Cloud software giant Salesforce is under a growing cloud of existential worry about the future of business software in the age of AI. As the poster-child for its category, can Salesforce prove to investors it has staying power? WSJ Heard on the Street Columnist Dan Gallagher joins us to discuss. Plus, there’s a major gender gap when it comes to usage of AI. Belle Lin hosts.
Animals are going extinct at an alarmingly fast rate, largely due to human activity. Same for plants. This is bad for all kinds of reasons, not least of which is that breakthrough drugs often come from nature. But there isn’t consensus on how to save these species.
Part of the debate asks the economic question: with limited money going to the work, where will it have the most impact? Today on the show, the cost-effective plan to maximize biodiversity that asks ecologists to approach the question more like economists.
With Republicans holding both houses of Congress and the White House, Democrats don’t have a lot of ways to stall Donald Trump’s agenda—except for refusing to further fund the government and triggering a shutdown. They already passed on the opportunity once, but is the situation now so desperate that the opposition party needs to do something—anything?
Guest: Rep. Jamie Raskin, U.S. representative for Maryland's 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
Raja teaches philosophy to high schoolers and shares an apartment with his 82-year-old mother, Zalfa. Rabih Alameddine explores their relationship – and other forms of intimacy – in his new novel The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother). In today’s episode, the author joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation about Raja’s self-deprecation, Zalfa’s relationship with another older woman, and Alameddine’s mother’s memory loss.
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Christopher Nolan’sInterstellarwas a phenomenon in 2014. Set in the future, Earth has been struck by a global crop blight. Former NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is pulled into a NASA mission to transport the human race to a new planet, via wormhole. Back on Earth, Cooper’s daughter, Murph (Jessica Chastain), attempts to complete an equation that will allow this mass-transport of humanity from Earth.
Many scientists praised the film, particularly for its depiction of black holes. In this episode co-hosts Regina G. Barber and Emily Kwong talk about Interstellar with Star Trek scientific advisor and astrophysicist Erin Macdonald. They walk through wormholes, black holes and all the ways space-time stretches in the film.
Interested in more on the science behind science fiction? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode!
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Dr. Bryan Gillis is back after far too long! But instead of space, he's here to talk about the problems in academia that lead to women and minority groups being underrepresented at astonishing and depressing levels.
Ryan is joined by our very own Ash Zade, Product Manager, and Alex Warren, Staff Software Engineer, to discuss our newly released stackoverflow.ai, how it’s enhancing user experience by combining human-validated answers with AI, and our future plans for deeper personalization and community integration.
Episode notes:
stackoverflow.ai is helping you get the technical answers you need with less friction, all powered by our 16 years of community knowledge.
Amanda Holmes reads Laura Riding’s “Dear Possible.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.