Biden bids the nation farewell from the Oval Office, delivering a stark warning about the rise of an American "oligarchy." Dan and Jon break down how history will judge his legacy. Then, Tommy joins to discuss the fragile ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas—who really deserves the credit, and what happens next? Meanwhile, Senate Republicans press ahead with confirmation hearings for Trump's Cabinet picks, and the clock is ticking on a last-ditch effort to save TikTok. Later, Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, stops by to share his bold vision for leading the DNC.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
TikTok is scheduled to shut down Sunday morning… but there are still 3 possible outcomes.
The Bourbon Bubble just burst, so we have a solution for Jack Daniels… Whiskey World.
For the next 4 years, business leaders will speak different… and we see it in Anduril, a drone startup.
Plus, Chick-fil-A just built an entire factory of robots with one purpose… Lemonade.
$BF $STZ $META
Want more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups 🥜
“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.
Imagine the tree of life. The tip of every branch represents one species, and if you follow any two branches back through time, you'll hit an intersection. If you keep going back in time, you'll eventually find the common ancestor for all of life. That ancestor is called LUCA, the last universal common ancestor, and there is no fossil record to tell us what it looked like.
Luckily, we have Jonathan Lambert. He's a science correspondent for NPR and today he's talking all things LUCA: What we think this single-celled organism may have looked like, when it lived and why a recent study suggests it could be older and more complex than scientists thought.
Have other questions about ancient biology? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
In a previous version of this episode, we said that the research team used carbon-dated fossils to calibrate a molecular clock aimed at estimating the age of LUCA. In fact, the researchers used radio isotopic-dated fossils for that purpose.
It's ... Indicators of the Week! Our weekly look at some of the most fascinating numbers from the news.
On today's episode, we examine three measures the Biden administration is squeezing in before the clock runs out. Those include student loan cancellations, a lawsuit against Capital One, and the banishment of a sweet, sweet artificial dye.
Brooke Shields started in Hollywood at just 11-years-old, starring in films like Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon. From that young age, the actress and model was sexualized on and off screen – and decades later, she's out with a memoir that reflects on that public scrutiny. In Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old, Shields – now 59 – writes about her experience with age-related bias in the industry. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Leila Fadel about her refusal to feel invisible as she ages, how sweetness can be a liability, and a medical procedure that was performed without her consent.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Misinformation, disinformation, politics—Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is not going to shield users from those anymore. What’s behind the abrupt change in direction?
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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Patrick Fort, and Cheyna Roth.
OA1113 - Special counsel Jack Smith recently resigned and turned final reports in each of Donald Trump’s federal cases to Attorney General Merrick Garland. We examine the enigma of the man and the complexity of his mission before reviewing his final conclusions and charging decisions. How does this compare to the Mueller Report? Why was Trump never charged under the Insurrection Act? And will Aileen Cannon really get away with keeping the second volume on Trump’s illegal retention of classified documents from ever reaching the four (4) people the AG has decided should be allowed to read it?
Finally, Matt drops a rare PSA footnote to explain why sometimes the very best thing that we can do to support our local immigrant communities is nothing at all.
Courtney Kay-Decker, Deputy Chief Experience Officer at the Internal Revenue Service joins the show to discuss some of the biggest barriers to modernizing the IRS’s digital experience, and how is the organization is working to overcome them. We also talk about how the IRS defines success when it comes to modernizing its digital experiences for citizens and the role personalization plays in the IRS's digital engagement strategy.