Author: Slate Podcasts

As the coronavirus shut down manufacturing across California in March and April, Elon Musk only wanted one thing: to start making cars again.

So when local government officials in Alameda County got in his way, Musk took the fight public, and won.

Guest: Kara Swisher, co-host of the Pivot podcast.

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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In a normal year, the next couple of weeks would be when excited campers returned to summer camp. Now, because of the coronavirus, summer camps are having to make tough calls about how and if they’ll open this year.

Guest: Lisa Handelman, camp director at Capital Camps. 

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The global scarcity of masks has shown us the federal government’s desperate side. Procurement rules have been loosened. Prices have soared. And a shadowy market has emerged where deals fall through all the time -- leaving people without the gear they need to protect themselves and save lives. 

Guest: J. David McSwane, reporter for ProPublica. 

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We closed down the country because we didn’t have enough COVID-19 tests. Now that testing capacity is improving, there’s another problem: figuring out what all this new data means, and who’s reporting accurate figures. 

Guest: Robinson Meyer, staff writer at the Atlantic, and part of the team working on the COVID Tracking Project. 

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A lot happened in February for Senator Ricard Burr (R-NC). He told his constituents that the country was “ready to face the coronavirus.” He told a members-only club that they should expect school closures, canceled travel, and overwhelmed hospitals. And he sold a bunch of his stock. Now, Burr is under a federal investigation for possible insider trading. 

Guest: Tim Mak, Washington investigative correspondent for NPR. 

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Every week, it feels like some new piece of coronavirus information dominates the headlines. Mysterious symptoms, changing government directives. This constant trickle of updates can quickly turn into a flood.

How should normal people interpret this deluge of data?

Guest: Emily Oster, professor of economics at Brown University and co-founder of COVID-Explained. 

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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All around the world, scientific research has been put on hold to concentrate resources on one thing: a vaccine for COVID-19. The usual red tape that slows down these experiments has been removed. And at a lab in Baltimore, researchers are working around the clock to recruit trial participants, prepare vaccine doses, and study results. 

Guest: Dr. Kirsten Lyke, lead investigator on COVID-19 vaccine trials at the University of Maryland’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health. 

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The criminal case against former Trump adviser Michael Flynn has been full of plot-twists. But the biggest about-face came last week, when the Department of Justice moved to drop the case entirely. Lawyers who had worked on the investigation registered their disgust by refusing to sign the motion. U.S. Attorney General William Barr says he hopes history will look kindly on his decision. Critics say the move undermines any future attempt to hold the Trump administration accountable.

Guest: Dahlia Lithwick, legal correspondent for Slate and host of the podcast Amicus. 

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We spoke to Greta Privitera back in mid-March, a few weeks after she and her family isolated themselves at home in northern Italy. Now, with Italy taking baby steps toward normalcy, Greta says she’s enjoying her walks outside, she still worries about another surge in COVID-19 cases. And by the look of things, she's not alone.

Guest: Greta Privitera, a journalist living in Milan. Read her latest dispatch for Slate.  

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