Today we have a fun conversation with recurring guest Ben Recht, a professor of computer science and machine learning at UC Berkeley and Leif Weatherby, an associate professor of German at NYU. We talk about the article they wrote about Nate Silver’s latest book, the world of Big Data, and then we start talking about how maybe the inability for the iPhone to improve might signal a type of end of history. This was a fun one with lots of random asides with two very smart people so please enjoy!
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The New York Times looks at the Constitution as an allegedly anti-democratic, divisive, secession-promoting document. They bring authority to bolster their case in the person of the Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, Erwin Chemerinsky. We take a close look at this article and the arguments it employs. This takes us to the center of the Constitution’s purposes, of course to questions of originalism, as well as an analysis of what sort of democracy the Constitution protects, and what sort it might protect against. CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.
The last presidential debate marked the beginning of the end for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. What of consequence will come out of the debate between his replacement, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump? Neither of the main party campaigns have so much as mentioned tribes and Native issues in any major public appearances. We’ll ask Native political watchers about how they think the debate propels—or hampers—the things Native voters are most concerned about.
Ethereum scaled its Layer 2s, but now they are raking in the fees while paying little to the base chain. Are L2s parasitic to ETH, or will things turn around? Justin Bons and Ryan Berckmans debate.
Ethereum's Layer 2 solutions are booming, but are they inadvertently holding back the value of ETH itself?
In this episode, Justin Bons and Ryan Berckmans engage in a heated debate over whether L2s are enhancing Ethereum's ecosystem or siphoning off its potential. They discuss the impact of L2s on decentralization, network effects, and whether Ethereum L1 can scale on its own or if the base layer and the rollups now have different incentives. Has Ethereum scaled appropriately for future usage, or was scaling via L2s the wrong roadmap for Ethereum?
Show highlights:
How Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap consists of a decentralized Layer 1 (L1) for security with Layer 2 (L2) providing more transaction throughput
Why Justin is so critical about how L2s centralize Ethereum
Why, according to Ryan, Layer 2 solutions aren't parasitic to Ethereum but instead enhance its network effects, decentralization, and long-term value
Why Justin criticizes Ryan’s reliance on "trust me, bro" arguments, questioning the tribalism and authority in claiming the superiority of Ethereum researchers over those from other blockchains
How Justin thinks the Ethereum L1 could scale and what the tradeoffs are
Justin’s argument that Ethereum is stuck in the past and his claim that the blockchain trilemma doesn't exist anymore
Ryan’s take on Ethereum's L1 scaling focuses on solving bandwidth limitations and addressing whether L2s are going to fully decentralize
Whether SNARKS is the way that Ethereum scales the L1
Whether L2s will start accepting other tokens to pay for gas
Why Ryan predicts Ethereum's L2 adoption will surge, driving up L1 fees and boosting Ether's value as the leading digital money
Whether based rollups are a good solution for Ethereum to scale without losing all the fees
Why L2s would even try to decentralize and why Justin says that Solana has a better roadmap than Ethereum
Concluding thoughts from Ryan and Justin
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris spar on the economy, immigration and abortion in their first debate. Hurricane Francine targets Louisiana. California wildfires. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
The freeze includes the police and fire departments, a sign of how grave a financial predicament the city faces. Reset gets the latest from WBEZ’s Mariah Woelfel and Tessa Weinberg.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
Vice President Kamala Harris took the fight to former President Donald Trump as they faced off in their first presidential debate, clashing over the economy, abortion, immigration, and other issues. Congress is heading towards a potential government shutdown as House Republicans push a controversial bill, which faces opposition from both Democrats and some within their own party. And, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the UK's foreign secretary are in Kyiv, discussing lifting restrictions on Ukraine's use of long-range weapons as Ukrainian leaders push to strike military targets in Russia.
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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Kelsey Snell, Miguel Macias, Mohamad El Bardicy, and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Iman Maani, Nia Dumas, Lindsay Totty and Chris Thomas. We get engineering support from Carleigh Strange and our technical director is Zac Coleman.
The vice-president turned in a confident if imperfect performance, leaving Donald Trump flustered. But will it change anything? A global shortfall of blood plasma is hampering the development of new medicines; we argue for some simple market forces that could plug the gap (11:40). And how Nigerians are slimming their legendarily lavish weddings amid a cost-of-living crisis (18.10).
Listener Mark Isaak heard that from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro you can see the most land in every direction of any spot on Earth. But that the summit of Mount Diablo comes in second as the peak with the biggest view. Turns out, this is a widely-circulated factoid that goes back centuries. But is it true? In this episode from 2020, reporter Asal Ehsanipour scales the summit of this question to bring us the answer.
This story was reported by Asal Ehsanipour. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, and Ana De Almeida Amaral. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan, and the whole KQED family.
How did the first debate—with these particular candidates—go? Were minds changed?
Guest: David Faris, politics professor at Roosevelt University and a contributing writer for Slate.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
