EP 618 Back to the Moon With Intent

EP 618 Back to the Moon With Intent

To many, America’s ‘public’ space program has seemed stalled in recent years.  With many pressing problems on planet Earth, have we given up imagining the possibilities of space as the new frontier and left those dreams to to private entrepreneurs and George Lucas and other Hollywood types?  The answer is a resounding ‘no’ as NASA …

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EP 617 Homelessness Continues to Increase in America: What Can We Do?

EP 617 Homelessness Continues to Increase in America: What Can We Do?

No matter what measurement you use, the statistical one provided by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development or simply your own eyes as you walk the streets of major American cities, the issue of people who live on the streets with no permanent shelter is growing. Conservatives and liberals alike recognize the problem …

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EP 616  Microplastics: An Environmental Hazard Few of Us See

EP 616  Microplastics: An Environmental Hazard Few of Us See

There is an insidious new pollutant that is harmful on its own and contributes to climate change. However, given industry pressure and economics its impacts will be very difficult to reverse.  It’s called microplastics.  And if you want to break down the problem in a more granular way, it’s called nannoplastics.  These are bits of …

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EP 615 Intimate Privacy is Being Shredded in the Digital Age

EP 615 Intimate Privacy is Being Shredded in the Digital Age

    Every day, deep fake sex videos, leaked emails and stolen nude images are weaponized, causing lasting damage to people’s careers, relationships and self-expression.  Every day, companies track our health, location, dating, and browsing habits and share them with law enforcement.  And as the Supreme Court takes its own axe to privacy, incarceration for …

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EP 614 What Role Did Politics Play in America’s Poor Response to COVID-19?

EP 614 What Role Did Politics Play in America’s Poor Response to COVID-19?

: COVID-19 killed more people than any war or public health crisis in American history. Given that we constantly tell ourselves that we have the best health care in the world, what explains the fact that over a million Americans and counting have lost their lives and many millions suffering with the effects of the …

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EP 612  Walmart America’s Largest Private Employer: Better than its History Suggests?

EP 612  Walmart America’s Largest Private Employer: Better than its History Suggests?

Walmart has spawned a range of controversies over its remarkable history from one small store in rural Arkansas as the brainchild of its legendary founder, Sam Walton, to the retailing behemoth it is today. Throughout that history one theme has been consistent—Walmart employees have never been treated as the valued associates they are said to …

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EP 611 Public Health Struggles to Get Resources and Respect to Keep Us All Well

EP 611 Public Health Struggles to Get Resources and Respect to Keep Us All Well

As Americans, the ethos of self- help permeates our lives in all kinds of ways, including our health. If we all thought we were in this together, that health is a team sport, we would not have passed one million persons dying from Covid-19 with barely a notice. And then having moved on, fixing nothing …

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EP 610  When Did the Right Get So Angry?

EP 610  When Did the Right Get So Angry?

Ronald Reagan made pushing back on liberal dominance of the political agenda in the 20th century sound so optimistic and upbeat.  It was morning in America and his priorities like free trade and reforms in immigration policy later became something of an anathema to an emerging wing of the party that did not see things …

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EP 609 Why the Rational Believe the Irrational

EP 609 Why the Rational Believe the Irrational

  Conspiracy theories are now mainstream in American politics. The most recent was the rigging allegations surrounding the 2020 election when somehow a cabal of independent state actors, many of whom were Republicans, and computer hackers conspired to give Joe Biden a seven million vote plurality in the popular vote, even though he actually lost …

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