The National Association for Black Journalists invited former President Donald Trump for an on-stage interview on Wednesday.
Iowa's abortion ban went into effect this week.
And, in global news, Israel says two major leaders of Hamas were killed this week.
While the U.N. Human Rights Office issued a report saying tens of thousands of Palestinians have been arbitrarily detained by Israeli authorities since Oct. 7.
We cover the most important stories in America and around the world in our weekly News Roundup.
CrowdScience listener Azeddine from Algeria has had bad handwriting since he was a child. In fact, it was so untidy that, when he later became a chemistry lecturer, his university students complained that they could not read his lecture notes. That was when he decided he had to do something about it.
And it got him wondering… why do some of us have very neat handwriting while other people’s is almost unreadable? Why do his sisters all write beautifully when his natural style is quite the opposite?
Presenter Alex Lathbridge sets out to answer Azeddine’s question. He explores the different factors which determine how well we write. How much of it is inherited? What part does family and education play? And what is actually going on in our brains when we apply pen to paper?
Alex talks to anthropologist Monika Saini of the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Delhi, who has analysed writing styles within families and in different regions across India. She tells him about the genetic and cultural factors which seem to influence our handwriting.
We also hear from neuroscientist Marieke Longcamp of Aix Marseille Université, France, who uses MRI scanning to find out which parts of our brains are involved when we write by hand. She has looked at what is happening in the brains of people who write in more than one script – for example in French and Arabic, like Azeddine.
Another neuroscientist, Karin Harman James, from Indiana University, USA ,has been looking at the link between learning something by writing it down compared to typing it on a tablet or laptop.
And Alex meets handwriting tutor Cherrell Avery to find out if it’s possible to improve your writing – even as an adult.
Presenter: Alex Lathbridge
Producer: Jeremy Grange
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Studio Manager: Emma Harth
Maybe you got a boring slip of paper in the mail. Maybe you got a spammy-looking email promising you money. Surprise! You're in a class action. If you've done any commerce in the last decade, there's a good chance that someone somewhere was suing on your behalf and you have real money coming your way... if you know what to do.
Class action settlements are on the rise. And, on today's show, we're helping decipher the class action from the perspective of the average class member. How do class actions work? Why are these notices sometimes undecipherable? And, what do you stand to gain (or lose) by responding?
This episode was hosted by Kenny Malone and Nick Fountain. It was produced by James Sneed with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
Donald Trump checks all the boxes of a person with narcissistic personality disorder, but the mainstream press goes out of its way not to cover his apparent pathologies—and ends up normalizing them.
George Conway wants to change the media narrative to stop the guy who only cares about himself from getting back in the Oval Office. Conway joins Tim Miller for the weekend pod.
Project 2025 has effectively become an epithet for many Democrats. The project was aimed at providing the next administration with a roadmap for reform in a wide variety of areas, some more controversial than others. Neal McCluskey offers a couple cheers aimed at the education portion of the document.
On this special episode, Mary Katharine sits down with Daily Mail political reporter and author Charlie Spiering to discuss his new book, Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris in the White House.
Presidential candidates Donald Trump and RFK Jr., as well as Senator Cynthia Lummis, have proposed the U.S. establish a strategic bitcoin reserve. George Selgin of the Cato Institute unpacks their various proposals.
In this episode, George Selgin, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, discusses the recent proposals by Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Senator Cynthia Lummis for the U.S. government to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve. George provides his insights into the differences between these proposals, their potential implications, and why he believes the government should not be investing in bitcoin or other assets.
Show highlights:
How the Bitcoin proposals by Trump, RFK Jr., and Lummis differ
Why George believes that Trump’s proposal to not sell the government’s bitcoin is just symbolic
What the purpose of acquiring BTC is in the Lummis and RFK proposals
Whether the government should even be investing in bitcoin or other assets
How would the government buy BTC as per the Lummis bill
How likely is it that the bill passes through Congress
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
Ravi welcomes New York Times Op-Ed columnist Pamela Paul to the show to discuss her skepticism about Vice President Kamala Harris as a candidate and the way in which Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee. Ravi and Pamela explore what Harris needs to do to start making her case to voters, from the importance of a new vision for K-12 education to how voters crave authenticity in today's politics. They also discuss Pamela’s recent piece, 'The Republican Party’s Elite Conundrum,' which examines how Ivy League graduates lead the Republican Party but downplay any whiff of intellectualism.
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Will, Felix & Séamus discuss western reporting on recent “unrest” in Israel that tries very hard to elide the root cause.
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Host Jennifer Sanasie breaks down the news in the crypto industry from how Kamala Harris should approach crypto policies to Bybit's exit from France.
To get the show every day, follow the podcast here.
"CoinDesk Daily" host Jennifer Sanasie breaks down the biggest headlines in the crypto industry today, as the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum says that Harris cannot afford to "cede crypto to Trump." Plus, the U.S. added 114,000 jobs in the month of July, and crypto exchange Bybit said it will withdraw its services from France in response to regulations in the country.
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This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and Melissa Montañez and edited by Victor Chen.