How the government wastes your time

Twenty-five years after the world-altering terrorism of 9/11, is al-Qaeda still a threat? Graeme Wood is a staff writer at The Atlantic, and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss whether the terrorist organization al-Qaeda has been lying low or regenerating power in the background, why analysts are split on the answer, and how disparate jihadist groups have been essentially allowed to “franchise” the name. His article is “What Happened to al-Qaeda?” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Paris used to be a cool 70 degrees in summer. Now it’s often 95 and climbing —with no A/C to help. Eric Klinenberg is Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how Europe is warming at twice the rate of other continents due to global warming, what this means for people suffering – even dying – in these heat waves, and why air conditioning can’t be the ultimate answer. His article “The End of the European Summer” was published in The New Yorker. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Days or even hours before death, some dementia patients become lucid again – and scientists want to know why. Journalist Billy Brennan joins host Krys Boyd to discuss “paradoxical lucidity,” where dementia patients seem to “wake up” and interact right before they decline again, what this “rally” means about our consciousness and brain activity before death, and why this happens more often than scientists realized. His article “Why Do Some Dementia Patients ‘Return’ Just Before They Die?” was published in The New York Times Magazine. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Federal government enacted laws that aimed at both protecting Americans and keeping tabs on what we do. Now that 25 years have passed, is it time for us to revisit some of them? Abigail R. Hall is an Independent Institute Senior Fellow and professor of economics at the University of Tampa. She joins host Krys Boyd to make the case that some of these laws have outlived their intended purposes and violate our liberties. Her recent article for Reason magazine is “9/11 and the Surveillance Ratchet.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Much of America’s racial wealth gap can be traced to economic policies dating back decades and even centuries. Mehrsa Baradaran is professor of law at the University of California, Irvine. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the history of the wealth gap, why she believes politics keeps that gap alive for Black Americans and solutions that could alleviate the disparity. Her book is “The Racial Wealth Gap: A Brief History.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Same-sex coupledom is surprisingly frequent in the animal kingdom – scientists have found 1500 species and counting that pair up in this way. Perrin Roosevelt Ireland is an artist and environmentalist who serves on the board of the Roosevelt Institute, was an inaugural artist in residence at the New York Aquarium and is a Banff Graphic Novel Resident. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss interesting facts about animal sex – from gender fluidity to procreation to co-parenting – and offer a glimpse into why so many species are worth saving from extinction. Her book is “Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Have you ever stopped to consider just how much time you spend participating in government bureaucracy? Annie Lowrey is a staff writer at The Atlantic, and she joins us to talk about just how much the government makes us work for the services it provides and how those systems could become more efficient. Her book is “The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time―and How to Fix It.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Masculinity is on display in our country in all sorts of interesting – and weird – ways. After his only son was lured into this world, Jon Ronson turned his keen observational powers on this far-reaching subculture. He joins host Krys Boyd to talk about what he found, which he writes about in “The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Tyler Austin Harper was on a tenure track at a college in Maine when he began to realize that the school’s DEI policies were actually burdening him as a Black man. “The inescapable conclusion I arrived at was that I had been hired to be visibly Black first and a scholar second, if at all,” he writes in an essay for The Atlantic headlined “Confessions of a Token Black Professor: Why I lost faith in academia.” He joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his experiences. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Even after a global pandemic, researchers are fairly free to study and enhance deadly viruses in labs that have fairly low biosafety standards. Alina Chan is a molecular biologist, and she joins host Krys Boyd to talk about precautions that can be put in place that allow for important research to be conducted while protecting the public. Her recent New York Times essay is “How to Stop a Lab Leak from Starting the Next Pandemic” and her book is “Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices