NBN Book of the Day - Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want” (Harper, 2025)

Is artificial intelligence going to take over the world? Have big tech scientists created an artificial lifeform that can think on its own? Is it going to put authors, artists, and others out of business? Are we about to enter an age where computers are better than humans at everything?

Linguist Emily M. Bender and sociologist Alex Hanna make clear that kind of thinking is a symptom of a phenomenon known as “AI hype.” Hype twists words and helps the rich get richer by justifying data theft, motivating surveillance capitalism, and devaluing human creativity in order to replace meaningful work with jobs that treat people like machines. In The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want (Harper, 2025), Bender and Hanna offer a, and wide-ranging take-down of AI hype across its many forms. They show you how to spot AI hype, how to deconstruct it, and how to expose the power grabs it aims to hide. Bender and Hanna expose AI hype for what it is: a mask for Big Tech’s drive for profit, with little concern for who it affects.

Alfred Marcus is Edson Spencer Professor at the Carlson School.

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What A Day - Mike Johnson Staves Off Epstein Vote

House lawmakers will start their Summer break a few days early today, vacating the capital until September. They’re leaving early because Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is trying desperately – desperately – to avoid holding any votes on releasing materials related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Over at the White House Tuesday, President Donald Trump did his best to turn attention away from Epstein and toward his latest conspiracy de jour, which is really just a remix of his favorite first-term conspiracy surrounding Russia’s interference in the 2016 election (A.K.A. Russia, Russia, Russia). But House Democrats say no dice. California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, talks about what Democrats are doing to keep the Trump administration in check.

And in headlines: Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba is out of a job…maybe, Trump announced a new trade deal with the Philippians, and the United Nations delivered a stark warning about mass starvation in Gaza.

Show Notes:

The NewsWorthy - DOJ Eyes Maxwell, Ozzy Remembered & Meme Stocks Surge – Wednesday, July 23, 2025

The news to know for Wednesday, July 23, 2025! 

We’ll tell you how the Justice Department is hoping to learn more information about the Jeffrey Epstein case, and why the House is leaving the capital early in the face of the Epstein files. 

Also: new trade announcements, including a deal with one of America’s biggest economic partners. 

Plus: what’s behind a top FEMA official’s decision to leave the agency, how the music world is paying tribute to a legendary rock star, and which companies are seeing a boom as part of the “meme stock” craze. 

 

Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes! 

 

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The Best One Yet - 💫 “Viva La Profits” — Coldplay’s record-breaking tour. Coke’s Mexican Coke. Cetaphil’s AI skin hack.

Coldplay is now the #2 highest-grossing concert tour ever… their concerts manufacture virality.

Coca-Cola is launching coke w/ cane sugar instead of corn syrup… it could be “Luxury Coke”

Cetaphil has given their website a makeover… because chatbots read websites, not people.

As Shark Week goes full hammerhead, sharks are at all time highs…


$KO $SPOT $SPY


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NPR's Book of the Day - Mark Kurlansky’s novel ‘Cheesecake’ was inspired by a recipe from ancient Rome

In Mark Kurlansky's novel Cheesecake, a Greek family living on Manhattan's Upper West Side sets out to follow a recipe dating back to ancient Rome. What results is a block-wide battle to make the best cheesecake, set against the backdrop of a quickly-changing neighborhood. In today's episode, Kurlansky talks with NPR's Scott Simon about coming across the oldest written recipe, the food writer's relationship to fiction, and Kurlansky's own favorite cheesecake.

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Short Wave - Eating Disorder Recovery In A Diet Culture World

Eating disorders are complicated illnesses that skyrocketed among teenagers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pediatrician Eva Trujillo says they "literally rewire the brain," decrease brain size, and make it harder to concentrate and to regulate emotions. Malnutrition can slow the metabolism, impact bone density and even lead to cardiac arrest. But Eva says, with the right treatment, people can also recover fully. She's the president of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals and co-founder of Comenzar de Nuevo, a leading treatment facility in Latin America. Today on the show, host Emily Kwong talks about the physical and mental impacts of eating disorders with Dr. Trujillo and Moorea Friedman, a teen mental health advocate and host of the podcast Balancing Act. Plus, how to recover in a world steeped in diet culture.

Want us to cover more mental health topics? Tell us by emailing shortwave@npr.org! We'd love to know what you want to hear from us!

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Hayek Program Podcast - Mark Pennington on Foucault’s Lessons for Liberal Political Economy

On this episode, Peter Boettke chats with Mark Pennington on Mark's latest book, Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge, and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2025). Pennington argues that Foucault's ideas on self-creation, disciplinary power, and biopolitics align with key liberal concerns about social control and individual agency. He critiques how both liberals and Foucauldian critics have misunderstood or ignored these connections, and drawing on thinkers like Hayek, Buchanan, and Ostrom, he calls for a liberalism that emphasizes pluralism, resists technocratic overreach, and engages more deeply with the insights of the humanities.

Dr. Mark Pennington is Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Pennington is currently director of the Centre for the Study of Governance and Society.

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Planet Money - Summer School 3: How government decides what to spend our money on

Although it seems like the government can spend an endless amount of money, it cannot actually do all the things it wants to do. So the big question in this week's lesson is: How do we decide? Why does the government spend so much money on some things and not on others? And honestly, is there any limit?

Get tickets to our August 18th live show and graduation ceremony at The Bell House, in Brooklyn. (Planet Money+ supporters get a 10 percent discount off their tickets. Listen to the July 8th bonus episode to get the discount code!)

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Ologies with Alie Ward - Obsessive-Compulsive Neurobiology (OCD) with Wayne Goodman

Ruminations and reassurances. Checking and counting. Suffering and stigmas. It’s OCD, babes! OCD is now considered one of the most common psychiatric conditions, afflicting 2% to 3% of the general population, and this episode is among our top-requested topics. So we snagged a top-shelf ologist: psychiatrist, researcher, advocate and OCD Neurobiologist, *the* Dr. Wayne Goodman. We cover myths, misconceptions, diagnosis and treatment options for OCD, as well as advice for loved ones. Also: PANDAS, famous folks who are helping break the silence on it, intrusive thoughts, deep brain stimulation, genetic components, links to Tourette’s Syndrome, finding the right doctor, and the behavioral therapy that is the gold standard for OCD. 

And surprise! Later this week we’ll have a bonus episode on OCD lived experience with neuroscientist, mental health advocate and OCD-haver, Uma Chatterjee. 

View Dr. Goodman’s publications on ResearchGate and follow him on Google Scholar

A donation went to International OCD Foundation

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Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

Other episodes you may enjoy: Attention-Deficit Neuropsychology (ADHD), Molecular Neurobiology (BRAIN CHEMICALS), Volitional Psychology (PROCRASTINATION), Suicidology (SUICIDE PREVENTION & AWARENESS), Post-Viral Epidemiology (LONG COVID), Disability Sociology (DISABILITY PRIDE), Gustology (TASTE), Oikology (DECLUTTERING)

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - How Dead Is the Department of Education?

If Trump follows through and successfully shuts down the Department of Education, what does America stand to lose? 

Guest:  Laura Meckler, national education writer for The Washington Post and author of Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity.

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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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