Category: WSUM

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Bill McKibben BLM Civil RIghts Climate COP28 DFL Episode Greta Thunberg James Webb Space Telescope JWST Labor Nellie Stone Johnson union Uranus WSUM

TMI 12/22/2023 – Why You Need to Know About Nellie Stone Johnson, Thunberg and Others Call COP28 a “Cop Out”, the James Webb Space Telescope Targets Uranus and more

If you live in Minnesota, you stand a decent chance of having heard of Nellie Stone Johnson, but otherwise this pioneering black woman, born in 1905, is likely a complete mystery to you. We’ll correct that injustice as much as we are able, as Ms. Johnson was one of the most important figures in labor and civil rights – mostly as she saw no reason the two causes should ever be taken on separately.

Then, with the 28th UN Conference of the Parties (COP28) finished, we’ll check in to see how climate activists from Greta Thunberg to Bill McKibben feel how it went:. Spoiler warning: they were NOT impressed. Finally, we get to the bottom of how the James Webb Space Telescope has been used to dive into Uranus, spreading open our understanding of this place that gets so misunderstood. All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 22, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Climate Donald Trump Electric Vehicles Eli Pariser Episode Facebook Filter Bubble Google Joe Biden PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Project 2025 Social Media Sociology WSUM

TMI 12/15/2023 – Is the Filter Bubble the Wrong Mechanism to Explain Social Media Toxicity?, How Trump’s Project 2025 is a Next Level Disaster for the Climate and more

We’ve reported here on TMI on Eli Pariser’s “Filter Bubble” concept since its debut in 2010 at his Ted talk: the idea that Google was selectively feeding results back to the user that the user agreed with, making it so that one person’s search results were often vastly different than another’s. Mr Pariser pointed out that by putting us all in these Filter Bubbles, we couldn’t agree on what was even factual. A new article published in the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) journal, however, says that is all wrong when applied to social media giants like Facebook, where they aim to increase your focus and time spent there by enhancing the chance of you getting made angry by what you see. We examine these competing concepts.

Then, we go over how the media is gleefully playing up any and all minutiae of Trump’s intentions for his second term except for one key part: how the Project 2025 plan that he’s assimilated is catastrophic for any chance we have to keep the environment from completely collapsing.

Finally, we present an update to a story we went over a few weeks back, putting a spotlight on how the EV infrastructure promised by Biden’s funding in 2021 is FINALLY starting to come to fruition. All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 15, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Episode Global Politics Henry Kissinger Homelessness Housing Crisis Immune System Jacobin Jeff Bezos Jessica Wildfire Jonah Walters OK Doomer WSUM

TMI 12/08/2023 – “The Good Die Young – The Verdict on Henry Kissinger” with Jonah Walters, Jeff Bezos’ Jekyll-and-Hyde on Homelessness, Jessica Wildfire’s Guide to the Immune System and more

We welcome Jonah Walters of Jacobin Magazine to discuss the new book he co-edited, “The Good Die Young – The Verdict on Henry Kissinger”, and go over the broad influence Kissinger wove around the world in his over 100 years of life. You won’t want to miss this, or the new book, which is available via https://jacobin.com/.

Then we expose how Jeff Bezos’ donations to organizations fighting homelessness across the USA sets up a horrific contrast to his 400% larger investment in a company that will make the housing crisis here WORSE. Finally, we check in on Jessica Wildfire’s OK Doomer, to find that she’s compiled a truly useful list of what we need to keep our immune systems strong in the face of rampant disease. All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 08, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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COP28 Drug Prices Episode Formularies PBM Pharmacy Benefits Manager UAE United Arab Emirates United Nations WSUM

TMI 12/01/2023 – UN Climate Conference COP28’s Hosting Nations Use It to Leverage More Fossil Fuel, The Key Role Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) Play in Skyrocketing Drug Prices and more

The COP28 Climate Conference, the United Nations 28th annual meeting to try to coordinate efforts to mitigate the Climate Crisis found itself being used by the nation hosting it to secure MORE fossil fuel production. We go over how there seems virtually NO difference between big oil corporations and nations that rely on oil income when it comes to just how low they will go.

Then, we peel back the veneer on PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Manager organizations) and how, unlike their original intention when they were created in the 1960s, they play a key role in reducing their members’ access to life saving medications and are a key part of why the prices for those pills keep climbing. All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 01, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Black Friday Episode WSUM

TMI 11/24/2023 – The Actual Origin of “Black Friday” and How it Has Nothing to Do with Profit, More

The retail establishment has long enjoyed spreading the myth that until the day after Thanksgiving each year, they are “in the red”, or that they haven’t made any total profit for the year until that very day. According to this, it is called “Black Friday” as that is when they are finally “in the black” financially, but that is far from the actual origin of the term. We go over how a certain football game’s annual happening gave rise to it, and much more on this relaxed edition of TMI for “Black Friday”, November 24, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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BCBSM Blue Cross Blue Shield COVID-19 Cows Episode Gretchen Whitmer Immune System Media Mental Health Tuberculosis Volcanoes WSUM

TMI 11/17/2023 – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan vs. Mental Health Care, How Tuberculosis Used COVID to Soften Us Up, How to Put Sensational Headlines About Volcanoes (and Cows) in Context and more

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the largest health insurer in the state, has successfully stalled legislation that would force it to pay for medically necessary mental health care. We look at who this affects and how Governor Whitmer is closely tied to BCBSM.

Then, the much-derided early reports that COVID could weaken our immune systems and make other diseases far harder to avoid have been vindicated, and tuberculosis is ready to take advantage of our collectively weakened condition. Finally, we look at how the common media loves to scare us over things that are not so bad when in proper context, making it more difficult to discern real issues. All this and more on TMI for Friday, November 17, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Anthropomorphic Bill McKibben Episode Green Manufacturing Joe Biden LNG Salt Cycle WSUM

TMI 11/10/2023 – Earth’s Salt Cycle Has Been Thrown Off Balance, Bill McKibben on Biden’s Environmental Political Opportunity, the Struggle of Making Heavy Equipment Green and more

Just when you’ve firmly wrapped your head around how human activity has upset the climate, causing a crisis in the skies, a new report tells us how, thanks to human activities, the amount of salts on the Earth’s surface are dramatically out of proportion to what would naturally be there without our digging it up, causing further environmental calamity.

Then, Bill McKibben wrote a piece on how President Joe Biden could help not only the planet but his own re-election prospects by NOT allowing new LNG projects to be completed along the Gulf coast. Finally, we look at the struggle of making manufacturing processes “green”. All this and more on TMI for Friday, November 10, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Abortion AI Episode Health Insurance Health Network One Joe Biden Leonardo Leo Medicaid Roe v. Wade SCOTUS WSUM

TMI 11/03/2023 – Leonardo Leo Funds Anti-Abortion in Ohio and Beyond, Biden Admin Executive Order Takes On AI, Health Network One Reinvents Profiting Off the Helpless and more

If you’ve never heard of Leonardo Leo and you believe that everyone, uterus-bearing or not, has the right to full bodily autonomy and access to health care (including abortion), then strap yourself in while I give you a quick tour of one of the biggest funders behind the SCOTUS majority that overturned Roe v. Wade and behind fighting Ohio from enacting a State Constitutional Amendment protecting abortion rights.

Then, in an enormous executive order, the Biden Administration is attempting to rein in AI before it is too late on a number of fronts – we examine the effort. Finally, we show how Health Network One has devised a NEW way to take public Medicaid money from Florida while giving Medicaid members WORSE coverage, all in the name of more profits! All this and more on TMI for Friday, November 03, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Acapulco Climate Eli Pariser Episode Facebook Filter Bubble Google Hurricane Otis Meta Spotify TikTok WSUM YouTube

TMI 10/27/2023 – Filter Bubble Redux: How Pariser’s Predictions Fell Short of the Real Outcome, Hurricane Otis Punctuates Release of New Climate Crisis Report, more

Back near the beginning of TMI with Aldous Tyler in 2010, we reported on Eli Pariser’s Ted Talk that introduced the world to the “Filter Bubble”. This phenomenon, he said, was caused by Google’s search algorithms, which would selectively feed you results similar to ones you had interacted with before. That would cause your Google searches to no longer match anyone else’s, and would feed you ideas you agreed with far more than those that would challenge your beliefs. Fast forward to today, and his predictions that this “echo chamber” effect could negatively impact society seem far too mild. We discuss how TikTok, Spotify, YouTube, Meta’s platforms and many others have stanched the flow of ideas and how to fight back.

Then, as I was preparing to tell you about the latest report from scientists on the climate, noting that we may very well have gone past several tipping points, Hurricane Otis became a demonstration of how we are in unknown territory by unprecedently ramping up from a weak tropical storm to a 165 MPH monster Category 5 hurricane in roughly 24 hours, slamming into the Acapulco area with no warning to evacuate the million-plus people there. We discuss how this alarming development might become the new normal. All that and more on TMI for Friday, October 27, 2023 – get YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Best of TMI Big Oil Bureau of Indian Affairs Charles Koch Climate Documentary Episode Greg Palast Killers of the Flower Moon Long Knife Native Americans Oklahoma Osage WSUM

TMI 10/20/2023 – BEST OF TMI – “Until They KILLED Them.” – Long Knife: Osage Oil and the New Trail of Tears w/ Greg Palast – Oil, Greed, Murder, Racism, Climate Crisis and more

A tremendous amount of oil was discovered on the land belonging to the Osage Nation of Oklahoma. They were the richest people on Earth… until oil-greedy people KILLED them. But who? How did they get away with it?

Investigative reporter Greg Palast has been on the hunt for this story for THREE decades! Where “KIllers of the Flower Moon” starring Leonardo DiCaprio ends, Greg Palast’s explosive documentary begins. Find out how the people behind the murder and the theft used that stolen money to help cripple climate change legislation for decades, and so much more! All that and more on TMI for Friday, October 20, 2023 – get YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

Follow Greg Palast for more details, and to find out when the Long Knife documentary releases!
Website: https://www.gregpalast.com/
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