CIA Director Ratcliffe’s trip to Russia.

On Tuesday, August 25, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow, Russia, for the first publicly disclosed time to meet with Russian intelligence officials. While the CIA has not shared the official purpose of the trip, Ratcliffe reportedly cautioned Russia against attacking North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states. The visit also comes after four and a half years of war between Russia and Ukraine with little progress in peace discussions. 

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Bring back shame?

On Friday, Associate Editor Carina Pacheco explored the cultural shift toward “normalizing” behaviors once seen as weird or unacceptable. She wrote:

I shudder to think of the mud that so many good, necessary emotions have been dragged through to get to the altar of normalization, chief among them shame and embarrassment... They form the bedrock of the shared norms and values that keep society functional. Varying degrees of risk-taking and independent decision-making — and failure — are essential to establishing character and creating the foundation of self-trust and resilience that everyone needs to truly grow.

Check out Carina’s full essay here.

You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ and today’s “Under the radar” story ⁠here⁠ and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.

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Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast written by: Isaac Saul and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.

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