Epstein Files Subpoena, Columbia $221 Million Settlement, 'Woke' AI

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🗓️ 24 July 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

The White House is pushing against the wave of questions around the release of Jeffrey Epstein documents, Columbia University agreed to pay over $220 million to the federal government in order to resolve investigations and restore access to federal research funding, and President Trump signed an executive order instructing tech companies to address what he labeled "woke AI."

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Steve Drummond, Brett Neely, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zo van Ginhoven. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Almost Friday. I think we should just call Thursday. Almost Friday.
0:09.0	The White House is employing lots of strategies to try to beat back questions about Jeffrey Epstein.
0:14.2	They have not released as much as I would like to see the date, but hopefully they're going to be doing that.
0:19.9	Is any of what they've tried to do satisfying the president's base?
0:23.0	I'm Michelle Martin. That's Sasha Pfeiffer, and this is up first from NPR News.
0:29.3	Columbia University will pay more than $200 million to the government to resolve multiple
0:34.3	civil rights investigations and to restore access to billions of dollars
0:37.8	and grants and contracts. A lot of students are concerned about the precedent that sets for other
0:44.1	universities to go down this route. What are the details of the agreement? And President Trump
0:51.2	announces new policies aimed at cracking down on what he calls woke AI.
0:55.8	Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
1:03.7	This summer on Planet Money Summer School, we're learning about political economy.
1:08.1	We're getting into the nitty-gritty of what government does with things like trade,
1:11.8	taxes, immigration, and health care. So politics and economics, which are taught separately,
1:16.9	they shouldn't be separated at all. I think you have to understand one to really appreciate the other.
1:20.8	So what is the right amount of government in our lives? Tune into Planet Money Summer School from
1:25.2	NPR. Wherever you get, your podcasts.
1:28.4	At Planet Money, we know that economic jargon can sometimes feel like speaking another language.
1:33.6	Yeah, like arbitrage, alpha, autarchy.
1:37.7	That's just what's in the news these days.
1:39.0	There's also absolute advantage, aggregate demand.
1:42.3	Aggregate supply.
	...

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