Boy Scouts’ troubled history, Siri goes AI, Philly’s sewage problem

Like many cities, Philly has a water problem. On rainy days, the sewer overflow ends up in our waterways. Back in 2011, Philadelphia pitched a plan called “Green City, Clean Waters” building thousands of little landscape improvements to capture the rainwater before it inundates the sewer system. Now, there’s evidence that the initiative was a grave miscalculation. We talk with Kyle Bagenstose, a Philly-based freelance journalist, who dove deep into the city’s sewer system.

Just last month, the Boy Scouts of America announced a rebranding coming in 2025 as Scouting America. The name stands as just one significant milestone in the organization’s extensive history, which spans over a century. In addition to LGBTQ+ inclusion, the Scouts also welcomed women to the organization. This hour we’ll talk about the Boy Scouts’ history, the battle over gay inclusion and some of the controversies with journalist and author Mike De Socio. His new book is Morally Straight: How the Fight for LGBTQ+ Inclusion Changed the Boy Scouts―and America.

Siri gets an AI boost and Elon Musk threatens to pull X off Apple devices. We talk to Brian Chen, consumer technology writer for The New York Times.