Before talking to computational social scientist Sandra Mats, I asked her to spy on me.

I did some snooping around your online life yesterday night, which was extremely fun to do.

Our lack of digital privacy, especially in the age of AI, and what we can do about it.

I'm Manusia Zamoroti.

That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.

This August marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.

To mark the event, officials from the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, returned to Louisiana recently to announce

predictions for this year's hurricane season, which began June 1st. The verdict? It will be

above normal with three to five major hurricanes, but there is some good news. I mean, just look at how far we've come, the lead times, the accuracy, hurricane forecasting,

as well as storm surge watches and warnings.

All that's taken place since Katrina.

But those scientific advances are also shrouded by urgent concerns over the Trump administration's

cuts to NOAA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency,

or FEMA.

So how severe could this year's hurricane season get?

What do reductions in staff and budgets mean for the government's ability to predict severe weather?

And when disaster strikes, how the government responds.

We get into it after the break.

I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast.

We'll be back with our panel in a moment.

Stay with us.

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