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The Gist - Putting Death Metal On Your Plants Playlist: Is That Bs?

In another edition of Is That BS? Sadie Dingfelder joins to ask: is chatting with your ficus legit, or just verbal compost? The science of sound and strawberries might surprise you. Then in The Spiel, Mike breaks down Israel’s sweeping strike on Iran—targeting nuclear sites, scientists, and generals—in what may be a turning point for the region and for Ukraine. Also, New York Democrats choose between a grocery-store socialist and a mispronouncing Cuomo in just 11 days. Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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Newshour - The BBC World Service Debate: Is Donald Trump Making the World Safer or More Dangerous?

The BBC World Service Debate considers the rapidly changing international landscape since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The US President says his legacy will be as a peacemaker and unifier. So far he’s brought Putin to the negotiating table and made Europe take its security seriously in a way it hasn’t for decades. But his methods have horrified critics, who say his shock and awe approach to diplomacy is reckless and chaotic. The President’s unpredictability has rocked global alliances. Is Donald Trump making the world safer or more dangerous?

In front of a live audience in the BBC’s Radio Theatre in London, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, is joined by:

KT McFarland, former US Deputy National Security Advisor to President Trump in his first term Brian Wong, Assistant Professor and Fellow at Centre on Contemporary China, University of Hong Kong Miguel Berger, German Ambassador to the UK Azadeh Moaveni, journalist, writer and Associate Professor at New York University

(Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on June 12, 2025. Credit: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)

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Newshour - Iran retaliates by launching ballistic missiles at Israel

Iran has launched an aerial attack on Israel in an operation it's called True Promise 3. Black smoke has been seen rising over Tel Aviv's skyline. Earlier today, the Israeli military said it had struck the Isfahan nuclear facility in Iran - as its strikes on the country continued.

Also on the programme: Colombian superstar Shakira tells us about life as an immigrant in the US; and a report on the Air India crash.

(Image: Missiles launched from Iran are intercepted as seen from Tel Aviv, Israel on 13 June 2025.Credit: Reuters/Jamal Awad)

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WSJ What’s News - Where the Middle East Conflict Leaves Trump’s Foreign Policy

P.M. Edition for June 13. Iran sends dozens of ballistic missiles to Israel in retaliation for Israel’s ongoing attacks against Iran’s nuclear program and military leadership. WSJ White House reporter Alex Leary discusses what the escalating conflict in the Middle East may mean for President Trump, who has long said that the U.S. should pull back from foreign entanglements. Plus, we hear from Journal investing columnist Spencer Jakab about how markets are reacting to the conflict. And merchants like Walmart and Amazon are exploring launching their own stablecoins. WSJ reporter AnnaMaria Andriotis talks about why, and what impact that could have on banks. Alex Ossola hosts.


Israel-Iran conflict live blog


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Consider This from NPR - Israel struck Iran. What’s next?

Early Friday local time, Israel finally did what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been threatening to do for years: It launched a massive attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, killing top military commanders, nuclear scientists and — according to Iran — dozens of Iranian civilians.

The attacks have once again plunged the volatile region into uncharted waters.

NPR correspondent Hadeel al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv and NPR's National Security Correspondent Greg Myre discuss what this could mean for the region and for U.S. hopes of a deal limiting Iran's nuclear program.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Strong Fathers Build Civilizations—Weak Ones Lose Them

In a culture that increasingly downplays masculinity and the traditional family, Hanson calls for a reevaluation of fatherhood—not as an optional accessory, but as a cornerstone of moral courage, responsibility, and strength on today's episode of "Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words."


“ One of the roles of fathers is to give young children, especially males, a sense of direction. And almost this tragic sense that sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to do, but somebody else won't do them, you're going to be in trouble. 


“To the degree this country will make it, it will be a strong father figure that instructs us how to be masculine. How to be a man. How to protect the weak. How to stand forward and challenge bullies, that prey on the weak and the innocent. And that's a lost art now. 


00:00 Introduction to Father's Day

00:54 Personal Reflections on Father's Day

01:37 Lessons from My Father

01:56 Stories of My Father's Support

05:15 The Role of Fathers in Society

06:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts


👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 

👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/victordavishanson7273

👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com 

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Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons - WBEZ’s Weekly News Recap, June 13, 2025

Tempers flare as Governor Pritzker joins two Democratic Governors in testimony before the House Oversight Committee. Chicago leaders brace for massive “No Kings” protest as President Trump threatens to send military troops to quell protests in Democratic cities. Reset goes behind those headlines and more in our Weekly News Recap. This week’s panelists include AXIOS Chicago reporter Carrie Shepherd, Chicago Tribune immigration reporter Laura Rodríguez Presa and Chicago Sun-Times reporter covering government and politics Mitchell Armentrout. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
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Honestly with Bari Weiss - Naftali Bennett and Michael Oren: Israel and Iran at War

In the early hours of Friday morning, Israel pulled off a historic strike on Iran. As I record these lines, Iran is reporting a “massive explosion” in Isfahan, in a province that is home to several nuclear facilities. In Israel, where Shabbat has begun, the government has ordered all synagogues to shut down—and for citizens to remain close to bomb shelters as they brace for a retaliatory strike.


It is hard to overstate the magnitude of this operation. Israel has taken out much of Iran’s military leadership and some of its top nuclear scientists and hit nuclear facilities across the country. And it is still going. Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to do whatever it takes in order to prevent a nuclear holocaust.


Meanwhile, the X account for Iran’s military  has threatened that “our response will be lethal.” And the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has tweeted: “The Zionist regime has prepared for itself a bitter, painful fate, which it will definitely see.”


Donald Trump, for his part, is using this as an opening to push Iran into a nuclear deal. This is a historic juncture for the region—not just for the state of Israel, but for the West.


So last night, just as the news of these attacks broke, I sat down with former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett to discuss all of it: the strikes, what they accomplished, how Israel defied conventional wisdom and seemed to pull off the impossible, what we can expect in the days ahead, and—perhaps most importantly to many of our listeners—whether or not America is supporting Israel in its efforts.

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CrowdScience - Was there an idyllic time before carnivores?

Was there ever a time when life on earth was peaceful? Free of violence? No predators, no prey, just... vibes? Or has nature always been 'Red in Tooth and Claw'?

Have we always been eating each other?

Our listener Scott sent us on a quest to discover the origins of predators and prey, and to find out what all this ‘eat or be eaten’ stuff is really about.

Taking us back to the very dawn of life on earth, Professor Susannah Porter from the University of Santa Barbara lets Alex peer into an extraordinary world of microscopic warfare. It’s a dog-eat-dog (or, microbe-dissolve-microbe) world, with single celled organisms doing battle with each other. For billions of years, this was life on earth! Tiny, violent, and completely fascinating.

But what about bigger creatures? More complex ones - animals? Speeding forward several billion years, Alex arrives in the Ediacaran Period – a time of unusual tranquility, where strange, plant-like animals lived in relative peace. At the Natural History Museum in Oxford, UK, palaeontologist Dr Frankie Dunn shows him around.

So where did real predators come from, then? Alex is joined by Dr Imran Rahman as he ushers in one of the most extraordinary periods in Earth’s history – the magnificently named Cambrian Explosion! Here we find real predators, with teeth, claws, and impressive hunting appendages. Through the fossil record, we can see an arms race developing – as predators get more sophisticated, so does their prey. It’s ON.

Finally, Alex wonders if our own evolution, shaped as it has been by this predator-prey arms race, might have been very different without the threat of being chomped. Professor Lynne Isbell from the University of California, Davis takes Alex on a trip into our primate past, and tackles one of our most fearsome predators: snakes.

Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Emily Knight Series Producer: Ben Motley