TED

Why Economic Inequality Is the Biggest Threat to Democracy | Sally Kohn | TED

Authoritarianism was like an opportunistic disease that could only take root when democracy was weak.

The Prof G Pod

"America Freaks Out If Netflix Goes Down for 5 Minutes"

You know what binds all of them is rather their dislike of and fear of the language of the liberal world. In other words, the language of rights, the language of rule of law, the language of separation of powers. You know, all of these are states that are seeking to create a kind of total environment where the regime or the leader or the ruling party controls all media, all conversation, um makes all the decisions, uh controls the court system.

Book of the Day

Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy on why he "stays up at night" worrying about politics

I don't think a politician should be able to change their net worth a whole heck of a lot by getting into office. Like whatever your net worth is when you get into office, put in inflation, put in normal salary, and you should probably leave office with a similar.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Jeremy Giffon - The Billion Dollar PDF - [Invest Like the Best, EP.481]

The whole world runs on documents that no one reads. Every corporation, every government, every institution has stacks of documents that theoretically govern how things work, but in practice, the actual power comes from whoever controls the interpretation of those documents.

TED

Why Democracy Requires Renewal | Michael Dimock | TED

The founders didn't hand us a finished product. They handed us an ongoing project that requires engagement and creativity from one generation to the next.

Diet TBPN

Jersey Mikes's IPO, AI Lab Nationalization, SpaceX AIPhone | Diet TBPN

It will never stop at 5%. It will go on and on. The governance will become a nightmare. Political capture will be real and it will generate precisely no goodwill with the public.

Throughline

The story of July 4th is messier than you remember

The second sentence is a mission statement for our nation a nation in which the governor comes not from the divine right of kings or the sword of conquerors, but by a social contract that's signaled in the very first word of the sentence.

Idea Knock Down

Should There Be a Wealth Limit for Politicians? | Idea Knock Down | TED

Authoritarianism is uh flaring up around the globe. Not because of anything authoritarianism is doing right, but because of what democracy is getting wrong and in particular that democracy is not delivering like real tangible improvements in people's lives, in particular financial improvements and there is a massive correlation between countries that have extreme uh income inequality and see erosions of democracy, which is understandable because like why would you vote for a system that isn't working for you?

TED

The Rising Cost of Dissent in America | Miles Taylor | TED

There was no deep state inside the Trump administration. There were people willing to speak truth to power and prevent the President from doing illegal things, not to prevent him from implementing a lawful agenda.

The New York Times

How Black Voters in Alabama Are Fighting G.O.P. Redistricting

There are people who don't have running water and who have live sewage in their front yards. And it was not until representation was present that those neighbors were actually able to be served. If you have no one at the table who is representing your interest and who is concerned about you, then you know that you will not be represented in the result.

Pivot

How Elon's OpenAI Lawsuit Backfired Spectacularly | Pivot

I think we now need alternative minimum taxes of 60 or 70% on anything over a billion dollars for an individual because these individuals are under the impression that they are not subject to the standards of Western society, decency or any or the law.

The Business of Tech

Space Mafia: How orbital AI changes everything

It's basically the wild West up there at the moment, which suits the companies trying to exploit space just fine. No copyright law, no IP law in space, No gambling or piracy laws to worry about when you have a server floating in space.

TED

What Really Won the Trillion-Dollar Supreme Court Case | Neal Kumar Katyal | TED

If the president can command the global economy by yelling emergency, what can't he do? Checks and balances don't just bend, they break.

EconTalk

Claude, War, and the State of the Republic (with Dean Ball)

the frightening possibility that AI's most powerful capabilities may arrive just as the Republic is least equipped to govern it

TBPN

Jassy's Shareholder Letter, Frontier Model Rollouts, Data Center Debates, The Next AI Capability

If a model becomes powerful enough to design a harmful virus or something like that, uh you would want the lab that creates that model to deliver that to the scientific community and companies that can protect the population against the development of new harmful biological viruses.

Pivot

Is Apple's Budget Laptop Brand Suicide? | Pivot

It's the extremes that present a threat to society. And the two things that are probably most important to avoiding a strong man or a strong woman uh from either side of the party are very boring

NPR Podcasts

Why Iranian perspectives often get flattened and caricatured

Iran has 90 million people of different ethnicities and faiths and very different ideas about their country.