Interesting Podcast

If watching Regents meetings - see our previous post - is not your thing, you might be interested in a podcast from the New York Times ("The Daily" series: When the Culture Wars Came for NASA. If you play the podcast audio towards its conclusion, the NASA issue spills over into higher education institutions (George Mason University, Florida Institute of Technology, U of New Hampshire). 

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful ever made, has revolutionized the way we see the universe. The name was chosen for James E. Webb, a NASA administrator during the 1960s. But when doubts about his background emerged, the telescope’s name turned into a fight over homophobia.

The audio can be found at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/podcasts/the-daily/james-webb-telescope-nasa.html.

If you prefer to read it rather than listen, the transcript is at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/podcasts/the-daily/james-webb-telescope-nasa.html?showTranscript=1.

There is a somewhat truncated version in the NY Times at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/us/james-webb-telescope-gay-rights.html.