Amanda Holmes reads Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Justice Denied in Massachusetts.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
Well, here we are, Iowa Caucus day 2024. Considering we all took several points of permanent sanity damage this time 4 years ago, what’s insane this year is how on rails this whole thing is. Nonetheless, our elections correspondent Josh (@ettingermentum) returns to update us on the state of the races for 2024. We look at how Biden’s long-term hyper-commitment to Israel affects his chances, Trump’s advantages and disadvantages in his ‘24 campaign, the RFK Jr. of it all, and the race for #2 between the rest of the GOP candidates..
Find Josh’s newsletter here: https://www.ettingermentum.news/
Tickets to Talking Simpsons at SF Sketchfest on 1/24 here: https://sfsketchfest2024.sched.com/event/1VUtV/talking-simpsons
Today's podcast takes up a jaw-dropping New York Times article that asks how important, really, is Israel to the religion of Judaism. Yes, you read that right. Also, the Iowa caucuses are upon us, and it looks like the Republican coronation might be commencing. Give a listen.
You Dreamed of Empires sets the scene for a violent historical encounter: the war between the Spanish and Aztec empires. But in a fictionalization of Hernán Cortés' arrival in the city of Tenochtitlan in 1519, author Álvaro Enrigue challenges ideas about colonialism, revolution and influential rulers. In today's episode, he speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about finding humor and humanity in the men he writes about — sometimes laughing about, but not with, the powerful ones.
When a New York regulatory agency tried to get groups doing business with the NRA to end those business relationships, it may have run afoul of the First Amendment. Cato's Walter Olson and Andrew Grossman comment on National Rifle Association v. Vullo.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
Je ne pas si c’est tout le monde - Theme Comedie from Vincent Delerm’s score to the film of the same, long name.
Forbin’s Hi Fi from Michel Colombier’s score to Colossus: The Forbin Project
Boo’s Lullaby by Maria Chiara Agriro and Jamie Leeming
Helle (Ballade) from the great Phillipe Sarde score to that picture.
L’Espagne pour memoire from Michel Portal’s score to Un et a la garoupe
The Rain Never Stops on Venus by Michael Wollney
Je t’ai meme pas dit by Vincent Delerm.
From a Dream by Oregon
A version of Narcisus for Clarinet and Electronics as played by Thea Musgrave.
Notes
Good sources if you want to know more are Peter Manseau’s book about spirit photography and the spiritualist age (Cutting intersects interestingly with that crea), The Apparitionists, as well as this article by Jerry Ryan about the history of aquariums in Boston.
When most people think of Switzerland, they think of a small country embedded in the Alps that makes fine chocolates and is the home of the cuckoo clock.
They have been neutral in European conflicts for almost 500 years, and they serve as the headquarters for several international organizations.
Yet, it was the Swiss who, during the Renaissance, were some of the most feared and in-demand mercenary fighters in Europe.
Learn more about Swiss mercenaries and how they instilled fear into Europeans on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Every single rocket that has ever been launched into space has been a rocket that burned some sort of fuel.
These chemical fuel rockets have worked well for making the short trip to orbit. Beyond that point, however, they are not necessarily the best option for space travel.
There are a host of proposed methods for space travel that don’t involve rockets, some of which have already been tested.
Learn more about alternative forms of space flight and the possible future of space exploration on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
How many adverts does the average person see in a day? If you search for this question online, the surprising answer is that we might see thousands ? up to 10,000.
However, the idea that we see thousands of adverts is a strange and confusing one, without any good research behind it. We investigate the long history of these odd numbers, with the help of Sam Anderson from The Drum and J Walker Smith from Kantar.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Mix: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon