Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

Yale Law’s Justin Driver argues that SFFA v. Harvard/UNC broke with precedent and embraced a faux “colorblindness,” spotlighting the Court’s creative reading of Grutter’s 2028 “sunset.” He lays out the early fallout—sharp drops in Black enrollment at elite schools, Asian American gains, and the perverse incentive for applicants to “essay their trauma.” We debate mismatch theory, legacy and athletics preferences, and how universities can lawfully pursue diversity without outright defiance. Also: Argentina’s bailout, the Tylenol culture war, and new federal threats to district DEI funding.

Produced by Corey Wara

Production Coordinator Ashley Khan

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• Ezra Klein: “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics The Right Way.”
  
  
• Ezra Klein: “We Are Going to Have To Live With Each Other.” (An Interview with Ben Shapiro)
  
  
• Bulwark Live in DC (10/8) and NYC (10/11) with Sarah, Tim and JVL are on sale now at TheBulwark.com/events.
  
  
• NEW show added to Toronto schedule: Bulwark Live Q&A Matinee show on Saturday, September 27 —tickets are on sale now, here.
  
  

Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address. 

This Flying Pig Episode: If you’re trying to build community in this fractured time (for anything), have we got a hack for you. At a time when binaries rule the day (you’re either with “us” or “them,” with us or against us), “complicating the narrative” between groups has a powerful effect on the conversations and relationships that are even possible. That means civic entrepreneurs need to be on the lookup for unexpected combinations—of traits in people, of relationships between people, of coalitions of groups. We call it being criss-crossey, a term we’re just sure is going to sweep the nation.

Miss the first Flying Pig Academy Episode? Find it here.

The second in the series, after "Location, Location, Location" is an homage to our intellectual hero (and lucky for us, our friend and colleague) Dr. Jonathan Haidt who - literally - wrote the book for Pigs With Big Dreams. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.

Oh and if you haven't watched the "hive switch-y" Almost Famous Tiny Dancer scene we mention toward the end of the episode, here's your chance.

Find the full list of Flying Pig Academy Episodes online here.

The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

The U.S. military has blown up three boats in the Caribbean Sea in the past three weeks, killing 17 people aboard.

Each time, President Trump has claimed that the boats were carrying drugs to the United States and that those killed were “narcoterrorists.” But he has offered no concrete evidence to back up this claim.

Charlie Savage, who covers national security for The New York Times, tells us what he has learned about what may be the true objective behind these airstrikes and whether any of this is even legal.

Guest: Charlie Savage, who writes about national security and legal policy for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Last week, Mr. Trump said the U.S. military had attacked a third boat suspected of carrying drugs, killing three.
• He has claimed the power to kill those suspected of drug smuggling.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Photo: Elizabeth Frantz for The New York Times

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the mission to turn Elon Musk into the world’s first trillionaire, Tesla’s growing interest in making robots instead of cars, and how other automakers are coming for the EV market it once dominated.

Ed Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous and co-host of the Autonocast.

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:

• Tesla is paying out a series of lawsuits, and the California DMV has called for a one-month ban on Teslas being driven in the state.

• Curious to see what Tesla’s current Optimus robot is like?

• Is Tesla the world’s biggest meme stock?

• Tesla lied about data relating to a fatal accident until a hacker found it.

• ICE raided a Hyundai plant earlier this month.