Month: December 2024

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CrowdScience - Why am I good at jigsaw puzzles?

For their fans, jigsaw puzzles are a satisfying challenge, a focus, a chance to put everything else aside for a moment and be creative. But for other people they’re a frustrating jumble of random shapes and colours, a pointless task which is best left in the box. CrowdScience listener Heather is definitely a fan. She loves doing jigsaw puzzles and she wants to know why some people are so good at them. What skills do you need to find a pattern amongst all those shapes and colours? How do our brains, eyes and hands assemble the fragments into the finished article? And why do we enjoy doing them anyway? Presenter Alex Lathbridge puts together the pieces to answer Heather’s question. He sits down to work on a jigsaw with Sarah Mills, the ten-times UK jigsaw puzzling champion (yes... competitive jigsaw puzzling really is a thing!) As he watches Sarah complete the puzzle at lightning speed he gets a few of her top tips. So what’s going on in our brains when we’re doing a jigsaw puzzle? How do we recognise and process colour and shape? Prof Mark Mattson from Johns Hopkins University in the USA has the answer. And it’s all to do with a little seahorse-shaped part of the brain called the hippocampus.

Alex also explores the effect of jigsaws on our brains with neuropsychologist Dr Patrick Fissler. He’s carried out research to investigate the benefits of jigsaw puzzles on our brains as we grow older.

Both listener Heather and ten-times-champion Sarah seem to be better at jigsaws than Alex is. So, based on that sample size of three, women are superior puzzlers compared to men! But has anybody actually cast the net wider to see if that’s really the case? Alex talks to Daniela Aguilar from the University of Lethbridge in Canada about her study to investigate exactly that – and she reveals the results. Heather’s also wondering if any other species enjoy puzzles. And it seems they do! Alex meets Dr Cody McCoy from the University of Chicago to find out about the optimistic, tool-using crows of New Caledonia. From crows to competitive puzzlers, it seems we all relish a challenge!

Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Jeremy Grange Editor: Cathy Edwards Studio Manager: Bob Nettles Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano

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Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons - Look To The Stars With Chicago’s Soulful Duo The O’My’s

Their sound is effortless, magical and all their own. Chicago duo The O’My’s blends beautiful melodies and raspy, colorful vocals with elements of hip-hop, jazz, soul, blues and house. Their latest album, Trust The Stars, was several years in the making, channeling the group’s natural evolution with passion and grit. Reset checks in with the men behind the music Nick Hennessey and Maceo Vidal-Haymes. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
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The Daily Signal - Political Earthquake: The Multiracial Populist Voters Reshaping the Republican Party

President-elect Donald Trump made stunning gains with black men, Hispanic voters, and younger Americans in the 2024 presidential election, challenging long-held political assumptions.

One person saw it coming more than a year ago. Patrick Ruffini, founding partner of Echelon Insights, published "Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP" in November 2023. He spoke with The Daily Signal when the book published last year.

Listen to that episode: https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/11/07/how-a-working-class-coalition-is-remaking-the-republican-party/

Ruffini returned this week to share his insights on Trump's victory and how the Republican Party can build upon his electoral success. Listen to the full interview or read an edited transcript below.

Key highlights include:

  • Dramatic shifts in voting patterns across diverse communities
  • Why traditional Democratic strongholds are crumbling
  • The emergence of a new multiracial populist coalition
  • How economic issues and cultural dynamics are reshaping voter allegiances


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NBN Book of the Day - Eric Drott, “Streaming Music, Streaming Capital” (Duke UP, 2024)

Streaming Music, Streaming Capital (Duke University Press, 2024)  provides a much-needed study of the political economy of music streaming, drawing from Western Marxism, social reproduction theory, eco-socialist thought and more to approach the complex and highly contested relationship between music and capital. By attending to the perverse ways in which recorded music has been ultimately decommodified under the current regime of music production, circulation and consumption, Eric Drott explores issues that far exceed music - consumer surveillance, Silicon Valley monopolism, the crisis of care, capitalist extractivism and the climate emergency - while showing us how the streaming economy is thoroughly imbricated, and implicated, in these processes. Drott's rigorous and wide-ranging analysis thus offers novel ways of understanding music, culture, digitalisation and capitalism in present and future tenses .

Eric Drott is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Everything Everywhere Daily - The Julio-Claudian Dynasty

The Roman Empire was ruled by a single family for its first century. The family was actually a merger of two of the most distinguished clans in Roman history. 

This family included some of the best and worst emperors in Rome's history. It also included a host of potential emperors who showed great potential but were killed under mysterious circumstances.

Ultimately, paranoia and poor leadership caused the family to collapse.

Learn more about the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and how they came to rule Rome on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.


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What A Day - Can the Trump Administration Undo the Sexual Revolution?

Trump’s rhetoric glorifies an America where men are in charge and women are subjugated. Rights that many of us took for granted for decades—no fault divorce, access to contraception and abortion—as well as newer rights like access to gender-affirming health care and same sex marriage are now in the crosshairs of an empowered conservative bloc. Project 2025 calls for the government to stop barely short of forcing women back into a state of subservience, gay people back into the closet, and America back to the 1950s. But can the government actually do that? This week on How We Got Here, Erin interviews author and New York Magazine Writer Rebecca Traister to understand how sexual politics will evolve over the next four years.

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The NewsWorthy - Special Edition: Stress-Free Holiday Cooking – Expert Advice and Easy Recipes

One of the biggest joys – but also one of the major stressors – of each holiday season can be….. COOKING!

Today, we explore how to build confidence in the kitchen without striving for perfection.

Whether you cook just for yourself or have a whole family to feed, this conversation will leave you inspired to tackle the kitchen with ease! 

Our first guest is Bri McKoy, author of The Cook’s Book. She shares common cooking mistakes and essential techniques for any home chef in her friendly, approachable style.

Our second guest, Amy Palanjian, founder of Yummy Toddler Food, shares acutally doable tips for making quick, kid-friendly meals that fit any parent’s busy schedule. 

 

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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - Meet Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s New Roy Cohn

What do people inside the Department of Justice think about their once-colleague and possible-future-overlord, Kash Patel? On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former US Attorney Joyce White Vance to discuss the frightening implications of Patel's potential nomination as FBI Director under the incoming Trump administration. They explore Patel's contentious history, including his time in the DOJ, his authorship of the Nunes memo, and his bottomless loyalty to Trump. They also discuss the broader consequences of Patel’s stated desire to use the Justice Department as a tool for political retribution, including threats to journalists and DOJ officials, and what his targeted individuals can do in the face of this new, chilling reality. 

Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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CBS News Roundup - 12/07/2024 | Weekend Roundup

On the "CBS News Weekend Roundup", host Allison Keyes goes in-depth on bitcoin and the jobs numbers with CBS News Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger. A Boeing whistleblower shares new concerns with CBS's Kris Van Cleave. In the "Kaleidoscope with Allison Keyes" segment, a look at the latest Taliban restrictions targeting women in Afghanistan. CBS News Medical Contributor Dr. Celine Gounder weighs in on angry insurance company customers reacting to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

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