History Book: Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins the Supreme Court

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Monday, August 7th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up, the WORLD History Book. Fifteen years ago, struggling roommates rent out a spare room and a hospitality company is born. Also, 20 years ago this week temperatures in the U-K exceed 100 degrees fahrenheit. But first, we return to 1993 as Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins the Supreme Court as a justice. Here’s WORLD executive producer, Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: We start today on August 10th, 1993.

RGB: I Ruth Bader Ginsburg, do solemnly swear…that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States…

In a Whitehouse ceremony, Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes the second woman to serve as a US Supreme Court Justice. Audio here courtesy of the Clinton Presidential Library:

RBG: But I also have no doubt that women, like persons of different racial groups and ethnic origins, contribute what a fine jurist—the late Fifth Circuit Judge Alvin Rubin—described as a distinctive medley of views. Influenced by differences in biology, cultural impact, and life experience. A system of justice will be the richer for diversity of background and experience. It will be the poorer in terms of appreciating what is at stake, and the impact of its judgments, if all of its members are cast from the same mold.

During Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 27-year career on the Supreme Court she wrote well over 400 opinions. She believed that the court should interpret the constitution in light of current social and cultural values. She is remembered as a great advocate for equal protection for women under the law. Though for many, that record is tainted by her support for same-sex marriage and her role in the incremental expansion of abortion as a so-called “constitutional right” through the American legal system.

Next, August 10th, 2003…

BBC: The highest temperature ever measured in Britain was recorded at Heathrow Airport this afternoon, it reached 37.9 degrees Celsius or more than 100 Fahrenheit...

Later that same day, the Gravesend reporting station in Kent recorded an even hotter temperature of 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the first time the United Kingdom had recorded an official temperature over 100 degrees since modern records began in 1875.

Much of Europe experienced a similar heatwave that week in 2003. Media coverage often cited human caused global warming…

SIR CRISPIN TICKELL: And you can see it over the last few years quite clearly. The world is getting warmer.

But not all climate scientists agreed. The BBC spoke with WeatherAction’s Piers Corbyn:

PIERS CORBYN: Now we would say it has nothing to do with global warming. There have been heat waves in the past and the average world temperatures have gone up in the last 100 years. And that is correlated best with particles from the sun.

Despite alarmist predictions about Britain’s impending warming trend, it takes another 16 years before that high temperature record is broken…and then, just barely…though last year’s heatwave did quite easily set a new record at over 104 degrees in central England.

And finally this morning, fifteen years ago this week, three entrepreneurs start the hospitality company: airbnb. Nathan Blecharczyk told the origin story in 2017 at the 4YFN Start-up Conference. It all began when co-founder Brian Chesky needed rent money when he moved to San Francisco:

NATHAN BLECHARCZYK: ​​Brian quit his job in Los Angeles, drove to San Francisco, and upon arrival was told that the rent would be $1,150. But Brian only had $1,000 in his bank account, and he’d just quit his job. So he had a math problem. And it just so happened that there was a design conference that was coming to San Francisco, the following weekend. And they got the idea to rent out one of the extra bedrooms as a bed and breakfast. Well, there is no bed in this bedroom. But Joe had an air bed and the closet. So instead of calling it a bed and breakfast, they called it an air bed and breakfast.

They earned $1000 that weekend. And what started with an air mattress in a spare room has become a global company operating in more than 220 countries.

AIRBNB COMMERCIAL

In 2021, airbnb customers booked more than ninety three million reservations. Last year’s revenue approached $8.5 billion.

Airbnb—along with their many competitors—are partially responsible for inflating home rents in popular areas. And it's frequently criticized by many in the hospitality industry for not meeting standard hotel regulations. The company announced sweeping changes this year to address common customer complaints about fees, security concerns, and check out complexity.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

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