Welcome to the Daily article podcast for Thursday, March the 23rd, 2023. Today's article is written by

Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins of the Denison Forum. On a morning when the news is

dominated by the Federal Reserve attempting to control the economy and the grand jury investigating

Donald Trump, I want to focus on something more transcendent.

To do so, however, I have to begin with the temporal.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow's trial over a 2016 ski accident got underway this week.

The actress is being sued by a man who alleges that she

injured him after she crashed into him on a ski slope and sped off. Paltro countersued,

claiming that the man crashed into her. More than 48,000 jury trials occur every year in the

U.S., which works out to 192 per weekday.

This, however, is the only one which I'm aware of that is being streamed,

pointing to the power of celebrity in our culture.

In other news, Joe Exotic of Tiger King fame has announced that he is running for president.

However, he is serving 21 years in prison

for his role in a murder-for-hire plot. But once again, we see the power of celebrity to make news.

And Blake Shelton made headlines when he recruited his final contestant on The Voice this week.

Shelton has announced his retirement from the singing competition.

It is estimated that 10,000 people in the U.S.

reached the retirement age of 65 every day.

But Shelton is the only retiree I've seen in the news today.

One obvious reason Americans are so interested in celebrities is that the media makes them so ubiquitous. It is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.

People get famous, which gets them in the news, which increases their fame, which makes them more

...