The 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has been met with a campaign to compare the deaths from that day to those attributable to the pandemic, which is rather gross. Also, is Donald Trump’s campaign showing signs of life? And, finally, film and television recommendations from the COMMENTARY crew.
In the interview, author and former FBI counter-terrorism staffer Clint Watts is here to talk about QAnon. He and Mike discuss the rise of the conspiracy theory and movement, why its belief structure is so murky, and the oddities of its marketing and merchandising arm. Watts will be back tomorrow for the second half of this conversation. His is the author of Messing With the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News.
In the spiel, Woodward’s words wouldn’t have mattered.
Trump confesses to Bob Woodward that he intentionally downplayed the severity of the virus for the last six months, the western United States is on fire because of climate change, and dueling advertising strategies tell us how the Trump and Biden campaigns see the race. Then Equis Research co-founder Carlos Odio talks to Jon about the Latino vote in Florida.
President Donald Trump stares into the storm as revelations he himself gave to Bob Woodward about how he deliberately downplayed the threat posed by COVID-19 dominate the news. He is, as ever, his own worst enemy. Also, the absurd and highly politicized reports around how gatherings of Trump supporters (and seemingly only Trump supporters) represent a public health emergency.
Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, shares a riveting explanation for the deepening and seemingly intractable partisan division in America’s politics. Turns out it has a lot more to do with the basics of human psychology and our moral reasoning habits than we’d care to admit. And – strangely enough – “elephants” are involved.
In this episode (part 2 of The Righteous Mind program), Dr. Haidt takes questions from the audience and we hear reflections from engaged citizens who were present for Dr. Haidt's talk.
Paris Marx is joined by Cory Doctorow to discuss how the problems we associate with Big Tech aren’t the result of mind-control systems, but corporation consolidation. Cory argues we need to stop buying the overblown sales pitch, stop collecting so much data, and enforce antitrust legislation against the tech monopolies.
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist. His most recent non-fiction book, “How to Defeat Surveillance Capitalism,” is available for free at OneZero. You can also preorder his next fiction book, “Attack Surface,” on Kickstarter or anywhere else books are sold. Cory has a daily blog at Pluralistic.net and you can follow him on Twitter as @doctorow.
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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.
In the interview, Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple is here to talk about her latest film, Desert One. Through new archival footage and the various perspectives of key players, the film reveals the true story behind the secret mission to free hostages captured during the 1979 Iranian revolution. She and Mike discuss how she approaches the stories she tells, the narrative problems she had to solve in this film, and how persistent she had to be to get Jimmy Carter on camera. Desert One is available to stream online and in select theaters.
In the spiel, Trump’s taxpayer-funded legal defense.
In maybe the most heated In the Bubble episode, Andy talks with two former FDA commissioners -- Mark McClellan from the George W. Bush administration and Robert Califf from the Obama administration -- and confronts them about the politicization of the FDA under President Trump. The former commissioners are hesitant to criticize the current head of the FDA, Stephen Hahn, but Andy pushes them pretty hard on Hahn's inaccurate statements regarding convalescent plasma and what effect that might have on the public's trust in the FDA as the agency gears up to approve a COVID-19 vaccine.
Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.
Follow Robert Califf on Twitter @califf001.
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Pre-order Andy’s book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response, here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165.
Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com.
In the interview, NPR’s Jacob Goldstein is here to talk about his new book, Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing. They discuss how Andrew Jackson made mistakes about national banking, why we should never return to the gold standard, and if cash is on the way out. Goldstein is a host of NPR’s Planet Money.
