Month: May 2025

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Marketplace All-in-One - Growing insurance premiums — and problems

California regulators are allowing State Farm insurance to charge 17% more following this year's LA wildfires. State Farm says it needs the rate increase — on top of the 20% it got last year — because it’s in financial distress following the fires. But the issue of higher premiums goes well beyond California. We'll hear more, then learn why there are concerns about the U.S. dollar remaining the world's reserve currency.

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Cato Daily Podcast - Best of Cato Daily Podcast: A Realistic, Quick Path to Ending Cannabis Prohibition?

Caleb O. Brown hosted the Cato Daily Podcast for nearly 18 years, producing well over 4000 episodes. He has gone on to head Kentucky’s Bluegrass Institute. This is one among the best episodes produced in his tenure, selected by the host and listeners.


What’s the best path forward to end cannabis prohibition without loading it up with needless federal regulation? Jim Higdon is the co-founder of Cornbread Hemp and an advocate for an end to cannabis prohibition. He says the Farm Bill is the key.

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Marketplace All-in-One - President Trump’s Gulf tour continues

From the BBC World Service: It’s the second day of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tour of the Middle East. So far, there's been the red carpet treatment in Riyadh, culminating in billions of dollars in Saudi investment. Later in the tour, Trump is expected to meet Syria's interim leader to lift sanctions against the country. Plus, in France, the shop-on-a-truck idea has branched out into new areas such as beauty and cosmetics.

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Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons - Young Candidates Are Coming For The Incumbents

Gen Z and millennial candidates are running for public office, and they’re not afraid to take on members of their own parties who have been in power for decades. Reset talks with Chicago Tribune state government reporter Olivia Olander, NPR politics reporter Elena Moore and Illinois State Rep. Nabeela Syed. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
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Big Technology Podcast - AI’s Drawbacks: Environmental Damage, Bad Benchmarks, Outsourcing Thinking — With Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna

Emily  Bender is a computational linguistics professor at the University of Washington. Alex Hanna is the Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute. Bender and Hanna join Big Technology to discuss what their new book, “The AI‑Con," which they describe as the layered ways today’s language‑model boom obscures environmental costs, labor harms, and shaky science. Tune in to hear a lively back‑and‑forth on whether chatbots are useful tools or polished parlor tricks. We also cover benchmark gaming, data‑center water use, doomerism, and more. Hit play for a candid debate that will leave you smarter about where generative AI really stands — and what comes next.

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WSJ What’s News - Tariffs Are About to Separate Retail’s Winners and Losers

A.M. Edition for May 14. We head to a gathering of top global retailers to hear why this week’s 90-day tariff rollback by the U.S. and China isn’t delivering the long-term certainty businesses are looking for. Plus, President Trump met with the new president of Syria, marking a major turning point in global recognition of the country’s leadership. And the U.S. reverses Biden-era export controls on advanced AI chips. Luke Vargas hosts.


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The Intelligence from The Economist - All talk, no sanctions: Trump lifts Syria embargo

As Donald Trump removes bans on trade with Syria and meets its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, our correspondent analyses the implications. Two feuding political dynasties in the Philippines use mid-term elections as a proxy battle (10:03). And introducing V-Tubers, creators behind live-streams of cartoon avatars coming to a screen near you (18:42).


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Up First from NPR - Trump Meets Syria’s President, Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks, RFK Jr. On Capitol Hill

President Trump is meeting with Syria's new leader as the administration prepares to lift sanctions on the country. Could he also participate in Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey? Plus, on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to defend his sweeping changes at the Department of Health and Human Services.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Ryland Barton, Diane Webber, Ally Schweitzer and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ana Perez, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

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