Can Trump Kill Mail-In Ballots?

In this episode April Glaser is joined by co-host Kim-Mai Cutler, a partner at Initialized Capital, an early-stage venture firm. She’s also a former full-time journalist at TechCrunch. First, April and Kim-Mai discuss the lack of affordable housing in California and the political battles that are hindering progress. Then they talk about the upcoming wildfire season with Faith Kearns from the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Lizzie Johnson from the San Francisco Chronicle.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

22 Touko 201943min

Sheriff’s offices across the country are signing up to beta-test a facial recognition tool made by Amazon. Law enforcement proponents say the technology helps find perpetrators who otherwise may go free. But civil liberties advocates have questions about the accuracy —and the constitutionality—of these tools.Guest: Reporter Drew Harwell. Read his latest in the Washington Post. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

22 Touko 201923min

Over the weekend, billionaire Robert F. Smith ended his commencement address to the Morehouse Class of 2019 with an extraordinary pledge: He would pay off the entire class’s student debt. Smith’s pledge will undoubtedly transform the lives of those students, but what about everyone else? What does student debt relief look like on a national scale? And what can we learn from studying the Morehouse Class of 2019? Guest: Jordan Weissmann, Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

21 Touko 201918min

When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would run for president, the mockery was swift. City tabloids were typically disdainful (New York Post: “Everyone Hates Bill!”). New York’s attorney general quipped, “Why?” Even de Blasio’s former staffers have declined to voice support for their old boss’s presidential bid. Here, now, an explanation for why New Yorkers are so sure their mayor would be a bad fit for the White House. Guest: Henry Grabar, Slate staff writer.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

20 Touko 201920min

For the past couple years, politicians in Florida have been raising concerns about election security and making vague allusions to Russian hackers gaining access to voter databases. With the Mueller report, we finally got confirmation—but that’s about all we got. Are voters ever going to get the full picture of how Florida election information networks might have been compromised in 2016? And, if we want our systems to remain secure … should we want the full picture to be available, even to our enemies?Guests: Politico reporter Gary Fineout, and Leon County Elections Supervisor Mark Earley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17 Touko 201919min

Ronald Sullivan joined Harvey Weinstein’s defense team in January. This set off a wave of protests and sit-ins across the Harvard campus asking for the removal of Sullivan as faculty dean at the university. And those student protests worked. On Saturday, Harvard University announced that it was declining to renew the appointments of Ronald Sullivan and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, as faculty deans of Winthrop House. What precedent does this decision set? And is it fair for the university to strip them of their positions?Guest: Lara Bazelon, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law.Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

16 Touko 201918min

In this episode, April Glaser is joined by guest co-host Max Read, an editor at New York magazine who covers technology and the internet.First, April and Max talk about Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes’ apostasy. Last week, Hughes wrote a long op-ed in the New York Times about why he thinks the company that made him so wealthy should be broken up.Then Katherine Lo joins the hosts to discuss how Facebook’s redesign will change how we communicate on the platform. These days she leads the content moderation team at a nonprofit called Meedan, which works with journalists on disinformation. While we talk a lot about how large social networks are governed—and misgoverned—it’s less frequent that we talk about how these platforms are designed, and how that can lead to toxic behavior. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

15 Touko 201933min

If the U.S. stumbles into a war with Iran, it’ll be largely one of John Bolton’s making. The national security adviser appears to be running the foreign policy show at the White House and has a taste for regime change in several countries, including Iran. Who’s the surprising person inside the administration reining him in? And can the U.S. recover from four years of antagonizing our allies and expanding our enemies list?Guest: Dexter Filkins, staff writer at the New YorkerPodcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

15 Touko 201922min