The state legislature is deadlocked over how to respond to CA’s massive wildfires. We'll discuss the latest. We also examine the potential overuse of exclamation points; look into the return of supersonic jets; and more.
CA lawmakers still drafting wildfire prevention legislation – what are the points of contention?
The state legislature is deadlocked over how to respond to CA’s massive wildfires.
A 72-page draft bill deals with how much financial responsibility for fires falls on power companies. New tree and brush removal rules are also under debate. How should the state respond to historically large fires?
We’ll get the latest on the tick-tock.
We have reached out to PG&E. They have declined our request for an interview.
Guest:
John Myers, Sacramento bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times; he tweets
Why have Americans grown disenchanted with sedans?
Just five years ago, American car sales were split between passenger cars and light trucks, but now sales for sedans have dropped to about a third, and are expected to shrink beyond that.
According to the Wall Street Journal, one factor is that SUVs have become smaller while still offering all the perks that attract consumers: higher seating, improved handling and more room. They’re also using less fuel, so the cost differential is shrinking. But there’s also a shift in how Americans are relating to cars – perhaps caring less about the machinery and more about what a car can functionally provide.
Have you experienced a shift in what you look for in a car? Are you still an owner of a sedan? Or if you made the switch over to an SUV, why?
Guests:
Mike Colias, reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering the automotive industry, who has written about how the relationship between people and their cars is changing; he tweets
John Heitmann, history professor and former chair of the History Department at the University of Dayton in Ohio, who focuses on science, technology and the history of automobile; author of the book, "The Automobile and American Life" (McFarland, 2018)
Remembering American playwright Neil Simon
American playwright Neil Simon died Sunday at the age of 91.
Simon was known for his successful hits such as “The Odd Couple,” ″Barefoot in the Park” and his “Brighton Beach” trilogy. He was regarded as American theater’s most successful and prolific playwright in the second half of the 20th century. In his lifetime, Simon was the recipient of four Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center honors, and had a Broadway theater named after him in 1983.
Simon passed away early Sunday of complications from pneumonia at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
John Lahr, former senior drama critic for the New Yorker from 1992 to 2013
Pete Hammond, awards columnist and writer for Deadline, the film and TV news site; his latest piece looks at film adapted from Neil Simon’s plays
Quieter, cleaner supersonic jets to make a return, but are they any more commercially viable?
Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace company, is leading the effort to build an airplane with a quieter sonic boom.
Last April, NASA's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project announced a partnership with Lockheed Martin to develop technology that would bring back supersonic airlines. The aircraft will cruise at 55,000 feet, Mach 1.4, and will generate a gentle, supersonic heartbeat instead of a sonic boom.
The aircraft, called the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD), also known as the X-59 QueSST, is scheduled to start flying in 2021. It will be more environmental friendly and much quieter than the turbojet-powered supersonic airliner, Concorde, that was grounded in 2003. In a fast-paced world and a seemingly moving economy, the need for faster means of transportation seems to be pressing.
Lockheed's LBFD program is not the only one aiming at making the supersonic travel economically viable. Other companies, like Boston-based Spike Aerospace, are also working to bring back faster-than-sound travel to the flying public. Boom Technology, a Colorado startup, is another company that is developing a supersonic aircraft with a sonic boom 30 times quieter than Concorde's.
We look at the future of quieter supersonic aircrafts and examine if there is a market for them.
Guests:
Vik Kachoria, president and CEO of Spike Aerospace, a Boston-based aerospace firm that is developing a low-boom supersonic aircraft, the Spike S-512.
Patrick Smith, airline pilot and author of the book, “Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections” (Sourcebooks, 2018); founder and editor of AskThePilot.com, a blog about air travel
How the modern day workplace is changing to accommodate ‘night owl’ employees after years of catering to ‘morning larks’
“The early bird gets the worm.” “Early to bed, early to rise.”
If we believe the adages many of our parents told us when we were young, the earlier you can go to sleep and the earlier you start your day, the better off you’ll be. Don’t like to wake up early? You’re being lazy, stop wasting your day. And good luck getting a day job, most of which begin between 7 and 9 a.m.
That’s all great if you’re the kind of person who lives for a 4:45 a.m. jog, but if you’re the type who prefers to burn the midnight oil and find yourself simply unable to leap out of bed in the morning to vie for the worm with the other early birds, the traditional 9-5 working hours might not jive with your body clock. And that’s OK, because the science says late sleepers aren’t all deadbeats who party too late, but that some of them simply aren’t wired for early morning functionality.
Thanks to more companies opening up to the idea of telecommuting or working remotely during non-traditional work hours, more and more workplaces are shedding the notion that business can only be conducted between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Internet-equipped smartphones allow us to check our email, drop in on meetings, and even work on shared projects remotely and at times when the office might be empty.
If you’re a night owl, have you had to make arrangements with your employer to help accommodate your schedule? Was your employer receptive to making the changes? How else have you seen your workplace shifting to accommodate other night owl-types? If you own or manage a business, have you made any changes to workplace culture to help accommodate?
Guests:
Roger Cheng, executive editor for CNET News; he tweets
David Heinemeier Hansson, programmer and author of the book “Remote: Office Not Required” (2013, Currency)
Textual communication troubles: Are we overusing exclamation points?!!
You’ve likely started a work email like this: “Happy to hear from you!”
Seems friendly, amicable, professional – right?
What about, “Happy to hear from you.”
Does that seem passive aggressive or even rude, even though you are ostensibly “happy” to hear from this person, as you’ve so explicitly written in your email?
That’s probably because we’ve gotten so acclimated to using exclamation points over email and text that going sans seems wrong. What was once a punctuation mark meant to relay overwhelming excitement is now just a marker of goodwill. In linguistics it’s called “verbal inflation” – the idea that once you express a certain level of enthusiasm you have to keep upping the ante so as not to seem like you’re dampening the mood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyRLFWF2v_U
Some have revolted against exclamation points, scrubbing them from emails once they’re written. But it’s not just exclamation points that get people agonizing over emails or spending too much time poring over emails received. If you’re from an older generation, you might be familiar with the ellipses as a sign off, which once conveyed “let’s continue the conversation” but to millennials reads more like a vague and undercutting trail off. Then there’s the world of emojis… what they mean alone or in combinations, and whether they belong in the professional world at all.
Do you spend time stressing about over work emails and texts, trying to convey just the right amount of enthusiasm? Have you ever stopped using exclamation points and has it ever gotten you in trouble? What textual tics drive you up the wall?
Guests:
Gretchen McCulloch, linguist who studies the language of the internet; her podcast is “Lingthusiasm,” a podcast for people who are enthusiastic about linguistics; she tweets
Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and author of the book, “You’re the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendships” (Ballantine Books, 2017) which is released today as a paperback