Make Me Smart June 12, 2024 Transcript

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Jay Siebold

5, 4, 3, 2, 1,

Kimberly Adams 

Hello everyone, I’m Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense. Kai is out today, so joining me here in the New York Bureau is Marketplace’s Kristin Schwab. Hey Kristin.

Kristin Schwab 

Hey Kimberly. It’s great to be here for my first Make Me Smart.

Kimberly Adams

Yes, welcome to the show.

Kristin Schwab 

Yeah, and thanks for joining us everyone who’s tuning in on a Wednesday today.

Kimberly Adams 

In the very cold studio, but we are trying to stay cozy.

Kristin Schwab 

Yes, got a blanket here. It’s like, I’m on my couch.

Kimberly Adams 

Excellent, excellent. So, you can be comfy. All right, today we are going to do what we usually do. Some news first, and then some smiles. So, Kristen, what caught your attention today?

Kristin Schwab 

Yeah. Well, today I saw something about extreme weather events, which I feel like we’re talking about a lot lately.

Kimberly Adams

Thank you, climate change.

Kristin Schwab

Often, yeah. Often, we’re talking about heat, fire and flooding. But I grew up in the Midwest. So did you. And so, we know that it’s tornado season. And so, that region that we call Tornado Alley, which has a lot of different definitions, but is sort of that south to north stretch of Texas to Minnesota. Researchers say it’s actually moving east. So, scientists at the Journal of Applied meteorology and climatology have been studying this, and they’ve looked at about 70 years of data, and it seems that the highest concentration of tornado activity has moved from the eye of the storm, you know, collectively, from over Oklahoma has shifted over to Mississippi.

Kimberly Adams

What?

Kristin Schwab

Which is pretty far.

Kimberly Adams 

That’s pretty far. And also, that’s very south. Much more so than Midwest, and I always associate tornadoes with the Midwest, and that is not Mississippi.

Kristin Schwab 

Right. Yeah, it is pretty far south. There’s actually a good map of this in the Washington Post story. That’ll be in the show notes, and you can see that shift of that eye of those storms, and how far east it’s moved. And it kind of moves the whole zone east, you know, so there’s more tornado activity as far east as Maryland now. Of course, tornadoes happen everywhere, but.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, have you ever seen one?

Kristin Schwab 

I have seen like, a water lake funnel from afar. And I’ve definitely spent, you know, I have childhood memories of the basement.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes, the basement. Yeah, my brother once, when I was living in Egypt, he made me a recording to help like me, not feel homesick, and he called it this the last April shower. And it was this, like hour and a half long recording of just an epic Missouri thunderstorm with the tornado sirens going off because, of course, being from Missouri, the tornado sirens went off. He went outside and recorded it, which is the most Midwestern thing you can do. Like, oh, I have to see the clouds and see if there’s actually rotation because it’s not real until you see the rotation. Don’t do this at home. Please don’t.

Kristin Schwab 

It’s kind of the most human thing to do. It’s to go look at the thing you’re not supposed to look at.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes, exactly. So, do you remember the 1996 movie “Twisters”?

Kristin Schwab

Oh yeah.

Kimberly Adams

Right, this was like canon growing up for being in the Midwest. They’re making a new one. Yes, it’s supposed to come out this year. I saw the trailer for it a while back. It’s “Twisters 2.” And I’m looking here at parade.com. It says: “It’s time to try and remember the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning.” By the way, a tornado watch is when it’s likely that there could be a tornado, and a tornado warning is when one has been spotted. Anyway. “At least on the big screen. Nearly 30 years after the summer blockbuster ‘Twister’ hit theaters, the franchise is finally getting a second film. The original 1996 movie saw Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton chasing storms in Oklahoma. Now a whole new generation will get to enjoy the thrill of chasing after the deadly wind cyclones.” So yeah, and it’s funny. The poster for it says: Chase. Ride. Survive.

Kristin Schwab

Oh boy.

Kimberly Adams

Don’t chase. It’s supposed to come out.

Kristin Schwab 

Don’t chase or ride. Just survive.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, just go away from the tornado. It’s supposed to come out July 19, and I haven’t been to the movies since, gosh, what was it? The first. No, I saw “The Color Purple.” That was the last movie I saw. But I might. I might go see this because it warms my Midwestern heart to watch people do dumb things around tornadoes.

Kristin Schwab 

Crazy. Crazy. It is worth, I do just want to mention that the researchers actually don’t know if it’s a climate change thing yet or not. So, just wanted to put that in there. It’s a theory. They have to do a little more research to figure it out, so they don’t know if it’s a temporary shift or a permanent one, but it would, you know, affect a lot of people who don’t live in houses built for that kind of weather, you know.

Kimberly Adams 

Well, yeah. And also, for insurance, you know? Your insurance for wind damage and for, you know, hail damage and things like that are going to be different depending on those kind of maps. And, you know, insurance companies are notoriously lately trying to back out of a lot of regions where there’s a high risk of damage. Okay, well, my story is some excellent reporting from thehill.com. And I’ve talked on the show a bunch about how it’s so hard to track money in politics, and how at this point, kind of what you see from the FEC reports is almost useless because there’s so much money moving behind the scenes. Dark money, super PACs, etc., and we can’t really see how that money is moving and how it’s influencing politics. Well, The Hill got a bunch of emails and did some really cool reporting. The reporter’s name is Taylor Giorno, I believe is how you say it. And I’m just going to read the first two and a half paragraphs. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce received an $800,000 wire transfer from billionaire donor Hank Meijer days after it endorsed his son, then Representative Peter Meijer, Republican from Michigan, in a contentious 2022 primary, according to previously unreported internal emails reviewed by The Hill. Within days of the transfer, the Chamber spent $381,000 on ‘Media Advertisement’ mentioning Representative Peter Meijer,’ according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission. But because the ad called ‘Thank you, Representative Peter Meijer’ does not explicitly advocate for his election or defeat, the pro-business lobbying giant did not have to legally disclose the donation from Hank Meijer, the co-chair and CEO of the Meijer chain of superstores. It also did not have to disclose any other potential contributions behind the $1.8 million it told the FEC it spent on ‘electioneering and communications’ that cycle.” And this article lays out in extreme detail the blow by blow and the play-by-play of when the money came in and how quickly it turned around to basically go from donation from the guy’s dad to the Chamber of Commerce to them running ads on his behalf. And because of the way that campaign finance law works, it was legal, and the Chamber, at least the Chamber of Commerce, says it was all legal. And at best, you know this reporting can tell, it is legal because, as it says: “Nonprofits such as the Chamber are not legally required to publicly disclose their donors. The Supreme Court recently ruled nonprofit disclosure requirements violated donors First Amendment rights and risk deterring donors who don’t want their names public.” Now, people are going to be like, hey, isn’t it illegal for these nonprofits and campaigns to coordinate? Yes, technically, but, and I’m going to read here. “The involvement of a candidate’s family member is not de facto coordination, campaign finance experts told The Hill.

Kristin Schwab 

I mean, also it was called like, the title was, thank you. Isn’t the whole point of an ad that you’re supporting something? Seems pretty clear to me. I don’t know.

Kimberly Adams 

It’s not an explicit endorsement because this is, they make it about an issue. As in, thank you for supporting businesses. Thank you for promoting tax, you know, family friendly policies. Thank you for fill in the blank. That’s not necessarily telling voters you should vote for them. It’s just saying, hey, we businesses, you know, want to lower an organization that is supporting small businesses and big businesses and supporting growth in the economy. We think this person did a good job. Do it that what you will.

Kristin Schwab 

Timed to be very well.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes, just in time for the election.

Kristin Schwab

What a loophole.

Kimberly Adams

It’s one of many, many loopholes in campaign finance. But I mean, again, the Chamber, I’m going to read this. “A Chamber spokesperson told The Hill that the organization ‘operates consistent with all applicable campaign finance laws, including restrictions related to coordination activities and requirements around donor disclosure’ and ‘timely reported this advertisement to the FEC, providing all information required by law.” And that’s probably true. And it’s just that the way that the laws are written and the way that they are enforced makes this kind of stuff very common. It’s just rare that we get to see it so clearly, and it’s just because this reporter was able to get hold of some emails.

Kristin Schwab

Wow, pretty amazing.

Kimberly Adams

Jay’s done with us talking. He’s like, I want something to be happy. What did you find?

Kristin Schwab 

I have been kind of following a series of stories that have become a trend, and actually something that I did a little bit of reporting on last year, which is lots of people, and lots of younger people included, are just wanting to do things earlier in the day now. I may or may not be one of these people. So, people are making earlier dinner reservations. Dinner is peaking earlier. A lot of ballet and Broadway start times have shifted to be an hour earlier in the evening. And apparently, there’s also a trend in weddings, where people are doing weddings that end at like nine or 10pm or brunch weddings. Apparently, like night weddings are still kind of reign supreme, but more people have been booking things to end earlier. And there are all these, I really want to go to one of these actually. There are all these events that have popped up. They’re basically DJ dance parties that are in clubs, but they start at five and end at 10.

Kimberly Adams 

I saw one of those advertised for Pride Month where this guy was just like, I don’t have it in me anymore. I want to celebrate Pride, but I need to be in bed. So, I’m doing a party, and it’s going to be done by 10, and we can all go to bed.

Kristin Schwab 

Yeah, yeah. There’s this, it’s called Matinée Social Club, and the slogan is, “Go out. Go to bed.” So.

Kimberly Adams 

I feel that so deeply in my soul. I was in bed by like, 10 o’clock last night, and I was like, yes, this is how it should be. You were so ahead on this trend, like you were reporting on this last year, way before I’d heard it from anybody else. How did you first stumble upon it?

Kristin Schwab 

Well, I cover restaurants a lot, so I had been talking to restaurant owners, and a lot of people were just talking about how people are coming in earlier and on different days of the week. It actually helps business owners because they can turn maybe an extra table that night. When people come in earlier, there are still people who go to dinner at like 8pm or 7:30 or whatever it is. Monsters. But yeah, it’s good for their bottom line. It’s good for their workers if they’re able to send people home, start them earlier, and send them home a little earlier, especially people that are taking mass transit home. They’re not, you know, out on the later bus times.

Kimberly Adams 

Or the line shut down before they can get home.

Kristin Schwab 

Or have to take a taxi home or figure out transportation. So, it’s kind of a win-win for everyone, I think.

Kimberly Adams 

People are better rested. Go to bed. Just go to bed. Okay, as regular listeners of this podcast will know, and you pointed this out earlier today, animal stories are often the only place where we can find happy news in this outlet. But I saw this adorable video on social media the other day and had to go look and find more about it. So, there’s basically an elephant sanctuary in Kenya called the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and they have been rescuing elephants for decades, right? And so, they have this adorable story, and it says: “Over the years, our Ithumba stockades,” and this is like the area where I guess there’s an interface between this elephant sanctuary and sort of the wild lands. And it says: “Our Ithumba stockades have born witness to some incredible stories. Wounded wild elephants have sought us out for help, ex-orphans have returned injured wild friends, introduced us to their young,” and etc., etc. “But nothing could have prepared us for this day.” So, the website goes on to say how back in April of 2022 basically an elephant that they had rescued and rehabilitated in the past, came back with her baby and a couple of their friends and some other ex-orphans with a little baby elephant with them that did not belong to anyone. And so, they said: “The calf was a few days old at most. He’d clearly been without milk, given his weakened body condition and how he tried desperately to nurse from all the females present, but to no avail. We will never know how the calf found himself in the midst of our ex-orphans nor how he came to lose his mother. The ex-orphans must have come across him alone in the bush, and realizing that he was in dire need of help, frogmarched him to the place they knew to be a refuge for all elephants: Our Ithumba stockades.” And so, these rescued elephants, all grown up, found this baby elephant and brought the baby elephant to the elephant sanctuary, and they rescued him, and, like, nursed him to health, and now he’s doing great. And I thought that was so sweet. And they have a very cute video of the baby elephant, just like playing around in his little blanket and with his favorite keeper. The elephant’s name is Toto, which it’s just super cute. And so, that was already on my mind when I saw this. Multiple places reporting about an article in Nature Ecology & Evolution, which found that African elephants address one another with individual names. They have names for each other that they use to call each other.

Kristin Schwab

Certain sounds.

Kimberly Adams

Yeah, like certain sounds. So, they used machine learning. It’s like, thankfully, something good from AI. They used machine learning to figure this out by, like, analyzing different sounds that the elephants were making. And they were able to record an elephant, like, calling for her mother, and then they like, played it back, and the mom, like, looked up and looked around. And so, they’re still trying to figure out exactly what component of the sound is the name, but it seems to be different from say, what dolphins do, which is, like, mimic back the sound that the other dolphin made to them. But it seems that elephants have names for each other that they use to communicate, which is even more a reason to know that animals are very smart, and we should not be killing them for tusks and other things. But in particular, they were saying that this means that elephants could have the ability for, a capacity for abstract thought, which is another one of these things that they thought only humans had. And it feels like every other month I’m on here talking about some new research or discovery that shows that this thing that we thought was unique to humans is actually not.

Kristin Schwab 

Yeah. Animals.

Kimberly Adams 

Yay, animals. All right, that is it for us today, and Kristen’s inaugural Make Me Smart. We will be back tomorrow, and until then, you can send your thoughts, questions, comments, or any audio clips you want us to talk about because we’re doing the audio clip show tomorrow, and you can send those to makemesmart@marketplace.org. Or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART. Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Ellen Rolfes writes our newsletter. Today’s program was engineered by Jay Sebold. And Thalia Menchaca is our intern. And Gary helped too. Gary O’Keefe that’s in New York.

Kristin Schwab 

Also, Ben Tolliday and Daniel Ramirez composed our theme music. Our senior producer is Marissa Cabrera. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts. Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital.

Kimberly Adams 

Perfect timing on your first run. Love it. And you did the dance with me.

Kristin Schwab

Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.