Meet people in Hutto, TX around something worth discussing
Begin with a current story, public event, campus article, book, podcast, or thoughtful question. Then continue the conversation online or meet at a nearby Roundtable.
From Common Quandary Today
Current stories with more than one reasonable way to see them.
Scientists have created robots the size of a pencil tip intended to travel through the body to deliver medicine to infections inside a beating heart. The bots, designed to replace risky open-heart surgery and ineffective IV-drug therapy to treat life-threatening heart infections, could also be used to less invasively and more precisely treat other hard-to-reach diseases, including cancer. “With just a little…
Consumers who buy Affordable Care Act health insurance are going to see changes both big and small as open enrollment for 2027 coverage kicks off. These include premium increases, possible additional identity checks, potential delays in working with a broker, and new limits on which immigrants can get subsidies. Shoppers need to plan accordingly. Open enrollment starts Nov. 1 in most states. Idaho, Connecticut, and…
Halloween excitement, not sugar, may be behind your child’s “sugar rush,” experts say. Your child eats a handful of Halloween candy and suddenly seems to be bouncing off the walls. It may be tempting to blame the sugar, but there could be a simpler explanation: Halloween is exciting. Kids are dressing up, running around the neighborhood, seeing friends, and coming home with a haul of treats they don’t usually have.…
What does it truly cost a human being to lead a nation through an existential war while the world watches from afar? President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reveals the psychological toll of continuous survival, the grim realities of geopolitical negotiation, and what keeps him still stand
Polling is facing an existential crisis. People aren't picking up the phone. Nobody wants to talk to pollsters. Trust is on the line. We pluck a solution from the economics canon and convince a polling firm to let us test it. Today on the show, we head to Marist College — home of
OTM producer, Molly Rosen, has been on a mission to find out what technology her two-year-old kid will confront when he’s old enough to go to school. In a recent interview she did with a New Yorker staff writer, Jessica Winter, about how AI chatbots are infiltrating schools, Moll
Ben Folds Five are reuniting for their first tour in 14 years. The sardonic piano-rockers got together for a one-off hometown show at the storied North Carolina venue Cat’s Cradle in 2023, but they haven’t hit the road together since their last reunion tour wrapped up in 2013. Th
As in Paris and much of France, there were clashes in the streets of Italy, as protesters broke away from a planned march against income inequality and in support of education.
Five friends join the person ahead of you after a forty-minute wait. Do you object?
You wait forty minutes for a popular event. Just before the doors open, five friends join the person directly ahead of you, who says they have been holding everyone's place from the beginning.
Your friend is forty minutes late. Can the restaurant give away their chair?
A busy restaurant seats your group only after everyone arrives. One friend is forty minutes late and keeps texting that they are almost there. A couple waiting nearby could use the empty place, and the server asks your group to order without them.