I was an early adopter of social media, especially Facebook. It was a natural progression for me from writing letters to the editor, calling talk radio, and creating my own family website. I discuss some virtues and vices of social media and then how it might be skewing my perception of the behavior of the current US administration as it regards entry of citizens to the US in a very fraught environment where basic rights have been called into question.

The Lipkin Family website

https://www.lipkinfamily.com/

Ezra Klein explains the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN1oBfg0fwI

Article about US Citizens stopped on entry

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2025/03/26/american-travelers-us-borders/82641005007/

Article about Tufts Student sent to detention center for writing an op-ed

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/17/trump-rumeysa-ozturk-tufts-detention

Article about Trump’s statement regarding deportation of US citizens

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-wants-deport-some-us-citizens-el-salvador-2025-04-14/

I have a 17 year old son with Down syndrome whom I adore. I discuss his birth, development, education and more. I then get into some philosophical issues regarding the growing trend to abort fetuses when Down syndrome is detected and a discussion of a hypothetical future where it would be possible to “cure” Down syndrome.

My blog post about Yisrael’s birth

https://www.lipkinfamily.com/blog/adventure.htm

Yisrael’s Bar Mitzvah highlight video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnzK5WLUUIM

World Down Syndrome Day video

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Biex1XR_mpo

My Substack article “When Nurturing Goes Haywire - Raising A Child With Special Needs”

https://mslipkin.substack.com/p/when-nurturing-goes-haywire-raising

Instagram video by a woman with Down syndrome discussing some of these issues

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEuxWlgRjZo/?igsh=OXM3aTRpd3ZlcTFx

As a teenager I learned the important role free speech plays in maintaining a free, democratic society. If anything, my sense of its importance has only grown, especially given the threats posed in our current society.

Coddling of the American Mind Essay

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

Balanced discussion of the Mahmoud Khalil issue

https://www.readtangle.com/trump-cuts-columbia-funding-arrests-protestor-khalil/

Sarah McBride Issue

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/us/politics/sarah-mcbride-keith-self-transgender.html

FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression)

https://www.thefire.org/

I didn’t mention FIRE in the podcast. It was started by Greg Lukianoff, one of the author’s of Coddling and plays an important role in protecting free speech

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, commonly known as DEI, is being blamed by Trump and many in the MAGA world for causing many of the ills they perceive to be affecting the United States. Is DEI really that evil?

Elon Musk: A Clear And Present Danger? (My Substack article)

https://mslipkin.substack.com/p/elon-musk-a-clear-and-present-danger

Trump’s address and press conference after the crash

https://apnews.com/article/plane-crash-washington-dc-trump-dei-claims-3ac5486ec594d81e919e8ebbd9733869

Ronald Reagan’s address to the nation after the Challenger disaster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa7icmqgsow&t=1s

What is DEI?

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/22/us/dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-explained/index.html

Analysis of DC crash in Tangle (Isaac Saul)

https://www.readtangle.com/making-sense-of-the-washington-dc-plane-crash/

Hidden camera interview of Russell Vought

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/russ-vought-project-2025-trump-secret-recording-invs/index.html

What is Project 2025? Project 2025 Explained

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYXZ6iJJSgM&t=81s

Excellent article on systemic racism

https://medium.com/arc-digital/systemic-racism-is-real-we-need-to-fight-it-not-deny-it-81b951c166ed

Elon Musk spoke at one of the events on the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th 2025. During his speech he invoked a gesture that looked like the salute Nazis used to make and that Neo-Nazis use today. As is often the case in today’s divided world, people lined up on opposing sides; either defending Musk or excoriating him. I try to take a balanced look at the issue and a broader look at Musk.

Video of Musk’s gesture

https://youtu.be/-VfYjPzj1Xw?si=wi9LRh2yeBUUrPUX

Musk’s follow up joke Tweet

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1882406209187409976

Musk’s Tweet in support of AfD

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869986946031988780

Article about ADL responses

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/23/elon-musk-nazi-joke-adl

Musk interview with Ben Shapiro

https://youtu.be/JGdbFGANapk?si=b1SwXIGwvFAH2sES

Statement of woman who toured Auschwitz with Musk

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B6VDrrayB/

Musk speaking at AfD rally

https://youtu.be/-Gogvdy1frw?si=KD4fJQ_8r5a63RFGArticle about simulation theory

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-live-in-a-simulation-chances-are-about-50-50/

“Hogan’s Heroes” clip

https://youtu.be/8jeLtnRjQPw?si=AnkYUPuNseOfjWLy

I recorded this on January 20, 2025. It’s a day after the first 3 hostages were released from Gaza as part of the recently brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. It’s also the inauguration of America’s 47th president Donald J. Trump. Between the emotional high of the return of 3 young women from captivity in Gaza, concerns about freed terrorists, the future in Gaza and trepidation about a second Trump presidency it’s a real emotional roller coaster.

My Article - “Innocents in Gaza”https://mslipkin.substack.com/p/innocents-in-gaza

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib on Twitter and Facebookhttps://x.com/afalkhatibhttps://www.facebook.com/afalkhatib

Isaac Saul’s Newsletter - “Tracking Trump’s Promises and Key Metrics for America”https://www.readtangle.com/tracking-trump-promises-state-of-america-2025/

TDS 2.0 (The Maslow article) https://substack.com/home/post/p-155183824

Doctor’s comment on last episodehttps://mslipkin.substack.com/p/health-insurance-vs-healthcare

Having lived in the US for many years and now another 20 years in Israel I have a perspective on the differences in how healthcare is viewed in both countries. I now believe that it’s important to view healthcare as a service that the government should provide or pay for rather than as insurance one needs to purchase in case something goes wrong.

Some links:

US Health Care System Ranks Last Overall Among Other High-Income Countries

$2 million device to replace MRI scanner broken by negligent cleaner

Overview of Israeli Healthcare System

After all that talk in the first episode about buying and then procrastinating setting up the microphone, I dumped the whole setup this week and just talked into my phone. Find out why.

I also talked about the advantages of having conversations via voice messages on WhatsApp. Sometimes it’s better and more effective to be able to process what the other person is saying before responding.

After I did the podcast I found a couple of articles on the subject. Apparently voice notes are quite the rage. WhatsApp handled about 7 billion a day as of 2022!

See below:

Why I hate texting, and why I love voice memoshttps://dailyfreepress.com/2022/12/06/why-i-hate-texting-and-why-i-love-voice-memos/

To my horror, gen X is turning to voice notes – I don’t want to hear your mini-podcasthttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/29/gen-x-voice-notes-podcast-phone-message