VR6 - For today’s Vapid Response Wednesday, Thomas, Lydia, and Matt review two examples from a newly-popular genre of lazy right wing op-eds: insecure white guys complaining about Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. What is with these losers who are so obsessed with trying to prove that one of the most qualified nominees to the high court in our lifetimes isn’t fit for the job? We take dark-money sugar baby Josh Hammer up on the joke to compare his life achievements to someone who began her SCOTUS career with four times as much courtroom experience as John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Clarence Thomas, and Amy Coney Barrett combined--before moving on to trying to even understand what Federalist weirdo Shawn Fleetwood thinks he is saying.
Can networks unlock secrets of AI or make sense of a social media mess? A behind-the-scenes look at how networks reveal reality.
According to mathematician Anthony Bonato, the hidden world of networks permeates our lives in astounding ways. From Bitcoin transactions to neural connections,Dots and Lines: Hidden Networks in Social Media, AI, and Nature(Johns Hopkins UP, 2025) explains how networks shape everything from political landscapes to climate patterns and how deceptively simple dots and lines can unveil the wonders of technology, society, and even nature.
From a fresh and startling look at the true impact of clever keywords in politicians' social media posts to a fun breakdown of survival strategies in reality TV shows, Bonato shows us how network theory operates everywhere. Each chapter focuses on a unique aspect of networks to reveal how they provide a captivating lens for bringing diverse phenomena into clearer focus.
The book offers an accessible snapshot of networks for anyone curious about what makes the modern world tick. Bonato's insights will give readers a deeper appreciation and understanding of networks and their relevance to our everyday lives.
The news to know for Wednesday, September 3, 2025!
We’re talking about the latest court ruling raising questions about President Trump’s crime crackdown.
And a rare U.S. military attack in the Americas.
Also, we’ll tell you about the latest batch of Epstein files that were just released.
Plus: an American volcanic eruption attracting visitors and online viewers, what Google was ordered to do in its landmark monopoly ruling, and how to get a chance at one of the largest jackpots in Powerball history.
Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes!
Join us every Mon-Fri for more daily news roundups!
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and held hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Beijing this weekend. Their talks came during the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, an event that marked the first time in seven years that Presidents Modi and Xi met in person. It also comes as the US navigates a rocky relationship with China, combats India’s frustration over President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and tries to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. To discuss further what Putin’s latest bromance with Xi and Modi means for his on-again, off-again relationship with Trump, we spoke with Tommy Vietor. He’s the co-host of Crooked Media’s Pod Save the World.
When Jane Birkin's boyfriend ran over her beloved wicker basket, she was stuck lugging a messy tote onto a flight to London. As her Hermès planner exploded across the first-class cabin, her mortified seatmate suggested she needed a bag with pockets. "Hermès doesn't make one with pockets," Jane sighed. He replied: "But I am Hermès." Jean-Louis Dumas, head of the luxury empire, watched Jane sketch her dream bag on an airplane vomit bag. Three years later, the first-ever Birkin arrived as a gift… kicking off what would become the most expensive, hard-to-get handbag design in the world. But this hand-stitched masterpiece wasn’t always the ultimate status symbol. The Birkin didn’t fit in the logo-obsessed 1980s, and didn’t truly pop off until it landed a starring role on Sex and the City. Today, Birkins start at $12,000 with impossible waitlists, while the rarest sell for $450,000—more than some houses—and have spawned multi-million-dollar counterfeit rings.
Discover how Hermès weaponized scarcity to invent the Holy Grail of handbags; how a luxury product can outperform the stock market; and why the Birkin Bag is the best idea yet.
Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet for the untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — and the bold risk takers who made them go viral.
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Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/
(Routledge, 2025), which addresses the most important ethical and political questions about immigration and aims to teach by questioning rather than preaching. He urges conceptual clarity about terms like “civilization,” “state,” and “immigration,” and argues that framing debates strictly as “justice” disputes is unhelpful amid deep moral disagreement. Building on his book, Immigration and Freedom, he warns that immigration control often curtails citizens’ freedoms and highlights how restrictive policies can create a hostile climate toward migrants even where overall public support for immigration remains strong.
Dr. Chandran Kukathas is Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Political Science at School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University and a Distinguished Affiliated Fellow at the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center. He is the author of Immigration and Freedom (Princeton University Press, 2021) and The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2007).
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For a long time, scientists have suspected that stuttering — a common speech condition that affects an estimated 1 in every 100 people — could be heritable. Despite how common it is, it's still a remarkably understudied condition.
Geneticists Piper Below and Dillon Pruett were determined to fix that. With the help of 23andMe data, they recently identified 57 genetic regions linked to stuttering in the human genome. Their findings represent a new breakthrough in how researchers think about speech conditions, genetics and the conditions that are linked to them. They're what some are calling a "quantum leap" in the field.
Interested in more human biology and genetics episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Donald Trump has been working to expand his presidential influence into places that are supposed to operate independently, like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve, and even into Congress’s constitutionally appointed “power of the purse.” As Congress returns to Washington, is this nominally co-equal branch of government willing to wrest its power back?
Guest: Luke Broadwater, reporter covering the White House for The New York Times.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
