Voters head to the polls next week in California, Virginia and New Jersey among other states.
Senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro explain what they are watching in these elections — and what voters’ choices might say about the political moment.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Kai McNamee and Connor Donevan.
It was edited by Kelsey Snell, Ben Swasey, Jeanette Woods and Courtney Dorning.
Iowa's rivers run brown, its cancer rates climb, and its politics tilt redder. Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Art Cullen joins to discuss his new book Dear Marty: We Crapped in Our Nest — Notes from the Edge of the World, Iowa, which serves as both lament and call to arms for a farm state choking on its own abundance. Cullen traces how corn and hogs became economic lifelines and environmental nooses, and explains why Democrats keep losing ground by talking culture instead of livelihood. Plus: the American Dialect Society's newly crowned Word of the Year, "6–7," and how linguistic weirdness keeps getting more political. The Spiel: Seattle's mayoral race, where Bruce Harrell's incumbency fatigue meets Katie Wilson's thrift-store populism and the post-Trump urge to loathe whoever's in charge.
America has seen this before—and it didn’t end well.
Liberal governors across the nation, from California to Illinois, are defying federal immigration law and challenging the very authority of the Constitution itself. Victor Davis Hanson sounds the alarm on a “neo-Confederate nullification movement” emerging among the Left with its approach to resisting the Trump administration’s deportation efforts on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words."
“This has a neo-Confederate pedigree. And we know where Bleeding Kansas led to. Once you nullify federal law and once you glorify violence—and by the way, the Left has glorified almost every major left-wing assassin, whether it was Mr. Hodgkinson that tried to take out the House leadership, or Tyler Robinson, who took out Charlie Kirk, or Luigi Mangione, who killed the CEO of UnitedHealth, or Mr. Crooks and Mr. Routh, who tried to kill Donald Trump on two occasions. When you have glorification of that type of violence and political assassination, we know where it's going to lead. It leads from Bleeding Kansas to Harpers Ferry to Fort Sumter. And they're playing with fire. And it's very dangerous for the republic. And it's time for the Left to stop.”
For some they’re the stuff of nightmares, but many of us can’t get enough of horror films. For Halloween, CrowdScience investigates the science of why we enjoy films that scare the living daylights out of us.
CrowdScience listener Maria from Taiwan is one of those people who would rather avoid frightening films, yet her husband loves them and is always trying to get her to watch with him. She wants to know why people like her husband are so drawn to horror films.
To try and find out, presenter Anand Jagatia travels to the Recreational Fear Lab in Aarhus, Denmark, which is dedicated to understanding why people frighten themselves for fun. He meets the research lab’s directors Mathias Clasen and Marc Andersen who explain how horror and recreational fear could help us cope better with uncertainty, bond with those we are frightened beside, and perhaps even have some physical health benefits. They also take Anand to a haunted house, called Dystopia, which has used the Recreational Fear Lab’s research to become as terrifying as possible.
And we hear from horror film music composer, Mark Korven, who creates tension and fear using an invention he calls ‘the apprehension engine’. He speaks to BBC Naturebang’s Becky Ripley who has been investigating sounds that scare us and their evolutionary origins.
Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Jonathan Blackwell
(Photo: Couple watch horror movie with blanket to cover their heads. Credit: WC.GI via Getty Images)
P.M. Edition for Oct. 31. Sudan’s civil war is taking a jarring turn in Darfur, where an Arab-led militia is now using state-of-the-art drones and execution squads to dominate the region’s Black population. WSJ reporter Nicholas Bariyo, who is based in Uganda, shares the latest on the conflict. Plus, a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds to pay for federal food assistance benefits as the government shutdown continues. And across the U.S., a growing number of home purchases are falling through. We hear from Journal personal finance reporter Veronica Dagher about what’s driving the rise, and what it says about the U.S. housing market. Alex Ossola hosts.
Dan Houser is co-founder of Rockstar Games and is a legendary creative mind behind Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Red Dead Redemption series of video games.
Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep484-sc
See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.
OUTLINE:
(00:00) – Introduction
(01:29) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
(11:32) – Greatest films of all time
(23:45) – Making video games
(26:36) – GTA 3
(29:55) – Open world video games
(32:42) – Character creation
(36:09) – Superintelligent AI in A Better Paradise
(45:21) – Can LLMs write video games?
(49:41) – Creating GTA 4 and GTA 5
(1:01:16) – Hard work and Rockstar’s culture of excellence
(1:04:56) – GTA 6
(1:21:46) – Red Dead Redemption 2
(2:01:39) – DLCs for GTA and Red Dead Redemption
(2:07:58) – Leaving Rockstar Games
(2:17:22) – Greatest game of all time
(2:22:10) – Life lessons from father
(2:24:29) – Mortality
(2:41:47) – Advice for young people
(2:47:49) – Future of video games
An artificial-intelligence tool assisted in the making of this episode by creating summaries that were based on Wall Street Journal reporting and reviewed and adapted by an editor.
Big tech earnings were the talk of the market this week and we covered a blowout from Alphabet, questions about Meta, and why Amazon has its mojo back. To finish the show, we play “Trick or Treat” and discuss the stocks on our radar.
Travis Hoium, Lou Whiteman, and Asit Sharma discuss:
- Alphabet’s big cloud quarter
- Meta’s AI questions
- Amazon and AWS growth
- Netflix’s surprising stock split
Companies discussed: Nike (NKE), On Holding (ONON), Alphabet (GOOG), Meta (META), Netflix (NFLX), Coinbase (COIN), Microsoft (MSFT), Chipotle (CMG).
Host: Travis Hoium
Guests: Lou Whiteman, Asit Sharma
Engineer: Dan Boyd
Disclosure: Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. The Motley Fool and its affiliates (collectively, “TMF”) do not endorse, recommend, or verify the accuracy or completeness of the statements made within advertisements. TMF is not involved in the offer, sale, or solicitation of any securities advertised herein and makes no representations regarding the suitability, or risks associated with any investment opportunity presented. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decisions. TMF assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages arising from this advertisement.
We’re committed to transparency: All personal opinions in advertisements from Fools are their own. The product advertised in this episode was loaned to TMF and was returned after a test period or the product advertised in this episode was purchased by TMF. Advertiser has paid for the sponsorship of this episode.
After two years of war, Gaza is littered with unexploded bombs often hiding in the rubble of destroyed buildings. And they can be deadly even decades later. We go to Gaza to hear about one family’s encounter with an unexploded bomb and learn how long it might take make the territory safe.
In tonight's special Halloween episode, Ben, Matt, Noel and Super Producer Dylan lean on Ben's earlier experience with the paranormal. Tonight's question: Is it actually possible to sell your soul to infernal powers? Check this out: we learned how it works.
