In the past few weeks, best seller lists and streaming platforms have been full of books, shows, and songs about racism in America. Demand for this type of content is growing, streaming companies are featuring more prominently and it could have a lasting impact.
Audio
New Travel Podcast: Ljubljana Castle In Slovenia (Monocle 24)
Monocle 24’s “Tall Stories” visits Ljubljana Castle, a former medieval fortress that’s now at the heart of city life in the Slovenian capital. It hosts everything from award-winning restaurants to a diverse collection of cultural venues.
Slovenia, a country in Central Europe, is known for its mountains, ski resorts and lakes. On Lake Bled, a glacial lake fed by hot springs, the town of Bled contains a church-topped islet and a cliffside medieval castle. In Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, baroque facades mix with the 20th-century architecture of native Jože Plečnik, whose iconic Tromostovje (Triple Bridge) spans the tightly curving Ljubljanica River.
Global: How Essential Is Amazon, British Politics & United Nations (Podcast)
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Amazon is essential, but vulnerable; (10:35) pandemic politics in Britain; (18:15) and the United Nations after 75 years.
Audio Stories: “Dominoes” By Jennine Capó Crucet, Narrated By Andy Cohen
Daydreaming in the Life Artois is a weekly audio series of summer stories that transports the listener to the summer life we once savored together before isolation, and look forward to enjoying again. Written by some of America’s most celebrated and rising writers our stories aim to give our audience a much needed mental escape. Narrated by Andy Cohen. Running from June 12 to July 17.
Jennine Capó Crucet is a Cuban-American novelist, and short story writer.
Top New Science Podcasts: Universities Post-Covid And Drones Fighting Mosquito-Borne Disease
Senior Correspondent Jeffrey Mervis joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about how universities are dealing with the financial crunch brought on by the coronavirus. Jeff discusses how big research universities are balancing their budgets as federal grants continue to flow, but endowments are down and so is the promise of state funding.
Mosquito-borne infections like Zika, dengue, malaria, and chikungunya cause millions of deaths each year. Nicole Culbert and colleges write this week in Science Robotics about a new way to deal with deadly mosquitoes—using drones. The drones are designed to drop hundreds of thousands of sterile male mosquitoes in areas with high risk of mosquito-borne illness. The idea is that sterile male mosquitoes will mate with females and the females then lay infertile eggs, which causes the population to decline. They found this drone-based approach is cheaper and more efficient than other methods of releasing sterile mosquitoes and does not have the problems associated with pesticide-based eradication efforts such as resistance and off-target effects.
Top New Audio Programs: “Daydreaming In The Life Artois – Disco Ball” Read By Andy Cohen (Stella Artois)
Daydreaming in the Life Artois is a weekly audio series of summer stories that transports listeners to the summer life we once savored together before isolation and look forward to enjoying again – hopefully, sometime soon. Written by some of America’s most celebrated and rising writers, our stories aim to give our audience a much needed mental escape. Narrated by Andy Cohen. Running from June 12 to July 17.
Top New Science Podcasts: Tougher Diamonds, Whale Hideouts & Ancient Incest
This week, researchers make diamonds tough, and evidence of incest in a 5,000 year old tomb.
In this episode:
00:51 Tough versus hard
Diamonds are famed for their hardness, but they are not so resistant to fracture. Now, researchers have toughened up diamonds, which could open up new industrial applications. Research Article: Yue et al.
06:07 Research Highlights
A spacecraft helps physicists work out the lifespan of a neutron, and the icy hideaway of an endangered whale. Research Highlight: The vanishing-neutron mystery might be cracked by a robot in outer space; Research Highlight: A secluded icy fortress shelters rare whales
08:33 Ancient inbreeding
Analysis of the genomes of humans buried in an ancient Irish tomb has uncovered many surprises, including evidence of incest amongst the elite. Research Article: Cassidy et al.; News and Views: Incest uncovered at the elite prehistoric Newgrange monument in Ireland
21:13 #ShutdownSTEM
Nature reporter Nidhi Subbaraman joins us to talk about the #ShutdownSTEM movement, and anti-black racism in academia. Editorial: Note from the editors: Nature joins #ShutDownSTEM; News: Grieving and frustrated: Black scientists call out racism in the wake of police killings; News: Thousands of scientists worldwide to go on strike for Black lives; News: How #BlackInTheIvory put a spotlight on racism in academia
Podcasts: “Drawing An Albatross With A Camera Lucida” By Gaby Wood (LRB)
Gaby Wood reads her diary from the latest issue of the LRB, in which she tries to draw an albatross using a camera lucida.
By the time I used the camera lucida in the museum, I’d spent several months grappling with the strange proposition offered by its prism. I’d read that the image was sharper if you held it over a dark drawing surface, but that didn’t make any sense to me until the smoked metal etching plate was beneath my hand. Suddenly the albatross skeleton appeared on it: bright, spectral. The process was different from the way I’d imagined it. There was a drag, almost a dance, under the needle – a tiny jump of resistance in the copper. Without seeing what you were doing, you could feel it more keenly. It wasn’t like ice-skating at all.
A camera lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists. The camera lucida performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist sees both scene and drawing surface simultaneously, as in a photographic double exposure.
Top New Science Podcasts: “Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer”
An instrument on the International Space Station is providing new insights into some of the Universe’s most baffling objects. Neutron stars have puzzled scientists for decades. It’s known that these ultra-dense objects are born from the remnants of supernovae, yet what’s under their surface, and what processes that go on within them, remain a mystery.
Now, an instrument called the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer is providing new information to help answer these questions, ushering in a new era of research into these strange stars.
This is an audio version of our feature: The golden age of neutron-star physics has arrived
Global: The Power Of Protest, Great Cities Post-Covid & Bartleby Columns
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the power of protest and the legacy of George Floyd; (11:07) life in great cities after the pandemic; (17:55) and the lessons from one hundred Bartleby columns on work and management.
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