Author: Slate Podcasts

The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas was the deadliest since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut nearly a decade ago. Today, we’re re-airing an interview with a parent who lost her child at Sandy Hook and went on to channel her grief into activism. In February, she and a group of other Sandy Hook families announced a $73 million settlement with Remington Arms, forcing the gunmaker to accept responsibility for marketing its weapons to disaffected young men. 

Guest: Nicole Hockley, co-founder and CEO of the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation.

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More than a million people have died of COVID in America, and infection rates across the country are climbing again. But public officials seem reluctant to enact mask mandates or lockdowns this time around. 

Doctors and scientists who work in public health are hoping that “harm reduction” techniques, which were developed to treat addiction and chronic illnesses, can tamp down this latest wave.

Guest: Dr. Deepika Slawek, assistant professor of medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and an attending physician at Montefiore Comprehensive Family Care.

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An effort to counterweight GOP-friendly maps in Ohio and Florida in New York state has backfired on the Democrats.

How did Democratic state politicians bungle their redistricting process? Will the error cost the party nationally?

 

Guest: Dave Wasserman, U.S. House editor of the nonpartisan @CookPolitical Report.

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President Biden ran on a promise to forgive $10,000 in student loans back in 2020—but so far, there hasn’t been much movement on that front. Between the pros, the cons, and the politics, one thing is clear: fixing higher education will take more than an executive order.

Guest: Jordan Weissmann, writer and editor focused on economics, public policy, and politics at Slate.

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They’ve stolen billions of dollars. Is the U.S. ready to crack down?

Guest: Jason Bartlett, research associate in the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security

Host: Lizzie O'Leary

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The shooting in Buffalo raises questions about the effectiveness of content moderation. Is the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism the answer to how social media can moderate extremist content?

Guest: Emma Llansó, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology

Host: Ray Suarez

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When China first instituted its zero-COVID policy, it was a success: as other countries struggled with soaring infection rates and overburdened hospitals, life for many Chinese citizens began to look normal again within months—so long as they weren’t infected. But the omicron variant changed the game. Now, people are speaking out against draconian lockdown measures they say are inappropriate to face the current level of threat.

How did zero-COVID evolve from being the most effective virus prevention strategy in the world to a disproportionate and punitive system? And how has that evolution expanded state control?

Guest: Dake Kang, journalist in the Beijing bureau of the Associated Press.

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