Abdul talks about the COVID19 surge we’re facing right now. Then he interviews Shaniqua McClendon, Crooked Media’s Political Director, and Stephen Pierson at Swing Left, about how the pandemic is changing the nature and tactics of campaigns, and how they’re organizing through it to Get out the Vote.
Oct 20, 2020•33 min
Abdul reflects on the absurdly high stakes of November’s election for the future of COVID19. Then he interviews Andrew Joseph, a reporter at STAT News who’s reported on the road ahead for COVID-19.
Oct 13, 2020•26 min
Abdul reflects on Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis and its implications for the fight against the pandemic. Then he interviews Bill Nye about the pandemic and its implications for America’s scientific future.
Oct 06, 2020•36 min
Abdul reflects on how policy making has to center the people we’re trying to support, and how sometimes it doesn’t. He also talks to Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America about the pandemic and its role on the state of Hunger in America.
Sep 29, 2020•30 min
Abdul reflects on the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths to COVID19. He talks to Carmen Rojas, President & CEO of the Margarite Casey Foundation about the communities COVID-19 has hit the hardest.
Sep 22, 2020•31 min
Abdul reflects on the way that COVID-19 has changed so much of the fabric of our lives, especially our relationship with music. He talks to Zola Jesus, a singer/songwriter about how COVID19 has impacted her and her life, as well as Anthony Fantano, host of The Needle Drop, about how it’s shaping the industry.
Sep 15, 2020•50 min
Abdul reflects on the way that the Trump administration has simply ceded public health to politics. He then interviews Dr. Howard Koh, a lead public health official in the Obama administration, about what a functional Department of Health & Human Services would be doing right now.
Sep 08, 2020•32 min
Abdul speaks with an American who just moved to New Zealand about the different approaches to COVID19 in both countries, and then interviews Allison Carlson, managing director, and Fouad Pervez, senior quantitative and policy analyst, of Foreign Policy Analytics about their COVID19 Global Response Index.
Sep 01, 2020•45 min
Abdul considers the risks of going “back” to in-person learning at schools and colleges and interviews President M. Roy Wilson, of Wayne State University, and Dr. Katherine Auger, a pediatrician and author of a new study about school closings and COVID19.
Aug 25, 2020•36 min
Abdul talks about the challenges of doing science in real time during a pandemic and interviews Prof. Kerry Keyes, an epidemiology professor at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health about the scientific process, and how people should approach new findings.
Aug 18, 2020•38 min
Abdul walks through the state of a COVID-19 vaccine and speaks with pro-vaccine activist Ethan Lindenberger about how online anti-vaxxers are exploiting COVID19 to stoke misinformation as well as Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, about the vaccine development process and how to build public trust for COVID19 vaccinations.
Aug 11, 2020•48 min
Abdul talks about how COVID19 interacts with the environment and discusses Environmental Justice with Catherine Flowers, a leading environmental justice advocate in Alabama.
Aug 04, 2020•27 min
Abdul discusses the critical need for legislation to support a country reeling from COVID19 and sits down with Prof. Michael Osterholm, one of the world’s most respected infectious disease epidemiologists.
Jul 28, 2020•31 min
Abdul talks about the interplay between coronavirus and our culture and then talks to Michael Baumann, staff writer at The Ringer, about how sports leagues are reacting to COVID19 and what it can teach us about society’s response to the pandemic in general.
Jul 21, 2020•27 min
Abdul reflects on the challenge of public messaging in a pandemic and then talks to Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s COVID-communicator-in-chief.
Jul 14, 2020•27 min
Abdul reflects on how COVID19 is challenging us to meet our ideals as Americans. Then he chats with Congressman Andy Levin about his proposal for a Coronavirus Containment Corps to create a federally-funded contact-tracing force...which could have been helpful right about now.
Jul 07, 2020•26 min
Abdul discusses the surging cases of COVID19 in several states and nationwide, as well as the startling increase in transmission globally. He chats with Prof. Kelley Lee, a global health governance expert, about the WHO and the future of the global fight against COVID19.
Jun 30, 2020•27 min
Abdul discusses the odd biology of viruses. He catches up with virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen about the biology of the coronavirus, and why exactly it’s so deadly.
Jun 23, 2020•27 min
Abdul discusses the economic consequences of COVID. He catches up with Dr. Tara Sinclair, a macroeconomist, about the future ahead of us.
Jun 16, 2020•29 min
Abdul discusses the public health consequences of the #GeorgeFloyd protests. We speak with Cary Junior II, an audio producer at the Detroit Free Press and a Fellow at WDET in Detroit who’s been covering the protests. Then we'll speak to epidemiologist Julia Marcus, a harm reduction expert who helps understand how to stay safe from COVID19 while re-engaging our lives. Activity
Jun 09, 2020•29 min
Abdul discusses the lynching of George Floyd in the context of COVID19 and reflects on the way that social media has changed our world--and the experience of COVID19. We hear from listeners about how they’ve consumed social media throughout. Abdul speaks with Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist who first sounded the alarm about COVID, about how social media has shaped the debate over science and public health.
Jun 02, 2020•28 min
Abdul reflects on what it means that 100,000 Americans have now died of COVID19. He interviews Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, Reverend Jill Zundel and Imam Mohamed Al Masmari on how faith communities are responding to the pandemic.
May 29, 2020•37 min
Abdul breaks down the dangers of opening up too early for public health--and the economy. He talks to Commissioner Rita Nieves of the Boston Public Health Commission and Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association about what it’ll take to open up safely.
May 26, 2020•31 min
Abdul talks to Navajo National Council Delegate Carl Slater about why Navajo Nation faces one of the worst COVID19 outbreaks in America. He then talks to Rebecca Nagle, journalist and host of Crooked Media’s "This Land" podcast about the broader implications of COVID19 in Indian Country.
May 22, 2020•33 min
Abdul breaks down the similarities--and differences--between COVID19 and Ebola. He interviews Dr. Craig Spencer, an emergency doctor in New York on the front lines of the coronavirus response who also battled Ebola in West Africa, and Ron Klain, President Obama’s Ebola Czar.
May 19, 2020•33 min
Abdul talks to a third-grader, who's currently attending school remotely, about what it’s like to do home school during the pandemic. Then he'll speak with Nikhil Goyal, a sociologist and education researcher about what the lasting impacts of COVID19 may be on American education.
May 15, 2020•25 min
Abdul dissects how politics is a part of public health—and how our federal political leadership has gotten in the way of every step of our public health response to COVID19. Then he speaks with Ana Maria Archila co-Executive Director of the Center for Popular Democracy about how COVID19 is impacted Undocumented Americans.
May 12, 2020•30 min
Abdul dissects how COVID19 is forcing us to deal with how interconnected our world is, whether we like it or not. Then he speaks with Oussama Mezoui with the international aid organization Penny Appeal and Merith Basey of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines.
May 08, 2020•33 min
Abdul looks at why stay home orders still matter. He'll talk with Dr. Jason Bae, who spent 10 days in the Queens at the peak of COVID19, and Zenei Cortez, co-president of the National Nurses United who’s also working on the front lines.
May 05, 2020•32 min
Listeners share what they’re doing with their $1200 checks and then Abdul dissects how a check can be a powerful anti-COVID19 public health tool and speaks with former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang about the government checks and universal basic income more broadly.
May 01, 2020•35 min