Story of the Week with Joel Stein

Here’s a preview of a new audiobook, Global Tech Wars: China’s Race to Dominate [https://open.spotify.com/show/0j6iVkv3wIXkj1twQcZoq0?si=6c7af49885304b48&nd=1&dlsi=24f3cefee6864d3d]. For decades, China’s economic rise has been symbolized by its unstoppable force of low-cost manufacturing. Now, it’s the leading country in cutting-edge industries like artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, surveillance technology, and more. In Global Tech Wars, Financial Times’ veteran journalist James Kynge analyzes China’s rapid technological ascent and what it means for the future. If you like what you hear, find the full audiobook at Pushkin [https://www.pushkin.fm/audiobooks/global-tech-wars-chinas-race-to-dominate], Audible [https://www.audible.com/pd/Global-Tech-Wars-Audiobook/B0F1DQHBWH], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/0j6iVkv3wIXkj1twQcZoq0?si=6c7af49885304b48], or wherever you get your audiobooks. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

With the 96th Academy Awards this Sunday, we wanted to revisit this episode from last year. The Oscars seems to be cursed with a series of chaotic live television gaffes. But one moment in Academy Award history takes the cake. In 1974, a scrawny white man named Robert Opel ran across the stage butt naked, right as the Best Picture category was being announced. New Yorker magazine writer and Oscars aficionado Michael Schulman recounts the queer, wonderful, and historic life of the 1974 Oscars streaker.  You can read the full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/06/what-became-of-the-oscar-streaker [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/06/what-became-of-the-oscar-streaker]  You can find Michael Schulman’s new book Oscar Wars here. [https://www.amazon.com/Oscar-Wars-History-Hollywood-Sweat/dp/0062859013/ref=asc_df_0062859013/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598229505507&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4643117176586524590&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030967&hvtargid=pla-1732288545983&psc=1] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

After his cartooning career failed to take off, a German artist named Arno Funke started extorting department stores.  He went by “Dagobert,” the German name for the character of Scrooge McDuck in the cartoon DuckTales. His crime spree lasted for years and made him a folk hero across Germany. Recently, reporter Jeff Maysh got to meet him.  You can read Jeff Maysh’s New Yorker article “The Strange Story of Dagobert, the ‘DuckTales’ Bandit”  here: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-strange-story-of-dagobert-the-ducktales-bandit [https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-strange-story-of-dagobert-the-ducktales-bandit] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

“Bronze Age Pervert” is the moniker of an influential far-right thinker. He has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. His book is a top-seller on Amazon, and was reviewed by a former Trump administration official. Journalist Graeme Wood knew him before all that, back when he was just a college student in tevas.  You can read Graeme Wood’s Atlantic story “How Bronze Age Pervert Charmed the Far Right” here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/bronze-age-pervert-costin-alamariu/674762/ [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/bronze-age-pervert-costin-alamariu/674762/]  See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

When Andrew Leland was a teenager he learned he had a rare disease that would cause him to become blind by the time he reached middle age. He recently decided to prepare by attending a special school for blind people.  ---------------------------------------- You can read Andrew’s essay for the New Yorker, “How to Be Blind” here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/how-to-be-blind [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/how-to-be-blind]  And you can find Andrew’s new book, The Country of the Blind here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635964/the-country-of-the-blind-by-andrew-leland/ [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635964/the-country-of-the-blind-by-andrew-leland/]  See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.