07/05/2026: Elemental Crisis, The Knowledge, Banana Ball
About this episode
The episode covers the U.S. trade war with China over rare earth metals, the London cab industry's reliance on 'the Knowledge', and the unique entertainment style of the Savannah Bananas in baseball.
In what might be the ultimate front of the U.S. trade war with China, correspondent Jon Wertheim reports from the only active rare earth mine in the U.S., deep in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border. Today, China holds a near-monopoly over the strategic metals that are key components in smartphones, robotics and EVs, but also fighter jets, drones and radar technology. Wertheim looks at the private company, now partly owned by the federal government, that is ramping up rare earth mining, processing and magnet-making in response to China’s threats to cut off rare earths. Graham Messick is the producer. As tech companies promise that AI-powered autonomous vehicles will transform transportation, correspondent Anderson Cooper takes a ride down the ancient roads and medieval alleyways of London in the iconic black cab. London’s black cab industry still relies on a 161-year-old test called “the Knowledge,” requiring prospective cabbies to memorize thousands of London's landmarks and the shortest routes between them all. Cooper reports on this legacy institution and why London cab drivers aren’t about to hand…
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