a new idea that will spark your curiosity and just might change the future, all in under 15 minutes. You can find TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts.
We commonly think of trolls as anonymous online pranksters who hide behind clever avatars and screen names. In Trolling Ourselves to Death: Democracy in the Age of Social Media (Oxford UP, 2024), Jason Hannan reveals how the trolls have emerged from the cave and now walk in the clear light of day. Once limited to the darker corners of the internet, trolls have since gone mainstream, invading our politics and eroding our civic culture. Trolls are changing the norms of democratic politics and shaping how we communicate in the public sphere. Adding a twist to Neil Postman's classic thesis, this book argues that we are not so much amusing as trolling ourselves to death. But how did this come to be? Is this transformation attributable solely to digital technology? Or are there deeper political, economic, and cultural roots?
This book moves beyond the familiar picture of trolls by recasting trolling in a broader historical light. It shows how trolling is the logical expression of widespread alienation, cynicism, and paranoia deeply rooted in a culture of possessive individualism. Drawing from Postman, Alasdair MacIntyre, Karl Marx, and Hannah Arendt, this book explores the disturbing rise of political unreason in the form of mass trolling. It explains the proliferation of disinformation, conspiracy theory, "cancel culture," and public shaming. Taking inspiration from G. F. W. Hegel, Paulo F reire, and bell hooks, this book makes a case for building a spirit of trust to counter the culture of mass distrust that feeds the epidemic of political trolling.
Dr. Jason Hannan is Professor in the Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications at the University of Winnipeg. He is the author of Trolling Ourselves to Death: Democracy in the Age of Social Media (Oxford University Press, 2023) and the editor of Meatsplaining: The Animal Agriculture Industry and the Rhetoric of Denial (Sydney University Press, 2020). His current book project is Reactionary Speech: Conservatism and the Rhetoric of Denial.
Dr. Michael LaMagna is the Information Literacy Program & Library Services Coordinator and Professor of Library Services at Delaware County Community College.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority handed former President Donald Trump a major win on Monday, granting him broad — though not full — immunity from charges he tried to overturn the 2020 election. The decision effectively kicks Trump's federal election interference case back down to a lower court judge to parse out which of his actions that day, and leading up to it, could be considered "unofficial acts," for which he could still be prosecuted. It makes the likelihood of a trial before November almost nonexistent and raises the stakes of the presidential election. Kate Shaw, co-host of Crooked's legal podcast 'Strict Scrutiny,' explains what the court's decision means for Trump's Jan. 6 case and all future presidents of the United States.
And in headlines: The Supreme Court put on hold a pair of social media laws from Texas and Florida, trans nonbinary runner Nikki Hiltz is headed to the Olympics after winning the women's 1500-meter race at trials, and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is filing for bankruptcy.
We'll explain a landmark Supreme Court decision about the power of the presidency and how it could impact former President Trump's criminal cases.
Also, Hurricane Beryl has become the earliest Category 5 storm on record.
Plus, new state laws Impact everything from abortions to AI to edibles; there are new updates in Boeing's turnaround plan, and we'll introduce you to the youngest athletes set to compete for Team USA in Paris.
Those stories and more news to know in about 10 minutes!
