This was a surprisingly good talk about revolutions, and went more in-depth than I would've suspected.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/42881388

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/42433812

Episode 62 - A Chat with Cesar & Company | Austin Typewriters, Ink. Podcast

Read Emily's article in Current Affairs magazine here: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-we-stopped-caring-about-selling-out

From the article: "In recent years, our pop culture landscape has become so dominated by athletic-wear brand deals and laxative pill endorsements that it’s hard to remember an alternative. A-listers now seem to treat art like a side hustle, and advertising as their main career. It’s not enough for McConaughey to earn millions by smoldering through the window of a luxury Lincoln SUV, or lounging shirtless for Dolce & Gabbana cologne. He just had to become the creative director for Wild Turkey Bourbon, launch his own “Pantalones Organic Tequila” brand, and now, lend his rugged charisma to AI platforms. "

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/42036794

Earlier this year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that it was moving the hands of the Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds before midnight, a symbolic hour signifying global catastrophe. The hands have been moved only 25 times since the clock’s creation in 1947, and they’re now the closest they’ve pointed to worldwide destruction. The threats of nuclear war, climate change, artificial intelligence, and disinformation all played into the decision. It’s meant as a wake-up call to the world.

One of the experts who helped make that decision is University of Chicago physics professor Daniel Holz, chair of the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board. And even though the clock evokes a potentially terrifying future, Holz takes a more optimistic approach to the entire endeavor.

“Really, the Doomsday Clock is a symbol of hope,” Holz says. “The whole point of this clock is to, yes, to alarm people, to inform people, but also to demonstrate we can turn back the hands of the clock. And we’ve done it in the past, and we can hope to do it in the future. And we must.”

On this week’s More To The Story, Holz sits down with host Al Letson to talk about the Doomsday Clock’s history, why we’re closer to global destruction than ever before, and what we can do to stop it.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/41527271

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/41145101

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/40728864

Plain Reading is back! We're talking to Vahid Friedrich, who not only tells us about story in #SciFi, #videoGames, and #film ; he also reveals the meaning of life!

https://plainreading.libsyn.com/stories-wherever-you-find-them-vahid-friedrich

@PodcastsLive #reading #books #podcast

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Future Knowledge, a new podcast from the Internet Archive and Authors Alliance. Hosted by Chris Freeland, librarian at the Internet Archive, and Dave Hansen, executive director of Authors Alliance, the series brings together authors, librarians, policymakers, technologists, and artists to explore how knowledge, creativity, and policy intersect in today’s fast-changing world.

In each episode, an author discusses their book or publication and the big ideas behind it—paired with a thought-provoking conversation partner who brings a fresh perspective from the realms of policy, technology, libraries, or the arts.

Show Notes

In this episode we are joined by Kristian Williams, anarchist historian and author of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, and Garrett, an anti-repression activist and anarchist legal worker who resisted repression as one of the RNC 8.

The conversation covers:

• How models of policing protest have shifted over time
• How they are shifting again today and why it matters
• How this can inform repression preparation and response

Stay tuned after the interview for a poem by Malik Farrad Muhammad, a political prisoner from the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor Uprisings.

Democracy and environmental protection have two things in common: (1) they’re both supposed to be enshrined in the laws of the United States and (2) they’re both under severe attack right now. Asher speaks with Thomas Linzey of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights to uncover how the source code of the U.S. Constitution and the body of environmental laws that follow it are actually designed to allow corporations to override the will of the people. After pinpointing the problem, Thomas explains what can be done, especially at the local level, to reach sustainable and just outcomes that provide wellbeing for people and ecosystems.

Most of the natural world has been altered by humans in some way. Ecosystems that are dominated by humans or man-made structures, such as cities, can still provide meaningful and essential habitat for insects. Today, we are going to discuss research being done in various human-dominated landscapes to answer the question: how do we restore and conserve insects in these ecosystems?

Guest Information

Dr. Chelse Prather is an associate professor and environmental biology coordinator at the University of Dayton. As an ecologist, Chelse has worked with insect communities in forests, grasslands, and urban ecosystems. She has managed a variety of projects from understanding basic insect ecology, like what nutrients limit insect communities, to very applied projects, such as how the installation of solar arrays affects insect communities.