From 1911 to 1912, Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka both lived in Prague. A new graphic novel by Ken Krimstein uses both history and artistic imagination to explore how the physicist and writer ran in the same social circles and how their work might have influenced each other. In today's episode, Krimstein speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about Einstein in Kafkaland and the brilliant academic and literary scene in Prague during that time period.
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Every day, whether or not you even realize it, you are subject to a host of unwritten rules. These are rules that are not written down and are not part of any formal law, but they are fundamental to the functioning of any society.
These unspoken rules differ from place to place and have changed over time, and there are even different rules for different groups that you might be a part of.
These unwritten rules of behavior have been with us ever since the dawn of humanity.
Learn more about the Mos Maiorum and the unwritten rules of society on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Italy as we know it today is a relatively recent invention.
Ever since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Italian Peninsula had been a patchwork of city-states, dutchies, kingdoms, and lands controlled by the pope.
It wasn’t until the 19th century that a group of idealistic Italians sought to unify the Italian Peninsula and all its Italian-speaking people.
Learn more about the Risorgimento, or the 19th-century Unification of Italy, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Sponsors
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The Federal Reserve, when committed to a policy rule, could enhance its own institutional credibility while giving Congress a means to hold the central bank more accountable. Jai Kedia explains.
The claim we all swallow 5.5 grams of microplastic each week ? the same as the weight of a credit card ? has been repeated by charities, newspapers and the World Economic Forum.
But when you understand how this number was calculated, and the range of possible answers for the amount of plastic you eat, you might not want to repeat it yourself.
Professor Jamie Woodward from the University of Manchester explains what?s what.
Presenter: Kate Lamble
Producer: Beth Ashmead Latham
Researcher: Ajai Singh
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound mix: Giles Aspen
Editor: Richard Vadon
From Tim Walz misunderstanding what the First Amendment protects to European regulators trying to squelch speech on American platforms, the threats to free speech are numerous. David Inserra comments.
Welcome to another edition of Indicators of the Week! On today's show, the large downward revision to jobs numbers, the awkward release of that news and a survey that asks U.S. workers for the minimum salary they would accept a new job for.
The Democrats had themselves a convention, they're really happy, Kamala Harris spoke for a while and did fine, the media have gone absolutely bonkers for her entirely—shall we say—conventional speech, and can she keep up being this much of a cipher until Election Day? Give a listen.