Beyond Politics

The numbers we hear about in government and politics are often so big that they lose all meaning.  This is a big deal -- we are after all in a democracy, and if we can't understand what we're even talking about in budgets and programs, it's hard to make smart decisions. That's why Cornell University Professor Steven Strogatz and his student Aiyanna Green wrote a New York Times op-ed explaining a smarter way to think about big numbers. Ms. Green is an undergraduate majoring in policy analysis and management in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, and she joins us to explain. Photo by Roman Mager on Unsplash

Victor Piniero is the author of Time Villains, an Amazon Best Book of the Month in July 2021. Kirkus Reviews, in a STARRED review says “Piñeiro scores with this tale of friendship, magic, and adventure.…Magnificent.”  Victor joins the show to talk about the book and give advice to other aspiring writers about how to get going and write their dream novel. 

Today we tackle Amazon, Amazon prime, and the many ways both obvious and unseen that Amazon has wormed its way into everything we do.  For many of us, Amazon is just a part of our daily lives. What we buy, what we watch, and what we say… Much of it runs through Amazon‘s computers and marketplaces. And from there of course, it is incorporated into Amazons algorithms, its data, it’s artificial intelligence. In a very real way, Amazon is inside our brains.  So what does that mean? How much control does Amazon really have over the American economy and over the choices we make as individuals? And is it time to take some more aggressive action place some limits on an entity that has really no precedent in human history? Our guess is Dr. Emily West, an associate professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She’s the coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture, and the author of the forthcoming book "Buy Now: How Amazon Branded Convenience and Normalized Monopoly."

What if I told you that there is clear, convincing, peer reviewed, and widely accepted research showing that things in the world around us that run on electric power could be hurting us in ways that we don’t even fully understand? It’s true.  My uncle Dr. Martin Blank -- professor at Columbia University -- was for decades one of the world-leading scientists when it came to the effect of the radiation that comes from all of the things that run on electric power on the cells in our body. After he died, his son (my cousin) decided to carry on his work. He joins the show today to describe the science -- both what we know and what we don't know -- and to offer some practical, common sense (and mostly free) solutions for mitigating risks.  He also hosts the Healthier Tech Podcast, a show about how best to live in balance with our increasing reliance on tech.  Listeners who want to learn more and get free information on the science and what they can do can visit http://shieldyourbody.com/beyondpolitics.

With the death of the For the People Act - and Republicans passing more voting laws at the state level aimed that independent analysts say gives them a partisan advantage or could even allow Trump-style factions to overturn election results - we ask Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse what on Earth Democrats can do to ensure fair elections with equal access for everyone. Also, Senator Whitehouse weighs in on the Manchin compromise, what one thing he would persuade Republicans on (if he could only choose one thing), and just how worried he is about the state of the Senate and our country. 

The Executive Director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm's, Neil Levesque, breaks down the results of their latest survey, which chock full of tantalizing insights on why President Biden's approval rating -- and the strength of congressional Democrats -- is falling.  Also, what does each party need to do to get their mojo back for the next election?

Three years ago, when a little-known primary challenger pulled off a surprise win over a congressional veteran in New York, it made national political news. That upstart -- Alexandria Ocasio Cortez -- eventually became well-known for her outspoken embrace of the label “Socialist,” her big Twitter following, and as the star of countless Republican political ads that painted her as the “scary” face of Democratic politics. But what about that veteran congressman? He’s the one that insiders have heard of…because he was, and still is, a huge player inside the Democratic Party…as influential and well-connected as any Democrat in the country, and with the ear of Congressional leadership. Now a Senior Policy Advisor at Squire Patton Boggs, Joe Crowley represented the people of New York's 14th congressional district, including his hometown of Woodside, Queens, in the US Congress for nearly 20 years. There is no one in America with better insights into politics, Congress, the Democratic party, Springsteen, and where to get the best pizza in New York City.

The covid pandemic has shown us all just how much we rely on science and scientists, just how important the advance of science research can be to our health and our way of life…and also, just how easily the public’s understanding of science can become confused…with real consequences. In recent years, federal support for science has flattened, major science topics have become politicized, and we’ve seen explosion of misinformation, conspiracy theory, and mistrust of scientific expertise, which is slowing down our recovery from the pandemic and making it harder to find solutions for our long-term challenges like global warming. Our guest today is one of our national leaders in trying to navigate us through all of these challenges. Dr. Sudip Parikh is the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. 

Excerpts from Matt Robison's recent interviews with West Virginia broadcaster Howard Monroe on some of the most controversial topics in the news

In recent weeks, there’s been an abrupt and significant change in the way scientists, political leaders, and the media have talked about the origins of the Covid pandemic. There was once consensus that the virus had come from an animal, but new questions have emerged, and by May 26, even President Biden had called for a new, full, and transparent investigation into whether the virus actually emerged from a lab in Wuhan China. The sudden change has led to questions about the interaction of science and politics, how the media covers science, and how scientists communicate what they think they know. Throughout most of the pandemic, for millions of readers and podcast listeners in the US and around the world, Donald G. McNeil Jr. has been one of the most trusted, thoughtful, and clear explainers on the science of the coronavirus and public health measures to control it. He was the lead reporter on the Covid-19 pandemic for the New York Times and his May 17 article in Medium titled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love the Lab-Leak Theory” is widely credited with helping to catalyze this re-examination of where the virus came from.