Verify your signal number! The gang talks about anti-genocide protesters being hunted by ICE, an update on the rendition of Venezuelan immigrants, and how a journalist learned about airstrikes in Yemen from a Trump admin group chat.
The Trump Administration is backtracking on some of the looming changes at the Social Security Administration (SSA) after widespread complaints from the public, advocates, and elected leaders. But staffing and budget cuts are already creating backlogs and delays for recipients. SSA is delaying for two weeks a new requirement for in-person identity checks, but significant changes are still on the way. We’ll talk about what those changes are for Native American elders and how they can prepare for them.
In which an Italian workman creates a cultural icon when he attempts to repatriate a Renaissance masterpiece from the laxly secured Louvre, and John upstages Ken's sturgeon. Certificate #35100.
The guys explore the legend of the mysterious Piasa Bird. A Conspiracy Realist at the US Post Office inspires an exploration of post-human automation. Uncle Sam writes in with thoughts on discovering a possible scientific basis behind astrology. The guys crack up reading infamous Australian town names. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
Mia and Gare discuss the social and political role of gamers and why people like Elon Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried spend so much effort portraying themselves as gamers.
Forget pretty much everything you've heard about James Bond. While loosely based on espionage tactics of yesteryear, actual human-based tradecraft is far less glamorous -- around the globe, intelligence organizations make long-term investments in games that run for decades, carefully cultivating assets with such secrecy that, true story, some folks genuinely don't know who they're working for. In recent years, an extraordinary amount of these individuals have been arrested, tortured, murdered, or simply... disappeared. So what's going on? Why are so many spies getting busted? Tonight, Ben, Matt and Noel aim to find out.
At the end of our last episode, we asked you to call in and tell us what has been bringing you joy, connecting you to your community, and where you’ve been finding hope in these last few months. These are some of the responses we wanted to share in hopes that we can all find new ways to survive this world together. Thank you to all who sent us messages; though we couldn’t play them all, we felt inspired listening to each and every one.
Vaccines for the coronavirus have reduced the scope and severity of COVID-19 infections, but for as many as a third of the people who contract COVID, symptoms of the disease persist and cause potentially disabling affects day after day. Long COVID affects as many as 23 million Americans. Symptoms include persistent headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, and memory and concentration problems. In addition to the personal and medical burdens, several studies indicate the global financial drain from long COVID is anywhere from $1 trillion to $6 trillion. The Trump administration just announced it is closing the federal office that facilitates research and information-sharing among medical institutions on long COVID.
Fungus gnats. Overloved cacti. Fiddle fig failures. $20,000 specimens. It’s house plants — and it’s wild, folks. Widely beloved author, artist, house plant expert and Domestic Phytologist Tyler Thrasher joins to talk about root rot, what to grow in a dark basement, the rarest plants in the world, the punishments for poaching them, grow lights for people and plants, houseplant ethics, how to keep your cats from taking whizzes in them, if you should name your plants, how often to repot them, how to keep an orchid out of your trash can, pet-safe, plants, if one should use their own surplus blood to feed them, and what botany crimes I have committed against my own plants.
