The podcast crew looks back at the biggest political moments of 2019 and looks ahead to the most pressing questions of 2020.
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Tag Archives: 2020
New 2020 Food Trends: “Ambar Balkan Cuisine” In Washington DC Earns Michelin Guide Review
From a Michelin Guide online review listing:
Don’t balk at trying something new, since Ambar rewards rookies with a lineup of enticing offerings at appealing prices. This two-story restaurant’s rustic-country décor is as well suited to groups as it is to solo diners. Come with a gang and eat to your heart’s content with the Balkan Experience, which is a litany of delightful small plates. Don’t fret if you’re sans friends though, as everyone is guaranteed a good time.
Order the chef’s platter and you’ll be treated to the likes of pita sa sirom, a flaky cheese pie resting in a red bell pepper- and eggplant-ajvar sauce. Partake in the veal and beef kebabs set in a sheep’s milk cheese spread; or sour cabbage stuffed with rice, pork belly and set atop garlicky mashed potatoes for even more fun.
New American Cars: “2020 Corvette C8”, Mid-Engine With Retractable Hardtop
From a New York Times online article:
The 2020 Corvette Stingray has moved its engine behind the driver and passenger, adopting the physics-approved layout that brought Ferdinand Porsche his first racing successes in the 1930s. Today, this approach is associated with money-torching supercars from Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren.
The long-awaited “mid-engine” Corvette easily outruns its formidable predecessor, as I learned during a time-warping desert drive near Tortilla Flat, Ariz. The eighth-generation “C8” Corvette is earning rapturous reviews and dominating industry awards, as a car that can take on European exotics that cost $200,000 and more, but at a $59,995 base price that reads like a misprint.
New Neuroscience Books: “Physical Intelligence” By Scott Grafton (Jan 2020)
Through the prisms of behavioral neurology and cognitive neuroscience, Scott Grafton brilliantly accounts for the design and workings of the action-oriented brain in synchronicity with the body in the natural world, and he shows how physical intelligence is inherent in all of us—and always in problem-solving mode. Drawing on insights gleaned from discoveries by engineers who have learned to emulate the sophisticated solutions Mother Nature has created for managing complex behavior, Grafton also demonstrates the relevance of physical intelligence with examples that each of us might face—whether the situation is mundane, exceptional, extreme, or compromised.
Elegantly written and deeply grounded in personal experience—works by Oliver Sacks come to mind—Physical Intelligence gives us a clear, illuminating examination of the intricate, mutually responsive relationship between the mind and the body as they engage (or don’t engage) in all manner of physical action.
New Fiction Books In 2020: “The New Life Of Hugo Gardner” By Louis Begley
With an ominous oncologist’s report hanging over his head, Hugo decides to get away for a bit, to a conference in Paris. There, a new romance blooms and Hug
o finds himself wondering if growing old in Paris might be the perfect antidote to the drama he left behind in New York. Unflinching, witty, and urbane as ever, Louis Begley delivers a spot-on satire of the world of New York’s aging elite, and uncovers the unexpected delights a late-in-life change can offer.
After four decades of what he believes to be a happy, healthy partnership, Hugo Gardner’s world is overturned when he learns that his wife, Valerie, is not only requesting a divorce but has left him for a younger, more vital man. Hugo, an octogenarian political writer and retired journalist for Time, must rethink the way he’s lived, and reassess how he’d like to spend his remaining years.
Reconsidering past relationships in his mind, with years of distance, Hugo begins to see things in a new light: Valerie, whose youth and ambition eventually came between them; his children, whose support might be more financially than emotionally motivated; and his friends, who, like him are rapidly aging before his very eyes.
New Brain Health Books: “Successful Aging” By Daniel J. Levitin (Jan 7, 2020)
‘Successful Aging’ uses research from developmental neuroscience and the psychology of individual differences to show that sixty-plus years is a unique developmental stage that, like infancy or adolescence, has its own demands and distinct advantages. Levitin looks at the science behind what we all can learn from those who age joyously, as well as how to adapt our culture to take full advantage of older people’s wisdom and experience. Throughout his exploration of what aging really means, Levitin reveals resilience strategies and practical, cognitive enhancing tricks everyone should do as they age.
Author of the iconic bestsellers This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind, Daniel Levitin turns his keen insights to what happens in our brains as we age, why we should think about health span, not life span, and, based on a rigorous analysis of neuroscientific evidence, what you can do to make the most of your seventies, eighties, and nineties today no matter how old you are now.
Presidential Politics: Current Debates Still Have “Game Show” Format Of 1960 Kennedy Vs Nixon
From a TheConversation.com online article:
Between 1955 and 1959, America’s prime-time television schedule became dominated by quiz shows.
…(Television executive Frank) Stanton got both Vice President Richard Nixon – who had been a champion debater at Whittier College – and Senator John F. Kennedy to accept invitations to debate live on television. That’s when the really difficult negotiations began.
…Every detail took a long time to agree on, as the election drew ever closer in the late summer of 1960.
…Sure enough, the time pressures pushed everyone to agree on an established TV format Americans were familiar with: the quiz show. The required studios were easily available, the production staff already knew what to do, and journalists could easily moderate discussions in which candidates agreed not to directly question or answer each other.
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