The Excerpt podcast: Donald Trump defeats his Republican rivals in Iowa
On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Donald Trump kicked off 2024 election season with a win in Iowa. Dangerous winter weather rolls across the country. USA TODAY Health Breaking News Reporter Eduardo Cuevas looks at a new approach to drug addiction. 'Succession' wins big at the 75th Emmy Awards. NFL Wild Card weekend brings some surprises.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Tuesday, January 16th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, Trump wins in Iowa, plus we have the latest from dangerous cold around the country, and how scientists are looking into a new gradual approach when it comes to drug addiction.
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The Republican Iowa caucuses are in the books, and former president Donald Trump, defeated his Republican rivals and was declared the victor, less than an hour after doors closed. It was the lowest turnout caucus in decades, with participants fighting brutal, cold and dangerous driving conditions to meet across the state. Trump picked up a roughly 30 point victory at around 51% of the vote, breaking the record for a contested Iowa Republican caucus.
Donald Trump:
This is the first because the big night is going to be in November when we take back our country and truly we do make our country great again.
Taylor Wilson:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis secured second place with just over 21%.
Ron DeSantis:
In spite of all of that that they threw at us, everyone against us, we've got our ticket punched out of Iowa.
Taylor Wilson:
He narrowly beat out former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who had seen a surge in polling in recent weeks. She picked up just over 19%. Still, Haley said, "A third place finish in Iowa showed momentum."
Nikki Haley:
The pundits will analyze the results from every angle. We get that, but when you look at how we're doing, in New Hampshire, in South Carolina and beyond-
Taylor Wilson:
Meanwhile, entrepreneur, Vivek Ramaswamy, announced he was suspending his campaign after a fourth place finish in Iowa. He said he would throw his support behind Donald Trump. You can read more from caucus night on usatoday.com.
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Some 150 million Americans are under weather alerts as dangerous cold sweeps across the country. Temperatures plummeted 20 to 40 degrees below normal in some areas, often fueled by heavy winds. At least nine people are dead from weather related events, including four in Oregon, where tens of thousands of people also remain without power. In Wyoming, a backcountry skier was killed after triggering an avalanche. And in Milwaukee, officials are investigating three deaths of homeless people believed to have been caused by hypothermia. Weather related travel delays are widespread, with more than 8,500 flights delayed or canceled by 8:00 p.m. yesterday, according to FlightAware.
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Scientists are changing how they view drug addiction and a new approach offers nuance. I spoke with USA Today Health breaking news reporter, Eduardo Cuevas, for more. Eduardo, always good to have you on.
Eduardo Cuevas:
Great to be here, thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
What did this new study show about the benefits of a gradual approach for people to wean themselves off drugs?
Eduardo Cuevas:
So a new study out by researchers at Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, that's under the NIH, looked at stimulant use disorder for folks with cocaine and methamphetamine addictions. And what they found was that it's not a black and white issue, right? That either you can completely quit something right then and there or you don't, right? That it's a moral failing. And that's traditionally how this country has viewed addiction and substance use disorder. So what these researchers looked at was over 2,000 participants, in more than a dozen clinical trials across the U.S. Over a 15-year period. And what they looked at is, even when folks had declines in drug use, in use of cocaine or methamphetamine, there were positive outcomes to their health and other recovery factors. What that tells us is, it's not so much black and white, either you were able to get completely sober or you failed. There's more nuance to this.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah. Why is this approach though complicated? You mentioned cocaine. When it comes to drugs like that, that have real kind of societal stigmas attached.
Eduardo Cuevas:
This nuance that we see with drug addiction and addiction medicine science often really bumps into our perceptions, societally, around drug use. Things like politics, cultural norms, or even religious or moral beliefs. And there's a stigma that's there of even continuing to use drugs, albeit in smaller doses, but again, what the science tells us is there are benefits to someone's life and that goes into things like depression, even the cravings for the drug or behaviors related to the drug. And that's really what this study looks at.
Taylor Wilson:
It's obviously an innovative way to look at addiction. What are some of the limits here, Eduardo?
Eduardo Cuevas:
This study is, what you would call, a meta-analysis. So that's taking from a bunch of different randomized clinical trials across the country. And these are folks who took medications to address stimulant use disorder for cocaine or methamphetamine. And what that means is, each of those studies have their own flaws and limitations. What this is really trying to do is trying to give us a big picture about what reduced drug use does. Another part of this is, people in the study are choosing to participate, right? They're choosing to go to a treatment facility to get help. That affects the results in here. And lastly, I would note, it's pretty hard to gauge stimulants like cocaine or meth, just because they're used a lot more frequently, and really this study is trying to understand that. So those are limits that we have to take into account, just like any academic study.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, interesting stuff. So what's next for this type of addiction research going forward?
Eduardo Cuevas:
Important to note, the NIH funded this, and that really points to a shift in where addiction medicine science is. We should note though, the FDA has not approved treatment for stimulant use disorder, unlike opioid use disorder, which does have treatments to help wean folks off of those drugs. Really what we could be looking at is how, number one, with a study like this, what are more specific examples as opposed to this broad, overarching national meta-analysis. And number two, I think that really goes to getting us to [inaudible 00:06:36] medications to treat substance use disorders, but in particular what we're talking about here, a stimulant use disorder with drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, Eduardo Cuevas, always with some interesting insight from the front lines of health. Thanks for your time, sir.
Eduardo Cuevas:
Oh, thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Well, it might've been four months late, but the Emmys didn't disappoint television lovers. The 75th Primetime Emmys aired last night, behind schedule because of the actors and writer strikes last year. Unsurprisingly, it was another big evening for Succession. The beloved HBO drama picked up 27 nominations this year after the final season, and 75 in total for the series run. It won Best Drama Series. And fan favorite, The Bear, keeps rolling this award season. It won Best Comedy Series. As for the show itself, viewers seemed pleased it wrapped up at exactly the three-hour mark and host Anthony Anderson scored good grades at home. Still the show had its uncomfortable moments. Social media users were baffled, in particular, by a montage of the most important TV moments through history, which wedged September 11th terror attacks between comedies like M*A*S*H and The Simpsons. For more of the night's best and worst moments, check out our link in today's show notes.
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Wild Card Weekend, the opening round of the NFL playoffs is in the books. In the AFC, the Texans blew out the Browns before the Chiefs did the same to the Dolphins. Yes, with Taylor Swift in attendance. Then the Bills took down the Steelers yesterday, in a game postponed a day because of blizzard conditions in Western New York. On the NFC side, the Cowboys had their latest playoff nightmare after a strong regular season, losing to the Packers on Saturday. The Lions then got their first playoff win in 32 years, edging out the Rams. And last night, the Buccaneers took down the Eagles. You can check out next week's matchups and more with USA Today Sports.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.