The dead are still being found; the displaced huddle in public spaces. Who or what will be blamed, and what policies will change after the tragedy? We visit Georgia, where protests have now lasted a year, probing the differences between popular uprisings that succeed and those that fail. And remembering He Yanxin, last natural inheritor of China’s ancient women-only language.
Additional audio courtesy of Zhao Ke'er from the documentary "Heart of Gold".
In tonight's episode, Ben, Matt at Noel separate fact from the fiction surrounding uncontacted peoples: Who's the most off-grid person you know? Have you ever fantasized about clocking out of the modern rat race, heading for the boonies, and living off the land with your loved ones? While 'uncontacted' communities are a huge part of film and fiction, it seems increasingly difficult for these folks to exist amid the breakneck pace of progress, pollution and the Information Age.
Accessibility has long been aided by the advancement of technology. When it comes to artificial intelligence, accessibility is top of mind for Taylor Arndt, Chief Operations Officer at Techopolis Online Solutions. Arndt has been blind since birth, and so accessibility has been a lifelong battle. When she was in school, she often received physical materials she was unable to read. So, she bought her own hand-held scanner and downloaded a screen reader. At 14, Arndt taught herself to code. Now as a coder working on AI, Arndt says in order for it to help others, the AI models need to be trained on data that has already incorporated accessibility measures.
One of the two National Guard members allegedly shot by an Afghan man in Washington, D.C. has died. In response, President Trump says he wants to permanently suspend immigration from certain countries.
With the holiday season in full swing, consumer confidence in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest level in months. Yet, despite these worries about the economy retail sales this holiday season are expected to top $1 trillion for the first time.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Gerry Holmes, Julia Redpath, Emily Kopp, HJ Mai and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Kaity Kline.
The Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer by Gustav Klimt has recently sold for $236m, making it the second-most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.
Inspired by this headline, the Unexpected Elements team delve into the story of how microbiology may have influenced Klimt’s work.
Speaking of microbiology, we find out that bacteria could help restore frescoes to their former glory.
We also get on the line with Dr Siyakha Mguni, an archaeologist and senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town, who tells us about ancient artworks far older than anything Klimt ever painted.
Plus, the world’s biggest spider’s web, and why mosquitoes are impressive 3D printers.
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Andrada Fiscutean and Edd Gent
Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, with Margaret Sessa Hawkins, Alice McKee, Lucy Davies and Robbie Wojciechowski
The French Revolution was one of the most significant events in history.
It wasn’t just a political revolution where one government replaced another. It was also a social revolution where the revolutionaries attempted to upend the entire foundation of French society.
But it wasn’t just enough to change France. There were also efforts to obliterate France’s past.
Learn more about the Desecration at St. Denis and the purposeful attempt to destroy French history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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775. Laura answers a listener’s question about the Roth IRA rules for his minor kids and how to pay them and correctly report the income for working in his business.
Money Girl is hosted by Laura Adams. Find a transcript here.
The world is ending. It has been ending for some time. When did the ending begin? Perhaps when Evie’s mother died, or when her father died soon after. Perhaps when her sister, Elena, was forcibly institutionalized in a psychiatric hippie commune in Colorado. Certainly at some point over the last year, as New York City spun down the tubes, as bedbugs and vultures descended, as apartments crumbled to the ground and no one had the time or money to fight it, or even, really, to notice. And then, one day, the ending is complete. Every renter is evicted en masse, leaving only the landlords and owners—the demented, the aristocratic, the luckiest few. Evie—parentless, sisterless, basically friendless, underemployed—has nothing and no one. Except, she remembers, a second cousin in Texas, in a strange town called Gulluck, where nothing is as it seems. And so, in the surreal, dislodged landscape, beyond the known world, a place of albino cicadas and gardeners and thieves, of cobblers and shoemakers and one very large fish, a place governed by mysterious logic and perhaps even miracles, Evie sets out in search of a home. A wry and buoyant fairy tale set at the apex of the housing crisis, Emily Hunt Kivel’s Dwelling takes us on a hapless hero’s journey to the end of the world and back again. Madcap and magical, hilarious and existential, Dwelling holds a fun-house mirror to our moment—for anyone in search of space, belonging, and some semblance of justice.
