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When The Promise Of Social Media Becomes Perilous
Despite social media’s early promises to build a more just and democratic society, over the past several years, we’ve seen its propensity to easily spread hate speech, misinformation and disinformation. Online platforms have even played a role in organizing violent acts in the real world, like genocide against the Rohinga people in Myanmar, and the violent attempt to overturn the election at the United States capitol.
But how did we get here? Has social media fundamentally changed how we interact with the world? And how did big tech companies accumulate so much unchecked power along the way?
Remembering Roger Payne, Who Helped Save The Whales
Americans haven’t always loved whales and dolphins. In the 1950s, the average American thought of whales as the floating raw materials for margarine, animal feed, and fertilizer—if they thought about whales at all. But twenty-five years later, things changed for cetaceans in a big way. Whales became the poster-animal for a new environmental movement, and cries of “save the whales!” echoed from the halls of government to the whaling grounds of the Pacific. What happened?
Shifting attitudes were due, in large part, to the work of scientist Roger Payne, who died earlier this month at the age of 88. His recordings helped to popularize whalesong, and stoked the public imagination about intelligent underwater creatures who used vocalizations to communicate.
In 2018, our podcast “Undiscovered” explored the history of Payne’s work, and that of his colleagues. We’re featuring this episode as a way of remembering his life and groundbreaking work.
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Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
743: Our Inevitable Cosmic Apocalypse
742: The Complicated Truths About Offshore Wind And Right Whales
741: The Bumpy Road To Approving New Alzheimer’s Drugs
740: ‘3 Body Problem’ And The Laws Of Physics | In Defense Of ‘Out Of Place’ Plants
739: Baltimore Bridge Collapse | Mapping How Viruses Jump Between Species
738: The Legacy Of Primatologist Frans de Waal
737: The ‘Asteroid Hunter’ Leading The OSIRIS-REx Mission
736: Swimming Sea Lions Teach Engineers About Fluid Dynamics
735: Botanical Rescue Centers Take In Illegally Trafficked Plants
734: 2023 Was Hottest Year On Record | The NASA Satellite Studying Plankton
731: A Strange-Looking Fish, Frozen In Time
732: What We Know After 4 Years Of COVID-19
733: Science Unlocks The Power Of Flavor In ‘Flavorama’
729: Abortion-Restrictive States Leave Ob-Gyns With Tough Choices
730: Nasal Rising Safely | How Your Brain Constructs Your Mental Health
726: A New Book Puts ‘Math in Drag’
725: With This Rare Disorder, No Amount Of Sleep Is Enough
724: How Election Science Can Support Democracy | The Genetic Roots Of Antibiotic Resistance
728: Triple Feature: Dune, Mars, And An Alien On Earth
727: Could This Be The End Of Voyager 1?
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