Why It Matters

You’re making the rounds at a party when someone asks you about NATO. Is it still important? The alliance is credited with preventing a third world war, but a lot of us don’t know what it is or how it works. This episode takes a look at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from the ground up, paired best with a cold drink.

As climate change accelerates, some scientists are researching ways to alter our climate to slow down warming. But the method, called solar geoengineering, comes with some serious risks. 

 

Guests 

David Keith (Harvard University)

Shuchi Talati (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Gernot Wagner (New York University)

 

Show Notes

The aftershocks of Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election are still being felt today. Is the United States ready for 2020?

Militaries around the world are designing artificial intelligence–powered weapons that could one day make their own decisions about who to target. The technology could change warfare, but at what cost?

At the start of the new year, the Why It Matters team takes a look at some of the best interview segments that didn’t make it into the episodes.

Antibiotics have saved untold millions of lives, but bacteria are learning to outsmart them at alarming rates. Projections show that by 2050, ten million people could die each year from antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Space is getting crowded. The biggest challenge is space junk—the debris that results when satellites break up or get shot down. If we aren’t careful, space junk, and space conflict, could cause a lot of problems down here on Earth.

Women and girls are excluded from career paths in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This gender gap is causing the world to lose out on “the genius of half the population,” according to former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith.

For years, China processed more than half of the world’s recycling. Then, in 2018, it stopped. Things have gotten messy since then.

The U.S. president can launch a first-strike nuclear attack at any time, and there’s no law mandating they seek advice first. Some experts think that’s too much power to put in one person’s hands.