Some of the most frenetic innovation of Ukraine’s war happens in the electromagnetic spectrum: detecting and denying signals to and from materiel. This invisible battle will play out elsewhere. Cycling is notorious for doping scandals, but the latest way to gain an edge will be hard to spot (7:40). And why speeches in Britain’s Parliament are getting shorter and less important (15:00).
From the early 1970s feminist activists from across the globe campaigned under a single demand – Wages for Housework. The historian Emily Callaci traces the lives and ideas of its key creators in her new book, Wages for Housework: The Story of a Movement, an Idea, a Promise. The campaign highlighted the need to change the way work, and especially what has been traditionally deemed women’s work, is valued.
Although men are still paid more than women, and women still play a greater role in the home, recent polling reveals that nearly half of Britons say women's equality has gone far enough. And that figure has been rising significantly in the last decade. Rosie Campbell, Professor of Politics at King’s College London also points out that a growing number of young men believe it will be harder to be a man than a woman in 20 years’ time.
So is it time for women to stop campaigning and #JustBeKind? Definitely not, according to the writer Victoria Smith. In her new book, UnKind, she unpicks the kindness trend that emerged in the 2020s, and argues that women and girls have again been coerced into a passive role.
A companion piece to Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology and Elysium: A Visual History of Angelology, Seven Sins and Seven Virtues (Abrams, 2024) by Dr. Ed Simon completes this moral trilogy and finally considers God’s most enigmatic of creations: None of the conundrums of metaphysics are as baroque as the motivations of the human soul. Unlike the devils condemned to perdition and the angels compelled to paradise, humans are divine creatures that house within them warring impulses.
The Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues: A Visual History(Cernunnos, 2024) examines the literary, philosophical, theological, and most of all artistic expressions of the seven deadly sins and their respective seven cardinal virtues, drawing upon millennia of history to gather a compendium of humanity at its best and its worst. As a volume, the book explores the Manichean nature of the human animal in all of its grandeur and canker, motivated by the faith that tales of damnation and salvation are the only stories that are ultimately worth telling.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.
This week, the ladies react to the ransacking of the federal government by Elon Musk and his fleet of DOGE dorks. Then, Kate and Leah speak with Jonathan Gienapp, professor of law and history at Stanford University and author of Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique, about what originalists get wrong about history and how the founders thought about the law.
Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!
We're three weeks into President Donald Trump's second term, and already Democratic lawmakers are warning that we're in a constitutional crisis. They point to the fact that Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, is getting a major say in how government agencies operate; the Trump administration shuttering USAID – an independent agency created by Congress – without Congressional approval; and the push to block funding that's already been appropriated. While federal courts have helped Democrats slow down some of Trump's more brazen actions, Vice President J.D. Vance fueled fears of a deeper constitutional challenge Sunday when he tweeted, 'Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power.' Kate Show, co-host of Crooked's legal podcast' Strict Scrutiny,' helps us make sense of the legal drama.
And in headlines: Trump sat down with Fox News' Bret Baier for the traditional pre-game Super Bowl interview, Hamas released three more Israeli hostages in exchange for nearly 200 Palestinian prisoners as the ceasefire continued to hold, and the Trump administration moved to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
We're talking about all the Super Bowl surprises — from the game to the halftime show to the commercials.
Also, the White House kept downsizing over the weekend. We’ll tell you what’s getting cut and what departments President Trump is targeting next.
Plus, two more winter storms are in the forecast, grocery stores are starting to put limits on eggs, and travelers are bargain-hunting to get vacations on a budget.
Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes!
Join us every Mon-Fri for more daily news roundups!
TED Talks needs a new CEO… but TED is actually the deepest media biz we’ve ever seen.
Elon’s mission to disrupt the government hit a new level, that requires a new term… “Musking.”
Costco is now paying workers 2x the average… it’s the cost that pays for itself.
Plus, a record 22M Americans called in sick today (got a case of the Super Bowl Mondays).
$COST $WMT $SPY
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“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.
For people with two hands, one is usually dominant. On a molecular level, life takes this to the extreme. All of the DNA in earthly living things twists to the right, whereas the protein building blocks favor a kind of left-handed chemistry. But in recent years, scientists have worked toward a kind of mirror version of life. The technology to make mirror life likely won't exist for at least a decade. Still, a group of concerned scientists published a 299-page technical report calling for a stop to the science. New York Times science columnist Carl Zimmer explains how a mirror microbe could wreak havoc on life on Earth in the future.
