Tech Won't Save Us - How the US Weaponizes Tech in the Middle East w/ Laleh Khalili
Paris Marx is joined by Laleh Khalili to discuss how the United States uses its control of key technologies to shift global power dynamics, and how that specifically plays out in the Middle East.
Laleh Khalili is Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and author of the forthcoming book Extractive Capitalism.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Laleh mentions Iran’s accusations towards Meta regarding WhatsApp.
- Tech executives are joining the US army.
- Laleh mentioned The Global Interior by Megan Black.
- Several years ago, Israel used an AI-assisted gun to kill an Iranian nuclear scientist.
Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova - Why did COVID Decision-Making Go So Wrong? (with David Zweig)
Early in the COVID pandemic, the US closed schools and sent kids home. And then, the schools stayed closed—even as they began to reopen in other parts of the world. Experts and officials claimed that these measures sprang from “an abundance of caution.” But what was the evidence on the necessity of keeping kids home? And, looking back, did the benefits of prolonged school closures outweigh the costs?
This week, Nate interviews author and journalist David Zweig about his book examining COVID policies and school closure decisions during the pandemic. They get into why we tend to find cost-benefit analysis so difficult, how political polarization shaped decision-making during the pandemic, and how the COVID models failed.
Further Reading:
David Zweig’s book is An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions
For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:
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Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver
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The Gist - The Loyalty Trap: Inside the 2024 Biden-Harris Collapse
Josh Dawsey joins to discuss 2024: How Donald Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, digging into Kamala Harris’s campaign missteps, Biden’s loyalty hangups, and Hunter’s oversized influence. In the Spiel, a statistical deep dive tests whether so-called “100-year floods” are actually happening more often as seems to be the case. Spoiler: the data is murkier than the headlines suggest, and the NOAA interface could use a century’s worth of upgrades.
Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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1A - Seeking Shade In A Warming World
Closer to home, hundreds of heat records were set across the U.S in the month of June, including Baltimore, which saw a record high of 105 degrees. Nearly 130 million people were under extreme heat warnings or heat advisories on last Thursday, according to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center.
Heat is a deadly threat that has been intensifying each summer. And while some of us turn to air conditioning, many don't have that option.
We discuss the power of shade to help cool us down as rising temperatures become the new normal.
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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Federalist Radio Hour - ‘You’re Wrong’ With Mollie Hemingway And David Harsanyi, Ep. 157: Russiagate Revisited
If you care about combating the corrupt media that continue to inflict devastating damage, please give a gift to help The Federalist do the real journalism America needs.
Time To Say Goodbye - Zohran: The best, worst, and most likely case scenarios
Hello!
Today, we talk a bit more about Zohran and go through our best and worst case scenarios for his reign in New York City. How will he deal with intensive media scrutiny? Will his immense political talent carry him through inevitable crises? And how will his victory change the Democratic party on the whole?
Enjoy!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe
The Commentary Magazine Podcast - Is AI…Demonic?
In an unusually late-night dorm-room like podcast, we begin by describing our general good moods before plunging into despair about the threat of AI as represented by Elon Musk's Grok and the anti-Semitic spree it went on yesterday. What's happening here? Is there something metaphysical going on? Can AI be consciously evil? In theory, no. But what if theory doesn't help here? Give a listen.
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The Daily - Trump’s Top Aides Spread the Epstein Conspiracy. Now They Are Trying to Kill It.
For months, President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested that they would expose the hidden, potentially sinister truth about Jeffrey Epstein’s death in 2019.
But over the past few days, the Trump administrationWhite House decided to shut down has poured cold water on the conspiracy theories surrounding the financier.
Glenn Thrush, who covers the Justice Department for The Times, explains what happened.
Guest: Glenn Thrush, who reports on the Justice Department for The New York Times.
Background reading:
- The Trump administration acknowledged a lack of evidence from Epstein documents.
- Confronted over the Epstein files, President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi tell their supporters to move on.
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Photo: Pete Marovich for The New York Times
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