Category: DailyShorts

Posted on

Everything Everywhere Daily - Moore’s Law

In 1965, the director of research at Fairchild Semiconductor, Gordon Moore, made a prediction about the future of semiconductors. He said that over the next ten years, the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every two years. His prediction didn’t just hold true for the next 10 years, but it has held true for almost 60 years, and it had driven the global computer industry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Posted on

NPR's Book of the Day - Fiona Hill’s new Trump-era memoir is less about Trump than it is about us

In her memoir, Fiona Hill extends her riveting testimony from Donald Trump's first impeachment trial. And while she might not dish as much dirt as other Trump-era memoirists, the former senior National Security official writes movingly about Trump and about polarization and other threats to American democracy. She points to Russian history to suggest that distrust in government and political systems can lead to collapse. And while she describes Trump as the symptom of that division and distrust, she also says he put a spotlight on what needs fixing.
Posted on

Curious City - The Pilsen Episode

Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood was first settled by Irish and German immigrants who were soon supplanted by a large influx of Czech immigrants. They gave the neighborhood its name but it’s known today for its Mexican and Mexican American population who first began moving in during the 50s and 60s. Pilsen continued to be a port of entry for decades and since then, many have fought to maintain the neighborhood’s identity, culture, and its community. In this episode we answer several questions about Pilsen’s history -- about the role murals have played in creating that sense of community, how the people rose up and came together to fight for a new high school, and how residents of Pilsen took a Chicago housing peculiarity and made it their own.
Posted on

Curious City - The Pilsen Episode

Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood was first settled by Irish and German immigrants who were soon supplanted by a large influx of Czech immigrants. They gave the neighborhood its name but it’s known today for its Mexican and Mexican American population who first began moving in during the 50s and 60s. Pilsen continued to be a port of entry for decades and since then, many have fought to maintain the neighborhood’s identity, culture, and its community. In this episode we answer several questions about Pilsen’s history -- about the role murals have played in creating that sense of community, how the people rose up and came together to fight for a new high school, and how residents of Pilsen took a Chicago housing peculiarity and made it their own.
Posted on

Everything Everywhere Daily - Stanislav Petrov: The Man Who Saved the World

I’ve done episodes before about people who have saved a large number of human lives. Mostly, these people have done so through inventions or innovations in fields like agriculture or medicine. What about people who prevented an impending disaster? Like when Superman stops an asteroid from hitting the Earth. Well, there was such a case, and thanks to the actions of a single man, millions of lives might have been saved.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Posted on

NPR's Book of the Day - Humor, horror and social commentary blend in Percival Everett’s detective novel

Percival Everett's page-turning new detective novel The Trees is at once gruesome and screamingly funny. A racial allegory rooted in southern history, the book features two big-city special detectives with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation who are sent to investigate a small-town crime. The murders are hideous in detail, the language is rough, there are racial epithets of all kinds, and somehow the politically incendiary humor is real. Everett talks with NPR's Scott Simon about how — and why — he blended these styles.
Posted on

Everything Everywhere Daily - Nostradamus

In 1555, a French physician and astrologer named Michel de Nostredame published a book of poems titled Les Prophéties. Ever since people have been trying to interpret world events through his writings. Was Nostradamus a prophet? Was he a fraud? Or are people just reading way too much into a bunch of vague, random statements? Learn more about Nostradamus and how his writings have been interpreted, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Posted on

NPR's Book of the Day - What Maggie Nelson Means When She Talks About Freedom

Since her childhood in 1970s San Francisco, critic and poet Maggie Nelson has been mulling the concept of freedom — particularly how we define, practice and experience it. She sat down with NPR's Ari Shapiro to talk about four areas in life — art, sex, addiction and climate change — and how we talk about freedom in regard to our collective wellbeing and individual rights.
Posted on

Everything Everywhere Daily - The USS Constitution

On March 27, 1794, the United States Congress passed the Naval Act. The Naval Act authorized funding for six frigates which would become the basis for the new US Navy. One of those six ships, and the third one built, was the USS Constitution. It was launched in 1797 and saw service in multiple conflicts all around the world. That ship which first set sail 225 years ago, is still in service and operational today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Posted on

NPR's Book of the Day - Myriam J.A. Chancy’s historical novel about a Haitian earthquake hits on human truths

Back in August, Myriam J.A. Chancy was preparing for the release of her novel What Storm, What Thunder when the news broke: a magnitude 7.2 earthquake had hit Haiti. It was a "chilling and bittersweet" moment, she says; her soon-to-be-published book revolved around the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country, and its aftermath. In this episode, she talks to NPR's Scott Simon about the eerie similarities between the two quakes, how her characters speak to how international relief efforts have historically failed Haiti, and what the world can learn from the country's rebuilding efforts.