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For years, research has shown a digital divide when it comes to schools teaching about new technologies. Educators worry that this could leave some students behind in an AI-powered economy.

Social media has birthed an entire lexicon replicated by millions online — even if these words don’t actually mean skibidi. On today’s show, we talk to author Adam Aleksic about how TikTok and Instagram's engagement metrics, and viral memes, are rewiring our brains and transforming language at warp speed.

Adam Aleksic’s book is Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language 

Related episodes: 
What we’re reading on the beach this summer  

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.  

Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter. 

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The Aid Worker Security Database, which has compiled reports since 1997, said the number of killings rose from 293 in 2023 to 383 in 2024, including over 180 in Gaza.

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But legal experts say he lacks the constitutional authority to do so.

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Generations of spectators and competitors take over a small hamlet in Western N.Y. each summer to participate in a motorsport with roots in farming: the tractor pull.

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A long lasting drought and severe heat this summer, compounded with government mismanagement of the country’s dams have led to an impending water crisis in Iran. Officials are warning that Iran’s ten million residents might run out of water in a matter of weeks. We hear how this has happened and what it means for Iranians.

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Leaked audio recordings broadcast Friday reveal remarks by Israel's former chief of military intelligence about the price he believed Palestinians should pay for Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

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Lai is accused of colluding with foreign forces under the controversial national security law, which Beijing imposed.

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Growing up with immigrant parents, first in Canada and then in the U.S., Yang was "obsessed" with pop culture and Saturday Night Live. Now he's up for an Emmy for his performances on the venerated sketch series.

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Parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks are under mandatory evacuation orders, as the National Hurricane Center warns that Hurricane Erin could bring tall waves topping 15 to 20 feet.

With large parts of the country under opposition control amid an ongoing civil war, analysts warn that election logistics could prove challenging.

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The right-wing news channel Newsmax has agreed to pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems over its coverage of the 2020 presidential election. A trial had been scheduled for October.

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To save the lives of infants and small kids in lower resource countries, there are a handful of tools: anti-malarial drugs, bed nets and vaccines. A massive experiment in rural Kenya suggests another.

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PBS has been a home for independent documentaries for more than 50 years. But with the closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, nonfiction storytellers have to figure out a way forward.

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President Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today at the White House. And, more National Guard troops head to Washington, D.C. for the president's crime crackdown.

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Former national security adviser Jake Sullivan says President Trump will "put all the pressure on Zelenskyy" to make a peace deal with Russia, during their meeting in Washington, D.C. today.

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White supremacist tropes and ironic viral jokes illustrate the administration's project of redefining who belongs in the United States.

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In a battle prompted by President Trump, Texas and California could redraw lines that change whose votes really matter in the 2026 congressional elections.

The Ukrainian president will be joined at the White House on Monday by several key European leaders, as they look to find an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

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Leaders in Washington, D.C., say they're striving to maintain calm as growing numbers of National Guard soldiers deploy to the city. President Trump hasn't said how he wants this "crisis" to end.

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