Dusty Slay drops by with "Wet Heat" fresh on Netflix to talk Opelika lore (a.k.a. Snopalika), becoming parade Grand Marshal, and how a onetime pesticide salesman turned country-music linguist builds jokes from tiny word quirks. We get into his love of language (Carlin vibes), song-lyric autopsies ("It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," Brooks & Dunn's "Hard Workin' Man"), the origin of "We're having a good time," Comedy Cellar war stories, Opry nights, accent drift, trailer-park childhood, and why he's plotting an ASMR sleep-comedy album. Also: milk, hand-washing, and the eternal mystery of gas stations named "Kum & Go."
Last month, former Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi suggested that local and state authorities in California, a sanctuary state, could arrest federal agents for enforcing federal immigration law, saying that while “the president may enjoy absolute immunity courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not.”
The former speaker, as well as other mayors and governors who see fit to nullify federal law, should take a moment and reread the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which “details that local state authorities are subject to treaties and the laws that the federal government makes. And, therefore, pursuant to those laws, they are subordinate,” argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.”
“We know in 1961-63, we had another attempt to nullify the supremacy clause. Southern governors in Mississippi and Arkansas and Alabama said, 'Federal law does not apply here. The Supreme Court ruling does not apply here. In our opinion, we can run our schools the way local people want. And we're gonna resist you.' The Eisenhower, and then later the Kennedy administration, said, 'No, you're not. We have the federal government's military, and we can federalize and hold you in contempt and arrest you because of the supremacy clause.'"
Tuesday’s election was the first time voters registered how they’re feeling since President Trump entered the White House.
And after Democratic candidates won marquee races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City, the answer was clear: they are not happy with the party in power.
So what are the two major political parties taking away from this week?
NPR correspondents Domenico Montanaro and Tamara Keith break it down.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Michael Levitt, Casey Morell, Connor Donevan and Karen Zamora, with audio engineering by Peter Ellena. It was edited by Kelsey Snell and Patrick Jarenwattananon. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
Plus: Affirm shares jump on popularity of its buy now, pay later service. And Tesla stock falls after shareholders approve Elon Musk’s massive pay package. Katherine Sullivan hosts.
An artificial-intelligence tool assisted in the making of this episode by creating summaries that were based on Wall Street Journal reporting and reviewed and adapted by an editor.
When people in Maine prisons started getting laptops to use in their cells for online classes and homework, it sparked this new idea. Could they have laptops in their cells to work remotely for real outside world jobs, too??? And get real outside world wages?
Today on the show, we have reporting from Maine Public Radio’s Susan Sharon about a new experiment in prisons: remote jobs … paying fair market wages, for people who are incarcerated.
This episode was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez with reporting from Susan Sharon. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with reporting help from Vito Emanuel. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez, with help from Patrick Murray. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history drags into day 38, affecting everything from air travel to SNAP benefits in Illinois. Democratic U.S. Congressman Chuy Garcia surprised constituents by announcing he won’t be running for reelection. And a federal judge issued a key ruling on use of force by federal agents. Plus, snow could be coming to the Chicago area this weekend. In the Loop breaks down those stories with WBEZ’s Alden Loury, Chicago Sun-Times’ Jon Seidel, Block Club Chicago’s Quinn Myers.
For a full archive of In the Loop interviews, head over to wbez.org/intheloop.
In your final moments, they say, you may walk down a tunnel of light. You might rise above your body, watching the scene below before passing into another world. Perhaps you’ll be met by glowing figures, see your life flash before your eyes, or feel a deep, unearthly calm.
These are the stories of people who’ve reached the edge of death and returned. They’re not rare, nor random, and they have a name: Near-Death Experiences.
CrowdScience listener Steven in Chile first heard of them during a CPR class and wondered, are they fictitious?
Psychologist Susan Blackmore once had an out-of-body experience as a student in Oxford, UK — floating above herself before soaring over the rooftops and dissolving into the universe. That single moment changed everything. She’s spent her career trying to understand what happened, and she believes such experiences are explainable.
At the University of Michigan in the US, neuroscientist Professor Jimo Borjigin has done what few have dared: record the dying brain in action. Her studies show that even after the heart stops, the brain can produce powerful surges of coordinated activity, bursts that might explain the lights, the tunnels, and the sense of peace. She believes Near-Death Experiences could become one of science’s most intriguing scientific frontiers for research into consciousness.
At University College London in the UK, neuroscientist Dr Christopher Timmermann is exploring similar states using psychedelics, pushing the boundaries between self and oblivion to identify what induces a near death experience and what we can learn about our consciousness along the way.
Near death experiences, a paranormal mystery or explainable phenomenon?
Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producer: Harrison Lewis
Editor: Ben Motley
(Photo: Gap in the wall - stock photo Credit: peterschreiber.media via Getty Images)
Our economy may be in the early days of stagflation, Democrats are winning the shutdown fight, and Republicans aren't getting help from the tariff king—who is just sticking his fingers in his ears and lying about the price of Thanksgiving dinner going down. Maybe it's time for the Dems to declare victory and let them reopen the government. Plus, Jeanine Pirro's complete humiliation over the sandwich guy case, and Rep. Jared Golden's retirement is a bracing reminder that Democrats must keep recruiting moderate candidates who can win in red districts.
Jessica Tarlov joins Tim Miller for the weekend pod.
Plus: Shares of Take-Two fall after the company delays the release of “Grand Theft Auto VI.” And Anthropic expands with new offices in Europe. Julie Chang hosts.
