Up First from NPR - Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts

TikTok's U.S. future is up to the Supreme Court. The Chinese-owned company wants the high court to stop a ban of the app from taking effect next month. Many Syrian refugees say they want to go home, now that the Assad regime is gone — but what will wait there for them? In France, judges delivered verdicts in a rape case that has shocked the nation and the world.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kara Plantoni, Arezou Rezvani, Ryland Barton, HJ Mai and Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Nisha Heinis, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

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Bay Curious - How Fernet-Branca Became San Francisco’s Favorite Spirit

About 25 years ago, Fernet-Branca went from a somewhat eclectic drink, shared among the city's old school bartenders, to one of the most iconic spirits in San Francisco. Its polarizing taste profile has been compared to Vicks NyQuil and VapoRub on one end of the spectrum, to a delightful Christmas Tree or Chinese herbs on the other end. How did this divisive Italian spirit work its way into the hearts of San Franciscans? Bay Curious producer Amanda Font bellies up to the bar to find out.


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This story was reported by Amanda Font. Kelly O'Mara contributed. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Amanda Font, Ana De Almedia Amaral and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.

The Intelligence from The Economist - Between Estonia and a hard place: NATO meets

At the icy border between Russia and Estonia, the anxieties of NATO member states are clear, our correspondent reports. Leaders there have been debating defence spending and worrying about America shifting its support. Young people are seeking out spirituality on their phones (9:43). And why the iconic Californian condor is under threat (16:47).


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The Daily Detail - The Daily Detail for 12.19.24

Alabama

  • Sen. Tuberville talks about drones and why the US buys them from China
  • AG Marshall makes court filing in support of LA law re: 10 Commandments
  • US Archivist is reassuring AG Marshall that the ERA will not be processed
  • AG commissioner urges Congress to take action in helping farmers in US
  • State lawmaker pre files bill to increase penalties for porch piracy
  • New tech is helping Baldwin County solve overdose death cases
  • Public visitation to happen this Saturday for AU chaplain Chette Williams

National

  • Trump urges GOP to scrap the CR bill, calls it a betrayal of the country
  • Thomas Massie of KY calls out the hostage taking involved with CR bill
  • SCOTUS to hear case out of SC on state defunding Planned Parenthood
  • Pornhub prepares to stop access in FL when state law goes into effect
  • Suspect in CEO shooting won't fight extradition to NYC, hearing on Thursday
  • Federal Reserve cuts interest rates on Wednesday by .25%

Honestly with Bari Weiss - Sam Altman on His Feud with Elon Musk—and the Battle for AI’s Future

Just a few years ago, as AI technology was beginning to spill out of start-ups in Silicon Valley and hitting our smartphones, the political and cultural conversation about this nascent science was not yet clear. I remember asking former Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Honestly in January 2022 if AI was just like the sexy robot in Ex Machina. I literally said to him, “What is AI? How do you define it? I do not understand.”


Today, not only has it become clear what AI is and how to use it—ChatGPT averages more than 120 million active daily users and processes over a billion queries per day—but it’s also becoming clear with the political and cultural ramifications—and the arguments and debates—around AI are going to be over the next few years.


Among those big questions are who gets to lead us into this new age of AI technology, what company is going to get there first and achieve market dominance, how those companies are structured so that bad actors with nefarious incentives can’t manipulate this technology for evil purposes, and what role the government should play in regulating all of this.


At the center of these important questions are two men: Sam Altman and Elon Musk. And if you haven’t been following, they aren’t exactly in alignment. 


They started off as friends and business partners. In fact, Sam and Elon co-founded OpenAI in 2015. But over the years, Elon Musk grew increasingly frustrated with OpenAI until he finally resigned from the board in 2018. That feud escalated this past year when Elon sued Sam and OpenAI on multiple occasions to try to prevent the company from launching a for-profit arm of the business, a structure that Elon claims is never supposed to happen in OpenAI—and he also argues that changing its structure in this way might even be illegal.


On the one hand, this is a very complex disagreement. To understand every single detail of it, you probably need a law degree and special expertise in American tax law. But you don’t need a degree or specialization to understand that at its heart, this feud is about something much bigger and more existential than OpenAI’s business model, although that’s extremely important.


What this is really a fight over is who will ultimately be in control of a technology that some say, if used incorrectly, could very well make human beings obsolete.


Here to tell his side of the story is Sam Altman. We talk about where AI is headed, and why he thinks superintelligence—the moment where AI surpasses human capabilities—is closer than ever. We talk about the perils of AI bias and censorship, why he donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund as a person who has long opposed Trump, what happens if America loses the AI race to a foreign power like China, and of course, what went wrong between him and the richest man on Earth. 


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NBN Book of the Day - Erich Hatala Matthes, “What to Save and Why: Identity, Authenticity, and the Ethics of Conservation” (Oxford UP, 2024)

Today I’m speaking with Erich Hatala Matthes, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Advisory Faculty for Environmental Studies at Wellesley College. We are discussing his Oxford University Press, What to Save and Why: Identity, Authenticity, and the Ethics of Conservation (Oxford University Press, 2024). Erich’s book explores the idea of conservation: the practice of preserving things for posterity and fighting against the tides of entropy. What we choose to save can range from famous paintings and natural landscapes, to Marilyn Monroe’s dress and endangered species. Depending on your personal concerns, what we save, how we should save it, and why differs for everyone. This philosophical and investigation will make you think deeply about what matters and what should be saved.

Caleb Zakarin is editor at the New Books Network.

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Everything Everywhere Daily - Superstitions

One of the most common things in the world are superstitions. 

Superstitions can be found everywhere and in everyone. Some of them are cultural, and some of them are unique to the person.

Some of the most successful people in the world have superstitions, which they observe with rigid dedication.

Learn more about superstitions and where they come from on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.


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What A Day - Abortion in Trump’s America

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a case over South Carolina’s effort to defund Planned Parenthood. The state wants to cut off Medicaid funding for all of Planned Parenthood’s healthcare services. That includes things like mammograms, birth control, STD testing — you know, health care. So here we are again, with the very conservative Supreme Court set to hear another case that could affect how and where people get their reproductive care. Mary Ziegler, a professor at U.C. Davis School of Law and an expert on the history and politics of abortion in the U.S., explains where the reproductive rights debate is headed in President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.

And in headlines: Trump torpedoed a government funding bill that could set us up for a government shutdown, the House Ethics Committee voted to release its report on former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first severe case of bird flu in the U.S.

Show Notes:

The NewsWorthy - Trump Tanks Bill, Will SCOTUS Save TikTok? & 1-800-CHAT-GPT – Thursday, December 19, 2024

The news to know for Thursday, December 19, 2024!

We'll tell you about two big, controversial bills in Congress. One just passed, and the other is facing a new setback, threatening a government shutdown just before Christmas.

Also, we're talking about the Federal Reserve's announcement that led to a historic fall on Wall Street.

Plus, we have the first statewide emergency over bird flu, an update on TikTok's mission to keep its app available in America, and the trendy animal of the season: why you may notice capybaras everywhere. 

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

 

Join us every Mon-Fri for more daily news roundups! 

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The Best One Yet - ✉️ “How much should I tip?” — N&J’s Holiday Tip rules. Nissan’s Honda hug. Databricks’ AI baseball championship. (And 1-800-CHAT-GPT).

Americans are sick of tips, but Holiday tipping is universally loved… so we share our holiday tip rules.

Databricks’ just had the biggest startup fundraise ever… because they put AI in baseball.

Nissan & Honda may be merging… because the world’s biggest carbuyer stopped buying.

Plus, we present “The 12 Days of Dupe-mas”.

And we called the brand new AI phone number: 1-800-CHAT-GPT


Want more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Pez: The candy invented to stop smoking 🍬. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.


“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.


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