Author: Slate Podcasts

As governments around the world try to predict the toll and duration of the coronavirus, they’re turning increasingly to a handful of forecasting models for answers. But many of the leading models differ drastically in their approach and methods. What do we need to know about these forecasts? And what are their limitations?

Guest: Jordan Ellenberg, mathematics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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The Navy prides itself on being ready for just about anything. Sailors are even trained to fight fires, if need be. But when the coronavirus started rapidly spreading aboard the USS Roosevelt in early March, the ship’s captain sent out an SOS. Instead of a calm and collected response, the Navy’s top leadership imploded. 

Guest: Adam Weinstein, national security editor at The New Republic. 

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By now, Americans are getting used to the patterns of the coronavirus. It largely preys on the elderly and people with certain underlying health conditions. But as cities and towns start compiling the racial data of COVID-19 patients, new trends are making public health officials sound another alarm. Black people are getting sick and dying at shocking rates—and the virus is only part of the reason why. 

Guest: Akilah Johnson, narrative healthcare reporter at ProPublica

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Concerns over the coronavirus outbreak are colliding with partisan trench warfare in Wisconsin. Voters are stuck in the crosshairs. 

Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, Slate’s courts and law correspondent. 

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Rikers Island was not built to slow a pandemic. Buildings are decrepit, and the churn of guards and new inmates makes infectious diseases incredibly hard to contain. Over the past several weeks, Rikers has released more than 600 inmates in an attempt to lessen the public health threat posed by a Covid-19 outbreak in the jail complex. But it’s not clear that will be enough.

Guest: Rachael Bedard, senior director of geriatrics and complex care services at New York City’s jail complex on Rikers Island.

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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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“Politically incorrect since 1971.” That’s the unofficial motto of Liberty University, an evangelical college located in Lynchburg, Virginia headed by Jerry Falwell Jr. The school and its president take pride in bucking conventional wisdom, so when Jerry Falwell Jr. began to downplay concerns over COVID-19, echoing the rhetoric of the White House in early March, students and staff took notice. Ruth Graham says institutions like this one, institutions that take their cues from the president, have been a beat behind when it comes to responding to our current public health crisis.

Guest: Ruth Graham, staff writer at Slate.

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The CDC could soon be changing its guidelines on whether the American public should be wearing masks to combat the spread of COVID-19. What does the data say about mask usage? And how do we calculate the answer for ourselves?

Guest: Aaron E. Carroll, professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine. He blogs at a website called The Incidental Economist. He’ll also answer your coronavirus questions on YouTube. His channel is Healthcare Triage.

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As COVID-19 cases continue to mount across the country, many states are still preparing for the virus to hit their populations with full force. In Florida, state officials have voiced concerns about shutting down the economy, while local officials have noted surging hospitalizations in their cities. Now, some mayors are no longer waiting for the governor to order a lockdown. 

Guest: Jane Castor, Mayor of Tampa, Florida. 

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