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Will automation job loss hit women or men harder?
Automation is coming for lots of jobs, but our gender segregated economy means it will affect women differently than men.
- A new study finds that automation will affect men and women differently.
- While male dominated jobs at risk for obsolescence are mostly low paying, jobs women have at the same risk are both high and low paying.
- The authors have several suggestions for how these issues can be dealt with as automation gears up.
Stand up against religious discrimination – even if it’s not your religion
As religious diversity increases in the United States, we must learn to channel religious identity into interfaith cooperation.
- Religious diversity is the norm in American life, and that diversity is only increasing, says Eboo Patel.
- Using the most painful moment of his life as a lesson, Eboo Patel explains why it's crucial to be positive and proactive about engaging religious identity towards interfaith cooperation.
- The opinions expressed in this video do not necessarily reflect the views of the Charles Koch Foundation, which encourages the expression of diverse viewpoints within a culture of civil discourse and mutual respect.
identity, intolerance, and change in the American heartland – with Jeanine and Catherine Butler
The first church to marry gay couples in Oklahoma. The merging of a congregation founded by a white supremacist with the members of a black Pentacostal congregation. The film American Heretics explores the complexities of religious life in the Bible Belt as it intersects with politics and race.
- Oklahoma is "either your past or your future…it's a microcosm of America…the issues around racism, politics, the blurring of church and state…"
- Come for the cultural politics…stick around for the unlikely connections to LSD, mushrooms, and the Salem Witch Trials…
In spite of all the weird ways the word has been abused since the 2016 elections, I think of myself as a liberal. As a basic value, I try to be open-minded. And like many liberals, I live in a big, liberal city where I rarely meet anyone who doesn't share my values, religious outlook, and political beliefs. As a result, like it or not, I'm in a bubble. And when I'm not being careful about it, I'm vulnerable to seeing "the Bible Belt" and the American South as one monolithic, mostly white, evangelical, anti-abortion, Christian Right-leaning mass. As some kind of living history exhibit of a past us New Yorkers have left behind.
And I know lots of people in some of the same bubbles I occupy who are quick to point to religion as the cause of horrors throughout human history. People who see reason and science as progress, religion as unequivocally retrograde, and who point to data showing that people everywhere are getting less religious as a hopeful sign that humanity might be moving in the right direction. But just as it doesn't have a monopoly on morality, religion doesn't have a monopoly on intolerance. And reason alone can't give us values like love and kindness. Religion's one of many ways that people organize their lives and like everything we make, it's subject to both our courage and our cowardice. The best and the worst of us.
A recent Pew survey says that 63% of Americans believe in God. In Bible Belt states like Oklahoma, where that number is much higher, there are fierce political battles going on for control of the Christian narrative—pushback against fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible as aligned with conservative republican values. These battles, invisible to most of us out here on the coasts, are the subject of AMERICAN HERETICS, a powerful new documentary by my guests today, Jeanine and Catherine Butler.
Surprise conversation starters in this episode:
Michael Pollan on the history of LSD and psilocybin mushrooms in America
Should universities be held accountable for student debt?
On the first episode of The Portal, Eric Weinstein and Peter Thiel discuss the future of education.
- On his new podcast, The Portal, Eric Weinstein dives into student debt and the function of universities with Peter Thiel.
- Weinstein floats the idea of a college equivalence degree (CED) through an online testing system.
- Thiel notes that if you don't pay off your student debt by age 65, the government garnishes your social security checks.
Did the U.S. weaponize ticks?
Considering the U.S.'s history of biological warfare, maybe this theory isn't as crazy as it sounds.
- Some believe that the Lyme-ridden ticks on the East Coast of the U.S. are the product of government experiments in biological warfare.
- Under this theory, the ticks were released accidentally or on purpose, exposing millions to the extremely dangerous disease.
- There's good cause to be skeptical, but the U.S. has a history of conducting biological warfare tests on its own civilians; maybe there's something to it?
The biggest threat to America? Americans.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Jared Diamond explains why some nations make it through epic crises and why others fail.
- "A country is not going to resolve a national crisis unless it acknowledges that it's in a crisis," says Jared Diamond. "If you don't, you're going to get nowhere. Many Americans still don't recognize today that the United States is descending into a crisis."
- The U.S. tends to focus on "bad countries" like China, Canada and Mexico as the root of its problems, however Diamond points out the missing piece: Americans are generating their own problems.
- The crisis the U.S. is experiencing is not cause for despair. The U.S. has survived many tragedies, such as the War of Independence and the Great Depression – history is proof that the U.S. can get through this current crisis too.
New study uncovers China's massive hidden lending to poor countries
New report shows the extent of China's hidden power as the developing world's creditor.
- Over 50 developing countries' Chinese debt accounts for on average 15 percent of their individual GDP.
- New report shows that the majority of the world's developing country's debt to China is considered "hidden."
- China's loans for poor countries are primarily for crucial infrastructure.
