In the early 11th century, a group of merchants from the Amalfi Coast of Italy received permission from the Caliph of Egypt to rebuild a church and hospital in Jerusalem to care for pilgrims to the Holy Land.
They called themselves The Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
Fast forward almost one thousand years later, and this group still exist. Not only do they still exist, but they have a unique status in the world of international diplomacy.
Learn more about the Knights of Malta and their thousand-year history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Today were chatting about Fauci’s Covid origin cover-up, the department of transportation’s efforts to keep families together on planes, an Ivy League’s abandonment of standardized tests and AOC’s met gala controversy.
Time Stamps:
12:44 Fauci Cover-up
21:42 Department of Family
36:02 Standardize Tests
44:23 AOC
49:40 Cologne
Questions? Comments? Email us at Hammered@Nebulouspodcasts.com
The play element at the heart of our interactions with computers—and how it drives the best and the worst manifestations of the information age.
Whether we interact with video games or spreadsheets or social media, playing with software shapes every facet of our lives. In Playing Software: Homo Ludens in Computational Culture (MIT Press, 2023), Miguel Sicart delves into why we play with computers, how that play shapes culture and society, and the threat posed by malefactors using play to weaponize everything from conspiracy theories to extractive capitalism. Starting from the controversial idea that software is an essential agent in the information age, Sicart considers our culture in general—and our way of thinking about and creating digital technology in particular—as a consequence of interacting with software's agency through play.
As Sicart shows, playing shapes software agency. In turn, software shapes our agency as we adapt and relate to it through play. That play drives the creation of new cultural, social, and political forms. Sicart also reveals the role of make-believe in driving our playful engagement with the digital sphere. From there, he discusses the cybernetic theory of digital play and what we can learn from combining it with the idea that playfulness can mean pleasurable interaction with human and nonhuman agents inside the boundaries of a computational system. Finally, he critiques the instrumentalization of play as a tool wielded by platform capitalism.
Rudolf Inderst is a professor of Game Design with a focus on Digital Game Studies at the IU International University of Applied Science, editor of “Game Studies Watchlist”, a weekly messenger newsletter about Game Culture and curator of @gamestudies at tiktok.
Here’s a special episode of another podcast, Story of the Week. Each week, journalist Joel Stein chooses an article that fascinates him, convinces the writer to tell him about it, and then interrupts a good conversation by talking about himself. In this episode, Joel is joined by Allison Davis who wrote “My Tinder Decade,” a New York Magazine cover about being on the dating app from the very beginning. And never going on more than five dates with anyone. Listen to new episodes of Story of the Week every Thursday at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/sotw?sid=lotg
More than 6 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s, meaning it touches almost all our lives. That number could double by 2050, unless a cure is found. How far away are we? Andy speaks with Dr. Paul Aisen and Dr. Rudolph Tanzi about the genetic factors that contribute to Alzheimer’s, promising blood tests that can detect the disease long before symptoms begin, and a treatment that could be approved by the FDA as soon as July.
Find vaccines, masks, testing, treatments, and other resources in your community: https://www.covid.gov/
Order Andy’s book, “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165
Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.
Five women who were denied abortions have filed a lawsuit against Texas over the state’s near-total abortion ban. It’s the first time that pregnant patients who are affected by such laws are taking legal action.
Florida Republicans have introduced bills that would further restrict abortion in the state, including one that would prohibit the procedure before most people even know they’re pregnant. If passed, the measures could also jeopardize abortion access across the South.
And in headlines: two of the four Americans kidnapped in northeastern Mexico were found dead, the Justice Department wants to block JetBlue from buying Spirit Airlines, and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz agreed to testify before a Senate committee about his company’s labor practices.
Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffee
We'll tell you about a plan President Biden says will save Medicare for the next generation and which Americans would face higher taxes if it passes.
Also, we have an update about missing Americans in Mexico and a new investigation into Norfolk Southern, as the rail operator makes new promises.
Plus, the army's newest recruitment strategy is from decades ago, TikTok is making changes as Reddit tries to be more like TikTok, and it's International Women's Day.
Those stories and more news to know in around 10 minutes!
No migrant crosses America’s border from Mexico illegally without the cartel’s consent, according to Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. When migrants don’t have the money to pay what the cartels demand, they fall prey to trafficking.
Homan and Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, join the show from the Conservative Political Action Conference to explain how the Mexican cartels are using Biden administration policies to their advantage.
