Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Vaping, Chevron in Ecuador & Crowdsourcing Science
LA bans e-cigarettes, a judge claims fraud in the $9.5B settlement against Chevron, crowdsourcing science, and the historical (in)accuracy of the '300' sequel.
By Madeleine Brand • • 51m ListenThe LA City Council has banned e-cigarettes wherever regular cigarettes are banned. But are e-cigs as dangerous? And what are vape lounges all about? In Ecuador, a judge ruled yesterday that a previous $9.5B settlement against Chevron was based on fraud. We get the details on a fascinating story. Zooniverse.org now has one million citizen scientists working on real science projects online. We talk to one of the founders about how crowdsourcing science has become such a big thing. And speaking of crowdsourcing, in less than five years, Kickstarter has raised $1B for start-up projects. And a sequel is coming out this weekend to the sword and sandal movie 300, but how historically accurate is it? And should we care?
Banner Image: A female model demonstrating use of an electronic cigarette; Credit: Michael Dorausch
In this episode
6 storiesE-Cigarettes
The LA City Council voted unanimously yesterday to ban e-cigarettes wherever regular cigarettes are banned. That means no more ‘vaping’ at workplaces, restaurants, bars and other public spaces. And LA’s not the only one -- New York and Chicago already have similar restrictions.
Read the story9 minThe Mad Brand Vapes with The Joel Stein
Vape Lounges are one of the only public places where people in L.A. will still be able to use their e-cigarettes. Madeleine wanted to see what goes on inside a Vape Lounge, so she called up Time Magazine’s Joel Stein to see if he would try vaping for the first time. They met up at the L.A.
Read the story8 minChevron and the Amazon
A judge ruled yesterday that a $9.5 billion settlement against oil giant Chevron in Ecuador was a fraud. Villagers in Ecuador and environmentalists say Texaco - now owned by Chevron - polluted their corner of the Amazon for decades.
Read the story9 minCrowdsourcing Citizen Science
7 years ago, Kevin Schawinski, a young astronomy researcher at Oxford, met up with his colleague Chris Lintott at a local pub. Schawinski had started the tedious task of looking through images of a million galaxies that he needed to classify. He’d just spent the whole week doing this and had completed just 50-thousand of them.
Read the story7 minKickstarter Reaches $1 Billion
This week, Kickstarter excitedly announced it’s handled a billion dollars in pledges for start-up projects. Not all projects were funded and not all funded projects were successful. But it’s still a lot of money.
Read the story8 minThe Movie '300'
The sword and sandal epic 300 was released in 2006. The movie made nearly half a billion dollars worldwide. Not surprisingly, there’s a sequel coming out this weekend. It’s called: 300: Rise of an Empire .
Read the story8 min
