17 Jul

PBS, NPR, the Fed, Wuhan, and 'Jaws'

0 Politics Television/Film

JL;DR SUMMARY The podcast explores the implications of recent legislation impacting public broadcasting funding and the concept of political will's power in circumventing the traditional Washington consensus. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski.

At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself.
This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude.
Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from.
But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries and key points of all podcast episodes in the archive, including this one. Donate & listen smarter »

Places mentioned

Wuhan, Hubei, China

"That the United States government should be unbelievably careful, if not absolutely dismissive of the use of so called gain of function research. Because which is the act of manipulating viruses or things in a lab to strengthen them or weaken to see what happens if you make them tougher, and then you zap them with some effort to cure them, that it shows you that the effort works, right? Manipulating viruses to see how strong they are and what you can do with them and that it is the question of our time whether or not it was gain of function research at the Wuhan lab that caused the coronavirus pandemic."

Pennsylvania, United States

"I don't really think this happened because somebody ate a bat. Yeah, you know, where did that bat come from? I know it's weird, it's weird people are eating bats in China, but, you know, still, a guy eats a bat, or three feet from the wet market, there's a lab where they're doing research on bats and coronavirus, and they're strengthening the coronavirus using gain-of-function research, and that lab has already had two major lab leaks in the past 10 years. Pretty simple explanation. I mean, we still don't know if it's true, but Occam's Razor suggests that it's truer than the bat story."

New York, United States

"Capitalists said this is the wave of the future. This is fantastic. This is a real thing for us to invest in. Solar and wind have been conversation points for the Biden people and the Obama people and everybody wants to talk about renewable energy. And it clearly doesn't work because if it worked, a hundred billion dollars in private capital would have been raised to put wind farms all over the country. And we would all have solar panels. I've told this story before. In 1974, I lived in an apartment building. I grew up in an apartment building on 105th and Broadway. And there was a pilot project for solar energy to power the water in, you know, to heat the water in apartment buildings. And my building got the contract, one of the contracts. And so, I did a whole science. I know about this because I did a 12th grade science."

Jerusalem, Israel

"And eventually, the Donald restaurants, to jerusalem the capital of israel it was also has not as which was which was the position yeah which was voted on by congress right by congress in 1996 and stayed every year or every six months by the sitting administration on emergency grounds that it was too dangerous to do so so it was 21 years from the time that congress said the embassy should be moved right uh until the embassy was moved."

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel

"Tel Aviv, Israel. Well, I'm broadcasting from Tel Aviv, one of the bustling cities in the heart of the Middle East. It's a place where tradition meets modernity, and the city pulsates with energy both during the day and late into the night. As the cultural and metropolitan hub of Israel, it's known for its vibrant nightlife, beautiful beaches, and rich history."

Cairo Item ID	58254
Cairo Source ID	60
Retrieved	2025-07-31 05:31:18 UTC
Curated	2025-07-31 06:07:49 UTC

PBS, NPR, the Fed, Wuhan, and 'Jaws'

Tags

Places mentioned