Episode summary: A cheating scandal is currently rocking the world of chess, as World Champion Magnus Carlsen accuses the young American Hans Niemann of cheating. A bombshell new report has said that Niemann is likely to have cheated in over 100 games online, and uses data to support its argument. S...

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Episode summary: S5 Ep8: Food Memoir with Rebecca May Johnson and Angela Hui

Episode summary: Arvind Narayanan is a Princeton computer science professor who wants to make it easy for you to cut through the AI. In a fascinating and plain old helpful interview, Arvid runs through all the big claims made about AI today and makes them very simple to understand.

Episode summary: In the winter of 1803, residents outside of London reported strange encounters with a ghost. Some said it looked like Napoleon Bonaparte, or a horse without a head. Others said the ghost breathed fire and smoke. By Christmas, there was a “full-scale phantom panic.” Shortly after the...

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Episode summary: The etrog is a curious fruit. The Bible commands its readers: “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day beautiful tree-fruit (peri etz hadar), palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.” Native t...

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Episode summary: The Mennonite National Anthem

Episode summary: Jamaica is famous around the world for its music, including genres like ska, dub, and reggae. It’s tempting to think that the powerful amplifiers and giant speakers at the dance parties were designed to perfectly capture Jamaica’s indigenous sounds. But it’s actually the other way a...

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Episode summary: Why do so many employers rely on shallow signals of applicant quality?

Episode summary: The Rise of the Guinea Pigs

I didn’t realise that the previous episode was part on of a twofer. That does not change my complaint. What did the Minnesota Starvation Experiment reveal, other than that committed people willingly volunteer to starve?

Episode summary: The jackalope is a mythical mascot of the American West – inspiring an absolute river of trinkets and songs and whiskies and postcards and tall tales.

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