Hugo Contreras, the protagonist of Raul Palma's new novel, is a babaláwo; he can cleanse evil spirits. Except he doesn't really believe in the whole thing. So when he's able to strike up a deal with a debt collector – get rid of the ghosts in his house in exchange for a clean slate – he assumes he can mostly fake it. In today's episode, Palma joins NPR's Scott Simon to discuss A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens, and how the concept of debt – not just financial, but personal, too – stirs up a lot of trauma for Hugo.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
It’s Election Day, with big implications for abortion, democracy, and much more in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and Mississippi. It's also one year out from the 2024 presidential election, and a new set of battleground polls in the New York Times shows Donald Trump ahead of Joe Biden just about everywhere. Meanwhile, Trump takes the stand in his civil fraud case while his advisors draw up plans to use the military against protesters if he wins the election. Then, Barack Obama sits down with Jon, Tommy, Dan and Alyssa Mastromonaco for an expansive conversation on democracy, violence in the middle east, and his memories of winning the presidency fifteen years ago.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Amanda Holmes reads Pablo Neruda’s “I Explain a Few Things,” translated from the Spanish by Galway Kinnell. 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.
Chief Foreign Policy correspondent Derek Davison returns to the show for updates on Palestine, including discussion of recent videos of Palestinian arms and tactics, the Biden administration’s response to the war, the potential for further regional conflict, and where the new American focus on Israel leaves Ukraine.
Find Derek’s podcast American Prestige at:
Americanprestigepod.com
And find Derek’s newsletter Foreign Exchanges at:
Foreignexchanges.new
fx.substack.com
Michael Cannon details why the promises of Obamacare would be better delivered by giving consumers dramatically more power over health care dollars. Cannon's new book is Recovery: A Guide to Reforming the U.S. Health Sector.
During the pandemic, governments placed significant public and private pressure on social media companies to remove speech protected by the First Amendment, blurring the line between acceptable government speech and unconstitutional censorship by proxy. Concerns about this “jawboning” only grew with the recent decisions in Missouri v. Biden finding that the pressure applied by various government actors likely violated the First Amendment. But this case also revealed the limitations of broadly prohibiting government communications with private companies or merely relying on the courts to police government abuse. Join us as the panel discusses the options available to policymakers and why greater transparency is essential to combating such censorship.
Dan Senor joins us to talk about his new book, The Genius of Israel, co-written with Saul Singer, and why its portrait of the war-torn country—finished long before the war—offers an explanation for the country's extraordinarily cohesive response to the October 7 attack and shows Israel its own way forward to victory. Give a listen.
Right now, you are listening to the sound of my voice on some sort of digital audio device. In fact, almost all of the audio you consume today was digitally recorded or edited at some point in the process.
But sound is inherently analog. How does sound, the movement of air, become converted into 1s and 0s?
…and once sound is digitally converted, how is it distributed, and how has the digitization of sound changed the business of music and audio?
Learn more about digital audio, how it works,, and how it changed how we consume audio on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Abraham Lincoln's leadership is often remembered for reaching across the aisle – he tried to find compromises even in the most divisive times. But as successful as he was in saving the union, Lincoln also spent a lot of time agreeing to disagree with those around him. In his new book, Differ We Must, NPR's Steve Inskeep examines Lincoln's life through 16 such confrontations. In today's episode, Inskeep chats with NPR's Scott Simon about how Lincoln strategically positioned himself on issues like slavery, abolition and democracy – even when his own best friend opposed his stances.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
In 1605, members of the Catholic resistance in England hatched a plot that would have completely changed the political landscape of the country. They wanted to blow up the entire parliament and the king on November 5, which they thought would return a Catholic monarch to the throne.
The plotters got caught, and their demise has been celebrated for the last 400 years.
Learn more about Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot, and why the fifth of November is remembered, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.