Episodes

  • Does artificial intelligence deliver immortality?

    Does artificial intelligence deliver immortality?
    Jun 11 2024
    Michael Bommer likely only has a few weeks left to live. A couple years ago, he was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer.

    Then, an opportunity arose to build an interactive artificial intelligence version of himself through a friend's company, Eternos, so his wife Annet can interact with him after he dies.

    More and more people are turning to artificial intelligence to create digital memorials of themselves.

    Meanwhile Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, a research assistant at the University of Cambridge, has been studying the field of "digital death" for nearly a decade, and says using artificial intelligence after death is one big "techno-cultural experiment" because we don't yet know how people will respond to it.

    Artificial intelligence has opened the door for us to "live on" after we die. Just because we can, should we?

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    14 mins
  • Can the U.S. force a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas?

    Can the U.S. force a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas?
    Jun 10 2024
    On Saturday, Israeli special forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, killing at least 270 Palestinians and injuring hundreds in the process.

    The rescue of the hostages was a moment of triumph for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but he didn't have long to bask in it.

    Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel's unity war cabinet, announced his resignation on Sunday, over Netanyahu's management of the war in Gaza. After Gantz's resignation, Netanyahu will be even more reliant on far-right members of his coalition, who have vocally opposed efforts to broker a cease-fire.

    The U.S. continues to push a cease-fire proposal outlined last month, and on Monday the U.N. Security council passed a U.S.-drafted resolution supporting that deal.

    NPR's Michele Kelemen and Daniel Estrin help us get a sense of what this weekend's events might mean for the war and its ending.

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    10 mins
  • COVID funding Is ending for schools. What will it mean for students?

    COVID funding Is ending for schools. What will it mean for students?
    Jun 9 2024
    Billions of dollars in federal COVID funding is set to expire for K-12 schools.

    Educators across the country say the extra money helped students catch up, and plenty of students still need that support.

    Some schools say losing the the money, received over the last few years, will lead to cancelation of crucial programs, budget cutbacks and possible layoffs.

    NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Wall Street Journal education reporter Matt Barnum about the impact of expiring federal funds on schools across the country.

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    9 mins
  • 'Double disapprovers' could decide the election. Here's what they say

    'Double disapprovers' could decide the election. Here's what they say
    Jun 7 2024
    With the presidential election approaching, some voters are wondering how we again ended up with Donald Trump and Joe Biden as the presumptive nominees.

    Recent focus groups with swing voters put into words why some people are turning away from the main candidates, and polling gives us an insight into what this could mean in November.

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    12 mins
  • The state of Hamas on 3 fronts: troops, governance and narrative

    The state of Hamas on 3 fronts: troops, governance and narrative
    Jun 6 2024
    Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war in Gaza can't end until Israel has destroyed Hamas.

    NPR's reporting from Israel and Gaza suggests that goal is still a long way off.

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    10 mins
  • Hollywood flips the script in the new movie 'Ezra'

    Hollywood flips the script in the new movie 'Ezra'
    Jun 5 2024
    'Ezra' is a road trip movie, a movie about fathers and sons.

    Bobby Cannavale plays the father Max, and he hasn't quite figured out what his son Ezra's autism diagnosis means for their life together.

    The movie draws on the real experiences of screenwriter Tony Spiridakis. William A. Fitzgerald, who plays Ezra. And associate producer Alex Plank also has autism, and is the founder of wrongplanet.net. Many members of the cast and crew are neurodivergent, or have neurodivergent family members.

    Hollywood hasn't always gotten it right when it comes to portraying neurodivergent people on screen. The new movie 'Ezra' is flipping the script.

    NPR's Juana Summers speaks with screenwriter Tony Spiridakis and producer Alex Plank.

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    15 mins
  • What will life look like for jurors after the Trump trial?

    What will life look like for jurors after the Trump trial?
    Jun 4 2024
    The 12 New Yorkers who served on the jury for former president Donald Trump's trial, and voted to convict him om 34 counts of falsified business records, have not had their identities disclosed publicly to protect their privacy.

    But now the trial is over, and they are likely returning back to normal life. So, will they reveal themselves to the public? And what risks do they encounter in doing so?

    In this episode we take a look at what other public figures who have gone up against Trump have faced from his supporters, and what those jurors could stand to gain from sharing their stories.

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    9 mins
  • Battlefield medicine has come a long way. But that progress could be lost

    Battlefield medicine has come a long way. But that progress could be lost
    Jun 3 2024
    When the U.S. launched its invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s, it had been a decade since a full-scale deployment of American troops.

    That's why when the wars started a lot of the medical corps' experience came from big city emergency rooms.

    But a few years into the wars, the military was facing hundreds of casualties each month between Afghanistan and Iraq.

    Military surgeons were seeing wounds requiring double amputations, the kind of thing you might never encounter before serving in a war zone.

    The military was able to turn that real world experience into breakthroughs in battlefield care. Some of them were simple tweaks like pop up surgical teams that set up close to the battlefield.

    Over the course of the war, small innovations like this tripled the survival rate for the most critically injured troops, according to one study

    Now that the post 9/11 wars have ended, some veteran military doctors say those gains are at risk.

    The Pentagon has tried to cut its healthcare costs by outsourcing medical care to the private sector. And that could hurt battlefield medicine in a future war.

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    10 mins