This week, workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, and Instacart have announced mass strikes across the country. Though demand for these services is high, pay and protection is low.
What exactly do we owe to the delivery workers at the front lines of the pandemic? And with these companies hiring in record numbers, can the strikes succeed?
Guests: Heidi Carrico, founding member of the Gig Workers Collective, and Johana Bhuiyan, tech accountability reporter at the Los Angeles Times.
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Now is when we'd normally be getting ready for fire season. And this upcoming one could be tough for states like California, which had an especially dry winter. The spread of the coronavirus however is complicating preparation efforts. Maddie talks with Kendra Pierre-Louis, a reporter on the New York Times climate team, about how the crisis we're in could hurt our response to another crisis just around the corner.
We interview Dr. Shaoli Chaudhuri, a resident at Columbia Medical Center in Manhattan, about what she’s seeing in the Covid-19 epicenter as doctors treat a growing number of patients with the virus - and healthcare workers themselves are getting sick.
An astonishing 6.6 million people filed for unemployment benefits in the US last week, and there’s a growing concern that coronavirus tests aren’t as accurate as many thought.
And in headlines: four major storms predicted for the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season, lock up your Zoom, and Jeff Sessions clings on to a fake friend.
Italy has been hit hard by coronavirus deaths, with over 13,000 total coronavirus fatalities to date. "The worst part's been witnessing all these elderly people just fade away and die by the hundreds every day," says Aura Latorre, a Venezuelan immigrant who now resides in southern Italy. She shares on the podcast what it’s like to live in a country under quarantine, how daily life has changed, the attitude of the Italian people, what she hopes Italians will learn from this time, and much more.
We also cover these stories:
6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the last full week of March.
Another sad milestone: here have now been over 5,000 coronavirus deaths in the U.S.
The Democratic National Convention, originally set to take place in Milwaukee in July, has been delayed one month.
Today's episode covers a number of stories that might be bad news for now, but each one, we think there's a reason to be optimistic beneath the surface. We also make sure we're holding Idaho's feet to the fire for the anti-trans bills that state tried to sneak past the radar this week, and we tell you the fate of states that have tried to restrict access to abortion using COVID-19 as pretext.
We begin with a survey of the landscape including the states that haven't issued stay-at-home orders. There's an interesting commonality among these states' governors; can you figure it out??
Then, it's time for our main segment which is a deep dive into Idaho HB 509 that attempts to prevent trans people from changing their gender on their birth certificate. The bill is horrible, bigoted, and mean... and yet why are we optimistic? You'll have to listen and find out!
After all that, it's time to take a look at the six states that have attempted to restrict access to abortion services during COVID-19 and examine the latest rulings by the Fifth Circuit. Why isn't it as bad as you've heard? We tell you exactly why.
We conclude, as always, with a brand-new #T3BE featuring a civ pro question that involves res judicata -- a concept so convoluted, courts often screw it up. Will Thomas get it right? Listen and find out!
In the interview, Mike talks with Katherine Stewart about her new book, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. They discuss how the political ideology from the right wing cloaks itself in religious rhetoric, who in the Trump cabinet is part of movement, and how it inhibits the administration’s response to the coronavirus crisis.
In the spiel, maybe Loeffler and Burr aren’t guilty of insider trading.
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6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, doubling the record-setting numbers from the week before. The rapid increase has overwhelmed state offices.
Ventilators are a scare resource right now. While they are lifesaving for some, NPR's Jon Hamilton reports when it comes to COVID-19, they do not guarantee survival.
Plus, how to protect essential workers when ordering delivery and going to the grocery store.
Links:
The Indicator's episode on scarcity in the emergency room on Apple, Spotify and NPR One.
Camila Domonoske's reporting on grocery store worker safety.
Donald Trump says he’ll have done a “great job” if the coronavirus death toll is between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans, some reporters praise his somber delivery of this news, and Nancy Pelosi begins to float ideas for a fourth economic relief bill as weekly jobless claims surpass six million. Then Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler talks to Jon about how he’s fighting to ensure a safe and fair election on April 7th, and the importance of voting by mail in November.
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