Two new books examine how sex fits into suburban and small-town life, respectively. First, Erin Somers explores marriage and desire in her novel The Ten Year Affair. In today’s episode, she speaks with NPR’s Andrew Limbong about combining a multiverse plot with domestic fiction. Then, Robyn Royle knits a dozen short stories together in Sex of the Midwest, in which the residents of a small town receive an email inviting them to participate in a sex survey. In today’s episode, Royle tells NPR’s Scott Simon about the many misconceptions surrounding small-town life.
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Dreams of flying? Nightmares of teeth falling out? Falling off a cliff? As a sleep scientist at the University of Montreal, Michelle Carr has pretty much heard it all. In Michelle’s new book Nightmare Obscura, she explores the science of dreams, nightmares – and even something called dream engineering, where people influence their own dreams while they sleep. Today on Short Wave, co-host Regina G. Barber dives into the science of our sleeping life with Michelle Carr.
Interested in any upcoming science books? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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OA1209 - Are you done with legal doomerism? Us too. Take some time away from doomscrolling and join Matt and Jenessa for Rapid Response Friday as we consider four stories of legal corruption and authoritarianism failing in the face of honest federal judges, and a footnote about how one brave prison nurse exposed even more corruption in Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s special treatment by the Trump administration.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will speak to Donald Trump in the coming days about the new peace deal put forward by the US. Mr Trump's plan includes significant concessions to be made by Kyiv. What is his strategy with this provocative proposal? Also: Schools have been closed in parts of Nigeria after a new wave of attacks and abductions. Spain's attorney general has been found guilty of leaking confidential information about the boyfriend of a leading politician. And the old VCR gathering dust in your basement could be worth good money at auction.
Ryan is joined by David Hsu, CEO and founder of Retool, to explore how AI is transforming the role of a software developer into a software architect, the increasing accessibility of coding for non-engineers, and the importance of placing guardrails and higher-level programming primitives on AI coding assistants.
Episode notes:
Retool is an enterprise AI AppGen platform for internal software development, allowing you to create apps, agents, and workflows with any LLM, datasource, or API.
The gang weighs whether Bubba is a horse or a president and discusses the vote on the Epstein files, a furry revelation about the Trump assassin, four “Antifa” groups designated as foreign terrorists, and the quiet recession. Plus, updates on gerrymandering and ICE activities.
Wall Street stocks fell on Thursday, reversing earlier market gains that followed Nvidia’s strong third-quarter earnings and seemingly reigniting fears of an AI bubble.
President Trump accuses half a dozen Democratic lawmakers of sedition after they, in a video, tell military members not to follow "illegal orders." New peace plan for Russia and Ukraine? Former Vice President Cheney's funeral held at Washington National Cathedral.