Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Obamacare Challenges, White Mortality Rates, and Dark Matter
A new study finds that one group of people is dying at a much higher rate than ever before: middle-aged white Americans. Then, dark matter: scientists say it’s all around us, but we can’t see it or touch it or smell it. When dinosaurs went extinct, could dark matter have been to blame?
By Madeleine Brand • • 50m ListenKentucky businessman and Tea Party Republican Matt Bevin promised to repeal Obamacare if he was elected governor of Kentucky. Yesterday, surprisingly, Bevin won that election. Until now, Kentucky has been seen as one of the Affordable Care Act’s success stories. So what went wrong?
Then, a new study from two Princeton economists has shocked the public health world. It finds that unlike every other age group, unlike every other racial and ethnic group, unlike similar populations in other countries, one group of people is dying at a much higher rate than ever before: middle-aged white Americans.
Next: Dark matter. It’s stuff that scientists say is all around us, but we can’t see it or touch it or smell it. It doesn’t show up on any of our scientific instruments, but it makes up about 85 percent of stuff in the universe. And when dinosaurs went extinct, could dark matter have played a role in their disappearance?
Then, a quarter of California’s public school students are English language learners. In class, it can be difficult to keep up, so today the State Board of Education is adopting a new teaching method that’s being described as groundbreaking.
Finally, Tijuana went from party city to war zone in the span of a single year. It was 2008 and a wave of brazen narco violence washed over the city; homicides tripled from the previous year. Businesses shuttered, tourism dried up, the people of the city lived in fear for their lives, and a burgeoning arts scene went into hibernation. But today, the arts scene is coming back in a big way.
Banner Image: Dark matter is invisible. Based on the effect of gravitational lensing, a ring of dark matter has been inferred in this image of a galaxy cluster (CL0024+17) and has been represented in blue.
