Imagine, you’re a toxic toad hanging around South America. No other animals are gonna mess with you, right? After all, you’re ~toxic~! So if anyone tries to eat you, they’ll be exposed to something called a cardiotonic steroid — and may die of a heart attack. Well, unfortunately, for you, some animals have developed adaptations to these toxic steroids. Evolutionary biologist Shabnam Mohammadi has spent her career studying how these adaptations work — and says even humans have used these toxins to their advantage since ancient Egypt. So today on Short Wave, we get a little… toxic (cue Brittney Spears). Host Regina G. Barber talks to Shabnam about how some predators can get away with eating toxic prey.
Curious about biology? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
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The Indicator from Planet Money - How algorithms are changing the way we speak
Social media has birthed an entire lexicon replicated by millions online — even if these words don’t actually mean skibidi. On today’s show, we talk to author Adam Aleksic about how TikTok and Instagram's engagement metrics, and viral memes, are rewiring our brains and transforming language at warp speed.
Adam Aleksic’s book is Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language
Related episodes:
What we’re reading on the beach this summer
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Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
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Consider This from NPR - Trump and Zelenskyy meet again
In the last few days, President Donald Trump has met separately with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, in an attempt to break the deadlock and end the war.
Today’s meeting at the White House between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy seemed to go much better than last time, when Zelenskyy left early after a heated argument in the Oval Office. In fact, Zelenskyy hailed today’s meeting as “the best one” yet.
Even so, the next steps to ending the war are unclear. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy still haven’t met face-to-face to negotiate, and it’s not certain whether they will be able to find common ground.
NPR White House Correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben gives an update on the day’s events, and former national security advisor Susan Rice gives her perspective on the likelihood of a deal.
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Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Megan Lim and Mia Venkat.
It was edited by Christopher Intagliata, Andrew Sussman, Tara Neill and Nadia Lancy.
Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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State of the World from NPR - A Devastating Drought in Iran
A long lasting drought and severe heat this summer, compounded with government mismanagement of the country’s dams have led to an impending water crisis in Iran. Officials are warning that Iran’s ten million residents might run out of water in a matter of weeks. We hear how this has happened and what it means for Iranians.
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1A - ‘If You Can Keep It’: The Smithsonian
President Donald Trump and his administration want control over exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution.
In a letter sent Aug. 12, three White House officials told the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Lonnie G. Bunch III, that the administration would conduct a review at certain Smithsonian museums.
In this installment of our politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we talk about how the administration is injecting itself into the affairs – and the exhibits – of the Smithsonian Institution and what that means for our understanding of our shared history.
Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘Dwelling’ fictionalizes the American housing crisis with elements of fairy tale
In Emily Hunt Kivel’s new novel Dwelling, a mass eviction in New York City throws a young woman’s life into chaos. Suddenly homeless, Evie relocates to Gulluck, Texas, where she moves into a giant cowboy boot, the only rental property she can afford. In today’s episode, Kivel joins NPR’s Adrian Ma for a discussion about how she approached American capitalism through the lens of fairy tales.
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Short Wave - Why mapping the entire seafloor is a daunting task, but key to improving human life
Scientists have mapped less than 30% of the world's seafloor. Experts say that getting that number up to 100% would improve everything from tsunami warnings to the Internet and renewable energy. That's why there's currently a global effort to create a full, detailed map of the seabed by 2030. On today's Sea Camp episode, we talk to Dawn
Wright, a marine geographer and chief scientist at the Environmental
Systems Research Institute about this effort.
We have a newsletter that lets you go even deeper with the marine research each week of Sea Camp. You can sign up here!
Curious about ocean science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
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We have a newsletter that lets you go even deeper with the marine research each week of Sea Camp. You can sign up here!
Curious about ocean science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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Up First from NPR - Zelenskyy Meets Trump, Gaza Latest, More National Guard Troops to D.C.
President Trump will host Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House. Israelis protest to demand a hostage deal as the military and government leaders pursue plans to occupy Gaza City. And growing number of National Guard troops are on their way to the nation’s capital.
Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Jason Breslow, Ryland Barton, Russell Lewis, Olivia Hampton and Adriana Gallardo. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
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Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Jason Breslow, Ryland Barton, Russell Lewis, Olivia Hampton and Adriana Gallardo. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
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The Indicator from Planet Money - Three innovations pushing the medical field forward
Innovation is crucial for long-term economic prosperity. One area where that’s happening aplenty: medical technology. From a cancer vaccine to an Alzheimer’s blood test to a life-changing exoskeleton, we take you on a tour of the economics of health technology.
Related episodes:
The hidden costs of healthcare churn (Apple / Spotify)
More for Palantir, less for mRNA, and a disaster database redemption arc (Apple / Spotify)
It's actually really hard to make a robot, guys (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Voice-over by Greg Hardes. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
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Consider This from NPR - What we know about President Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics
President Trump turned to the Heritage Foundation help pick his appointee to lead a traditionally non-partisan agency. NPR’s Scott Detrow speaks with political science professor E.J. Fagan, author of “The Thinkers: The Rise of Partisan Think Tanks and the Polarization of American Politics” to understand why Trump’s close relationship with the conservative think tank matters.
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Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Jordan-Marie Smith. It was edited by Tinbete Ermyas. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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